Comics Corner Xmas Tourney

This past Sunday, Comics Corner held a Type 2 tournament at the Subang Jaya Tournament Centre. Three of the Gamer Malaya guys (plus another guy who’s not part of GM but is in our playgroup) entered the tournament. Each of us piloted different decks. K’ piloted Scryb-Force, Azrulxp piloted Dragonstorm, while I myself piloted a rogue deck that revolved around Life from the Loam and Stormbind which are known as Land.dec. The other guy, Is, used a Boros deck.

About 56 participants entered and after six rounds of Swiss, here are our standings:
Is: 9th place. 4 wins, 1 draw, 1 lose
Rexxdelarocha: 26th place. 3 wins, 3 loses
Azrulxp: 28th place. 2 wins, 1 draw, 3 loses
K’: ?? (dude, fill me in)

What a day that was for me. I was fearing Dragonstorm but ended up facing 3 Trons. All of them the TriskeTron version.

In my first match, I lost 2-0 to TriskeTron. In the first game, he managed to recycle his Triskelavus with Academy Ruin every turn to the point that I will die to library death. In the second game, I lost because he drew a godhand.
0-1

2nd match. Another TriskeTron. I won the first game although it took me more than 30 minutes to beat the guy. On the 2nd game, he managed to remove 2 of my Life from the Loams, crippling my deck. Not to mention that he locked my Urza’s Factory with Faith Fetter’s AND Commandeered my Stormbind. Luckily I was saved by the time limit.
1-1

3rd match. Vs W/B Aggro. Finally, no counterspells to deny my deck. I won 2-0. On game 1, I Stormbind-Loam him to death. Second game, he mulliganed once and decided to keep his hand of 1 land. On 4th turn, he scooped up with only one land in play.
2-1

4th match. Against Solar Flare. To my surprise, the guy knew my deck. Every single part of it. He even knew different version of the deck. In the first game, his Angel of Despair and Akroma knocked my life below 10. Luckily I topdecked a Wrath of God to clear the table. Unluckily, he topdecked another Akroma which I cannot kill since I got only Stormbind in play and 2 Lightning Helix in hand which Akroma is protected against. Here’s how second game goes: His 3rd turn – Compulsive Research, ditching Akroma and Angel of Despair. 4th turn Dread Return, bringing Despair, killing my Stormbind. Next turn, he Return an Akroma and swing for 11. I topdecked a Wrath of God and Faith Fetter’s the following turns but in the end, I was raped by another Angel of Despair.
2-2

5th match. A Boros deck that was heavy on burn spells and filled his hand quickly with Howling Mine. I was quickly burned on game 1. On game 2, I got a COP:Red on my opening hand. With the help of his Howling Mine, I managed to Stormbind for 8 each turn. Game 3 was pretty much like game 2 but instead of COP:Red, I casted a Story Circle.
3-2

6th match. Another Tron. Lost game 1 to buybacked Spell Burst with more than enough mana to cast it three times a turn. On game 2, I managed to lock his mana with Loamed Ghost Quarters for 6-7 turns and burning him with Stormbind for 2-4 every turn but suddenly he Commandeered my LftL and completed his Tron. Next he drop a COP:Red which I managed to lock with Fetter’s but then he dropped another COP. He then accumulated his manabase that it is enough to stop an army of goblins. I then realised that the only way to kill him is with token creatures. He was at about 4 life and can recycled Triskelavus every turn. With the tokens that I generated, I can only score 1-2 damage every 3 turns. Then he hit a Jester’s Cap and started to kill my library. With Academy Ruin in play, I have no choice but to concede.
3-3

That was my day. The other guys have to post their own post regarding the tourney.

Is shuffling his deck

Rexxdelarocha. Game 2, Match 2. Right before we reached the time limit

K' vs Wai Seng. Scryb-Force vs MartyrTron

Coming Soon to a Server near you

Yup, I’m thinking the same thing too. Hurrah to no lag!! Hurrah to Bahasa Malaysia in the General channel!! Hurrah to more and more toons with name like “KetuaKampung” and “SiJanggut”.

I’m thrilled, really. From the look of this thread, Warcraftsea (SEA stands for South East Asia for those who are still blur) is going to be operated by Asiasoft. Asiasoft is best known as the company who brought Maple Story, RO, and the sudden craze Audition to South East Asia. In fact, I didn’t know a 12 year old who doesn’t play Maple Story.

From the looks of it, is Warcraft going to be invaded by kids too?

Whatever it is, this marks the impact of Wow in the South East Asia Region. Sooner or later, the Warcraft will become an addiction you cannot resist.

Dragons rule the world again

(Magic-related article. Non-magic players scroll down for other articles)

Magic World Championship just over this past weekend. For the two consecutive years, a Japanese claimed the title of world champion. However, they were not able to retain the title for team competition as they lost to team Netherlands in the final.

Many things happened during Worlds including the return of Kai Budde, two players disqualified in a same match, and a 3-hours quarterfinal match between Gabriel Nassif and Tiago Chan.

Makihito Mihara claimed this year’s world champion title by piloting a Dragonstorm deck. We can now expect the price for the key-cards of this deck such as Dragonstorm and Borgadan Hellkite to skyrocket. Other cards that were included in the decks that reached top 8 (Urzalands, Proclamation of Rebirth, Teferi) can also be expected to increase in price. Better search for your copies while you still can. (Top 8 decklist can be found here.)

The Nassif-Chan match is interesting (or boring, depending on your view). The Martyr-Rebirth powered by Urzatrons netted Nassif shitloads of life. Chan can actually deals damage that would be enough to kill any other decks each turns. However, with Nassif’s life at hundreds (and gaining more each turn), 20 damage (or 25, or 30) per turn is nothing.

Worlds is over. The new season will start soon. The next biggest tournament in Malaysia will be on 17th December at Mid Valley. We can expect that there will be tons of Dragonstorms, Urzatrons, and Boros there. Either you play them, or meta against them.

Make Mine Marvel

It's been a week since the released of Marvel Ultimate Alliance. For those who are familiar with X-Men Legends series, this game is basically the same but with larger cast from all over the Marvel Universe. If you like Legends series, you'll like this game. For those who never play Legends before, now is the time to start playing. It's an easy hack-n-slash RPG. Plus, Deadpool is playable from the begining.

Now with bigger roster, I can finally play using characters outside of X-Men. Oh, and did I mentioned Deadpool? Now I can make my team Badass using Deadpool, Ghost Rider, Wolverine, and Blade. If Gambit is playable, I would have replaced Wolverine with the cajun. Hell, I would even prefer Nightcrawler over Wolverine. Oh, and no villain is playable. So that means no Venom.

New to the series (or at least I think it's new) is that each different costume grants different attributes at a cost of some cash. Which means that Spidey's classic suit and his symbiote suit carries different advantages.

You'll fight through dozens of villains through different familiar locations all over Marvel Universe from China, to Mephisto's Lair, to Asgard. The story begins with an air attack masterminded by Dr Doom on SHIELD at which point Nick Fury then summoned Thor, Wolvie, Spidey, and Cap to repel the attackers. Then for the rest of the game, you'll go from one location to another in order to foil the plans of Dr Doom and his gathering of villains with plots taking straight right off the Comic 101.

All things said, Marvel Ultimate Alliance is a good superhero game but certainly not the best (that honor goes to Freedom Force). Although the game is short, you'll enjoy it while it last. Plus, it got Deadpool.

Team Badass

One of the minigames that you have to play when you are trapped in the Murderworld

Nightfall

I’m addicted to Nightfall. Nuff said. Just remind me to eat and sleep.

Football Manager 2007

What’s up sports fan? Err… I dunno if this should be categorized as a sport game but it is football, and it is about football management. Since Eidos and Sports Interactive split up in 2004, both have come up with their own version of football management simulation, Championship Manager (CM) and Football Manager (FM).

I received CM (07) demo a week ago, along with FM07. To tell you the truth, only FM07 get me hooked, I just played CM for a day and uninstall it. Sure, CM has fancy graphics now, 3D-like match generation (can’t beat FIFA though) but if you want in depth tactics and game play, FM07 is clearly the winner here. The last time I played FM was almost a year ago. Seems like WoW kept me busy at most times and I can’t seem to remember to play any other games.

Just like every FM, it has a complete database of players, clubs, and countries around the world (yes, you can manage a Malaysian Club, but why would you?). The new FM has a more in depth info, including player’s picture, club’s logo, club’s home and away jerseys, and you can even upload your own photo as a manager.

It seems that I have left FM for too long as I kept losing the easy matches. However, the new features like “Quick tactics” and “Team talks” is something I see as quite refreshing as you have to keep your team moral up before, after and even during the game. You can also deploy “The waiting game” tactic, something that I really really despise. But as long as it is legal in football, it is legal in the game.

There’s a lot for me to explore in the game, such as training, scouting, psychological battle with other managers. Man, I haven’t tried the multiplayer yet. Feel free to browse the screenshots I took.

Magic Day Revisited

It’s been almost three years since we last played Magic. Many things have changed since the last time we were active. Two new base set – or did they call it core set now – had been released. Rules have been changing left and right. Old abilities have new keywords. The price of Black Lotus had skyrocketed to more than $1,400 USD. Painlands got phased out before being reprinted again. Legend is no longer a creature type now but human is. No more Counterspell or Birds of Paradise but Wrath of God stays. Also, apparently now they started to print some planeswalkers as creature cards. One thing that never change is that those damn goblins just keep on breeding.


So after years away from Magic world, yesterday me, Ed, Array, and another guy named Azrul got together and played Magic for almost nine hours. Right after the Time Spiral expansion was released which included some “timeshifted” cards. Timeshift cards are old cards that were reprinted in their original design (sans the original expansion symbol) which are all the cards that we are familiar with since we stopped playing during Onslaught block. It could also be said that we ourselves were timeshifted.

And for some reason, Lady Luck must really love me yesterday. Out of five boosters I bought, three of them forked out some of my favourite cards of the timeshifted cards – The Rack, Nicol Bolas, and Avatar of Woe. I like The Rack simply because I never had one before. Nicol Bolas is my favourite elder dragon while Avatar of Woe is just the best and probably the only playable avatar out of all avatars.


We also discovered a new multiplayer rule. Team play where any non-mana effect that includes the word “you” will affects the whole team. This makes cards like Noble Purpose or Propaganda totally broken.

We might probably make a weekly gathering from this point onwards. Once we gathered all the old gang, friday night is gonna be an eight-player multiplayer magic night. Ah, hell. Just what I need. Another distraction to fit into my busy schedule of November.

(All pictures are Copyright of Wizards of the Coast Inc.)

WoW Private Server MangOS Edition

I started to play World of Warcraft(WoW) again after a long hiatus. For the ignorant, since the day I started and until today, I played WoW only on private servers. And as long as private servers go, the players population is small, some of the the quests are buggy and many of the spells and abilities are incomplete. But it is free nevertheless, as long as you have a broadband internet connection you are good to go. The purpose of this servers are to give many people who couldn't afford the real WoW the experience of playing WoW and in a sense I don't think it would affect real WoW at all because original WoW is simply amazing. Try asking Edz.

To Play
To start playing WoW private server you need the client installed in your computer. Usually this can be downloaded from any torrent site. After that you will need to patch the client to the latest version of which most of the servers will use in their emulator. All the patching complete, you can now play your private WoW provided that you have selected which server you like to play on. The list of servers is long so choose wisely and I have to warn that the process of registering as a new player in a server could be tedious, frustrating and time-consuming. But fortunately, most of these servers came with a forum so that if you get stuck, just check out the faqs and guides that have been provided. Just to get you started I've provided a link here that will take you to the WoW private servers list.

MangOS
Actually, I wanted to show some screen shots that I took while playing in a server that used the latest emulator. All this while from version 1.7 to 1.11, the emulator used for private WoW was WoWEmu. WoWEmu was a good emulator but as all WoW emulator go, it lacked many features when compared to real WoW server and can only support limited number of players. Thus there were many attempts to upgrade and replace WoWEmu and so far the most successful I’ve encountered is MangOS emulator. MangOS was created by a group which unfortunately I don’t have any ideas about as I cannot access their site at www.mangosproject.org for the time being. So far the emulator is promising in providing an alternative and complete WoW experience. Currently I’m playing at Hav0c’s Gryphon server and they are using an updated version of MangOS emulator. As you can see from the screenshots taken from Gryphon below are a few visible changes compared with server which used WoWEmu:

A very minor feature but not available in WoWEmu. Showing how many players in the server

Swimming now comes with breathing bar. Out of breath, you’ll start taking damage

Testing dueling system. It works!

Now we have weathers. Ready those umbrella folks!

Falling from a high place is now a no-no

Guards now will kill any hostile creatures that venture into their path. Cool eh?

Night Elf when died will become a wisp as they should be

A video demo of all classes' abilities recorded from a MangOS based server.

But if you feel that it is too much hassle just to play private WoW, why don’t give Guild Wars a try? You only have to pay once and you can play like forever online. I know I will later ;)…

Arrested

I was playing GTA today as usual. The bridge between San Fierro and Las Ventura just opened up. The last time I played GTA, I just followed the storyline, progressing the game. It was late into the game that I found out that there's a tank in Area 69.

So this time, as soon as the bridge is opened, I went directly to Area 69 to grab myself a tank. For some reason, the tank is not there. So how the hell am I gonna get off this desert with 5-stars worth of authority chasing over my ass? At first I thought I should grab a chopper but it'll probably just gunned down by the anti-air guns. So I grabbed a barrack truck, which is slow as an ass but tough enough to get me to San Fierro.

Once I removed all the wanted level, I went on and stole an FBI car that was chasing me before. I got 1 star, so I figured I'd just drive around the town until the wanted level is gone.

Then I thought I'd take a screenshot of the beatdown FBI car that I was driving. BIG MISTAKE. With my right hand holding the mouse, trying to get a good angle, and my left hand is getting ready to take a screenshot, a cop came from my blindspot and freaking arrested me. Right in front of my goddamn safehouse. And I didn't even save the game yet. At the moment as shown in the screenshot, I still haven't realised that the cop is right by the door. Damn.... There goes another 20k of cash, buying back all my weapons.

The moral of the story is: Save the game, dumbass. Then you don't have to go screaming, waking up the neighbourhood at 1 a.m.

Looking for Batmobile, have to settle for KITT

CJ's Last Supper

Aging wonderfully

There are certain games throughout our life that won't get old, no matter how many times we play it. I myself had finished KotOR for at least seven times and back in the days, memorized everything about Suikoden II and the original Final Fantasy Tactics. DeKach knows everything there is need to know about Morrowind and Oblivion. On the other hand, Array played Chrono Cross at least five times the last time I checked and God knows how many times he had finished any of the KOFs. Edz is so deep into WoW that sometimes he spoke orcish (plus, he is an orc). Finally, Ariza knows everything about Paul Phoenix and ONLY Paul Phoenix. Once you know his pattern, pwning Ariza in Tekken is a piece of cake.

A few days ago, I started playing San Andreas again, aiming for 100% this time. At first I was planning on finishing the game as fat CJ but then once I maxed out his muscle, he no longer looks fat.

I have been playing until San Fierro and these are some screenshot I took during the course of the game. More will come soon. Oh, and get ready to hear me bitch about the mandatory airplane mission.

Fat CJ at the beginning of the game.

Once I had maxed out his muscle and stamina, he no longer looks fat.

Funny story. I knocked down a motorcycle and tried to stole it. The passanger and I tried to take the bike at the same time. The result? I had to carry the bitch all around San Fierro until I get off the bike.

Give it a kick

When you say football, the first thing a gamer would think off is FIFA (the game) by EA SPORTS. Some would prefer Winning Eleven but for me playing a team named Manchester United is much cooler than playing a team named Man Red.

FIFA 07 is the latest football game from EA SPORTS hence its 14^th title from the FIFA series. If you would like to try the demo, so you can download it here. Otherwise, you could wait for another 2 weeks to buy the game.

I wanted to try the demo with my gaming PC, but when I read the requirements, “GeForce MX is not supported” “Aww… damn…” Luckily, I still have my work laptop (Core with ATI). The bad news is, my gamepad couldn’t be recognized by the laptop. SO I have to play FIFA, old school.

Like most games, the first thing you look into a game is its graphics. FIFA 07 doesn’t shine that much. It is still with its ‘watercolor’ image, and the UI is pretty much the same with its predecessor. Realistic player movement? Yes, except the celebrating goals part.

Something must have gone wrong during the motion capture process because the players who were celebrating goals were as stiff as Peter Crouch (no offense Liverpool). Its game play however is something I really enjoy. I reckon they learn something from FIFA World Cup 2006 as the match was really hasty, ingenious and ‘smart’. Too bad I was using the keyboard and unable to prevent the ongoing massacre by Messi and Ronnie. I was using Man Utd and I was getting pawned 2-0 by Barcelona. But still I was proud with the match. Now I can’t wait to get the full game to play the FULL match as the demo only allows you to play until halftime.

If you are a fan of FIFA series, then you shouldn’t miss this. Well, it’s either this or Winning Eleven (or Sensible Soccer, perhaps?).

Btw Malaysians, you can pre-order this at The Software Boutique. The pre-order price is RM79.00, so you'll save........ RM40 (i hate maths..) Pre-order ends 26th September, so hurry now.

Release Date: 3rd October (Malaysia)
Minumum System Requirement:
1.3 GHz
256 Megabytes of RAM (512 MB recommended)
DirectX 9.0c Compatible 3D accelerated 64 MB video card or equivalent (except GEFORCE MX)
(Approx.) 1 GB free hard disk space
DirectX 9.0c Compatible Sound Card
MS compatible mouse
Keyboard
Please note that 16 bit colour is not supported

Required Operating Systems:
Windows XP SP2 or Windows 2000 SP4
Note that Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows NT 4.0 are not supported.

Required Software:
DirectX 9.0c

Have you..?

Have you guys played King Of Fighters XI before? Basically, it can be considered as KOF 2004, it's just that they felt like using numeral indicator instead of a year-to-year basis(i wonder if this is permanent). The series started back in 1994 hence, the KOF XI is the 11th(xi) release of the KOF series.

I first started play the game approximately 2 months ago, though i've seen it in the arcades for like a few weeks earlier than i first started playing. Why? Just wondering if it was one of the illegal version that was being edited by some pathetic untalented group of individuals just like the ones titled 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon', 'KOF 2002 PLUS', 'KOF 2002 MAGIC PLUS', 'KOF 10th Anniversary (UNIQUE)'....and the list goes on (not forgetting those PC-Versions~Shermie & Mai without even a piece of cloth covering their body...Geeez! What were they thinking?). But at least it shows that most people are more interested with the KOF series over other series(hahaha...SF is dead!), though in this case...in a rather negative manner.

What has always been the 'X'-factor of the KOF series is the UNIQUE(Ryu & Ken..? Nahh!) set of new(even the old ones..) characters & the new gameplay mechanics that are being introduced on their new releases. The gameplay mechanics never fail to impress numerous players throughout the world(that includes me, yeah..!) though i have to admit that some are kinda over the 'line'. Such as...? KOF 2000.....strikers anywhere, anytime! Whew! I'd call 'em broken if they were Magic cards(hahaha...!).

For your information, KOF XI is not the latest of the series, it was KOF Maximum Impact 2(if i'm not mistaken...hehehe!). The sequel to the KOF MI kicks!(damn! even 3D is good when it comes to KOF). However, in my humble opinion, KOF XI kicks harder!(ouuchhh..!) So if you have not get your hands on it, try it...NOW!

You'll WORSHIP it.... =)

RealLife, anyone?

You are an avid gamer? Hardcore gamer maybe? PC gamer? Console gamer? Do you play Magic The Gathering? Or did you? Have you ever played pen and paper Dungeons & Dragons? Were your life evolved on words like RPG, combat, simulation, adventure or any gaming jargons of today? And stil are? Well, if you are all this and more, you would like RealLife. It's a comic created by Greg Dean loosely based on his everyday life and friends. Here's a taste of it:


Read his work here: http://www.reallifecomics.com/

Top 10 Hottest pixel chicks and polygon babes

All over the place, there are different list of video game babes. So we at Gamer Malaya made our own list right here. Now maybe some of you are wondering why some babes didn’t make it. Well the rule is that we chose only one character from each series. My original list has four KOF chicks. Plus, we kinda cut down the total number of chicks from fighting game. That’s why there’s no street fighter chicks here.

Also, I’m not a big fan of Lara Croft. She’s just in the list because Edz insisted. I considered putting Brooke Burke in the list since she was in NFS but Edz said putting a picture from playboy is too controversial for a Malaysian blog.

So here is our list:

1 - Vanessa – King of Fighters












2 - Ivy – Soul Calibur

3 - Morrigan – Dark Stalkers

4 - Princess Farah – Prince of Persia

5 - Lara Croft – Tomb Raider

6 - Tina Armstrong – Dead or Alive

7 - Tifa Lockhart – Final Fantasy VII

8 - Christie Monteiro – Tekken

9 - Bastila Shan – Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

10 - Sialeeds – Suikoden V

Main WoW Percuma Selama Setahun

OMG!! I'm not joking. You can really win a year of World of Warcraft subscription. It's actually a part of marketing strategy of a games forum. What are u waitng for, you only have to go to this site and register yourself as a user. Hohoho.

Super Console Wars

Ok. I probably should have started with a game review, but I'm too damn lazy right now. LoL. But this has caught my attention, and i really want to post this here. Super Console Wars is a video created by Nate. Anyway, if u have 3D glasses, use it when ‘Luigi’ tells u. Layan….