A Viewpoint

The mage has always been the most powerful class in the dragon age games----dealing devastating area of effect (AOE) spells & single target damages enough to obliterate anyone dare to cross his path...until they start paying attention to him. As soon as his enemies get to him, he's dead meat. The mage is as powerful as he/she is squishy. But all that changes with the Bloodlusted Forcemage (BF mage). Remember the mage from the opening sequence after choosing the class in DA2? The BFmage is similar to that in terms of both raw power & defense. The BFmage do not hide & do not run away at the first sign of threat and can easily go toe-toe toe with his foes alongside the warrior or tanks. It was my second playthrough as a mage when I found this build after much experimenting with the class. And yes, the Bloodlusted Forcemage completely obliterates The Arishok in Nightmare with ease & that's when I know this build really works. Vulgar display of Pow...

Gaming has come a long way since the days of Pacman. It has evolved & developed through the past decades through improved gameplay ideas, interactivity and technology. The emerging of the next generation systems will further enable gaming to reach new heights than ever before. The state of gaming is also much more complex today than it has ever been, with high budget marketing campaigns and online transactions. But along the long road, this has given birth to some elements that has slowly evolved to the extent today that they are solely responsible for many user inconveniences ranging from detracting from the experiences of a gamer to slowly causing a qualitative decay in the gaming industry. I consider these elements the enemies of gaming. As gaming evolves, so do these and some of these elements if not all need to die a horrible death to save the industry. These enemies are discussed below in terms of their capacity of collateral damage to the industry: 6. Downlo...

The Devil may cry (DMC) series is one of the greatest hack-n-slash series in all of gaming & produced some of the defining titles in the genre. Devil May Cry 3 was a Masterpiece & till this day, holds the benchmark of a great hack-n-slash game. And while DMC 4 wasn't quite as great as it's predecessor but playing as Dante was still a blast----changing styles on the fly while combo-ing, Royal Blocking...it's all great stuff. When I first saw the new DMC trailer back in 2010 & the decision made by Capcom to reboot the series, I was obviously skeptical. Of course, Dante's new design was questionable but above all did the DMC series really need a reboot at all? The decision to reinvent the DMC universe & it's characters that gamers have become so familiar with for more than a decade, just to attract more audiences and generating even more sales didn't really seem well to me. DMC already has a fully established fanbase around the ...

Disclaimer : This list is totally based on my preference. You don't have to agree with it. Opinions differ, right? A great guitar solo is something that not only adds to the musicality of a song but takes the song to a new height altogether. It creates a new dimension out of the song entirely. Nothing displays the musicianship of a guitarist more than throwing a scorching, electrifying (pun intended) solo. Below are the 10 solos that are my favorite and which I believe is a showcase of the amazing talents of these great axe men. These are selected on the basis of their composition, diversity, originality and of course, staying power. All of these solos will make you hit the replay button countless times & leave you begging for more. So without further ado, here goes: 10.For the Love of God ( Steve vai) : Talk about pushing the boundaries of guitar playing. Just listening to this solo is an emotionally draining experience. You will feel goosebumps as the gu...

The Sentinel was my favorite class in Mass Effect 2 (ME2). Combining both Tech & Biotic powers, the sentinel was a blast to play, add to the excellent tech armor, when overloaded, automatically detonated & damaged all enemies in a certain vicinity. I loved the Sentinel, period. But much has changed in ME3. Tech armor does not detonate automatically and the blast damage is much less than it was before. While it means you can still detonate the armor whenever you need, such as in close combat situations, but the reduced blast damage is much less effective, especially in higher difficulties. But wait, the armor still does a damn good job at keeping you alive. If you spec it right, you will still be kicking & screaming as a sentinel. Plus, you have both overload & warp to deal with any kind of enemy. In this guide, I will break down & discuss all the available powers of  the Sentinel as well as the best gears & bonus powers.   Tech...

Disclaimer : The shader architecture of computer graphics is a vastly technical subject. But trust me, I will guide you the easy way so you do not need to know all the technical jargon & still have fun reading. Below is a scene with varying degree of shaders :   A shader is a program used to calculate rendering effects with high degree of flexibility. Simply put, shaders create effects in a 3d environment. Whenever you draw an object with a pencil, you put some shade in it afterwards. So while you are at it, you are adding effects with your shading, to make the object seem darker, grainy, realistic or whatever. That's what shader does. Shaders are also built in a graphics processing unit (GPU) for faster shading calculations. There are mainly 2 types of shaders. Now, before we continue, these separate shading architectures is a thing of the past. It is now all part of a unified shader architecture & the shift from former to the latter is cons...