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November 2020
Custom Sentry case mod to let the GPU breathe.
Click for larger photos. I’m in the middle of transitioning to Ryzen, so it will seem a bit mismatched for now but here’s where I’m at and where I’m headed: i7-7700k -> r7-5800x Gigabyte Z270N-Wifi ITX -> ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 32GB Gskill Ripjaws V 3200MHz PNY XLR8 RTX 3080 (previously Galax GTX 1070 Katana) Corsair SF600 Platinum -> Corsair SF750 Platinum (when prices become not stupid) Right now the i7-7700k is being cooled by a Thermolab LP53 w/ Noctua A9x14 because at the time that was the best performing cooler that could fit in the case.
3 minutes
December 2019
As SEA Games closes, age of esports begins
SEA Games 2019 results for Inquirer.
Published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The neon haze of PC screens and mobile phones at San Juan’s FilOil Flying V Arena has begun to fade following the closing ceremony of the 30th Southeast Asian Games’s esports disciplines, but the fire still burns in the hearts of our national athletes—casting a bright light into the future of this burgeoning industry. For a first-time showing in Southeast Asia, Philippine National Team Sibol came out strong.
3 minutes
SEAGames Esport Qualifiers Results
SEAGames 2019 Philippine team esports results.
Published on Inquirer.net. The 2019 SEAGames esports opening ceremony began at the San Juan Arena with a series of videos about the months of preparation leading up to the event, produced by official SEAGames esports partner, Razer. Opening remarks by Hon. Mayor Francis Zamora of San Juan City, Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan, Asian Electronic Sports Federation President Kenneth Fok, and Congressman Abraham Tolentino followed, and after Philippine representative Jia led the oath of sportsmanship, the virtual games began.
3 minutes
How to Spectate Arena of Valor
SEAGames 2019 coverage for Inquirer.
Published on Inquirer.net. The SEAGames 2019 opening ceremonies played off to a rousing start last week, and challengers from all over the region—including some of our very own—have started claiming victories and medals in various familiar competitions. In just a couple of days, however, we will begin watching playoffs in the newest addition to this lineup of disciplines: esports. Many of us are at least casually familiar with a few of the games that will serve as the virtual courts for our new breed of athletes.
5 minutes
November 2019
Liyab to Light the Flame of a New Athletic Breed
Intro to esports for the Inquirer.
Published on Inquirer.net. With SEAG 2019 set to begin in just under a week, expectations are high as representatives from all over the region fly in with the hopes of making their marks and bringing home the gold. The myriad of competitions—from archery, aquatics, and arnis, all the way to weightlifting, wakeboarding, and wushu—opens the gates to athletes of all shapes and sizes as they vy for a place on the podium of their sport.
4 minutes
October 2013
Creative Sound Blaster EVO (sans audio cable)
A headphone review.
So what happens when you’re given something to review but it’s incomplete? Like, say a set of headphones but without the audio cable? Well, I learned that the show must go on. Review away! Creative has a long history of providing decent and affordable sound systems (remember these?), but I personally wasn’t aware they also made gaming headsets. The Sound Blaster EVO is their most basic entry in the “EVO” line of headsets, but is there more to it than the flashy red exterior?
Article Gadgets Review Thoughts
5 minutes
July 2013
Sarcia, Cube World, Owlboy, Starbound, Project Zomboid
I have a soft spot for indies, be it in the fields of film, music, or—of course—videogames. And luckily for us, in the past few years there’s been a dramatic rise in the number and quality of independently developed games. There’s hundreds of thousands to choose from across practically any platform you can think of gaming on, but in this article I’m going to shine the spotlight on just five upcoming indie PC games that I feel are worth keeping an eye out for.
3 minutes
July 2011
Do the extraordinary.
Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics are delivering the latest Tomb Raider title, which aims to show players a new side of Lara Croft; one tinged with the green shade of inexperience, inability, and fear. A young Lara, shipwrecked and stranded on a mysterious island off the coast of Japan, must learn to adapt and survive. It’s a completely new adventure for this Lara, who had previously only just graduated from academy.
2 minutes
June 2011
Free Frags For All.
Team Fortress 2, the critically- and popularly-acclaimed team-based multiplayer FPS by Valve, is now free-to-play, with no strings attached. Valve recently announced this at the end of its Uber Update, a week-long chain of patches which added to the already monumental amount of content in the game. Players who have already purchased the game received a decorative proof-of-purchase hat, as well as a ‘premium account’ status. This grants players who bought the game - be it through retail or Steam stores, or who were gifted the game before it went free-to-play - increased backpack (item storage) space, access to all item blueprints (full crafting options), and the ability to give items to other players.
3 minutes
Sorry, editor, for the headaches!
City of Heroes goes Free-to-play Free liberty and justice for all City of Heroes, the first superhero MMORPG to hit the market, is forgoing its former monthly subscription fee in favor of the free-to-play model so popular with every MMO that isn’t World of Warcraft. It’s getting a name change, too. “City of Heroes: Freedom” will still offer a subscription to players who want access to all the features of the game.
5 minutes
PlayStation Vita is the Life of the Party
PS Vita announcement.
Sony PSV. Doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as easily as NGP did, and neither sounds as good as their predecessor, the PSP. Vita is what we’re calling Sony’s new handheld, and considering all that we know about it, the finalized name might just fit, as silly as it sounds. Its technical features are nothing to scoff at. Sony has already confirmed two analog sticks (not nubs), a 5-inch OLED multi-touch capacitive touchscreen, a rear touchpad, Bluetooth 2.
2 minutes
Hide your kids and hide your waifu…
Lulsec is climbing your Windows and snatching your data up. Following the much-publicized Sony PlayStation Network debacle in April, hackers attacked Codemasters last week and Epic Games was breach yesterday. In a non-gaming-related incident, Citibank announced last week that the credit card information of 210,000 customers has been compromised since early May. Bethesda is the latest victim of cyber security intrusions, and from the looks of it, they won’t be the last.
2 minutes
There’s a new Wii in the house.
There’s finally a face to put on Nintendo’s mysterious new console, first revealed in late April this year. Originally known as Project Cafe, speculation about its final name went wild, including suggestions such as the Wii 2, Wiiii, Wii HD, and The Mario Wonder Machine of Link and Kirby Happiness. Nintendo has settled on the simple yet ambiguous Wii U. Deeper and wider. Nintendo made a huge breakthrough with the Wii, introducing videogames to a demographic that had previously been untapped.
2 minutes
Sequel seeks to improve combat; keep gritty post-apoc style.
Fans of the Ukrainian cult hit can look forward to another waltz down Moscow’s post-apocalyptic metro system as studio 4A Games has confirmed a direct sequel, entitled Metro: Last Light. THQ’s Huw Beynon called the original game, Metro 2033, a “flawed masterpiece,” referring not to the studio’s ability to craft a compelling, engrossing survival-horror atmosphere in a post-apocalyptic setting, but to the lackluster, bug-ridden combat system. In a move contrary to what is expected of big-name FPS games, 4A managed to perfect the storytelling and plot (the “first person” part), but botch the core mechanics such as combat, stealth, and AI (the “shooters” part).
2 minutes
May 2011
Point Blank is coming to the Philippines
Bringing back the good old days
Introduction While gamers all over the Philippines get their FPS fix from the latest Call of Duty and Halo titles, one developer in particular has its sights set on honoring what was arguably the most influential PC game when the local LAN café business was still in its infancy. Though now going on 12 years, Counter-Strike and its prettier cousin Counter-Strike: Source are still the two most-played games on Steam, with daily concurrent users averaging the 50,000 mark.
8 minutes
January 2011
Game! Website Articles - January 31, 2011
New Kirby, Nintendo mum on new console, Pandora’s Tower.
Kirby Sucks and Blows on the Wii Kirby’s coming the Wii again in another epic title, but this time he returns in his former fleshy glory. Be prepared to absorb abilities and switch skins again, because he’s bringing back the classic power we all know and love. So far, the project hasn’t been officially named yet. Judging from the trailer, though, it looks to be the Kirby that we missed out on in the last game.
2 minutes
Game! Website Articles - January 24, 2011
US 3DS price, Wii teaches math, vintage camera app.
Nintendo announces US price of 3DS and games March 27 is the due date for the glasses-free 3D handheld, so if you’re looking to buy one at launch – in the US, at least – you can expect to shell out a hefty $249 for the unit alone, and between $39.99 and $49.99 for every game thereafter. For a handheld, the price is high but not unheard of; the PSP retailed for the same price when it was first out in stores in 2005.
3 minutes
Game! Website Articles - January 17, 2011
Wii loses Rock Band, Wii Fit diagnoses Parkinson’s, Gameloft accused of plagiarizing.
Harmonix cuts Rock Band Network support for Wii Newly-independent developer Harmonix Music Systems has announced on its forums that they will be dropping the Wii out of the Rock Band Network effective January 18, 2011. “Next Tuesday, 1/18/2010, will also be the last scheduled batch of Rock Band Network songs brought over to the Wii,” Harmonix developer hmxhenry posts on the forum. “With the smaller online install base, limited demand for releases so far and the significant amount of work it takes for our producers and audio team to convert and process these additional tracks we’re no longer able to continue submitting RBN content to the Wii.
4 minutes
December 2010
Game! Website Articles - December 27, 2010
Super Meat Boy can’t fit on Wii, Mario Sports Mix, and Lara Croft on iOS.
Super Meat Boy’s too chunky for WiiWare Those of you waiting for a WiiWare version of the hit indie platformer Super Meat Boy (that means you two in the corner there), save yourselves the heartache; because of the service’s 40 megabyte file size limit, the game won’t be released on Nintendo’s virtual store. The news came on Dec. 24 from Team Meat – the developers of Super Meat Boy – via their Twitter account.
4 minutes
Game! Website Articles - December 20, 2010
Wii lineup, Wii modding, & an iPad game for cats.
Wii 2011 Lineup Next year looks like a slow one for the Wii, especially compared to the first-party-filled 2010. Titles to expect include de Blob 2, Conduit 2, Lost in Shadow, LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, LEGO Pirates of the Carribean, MLB 2K11, Mario Sports Mix, and possibly the highly anticipated The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword - though Nintendo has yet to state an official release date. Note that this is not an exhaustive list.
4 minutes
Sexy beasts.
15.5” Sony Vaio E Series (VPCEB37FG) If you’re looking for a stylish, sturdy, and straightforward laptop that features full HD and packs a Blu-ray Disc drive, then look no further. The 15.5” Vaio E comes equipped with all this and more, at a reasonable price per pound. With the latest Intel Core i5-460M 2.53GHz processor paired with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 graphics accelerator, it’s definitely got the power needed to not only run those beautiful BDs, but the latest games as well.
2 minutes
September 2010
Portable pwnage
You may remember earlier this year at the CES when Alienware shocked the world with its announcement of a 11-inch gaming laptop. The reviews following its release cleared any doubt about its performance, generally raking in positive remarks with relatively few criticisms. Chief among those critiques were its Core 2 Duo CPU and no option for a matte screen. Alienware took note of these points and decided to release a new version of the M11x, which they call “Revision 2,” or R2.
2 minutes
August 2010
Hallelujah!
Platforms: PC Publisher: Team 17 Developer: Team 17 ESRB: Rating Pending Official Website: http://store.steampowered.com/app/22600 Price in peso: P900.00 ($19.99), P2700.00 for Four-pack ($59.97, 4 copies for the price of 3) It’s been ten years since we’ve had a brand new 2D Worms game, so the new Worms: Reloaded by Team 17 - the series’ original developers - serves as a refreshing reminder of the simpler days of gaming, where the concerns were about how much fun one could have with his or her friends by blowing each other to bits instead of how high one’s graphics settings can be configured to without exploding the computer.
2 minutes
Kinect, Fable III, GT5, LBP2, Epic Mickey, Kirby’s Epic Yarn.
It’s getting to look a lot like the most wonderful time of the year once again, and you know what that means: holiday shopping! Astute gamers would know that these last couple months see releases that can completely overshadow games released earlier in the year, and the same can be said about 2010’s holiday line-up. This year brings a lot of exciting new titles to the table, and hopefully there will be something for every gamer in this list.
6 minutes