“Son, when you get to the hotel room…Call me”

Hours later he gets to the hotel room with his beautiful blushing bride and he calls his father,

“Dad, we are the hotel, what do I do?”

“O.K. Son, listen up, take off your clothes and get in the bed, then she should take off her clothes and get in the bed, if not help her. Then either way, ah, call me”

A few moments later…

“Dad we took off our clothes and we are in the bed, what do I do?”

O.K. Son, listen up. Move real close to her and she should move real close to you, and then… Ah, call me.”

A few moments later…

“DAD! WE TOOK OFF OUR CLOTHES, GOT IN THE BED AND MOVED REAL CLOSE, WHAT DO I DO???”

“O.K. Son, Listen up, this is the most important part. Stick the long part of your body into the place where she goes to the bathroom.”

A few moments later…

“Dad, I’ve got my foot in the toilet, what do I do?”

Yes, this is the typical me.

... You wish.

A PC enthusiast is a person who has the same degree of interest in say eople who love cars with a mechanic know-how. Basically to give you an idea of what these people are, they simply are the kind of people who go gah-gah over a particular computer component or rig (a computer set) when it comes out. They are the ones who go to work with the thought of earning this week's paycheck for that Quad-core Phenom. Whats the difference between a geek and an enthusiast? Well, nothing. To be more precise ---answering that is like answering the question what 'makes a person unique?'. I just wanted to talk silly and awe you with long sentences.

Now, on to what I really wanted to talk about; my rig. a couple of months ago I had a low-level high-end machine that could go head to head with the new generation of games. Sadly, even though the rig itself is already considered 'high-end', it still belonged to the lowest level of that crop. I was happy though but a week from now, a game called Fallout 3 is coming which made me jump for joy. Then I started to wonder if the system I had was enough for 2010's games, I always think ahead but my pocket seems to lag behind me. Thats why I always had to buy things part by part with a few months interval. Basically the only thing that makes my computer reach the title of high-end, is the video card. Though this card is slowly being outplayed by others, it is still consistent in the high-end ranks as a mid-level high-end video card capable of blowing even Crysis and Gears of War into a beautifully rendered 3D world a maximum settings. So what's the problem? Well, pretty much everything else is old. This was after all, a budget PC at the time.

So then lets go back to why this week is soooo special. Well for one thing, I'll be getting 3 parts this week. A new motherboard, a new processor, a new RAM set. I've always been an AMD guy, so people who know me could and might have guessed that I was going for the Quad-core Phenom. But sadly, I have to turn my back on AMD for now. No apparent reason. I just feel that my NViDIA 8800GT was great, and it has more support in most games than AMD's Radeon series. So it got me to thinking to just go with Intel, since Nvidia seems to be supporting Microsoft's end rather than AMD.

Here's my new rig which will be mine by the end of the week~

• Intel Quad Core Q6600 (G0 Stepping)
• ECS P45T-A (Black Edition- a very sleak mid high-end board)
• Kingston 2GiG x 2 = 4G
• inno3D NViDIA 8800GT
• TDK MP100 DJ-Headphones
• Logitech Keyboard and Optical Mouse
• Sanyo Digital Stereo Set
• 21'' ANBONN LCD Monitor

I'm a happy Panda, all the parts should equate to mid-borderline high-end gaming rig. I'm off to dream about it now. Oh, Fallout 3 and Spiderman: Web of Shadows is kewl. For November, Saint's Row 2 should be list. Haha, I;m delerious right now. kthxbai~

Panda here, time for me to talk about me. Goody! My favorite Subject! I know we all like to talk about me, but yeah sorry, I lied. Right now I'll be talking about World in Conflict, an action strategy game for the PC which I ignored earlier this year but somehow acquired it through a friend 4 weeks ago. I haven't played it until just recently since I was out playing dictator with the world and molesting little children with a 2-inch poke pole. That sounded bad. Okay, its a joke. Please don't sue me. You know you liked my corny joke. In fact, I liked it so much I had an orgasm just typing it. *orgasm* ;o

Well anyway, World In Conflict is a story-driven, real-time strategy game by Massive and Sierra Entertainment. The game's story is about an alternate world where the reality of the Cold War ending actually didn't end at all, but instead continued with the Soviet Union, launching an attack on the United States of America -- Seattle being the first. where you are officially introduced to the character you will be playing as throughout the game. Believe me when I say that the blatantly worn-out setting won't have any effect on the game and the overall experience. Thanks to the efforts of Massive Entertainment (creators of Ground Control 1 and 2 -- which I had the pleasure of playing), players are sure to enjoy the single-player campaign. Maintaining an exciting narrative all the way, the developers concentrated on characterization, giving the entire story emotional depth. Now, the game doesn't dig much into the background of your character, but rather focuses on some of the individuals that played vital roles in America's military campaign against the Russian invaders. It is through the emotions of these characters that players are able to immerse themselves in the story. There are a few impressively directed FMV cut-scenes as well, which also contribute to the story. With all this on the menu, each mission briefing is read by well-known Hollywood actor Alec Baldwin, whose vocal talents come off extremely well in the game.

Unlike most real-time strategies, World in Conflict dismisses the idea of typical resource gathering, giving you a chance to concentrate on the gameplay, without any unnecessary micromanagement. You are given a certain amount of reinforcement points, which allow you to call in for backup when the going gets tough. As you come closer to your objective, you are likely to receive more reinforcement points.

The really cool thing about World in Conflict is that it never restricts players in terms of the tactics they can use on the battlefield. In almost every mission, it's possible to rely on a variety of special attacks that usually include napalm strikes, laser guided bombs, tank-buster strikes, a diversity of artillery barrages and so on. If you're overwhelmed by enemy choppers and have no flying units of your own, just call in an air-to-air strike and watch as your jets wipe them off the map. Of course, be quick when ordering the attack, before the choppers move out of the targeted area.

In most missions, it's easy to find a preferable strategy and execute it on the fly, using a series of different attacks. The smart thing to do is to use aerial recon (it's available in most missions) before making the first move against your foe. When you zero in on enemy positions, just call in artillery barrages and a few quick air strikes, after which you can send in a mix of air and land units to finish the job - repair units are a must, of course. The strategy can be applied to the multiplayer as well.

The atmosphere of large-scale battles is another praise-worthy facet of this game. It's obvious the development team took every precaution to make every scenario believable. In one of the missions, after a long and intense battle, your forces will be compelled to call in a nuclear strike. The next mission commences in the nuclear aftermath, as you strive to reassemble scattered forces. There was also a noteworthy visual element here. As the mushroom cloud slowly disperses, the once vivid surroundings transform, making way for a grayish, grainy kind of ambience, as the dreaded sound of the Geiger counter activates in the background, indicating high levels of radiation. With such moments, Massive manages to hold the player's attention, while maintaining the flow of storyline at the same time. The game is crammed with such scenes, compelling you to play on.

Overall, World in Conflict deserves the attention of all gamers regardless of what their preferred genres are. There's enough action and content to guarantee hours of continuous fun, which stands for both single-player and multiplayer modes. The range of units and a vast number of air support that can be called in, makes for some exciting and well-balanced multiplayer battles. Also, it's easy to coordinate attacks with players via the built-in VOIP chat system. Even if you cannot enjoy this aspect of the game, playing without a headset is entertaining enough. Battles can last for hours, with a potential of reaching a climactic full-on nuclear blast.

I recommend this game to any strategy-loving game geek out there. A word of caution though is that to be able to appreciate 40% of the game, you have to have a high-end gaming rig. Its not really required though but its just an option.

-A

_____Let's Dance~________

Yes, so its been a long break yet again, not that anyone ever reads this, (lol) but I'm back, yet again, and indefinitely. I've gone through ups and downs from the past couple of months, as any normal human being should. So let me start off by talking about what good things I've got from all the pain and suffering I've endured. I recently upgraded my systerm from a mid-ranged PC to a now high-end one.

My PC now has:

• A Cooler
• A Fan
• 2x (Kingston) 1 Gigabyte RAM
• 2x 40Gigabyte HD
• 1x 160Gigabyte HD
• 1x 320Gigabyte HD
• INNO3D 8800GT Standard Edition
• Windows Vista Ultimate w/ SP1 (Dual-Booted with Windows XP, just in case, lol.)
• AMD Athlon 64 3700+ (Planning to get an AMD X2 soon.)

Its not exactly one of the best high-end PCs out there but the standard is pretty high in the Philippines. Now what does a person do with a high-end PC? Why, play games, of course and not just any games, we're talking about the most demanding games of  '07-'08 here. And from here I'd like to talk about the games I've tested to be compatible with Vista as well as put a short input about my experience and  what I think about the game through my setup. No, I are not gunna review.

The Witcher - maximum settings w/ AA___________

Its a Book and RPG Game of the Year, what else can I say? For an RPG this game literally took a lot of my time since I got this when I still had 1 Gigabyte of RAM on my system. The load times were bad, and I don't mean bad as in the "good" bad. Loading times of each major map took around 4-8 Minutes. But when I put in another gigabyte in the there everything smoothed up and the time it took to load the large maps were reduced to about 50%- Thats about 2 minutes, and 4 at most. Apart from that everything smoothed out pretty well with everything maxed out including the Anti-Aliasing. I have yet to try it out with Vista though.

The game was made possible by Bioware's Aurora Engine (2007), if that doesn't ring too much bells, then you haven't played too many RPGs since that engine is the one used by Neverwinter Nights 2. Previous versions of the engine were used to make the previous installments of the popular NWN franchise.

Now to the game, everything is straight-out amazing in this one. The graphics, if you've played NWN2, has a lot of similarities. (duh?) But then again, once you've hacked a few hours into the game, you forget about NWN and be totally immersed from there. The story is good, you're Geralt, a famous monster-slayer who lost his memories due to an untimely story which you'll have to uncover by yourself by playing the game. You start out building your own persona of who you think is Geralt by going about solving whatever quest you come by through multiple ends. And a lot of times, you'd be faced with mind-boggling, emotionally-draining decisions that affect the future of the game world. The choices aren't easy to make. And choices that alter the course of the game usually are shown in a painting-flash depicting the aftermaths of your decision. I won't reveal too much of it here, but the game really is to die for. Especially if you're an RPG-fanatic like me.

Gears of War - maximum settings w/ AA__________

Another game that has won numerous awards as well as a presitgious Action-Game of the Year. This game is BEAUTIFUL. If you get past the gore, blood, and chainsaw massacres you do with your rifle and look past at the scenery, everything seems so vivid and full of life in the world that sometimes I stop and look up at every cranny I can find and take a breather from all the gun blazes to marvel at the designs. And this is all under DX9. When I tested the game in Vista which had DX10 the game totally gave me a new experience, as well as a reason to unlock the Insane difficulty level of the game.

The story for the game hasn't really appealed too much but when you're faced with hordes of evil beasties shooting at you, team-mates shouting for help in every direction, you'd forget your story-hunger and just have plain fun. Try this game out. Its fun~ lol.

Unreal Tournament 3 - maximum settings w/ AA_____

Same guys that brought you Gears of War, same engine, same kind of cool graphics, same crappy story, same level of enjoyment. While Midway (the producers) has gone and put you in a 3rd-person view in Gears of War, this game, puts you back in 1st-person and shoot through your enemies just like the previous installments of the UT franchise. The game was kinda dark in DX9, but amazingly beautiful in DX10.

One thing that made me stick to trying to finish the game was the pure enjoyment of riding all the nifty vehicles in the game. The game features action-packed ACTION! Which means if you're in a multiplayer game, everything is so fun that you'd forget to eat. I lost 2 lbs. Yay.

Well I guess thats that. Since I pretty much maxed every game here I guess I'm pretty happy with my current setup. All I need now is 1 more gigabyte of RAM and a new headphone. And a mouse. I definitely need a new mouse.