Road to Fame

In response to Tina's Tweet...

Yes, one can dream.

Due for an Upgrade?

June GPU Market Update: Price Compression Benefits

Today, I came across an article on the breakdown of today's graphic card offerings. It listed many powerful items at such phenomenal prices, mostly due to today's crappy economy. Going over the list, my nerdy-self raised it's head once again--I want to upgrade my computer now.

So, to assess my almost five-year-old PC's situation, here's a quick break down on what needs to be updated:

• Graphics Card: GeForce 6600(this thing doesn't even exist in market now) -> ? (~$150)
• CPU: AMD Athlon 64 -> Intel Core Duo? (~$150? $200?)
• Motherboard: ASUS ....? -> Any good Mo-Bo for Intel (<$100)
• Memory: anything that fits above (<$100?)

Add this with pre-order of Windows 7 Professional Upgrade, which runs for $99 at Amazon.com (the price will increase to $199 once pre-order is over), the total cost may be... ...

Let me forget about that for now, and just consider the bare-minimum, the graphics card. Then, all it will take to upgrade is anywere between $70~$170.

Not bad, I say. Not bad...

Splinter Cell: Conviction Behind the Scene #01

One of the strategy Ubisoft loves using when promoting its flagship titles is to release a long series of highly stylized Behind-the-Scene featurettes that spends most of the time on developer interviews, intercut with tiny segments of real gameplays.

Below is one of those for what's probably my the most anticipated game of this year's holiday season, Splinter Cell: Conviction.

Appropriately for a franchise that has gone low for a few years, this video focuses on redefining, or, in the light of today's trends, rebooting of the franchise. Shortly after I got my Xbox360, I grabbed a copy of Splinter Cell: Double Agent. While it has vivid graphics and animations, the gameplay felt rather slow and clunky. So, I am really excited about this reboot, as they promise to bring more fast-paced, action-oriented game where Sam truly feels like a deadly top-secret agent.

Enough of my words, here's the Behind the Scene video:

Video Games Splinter Cell: Conviction Behind Closed Doors #1: Redefining Splinter Cell

XBox 360 Playstation 3 Nintendo Wii

Update: This video actually got me all gloom and doom. Not that there's something wrong with it, but rather, it was just too good; I was reminded how much I'd rather work in game industry than where I am now. *sigh*

I Wanna Draw Again.

What's with Persona series? It sure looks like a typical JRPG on yester-gen PS2, but it's been generating a large fandom. There was a fan art competition, too! Anyways, that competition had one piece, the first place winner in fact, that I really, really liked. So here you go. Hope you like it!

Go here for more fan art.

Watch FFXIII Demo Playthough Video!

I must say, probably the most anticipated game, like ever, seemed to never see a release date. Yes, I'm talking about Final Fantasy XIII.

But SquareEnix somehow managed to develop it just fine, as evident by the bundled demo disc inside Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete (that's a long name...) that was released not too long ago.

As if to prove its mega-over-the-top-crazy-gargantuan hype, a gentleman from Japan, who's acquired a copy of the demo disc, has recorded entire his playthough, and have posted on YouTube. Now, you can enjoy how XIII will look and play without blowing a hole in your wallet.

Enjoy now since you never know when SE will smack down these videos off the 'Net!!!

Note: This is Part 1 of Part 5 playthough. Here are rest of the playthough links:
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5-Final

So, what do you think?