Moody Gamer

So do you have both Xbox360 and PS3 and don’t know which version of GTA4 you want to get, well, here is the answer: PS3. Reasons: Anti Aliasing + Faster load times. Still no matter what console you own, the game is getting bombarded with 10 out of 10 reviews all over the place. Since I don’t own an Xbox360 or PS3, am hoping the PC version doesn’t take long to be released.

Yeah yeah I know it is old, I saw it more than a year or so. Though it is so awesome that it is worth to link in this blog for people to know about it. I am a huge fan of street fighter and 2D fighting in general (Mainly from Capcom and SNK) and when I saw this video, my jaws literally dropped to the floor (ok it didn’t). I played Street Fighter since I was 6th Grader, thats I think about 12 or more years back. Me and bros always played for the sake of not only winning, but winning with style. This video just does it at its best.

Now what is amazing about this fight is the last few seconds mainly where Ken gets to parry all of Chun Li’s super art hits. Do note that Chun Li’s super art is a very very fast hitting move and to parry it, you need to tap forward just as a hit lands. So this is a hard move to pull.

Oh and if anyone in Oman thinks he can beat me or my bros in any Street Fighter (Capcom and SNK 2D fighters in general too) game, you are welcome to challenge us. Don’t come bragging you know Street Fighter and at the same time can play ONLY Ryu/Ken/Akuma, that would be pure lameness.

Anyway, enjoy the video and tell us what you think.

P.S. For those who don’t know much about SF, the video is taken from Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.

Yep, I visited Comex 2008 on first day and went to both Shopper and Business areas. Before I go further, I want to note that I haven’t visited Comex for almost more than 3 years. The Comex today is so small compared to the Comex visits I had before way back. Business has nothing regarding gaming and of course I doubt it will ever will. Though when you think about shopper, you start to imagine some nice selection of computer parts tailored for gamers, cool console stuff or even just games. Though I hardly found any of the above and if I ever found anything, I will find it overpriced (300RO GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB anyone?). Even for the normal computer user, Comex has nothing to offer. It is just a group of local retailers who are trying to sell their stuff at lower (or higher!) prices than normal. Though I did get a chance to play with a fancy (and overly priced) iPhone ! (Yeah yeah, you can do that at normal phone stores too).

I don’t think there is a better site to check reviews and previews in the Middle East than www.megamers.com. This site is very active and up to date and having GTA4 review there is proof enough as of writing this post. The site also offers lots of competitions in the region with some impressive prizes. I suggest you go visit the site and see for yourself. Of course don’t forget to come back here for personal opinion and advice from time to time .

There is a local group called Chemical Orange that develop mobile flash games based on local themes. I am not really into flash games much but if you want to check them out go visit them at Oman3D. The games are free to my understanding. The website also contains various tutorials in designing and development. Who knows, maybe someone might end up making his/her own games.

With the abundance of duel and Quad Core CPUs and the their decreasing prices, it is wise to stop buying single core CPUs. Current and coming PC games already or will support multi core CPUs and a single core CPU won’t cut it. So when you go out to buy a gaming PC, go for a minimum of duel core CPU and no less. AMD’s Athlon X2 series are dirt cheap now and they can be considered the minimum for a nice gaming experience. I personally own a AMD Athlon X2 6000+ which does my gaming absolutely well after I upgraded from my ancient Athlon 64 3200+. Seriously, the price itself is enough reason to buy a multi core CPU.

So when you go to your computer dealer, make sure you got a duel core CPU installed and not a single core CPU.

Fact: Xbox 360 and PS3 have multi core CPUs!

First impressions of this game were “Just another well made RTS” (Real Time Strategy) but after going through the tutorial (Which is plain easy and straight forward if you are an RTS player) and a few minutes in the first mission you begin to feel that this is not your normal cup of RTS.

First the graphics are the best in the genre and watching it in motion is far far better than what you see in the images. The free roaming camera is so easy to use and really adds a new way to playing RTS compared to the the Top-Down view or the isometric view. Thing is, as soon as you start the mission, you are in action. No need to gather resources or build an economy. Add to that some amazing air support reinforcements (coupled with AWESOME special effects) and you got a game which is fast, frantic and fun. Hell, I dare say that the pace can be as fast as an FPS (First Person Shooter). This game is an answer to those who say RTS games are slow and time consuming. If you like RTS games, you must have this game since it is a unique experience that you won’t find in any other RTS.

Also, if you ever played Ground Control 2, then you are right at home. Since it has the same game mechanics and from the same developers.

Note: You need atleast a DirectX9 graphics card to play this game smoothly and appreciate the GFX.

Well, topic of current date is of course Omantel’s new ADSL packages. Which can be found on Omantel’s website. Do note that the upload speeds are not mentioned and that is very important for online gamers (WoW anyone!). Though checking around from various sources, it seems that the 512kbps, 1mbps, 2mbps will have an upload speed of 128kbps while 4mbps and 8mbps will have upload speeds of 256kbps. Which is really bad if you are considering upgrading to one of the higher packages for better online gaming experience. So you either stick with 512/128kbps or just go straight to 4mbps/256kbps.

Personally and from various friends who play online, it seems the move to 512kbps did fix the latency issue that was plaguing many gamers for months. Not because the speed has been bumped up but I think there has been a change in the network setup/configuration that made the latency better. So latencies are in the range of 150-300ms for various online games. Naturally, that depends also on Omantel’s network traffic! With more people moving to the higher packages, the network will be more strained and hence many hops will start dropping data packets leading to higher latencies.

So have latencies improved? yes! Will it stay like this? Only Omantel can decide.

UPDATE: The 8mbps has a 512kbps upload speed. If you are rich and have cash to burn, then go for it.

Hello everyone,

This is my first blog and first post and hopefully not the last. Of course main reason for creating this blog is for fun and I hope I can make it alive as much as I can with nice, fun and useful information in the gaming realm. Feel free to help me out or point me to make improvements always. I might be slow at first but hopefully when I pick up things will be very exciting so stay stuned.