Let's review video games - World of Warcraft, the most successful MMO since 2001. Part I

Platform: PC - Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
Title: World of Warcraft
Developer/Development team: Blizzard studios
Release date: November 23, 2004
Genre: MMORPG
No. of Players: Single Player/Multiplayer
Where to buy it: Battle.net or your closest games retailer
R.R.P.: $60 USD for the battle box

Where do I even begin? How about with this; this review will be of the base product before any expansions were released. World of Warcraft was announced to be released shortly after the success of Warcraft 3, one of the better RTS games of the time. WoW went into Alpha stage in 2001 and only an exclusive few were allowed to participate in it. Then in 2003 it went into a beta stage, which was also a closed beta. Looking back at it now it seems so long ago since it released, but it finally made the market in 2004 and by god are there some interesting stories about that.

When it finally hit store shelves physical copies kept selling out and the servers crashed from the traffic. Ghostcrawler, one of the most prominent GM’s in WoW history, came out and said that they hadn’t expected the millions of players they got, and instead they only anticipated 500,000 or so players. In between server time and mass amount of players in zones, it was hard to play let alone log in. This would just be the start of WoW’s journey though, as it was set to be one of the most successful MMO’s of all time.

So what was good with the game? Well, almost everything. First let’s start with the aesthetics. At the time, Blizzard used one of the best engine’s for MMO’s they could and the game looked amazing. The starting zone’s really set the tone and atmosphere for each race, with the Forsaken having a dark and gritty zone and the Night Elves being one with nature in their zone. The environments were fantastic and the dungeon’s looked pretty good as well. Blizzard’s art team went all-out when it came to making Azeroth look big and vast and they did a wonderful job with it. The raids though, they were massive dungeons and again, the art team went all-out. They did a more than brilliant job with the designs, giving that feel of an epic dungeon.

Figure 1: A part of the Forsaken starting zone. The Forsaken are the undead unbound from the Lich King.

The soundtrack is something that WoW to this day is renowned for. Blizzard have always done an amazing job with their soundtrack’s, as is evident in their Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo franchises. They held nothing back here, as they had to make a soundtrack specific to each zone and a soundtrack for every dungeon and raid. This is a total of 39 zones, not including the massive dungeons and epic raids. One of the soundtrack’s from Vanilla that stands out, for me, is the one for Stormwind. I remember going there for the first time, albeit in Wrath, and the soundtrack was very impressive. It really gave a good representation about what the human race was like and how structured the Alliance is.

Figure 2: Stormwind, the human capital city and the city of the Alliance Leader, King Varian Wrynn.

Now the gameplay. If you chose a class that was actually playable (I’ll talk about this in a little while) then the gameplay was great for an MMO. The Global Cooldown and burst cooldown’s idea was something that was fleshed out and perfected by Blizzard. DPS roles in vanilla was something like this; use all of your abilities and facesmash as much as possible. Healing roles were this; USE EVERYTHING TO HEAL. Tanking was this; Just hit something really really fast. Yeah nobody knew what they were doing back in Vanilla. It was a game of learn as you go, and you better learn fast.

The end-game content… epic. The raids were massive and there were so many of them. Some of the 5-man dungeons of today were massive 40 man raids, including the Sunken Temple and Blackrock Spire. Molten Core is the most memorable, housing the first Tier of epic raiding gear. The instance was made of massive caverns and giant mobs which took 4 tanks, 8 healers and 28 dps. That would be the theme for all WoW raids until Burning Crusade (I think, don’t quite me on that). The soundtrack, aesthetic appeal and just how massive these raids were gave them an epic feeling, but they took way too long to finish. Just like PvP in WoW - which was a tacked on feature and never meant to be in the game in the first place - it could take 6+ hours or even days to finish a raid. This was far too long for most players, but teenagers could play and raid to their heart’s content. It’s really interesting to see the dynamic shift between what raiding used to be and what it is now.

Figure 3: Casuality taking on Vaelastrasz the Corrupt from Black Wing Lair, the Tier 2 raid of Vanilla after Ahn’Qiraj got released.

Now, the negatives of WoW that got fixed in Burning Crusade. Like I mentioned before, not every class was playable. Hell, most classes weren’t playable. Most Mages, Fury Warriors, Enhancement Shaman, Shadow Priests and even more were never seen in raids since they were barely playable. They weren’t pulling the numbers needed and were thusly pushed out of raiding spots for better classes. Stats were all over the place. You would get plate gear with Strength and Intellect on the same item, namely for Paladin’s since they used Intellect in Vanilla. You’d also see Agility on the gear as well, but this is back when Agility boosted Dodge rating and Critical Strike rating for plate users. The same travesty also happened to other classes, including Hunters who at the time used mana (which would be changed to Energy/Focus in Wrath of the Lich King).

Levelling was a nightmare. For an MMO Blizzard did an excellent job at deterring people from their game. For the entirety of Vanilla, the exp system was hated upon because of one reason; exhaustion. If you were levelling too much or playing for too long, a debuff called exhaustion was applied to you, reducing all of your exp gained by 50%. People were leaving and not playing for something like 4 hours because of this debuff. When I said people hated it, they really hated it. The forums were overrun with how much hate it was getting.

Lastly, the server issues. As I explained, the servers crashed on the first day. This seems to be a running trend with Blizzard (see: Mists of Pandaria and Diablo 3). In their defence, they didn’t expect so many fans of the game. Just like what Nintendo said last year when their servers crashed, and Sony and Microsoft said this year on Christmas. As you can tell, this isn’t a valid excuse for fans.

All in all, Vanilla WoW is remembered as being the first epic entry into WoW’s dynamic journey is oft thought of in a nostalgic bliss, even if the issues would have pissed off most gamer’s today. It got a few things wrong, but it got a hell of a lot more right and is still one of the most successful franchises to this day. If you want to check out Vanilla WoW and the issues or hit’s that it had, look for a private server as Vanilla WoW is no longer playable on the official servers.

If I had to rate Vanilla WoW, I’d give it an 8/10. Great, but not perfect.

My personal drawings - Einstein the quantum visionary

Einstein is quite possibly the most well known if not the most well known scientist in all of conceivable history. His calculation's of mass-energy equivalence and his three laws of relativity changed our way of thinking and are the grandfather principle's in quantum mechanic's and physics. He was one of the greatest minds of his time and contrary to popular conception, he had no belief in a personal god like the religious of today. Rather, he believed in an all-powerful deity. This aside, Einstein's quest in life would be to learn as much of the world as possible, just like all great scientist's. Ironically enough, his greatest theory*¹, mass-energy equivalence would become his most misquoted and terribly recognized scientific law ever.

Mass-energy equivalence at its core means this, as you add energy in any form to any object, the object will increase in mass and thus its inertia and weight accordingly, even though no matter has been observably added. A physical system has two properties, those being energy and mass respectively. The two properties are equivalent in a way in that they are always both present in a constant proportion to one another. Mass-energy equivalence was a theory put forward by Einstein which originated from one of his theories on special relativity. This simple form of equivalence is represented by the most common formula to date;

Figure 1: A full explanation of mass-energy equivalence and the standard units for each value in the formula.

Not only was he a great scientist, but he was nationally recognized as one by receiving a Nobel Prize for his theory of the Photoelectric Effect. Whilst it's one of his lesser known theories, the Photoelectric Effect further revolutionized the concept and actualization of Quantum mechanics. The Photoelectric Effect is the observation and theory that states that many metals can and will emit electrons when light shines upon them. Electrons emitted in this fashion are often referred to as photoelectrons. 

According to classical electromagnetic theory (classical being contemporary physics i.e. the common sense stuff that day to day people think about, before the evolution of quantum mechanics), this effect can be attributed to the transfer of energy from the light to an electron in the metal. At this perspective,  a slight change in wavelength or amplitude of light would cause changes in the rate of emission of electrons from the metal. Even further, according to this line of thinking, a sufficiently dim light would be expected to show a lag time between the initial shining of its light and the subsequent emission of an electron. The experiment results however did not correlate with either of the two predictions from this theory.

In actuality, electrons only become dislodged by the photoelectric effect if light reaches or exceeds a threshold frequency, below which no electron will be emitted regardless of the temporal length of exposure or amplitude of the light. To properly make sense of the this and explain it clearly, Einstein proposed that a beam of light is not a wave propagating through space, but rather a collection of discrete wave packets (photons), each with energy hf. This shed light on Max Planck's precious discovery of the Planck reaction (E = hf), linking energy (E) and frequency (f) as rising from quanization of energy. The factor h is known as the Planck constant.

Figure 2: The photoelectric effect as proposed by Einstein.

As great as these theories are, they're not the reason I made this post. Instead, it was to talk about why he's my idol and inspiration in the pursuit of knowledge. Einstein was a man of science, plain and simple. Even the second world war didn't stop him from looking even further into quantum science. He always stood by his theories and never doubted himself. He beseeched others to look forward and question everything they knew about the observable universe and more. He was a visionary and a forward thinker. He never put down anyone for their intelligence levels, as noted in his most overused quote in modern media "Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing it is stupid." He is the kind of man I myself wish to be and someday may even become a similar man. 

Glossary

Theory*¹ - A theory in a scientific context is an idea that has been proven through observation, verifiable and repeatable results, ruthless peer review, accurate measurement, taking into account of all new and old discoveries, and willingness to change with new evidence. Most theories, like gravity and evolution, are scientific law. There is absolute evidence in the matter of those theories and thus haven't needed to change over the centuries (Gravity being a 400 year-old theory and Evolution being a 200 year-old theory).

Let's Talk Science - The mad scientist, Nikola Tesla

Who lived life eccentrically and did whatever the hell they wanted whilst being a madman? Nikola Tesla, the Russian genius who happened to be medically classed crazy.

Born in 1856 in what is now Croatia, at a young age he could memorise calculus and recite entire books. He wanted to be an engineer when he grew up but his father, who was a priest, wanted him to be a priest. At 18 Nikola contracted cholera. On his deathbed he said to his father "I'll try not to do if you send me to Engineering school." As you can guess, being on his deathbed and all, his father agreed. I shit you not he made a miraculous recovery, and in 1884 Tesla went to New York to start with only 4 cents and a letter of recommendation addressed to none other than Thosmas Eddison. When he arrived he noticed that everyone was using incandescent lights powered by Eddison's DC (Direct Current). Because DC is a direct current that loses voltage and power over long distances, Eddison was building power plants every 2 miles along the Eastern Seaboard. With all these powerlines New Yorkers were frying all over the place.

With all of this in mind, Tesla put forward his theory of AC (Alternating Current) to Eddison. AC works by periodically reversing the current of electricity, thus continually stepping up the voltage, allowing the electricity to travel further without losing energy. Eddison told Tesla that he would pay him $50,000 if Tesla could build him a fully functioning motor that is safer than DC. A few months later Tesla came back with a fully functional Induction Motor that ran on AC power. When Tesla asked for his money, Eddison then told him that he was joking. After that Tesla and Eddison became life-long enemies, hating each so much that when they were nominated to both recieve a Nobel prize together Tesla said he wouldn't accept it if Eddison was there.

Figure 1 - DC current vs an AC current

In the end Tesla won the DC versus AC war, where he proceeded to sell his patent to George Westinghouse for $60,000 and they went on to make the first hydro-electric powerplant using Tesla's technology. After this happened Tesla had a compulsion to start transmitting electricity wirelessly. This is about the time when he invented what is known as the Tesla Coil. This is also when he discovered shortly thereafter that he could recieve and transmit radio signals if they resonated at the same frequency. With wireless technology he also invented wireless toys, like boats and cars and what not.

Figure 2 - A fully functional, modern Tesla Coil

In 1899 he went out to Colorado to experiment on wireless energy transmission. He used scrap metal to invent a machine which could do this, and reportedly powered 200 lightbulbs from a power source from 26 Miles away. Where are the plans for such a device? Locked away in his head. He very rarely wrote down his findings and rarely drafted any plans for his devices. To put this into perspective a group of scientists back in 2007 managed to wirelessly transmit energy over a span of 7 feet through the air. In 1900 he was approached by J.P. Morgan to build a massive fancied up version of his device to provide the world with free power, all from a wireless tesla coil. When the stock market crashed and he was asking for more and more money, the project was cancelled.

As a result, he suffered from a nervous breakdown, and as a result, he went crazy. He rescued pigeons and spoke of one particular pigeon rather fondly to a biographer, saying that "He loved it like a man would love a woman." After this the world started to ignore him.

He passed away with 700 patents under his belt and the world knowing him as that one crazy super genius. So yeah, essentially he is the grandfather of all of our modern energy. What a legend.

Sources:

1. Nikola Tesla: Great Minds - Scishowhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPnGvjmIgZA

2. Nikola Tesla - Wikipedia*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

3. Tesla's Biography - Tesla Memorial Society of New Yorkhttp://www.teslasociety.com/biography.htm

4. Electrical pioneer Tesla Honoured - BBC Newshttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5167054.stm

*Note: If using Wikipedia, remember to look at the reference list like I did, you get more accurate information that way.

Let's talk religion: The magical Ark vs the tragic Titanic

Ah Noah's Ark, in the U.S. there is a staggering number of people who believe the story to be true. What's weird about this is that so many people say that the Bible can't be taken seriously for its fantastical stories. If people believe in Noah's Ark, but can't believe in a majority of the Bible, how can they assert that they are a Christian/Catholic with full knowledge that they have turned their objective religion into a subjective one? I digress, the point of this article is Noah's Ark, not picking apart the modern Christian ideology and whether it's subjective or not. Now, let's have a discussion and take a look at the facts and mathematics behind the whole thing. Then I shall compare it to superstition, are you all ready?

First we'll talk about the biblical scriptures of the story. The Bible states that Noah was commissioned by an omniscient, omnipotent, benevolent and all-knowing being (take a few moments to see how ridiculous that sounds) to build a great ark to hold 2 of every animal since he plans on killing all humans with a great flood, except for Noah's family. Noah, being roughly 30 - 50 years old, asks his first and only son (churches insist on teaching that he had 3 sons when he did this, please read the Bible) to give him a hand with this.

It took them both 20 years to build this ark, which was 200 metres long, 150 metres high, and 50 metres wide. It then took them 7 days to load the ark with two of every species. The flood then lasts 98 years. Then Noah and his family repopulate the Earth by partaking in incestuous sex for hundreds of years. Noah dies at the ripe between 600-750 years old (different copies of the bible print different things). At this time, according to your precious Bible, the Earth was populated by about 1,000,000 humans and BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS of animals from every species collectively. Do you know how ridiculous this whole thing sounds? Go on, read it out loud, be prepared to sound like a moron.

Now let's take a look at the facts. Let's compare this great ark to the Titanic. Now the Titanic wasn't much larger that the ark itself, being approximately 268 metres long, 30 metres wide and just as high (there are all estimates), could only hold roughly 3-4000 people and could hold roughly 5000 tonnes in weight. It was also made completely out of steel, iron, cast iron and aluminium, with 6 layers of tempered steel protecting the hull and the entire casing of the build of the ship.

With thousands of workers it still took 4 years, being started on March 31 1901 and being completed with outfitting on March 31 1912. Let's take this data and see how long it should have taken Noah and his only son to build this ark. 3000 men over 4 years, take this figure of progression and you can find that only 25% of progress was made each year (on average, relative stats say otherwise). It took 2 people to make the ark. 2 people divided by 3000 is 6.66^e^-4, which is 0.00066.... Let's multiply this by the many of years it took to fully construct and outfit the Titanic. This is 0.0024. Therefore they made 0.24% of progress on the ark each year. Therefore it took 500 years to build the ark. This is humanly impossible, as it factors in working on Sundays (remembering that the Old and New Testament's alike stated that working on Sundays is punishable by death, hell it was enforced). Add an extra 1/7 of time onto those 500 years. This would extend the time by approximately 72 years. According to the mathematics and Christian logic, these guys should have died by the age of 40 - 50, well before construction on the Ark was finished (remembering that in these time, life spans were incredibly short, roughly 20-30 years). Sounding ridiculous yet? No? Need more evidence? Here's some for you.

The Spine-Tailed Swift is the fastest flying bird in the world, flying at 170 km/h. According to Biblical scriptures, this "vessel" was built in Egypt. Let's assume it was built in Cairo, just for the sake of argument. The distance from Australia (where the Spine-Tailed Swift migrates to during the Winter) to Cairo is approximately 8800 kilometres. It would take 51 hours for the bird to fly from here to Cairo non-stop, we all know that this is impossible. But say for example a polar bear were to try to get to Egypt, it's maximum velocity is 60 mph (96 km/h) whilst swimming and only 20 mph (32 km/h) whilst running. I'll save you all the maths and tell you that it would take a lot longer for the Polar Bear to reach Cairo, but it would die long before it would reach there due to overheating and being outside of its usual environment.

In conclusion,. the story of Noah's Ark is nothing more than a myth, superstition, it should not be taken seriously nor should you use it to indoctrinate your children or friends, because you never know when someone educated comes along and tears it all down.

Creationism versus Evolution: Which has more scientific credence?

I've made my position clear, I'm an Atheist, I don't believe that religion has a place in Science nor does it have a place in government. However, there is an overwhelming amount of people who believe that the Earth was created in 6 days, 6000 years ago and that we were placed here under the image of one or more gods. In this post I'll talk about the arguments from both sides and take a look at the evidence given from the scientific standpoint and the creationist standpoint, all while trying to be unbiased in my argument.

Creationism, the belief that the entirety of the Universe and the Earth was created in just 6 days by the Catholic/Christian/Jewish God. In Genesis, the sequence goes like this; God first created the heavens, then God created Light, then he made a round ball of pure water, then he created the Earth, then he put foliage and animals on the Earth, and lastly he created man (Adam) in his own image using the dirt on Earth. Wait, what? He made animals out of thin air, he created the entire universe using nothing, but had to create man using dirt? Why? From a logical standpoint this makes no sense. Whatever, let's keep going. He created a perfect safe haven for man where there was no disease, no need to eat (thanks to having immortality) and no danger whatsoever. Wait, this also makes no sense. All of the animals were placed in this safe haven known as Eden, even the ones that are inherently carnivorous, including snakes, wolves and crocodiles. You mean to tell me that none of these animals looked at Adam and thought that he might be appetizing? Another thing, according to the Bible we didn't change when we got thrown out of Eden, meaning we were made with an immune system. Why? This makes no sense, especially considering that Eden was a place of happy sunshine's and immunity to DEATH. Fuck it, let's keep going. About a week later, according to Genesis, Adam asked God for a partner because he was lonely, and God said "Sure bro, I'll be right down to make you one." We'd all assume he'd make her out of dirt right? Apparently not so, because God took one of Adam's ribs to make a female partner, Eve. I'm not even going to question this, there are enough holes in the story already. That's creationism in its simplest and most direct form.

That's the story, what evidence do we have that supports this story? The Bible. Yeah, the only "historical" literature we have that claims creationism to be true is the Bible, the good book, the Holy word you get the idea. The Bible was written approximately 80 years after the supposed death of Christ, so most if not all of it is stories that were passed down through generations. We inscribed hearsay into tablets and wrote a book based on the words of the elders. There are many stories in the Bible which are just plain wrong but that's for another day/post.

The most common argument against evolution from the creationist standpoint is that evolution is just a 'theory' and therefor, beyond all evidence, doesn't deserve scientific credence because, according to creationists, it requires a lot of faith to believe that our current developed and evolved species originated from a single cell organism. Another argument is intelligent design. The phrase intelligent design is defined as "the belief that the universe and living things were designed and created by a purposeful action of an intelligent agent." Finally, the last common argument is that both sides of the argument should be taught in school so that children and teenagers alike can make a choice on what to believe.

Creationists tend to throw around the word theory as if it means nothing. Contextually it has different meanings, but in the context that matters in the argument, the scientific medium, a theory is an accepted viewpoint that has been peer-reviewed and has solid evidence behind it. Take gravity for example, it's a commonly accepted law of Physics, but it's still a theory because it's got a withstanding amount of evidence to back it up and scientists everywhere agree with it. Intelligent design, where do I start? It's nothing but creationism with a scientific sounding name slapped onto it. This is commonly referred to by creationists as a solid theory, but as we just learnt from the definition of a theory, there needs to be outstanding evidence for it and peer reviewed documents. There are no scientists, credible scientists, that will tell you that creationism is a solid theory, there are no peer-reviewed documents in the scientific community that agree with the creationist "theory" and there is no evidence to support this theory outside of the Bible, there really isn't. As for the argument that it should be taught in schools alongside evolution, yeah there's no point in discussing this, it doesn't have a place in the classroom.

Now for the other side of the coin, evolution. The Theory of Evolution explains that a series of changes or mutations occurred form one generation that are transmitted on toward the next generation, such that these changes accumulate over time and the successive waves of generations differ considerably from their ancestors (origins). Over the course of millions of years, humans have evolved from being an ape-like creature, to being a bipedal ape-like creature, to a less ape-like creature, and eventually into the 'homo' genus, like homo erectus, homo neanderthalis and homo sapien. The process of evolution is as follows;

1. A series of chemical reactions occurred in the sky and in the sea (this happened almost 4 billion years ago)
2. They met and formed amino acids (approximately 3.5 billion years ago)
3. The amino acids developed ways to propagate themselves.
4. They became proteins - and then the first cells
5. The cells eventually united with each other forming an organism.
6. The organism, a water dweller, eventually adapts to land because of a change in the atmosphere and in the salt content of the seawater.
7. The land dweller eventually through millions of eons, became the primitive ancestor of the majority of present-day oxygen breathing animals.
8. This primitive ancestor had lots of offspring - some eventually became a dog, some a cat, others a rat, and a few, an ape
9. This ape, according to scientists, eventually became us.

We have overwhelming amounts of evidence to support this theory, including fossils, early hand paintings, carbon dating procedures, the very cells we have in our bodies, most of the things around us. Charles Darwin, the father of the Theory of Evolution came to the conclusion of Natural Selection and this very Theory after years upon years of research and experimentation. Evolution explains why we have our tailbones, why we're bipedal when most animals are not, and why homo sapien had a much better chance of survival over homo neanderthalis.

So with the overwhelming amount of evidence we have, what are the common disputes that creationists have with the Theory of Evolution? The missing link argument, the banana argument (this is an odd argument and I'll explain it) and the most common of them all, "If we evolved from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?" All of these arguments have been debunked by scientists time and time again. The missing link argument is benign as there really aren't any missing links anymore. The missing link people are talking about is a link between being a bipedal ape-like creature and evolving from some fish man(?). This was and has continued to be debunked by the scientific community, as the only missing links that exist are discrepancies caused by evolution itself. The banana theory is an odd one and requires a lot of faith in God to fully believe. Essentially it's the hypothesis that bananas are a perfect fit in a human hand, thus we must have been made by God's divine intervention. Yeah this is such a weird and stupid argument that I'm not going to address. The last argument; "We evolved from monkeys, but why are there still monkeys?" The answer is simple, we didn't evolve from monkeys, we evolved from an ape-like creature whose common ancestry is shared by monkeys, and more prominently so, apes. Both our species evolved for different survival based reasons as well, monkeys for survival in the Jungle and in trees, we evolved for survival on the ground. It's as simple as that.

So after all of the points and arguments provided, which deserves more scientific credence? Well, personally I think evolution does since Science isn't a debate, you can't choose what you want and don't want to believe. That and evolution has an overwhelming amount of evidence behind it as opposed to creationism which does not. Evolution has been refined and peer-reviewed to death, as opposed to creationism which has remained rigid and hasn't adapted to fit any kind of evidence whatsoever. In conclusion, evolution takes more precedence in a scientific context and thus should be the only theory of our origin's taught in school unless something that has evidence and peer-reviewed papers and documents behind it shows up.

Let's review video games: Age of Mythology. Are the gods stronger than Empires?

Platform: PC - Microsoft Windows (XP or later), Mac OS X
Title: Age of Mythology
Developer/ Development Team: Ensemble Studios
Publisher:  Microsoft Game Studios
Release Date: October 30 2002
Genre: Real-Time Strategy (RTS)
No. of Players: Single player campaign with up to 12 players in a multiplayer match
Where to buy it: On Steam or second-hand at your local EB or Gamestop store/s
M.S.R.P.: $19.99
ESRB Rating: Teen for Blood and Violence

An old relic from isometric view RTS games, Age of Mythology stands out as one of the stronger ones. Having good graphics for its time, an epic soundtrack and impressive voice acting for its campaign, it was definitely an RTS you could play for hours just on your own. It doesn't stop there either, Age of Mythology (or AoM for short) could feature up to 12 players either online or on a LAN connection, with a plethora of in-game maps to use. Developed by Ensemble Studios, the same people who brought us the often heralded Age of Empires (AoE) franchise, it's no surprise that these games function so similarly to each other. The game features three different races, as opposed to AoE's one or two dozen, the ancient Greek, Egyptian and Norse (a.k.a. Nord's or Vikings).

From an aesthetics stand point, the game looked impressive for it's time, with the trees and various other flora and fauna being incredibly detailed. AoM does feature a high detail and low detail mode that changes how the game looks, it's best to go on low when you're playing with huge numbers of people or you're on a machine with a CPU lower than an I5 or A6 chip. The weapons and amour sets of the various soldiers of each race match the time and the buildings of each race also match the era that they come from. The game uses an isometric overhead view of the world which, in most games would infuriate you, works here because you can turn on an option in the menu to allow you to turn the isometric around using the scroll wheel of your mouse. Since the game requires little CPU and GPU power, a modern baseline laptop can easily play the game at 30 fps.

The soundtrack and sound effects are amazing. The soundtrack changes depending upon the race you play, with the Greeks having a lot of string and brass instruments, the Egyptians having a lot of drums and the Norse just have a lot of aggressive sounding music. Just like AoE, the units will say different phrases when doing different actions. The baseline Infantry, Cavalry and Archers share a lot of the phrases of different races, but specific heroes like Odysseus or the Norse Hersir have unique voices and often have unique phrases as well. The voice acting through the campaign is superb, holding up incredibly well for an early 2000's game. The emotion really pulls through in the voice acting as well, immersing you even further into the world.

The gameplay is solid as far as RTS games go. It's mostly copy-paste of AoE since it's a direct spin-off so I won't go too much into the base stuff. Instead I'd like to focus on the major differences in how the two franchises operate. First off, Stone is gone as a resource. No more do you have to look for tiny stone veins across the lands to build your Fortress/ Migdol Stronghold/ Hill Fort. This also means that Walls no longer cost stone either, instead only requiring 3 x 1 in game metre (baseline) gold. New units were added in the forms of heroes and mythical beasts. Heroes do more damage to myth units and are generally good overall. Different races have different kind of units; the Greeks have one unit per age, the Egyptians have Priests, Pharaoh's and if you worship Osiris, the Son of Osiris, and the Norse have the Hersir.

Ancient Greek heroes are the strongest in the game (after the Son of Osiris) and can take on many soldiers or even myth units at once, hence why there is only one per age. The Egyptian Priests and Pharaoh are generally terrible to begin with, having awful range and attack, but this increases with each age you advance. The Norse Hersir is a hero version of their baseline infantry, the Ulfsark. They do slightly less damage but have better overall bulk, sporting better Health, Hack and Pierce armour. The other new units are the Myth units, which are trained from the new temples of each race. These myth units are based on the Mythology of the ancient civilizations, for e.g. the Minotaur from Ancient Greece, the Mountain and Frost Giants from Ancient Nordic culture, and the Petsuchos from Ancient Egypt. For the most part, they have special abilities. New abilities were brought in called 'God Powers' that work surprisingly well given the way the game functions. They're not entirely game breaking but can turn a loss into a win if you play your cards right. The game also features a tutorial mode as opposed to AoE which did not, and the tutorial mode is solid. It eases you into gameplay and teaches you what you need to know.

However, not all is well with the game. Just like AoE it suffers from having terrible in-game AI, being almost stagnant in multiplayer modes and making the campaign incredibly easy unless you're either new to RTS games or aren't playing the game on Hard or even Titan mode. The game is 1020p capable but not native, so if you play in windowed mode you may experience some frame rate issues. Speaking of, if you're playing on a mid-range PC against 9 other players or more, you're fps can tank to below 30 fps every now and then. The in-built maps can get old fast but thankfully you can find more maps online made by modders. Speaking of modders, you can get various mods to change how the game looks.

Overall the game is fantastic for its time and plays extremely well, on- and off-line. The story of the main campaign is solid, the overall voice acting holds up well, the new units balance the game extremely well and the loss of gold as a resource means less overall micro-management. I'd easily recommend the game in its current state and look forward to the release of the extended edition on Steam. An 8/10 overall.

Overall rating: 8/10 - A must buy for RTS fans, new and old alike.

Let's review video games: Antichamber - The most break your mind logic game

That's right, this will be my first video game review on this blog and I decided to do a review of a game I recently finished and had a lot of fun playing, Antichamber.

Platform: PC - Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
Title: Antichamber
Developer/ Development team: Alexander Bruce (Developer), Robin Arnott (Sound Design) and Siddhartha Barnhoorn (Music)
Release date: Jan 31st 2013
Genre: Logic/ Platformer
No. of Players: Single Player
Where to buy it: Steam
R.R.P.: $19.99 USD or your regional equivalent

Antichamber is an interesting little game that was released in January of 2013. The game has little to no story at all and the premise is simple, using critical thinking skills combined with straightforward platforming, you have to get to the end. The "logic" of the game as such is mind-bending and forces a lot of "out of the box" thinking. The difficulty of the game really depends upon how good the player is with solving puzzles and adapting to the rules of the world, and thus changes play-time. According to feedback on the website, it can take anywhere between 3 hours and 20+ hours. However, first playthroughs are never less than at least 8 hours due to the nature of the game and how hard the puzzles are after about halfway. My first playthrough took 30+ hours of on and off gametime, it's not a game that you can complete in one go. There are also little moral tidbits in the game that get you thinking about life. There are over 120 of these and they are all relevant in day to day life.

Aesthetically the games looks absolutely amazing, utilizing the Unreal 3 engine to such a full extent. The colours and textures of the game blend simplicity and complexity amazingly, giving a very unique look to the game that I have rarely seen before. There are no mirrors so we never know what the main character looks like, but the "gun" that he/ she uses looks marvelous. The complexity of the design is apparent, yet with a circular design it gives the illusion of being surprisingly simple as well, thus adding even more to the simple/ complex core that the graphics gives the game. The game is fully HD capable with a 1920 x 1200 resolution capibility. It also features a windowed mode but I have never been able to get that to work, the game ends up crashing every time I try it. There really isn't much more to say, the game looks fantastic.

The sound effects match the theme of the game, being semi-futuristic in design and layout. However, there isn't a large variety, so after a while the sounds throughout the game can easily get repetitive and increasingly annoying the more you play, especially the gun sound effects. The soundtrack in the game is amazing, it's the most calming and relaxing soundtrack I have ever heard in the game, and it really gets you in the mood and mindset needed to conquer the game. However, it's hard to appreciate the soundtrack since the music is very rarely played in the game, thus you spend most of the game in complete silence. This is a double-edged sword, as most of the time, when there isn't music it makes solving some of the puzzles incredibly easy. However, at times when there is music the puzzles can be a little bit harder to solve due to the rhythm being out of place in contrast to the puzzle. When it fits, it really fits. Like I said, the soundtrack is amazing and should be appreciated whenever it's in the game.

So how is the gameplay in Antichamber? Well... it bodes really well for the genre it is. The gameplay is incredibly easy to pick up and master, allowing you to focus on the puzzles throughout the game. Generally with a lot of PC games, especially PC ports, using a keyboard with a game makes the controls a bit iffy. This is most certainly not the case with Antichamber. There are few things you need to worry about controlling in the game, and thus keyboard integration is easy to do. The game knows what it wants you to do and it does this incredibly well. The game also allows you to skip entire sections if you feel that you have learnt a sufficient amount of gameplay mechanics to confidently continue. There's not a whole lot I can say about gameplay, it's incredibly simple and the keyboard integration is exceptional. I must emphasize though that there is NO controller compatibility from what I can tell, meaning that keyboard and mouse is the only option you get. You can decide whether to invert the mouse or not and change the sensitivity of the mouse as well, but leaving that on default is often more beneficial.

Overall the game looks amazing, the gameplay is solid, the music holds up really well and the puzzles are definitely mind-bending. The rules of the world suit what the game is going for and the game achieves it's seemingly sole-purpose, to get you thinking throughout the entire game. This is definitely a must-buy for those of you that are fans of the logic based genre and I can easily recommend it to anyone who just wants to have a refreshingly simple yet complex title in their collection. I give it a 9/10.

Overall rating: 9/10 - A must buy. An excellent game for those that prefer logic based puzzle games.

Let's talk politics: Freedom and our inalienable rights

It's been a while since I wrote a politically driven article, it sure beats the monotony of the Pokémon articles I write. Anyhow, this article is going to be a discussion on freedom and our inalienable rights, with a contrast and comparison between two major countries of the western world, the U.S. and Australia.

So what is freedom, you may ask. Well, there are actually many different definitions; such as "exemption from external control, power to determine action without restraint, political or national independence, or personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery."¹ So what does this mean in a political sense? This means that the government has no right to dictate our lives or infringe upon the rights of the people; such as the right to self-defense, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and so on.

So what does this have to do with America? Well, in all actually this has everything to do with America. For those of you that know me, I may seem a bit distasteful of Americans, but in reality I look up to them. They stand up for their freedoms and rights, and they're supposed to be protected by the best constitution in the world. The U.S. constitution defends the inalienable rights of the people, protecting their right to free speech and self-defense in particular. The second amendment of the U.S. constitution states that "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." This was set up by the founding fathers of America so that the people could effectively counter a tyrannical and all-powerful government. Such a government would be one where liberty is sacrificed for safety, and in the words of Benjamin Franklin;

"Those who would give up Essential Liberty

to purchase a little Temporary Safety,

deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

There cannot be a graver truth, and the most recent example in history is Barrack Obama's government. It's no secret that I'm not Obama's biggest fan, in fact I detest almost everything he stands for. He willfully ignores the constitution, and would rather rule through intimidation and restraint in attempts to restrict the freedoms of the people. He has, many times, advocated the need of copyright laws on the internet through lazily and vaguely written bills such as SOPA and PIPA. These bills are designed to ignore the fair use laws in America, which state that if used for critique or educational purposes, and all credit is given to the content creators, such content can be used. The bills are incredibly vague in their approach, but pretty much any content made by a party that goes online without their permission can arrest the person/s who put up the content in the first place, with prison sentences being up to a maximum of 15 years, depending upon how many charges are pressed. This means that, if the content is for a review, the critic can spend as much time as a murderer or rapist in jail. This makes no sense, but thankfully the bill has been shot down several times and is unconstitutional, which means it probably never would have gotten past the senate anyways. This is why I'm such a big fan of America, they have a constitution that protects and empowers the people, unlike Australia.

When I first heard that Australia had a constitution, I thought it was utter bullocks because I had always been told we don't have one. However, after doing some digging, I ended up finding a copy of it, and oh boy, no wonder nobody talks about it. The Australian constitution is one of the most disgusting political documents I have ever seen. It freely empowers the government and the Queen, allowing them to make whatever changes they want to law. This is extremely discerning news, as this allows the Government to freely discriminate against the people, oppressing the people and ruling as a dictatorship. This is most apparent in Queensland, which has been the topic of controversy lately.

In Queensland, the Vicious Lawless Association Disestablishment (VLAD for short) laws were passed some time in 2013, and boy have they been under fire since their incarnation. The VLAD laws were initiated by Queensland Premier Campbell Newman in 2013 as a bill that targets motorcycle gangs that commit illegal acts, such as drug trafficking, homicide and disrupting the peace. Nevermind the fact that bikies make up only 1-2% of overall criminal offenders in Queensland, the VLAD bill gives the police near-unlimited power, and are rather vague in the bills "anti-association" attempt. The bill states that if people in a group of three or more are wearing the same insignia, whatever that insignia may be, those people can be arrested by the police, no matter the scenario. This has effectively not only turned Queensland into a more police state than it already was, but renders the phrase "Innocent until proven guilty" useless. This is a perfect example of a tyrannical government that we cannot effectively stand against thanks to the numerous restrictions of the people.

Recently in Melbourne a bill was passed named the "Move On Act" which made protesting illegal. This was brought about because of anti-abortionists protesting outside an abortion clinic. Now, I detest anti-abortionists who would restrict the freedom of a woman's choice between having a baby or not, but I will vehemently protect their freedom of speech, regardless of their stupid opinions or not. This is yet another infringement of inalienable rights in Australia, yet people STILL remain apathetic in regards to the atrocities of the government. What it take to get through to them, being spied up- yeah that's already being done. Australia has been spying on its people since 1994, and just like the NSA, has been keeping it a secret from the people.

So, where do I stand on the issue? I stand on the side of freedom. This means that I stand behind the American constitution, and whilst it might not be my own, it may be in the future. The acts being committed by the government are atrocious, and I will never support such anti-people actions. The reason the U.S. constitution and Bill of Rights exist is because the forefathers knew that someday the government may get too big for its britches, that someday a militia may have to stand up for what is right and to protect the people that they care for and the values they hold. That and these documents protect the peoples inalienable rights.

What do you all think? Are you for giving up your freedoms for the security that the government promises, or are you like me and are against the government attempting to restrict your freedoms for security? Leave your comments and opinions below.

References:

¹. Dictionary.com, definition of "freedom:" http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/freedom?s=t

My thoughts on Frozen

Warning: Major Spoilers alert. If you haven't watched Frozen yet, do NOT read this at all.

I don't blame people for saying that Frozen is a great movie, because it is, but for what I got it's... really overhyped. Olaf voice irritated me but he got a few laughs, some of the songs were really repetitive (*cough* First time in forever *cough*) and the villain turned out to be rather one-dimensional with the liar-reveal trope. But in saying all of this, everything else hits the mark perfectly. The relationship between the sisters is perfect, and the roller-coaster of emotion it takes you on is well worth the ticket/ future DVD release price on it's own (I almost cried towards the end involving Anna and Elsa), the chemistry between Anna and Christoph is more than believable, most of the songs are amazing with my favourite being being "Let it Go," and the casting choices were perfect (apart from Olaf). Idina Menzel really brings the songs together with her voice and her acting is top-notch. Speaking of top-notch, the animation is beautiful, I haven't seen a movie that looks this good whilst being white a majority of the time. This is definitely going to be a Disney classic and is something I'd recommend to all audiences.

The Pokeddexy challenge: My favourite Flying type?

In the beginning, there was Lord Helix. After several millennia he had a son, named Bird Jesus. Bird Jesus the Pidgeot is currently the most widely known Pokémon in existence, with his origins being in Pokémon Red version. In Generation I, there weren't many Flying types, and there were even fewer usable ones, pretty much being limited to the legendary Bird trio (Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres). When Gold and Silver was released there were a few new Flying types to use, including the two new mascot legendaries, Ho-oh and Lugia. Skarmory was one of the newcomers in Gen II, bearing the coveted Steel typing as well as being part Flying type, and outside of the legendaries was one of the only usable Flying types. The next few gens brought mostly legendary Flyers, with the exception to Gen IV's Staraptor, who sported a massive Atk stat, a good Speed stat, and access to some amazing moves in Brave Bird, Double Edge and Close Combat. In saying all of this, which is my favourite flyer? None other than the powerhouse I just described, Staraptor.

The franchise has a plethora of Normal/Flying type Pokémon, most of them unusable. Staraptor however stands out as being the best and most certainly the most usable due to its stats, its movepool, and ultimately its ability that makes it a true beast, Reckless. With Reckless, Staraptor has the strongest Brave Bird and Double Edge in existance, as Reckless increases the damage done by recoil moves by an extra 30%. This ability, combined with Staraptors massive Atk stat and Dual-STAB recoil moves makes Staraptor a beast to behold, but it also makes it rather predictable. Outside of this though, Staraptor just looks like a badass pokémon, with its plumage accentuating how awesome Staraptor really is. Staraptor's shiny form is also one of my favourite shiny forms in the game. All of these reasons combine make Staraptor my favourite Flying type.

Note: I will be posting a few more of these tonight as I have missed quite a few days in the pokeddexy challenge.

The Pokédexxy challenge: My favourite Fire type?

First off, I do apoligise to my fellow gamers and bloggers that I haven't posted lately, I've been so caught up in my studies I almost forgot that this blog existed. Now that that's out of the way, let's get to the subject matter.

Back in Gen I (Red and Blue) you could choose from three types for your first ever Pokémon, the Grass type Bulbasaur, the Fire type Charmander and the Water type Squirtle. Being a Fire type, Charmander took the world by storm, having one of the coolest final evolution's of all the starters. However, it was quickly found by the competitive scene that defensively, Fire types were awful, sporting three very common 2x weaknesses in Ground, Water and Rock types. Combine this with the fact that Fire types generally didn't have much power, they were rarely used in Gen I. However as time went on they became increasingly useful, being super effective to a total of four types, Grass, Bug, Ice and Steel types. They also started becoming better defensively, whilst still retaining their weaknesses, they now sport a total of 6 resistances in Fire, Grass, Ice, Bug, Steel and Fire. Most Fire types were also to become amazingly strong, with the most notorious non-legend powerhouses Darmanitan and Chandelure having a base 145 Atk and Sp. Atk respectively (145 Atk for Darmanitan, 145 Sp. Atk for Chandelure). So with all of this combined, which Fire type is my favourite? None other than the powerhouse Chandelure.

Based on a chandelier, being part ghost type and, apart from Atk, it has generally amazing stats all around. It has access to the strongest non-legendary Fire Blast in the game. However, that Ghost typing is a double edged sword as it gives Chandelure two new weaknesses in Ghost and Dark types. In saying this, it gains a resistance to Poison types, a boosted 4x resistance to Bug types and a complete immunity to Normal and Fighting types. It also has two amazing abilities in Flash Fire and Infiltrator. Flash Fire increases its Fire type moves power by 50% if the user gets hit by a Fire type move and Infiltrator ignores Substitute, Reflect, Light Screen and Safeguard completely. It also has one of the best shiny forms in the game (in my opinion) and has a big enough movepool to combat those that would stop it (it even gets Energy Ball). All of these reasons combined makes Chandelure my favourite Fire type Pokémon.

Let's talk politics: What do I think of Obama?

Current American president Barrack Obama has made U.S. history for being the first black president in America, but could he also be the last? Now before you try to pull the racist card on me, which is a stupid move anyways, read the information that is presented before trying to label me. President Barrack Obama was voted into the White House in 2008 with the promise of change, helping the middle class, and thinking of ways to sort out their deficit. He was reinstated in 2012 when he won the election yet again... by making the same damned promises. So what exactly happened? Let's find out.

In 2008 when Obama was elected in, the western world proclaimed in one big voice "Racism is finally gone, we can all get along!" So, was racism finally gone? Fuck no, there are still bigoted assholes around the world, it's quite ignorant and single-minded to assume that because America has a black president that racism is gone. Obama promised in office that he would help out the middle man by giving the 1% higher taxes so that the wealth would be re-distributed fairly amongst the people. The U.S. is till waiting on that. He also promised to have a 10 year program that would help to dampen the $14 trillion US deficit. It's now 2014 and the debt ceiling has gone up to $16.7 trillion US and the deficit sits at $16 trillion US. So he's messed up there as well. In fact, he's messed up on a lot of his policies and is missing up on things the American people, and the world, hate.

In 2013 there was a tragic shooting at a school where 20-odd students were killed and several other innocents injured. My condolences are with the families who tragically lost loved ones. Obama decided to capitalise on this event and try to push anti-gun laws down the throats of the people, successfully disarming them and unconstitutionally preventing them access to military grade firearms. The second ammendment to the constitution states that "A well regulated state militia and the people have the right to take up and bear arms." This means that in the event of a president or the government having too much power the people can fight back against such a tyranny. There's a reason the founding fathers thought it ideal to have this in the constitution. His unconstitutional laws don't stop there, in recent years Obama fought hard with the support of big name companies to try and limit our internet (yes he wanted to do this worldwide) and restrict the freedom of speech to the people. The bill named SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) would target sites like youtube, where footage from all sorts of shows/movies/music/games is used in reviews. Under the fair use act the people have a right to use footage and what-not if they claim fair use, which allows the footage to be used if under scrutiny. SOPA would completely by-pass the fair use act and immediately shut you down if you so much as looked at copyrighted content. In the bill it stated that you could spend up to 50 years in jail for illegally downloading a movie. 50 years?! A paedophile spends much less time in jail than that! Because of these reasons and so many more Obama has completely ruined any and all chances for any black president in the future.

I'm interested in what you guys think, do you agree with Obama's unconstitutional acts or are you completely opposed to them like I am? As always this is open to discussion.

The Pokeddexy challenge: My favourite Fighting type?

In the beginning, there was the fighting type, one of the most reliable anti-Rock and anti-Normal/Snorlax types in the game, giving them a valuable niche in the metagame. However, due to the infamous power of the Psychic type in Red and Blue, Fighting types weren't entirely useful. This all changed in Gold and Silver. In Gold and Silver fighting types rose from the ashes left from Gen I to take down the pesky new Dark and Steel types. However, they were still hard strapped for coverage, since pretty much every Fighting type was physically based. Generation IV was a blessing in disguise for a lot of Fighting types, old and new, with the Physical/Special split of moves, giving a lot of Fighting types some much needed coverage in the elemental punches (Ice, Fire and Thunderpunch). In Generation V (Black/White and Black/White 2) they received Superpower from a move tutor if they didn't get it already. Gen VI (X and Y) did more bad than good to a lot of Fighting types thanks to the new Fairy type. In saying all of this, which is my favourite?

Who else than the famous Gallade? Gallade is interesting in having a Psychic/Fighting type, giving him some key resistances such as 2x resistances in Fighting and Rock types, making him take less damage from the infamous Stealth Rock. It only has two weaknesses in Flying and the new Fairy type, meaning it can switch in easily enough. With a pretty varied movepool Gallade can almost always cover his counters with moves such as Leaf Blade, Night Slash, Close Combat and Psycho Cut. He also looks like a complete badass, having blades for arms and a head the looks like it has a blade on it. His shiny is exactly the same as Gardevoir in tone as well (fitting since they both come from Ralts) and has an amazing Attack stat, anything that doesn't resist it is going to be hit hard. All of these reasons combined make Gallade my favourite Fighting type.

My personal drawings - Blinx the Togekiss

So yesterday I said that Togekiss was my favourite fairy type, and she is. I decided to draw a picture of her because why not? I've already explained why I think Togekiss is an absolute beast so let's talk strategy.

Togekiss has amazing defensive capability due to a good 85 Hp/ 95 Def/ 115 Sp. Def stat spread with resistances to common attacking types, such as a 4x resistance to Fighting, 2x resistance to Grass, Bug, Dark types and a complete immunity to Ground and Dragon types thanks to her unique typing. This comes at a cost of a 2x weakness to Rock, Electric, Ice, Poison and Steel types, which are as common as her resistances and immunities. If you can get rid of threats that hold these types however she can be a real asset to your team. With a great attacking stat spread of 50 Atk/ 120 Sp. Atk/ 80 Speed Togekiss can be a really dangerous specially offensive threat, especially with the amount of versatility she has.

Who's using an Assault Rifle?

Togekiss @ Modest Nature (-Atk/ +Sp. Atk)

EV Spread: 252 Hp/ 252+ Sp. Atk/ 4 Sp. Def
Item: Assault Vest
Ability: Serene Grace

Moves:

Slot 1: Air Slash
Slot 2: Dazzling Gleam
Slot 3: Aura Sphere
Slot 4: Flamethrower/ Fire Blast/ Signal Beam/ Shadow Ball

Not the best name for the set, but it get's the point across. With an Assault Vest Togekiss get's a scary 388 Sp. Def, allowing it to only take about 25% damage on most super-effective special hits. With Serene Grace, her STAB Air Slash has a 60% chance to make the opponent flinch if she goes first and the move connects, this is incredible for taking out slower opponents. Dazzling Gleam is a good STAB move, hits Dark, Fighting and Dragon types hard, and is the only worthwhile Fairy STAB she gets. Aura Sphere is to hit Ice, Steel, Rock and Dark types hard who would try to stop you, for e.g. Tyranitar. The last slot is about what you want to cover, Flamethrower and Fire Blast take care of Steel, Ice, Grass and Bug types, Signal Beam hits Psychic and Grass types hard, and Shadow Ball hits Ghost and Psychic types hard. I personally use Flamethrower so that I don't get walled by either Forretress or Ferrothorn.

What a devious ploy...

Togekiss @ Timid Nature (-Atk/ +Sp. Atk)

EV Spread: 252 Hp/ 4 Sp. Def/ 252+ Speed
Item: Leftovers/Focus Sash
Ability: Serene Grace

Moves:

Slot 1: Nasty Plot
Slot 2: Baton Pass
Slot 3: Roost/ Dazzling Gleam
Slot 4: Air Slash/ Aura Sphere/ Thunder Wave/ Toxic

The purpose of this set is to Baton Pass a Nasty Plot boost so that a faster special sweeper can come in and clean up the competition. The choice between leftovers and focus sash comes down to what you need, leftovers is better for more survivability whilst boosting, Focus Sash is to survive a Choice Banded Stone Edge from Tyranitar. The nature and Speed EV's are to outrun Jolly Choice Scarf Tyranitar and many other slower threats with a possible scarf. Roost is there for more survivability, Dazzling Gleam if you need to put out some damage. The last slot is all about what you need, Air Slash for some good STAB damage plus a 60% flinch rate, Aura Sphere if you positively, absolutely must try to get rid of Tyranitar or even Mega-Aggron, Thunder Wave to paralyze faster threats (although Ground types will be unaffected) and Toxic is for use against stallers like Blissey who don't appreciate the poison damage.

Base stats list and min-max list:

Type of Nature and level           Hp        Attack        Defense        Sp. Atk        Sp. Def        Speed
Base Stat                                 85         50             95                120                115                80

Hindering Nature
Level 50                              145-192   49-91         90-132         112-154         108-150          76-118
Level 100                            280-374   94-179       175-260        220-305         211-296         148-233

Neutral Nature
Level 50                              145-192   55-102      100-147         125-172         120-167          85-132
Level 100                            280-374   105-199     195-289         245-339         235-329        165-259

Beneficial Nature
Level 50                              145-192   60-112      110-161        143-194         132-183          93-145
Level 100                            280-374   115-218    214-317         269-372         258-361        181-284

The Pokeddexy challenge: My favourite Fairy Type?

Ever since the release of Gold and Silver, there was a huge cute baby Pokémon explosion with popular Pokémon gaining new, adorable pre-evolutions and cute baby Pokémon for new Pokémon entirely. One of the most popular and famous one's is Togepi. Togepi had a spot as Misty's cute baby Pokémon in the anime for years, eventually evolving into a Togetic and being released to live with its own kind. Well when Generation 4 came around Togetic and Togepi got a brand new evolution in the form of Togekiss! By this point you're probably saying "But Mr Author guy, you said that Fairies weren't released until Gen 6, so why are you talking about Togekiss?" and you're absolutely correct, Fairies weren't in anything before X and Y. So why am I talking about Togekiss, who was Normal/Flying type? Well, Togekiss is now a Fairy/Flying type.

Togekiss's journey has been an interesting one. In Generation 4 it had two distinct roles, a Hustle abusing (extra attack at the cost of 20% accuracy) STAB Extremespeed user (which was pretty good at revenge killing) or a good Special Sweeper with Serene Grace (Doubles the chance a move's secondary effect occurs. With Air Slash it had a 60% chance to flinch, a 20% chance to burn with Flamethrower, and chuck in paralysis from Thunder Wave and you have a great support Pokémon). Generation 5 didn't really change much, it just gave it a couple of new toys in the form of Roost and Choice Scarf, making the Hustle set even more viable and the support set immensely difficult to take down. In Generation 6 it was blessed with the amazing new Fairy type. Fairy type, after Steel type, is the best defensive typing in the game, having a complete immunity to the infamous Dragon, a resistance to the popular fighting types and a resistance to the less popular but sill used Dark type. Putting this on top of Togekiss' Flying typing gives her a 4x resistance to Fighting types, a 2x resistance to Dark Types, a 2x resistance to Grass types, a 2x resistance to Bug types and a complete immunity to Ground types, only exposing her to Electric, Rock, Steel, Ice and Poison types (who all only do 2x damage). She also has a new toy in the form of Assault Vest, allowing her to be a specially bulky tank who can take special variant hits of all aforementioned types really well, and taking normally-effective moves especially well. She also looks absolutely beautiful in her normal form, not her shiny form (for once). All of these reasons combined make her my favourite Fairy type.

The Pokeddexy challenge: My favourite Electric Type?

I started playing Pokémon in the second generation (Gold and Silver) so I was never one of those people who were told stories about the elusive Pikachu in Viridian forest, but over the generations Electric Pokémon have come to be known as the glass canon type, they can do a huge amount of damage but take a huge amount of damage in return. They're generally quite fast as well, and no Electric Pokémon epitomises this more than the legendary Thundurus.

Thundurus is unique in the fact that it has two different forms that perform drastically different jobs. It's regular forme, the Incarnate form, is a speedy status setter with Thunder Wave and his ability Prankster (gives priority to non-damaging moves), and can be an incredible special sweeper with Nasty Plot, which harshly increases his Sp. Atk. His Therian forme however is a potent stall- and wall-breaker, with massive Sp. Atk straight off the bat with an expansive movepool and, whilst less than his regular forme, a blazing 101 Speed stat by the standards of the current meta-game. His Incarnate forme also flies around on a cloud, whilst being buff as hell, how awesome is that? For all of these reasons combined, Thundurus is my favourite Electric type.