Real Life Facebook

I find Facebook useful as the next person, which is quite darn good. In keeping in touch with your long lost friends, nothing is better. I used Friendster before and it lacked a certain security in terms of making sure the people who are connected to you are only the people you know. In Facebook, I found it more secure but the thought of making another account for this type of websites a bit daunting, especially going through the process of getting your friends. As such, I use such facilities shallowly, only to keep in touch with people I have known. It annoys me to no end when people whom I don't even know wants to facebook me or invite me into the useless apps strewn about the website. So I can really relate this video on what would happen if Facebook was indeed happening in real life.

Battleships Forever's Future

th15 has been silent for some time, especially regarding any further updates on his game Battleships Forever (BSF). I have read an interesting article in this month's local Game Axis magazine with him attending the 10th Annual Independent Games Festival (IGF). He was nominated into the top 10, which was why he was invited. So grab your local copy of Game Axis and check it out. Anyway, the article aside, th15 has broken his silence in the BSF forums by saying this:

"I guess I owe it to you guys. I haven't released anything new for some time because I'm busy with work. However, that work involves remaking Battleships Forever in a better engine. What this means is multi-player, better performance with hundreds (maybe thousands) of sections. Think everything that makes Battleships Forever, Battleships Forever and multiply that by ten. This will take some time. But not an absurd amount of time, Battleships Forever isn't exactly the most complex game ever. I'll confirm features, timeline and other stuff as and when I'm able, for now, just hang in there!

Sean 'th15' Chan 11-05-08"

Source: http://www.wyrdysm.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2186

Personally, I can't wait for this to be released. I hope he is not hitting into snags and get a working beta out soon. LoL. Anyway, I wish all the success to th15 for making this a reality.

Force Unleashed won't be coming to PC!

Lucas Arts has finally given up on the PC after announcing that Force Unleashed won't be releasing for the PC! The only thing that comes to my mind with this news is CRAP! And that is being polite. I can't believe this. Lucas Arts has always been a staunch supporter of the PC. Heck, it started off with the PC. And now this. The most coolest Star Wars game is coming out soon and it won't be out for the PC. This just plain sucks. Here is the copy and paste on why they won't be bringing it to the PC:

[If we made the game for high-end PCs], someone with a low-end PC would have a watered down experience, they would have to turn all the settings down and it wouldn't be the same game. On the other hand if we made that game for as many people as possible then it's not taking advantage of what those $4,000 systems can do.

What a load of BS! It's not as if they don't know that you can scale graphics on a PC game. Nice try on the excuse but please try again. Oh well so much for supporting Lucas Arts. Anyway, just to add some salt to the wound, here is a vid on the game below.

Watched Iron Man again!

Yeap, you heard that right. I watched this movie a second time and it still rocks! Can't quite get past the awesomeness when Iron Man makes his first maiden flight. This time, I watched it at TGV and it literally sucks. Not to mention that they don't have THX and somehow the screen had a weird gamma setting. It seemed too dark. At the same time the screen was flickering at odd moments. It detracted the movie somehow but not too much. Iron Man still rocks. Unfortunately, I gotta seriously reconsider watching anything there. GSC is simply better.

Almost watched Forbidden Kingdom though. Unfortunately, didn't as my friend wanted to go home as he had a gaming schedule instead. Gah I really want to watch Forbidden Kingdom and not many (if at all) of my friends want to watch a Chinese movie. The first movie that has Jet Li and Jackie Chan in it and I haven't even watched it, damn! Getting mixed reviews about this movie though, some say it is awesome because of the two and some say it is quite bad because of the American dude in it. Add to the fact that the movie is more of a western production, to cater to the wider demographic. Man, whatever. :P

More Lineage 2

I am playing more Lineage 2 now and there are some funny stuff going on. Like the pic below for instance ...

This is my character after getting buffed by a GM. The GM buffs are pretty powerful and usefull and generally lasts for about an hour. So usually when we find some news about a GMs whereabouts and s/he is buffing people, we'd spread this news to the alliance chat. When people know there are GMs about, people would come immediately for the buffs! The only downside, or upside, depending on where you look at it, you get a bighead for your buffs as well. Just as a sign that you were buffed by a GM. Kinda funny the first time. Although it does go away after some time.

This is my character in dual wield mode. I use this twin swords when the party doesn't need AE. On a single target, it gives me the best DPS. Can't wait to take my secondary class as gladiator as that class specializes in dual wielding. For now, I just use 'em but have no skills to properly master them. However, dual wielding does look cool. ^^

This is my new character, Selucia, a female orc. Finally decided to make a destroyer, which is a double hander single target DPS machine. I made this character to experience something different from my main and so far she is kinda fun, although still low level. Another reason is the female orcs in this game are hot! Quite weird I know but she has a nice muscled athletic build.

Awesome Macross Plus editing

Check this youtube video out! Somehow the person edited clips out of Macross Plus anime and placed in Topgun audio and it is quite interesting. It is awesome how the characters mime the words perfectly!

Another Alien novel

After I watched the movie Iron Man, I headed for MPH to check out the books there. As usual, I usually check out the sci-fi and fantasy sections. Lo and behold! I found a new Aliens novel. I am quite a collector of Aliens novel, since I am a fan of the series. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to find Alien novels at where I am at. So I was particularly happy to see there was a new one out. I have just started reading it and the synopsis is interesting. Apparently this story is before Alien the movie, detailing and explaning on how The Company had information regarding the aliens. Can't wait to read it till the end which I am doing right now juggling between farming my character in Lineage 2 and this book.

Iron Man

Finally, the movie industry has done right in delivering what a comic adaptation should be. You don't need me to tell you that this movie rocks, it is everywhere in the web! My personal opinion, this movie brings justice to Iron man. Robert Downey Jr. is a great actor and it is a shame that not many people know that. He brought Tony Spark with all the swagger that he could muster, befitting the multi million tycoon.

The storyline is a simple one. It tells on how Tony Spark, being confident in the world he created with his products, suddenly gets to experience a different perspective which shatters his perception of the world. He later goes on a journey of self discovery and ultimately, Iron man.

The action in the movie is top notch with spectacular visuals and effects whenever iron man is in the shot. Surprisingly, Jeff Bridges plays a great villain. I hope he plays more villains in the future, his look in this movie is badass! All in all though, the cast in the movie is great and able to portray their characters believably.

But trust me when I say the true star of the show is Iron man himself. Composed entirely in CGI, he looks awesome! So I highly recommend this movie to everyone, especially comic buffs and Iron man fans! Hopefully, any future comic adaptations are as great as this one. Certainly, this sits well with Spiderman the movie as one of the better comic adaptations into the silver screen.

Good enough to eat!

Human and Dwarf

There are a few playable races in Lineage 2 and they are humans, dwarves, orcs, light elves, dark elves and kamaels. Here is a picture of my character beside a cute female dwarf. You might recognize the tree behind us. Anyway, just wanted to show how cute some of the characters can be, despite the limitation on the game.

Lineage 2 Farm

Gah I am busy farming my character in Lineage 2. It is a good time to farm now since there is a 2x experience event till the 6th of May. We have this particular good spot, somewhere in the middle of some undead zone. What I do is pull the undead mobs and let them run after me untill we reach a tree, where I unleash my AoE damage on them. Most of the time, it runs fine, unfortunately, there is a chance that I may get stunned and this will put more pressure on the healers. However, this has yielded the best experience so far in a group. Hope I can last till level 60 by the end of the event. As of this moment, my character is level 56.

The Impera tree

I unleash my AoE