By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

TO HELP draw more players to the World Cyber Games Philippines tournaments, the local Microsoft Xbox online forum PinoyXbox.com has started a raffle for players of the two Xbox 360 games included in the WCG preliminaries.

The PinoyXbox raffle rules state that players who join the tournaments for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Virtua Fighter 5, which are the official Xbox 360 games for the WCG, will get the chance to win several Xbox 360 titles. These include Virtua Fighter 5, Project Gotham Racing 4, Universe at War, Grand Theft Auto 4, and a Guitar Hero III bundle, among others.

The titles are provided by video game sales shop Ysidro’s GameCore and online rental company GameHopper.com. The titles cost between P1,500 pesos to P2,500.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

PINOYXBOX is one of the most prominent console-based gaming forums in the Philippines and is also one of the oldest, having been an offshoot of PinoyExchange. It boasts of 4,000 members, the majority of whom are from the Philippines though some based in other countries. It is pretty much a close-knit society, especially with the availability of Xbox Live, which allows Filipinos to play with or against each other and other nationalities.

Husband and wife Philip and Joanne Ortiz are among the moderators of PinoyXbox. They regularly check out the online activities of their members and get loads of information themselves from members. In one particular thread, there were members who stumbled upon Xbox 360 titles and equipment in a warehouse in Mandaluyong City. The two accidentally found an entire RockBand set that they bought for less than half the price in regular shops. Normally, a RockBand set, which consists of a guitar controller, drum set, microphone and the RockBand title, would sell at around P13,000.

Here’s the video I took of Philip and Joanne, who share some of their experiences as PinoyXbox moderators and Xbox 360 players.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

IF there’s one thing that Xbox 360 owners don’t like to see on their beloved game consoles, it’s the dreaded 3RL, the three red lights that indicate there is a major hardware malfunction. The 3RL has been around since the first batch of the Xbox 360 came out. The most common thread with the 3RL is that the unit, particularly its graphics processing unit (GPU), overheats and would not work until repairs are made. The 3RL is such a big issue that it may be the main reason why wannabe buyers of Microsoft’s gaming machine are holding on to their money, perhaps until better manufacturing processes are put in place so that new batches of Xbox 360s are less prone to hardware failure.

In the Philippines, Xbox 360s outnumbered the PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii but owners often complained about the 3RL. Some early users of the Xbox 360s experienced this mishap with a few sometimes buying a new Xbox 360 just to replace the dead one.

However, a few enterprising electricians have learned of a potentially huge market for Xbox 360 repairs and have taken it upon themselves learn the innards of the game console and see if they can resurrect a dead and expensive device. Ronald Caleb San Pedro is but one of them and so far, he’s making some positive rounds among the community of Xbox 360 owners, especially with members of the local forum PinoyXbox.com. San Pedro, who is just barely out of his teens, said the Xbox 360 repair business was huge enough to convince him to provide repair services — even if he has never opened any game console before.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Relly Carpio
INQUIRER.net

HUSBAND and wife gamers and bloggers Philip and Joanne Ortiz recently had their blog Third World Gamer added to the official communities recognized by Xbox.com.

Xbox Singapore held a promo last month looking for “Friends of Xbox,” bloggers who talk about the Xbox and their experiences with it. Philip Ortiz’s blog was one of those chosen by Xbox Singapore, and is now linked within the communities.

“I tried it, knowing that there are other blogs out there that are better than mine. So I was pleasantly surprised when mine was one of
those chosen,” he said.

[Read the rest of this entry »]

By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

WHEN it comes to game complexity, developer Ubisoft almost always lands on top of the list. Nearly all its action-oriented games require a considerable learning curve just to get through the controls. This is common in its Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter series wherein every aspect of the Xbox 360 controller is used. Nonetheless, these controls become essential to the entire gameplay. The company’s latest game is Assassin’s Creed (designed by no other than my favorite game developer, Jade Raymond), which melds together a lot of gameplay elements from Splinter Cell, God of War, Elder Scrolls, and Prince of Persia.

Just as the gameplay is complex, so is the storyline; the plot is set somewhere near the future. Desmond Miles is a bartender but is a direct descendant of a long line of assassins from the days of the historic Crusades nearly 1,000 years ago. Miles is kidnapped and experimented upon by scientists of the Abstergo Industries, which has a machine called the Animus that pulls out memories of long-since dead people as long as their DNA structure remains intact with their descendants. Desmond holds the memories of Altair, one of the Assassins who knew the location of the “Piece of Eden,” which seems to be an artifact that can cause mass hypnosis. Abstergo scientists want this artifact. In between the plot, as they say, thickens and the player might get confused with the integrated story between Altair and Miles. The story, while linear, is so complex that players can start their adventures just about anywhere in the map and still be able to continue the story.

More than 90 percent of the action happens during Miles’ usage of the Animus. The player/Miles becomes the Assassin Altair upon entering into a dream-like state then the adventure begins. The world is set in the year 1191 during the Third Crusade that saw the war between the real-life King Richard the Lionheart and the Muslim warrior-king Saladin. While the two kings battle it out, the secret society of the Assassins are facing off against the Templar Knights. Altair, having failed to kill the Templar Knight Grand Master, is stripped of his weapons and skills by the Assassins’ leader Al Mualim. As such the player will have to complete tasks set upon Al Mualim to recover parts of his skills and weapons. Likewise, the missions will lead to the discovery of the “Piece of Eden” as well as a conspiracy set by Richard the Lionheart and Saladin. The plot can be likened to a video game version of a Tom Clancy novel and is surprisingly well implemented in a video game.

[Read the rest of this entry »]