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You’ve probably seen this comparison thousands of times. And its normal to see these two games being compared over and over again as new versions come out. There are fanboys from both sides bashing each other similar to PS3 vs Xbox 360 fanboys. I originally bought Battlefield 3 because I wanted a change (been playing the MW series for more than 3 years). And just yesterday I could resist but bought Modern Warfare 3 as well after trading in another game at EB Games.

Modern Warfare 3 is nothing special on the single player side, same graphics but new story (picked up from where last game left off), weapons and its still action packed. I was able to get back in the “game” almost right away after getting re-used to the controls. I have yet to play the multiplayer but I can imagine its the same fast pace, arcade-ish feel like previous titles.

So now comes the comparison, in my opinion, there’s none. Battlefield 3 is a slower paced and more realistic first person shooter with more players, bigger maps and you can drive vehicles. On the other hand Modern Warfare 3 is faster paced and less realistic, noticeably much less recoil from firing guns. But Modern Warfare does come with zombie mode (World at War and Black Ops) and this time there’s a survival mode where you fight off waves of enemies, buy/upgrade your weapons similar to zombie mode but without the zombies. This is the one feature I’m looking forward to after I finish the single player.

I think that both games actually compliment each other because they provide two distinct styles of game play for us gamers. When you want to get totally serious, play Battlefield 3. When you just want a few quickie games then play Modern Warfare 3.

Now can we just shut up and play the games? Both are great games with their pros and cons. So in the end, you cannot argue which is ultimately better. And guess what? They are both best sellers in the first person shooting genre.

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I recently got a product from Diamond Multimedia and have the pleasure to test out one of their video capturing devices using a USB stick. They sent me the VC500, one of the two video capture products they have (the other one is VC600). Don’t be mistaken the USB stick is not your everyday USB stick where you can store data in it but rather a device that will connect your gaming console, my PS3 for example, to your PC for video captures. I will update this review as I test and play around with the VC500.

So onto the unboxing! Nice packaging by the way, to me first impression is important, call me shallow but I love products with great packaging. Obviously great looks do not necessary mean great product. Just the first impression.

The only thing you need to install are the video and audio drivers from the CD provided. Pretty straight forward just like any other hardware driver installations (mouse, video card and web cam). The part where it took me a while due to experience is getting it to work. Perhaps it took a bit longer than I expected to get it to show the blue screen that tells you that you have connected the VC500 and your source properly, my PS3 in this case. Here is their quick demo using one of the three softwares that come with the CD called ArcSoft ShowBiz:

The other thing I had to change was from PAL (by default) to NTSC_M since we are in North America and I was all set and ready to capture my first ever video from a gaming console to my PC. Unfortunately I only have HDMI or the RCA (composite) cables and no S component, the highest I got for my video was 420p. You will also notice its choppy as well as the sound and video are out of synch. I have posted a comment on their youtube video page and hopefully I get a reply regarding this. I hope its not because of my ATI HD5670 video card being too out of date.

Here is my result:

Now let’s talk about the software ArcSoft ShowBiz. So far I find it really easy to use, the only setting I had to change was the PAL to NTSC_M under Device setting -> Video decoder. All I needed to do to start recording was by pressing the red “Capture” button just below the screen. You also have the option to perform screen capture during the recording as well as going full screen. Click the same button but in green letters “Stop” to stop the recording. Video formats available are MPEG1/2, AVI and WMV.

Once I had my first video recorded, it was just a click away from uploading to YouTube. ARcSoft ShowBiz has a built-in YouTube integration so you can upload videos within the program. Unfortunately I had problems uploading to YouTube as I kept getting the error about losing internet connection, this is something I need to ask them. I therefore, uploaded manually through YouTube instead.

So far I like what I see. One small complain I have though would be the quick start guide is a bit too “quick”. If it had more info such as how to run those softwares, even just briefly, would be more helpful. It basically just tells you to run the CD and install the drivers. Another complain, a bigger one in my opinion, is that it doesn’t come with y splitters. Y splitters are to split the output to two sources. In order to play on both the PS3 and record at the same time I need to output to two destinations. It would also be great if they could include a pack of 3 Y splitters for the RCA/component cables. I still have to buy them as I am currently connecting my PS3 directly to VC500 and I was actually playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on my PC monitor.

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So as of first week of September, those of you looking for a PS3 will be able to yourselves the long-awaited PS3 Slim. The PS3 slim is packed with a 120 gb hard-drive disk, runs much more efficiently and consumes less power. That’s not all, Sony has also announced and confirmed yet another long-awaited “rumor” of $100 price cut effective now (or as of tomorrow depending on where you live). The price cut also applies to current models as well, with the 80GB being $299 and 160GB for $399.

While the slim version obviously give you a better bang for the buck but I personally prefer the original version because of its piano black finish, so no regret for me there! Besides I couldn’t have waited for 2 years anyway. But this is perfect time for those wanting one. For the price of $299, you get yourself a Blu-ray player, a next-gen gaming console with built-in wireless connection. The PlayStation 3 is ready to go unlike Xbox 360 where you have to add this and buy that, but let’s not go there. This should hopefully boost the overall PS3 sales and close up the gap among the other two consoles.

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About more than a month ago, I wrote a post about how I “broke” my PlayStation 3. My friend came over today to take it apart and we are now pretty sure what the problem is as well as the potential cause.

I found this youtube video for us to follow which I think is pretty detailed. This video basically shows you how to disassemble the PS3 as well as putting it back together. But I warn you, if you do not have the confidents and/or skills to do it yourself, I suggest you don’t and instead find someone you know to do it! I also suggest you DO NOT take it apart UNLESS it is over the 1 year warranty because disassembling the PS3 will void your warranty if you are still within that 1 year.

Opening the PS3 is actually easier than I thought, provided you have the right screwdrivers though! You will need a small “minus” sign screwdriver for the very first screw (the one behind the warranty sticker) as well as the torx 10 screwdriver for the ones inside. So we thoroughly checked and make sure it wasn’t the control arms that were causing the problem. I wish it was though, so at least we could relocate them back to their correct positions. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

At this point, we were pretty sure at least the mechanical parts were working properly, we were now stuck whether the cause was coming the Blu-ray lense or as my friend suggested, the drive controller. The drive controller is the board that lies below the Blu-ray drive (as shown in the third picture, right below the yellow warning sticker).

We then looked on ebay because I read from some forums that people are selling the complete Blu-ray rom drive on ebay for $150+USD + shipping. But they don’t include the drive controller. We thought we could swap the existing one in if indeed its the rom drive that’s causing the problem. Next we searched for PS3 drive controller and to our surprise we found someone from Hong Kong selling just the PS3 drive controller for $80+ USD. We thought maybe we should give the controller a try? Then we saw someone asking if it came with the mother board as well but the seller answered was “NO”. Then the person who asked the question said each drive controller is keyed to with a specific mother board which means you can’t just swap the drive controller. So inclusion, if you fry your Blu-ray drive’s controller, your only options are either buy a new PlayStation 3 (duh!) or send it back to Sony (will update how much once I call them on Monday). As you can see I really have no choice but to send it back after finding out how much they are going to charge me. I found a forum (I can’t find it anymore for some reason!) and the person had the same issue as me and he had the chance to talk to the technician and he said it wasn’t the drive itself but rather it was the shorted drive controller. This convinced us that should be what my PS3 is experiencing right now.

If its only your Blu-ray drive that’s not working properly I think you can still get a new one on ebay and swap out the drive controller from your old drive to the new one and it SHOULD work. I cannot be sure as I have not tested.

I hope this little blog post will help those that are in the same similar situation as me. Just try and NOT turn off your PS3 by using the power switch at the back until it shows you the red light! I hope it doesn’t happen to any one of you!

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GameTrailers.com has been showing us loads and loads of E3 trailers, teasers, game plays or whatever you call them these days none stop for the past few days. While most of them look promising, I think this one in particular shines among the rest. Mod Nation Racers is the result of combining LittleBigPlanet and one of our all time favorite, Mario kart. While there are features that will immediately remind you of Mario Kart, like the power ups and the wide range of character customizations for your racers which resemble that of LittleBigPlanet. Sometimes copying other feature from different games and implementing them into a single game might actually work, and might be the case for Mod Nation Racers.

I think one of the biggest selling point of this game is the fact that you can create your own tracks (see trailer 2), something you cannot do in the Mario Kart series. This basically translates to infinite number of playable tracks, assuming people will love this game enough to create these custom tracks similar to LBP’s levels created by the players. If that’s the case, the replay value for the game will be extremely high.

The game’s customizations, track editor and the LBP feel all contribute to why I have high hopes for this game, which I’m guessing will be released some time next year. Which reminds me I should open up my PS3 and get the Blu-ray drive checked out, otherwise I will be missing out all the great games coming up even this year!

So I was playing my favorite Call of Duty 4 on my Playstation 3 and getting pwned, all of a sudden I lost the background sound and I could only hear gun shots. It wasn’t long until it was completely silent, or near silent. I quit the game after the match was over and I couldn’t, it just froze with the black screen, the screen you normally see when you quit the game and back to the main screen. I call this the black screen of death or BSOD for the PlayStation 3.

I’ve encountered freezes before but this time it was different. The console remained in the black screen so the first thing that came to mind was to turn off the console from the back after trying to turn it off from the touch-sensitive power switch at the front. I turned it back on hoping to get back in the game but I wasn’t able to. The game would not load, as in I didn’t see the game icon in the main screen. So then I tried loading one of my Blu-ray movie discs, same thing.

With less than 2 years of game time, my PS3′s disc drive is already busted. That’s pretty disappointing. I’m going to call support tomorrow and hopefully get it fixed. I don’t care if I have to ship my console to them.

Sigh.

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I have not played the original version of GTI Club which was released back in the 90s by Konami for the arcade. I gave this PS3 demo a try and I must say the game was better than I expected. Though I still am not convinced if the full version is worth it or not. Call me cheap but I like to buy games that I think is worth buying, even if its only $9.99!

So just like the original arcade game, this HD version still have that heavy arcade feel to it, from the graphics as well as from the commentator who I find somewhat annoying. The demo is pretty short, you only get to drive one car, a Volkswagen Golfs, with the default color and race around one single map. The race is pretty short, but sweet. I actually played three times non stop. One thing I absolutely hate is the demo doesn’t allow you to restart a race, which is stupid. You have to go all the way back from the first screen, pick everything again and start the race.

 

Forget about realistic car physics, there isn’t any. You hit something? Don’t worry just keep driving. I don’t think you should care much, unlike GT5 because this is an arcade game, its no simulation. Without the real physics, its a different way of driving and boy its fun because you can go out there and drive as reckless as you want. I think that’s the beauty of this game.

During the demo play, I was able to find a short cut as well so I can only assume there will be more hidden places and short cuts for all the courses. AIs DO actually drive into these short cuts.

Even though the graphics are no Metal Gear Solid quality, it doesn’t have to be nor does it need to. I think the graphics are sharp and vibrant. Everything from buildings to reflection from the cars are nicely designed, again for an arcade game.

Again, although I won’t be getting this game, because I just don’t see myself playing this game for more than a day or so, specially with such a short demo. Another reason might be the fact that all my attention AND patience are allocated to Killzone 2 which is coming out end of Feb. But I still think this one is perfect for GTI Club fans as well as those that are looking for casual video gaming, or should I say casual video driving. Not sure how many courses there will be in the full version, there will be more cars (obviously) like Mini Coopers and Volkswagen Golfs etc. The full game also supports up to 8 players online. And there is this game mode called Bombtag which actually sounds crazy fun.

If you haven’t tried it out, get it on PlayStation Network and go for a spin!

Image Source: GameSpot

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