#INGAME - DireTide

So this is something relatively new from the DoTA team. I don't know when exactly it went up because I haven't been playing much of it as of late (too busy trying to find that one perfect anime to end my boredom). It's something of a belated Halloween event and involves candy. Getting candy, feeding Roshan with candy and killing the enemy. I had so much candy at one point and then Roshan was chasing after me. I didn't even know how to give candy. But anyway, died. It was fun though.

I have to admit that it was really cute. Announcer voice was pretty sexay too (though I know it was Death Prophet, kinda apt eh?). Gonna try another game. It's hilarious and cute and I still don't know what the hell is going on nor what the hell I'm supposed to do. But better than being trolled by newbs who can't even compromise on buying a courier when they don't know how the hell to use their Drow/Sniper (yet fervently insists they do).

#INGAME - DoTA 2 - Bit by bit

I'm getting the hang of DoTA 2. Bit by bit. I know it's kinda cheating but I went to read up on the various recommended items for the characters that I was more familiar playing with - Drow Ranger and Sniper. Friends were telling me to buy Manta Ray and Shadow Blade. I found Black King Bar to not just be affordable (I'm still trying to brush up on my farming skills) and Crystalys to be a sorta life saver. Not to mention the Aquilas Ring. If that's what they call it.

So far I managed to kill ONE hero. And that my friends, is a great accomplishment. 

Would have gotten Daedalus soon enough but we ended up finishing the game faster than I expected. 29 minutes is fast isn't it? By my standards la at least. 

The picture is based off the third time I kept getting pwned by the bots. This time around, not so much. Only one death. Woohoo! And I assisted a fair bit. So maybe, getting the hang of this game. Next up is to try and figure out of League of Legends. 

And yes, Alice is still on hold. 

#NEWKICKS - Battle Camp!

If you're on Battle Camp too, look for me!

So this is actually a pretty old app on the iPhone. The concept and premise of the game is pretty much similar to Pokemon. You have a creature and then eventually have more creatures battling other creatures. There are missions and quests you complete to get more experience, stones that help you evolve and level your creatures up and even get your energy refilled.

Like most MMORP-ish and time-centric games on the iPhone, you have 5 lightning bolt energy thingies that are necessary when battling monsters or even completing quests. And like all games that follow this concept, you can either wait for your energy to be refilled or spend some money on refuelling your energy.

You can also spin a lucky wheel, depending on how much money you're willing to shell out, to try and get some rare, super, ultra or even epic creatures that are of course, a lot more powerful, rare and prettier to look at it. It's the thing that basically drove me and the boyfriend nuts. Because it's all up to chance, you may spend 50 gold coins spinning and end up with more crap creatures than anything of value. The boyfriend had never heard me scream in so much anguish when I kept getting common and (honestly they're not special at all) special creatures.

The fun part of course is battling and completing quests. If you're part of a troop, you get to participate in raids and win trophies and some goodies for the team. There's also a troop pet that everyone helps to sort of look after and level up.

From time to time, the developers come up with global events. The most recent being the awakening of a villain creature known as the Bearzebub. The event lasted 5 days, allowing players to battle Bearzebub and his brother, Ursulot, to get trophies for their troops or light creatures to help with evolving their own creatures.

Trophies are points for a ranking system. The more trophies you have both as an individual and as a troop, the higher up the ranks you are.

This game is addictive. Unfortunately, I got the boyfriend equally addicted to this game. Spent slightly under $100 for gold coins to try and get super/ultra/epic creatures (only managed to get one, boyfriend was lucky enough to win an epic grrr).

The graphics are adorable and pretty and the comments you sometimes see from the NPCs are quite the gem. There are references to other games and other pop culture which is why I find myself sometimes giggling and smiling before I head into battle. 

I'd say that Battle Camp has succeeded in being one of the top iPhone games. A lot of people are asking for it to come out on Android too. The only problem I have is that unless I add my boyfriend as a friend on Battle Camp, I can't see him or battle him. We can be in the same place but I guess because we're on different servers (how does that work anyway?), we can't see each other. If that made sense.

You can download it from the App store (link) and have a go at it yourself. Enjoy!

#INPROGRESS - Injustice

Heard a lot of hype about this game. I'm not really one for fighting games. When it comes to it, I'm a button masher and I hate hate hate losing. Then again, who doesn't like losing? I tried out the practice battle first and that one had me confused. The main reason why I'm just so bad at fighting games is because I can never execute the combo moves perfectly. Always a second slow or fast or my fingers just cram up. In the end, button mashing again. This worked really well when I was playing Street Fighter 4 and just mashed around for Ryu to do his combo.

Injustice has got a lot of movie cinematics, all needed and necessary for the player to understand what the hell happened in the story to lead him or her to where all the characters are. Random though, why is it that when anyone goes over to the 'dark side', that they always end up looking goth/emo? If dark circles under the eye were any prerequisite for being part of the dark side, well then, I was there long before anyone else.

Gameplay, I guess you can say it's fairly straightforward. You'll be playing several characters as the storyline progresses. Some are easier to manage and play and some require a fair bit of dying/losing first before you get the hang of their abilities and moves. To date (only about 50% through right now), I kinda like using the Joker and Deathstroke. The Joker is just too hilarious, you gotta love a dude with a sense of humour even in the bleakest of situations, no matter how psychotic he is.

Will this be the turning point of my aversion to fighting games? Who knows. There was the other one I tried - Mortal Kombat vs DC. That, again, spamming random moves. Loved my Sub-Zero and Scorpion. Who doesn't?

#MUSINGS - To record or not to record

Ok. Confession time, I've always wanted to do a video for this blog. Like do updates and reviews and everything else via video. Not because I'm lazy to blog... ok wait. It is because I can be a tad bit lazy to blog and type and everything else.

I bet you didn't know that about 75% of the entries here were actually done on my phone, hence this laziness.

What's holding me back? Let's just say once bitten, twice shy. I'm not really good in front of a camera. I sound better than I actually look. Does that make sense? Sometimes I find that I ramble just a little too much on the camera and end up digressing and straying really really far away from what I had planned to talk about. Another reason is that I just can't stand editing videos.

I'm a perfectionist. So nothing will ever be right or good or nice. I'm also extremely critical of myself so once again, nothing is ever good enough to get off my Macbook and off to the internets.

But I will attempt. Soon. In due time. There are already a few videos in the works and I've been looking around for a datacard to help record my gameplay on the PS3. All that's left is to overcome this fear and paranoia and just... wing it.

#GOODGAME - Army of Two; The Devil's Cartel

Some people think this game is crap. GiNX said it wasn't too fantastic. I had a friend who dissed my choice in playing a game like this.

But like a post I had earlier about personal preference, I like the game and I cleared it and honestly it's my blog so that's pretty much all that matters (haters gonna hate). 

I didn't get a chance to play the first installment, perhaps I should. AoT:DC got me intrigued because I had never played a 3rd person army shooter kinda game. I guess I could say I am a closet war/gunfight kinda girl (I mean, I like The Hurt Locker). First-person console games always give me a headache which is why I usually gravitate towards game's that are third-person yet first-person, if you can understand what I'm saying.

Why Army of Two and not Battlefield or Call of Duty? It's not that I haven't played those games before... I do. There really isn't that much of a difference in terms of the storyline. Some may argue that AOT's plot is thin and predictable, but isn't that the case with most army/war games anyway? The uniqueness of AOT is that you're not in a group. As in you aren't deployed as a group. You work as a duo, a partnership and the survival of both is essential for the game's success. If either Alpha or Bravo dies, you restart. Granted it's almost like unlimited life but the save points and all aren't quite so close together. So when you die at a tricky part at the end of a stage of sorts, you'll be booted back to the beginning and go through hell again.

An issue I faced with this game, or rather a pet peeve, was not having a mini-map. I think I've been so spoilt and pampered by games that offer me mini-maps and locations of my enemies that when I first started playing, I was so disorientated. I didn't know where the enemy was or where they were firing from and often got confused by my partner's shots and theirs. At least in some games there are arrows that kinda show you the general direction where your enemies are firing from. This one... not so much help.

Ammo can be a-plenty. The arsenal of weapons is pretty generic and limited. Then again, I don't know my SMPs to the M4s or whatever they are. I prefer sticking to my modified and customized sniper rifle, this AK-47-ish rifle with a scope and my Desert Eagle. Also... what's the point of having a small shield on a gun? I thought shields were to protect the body and person, not the gun. Unless there's another reason and my brain is just too lagged out to process and compute.

Fine I admit that I felt a little cheated when the game ended. It was tough in some parts but I guess I expected a little bit more for expanding so much energy, effort and time in taking the risk to play it on medium-hard (I would vacillate between the two depending on how many times I would have to restart a stage/mission). Granted I was given money to purchase and customize my masks, tattoos and weapons but that was pretty much it.

In multiplayer mode, it's pretty much the same although I felt that I had much more initiative and action than my counterpart, whoever it may be. Points are scored based on who kills more, does certain skills more or decoys blablabla and it all adds up after each stage. Somewhat faintly reminiscent of Time Crisis.

The game's playability (as in how often you'd wanna boot it back on the PS3) depends on how well you like the multiplayer. I guess it's ok. I prefer this to Tomb Raider's only because I am a little slow when it comes to aiming using a console as opposed to a mouse and keyboard (though I suppose that's pretty much the same with everyone else).

What did you think? Hate it or love it?

#NEWKICKS - Last of Us

IGN gave this a 10/10. We watched the trailer and were pretty intrigued. So guess who shelved Farcry again :(

But it's been FUN! In the past 3 days think I clocked about 24hrs. Didn't play much when I first got it because of work but totally got into it the next 2 days. Full of suspense, game play is amazing but the graphics are really something. 

The zombie-ish undead or not so dead are really freaky and you don't always have the option of killing them because ammo is limited. Best bet is to sneak past them (impossible sometimes due to certain infected) or try to take out some of the key ones (like those blocking exits and all) as sneakily as you can. 

Plus is it just me or the lead female looks a lot like Ellen Page?

More to come later. After the boyfriend is done playing Pro Evolution Soccer 2013. In one game he manages to get 4 red cards. Now his team is down to 7 men. 

Oh dear. 

#GAMERHEALTH - Dealing with games that cause motion sickness

I've been meaning to actually talk about this.

The reason why I don't play some FPS games like Call of Duty is because of this problematic issue. Games that are hyper-realistic, where movement exactly mimics real-life, tends to give me a major headache. It also explains why I'm taking a really long time to clear FarCry3. First time I actually experienced this was when my friends and I were playing Battlefield 1942, as a huge group, at a LAN shop. It was all fun and games for the first 30minutes and then my brain and my stomach and everything else started to protest.

1. Start feeling sick, unwell, uneasy.

2. Vomiting or the feeling of needing to puke.

3. Headache.

4. Cold sweat, even when you're not really hot or overheated.

5. Looking all pale and sickly.

I'd get all of that and I'll need a timeout for the next 30-45 minutes till I feel better and can go on. One must never let one's team mates down!

I decided to read up on motion sickness and see what I could do to combat it. My mom would just tell me to stop playing altogether but HOW CAN! I like these games and my favourite zombie shooter game (Left4Dead if you don't already know) would be something of a past if I don't do something to manage this.

What's motion sickness anyway?

Apparently, it's something to do with your inner ear; or rather, when the inner ear, eyes and other areas of your body that detects motion, sends confusing and conflicting messages to the brain.

When you play certain FPS games, your character is moving and mimics real moving motions (when you see it), like the up-and-down when they're running or breathing, sprinting or just walking. But the thing is, the rest of your body isn't moving because chances are your bum is planted on the seat and the only thing you're moving is your hands with the controller/keyboard.

So the eyes, inner ear detects movement but the rest of the body doesn't feel it. These conflicting messages sent by the different parts of your body confuses your brain and makes it feel sick. In essence, motion sickness is the result of all the conflicts between your senses.

What can I do to staaaahhhppp it?

One way is by taking medication, but I'm against that. Don't want to be dependent on drugs just to be able to play games.

1. What I do is that I try not to focus on one single point on the screen. If possible, widen your vision. Focus on other things, bigger general things so that your brain is able to distinguish that it's not you that's moving.

2. Drink lots of water. It keeps your system hydrated and actually makes you feel better. Sports drinks with electrolytes are good too. They kinda help to neutralize the feeling and need to want to puke. 

3. Eat something before you game. Light, preferably, because a too full stomach might make you feel even worse. The food actually helps prevent the feeling and sensation of light-headedness.

When all else fails, stop and take a breather. Then try steps 1 and 2 again. You know that age-old advice of taking a break after 30-45 minutes of game play and looking out into the distance (preferably to stare/look at something green)? That actually works. Do some eye massages to soothe the eyes because sometimes the strain can lead to even more stress to your brain.

If you have any other motion sickness remedies (particularly for gamers, recreational or not), please do share :)

#FILLER - Mini Hiatus - Firing up Diablo III

So I took a temporary hiatus from gaming because we were moving to a new place for the new work and all. Setting things up, getting the house cleaned, needing to ferry things to and fro. Tiring. And then work started and there was no time for gaming at all.

Couple of hours ago I booted up Diablo III. Was nice to see my character for a change but then remembered how grossly under-level she was. I think what's changed the greatest for me so far is that it's hard to get a good weapon in the Auction House without getting ripped off. Fine, it had slightly higher stats than the one-handed crossbows I had and the damage was well, 6x. But that didn't mean that it had to be sold at 150,000 gold right?

Maybe I'll have better luck fighting the random demons and hope against hope that they'd drop some miraculous 700 damage one-handed crossbow with dexterity and vitality boost of at least 90 each.

Or... I'm just picky when it comes to my weapons and armour. It did explain why I took hours 'shopping' for a good set.

It's like going for an interview you know. Looking your best, fighting your best and all that jazz.

Will post a picture up of my Demon Huntress. Still stuck at FarCry3, at least I'm on Hoyt's island. Forgot to bring over the rest of the game collection. I know somewhere, Dead Rising 2 is frowning at me for putting it aside and on hold for way too long.

#MUSINGS - Grand Theft Auto - Gamer morals

Tony, who reminds me too much of a wussy George Michael.

I bought this Rockstar collection of games pretty recently. It had Red Dead Redemption, Midnight Club, L. A. Noire and Grand Theft Auto. Heard quite a fair bit about GTA and I know it received quite a number of raving views for its gameplay. On the other hand, it also received a couple of negative stuff because of the vices and sins that was one of the game's main recurring theme. I didn't think it would be that bad. After all most, if not all, video games had to have the whole sex, violence thing for it to sell. Or was it that the formula to successful games was to have one or the other, or for guaranteed success, both.

There were two parts to the one that I got - The Lost and The Damned and Gay Tony. Tried out the former which revolved around a bike gang. That appalled me. Although there was a character who was a chaotic good turned lawful good, his other gang members, particularly the leader was quite the chaotic evil. I didn't like the use of excessive vulgarity as well as how some of the female characters (though non-playable) were being portrayed. It quite disgusted me. I didn't even bother completing any of the missions and just skipped over to the Gay Tony one.

This one was a lot more palatable, much more fun. There was still stuff like drugs and sex involved and some nonsensical gang wars and the like. I liked the characters better. Both the lead (whom you pay) and the boss were like able enough and they weren't so extremely morally corrupt. So far I've managed to fly a helicopter and land it and not get too lost driving about Liberty City, which compared to Sleeping Dogs (based in Hong Kong) was like so so so much bigger.

The GPS was much less confusing.

Didn't ever think that the morals of a game could affect me and my decision to play. Is it because I am older and have some understanding of the world and human nature? I don't think the kids who play such games are able to make that kind of decision, to not play because of the errors in human judgment and the abundance of sin and vice that runs as a rampant theme throughout. Maybe that's what we should worry about. Main reason why such games are not suited for children below a certain age is because they're still young and have yet to formulate their own concept of what is morally right and wrong. To be able to identify it for themselves and to make their own informed decisions and distinctions that whilst it seems ok in the game, such things are not and should not be applicable to real life.

Then it comes to the issue of how then can we prepare them before playing such games? Is there a need for them to be prepared? Or should we just stop them completely from even coming into contact with such games?

In this era of technology, unless you have absolute and complete control of your children, it would be a challenge to prevent them from coming across such things. Only if they are educated thoroughly on the concepts of right and wrong (which is a fundamental aspect of character development), can we be somewhat certain that we won't have to worry about them turning out corrupted.

I mean I know of some parents who don't even allow their kids to watch cartoons because of the implied and subtle notions of violence, racism, etc. But maybe one approach we can take is to talk about the game, before it is played. To highlight and make them aware of certain Therese. Granted they might be intrigued and even find the whole scenario amusing but if we stress enough, are serious enough, especially if we let them know that we are granting them permission to play BUT ONLY IF they agree to the responsibilities that come with playing the game.

Oh what am I saying and what do I know.

Though it was something that I thought about as I went about finishing missions. Enjoyable only for the gameplay but I wouldn't want to be a mafia king or a gang leader or some nightclub owner in the real world.

And if you we're thinking what Gay Tony implied; yes there's some homosexuality involved. Nothing explicit, mostly implied. I'm more worried about the objectification of women.

#INPROGRESS - Far Cry 3 - What? I killed him?

He kinda reminds me of Puck from Glee.

Just letting you know, that this is a spoiler. For those of you who don't know what Far Cry 3 is about and are planning to get the game and all, then skip along, move along, rainbows and fishes elsewhere.

But anyway, one of the core mission in FC3 is that you'll be slaying the big bad pirate boss - Vaas. Brother to Citra, gone insane thanks to drugs and money and he's the one responsible for the deaths of your two brothers. Tragic, perfect recipe for revenge. Classic vendetta.

So I travel all the way to Vaas's island (where before when I tried to explore without having unlocked that mission the game just booted me back to my last savepoint) and stalk his basecamp. Trance/techno music, dancing semi-nekkid girls and a lot of weed. He's already expecting me when I sneak into one of the buildings and no surprise, has got an ambush lying in wait. But with all the fumes from the burning weed, everything starts to get just a little trippy.

So I'm killing multiple Vaas who are coming at me with knives from all directions and my surroundings are tripped out with TV monitors and strobing lights, such is the game's rendition of being high on drugs. Honestly, it gave me a horrible headache, one that forced me to go cold and leave FC3 alone for the next two days.

But now that's done. Big hip hip hooray I wake up with Citra nursing me. I don't even get to loot the maniac's body. Do I feel accomplished now that Vaas is out of the picture? I don't know. I thought it'd be a lot harder and that he'd be a lot tougher to defeat. But he wasn't. Maybe I'm disappointed? That I was expecting a greater challenge. After all, why would I make it like some training practice to takeover as many outposts as I can, honing on my sniping/molotov/grenad/C4 skills if not for that one defining moment?

Well. It's over. Done. Now my next problem is Hoyt.

I guess I will be finishing FC3. And maybe a lot sooner than I thought I would, even given the weeks that I spent putting it on hold just because I was so frustrated with constantly getting maimed by the stupid komodo dragons.

There is hope still. Haha.

#NEWKICKS - Army of Two

IT HAS ARRIVED!

Or that I drove down all the way to Orchard Central to get it.

Other girls buy clothes, shoes and bags for retail rehab. I take the road less traveled.

*pastes a DND sign on door*

#INPROGRESS - Tomb Raider - I am Legolas

Oh that I wish I was, Legolas that is. You don't really get help in terms of auto-aim in TR so you need some skill to move, aim and shoot with a bow. Or if you think the and shoot isn't so accurate when you're scrambling around for ground, there's always the handgun, shotgun or rifle as a backup. Or cracking their skills open like an egg with the climbing axe.

Having too much fun with TR and LC (that's Lara Croft) that I almost missed a dinner appointment.

I guess some people would prefer scavenging around specifically for items to upgrade their weapons with. I prefer TR's straightforward approach. You salvage materials, don't care what kind, and then they give you the option as to which weapon you want to upgrade and what aspect of it. No hassle, me like.

Back to TR, I've just come across a relative of Pyramid Head. This game gets more intriguing and exciting by the second!

#INPROGRESS - FarCry3 - Island Hero

Went back to FarCry3 after so long. Or rather, because I got so pissed off with Dead Rising 2 that I figured a little first person action would help me blow off some steam. Trying to refresh my memory on the keys, I blew my leg off, almost head shot the person I was meant to rescue and wasted one too many grenades because I thought R2 was the trigger.

Major face palm.

#GOODGAME - Hitman Absolution

"Bald badass."

Agent 47 makes me wanna wear a monkey suit to a Nerf war.

The only Hitman I knew was the movie that casted Timothy Olyphant as Agent 47. I think my brother did play one of the Hitman games but since he owns a PC and I own a Mac (and have not owned any other since 2008), t'was rather difficult for me to have a go at it. Plus, my brother is only his computer 24/7 which means I don't even go near the PC unless I've knocked him out cold or drugged him.

#NEWKICKS - Tomb Raider

"Damn Lara, you can raid my tomb anytime."

Original Link: http://www.tombnews.com/games/tombraider9/render08.asp

No brownies for guessing what game I got today. Been lusting after this ever since I saw the poster at a game shop near Chomp Chomp. When I first saw it, I was wondering when Lara got so grungey and punkish. Very attractive in an average rebel girl-next-door kinda way. If you're about as old as I am, you'd prolly be familiar with the old Lara model - big bust, big ass, big eyes, pretty much big everything. Then again, technology and graphics rendering then were a hell lot less advanced and refined as they are now.

I'm only like a few hours into the game (still in the first episode... if that's what they call it, I wasn't really paying attention) so can't make too much of a judgement. Though I must admit that the graphics are incredible. Very realistic. In terms of game control, it's very straightforward and doesn't require finger gymnastics (unlike Far Cry 3) to be able to accomplish things.

Although I guess I could improve on my aim when being attacked by rabid animals. Plus point, I don't think I'll be attacked unknowingly and then killed by a stupid Komodo Dragon (Far Cry 3 pet peeve). So I'm putting Far Cry 3 off, again, because I really really really am digging this game. I tried the first few parts on my brother's PC and I was blown away by the graphics but not so much by the controls (mouse and keyboard combo). Got this for the PS3 and I very much prefer using my right joystick to change camera angles in third person perspective as opposed to the mouse.

Anyway randomly, realised that recently I've been buying a lot of games by SquareEnix. Quite impressed by the repertoire so far. I think when I've figured out how to record playing on the PS3 and doing a video at the same time recording my reactions, I'll just stick to relaying everything I see and experience in text.

One thing that's a definite positive for this game is that my boyfriend can do his work in peace without me bugging him and annoying him because I'm bored (or that I got killed by a stupid Komodo Dragon again).

(Bear with me whilst I figure out a nicer and less of an eyesore signoff.)