My Linsanity!

I guess most of you by now should have heard or at least come across the term "Linsanity"! It is a term given to a Havard boy, American born Chinese named Jeremy Lin who had been signed by New York Knicks initially as a bench warmer, but then had been given a chance to play at starting lineup following injuries by team's big name, such as Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudamire.

Lin then showed his talent and skills to the world as the team's point guard by scoring 25 points in his debut versus New Jersey Nets. His high performance doesn't just stop there, but he continued to bring the team to seven straight games victory! As a rookie, his outstanding performance was something unexpected. Since then, the name of Jeremy Lin had been spread widely and some of those never pay attention to NBA sports have now did so because of him! The impact brought by him to the NBA sports as well as the economy is something undeniable!

So, here is my version of Linsanity through the game NBA 2K12, my most favorite game! With latest rosters patch applied, I'm able to use Lin on New York Knicks starting lineup! With the overall skill points of 75 (of 100), Lin is not a super good player to use but with my believe of the power of Linsanity, he had became my primary player to dribble and score points for the team! (sorry to Melo and Stoudamire for been neglected! ;p )

[Lin's layout shot!]

[Lin's alley-oop pass to Carmelo Anthony!]

In my last night match, my Jeremy Lin had lead the team to win over Miami Heat, where Lin scored a buzzer beater to bring the team towards the victory!! My Linsanity!!

[The buzzer beater shot!]

[Lin's slam!!]

[Lin blocked Mario Chalmers's shot!]

[Lin passed the ball to Steve Novak for a 3-point shot!]

 [Lin's performance over the Miami Heat!]

Mafia Wars Las Vegas Beta - A Sneak Preview

Just lucky I got the chance to visit Las Vegas early with 35 rack of chips and I was that lucky to get the VIP access in my 2nd attempt! For those Mafia Wars game's maniac, I believe everyone are waiting to try out the latest chapter of Mafia Wars game.

So for those who haven't get the luck to obtain the VIP access to this chapter, here are some of the screenshots so that you can have the first hand preview of the Beta version of Las Vegas gameplay!

Here is the jobs screen. The layout is pretty different from the previous chapters i.e. New York, Bangkok, Cuba and Moscow. Each job panel is more compact and informative which cut down the mouse scrolling frequent to read the necessary information while doing the job.

In Las Vegas jobs, you could see there is a navigation panel on left side of the screen which indicates the path you can choose to complete an episode. The navigation still remain confusing to me, but try to move mouse cursor over each icon, the job that represented by the icon will get highlighted.

You can also maximize each job's image to see them in more detail. Otherwise the images will stay small and compact. Nice images from Zynga which play important role in adding to the game's attractiveness.

The screenshot below shows the specific job one needs to master in order to start building anything, i.e. the Casino which appeared to be one of the most important feature in the Vegas chapters. After all, Casino is what Las Vegas is famous about, isn't it?

It is not too hard to master this job "Steal A Truckload of Slots". If not mistaken it's the 3rd job in Chapter 1. You will loot Slot Machines in this job which are required in expanding your casino later.

So here is one of the exciting part - building your Casino! The section is not called "Properties" as in the previous cities, but it is called "My Casino". This casino is divided into few building segments which need mastery of different chapters to enable for expending. You can see all casino buildings remained grey and disabled until you master the job "Steal A Truckload of Slots". The casino is your source of income in Las Vegas!

The first building to get activated after you master the job stated above is the Slot building where the slot machines of your casino will be placed. After you start this building, the Vault building will be enabled for expanding as well.

Just like Chop Shop or Weapons Depot in New York, Slot needs friends' helps to supply the materials in order to expand. There is a small preview of your building's interior on the right top corner of the pop up screen which you can click to see in larger scale. Upgrading it will make the room look better and prettier (I presume). Same goes to the Vault.

The vault acts as " the bank" where you keep your money safe! It stated something like "There is no bank in the middle of desert...", so you have to build your own vault to secure your money! In the vault, you can also convert the money gained in New York tiers to Vegas chips! But then you can only do this once in every 24 hours.

Just like other cities, robbing feature will be available in Vegas tiers and the images are pretty "neon" look! Maybe this can reflect how Las Vegas looks like during night time, full of colorful lighting and it is so happening! Party time!

Fight also remain but there is a newly added gameplay called "Tournaments". It is just like you are taking part in the fight tournament in Las Vegas which also involves betting on the tournaments.

You can win titles and championship belts here by taking part in different tournaments with vary difficulties and requirements. I haven't venture into this section yet, so no further description on this, but I'll try it in the near future!

As other tiers, there are collection items and achievements to gain in Vegas. 3 sets of collectible items available which can only be gained through participating in Tournaments. There are also 10 achievements to claim in this city!

Street Fighter IV PC Game Review

Currently I am playing the latest fighting game, Street Fighter IV. It is the latest Street Fighter game in the market.

[The selection screen]

If you are a Street Fighter fans, these screenshots may look very familiar to you. Yeah, it is what a Street Fighter game is all about, the familiar characters and also the background. However, differ from the previous versions, the models and backgrounds are rendered in 3D, but the gameplay remains the traditional left-right 2D control.

[Sagat fighting with Ryu]

[Guile (left) - one of the most significant character in Street Fighter game]

In this version of Street Fighter, almost all the most well-known faces in the game's franchise are back. They are:

• Ryu - a Japanese martial artist
• Ken - Ryu's former training partner or rival
• Chun Li - a female martial artist from China
  
• Guile - a former special force from US
  
• E.Honda - a Japanese Sumo wrestler
• Blanka - a green beast from Brazil
• Zangief - a pro wrrestler from USSR
• Dhalsim - a yoga master from India
• Balrog - an America boxer
• Vega - a Spanish cage fighter
• Sagat - a Muay Thai master
• M.Bison - the leader of the criminal organization Shadaloo

[Chun-Li and Blanka]

Then, there are few new faces added to the game.

• Abel - a French mixed martial artist
• Crimson Viper (C.Viper) - a female Amerian spy with long hair
• Rufus - a fatty fighter
• El Fuerte - a Mexican luchador (wrestler) similar to Rey Mysterio in WWE

[Ryu vs El-Fuerte]

[Abel hit the fatty Rufus]

There are also some additional characters who needs to be unlocked by completing the Arcade game:

• Dan - Complete Arcade mode with Sakura
• Fei Long - Complete Arcade mode with Abel
• Sakura - Complete Arcade mode with Ryu
• Cammy - Complete Arcade mode with C. Viper
• Gen - Complete Arcade mode with Chun-Li
• Rose - Complete Arcade mode with M. Bison

[E.Honda slammed Vega onto the ground]

Here are some bosses to be unlocked:

• Akuma - Complete Arcade mode with all unlockable characters except Gouken
• Gouken - Clear the game with either C.Viper, Abel, Chun-Li, Dictator, Ryu OR Sakura, without continuing and scoring 2 perfects and 3 or more ultra finishers
• Seth - Clear the game with the remaining characters you haven't cleared the game with yet to unlock Seth

[Master Ken in action]

[Ryu Vs M.Bison]

After trying it, I found that it was a nice game to play especially if you are a Street Fighter game's fan. The control remains the same, but it was the 3D rendered environment and the great graphic that will give you a fresh and great experience!

[Guile with his alternative uniform color was fighting with C.Viper]

[Balrog with his heavy punch!]

[Dhalsim with his fire ability]

Minimum system requirement:

• OS - Windows XP or Windows Vista
• CPU - Pentium 4 2.0GHz or higher
• RAM - 1 GB or higher
• HD Space - 4.5 GB of free space
• Graphics Hardware - DirectX 9.0c/Shader3.0 or higher compatible, NVIDIA GeForce6600 series, ATI Radeon(TM) X1600 or higher, VRAM 256MB or higher

[E.Honda got an electric shock from Blanka]

Recommended system requirement:

• OS - Windows XP or Windows Vista
• CPU - Intel Core2Duo 2.0GHz or higher
• RAM - 2 GB or higher
• HD Space - 4.5 GB of free space
• Graphics Hardware - DirectX 9.0c/Shader3.0 or higher compatible, NVIDIA GeForce8600 series or higher, ATI Radeon(TM) X 1900 or higher, VRAM 512MB or higher

[Vega prepared to fight E.Honda]

[C.Viper with her electric punch!]

[Zangief showing his "Smackdown" skill]

Red Alert Three

For strategy game lovers, I think by now you should know already EA had released the latest Command & Conquer game series, Red Alert 3. I not really into playing the game yet as I spent most of the time on NBA 2k9 - my most favourite game!

Anyway, I couldn't stop myself from trying out Red Alert 3 after I saw the reviews and screenshots from the web. I was quite impressed especially by the graphic.

After I tried it out, well... in term of gameplay, Red Alert 3 is just another strategy game on earth. As far as strategy game is concern, it is mostly about building your base, train armies, upgrade technologies then attack your opponents to get the victory. RA3 is not an exceptional.

However, in term of graphic, I would say it improved a lot if compare with Red Alert 2. Of course, don't forget RA2 was released in year 2001 which is about 7 years ago! Imagine how much technology as well as computer hardware had grown over this long period of time.

[Comparison of RA2 (upper) and RA3 (lower) in term of graphic]

RA3 graphic is more 3D-like and very detail. The game itself supports high definition display, thus the graphic could be very clear and sharp.

[Sharp RA3 graphics witch nice colour]

One thing which is new in Red Alert game is that you could build some of your building on the water! Now not only land battle is important, you should as well dominate and control resources in the sea in order to have better advantage to win the game. You can even gather resources (mineral) in the sea!

[Soviet buildings on water!]

[Gather resources on the water!]

Then, most of the vehicles are now amphibious which mean you don't need a special transport vehicle to bring them across the sea. The vehicle itself can function on land or water. Well, maybe this is what our future vehicle will look like? As the strategy on water is equally important as on land, therefore you will have more option of water vehicles or weapons to choose from.

[Allied forces on water!]

[The Empire of the Rising Sun forces on water!]

[Allied's water weapons]

In RA3, you will have a new force to choose from apart from traditional Soviet Union and Allied forces, which is called The Empire of the Rising Sun. By the name, you should know which country it is referring to. Yes! It is the Japanese - one of the technology giant in Asia! Therefore, its forces are futuristic and the unit designs are from combination of science-fiction, martial arts and robot culture. Some of the unit can even transform to alternate form so that they can have different function when operating.

[High-tech Japanese forces with robot technology]

[Human army fighting with Japanese robot, who will win?]

As the graphic is great, therefore the drawback of this game will be you need to have a better graphic card to play the game. I am using ATI Radeon EAH3650 series of graphic card and it supports the game quite well. However, if you want the highest graphic with the best performance, I suggest you to get a graphic card much better than this!

[Soviet base]

Happy gaming!!!


++++++ More screenshots ++++++

[Allied forces prepared for battle!]