e-numan

announcement

2008-06-18T09:12:00.005+08:00

we have moved to our new wordpress blog :D

http://enuman.wordpress.com

we wont be posting on this blog anymore but we will keep it for archiving purposes. thanks :)

Word Up

2008-06-03T20:18:00.004+08:00

We will be going M.I.A. for a while as e-numan will have a site update.

some things our team are itching to change or discuss(hopefully):

the big move. blogger vs. wordpress : heaven or hell. wordpress IMO has more editing options (like the "click here to read the rest of the article" feature) but the css upgrade and the time to learn how the blogsite runs was a turnoff. blogger... well, we grew up on blogger so everything is smooth.
changing the look of the site.
changing the site's direction. e-numan will surely still be about the games, tv and the movies but we noticed that we are having a hard time coming up with articles about gadgets because... well, we don't have any (lol). so we might can the gadgets/gears thing. we might also be adding some stuff we can cover up but we still don't know.
thinking of articles other than the usual reviews/previews part.
change/addition of team members. only a few of us are active so some members might get the boot.

Our team know that we are just starting out and it's been only a month since this blog started. We've been getting some feedback concerning about the blog and we guys thank you for the comments and suggestions. And for the support :D Got any ideas and suggestions for our small group blog? Just hit us up via the comments box.

latest SFIV trailer

2008-06-03T08:54:00.000+08:00

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/34663.html

Footage = GREAT
music = sucks

Guitar Hero: On Tour commercial

2008-05-30T23:53:00.003+08:00

Here's a "how to play" commercial for the DS version of Guitar Hero. Laugh out loud, friends.

Aside from the ridiculous frontman backing up the Don LaFontaine-like narrator, the real question is will there be any bootleg version of the peripheral?!

SolidRockArcade's ROBOKILL

2008-05-30T11:12:00.008+08:00

I know there are a lots of Flash Games out there, but i have never enjoyed other flash games as much as this one ;D. Robokill is probably the first top-down shooter flash game that i played with really high quality graphics, and its made in flash! I'd really like to know how they did it, because such high quality graphics can slow the game play down, but Robokill doesn't slow down at all. Its still fast paced and fun. Here is a basic preview of the game.

It's a top-down shooter, and with your weapons, you clear the room by blasting off the enemy robots. Don't forget to destroy those enemy robot generators too because they will continuously churn out more enemy robots. Some robots will drop off money and items (guns, shield packs, etc) so its up to you if you want to stay a little more for cash. After clearing each room, you would get experience points (yes exp!) and of course when your exp bar goes to full, you level up. Leveling up allows you to use more weapons and also increases your robot's attack damage and shields. Now lets go to the fun part.

There is no better feature in a game for me than being able to customize your robot. Here is a screenie when you enter a shop where you can buy weapons and upgrades. Some weapons have their own special abilities too (like freeze or knockback.) Your robot can use up to 4 different or same weapons and can be loaded with 4 other upgrades like shield chargers or suicidal bombs. Its really up to you how you want to take care of those hordes of bad robots.

Lastly, dying doesn't cost you anything except that if you keep dying, some rooms would be taken over again and you have to clear it again. Don't worry about not being able to save your progress because before you play, you would be asked for your name and that will be your profile. Your progress is automatically saved in your cache so dont think about clearing your cache if you don't want to delete your progress ;)

Finally, the link for the game, enjoy!
http://www.rocksolidarcade.com/games/robokill/

19 yr Old Kid Elected as Oklahoma Mayor

2008-05-29T22:56:00.003+08:00

Greatest change? Or R.I.P. Muskogee?

The other Soul Calibur IV selling point

2008-05-29T22:24:00.007+08:00

Moving past the boobs, here's the other controversial selling point for Soul Calibur IV: the guest characters from Star Wars, Vader and Yoda. The latter is even smaller than the dodos that populate one particular stage! At least, if the game does end up sucking, hopefully they've made some people happy with such a cross-brand inclusion.

Soul Calibur IV Darth Vader gameplay
Uploaded by Shermie_Carnival

Soul Calibur 4's massive rack enlargement

2008-05-29T12:02:00.007+08:00

"Holy hooters, Batman!"

It appears that Namco is competing with Team Ninja's DOA series in terms of sex appeal as Namco's Soul Calibur series is all about the bewbage lately. For every latest installment, one can't stop noticing Ivy's assets continue to grow bigger and heavier. And it's not only Ivy but most of the female cast in Soul Calibur 4 got "bigger" and reveal more skin. More skin, less armor means more money! Some people in the internet already have ideas on what Soul Calibur 7 would be like.

Beyond Good & Evil 2 Revealed: Teaser Trailer and Screenshots

2008-05-29T04:01:00.004+08:00

At the end of Ubidays 2008 conference, a final trailer stunned the audience. It was a teaser of Beyond Good & Evil 2. Fans rejoice!

Here's the trailer from youtube and a few screenshots showing mostly Uncle Pey'j and an older Jade.

Persona 3 FES: first impressions

2008-05-29T02:49:00.007+08:00

Call me slowpoke, but I haven't touched a PS2 for the past 4 months. Since I have all the time in the world now that I'm officially unemployed ("graduated"), I thought I should play most of the PS2 games I haven't touched or finished yet. And so I chose Persona FES (since my copy of GodHand isn't working anymore).

Game starts. Neat opening cinema with some funky J-Pop soundtrack. After 3 minutes I made it into the title screen. Looks like Persona 3 FES is 2 games in one disc: the original Persona 3 game with added features and a new game which I haven't touched yet.

I never played a Persona game before. And it's quite refreshing since the game takes place in a modern setting(or maybe semi-futuristic). No horses, kings and queens in sight! Hurray!

After 2 hours of playing I finally got an idea of the plot. Group of high school students burning the midnight oil during "Dark Hour" to exterminate creatures called "Shadows" (ooooh) and exploring what it appears to be the only "dungeon" of the game. The battles in P3 are straight on JRPG: turned based and simple. Magic is replaced by Persona abilities which are the highlight of the game.

"Imagine you're with your friends, armed to the teeth with imaginary weapons that you favor, about to save the world. Ain't that awesome?"

But to make the game more interesting, The RPG dungeon exploring part only happens during Dark Hour. So what does the hero do before Dark Hour? Why, he goes to school, fool. Persona 3 is actually half dungeon crawling RPG, half high school sim. Oh boy, high school. Our hero wakes up in the dorm, heads to school with his pals, attends ONE class, eats occasionally at lunch, goes home with his pals (wtf only one class) and chillaxes while waiting for Dark Hour. Is the high school sim part relevant? The game makes it by letting you develop your stats during these events. Although I don't get a complete scope of what it'll do but I managed to get 1 point in "academics" by helping a slacker (who sounds disturbingly like Quinton Flynn) in my game.

"The high school sim part of Persona 3. Better pay attention to her lectures :B"

So far, my experience in playing Persona is okay. Gameplay is so-so, battles are not random and simple for the better, the plot seems straight to the point and the mood of the game is surreal and maccabre-like ( I was hoping that it would be angsty and emo. thank God, ye?). The graphics were ok for a ps2 game. The shadows in the velvet room were spot-on awesome and Tim Burton-inspired. The audio is okay (Jpop, English voices. 'nuff said) though it would be cool to have a japanese track for the voices. The only thing that really made me rage was the numerous loading times.

Will I continue playing it? Well, the story is still interesting so, why not?

Street Fighter IV to get a PC port

2008-05-28T16:36:00.004+08:00

Here's some news that could brighten up Ix 's day. He told me how contemporary, HD games like Tekken 6 and Virtua Fighter 5 are way up there in terms of arcade cab price. I suppose this is one way to address such... by releasing a prospective game on as many able platforms as possible.

News links:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/27/capcom-confirms-street-fighter-iv-coming-to-pc-xbox-360-ps3/
http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1215441_1124.html --> also note that Ryu is less gorilla-looking, now.

Here's hoping it gets a little better treatment than the RE4 or DMC3. This is Street friggin' Fighter, after all!

Never Before....

2008-05-22T12:16:00.002+08:00

You've seen it in Street Fighter. You've seen it in Tekken. You've seen it in many different fighting games. You've definitely NEVER seen it before in Mixed Martial Arts.

What is it?

A Double KO.

New Capcom Crossover! HOLY CRAP!!

2008-05-21T22:35:00.005+08:00

Shitting bricks yet?

I am.

It's called Tatsunoko vs Capcom. I've never heard of Tatsunoko before, but apparently it's the company that made G-Force and Speed Racer. So far, it looks like that Casshern and that G-Force guy are in there. Chun and Ryu are in it, too.

Random note: I never thought I'd say this, but I think too many fighting games are coming out in such a short time span. Smaller arcades are going to die. seriously.

Oh DOTA players, what on earth have you done to Netopia?

2008-05-19T23:59:00.004+08:00

This is not a photomanip. This is what the advertising boys made for Netopia's new promo for DOTA players. I found this ad in SM Southmall.

That's right folks. A game of DOTA. Php 15.00 a minute. ONLY FOR DOTA PLAYERS. At least that was what the poster ad tells us. So if you're a DOTA player, you'll be charged 900 pesos per hour. And it's only in Netopia, baby!

Some way for an internet cafe to voice their anger at DOTA players, eh? LOL

Neverwinter Nights 2, among other things.

2008-05-16T21:05:00.017+08:00

This hot redhead has absolutely nothing to do with NWN2. But she's still hot. Anyway, I just recently finished Neverwinter Nights 2. An above average game to be honest. But, like many RPGs these days, it ends up having your dude and his buddies save the world, or "Faerûn" in this case.

Usually when I get a game to play, I look at the things any normal gamer would before getting it. The Gameplay and the Story...

Graphics don't really matter to me *(if good/over-the-top graphics is your main priority when looking for a game-- YOU.FUCKING.SUCK, YOU NOOB. GB2 XBAWKS HUEG)*, if it's pretty-- fine. If it's not-- it's still ok as long as it doesn't interrupt my gaming too much. Under all these "categories"though , if you may call them that, I also look for something else-- boobies. Yeah, BOOBIES. SEX. HOT GIRLS(kinda contradictory to what I mentioned earlier yeah?) . That kind of thing. Sadly, there was next to nothing concerning that in NWN2. Which kinda sucks. I had a few surprises though....

***WARNING: Potential spoilers. If you plan on playing NWN2 and don't wish to be spoiled, don't read any further.

Things that made me go "HOLY SHIT, COOL":
Neeshka: This rogue girl caught me by surprise. She's a nice, cute character. She's the kind of character that you'll either really like, or really hate. In my case, she was invaluable. Some of her lines made me laugh out loud. Overall, an awesome character. More memorable than the game itself, IMO.

Crossroad Keep: Fuck yeah, my own castle. Troop morale, recruiting, officers, merchants, farmers, rebuilding parts of the keep, etc etc. It was a nice touch..it really surprised me.

Caster battles: Some fights in this game are so fucking awesome. Things will get so chaotic you'll hardly notice your own character among the spells getting flung all over the place.

Things that make NWN2 kinda stink:
AI: The AI for your buddies can be annoying as hell. Sometimes they'll just stand there while hellhounds would hump their legs(unless they're short like Khelgar, the hellhounds would be humping their face in that case).

Collision detection: Some maps have these invisible shit things that just make you stop walking all of a sudden. It's not as annoying as the AI, but still.

I've never played this game in multiplayer, but I keep reading in the net that it's also good. Anyaway, on to other things....

Other games I've recently finished (hence the "among other things" part in the title of this post):
Assassin's Creed (PC): The graphics in this game are.....beautiful. Play this game in full settings and you won't regret it, that is...if your PC can handle it. Mine can, to a certain extent. The story for this game is very interesting, but sadly, the characters weren't that memorable for me...the only character name I can remember is Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, the Hashshashin (assassin) dude you get to play as around 90% of the game.

Gameplay? There's basically three parts of gameplay for AC. Info gathering, the actual assassination, and the escape. Info gathering is boring, I tried to do all the side missions, then realized something after finishing the game, "what a fucking waste of time". Stalking your target can be exciting though, tension can build up really nicely. Especially if you do it stealthily. I ended up having to fight a shit load of guards in some of my assassinations, which sucks. Then there's the escape, a few seconds of running around town and hiding, it's cool, trust me.

Overall, it's an above average game(lol), I must say. The story will most probably make you ask for more, which is probably what Ubisoft Montreal is going to do with the next AC. It's also the best thing about the game...IMO anyway.

Are there BOOBIES in this game? Fuck no.

Badass thing about AC aside from Altaïr's hidden talon knife thing: "Nothing is true, Everything is permitted". Now, isn't that cool?

AC on my PC (YAY XBAWKS HUEG GFX LOLS)

Halo 2 (PC): Yay, Halo 2. I don't really get the following this game gets, it's not even that good. I also played the first Halo...it was OK, but not as good as Republic Commando IMO. Cortana is still hot though, the way she talks arouses me a little. Can't wait for Halo 3 on the PC hehe.
-----------
That's about it, I can't remember any other game I've recently finished. Hmm...

I'll be making a post about BOOBIES soon. Can't think of anything right now.

Also, ELF SEX.

Ain’t nothin’ gonna stop my boy IRONMAN!

2008-05-08T21:14:00.006+08:00

He came, he saw...... and made "Made of Honor" look like it was written by a ten year old. That's right, the much awaited and anticipated summer blockbuster just delivered an astounding $ 100+ M bucks on its opening weekend and also collected almost a hundred million more overseas. It was just that good! I mean, I only watched the thing once and I'm already making my own armor! Ya feel me? Everything went perfectly as planned with the comics giant Marvel having produced their first movie and with the looks of things, will continue on with future title such as "Thor", "The First Avenger: Captain America", and "The Avengers". The movie was an ultimate master-class type of film. Robert Downey Jr. made the performance of the ages and absolutely made this character into life! And with the hidden scene after the credits, people are already looking forward for Ironman 2 to hit the big screens soon enough. Hmmm... Samuel L. Jackson as "Nick Fury"? I hope it ain't like any "Snakes on the Plane" type of rubbish. But with all the bombshell and glamour the movie has brought, it left me with only one question in mind... when will I be a billionaire and get a house like that?!

Ubuntu --- Will it make you throw XP out the Window?

2008-05-03T12:51:00.004+08:00

The first thing everyone asks about Ubuntu is “what the hell is up with the name?”. And the first answer everyone gets is “it's an African word that roughly means helping one another.”. While that is true, it's barely descriptive of Ubuntu itself. Because of that, the second question is usually “What the hell IS ubuntu?”.

Well, try to imagine a version of Windows XP that doesn't get viruses, spyware, and price tags. That's pretty much it. I'm no computer wizard, but I sure as hell can see why that would be awesome. It is impervious to Windows viruses and spyware. Isn't that awesome? Yes, it is. It is awesome.

It is awesome for me because I can just sit around and transfer important files without giving a damn about losing them to some stupid virus. It is even more awesome for your kid brothers because they can finally browse freenubileteens4u without completely destroying your computer(s)!

And it's FREE! .....but I know, who cares? No one ever spends money for Windows XP anyway. :/ Not in this country.

I've said it earlier: I'm no computer wizard. Therefore, I'm probably not qualified to talk about Ubuntu's superior security and resource management, but I thought I'd mention that anyway. I have sexy desktop effects that I never really need, and some nice widgets that I know I won't be able to run on Windows XP. (My laptop, while pretty good three or four years ago, is probably considered a crap heap by today's standards.) I can have nifty desktop effects while using Firefox, messenger programs, music players, bittorrent clients, disc burning apps, and while running four separate desktops at a time. I wouldn't even think of doing that on XP.

I'm sure the idea of having multiple desktops (Ubuntu calls these “workspaces”) can seem worthless and extravagant to many Windows users. Trust me, they're actually very useful. I often put stuff like massive file transfers and long conversions in other workspaces because I don't really need to see them. Sometimes I use one workspace for “fun stuff” like surfin teh intarw3bz and the rest for real work. This reduces visible clutter and simply makes things more organized. Users can have way more than four workspaces, but I'm not sure if I've ever needed more than three. I always keep four anyway, because when I use four, they rotate in a really sweeeeeeet animated cube.

Ubuntu has this wonderful, wonderful thing called “Synaptic”. It's a very simple software downloader program that gives you everything you'll ever need for a good Ubuntu life. Games, emulators, torrent clients, drivers, configuration tools, media players, and codec packs can be downloaded and installed straight from Synaptic. It's so simple that it'll make iPod users green with envy. The three steps to installing anything are click, search, and apply. And best part is, you won't need to restart after installing things!

And speaking of software, Ubuntu has a surprising... no... unbelievable number of programs on Synaptic. Almost everything I used on Windows has a suitable Ubuntu counterpart, and if it didn't, I could often find a way for it to run on Ubuntu through Wine.

Installing Ubuntu is painless if you're any good at following instructions. The installer CD, which can be downloaded from ubuntu.com, is very descriptive when it comes to the options and the installation steps. Anyone who has tried installing Windows should find installing Ubuntu much easier (and faster! ).

There are ways to test Ubuntu without messing with the hard drive, too. Booting from the CD and choosing “Try Ubuntu without any changes to my computer” will run Ubuntu directly from the CD. This will make Ubuntu run dreadfully slow compared to a full hard drive installation, but it should give you a good idea of how it looks (without enhancements).

Ubuntu can also be installed through Windows. The Wubi installer creates a bootable Virtual Drive and installs Ubuntu on it. This is a lot faster than running Ubuntu from a CD, but it's still slower than a full installation. Use this if you want to take a more serious peek. It's very easy to uninstall, anyway.

Programs you might want to try:

Wine is an application that was specifically made to allow Windows applications to run on Ubuntu. It works very well for StarCraft, Counter-Strike 1.4, and MAME, but I was never able to get WarCraft 3 and Audiosurf to work without broken graphics. The Wine Applications Database says they both work fine, though, so I guess I just have to accept that my laptop's integrated video thing is a gaping anus. I don't really give a flying fetus about WC3, anyway. StarCraft works perfectly (except for Battle.net), so I'm all good as far as games are concerned.

Compiz is the desktop effects manager. This is what you'll need to use those sweet but useless wobbly window effects, as well as that rotating cube I've mentioned earlier. Just search for “compizconfig” in Synaptic, install it, and you should find it under System → Preferences → Advanced Desktop Effects Settings.

Exaile is a music player and a library organizer. It's exactly the same as Amarok, but it's a lot faster for a reason I don't want to explain. Rhythmbox is Ubuntu's default music player, but it never worked for me on 7.10, and I don't want to use it because I don't like iTunes. Exaile's media library interface isn't quite as good as Winamp's, but I really love the program's design. It allows the user to switch between playlists with one click. (note: It uses the global hotkeys under System → Keyboard Shortcuts.) I remember saying this somewhere before: “Exaile single-handedly makes me hate using Windows.” Search for “exaile” on Synaptic.

Gdesklets is the program that lets Ubuntu use widgets. There are widgets that display temperature, cpu usage, hard drive usage, weather stats, network activity, and a lot of other things that you may or may not care about. I personally use the StarterBar, which is similar to those really neat program shortcut bars that you always see on Macs.

Pidgin is a multi-protocol instant messenger program. If you're a typical Filipino, you'll only have to input your Yahoo Messenger ID, but it can also use googletalk, AIM, and a bunch of other things. It comes with Ubuntu, so you won't have to bother installing it.

Transmission is a great and lightweight BitTorrent client. It's similar in purpose to uTorrent, but it looks very different. It comes with Ubuntu 8.04, as well.

Gimp stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, which means it's an image editor. It's very very similar to Photoshop IMO, but I really suck at Photoshop, so I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference even if I tried. Yep, it comes with Ubuntu, too.

OpenOffice is an office suite that also comes preinstalled with Ubuntu. It has a word processor (called Writer), a spreadsheet program (Calc), and even a program that handles presentations (Impress). All of these can handle MS Office files competently. They can also save their files in MS Office formats, which means you won't have to worry about cross-compatibility. I'm not a very technical Excel user, but many intarn3t peoplz say it's still much better than Calc. I kind of miss the syntax guides that Excel has, to be honest. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure Impress and Writer are already much better than I'll ever need them to be.

By the way, Ubuntu is actually Linux. It's dressed in a pretty and user-friendly interface, but it's still Linux. People often associate Linux with extreme difficulty, but because of Ubuntu, I wouldn't even call it difficult at all.

A bunch of people were hanging around at my place a few weeks ago. I left my laptop on the table for whoever would want to use the intarnets while I was busy playing some 3^rd Strike in another room. Surely enough, a few minutes later, some guys were on friendster playing Rate-This-Chick. I bet they never even realized they weren't using Windows.

Ubuntu is user-friendly. Yes, I said USER-FRIENDLY. Ubuntu is easy to use. There is definitely a learning curve in customizing it, especially in getting used to permissions and root users and stuff like that, but it's not a steep curve at all. Anyone moving from Windows to Ubuntu will definitely encounter moments that will stump him or her, but there are answers everywhere, and most of the time all that has to be done is a series of copy-paste commands. If you're too lazy to google and copy-paste, then I recommend that you start listening to emo, absorb the lyrics, feel bad about yourself, and /wrist ASAP.

All in all, I think Ubuntu is amazing. It's free, it's safe, it's functional, and it's user-friendly. I've been using Ubuntu since January, and it pretty much ran without a hitch despite all the experimentation I've thrown at it. I only use Windows for online StarCraft now, because Ubuntu is just that much better for everything else I do.

Bottom line: Give it a try! You might love it. A lot.

OMG STARCRAFT TOO FAST NOOOOOO

2008-05-03T12:37:00.006+08:00

:/

This is what happens when complete noobs write about things they don't understand. This guy joined the Starcraft 2 press-only event at the Blizzard HQ in Irvine, California. He got owned by teamliquid.net's Last Romantic and semioldguy, who he refers to as "progamers". He proceeded to cry about it in his own column. He then told the whole Starcraft community they've been playing it the wrong way. Massive failure.

Square Enix's New DS Horror Game

2008-04-29T23:53:00.006+08:00

Square Enix unveils a new DS game called Nanashi no Geemu. It's a horror/mystery game that is similar to the movie The Ring. The game revolves around a mysterious handheld game that, "Once you play the game, you die within the week".

Judging by the trailer, the game will be played vertically like Hotel Dusk. But the video also hints that you will be playing "The Game with No Name".

Looks cool. Hope a US release will follow up soon.

GamesRadar Wins The Internets!

2008-04-28T23:18:00.005+08:00

video game site Games Radar has a lot of funny articles. Their take on making illegal copies of GTA4 for ps3 and xbox360 may be their best one.

Check the article here

Chuck-tastic TV!

2008-04-27T16:27:00.003+08:00

A geek, a gorgeous blonde, and a big-serious-scary chap were all the right ingredients that make the all new action-comedy series from NBC worth watching… oh, and don’t forget the semi-annoying bestfriend too. “Chuck” will be aired in AXN Asia this coming May and is already airing in other channels like CS here in the old home country, a few months after its debut appearance in the US. It starts off when Chuck (the geeky dude played by Zachary Levi) receives an email containing almost every government secret there is and accidentally gets it lodged in his brain. Now it is up to Sarah (a CIA agent played by Yvonne Strahovski) and Casey (an NSA agent played by Adam Baldwin) to protect the secrets within Chuck’s head from the hands of over-the-edge type of terrorists frolicking about. Having the success of “Heroes” already under its belt, NBC will surely have another scorcher in the world TV ratings with this one. It will be an absolute joy to watch in my sincerest and most optimistically honest opinion. But don’t take my word for it, why not lay back in front of that majestic tube and just tune in?

New MGS 4 Trailer

2008-04-26T23:57:00.005+08:00

A new trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots surfaced this April 2008. The trailer is supposed to flesh out some more plot details in the game. It's all in japanese though but what the hell:

Virtua Fighter 5: R New Characters Confirmed

2008-04-25T21:01:00.003+08:00

2 new characters were revealed and confirmed: sumo wrestler Taka Arashi of Virtua Fighter 3 and a french karate guy named Jean Kujo.

gameplay vids of the 2 new characters:

testing

2008-04-24T23:50:00.001+08:00

test one two.

well, hello world :D this is e-numan

a place where me and other blokes post stuff about games, movies, tv, comics and technology.