• 28Mar 13

  Injustice: Gods Among Us - Final Update

  Hello to everyone who still bothers to read my incredibly infrequent and choppy blogs, lol. I just wanted to make a quick update about my most anticipated game of 2013, which is the new fighting game from NetherRealm Studios titled Injustice: Gods Among Us. I've mentioned the game with detail in a couple past blogs so I won't spend much time covering old ground, and instead I'll just delve into the newest information we've received recently. The game is shaping up to be an awesome experience for any fans of either fighting games in general or DC Comics characters. Enjoy.

  --------------------------------------------------------

  NEWEST CONFIRMED CHARACTERS

  Initially, NRS showed off an early build of the game with 24 character slots on the screen. They stated that the final number might be different, but now it has been confirmed that the full game will indeed contain 24 characters with more to be added through DLC. The most recently announced characters can be seen here:

  Doomsday - Trailer
  Raven - Trailer
  Black Adam - Trailer
  Killer Frost - Picture
  Ares - Picture

  The confirmed, full roster is below:

  Superman
  Batman
  Wonder Woman
  The Flash
  The Joker
  Harley Quinn
  Solomon Grundy
  Hawkgirl
  Green Arrow
  Catwoman
  Deathstroke
  Bane
  Lex Luthor
  Shazam (Captain Marvel)
  Black Adam
  Ares
  Killer Frost
  Green Lantern
  Sinestro
  Doomsday
  Raven
  Aquaman
  Cyborg
  Nightwing

  --------------------------------------------------------

  DLC SEASON PASS ANNOUNCED

  It was revealed a short while ago that a season pass will be available for the game on the release date (April 16). This pass will be $14.99 and include 4 DLC characters for the price of 3, as well as bonus Flashpoint costumes for Aquaman, Deathstroke, and Wonder Woman. Based on the full-body versions of the shadowy character renders that were shown, there is a very good chance that Martian Manhunter will be the first DLC character revealed.

  

  --------------------------------------------------------

  DEMO RELEASE DATE AND OTHER RANDOM NEWS

  It was revealed today by Ed Boon from NRS on his Twitter account that there will be a demo released on April 2nd. It will include Batman, Wonder Woman, and Lex Luthor playable in the Gotham City arena. S.T.A.R. Labs challenge missions were also recently shown in several videos, and it was confirmed that there will be 240 missions in total (10 per character). Some will be mini-games and others will be fights with unique twists, such as a battle where Two-Face stands in the background and flips his coin to decide who he will randomly shoot, or a battle between Raven and her father, Trigon, who is not a fighter in any other mode of the game. Each event will have 3 optional objectives to complete, such as taking no damage in a fight or winning without blocking. Earning stars for completing these objectives and the events themselves will earn XP and other rewards like alternate costumes.

  Currently, the full selection of pre-order bonus offers are these:

  Gamestop - Red Son Pack including 20 extra S.T.A.R. Labs missions and 3 bonus costumes
  Walmart - Arkham City Pack including 3 bonus costumes, and a free copy of MK vs DC Universe
  Best Buy/Amazon EU - Blackest Night Pack including 1 bonus costume and a bonus Zombies Mode
  Amazon - $10 promotional credit and a free digital comic for Kindle

  --------------------------------------------------------

  That does it for now. I've still been rather busy with college and my activity here has been low, as usual. But I refuse to leave this site entirely because I've spent too mcuh time in my life here to give up now, lol...eventually I might even rank up to level 64 after being on 63 now for like over a year. I've been playing Tomb Raider and it's a fun game, though it can't match the Uncharted series in my mind. I would estimate that I'm probably a little less than halfway through the story, so I can't judge it with all fairness yet, and I haven't touched the multiplayer portion of the game (don't plan to until I beat the campaign). I also haven't yet played my free copy of Quantum Conundrum, but I will eventually.

  Thanks for reading, please comment, and God bless.

  

  • Posted Mar 28, 2013 6:11 pm GMT
  • Category: Games
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• 4Feb 13

  Update + Injustice Info

  Where do I even begin? I guess I should start by addressing the elephant in the room, which is the fact that I haven't posted a blog in like 5 months. There's a variety of reasons for that and I can explain a few in a moment when I give some updates regarding what I've been doing lately, but the biggest reason is simply that I haven't used this site much recently. My favorite unions are pretty much dead and many of my friends are either gone or almost completely inactive. I stick around to talk to a few people and check in on a few boards from time to time, but I've been spending far more time on deviantART. If you wish to contact me there, leave your ID in a comment for this blog and I can add you as a friend. You can still always send me a PM here however, because I do drop in at least once or twice every day if I can. Anyway, here are just a few general updates to get you up to speed on what's been happening with me:

  1. Played through and got a Platinum in Assassin's Creed 3, and it's definitely my GOTY for 2012. For some reason there are a ton of people bashing the game, but I don't understand why. The story is deep, the action is intense, the combat is satisfying, the maps are huge, and overall the experience could be summed up by just calling it "epic". A few glitches and some frustrating optional objectives keep the game from being perfect, but I would still give it around a 9/10.

  2. Played through and beat Assassin's Creed 2 very recently. My dad played through AC1, and afterwards when I said he should play my copy of AC3 next, he said that he wanted to play through the series in order and so he bought the PSN version of the AC2 Deluxe Edition. I took advantage of the opportunity and downloaded it to my system as well. Previously I had been wary of playing the middle three AC games because of some content I didn't care for, but in the end it turned out to be minor stuff like several of my friends had told me, though right off the bat it was clear that AC2 had more F-bombs than AC1 or AC3, lol. Overall I give AC2 about an 8.5/10 and for many of the same reasons I gave a similar score to AC3. Both games feel rather different and they're both good in their own ways. I'm looking forward to playing AC:Brotherhood next.

  3. I started attending a couple community college clas$es early in January. I'm taking English Comp and College Algebra. Since I had been previously homeschooled all my life, it was a big leap for me, but so far it's going okay. I surprisingly have a lot of work for just these two clas$es that I attend for just two days every week though, lol. I'm glad my parents haven't made me get a job yet so that I can focus exclusively on doing well with school for a while. I need to get A's in both these clas$es and in a few others to allow me to stand a chance at getting into the program I was eyeing, namely either Radiography or Radiation Therapy.

  Hmm...I had actually expected to type more in the updates section, but I can't come up with anything. I guess I'll move on to the next section of this blog.

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  INJUSTICE: GODS AMONG US - THE NEWEST INFO

  As you might remember, I made up a blog a while ago detailing almost all the info I could gather about the upcoming fighting game, Injustice: Gods Among Us. It's being developed by NetherRealm Studios, which is the same team that brought you the reboot of the Mortal Kombat franchise not too long ago. Injustice will feature over-the-top action with famous DC heroes and villains, and unlike with the MK series, the developers are foregoing blood and gore and are aiming for a T rating. Below I will list all the new info I can think of that's been released since when I made that first blog about the game. I hope you enjoy.

  NEW TRAILERS:

  Story Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l27-3NJqpiA
  Lex Luthor Reveal Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4-PpUxBwQE
  Deathstroke Reveal Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVDqpsXAgLI

  CONFIRMED CHARACTERS:

  Superman
  Batman
  Wonder Woman
  The Flash
  Solomon Grundy
  The Joker
  Harley Quinn
  Catwoman
  Cyborg
  Nightwing
  Green Arrow
  Deathstroke
  Lex Luthor
  Bane
  Green Lantern

  TEASED/RUMORED CHARACTERS:

  Raven (shown in a fight stance in a screenshot of the game)
  Hawkgirl (shown briefly in the story trailer as part of a cutscene)
  Black Adam (hinted at by Ed Boon from NRS on Twitter)
  Shazam/Captain Marvel
  Aquaman (unofficially confirmed by a website's preview of the game)
  Ares
  Doomsday
  Zatanna
  Martian Manhunter
  Captain Cold
  Swamp Thing

  UPCOMING INFO:

  Since Ed Boon has previously stated that not all characters in the game will be playable, people still must be skeptical when they see teased characters. Hawkgirl and Raven are pretty much locked in for being in the game because they've both been spotted in the game, but that doesn't necessarily make them playable. According to the Injustice Facebook page, a new video will be releasing today (Monday the 4th) and it will include gameplay from a character that hasn't been revealed yet if I'm not mistaken, so definitely keep an eye out for that.

  PRE-ORDER BONUSES:

  Currently only two pre-order bonuses are available. If you order the game from Gamestop, you will get the Red Son DLC Pack. It will include 20 additional story missions and three alternate costumes (one for Superman, one for Wonder Woman, and one for Solomon Grundy). It will follow the story of what would have happened had Superman's rocket ship crash-landed in the Soviet Union instead of Kansas. The other pre-order bonus, which was just revealed a couple days ago, is from Walmart. If you order from them, you will get the Arkham City Costumes DLC Pack, which includes the Arkham City versions of Batman, The Joker, and Catwoman. And even though it is not technically a pre-order bonus, you can get the New 52 Costumes DLC Pack by purchasing either the Battle Edition ($150) or the Collector's Edition ($99) of the game. My advice is to wait a little longer to make sure that no other stores such as Best Buy will announce any better offers. When MK was released, I heard that a bonus offer was announced one week before the game's release date.

  NEW GAMEPLAY INFORMATION:

  It has been announced that Injustice will feature an online practice mode, allowing two players to connect with each other to sharpen their skills or just mess around and have fun. A new feature of being able to tag specific moves in the pause menu and have them displayed permanently on the screen during a fight has also been revealed, and some mini-games will occur during the course of the game's story mode to break up the repetition of fight, cutscene, fight, cutscene, etc. The story itself will be slightly longer than what was in MK. Another big reveal is that players will have the option of using two different control setups, including the original d-pad method used in MK games or the d-pad method used in other fighting games like Street Fighter.

  CLOSING THOUGHTS:

  I'm pretty psyched for this game, if you can't tell, haha. The premise of Superman losing control and becoming sort of a dictator after The Joker attacks Metropolis in a major way is very interesting, and I'm sure it will be cool to see how the heroes and villains react to this and form alliances of their own. Having Kevin Conroy as Batman will be awesome, and I'm really excited to see some more alternate costumes for all the characters. Generally speaking, they can give a lot of replay value to games like this, for me at least. I'm keeping my hopes up that Raven will be playable and possibly revealed soon in a trailer of her own, and I'll definitely be pre-ordering the game once I make sure of where I want to buy it.

  

  Thanks for reading, God bless, and please comment.

  • Posted Feb 4, 2013 8:59 am GMT
  • Category: General
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• 6Sep 12

  Story I read about Einstein...

  Science
  
  "Let me explain the problem science has with religion." The atheist professor of philosophy pauses and then asks one of his new students to stand.
  
  'You're a Christian, aren't you, son?'
  
  'Yes sir,' the student says.
  
  'So you believe in God?'
  
  'Absolutely '
  
  'Is God good?'
  
  'Sure! God's good.'
  
  'Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?'
  
  'Yes'
  
  'Are you good or evil?'
  
  'The Bible says I'm evil.'
  
  The professor grins knowingly. 'Aha! The Bible!' He considers for a moment. 'Here's one for you. Let's say there's a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?'
  
  'Yes sir, I would.'
  
  'So you're good...!'
  
  'I wouldn't say that.'
  
  'But why not say that? You'd help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn't.'
  
  The student does not answer, so the professor continues. 'He doesn't, does he? My brother was a Christian who died of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is this Jesus good? Can you answer that one?'
  
  The student remains silent. 'No, you can't, can you?' the professor says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time to relax. 'Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?'
  
  'Er...yes,' the student says.
  
  'Is Satan good?'
  
  The student doesn't hesitate on this one...'No.'
  
  'Then where does Satan come from?'
  
  The student falters. 'From God.'
  
  'That's right. God made Satan, didn't he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?'
  
  'Yes, sir.'
  
  'Evil's everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything, correct?'
  
  'Yes.'
  
  'So who created evil?' The professor continued, 'If God created everything,then God created evil, since evil exists, and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.'
  
  Again, the student has no answer. 'Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they exist in this world?'
  
  The student squirms on his feet. 'Yes.'
  
  'So who created them?'
  
  The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. 'Who created them?' There is still no answer. Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace. The room is mesmerized. 'Tell me,' he continues onto another student. 'Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?'
  
  The student's voice betrays him and cracks. 'Yes, professor, I do.'
  
  The old man stops pacing. 'Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Have you ever seen Jesus?'
  
  'No sir. I've never seen Him.'
  
  'Then tell us if you've ever heard your Jesus?'
  
  'No, sir, I have not.'
  
  'Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelt your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of Jesus Christ, or God for that matter?'
  
  'No, sir, I'm afraid I haven't.'
  
  'Yet you still believe in him?'
  
  'Yes.'
  
  'According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn't exist... What do you say to that, son?'
  
  'Nothing,' the student replies.. 'I only have my faith.'
  
  'Yes, faith,' the professor repeats. 'And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith.'
  
  The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of His own. 'Professor, is there such thing as heat? '
  
  'Yes.'
  
  'And is there such a thing as cold?'
  
  'Yes, son, there's cold too.'
  
  'No sir, there isn't.'
  
  The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested. The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain. 'You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat, but we don't have anything called 'cold'. We can hit down to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we can't go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the lowest -458 degrees. Everybody or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.'
  
  Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere, sounding like a hammer.
  
  'What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?'
  
  'Yes,' the professor replies without hesitation. 'What is night if it isn't darkness?'
  
  'You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? That's the meaning we use to define the word. In reality, darkness isn't. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?'
  
  The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him. This will be a good semester. 'So what point are you making, young man?'
  
  'Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also be flawed.'
  
  The professor's face cannot hide his surprise this time. 'Flawed? Can you explain how?'
  
  'You are working on the premise of duality,' the student explains. 'You argue that there is life and then there's death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life, just the absence of it. Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?'
  
  'If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do.'
  
  'Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?'
  
  The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where the argument is going. A very good semester, indeed.
  
  'Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?'
  
  The room is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided. 'To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean.' The student looks around the room. 'Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor's brain?' The class breaks out into laughter. 'Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor's brain, felt the professor's brain, touched or smelt the professor's brain? No one appears to have done so... So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, sir. So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?'
  
  Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable. Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. 'I guess you'll have to take them on faith.'
  
  'Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life,' the student continues. 'Now, sir, is there such a thing as evil?' Now uncertain, the professor responds, 'Of course there is. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.'
  
  To this the student replied, 'Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.'
  
  The professor sat down.
  
  
  The student was Albert Einstein.
  
  Albert Einstein wrote a book titled 'God vs. Science' in 1921.....

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  My comment? EINSTEIN PWNAGE! Anyway, kudos if you read through the entire thing. It's always annoying when smug professors try to embarrass their students like this, so it's nice to see the tables turned, whether you agree with Einstein or not. Leave a comment if you wish, and God bless.

  • Posted Sep 6, 2012 2:47 pm GMT
  • Category: Science
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