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Bangladesh CityIT Fair 2010 Winning Lottey Numbers, 1st Prize Winner Gets A Car

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:50:24 +0000

The CityIT Computer Fair 2010 was held at IDB Bhaban, which concluded on Saturday, 6th February.

The organizers hosted a raffle draw competition and the first prize given was a car. That lucky winner is holder of ticket# 53196.

Other prizes included:

2nd prize: Laptop, ticket# 15838
3rd prize: Desktop PC, ticket# 26828
4th prize: Digital camera, ticket# 62536
5th prize: Digital camera, ticket# 5148
6th prize: Digital photo-frame, ticket# 75022
7th prize: Digital photo-frame, ticket# 16981
8th prize: Wimax modem, ticket# 45458
9th prize: Edge modem, ticket# 72115
10th prize: TV card, ticket# 46759

Translated from Prothom-Alo

PCs vs Consoles: Which Is Better In Bangladesh? (Round Two)

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 17:54:01 +0000

The controversial article, PC Phobia – Is The PC Dead As A Gaming Platform? has garnered intense debate from Gamersworldbd readers.

A follow up is in order. But instead, let’s take a look from Bangladeshi perspective. If you are a Bangladeshi gamer, which would be better, PCs or consoles?

The Good Ol’ Days

Whether we like to admit or not, most of us started as a PC gamer. Remember the old days of NFS and Prince of Persia on AMD K6/Pentium I PCs in Bangladesh?

Back then gaming was simple on Windows 95 or the DOS-era if you were lucky enough to own a PC at that time. There was no need to worry about system requirements. Most games we played were limited to the ones that came pre-installed. Or we would have some elder relative (who happened to be a PC nut) and install the next NFS in our PC.

Bangladesh was gripped with Doom, NFS, Prince of Persia and Road Rash fever that took long to break out of.

Consoles were gaining in popularity, mostly the Sega Mega Drive and Sonic. Consoles were simple and lasted longer (I’m looking at you RRoD) than their controllers. I fondly remember going to Eastern Plaza every few months to replace a busted controller. Games came in cartridges, we couldn’t imagine playing directly from a spinning disc.

New Kid On The Block

And along came this box called the PlayStation that would play games on the TV. It was a toy for the rich only, and most of us mocked the “retarded” gamepads that they used. However the first Gran Turismo and Metal Gear Solid proved us wrong.

Mind you, PC gaming was at it’s pinnacle (and it still is now) in the PlayStation era. Consoles began gaining in popularity with the advent of the PS2. The original Xbox was less well received in Bangladesh.

The Rise Of The Consoles

Fast forward today and most households (in Dhaka) own a gaming console. Why?

For the half that you spend on your PC, you will most likely find a top-of-the-line next generation console. Then there isn’t the hassle of ensuring that your system meets the requirements to play the game, just pop the disk inside your console and start playing – even no installation required! Unlike PCs, you don’t have to constantly upgrade your consoles meaning that your “investment” won’t get obsolete by the next year or just six months from now.

The PC Strikes Back

But all is not lost for PC gamers. Sure, consoles have overtaken PCs in popularity in the US/EU but here in Bangladesh, PC reigns supreme.

As a reader Moontasir points out, a PC equipped with two ATI HD 5870 in CrossFire will beat the graphical quality of consoles. This is true, consoles are limited to a resolution of 1920X1080 whereas PC gamers can enjoy 2560X1600 (the ATI EyeFinity supports a maximum resolution of 7680X1600 across multiple monitors).

But why stop there? A core i7 rig, with two HD 5970 in CrossFire (for a total of 4 GPUs) and 12 GB of RAM will blow the consoles out of the water.

For comparison, a PS3 uses a 3.2 GHz Cell processor with a NVIDIA GPU pushing at 550 MHz.

The Xbox 360 also uses a 3.2 GHz PowerPC triple core processor. RAM is at a paltry 512 MB and the ATI GPU is clocked at a laughably 500 MHz.

So The Hardware Is There But……

But specs alone won’t save the PC (if you are crazy enough to spend that much anyway) since most developers won’t take advantage of the hardware. The reason we are seeing games like Halo Reach, Uncharted 2, etc. is because developers take full advantage of the console architecture. They are designed for gaming, and even with inferior hardware, gaming on consoles is smooth and ultra-realistic thanks to hundreds of man-hours developer spend on optimizing their code. Most PC games are lazy ports of their console counterparts and hence the lower framerates.

A Gamersworldbd visitor explains the difference between architectures:

“As always, computing hardware is always superior to console hardware – by raw numbers. But what makes the average high-end gaming rig inferior to a PS3 or Xbox 360 are the multiple GPU cores. Console hardware is manufactured for one sole task – render animated polygons or vectors. PC hardware is, on the other hand, manufactured to do a multitude of things.”

Nobody Owns The PC Gaming Platform

The other reason is that nobody owns the PC gaming platform (even though Windows has the majority market share). The reason why consoles get such superb exclusives is because Microsoft and Sony took the initiative to make such games in the first place. It is in their best interest to make a triple A title which sells a lot of hardware and generates even more profit. In comparison, the latest PC exclusive is unlikely to sell more copies of Windows. Sure, hardware sales might increase but Microsoft has nothing to gain (and hence the lack of interest on PC gaming on part of the Redmont juggernaut).

As another Gamersworldbd reader Enamur Reza so succinctly puts it: “Of course PC delivers out the best in graphics but it cant give me the Uncharted II or Bayonetta, or, Ninja Gaiden II or Assasin’s Creed II ( at the right time), or Gears of War II, or most importantly God of War III.” Well said sir.

However, for FPS and RPG games PC is the place to go. I kid you, try to beat Left 4 Dead 2 at hardcore (on realism mode) with your Xbox 360 gamepad and try it again on a mouse and keyboard.

And you don’t see consoles with World of Warcraft and 11.5 million players.

So Which Is The Best In Bangladesh?

PC games are the cheapest in Bangladesh, followed by Xbox 360 games and lastly, PS3’s original games. Although that is soon about to change with the PS3 hack.

Dhaka is hitting the console fever but everywhere else in Bangladesh, it’s still PC. That said, if you are a hardcore gamer, you surely own a gaming PC plus a console (or two).

If a game releases on multiple platforms, I always get the PC version since it’s cheaper. I also own a Xbox 360 and PS3 for the exclusives that simply aren’t available on the PC.

I was born a PC gamer and will be a PC gamer for life.

Also check out: PC Gaming is Doomed – Why That’s A Bad Idea.

Qubee Introduces Campus Packagae, Wimax at 850 Taka

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:28:07 +0000

Qubee has introduced the Qubee Campus package, starting at 850 Taka/month (excluding VAT) for a 128 kbps download speed.

Only students can sign-up for the Qubee Campus package. During sign-up students need to bring their school/college/university ID to sign up for the service.

Although the 128 kbps Campus package has unlimited downloads, Qubee’s fair usage policy still applies.

The higher-tier 256 kbps Campus package is priced at the same 850 Taka/month but with a 5 GB monthly download limit. Installation charge is the same at Tk 4,000.

What is the Qubee Fair Usage Policy?

To restrict users from using up too much bandwidth (Qubee and also Banglalion) restrict the amount users can download continuously. You can download straight for 4 days (provided you keep the PC on all the time) and on the 5th day Qubee will start tracking your usage. They may decide to cap your download speeds or charge extra for the usage. To be on the safe side, take a break after every 3 days.

The fair usage policy does not apply for packages that has download restrictions (eg. 5GB for Qubee’s 256 kbps Campus connection). If you exceed your limit, Qubee will charge you an additional 0.10 Taka for every MB you download.

More details at Qubee’s official site.

Gamersworldbd @ Dhaka International Trade Fair 2010

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 07:12:44 +0000

Gamersworldbd recently took a visit to Dhaka International Trade Fair 2010 to bring our readers exclusive coverage of the technology displayed there.

As usual, it was really overcrowded but it was good to see electronics taking up a big portion of the fair each year. We were most attracted to the LCD showcases and the Wimax internet pavilions. The general public had great interest in Wimax internet connectivity and it was heard to get a brochure even (let alone a spot to test the internet speed). Good to see Bangladeshi people adopting Wimax.

Banglalion Wimax @ DITF 2010

Banglalion Wimax had the biggest stall whereas Qubee Wimax was situated with only 1 laptop in a corner of the Transcom (Phillips) showroom. However, Banglalion had limited their net speeds to 512 kbps and we were unimpressed.

Qubee Wimax @ DITF 2010

Although Qubee did not have a glamorous stall as Banglalion, however we were blown away by the 1 Mbps connection there. Watching live internet TV, game trailers and videos was a blast without any stuttering. We tried our luck and viewed some hi-def clips, but it was too much for the 1 Mbps connection to stream.

Pictured is my friend browsing Gamersworldbd.com (On a side note, we wanted to change every homepage to Gamersworldbd.com but decided against it )

Panasonic @ DITF 2010

Panasonic also had an impressive showroom. Of note is the silver Viera LCD TV, along with a white salwar-kameez model to pose along (not pictured). The Viera was priced around Tk 6 lac and the home theater cost around Tk 1.2 lac.

Phillips (Transcom) @ DITF 2010

Phillips LCD TV is gaining good reputation and Transcom had an impressive stall to wow visitors. We were really impressed with Phillips’ home theater system, the sound quality just rocked our visit.

Samsung @ DITF 2010

Samsung is the best to way to go for good quality at an unbeatable price.

Sony @ DITF 2010

Last but not certainly the least is Sony’s Bravia line of LCD. If you’ve got money to burn then no other LCD will give you the picture quality. I must add, I’m really impressed with my 46″ Bravia Z series (one of only two in Bangladesh, that was displayed at last year’s trade fair).

However, Sony’s (Rangs) showroom was a bit overcrowded and small in size.

Hope you enjoyed our coverage of Dhaka International Trade Fair 2010 and stay tuned for more!

Gamers, Which Would You Get: Banglalion vs Qubee Wimax

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 09:44:36 +0000

As you may have read, I’m really impressed with Qubee’s 1 Mbps Wimax connection (I got the 7 day demo).

However, Banglalion is also another Wimax provider in Bangladesh. I’m torn between the two and I need your help to decide.

The main problem is Quebee’s 1 Mbps is priced at Tk 5,250/month while Banglalion’s 1 Mbps is Tk 3,750/month.

From a price perspective I should go with Banglalion, but why is there such a big price gap? I’m worried that I won’t get “full” 1 Mbps connection from Banglalion.

Another more pressing concern is the download limit, all 1 Mbps has a download limit of 20GB/month. And let me tell you, I can burn through that in a day. Whereas the 512 kbps has no download limits.

If you were me, which would you get?

Qubee 1 Mbps Wimax Hands-on Impressions

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:10:27 +0000

I’m using a demo of Queebe’s 1 Mbps Wimax line. For those that don’t know about Wimax, it is a new wireless internet connectivity technology. Qubee provides you with a modem (priced at Tk 4,000) which receives wireless signals from Qubee’s tower. The higher up you place the modem, the better connection you can get.

I’m not going into a full review since just yesterday I got the connection. This is a demo connection, if I am unsatisfied, Qubee will refund the set-up price. They have a 7 day cash back guarantee. This is a really good feature since you can test it out beforehand.

Speedtest reports my speed at 1.07 Mb/s (or 136 KB/s) and ping is around 180ms. As you can tell, downloads are blazing fast and there is very little lag in online games.

My main complaint is the monthly usage limit (set around 20GB) for the 1 Mbps package. The lower packages (256 and 512 kbps Sky) does not have this limit. So, I may get that one instead.

Stay tuned for my next in-depth review, including details of Qubee’s infamous “fair usage policy”.

Qubee official site.

Reader Question: Where To Buy Original PS3 and Xbox 360 Games in Bangladesh

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:00:47 +0000

This is the question on the minds of many Gamersworldbd readers. I received such a question in my inbox:

Hi,

I want to know where I can buy original PS3 games in Bangladesh. The place I know of (SOF) doesn’t carry all the games I want.

- Raiyan Ahmed

Since the PS3 can’t be modded yet (or can it?) many Bangladeshi gamers have to resort to buying high priced original games. Xbox 360 gamers are lucky though since readily modded 360’s are sold in Bangladesh. However, those (like me) who play online over Xbox Live have to face the same dilemma.

Fortunately, a number of shops in Dhaka now carry original PS3 titles (don’t know about outside Dhaka, if you do, please let me know in the comments below). Here are some methods you can try to buy original PS3 and Xbox 360 games from Bangladesh.

1. Check out the shops in Bashundhara City Shopping Mall. The CD shops there not only sell original games but consoles as well. They can also fix your console. You can also try out other big name shopping centers, such as Eastern Plaza, Rifles Square, etc.

Prices vary from Tk 4,000 to 6,000 and some newer games are not readily available. In that case, you can instruct the shopkeeper to import the game for you (SOF, UAE Moitry Complex, Banani has this service). But that may take a long time, sometimes more than 2 months.

Here are some contact information:

Plug & Play (Rifles Square, Dhanmondi)
Shop # 326 (3rd Floor)
Tel: 8650131, Mobile: 01710 832832
Email: plugandplayoo@yahoo.com

SOF (UAE Moitry Complex, Banani)
Tel: 9887384
Email: aumc@intrepidbd.com

2. Tell your relatives/friends to bring it for you: If any of your relatives or friends live abroad, you can always tell them to bring the game for you. Make sure they get the correct region (NTSC/PAL).

3. Order online: If you have an international credit card, then you can order original PS3 and Xbox 360 games online, even pre-order it. Collector’s edition games are not available anywhere in Bangladesh, and if you want to spend extra money, you can always get them online.

One online store that I use and recommend is Play Asia. They even have free shipping to Bangladesh. You can check my full review of Play Asia.

Another thing you can do is order from Amazon. Amazon has virtually every game available and you can save money by buying used games. Most of the time I buy from Amazon.

But the problem with Amazon is that they do not ship to Bangladesh. For that you need to use a mail forwarding service, a company which will receive mail on your behalf and send them to you. One mail forwarding service that I have been using for over a year and recommend is MyUSABox.

Once you have signed up with MyUSABox, they give you a US address which you can use to order goods online. They then ship it to you via parcel (FedEx, DHL, UPS). Shipping charges for a single game is around US$ 33.

4. [Update] Order from Steam: You can’t buy Xbox 360 and PS3 games from Steam.

But it’s a haven for PC gamers. Valve’s online store is really easy to use and boasts a staggering number of PC games to download, plus the latest releases can be pre-ordered.

The steam desktop client is really awesome and has achievements, friend lists, etc. Most importantly, Valve runs special sales (keep an eye out for year-end sales) with up to 50% off.

Visit Steam.

I hope that answers your question Raiyan. And happy gaming!

Readers, submit your own questions and have them answered here on Gamers World Bangladesh.

Mass Effect 2 Posters Plastered on California Walls, Just Like Bangladesh

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 10:25:21 +0000

Now you only see this type of thing happening in Bangladesh.

BioWare is down to Mass Effect 2 advertising Bangladeshi style, plastering the UC Theatre on University Avenue in Berkeley, CA, USA with posters of Mass Effect 2. The posters depict Commander Shepard and his crew and is really cool. Check out the posters below (click on each image to bring up a high resolution version):

[Update] You can now download these Mass Effect 2 Posters and an exclusive wallpaper in zip format.

Image credit

ZipBD (Sirius Broadband) 512kbps ISP Review

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 10:10:46 +0000

I guess this review is long overdue. Zipbd (I had the 256 kbps package) used to provide good service when I first joined in 2008. But not anymore. I upgraded to the 512 kbps package @ Tk 1,500 per month last month. Frankly, the upgrade process wasn’t as smooth as I hoped. I submitted a letter to Sirius Broadband office and they upgraded my connection after 1-2 days.

A Plethora of Problems

The main problem after the upgrade was that certain websites were not reachable (worldofwarcraft.com and even my very own gamersworldbd.com). They displayed connection timeout errors. I know what you’re thinking, and I tried every remedy. Disabling my firewall, clearing the browser cache, switching to different browsers with no success. Those sites were not down, I checked using GP Edge from my PC and it worked fine. I called Zipbd tech support but they couldn’t help either. This continued for 2 weeks or so and finally a technician came over. But he couldn’t find the problem either but said it would be fixed. I don’t know what he did, but after 2-3 days the problem was fixed.

But that’s not the entire story. The service is really terrible, I didn’t have internet connection almost half of the time. I usually leave the PC on overnight for big downloads, but I would often wake up to find that there was no connection and no download progress was made. The connection was out even for the past 3 days and I only got it back this morning (after threatening to cancel their service).

Saving Grace

Zipbd is not all bad however, the speed is good. I normally get download speeds around 45 KB/s in peak hours. You can also check the speed tests below (which were conducted around 4:00 pm). To know the speed in KB/s, multiply by 1024 and divide by 8, eg. 0.36 Mb/s = (0.36*1024)/8 = 46.08 KB/s.

Ping in online games is usually good, especially for servers in Europe/Asia. As you can see from the speed test below, pings are really high in North American servers (but I get around that by using a VPN connection from StrongVPN). At the time of this writing, Team Fortress 2 servers (Steam) in the UK had pings around 225-379 ms. YouTube videos also play well with no hiccups, however you have to wait for the video to “buffer” in other sites such as GameTrailers.com, GameSpot and IGN videos. This is because those videos are of a higher quality than others and require higher bandwidths.

I also like to point out that the customer support has been friendly to me. Not only are they patient but I told them to unblock the ports (so I could play online) and they did. However, I’m sad to say that I can’t recommend Zipbd/Sirius Broadband anymore. They have stopped all their video-on-demand services and their dedicated game servers are non-existent, which was one of the reasons I recommended them back in 2008. But in 2010? Not anymore.

Pros
(+) Good pings/speed
(+) Friendly customer support

Cons
(-) Terrible service/internet was down most of the time
(-) No extra features

Bottom Line
Zipbd/Sirius Broadband has gone downhill since 2008. Not recommended. Overall score: 4/10

Official Zipbd Site
Official Sirius Broadband Site

Modern Warfare 2 Army 32 Times Bigger Than Bangladesh Army

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:21:04 +0000

Activision has said that a whopping 8 million players are um… playing Modern Warfare 2. That is a heck of a lot if you ask me. In fact it is 32 times bigger than our Bangladesh Army (currently at 250,000 personnel Wikipedia). Not only that, but that figure is 11 times bigger than our Army, Navy and Air Force combined. Yikes, we don’t want to mess with Modern Warfare 2 players now do we?

Image courtesy DigitalBattle

Gamers World Bangladesh Wishes You Happy Eid Mubarak!

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 06:11:38 +0000

Wishing all those Gamers World Bangladesh readers out there a Happy Eid Mubarak! Wishing you the best. The Gaming Wiz Related posts:Welcome To The Gamers World Bangladesh Blog Some Radical Improvements to the Gamers World Bangladesh Blog Related posts:

Playing Games Online In Bangladesh With Sirius Broadband/Zip BD

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:53:10 +0000

A lot of readers asked me to detail my experience with Sirius Broadband/Zip BD and online games, so here goes. You can check out the in-depth review (along with tons of useful reader comments) of Sirius Broadband/ Zip BD here.

Its All About Ping

The determining factor in whether you have a superb (or lousy) experience with online gaming is your connection’s ping, the time it takes for a data packet to travel across the internet and back to your computer. Download speeds of over 20 KB/s (160 kb/s) is enough for most online games, but the all-important variable is ping. If you plan to have VOIP enabled consider a speed of above 30 KB/s (240 kb/s). Fortunately, I constantly get speeds around 30 KB/s with Sirius Broadband. While playing Team Fortress 2 online, i had a pleasant experience with voice chat, coordinating with my team mates and assaulting the enemy’s location.

The Problem With Online FPS

However, ping was a problem and especially with online shooters. I had pings of around 300ms on UK servers (US servers were hardly playable) and most players were on 20ms-80ms connections. In peak hours, my ping jumped to as high as 500ms. It is crucially important to have a good ping, otherwise they can out strafe and out gun you. The problem with some servers (Team Fortress2 and Battlefield 2142) is that they automatically kick you if your ping is above a certain threshold (200ms) so I had to pick servers carefully. Note that this is not a problem with Peer2Peer games, as in Modern Warfare 2. But high pings is still a disadvantage in FPS.

World of Warcraft Is A Blast (Even With High Pings)

Other games, such as racing, RPG and RTS do not require “twitchy-fingers” and high ping usually isn’t a problem. I made the mistake of choosing Oceanic servers for WoW, instead of selecting EU servers, so I get pings of 800ms-1000ms. Even at these pings, it isn’t a problem doing quest and raiding dungeons with your guild mates but be prepared for occasional disconnects. In fact, WoW had the most disconnects than others and re-connecting can be a real pain (especially if you’re in the middle of a dungeon boss).

Port Forwarding And A Host Of Other Headaches

One problem that Sirius Broadband/ Zip BD has is with closed ports. Ports are used to listen and communicate with other PCs. Different games use different ports, so one game might run perfectly fine (in my case World of Warcraft) while you won’t be able to find any game servers in others (Team Fortress 2). I used Steam for Team Fortress 2, and Sirius Broadband blocked those ports that Steam used. So, although the game downloaded and installed fine, it wasn’t able to find any online games.

I spent an entire night searching for solutions online, checking every network connections and even re-formatted my PC, until it dawned on me that the problem was with my ISP. Sirius Broadband is occasionally affected with virus outbreaks so they had blocked most of the ports. I didn’t even bother calling them and used VPN services to overcome the problem. If this is the case, I’d recommend StrongVPN (which I currently use whenever I play online). What it does is create a “tunnel” with one of their servers bypassing Sirius’s servers altogether (you still have to be connected to the internet). And since I chose a UK server, I get constant pings (300ms) throughout the day.

Experience Over Xbox Live

You have to pay $60 dollars a year for Microsoft’s Live service. Although my current subscription has expired, but I plan to renew it. Gaming over Live is good since its P2P based. One major problem is that voice chat doesn’t work at all with Sirius Broadband. Most of the time you will hear static, or even if you do hear what others are saying, you will constantly broadcast a whining noise which will distract other players. I’ve tried everything, including using different headsets, controllers, consoles but the results are the same.

I’ve played a good amount of Gears of War (both 1 and 2) co-op and had great fun. There was lag I admit, and even got disconnected now and then, but it was enjoyable. Others such as Project Gotham Racing 4 (I reached the top 1,500 players out of millions even on this laggy connection )and Dirt 2 fared better and I recommend these two.

One caveat is that Sirius Broadband locks your password to your PC’s MAC address, in order to prevent internet connection sharing. But you can overcome this by using your PC’s MAC address on the Xbox. PS3 users are out of luck though, since it doesn’t have this function.

There Is Still Hope

If you find that your internet connection is slow, worry not! Check out my guide Online Gaming For The Least Fortunate : How To Get The Best Gaming Performance From Your Slow Internet Speed for tips to get you up to speed quickly.

Is Sirius Broadband Worth It?

In my opinion, you do get good download speeds (I use the 1,500TK/month package) which is good for online gaming now and then. However, be prepared for frequent disconnects and kicks. I’d still recommend it though as I’ve been using it for well over 2 years and the others I used (GrameenPhone Edge and DTech) aren’t up to the mark. If you have better alternatives, please let me know in the comments section below.

Are Those Really Blu-Ray Discs In Bangladesh?

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:58:56 +0000

I’ve noticed for a while that there are Blu-Ray discs on shelf in movie stores such as Fahim Music Centre and others. For all intents and purpose, they come in the original Blu-Ray packaging. So, one day I asked the shopkeeper, “Are those really blu-ray discs?”. “Yes”, was the obvious reply. But surprising enough, he told me that these work in standard DVD players as well. Curious, I picked up a copy of Transformers 2: Revenge of The Fallen.

Back home, I put it my DVD drive and waited for it to load. And lo and behold the movie played back without a hitch. The image and sound quality was far better than any other DVD, but it still wasn’t hi-def. It didn’t take long for me to figure the whole thing out. I don’t know if you guys remember, but DVD-9s were sold in Bangladesh at around 200 TK a long time ago. These are dual layer discs which can hold around 8.5 GB of data (same as the Xbox 360 game discs). But these so called “Blu-Ray” discs with fancy packaging sell for typically 300-400 TK while they’re the same DVD-9 discs. The Transformers 2 Disc was at around 8 gigs. If you look carefully it has “DVD-9″ written in small font on the spine of the box.

So, the next time you’re thinking about picking up one of these, point out those small letters to the shopkeeper. He’ll probably not care but hey you can still haggle and get a much lower price. I for one am happy with the picture quality, and won’t return to those boot-legged DVDs anymore.

Edit: As a user pointed out below, these are Blu-ray rips on DVD-9 discs. Forgot to mention that.

Bangladesh World Cyber Games 2008 Preliminary Rounds

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:36:07 +0000

The preliminary championship of Bangladesh World Cyber Games 2008 is open for registration. The registration will be held on 13th & 14th July at The Chittagong Peninsula. The preliminary championship is on 18th & 19th July. Available games include Fifa 2008, NFS ProStreet, Counter Strike 1.6 and Warcraft 3. For more details, call this GrameenPhone number 01717437043.

Why Aren’t There Any Good ISPs In Bangladesh?

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:01:33 +0000

Here is the average Bangladeshi web surfers’ experience. Webpages take forever to load, and even after it does finish, bam, the service is out so you can’t surf the internet anymore. Well, I might have exaggerated a bit, but the underlying problem is still the same.

Even if you had enough and decided to change your Internet Service Provider, the new one is just likely to offer terrible service, or even worse than the one you had before. So, what is the reason for this dismal state of ISPs in Bangladesh?

It’s not that there isn’t any competition – it’s rather the opposite, with new ISPs cropping up every now and then. Given the stiff competition, it is surprising to see the end user still getting poor service. We have been connected to the submarine cable network long ago, but we are yet to reap the benefits.

The answer is that there are ones that do offer commendable service – we just don’t know where to look. The reason for this is a lack of information or misinformation among us consumers. With very few customer testimonials and hands-on reviews, it is hard to choose one ISP to the other.

Chances are, the company providing you Internet access is just a small organization, with little capital and an inexperienced staff. The reason they exist is because you are unlikely to look elsewhere to get better service.

Another cause for this is the high set-up fee that most ISPs charge. Even if you do find better service elsewhere, you are unlikely to switch because that means forgoing the set-up charge you already paid. Plus, you have to pay another company that you don’t have any clue about.

Most of the ISPs in Bangladesh are exploiting the lack of information that exists among us consumers. I recall switching from DTech to Zipbd, and before doing so, one of the customer reps from DTech said to me, “You might change. But you’re unlikely to find that company [Zipbd] better than ours”. Yeah right. I get twice to three times the speed that I previously got and I frequently play online, a rare privilege for many of us Bangladeshis.

The Prospect of a Piracy Free Bangladesh : Will it Ever Happen?

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:55:58 +0000

Piracy is rampant in Bangladesh, that’s not a strange fact. Bangladesh has a piracy rate of 92% (according to the Global Software Piracy Study 2006), is the largest user of pirated softwares in the Asia-Pacific and fourth largest in the world. Considering the fact that almost all the software that we use in our PC, from the operating system to the games that we play on our PCs, is pirated in one from of another, is there any prospect of Bangladesh being piracy-free in the near future?

Rather, the question should be addressed as whether we would want to move to a piracy-free Bangladesh. What I mean is, pirated softwares are the only way we can afford to run expensive applications and eye-dazzling PC games on our PC without spending a fortune. Most of the original games and softwares are beyond the reach of us average Bangladeshis. Who would be willing to spend a whole month’s income on a single piece of software?

But did we ever stop to think that if piracy was allowed to run rampant in the world, those softwares would cease to exist in the first place? Millions of dollars are spent behind the research and development of applications that we take for granted. Without sales revenue these companies would abandon production. However, Bangladesh is not so much of an economic power to have an influence on the global market. That is why we are not a serious concern for the giant software corporations.

Although government laws exist, making piracy illegal, but most of us are either blissfully unaware or don’t follow it. More alarming (and embarrassing) is the fact that most of the government offices still use pirated softwares. The first step forward would be to ban the use of illegal softwares in government institutes.

In the present scenario, it is very unlikely that Bangladesh can become a piracy-free nation in the foreseeable future. The main reason for this is that there is no way we could afford an original, non-pirated software. If we are to combat piracy, there needs to be some way to make those softwares affordable to the masses of Bangladeshi people. The original manufacturers could, for example, release special editions of those softwares only for Bangladesh at a reduced price, but then other complications are bound to arise.

Whatever steps taken, the road to a piracy-free Bangladesh is a long one – and very difficult.

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Sirius Broadband / Zip bd ISP In-depth Review

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:31:32 +0000

[Important Update] Check the new 512 kbps review of Sirius Broadband/ZipBD here.

I had lousy experiences with most of the ISPs in Dhaka. The service is unreliable, the speed is at a turtle’s pace and customer service is downright unprofessional. But Sirius Broadband is none of that.

I am currently using the Xpress package for TK1,500 per month and I highly recommend this to any home user. My only complain with Sirius Broadband is the TK5,000 start-up fee which is somewhat high compared with other ISPs. Still, Sirius gives good value for money. You get a fibre optic connection and a DSL modem.

The Xpress package has a shared bandwidth of 128kbps download abut in reality you would get around 20-30kbps. This is not bad considering that other ISPs offer a paltry 5-10kbps. Browsing the internet with Zip bd’s Xpress package is fine and web pages load in a snap. If you’re thinking of online gaming at these speeds – you’d better forget it. It lags way too much. However, I do have an article detailing how to play games online with a slow internet speed.

You do, however, get good value for your money. Sirius Broadband does have a dedicated online gaming server but there is a lack of gamers and A-List games support. If you do want to game online, then you might find someone in Zip bd’s online forum and set up a date.

Then there is also music and movies on demand. While I didn’t use those, I did enjoy the IPTV, which is the next best thing I love about Zip bd. Currently, channels are limited to national coverage (such as nTV, BTV), but there are a couple of satellite channels such as Fashion TV.

But I would recommend Zip bd/Sirius Broadband for it’s superb reliability and service. Your connection won’t be down even in a storm. I did notice a dropout now-and-then but it was due to maintenance and was resolved promptly.

I have nothing to complain about Sirius Broadband except for it’s high set-up-fee. Other than that, this is the best ISP I have seen in Dhaka to-date and provides additional service at no extra cost. I would recommend Sirius Broadband/Zip bd to anyone without hesitation.

Check out the official Sirius Broadband for line rates and Zipbd for extra services that you get with your package.

SPEED TEST

I did a bandwidth speed test at SpeedTest. Since there are no servers available in Bangladesh, I had to choose the nearest one located at Mumbai, India. Here are the results:

UPDATE 16 July 2008

Since the time of writing this article, Sirius Broadband/Zip BD has stopped all TV channels over internet and video on demand services. This is because of the restrictions put by the current caretaker government. Furthermore, I had a lot of problem with their service last week and the tech person was unable to solve it. Basically, I couldn’t connect to the internet for a long time and the problem kept re-appearing. The connection would also drop in the middle of an internet activity. The problem was finally located (after 5 or more visits from a technician) as a faulty wire and he fixed it. Everything is normal now (as I write this) and I’m hoping it won’t occur again.

The comment section below has some really useful hands on experience from Sirius broadband users and I recommend you to read it too. If you have your own experience, please share with us.

UPDATE 17 February 2008

A couple months ago, someone from Sirius called me up and told me that they would give me a direct connection (previously I got one through their agents). After the switch, the service has improved a lot. I have rarely got disconnected in these few months and get average speeds of about 30 KB/s throughout the entire day/night. I am a heavy downloader and leave my PC on throughout the night and I had no disconnection issues or bandwidth limitation.

Online games on the 360 are also pretty much lag free and playable, I frequently play Gears of War 2 and PGR 4 online (to name a few) without issues. However, the high pings make gaming online on a PC near impossible. Here is the speed test that I have run:

The comment section below has some really useful hands on experience from Sirius broadband users and I recommend you to read it too. If you have your own experience, please share with us.

Update 23 November 2009

For the past few months, I’ve been paying 1,200 Tk/month which seems a good deal, considering the speed I’m getting.

Important Update 3 January 2009

Check the new review of Sirius Broadband/ZipBD here.

NFS Carbon Giveaway Contest Results

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:27:41 +0000

The response that we received to our NFS Carbon Collector’s Edition DVD Giveaway was overwhelming. We’ve had over a 1000 participants. But in the end only 5 were randomly selected through lottery. So here is the news that you’ve all been waiting for, the 5 WINNERS of the NFS Carbon Giveaway contest:

Rezaur Rahman of Gulshan-1, Dhaka
Salahuddin Ahmed of Banasree, Dhaka
Rajiv Ashrafi of Banasree, Dhaka
Shezan Mahmood of Uttara, Dhaka
Kausar Elahi of Elephant Road, Dhaka

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Since one of our contestants could not be reached, we had no choice but to select another entry. Congratualtions to Shezan Mahmood of Uttara, Dhaka!

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks for participating! You’ll receive your prizes in the mail within 2-3 days. And thanks to all for participating!

Subscribe to the Gamers World Bangladesh Blog Feed to know exactly when we have another contest!

Arcades of Dhaka City

Dead_Man_Rollin — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 19:12:00 +0000

Whatever happened to the arcades? Well, they haven’t disappeared; they simply got overwhelmed by the rising number of consoles, handhelds and multiplying networked gaming zones popping up everywhere.

Hi people, I’m the newest kid on the block…err..I mean blog. While others will enlighten you mostly about new games and gaming devices, I will just talk non-sense. Well, of course it’ll be gaming non-sense, but it has got nothing to do with the parental theory of gaming being a non-sense activity.

Anyways, back to arcade gaming. Back in the 80s , we were a lot younger and people used to call us confused kids. One prime entertainment activity for us was to hangout in the local arcades. See, there were good games and great gaming champions, and you could spend the entire day out there without even spending a single taka. So why wouldn’t the youth flock to these 2/3 taka costing gamer’s heavens?

But gone are the golden days of Shoryu Ken, Haoh Shiko Ken, Haohmaru, Ryu, Ken, Guile, Mustapha, Captain Commando, Aero Fighters and such. Now there is DOTA, NFS, Fifa, Counter Strike–the concept is similar, but the implementation is different. Previously you would join with your friends and beat up enemies. Now you join up with your friends to beat up some other friends. Nothing can be satisfying than beating the hell out of your best friend in a good 5 vs 5 defense of the ancient normal mode game as Terrorblade.

So what caused this transition? When we were flocking to the coin operated arcades of Dhaka, some rich kids still had the Segas and Nintendos in the comfort of their living rooms. But the arcade games were still more fun, and competitive. Kids from all social classes would be there. However, due to remarkable advancements in console games graphics and game play, and also due to the surfacing of PC as a viable gaming device made most coin operated arcade games to fade in to oblivion. Also, the crowd changed. More and more so called slum kids started visiting the arcades, which made some of the more sober crowd to feel further isolated. Thus most of our generation retreated to consoles and or PCs. However, we all were missing multi player gaming, and the new multi player gaming zones came to us as a savior.

World Cyber Games 2007 in Bangladesh

The Gaming Wiz/Mushfiqur Rahman — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 11:00:00 +0000

World Cyber Games 2007 will be held at Bangladesh on the 27th-29th July. Winners go to the Grand Final at Seattle, USA for their chance to win $1 Million

World Cyber Games 2007 is here once again. Missed it last time? Or was it just that you couldn’t show your top performance? No worries, you can still prove your mettle in this years Cyber Games 2007.

The World Cyber Games 2007 starts in Bangladesh at the 27th July and will continue to the 29th. It will be held at the China Friendship Convention Center near IDB. Two games have been listed this time – NFS Carbon and FIFA 07.

The winner of this year’s national championship goes to the Grand Final, which will be held at Seattle, USA. If you can prove your worth against 70 other competing countries, then you might be the lucky winner of $1 Million.

Register now because only 1,200 spots are available. To register, simply send a SMS from any GrameenPhone or Djuice number with the code “nfs” or “fifa” to 3030.

To know more, log on to the official World Cyber Games Bangladesh website.

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