Torchlight 2

Finally, the real sequel of Diablo is here, and no this isn't some torchlight app for your smartphone...

From the original makers of Diablo 1 and 2, comes the epic sequel filled with monster killing, loot hording, item enchanting and explosive fishing.

Torchlight2 is bound to get your ARPG taste buds all tingly and yearning for more button mashing action. Don't worry about Auction Houses, overly easy gameplay, cookie-cut builds and uncostumoziable classes, cause none of them are available in Torchlight2.

An Outlander (physical, range attack class) in action & a shot of the inventory.

Instead, you will be treated to:

• Value for money - game will only cost you $19.90 ($59.90 for 4 copy bundle on Steam) for months of gameplay (lack of sleep is part of the package)

• Stat point distribution when leveling up (place them as you damn well like)

• Skill point distribution when leveling up 
• An NPC in town allowed players to reset for free till level 10 (in beta, not sure about release)
• You can be anything you want and builds are not restricted by the class selected.
• eg. Staff wielding, melee Embermage with short range spells
• Dual wielding, melee Outlander with poison and summons
• Beefy, cannon master Engineer and so on...

• All 4 classes have a unique charge bar that grants specific bonuses either when it is full or at certain points.
• Attack speed, Crit Chance, More magic damage, empower spells, etc.

• Item enchanting that can make low level gear as awesome as higher ones and more powerful gear even more awesome.
• Enchanting is done at NPC enchanters that appears in random maps (dungeons only from what I experience, can enchant above 1 enchantment) or NPC enchanter in town (you save them from a dungeon, but only enchant items to 1 enchantment)

• Take time to away from the hustle and bustle of monster bashing and partake in some relaxing fishing at your nearest water hole

• Categorized Inventory system
• 1 for normal loot
• 1 for potions, scrolls and fishes
• 1 for learn-able spells
• spell scrolls are consumed once learned (by yourself or pet, each can hold up to 4 spells)
• can remove a learnt spell to learn new ones

• NPC vendors that actually sell useful stuff

Berserker (melee, physical attack class) engaging a Giant Spider mini-boss in its lair.

• Quest item rewards which you will actually use (not all but most)

• Varied item tiering for near limitless loot table.
• Normal items (white) - No magical stats
• Magic items (green) - 1 to 2 magical stats (with low min-max values)
• Rare items (blues) - 1 to 5 magical stats (with average min-max values)
• Named rate items (blues, with special prefix/suffix) - 1 to 7 magical stats (with average min-max values)
• All rare items have a chance to be part of a set that is random (same rare item could be part of different sets).
• Sets grant extra bonus by wearing more pieces of gear with the same set name.
• Unique items (orange) - 1 to 7 magical stats (with high min-max values)
• There could be set unique items but after playing 5 characters in Beta to level 21 (max for beta), I have yet to acquire any.
• Be ready for trolling - some unique items are there to troll you.
• It will probably exceed 7 magical stats with higher level uniques
• On top of all this, ALL gear can be enchanted (whites, yours, pets, etc) with an enchanter NPC and gold.

• Loot drops at a variable and acceptable pace and rate
• The game does not deprive you of better loot to give you continuous character progression.
• Each character I played has given me a couple or more Unique items even at low levels, which I feel lets the players see how their can grow.

• Item socketing
• Gems (normal, magic, uniques) can be stuffed into items with sockets to further enhance its monster slaying powers.

• Anyone can wear anything as long as you meet the requirements
• Items have 2 to 3 requirements (only unique has 3 so far)
• One is a level requirement 
• Another is stat point requirement
• As long as you meet either, you can wield the item
• This means, you can eventually wear any item at some point in time.
• Only Uniques have class requirement as far as I played. 

• Have a pet without the trouble of cleaning up after them.
• Same as before, pets will join you in battle (8 total pets usable in beta)
• Pets sell and now buy consumable items (pots & scrolls)
• Extra storage place.
• Give pet spells like Heal All or Summon Zombies/ Skeletons to turn them into a mini support cleric / summoner

• Fame - Not sure how this works yet but completing Quest and killing quest mobs/boss grants you some fame points

• It can be difficult if you want it
• 4 difficulties available - from Easy to Elite
• Veteran gives a nice pace to those comfortable with a few ARPGs under their belt while Elite lets you have the fun of dying to bosses like a fly if you don't dodge their killing blows.
• I can only imagine the massacre that will take place in a 4 player elite. 

• NPC vendor buy back - just in case you sold the wrong stuff

• A nice mix of big open map to explore and pathways that guide you along your quest while dotted with a few dungeons that send you a few levels down to meet its boss
• Not all paths are shown on the map as there are hidden paths in the map that only appear as you go near them or trigger something
• eg. Going near the edge of a path triggers a bridge to be deployed opening a new area that is not shown on the map

• Secret doors, buttons, triggers and booty.
• They do not light up until your mouse hovers over them and you can click on it to open a secret room filled with booty!
• Some secret trigger requires a unique item to unlock which you will obtain if you are lucky enough and gives lots of sexy loot!

• A nice and detailed statistics page for all those AnaLytical players.

• Harder mode after game completion - not available in beta but it lets the player restart the game again with all monsters and difficulty set to match the level of the player or even higher for that extra challenge. (be ready for level 2 goblin gang rapes)

• The game never really ends
• Killing the last boss on the highest difficulty does mean its over.
• There will be mod tool for players to make their own maps, campaigns, scenarios, etc for endless hours of fun! 
• Willing to bet my shoes on a fishing competition mod map  :)

• Dummy!
• Not you, I meant practice dummy in town for players to bash senselessly.
• For a game with no PvP (or with) it is always good to have a damage sponge for players to test their damage, view debuff stacks on enemy and their effects, etc.

Inferno, Frost or Storm. The elements at your disposal as an Embermage (spell caster).

Hope the summary above helps to paint a clear picture of how this game, in almost every way, is more a successor of Diablo-ish francise then Diablo3 will ever be. And for those who are unaware, Blizzy has finally noticed that they are losing more and more players every single day from their juggernaut of a fail game. Now they have started to implement some of the fan suggestions and earlier game mechanics which they conveniently threw out the window after being clouded by lust for money. Just check for them on Blizzy's D3 forum.

Next up, is a rundown of the classes available and their skills as shown in the recent beta.

List of must watch movies in 2012

*Updated on 29 May 2012

It seems G.I Joe: Retaliation will be delayed to 29 March 2012 released instead of the original 21 June 2012. That is a total 9 month delay from the original date. All this is thanks to post filming 3D conversion of the film into 3D.

A little something extra, post filming 3D conversion or post 3D conversion means that a film is first filmed normally (34mm or 55mm films) then it is edited in the studios. Once it is ready, 3D effects that you see on screen are added which can take months, depending on the film and amount of 3D effects they want to achieve. The result of this are shows like Thor, Green Lantern, Harry Potter: Half-Blood Prince, the recent Avengers and many more. The quality of 3D varies and are most of the time rather dark or lack luster in colour depth.

Compared to shows like Three Musketeers, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Step Up 3D, etc., these films are shot with 3D cameras (Fusion Camera System, etc.) and creates a much more vibrant 3D effect and feeling. The feeling of depth perception really stands out in these films unlike those in post production whereby this effect is added in after filming.

Just try this next time you are watching a 3D film, take of your 3D glasses during the show and see if the background details and scenery is blurry (means it is in filmed in 3D) or not (post filming 3D effect).

Source1

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Looks like 2012 is a year for movies. As summer draws near, so do all the big budget, epic blockbusters.

Took a bit of time to piece together a list of movies that any movie goer should not miss out this year.

Get your clean those glasses, exercise those eyes, grab your popcorn ready (and 3D glasses), here they come!
(listed in descending order from April till December 2012 & click on the title for more info.) 



Iron Sky    - 4 April (No Cinema Release in Malaysia)
Nazis from Darkside of the Moon, nuf said.
TRAILER

Cold Light of Day    - 19 April
Action
TRAILER

The Avengers    - 27 April
Action, Superheroes
Captain Spandex, Tinman, Angry Green Scientist, Poisonous spider, an archer, thunder god, one-eyed black guy and a god of mischief throws a party on Earth.
TRAILER

Safe    - 3 May
Action
TRAILER

The Lady    - 3 May
History, Bio

Dark Shadows    - 10 May
Comedy
Tim Burton & Johnny Depp are back together.
TRAILER

Man in Black 3    - 24 May
Sci-fi, Action,
Finally after 10 years...
TRAILER

Snow White and the Huntsman - 31 May
Fantasy, Adventure
TRAILER
Extended TRAILER (5 minutes, Spoiler-ish)

Prometheus    - 7 June
Sci-fi, Action
TRAILER

GI Joe     - 21 June
Action, Adventure
TRAILER

Brave    - 21 June
Animation, Adventure
TRAILER

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World - 28 June
Drama
TRAILER

The Amazing Spiderman 2012  - 5 July
Action, Adventure
TRAILER

The Dark Knight Rises  - 19 July
Action, Adventure
Too bad this will be the last of Nolan's epic Trilogy remake of the Cape Crusader.
TRAILER

Total Recall    - 2 August
Sci-fi, Action
TRAILER

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - 2 Aug
Fantasy, Adventure
and a whole lot of Vampire slaying by Lincoln.
TRAILER

Step Up Revolution  - 3 August
Dance, Musical
TRAILER

The Bourne Legacy   - 9 August
Action, Thriller
TRAILER

The Pirates! Band of Misfits - 16 August
Stop-Animation, Adventure
TRAILER

The Expendables 2  - 17 August
Expect high body count filled with testosterone-flooded Action
TRAILER

Ted    - 13 September
Comedy
Seth MacFarlane as a talking bear?
TRAILER

Resident Evil 5: Retribution   - 13 September
Sci-fi, Zombie Slaughter Action
TRAILER

Dredd     - 20 September
Sci-fi, Post-Apocalytic Ass Kicking Action

Hotel Transylvania  - 27 September
Animation, Comedy
TRAILER

Looper    - 28 September
Sci-fi Action
TRAILER

Taken 2    - 4 October
Liam Neeson still breaking faces even at 59 years old.

Skyfall (James Bond)  - 1 November
Action, Spy

Rise of the Guardians   - 22 November
Santa, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny & Jack Frost VS. Boogeyman?
TRAILER

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - 13/14 December
Fantasy, Adventure

Les Misérables    - 14 December
Musical, Drama

One Shot    - 21 December
Action, Thirller

Django Unchained   - 25 December
Action, Western



Will include the trailers once I gather them and have added the links.

Just let me know if any other awesome movie is left out as there was so many to sort thru :)

We "had" Internet freedom.

Once upon a time, we had freedom on the internet as we were allowed to roam freely on the vast networks of information and were given the independence to share and post information as we pleased.

Well, all that is about to chance on 1 June 2012 (for Malaysians that is). 


The recent amendments to The Evidence Act 2012 that took place about a week ago will come into affect on 1 June 2012.


There isn't much to talk about this except it being a total a**hole to all internet users in the country as it gives those in "power" the rights to take action on anyone that have put up something which they deem is illegal or "wrong", on the internet, under your name or anything that can be associated back to your real identity.

Basically, if you say,

"I love my country!!!"

you are fine and the law can't/won't do anything to you.

But if you said the opposite, then you might just wake up in a cell the next morning.

Click HERE is a simplified version courtesy of our local TheStar paper.




Full article can be found HERE (thank to The Sun Daily)

And if you though people crying would make them remove it, you are wrong cause it is HERE to stay.




So it is time for everyone to dig back on their Facebook post & comments and delete anything that can be considered "malicious" to this lovely country, delete any blogs, tumblr, etc. that contains "country loving" remarks. Just remember, Google archived pages. so you can only delete or change so much :)

4 days till release. Take my money now!

*Update 29 May 2012

Celcom has finally unveiled their offer and promotions for this great phone.

Click HERE to jump on over to Celcom's direct S3 page.

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As mentioned in my earlier post, this awesome piece of smart phone is finally here, well almost that is (4 more days!). Just in time to empty that bank account of yours that should be filled with your hard earned month end salary.


What is confirmed so far?

• Will be released on 31 May 2012

• Samsung MY RRP price at RM2199.00

• DiGi is offering the phone for as low as RM999 for a 2 year contract.
• DiGi Info page
• DiGi Pre-order page 

• Based on the specs stated on DiGi's page, it seems Malaysians will be getting:
• 16GB internal memory with expandable microSDXC
• 4.8 inch Super AMOLED display instead of HD Super AMOLED.
• The rest of the specs seems as mentioned earlier during announcement.

• Available in 2 colours: 

• Marble White
• Pebble Blue (some sources claiming delay / shortage of this color)

(yup, there is nor standard black colour upon release which is a  very different direction from most phone releases. Might be released in the near future.)



Now, if all new phones were made with this level of innovation, I wouldn't be doing anything else but reading up on them and drooling over its release.

Action RPG: A comparison

*Updated 29 May 2012.

Just a little something that I did to get a better overall understanding of what Action RPGs (ARPG) have been offering to us for so many years.

• Please know that I only selected the more successful and influential ARPGs and the list does not cover all available ARPGs.

• Also, I only cover more general game Features for comparison instead of mentioning those that are available only in 1 game.

Click on the table above to view in full size.
(Thanks to for the comments and I have made the adjustments)

Do let me know if there are any mistakes as some of the games are rather old and I haven't played them in a while so I might have missed out or recall incorrectly some of the details.

Diablo 4! Diablo 5! Not anytime soon...

After more then a week, most players that played during release would have slain poor ol' Diablo at least once (probably making his death count in the millions...), players are now buzzing over the fail end game content that they paid for.

1. Make a character
2. Kill mobs, level up & complete quests
3. Kill bosses and complete acts
4. Reach Diablo, slay the foul demon & advance to next difficulty
5. Rinse and repeat in higher game difficulty
6. and sell/buy junk on gold auction house

Essentially, players are now stuck in this loop that cost them $60 bucks. The end game content for max level 60 players are to load up a game in Inferno difficulty, roam around Act 3 & 4 killing Rare Boss Mobs for items, close the game and reload it again. I feel soooooooooooo excited for them...

Without any additional content coming soon (content will come every 3 months at the fastest as releasing them too often will give players the expectation that all new content will come out that fast), player are now locked in the eternal rinse and repeat cycle above.

With that in mind, there will be no sequel coming within the next couple of years but fret not, there will be at least 1 major expansion and maybe a couple of DLCs (that is if Blizzy goes into the DLC crap).

After going through the lore, stories, content, etc, I have provided some predictions (partially based on game facts) on what will take place in the coming expansions/DLC/sequel.

SPOILER ALERT, prepare your mind.

• Adria the Witch will be involved (yes, like duh!)

• Will involve Black Soul Stone once again
• Clearly shown in the ending cut-scene that it falls back to sanctuary.

• Leah is only physically dead and her soul resides within the Black Soul Stone

• The Evils within the  Black Soul Stone cannot be unleashed without a proper host.
• Either they will introduce a new host
• Or the  Black Soul Stone will be destroyed somehow (player has to seek for the  Black Soul Stone and destroy it at some location using some item)
• All the Evils is though to be destroyed with the Black Soul Stone gone but they are actually sent back to Black Abyss (place in Burning Hell that all demons spawn/respawn).
• Now all the evils are back and once again it repeats?

• Imperius is not shown or heard of after the Diamond Gate collapses on him.
• He has become a partially fallen Angel, feeling sad and weak he couldn't protect the heavens.
• He seeks for the Black Soul Stone and sticks it into himself
• Mutates into some Mega Angel Demon monster (I personally would like this to happen)

• There must always be a balance between Good and Evil.
• All the Evils cannot be destroyed unless all the Good (angels) is also gone.
• Angels all give up their powers and join Nephalems to destroy Evil and Sanctuary is the only world left where Nephalems and humans rule themselves without any Angels/Demons
• Or player finds out that there cannot be only Good or Evil alone and needs a balance, so the player plays the role of stopping and all out ending war between Good and Evil.

• Will feature Fallen/Mutilated Inarius and/or Lilith and their storyline.

• 1 to 2 new class will be introduced
• Sad but Blizzy will probably recycle at least 1 class from Diablo1 or 2.
• Druid is the highest possibility as the rest of the classes in Diablo 1 or 2 already has an equal in Diablo 3.
• Demon Hunter > Amazon / Assassin / Rogue / Druid (summons)
• Monk > Assassin / Paladin / Monk(D1: Hellfire)
• Witch Doctor > Necromancer / Sorceress
• Wizard > Sorceress
• Barbarian > Barbarian / Warrior
• New Class will
• focus more on summons
• use spears / pikes
• throwing weapons (less likely, but maybe)
• use shield (have skills that utilizes shield)

• Players will be introduced to new locations (if Blizzy once again keeps player looking at the same venues, they are truly condemning their own creativity)
• Skovos Isle - Amazon's place of origin
• Sharval Wilds / Entsteig - Druid's place of origin
• Druids were one Barbarians from the north/Arreat and they migrated south, etc etc
• Westmarch, Kingsport - Human city hub
• Xiansai, Frozen Sea - Wizard's place of origin
• Pandemonium Fotress - But this time controlled by Legions of Burning Hell
• Dreadlands - It is supposed to be filled with fun beast, demons, cute monsters, etc
• Eastern parts of Sanctuary - About Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye lore

Here is a nice map of Sanctuary locations that players have been through in the game.

Do know that all this are speculations based on what I manage to scour off the internet and through my reading on Diablo lore (I love their love, wish I could say the same for 3rd installation)

FPS lovers

Just a short one cause I am swarmed with work this week, sigh...

A recent video trailer of Medal of Honor: Warfighter

• Made with EA's awesome Frostbite 2 game engine that debuted in 2011.

Compared to the latest video of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2

• While Black Ops 2 is the 7th game to use the outdated IW Engine that was released in 2005.

Which game would you pay $60 for?

The Future of Diablo 3

Based on what Blizzy has done with Diablo3, here are some of my predictions on how the game will continue to be developed in the coming months. Blizzy will have to continue to churn out new content every 2-3 months in order to keep players coming back so expect bits and pieces of updates every patch.

• PvP Arena
• Yes, this is common news, but what I meant is that it won't just be the standard 2v2, 3v3 or 4v4 arena. There will be variations and objective based arenas
• Large arena up to 8v8
• Free-for-all Coliseum arenas up to 40 players

• Custom Games
• This will surely happen in order to increase player with player interaction
• Capture the Flag
• Hold the point
• Hero Defense 
• DoTA / AoS styled maps (may not happen since Blizzy is making Blizzard Allstars) 
• There will be free basic custom maps and there will be more popular custom maps that players have to buy.

*Since Blizzy plans to sell maps, I highly doubt they will provide any mods for players to make maps. If they did, players will be able to publish and sell their maps for other players to play and Blizzy will take a cut of the profit.

• Pets
• This is already available in WoW and will eventually be implemented in Diablo3.
• Pets will be used to help pick-up gold and loot.
• Pets will have pet based gear
• Able to level up and have skills.
• Pets cannot partake in PvE (Player vs Environment) but will be able to join in PvP and Pet vs. Pet activities.
• There will be Pet vs. Pet Arena where players pitch their pet against another players pet to get top ranking in ladder, etc.

*Introduction of Pet will increase the total number of types of item/gear in the game thus indirectly increase volume in Gold & Real Money Auction House resulting in more profits for Blizzy.

• Gambling / Betting / Stakes
• With PvP and Pet vs. Pet in place, this will follow next.
• There will be intense ranked ladders, weekly, monthly, seasonal, etc.
• You can watch live matches and place bets on a particular player, team, score, player that deals most damage, etc.
• This will be cash only using Blizzard Bucks.

*This may not be implemented in all countries as Blizzy will run into legal issues but if they manage to break the barriers, this will be huge and provide a steady flow of cash to their vaults.

• Improved Crafting
• On top of the current weapon and armor crafting, players will be able to make a variety of temporary buff items
• Scrolls - grants temporary aura or personal buff
• Resource Potions - 5 types of potion for each class
• Enchantments - Used on items to temporarily add effects 

• Vanity
• This is last on my list as it has the lowest chance of actually being implemented.
• Diablo3 has a immense selection of items which players can wear in order to look different and cool.
• But if they did, items like Diablo Horns, Angel Wings (already present in collector edition), Cowboy Hats, etc. could be sold in Real Money Auction House only.

That is all for now till my crystal ball reveals more to me. All the above is based on my observation of Blizzy's direction to continuously turn all their games into a cash cow in order to replace WoW that is scheduled to die in the new few years, my scouring of the internet for information and my years of playing a variety of MMOs.

If you have any predictions, just let me know :)

Only if...

Diablo, slayed for the millionth time.

*Update 20 May 2012

Only 5 days after released, Diablo has now been slain in Inferno Mode (Hardest Difficulty available).

Mind the static in the start, just skip to 2 minutes.

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"Armed with a Greatsword of Greed on the right hand and a Stalwart Shield of Avarice on the left, Activision Blizzard lays the finishing blow on Diablo, forever killing the once mighty lord of ARPG"

Greed, avarice, covetousness. Players around the world can claim that have slain Diablo once more and rid the world of Sanctuary of evil. But the true victor here is not the would be players but the corporate giants that stick their hands into the world of game publishing.

Like a nail to the coffin, Diablo's fate is forever sealed as players are getting wise to the con that Acti Bliz served them for $60. As players flooded the login servers upon released, the billion dollar gaming corporation somehow did not anticipated for the massive player swarm.

"As the players entered their username and password, every attempt to log in was like a punch to the might Server. Punch after punch, the machine could take no more and it fell cold on the ground denying millions a chance to face the legions of burning hell..."


With years of experience running the most played MMO in the world and they failed to foresee massive player log in due to DRM?

For this one problem, Acti Bliz has lost much customers that felt it was a waste of their time and money. Just looking at the reviews on Metacritic, I almost laughed myself off the chair. Negative fan reviews are more then double that of positive fan reviews. Of course, quite a large number are fans whining about how they failed to log in, lag/spikes, disconnects, followed by the hate for DRM and lastly are those who really looked into the game and provided critical review on the game itself.

From Metacritic: Behold how the cowardly gaming sites review Blizzy's child with awesome ratings while the truth is only spoken by the players

So it seems that most of my predictions are correct or near the target and here are the main gripes about the game that a lot of players are now finding out:

• Short game play
• Koreans finished normal mode in 6 hours? followed closely by Russian, EU, and American players... As of last night, players have completed Act 1 in Inferno difficulty (4th and hardest difficulty)

• Linear and Predictable storyline
• Straight forward story, directed story telling and predictable plot. What if I told you there was a plan since Diablo2 that actually sent the player venturing into the High Heavens and they are just reusing this 10 years later for Diablo3?

• As easy as A, B, C
• With players easily finishing normal mode and so on without death and some reaching Inferno difficulty on the second day of the game's release, says it all.

• Uncreative and Unimaginative
• After losing most of its core creative talent during Blizzard glorious era, they now lack the ability to lead in the innovative category and ends up creating a skill and stat system that allows zero customization. Stats and damage all revolves around gear as there is no other way to modify your stats and skills are given to you as you level without choice.

• Arcade
• They have manage to turn an ARPG game into an arcade game turning every boss fight into a battle of dodging boss's 1-hit-kill skills, timing of HP wells (fail pot system), Health globe, kitting and time consuming.

There is no need for me to mention too much a lot of it are now known issues and players start to notice what they actually end up getting after paying $60.

Click here to see my previous predictions and how scarily accurate it was.

Blizzy has also conveniently uploaded all their CGI cutscenes for Diablo3 on Youtube so you can enjoy stunning CGI without having to go through a broken game.

>> Link to Official Blizzard Diablo 3 Cinematics


>> Link to Official Blizzard Diablo 3 Class Opening

Samsung Galaxy S III

*Update 17 May 2012

Just a quick update on this awesome piece of smart phone. Every time I read more about this phone, I feel like buying it upon release but my S II is still serving me great, sigh at the dilemma... 

• Samsung Galaxy S III will be priced at RM 2199 upon release (same as S II when it was released)

• Malaysia will be getting the standard model with all stock specs (Exynos quad core, 1GB Ram, etc)

• There will be a media announcement / unveiling which will probably mention the official release date and price locally.

• Phone is rumored to be available as early as end of May 2012 (instead of early June 2012)

Still remember about me hoping for S III to have 2GB RAM instead of the 1GB? Well, Japan will have another version of this phone available with 2GB RAM but with a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm S4 processor instead of the stock Exynos quad-core. (A lowered core would supposedly give it better battery life and couple with 2GB RAM, it might work just as good as the quad with 1GB RAM.

Source1, Source2, Source3

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*Update 7 May 2012

For all those eyeing to get their hands on an S III, you will only have to wait for another month!

It is scheduled to be released in Malaysia early June 2012 (solid source right from Samsung's Regional Director). But I foresee issues of availability as the demand for this little piece of awesomeness is running high and supply would definitely run short.

and for those still having trouble deciding, here is another cool summarized table (courtesy of SoyaCincau) pitting S III with a wider range of smart phones currently in market.

On an overall, it is a good stand between One X and S III. If taking snapshots are your thing, then the One X would be your choice. S III seems to me as a better all rounder. My decision is still wobbly till I get my hands on a test model at their roadshow. 

Lets hope Samsung lives up to its expectations of delivering great smart phones.

Source1, Source2

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Tagline: designed for humans (so what we have been using is made for?)

For those that weren't aware, Samsung finally revealed their flagship phone today (around midnight for us). After being teased with posters and videos, the phone was ultimate revealed as Samsung Galaxy S III, follow up the successful Samsung Galaxy S II.

Since reviews on the phones are all over the internet like mushrooms after rain, I'll just keep it simple with a summary comparison table with similar smart phones in market currently (courtesy of SoyaCincau).

In terms of software, it is armed with an arsenal of apps made to make the phone more "living" and intuitive to use,

• S Voice - Voice Command feature (Siri's long lost sister, better half) (Video below)
• Smart Stay - Detects if you are using the screen and avoid dimming unnecessarily
• Smart Alert - Reminds you of what you missed as if you can't see it from the screen...
• Social/Sharing - S Beam (Content Sharing), Social Tag (tagging)
• And everything else Samsung decided to dish in since its such a power house.

 and all this built on top of  the latest Android's Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).

S Voice in Action

This is how you test a voice command feature. Passes by recognizing a tongue twister easily and providing an awesome answer.

Packing quite a lot of hardware power, I was hoping for a little more such as 2GB RAM, better battery (with this much power, 2100mAh just won't provide enough sustained juice) and higher megapixel cameras. But on the overall, it is a phone that stands out above the rest of the phone on the market currently and for months to come. (running in the rumor mill is that iPhone 5 will be announced in the October 2012)


From the information flying around, looks like we will be able to get our hands on the phone by end of the month. Keep an eye out on Maxis, DIGI, Celcom, etc for any upcoming promos or deals on this awesome phone.

Guess I will be skipping this since my S II is still doing well....

Source1, Source2, Source3

Dirty is the new Clean.

Slightly over 2 weeks and our beloved national TV station, RTM has finally released their take of the bersih event that took place on 28 April 2012.

Watching this video really makes me want to stop watching TV all together and just stick with what ever I can get from the internet. This shows the depths that some people are willing to sink to in order to make the truth totally invalid.

No need to state the obvious that this video is aimed at lying to the general populace that watches national TV but I just want to point out some of the less noticeable methods used in the video to emphasize on the "evil-ness" of the event and the "good-ness" of the government.

First of you will be introduced to rock music accompanying every scene that depicts the "evil" protesters doing supposedly dastardly evil acts. The fast paced rock music filled with guitar and bass drives up the viewers adrenaline and attention. This helps the general viewers associate violence and "evil" heavy metal rock music and vice versa. Notice that when the scene switches to feature police, etc, the music changes?

Second, you will notice that all the properly edited and well selected scenes of the participants, depicts them in a angry, unruly, aggressive, chaotic and violent state. Scenes of participants chanting, the leaders speaking, people breaking through the barricades, etc. The one sided story of the entire event is their main goal of making this video.

Thirdly, the commentator continues to feed lies into the mind of the viewer. Speaking in a harsh tone condemning the event and its organizers.

Fourth points to the viewers that the event is made to gain international media coverage. With such a monopolized media in the country, international media and the internet is the only hope of the truth getting out.

Lastly, everything that is associated to the even is painted to be an planned act by traitors of the country plotting to topple the government with no weapons, huh?!?!

These guys really need to take their heads out of each other a*sholes and smell the roses around them cause it not everything revolves around their sh*t.

I could go on and on but I think that is enough venting for now. Time to work on some proper post and yes, it will be about Fail-ablo 3!


Source1

New post coming.

Sorry for the delay in new post as I am totally bogged down by work.

Will definitely post by today. (Diablo 3 review post is in the making and should be up by this few days)

Thanks :)

Elder Scrolls Online: What is known so far.

So if you haven't heard, Zenimax / Bethesda has recently announced their first MMO. Apparently, the game has been in development since 2007 so it should be very polished and set for close beta within the next few months as the release date is sometime in 2013 (PC/Mac).

Set in the world of Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls Online will allow players to venture forth into all the realms present in Elder Scrolls universe. Of course all realms won't be opened initially (probably expansions will unlock more locations) but places like Windhelm, Daggerfall, Sentinel, Mournhold and so on will be open for exploration.

An MMO built on such a rich universe and lore, the game will surely stand out from most current MMOs. To get us drooling for more, here are some of the available information about the game that is known:
(great wall of text coming up)

• Players can form teams of up to 250 Person
• Fully voice acted
• Third person perspective (probably has an option)
• Utilizes a hotbar to activate skills like other traditional MMOs
• You have a limited number of skills you can use at any given time, and can change them whenever you're out of combat
• The number of skills is equal to (paraphrase) "a light and heavy attack with your current weapon that take up the first two slots, a few more spells related to your class, and an ultimate in the last slot".
• The ultimate is used once you gain enough finesse, which is earned by doing well in combat
• Sorry, you can't be a werewolf or vampire :(
• Crafting, alchemy, and soul stones will exist in an unrevealed form
• Daedric Princes, Molag Bal will be the primary antagonist
• Constellations will be in the game a la Mundus stones (which work like guardian stones) and also give the answer to things like block puzzles where you step on the blocks in a certain order
• Tons of towns ranging from Imperial City, Windhelm, Daggerfall, Sentinel, Mournhold, Ebonheart, Elden Root, Shornhelm, Evermore, Riften, and a lot more
• There will be mounts, but no flying mounts
• Fast travel exists in the game in the form of wayshrines, which are also your resurrection point, and you can teleport from one wayshrine to any other wayshrine you have already visited
• There most likely won't be dragons (maybe in future expansions)
• Sneaking will be in the game, but how it is implemented is undecided
• No player housing (for now?)
• No NPC romances or marriage (but maybe with players?)
• Features most of Tamriel including Skyrim, Morrowind, Summerset Isle, and Elseweyr.
• Three player factions are confirmed:
• Ebonheart Pact: Nords, Dunmer, and Argoninans
• Aldmeri Dominion: Altmer, Bosmer, and Khajit
• Daggerfall Covenant: Bretons, Redguard, and Orcs
• Game uses a hubless design
• For example, you don't necessarily pick up a quest to do the following, but if you kill all the necromancers in an undead barrow, a shade you free at the end will reward you.
• However, to help you find these events, various NPCs you talk to will tell you where they are happening and put a marker pointing them on your map, which is obviously totally different than receiving a quest.
• Not all quests will have NPCs that indicate where they are
• The game uses MMORPG genre standards such as classes, experience points, and other traditional MMORPG progression mechanics, but they try to present it "around the core fantasy presented by traditiona Elder Scrolls games" such as traveling around and righting wrongs or seeking riches
• The game world is very large relative to Skyrim
• You can explore almost anything you can see
• Game is set 1000 years in the past
• You can't master every discipline
• *Semi Plot Spoiler* The imperials are an enemy to all three factions, lead by the noble Tharn family and the King of Worms, Mannimarco, and are hatching a plot to take over all of Tamriel
• *Semi Plot Spoiler*  But BEHOLD, Mannicmarco is scheming with Daedric prince Molag Bal to take over the world behind the Tharn's back
• Also, your soul has already been stolen by Molag Bal, which is the reason you can come back from death over and over again, and the starting plot is that you're fighting Molag Bal to get your soul back from him
• Hitting the level cap takes about 120 hours
• Each faction has their own leveling content
• The game features three faction PvP where you fight to take over keeps and use trebuchets and other siege weapons to help do it. At the high end, you can have 100 v 100 battles. There are also farms and mines you can try to take over. Most of this happens in Cyrodiil where your goal is to take over and hold the Imperial City to get faction wide bonuses for it. If you have played Dark Age of Camelot, this probably sounds familiar. For those who haven't, essentially the entire zone is a giant PvP area will all sorts of points of interest. (as a PvP fan, I am totally dying to test this)
• The most accomplished PvP player on your faction becomes emperor whenever you take over the capital
• When you take over Cyrodiil, you will be able to adventure in it as a hostile city a la Kvatch
• The game will have raids and heroic modes for its dungeons as end game content in addition to faction PvP
• There is also balanced PvP for people who prefer eSports
• The game will also have high end public dungeons
• Public dungeons are essentially instances that aren't actually instanced, so anyone can be in them, so imagine a World of Warcraft dungeon that featured everyone on the server in the area instead of just your party (finally, another MMO that has public dungeons. Instances are so boringly carebear-ish)
• There are standard instanced dungeons as well
• You also get a bonus loot chest if you're soloing and max your finesse, and you can also build finesse by combining with other players
• For example, a rogue can put oil on the ground that a mage can set on fire
• A fighter can also spin in the firestorm a mage puts down, which sends out fireballs
• You can't combo with the abilities of enemy players though, so if an enemy faction player drops an oil slick, you can't set it on fire
• The Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood will be presented, but in what form isn't detailed as their content is hard to recreate in an MMO setting
• NPCs will try to work together and use player like behavior when fighting you, and (at least to my understanding) have stamina as well
• They want the AI to be good, so instead of enemies in a dungeon sitting around and waiting to be pulled, you will be attacked by the entire room and they will try to react to how you are playing
• You destroy dark anchors to gain reputation with the Fighter's Guild. They are large hooks that fall from the sky pseudorandomly and have Daedric guardians next to them. They are easier to kill with a group, and once destroyed, everyone who participated gets a reputation boost with the Fighter's Guild, and eventually nets you rewards like new skills and abilities. (something like Rift here...)
• The combat model will not be real time due to latency (huh?)
• The combat is based around a stamina bar which you can use to sprint, block, interrupt, and break incapacitating effects
• Blocking is the primary focus of these abilities, and can do things like stopping the secondary effects of attacks such as an ice spell slowing you
• Stamina also applies to PvP, so stamina management (and wearing down your enemy's stamina) is important, as your crowd control abilities might be on a long cooldown, and if you use them before the enemy player runs out of stamina, they will probably just block the effect
• Healing is still a big part of the game
• There is also no aggro mechanic in the game, which is part of the reason stamina blocking and healing exist

Finally... that was a lot of information. Next is to hopefully get some more screenshots, trailers etc. You surely don't need anymore reasons to be anticipating for this awesome game.

Extras:

• Some leaked screenshots and concept art can be found here.

• Official Site

Max Payne 3: After the Fall

For all your Max Payne fans, here a little something to tide you over till the game is released May 15, 2012.
(sequence: Left to Right, Top to Bottom)

Lose or Lie. A game of Truth.

"It is not power that corrupts but fear, Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it..." 

Aung  San Suu  Kyi

And this is what drive so many once great leaders to oblivion. The lust to retain in the seat of power urges them to go to great lengths, totally ignoring what they once fought for in order to remain on the top.

Before I start side tracking to history of power crazed leaders, I  better get back to topic...

Some of you that were at Bersih 3.0 gathering might have experienced poor or total lost of phone signal on the day around Dataran area. Most people though it was just too many users on at the same time and signal strength was insufficient to support that many simultaneous users.

I would have though so too, but there are rumors going around that our beloved government has resorted to more high tech devices to stop live feed of information from being uploaded to the internet which they cannot regulate immediately.

Signal jammers or more specifically, Cell/ Mobile Phone Jammer is not something common and are mostly found in high restriction areas that prohibits the use of mobile phones like hospitals, cinemas, military bases and so on. It is also banned from public/ civilian use in most countries as it is a form of inhibition.

By emitting radio waves of the same signal as those used for communications such as GSM, 3G, 4G, etc. Not just phone calls, there are variants that are powerful enough to block out wireless internet in a radius.

After doing some digging, it seems that the rumors might just be true.

Here is a security/ military grade Cell Phone Jammer,

and now check out this video of a footage during the gathering, (spot the resemblance?)

Do not mistake this for LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device used in anti riots) LRAD Video HERE.

However, this device serves for another purpose that is commonly use especially in large riots to block out cell phone triggered bombs and used by military for the same purpose.

Either the government was being safe and prepared for cell phone triggered bombs or using it for all it is worth. Looking at how they choose suppress news of the event by regulating local mass media, confiscating and destruction of recording devices during the even (beating up cameramen and breaking their cameras) to censorship of international news covering the even, I would dare say it was used for latter purpose.

After this event, it truly amazes me how our beloved leaders of this awesome nation can continue to go on live TV and lie to the masses in their faces while blaming the innocent at the expense of those guilty for attacking defenseless civilians.

More people are waking up to their ruse thanks to the internet but it is a matter of time before start censoring in order to preserve their power.

This turned out longer then I intended to write.... time for some supper, I think I will go have some earth.

Source1, Source2, Source3, Source4, Source5