Randomism - Hail Opera!

And no, I don't mean the musical style opera: Opera web browser.

Like any software, there are many of the kind to use it on same purpose and all has their own features and some features that everybody uses (which are known as stantard, etc.).

I have been using Opera for few years. I still use Firefox for some sites as few other major browsers to test how websites work (obviously my websites and codes). But Opera has something that hooked me into it. Maybe it's the link feature, or some other feature, I don't really know it for sure.

Beside my opinion, while reading random news for my boredom at work: I stumbled upon old news from Operas' team (december 6). They have one link for their twitter page what made my day a little better.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!

May you get lots of games and have a good time with friends and relatives!

Hopefully year 2012 brings huge and awesome games to let us enjoy our time

Games - Payday The Heist

Left 4 Dead 2 was fun game with friends and hell of boring with bots in single player - well, this game was made for co-op multiplayer to begin with. Even if there were times when you raged to your teammates not to help you or going solo when they should not done it. I still remember when my "ex-neighbor" adviced me to buy it for full price at local video & game store and asked to play with him. I even went as far to buy new headset to speak via VoIP.

My first steps were little bit soloing, hate to admit it, but habits from single player shooters come by often. Neighbor couple times told me loud out that we should stick together and look out each others back. I learned my lesson during smoker attacks and boomers...

There is new game in Steam that reminded me of that teamwork gameplay very much: Payday The Heist (in Steam). Few my steam friends were playing this days before me so I decided to test it out - and it was on sale so why not. At first I were lost a lot and tried to concentrate to see what is happening. Was pretty hard when there were guards shooting at you and my friends over TeamSpeak asked me multiple times, what was I doing and same time going on their objective. Couple times I was "forced" to speak out to tell I'm alive and going with them and not get killed.

After couple missions I started to get hang of the gameplay and followed my friends from place to places and check current objectives while shooting guards. VoIP was still on the loose on my side for my concentration was still needed to check games surroundings.

Second game was little easier in the long run. Even if I knew how to do stuff I still accidentally wandered a little in a mission where you sneak around (at least first few minutes and after that if your teammates aren't noticed by guards). Was kind of funny let everybody panic for you and your location when 3-4 guards are wondering around searching for thiefs and such. I had luck not to be seen.

Second run was easier, but we ended having fun with group when tried to sneak past from couple guards who liked to walk beside us number of times. It was so Splinter Cell moment there and it lasted few minutes untill one of the guards saw one of our team members somehow (I witnessed this from far away, but others didn't believe at start).

This is one of the games I haven't played much, but still enjoyed it very much. It doesn't have latest graphics or other special features. It works really well without any of that. This game falls in the same gategory with Mount & Blade serie, excellent gameplay with decent graphics and without any extra stuff. If you happen to see this on sales or for lower price, get it and tell your friends about it.

Movies - The Thing (2011)

It's been while I have been into movie theaters. Spending so much money to anything else than what really matters. There has been no good movies lately, or just not that interesting flicks.

But as I read from one movie news/review based finnish site, Filmifin, that they were making (or were done but doing some end stuff) new The Thing movie, shock came through my body. I didn't know what to think, be sad or just laughable interested. 1982s The Thing with Kurt Russell was something very amazing to me. Still remember as I watched it as a kid and peeked behind my pillow lots of times. Few years later I bought it, but it wasn't scary at all.

The Thing (2011)

First thing I have to say, this movie is not a remake. At first I heard about this movie, I thought it was one of those movies what some film directors think might have remake value. This is based on events just before the 1982s movie.

 Movie starts almost like any other scifi/horror movie. Some people in search of something or just wondering around makes big discovery. After this, they decide to get some help from other scientific department (in this case it's paleontology based person). Like any other movie, they aren't told what they have discovered before they are taken to the subject/object which leads actors to be in shock/awe. These scenes are one of the many cliché scenes you will see. But what do you expect? Actors do their job decent, although any decision they make are little too predicted. And you can't even get in for the characters they act. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is only actor who tries her best (well, she IS leading actor), but in some scenes you see her act to be little slob.

Scary factor isn't really there, there are couple scenes where even I (was little tired though) startled a little. But there was one scene which was successful in making suspenseful scene, but in the long run, it was just too extended.

But of course for those who aren't used to seen any creepier looking monsters than in fantasy films or childrens films these creatures might make you little scared or just nauseous. For my opinion, the creature(s) were the top thing in this film. Special effects were pretty nicely done. Although there was one thing in the monsters that didn't seem to be done correctly: claws, teeth or spikes or whatever those things were. They were too clean to be part of the thing. Little picky opinion, but that's me!

For those who doesn't really care genre of this film or don't know anything about the previous movie, plot may seem to be kinda lame or nothing unusual. But for those who love horror and scifi films (mostly based on horror side) and specially Russell starred The Thing one, plot is the same. Apologises if I have ruined somebodys enjoyment of going films, but you should already realize that this movie is almost the same, so plot cannot be any different. Sure the plot is based little different location, but anything else is almost like copied from the previous one.

To conclude this, I suggest going to see this movie if you get discount (unless heavy fan, then you have my permission to pay full price). And for short, it's nice movie from horror/sciri genre, doesn't give anything new, but isn't horrible to give too low score. Special effects were pretty nice, so they saved half a point here from me: 2½/5 

P.S errors may occur...

Gangs in Steelport

If you ever feel like games are too serious or too strict on some ways, there is one solution: Saints Row The Third! This game goes beyond the previous Volition Saints Row titles, that you are laughing your a** of (or at least smile or sneer a little). Even if all of the happening here that makes you laugh aren't entirely

Saints Row The Third

This is the second game of the series I have played till today, I believe that doesn't matter that much anyways. because they follow the same thing: take over (or beat the crap out of) other gangs. But what I realized from SR2 to new game, The Third makes everything over the top - not the best solution in the long run.

Sexdoll gone crazy

Gameplay is almost the same as previous game: You complete missions to get money and respect to get more clothes and weaponry to...get more respect (to think of it, it's more like a circle). As you complete certain missions, you unlock Homies to help you with anything you do and in certain points you get to upgrade sh*t.

You dawg, i heard you like games
so we put game into your game

With the old play style, there are multiple improvements that are quite nice though. In SR2 you get gun "unlocks" by doing certain activities, but in Third you buy the upgrades. Available upgrades are up to level 4 and each one improves e.g. accuracy, damage etc. Most impact made to me was the detailed upgrades to guns: you see extra size of ammo magazines, extra long barrell, ironsights etc. In each upgrade, guns look little different. Vehicles have some improves in customizations as well.


Character customization goes like in previous title. In Third you have to do starting mission first before starting to customize the character or going premade - or if you have already done customizing character via Initiation Station, uploaded and then downloaded (don't know exactly how this works through consoles, but principal is the same?). After this and one/couple ofter mission(s), you have the ways making money and paying up to customize again.

Clothing section is the same, except few changes: in SR2 you had differend sections for socks and under-/uppershirts and coats on top of them. Newest game lets you choose only underwears and upperclothing without separate sections for under- and uppershirts. This was kinda annoying first, but as the clothing customs had big selection of clothing, it was no big deal afterwards - though the selection could have been more wider, specially in headwear.

Getting fight with...Professor Genki?

Driving isn't as hard as it used to be. Now you can control vehicles easier and they won't crash everytime and steer too easily anywhere else than little bit to right or left. Fighting is more easier too, with the "awesome" button you have about 3-5 ways to smack anybody to ground in single move (of course police, STAG and stronger gang members take more than one hit). With same featured button, you can hijack cars by jumping straight through window; faster than just punching and taking the current driver out.

This game is a lot of fun with a friend for day or couple. After that it might get little boring or repetitive activities etc. But if you want to spend some fun time with friends or you're just waiting other games; get this! It's fun, hilarious and good way to spend your time while waiting those unreleased games!

Dragons in Skyrim

Been "busy" week with two new games and little stress related stuff, which have taken all my time from blog. Last week was the time I learned to take easily over some webstores and specially those who provide digital downloads over physical discs. Was kinda hectic days on my orders and mistake crap.

Two new games should be obvious by now as I have been telling about them in previous entries. One from Bethesda, The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim and one from Volition, Saints Row The Third (review coming later)!

The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim

This very much waited title from Bethesda has finally come. There is no way possible to tell in words, how amazing game this is. Scenery is just breathtaking and you can see Bethesda did their job to improve every bit to make sure this open world experience would seem and feel very nice from beginning to the end for every pixel. Even the dungeons are now more exiting (and creepy) and have this very nice atmosphere - even if dungeon tunnels are little straightforward "roads". Monsters and other creatures are more detailed and they have larger set of attacks and move set than previous title, so they aren't just there standing to wait next attack, sometimes they do hit and run strikes (to gain health?).

Cinematic last strike.

Battles are much more intense now. You can almost feel like you're in the middle of the battle with swords or magic. In Skyrim, you can now wield two swords or axes in both hands if you will, or use magicka with both hands, to use different spell in each hand or make powerful attacks with both. This is new feature which gives player more options over battle. And now you can even bash enemies with shields as in Oblivion you didn't have that option. And sneaking HUD is improved very much that you can tell pretty well, when you are hidden or seen. They even added the same feature like in Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas, where the last strike would turn into "cinematic" last strike, where character does this strike in different manner (like the kills in Assassins Creed games). For thiefs and assassins, you can even sneak attack in the same manner (if enough skill), one "cinematic" strike to kill a foe. This adds little something for every battle you have againts anything.

And unlike in Oblivion, smithing, mining and of course crafting is possible in Skyrim. You can mine ores, make ingots from ore and smith armor with some leather strips which you make from leather you get from shops or get from killed animals. In other words, you don't have to wait and hope for enemies to have high level armor, you can make your own from scratch and them make enchantment to gain magickal attributes. Smithing has also this realistic side to it, you have to gather certain amount of certain items to make armors or weapons and same goes to improve them.

Alchemy at the table.

Alchemy is also improved and there is even one new feature in it: you don't know any attributes of the ingredience until you consume them or mix them successfully into a potion. And if you happen to know (made earlier in game) how to make health potion example, you have option to make them quickly without picking the right stuff separately.

And for non-playable characters, (NPCs) you can actually see and feel their expressions and they are more detailed than in Oblivion. But as some players would say, voice acting isn't the best one still. You can hear and remember the same voice from some local knight to be same as some random thug/bandit, but you have to understand that this is open world with huge amount of people. It takes so much time (and voice actors/actresses) to give every character their own voice and keep it for more than few lines at best. Though I don't know exactly how does the voice overs work, is it hard or little easier than expected? What ever the case is, for my opinion the voice acting sounds a little more devoted than previous title for the most part...even if some low male and high female voices are kind of lame with some characters, or on most chars.

Lydia got her lucky "freeze" shot for this bandit.

With large scale game there will always be bugs and glitches, minor or major, but they still exist. Some are harder to find, some easier and some happen accidentally even if you don't try anything or try too hard. On my personal experience there are glitches, as one of my screenshot here shows.

I haven't been generally a big fan of RPG games ever, but there is few games I liked so far (e.g. Dragon Age series). Skyrim is a good example, what open world game should be like. Even if you like more of shooter games and such, you may grow to like this.

THE Battlefield

Battlefield series hasn't been my favourite game series at first. Liked Battlefield 1942 for while and even got the World War 2 Anthology pack which includes every BF 1942 game. One of the things I do remember, tried the multiplayer few times, but didn't like it as much as I would hoped for. Sniping was pretty awkward sometimes, if you tried to shoot far away. I don't know if sniper rifles were that powerful in that era, but they really aren't sniper rifles, if you can't shoot far away with good accuracy. And the vehicle handling were also pretty nasty job...
Second game in the series was Battlefield 2, which was "demo" version only I played. Never got into it to actually buy it. And in the end I just felt 1942 beats it easily.

There was two BF titles I didn't got into either and never even tried them: Battlefield 2142 and Battlefield Bad Company (if you count Play4Free and Online it's four, but now I'm not going for the free games). I don't even remember if I knew about the first Bad Company title, or it was the time I played other games so much to never realized it to even existed.

Years back, only shooter I played with great joy was Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (and few years from this there was Unreal Tournament). There were no realistic gameplay (nowadays you can let the mods handle those), but that's not the point in that game. You have fun and play with mods (sometimes all you see is modded servers nowadays and not the simple servers) and laugh to ragequitters. Another title I played for while was Left 4 Dead 2. Not war game, but pretty good shooter survival game.

Back to BF...
I believe it was a random news somewhere on the internet for Battlefield Bad Company 2 closed beta. It was on going beta test and I wanted to test it, but felt I were too late to participate. It was one of the happiest news for me at that time when I got invite in after throwing application for code. After the beta it wasn't too long when EA released it on retail. Lucky enough, with little help from my childhood friend, I got Bad Company 2 title for very good price (not the full price you get locally). This was very first "realistic" war-shooter game I loved. This was the game where I fell in love for Recon class and since I have been more of a sniper than rambo with Assault or Support class. Don't get me wrong though, I like all of the classes, they have their own good features to help squadmates. But there was one big thing that got me into Recon class: M95! One manly sniper rifle.


Almost one full year of Bad Company 2 and then I got little tired of shooters and because there were other game releases that I wanted to try out - and I have bad habit to NOT play them through at first, if they are sinlge player games. But when I saw E3 2011 show with videos for upcoming games, one title raised my mind: Battlefield 3! Before E3 I knew this was coming, but few than less knew anything about this. After the demo video I was sooo hooked to this to hope there would be beta test as previous title. And while I was watching somebody playing other shooter I heard if  you want to get in alpha, you had to have Medal of Honor Tier 1 (Limited) edition to get automatic invite to BF3 alpha test - and of course I wanted to be in! Medal of Honor was one of the first game I bought to play another game and not play it almost at all. Only one mission, and that's it - kind of waste of money, but it had to be done for another great game.

But now that alpha and beta test phases are over and thousands bugs and glitches fixed - and still few them intact - game is released. I didn't get it on Europes release date, few days later but it didn't bother, 'cause I knew there would be gamers who literally take their time to get ahead of others. You really can't compete with them. But if you aren't playing for fun, for what are playing for?

The Barrett Model 98B a.k.a. 98 Bravo

Anyways, I have had fun with BF3. Had little tough start, but now as I'm used to the gameplay, it is easy - as long your teammates work with you! At the time I write this, I have unlocked SV98 (and 12x scope and bipod) which is awesome compination with recon class. One unlock to wait is M98B even if it takes while to get, but hey, it's a Barrett for god's sakes!

SR3 and customizations

Those who have Saints Row Double Pack (xbox) ordered on steam (or Red Faction: Armageddon preordered) might know about the Iniation Station already. Iniation Station is little extra for those, who want little something to their hands before the game itself releases. Think it as a demo, but without the "play" part. Only thing you do here is to create a character you want to play with on SR The Third, or if you wanna get creative, alien-a-like chacaters, hulks, whatever things your mind can get out.

I have preordered this game elsewhere so I didn't know about this Station but in few days ago. And because I didn't have Red Faction coming in, I had to get this character customization software via unlocking it with code (was it gamespot or other site?) which was publicly accessable.

After getting to know what you can make and what you are restricted to do (and for while I thought the Stations cloths were all this game is going to had - which isn't true I believe) I started doing my character. Like in any MMORPG nowadays, there is only female character to make for me. I don't know what is it, but it feels like I have no ideas for male character: only to make some big hulk like person and not a normal guy in any kind of ways (has to have big beard!). Face customization is pretty huge, but the body part isn't as customizable as I hoped for. One thing I raise my hands for is 'sex appeal', but there is little downside to this: I know there will be characters in co-op modes with cleavage bigger than pornstars and bigger junk than...okay let's not go there now!

One other thing what got my eyebrow to rise in clothing department: unlike in Saints Row 2 which had options for jackets and undershirts, The Third has only upper part covered, where you select jacket and shirt combinations, but not separately. Alsothere wasn't any option for socks (this particularly were noticable for me 'cause I'm big fan of thigh highs, sexy isn't sexy without them - unless you have great legs) but shoe wear was improved. Even though this is just for Iniation Station, but this is still lacking so much potential. If you have option to customize your character, do it right!

You can be in space suit or be a bear

Oh well, still the Station is optimized pretty well considering needed items missing. And after you have created something you wanna use or just something awesome you want to share with everyone, you have option to upload those creations of your's to saintsrow.com website - if you have account, creating account takes only minute or two. Before game release, you can only give thumbs up for other gamers creations and upload some more. In the future if you want, you can play saved games on the character you have "downloaded" from the site - or just used it on your gameplay.

The site has big minus from me to this upload system of theirs - if they won't "clean" it up for certain amount of characters: nudism is big word. It's nice thing, but like in these games, it gets out of hand almost instant you release these games. Teenagers (and why not part of the older audience) are too horny and want to create nude or partial nude characters, and there are a lot of these. And if you add the thumbs up system with this, all the creative creations are left to side for the mindless crap users put up.

Random Video Glance Vol3

Third one is out now! Hah, just kidding, this is not a big deal though, it's still here now.

Next videos are old clips from my favourites, because I haven't had time to check any weird stuff from around the web. And for some reason most of my time at some days goes watching Dan's Gaming live stream on Twitch.tv. He plays daily, newest games and some older popular games too. To my opinion, he is one the best live game streamer in twitch.tv (I haven't been in Justin.tv - original site for all live streams, twitch is only for game streams - that long to know every game streamer and for that reason don't know the all time favourites) with Celgaming.

So here is my thanks for these two live streamers and few others (Ariablarg, MANvsGame, etc...) for entertaining me and hundreds more! \o/

1. Japanese variety comedy show with food tasting part. Holds only few episode, but their facial expressions are just hilarious and tells the audience how horrible or success the food is. Gaki no Tsukai Absolutely Tasty - Rice.

2. One of the streamer group in Twitch.tv is 4 Player Podcast (in short: 4pp) I have watched few times over. Sometimes their stuff goes over the top but overall they are quite funny. I believe this is the video which took me to Justin.tv site in the first place. Great Bearrell Rolls!!!

3. We all wait for next The Elder Scrolls game release and for that I present you the Skyrim Live Action trailer! I don't know how much time they took to this little shot and how much it cost them - or did Bethesda this themselves in the first place? Either way, it's amazing!

Battles and some of Modern kind

For some reasons it's nice to have different release dates for North America and Europe - even if in most cases it's kind of annoying. In this one my preorder has been shipped already, not today, not yesterday, but at sunday (local time). Today is release day of Battlefield 3 in NA. Tomorrow in Australia. 28. day in Europe. Luckily I have stuff to do before the EU launch, but hopefully not too much.

While waiting for the release, I should play other games while I can. Few days back I got back for PS3 games. Tested PS Move once again with Sports Champions, which is quite nice if you ask me. Many gamers don't like the Move at all, but once you get used to it, it's not as bad everybody says it to be. Move still has low game count, but it doesn't mean it sucks. It is hard to do a good game for Move to it actually work smoothly and to be addictive. Yeah, the price is little bit high (games are little pricey too), but if you have cash left with your other purchases, why not try this one out.

But enough of Move.

Battle at Hu Lao gate - beware the almighty Lu Bu!

With Sports Champions to Dynasty Warriors Strikeforce. I believe the Dynasty Warriors may be known series for some. It is one of many titles from Tecmo Koei. As I liked Dynasty Warriors 4 Hyper (PC) years ago, I wanted to try this one out, one reasons to be the good price. But as I played, it might be quite difficult game, even if you tweek the difficulty settings pretty low (or I'm just bad player in this game). Maybe I'll play Bayonetta next time with PS3...

Another game I could play as I wait BF3 is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Even if I don't like it much as the first two games, it makes more harm not to play paid game. Graphics are nice yes, but this time I'm going to for game mechanics more. MW3 has pretty smooth settings (not the plot), but configs for keyboard changes (example: toggle buttons) are not there. You can change some keys for toggle, but not all. Ironsight and crouch can be changed to toggle, so you don't have to press them twice to go crouch and back up.
When I played the multiplayer first time some time ago (free weekend and maybe it was with 2x XP amount) it was fun, at the time didn't quite notice few things which made my decision of the game in the future (aka. today) change to not as fun as it was. One feature that I don't like is the kill spree award system, where you get chance to use harriets or other aircraft to almost instantly kill enemies (or other "usefull" stuff against opponents).

This all reminded how much I liked the first games in the series (sad they don't have multiplayer though). Love for the first game in the CoD series newer will go numb. They were simple as raindrops and someway entertaining for gamers in that genre. And as written before, 1 and 2 were the only games I played with every difficulty setting, or almost all of them. Still remember one-man mission in the first game - god I hated it so much. And the escape afterwards was pain in the ass. Times change and so does games do. Some to good some to bad and maybe some in between.

But when you think things through, every game has it's own problems and some may not even be that. All depends on players and their opinions what works for them.