Point Zero: Redefining Otaku

COMEX 2010 price List has been compiled by PZportal using scans from bootstrike and  vr-zone. The following table contains the prices of almost all major laptop / notebook / netbook brands that released their fliers early. The table below shows the comparison between of various offerings, with the function for you to sort according to your needs.

Click here for PC Show 2010 laptop price comparison.

Click here for COMEX 2010 External HDD price comparison.

All scans are obtained from VR-Zone / Bootstrike.

Note: Data above are collected on PC Show 2010 Day 0

Stay tune for more updates

PZ Portal had the priviledge of attending Mikuni Shimokawa’s Replay Concert live in Singapore the weekend back thanks in no small part to ANIMAX FOR THE TICKETS! COME IN TO FIND OUT MORE!

The concert was explosive in every way, shape and form. Starting at around 6+, fans like us had already gathered at Movida, St. James Power Station. When the hall was opened for entrance, the number of fans that greeted us were indeed pleasing. The atmosphere inside Movida was rather new for us at PZ Portal, many thanks to Animax again for the tickets, or we’d have missed something great.

The artiste herself gave us her all and made us all go wow. I would like to express how I felt in this concert, but I’m afraid that words alone aren’t sufficient, to make this as easy a read for you readers , the pictures will do most of the talking.

(Credits to the Mikuni Shimokawa SEA (South East Asia) facebook page)

Are you ready Singapore?!

Well, that’s about the pictures. We were pretty disappointed with ourselves for not preparing any lightsticks before coming, thankfully a couple of generous chaps from management had the courtesy to distribute some lightsticks. Of course, to top things off at the end, the artiste herself had a handshake session and an autograph session for chaps who had the decency to buy a chuck ton of merchandise. It was a good concert, and a rip-roaring good time for us here at PZ portal, and we hope she’ll be back here in Singapore for another round.

Many thanks to Animax, who had so generously offered us the pair of tickets, the anime ‘Fairy Tale’ will be broadcasted soon on Animax, and Mikuni Shimokawa herself has sung one of the ending themes for it.

This is Hakuro from PZ Portal, signing off.

Scientists using cutting-edge technology to explore waters off Indonesia were wowed by colorful and diverse images of marine life on the ocean floor…

With this, it is not surprising that you encounter a horned, 4-legged, giant eel that shoots lightning balls from its mouth when you are having fun by the sea in real life.

Hunters, ready your weapons!

Edit 29082010: It looks like a baby Rathian is found in Mexico as well:

Source: Yahoo News

So it seems that Starcraft II is the one big thing we’ve been waiting for. Since its been 12 years since the release of the first Starcraft box set. Its no wonder that anticipation, coupled with 11 million screaming fanatics could possibly be the major drive factor for Blizzard to perfect this sequel to one of the world’s most hotly played Real Time Strategy games in the history of mankind. So how does this sequel live up to all the built up hype, as well as the benchmark set by its predecessor? Lets find out.

The story of Starcraft II : Wings of Liberty takes place 4 years after the events in Starcraft: Broodwar and follows Jim Raynor and his band of scally-wags as they continue their covert war on Emperor Mengsk and the Terran Dominion. Just enough happens on Mars Sara to rile the interest of Jim to carry out a new series of operations against the dominion. Then without warning (and surprise) the Zerg show up, leading to further complications and ultimately see Raynor temporarily joining forces with the Dominion to rid the galaxy of the Zerg threat.

So we here at PZ portal have already had the opportunity to play this game. But of course we will try not to reveal spoilers if at all possible along this review. So we will begin this review of course, by justifying the graphic demands that this game presents to the current-day gamer. So what system did we use to test this game at all? Well, the answer is simple, we used mine.

PC System Test Benchmark:

Motherboard / Processor – ECS X58B-A w/ Core i7 920

Graphic Card – Powercolor HD 5850

Ram – Triple Channel Kingston 3 x 1GB Value

Hard Drive – Western Digital Caviar Green 500GB

Thats really all there is to the system. Anyway thats not the point, gradually people should learn to realize that playing top tier games like Starcraft II doesn’t require a bang-on fantastic system. A simple dual core computer should handle it just fine according to the system requirements at the back of the box set.

Basically, that is what the story is about.  Continuing the epic story of Starcraft, as mentioned Starcraft II brings us back to the dog eat dog battle between the Terrans, Protoss and Zergs.  Beginning with Jim Raynor back in Mar Sara, he meets back Tychus Findlay, an old acquaintance. To avoid having too much spoilers, I shall summarize the story. Tychus gives you the proposal of hunting and selling artifacts to the Moebius Foundation, and that these artifacts plays a very important part in the main story. Zeratul finds Jim somewhere along the story and warns Jim about the end of all things via his vision and memory. There also other side missions and some with branches for the mission, like choosing between saving a colony to clearing it, between Spectres and Ghost, etc.  Best part of the story is, you will get to return to Char. Well, thats enough of the story, for the rest, try the game yourself!

Oh come on guys, it’s obvious that the choice is to PURIFY THE COLONY right?

Interface and upgrades and hoo-ha

As compared to Starcraft, Starcraft II has many new features, etc. Gameplay is still around the same as Starcraft but there are some new features in the game. For example before every mission, you will get to move around Hyperion- after you are on Hyperion of course-(in case you are wondering, it’s the ship you are on all the time).You’ll get to talk to individuals in the ship after each mission. Around the ship is the Laboratory, Armory, Bridge and the Cantina. I will briefly run through what these places do.

Armory- Well as the name would have implied , it contains your arsenal and allows you to upgrade your units using credits (a type of points received after each mission).

Bridge- Your center of operations. Replay missions, re-watch the awesome cinematics, and get started on brand new missions right here.

Cantina- Your one stop for food and beer. Okay no. Hire Mercs(this is the new function of the game. Trust me, Mercs are very, very important.), drink beer, play music, drink beer, play arcade games, drink beer and drink beer again here. Brutally speaking Tychus Finch and Jimmy hit off on their differences here as well.

Laboratory- The place you must stop at for world domination. Upgrade and improve your array of killers and weapons right here using artifacts and research collected throughout the game(notice it’s another new feature.)

I’ll keep it until here. To know more, play the game.

Pros/Cons

Well, nothing is really perfect.

Pros

-Good storyline

-High quality graphics

-Gameplay is balanced and easy to learn

-A lot of new features in the game(oh, do check out the arcade machine in the Cantina)

Cons

-Well, as a newly released game, there is no way we can avoid bugs right?

-Wing Of Liberty campaign can be VERY easy, and I mean it. VERY easy even in brutal mode.

I’ll keep it short here. This game is awesome in many ways. Blizzard has done a GREAT job in Starcraft II and it has wowed me totally. Starcraft II is a definite must try. Soon to come would be the Heart of the Swarm, which is the next part to the Starcraft II storyline, and I hope it would be even better than this. Blizzard, thank you for making such an awesome game. To sum it up, Starcraft II gets a 9/10 for the overall from PZ Portal.