Verse1 You can be the peanut butter to my jelly You can be the butterflies I feel in my belly You can be the captain And I can be your first mate You can be the chills that I feel on our first date You can be the hero And I can be your sidekick You can be the tear That I cry if we ever split You can be the rain from the cloud when it's stormin' Or u can be the sun when it shines in the mornin'
Chorus Don't know if I could ever be Without you 'Cause boy you complete me And in time I know that we'll both see That we're all we need Cause you're the apple to my pie You're the straw to my berry You're the smoke to my high And you're the one I wanna marry
Cause you're the one for me (for me) And I'm the one for you (for you) You take the both of us (of us) And we're the perfect two We're the perfect two We're the perfect two Baby me and you We're the perfect two
Verse 2 You can be the prince and I can be your princess You can be the sweet tooth I can be the dentist You can be the shoes and I can be the laces You can be the heart that I spill on the pages You can be the vodka and I can be the chaser You can be the pencil and I can be the paper You can be as cold as the winter weather But I don't care as long as were together
Chorus Don't know if I could ever be Without you 'cause boy you complete me And in time I know that we'll both see That we're all we need Cause you're the apple to my pie You're the straw to my berry You're the smoke to my high And you're the one I wanna marry [Auburn - Perfect Two Lyrics on http://mrkayrell.blogspot.com]
Cause your the one for me (for me) And I'm the one for you (for you) You take the both of us (of us) And we're the perfect two We're the perfect two We're the perfect two Baby me and you We're the perfect two
Verse 3 You know that I'll never doubt ya And you know that I think about ya And you know I can't live without ya I love the way that you smile And maybe in just a while I can see me walk down the aisle
Cause you're the apple to my pie You're the straw to my berry You're the smoke to my high And you're the one I wanna marry Cause your the one for me (for me) And I'm the one for you (for u) U take the both of us (of us) And were the perfect two Were the perfect two Were the perfect two Baby me and you We're the perfect two(yeah, yeah)
MANILA, Philippines - Barely months after they broke into the local music scene, rock band Franco was already heralded as a "superband."
Though still on their way to national fame, the fact that they have impressed select audiences and critics with their fresh sound (a blend of reggae, alternative rock and metal) and that they are composed of rock icons
abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak talks to Franco band on the set of their music video "Cast Away" about their thoughts on piracy, going mainstream and their favorite videoke song.
from well-established Pinoy bands may be why they are described as "super."
Lead singer Franco Reyes is considered one of the best singers and songwriters to ever come out of Cebu.
By the time he joined Franco, he already had 18 years of musical experience with bands like Frank!, Sheila and the Insects and InYo (his band in the United States).
His poetic lyricism and velvet voice shines in the band's hit track "Cast Away", a reggae-flavored song about Reyes's feelings of isolation and homesickness after migrating to the US.
"It's like how Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) long for home," Reyes said. "Cast Away", originally performed by InYo, ranked high in radio charts like those of rock station NU 107.
The track will be included in their new album under MCA Records, reportedly set for release this month.
The rest of the band's members will be familiar to music lovers. On guitars are Gabby Alipe of Urbandub and Paolo "Ocho" Toleran of Queso (formerly named Cheese).
Completing the 5-piece band are Buhawi "Buwi" Meneses of the seminal 90s band Parokya ni Edgar on bass and JanJan Mendoza of Urbandub on drums.
Beginnings
Franco reportedly started as a side project by Toleran, Meneses and Mendoza, who would jam together when they had time. After a while, they decided to look for a front man to help their project band take off.
"JanJan suggested Franco (Reyes). He let them listen to Franco's demo, because he was based in the States, and they liked it," Alipe said in a MYX Setlist interview.
Reyes's band InYo (reportedly named after yin and yang), formed in 2006 and based in Florida, had already recorded an 11-track album with Big3 Records.
InYo had also been composed of experienced musicians like Mike Sylvia, Tommy Jamin and Cebu-born Anton Cortes.
"Then we tried to convince Franco to come back here in the Philippines. Thank God it happened," Alipe added.
Though Reyes thought it was egotistic to name the band after him, the members took a vote and decided to name their band Franco.
While balancing their schedules between Franco and their other bands can be tough, Menseses said it isn't hard to priotize if they are "really into this."
The band members have been busy with gigs and sometimes have to do back-to-back performances with both Franco and their respective bands.
The band had also been busy finalizing the tracks for their album, which is much-anticipated by many fans who have heard and loved their music. They also filmed for the music video of "Cast Away" last December.
Up until last week I was still playing NBA 2K11. No other sports game has lasted me as long, and I was contemplating skipping this year's version because, hey, 2K11 is still fun and I like to take breaks between my sports games. That would have been a colossally stupid move. NBA 2K12 takes everything I love about last year and makes it better. Then it takes nearly all the parts I didn't like and turns them awesome. Hey, other sports games, you just got schooled. Again.
NBA 2K12 has three different covers highlighting the athletes that define basketball (though most gamers will see the Michael Jordan cover, marking the second year in a row his Airness takes the spot). But it's about a lot more than MJ this year. Last year's Jordan Challenges were the highlight of the game, but 2K12's NBA's Greatest mode trumps it. Michael Jordan is back, and along with him come Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon, Scottie Pippen, and 10 other basketball greats. They're matched up in games against other basketball legends such as the '93 Hornets, Dikembe Mutombo and Shaq with the Orlando Magic. Every team you play as and against is unlockable, letting you pit the greatest players of the last 40-plus years against the stars of today. Want to see Dwight Howard go head to head against Shaq in his prime? Of course you do because that's awesome.
Each game gets the full presentational treatment. (You're going to hear a lot about presentation in this review, because NBA 2K12's is astounding.) The games are treated like television broadcasts from the era, so Bill Russel's mid-'60s Celtics game is in black and white. The announcers treat the games like playbacks, talking about your performance as if it already happened and sharing trivia about the players.
Last year, two of the biggest complaints were the cheap defensive AI and the alien looking players. NBA 2K12 improves on both counts, but it's not perfect. The defense never lets up and will take advantage on every play if you let them. They still occasionally become psychic (my favorite was Dallas Mavericks center Brendan Haywood executing a perfect backhanded block without ever turning around to see me coming in for the layup), but it's rarer. The fact is that you're given so much more control of your footwork and shots, that it's up to you to get around the defense, because the game won't do it for you anymore. Choosing which hand to shoot the layup from or which way to fake before a jump shot makes or breaks every point in the game, and NBA 2K12 give you full control. It takes a little while to get fully accustomed to, but the amount of control you have is incredible.
As for the players, many of them look better. Kobe Bryant got a noticeable improvement. There are still alien looking players on every team, and each time the game cuts to them it is a bit jarring. Everything else about the game looks so amazing, that it really stands out. People would watch me play and comment on how fantastic the game looks, and then boom, Jarret Jack comes on screen looking like he got stung by bees in his face or Steve Nash shows his hideous mug. (Granted, Nash is kind of ugly anyway, but still.)
For me, the improvements to My Player sold me on the game. Last year, My Player was the most popular mode in the game, which is surprising considering how slowly it started. For NBA 2K12, the developers streamlined the draft process. Instead of pickup games and a possible trip to the D-League, you hop into a single game, with full presentation, commentary, crowds, and flair. From there you go into interviews with three potential teams (so you can fine tune who exactly you end up with), and then it's straight to the draft.
After that, the mode feels very similar: you control your guy, meeting game objectives and trying to be a team player. But the developers made it easier to get into the game by making your player start out with higher stats and making the Teammate Grade system more forgiving. It's easier at first, but that's because this year you're trying to get into the Hall of Fame, which is no easy feat. You'll have to play your ass off to meet the requirements, and it takes a long time. My Player is one of the most robust single-player modes in a sports game, rivaling MLB The Show's "Road to the Show" mode. The gameplay is tighter, the presentation is broader, and it finally feels like your character is an actual NBA athlete.
Association, NBA 2K12's franchise mode, returns and is largely similar to last year's, but that's not a bad thing. Association does a wonderful job of putting you in control of the team. It's here that the presentation and commentary outshine other sports games. 2K12 treats every game like a televised matchup, with intros, animated roster lineups, and commercials for upcoming games. The crowds and stadiums are realistic and react to how well your team does. Seeing nobody show up to a Charlotte Bobcats game (a serious real life issue for the franchise) and then watching the seats fill as you take the Bobcats to their first ever playoff appearance highlights the level of detail. Playing the same team for dozens of games will cause the commentary to repeat a bit, but that's coupled with a multitude of commentary for every other team you play. There was an amazing bit where the commentators started joking about which famous politicians they roomed with in college, poking fun at Grant Hill's parents. I "WTFed" in the best way possible.
Bill Russell
In Association, the trade AI is still smart, and won't be fooled easily, but they still offer up some odd deals that are objectively sound but realistically stupid. Sure, Chris Paul is having the best season of his career when I played him, but there is no way the Heat would offer Lebron James for him after their whole "this is a Dynasty" talk.
What I'm most excited about with Association is the new online mode. Players can set up a franchise and play with friends for an entire season. The demo I got and the few games I've played have been great, but it's hard to say how it will hold up when the servers get flooded. In a week or so, we'll come back with a full report on it.
Jason Statham as Frank Martin in the movie Transporter 3
"Transporter 3" -- the latest installment of cinema's extended meditation on the hidden perils of overnight delivery -- stars bullet-headed Jason Statham, who bears the mark of the Modern Bond, which is to say his veins are pumped with ice water and his soul is in perpetual traction.
His character's straightforward name, Frank Martin, is just as chilly and soulless.
You picture him driving a Lincoln Town Car with a cracked dashboard, not a peppy Audi. And you don't picture him living in France, or anywhere east of Brighton, or wherever producer Luc Besson lives.
If you have not seen the "Transporter" pictures, I would like to say there is so much mythology here you'll need an explainer and flow chart. But everything is as evident as it sounds, and that, alas, is the appeal of the franchise. In an age of HBO series with plots of Dickensian complexity and "Twilight" and action heroes so coiled into a hot rage they can barely stoop to quip, Frank Martin is the no-bones Teamster of action heroes, doing the same job always, moving new packages by old rules.
But one question: Why hire Frank Martin?
In this newest "Transporter," he is not out of work or tired, but he is fishing a lot.
He watches fishing on TV when he is not fishing. Bad men who want to move a bad package come to him, but he refers them to one of his associates, who is killed because of incompetence (and drives into Frank's living room to let him know the job isn't going so well).
The leader of the bad men, meanwhile -- balding, leering, vaguely Eastern European, somehow connected to the environmental movement, blackmailing a French official somehow connected to the environmental movement and cargo ships full of a chemical waste -- goes directly to Frank and demands that he deliver the package instead. Frank is beaten up when he resists. His wrist is strapped with a bracelet that explodes if he strays 75 feet from his car, which holds the package. The package, we learn, is Ukrainian beauty Valentina (Natalya Rudakova), who is also outfitted with one of these bracelets. But things go awry.
Which brings me back to: Why do Europeans still refer to Frank Martin as the most effective express-mail service on the continent?
This is the third "Transporter" movie. Beyond their impressive ability to double as greatest-hits packages of contemporary action-flick clichés -- cameras racing close to the ocean, then angling upward; aerial shots of gilded saints at the top of church spires in mountainous towns; etc.--and the lingual contortions some of their casts perform to say things like "conglomerate," these films are reminders not to hire Frank Martin. If you hired him, there is a good chance you have exploded by now. He killed you, or the package was damaged, or your insurance company is asking about that train car you vaporized.
I have a theory: They enjoy the company of Statham. I certainly do. "Transporter 3" isn't much of anything, but two or three times it thins into a diced balletic aria of clipped pretzeled kicks and punches (choreography by Cory Yuen) in which a dozen men take on Statham, surrounding him with lead pipes in hand, patiently waiting their turn to take a swing. It's hard not to smile.
The best sequences involve Frank's inventive ability to stay within 75 feet of his car, but otherwise, it's the charismatic, unruffled dexterity in the face of impossible odds that rivets. Indeed, Frank says it better: A friend explains their love for Jerry Lewis, and Frank counters: "Anyone can fall down and get a laugh, but a real genius does it while drinking and smoking." Oui.
Transporter 3 starring Jason Statham Movie Trailer
MPAA rating: PG-13 (for sequences of intense action and violence, some sexual content and drug material).
Running time: 1:40.
Starring: Jason Statham (Frank Martin); Natalya Rukakova (Valentina); Francois Berleand (Tarconi); Robert Knepper (Johnson).
Directed by Olivier Megaton; written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen; photographed by Giovanni Fiore Coltellacci; edited by Camille Delamarre and Carlo Rizzo; music by Alexandre Azaria; produced by Besson and Steven Chasman. A Lionsgate release.
Before Nintendo or any other computer games that followed, this was how children played and amused themselves. It may be limited to my own experiences but perhaps children today can learn from us - that fun was free!
Piko is often a girls' game but even boys enjoy it. Piko or hopscotch is very popular in the Philippines. You can use chalk or charcoal to write the boxes on the ground. If it is on soil, you can use a stick to create the boxes. Boxes are either 8, 10 or 12 and their steps (whether 1 or 2) may vary. A child can play this alone but it is usually much more fun if you have several playmates to play with you.
To begin, create boxes that should look like this, numbered 1 to 10.
Then find a puck - could be a smooth stone or a rounded tile that you can use as your marker. Each player has their own individual markers or pucks. Nice stones, a smoothened terra cotta or piece from a broken pottery, it has to be heavy enough to stay when thrown but flat enough to get the right balance so you can throw it easily to where you want it to land (onto which box and/or number).
You begin with the puck at number one. If your puck is in box 1, you skip that box and jump to box number two using only one leg. You can only land with both feet in each box at numbers 4 and 5 and also on numbers 8 and 9. When you reach box ten, you can pivot so you can skip back down to box number 2, thne you pick up your puck by bending and keeping one leg up and jump out of the boxes on both feet.
Now you throw your puck and make sure it lands on box 2. Start with one foot in box 1, skip box 2 where your puck is, using the same leg, land your foot on box 3 and continue up to box 10. Pivot and go back down, at box 3, bend to pick up your puck on box 2, since box 2 is empty, you can now jump into it down to box 1 and out of the boxes.
Players take turns throwing their pucks starting at number 1. If you didn't throw your puck on the correct box, you miss your turn and will have a chance after all the other players have finished their turns.
What do you learn?
From this game, you learn the early counting, balance and how to aim for something using your hands, arms and fingers. You gauge the weight of your puck and throw it with just the right force. You learn to strengthen your knees as you put your weight on one leg and bend down to retrieve your puck. You also learn patience as you wait for your turn.
Other Variations
Aside from this, a variation is once you reach 10 - your puck is on the 10th box/space - you pick it up and land on both feet at box 10. Then without looking, you throw your puck making sure it lands inside the square of a numbered box (not on the lines). Then you pivot and skip and retrieve your puck in the usual way and finish skipping down to box 1.
I have spent many lazy afternoons and weekends playing this and have even taught this game to my own daughter. I've realised that any age can play this game too! Enjoy!
What does it mean? Well Jack and Poy are obviously names. Hali-hali hoy! is like an expression calling them towards the speaker. Hali ka, means come here. Hoy! is one effective way of calling a Filipino’s attention...similar to “Hey!”
Perhaps the person is calling both Jack and Poy to come play with him. The last statement: “Sino’ng matalo, siya’ng unggoy!” is a tease that whoever will lose is the monkey...of the monkey’s the loser.
While saying this rhyme, children do rock, papers, scissors. First with the beat they put their right hand, formed into a fist, pointed towards each other, and continue to do so, along with the beat until the last one, where they spread and reveal whether they will use rock, paper or scissor as their “hand”. The loser eventually is the unggoy.
This is used as preliminary elimination for most Filipino children’s games, along with “Maalis, alis” and even without another game to play, this alone can provide hours of amusing fun for kids who can be creative and change the bits i.e. “sinong matalo kakain ng champoy” (whoever loses will eat champoy). Champoy is a Chinese sweet that is also a favorite Filipino candy.
It is noteworthy to add that the Japanese have a very similar (though more complicated, with more hand formations; click title to get to the link) hand game. In Japan, hand games are called Ken asobi. This particular game is called Jaken Pon.
Michael Jackson's This Is It has all the singer's hits in their toe-tapping glory. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/Sony Pictures Releas/PA
For everyone who's thirsted for more Michael Jackson since his death little more than four months ago, the wait is finally over. For the rest of us, it's time to look on in awe as Jackson's memory – and the legendary fervency of his fans – is ruthlessly exploited till the pips squeak.
As is all too well known, Jackson was carried off shortly before embarking on a 50-date residency at London's O2 Arena to try and pay off his rumoured $500m debts; footage shot during rehearsal for this series of shows forms
the vast majority of this much-heralded and hyped film, and goes some of the way to plugging both fans' disappointment and his estate's balance sheet.
So, to the burning question: is there any intimation of Jackson's impending demise? I can't honestly say there is. In the footage we are permitted to see, Jackson appears in pretty good shape for a 50-year-old – even if his general spindliness makes him occasionally look a bit like Skeletor in a lamé tuxedo. He performs at walking pace for much of the time, but makes it clear he is holding himself in.
As for the film itself, I can simply report that it isn't too bad at all. It's pretty much unadorned rehearsal footage, artfully stitched together to create complete song sequences; and since the O2 gigs were intended to present his crowdpleasing hits, they're all here in their toe-tapping glory. Director Kenny Ortega puts himself in the frame quite a bit (sucking up to Jackson something rotten, it has to be said), and we learn that Jackson appeared to prefer culinary metaphors to describe his music: it must "sizzle", or "simmer", or indeed "nourish".
The big fear, though, was that fulsome homages to the man and his talent would smother This Is It in a coating of treacle; thankfully, Ortega limits it to the occasional sobbing outburst from the dancers or choreographers. We are instead offered genuinely interesting tidbits of Jackson's stagecraft, in the shape of intense discussion of cues, cherry-pickers and trapdoors – presumably to demonstrate how hands-on he was.
And there's some fun sequences showing the creation of specially filmed inserts, such as the intro for Smooth Criminal having Jackson being Photoshopped into black and white movie clips from the 1940s, fending off Bogart and Cagney.
Jackson's penchant for drivel couldn't be entirely eliminated, as evidenced by the sickly little scene, built around a small girl wandering through an enchanted forest, that heralds Earth Song.
Still, this could have been a lot worse. It's a bit much to claim it's any kind of viable substitute for the live show, and since Jackson avoids conversation as much as is humanly possible it's also a bit much to claim we get to know anything more about how he ticks. But This Is It a testament of a kind, and one that is no disgrace to his memory.
From out of nowhere, Capcom does these things, call them quirky fits and starts, call them meltdowns, or call them genius. You'd be right on all counts. Capcom goes about making sequel after sequel of Street Fighter or Resident Evil or Mega Man and just when you're finally fed up with the monotony, bam! The creative minds in the Research and Development labs deliver something totally genuine, something sexy, something new and by all means desirable. While Resident Evil long ago reached its height and is now at a development crossroads, and Onimusha came very close to the mark of greatness, Devil May Cry blazes past the high-water mark of serious kick-ass action, and reaches right into the limitless sky.
Offering a flash of two-fisted gun action coupled with a deadly devil sword, Devil May Cry's rock-and-roll gunslinger, Dante, is a dark anti-hero kind of guy you that even a down-in-the-dumps, disgruntled teenager would love. He's loaded with attitude, means what he says, and fights like a Tasmanian Devil, only with a flashy kind of rocker coolness about him few characters have ever shown in a videogame.
Devil May Cry is an action game in the truest sense of the word. It blasts through level after level of juggling combos, guns and swords alternating to and fro, and a skill-level that continually makes the game worthwhile. It's also packed to the gills with a litany of enemy classes to fight (upward of 20), an amazingly luxurious graphic environment in which to fight them, and a large arsenal of weapons, each with multitudes of upgrades to take on everything. There's no doubt about it, Capcom's Devil May Cry is tour de force of fisticuffs and intelligent arcade gameplay that's unequalled on the consoles today. It's a pure burst of brilliance.
A Devil of a Story
The story, in case you hadn't already heard it, sounds kind of familiar, and if one were to simplify, one could say it sounds like a cross between Castlevania and Blade. Dante is the son of the legendary Sparta, a devil lieutenant with a heart for humans who turned against the Devil Prince more than 2,000 years ago, and in doing so turned the Usurping Devil Prince's evil dreams on their head. He conquered the devil, permanently trapping him, and then left his evil past and the Underworld, so as to live with humankind. He married a woman who bore a half-devil, half-man child, Dante.
At the game's start, Dante is kind of a maverick head-hunter, free-agent type who only takes the weird jobs, and always the ones with devils or spooky bad guys. This time, a stranger who is a part of Dante's mysterious past and who goes by the name of Trish, challenges him to stop the Devil from making a comeback. Dante naturally agrees and they both travel to a mysterious island mounted with a gigantic castle on it.
As the story progresses, gamers find out more about Dante's family, about his father's role in the past, and in the game itself, which side Trish is on, and you meet up with a motley crew of beasts, servants and creatures, all of which serve the Devil Prince, who's freed himself and is now once again preparing to take over the world.
Cameras and Controls
More often than not, I've started discussing the camera angles with games such as these because they're so heatedly argued. Since everyone wants to know how the camera angles affect gameplay, we'll begin right with it. Like Resident Evil and Onimusha before it, Devil May Cry uses still, fixed cameras for gamers to see and play. Here, the camera angles are fixed in usually large rooms, providing plenty of room to see where you need to be. Hallways and smaller rooms still exist, too, and cinematic techniques are used heavily through each level. Given the extraordinary level of music and graphic design, the various camera angles produce tension, subtlety in moods, fear and create great surges of adrenaline in every player, and help to form a nearly perfect world. They're not perfect, but they're damn good.
So you’ve heard of the High Fidelity Lifestyle, but how does one attain it?
What are the best action steps that lead to a higher level of consciousness and a more rewarding day to day existence?
What are the MINDSETS you need to cultivate the state of mind excellence?
I had a lot of guys comment and email me after the last article,asking about my own motivations and daily routine towards a high fidelity life.
It reminded me of a book I read a few years ago, which has had a huge impact on how I view my goals, and how I live my life.
What does Michael Jordan have to do with success with women, or personal development for that matter?
What in a book about an NBA athlete can bring you towards the state of mind excellence?
Well, I think this book might be one of THE BEST examples on detailing the career of someone living the high fidelity lifestyle.
Be The Best In Everything You Do
Driven from Within by Michael Jordan gives you an inside perspective on how MJ lives his life.
Most people know about the 6 national championships, Gatorade commericals, and Nike shoes. That’s all covered.
But what is even more amazing is the work ethic. The mindset Jordan uses. Not only on the court, but in business, and everything he does.
Most experts and lay alike would consider him the best to ever play the game, but beyond basketball, Michael Jordan also played a pivotal role in reinventing the way sports-stars were marketed, and completely revolutionized the sporting apparel and basketball shoe industry through Brand Jordan and Nike.
Living to his fullest potential, whether it be competing in a ping pong game, to the way he dresses, to how he trains for every single game on the court.
Leading by example, being the first one in the gym, and the last one home.
Heading to the practice court the day after winning ANOTHER championship, hoping to repeat again.
Thoughts of a Conscious Man
Another reason I think this is a great book is it brings you to Jordan’s level of consciousness, raising you to a higher standard as you read through the development of his career both on and off the court.
Michael is one of those rare breeds that somehow naturally evolved into a highly conscious dude.
Although self/personal development is never brought up explicitly, but Jordan’s work ethic, motivations, and view of the world are a great example of the outward manifestations of being self actualized.
Control over your emotions, control over how you perceive the world and the actions others take.
This is most salient near the end of the book when Jordan is talking about his father’s murder, and how he is the only one in his family that has truly moved on.
He explains how he doesn’t worry about things that are outside of his control, work on what you can control, and strive to be the best in those things.
Again, not to impress, not to compare yourself to others, but because what else would you do with your time?!
Why not do something different, do something incredible?
When asked about what drove him to succeed:
“When we won one championship, then I wanted to win two in a row. When we won two, then I wanted to win three in a row because Larry and Magic never won three straight.”
It’s a great example of what Jordan considers “tricking” yourself into creating goals.
Always something small and attainable.
You shouldn’t expect to go into the NBA and exclaim, “I am going to win 3 championships in a row!”
Just as you can’t expect to get 3 playboy playmates your first month in the game.
Baby steps goes both ways.
You keep your goals short term so they are attainable, this leads to more successes, and makes life more enjoyable.
But you also create short term small goals to keep moving forward, even if there is no real reason to do it.
You might as well choose to do something with your life, and you might as well do it as best as you possibly can. Check the book out! Highly recommended!
—-
I’m writing this from a random PC computer, my macbook fried last week and I’ve been HIGHLY frustrated by how long it is taking to fix, as it has not only slowed down my article writing here, but also stunting my other internet related endeavors.
But, a nice by-product is that I’ve been reading a lot of books, so expect a few more book reviews, and probably another business related post in the next few days…
Have a good week!
The first “sneak peak” at Gamescom gave millions of people their first look at the new Valve’s product DotA 2. It left us a general impression that DotA 2 is a well developed game, which will after its final polish stand beside the top products in a gaming community.
What DotA 2 actually is?
The best way to describe Dota 2 and its genre is action RTS. It has a real-time strategy view but you only control a single hero. Within the game there is a small RPG experience as your character or so called Hero has no experience on the start of the match. As the game progresses you become really powerful with lots of different items and skills. Picking the best combination of Heroes as a team(matches are 5vs5) is crucial for doing any sort of strategy.
User Interface
Before the match-up we could see a user interface for picking the heroes. All is very smooth and designed with a good contrast. The whole interface is designed to match up the atmosphere of the game.
Gameplay
A lot of speculations were made about the gameplay. As promised by Valve and IceFrog gameplay seems very similar to the original DotA as planned. Almost all heroes were imported from the old DotA.
Graphics
The game looks fabulous! Many claim it is a copy of HoN or even LoL but the graphics of DotA 2 give a player a unique experience. Battles are very well detailed, which all sums up to a better gameplay experience. The design goes with the dark/cold atmosphere that DotA represents, while the attacks are very colorful with smooth animations.
There might not be as many animations but DotA 2 gives you a clean, crisp look at detailed animations. No more confusion where everything is glowing and you can’t recognize even your own players.
Sounds
Everything seems to be in place as the sounds greatly improve gameplay. Some older sounds were also implemented like the evergreen “Multi Kill”.
Dragon Nest is the latest in a string of Action-MMORPGs to migrate from South Korea. While the developer, in this caseEyedentity Games, is usually responsible for the awesomeness in any given title, Dragon Nest owes a great deal to its localization team in North America for some of its more joyous aspects.
That's not to say that Eyedentity Games didn't do a great job, though -- because they did. Dragon Nest is a solid action game; the controls are tight, combat makes a lot of sense, and group interaction during the fifteen-minute (or so) dungeons, like rushing in to juggle an enemy after an ally has knocked them up, is intuitive while remaining interesting.
They've also done a lot with very little in terms of visuals. While nothing in Dragon Nest seems to extend beyond PS2-era visuals, a cohesive, vaguely children's-bookish art style combined with smooth animations and lots of effects has stopped me from completely disregarding the simple looks. Dragon Nest isn't a graphical powerhouse (and given its intention of being playable on as many systems as possible, it was probably never intended to be), but presents itself with enough confidence and occasional pizzazz that its simple appearance never became an issue. That said, it's weird -- and kind of off-putting -- seeing some of the women with their boobs half hanging out in a game that, from a glance, looks so family-friendly.
But that's kind of Dragon Nest's MO. It looks simple on the surface, but there's a lot more depth (and fun) than initially meets the eye. Fighting isn't just a simple case of mashing the mouse buttons (although that's certainly part of it); dodging when you need to, turning your dodge into a counter attack, and knowing when and how to cancel an enemy's attacks are all very important. Self-preservation is key to the later, tougher fights, because even the Priest class (which I primarily played) heals only very rarely, and for quite small amounts. Instead, the "healer" relies more on disabling enemies and positioning them cleverly for allies to pour on the damage. It's a system I enjoyed immensely, though at times felt a little less rewarding than I would have liked.
Rewarding players is something that Dragon Nest definitely needs to work on. Sure, quests have rewards, but I found myself getting rewards that I typically had no need for, like Topaz Fragments (which I have yet to find a that requires them), or pieces of gear I couldn't use yet, like a level 20 necklace when I was still level 17. Finding gear that was too high-level for me was a consistent issue with Dragon Nest. There seems to only be gear made for specific level ranges, so during gap levels I found myself accumulating gear I couldn't equip. That's a problem, given how little inventory space you have by default. More can be bought permanently from the NX shop, but if you plan on playing for free, be prepared to go all Sophie's Choice on those new boots and that new pair of pants you found. More frequent usable upgrades would help alleviate this, because I would be less inclined to keep gear if I knew more was always coming.
Luckily, the quests themselves are entertaining, even with temporarily-unusable rewards. Whenever you pick up or turn in a quest, you are met with some genuinely clever, often witty dialogue with the NPC. Each NPC is completely fleshed out, and they make tongue-in-cheek jokes about the similarities they may have to other NPCs in other towns. Reading the dialogue is delightful, and it's entirely thanks to the North American localization team at Nexon.
Although the quests always send you to a dungeon, the dungeons have enough engaging encounters and difficulty levels that they tend to at least keep me interested throughout. The boss fights on the hardest (or "Abyss") difficulty are particularly cool. Sometimes Abyss bosses come with a second, identical boss for you to tackle at the same time. Other times they are just super strong, have way more abilities and double the health. Whatever the case, the boss encounters are always challenging and enjoyable.
Getting a group together to tackle a dungeon on Abyss can be a pain, though, especially if you've got a specific dungeon in mind. The current party system only displays players looking for party members in your local area. Players can display which dungeon and difficulty they're running, but typically don't, and there's no matchmaking. Nexon's other 3D session-based MMO Vindictus has a dungeon-by-dungeon party system which works much better.
If you get tired of running dungeons, challenge maps and a PvP arena also exist to ceaselessly murder in, too. I find the PvP pretty fun, but with more than about 8 players in a map it got too chaotic to really do anything. Instead, if I got singled out, I'd sit and watch my character get juggled for 20 seconds, unable to do anything except die. That's less than an ideal experience, but that's why smaller maps are available, I guess.
CLOSING COMMENTS
Despite the niggling little issues of matchmaking, gear gaps and the occasionally-chaotic PvP scenario, Dragon Nest has plenty to offer. Its combat is deep and rewarding, and pits you against some truly interesting encounters. The care put into each and every bit of character dialogue is also evident throughout, and adds a great deal to the charm of the world. If you're looking to dip your toes in the free-to-play ocean, Dragon Nest is certainly a good place to do it.
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