Armor are for Sissies

In the long standing traditional old school view that games are mostly made for boys and designed by boys (still is!) comes the common sight of scantily clad women standing with her heavily armored male counterparts. Kind of makes you wonder which is the "weaker" gender when you think about it. The recent "exhibit A" candidate for this issue is Lost Planet 2.

Video Games Live @ Malaysia - Update 2

Update 2 - Guitar Hero & CosPlay @ the Concert (see bottom)!

Update 1 - PIKOM now holds the rights to WCG Malaysia.

We know this has nothing to do with LEGO, but you never know if there will be LEGO games music @ this Video Games Concert! That's right, Video Games Live is a concert for gamers with music played from games!

It's just like a music concert - except they play music from games

This year, they're coming to Malaysia (@ the Kuala Lumpur City Centre Convention Centre Plenary Hall to be exact) on 17th April @ 2PM and 8PM with tickets ranging from RM80 to RM250. If you're a student, there's a 15% discount - but for the 2PM show only - and @ PS5 seating area only.

Visit Ticket Pro @ www.ticketpro.com.my or contact them @ +603 7880 7999. You can also buy your tickets @ TP Outlets.


In case you don't know, VGL will also be held in conjunction with the 2010 1st PIKOM PC Fair of the year, as well as the World Cyber Games (WCG) KL League qualifiers. Why? Because PIKOM now has the rights to WCG Malaysia. Let's hope the WCG here doesn't look like PC Fair!


Guitar Hero auditions will be held @ Room 405, Level 4 from 12 to 2PM and 6 to 8PM. You must be a VGL ticket holder to enter. Player with highest scores each session will win a chance to perform on stage with VGL live!

CosPlay (Costume Play) competition will be held @ Plenary Hall Foyer, Level 1. Registration starts @ 1PM and 7PM. Must be a VGL ticket holder as well. Finalists will go on stage and be judged by audience - loudest applause wins!

NVIDIA 'Fermi' (GF100) @ GeForce 400 Series (DirectX 11)

We know this has nothing to do with LEGO, but it has something to do with games - the hardware that powers games, in this case, on desktop computers. Over @ BrickTech, we've put up the latest news on NVIDIA's flagship graphic card, the GeForce 480, which comes from the new GeForce 400 Series, driven by the new GF100 GPU, called Fermi.

With this card, NVIDIA is on par with it's rival AMD, with their ATI Radeon HD5000 Series. Both sides now have DirectX 11 cards, which are supported on both Windows 6.1 (Windows 7) as well as Windows 6.0 (Vista), the latter via the Platform Update.

DX 11 is supported in new and upcoming games, and throws in new features like Tessellation (which was introduced in DirectX 10.1 with Vista Service Pack 1 and supported on Radeon HD3000 and 4000). DX11 also introduces a new Compute Shader which works with Direct Compute, which is an implementation of GPGPU, which allows games to use the card for processing, not just graphics. This comes in handy for AI, physics calculation via NVIDIA's PhysX, and real-time 3D Ray-Tracing, via NVIDIA's OptiX, which used to be a feature found in NVIDIA's Quadro professional workstation video cards, but now can be used for games too.

This is not a rendered 3D still image - it's a 3D motion rendering of a scene using NVIDIA's OptiX Quadro technology on the new GeForce 400 series of graphic cards. You can click on the image to view the full original size. Games can use this technology to have ray-traced 3D scenes.

.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.

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.

LEGO® 8-bit Gaming

For those of you who were gamers in the 8-bit console gaming (3rd gen) era, you might have very fond memories when you watch this LEGO® animation made by stop-motion of LEGO® bricks which took 1,500 hours (that's nearly a month!) of creation by Tomas Redigh! For those of you who are modern gamers, you might want to take a look at how gaming used to be - through the eyes of LEGO® bricks!

New games san boxes

Purchasing original games via downloading seems like a bold new trend for now. With service provider like Steam many games seem to find new sales on weekend price slashes and promotions alike. Sure it is more environmentally friendly and stuff... if you don't mind the box less package. What is more is that almost all these games are account binding... meaning you can't borrow them to your friends unless you are willing to share your game service access password and ID.

Score two for the game developers and nil for old time gamers.

This is Prototype? Final will Rule the World!

Once in a while in the tidal waves of all new games (read: non-sequel) some rare new gem shine brighter than the rest and cause buzz in the gaming scene.

Prototype is one of such game. Combining sand box style game play, mass populated down town, fast paced action, cool abilities, won-ton destructions, government conspiracies and involvement of armies, the game is looking more exciting than some summer movie block busters. Couple with the ability hi jack military rides it is of little doubt people can it "Grand Theft Auto on steroids."

Where do you put your loot on the waste land?

For those of you who roam the wasteland as the vault dweller.

Star Craft II Protoss Immortal, Phew Phew!

From the same guy, Flickr user Pepa Quin, who built the Terran Banshee came another awesome creation. This time we have the new Protoss unit immortal.

Source : Brothers Brick

Awesome Half Life scene

Flickr user ORRANGE built this stunning diorama of Half-Life 2.
The only thing missing is the crowbar.

Source : Brothers Brick

Happy Chinese New Year 2009!

For all those gamers guilty of staying up late playing games on the eve of big festivals, like this recent Lunar New Year, BrickGamers tips our Lego hats in your direction as we have done so! :)

Starcraft II Terran Banshee

For all those RTS (Real-Time Strategy) fans out there waiting for StarCraft II (SC2), behold the Banshee aircraft built by Flickr user Pepa Quin. We can all drool on it to ease the long wait, yes?

Source : Brothers Brick

Sometimes You Just Can't Win

Poor Joe. His plan to pacify his girlfriend backfired (30th August 2008). Now he has to put up with the humilation of being bested by her. While we've heard of the phrase "the student becomes the master", in this case, it doesn't really warrant it!

While we're not sure how many gamers out there have such bad luck as Joe here, it is a fact that some gamer boyfriends have regretted introducing a game to their girlfriends - only to find her being addicted to the game even more than him! Case in point - Sims! Or any puzzle-based games!

Hint: There's an Easter Egg in the comic above - see if you can spot it! For the answer, just highlight the area below with your mouse pointer!

Joe Vig is a Lego culture joke about a minifig (miniature figurine) who always wears a red top and is prone to bad luck - kinda like the jinx of the Lego world. Just Google to find out about him.

Too much Production or Protection?

When a software company's production is too popular, chances are they will start to take drastic measures like these to prevent pirated (illegal) copies of their game or application to run. However, there's also a downside to this for the legal or legit user. They're force to put up with hardships even though they're honest. Does that mean it doesn't pay to pay? We let you decide...

Don't we all...?

We're not sure whether it's due to the change of pace in life, an over-saturated gaming market, or too much unpolished software, but it's an established fact that the current trend of an average gamer is that they now have more unfinished titles on hand than not!

With seemingly multiple epic titles being released very close with each other, and current demands of real life, we gamers ourselves won't know who to blame either!

What sword are you carrying?

The thing about multi-gaming universes crossing the chief antagonist is that...expect it to be nerfed (dumbed) down to a playable level wherever it appears - accuracy to fluffies (non-serious users) is almost always secondary!

Loyal Fans

As the decades went by, some mega-franchise on gaming have established themselves as Titans on the industry, constantly churning out titles after titles of the series, and in the process, gaining legions of loyal fans.

As long they don't screw up the game too much with their status! It is just hard to fail if you keep the formula right. You can screw up sometime but people will forgive you if you do the next one right - case in point a certain Tiberium Wars!

Gears of War 2 customs

If you like Lego and you like Gears of War (GoW), chances are it crossed your mind how cool it would be if Lego releases such sets, from the chainsaw-attached-to-gun franchise.

Though the odds of that happening is about as slim as Marcus Fenix getting a light saber as a melee weapon since Lego doesn't do military as a policy. However, Lego customiser Hazel shows us what the minifigs (Lego Mini Figurines) might look like if it was ever released!

Source : Brothers Brick