Infograph: Most Popular Usernames in MMO Games

I was playing around with Canva, a web-based application that allows you to create and save infographs for free... as long as yo don't use any of their paid elements. I've gotta say though - they do have a lot of free icons and images for you to use as you please.

That said, Canva has some really nice templates, fonts and images/icons, but I really dislike that the tools provided are very clunky and restrictive. In fact, I can do an even better job using PowerPoint to create my infograph... lol... minus the free icons and stuff, of course.  

But well, if you need a somewhat freeware that can do the job (infograph) without needing any installations, Canva is a pretty good bet. 

Anyway, here's the infograph that I made for lulz (just to try out the application I mean). Oh and the info in it is pretty accurate I'd say :P

Click to Enlarge

I wanted to add a picture of various anime in the "anime" box, but well, I gave up lol. As mentioned, it's tough as hell to move things around especially when you can't see the layer order for each item and kept clicking/ moving on the wrong stuff. Texts are super tough to move as well.

It turned out okay though, so... guess there's that :P

Alright, have fun with Canva! Ima go grab some dinner now :)

Jupiter Ascending - very brief movie review

*This so-called review contains some spoilers*

The movie can be summarised into this nifty but long formula:

Jupiter Ascending = Werewolf/ lycan + vampire + aliens + wings + cool gadgets (anti-gravity boots ftw!) + beautifully-rendered planets + a space battle + cliche save-the-maiden stuff + a plot like Dune/ Game of Thrones (like the many internal politics in the different houses in Dune/ GoT)... I'm actually surprised that it lacks zombies.

It is the epitome of trying to squeeze everything that is popular into a movie, only to end up a very shoddy storyline. For more than half the time, I had no idea what I was watching. Even if you're actually watching the movie, you'll be dazed (in the bad way) by all the dizzy combat... that you will probably end up with a headache after the movie. I'm also surprised that the Msian gov didn't sensor the part where Katherine Dunlevy appeared in her lingerie lol. Not that I mind much, but the gov are usually very strict about these sort of stuff that the fact that they missed this out is rather funny in some way. Maybe they got their hands full with Fifty Shades of Grey movie? :P

That being said, the actors and actresses did a pretty good job. I love how Mila Kunis fit the role *Spoiler* - she has the Egyptian queen-look that when she was named as an Entitled in the movie, I was not very surprised. Besides the feature that she is naturally born with, her acting loses out at times and does not feel as convincing. 

Channing Tatum looks as cool as usual, but being a lycantant, I think he should have bared his fangs more (most people may not even noticed that he had fangs). Eddie Redmayne did okay as well, but the part where he yelled seems to fall short. That's what I feel anyway. He did an excellent job at portraying Stephen Hawking in the Theory of Everything though. 

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb movie review

A review with no spoilers... yay! xD

This movie isn't as good as expected. If you've seen the trailer, then you've already seen 80% of the more-hilarious jokes in the movie. There are many jokes that just fall flat. Replaying the same jokes once or twice is still okay, but the movie seems to stretch it way beyond that, to the point where I'll be like -.-||| ... like it ran out of story line and had these replays as movie fillers.

Good parts? Certain moments in the movie can be really heart-warming (again, no spoilers! :P) and there is a cameo by someone from the X-men ;)


Verdict: Worth watching, but don't get your expectations too high. Doesn't have a really memorable story despite being the last sequel for the Night at the Museum series.

https://www.facebook.com/NightAtTheMuseumMovies?fref=ts


- As copied and pasted from my FB post :)

Side Effects webseries

It's awesome. Seriously, if you're a stickler for series like Glee (though I don't really watch Glee now... it seems like the story's 'over-dragged on', if you get what I mean ;) ) 

Anyway, if you have no idea what I am talking about, go check out their complete first season here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBQgA3Kndk7dXtuuE1z16-07wmLAilEGk (Yes, it's a playlist of 5 episodes with their cover/original songs in music videos :P). 

The most outstanding song from their season 1 is definitely Bad Day (Music video and lyrics here). I had that on repeat for a whole week lol. :P

The most exciting thing is that their second season is already here!!! (3rd episode now) And although we fans have not so much as a glimpse of their original song (not even a teaser! Garh!) for this season, so far, I have plenty of awesome covers to satisfy our hunger :D

Go check out their second season here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBQgA3Kndk7fZESLVEUlO-Bda4HfG1kmr

Okay, I'm out! Cya! :)

Memrise - the free site that helps you learn faster and easier effectively

This is absolutely brilliant. I'm currently re-learning my French (I had learned some basics 3 years ago :P).

Do check it out if you feel like learning a new language or something :) http://www.memrise.com/

P/S: They teach basic stuff only though - words/phrases/sentences that you may need if you decided to plan a trip to a foreign country :)

Need for Speed movie review

The Ford Mustang that was, disappointingly, not in the De Leon racing competition.

If you enjoy speed and lots of really expensive (2 million dollars-worth) cars tumbling around in the air and exploding into flames, then you should go watch Need for Speed (the movie). Plenty of loud engine noises and very dizzying drifts hehe :P

Oh and don't forget about the fun part in all Need for Speed games, instead of tipping cows, drivers 'tip' police cars. So, do expect to see plenty of flying and flaming police cars as well

But on a serious note, that 'grasshopper jump' maneuver is epic! And the best part, it's not (unlike other movies I suppose) CGI xD

And check this link out :)
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/need-for-speed-movie-the-stunts-are-real/1100-6417730/

A very adrenaline-filled movie, especially for fans of Fast and Furious/ car racing sort of movies/games.

300: Rise of an Empire movie review

This will be a short one. Besides being a movie that haz plenty of honor and ego inside it (hehe), this movie is not for the faint hearted... expect plenty of violence.... and CGI blood lol

Oh... and awesome soundtrack/score and plenty of slow-motion xD

It's pretty good, if you're into or can stomach violence, death and destruction... and ofc, men in their undies xD then you should go and check it out. Even for me, this movie is a bit too violent for me lol.... feeling a bit nauseous after watching it.

**Please do not take offense lol... this is just my humorous way of writing a movie review.

A very interesting site - Fiverr

So cutting to the chase, one of my relatives recommended this site to me when I told her that I'm interested in writing. She said that through this, I can get feedback and earn some money on the side (she knew about my dismal financial problem as well). 

I've forgotten about it until yesterday and, boy! I had a blast trying to think of stuff/service that I can sell. :) 

It's pretty cool. I haven't made a sale yet so I cannot comment of how the buying-selling works, but the setting up sales part is pretty awesome. Somewhat rigid in a way, but awesome. And it's fun seeing what kind of weird stuff people sell online for fiver ($5). :P

Check out my Fiverr account (Link: http://fiverr.com/users/aveyntoh/). If you somehow saw something that you like or need, feel free to purchase any of my gigs ;) I might just start  making crafts for sale as well! But ... uh, no time. Sigh... lol.

Okay I'm out. Cya!


Note: I've noticed that the site frequently goes down (becomes inaccessible). That's one major part the devs at Fiverr should work on asap :P

P/S: Btw, I've just made my first sales! :D I've written an abstract and she paid me $5 but then, somehow, Fiverr said I was paid $8. However, when I checked my revenue, they only inputted $4 into my Fiverr account..... LOL 

I, Frankenstein movie review

So... I've been to the cinema to watch this new movie called 'I, Frankenstein'. It's a 'what happened after?' version of the old Frankenstein story. 

Without giving too much away, I would say that I find the director's idea of a more handsome Frankenstein 'monster' a very nice touch. I think he's trying to make the Frankenstein 'monster' appear more human as the movie discussed quite a lot on Frankenstein's uh~ species status - since he's not exactly human (immortal lol), he can be either a creature of light or darkness :P but initially, he ofc chose to be neutral - he is just starting his journey to find the answer to the question 'who am I?' at that time. 

I find the story line quite satisfying though there are some parts I was like 'What?'. I also like the awesome CGI used in this movie - I especially like the way the Gargoyles morphed into human form and vice versa, and also how the good and evil souls get sucked up into heaven/ down into the ground :) Despite all that, I still think that this movie is more CGI and fighting. I've mentioned that the story is pretty satisfying but, emotionally, I don't find it fulfilling. The part where Frankenstein finds his true self and his life's purpose is just... a little too short and not well explained I think. 

Overall, it's still a good movie - I'd rank it as 7/10 (a B grade, haha), but it's not exactly a must-watch :) That's what I think anyway. 

Honestly, I think it's somewhat similar to the movie, Mortal Instruments: The City of Bones. :P

Cheers!

Zombie Tycoon II - Brainhov's Revenge game review

Zombie apocalypse!

This all started when Dr Tycoon decided that he didn't like people at all and would rather have them turned into obedient zombies that he can order around, but he's not counting on getting any competition in this mad scientist field... :P (No more spoiler, you can find out who this competitor is when you play this game ;) )

Meet Dr Tycoon. He is hell-bend on destroying the human race and replacing them with his obedient zombie army.

The way the game was presented reminded me strongly of Plants vs Zombies (PvZ) which I love :) It has plenty of PvZ humour (you should read the descriptions for each monster/building type etc, they will make you chuckle from time to time :)). 

This game's developers do have plenty sense of humour - PvZ-style :) Naming a monster skill as Defile... hah!

Gameplay-wise, it's pretty up to standard (quite challenging). It's tough like hell if you plan to get all the stars though. I gave up somewhere in the mid I think lol. There is a limit of 4 groups of zombies per game and the mad scientist takes up one group all by his own :P

A screenshot showing how the game looks like :)

Moreoever, there are plenty of puzzle for you to figure out. So this game is not just about massacring the human race and making more zombie minions. :)

Some puzzles for you to figure out as well - it's not all 'I want brainz!'

It's a game worth playing if you're into zombies, PvZ-humour and puzzles. Be warned for those perfectionists! It's really challenging for all of you who wanted to get full stars for each level. You'll find yourself replaying the same level for plenty of times. You might just get bored (like me).

For me though, I've gotten myself all frustrated over a level (my character keeps suddenly dying lol.... one-hit die sort of death... sigh) and I'm too lazy to replay that level after dying for like 7-8 times in a row for the same level. I'd like it more if I can save my progress whenever I want, so I can like load back the game to the 1 min before my character's death lol. Moving on to a new game......

P/S: and hah! It's not even a day since the new year and I've already broken my new year resolution (the not sleep late one.... lol. It's almost 2am over here...). Guess I wasn't ready for the new year... or maybe I'm just wasn't resolute enough :P

You can buy the game on Amazon by clicking here.

Sanctum game review

Another way overdue game review. I played this game around 2+ months ago lol. Anyway, better late than never? hehe :P Here it is!

Sanctum

It's a futuristic-and-alien-themed 3D tower defense game with FPS element in it :) It's a bit tough for me.... got stuck at around level 5 lol... (each level have like around 10 waves). Although there are several types of gun provided (including a sniper rifle), they are practically useless, except for the handgun, that's pretty handy... if you upgrade it A LOT. Furthermore, each mob have their own specific weak point and if you don't keep hitting that spot (or even if you do), you will definitely not kill the mob no matter how hard you try. I specially hate the damage-soaking alien... it's just SO HARD to kill... and there are SO MANY of them

Waiting on the next wave :)

These little buggers are hard to aim at lol~ unless they get close enough

The towers are pretty cool though and I like the teleporting and lift ideas. I would love it better if you can build towers using the overview but then I suppose the game developers wanted it this way so you can see how awesome the animation for building a tower is lol :P

Overview mode :)

Overall, it's honestly a great game to play, but it's just that I'm too frustrated by those damage-soaking aliens. They are the cause of my defeat in Sanctum lol. Perhaps you'd have better strategy and luck. Give it a go and do tell me how you fare :P Have fun!

You can buy the vr 1 and 2 at Amazon.

Rage game review

The long-awaited/promised Rage review! I've finished playing this game for almost a month now and I've just finally got this one up on mah blog. Procrastination at one of its finest moments. Lol. 

Awesome game, honest! It's like combining Fallout series with Borderlands series, with superb graphics :) Being a huge fan of both games, Rage is an insta-hit game for me :)

Superb graphics and I'm not even playing this on high res lol. You can see that this is obviously animated (not real), but then the details are exquisite!

It has the elements of Borderlands by having nil, and I repeat, NIL, glitches and bugs, making gameplay as amazing as it gets. It also have very cool vehicle combat and vehicle racing features that makes it uniquely its own despite having elements from both Fallout and Borderlands. 

My first vehicle - a bike! :)

Then you'll get to upgrade to a buggy and a full-armoured car through racing

I like how the game does not have quests that kept asking you to revisit the same location over and over again. The most you'll see the same location (I'm not referring to the zone map btw) for the purpose of doing quests/ jobs is twice. It's not too repetitive enough to make me get bored of playing the same location map. That's a major plus point for me :)

It has some cool contraptions too - like this flying bridge

Gameplay-wise, it's not too hard until you'll say 'fck this, I'll just go play Hello Kitty Wonderland instead' or too easy until you can face roll across the keyboard and still kill everything lol. It's the epitome of 'just exactly right'. :) The boss fight may need some strategy and patience but you can easily get through it soon enough. 

Racing is one of the finer points of the game. It won't be as good as a racing game like Need for Speed since it's not exactly designed so, but it's still great enough to afford a mention in this review. There are various ways to race, as you'll soon find out, in Rage and all of them are tonnes of fun - blasting the racing opponents who is in front of you with rockets? Yes please! :D 

If you find yourself ever short on cash, you can try turning some fast bucks by playing the various mini-games (such as this one) scattered around town.

You even get to craft items (like a remote-controlled, bomb-strapped, toy buggy, a gadget that works like a lockpick [by blasting the door open lol] and sentry guns) that can help you through the game. Though there may be some times where you'll find yourself a bit lost/ confused as to where to go next. Most of the time, you either missed a staircase or a ladder... that's usually the case for me though :P 

Fear factor? Well, it's well-balanced I'd say. I still get surprised by mobs sometimes (mostly mutants lol) but the game doesn't just scare you for nothing lol. There will always be a mob to kill at the end. 

The plot of the game is pretty solid - there aren't any loopholes in the story that I've noticed (too busy blasting the head off mobs lol) and the flow of the plot alongside the game is well-paced. 

There are also a reference in-game that gives the game, Fallout, a nod and a salute - bobblehead collectibles and the Vault boy bobblehead! :) It's pretty cool. Oh having said that it has great graphics, you can take some time off questing and go for a ride in your buggy to marvel at the scenery. There were times I'll stop in the middle of the journey of going to a questing location to gape at the scenery... No joke lol! There also places (non-quest-related but with mobs for you to kill) that you can go if you found them during your many excursions too. :)

So, if you like Fallout and/or Borderlands, you really should give this game a shot. It brings out the best of both games and added a little something-something of its own. I guarantee you'll be satisfied and perhaps wanting for more lol - there are DLCs for this game but as of now, the game devs are no longer releasing anymore DLCs. Now, I'm waiting on Rage 2 :D

Okay now the time for screenshots of beautiful sceneries :P 

Once you emerged from the Ark, you are greeted by this beautiful scene of a post-apocalyptic world

More post-apocalyptic scenery

Hot air balloons :)

The stalactites and stalagmites look like the jaw of a dragon

Brightly illuminated cave

In a cave - I've never appreciated caves' beauty this much.

Even the sewers are beautiful in Rage lol.

The sunset at the ending of Rage's DLC is amazing. I suppose the sunset has a meaning... the game is about to end.

You can buy the game on Amazon here. Trust me, it'll be worth it :)

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft Closed Beta review

My brother has gotten himself a game key for Blizzard's new card-based and warcraft-based game, Hearthstone and considering that he's a 'super busy' student, I've had the honour of getting the key from him... lol. 

It was a pretty good game - quite challenging and then there's the element of luck [getting a good hand of cards. The deck you can edit but not the cards you're dealed with], especially I get to see plenty of warcraft characters and lore incorporated into the game, though, being the kind of gamer that I am, I don't really like this sort of games (collecting cards? Booooring xD). Nevertheless, it had occupied half a day of my time.

The developers have a sense of humour lol.

The gameplay is very well developed IMHO but it does rely quite a lot on luck. I think this is the same for all card-based game - if you're dealed a good hand, you have a higher chance of winning; and vice versa. It's mainly a multiplayer game - you play PvP with other players with your card deck or by arena mode where the deck given to you is random - but there is also a single player part where you have to defeat each class's heros to gain that particular class's set of special skills cards.

Find a strategy that suit your style of play.  

In terms of general strategy, I would say that, 

• firstly, you'll need to annihilate the opponents's minions as soon as possible; 
• secondly, ensure that ALL the cards in your deck have extra powers/skills (like can summon minion/charge/able to taunt/able to heal) - I, in particular, like cards that can summon minions, can freeze and have taunt; 
• thirdly, make sure your deck have plenty of tanks (cards with characters that can taunt) to negate the damage on your main hero/heroin - trust me, they help A LOT!; 
• lastly, plan ahead with the mana crystals. Try to use as much of them as possible and leave none to waste - however, sometimes, it's best to avoid attacking using your tank since he's there for a reason, that is to take the damage. So, it's sometimes best to just leave that card alone and in the next round, let the opponent destroy it - let them waste their dps's turn instead. :) 

What about healer cards you may think. Well, for me, most of the time, I don't really need them since they can only heal once (when they are played onto the board) and they heal very little. Oh and also, you should use your class's unique spell - they do help a lot. Especially when you ran out of cards to use. 

Most of the time, different boards will be used for different class (also depending the faction of the class that you're up against). 

Here's another type of board :)

Like I've said, what makes this game interesting is the luck element. You'll never know which cards you may be dealed. Even though you may have the best deck in the whole world, the cards that you get may not be favourable to you. For arena, it'll even more challenging as you won't even get to use your own deck - you'll get a random deck lol.

From the various features in the game that I've noticed, I believe this will be a Free-to-Play (F2P) game with some/ a lot (from the other reviews that I've read) Pay-to-Win (P2W) features... lol. I believe this is the first step taken by Blizzard to test out the F2P waters and who knows? Perhaps one day WoW will  become F2P, like Rift did. By then, I'll definitely play retail WoW (I've played in private servers and they all have the Donate/Vote (endlessly)-to-Win sort of features lol.. not that I mind - I just avoid the donors in PvP or get a whole group of people to gang up on him :P).

Anyway, it's a game worth trying out if it is really released as F2P later, but for non-card-based gamers, it might not appeal to them as much as... let's say Rift or WoW :P

Kingdom Rush Frontiers - browser version review

An exceptional tower defense game

I'm the 14th person to complete the browser version since its release ^.^

Completed in less than a day - with ~90% missions completed in Iron mode It's very easy once you get the hang of it (like knowing that barracks are somewhat unnecessary, except for backup lol) and when you have all the skills for towers and hero upgraded. 

I love the marksman towers and mage towers best! - I bet I can win any map by just using these lol - with full upgrades ofc, and definitely with my trusty Cronan hero (fully upgraded as well - the trample skill is definitely the first skill you should max out for Cronan - amazingly useful)

Hmm review-wise, this is as good as the first one - perhaps even better :) I've enjoyed playing this a lot. 

I thought of making a walkthrough with screenshots of my tower arrangements and upgrades but then I suppose this game had plenty of video reviews already ... plus I'm lazy lol - I wanted to start playing X-Rebirth hehe. However, if you're stuck in Crimson Valley - here's a hint: the savage eats your troops to replenish health, so you'll need to avoid using barracks and use plenty of marksman towers and other ranged towers. 

Overall, if you've enjoyed Kingdom Rush (the previous game), you'd enjoy this a lot :) Wish there were more missions though... and it's a real pity I don't have a good enough Android phone to be able to play this game on.

Is there a level higher than epic? ;) Peter Crowley - The Last Hero

This is beyond epic... seriously, just listen to it. You will feel like you can practically do anything and everything. You will feel... ... empowered to the point of almost being a god (of the ancient times) haha ;)

Seriously though, he can go compose some epic piece for a big league fantasy movie. When listening to this music, I can practically imagine a band of heroes, braving the highest mountains and the deepest caves; traversing across vast green lands and snow-covered ice; riding on dragons and feeling the rise and fall motion of the dragon's wings... all these journeying just to get to a final, epic battle of their lives.

Enjoy!

New comment system on YouTube

Mostly, it sucks lol...

Some of the stuff that were changed (that I've noticed) are:

• You need a Google+ account to comment
• YouTube inbox is useless and removed. All notifications will appear on your G+ notifications (refer to bottom)
• Any comments made, every share etc on your video will spam your G+ notifications... yay to this LOL. Perhaps you can set it to 'no notifications'
• There are no more separation for uploader's comment and other people's comment
• The default setting for comment is 'top comments' - you'll need that extra few clicks to set it back to 'newest comment' setting
• You can no longer reply to comments that are posted prior to the change in the comment system 
• Oh and sometimes, you suddenly cannot comment or reply to people's comment... wtf!

I can accept change when it is a good change... unfortunately, YouTube comment system is not one... it is more trouble than what it's worth. Unless it gets a fix real soon, I'm sure this new system will piss a lot of other people off as well... though it will probably not decrease the daily number of YouTube users lol.

How to display source code on blogger?

I've used this personally and I gotta say, I'm surprised at how easy it is to use this. :) Okay, as usual, I write instructions for noobs (since I was a noob myself) - baby steps alright?

1. Go to https://gist.github.com/ (You don't need to register to use this, but if you want to register, well, it's free :) )

2. Type a description for your code (will later be displayed at the bottom of the github box).

3. Paste your code into the box below the description box.

4. Then click 'Create Public Gist' at the bottom. (You can choose Secret Gist instead but well, you're posting it for free viewing on your blog right? So, it's better to put it as public)

5. Now, you can either link to the code (Easiest method, but no display in blogger) or you can embed it into your blogger (there will be a display shown in blogger). Since this is a 'how to display'-kind of blog post, I'll be teaching you how to embed the github box.

• Copy the embed code (the highlighted one) and then paste it in the HTML section of the blog post that you want to display the code in.

Copy from here...

Paste to the exact location where you want it to be displayed in. As you can see, this is from my blog post 'How to add Feedjit to your blogger'. :)

6. Voila! You're done! :) Go to preview to see your handiwork before updating/publishing.

Also, you can go ahead and register yourself as a github user. It's free. :)

Oh and also check out my How to add Feedjit to your blogspot. ;)

Up next in gaming!

I'm going to start crazily gaming again - Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War (hehe :P), and a new game series - Dungeon Siege 1, Dungeon Siege 2 and 3 ...and perhaps, Fable III ...just cleared a whole lot of memory space on my trusty laptop ;)... So stay tuned for plenty of reviews/ranting and bragging screenshots hehe

On the other hand, I'm still playing Rift and am levelling my third character (I paused my rogue's leveling at level 50 coz I'm too lazy to do carnages) - a mage :P It's pretty fun - the dps is absurdly high (even when I just faceroll across my keyboard... j/k)! Anyway, yesterday, a friggin warrior beat me at dps and I can't believe it. His AoE is instant I suppose so I lose out a bit as my AoE requires like 2.5 and 2 second casts. Hmm... or maybe I just suck at playing a lightning mage lol - maybe I should swap back to being that necromancer, DoTs ftw! Refreshing DoTs? Boring... Trying to put DoTs on a lot of mobs coz you don't have an AoE spell? Mind blowing! Hah~ IMHO, I've only played two dps specs for mage and so far, I can get top dps for single damage (boss mainly)and sometimes for AoE damaging mobs (by DoTing all of them with Tabbing and refreshing DoTs lol... headache), but I consistently get top AoE dps by using lightning mage (is it supposed to be called elementalist?) but slightly lower single damage (I get second dps for singles).

Mage's survivability is like very bad... squishy... even though I have a tank pet and a shielding spell lol... I'm just too reckless and kept forgetting to check my pet's health. Btw, my mage's at level 36 now. With my main - a cleric, I can heal and dps at the same time lol - but no shielding spells... meh. Even one would be cool...

Okay, no more ranting about Rift. This is supposed to be a brief update lol. :\

I'm out!

-- The reason behind me having the time of my life gaming? My thumb's still out of commission - cannot pipette anything yet, so yeah, I'm still unable to do my pending lab work and my paperwork's almost finished. So.... yeah. Next week's I'm still off for the first few days, I'll be going to the lab on Thurs I suppose... and Friday.


Updated: I've installed and tried Deus Ex (the first game) - crappy graphics, but ofc considering that the game was developed decades ago, it's pretty okay. I didn't like the stealth part though, I can hardly see the enemy NPCs with the graphics and I have to stealth? @.@ But I've read that you can solve the graphics part by installing a renderer, New Vision, but meh, not worth the effort I suppose.  Also, it seems like I can NEVER aim right even though I'm like right in front of the enemy and am shooting at his face. Headshots are almost non-existent in the game lol

For Deus Ex - Invisible Wars, took me quite awhile to solve the dx2.exe problem (you can just go here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/7dka776nvhnv9b0/Deus+Ex+2+IW+v1.2+Unprotected.rar;
download the file [Don't worry, I've scanned it and it's safe despite the 'unprotected' word there, you can scan it again if you like]; then copy and replace it with the original dx2.exe in your invisible wars/system folder).

But somehow, I got this VIKTORIA error right after I clicked 'new game' that seems (from stuff that I read) to indicate that my graphics driver is not up to date - total BS btw, I can play Deus Ex: Human Revolution just fine. And then there are people saying that Win7 cannot run it no matter what, so meh, I don't really need to play this... uninstall! lol. Not worth the trouble, though the graphics are better (as seen in the intro cinematic).

Up next! Dungeon Siege... and that's for tomorrow. I'm too tired now lol....


Updated 2: Dungeon Siege 1 works great! :P It is very much like Diablo with most of my time spent at finding places that I have yet to explore and ofc, managing my overwhelmed inventory hehe. Some parts I missed out stuff (like narrow tunnels and levers on walls that open up to new rooms) or got lost (in the eastern swamp lol) and hence, I spent way too much time circling the area.

Oh and just so you know, having 3 pack mules and 5 characters works just fine - 2 tankers (with shields and will attack first at all times; 1 more tanker is as backup, but if you think you don't need a backup, you can get another archer), 1 archer (my character :P; they are like the best character in-game, no mana hassle with never-ending arrows and, when properly geared, can deal more dps than a combat mage lawl), 1 combat mage (for dps, you can have all archers if you want) and lastly but yet most importantly, 1 nature mage (for healing and dps - don't put him on full healing duty. Let him dps when you don't need the heals - like for small mob groups, so he can level faster).

My tip is don't waste money on buying the services of NPCs. You can simply add anyone to help fill in the spots until you get the best NPC for the job (of healing/dps/tanking, I mean :)). Just get the free ones - Merik is a great nature mage (Chapter 4), the daughter of Nong (forgotten what's her name; Chapter 4/5) is a great combat mage, there's a lady archer who just had her archery competition ruined (also forgotten what's her name), she's a great archer, for tanking, I'm using the old guy from Chapter 1 of the game and the dwarf from Chapter 3 (I think) - but you can swap one of them for the knight who came later in the game (like in Chapter 5/6). Buy pack mules early on - they get more expensive later on... and rarer.

Um, meh I think I'll just continue this on my review post of Dungeon Siege instead lol. :P

Update, update! Check out my Dungeon Siege 1 review here :)

To check whether a website's online... or that it's only you who is unable to access it

It's free and very easy to use, without a whole plethora of pop ups and adverts. :)

Just paste the URL you wanted to check, click 'check', the voila!

http://www.websitedown.info/

P/S: If my word is worth anything (lol)... I've used this before plenty of times and it worked fine for me. Just sayin'

Game Dev Tycoon review

One of the best tycoon games that I've played so far although it does have some down points. Okay, let me introduce this from the start...

It's like any other tycoon game except that it is developed by Greenheart Games (a startup company) and I have to admit, it's pretty impressive.

As the promotional pitch of the game goes...

Replay gaming history. Create best selling games. Research new technologies. Become the leader of the market and gain worldwide fans.

The game's as accurate as what the above statements say.

So, you start off by developing games in your parents' garage. With great combos, a good eye for market trends and improving coding skills, you can easily move on to larger facilities to expand your gaming business.

When you start a new game, notice that there's an advance option button (which has the common 'settings' icon) at the top right corner. From there, you can set the maximum duration before the games end - I had initially thought it has unlimited duration - I play until I drop... lol.

Well, moving on... The game is rather fast-paced and there are plenty of stuff to keep you alert - like news of a new console hitting the market or that the G3 games convention is approaching. 

You can choose from 3 types of booth to set up at the G3 convention - this one is the most expensive of them all. :P

Giving your game a name is no easy matter lol, but you'll work it out :) Oh and also don't leave the name as the default name - you'll get criticised when the game review comes in (I've tried lol ;) ). THEY KNOW! Anyway, you design your games based on topics, genre, engine (customised) and...

Research to unlock a new topic

platforms (console, PC, mobile or tablets). If you have plenty of experience with gaming, you will quickly realise that in order to get great combos for topics and genre, you can actually base your matching to popular games in real life - like Halo, Fallout, Fifa, Dance Dance Revolution, Age of Empires, Skyrim, etc. But anyway, I will have a list of great combos (For topics with single genre. So far, I've never gotten a perfect combo for both genre in dual genre games) at the very end of this blogpost. :)

For my play-through, I find that by PC is a solid platform to use while the rest... well, let's just to say that I've developed really highly rated (by game critics) sequels/ new games but because of the platform I used (even though it has the highest marketshare among the other platforms), I get less sales than I should be expecting. 

Customised engines are not exactly a must. I've done pretty well with no customised engines for almost 80% of my play-through, but once you have one, I would recommend using it for sequels that you know will definitely sell - coz well, these engines are not really cheap and adding engine compartments into your game will cost a lot as well. 

The below screenshots will show, briefly, the game making process after you've decided the aforementioned factors...

The developing interface for medium games. Smaller games are easier - you don't need to assign each individual task to a staff. Oh and remember NOT to overwork your staff! :)

The development interface if you have a customised engine attached. you can choose which element of your engine that you want to incorporate into the developing game.... and they cost A LOT so, be financially prepared!

Allocate enough time for each part of the game that you're developing. Usually, I just max them out to give my staff plenty of time to generate more design and technology points (see below).

Only 3 employees including my character are developing this game at the moment.

Then, your employees and yourself will start generating points to design and technology. Most of the time, by getting them as high as you can and balanced out, you should produce a high quality game. Different genre of games will require slightly different emphasis on either design or technology though. For example, I've realised that for Simulation genre, you'll need to have more Technology. Also, if more people are free from other tasks to be involved in the development process, the more points you will get.

Note that there will be 3 stages of development for each game and each stage requires money. So don't splurge all your money on the first stage of the process and have not enough money for the rest of the stages.

Once the game is completed, you will get experience points for each part of the development process (for more upgrades) and also for your employees (including yourself).

Great review to a great sequel ;)

Not so bad eh? I really can match stuff up good! :P

This extra screenshot is just for bragging purposes LOL. Don't ask me why the name is so lame.... it's a hunting/simulation game lol.

More screenshots! :P Superheroes / Action/Casual combo.

Sci-Fi / Action/RPG dual combo

Then the reviews will come pouring in. This review is particularly good, but if you're like me, you'll mostly get 6-7. When you have a big fan base, even 5-6 ratings will get you profit, but just not that much. ;)

There are plenty of other features in the game that I'm too lazy to talk about in detail but I'll just list them here:

• Research - A must if you want to have a great custom engine or some new, very useful features (like having sequels), but it is very costly, so be financially prepared. Like having a couple of high rating sequels going or have a huge money pool lol. You'll need research points as well - if you don't have enough, start making games (sequels or new ones) lol.

There are a lot of researches that you can upgrade. Then, you can go on and make new and way superior custom engines.  The better your engine and the more you invested in your engine for your developing game, the better your game will be. (but this is not always true!)

• Training - A must if you want to get higher points for design and technology for your games. Needs research points.

Training my staff

• Contract deals - Only if you're really short on cash. But early in-game, this is a very good way for you to earn some extra money to develop new games in the situation, in which one of your games that you've just invested a lot of your money in, flopped. 

If you cannot finish the contract on time, you will have to pay a penalty. Some penalties are just not worth the money that you'd get - so, avoid those!

• Publishing deals vs Self-publishing - I find publishing deals really hard to get right. Since I rarely buy the licence required for other platforms, I only can do PC/ Any platform jobs and the restrictions these sort of deals put might just cost you even more money (with the penalty and loss that you have to endure if it doesn't work out). Not worth the risk of losing so much money - I'd rather make more sequels for popular games lol. My suggestion, just get 100k fans then start publishing medium games yourself (250k fans for large games). I've managed to publish a medium game successfully even though I had less then the optimal 100k fans (I think I had like around 70k).

But in this case, I've already published like a couple of medium games already lol. I usually make medium games for sequels of my really popular games - like Halo.

250k fans for large games. Usually, I don't like taking the risk for these sort of games - even the most popular sequels do flop sometimes.

• Sequels - A must and a life-saver... seriously. Once you've gotten several hit games (6-10 ratings), you can start churning out sequels of those games  - you can even make medium or large games from them. Sequels usually sell well enough, even though you may have developed it badly. I usually use this to recover from the loss of cash and fans when any of my new games flopped.

Outstanding response...  hehehe :P All thanks to my new custom engine.

Some more... ;)

More outstanding response... *brag* hehehe :P You can get outstanding response for your games without new engines and stuff, you know. ;)

• Marketing - Isn't really useful IMHO, but perhaps I marketed it at the wrong stage of game development (last stage). But I find the G3 convention helps a lot to increase the hype for a developing game - try to get the best booth as soon as you can.

Various types of marketing methods - depends on how much you are willing to spend on marketing.

• Staff - They are really helpful when you are moving on to making medium and large games although they do help a lot with small games as well. Give them as much training as they need - make them into specialists and ofc keep a few all-rounders around - give them vacation time when their motivation bar runs low - and don't worry about pay, they automatically get a pay rise whenever they level up. (Honestly though, do game developers, in real life, get so much income? One of my employees - level 7 - is earning like 109k per month... lol)

Sending a staff on forced, unpaid vacation lol

• Achievements - Most are really easy to get. :)

So far, I've gotten most of the achievement regarding sales of the games developed but I can't seem to hit 10 million sales yet. My highest is around 6.5 million sales. You'll need hit games such as the Alex Rider 2 game that I've made in the previous screenshot.





Cult status...lol :P

Oh and this ;)

• Game History - A very nice record of all the games you've ever made - refer to this when you're trying to decide which game to make a sequel of. Also note that when you've reach the stage where you have produced sooo many games until it's a hassle just to scroll through each one of them. This is the only part that I don't really like. They should make it into a list with a detailed preview of the games appearing on the side. I've also noticed that some of my previously produced games vanished from the list...

Just a sample :) My Halo 3 sequel managed to obtain  number 1 top sales rank and over 53 million in profit *brag some more*

• Patches - A must! Seriously, you want to lose fans or not? If not, then you'll do what they want. Don't be a scumbag... :P

DO ITTTTT! ASAP!

• Random news/opportunities - Usually encrypted messages brings good stuff, so spend that extra bit of cash on it does help lol. Oh and if you're planning to do sabotages, go ahead... you'll never get caught lol.

Someone stole my money... oh nvm, I have sooo much more!

• Popular trends - Follow it as much as you can. The extra Exp helps and it helps your sales as well. But bear in mind that if your game is bad, no popular trend will save you from suffering losses for that game.

Note the popular trend bar near the top right corner of the screen .... oh, you caught me. Can't I brag some more while showing you the features? xD

• Game off the market - You get a stat that's it. When does it gets off the market? I don't know honestly. I think that it depends on the popularity of the game. If people keep buying it, it will stay in the market longer, and the only way people will keep buying it - is that if it's really popular.

And you get a stat for the total sales you made off a game once it gets off the market.

Okay, I guess that's all. The review's completed. I highly recommend this game to gaming enthusiasts (you can learn about the entire gaming history though this game lol, though the names had to be changed but they are pretty obvious enough... like the xBox is called the mBox) and for people who are interested in Tycoon-type games.

Link to Greenheart Games: http://www.greenheartgames.com/


'My verdict? 9/10. They just need to edit a bit the game history part and also let people give slightly longer names to their games (especially for sequels). Extremely worth the hours that I've spent on this game. Very satisfying. :)' S.Y.


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Now.... time for bragging lol. Here goes! ;) The news that you'll get if you managed to produce really hit games.

If successful games, you will get this...

... and this ;)

Or this....

Or this.... hehehe

Or this.... the most epic news of all! :D

But for G3 conference, I still can't get the number 1 spot yet. Perhaps when I hit the 10 million sales achievement, then I'll have enough fans to get it.... hehe

My final scores after 30 years of development ^.^v

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Guide to getting Great combos or bonuses

The names of the game don't affect combos - it's all about matching the right genre to the right topic. Some of them are really a no-brainer, but some may have a lot of combinations and you'll have a headache trying to figure them out lol. Anyway, here goes (in no order - you can use Ctrl+F to find the one you want):

[Topic - Genre - Suggested Audience]

*Disclaimer: This list is by no means conclusive. I'll add more when I have the time to test the combos out.

*My audience is Everyone. But some of them can be tailored to Mature or Young audience.

1. Post-Apocalypse - Action or RPG
2. Sci-Fi - Action or RPG
3. Superheroes - Action
4. Pirate - Adventure - Everyone / Young
5. Racing - Simulation
6. Military - Strategy
7. Medieval - Strategy or RPG
8. Sports - Simulation
9. Transport - Simulation
10. Fantasy - Adventure - Everyone / Young
11. Music - Casual
12. Werewolf - Action
13. Detective - RPG
14. Startup - Simulation
15. School - Simulation
16. Martial Arts - Action
17. UFO - Action
18. Rhythm - Casual
19. Dance - Casual
20. ...