New War For Fighter Aircraft Fans

Growing up I’ve always been fascinated with airplanes and enjoyed going to just about every air show that graced our islands. Naturally my love for video games pointed me to flight simulators of all sorts, and when the first Ace Combat came out many years ago, I jumped on the opportunity to play it and fell in love with the Ace Combat series ever since.

About a month ago, Bandai Namco Games released its latest in the franchise, Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. It pushes you back 15 years back in time from events of the previous Ace Combat 5 (released over a year ago) and reveals the actions that led up to the last chapter of the game. The gameplay for Zero is about the same as far as graphics, and some of the maps look similar, but it still kept me entertained and in front of my PlayStation 2 for hours and hours.

The single player mode (campaign) alone will keep you glued as it consists of about 20 missions. You can always go and replay from your saved points, but once I was done with those, I’ve been playing dogfights with my husband, There is unfortunately no online multi-player mode available. The campaign missions seem to go by faster than the ones in previous Ace Combats, but if you happen to crash and burn or are shot down, not that I did . . .all that much, then you have to go back and start not only that mission, but a few previous missions too. That can be slightly frustrating. At the end of each mission you have the option of watching the replay of your sortie and also your flight route. I enjoy this part, especially if I was playing my husband. We can sit there together and watch all the missiles I popped off at him as he frowns.

Another one of my favorite aspects of the game is the fact that it contains a variety of real world aircraft with accurate details. You can fly just about anything from the classics F-15C Eagle, F-15E Strike Eagle, F-16 Fighting Falcon and F/A-18C Hornet to the cutting edge F/A-22 Raptor or F-35, and many more. As with the other Ace Combats, controlling your aircraft is simple while keeping it realistic. It also includes three different views (cockpit, heads-up display and external) to break the monotony.

If you are a big fighter aircraft fan like I am, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. If find this game plays an educational role if you just want to learn more about aircraft, since it’s fairly accurate. It is available only on the PlayStation 2 for $39.99 at your nearest Gamestop or CompUSA.

Sony @ E3

I finally had the opportunity to test out the PlayStation 3 (PS3) along with Sony’s entire lineup of yet to be released games (on all platforms). The PS3 graphics were amazing, and the new PS3 controller was interesting. The Sony PS3 will be available on November 17, 2006 and will cost $499 for the 20GB hard drive model or $599 for the 60GB version. They both will be Blu-ray capable and include the new PS3 controller.

The new PS3 controller is similar in shape to the old PlayStation you’re used to playing with. It has a motion sensing system that gives you the capability of intuitive gameplay. The three-posture-axis of roll, pitch and yaw can be detected with your movements in real-time. This is similar to what the Nintendo Wii can do, but not quite as interactive. The DUALSHOCK vibration feature from the old controllers will be removed since it interferes with the sensor, and the shape of the L2/R2 buttons (located on top of the controller) have been enlarged. This Bluetooth controller can also be swapped seamlessly anytime from wireless to wired and it can be charged automatically.

Some of the PS3 games that caught my eye were Formula One 06 (Racing), The Eye of Judgement (Live Puzzle – an interactive way to play a card game using the next generation camera), Heavenly Sword (Action-Adventure), MotorStorm (Racing), Resistance: Fall of Man (First Person Shooter), SingStar (Music – this will take karaoke to the next level) and Warhawk (Action-Adventure). No release dates were announced on these titles.

We’ll see how sales go for the PlayStation 3, but so far Sony has been extremely successful with PlayStation 2 product. It launched six years ago in 2000 and since then has sold more than 37 million units in North America (with a total of 103 units shipped worldwide). But if you haven’t jumped on the PlayStation 2 bandwagon yet, now is a good opportunity since the average price seems to be about $130.

There’s also an exciting lineup of games on the PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation Portable (PSP) soon to be released. Some of the PlayStation 2 titles include ATV Offroad Fury 4 (Racing, September 2006), God of War II (Action-Adventure, First Quarter 2007), NBA ’07 (Sports, October 2006), Rogue Galaxy (Role-Playing Game, October 2006) and one of my classic favorites SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Combined Assault (Shooter/Military Strategy, Fall 2006).

Additionally, the new PSP titles include ATV Offroad Fury Pro (Racing, October 2006), Gangs of London (Shooter, Fall 2006), Killzone: Liberation (Third-Person Action, October 2006), Lemmings (Puzzle, May 2006), LocoRoco (Platform/Action, September 2006 – this one is really cute!), NBA ’07 (Sports, October 2006), Rachet & Clank: Size Matters (Action Platform, First Quarter 2007), SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Fireteam Bravo 2 (Shooter/Military Strategy, Fall 2006) and World Tour Soccer ’06 (Sports, June 2006).

Most of these products are due to hit the shelves before Christmas so keep your eyes and wallets open.

Here Wii Go With Nintendo

I was eagerly anticipating Nintendo’s release of its latest and most innovative console, formerly known as the Revolution. About a month ago, and much to my disappointment, the name was changed to Wii (pronounced “we” – portraying its all-inclusive nature). Oh well, I guess the name will eventually grow on me. At this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) Nintendo finally unveiled the Wii in all its glory. This console will literally change the way video games are played.

When I play video games, I usually move with the action. My husband teases me about that all the time since I’m a very “interactive” gamer. I’m sure I look ridiculous as I lean from side-to-side while playing driving games. It’s not like my body movements really make a difference if I’m trying to bank a fighter jet or evade a missile with a flight simulator, or dodge a bullet with a first-person shooter. However, with the Wii, all that changes. Your physical movements actually become a real part of the gameplay.

The Wii makes you feel like you’re in the game. The remarkable controller senses your movements. The swing of your arm causes you to hit a tennis ball, swing a sword or fire a weapon. That breaks the barrier of the current day controller where only the movement of your thumb would control these actions. With the Wii bringing gaming to a whole new level, Nintendo hopes to expand the video game experience to everyone, regardless of age, gender or gaming experience. According to Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales and marketing, “It will attract all kinds of new players, thoroughly satisfy the hard-core gamers.”

One of Wii’s launch titles will be Wii Sports. The tennis game was demonstrated at Nintendo’s press conference with four players (the maximum amount). Anyone can pick up the Wii’s remote to hit and feel the ball. Whether you’re hitting a straight shot, forehand or backhand, all you need to do is simulate the arm and wrist movements of a real tennis game. In the baseball game you can hit or pitch a baseball using the Wii Remote to make the characters on-screen mimic your movements. There will also be a golf game where you can use the Wii’s remote to drive the fairways or putt for the cup.

Some titles for the Wii include The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (uses a special nunchuk controller attachment and a special motion sensor), Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Excite Truck, Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Call of Duty 3, Madden NFL, Codename: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles and more. Wii will also include backward compatibility with older Nintendo games. This “Virtual Console” provides downloadable access to Nintendo games from the NES, Super NES and Nintendo 64, and Nintendo Game Cube.

Nintendo has not announced an exact launch date or price yet, but expect to see it during the fourth quarter of this year. I’ll keep you posted when I hear more.

Nintendo DS Lite
Although the Wii was definitely the star of the show at E3, Nintendo also announced the Nintendo DS Lite, a lighter, brighter version of the Nintendo DS. The redesign features a more compact size and screens with four adjustable brightness levels.

The original DS launched in November 2004 and since then, more than 16 million units worldwide have been sold. More than 100 games will be available for the DS this year alone. Some of the titles include the big fan favorites: New Super Mario Bros, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Chibi Robo: Park Patrol, Elite Beat Agents, DK: King of Swing (sends Donkey Kong on a swinging new adventure), Hotel Dusk: Room 215 and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team. Other games in development include featuring Star Fox, Wario and Kirby and Yoshi’s Island.

You can find the Polar White system for about $130 at various retailers.

Girl Gamerz At E3

As I was walking around E3, I happened to run into some of the Frag Dolls, a group of female gamers, and local girl Kari Toyama from Aiea. It was good to run into fellow girl gamers and, even better, one from Hawaii.

When I saw her, twenty-one year old Toyama was playing a game of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfigher, one of the newest in the Ghost Recon series, and a first person shooter (FPS) title. It’s not a typical game that you would see a female playing, but hey, that’s how I roll too! It was refreshing to meet another female that shares my interest in FPS games.

Toyama’s mother, Suzy Mehlhorn, was one of the first females in Hawaii to run a MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) out of their house for the ever-popular game Dungeons & Dragons in the mid 1990s. This explains her love for gaming that began at a very early age. Toyama loves gaming so much that she plays more video games than her boyfriend! I don’t know about you, but I find great humor in that.

For the past few months, Toyama was trying out to join the Frag Dolls, came very close, but unfortunately did not make the final cut. This still won’t stop her from her love of video games and her favorite Halo 2 on the Xbox. In the meantime, Toyama is transplanted in Seattle, Washington while she continues to pursue her psychology degree.

Taking Clear Pictures And Videos

As much as I love to take pictures, I admit that I don’t have the steadiest hands in the world. Although my photos tend to be meticulously cropped and framed, sometimes my photos turn out blurry because my hands move too much while I’m snapping the shots. At least with digital these days, I can see right away if my pictures come out blurry or not. Still, it’s shame to make everybody stand there with plastic smiles for what seems like an hour while I reframe and retake the shot. I don’t have to worry about that anymore with Sony’s latest Cyber-shot camera.

Sony Hawaii recently gave me a preview of the new 7.2-megapixel Cyber-shot DSC-T30, which virtually eliminates the shaky hands blur with Sony’s Super Steady Shot optical stabilization. It has a high light sensitivity (ISO 1000) mode that reduces blur resulting from shooting at faster shutter speeds. It also has an added defense of Sony’s Clear RAW noise reduction system, which counters picture noise associated with high-sensitivity shooting. All perfect for me, not to mention its thin size makes it the ideal accessory that fits into my smallest purse or pocket.

In addition to its size, my other favorite feature of the T30 is the big three-inch screen. It makes it easy to see if my picture came out as perfectly as I thought it did. It also has a slide show with music function for that fun “gather around the camera” session with your loved ones.

For optimal shooting, the T30 uses a Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar 3x optical zoom lens. In addition to this excellent lens, know that the T30 is the first in the T-series to feature selectable color modes. Depending on what mood you’re in, shoot your pictures in a natural mode for subtle color variations or a vivid mode for more intense colors.

The camera has 58MB of internal memory, but you can expand its capacity up to 2GB with a Memory Stick Duo media card. The Real Imaging Processor enables the camera to start up quickly, gives you faster shot-to-shot times, high quality movie capture and longer battery life. The InfoLithium battery provides you with the ability to take up to 420 shots per full charge. That’s nearly double the performance of the current T-series cameras.

The Cyber-shot DSC-T30 is available in silver or black and sells for about $500 at www.sonystyle.com or any Sony authorized dealers.

Monitor Calibration For Your Computer

When viewing and color correcting pictures on my computer, I expect them to print out the way they appear on my monitor. I’ve been fortunate enough to have my prints turn out alright, but I know a few people who have the worst luck with this. If your prints are not matching what you see on the screen, then you may need to calibrate your monitor.

Individuals who use monitor calibration the most are graphic artists, where it is important for the colors on their screens to match what is printed. The average computer user probably doesn’t know what monitor calibration is or that it can be done to a monitor. Calibrating corrects the color on your monitor so that photos and designs print more accurately to what you see. It also makes graphics and movies appear true-to-life.

Monitor calibration is usually cumbersome and time consuming, but Pantone recently came out with the Pantone huey that makes it simple. It is an inexpensive monitor calibration tool that makes the deed almost painless. It’s easy to use right out of the box and you do the simple setup through the software, which offers a few adjustable settings. You can choose to have it recalibrate anywhere from every 10 seconds to every four hours, and it does it based on the room’s changing light conditions. You place the sensor in its stand, facing you. As nighttime falls or as your overhead lights turn on, the software adjusts the monitor’s color temperature and luminosity. Also, to make sure it works as flawlessly as possible, make sure you have the latest driver for your graphics board.

Each Pantone huey package includes a huey measurement device (emission only colorimeter) with ambient measurement capabilities, and the software for monitor calibration. It works with Windows (Windows 2000 and higher) or Mac (OS X 10.3 or higher) and is available at www.pantone.com for $89.

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Also, just to let you know, I will be off-island for the next week covering the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) – i.e. the biggest annual video game conference around. Be prepared for the fun new and exciting things I will find there.

YouTube Your Home Videos

If you use e-mail regularly, chances are your friends have forwarded you countless joke messages, funny pictures or amusing videos. Sometimes I receive some good ones, at other times, sorry to say guys, but those messages just take up space in my inbox. However, if I receive a video that I know was taken by someone I know, I will definitely watch it. The only problem is video files are very large and e-mailing them around can cause some people’s e-mail to crash.

To avoid the hassle of e-mailing huge files, there’s a service called YouTube that allows you to upload your videos and share them with your loved ones, and the whole world. Now all you have to send is a simple link. With YouTube, you can watch first-hand accounts of current events, videos that match your hobbies and interests or just quirky random things. If I ever get the chance to be bored, I find myself logged into this website for hours just browsing all the different videos on there. It sure makes the time past by quickly if you’re sitting at an airport waiting for your plane, or just pure bored (and have an Internet connection).

YouTube started up in February 2005, and now there are more than 40 million videos on there for you to enjoy. An average of 20,000 new video clips are uploaded every day, and it keeps growing. It also attracts approximately 15 million plays daily. YouTube originally began as a personal video sharing service, but it has grown into a web entertainment destination. You can sign up to be a member for free, and that allows you share and comment on videos. If you want to remain anonymous and just view videos, membership is not required. With YouTube, you can tag your videos to enhance others’ searches, join groups or create groups to interact with individuals with similar interests or make your videos public or private.

I haven’t come around to put my own videos on there yet, but my husband does have a couple on there. If you’re curious enough to take a look, one of them is a compilation of video clips we took in 2003 when the Thunderbirds came to Hawaii (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAueq4XxpYU), and the other is footage that my brother recently took of the heavy rains around our family house in Maunawili Valley (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44kHvmjSCzc).

Make your own videos famous at www.youtube.com.