All Hail! HellGaters!

I think it’s rather too late for this, but in the ‘spirit’ of blogging… ok, here goes.

Now that HellGate: London has hit the shelves for like 7 or 8 months, I was beginning to wonder its penetration level in the market. But it did comes as a shock that the pick-up rate of this MMOG titles is pretty low.

If you’re still clueless as to what I am getting at, “HellGate: London” is the first gaming title from Flagship Studio, which comprised of some of the former founding members of the Blizzard North team responsible for creating the famous Diablo II games and franchise.

HellGate: London is surprisingly similar to Diablo II in terms of its concept. The gaming element are all about the same, but added it strong and realistic 3D engine. In a nutshell, it’s like 3D version of Diablo II.

But unlike Diablo, the setting in the game is in the futuristic year of 2038, when the world then are overrun by demons and monsters from some unbeknownth parallel dimensions. This is achieved through inter-dimensional gateways call “rifts”. While the entire world is under despair, a secret legion of resistance forces is being formed in the London Underground. From here, you (the player), will choose to become a hero from one of the six playable character classes. One important thing to note is that the six character classes are actually sub-classes from three disctinct groups. The three groups are:

1. Cabalist: which consists of 2 sub-classes called ”Summoner” and “Evoker”
2. Templar: which consists of 2 sub-classes called ”Blademaster” and ”Guardian”
3. Hunter: which consists of 2 sub-classes called “Engineer” and ”Marksman”

Players can choose to play from any one of the character classes. I have so far tried my hands on “Engineer”, “Blademaster”, and “Evoker”. They offer different kind of gaming experience to the same game, for eg. Engineer and Evoker are range attackers, but engineer can construct robotic drones to fight alongside him, whereas an Evoker is an expert on magical attack. The near equivalent of an Engineer in the Cabalist class would be the Summoner, who can raise spiritual pets to fight alongside him (much like the Necromance in Diablo II)

For the Blademaster, he is a highly skilled melee fighter who has the ability to wield 2 weapons at the same time, he is a true ‘hack and slash’ character in the game. I have not tried the other three characters, perhaps when I do I will write a sequel for this piece here. Generally speaking this will be a fun game if you are die-hard Diablo II fan.

IM-mania!

IM, or Instant Messaging, has become a very integral part of my life. I do instant messaging using Windows Live Messenger (also referred to as MSN Messenger previously) everyday.

I sometimes use Yahoo Messenger since Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger can now see and send messages to each other. The best thing is that you can starting chatting right away once you logged in to your Yahoo mailbox.

Although I used IM mainly for chatting, I also use IM to for advices from my friends on IT problems, tips, etc. Or using IM to fix appointments, to send urgent messages regarding ICT, reservists, etc. And finally, there always the need to make new friends and meet new people.

So IM-ing people has become my everyday routine, like eating and sleeping. But to be too indulging in something is always not healthy, the reliance keeps building upon itself until it becomes an addiction. No use telling me to moderate my IM-ing, I think I’ve got IM-mania, and the only cure is to keep messaging people.

IM.. can’t live with it, can’t live without it.

Back to school… at 38?

I was still in the middle of the edUtorium course.

Just now, while having our morning break, I had spoken to Irene Ong, a fellow colleague and lecturer from my department, about taking up a degree course. I had not been keen on this as I felt my age is a bit advanced for a bachelor degree education.

But Irene’s comment and encouraging words sort of turned things around a bit. And I was quietly agreeing with her myself, that being slow or late in something is always better than not starting it at all. At least set a target, get the ball rolling and see how the ball can reach the target.

So I told her about the concerns that I have if I were to go for a degree course now. The concerns were plain and simple, commitment to both work and study, to my family especially my 2 little young ones. Secondly, financially I must be able to cope with supporting a family, the daily expenses and of course, supporting of my study.

We did a little more discussion on the topic and had to end it when the tea break ended. But I think this discussion opened some window in my mind, and I had to re-look at things outside of the window again and maybe re-think about it.

Everything has a first…

This is my first blog on WordPress. Hopefully I have something exciting to write about. And as much as I would like to make it interesting for you, the Readers, I am already imagining myself facing with the dilemma with most “first times”, that my mind suddenly turned blank and I am now struggling hard to put something up on the blog for people to read.

But my blogging has already started, as i wrote (typed) this far.

So for the record, this blog entry was created in the Multimedia Room 3 in block N4, NTU, while I am attending the edUtorium course on “Blogs, Wikis and PodCast”, taught by Mr. John Larkin.

Hello world!

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