Tech & U: The Club

Original:

As you warm up The Club you get a distinct feeling that it's not going to be smooth sailing from now on. The Club, a game where participants are 'invited' to play the greatest survivalist game ever, is a port from the Xbox 360.

That being said, when you start the game you get some wonder screen instructions like press 'Start' to Start, press 'A' to go back or 'B' to go next. Now, we know they can't be talking to us, since us PC users don't have any Start keys and pressing the A or B key seems to do nothing.

The Club has several different types all of gameplay which are exactly the same as the Xbox 360 version. These are: Tournament, Multiplayer, Gunplay and Single Event. Tournament is bascially campaign more where you have to finish several levels in a map to unlock the next map and move on.

You are given 5 retries for each level. Failing completely will result in the end of the Tournament and you will have to start back at square one. Each level has a game type too, some levels you have to complete with the highest score possible, others are 'ironman' levels where you have to hold out until the timer runs out and others are time based.

Completing a level unlocks weapons, Gunplay and other niffty stuff. Completing the level with the largest last combo, cool kills and hidden Skullshots to earn mucho points.

Graphic wise the game is fairly slick, there is a lot of motion blur so even with the pretty graphics you won't be able to admire the landscape as you blaze through map like a hare with its butt on fire.

Sound effects sound a bit weird, like you are firing toy guns but then again since Hollywood more or less embellish almost all the gun fire effects in their movies you tend to wonder if this is what it sounds like in real life. The voice acting is very decent, well for The Secretary at least.

Overall, it is a decent game. Just think of it as a third person Burnout shooter. You basically race through the level killing everything you see. The only time you don't do this is on Siege levels. The only thing that really spoils the game is that for online Multiplayer you have to activate your Windows Live account so you can play. Which I did but apparently I can't seem to join severs even when I have extremely low pings to them (three green bars) because they seem to offline! And as to add a cherry on top of that there are very few servers to begin with! The Club really makes a nice time waster for single player play and probably if you can wing it, a good time on LAN play too which you should not need a Windows Live account to use.

Title: The Club
Publisher: SEGA
Developer: Bizarre Creations
Availability: New Era Interactive Software Sdn Bhd
Suite 27-02B, 27th Floor Menara Keck Seng
203 Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: (603) 2143 1332 Fax: (603) 2143 1330
Email: junking.my@neweraint.com
Website: http://www.neweraonline.com
RM159.90

Package: 1 Manual, Game DVD, Bonus DVD (contains 2 demos and behind the scenes video).

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

CPU Speed: Intel Pentium 4 2.0Ghz / AMD
Athlon XP 2000+ processor
RAM: 512MB system RAM
Video Card: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible
64MB video card with latest manufacturer
drivers (see supported chipsets below)
Hard Drive: 2.2GB of uncompressed free hard
drive space
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2000 or
XP with latest service pack installed
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (included on disc)


Our Verdict: 3 1/2
Documentation: 4
Graphics: 4
Sound: 4
Replay Value: 3

Tech & U: Garden Defense

I really love this game :)

Original:

Fancy a easy game that you can get into but is really addictive? Here is a kicker that you're never expect that will keep you glued to your PC for hours on end. Garden Defense, is a simple game, it's basically a shooter where you have defend your flower patch (garden) against invaders (pests) with strategically place turret defences.

So I started out the game with a path which the pests will take to my Darling's flower patch. To defend them at all cost I have to place turrets to kill these pests. Your turrets can either be modified garden decorations built by 'Dad' or specially trained plants by 'Mom'. There are several types of turrets available, all purpose shooters that can target air and ground units, anti-air and delayers. The first two are easy to understand but delayers may need a little explaining. Delayers slow down and can even damage attacking pests. And there both air and ground varieties so spend your money wisely early in the round not that you have enough shooters to gun flying pests.

Killing this pests gives you cash for purchasing and upgrading your defences and completely defeating a wave of pests gives you skill points which you can use to upgrade your defences past level 4.

The game itself is very simple but the units are all nicely animated in the game. The music sounds like the cheesy stuff you hear on game like Monster Rancher (PS1). There's even cutscenes with voice overs!

If you like these type of turret shooters you'll love Garden Defense. You can buy it to play more, which will set you back USD19.99 or play it for free from http://www.iwin.com/download/1735447108562346727/garden-defense-game but that install program is questionable. Best is to try the demo from http://www.ausgamers.com/files/details/html/34032 where you get 60 minutes of play. The demo gets a 4/5.

Game
Garden Defense

Genre
Shooter

Publisher
iWin

Requirements
Windows 2000/XP/Vista
80MB Hard Drive Space
256MB System RAM
DirectX 8.1 or higher
Accelerated 3D Graphics Card

Size
54.3MB

Download
http://www.ausgamers.com/files/details/html/34032

Tech & U: Crash Time

Original:

Imagine this, while sitting in a smoke filled room with 29 other game designers you suddenly hear someone shout, “I got it! What about a Burnout game but you're the cop instead?!”

Brilliant. And that what Crash Time sums up to. A Burnout copycat but you're a cop chasing baddies so it's all good. All damage to private and public property, put it on the gov's tab.

The missions in the game start of with little to no information on what you really need to do to finish the mission just what the mission is. Which in this game is basically one of the following, go fast, go fast and trail that car, go fast and nail that car against anything in the area, go fast around the city or the Autobahn to beat the clock and lastly which you a lot on the game's box is jumping over stuff.

An example of this is the first mission, which I couldn't figure out how to finish until I read how one reviewer did it. You are suppose to race this guy, catch him and stop him. Since, I am not a Cop I didn't know the correct procedures to actually stopping a suspect's car in a high speed chase. So after bumping his rear end a few times I stopped the game, hopped on the net, read the review and finally managed to sandwiched him. I am sure there are other ways to win this mission type but I kind of lost patience after a while.

So while trying to apprehend this law breaker I was treated to the game's graphics and physics. And I must say the graphics in the game are highly detailed. There is a lot texturing for buildings, trees and what not. Which really helps bring the feel of being in Germany to the player.

The cars are 'rips' off real cars and since the game doesn't have the licence to show the logos of any actual big names they all have the same logo on them, C11. But even being 'rips' you can easily identify a few names like Mercedes and BMW. The cars are rendered lovingly in the game, there is a lot a lighting and shadow effects as well a reflections giving the cars a really good realistic feel. And to top it off you yourself can render these works of art to pieces as you race through the mission.

But there are a few annoyances in the graphic of the game, you get odd clipping effects like when driving through grass and of course a major concern is the lack of bystanders in the game. There is absolutely not a single person in the game. The only way you know there are people in the game are the moving vehicles but other than that, not a soul around. Of course, being that this is a German made game I know there are laws in Germany about violent content and having a game that deals with high speed chases putting pedestrians in may cause some problems for the game developers especially when the player hits them (or even if they auto dodge your car it will be still deemed too violent).

The voice acting is bad. It is really very typical of the type of voice acting you'll see in english dubbed german tv shows. The sound effects are up to par with all racing games and the background music pretty much goes unnoticed when I play.

Overall, it's not a bad game. There are quite a few things about the game really makes it stand out as really good 'racing' game once you get past figuring out what you have to do. If you are a Burnout fan or someone that is looking for a racing game that lets you take action from the point of view of a cop you'll probably like this game a lot. Oh, if it didn't come through earlier, the game's graphics is really brilliant, if you want eye candy above anything else Crash Time has it.

Title: Crash Time (Alarm for Cobra 11: Crash Time)

Publisher: RTL Playtainment

Developer: Synetic

Availability: New Era Interactive Software Sdn Bhd

Suite 27-02B, 27th Floor Menara Keck Seng
203 Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: (603) 2143 1332 Fax: (603) 2143 1330

Email: junking.my@neweraint.com
Website: http://www.neweraonline.com

RM129.90

Package: 1 Manual, Game DVD.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:

Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or better or Vista 32bit

DirectX 9.0c (June 2007)

Athlon XP / 64 3000+ or Pentium IV 2.4 GHz or better

512 MB RAM

DirectX 9.0c compatible video card with at least 256 MB

DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card

4.2 GB free hard drive space

2x DVD ROM

Our Verdict: 3 1/2

Documentation: 2

Graphics: 5

Sound: 3

Replay Value: 4

Yes, I am an asshole.

I know I haven't updated the site but I wanted to do quite a few things. None the less here are some updates.

MGS PC

Malaysian German Society of Penang or MGS Penang ask me to come up with a cheap PC in a budget range of RM1000 to RM1200. So after looking through Lowyat.net Garage Sales forum I decided to get a new system for them since it would be actually cheaper. Only the only part that was not new was the HDD which came from me.

When I went to get the final quotation after a 2 days from the request the CPU which I wanted, the AMD LE 1600 for RM153 was out of stock. Luckily, the price dropped down for the LE 1620 so I got it at the same price as the LE 1600. The motherboard also dropped in price from RM185 to RM175.

The specs:

RM153 AMD LE 1620 2.4ghz
RM175 Biostar NF61S-Micro
RM69 Kingston 1GB DDR2 667mhz
RM80 Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM IDE
RM95 Samsung 20x DVD Burner
RM510 15" ViewSonic VA503E LCD
RM150 Colorsit mATX casing
RM50 Labour/Service Charge

Parts bought from Skygate Technology, Prangin Mall, Penang. 04 261 2018



The front of the casing. The power button is surrounded by a blue LED glow with a red LED for HDD activity.



The innards. It was assembled by Skygate, Prangin Mall, Penang and the software was installed by me. The cabling was also done by me.