Portal gun developed Apperature Science gets delievered to a guy in real life! If you don’t get the video, you obviously do not know about the game “Portal”. Just some brief information of the gun and the game itself. The gun allows you to create to two portal holes which allows you to go through one hole and come out of the other. Some sort of teleportation device. See what happens when you use it the wrong way in the video.

The game consists primarily of a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the player’s character and simple objects using the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (“ASHPD”, also dubbed the “portal gun”), a unit that can create inter-spatial portals between flat planes. The player character is challenged by an AI named “GLaDOS” to complete each puzzle in the “Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center” using the portal gun with the promise of receiving cake when all the puzzles are completed.

[image by Volpin @ flickr]

• ah sega racing. brings back memories of crash and mario racing back then. #
• damn it. #
• slept for 30 mins while watching tv. rired even aftering doing nothing much…. #
• we have more competition now. damn. #
• aaaaa computer java so far so good. not that difficult. just need to remember the different functions should there be a written test. #
• so many msn spam bots now a days. #
• tired. going to sleep. hope team does well on friday. #
• Been doing school work way before deadlines recently. hmm, I should keep this up. #
• 1 more week till FINAL FANTASY 13!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH there goes my habit of doing homework early #
• Love seeing people not heeding advice and then cry later. #
• new english teacher…. bleh. #
• finally able to wack the hockey ball somewhat consistently. maybe around 70% of the time. #
• I hate the $0.01 PPC … #
• Competition just got worse. just great. more and more they come. #
• Why do they have the change the system… the new one isnt much better not to say it'll be used much anyways. #
• I really hope I can get into the team. bleh, if not its like wasting 2 years. #
• $0.40 more for my first every adsense payout. #
• holy crap, open beta for FeZ is live since 3 days ago. #
• FF13 8.5 Gamespot. Oh well, not a 9. #
• @apesaje tell your bro not to get too exciited. it shows dont usually mean great deals. in reply to apesaje #
• FeZ has been fun so far. I love combat systems that aren't the generic point and click. Graphics not good though. #
• why do so many great games fall into a pit of suckyness within this gen… #
• RT @techxav: TeenPress – Teen Blogging Competition http://xav.tc/1zn. Too bad it states no blog posts earlier than march 09. boohoo. #
• got to practice real hard if I want to make it. #
• just realised my domain was created on 9/11. Creepy #
• 3-1 baby. oh yeah. #
• no inspiration to do anything. #
• Highest payout per click ever. $0.70. Nice. #
• bendtner sucks alot. #
• @zhoutong Thats awesome. Will see that I get my registration done. in reply to zhoutong #
• ate something that made my stomach sad #
• just realized how underused the xbox 360 is. #

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Cocoto Magic Circus has a simple storyline behind it. A mysterious and evil clown kidnapped Pixie, the fairy. You guessed it right; it is your mission to aid Cocoto and his friends to save Pixie. Unfortunately, things are not that simple for you will find yourself trapped inside the evil circus. As such, shoot your way through different stages to finally reach the evil clown and save Pixie. The story is told with animated scenes for the beginning and end; a very nice touch to the game.

There are two ways to play the game, online and offline. I’ll talk about the offline part of the game first. Basically you have the options to choose from the main arcade mode or the training mode. Training mode allows you to practice the different mini shooting games that you will be facing in the arcade mode. There is not much need to do so since instructions are extremely straightforward and will be given before each stage starts. Nonetheless, you can specifically play and perhaps challenge your friends in some of the challenges that are of better fun and uniqueness.

With that aside, the arcade mode simply proceeds through stages. You get to choose from 4 different characters to play with and there are 5 main stages with around 7 mini levels within each. There are a variety of mini games but most of the objectives are repeated with just different enemies and environment. Still, the fun still maintains throughout the whole game as you shoot your way through the stages. There are levels where you have to shoot enemies approaching the fairy, shoot cards that matches whatever the computer wants you to shoot, timing shots to shoot enemies when they are near a certain object etc. The freshness of the game is done by adjusting and modifying little bits of the stages. Therefore even when the objectives are similar, you will always find something new for example some enemies walk in a manner that is rather hard to shoot in the later stages etc.

You get to face a boss at the very end of each main stage. The bosses aren’t particularly hard to kill. The simple skill is to spam shooting at him whenever possible. This however results in lower accuracy and thus lesser points in that particular aspect. Nonetheless, you will be able to clear the boss in no time. There are power-ups/downs within the game as well. These come in balloons where you can shoot within the level. Some gives you bonus multiplier to your score and others might alter the game to make it more difficult for example re-orientating the whole level upside down etc. There are 3 difficulty settings you are able to choose from: easy, medium and hard. Basically the harder the difficulty the more you have to shoot within a shorter time frame.

You get points at the end of each level adding to a main total when you finish the game. Not sure what the score is for since there is no highscore board of any sorts for the offline mode I believe. You are given a certain number of lives and can be increased by scoring well n the bonus stages after every main stage. Shooting is done by the simple tapping of your finger at the spot where you want to shoot your dart gun at. Controls are responsive and smooth, making the game a whole lot more enjoyable.

The online mode pits you against other players competing to see who can get the highest score possible after a series of mini-games. You get to play the same few mini-games from the offline mode but instead of simply playing against yourself, you are now competing with another live opponent. For example there is a mini-game that its objective is to shoot as many enemies as you can. You and your opponent is placed in the same field thus if he shoot that same particular enemy you are shooting and he does it in a quicker manner, you will be losing out in that enemy and thus your points. At the very end the person with the highest points wins. The online multiplayer is very fun and competitive, taking the game to a whole new level.

I tried the online multiplayer a few times and all I have to say that it is superb. There isn’t much lag to the point where it makes the game unplayable. Everything seemed to run smoothly and fine. I have one question however is perhaps to have some kind of statistics implemented into the game which would make it a whole lot more complete.

Graphics and sound effects are great as well. The 3D graphics are fantastic for me and pleasing to the eye. The colours used, environments and atmosphere created is simply magnificent. I love how the sound effects are used as well. It gives you the kind of arcade feeling like as if you walked into an arcade hearing all the bleeps and bloops. Everything matches very well to emphasize the overall theme of the game. Kudos to the animated videos added in at the start and the end of the whole game; a very nice touch that is well appreciated.

The major flaw of the game is the repetitiveness. Though it may be fun, the fun doesn’t last if you were to go for a second play-through in the single player mode. There ought to be much more variety in the game modes and though I did say the tweaks were rather good, it is better to have completely different concept/objectives for it keeps the game ultimately fresh throughout. Other than that, there isn’t much more to complain about.

It is currently priced at $0.99 for a limited time. If you love those shooting mini-game styled games, get Cocoto Magic Circus while it is still at that fantastically cheap price. If you’re looking for generic fun, get it as well. For such a price and such a quality game it is extremely hard to resist. Who knows that they might add in add-ons in future which might include much more new levels and types of mini-games?

NOTE: There is some lag present when playing the game with a 1^st generation iPod Touch. The lag comes whenever the screen gets clotted up with a certain number of enemies etc. It is bearable and does not make the game unplayable.

Gameplay Video:

iTunes Appstore Link: Cocoto Magic Circus

Meet John Freeman, a young boy from the town of gm_pallet. Now that he is old enough to get a Garrymon lisence, he will get his first Garrymon as they will both have to journey on to a world full of adventure, mystery and secrets that they will have to unfold, In the world of Garrymon!

Garrymon is made using garry’s mod and it is rather impressive seeing how the whole episode being made using such tools. The content is hilarious as well and it is a bonus for those who love the source engine since garry’s mod is based off that as well.

If you’re still wondering what exactly the video is about, it follows the concept of pokemon, just that now its a whole new world and the cute little creatures are called garrymons.

So yeah, got ta catch them all!

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You play as a character within a team of special operatives. You are sent to an island to investigate a deadly cult activity held in an ancient monastery. You learn that the cult is planning on destroying LA. You get the idea, stop them from doing what they are planning to do and save the day. For that you will be killing and destroying your way through to save the other millions of lives. You can choose from 5 different characters to play with in different difficulties. Different characters have different abilities for example some can move faster while another can take more hits before dying.

For a FPS game to be successful as an iPhone game, the controls have to be smooth. It is extremely vital for such a game for even if you have an endless range of weapons, fun enemies what so ever, poor controls would simply frustrate players and thus making the whole game boring and unplayable. RoTT has several control schemes. Sounds fantastic at first but really all of them don’t work well at all. There are several methods to control your character from that of using 2 dpads or 1 so on and so forth. The smoothest of all the control schemes for me is the control method called Advanced Scheme 1 I think. It basically uses 2 dpads, one for movement and the other for aiming. Shooting is done by pressing anywhere else on the screen. This seems to be the best however it does has its own flaws. For one, I find shooting terribly annoying for the space of the dpads seem to be taking up almost 3 quarters of more of the screen, thus when shooting I often find myself tapping the dpad instead. Other aspect such as the aiming itself isn’t that smooth even with a sensitivity setting available. Overall there is quite some room for improvement for the controls.

I seldom talk about the game controls at first but I do have to say that because of the controls, the gameplay of the game becomes less fun. I mean the game overall is fine. Enemies come at you, shoot them kill them and so on. There are hidden switches at walls and activating them result in additional power ups and weapons. There are several weapons that you can pick up later on and some of them are rather interesting for example god mode where you start shooting out homing magical balls at enemies and vaporize them, killing them instantly.

Levels are quite open in the sense that there is one definite path you have to follow but there are choices to explore certain areas if you want to do so. A minimap is available to guide you in case you are lost within a level. Within each level you get to face enemies of different types. The unique thing that surprised me and made me smile is the fact that some of them will pretend to play dead or beg for mercy. When you lose your focus or turn your back on them, they start shooting you; A rather nice touch to the game.

The difficulty of the game can be felt right from the start even when played on the easiest difficulty. In some rooms, enemies appear to be in groups and start shooting you. Before you can kill them you will have already taken quite some damage to yourself. Replenishing health with food etc is available but far from enough and this might turn off some of the new beginners in such games.  Dying will be frequent and if you don’t save occasionally, you will have to start from right at the beginning of the level. There is no checkpoint system of any sorts and you will have to rely on constantly saving if you do not wish to replay the whole level upon death.

What I loved about the game is how smooth it runs. I’m not talking about the controls but how the game doesn’t have long load times or jerky frame rates. Even with the 1^st generation iTouch, RoTT ran as smooth as silk. Now only if the controls were a little better. Other than that the retro graphics are as retro as ever, sound effects and music bring back old memories. The game concept itself is fun, presentation in terms of graphics and sound effects are there already. All it lacks is the final touch up in the controls and perhaps some kind of checkpoint system where it doesn’t punish players too hardly when they die. I would love to see other game modes present as well such as multiplayer and maybe some kind of survival mode etc (If I remembered correctly there were more than one mode in the original version).

There are certainly many other FPSes for the iPhone that are much better than RoTT. For players completely new to that of such retro FPS games, I would suggest you stay away and look at other options first. RoTT for the iPhone is there mostly for the fans and players from the old days.

Gameplay Video:

iTunes Appstore Link: Rise of the Triad $4.99

For those wondering what subjects I actually take, they are Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science (Yes, give me that blank face. I get that all the time) for the Higher Level subjects or rather H2 subjects in A Level terms, English, Chinese and Business and Management for my Standard Level subjects or H1 in other words. I’ve great goals and aims for the subject combination I’m taking. I mean from the way it seems, if I had the school’s average for each individual subject, I’ll be on my way to a rather good university in 4 years time (yes, an additional 2 years due to wonderful and fabulous time wasting activity called National Service). Maybe the subjects are easy? Not too sure about that but so far I think Computer Science and Physics would be the subjects for me to score while Mathematics at least a distinction would be perfect.

English is another subject that I worry about. I mean in the first lesson the teacher came in and said “Guys, be prepared to get 8 – 13 out of 25 for your assignments. It is normal.” Well, okay, maybe I need some acclimatization to such marks. I’ve had my fair share of terrible marks and god knows why last year, but I don’t think getting 8 out of 25 normal. If she say so, I guess I’ll just have to accept it. English has loads of books to read (English in IB is more of literature stuff), and I’ve yet to read a thick thick book that the teacher is about to go through within a month’s time. Oh well, I guess I’ll leave it to the holidays to rush through *procrastination detected*.

Computer Science is weird; there is a total candidature of 4 students including me. 3 others are scholars with previous experience and I’m the only one there being clueless when one of the student goes rambling on about computer related stuff (which to be honest sounds total bullshit and had no substance within it at all. Well he might have experience but he is talking way too much crap that his potential has. No offense but just shush for a while.) I hope that my passion and interest of the subject will pull me through the boring and tedious parts where we study things I feared most when considering the subject, the hard facts for example the Software Development Life Cycle.

Everything else is fine I guess, manageable so far with my other activities still ongoing. Didn’t continue serving the NPCC Squad (Might be one of my regrets? Damn, I sure do miss those days even though I whine a lot and that there are certain politics that wasn’t too favourable). I joined Hockey and some student publication thingy. Yep, Hockey as in field hockey, not ice. Always wanted to join a sports activity for I think sports is fun. It is tiring no doubt after each training and I’m aiming towards the school first’s team by next year. Really hope I can get in but competition is tough with all the other new comers as well as the current year 4s.

So far I’ve made some more friends, not too many but just some. Hope I’ll be able to make much more within the coming months and best before the overseas trip. Looking forward to the rest of the year.

[image by cflee via flickr]

Zordon is a powerful wizard and mentor to the Power Rangers franchise, appearing in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers television series and many of its subsequent incarnations.

Although the Power Rangers had, in the continuity, predated Zordon, Zordon is generally credited with creating the first group of modern Power Rangers, as well as coining many of the phrases that are still used today. Among the most notable of these terms is the “Zord”, a term for the various building-sized mechanical or biomechanical robot machines used in the series, and the “Megazord”, a term for any arbitrary merger of Zords into a bigger, usually humanoid Zord.

A very funny power ranger parody. As you can tell from the information I gave above, Zordon is the creator of the power rangers. This parody shows how it is actually done and why the colours are assigned as such.

GO! GO! Power Rangers!

[image by Travis Hornung via flickr]

Aegis isn’t a very special game in terms of gameplay concept or objectives. The mechanics and concept have been used several times in old school boat shooting games. You have two parts to the controls. One part is the movement and the other the aim of your warship’s gun. Movement is done in an analogue stick style (bottom left by default has the area for controlling the warship) while the aiming is the simple shifting of the aiming reticle, you cannot aim directly at the enemies for the bullet will simply sink before even reaching. The bullet flies in a parabolic manner going up then down therefore you have to usually aim a little higher and adjust the range of the shot accordingly.

The game presents you with limited types of enemies and bosses. There are basic land turrets, enemy warships (big and small) and aircraft carriers. There are frequent bosses like huge airplanes and tanks. All of these are nothing new or something that gets you off your seat upon meeting them. In the later stages of the game, you will meet situations where enemies are positioned on mountain terrain where they are in a more advantageous situation for they have the height as well as the cover provided by the way the mountain is shaped. This results in you having to do high angle shots which can get frustrating at times. High angled shots are hard to connect with you enemy for you are basically guessing your way through while dodging the endless amount of bullets coming at you.

Putting that aside, you have 4 different difficulty levels. All of which brings you through the same levels just with enemies that are harder to kill. There doesn’t seem to be many rewards in playing through the harder difficulties, only perhaps for the achievements present within the game. Another reason why you want to play the harder difficulty levels is due to the fact that you need the upgrade points to upgrade your ship.

There is a levelling upgrade system implemented within the game. After each mission arc, you get points which are used to upgrade your ship. These upgrades are significant within the game for they help ease the difficulty by quite a lot. There are a few aspects of the ship that you can improve mainly the speed, durability, reload time, accuracy and the amount of bullets shot within one reload. As you upgrade each aspect, you will see the difference in how much damage your ship can take and the speed increase as well. This system is something that makes the game a little better, pushing players to move on to keep trying to get the best out of their ships.

The graphics is simplistically drawn and coloured, old school retro styled perhaps. For example your main warship and the enemies mostly only have 2 colours used, one lighter and the other of a darker gradient. The water has no texture or any shadows everything is either a one colour or two coloured scheme. Maybe more effort within the graphics department makes the game a little more interesting (of course retro theme could have its good points. Make it a little more colourful or detailed would be good). For example some kind of damage indicator for example the ship on fire once it receives a certain amount of damage? Or even perhaps some indicator that your ship has indeed become more powerful after the upgrades?

The major problem of the game is the receptiveness. The game is just like that, the first level and the last are mainly the same. Enemies change but all in all the experience and feeling doesn’t. You played the first, you played the last. Not much motivation present besides the fact that the deeper you go into the game the more powerful your boat is. Highscore board and achievements (openfeint supported) are a nice touch but insufficient. There needs to be some kind of “wow” factor to keep the player going. Aegis however, doesn’t have that and for the price of $0.99, you might want to consider first. There is a lite version present which will probably satisfy your need since the full version isn’t that much different.

Gameplay Video:

Itunes appstore: Aegis $0.99 Aegis Lite FREE

@fellonthedoor haha i like sharing interesting stuff I find in the net. in reply to fellonthedoor #

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