Castle Age on Facebook

I've been playing Castle Age on Facebook for quite a time, now. What draws me back to the game after about 6 months ignoring it is the feature for fighting big, badass monsters together with other players. For some reason, I really like it when we have to fight abnormally hugantic enemies, let it be by yourself (God of War series, Dante's Inferno) or together with a band of people with the same objectives. This feature, as far as I've noticed, has not been found in any other Facebook games. And so, I even went as far to adding strangers from the official site to my army in order to supply me with a constant, fresh feedbacks (armies, gifts, monsters to fight, Elite Guards etc), since my friends, like most Indonesian Facebookers, don't usually play one Facebook game for that long. A few of them who actually played a game for a long time played Mafia Wars, so, do I have a choice?

By the way, to keep your profile clean from strangers, you can remove them from your friend list after adding then to the game. This way, you can retain your army members even after that person is no longer in your friend list.

Oh, and I noticed that some photos in this blog are missing. Lesson learned: Use an image uploading site.(Photobucket etc). Do not use randomly Googled images.

7 Hardest Breakdance Powermoves

Alright, time for a Cracked.com-style article today. Please refrain from insulting and cursing at me for now; I know this will be hard to understand. Hey, I wrote this fro fun, so why don't you try to get that bit of fun for yourself in it if you had the time to read this article.

I'll not write a prolonged article about each moves here. I'll just put put in some sarcastic facts about the apparent difficulty of famous breakdancing powermoves I've gathered (and experienced (some of 'em (yeah))).

#7 Backspin

Description: Spinning your body with your back on the ground as the pivot.
..so it's basically easy to do, isn't it? Wrong. Getting the momentum to supply the spinning force for the move is already something hard, especially for beginners. Keeping it spinning is tricky too. Simply lying down on the floor with your back will not suffice, but actually the only part of your body that should touch the floor is your upper back. You'll stop spinning as soon as your ass touches the floor.

#6 Swipe
Description: The breaker leans back, whips his arms to one side to touch the ground, and his legs follow closely behind, twisting 360 degrees to land on the ground once again.
Arm movements are critical in doing the swipes. In fact, you'll never be able to do swipes without first mastered switching your weight-supporting arm in order to rotate your body, and doing so is HARD.
#5 Windmill
Description: The breaker rolls his torso continuously in a circular path on the floor, across the upper chest/shoulders/back, while twirling his legs in a V-shape through the air.
Even the reputation for being the most "basic" and fundamental powermove in breakdance doesn't make windmill easier to do. Unfortunately, it's that "rolling your torso while twirling your legs in the air" thing which made it difficult. Most people had difficulties getting back up on a stabbing arm after each windmills.
#4 Headspin
Description: A continuous spin done while balancing only on the head.
It looked awfully simple to do. Well, it's not simple. Most breakers found themselves in an added amount of respect for the natural physics force in learning to do headspins. That pain in the top of your head while doing this move is not something dismissable; you'll have to bear with it, unless you used a helmet. Oh and especially if you watched Meet the Spartans before, in the Stomp The Yard parody part, you'll want to be careful in doing this move. Otherwise, you'll got served.
#3 1990
Description: A rapid spinning one-handed handstand.
Handstanding skill is essential. Handstanding with ONE hand only is hard. What do I have to say about SPINNING in that position? A smooth surface is good for practicing, given that you don't accidentally slipped and fall yourself.
#2 Flare
Description: The breaker supports his body with his arms, swings his legs around his stationary torso in continuous circles, and never allows his legs to touch the ground.
If at first the move gave the impressions that strong upper body muscles is needed, you're not half wrong. Fact is, a strong abdominal and arm muscles will really help in doing the move. But the correct technique is also important; how to start lifting your legs up in the air and keeping your hips spinning. It is cool, so it's supposed to be hard.
#1 Air track/Air flare
Description: An advanced powermove in which the breaker basically do a flare (windmill for air tracks) in the air, with only your hands touching the floor while the rest of your lower body and legs moving in the air.
The peak of the powermove food pyramid. It's the hardest powermove. It's so hard that breakers spent their time disputing over its name before they learn it. Simply strong muscles will not help you with this big baby. You'll need to have a focused and routine training, preferably supervised by a more experienced breaker, in order to master this technique.

Expandable posts

Guess what I've managed to do? Right! This blog is now officially loaded with the infamous expandable post technology! Ah, here is the rest of my post. I'm so happy now :) Click the "read more" link below for something good.

Click this link for an easy tutorial on making expandable posts for Blogger users.

Cracked.com

I found this site a few days ago after I read this XKCD webcomic. All I can say is that I was very fortunate to stumble upon another milestone of the Internet. From a humor magazine to a humor site, this site has created another legend. I added the link for the site in the sidebar, or you can just click it here.

The site employs a very unique "system of wording" I liked very much. This is how every single person in the Internet should do in order to make an article funny IMO. I'll try to be funnier in my next entries too. Inspirations.

With that out of the picture, my Short Semester will be over soon with the holiday season. In a month, I'll have new juniors in my faculty. And with freshmans came along the Welcome Party. Oh, no, I'm not confident with my breakdancing skills yet, if you ask. In fact, my ragtag breakdance crew haven't trained for a long time since the end of June. This usually signals an upcoming extra-intensive training coming soon...

Oh well. We'll manage somehow.

Something to Ponder

Let's say we had a perverted friend, who is a boy (to avoid accidentally mentioning boyfriend). Together with him, we visited another friend's house, who had a sister. This perverted friend is quick to spot and is also quickly drawn to any form of female beauty around him, and may do something unwanted related to it. And because of that, our friend who owns the home told his sister to stay in her room and to not show up herself to our perverted friend until he left the house.

My question is whether the sister should feel disappointed because of his brother's rude request, or should she feel flattened?

Now that the question's asked, I felt something about my English quality lately. I felt that I'm losing confidence using it with each English word I write everywhere. Maybe I'm starting to realize that my English was really nothing special at all, and I should have known about it since I was an Elementary student (the first time I used English to write in the Internet) when I wrote bad English everywhere without realizing to any grammatical errors I might have made.

I've always been bad at grammar. Maybe I should start reviewing past English lessons.

(Review) Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Title: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Genre: Action/Sci-Fi
Year: 2009
Directed by: Michael Bay
Produced by: Steven Spielberg (executive), Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Ian Bryce, Tom DeSanto, Don Murphy
Written by: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Ehren Kruger
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson
Starring (voices): Peter Cullen, Hugo Weaving, Tony Todd
Budget: $200 million
Duration: 150 minutes

The movie plot revolves around an ancient plan made by the Fallen (Tony Todd), a Prime, on Earth in 17.000 BC, which was situated in the area of Egypt. The plan to harvest Earth's Sun to create a new source of Energon was delayed then, only to postpone the next invasion on Earth.

At the present, two years after the first movie, surviving Autobots on Earth joined forces with the human troops, forming the NEST team, led by the Autobots' leader Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen), with the objection to hunt down remaining Decepticons on Earth. Despite having their rank fortified by new Autobots who came to Earth after the first movie and supports from the human army, the honorable bio-mechanic organisms from the outer space faced an opposing voice from Galloway (John Benjamin Hickey), the American National Security Advisor, who claimed that the Autobots' presence on Earth is the reason for the Decepticons still remaining on the planet, and requested them to leave Earth.

The Decepticons at the same time managed to revive their leader, Megatron (Hugo Weaving), from the depths of the Laurentian Abyss, stole information regarding a remaining Allspark piece on Earth, and contacted the Fallen.

Meanwhile, Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) started attending college. Sam made contact with an Allspark splinter caught in his old jacket, and had his mind suddenly filled with information written in robotic language. He found himself involved in the new conflict, along with his sweetheart Mikaela Banes (Megan Fox) and his dorm roommate Leo Spitz (Ramon Rodriguez).

Once again, the protagonists have to fend off another attack from outer space, while cracking codes written in Primean language containing the secrets the Sun-eaters were after.

The high budget allocated for the movie, along with the smart forces of the filming crew made Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen one of the best selling and successful movie of the year. The movie achieved a gross revenue which covered half of their production cost after only 5 days from the premiere in United States only.

Graphics of the movie is of a very high quality. Details of the giant robots are not less than the movie prequel, Transformers. Lots of new robots are added both for the Autobots and Decepticons. Computer imageries usage was even heavier than the first movie, with more battle scenes, and competing robots.

Storyline of the movie is generally acceptable. here are situations from the first movie which was left unexplained, and some of them has already been answered in this movie, such as where Starscream (Charlie Adler) was heading after the first movie. But some others were still left unanswered, such as the Decepticon Barricade, who was missing at a certain point in the first movie. Some of the newer robots were also not getting a more proper introduction and involvement in the storyline. But all of that was covered with the elaborate and fun new plot. Humor were also dominant in the first part of the movie until around the middle-end of the story. The return of most of the original casts such as John Turturro as the former Sector Seven Agent Simmons were also delightful.

Linkin Park teamed up with composer Steve Jablonsky to supply the movie with a new soundtrack, New Divide. Personally, I think the first movie's soundtrack, What I've Done (also by Linkin Park), was much better. But the music in general was plausible.

Overall, the ratings for the movie is:
Graphics: 9/10
Storyline: 7.5/10
Laugh Meter: 8/10
Music: 7/10
Roles and Acts: 6.5/10

Overall: 7.6/10

(Review) The Last Remnant (PC)

Title: The Last Remnant
Genre: RPG
Developer: Square Enix
Platform: XBox 360, PlayStation 3, Microsoft Windows
Release Year (PC): 2009



Square Enix brung The Last Remnant to their thirsty RPG lovers in 2009. The game brings an almost realistic gameplay system in the battle section. Although, the traditional turn-based system returned.

Up to 18 playable characters can participate in a battle. However, those characters aren't controlled individually, but rather in a 2 to 5-character groups called Unions. Players control their unions by issuing several battle commands, which is kind of a macro which orders multiple characters with one order. Players may choose "Attack!" which will order the selected union to attack a target union physically, or "Keep your HP up!" which will result in a general attack while prioritizing healing the union's HP, and many more.

Targeting and approaching enemy unions will trigger some certain conditions related to battle maneuvers such as Deadlock, Flank Attack, Rear Attack, and more. For example, if one union is attacked by more than one unions, a Flank Attack will occur, which will increase the latter attacking union's damage to the targeted union. These features further elaborate the complex and realistic battle system.

Graphics are not bad at all. Players can find at battle, while battle commands are waiting to be picked, that the characters will engage themselves with the enemies automatically, as a graphical seasoning. A really dynamic battle. Square Enix also used the Unreal Engine 3. PC players can also customize the graphical settings to optimize performance.

Storylines are nothing special. Players will find that the progress of the story is generally linear. There are no story branches, and advancing with the game will usually cause several locations and quests to be no longer accessible. While this is especially painful for XBox 360 players, because completing all quests nets them an Achievement via the XBox Live™, PC players would lose nothing at all, other than an added value in replay.

Musics in this game are average. The battle songs are especially not fitting in with the game theme. A little bit too rockish, if you ask me.

There are several differences in gameplay between XBox 360 players and PC players. While XBox players would have to be content with 6 Leaders (special characters) per battle, PC players were given the luxury of no Leader limit. Because of this, XBox players are forced to use more soldiers and doing so effectively, while PC users are virtually in no use of them. Many gameplay exploits in the XBox 360 version had also been nerfed in PC version. Some claimed that the gameplay of the PC version is far superior from the XBox 360 version.

Overall, the ratings for the game are: (PC version)
Gameplay: 8/10
Storyline: 6/10
Graphic: 8/10
Music: 6/10
Features: 7/10
Overall: 7/10