Pocket Monster Alpha and Omega

I have great news!!! Yesterday I got Pokémon Omega Ruby!!! Happiness!

I have waited for this for quite a while now. I am fully ready to take off on my Pokémon journey with my lovely Cyndaquil and Torchic! Let's do this!

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are remakes of Gameboy Advance's Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire. It is originally the third generation in the Pokémon universe. With each Generation, there is a whole new region with new Pokémons, gym leaders and a Pokémon league.

For those who have never played an original Pokémon game, Pokémon is an RPG where you collect Pokémons (short for Pocket Monsters) and level them up in order to compete alongside or against your friends and strangers. That is the simplest way I could describe the game but of course there's a lot more to it, deeper elements, games, events and activities. 

I haven't personally delved into the game just yet but today I shall do so and hopefully post about it more within the upcoming days!! Look forward to that!! 

Also, one more thing! For Pokémon fans in Kuwait or the Middle East region, a good friend of mine has started a project called "Pokémon Center Kuwait". If you're interested in meeting more Pokémon fans in Kuwait please follow @PokemonCenterKW on Instagram! Show them your support!

I shall post my 3DS friend code for anyone to add me. Please leave your friend code down below in the comment section if you would like to add me!!

The V's in our lives

This is going to be an off topic post, although I wouldn't consider it off topic since everything in life is connected one way or another.

A few months ago, my wife and I had an epiphany which resulted in a radical change in our life.

We've always been animal lovers and hadn't really thought of them as any less than our species. We've seen the great slaughter that takes place every day and every second around us, the slaughter of other living beings for the sake of our "health" and "wellbeing". Nonsense, pathetic and a ridiculous excuse for mankind to exercise killing other living beings. It is not for our survival nor our health. I have lived for 25 years believing that my main source of calcium was cow's milk, and protein mainly came from meat and chicken. Apparently those sources are the worst sources for such nutrients.

That is the health part of the equation. The main part of the equation is killing other living beings. Why would we want to kill them? Why do we want to inflict pain on others? What drives such desire? It is unnatural! There Are some animals that hunt others for sports. But using guns? Do we call that a sport? What does it really do for us? Great marksmanship? To enhance our accuracy and precision? Nowadays we completely depend on machines to do everything in our lives, we certainly don't need marksmanship as a sport. And if we really did need it we could always practice it on drones and moving machines instead of animals and birds.

So with that, my wife and I have seen the sad truth that we've been living in and decided to do what feels right for the animals, humankind and our dear Gaia "Mother Earth" and went vegan. 

Now you'd ask, what does that relate to Video Gaming? 

Well let's see... Console wars? They basically boil down to the concept of "mine's bigger and better". Getting protein from meat and chicken is always considered more manly than getting it from plants. It's exactly like saying "I am a great man/woman for choosing Playstation over Xbox since real gamers play Playstation." ...again I am not siding with Playstation, Xbox or Nintendo. It was simply an example.

Also another example "First person shooters are the real deal, unlike child fantasy stuff like RPGs"

I face this problem in nearly every multiplayer game whether it's online or offline. Most of these games are aimed toward nice and cooperative team-play. But people usually ruin it by dick-measuring and juvenile namecalling. Again... What drives such brutal urges? To kill or stand above others? Why does it always have to be this way? Why can't people enjoy games BY playing cooperatively with others? Even with fighting games we can always enjoy a good match that ends with a smile instead of profanity and hard feelings.

This is coming from a 26 years old "human" who enjoyed playing videogames for nearly 23 years. Enjoy life and enjoy gaming. "Enjoy" is a really beautiful word and sensation and all of us humans need it. 

Here's a lovely picture of us enjoying our time in the Maelstrom.

A new 3DS

It has been nearly a year since I have last updated this blog!

But now I am back and I'll do my bestest best to keep it updated and entertaining as much as possible! 

Alright! Let's get down to business.

Tadaa! It's the "new" 3DS!! Just got it few days ago and man the upgrade Nintendo have done to the 3DS is phenomenal! I will list all of the new and upgraded things along with my personal experience with the device.

1- The 3D capabilities have been upgraded! There is a new sensor next to the front camera (the selfie lens) that will track your eyes or head and move the 3D objects so you'd be able to enjoy the Nintendo 3DS' 3D without it being chopped. Also they have enhanced it so it won't put strain on your eyes anymore. (For people who had problems with the 3D that caused headaches and nausea).

---Personal Experience: The new 3D capabilities are are great and they work flawlessly. I have found myself turning on the 3D while hunting in Monster Hunter way more often, in fact it is way more fun doing so. I have played Monster Hunter with the 3D on for about 4 hours and I didn't face any kind of problem biologically speaking. 

2- The addition of the C stick! The C stick replaces your huge Slide pad extension for a nice  small stick that resides just above the A B X Y buttons. It acts as a right analog for the 3DS. Every game that had the Slide pad support is supported by this C stick.
---Personal Experience: The thought of having a right analog on the 3DS without an extension made me so excited at first! but truth be told when I tried it, it felt too rigid and hard. you see the stick is literally a fat stick that doesn't wiggle nor move. it felt exactly like the small round button thing that Laptop companies have used in the past that sits in the exact middle of the keyboard. but the good thing about it that it's sensitive and acts real well. unless you are in a very hard fight in Monster Hunter that needs fast reflexes.

3- Face plates for the vanity-holics!!!! You can change the face plate of the "new" 3DS in a few simple quick steps. You'll have to use a small "plus" screwdriver to unscrew the bottom plate. and for the top plate you'll have to use the 3DS stylus to just pull-and-open it. easy as that!! so no more buying special edition 3DSes just for the sake of looks. it's a nice move from Nintendo! money saver. <3
---Personal Experience: I have swapped my faceplates once till now. because I have no reason to change my faceplate anymore! JUST LOOK AT THE CUTE KUT-KU!!!!!

4- Two new shoulder buttons have been added. the ZR and ZL buttons. they act EXACTLY like the R and L buttons. the ZR and ZL buttons are just smaller. I can see many uses for it in the future.
--Personal Experience: my hands are Not big. but I could tell for those people who have big hands, the new ZR and ZL buttons will be really comfortable to use.

 

 5- The upgraded process is AMAZING. the loading times to jump from the game to the HOME menu takes roughly less than 0.37 seconds to open. also the in-game loading times have been cut in half. there will be exclusive games for the new 3DS and new 3DSLL/XL that uses the faster processor. Nintendo have only announced one game till now which is Xenoblade Chronicles. THE Xenoblade Chronicles! this is exciting news as my wife and I are fans of the Xeno series.
---Personal Experience: Simply AMAZING. really! during a complex and hard hunts full of processing  along with the 3D fully on, pressing the HOME button and jumping into the HOME menu takes literally less than 0.37 seconds. simply outstanding. I hardly see any framerate drops in Monster Hunter anymore. in the older model when playing hard quests with complex armor parts and skills it would drop the framerate. (not in a game breaking way. but for sensitive people that care about every little movement in the game, it might come off as an issue. but definitely not a game breaking issue.).

So that's it for now about the "new" 3DS. I have listed the big changes. there are other changes that I haven't personally tested it yet. so with further use of the device I will post about my experiences in the near future!

Here is a family picture of my package! 

---Excuse my pictures quality. It wasn't a good weather to take good pictures with---