HERE’S a video taken by hackenslash/INQUIRER.net reporter Alex Villafania of the raid conducted by the Optical Media Board in SM Megamall.

The video clip shows a furious OMB Executive Director Rosendo Meneses berating an employee of 5th Avenue Telecom, one of the shops that was raided.

“The employee told Meneses not to use their plastic bags after their shop was caught with thousands of illegal computer software and video games. OMB agents were so surprised with the haul that they did not carry enough bags and instead used the shop’s own plastic bags,” Alex reported.

For more video clips, visit iVDO.

UPDATE: Added video from Reuters

By Agence France-Presse, Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO, California–Microsoft on Tuesday began US sales of a scaled-down Xbox 360 model billed by some analysts as a doomed bid to unseat Nintendo’s Wii console as ruler of the casual video game market.

“It is squarely targeted at the Wii,” Directions on Microsoft analyst Matt Rosoff told AFP.

Xbox 360 Arcade comes with five family-oriented video games including Pac-Man and Uno, and is capable of downloading more games from the Internet.

Here’s a video report from Reuters.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

KOREAN firm Sabiclub Corp. is putting up more high-end Internet café branches in the Philippines as it targets the growing demand for online gaming in the country, an executive told hackenslash.

“I want to go for gaming first in the Philippines,” said Don Hun Lee, CEO and president of Sabiclub Corp., owner of the Station 168 Internet cafés and the newly established i-Hooked Internet café in Recto Avenue, a university belt in Manila.

I-Hooked is the first Internet café network gaming branch of the Korean company that features desktops running on Intel’s latest Core 2 Quad processors. The company has installed more than 50 desktop PCs that are running on the powerful Intel processors.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Agence France-Presse

LOS ANGELES, California–Imagine a video game in which characters evolve from primordial ooze, acquiring speed, claws, wings or other traits needed to survive.

Picture a “Glass Cutter” murder mystery game in which a hero gleans psychic clues from graffiti etched into subway windows, barroom tumblers, taxi mirrors or other depicted glass surfaces.

Envision defending their “colonies” by spreading or checking weaponized diseases.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Erin Chupeco, hackenslash Contributor
INQUIRER.net

THERE are very few 2D rendered games in the market today that would even dare to compete with the more aesthetically pleasing 3Ds and FMVs trends that most current games have adopted. Fortunately, Odin Sphere for the PlayStation 2 is one of them. Combining beautifully hand-painted artworks and compelling gameplay with well-thought out plot twists and lovable characters, Odin Sphere is a traditional masterpiece, and one of the last few games for the PS2 worth waiting for.

Save the Forest Witch, save the world

Odin Sphere is a story of five people, all destined to play a part in changing the world and stopping the coming Armageddon — or furthering its progress. Odin Sphere is also a fairy tale — tales of love and triumphs set in the midst of war. The game starts when a young girl named Alice wanders into her grandfather’s attic. Selecting a book prompts the player to read (as Alice), and play through the lives of the character featured. Completing a book unlocks more books, and therefore unlocks more characters to play through — five in all. Once finished, a special book involving all characters is then made available for play.

The talking frog should have been playable. Seriously

Gwendolyn is a young Valkyrie who had just recently lost an older sister, and fights under her father, King Odin’s, banner — not to win the war, but to win his love. Cornelius is a young prince of Titania, who wakes up one day to find that he has been transformed into a Pooka — an anthropomorphic rabbit. Taking up the sword of a fallen ancestor, he must now fight to break the curse. Mercedes, a fairy princess who lost her mother during the Fairies’ war against Odin, must now assume the mantle of queen, aided by a frog who is more than what it appears to be. Oswald is a human knight fighting for the fairies — but when a betrayal leaves him with no master to serve, he decides to pursue the interests of his heart instead. Velvet, royal survivor of the destroyed nation of Valentine, must piece together the meaning of a prophecy handed down by her mother, to halt the Armageddon — and to defy her destiny, which predicts her own doom…

[Read the rest of this entry »]