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Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Mid-Year Exam Grades
English: 67.7
Chinese: 61.5
A-Math: 56.9
E-Math: 85
Biology: 73.3 (no A1 because of carelessness)
Chemistry: 65.5
Physics: 72.3 (no A1 because of carelessness)
Combined Humanities: 58

Overall Grades for First Semester
English: 64.7
Chinese: 54.1
A-Math: 62
E-Math: 85
Biology: 75.2
Chemistry: 69.8 (ahem...)
Physics: 71
Combined Humanities: 59.3

Total: 541.1/800
L1R5: 16
Class Position: 16/42

So, my grades are pretty constant over the last one and a half years. Sounds like a good thing, but its constant at a bad level.

Its service learning this week and there's no one around.


posted @ 10:42 pm
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Monday, May 28, 2007

Rakion

Ok, I find it weird that I haven't done a review for a game which I have been playing since October 2005 (that's 19 months). So, here it is.

Rakion is an action game with a pretty new twist. You don't fight by clicking something, neither do you fight like in Street Fighter. Like a medieval-fantasy FPS, you click. In fact, a medieval-fantasy third-person shooter game is the best name to call it. You arm yourself with swords, hammers, daggers, bows and staffs, and you go to battle. You also have cells, which are like pets you can bring into battle. You need cell points gained from attacking to summon them. These cells can level up at their own pace.

You fight by clicking, and clicking in different patterns and methods with the keyboard will result in different kinds of attacks. Almost like the way you fight in Oblivion, if you ask me.

There are five different classes. Swordsman, blacksmith, archer, mage and ninja. The swordsman is a balanced class with a good amount of speed and damage. The blacksmith is the tank of the game. Powerful and hard to kill, but it lacks a lot of speed. The archer is a pretty boring class, all you do is really just hide in a corner and that shooting arrows, pissing people off. Of course the archer can also use her dagger, but its really crap. The mage is a support character which is cause lots of chaos and devastation, but its really fragile and can't really hold in a melee battle. The ninja is weak in her basic attacks, but using speed and manoeuvrability, this makes one of the bast 1v1 characters out there.

There are also many different modes of battle, Stage, golem, deathmatch, team deathmatch and boss mode. Stages are like quests, where you go on a route, killing monsters and doing other stuff. Experience for stages is given out depending on how fast you complete it, and experience is given only once, so doing it multiple times won't result in anything good.

Golem battles is like a modified version of capture the flag (CTF). Each team has a master golem. In the middle of the map, a golden golem bearing the golden sword awaits. The person who kills the golden golem gains the golden sword and with this golden sword, you are able to attack the opposing team's master golem. Then you have to protect the master golem or the golden sword bearer, depending on which team you are in. You'll only respawn the next round if you die, so killing the whole enemy team is another way to win.

Deathmatches, team or not, are really simple. The person or team who kills the most people win. There are health boosters and cell boosters to take here.

Boss mode is different. There'll be two teams, and the highest level player in each team will be the boss. The boss must not die, or you lose. The enemy has to kill your boss. Other players in the team will respawn when you die.

There are many issues in this game too. Lag is one issue, and many noobs whine about it. As you proceed in the game you'll get used to the lag, and you'll eventually be able to play with the lag undisturbed. I'm talking about the natural lag, not those really laggers. (Natural lag, you click on a link in a website and it takes about 1-2 seconds to load, that's natural lag. Real lagger = you click on a link and it takes a whole minute to load.)

There's also an overpowered cell running out there, called the soul cannon. This cell just stands around, and shoots semi-HOMING cannonballs at you. The damage is crazy, and the area of effect (AoE) is bigger than the bombs of a mage. A high level soul cannon can kill players in 1 shot. Its a cash item, and it costs about 23 bucks each. People buy it. Softnyx, the company running Rakion, is happy. Players are not.

This game is a lot different from all the other free games you get out there, but after some time, you'll start to realise that this game doesn't really have much substance. Its just killing other players, actually something you'll get in a multiplayer FPS game, just that this is the melee way of doing it.


Rakion Gameplay Movie (1:36)

Graphics: 7.5
Sound: 7.3
Gameplay: 8.3
Lasting appeal: 7.4
Overall: 7.7


posted @ 2:22 pm
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Monday, May 14, 2007

Voyage Century Online

A relatively new game released by IGG in late 2006, Voyage Century Online (VCO) brings a new meaning to “MMORPG”. Not that the game has threw out the usual leveling, character building and incessant grinding, but instead, it has added a pretty new and interesting twist to it.

The usual quests, skills, and a big vast land to explore still exist. However, the quests are much easier to complete, and the skills are much easier to level up. This drives away some irritation. This is probably a good thing, but some might find it boring as it doesn’t give much of a challenge to the players. It becomes a chore.

You get to become four different types of players. An adventurer, a merchant, a fighter or a craftsman. As an adventurer, you explore the world, looking for treasures and gaining reputation. As a merchant, you take up a boring (really) job and you go from city to city, buying cheap and selling high. As a fighter, you arm your battleship heavily and go on a killing spree, killing either pirates or innocent merchants. As a craftsman, your emphasis isn’t on sailing around but instead just staying in a city, mining and chopping, planting and sewing. Then with the raw materials gathered, you make items.

Now what’s so interesting about VCO? Ships. You get to sail almost everywhere you go, meeting pirates along the way, fighting them, bribing them, and a lot of other interesting things. The whole world except for the two poles of the Earth is in the game. Yes, you can sail around the whole world, from the Mediterranean to Africa, to Asia and to America (well Australia is also in but there is no city there at that time). Speaking of that, the game takes place in the year 1000 or so. Therefore you wouldn’t expect to see countries or cities like Singapore or America in the game.

Ships and sailing might be the interesting part of the game, but it can also kill the game. Sailing just takes way too long. Should it really take 5-10 minutes to sail from London to Athens? What if someone wanted to sail from Europe to China? Wouldn’t that take 30 minutes? Honestly, I believe the base speed of ships should be increased by about 2-3 knots. If trying to keep its realism, then shrink the world.

The game is rather interesting and fun at the beginning, because the difference between it and other MMORPGs out there is just glaring at you. However, after getting a level 3 or 4 ship, you realize there isn’t much in the game. At this level, there isn’t much for you to achieve except to do whatever you need to do to get a better ship, and that means to do the same thing over and over again.

Another problem is how new players just get thrown into the world of VCO without much help. There is a tutorial, but all the tutorial does is teach you how to sail your boat, fight, and all the funny buttons available for you to click. After that, you’re on your own. Further NPC help just tells you that you need to do this, you need to do that, without telling you how.

This game was originally created by the Chinese, and so the translation is a little odd. Many grammatical errors, and some call it “Chinglish”. Worse, the noble titles that you are able to earn as your reputation are pretty funny if you choose to be a citizen of Japan in that game. Funny to us, but its actually offensive to the Japanese from what I’ve heard. “Rojin” supposed to be “Ronin”. Someone actually pointed out that a Rojin is a 70-year-old man. Who in the world would want that as a noble title? And “Thing Head”? “Group Leader”? For a Japanese?

Also, I’ve read quite a lot of complaints in the forums. People have said that if the creators of the game continue to not listen to the gamers playing the game, the game is eventually going to die. Customer service in the game is obviously pretty bad.

Overall, it’s a good game if you are looking into something different, but don’t expect too much from it. A MMORPG is still a MMORPG. What do I like to call the MMORPGs out there? Its just one game, with a different “skin” applied on it. Its base structure is still the same.

The world of Voyage Century Online (click for bigger image)

You start at 14 or 17, and 14-17 are the beginner towns. 41 is the land of the pirates.


Voyage Century Online Trailer (3:26)
Graphics: 7.7
Sound: 6.9
Gameplay: 7.5
Lasting Appeal: 6.4
Overall: 7.6

posted @ 5:21 pm
0 comments

Friday, May 11, 2007



Wonderfully made, pretty funny too. The punches were pretty obviously held back and soft. I wonder if there was really that many people who made it, really lots of people in the credits.

posted @ 11:15 am

Thursday, May 03, 2007

So its currently the Mid-Year exam period. Didn't do much studying as usual. I'll just give an insight of what I think of each of the exam that I've already taken.

Social Studies: Pretty bad, considering that I did the last 2 parts in 10 minutes. Looks like my humanities are not going to be good again. Basically I'm just hoping for a 15/25.

English 1: Pretty average and normal, didn't write anything spectacular or anything boring. I'll probably get some clichéd mark like 21-23/30 for my story on "Silence".

Chinese 1: I wrote pretty well here, should get about 30/50 for my composition and 14/20 for my letter. Don't know if the teacher would like my unforgettable event to be a student dying. Ah well.

Geography elective: I think I answered most of the questions pretty well, although the last question was half done because I couldn't really think of reasons. I hope this saves my Social Studies.

Chemistry Practical: Odd practical. All the tests went well, except for the one where you had to heat the thingy. I tested the gas for chlorine, sulphur dioxide and ammonia but it all didn't work out well. Red litmus paper didn't turn blue, ok fine its not ammonia. Blue litmus turns red... ok fine... *continues testing* 2 minutes later, its still red. Ok fine so maybe its not chlorine. Tests for sulphur dioxide with potassium dichromate(VI). 2 minutes later, its still orange. All right fine... Heck. *Tries my luck and puts gas is chlorine* Oh well.

Chinese Listening: Well, nothing much to say here. I'm just not sure about 1 question.

Chinese 2: Pretty hard. Didn't understand the last 3 comprehension passages (the 2 writing ones and the last MCQ one). Didn't have time to complete the whole thing so I put the answers for the cloze passage question 6-10 as all 3.

Biology: Not too difficult, just didn't know some questions here and there. Its natural to have 1 or 2 questions that you don't know how to do so its fine.


Haven't been blogging much because there's simply nothing to say. My life is just a cycle and its boring. Good luck, have fun.

posted @ 6:00 pm
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PC GAME REVIEWS

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