text:
Back in 2005 the internet was a simpler place. Twitter didn't exist, the mobile web was a new fangled idea that hadn't really caught on and broadband had only just become more common than dialup.
So with that as a background, the team given the job developing the new media strategy for the London 2012 Olympics must have had little idea of how drastically their task would change.
What started out as a team of two ended up involving 14 people who built 77 digital products, sites or services in six years.
At Econsultancy's JUMP 2012 event LOCOG's head of new media Alex Balfour revealed some of the impressive stats achieved by his team during the Games…
Web traffic
- During the Olympics the LOCOG site achieved 432m total visits from 109m unique users across web and mobile, making it the most visited Games-time channel ever.
- 60% of visits came from mobile devices. On weekdays 35% of visits came from mobile users, but this increased to more than 50% on weekends.
- The Paralympics achieved similarly impressive stats with 30m total visits from 9.5m unique users across web and mobile.
- Again a majority (52%) of visits came from mobile devices.
- The Paralympics achieved roughly 9% of the traffic that Olympics did – at the Vancouver Games it was about 1%.
Mobile app downloads
- The official Olympics app was downloaded 15m times, achieving the number one ranking in seven countries.
- 5.8m people then upgraded it to the Paralympic version.
- The original apps contained so much data they slowed people's phones down and had to be scrapped.
- 66,000 people rang a digital bell on the Join In app to welcome the Games on July 27.
- In order to compete with broadcasters and traditional news outlets LOCOG ran a massive SEO campaign targeting 1,700 keywords.
- Two thirds (66%) of traffic to the LOCOG site came from search.
- To help drive traffic to the site LOCOG partnered with Google to run 10 Olympics themed Google Doodles in 16 days.
- Around 5% of traffic came from the doodles and 'knowledge panels' that appear on the right-hand side of SERPs as part of Google's Knowledge Graph.
Site content
- LOCOG had no rights to the official video of the Games, so had to come up with a content strategy that didn't involve any highlight footage.
- This included live results from 7,000 heats or phases, country pages for 205 nations, profile pages for 10,490 athletes, 5,000 images and 100 stories a day, 15,000 non-sport events, 1,043 torch community runs mapped, and 8,000 torch bearer profiles even including twitter accounts.
- It created detailed desktop and app maps of all venues that allowed the user to zoom down to seating level.
- The mobile apps also had augmented reality and CGI venue tours.
- The dedicated online journey planners were busiest at 9-10pm the night before events.
- 10m visitors looked at the Torch Relay content, with 25% of them viewing the map that showed exactly where the torch was using GPS.
Global reach
- People from 201 different countries visited the website, with the most frequent visitors being from the US and UK.
- People from 155 countries used the mobile apps.
- 40% of all online Britons visited the website, as did 29% of all online New Zealanders, 19% of all online Canadians, 12% of all online Americans.
- For the Paralympics 50% of visits came from UK, 7.43% from the US, 4.88% from Australia and 3.2% from France.
Audience retention
- LOCOG carried out more than 2,000 hours of user testing on its website.
- Across the desktop and mobile sites the average visit time was 8 minutes 34 seconds, while the average page views per visit (PPV) was 8.26.
- On the smartphone app the average PPV was 23 while on the tablet app it was 29.
- The apps got 4+ star ratings across all platforms and received thousands of positive reviews.
- Facebook was the top traffic referral source after search.
- LOCOG had 4.7m fans and followers across Foursquare, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter.
- LOCOG had eight different Facebook accounts with an accumulative 1.86m likes.
- London 2012 content reached 49m Facebook users at peak, 43% of who were aged under 24.
- According to Facebook it achieved more than 100m likes across all Olympic athlete and team pages.
- The Olympics had full open graph integration with celebrate and support buttons on its website. 200,000 users logged in with their Facebook credentials with 1.4% clickthroughs from their posts back to London2012.com
- LOCOG provided an experimental feed into Facebook so 100 athletes could feed their results onto their pages.
- LOCOG had 1.9m Twitter followers and received 150m tweets about the Games.
- The team ran 48 Twitter accounts including 36 sport accounts with live feeds, two mascot accounts and six twitter cameras.
- During each of the opening ceremony rehearsals there were around 16,000 tweets related to the event, 25% using #savethesurprise.
- During the Games there were live tweets from across 40 venues and medal ceremonies.
- The hashtag #supportyourteam was used in 1.55m tweets for 204 teams during the Olympics, and 50,000 tweets for the Paralympics.
- And the team that topped the #supportyourteam Twitter leader board? Mongolia!
Google+ and YouTube
- The Games clocked up 818,000 Google+ followers.
- More than 5,000 people took part in global Google+ events for the opening and closing ceremonies.
- There were 1.1m views of "Rock the Games" on youtube.com/london2012 which included live performances and Q&As from Rizzle Kicks, Mika, Noisettes, Lawson, Conor Maynard and several other acts.
- The official Tumblr blog, which gave live backstage updates during the opening and closing ceremonies, achieved 500,000 visits.
- More than 2m people watched the backstage videos across various channels
- There were 100,764 Foursquare check-ins during the Games.
- Visitors from 120 countries checked-in to special Olympic and Torch Relay badges.
- There were 627,000 Facebook check-ins to 40 different venues.
- More than 10m location-based push mobile messages were sent to ticketholders in the stadia, including exclusive ceremony photos, spectator surveys and information.
- These messages achieved around 60% open rates and around 60% of app users had location enabled.
- 4,000 spectators completed surveys on their smartphones.
- 83m emails were sent to 200 countries, with 17 different daily editions.
- 13m emails were opened and 5m links were clicked.
- Email segments included 150 different permutations based on GB and non-GB editorial iterations, medal table and start times highlighted based on country, supported/favourite sports, and daily regional event listings based on the user's UK postcode.
- LOCOG's email marketing also featured a number of accessibility options, including large text, high visibility and dyslexia friendly versions.
- The official London Olympics online shop received 1.4m unique visitors with an order volume well into six figures.
- 5% of orders came from mobile devices.
- This chart shows the most common ways that visitors found the site:
Ad performance
- LOCOG ran 17 online campaigns during the Games, which achieved 5.9bn ad impressions.
- Website CTRs were as high as 0.18%, while average the CTR on the mobile site and apps was 0.3% and 0.56% respectively.


text:
Glass Beach
A swampy camo green scattered holographic jelly base with micro holographic flakies, blue and violet holographic flakes. Two mixing balls included, 15ML
Opaque - 2-3
Stain - No
Cruelty Free, Vegan and 5-Free, which means it does not contain:
Formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate (DBP), formaldehyde resin, and camphor.
Please keep in mind, due to a variety of monitor, camera and lighting settings, colors may appear different on different monitors. I do my best to make sure pictures are depicted as close to the exact polish color as possible.
Shipping within the USA/Puerto Rico only.
Butyl Acetate, Ethyl Acetate, Nitrocellulose, Acetyl Tributyl Citrate, Isobutyl Acetate, Isopropyl Alcohol, Adipic Acid/Neopentyl Glycol/Trimelitic Anhydride Copolymer, Silica, Styrene/Acrylates Copolymer, N-Butyl Alcohol, Benzophenone-1, D&C Violet #2. May also contain: Mica, Titanium Dioxide, Tin Oxide, Iron Oxide, Chromium Oxide, Fluorphlogopite, Ferric Ferrocyanide, FD&C Lakes, D&C Lakes, Bismuth Oxychloride, Glitters
Keep away from open flame and heat.
Keep out of reach of small children.
Apply in well ventilated area.
For external use only.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
As Lyndon Johnson said, the two things that make leaders stupid are envy and sex.
Macbeth kills a king out of envy. Egged on by an envious Iago, Othello smothers his wife out of a crazed fear of her having sex with his lieutenant.
Now another charismatic general has shattered his life and career over sex. When you've got a name like a Greek hero, and a nickname like a luscious fruit, isn't hubris ripe to follow?
It's been a steep fall for Peaches Petraeus, once the darling of Congress and journalists, Republicans and Democrats, Paula Broadwell and Jill Kelley.
Washington is suffused with schadenfreude. Yet President Barack Obama and others felt genuinely sad to see a man so controlling about integrity and image - he warned proteges that "someone is always watching" - spin out of control on integrity and image. As Shakespeare wrote in Othello: "Reputation, reputation, reputation."
As a West Point cadet, David Petraeus clambered up the social ladder by winning the superintendent's daughter; now he has been brought down by his camp followers clambering up the social ladder.
Even when he was the CIA director, Petraeus' ego was so wrapped up in being a shiny military idol that, according to the Washington Post, he recently surprised guests at a D.C. dinner when he arrived to speak wearing his medals on the lapel of his suit jacket.
His fall started as Sophocles and turned sophomoric. "This is the National Enquirer," an alarmed Sen. Dianne Feinstein told Wolf Blitzer of CNN. If only it were that highbrow. Now that erotic activity is entwined with the Internet, rather than closeted in hideaway Capitol offices and Oval Office pantries, it's even more likely to be a trip wire for history.
It is disturbing that an ethically sketchy, politically motivated FBI agent could spark an incendiary federal investigation tunneling into private lives to help a woman he liked and later blow it up to hurt a president he didn't like.
It's also worrisome that the nation's spymaster - who had presided in a military where adultery could result in court-martial - could not have found a more clandestine manner of talking naughty to his biographer babe than a Gmail drop box, a semiprivate file-sharing system used by terrorists, teenagers and authors.
It's understandable that men accustomed to being away from their families and cloistered with other men in Muslim countries where drinking and blowing off steam are frowned upon might get used to cavorting on email.
But Petraeus should have realized that the Chinese and Russians were snooping and sent Paula Broadwell an Enigma email: "I would like your insights into the debate over COIN versus CT in Helmand province. Our HVT kills are falling a little short of the mark. Let's discuss."
And Broadwell could have sent ones more like: "I've been reading Chapter 3 notes and the Galula theory of counterinsurgency confuses me. Hope you can clarify."
The scandal is a good reminder that, although John McCain and Sarah Palin urge total trust and blank checks for the generals, these guys are human beings working under extremely stressful circumstances, and their judgments are not beyond reproach.
Petraeus' Icarus flight began when he set himself above Obama.
Accustomed to being a demigod, expert at polishing his own celebrity and swaying public opinion, Petraeus did not accept the new president's desire to head for the nearest exit ramp on Afghanistan in 2009. The general began lobbying for a surge in private sessions with reporters and undercutting the president, who was trying to make a searingly hard call.
Petraeus rolled the younger commander in chief into going ahead with a bound-to-fail surge in Afghanistan, just as, half-a-century earlier, the CIA had rolled Jack Kennedy into going ahead with the bound-to-fail Bay of Pigs scheme. Both missions defied logic, but the untested presidents put aside their own doubts and instincts, caving to experience.
Once in Afghanistan, Petraeus welcomed prominent conservative hawks from Washington think tanks. As Greg Jaffe wrote in the Washington Post, they were "given permanent office space at his headquarters and access to military aircraft to tour the battlefield. They provided advice to field commanders that sometimes conflicted with orders the commanders were getting from their immediate bosses."
So many more American kids and Afghanistan civilians were killed and maimed in a war that went on too long. That's the real scandal.
© 2012 New York Times News Service


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(Pocket-lint) - The fourth-generation Renault Clio took over the entire Renault stand in Paris. Illuminated under hundreds of beautiful globe lights, which gently changed colour and bobbed up and down, an array of red, orange and yellow Clios spread out across the Renault stand as if some kind of mad, DayGlo Renault rabbits had been on a breeding spree.
The Clio is pretty vital for a struggling Renault right now. Having cut the model range to just four cars in the UK and facing losses across Europe, the company needs the new car to be a success. First signs are good.
Created under new design boss, Dutchman Laurens van den Acker - who was responsible for the series of awe-inspiring Mazda concept car series a few years back - the Clio's got a voluptuous form and some neat detailing that's rare in the small hatchback class. Love or loathe that new face, you better get used to it, as it's the new Renault corporate look. We think it works, albeit with the Renault diamond looking like someone's set a photocopier to 150 per cent enlarge.
The headline new Clio facts are this: it's now a 5-door only - though the designers have handily concealed the rear door handle in the c-pillar, so there's a "squint and you'd think it's a 3-door" quality to the looks. And it weighs about 100 kg less than the last car, so it should drive better. It's also lower and overall looks less like a squashed MPV - which we reckon most owners will think is a good thing. You can also personalise your Clio. The bright colours hint at the possibility of coloured wheels, stickers and changeable interior trim fillets, vent surrounds and the like. It won't be quite Mini-like, but if you need your Clio to stand out, you can (for instance) whack a great number "7" graphic on the bonnet - which, if you're the sort of person who forgets where they've parked, will probably help you spot it in Tesco car park.
- Samsung Galaxy Note 20, What3Words CEO, and Withings Sleep Analyzer reviewed - Pocket-lint podcast ep. 65
Inside, it gets interesting for people like us, because Renault's majored on tech. The dashboard layout's quite normal – with no gauges under the windscreen or diddy wheel a la Peugeot 208 – but the centre console sits off the main surface of the dashboard and contains a touchscreen with Renault's so-called R-Link system on it. This will display your usual nav, media, radio, car settings and phone info, but two things caught our eye. The first was Renault's "sound-link generator". This is an engine noise generator, which pipes the noise of a ClioSport, Clio V6, Laguna Coupe, Moto GP bike into the cabin of your 1.2 Clio. Which, most people we spoke to thought was a huge and stupid gimmick. But was nicely presented anyway.
Second thing was that - as R-Link alludes - you'll be able to download and buy apps for your Clio. Backstage, Renault was demoing a - fairly select - series of Apps you'll be able to buy, in your Clio, on the fly. The Renault system will even store your credit card details, so we're sure you can tell what route that's heading down.
At the show, Renault also gave us first sight of the new RenaultSport Clio 200 – the new version of one of our favourite hot hatches. Big changes abound here too: not only is this car now a 5-door only like the rest of the range - previously it had been a strict 3-door - but out goes the 2.0L naturally aspirated engine, in its place a turbo-charged 1.6. It produces the same power, but a lot more torque low down in the rev-range. That means it will drive quite differently on the road from the old car which used to love having its nuts thrashed off. And it's also available with a double-clutch auto gearbox only - a first in a RenaultSport. We await a drive of this one with interest, come next year.
But for the regular car, we won't need to wait that long, because we'll be getting a hands-on drive on its international launch in just under three weeks time. From there, we'll get back to you on that sound generator. Oh, and the small matter of how the Clio drives.


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China says no foreign link in Xinjiang violence
Published: 02nd May 2013 10:14 AM | Last Updated: 02nd May 2013 10:14 AM | A+A A-
Investigators found no foreign links to extremist violence in northwestern China's Xinjiang region last week in which 25 people died, state media said Thursday, diverging from past claims that attacks there are orchestrated overseas.
The investigation into the April 23 violence concluded that "the terrorists had no connection with foreign forces," Xinjiang government spokesman Hou Hanmin was quoted as saying by the China Daily newspaper.
China has said the assailants, 25 of whom have either been killed or arrested, were inspired by jihadi propaganda and were planning a major attack before being discovered by local government workers.
Hou's statement raises the specter of a home-grown terrorist movement inspired by calls for an Islamic holy war, but not directly connected to or acting under the orders of overseas-based separatists or insurgent groups. That appears to challenge official claims that violence in Xinjiang is not a result of ethnic or religious tensions, but is the work of meddling outsiders seeking to destabilize the region. Xinjiang's native Muslim Turkic Uighur population is culturally, religiously, and linguistically distinct from China's Han majority, and many Uighurs claim they are being marginalized and oppressed by Han migration and heavy-handed rule by Beijing.
China has consistently linked Xinjiang violence to the global jihadi movement and overseas Uighur activists, but has provided little hard evidence. Among its claims is that July 2009 rioting in the regional capital Urumqi that left almost 200 people dead was directed by Rebiya Kadeer, an activist for Xinjiang's native Uighur ethnic group based in the U.S. Kadeer denies any connection to the riot that was by-far the bloodiest outbreak of violence in Xinjiang in more than a decade.
Police earlier said the men in last week's attack held secret Quran study sessions and possessed extremist religious literature and flags bearing jihadi slogans, providing justification for its strict rules on Islam in Xinjiang. The men killed 19 police and community workers after their bomb-making materials were discovered, then attacked local government offices and a police station. Official accounts appear to show that those slain were unaware of the men's intentions and underestimated the level of risk.
A leading Uighur group based in Germany has called for an independent investigation into the attack, saying China has consistently failed to provide convincing evidence for its terrorism claims that it uses to justify for tougher security measures.
"The World Uyghur Congress urges the community to uphold its pressure on China in an effort to see Beijing stop applying its same pattern of information black out, arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances after each incident in the region," said a statement from the group, which uses an alternative spelling for Uighur.
A sprawling region that borders Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Xinjiang sees recurrent violence pitting members of the Turkic Muslim Uighur (pronounced WEE'-gur) group against the authorities and Han migrants. Among other restrictions, China imposes strict rules on Uighur religious life, including barring children and government employees from mosques, ordering young men to trim their beards and banning the wearing of veils by women.
Beijing says it treats minorities fairly and spends billions of dollars on improving living standards in minority areas.


text:
Contact Info
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Phone: 406.546.5977
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Forest Business Network LLC
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Thank you for taking the time to visit our site. If you have an inquiry, please use the form below to send us an email message. Or you can refer to the data in the left column of this page to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions regarding our site. We will respond to your inquiry as soon as we can. We appreciate your business. Have a great day!


text: And while we were looking at classics, we took our own best-selling iconic Diesel sofa, Nebula 9, and updated it with a new twist. Reworked specifically for leather, this new version has cut back armrests, new detailing on the pillows and more streamlined metal feet. In addition to the classic leather collection, we have added 4 new treated leathers that truly reflect the Diesel approach to fashion and give a distinct attitude.


text:
Fiber artist loves the old, embraces the new
It is in Ruben Marroquin's studio in Bridgeport's Arcade that traditional and cutting-edge both find a comfortable home.
To those he teaches at the YMCA or in his Bridgeport studio, he is an expert traditional weaver who has a passion for sharing his skills with his students. He's also known for his custom hand-woven pieces -- such as wall hangings, table runners, rugs and place mats -- for interior designers.
And in the world of fine arts, he's considered a textile master -- and innovator.
The Arcade, an 1889 Ornamental Gothic Revival iron-and-glass structure that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is a celebration of Victorian mores, in which embroidery and weaving were championed. Enter Marroquin's studio, and its looms (from a tabletop to a huge computerized model) seem to be perfectly suited to the storied surroundings. In contrast, most wall space is devoted to Marroquin's avant-garde, three-dimensional sculptures and embroidery, which he views "simply as paintings."
Both, he said, represent important facets of who he is as an artist and teacher. Born in Chicago and raised in his mother's homeland of Venezuela, the artist divides his time between Bridgeport and Brooklyn, N.Y., where he spends many weekends "networking" with other artists.
Marroquin said he came to the arts as a youngster.
"Painting was what I loved to do," he said. "It was by chance that I came to textiles -- I ran out of paint and there was no money for more. So I started sewing together pieces of old rags," creating collages of sorts.
After a few years living and bartending in Mexico City (where, he said, ironically, he would have difficulty as an American getting all the required work permits), he decided the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York would be his goal. Not only was he admitted, he stayed for five years and "became obsessed with weaving." So much so that he won a FIT scholarship to spend six months in Paris to learn many advanced techniques, such as the complex art of jacquard weaving.
"I'm just fascinated by it and the mathematics involved," he said. "Weaving is painstaking, very challenging, requiring a lot of patience," which he said complements his character. "And it's a lot of fun."
More InformationIf you go: The Arcade, 1001 Main St., Bridgeport. Ruben Marroquin Art Studio is on the second floor, accessible by stairs or elevator. It's open afternoons Tuesday through Friday, and by appointment. email@example.com; 1-917-533-2276.
For his wall sculptures, Marroquin combines cotton, linen and bamboo fibers with modern industrial cords (known as paracords) and other materials. He creates mass by laying fibers over fibers, often applying the fibers over "structures," such as pieces of wood. His color palette seems to rival the rainbow.
In July, one of Marroquin's embroidery and collage paintings, a map of New York, will be featured in "Game Changers: Fiber Art Masters and Innovators" at the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Mass. The work will be on view for about five months in the invitational show.
Since Marroquin's students receive a great deal of one-on-one instruction, he usually doesn't conduct group classes for adults. He prefers to have prospective students call to arrange for a series of classes that are suitable to their particular needs.
"I have a husband and wife from Stratford who come every Sunday afternoon from 1 to 4 p.m. They wanted something nice to do together," he said. "It's a good experience for us all. It's quiet here, and they have an opportunity to really focus on their own projects ... and I work on mine. And I am always here to help or guide them."
Youngsters are a different story. "I bring several portable looms to classrooms and many have no idea" what the contraptions do, he said. Each student has an opportunity to work the loom for 10 to 15 minutes at a time.
"Whether it's with men or women or children, there seems to be a great sense of satisfaction that comes from weaving, from creating something with your own hands that you can keep, or give to family and friends, or sell."
The Arcade, 1001 Main St., Bridgeport. Ruben Marroquin Art Studio is on the second floor and is open afternoons Tuesday through Friday and by appointment. firstname.lastname@example.com; 917-533-2276.
firstname.lastname@example.com; Twitter: PhyllisASBoros


text:
Gamespot score:n/a
my score:8.8
(+)pros:-execllent skill graphics,-great character design,-great mob and boss detail, - huge environments to explore,-massive PK and PVP system,- no penalties when dieing,- good party share system
(-)cons:-most PKers in any online game that I have ever seen,- very non-user friendly
Gameplay time:200 hours+(near infinite gameplay)
A great online game, dekaron. A strikingly good MMORPG with great characters, mobs, skills and more. Dekaron is sure to provide a fun experience to many players, at least until lvl 70(which is alot). This review mostly points to dekaron SEA and points taken will be from it. Though it is quite behind many other versions of dekaron this is the one I played, so I can apply my experience and opinion towards it. Well, nothing else to say, lets get the ball rolling.
Dekaron was pre-named 2 moons before its pre-release version, and it is still called that for USA players. Well as the game title suggests the story is about 2 moons coming together and some catastrophe shit occuring. Well I dont know much about the story since its an MMO. Anyway, you get to pick from 6 characters. Once again pretty average amount, same as cabal. Knight, your basic swords person. Warrior, a martial artist type character. Mage, master of elemants. Segnale, a basic cleric / support type character. Summoner, a warrior/mage hybrid which calls on help of monsters. Lastly, the hunter, deadly fighters both up close and afar.
Graphic wise dekaron isnt bad for a free MMORPG. It loses to cabal but on its own it boasts pretty good graphical mehcanics. The shine and gleam to the knight's armor or the design and markings on warrior's big armor pieces, they all look good thx to dekaron's grahpics. Even the sexy armors of the female characters are good looking. Mob wise the designs are pretty good too. There is a variety of monsters to fight and there are almost no repeats to the monsters. Some of the monster designs are nice, and they are pretty detailed. Bosses are without a doubt, greatly made as well, some towering 10-20x above your character, they are nice looking and good to fight.
Another thing that shines along with the graphics are the skills. The obtaining of skills is easy, just get to the lvl requirement of the skill, sacrifice a small amoun of money, and the skill is yours. Nothing fancy needed. Also, the skills in dekaron are nice, though low lvl skills look mediocre and pathetic, the later level skills are great and very well animated. From summoner's dark avatar to the mage's aqua circle, these skills are great eye openers and players wontmind seeing them over and over.
Along with the skills that players will be using on mobs, they will of course want to test it on players. Thats right, there is a PVP and PK system in this game. Every character has thier own shield, which protects them from player dmg. When players attack you, instead of attacking your HP like normal mobs do, you take damage to your shield 1st. This way PVP/PK battles last longer, giving players more excitement.
Sure PVPs are fun, so is PKing but...there is a small issue. There are MANY, MANY MANY high level faggots in dekaron. And they LOVE to PK you. Dekaron is the game where I have been pked the most, for no apparent reason at all. While training quitely and innocently, when a pro happens to walk past, theres a 50% chance he will PK your ass.Its a bad habit players of the game have, and when you get stronger you will develop this habit as well. Other than that the game is very non user friendly. With boss mobs randomly spawning around to kill you, along with hordes of monsters usually coming up to gang the daylights out of you, dekaron is extremely non user friendly. Its like the GMs want you to die.
Other than that dekaron is quite a pleasing MMORPG with a lot of fun. Training is pretty managable early on, and winning people in PVPs, successfully fending off Pkers, defeating bosses..all these become very very satisfactory. With motivations such as new armor or skills to keep you training, dekaron becomes addictive quickly.
Happy gaming.
Gamespot score:n/a
game of the year, LAN experiece
Okay being someone who checks in on gamespot often, I will have obviously seen the programme for game of the year.
And when I saw the result I couldnt have been happier. The 2009 game of the year is demon souls! Thats one more reason for me to buy that game. Although I have been happy about demon souls being GOTY, part of the world didnt.
From reading the damn comments there are so many godamn whiners who said stuff like "Should have been modern warfare 2!!", or "Uncharted 2 so beats demon souls!". Some also said " Halo 3:ODST so kicks ass!More than this game!", or even " Batman AA should have won!" Some even said " Demon souls looks gay!!" as an excuse.
Those people should just fuck off, and seriously, Im not the only one who says this. All the people who posted unnessecary comments about how other games where better than demon souls, thier comments got serious thumbs down, both in gamespot and in youtube.
Well enough about that nonsense, Im just happy demon souls won. Today I just went to LAN(aka cyber cafe) and had a lot of fun.
I havent went to LAN for 2 years or so and I think I had alot of fun today. I have been playing left 4 dead 2 in the LAN and i think playing in LAN is 5 times more fun than playing alone.
All this while I have been playing left 4 dead 2 at home with my brother at home, but today I just went with 2 of my friends to LAN and playing with friends is GREAT. Communication becomes a huge thing and the gaming expereicne shoots up by a few times.
Well thats all for today, peace.
I almost forget almost about this wolfteam project I had ongoing since I havent played the game itself for quite sometime.
Anyway! Here we are today with the topics about guns.Heres a quick run-up.
Guns good vs wolf
AK 47/gold/classic
-This here is every FPS's good friend AK47. Its good in terms of damage, but due to its high recoil fighting humans is a pain. But thankfully, against wolves... since they always come up close to claw you, you get to shoot the gun in thier dam face. And since wolves cant kill you from afar, take your time and slowly shoot them with this painful gun, they cant do a shyt.
-Actually this gun is not that bad against humans too, but what the heck. This gun has a habit of expanding the crosshair everytime you fire bullets, so using it against humans is not a very bright thing to do, unless you shoot ammo by ammo. Against wolves this gun is very effective, having great fire power and its huge 50+ ammo per clip. You can sprayyy all you want, since you got so much ammo at your disposal. Also you wont miss very often, since they will be close to you.
-Great gun to use against wolves. Same drawback as AK47, high recoil, but again it makes up for high RAW damage. Has slightly lower recoil than AK47, making it more useful against humans than the AK.
ANY shotgun
- Simple theory. They come up to your face, you aim at thier head with your gigantic almost impossible to miss crosshair, you click with your finger, you get an easy kill. But the only drawback is that if you miss you're as good as dead. Although with the EXM, you get 5 shots, but the damage is lower.
ANY turret
-Turrets are monsters against wolves. With huge ammo clips and insane damage, they are wolf killers.Well the only drawbacks are that you cant move while firing a turret, and you can only turn it to a certain degree, proving its uselessness against humans.One nade and BOOM, you're dead. One last and final drawback against wolves is the very dreadful and deadly...berserker wolf. Thier suicidal ability is the ultimate counter to turrets. When you spot a berserker with a turret, be extra careful and rethink your plans.
Guns good vs human
ANY sniper(expect the wooden sniper which I forget the name)
-Once again, a simple theory. The stout is a basic weapon, which means its not too strong in terms of firepower. Stand at a spot where no human would bother searching, and click away with your zoom. 2 hits will do the job. Do watch out though, since after you prey are hit once, they will know where you are shooting from, and they will turn to kill you. The AWP sniper though, kills ALMOST any time you hit upper body in one shot. Its hell deadly. And, for wolves they dun work well. Why? Simple, how do you snipe a smart wolf jumping around frantically? You dont. Problem solved.
-Great gun with great accuracy. When you upgrade its laser, if you crouch in battle, the crosshair is like a friggin dot. Just shoot away once the crosshair hits the opponent, since the recoil is almost inexsistence in this gun.
Guns good vs both
- Everyone who sees this will go YESSSSSS. LAW is a missle launcher while WT-RL is a rocket launcher.LAW one hit KOs any human and smart wolf when the missle lands directly BESIDE them. Good stuff. The RL kills anything, expect full healthed power wolves, berserker wolves and gurdians. The RL's rocket however, is slow, while the LAW's missle is quick and hard to dodge. But overall RL is better because of its sheer power.
-My new favourite gun. Though only moderate in power, this gun has great accuracy and firing speed, making it both good human and wolf killers.
-Okay, I HAVE to cover this gun, its just too awesome. It has well above average power and good accuracy. Many humans use this in bomb plants and deathmatches cause it kills people fast. It works good on wolves too since rapidly firing on them will slow them down.
-AKA the gold gun. Its really very easy to understand. Its normal rapid firing action makes killing wolves rather easy, though it has only moderate damage, it has great stuttering ability. Rapid firing also helps killing humans that are in mid-close range. Having trouble against a sniper? No problem! Use 3 burst zoom and click at thier head, guranteed one hit KO. Of course unless they move away, but it seldom happens cause 3 burst is quick. This requires practice though since, 3 bursting the head always tends to hit the body instead.
-Though low in damage, this gun makes up for its great ammo clip. It has moderate accuracy, means killing humans at mid range should be no problem, cause 50 ammo is alot to spare. In a crossfire, your opponent's gun will run out of amo 1st, and while reloading, you have the uper hand since you still about 20 ammo left, spray the crap out of him! For wolves, you have 50 ammo, so the same concept for the EM60 applies here.
-Argubly the best gun in the game and my ex-favourite. The crosshair is bloody small, which means high accuracy, its crosshair size is close to that of the EM4. This makes killing humans easy, since it has awesome damage to back it up. The recoil is however is the only drawback. But it is often used as an advantage sometimes against humans, due to recoil the aimer usually flies to the head, which will land the death blow. This works on wolves too. With wolves, aweseome damage is more than enough to kill them, plus great accuracy , this gun pure owns.
Thats all for now. Project will continue somehwere in january.
Megaman ZX
Gamespot score:7.7(good)
my score:7.5
(+)pros:-many forms to control,- well designed and revisitable levels,- great japanese voice acting,- music is top notch,- well designed bosses
(-)cons:-very very VERY hard to play at times,- platforming can be abit weird at times, -walking around as plain old aile seems pointless
gameplay time:10-20 hours(below average)
Merry christmas to all. Been busy these days, cuz of christmas and stuff... Anyway, today I will be going over megaman ZX on the DS. I have been a great fan of the megaman 2D platformer franchise since I was a kid. Since the PS1 days I have been joining the blue bomber on his journeys(altough I never seemed to complete any of his games back then).Now back on the DS as another platformer, megaman ZX provides a new experience.
Aile is a girl on a delivery job. One day, like always she follows her "boss" giro to deliver another package. However this time it seems super important and giro stresses that it not be broken or spoilt. On halfway through delivery aile meets with an accident and finds herself attacked by a giant snake maverick, her package reveals to be model X which infuses with her. She becomes X and blasts her way through, also discovering that there are people after the model X, her journey begins with her helping out folks and helping herself with her new powers, as well as being careful of the foes after her.
Megaman has always been a simple to learn game. Since its a 2D platformer, all you can do it move left, or right. Most of the time it seems to be right though. Anyway the 2D platformer megaman games, though being easy to learn, are nver easy games to complete. Like the megaman zero series from the GBA it carries over its same system, gaming over after a number of tries. Now this is partially because of the brutally difficult bosses and levels. Guess what, they are back in this game. With levels featuring the ability to one hit KO u most of the time, dieing has become more often than ever. I have completed this game in easy mode, but cant seem to make it pass some of the bosses in normal mode. There is even a hard mode too, to really push players to thier limit....
Besides all these, megaman ZX has a lot to offer that makes it a better platformer than many of its preducessors. One is the good level design. I have never seen such great level interior design since old school megaman 8. Also, while running through these levels, the great themed music helps up the mood to play through the stage. Also, this time, the levels are all connected in a map, which means you can walk thorugh linked areas over and over. Its cool, but if you dont like it you can still use the teleporter.
As I did mention before, megaman's boss fights can be very unforgiving, this game has no exepction. The crazy mavericks are back and they are though like ever before. With incredibly damaging and near unaviodable attacks, these guys can take out very experienced players, that means newcomers dont stand a chance, even in easy mode. These guys require retrying again and again and again and again, until you get tired of it. Despite all this, the bosses are very well designed, looks and attacks alike, they arent flawed. If you die, that means you just could dodge his attacks, not caused the creators decided to make his attacks undodgable. Every boss has thier own weaknesses and ways to dodge thier attacks, so it just means if you keep losing, you need more pratice.
I really like megaman ZX, though I could only clear the game on easy, switching to normal mode to have a go at the bosses at thier full potential really is fun. Megaman ZX is my favourite 2D platformer megaman game so far( I didnt enjoy ZX advent very much). Megaman fans would love this one, even if you are a seasoned player.
Happy gaming.
power from the second(needless review)
persona 4
gamespot score:9.0(editor's choice)
my score:9.5
(+)pros:-great cast of entertaining and funny characters,-leveling up is much easier(thus crossing out persona 3's flaw),-story is mysterious and very intruiging, -new environments to explore makes the view of different dungeons great,- social links now enhance battle results,- dating sim now allows multiple girlfriends :D
(-)cons:-story is shorter than persona 3
gameplay hours:100 hours+(very long lasting)
Yayy!! Time for my favourite PS2 game review of all time! Persona 4 is another contribution to the persona series, and I stress again this is my favourite among them all. Sadly not much cameo appearances from the previous persona games. Anyway people should know already that persona 4 is an RPG which optimizes the dating sim system, and like before this game offers plenty of custimization for players who want a perfect team. Now on with the freaking review dammit!
A peaceful town in the middle of nowhere, inaba. One day a city boy(you), gets transfered to inaba because of his parent's jobs. Upon entering the town, a series of complicated and disturbing murders take place in the town, and while following up he suddenly realises that he has the power to enter TVs. He also discovers a program known as the midnight channel, as introduced by his friend, and this causes him to be able to stare at a blank TV screen at night, while the screen broadcasts an image of someone being killed. With the power to enter the TV world, he decides to find out the cause of the murders in town, together with his new found friends, they swear to catch the serial case murderer as the case was way out of league for the police.
Persona 4 is a legend in so many ways, so states gamespot and many other reviewers of the game. The game itself is a huge step up from persona 3, which was already a great game. The battle system has improved from persona 3 in a matter of ways. Firstly, I dont know if this is an improvement, but it is to me, leveling has become a mucch easier task. Now training is a cinch and that allows your party members to get stronger faster and you can make more personas. Now during battle, you get a whole lot more to experience. As such, currently inaccesable strategies in persona 3 because of AI problems can now be used, thanks to direct command, you can control your teammates ANYTIME in battle. Now that means no more losing to bosses because of screwups by your dumb teammates! Also if you have made appropriate social links with your teammates, they can know help in certain ways, such as knocking you away from a killing blow and taking that blow for his/herself. This helps since once your MC dies its game over,as usual. They also help by helping you up when you are knocked down, performing a follow up attack, or curing your abnormal status ailments.
Persona customization is back, and its better than ever! With new personas and new skills the customization just got alot better. It uses the same fusing system from persona 3, and its still done by igor, so woot :D. Anyway there are supposedly more arcanas in persona 4 than in persona 3, so yes there are a new cast of personas. With new arcanas comes new fusion spreads. Now a different formula is used by crossing the arcans, expect changes, in a good and new way. Also, the 3/4/5 way fusion spread is back, with cooler personas in stall for you. There is however, also a new feature in the fusion genre of the game, fusion forecast. Depending on the weather of the certain day you wish to fuse a persona, you can get certain bonuses, such as stat boosts or new skills. The fusion system is better than ever.
No persona game woud be complete without the dating sim system. Once again it is back and with some tweaks to it. Unlike before, your main character now has 5 stats he has to raise, knowledge, for acing tests, courage for doing crazy stuff, understanding, to comphrehend with others, expression, for well, expressing yourself, and dilligence, to improve your persistency. With so many traits comes so many things to do. You can now to part time jobs, such as working as a day care centre assitant, being a part time janitor at a hospital, or being a part time tutor. You can even do stuff such as fold envelopes, translate or fold orgami, all for making your wallet a little bit more full. Oh yea you can now date multiple girls, the system where dating more than one girl would cause another girl to be mad, its gone. LONG GONE.
persona 3 fes
Gamespot score:8.5(great)
my score:8.2
(+)pros:-includes the original persona 3 with new social links and bonus content,- same great cast,- story continuation is intruiging,- you get to fight with HIM(the best fight ever)
(-)cons:-just plain fighting in the answer(no social links,no free time etc),-still no putting characters under direct command
gameplay time:100 hours+(very long lasting),this refers to both the answer and the journey combined.
Persona 3 fes, which includes the continutation of the original story and the original story itself. This means 2 games in one. Great value. Anyway the score for my section only refers to the answer,not the journey. My score for the journey is my review for persona 3. Anyway I will be focusing primaryly on the answer in this review. Players who have played persona 3 can get this game for the answer, those who havent can get twice the experience,playing the journey with bonus content and playing the answer when they have cleared the journey. Its a win win situation.
Well the persona 3 crew has defeated nexus and saved the world(something like that), now thier beloved dorm,which they have shared so much beautiful memories in.... they are gonna have to leave it. While celebrating thier last night in the dorm, something sinister happens, another robot claiming to be aegis's sister appears and starts attacking the team. After a fight, aegis's persona becomes orphues(o.o). They then realise that they are trapped within the same day and they cannot proceed onward in time. They then find a hole appearing in the bottom or thier dormitory(now isnt that convinient). What to do but explore it with thier new robot friend metus.
Well in the answer, there are no social links, no roaming around or whatsoever. It is pure RPG style dungeon crawling. Now I have nothing against this, but one of the main reasons why I liked persona 3 was the dating sim system, oh well. Anyway you will be controlling because well..... for some reasons which I will not spoil.You get to go to the new world and start exploring the new doors which start opening up. There, the team hopes to find answers to thier time situation. You will be crawling through environments with different feels from tartarus from the journey. Their environments have a new point of view towards them, which is good.
There is nothing else much to say in the answer besides the change in story, since the rest of the gameplay elements are the same as the journey. Battle wise, dungeon crawling wise and everything else. They are the same. Well there is nothing much else for me to say here, I shall conclude my review here.
My apologies for the short review but there is really nothing much else new to be mentioned, overall this game is just a sequel to the journey with the same gameplay, nothing else.
Happy gaming.
Gamespot score:5.0(mediocre)
my score:7.0
(+)pros:-two endings to follow,-good map deisigns for a first person rpg,-good sountrack which was improved from the first game
(-)cons:-lackluster graphics,-annoyingly high monster encounter rate,-battle is slower than ever
gameplay time:20-30 hours(average)
Another one of gamespot's under-rated achivements(sighs at gamespot). Persona is an old old game that was deisnged for the PS1 long time ago. Well its back and on the psp. Those who played it before expect changes to the soundtrack and perhaps the new voice overs and *little* nearly unnoticable graphic changes. Those who never played it before, please try to give it a chance before throwing it aside after taking a look at its PS1 version graphics. This game isnt what quite i expected it to be but well I managed to make the game pretty far, heres the review.
St gremlin high,a school where a group of people try something known as "persona". After trying a ghost girl appears and strange things start happening. When visiting a friend in a hospital the environment starts to change..zombies and many freaks start appearing. When trying to leave the hospital the streets have been overrun by similar freaks and the main character and his team tries to solve this weird yet uneasy sounding mystery..
Story wise it is pretty weak for a shin megami tensei game, but for a game its pretty much average. I was disappointed in the story though,kinda expected more. Anyway here are the field graphics. Kinda suckish, since they mostly kinda carried it over from the PS1. Once again I was kinda disappointed in this. After all these years atlus could have bothered to tweak the field graphics could they? Of course it doesnt have to be as good as P3 or P4 but at least try to make it look decent. Anyway the graphics of persona on the psp isnt much to look at and it definetly not an improvement of the PS1 version, its like, rather just a new paint over... or something like that. Well most of the game will be seen in this point of view, but you will kinda get used to it.
Here is the battle screen, again you will see the lacluster grahpics kick in. Bleh. Anyway battle is roughly just like any other persona game, with maybe a few missing functions. Well you can give direct controls to all your party members unlike persona 3...which is good. As usual you get the basic commands attack and items and using persona. You also get shoot, a new but simple command which allows you to shoot with an equipped gun. It just allows you to attack from a distance. Nothing much. But the new action which i cannot remember the name(forgetful me) allows you to communicate with a demon, making it happy sad or anngry. This is new,stupid, but new and creative. Nevertheless this helps you do stuff like getting a demon's spell card,making it run away,or if you screw it up,you make it even angrier.
This is the dungeon view,pretty good. Its better than certain 1st person dungeon crawlers. Well graphics aside the dungeons have all one thing in common, redonculously high encounter rate. Well high encounter rate is acutally good, but the rate is so high, it annoys me half to death. And escaping in battle is tough, so this sux.
Navigating through dungeons is easy and simple, you even have a cool soundtrack to follow by. By the way the improved soundtrack in this game is good, it fits the tracks from the persona 3 and 4 music, which is great. The music played in this game will somewhat motivate you to keep playing.
As a last and final view toward this game, I would say that I am disappointed. But i would say that persona on the psp is an improvement from its preduccesor, it isnt a bad game. It can be further improved though, but well,whats made is made. Overall a 7.0 in my book.
Happy gaming.
Been unable to post these few days since my cousin from malaysia came to my house and some my of other cousins came to shake the house up....been a little busy.
Anyway my cousin from malaysia has went home( it was fun while it lasted) and things have started to calm down abit, so I can resume posting. To make up for the previous days that I have not been posting,I will be doing a triple post, posting three times in a short period of time.
Well the post topics are persona portable,persona 3 FES and persona 4.
Peace for now.
Gamespot score:6.5(fair)
my score:7.3
(+)pros:-interesting usable characters,-good beat customization system,-free play is fun,-card system is unique
(-)cons:-rather weak story,-small team of usable characters,-unimpressive visuals
gameplay time:10-20 hours(below average)
Draglade is a 2D side scrolling action/fighting game on the DS. This game has been released for quite some time, the 2nd one is out, but Im not too sure about a USA release. Anyway this game is rather "under-rated" by gamespot as some of its player reviews are actually very good. Well Im kinda in for both sides but here is my opinion of the game.
Draglade has no fixed story. It has a total of 8 playable characters,which if you ask me,is damn little. Anyway the story can be played by choosing the 4 of the inital characters. Each one has thier own story,but the stories are pretty much the same, all of them wanna become major grappers. In this game normal people can fight by a style known as "grapping",where they summon thier weapons through the way of music beat style customization. Anyway all of the 4 main characters' story all end up in the same way,so its pretty much lame at times.
Well the story for draglade is weak, but combat wise,draglade has quite a lot to offer to gamers. As a 2D side scrolling game,players will be taking part in a few styles of battle. In story,one will be facing stages,where one scrolls through a 2D level with monsters and robots and ....many random mobs. This is rather boring,though most of the time there will be a mob boss waiting for you at the end. Boss mobs are rather plain and easy,they all have simple patterns to follow and adapt to and then beating them will be a piece of pie(with expection to last boss).
The mob and boss deisgns are rather okay. You have to give credit to the developers as the monsters and bosses require some imagination to make. The monsters are modern day animals with a certain robotish feel to them. They will most of the time look like they have robotic limbs or faces. They also look like they are wearing futuristic armor. Too bad the game isnt too refined on the DS,making the visuals rather plain and sometimes glitchy.The visuals doenst match up to games such as the world ends with you or super robot taisen OG.
Now to cover the last and my favourite part of the game. Player battles. These are found thorughout the game story, you will be battling with other character which may appear as "bosses". They are fun to fight, and most of them can be unlocked, with expection of a few. Player fights are the shine in this game. You are basically fighting someone with equal strenght, they have thier very own moves to pit agaisnt you. To fight against them you can use your own character's moves or use cards which provide supportive aid through the fight. Also, as a special attack, you get to use your beat combo. Beat combos are combos which do massive damage following a certain beat which can be customized. Customizing beats and them testing them against AI players thorugh free play can be satisfying. When you feel like you are ready, head online to display your beat combos. It is very satisfying.
Draglade isnt THE game out there in terms of conclusion and lasting appeal,but this simple side scrolling action game can provide enjoyment and fun to players of the DS out there.
Happy gaming.
greatest boss fights video relinks
Up to now I have been doing some posts about greatest boss fights,3 only so far but there will still be more. Actually all these time the posts I do about the bosses i do realise that there is no actual video to prove how the boss moves or attacks.
Well I have been thinking and I have decided to do some research on youtube to bring these videos about how players all about defeat the bosses. There are as many know,many results on a certain boss on youtube,I watched most of them and picked out those that make the boss really gey and that the player and the boss are both on par,not like some videos where the players are obviously overpowered/overleveled and that the boss would be easy to kill.
Well here they are.
Kurt zisa boss fight:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_lUQKQnQ0k
golbez boss fight:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ-WDo43Dqs
draco cantus boss fight:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpvhJYMQ5fg
(This guy is pure skill,he is not overpowered,he even did it on ultimate difficulty)
I will be uploading these links to the original posts themselves.
persona 3 RE
Gamespot score:8.5(great)
my score:9.0
(+)pros:-dating sim system is great,-tons of persona customization,- plot is interesting and intruiging,- lots of possible strategies during battles,- likable characters who take a huge part of the story,- long journey keeps someone playing for a long long time,-cool soundtrack
(-)cons:-Exp isnt shared within all party members
gameplay time:100 hours+(very long lasting)
Here is my re-do version of my previous wanabe review of persona 3. And like before I will stress again and again, THIS GAME IS AWESOME. Persona 3 is a role-playing/dating sim hybrid rpg game, and heck its a good one. This game is godamn popular for being RPG of the year 2007. Persona 3 belongs to atlus's long running shin megami tensei series,which involves many great games such as this,now without further ado..
Now for the story. You,a young teenage orphan,is moved into a new school gekkoukan high. Upon arrival at your school dorm in the late hours of the night, midnight to be exact,the streets start soaking in blood, people are replaced in coffins, electricity stops running. And when you enter your dorm you are greeted by a panicky school girl who points a gun in your direction. All of these seem to calm down real quick,but persona 3's story is deep,dark and intruiging. You take control of a nameless protoganist who discovers a hidden power within him,the power to summon personas,other selves of a certain individual. Along with others who share the same power, he attempts to unravel the mystery of the dark hour,an hour which begins at 12am and where strange events start happening. In his ways are shadows, a huge towering nightmare building and a mysterious syndicate known as strega, this protoganist has a long road ahead of him....
Being a RPG game, battle is very important in persona 3. Persona 3 uses a fairly basic turn by turn system,where the main character can go into battle along with a maximum of 3 other allies. Persona 3 doesnt fall short in terms of battle, in fact its just like any typical rpg. You attack,use items,wait out your turn,or even flee from an unwinning battle. Of course there is the use of personas,where you dish out your skills. Yep,pretty simple and normal fighting system,but theres more to the part of using your personas.More on that later on. Besides that battles are fairly ok,not too challenging,not too easy as well. But the difficulty leans more on the difficult side, but not so difficult as for a player to start banging his/her head on the wall because of being unable to win a battle. However things can get annoying since once your main character dies its game over. A simple monster appearing and casting mudo on your main character and having it connect gets old real fast,so one can get used to it. One annoying thing though is that only the 3 characters tailing along the MC can receive exp,the reserves cant,now thats annoying.
Now to explain more about personas. Personas are the main assets of battle, every character in your party has one, but the main character is different,he can wield multiple personas. Now personas for the MC can be obtained in 2 different ways. One, he obtains them through card selections as spoils of battle. Two, he uses the personas that he obtains and fuses them together to make bigger and badder personas. There is a HUGE variety of personas in persona 3, which makes mixing and matching personas together very very satisfactory,seing a different persona everytime you match common personas is very nice. Later on you get to mix more than 2 personas together,which is even better. Mixing personas is very very in depth, the 2 ingredient personas used will have thier skills mixed when fusing,carrying over new skills as well as old skills,with all of them implanted on your new personas. All of this customization is very in depth,which really really hits the spot for a guy who likes to have the best possible combination of skills on a persona.
left 4 dead
Gamespot score:8.5(great)
my score:8.2
(+)pros:-thousands of zombies heading your way is cool,-mass killing zombies is awesome,-different special infectants make teamwork crucial(which is good in such a game),-multi-player is twice as fun,-using infectants in versus mode is fun,-game can be played both casually and for the purpose of story
(-)cons:-fkin stupid AI in single player mode,-game sometimes lag due to huge zombie spawn
gameplay time:50 hours+(above average)
Left 4 dead,a game loved by gamers around the world. This is the left 4 dead review for PC,which is of course not as good as the 360 in terms of graphics and LAG.Anyway,Im not gonna let those kind of issues slow me down,even now,1 year after its release, I still play left 4 dead even though I have left 4 dead 2. Left 4 dead is a first person mass zombie shooting game that can be played both casually and hardcore-ly,a really good game to the first person shooting genre.
Now then,left 4 dead's story centers around 4 survivors of the zombie apocolypse. The story goes around as a certain infection causes a huge amount of the population to be infected and be turned into mindless lumbering zombies that hunt any survivor down.There are those who are immune though, they cannot get infected and are trapped in the cities which are amassed with the infected. They usually get killed while trying to escape. Our main characters,bill,a grumpy old man with obvious gun experience,francis,some gangster looking guy with tattoos everywhere,louis, an office man who is just trying to escape, and zoey,a young woman who just tags along, though she does look like she has shot a gun before. Anyway these 4 are trying to escape from an infected city,and you play as one of them and try to navigate out of the city,and let the AI,or some of your friends,play as any of the other 3 survivors.
Left 4 dead's gameplay mechanics is simple, you go around a certain area until you enter a safe house,which then the level ends. In the safe house zombies cant get in. While getting to the safe house you have to navigate through different terrains, forests, streets, subways and even airports. Of course while navigating these terrains you will be confronted with the infected. Hundreds or thousands of zombies will be heading your way to make life difficult for you. Of course to help you, you have guns.
Shotguns,uzis, M-16 and sniper rifles are your friends here.Oh,pistols and grenades too.Well usually a single shotgun fire and kill off some 3-4 infectants,but they come in masses of 30s or 40s,sometimes even more. Killing these groups of infectant is as fun as blasting through hordes of retards trying to kill you.
Well obviously the whole game isnt about killing mindless zombies that head your way and try to kill you. Whilst killing these fkers you will be pounced on by special infectants,they are stronger zombies with special abilities,this is where teamwork comes in. There are a number of special infectants, hunters,smokers,boomers,tank and witch.Hunters pounce on any moving survivor,pinning him/her down and starts to claw frantically at the survivor with his sharp as ass claws. When this happens, another survivor needs to help kill the hunter before the pinned down survivor can do anything,as a pinned survivor cannot even move.
Smokers are real bastards,they have long ass tongues which reach out for miles to grab and contrict survivors. A constricted survivor cannot move and will continue to recieve damage from the smoker and other normal infectant which happen to spot the survivor being helpless,constricted by the smoker. Again a teamate must kill the smoker to free the contricted survivor before the constrictd survivor can move again. The other 3 special infectant have just as gay abilities to hunt down survivors,but i wont be going through them. Oh yeah,during online versus mode,you can use these special infectants if you play as the undead,its awesome.
Left 4 dead is a great shooter overall,one of my favourites. I would recommend this game to almost anyone,as killing hordes of infected along with teamates is as fun as hell.
Happy gaming.
Gamespot score:9.0(editor's choice)
my score:8.8
(+)pros:-very good environment design,-use of plasmids and other powers is creative,-provides a roughly good and challenging difficulty,-great story along with solid endings,-great combat mechanics,-big daddies are fun to kill
(-)cons:-little variety of splicers and big daddies,-switching of weapons can be troublesome
Gameplay time:10-20 hours(below average)
This is my first PS3 game review.Bioshock is a game that I had recently just completed and boy what a game! Bioshock is a 1st person shooter game with a retro style feel with weapons from the 1960s,expect them to be old,along with a mix with these old style weapons are powers which you will obtain to make the game all the more fun to play. Bioshock is a great game to experience,time to review.
I like the story for some reason. A man(you) is sitting on a plane which is on the way back to somewhere,so that you can visit your family. Halfway through, your plane crashes and lands in the middle of the ocean. You,being a survivor(or perhaps the only sole survivor),swim for your life and arrive at some gigantic lighthouse structure, you enter it to find a submarine and to your suprise,it leads you to an underwater city known as rapture. Sort of like an atlantis feel.You depart to find that rapture is a city which contains a drug like substance known as adam,and its residents have consumed to much of it and have become insane. They are called splicers and they will attack you. The story goes as you go around rapture to find means of escape to the surface,while having to face these retards as well.
Whilst exploring rapture, one will take note of its beautiful environment. Yeah for a game that takes place in the 1960s one will have to agree that rapture is one of the best sight seeing places to ever be at. The automatic doors moving up and down,the neat and tidy stairs,the small pathways that allow one to gaze into the ocean...rapture is a beautiful place to be. And while being a nice place,rapture's splicers welcome you by attacking you with weapons such as light sticks,knives,crowbars..anything on the floor to be specific.Splicers will be attacking you throughout the entire game,each holding different weapons,some with powers gifted by adam. Sadly rapture's splicers come in a small variety. So far the only splicers I know are thuggish,leadhead and houndful splicers.You will be killing them throughout the game,not that it really matters but,killing the same guys over and over can get kind of repititive,but oh well.
Well to combat splicers you have a slew of weapons. A wrench for melee,pistol, shotgun,assualt rifle,crossbow,grenade launcher and a chemical thrower for ranged attacks. Sounds like a big variety of ways to take out splicers,yes it is,but one must not forget the use of plasmids and adam gifted abilities. In this game,you can electrocute, incinerate,freeze,sonic boom,cyclone or even shoot bees at your opponents! There ar a huge variety of abilities for one to obtain to combat the splicers,although most of them are passive,they prove to be more useful than plasmids at times. One can head to a certain vending machine known as the gatherer's garden in this game to purchase these great powers,they are nice to look at and very rewarding during battles. Of course you dont purchase these powers with money,the currenct used to buy these powers is known as adam.
Adam is the addcitive stuff in rapture,as said above.In this game there is only one source of adam,little sisters. They are little girls with glowing eyes. If you do see a little sister,you can harvest her to gain enourmous amounts of adam,which can be used to buy powers,or choose to rescue her,turning her back to a normal little girl and gain only a small amount of adam,but doing these earns you better rewards later on as well as making youself go on the way to the game's good ending. But little sisters are guarded by big monsterous mechanics known as big daddies. They are the little sister's guardians, and they are hard to beat. You will have to go through them to get your adam,and well they are optional to beat, but are always there to pick a fight with anyone who is up for a big challenge.
Bioshock is overall a very good shooter, altough it is the first shooter I played on the PS3,I think it can beat many of the great shooters out there. Well bioshock 2 is coming out next year,and hell yes Im getting it.
Happy gaming.
Monster hunter freedom 2
Gamespot score:5.0(mediocore)
my score:8.0
(+)pros:-HUGE variety of bosses and monsters to kill with each requiring thier own strategy to beat,-bosses are very fun,-online co-op is awesome,-big variety of weapons to learn and master,-tons of character customisation(in terms of look and armor)
(-)cons:-gathering quests are boring and lame,-camera is a little screwed up
gameplay time:100 hours+(very long lasting)
Now before i say anyting, I usually do respect gamespot's reviews, but this is total nonsense. Pay no heed to gamespot's review to monster hunter freedom 2, for it is a gem of a game. Monster hunter freedom 2 is a game like no other which absolutely any action adventure player would absolutely love. The game lasted me a good solid 130 hours, it lasted over 200 hours for some of my hardcore friends.Ignoring gamespot's score,lets get on with it.
Pokke village, a simple village in the wilderness near an icy mountain. One day an ordianary hunter(you) is scavenging the icy mountain for supplies( i guess),when you discover a pile of dead popos(some elephanty mamoth monster,its harmless). While examing the carcasses, you are ambushed by a huge dragon like monster called a tigrex and you are knocked off the mountain, plunging deep into your death. You are saved by the residents of pokke village and as a repay favour you are chosen as thier village hunter. That begins your life in the village.Thats pretty much it, other than this, the story is pretty inexistent,but there is actually no need for it, since the gameplay is already so damn awesome.
Now then,as the new village hunter, you need to take on quests by the village elder. There are a huge variety of quests, hunting, slaying, gathering... and so on. Im gonna go through some of them. Gathering quests are the absolute most boring kinds of quests, you go to the field,take what you are asked to take,and hightail the fk out of there. Yep its boring,but occasionally, at the field where you are supposed to gather stuff,there will be a roaming boss monster ready to kick your ass. More on that later. Slaying quests require you to kill a certain amount of monsters that are troubling people that are living around the village or even outsiders. No complaints here,but again roaming bosses may make your life difficuult.Hunting quests are THE BOMB. They are what makes this game one hell of a ride. You are to go out to the field, and hunt down whatever bitch boss comes your way.Thankfully, majority of the given quests are hunting quests.
Now im gonna explain the field controls. Now monster hunter has a unique system. The X,O,triangle,L and R buttons are for combat purposes. Square to use an item, wheter issit to sharpen your weapon,to use a healng item, or to use a stamina replinishing item. As mentioned above,there are many weapons to master and use to kick your opponents' asses. Sword and shield, twin daggers, greatsword, sledgehammer,lance,gunlance and crossbows are just some of the many weapons provided. Each weapon has thier own attack style which makes fighting with different weapons so fun. These weapons,along with your armor,stick with you when you battle the big ol' monsters. Weapons and armor require making,which involves you killing certain monsters to go after their loot,and you use the loot as ingredients to make your new weapon or armor. This is usually a repititive process,but seeing your new weapon or armor after making it is great.
You may be wondering what this is...its the monser list. As you can see there is a huge variety of monsters,and thier sizes DO vary. If you look carefully,you can see a human figure in the picture,compared to most monsters,you are but a mere worm to crush. Now that you know what you are up against, this game will be even more exicitng and exilharating. Beating monsters some 50 times your size sure is a fun thing to do. Sure when fighting them camera control may suck,needing to use your finger to press the directional buttons to move the camera is annoying,but one will get used to it. Killing these 50 feet behemoths are fun as heck to make up for the cranky camera.
Monster hunter freedom 2 is a great game, no action loving person should miss this game,screw gamespot on this one,seriously. This game is great and should no be neglected.
Happy gaming!
Daytona USA(arcade edition)
Gamespot score:n/a
my score:7.7
(+)pros:-good competitive offline local play,-some arcades allow many player linkups,-cheap price for a racing game,-manual and automatic gears allow both noobs and pros to enjoy the game
(-)cons:-kinda old,-solo play is boring,-advanced and expert maps are rarely chosen as play fields
gameplay time:n/a for arcade games
Daytona USA,a very old but satisfying arcade racing game. I checked up on its release date, 1994. Well nevertheless it is still placed in arcades, at least in my local shopping centre arcade it is. Also in many local shopping malls with arcades, you can most of the time see daytona USA in it and there will mostly be people on the wheel in a typical busy day.
I doubt daytona has any plot or storyline, even if there is I wont really care, it is a racing game afterall. Daytona is an old game,so the graphics are kinda lackluster,but you really cant blame anyone. It is a pretty cheap game to play,with many arcade racing games ranging from 2-3 tokens for a race,daytona USA only requires one token to play,and the experience is just as satisfying.
With the compatibility to go up to 8 players linked up on a single game, this game has a huge offline multiplayer which is both competitive and satisfying. With one token, you can enjoy a huge competitive race with up to 8 of your friends,or even strangers to compete. Even though 1 race on the begginner track lasts no more than 10 mins, the one token is more than worth your money as you scream and shout through the arcade as you scold vulgarities to your friends that ram into you,causing your car to fly 10 feet into the air,or as you do the same,overtaking your friends. Now I did mention the beginner track, but there are advanced and expert tracks,which are very very neglected, they are rarely touched by players as the begginer map is much more fun and managable.
Now for single player mode. To be frank,I mostly see this game played with friends, there are though, few people who rather play this game alone,which I find rather monotonous. Single player pits you in a race against a whopping amount of 40 AI racers, but apparently they are easy to win and overtake. Your timing and postition will be recorded in the game's database after the race,but really what does it matter, the staisfying feel when you play with friends is all but gone, and you are just racing with 40 dumb AIs,seriously singe player mode is lame. But it too can be used if one wants to test out the advanced and expert maps first before pitting themselves against human players.
Overall daytona is a good average racing game in the arcade. Sure it isnt as good as many other racers in the arcade genre nowadays,but for a game so old to still be played by players worldwide,this game is rather impressive,along with its cheap price,players can enjoy this casual game with friends for a good,enjoyment filled ride that is daytona USA.
Intro to gamer--freakz
My ratings
9.0+=F**king amazing
Anything below 7= Crap and will not be covered
Only applies to games
About Me
- The Fool
- MSN is dead. Still 19, going 20 this year. Skype: Sincromi
Blog Archive
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Reviews Archive
Upcoming posts
Recently reviewed
Upcoming Anime reviews
- Utawarerumono:Itsuwari No Kamen
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
- Dagashi Kashi
- Dimension W
- Shoujo-tachi Wa Kouya Wo Mezasu
- Grimgar Of Fantasy And Ash
- Musaigen No Phantom World
- Erased
- Akagami No Shirayuki S2
- Sakamoto Desu-Ga
- Hundred
- Bungo Stray Dogs
- Boku No Hero Academia
- Gakusen Asterisk Season 2
- Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta
- Kabaneri Of The Iron Fortress
- Gate S2
- Tanaka-Kun Wa Itsumo Kedaruge
- Assassination Classroom S2
- Re-Zero
- Orange
- Fate Kalied Liner Prisma Illya 3rei
- Love Live Sunshine
- Alderamin On The Sky
- Masou Gakuen HxH
- Shokugeki No Soma S2
- New Game
- Taboo Tattoo
- Qualidea Code
- Danganronpa 3 (Both Sides)
- Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond Is Unbreakable
Gamer stats
Blazblue: Chrono Phantasma
-Yuki Terumi Lvl 13
League of legends
-Mid Champs: Karthus, Lissandra, Swain
-Top Champs: Pantheon, Renekton, Shen
-Junglers: Volibear, Xin Zhao, Cho Gath, Darius, Pantheon, Nautilus
-Supports: Annie, Thresh
Recommended Anime
- Angel beats
- Anohana:The flower we saw that day
- Another
- Assassination Classroom
- Baka to test to Shoukanjuu
- Baka to test to Shoukanjuu Ni!
- Black Bullet
- Code Geass
- Code Geass R2
- Daily Life Of High School Boys
- Darker than black
- Date A Live
- Durarara!
- Eureka Seven
- Fate/Zero
- Fullmetal Alchemist:Brotherhood
- Guilty Crown
- Hanamonogatari
- Hataraku Maou Sama
- Higurashi no Naku no Koro ni
- Higurashi no Naku no Koro ni Kai
- K-on!
- K-on! Season 2
- Kami Sama No Memochou
- Kill La Kill
- Kore wa zombie desuka
- Kyoukai Senjou Horizon
- Mahouka
- Mai-hime
- Mai-otome
- Mirai Nikki
- My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
- My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO
- Nichijou
- No Game No Life
- Overlord
- Parasyte -The Maxim-
- Persona 3 The Movie: The Spring Of Birth
- Psycho Pass
- School-Live!
- Shakugan no Shana
- Shakugan no Shana 2
- Shakugan no Shana 3 FINAL
- Shingeki No Kyojin
- Shirobako
- Shokugeki No Soma
- Steins;Gate
- Strike Witches/Strike Witches 2
- Sunday Without God
- Sword Art Online
- Tenchi Muyo! War On Geminar
- The Idolm@ster
- The Pet Girl Of Sakurasou
- To Aru Majutsu No Index:Endymion No Kiseki
- To aru Majutsu no Index Season 2
- Tokyo Ghoul
- Toradora!
Great anime
- Accel World
- Akame Ga Kill
- Akatsuki No Yona
- Amagi Brilliant Park
- Ao no exorcist
- Asura cryin
- Asura cryin 2
- Baccano!
- Barakamon
- Blood Blockade Battlefront
- Boku wa Tomodachi ga sukunai
- Boku Wa Tomodachi Ga Sukunai NEXT
- Btooom!
- Campione
- Classroom Crisis
- Coppelion
- Cross Ange
- D-Frag!
- Danganronpa: The Animation
- Date A Live II
- Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works
- Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works 2
- Freezing
- Gekkan Shojo Nozaki Kun
- Golden Time
- Grimgar Of Fantasy And Ash
- Hagure Yusha No Aestetica
- Hayate no gotoku season 2
- High School DxD
- High School DxD Born
- High School DxD New
- Hitsugi No Chaika
- Infinite Stratos
- Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (2012-2013)
- Jojo's Bizarre Adventure:Stardust Crusaders
- Jormungand
- Jormungand: Perfect Order
- K-on! Movie
- Kampfer
- Kokoro Connect
- Kyoukai No Kanata
- Kyoukai Senjou Horizon 2
- Kyousogiga
- Log Horizon
- Log Horizon 2
- Love Chunibyo & Other Delusions
- Love Live! School Idol Project
- Love Live! School Idol Project S2
- Lucky star
- Macademi Wasshoi
- Maji de watashi ni koi shinasai!
- Maoyu Maou Yusha
- Mikagura School Suite
- Mondaijitachi ga Isekai Kara Kuru Sou Desu Yo
- Monogatari Second Season
- Monster Musume
- Motto To Love Ru
- Nagi No Asukara
- Nanana's Buried Treasure
- Nisemonogatari
- Oda Nobuna No Yabou
- Omamori himari
- OniAi
- Oreimo
- Oreimo S2
- Oreshura
- Outbreak Company
- Persona 3 Movie 2:Midsummer Knight's Dream
- Pokemon:The Origin
- Psycho Pass II
- Rakudai Kishi No Cavalry
- Rokka No Yuusha
- Rozen maiden
- Rozen maiden traumend
- Seitokai no ichizon
- Seitokai Yakuindomo
- Seraph Of The End
- Seraph Of The End: Battle In Nagoya
- Sket Dance
- So, I Can't Play H!
- Sound! Euphonium
- Strike The Blood
- Strike Witches:The Movie
- Sword Art Online II
- The Idolm@ster: Cinderella Girls
- The World God Only Knows:Goddesses Arc
- The World Is Still Beautiful
- To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S
- To Love Ru Darkness
- To Love Ru Darkness S2
- Umineko no naku no koro ni
- Unbreakable Machine Doll
- Watamote
- Yamada-Kun And The Seven Witches
- Your Lie In April
- Yuki Yuna Is A Hero
- Yumekui Merry
- Zankyou No Terror
- Zero No Tsukaima series
Good anime
- Absolute Duo
- Akagami No Shirayuki-Hime
- Akuma No Riddle
- Aldnoah Zero
- Asobi ni Ikuyo!
- Asu no Yoichi
- Bakemonogatari
- Blood Lad
- C3: Cube x Cursed, Curious
- Chrome Shelled Regios
- Dagashi Kashi
- Darker than Black:Ryuusei no Gemini
- Day Break Illusion
- Deadman Wonderland
- Devil Survivor 2:The Animation
- Dog X Scissors
- Dragon Crisis!
- Dusk Maiden Of Amnesia
- Eureka Seven AO
- Fate Kaleid Liner Prisa Illya 2wei!
- Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya
- Fate/Stay Night
- Freezing Vibration
- Gakuen Toshi Asterisk
- Galilei Donna
- Gatchaman Crowds
- Gatchaman Crowds Insight
- Gugure! Kokkuri-San
- Hatsukoi Limited!
- Hayate No Gotoku! Cuties
- High School Of The Dead
- Hitsugi No Chaika: Avenging Battle
- Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Bride
- Hyouka
- Hyperdimension Neptunia:The Animation
- Infinite Stratos 2
- Inukami!
- Invaders Of Rokujyoma
- K: Missing Kings
- Kaibutsu Oujo
- Kannagi
- Knights Of Sidonia
- Kore wa zombie desuka? Of the dead
- Koufuku Graffiti
- Love Chunibyo & Other Delusions -Heart Throb-
- Love, Election and Chocolate
- Mashiro Iro Symphony
- Mayo Chiki
- Minami-Ke Tadaima
- Minami-Ke/Okawari/Okaeri
- Needless
- Nisekoi
- Nisekoi:
- Noragami
- Okami-San And Her Seven Companions
- Owarimonogatari
- Plastic Memories
- Psycho Pass Movie
- Rental Magica
- Ro-Kyu-Bu! SS
- Rosario + Vampire/Capu2
- Rozen Maiden 2013
- Rozen Maiden:Overture
- Sabagebu
- Saekano: How To Raise A Boring Girlfriend
- Sankarea
- Seitokai No Ichizon Lv.2
- Sekirei ~Pure Engagement~
- Senki Zesshou Symphogear
- Shinmai Maou No Testament
- Tales of the Abyss
- Tears to Tiara
- The "Hentai" Prince And The Stony Cat.
- The World God Only Knows I/II
- To aru Kagaku no Railgun
- To Love Ru
- Tokyo ESP
- Tokyo Ravens
- Tsukimonogatari
- Uchouten Kazoku
- Utawarerumono: The False Faces
- Valvrave: The Liberator
- Valvrave: The Liberator S2
- Vividred Operation
- Xamd:Lost Memories
- Zettai Karen Children Unlimited-Hyoubu Kyouske
Decent Anime
- 11eyes
- Aldnoah Zero 2
- Bakuretsu Tenshi
- Beautiful Bones: Sakurako's Investigation
- Black Rock Shooter OVA
- Blade Dance Of Elementalers
- Bleach movie 4:The Hell Verse
- Dimension W
- Fate Kaleid/Liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz!
- Girls Und Panzer
- Gj-Bu
- Hamatora
- Hayate No Gotoku:Can't Take My Eyes Off You
- Heavy Object
- Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls
- If Her Flag Breaks
- Kenzen Robo Daimidaler
- Kiss x Sis
- La Storia Della Arcana Familgia
- Maken-Ki! Battling Venus
- Mekakucity Actors
- Nyan Koi
- Rail Wars!
- Re-Kan!
- Re:Hamatora
- Ro-Kyu-Bu!
- Rolling Girls
- Seiken Tsukai No World Break
- Sekirei
- Senki Zesshou Symphogear G
- Senran Kagura
- Shikabane Hime Aka
- Shikabane Hime Kuro
- Shinmai Maou No Testament BURST
- Sky Wizards Academy
- Soul Eater Not!
- Stella Jo Gakuin C3-Bu
- Tamako Market
- Triage X
- Trinity Seven
- Upotte!
- Witch Craft Works
Anime NOT Recommended
Anime Talk
The fool's best(9.0 or more)
- Advance wars: Dual strike
- Bloodborne
- Cabal online
- Danganronpa:Trigger Happy Havoc
- Dark Souls
- Dark Souls 3
- Dark Souls II
- Demon's souls
- Dishonored
- Dissidia: final fantasy
- Doom 3
- Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends Of The Titan
- Fire Emblem:Awakening
- God of war
- Half minute hero
- Heartstone: Heroes Of Warcraft
- Hoshizora No Memoria
- Jubeat knit
- Kingdom hearts 2
- Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
- Nine hours, nine persons, nine doors
- Phoenix wright:ace attorney
- Portal
- Portal 2
- Shin megami tensei:Devil survivor
- Shin megami tensei:Devil survivor 2
- Shin megami tensei:Persona 3
- Shin megami tensei:Persona 3 portable
- Shin megami tensei:Persona 4
- Tactics Orge:Let Us Cling Together
- The Last Of Us
- The world ends with you
- Undertale
- Valkyria chronicles
- Yugioh 5Ds world championship 2009
The fool's real life outings
Favourite anime characters
- 11eyes, Angel beats, Ao no exorcist
- Akame Ga Kill, Assassination Classroom, Danshi
- Akuma No Riddle, Black Bullet, Dog X Scissors
- Amaburi, Mahouka, Gatchaman Crowds
- Anohana, Dragon Crisis!, Eureka Seven
- Another, Dusk Maiden, Hyakka Ryouran
- Asobi ni Ikuyo, Chrome Shelled Regios, DRRR
- Asu no yoichi, Asura cryin', Baka test
- Baccano!, Fate/Stay night, Freezing
- Bakemonogatari, Bakuretsu tenshi, BRS OVA
- Barakamon, Btooom!, Cross Ange
- C3, Campione, Jojo
- CANAAN, Code geass, Darker than black
- Danganronpa, Kill La Kill, Log Horizon
- Date A Live, Love Live!, Mashiro Iro Symphony
- Daybreak Illusion, Kyoukai Kanata, Galilei Donna
- Deadman Wonderland, Hatsukoi limited, HNG
- Girls Und Panzer, Macademi Wasshoi, Maji De
- Golden Time, Hitsugi No Chaika, Jojo SC
- Haganai, FMA, Guilty Crown
- Hagura Yusha, Mondaiji, MM!
- Hataraku Maou Sama, Lucky Star, Maoyu
- High School DxD, HOTD, Higurashi
- Hyouka, K, Kaibutsu Oujo
- Infinite Stratos, Inukami!, Jormungand
- K-on!, Kampfer, Kami-sama no memochou
- Kore Wa Zombie, Kokoro connect, Kannagi
- Kyoukai Senjou Horizon, KissXSis, Mai-Hime
- Neptunia, Love Election and Chocolate, Mirai Nikki
- Romantic Comedy SNAFU, Chunibyo, Minami-Ke
Best game characters
- Kagura- Blazblue:Chrono Phantasma
- Sterkenberg- Atelier Arland Series
- Yamato- Shin megami tensei:Devil Survivor 2
- Jackie- The Darkness II
- Jaegar- Valkyria chronicles
- Maria- Knights in the nightmare
- Hazama- Blazblue:Continuum shift
- Ulthane- Darksiders
- Dante- Devil may cry series
- Miles edgeworth- Ace attorney series
- Rachel- Blazblue: calamity trigger portable
- Hero- Half minute hero
- Jin- Tekken series
- Naoya- Shin megami tensei:devil survivor
- Vayne- Mana khemia:student alliance
- Naoto- Shin megami tensei:persona 4
- Sho minamoto- The world ends with you
- Cloud- Final fantasy 7
Greatest boss fights
- Accelerator (Dengeki Gauen RPG:Cross Of Venus)
- Airshatter (Atelier Meruru)
- Asimov (Azure Striker Gunvolt)
- Barthandelus II (Final fantasy 13)
- Batomys (Valkyria Chronicles)
- Dante (Devil may cry 4)
- Darth moab (Prinny 2)
- Draco cantus (The world ends with you)
- Gawain/Leo (Fate/Extra)
- Golbez (Final fantasy 4)
- Golden Mage Knight (Tales Of Xillia)
- Isolde (Mana khemia:Student alliance)
- Kurt zisa (Kingdom hearts)
- Lucifer (Shin megami tensei:Devil survivor)
- Melad Margus (Knights in the nightmare)
- Tigrex (Monster hunter freedom 2)
- Unlimited Hazama (Blazblue:Continuum shift)
Top villians
- 19/02/16 (anime)
- 03/05/15 (anime)
- 15/09/14 (anime)
- 29/07/13 (anime)
- 05/12/12 (anime)
- 11/03/12 (anime)
- 17/08/11 (anime)
- 02/05/11 (anime)
- 27/11/10 (anime)
- 10/08/10 (anime)
- 12/05/10 (anime)
- 08/08/15 (gaming)
- 07/02/15 (gaming)
- 16/05/14 (gaming)
- 24/03/13 (gaming)
- 03/07/12 (gaming)
- 08/11/11 (gaming)
- 13/06/11 (gaming)
- 02/03/11 (gaming)
- 21/09/10 (gaming)
- 22/07/10 (gaming)
- 22/06/10 (gaming)
Pervertic posts
Seiyuu Power!!
Parties in RPGs
- Bravely Default (Part 2)
- Bravely Default (Part 1)
- 7th Dragon 2020 II
- Etrian Odyssey IV:Legend Of The Titan
- Atelier Meruru:The Apprentice Of Arland
- Atelier Totori:The Adventurer Of Arland
- Tales Of Graces F
- Shin Megami Tensei:Persona 4
- Unchained Blades
- Final Fantasy XIII
- Shin Megami Tensei:Persona 3
- Atelier Rorona:The Alchemist Of Arland
- Radiant Historia
- Shin Megami Tensei:Devil Survivor 2
Fighting game character impressions
- Phantom Breaker:Battle Grounds
- Under Night In Birth:Exe Late Part 2 (Hands On)
- Under Night In Birth:Exe Late Part 1 (Hands On)
- Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax (Hands On)
- Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax Part 2 (Hands Off)
- Blazblue:CP Character Impressions
- Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax (Hands Off)
- P4A Character impressions
- MVC3 Characters 1-12
- MVC3 Characters 13-24
- MVC3 Characters 25-36
- MVC3 Character Impressions (Hands Off)
Tiers in fighting games
Yugioh 2009 guide(DS)*complete*
Wolfteam freebies
Demon's souls boss profiles
Dark souls boss profiles
- Asylum demon
- Taurus demon
- Capra demon
- Bell gargoyle
- Moonlight Butterfly
- Great Grey Wolf Sif
- Gaping dragon
- Stray demon
- Chaos Witch Quelaag
- Iron Golem
- Ornstein and Smough
- Dark Sun Gwyndolin
- Crossbreed Priscillia
- Seath The Scaleless
- Pinwheel
- Gravelord Nito
- The Four Kings
- Ceaseless Discharge
- Centipede Demon
- Bed Of Chaos
- Gwyn, Lord Of Cinder
- Sanctuary Guardian
- Knight Artorias
- Black Dragon Kalameet
- Manus, Father Of The Abyss
Dark Souls II Boss Profiles
- The Last Giant
- Dragonrider/Old Dragonslayer
- Flexile Sentry/The Pursuer
- Ruin Sentinels
- The Lost Sinner
- Belfry Gargoyles
- Scorpioness Najka
- Prowling Magus & Congregation/Royal Ray Authority
- The Duke's Dear Freja
- Royal Rat Vanguard/The Rotten
- Skeleton Lords/Executioner's Chariot
- Covetus Demon/Mytha The Baneful Queen
- Smelter Demon/Old Iron King
- Dragonriders
- Looking Glass Knight/Demon Of Song
- Velstadt/Guardian Dragon
- Giant Lord/Throne Watcher & Throne Defender
- Nashandra/Aldia, Scholar Of The First Sin
- Darklurker
- Elana/Sinh/Gank Squad
- Fume Knight/Sir Alonne/Smelter Demon
- Ava, The King's Pet/Burnt Ivory King/Lud & Zallen


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Dave Matthews Band played last night at a packed KFC Yum! Center. Sorry to all you naysayers out there (a few Tweeters thought my commentating was breathless and giddy), but they put on an incredible show that concert goers of all ages and varying character enjoyed.
Jimmy Cliff kicked off the concert with some popular reggae beats. You'd never be able to tell Cliff was 64 years old by the energy he showed on stage. He was light on his feet and could still belt some Jamaican socio-political melodies which were enhanced with rich harmonies created by his backup singers. The crowd favorite was his performance of "I Can See Clearly Now" which he performed for the movie Cool Runnings. The band was great, but it seemed like a slightly miss matched opening act. The Lumineers opening for the second half of the tour makes more sense as they match the genre of Dave Matthews more and are less well known. This may be why attendance wasn't great during Jimmy Cliff's set. It appeared approximately half the audience arrived after Cliff performed.
After the stage crew cleared off the stage I noticed a stagehand sweeping the carpet on the stage. It made me wonder if this was a sign that Dave Matthews is high maintenance. After all why would they need the stage swept? This was just one of those small things that caught my eye as odd having performed with various bands and orchestras.
After everything was setup the Dave Matthews Band took the stage and the crowd roared. The lighting and staging was quite impressive. Lasers and lights were beaming across the audience and the video background showed up close footage of all the band members and occasionally artsy images of puppets, masked people, roads, subway tunnels, elevators, and nature. The imagery was dark, sometimes bordering on creepy (especially during "The Riff" when the screen showed dolls/puppets hanging), but was clearly inspired by the music.
The music was great as well as the presentation. The ensemble as a whole was tight. They hit breaks, transitions, and changes in tempo flawlessly. Every musician in the band (Carter Beauford- drums, Stefan Lessard- bass, Rashawn Ross- trumpet, Jeff Coffin- saxophone, Tim Reynolds- guitar, Dave Matthews- vocals/guitar, and Boyd Tinsley- violin) is fantastic at what he does. Lessard, Ross, and Reynolds got the job done and performed well, but they didn't really stand out like their other band mates.


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Skomer Island is a favourite haunt of the short-eared owl, which should come as no surprise as this particular species of owl loves voles, and the unique `skomer vole' is bigger than its mainland cousins.
Summer visitors to the island may be lucky enough to spot an owl quartering low over the central plain, its moth-like or bat-like erratic flight distinctive. This floppy flight action is due to its irregular wingbeats and it flies only a foot or two above the ground. from which height its sudden appearance takes its prey by surprise. It prefers voles but will also take young rabbits, long-tailed field mice, young birds, beetles and grasshoppers. Although it is mainly nocturnal the short-eared owl hunts in broad daylight during preiods of high activity among voles and young rabbits. During his time on Skomer Island the naturalist and author Ronald Lockley wrote of many sightings of long-eared owls and noted their behavioural idiosyncracies, such as their strange and striking 'song-flight' recorded in April, in both morning and evening. He recorded: "One bird would rise until it was estimated to be as much as seven hundred feet up (other estimates on various occasions varied between two and five hundred feet). It would circle, then suddenly clap its wings several times beneath the body, at once falling vertically; the clap of the wings was likened to a ratchet by one watcher. Usually the bird rose again, circled, clapped its wings again, then uttered the hooting 'boo-boo-boo' as many as twelve times in succession. The mate of the displaying bird meanwhile remained below activelty quartering the ground from a low level." He added: "Mating frequently followed the return of the aerial exhibitionist to earth, even when in May the pair were known to have well-grown young." Sadly, the owls' three young on that occasion did not survive, for, as soon as they left the nest, in the bracken near the north stream, they were killed by gulls before they were able to fly. They had probably blundered into the nesting-territory of the vicious black-backed gulls which were occupying the same area of bracken. The owls had evidently chosen the wrong nesting site, as having lost their brood, they resumed their display and 'song-flight' for about a week in June, but were frequently harrassed by the black-backed bullies as they circled over their nesting colonies. In good years, when the voles proliferate, the owls will rear a second brood. The much-quoted phrase 'nature red in tooth and claw,' is particularly appropriate to Skomer for much carnage is caused by the large gulls as well as the opportunist jackdaws. The young of puffin, shearwater and storm petrel are constantly attacked, and the bodies of young and adult birds are seen everywhere. Indeed, the owls will also attack young birds and the Little Owl is particularly partial to young storm petrels on neighbouring Skokholm.


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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A federal agency is suing a Minneapolis area home health care provider for allegedly discriminating against a former employee with a disability.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed the lawsuit Monday against Baywood Home Care.
According to the lawsuit, Laurie Goodnough has fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis that limit her walking and bending. She worked for Baywood Home Care since 2007 as a home health aide in the Mankato area.
An EEOC official says in November 2011, two Baywood employees saw Goodnough walking with a cane and complained. The EEOC says that led to Goodnough's firing.
The lawsuit contends the company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, and is seeking back pay and compensatory damages.
A Baywood attorney says the company does not discriminate and is confident the court will agree.
(© Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
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