So while we’re wiling away the time, waiting for the endless tick-tocking before closed beta testers can finally soar through perfect skies, let’s delve a little deeper in this much-anticipated game…

3 races, 2 job classes each — 6 character types to choose from. If you’re more interested in the fighting style, you’re limited to the race that offers it.

For melee players, the Human Swordsman is your best bet. Nukers will opt for the
Human Mage class (looking forward to the AoE attacks for this one). Visually, this seems to be the most boring race. Unfortunately, those accustomed to playing the two classes mentioned above will have to settle for this drab race. Maybe that’s why they assigned the most popular classes to Humans, otherwise players will opt for other fantasy-based characters.

The Wing race will probably top the popularity scale. It’s the only race that enables you to take flight immediately. But only for short distances. I’m assuming that to be able to traverse the vast seamless map of PW, you’ll have to purchase a flying mount. The Archer and Priest are the classes available to this race.

And then we have the Werebeast race. Reminiscent of Thundercats in avatar, these are actually your druids and summoners. The Werebeast class of the Werebeast race were, I mean are, the shape-shifters of the game. The Werefoxes can summon different beasts to aid in attacks.

And since everybody can take flight, the Humans on their weapons, Wings on their wings, and Werebeasts on their animal mounts, this game has very promising aerial battle possibilities.

Hopefully the game will not be another run-of-the-mill mind-numbing grinding, the promising database of over 5,000 quests is enough to keep you busy and exploring the seamless map.

There’s also going to be an incorporated mailing system (like WoW!), and chatrooms which I believe will work even if you’re not in the game. A good way to monitor your virtual homies without sacrificing your real identity.

More than the game, and the hours I will be spending in customizing my avatar, I’m looking forward to controlled flight (in WoW, you just ride a bat or wyvern and sit back till you get to your destination). And of course shared mounts :p

It’s a Wing and Werebeast on a flying horse!

Perfect World has been dubbed the World of Warcraft of Asia. Obviously a lot of the elements in the game got inspiration from it. But since WoW-playability is scarce in this third world nook, Perfect World w0uld be a more than perfect alternative.

Can’t wait to create a flying swimming mounting gathering character in my likeness that explores medieval China!

Perfect World banner (that links to PH homepage).

Here’s the link.

Here’s what I said about it before.

And though the GE CBT didn’t end till last week, I stopped playing it a week prior to that. I’m not sure if that’s because: (a) I knew the family will be wiped out soon anyway, or (b) I miss the predominantly local community. The GE CBT was infiltrated too much with snobbish overseas players. Or (c) I ended up AFK grinding too much.

Now I have been looking forward to Perfect World CBT since last week, and was one of the dismayed hundreds when they announced we’ll have to wait another week.

But since this game has so much likeness to the fantastic gameplays of renowned MMOs (fly! swim! jump! ride! gather!), I think it will be worth the wait.

Now where’s my CBT Acct?

Based on the Getting Things Done methodology of task management of, well, getting things done, Thinking Rock is a simple program that allows you to segregate your projects, simple tasks, and basically any thought that keeps you stagnant and procrastinating. It’s easy and I must say, addictive, once you get the hang of it.

First you simply define Contexts (situations that you can get tasks done), and Topics (umbrella that your tasks fall under — like Home, Work, etc).

Then my favorite part comes…just shake out all those thought bubbles in your mind to clear up some space.

Well this is just a short list, but you get the picture.

Defining the context and topic of each thought might take a while. But it’s worth it to see your tasks specifically mapped out. Each thought or task can be defined as a Single Action, or a Project — which will constitute a drop-down menu off different Things To Do (much better than keeping several checklists for various projects).

The result? A clearer view of all the things you have to do, which includes all the things you want to do in the distant future.

You can assign deadlines for each task, or delegate it to someone, or store it as a future task for when you finally find a window to get up and get moving.

Best of all, you can tick a box when you’re done with the action…and see a complete list of all your little achievements.

Well my achievement window is still empty, so no screenie for that one. At least now I can tick the box that says “Blog About ThinkingRock”.

It would be more effective if the program came with a pop-up alarm function, to remind you when a task is due.

Technorati Tags: ThinkingRock, GTD, web, downloads, freeware

That’s actually as small as a Magic 8 Ball. But it foretells the present very very accurately, as long as you’re within range.

Combine a 3G handset, 2 SMART sim cards , and the Mobile Eye…and you get either a paranoid parent or a techie peeping tom.

SMART is marketing this spy cam for mommies afraid of abusive yayas, SMEs, tyrant bosses, and El Shaddai followers.

How does this work exactly? You plant the eye in an onobtrusive place, and you can give it a call from wherever you are. You can then view the camera in real-time. So if you’re lucky, you can catch yaya putting Vicks Vaporub on your kids’ eyelids to force them to sleep. The Eye also has speakers, so if you’re a boss, you can yell at your office minions to get their asses back to work and quit the coffee break. And for rich El Shaddai followers, you can call the Mobile Eye and worship with the community in real-time, spending loads of cash (instead of donating to charity) to keep your 3G video call running for hours.

And if you’re a peeping tom, well…I’m sure you’ll find an unobtrusive place to plant this in.

It’s a well-made spycam gadget. There’s an mini-SD slot for recording videos, which you enable and disable via SMS. During video call, you can adjust brightness, control the camer by panning and tilting, enable infrared, zoom in and out, and adjust speaker volume. You don’t have to worry about anonymous individuals accessing your spycam, only selected phone numbers that the user enabled will be able to call it.

Though the device may have some helpful uses, like hi-tech voyeurism, I don’t see the practicality in this since you can’t be on video call 24/7 to view the surveillance. Sure it may give you piece of mind, when you see that everything is going smoothly during the 5 minutes that you decide to give the Mobile Eye a ring. But it seems like they’ve created a device both to appease and feed your paranoia.

Tags: Smart+Philippines, 3G, Mobile+Eye, spycam

My last experience with Palm is with my now-defunct Zire 71 (which I truly dezired). During those days the brand’s battle was more against HP Pocket PCs, whom I thought didn’t have a very user-friendly interface. As far as I know, the Treo line was the only smartphone who stuck with their own OS amidst all Windows Mobile donning hardware.

But it looks like Palm finally gave in to what the market wanted: A Windows Mobile smartphone with the convenience of Palm.

Treo fans I encountered attest that the SMS threading was what they loved most. This is of course not missed in the latest device.

Palm was able to marry the convenience of their own OS with the technical hullaballoo of a Windows Mobile system. Users are still treated with quick-access to their most frequently used programs — and even people.

You can display up to 50 “top priority” people in your interface. A quick tap on a grinning face connects you to them instantly. Much better compared to having to go through address book>name>send SMS or E-mail or MMS or call or give a virtual poke.

The interface also displays a quick search box at the bottom. Which serves as your lifeline to Google. For those search emergencies wherein you can’t afford to go to the Web, type in Google, type in search field, and wait for hits.

Since Palm pretty much pioneered PDAs as a lifestyle gadget, the Treo 750 is a bold move to win back old aficionados who are now avid Windows Mobile users. And it even proves to be more convenient than their competitors.

Tags: Palm, Palm+Treo+750, Treo+750, smartphone, gadgets

A salute to Granado Espada by the wizard, scout, and musketeer of Tarush family. The thing that hooks me most to online RPGs, aside from virtual communities, is getting attached to your character. And since you start out with a family of three in this game, you can imagine how much it can potentially snag avatar-philes. Graphics alone, it’s the best I’ve seen in an online game so far. Hands down. You get so lost in the ambience that I ended up spending an entire night exploring and having “pictorials”.

(Just humor me on this one…it’s too cute to pass up)

Cas and Sansy at the grand lobby ^^ as they await their training in the starting area. Just note the golden detail on the walls.

Watching the sunset in virtual Europe *gush gush*.

It took me almost half an hour to get them to sit down properly on these chairs. The “poses” are a little tricky.

And the screenshot that officially made me fall in love with the game.

It’s appalingly easy to get around to controlling 3 characters at once. Your characters aren’t stats-based. But it’s the right combination of classes and stances, and how adept you are at switching between abilities, that make up a good strong family. And if you’re lazy, just activate Patrol Mode, or auto-bot as we like to call it, and take a nap. I could even just blog while my characters go and level themselves.

Well I have yet to form a more informed opinion on the maps and mobs and gameplay, as my characters are only level 26 and fighting red monkey mobs. I spend too much time exploring and admiring the scenery and cam-whoring my avatars.

For me it’s the kind of game that you don’t even have to play to enjoy.

Tags: gaming,, mmorpg,, Granado+Espada,, Sword+of+the+New+World,, MMO

Note the golden glint in the details and reflection on the floor. Can you imagine what graphics the environment must have?

Granado Espada is set to see Philippine servers by March.

Infocomm Asia Holdings (IAH) holds the rights to publish this, as well as Hellgate: London. And they chose to partner with IP E-Games Philippines for the local management of this game. Hmm, I do remember a Level-Up interview where they claimed that they’re bringing in Hellgate. Can IAH actually partner with the two competing companies?

But before we resolve the mystery on who is actually going to hold up the banner of the first FPS-slash-MMORPG, Granado is determined to make waves among gamers first. Why?

1) It’s the ONLY online game where you can control 3 characters simultaneously.
2) It’s created by Hakkyu Jim, the Korean “father” of Ragnarok.
3) In-game soundtrack is composed by Tiesto.
4) Graphics detailing is so extensive that designers spent time in Europe just to study Baroque architecture.
5) You can create up to 36 characters and just mix and match during hunting.

I’ve had the privilege of sampling the game for a few minutes. I must admit I’m not extremely adept at controlling my character. But this multi-character control has a very short learning curve. I hate mouse-clicking my way in-game. But in Granado, you can concentrate on keyboard pounding — which is a good thing if you don’t want to get carpal tunnel disease.

You don’t have to worry about major multi-tasking in monitor your 3 characters’ status. There are auto modes you can activate. So that one just auto-attacks, your scout auto-heals, and your damager auto-nukes. The result? A full independent party.

I had to raise the question of futile MMO-ing. It seems to me that the community factor will only come in for trading, PvPs, and boss hunts.

But we won’t know that till beta testing commences.

Granado Esapada Trailer
(uploaded by hackenslash tv)

Tags: gaming, mmorpg, Granado+Espada

I personally enjoyed sifting through their exhibitions, all of which have counterparts in actual museums. Some people don’t get a kick out of looking at sepia worn-out photographs, but it’s nice to see images of landmarks from decades back.

I especially found “The Mysterious Monsieur Bellocq” in exhibitions interesting to scan. The page shows about 6 photographs of prostitutes in the 1870′s.

Serious shutterbugs should check out the chronology section, to learn more about the history of their art.

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Technorati Tags: web, internet

Level-up Games, Inc. attacks with Perfect World. IP E-Games retaliates with upcoming Granado Espada. And LU! fires back with Ragnarok 2. Both of their games set to be launched this week.

I was one of the 6-8 hand-picked individuals (or so i’d like to think I am THAT special ) who was fortunate enough to preview Perfect World on the China server.

One thing that I’m sure I’ll spend hours on is customizing the avatar and creating several characters. Avatar customization in this game is so extensive that you can use a slider for almost everything. And create characters that look almost exactly like you.

(image from Perfect World China website)

From eyebrows to body build. Reminds me very much of Sims 2. Unfortunately, either they have very limited hairstyles and colors, or we just had to be able to read Chinese.

The seamless map is not a new concept but still very much a plus since I am a victim of constant portal bugging and dc’s. And I just had to squeal in delight when I discovered my character can jump (yeah I played WoW, but still jumping in any game is fun!). Elves can do a cartwheel.

The best bit? Combat in land, sea, and air! All characters can get a flying mount. Not a rider that you hire, but like a pet that you keep. Real excited to see air vs. land combats and massive PvP’s with airstrikes and armies.

And look! You can even mount your lover…I mean with your lover.

Players have a big influence on the virtual map. Once you reach a high-level faction or guild, you can even purchase land or air-space and create your own city. Which of course, you’ll have to defend. And if you’re feeling dictatorial, you can all even go and conquer other owned lands.

I still haven’t heard what platform Level-Up will take on this game, whether its Free2Play or not. I honestly prefer this set-up, because based on experience, you end up spending more just to gear up your char :p Then again, that’s just me and Cas.

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Tags: gaming, mmorpg

With all the tech coverages, site reviews, and gaming addictions gathered, it’s about time that I holler out my views and hands-on experiences.

Welcome to my first post!

I’m still wrestling with this new blogging thing (though gazillions are already utilizing it). Please bear with the consistent changes. Hopefully I’ll get in the grind enough to achieve the tech blog I’ve been envisioning.

\m/ ^_^ \m/