What's My Motivation? Why We Play the Top 100 Games
An interesting study was released over at Kotaku taking the top 100 games (taken from GameRankings.com) breaking them down into categories based on goals and tallying it all up into one neat pie chart. The results are interesting to say the least.
I was fortunate enough to be selected as a beta tester a few weeks ago but unfortunate enough to own a PC incapable of handling the game. This is definitely great news for Mac users everywhere.
Expect to see coverage on my trials and tribulations learning this game in future blogs!
Garudoh's VG Music Collection
Whenever I need to get my fix of nostalgia, I turn to Youtube user Garudoh's channel. He maintains an impressive collection of video game music dating back to the 80s to the current titles we see today. They are unaltered and is accompanied by scenes of superb gameplay.
When I first started blogging 3 days ago, I found it strange that the text editor's interface was severely lacking in features but I was too focused on coming up with blog ideas and did not ask too many questions. Today I realize that I have been blogging all this time in "Edit HTML" mode.
Yikes.
I quickly click "Compose" mode and there we have all the features that I have been missing out on: fonts, colours, sizes and bullet points! So from this point onward the blogs should look a lot better and will be changed slightly everyday until I find the right look.
Freeware Feature: CC Cleaner
Highly recommended freeware to clean up your PC and get some hard drive space back . Use CC Cleaner to get rid of temporary files, form & download history and cookies from most of the major internet browsers, as well as invalid entries and MRU's (most recently used) lists from Windows registry.
Works for Windows XP/Vista/7.
I've used CC Cleaner for almost 2 years now and so far there has been no problems.
Robot Unicorn Attack!
Robot Unicorn Attack by Adult Swim is a bizarre looking side-scroller with a unique feel to it. Right away you are sent to a fantasy world with purple hills, butterfly collectables, star obstacles and 3 wishes instead of 3 lives.
The controls are simple (Z = jump, X = dash) and you get into the action right away. The music is something worth taking a note of as its nothing like any of the traditional games I've played.
It's currently rated at 7.1 on the site and I recommend anyone to play it at least once or twice. Not a bad way to pass time.
I was really excited when I first saw Megaman 2 for the iPhone while browsing through the App Store. This was a game I played and thoroughly enjoyed back in the early 90s. With the exception of the Pseudo-Direction Pad, the game is unaltered for the most part; music and graphics stayed true to the original. However, after 1 minute of tapping I came to a realization that reaching Woodman's level is going to be a lot tougher than I remembered.
The controls are atrocious. I knew the pseudo D-pad was going to affect gameplay to a certain degree, but I did not think it would be game breaking. Everything felt unresponsive; I had trouble moving and shooting. It's so bad that It felt like Megaman had aged with the franchise. The game would also lag and speed up randomly and in addition to all that, the music would abruptly loop as if you were playing a song on repeat in WinAmp.
Someone in their QA department dropped the ball on this one.
Conclusion: This unpolished remake is not worth $5. Do not want.
I have been on this game [WoW] since a month after its launch in February 11 2004, taking a month off here and there to catch up on other things. Let me tell you this game is dreadful. The story line is weak, the game mechanics are redundant and boring, most of the music is forgettable, graphics are always subpar relative to other games and the leveling process takes way too long. Yet, even with all these flaws in the game, I keep playing and have probably spent years in /playtime across all my characters. And despite all this time spent, I consider myself a casual player with average in-game accomplishments.
WoW is a big social media network, more or less like a glorified MSN or AIM with objectives to give oneself a sense of achievement. Guilds and the people in it are the main reason why people stick around for so long. You are empowered with a feeling of responsibility and a looming fear of disappointing real people in a video game. This is the driving force behind the addiction.
A Glimpse into my MMO Career
Here is a brief summary of what I've done in-game:
Time Span: ~ 1.5 years Class: Human Mage (60) Server: Eonar (PvE, Alliance) Guild: Guardians of Dawn (PvE Guild) Role: Raider, DPS Accomplishments: Molten Core, Blackwing Lair completed, Knight Lieutenant Rank in Battlegrounds Armory: N/A (did not exist back then)
Time Span: ~ 2 years Class: Gnome Warrior (60-80), Night Elf Druid (70) Server: Shattered Hand (PvP, Alliance) Guild: Ramen 60-70 (PvE Guild), NEDM 80 (PvE Guild) Role: Ramen Guild Master / Main Tank, NEDM Casual Member, Druid PvP Healer Accomplishments: Molten Core, Zul'Gurub, Anh'Qiraj (20), Gruul's Lair, Magtheridon's Lair, (I retired at this point but the guild went forward) Serpent Shrine Cavern, Tempest Keep, Black Temple and Sunwell Plataeu; 2v2 - 1750s (Season 3 and 4), 3v3 - 1900s (Season 3 and Season 4) Armory: LINK
Time Span: ~1 year Class: Blood Elf Paladin (80) Server: Shattered Hand (PvP, Horde) Guild: Catalina Wine Mixer (PvP Guild) Role: PvP Healer Accomplishments: 2v2 - 1900's (Season 7 and Season 8), 3v3 - 2246 (Season 8), 2100 (Season 7), 5v5 - 2234 (Season 8) Armory: LINK
These are the 4 characters I focused on the most. I have countless other characters I have levelled on the side out of sheer boredom or curiosity. That's all for now, I'll cover different aspects of WoW and other games in more blogs to come.
Epic Music Video
With today's blog being a Warcraft-themed, it is only fitting that I share this video:
Craft of War: Blind by Percula (Music: Hide and Seek by Namie Amuro)
My name is Peter and this is my very first blog. I will be covering topics that interest me, as well as things that I found helpful. So you can expect coverage on computer technology-related subjects, places to eat, music choices, TV shows, comics, video games, etc. A bulk of my interests are quite dorky, so I apologize in advance.
(For more information about me, you can visit my Facebook).
Let us get started!
IT Security Basics
There are a number of ways to protect yourself from today's onslaught of viruses and spyware.
1) Get a Mac.
Security through obscurity. Hackers don't really feel like hacking Macs when 90% of the computers out there have Windows installed. Just take a look at the Top 20 most popular programs downloaded at Download.com. You'll notice that not a single antivirus or anti-spyware program can be found for Macs until #28 (iAntivirus, which sometimes slows down my system, so I deleted it). Sadly, the same cannot be said for Windows. Right off the bat, we get 4 Security programs!
Online banking is a lot less stressful with a Mac.
2) Stay with Windows: Install Antivirus, Anti-spyware, Software Firewall, Hardware Firewall, Alternate Browsers, etc.
Thanks to a certain Streetfighter2.exe I became more diligent in keeping my computer clean and free of malware. The best part is, I use only freeware and so far there has been no problems. Here are the security software I use:
Antivirus Suites (Choose one only)
AVG - Free antivirus that does its job. I have used this for a while now and it has grown from only being an antivirus scanner to a full suite of tools, including email protection, anti-spyware, browser protection, etc.
Avira Antivirus - Another free antivirus that I am currently trying out and it's managed to catch a few things AVG has missed. It has the same array of tools AVG has in its arsenal.
Anti-spyware / Anti-malware (You can install all 3)
Adaware - Like AVG, these guys have been around for a long time. The scanner now comes with a suite that includes shields and email/browser protection.
Spybot Search & Destroy - (Freeware) I use this to cross check with Adaware for spyware. The downside of Spybot is that it finds a lot of false negatives and there are times it does not really delete what it claims to have deleted.
Malware Bytes - (Freeware) Very potent Anti-malware detector. Highly recommended.
Software Firewall
Virus prevention is one thing and virus containment is another. Certain viruses (trojans) take over your machine and send information out. Examples of these would be keyloggers or Denial of Service attacks. A software firewall will be able to catch these types of outward traffic and alert you.
Zone Alarm - Solid software firewall that allows many levels of control on network traffic. The one downside would be the need to enable every single connection manually.
Hardware Firewall
A hardware firewall is usually built into a router and sometimes your modem. This hides your computers and any open ports from being seen by the outside. Hackers use IP sniffers to detect ports which they use as entry points into your machine. Routers are configurable to filter out unwanted sites and control outgoing traffic, as well as block incoming traffic via IP address or URL. This presents another layer of security for your home network.
Alternate Browsers
Again, "Security through obscurity" comes into play here. Check out this graph I pulled from Wikipedia: Internet Explorer (IE) is deemed to be the most unsafe browser and over the years, there has been a shift toward Firefox as the browser of choice. As a result, Firefox is now uncovering all sorts of security issues.
The key here is to not be afraid to take part in a software exodus and try new browsers. Personally, I have been using Safari on the Mac (read above) so things have been alright on my end. But I would recommend those who want to try something new to try Google Chrome. The load times of Chrome are pretty fast and the URL bar also serves as a Google search bar.
In the end, I am not too keen on which browser is great and why but all I can say is, the more popular a browser or operating system is, the more likely it will be exploited. So keep that in mind and keep trying new things.
The Music that I Enjoy
For those that don't know me, I enjoy a wide selection of music. I listen to Pop, Trance, Chill Out/Ambient, Jazz, Oldies, Classical Music, Videogame Music and Japanese music. I also do a lot of streaming and the sites I frequent are: Sky.fm, Last.fm, Rainwave.cc, and iTunes Radio.
