Sunday, August 10, 2014
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Logic's Sneaker Review: The Nike Zoom Hyperfuse 2012
This section's dedicated to basketball junkies (like myself) and sneakerheads alike. We all know that it would suck to have spent your savings on shoes that won't last long or would cause discomfort in-game, so I'm doing these reviews to help basketball players of all skill levels decide on what works and what hurts when it comes to basketball shoes; especially those who are on a tight budget. So without further ado, let's get this thing started.
Today's review features the Nike Zoom Hyperfuse 2012.
Materials - The entire shoe upper is made of hyperfuse. Hyperfuse is made up of three different layers of materials (mesh, thermoplastic polyurethane or TPU, synthetics) melded together using heat. This makes the shoe quite durable. I've had this shoe for a couple of years now, and as you can see, everything's still intact. The way the upper is made also makes the shoe well ventilated. Your feet won't get too hot in these even if you play for hours; I especially like these because it lets enough heat escape so I don't get blisters.
Support - Most of the support comes from the rigidity of the material used on the part of the upper that wraps around your ankle and your heel. It somewhat restricts the movement of your ankle so it doesn't roll; I see this as a pro rather than a con but for those of you who'd like to have a wider range of motion in the ankle area, all you have to do is remove the shoelace from the topmost eyelet and this shoe will play like a low-top shoe with a little extra support; this will give you the extra range of motion you need for hard cuts and crossovers. The wings on the outer part of the outsole also help prevent unwanted motion, as well as add some stability to your landings after you jump.
Overall: The Nike Zoom Hyperfuse 2012 is a pretty solid indoor-outdoor hoop shoe. At first glance, it looks to be more of a bigman shoe due to the really supportive collar, but minor adjustments can be made to make this shoe suited for guards. It's durable enough to last long when playing outdoors (especially the outsole) and at the same time, doesn't sacrifice the overall flexibility of the shoe so it's still able to flex where it's supposed to, and stay steady where it needs to.
Today's review features the Nike Zoom Hyperfuse 2012.
Materials - The entire shoe upper is made of hyperfuse. Hyperfuse is made up of three different layers of materials (mesh, thermoplastic polyurethane or TPU, synthetics) melded together using heat. This makes the shoe quite durable. I've had this shoe for a couple of years now, and as you can see, everything's still intact. The way the upper is made also makes the shoe well ventilated. Your feet won't get too hot in these even if you play for hours; I especially like these because it lets enough heat escape so I don't get blisters.
Traction - The shoe grips fine on all the surfaces I've played on - hardwood, cement court with rubberized paint, rough pavement, and asphalt court. I haven't had any slippage problems with these even on those dusty outdoor courts (that's saying a lot, given that I've almost burned the outsole out). I use these outdoor most of the time and I gotta say, these outsoles last longer than most other basketball shoes I've had. Having worn out outsoles is mainly a concern for those who play ball outside but shouldn't really be an issue if you play on hardwood courts all the time.
Cushion - The Zoom Hyperfuse 2012 is equipped with zoom air cushioning at the forefoot. I find that adequate since it's able to absorb most of the impact during landing. It's also very responsive, so when you push off the ball of your foot, it won't sink in too much and make you feel sluggish. As for the heel cushioning, I guess it's just rubber and foam down there; but it gets the job done. I also want to mention that the insole of the shoe is quite thick and plush so that also helps protect your knees from too much impact.
Support - Most of the support comes from the rigidity of the material used on the part of the upper that wraps around your ankle and your heel. It somewhat restricts the movement of your ankle so it doesn't roll; I see this as a pro rather than a con but for those of you who'd like to have a wider range of motion in the ankle area, all you have to do is remove the shoelace from the topmost eyelet and this shoe will play like a low-top shoe with a little extra support; this will give you the extra range of motion you need for hard cuts and crossovers. The wings on the outer part of the outsole also help prevent unwanted motion, as well as add some stability to your landings after you jump.
Fit - The shoe fits kinda snug from the heel until the midfoot but is a little wide in the toe area. This is considering that my feet are a bit wider that most people with the same shoe size as me. Whether this kind of fit is good or bad all depends on the preference of the one wearing the shoe. I personally go for shoes that hug my midfoot tightly and have toeboxes that are a little wide, so this shoe's fit works for me.
Overall: The Nike Zoom Hyperfuse 2012 is a pretty solid indoor-outdoor hoop shoe. At first glance, it looks to be more of a bigman shoe due to the really supportive collar, but minor adjustments can be made to make this shoe suited for guards. It's durable enough to last long when playing outdoors (especially the outsole) and at the same time, doesn't sacrifice the overall flexibility of the shoe so it's still able to flex where it's supposed to, and stay steady where it needs to.
That concludes the first edition of my sneaker review. Check back soon for more of my reviews. Feel free to leave your comments below. Thanks for reading!
End of the week game sales
I figure that I''m going to make this a regular thing maybe a few times a week, but along with an overall post every Saturday. Now let's get to the important part: Game sales.
GMG has rolled out two sets of incredibly amazing deals called the 50 Games you must play list, and the 30 Indie Games you must play. I'm not saying that they aren't incredibly cliche titles, but the game collection is very impressive. Along with Shinyloot's 101 Days of Summer, there are really great prices you can grab good games on.
The first deal I'd like to spotlight are the GMG sales
(courtesy of /u/moo422)
While the prices aren't at their lowest price ever, they're all set at a pretty good sale. Just by eyeing this list, I can recommend a few titles for you guys to pick up.
- The Walking Dead Season 1 will contain all 5 episodes of the series, and I've heard that it has an amazing story line.
- Borderlands 2, because it's a very worthwhile FPS, and its sequel is coming out soon (I think it's called Borderlands 2, the prequel before the sequel).
- F.E.A.R. is a game that has aged AMAZINGLY and can still run in 1080p and freak you out to a good extent.
- Sid Meier's Pirates just because it's a classic that I grew up with. Also, you're a pirate.
- Bastion has an amazing narrator, and the art style will grab your attention.
- The Binding of Isaac for the replayability value
- Super Meat Boy simply because it's a platformer that has the tendency to piss you off, all while not being impossible to beat at all.
For the 100 days of summer sale, I made a graph, but I accidentally deleted it and I don't want to make it again, but it's only up for 4 more hours as of this post. I've only played one game on this list and I can only recommend that.
- Europa Universalis IV, or the ever so called map painting simulator. It's basically a game of diplomacy and building your civilization. I know it sounds really really boring, but it's really really worth it, or maybe I'm just a sucker for games that revolve around diplomacy.
Anyways, that's all for this week on game deals. I hope some of you picked up some of these games that I recommended, or the Street Fighter upgrade this week! Have a nice day, and happy gaming!
Friday, August 8, 2014
Cavern Kings: A Game About Digging Your Own Grave
Cavern Kings is an infinite action platformer game by indie game developer and pixel artist, Vine. This game is inspired by Vlambeer's "Super Crate Box" and the increasing difficulty aspects of "Risk of Rain" which are the first things I noticed about the game. It is currently going under public beta and you can get the game here. It will be available for PC, Mac and Linux once the game is complete.
Some of the basic game features are 4 playable characters with their own special abilities. In the beta, you can only use one which makes it interesting to see what the other characters can do.
Randomized terrain and monster generation is another feature that is interesting simply because things can get crazy in an instant. In my first few runs in the game, The first and only time I encountered a boss was in the 3rd floor then I encountered a floor wherein I have to find a key before I can go any further. By the time I got to this floor, the amount of monsters that were spawning was already quite large so it took me a while to get the key and carry on.
The weapons are all very unique from the distance of the projectiles to the number of blocks you can break through. From what I noticed with the melee weapons or the digging tools, attack speed is also a factor. It makes it a bit logical which is great for any game but it also makes the game more balanced.
One of the best things about this game is how the game teaches the players the basic controls which is by putting the player in a safe place to try things out without any danger.
The items you first pickup seem like a melee weapon which is also used for digging and a ranged weapon mainly used for killing monsters. It can also be used for reaching the TNT when they're in hard to reach places.
I like how it gives you some variety by being able to use both melee and ranged weapons. One interesting detail about these weapons is that the ranged weapons stack. I don't know how it exactly works but it sure sounds interesting.
A feature that isn't in the beta is the Bestiary and Logbook. I look forward to this because these give it more replay value as some gamers would want to complete it.
One of the best aspects of the game is the fine pixel art and the smooth animations. You can really see the hard work put into the pixel art just by looking at how crisp and fine it is. One of the best animations in the game is the weird worm-like monster that flies in and out of the screen.
There are a total of 50 powerups in the game. I know it doesn't sound like much but it's more than enough to keep things interesting as players progress.
One of the things I like about this game is the chiptune-influenced soundtrack by Ryuno. His music reminds me very much of Anamanaguchi's music especially the ones for the Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game soundtrack. Below is a demo of Ryuno's work for Cavern Kings.
I love the game. It's unique in it's own way, I love the challenge it offers and I can't wait to see more monsters and the other playable characters and weapons. It may not be the greatest game of 2014 or whenever it comes out but it sure is something to look forward to.
The game has been 100% funded on Kickstarter and it's already in Steam Greenlight. Although the game is already funded, it hasn't been Greenlit by the community yet.
If you like it, please do pledge in the Kickstarter page, Green light it, Support Vine. Other than helping the guy out, it could also get the game out there sooner.
Weekly Humble Bundle: Japan Edition!
So, looking at the games, I can see two familiar games that I had played before in this bundle, namely One Way Heroics and Ys Origin which are both AMAZING GAMES. If anything, I'd tell you all to buy tier two just because Ys Origin is there, and the Ys series is fantastic on its own.
One Way Heroics is kind of a side scrolling dungeon crawler where each map is randomized and you're running away from the darkness in an attempt to slay the Demon Lord to save the world. Cliche, I know, but it's still a really fun dungeon crawler that has a nice array of achievements and challenges available to you.
Ys Origin is your typical JRPG with a good storyline, and of course boss fights. There are three original campaigns for you to play, and an extra that you need to unlock in order to play. The story line follows these two beings who are captured in order to preserve an artifact from being taken by the demons. The "protagonists" are basically people who live above the demon wastelands in a utopia of some sort, until the possibility of it toppling over presents itself. Each one of the protagonists have a different perspective on the game, so it's highly recommended that you play them all.
These are the only reviews I can give so far, but I'm downloading Unholy Heights and GIGANTIC ARMY right now. My first impressions for this bundle? Even the tier 1 is great. Definitely a buy for me.
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Valve's Source 2 engine's supposed soft-release
With Valve releasing the workshop tools for Dota 2, users have been speculating that the release is not just a workshop release, but rather the publicization, or soft-launch, of the Source 2 engine that runs Dota 2. This brings into question, will map making be better than Warcraft III?
The current public understanding of this being the soft release of the Source 2 engine is that every file that would share a name with source is marked as '...2' such as 'engine2.dll', 'vconsole2.exe', etc.
Reddit user /u/darkmio said that when you open a map in Hammer, the map editor for Dota 2, it asks for .vmap files, which is the alternative to '.vmf (Source 1.0)' files.
There is a new Key-Value format that is type safe that looks like this:
The engine supposedly calls these 'Scheme Files', written by CSchemaTextWriter. This script allows different .dlls to load and render different assets. This is different from Source 1, because there were a large number of things in the engine libraries, which indicates that there would be a significant amount of engine work to split the messy constructs out of the engine and into their own libraries.
And if you look at the Hammer Map Editor, you can see just how powerful it is. However, the PC requirements are pretty high compared to the normal map editors. You'll need a 64-bit version of Windows, a Direct3D 11 compatible GPU, and you'll need to opt into the Steam Client Beta. If your PC fulfills all of these requirements, then you can use the Hammer client to create new maps to your liking, and uploading them onto steam for other players to try.
I, for one am looking forward to what kinds of spectacular maps will be created here, as well as the old maps of Starcraft and Warcraft being recreated. So... who's up for some footman frenzy?
The current public understanding of this being the soft release of the Source 2 engine is that every file that would share a name with source is marked as '...2' such as 'engine2.dll', 'vconsole2.exe', etc.
Reddit user /u/darkmio said that when you open a map in Hammer, the map editor for Dota 2, it asks for .vmap files, which is the alternative to '.vmf (Source 1.0)' files.
There is a new Key-Value format that is type safe that looks like this:
The engine supposedly calls these 'Scheme Files', written by CSchemaTextWriter. This script allows different .dlls to load and render different assets. This is different from Source 1, because there were a large number of things in the engine libraries, which indicates that there would be a significant amount of engine work to split the messy constructs out of the engine and into their own libraries.
Notice 'source2' in the path
And if you look at the Hammer Map Editor, you can see just how powerful it is. However, the PC requirements are pretty high compared to the normal map editors. You'll need a 64-bit version of Windows, a Direct3D 11 compatible GPU, and you'll need to opt into the Steam Client Beta. If your PC fulfills all of these requirements, then you can use the Hammer client to create new maps to your liking, and uploading them onto steam for other players to try.
I, for one am looking forward to what kinds of spectacular maps will be created here, as well as the old maps of Starcraft and Warcraft being recreated. So... who's up for some footman frenzy?
Sunday, August 3, 2014
The Need To Go Pro: Ultra Street Fighter 4
Well guys, apparently fighting games are the purest form of competitive joy where each move is calculated and every error whether in strategy or execution results in heavy punishes. Street Fighter in particular is an interesting game because it's been designed to be competitive right from the beginning.This is why I propose we pick up Ultra Street Fighter 4 to learn the game and spend nights and free days pushing ourselves to the limits. However, the depth of the game requires preparation and an open mind to learn from failure. Being a fighting game also requires a special peripheral: a fightstick. We can get a premade one or a DIY solution, though since we are still noobs we can probably get by with a cheap (but decent) one and move on to higher systems once we get our game on.
EDIT: The Street Fighter series has produced one of competitive gaming's greatest moments - Daigo's Ryu at a sliver of health doing a full parry against Chun Li and immediately countering to win the match. I believe the time frame to execute a parry is within a fraction of a second so one can only imagine the amount of skill and control needed to pull off what Daigo.did.
To learn more about fighting games in general and as an introduction as to how one would approach the technicalities of the games, there is a free 115 page ebook courtesy of shoryuken.com. The post along with the download of the ebook is here.
As for fighting gear, we can invest in this, a cheap fightstick that should serve our purposes after some key remaps. We can look for better and obviously more expensive sticks in due time.
The game itself isn't out yet, but it is on preorder on steam. If we use the code here then we can get the full game for 22.50 USD on GMG to be redeemed on steam, and includes the preorder bonuses (the game launches on 8th Aug so decide fast).
Anyway, let me know your thoughts, but I'm definitely g if everyone else can go on board but not alone as I am already saving up for 3 3DS games dropping this November.
EDIT: The Street Fighter series has produced one of competitive gaming's greatest moments - Daigo's Ryu at a sliver of health doing a full parry against Chun Li and immediately countering to win the match. I believe the time frame to execute a parry is within a fraction of a second so one can only imagine the amount of skill and control needed to pull off what Daigo.did.
To learn more about fighting games in general and as an introduction as to how one would approach the technicalities of the games, there is a free 115 page ebook courtesy of shoryuken.com. The post along with the download of the ebook is here.
As for fighting gear, we can invest in this, a cheap fightstick that should serve our purposes after some key remaps. We can look for better and obviously more expensive sticks in due time.
The game itself isn't out yet, but it is on preorder on steam. If we use the code here then we can get the full game for 22.50 USD on GMG to be redeemed on steam, and includes the preorder bonuses (the game launches on 8th Aug so decide fast).
Anyway, let me know your thoughts, but I'm definitely g if everyone else can go on board but not alone as I am already saving up for 3 3DS games dropping this November.
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