There Is Always a Reason Why Something is "Free"...

It was only last year that I was forced to abandon my trusted WinXP and upgrade to Win7. And I say forced because Microsoft made sure that key features of my OS was not working anymore, including security. So, Win7 was a brief yet not a bad altogether experience - if one disregards numerous lack of customization options and the palpable effort of Microsoft to make us abandon them as well, that is. Such as stopping our desktop widgets from working in order to promote the "brilliant" Win8 tiles! Nevertheless, I want to make clear that I am comparing Win10 to an extensive background on WinXP and an adequate experience with Win7.

ALL YOUR BASES ARE BELONG TO US
Two words: forced updates. I was lucky enough to have opted for the Professional edition of the Win7, so when I got to switch to Win10, I received the Professional edition as well - which comes with the option to defer (yet still not pick between or even cancel) the installation of the latest updates. The Home edition, however, does not give the user any such option and all updates are forced onto him. Remember how after numerous "essential" updates in the past, our PCs encountered a myriad or mysterious problems? Yeah, there is no more avoiding them anymore.

A PRIVACY NIGHTMARE

From the initial Logging in only with a Microsoft-confirmed eMail account to the Groove Music and the Movies & TV Players amassing info on your files and personal habits, Win10 are a private person's worst nightmare. In a sense, Win10 are the basis of the most intrusive and abusive DRM ever to be slipped in with a piece of software. There had been an uproar even since the pre-release builds and some deactivation options are available but they are far from thorough. And the question is this: how much can one trust a company that silently downloaded Win10 to every WinVISTA, Win7 and Win8 PC without the consent of their owners?

NO, IT IS NOT FASTER BY ANY MEANS!

Microsoft did not allow us to perform a clean install when upgrading from a previous Microsoft OS; however, using one's product Serial Number, it was possible to download the official image and burn it onto a disk (or transfer it to an empty USB). In preparation for the upgrade, I increased my system's RAM to 12GM and a few days after the initial update, I formated and did a clean install. Then I went on installing only software that was Win10 compatible. Keep this information in mind when I tell you that Win10 are SLOW. Slower than Win7 and definitely slower than WinXP! It takes forever to transfer files to and from a USB flash drive (a problem that started with Win7) and what is more aggravating, it takes forever to explore folders, especially those on my second HDD. Even if they were opened a few moments ago.

So, why is it not faster? Is it because of an increase in cosmetic additions and aesthetic customizations? No. Absolutely no.

ESSENTIAL CUSTOMIZATION OPTIONS ARE MISSING

The Windows interface and Menu options look worse than Win7. Aero Glass, for some unfathomable reason, is not available. The Windows borders are not customizable (for the first time since Win95!). Quick Launch can be made to appear with some Registry editing (I would advise Googling it - carefully) yet the icons now cannot be centered in the Toolbar and stay misaligned to the Task View button; the option of which icons and how to appear in the Taskbar is missing; whereas, this latest shinny OS refuses to learn that I do not like every shortcut to have a "Shortcut to" prefix to every shortcut I create - something Win98 had no problem learning after the third time I removed it on a new one.

There is a semi-official piece of software (no, I am not calling them Apps!) called Windows Ultimate Tweaker 4: it does offer a number of options, some of which very useful. However, one of the most important ones (specifically, which new templates and options to appear when right-clicking on the desktop) -you guessed it!- is missing. And do not get me started on the Start Menu!

WHY MESS WITH SOMETHING THAT WORKED FINE?

Win8 were a complete failure mainly because of their Start menu. We all loved the WinXP Start Menu, easy to use, a breeze to customize and backup when needed. Win7 improved on it, even if, quite counter-intuitively, one had to use libraries in order to add personal folders in the Start Menu. Yet, everything was at the right place. Well, not so much with Win10.

Power is now a button like any other, found between(!) All-Apps and Settings - and when pressed (remember that this will also be needed to be done at 2:00AM after 12 hours of working on a screen) one has to read and carefully select between the Shut Down or Restart options that appear. Every single time. With no confirmation dialog.

The installed software (All-Apps) are alphabetized easy to navigate - yet its folders do not respond to Right-clicking them. They are just dead.

The Tiles Panel, however, this is where they screwed up again: none of the tiles are customizable in other aspects than total size (resulting in beautiful icons looking ridiculous in all that empty background). Why can we not readjust the sizes of the contained icons? And yet they even failed to adjust the tile sizes correctly!

The Tiles Panel allows resizing but only in huge pre-set steps. We can also move and group the tiles. Some (but not all) tiles come in 4 sizes, others in 3 yet most in only 2 sizes. The step-wise increments of the Tile Panel create space for 6 small tiles in each group. Have less than 6 tiles in a group and the empty space is an ugly waste. Moreover, no tile under them can grow to fill the space of 6 small tiles, so, once again, more ugly wasted space.

Oh, and for some another mysterious reason, not all installed software can be pinned to the Tile Panel, even if they do appear in the All-Apps list! You have to hunt for them in your Program Files and find the executable.

COMPATIBILITY MODE IS STILL A JOKE

Drakensang: The Dark Eye is not an old game, barely 5-6 years old and it is supposed to be Win10 compatible. At least its expansion is, and that run fine. The original game, however, refused to run under any "compatibility mode". Does this thing finally do anything besides reducing the resolution, Microsoft? You know, running them under DirectX 9.0c or something?

ALL KNOWN BUGS ARE STILL THERE

The Recycle Bin still refuses to use its customized icons, just like with Win7. The Explorer folders are still unable to retain my Viewing preferences. And the Desktop still looses files (especially saved web-pages) one then has to hunt down with the Explorer (even if they are still in the Desktop folder).

Overall, not a failure of WinVISTA or Win8 proportions but nowhere near as good as WinXP or even Win7.

I am willing to accept this as a work in progress and give them 6 months to get their act together and patch things up.

Yet they should not think that they will get a free ride just because they claim to be giving it away for "free". Because it was not.

We had to exchange our perfectly working OS for it.

This goes to prove that, once more, there is no free lunch in this Universe.

The Game Of The Decade Is Here!

The original Witcher was a great game, whereas the sequel was even better, bigger and more beautiful in every aspect. Following on this trend of building upon and improving their achievements, CD PROJEKT RED, the small Polish developer that has humbled gaming behemoths for years, released their best game yet. And what a game THE WITCHER III: WILD HUNT is!

THE BEST VIRTUAL WORLD I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED

Yes, the world of The Witcher III is huge, far larger than Skyrim. Far more importantly though, it feels more real and it is full of life.

The game throws you in a world of unparalleled beauty with details that keep unfolding the closer you observe it. Every spade of grass and every pebble looks real and obeys the laws of physics as set by the new REDengine. From the night and day and weather cycles to gear that gets damaged and needs to be repaired by blacksmiths and from growing facial hair to NPCs with real lives, the world of The Witcher absorbs you in and never, ever lets you go. The flames of Igni feel absolutely real as do bodies of water. Beasts and humans will do the unexpected whereas the skies sheltering your travels are absolutely mesmerizing. One can easily spend hours in the game simply observing the gorgeous world around him.

There are some concessions to absolute realism one can take advantage off (quick traveling and in-battle repairs for example); however, purists can ignore them and sink in the extra hours to go old school. 

Now, all these come at a price. A couple of weeks ago, I made sure to upgrade to a nVidia 960 (pouring with a brand new 352.86 driver) and 12GB of RAM just for this game (at some point, CD PROJEKT has to ask ASUS for dividends!) and the game runs smoothly at Ultra. 

(Also, no save-files crashes this time around. So far).

AN EPIC SCORE FOR AN EPIC STORY
Once more, the music is an essential part of both the atmosphere and the gaming experience. The composers are different than those of the previous games and this translates into a novel approach to the world of Geralt of Rivia. You will recognize a number of variations on themes from the previous games and it feels like meeting old friends, matured yet still dear to you; however, I found the music more subtle and effective and not less powerful.

CHOOSE YOUR WEAPONS OF DESTRUCTION WISELY
Remember the days form the very first Witcher when you basically finished the game with the same sword and kept saving every last oren to buy the 5,000O leather jacket? Well, Geralt not only yields an extra crossbow but he also enjoys an ever growing choice of armor and weapons. Combine this with a huge library of books and an endless supply of potion and bombs ingredients and you will soon find your hero to be overburdened. And then you realize that there is no storage chest! Not to worry, the game now employes Roach's saddlebag (buy it as soon as possible and enlarged it). This way your storage is always close by. And, take my advice, do not sell anything! From ingredients to older swords, you will need them for crafting. And even find loot is abundant, it always feel great to gather all the ingredients to finally forge a sword or a piece of armor whose schematics you had been carrying for some time.

IT'S ALL ABOUT CONTROLLING THE WORLD AROUND YOU
Some people have been complaining about the PC controls and, up to a point, I can understand why. As with all games, I remap almost everything so that I am able to use only the right end of the keyboard (arrows for movement are default here but I use the Num-keys 1-5 to select my Sign, Num-0 to use it, / for the steel sword, * for the silver one, and so on). The game is enjoyable when set at the highest difficulty one can survive at so having quickly accessible controls are essential. That is why I hope to see a key-rebinding option Menu soon and not have to dive in the input.settings file.


The Expansion Pass will cover the Expansion (as per CD PROJEKT RED's practices, all DLCs are to be free). And if they are known for anything is offering a more than fair value for the released products.

WITH MY HIGHEST RECOMMENDATIONS!

How Many Pockets Can A Dinosaur Possibly Have?

This is what you get when you allow greed to run unchecked. And 2K GAMES is an insistent and repeat offender of such abhorable tactics.

Evolve is not a game. It is DLC-pushing scheme that will not end before the complete game (which one should expect be getting after sliding over $60!) ends up costing between $350-400. And that too much for any game - let alone a game that brings no innovation in either gameplay or visuals and gets old too soon. Just head over at Metacritic and see for yourself.

Day-one DLCs? Check. (TWELVE of them - totaling $80-extra!)

Endless microtransactions? Check.

Severely limited content? Check.

Single-Player slapped on as an afterthought? Check.

Console-limited graphics? Check.

The ...success of Brink revisited? You bet!

When someone made the mistake of paying $60 for a shell of a game, been asked to pay $15 for each extra monster and $10 for each extra character is not greed: it is information highway robbery!

A product to ignore. Even when the entire bundle will be available on STEAM Sale for less than $10, it will still be an overpriced boring game.

Bound for Extinction.

Top-10 Reasons New World Order Is Turning Into a Global Communist State

From Washington to Moscow and from Johannesburg to Tokyo, no matter what political party is in power, the same New World Order politics are enforced and shape the world of tomorrow. Conspiracy theories aside, this may well turn out to be one of the most oppressive period of human history. Those of us who are old enough to remember the 1980’s, we have all seen what hellish places those “paradises of the proletariat” have been: people had to be kept forcibly in them, with minefields, machine guns, razor-wire fences and walls that run into the horizon. At the same time, the developments of the last years awaken those memories and can only make our skin crawl. If history is indeed repeated as a farce, will anyone be laughing?  

10. Both Revoke Personal Property

Under Communist rule there could be no personal property, only usage. Even the flat the workers were given or the car they bought after 10-15 years of savings belonged to the State and could be taken away for any transgression against it. 

This is not very different under the NWO: buying property with a loan withholds ownership at the Bank. Miss only a couple of payments and the house or car reverts to the Bank. Even when all the payments have been made and all the interest upon interest paid in full, property taxes then kick in to serve as an annual rent for this property. And when the “owner” passes away, inheritance taxes eat away at the ownership of the heirs. It only takes three generations for the property essentially to return to the state.

9. Both Outlaw the Independent Production of Food

Under Communist rule private farms and even house gardens of produce were banned. These would promote individual entrepreneurship and no such capitalist remnants were to allowed to survive. 

Under the NWO the right to produce food has been withheld for corporations such as Monsanto and Bayer who have the exclusive right to sell seeds. In great parts of the world it is already illegal for farmers to keep seeds, even their own wild-type seeds and the same goes for people who want to grow their own food in their back yard. This is part of a NWO initiative called Codex Allimentarius and it has been running since 1963.

8. Both Keep the Population Unarmed & Powerless

Citizens of Communist States had no right to own and bear arms, they could not organize into unions and strikes were outlawed. Guns are already banned in most of Europe and Asia and, if NWO has its way, it is going to become reality in the US in the following years. More importantly, by encouraging the endless infusion of desperate Third World immigrants unemployment is kept rampant (at 7% and rising in the US but close to 30% in most of Europe). At the same time the cost of education keeps rising, resulting in people ending up with less and less power when it comes to fighting for their rights.  Police mishandling of their duties and arbitrary asset forfeitures – while insisting on its unaccountability, all greatly adds to the unarmed population powerless.

 

7. Both Prove That Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others

Under Communist rule, supposedly, everyone was equal. In practice, however, the Party bureaucrats were chauffeured in their hand-made ZiLs on reserved lanes while everyone else walked. The same was true when it came to accommodation, clothes, food, trips and everything else.

Now, replace the word “Party” with the word “Corporation” and you have the same situation only this time under the NWO. Corporations claim and get the full protection of the law (under which, supposedly, everyone is equal) and yet when it comes to obligations (such as paying taxes or not embezzling the pension funds) or accountability (such as causing the ecological catastrophe of the Gulf of Mexico or murdering entire cities in India) they prove to be more equal than others.

6. Both Use Fear & Propaganda to Control the Population

The West, and especially the US, served as the perfect bogeyman for the Communist regimes: “Work harder or they shall make you their slaves”.;“They are dying in the streets from hanger and killing each other like animals – do not complain or that will be your fate as well”. 

NWO is more circumvent. It has its (useless) Security Alerts; its airport insulting (and worthless) shoe-searches; its Murdochization of the media; its shadowy enemies that “can strike at any place, at any moment”. In both cases, fear serves the same purpose: the state promises to keep you safe – in exchange for your rights and liberty. If it manages to scare you enough, this starts to seem like a fair deal.

5. Secret Services That Do Not Work for the People Paying Them

There is little doubt that from the Soviet KGB to the Cuban DGI, the Communist secret security forces served more to protect the ruling elite from the wrath of the people and far less to neutralize external threats. After all, a Philby here and an Ames there and all the secrets of the West were theirs for the price of a small Manhattan apartment. 

On the other hand, from Pinochet in Chile and Sadam in Iraq and from Suharto in Indonesia to Abacha in Nigeria, the secret services of the NWO have never stopped training, arming, funding and pushing into power puppet dictators in order to loot their countries. Copper, bauxite, diamonds, oil, they are all exported for a (reasonably bribable) pittance. Even if that were not against every sense of international agreements (not to mention blatantly unethical), there is something even worse: the citizens of the countries paying for these secret services operating under so many tables do not see a single red cent of all these riches. Case in point: the US practically owns the Iraqi oil field since 2003; even if the American people paid (and are still paying) for this war, gas prices in the US, instead of falling, have gone up by 20% since 2003. Why? Because the profits of the oil fields are siphoned away by the Corporations the secret services are working for instead.

4. Both Waste Resources On Useless Mega-Projects

Oh, how the Communists loved Mega Projects! The grander and the more useless the better. From a giant Родина [Motherland] statue in every town to melting the Arctic (I know!) there was no limit in how the State wasted the people’s toils. 

Certainly, there are no such wasteful mega-projects under the NWO, right? Well, yes there are. And the biggest of them all is called Perpetual War. The US, the UK, even countries like Germany and Japan that are constitutionally restricted to invade anyone (not to mention cash-strapped Greece) spend money they cannot afford and keep going deeper into debt in order to buy military hardware they…cannot use. This is crucial: these are no necessary defensive expenses.  Perpetual War for the US, for example, is insisting on a two-and-a-half war capability doctrine - and then spending 35 Billion(!) dollars on C-27Js cargo planes that the Air Force had made clear they cannot use and 35 Trillion(!!) dollars on a F-35 program that is only benefiting the company that manufactures them . And who makes sure that everyone keeps spending tax-payers’ money on such useless hardware? Kindly refer to item No.5.

3.  Both Try to Demonize the Christian Church

Contrary to popular belief, Karl Marx’s phrase “religion is the opium of the masses” was not a derogatory comment against religion. What he actually meant was that Christianity (since Marx lived in Germany) offers solace to the exploited masses so if they are “to revolt and overthrow their industrialist oppressors”, such pacifiers were be taken away. Nevertheless, even after the Communist regimes consolidated into power, they did everything to uproot the Christian faith from the population, probably because it undermined the role of the Party as the sole provider and governing power. 

If it were not for WWII and Stalin’s great need for soldiers ready to die fighting (and, after all, Communism can promise many things but an afterlife is not one of them!) Christianity would have been totally outlawed in the Soviet Union. Instead, it was tolerated, even if made incompatible with any advancement in the Party.

The NWO approach is not that different. Once more, being openly Christian is not illegal but it is a sure way to staunch any career. From academia to operating bakeries and from acting to toll-booth operator (all true stories), stating your beliefs, openly wearing a cross or simply wishing people “God bless you” will get you overstepped and even fired. When (according to the 2013 CIA Factbook) only 2% of the population are self-declared atheists it makes no sense that…Festivus (a fake Holliday made up for a sit-com episode) can be considered on equal footing with Christmas when it comes to seasonal city decorations. Not to mention the constant Hollywood ridiculing of the Christian Church, something no religion or faith has to endure.

2. Both Insist on Flattening National Identities

Under Communist doctrine, all nationalities were considered bourgeois relics and meaningless because they were all “fellow workers of the world”. A position that trickled down to the European Communists parties to this day (which is very peculiar position to defend today if one is to consider item No. 8). Of course no such brotherly feelings were shared with the workers of the "decadent West". No, the enemies are essential, they breed fears and fears are necessary for totalitarianism to thrive. The reason for such position was to ensure that “when Communism won the Cold War” there would be no residual animosities because of nationalistic dividers.

By this point it should be of no surprise to anyone that the NWO has adopted the exact same approach. Initiated as the forced American Melting Pot mentality it has started to spiral out first to Britain (having to accept the infusion of a multitude of nationalities form the failed empire) and then to the rest of the world. Even traditional nationalistic countries, such as Korea and Japan, are made to pass NWO laws that will encourage the absorption of different nationalities, giving them equal footing with the native population of many generations.  Once more, this is in attempt to morph an average global citizen that has no fixed country and national identity. Only yet another interchangeable cog.

1. Both Employ Blanket Surveillance & Torture by the Thought Police

Bolshevik Communism failed so miserably to inspire the people it governed it had to resort in wire-tapping phones, steam-opening letters and having neighbours (and, sadly, even family members) snitching on each other. If you were found dissatisfied with the communal lot assigned to you, well there were many options open for you: "focused interrogation" at the KGB near you, a visit to the sensory deprivation tank at the local psychiatric ward, a long trip to a picturesque Siberia work camp or, if you were exceptionally nasty in your comments or affiliations, a one-way trip to the white cells of Lubyanka.

After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 it was revealed that the infamous Stasi, the East Germany Secret police, had well over 500,000 “informal employees” (as they called their informants) and 600 million snitching reports – all for a population of 16 million people. Of course Snowden’s revelations made all this look like amateur hour.

The NWO regime has been recording and spying on every phone call, every email, every webpage each and every one of us receives, sends or visits. For 7 fricking billion people! And if you are found to rub their automatic filters the wrong way, your name comes up for abduction, transfer to a cooperating dictator (see also item No. 5) for “sharpened interrogation” not even the Nazis dared employ and, for a select few, a one way trip to Guantanamo Bay concentration camp.

Novus Ordo Seclorum: totalitarian and not even original! 

Gaming As An ArtForm. And This Is A Masterpiece!

If there ever was any doubt that gaming is an art-form, the Shaddow Warrior shreds it to pieces.

The game offers traditional Japanese settings (from the temples and the castles to the mythology and the paintings), rich late 80's environments (from shipyards and inner courtyards to caves and snowy mountains) and a great collection of interesting guns. It may be only 9 in total yet I got more excited when I got the shotgun or the rocket launcher than I ever was finding any one of the bazzilion guns in Borderlands 2.

Each type of enemy has different strengths and different weaknesses so you will have to try to figure out the best and quickest way to put them down. Each gun comes with three purchasable upgrades and augmentations. No sniper rifle because this game wants you to be up close and personal.

The music is sublime, the dialog witty, the atmosphere mesmerizing, the hidden secrets will keep you exploring every nook and cranny (and try again and again to find your way to that impossible to reach bonus statue) and the story unfolds in twists and turns and double-crosses. And the ending will make you misty.

I know it is not fair to this epic game but it does bring to mind the game Daikatana should had been. See, Mr Romero, if you fail to get it right, someone else eventually will. Now, I usually refuse full marks to games that come with an obligatory online digital distribution platform such as STEAM (required here); however, this game is so good I decided to make a rare exception.

Highly Recommended!

A Brilliant Monitor

After more than a decade, my trusted SONY SDM-S was starting to show its age. For too long, I was willing to put up with its slow response time and obsolete geometry because it was a solid, reliable PC monitor and it looked great on my home desk, with its total black and clear-cut design. Yet, all good things come to an end. After a number of warning flickerings, I realized the end was nigh. It was time to find a replacement.

After extensive research I knew I had found what I was looking for when I saw this SAMSUNG S24C750P: a brilliant 23.6" (16:9) monitor with a decent response time and the deepest blacks you can find. The later is due to the fact that this is patented PSA LCD (not a IPS, like most monitors nowadays), and this gives it one of the highest contrast ratios available today (2900:1). Take into account that the screen is matte, not reflective, and you can realize why this is such a great monitor for office work and gaming alike.

Its native resolution is 1920x1080 (2HD) and the thin piano-black frame allows you to experience all of it without any distractions. All buttons are tucked in under the right corner (an easy to navigate menu pops up when pressed) and only a tiny and very discreet blue LED stays on when operating. 

The base is of an excellent quality plastic that looks like metal and feels satiny to the touch. It keeps the monitor higher than my previous one (and the height is not adjustable) but I found this height to be perfect. Not too low for your neck to bend, not too high for your eyes to strain. And this is where it gets interesting. 

Some years ago I saw for the first time a PC monitor (a FUJITSU, if memory serves) that could pivot. I found it a brilliant idea! Working on any document (and especially a long one) it is very convenient to be able to see the entire page by simply turning the monitor to its side. This SAMSUNG does exactly that.  

Hidden behind the monitor is a rotating mechanism that attaches to the arm of the base and allows you to pivot the monitor 90o! However, there are a number of downsides to this. First of all, monitors now are much larger than they were ten years ago. So, in order to pivot a 24 inch monitor one has to first tilt it all the way out and then turn it. Forget to tilt it out first and you will be hitting the desk. The accompanying software promised to swift everything on your screen automatically, unfortunately, this does not seem to work for WinXP. I have to do it manually (using the MagicRotation software downloadable form SAMSUNG) – and it really messes up your icons afterwards. I would advise that 24 inches is the absolute maximum for pivoting monitors, larger than this and the whole concept collapses. 

The first monitor I received came with a pixel stuck in blue. True to its zero-pixel warranty (especially true for its high-end monitors), SAMSUNG and the retailer I bought this from had it replaced within days with no hassles. However, a quick reminder to SAMSUNG: this is what you get when you try to cut manufacturing costs too deep: quality control suffers. A stuck pixel can happen to anyone. But there is also the misfitting of the back frame plastics (I cut my thumb reaching for my glass the first day) and the base screw that had to be forced at an angle. It is all those little things that rob you of the quality you got us used to over the previous years.

All in all, the small number of manufacturing imperfections that are not enough to diminish this brilliant monitor. Recommended.

Why? Because There Is A Sucker Nephalem Born Every Minute?

If paying for a small DLC, adding a single character, 2 hours of gameplay and randomized dungeons (unrelated to the story), the same amount the money you would for a complete full-priced game makes sense to you, kindly stop here. This review of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls is not for you. In any other case, please read on.

TOO LITTLE. TOO LAME. TOO EXPENSIVE.

Charging 66% of the original game's price for only 20% of extra content is disgustingly greedy. This is not an expansion in any sense of the word. It is an overpriced DLC - and a small one at that.

We need to pay as much as a premium game to get randomized dungeons in a game that was way too short to begin with?

And, you are not fooling anyone, the Crusader is basically the Paladin that should had been included in the game in the first place. Does this mean we can expect the next $40 expansion to include an Assassin and then yet another $40 will give us the Druid? With these people at the helm of Blizzard there seems to be no low they will not stoop to.

TAKING AWAY THE AUCTION HOUSE WAS A DICKISH MOVE

Let me make this as clear as possible: the problem was NOT the Auction House. That was a brilliant idea. The problem was that the game was designed in such a way to ensure that it was unbeatable unless you payed real money to buy virtual gold from Blizzard's Gold sellers (remember all those PVPbank "friends request? guess what!). After Hell level (and especially true for Inferno) it was impossible to survive long enough without full sets of powerful Legendary items. Blizzard made sure to keep the drop rates of Legendaries into the infinitesimal (a single drop after a complete playthrough. If you were lucky). Even at those small drop rates, it was still very unlikely to get a Legendary with useful attributes and stats! What is the use of a +300 Intelligence Manticore when high level wizards are useless with crossbows? Hence the need for you to keep visiting the Auction House - where the prices were always kept super-inflated. Hence the need for you to pay real money to buy millions of virtual gold.

So, if they were able to milk their own customers for more money, why did they yank it out? Because it got too expensive for them to operate and the class-action suits were amassing like a storm. Because of the wide-spread popularity of D1 and D2, D3 sold millions. Unfortunately for Blizzard, the disappointed gamers who abandoned the game were also measured in millions. So, the Auction House was costing too much to keep open. Especially when the number of people who lost great amounts of real money to Auction House "glitches" approached critical and the lawsuits kept coming one after another.

They did not do us any favours. And they certainly did not decide that the Auction House was "hurting the enjoyment of the game". They just decided to take away a major feature the original game was sold with, just to make some more money for themselves.

You think they "listened to their customers"? Please read on.

WHY IS THIS GAME STILL ONLINE ONLY?

After 2 years the verdict is out and it is definite: Blizzard cannot run enough stable servers to properly support a popular always-online game. Or they are not willing to unless they charge you a monthly fee like they do with World of WarCraft. In any case, their servers are fickle as ever, prone to loose connection at any time, in need of weekly day-long maintenance and always ready to kick you out if you leave the game to take a break longer than 5 minutes.

Have you ever lost a legendary because the servers hiccuped just after it dropped, not allowing you to pickup or open anything? Have you ever had to start over an area, missing on the random spawning of a rare event, just because the servers lost it once again? Yes, I am sure you know what I am talking about.

So, now that the Auction House is no more, what is the excuse for not making private/Single-player games free of any need of an online connection? None!

The game takes up 12GB of our HDD. Are they going to lie to us all (like EA did with The SimCity) that it cannot run offline for private/Single-player games?

THE FORCED PATCH (Loot2.0) WAS A DISASTER AND AN INSULT

Without warning,a about two months ago, BLIZZARD forced the Loot2.0 patch on all of us. This is what this much praised by the usual company shills patch did: it made sure that every single hour you had spend on the game up to then was wasted!

Did you grind for hours to get Legendary items (or, even worse, did you pay real money to buy gold and then buy them from the Auction House)? Well, you wasted your time (and money). Those Legendary items were now insultingly weak, much weaker than Rare (yellow) items.

Did you make endless runs of the same areas again and again to bring all of your heroes up to Paragon 100? Again, you wasted your time. Now Paragon levels are shared between all of your characters.

Any time you sunk into the game prior to the Loot2.0 Patch was now wasted. So why would anyone trust Blizzard ever again and play any more D3? Next time they want to release yet another DLC as an expansion, they will not hesitate, once more, to render all of your time spend in the game totally wasted.

Replay Diablo II or Titan Quest. They are real games.

Play Torchlight 2. It is a complete game.

Play Path of Exile. It is free on STEAM.
Or wait for Grim Dawn.

In any case, I am sure you were not born yesterday.

Rice Scooped Out Of Steel

I love how these Brabantia cannisters look on my kitchen counter-top. Obviously, transferring your rice (or lentil) out of its bag and keeping it in a cannister is a good idea only if you are using the same type of rice. These cannisters come with a discreet label on the side that can be color-coded as well.

The measuring contraption may be on the small side but you can adjust your scoops. On the other hand, it is convenient to always have a measuring scoop handy and it looks nice.

The quality of the fingerprint-free steel is unparalleled. It looks and feels sturdy and it will not accumulate fingerprints most brushed steel items do. Not the same can be said about the plastic lid though. The clear part at the top came with small but quite obvious molding imperfections. The first cannister I received I asked to be replaced but, when the second arrived with exactly the same defect, I realized that this must be a common issue.

Brabantia keeps offering products of excellent design and made of good materials. That is why I will keep favoring their products. However, they do need to look into bringing their manufacturing back to their old standards.

Straight Out Of Writers' History

Let's be honest for a moment: until a reliable and accurate speech-to-text App comes along, no electronic device can even come close to the practicality of a paper notebook. And these classic-looking Moleskines are a good example of this.

I like the hard covers and the stylish elastic band. I like the rounded corners and the perfect size. I like the handy back inner pocket and the British green colour. And I certainly like the looks I get every time I pull it out my briefcase.

On the other hand, I would have liked the paper to be somewhat thicker, enough to be able to use both sides of the page without having to suffer ink sipping through. And I certainly would not mind paying more to get real leather covers.

It is still quite practical to use but it has to rely on its style to compensate for the manufacturing corners they decided to cut.

The Devil In The Corporation

Even if I was a great fan of the original Diablo and D2, I was late in deciding to take on Diablo 3. It was a combination of factors, from the bad reviews the game kept getting, to the constant servers errors I kept hearing about and to me being too busy to take up such a time-eater. However, I came across it at a great discount and, on an impulse, decided to give it a try. Three weeks of (casual) gameplay later this is what I think.

DIABOLICALLY GORGEOUS

The game is beautiful to look at and a visual pleasure to play in. The environments are meticulously rendered and yet they loose none of their details when zoomed in or acted upon. Blowing up tree trunks or exploding bodies of enemies is both fun and physically accurate. Sure, some heads or pieces of wood can be seen to spin for too long, but that is part of the game's appeal, right? You are become Death, the destroyer of Worlds!

YOUR CHORD SOUNDS FAMILIAR

The sounds are better than the music but they are both quite well made. What I found strange was that, at least once, throughout Act I, the background music clearly reminded me of the main theme from Baldur's Gate. Let's chalk this one off as ...tribute.

GRINDING BUILDS CHARACTER

The bad news is that it builds exactly the same kind of character for everyone. There are no choices when leveling up. Everything eventually gets unlocked for you and you only get to choose what 4 skills to use and which runes to combine with each one. Your strength, dexterity, intelligence and vitality get automatically increased, depending on your class. No more making a tank out of a ranger I am afraid. And this is where the game looses a good chunk of its rating.

The fact that you get to have a sidekick that does practically little more than keep the mobs occupied until you dispense of them, does not help either.

CULTURAL PHOBIAS DO NOT A GOOD STORY MAKE

Yes, the story plot is infantile, disrespectful to the original games (I will refrain from spoiling it) and it offers very little help in immersing into the game world. It is unfortunate because, Blizzard has proved in the past that they can produce games with a very good back-story, such as Starcraft II.

However, this a game franchise that is heavily invested on the Judeo-Christian culture of the Devil. Just read the name on the box! So, taking away demonic pentagrams and most religious symbols (some crosses can still be found) fools no one. Because once you go down that road and then decide to backup, you should make sure not to step on yourself and trip. As in: if a golden-eyed Fallen Angel (Hello!) is helping you fight Diablo, are you sure who is the Devil and who is not?

LOOT. LOOT NEVER CHANGES

Well designed and clearly labeled items make all the difference in the world. I would love for Borderlands 2 items to have such a clear Damager-Per-Second (DPS) number to make comparisons easier. Pair this with an inventory that is big enough and free of the need to play item-Tetris in (all items take up either one or two vertical squares) and you have yourself almost loot haven. Almost because you still get too many unusable items, mostly because of class restrictions.

You can stash such items in your common stash to share with your other heroes (on the same BattleNet account) but make sure to find the necessary...700,000 gold to pay for all the extra stash space. Hint: use the Auction House while you still can.

The only thing I found missing is the ability to add sockets to magical items and enchant regular ones.

THE AUCTION HOUSE: BRILLIANT! (WHEN IT WORKS)

I am going to go against the current here but here it is: I found the Auction House a brilliant idea. Well designed and decently executed. I am going to be sad to see it go on March, as announced. I can only hope they change their mind before then.

In all honesty, I am currently a Demon Hunter at Nightmare difficulty. And I have heard the complaints that it is impossible to finish Inferno without Real-Money Auction House (which is clearly not how it is supposed to work) but up to Nightmare, using the Auction House is the only way to get enough money to be able to do the enhancements you want, craft or buy the items you covet and unlock the precious extra stash space you need.

CHAINS IN NEED OF BREAKING

I had to rate the game even lower because of the always-online requirement. Because it is indeed a hassle and a hindrance (just try pausing in town for longer than half and hour and see what happens). Yes, the game does offer some gameplay features (namely, the Auction-House) to compensate for the inconvenience but they all give way to anger and frustration whenever Blizzard's servers go down  and you are unable to play a Single-player game for days at a time(!). Take away the Auction-House, however, and the always-online requirement becomes a severe and now unjustified hindrance!

THE ORIGINAL SIN

No, D3 dips to an even lower rating for managing to be both short and boring at times. There, I said it. Yes, it is a well balanced eye-candie, with tons of loot, problematic character development yet the gameplay feels like at chore at times and it is over before you know it. I even found Act I (the one offered for free as a demo) to be better designed and longer than the rest.

It is like that old Woody Allen joke: two old ladies are complaining about their retirement home catering. "The food was awful, barely edible", "I know", her friend replied, "and such small portions!".

This Is The Universe Singing To Itself

At the end of a job interview once, I was asked to choose between Star Wars and Star Trek. I made a favourable impression when, instead, I replied, "Dune".

Because the Dune Universe is as emotional as it is scheming and so deep in human accomplishments and  shortcomings as it is rich in mythos. 

The lyrics of this song are written in Chakobsa, the language of the Fremen, the desert people moulded upon the Arab nations and their control over the Spice that allows the world to function. 

Do yourself a favour and pick all six of the original Dune books. Try to steer clear of the latest fun-exploitation novels churned out every year in the name of Frank Herbert. They do little more than soil Frank's vision. 

And even thought the 1984 David Lynch's Dune film is considered canon, do not overlook the Dune (2000) and Children of Dune (2003) Mini Series. This where this magical music comes from.  

The Most Touching Ballads By The Most Haunting Voice You Will Ever Hear

Compared to its population, Canada is blessed with a disproportionate great number of talented performance artists - and Sarah McLachlan is one of the best examples.

Maybe they are inspired by the endless expanses of the Great North and the blandness of the Toronto sprawl; maybe it is the English and French cultures creating unique sparks as they reluctantly merge; maybe it is living in Vancouver, one of the most ephemerally beautiful cities of the world, set on the ridge of the Pacific ring of fire; or maybe it is the eternal adolescence of the Canadian psyche or the freshly disillusioned naiveté of a nation of great poets and dreamers in the shadow of the bordering militaristic giant. Who knows.

Sarah McLachlan is a great Singer - and this is her very best album! I have Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (together with all her albums) since my university years - God bless the Due South TV Series that exposed me to her absolutely haunting voice! I have been playing it numerous times over the years, one could not get tired of this collection. The pieces are all gems, from start to finish! The music speaks directly to the soul, such poetic lyrics are so hard to find any more.

And, I promise you, Sarah's voice will haunt you forever.

It's A Brand New PostApocalyptic Dawn

I am old enough to have played the original game when it first came out in 1997. I was a great fan of the series that followed and, thus, was very eager to get my hands on this latest installment. In a short sentence: Fallout 3  is a dream come true.

It is a cRPG game in which the player can alternate between the First and Third person perspective roaming a world comparable in size with Oblivion. The action has moved from Vault 13 and Southern California to Vault 101 and Washington, D.C. and the story brakes away from the previous bloodlines. However, the atmosphere of the original has been maintained and its scents sharpened: veterans will find it fitting like and old glove - whereas the new gamers are in store for a bag of pleasant surprises.

The graphics are wonderful, the guns detailed and the environments highly interactive. Short of a screenshot, imagine what would HalfLife-2 would look if released today. And similar to HL2, Fallout 3  does not require an...übercomputer to run smoothly. Once you see a NPC move though, you understand where the corners were cut.

Character customization is carried out in great style using the new and improved PIP-BOY at the beginning. You exit the vault and the harsh reality of a world that barely survived annihilation slaps you on the face. Adapt or perish.

The main storyline is there to be followed but Fallout 3 offers the greatest number of alternative choices I have ever encountered in a game! There is always a great number of paths to follow in order to achieve any goal - but every choice comes with a consequences tag. This is common feature of most classic cRPGs but in Fallout 3  I saw it implemented like never before. If nothing else, this sends replayability through the roof.

Side-quests offer little besides distraction and experience points (XP) to be spend on character improvement. XP are gained solely by completing quests, emerging victorious from fights, finding locations, picking locks and hacking terminals - and they are not limited by the action they were earned. Levelling up is based on 7 basic attributes [Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility & Luck - acronym?;)] that, in turn, affect your (13) specific skills. Since levelling

up is capped at Level-20, the game designers wanted to encourage replaying the game. On the other hand, it also means that your character will never realize its full potential (in case you are wondering why I withheld a star from fun, that's the second half of it).

The game is violent and gory but well within tasteful limits. Not so with the language - but it is tradeoff with realism. In a radioactive world, Sunday-school niceties are bound to go out the window.

What deserves a special mention is V.A.T.S. (:Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) which opens new vistas in cRPG design. It is an ingenious system which lets you pause the game and target specific body parts of your opponents. The success of your attack still depends on your skills but the end effect is cinematic and amazing (remember the movie Swordfish?).

After the nuclear summer of 2008 (with all the LimitedInstallation-defective EA releases), this seems like a postapocalyptic dawn indeed! Bethesda decided to listen to the gaming community and did not cripple this beautiful game with any idiotic DRM scheme. Inputting a serial number and a DVD-check is more than reasonable.

The publishers of Fallout 3  understand that there is a fine balance between "protecting the product" and..."insulting your own customers". And they obviously view respect as the two way street that it is - and for this they deserve our support: buy this game, today.

Voting with our wallets is the only argument the gaming industry cannot afford to ignore. And it is about time to cast some well deserved positive votes.

In The Valley Of Colours And Kings

After Zuma's success, a number of clones appeared - but the Luxor series is the one that actually improved on some aspects of the concept. As the series progressed, Luxor games became more and more self-reliant. With Luxor 4: Quest for the Afterlife the franchise flexes its own muscles.

A series of coloured balls (with the number of different colours increasing every few levels) gets pushed and you have to match them in sets of three or more in order to remove them - and prevent them from reaching the end zone. Instead of having the "shooter" in the centre, it is located at the bottom and it slides left and right. This makes for some quite difficult shots (especially when obstructed by the advancing row of balls) and raises the difficulty of the game.

On the other hand, the power-ups are more powerful, at the end of every round a number of coins and gems drop and "catching" them add lives to your paddle. It seems pretty straight-forward yet it can become highly...addictive!

Compared to the previous instalment of the series, Luxor 4 is graphically even more impressive, enriched as to the dropping bonuses (and...penalties) - yet it will seem somewhat easier to seasoned players of the series; nevertheless, it will fulfill the fans craving for more pharaohnic fun!

This is an example of what has come to be known as Casual Gaming: small, resource-light games that are fun for the whole family.

It would be a good idea to download the 60-min trial version from a casual games site, such as Reflexive and decide for yourself whether this is indeed your cup of tea. It wouldn't hurt to wait for the price to drop either: most casual games sell for no more than $10.

Another WindTrap, Disappointingly Holding No Water

To anyone familiar with the original DUNE universe, Frank Herbert's vision was so rich and majestic that as a reader I did not want the story to end. Well, at this point I very much wished it had.

Paul of Dune had everything going for it: an interesting timeline, a detailed setting and unresolved cliffhangers. Yet it manages to fail.

This book picks up the action just after the first book (and the movie) of the series (Dune) and before the second (Dune Messiah), a very interesting period of 12 years for which, so far, we only had hints and suggestive glimpses of. At the same time, a number of flashbacks flesh-out the details of the life of an adolescent Paul Atreides.

Wheels within wheels? No. Rather more like a lone, rusty wind-wheel turning in the soft breeze of decadent Kaitain. Let the good times roll...

According to Dorothy Parker, there are books "not to be tossed aside lightly, [but] thrown with great force". This is one of these books. My study coffee-table now has the indentation to prove it.

I received this book for free from the publisher and for over 6 weeks I tried to read it numerous times. I kept getting so discouraged that I was this close in giving up. The first 100 pages can be summarized in just one phrase: "Paul is devastated by the ongoing Jihad but it is inevitable and the lesser of many evils according to his prescience". Paul says it. Irulan makes notes about it. Alia has inner voices echoing it. OK, we get it, please move on!

Which prescience, one must note, apparently is a very fickle commodity as we keep hearing of it but never actually see it in action.

What has became of Paul, the leader of men and conqueror of worlds? That little man is the...Kwizats Haderach? That is what the Bene Gesserits were selectively mating people for, for thousands of years? That is what the Tleilaxu were trying to duplicate? Well, someone must tell both the the witches and genetic abominations that they are not missing much!

To keep the new emperor human is one thing; to make him dull and cruel, spineless and indecisive is quite another.

This is a book of science fiction so, yes, suspending one's disbelief is a requirement from page one. Nevertheless, a basic logical scaffolding is required for the whole world not to collapse. Taking over entire planets with only a handful of unruly Fremen and some Sardakaur fresh from switching their allegiance? Paul having delegated almost every important decision to...Korba and his Qizarete priests? Where has the unstoppable momentum of Paul gone? If he had lost steam so soon, there is just no way that his vision would materialize by others.

And just how did Fremen become so bloodthirsty and lost all sense of honor in a few weeks?

The young Paul stories fair a bit better but are cursed with the readers'...prescience of the Dune future: every new storyline must serpentine and eat its own tail before the end. After all, the Golden Path future has been set by Frank. And Writing is not a hereditary ability.

It feels like a bad batch of semuta to be sold anyway only, once more, to take advantage of the hardened addicts.

Of All The Lairs In The World...

Evil Genius is a game that stays for you for a very long time - and is bound to find its way to your hard drive every time there is a new Bond film hype. After the deluge of the latest DRM-ruined games, I went looking through my gaming library for older gems to play. This is definitely one of them!

In a classic Ian Flemming's setting, you start in a desert tropical island where you are to design and build your secret lair. In a Sims tradition you do not control your minions directly, instead you control the Evil Mastermind behind everything that is brilliantly nefarious: a stocky Bloomfield-lookalike in a gray Mao/Nehru jacket and an insatiable mood to take over the world (the other choices are the heavy-accented seductress Alexis and efficient Shen Yu - but we all know how chauvinistic the world of self-indulgent espionage can be).

Besides the Evil Genius, you can (partially) control a couple of major Evil Henchmen/women. I said partially because once given an order they will take their sweet time to execute it - if ever. No wonder Bond always won in the end: the Evil nemesis had to do everything himself!

Including making ends meet. Yes, even the most evil of geniuses apparently cannot print money. Hence, the need to built hotel and vacation resorts - not only to hide but also to finance the plans to take over the world. From hotelier to World Dictator - everyone not born with a silver spoon in his mouth has to pay his dues I guess...

Nevertheless, the real fun of the game is designing your lair and setting up the traps! Since there seems to be an endless number of possible combinations this alone multiples the replayability of the game.

Plan carefully ahead and watch the invading Secret Agents be thrown helplessly from one trap directly to the next - and finally out of your lair (or into a body-freezer room). Until the Super Agents that is.

The Super Agents make the game almost impossible to win. Again, in a true Ian Flemming fashion, good should prevail - and should do so easily (funny that concept never seemed to caught on in real life...). Nevertheless, the game is not unbeatable - it just needs a lot of practice. (I needed more than half a dozen tries - and they were all fun!)

In these Middle-Age days of PC gaming, when the industry decided to go to the dark side, it is a good idea to unwind with a brilliant classic.

Because What Everyone Really Wants To Do Is Direct

During the months of boycotting most new PC games releases (for harbouring vicious DRM schemes and Limited installations), I found the time to replay a number of older games that truly are much better in many ways. Most importantly, innovation.

The Movies is a cross-genre hybrid, beautifully combining a Sims game with a business-RTS one and a highly creative movie suit. Not only do you get to step into the shoes of a Hollywood mogul, but you get a shot in "realizing" that film you always had in you.

The game starts with the design and building of your Studio (using up the allocated funds), complete with Script stables, Sound stages, Production offices and, well, casting-couches? (not so surprisingly that part of Hollywood was not included). Casting is pretty straight forward, plucking some lucky characters from the waiting line and turning them into stars. Or script writers. Or directors. Or janitors. Yes, life is a bitch.

What I liked about this game was its historic accuracy, simplified efficiency and clear-cut design. Not only are most stages in making a movie readily available and the means to achieve this evolve as time progresses, but everything has a familiar feel and self-evident practicality as well.

Stars throwing tantrums and directors relaxing too much with the sauce; ageing stars in need for nip/tacks - and always keeping an eye out for whoever has the bigger trailer!

What I loved about this game was the opportunity to plan out the script in a detailed story-board and then shoot my own movies. The bad news is that if your visions are long and complicated your studio will be... bankrupt in no time, as it will release fewer and more expensive movies. But that is besides the point, is it not? What is a bankrupt studio in the wake of a iconoclastic new director towards his vision?

In the end, although very entertaining in many ways, the strong suit of this game is not its Movie-Business Management Simulation but rather its Movie Creating editor. Simply, there is no other game like it.