Disciples 3 - A Review - 31st Jan

It's been awhile since I last written a game review. I think it has been almost 2 months already. In fact, I've also finished and not-finished some games already on probably would be nice to have some reviews which I planned to post soon. Anyways, I've just recently played Disciples 3: Renaissance lately and here's my two cents on the game.

Well, first of all, I didn't bother about the story. Why? Let me illustrate why.
I started the game with the tutorial section, supposedly teaches on how to play. Seeing that I've got experience in Disciples 2, I skipped all the tutorial messages as I was fairly sure that I could manage without them. As expected, I breezed through for a while.Suddenly I realize, what happen to all the game mechanics that most players have grown to love? Graphics-wise, I talk about that later in the article, but in terms of combat-wise, it was one my main gripes at the moment. I'm not too sure as to why the developers would change a system that differentiates itself from the similar "Heroes" series.

Now, here I have is a screen-shot of one of the combat scenes:-

In combat, you can now move your units to hexagonal spaces, which means, you can move units around behind enemies etc. Now, I don't really find this to be fun. If I would, I could have played the Heroes series.

Before this combat, my hopes were still high, trying to adapt to the strange new 3d view, revamped graphics, new system of gathering resources etc. While the combat is running, my interest in this game straight went down to zero and down the drain. My first thoughts were that I'm going back to Disciples 2. It's not that it's unplayable but the overall design has changed and degraded into a "Heroes" type clone instead of being in its own class. When the Heroes series degraded from the high-quality of Heroes 3 to Heroes 4 and the much much lower Heroes 5, I've switched to Disciples 2 and stuck to it since, but it looks like the series is also on another trip to the dark-store room.

Graphically, I'm not impressed either, the Gothic feel of the previous game has been reduced by quite a large amount. Disciples 2 made the lords and warriors look utterly "uber" even when they're actually at a low level. But in Disciples 3, the game just made a low-level warrior just puny and weak and from some images on various websites, a high-level one isn't any better. And I was wondering, what actually happened to all the "cool" looking attacks? Here's a comparison picture for both games for the hero.

Let me ask: Who looks and feels more a Hero?

 

Disciples 3 - Hero

 

Disciples 2 - Hero (The one on the Pegasus like Horse)

Well, I think I just straight give this game an overall score:- 3/10. Some points scored are awarded to the fact that the devs are able to maintain some moods of the game and not totally make it a new series. But well, I really don't like what they have done with the rest of the in-game systems.

University Students These Days - 29th Jan

In UM, there is a rule of conduct on how to dress for lectures and classes in the university, as the same with most public universities in the country. Among them includes that there will be no short pants allowed. In my class today there was a student wearing short pants, so, as class demonstrator or in fact the "lecturer" in-charge of the tutorial class, I notified him of this at the end of class with this conversation:-


(Note:- That's not me in the picture, neither am I female)

Me:- Hey, do you know what are you wearing today?
Student: No, what? (Acting Innocent)
Me:- Well, you're wearing shorts...I don't want to see it again next week ok?
Student:- Ummm (With that "Huh?" Look)....Ok.
Me:- You got any reasons for wearing shorts?
Student:- Well, I got no reason to wear long pants as well......
Me:- Rules are rules....(Inside:- What The? No reason?!?!)

It just occurs maybe the guy thinks he's studying in UM, makes him the top of the world, kinda like a snobbish kid with no respect for the institution. Well, if he knows what to do, so do I......

2009 iPad vs 2006 iPad

Well, Apple Inc. has just recently launched their new product, iPad which is sort of a multi-use for gaming, Kindle-like ebook reader device, web browsing, emails etc. In fact, it's more like a giant iPod.Here's some pictures of the new device:-

BUT anyways, did you know that iPad actually existed way before, in the year 2006?
Here's a video that says it does:-



I pretty much laughed hard on the video. Kinda weird that Apple would take a name that simply reminds people of the "other kind" of pads.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 - Single Player - 24th Jan

Battlefield Bad Company 2 will be released on March 5th and I'm sure many gamers out there will be anticipating the game as it among the game to watch out for and as a "cure" to the disappointment caused by IW.net. Well, GTTV has recently showed Battlefield Bad Company 2 on its latest episode and so, here it is:-

BATTLEFIELD BAD COMPANY 2 - GTTV

Warning! - 21 Min Video ( Patience Required )

Well, from what I saw, I'm impressed. Finally, there will be single-player. For so long, I've been wondering on single-player for the battlefield series which usually was an "offline multiplayer" mode considered as single-player but now finally there's story and it will be a smaller learning curve with the single-player available. Now we just have to wait for March 5th...

Gigapixel photos - 17th January

Let me ask you a question:- What is the highest resolution camera available now in the market that you can think of? 15 MP? 30 MP? or maybe 100 MP?

Well, the thing is that, high resolution cameras would definitely generate a more detailed and clear picture / photo and in the photo itself, all sorts of things and details that we'd never knew of, would appear. Sometimes, embarrassingly, even unwanted minor blemishes or wrinkles on the skin may appear (especially focused on by the feminine gender). The images with a higher resolution, would definitely be less likely to appear blur and instead be totally sharp even to the most minuscule detail. My point is, in a photo, there is only so much a human eye can see and capture.

How about if the camera has a resolution of 17 GP or even 26 GP?
That's approximately 1000 times or more resolution than the current available market cameras. Imagine that! 1000 times sharper and you can zoom in to see even dirt or microscopic details (maybe even the cells or membranes in the eyes of person....). The thing is, this photo or picture actually exist!

Well here are two videos on the 17 Gigapixel Photo and the 26 Gigapixel photo:-


17 Gigapixels Panorama - Site = Here



Well, my first words after seeing these photos:- Oh MY God! Amazing!
Now I wonder where I'd put my camera? I've got a 100 Gigapixel photo to make.

Kenny Roger's - RED day 14th January

Well, it is the first post for the year 2010, and therefore, I would first wish all readers a very very happy new year! Yesterday it was (R)oger's (E)ating (D)ay or RED at Kenny Roger's restaurant where they were having a promotion. I guess quite a number of people saw that promotion advertisement and when we were there at the restaurant there already quite a number of people making a line at the restaurant in 1Utama.

Here's the promotion advertisment:-

Frankly, I've never eaten Kenny Roger's before this and I thought that I might give it a try since they're having this promotion where if you wear anything red, you'll be able to get another quarter meal for free if you order a quarter meal (which is worth RM15.90). Price was a factor before this but with this I don't see the harm trying as I went with my brother, one person has to only fork out approximately RM 9 with the service tax and all added up. Besides the chicken, you can choose 3 side dishes from a number of variety.

Here's the meal itself:-

Black Pepper chicken with corn, aromatic rice and fruit salad

 Black Pepper chicken with potato salad, mash potatoes, and macaroni with cheese

Overall, I would say that the chicken is quite tender, the side dishes are tasty while the service is considerably quite friendly. My only complaint is that none of the food are hot or at least warm and the sauce is rather too little to fully enjoy the whole chicken with it. Furthermore, it was supposedly black pepper sauce but the black pepper taste just wasn't there. Although, if they do have this promotion again, I would definitely go back there.