By Relly Carpio
INQUIRER.net

THE NEXT Open Gaming Meet has been set on May 10, Saturday at the airconditioned cabana on the rooftop of Residencia 8888 at Pearl Drive,
Ortigas Center.

“We usually hold the OGM on the first Saturday of the month, but to give a breather to us, since we had the last one on the third week of April, we’re holding it a week later,” said Victor Cabazor, one of the organizers.

“The OGM is an informal gathering of tabletop games enthusiasts from various groups to try out new games and/or play favorite games, be
it boardgames, miniature war games, RPGs (role-playing games), card games, or board wargames, with friends, new or old,” Cabazor added.

An entrance fee of P50 will be charged to help the organizers with the rental of the cabana. Simply inform the front desk upon arrival that you are
going “to the tournament at the penthouse” to gain entry to the building.

By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

LIKE previous movies based on Marvel comic book characters, the first film about a particular Marvel superhero is an origin story. The goal is to come out with a film that mostly stays true to the comic book version to satisfy longtime fans, while also appealing to a new audience unfamiliar with the source material. This is a formula that has been wildly successful for some Marvel films (i.e. “Spider-Man” and “X-Men”), though some have been less than spectacular (i.e. “The Punisher” and “Daredevil”).

“Iron Man,” Marvel Studios’ latest comics-to-Hollywood production and also its first self-financed film, follows the same formula, and thankfully this is a movie that will satisfy fans without melting the brains of the uninitiated. Marvel Studios tapped the directorial services of Jon Favreau, who made sure that the audience will care about the characters even without having read the comic books. It helps that the talented Robert Downey Jr. plays the role of fictional playboy billionaire industrialist Tony Stark and his alter ego Iron Man.

This review will of course contain spoilers, so those who would like to watch the movie without knowing anything about the plot should stop reading. The movie starts with Stark, whose company designs state-of-the art weapons for the US military, being kidnapped by a group of terrorists in Afghanistan. In a flashback, we learn that Stark is in Afghanistan to demonstrate his company’s latest weapon, the Jericho missile system. The terrorists now want to force Stark to create a Jericho missile for them, using parts from Stark Industries weapons that they have gathered.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Erwin Oliva
INQUIRER.net

UPDATE: Editor’s note: Added video taken by INQUIRER.net technology reporter Erwin Oliva.

A FILIPINO startup has announced its entry in the free, advertising-based mobile game market in the country, as it offered at least 800 Java-based downloadable games for free to local subscribers, its chief executive officer told hackenslash Monday.

Ubersoft Inc. CEO Vince Yamat said the company was betting on the increasing demand for free mobile phone games that are currently offered at premium prices of about P30 to P50 per game by local service providers.

“This is something disruptive,” said Yamat, as he pointed out that mobile phone games contribute a significant amount to the total revenues of mobile phone networks.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Relly Carpio
INQUIRER.net

THE RAGNAROK World Championship (RWC) will be held for the first time outside South Korean developer Gravity Inc.’s motherland, and it will be here
in the Philippines at Level Up! Live 2008 to be held at the World Trade Center on October 18 and 19.

“We are flying in 10 teams from different countries. It’s going to be the first international online game tournament to be hosted by the Philippines,” said Jake San Diego, Level Up! marketing director.

This announcement was what San Diego was referring to in an earlier article when he asked Ragnarok players to “stay tuned” for a development that would “raise the bar in online gaming in the country.”

The RWC will run alongside the grand finals of the other games of Level Up! namely, Rising Force Online, Perfect World, Flyff and Freestyle.

Level Up! will hold the Ragnarok Philippine Championship, which usually takes place at LU! Live, two weeks ahead of the event to determine the representative members.

By Relly Carpio
INQUIRER.net

UPDATE: Editor’s note: Reposted to correct errors and add information.

“WE weren’t expecting it, really,” said Carlos Nazareno, recounting what he felt when informed that the game UFO Capture: Barnyard Abduction” was chosen as the winner for the Asia Pacific Region’s User Group contest. He didn’t even know that there was a second round of judging. “I thought, when we placed sixteenth in the first contest, that was it, wala na, we gave up. Then I was contacted and well, surprise!”

The game was created by Nazareno and his friends Jojo Cunanan, who handled the art, and John Tiangco who did the concepts and playtesting. Incidentally, the same people were members of Team Fuchikoma in the recently concluded Pinoy Indie Games competition.

Their game was chosen as one of the top 20 from the 356 submitted by the members of Playyoo.com from all over the world. The contest was sponsored by Adobe, the owner of Flash and Flash Lite. The first judging was based on algorithms, with the number of views and downloads as the arbiter. The second was from votes by members of the User Group. There were also categories for the Americas and Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). They bested the main contest’s top winner Samir, an Indian national, for the User Group prize.

UFO Capture: Barnyard Abduction reached its highest position during the contest at tenth and even became pick of the day. UFO Capture: Barnyard Abduction is a hybrid time pressured collection and puzzle game. You are an alien in a ship trying to abduct as many farmers and livestock in the time allotted while crop dusters try and ram you in an effort to stop you. Collisions with the planes deduct from your time, while completing set combinations of farmers and/or livestock add to your time limit and score.

So what did they win? “We won $5,000 worth of prizes,” Nazareno said.

Flash Lite is a relatively new technology it was highly successful in Japan and is now being pushed elsewhere. It is pre-bundled in newer
Series 40 and Series N Nokia Phones.

You can check the full list of winners here.