The following is a sponsored post.

Classic poker is often featured as a mini-game in major titles that feature gambling. For example, Red Dead Redemption has an awesome poker mini-game that can be engaging on its own. The Liars and Cheats DLC expands it further by featuring multiplayer, allowing players to take their card skills online.

Other classic titles with poker references are Final Fantasy VIII’s Triple Triad, combining poker and a strategy game where you play out different cards. It is also present in social gaming communities such as Second Life and World of Warcraft. Both used to have their own poker spots but were discontinued due to players using real money to play.

Video Games and Web Comics Go Head-to-Head with Poker

Last year, poker and classic characters from games and web comics met in a crossover title called “Poker Night at the Inventory”. It features characters from games like Team Fortress 2 and Sam & Max. Tycho Brahe of Penny Arcade and Strong Bad from Homestar Runner represented their respective web series.

Try Your Hand Out On The Real Deal

If you want to try out some stand-alone online poker, you can find the information here and get a crack at the real deal.

Last Saturday my brother and I went to one of the PC hubs here in Manila (AKA Gilmore to those of you who know it) to buy a new computer. It’s my long overdue upgrade, and by upgrade I mean I’m buying a completely new rig and not just upgrading a part or two. I’ve wanted to get a new PC since last year and now that I have the money for it I decided it was time to get one. Prior to the trip we spent two days mixing and matching parts to fit the budget that I had in mind (30k PHP, which is roughly 650 USD) but since I don’t keep myself updated on PC hardware I knew I needed help. The subreddit BuildAPC (www.reddit.com/r/buildapc) gave me the information I was looking for. The specs involved two core pieces: an Intel i5 processor and a video card with as much power as the money allowed.

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I’ve been playing a lot of League of Legends lately. Didn’t really expect to like a DotA clone but I’m enjoying this one. I’ve been curious about it for a while and decided to give it a shot when I had some free time last week. I like how it streamlined a lot of things from the original. First, there’s only one vendor, removing the need to memorize which guy stocks what. Items are sorted by category so it’s easy to find what you’re looking for. Need mana regen, life steal or faster attack speed? There are categories for those. Also, shortcut keys are universal and customizable. Again, you don’t have to know which hotkey matches what skill.

To be fair to DotA, I’m not blaming it for not having these features. I’m no programmer but I think part of the reason why it doesn’t have them is because it’s still just a map for WarCraft 3, making it limited to what its base game is capable of doing. If a single, category-based vendor isn’t possible for WarCraft 3, it isn’t going to be possible for DotA.

Back to LoL (I don’t know if the acronym pun is intended) I’m partial to AD champions, especially ranged ones, but there are some AP heroes that I like as well. Tristana and Caitlyn are current favorites. For melee I like Jax, Mordekaiser and Akali. Nidalee is fun to play even though she needs more micromanagement than most. That’s about it, I think. I don’t enjoy tanking, no surprise there.

Part of the fun is playing with different champions. This week I had a blast with LeBlanc. She’s an AP-based hero designed to take out other champions. I like her Q+W combination, especially W since it reminds me of a Vanguard’s Charge in Mass Effect 2. Her laning and pushing skills are very weak though, so I end up going from lane to lane hunting for other heroes to deal with.

This post contains spoilers to some of the mentioned games.

It’s September already and I realized that I haven’t written anything in a month. August was spent mostly on the PS3. I picked up Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition and God of War III. I tried to play Yun and found out I couldn’t link anything worth a damn so I just switched back to Ryu. I’m also trying to learn Oni and Viper.

As for God of War III I found it funny. Kratos has been angry since the first game and his quest for vengeance is more of a punchline for me at this point. I wasn’t able to play the second title but I think he was mad there too. So now I’m playing the third game and the guy is still angry. I don’t think it’ll ever end. Don’t get me wrong, the game itself is very good. When I finished it for the first time I played it again on a higher difficulty just to get more of the action. I still found all the yelling and hammy voice acting funny though. Read more… »

The Steam Summer Sale is over. What did you buy this year? It’s actually my first time to participate, being a latecomer to Steam and all. Here’s my list:

• Half-Life 2 (for shame, I know)
• Half-Life 2 Episode 1 (ditto!)
• Half-Life 2 Episode 2 (see above)
• Bioshock
• Hitman: Blood Money
• X3: Terran Conflict

I didn’t buy HL2 back when it was all the rage and ignored it the other times it was on sale because I was distracted by a certain game. Now that that’s over I can spend some time playing other titles. HL2 and Bioshock are installed. I’ll get to them as soon as I’m done with Metal Gear Solid 4. Currently downloading X3. I hope it’s good. I haven’t played a good space sim since Freelancer.

What did you buy?

Let’s cut to the chase. The entire point of Bulletstorm is to “kill with skill”. This involves dispatching your targets in the most creative, often the most gruesome ways possible. Doing so rewards you with skillpoints which you can use to resupply your weapons and unlock charged shots for them. Everything else is secondary to this. The graphics, audio, voice acting and story all act as backdrops to the skill-based shooting.

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If you played the original, the first thing you’ll notice about Crysis 2 is that you’re more confined. You’re not in the jungle anymore so the wide open space that was there back then is all gone, replaced by the urban landscape of a ravaged New York. There’s a plague spreading in the city and you find out early on that it isn’t man-made. You’re almost killed by its creators in the introduction.

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