Play World of Warcraft for FREE

First of, i apologize for the long break between posts. I was, well... occupied with what i am about to blog about.

For starters, yes you read the title right, you can play world of warcraft for free. First of, this is not the official World of warcraft hosted by blizzard. Well it is the same game but it isn't hosted by blizzard. So if you have friends playing there, you wont see them here. This is a totaly different server hosted somewhere else. I dont know how, but someone has managed to get the server side programs to host this game. Its been a while now since world of warcraft has been released, and from that time, i could see pirated dvds being sold around with the title "World of Warcraft offline" Basically it is the server side program and the client which you both run on your computer to be able to play the game. But since this is an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game), theres really no sense in playing by yourself unless you just want to try it out, or test a few options or skills. This apparently this was the foundation of this server which was suggested by a friend. Someone actually made a server, hosted the game, and distributed it for free for all to enjoy. This is no small feat mind you, as i have experience with maintaining a private server for ragnarok a few years back. Its a drain on money, resources and time to maintain a server like this one, especially this one where the computing powere needed is way beyond what was needed to run a ragnarok server. Setting that aside, according to the website, the serve has been up for 3 years now, and suprisingly it is up to date. Actually, when you first download the installation, you log in to the official server of WOW (world of warcraft) to update the game, and patch the files, then you just change some settings to direct the game to the raidenwow server, and your off playing.

The server is hosted, well i don't know where its hosted. It looks like some remote country where there are no international, internet piracy laws in effect since its been up for 3 years now. But you can visit the site at RaidenWOW. From here you can download the client side game. Just a note, if your going to download from here, its a torrent file, you'll probably be redirected to mininova, so you must have a torrent client like bitcomet or utorent to download it. Also the game file is over 7gig so you have to have patience before you can play. With a fast internet connection, i was able to download it in a little over 3 days (78 hours to be exact). After downloading the client side program, its not really an installation, its a ready made game structure, all you need is to run the program, after uncompressing it of course, so you'll also probably need a winRAR program. Where was i, oh yeah, after downloading the game, go to the raidenwow website again and click on the link on how to update the game. follow the instructions and after that your ready to play. Oh yeah one last thing, you would need to make an account in raidenwow first. A website account, for logging in to the website, and a game account to play the game. After that just click on the wow.exe and your good to go.

Now for the game itself, I have never played the official WOW game so i have no comparison with this one. but needles to say, i believe that this is close enough to the real thing. The graphics it good, sound is good, movement is good, and the frame rate depends on how good your graphics card is and your internet connection. I've always wanted to try this game out ever since i saw a friend play it with his mage character. At that time, he was fighting a battle of some sorts with other characters online, against other characters online. All i could say is that this is the first time I've seen a mage, charging into battle,... in the frontlines. He was a touch cookie to put down, it took a fighter, a priest and a wizard to kill him. Well needless to say after seeing that, i always wanted to try, but didn't really see the logic to spend and buy the original game, and then pay a monthly fee to just try out the game. But behold, what lands on my lap? a free version of the game itself, for me to try and play so i can decide if it is worth the money i'm going to spend for it, so far it looks promising.

Having said all that, there are a few drawbacks to the game. Yes it is considerably easy to level up. x5 XP i think, it is also easy to get items, x5 monster drop, money isn't an issue (yup x5 money), You even get an auction house where some of the epic stuff which were modified so that a lvl 1 player can use them, are being sold. The game does lack, how should i say this..., players. Its no Blizzard WOW population, but it beats playing alone. There are somewhere 20 players online at anytime. a lot of characters and players have registered. But since their all over the world, you don't all play at the same time, considering also that the maps are huge, gynormous even, so you'd rarely encounter people along the way. Besides that, there are also some glitches to the game itself, like a few quests not working, and some parts of the game not being activated since there are so few people playing. Overall its a good game to play, if you can wait for the 7+ gig download. In the end its up to you right now if you want to be a member of the population and play along with us. Hopefully they'll be more people playing to fully enjoy the experience, so here i am, blogging about it, in hopes that you will read this and be interested enough to register and play the game with us. If you happen to register and play, get your friends into it also, since you already have a copy of the game you just need to just burn a copy for your friends so that they dont need to download it anymore. Who knows, you might see a blood elf warlock running around named Lillandra, if you do say hi, so that she could welcome you to the game.

Summer Blockbuster Movie Schedule

Ok, here it is. A list of the movies that are comming out this summer. There are more movies due to be shown but i have only listed the ones i've been waiting to watch and the the ones i think other people are waiting for and might make it big splash this summer. They're in order from left to right and top to botom. Some have already been shown, and some i bet a few of you haven't realized existed. A few of these havent been promoted yet, no trailers no news, so i've included a link to each respected Official Home Page for you to view the trailers (if available) or moview information. just click on the photo of the movie you want to view and you'd be redirected to its official site.

One last thing you need to know, these are official movie dates for the US. It may be different here in the Philippines. I would still need to check every wed of every week on whats showing. So if your from the Philippines or any other country, please still check you local listing on what exact dates these movies are showing, either way you can just use these dates as a guide.

Enjoy

Iron Man May 2nd	Speed Racer May 9th
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian May 16th	Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull May 22nd
Sex and the City: The Movie May 30th	Kung Fu Panda June 6th
You Don't Mess with the Zohan June 6th	The Happening June 13th
The Incredible Hulk June 13th	Get Smart June 20th
Wall-E June 27th	Wanted June 27th
Hancock July 2nd	Hellboy II: The Golden Army July 11th
The Dark Knight July 18th	The X-Files 2 July 25th
The Mummy 3 August 1	Tropic Thunder August 15th
Star Wars: The Clone Wars August 15

Dead Fantasy by montyoum

Well i think I'm the last to know about this. It would seem that the information takes some time to filter down to use average people, but here it is. Dead fantasy I and II. If you don't know what I'm talking about then just read on.

Well for starters, theres a guy on the net who calls himself montyoum or Monty Oum whichever you prefer. Monty is an aspiring 3d animator and all i can say is the boys got a future in this. I haven't seen all his work, i think he has done 9 videos in all, but i can say this for sure, the Dead Fantasy series he has created is good enough for me to wait and see where this guys future is heading.

If you haven't noticed it by now, Dead Fantasy is a play on words, combining 2 great games on the market. DOA (Dead or Alive) and Final Fantasy series. The video clips he has created comes from the thought... what would happen if the girls from DOA and the girls from Final fantasy would ever meet and duke it out. Who would win? well thats about all the explanation there is to the clips. Its basically a side by side fight of the two groups with ever escalating ferocity and characters if i may add, coupled with a lot of style and a lot of imagination. Its actually so popular that the clips from gametrailers have already garnered over 6 million views.

At first, when I've heard of the video, i was assuming that it was one of those video edited clips that were pieced together to simulate an actual battle like lets say dragon ball anime character fighting with another character from another anime. Usually cutting things out and stitching them together using an AV editor of some sorts. Expecting this, i was surprised to notice that the characters movements were not cut but in fact rendered scene by scene and everything was original. Somehow, someone made the models for each of the characters and made them move and fight like real professional 3d animators did. Having dabbled into 3d animation a while back, i know how hard it is to make a model, let alone create a 10 min animation. But i know from his montys post that the models were taken from the actual game generator. He accredits an unknown person, who he is calling Mr. Y, who actually dove into the guts of the game and extracted the game models of the characters which he then used to make his film. Still, rendering a 10 min animation full of action must have taken some time. consider the fact that one of the frames in the transformers move took 38 hours to render, and having 30 frames in a second for high def, you do the math. Well of course the level of detail is different, I'm guessing it took 1 hour or more for each frame, but after all the moving and animating the characters coupled with the render time, you can appreciate the effort it took to make this clip. Altho he did say that he learned a few tricks that kept his render time down, well thats good, it just means we don't have to wait that long for the next clip.

Well thats about all i can say about that. Click on the links below if you want to be redirected to the clips and watch them online. I wont be posting a downloadable version here since it is a large file and the ones i have are the High Res ones. Don't expect a quality at par of the final fantasy cut scenes, its more like the ingame 3d quality. But don't let that get you down, it is still worth watching. It just makes you want to pick up a controller and wish that there was really a game like this for you to play.

View the clip Dead Fantasy I on gametrailers.com
View the clip Dead Fantasy II on gametrailers.com
View Montyoum's page and gallery of work at deviantart

Marvel Movie Madness

As i sit here in my chair, still a bit high on the Iron Man movie, I decided to search the internet for information about the Iron Man movie 2. I was told that the iron man movie was already in production and was set to be shown summer of next year. Given this information, i decided to check if this information was true, so where else do i go, of course the internet.

As i surf, and read thru reviews and blogs, I have come to find out that in fact there is an Iron Man 2 and a 3 in production but it hasn't started yet. But there is already a release date for the Iron man Movie 2 scheduled for April 30, 2010. Yes i know its still a long way, but considering the fact that this was a great film, i believe that it is better to wait a while to savor the movies and not get saturated by all the hype and excitement.

But this post isn't just about the Iron Man Movies that is for sure to come, but as of the title suggest its about the Movie Madness that Marvel has gotten into. while reading and searching for information about the Iron Man movies, i have come across some factual, and rumored information about what is Marvel comics is up to. this is a mix between Iron Man trivia and facts and some facts and rumors of Marvel next line up of movies. Let us begin..

• Marvel Studios announced Monday it will release "Iron Man 2" on April 30, 2010, following the success of the first in the comic-book franchise, which pulled in $165 million million domestically and $342.1 million worldwide.
• Robert Downey's character, Tony Stark, makes an appearance in next month's "The Incredible Hulk," movie.
• the Hulk could turn up in "Iron Man 2," Marvel Studios Chairman David Maisel said during a conference call to discuss the company's earnings. "The Avengers" consists of a rotating roster of Marvel heroes — including original members Iron Man, the Hulk, Ant-Man and Thor — that could see the return of virtually any of the franchise's characters.
• Avengers movie just may BE Iron Man 3!!! Jon Favreau (interview) - "I think [The Avengers] would be a very smart third film in the Iron Man series." There will be an Avengers movie in the works, but if it is in fact joined in with the Iron Man movie 3 or a stand alone movie, only time will tell.
• Captain America’s trademark red, white and blue shield appears near the 1 hr 30 min mark in the film at the point where Pepper Potts comes in on Tony trying to get out of his damaged armor. The line you want to watch out for is, ”Let’s face it, this is not the worst thing you’ve caught me doing.” (movie hint anyone?)
• There is a Thor movie in the works. Tho there was a scheduled date release, sometime 2010, it has been put on hold. apparently the $300 million dollar script, handed down by chosen director Matthew Vaughn, i still in discussion with Marvel Studios along with him insisting a total unknown to play the lead role. Time will tell if this pushed thru.
• There is a Wolverine movie prequel to the X-Men movie. Still being played by Hugh Jackman, the movie starts production Nov 2008.
• There will be another Punisher movie titled Punisher: War Zone domming out this Dec 2008 having Ray Stevenson as the lead role of Frank Castle.
• As stated above, there will be an Ant Man movie being scheduled for production. As of the moment, there is still no news on who will direct it and star in the lead role.
• The first Avenger is finally getting his shot on the Hollywood box office. Captain America the movie is in the pipeline for the next big film for marvel. Directed bu Nick Cassavetes, it is set to show on May 6, 2011. just in the rumor bin, it is said that Matthew McConaughey is Marvel Studio’s top choice to play the lead role in Captain America, well thats just a bad choice. I can never see Captain America in cutoff jeans and a sleeveless shirt.
• And the last news i was able to get is the Nick Fury movie. obviously staring Samuel L Jackson due to the cameo in the Iron Man Movie. There is still no news on when will the production start. There has no news about script and director but for sure it will happen.
  

As you can see from the list, you can surmise where the Marvel Studios direction is taking us. After their ground breaking first trilogy the X-Men movies, Marvel has decided to give us another group that would satisfy a huge group of fans. they just didn't announce a major movie being made but thought ahead making smaller (smaller, yeah right) movies first as an introduction to the major movie which in fact is the Avengers. Making individual Movies is a great idea, then combining them all for the major group is splendid. But heres a thought, in the end, after making the movies and before the major one, if each individual movie cost in the region of $100 million to make, what will be the budget of the Avengers movie when it is consisted of 6 or more major characters, not to mention that some of these characters have Big Name stars that command a hefty salary. Aside from the budget, another thought has crossed my mind. There have been numerous movies, mostly B-grade ones, about some of these characters, For this plan to work, I mean the success of the Avengers Movie, each individual movie must in turn, create a killing in the box office, or at the very least create that major buzz that will influence the next movie coming out. Looking at that perspective, this is a tough and long climb for marvel studios. all i can say is that Iron Mans done, it made a killing at the box office, i guess thats one down, and a few more to go...

Two Days of Agony

When did it happen? When was the exact point in our lives when we began to totally be dependent on technology?

I have missed two days of posting on my blog. I know its not a big deal, people gone months before posting another writeup on their own personal blogs, but understand this, i have just started on mine and i have set a goal of posting one per day for about a month so that my site would at the very least have some structure, not to mention content. A week and a half of posting and editing, i am glad it is now a far cry from when it started.

Setting that aside, the real reason for the title is that i have lost my internet connection for the past weekend. It wasn't cut or anything, it was just down. Calling my service provider, i had found out that a few of the servers had crashed and internet was "intermittent". Intermittent my Arse, try no connection whatsoever. I couldn't even load google, ya heard that right, the smallest loading page there, and i couldn't even load it up.

Starting Friday night when i got home from work, up to Sunday night, i sat in front of my computer twiddling my thumbs, hoping it would turn on. Well to be frank, i could have done other things, watched anime, TV series that i have downloaded and not viewed yet, or even play on my PSP. But that short break gave me pause to think, when did it happen that i was to dependent on the internet that i couldn't live my life normally without it. When i think about it, almost all the resource i get is thru the internet. Dictionary for one, dont know the meaning of a word you just heard, search for it on the internet. My metric conversion which i use to calculate distances, well i use the online version. interested in a song or a movie, guessed right, go to the internet. Trivia questions, simple inquiries, looking up phone numbers for home deliveries, even buying stuff, most of these goes thru the internet. Ahhh, i've even infected my older sister, who is now a fan of ebay and youtube. Pestering me every 30min or so, asking the question "may internet na?"

I could remember when i was small when i played with He-Man action figures, GI Joe, and matchboxes. Getting into computers at an early age, i guess i fell in love with it. If i could remember correctly, the first pc in the house, when everyone left to go to work, i dismantled it piece by piece to figure out and learn which part was which. It went terribly wrong when i assembled it back. but it was a learning experience. then suddenly the mid 90's the internet started to boom in our country. It was the start of dial up, where in that time, having a 14.4 kbps modem was the best you can go. An unlimited internet connection was totally unheard of, and a computer with a 20Mb hard disc was state of the art technology. Fast forward 14 years into the present, and were not only talking about faster speeds, but 24 hour, 7 days a week, always on internet connections. Not only that, computer systems have gone thru numerous upgrades. They say that you have more computing power right now in one of your cell phones, than the entire system used to get the astronauts to the moon.

Ahh, technology is quite something else. In just over 10 years, we've gone, from 14.4 modems to broadband internet. From a 386 processor to an Intel Quad. A 20Mb Hard disc to terrabytes of storage for the person computer. Technology has become a necessity rather than a luxury. can you imagine what you'll be using in another 10 years time into the future? well i'm just hoping i can get that far.