Prologue to Visual Arts

Im gonna scroll the pages of the things I learned so far in the 1st day of class. To be honest though, It sounded more like a review to me because I'm very much familiar of the basic technical terms and functions of a DSLR camera. The big thing though, of what I learned is ,emptying my cup to fill it with up once again with new things perhaps. One new thing I learned is about the lenses' depth. I saw different comparisons of shots using various type of lenses, and able to gain the idea of using the depth of a long range "telephoto" lens, for a more cinematic and dramatic image. Also aside from the depth of telephoto lenses, I learned about the most uncommonly observed image format meanings/full names. Like let's say the JPEG, Joint Photographic Experts Group, and many other more.

Still warming up!

Hey there! All the few gamers, or just random passerby, thank you for visiting my blog(at least). It was a huge help as it build up my grade in a course subject. But anyway! I'm still testing gears, for I am fresh in the world of blogging. So far though, Im enjoying it. First is boring, but I'm starting to get the hang of blog-spot.

Stay tuned up gamers! This may be the last day, for subject requirement but my blog is still warming up!

As a "something", I would like to share a video, a montage of "most games" I play in PC.
Gaming, has always been my friend. It's my final resort when things come fallling down. It gave me inspiration to meet real people as an introvert. It gave me knowledge in history and military. "We are gamers not because we don't have a life. We are gamers because we choose to have many."

http://youtu.be/MzORhssB9sk

Click the link above, and watch the gaming montage!

Good day everyone and see you in my next gaming blog post! :)

Dragons in Sky!

Hey guys! Today, I wanted to share to you one of the most popular game, and one of the most highest ranking game ever played, Skyrim! Join me in my adventure in this vast world.

Adventure

Comparing to a movie, Skyrim is Lord of the Rings. Don’t get me wrong though, Skyrim might be slightly similar to LOTR, but it’s different. Well, we have Orcs in Skyrim, but the story goes different. Anyways, this

The road, heading to Riverwood

game is one of my most played single player games, it’s beautiful, and it’s nice and sure to keep you playing longer that you will expect to be. Skyrim, is a game where, you set on your own path, explore a massive world whenever and whatever you want. As a player takes on an adventure, there is always a chance that you will meet in game character’s asking for help or offering a favor. It’s random, very. It’s that game where you plan to go to a place, and then as you to that place, you will see a point of attraction letting you go to that place and discover something very interesting and different. It’s not what the game wants you to do it’s “what the player wanted to do”. And sure, Adventure is really fun, there are numerous fantastic sceneries, events, towns and cities that’s worthy of visiting.

Customization

I would want to quote what I've have said earlier, “it’s not what the game wants you to do, its what the player wants to do in the game”. You decide on what type of Skyrim traveler you wanted to be. One can be

Selfie! of my character at Solstheim 

an assassin, using magic. Another can be a magician, using a bow. Or one can be a warrior, wearing normal clothes. It all depends of the players play style. There are many races you can choose on too, ranging from Nords(Skyrim natives, Humans) to Khajits(Cat men). Lastly, a player ca modify the face, and body of his chosen race or “character” to play. The options are very fast. One will take 1 hour just to achieve the face he wants his character to be.

As of now, my character is a Nord. I use a Crossbow as my primary weapon for long range and assassination. A scimitar (curved sword), for head on melee combat, and a Dagger for stealth attacks. Currently, my choice of clothing is a Light Armor. I intend to make my character ro be an assassin, so I chose the right gear to make the character, as silent, invisible, swift and critical as possible.

Quest

A battle against a dragon, with a Mage in my left.

Questing is fun in Skyrim. A player will most probably encounter a dragon in the game, battle vampires or

join either the Empires’ Legion or the Rebel Stormcloaks, and wage war into cities. Questing also includes, heading deeper into caves, go to a Mage College, or simply be the dragonborn (Dragon slayer) and save Tamriel(continent location of Skyrim)  from “Alduin” The World Eater, as the prophecy foretold.

In the background is the walled city of Whiterun.

Come and let’s play Skyrim! Fus Roh Dah!

Brave new Town

Lets go and join a group of exiles as they build starting from a single house into a busy town, in the game of Banished!

Unlike CityVille, or Farmville (for you casual gamers), this game is a test of balance and governance. But with less politics. The challenge of the game is to make the people alive, and increasing. The townspeople are

the main resource here, as they gather food,build,mine and etc. To keep townspeople alive, the player must have sufficient food to prevent starvation, firewood and clothing to prevent freezing, a hospital and physician to halt a disease, shelter to stay and well's to stop a fire. It's easier said than done, as most of the time, the player experiences scarcity of a recourse, either too much food but the people is freezing vice versa, and there are no extra remaining people to do the work. Every minute of the game is important, and assigning an idle villager to the right task makes a player last longer.

A graveyard

My first try of the game, I assigned at least 50% of my total villagers to gather food. Later on as my village became larger, my people one by one started to starve, and eventually dies. Like every 3 seconds there will be a notification saying that a villager has dies of starvation. "Well!, its time to leave this city"

Second try of the game, I assigned more villagers to gather food, via fisheries, few to farms. My village lasted longer than before and is also larger. But as I acquire new villagers, food started to deplete fast, disease came, death rate increased by 1 death per second. "Goodbye, scumbags! On my way for another village..."

Blacksmith provides tools for the villagers

Third try, I'm starting to have my grip on the game, assigned 70% of my villagers to farms, and the remaining

The Yellow marks are needs of the people, that is lacking

5% as fisherman's, hunters etc. In short, food is my priority. Major problems occur, execpt of starvation. Workers are loosing tools, people are starting to freeze. Good thing though, as time passes in the game, population increase, and I was able to fill out jobs to fulfill the needs of the people. That is then I realized, I made such a big town! Later, since food is staple as well as other major needs, I gave focus to other resources such as coal, wood, stones iron. All has gone well, until, my population reached 300, and woodcutters and blacksmith are not able to provide enough tools and
firewood. Death rate also increased, not because of my folly, but because of a villagers old age. That is the start of where I'm in now. From 300 people I'm down to 150. I'm still thinking of ways on how to boost villager count to provide my people with proper needs to further expand my town.

By the way, my towns name is Fort Salt Lake!

Top View of my town. Back when my Current Pop is 300

Here's a sample game play of me playing Banished

This is during the time of Winter in the game. You will notice me clicking rapidly on a window, that is to reassign villagers in a specific job. Since its Winter, Farmers wont be able to harvest anything, to I'm reassigning them to be a fisherman temporarily.

Join me in this game, and test how good you are in organizing a small town!

Company of Russians!

There's this latest game I've been playing lately, it's called "Company of Heroes"

Company of Heroes 2, is as great a World War II itself, with the player acting as a role of an Allied Russian Captain. It's a big, and robust game. This is one of the very few strategy games Iv'e played, that really uses strategy. I'll go in detail on why is it like that. For instance is, players can command the squads to move behind cover, defend something, bombard a location, repair a vehicle,
hide inside a building, build variety of defensive materials, merge with a squad and pick up vehicles. It's not that game, where players build a huge massive army and just assault the enemy full headed, and just watch then sway their swords as they overwhelm the opponent with their mass numbers. So far, I found the game really time consuming as, it will

really use your time to think, "what will happen in the battlefield" or "how will I control the battle". It all
depends in how one positions his/her squads and how well the squads is organized. When something wrong happens in the battlefield, the player will really notice his/her error,"what he/she would have did 3minutes ago to prevent losses of squads"

As for the negative, well the game usually freezes every 30 minutes (although it was probably caused by Auto Save). The mouse turns into a bar code sometimes, that even when a player leaves the game, the mouse stays as a bar code, and I find it really inconvenient. Lastly is, well, on behalf of Russians. Isn't it kinda offensive how Russia in the game (Russians are protagonist by the way) are portrait as a very brutal nation? Like, when Russian soldiers retreat for their lives are shot by their own allies, because they say its cowardice. I am not into "full" history of Russia, true that Joseph Stalin, did ordered the shooting of his own troops, for some good reason, but it might be over portrayed in the game.


Here are some videos, of my playing Company of Heroes 2

Sniper, taking position for recon and taking out a squad, in preparation for an assault

A battle, to capture a vital location, after sniper's role in taking out guards.

Gamer-o-Meter

Everyone has that inner gaming ego that is as far as I believe.  Some are in denial, because they haven’t even tried it yet. Some simply, dislikes games, and some addicted to it. Let’s see which of the gamer categories you belong, from Non-Gamer to Hardcore-Gamer according to my Gamer-o-Meter. Enjoy!

All statements are rated by YES or NO.

1 -At least once in my lifetime, I have played Space Impact, Minesweeper, and Spider Solitaire and enjoyed it. If there’s a spare time, and those three are the games available I might consider playing those it.

2-I love reading books. I do it on a regular basis.

3-I love studying. It’s my bestfriend.

4-Junk food, pizzas are my most favorite snacks.

5-I like watching War, action, crime, fiction films.

6-A smartphone is my partner during the boring part of the day.

7-I prefer a laptop than a desktop.

8-At least once in my life, I got to own a game console. (Nintendo,Akari,Playstation,Xbox)\

POINTS.

If you answered YES to statements 1,4,5,6, and 8 you get 1 point for each of those, with a total of 6points.  If NO, it’s a -1.

If you answered NO to statements 2,3 and 7 you get 1 point for each of those, with a total of 6points.  If YES, it’s a -1.

Compute your points, and see below.

If you got 5 points above, well consider yourself a potential Hardcore Gamer.

Hardcore Gamers, are people, usually prefers to stay in a game than the reality. Sometimes, these people spend most of the night eating their preferred snacks and playing a game. Also, a hardcore gamer knows how to choose a “rig” to use in gaming. May it be a PC, a PS4, or an XBOX One. Most Hardcore gamers, throws a huge amount of cash for the sake of gaming. They explore various game genres’ like First Person Shooting, Racing, Mass Multiplayer and etc.

If you got 4 points, you’re a potential Mid-Gamer

Not typically the same as hardcore gamers, but both have similarities and few differences. Let’s just simply say Midcore-Gamers, still values social life. Though still, they know how to play.

If you got 3 points, you are a Casual Gamer-

Most basic type of a gamer. People who prefers mainstream games (ie.Flappy B. / FB Games/ smartphone games and etc.). Midcore’s and hardcore’s usually mock proud Casuals.

If you got 1-2, You are a Common Human.

There’s a gamer in you, but No.

If you got 0-below.  Not a chance-

Don’t even think about it.

Note: All above, are just estimations, don't take it way to seriously, thank you. Images are from Google Images.

Lazy Gamer 5-Step Guide!

Many people think that gaming is just simply playing games a gamer is simply playing games. Well, being a lazy gamer, is a big sign of being a hardcore gamer (I use "gamer" way too much). Actually it is! Here's my top 5 steps on a to be a professional, lazy gaming lord. (I would also advice to read the disclaimer at the end of the article, seriously)

Step #1

Pack loads of junk food

No one wants to get hungry in the middle of a battlefield, or a speeding car. It's like watching a 3-hour long movie, without popcorn and soda(Isn't it annoying?). So always bring these good guys before starting a long gaming session and get those controllers, keyboard/mouse and your fingers wrapped in cheese powders!

Step #2

Get comfortable

Wear a jacket if its too cold, open cooling devices when its too hot. Place a soft pillow on you back, and sit as comfortable as you can, no need for fancy and formal sitting styles, just sit the way you want to, and prepare yourself for a long ride to a virtual world.

Step #3

Play that music

Nothing like a good music while playing something. If you want to play hard, metal and rock comes to the rescue! Pick a music that will fit the genre' of the game you are playing.

Step #4

Procrastination

As I said, this is a guide to be a lazy-dazy gamer. Forget homework! There's still time tomorrow(although it's already due)! Every second is important, and not a second to be wasted on stuff's lesser than playing a game. Escape reality and play games, period.

(Students Creed: Everything is Due, Nothing is submitted)

Step #5

Choose game. And play.

This is what is all about. Playing the game. Take your time, you have the whole day, or even the next day if you may(it rhymes). You have there a decent supply of snacks, to cover up your lunch, or even dinner, or even breakfast for the next day!

 Choose the genre' of the game, suggested are Online games, MMORPG's, FPS games. And when you got bored enough with those, set up a back up. Prepare the next game you intent to play. And the best part of it all, is to ENJOY , happy hunting!

*DISCLAIMER (READ!)

Following this post will, ruin your life. Of course, do everything in moderation, and look at the steps above as warnings/cautions, instead of a guide to being lazy. Gaming is never bad, in fact it can teach players, variety of sensible things but as I have said, ALL IN MODERATION :)

*Images from- Google images and its external links.