KILLZONE 2

I finally found the time to finish off this game last week. It is an excellent game with fantastic graphics. Gameplay was awesome all through the game too. However, the ending ABSOLUTELY SUCKS! Killzone 2's end is 1 of the most ridiculous ever.

The difficulty is in trying to figure out the best way to kill Visari. It isn't all that hard to kill Visari once you've figured out the method though. Worst thing is that even after you've figured out the best way to kill Visari, it then takes an inordinately long time to actually kill him off. It took me 16 minutes! 16 minutes of doing the same boring thing over and over again is not what a final boss fight should be. That is just plain stupidity. It's almost as if the devs did a superb job all the way through and just fell asleep at the very end. LOL.

Here's the method I used.
1. Clear out all the enemies in final room.
2. Run upstairs and clear the room again.
3. Once room is cleared again, wait upstairs near the gun racks.
4. Grab the sniper rifle from rack before Visari appears from out of nowhere.
5. Jump downstairs to the doorway. This is the door we came in at the beginning of the stage.
6. Drop sniper and grab shotgun from the rack in doorway.
7. Wait for Visari to teleport right in front of the doorway. Look out for the tell tale electric flash.
8. Pump him with 2 shots when he rushes into the doorway.
9. Keep repeating step 8 for the longest time.
10. Visari gives up and appears at the far end of the room, on top of the stairs.
11. Pick up the sniper rifle I dropped earlier at the doorway gun rack.
12. Snipe his big fat belly from within the doorway.
13. The End.

It's just basically 16 minutes of mindless repetition. Plain stupid. I rate this as 1 of the worst endings to a game ever. There is 1 big thing going for this game though. It's the online multi player part that I love. It's highly addictive trying to gain rank. So.................if you haven't already tried Killzone 2, buy it, play it, enjoy it, expect a shitty ending, love it all over again for the multi player.

Asus EeePC 2G at rm699!!!!!

OMG!!!! I can't believe it. Tesco is selling the Asus EeePC 2G Surf at a measly rm699 only. It even comes with Windows XP Home! That is an unbelievably good deal. If I didn't already own 1, I'd rush to Tesco now and grab it. You fellas who have been thinking of getting a Netbook, there's no need to think anymore. Just go to Tesco now and grab yourself a nice lil netbook.

Here's the specs for the version Tesco is selling.

Intel Celeron M900Mhz
512mb Memory
2Gb SSD HDD
Wifi
7" LCD screen
Genuine Windows XP Home

Silverstone RV02 fan grills

Here's some additional information I just received from Silverstone HQ. I mentioned in the review that I would most likely remove the fan grills on the 3x 180mm fans for better air flow. However, Silverstone has since informed me that there is a reason they put the honeycomb grills there. It's there to straighten the airflow of the fan for better cooling performance. The honeycomb matrix guides the air into a straight beam of air without causing noise or turbulence.

There is a company called Nexus selling these honeycomb fan grills and it has a very good explanation on why the honeycomb grill makes the fan perform better. It has plenty of pictures with smoke testing to show the airflow pattern with and without the grill. It's pretty interesting stuff. Head on over to the Nexus site at- http://www.nexustek.nl/NXS-nexus-beamair-airguider.htm

I guess I'll be trying out the RV02 with the grills in place then. Hehe. I will also try it without the grills just to see if the Silverstone version of the grills really do improve the cooling of the case in actual daily usage.

Edit:- I have since tried the RV02 with and without the fan grills. I'm happy to report that the fan grills really do improve the airflow of the fans. I can feel a definite improvement in the direction of airflow straight out of the fans as claimed by Silverstone. I'd recommend everyone to keep the grills on.


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Silverstone RV02 Review

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee! The Raven has landed at my house again. This time it's the RV02. Big thanks to Silverstone Taiwan for sending it over so quickly. Here's a quick pic I took of it the minute it arrived.








This is fresh off the factory floor straight to me for an exclusive unveiling for you guys here in Malaysia. I will be unboxing it and doing a quick and simple review of it. It's a pretty big rush coz Silverstone HQ want's me to prepare it for the upcoming Kuala Lumpur PC Fair.


Here's the box. I've been told that the retail version will look the same.







The box removed. Silverstone has finally reduced the size of the packaging with more efficient use of space. Just look at how they've recessed the accessories box into the styrofoam. The case is wrapped in a nice cloth bag now. No more cheap plastic bags.










Window side view of the case.










Front 3/4 view.











Side view.










Front view.










Back view. There's a mesh filter on the back to keep the intake clean for the PSU.












The rear filter is easily removed for cleaning.











Bottom view. This is where the 3x 180mm fans sit.











Top view.








Top cover removed. The top cover pops off easily now. No more twist n turn locks like the RV01. Just lift it straight up and it pops off.







A closer look at the top. These 3 switches control the 3x 180mm fans. Low-700rpm and High-1000rpm. The 180mm fans are specified to flow 100cfm at 700rpm.











The I/O port area has been improved by making it much deeper. As you can see in this picture, I've put in a USB thumb drive to show that it can be used with no problems. The RV01 was really shallow and USB thumb drives couldn't be used. Big thumbs up to Silverstone for sorting out a major complaint on the RV01.











I'll slowly move downwards from the top now after looking at the top panel. Let's take a look at the middle section of the case. This is a really cool feature of the RV02. It's an SSD holder. As far as I know, it's the only case with an SSD holder. Here's the included SSD bracket.











I don't have an SSD with me so I'll use a 2.5" HDD to show how it fits on the case. Here's the 2.5" HDD installed into the SSD bracket.













Here's the SSD bracket installed into the case. How cool is that? I reckon this is such a superb feature.











There's something I really miss from the RV01 though, the hot swap HDD cages in the RV01 were superb. RV02 now uses a conventional HDD cage with rubber grommets for suspension. The cage is held to the lower front section with 4 thumb screws.











Let's take a look at the internals now. There's a really useful hole behind the HSF area now. This will be very useful for people who change HSFs often as we can now access the backplate without having to remove the motherboard. There's are a lot of wire management holes all over the motherboard tray too. This should come in handy.













A closer look at the 3x 180mm fans at the bottom of the case. They're covered with a grill on top to prevent the fans from chewing up the wires inside the case.












The fans have filters which slide out easily for cleaning. Just pull the tabs and they come straight out.











The fan grills can be removed. This will be good for people who can keep the wire management nice and clean as the air flow should be a lot better without those grills on. There's also another reason for removing the grills. Silverstone has designed the RV02 for a fully internal water cooling set up. Here's how it looks like with the grills removed.











This is the bracket for attaching a radiator to the 180mm fans. There are 2 brackets included. Install 1 at the front, 1 at the back and we will be able to install a 3x120mm radiator on top of the fans. I personally use a simple 120mm radiator so I will be using just 1 bracket at the back like this.










I'm using a 120mm fan here to show how my 120mm radiator will be mounted to the bracket.











While we're looking at the fans. I put a 120mm fan on top of the 180mm fan to show just how big those big momma fans are.











I nearly forgot to mention this feature as it's hidden up at the top. Look carefully and you'll see 8 slots. This will be good for those of you planning on running 4 dual slot graphics cards.










One last picture of the top where the power and reset buttons are located. The USB and audio ports are there too. They really should have covered it behind a door like the RV01. I think this exposed USB panel is very ugly compared the stealthy look of the RV01.








My thoughts on the case so far-

The things I like:-
1. The hole behind the CPU socket on the motherboard tray for easy HSF installation.

2. Wire management holes are nice and big now as compared to the puny little holes on the RV01

3. The rather nifty SSD bracket.

4. A much deeper I/O port area on the top of the case which allows the usage of DVI-VGA adapter plugs and also fat DVI wires.

5. Cooling performance should be a lot better than RV01.

6. Rubber grommet mounting for the HDDs.

7. 3x speed controllers for the intake fans.

8. Easy maintenance with filters on all intake fans.


The things I don't like:-
1. Top USB and audio ports.

2. No more Hot Swap HDD cages like the RV01.

3. No door on front panel. The look will be ruined when a DVD drive is installed. Modders will have to use the stock slot cover for making a stealth DVD drive. Or you can do away with the DVD drive completely by using an external USB DVD drive.

4. Internal mounting for water cooling system. I don't like the radiator blowing hot air up into the other components. I would much prefer an external mounting to isolate the heat from the other components.


Well, that's all I can think of for now. I will only find out about the thermal performance in a few days time when I install the hardware inside. I will be sure to update the results later on if time permits. I'm on an extremely tight schedule as the PC Fair starts next weekend. Either way, you guys can come over to the KL PC Fair next weekend to check out the RV02 and be the privileged few to see and touch it first besides those who attended Computex in Taiwan.

Page 2- Additional info from Silverstone regarding fan grills.

Page 3- RV02 temperature report

If you liked this article or found it helpful, please check out the advertisements ya? You can also buy your PC parts from Amazon through the link below. Your support is much appreciated. :) :) :)

I wanna sue Harry Potter and The Half Boiled Prince!!!!!

Dear god! This Harry Potty movie has got to be the most boring movie I have watched in the year 2009. It's so bad that I feel like suing them for wasting 2.5 hours of my life watching it. I actually fell asleep in there. Boriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!!!

How is it even named The Half Blood Prince? All Harry did was brew a love potion and learn a killer spell from the book belonging to The Half Blood Prince. I hereby rename the show as The Half Boiled Prince!

Those of you who aren't hardcore Harry Potter fans better not waste your time and money. My daughter is a hardcore Harry Potter fan and she said it was good. So......... go watch it only if you're a hardcore fan of Harry Potter.

Olympus E-P1 black

Why oh why does Olympus sell only the silver and white E-P1? I managed to find a picture of a black E-P1 and it looks so much better. Is it actually available in black or is it just a photoshopped picture?

Here's a picture of the black Olympus E-P1.

Moon Landing, 40th Anniversary

As the picture shows, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon on July 20th 1969, 40 years ago. How many of you actually believe the American Government?? I say it's all horseshit! They expect us to believe that we went to the moon with computers so primitive that they're only as powerful as a normal digital watch today! There are countless other theories about the fake photos, physics and all that too. Ever heard about the Van Allen belt? The astronauts should have been fried to a crisp if they ever made it that far out to space. Even with current modern technology at low orbits around the earth, spacewalks are considered extremely dangerous. Let's not even talk about the moon astronauts prancing about the moon surface, playing golf and all. Just do a quick Google session on the moon landings and you will see thousands of facts pointing to moon landings being a total hoax.

Anyway, even without getting into all that technical stuff, here's my simple question to NASA. If you managed to put men on the moon 40 years ago with such primitive technology, wouldn't it be a stroll in the park to send men to the moon again with current technology available today?

Since it should be so easy to send men to the moon now after technology has progressed so much, don't you think Russia would have sent their own men to the moon to debunk the fact that Americans arrived there in 1969? Considering the Russians were waaaaaaay ahead of America in the Space Race, sending Sputnik up 1st, sending Yuri Gagarin up into space 1st, why was it impossible for Russia to send men to the moon then? Since Russia is now a broken country, all I can hope is for a future Super Power(China perhaps?) to send men to the moon for real sometime in the future. We will then know for sure if it was the biggest hoax of all time.


Here's a few really interesting books about the "Moon Landings".

FREE Thermalright thermal paste!!!!

Sorry I posted this up a wee bit late this month. Been really busy of late. Anyway, here's the giveaway for my Malaysian readers in the month of July.


Here are the rules-

1. All you have to do is answer a simple question and the first 2 people to get it right will be the winner. All answers can be found in my blog.

2.Just answer at the bottom of this post by putting it in the Comments. All answers will not appear until the end of the month when I make them visible. If you're not using a Blogger account then please include your email address with your answer or else I will have no way to contact you.

3. That's it. Just check back at the end of the month to see who won. I will post up the winners names in a new posting at the beginning of next month.If you're listed as a winner, email me your mailing address and I will send the items straight to you. Please remember that this is specially for my Malaysian readers only, due to postage considerations.


The question for this month(July) is- When did I attend the Quantum of Solace Premier and what is the name of the tourist spot?