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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.
    Diamond Multimedia VC500 one touch video capture

    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 I hope its not because of my ATI HD5670 video card being too out of date.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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  • Fat Princess
    So I finally gave in, purchased and downloaded Fat Princess off PSN because I’ve been eyeing on this game since it was released. I was excited now that I finally got the game but was it worth it? I have mixed reactions about this game. Definitely not as good as I expected though!

    So immediately after downloading and installing Fat Princess, which is basically an action strategy game where there are two sides (red and blue). You can customize your character with different looks and more are unlocked as you progress in the game. The objectives are capturing the princess (capture the flag), death match. There is also a soccer x death match for online as well, this mode is pretty straight forward based on the name. You have 5 classes to choose from – warrior, ranger, healer, dark magician who can drain enemy health and the worker. The workers are necessary, in order to gather wood and minerals to upgrade the different classes’ buildings in order to unlock their upgraded classes. They also responsible for building castle doors and catapults which can launch a group of people to the enemy castle.

    I wanted to get a hang of the game first being playing online so I jumped into the single player game and played its rather short storyline which consists of 7 chapters. It was enjoyable most of the time, specially the death matches. There was one chapter that I thought was frustrating, at least playing with the AIs, the ones which you have to rescue your princess.

    Fat Princess

    I guess for now AIs are still dumb and cannot act/play like humans. Most of the time I was alone inside enemy castle trying to rescue the princess even though you are allowed to have up to 3 AIs to help you on your side. And most of the time I got killed right on the spot because either the enemy AIs just swamped me or they cake-fed the princess so much I was basically not moving at all, and then swamped by the enemies!

    In terms of graphics, its not Killzone 2 graphics obviously, it is pleasing to the eyes, cartoonish with vibrant colors. I think the blood and gory part is one of the major plus for this game. Whenever there is a battle you know there will be blood and body parts every where which is insanely fun to watch as you chop your way to your enemies!

    Without going into every single detail of the game, I’m sure this game is worth the $16 (+tax) I paid. I think its a pretty good casual game where you want to jump in when you have 30 minutes to spare. Its not perfectly for sure and hopefully we will see some expansions/add-ons in the near future, free download would be nice!

    Check out Gametrailers.com’s review: