These days, I’m spending more time being a “journalist” than a gamer! I guess it comes with the territory of writing a gaming column.

Quite ironic that writing about games because I love playing games is deterring me from playing the games that I love writing about.

Hmm.

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Table of Contents

1. WCG interviews Sheylara!
2. WCG to attract female gamers
3. Centrino 2 for enhanced laptop gaming
4. Neopets creators announce a new MMOG
5. Guitar Hero: World Tour plays on Rock Band
6. Ninja Gaiden II t-shirts won!
7. No one Asked Sheylara anything

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WCG interviews Sheylara!

So, there I was, innocently attending the World Cyber Games press conference as a member of the press, and then some peeps came up to me and said, “May we interview you, please?”

Which was kinda amusing, because press doesn’t get interviewed, press interviews. LOL.

Here’s the interview:

I should have told them about Gamer Girl Friday so they can mention it! But I kinda didn’t know at that time why and for what they were interviewing me. I just answered questions. Haha.

When I showed this to a friend, he rightly pointed out that I don’t speak like what’s reflected in that interview. A lot of what’s written has been dramatically rephrased from what I actually said (since there was no tape recorder present).

Guess I’m alright with that, as long as there are no scandalous misquotes.

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WCG to attract female gamers

World Cyber Games, the world’s first global cyber games festival and perhaps the most well-known, is doing something right this year (in my books.)

In an attempt to attract casual and female gamers, WCG has included Guitar Hero 3 (Xbox 360 version) in its 2008 lineup!

I can’t tell yet whether this strategy has been successful so far, but it’s certainly gotten my attention. I want to take part in it, except that I haven’t got time to practise. Argh.

Here’s the lineup of official WCG games for 2008:

I believe some of the games still have slots left for registration if you want to take part. Sign up here for the Singapore National Finals, which will be held on August 7 and 8 in Suntec Convention Centre.

The Asian Championship will be held in Singapore on August 9 and 10.

Incidentally, there was an F1 simulator at the press conference so I did me some F1 racing.

Got pwned.

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Centrino 2 for enhanced laptop gaming

Intel has just released its new Centrino 2 processor, which is set to own the next generation of laptops.

Until now, there’s been a lack of gaming laptop choices. Not anymore!

Well, the chip wasn’t built specifically for gaming, but it’s been built to cater to gamers, too.

You can start checking out computer shops now for laptops with an “Intel Centrino 2 inside” sticker. But give it a few more months maybe, and more models carrying this chip will probably be released.

Intel took a bunch of journos out to sea to show off their new baby. These people sure know how to party!

But that’s not really relevant for this article, so let me show you something more relevant.

A powerpoint page showing you the improvements of the Centrino 2 over its predecessor:

So, anyway, everything about the Centrino 2 is good. Faster, better, cooler everything. I don’t really want to elaborate on it because I’m not trying to be a salesman about it. So, go read about it yourself if you’re interested!

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Neopets creators announce a new MMOG

Don’t judge me but I’m a huge Neopets fan.

Well, it is a good site and a great concept, even if it’s mostly for kids.

Neopets has constantly evolved over the years to meet new demands, which is good, although I didn’t like the last major overhaul when they commercialised almost everything. But I can’t blame them for doing that. A business has got to grow and make money.

This new MMOG is called Twin Skies and it will feature a persistent world, pets and mini games (which you play to affect what happens to you in the persistent world).

According to the FAQs, the game might impose a monthly fee to keep it ads free, but it’s still undecided.

I like the game concept, anyway. I might try it out when it’s launched goodness knows when, time permitting.

I said, don’t judge me!

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Guitar Hero: World Tour plays on Rock Band

Much buzz has been generated from Activision’s recent announcement at E3. Apparently, you will be able to use Rock Band instruments to play Guitar Hero: World Tour.

That means Rock Band fans will be able to play GHWT without having to shell out ridiculous amounts of money to acquire yet more instruments.

This is a good direction. I was getting kind of worried that, by the time GHWT and RB2 releases, I’m going to have four guitars, three drum sets and three microphones fighting for space in my room.

The only duh spot in this is:

I don’t really want to play GHWT with RB1 drums. The GHWT drum set has five pads. RB1 only has four. Duh. One extra pad can make a lot of difference in terms of fun.

Guitar Hero: World Tour instruments

But it seems like Activision developers have hinted on the possibility of releasing updates to make GHWT and RB2 instruments compatible. Sweet if that happens.

Read more here.

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Ninja Gaiden II t-shirts won!

I have come to dread announcing contest results weekly.

I know that when I make an announcement, one person will be very happy but more will be disappointed.

I know the disappointment is minimal because, after all, my giveaways are small items. But disappointment is still disappointment, right?

But its still gotta be done. So, this week’s announcement:

Chong wins two Ninja Gaiden II t-shirts!! Wootage! Congratulations! Ding gratz!

I will be contacting you via e-mail soon about the collection of your prize.

Thanks to everyone who participated. Hope you win something next time!

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No one Asked Sheylara anything

Sheylara is taking a break from answering questions this week because no one asked her anything, can you believe it? Hah.

Good. People are learning the power of Google! ;)

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But there is no contest this week.

Sorry!

No, I haven’t run out of stuff to give away. It’s just that running even a simple contest takes a lot of time and I am swamped this month. I even considered postponing GGF this week, but then I had so much news I wanted to share.

I’m sure you understand. GGF is a personal project at this point of time and real life (paying jobs) have to take precedence.

By the way, Gamer Girl Friday recommends that you vote for Sheylara in the S’pore Blog Awards! (Yes, there is no escape for you until the voting periods ends with July.)

Thank you all.

Have yourself a great weekend and we’ll see you next week!