Movie Review 2: Interstellar ( BETA POST )

Hey guys it is me again for yet another movie review of the brand new Interstellar movie! But before I give the review, here is the whole plot of the story.

Synopsis

In the near future Earth has been devastated by drought and famine, causing a scarcity in food and extreme changes in climate. When humanity is facing extinction, a mysterious rip in the space-time continuum is discovered, giving mankind the opportunity to widen their lifespan. A group of explorers must travel beyond our solar system in search of a planet that can sustain life. The crew of the Endurance are required to think bigger and go further than any human in history as they embark on an interstellar voyage, into the unknown. However, through the wormhole, one hour is the equivalent of seven years back on Earth, so the mission won't work if the people on Earth are dead by the time they pull it off. And Coop, the pilot of the Endurance, must decide between seeing his children again and the future of the human race.

This movie is very emotional as Cooper, the pilot of the Endurance, loves his daughter, Murphy and promised to her that he will be back soon. When those 3 hours at Miller s planet means 23 years back on Earth, and when Mann almost destroyed their entire project. It was sad in the ending. I can't tell you anymore since I will spoil the movie. But I can tell you that it will make you jump out to space!

The actors of the movie did really well and I will give them a thumbs up for the acting. The story is quite hard to understand and you will need to know Quantum Physics to really understand it (Just kidding). Graphics wise it looks very beautiful and the scenery will just blow your mind out.

Will I recommend this movie? 100% yes. I don't understand why some critics think that it is not good. The story might be a little hard to understand compared to other movies (like Transformers which doesn't require you have a brain) but once you get the hang of it the whole story will unravel itself.

My final score on this movie: 85/100

The black hole in the movie. You can also see a small planet there.

Movie Review 1: Nightcrawler

First of all, I bet none of you guys have ever seen this movie. The reason I think so because when I walked into the movie theatre there was no one there, just my dad and I.

This movie is a psychological thriller so it is pretty exciting and scary.

He got very angry to find out that his rival got the news footage faster than him..

Synopsis

An ambitious young crime journalist probes the dark underbelly of L.A. in this cynical urban drama that marks the feature directorial debut of screenwriter Dan Gilroy (Real Steal, The Bourne Legacy). Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhall) is a petty thief in search of a payday when he stumbles onto the scene of a grisly car accident, and witnesses seasoned "Nightcrawler" Joe Loder (Bill Paxton) gathering video footage for a local news broadcast. Convinced that this is a career he could excel at, Lou promptly purchases a police scanner and a cheap video camera, and hits the streets. In short order Lou has hired an assistant (Riz Ahmed) to help him navigate the city streets, and started selling footage to local TV producer Nina (Rene Russo), one of Joe's regular buyers. As fast learner with an eye for detail, Lou isn't above manipulating a crime scene in order to get a picture that tells a story. When Lou beats the police to the scenes of a deadly home invasion in an affluent neighborhood, however, his shocking footage catches the attention of two homicide detectives who suspect he's hiding evidence that could be crucial to their investigation. Meanwhile, that footage may be just what Lou needs to enter the big time. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Educational value:

 The ugly side of human nature. People are willing to cross the line in order to get what they want... 

What I learned from this movie: 

Being a bad guy can be pretty rewarding. But don't you try to copy the bad guys... 

Did I enjoy it?

 Yes. yes I do. This movie will keep you on your toes as Lou keeps finding news to film and his assistant makes him kinda mad.

Would I recommend it? If you wanna see a thrilling yet full of story movie. This is it. They are blood and gore though.

Wow factor: There is a twist in the end so I gotta say WOW.

Score: 8/10

If the movie is so great, why no one is seeing it?

 This movie ain't your blockbuster Hollywood Transformers yo. It's a low budget movie with limited publicity but it doesn't mean it's no good. It's actually very good! 

Post 13: Civilization Beyond Earth ( BETA POST )

Warning: this post is not finished so I strongly advice you to stop reading and read the others but if you insist I cannot stop you. There may be some grammar mistakes as well.

Next Big Game? We shall see

When humanity is in the verge of extinction, they sent an idiotic newbie leader ( me ) into deep space to find a new home for humanity. As I watch Earth getting more and more further away, I said to myself: " This will not go well......"

Whether you are battling super alien worms or battling other civilizations, you always get yourself into trouble. That is the Russell newbie 100% guarantee. Of course I am playing on the hardest difficulty ( Apollo ) so do not expect me to win any victories because before I reach any of those victories I get destroyed by other civilizations or a damn siege worm. Before I start on this post, I wanna warn you, it might contain some stupid scenes that no human has been before.

If you wanna know what Civ: Beyond Earth is, it is basically a turn based strategy simulation game where you take control of a faction and live on a new world facing both other rival factions and aliens. For first timers this will look pretty hard but once you advance to the mid-game you will find aliens very easy to kill ( Except for that siege worm and kraken )

First of all, you need to select your sponsor A.K.A country that will fund you into space. During those times the government is busy dealing with India ( Gandhi super nuclear weapons ) But of course, the KP is basically India so I recommend staying away from her ( I think she is Gandhi's daughter ) So during then, they need those big companies ( ARC is basically Google in disguise ) to send people into space. After that you need to select a spacecraft, cargo, planet, colonist. All will give you different perks and will effect your play style. But ultimately, the thing that effects your play style the most is the affinities. Affinities are basically ideologies that will advance your civ to another kind of human. You may like to merge with the alien world so you go with Harmony. You may also like to use tech and crush the world with an iron fist ( I used this but failed ) or you may wanna change the world to Earth 2. It all depends to you.

To win the game, you need to accomplish at least one of the few victories. Domination means you win by destroying every capital of other civs. The Promised Land is teleporting Earthlings into the new world and settling them. Contact is a victory where you establish contact with another alien civilization that settled here a long time ago but did not survive. Emancipation is teleporting your units back to Earth to liberate them from their weaknesses. Transcendence is connecting the human consciousness to the alien world

When you make planetfall into the new planet. You will be given an explorer unit to roam around the new world. They may be resource pods, which gives you a solar collector, energy, science or culture. Your explorer may also conduct an expedition if you are on a artifact of some kind. Which when completed will grant you a boost of some kind.

The alien world is surrounded in miasma, a toxic gas which kills your troops and heals aliens. But if you go with the Harmony Affinity your troops will actually heal from miasma so you might wanna think clearly if miasma is friend or foe. Aliens also kind of act as miasma. They kill your troops but if you use Harmony they might actually help you in destroying your rivals' cities.

 If you are an civ 5 player ( like me ), you will find the game not that much different from civ 5. I think that it is actually a reskin or DLC of civ 5 and I think it really isn't worth the money to buy it right now. But if you never played the civ series and you wanna jump on in, I think you should do it. Overall, this game has a score of : ?/100

TO BE CONTINUED.......

Reason why I do this: I really dislike writing for very long periods so I do this so you guys won't get bored. I hope you will like this but if you don't leave a comment so I will stop it.

Happy Halloween and Holidays!

Yo guys wassup this is Russell here and happy holidays to everyone! Well mostly for Malaysian students who will be having their holidays soon. As for Americans, Happy Halloween to you!

As the holidays is approaching fast, I will be writing more posts for you guys to read. Well may be not because if there is nothing special to share,I  better don't post anything to bore you guys out. 

A spooky Jack O' Lantern

If you guys are wondering what Halloween is, Halloween is an annual festival celebrated by some countries on October 31st. The few activities where people do during Halloween are the famous Trick or Treating where you must give candies to the children who knocks on your door or expect a trick from them. Other than that, carving pumpkins to Jack O' Lanterns is also a common activity during Halloween. A Jack O' Lantern is made to represent souls of the dead. Pretty spooky right? Other activities of Halloween are Costume Parties, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing and visiting haunted attractions.

To be honest I am just posting this to tell you happy holidays to everyone so nothing really special will be posted. Ok that is it for now and I will see you guys later.

~Russell

Post 12: My home

Hello! Russell Kong here. I am here to talk about my small country Malaysia and Town Tawau. If you guys are wondering why my old post about my visit to Charis International School, the post was deleted because we have infringed their privacy. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

The Malaysian Flag. The 14 stripes mean the 14 states of the country

My country Malaysia is located in South East Asia. It is very near to the equator so expect hot and wet weather all year round. We are relatively small and not very powerful in terms of economy and militarily. Our country has two areas: West Malaysia and East Malaysia. West Malaysia is basically peninsula in the Malacca Straits while East Malaysia is Borneo, a part of it. West Malaysia was founded a long time ago by Malay people. They build villages but during the exploration era the Malacca Empire merge those villages into one big civilization/country. East Malaysia however remained out from the world until the british people saw it and controlled the area. On August 31^st 1957, West Malaysia declared independence as Malaya and a few years later called Malaysia after it merged with East Malaysia.

This is the Sabah State Flag. That Mountain you see there is actually Mt. Kinabalu.

I live in Tawau, a small town located in the south eastern corner of Sabah. Sabah is actually called North Borneo before it joined Malaya into Malaysia. In East Malaysia, there are two states. One is Sarawak and the other one is Sabah. Sabah now is still primitive compared to the big states of the US. Most of the land is still wild and untouched by humans. That is why the air and water of the area is not really polluted. The name Sabah actually comes from a type of banana that is only found in the state. It makes really good “Pisang Goreng” or fried banana in English. Tawau’s town is fairly small but the Tawau district is pretty big. In Tawau District there are a few small towns such as Semporna and Lahad Datu. Most of Tawau are actually palm oil plantations. Because of that many people in Tawau are quite rich. Tawau has no attractions apart from the tallest tree in the world which is located in Taman Bukit Tawau or Tawau Hill Park in English. That tree has attracted a small number of tourists but in my opinion I think that shopping is much better that going into rainforests. Talking about shopping, Tawau has only 1 shopping centre. The rest are all normal shops. Although Tawau is not a very big city, I still like it because of the fresh air and free life that I get to live here.

The top of Mt. Kinabalu

If you do have a chance to come to Sabah, you definitely won’t miss out the iconic Mt. Kinabalu. It is the highest mountain in South East Asia at 4km+. I haven’t been there before but my dad says it is awesome on hiking a mountain so high. Other than that, you will mostly go to Kota Kinabalu then if you finished hiking the mountain. Kota Kinabalu ( or KK in short ) is the capital of Sabah. Before it merged with Malaya it was called Jesselton. During the early days when merged with Malaya KK was called api-api. Only lately the name has been changed to Kota Kinabalu. KK is a moderately sized city but not as big as Kuala Lumpur which is the capital of our country. KK has some attractions like the famous Mt. Kinabalu ( Which I mentioned earlier ).

Alright folks that’s it for now. I hope you enjoy my post and if you do help me to spread the word by sharing my blog on Facebook or any other social media website. Once again I apologize for the delete of the visit to Charis International School and I hope to see you guys again.

Post 11: Fifa 15 review

HOLY CRAP THAT WAS AWESOME! Oops hello guys to another post of mine. Sadly I have been kinda lazy and did not post anything. Fifa 15 was just released and oh god that was one hell of a ride. But without further or do, lets have a review to the 1 week old Fifa 15.

I say that is one awesome picture of Messi

If you wanna know what  Fifa 15 is, it is basically a Football ( Soccer ) game developed and published by EA games. It was just released about a week ago and I pre ordered it on Origin. EA's online game store . It uses EA's new sparkling Ignite Engine which we will talk more about it later. It features better graphics and physics. I wasn't much into Fifa 14 because it was basically the same as the last few generations of Fifa games but with this new emotions and realism into the game I almost pooped my pants when playing the game.

1. The Engine

The Engine is called the Ignite Engine. Electronic Arts announced several features within the engine. Its Human Intelligence framework lets in-game players "think like real athletes", with the ability to make snap judgments, prepare for impact, and perform as a team player. For example, the new artificial intelligence creates a sense of urgency for computer players towards the end of a match, who will rush for more shots on goal. The True Player Motion framework makes players' bodies, limbs, and clothing each move according to physics. The Living Worlds framework models the stadium audience members and their behaviors individually. The audience will have expectations about the in-game sports matches, and will change react with the match's progress. The Ignite artificial intelligence is able to use the next-gen hardware to handle four times as many calculations per second than older EA Sports titles. Animation detail is expected to improve "ten-fold". It was announced at the Xbox One reveal event in May 2013. It was used on all sports games made by EA except for PC variants. They said that most of the PC market did not have the specifications required to power the Engine Smoothly. On last year's PC variant of Fifa 14, they still used the very old Impact Engine. The audience still looks like they are made out of cardboard and the players still kinda look like cartoons. 

2. The Gameplay

With new improved AI, the keeper looks more like one than old FIFA games.

The gameplay is mostly the same. Which is the same TV-like view of the pitch ( But it can be changed ) and the same football matches. The user interface is much easier than before but other than that the game is quite the same. On the match though it changes quite a lot. Almost 600 new emotions is added on the players. Making the game pretty realistic and emotional. The goalkeeper also has changed. Now, the goalkeeper is much smarter than the old clumsy idiot we used to have on the old Fifa games. This is the most realistic Fifa game ever released. With the new engine, players act better while we look like a bunch of kids running around the field ( As I am a newbie of course ).

3. Game Modes
Please note that this is a brief intro about the game modes and not a review. Please skip it if you just wanna see the review.

1. Kick Off: The normal quick game mode of the game. It can be played offline but if you are connected to the internet it will download and apply latest squad players and formations to the team.

2. Career Mode: Career mode is basically the "Story Mode" of the game. You can start either as a manager or a player

3. Co-op seasons: Play with your friends online and go up the ranks to division 1. Quite fun to play.

4. Online Seasons: play solo online against different other players around the world. Go up the ranks in the season or play the cup to get trophies.

5. Ultimate Team: The most used game mode in the game. Manage and play your own squad and sell/buy players in the transfer market.

4. Emotions is critical

Be calm or be like this guy.

If you wanna play well in the game. You must have a calm temper unlike me who goes crazy when someone scores a goal. If you play like me, you will have a high chance your monitor and keyboard will be smashed to pieces. Be patient and do not rush to the goal. Try to pass and learn some skill moves to be a pro. Do not go to online immediately if you are a beginner. You will be overwhelmed by better players and will lose almost every match ( Just like what I did on Fifa 13). Play on offline mode until you get the hang of it and then you can try online. Like you, the players in the game can also get very emotional so sometimes you can also feel their pain like when you conceded a goal or missed a brilliant shot.

5. Verdict 
Great game, great goal. Just like what Martin Tyler said in the game. The game has some hilarious bugs ( Pro Tip: The keeper is weak when you hit it in the corner of the goal ) that needs fixing and I hope that EA will fix it soon. My final score? 86/100

Pros
1. Realistic
2. Kinda Funny
3. Improved a lot since last year's game
4. New Engine

Cons
1. A little buggy
2. The online matchmaking needs some fixing
3. You will be mad when you are on a losing streak

PS: add me on origin if you have the game. My name is russell616. (PC version)

Post 10: What Is Up There?

Hey guys Russell here. Today it won't be any normal post. This is going to get really emotional on this post. For some it may be but for some it isn't. This is going to be a very long post as well. So I hope you are ready for this mind-blowing adventure.

To be honest, what is up there? This is what scientists have thought of since we started looking upwards.  What is really up there? Are there monsters, aliens or some sort of God living in the cosmos? This is what baffled scientists for centuries.  Are they really that different from us? Will they bring harm or good things to us? Or do they really exist in the current timeline. For now, there is no evidence that life beyond our earth exists. Well except from the ISS ( International Space Station ) which always has people living there.

We, the human race, always try new ways to discover things. It is our curiosity that made us so technologically advanced from other mammals. It is collective learning that made us learn more and more about our world. Since we started writing, we can learn even more by storing information on books. Our species is really special and thanks to a bit of luck we are currently thriving on Earth. What if there is also an alien species that is almost as same as us, thriving on another planet? Currently, we cannot even find a single piece of bacteria on any place that is not on Earth. Signs of life is available though such as water on martian soil. Sadly, they do not have the luck to survive. We are the current species on Earth to have such advanced civilizations. The last species to ever be as near as us would be the dinosaurs! Isn't that amazing considered how far humanity has gone through the ages. But have we reached the final level? We already have advanced technologies such as nanotechnology and robotics but is that enough to say we are the most advanced civilization on the galaxy or even the universe?

On current data, there are a bunch of planets as same as ours. They are within the Godilocks zone of their system. On that area, it is not too hot and not too cold. Perfect for sustaining life. The best thing is they might even have water and an atmosphere rich in oxygen that is needed for life. Our current telescopes cannot know that but we are developing one much greater than the Hubble Space Telescope. If there is life on those planets, will they be as advanced as us or they will be as primitive as the dinosaurs? If they have luck, they might succeed our technological advances and beat us in the tech race. Or they are as same as us, looking for life as same as theirs in another world.

I have just watched Big History and it gave me an insight on what life on other planets look like. The human first appeared in Africa. However, having a species on one continent is not enough, so that is why during the ice age where most shallow seas are ice, they cross continents and populate every continent of the world. If that is the case, will it be the same to us? During the exploration era, people were hoping they would meet some kind of new life on the new land but what did they find? Yes they might find some interesting fauna and flora but what is the dominant species there? The same as theirs, humans.

This gave me an insight. We are now exploring new worlds, new planets to look for life. What if it is the same as what we did last time? (On a galactic scale). What if we are separated with another type of life same with us during a galactic collision? Some people say life is transferred by asteroids. What if the asteroid that brought life on earth was basically a small part of a exploded planet? The crumbs then are sent throughout the galaxy. Since it used to be with us,  Won't it be that different after evolution?  It will not be the same as us but the difference should not be drastic. In fact, they will be two legged mammals, with two hands as well. I am not sure if this is real considered that this is just a hypothesis that I made so take it with a pinch of salt.

Our galaxy is filled with billions of star systems. Our Universe is filled with billions of galaxies. Is this planet really so special as the only planet with life? I think not. There might be millions of planets that have life. We have already found tons of them which is in the zone that is available to support life. We just need more research to found out if there is life on those planets. I do hope that they are life on other planets and share knowledge with each other,

So that's about it! Sorry for not posting for a long time because I was having a break during the holidays ( Gaming ) so I do hope you can forgive me. Thanks for reading and I will see you next time!

~Russell

iOS 8, The small wonders.

Hey there guys, it has been a while since I posted something, but here I am. I would wanna show you guys the things you should actually know about the new iOS 8.

As we all know, Apple released a new iOS, promised to be the most advanced mobile operating system in the world, I agree to that point.

Apple prepared an application called "Tips" to guide you through the new operating system and the new things about it.

But, there are still some things missed out, too small but worth a mention. 

I'll start with the smallest thing, a small tweek done to the brightness toggling in the control centre. As we all know(or maybe some of you don't), when we open the control centre, the home screen or luck screen as the background will be dimmed, so when we toggle the brightness, it won't be that accurate. Who knows? Apple spotted that and done a small tweak. When you start toggling the brightness in the control centre, the home or lock screen will appear as the actual brightness as you toggle, how great is that?!

The second one is the weather app. Apple have been relying on Yahoo for the weather but now, Apple starts replying directly on The Weather Channel which is much more accurate and it offers a 9-day forecast in the app itself, brilliant!

The third one is the notification centre. It has now removed the missed section, leaving today view and notifications only, offering a much cleaner UI. It even offers third-party widgets but this is now not yet greatly developed. It will take some time for this to be superb.

This is it for now, I will keep you guys up-to-date with everything new and special. 

 

A small note, iPhone 4s users are encouraged not to update your iPhone to iOS 8 due to bad performance.

Carlson out.