Recent Buys: Episode 10 - Kaioken x320gig!

My cousin just came back from America where he got a summer job so he hella rich at the moment. And with that cash we took a quick trip to Greenhills and basically burned it all in less than an hour. Mostly at just the one shop.

He went and got a metallic red 320gig PlayStation 3 Slim. We got it for 12800php (cash price) at Mr. Dynamic, the same place where I got Ziggy. Along with that he got Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 at the same shop for 1300php (cash price) and a 2nd PS3 Dual-Shock3 controller for 1800php (cash price).

We wanted to test out UMvC3 first so the game installed itself after popping the disc in so while waiting we went around GH. I spotted the D-Arts Zero Type-2 and my cousin told me that he owed me a birthday gift so he paid for most of the cost of the figure and I got myself both X and Zero, awesome stuff. Thanks Bud!

After we returned for the PS3 and packed it up, a dude saw what we were carrying and call out "sir, 2nd-hand PS3 games?" and I thought to myself "hmm.. why not look at their wares". I saw that they had a copy of Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit.

I've been looking for this game for quite some time. I've been meaning to get that, Dragon Ball Z: Raging Blast 2 and then finally Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi. I've seen Raging Blast 2 in Datablitz so that can wait and the only copies of Ultimate Tenkaichi I've seen are R1 copies so they be hella expensive. Burst limit is the only I haven't encountered till yesterday so I got the dan thing for 500php. It didn't come with the manual and the case looks to be a bit yellowed from sun exposure but the disc was still fine and runs like a charm. The game is far from perfect though and maybe I'll get to that next time.

Recent Buys: Episode 8 - Wireless PlayStation 2 USB Controller Microphone Adapter

For this episode of "Recent Buys" there is no actual videogame that was purchased however the items that were bought are mainly for my videogame antic and adventures.

Firstly the more directly videogame related item. Another one from CD-RKing, it's the PS/PS2 to USB Controller Adapter. It allows you to use a previous generation PlayStation controller on either your PS3 or PC. A friend of mine had one of these and since his PS2 controllers work on most PS3 games he had no real reason to purchase another PS3 controller for the longest time. It took me quite a while before I found a CD-RKing branch that had one of these so your quest for one may not be easy. I tested it out on Street Fighter x Tekken and it works just fine. I am sad though that it doesn't work in Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme VS. And here I thought I could get in some 2 on 2 Gundam VS. action on a budget.

As for the not-directly videogame related item, it's another microphone. To be honest I've gotten a few microphones already while searching for one that let's you actually hear me without a flood of ringing sound noise. Sure the mics I got were a little on the cheap side but finding USB mics in general seems to be a challenge for me. Maybe I'm just looking in all the wrong places. This microphone I got on impulse as I was just browsing through a shop called "The Electronics Boutique" in Robinsons Galleria. Why was I there? Well they had a wireless lapel mic set that went for only 999php which I hear is rather cheap for a lapel mic. Since my upload speed isn't grand, a more expensive better sounding mic will be a little moot. I just wanted one that could either hear the room clearly without me having to boost it to dangerous level or have one wirelessly so that I at least don't have to be right beside my laptop when I want to stream. The (I'm reading the name off the box) Trident TR-300 Professional Wireless Microphone set went for only 499.75php which was even cheaper than the set I saw previously and only needed to operate using a single AA battery for the receiver (the other needed it's own power outlet). I tested it out while playing Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and even with it boosted to +20db it sounds decent which is more than I can say for my previous microphones. I definitely still need to do more tests but for the most part I'm glad I saw this.

Here is some footage of my scrub gameplay of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 using the said microphone. The gameplay audio is a bit delayed because I was running it through VLC.

http://www.twitch.tv/acicon/b/319431000

Quantity over quality? CD-RKing PS2 Controllers

For those familiar with CD-RKing then just from looking at the top picture alone you are already shaking your heads in disapproval. Shameless, I know. But hopefully these will last me for the next 2 or so months.

If you do not know what CD-RKing then let me give you a brief explanation. CD-RKing is a computer and gadget retail shop here in the Philippines whose products go for usually a third of the price compared to leading brands. The reasoning for such a big price difference is because for the most part they use, dare I say, "bootleg"-esque quality parts. That means that though the price is cheap, the quality is very iffy to say the least. The best way to describe it is "there is strength in numbers" which is exactly what I tried to do in my situation.

I just recently got a hold of a 2nd hand original PlayStation, known also the 1st PSX or the Fat PS1. The controllers that came with work but are very beat-up with a lot of bumps and scrapes on the plastic, as if it was thrown down a rocky hill. Though my issue isn't really about its looks but the main fact that the cord is really short and that these are the pre-Dual Shock controllers meaning no analog sticks. I busted out my PS2 controllers, 1 original and 1 class-A. However, my PS2 controllers seem to have a problem. Some buttons on my original PS2 controller don't register quickly and need a really hard press before they input. The class-A one auto mashes the cross button which makes playing most games completely unplayable.

I'm a little short on cash at the moment but I wanted to get at least 1 working controller for both my PS1 and PS2. At Datablitz, a brand new PS2 controller is going for around 750php I think which does fit in my budget albeit a little tight. However due to my trip to CD-RKing first to pick up a few blank CDs and DVDs, I asked if they were still selling PS2 controllers because I was curious about their price. The clerk told me that the PS2 controllers were going for 180php a pop. My mind went blank as I was caught off guard. I then asked to look at them and saw that they came in a few clear colors aside from the standard solid black. Me being a sucker for clear colored plastic caught a glimpse of a clear blue, it was different from DiEnd (my translucent blue PS3 controller) which had a matte finish and thus produced a foggy effect. These one were in smooth clear colored plastic, similar to the ones you find on action figures. Sure they crack easy but it's not like I throw of slam my controllers around. Honestly if it were not for the clear plastic, I wouldn't have cracked and impulse bought them. After I said that I would take the blue one, I thought to myself that this is a CD-RKing product and knowing the "quality" of their products, a single controller might not even last a full month. Knowing that it had such a low price, I opted to buy another just in case. Went with a color that I haven't seen on PS3 controller which is colorless clear plastic.

I truly am a sucker for clear plastic, I even thought of having my Wii's housing changed to a clear case more than once already. Aside from the tremendously low price, I do have another good thing to say about the CD-RKing PS2 controllers, the buttons do feel better than the ones you'd find on a class-A controller which had very hard buttons. I just hope that these controllers don't decide to break on me so soon.

Recent Buys: Episode 5 - Slow motion shooting and the early days of 3D gaming

Most of them items I'll be mention in this post aren't exactly new but this isn't called "newest buys", this is called "recent buys" which the whole "recent" aspect of it applies to myself and my wallet.

I'll be going through these items chronologically since 2 of them I got almost 2 weeks ago. Those 2 would be PS3 copies of Vanquish and Just Cause 2. Vanquish is another game by Platinum Games which involved a futuristic power suit with a design that I would say resembled the suit in P.N.03, design wise, where you can power slide while jet boosting. That plus guns, right-stick aiming, slow motion powers and a lot of explosions. What more could you want?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr1RzIr0Rzc[/youtube]

Just Cause 2 was more of an impulse buy if anything. I was originally looking for a copy of Blur and hopefully a copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Blur was out of stock but they did have 1 copy of X-Men Origins however that copy had a nasty gash on the side of the disc and was still going for 700php in the shop so I decided to drop that and spotted a Platinum release copy of Just Cause 2. Back before I got a PS3, Just Cause 2 was supposed to be my go to sandbox game but DataBlitz only ever had R2 copies and the game was going for 30$ (roughly around 1300php) on PSN. This one was 700php and worked like a charm. I decided to shell out the money for it since I might not see a disc copy of that game for a while. I haven't played it yet because there's a bug in the game that forces you to both press the Cross and Circle button at the same time to confirm, jump and even grapple. This is a problem since for Asia PS3s, Cross is cancel and Circle is confirm. Apparently there's a patch online that fixes this but since I still don't have internet at home (damn PLDT) I'll put this game on the back burner and finish Bayonetta and Vanquish first.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kjs-SC70Wg[/youtube]

For those of you who don't know me personally, my birthday is coming up and friends got me a little something (Shoutouts to the iAc Ninjas). They got me a brand new copy of Battlefield 3 Limited Edition. I only played a little bit of the campaign mode which hasn't impressed me but this game is all about the multiplayer and once I get my internet back, game oooon!

Time for the biggest purchase for this episode. I've been craving to play a lot of old Original PlayStation games like the Bust A Move/Groove 1 and 2, Chocobo Racing, and especially Mega Man Legends 1 and 2. Since PSN doesn't seem to want to add these awesome games to their PS1 Classics library, might as well take matters into my own hands. I wasn't the only one who had the PS1 craze as Tupasheep was also bitten by the nostalgia bug. He did a search on http://www.tipidpc.com/ and found 2 sellers of the original fat PS1, one of which was a recent ad and the other was a fairly recent one. Both were hovering around the 2000php mark and looked to be in good condition considering it's a 16 year old system. I got mine last Saturday (3/31/2012) from the seller retrogamerPH (Kuya Ed). The controllers were a little beat up and the open button for the disc cover gets stuck from time to time but other than that the PS1 works like a charm. It couldn't read some of the PS1 games I still had but that might be the problem of the discs themselves and not the system. I need to get my hands on some other PS1 games to test it out further but other than that I at least got my Bust A Groove 2 fix over the weekend. Fever Time!

Oh and while digging out my old PS1 games, I found this. I forgot I owned one. The Original Soundtrack for the first Metal Gear Solid game.

This is the first track from the disc.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqqq8uqSDnk[/youtube]

Motal Kombat Vita Gameplay and Features

Mortal Kombat for the PS Vita just got announced a while back which surprised a lot of people since the latest Mortal Kombat is still a fairly new game. Some gameplay footage along with information about some of its new features has just surfaced and it's looking pretty good.

The Vita version will have all the characters and costumes (DLC included) from the its HD counterpart with a few obvious downgrades in terms of textures and graphics. Even with the portable downgrade, the game still looks incredible and is said to run at a solid 60 frames per second. Gameplay still looks as solid as the home console version and the new "gimmick" features that uses the front touchscreen and the accelerometer actually look fun.

Some of the new features that were revealed was an option to use the touchscreen for performing fatalities, this was not something that they needed to add but it's nice that it's in there. Another new feature that was included is a new challenge tower that will have challenges that cleverly takes use of the Vita's technology such as using the accelerometer to balance your character so that they don't fall in a pit of death, wiping the blood off the screen while in battle, or fending off incoming missiles during a heated match.

Touchscreen and accelerometer gimmicks are usually an afterthought and end up not really adding much to the overall game or sometimes even hinder the experience. NetherRealm is actually incorporating a lot of really neat ideas into this portable bloodbath and quite frankly I am excited to see what the final product will be.

Source:

Destructoid

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPV39vQIPrs[/youtube]

IGN

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdCQ_17UIzY[/youtube]