Liddokun's Gaming Rave

This is my personal blog. I write about practically almost anything and everything but my favorite topic is about games, society and culture as well as technology and science.

Author: Liddokun

I recently purchased the first season of Sanctuary (starring Amanda Tapping of Stargate SG-1 fame) from the iTunes store. The season only had 13 episodes and priced at $25.87. The series tells of the story of  Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) who operates a secret institution called "Santuary for all". Their purpose is to locate strange beings and creatures in order to help them and give them sanctuary but  also to contain them if they are highly dangerous. Many of their charge comes willingly and lives in the large estate but some highly dangerous creature must first be captured and sedated by their retrieval team which is composed of Dr. Magnus' daughter Ashley (Emilie Ullerup) and the staffs and associates of the institution. The series deals with themes such as personal freedom for many of these often unslightly creatures/beings which have no way to integrate into normal society.

The first impression I had was, "Hey this series had Amanda Tapping on it so it should be good." After watching 2 more episodes my impression was "Hey, this IS good." As the episodes progressed a lot was revealed piece by piece about Dr. Helen Magnus, her history and the reason why she is doing this. Each episode is somewhat a self contained episode with a "monster of the week" theme. I think once the series has picked up steam they should switch to an over arching storyline because monster of the week can only go so far before getting old. And yes, there's an archnemesis for "Sanctuary for all" a shady organization called Cabal that seems to be intent on doing the same thing as Sanctuary, which is to locate strange beings/creatures and capture them but their purpose instead is to press/enslave these powerful creatures/beings into their service for their own gain. Everyone loves a good nemesis.

Do I recommend this series to anyone? Yes, but watch it with an open mind as there are only a few episodes released (Season 1 only has 13 episodes and Season 2 has 3 out as of this writing). I find this series thoroughly enjoyable with equal amounts of action and mystery.

A couple of days ago I took the plunge the OS plunge. Yup I updated my PC from Windows XP to Windows 7. The updating process was both surprising easy and annoying to the extreme. The surprising easy part, put your disc in the DVD drive and the setup will do the rest. You don't have to lift a single finger as the process automates almost everything. The annoying part ? Well you see Windows 7 don't like Windows XP hence it insist that you do a CLEAN install which is basically delete everything and start from scratch. You old Windows directory is renamed to Windows.Old including everything from your C:\Windows system directory to your C:\Program Files (yes even that!) and Windows 7 setup drops all the content of your old OS life into a single neat directory ready to be deleted, nothing is imported (configurations, email and all). If you are by chance a Vista user then the process of upgrading is quite pleasant, put the DVD in the drive, click install and go watch some TV or movies for the next couple of hours. By the time your movie is finished Windows 7 is ready for you.

What I like about Windows 7:

- The user interface is neat. They did a good job on the Aero layout. Unfortunately Aero takes up a lot of your computer's memory and resources so if you are like me who wants a lean mean efficient gaming rig then disable Aero and go with the resource minimal (drab) interface.

- Your Windows 7 comes in a 32 bit and 64 bit versions on 2 separate DVDs. In case you upgraded to a 64 bit PC in the future you can use your copy of the OS without needing to purchase another.

- Supports DirectX 11. Makes games look good.

- Some application runs faster in Windows 7. The OS also detects your full 4GB of RAM in 32 bit mode altho only 3GB can actually be used (this is a 32 bit architecture limitation).

- Boot up in Windows 7 takes a bit longer than XP (I clocked mine at around 30 seconds for full boot up).

- A very configurable and customizable user interface.

- I like the new toolbar which has a feature called pinning. It basically allows you to pin a software into the toolbar like a notepad.

- Plug and play devices installs very easily with Windows 7. If you plug in a PnP device that Windows does not recognize, it searches its online database and downloads the correct device driver software for you. No more needing to search thru the internet like crazy.

- Windows Firewall is now even more configurable than before.

- They phased out Microsoft Outlook and other programs from the basic installation DVD and instead you have to download (for free) the Microsoft Essentials Pack which basically includes several software packages such as the Microsoft Live Mail, Movie Maker, Instant Messanger etc. I consider this a good thing. If you don't want the extra stuff then you don't have to install the pack but it's there if you ever want it. 

What I don't like about Windows 7:

- Some very old software can no longer run in Windows 7.

- Some games run much slower in Windows 7 especially if they are not optimized for the OS.

- Many software (especially games) that uses Gameguard no longer functions properly in Windows 7.

- The annoying UAC (User Access Control) is still there but at least now you can tone it down or outright disable it.

Conclusion:

I believe the overall reaction to Windows 7 has been overwhelmingly positive. It's a good OS with a good price (I got mine for $50 bucks during the pre-order event) that retails for around $115-$120 for the Premium Home Edition (upgrade edition).

Torchlight was released yesterday and I bought the game for $19.95 from the main website ($17.95 on steam from what I heard). First impression, this single player action RPG looks good as the graphics are nice and crisp. It is a bit cartoony but in a nice way as the cartoon-ish style preserves the beauty of the graphics for years to come without making the game look old.  Gameplay is very simple your avatar starts off in a town called Torchlight and apparently this town is the world's richest source of ember which is a magical type of mineral/resource that has many uses. Many people has come to the town to make a fortune for themselves (kinda like the california gold rush) but where they are embers there are hoards of monsters and people are starting to go insane (out of greed, frustration or the machinations of some powerful evil being we don't know yet). Anyway, the game mechanics is pretty much a 2D action RPG (the game is 3D btw), you click on things to kill, collect loot and complete quests. If you have ever played Diablo or Diablo 2 by Blizzard Entertainment it's pretty much the same type of game as the guys who made Diablo/Diablo2 were pretty much the same guys who made Torchlight (they now work for Runic Games Inc.). Just like Diablo the dungeons are randomized so you'll never have to go thru the same dungeon over and over.  Loot comes in various grades of rareness (grey for trash, green for uncommon, blues for rares, orange for real rares, etc.)

 Features that I like:

- I like the pet feature (you can choose between a dog and a cat) and you can name your pet. Your pet serves many function. One of which is to be your trusty combat companion (your pet can level up) and has it's own inventory and equipment slots (altho only for rings, necklaces). One of the most useful feature of your pet is the ability to carry loot and you can order your pet to go sell in town (LOL! Such as smart dog to be able to count money). Another feature is your pet is able to transform into various types of creatures (for a limited time) if you feed them fish (which you can fish up from a water hole inside the dungeon).

- The skill system is pretty open and you can make your own "build". It has 3 skill trees for each class. And you can pretty much mix and match skills. You only gain 1 skill point per level so choose wisely.

- Spell/Skill scrolls can drop from monsters which lets you learn skills that cannot otherwise be learned by your class. This include things like healing spells and buffs.

- Personal Stash is shared by all your characters in the game. This means the loot you got from one of your characters can be given to your other characters.

- Huge variety of loot which has interesting properties.

- NPCs that offer services such as removal of socketed gems, transmutation of items, enchanting of items, gamble npc (sell random unidentified loot like Wirt from the Diablo series).

- Dungeon pieces are handcrafted hence it feels fluid instead of being too modular.

- Skill can be hotkeyed Diablo style (left click uses one skill while right click uses another), tabbing can switch skills or MMO style which is 1-9 on your hotkey bar.

- Game offers hardcore mode.

 Features that I don't like or feel is lacking:

- Easy mode is too easy. Most monsters die in 1-2 hits. I think this mode is made for those who has never played Diablo/Diablo 2 or any other action RPG.

- Cannot change difficulty mode in the middle of the game. Instead you have to restart a new character.

- Potions only stack to 20 and takes up 1 whole item slot. I wish they stack up more as they take up precious inventory spaces.

Conclusion:

Torchlight is a great value at $20 bucks as it offers tons and tons of hours of fun. The main storyline would give you approximately around 10-20 hours of play but your character can still continue to get loot and level up after you complete the main quest. An infinite dungeon is offered to test your mettle once the main game is completed.

http://cbs5.com/local/richmond.teen.raped.2.1269829.html

This is incredible, a 15 year old girl who after going to her prom dance was attacked, beaten, robbed and gang raped by over 6 men for over 2 hours with over 25 witnesses and NOBODY even bothered to call the police or phone for help? There are news reports that even some bystanders joined in the attack or laughed at the incident. What the fuck is wrong with america today people ? Is our youth that morally corrupt and bankrupt ? Is this country no longer a safe place for our children to go out during the night ? Did we revert back into the dark ages where violence and rape can happen at night in almost any dark places or alley? What is so galling is that this happened right by the school where there are suppose to have 2 police on patrols. Folks the perpetrators should be brought to justice every last one of them. If society and the government fails the girl and her family then america is in a poorer shape than we thought.

I have been playing Dungeons and Dragons Online for the past week and I can say the game is a lot of fun again. For the past couple of years DDO had a small but steady playerbase after it's initial launch but people are leaving for newer games and the game's population was dwindling. What Turbine did was a stroke of genius that saved their game and infused it with new life. They went Free to Play. A lot of people would never pay for a game. But the F2P model entice them to try out a game before they invest any sort of money on it. We've all been burned before with bad games that we had  invested a lot of our hard earned money and time on but always seemed to end up being on the shelves after a few weeks or months of playing when the boredom sets in. But F2P doesn't mean jack if the game stinks. I have been a founder member of DDO (yes you can still get your founder starting equipment) and I can say the game has experienced significant positive changes. The quests are now more varied, has great storyline and some of the more annoying features removed or changed. A significant reason for DDO dwindling population was finding other players to play with since a significant number of DDO's adventures requires a party effort, going F2P ensures that there are always enough players present to play with each other (for veteran and newbies alike). Old players like me are starting to come back seeing that Stormreach has transformed into a bustling adventure hub once again as opposed to an almost ghost town before the launch of DDO: Unlimited.

This is but a small list of some of the things that have changed in DDO which I consider positive:

- No more XP penalty for someone being over the level of the adventure. The bonus for completing an adventure while underleveled is removed too. You gain full XP or NO XP at all.

- You gain a 25% xp bonus for completing the adventure without any death. You gain a 25% xp bonus for completing an adventure the first time and at each difficulty level.

- Quivers for storing your arrows, bolts, and other ammos.  Bags for storing your gems and collectibles. Less cluttered inventory.

- Some adventures are re-adjusted making them a bit less dangerous and less frustrating. Some adventures are made a bit more dangerous and challenging.

- There are a number of solo only adventures for the new player. The solo adventures can still be quite a challenge if you come unprepared.

- Premium members ($15 subscribers) can skip normal mode adventures and unlock hard mode difficulty directly.

- Resurrection/Rest shrines now recharges every 15 minutes for solo/normal difficulty adventures but are still 1 use deal with hard/elite difficulty.

I have watch all 3 episodes of Stargate Universe and I am liking what I see so far. I love the drama and the scenes where even the most distinguished, composed, smartest scientist losing their cool and composure due to pressure and the human frailities in a stark contrast to the previous Stargate series' super macho man image. Folks, if you like the previous Stargate series then you'll like this one, it has most of what the previous mythos has to offer -- cool technology, alien worlds and seeing the heroes get out of a jam. If you are new to the series and like things with a bit more drama than action then you will like this series too. Thank god they lose the english speaking aliens. The aliens featured so far is truly alien.. it seems benevolent but we could be dealing with a new life form that no human can yet understand.

Let me start by showing you this picture.

This is the insides of a baby pelican chick after it dies from starvation after ingesting all sorts of plastic junk floating around the sea. This picture was taken not from nearby centers of civilization but from an island 2000 miles from any continent. So please think of this poor little baby chick before you throw away your non-biogradable plastic junk. They float around the ocean and ended up being eaten by animals that don't know any better.

Source of the report: http://gizmodo.com/5384892/where-plastic-goes-when-it-dies-birds-stomachs

Nope.. my problem has nothing to do with pvp and the possibility of enemies way higher level than you lurking freely in the corner ready to gank you. Yes I'm only lvl 25 and I have fought off or killed players higher level than me. I have no problems dying. My problem with the game is the lack of quality content, the quest are starting to get repetitive and the amount of "grind quest" (those that lets you repeat over and over) are becoming more and more numerous. I love a good dungeon run, Aion has instanced dungeons but there are too few of them. I like the way World of Warcraft have liberal amounts of instanced dungeons scattered all over the world for you to explore and I can't help get the feeling that Aion's world feels ..barren. Another thing is the combat. Pressing 1 2 3 4 repeat over and over for each combat doesn't matter what you are fighting feels like the combat is a joke. It's tedious, boring and has all the signs of an asian grinder mmo all over it. Aion is a very pretty game, and that's all there it is to it, a very stunning visual masterpiece clothed but without any soul.

If you have been reading the gaming industry news recently one ministry has passed a law banning all foreign MMO companies (wholly owned or joint venture) from operating in China. Supposedly the reason for the ban is that criminal elements from china are using RMT (real money trading) to launder money from their criminal activities using MMOs. The criminals supposedly use virtual gold to pay for drugs/arms/illicit activities and in order to cover their money trail the goods/services are paid using virtual gold and then the virtual gold is then resold for real world money. The chinese government is trying to stop this practice because it is virtually impossible for them to track such transactions when the game server/logs and the server proprietors are located in another country. So people, remember if you buy in-game gold you might inadvertently be assisting criminals in their illegal activities.

Spent the weekend playing Suikoden and Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. I bough Crisis Core about a year ago and never got to finish playing it. Heck I just played the intro and the game got shelved for a good year and a half. Now that I have spend substantial time playing it I can say I love the game. While visiting BestBuy today I saw a Greatest Hits version of the game. What I love about Crisis Core is the storytelling which tells you all the backstory that FFVII have missed. It tells the story of a hero named Zack Fair. For those who doesn't know he is the boyfriend of Aeris Gainsborough and is a First Class rank SOLDIER.

I love Sony products really, ever since I was a kid I had lots of Sony products such as the walkman, Sony radio player, CD players, DVD players, TV sets (CRTs), PlayStation (yes I own or used to own all 3 generations of Playstation 1,2 and 3) and the PSP. Sony for me is synonymous with great high quality product and great value. But recently Sony has been dropping the ball. The latest gaffe is the PSP Go! which I feel was released prematurely.

The Good and the Bad of PSP Go!:

PROs:
- Digital distribution is the way of the future. Eventually majority of content would be distributed digitally (from the internet or other digital media providers). Physical containers of content would eventually be phased out totally (I predict maybe in 15-20 years). Sony went with the flow and the wave of the future and that's a good sign.

- Able to use the PS3 controllers on the PSP Go! The process requires you to have a PS3 in order to sync the controller with your PSP Go! I hope in the future they can streamline the process. I really prefer using the PS3 controller than the native PSP controller.

- Huge storage capacity. Comes with 16 GB of storage (14 GB usable) and expandable up to 32GB with a Memory Stick Duo (M2).

- Digital distribution means copies of your games are stored in your digital locker on Sony's servers. If you lost or broke your PSP or misplace your memory stick you can always redownload your games at no extra charge.

- Can be used as a VoIP device using the free SKYPE software.

CONS:
- The number one complaint for most user is the price. At $250 bucks a pop this is a pretty expensive gaming gadget (compared to PSP-2000/3000 which cost around $170) as you can get a PS3 for $50 more.

- Another major complaint is that if you have a major collection of UMD games there's currently no way to import/sync those games to your PSP Go! Your old game collection is pretty much bupkiss. You have to repurchase all your old games from the PSN store if you want to play them on your PSP Go!.

- Lack of newer games. Sony promised to eventually make available most games that it has released on the PSN Store. Many of the newer games are not yet available on the PSN. The goal was to make available all games released on or after October 1, 2009. You might have to wait a while for your favorite games to become available on the PSN store while Sony catches up.

- For some reason Sony wasn't satisfied with using the standard USB cable to sync content with the PSP Go! so they had to use their own proprietory cable. I guess that way they can set their own pricing structure in the future were you need to replace that cable. Sorry Sony that's a bad marketing move. Nowadays everyone wants standardized peripherals that can interact with everything else.

After watching the first episode I can say that this new series feels different than the previous series (Stargate SG-1 or Atlantis). Long gone are the theme of jaw dropping exploration and discovery of fantastic alien worlds, gadgetry & devices, and english speaking aliens, instead you are presented with a bunch of "normal" people stuck in a gigantic direlict alien (Ancient) starship which they have absolutely no control over. What's worse the life support system has failed on some parts of the ship (basically they are running out of breathable air while on a ship that is basically on autopilot and they have no idea where they are going). Stargate Universe has a definite different feel than Stargate SG-1 or Atlantis, the atmosphere feels darker and edgier and the focus are on it's unwilling passangers who are not ready to take on the responsibilities of survival in an alien environment. The main cast of characters are people who aren't exactly the heroic types (unlike O'neal or Daniel Jackson which seems to eventually resolve any problems they have with their ingenuity, knowledge or sheer luck). We have here a cast of characters which are afraid and at the end of their nerves. The frailities of the human race are clearly seen and palpable even to the audience. If you are a veteran SG-1/Atlantis fan you might (or might not) like this new series.