Team Fortress 2 Update Released

Yes, its finally here! The "FREE" DLC for the PC from Valve includes the Gold Rush map and the much awaited Medic weapon achievements that includes 3 new weapons. Moreover, Valve also notes that a worldwide Team Fortress 2 free weekend will begin Friday at noon PDT, allowing access to play TF2 and all new contents to ANYONE who doesn’t own the game for a short trial period. Good days indeed!

World GameMaster Tournament Tours the World

PRESS RELEASE:

April 29, 2008, Dubai:
The World Game Master Tournament was successfully completed for the first time in the Middle East at Dubai Festival City. The three day event held at the Festival Square in Festival City Mall on the 24th, 25th and 26th of April attracted over 450 gamers competing in games like Counterstrike: Source, Warcraft 3: Frozen Thorne and Unreal Tournament 3. WGT Dubai is the biggest gaming competition to take place in the Middle East in year 2008.

WGT selected ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (ASUS), the leading motherboard and graphics card company, as its official PC hardware supplier, and Intel and Microsoft as computing and operating system providers, respectively to provide the gamers with the paramount gaming experience they ever had.

The first day of the tournament saw over 60 gamers battle it out in Unreal Tournament 3 played on one of the most powerful PCs built using ASUS powerful gaming components and the latest CPU from Intel and Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate.

The gaming PC’s had the combination of the best gaming components; ASUS EN9600GT TOP and the ASUS striker II Formula Motherboard. Gamers experienced the rush of superb gaming performance with the ASUS EN9600GT features such as over clocking and extreme cooling which enhances the system’s performance making it faster and giving them the best visual graphics. To fulfill their gaming experience they added the ASUS PG191 LCD to ensure they get the best in audio from the Power Bass System and SRS TruSurround XT™ Technology., and smooth video quality from the race Free Technology, which accelerates response time to 2ms. Quicker Response! Powerful Sound! Crispy image!

Mr. George Su from ASUS and Mr Khaldoun from INTEL announced the opening of the event at the festival square in Dubai Festival City. Mr. George Su remarked that he is delighted and appreciates that WGT recommended ASUS gaming hardware. He also added that Asus is a leading technology company in the world and we have successfully developed some product series for gamers in order to provide the best gaming experience for gamers.

The winner of Unreal Tournament 3 received prize money of AED 2,000 while three runners-up each received an ASUS EN9600GT graphics card. The winner of UT3, “Spammah” said that he really enjoyed playing on these PCs as they provided a very smooth and realistic gaming experience.

The next two days saw gamers challenge other teams in Counterstrike: Source on Desktop and Warcraft 3 on the ASUS G2 gaming notebook. The tournament witnessed two of the strongest teams of Counter Strike in the region, team Dubai Mirage and team Ignition, which created an enthusiastic atmosphere. Again, gamers complimented ASUS technology with the Winning team in Counterstrike stating that the PCs they practiced on for the event were half as fast as the PCs they played on in the tournament.

The winning team for Counterstrike “Ignition” was awarded with AED 12,000 in prize money while team Q8 for Warcraft 3 earned AED 4000. Runners-up in both these games were provided with ASUS EN9600GTgraphics cards.

At WGT, ASUS also showcased some of their latest products such as their latest gaming notebook G70 which will set a new standard of mobile gaming at the level of extreme performance by its Multi Dual-Engine and high-definition visual and audio capabilities. Likewise they announced M70 which would be the world’s first notebook with 1 Terrabyte of Storage and will offer high definition quality for a dramatically enhanced gaming experience. Moreover, they displayed the full range of their slim and light U series; U1 the ultra light notebook weighing 1kg, U2 the thinnest and lightest ultra portable notebook with inclusive DVD ROM weighing 1.25kg, U3 the seamless mobile computing solution with style and the U6 with the shimmery fiber finishing.

WGT is one of the biggest gaming tournaments in the world and after adding Dubai to its venues and adding the Middle East gamers the competition will become fiercer. We looking forward for the next WGT as it seem to exceed our expectations constantly
About ASUS.

ASUS is a leading company in the new digital era. With a global staff of more than 8000 and a world-class R&D design team, the turnover for 2007 was 6.9 billion U.S. Dollars. ASUS has been ranked in Business Week InfoTech 100 for 10 consecutive years, and has been ranked No.1 by the Wall Street Journal Asia for best quality products in Taiwan. Additional information about ASUS is available at ae.asus.com

Prince of Persia Prodigy trademarked!

Well as some of you may have known, (or maybe not) there is some news going around the net from Ubisoft. Many are saying that recently Ubisoft has trademarked, Prince of Persia Prodigy. Well, now this does not imply that Ubisoft will be working on a PoP series. But the title is only a project name at the moment. Rumors are adding that further information is going to be revealed at Ubidays, and do say that the game’s REAL title is Prince of Persia Zero as the game is going to be a prequel. But, Ubisoft did give a sneak peak of the teaser site. Try this,
http://prince-of-persia.us.ubi.com/home.php.

Well so then we can only wait for some strong proof from Ubisoft soon. Till then, look at the site, and try finding out what are we supposed to look at because it is kind of a mysterious site.

Razer Destructor Mousepad

Introduction:

Rarely are things perfect in life. With the exception of that perfectly creamy chocolate ice-cream or that perfectly smiley hot chick(en), nothing else climbs to the grace of perfection… Until, we got our hands on the new gaming surface by Razer, dubbed the “Destructor”. The Razer Destructor was one of those few marvelous products that we would like to add to the above-mentioned list of “perfect” and I wonder if we would ever settle for anything else. You might ask what’s so special about a mouse-pad when you can pick up a “FREE” el-cheapo square of plastic at your local trade show. Well, the simple answer is – The Razer Destructor is styled with precision and quality that will undoubtedly give you the edge in today’s high intensity FPS titles.

Word on the street is that Razer went through nearly 2 years of development time to bring out the Razer Destructor. A long development process that included several trial testings conducted by both world-class professional gamers and Razer engineers. Without further ado, lets take a look at what these 2 years of labor has produced.

Packaging and Contents:

The Razer Destructor comes sheathed in a fancy carry case with the green Razer logo on the front and the packing cardboard displays all the technical mumbo-jumbo and other claims of improvement over ordinary gaming pads. We’re used to seeing mouse mats that come bottled in a plastic tube all curled and cozy in the inside, but we’re surprised to see the Destructor come in a thick foamed lightweight armor case. The case could’ve well been used as a laptop carry bag if only it was a little bigger. The idea is to safely transport your gaming mat to LAN tournaments, since the Razer Destructor is not foldable or bendable (unless you want two pieces of it.)

Imagine going to a LAN party and proudly taking out your Razer Destructor from its armor case in front of other gamers. That would have a similar effect on your opponents as the time when we freaked out seeing the Makron’s guns in Quake 4! Consequently, the carry case is a nice touch to the Destructor mouse-pad, but we suspect it could also have constituted to half the retail price.

Grand Theft Auto IV

Unveiled over a year ago, Rockstar’s latest installment in the highly successful and equally controversial series, Grand Theft Auto, has meet with nothing but huge expectations, anticipation and tremendous hype. Heck, the whole Internet came down to a standstill when Rockstar unleashed the first trailer last year as people clamored for a glimpse of the next-generation GTA. And as the release date comes nearer, and the hype exploding into an uncontrollable desire to break into a store and rob a copy for ourselves, one question that begs attention is: Is Grand Theft Auto 4 as good as the hype makes us to believe? The answer is not only a thumping yes, it is the definitive installment in the series and an experience you haven’t ever had before.

You play as Niko Bellic, an Eastern European (not a Russian. He hasn’t even been to Russia) who comes to America looking for that ‘special someone’ from his Bosnian War filled past. But that’s just one of the reasons; you see Niko was promised the ‘American Dream’, sex, money, hot women with “big titties”, fast cars, luxurious bungalows and condos by his fatty cousin Roman. Niko quickly finds out that all was not so much as he had hoped for. The luxurious condo was a dirty little room with a single bed and a kitchen made out of a corner. Fast cars were Roman’s privately owned Taxi, the hot woman was a girl called Mollarie who Roman could not stand up for and money was sparse. In fact, Roman was in debts to some serious, influential people and he needed a pair of hands to help him out.

Niko is terribly disappointed, but he chooses to stay, as he has no choice. Roman connects him with a few characters that have various jobs only Niko is qualified enough to do. Need backup? Slay a few thugs and dealers who refuse to bend? Steal an expensive car? Pose as a gay to get to someone? He will do it, for the right price. To others he may appear to be a cold-blooded killer, an ‘ALPHA male’, but we know better. He is not the badass motherfucker of the past GTA games. Deep inside, he has emotions and feelings, morals. He is tired of where life is taking him, he is hurt and broken. He wants to escape, but the harder he tries, the more he gets entangled in the webs of deceit, crime and betrayal.

The story starts off rather sluggishly with only a few of ‘actual’ things to do but it soon picks up in a couple of hours as more characters are introduced all with their back-story which makes the proceeding extremely interesting. In fact, you will find yourself doing more of the story missions to see what will happen next and what turn it will take. It’s a clever script, penned with excellence and a strong command in the direction and the flow it takes. And it is only helped with an excellent voice cast and elaborately animated cut scenes.

The game plays like the GTA we have come to know and love, but it has undergone some well deserving refinement and polish and some additions that completely changes the way we will play GTA. You will wonder how we ever played a GTA without them! The core central to the game play is the mobile phone you will receive earlier on. And it is not a made-up mobile phone either. It is like a real mobile phone. And you have to operate it like you would a real one! If you want to call someone, you have to go to the menu, select ‘Phonebook’, and search for the name and press call. This also goes for read messages. You can even change the ring tone, set different profiles and once you get an upgraded phone- download expensive VIP ringtones and themes from the Internet. The phone is the central hub of your communication with all the characters you have met. You will receive phone calls and messages from them, asking you to meet them for more missions, you can make calls to fix plans for a date or hang out with your buddies. And like a real phone, it too quickly becomes a nuisance, as you will get calls from your friends asking you to take them somewhere when you are in hot pursuit of someone and has just spooked him out. The mobile phone is as seamless as it gets. And it feels so much more natural this way. And it also brings GTA in to the modern era of brevity and quick communication.

Assassin\’s Creed: Director\’s Cut

Deep inside, we all secretly crave to be a hero. Dashing through ordinary people, fighting baddies, saving the day, being famous and of-course, the damsels in distress. And such fantasies are exceptionally high if you’re a gamer sulking in the bottom of your parent’s basement, biscuit crumbs on your chest and joystick in hand. Assassins Creed: Director’s Cut (Just a fancy name for the PC version) provides those thrifty lulls in adequate proportions enough to keep you gouged for hours. The game is obviously not without its quirks, but it sure holds a candle to its highly successful console counterparts, unlike other cheap ports (*cough* Resident Evil 4 *cough*).

Assassin’s Creed: Director’s Cut revolves around Altair, the 12th century cowboy who’s been tasked with missions to kill 9 prominent people around cities of Jerusalem, Damascas and

Acre to maintain order in the area. Our ancient hitman is donned fully in a white robe, arcane weaponry and leather boots, who’s able to climb onto any structure that has grip points protruding out more than 2 inches. The world in Assassin’s Creed has been beautifully recreated following accurate historical standards, packing a healthy dose of open-ended gameplay with jaw-dropping visuals, provided you have a powerful PC. We’re typically not graphics whores but, the whole fact that a low-end PC with limited power needs to turn off most of the bells and whistles makes us uncontrollably cringe our faces (like you do when a doctor sticks a cold needle up your bottom). The game’s main attracting point is its looks and by golly is she gorgeous!

Assassin’s Creed is intricately wound in an enjoyable narrative and layered with a complex storyline that gradually unravels itself through the course of the game. Primarily, when you get started with the game, many areas in the map (though vast) are off-limits till you get deeper into the story. One thing we came to notice is the control system of the game, which is of concern to PC gamers. The control mechanics are not as fluid as the console version and you’re invariably left with sloppy camera angles. A good measure to get rid of this is to get yourself an XBOX-360 controller and hook it to your PC for added comfort and smoother gameplay. The bustling cities you walk through are literally crowded with hundreds of NPC’s that go about their own daily duties. You will witness beggars plead to you for money, orators giving long and hard speeches, monks walking about the city in their humble posture, women carrying pots on their heads and hips and even drunks trying to pull a quarrel with you. The denizens of this ancient city give a satisfying impression of their daily existence. Whether you’re hopping through rooftops or climbing a tall structure, you’d have to be mindful of onlookers down below, lest you want your ass to be used as shooting practice by the guards. For some reason though, the guards that you will battle against are equally nimble and fragile as you, being able to chase you across rooftops & ledges, and it was one of those moments that produced the “what-the-hell” stare on our faces (so much for heroism).

The combat system is something that needs mentioning. Though its fun, simple and

addictive at first, it gets a little repetitive later on with most of you moves involving timing counter attacks. We won’t really complain about this anomalistic feature, since that’s how most slash-and-bash games tend to end up. The PC version of Assassin’s Creed boasts 4 new mission types: Rooftop race, Merchant stand destruction, informer escort and archer stealth assassination. Out of all the mentioned mission types, archer stealth assassination was the only mission that added a new flavor to the gameplay where you must assassinate a number of archers on tall buildings without being noticed. Rooftop race is like a medieval drag race where you must beat the clock from point A to B. The added missions do not justify the delay of the title for PC gamers, but the visceral improvement in visuals on the PC fronts adds seasoning to every minute of your game time.

Assassins’s Creed, without a doubt excels on the graphics frontier. Massive resolutions and true HD gameplay on the PC leave its smaller console siblings in the dust. All the eloquent

details like volumetric effects, shadows, textures and object are by far better and punchier on the PC compared to the consoles. But, all these come at a cost of system performance. Those with beefy systems will be able to absorb that true Assassin feel while others on a lower budget should be sacrificing eye candy for improved performance. Assassin’s Creed truly opens the door to DX10 splendor that will take advantage of ample processing power. Art direction is superb and this is as close as it gets to recreate ancient Jerusalem. Every shingle on a stretch of wall clearly stands out and the Altair has a prominent personality of his own.

Sound and audio are nothing short of amazing in this title and we’ve come to expect that with high budget games such as this. Conversing NPC’s, chirping birds and ranting drunkards make the overall gaming experience more enjoyable and there’s never any shortage of activity in the cities you explore. Altair’s voice acting and the occasional hush-hush of people around you triggers that excitement factor without much exaggeration.

Assassin’s Creed: Director’s Cut in our honest opinion is a very well made title that appeals to the general unsatisfiable PC crowd. The mighty mouse and keyboard combo doesn’t offer much fluidity for gameplay, just as its added missions doesn’t justify its delay on the PC. If you have a set of XBOX-360 controllers to spare, this is as good as it gets to visiting ancient Jerusalem…

World GameMaster Tournament – Day 2

It’s a bright sunny afternoon on Friday the 25th, and people are out and about in the parks, strolling through malls, or just relaxing at home after a hard week of work. But for an elite few, this is a special day – this is day two of the World GameMaster Tournament 2008, being held at Dubai Festival City. Gamers from all over Emirates have gathered to showcase their gaming talent to the eager onlookers.

The day kicked off with scores of gamers lining up at the Registration desk, anxious to show their mettle on the three games on offer – Warcraft 3, Unreal Tournament 3, and Counterstrike Source. The Counterstrike team rounds went by rather quickly, with the experienced team players swiftly eliminating their foes. The Warcraft games were also a treat to watch, as players built up their armies and re-enacted the struggle between the Alliance and the Horde. Premium sponsors Asus, Intel, and Microsoft were on hand, with Asus providing exceptional gaming PCs and laptops for the players to use during the tournament. They also had other laptops and tablet PCs on display for the public to check out.

Players of all ages and nationalities took part – some brought their own keyboard and mice, some had clan t-shirts on, while others showed up just to have some good gaming fun. By evening time, the players had been cut down to the experienced few, who waited patiently in turn to emerge victorious in the various games. Everyone who took part had something different to say about the tournament, but the unanimous comment was that more gaming tournaments were needed in the region. Well, let’s hope that they get their wish, because MEGamers will definitely be there to cover all the action!

The World GameMaster Tournament 2008 runs until Saturday April 26th, and Dubai Festival City.

Spore Demo Coming June 17

EA and Maxis today announced that a free downloadable demo and a complete retail version of the Spore Creature Creator will be available worldwide from June 17, 2008.

The Spore Creature Creator will let fans design their own creature and share it with friends. Much like the mii’s on Nintendo Wii, but on a more bigger scale. All designed creatures can be imported to the retail version of the game and should give gamers a head start.

"We are thrilled to finally be putting the creative tools of Spore into the hands of players around the world," said Will Wright, chief designer, Maxis. "The amazing creations players design this summer will help populate the game universe we all enter when Spore ships this September, so in a sense, the Spore Creature Creator is the birth of Spore."

This should be reason enough to put that inked circle around the June 17th date on your calendar.

More New Mafia 2 Screenshots

Mafia 2, a new free-roam title in development by 2K Czech revolves around a time after World War II with you playing as Vito, a war veteran. Mafia 2 is scheduled for release sometime later this year and as usual, we can’t wait for it!

THEY Gameplay Video HD

THEY is an FPS title in development for a 2009 release date, being published by IMC. Early footages from the game look gorgeous and it seems our character is fighting a trance between the real world and an imaginary dream. For now, watch the video.

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