Many hardware critics can only say nothing but praises for the Core i7 which is a breakthrough in computing technology. Intel showed that their Core i7 is at least 40% faster than their top of the line Core 2 Extreme processor (QX9770).

Hyper-Threading Technology is back

The Core i7 can utilize their own HT Technology which can be a great advantage for highly threaded applications and games. Multi-tasking would be a breeze as computing threads can be done in parallel. With its 4 cores, it can deliver 8-threaded performance.

Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot of games that can optimize those 8 threads but they’re in talks with game developers to make use of the technology. However, games that utilize HT Technology (FarCry 2 was demoed) can give you a totally realistic experience when playing just as what the developers intended the game to be played.

Turbo Boost Technology

This technology automatically increases or decreases the processor’s frequency as needed. It can disable the 3 cores if not needed to save energy and can easily maximize their capability for CPU-intensive processes. No need to tweak the frequency on the BIOS settings just to get more juice out of your processors.

So should you upgrade your current machine?

Well do you need 4 cores or is your dual core good enough? I think changing the name to Core i7 is a marketing ploy so that buyers who would be asking for the most latest processor can be caught unaware that they’re already buying a quad core that they probably won’t need. Removing the word "Quad" on their branding can do that.

If you do a lot of 3D or video rendering then the Core i7 can really save you a LOT of time. If you think your current quad core is fast, the Core i7 is way much faster.

If you’re an extreme gamer and overclocker then you would probably want to get your hands on the fastest processor around. They removed the overspeed protection and has a native support for DDR3 1066MHz. *whistle*

Be prepared to pay top dollar for the Core i7 which is already available in the market:

Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz – $284
Intel Core i7 940 2.93GHz – $562
Intel Core i7 965 3.2GHz Extreme Edition – $999

And pay some more for the select few of high-end motherboards that supports the Core i7. Not to mention the still-expensive DDR3 RAM chips and a PCI-E 2.0 graphics card.

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Calvin is a newbie blogger who’s working as an IT consultant and blogs for a hobby. He has his own personal blog, Calvin’s Hub, where he writes about his thoughts on just about everything that interests him.

For those of you who don’t know, this Asus-sponsored game tournament pits players from all over the country to compete in 3 gaming events, DOTA, Counterstike and Need for Speed: Pro Street.

The team who won the DOTA event, Team Mineski from Manila, received a whopping P75,000 in cash. 2nd place was Team eXs from Cebu who won P50,000 and 3rd place Team Theos brought home P25,000.

For the 5-player team CounterStrike event, Mineski CS from Manila got 1st place (P75,000), Team MOTV from Cebu 2nd (P50,000) and Bratz.X02 from Davao bagged the 3rd place (P25,000).

Lastly, the Need for Speed winners Israel Magante at 1st (P15,000), Darnel Tamundong at 2nd (P10,000) and Jessie Bello at 3rd (P5,000).

Congratulations to the winners! Too bad they will not be sent to the real World Gamemaster Tournament where other countries will be competing. Maybe next year though if this tournament continues to be a big hit among our gamers here.

Sponsored by Asus and Intel, this year’s WGT will come here in the Philippines and is open to all 13yo and above players nationwide. There will be three types of games for our WGT:

• 5v5 DOTA
• 5v5 Counterstrike 1.6
• Need for Speed: ProStreet

Online registration will start on September 5th when the official site goes live. There will be a registration fee (just to make sure that players will commit) of Php1000 per team (DOTA, CS) or Php300 per individual (NFS) but they will be refunded once you appear during the eliminations.

Elimination rounds starts on Sep. 20-21 for Cebu (Mango Square) and Davao (Voyztrek) and Sep. 27-28 for Manila (Cyberone SM Megamall). Finals would be on Oct. 24-25 in Cyberzone SM Marikina.

For DOTA team winners, the prize structure are as follows:

• 1st place – Php15,000 (elims), Php75,000 (Finals)
• 2nd place – Php10,000 (elims), Php50,000 (Finals)
• 3rd place – Php5,000 (elims), Php25,000 (Finals)

If you somehow don’t win at least you’ll get a shirt. Hehehe. Time to dust off those DOTA skills and gather up some teammates.

Fore more information, you can visit the official site at http://ph.worldgamemaster.org.

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Calvin is a newbie blogger who’s working as an IT consultant and blogs for a hobby. He has his own personal blog, Calvin’s Hub, where he writes about his thoughts on just about everything that interests him.

The 18-year old Benesa bested other players from China, Vietnam and Korea, to fight for the championship against New Zealand.

Luis Benesa (left) at the winner’s podium with Samsung executive Christopher Chew, the Guitar Hero champion from New Zealand and the third place finisher from Singapore.

The Philippine contingent to the WCG Asian Championship also included veteran Need for Speed (NFS) player Israel Magante, who landed fourth overall. Chester Reyes competed in FIFA, Philip Ortiz played in Virtual Fighter 5 and Team Mineski represented for DOTA.

A total of 14 countries was represented in the WCG Asian Championship, which is the run up to the WCG Grand Finals in Cologne, Germany this November 2008. The World Cyber Games was recently recognized by Guinness World Records for the World’s Largest Video Game Competition with over 1.5 million competitors worldwide.

Winners list below:

Counterstrike: Team Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Arvin Agbisit
Paolo Nancho
Jupiter Mars Gaboy
EJ Clores
Gary Guevarras

WarCraft: Frederick Pe

Guitar Hero: Rafael Formoso

Command & Conquer: John Raymond Tan

DOTA (to compete at the Asian Cyber Games): Team Meneski
Rhymel Olete
Jose Silva Jr.
Ronald Robins
Kendrick Sy
Rovic John Perez

Over 100 gamers entered the quarter finals which began July 11, following a series of eliminations held in various internet and LAN shops in Metro Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro, and Davao.

National champions will receive a cash prize of P30,000, a Samsung phone, Intel Quad Core CPU, Villman items, Logitech Gaming keyboard/mouse, Asrock Mobo, Sparkle Video Card, etc.

Tongits is a new game that runs on Adobe Air and was developed by Rico Zuniga. Listed below are its features:

• Drag & Drop Interface. The game feels like the real thing with its intuitive drag & drop interface.
• Realistic And Challenging AI. The computers play like live human tongits players.
• Innovative Way of Organizing Cards. Just like in the real game, you are free to group and organize cards in any way you like. This significantly improves your planning and strategy.
• Betting Simulation. Betting enhances the realistic feel of the game. It adds excitement and suspense and gives the player a sense of accomplishment and progress.
• Game Saving. The game is automatically saved after each round to preserve the precious progress you have made.
  Statistics. Relevant game statistics such as number of wins and money won, are saved for each player.
• Clear Card Images. The cards were designed to be easy to read and identify. This helps you easily spot important cards that you might need to win the game.
• A Solid Trainer. If you are a professional Tongits player, the game can supplement your training. And with the high level AI, you won’t need human opponents to practice with.
• Continuous Development. The game is continuously being developed and improved to further enhance the player’s experience.

The game is not freeware though. But you could try it out. However, the demo version only allows you to run the game 10 times. In order for you to enjoy unlimited play, you need to pay 15 USD.

A week later, Microsoft announced it’s going to extend the console warranty to 3 years which would cost the company well in excess of $1 billion. Industry experts say this is the largest warranty extension of its kind, ever. With 11.6 million Xbox 360s sold, about 1 in every 4 of these consoles fail and require the warranty. The rates could be higher with some people experiencing as many as 3 broken consoles. The warranty covers customers who suffered from the “three flashing red lights” error messages.

Despite this development, I’ve finally decided to get a Nintendo Wii instead.

Anybody out there had their XBox 360 returned recently?

Technorati Tags: microsoft, xbox, xbox360, recall

This move would have wide ranging implications within the law as the ever-growing list of lawyers attempting to blame ’sick video games’ for crimes ranging from street robbery to mass murder, call on a medically-recognized disorder to bolster their defense. It will also inevitably lead to pharmaceutical companies coming out with a range of high-priced and pointless cures that can be dumped inside people. The proposal comes in the form of a ‘Report Of The Council On Science And Public Health: Emotional and Behavioral Effects, Including Addictive Potential, of Video Games” chaired by Mohamed K. Khan, MD, Phd.

The report mentions the definition of a gamer:

“A gamer is a term used to describe a person who plays games. Historically, a gamer was someone who played role-playing games or war games, but more recently the term has come to include computer and video game players. Although the term technically includes those who do not necessarily consider themselves gamers (ie, casual gamers), it is a commonly used colloquial term to identify persons who spend as much of their leisure time as possible playing or reading about games. Video gaming has traditionally been a social experience, and most video games are playable by more than one person. Multi-player video games can be played either competitively or cooperatively online by using multiple input devices, or by “hotseating.”

Now, I’m no doctor but I don’t get why internet addiction could be in the same criteria as gaming? I thought for some people, internet is a way of life — like online shopping, internet banking, etc.

So, anybody here qualifies as a gaming addict? You might want to check with your insurance company for some added coverage on mental health benefits.

Mobius recently announced that their local cards can be used to buy game time for Eve Online. Eve Online is a popular international sci-fi MMORPG brand that has a huge following in China and in the United States. Level-up Games also has the same deal with Silkroad Online. Local gamers can now buy in-game currency for the item mall using Level-up Top-up cards. Why the sudden move?

As I said earlier, it is really expensive to run an online gaming company. You will need a massive sales force that has to cover the entire Philippines. You will also need a very competent marketing and operations teams. Management will also have to come up with various support departments like Creatives and Marketing Services in order to fully promote their products. Companies will even have to pay for hosting their servers here, and let’s not even talk about how expensive the hardware is.

When you do a payment gateway scheme, you will just have to pay royalty for your card sales and the rest of the profit goes to your company. The servers will be international and even the events will be run by the international GM Team. Marketing promos and the like will be driven by the developer, and all you have to do is to constantly roll-out when there is a new major patch or update for your game. The bad thing about this is that you won’t have much of a say in the in-game marketing efforts and the development of the product. Your success will be limited to the capability of your developer to deliver good in-game events and promotions.

Payment Gateways are a sign of things to come. I strongly believe that the online gaming industry will boom, especially if the internet infrastructure matures and more people start hooking their houses up with broadband DSL connections. Let’s also take into consideration the sudden boom in the internet cafe business. Right now we have more than 10,000 internet cafes in the Philippines, and the numbers are climbing constantly, especially with more games coming in. If the growth of the industry continues, it is really not that surprising if a local company snags a payment gateway deal with Blizzard for World of Warcraft. When that happens, we’ll be seeing Taurens and Night Elves screaming “ASA!” all over the place, hehe.

Some time after a freak system crash erased all my game data, I turned to MMORPGs for solace.

For the first MMORPG that I tried playing, I was lucky enough to join a guild / gaming group of people I actually knew in real life, a group that then included two other female players.

Eventually, though, the other two dropped out, and I was left the sole female player in the group.

Whenever I went out to play, whether on my own or with the guild, I was almost always the target of what I later discovered was called the “aquarium effect”: the other players – invariably male – would lean out of their cubicles to stare at me. They did a lot of watching over my shoulders; I clearly remember times when there were two or three guys standing nearly at my back.

It was kind of creepy to have guys watch my every move in that manner.

That wasn’t the only thing. Other players’ characters would talk to me in-game; after watching my (usually) female avatar kill stuff, the following question would nearly always pop up:

“Are you really a girl?”

I kind of find that rather annoying and strange at the same time. Annoying, because anyone who asked that question had necessarily made the assumption that I was, in reality, a guy playing a female character; and strange, because, hey, don’t girls want to play, too?

I’ve been playing for some time now and while it makes me feel happy some new games are ditching hack-’n'-slash altogether in favor of, say, music and golf, such that more girls might be encouraged to start playing, I still feel somewhat strange about being a member of the minority gender in this field.

There’s a gamers’ myth that says no girls actually play MMO games.

Dudes. We are not a myth.