For those who are not familiar with the popularity of the Call Of Duty franchise, here’s an indication. These photos were posted by PlayTime which has 2 branches in Bangsar. A quick count of those regular editions of Modern Warfare consists of about 30 pcs per stack. That’s a total of 10 stacks there bringing us to 300 pcs. Those black boxes below are the Prestige Edition, costing RM600 each. So, RM195 a pop for regular edition x 300 pcs (RM58,500) plus RM600 x 23 boxes (RM13,800) – a total of RM72,300 of sales. Note, this is just for Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for PlayStation 3 alone excluding the Hardened Edition & those of Xbox 360.

My copy of Modern Warfare 2, Hardened Edition has finally arrived today. The steel book casing is really nice. It comes with a Call Of Duty Classic full game download code, an art book and the game manual. To be honest, I don’t care much for the extras, I just wanted the steel book casing and the cover which is way better than the regular edition. More photos after the break:

What I hoped they should have included is a DVD with the-making-of documentary. That would be perfect for a Call Of Duty fan like me. Too bad, it’s not there. I doubt I will actually utilize the code for the Classic game download. I’ll be spending way too much time with Modern Warfare 2 to be bothered with the Classic’s game play. Hated the previous Call Of Duty: World At War. The world war II weapons are lame ass.

As you can see from the photo above, the steel casing is like your Steel Book Blu-rays out there. The printing on the case is pretty good and has a reflective and metallic effect. Just like the previous Modern Warfare game, I’m pretty sure I’ll be playing this for the next 2 years until Infinity Ward releases Modern Warfare 3.

Pictured here side-by-side, the Hardened and Regular Editions. Aren’t they a beauty?

Yesterday, Olympus Malaysia has finally announced the pricing and availability of the Olympus EP-2 here in Malaysia. This came about approximately 5 months after the launch of Olympus EP-1. It will hit stores early next month priced from RM3,799. The major new feature of the EP-2 is the addition of an “Electronic Accessories Port” which accepts an electronic viewfinder, one of the most requested feature for the EP-1. From it’s website, it seems EP-2 will only be available in black. What’s with the shorter life-span of gadgets these days? Is it a sign that the product was rushed? Whatever happened to having a minimum life span of 1 year before the next update? Sure, technology advances. But come on – 5 months?

The Motorola Droid starts selling today in the US. But no one cared. No long lines. No crazy folks camping over night. Nope. None of that. Maybe Motorola screwed up so bad the last couple of years, it’ll take some time before people start thinking otherwise. I really hope things will pick-up for Moto or Android for that matter. Too much monopoly isn’t healthy. Just observe, at the absurd number of iPhone users around you these days. It’s sickening – and that coming from an Apple fanboy. Maybe I preferred the exclusivity of being an iPhone user in the early days. Now that it’s being used by every Tom, Dick, Harry, Mary, Jane and Lucy. I did what I had to – leave. And left I did.

If what’s currently happening in Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore is any indication – the days of Apple having to bow to exclusivity demands from Telcos are over. Today, StarHub of Singapore announced they will start to offer iPhone 3Gs by the end of the year. This came one month after M1 made the announcement on October 13th. So, this brings us back to the post I made back in 1st October on Celcom launching it’s iPhone 3Gs by January 2010. From the look of things, it may be a reliable source afterall. Maxis’s monopoly and 1-month waiting period for the iPhone 3Gs will soon be a thing of the past. A past that every iPhone 3GS user in Malaysia would gladly choose to forget. Apple, 1. Telcos, ouch!

Just completed Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It took me slightly over 6 hours on one sitting. It’s the best single-player, story-mode I’ve ever played on a video game ever. I can see this becoming a movie. The story was fantastic. If you’re a Call Of Duty fan, you’ll never be able to let the controller off your hands. Chapters after chapters. You’ll keep going. The photo above, is the photo you’ll see at the end – after the credits rolled. Not gonna spoil the story for those who have yet to play this, but all I’ll say is – knife. If you’ve completed the game, you’ll know what I am talking about. Infinityward – you guys are the best!

Yup. It’s the real deal. The game is supposed to be out on the 10th, November 2009 in the US. Gamers here in KL were lucky enough to get their hands onto the Region 1 game couple of days ahead of schedule. It’s Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 – how can I not be one of them? More pictures after the break:

As this is the first batch that hit our shores, it comes with a premium price tag. For this game, I don’t give a damn. By hook or by crook – I want one! I paid RM250 for this baby. The first thing I did, hit the button for some online multiplayer. If you’re a CoD4 player, you’ll feel right at home. Controls are the same. Graphics improved. Due to limited copies in town, those who were online we mostly fellow CoD4 addicts like me. Most of my friends were already online shooting the hell at each other while I was freaking myself out watching The Fourth Kind at Pavilion. I will enjoy this weekend – for sure.

Don’t believe the bad reviews. The last time I was this freaked out by a movie was back in 1999, by The Blair Witch Project. If you’d recall, the public was told that the three missing persons in the documentary were never found, although their video and sound equipment (along with most of the footage they shot) was discovered a year later. This “recovered footage” is presented as the film the viewer is watching. Back then, I went into the cinema “believing” that what was shown were real footages and not re-enacted scenes. So, you can imagine how I felt when I was watching that in a darken cinema. I almost peed my pants and the last scene crept me out till this day.

So how bad was I freaked by The Fourth Kind? 10 minutes after the show ended, were still having goosebumps even as I was walking towards my car. James and Ed can be my witness. From the opening scene when Milla Jovovich identifying herself as an actress, then going on to explain she will be playing psychologist Abigail Tyler and what we are about to see are real footages, of real people, sharing their experiences of these so called alien abductions. The director had my undivided attention. As Milla Jovovich continued – how you wish to interpret these footages, it’s all up to you, but please be warned that what you are about to see, can be very disturbing.

And boy oh boy, I am still having goosebumps as I am typing this. Don’t believe the negative reviews critics are giving. I will not elaborate more on the movie and what took place. Trust me on this, go watch this film. Trailer after the break.

There are fresh rumors around the interweb that Apple will be phasing out the 8Gb iPhone 3G and have it replaced with a 3GS with the same capacity. It’s also said that it will be in time for Christmas this year. If that’s true, and if it will be available at Maxis – I might just consider getting one if the price is yummy. Afterall, assumming a 30-days wait, it will be just a short 5 months away from the rumored iPhone update in June 2010. How’s that? A rumor on top of another rumor. I love the interwebs.

Gizmodo published some really nice pictures of the Dell Adamo XPS. I can’t explain why, but these words just popped into my head – “They had style, they had grace, Rita Hayworth gave good face, Lauren, Katherine, Lana too, Bette Davis, we love you. Ladies with an attitude, Fellows that were in the mood. Don’t just stand there, let’s get to it. Strike a pose, there’s nothing to it. Vogue”. Head on over to Gizmodo for a more informative and constructive post. While I continue flashing my hands around my head in poses as seen in Madonna’s video, after the break:

First off, I wanna give a shout out to my friend Virtualess for sending me the invitation for Google Wave last week. Today, I’ve finally received the email from Google to activate my Wave account. I gotta be honest, even at the point of posting this – I don’t have much clue what’s Google Wave is all about other than it’s a beta and invites are insanely limited. Again, thanks mate! You’re the best! Time to watch that looooooong video.

This afternoon, I was baffled by the invasion of Cookie Monster at google.com.my. On my way home, Elmo was on the radio doing a Q&A session with the DJ. I was like, WTF? Then the DJ went on to say in just a couple of days, Sesame Street will be celebrating it’s 40th anniversary. The show premiered on the 10th November 1969 with muppets created by the legendary Jim Henson.

Sony has been eating up ton load of humble pies lately. First, they released peripherals for the iPhone. Now, they’ve sunk to an all time low. Selling ringtones for the mighty iPhone. Guess the mass appeal of the iPhone isn’t something the top management at Sony Creatives Software division could afford not to reckon with.

I was searching for Sony Memory Sticks for my Sony PSP and came across this product. It was released last year and I only got to know such a product exists – today. Its basically an adapter that lets you insert 2 MicroSD cards into the MS Pro Duo Slot adapter. As MicroSD cards are dirt cheap compared to Sony’s Memory Sticks, you can basically have a 16GB card for a fraction of the price you would pay for a Sony. It’s even available on amazon.com for US$4.98. Will scout around LowYat Plaza this weekend and see if I could get my hands on one.

What happened to Motorola? It’s like they’ve finally experiencing a great awakening after a long slumber. When they got a hit with the Razor couple years back, it seemed they were complacent of it’s success and hit a plateau. Now, with the upcoming release of Droid, they seems to be back in action, once again. This is a cool ad, but Apple’s “There’s an app for that” is kinda like the Nintendo Wii to non-core gamers. It’s non-techie friendly and hence it’s success. This, is like a teaser trailer from Transformers 3 – target audience, hardcore tech junkies.