Altogether

The Funeral

2012-03-05T13:32:00.006+02:00

I had the unfortunate obligation last week to attend a funeral. I’ve never met the man before or the family, so I might come across as little insensitive BUT I feel like I’ve turned around an experience for the better. The trip has taught me to set sights on the more enlightning things in life and shift focus from the morbidity of death.

The Trip to Ermelo (2 and a half hour drive)

The mood in the car is light. We’ve just stopped at the filling station to fill up on fuel and I’ve bought some treats for the road (best.apple-kiwi smoothy.ever.) and we’re all set to be on our way. It’s early in the morning and the air is as fresh as city air can be. As polluted as it is in the city, it kind of feels like one of those mornings that hold the promise of new beginning. This was really strange as we were on our way to something really unpleasant.

We’re listening to the radio, chatting about random things and generally smiling, I’m overwhelmed by the feeling. Taking the alternative route was actually more adventurous than I’d imagine it to be, dodging potholes and manoeuvring through road works have never been this fun or funny. These conditions that would normally get you in a bad mood instantly had just become satirical.

I could see a vast mass of thick clouds in the distance and I am intrigued. It’s just so beautiful and I can’t stop staring. After a while I realise that they aren’t clouds. They are spirals of thick condensed air, white as snow funnelling out of high round towers. I get to drive past the most magical thing I have seen in a very long time. This is Escom. How could an electricity providing factory look this incredible? It’s like a cloud factory. It’s the most marvellous, exciting and amazing thing I’ve witnessed recently.

We’re almost there and have reached the old “plaas dorp” of Bethal. The town is derelict in most parts; it’s small and the image of change. From one corner to the other you can see poverty, old school farmers and modern furniture stores with professional, quite artistic photography advertising their products. Red leather couches in the bos with a random cactus in the picture, a table set in the forest.

Janfrik Vulstasie on the one corner and just down the road the Bethal golf course which seems to have disappeared as all I can see is a small abandoned building on a patch of dry land. The streets are teaming with life. The town is bipolar at best.

Arriving at our destination in Ermelo makes me anxious; I’m not that fond of groups of mourning old people and women with mid life crises. Never the less, we’re received by hordes of Afrikaans small town people offering coffee in the searing heat and refreshments. I try to extend my arm for shaking hands to greet but according to tradition, that is a no-no. Every old man, old woman and middle aged woman with sticky pink lipstick kisses me right on the mouth. Some one PLEASE kill me now. I’m not really the kind of person that prefers greeting strangers with kisses so I’ve decided to flee! I run for a small corner in the garden on the stoep and enjoy the solitude. At least, for a while.

The Church Service

The church is beautiful, what a pity that it’s right across the road from the fabric factory and filthy streets. I think I saw a Chicken Licken in the vicinity too. Again with the old people kisses and then finally we enter the church. The silence is deafening. Every now and then it’s broken by whispers and children fiddling around. It’s time to start. Organ music starts to play and I’m reminded of the times I went to church as a teen. At first I thought that the music was played back from a CD since churches like to become all technological; these days, but as I looked up to the right over my shoulder I saw an elderly woman sitting at the organ playing her heart out. She’s looking over her shoulder too from up there down on the people in the church and kind of resembles the image of Dracula. It’s just a little bit scary. As my mind wanders into the tales of Dracula and movies I’d seen about him I get the biggest fright ever! *Suddenly a wild preacher appears* I have no idea where he came form but out of nowhere he was just there. He’s ready to begin. It was a short service, the preacher praised the existence of this man, saying how perfect he was an never had an impure thought. I guess that’s how it works, would have been weird if he stood there pointing out all the bad stuff eh.

We’re asked to stand and sing some verses from the Bible that had been converted into songs. I’m an atheist, so naturally I didn’t feel the need to partake. The screwed up part is that I actually know all of the songs off by heart. Anyway, every body is standing up, straightening out their clothes and the Dracula Lady starts to play the organ again. As people start singing I only had one thought come to mind: “These are the worst Idols auditions I have ever heard before!” For some reason people try to “outsing” each other in church O.o

Now a man is called forth to make his speech and thank every one, it’s short and sweet and I am happy. Only to have my bubble burst by the youngest son of the deceased. He now comes to the front of the church and gives a very charismatic speech about his father, I didn’t hear much but I recall the man calling himself a rock star and making lulz. He plays a slide show of pictures of his father. In almost every one of them, the deceased is wearing a Blue Bulls shirt, even in death, he’s a great rugby fan!

Finally it’s over and we all go to the back for those nasty triangle sammiches filled with either egg and mayo or jam but where probably made hours ago so it’s just really a gross pile of soggy but dry on the outside sammiches. As usual coffee and tea is served. I wander around a bit in the hopes of killing time, smoke a cigarette with a down to earth, say it like it is old tannie and then run for a corner again. Maybe I can just wait it out here. The kids are so busy, running and jumping around with the other kids, an epic wipe-out is on the way. And sure as hell, it happens. A tragic pile up of about 10 toddlers at the bottom of some steps. I couldn’t help but facepalm. Good news arrives that we are going to leave. What a relief.

The Trip Home

Driving back is satisfying and relaxed. Finally I get to go back to my comfort zone. It’s late afternoon and the air is orange. Drinking a coke and snacking on some assorted cookies we chat about the happenings of the day. The kids are sleeping in the back and the mood once again is light, relaxed. We’re taking the highway this time. The road is smooth and soothing. The best way to describe the sites aside the road is in the words of my other half : “A windows background”. I’ve never seen the sky so blue. Cows have never looked this poetic. Large lakes (or dams) are crystal clear. Diamonds shimmering in the sun, a sight of true beauty. Fields are golden, glistening as if it were covered in magic dust form a fairy tale and I am left breathless. After an exhausting day, I fall asleep for a while. I am awoken by the sudden snore I give and realize that I was sleeping with my mouth open. Must have been a charming thing to see. Laughing at myself, I realize that this trip, that seemed it would be incredibly dreadful, has fed my being with beauty and thought and a new appreciation for not living in Ermelo.

Image by Ben Skinner - Sunset Ermelo

Mkay, so this is what I've been up to.

2012-02-23T18:05:00.001+02:00

I haven't blogged for a while because I've been quite busy. I miss it though, I think about it everyday. So I guess I'll just got down here what I've been doing >.<

I've been doing quite a bit of writing:
Mass Effect 3 Demo review: http://gaming.do.co.za/articles/reviews/mass_effect_3_demo_review_pc.htm
Interview with Daniel da Rocha, Managing Director of Toxic Games: http://gaming.do.co.za/articles/news/daniel_da_rocha_toxic_games_interview.htm
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Review (PC): http://gaming.do.co.za/articles/reviews/kingdoms_of_amalur_reckoning_review_pc.htm

and some other stuff I don't remember :S

I've created a new website for 16Bit TF: http://www.16bittf.co.za/ and we hosted our Ultiduo. Shoutcasting with John Irwin and Lazar Jovic was really an adventure.

Annnd I've been working my ass off :P

I don't really know where 23 days have gone this month, it's though it has slipped my mind or sneaked past while I had been in my chaotic haze. I hope I get to write a decent blog soon, my very being calls for it, this seemingly anonymous expression.

Kingdoms of Awesome: Reckoning

2012-01-26T09:24:00.000+02:00

The Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning demo recently released and kicked up a lot of hype and interest from role-playing-game (RPG) fans all over the world. After playing the demo myself, I can say with full certainty that the hype was right. So much so that I think it may be better than Skyrim.

Check out my review and opinion about Reckoning: here

RPG’s: Living The Game

2012-01-24T16:23:00.001+02:00

It’s not difficult to get lost in the altiverse of gaming.

Almost all games have some form of role play in it. Whether it’s a war game (First- or Third-Person shooter), a platformer, a strategy game or even a puzzle game, we are always playing some kind of role, pretending to be something or some one else in a place realistic or fantasy.

Critical Distance, a pristine website about video game blogging has re-launched The Blogs of the Round Table (BoRT) and posed a subject very close to my heart this month.

The subject is the following:

“Games, like most media, have the ability to let us explore what it’s like to be someone other than ourselves. While this experience may only encompass a character’s external circumstances–exploring alien worlds, serving with a military elite, casting spells and swinging broadswords–it’s most powerful when it allow us to identify with a character who is fundamentally different than ourselves–a different gender, sexuality, race, class, or religion. This official re-launch of the Blogs of the Round Table asks you to talk about a game experience that allowed you to experience being other than you are and how that impacted you–for better or for worse. Conversely, discuss why games haven’t provided this experience for you and why.”

I’ve been playing Role-Playing-Games (RPG’s) more than any other type of games for quite some time as it’s my absolute favourite. In many ways I agree and understand the statement presented by Critical Distance and in many ways I completely disagree. I’ll attempt to explain both points of view.

Identifying with a character, that is fundamentally different than me.

To an extent I can identify with this statement. When playing an FPS (first-person-shooter) or game where murder is prominent, this is true for me as I wouldn’t murder something or some one IRL (in real life). So the soldier or character doing the murdering differs to me at my core. I can identify with this character being bold, confident, fierce, fear striking and super human. I can identify with the difference in race, sexuality, gender, religion etc but that’s about as far as it goes.

This identifying with something which I am not aspect really isn’t that important to me or even present when playing video games. I experience role play in games very differently and believe that many others do as well.

We are everything we pretend to be in-game and none of it at the same time.

We fundamentally are and have potential to be the sniper, the mage, the warrior, the rogue, the hunter, the super soldier, the genetically altered super human. Every character we choose to play the role of displays some of what we are at our core or wish to be. All the “abilities” they have, are just the external dressings. The roles we play are rarely in contrast to our true selves, whether we like to admit it or not. Some parts of us are inclined to explore darker characters and others to explore the good aspects. We are inclined to become either the villain or the savior.

Some will create a character to be statistically optimal to achieve its goal, for example choosing the race with the most optimal racial advantage for the spec that they will be playing, no matter what they look like. Because who they are is a goal orientated person who get’s their kicks from perfection in strategy. These are usually the more experienced gamers who like to take their characters to the max.

Others will create a character to look like what they are inside, for example a muscular warrior, a sneaky assassin or a super sexy vixen. I must admit that I do this all the time. Almost every character I create is female, and “badassely” good looking. I don’t often create a male, because I don’t necessarily have the desire to pretend to be a dude and if I don’t have a choice, said dude will be ridiculously handsome.

Then there are people like me. When I create my character, it’s a really important phase of the game for me, albeit the most basic. When creating my character I dream up a persona in my head, a past, present and future. An attitude, a personality and legacy. My goal when playing that character, is to live up to that reputation that I have created. From the birth of the character, right through its progression, to its becoming and “living” the life of the ultimate legend.

I create a better me, a fantasy me. A me that exudes confidence, that’s kickass and lethal. I literally live my game. This is probably why I don’t ever create a stealth based rogue, because, well, I suck at it. Even in real life I don’t exactly blend into my environments.

Role playing in games accentuates personality traits that we have IRL, for instance natural leaders and protectors (tanks), care givers (healers) and fighters (dps).

I guess what I’m trying to say is that role playing in games don’t allow me to explore a character that’s fundamentally different than I am, but rather a different version of myself. Whether it’s a sci-fi game, a fantasy game, or a war game. I always feel that this character has the personality I would have had, makes the decisions I would have made. I don’t necessarily make my character choose a path that I think is the best path in the game. For example, in Mass Effect 2 I chose to do all the missions I could in order to make the Normandy as strong as I could and get all the upgrades to pass through the Mass Relay, now if I were a kind off “don’t care” type of person in real life, I probably wouldn’t have done that and went through the relay prematurely and killed every one on board the ship. Lucky for me, I like to do things properly in life and in games.

Role playing in games reflects things we are proud of and things we keep hidden about ourselves. Maybe even sometimes things we would be ashamed of in front of our friends and family. Either way, you can’t deny that little bits of yourself are embedded everywhere in the character you are playing.

To get to the part where what we pretend to be in-game is none of who we are. That’s the more surfaced aspect, we aren’t magicians or warriors or soldiers that commit mass murder and assassinations and fight wars; we just like to pretend that we are. Just because you’ve played the role of a soldier, doesn’t mean that you will ever have the ability or desire to fight a war in reality or even approve of war in our world. Just because you’ve chosen to play the villain in a game, doesn’t mean you are a villain in your everyday life.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Demo Screenshots

2012-01-18T08:21:00.001+02:00

Finally! The Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Demo has arrived.

It appeared on origin last night after a long days wait and excitement, it's about 2.8G big and easy to see why :) So I downloaded it while I was sleeping and checked it out this morning. So far it looks just amazing. I took some screenshots using fraps.

I'll only be doing a complete play-through tonight though so keep an eye out for my demo review ^_^

Stained Official Game Trailer

2012-01-16T15:40:00.000+02:00

Today I stumbled across another very fascinating game trailer! Curious as to how good it will really be :P

Stained is a physics-based side-scrolling, platforming and combat action game set in an ancient, mysterious castle featuring detailed 3D environments with a continually changing game world. Events in the game are triggered by breaking objects placed in and around the castle, and outcomes are determined by the combination of glass pieces that litter the ground, leading to a variety of experiences.

Novel ways to break objects have to be thought of at times, which will keep the player guessing what the next puzzle will be. In any fight in the game victory is usually temporary, as defeated foes may form again, or reassemble to form entirely new ones. The gameplay is fully interactive and physics based – each character’s uncanny abilities have to be kept in mind to think of innovative ways to proceed through the game!

Check out stained-thegame.com for more info.

Pure, Unadulterated Cognition: Q.U.B.E Review

2012-01-14T08:34:00.002+02:00

From the Indie Developers Toxic Games spawns Q.U.B.E., a first-person physics and logic based puzzle game that has taken the gaming world by storm.

Q.U.B.E or Quick Understanding of Block Extrusion is a first-person puzzle game that takes a player through an unknown environment where the location is only revealed once the game is completed.

Players must solve logic and physics based puzzles utilising their gloves and the environment, which is filled with coloured cubes that must be manipulated to progress through each sector or room. Depending on how high your inductive reasoning aptitude (ability to solve puzzles) is, you could spend anything from 10 to 14 hours to complete the game.

It’s easy to see why the game is called Q.U.B.E, apart from the actual cubes that you use, of course. Everything is either in the shape of a cube or moves in the shape of a cube. It’s actually quite brilliant.

When I saw the Official Q.U.B.E trailer this week, I knew I just had to play it.

I really didn’t think that there would be a game as incredible as this, this early in the year. While every one is waiting for Diablo 3, they really should have set their sights on Q.U.B.E. Since well, one: It’s awesome, and two: Diablo 3 will grace us with its presence when it’s good and ready to do so. (Whenever that is.)

I have a GeForce GTX 560 ti graphics card, Intel Core i3 CPU and 4GB DDR3 Gaming RAM which gave me a constant of 60 frames with the game set on full graphics. Q.U.B.E is not extremely resource intensive so I’m sure that just about any one can play the game without compromising the graphics for smoother gameplay. The game is about 839 MB big, which you can either contribute to excellent coding or the “shortness” of the title. I’d like to go with excellent coding though.

When entering Q.U.B.E. you find yourself in a white room with only yourself and a cube. As a gamer you almost instinctively know what to do with it. One of the incredible things about the game is that it allows players to trust and rely on their intuition to figure out just how everything works.

The complexity of Q.U.B.E lies in its simplicity. Controls are easy to use and there’s nothing to distract you from the task at hand. Each sector (there are seven) becomes more and more elaborate, introducing new tools and new puzzles. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, the floor literally get’s ripped out from under you and you realise that you haven’t really seen anything yet.

Even though the facility or building you are in has a basic look to it, your environment is always shaping and moving with you, whether by your command or the game's. The developers of Q.U.B.E. have taken something as basic as a cube and chosen the most innovative ways to use it and incorporated it into each sector. This is puzzle solving as you’ve never seen it before.

Noticeably, all over the interwebs people have been comparing Q.U.B.E to Portal. So am I going to do that? No, I am not. Soz.

It’s to be expected that people will ask the most basic of questions about this game: “How difficult are the puzzles?” and “How much fun is the game?” Well, the puzzles aren’t really difficult, they are ”puzzles-that-will-make-you-nerdrage” right up to when you solve it and you find yourself in disbelief that you actually solved it and didn’t see the solution earlier. Once again, its complexity lies in its simplicity. Applying basic logic to each puzzle will prove most advantageous.

I found Q.U.B.E to be addictively fun. I couldn’t wait to go further and further and see what else it has to offer. However, I was astounded when it was over. Here I was thinking that there’s this epic new puzzle that awaits me and even tweeted that I just finished sector 7 and was so stoked and on a roll and then just, all of a sudden, it ended. Just like that.

The game doesn’t really have a very elaborate story to it. The story is basically that you’re solving puzzles and hints at mysterious events happening outside that seem to have something to do with destroying your environment. But then, when you have completed the game, there’s this whole new surprise for you and you’re like “Whoa! I’m not really where I thought I was!” So mostly the story of why you are where you are and where you are is a great big mystery. Intriguing.

The Beauty of Q.U.B.E

Most people probably wouldn’t see what I saw in this game or probably won’t even care, but I’m going to write it anyway.

Q.U.B.E depicts life at its most basic in many ways. It's three “different environments” – white, black and gray reflect aspects of our very existence: good (white), bad (black) and everything in between (gray). It demonstrates our choices, actions, reactions, consequences and even the unbreakable determination some have to solve problems in order to progress in life.

It embodies the ability human beings have to rely on their instincts and knowledge to guide them through obstacles. It might not have been intended to be symbolised in this game but math, physics and every other fibre of science that is this universe imitates the patterns that we see in our everyday lives, in the simplest and even most complicated of things that we encounter or see on a daily basis.

Q.U.B.E is a remarkable piece of art, even though you are in a world of shapes; you experience a symphony of symmetry. According to Wikipedia:

"an imprecise sense of harmonious or aesthetically pleasing proportionality and balance; such that it reflects beauty or perfection."

Who would have thought that wiki could be so poetic.

Some Important Details

Q.U.B.E released on the 6^th of January and is available on Steam for $12.74 USD or R103.65 for South Africans. (While discount offer is active.)

Required PC Specs:

Windows XP SP2 / Vista / 7
Processor: 2.0+ GHz or better (dual core recommended)
Memory: 1 GB (2 GB recommended)
Hard Disk Space: 1 GB free hard drive space
Video Card: Shader Model 3 compatible video card. NVIDIA 8000 series or higher.
DirectX®: 9.0c or higher
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible, 16-bit
The latest Critical Windows update

Important: You [b]have[/b] to have the following installed on your PC or the game will crash on startup.

.NET framework 4.0
The latest DirectX update
Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable | Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable 64 Bit
Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable | Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable 64 Bit

Gameplay: 9

Q.U.B.E offers unique and innovative gameplay.

Graphics: 7

Crisp, clear graphics. Visually beautiful.

Storyline: 6

Hints of a great storyline, but not very present.

Soundtrack: 7

Accompanied by an original score, Q.U.B.E presents a thought stimulating soundtrack.

Immersion: 9

The puzzles in Q.U.B.E are enough to keep you glued to your screen for hours.

Total: 7.6

Q.U.B.E is a challenging and enjoyable first-person puzzle game with much to offer.

BeerDeer Games: The Birth of Nyrthos

2012-01-12T19:56:00.003+02:00

Often times in our modern society most entertainment mediums have become less and less meaningful. Many things are created with one goal only, and that is to get as many supporters as possible, by any means possible. Chasing numbers and cash and fame has become prominent.

Quality has become diluted and quantity more important. With an extraordinary influx of social games, flash games and games that are simple yet addictive and only played to pass time, games have become less about taking it’s players on a journey and more about acquiring as big an audience as possible.

We see many astoundingly coded games that have a bigger focus on how “good” the graphics can be and less about how captivating its story can be. Storylines suffer and are sacrificed because there possibly isn’t enough time to make all aspects of the game equally as good, or developers simply lose sight of it.

This week while sifting through press releases I stumbled across a seemingly average press release about a game I’ve never heard of before. It was everything but ordinary. Reading through the press release I discovered a rare honesty and true passion for game development from the BeerDeer games team.

Our goal is not to chase AAA game quality or to be original at all costs; we always strived to create games that are accessible, beautiful and fun to play, where we connect known principles we value and enjoy with some of our own ideas - or the things that we were always missing in other games. – BeerDeer games.

I then contacted the team through there official website’s beta application form and requested an interview. I could tell from even that application form, that they weren’t just a corporate company out of touch with reality, but down to earth people who truly seek deeper meaning in what they are doing. BeerDeer games is an Indie development studio founded by Martin Jelinek and Martin Pivko, two web and flash natives.

Fortunately, BeerDeer games accepted my request and I was honoured with the incredible opportunity to receive the very first interview with this admirable development team.

Join me as I uncover just a fraction of the passion behind the creation of Nyrthos and reveal just a little bit of what it has in store for us.

Where did the idea of Nyrthos originate?

“The idea originated when we were in college and wanted to stop procrastinating and to actually make something happen. An action RPG was a pretty natural choice as we always enjoyed this kind of games. The ideas for the actual storyline and world history were collected and written during the development.”

In the Nyrthos press release the following was quoted:

“We always loved the feel of 2D games and though it takes a lot of work, we are convinced that the result is worth it. In the flood of 3D and/or cartoonish games of today that often look cool but somehow generic, I believe Nyrthos will be a great refreshment for many eyes.”

How will you set your game apart from other 2D games to accomplish this goal?

“We think that there are not many 2D games today that have the feel that Nyrthos does. Many people that write to us are happy that they finally found a game for Android / iOS that looks like Nyrthos; so its probably true :) Although there are many fabulous games on mobile devices, it seems like we will definitely find our audience.”

You have also stated the following:

“Our goal is not to chase AAA game quality or to be original at all costs; we always strive to create games that are accessible, beautiful and fun to play, where we connect known principles we value and enjoy with some of our own ideas - or the things that we were always missing in other games. “

What will you weave into Nyrthos that you have missed in other games?

“The choices you can make to impact the world. An open ending and a story progress that you can really influence, which is something you cannot achieve with typical expansion packs. As well as city building and management options. Also, we are making the game with a long road ahead of us where nothing is set in stone. That’s exciting for us.”

If there is anything that you would like to achieve with Nyrthos, any message that you would like to carry across, what would that be?

“Umm... Of course when one works on the story of his game, he puts in little pieces of feelings and ideas and sometimes tries to send a message about how he feels about certain issues. But I will not go into detail here as I might spoil something :)”

Tell me more about where BeerDeer comes form, how you established your team and why. Give me some background on the team.

“BeerDeer Games is a tiny indie game development studio located in Prague, Czech Republic (Europe).

Simply said, our beginning was a little wild. We were tired of studying and procrastinating; we had some skills and decided to make something happen. Everyone around thought we were completely crazy (as doing something for zero bucks an hour is not really easy to understand), but… we found out how mentally rewarding the creative process can be. There was no going back. It’s been 3 years already :)”

It’s a great relief to find that even today there are people who are brave enough to stand by what they believe. One of the game features that struck me was this: Deep connection between players and developers. It’s something I have never seen before and hope to see more of in the future.

About Nyrthos

Nyrthos is a 2D action RPG coming to Andriod, iOS and Web browsers and will launching a closed beta in Q1 2012.

Besides the typical RPG routine that orders players to travel, fight, loot, upgrade, craft, and consume story, every hero will be also given the opportunity to buy himself a house, found his own village, manage it, gain more income resources and honor and in the end, be able to progress even further in the game.

The will to survive will be greatly rewarded, as the strong players will usually be the ones to uncover previously undiscovered locations. Still, all the players together will have the power to decide the flow of important events in Nyrthos.

Key Features:

• Deep connection between players and developers

• The playable parts of the world unravel based on player actions

• Original world and setting

• Playable right in your browser, Android and iOS versions coming soon

• Beautifully crafted 2D visuals

• Story and survival modes

• Arena mode, where players will fight through hordes of enemies to earn their rank and honor

• 4 schools of magic, many skills and unique environments

Background Story

The Land of Nyrthos is being slowly consumed by an unknown darkness. The council of elder mages embarked to investigate the eastern border, but has not been heard from ever since. 23 days ago, the pillars of fire have been ignited. The whole continent prepares for a war... a war that was foretold by the ancestors, yet no one knows the reason of it or the enemy they will stand against.

Check out the official Nyrthos website for more info: http://www.nyrthos.com/

Gaming: Q.U.B.E Official Trailer

2012-01-09T14:53:00.001+02:00

I find myself incredibly disappointed that I only discovered this game today. Before I say anything, check out the Official Trailer:

Now if you loved the Portal Games then you probably will be as excited as I am about this. Good physics based games are by far of my most favourite games to date. This Indie Game will probably rake in the praises of many gaming sites ^^ Definitely going to give this one a try!

About Q.U.B.E

Set in a mysterious and abstract sterile environment, Q.U.B.E. (Quick Understanding of Block Extrusion) is a first-person puzzle game that challenges players to navigate each level by manipulating coloured cubes that surround them. There’s little to go on as the game begins - the player is dropped into an all-white room with few instructions, and simply has to figure their way out. The tone of game changes as the player finds small and big alterations to their environment, supported by an original score, inviting each player to let their imagination take over as to where they might be. Through experimentation and discovery, players will progress through an ever-evolving series of cube puzzles that will challenge them with logic, physics, platforming.

Required PC Specs

Windows XP SP2 / Vista / 7
Processor: 2.0+ GHz or better (dual core recommended)
Memory: 1 GB (2 GB recommended)
Hard Disk Space: 1 GB free hard drive space
Video Card: Shader Model 3 compatible video card. NVIDIA 8000 series or higher.
DirectX®: 9.0c or higher
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible, 16-bit
The latest Critical Windows update
.NET framework 4.0
The latest DirectX update
Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable | Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable 64 Bit
Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable | Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable 64 Bit

Where To Find It

You can get Q.U.B.E. at the following websites right now:
Steam
Gamersgate.com
Playism.jp
Desura.com

Noosphere: Self Expression

2011-11-17T12:43:00.082+02:00

It's strange how self expression in our everyday lives hits a barrier where it seldomly goes beyond the inner most reaches of our minds or hearts. True self expression is seen mostly in dancers, artists, vocalists, instrumentalists, writers and such, but what about just being there in every ones everyday life in words spoken and written and conveyed to our families and partners and children and friends?

I think it's pretty safe to say that all people, to some degree have this fear of rejection by society and even our closest loved ones because of certain invisible rule sets that society, in essence, WE have created. We are society and we are a part of a universal consciousness that creates these barriers, images and rules of what and how people should be -in general-. We are in concept emotional prisoners of ourselves. It is not every one that musters the courage and that is brave enough to challenge these restrictions in small scales (personal lives) and bigger scales (politics). Is this the fundamental trade mark of a leader? I think it surely is in many cases, but let's not diverge from the subject at hand just yet.

In our everyday lives we express ourselves in the usual surfaced way, anger, happiness, love, sadness and to an extent this provides some kind of relief and outlet for our emotions. We never really open the parts of us where true raw emotion and consciousness lie. The place inside where it hurts to breathe, that makes no excuses and that reflects the clearest, sharpest thoughts. Where our true selves dwell. We fear who we really are in some ways and lock that away so that we might be acceptable to our rule sets and expectations.

We are often ashamed of our true likes and dislikes and fantasies and life experiences. We cover up the real reasons for our prejudices and biases and we shut out the world from this whirlpool inside, the loudest silence within our minds. Of course it's your right, it’s your most private and intimate place, just sometimes, we should share that. How liberating it is to have that stunting weight off your mind. How incredible to be vindicated from that burden of secrecy. When you strip away all the covers and all the bullshit that you use as make up, as a mask for your core, what's left is either the most enchanting and beautiful essence or the most horrific.

Some things are meant to be locked away, but others aren't. Some parts of our true selves can establish bonds you could never have dreamt of. Excavating our hidden selves, telling the ultimate truths, these things can release us from the most crippling secrets and allow us to live as our selves openly and freely to which you will discover, is not as fearsome as you thought. But how, how do you cross the border? How do you overcome that intense sense of self protection, that defense that obstructs things from hurting us where there are no repairs?

In the age where being individual is the new trending fad, society has become more acceptable. Dressing anti-fashionable is fashionable and being 'different' is seen as artistic and admirable, being comfortable with one's sexuality is no longer taboo, 'different' of course only by the universal definition of what's acceptable. So one again we proceed to limit ourselves and set new rules and boundaries. The good news is that as society ages we become more acceptable of who people are. The bad news is that as society ages we set new standards of what is acceptable and what is not. So who is it that will change this way of thinking? In my opinion it should be the world leaders that steps up to say, enough is enough. After all a significant portion of people follow the trends of what the 'cool' people do, people like to do what the smart people say, also knows as what "they" say.

More importantly it is also up to us to start changing this. And no I am not giving the whole "one person can make a change" speech or what ever else weird ass talk that is out there, but simply stating that if we become more acceptable to our loved ones, friends and maybe even co-workers and make people feel more comfortable with being their true selves, then possibly they will allow us to become more comfortable with being our true selves. Thus shaping the universal consciousness of our planet.

We are all captives of our own and each others insecurities, but this doesn't mean that we can not take the first steps to sharing our true thoughts and inner most selves with those we cherish the most.

Gaming: Why RIFT is My MMO of Choice

2011-10-27T14:23:00.009+02:00

I've been an avid RPG (Role-Playing-Game) fan since experiencing some great games in the past 2 years, World of Warcraft obviously being one of my favourites for a long time. I thoroughly enjoy SP (Single Player) RPG games of which my favourite has got to be Mass Effect.

I enjoy the stories RPG's tell and how it allows you to create a new persona with it's own look, legacy and attitude. It's quite a big part of the game for me. I had quit World of Warcraft some months ago for various reasons and found myself missing that online factor of gaming, that thing that allows you to interact as your character making it so much more fun.

Initially I didn't quite think much of RIFT: Planes of Telara, I saw it the first time when my fiance decided to try it out. It was on his old PC and at that time I wasn't aware that the hardware wasn't good enough to do the game justice. Frames were bad and as a result of that gameplay was sluggish, graphics couldn't be set to it's full potential which made the game look rather dull. Having seen that I wrote the game off and not worth it. However, after quitting World of Warcraft I decided to give it a go as remember being really impressed with the character creation part of the game. (Which by the way is fantastic!). When creating your character, you will be astonished at how well the animations are done and at the really really big variety of options you get.

I upgraded my graphics card to a Geforce GTX 560 Ti and all of a sudden the game looked and felt like a complete new game, it's rather resource intensive when you play on full graphics, never the less, It dawned on me that this game, is not made for entry level PC's, if you don't have a decent rig, you shouldn't even try playing the game. This to me is actually quite awesome, MMORPG's absolutely needed a graphics boost.

RIFT is visually a fantastic looking game, it really captures everything right down to the texture of the gear you wear. The combat is flowing and the soul trees (talent specs) are really elaborate and have so many different combinations, you could possibly have 3 different classes in one character, like the rogue for instance, where in World of Warcarft terms, you can be a hunter, tank and assassination rogue with some really creative abilities and buffs. This makes it quite convenient for me, instead of creating a new character for my desired class, I ultimately need only 4 characters instead of 1000000000.

I currently have those 4, 3 lvl 30+ characters and one that I'm currently leveling from 20 - 30 (24 at the moment) and I have to say that I enjoy all of them and have 3 specs on each character.

Dungeons

I haven't done too many instances, but the ones that I did do, was interesting and a fresh new look to what I'm used to, it can be either in a fortress of some sort, an out door area or cave, they all look fantastic but feel a little bit easy to me, I won't complain about that though haha! You basically have the standard features in it, creeps, bosses, dungeon quests, a tank, healer, dps and what I like a lot, support, which can either help heal or tank.

Dungeon quest rewards are really fantastic and is almost always sure to give you better stats than what you already have. There aren't people complaining or raging or typing too much in RIFT instances or telling one another how their damage sucks or tanking is bad or healing isn't sufficient, the lack of third party add-ons greatly contributes to that in my opinion. So all and all, I actually enjoy the instances and don't find it to daunting.

PVP

This is by far my favourite part of the game, I don't really enjoy too much of PVE as much as I used to, so I keep it limited to the things I like, like farming world event currency for nice gear and maybe a mount or pet. The Warfronts (battlegrounds) in RIFT are also really great places, a fresh new type of environment but has those classic elements to it, like capture the flag style and such. PVP is a bit unbalanced at certain level intervals between the two sides (Guardians and Defiants), but hey, it's mostly like that in these kinds of games. You gain a lot of PVP currency so you will always have the best PVP gear for your level and lots of currency to spare.

You don't really have that big a variety of Warfronts to choose from at low levels, but you can do them from lvl 10, which is nice. You level at about the same rate when doing PVE, all depending on how much you play continuously I guess.

Public Raids - RIFTS

This is an element of the game which I found rather awesome, Rifts spawn on various parts of all maps and can be done from as low as lvl 8 and give great rewards and XP, any one can join this public raid to defeat the Rift, any level and any time, I have experienced no difficulty with this and only seen positive effects of these public groups, these groups are not limited in size and people go from Rift to Rift playing together and having a whole lot of fun, so let me show you what these public groups look like:

You get different kinds of Rifts that present different kinds of creatures: Earth, Fire, Water etc. all of which are really beautiful, like this one, which is a water Rift:

World Events

World Events are great editions to the game, they present interesting stories and easy and fun daily quests that earn you lots of XP and world event currency, with this, you can buy gear, which costs very little currency, meaning every one gets it and it evens out the level or gear a little that people have and gives every one a chance to easily obtain epic gear. You can also farm currency to level up an object that eventually becomes a mount and buy costume gear and a companion unique to the world event.

Conclusions:

RIFT is really a fun game to play, less stressful, less grinding and certainly beautiful and rewarding and unique. I'd recommend it to any one that loves MMORPG's but will say that if you have never played an MMORPG before it might be a little complicated to understand at first. The game has great professions that you can master, and many attributions to gear and a very impressive cosmetic element, it has all of those basic features of an MMORPG but presented in a creative and immersive way.I trust that the game holds something for every one and is sure to be worth any time or money spent. There's so much to tell about the game, but it's so much better to just experience it for yourself.

Entertainment: My "feel good" songs for the week

2011-10-26T12:51:00.002+02:00

So this week I find myself repeating some songs that just create a relaxed mood and cancels out unnecessary stress. I think that these songs are universal in taste, no matter when they were released or how old they are, they just always sound good :) So I hope that you will enjoy them as much as I do, have a listen.

Noosphere: Days That Pass In An Intsant

2011-10-25T17:38:00.001+02:00

Life seems to pass by in a single moment for me, it feels like occasionally for a fraction of time, like now, I've just paused it.

23 Years of which I can not recall living, looking back at a story, a chain of events that happened, who did they happen to? I do not feel like I own any of it. I'm left with only memories that rarely surface unless recalled by my mind when queried by some one else. It's as though my days just pass by and I go through them in a haze. It's 5:03 pm and just a second ago it was morning.

I wake up, tend to the kids, see my fiance off, work, cook, eat, game, sleep and tomorrow it starts again. Every working day is filled with frustration, kids fighting, playing, crying, laughing in the background, 100's of lines of text by people living an online life. It literally feels like those video clips you see of people standing still and the world fast forwarding around them.

People love to say that you should live in the moment, but moments are respective to the individuals living them, when life is such a rush, so busy and filled with events, how do you truly "live" in the moment? How do you savor every event and would you even want to? Most days just feel routine, we miss the impact we might make on some one else's life, do we realize that typing one sentence can change some one's frame of mind? Yet even filled with all these actions that cause reactions and ripples through our reality, these days are slipping by unnoticed.

Is it wrong? Do I want it to change? Are these days that are so crammed with emotions and at the same time just going through the motions and at that same time so emotionless significant or is it just another process of an organism that exists going through the cycle of aging before it unavoidably perishes?

Mostly I see it just the same as the cycle any other organism goes through with the exception of our consciousness, the fact that we realize and assess our existence.

I guess my initial thought was just that after this day, that has passed so instantly, I am exhausted and spent and find it amazing that I have experienced no time in this day, that the period of time since opening my eyes this morning has seemingly disappeared without me noticing it. Do I experience it in this way simply because my mind has no desire to truly experience my life, because ultimately I would like for it to just be over with so that I may have some rest and some peace? Possibly.

I do not wish to all of a sudden start "living" in each moment, or spark a sudden new found inspiration or new years resolution, I just wonder how much it all really matters? Not to people, not to the world and not to a "higher being", but to the universe as a whole, we are smaller than microscopic in relation to all things happening in space as an entirety. My days are days, that pass in an instant.

Introduction

2011-10-25T12:35:00.003+02:00

After always finding myself thinking about life and everything in it and wishing I had time to write about it all in my work or other circumstances, sometimes fantasizing about maybe someday writing my own book, I have decided to start this blog.

I would like to write about all categories of subjects that affect me like Gaming, Noosphere (a postulated sphere or stage of evolutionary development dominated by consciousness, the mind, and interpersonal relationships: according to the Oxford Dictionaries) and Entertainment.

I would like to share my views with people, even though I might not be an expert in any of those categories, experts only exist because people started with nothing and made it something, started with ideas and evolved it into things like physics and science and astronomy. Not meaning that I would like to be that but simply share.

I hope that people will read my blog and find it thought provoking, emotion filled and entertaining. I've lead a life that doesn't exactly follow the norm of society and experienced many things in my short time of existence, some good, some character building and some maybe I never should have. I come from a poor family and a struggling childhood and find myself today in a life that I could never have imagined myself capable of, one I never would have thought accessible, it just goes to show that no mater how hard you plan life or how confused you are about it, it's never fully predictable.

Never the less, I feel that I might have many perspectives to offer and I am very excited to jot them down here.