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One thing I appreciate about the quality of products of homegrown brands is that it usually does not let me down. I have used several Creative products over the years - keyboards, mice and even MP3 players. My most recent aquisition is no exception, and I have been very pleased with the audio quality of the Creative Inspire M5300 5.1 speaker set.

As with other Creative products, this product is competitively-priced. Juxtaposed with other equivalent 5.1 surround sound speaker systems, the Inspire M5300 is a good buy. This is especially so after hearing the sounds that it produces. It is retailing now at S$150, which is approximately US$90. This is one cost-effective set of home theatre entertainment system!

Coinciding with the launch of its Audigy sound cards, the Inspire 5.1 was touted as one of the wallet-friendly home entertainment systems available on the market. Even when used with a computer for both gaming and entertainment purposes, this is considered a quality but affordable speaker set, especially when used with a compatible sound card. This stylish speaker set is ideal for use in a medium-sized room for computer usage. The 5 speakers can be distributed to provide even surround sound. According to Creative, best performance can be obtained when used in conjunction with an Audigy sound card.

Installation is a breeze. All the speakers, firstly, have to be cabled to the subwoofer. Next the subwoofer has to be jacked to the on-board sound card for a computer. The jacks are colour-coded so there need not be any worries about plugging the wrong jack into the slots. Using the sound card software on the computer (even non-Creative sound cards), performance of the speakers can be tweaked to the user's preference to maximize audio enjoyment. This set even comes with a wired remote control with a power switch. The master volume and balance of the speakers can be adjusted from the remote, which can be placed in a convenient location, saving the need of having to search out the satellite speaker or subwoofer to adjust volume.

Quality-wise, the Creative Inspire M5300 delivers a decent but not brilliant performance. The subwoofer actually lacks the depth in sound; it does not have that powerful resonating feel. Turning up the bass helps, but tweak it too high and risk the sound quality becoming 'echo-ish'. The subwoofer of the JBL Invader 4.1 system actually performs better than this one. With regards to the satellite speakers, they perform up to standard, providing clear and resounding tones. However, turning up the volume more than 75% will cause significant distortion to sound quality, but this is forgivable in my opinion. Usually, users would not need to tune the volume up that high.

Looks-wise, the Creative Inspire M5300 is a stylish set of speakers. In contrast with JBL's smooth curves and shiny shades, Creative opts for a sinister all-black finish and boxy angles for the speakers. The colour theme would be matching with most computers. The subwoofer also has a wooden enclosure. This was a pleasant surprise, as not only it looks good aesthetically, but wood also improves the sound quality.

Music playback on this system would pose no problems; in fact, it would be rather enjoyable. However, this system might be just a tad lacking for DVD movies playback, especially in the subwoofer department. Watching action flicks are not as enjoyable - the "boom's" are spectacular on this subwoofer. Also, I did not like the fact that Creative did not bother to include the useful speaker stands in the package, but are instead available separately for sale.

Despite certain minor letdowns in the overall performance of the Creative Inspire M5300, it is still an above-average speaker system for the price range. The audio-fussy would be more satisfied with higher end ranges like the Megaworks, but for the ordinary computer home users like me and you, the Creative Inspire 5.1 M5300 would be great value for money.

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I believe this mega-blockbuster requires no introduction. Adapted to the silver-screen after the popular franchise, the Autobots and Decepticons rolled out with their arsenal of guns blazing, propelling this movie to the pinnacle of silver-screen success in 2007. Named 'Movie Of The Year' by many respectable publications, this Michael Bay-directed film is truly a milestone in the movie industry and its lasting impression will not be forgotten for a long time to come.

The storyline revolves around two factions of technologically superior alien species - the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons. These two factions bring their war to Earth, as they search for the Allspark, a powerful alien artifact. The Autobots seek the Allspark to destroy it and put an end to the war that devastated their homeworld, while the Decepticons lust for the Allspark to create an army of machines to future their evil agenda. Both types of species can disguise themselves on Earth, morphing into everyday machinery, mostly vehicles.

Sam Witwicky stumbles upon Bumblebee, one of the Autobots, while buying a new car and goes on to form a close friendship with the robot. He manages to woo his love interest Mikaela with Bumblebee's help, who also protected Sam and Mikaela from an attack by Barricade, one of the Decepticons. After summoning the rest of the Autobots to Earth, it then dawned that the location of the Allspark was imprinted on a spectacle lens of Sam's great-grandfather. Sam decided to help the Autobots on their quest to locate and destroy the Allspark.

Along the way to the Hoover Dam where the Allspark was located, they came under siege of the Decepticons. Megatron, the Decepticon's leader, was awoken from his frozen state (after he crash landed in the Arctic) and lead the attack against the Autobots. Large-scale skirmishes between the two factions raged in the cities and the Autobots narrowly won, with the help of the American military and a few Special Operations soldiers. In the climatic battle that ensued, several Decepticons and one Autobot perished. This left Megatron to face off with Optimus Prime who is his Autobot counterpart. Eventually, Sam managed to sneak in with the Allspark and shove the cube-like artifact into Megatron's chest, destroying both the Allspark and Megatron in the process.

Starring Shia LaBeouf as main protagonist Sam Witwicky and Megan Fox as Mikaela Banes as his love interest, this movie is directed by Michael Bay and produced together with Steven Spielberg. This movie was rated the 28th most successful film ever released in history, using ticket sales as a benchmark. This film grossed US$706 million worldwide and a eagerly-anticipated sequel is due in 2009. This film also garnered three Academy award nominations for visual and audio performance.

For me, Transformers (2007) was my personal 'Movie of the Year' and will remain one of my favourite movies of all time. As a Transformers fan when I was young, this movie adaptation of the franchise was a dream come true. I could see Bumblebee and Optimus Prime not in a cartoon-animated form for the first time, but as living and moving mechanical beings. I believe many Transformers fans would share the same sentiment.

Objectively, this is an awesome action film. The plot does not come into question, as it is adapted from the original franchise; it is nothing fantastic but the action sequences were simply spectacular. It was a full 90 minutes of non-stop action. Ranging from gunfights, melee skirmishes between machines to highway pursuits in the various metamorphic vehicles, Transformers will leave audiences in awe. Brilliant CGI work was done and it was a joy to watch Starscream morph from his fighter jet form into this original form. Watching each little bit of his body transform was fascinating. Furthermore, the cast is sufficiently attractive - Megan Fox is eye candy for the guys, while Shia LeBeouf's boyish charms brings about a heart-flutter or two.

Transformers (2007) was and will remain one of the best cinema experiences that I have ever gone to. Autobots, for the win! Roll out!

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Street racing games are all the rage recently, ever since the start of the 'The Fast And The Furious' franchise till the climax of the Tokyo Drift episode. Sending heavily modified cars screaming down a busy city street while avoiding police - this seems an all-too-familiar scene in racing games like 'Need For Speed'. The latest racer that I got my hands upon cuts a much different scene. Colin McRae: DiRT is one of the better racers that I have played in recent times.

While many might not agree to playing racing games on a computer keyboard, DiRT has provided me endless hours of fun on the virtual outdoor tracks. The most remarkable feature is the breathtaking display of graphics. Overall, scenery, car designs, tracks and weather elements are modeled to near perfection. Watch the tires kick up dirt and burn smoke as a car navigates a sharp turn, blaze through sheets of rain on the tracks in chilly Japan; each individual detail is taken care of. My favourite aspect of detail is the vehicular damage. Taking a slight rub against rails will leave scratches on the paintjob, knocking an opponent racer dislodges his bumper and crashing your car into a barricade turns it into a flattened wreck.

Racing dynamics are standard, although cars feel lighter than they look. It is easy to pick up even for racing novices. Basically the difference between DiRT and games like Need For Speed is that there are no objectives to clear other than clocking the best timing on the track against other racers. In this sense, DiRT focuses more on the racing aspect, whereas games like NFS focus more on developing the plot through racing. With this said, DiRT sacrifices storyline for more race quality. This may be good for hardcore racing fans, but the whole process does get repetitive after some time, especially for the uninitiated. DiRT tries to alleviate this problem by offering us a wide variety of race vehicles of different classes. Each handles different and the range of the vehicles present are quite impressive.

The downside of Colin McRae: DiRT is that the superior graphics and model engine comes at a cost to performance. You will need a relatively high-end machine to run everything smoothly. Solo races will hardly pose any problems, but once you are squaring off beside three or more cars, gameplay gets choppy and frame rates drop to unsatisfactory levels. Although these can be occasional, it is a true annoyance. Furthermore, the multiplayer system on DiRT is largely deplorable. Only two types of races are supported - hillclimb and rally. Basically you can race against 20 or so racers online simultaneously. That sums up the entire online gaming experience on DiRT.

While DiRT will not please many fans of the Colin McRae series, this is sure to 'wow' the crowd with the awesome graphics and will appeal to most racer novices. This game's depth is unparalleled, with the multitude of races and championships. Just make sure your computer has the capability to support the high demands of this graphic-intense racer.

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Avast!'s default interface

An increasing number of digital threats becoming an ever-present danger to home computers have fuelled the growth of the market of counter-measure software. The emergence of many new and effective kinds of antivirus software has chipped away the dominance of the large corporations like Symantec (Norton). There has been an avalanche of software freely distributed over the internet but after careful sifting and selection, only few stand out as trustworthy and effective tools to defend against virus threats. One of the best of them is AVG Anti-Virus (in one of my preview reviews). Yet another good one is AVAST! Antivirus Home Edition.

Basically, all kinds of antivirus software have the same fundamental functions. First, it is to prevent viruses from entering your computer system. Second, it is to search and eliminate any viruses that get through the defenses, undoing any potential harm done. However, there are some intrinsic differences between the features and functions of the various kinds of software.

In the case of AVAST! Antivirus, its preeminent feature is that it offers a boot-up scan function. This is a supremely helpful tool but unfortunately, it is so rare, even on purchased software. Thus, the presence of this tool on a free software is a double plus point for me. The boot-up scan can definitely remove more stubborn viruses that other software might not be able to do, as it can eliminate resuscitators that viruses use to counter removal measures. In my opinion, scanning while booting does a great job of removing viruses during startup, allowing your computer to start on a clean slate.

Another key characteristic is the availability and customizability of the appearance of AVAST! Antivirus. It looks something similar to the Winamp design, and users have the choice of downloading new skins to change the interface to suit their preference. Looks wise, this resembles more of a music player than an antivirus program. The interface is relatively hassle-free and straightforward to operate. AVAST! can be programmed to run in real-time and in the background while the user does other things with the computer. While AVG's full system scan slowed my computer noticeably, AVAST!'s scan seems to take up less computer resources and does not affect working speed considerably.

AVAST! Antivirus will prompt and request for a boot-up scan (scanning before the operating system loads) every time it detects malicious software or files in the system. However this function is compatible on with Windows NT/2000/XP. Standard email scanning is present as well, and AVAST! can block spam if too many messages are coming through in a short period of time. One thing to note is that AVAST! does not allow the scheduling of regular full system scans like AVG (AVG scans after Windows starts up by default). This function is present, but only in the Professional Edition.

One very useful function on AVAST! is the Virus Recovery Database (VRDB). This basically stores information of a file and saves that information as backup. If this certain file gets infected and becomes beyond repair, VRDB can undo the changes and restore the file back to its previous configuration. This is an extremely helpful tool, especially for backing up documents of paramount importance. The downside of VRDB is that it has a tremendous strain on the computer, taking up a significantly large amount of resources. More often than not, especially so for home users, the VRDB takes up too much system resources to be of a realistic help.

AVAST! Antivirus Home Edition is an all-rounded software that home users can depend on to ensure the security of a computer. It can definitely rival the popular AVG in the freeware market. The boot-up scanning procedure has the potential to transform AVAST! into a premier antivirus software, but regrettably it was quite disappointing. The lack of signatures was the cause of several malicious files getting past the defense system and not the working of the scanning function itself. At this moment, before any improvements are made to AVAST!, I would safely put my bet on AVG instead.

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When two of the most famous Chinese martial exponents-cum-actors come together and star in a Hollywood kungfu blockbuster, you would expect to fully enjoy the approximate 105 minutes of run time of the movie. Fortunately, unlike some of the recent kungfu flicks, The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) is a commendable action-comedy that has cemented Jackie Chan and Jet Li as two of the most celebrated entertainers in the world.

Frankly speaking, the plot synopsis of The Forbidden Kingdom is downright ludicrous and smells much of a flop. The story revolves around an American teenager Jason Tripitakas (note the obvious reference to the monk Tripitakas) played by Michael Angarano who is obsessed with martial arts and kungfu, frequently patroning Lu Yan Pawn Shop in Chinatown to buy classic kungfu movies. He stumbles into an attempted robbery and the owner was shot in the scuffle. The owner then entrusts an old sacred Chinese relic to Jason to 'return to its rightful owner'. Jason then mysteriously gets transported into the mystical world of ancient folklore China.

Unable to speak or comprehend a word of the language, and with evil troops hot in his pursuit, Jason flees for his life with the sacred staff and encounters a drunken traveler, Lu Yan (Jackie Chan) who miraculously speaks English. Lu explains to him that the mystical staff belonged to the great Monkey King, who was imprisoned in stone by the evil authoritarian Jade Warlord (Collin Chou). His mission was to use the staff to free the Monkey King and end the reign of the Jade Warlord - only then could he return home. Along the way, he meets the Silent Monk (Jet Li), a highly skilled monk on a mission to locate the staff and free the Monkey King; and Golden Sparrow, an orphan girl seeking vengeance for her deceased family.

As mentioned earlier, with such a far-fetched plot, I was skeptical about the quality of the movie when I walked into the cinema. Much to my surprise, this show did not disappoint at all - in fact, it was one of the better shows that I have watched in recent weeks. Jackie Chan was his usual goofy self as an aloof Lu Yan, and his characteristic humour brought much laughter to the audience. In contrast, Jet Li's stern demeanor is a direct opposite to Chan's but director Rob Minkoff managed to assimilate their two starkly different personalities together, producing a cantankerous yet jovial pair of masters for the young Jason. Their good-natured conflicts and open defiance of each other does produce some classic comedy moments that add more value to the already-entertaining film.

The chemistry between Jet Li and Jackie Chan was impeccable. Clearly, this is the reason why so many fans have called for these two maestros to act in one movie together. Action sequences were superbly choreographed by the excellent Yuen Wo-Ping (of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon fame) and is non-stop physical and adrenaline pumping martial exchanges, instead of being aided by dodgy camera and computer-graphic effects. Even Michael Angarano puts in some decent kungfu performance against the Jade Warlord towards the end.

I would not call this an epic or a classic - it would be grossly overrating The Forbidden Kingdom (2008). However I really appreciated the way the production crew kept this movie true to its original theme. The Forbidden Kingdom boasts of two kungfu megastars in its cast and the producers did very well to bring out the full potential of a collaboration between Chan and Li, allowing this movie to emphasize on solid kungfu action amidst a Chinese mythical background. It does away with redundant romantic side-plots (while not compromising on an attractive female cast) and whatnots and bravely exhibits the essence of a good kungfu comedy flick. A truly entertaining flick for the family - I am looking forward to Jackie Chan and Jet Li's next collaboration.

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