Grizfolk - Way Back When

Awesome movie, awesome song :)

Lyrics:

There's alway time for living,
Can we just do it again.
One more time like it once was...way back when.
You gave me something to believe in,
We were the best of friends.
Well I remember the good times...way back when.

(La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la)
Memories will fade if you wanted me to let you go,
I've got you on your way, I feel it for you, don't you know.

We're superheroes and villains,
When we used to pretend.
We go wherever our minds will take us...way back when.

(La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la)
Memories will fade if you wanted me to let you go,
I've got you on your way, I feel it for you, don't you know.
It's a promise that I made, never be afraid.
I know we'll be okay, this luck we have it cannot go.

Ahhhh oo, Ahhhh oo
And you're on own,
Ahhhh oo, Ahhhh oo
You're not alone,
Ahhhh oo, Ahhhh oo
I know I'll see you again, again.
Ahhhh oo, Ahhhh oo
And if all these things,
Ahhhh oo, Ahhhh oo
Come to an end,
Ahhhh oo, Ahhhh oo
We'll always have...a way back when.

(La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la)
Memories will fade if you wanted me to let you go,
I've got you on your way, I'll be there for you, don't you know.
It's a promise that I made, never be afraid.
I know we'll be okay, this luck we have it cannot go.

New Earth - poem by Kreskell

An excellent piece written about the slowing of Earth's rotation. The time when the Earth actually stood still.

New Earth

It was a slow day, they say,
The day the world stopped turning.
Everyone and everything fell sideways
The Earth itself ground to a halt.
It was a slow day, they say,
When the ocean's fell sideways
And the hundred mile waves washes across every Eastern shore.
When the water's receded, the west got battered next.
It was a sad day, they say,
When people in planes could hear the Earth scream
And the world was torn asunder.
When the people in planes became the only ones left.
It is a sad life, they say,
Where the sun beams down indefinitely
And the world they live in is constant summer.
Where the other side is Ice.
The sun shines over the new borders of Africa and Europe
Asia get's some, too.
It's a sad life, up in the Himalayas.
Where they say it used to be snowy
Beautiful and white.
The rocky cliffs aren't good for farming
But the valleys burn and swelter
Fires break out spontaneously.
It's a good thing they can't live down there anymore,
They say
It's a lonely life, they tell me
Where the population of Earth is four thousand.
Set up in small colonies in the mountains
It's the only safe place, they say.
It's a happy life, she tells me,
Tugging her mothers shim-sham skirt.
She doesn't know our Earth,
Says her mother.
She is the first girl born into the new one
It was a slow day, they say,
When the Earth stood still.

By Kreskell
Check her out on Deviantart.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning game review

My sorcerer character :)

Not as sophisticated as Skyrim or Dragon Age or The Witcher series, but it has its charms. In terms of storyline/plot, it's so-so at best; but in terms of gameplay, it is pretty much comparable to big titles like Dragon Age (though not at all team-based. I'm mainly referring to the "feel"), Skyrim or the Witcher. :)

The game includes crafting (blacksmithing, alchemy and sagecrafting a.k.a. jewelcrafting), upgradable skills and talents, and other usual stuff. For blacksmithing, although you can craft your own gear through this, most gear you get from  drops are much better... most of the time lah~ Earning money might be a bit hard at first, but then you'll easily earn a lot as you do more quests/ exploring. Most important thing is you must do as many quests as they can offer you.

Despite having all the usual stuff, this game is also unique as it has this 'fate' thingy. When charged (full), you will be able to enter a slow motion mode which is pretty cool, and if you kill plenty of mobs while you're in this mode, you'll get to see their fate being absorbed by you (Looks like something that came straight out from Skyrim) :)

It has this dispelling skill as well - but the mini 'dispelling' game is really very frustrating, so my advice would be after you can detect traps by upgrading your 'detect hidden' skill, stack your points into dispelling. Even lockpicking is way easier than dispelling lol :\

Furthermore, you'll have bonuses like the type of destiny you choose (changeable), the turn of fate that you choose (changeable), the god/goddess blessing that you favour (not changeable), etc etc. :)

Discovering lore will award you bonuses as well (as soon as you finish discovering all of the lorestones in the same zone)

All in all, it's great fun while waiting for Dragon Age 3 and the Witcher 3. Don't expect that you can rush through the content though. The map is pretty huge, but still not as huge as Skyrim :P Plus there are 2 more expansions (new maps!). You can take your time enjoying the scenery and stuff.

P/S: If you decide to become a mage, try the chakrams. They are AWESOME! :P Especially after you've upgraded the sorcery skills for it.

For more screenshots, you can check out my blog's facebook page here.

(It's easier for me to upload these images there rather than here - they are so many!)

Post by Aveyn's FB.

You can buy the game and its many DLCs at Amazon by clicking the pictures below:

Lana McKissack - Say Goodbye

Reminded me of Evanescence... lol :P I like this very much as well! I've tried my best but there are still parts of the lyrics that I'm certain that I got them wrong. I'll mark these with asterisks. As usual, any corrections are very much welcome. Enjoy! :)

Lyrics:

All these feelings I can't resist
It's a bit of pleasure and a bit of pain
In this moment, we turn the page
Not going back there
To yesterday

I'm not afraid of letting go
I can be strong all on my own..

I don't want to celebrate
I don't want to play the game
I don't want to make the same mistakes tonight
So say goodbye

*That's how you want to masculate
Letting it go, I'm on again*
I don't want to let it break
I'm not that kind, I draw the line

Over and over, why do we try
It's not enough to save this lie
Say goodbye

Masquerading, played me the fool
Coz no regrets now
Nothing to lose
A bit of heaven, a bit of hell
This chapter's over, I'm running out of time

I'm not afraid of letting go
I can be strong all on my own

I don't want to celebrate
I don't want to play the game
I don't want to make the same mistakes tonight
So say goodbye

*That's how you want to masculate
Letting it go, I'm on again*
I don't want to let it break
I'm not that kind, I draw the line

Over and over, why do we try
It's not enough to save this lie

(Now, and now, and now)
I'm running now
(And now)
I'm running now
(And now, and now, and now, and now, and now)
I'm running now
(And now)
I'm running now
(And now)
I'm running, running, running...

I don't want to celebrate
I don't want to play the game
I don't want to make the same mistakes tonight
So say goodbye

*That's how you want to masculate
Letting it go, I'm on again*
I don't want to let it break
I'm not that kind, so say goodbye

*All you could do is lie
All you could do is lie
All you could do is lie
All you could do is lie......
All you could do is lie
All you could do is lie......*
Say goodbye

Craft the World game review and tips

My little dwarf home :) I'll get some more screenshots of the underground complex that I've hollowed out. :P

Excellent game, despite it being an indie game. :) It's a god-mode sort of game whereby you are the god/creator of these dwarfs and can order them around (to collect resources so that you can build and research stuff). The upgrade tree is very well developed and may take more than few hours to get from the stone age to the iron age.

Crafting items in order to gain experience for new and better upgrades

There are also plenty of maps and even the smaller maps can occupy quite a lot of your time as you fight off mobs, gather resources for upgrades and dig deeper into this sandbox world.

Another fun stuff is that you can create an underground complex of tunnels and rope ladders for your dwarfs. But do stay vigilant! There are monsters, shades/ghosts, zombies and skeletons who will kill your dwarfs (and sometimes steal your goods) if you're not careful! Keep your dwarfs well armed and armoured. Let them rest up from time to time, however, the 'sleeping' option is pretty much bugged up. Despite that, you can still speed level your resource tree right up to the first tier of alchemy. By then, you can create health potions to use for your dwarfs. OR you can just let them die and wait for 4 mins for your dwarf to respawn (but he will have lost all his skill experience points/ new skills).

A trick that I've found out is that you can build a safe house (a small hollowed out tunnel) deep underground with lots of trap doors between the dwarf/s in the safe house and the mobs on the surface. The mobs can enter your tunnels, but they will take some time to reach your safe house and hopefully by then, the sun would have came up and they will be gone. You'll need to have at least 1 dwarf inside the safe house (you can manually control him into the safe house) and you should shut the trap door to keep him in. As long as you have at least 1 surviving dwarf, your game will not end. The rest of the dwarfs will take time to respawn, but at least you don't have to start all over again. :)

Food is another vital resource that you'll have to provide to your dwarfs. You don't really need to force them to eat (by selecting individual dwarfs and selecting the 'eat' option), the dwarfs will eat by their own when their food icons (max is 3) are depleted. What you'll need to do is place food on tables. Some food can be eaten raw (like apples), but some of them may require some cooking (like fishes/meat).

Also, in order to end the game, first, you'll need to find the secret underground room for the ancient portal. Then, you'll need to dig very deep (the earth there will look reddish) to get crystals and enough mithral ores to build the 5 parts of the portal. Once the portal is built, you can just click on it to end the game. You don't even need to tunnel into the portal and order your dwarfs to enter the portal. Just click on it and choose 'end game' :) However, if you're a completionist like me - try getting your technology tree maxed out as well. That'll take time :P

However, a few major downsides of this game are the very, very annoying 'sleeping' bug, and the 'not-using-the-bridge' bug. Furthermore, the game comes with no instructions and for people who are unfamiliar with these sort of games, you'll need to take quite a lot of time to figure out a lot of the functions yourself. Like how to take control of your dwarfs, how/where to get certain ingredients to craft certain items etc.

Overall, I had a fun time playing this, but I believe that the major bugs need to be quickly addressed. It's a pity to see a game with such potential to go to waste because of some bugs. 

Tips to owning this game! (to level up faster :P)

1. The easiest way to get XP is not by digging useless tunnels, but it is by killing snails. Each kill (of anything really) will award you with 100 XP and snails are the easiest to kill (and they don't run away when you start hitting them lol)
2. If you're in a map without soil for farming, you can make your own soil by hollowing out a cavern underground, then build roofs (any kind will do, but it must be roofs) to use as floors. Then the trick is you build another layer of roof on top of the existing layer and watch in amazement as the bottom layer of roof tiles turned to farmable soil! Then, you just need to remove to top layer of roof to get access to your bottom layer of soil. You may sometimes get mithril as well :) (Refer to the guide below)

First step: Place a roof tile. (Note: This is the desert world btw, did you see my little underground farm on the left? :))

Next, add another roof tile on top. The bottom tile will turn into soil (but in this case, I struck the jackpot lol - Mithril!)

Remove the top layer of roof to get access to your bottom layer of soil/ ore :) You can stack as many layers as you want but then, you can only use the top layer for farming, so why waste the roof tiles, right? :)

3. You can also use roofs (more reliable) instead of bridges (bridges are unreliable) to prevent your dwarfs from falling into abandoned pits.
4. Some technologies can be hard to level, but if the new technology gives you a new spell to use, then it'll be much simpler! Using spells in upgradable technologies will award you XP points as well (for that part in the technology tree).
4. To get a fast regeneration of mana, you can exit the game and start it up again! Your mana will be reset to full.
5. If you're in a map that has very few trees (like the desert map), you'll need to quickly level up until you hit the magic forest spell. Then, have fun using the spell until your mana ran out lol :P Don't waste it though, use the spell once, then chop down all the trees before using it again or your new trees will not have enough space to grow.
6. Build home in your network of tunnels instead of above ground. Build a fortified (but small) house protecting your stash.
7. Have multiple doors to block entry to your network of tunnels/ home. If need to, you can block the doors with 2 layers of walls on top of each other in order to deter the enemy (and wait for sun rise), until you break down those walls again.



Link to buy the game on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/248390/

27/6/14 Update: So, I've realised that you need to complete your house (like really complete it so a pop up will appear with the words 'House completed!') in order to get the dwarfs to sleep. However, in order to complete your house, you'll need to fix up all those parts that have a reddish star-like symbol on them. Sometimes, you need to add another piece of wall onto an existing wall or sometimes, you'll need to replace the earth/sand/ice/snow/stone with walls instead. It's really hard to get a house to be labelled as complete, so do expect plenty of deaths at the beginning. Oh and save the skill books for later, so you won't be wasting them on dwarfs that will just die anyway. :)

Screenshots time!

Post by Aveyn's FB.

Zombie Tsunami (Android game) review

Another very addictive android game + 1. it doesn't require internet access to play and 2. you don't have 'limited lives' to limit your gameplay... so in other words, you can play till your muscles ache lol. This game had actually occupied me for hours... to the point that I'm very surprised at how fast the time passed by.

On the downside, it doesn't come with instructions so you'll need to figure things out :) But it's not very hard to learn, especially if you are already a well-seasoned gamer. 

Enjoy! ;)

Link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.mobigame.zombietsunami

Being a gamer left me...

So, I saw this on my facebook newsfeed and I thought... well, this isn't very accurately written. Let's edit this a little bit, shall we? ;)

1. Perfect aiming using a mouse/a gamepad

2. Great reflexes for the wrists and perhaps arms

3. History knowledge - ofc only the interesting parts, where people kill other people :P

4. English language - mixed in with a lot of jajajajaja ;)

5. Co-op tactics - more like pulling out hair in frustration 

6. strategic planning - it's a guaranteed wipe, no matter how good your planning is for killing a boss, if your single surviving healer DC-ed or is lagging to the point of doing nothing (and other worse case scenarios) :P

7. Never surrender mentality - when overwhelmed by the opposing faction, avoid respawning in order to avoid getting ganked over and over at the ressing point (heh) or best case, Alt+F4 to quit the BG... unless you can stealth ofc 

8. And hours and hours of fun + cursing at the computer/teammates over teamspeak ;)