It's nearly X'mas - 22nd Dec

Ah. It's nearly X'mas again. (Christmas is an archaic language in the year 2999, see Futurama S2E17). Anyways it's the time of the year where everyone gives or receives gifts and maybe just give but no one gives back, but anyways I've started to make resolutions for next year, hopefully they'll be achieved.

Even though it was supposed to be a time for joy and merriment, but it saddens me though that some of my fellow bloggers have abandoned their blogs. Some cannot be blamed due to political pressure, some due to lack of time, some due to lack of interest from the community, hence lack of readers. To many it was hoped that the blog can help them generate money, but to me, I just write whenever I like without caring for money or anything.

But well, this year has been tough and I hope next year would be better. One of the first resolutions I have in my mind now would be to update this blog with anything, at least twice a week. Hopefully everything will run smooth and readers will increase!

Back from Oblivion - 21st Nov

Well, I'm back!

After such a long time missing, I guess it's time to revive back this blog. All this while, work has rendered my time filled with all sorts of activities from work to my Masters studies. There are a lot to catch up especially my gaming and other crazy things happening all this while. I'm actually wondering, up to now, there isn't actually much readers, and I guess it won't increase anytime soon either but heck, I'm doing this for the fun of it, not for other reasons, so, well, here we go again, hopefully with more vibrant content!

Happy Fathers' Day !

Happy Father's Day to my Dad!

May everything go smoothly for you!
And be happy always.

HAPPY FATHERS' DAY!

BFBC2 Review - 12th May

By: [MBT[UltimaWeapon

The sound of explosions, of rifles ejecting bullets, of your teammates shouting away from a distance, people running from one corner to the other, of cannons blasting away with echoes of sniper rifles being shot in the background and of buildings crumbling, those were the objects of fascination and usually associated with heroism, excitement, action, leadership, teamwork and maybe fear for some. It was, one of the things that most people have often tried to imagine themselves to be in. In the midst of a battlefield, the feel of covering for your squad, planning ahead the path to thread and threats to eliminate next, has made a great deal of excitement in a lot of people.  It was a wonder, how would it feel like to be in the situation of a war? With immersive sounds supported by Dolby Surround, and believable graphics, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 makes explosions right next to you. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was developed by DICE, a Swedish company well-known for its Battlefield series, and published by Electronic Arts. DICE was the company which revolutionized the multiplayer component of gaming, where 32 players can play in the same field where previously, it was limited up to 8 players only on other games. In this game, although the single-player component is not the main selling point, but the game play was very well worth the money paid.

Battlefield:Bad Company 2 single player campaign focuses on a squad known as Bad Comapany, consisting of Sarge, Marlowe, Sweetwater, and Haggard which were characters from the original Battlefield:Bad Company 1. First mission starts off during WWII which serves as a background to the story and tells of a weapon of mass destruction developed by the Japanese during WWII. The weapon was then acquired again in the modern day and threatens to unnerve worldwide safety. With your squad of four, and armed with modern day variety of weapons and rifles such as the M16A4 assault rifle, AKS-74u, M95-Barrett sniper rifle, M60 Light Machinegun and UMP-45 sub-machinegun, your mission is to prevent the destruction of the world and recover this weapon. The excellent sound design further enforces your sense of place. Though there are some blurry textures, occasional screen tearing, and awkward moments caused by the pervasive environmental destructibility, these are mere blemishes on the ambitious look and immersive sound of Bad Company 2. Environments range from lush and dense forest with even mosquitoes buzzing to snowy locales which the howling winds could literally chill your ears.

 With the new Destruction 2.0, every building, every nook and corner can be used to your advantage or disadvantage, working like a double edge-sword. Almost every building and structure can be leveled to the ground and many a time, this has been used to achieve objectives, either by killing enemies or crushing your objective. Any object you find in the environment can either be your worst enemy or your best ally depending on situation. Often, you would find yourselves running for a new cover when your previous cover was blown to bits, maybe from a cannon shell or making new cover for yourselves by blowing up the walls of a nearby building. This adds to the unpredictability and often you would find that you will never stay in the same place even in different rounds of the same map. Never are two games the same, even the way objectives are achieved or places which you used for cover, which promotes for creative thinking such as hiding a tank in a building or even using a C4-rigged UAV to blow up buildings. When the building starts creaking, it’s either run or risk being crushed.

Multiplayer wise, depending on your preference, there are four kits available which are: Assault, Medic, Engineer and Recon. Main tasks of the assault would be the main attack force in the front, pushing enemy lines back with a number of rifles, while the medic provides first-aid healing and reviving fallen teammates armed with his light machineguns. Destroying objects are the specialty of the engineer and his arsenal of rocket launchers and mine. Lastly the recon scouts and spot enemies for his teammates while providing the quick elimination of sniper rifles. The sensation of getting a sniper headshot after a careful target lining up while compensating for bullet drop is very satisfying is also part of the war-stories told after having played the game. Balance is not a question as even snipers requires two shots to kill unless it’s a headshot, which is an instant death for the target. With ACOG and RDS as unlockable options, accuracy is no longer an excuse for missing targets.

With over 51 weapons and 16 vehicles such as Abrams, Bradley, Bakhcha, Hind and Apache, there are almost countless ways to do what you wish in the game, and achieving the objectives of the 4 available games mode including: Rush, Conquest, Squad Deathmatch and Squad Rush. Each game modes play distinctively from each other, being Rush having to either defend or destroy stations situated across the maps and conquest to capture and defend flags for points. In terms of multiplayer experience, the main concern was of lag issues. Lag or latency is the way how a game compares the timing difference between you and other people. This is important to determine the hit rate and whether does your firing actually hit a moving target which either results in your target surviving or meeting his fate. Even for countries far apart, such as between the United States and Malaysia, the lag was very much playable due to the dedicated servers available for the game with a large number of locations for each region. This ensures that there are no arguments on who has the latency advantage as everyone is tuned to the player with the highest latency.

 In Malaysia particularly, the Battlefield community was spearheaded by the Malaysian Battlefield Team (MBT, www.mbtcentral.net). MBT was established in 15th September 2006 by four gaming enthusiast with the sole intention of creating a dedicated, well managed and reputable organization of gamers. MBT focuses on First Person Shooter genre game the Battlefield series from Electronic Arts and other titles which emphasize teamwork play. Since then, with limited means of advert MBT has grown steadily over the months and the number of members has increased from a mere 8 to currently a total of 51 and still counting. Anyone from Malaysia is free to apply for membership which is only given after a week of trial playing with current MBT administrative personnel. Members are then divided into divisions according to their preference, such as the Alpha ( α ) division for frontal assault and Borneo Head-Hunters ( B[H]2 ) division for reconnaissance and sniping. Although each player is free to switch between kits, each division they belong are expected to perform tasks provided over the VOIP system, Teamspeak 3 which promotes teamwork and tactics. For best gaming experience, MBT has started their own dedicated servers based in Singapore which guarantees a much lower latency for players in the region. To play in MBT servers, search for MBTCENTRAL.NET and you’re in for a blast!

Having being said, the Battlefield Bad Company 2 game is indeed a well-worth for money game to get. There are no further doubts about this and could easily be one of the better FPS games out at the moment. With the unpredictable single-player and action oriented multiplayer, coupled with the dedicated servers, especially the MBT servers in Malaysia, it’s time to blow things up. Excuse me while I see an enemy in my 12x scope, I have a bullet here with his name on it.

Pros: - Destruction 2.0, Balanced Weapons, Vehicles, Large maps

Cons: - Not much variety in game modes, Very addictive

Thanks to Gest, Guardian77, Mobster, Wallydragon, Apam_Savior

No Thanks to Schizodroid

Happy Mother's Day!

It's Mother's Day again this year!

Wishing all Mothers of the world, a happy:-
HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY!

Infinity Ward Mass Resignations - 18th April

With the firing of Vince Zampella and Jason West from Infinity Ward by Activision over an issue which the gaming community calls as a abomination, the chaos was created by Activision so that they will not have to pay Vince and Jason the royalties that they deserve for the sales of Modern Warfare 2, many other staff of Infinity Ward are now currently in the process of leaving Infinity Ward and more are possibly coming. The video shows people who are currently not in the company anymore.

Video Games | | Who's left Infinity Ward so far?

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

As a summary, people who have already left:-
Directed By:- Jason West
Engineering Leads:- Francesco Gigliotti
Engineering:- Jon Shirling, Rayme E.Vinson
Design Leads:- Todd Alderman, Steve Fukida, Mackey Macandlish, Zied Rieke
Art Leads:- Christopher Cherubini
Animation Leads:- Mark Gringsby, Paul Messerly
Story By:- Jason West, Todd Alderman, Steve Fukida, Mackey Macandlish, Zied Rieke
CEO:- Vince Zampella

Qing Ming Festival - April 6th

Qing Ming Festival is celebrated every year where the living descendants of the departed visit the graves to pay their respects. It is time of year where it is considered to be the Chinese New Year for the departed and the living visit the "homes" of the departed. Last year, Qing Ming was on 4th April, and this year was supposed to be on the 5th of April but made early due to the weekends. My article on last years Qing Ming Festival can be found HERE

The view of the hill from my grandparents' grave

But anyways, in comparison from last years difficulty, it wasn't so hard this year, which I'm thankful for. At least, the workouts has been paying off and didn't felt the same tiredness like year but still my thigh muscles still hurt with the extra effort required to scale the non-standard staircases. Well, with prayers done, mountain scaled, and grandparents visited, hopefully this year would bring me again: someone, and new business opportunities and excellent health all-round for everyone!

My cousin sister placing candles on the altar.

A view of my grandparents' grave

Starcraft 2 Beta Review - 6th April

Although the beta has been opened for quite a while, I'm doing the review only now as this review must be not be messed up and actually conveys what I actually think of the game from the beta experience only. Due to the fact that this game is widely anticipated, expectations were rather high and being helmed by Blizzard made the game on of the more "must-haves" of the times.

As this game is only in its beta, much of the story is not yet known but the basics is that it starts after the end of Starcraft: Broodwar and the first installment of a 3-part series focuses on the Marines or humans of the game in "Wings of Liberty". Therefore, story is out and the general idea for the beta would be on the balancing issues if the units and also bugs and glitches, whether graphical or the system itself. This review would focus on the graphics, sounds, gameplay and overall of the beta so far.

In terms of graphics, I was not too impressed with what I was looking at. It seems to look like and upgraded version of the Warcraft 3 graphics with some improvements and in space. With addition that the graphics seems so much darker and gloomy. Although the unit graphics have been changed over from 2d to 3d, they, in my opinion do not reflect the older units that most gamers are familiar with. This also goes for the structures as well where they've lost their grandness of design and even the futuristic look has been eliminated by a large amount. I'm not sure if it is a result of being unfamiliar with the new graphics, but due to the graphical changes, unit control felt very unresponsive. Even some of the units look particularly downgraded at this point, and I would like to stress one of the more obvious: why does the Zergling now have wings? They sure do look like small flies now.

I've actually one issue with the sounds department, which is:- Give Me Back the Old Sounds! The truth is, the current sounds for units and structures is very much annoying and not satisfactory. The old coarse sound of the overmind, the human voice of the Marines and the templar sounds of the Protoss bases is being wiped by the annoying Kerrigan sounds for the Zergs, electronic sound of the Marines and weak sound of the Protoss in the new game. Unit response sounds are no longer familiar and sounds like they've been running for ages and so feels so tired. Unit deaths sounds are toned down and felt like "just another unit dead" and not a part of your army. In whole, the game environment just became less lively and more monotonous.

Overall, I would say the experience felt tedious and some what unexpected for a high-profiled game. In fact, even with effort of trying to like the game, there just isn't any mood or excitement of playing it. The whole experience felt forced and pointless. Seriously, I wonder why some games these days felt repetitive and lack of quality. I used to think that Blizzard has a reputation to make addictive and polished games, but now, no longer. Hopefully, the actual game wouldn't be as bad as this game has degraded into in the beta.