Categories
Mostly Everything

(More than) a week of PC game launches

Hey it’s me Jayvee. I’m still here. It’s been more than a week since my last update. Blame it on the handful of new game launches the past few days. If you’re on the PC and looking for new titles to play, here’s a compilation of some of the free (and not so free) games that are worth dipping your mouse and keyboard into. I actually won’t include Borderlands 2, Guild Wars 2 and the new WoW expansion as these are already no-brainer titles that you must pick up if you enjoy the genre — Borderlands 2 is an RPG-action first person shooter that is already claiming the title for biggest game sold this 2012. It outsold its precursor. You can pick up a copy in Datablitz. Guild Wars 2 is of similar interest, being a skill-oriented MMO that appeals to gamers who have absolutely no time to play World of Warcraft. Two good things about it — no monthly fees and the game doesn’t penalize you for not playing often. Then of course there’s Mists of Pandaria which comes out today!

See, that whole paragraph was dedicated to games I haven’t recommended. Let’s do this!

Planetside 2
Screenshot above. If you’re into stuff like Battlefield 2, meet the original title that started massive scale combat. Planetside 2’s title is such because it really makes you feel like you’re in a huge planet where several mini-battles are happening in different areas of the map. Although still in beta, you can try requesting for an invite. The game will be free to play online when it launches.

Mechwarrior Online
It’s been a long time waiting, but you can now check out Mechwarrior Online in its beta form. If you were a fan of the original Mechwarrior series of games from way way back, the franchise continues in a free-to-play online skirmish. You can reserve your pilot name and get into the beta here.

FTL
FTL is finally out of invite-only and for USD $9.99 on Steam you can get what I dub as the “darling indie game of the year.” If you like the grit space opera feel of Joss Whedon’s Firefly and absolutely love Star Trek, FTL brings the desire to command your own rickety starship to life. To me, FTL is the Left 4 Dead of the space simulator genre, where you always barely make it alive to the next jump point. Rerouting power, killing fires, dealing with boarding parties … all in a day’s work for an alliance space captain. And yes, you will die. A lot.

Torchlight II
It’s finally out — if you enjoyed Diablo III but after a while suffered from attrition of repetitive grinding, well guess what? Torchlight II absolutely delivers a better experience in bringing in end-game content even just early on. Rares and uniques at level 3? Most definitely! I classify Torchlight II as somewhat similar to Guild Wars II in the sense that the game doesn’t make you work too hard to feel like you’re doing end-game content as the item drops are insane and the spells all look rather powerful even during the early levels of play. There is a bit of a hardcore element to it since Runic decided to not allow you to completely re-roll your skills (you can only re-roll the last 3 skill points you bought). Runic also opened the game up to support 3rd party modding tools so expect the shelf life of Torchlight II to go on for a couple of years. Also, 6 player multiplayer and LAN support. Yes folks, this game supports offline LAN play, just like the good ‘ol days. It’s USD $19.99 on Steam.

Black Mesa
The original Half Life re-invented for the modern day computer. This game is an absolute must acquire. It’s fan made, endorsed by Valve and enhances on the original Half Life experience from the 90’s. Best of all, it’s free.

Half Life was an important landmark in the gaming industry because it took first person story-telling to a new level with scripted events, making your typical shooter more than just about blowing things up. The new and re-imagined Half Life runs on the Source engine which Valve uses for its games such as Left 4 Dead and Counterstrike.

Categories
Geek

It’s out! Download and back up your Multiply account. Do it now before December 1 2012!

OK folks. This is what you’ve been waiting for. Head honcho Jack Madrid has released the exporter / download / backup tool for your Multiply account. Everyone has been waiting for this since their announcement to go full speed e-commerce.

Using the export tool:

Visit your Multiply page (example: multiplyid.multiply.com)
Click one of the options available on your Multiply page (below your headshot):
Download Media: to download all media files
Export to Blogger: to transfer your blogs to your Blogger page
Choose file you would like to download
You will receive an email (via the email address registered to your Multiply account) containing a link to download all your Multiply files along with instructions on how to import them to Blogger.

Note that this tool will only be available till December 1 2012.

This tool does require some manual know how. After clicking on DOWNLOAD MEDIA, you will be led to a page that contains all your photos (sorry but you won’t be able to back up your blog posts and video). These tools will only work for Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

Chrome
Obtain the Download Master chrome extension.
Point your browser to this page
Click the download master button from in the top right of your browser and select ‘All’
Click download, sit back and relax

Firefox
Obtain the DownThemAll! firefox plugin
Point your browser to this page
Right click anywhere on this page and select DownThemAll!
Select the items you would like to download (All by default) and click “Start!”

Remember, you only have till December 1 2012! Do it now!

Categories
Mostly Everything

Basilan, Isabela in the new Medal of Honor Warfighter

Here’s an extended playthrough of the new Medal of Honor: Warfighter making use of the Frostbite 2 engine. What makes it especially interesting to Filipinos is that Preacher and the rest of Tier 1 make their way to Basilan, Isabela. To be honest, apart from the totalled jeepney and the locals shouting “Tara na! Tara na!” and “OK ka lang? OK lang ako!” it pretty much looks like any generic shooter out there.

Categories
Mostly Everything

Tonino Lamborghini L700 Limited Edition: Android 2.3, 5.0MP camera, plus lots of affluence; sells for PHP 135,000.00

Here it is folks. Would you buy this for PHP 135,000 (HK$23,800.00)? From a technical perspective, the specs are basically your run off the mill Android device from 2011. 5MP camera + Android version 2.3. But that’s not the point. This is the phone for the opulent as its rather small 3.7″ screen is treated with sapphire and built to spec according to Tonino Lamborghini’s design precision: all 650 parts.

Categories
Underwater

Dedicated to the Mantis Shrimp

Subject: Peacock Mantis Shrimp
Photo taken in Secret Bay, Anilao
Click on the image for bigger version

In an episode of Radiolab titled Colors, Jad and Robert explore the inner workings of how human beings (and other creatures) perceive color. For instance, in Ancient Greece, the color blue was absent in all the documented pieces of literature. Why?! Were the ancient Greeks and Romans colorblind?

In another segment, the show takes a look at how other animals view the colors of the rainbow. Surprisingly, I have several photos of the only creature in the world that has the highest spectrum to discern colors — the mantis shrimp. I see at least one every weekend.

Cheers to you, mantis shrimp. Aside from being the only creature in the world that sees the full spectrum of the rainbow, you also pack quite a punch.