Blissful Life

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Which is the worst?

I read something today that really nice and enlightening. I have never thought of it before.

Which one, is the worst?

----------------------------------------------------------------

The story is about a student from the Crime Psychology faculty.

He was tasked by his lecturer, to investigate his own friend and also his roommate.

Apparently his friend was suspected for breaking an entry into another lecturer's office, and took a peek on a question sheet that have yet to be released.

He was suspected prior to his case during the last 2 years where he was involves in a violence incident.

The student tried to fulfill the task, and ended up feeling bad for suspecting his own friend.

He went back to his lecturer and asked him..

Whether it is the right thing to be doubting his own friend.

He known his friend for years, and he is sure that his friend is not the criminal, regardless of the case of violence that his friend was involved with.

He also said that he already confirmed with his friend that he was not only involved with the violence incident, but was actually one of the victims.

So, he feel bad for his friend..

The Crime Psychology lecturer smiled. And he said,

'Doubting your own friend is not necessarily bad. Its a natural action. Why do humans doubt each other? Its because they wanted to know about each other. Not doubting them would be not showing interest in them. '

The student was surprised to hear that and said that he care for his friend, its only that he feel regretful that he had to doubt his friend, whom he believe is trustworthy.

The lecturer replied,

'Its not the same as believing in someone. There was a period of time where you didn't know that your friend was in trouble: the violence incident. And you only knew it when the other lecturer and me mentioned about it.'

The lecturer sighed, and said,

'You shouldn't be regretting for doubting him. You should be regretting, for not showing him any concern all this years, while calling him a good friend.'

The student was shocked, and suddenly realized what the lecturer really tasked him to do. He wouldn't accuse his friend without proof, but he shouldn't let it go without doubting his friend either. Finally, the student was able to solve the case by talking to his friend and his friend was found innocent.

(Apparently the case was that the the lecturer's wife was the one who went into the office, and took some documents that belonged to her from the lecturer's locked drawer. A misunderstanding.)

---------------------------------------

So there you go. Which is worst? Doubting people around you, or simply believe in them? If you believe someone without a doubt, then you believe blindly. But if you doubt too much, it leads to paranoia.

When you heard something about your friend, always confront them. Even it would hurt your friend's feeling to hear such thing, you do it, because it means that you care about them.

But if you just believe what other people said about you own buddy, and you didn't even bother to clarify from or talk to your buddy, then you just an ignorant fool. In fact, you are the WORST, for calling yourself their friend.

:. From 'Liar Game-Roots of A'

Sunday, January 23, 2011

[Games] Front Mission Evolved

Another one for me to write down and uninstall after is, Front Mission Evolved. Apart from my newly found obsession of Warhammer 40k universe, I was also a fan to Front Mission franchise before. I said 'was' because the last time I played the Front Mission series when I was in high school, and stopped after the game went extensively into other game consoles such as Nintendo DS and mobile phones. I simply don't have time or resources to own multiple game platforms, just to follow a game story... So I simply stopped.

Anyway, my first impression of this game was, 'Wow, so cool.' I watched the game preview in Youtube and was completely awed. This game franchise is known for its gameplay of tactical role-playing. But for the Front Mission Evolved, it was turned into first-person-shooter role-playing game. Well, pretty much looked like an arcade game. The game also came out in 3 different platform, PS3, XBox 360 and PC. Of course with all this changes, the game storyline is also stands apart from the rest of the previous prequels. In fact, if you look into Wikipedia, you'll see that the game is categorized as the Front Mission spin-off.

I don't have much to say about its gameplay, given that it really just like any simple FPS game. You walk, you jump, you sprint, and you shoot. No taking cover of course when you in 40 foot tall or so robot! What the game still retain however, is the option to customize the Wanzer (Wanderpanzer or walking tank). Its pretty much the same like the prequels before and this, is what makes this game such an interesting one. There are two kinds of weapon to choose, meele or ranged. And there are multiple more types to choose from. From light to heavy machine gun, iron baton to skullcrusher fist, and even mounted shoulder weapon, be it rocket launcher or gattling gun!

The Wanzer can be customize right before every battle and player must choose wisely, or just use personal preference. I mean, I myself loves cumbering walking tank with heavy firepower, other would like swift moving with hard knuckles. All of this of course can be fitted with a price, which is in my personal opinion is the drawback. Back in the game before, player will buy the equipment from wares and store the items. But in this game, each time the Wanzers is re-equipped, the old stuff would be sold. EACH TIME. Thus you must think more than twice to change the looks..

All in all, the game is good but far from great. I mean, yeah, its nice to finally able to personally piloting one of the Wanzer instead of viewing them from third person view.. But, I'd say the game can get kinda lame after long hours of playing. Its full of repetitive motion, and seriously, there is no replay back value. The fact is that, first time playing was great, then you slowly starting to feel bored. There are almost nothing to achieve in mission after mission. There are medals or achievements to get by finding hidden objects, but there are no rewards whatsoever. Not even an easter egg!
The graphic is nice, but buggy (Yeah, like alot of other games). Especially when you have to walk out of the Wanzer and walk on your own 2 feet. Each time I got to that part of the game, I have to reload my game save, otherwise the graphic started to tear apart. The game could use a bit of polishing, but...

Its kinda sad you know.. Square Enix is probably one of my favourite game publisher of all time. Seriously, DragonQuest and Final Fantasy anyone? And I'm starting to think they are going under the toilet, just like Ubisoft.. Truth to be told, no one cares how long does a sequels come out, as long as they come out good. But to release a half-assed made game like this...

Friday, January 21, 2011

[Games] Divinity II: Ego Draconis

I was looking for some data files in my hard disk when I stumbled into this one, my blog entry for Divinity game. I made it last year, not posting it yet because from what I heard, this game have an add-on call Flame of Vengeance. Ego Draconis is in Latin, which means 'I am Dragon'. I've finished this game actually, a long time ago, but I was waiting for put in with the add-on as well, considering it was already out. But I never found the add-on, well not a standalone add-on. All of the DVDs that I found in the stores were Divinity II: Dragon Knight Saga. Which is the remastered version of Divinity II that I already had.

But, I'm done waiting. If there is none to find, then what can I do. Besides, right after posting this, I'm gonna uninstall the game and save some storage for other newer games. My hard disk of 250GB space with different partitions and still, I need to clear some room for new games. Ughh...

Anyway, about this game. This game is indeed unique in its way. Despite the negative receptions that it receives when first launched, the game is not totally bad. I'd say.. not properly polished game that is. The thing is that, this game look like a normal hack & slash RPG game. The only difference is that, well, just like the tittle suggested, you can transform into a dragon. It does sound nice doesn't it? But lets not get excited here.

Even if the gameplay allows the player to shift from being a war-mongering warrior into a fire-breathing dragon sounds cool, be prepared to be disappointed. Because the two transformations is completely unrelated, literally. If you walk like a mere mortal, then you have bandits, raiders, goblins and all ground creatures to fight with. But when you transform into a dragon, you get to fly AND fight with other flying creatures ONLY. See there, you don't get to spew carnage with your dragon mouth to the people below.

Then the game have quite a high requirement. It even require 3.0 Model Shader, which could be found in latest GFX card. But the thing is, the game doesn't actually sports a great graphic. The scenery was good, but it lack of game in-depth. Even when you turn into a dragon and flying high, you could see only so far. The surrounding might seem nice, but the creatures are a bit hard to spot, until you think you saw someone clubbing your head..

But still, the game breath some kind of a refreshing concept. I mean, how many games out there that allow game character to change into a dragon and got into dogfights (more like dragonfight lol!). And the story line was filled with twist and thrill. Spoiler alert, the ending was not a happy one.

All in all, I enjoyed the game but I'm not really recommending it. At least not my version. I mean my game was an old one. I'm sure the remastered version of the Divinity II would fare better.

The Whispering Turd

Something caught my attention this week. Its a pretty good story, so good that I LMAO.

The story goes like this..

Apparently there is this person, who secretly bad-mouthing people. Spreading lies and shit like that, making it look like its her honest opinion. Now, I knew she did talk bad behind my back, but I choose to ignore it simply because her own low -very low- integrity.

I have no idea who or even what would ever listened to her words anyway. I pretty sure if she talked to a wall, that wall will drop dead in agony, literally, for unable to make a run away from her.

But that is the thing. Someone were listening to her, and got caught in a huge misunderstanding. I don't blame them of course, given the circumstances that they actually new in town. And nobody bother to tell them otherwise either.

But is it so hard to ask around? You heard something is one thing, asking for validity, is another. Whenever someone done something, they have their reasons, and you wouldn't know what, if you didn't ask. Especially if you're new.

Please.. Don't act like you have seen it all. If one's action puzzled you, ask away the reasons. Making your own conclusions simply because you think its the right reason, is the first step to misunderstanding.

Now, the event here is about a canned sardine. She took someone else sardine, and claimed it hers. But the poor girl says, not its not. Because the canned sardine was a new one, with an opener on top. While hers, was an old one, dusty under the kitchen, and had to be opened with a can opener. She simply shrugged, and replace the new one she taken with the old one.

Now, the event here is insignificant. Because things seem to work out. You take my things accidentally and you replace it back, nothing to argue about.

But this person, didn't stop there. To leave her 'turd' legacy, she whispered things that she excel the most. Yup, she did. She told the new tenants, that this poor girl who have stayed in that house for more than 2 years.. that she DOESN'T like to share her things. But she LOVES to take other people things.

Now ain't that fucked up?

You know why I suddenly interested with this story? The truth is..

I bought that canned sardine, and I gives it to the poor girl. She is the angel of my heart. When I gave her the can, I saw where she kept hers on the cabinet near the kitchen, pointing out that there are someone else canned sardines under the kitchen. Then later, she told me someone took hers, and replace it with an old canned sardine. I told her, its okay. At least it was replaced. But I warned her, the incident didn't seem to be.. a simple mistake.

I mean, how could you mistook other people stuff, when it was brand new and completely different with yours. Mine was with an opener on top, and it was placed somewhere else from her dusty cans.

But we let it go, believing that is done. Although I did suspect what she would do, given her bad nature. When this story resurfaced back, with a footnote of this poor girl so-called 'bad habits', I laugh so hard I almost spilled my tea.

Seriously, you would believe that hoe stories? Come on new tenants.. when you guys first coming into that house, she was the one that against it. Saying that she couldn't mixed with people from different departments. She even cursed on you guys for intruding into her tiny little 'group' of friends. The only thing that make her welcome you later is because you had vehicles brought along.

And for the remaining old tenants, you have been living with her for years. YEARS! She have talked behind people and stabbing their back for ages and you knew it. What makes, really, makes you think, that she wouldn't stab your back as the same? Because you are her BFF? Because you are so special to her? Oh, please...

I met her for the first time and already hearing every single one of your guys 'bad traits'.

But I reserve my judgment, for it unfair to draw conclusion from a mere wild gossips.

This not a high school anymore. You were welcomed by some nice people, only to discredit them when you heard something from some skank. No only that, did you, at least, ask the real truth from the accused? There is more to life than clinging to a friendship that stinks.

I learned it the hard way. Maybe you should too..

Amused with the weirdest thing

Yes!

Seriously!

I am very amused!

Hahaha

How could I not?

When I spectating the spectacular.

How the world spins.

And why the sky and ocean seems blue.

Its simple science.

You see, you hear, and you observe.

Now you got served.

For every damages you done.

You paid it all back full in sum.

Never trifle.

With things that beyond your comprehension.

Fate and destiny.

Is somewhere beyond the God's domain.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

[Games] Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

The latest online game I tried is this, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, or simply W.A.R. Yup, very neat short form. The game was released in 2008, well, quite a long time ago. But only recently that I feel like playing because.. you know, just to off some steams while waiting for the oncoming game of Warhammer, the Dark Millennium. I'm starting to be obsess with Warhammer am I? Urgh...

Anyway, I don't actually follow the storyline of Warhammer Fantasy, but it does show resemblance with Warhammer 40K. For what I understand, Warhammer Fantasy sets in the past while Warhammer 40K sets in the future. Both have the Imperial, Orks, and not to forget Chaos. In Fantasy they have Elves, but the 40K have Eldar, which I need not to point out that its pretty much the same. Now, why I mentioning this? Well apparently alot of people actually comparing this game with the Warcraft, which is ridiculus.. World of Warcraft may have been released earlier but the Warhammer have been around even longer. They even started from the board game before going to electronic.

Anyway, I have yet to see any private servers for this game, from what I know there is no server emulator available for this game. So I went straight to the retail game first. Probably because of the free unlimited play time offer. Yup, WAR went free, but not totally free. The trial offer allows the player to play a limited part of the game, but believe me, it is far more better than the last 10 days free play time offer. What make this game unique in a way, is that there is an option to stream data during game play. As we all know, MMORPG nowadays demands not just a truckload of bandwidth to stay connected but also some data storage. When I say some, it means at least 20GB of data storage.

For data stream during game play, you probably need like 9-10GB space to be installed while the rest is streamed back to you during gameplay, but if you choose not to, then the whole game will be patched up to 20GB. But it not just that, in the trial offer, the game will also not to be installed fully until you upgrade your subscription as, full subscriber. I have no idea who would want to stream the data during gameplay because.. who wants to play a laggy game anyway. Better blame the game server rather than you own crappy bandwidth, I'd say.

As you can see from the screenshot, there are 3 races for each faction, and there are 4 more class to choose from each race. There are the forces of Order and Destruction, races in the Order are Imperial, High Elves and Dwarves, for Destruction are Chaos, Dark Elves and Greenskins. For the classes, its a typical classes actually although the names varied from each races. There are melee DPS, ranged DPS, tank, and support.

During my gameplay, I took the character from the forces of Destruction, race of the Greenskin as the Black Orc. Yeah, he is not exactly black but, it just the name of an Ork clan. At least its better than Choppa, hahaha. The role for this character is tanking, and I always use this kind of character in any RPG game because in my opinion they are suitable for soloing. Anyway, it really does.

Ok, this game did show some interesting features regardless that most of it pretty the same with other MMORPG game out there. First of all, there is this thing called Public Quest area. Its a place where you automatically get a quest, or what to do in that area, and you will share it with everyone. There is a ranking system for who contribute the most, to get like top three or ten, to loot the reward. And after finishing the quest, the area will reset back after a few minutes. Now, that, I haven't seen yet anywhere and it is pretty awesome. No more steal-kill and arguing about, 'Hey, this is my port' or stuff like that.

Then, there is RvR or Region versus Region, where you get to fight against the counterpart of you forces. You know, Order versus Destruction.. Its more like guild war, but, larger. Seriously, really large..

And then there is the Scenario play, where you can queue up as solo or a party, where you will be contested in a map to gain foothold in the area. Its like.. PvP battleground or something, the only different is that you actually gain experiences. If you went for a Scenario as a solo, you will be automatically grouped with other players in a party, and every player will be at the same, regulated levels. So there won't be higher or lower level. This is very interesting, because everyone could focus on their own roles, and only the most, specifically hand-picked equipments and neatly arranged hotbar filled with skills and potions will decide the battle outcome. Also, there is a collision detection system, where any character of tank role, will automatically block other character from going through him, thus creating a wall of meat-shield for ranged DPS and support character. So to speak..

There are alot of other features but.. I couldn't say or test it out myself. Of course with the trial offer, I could only go so far. Trial game allow players to level up to 10 only and could only traverse between a couple of regions. From where I've been, I'd say Norsca and Nordland only.

This game is good, no doubt about that. But I doubt this game could last long, given that they already shut down 64 of their servers and only running on 15 servers.. I will not pretend that I know what went wrong with this game, but I could agree with those out there that pointing out about the W.A.R drawbacks..

The thing is that, in my opinion, there can still be a comeback for W.A.R. All they need to do is fixed all the flawed side of their game, like the class balances, server performance and all those stuffs that the players have been complaining about before.. then release a new expansion, a new line of story. That, would at least show all those players out there that have ended their subscription, that this game deserve a second chance.

My 2 cents..

Sunday, January 9, 2011

[Games] World of Warcraft

Whew, for the past of couple of months. I've been spending some of my free time playing an old but not yet outdated game. Its an online game, MMORPG, massive multiplayer online role-playing game. Famous by far, who wouldn't heard the game. Unless of course, gaming is not one of your hobby and you have never heard of the internet. Something like that. Hehe

So yeah, the game is called World of Warcraft or simply, WoW. The game is quite old, and the franchise is even older! The game franchise was first released in 1994, being a strategy game for PC, titled Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. WoW was then released on 2004, the game event taking place 4 years later after the conclusion in Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne. WoW then continuously proceed with the game story with its own expansion, such as The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King. The latest installment for WoW is the Cataclysm.

Anyway, I tried the retail game and a couple of private server. I must say, even with a game graphic from year 2002, the game is quite a success. I mean, a game that doesn't demand so much requirement and all it need is a working internet connection, who could ask for more? The game client also provided easy installation, download with resume provided, but hardisk storage could be a bit of a problem. Apparently, all in all space needed to install and play the game correctly will as big as 20GB. Yeah, that a whole lot of space there.. And is only up to the expansion of the Wrath of the Lich King, I bet more is required to install the new expansion, Cataclysm.

Here is a character that I made in the Blitzhub private server. At first, their game server called Feathermoon is dedicated for PVP, PVE, raids and such. In other word the game char would be automatically leveled up to 80 to save up time for leveling. Later, the Blitzhub created another game server called Frostmourne to take Feathermoon roles, while Feathermoon was made for normal online gaming fun. You know, doing quest, killing monsters and leveling up. Blitzhub comunity is pretty nice although they just started to grow. The have their own forum on Blitzhub Forum

I'm promoting their server am I? Yeah, I think I just did. Its not wrong is it? The players and GMs in that server is mighty nice, I just thought it would be a good place for another players to join in. Haha

Well, enough promoting, here is it. The ingame view. As you can see from the screenshot, you will notice that the game char model might be lack of details but the surrounding is astonishing. This here, is the scenery of the Stormwind city from outside of the walls.

And here is a picture of a Shaman, surrounded with elemental totems. I just snatched that guy picture, ha ha.

To travel from outpost to outpost or between cities, mount is essential. In the land of Azeroth and Kalimdor, only ground mounts are available for player to use. But there is a transportation called the 'taxi' that allowed players to fly faster to next place. However in Northrend and Netherland, players can use their own flying mounts. And this, is how it feels to be flying around. Ha ha

Well, this is it. There are a lot of things to tell about this game, evidently. This game is so huge, it kind of felt like a secondary life. The whole map is so enormous , there is so much to explore. I started to understand why some people got easily attached or.. addicted to this kind of game.

In my opinion, the gaming experience for this game is just like in the Fallout 3. Different is, you get to interact with other players online and the game map ranges from multiple continents and even between worlds. From planet Azeroth to Netherland. I am however, already stopped playing the game. I'm don't exactly have the luxury to spend my time too much in gaming. I guess, until next time.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

[Movie] Ultramarines - Dissappointment much?

Well, what can I say.. I must confess that I'm a bit disappointed with the newly released Warhammer 40k movie called Ultramarines.. First of all.. I did not expect the movie to be.. quite bland. I dunno, there is a lot of blood spilled and stuff but after playing the Dawn of War II or even the Dark Crusade games.. I found the movie is a bit wanting.. Seriously I think the cinematic of the Warhammer games that I keep watching whether ingame or in Youtube are far better than this movie.

That is on the point of the movie graphic of course. The surrounding view, effect nonetheless is great, but the characters were a bit.. different. I don't know whether it is just me or I find the characters are not as I expected. I think the characters in Dawn of War II is far more convincing than in this movie. I mean, those guys really have broad shoulders and stern faces. But in this movie, I pretty sure the squad captain and the apothecaries looked like senile old men..

And the effect.. I dunno, I still favor the cinematic of Dawn of War II. The Space Marines however seems to be portrayed like normal soldiers, I mean there is one scene where the marines panting for air while climbing a set of stairs..Seriously? I thought they have like 3 lungs and 2 hearts pumping super-oxygenated blood in their veins..

Well, seriously I dunno.. maybe I was expecting too much. Maybe I thought too highly of the movie, it is their first release anyway.. First of many to come, who knows.. Anyway here is the screenshot of the movie I took.. for a DVD that cost me $25.99.. For one instance there, I kinda regret it and think I should save it for the next expansion of Dawn of War II, Retributions..

For some reason, I think I've seen the character's model somewhere in Youtube.. made by one of the Warhammer 40k fan.. could it be possible?

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