Ga-Rei Sounyuuka & Image Song Shuu

Title: Ga-Rei Sounyuuka & Image Song Shuu - Yuri-mu Croquette Street Release Date: December 25, 2008

Tracklist:

1. Dark Side of the Light (~Shika Image~)
2. Paradise Lose (TV Size)
3. Koko Kara, Kore Kara. (Yomi to Kagura no Deai, Shinrai ni Musubitsuku Katei wo Image)
4. Unusual Days (Taisaku Shitsu no Nakama Tachi to no Tanoshii Jikan wo Image)
5. Reality awake (Tsuchimiya Kagura Image)
6. Eien -TOWA- (Isayama Mei Image)
7. Tamakui (Sesshouseki Image)
8. Distance point (Attouteki na Chikara Category A Kashita Yomi wo Image)
9. Blue Butterfly (Aoi Chou wo Image. Zetsubou Battle. Attouteki na Haiboku.)
10. Chinkon no Tabi he (Yomi no Kokoro wo Image)
11. AI (Tsuchimiya Kagura Melody)
12. if (Isayama Yomi Melody)
13. Reincarnation (Tsuchimiya Kagura Isayama Yomi Image)
14. Yume no Ashioto ga Kikoeru

direct download [here]

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Been a long time since I upload something. This is another Nipponsei release I've really waiting for. I marathon Ga Rei Zero yesterday and am quite joyous to hear my fav band Yousei Teikoku featured in episode 8 insert song when Mei and Yomi had a duel. And yeah, that song (Tamakui) is included in this release, I don't know how to describe my happiness for this XD And many other good songs too.

[PS2] Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4

[SMT: Persona 4 on wiki]

6 days. The time I took to play Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 from start to finish, maxing all Social Link, doing virtually all quests and beat the extra bosses for the so-called True Ending. An okay bosses on Normal mode, but never been a threatening one. By the end of the day, the only thing I failed to finish in this game are some of the Quests (the book quiz at the bookstore and the final feed the cat, because I'm just too lazy to go to the riverbank everyday and feed it), some Personas (I finished the game at level 91, so I definitely was unable to fuse Lucifer) and a lil bit of items (which I don't really care). Nevertheless it has been a satisfactory 6 days playing this game, and with the game finally finished, I can finally resume playing some other games I put on hold. Namely, Infinite Undiscovery disc 2 and The Last Remnant.

I'm lazy to summarize the story. So here's wiki.

Persona 4 takes place in the fictional, rural Japanese city of Inaba, which lies among floodplains and has its own high school and shopping areas. The player discovers that a rumored place called "The Midnight Channel" is actually real. On rainy days, a person can look into any television set and observe events in the Midnight Channel. Those that have learned how to use Personas also have the ability to reach into any television set and enter the Midnight Channel directly, though they must be able to fit through the set's screen, and each set will lead to a different location in the Midnight Channel. The weather conditions inside the Midnight Channel are the opposite of what exists in Inaba. A persistent fog exists in the Midnight Channel that can make the characters nauseous if they look at it too long. However, after a long period of rain in Inaba, fog will set in, and will cause the fog in the Midnight Channel to disappear, making the Shadows that reside in it stronger and more dangerous to anyone that is ill-prepared to be there.

So that's it. Our silent heroes who has just transferred into the area suddenly found himself involved with the rumored Midnight Channel, and with the aid of his friends, tries to solve the mystery and seek the truth.

The gameplay of P4 is very similar to P3 so those who have played Persona 3 will definitely have no problem adapting to P4 gameplay. From the battle system, Social Links, Persona fusion, most of the things you find in P3 can be found in P4.

Just like P3, the game provides the freedom for player to choose what they want to do for their daily schedule. Go exploring the dungeon, meet the people to strengthen the relationship, do other things that can raise your trait, part time jobs for the money, S. Link and traits or just fishing for the lulz. While this seems to be good at the first glance, IMO this can also be very restrictive. I mean if a player care less about maxing traits and all Social Links, they are free to do whatever they want when they are not exploring the dungeon. But for those who pursue perfect traits and maxing all Social link, then everything need to be carefully considered beginning from the first day. From answering the questions given in classes and exams, things to do after school and midnight, and picking the right choice when doing the S. Link. Pick the wrong choice and you'll end up extending the time taken to level up the rank.

Social Links/Arcana has been one of the unique feature of Persona games. In P4, the system is improved even more. Previously all S. Links give is extra exp for the fused persona, and at max, enable the player to fuse the strongest persona of that particular arcana. This feature is still retained in P4, with additional feature on party member arcana (Magician, Chariot, Priestess, Emperor, Star and Fortune). Now, higher rank S. link provides some battle advantages to the allies rather than a simple persona fusion exp bonus. The higher the S. Link rank, the better abilities your allies gained. From rescuing the protagonist from mortal blow (which would definitely be a game over), doing a follow up attack, help a Downed allies, to enduring a fatal blow (I like his one a lot). Plus at max level, their persona will evolve (unlike P3 which evolve automatically) where most of them no longer have elemental weakness (except Yukiko, unfortunately). A reason to focus on maxing your allied S. Links first. But not a total priority. Balancing between Social Link and raising traits (Knowledge, Expression, Courage, Understanding and Diligence) is crucial in P4, even more than P3. This is because many of the in-game choices given when doing social links or quests require certain levels of trait.

Another unique feature of P4 is the effect of weather. From the sunny, cloudy and rain, they a have important impact to the game. Okay maybe there's not much difference between sunny and cloudy, but rainy days are definitely something that need to be considered in many things. Certain weather conditions give certain bonuses when doing persona fusion, so its definitely a good idea to pick ideal date when you are fusing the persona (preferably rainy days). Certain type of fish only appeared on certain weather (*coughguardiancough*) A long rain indicate that you need to rescue someone before the rain end, or else its game over. Many S. Link are not available during rainy days. Aiya's best lunch service (because it can raise 3 traits in a go) is also only available on rainy days.

And one more thing, since Dungeon exploration can only be done after school (unlike midnight in P3), this means our whole days cannot be spent on any other activities. After exploring, you would be too tired to do midnight activities (except snacking, if available) and will be forced to go to sleep early. Luckily, chances are you will only go to dungeon only ONCE in one or two months. This is because unlike P3, the character will not going to get fatigue no matter how long you spend the day exploring the dungeon, so you can use the time at its fullest to level up you character as much as you want. SP depletion might be a problem early game, but later once the fox joined into the TV, SP has never been a problem because the fox can fully heal your SP. It's friggin damn expensive at first (60 yen per SP, you calculate), but later once you did his Hermit Arcana quests, the price will drop (drop by 5 yen per rank), making it much cheaper. In fact, much much later in the game when Rise learns hp/sp recovery support, you really don't have the need to use the fox for sp heal anymore.

In short, like P3, visiting dungeon should only be done just once or twice per "case/dungeon", because if you visit too often, you'll lose the previous time you need to do things like S.Link and raising traits.

As for battle system, I think I don't have anything to comment because it's basically very similar to P3. Oh, except that Shuffle Time no longer provide the hp/sp/money bonus as it used to be in P3. Instead once in awhile there would be a 2nd Tarot Card that can provide various effects, depending on your LUCK. Cards that I love the most are Judgment (restore SP), Moon (bonus exp) and Temperance (bonus yen). Of course, it's disaster if I get reversed card especially for Judgement, but this is all about luck. And one more thing, all physical attacks in P4 have the same attribute (strike). No more pierce, slash etc etc regardless of weapons or skills.

One of the best thing about P4 that I love very much is the list of awesome seiyuu used in this game (but the english VA suck, seriously). Yukiko's Ami Koshimizu, Chie's Yui Horie and Rise's Rie Kugimiya. And Naoto's Paku Romi too. zomg how can I resist these. Thanks to rid88 I manage to get the UNDUB English version, I'm just so happy to be able to play the undub, with many of my favorite seiyuus featured XD

*all screenshots are properties of gamefaqs*

[XBOX 360] Tales of Vesperia

[Tales of vesperia on Wikipedia]

I've actually finished playing this game 2 weeks ago, but due to Persona 4 fever, somehow I become a busy man and decided to post this after I finished with P4.
I've finished my first playthrough of Tales of Vesperia, completing virtually all of the sidequests except a few, like the Monster Book, Item Collectors, Dog Maps and some character Titles. particularly Yuri's True Knight Title because I failed to do a SINGLE Secret Mission out of all 23 (DAMN YOU YEAGER). So now I'm playing my 2nd playthrough, in Unknown mode, with all bonuses from the Grade Shop (10x exp, skills, artes, gald, items, everything possible with those 18k+ Grade I earned thanks to Rita Grade farming method). Talk about easy way to go through Unknown mode. Well not exactly. It's only easy at this stage because of the uber equipment and skills I have carried from previous playthrough. The difficulty of the battles will rise exponentially after this, because the monster will keep on growing stronger while my equipment is practically remained unchanged.

Anyway, this is just the extension of my review from my previous quick look of Tales Vesperia [here]. Since Abyss and Vesperia are the only Mother Tales that I've played (damn you Namco, bring Symphonia eng.ver. to PS2/360 plx D:), my thoughts will mostly revolve around these 2 games.

First, lets look at the story of Vesperia. It starts a bit slow yet wonderfully done, cliche to many typical jrpg but still entertaining. But as the game went on to the 2nd, and then 3rd part, the plot quality somehow went downhill, with a lot of plotholes here and there. For this aspect, I have to admit that Abyss handled this matter far better than Vesperia. Character-wise, Vesperia are better (although Jade can singehandedly top all Vesperia Character, but as a whole I love Vesperia characters much much more than Abyss), but the way the plot of Vesperia is developed is poor imo. For example, why Raven was in the prison early in the game? What is this 'Flynn in danger" that Estelle talk about back then in the castle? Who the hell is Zagi and why he hold grudges against Flynn? All of these still lingered in my mind when I finished the game. Although I can somehow figure out the answer to some of them, I do hope the game would give a better explanation regarding these matters. Oh, and Rita's explanation about Blastia always made my head spinning @.@
Also, no villain in Vesperia is close enough to the awesomeness of the Six God generals in Abyss. Barbos? Zagi? Alexei? The final boss might be so, but the rest of the villains are pitiful, with little or no background history of their involvement to the main story. They appeared for a while to heat things up and once they are defeated, that's it, no more of their faces (except Zagi). Phail villains overall.
As for voice actors, Vesperia is definitely one of the best that featured the perfect English VA to match the characters. I especially love Estelle's cute and Rita's strong voice, which really match their personality.

Then to the in-game itself. As many other rpg, and Tales itself, Vesperia offered many sidequests for the players to explore. From the Colliseum battle, extra dungeons and bosses, costumes and many more. Unfortunately, many of these are easily missable unless you are really patient to go to each and every place everytime the story progress. Hence it is advisable to use a quick guide (kouli's quick chart is excellent for this), at least to make sure you do not miss any major sidequests.
On a minor note, unlike Abyss and many other Tales, non-costume titles in Vesperia offered nothing but a mere name. At least that’s how it is as of current, nobody has figure out what exactly Titles did in Vesperia. In Abyss and World for example, Titles give various field bonuses like Overlimit/hp/tp regen etc but this is not the case in Vesperia.

Then to the gameplay. This. Is what make Vesperia the better jrpg out there. And broken as well. As previously mentioned in my quick review, the gameplay featured Real Time Linear Motion which provide the player opportunities to move around the battlefield and kick ass with their attacks/battle skills. Good for people who prefer some button actions rather than sitting idly, choosing every single menu commands used in many conventional turn-based rpg. And the developer did a good job in improving the gameplay since Abyss. While in Abyss we're stuck with the common normal attacks - base - arcane/FoF Change, Vesperia added the value of Combo to the gameplay, although most of these combo (base to altered, altered to arcane and vice versa, double base, arcane and altered etc) are exclusively available for Yuri. The Overlimit Gauge is degenerated to only 1 gauge for the whole party (meaning no individual OL gauge anymore), but it is compensated by the ability to use artes without casting time, as previously mentioned in my review. So yeah, because of this Overlimit, Vesperia has some of the most broken/overpowered rpg characters in history. Rita's unlimited stunlock spells, Yuri's brutal combo, and Estelle's eternal invincibility. 200 man melee Colliseum is nothing for them.

All in all, Vesperia has been one of the best HD jrpg out there for 360, good enough to lure me to buy a 360 (which I would never dreamed off some times ago) just to play this game. The good feature about Tales series is the interactive gameplay and the humor they put throughout the story, making this an enjoyable game to play. So if you love other Tales series, Vesperia definitely is a must. I am once an FF fan before I discover the awesomeness of Tales series, and slowly transitioned myself from FF series (which went downhill especially FFXII) to Tales series.

*all screenshots are properties of gamespot*

Kiss x Sis OVA

[Kiss x Sis @ MAL]

A quick watch I took when I'm almost finished playing Persona 4 a few days ago. Kiss x Sis has been on my watchlist since the day I found out that the OVA was scheduled for Winter series, and finally as scheduled, the OVA has been released a few days ago, followed by the first sub by Anon soon after.

Talk about awesome twincest. That would rage me all over the place, wanting to be in the place of the main male chara, Keita. Due to his father married to a new mother, he end up having sisters (a twin, to add more to the rage meter) that love him so much that they would do whatever it takes to make Keita theirs (passionate morning kisses, panty flash, bath together, making a doll so that they can masturbate to their beloved otouto.. ehm...). Okay, I'm exaggerate...not. The OVA is just as dangerous as the manga, there's no sex, tits and vagoo. Just cockteasers.
I do enjoyed reading the manga (long time ago, before my HDD crash), and the same thing can be said for the anime. At least, the first half of the OVA did so. The 2nd half, which is similar to the early chapter of the manga, did change the mood a bit, although just temporarily. Seeing this as a mere 2 episodes OVA, I can't imagine what direction will the next episode headed to.

Nevertheless I do hope that someday Kiss x Sis will have their own TV series :3

er...tagged

[ tagged by mana again lawl ]

so here goes. random answer is random

01. three things that scares me
- failing my exam D:
- HDD crash
- pitch black darkness

02. three people who makes me laugh
- anon
- nub/troll
- Jason Lee

03. three things i hate
- early morning class in winter
- calculation -_-
- worm (I mean, those annelids)

04. three things i don't understand
- moonspeak
- people
- virus

05. three things i want to do before i die
- marry
- do all sorts of mischievous things :3
- go to mars

06. three things i can do
- study?
- games?
- animu?

07. three ways to describe my personality
- Kousaka (Genshiken)
- Yuri (Tales of Vesperia)
- erm....Ijuin (Team medical Dragon)

08. three things i can't do
- driving (rather, I can't take driving license!!!)
- stay awake for 24 hours straight
- finish a full 2L of Cola in a go

09. three person i wanna tag
- erm...seems like all the eprson that I want to tag in my mind has already been tagged...so I don't know who to tag.

roneriness

For the next 2 months, I'll be all alone at home, looking after the house (as if I'd do that lol). Last Tuesday, my housemate Haikal "the unfortunate 360 victim" took his flight to Malaysia. That make it 4 left at home. Yesterday Fawwaz "the partial freeloader" (jk, hope you don't take it seriously dude :3) also took his flight. And today the remaining 2 of my housemate,s Sirul the "versatile cooker" and Pocek the "footbalmaniac" left for their flight to Perth, then to Malaysia tomorrow...

huhu, such roneryness for the coming weeks. Good thing is, I'll be able to use the internet without worrying much about reaching the download quota. Bad thing is that I need to pay all the bills for the next 2 month with my own money (and then calculated later with my housemates) =.=

Tinker V2

The last time I post about my favorite Dota hero Tinker [here], it was based on the old version (6.48b and below). Time goes by and version changes, and this also brought the wind of change to the way Tinker is played in competitive level. Coming dota version 6.52e where blink dagger action no longer a viable option, the map has emphasized more and more on pushing/anti-pushes, as well as the ever-needed disables in the form of hero skills or items.

In short the basic Tinker build of manta-guinsoo-skadi-radiance-linkens-bot pioneered by virot2 has barely been used in high level play. 2 of the items still remain as the core of the new item build - BoT (Boot of Travel) and Guinsoo. The reason for this is obvious - monstrous mobility across the map and the possibility of perma-hexing the enemy.

With the increasing use of disabling heroes (Earthshaker/Lion/NA etc) and Guinsoo carrier (Queen of Pain/Puck/Pit Lord etc), BKB (Black King Bar) has been a very vital part of the revamped Tinker item build. Some versions ago the use of BKB is not viable because of the bug occurred while activating BKB consecutively (hence need to wait at least 1 second before activating the refreshed BKB), but this bug has been fixed some versions ago. This consequently made BKB a valuable item on tinker to counter all those chain disable. With Rearm, Tinker can stayed virtually perma-BKB-ed as long as he has the mana to support Rearm. In version 6.55, BKB duration has been nerfed after each usage, but even so BKB still remains as his core item because of its purpose - countering disable.

And the fourth core item is Shiva's Guard. This basically replace the core item of virot2 - Manta Style as pushing machine. While Manta Style provide the image to aggro and withstand creep damage, and allow Tinker to push forward without the need of allied creep, Shiva provide a better alterative because a combo of March-Shiva-Rearm-march-Shiva can easily clear a creep wave in an instant. Yes mana is still a problem with this way, but people will usually TP back to fountain after only 1 or 2 wave cleared, and TP back to any pushed line. This is because going too far pushing one lane alone posed higher risk of being ganked, and BKB is not an absolute guarantee to escape from the ganks. Not to mention, the slow from Shiva's Blast is quite helpful in teamfights.

So that's it, the revamped Tinker item build which synergizes with the need of the new map. The remaining 2 item slots are mostly bought based on situation. I've seen people go for Manta, Skadi or Linkens (ie the old virot2 style). It all depends on situation, because in the end, you can only fit 6 items in your inventory. And yes, this build costs a hell lot of gold, so it's not easy to build especially if the enemy went for a quick push and constant ganks. But hey, a good Tinker can easily farmed up to 500+ cs in a proper game, so in the right situation, farming all those items are not that hard. And one more thing, hotkeys for the numpads are very essential for this build.

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replays showing the new Tinker build:

game 1: MYM Prime Defendind #11 playoff, Kingsurf vs DiamonZ
Watch how Yamateh singlehandedly march through DmZ players, and still able to survive :D

game 2: MGC 2008 semi final, Fnatic vs Cant
Fnatic manage to prolong the game long enough for Lakuci's Tinker to farm all his item, and push Cant on all side and carry them to victory.

game 3: F4F5 round 2: TPL vs Wicked
Wicked dominate the game for most of the part with excellent Kunkka play by U_nited. However Chu manage to turn the game around in favor of TPL. A Very long game.

ps: note that registeration is not required to download all those replays. Just click cancel.

Quick Glance: Tales of Vesperia & Infinite Undiscovery

So it's been about 2 week since I bought my xbox360. And all these time I only have 4 games to play around: Ace Combat 6/Beautiful Katamari which came preloaded with the 360 package, and Tales of Vesperia/Infinite Undiscovery, the games that made me want to buy 360. And in fact I even bought these games way before I bought my 360 :3

rambling aside, I thoroughly enjoyed my two weeks playing these 2 games, especially Tales of Vesperia. And within 1 or 2 days, I expect 2 more games which I've already ordered via PlayAsia to arrive at my home, namely Fifa09 and The Last Remnant.

Quick look: Tales of Vesperia

AWESOMENESS. That's the first thing that came out on my mind if I would describe ToV. I'm currently halfway through part 3 after the rise of the "tower", so I can say that I'm almost done with this game.

[Tales of vesperia on Wikipedia]

Story: The usual save-the-world theme in many other rpg. Just like Abyss, the plot manipulate various terms and elements to enhance the story. While we've seen Hyperresonance, Miasma, fonon, fonstone, Score etc in Abyss, in Vesperia we're introduced with terms like Blastia, Entelexeia, Aer and many terms that made up the backbone of the story. As for character, for sure I'd pick Vesperia characters any day than Abyss. With Estelle's cuteness, Rita's tsundereness and Judith's mature-ness, these trio beat even the best combo of Abyss girls :3 Oh not to mention, whenever you look at the main hero, Yuri and his childhood friend Flynn, you can't help but thinking that they are really similar to Lelouch and Suzaku (Code Geass). You got the point.

Gameplay: One of the better Tales gameplay. Sure I'd missed Field of Fonons in Abyss, but Vesperia gameplay make it up with even more fascinating features. The skill point will eventually enable you to chain combo your Artes from Base, Altered and Arcane interchangeably, creating various powerful combos (especially Yuri, the king of combo in Vesperia). Another new feature is the introduction of Fatal Strike (FS), which grants player extra bonus depending on the type of FS that appear. Think of this more or less like the Break Mode in Valkyrie Profile Silmeria, except that you didn't actually break the enemy parts, but rather you hit them with specific elements to trigger the FS. And the Overlimit in Vesperia is broken/overpowered. While it does no longer provide immunity to staggering as in other Tales, it enables you to chain Artes continuously with virtually zero casting time/delay. And what does this means? Imagine Rita (she's a Jade+Anise type mage) chain-combo AoE spells (Tidal Wave, Meteor Storm etc). This is why Rita is called the most broken character in Vesperia :D

Nevertheless, I expect to finish this game by the end of this weekend, or probably by next mid-week. I'm currently kinda addicted with material and Grade-grinding, coliseum battle, as well as the Nam Cobanda minigames (Poker lulz). And I'll probably replay this game later, just like Abyss :3

Quick look: Infinite Undiscovery

I only payed this game for like 2 or 3 days, then stopped temporarily because I want to concentrate on finishing Vesperia.

[Infinite Undiscovery in Wikipedia]

As a product of Tri-Ace, I definitely would want to get my hand on this game, regardless of their quality. Playing this game for the first few hours, I'm quite satisfied with the gameplay. The gameplay is similar to the free-field battle introduced in FFXII, but without those bullshit red and blue lines of course. I believe I have yet to explore many features of this game, so my brief review will just based on what I've explored so far. By the time I put this game on hold, I've completed the quest in Castle Prevant - that is right after Sigmund, Eugene etc joined the party and headed to Nolaan. In battle we can only control the main character afaic, that is Capell. The basis of battle is similar to Star Ocean, where player can attack with A (weak) and B (strong). Comboing A and B produces different end-combo tech - (think of this like the combo in Samurai Warrior). And of course the learned battle skill can be assigned to A and B button, like in Star Ocean. Other additional features is the introduction of "Connect", where player can interact with the assigned character in the party to do various jobs for them. In battle, they can shoot the enemies from afar (Aya ftw), or use specific magic. Connect can also be used in town, where Capell can link with any available character and speaks with the people in place of Capell.

Anyway, it might be another week before I'll resume playing this game. I think I need a HD monitor to play this game at its fullest, because playing using my current sdtv really hurts my eyes, particularly due to the game's rather small font. And the graphic would even be more awesome should I play this on HD.

Epic Combo part 3

Epic Combo? Latel for some reason I've played way too much Tales series (Abyss, World and Vesperia) and I'm pretty much addicted with these games, particularly the possibilities of various combination of battle skill that can be executed in battles. That led me to lurk for some awesome MAD video. Not a word can describe their awesomeness.


Tales of the Abyss MAD. This is why this game is awesome. The first two have already been included in Abyss review.

EtherealSky's first TotA MAD video. Done at low level, but still pretty good stuff to watch.




his 2nd MAD video. My favorite part would be around 3:13. Awesome usage of Brilliant Overlord Mystic Arte to hit 3 enemies simultaneously.




random MAD video I found on the net

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Tales of Vesperia combo videos. Yeah, Yuri and Rita are broken if done right. Infinite combo ftw XD


Yuri solo against Kratos in ToV. Never break his combo until the end. Impressive.



The so-called Infinite Combo. Azure Edge/Storm, Dragon Swarm, Shining FangBrutal Fang, Rending Wolf Charge, rinse and repeat :3



The brokenness of Rita. 'blah blah blah - VIOLENT - Blah blah blah" She can own the entire field by herself with Tidal Wave (not in this video).

Competitive DotA: Autumn summary (pt.2)

Time for part 2. After MGC 2008 and ASUS Autumn 2008, major competitive dota events keep on entertaining us with the hosting of prestigious events including Sendi Mutiara Multimedia (SMM) Dota Tournament 2008), Dreamhack Winter 2008 and Asian DotA Championship (ADC) season 2 playoff stage. ADC season 2 is still underway with 4 teams left, double elimination format.




Yes, it is as you read. SMM Tournament is held in Berjaya Times Square, Malaysia on 21st to 23rd November. It is an annual event which offer a plentiful amount of cash prize. Believe me, the prize offered in this tournament exceed any other prize offered in any other online/LAN tournament (maybe except ESWC), just look at the tournament outcome below and see how much did the first place winner get. This reason alone would be enough to lure many international teams into this events. Unfortunately, some invited teams were not able to come to the event, either because they could not afford the fee to fly to Malaysia+accommodation, or due to last minute problems (as in Rush3D and MYM). With these teams not participating, not SMM is officially an Asian-exclusive tournament. Nevertheless they're still entertaining with the inclusion of China's top 2 teams, CanT and EHOME, as well as Singapore's finest eVo`XtC.

Map Version: v6.57b
Mode: -CM Captains Mode
Patch: 1.22

tournament outcome:

1. EHOME - 10, 132.28 + Hardware
2. eVo`XtC - $5,066.14 + Hardware
3. CaNt - $3,658.88 + Hardware
4. Kingsurf - $1377.41 + Hardware
5. Fnatic - $413.22 + Hardware
6. Survivor - $358.13 + Hardware
7. UCpro-tbun`w4s| - $303.03 + Hardware
8. PGA - $275.48 + Hardware

Links:

• SMM tag @myMYM
  
• SMM Tournament Coverage @myMYM
• Groupstage matches@myMYM
• Playoff Bracket @myMYM
• www.smm.net.my - Top 16 Replay Pack
• www.smm.net.my - Top 8 Replay Pack
• www.smm.net.my - Loser's Bracket Matches
• www.mkshare.org - Day Three Replays
• www.smm.net.my - Loser Bracket Replay Pack
• www.YouTube.com - Interview with CaNt
• www.YouTube.com - Interview with EHOME

It is as you see. EHOME won the tournament with 0 losses throughout the whole tournament. Really impressive performance by them, considering they arrive in Malaysia very late on Friday 21st November and have to make up for the games they didn't manage to play in time. 2nd place is Singaporean team eVo. I don't want to be a stupid fanboy, but words have it that during their loser bracket match against KS, one of their player (the person who play ES) manually disconnected after he was dead, and KS willingly agreed for a reload which happened to be quite a long time ago, around 5th minute when eVo got the first blood, and and by the time he disconnected, KS was overwhelmingly at advantageous position to win the match. I don't want to jump to conclusion yet, but TofuBoi barely give explanation as why his teammate DC, rather all he stated in DA-forum is the rules regarding the point-systems for reload. So yeah, until they are proven innocent, they're still cheaters to me. Who care, I'm KS fanboy after all XD

recommended replay: I personally don't have much time to watch most of the replay, but 1 that really caught my attention is Kingsurf vs eVo, Playoff round 2. Unexpected push strat by eVo (4 minutes vanguard Axe and 6 minutes outer tower downs O_o), but even more impressive defending by KS to make their way back into the game, let spectre farmed and win the game. Recommended!

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DreamHack Winter 2008 was held in Jönköping, Sweden and has just ended yesterday. A lot of top european teams participated in this events including MYM, SK, Mouz, DMZ, MET and Gvision. Before the tournament started, a lot of these teams had problems to field 5 man rosters due to some of their players not being able to arrive on time (MYM|Fear lulz), while others due to inactivity of some of their original roster. Hence, these teams took in some of the well known player who didn't participate in DH into their team to play for this event. MYM recruited formet Mouz PlaymatE to replace the stranded Fear, Mouz recruited KS.Int player Puppey (they even permanently adding him into the lineup), while DmZ temporarily rectuited another KS.Int player GunZ.

Map Version: v6.57b
Mode: -CM Captains Mode
Patch: 1.22

touenament outcome:

1. Meet Your Makers - $3,407.16
2. SK Gaming - $1,388.10
3. Mousesports - $630.95

links:

• www.myMYM.com - Roster of the Participating Teams
• www.GosuGamers.net - Opening Cermony
• www.GosuGamers.net - Tournament Brackets
• www.GosuGamers.net - DotA Schedule
• www.DreamHack.se - Live WebCam
• www.DreamHack.se - Day One Photo Gallery
• www.DreamHack.se - Day Two Photo Gallery

In the lin above, you can also find some interviews with the participated players including Puppey, PlaymatE, GunZ, SK.Kwom, dmZ|Sond and MET|Misery. Anyway conratulations to MYM for winning the Dreamhack for the...I don't remember for how much time already. Despite Mouz being one of the heavy favorite to win this tournament, MYM was able to outplay them in their winner bracket semi final match. IMO PlaymatE really fills in the role left behind by Fear. He played a nice carry in many of their games. As Sa, Gondar, and in the grand final against SK, as DK. I wouldn't be surprised if soon I'll see someone with clantag MYM|PlaymatE. Mouz on the other hand who seems confident to take the first plce prize, failed to do so when they lost to SK in loser bracket final against SK, with remarkable sub-par performance by Miracle for some reasons. They, however did try some interesting strat, including level 1 roshan with Lich+Syllabear combo against MYM (which have been done many times in organised pub games), but failed.

There's not much highlighted replay I can recommend because most of the game went just like many other 6.57 replays, with the diverse heroes pick and strats. I myself haven't watch many of them as of yet, except a few MYM replays. Oh, one more reason to watch MYM replays: they brougt back the oldschool Pudge+Omni combo :3


ps: credit to Champ for some of the links.

Winter 2008/2009 Anime Series

December:

* 「Major: Yuujou no Winning Shot (Film)」- (12/13)
* 「Bleach: Fade to Black - Kimi no Na wo Yobu (Film)」- (12/13)
* 「Kimi ga Nozomu Eien ~Next Season~ (OVA)」 *Volume IV - (12/19)
* 「Gegege no Kitarou: Nippon Bakuretsu!! (Film)」- (12/20)
* 「Kara no Kyoukai - the Garden of sinners (Film) Boukyaku Rokuon」- *Part 6 (12/20)
* 「Ad Lib Ouji (OAD)」- *Bundled with “Gokufu Box” Vol.1 (12/20)
* 「Zettai Shougeki ~Platonic Heart~ (OVA)」 *Volume III - (12/20)
* 「kiss×sis (OAD)」*bundled w/ LE manga vol.3 - (12/22)
* 「Kamen no Maid Guy (OAD)」*bundled w/ LE manga vol.9 - (12/22)
* 「D.C.I.F. Da Capo If Part I (OVA/Tentative)」*included w/ DVD box set - (12/25)
* 「(OVA)」*C75 premiere - (12/28)
* 「Gatchaman (Film)」*CG anime - (12/2008)

January:

* 「Pyu to Fuku! Jaguar ~Ima, Fuki ni Yukimasu~ (Film)」- (01/01)
* 「Akikan!」 *on BS11 - (01/03)
* 「Zoku Natsume Yuujin-chou」 *on TV Tokyo - (01/05)
* 「VIPER’S CREED」 *on ANIMAX/BS11 - (01/06)
* 「Hajime no Ippo New Series」 *on Nippon TV - (01/06)
* 「Monologues of Universal Transverse Mercator Egg Man (DVD)」- (01/07)
* 「Kemono no Souja Erin」 *on NHK Kyouiku - (01/10) ~50 episodes
* 「Chrome Shelled Regios」*on TV Kanagawa/UHF - (01/10)
* 「Slayers EVOLUTION-R」 *on AT-X - (01/12) ~13 episodes
* 「xxxHolic (OAD)」*bundled w/ LE manga vol.14 - (01/16)
* 「Armored Trooper Votoms: Pailsen Files (Film)」- (01/17)
* 「ABUNAI SISTERS -KOKO & MIKA- (OVA)」- (01/21)
* 「Kodomo no Jikan (OAD)」*bundled w/ LE manga vol.6 - (01/21)
* 「Ichigo Mashimaro encore (OVA)」*Volume I - (01/23)
* 「Hetalia Axis Powers」 *on Sky PPV - (01/24) ~26 episodes
* 「Zettai Shougeki ~Platonic Heart~ (OVA)」 *Volume IV - (01/28)
* 「Seto no Hanayome (OVA) Gi」 *Volume II - (01/30)
* 「Genji Monogatari Sennenki」 *on Fuji TV - (01/2009) ~11 episodes
* 「Konnichi wa Anne」 *on BS Fuji - (01/2009) ~26 episodes
* 「Minami-ke Okaeri」 *on TV Tokyo - (01/2009) ~13 episodes?
* 「Kurokami the Animation」 *on TV Asahi - (01/2009)
* 「Asu no Yoichi!」 *on TBS/BS-i - (01/2009)
* 「MAJOR 5th season」 *on NHK Kyouiku - (01/2009)
* 「WHITE ALBUM」 *on UHF - (01/2009)
* 「Maria†Holic」 *on Chiba TV/UHF/AT-X - (01/2009)
* 「Shikabane-hime Kuro」 *on UHF/AT-X - (01/2009)
* 「Maria-sama ga Miteru 4th Season」 *on UHF/AT-X - (01/2009)
* 「Birdy the Mighty DECODE:02」 *on UHF - (01/2009) ~13 episodes
* 「Afro Samurai: RESURRECTION」 *on Zenbei TV - (01/2009) ~4 episodes
* 「RIDE BACK」 *on Chiba TV/UHF - (01/2009)
* 「The Tower of Druaga ~the Sword of Uruk~」 - (01/2009)
* 「Chocolate Underground (Film)」 - (01/2009)
* 「Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo」 - (01/2009)

February:

* 「The 3-Mei-sama: Anime wa Anime de Arissho! (OVA)」- (02/04)
* 「Mahou Sensei Negima! ~Shiroki Tsubasa Ala Alba~ (OAD)」*3rd ep bundled w/ LE manga vol.25 - (02/17)
* 「Kodomo no Jikan Second Term (OVA)」*Volume I - (02/20)
* 「Zettai Shougeki ~Platonic Heart~ (OVA)」 *Volume V - (02/25)
* 「Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei (OVA)」*Volume I - (02/25)
* 「switch (OVA)」*Volume II - (02/25)
* 「Fresh Precure! (Tentative)」*on TV Asahi - (02/2009)

TBA:

* 「The☆Uchuu Show (Film/Tentative)」- (Winter ‘08)
* 「Paatenrai!! ~Minami no Shima no Mizu Monogatari~ (Film)」- (Winter ‘08)
* 「BIOHAZARD：Degeneration (Film)」*Full CG - (Winter ‘08)

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The list may look big, but in truth it's as short as the Summer season, I mean in term of full TV series. Of course this is compensated by a bunch of OVAs/DVDs release. So, looking at the list, some series I'm quite familiar with, and went into my list includes Tower of Druaga, Birdy the Mighty Decode, and Minami ke 3rd season. Automatic, no argument, unless Gonzo really try to screw up with Druaga. Then there's newcomer that caught my attentions like Kurokami, Asu no Yoichi and Akikan. Queen's Blade too, but then I've already quite familiar with this series. Maria Holic looks interesting given the trap crosdressing premise. Not to forgot, Shikabane Hime: Kuro. I'm quite dissappointed with the seiyuu performance in Shikabane Hime Aka, so I do hope the studio can do a better job in finding a proper seiyuus for SH:Kuro.
Now to the OVAs/DVDs releases. Kamen no Maid Guy, Seto no Hanayome, Mahou Sensei Negima, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Chocolate Underground are among the familiar names that already has their own series being animated before, and that goes without saying, in my watchplan. Seto Jin part 1 has already been released, but I haven't been able to watch it, so might as well marathon both OVA. There's also Da Capo OVA, but I'm not familiar with the characters of the first generation, so I might need to watch the TV series first before I can content with the OVA. As for newcomer, introducing, Kiss x Sis! I've read the manga last year (before the HDD crach incident), and I must admit they're quite amusing despite the twincest and near-ecchi content :3

360 for holiday :D

ｷﾀ━━━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━━━!!!!!

One month ago I am determined to buy a XBOX360 because of certain games (despite having final exam coming). Then I was left in despair after failing to find ntsc version of 360 (ALL 360 in aussie are pal btw). Searching and searching, and finally I found an excellent site to order an ntsc/asia version of 360. Making my order last Saturday, and yesterday it reach in front of my door. Lucky I only have to keep my patience for 1 day due to my exam :D
Finally something new to be raped for this 3 months Summer holiday XD

Competitive DotA: Autumn summary

A lot of Competitive DotA events going on around the world past the winter, and among others big events include Makes Games Colorful (MGC2008) in China, MYM Prime Defending 11 (online), Farm4Fame3 (online), and most recently, ASUS Autumn 2008 in Russia. F4F3 has already been covered here, so I'll leave that out.

MGC 2008 was held from 24th till 27th of October, specifically said the main events which was held in Optic Valley Plaza in Wuhan, China. What makes this tournament meaningful to worldwide Competitive DotA scene is the fact that several international teams were invited to this tournament, namely Kingsurf.Int and Indonesian team Fnatic. Along with home ground talent like EHOME and CANT, the replays from this tournament should be something to look for.

Map Version: v6.53
Mode: -AP Draft
Patch: 1.22
Format: Best of 1, Best of 3 for Grand Finals

tournament outcome:

1. Fnatic - $4,370
2. CaNt - $2,914
3. Ks.Int - $1,457

Links:

• MGC coverage @ myMYM
• Tournament bracket @ myMYM
  
• Tournament Replay @myMYM
• Event pictures @myMYM
• KS.Jolie.ru blog about the event @Kingsurf.net

p/s - recommended replay to watch: grand final match CANT vs Fnatic game 1. Watch the amazing Tinker play by Lakuci.
p/s#2 - KS.int attend this tournament short of 1 player (because Azen is still underage and didn't get his parent permission to go to China), hence they use a former EHOME player, 2009 as their 5th player.

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MYM Prime Defending 11 is still ongoing, and has now almost reach its final stage with 3 teams remaining to determine the winner. Yet for the xxxth time, MYM and Mouz met in the winner bracket final, and this time Mouz take the 2-1 victory. MYM which was knocked to the loser bracket will face Danish team MET to determine which team will go to the Grand Final, facing Mouz.

Map Version: v6.52e
Mode: -AP Draft

Links:

• PD11 Coverage @ myMYM
• Playoff bracket @ myMYM

p/s: recommended replay: KS vs DMZ match. Again, another amazing Tinker play :P
p/s#2: despite so many rooster change in Mouz (Drayich, CAT and Away leaving), this never seems to weaken them.

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THIS. I don't even know where should I start writing, it's just too awesome. First thing first, this tournament marked the return of our beloved VIGOSS to competitive dota scene, now played in DTS.Chatrix together with Aidar, Axypa, Dendi and Vein. Previously we have seen Vigoss playing in PD11 qualifier but at that time it seems like he's still rusty after taking a break from dota. But the vigoss we seen in ASUS is the old vigoss we know. With his extremely aggressive play, trying to chase heroes even though he risked himself being killed. Of course, teams like Rush3D must not be forgotten too. Sadly only Jolie was abe to attend for KS.Int, and he need to take in 4 random players to play for KS.Int. I can't even call this KS.Int.....

Map Version: v6.57b
Mode: -CM Captains Mode

tournament outcome:

1. RuSh3D - $1,695.42
2. DTS.Chatrix - $1,130.28
3. XoxaTEAM - $753.52

links:

• www.ProDotA.ru - GroupStage Matches
• www.ProDotA.ru - Playoff Bracket
• www.ProDotA.ru - Event Coverage
• www.ProDotA.ru - Photo Gallery

recommended replay to watch: I'd say almost ALL replays involving DTS and Rush3D is worth to watch, but I personally like DTS replays better. Watch how aggressive they play against each of their opponent. Really entertaining to watch :D