Did you say Dragon Age for FREE?

Evening guys! Karl here to bring you a somewhat late reminder that Dragon Age: Origins is free on EA today until October 14! So if haven't picked up the game yet, I'm gonna tell you this: PICK IT UP NOW! Even though I've never actually played the game before, I've heard so much about this series. If you're a fan of RPG's, fantasy, dragons, and story lines, it's an excellent game to try, and buy. In addition to the game, if you log onto the Bioware site, you get a couple of free DLC's to boot!

Dragon Age: Origin
DLC1 (Just purchase The Stone Prisoner, it costs 0 Bioware points)
DLC2
Note: You'll need Origin installed on your system to add this to your game library

In other news, there are also several other games on Steam that are free right now, as part of the Bundle Stars promotion! Grab Crash Time II over on their site

Bundle Stars

IndieGala also has Ionball 2: Ion Storm out for free on their site this week as well! You should probably go and grab that, since there are only limited keys available!

Indie Gala

Aside from the free games, Humble Bundle just recently launched a new bundle! I'll review the games once my new laptop gets delivered here, so stay tuned! Judging from the looks of it, the second tier looks pretty fun. I mean it has Dark Siders, Titan Quest, and Red Faction: Armageddon. While these games may have been on sale once or twice before, they're still worth picking up and playing!

Humble Bundle

Anyways, sorry for the lack of pictures in this post, it's hard to work on such a small screen. Ince my new laptop comes in, I'll be sure to bump up the qualities of the post! So, it's been a tough week, and I've almost been in the US for an entire month! Looking forward to when I can buy games again. Until next time, this is Karl signing off.

10 Reasons why moving abroad fresh out of college alone will be an uphill battle

Hey guys, Karl here, back after lots of excuses as to why I'm not writing that often anymore. You may have heard that I've moved back to San Francisco, but to be honest, I'm not exactly having the greatest time of my life here. When you're alone, you have to battle that huge monster called loneliness all by yourself, and sometimes you lose sight of who you are during that battle.

I've complained about how hard it life here is compared to back home in the Philippines, made excuses that I'm trying my very best, but I don't think that's really happening. So I'm just gonna stop with the excuses, because all they're doing is making be anxious all the time, and instead of half-assing my way through everything, I might as well make do with what I have.

So let's get on with the post, Buzzfeed style (without gifs, because I'm too lazy to look for appropriate gifs)!

1. You will get homesick

2. You will miss your parents

3. Getting sick is the worst

4. Finding a job will be hard

5. Making new friends will be hard

6. You will get lost

7. You will miss the comfort of your home

8. Learning commute routes, and/or driving will be necessary

9. Meeting up with old friends/relatives might be awkward

10. You might forget what you really wanted to do.

Anyways, hopefully I'll get over all of these. I'll post something more positive when I get a better computer sometime this week. Because I miss my old battle station, and I need something to fill the empty void in my heart. Also this is the buzzfeed formula right? List, list list, something deep at the end that makes you question stuff. I would go into more detail, but this laptop freezes every 10 seconds, and I finished this post 40 minutes longer than necessary.

Table Top Comics: Math Class

Hey, I'm back with another comic, and as.. promised no more feces!

Table Top Comics: New Friend

Nope, no more. I'm done. That's the end with the **** related jokes... at least for now. It's getting over used.

Sorry it took so long. I was busy doing other things.. like procrastinating. More comics upcoming, some time in the future... thankfully not related to feces. Yes people, I'm mature now, kinda.

Anyway, check out the previous comics if you haven't. Already have? Read it again for the lulz. kei bai.

First impressions: Super Smash Bros 3DS

I was lucky enough to get my hands on Super Smash Bros for 3DS's early access demo because of my Platinum status on Club Nintendo. I woke up this morning, getting ready to prepare breakfast, and I check my email and BAM! I got 4 demo codes. Needless to say, I was really surprised by this turn of events, so I immediately went to download the game, on my DS while waiting for some bread to spread itself (it didn't).

So, over breakfast, I was trying to find out how to play the total of 5 characters available to me: Mario, Link, Pikachu, Megaman and Villager, but the controls are just so god awful. I don't know whether it's just be being used to the wiimote/GC controller, or my system being a 2DS, but after around 10 games, I got really fed up with the controls and just stopped playing all together.

The graphics are impressive for this game. The way they rendered each character was cleaner than I expected. The screen is small, but I would expect that I just need to get used to the screen size of this game. But everything is pretty clear and clean.

The controls are really really bad. I mean, there was no tutorial on how to play (well, it is just a demo) so it was really had to do directional tilts, smashes, and sometimes grapples didn't toggle correctly. Bunny hopping was REALLY HARD, and I tried to do back air edge hogging with Mario, and I failed pretty hard. People on Youtube make this game look easy, but I really think that the controls are awkward.

Some notable changes to characters:

• Pikachu feels like he has a little more knockback than in Brawl, His Thunder is cleaner, but it feels smaller than before, and his alternate costumes are nothing like cosplay Pikachu's in ORAS.
•  Mario's FLUDD actually works this time! His down grab has virtually no knockback before 20%, so it feels like it's easier to combo him. However, his magic yellow cape doesn't move anymore, so his recovery is that much harder.
• Link plays the same, at least, I think. I didn't really pick him up in Brawl enough to notice much of a difference.
• Megaman and Villager are both... iffy. I gave up on both of these guys before I could really learn the controls from this game. But the Tree is OP!
• Villager's tree is insane though, but it takes a while to kick in. And his victory screen is him SHOWING OFF A FOSSIL. I MEAN YOU WIN THEN YOU SHOW OFF A FOSSIL!? HOW RUDE CAN YOU GET?

Another thing to note is that in this game, there are coins being given at the end of each match. So there will be some sort of currency included. I'm gonna go give the game another try, because everyone's so impressed with it. I just need to get used to the controls I guess, but the replay value seems like it'd be fun. But Boy am I going to miss gaming in the living room with friends over some casual Smash.

Anyways, if you want to see some gameplay, tune into this channel that's giving me some insight: http://www.twitch.tv/thejustinflynn

*I'm not the best person to talk to about technical smash haha. Sorry about that.

Uber being unfair to existing transporation companies?

If you aren't aware what Uber is, it's a ride sharing app that helps people find cheaper ways of transport, rather than relying on taxi companies. You can ride share, volunteer your car and work part time, and things like that, but is it unfair to currently existing companies due to its competitive price?

Uber has been taking the world by storm ever since it started its company back in 2009, and its growth has been huge because instead of spending maybe $35 to go to LAX from somewhere in Los Angeles via taxi, an UberX car can take the same person for around $10-$15. It's a huge price cut, and corporations are suffering because of it. And how are they trying to combat this? By enforcing regulation.

Around the world, different countries are trying to prevent the spread of Uber primarily due to not having the correct permits to operate as a business.

Here's the general gist of what's happened so far:

• Germany: Banned due to not possessing the proper permits
• Spain: Being contested by drivers, because the service is unregulated and private.
• India: Uber is apparently violating foreign-exchange laws.
• Brazil: Local government of Sao Paulo is pushing for the suspension of the service.
• Vancouver: Claims that the service is illegal due to the unregulated taxi meter.
• United States: Numerous cease and desist orders are being given out.

However, Linkedin featured an excellent article on this topic, making a point that laws are usually ruled in favor of stabilization. However, in the long run, technologies that leverage the 6 D's will win. And it so happens that Uber fulfills all of the 6D's.

Model:

• Digitized Uber digitized the user experience by making its service via a smartphone app. Everything is automatic, the taxi calling, the payments, the fare split, etc.
• Deceptive to Disruptive: The company is at that stage where it's impossible to predict the future, but once we move into the automated vehicle stage, it's sure to take over the competition easily.
• Dematerialized It's easier to get a car now because it's so available. Instead of driving to places, people could use Uber instead
• Demonetized The annoying fees are gone, and tipping is eliminated (kind of)
• Democratized It's cheap, and available. A lot of people like cheap and available transportation.

Personally, I feel like Uber is only attracting so much legal attention because of how much of a threat it poses to currently existing models of transit. If Uber survives this flurry of law suits, transportation options will be forced to comply with competition. It's just like internet service providers, they always say that their service is the fastest they can provide until someone else pops up. Then your internet magically becomes faster. Except in this case, transportation may just magically become cheaper.

Table Top Comics: The Deal

Again with this ****. Hehe... get it? Well that dude certainly did. Get it even more?! No please stahp it, you're hurting my brain.

You guys saw this one coming didn't you? Wait, what's that? You didn't? Then it's probably because you haven't read yesterday's comic... how could you, man? I thought we were friends...

So check out the previous comics if you haven't, if you have, look out for more coming up.

- Kei now... bai