Black Light Retribution Review

Black Light Retribution is a free to play First Person Shooter developed by Perfect World Entertainment, and is currently in its open beta phase. Now like most free to play games, there is an item store, which often runs on the basis of micro transactions by players having to pay real money in exchange for a certain amount of in-game currency. However the difference in the game's item shop is that it contains both items that can be bought with currency that can be earned by participating in matches (GP) and also the premium currency which involves payment (Zen).

The game operates on the Unreal Engine 3 engine, which allows for highly detailed graphics, of characters, weapons and environments as well. However, one feature that the Unreal engine allows is destructible environments which is not featured at all in the game. Therefore to run it at high graphic quality and have a reasonable frame rate, one should have a computer with a good graphics card. However, playing it at slightly lower quality does not take away from the game that much.

The game play is rather like any first person shooter. There are different game modes present in the game as well; the traditional free for all death match, the team death match, a king of the hill based game mode which involves two teams competing for three control points located on the map, the team with the most points at the end will win. There is also a capture the flag mode which the players can enjoy. A player can choose up to 7 load outs, all secondary load out slots, after the first need to be purchased. In each load out, the player must choose a primary weapon and a secondary weapon. The player must also choose a grenade type and a melee weapon which stay the same throughout the load outs. Also the player must choose certain items which he can purchase from weapon depots located across the map. These could range from refilling ammo to mechanized suits.

There is a large number of customization one can bring about in their characters in terms of armour, camouflage, weapon add-ons, emblems, etc. However, many of these visual customizations can only be purchased by using Zen.

The gameplay is great, there is no denying that, however the ping that Indian users get is not adequate enough to play the game at it's full potential. The reason for this is that the game only has servers in USA and Europe, so if they had a server located somewhere in South Asia or South East Asia, then the ping could be better and the game could be enjoyed more.

Also I would prefer it if not all the items had to be purchased to use, and the problem is that all the items after the original items only have a certain time period till which they can use, after which they expire. This should be changed so that the player can have the option of purchasing permanent equipment, removing the need to constantly purchase the weapons and modifications that you prefer over and over again.

Overall I would say that the game is going in a pretty good direction currently as it is in Open Beta right now. Hopefully by full release they will have permanent items and have a server or two located in Asia.   

Girls and Gaming

Most males on the internet generally tend to discriminate against women playing video games, and have the common mind set that girls do not play video games and the girls tend to run away from guys who do have an avid interest in games or general fantasy/sci-fi/technological pursuits. You can commonly posts on the net saying that there are no women on the internet, and if somebody tells you that they are a girl, then it is assumed that they are a G.I.R.L (Guy in Real Life). Another belief is that if women/girls actually do play video games, then they are not attractive at all. These beliefs are usually formed due to the stereotypes we find in our social environment, we talk to our male friends about gaming and we can easily have a lengthy discussion, but if we talk to most females, they will either not know much about the topic being conversed or will just call it stupid and nerdy and walk away, therefore leading us to believe that girls find games stupid and therefore do not play them.

However in recent years, girls have taken a much more active stance in gaming, both in terms of recreational playing and competitive playing. And video game/console developers are starting to notice this and are trying to encourage a larger female player base. Many companies think that girls often like to play feminine games, that often do not involve shooting, or violence of sorts, and rather prefer games that are cartoony and are rather casual in play style. But many females are actually interested in First Person Shooters, such as Call of Duty and Battlefield 3 and Role Playing Games, mostly Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games. This is because they often interact with males who play the game, and due to this interaction, they start finding the game interesting and decide to try it out for themselves, often getting rather engrossed in the game.

When the topic of girls playing video games is brought up, they are usually associated with playing games such as Dance Dance Revolution, Hello Kitty or other games that are usually based on repetitive action, cute mini games and highly animated graphics, because men cannot imagine the possibility of a female gamer playing a "hardcore" game and actually being successful at it in comparison to the other people she would be playing against. This is a common misconception as females can often defeat males in various games, around all genres from sports to shooters.

Males are also slowly adapting to a number of girls playing the same game that they are playing, however, in many cases they treat the females in a different manner than they would treat members of the same sex. They tend to protect the females in quests from monsters, help by giving a lot of equipment and gold, and will constantly protect the girl from being harassed by other members of the society. This behaviour usually stems from the fact that many of these males have limited interaction with females and treat the game as a platform to interact and get closer to them. Many of the females often take advantage of the behaviour of males towards them to try and get further along in the game, whilst not actually even caring about the male. However in certain cases the female prefers if she is treated like a normal male because they would rather play the game than involve themselves with interactions with the males, therefore they often create male characters in game so as to be treated equally.

Now many people still believe that females do not take an active interest in playing video games, however there is a large number of females I have personally interacted with and read about that play games rather seriously, in the gaming clan Fever Clan(http://feverclan.com/). There are also many all girl gaming clans and groups that play competitively for games like Call of Duty, Counter Strike, Dragon Nest, Tekken, Soul Calibur, etc.

Therefore we can easily see that girls are starting to pick up video gaming, and are actually interested in playing the games and not using it as a tool for social interactions. This shows that the dominance of males in the field of gaming, has got new found competition with the arrival of female gamers.

Mouse Grips and which mouse suits you

Generally most people do not pay attention to the way they hold their mouse, and when they get a new mouse they find that it really doesn't suit them and they never manage to figure out why. The basic reason is that each individual has a different style of holding a mouse, and each mouse has a different structure that makes it more suitable for a certain style. When a person purchases a mouse they must buy one that suits their style of grip, the size of their hand and suits their dominant hand of use. There are three different mouse grips one can use:-

1. The Palm Grip - This is the most common method an individual uses a computer mouse. It involves the user placing his entire hand onto the top of the mouse, resting his palm and the pit of his hand on the rear of the mouse. The mouse is held and controlled by the user pinching his hand together to hold the mouse between his thumb, the heel of his palm and his ring or pinkie fingers. The index and middle fingers are usually placed fully on the left and right mouse buttons respectively.

A slight variation of the palm grip style is where the pinkie finger is used as the right side stabilizer to hold the mouse, with the index, middle and ring fingers placed on the left button, scroll wheel and right button respectively.

The palm grip is defined by the fact that the entire surface of the user’s fingers and palm make contact with the surface of the mouse and the contact points on the mouse are large and undefined.

2. The Claw Grip - The claw grip is another style of holding a mouse that requires the user to arch his/her hand and form a claw shape, pulling the mouse in so the rear end of the mouse is stabilized by barely touching the pit of the user’s hand.

The claw grip is characterized by the arching fingers required to hold the mouse and press each mouse button. The formation of the user’s fingers and the retracted stance of the hand over the mouse make this grip vaguely resemble the claw of a bird, which is where the style draws its moniker. The mouse is held and controlled by the tips of the user’s index and ring or pinkie fingers and stabilized by the pit of the user’s hand so the mouse does not sway when it is lifted.

The main difference between the claw grip and the palm grip is that in the claw grip, only the fingertips and the pit of the palm come into contact with the mouse whereas in the palm grip, the entire length of the fingers and the whole palm rests on the mouse surface.

3. The Fingertip Grip - The fingertip grip is considered to be a subset of the claw grip, where the user grips the mouse solely with the tips of his/her fingers. While this grip style strictly speaking falls within the claw grip subset, it is a popular grip, particularly amongst proponents of certain genres of games, thus elevating it to the status of a primary grip style for gameplay. Unlike the conventional claw grip, the base of the palm is moved away from the rear of the mouse as the user is not concerned with stabilizing the rear of the mouse in his hand and wants increased precision and control of the mouse on the mousing surface instead.

Good Mice for Each Grip:

Palm Grip – Razer Deathadder ($44.99), CM Storm Sentinel Z3RO-G, Logitech MX Revolution

Claw Grip – Steel Series Sensei ($79.99), Mad Catz Cyborg R.A.T 7 ($78.99)

Fingertip Grip – Logitech G9X ($64.99), Razer Abyssus ($29.99)

Signature Tutorial (With Images)

Today I will be showing you how to make the following signature:-

So, the steps taken to make the signature are as follows :-

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Continent of The Ninth Seal VIP Test

From the few videos I have seen, I was pretty intrigued by the Continent of the Ninth Seal. So when I heard that a VIP Closed Beta test was going to occur for the Global version, I decided to rush in and get a key. From what I had seen I expected the game to be pretty decent and polished, however I was pretty sorely mistaken. Read my experiences below. 

After trying to download the game for three days, due to the download file constantly getting corrupted, or the connection to the server getting lost, I got slightly annoyed. I tried downloading it through the normal download, then I tried the downloader they (Webzen, the distributors of the Global Version of the game) recommended, i tried a random software called Download Manager Pro and then I finally succeeded with Download Accelerator Pro.

Now like most games, after installation of a 4.16 GB files, you should be able to use it straight from the program, but, Webzen has tied up the game with their site, so have to log on to their site and then play the game from there. This step I could deal with because this process has worked with Maplestory, a game I was fond of for quite a while.

In the game launcher, you are shown the latest news, an option button to set the basic graphical settings of the game, you can check the patches and you can start the game. Upon starting the game, you choose a server (currently there is only the VIP test server) and then you are sent to your character selection screen, which contains 12 character slots, more than quite a few games that are out right now. When you create a new character, you can create one of three classes; a warrior, a ranger and a shaman. A warrior is a traditional Tanky, Semi-Damaging Class(Locked as Male), Rangers are the standard DPS class (Locked as Male) and Shamans are the basic Mage class(Locked as Female). While creating the character the user is given quite a bit of customisability with their characters, and can adjust various features of their hair, face, body and most other aspects of their appearance.

The interface of the game is quite dated and resembles those used in games that were made around 5-6 years ago, this is really not appealing when you're playing a game in 2012 when the rest of the competition has a much neater and better looking interface. There are also numerous typos when quest descriptions are given, when characters speak, when cut-scenes occur, etc. This may be fixed later on as the game progresses into open beta and eventually into complete release, but typos just tend to annoy the user

Upon entering the game for the first time, you are presented with a tutorial that explains the basics of the game quite well. The commands are basic as in any action MMO, where the mouse is used for basic attacks, and creating combo attacks, various hotkeys are used for skills, and the WASD or Arrow keys are used for movement. The F button is used for hitting enemies that have been knocked down. The battles are far too clunky and slow for my liking; when compared to games like Vindictus and Dragon Nest, where the game play is far smoother and faster.

The skills that are learned can be divided into three types; active skills, stances and passive skills. Active skills are those which the player utilizes from the hot key bar and have a variety of effects. Passive skills provide a certain bonus to some stat or the other, without having to be utilized. Stances are like passive skills, they do not need to be equipped on a hot key and used, but they provide a set of actions that the player can utilize. These actions also provide certain skills as well.

PvP has not been released yet, I shall give a brief overview of that when it comes out.

Overall, the game is too slow and clunky for my liking, however some people may enjoy it. The graphics are decent, but the interface seems very dated.The major factor that I liked was the huge degree of customization the player is allowed, however if the game itself is not too great, then no matter how much you customize it wont make much of a difference. If you want to play a good Action MMO I would recommend you give Dragon Nest(SEA or NA, depending on your location) a try, or if you have access to a US/EU IP then you could try out Vindictus as well.

For full image click here

Bleach Chapter 480 - Final Arc

So, the final storyline arc of Bleach has begun following the Fullbring Arc, and it's titled the Final Holy War, dunno much about the reason for the arc name yet, but it should be cleared up somewhere near the middle of the arc. The chapter begins with the Shinigami Research Institute complaining about there being many hollows just instantly disappearing, and the Captain of the 12th Division of the Gotei 13, Mayuri Kurotsuchi states that only a certain group can erase Hollows from existence completely, and they must have a hand in this.

The scene then shifts to a new recruit Yuki Ryuunosuke, who is asleep and drooling, upon which the soon to be ex-shinigami representative of Karakura Town, Zennosuke Kuramadani shouts at him and tells him to pay more attention,as he is going to be replacing him as the shinigami representative of Karakura Town. Yuki apologizes and his then slapped by his friend and partner Shina. After slapping him, Shina tells Yuki to stop being a sissy, as he feels afraid of the large number of hollow appearances in Karakura Town, and to stick his chest out with pride. Yuki laughs at this because Shina has a negligible chest, so sticking it out would be pointless.

Later Yuki and Shina head out to Karakura town as the new shinigami representatives, and a mysterious figure is seen standing on a building. Shina decides that they should split up and patrol, Yuki is against it because he is afraid that they might get attacked by hollows. They soon get attacked by hollows and are not able to do anything against them. Ichigo appears and kills one of the hollows, he then introduces himself. As soon as he finishes his introduction, a shadowy figure can again be seen lurking in the background.

Read it here :-

http://read.homeunix.com/onlinereading/?image=Bleach/Bleach%20c480/001.jpg&server=nas.html

And use auto pager when reading the manga, it helps you read the manga faster and with less effort.

LoL vs. DotA

Now, League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients are both Massive Online Battle Arenas (MOBAs) and take inspiration from Aeon of Strife; the first game in the genre (which is incidentally a modified map on the first Starcraft). A MOBA is a variation of a generic strategy game played out generally in a 5v5 manner, it involves the player utilizing a single character to defend his team's base, rather than using an entire faction with multiple unit types. These characters are known as heroes or champions, and have varying skills and statistics. The hero unit gains levels and upon leveling up, gains a skill point which he can put into one of 3 primary skills. At a certain level; usually level 6, the champion gains an ultimate skill, which is the champion's best skill and usually deals the most damage, most utility in terms of heals or mana replenishment, a unique effect or has the most effective crowd control (CC) which include stuns, silences, slows, fears, etc(basically anything that slows or hampers your movement). The ultimate can be upgraded thrice while the other skills can be upgraded a maximum of 5 times, which is a total of 18 levels to max out every skill.

The general formation of the Battle arena are two bases, each containing a nexus which has to be destroyed by the opposing team and defended by the other team. There are three lanes coming out from each base and meeting each other at a certain point. The bases are usually located at the lower left and upper right corners of the map. From the lower left base, there is a lane going north, north east and east while the second base has lanes going south, south west and west.There are towers/turrets along each lane, there are three towers in each lane and two near the nexus of the base, each turret in a lane has significant health, armour and damage, while the turrets near the nexus have even more so. A forest area is generally located in between the paths, they contain neutral monsters, which can be killed like regular minions for some extra gold and experience.

All MOBAs feature minions, which are AI controlled units which are significantly weaker than the champion unit and provide experience upon death and only provide gold if the champion last hits them. The technique of last hitting is not very complicated but requires a good sense of timing, and a laning partner who does not require the extra gold.In some MOBAs there is a function of denying minions and turrets, which is generally done to ensure that the opponent does not get gold, or experience from your minions. Minions also grow stronger when a turret in their lane is destroyed. And an additional super minion is sent out every wave after the turrets defending the base are destroyed.

DotA is a modified map for Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne; based on Aeon of Strife. It actually popularized the genre of MOBAs and paved the way for games of the same genre in the future. It is a classic MOBA game with a 2 base 3 lane structure. It is only based on a single map, however there are many different game modes available to the creator. Such as all random(AR) , all random all mid (ARAM) , all same champion, etc. When these commands are inputted the game gets modified further. When entering the game, the user is given a choice of selecting a champion from one of three houses; Agility, Intelligence, Strength, which are further divided into two factions, sentinel and scourge making for a total of 6 houses, 3 per faction. Upon summoning in the base the player is surrounded by a large number of shops; there is the basic shop which sells basic items that do not need a recipe, then there is the Leragas the Vile shop which sells more powerful versions of the basic items, and also do not require a recipe scroll. Then there are 6 recipe shops which sell recipe based items. Along side in the jungle, there are 2 secret shops which sell scrolls, basic items and Leragas the Vile shop items.

The jungle in DotA is very interesting, as the trees can be eaten to regain health by buying a certain item known as an Ancient Tango of Essifation.However the jungle can be highly unforgiving at times because certain skills that change the position of the champion can leave the person trapped in the jungle unless they have a teleportation scroll or another positioning skill, which is the only way to go back to base apart from walking. There are reasonably difficult monsters that are usually not challenged till around level 4-5. Also there is an epic monster; Roshan that provides a large amount of experience and gold and drops an item known as the aegis of the immortal and after the third round of clearing Roshan, he drops Cheese as well.

There is a very high skill cap required to play DotA, which is hard to obtain as most players are already quite proficient at the skills required to play the game, and if one does not match up to their level, they will generally be hostile towards you. There is a lack of a tutorial, which also adds to the confusion of a new player, and playing a game against AI controlled champions, does not really teach you all you need to know. I remember when I first played, I played a custom game with friends who had also just started so we got hang of the very basic techniques quickly. When playing at higher levels, one must be very quick in denying and last hitting minions and buildings, place wards to provide vision and prevent unnecessary deaths, etc.

League of Legends, created by Riot Games Inc. is a MOBA with the same basic functioning as DotA, there is a primary map in which there is a 2 base 3 lane structure. There are three kinds of maps; Summoners Rift which is used to conduct the traditional 5v5 game, Twisted Tree Line, which is a 3v3 map and has 2 lanes with jungle areas between the two lanes and above the top lane, and finally The Crystal Scar, which is used for the Dominion variation, this is a spinoff on the traditional map, with two bases on the bottom left and right corners, and two lanes which meet each other in the form of a circle, in the path of the circle there are 5 capture points, the control of which determines the winner. There are 3 capture points on the top lane and 2 on the bottom. In the middle of the circular path, there are movement speed buffs and health packs, and in the center of the map, there are two buffs, one gives a defensive buff while the other provides an offensive buff. Each team starts with 500 points, as the team controls a point, the opposing team's points start reducing, the rate at which points reduce is relative to the number of control points one has.

The game also has a slightly new mechanic compared to others, as you win/lose games, you tend to get rewarded with both experience and Influence Points. Experience points are used to level up your account to Lv. 30, during the course of leveling up your account, you get more Summoner Spells, which are spells that you can use in the game to achieve a certain effect, you get points to put into masteries (capping at 30 points at Lv. 30), which allow for certain stat boosts to your champion, there are masteries are divided in the form of a skill tree, separated into three paths; Offense, Defense and Utility. The Offense tree contains masteries that improve physical damage and magical damage, the defense tree provides masteries that improve the ability of a champion to take damage, and the utility provides masteries to give extra mana/energy, gold, buff duration, reduced cool downs, etc. Also as you level up you get access to different kinds of runes, which again buff the stats of your champions, however there is a limit of 30 runes that you can apply.

Champions in the game need to be purchased before they can be utilized, however to ensure that all beginners have a variety of champions to play, 10 champions are made free each week, the picks try to ensure that the same champion is not repeated over multiple weeks, however it may occur at times. To buy champions one must go to the store, which sells champions, skins for the champions, runes, which are used to amplify the stats of a champion and Riot Points can also be purchased, these points are used to buy skins, Influence Point Boosts, Experience boosts, champion bundles and name changes. Influence Points are gained through playing matches, more Influence Points are gained through victories, and even more is gained through the first win of the day. This system allows the user to purchase the champions they like without having to spend real money if they do not want to.

The game runs on a lobby based system, so you can invite your friends and get matched up with another premade team with a combined skill level equal to your team's combined skill level, or you can go solo, and get matched up with random people with a skill level equal to yours. There are three types of game modes in a 5v5 match, blind pick, which involves not seeing what the opponents' champions are till the loading screen, draft pick, which involves banning 6 champions, 3 by each team, and then choosing a champion, in this game type, the picks of the user can be seen by others and hence requires a decent knowledge of the game to try and counter the opponents' picks, finally there is the ranked mode, which plays out like the draft mode but the outcome of the game impacts your ranking. There are also custom games, and Co-op vs. AI games, which provide a nice break from the usual competitive games.

After the team has chosen their champions, masteries, runes and summoner spells, the user is taken to a loading screen. Once all players have finished loading ( which can take a while due to people with terrible internet connections) they are sent to the map and placed near the fountain. At the fountain, the player will find the item shop, which is significantly more clearer than that shown in DotA; it contains the recommended items a player should buy, and it also has the various categories the items can be divided into, such as Defense, Magic, Attack, Consumables, etc. After buying their items the players then go to their lanes and the game actually begins.

The Jungle in LoL is far easier to complete than in DotA and provides an easier route for some champions who do not do well in lane. There are 5 basic camps on both sides of the teams' jungles, they are the wraith camp, the wolf camp, the double golem camp, the lizard camp which upon clearing provides a slowing and damage over time buff and finally the blue golem camp which provides a buff that reduces cool downs and increases the mana regeneration rate. There are also two epic monsters, which are the dragon and Baron Nashor. The Dragon provides global gold and gives experience to all standing near it when it is killed. Baron Nashor gives global gold, a global buff that increases all stats and experience to all standing near it when it is killed.
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My description of the two games ended above; now for my analysis to conclude. DotA is a very interesting game, it provides a high level of skilled play and some interesting game play mechanics. However, in terms of gameplay, there is often very little balance and certain champions can almost guarantee a win. Also the basic techniques such as denying and understanding how to operate the various shops are hard to pick up, and the game being non-noob friendly does not help at all. It would really help the game if it had a tutorial mode that people could use so that they could adjust to the system of the game.

League of Legends, on the other hand is far easier to pick up with the multiple tutorials and the Co-op vs. AI mode, however it is quite hard to master as one must learn how to last hit properly, how to zone out his opponents well and how to support their lanes if the other team mate is not doing so. The unique mechanics that the game brings such as masteries, runes, summoner spells and the brush appeal to a wide variety of players and therefore make it quite popular. The champions are fairly balanced, although people keep complaining that they are not, because most of the time they do not know how to counter them. However the various new editions, keep the player longing for a simple direct approach to game play that DotA has at times.

The two games however have certain things in common; communication is paramount in both, one missed coordinated fight could spell defeat for a team, the communities are also fairly decent however like any online community they have their share of ragers, greifers, noobs and feeders. LoL however has implemented a nice system of reporting people and letting the community decide how to solve various cases that come to them, i think this has caused people to pay more attention to how they behave in game.
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Thus ends my post, and wait in anticipation for a review of the VIP Closed Beta of C9 (Continent of the Ninth), as soon as I finish downloading it.