Nanaca Crash

Zubaaaaaaan!

Nanaca Crash!! (actually spelled NANACA†CRASH!!) is an online spin-off game featuring characters from Cross Channel, an eroge (a Japanese video or computer game that features erotic content, usually in the form of anime-style artwork) for the Windows and PlayStation 2 platforms. You can view the Wikipedia article for Cross Channel here.


The object of the game is to click, hold and release the mouse button to determine the angle and velocity of Nanaca crashing her bicycle towards Taichi, sending him flying across the screen. Your score is determined by the distance of his flight. Certain characters he crashes into will greatly affect his velocity. Landing into girls gives you different "Boosts" that can add to your velocity and sometimes trigger "Specials" at certain conditions. While in their "Special" state, the mouse button should be clicked to activate the special boost (and a cool animation). Not doing would cause the cancellation of the special state and just the boost of the character Taichi landed on would be activated. For best results, click the mouse button otherwise within 0.7 seconds to get a super boost. Also, there are two guys you can land on: one could change your angle (Angle Up or Angle Down) while the other guy slows you down.

Summoning Nanaca (clicking the mouse button anywhere in the game screen) to produce "Aerials" could be done between a height of 3-10 meters which is basically when Taichi is above the trees but not too high that the red arrow pointing up appears. Red aerials are possible when Taichi's falling. Clicking the mouse button gives him an upward boost. You can use this up to three times. Useful if you want to avoid running into a certain person like Misato Miyasumi (girl with glasses, the game would be over when Taichi lands on and hugs her). Blue aerials, on the other hand, are possible on the way up. Clicking the mouse button gives you a boost downward. Unlike the Red aerials, the Blue ones are “rechargeable” and you have to wait until it recharges back to 100% for each use. Useful if you want to hit someone that can boost you further.

So, if hitting other people with your bicycle is your thing, go on and check out Nanaca Crash here.

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Desktop Tower Defense

Look away if you value for lives and your jobs...

Whatever you do, don't click on the link and start playing the game. This game is responsible for us losing a week's worth load of work due to its very simple and addictive gameplay. Again, be warned. We were practically going to work just to play this game. We were spending more time discussing about the different strategies and map layouts rather than focusing on our work deliveries and deadlines. I think we had gone overboard when each of us received emailed memos warning us about “playing too much”. Whew! We almost lost our jobs due to this wonderful Flash game.

Desktop Tower Defense illustrates that you don’t need fancy graphics or big budgets to build highly addictive online games. In Desktop Tower Defense, all of the main graphics are hand drawn. Unlike some other Flash based games in the web this game is free and is very simple to pick up. Also, this game employs a lot of strategizing and resource management. Numerous modes, difficulty levels, and maps are just some of the game’s features which give a big boost to its replayablity factor.

The rules of the game are simple. You start with an empty map as “creeps” enters from the left and/or the top. These creeps find their way to the different exits that are opposite to where they had entered. Initially, you start with a set number of lives (about 20) and these get diminished when a creep would exit the map. Each wave of creeps have their own special abilities and it is the player’s goal to build different towers with also their own abilities to shoot, damage, and sometimes hinder the creeps on their way out. Also, the layout of the towers should not block the path of the creeps to their respective exits. Towers could be bought, sold and upgraded for an amount of money which could be earned for every creep killed. It is the objective of the player to handle all the creep waves as they get harder and tougher without exhausting all the life points. Good “mapping”, “path building”, and strategic placements of the towers is important to maximize every tower’s use.

The creator of this ludicrously addictive Desktop Tower Defense game is apparently making close to $10,000 a month from Google ads. The game’s creator, Paul Preece, a Visual Basic programmer having no professional experience with game development, is now making, by his estimate, high four figures monthly for his ferociously viral little game. In the span of a few months, the game has become extremely popular, having been played over 15 million times as of July 2007. The game was among one of Webware 100's top ten entertainment web applications of 2007.

Desktop Tower Defense is already on its 1.5 release which features new towers, modes and creep types. If you have nothing to do, or just wish to be fired immediately from your job, check out the game at www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you…

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Iron Man The Movie Trailer

At last, Iron Man would get his very own big screen adaptation.

Robert Downey Jr. had been casted to play Tony Stark/ Iron Man, a billionaire industrialist and ingenious inventor who develops the ultimate technological suit. Other cast members include Gwyneth Paltrow as Virginia “Pepper” Potts, Stark’s personal secretary; Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane/ Iron Monger, Stark’s mentor and business rival; Terrence Howard as James Rhodes, Stark’s bestfriend who would unlikely be War Machine in (keeping our fingers crossed) the following Iron Man movie sequels; and Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Fans of the The Ultimates comic books know that Nick Fury’s appearance in the series is based upon the features of Samuel L. Jackson.

Iron Man’s director, Jon Favreau (Zathura, Elf), originally planned to cast a newcomer in the role, but cast Downey Jr., who is a big fan of the comic book. Downey Jr. described his challenge as "making a wealthy, establishmentarian, weapons manufacturing, hard drinking, womanizing prick into someone who is likable and a hero". His co-star Paltrow, on the other hand, went straight to the source material, reading many comic books lent by her husband, Chris Martin, for the preparation for her role.

As with every Marvel movie made, it is reported that Iron Man’s co-creator, Stan Lee, would make another cameo appearance in the movie “where he appears with three blonde women and is mistaken for Hugh Hefner by Tony Stark”.

Favreau announced the Mandarin as the film's villain at Comic-Con International, When asked about the Mandarin, Favreau compared the Mandarin to Sauron in The Lord of the Rings, in that his role is a presence rather than a physical antagonist. He also said that the first film's plot would not deal with Tony Stark's personal problems, such as alcoholism. Favreau noted that if there were sequels, Tony Stark's personal problems would be explored. Favreau plans Iron Man to be the first in a trilogy, with all the actors signed on. Favreau has also stated he would like to develop the Mandarin into a physical threat, or use Fin Fang Foom if he could fit the tone of the films.

About the armor, Favreau confirmed "The suit will be more like a weapons platform than a flying suit – more of a War Machine-feel to it. Favreau stated he wanted the film to feel believable, and key to this was seeing the full construction of the suit in its three stages.

The Iron Man suit showcased in the film was inspired by Iron Man comic book artist Adi Granov (Tales of Suspense Commemorative Edition: Captain America and Iron Man, Iron Man vol. 4). He created the suit design with Phil Saunders, which was built by Stan Winston Studios. Granov's designs were the primary inspiration for the film's design.

The film is slated for a May 2, 2008 release, and is the first film independently produced by Marvel Studios. You can view Wikipedia’s article about this upcoming movie here. Also, for updates and release dates you can check out the official Iron Man movie website at http://www.ironmanmovie.com/.

Below, you can watch the official movie trailer. Here's hoping this movie wouldn’t suck like X-Men 3…

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Wannabe Wannabees

Copied this video from Kat's website: 32Flavors and Some Untasted Ones. Hehehe... Enjoy!

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The Inday Phenomenon (Part 2)

Pucha! Grabe na pala kasikatan ni Inday.

Multiple blogs had already started posting their own share of accumulated Inday jokes. Surprisingly, Conrado de Quiros, a columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, wrote an article about the popularity of Inday. It is amazing to see a man of his caliber write a topic about something as simple as a chain of text jokes promulgated by people who just don’t want to waste their precious unlimited text plan. Truly the Inday jokes are not just a passing fad but a phenomenon. You can view the article of Conrado de Quiros entitled “O Inday” in his column “There's The Rub” here.

It seems that Inday started a blog of her own. Blog Ni Inday offers new Inday jokes updated daily. Jokes had been arranged by categories (See the Assemblage section) for the reader’s convenience. You can also check Inday’s Biodata and comments from her “Amo”. According to him “the site’s sole purpose is to gather and share the numerous Inday jokes and manuscripts scattered all over the SMS and Internet world.”

Shockingly, as of this writing, this blog was thrusted in the Top 10 English Blogs at Wordpress in just a few weeks time. Here’s hoping to someday see a movie or TV show about everybody’s favorite househelp…

… and perhaps a Tagalog-English Dictionary named after her.

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