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Of my youngest brother. He just won his first pro championship built in K1.

The tension before the match was killer specially if you're watching your own brother fighting against who is going to be fighting in the next Asian championships ( my bro supposed to go instead of that guy but you'll get the why he isn't going in a minute ), especially when a whole corner of the crowd ( around 200 people ) rooting against my bro.

Especially when there is drama behind his fight since the team training his foe is his former gym who he has trained with them for the past 4 years but they threw him under the bus when he was in his lowest. Especially when the former coach/organizers signs this rookie for the Asian champions instead of my bro just to spite him.

So yea the fight starts and that guy got dominated like there is no tomorrow! what my bro was worrying about was his kicks since the opponent was a kyokushin fighter for the last 12 years or so of his life and recently changed to kick-boxing but that didn't save him from getting his ass kicked.

It was fun to watch the crowd silenced by the first round, their voice wasn't heard at all after the first round lol.

It was also most fun to watch his former coach and half the organizers of this tournament who wanted to ruin his career in total disappointment.

Last night was one of the best nights eva! loved every moment especially after seeing my bro happiest after so much drama for the last 5 months.

Anyways back to celebrating!

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"Ghost of a Tale"

Well, my name is Lionel Gallat but I usually go by Seith when I'm online. I've been working as a supervising animator in the movie industry for more than 15 years, first at Dreamworks on many movies ("The Prince Of Egypt", "The Road to Eldorado", "Spirit", "Sinbad", "SharkTale", etc...), and more recently as the animation director for Universal Studios' "Despicable Me" and "The Lorax" (yay for the Macguff team!).

"Ghost of a Tale" is a work of love and a one-man project (at least so far). It represents a lot of work. About a year ago I decided to get really serious about it. In consequence I started working full-time on the development. It's a bit scary of course, but I do believe in this project, and it's now time for me to find out if I'm the only one. Which is also pretty scary in itself...

At this point it might be good for you to take a look at the video, if you haven't done so already. It's a bit rough, with missing assets, temporary animations and incomplete gameplay of course, but it should give you a feel for the project.

Among the inspirations I could quote Disney's "Robin Hood", the fables of La Fontaine, "Redwall", "Winnie the Pooh", "The Secret of Nimh", "The Dark Crystal", the paintings of Alan Lee, John Howe, Paul Bonner, John Bauer, and many, many others...

Game-wise the inspirations could be found in the early "Zelda" games, "Ico", the "Gothic" series and "Dark Souls". Of course those are mere inspirations; this project can obviously not expect to compete on equal footing with those amazing games.

But my goal is to craft a small yet beautiful game with environments that look a bit like movie sets and characters that have a sense of stylization in their design, while retaining a certain simplicity and immediacy as far as gameplay is involved.

I know it sounds hockey [sic] but I'm really trying to recapture the sense of wonder I felt as a kid when I discovered the games from the 80s and early 90s. But with a AAA quality (as far as I'm able) that's very much up-to-date.

You play as a mouse on an adventure set in a medieval world. At the beginning of the game, you get to the Island of Periclave. Now what is the mouse looking for? What happened on the island? Why are there undead rats roaming around? That will be up to you to discover.

What's known is that the island has long been a disputed outpost for the Army of the Rats. But today, it is reputed to be haunted. And tales are talking about a fabulous treasure high up in the Tower of Periclave. But it would be folly to try and get there. Even for a mighty warrior. And this little mouse certainly doesn't look like one...

* * *

Further links:
Indiegogo
Greenlight
Coverage via VentureBeat

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Come Join today its a Nice Board.  Brand new and flowing with Possibility

Hope to see you there 

JP
Minecraft UCB Admin

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God have mercy on my soul because I plan to challenge these two titles over the summer. I keep hearing from everyone how Ninja Gaiden is the top-tier of Action Games so I'm finally going to try it out.

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LINK:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7T0vs9gYydo

Well that escalated quickly....

Bee Out.

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[ Watch Video ]

For Harmonix the long time ago was November 2005, the time when most of us first saw the appeal of playing fake guitars in video games. Its fair to say the music made us smile also, as what looked like a game of niche appeal (especially considering the lack of commercial success of games like Guitar Freaks) became a complete phenomenon. Of course Harmonix eventually parted with Guitar Hero and upped the game once more with Rock Band, ditching the singular instrument focus and opening up a whole new world of gameplay possibilities and music. Rock Band hit the states in 2007 and has since been my go to series for the entire genre, Guitar Hero had the name and a bit more popularity, but it was Rock Band which won over the hearts of so many. The novelty of strumming a guitar along with your game was no longer the key factor and Harmonix exhibited a level of professionalism and polish that Guitar Hero werent pulling off. Sure, if you were crazy into the devil and tired rock n roll iconography then I can see how Guitar Hero would be the game for you (when you arent playing Doom of course), but Rock Band was the one for me.

 I can only speak to my own experience here, so forgive me for generalising, but I think its fair to say that if you cared about music (and specifically rock music) Rock Band was the gold standard. It was a game made by music lovers for music lovers, with an appreciation for the art form it presented. Just look at The Beatles Rock Band, which was the perfect tribute to one of (if not the) greatest bands of all time. Every aspect of the game was lovingly crafted and all went towards giving you the authentic (though entirely drug free) Beatles experience. Iconic moments were faithfully recreated, the setlist did a great job of showing the bands musical arc and the visual details and buckets of extras just couldnt have been better. It was a true loving letter to the bad and is still a highlight of my video game collection (I feel obliged to say that I am a huge Beatles fan, so make of that what you will). The Beatles Rock Band wasnt the only band specific rhythm game of 2009 though, remember Guitar Hero Van Halen? Honestly, I would be surprised if you did. Harmonix advertised the Beatles to the ends of the earth, going as far as to create a truly fantastic awkward E3 moment featuring the surviving Beatles and Yoko Ono on stage (separately of course). The Van Halen treatment on the other hand was very different. Perhaps aware that they were still making spin-offs while Harmonix was putting out a proper standalone video game (superb in its right), Activision decided to pretty much write Van Halen off. As people gave away their $60 just to play Beatles tracks Activision were giving Van Halen away as a freebie if you bought Guitar Hero 5. This (perhaps unfair) treatment of the game made Guitar Hero Van Halen look more like the free CD or game disc you get with a magazine than a proper tribute to a beloved rock group. Perhaps this was appropriate though, you dont set a B-movie up against Citizen Kane, and while the Beatles game was praised for its attention to detail and authenticity Van Halen was criticised for lacking in this area.

This only part of why Rock Band became so much more important to me than Guitar Hero though. I love music, I love rock music especially, and Harmonix treated it with the reverence that I think it deserves. The key factor though, and the reason why I still play Rock Band 3 to this day, was the Rock Band store, and here we have the true point of this blog. That opening verse form Don McLeans American Pie is more relevant than forced connections between it and the path of Harmonix. Its true that they started a long, long time ago (ok not that long ago, but cut me some slack), made us smile and eventually decided to make us dance when given the chance. The importance is not this though; the importance is that American Pie is the final song to come to Rock Band. Recently they stated they were stopping weekly song releases and now Harmonix have announced that they are stopping updates altogether, and what a way to end it. Im not the biggest fan of the song, I like it and am listening to it as I write this blog, but I will not deny how appropriate it is as a finale. Personally I would have been perhaps more on the nose and tried to get my hands on The End by the Doors (Im imagining Apocalypse Now levels of darkness and insanity in the backing video) but really American Pie is a better fit. This is really an end of an era, these plastic instrument games were so big and this is the last hurrah. Its a genre I dont see coming back next generation, and it is one Im going to miss, for Rock Band (and perhaps plastic instrument rhythm games as a whole) this truly is the day the music died. But what a legacy they have left behind! The dedication Harmonix put into supporting their product is really impressive. Some have criticised them for putting out three Rock Band games rather than pure DLC, but for me Rock Band 3 was so good that this was never an issue. The flow of DLC may have stopped but we are not left deficient in content, there are over 4,000 songs to pick from on the store now, and while half of those are user created Rock Band network songs this still represents quite an achievement.

I will be honest, the Rock Band store never had everything I wanted, but it was never going to. It had enough to satisfy me though, and enough quality material to put a couple of hundred tracks in my personal library (really the limit was my wallet not the quality on offer). This is a paltry amount compared to the Rock Band libraries of so many of your but it was still a significant investment and one I dont regret for a second. This is kind of a sad moment for me then; Im proud of my Rock Band library and am now forced to accept that songs I wanted will never be there. I never really expected the songs to appear but living in denial is still better than being hit in the face by reality. I dont feel we should be saddened by the end though, or rejoice it, merely reflect on the amount of support Harmonix put behind their product for good or for bad. It may be a genre you have no interest in, and you may be happy to see it exit the stage after its final encore, but I think you should still appreciate it. While Guitar Hero sequalised the genre to death Rock Band did live the dream we wanted of a platform for music, and the occasional sequel just refined this further. Harmonix were truly a developer who cared about music, and cared about their product, you may not miss the updates (you may be glad the clutter has gone from XBLA and PSN) but I for one will miss it and I know there are others out there. So I would like to take this moment to thank Harmonix for going above and beyond the call of duty and for showing a genuine passion for what they make and what they represent. 

I will leave you guys with a short list of my Rock Band dreams, and I would like to hear yours, so here are five albums that I would have loved to see in Rock Band (not my five favourite albums, just ones I would love to play in the game). Though realistically my biggest wish was Led Zeppelin Rock Band,

1.     Appetite for Destruction- Guns n Roses (This would have to be uncensored, which could cause an issue, but this would be so much fun to play. One of the best rock albums ever written and would be a blast on all instruments (bar keyboard I guess))

2.     The Bends- Radiohead (Not their best album (though up there) but the one which best translates to a music game)

3.     Argus- Wishbone Ash (I saw Wishbone Ash play most of this album live and it was just amazing, when it comes to pure musicality and just amazing guitar music you dont get much better than this)

4.     Physical Graffiti- Led Zeppelin (If I cant have the full game, at least give me my favourite album... Oh, I cant have that either? Dammit.)

5.     Kill Em All- Metallica (I think this album might be the most fun Metallica album to play, and I would really love to play (Anaesthesia) Pulling Teeth)

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Updates:

Random yet important news: my chia pet is done growing. I named it Billy the Bird. It's quite hairy. I dropped him off of a balcony though, so he's starting to grow bald. Poor Billy.

I'm reading the Aeneid in school right now. The translation sucks majorly and makes a cool story totally boring. Trust me, I've read it in the original Latin, so I know that it's the translation's fault. I'm also reading Dante's La Divina Comedia in the original Italian. It's pretty good too, also butchered by horrible translations. That's on my own though, not for school.

Oh, and I totally sabotaged a famous author's Youtube video. He did a thing where people could ask questions and he would randomly draw 20 of them out of a hat to answer in a video. So I asked what the weirdest name Crayola's named a crayon color, and guess what? It got picked. Among all of the other boring questions like, "Where do you get your inspiration?" or "How much research do you put into your work?" Lame-o. What's even more lame is that his answer was black. Three-time NYT Bestseller, people, and all he could come up with was black. (That's not the first time I've been a dork and been weird for contests and stuff. I also did a Q&A contest thing with a famous guitarist and asked what their favorite super villain was [I know, dumb question, the answer was Poison by the way. I'm not sure if they were referring to Poison Ivy or Venom though.] and I won a poetry contest held by a famous author by writing a poem about why pirates wear such huge floppy hats. I won the first draft of her new book, which is totally worthless. :/)

Also having to do with writing, I just reached 30,000 words on a book I'm writing. I'm only about a third of the way through the story, though, so it's gonna be a lot longer. Meanwhile I've made a bunch of friends on wattpad from uploading chapters and my professional-editor grandma is fixing up what I have so far.

Guess what? I got all As on my report card!! Ok, not really. I got a B- in Physics. But everything else: A. Woo-hoo!

Ok, that's it I think.

P.S. Has anyone tried those new Lays chip flavors? Like, the Chicken&Waffles flavor and stuff? Ewwwww!!!

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I haven't been able to game a lot, I'm jobless so yeah, can't buy 'em. But, I finally got a new game, finally. I really missed gaming, lol. The new game is Dishonored, I've been wanting it for a while (a while meaning since I first saw it, aka summer 2012), I started with a high chaos playthrough, as my friend shot 2 people in the beginning, and I though, why not continue? So far so good. One of the problems with high chaos is that I keep almost dying, and eventually ending up with barely any HP, and that means that I need to play it safe. Which I'm not good at, waaaay to aggresive, which again means that I need to load my previous save a lot. 

That was a long sentence.

Also, I've started playing League of Legends, and so far it's good. My main roles are: ADC (attack damage carry), top and supports. My name is BlauweMuffin, which was inspired by my love foor blueberry muffins. Blauwe muffin means 'blue muffin', get it? The blue colour of the muffin? Yeah, I'm awesome, I know ;p.

Some other news; I've picked up all the A Song of Ice and Fire books, all the Kingkiller books and am planning to finally finish the Dark Tower series. 

Anyway, I don't think that I'm going to come back, maybe a blog here and there, but not a lot, and my union years are over, for now. I just have the time nor do I have the drive to post every day like I used to.

See ya guys!

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I just received my DOA package last week and my claptrap toy and jacket for winnning two competitions. One os the wallpaper contest, if you can recall and the other is the design and color your own claptrap. Luckily, they have chosen my work and I am very happy. Below are the pics of my prizes. I posted it just now cause I really dont have much time to spend here and sorry to the guys who sent me PM's, can't grant your request guys Work really takes my time

Synthia, you dont know how much you made me happy. I am a very happy guy

Synthia said, the other prizes I won is still not sent yet so there are more to come Thank you guys for reading my blog and to all my loyal Gamespot friends, thank you for being there for years and still read my blog I appreciate it. When I have some free time, I will post in your blog and in my unions, bye!

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#10 -Prometheus -Great Sci Fi Movie in my oppinion, wonderful visuals, the story while it had its dumb moments most of the time the movie was fun and i cant wait for the sequel.

#9 - 21 Jump Street -I Never expected this movie to be this fun that it would reach my list but it deserves its spot, great chemistry between the main characters they are funny, they make the movie funny, the ending was Hillarious, overall great movie!!

#8 - Ted -The movie was hillarious hands down best comedy this year, Mark was funny Mila Kunis was funny, Ted played by Seth MacFarlane was the star of the movie [obviously] the premise of the movie although sounds stupid it was hillarious, dont miss it!

#7 - End of Watch -Great Cops movie, The chemistry between the main characters, the way they show their daily lifes really attach you tho these guys and each time something happened to them you were worried if they survive or not, tension drama the movie had it all its amazing!!

#6 - Argo -Here is a movie that i saw not long ago, the third movie Directed by Ben Affleck that is based on true events that happened in Iran of 80's about group of Americans that were stuck in the country and were hunted by the goverment and the country! The movie was really really tense and the actors were great!!

#5 - The Hobbit -I dont consider myself a big LotR fan but Hobbit was sweet, at times it was slow tbh but most of the times i was glad to see some familiar faces, the action was great it hyped me for the sequel cant wait to see more!

#4 - Looper -Now here is a sci fi movie that came out of nowhere, and amazed everyone that saw it, the main actors were amazing the premise of the movie was great, the execution was perfect i really liked it!! and i highly recommend!!

#3 - The Avengers -Now here is a movie that could have been extremely bad or extremely awesome luckily it became awesome!! All of the superheroes together were amazing the chemistry between them was awesome, all of the previous movies set the bar for this one high and it delivered perfectly for what its tried to be!

#2 -Skyfall -Hands down the best James Bond movie, Daniel Craig is the best Bond in my opinion and the director Sam Mendez really showed that after 50 years and 20+ movies there is still fun to be had there is still more things to do and Skyfall was perfect for what it tried to be.. an Action Espionage movie!!!!

#1 - The Dark Knight Rises -Chris Nolan already proved himself as one of the best Directors in Hollywood with movies like The Prestige, Inception and of course my favorite The Dark Knight!!! So it was only a question of how good the sequel to Dark Knight can be! and in my oppinion it was outstanding while i still think that The Dark Knight is the better one in the series none the less i say that this movie was bad it was outstanding it delivered on everything that i have expected. the story was amazing, the actors were great and the villain was Epic! im a big Batman Fan and this is without any doubt the best movie of this year!!!

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Then Hawken got announced several months back, they promised this game would take inspiration from the Mechs you usually see in anime, meaning Mechs would be much faster, agile and will also be able to fly, you can imagine this really made me excited, especially since they also claimed it will be a free to play game, with optional microtransactions attached ofc.

Hawken Cinematic Trailer

And so I tried it, and immediately came to a major disappointment. The trailer above really made the game look cool, but as soon as I started playing I realized that there is NO WAY to switch the camera to an outside third person perspective, the one that you can see in the trailer. What the hell is the point of customizing your Mech if you can't even see it in action? Now don't get me wrong, the inside interface looks really good, most of the stuff is directly shown in the panels and terminals located inside your cockpit, but it just gets old quick simply focusing on the reticle in the middle and not being able to actually see your own mech in the heat of battle.

The second issue that I have is that the starter Mech you get looks REALLY ugly. Imagine a TV with two legs walking around the map, yeah that's the thing you'll be playing as for weeks until you can finally earn some cash to buy another model. And no you can't really change any parts from the mechs. All of the cosmetic parts including the weapons are done with real cash. So far I played more than 10 rounds, and despite starting with 5000 credits, I still don't have enough to buy a new Mech model which cost about 6500, because you only get about 150 per match.

Fortunately they let you test out other Mechs for a limited time, but apart from one having a grenade launcher and another one having a sniper rifle, everyone else has a basic machine gun and a basic rocket. There are no lasers or any other kind of interesting weapons in the game at all, it just boils down to rushing the enemy and spraying them with bullets or well placed rockets faster than they can spray you.

Gameplay Video

The game you get isn't the one shown in the first video, as that one is completely fake and made more cinematic with the purpose of selling you the idea how cool this might be, but instead you get the game shown in the second video. But regardless, I went on to see how everything else holds up. At the moment there only seems to be two maps, both of which are unattractive post-apocalyptic locations with pretty much nothing to do in them except for hunting down others. C'mon man, even Unreal Tournament and Quake had more elaborate levels and mechanics 15 years ago, at least there you had pick-ups and power-ups to search for and traps to activate and stuff like that. In Hawken, you just get an empty field in which you can run until you come across the enemy.

Another big issue I have with the game is that Mechs can level up by gaining exp after destroying others. Leveling up grants you new passive bonuses such as reduced bulled spread, reduced heating and faster rockets. Doesn't this just seem unfair to you? And most of the time the matchmaking pits you up against level 20+ people, there is no system in there now that prevents new players from playing with fully upgraded players, which is just stupid seeing as how the game is mostly about time spend farming exp instead of balanced skill play. As you level up you also earn some talents or traits or whatever which you can use to increase your walking speed, defense or offense, again simply unfair! Some kind of progression is good and all, but not when it clearly gives you straight out advantage over others that don't spend their time farming the two maps all day.

Another really irritating thing is that every single time you die, before you can respawn, you are sent back to the garage. This can be cool if you want to take another Mech, but I DON'T want another Mech EVERY SINGLE TIME I respawn, this needs to be made optional asap. Also, there is NO music whatsoever, the atmosphere is completely dead and gets boring very fast after a few rounds.

The flying is also rather weak, it's bascially a simple 5-second jetpack which only makes your movements even more predictable and should only be used to climb buildings. Mech take damage as a whole, meaning even though you can equip different parts, those parts don't take individual damage and malfunction separately, instead it's exactly like every other online shooter, you shoot at them until their health drops, there are no targets to priorize and there are no interesting combinations for you to try out and strategies to utilize in order to bring different enemies down. Once you pick a Mech model you are stuck with the two weapons it has and you just repeat the same formula for every single encounter.

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