-Im already 18(last december) and I’m already working. I say turning 18 is surprising because everything just got so hectic that It’s so difficult to manage. However, I managed to sort things out.

-Im working on a animated series for a company in the US of A which is pressuring me real hard.

-Im working on my OJT too! Finally its done by today and im just waiting for my servers in the company I work at so I can implement my work and get my grades.

-IM WORKING(again) on my thesis in which the teacher is an asshole for pressuring us to show our work on specific dates. I have no idea why is he doing this.

-Im starting to put gaming aside and focus more on working. But Ive always wanted to game at times.

All I wish is that I get a good pay, good grades and a stable life. I’ll also keep track of this blog.

-Chris

From: http://forums.purepwnage.com/index.php?showtopic=84495&pid=1599696&st=0&#entry1599696
This past weekend, on Saturday December 6th 2008, Troy Dixon lost his life in an automobile accident. All of us here are still in a state of shock and trying to cope with this unthinkable tragedy.

Once more details are known we’ll make a formal main-page announcement of this terrible news, including any ways you can support Troy’s family through this nightmare. In the meantime, please send your thoughts and condolences to Troy’s family and friends in this thread - http://forums.purepwnage.com/index.php?showtopic=84470

He is a known Icon in Pure Pwnage(actor in PP) and in Halo 3(T-Bag is his IGN). The world lost another one of the greatest gamers in the world. I recall this guy playing in Blood Gulch, he’s so polite and nice. Too bad I haven’t met him personally.

The only thing that we will be able to see him is by watching his old performances in the Pure Pwnage episodes.

R.I.P. Troy T-Bag Dixon. We will miss you in the upcoming shows.

Finest Hour refers to the “Finest Hour” after the game I’ve played reaches its conclusion. Conclusions that range from finishing the game with satisfaction, finishing half of the game yet concluding with satisfaction, not finishing the game but with disappointments and alike.

Please be aware that there are spoilers here too. Since I will most likely be summarizing my experience from the game. At the end of the finest hour, I will point out several points of pros and cons of the game.

Hello There. This is going to be my first Finest Hour article ever. Hopefully you guys will like it since this is more of a game-end review/conclusion. I’m going to make this short since there won’t be really many kewl/cool pictures here which will bore you guys on reading paragraphs. Its current status is Unfinished Yet Disappointed. Well I think its pretty obvious that its not going to be a hit ever since reviewers found the game to be below-yet-average rate.

Gameplay:

Oh the gameplay! NFS:UC is just another typical racing game you can play. Wide Roads, Highways, Skyrise Buildings, Intersections, Beaches. As far as I have played it, I haven’t ran into a drift game mode. Im sure drift has been removed but was added with more “redundant” game modes out there.

The intro to every Race you come up with is badly acted. Most of the Race intros you will see is redundant. You will see the same scenes all over and over in the race intros.

Since I haven’t played NFS:MW and NFS:Carbon, the Police Chase is pretty new to me. Its fun, thrilling, and addicting. There are missions out there that gives you several objectives in Police Chases like Disable XXX Police Cards, Cause $XX,XXX worth of damage to the state, Lose the Cops, etc. But it gets boring most of the time. The Police which is chasing you is extremely DUMB in putting your ass in jail. Which means AI in this game totally FAILS.

I mentioned about AI back there. So far all I can say about it is the same goes to the police cars. They are obviously dumb. You can outrun enemy cars before the race ends EVEN if you are +5.00(meters/kilometers/or whatever it is) away from them. The dumb AI comes with a CON with the Wide Roads. Wide Roads are easy to race, why race in these roads with dumb AI? You will always win in all of the games with this CON thus killing the spirit of Competitiveness. If you lose in any of the games, You’re a noob and You suck. GTFO.

And since you win most of the times, You earn lots of $$$. But you won’t be able to use your $$$ because most of the upgrades won’t be available too soon. You still have to race alot of times just to get those upgrades thus boring you lots of times which ends you killing yourself. (LOL, j/k)

Their Save Game Feature is pretty annoying and confusing to comprehend with. You don’t know when the game actually/REALLY saves. Sometimes closing the game properly will save your game, sometimes it wont. There was once that I raced like 20 races in a row without losing, then when I restarted the game, I lost all of those 20 races that I won. Fuck EA.

Using the debris around the Map to lose the Cops can work horribly back there. For short, everything is badly staged. When the scaffolding falls and even though there are police cars away from the debris for like 20 meters, those police cars get disabled. Even though they are far away from the debris. Police Cars that got through the debris also gets disabled.

The game itself is buggy too. I sometimes go off the map and get this:

LOL GPS Connection Lost. And take note of my 453mph and Clean Section X9

LOOK MA, MAH CAR IS DRIVIN UPSIDE DOWN.

The N20 itself can be abused too. Holding the N20 button even though your N20 tanks are empty, you still get a speed boost, in little amounts.

Again, the game modes get too boring and too repetitive. What do you expect more on EA’s racing games? More tits?

Graphics:

I have never played NFS:MW and NFS:Carbon but not NFS:Prostreet, but then as far as people says, they say NFS:UC is more of a remake of the said games with similar graphics yet with heavier system requirements. If you’re playing this game in low settings, you will notice the polygons which aren’t furnished. Of course, you’re playing on low right? But then I’m sure the game has a good impression to do at Ultra High settings.

PS: The Sun in the sky moves faster than the real life sun we have here. So don’t be surprised if its moving extremely fast.

Controls:

The controls are fine, it follows the traditional NFS control keys ever since NFS:UG. The N20 and the SpeedBreaker is booby trapped with the nearby key which is the “EA Nation” key. There are times that I get too excited to press the N20 button but the “EA Nation” pops up in the screen which is demotivating. Same goes with the SpeedBreaker button.

But what appreciates me the most is the “Tab” key. This key leads you automatically into the nearby race, whether it is a Police Chase, Outrun, Checkpoint, Sprint, Course or whatever it is. But since most of the time you win a race, it gets pretty boring and repetitive to press the “Tab” key whenever you’re done with a race.

Audio:

Not bad at all. EA always picks the right music in their games though. some of their games though. I rarely have problems with the audio too.

Conclusion:

For people who are race fanatics and are invulnerable to repetitive, grinding-like races, this is the game for you. But not just for race fanatics, this game is nice for people who just want to recreate. My family likes playing the game because its not really too hard to comprehend with(LOL NOOBS), its like a family game.

But for Pro-Gamers out there, this isn’t suggested for you. Better go back to Best Buy and have a refund of this game. But don’t forget to write down the CD-Key and mail it to me. Hahaha.

Rating: Average, (5/10)

Anyways, The BFWGaming.com LAN Party is nearing and I have only 1 week left. My rig is ready to be brought there except that I need a new video card. Fortunately, last 3 weeks an american friend of mine offered me 2 Thousand Pesos for her project. A project that’s not really hard, just a simple Macromedia Director Movie. 2 Thousand Pesos was sooo tempting so I finished it about a day. The day after, she paid me and she got her project. Wohoo! Achievement Unlocked for me. The night after that, I got a letter from my grandma from Australia. She was giving away an early Christmas for me so I got 100 Australian Dollars. So I got like 5 Thousand Pesos a day in that time. What a big present…

My target video card. A HD 4830.

So I was thinking of buying a 3870 with my current budget. But then the guys of forums.purepwnage.com suggested not to get it since it has no more driver support and its old. They suggested that I would pick up a HD 4830 so I took their suggestion. So I looked for a 4830 here in Cebu but found NOTHING.

I tried buying online and found TipidPC. Costed around 7k including Shipping Fees but is in Cash Basis. BTW, its not me that will personally but it. It’s my dad’s company that will order it and they’ll get it for credit in our supplier. Sad for me, I finally resorted on picking up a 3870 even though its OLD. But then while looking for a HD 3870 from our supplier, they say they have no stocks available and might take week or 2 for it to arrive. God, I can’t wait that long! I need the video card before Wednesday next week! It’s like all of the nicest ATi video cards here are gone!

That was depressing for me. But then dad suggested me to be a Nvidia Whore. Nvidia packs alot of punch in performance. I didn’t expect a 9800GT would perform faster than a 4830 only a little. Luckily, we have a supplier that supplies alot of XFX Video Cards. Right now its on progress for ordering one and hopefully I can have that video card real fast in my hands.

Typical Drooling Material

Imagine? XFX is the sex in most of the Nvidia Cards. And I’m picking it. This seems to be goodbye for ATi though. Just because of that DAMNED out of stock reasons and all of the high end stuff is only available at Manila. Screw Manila, This is why we can’t have nice things because they won’t give away nice things in the provinces specifically Cebu.

Alright. Hopefully I get that video card. Thanks guys for reading.

And sorry but no pictures for you guys in here. Just sharing a experience when I went to Fine Upgrades’ Office

I went to Fine Upgrades last Monday to pass our Dealership forms to them and was amazed of what was there. I decided to share it so some of you guys will have an idea what actually is in their office.

It was 12pm at SM Cebu and finished my lunch with friends. Asked for directions from my lecturers in Informatics and left SM. I took a jeepney ride that passes on Borromeo and I dropped at the Borromeo Plaza. Actually, there is no jeepney route that passes on where Fine Upgrades is located so you have to walk your way to their office. So I walked into the streets of Magallanes, making myself look unimportant so snatchers, robbers or manwhores(ROFL, Thanks Irvin for coining this term) will be discouraged on robbing me. Well if they rob me, Im always a melee guy so they better be wary.

I saw their signage and posters and I walked in. I thought what would I see ahead when I entered that building was their office. Well no, before you enter their office, you enter a machine shop and a another office which I don’t remember what it was(there were lots of paperworks lying around in there). But then the guys in the machine shop are willing to escort you into their office. It’s pretty polite though, the guy who escorted me into their office was actually wearing one of those MBM Lan Party shirts which I also had. So what came into my head is that the guy is one of the staffs of Fine Upgrades.

So the guy led me to their office and finally arrived in their office. Got a warm welcome from the lady in her desk which was the lady that I talked to when I phoned Fine Upgrades last Saturday regarding our dealership application. Well if you look around too well and read some of the stuff in there, you’ll see one of those PC Troubleshooting Flowcharts pinned in their corkboard which you can see in iStorya.net as a stickied thread.

You’ll also see some laminated newspaper articles in their walls, all about the MBM Lan Party and the first time Fine Upgrades was introduced to public. I had a little chat with the lady in the desk about those articles. Actually, I have read all of those articles but never kept them and I regret not keeping and treating those like the most precious treasures ever. Articles like when Mr. Wilson Ng’s first published that there will be a Gigantic(O RLY?) Lan Party which was the MBM Lan Party. Back when I’ve read that article, I immediately called Ngenius and NgKhai inquiring about the Lan Party. I got my tickets ahead of time back then, of course the upcoming Lan Party that time was exciting for me.

If you think that their acrylic cases are ready to use when you buy, well you’re wrong. I didn’t know that their Acrylic Cases still needs to be assembled when I saw their acrylic cases packed in “briefcase style” that is lying around in the office. Their acrylic cases don’t come assembled and packed in a gigantic box, the acrylic cases come in packed briefcase forms which is up to you to assemble. Well, assembling the casing is going to be a fun job to do. So don’t bring your woes in their acrylic casings, im even having a feeling of regret when I bought that acrylic case of mine in a chinese computer shop located at downtown cebu which was first assembled when I bought it.

You’ll see pictures of Fine Upgrades’ staff back on the COMDAPP 2008, its pretty fun to watch at the pictures. Anyways, I see that Sir Ryan is really valuing memories of his company. Good job Sir Ry, More Power to your Company
Well then after passing the dealership form, the little chit-chat, the look-around, the lady in the desk told me that I’ll receive a reply regarding the application. So I left Fine Upgrades and I was waiting for a reply. After that day, My dad got a phone call from Fine Upgrades telling that we are now a Authorized Dealer of their products. Finally we will get to sell their products on SRP though

Since we are already a Authorized Dealer, Interested people on getting their products from us can contact us on the following business details:

Company Name: Compuspec Sales and Services
Address: 279 S.B. Cabahug Street, Estancia, Mandaue City, Cebu 6014.
Phone: 346-3732 / 420-5648
Fax: 346-3732
E-mail(can contact through YM): cscompuspec@yahoo.com OR cebupwnsall@yahoo.com OR robert.zapanta@yahoo.com
Website: Still Under Construction. Im in-charge of the web development so I’ll fix it fast

Thanks vern/Redeuxx for setting my blog. My appreciation.

Okay, So I’ll start my post with my experience from sleeving my rig for the previous 4 days. Not just the experience but also a review on Fine Upgrades’(Hello Sir Ryan) Cable Sleeving Kit.

The Review - Fine Upgrades’ Cable Sleeving Kit
So this is the Cable Sleeving Kit from Fine Upgrades. Costs 390 but CBX Sold me 430. So Sad they didn’t follow SRP

I picked black and got different sizes of sleeves and heat shrinks. A problem I need to note you is that not all the heat shrinks pair up with the sleeves depending how thick the cables are in your power supply. The bigger heat shrinks won’t shrink to fit in the bigger sleeves. This means you have to buy heat shrinks of the right size for your sleeves. A meter of heat shrink costs around 20-25 pesos in electrical shops found in downtown Cebu which is enough for your shrinking needs. Sometimes a meter is too much but its worth keeping in the future. A pack of heat shrinks costs 79-94 pesos in Ace Hardware. I do not suggest buying from Ace Hardware since it is too expensive for a meter and all of it won’t be used though.

I have no problems with the sleeve sizes. One size fits all though. I have no idea whats the use of the extra zip ties but you can make use of it if you run out of heat shrinks and the heat shrink you are using is too loose. I did this on my 24-pin connector when the heat shrink didn’t shrink too well or too tight.

The Sleeving
I took off my Generic 500w PSU from my acrylic casing and started picking the pins using a pair of staple wires and mini flat screw driver. Used a masking tape to wrap the pins in their correct order. Shot a picture on the pins so the picture will remember the pin placements for me and wallah! Finished removing the pins. Sorry but I didn’t use any molex removal tools. Just purely improvised tools. As quoted by poldopunk(hello there!), “Universal Molex Removal Tools” only using a pair of staple wires and a hairpin(hahaha). But with all of the effort of removing the pins, I got injured. Got 2 cuts in my finger while removing a pin from the 4 pin connector. That injury is the price of using improvised tools rather than using the recommended tools. Bad for me but im fine

Take note of my finger that has a band-aid in it.

Three days after sleeving.

So I stuffed the sleeves into the wires and it was a breeze. I made sure I was using the right sleeve size on the wires. The first try on each of the sizes available was easy, the succeeding was annoying. Even if you burn the tip of the sleeve properly and insert the sleeves, the tip of the sleeves move away from each other and breaks away from the group of the sleeves. So be very careful on sleeving because they might screw up.

(PS: I can’t find a better way to describe it. I know a better term for that but I just can’t f*cking remember the word. Guys who can come up with a better word can mail me so I can edit it. Hahaha.)

Sleeving the shorter wires is very annoying. Just like what I’ve said ago regarding the sleeves breaking away, the shorter the sleeve you are cutting, the more susceptible it is on breaking away.

But aside from the problems of the sleeves, heatshrink and removing the pins, I got this:

It’s just beautiful to look at the sleeves. Its a repetitive work but the effort was worth it. I compared what my rig looked like before sleeving and after. I was amazed of the results. Cable Management was easier to do since the wires are sleeved. I kept the unnecessary wires behind my motherboard and my rig was so clean to look at.

This is a shot taken from behind the rig. This is what I did for the cable management:

It was nice afterall. I won’t rate the item, its just nice, really nice. Can’t say more. Ending this post now

Thanks for reading my first post! More to come!

PS: Congrats Sir Ryan on your Newborn Baby! And thanks for approving our dealership form to your company! My next post would be my experience on visiting your company

No, Just Kidding.