Gamer's Bill of Rights

The boyos at Stardock and Gas Powered Games have proposed that all publishers adhere to their Gamer's Bill of Rights:

1. Gamers shall have the right to return games that don't work with their computers for a full refund.
2. Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
3. Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game's release.
4. Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.
5. Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will adequately play on that computer.
6. Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won't install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their express consent.
7. Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
8. Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
9. Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.
10. Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

Sign me up for full support on this. All publishers must follow this but then again, who are we kidding right?

Source: Click me

Chuck Norris Bring on the Pain

I haven't updated my blog for some time but this warrants updating! Despite having busy days with playing Warhammer Online Public Weekend recently and such but nothing holds the candle to this bit of news.

Chuck Norris Bring on the Pain is a game by Gameloft coming to a handphone near you! It took them long enough but after alot of Chuck Norris facts in the internet showing how badass he is, a game embodying that fact wouldn't be too far coming.

So check out the vid below of the game in action. It has no audio but I trust you will input your own brand of sounds for the bone crunching, punch impacting and round house kicking fun!

My Impressions: Space Siege demo

So I got my hands on the Space Siege demo that was just released yesterday and I have finished playing it. First off, this are by the same people who made Dungeon Siege. So expect similar gameplay elements except that this time, it is scifi instead of medieval fantasy.
First off, the demo weighs around 900++mb. The installation was no problem for me and everything was functioning nicely. So onward to the game. It is a classic isometric view with the ability to pan the camera and zoom in and zoom out of your character. Your character is a soldier in the human vessel that was escaping an alien invasion force. They almost succeeded except that one of the alien boarding ships managed to latch on. So it is your duty to help repel this invaders. The gameplay has your character repelling the first horde of invaders that has just made it to a main corridor. After succeeding in blasting their hides either with a ranged weapon or melee, you will have to proceed to the engine room to synch the engines in order for the ship to utilize its thrusters and escape.
The controls seems to be simple and I got used to it in the first minute of play. The graphics are somewhat acceptable for this age and time. The heavy weight comes from the excellent particle effects and physics that seems to be present in everything in the screen. However, judging from the demo itself, it seems to be an average game. It plays almost the same as Dungeon Siege and from the demo you control one protaganist. As you explore the map you are able to find weapons and also cybernetic enhancements that will replace your limbs if you choose to do so. They bring about good bonuses but will decrease your humanity points. Not to mention some weapons need you to have cybernetic enhancements to be able to use them. What does your humanity points do isn't explained in the demo. There is also a skill screen where you can alotte points into the skills of choice but you won't get to do so in the demo. The demo is fairly short which should take you around 15 minutes of play to complete it. The final leg of the demo is your character defending seemingly endless waves of enemies against the last transport train in your area.
Another thing worth mentioning is that your enemies and some environment items will drop upgrade scraps when they are destroyed. With this upgrade scraps, you can upgrade yourself, your weapons and also make health packs and grenades at work benches which will appear sporadically in the map in Aid rooms. At the same time, you can also replenish your life and energy in the Aid rooms. I am not sure since the demo doesn't have a save feature but it could be surmised that the Aid rooms will also be your save points in the game as well.
Conclusion from the demo is that the game is very average. However, the demo only scratches the surface of the game and doesn't properly showcase the game at all. So, after the final product is out, it might be way better than what the demo shows.

Pen and Paper

I have finally experienced the pen and paper RPG experience! Last weekend, my friends and I decided to play table top RPG using the newest Dnd 4th edition rules. It was a blast and we had alot of laughs. Took almost half a day just to create our characters, even though some of us have already made ours earlier. Anyway, I made a tiefling warlord and it is an awesome class to play. It is generally a melee buffer. It could tank although not as good as a fighter while giving out passive and active buffs to everyone or to the character of my choice whenever is needed. I made a joke that my character is a rapist and it seems to have stuck even though I made sure not to show those kind of tendencies on my character when I was playing him.
I am in the process of writing a journal based on what happened during my play with my character. I am 1/4ths done but I hope I will finish it before this weekend. Things of note was that one of our party members spent most of the time unconscious top side (either from failing a fortitude check after emptying a tankard full of dwarven ale and another from sleeping it off later), another took exclusive care to pick pocket any chance he could get and lastly during our final encounter of the day, two of our team mates actually bolted to get out of harm's way. My character, Pendekar Laut (yes, that's his name) will remember what transpired on that particular encounter. So I can't wait for the next game this coming Sunday.

Mass Effect BDtS is out and Space Siege demo is out!

Mass Effect on PC fans can rejoice because the Bring Down the Sky downloadable content is out with the latest patch. So be sure to log on to the main website >HERE< and get your download on. However, judging from the massE PC forums, there is a particular problem that have cropped up. The lava textures on the planet of Therum seems to be missing and a Bioware spokesperson has replied on a fix. All you have to do is go into the config tool and use the 'repair' section and select the "Delete Local Shader Cache Files". That should fix it automatically.

Space Siege which is the spiritual successor to Dungeon Siege will be released next month and the demo is out! The demo weighs around 900++mb and will give you a taste on what the game is about. You can grab it >HERE<. If you ran into some loopy resolution problem with the demo, inputting this line "fullscreen=false" into one of the ini files (I am assuming) would fix it.

Long time no update so here's the skinny

I haven't updated my blog for some time now. I would lie and say because I was busy but then again I was just lazy :P. Anyway here is the skinny on what have happened since then:

AND THE HEAVENS ... SHALL TREMBLE!

The announcement by Blizzard during the World Wide Invitational (WWI) on Diablo 3 had the gaming world by storm. It was a well kept secret of sorts but everyone knew about it, wished about it, kept wishing about it and finally it was made real by Blizzard! If you were living under a rock the Diablo series was one of the first action RPGs that totally captured the gaming community's attention. It was addictive, simple to get into but needs skill and knowledge to truly master it. In one fell swoop, Blizzard managed to bring heavenly news and made the world whoop in ecstasy for a few seconds. Below is the cinematic trailer to Diablo 3 but you can see other tid bits and info on the game at their official website >HERE<.

WHY SO SERIOUS HMMM? LETS PUT A SMILE ON THAT FACE!

Then the next Batman movie came out and it was awesome! Continuing the series of Batman which is now played by Christian Bale and directed by Christopher Nolan, the bring a more realistic and more grittier approach to the world of Gotham. Continuing from Batman Begins, this time the villain that will grace the silver screen is none other than the great nemesis of Batman himself, the Joker who is played by Heath Ledger. As if the original cast of Batman Begins isn't enough to pull you in, Heath Ledger as Joker brings the movie to new heights of emotion and depth. I won't be lying if I said that Heath Ledger single handedly made The Dark Knight movie a true master piece. He brings the madness, insanity and cruelty of Joker so belieavably into the silver screen that you can almost touch him. Christopher Nolan has topped himself in this sequel by bringing more emotion and depth. I won't go into details but I will assure you that this is a movie that you will not want to miss. Below is the trailer for the movie for your viewing pleasure:

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

Lineage 2

You might not believe this but I have started playing Lineage 2. At first I never saw myself playing this game as it was touted as grindy and hardcore. But, as a measure to help our gaming community, Celestial Order, I tried the game nonetheless. And was rewarded with exactly what people were warning me about. Now, after Guild Wars, I am quite bored out of grinding. The only consolation is that I am doing it with my guild mates and it makes it somewhat tolerable. That is not to say that this game is not without merits. I personally like the character designs, armours and weapons. They are not as outlandish as say, WoW but they look more realistic in so far as to look similar to european medieval time armours. The game is still new to me and the first thing I learnt from the game is that everything is expensive! Teleporting will cost you thousands of adena (the game's currency). Even when you have a clan hall, you have to pay rental! And it is not cheap.


My character in the game is a warlord. Which is a crowd control melee class. Quite contrary to the type of classes I choose which is usually single dps melee classses. However, I am taking a liking to him as I get to run a mechanic that I have been aware for some time but never get to experience it. Which is train-ing. Literally, you aggro as many monsters as you can and you train them to a location where you can maximise your weapon's angle. The name of the game is to hit as many of them in one time, with the least swings as possible with the class' AoE (area of effect) attacks and skills. As you can no doubt see, this class is a good levelling companion and most people would want a warlord in the team. Anyway, recently the game just updated to Chaos Throne version 1.5 and there is also a 2x experience event happening. Seems like everyone is on a levelling rampage to take advantage of that. I guess I am on that bus as well.

Aliens: Colonial Marines

This could be old news but I had to say it anyway. There is an Aliens game in production! Woohoooo! It is named Aliens: Colonial Marines and will be during James Cameron's Aliens movie timeline! Awesome! Those colonial marines were badass! I can't wait to play this. The cool thing is that there will be four player coop where you will be covering each other's assses while getting some objective of some sort done at the same time. No information on when it is going to be released but I can't wait for any news regarding on the game for now. The game is being done by Gearbox and will be released by Sega. Hopefully, the game delivers on the hype. There are a few pics up of the game in its current state in the net now but for me, this particular pic sold it for me:


From that pic, the guy burning the doors together should hurry up because the aliens are just outside, ready to knock the door and they aren't selling girl scout cookies!

Battleships Forever

There this awesome game that has been out for some time but I only got my hands on it quite recently. It is still in beta though but most of its features are complete. It is roughtly a 2D top down RTS game. It looks simple but it is quite complex. The best thing is that you can create your own custom ships with the included Battleship Maker. I have created two fleets as of this moment and you can check them out: Aquilonian Fleet and Neo Genesis. Check out the pic of my Aquilonian Fleet:

Check out Battleships Forever by clicking >HERE<.

Long time no post.

After a long time of not posting, I have decided to do some changes! So here you can see I have added in a custom blog skin. I probably would change the header image to make it alot more different.

My Opinion on Rambo 4 the movie.

After 20 years, the sequel to Rambo III has arrived. John Rambo comes full circle this time around with some closure on the character. Just like Rocky Balboa (2006), Rambo IV marks the last of what we will see of Rambo. This doesn't mean that the character dies but merely the fact that I honestly believe that there will not be anymore Rambo films in the future. At least, not by Sylvester Stallone and starred by Sylvester Stallone.

We find John in a secluded river village somewhere in Thailand. He ekes out a living by ferrying people around in his river boat and other odd jobs. It is at this moment that we notice that John doesn't look happy with himself. He looks reserved but you can sense that he is not satisfied. Whether it is with himself or with the situation around him, we do not know. However, he receives a plight from a group of Christian missionaries to ferry them into the neighbouring country, which is embroiled in civil war (Burma). He declines at first, but after being persuaded by Sarah, the only female in the missionary group, he finally accepts even though he himself sees that their lending of aid into Burma is a futile effort.

As expected, the missionary group gets captured by the Burmese army and are subjected to harsh imprisonment. Later, the head of the Christian Church that the missionary group hails from, approaches John in the middle of the night to ask for a rescue mission. Fearing for Karen's safety, he accepts. With the help of some mercenaries, John goes into Burma.

So that is the general plot. Or storyline if you will. Nothing complex, nothing too hard to grasp and no twists near the end. What happens next is pure adrenaline pumping, testosterone inducing, Rambo action. Alot of violence, bullets flying everywhere, deafening explosions, blood & guts are the main offerings. The movie portrays the violent Burmese soldiers really well and you can't wait for Rambo to let loose hell on them. Personally I found the movie satisfying and definitely something you should watch to cure your boredom. If you have watched the other Rambo movies, then there is no reason not to watch this one. Definitely another classic!

Check out the Rambo IV trailer below: