Monday, May 26, 2014

Being Saleh: (Not) One Left

My MMO shortlist only has one name left: Phantasy Star Online 2 which will have their english version-south east asia only beta on the end of the month, sure there will be Archeage on upcoming month, I also (mildly) interested in Elite: Dangerous but since one of them is a sandbox (open PVP) and the other is a space sim, I'll probably will be there just to try things out. Also PSO 2 is developed for console so probably  it'll be more action oriented like DCUO, the free to play is the perfect bait though.

With two MMOs crossed off my list is a real relieve. My latest encounter with ESO didn't really working, to be honest as i played the last beta months ago I can't seemed to understand the game, I can't even write a decent, coherent post about it, some of the player said that now the game has matured a bit despite all the fuss (especially about the free month fiasco), but still it didn't even piqued my interest yet. With Wildstar however I found a short-timed joy, before it got into the phase where internet connection become your biggest problem and I quit tanking, oh and also healing, how people can heal through those messed up telegraph amidst those jumping and dodging is still amazed me, I probably just sucked though

With only a week left in my sub on FFXIV I once again contemplating about my stand on MMORPGs, I burned out once three months ago because of all the things i must try at least once, including my steam games, and until now I still haven't finished any of it yet, I guess maybe MMOs has evolved into the next best thing and I'm just too lazy to keep up, or probably just too lazy to play

Update: I accidentally renewed my FFXIV sub, damn you auto payment

Now the smirk seems haunting...

Monday, May 12, 2014

Being Saleh: Trading Places with Patch 2.2

Patch 2.2 won't be news again when I publish this, but it's still worth mentioning, beside making everything worthy again by implementing challenge log, patch 2.2 is a turning point where everything becomes less chore and more fun

FUN??!! BLASHPEMY!!! Well okay, enough of jokes, you know what? What's the point of leveling my chocobo to level 50? Nothing, but with challenge log everytime you defeat a foe with him/her (i'm not picky) it'll be counted towards your progress of the challenge log, and if you complete that challenge you'll be granted significant amount of xp and money. And yeah, what about grinding those rep for the new sahagin faction? Boring! Well ok how about if it also counted towards your progress on this challenge log? Well ok, two bird in a stone I guess.

Challenge Log is a series of work order that can be completed which rewards titles, money, and xp. It lessened but not eliminated a series of 'useless grinding' chores on Final Fantasy XIV like running hests and leveling your crafting, they resets once a week so you can complete your five hests run on five days or less, oh yeah there's a challenge for dungeon too, that way you get your xp, mytho, soldiery tome, and much more money, all in one run, can i have an instant gratification, please?

Well for altholic challenge log is a blessing since it gave major boost to leveling process, for casual dungeoneers it gave more reason to run multiple dungeon a day, for gatherer and crafter it gives you money for each and every challenge completed for rare and plain items, and you do know that gil is everything a crafter can dream of, so yeah challenge log is for everyone, except maybe coil-dwelling hardcores. They have five more turn of no-ability-lag-dramafest implemented in this patch

Also i decided to move on from being a tank, the patch has created more group content benefits that the dps on duty finder only got several minutes of queue times, convenient. Also leviathan has interesting mechanic and it was more fun to dps than to tank

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Amazing Spiderman 2: Reviewed

Since my previous review, life's been good to Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield), finishing both high school and armed street thugs, it's probably one of his golden days of youth, beside his on-off relationship with Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) there's seemed nothing that can stop his pretty beautiful days.from go on.

Of course there is always a but, while life's been good with both Spidey and Peter, it's not really had it going on with Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx), he's practically invisible, his boss stole his credit for his work, his colleauges doesn't even know about him, he's a nobody and he accepted that while at the same time harboring the growing need to be seen by the world, a really really unhealthy need. so it begins: The Amazing Spiderman 2

Being a sequel sucks, you must make sure you overshadow the first and deliver things that makes the audience said: "it's not a rehash of the first one", being a remake is even more sucks because you also have to make sure it's better in ALL things than the predecessors. So in this remake we've already knew that Spidey is a delinquent that enjoys spouting funny and catchy lines to the bad guys, and in this movie he also liked being in the spotlight and thrilled at every negative stigma of vigilantes labeled at him, Spidey made fun of the world while saving it, and that's cool, this movie is extremely optimistic and melancholic at the same time, Peter and Gwen has their share of optimistic love story, they're young, they're in love, and yes they can do anything....

Meanwhile: Max Dillon got into accident partially caused by the ignorance of his colleagues, while previously he has his issues with his obsession of Spiderman (after he got saved by Peter) when he finally returned as Electro he carried this unhealthy dose of his complex, so if you're bullied by almost everyone you met for God knows how long, what will you first do when you finally obtained a nearly unlimited power? revenge? unfortunately it's just a small prize, he's aiming beyond revenge, he developed a new obsession, obsession for his own power, and for that Spiderman must die since he's the only thing stand between him and his ultimate goal.

Spiderman and Electro are antithesis, it's the other theme of this movie, Spidey reject the statement of "the strong wins" while Electro accepted that, Spidey's aim is to protect while Electro is to rule, it's just like when the goblin said to Raimi's spiderman on the first movie: "they will hate you no matter what you do" Electro is that Spiderman if he accepted the offer to rule, and we can't really blamed him since Max was a broken man for far too long as the result of those who are strong, one more thing: the description of him in this movie never made the audience sympathizes with him, it's a perfect balance to split Max and Electro, when Electro lives Max is no more, while on the other hand just like the first movie we can't really split Spidey with Peter, with or without mask.

I know there are two other villain in this movie, The Goblin/Harry Osborn (Dan DeHaan) and Rhino (Paul Giamatti) but their appearance here is only a prelude for what is coming on the next sequel, and to be honest I'm afraid that it won't deliver, Amazing Spiderman 2 is a decent sequel and deliver a progress of both on Peter and Spiderman's life, it prepared him to face the next level with these baddies (and others) but I really don't think next level can be described in two hours length of movie because it can only focus so much on some character, Avangers did it with six heroes but each of them has their own prequel movie, what about six villain? I know there wll be spin off about them, but it will come after Amazing Spiderman 3, so what will spidey do on the third? Another Venom thing? I really hope it won't become another Venom-Carnage comic relief like in the cartoon series where only one of them is the villain and the other is just stand there to deliver Strascream's-minion-like cheesy monologue.

For this sequel, despite the review I'm gonna give it an eight since it's optimistic and light-hearted