Instant Epiphany

iPhone vs Android

2012-04-11T01:10:00.001+10:00

Which is better?

The answer: it depends. If I bought a phone for myself, it would most likely be an android.
If I was helping a relative choose a phone, and they were not tech-savvy, I would suggest an iPhone.

Arguing that one brand/os is better than the other is pointless, as it depends on the users technical capacity.
That said, not all iphone users are clueless tech-wise. But most people who aren't tech-savvy do have an iphone. People who want to endlessly tweak every single setting, theme, colour on their phone are better off with an android. These people are often more well equipped to deal with inevitable problems.
However, some people don't want to tweak things, they just want a phone that is nice, fast, and works. In this case an iPhone is better.

So next time someone argues that an iPhone is better, or a particular Android phone is better than iPhones, think about why they think one is better.

One more important note: If you compare (any) iPhone to the $50 android that someone has, of course the iPhone worth 10 times the price is going to come out on top. Some android phones on par with the iPhone 4/s are the Samsung Galaxy II(and III when it comes out), Galaxy Nexus, Samsung Galaxy Note, Droid Maxx etc.

Often people mouthing off about either platform being far better than the other are just saying so because of brand loyalty, and are not looking at either OS/brand objectively.

Agree/disagree? Let me know in the comments section below!

How to fix lag.

2011-12-24T00:58:00.002+11:00

How do you fix lag?
That depends on what type of lag you are experiencing. Once you know the difference, it becomes easy to identify when you do inevitably lag during a game.

There are two types of lag, "local" lag, and "internet" lag.

Internet lag is what the original "lag" was. Internet lag happens when you press a button in the game, and that message goes out through your internet connection, but on its way to the game server, it gets delayed. It could be delayed because you are downloading, which bogs the message down, or it could be that the server is on the other side of the world, and it just takes ages to get there and back.
This causes some sometimes funny, but usually frustrating shenanigans in games.
You might stick your head around a wall, see a bunch of bad guys, and run away like a coward. But, somehow, even though are 2 metres around the wall, where the bad guys cannot possibly see you, they somehow get the kill on you. This happened because of internet lag. When you saw the bad guys, and pressed a button to run away, your computer sent a little message, called a "packet" to the games server, to tell it that you were running away. The problem is, sometimes the packet gets slowed down, because of the reason we talked about earlier. So by the time the packet gets to the server, the bad guys have already seen, and shot you, you just don't know it yet.
So how do you fix internet lag? There are a couple things you can do.

Pause any downloads or uploads. Uploading torrents will especially make you lag considerably.
Change server. If the game allows it, sort the server display by ping, from lowest to highest. If the ping of a server(how long it takes your computer to send a message to the server and get it back) is low, then you should get no lag. Anything below 200 is fine for mmorpgs, but most shooters need the ping below 100 or they become impossible to play.

The second type of lag, isn't really lag. Everyone calls it lag, but it is just your computer not being fast enough to handle the game. You can test if it is this type of lag, by turning all video settings down as far as you can. If the lag disappears when you do this, then it is hardware lag. Put simply, one of the parts or more in your computer are just too slow or old to run the game properly. The only way to fix this is to upgrade your computer or buy a new one.

Steam Holiday Sale: The Great Gift Pile - How does it work?

2011-12-20T16:08:00.000+11:00

Steam is dearly loved by many for its absolutely stellar discounts around Christmas.

This year, they have pulled "The Great Gift Pile" out of the bag as well as the usual amazing discounts on games and dlc packs.

The Great Gift Pile sounds good, but what is it?

The Great Gift Pile is an incentive to do certain things in games to get achievements that have been made especially for The Great Gift Pile.
Each day, there will be around 10 games that you can play (if you own them of course), and when you do a certain thing in the game, you earn an achievement and a prize.
For example, from simply checking my steam inventory, I received a 50% off voucher for any of valves games. That is pretty awesome.

You could win a massive amount of things from this, what people have claimed to have won so far are:

~ Game rewards ~
- Half Life 1- Half Life 2 Episode 1- Half Life 2 Episode 2 - Portal 2- Counter Strike: Source- Coal- Half Life 2 episode 1Half Life 2 lost coastHalf Life 2 DeathmatchHalf life Deathmatch: Source * All one gift *- Portal 1- Day of Defeat: Source- Frozen Synapse- The Orange Box - Sherlocke Homes games- Overlord, Overlord II, and Overlord: Raising Hell * All one gift *- Killing Floor- Lego Batman: The Videogame
Tropico 3 - Steam Special EditionTropico, Tropico 2: Pirate CoveTropico 3: Absolute Power * All one gift *- Men Of War: Assault Squad- Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee- Monkey Island Complete Pack- Chantelise- Mafia- Greed Corp- The Binding Of Isaac with Soundtrack- Orcs Must Die - Gemini Rue- DotA 2- Worms Reloaded - Oddworld: Strangers Wrath- Left 4 Dead 2 - FARMING SIMULATOR 2011- Runespell: Overture- Saints Row: The Third- Sniper: Ghost Warrior + 2 DLC- AI War: Fleet Command - Sega genesis classics collection - Gothic 4- Trine- Batman Arkham Asylum- Braid- X2: The ThreatX3: ReunionX3: Terran ConflictX: Beyond the FrontierX: Tension, X3: Albion Prelude * All one gift *- VVVVVV- Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.® 2- Two Worlds II- Demolition Inc.- Freedom Force- Vegas: Make It Big- Risen - The Witcher: enhanced directors cut- A.R.E.S.- Civilization IV- Wonderful End of the World- Dead Island- Battlefield: Bad Company 2- FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage- Shadowgrounds + Shadowgrounds survival- X3: Gold - Payday: the heist- Magicka- Rome: Total War™ - Gold- Left 4 Dead- Left 4 Dead 2- FEAR Complete Pack (ROW)- Storm:Frontline Nation

~ Coupon gifts ~ - 10% off Sega titles- 10% off Warner Bros Coupon- 10% off any DeepSilver title- 10% off any bitComposer- 10% off Paradox games - 10% off Meridian4 games- 10% off Valve titles

- 25% off All Valve games- 25% off Codemasters coupon- 25% off Activision games- 25% off Atari game- 25% off Square Enix titles- 25% off iD games - 25% off KalypsoMedia- 25% off Bethesda- 25% off Hoard- 25% off any thq titles except for the upcoming Darksiders 2- 25% Konami Games

- 33% off all Valve games- 33% off Cities XL 2012- 33% off 2K games- 33% off Renegade Ops- 33% off Skyrim - 33% off driver SF- 33% off id Super Pack- 33% off Game of thrones Genesis

- 50% off all Valve games- 50% off penny arcade- 50% off Fallout Collection- 50% off Lightfish game - 50% off Stalker: Clear Sky- 50% off Anomaly Warzone Earth- 50% off Fallout 3- 50% off on Rock of Ages- 50% off any Jamestown title- 50% off F12011- 50% off Zeno Clash- 50% off Brink - 50% off LIMBO- 50% off The Graveyard- 50% off Drakensang - 50% off Kane & Lynch 2- 50% off Sam and Max pack - 50% off Munch's Odyssee- 50% off Mumbo Jumbo complete pack- 50% off on Dungeons of Dredmor- 50% off L.A. Noire- 50% off Oddboxx- 50% off beat hazard complete pack- 50% off max Payne 2- 50% off FEAR 3- 50% off Trainz Simulator 12- 50% off Rockstar titles- 50% off From Dust - 50% off Operation Flashpoint: Red River- 50% off Nordic Games- 50% off Steel Storm: Burning Retribution (4-pack)- 50% off Sol Survivor- 50% off Droplitz- 50% off Universe Sandbox - 50% off Borderlands GOTY- 50% off of Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale- 50% off VirtualTennis4 - 50% off Worms Crazy Golf - 50% off King's Bounty Platinum- 50% off Block that matter- 50% off Doom 3- 50% off Homefront- 50% off 1,2,3, Kick It- 50% off EDGE- 50% off Xotic- 50% off Solar 2- 50% off Grand Theft Auto: Vice City- 50% off hacker evolution: untold - 50% off SEGA Classics collection- 50% off Sequence- 50% off Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale- 50% off AlienBreed3: Descent- 50% off Shadowgrounds Survivor- 50% off Combat Wings: Battle of Britain- 50% off X3: Gold- 50% off Total War: Shogun 2- 50% off Hoard - 50% off binding of Isacc- 50% off The Witcher: Enhanced Edition- 50% off Bioshock 2- 50% off Civilization 5 - 50% off section 8: prejudice- 50% off of Wings of Prey- 50% off APOX- 50% off Orcs Must Die- 50% off any ID game - 50% off Portal 2- 50% off Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012- 50% off Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II Retribution - 50% off of Doom 3- 50% off Bunch of Heroes- 50% off Abe's Oddysee- 50% off Monday Night Combat- 50% off Dwarfs! - 50% off Dino d-day- 50% off Nail'd- 50% off Atari gold coupon - 50% off of Darwinia

- 60% off King Arthur Franchise. - 66% off Prototype

- 75% off risen- 75% off Napoleon Total War- 75% off Garrysmod- 75% off CoD4- 75% off Sacred 2 - 75% off Torchlight

That list of games is from a Steam forums thread started by Valestrum, props to him for compiling this list.

Review: Skyrim (PC)

2011-12-05T17:18:00.001+11:00

Skyrim was one of the hottest games released in November. This is obvious, considering it sold over 3.4 million copies in its first two days of sale alone. This number also excludes digital sales (ie steam, desura, d2drive etc). I wouldn't be surprised if the number rose to 4 million if you included digital sales.

Anyway, what is the game like?
If I had one world to describe skyrim, it would be "Amazing".
If you gave me a few more words, I would say "Amazing, but frustrating as it was clearly aimed at the console crowd."
By this I mean a sometimes frustrating UI that doesn't make good use of screen space, and detracts from an the amazing game hidden under this nonsense.

Lets put the ui aside for now, and go into detail on different aspects of the game.

Graphics - 8/10.
Update: 9/10 - See below

This game looks amazing. You have to buy it for yourself to see it, the youtube videos of it cannot convey the breathtaking experience. There have been several moments during the game where I have walked out to the edge of a mountain, and just looked at the landscape, for a couple minutes.
Here are some screenshots of the game, but the graphics are set between low and medium, as my computer isn't currently powerful enough to run the game on full, but you can see videos of Skyrim being played on pc on full on youtube.

Dual casting "spark" fried this spider in less than a second.

The nice graphical effects here are because I just used the "slow time" shout. I stupidly went in for a slow power attack, forgetting that while the spider was slowed down, its fangs hurt just as much as in real time.

Hint: Sabre cats are not to be messed with, especially if you try to annoy them with a measly iron arrow. I have taken them down in the past, but I forget how.

Trying to take screenshots and fight at the same time doesn't work well, in this case the sly fox(literally) scampered over the hill just as I hit the button.

Mammoths will leave you alone if you stay away. Of course just after this shot I stepped up to it and was immediately skewered.

So why only 8/10?
This game is beautiful, but buggy. There are so many graphical glitches that make me wince as I wander throughout skyrim. Some examples, snow that can't decide whether it is ontop of a rock (as it should be), or inside the rock. This leads to a weird effect where as you walk, the snow phases in and out of the rock. I have seen this in other bethesda games as well. If it weren't for those pesky bugs, Skyrim would easily scoop a 10/10 in graphics.
These issues might also be explained by the fact that this game was tested on a slightly older graphics card, a 9600gt. I have no doubt that Bethesda will develop patches and release them soon to fix these issues.
If you have never experienced these issues, and have the PC edition of the game, please post in the comments below.
Update: I have a faster graphics card now, a 6950gt 2gb. It can run Skyrim at 1080p on ultra settings and never dip below 60 frames per second, and they game looks beautiful now, especially with some mods. However there are still those graphical glitches, with the snow "in" rocks instead of "on" it.
Therefore I have changed my rating of the graphics to a 9/10.

User Interface - 4/10
(With SkyUI mod, 9/10)
Update: With Bethesdas open nature towards modding of their games, including skyrim, a mod called SkyUI has come out, and makes the UI very easy to get around and use.

I don't usually talk about a games UI to warrant its own rating, but Skyrim's is so frustrating that I couldn't help it. While the UI looks good, it doesn't feel good.
It is a disorganized mess, you cannot use your mouse for ANYTHING, bar the map, and the tabs only shown in one screen.


Those tabs at the top are pretty much the only thing the mouse can click on.

Elsewhere in the menus, you must use wasd to navigate, e to "accept", tab to go "back" and as far as I can tell, you can't change this, short of plugging an xbox controller in and using that. I plugged my controller in, and started enjoying the game a lot more, at least in the menus. I couldn't play with the controller though, as I can't go without the precision that a mouse offers for things like archery.

Gameplay - 10/10

Skyrim's gameplay is nothing short of amazing. It is one of the most involving (read, addictive) games I have played in a long time. The sheer amount of different things you can do, or be astounds me each time I play the game. I play as an awkward rogue mage type, I sneak around, the first enemy I see, I shoot in the head with my ancient nordic bow, and use hit and run magic on the others, conjuring familiars (a wolf) to attack them for me, healing myself via magic, and using destruction spells such as fire, sparks, and frost.
While I die frequently (often from petty thieves/highway robberies), Bethesda has managed to make this entertaining.
You can just follow the main quest, and ignore everything else, which I am told takes around 300 hours of gameplay to do, or you can explore every nook and cranny of Skyrim looking for extra things to do.

Sound - 8/10

While Skyrim's sounds are good, and the music usually fits the mood perfectly, I never sit back and think "wow, that sounded good". However I consider myself an audiophile, and the game still sounds great.

Overall - 9.5/10
Update: I have changed my overall rating from a 9 to 9.5, as with my new graphics card and some mods, the game is close to perfect. I highly recommend this game.

This game is the best role-playing-game I have played in 4 years(the last being FFVII), and I can see my self playing it often at least until mid 2012.
A horrible ui and annoying graphical bugs detract from an otherwise amazing experience, akin to when I first played Crysis.
Go do your self a favour and buy this game. (Or maybe not buying it would be doing yourself a favour, judging from the hours my steam friends have racked up on Skyrim alone.)

How to not get caught by scammers!

2011-11-21T17:14:00.001+11:00

Be forwarned, this is not intended as an all-encompassing guide on avoiding being scammed, it is only some tips to help you recognise common scams.

There are many different types of scams, most aim to take your money, although some aim to take your identity instead. I will show you how to recognise some common scams below.

Nigerian Scams.
These are probably the second most common scams, and often promise a couple hundred dollars or more for letting someone use your bank account to transfer money out of the country. The subject of the email might say "urgent assistance needed".

These scams offer a large payoff, the catch is that sometime, they will ask you for a "tiny" loan, so they can "bribe an official" or something similar. This is where they make the money. Do NOT give them any money. Even if they do transfer money through your account, if the money is dirty, YOU could be charged with money laundering.

You can see some examples on www.allscamsforum.com, and a nigerian scam example here.

Review: Dungeon Defenders

2011-11-20T13:47:00.001+11:00

Dungeon Defenders is an innovative game that combines great tower defense gameplay with fun action-rpg elements.

Overview:

The object of the game is to protect the "eternia crystal", a blue crystal usually at the center of the map from harm.
In each wave, enemies will stream out from large doors to attack your crystal.
In the "wait" time between each wave of enemies, you place towers/traps throughout the map (provided you have enough mana), and upgrade them. Once the next wave starts, and enemies begin to stream out of the doors, you can jump into the fray yourself, and use your weapon (staff, crossbow, sword or club depending on which class you have chosen) to take out some enemies yourself.

One thing I love about Dungeon Defenders is that Co-op is almost certainly needed to progress through the harder levels. Going solo just won't work.

Some of the maps are made harder by having more enemies, harder to defend crystals(e.g 2 or 3 crystals instead of one).

The game incorporates a rewarding rpg like weapons system, you can upgrade your weapons, and each weapon has different stats for damage, speed and more.
However, the rpg system stays out of your way if you are not interested. I haven't really touched it, and I can still enjoy the game and progress through all the levels.

A detailed stats system, so you know why you failed so hard.

Graphics:
The graphics are stunning, and the amount of time and effort put into them really shows.

Sound:

All the sound effects sound beautiful, and they immerse you in the game.

Conclusion:

Dungeon Defenders combines innovative gameplay with lovely graphics and sound for an amazing experience whether you are on PC or Android.
The developers have continued to faithfully add new content after release, and if you have a look at the website, it seems that some new playable characters are coming soon...
5 out of 5 stars.

Dungeon Defenders is $15 right now on Steam, go get it!

Blender is coming out of the stone age!

2011-11-20T11:47:00.001+11:00

Developers are working on integrating a new render called "Cycles" into blender, to replace or coexist alongside the BI (or Blender Internal).

Cycles is an amazing render engine, because it is unbiased.
This means that the render is closer to real life lighting.
When using BI, I had to look up lighting tutorials often, especially as a beginner.
When I use cycles, I don't have to look up lighting tutorials, I look up youtube videos of studio lighting and photography lessons. This is because Cycles bounces light in a much more realistic way.
When using BI, if you have only one light source, and you have an object next to it, one side of the object will be lit, and the other side will be completely dark. This is not how light works in the real world. In reality, light bounces off any surface it hits, which means rarely is any surface truly unlit. BI used to "fake" this by using techniques such as Global Illumination, and Ambient Occlusion. Unfortuneately they were time consuming and finnicky at best. Cycles does all of this and more automagically, all of the default settings are fine for the majority of renders.

Cycles is not ready for prime-time yet, but if you want to have a play around with it, head over to graphicall.org, and grab a recent build of blender, whatever is appropriate for your computer(ie, don't get a 64bit version if your computer only supports 32bit).
Then just start the new build of blender, and click on "Blender Internal" at the top of the window, and choose Cycles instead.

Quick tip 1: Cycles does not support light sources coming from a single point, to create a light to use in cycles, add a new plane mesh, and in the materials tab, change its type to "Emission" and have a play around with the variables. For some extra fun, change the viewport shading to rendered, and the 3d viewport will update in realtime. While this can be disconcerting at first, I can see it becoming an invaluable tool in the future.

Quick tip 2: If you have a fast gpu, click on the render tab in the properties side bar, and change the render device from cpu to gpu and compare the render time. If you have an older video card, you may get errors in rendering, or just a black image. If so just change it back to cpu.

Have fun!

Ps:
If you want a more in-depth tutorial on using cycles, then I recommend Andrew Price's tutorial, at blender guru. Have a look at it here.

2011-11-20T11:42:00.000+11:00

Below is a basic video on embedding YouTube videos in Joomla with the allmyvideos plugin.

Hello, World!

2011-10-15T16:22:00.000+11:00

This is my first blogger post ever.

In this blog I will be doing lots of tech related stuff.
Like:

Reviewing games,
Reviewing hardware,
Tutorials by request, for software.