Review: "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare"

I didn't really like the Call of Duty series previously since I don't find it fun to run around (yet another) Omaha Beach map, carrying age old weapons like Thompsons, and driving age old vehicles which I can't recognize. I admit that I have less interest towards FPS's in general, so I usually do not give them a chance unless someone recommends me or I chance upon one of its videos which I don't usually search for (just chanced).

I can't remember which of these reasons got me into COD4, probably because of the hype and also because it has "Modern Warfare" as its suffix. Inferring from that, I assumed I would get to play in urban terrain with cool modern weapons and equipment. I loved urban warfare a lot, probably due to having some small exposure of it in the army, so I was curious and checked it out. 'Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare' did not disappoint.

Night mission as "Soap"

I'm going to start off with Single Player, since I spent most of my time playing it. You play as two characters in the Single Player: Sergeant Paul Jackson of USMC and "Soap" MacTavish of SAS. What's great about the Single Player is that you are thrown into quite a number of perspectives.

Although most of the time you will be playing "Soap" and Paul, there are instances where to get to play as a completely different character, like Price when he was young and the gunner of a AC-130 Gunship. It breaks the monotony of the game. Aside from that are also the very well plotted missions. My personal favourite, and possibly everyone's, was the mission where you play as a younger Captain Price in a sniper mission. Another good mission was the one where you play as Paul to stop a nuke from blowing. There's a small little 'Black Hawk Down' section (aka save the pilot) there.

I liked all the technology in this game, maybe its because some of them seemed familiar because of my experience in the army. Modern equipments include the M203 extension, Night Vision Googles, gully suit, Red Dot Sight (laser), C4, the legendary AK-47 and many more. It's also fun calling for air support to attack a position.

Multiplayer seemed a bit RPG'ish in some sense. There are two things that set apart COD4's Multiplayer with other FPS's. One is PERKS and the other is the SUPPORT.

Omg it's an RPG!

As you level up in multiplayer (by racking up kills online), you will be given access to new weapons, new perks, new kits as well as the ability to create a customized kit. Perks include abilities and equipments. Perks vary in abilities, from increasing the amount of special grenades you can carry (stun/flashbang), to increasing the damage of your bullets, to allowing you to run twice as long.

Support abilities are one-time abilites that you get over the course of a game. They are all obtain from the kill-streak that you have. For example, having 3-kill streak (kill 3 opponents without dying) awards you with the ability to scan the map for enemies for your team. Having 5-kill streak awards you with the ability to call an air-strike. The list goes on...

About mechanics, nothing strays too far away from the common FPS except that this game allows you to throw back nearby grenades away from you. It's very useful, especially since grenades kill you most of the time in Single Player. The AI in this game is rather smart, knowing how to seek cover, and even flank you (I only played up to Hardcore mode though). If you throw yourself into the middle of the battlefield, you'll just be eating bullets all around you and you will have no idea where 90% of them comes from before you die.

Overall I had a great time playing COD4 which it lasted. Most people like this game because of its setting, being so closely related to us. Then again, there are people who wants to escape reality via games, so I guess this game might not be for them.

NeetGeek gives "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare":8/10

Blazblue Continuum Shift 2nd loc test impressions

Since the location tests for the next upcoming version of Blazblue is under way for a couple of weeks already, I'll post up a short writeup on the opinions by me and a few friends on the reported changes based on this and videos scattered around YouTube...

Of course, while this is written, there are still constant changes going on in Japan.

Gameplay changes
- Barrier burst system replaced by the ability to stock up 2 bursts and no longer gives a damage penelty unless your barrier meter goes low or something. It'd be interesting how people use burst now; we might expect the same usage as Guilty Gear's Burst.
- New guard system. Some moves will go through barriers now. No idea how this will affect gameplay, but seems like a big change.
- overall damage reduction, much like GG:Slash to GGAC.

Character changes
Ragna - Damage nerf, but gameplay should remain the same.

Jin - Huge damage nerf, but is stronger at rushdown now that all his dash cancel moves are NORMAL dashes.

Noel - Damage nerf, normals overall nerfed to become slower. Biggest nerf was 5A being unmashable and no longer as broken as it was. Another big nerf was having slower air throw (I loved her broken airthrow >.<) Rachel - Her rushdown abilities seemed to be crippled so far. Lots of what affected her rushdown has been nerfed. Tager - Alot faster, overall buff. Atomic Collider being upper body invul means that he can do stupid mindless close range 50/50 mixups like Potemkin in GGAC. Taokaka - Not much changes overall Litchi - Biggest change was the nerfing of her DP. She's no longer able to do combos into free pole setups anymore. Arakune - seems to be revamped. Even then, I heard a 5k combo has already been discovered. Bang - most buffed up character. Can do 4 seals from almost anything. Autoguard attacks are now like 2 frames faster or something, meaning it's much easier to land them now. 6C working on all characters is a great thing. The best is his new Distortion Drive, which is an anti-air, something that Bang is lacking in the current installment. Seems like Bang is going to be pretty solid Carl - No more clap loop, but Carl is still quite good at sandwich combos. So, his damage now got from a level of 'ridiculous' to 'decent'. Hakumen - Seems to get an overall speed buff to his moves. His new normal is said to be abusable and powerful. Λ-No.11- Overall nerf to range, speed and removal of some JCable stuffs, stripping her of some of her agility. Best was the nerf of 2C. Tsubaki - Seems to play like Order-Sol so far, not only from her mechanics, but also from what I see from her gameplay. But the videos are quite blur and this is still only speculation, so I can't really tell. Hazama - Seems incomplete atm. Hopefully it will hit nearby arcades soon. I would hate to wait for 3-5 months like everyone did for GGAC.

Anime: "Azumanga Daioh"

Azumanga Daioh is truly a special anime in its own way. It has brought the meaning of 'random' to anime. Be warned that upon watching Azumanga Daioh, you might be forcefully stripped of your intelligence for a couple of weeks or so.

This anime's overview is simple enough. It's a comedy show about bunch of girls with different personalities living their high school life. Like most of such animes, you will see them go through cultural festivals, summer festivals, examinations, holidays, P.E lessons, sleepovers, etc. Sounds normal enough, until you begin watching.

You know, I have been thinking of reviewing this anime for quite some time, but never really understood how to go about doing it. It's an almost indescribable show. Most of the time you will find you questioning yourself 'Why on earth am I watching this?' while continuing to finish off the scene or episode.

The whole pace of the anime is damn slow, and I seriously mean SLOW. That is exactly what makes the humor works. For example, there is a rather long scene of Kimura-sensei shouting 'BANZAI' repeatedly at different scenes before the final scene when it finally stops, slows down, and ended with Kimura saying 'I like those' very slowly. The whole scene lasts 0:44 seconds and I think it's best to show you the scene itself:


Almost every humor in this anime works like this. It's just endless and for some reason you just can't get sick of it because of the randomness. So far, it's the only anime that does humor in this manner. It's a mind-numbing experience.

Aside of the humor, the characters are very memorable. We have the famous Osaka, a girl who is very slow in everything she does. Chiyo is a cute genious girl the age of a grade schooler. Saki is a quiet cool girl who daydreams about being with cats, which hates her. Kimura-sensei is a sick perverted teacher has a beautiful wife. Yukari-sensei is a teacher who takes pride in her proficiency in English, though she's a lazy bum. The list just goes on and on.

I truly enjoyed watching it, and have repeated and Favourite'd some memorable scenes for my YouTube account. I distinctly remember being rather 'blur' or 'airheaded' (I usually am, but this is more so than usual) for 1 or 2 weeks after watching the whole show within at most 2 days, hence I always give a warning before introducing this anime :p

Azumanga Daioh, like I mentioned, is special in its own way. Not many people like it especially because of its slow pace, but if you are into randomness, or a /b/tard even, you would surely enjoy this anime.

Here's one of my favourite scene, where Osaka daydreams about learning English:


Enjoy!

X360 vs PS3 caa 011009

You know a couple of years ago, X360 dominated the 3rd generation console wars. It displayed better graphics than the PS3, better multiplayer support than the PS3, and even more useful gimmicks than the PS3. Even worse, X360 has more games to look out for compared to the PS3.

Back then, X360 had all its cards in its hands. Tales of Vesperia and Star Ocean 4 claimed to be X360 exclusive (which is like giving their fans a slap). Gears of War series was one of the most crazy and action-packed FPS's to date, and Halo 3...wow what a trump card that was. Sales went off the fucking charts on release. This CAD comic displays how popular Halo 3 was (still is I guess).

What the heck did PS3 have back then? Metal Gear Solid 4, and...Disgaea 3?

But that was then. PS3 fans and several other people predicted that PS3 will rise late. One of the key reasons why X360 had better graphics than PS3 then was because X360 has DirectX. Everyone who programmed games on PC can easily program them on X360. PS3, like PS2, is a bitch to program. Secondly, most people have their PS3 display settings set to 'Limited' (which is the default) when it should've been 'Full'. I can't find the source saying that GameTrailer's PS3/X360 comparions have its PS3 set to 'Limited' and calling their videos an 'unfair comparion' though.

But that is just the graphics. Suddenly we see a new wave of X360 'exclusives' released on PS3 WITH MORE GAMEPLAY. What the heck? It makes X360 seemed as if it was only used as a beta testing console!

For instance:
Tales of Vesperia was announced with a new character (pirate loli Patty) and the famous Flynn being usable as a party character (I'm sure everyone wants that), as well as new combat mechanics. Of course there are minor stuff like having Repede walking around with your character in the game world.

Star Ocean 4 is doing the exact same thing as Tales, though I'm not too sure about what changes are important or not since I haven't played it (holy shit I should play now!).

Then we have Arkham Asylum. The main reason why I bought the PS3 version over the X360 version was because it PS3 has a free DLC which allows you to play as The Joker.

Now we have Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. Okay, there was already Sigma 1, but that doesn't really count because it's an old Xbox game (2nd gen) port to a PS3 (3rd gen).

Things seemed to pick up for the PS3 recently, so from here on it's gonna become an even fight. X360 STILL have some exclusives lined up, but as far as japanese-based games go, PS3 is going to have an advantage. It isn't surprising actually if you considered X360 sales in Japan compared to PS3. With all the japanese otakus buying the PS3, I can't help but wonder if this had any effect to the 'betrayal' of companies that made japanese X360 then-exclusive games.

So from now on, don't ask me if "X360 is better or PS3 is better?" It really depends on what you want. Back then I would say "X360 unless you want MGS4" but that answer doesn't hold today.

Review: "Dungeon and Dragons Online: Ebberon Unlimited"

Years ago, when I first played this MMO, I was turned off by the fact that you actually have to pay to play. This is considering that it is, as far as the multiplayer concept is concerned, exactly what Guild Wars have, only that Guild Wars is actually free.

So years later, Turbine finally woke up and decided to make it free to play, with a cash shop of course. They were so close to running another game to its death (*cough*Asheron's Call 2*cough*). I actually liked the game when I played it though, just didn't think it deserved to be as expensive as more 'open' worlds like WoW or EQ2, considering that 80% of the content in DDO is instanced (like Guild Wars).

Venture into dungeons and defeat the evil within!

Being a Dungeon and Dragons fan doesn't necessarily mean that you will like the game. If you enjoy DnD games like Neverwinter Nights however, you will probably like it more. For one, it is action based just like NWN, and no there isn't a 'Parry' and 'Discipline' skill system which ups your character's survival by 1000%.

Having Dungeon and Dragons knowledge naturally gives you an edge over new players in this game. In fact, it is best to do some DnD rules research before making your first character. Builds can be easily screwed if not preplanned well because of the diversity of 3.5e DnD rules. Always try to plan as far as the next 5 levels and realize the role of your class/multiclass. I once met a 8 CHA cleric who can't even turn undead in a level 2 dungeon. I sure as hell not want to meet a 8 CHA sorcerer who can't even cast spells. It can happen.

I'm not going to explain 3.5e DND rules here because that would take a whole day, so I'm just going to touch on the MMO part.

DDO characters do not gain experience points the way other MMOs do. Instead, you will have to do quests for XP. Once the NPC gives you a quest, your character will be required to enter an instance of the dungeon.

Upon pressing the "X" hotkey, you will be flashed something that resembles a scorecard. On it is the calculation of the amount of experience point you have accumulated as you progress through the instance, which you will obtain ONLY when you complete the quest. Killing monsters do NOT give you ANY experience points.

The Scorecard

At the top, you will see the base minimal experience points that you can gain from completing the quest. Positive percentage multipliers will be added as you find secret doors, disable traps, kill monsters, destroy breakables, going through the particular dungeon difficulty the first time, and many more. Negative multipliers are gained from leaving the dungeon, being overleveled for the dungeon, etc. Also, finding and completing optional quests gives you straight unmodified experience points.

Breaking things to gain experience...?

The instances are, overall, pretty well designed. It's fun going through the instances the first time, but after awhile, it will start to get old. Grinding usually involves you repeating a really good instance that gives good exp and loot. Since instances are static, skills such as Spot and Listen will be quite useless as everyone already knows where to find a certain hidden door or trap.

When DDO because free to play, many features of the game are locked. You will be required to 'pay' for such features using Favor Points, which can either be obtained by grinding dungeons (ie just playing the game) or paying with money. Er...I'm talking about REAL money here for those who are wondering. Features locked include: playing Drow, 32 point buy, playing Favored Soul, playing Adventure Pack modules, playing Warforged, and more.

The DDO Store

Adventure Packs are a series of quests that brings you through a few instances, before rewarding you with sweet items. From my past experience when I first played DDO (when it was pay to play and everything is open), these quests are so good, you will want to keep doing them over and over again despite it being boring after awhile (aka grinding). I have to admit that running them for the first time is quite an epic experience.

Because of the locked features, there is so much temptation to pay Turbine up front, unlock stuff and play whatever you want. I think Turbine did a good job in that aspect. When I first returned, I had to fight off the urge to play 32-point buy Drow Bard with Tomes. It wasn't easy considering how gimped I felt playing a 28-point buy character when there's a great build up there which I know I would enjoy. When you play MMO, you want the best of the best right? Here, DDO locked it from us. 28-point buy character can still be pretty good for those who are wondering. Besides, no one will know if you are 32-point buy or 28-point buy, so don't worry about this affecting your grouping options.

On to leveling, DDO right now has 20 levels (it was 10 when I first played). 20 levels seemed to be a tad bit little compared to other MMOs which usually have above 50 levels. The bad news is, DDO's 20 levels felt like a normal MMO's 50 levels, so each level felt pretty long, which means you will be stuck with the same spells/BAB/stats/etc for that period. The good news is that each level is split into 5 parts, and getting past each part will gain you Action Points which you can use to buy Enchancements that will improve your character. So, don't worry about losing the motivation to level up. It won't be that bad.

All in all, DDO is a fun MMORPG to play, espacially since it is (can be) completely free. You don't even need to buy the box. However, you are highly recommended to at least know how some DND rules first before attempting your first character.

marasy8

One random day I decided if it was possible to play Touhou Project OST on piano. It sounds crazy and insane but lo and behold, I found a Japanese pianist named 'marasy'. When I found him, he has already done quite a few of Touhou Project songs on piano so feel free to check him out here. He also does some Beatmania songs.

If there's a player who can motivate you to improve playing piano, it has to be him. Fantastic job, I mean look at the video above, that's like 3-4 tunes with 2 hands! And as of date, he is still coming up with moar!

Dubs + Cosplay = Death Star + Alderaan

Dubs. Don't you just HATE it? Don't you just want to run away and flush your head into the sewers after hearing them? Don't you want to shoot yourself? Honestly, those thoughts went through my mind whenever I hear my japanese-made anime characters talking in English.

Call me an elitist or whatever, but hearing cosplayers talking in English is a complex feeling filled with hatred, pain, anger and insanity. I cringed, died, revived, crawled, and repeated this process all the way from the 'line of hearing' radius of cosplayers conversing in English on stage with a loud microphone. Yes, it was that painful for me. I would've taken a video of one such example, but I doubt I can last more than 3 whole seconds of recording.

Asked everyone what's their thoughts on such cosplay scenes and results are quite negative. Maybe I'm targeting the wrong audience to ask? Maybe I should've asked the (alot) more casual anime fans. For me I wouldn't have a thought cus I'm already dead and trying to respawn.