Waukster Online

I’ve been wanting the iPhone for several months now but my craving finally died down when I saw the latest phone being offered by Sony Ericsson. The SE Xperia X1 is a mix of both style and function and while it doesn’t have Nokia N95’s 5 Mega Pixel camera, it’s definitely 300% more sezzier. Product specs and my initial impressions on this gadget after the jump.

Here are the specs and price as published on the Pinoy Tech Blog:

# Nine customisable desktop panels
# A stylish arc slider design and premium metal casing
# Intuitive touch screen interface
# DVD-quality video playback
# Full QWERTY keyboard
# 3” Wide VGA display
# Integrated 3.2 megapixel camera
# Push Email
# 3G and WiFi Connectivity
# Windows Mobile 6.1 inside

The unit will sell for P42,500. Yawza. Kinda expensive! It actually costs more than Apple’s iPhone 3G. Personally… I find this to be my new dream phone. It has better features than the iPhone and it actually looks better! This is just my personal opinon though - I know a lot of people here are Apple fanatics, haha!

Anyway, Yuga wrote a full length review on this phone. You might want to go to his blog and read it.

Tags: Sony-Ericsson, Xperia-X1

According to a study conducted in the United States by Magid Associates, consumers under 35 years old are shifting from TV to the internet for their leisure time and entertainment. In the study, 92% of all internet users use the internet at least once weekly for entertainment purposes. This is a mix of surfing, online gaming, e-mail, and other activities on the web. Because of this, around 35% of them end up watching less TV. This is the scenario in the United States, how about the Philippines? My thoughts after the jump. By the way, feel free to leave a comment and discuss.

“Many consumers are reporting that new media is cannibalizing their viewing of TV. This self-reported reduction of TV viewing is across a broad range of Internet users, including those who watch online video, use social networks, and otherwise use their PCs for entertainment,” according to the analyst. Online gaming is another entertainment favorite, he suggested.

I will agree that the internet is grabbing a lot of time from existing internet users. I myself rarely watch TV anymore since I would rather download stuff and watch them on my own time or just surf Youtube for random videos. I also still play a lot of online games like Grand Chase so that also takes up a significant amount of time that I would have normally used in watching TV. In fact, one habit I have is I like to have multiple episodes to stack first so I can just watch them all in one sitting as opposed to watching one episode per week.

However, I don’t think it’s one the same level or scale as the US. The internet infrastructure here in the Philippines still needs a lot of improvement. While the quality is something that is up for debate, it’s good to note that SMART, PLDT, and all the other telcos have been pushing aggressively to give affordable and convenient internet access to the Filipino consumer.

How about you guys? Has internet usage taken time away from TV?

I watched Twilight last night with my girlfriend Mich and a couple of her friends from ABS-CBN. Like what I said yesterday, I was really excited for this movie but I was also kinda doubtful that they could make the movie better than the book. To some extent, I was right. Nothing beats reading the novel because there are a lot of parts in the book that is really hard to translate on the big screen. My personal review after the jump.

Expectations: Bella and Edward Come to Life!
My main motivation in watching the movie was to see the characters of the book come to life. I know that a lot of people were actually against Robert Pattinson as Edward but I think he actually did a good job. Though some critics called his acting a bit bland - I think those critics are not readers of the book at all. Edward was always dark, mysterious, calm, and cool in the book and I believe that it was replicated on the big screen.

Kristen Stewart as Bella was also believable if I would base it on the book. She was just your normal girl who happened to fall in love with a vampire. I can’t believe though how aggressive she was when she was kissing Edward (hahaha). Talk about a girl who knows what she wants!

As for the rest of the cast, I think they all did a fine job - especially Carslie Cullen. When he came on screen, I think all the girls in the movie house reacted. The crowd actually responded more to him than to Edward!

My Favorite Parts: Bella Meets Edward, Their First Kiss, & the Last Fight
I have 3 favorite moments in the movie. The first was when Bella meets Edward in the Biology Class. Robert Pattinson really captured the moment well here with his acting. In the scene, an electric fan (lol) blows a gust of wind at Bella letting Edward catch her scent which drives him crazy. The second was their kiss, which I already talked about in the previous paragraph. The best part for me though would be the fight against James in the end. The way he stalked Bella, broke her leg, bit her, and how Bella screamed and reacted to the venom was just surreal.

Why the Book was Better
I really believe that the book was better, and I know a lot of people will agree with me on this. The beauty of the book was the fact that the author wrote it in such a way that the highlights were actually what the characters thought to themselves. This is really hard to put on the big screen. There were several parts in the movie where the characters would be silent and just look at each other. If you’ve read the book, you would understand and appreciate this but if not then I don’t think you would.

Over-all the movie was okay, but it didn’t blow me out of my seat. It had it’s faults but for me, someone who has read the book and is a fan of the novel, I can definitely say that I enjoyed it and it was worth the 150 bucks for the movie ticket.

Sony released a set of posters and a trailer for their upcoming Terminator: Salvation movie. I’m not so sure if a lot of you guys here are part of the “Terminator Generation” but to those that are part of it, this movie is about what happens to the war with John Connor in it (played by Christian Bale). While I’m not a big fan of the original Terminator series, I think I’ll end up watching this since I’m really curious as to how this all ends. Here’s the poster pictures. Really catchy if you ask me.

Some information on Twilight the movie and Transformers 2 after the jump!

Transformers 2 is one of the most anticipated sequels. Not much news has been released about this movie but there are dozens if not hundreds of fan-made trailers already on the internet. I found this gem of a video on Youtube. It’s labeled as the movie trailer for Transformers 2, with almost 6,000,000 views. Watch it, and be amazed.

And last but not least, Twilight. I’m going to watch the movie tonight with my girlfriend. Personally I just want to see the book translated on the big screen. I want to see Edward and the rest of the gang moving and talking as opposed to just reading them in the book. Unless the actors are insanely bad, I don’t think I’ll end up disappointed. I’ll write a review when I get back and hopefully post it by tomorrow. Since we’re on the topic, you guys might want to know that the sequel to Twilight, New Moon, is already going to push through. The stars will be getting a major pay raise due to the success of the movie which has been shown in the US since last weekend.

Rohan Online, the latest MMORPG that Level Up will publish in the Philippines, launched their teaser website. You can actually find links to it all over our web real estates. The website has several trailer videos, an insider development blog, and several articles on the top features being offered by the game. If you haven’t checked out he site yet, then I suggest you hop on over there.

Thanks to everyone who welcomed me back in my other post. Anyway, let’s kick things off with an update on Level Up’s latest game, Grand Chase! To those who don’t know, Grand Chase is now one of the most played games among the titles being offered by Level Up. It’s a great and simple fighting game that has taken the country by storm. For Grand Chase, we have tons of new game contents that we’re releasing in the coming weeks. Today we’re coming out with the 1st job class of Elesis - the Spearman. Check out the picture above if you want to get a better idea of what I’m talking about.

But wait! There’s more! We also have a cash top-up bonus for Grand Chase. This is a limited promo that we’re running starting today and I hope that you guys make the most out of it to buy whatever it is you want to buy in the shopping mall. You get “more bang for your buck”. Here’s the updated chart:

To celebrate Elesis’s 1st job, we’re also launching several events and promotions. For more details on them, please don’t hesitate to visit the official Grand Chase Philippines website.

Hi everyone! First, let me apologize for not being able to post this weekend. I’m actually on leave from work since Friday and I just got back to Manila this afternoon. I just wanted to make this post to inform everyone that I’m online again and I’ll be posting starting tomorrow (Tuesday). Expect alot of updates and posts on the latest movies, anime, and games. Regular posts again daily. Wauks out!

I’ve read all 4 books of the Twilight series written by Stephanie Meyer and this has gotten me pretty excited for the upcoming Twilight movie which is scheduled for showing in the Philippines next week. My girlfriend and I already got advanced tickets to pre-shows since we’re both avid fans of the book. I really have high expectations for the movie and I hope it doesn’t disappoint. I just wanted to ask if any of you guys have read the book and if are you planning on watching the movie? If so, feel free to leave a comment on this post. Would love to hear about your expectations and feedback on the movie/book. Cheers!

Who here is a fan of Star Trek? I never was really a huge fan of the series but I found myself watching several episodes during the KIRK-SPOCK era. I didn’t bother watching all the other new incarnations of Star Trek after that. Anyway, it looks like the old is new these days and they’re coming out with another Star Trek movie using a different cast and much more advanced special effects. JJ Abrams will be the man behind this and I wanted to share with you guys the latest official trailer. Check it out after the jump.

So what do you guys think about this movie? Will it be worth the theatre house movie ticket? Or will this be another Dragonball?

Credits for this goes to Slash Film, my favorite movie blog. I recommend you guys check their site out. It’s really cool.

Nice Mount. Screeshot by MMOSITE

Rohan Online, the latest MMORPG that will be brought to the Philippines by Level Up, is now currently in internal testing. I don’t have definte dates yet on the Closed Beta schedule but I’m sure that it will be announced pretty soon. I’ve tried the game myself and it looks like this game will really take the country by storm. The graphics are good and the game play is really innovative and fun. PVP-fanatics will find this game to be one of the most hardcore fight-centered game eveeeer. Anyway, I have the PC requirements and I’d like to share with everyone today. Check them out after the jump! Thanks to GM Tristan for this information.

Minimum Requirements

- Operating System: Windows 2000 SP4 or Windows 98 SE
- Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.4Ghz or higher OR AMD Sempron 2.0G or higher
- RAM: 512 MB
- Video Card: 128MB minimum. Gforce FX, Radeon 9600 or better.
- Sound: AC ‘97 compatible
- Direct X: version 9.0c or higher
- Hard Disk space: 6GB free

Recommended Requirements

- Operating System: Windows XP SP 2, Windows 2003 SP 2
- Processor: Intel Pentium D 915(2.8Ghz), AMD Athlon64-X2 3800(2.0Ghz) more
- RAM: 2 GB or more
- Video Card: Geforce 6×00, Radeon x600 more (256MB or more)
- Sound: AC ‘97 compatible
- Direct X: version 9.0c or higher
- Hard Disk space: 6GB free

Basically you need a PC that can run RF. Probably in the P15,000-P25,000 price range.

Last week we had a major update for our online racing game, Crazy Kart. Several new racing carts were added in the item mall and all of them had really crazy and fun designs. One actually looked like a gigantic tank - compelte with the gun in front, hahaha! Anyway, check out the list of items released after the jump.

Karte De Guerra - Ang Kart na kinakatakutan ng mga ibang racers. Who would want to go up against a speeding tank?

Daddy Long Legs - The next evolution in all terrain kart technology. Ang Daddy Long Legs ay tiyak na papatok sa mga mahihilig dumaan sa tabi tabi.

Boat Kart - Ang Signature kart ni Zode. Ang Boat Kart ay dating pirate ship niya na coverted for Crazy Kart action!

Kalesa - Gamit ang kart na ‘to, tiyak na mapapakita mo ang iyong style! Nothing beats the fine lines and antique flair of the Kalesa Class.

Add new and wacky bling bling to your crazy karts to make it look crazier!

Mumu Ball - Kikilabutan sa takot ang mga naiwanan mong kalaban. With the Mu-Mu accessory pcyche out your opponents even before you beat them!

Carp Streamer - Ang Carp Streamer ay sinasabi na swerte sa mga gumagamit nito. Malas naman ang makakakita nito sa harap nila dahil ibig sabihin naunahan na sila.

Bantay - Ang loyal na doggie na si Bantay ay nandito para siguraduhin na hindi mananakaw ang kart mo habang naka-park. Bantay will surely melt your heart.

And pimp your ride to look funny, wacky and cute with these new kart paints:

Puppy Paint - Gawing mas adorable ang Pinak Benz gamit ang napaka-cute na paint theme na ito.

Castle Paint - Kung sa tingin mo bigatin na ang Bakal Express, subukan mo gamitin ang Castle Paint scheme at gawing bato at semento ang kart mo!

Tiger Cub Paint - Ilabas ang wild side! Gamitin ang paint scheme na ito at tiyak na mas babangis ang iyong Red Devil ATV!

Lion Paint - Gamitin lang ang Lion Paint scheme at tiyak di lang basta hari ang tingin sa ‘iyo, hari pa ng daan!

Athletic Shoes - Isa pang unique na paint scheme para sa Pinak Benz. Gamit ang Athletic Shoes paint, tataas ang traction ng Pinak Benz (may libre pang air freshener para hindi mang-amoy paa.)

For more information, please visit the Crazy Kart website.

The Grand Chase Open Beta officially closed yesterday and we’re now in the commercial launch phase! As of around 4:00PM today, servers went up and the item mall is now open! Tons of new items sets, consumables, buffs, and even the quest scroll for Rohan is available in-game through the mall. Rohan, btw, is our first male character and he’ll be available for both cash points and GP. You can either grind for the GP and do the quests to unlock him or you can just buy him outright. To celebrate Ronan’s debut, we’ve also lined up several in-game events and promotions for him.

Ronan Cash Scroll Promo
Unleash Ronan Events
Commercial Service Celebration Event

Just click the links for more information. :)

Here’s a video preview of Level Up’s latest MMORPG - Rohan Online. This is courtesy of our good friends from Hackenslash, the official gaming website of Inquirer dot Net. In this interview, Alex Villafania talks to one of our Business Development Officers - Chase. You might recognize him from some of the video trailers that we’ve done especially for the gamer sim. He also served as a Game Moderator for Perfect World and Community Manager for RF Online before moving on to Business Development. Chase, together with GM Tristan, will be spearheading the Rohan Project. In the interview, you’ll see Chase give a brief demonstration of Rohan as well as discuss the interesting features of the game. Watch it after the jump!

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Again, many thanks to Chase, Mon, and Alex. Good luck with the game launch guys!

The Philippine Ragnarok Online server merge is still on-going and we have our ICT staff working with several Gravity server and database engineers. As per the latest announcement posted on the website, there is no definite timeline yet on when we can have the servers up and running due to the complex process that the merger entails. The team obviously encountered problems but I’m sure they’ll be able to resolve it pretty soon. Anyway, that’s the bad news. The good news is that the Ragnarok Team has decided to slash the subscription rates of the game. Check out the new prices and a copy of the official announcement after the jump.

Citizens of New Chaos,

We’re making good on our promise. To make the transition to New Chaos (the amalgamation of Baldur, Tyr and Freya) easy and fun for everyone, we’re offering new and affordable subscription rates for everyone. See details below

Promo Duration:

November 14, 2008 to December 14, 2008 only

Eligibility:

New Chaos residents only

Promo Mechanics:
Load up 75 game credits and get 4 days FREE unlimited gametime.

20 PESOS = 3 HOURS
50 PESOS = 3 DAYS UNLIMITED
75 PESOS = 1 WEEK UNLIMITED
250 PESOS = 1 MONTH UNLIMITED

Check the official Ragnarok website for more details on the server merge status. Hopefully it will be up really soon.

Grand Chase will be launching it’s commercial service on November 18, 2008! What does this mean? Well basically it just means that we will be opening the in-game item shop to everyone. You will be able to buy item sets, weapons, and various consumables. We will also be introducing a new character into the game - Ronan! It’s the first male character of Grand Chase Philippines so I’m pretty sure a lot of people will be clamoring to get him in their stable. Other than that, note that we will also be adding new maps and increasing the level cap to 40. Anyway, I re-posted the Grand Chase FAQ after the jump. Check it out!

Grand Chase Commercial Service FAQs

Q: What’s the difference between OBT and Commercial Service?
A: OBT or Open Beta Testing is a stage where all players can try out the game and help the Grand Chase team find and fix bugs and errors. Commercial Service is the stage where Grand Chase is officially launched. This is also the phase wherein the Item Mall and latest content is released.

Q: What do we do if we encounter these bugs and errors?
A: File a ticket at www.support.levelupgames.ph or email the screenshot and complete details to play-grandchase@levelupgames.ph.

Q: Kelan po ang Commercial Service stage?
A: November 18, 2008. 2:00 pm

Q: Will our OBT accounts / characters be erased in preparation for Commercial Service?
A: Nope. No accounts / characters will be erased.

Q: Wala po akong Grand Chase OBT account, newbie po ako. Paano po mag-register?
A: You can simply register at the myLU QuickReg site, or if you already have a myLU account, simply create a game account at your myLU account.

Q: Hindi po ako CBT or OBT player and I have never tried the game. Where can I get an installer?
A: You can go to your favourite internet café and request for a Grand Chase installer, you can also download Grand Chase at the Grand Chase website.

Q: I’m an OBT player, do I need to uninstall my current GC Client and get a new installer?
A: Nope. You don’t need to uninstall your clients. Your clients will automatically patch / update once Commercial Service is implemented.

Q: GM, ang tagal mag download ng patch for Commercial Service!
A: Relax lang~ Since it’s the start of Commercial Service, a lot. and we mean A LOT of players are downloading too. Just sit a while and browse through the Grand Chase website or meet and greet new friends, get some tips and tricks from Grand Chase pros and join Guilds at the Grand Chase Forums. You’re patch downloading will be finished in no time.

Q:. Will there be any new characters coming out during Commercial Service?
A: Uyyy excited! Tingin ka sa taas for clues! =D

Q: How about new maps, and cash items? When are they coming out?
A: Ellia Continent, New Maps and cash items are coming out at the start of the Commercial Service, November 18.

Q: Will there be an increase with the Level cap?
A: Yes. Level cap will be increased to 40 on November 18 as well.

Source: Grand Chase Website

See you guys in-game!

I’m currently using a Nokia N95 8GB phone. The unit is really functional and I use it a lot since I take a lot of videos and pictures with it. This is evident with my Flickr photo gallery and my own Youtube channel. When Nokia released the E71, I was really tempted to get one but it was too pricey. It’s not really a media phone but it really looked nice and the features were more for businessmen and working people. It was a mini-PDA turned phone and I’ve been itching to get something like that for sometime now. However, it was too expensive. It’s a good thing though that Nokia noticed this and did something about it! The new Nokia E63 is very much like that E71 but it’s more affordable at only P13,000-P15,000. Phone features after the jump.

* HSDPA 3.6 Mbps
* 2.36 inches screen (320×240 pixels)
* 110 MB internal memory
* 128 MB SDRAM Memory
* ~2MP camera
* ARM 11 369 MHz processor
* WiFi 802.11 b/g
* Bluetooth 2.0 A2DP
* Full QWERTY keyboard

Not bad if you ask me. The memory needs some upgrading but then again you won’t really use this phone for pictures and video captures. I hope that this unit lives up to the Nokia brand and it won’t hang every now and then like the units being offered by Samsung.

Grand Chase, the latest online fighting game by Level Up, is having another weekend of EXP/GP bonus on November 14 - 16! This is in line with our Open Beta Celebration and our thank you as well to the growing Grand Chase community. Note that we still have a lot of on-going events for Grand Chase and most of them just require you to log-in and play for a few minutes. There are various in-game item rewards which you can fully take advantage of.

If you still haven’t played Grand Chase, this weekend would be a really good time to start! The EXP/GP bonus will help you catch up to the rest of the gamers who are already enjoying the most kick-ass online fighting game in the country. You can download the client and register by going to the official Grand Chase website.

We’re also gearing up to go on commercial soon and we’ll be releasing a new character by then. Wait for further announcements on that one. Cheers!

I was surfing Youtube for videos uploaded about Level Up Live 2008 and I’ve found a lot already! I thought I’d share with you guys the performance of Master Diwa at Level Up City. To those who weren’t there, Level Up City is basically a huge area dedicated to guild-sponsored booths. Diwa had his booth with the PRO VALKYRIE forums and his main attraction other than selling home-crafted Ragnarok weapons was live performances of various Ragnarok themes using his violin. Here’s a quick 12-second video of him performing the ever-so-famous Braggi’s Poem piece.

Check out one more video of him peforming the Prontera theme after the jump.

Good job on this one Diws!

This is definitely an innovative and fun way of promoting the item mall feature of Philippine Ragnarok Online. Here’s the RO Team’s take on what home tv shopping would look like if it were applied to online gaming. Props to GM Fynris for agreeing to do the voice over for the 1st episode. I’m pretty sure that you guys will see more of her in in-game and real life events that we do. Anyway, enjoy the video!

Gaming is a big business here in the Philippines - and I’m talking about not just online gaming, but LAN games and consoles as well. It’s no surprise that we regularly send competitors to the annual World Cyber Games which is sponsored by Samsung. We sent several teams to compete in various games this year including Warcraft 3, Counterstrike, Guitar Hero, and Command and Conquer 3 in hopes of bagging medals for the Philippines. Hackenslash recently reported the performance of team Philippines. Check it out after the jump.

RP bets bow out early in WCG 2008 Finals
11/10/08
Posted under Competitions, World Cyber Games

By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.NET

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ top gamers fought but checked out early in all of the games at the World Cyber Games 2008 in Cologne, Germany, according to the game’s official website.

None of the Filipino video gamers were able to break through round 16, just three steps closer to the championship finals which was held November 10.

The eight-man Filipino team joined four of the 14 games included in the WCG 2008. These are the PC games “Command and Conquer 3,” “Counterstrike 1.6” and “WarCraft III: Frozen Throne.”

The country also sent one player for the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

Nevertheless, the Filipino gamers did manage to win a few rounds early on before facing more formidable players.

The Philippines’ Command and Conquer 3 player John Raymond Tan won three rounds and lost two.

Guitar Hero III player Rafael Formoso had three wins and three losses, while WarCraft III player Frederick Pe had one win and five losses.

The Philippines’ Counterstrike team Horsemen of the Apocalypse (HoA) won twice and but lost three times. HoA has been a returning Philippine champion since 2005, though it has yet to win a medal.

Tan, Formoso and Pe are first-time participants in this international competition. The five-man HoA is composed of Gary Guevarras, Arvin Agbisit, Jupiter Mars Gaboy, Paolo Miguel Nacho, and Erwin John Clores.

Champions for some of the WCG-sanctioned games have been announced. Champions include Netherlands’ Manuel Schenkhuizen for WarCraft III; Denmark’s mtw.AMD [spelled as is] for Counterstrike; German Pascal Pfefferle for Command and Conquer 3; British George Boothby for Guitar Hero III.

The full list of winners is available from the official WCG website.

Still a good effort guys! Hope to do better next year.

Tags: World-Cyber-Games-2008