Brick Gamers 40 - Futile Protests

Our bad. The Christmas and 2010 New Year gaming delayed us for BrickGamers 40. That's 40 comics that's appeared in GameAxis (a South-East Asia regional monthly print game mag) since we started 4 years ago. This doesn't include the 70-over Web-only BrickGamers comics which appears on this site 3 years ago! Now due to requests, our GameAxis converted comics for the Web have been enlarged to 800pixels (SVGA) to cater to bigger LCD monitors, so when you click on the 400pixels (width) thumbnail below, it will open a new tab/window with the 800 one.

Oh yes, we decided to tackle the Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 2 private server gamers protest issue for this 40th GameAxis BrickGamers LEGO comic! For Malaysian gamers with lag problems, it's something that's very close to the heart that's worth protesting about! However, as Jack has mentioned, it's the Console gamers that will doom PC gamers and their protests!

Top PC Game of 2009

You can read more about this in the report of the Most Pirated Games Of 2009.

Some say it's because its a good - if not great - game, while others insist it's a backlash from the issue of Modern Warfare 2 PC won't support dedicated servers.

Either way, the bottomline of the massive sales should please the developers from taking this path, a decision which can leave a lot of players with not-so-fast Internet connection, feeling left behind.

Christmas 2009 Gaming

We wish all our readers had as much fun as we did during 2009's Christmas season, feel free to share with us your gaming experience on this year's holiday time if you're on a break :)

LEGOLand Malaysia Update

For all Malaysians (or Singaporeans, or Asians for that matter) who are waiting for LEGOLand Malaysia to open in 2012, here's an update to what's happening in the Johor state, which is where the theme park will open. We previously mentioned about this here.

It will be located in Nusajaya, which will be the new admin city instead of Johor Baru. Nusajaya is part of a larger area known as the Iskandar Project.

The construction sign is already up

This is where LEGOLand Malaysia will be developed

A model of Nusajaya with LEGOLand Malaysia (top middle)

Another model, with LED lights at night

Here are some work on the LEGO models for LEGOLand Malaysia, made in LEGOLand California by LEGO designers there.

Malaysians should recognise this building - it's the Perdana Putra, the Prime Minister's office, located in Putrajaya, the admin city of Malaysia, as opposed to Kuala Lumpur, which is the capital of the country. This LEGO model was done by KK's team in LEGOLand California.

You can read more about this professional LEGO model designer at her blog here.

Game Reseller Bane

Resellers hoarding old games can have their own nightmare unfaced by non-digitally reproduced products. Read more about it here.

How much worth is your product if it can be replicated virtually? Still want to collect games in their collectible form? Well perhaps if they come with limited edition boxes and figures...

An Achievement with questionable Bragging Rights

This one is old news, Taiwanese Player "Beats" World of Warcraft.
But it does beg the question of after such a colossal feat has been achieved is it wise to go around talk about it? On one hand the individual has demonstrated his epic tenacious capability but the other hand ...

In your Wildest Dreams only...

If you have not heard it yet, British tennis star Andy Murray gets dumped for spending too much time playing video games. Now it is only natural most gamers will wish they can do the process in reverse.

Mini LEGO Twin Towers

Malaysians SHOULD instantly recognise this MOC (My Own Creation) - it's the Petronas Twin Towers of the KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre). It's the only tallest twin towers left in the world after...well, you know.

If you still haven't heard about it before, then maybe Malaysia needs to do more advertising and marketing out there compared to what it's really being known for, as our sister site BrickLives does.

Anyway, this is a miniature LEGO MOC done by MisaQa on Flickr. We hope she appreciates we've blogged about her MOC :)

Half a Decade of Online Adventure

To all the World of Warcraft players out there... Happy Fifth Year WOW Anniversary :D

BrickGamers 39 - Milking Gamers Dry

If you're new to BrickGamers and wondering why the comic below is so hard to read, check back our past BrickGamers comic posts (under the mag label) to understand why. Just click on it to view the bigger version so you can read it better :)

For BrickGamers 39, we wanted to talk about Cow Gaming...sorry...we mean Milking Gamers...dry that is! We're sure many gamers can relate to today's gaming industry finding ways to drain gamers dry from their games instead of entertaining them as they did in the past.

So, how much have YOU spent on your games?

Behold the Ancient 8 bit NES

I had one of this a long long time ago. Countless hours were spent on sending Mario and Link venture forth to rescue their respective princess, enduring a thousand deaths along the way in a time when things were much simpler

Source : Brother brick.

Gamer Weds Game Girl

Apparently some dude from the land of rising sun (read: Japan) got so into a girl - yes nothing new about that - but here's the kicker - she exists only in a dating stimulation game. If that doesn't spell 'Otaku' (Japanese for geek), we don't know what does.

But then again, there're Otakus who created OS-Tans (personifications of Operating Systems), who are usually girls, so much so until Microsoft officially created their own Nanami Madobe character for their latest Windows 7 for Japan to cater to this 'fetish'. You can read more about her over on our BrickTech post here.

The main difference with this gamer who's into this girl in a game is that - wait for it - he's going to marry her! Yes, you heard that right! Read more about it here!

Publicity stunt or "true love"? Either way it might be hard for people to tell which is sadder. Go check out the tale of virtual Nene Anegasaki from Love Plus, and how she's the bride-to-be for that Nintendo DS otaku's fantasy. It doesn't get any weirder - coming from Japan. Or can it?

Nene Anegasaki, 1 of 3 virtual girls from dating game Love Plus

Empty Gaming Threat

Despite all the hoo-haa, Modern Warfare 2 launched in a big way, and any decent amount leftover threats of boycott were rendered ignorable, no thanks to a certain numbers of Boycotters.

Don't get the latter link? No problem, let us make it clearer for you by taking a look at this here (cue - see the Red Arrows). Don't you just want to smack the life out of these so-called boycott gamers?

UPDATE! However, don't underestimate the power of people. Barely days after its release, Modern Warfare 2 servers have been CRACKED! Feel free to start hosting your own LAN party games OUTSIDE of the control of them. It's bound to happen. Expect the same with StarCraft 2.

Limping Exit

If you have not heard it... yeah Nokia's N-Gage is bowing out.

This LEGO made Mario can stamp you!

A 6 foot tall Mario made of pure LEGO? Yeah with that much weight if it jumps on you like a King Koopa's henchmen.

Source : Brother brick

Happy Scary Pumpkin Season

For all those gamers who celebrate Halloween, here's wishing you had a nice scary one - virtual online or otherwise! Why are we even linking something like Halloween to Wikipedia? Because there are people who celebrate it but don't even know the origins of it! If you're one of those, you might want to check it out - you might even be surprised at what you'll discover! We hope it doesn't burst your bubble, but hey, you can still enjoy it for what it is like you've always did! Here's to all gamers who go pillaging on the 31st October in online virtual gaming worlds!

Looking for spooky Halloween LEGO minifigs? Check out a bunch of them here on Flickr!

BrickGamers 38 - Gaming War Gear

If you're new to BrickGamers and wondering why the comic below is so hard to read, check back our past BrickGamers comic posts (under the mag label) to understand why :)

UPDATE! We've now enlarged our monthly BrickGamers comic (which appears in the GameAxis South-East Asia/SEA regional leading printed gaming magazine) to SVGA (800x600) size from the previous VGA (640x480) size after requests by readers! We'll go to XGA (1024x768) in due time! Click it below to enjoy the new bigger comics!

Moving on, this month's topic is about War Gear in Gaming, the electronic version of course - not the table-top role-playing game type of board games like Warhammer 40,000. We're sure many of you invest in such Gaming War Gear, it just depends on how much you're willing to invest - and how serious you are about gaming to utilise the best gadgets and devices to win in games. These days it's more about the type of hardware you have that will gain you advantages.

MMO To a Casual Observer..

Any MMO players will be familiar with the standard routine of raiding AI camp, lure and kiting them out 1 by 1 to be killed within plain sights of the victim's comrades. To a casual observer however, the concept of this whole business can be very bizzare indeed...

It is not that We Don't want to do more... :(

Australia's Zombies are less gorily

The strip is inspired by the news of Left 4 Dead 2 May Be Unbanned In Australia - Censored!
While we are aware of the possibility of "Off shore" edition might actually not work in Australia due to IP control but it is concluded the situation warrants a laugh from the above possible scenario.

Deadly Third World PING

If you have seen the movie Gamer you will get this. As cheesy and crappy as the show was, at least the show gave us the laughs of our lives when we realised this can actually happen - especially in Malaysia. Want to know more? Check out our comic that poked fun at Malaysia's so-called broadband Internet speed over on BrickTech in a previous post here.

.NET Games for Windows - LIVE version 3

This is a cross-post between BrickGamers and BrickTech to help gamers out who may be having problems with modern games which rely on Games for Windows - LIVE online service from Microsoft.

This online software service is integrated into games like Halo 2, Gears of War, Grand Theft Auto IV, Fallout 3, Warhammer 40,000 - Dawn of War II, Street Fighter IV, Batman - Arkham Asylum, Resident Evil 5, and so on. You can see the full list of Games for Windows - LIVE here.


Keep in mind this is different from Games for Windows, which you can see the list here, but is categorised alphabetically. To see it as a whole page, go here.

To see an even bigger list, including upcoming games, and BOTH Games for Windows AND Games for Windows - LIVE games, check out this full list here.

So there's 2 types of Windows games? Sorta. You see, Microsoft, in order to "Get into the Game" so to speak, has ventured on a branding exercise to promote games which are designed for Windows with the "Games for Windows" moniker. The Games for Windows - LIVE is an enhancement which requires an online service component called Games for Windows - LIVE to be installed - even if you don't play that game online.

What this LIVE component does is enable linkage with you and other gamers who have the same such game installed - be it on the PC or Microsoft Xbox or Xbox 360 gaming console. Of course, if that said game doesn't support multi-player, then you can't play with others, but you can still link with them to see their scores, chat, etc.


The whole idea is to integrate Windows gamers with Xbox gamers, since in many places in the world, like Malaysia, Microsoft doesn't launch the Xbox here. This is due to rampant piracy and slow broadband, making Xbox LIVE online gaming service being not condusive for Microsoft. Their ultimate aim is to link up all users of Microsoft products to LIVE Anywhere. Feel free to make jokes if you reverse the LIVE word above, it becomes...EVIL :)


Anyway, this Games for Windows - LIVE also ties up with their Windows LIVE online services, which the most popular being Windows LIVE Messenger, followed by Windows LIVE Mail. So what's this got to do with gamers?


Some Windows XP gamers are unaware the latest Games for Windows - LIVE, version 3 (30MB), requires Microsoft's .NET Framework software to be installed, with the latest being version 3.5 Service Pack 1 (200MB). Games for Windows - LIVE, version 2 (20MB), does not require .NET to be present. You can see what's new with version 3 here.

By the way, if you're having problems installing the MSI (Microsoft Installer) installation file of Games for Windows - LIVE version 2 above, your MSI might be outdated. You can get the latest version 4.5 here.

Going back to XP Games, so if you're having problems playing some of the new games on XP which need Games for Windows - LIVE, you can either install Games for Windows - LIVE version 2, or go for version 3 but you'll need .NET as well. Some of you may already have .NET for games like Sims 3 which need it. Of course, if you have Windows Vista or Windows 7, it comes with .NET already.

BrickGamers 37 - Gaming Rewards

If you've been a loyal fan of BrickGamers by now you'll know the usual drill - click on the comic below to load the larger version where you can read it clearer. We had to shrink it like this to fit the width of the page as it was originally designed to appear in a print magazine called GameAxis, a South-East Asia (SEA) regional monthly gaming publication. This is the copy of it.

So let's hear it from the gamers out there for this month's topic - how many of you feel modern games is all about being vain in the game than actual rewards and accomplishments? :) Or worse - all about how many games you have played or how fast you played it? Is this what gaming is all about? Or has gaming lost it's allurement that it once had and it's now searching its own soul?

Video Games as Education

Seems like some smarter education officials finally learn to realize and utilize video games as a tool to educate young students. Read all about it here - Public School launches Curriculum Based on Playing Games. Well, seems like most of them will be playing video games anyway so learning while playing will only result in a win-win situation. Gee, why didn't we have these in our days? >:D

Imagine if students were thought to play SimCity - we'll have much better cities to live in!

XFX Radeon HD5800 Series Windows 7 Direct X 11 gaming cards

If you don't already know by now, the next standard in gaming graphics is DirectX 11. This is found in Microsoft's upcoming Windows operating system, Windows 6.1, or more popularly known as Windows 7 (not because 6+1=7 or because Windows Vista was Windows 6.0, but because Microsoft says this is the seventh release of Windows).

DX11 adds some new features and one of them is Direct Compute, which uses GPGPU technology, which basically uses your gaming card for processing instead of just your processor, thereby giving you extra performance. This can also be used in games for physics.

Anyway, unlike DirectX 10 (Unified Shader Model 4), which was found in Vista and required either AMD's ATI Radeon HD2000/3000/4000 series, or NVIDIA GeForce 8/9/200 series of DX10 gaming cards, DX11 can function on DX10 gaming cards as well, albeit not as fully as on DX11 gaming cards, which is the ATI Radeon HD5000 series, or NVIDIA GeForce 300 series (which isn't out yet).

As expected, this means DX11 can also work on Vista, and it can, when Microsoft releases the Vista Platform Update, but like the above DX11 and DX10 compatibility, you won't get the full features as compared to a pure DX11 platform, which is Windows 7 with DX11 gaming card, and in this case, only ATI's HD5000 is out.

XFX's Radeon HD5870 Windows 7 DirectX 11 gaming card - comes with DVI, DisplayPort, and HDMI ports

It needs dual 6-pin power from your PSU and supports ATI's CrossFire X

This is where XFX comes in. They have released their XFX Radeon HD5800 series of gaming cards - which is the XFX Radeon HD5870 and the XFX Radeon HD5850 gaming cards. With this, coupled with Windows 7, you'll get the full DX11 deal. To sweeten the deal even further, there's a Dirt 2 game bundle, and yes, Dirt 2 is DX11 to get the game ball rolling. See here for a list of other upcoming DX11 games.

XFX's Radeon HD5850 Windows 7 DirectX 11 gaming card - for budget gamers

Of course, with DX11 you can also play DX10 games, and you can see a list of DX10 games here - but remember to update your DX files! If you haven't done so, you can get it for free from Microsoft's site here (100MB). Even if you're using Windows XP with DirectX 9, it will update your files to the latest DX9. This might help if you're having problems running some games.

Batman - Arkham Asylum, Literally?

As chronicled in Kotaku's Deliberate Glitch Foils Arkham PC Pirates, none can't help but wonder if anyone ever tried The Settlers III (3) way back then, about a decade ago (circa 1998) when it was popular. If you had the pirated (bootlegged, warez, illegal) version, you'll notice your Iron Smelter will be producing pigs (hogs/boars) instead of iron - to screw up your economic production line!

Play Station 3 slim

One part Content Three part for Show

As inspired by a report in gamersdailynews.
While looks is always important but to know they spend 75% of their resources on it? What do the rest of you guys think?

Game issue enters United Nation

As seen in United Nations Calls For Explicit Japanese Game Ban.
What are you guys thought in this? Feel free to write in your opinions here.

Brick Gamers 36 - Street Fighter Anyone?

New to BrickGamers? :) Find the comic balloons text too small to read? You gotta click the comic below to open it in a new tab/window, because it was converted from the print version which appears in GameAxis Malaysia August 2009 magazine.

Street Fighter is almost no strange game to gamers out there, having a long history from 1987 in the arcade days, though they've now moved on to the computing platform as well. However, the latest version 4 seems to be a little more tougher to defeat than it appears to be...