I AM sure you’ve heard the story of the guy who went berserk (ramming all the cars in his path) because of the traffic at EDSA, and how the other drivers went “People Power” on him to stop his rampage.
People Power and traffic—two recurring element that have made EDSA one of the most historic and iconic places in the Philippines. Now, thanks to X-Play and OP7, you can safely unleash your rage at one of the most popular landmarks in the country as it transforms EDSA into a virtual battlefield.
OP7 has faithfully recreated Epifanio de los Santos Avenue in impressive detail replicating almost all of the structures found in the area, including the structures and buildings surrounding it, pedestrian walkways, bridges, overpasses, bus lanes, streets, fences and more.
George Royeca, COO of X-Play, said that EDSA has always been one of the most recognizable areas in the Philippines. “We want Edsa immortalized in our games, and we did just that by recreating the area as the first fully localized map for OP7,” Royeca said.
OP7 product manager, Sonny Carlos added that the EDSA map not only got the buildings right but also the textures for each of the structures created. “When players load the map, it will feel completely familiar to them. They can run through the pedestrian walkways, get onto the highway going to Greenhills Shopping Complex and use the structures there for cover and attack. Everything is to scale, so when the player goes into it, it all feels real—from the distances between structures, the height and width as they go around it and more. X-Play also added more gameplay elements to complete the OP7 immersion,” Carlos said.
OP7’s creation of the EDSA map is significant as it joins other famous locales recreated in the game such as Ground Zero in New York, USA, Shibuya of Japan, Kwangan Bridge of Korea and more.
The development of the OP7 EDSA Map was all done by an e-Games in-house development team. They took all of the geographical information on the area to create accurate and detailed streets in-game.
Afterwards, digital high-resolution pictures of every major building and structure were taken to give the structures its three dimensions. With the information gathered, they created a computer generated 3D wire frame of EDSA, then laid it out with the closest approximation of details and texture of the actual structures. Additional game elements and structures were added for the OP7 conversion. Afterwards, it was ported to the game’s engine for testing.
Once testing was completed, X-Play sent it to the Korean game development company Park/ESM to be added as a loadable map for OP7. Royeca said generating and developing a localized map for one of its game, shows the growing versatility of e-Games as an online game publisher. For more information on OP7, visit www.op7.com.ph.
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WEAPONS OF WAR’S ROAD TO DESTRUCTION
The Blood Master has once more unveiled his minions that could lead to the destruction of the world. With him, he has amassed the armies of the primeval apes, venomous flora and the ancient evil that lies dormant within the Stalagmite Slope. With the total annihilation of the world at stake, only the courageous heroes can oppose the Blood Master and prevent his evil plans. Weapons of War’s latest patch- Road to Destruction (and upcoming Havoc Begins) adds astonishing content to the existing game world. Players will achieve elevated levels of power, explore new and unchartered lands, and battle high-level bosses that will help determine the fate of the world. The new patch raises the level cap to 65 and opens up the Silver Fox and new 100 Raid Dungeons. The update also improves the consignment system, event calendar and auto sort inventory. It also introduces new looks for your mounts and a Quest Trace UI to use auto-path function. The patch also fixes several bugs that affect PK values, Revive Pet skill and the Blood Palace sealing trade. Now after the Blood Palace is sealed by a guild, it will take three minutes again before another guild can seal the Blood Palace again. For more information check out http://wow.ph.gameclub.com.
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OVERCLOCKING CHAMPIONSHIPS
On June 19 in the confines of Jakartas’ revered IT Mall, the Mangga Dua, lines will be drawn and clock speeds will be abused as the best overclockers test the limits of technology.
The stage is set for the biggest overclocking showdown to hit the eastern shores as representatives from over 15 nations in Asia and Africa collide as they fight for glory in the Asian and African regional finals of the GIGABYTE Open Overclocking Championships (GOOC).
On the local front, Ronaldo Bejarin made history as he becomes the first Philippine representative to the GOOC. It was a competition of strategy, skill and lots of patience. And after a hectic day of seemingly endless configurations, it was Bejarin who emerged victorious during the recently held GOOC Philippine championships at the SM City North Edsa Annex.
Show your national pride for Ronaldo Bejarin by voting for him as your choice at http://gooc2010.gigabyte.com/Asia-Africa/ and get a chance to win exciting prizes brought to you by Gigabyte.
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MICHAEL JORDAN IS THE NEW COVER BOY OF 2K11
After all these years, his Airness finally makes an appearance on the cover of a Sports video game. But there’s more! Aside from being the cover model, Jordan apparently is also being digitized into a playable character, which will finally give long time fans a chance to relieve some of his trademark moves. The same goes for some of the other players from the Jordan era to help gamers accurately recreate the heated rivalries of the Bulls versus Knicks, Celtics and even the defunct Sonics. Hopefully 2K would be able to sign up enough of the former players to give this year’s game a totally nostalgic appeal.
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‘MORTAL KOMBAT’ REBORN
My favorite video of the week has to be the mysterious eight-minute trailer for an allegedly Mortal Kombat (MK) reboot. The trailer has already enjoyed two million views and features Michael Jai White (Spawn) and Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Voyager). According to Jeri Ryan’s tweet, “It’s not a game trailer.” “[It] actually was made for the director to sell Warner Bros. on his vision for a reimagined MK film.”
Website Latino Review provides more info—specifically, that it’s a “test” video created by director Kevin Tancharoen, who most recently helmed the decidedly less violent Fame remake.
The trailer shows a much darker and more violent take worthy of the Mortal Kombat franchise, which hopefully would translate into very rare great game-to-movie translation.
The original 1995 Mortal Kombat film trails only Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and 1999’s Pokemon film as the highest-grossing video game movies ever. And despite the commercial and critical failure of Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, it’s still way better than the Street Fighter movies.
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