It's All About The Games

Team Fortress 2 Free-To-Play

2011-06-24T11:06:00.002+08:00

Team Fortress 2 is now free-to-play. Just download and install and you can play the game as it is. They still have a premium account which is for those who have purchased it before free-to-play or activated a retail game or have made a purchase from the store.

The comparison between the two accounts are not that huge game-wise.

So, people who don't get TF2 now are CRAZY!

Free to play FAQ
And don't forget Meet to the Medic

The MANN-Conomy Update

2010-10-01T08:25:00.003+08:00

Team Fortress 2: Mann-conomy Item Sets

With this update, Valve is turning TF2 into something like Diablo. There're item sets now. Gather all the items in a set to get an added bonus.

For example, gather all the items for the Tank Buster set (The Black Box, The Batallion's Backup and The Grenadier's Softcap) and you'll get a resistance to damage caused by sentries by 20%.

If the items seems familiar well, it should. They were the result of the contest that was made at Polycount, a 3D modelling community. The contest was held from 24th May to 28th June and the winners were announced on 12th July early this year.

Like all things TF2, some of the items here are outrageous and funny. Imagine being hit by the Holy Mackeral (Scout Baseball Bat replacement which is a mackeral wrapped in a newspaper). Personally, the Spy's new hat, the Familiar Fez, cracks me up.

It amazes me every time I see things like this. It just goes to show how close to their community Valve is... unlike lets say, Ubisoft.

Team Fortress 2: Mann-conomy Item Sets

TF2 Polycount Pack Contest Winners

TF2 Polycount Pack Contest

Yahoo Messenger Automatic Spam Message

2010-07-07T09:30:00.000+08:00

This thing happened to me a couple of times now so, I'd just thought of posting about it.

A person I haven't chat with on Yahoo for a long time sent me a message telling me about this IQ site and to click a link. That raised some flags for me.

Friend1: BUZZ!!!
Friend1: u there?
Me: nope
Me: no one here but rats
Me: hi
Friend1: hey .. whats up??
Friend1: I just took a test to see what my IQ was hehe
Me: haha
Me: nothing
Friend: :)
Me: ah?
Friend1: thought I woulda gotten higher... got a 103 lol
Friend1: if you can do better than me ill buy you a drink.. maybe more
Me: that is normal
Friend1: try beating me... http://www.tiny.cc/quiziq I bet you cant haha.
Friend1: do it now while I finish up some homework (Warning flags start appearing here)
Friend1: gotta finish writing this stupid essay.. i hate finals week
Me: finals? (My friend and I graduated 6 years ago)
Friend1: BRB .. take that test!
Friend1: interesting
Friend1: so, how many yahoo ids have u got

I unravelled the tiny url link and found that it points to youtube. Though I would not recommend clicking on the link just the same.

A few months later, I got this message from another friend whom I haven't spoken to in a long time:

Friend2: BUZZ!!!
Friend2: how are you doing?
Me: hi
Me: fine fine
Friend2: hey r u there?
Friend2: :)
Me: yes, i'm here
Friend2: I just took an IQ quiz here.. pretty cool (Ah, this seems familiar...)
Me: i see
Me: you again
Friend2: got a 113 lol... thought I was smarter than that (Not answering me and ignoring the fact I caught him/her/it in the act - bot)
Me: so
Friend2: you should see if you can do better than me... if u can ill do somethin for ya
Friend2: try beating me... http://www.tinyurl.com/whatsmyiqscore I bet you cant haha.

In this conversation, as you can see, it is obviously automated. The format is familiar enough for most normal humans to identify this as a machine.

Anyway, just a heads up to everyone to be careful of these tricks. Warn your friends or family who have not logged in to their accounts in awhile to change their passwords.

Resolve tinyurl into a full link

Real War Machine Suit

2010-05-20T10:56:00.002+08:00

Popular Science: Real War Machine Suit

You know, one of my main motivations for watching Iron Man is the suit. Something about a mech-like suit that is hard to scratch and have the weaponry of a whole army gives me the chills of excitement.

You don't see suits like that outside movies or games... until now.

Anthony Le, 25 took one month and $4,000 to create an actual working (sort of ) War Machine suit. The faceplate can move up and down and the shoulder-mounted minigun spins when a button on the glove is pressed. Though no real weapons are attached, the gun could be converted to fire paintballs.

The rest of the article could be found at Popular Mechanics.

Wikipedia: War Machine

Iron Man Movie 2

Today I Die

2010-05-17T10:13:00.003+08:00

Today I Die

This is a beautiful little flash game by Daniel Benmergui. There's no instructions for the player, just simple words and the ability to click and drag things on the screen.

Simple as this game may be, its is heavy with symbolic meaning. I find it very touching.

I can't really tell much about it without giving spoilers as it would ruin the whole experience. So, I would like to suggest that everyone should give it a try.

Mac is now Steam-ing

2010-05-13T08:42:00.003+08:00

Steam for Mac

Valve have finally launched the Mac version of their popular gaming platform, Steam. I am expecting there to be a lot of happy Mac gamers

The library of games available for the Mac on launch are pretty large. It's currently listing at 60 games, but most of the games are from indie developers. Valve will release more games every Wednesday for the next few weeks. If you have a game already on the PC, you can just download it again on the Mac.

Also, up to 24th May, Valve is also giving out Portal for the all expensive price of free. Portal would be the first Valve developed game available on the Mac. I'll be waiting patiently when they bring out Team Fortress 2.

Steam Store: Free Portal
Steam Store: Torchlight

FREE STUFF: Command & Conquer Classic

2010-05-04T09:35:00.001+08:00

Download: Command & Conquer Classic

In anticipation for Command & Conquer 4, EA have released free versions of a few of the early Command & Conquer series. It is completely free and patched to work on more version of Windows besides Windows 95.

The free games include Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Command & Conquer: Tiberium Dawn, Command & Conquer: Tiberium Sun and it's expansion Firestorm. Generals is not in that list, I'm afraid as they released classics related to the Tiberium series.

The Command & Conquer series began more than 15 years ago (1995) with the release of Command & Conquer: Red Alert by the now-defunct Westwood Studios.

Even before Command & Conquer, Westwood Studios was already famous for another game that they made earlier. The game was called Dune and it created a whole new genre called the real time strategy games (RTS).

Red Alert tells a "what if..." story where Einstein developed a time machine and went back in time to eliminate Hitler. In this case, World War 2 did not happen because Germany go to war... instead, it happened because Russia, under Joseph Stalin did.

The Tiberium series kick started an alternate universe story where modern technology was developed a lot earlier and mankind faced an ecological dilemma with the arrival of an alien plant-mineral thing called Tiberium. It provides energy yet it also destroys the environment, making the area it inhabits toxic to any living being.

The game is a bit nostalgic since it has been long time since I've played it. But I guess it wouldn't hurt to replay the game once in awhile.

Doukutsu Monogatari (Cave Story)

2010-04-29T10:22:00.004+08:00

Cave Story (English tribute site by SkyeWelse)

Doukutsu Monogatari (Original by Studio Pixel)

A long time ago (I'd say around 2004), a friend of mine asked me to try out this game. It's a free game, distributed on the net. Now, at that time, what drew me to try it was not of how amazing the story was, the number of weapons, upgrade, graphics or music or even the fun factor.

No, I decided to try playing this game because of the circumstances in its creation.

It was made by one man and it took him 5 years to complete it.

What started as a curiosity led to an amazing experience. It dawned on me early on that Pixel knew what he wanted and built his game to as close as perfection as he could at that time. It is very rare for a game developer to have the chance to be able to perfect his game. This is due mostly to time constraints (thus it took him 5 years).

The story is about you, who woke up underground with no memory of how you got there. You came across a village populated by rabbit-like people called Mimigas who are threatened by a person called the Doctor. It's your job to stop the Doctor and his henchmen and rescue the Mimigas and maybe reveal some of your past as well.

Weapons upgrades are interesting. Picking up some the upgrades dropped by enemies enables you to level up the weapons, making them more powerful (except one particular weapon... :p ). Getting hit will lower the weapon's levels. And there are a couple of endings which depend on you finding some secret items.

All in all, the gameplay is solid and well polished. The story is amazing and the characters are very memorable (what the heck is Balrog anyway). The learning curve for the game is pretty low and you keep finding new things that spice up the game making sure it's not boring.

Pixel himself is just as amazing. He coded the game, drew the characters, created the music and on top of that, managed to write and direct an engaging story.

The game was initially made for the PC but have been ported to the Mac OSX, Linux and even the AmigaOS. There's even a PSP and XBox version of the game. All of them ported by fans I supposed.

Recently, Pixel Studio is working on porting it to the Nintendo Wii.

I remember making a post that briefly mentions this game but I thought I should make a proper post about it. I would recommend everyone to play this game at least once.

Wikipedia - Cave Story

TIGSource - Interview with PIXEL

Awesome April 1st 2010

2010-04-02T08:27:00.017+08:00

Well, now that April Fool's Day is over, here are some great April Fool's gag I found around the web.

There are a couple of new games from Blizzard... for mobile devices:

Blackthorne 2: Thorne Harder - Set 16 years after the original game. The game boasts uncanny life-like AI and photorealistic graphics.

Queen's Quest - The story of Kerrigan after the Brood War. It has amazing 2D graphics and incorporates a text parser ala old school adventure games (like King's Quest maybe).

Blizzard's new Battle.net Matchmaking. Give it a try.

Blizzard's new merchandise:
Battle.net Neural Interface
Diablo 3: X-Treme Gamer Blanket
Diablo 3: Deckard Cain GPS voice pack
WoW: Equipment Potency Equivalent Number

Notable mentions:

Ubisoft: Rabbids: Splinter Cell Conviction (JP);
Ecco 2: Water Wars
Razer: Venom
Kotaku: Announcing Koticku

Non-game related:
Starbuck's new Plug And Pour
More cup sizes from Starbucks

[UPDATE 2]

Virtua Fighters 5: Final Showdown Turbo

Kotaku: Virtua Fighters Final Showdown with April Fools

This is the new trailer for the Halo movie.

Others:
Visitors to the Tokyo Toshokan website got redirected to Crunchy Roll instead. Clicking any of the top link will return the visitor to the site. With a message on the new update section congratulating the visitor
"2010-04-01 Wow, you figured it out how to get to the normal site!"

Posters and lurkers at the Comic Fiesta forum suddenly found all their avatars turned to...

Mudkips.

Nokia Morph

2010-03-31T10:50:00.003+08:00

In my humble opinion, this is the most awesome concept of a mobile media/communication device I've ever seen.

If this ever became real, it'll most likely revolutionize the way we use our media. Much like the the iPhone, in a way.

Imagine this, instead of downloading updates to your software, how about updates to your hardware? Imagine that you saw an update for this device that enables it to become a digital camera. Another update might add HD video recording functionality to it. Yet another could add flash or night vision capability.

You could practically change the device to suit your own needs and preferences. There may be as many varieties as there are people with this device. Consumers are no longer constrained to what the manufacturers can produce.

If this is the future, I hope to still be around to see it.

Nokia Morph Concept

Big Red Button

2010-03-31T10:43:00.007+08:00

Big Red Button

It's big... it's red... I wonder what will happen if I press it....

Assassin's Creed 2

2010-03-24T10:40:00.002+08:00

I'm enjoying Assassin's Creed 2 for the PC. There are so many improvements made compared to the first game. You can use different weapons now, have more various killing moves and new assassination techniques (it's pretty awesome to stab n throw a guard off a roof while hanging just under him or stab a guard from inside a haystack and pull him in).

There's a new economic system in place too. You actually have money and can upgrade your town with it which in turn brings in more money. A lot of people complain that the economy system is pointless but I'm not one of them. The main point of the game is to kill people. I find the economy mini-game is a nice little distraction.

Also, the hidden treasures and feathers in this game have actual uses now (unlike the flags in the first game). Treasures give you money and collecting the feathers will give you some kind of weapon in the end.

There are a lot of "side quests" here now and some of them appear at unexpected times. Like chasing thieves or Borgia's Messengers around towns... and rooftops.

Most importantly, the story is just as interesting as ever. It picks up right after the first Assassin's Creed ends. The story for Altair is over but not the story for the Assassin's Creed series.

There is one thing I don't like about it though.

Even though, I enjoy Assassin's Creed 2, the new Ubisoft DRM is very annoying. You have to maintain a constant internet connection to play the game. In other words, I'm playing an online singleplayer game.

I've already got logged off twice. And it prevents those who have no or choppy internet lines from playing it. I sure will not be buying any consoles just to play these games when my pc will do just fine.

Even though my internet line could maintain it, as a matter of principle, I wont be buying anymore of Ubisoft's games that are infested with this new DRM. Too bad. I was really anticipating Splinter Cell: Conviction.

PSA - Save The Murlocs

2010-01-14T12:08:00.004+08:00

D.E.H.T.A. - Save The Murlocs

Druids for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Animals (DEHTA) have made a public service announcement regarding saving the creatures known as the murloc.

See the abuse these hapless creatures had to endure under evil adventurers looking for phat lewt. Not only are their properties taken, their body parts are also being sold as a delicacy.

All around Azeroth, no tribe is spared by these merciless hunters for no matter where they are, these adventurers always managed to find them. But with our help, these wonderful creatures can be saved.

Lets do our part and help the "Save the Murloc Foundation". And together, we CAN make a difference.

WoWWiki: Murloc
WoWWiki: D.E.H.T.A.

Avatar

2010-01-13T09:00:00.000+08:00

Though there are two movies with the name 'avatar', I mean James Cameron's Avatar. I'm not really interested in the Last Airbender movie (just found out about it anyway and it's not out yet).

I went to catch this movie a couple of weeks ago and I must say, it is truly impressive. Every single creature looks real, especially the humanoid Na'vi. The expressions one their face gives you the impression that they are real people.

Some people will likely be reminded of another equally impressive computer generated (CG) movie called Advent Children when they heard about Avatar. Though Advent Children and Avatar uses motion capture, the difference is what technology they used to get the same result.

For Advent Children, like most current games and CG movies, the 3D elements are added AFTER the motion capture. For Avatar, James Cameron developed a kind of virtual camera that enables him to see how the CG characters interact with their environment.

The actors also apparently had to wear a kind of cap with a camera that captured their facial expressions. This enables the camera to really capture the actor's performance. It makes the Na'vi feel truly alive... and not mere dolls like Beowulf.

[SPOILER]
The story for Avatar is pretty well written. James Cameron apparently wrote an 80-page script in two week. It's a slight twist to the usual alien invasion story in that humans are the invaders. They have advance space ships and vehicles that looks like a cross between a dragonfly and helicopters and mechs!

In the future, humans found a vast planet teeming with life and what do they do? Plunder the planet Pandora for it's rare minerals. Of course, the natives aren't taking all this very well. The planet's environment, though beautiful are deadly. In fact, even the air kills. The human scientists created Human-Na'vi hybrid shells called Avatars that they control from within machines that look like big iron lungs.

A cynical friend of mine managed to simplify the story to one line: "It's like Pocahontas in space".
[END SPOILER]

I found out recently that in the Worldwide Box Office, Avatar is the 2nd highest grossing film in the world with $1,341,694,147. The first place is taken by a little known movie called Titanic (1997) with $1,835,300,000. And here's the kicker (if you didn't realize it already), both films were directed by James Cameron.

Wikipedia: Avatar (2009 film)

Valve is at it AGAIN!

2009-12-24T11:11:00.005+08:00

Steam Holiday Sale

Steam is at it again. Their Christmas Holiday Sale is up with some pretty good games selling up to 80% discounts.

Tempting...
Saved for posterity.

Team Fortress 2: The war is over!

2009-12-20T22:38:00.003+08:00

Team Fortress 2: Victory!

Finally, the Soldier is the victor in this war. And the reward, are these special shoes:

Originally designed to solve the problems of going up to the second floors before stairs were invented, these boots now serve to reduce the amount of damage received while rocket jumping (or sticky jump if it were for the Demoman)

The week-long war have seen a very close match between the two classes. With 6,406,065 dead Demomen and 6,372,979 dead Soldiers. It was a close match that surprised even the developers.

Good job Demomen. Even though we lost, we put up a good fight.

Team Fortress 2 Blog: The War Update

Team Fortress 2 Blog: It's a Bloodbath!

Team Fortress 2 Blog: War, Day 2

Team Fortress 2 Blog: Weekend Update

Team Fortress 2 Blog: Casualties of War

Team Fortress 2 Blog: The Big Red One

Team Fortress 2 Blog: It's Close: 5,727,928 Soldiers, 5,742,720 Demos

Team Fortress 2 Blog: Countdown: War ends in less than an hour

Team Fortress 2 Blog: VI Day

Team Fortress 2 Blog: And the winner is...

The Top 500 Worst Passwords Of All Time

2009-12-14T09:45:00.002+08:00

Whats My Pass?: Top 500 Worst Passwords of All Time

Did you ever think that "My passwords are awesome! No one will EVER be able to figure it out!"? Well, think again.

The link shows some of the most common passwords people keep reusing. I am ashamed to say that I do use one or two of them on the list.

Some of the usual suspects include:

123456, password, abc123, xxxxxx, aaaaaa, 11111, asdfgh, qwert, zxcvbn

Here's a tip on how to make unique passwords every time:
Instead of memorizing the letters and numbers itself, try to memorize the formula. You can, for example use the website's name as part of the password.

Say that you wanted to use the password arc113 and want to create an account on Google. You can take out the vowels in Google and add the password together to get arc113ggl.

Then you can separate the letters in the name and make garc113gl. Don't forget capitals gArC113gl.

Voila!

A unique password everytime for whatever situation that needs a password.

Team Fortress 2: WAR!!!

2009-12-11T11:48:00.002+08:00

Yesterday, Valve has finally given a face to The Announcer! Only that she's not The Announcer but The Administrator.

She does look strikingly similar to The Announcer drawn by Makani.

Notice her purple colored suit - Red + Blue = Purple.

Anyway, Valve have just announced the Demoman and Soldier Updates. Only there's a twist.

You see, The Soldier and The Demoman were friends.

Now, this drives the ire of The Administrator who decides to break up these two with a little... healty competition.

Now, besides giving these two classes the updates, there will be a week-long competition of Demomen killing Soldiers and vice versa to win the chance of that class gaining a SECRET SPECIAL weapon unlock. What it is, no one knows (it's a secret).

At the end of the week, the class that kills the most other class will get the special unlock.

So, there's no time to waste. I'm off to kill some SOLDIERS!

Team Fortress 2 Blog: Friendship Ends

Team Fortress 2 Blog: The War Update

Makani Team Fortress 2 Art

WiiWare - Muscle March

2009-12-04T14:57:00.002+08:00

Just when you thought that you've seen all the game there is, WiiWare comes up with this.

It's embarressing and disgusting yet it's funny and AWESOME!
I am confused...

More Muscle March madness at Gametrailers.
Kotaku - Muscle March Buffs Up WiiWare Next Year

Where to Eat - Fast Food Flowchart

2009-12-01T20:03:00.000+08:00

Hungry? Can't decide where to eat?

Here's a flowchart to help you.

Wordpress - Where Should I Eat Fast Food Edition Flowchart

Assassin's Creed 2: Dev Diaries

2009-11-30T08:11:00.000+08:00

Here are some Developer Diaries for Assassin's Creed 2. I find it fun and educational to see how a game is made from concept to completion.

Demmit VALVE! >_<

2009-11-26T12:12:00.003+08:00

Steam One Day Sale

I bought Batman and Dragon Age. >_<

Saved for posterity.

Mass We Pray

2009-11-24T11:47:00.002+08:00

Mass We Pray

A game where you play, have fun and worship the lord at the same time!

Convenient.

I'm not a Christian myself, but before anyone start lambasting Prayer Works Interactive for blasphemy and heresy and defiling the sanctity of the religion, try clicking on one of the links.

As it turns out, the whole website and the ad for the game shown on youtube, was merely a clever ad for the upcoming game, Dante's Inferno. Clicking on the link will open up a page telling you to "go to hell".

Dante's Inferno is a game based on an Italian poem by Dante Alighieri called Divine Comedy. It is one of the early works that shape the concept that hell has nine circles (with the 6th being herecy).

The poem features the poet Dante himself as he travels from Hell to Purgatory and finaly to Heaven. He is initially guided through Hell and Purgatory by another poet named Virgil. In Heaven, he is guided by his ideal lady, Beatrice.

(If all this sounds familiar to Devil May Cry, now you know where they get the names from).

The Game
The game itself took some liberty with the story where you play as Dante as he slices and kills everything in his way to hell with a huge scythe to rescue his lover Beatrice. This game is by no means safe for children.

Other Media
Just so you know, there's Dante's Divine Comedy manga published in 1994...

... and a Dante's Inferno anime (based on the game) coming soon.

Kotaku: Mass We Pray Promises Church Going From Home
Kotaku: Yes, Mass We Pray Was More Dantes Inferno Schtick
Dante's Inferno

Assassin's Creed: Lineage Full Movie

2009-11-21T08:55:00.000+08:00

Youtube: Assassin's Creed: Lineage Complete Series

I believe I've posted something about Assassins' Creed 2: Lineage previously. Assassin's Creed 2: Lineage follows the story of Giovanni Auditore da Firenze who is the father of Ezio, the character controlled by the player in the Assassin's Creed 2 game.

The film was originally released in 3 parts but this youtube video contains the full 30 minute movie.

Although SOME PEOPLE are already playing Assassin's Creed 2 on their PS3s (oh and XBox 360s) on the 17th of November, we PC users will have to wait til 2010. Til then, we have this movie to keep us company.

Youtube: Assassin's Creed 2

Assassin's Creed Wiki: Assassin's Creed 2: Lineage

Space Invaders - What they REALLY look like.

2009-11-09T13:55:00.004+08:00

Jean Salamin submitted this image to Threadless.com.
Are they cool or what.

They Are Real

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - The Movie

2009-11-03T11:27:00.010+08:00

Saying that I'm impressed at the trailer is an understatement. But trailers are meant to get people excited about the movie. So, we'll see how the actual movie is like.

I know that in recent years there's not been many (if any) game-to-movie conversions that are any good. I'm hoping that this one would be an exception, since Jerry Bruckheimer's directing it.

He's produced the Pirate of the Carribean movies (they're a conversion of a ride in Disneyland), National Treasure, Armageddon and Pearl Harbour. His movies have always been fun to watch. Plus, I've always enjoyed his CSI series.

This is definately a movie I'm planning to catch, though.

The princess has has a name. Tamina - i.e. not Farah.
And the Prince's name is... THE PRINCE HAS A NAME!?
Let the raging begin.

Kotaku: The Prince Of Persia Movie Trailer Covers All The Bases
Kotaku: Prince of Persia Trailer Impressions — Please, Ben Kingsley, Don't Mess This Up
First Look At A Proper Prince Of Persia Movie Poster
Empire Online: Prince of Persia Movie Posters

Team Fortress 2 for $2.50

2009-10-31T10:28:00.005+08:00

Remember yesterday when Team Fortress 2 was on sale for the ridiculous, mathematically-basically-zero price of $2.49? According to the bean counters, we're now broke. Man, what were we thinking? Anyway, in a desperate attempt to move some units, make up the shortfall, and save the company, TEAM FORTRESS 2 IS ON SALE FOR $2.50 UNTIL 7PM PDT! Pennies from Heaven!

...

Don't you just love Valve?

Team Fortress 2 - Financial Report
Steam Store - Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2 - Halloween Special

2009-10-30T14:22:00.006+08:00

Team Fortress 2: Pumpkin Patch

Team Fortress 2 Halloween Special
Apparently there's a new King Of The Hill map - koth_harvest that is haunted by the ghost of old Zepheniah Mann.
An interesting event where you can shoot pumpkins to make them blow up near enemies and meet the haunting ghost of Zepheniah Mann who causes players to freeze in fear.

Also, some new face masks. Scaaaaaaary masks.

Another interesting note about this patch is that it reveals some... interesting secrets about Team Fortress 2.

Here are the "secret" links.
Team Fortress 2 - Zepheniah Mann's Will.
Team Fortress 2 - Family Portrait
(someone looks very familiar in the portraits... - talking about the lady and the dog)
Kotaku - A Very Team Fortress 2 Haloween

There IS one thing that makes me angry about this update... and that is this:

Goddemmit!

I could've sent the links to some of my friends.

From now until 2:00pm PDT, Team Fortress will be available on Steam for the horrifyingly (to our accountants) low price of $2.49! What else can you buy for that price? That's not a rhetorical question, we're interested in all the things we can buy once those $2.49s start rolling in.

$2.49 = RM 10.21

2pm PDT on 29th Oct = 5am KL on 30th (TOO LATE!)
- actually, it's less than a few hours since the time it was posted, Valve is evil...

Team Fortress 2 - We're Practically (But Not Actually) GIVING the Game Away!

Kotaku - Team Fortress 2 For $2.49

The New DSi LL

2009-10-30T11:30:00.004+08:00

You know, when they announced the DSi with the larger screen (3.2 in compared to the DS-Lite's 3.0 in) I thought "Well, that's an improvement". Considering the limitations of the size of the DSi, that's the largest increment they could do without affecting the rest of the device.

And when I heard about the rumoured 4in LCD screen DSi, well I was a little sceptical. Well, the only way they could do that is by increasing the size of the DSi.

A few days later, my guess was right. They did scale it up. But I didn't realize it'd be this huge.

It's like a mini lap top.

The whole thing comes with two stylus. One equally large...

... actually that's more like a pen.

And the whole thing weighs 314g.

For a comparison:

58g - PSPgo
189g - PSP-2000
189g - PSP-3000
214g - DSi
218g - DS Lite
275g - Nintendo DS
280g - PSP-1000
314g - DSi LL

Nintendo Japan - DSi LL

Kotaku - Nintendo Announces Big Screen DSi
Kotaku - How Does The DSi LL Compare To The DSi and DS-Lite
Kotaku - The Heaviest Portable This Generation Is...

Assassin's Creed Lineage Short Part 1

2009-10-29T15:11:00.002+08:00

Ah, Assassin's Creed 2. Another game I'm eagerly anticipating.

In July last year, Ubisoft acquired Hybride Technologies, a studio that specializes in making special effects for movies. At that time, people speculated on what kind of child of two media industries would produce.

And now, we can see the results. The first part of Assassin's Creed Lineage shorts was posted on Youtube on 26th October this year.

The story is a prologue of sorts for Assassin's Creed 2 which features Assassin Giovanni Auditore, the main character of the game (Ezio)'s father.

The use of special effects is beautiful. It is also interesting to see how he does parkour and fights. Pretty similar to what you can do in the game.

I'll be waiting for part 2.

Media Convergence: Ubisoft Acquires Hybride Technologies, Creator of Visual Effects for the Films 300 and Sin City

Kotaku: First Assassin's Creed Lineage Short Hits Internet

Chuck Norris doesn't sleep. He waits

2009-10-27T14:13:00.003+08:00

We are doomed! Roundhouse kicks galore!

It was supposed to be a routine mission: A rogue Soviet army was holding POWs hostage in Cambodia, and only Chuck Norris, man of action, could save them. But the stakes are raised when Chuck’s greatest enemies unite to invade and destroy America. Download the most action that can still fit on your mobile device and help Chuck save the entire free world! This time, he’s pulling no punches and unleashing his full fighting power - never before seen by anyone who lived to tell about it!

First off, I'm kinda suprised that someone made a game about Chuck Norris. And that someone is Gameloft. Recently, this mobile game is made available for iPhone.

The game seems to be making allusions at the Chuck Norris facts meme. What with scenes such as this in the game.

I especially like the quote on Kotaku where "Death once had a near-Chuck-Norris experience". It just cracks me up.

Other good Chuck Norris facts include:

There is no 'ctrl' button on Chuck Norris's computer. Chuck Norris is always in control.
Chuck Norris can sneeze with his eyes open
Chuck Norris is suing Myspace for taking the name of what he calls everything around you.
Chuck Norris destroyed the periodic table, because he only recognizes the element of surprise.
Outer space exists because it's afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris.
There is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard. There is only another fist.

Chuck Norris Facts
Kotaku - Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kicks Himself onto iPhone
Gameloft
Wikipedia - Chuck Norris facts

FFCC - The Crystal Bearers Song Sung by Bon Jovi

2009-10-24T18:48:00.005+08:00

The Final Fantasy series, in my opinion, has always been known to have interesting art styles and beautiful songs.

And now, Bon Jovi adds their music talent to this new Final Fantasy series for the Wii.

I've always liked Bon Jovi and the song doesn't feel out of place. Well, the snippet's for the tv commercial and I still don't know how they're using it in the game. Too bad I don't have a Wii.

The song, however is We Weren't Born To Follow, which is in their new album.

Kotaku - Does Bon Jovi Add Anything to Final Fantasy? Judge For Yourself

Pose Maniacs: 30 Seconds Drawing

2009-10-23T16:17:00.000+08:00

Pose Maniacs: 30 seconds drawing

This is absolutely one of the best site for training your character designing skills.

Basically, the site contains a Flash application that flashes pictures of characters (male/female) in various poses. You get a pencil and paper and draw the characters in those poses.

As part of the training, the pictures will keep rotating every few seconds (which can be adjusted from 10 - 90 seconds - default is 30 seconds). This forces you to train yourself to draw them quickly.

Looks a little freaky but it helps in drawing all the proper muscles in the body.

The site also provides some youtube videos on tips about drawing.

Yay Gordon

2009-10-16T13:53:00.001+08:00

And the all time greatest game hero is... Gordon Freeman!

Well, the result wasn't totally unexpected.

Gordon vs Mario

Gordon Needs You!

2009-10-09T12:30:00.005+08:00

The Poll Standings

It all started when I heard about Gamespot having one of their polls for The Greatest Game Hero. Unfortunately, I only realized it when it's Gordon vs Link. Of course, I picked Gordon, no questions about that. :3

I read a post in the comments about Valve's announcement. I didn't know what it was until I got back and logged on to Steam.

And saw this:

Needless to say, Gordon won.

People on the comments say that it's cheating since Valve made the announcement. But I say, Gordon is Steam-powered. :3

Gordon (and Half-Life/Half-Life 2) have an active community supporting him. For the other fans, they could try rallying their own to support their characters.

And now, it comes down to this:

Go Gordon.

Gordon vs Link
Mario vs Gordon

In the Grim Darkness of the Far Future, There is Only War.

2009-10-05T20:08:00.000+08:00

Ultramarines The Movie

Warhammer 40k fans would be delighted to know that on 29th Sept 2009, a new CGI movie Called Ultramarines was announced. So far, not much info is available from the main website.

Though I am not a fan of Warhammer, even I am a bit excited by the prospect of a Warhammer movie.

To brush up on your Warhammer lore:

Lexicanum: Ultramarines
Wiki: Warhammer 40k

Let us read a chapter from the LOLCat Bible

2009-10-01T09:35:00.002+08:00

Genesis 1

Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem
Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz.
At start, no has lyte. An Ceiling Cat sayz, i can haz lite? An lite wuz.
An Ceiling Cat sawed teh lite, to seez stuffs, An splitted teh lite from dark but taht wuz ok cuz kittehs can see in teh dark An not tripz over nethin.
An Ceiling Cat sayed light Day An dark no Day. It were FURST!!!1
An Ceiling Cat sayed, im in ur waterz makin a ceiling. But he no yet make a ur. An he maded a hole in teh Ceiling.
An Ceiling Cat doed teh skiez with waterz down An waterz up. It happen.
An Ceiling Cat sayed, i can has teh firmmint wich iz funny bibel naim 4 ceiling, so wuz teh twoth day.
An Ceiling Cat gotted all teh waterz in ur base, An Ceiling Cat hadz dry placez cuz kittehs DO NOT WANT get wet.
An Ceiling Cat called no waterz urth and waters oshun. Iz good.
An Ceiling Cat sayed, DO WANT grass! so tehr wuz seedz An stufs, An fruitzors An vegbatels. An a Corm. It happen.
An Ceiling Cat sawed that weedz ish good, so, letz there be weedz.
An so teh threeth day jazzhands.
An Ceiling Cat sayed, i can has lightz in the skiez for splittin day An no day.
It happen, lights everwear, like christmass, srsly.
An Ceiling Cat doeth two grate lightz, teh most big for day, teh other for no day.
An Ceiling Cat screw tehm on skiez, with big nails An stuff, to lite teh Urfs.
An tehy rulez day An night. Ceiling Cat sawed. Iz good.
An so teh furth day w00t.
An Ceiling Cat sayed, waterz bring me phishes, An burds, so kittehs can eat dem. But Ceiling Cat no eated dem.
An Ceiling Cat maed big fishies An see monstrs, which wuz like big cows, except they no mood, An other stuffs dat mooves, An Ceiling Cat sawed iz good.
An Ceiling Cat sed O hai, make bebehs kthx. An dont worry i wont watch u secksy, i not that kynd uf kitteh.
An so teh...fith day. Ceiling Cat taek a wile 2 cawnt.
An Ceiling Cat sayed, i can has MOAR living stuff, mooes, An creepie tings, An otehr aminals. It happen so tehre.An Ceiling Cat doed moar living stuff, mooes, An creepies, An otehr animuls, An did not eated tehm.
An Ceiling Cat sayed, letz us do peeps like uz, becuz we ish teh qte, An let min p0wnz0r becuz tehy has can openers.
So Ceiling Cat createded teh peeps taht waz like him, can has can openers he maed tehm, min An womin wuz maeded, but he did not eated tehm.
An Ceiling Cat sed them O hai maek bebehs kthx, An p0wn teh waterz, no waterz An teh firmmint, An evry stufs.
An Ceiling Cat sayed, Beholdt, the Urfs, I has it, An I has not eated it.
For evry createded stufs tehre are the fuudz, to the burdies, teh creepiez, An teh mooes, so tehre. It happen. Iz good.
An Ceiling Cat sayed, Beholdt, teh good enouf for releaze as version 0.8a. kthxbai.

LOLCat Bible - Genesis 1

Tools - IrfanView

2009-09-26T19:57:00.007+08:00

Download IrfanView
Download Plugins

IrfanView is a free image viewer. It's pretty lightweight and very customizable with the number of plugins available for it. With the proper plugins, it can play mp3s or even movies, become an image editor or open a pdf file. I don't use those features, though since I have other programs doing that already.

But one thing that IrfanView has that I like very much is that it can perform batch editing. You can rename/convert/resize several items at once. Pretty useful to keep your images (or other files) properly organized.

You can set so that it only opens files with a certain extension. If there are a variety of files in your folder, it wont open every single file as you scroll through the folder. Pretty useful if you happen to have an image folder with some pdf files inside, and IrfanView takes forever to load the pdf that you didn't want to load in the first place.

The current version is 4.25 which I am loving as it now comes with a unicode plugin. The previous versions have problems opening files that have Japanese or Chinese characters.

If there's one thing I don't like about IrfanView is its ugly road killed cat icon. But nothing like some third party icons (or draw some yourself) can fix.

Enabling the icons (v4.25):

Place the "Icon.dll" file in the IrfanView plugin folder (normally, it's "C:\Program Files\IrfanView\Plugins")
Options -> Properties/Settings... -> Icons
Enable the "Use different icons (Icons-Plugin)" radio button.
Hit ok.
If the radio button is already selected, select another icon and repeat step 2 again.

Go to: www.irfanview.com

Guard Dog - Classless Update Day #2!

2009-09-26T13:30:00.007+08:00

Another update for the Guard Dog mock Team Fortress Update. Complete with new hats and maps (oh my god, he added ctf_convoy! :))).

Team Fortress 2 Guard Dog Update - Day #2

Valve and the Community

2009-09-26T11:51:00.007+08:00

Valve Software, the creators of Team Fortress 2, Left4Dead, Portal, and the Half-Life series. They have a knack for not taking things seriously in a serious way. They even play along with some of the eccentricities in the community. Which makes it pretty fun.

This is especially true in the Team Fortress 2 community. The game itself is over-the-top and humorous. Add to that the frequent replies of Mann Co., the fictional company that provides the Team Fortress 2 classes their equipment, and their CEO Saxton Hale just completes the picture (and I have to say, I am a HUGE fan of Team Fortress 2).

Here's a few compilations of their interactions with the community.

Giving sound advice on forum posting.

They're very forthcoming with customer feedback.

Shacker Lionhart32935 had a minor gripe with one of Half-Life 2: Episode Two's commentary recordings:
Hi Gabe! One [of] the commentators in episode 2 sounded really bored. I believe his name was Stevie or Steven, can't quite recall. Tell him to sound more excited. He makes games, he should be off the wall to talk about what he worked on. He sounded like Ben Stein was having more fun than he was.
Valve's Chet Faliszek wasted no time in righting the wrong, going straight to the source:
Thanks for your email. Based solely on your feedback we have decided to fire the offending party, Steve Kalning. Instead of sending him to HR and wasting their time, I have cc'd him on this email and this will act as his official notice. Clean out your desk Steve.
Thanks Lionhart for helping us make Valve a better place.
It wasn't long before a second email response followed:
Pat, after careful study, I realize steve bond could have also been the culprit. So since we can't really be sure, and really no sense wasting any more time on this. Mr Bond? Please clean out your desk as well.
Concerned that his complaint had already resulted in the loss of two jobs, Lionhart32935 replied:
How about just giving him a hug instead? I heard that cheers up many people. Buy him a drink, even better! It will make the work environment more exciting for him if he gets unexpected surprises from fellow coworkers.
Faliszek was having none of it:
That is the kind of weak thinking we don't need aroud here Lionhart. Hugs never got a 96 on the metacritic score.
Standards upheld!

Unfortunately, they're out of stock.

And are always open to new suggestions.

Valve, kudos to you.

Shacknews - Valve's Customer Service is Best in Class

Game Prep - Valve Response to Force-A-Nature Order Forms

The Unique Team Update - Guard Dog

TF2 Official Blog - Patent Pending: #1308 - "GUARD DOG"

Blog Updates - Sidebar at the bottom of the page fix

2009-09-24T22:06:00.004+08:00

I've managed to fix the problem of the blog's sidebar being placed at the bottom of the page. Apparently, it's caused by the Jump Break in Blogger's new layout.

The Jump Break button inserts a

tag to indicate that the rest of the post is hidden and can be expanded to view the rest.

The problem happens when the tag is inserted between a <div..> and </div> tag pair. It causes the sidebar to be thrown at the bottom.

Also, I managed to add a third sidebar on the left for my profile and the Labels. Which I think is pretty cool. It also leaves me more space to put my more frequently used links on the right.

Tools Archive

2009-09-24T01:34:00.017+08:00

Compiled links of useful tools I currently use.

Image

GIMP - GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

Inkscape - An Open Source vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, CorelDraw, or Xara X, using the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

PDF

Foxit Reader - A free and light weight pdf reader. Loads faster than Adobe Acrobat.

PDF Creator - PDFCreator easily creates PDFs from any Windows program.Use it like a printer in Word, StarCalc or any other Windows application.

Google Sketchup - Create, modify and share 3D models.

Blender - Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License.

Utilities

Autoruns - This utility, which has the most comprehensive knowledge of auto-starting locations of any startup monitor, shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and shows you the entries in the order Windows processes them. These programs include ones in your startup folder, Run, RunOnce, and other Registry keys.

Process Explorer - Shows information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded. Similar to Task Manager.

I will try to update regularly this time

2009-09-24T01:00:00.003+08:00

Well, after two years, I remembered that I still had this blog.
I'm also starting to like the changes they made with it, like having a "jump break" button so that I don't have to code it in manually.

I plan to do some spring cleaning with this blog and make some changes to make it better to read.

Like for starters, all these links to game sites (after the jump :) )

Stop Disasters Game - A disaster simulation game from the UN/ISDR
Cave Story - A game made by 1 man and took 5 years to finish. Ported to some console

Nanaca Crash - A game using 1 button.
Strange Adventures in Infinite Space

Sling

Dice War
WeaponFire - A game on Newgrounds.

Crayon Shin-chan Creator Passed Away

2009-09-22T11:18:00.003+08:00

Ang told me yesterday about the death of Yoshito Usui, creator of Crayon Shin-chan. He was missing when he went hiking on his own on a mountain in Gunma. His body was found on Sunday (20th). My condolenses to the family.

GACC 2007 (Games Anime & Comic Circle)

2007-03-23T12:48:00.008+08:00

On a side note...

Went to GACC 2007 in MMU Melaka last weekened. A 2 day event in the MMU Melaka Campus. It was so cool! My only disappointment is that there's not enough doujin artists. Found only 2-3 booths selling doujin out of 6 or 7 booths there. I did buy an original doujin made by a trio of girls. Their stories and art needs a lot more work but they put their hearts into it and completed it so, that's an accomplishment.

There was a Character Design Competition which I joined in the first day, though didn't make it beyond the preliminaries. A friend of mine got 3rd though when they announced the winners on Sunday. Then, there's the Cosplay Competition (Individual and Group), PS2 Fighting Game Competition as well as Magic: The Gathering (no-wing got 2nd place, SHOCKING!). To top it off, Mr. Furuya Tohru, a seiyuu from Japan (AN ACTUAL SEIYUU CAME TO MALACCA!) came by on the 2nd day. Gave autographs, had an interview and became the judge for the Group Cosplay Competition.

Here's some videos of some interesting things during the event (not taken by me).

Hare Hare Yukai stage Dance

Here's also some clips of Furuya Tohru. He was kind of short, though that's not a surprise. :)
The first seiyuu (voice actor) to come to Malaysia. Mr. Furuya voice-acted Amuro Ray in the first Gundam as well as Mamoru Chiba/Tuxedo Kamen in Sailormoon. He mentioned that his favourite character that he voiced would be Kasuga Kyosuke of Kimagure Orange Road. I was lucky to be the few who managed to get Mr. Furuya's signature. He signed mine as "Amuro Ray". :D

Interview With Furuya Tohru

The translator had some problems with translating what Mr. Furuya Tohru said. There was one point where he jokingly said, "She cannot translate." at a particular long answer to a question, which drew laughter from the crowd.

Furuya Tohru Performing Some of The Characters He Voiced

No Updates for Awhile

2007-03-23T12:29:00.000+08:00

Yes, I'm late.
No, there's no new updates for now (well, except for this).
No, I'm not being lazy.
More like I'm being busy.

I'm working on a doujin (self published mangas) for this year's Comic Fiesta which will be held in December. I had the story up and ready. Now I need to draw and tone them.

Since this is my first doujin, it's taking me quite some time to get the hang of things. I'm learning a lot along the way, such as camera angles, how to emphasize the character's pressence, etc. Learning a lot from using Akamatsu Ken (Negima) and Eiichiro Oda's (One Piece) works. Google Sketchup helps too, and the models on Google Earth helped me to get my camera angles right (I hope).

My first doujin, so I'm doing a story about something which I'm familiar with. Arkh's adventures shortly after the end of the Destinies of the Elements Campaign (which I have yet to finish in the webcomic form in the first place... <_<).

LittleBigPlanet for the PS3

2007-03-09T11:18:00.003+08:00

I find this game to be very cute. :)

Click Read all... for more videos or go to Game Trailers to download them.

08 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

2007-02-24T00:15:00.002+08:00

Day 400

Ahhhh... what a beautiful morning it was.
I heard from some locals that last night, they were doing some heavy partying...
no one invited me. I think that's why it's quite quiet this morning, with all those hangovers.

Some nice officers from the town guards managed to find Jack too. They said something about him and an old lady... wasn't paying attention much, though. Was in a hurry to get to the Mayor's office.

Ah... back in the truck! We have the 8000 credits and the carton of wine, as well as a bottle of "special" wine from the Mayor's own vineyard. How nice of him.
Now, we're off to the desert!

Character Profile: Merri Weather

2007-02-14T22:23:00.003+08:00

Character Profiles by ~hreaper on deviant ART

This character is played by a friend of mine. She plays a pacifist though, she fights when she has to.

Other Character Profiles:
Arkh Seryn (Cleric of Naele)

Character Profile: Arkh Seryn

2007-01-30T09:45:00.003+08:00

Character Profiles by ~hreaper on deviant ART

I'm starting a set of profiles of the characters in Destinies of the Elements. This is my character that I played in the campaign. More to come soon.

Other Character Profiles:
Merri Weather (Spellblade Sorceress)

08 - Destinies of Elements Omake 008

2007-01-14T14:30:00.002+08:00

by ~hreaper on deviant ART

Yay, finally! An update!

In the campaign, Arkh brought Kaede up to his room in Tenshiron's Tavern and left him there where Kaede had a premonition of danger in a dream.

All that we know is that in the dream, he is surrounded by bright white light. :)

All the previous Destinies of Elements series can be found here.

If you can't access Deviantart due to slow internet speed, you can directly download the file here.

07 - Destinies of Elements Omake 007

2006-12-27T00:41:00.002+08:00

by ~hreaper on deviant ART

Finally, the introduction of another character. Our Fire Druid, George Sarnil.

As you know, a druid is a guardian of nature. They normally like to stay in the groves deep in the forests they guard. Now, why is George a FIRE Druid? I don't really know...

Probably the same reason why Kai Sunreaver's a Chaotic Good blonde half-orc Paladin of Lenelia with blue eyes.

All the previous Destinies of Elements series can be found here.

If you can't access Deviantart due to slow internet speed, you can directly download the file here.

07 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

2006-12-14T01:42:00.002+08:00

Day 399

Last I checked the clock, it was 3am in the morning. There's no more hacking. Now, I'm kept awake by the noise of the saw. Kleos had the bright idea to use the saw in his kit now.

Sawing stopped at 6am. Now, finally, sleeeeeee~~~~...

Woke up at 8, still a little bleary eyed but we need to get out of the forest now. Amazing that there was no danger to us last night. All those wild animals must've been scared off by the sawing.

Render has gone around smashing the windows of all the buildings in this encampment. Why? I have no idea.

Our prisoner escaped and torched some of the evidence before impaling himself on one of the blades Kleos left in the clearing. How he escaped? It's due to SOMEONE not keeping a close eye on him. I wont point fingers, but the guy guarding him was busy having fun smashing windows.

After a few hours of tiring trek, with Kleos and Joe dragging the two blades through the underbrush, we finally reached the militia encampment. Which was fortunate, as they were just about to leave.

They offered us some lunch. Sigel fell asleep again. Some of our kind party members tried to feed him... either that or they're just randomly throwing food at his face.

We grouped up with Alex who came from the opposite direction. Apparently he's reached our parked vehicles first and then decided to come find us. He tossed Sigel along with the baggage and we trudge back to the cars.

We finally reached the vehicles and started our journey back. But somehow... I think we've forgotten something.

JACK! Whatever happened to him!? We've gotta go find him...
After we retrieve the reward from the Mayor, of course.

When we reached the town, we went straight to the Mayor's office (we dropped off the sleeping Sigel, first though). After much negotiations with the Mayor, we managed to get 8000 credits and a carton of 36 bottles of Black Wood wine for the rift fiend's blades and taking care of the assassin encampment.

I wasn't paying much attention, since Alex and Kleos was closing the deal but somehow, I get the impression that the Mayor thinks Kleos is a hero. Hmm... as I recall, he was busy bleeding somewhere while Sigel put the last blow on the rift fiend. Oh, well.

The Mayor said that the papers will be ready in the morning so, now off we go to the town barracks to speak to the Constable about searching for Jack. After that, I think I'll go turn in early. I still feel a little sleepy.

Thieves in UK Hijack XBox Shipment

2006-11-29T12:06:00.001+08:00

Two separate incidents in the UK have seen over £1 million ($1.93m) worth of Xbox 360 consoles stolen, in what appears to be specific targeting of the console by thieves.

As reported in regional newspaper Express & Star, the first incident occurred on Monday, November 20th, when a truck was stopped on the A38 in Staffordshire, in the English West Midlands, and the driver threatened and dragged from his cab. The truck was found empty on the same road with the loss of around £750,000 ($1.45m) worth of consoles.

The second incident occurred at a Staffordshire depot on Thursday, November 23rd when a £40,000 ($77,000) trailers was stolen containing £260,000 ($500,000) worth of consoles. Although it is unclear how many of the consoles were Core or Premium bundles, the value of the consoles suggests around 3,500 units in total were stolen during the two hijackings.

Staffordshire Police spokesman Peter Stevens commented, “We are appealing for information from anyone offered them in suspicious circumstances, such as in a pub, at a car boot sale or off the back of a lorry, to help us track down those responsible.”

That's a lot of XBoxes.
Here's more news of the incident.

2001 Things I Am No Longer Allowed to do in an RPG

2006-11-24T14:57:00.000+08:00

I signed on to the forum and put up a few of my own.

2972. There's no such thing as a LG blonde half-orc Paladin with blue eyes no matter what his back story is.
2973. Said half-orc Paladin do not have a huge fascination of blood and keep cutting himself in rituals for his deity to the point that the other party members start wondering how much pints of blood he has.
2974. When creating a spell that disarms an opponent by force of wind, said wind does NOT declothe them as well (they called it dispelling gust or wind).
2975. May NOT prestidigitate a deck of 52 playing cards and then imbue said cards with powerful spells thus enabling you to cast it 52 times (imbue spell does not and should not work like this!!!)
2976. IF 2973 and 2974 are ignored, may not prestidigitate a deck of 52 playing cards and then imbue them with dispelling gust of wind and then throw the deck into women's dressing rooms.
2977. Party members should keep an eye on the NE Hexblade to make sure he doesn't start raping any of the dying drows.
2978. When receiving a powerful flying battleship, make sure that the crazy CN Tinker does not dismantle the cannon.
2979. If the CN Tinker did not dismantle the canon, make sure he's pointing it at the right direction and no other party members are in the way when he fires it.
2980. Before firing the canon, the shooter MUST first warn the party members in the blast radius.
2981. Do not leave the CN Tinker alone with a bagful of explosives that he just recently made. Especially when you're in the BBEG's castle and he's off somewhere tossing the explosives around for fun.
2982. Never ask the CN Wild Mage to break the chains binding your hands. You may never know if she'll just call down a Meteor Shower to help you.
2983. If the Ninja happens upon a heated argument between party members, he may not knock out all the party involved (including the innocent bystander), toss them into their rooms and lock them in and say that it's the best solution to resolve the problems.

Take a guess where all this happened?

06 - Destinies of Elements Omake 006

2006-11-22T11:56:00.001+08:00

Link to Destinies of the Elements 006a and Destinies of the Elements 006b

by ~hreaper on deviant ART

FINALLY! After so long, a special 2 part story. :p
I was very busy with work nowadays that I can hardly find time to make the omake. Even though it took some time, at least I managed to get 2 pages out.

This didn't actually happened in the campaign. I just want to introduce Asura and Sig. Sig did sign up for the tournament but I can't really recall what Asura's doing. She was wandering around somewhere.

Note: To see the full image, click on the flash or the link.
Click Read All... or the title to see the full blog.

Destinies of the Elements [Omake Compilation]

2006-11-22T11:30:00.000+08:00

Update:
22/11/2006 - Added Destinies of the Elements 006

001 - Arrival at Bacrind.
002 - Saved by a Mysterious Merchant
003 - Getting a Job in Bacrind
004 - The Merchant's TRUE Identity
005 - New Friends
006 - Introducing Sig and Asura

Cool Video Links

2006-11-21T18:17:00.003+08:00

Play B3yond
This is an ad site for the PS3. It advertises the processing power, high def and high capacity of the PS3. But it seems that people are more interested at buying the Wii at it's launch date than the PS3. But that doesn't mean that they are going to just give the PS3 the cold shoulder.

I myself would rather wait til there's some good games out for the console (and until I can scrape enough money to buy one).

Dice Stacking
It's the art of stacking up dices. But you've never seen anything like this one.

Amazing Kid Who Is Blind

2006-11-06T13:11:00.000+08:00

You've got to see this to believe it.

Interesting Commercials

2006-11-03T22:43:00.000+08:00

Dead or Alive (DoA)
Here's a very... "interesting" ad for DoA for the XBox

Banned XBox 360 commercial
The commercial was banned because it involves gunfights. But it's still funny to watch.

Banned Candy Bar Commercial
For you info, that guy was just cooling down from jogging.

The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden [Campaign Log Compilation]

2006-11-01T20:50:00.000+08:00

Campaign Start
Campaign Magic System

001 - Day 1 - Day 390
002 - Day 391 - Day 393
003 - Day 394 - Day 395
004 - Day 396
005 - Day 397
006 - Day 398

Physics Games

2006-11-01T07:45:00.001+08:00

These games are pretty cool. If you think that physics is all about how to drift your car on that next hairpin or how far the guy flies when you hit him with a rocket launcher, think again.

They're no Half-Life 2, but these games use physics in much more interesting and innovative ways.

Personally, I kinda liked Armadillo Run by Peter Stock.

Build bridges and other stuff using the materials in your hands to help an armadillo (who's always rolled up in a ball for some reason) through a series of portals to get him home.

Download the Demo

You can get the full game at the Armadillo Run Website for USD 19.99.

2001 Things I Am No Longer Allowed To Do In RPGs

2006-10-29T11:30:00.000+08:00

Some of my favourites includes:

3. There is no Gnomish god of heavy artillery.

6. Synchronized panicking is not a proper battle plan.
7. Not allowed to use psychic powers to do the dishes.
8. How to serve Dragons is not a cookbook.

10. Just because my character and I can speak German, doesn't mean the GM can.

33. There is no such skill as 'improvised cooking'

50. Not allowed to use thermodynamic science to asphyxiate the orcs' cave instead of exploring it first
53. Not allowed to start a drow character weighing more than a quarter ton.
54. Cannot pimp out other party members.
55. Before facing the dragon, not allowed to glaze the elf.
56. No matter how well I roll, a squirrel cannot carry a horse and rider at full sprint.

103. There is no such thing as a Club +3 of Cup Checks
104. Nor is there a +1 Longsword, +5 against party members.

106. I do not have weapon proficiency in cat.

130. I am not authorized to form the head.

141. My maid does not know kung fu.

143. Not allowed to by a holy symbol for every god just in case one of them is right.

146. Not allowed to play an Australian in any game set before 1600.

150. Not allowed to create recreational drugs in suppository format.
151. Halflings do not have a racial proficiency with the flamethrower.
152. When the guy is at -9 HP is not the best time for my cleric to convert him.

161. I will not nail every single female party member except for the elf chick played by that creepy guy.

168. I was also not recruited by 12 dwarves and a wizard to rob a dragon.
(FYI: References to JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit.)

180. I have neither the touch nor the power.
(FYI: Transformers: The Movie and He-Man references.)

204. I am not too sexy for the elf, too sexy for the elf, so sexy myself.
205. My 3rd ed. Red Wizard is not allowed to start a business named Thay Co.
(FYI: The Red Wizards of Thay are from the Forgotten Realms setting.)

247. If the king rewards me with a forest, I am to assume he intends for me to keep it a forest.
248. There is no Halfling god of groin shots.

252. I can not order the Druid to transform and roll out.

255: The brooding, dark figure with the hood and raspy voice shouldn't be killed before he's given the party the quest.
256: Nor after he's given the party the quest.
257: Nor after he's given the party the reward for the quest.

277. I will not put a fog spell infront of the archer
278. Especially not if there are our party-fighters in front of the archer
279.And REALLY don't do it if the DM has heard about "friendly fire"
280. Don' think that anyone in your group has blind-fight-
281. And dont use 280. as an excuse to put darkness over your 5th level group battling with a little army of gobos n orks...
(FYI: Goblins and orcs can see in the dark.)

284. If the DM decides to allow guns in the Forgotten Realms, I am not to nag him for an AK-47.
285. Or an Uzi.
286. Or a howitzer.

291: Lawful Stupid and Chaotic Badass are now forbidden alighnments.

293: If may bard uses perform (sing), I can not name him MC Hammer and sing "Can't Touch This"
294: If my bard uses Perfom (danse), I can not name him Micheal Jackson.

275. I must remember at dinner time Rock is not a dwarven delicacy.
276. I must remember at dinner time Log is not an elven delicacy.
294. My dwarf is not claustrophobic, likewise, my elf is not agoraphobic.

312: Presidigitation can not increase breast size.

323. I cannot start the game with a highly contagious deadly disease.
324. I cannot start the game pregnant.

340. I cannot start the game married to another PC without their consent.
341: The dog is not there to set of traps.

354. Tricking the party into killing each other off and then turning in their corpses for the bounty is frowned upon.
355. My monk's battlecry is not "Round 1: Fight!"

360. I must remind the GM that my Blessed can Raise Dead before he runs another murder mystery again.

362. It is very unlikely my half-ogre and the half-elf, half-dragon, tiefling and aasimar have the same dad.

366. Female minotaurs do not have udders. This issue is closed.

376. The barbarian must remember that 'human shield' is a figure of speech.

378. I can cannot give my character the moniker "Tim the Barbarian". Especially since he's the bard.
379. I am to stop asking the elf to put a good word in for me with Santa.
380. I cannot use the ventriloquism skill to convice the fighter his new sword is a magical talking one.

1260: May not "accidently" stab the party cleric and steal his things.

There are just too many. These are just a few that I liked.

Some of the quotes were taken from a LiveJournal post here.

06 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

2006-10-29T11:00:00.000+08:00

Day 398

Lots of things happened so fast today, I don't know where to start.

After the rift fiend cut down the tree I was in, it went after Jack. It took me awhile but I managed to get my tangled butt out of the tree. I sneaked further back from the battle (to give myself a better tactical view... that's it... yeah) and that's where I found him.

A lone assassin was in front of me, hiding behind one of the trees. I must've circled around behind him without him noticing. He was staring at the battle and didn't notice me.

So, I decided it's time for me to have a little chat with this guy to find out what in the world is going on here. To cut a long story short, me and my friend, the rock had a little chat session with his head. And when I thought it was over, I gave him another session... just in case.

By the time I tied him up and dragged him out, the battle was over.

The others started exploring the camp. Render was venting his anger on the corpse. He had a badly burned right hand. He should be more careful when playing with fire, I think. Jack came back after awhile... and I thought I saw a jam stain on his mouth there for a minute. Alex stripped off his armor and went off somewhere to wash off all that blood, I think.

Actually, I expect him to be wearing his underwears only under all that armor. So, I was kind of shocked when he started stripping. Luckily he was wearing a pair of pants under it.

After awhile, I turned to check on the prisoner but he disappeared! He must've been an escape artist! He was kind enought to leave the rope though.
Note to self: Must practice tying a rope.

We found him in one of the small houses. Render and I was at the back to block his escape while Joe and Alex guarded the only door. I saw him talking to a black communication orb before he saw Alex.

For a moment, he tried to take his own life! Alex was trying to subdue him so, he used his shield only. After awhile we managed to knock him out but he had bitten his wrist.

Alex took care of the bleeding though. And this time we tied him up real good. They didn't let me do the tying though (damn wanted another go at it).

Right after dinner, Alex and Jack went off to look for the way back. And now I can't sleep because KLEOS AND JOE HAD THE BRIGHT IDEA TO CUT UP THE RIFT FIEND'S BLADES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT WITH A SHORT SWORD. AND ALL THAT HACKING IS KEEPING ALL OF US AWAKE!!!

Where in the world is Alex and Jack. I wanna go with them too.

05 - Destinies of the Elements omake

2006-10-21T20:40:00.001+08:00

Finally, what you've all been waiting for!
(Yeah right.)
Direct link to image: Destinies of the Elements 005 by ~hreaper on deviant ART

While Arkh was in Tenshinron's Tavern, he met Kaede and bought him a drink. He took one sip of it and then was KO for awhile. Arkh had to drag him up to his room. <_<

I decided to create a Deviantart account. Thought I'd try it out.

Applying for Your First Game Industry Job

2006-10-20T14:01:00.000+08:00

I got this very interesting article from Game Career Guide about how to apply for your first job in the game industry. But I think it's more for application of one of those big names in the game industry (EA, Microsoft, Ubisoft etc).

Time Magazine Interview with Takaya Natsuki (Author of Fruits Basket)

2006-10-16T13:07:00.000+08:00

Fruits Basket is a very nice manga about the life of a first year high school student Honda Tohru and her relationship with several people of the Souma family who have a curse that turns them into members of the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals when hugged by the opposite sex.

I'm currently reading the manga, though I did watch the Fruits Basket anime which was aired around 2001. The story is still on-going.

Here's an excerpt from the interview with Takaya Natsuki which I have a keen interest in (mainly, manga story writing and drawing):

TIME: How do you define manga in terms of storyline, characters and visual style?

NT: I try to make it so that I don't hold a firm definition. Rather than be locked into that and have my creations become clumsy and awkward, I want everything to have a certain softness — a freedom.

TIME: What do you think about manga being attempted by non-Japanese creators? Do you consider it manga or another form?

NT: Simply put, I'm glad that manga as an expressive form is expanding. I think that nationality has no relation to that which gives rise to manga. Even among the Japanese, manga creators are making their creations everyday reflecting their own individuality, with none being the same. What is important isn't the differences between the creators but their love for manga.

Reading Eye Movement

2006-10-16T12:52:00.000+08:00

Here's a few tips on how to read a person's thoughts by reading his/her eyes.

The direction the person moves his or her eyes can often determine whether the answer is from memory or not. It works the best with visual thoughts. A person will typically look upward to the left if reaching into memory and to the right if creating the answer or constructing imaged images.

Although most people follow this left-right rule, there are some who are just the opposite. It is good to determine which is which before jumping to conclusions. You can find out the correct directions of a person by asking some leading questions like "What was the color of your first car?" to get a response from memory, and "What is your opinion of the President?" to get a creative response.

An interesting way to see if someone's lying to you about something. :)

One Piece - Going Merry (Life Size Replica)

2006-10-10T11:27:00.000+08:00

How cool is that? A life size replica of a ship in an anime.

The Going Merry is the ship used by the Straw Hat Pirates in One Piece in their travels across East Blue and the Grand Line to find One Piece.

The anime is still on-going and has spawned many games. The show has also suffered mutilation under the hands of 4Kids who owned the license in America.

As quoted in Wikipedia:
"...4Kids has altered some of its titles to the point where they have lost the qualities that originally made them appealing in Japan, by rewriting entire storylines, significantly altering character personalities, and replacing the original background music and themes."

Doraemon Voice Actress PWNs Arkanoid

2006-10-09T10:57:00.000+08:00

Doraemon is a dysfunctional robotic cat from the 22nd century who came to the past to help the life Nobita Nobi, since his bungling in school and his career has left his family in poverty which is felt right up to his decendants.

Doraemon originated in Japan and was aired by TV Asahi in 1979 and have since become very famous, especially in Southeast Asia.

The latest voice actor for Doraemon, Oyama Nobuyo have appeared in a tv show showing her skills in Arkanoid. However, she mentions that she's only good at Arkanoid and no other games. :)

Doraemon's favorite food is dorayaki. If you're interested in finding where they sell the snack in Malaysia, here's where you can find it. :D

[Edit 2006/10/10]
An anouncement as of 13/3/2005 in Anime News Network have confirmed new voice actors for Doraemon with Mizuta Wasabi as Doraemon. What's surprising is that Seki Tomokazu (Sagara Sousuke - Full Metal Panic, Yzak Joule - Gundam SEED) will be voicing Suneo. :))

I wonder how he will sound like. :D

Destinies of Elements Omake 004

2006-10-05T23:27:00.001+08:00

Phew, finally! The 4th one!
Experimenting with manga style panels, so excuse me if the ordering of the panels are not very clear.

This scene did not actually happened per se. Our Ninja friend DID take off his disguise in an alley, if memory serves, and it happened a little later. His clothes did not fall off like that though. But hey, it's an omake. It's supposed to be exaggerated. :p

Prince of Persia the Somewhat Original Version

2006-10-05T13:59:00.000+08:00

Ahh yes, Prince of Persia. I remember the old times when I played the game in the PC. I forgot whose PC it was but anyway, it was a fun game.

I was really delighted when they start to modernize the game and make it 3D. I tried Prince of Persia 3D and I felt that it was a real let down.

When I heard of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and see that Ubisoft was the one making the game, my apprehension of another Prince of Persia remake in 3D was overcome with expectation. It's Ubisoft, right? They wont screw it up, right? Fortunately, they didn't and it became one of the best selling games in 2003.

I was just casually scanning through Jay Is Games and found this flash remake of the original Prince of Persia game (sort of). Enjoy :).

05 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

2006-10-04T12:57:00.000+08:00

Day 397

One thing led to another and now I'm up a tree watching the others fight some strange people from a tree. Definately not bandits this time. They seemed angry... could be because we accidently found their secret base/village in the forest.

Ah Jack's with me. He just strolled back into the woods and climbed up next to me. After he, Alex, Joe (the mech), Kleos (my hired gun) and Asil walked into their compound to say hi, that is. Can't see Sigel and Render though. They must've did the smart thing and hide in a tree like me.

How I got on the tree here is a long story...
They walked back to the camp last night and told me that there was a Rift Fiend in the woods. They came back to resupply, apparently they've lost their provisions. That's what you get for being careless.

Rift Fiends. Haven't heard of them for a long time. Though most of those chaos creatures died after the great war, some still survive in the wild as nothing more than animals. Big, dangerous animals that's built for killing everything else.

So, I decided to get back to the truck and bring more help right away. I brought Kleos and Joe the next morning. Although the drive to Blackwood is only about half an hour, why it took me the whole night to bring them back to camp? Well... it's... it's complicated...

Anyway I brought them back to camp and then I decided that I should lead the team this time. Yup, that's me, brave, self sacrificing... and that Alex was holding my arm as he walked in front of me is because... he's scared and need reassurance... really.

We went back to their camp and retraced their steps. We found some tracks that lead to a pile of icky monster skin. The creature is apparently molting. The bad thing is, it's gotten more dangerous in its new form. The good thing is, it should be weak after the molt for a few hours. If we can kill it then, everything should be ok. Hey, you don't spend half your life with adventurers without knowing a thing or two about them.

Well, how we found this village is another strange thing. Render dropped his mother's lucky charm and he didn't know what it was. I've seen enough of Fayne using it so, I tought him how to use that Spyglass of True Seeing. Which is when we found out that the gorge in front of us is not a gorge at all, actually it's another part of the woods.

We saw these people here and they have to march straight in the village to say hi, presumably. Without a word, they attacked the party. Luckily I had the smarts to climb up the tree to... observe.

Did some tree fell in the woods? Felt a large thud just now. The battle's almost won. I saw a few of the attackers seemed to take their own lives than be taken ali... there it is again. What IS that... uh oh... oh no... oh no... big big... ha(@fsla!@#joalj The tree is cut! I'm FALLIIIIIIINNNG!~~~~~~~Q@#!

04 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

2006-09-28T17:22:00.000+08:00

Day 396

We reached Blackwood without incident. Alex (the Knight) and I are now standing in line to recharge the truck and his bike's crystal batteries. The others went off somewhere exploring the town. I think Sigel's still sleeping though... oh how he can he sleep. It's 1 in the afternoon and he's still~ oops moving along.

It's dark now and I'm stuck in the woods with three men of the town's milita. How did I get here?

Well, it all started when we met the mayor in the Ether Node complex where we were recharging the batteries. Apparently they are having some serious problems with animals running out of the forest and attacking people. Apparently those wolves we encountered were originally from this area.

The mayor sent some of his militia to Blackwood Forest to investigate. And he asked us to look for them since they didn't report back for days.

Well, being the noble, kind hearted and helpful person that I am I decided that we should aid these poor people. And the fact that they have a stockpile of unsold famous Blackwood Wine due to these problems and are willing to give us a whole cart of the stuff which could possibly fetch me more money than I'd earn in a year has nothing to do with it... honest.

Anyway, I got Alex, Asil, Render and Sigel (after much head-dumping-in-water-basin by Alex) to go along and hired a car to get us to the wood's edge. The road there's too small for the truck.
I did notice that Asil got a quarterstaff on her back. Hmm... wonder where she's been hiding that.

We picked up their trail, and after a few numbing hours of walking in the woods, we found these three camping here, next to a part of the woods that's too dark for me to see. It's as if there's two separate forests.

Apparently, the other 10 went in there and never came back for four days. The others decided to follow them while I stayed back with the remaining militia.

So now here we are exchanging stories and stuff. They told me a bit about this place. Blackwood started out as an outpost 50 years ago. Some soldiers stumbled upon this place and its Ether Node and thought it was a good place to have an outpost south of Cardia.

A couple of years later, they abandoned it for a better position north of here and civilians started moving into Blackwood. They found the soil very good for grape growing and there's plenty of clean water. Thus the famous Blackwood Wine began production. I've seen some of the rarer red wine fetching for 50,000 credits a bottle. Some people even go as far to say that some of their white wine have healing properties and can heal many illness (but they apparently do not heal hangovers).

Blackwood was so named because of this part of the woods. Two different type of trees grow here. The tall less leafy ones near the town and the shorter heavy leafy types here. The shorter trees casts a perpetual shadow and apparently the locals don't travel very deep inside that part of the woods.

We heard a loud scream just now. Doesn't sound like anything human. I hope they are ok in there. More importantly, I hope we are ok over HERE. I hope I remember the where I parked the car...

Inspiring Quotes

2006-09-26T16:42:00.000+08:00

Persian arrows were so numerous that they blotted out the sun.
"So much the better, we shall fight in the shade." - Dienekes, a Spartan soldier at the Battle of Termopylae.

King Xerxes of Persia asked Leonidas to surrender their arms.
"Come take them". - Leonidas, leader of 300 Spartans at the Battle of Termopylae.

The Battle of Thermopylae is a famous battle in 480 B.C. where 7000 Greeks led by 300 Spartans fought a Persian army many times their size and held them at bay for 2 days at the Pass of Termopylae.

Manga Drawing

2006-09-25T16:39:00.000+08:00

I've been searching for sites that teach manga drawing, especially for one on the pc using Photoshop, Illustrator or GIMP. I've found some, and thought I'd share it. :)

Akiba Angels
A site that feature news on the "Otaku" culture. They have a bi-weekly webcomic by Naze Kazekawa that explains all you want to know about "Otaku-ness", Anime and Manga. The site comes in English and Japanese flavors.

They have a small tutorial section on how to draw manga electronically.

Polykarbon
Polykarbon is another good site that has tons of tutorials on how to draw manga by Patrick Shettlesworth. Besides traditional pen and pencil, there are also tutorials on using Photoshop and scanning as well as a little lesson on Japanese.

The Touch Music Video

2006-09-22T13:40:00.000+08:00

Ahh, the nostalgia...
The Touch by Stan Bush for Transformers: The Movie is still my favourite after all these years. But I'll have to admit, this is the first time I've seen the music video.

And there's a puppet Optimus Prime... quality's not very good, but still brings back memories. XD

Designing UI for Games

2006-09-19T17:42:00.000+08:00

The Role of Director in Designing the Halo 2 Interface by David Candland
David Candland of Bungie Studios talks about Adobe Macromedia Director and how he used it to help design the UI for Halo.

I have used Macromedia Director before, and I would have to say that I agree that it would definately help in designing a prototype UI. It's also much safer for you to do some experimentation.

You just test your ideas on Director (don't do too much scripting) and see how it goes. If the idea doesn't work, then you just lose a few days instead of several months if you try out your experiments on the real thing.

Nice Flash Games

2006-09-18T15:07:00.000+08:00

Nanaca Crash
Nanaca Crash is a Flash game which uses anime characters from an adult PC and PlayStation 2 game called Cross Channel. See how far you can get the main character to bounce around.

Weapon Fire
Play as a stickman who's got plenty of guns and wanton destruction in mind. Quick short fun.

Some flash games I ripped off EWA's site >:p
Sling
Play as a blob of slime and solve puzzles by slinging and s ticking onto grab areas. A very nicely done flash game.

Dice War
A strategy game involving dices ala Risk.

More Cool and Useful Tools

2006-09-18T11:58:00.000+08:00

These are a few nice tools from Sysinternals

Autoruns
A very useful software to monitor the registry and programs that run at startups instead of playing around with the messy regedit.

Process Explorer
This tool helps to monitor programs at run time. You can use Ctrl+Alt+Delete, but with Process Explorer, it tells who created the processes. You can check your pc to see if there are any strange processes that are run by viruses and the like.

PDF Readers
Foxit Reader
This is very useful tool for reading PDF files. Acrobat loads lots of things which are really useless if all you want to do is just to open and read a PDF file.

PDF Creator
A nice tool which lets you create PDF files. It creates PDF files in a very roundabout way, though. This software creates a virtual printer. By selecting this virtual printer and printing, instead of a hardcopy, you will get a PDF file instead.

Inspiring Quotes

2006-09-18T11:24:00.000+08:00

"Without a vision, we become a debating society and a place where habit quickly becomes 'tradition'." - Pug the Black Sorcerer [Raymond E. Feist's Shards of a Broken Crown]

Log of Kai Sunreaver

2006-09-14T18:15:00.000+08:00

Ok, found the log for that blonde half-orc's encounter at the temple grounds in the old campaign.

Log of Kai Sunreaver

The cleric's statement was apparently something I said off-game. :p

03 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

2006-09-13T11:26:00.000+08:00

Day 394
Phew, some rest. Nothing much today.

We met the patrol on it's way out of Cardia and delivered the bandits to them. The bandits were happy to be leaving since the stripping incident yesterday.

Is it just me, or is Jack and that mech archeologist having some perverse fun in this.

I have a bad feeling about this group.

Been up all day ~ driving, tired ~ feel sleeeeee ~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~
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~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~
~~~
~

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~~~~~~~~~~~~
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~
~

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~

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Day 395
It's morning, and I woke up with a neck ache. Slept on the driver's seat instead of the bunk behind.

Note to self: Don't sleep with journal open.
Discovery: Drool spreads ink, can smear 3 pages worth of journal and is hard to remove from paper.

Wolf attack! And I'm stuck in the cabin.
I can see the others fighting. Maybe I should give them a ha...

GAH!
Or maybe not... Wolf outside the door.
I'm not a fighter anyway. Why can't we all just get along?

Nice doggy.

Someone help...

It's amazing that I'm still writing my journal in the face of danger. More amazing that I'm writing this down instead of saying it out loud to that oversized dog outside.

Fight's over. Jack's down, unconcious. I'll have to see if I can help stabilize him. Be right back.

Day 396
Now that I look at them. The wolves ARE kind of skinny. Maybe they were just hungry.

Anyway, off we go again. We should reach Blackwood today.

We reached Blackwood around noon. Wine country! After this is the desert.
I'm going to recharge the truck's battery and maybe fill up on more supplies.

Note to self: When buyin new truck, check the crystal battery life first.

02 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

2006-09-12T14:07:00.000+08:00

Day 391
Met Fayne and her family yesterday. She still looks beautiful. She said she had to turn down my invitation for another adventure. Now I have to babysit her son instead. Hope he's as good as his mom.

He did bring a mech along with him. But Fayne's husband, Render, I think, brought it back home.

Spoil sport.

Found out later, the boy's named after the dad. Wonder if the personality's the same too.
I did noticed that she gave the boy her "lucky" charm. It should be useful in the days ahead.

Had prepared some breakfast for them this morning. The Grour werewolf, Jack, I believe has some weird love of jam. He finished the whole jar... just the jam, nothing else. And the mage, Sigel, ate the whole bar of butter.
I have a bad feeling about this group.

I did find another mech to come with us. He looks interesting, dark, moody. Never knew mechs can be moody. You learn new things everyday.

I brought some pillows for the truck's cabin, double-checked the living trailer and the supply trailer. Everything's good to go. We should be leaving at noon.

On oUr Wa~----~~~~~~/
NOTe To SeLf: NoT a goOd iD~ea to wrITe joU-rnAL whIle OnroaD.

Day 392
Met a patrol on its way back to Cardia today. They mentioned something about bandits in this area.
I'm sure they have everything under control.

Day 393
Ok, managed to steal some time for myself. Busy day, attacked by bandits.
The crew I got managed to overcome them. They have them tied under the tree near camp here.

I can see them from where I'm sitting by the warm fire and hot chicken stew. I also see Jack next to those poor captured souls. He's seem to have a hand on one guy's pants and he's... be right back.

01 - The Journals of Gaylord Humpwarden

2006-09-11T10:22:00.000+08:00

Day 1
New journal! Yay! Starting a new expedition.

Day 377
Found the journal under my desk drawer.

Note to self: Get supplies and equipment first BEFORE getting journals.

Day 383
Wrote a couple of requests for mages and healers for my expedition. Sent them to the Academy this morning. Don't really like having old men with long beards and pointy hats around but I think I should have them along.

I remember what happened in the last expedition. Will never see spoons the same way again... Anyway, no good in dwelling in the past. Wonder what I'll have for dinner.

Day 390
The Academy sent young people! And the two healers are girls! I didn't know there were young people learning magic. Always thought they started as old men with long beards and pointy hats.

Still... they will eventually become old men with long beards and pointy hats.

They sent a Knight with those three too. Could use an extra sword.

I hired a few extra muscles too, just in case. Some gunner, a Grour blacksmith and a mecha archaeologist (love those mechs).

Note to self: Got to get one of those cool bikes the Knight was using when I get back.

Destinies of Elements Omake 003 [Edit 09/07/2006]

2006-09-06T11:11:00.000+08:00

Yep, I'm trying out new styles. These are two separate scenes that happened to... a friend :-" (a friend who played a blonde half-orc) in the campaign. I just combined the two scenes together (the scenes where he went to look for a job and when he met a... guard who's proud of his sexual direction).

[Edit 09/07/2006]
I edited the image. It's a guy demmit! Xp

Recent Issues

2006-09-04T10:15:00.000+08:00

Article taken from The Star Online on 1st Sept 2006.

Buddhist chief monk K. Sri Dhammananda dies

Rev Dhammananda: A wise and caring man who related well to the young and the old.
PETALING JAYA: The Chief High Priest of Malaysia and Singapore, Venerable Dr K. Sri Dhammananda Nayaka Maha Thera, passed away peacefully at the Subang Jaya Medical Centre at 12.42pm yesterday. He was 87.

Those who wish to pay their last respects may do so at the Buddhist Maha Vihara in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, until 2pm on Sunday.

A eulogy ceremony will be held at 1pm on Sunday and the cortege will leave at 3pm for the Nirvana Memorial Park in Semenyih.

Devotees are advised to use public transport and also not to send wreaths during the funeral ceremony. They are also advised to wear white.

Rev Dhammananda was born on March 18, 1919, in southern Sri Lanka. He came to Malaya on Jan 2, 1952, to administer to the needs of the Buddhist community here.

Revered by both Buddhists and non-Buddhists throughout the world, Rev Dhammananda wrote more than 47 books on Buddhism which were distributed worldwide and translated into various languages.

For further information, the public may call 03-2274 1141/ 86, or contact Leslie Tilak at 012-212 0154.

Buddhist Maha Vihara president Sarath W. Surendre described Rev Dhammananda as a wise and caring man who related well to both the young and the old.

I went to the Brickfields Temple on Friday night (1st Sept 2006) with Ronnie to pay my last respect to him, and to help out where we can. He was a great man and have written many books on Buddhism, and in them, he also preached religious tolerance. He went around the country to give talks and I've been to a few of them when he came to the Seck Kia Eenh(SKE) Temple which I attended in my hometown of Malacca.

Here's another article from The Star Online.

Late Rev Dhammananda served all mankind, says Ong in eulogy

KUALA LUMPUR: The late Venerable Dr Rev K. Sri Dhammananda - Chief High Priest of Malaysia and Singapore - was a man who dedicated his life to promoting peace, understanding and harmony.

“Rev Dhammananda served not only the Buddhist community but also all mankind. It is for this reason that he won the respect of people of all races and religions,” said Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting, who represented the Government at a eulogy ceremony at the Buddhist Maha Vihara here yesterday.

Ong said Rev Dhammananda, who founded the Buddhist Missionary Society Malaysia (BMSM) in 1962, had conveyed Buddha's message on peace to every corner of Malaysia as well as throughout the world.

Rev Dhammananda, he added, would always be remembered for his strong role in promoting inter-religious harmony in the country.

DEVOTEES’ SENDOFF: Thousands converged at the Buddhist Maha Vihara in Kuala Lumpur to bid farewell to Rev Dhammananda
“He was a firm believer that all religions have an important role to play in making human beings behave in a noble manner,” he said.

Through the BMSM, Rev Dhammananda published 70 books which were translated into more than 16 languages. Ong added that Rev Dhammananda never wanted any fame or glory and had lived the life of a simple monk.

Others who delivered eulogies included Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Malaysian Consultative Council for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism deputy president Pradip Kumar, BMSM president Ang Choo Hong and Malaysian Buddhist Association president Venerable Sik Jit Heng.

The eulogy by Buddhist Summit president Most Venerable Dr Kyuse Enshinjoh, was read by Buddhist Summit of Japan secretary-general Venerable Fujikura.

Happy Merdeka Day, Malaysia

2006-08-31T10:50:00.000+08:00

Happy Merdeka(Independence) Day. This day in 1957, Malaysia declared its independence from colonial British rule.

I don't really have any plans for today other than stay at home and enjoy the day off. :P I'm never going to any Merdeka Day celebration again. Ever since that day 2 years ago when my friends and I were packed like sardines in a can on our way back from KLCC.

And it all happened outside the train station. They wouldn't let so many people crowd around underground in case of suffocation. Even outside, I saw a lady near me faint and a guy next to her was fanning her. If it was this hectic just to get on the train, think about the traffic jam. <_<

Nonononono... never again...

Cool Open Source Stuff

2006-08-30T13:06:00.000+08:00

I have a collection of useful Open Source drawing applications that I wish to share. They are pretty useful and you can make really good drawing/3D model with them and best of all, they are FREE!

Inkscape is a vector graphics drawing application similar to Adobe Illustrator.

GIMP or GNU Image Manipulation Program is a photo/image editing application that's has a lot of similarities with Adobe Photoshop. It also can be used to make animated GIFs.

Blender lets anyone create 3D models. If you can't afford Maya or 3D Studio Max, Blender would be a good choice.

Google Sketchup is another 3D drawing application. It's not really open source, but it's free. And I like it. :) It's quite limited in functionality compared to Blender, but if you need to make 3D prototypes of your designs, then Sketchup is a very good choice.

How I Role-Play

2006-08-30T10:16:00.000+08:00

When role-playing, you take control of the lives of a character who might be different than you. When, I role-play a character, I think of what he would do in that situation, not what I would want him to do.

For example, if there's a couple of orcs in a corridor with you, and at the end on your side of the corridor, you know there's a large oak door with a latch, my character would rather run back through that door and close it behind him. He would want to survive the encounter rather than fight them and take a beating, unless there's no other way but to fight them, or the character loves to fight (which is the usual way most players play their character).

Most of the time, players would attack the two orcs, calculating that you can kill both of them and get more XP(experience points) for the kill albeit with some serious hurt on your side, but you'll survive.

I blame the player's laziness in not thinking some other way to avoid the fight. They would argue that the quickest way to overcome them is to kill them, which I think is not true. Or saying that, they would lessen the number of enemies by killing these few. It might, or it might not, it's up to the DM. :)

In a way, I also blame the DM. It's the system of killing monsters for getting exp that makes players play this way. In my opinion, XP should be given if the players manage to survive an encounter or did something to avoid such encounters, such as hiding and then slipping behind their ranks (in some cases... no wait... in a LOT of cases, they go behind them just to kill them while their backs are turned <_<) instead of going in with full guns ablazing.

Giving monsters XP for the players to harvest is just not right, which is why I'm not giving XP for the number of monsters killed in my campaign. I have a set of XP for each encounter, if the player can survive the encounter, either through guile or force of strength, I will still give them the same amount of XP regardless of the number of kills. The party survives, all members gain experience regardless of whatever action they take. If you run away while the others fight (if it's in your character to do that), sure, same XP. The player would just have to prepare for the consequenses later if he/she is left alone to fend for him/herself.

Comiket 70

2006-08-29T18:10:00.000+08:00

Comiket is a bi-annual event that is held at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center in Japan. It's the world largest comic convention. Otakus come from all over Japan and around the world for this event to get a chance to buy doujinshi and other anime and manga related items.

Here's a Youtube link of Comiket 70, which was held from 11th - 13th August 2006. I was curious as to how far otakus in Japan would go... and now I know. O_O

My Campaign Magic System [Edit 08/31/2006]

2006-08-27T22:47:00.000+08:00

The magic system in my campaign uses runes to cast. Why I do this is because, the campaign was originally an idea I had for a manga story. In that world, the way magic is cast is very different.

Plus, I wanted a way for the players to be able to create their own spells. For this, I did some research on D&D and Mage: The Ascension magic system. D&D's magic system is ok but it's a little too rigid when it comes to developing new spells and it's vague on the cost of the spell. Mage, on the other hand, is just plaing vague on everything.

How It Works
In this world, there is a form of energy called Ether. Mages are able to manipulate Ether and use them to draw the runes.

A mage is sensitive to Ether and is able to convert Ether to Mana which is the power source for their spells. Each mage have a limited mana pool and they must rest to regain their lost mana.

First, the mage draws a magic symbol (usualy a circle), which will be the base for the runes. The mage would then begin their spell chant. Each phrase will command a rune to be drawn onto the magic symbol. With the various combinations of runes and spell chants, the mage will be able to mold the mana into the spell.

Since I'm a programmer, I'll use programming as an analogy.
Magic Symbol = Integrated Development Environment (IDE) - programming application
Chants = Programming Language (it doesn't matter the language, the IDE knows it)
Runes = Program Code

Runes
No matter what spell, the first rune drawn is any one of these base runes:
Fire – fire and flames
Earth – rocks, earth
Water – water, ice and steam
Wind – air and sound
Lightning – electricity
Light – brightness and illumination
Dark – darkness and shadow
Mind – mental affects (mind blasts, illusions, fear)
Space – movement, teleportation, area of effects, gravity
Time – speed up, slow down, time stall

The other runes become available at a higher level. The higher the level, the more powerful the runes become however, the more mana that it will consume.

Personal Comments
Currently, in the campaign, a single rune will have a limited effect. The higher the mage's level, he/she is able to add more of the similar rune to bolster the spell's strength (max 3 similar runes in a single magic symbol for now).
E.g.
1 Fire rune - Firebolt (1d4+1/lvl fire damage 1 Mana) starting at Mage level 1.
2 Fire runes - Greater Firebolt (1d6+1/lvl fire damage, 2 Mana) starting at Mage level 3
3 Fire runes - Empowered Firebolt (2d6+1/lvl fire damage, 3 Mana) starting at Mage level 5
The players can name their own spells (but in my campaign, I'll have no "Takie" or "Jumpie"... nononono... that is so wrong - yes, you know who you are).

The mana pool, for now, is calculated in a similar method to calculating the Hit Points (Hit Die + WIS modifier).

This way, players have a guide on what kind of spells they can create and what the cost of that spell will be.

All these are still in the design phase, however. I'm still playtesting this to see if there's any problem with this system. I wanted to add some pictures but, since I'm still designing it, I'd thought better of it. I'll give them some more thought first.

The inspiration for this kind of magic comes from some of the anime and mangas that I've watched like, Scrapped Princess, Gatekeepers, Mahou Sensei Negima and especially Magical Lyrical Nanoha amd its sequel Magical Lyrical Nanoha A's

[Edit 08/31/2006]
Now, THIS is what I call Techno Magic!

It's a Sub Machinewand

My Old Art

2006-08-23T10:51:00.000+08:00

Here are a few images that I did in my university years. It was originally for a project that I had. It was the first time I fully colored a drawing of mine.

The first human drawing that I colored. I kind of liked the lighting though I think the position of the leg is a bit off.

I kind of liked drawing animals. That's how I started to learn to draw. Nowadays, my creatures are kind of Digimon-ish, if you will. :p

I kind of like this one. It's the only other one I played around with the lighting. I kind of forgot to shade the rest.

My Campaign

2006-08-22T11:40:00.000+08:00

Last Friday, I've started my own campaign. It was originally an idea for a manga that I had. I expanded the idea into a RP campaign.

The campaign setting is a world that has a blend of technology and magic. But I'm not into those Cyberpunk kind of games. I'm thinking of more towards a Final Fantasy kind of setting. The world is filled with my races and classes of my own making. I also developed my own magic system based on runes.

I'll talk more on them later.

Destinies of Elements Omake 001 & 002

2006-08-22T10:50:00.000+08:00

omake (o-mah-keh): Bonus footage for interviews or comedic relief.

These are some comic strips I made for Yong's campaign. I've some more but I've been busy lately. I'll try to finish them up when I'm free.

I'm trying to improve my art. So, these are just test runs for me before I delve into something more serious.

More Role Play

2006-08-22T10:15:00.000+08:00

Well, Yong's campaign was over quite some time ago. I just didn't want to post the log anymore... it was too bizzare. Anyway, we have continued with Ivan's campaign. It's been about 5 sessions now. There's been a lot of weird PCs (Player Characters) since he gave us the freedom to make up whatever we want. But I dunno, still feels a bit overpowering... and the fact that the enemies are overpowered as well doesn't make me feel better.

[RP] The Adventure Continues

2005-11-18T02:26:00.000+08:00

CHARACTER
Name: Arkh Seryn
Age: 25
Race: Half Elf
Class: Cleric of Naele
Profession: Chef
Domain: Sun, Moon

=====================================================
Act 4: Sounds of Thunder

It has been 5 days since the events in Bacrind. I spent my days in the library reading and recouperating while Erien had some of the surviving adventurers go on a search for an Element or some sort. She says that since we can't control the Formstaff, the next best thing is to find and enlist the help of the Elements themselves.

I received a call later, to meet in the meeting hall. Apparently, the adventurers have returned. When I arrived, I see the other members gathering as well. Roem Timus the Tinker, Merri Weather, George, Kaede, Asuna Akamatsu the Geisha and Sigmend Freid the Hexblade were all sitting around the table. The Half-Orc Paladin of Lenellia whom I found out is called Kai Sunreaver as well as the eastern rogue is nowhere to be seen.

Erien arrived as I take my seat but Roem is still tinkering with his crossbow. Suddenly a shuriken flew from the shadows and landed in front of Roem, mildly gaining his attention to the start of the meeting, surprisingly. Well, at least the eastern rogue is here. Kai must be in his room somewhere, writing religious text and runes on the walls with his blood or something.

It was then that I noticed a small midget or a child hovering around Kaede. That was when I was first introduced to the Element of Air. It's a little hard for me to imagine a midget like that is an Element. He also mentioned something about being the wisest of all the 6 main elements and that Kaede is a wielder of his power.

The Element of Air, whom we know as Artemis mentioned that the Element of Lightning is possibly in the Thunder Plains while the Element of Water is most likely in the hands of the Drow as it's location is in the Underdark. He is unsure of the other Elements' whereabouts when we press him further. The Underdark, the lair of the Drows and other monstrous creatures really put us off since we don't feel that we are strong enough to tackle the dangers there as of yet. Which leaves us with one other option...

The Thunder Plains, so called due to the fact that storm clouds constantly brew in this area. Lightning strikes are extremely common every few seconds in this area. We would be pretty lucky to get away without being electrocuted.

Erien knows the place a little and teleports us to the town of Larynx, just outside the Thunder Plains. When we arrived, I saw an old man on the ground, with a tankard of ale lying next to him and a fallen chair beside him. He had his mouth open and pointing at us. It must have been quite a sight for him to see people suddenly materialized from thin air.

I tried to calm the stuttering old man when a dark figure appeared behind him, grapples him and puts a knife near his neck. I walked forward to get the eastern rogue to release the old man but he threw a shuriken at my feet instead. He knocked the hysteric old man unconcious and walked to the nearby inn. There are many strange people in this world...
I placed the old man under a nearby tree as comfortably as I can and joined the rest in the inn.

This town isn't very big. In fact, I wouldn't consider 2 houses and an inn a town at all. It's more like a half-way point for travellers to rest. But how many travellers, I wonder, would want to enter the Thunder Plains? We talked to the lady bar tender and found out that a certain Clarence Qearly lives in a tower in the Thunder Plains with his wife.

It was as good a place to start as any considering Clarence was one of the Elemental wielders. We bought some Rubian Boots from the bar tender when she said that it will protect us from the random lightning strikes and journeyed to the tower. Our trek was long yet fortunately uneventful. We did catch sight of some strange dancing balls of electricity along the way though. We later found out that they are lightning bugs. Pretty docile but you wouldn't want to touch one unless you are greeted with its shocking personality.

We walked up the stairs to the tower. The doors open easily. We are greeted with a square room and 3 other doors on each wall. In the center of the room is a small pillar with something written on it.

" One, two, and three,
Three doors to welcome thee,
Seek in the truth and you'll find me,
Seek in me and you'll find the key."

goes the rhyme.

The next few hours has each of us walking through the doors but each time, we enter a square room with no visible exit and a sign on the floor that says "Step Here". When we step on the sign, we are returned to the starting room.

Finally, Artemis decided to give it a shot. He says "I am Artemis, I seek for Clarence!" in front of a door and another door appears and he walked through it. All of us, except for Asuna, Sigmend and the eastern rogue, said our name and that we seek for Clarence and walked through the door that appeared.

I find myself in a hallway and a sign in the wall in front of me. All that is written on it is, "Ah, you are very smart! Welcome to the lab of Clarence". At the end of the hallway, is a large staircase that goes winding up to the top of the tower. Roem sends his hawk companion up to scout the place but it didn't come back. So, we started our own climb.

After walking up 30 floors, we found a button next to the railing. Kaede pused it and suddenly, a large platform that covers the whole floor crystalizes in front of us. Kaede and Artemis stepped on it and he disappeared, along with the platform. I pressed the button and stepped on the platform as well. I felt myself being teleported and when I open my eyes, I was with Kaede in a room with several doors somewhere in the tower.

As we are trying the doors, the Merri, Roem, Kai and George arrived. Roem apparently managed to find his hawk. After trying several doors, we found a room with a large mirror and the body of a human female on a bed. We shook her and felt her pulse but she didn't move. She didn't appear dead to me but her life signs are very shallow. It's almost as if the same thing had happen to her as well as the other wielders.

While we were checking on the woman, Kaede inspected the mirror. As he touched it, he disappeard(again). I followed after him and found that we were teleported into a lab. There are many potions and viles in the cupboards but they are protected by some kind of barrier, as Roem found out. He DID, however, find a journal of Clarence's.

The journal tells us many things regarding Clarence. The most interesting ones are:

- The door puzzle, which was actually supposed to be filled with monsters but Emily (we suspect the woman in the room) scolded him for having such monsters in their home.

- The first floor has a teleport button too... after Clarence got scolded by Emily for having a teleport button on the 30th floor only.

- He likes teleportations.

How Sinful Am I?

2005-09-03T19:49:00.000+08:00

Got this from Ronnie's blog.

Your Deadly Sins

Greed: 20%

Sloth: 20%

Wrath: 20%

Envy: 0%

Gluttony: 0%

Lust: 0%

Pride: 0%

Chance You'll Go to Hell: 9%

You will die love and feared by many. And you'll be buried in a tomb.

How Sinful Are You?

Hmm... that's interesting.
I don't think a tomb suits me though. :p

What Kind Of Person Am I?

2005-08-30T16:38:00.000+08:00

Yeah, yeah I took the quiz that's on Wiffen's(Mewwie) site.

==============================================

Daydreamer...

Who exactly ARE you? (AnImE PiCs)
brought to you by Quizilla

==============================================

- You Are The Key Character
"It's what I was meant to do."

You are the true enigma. No one knows much about you, you do not understand much of yourself, and your life seems to carry no purpose. Yet regardless of everything around you - everyone knows that you are here for some reason, even if no one yet knows what that is. Things seem to simply fall into place for you. Almost as though some force is working either through you, for you, or around you. No matter your troubles, you have been sent here to unlock something. This is your destiny.

Which Classic Story Role Do You Play?
brought to you by Quizilla

==============================================

I don't know, I tried first and I got a d6, second, I got a d10 and then, I got a d20 several times. So, now I'm just sticking to the old d6.

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

You are a good old-fashioned six-sided cube, otherwise known as a d6. Others know you to be plain, predictable, conservative, average, ordinary, and downright boring. You prefer to describe yourself as dependable, honest, practical and trustworthy. People usually know what to expect from you, since you rarely hold any surprises. You hate to make decisions, and if forced to decide, you'll always fall back on how it was done in the past. You always order the same thing at your favorite restaurant, and your jokes, while funny, are never too offensive. It seems that you are well liked, but maybe that's simply because there's nothing to hate.

==============================================

Take The quiz yourself

Funny thing is I got Chad in another totally unrelated quiz about Bleach as well. :|
Well, at least that's correct. <_<

[RP] Shattered Peace

2005-08-30T15:28:00.000+08:00

I've decided to put logs on my RP sessions from my character's perspective. We have a new campaign now and a new GM. So far, my character have through 4 sessions but there were 5 (I didn't come on the 4th session, so sue me). So, here's the first 3 sessions of my character's log.

CHARACTER
Name: Arkh Seryn
Class: Cleric of Strength and Knowledge
Race: Half Elf

=====================================================
Act 1: The Festival of Balance

It has been a long journey but I've finally reached Bacrind. After hearing of the joyous Festival of Balance for the past 5 years, I've decided to leave my home village and visit the grand capital of Bacrind(pronounced Bacrine) and participate in this festival.

Upon my arrival, I make my way through to the Tavern District to find some lodging. The streets are filled with all manner of people from all around the Dekkaran lands for the week-long festival. As I walk past the statue of a noble man in a fountain in the district, two taverns caught my eye. One large tavern whose sign reads "Tansheron's Tavern" and a seedy little one to another side with "Legolust Inn" written on it's sign.

I chose the former.

Inside, I rented a room with the tavern keeper, which was free. It's amazing how many rooms they have in the tavern considering the number of people present on the first day of the festival and they are giving some rooms for free. Business must be very good.

I asked the tavern keeper if they provide any special services and he gave me a weird look asking if I am really a cleric and that I would find special services at the Legolust Inn. I didn't quite understand that and explained that I was in town for the special service given by the priests. After which he directed me to the Temple District. I made a mental note to go there after getting some supplies.

Two bards are singing in one corner. And after awhile, people flung ale at them, though I wasn't paying them much attention. My attention was at two unsual characters who happen to just walk into the tavern. A strange looking easterner and a large quiet half-orc covered in leaves.

It is most unusual to see them that I decided to buy them some drinks. Soon, my newfound eastern Iaiblade friend named Kaede Ritsuka was drunk (after drinking a sip of the ale) while the quiet half-orc looked on (he wasn't very talkative so, I didn't catch his name). I've had the tavern keeper book a room for him and helped get him to his room to sleep off the ale.

Outside, I hear some noises of people shouting. Something about someone smelling like he just came out of the sewer and taking a shower in the fountain.

=====================================================
Act 2: The Meeting

Soon, I met a Fire Druid named George Sarlin and a Battle Sorceroress named Merriweather and we chatted awhile and listen to the tale the bards were singing regarding the heroes for which the Festival of Balance was held in their honor. Most surprisingly, King Cyle Sivell, the ruler of Bacrind was one of the heroes mentioned. And that the Formstaff, the item that keeps the elements in balance, whose wielder is not seen for many many years.

Kaede soon joined us after waking up from a strange dream telling us that some sort of disaster is coming.

Which is when we met him.

He was a strange person. A half elf clad in silver robes and a quarterstaff hung on his back. He looks to be a cleric but an owl sits on his left shoulder and a hawk on his right. Two large dire wolves, one black and another white, tags along beside him. The white dire wolf, whom we discovered is named Ellis, seems overly protective of him when we got too close to him.

We told him of our intention of visiting the Merchant District and he offered to tag along. He gave us each a ring called the Sanctuary of Sages (SOS) Ring. He says that we will be transported to a safe place if we use the ring but only in dire situations should we activate it (by saying SOS).

We soon reached the district only to hear a voice shout "Thief! Thief! Thief!". I saw a little man jumping up and down next to his wares, which happens to look like ordinary purses, pointing in one direction. Seeing that people are ignoring him, we decided not to get involved either.

Surprisingly, it seems, that many of the shopkeepers know of our mysterious friend, whom we know as Sigel Whitewind. They provided us with many magical items. All free of charge! I wasn't looking for much so, I just bought a magical Heavy Mace. I started to wonder who our mysterious friend really is.

Kaede then told him of his dream in the tavern and that a voice told him "Chaos ensues... Be brave and prepared". Sigel seemed alarmed and after our shopping, he invited us to join him in the library in the City Hall, saying that he is looking for something. We followed him.

I was surprised at first considering that Sigel brought his animal companions into the library with him. I soon forgot about it once I entered the library. Inside, I found many interesting tomes of knowledges. And we spend our time reading some of the books.

=====================================================
Act 3: Chaos

After half an hour, we realized that Sigel and his animal companions are missing. We looked everywhere and even asked the receptionist but she could not remember Sigel at all. Strange. We questioned the people in the City Hall, where the library was located, but none seems to know of Sigel at all, much less seen him. We decided to leave the building to see if he left the area.

Suddenly, the earth shakes and we fought to maintain our balance. After awhile it stopped.

We reached the Town Center when all of a sudden, a large black orb appeared in front of us. In the distance, I see another orb appearing around the fountain. From each orb appeared 20 armed goblins who began attacking everyone in sight.

People are panicking all around us. We began aiding the town guards, killing as many as we can. One of the guards, a half-orc Paladin of Freedom gave a battlecry and launched himself into battle. Each time we are getting the upper hand, more orbs appear releasing more goblins. And from the distance, I can hear that the same phenomena is happening throughout the city. Blasts of magical energy from arcane and divine spells and the clangs of metal on metal rings throughout the once festive city.

Energy starts churning around in the fountain and it suddenly took form of a humanoid being. Next to it, a being of fire appeared. Elementals! They are apparently aiding the goblins!

As we are being overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the goblins and elementals, we heard a loud growl and a few goblins dropped down, dead at the feet of a large black wolf. Around us, divine bolts of energy fell. Each strike kills several goblins. Looking at the direction of the source of the divine energy that I felt, I saw Sigel standing on top of the clock tower. Immediately, I sensed a powerful divine spell being cast and suddenly, I felt stronger and well protected. I saw that my companions too are under the influence of the spell as well. Together, we fought to drive the invaders back.

As we've had received reinforcements, so did the enemy, so it would seem. Another black orb appeared and from it steps a dark Paladin of Slaughter and a drow. Ellis transformed before my eyes into a half-elf drow and engeged the enemy drow both battling with dual scimitars. Sigel joined us and battled the Paladin.

In the midst of battle, my companions and I discovered that Sigel is actually the Formstaff wielder Chevenor Xevious and the Paladin of Slaughter apparently serves Tharizdun, the demon whom the heroes prevented from being summoned into our realm 5 years ago! The quarterstaff he wields is actually the Formstaff!

Kaede got the idea to use the SOS ring to summon some help. He appeared awhile later with a bespectacled blond girl named Erien, an old Elf and a dwarf. Just in time to see four elementals of Fire, Water, Air and Earth fuze into a huge elemental. In turn, Sigel/Chevenor's hawk and owl companions magically fuse into a large Air elemental and attacked the enemy's combined elemental.

The Paladin of Slaughter summoned 7 skeletons which appear from the town sewers. I managed to turn 2 while Erien handled the rest. Then, my companions and I aid our failing Air elemental ally against the fused elemental. From the corner of my eye, I see the old elf and dwarf battling the Paladin of Slaughter along with Sigel/Chevenor. Chorellius Legolust the Rogue, appeared from the Merchant District and, he too, joined the fray with his old comrades.

Meanwhile, we managed to destroy the fused elemental with our combined might to see that the Paladin of Slaughter has transformed into a demon and deflecting the attacks of all the heroes with his dual longswords. He suddenly flew into the air and threw them onto the ground. The energy released would have destroyed us were it not for the protection that Sigel/Chevenor cast earlier.

Sigel/Chevenor commanded Erien to teleport us to a safe place and he, and the Formstaff, began to glow. He spout angelic wings, one pure white and another pure black and charged at the demonic Paladin in the air. The last thing I saw as Erien started teleporting us was the bright flash as the two powerful beings collide.

I opened my eyes to see that we are all in a large room. In the adjacent rooms, I can hear shouts of surprises and I suspect that the other city residents are also transported here. Erien became desperate when she realised that the King, Chevenor and the other heroes didn't teleport with us. As she tries to search for them, she was suddenly knocked back, unconcious.

The old elf cast a spell and a crystal ball appeared in mid-air. In it, we saw that Chevenor was still battling the Paladin. A bright light flashed and when we looked again, what one would expect to be the lively city of Bacrind, is now a crater filled with rubble.

As a young elf carried Aeiren to a chair, the old elf introduced himself as Lucian Nightbreeze and that we are in the Sanctuary of Sages, which is located in the Astral Plane. It is a protected place and none may enter unless permitted by one of the Guardians of the Sanctuary. We were told to rest until they can find out what happened to Bacrind.

After the debriefing, I left the group and found a room prepared for me. I lay my head down on the bed to rest and take in all that has happened. It is a lot to think about in one day when all I wanted to do initially was spend the week enjoying the festival. And I feel that the worse is not over yet. I sense that there will be more for my new companions and I to do before all this is truly over.