The One About Singapore Cosfest 2008

Singapore's Cosfest 2008 was held recently over the first weekend of July. As always, a huge event with thousands of cosplayers all over the island coming together. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the event due to Top Speed's maiden CBT launch that same weekend. Nevertheless, I'll still try to piece together a poem of what happened that weekend based on pictures, courtesy of Singapore Community Manager, [CM]Rohnaga.

IAHGames had a booth onsite...

With a mysterious counterman as dark as night...

Game trailers played on into the night...

The registration queue numbers were just aight...

But then, it grew when people saw the light...

In the midst of Espada's fight...

And even with Naruto's sorry plight...

The time was now for fighter's good fight...

And Scouts were indeed a welcome sight...

With a charming elementalist on their right...

And on the left, a templar knight ...

Their final photo shoot was indeed dynamite!

Phew! That was close. The only rhyming words I had left on my list were 'eat vegemite' and 'go fly a kite'. I certainly don't see a career switch to 'Full Time Poet' in the near future. Or ever...

The One About V2.6 Downloads & Important Announcements!

Since this is gonna be up on the website later on, I'm just gonna emphasize the most important points:

Remove All Your Items from Market Manager & Cabinet!

Players are advised to remove all their items in the market manager and cabinet prior to the maintenance. Items in the Market Manager and Cabinet will be wiped out when we upgrade to the next version.

V2.6 Manual Patch / Full Client Download Links

You can download the manual patch from these following links.

IMPORTANT NOTE: PLEASE ONLY EXECUTE THIS MANUAL PATCH ON/AFTER 3 JULY 2008, THURSDAY, OR YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LOG INTO THE CURRENT V2.4 VERSION.

Manual Patch Download (To patch from Version 2.4 to Version 2.6) - Size: 219MB

For existing V2.4 Granado Espada gamers, please download the V2.6 The Requiem manual patch to update to your current client:

AUSGAMERS

INTERNODE

MMOSITE

FILEFRONT

FILEPLANET

Full Client Download (Version 2.6) - Size: 4.18GB

IMPORTANT NOTE: PLEASE ONLY EXECUTE THIS FULL CLIENT ON/AFTER 3 JULY 2008, THURSDAY, OR YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO LOG INTO THE CURRENT V2.4 VERSION.

For new gamers, please download the full V2.6 client from any of these sites:

AUSGAMERS

INTERNODE

Full Client – Segmented into 7 components

MMOSITE

AusGamers

http://www.ausgamers.com/files/details/html/36875

http://www.ausgamers.com/files/details/html/36876

http://www.ausgamers.com/files/details/html/36877

http://www.ausgamers.com/files/details/html/36878

http://www.ausgamers.com/files/details/html/36879

http://www.ausgamers.com/files/details/html/36880

http://www.ausgamers.com/files/details/html/36881

Family Reputation Reset

Family reputation plays an important role in V2.6, thus there will be a family reputation reset for the upcoming expansion. All family reputation points accumulated prior to V2.6 will be converted into Nutrition Potions. Every 1,000 family reputation points will be converted into 1 Nutrition potion.

Vicente Rio Event

The Vicente Rio event that I described will be taking place from 3 July 2008-31 July 2008! Start prep-ing yourself for a major power level session! And be prepared to see an army of Vicente clones everywhere in the first week! The costume will be given by IMC on 31 July 2008, Thursday, during maintenance.

Ok. Back to work now. Busy busy. Too many things to do, too little time!

The One About V2.6.3 Vincente Rio

Oh my... I can't believe we are just 2 weeks away from the launch of V2.6 The Requiem! Still so much to do and the premium item mall is still in a pretty messy state... But one step at a time.

Just a heads up - we won't be opening up the V2.6 Chaos Requiem maps immediately on the first day of launch, since we are planning to do a gradual content release over the next 3 months. Likely Chaos Requiem will be released in late July/early August. It's pretty tough at this point in time for the majority to tackle that map since the advised level is Lvl 118~130! It might be a good idea to continue where you last left off in regard to the training of your expert characters...

When V2.6 releases on 3 July 2008, Thursday (almost confirmed but better to be safe than sorry so i am still gonna use the term 'tentative'), we are planning to have a special Vincente Rio event: All gamers who manage to level Vincente Rio to Level 100 within a month will receive a Vincente Rio exclusive costume! Currently awaiting IMC approval for it, but it is should be good to go since they had a similar event in kGE as well.

Vincente Rio is a little closer to my heart since my buddy, Runner (GE Comic Creator), was the voice actor for Vincente. Which made my time at the sound studio particularly entertaining since I was his producer. Before we went down to the sound studio, we discussed a few ideas for the type of voice Vincente would be, especially since he is the very first bard type class in GE. Some sessions went like...

"Hey Hrin! I have this awesome idea! Vincente will form a band with Gracielo in his 2 minutes to midnight costume and they could be like Iron Maiden!"

"What?! Heavy Metal? ...next idea?"

"What's wrong with Iron Maiden?! blah blah blah"

"Ooo... you know what? Let's make him like one of those boy band types! He looks like the boy band type, don't you think?"

"BOYBAND?! NO WAY! Vincente's cooler than that! We can't subject him to a life of boyband-hood!"

And so back and forth we went thinking about the various genre of singers and what voice would be best suited for Vincente. We finally compromised on something that amused us both - a laidback Mexican singer with his guitar.

At the sound studio...

Setting Up

Producer's Console Setup

Runner's a pretty good voice actor, so it didn't take very long to do the voiceovers. There was only one word that his inner Mexican had "issues" with. That word was "Domination"

"Domination" he would say.

I burst out laughing,"That sounds Italian! Not Mexican!"

"DomiNAtion" he tries again.

"Oh hi, God father. You sound like the mafia boss now."

"DOmiNation" he makes yet another attempt.

"Are you thinking of Domino's Pizza or something? How comes you keep sounding so Italian!?"

Domination gone wrong...

Finally, we decide the change the word from Domination to "That's all that is", which was actually an NG that poor Runner spouted out in exasperation whilst sulking from his failed attempts to expel the Italian from his Domination.

After we got all the voiceover clips we needed, then came the editing of each sound clip in order to fit them into the 1-3 secs time length of the original voiceover:

Editing the soundtracks with the help of sound editors

And voila! Here's the finished product of dear ol' Vincente Rio:

Speedy Gonzales, anyone?

The One About IAHGames Carnival

Great news for GTA4 fans! There's gonna be an IAHGames Carnival event taking place at Funan DigitaLife Mall Atrium and the first 2000 who turn up get to redeem a set of not-1-but-8 Limited Edition GTA4 posters.

The dates of the carnival are: 10 June 2008, Tues, 1pm-8pm and 11 June 2008, Wed, 11am-8pm.

Now, besides GTA IV and Top Spin, we will be featuring upcoming games Top Speed and Dragonica at the IAHGames Carnival. Register free on the spot for direct CBT access to both games!

There will also be a sneak preview of upcoming Granado Espada Patch 2.6 content, as well as an hour of free-play at IAH iCafe.

Don't miss out!

Date and Time : 10th June 2008 (1pm to 8pm) /11th June 2008 (11am to 8pm)
Venue : Funan DigitalLife Mall, Level 1, Main Atrium
Available Games : Top Spin 2, GTA IV, Top Speed, Dragonica, etc.

We'll be handing out freebies and prizes throughout the day!

Meanwhile, I've been recommended to use a Digg function for each of my blog entries. But I have no friggin idea how these things work!? Somehow I have a sneaking suspicion that what I have just done is absolutely wrong. Will some kind soul out there give this noob a tutorial walkthrough?

P/S In response to a comment made on my last entry... yes! The loading screens in V2.6 will finally be different!

The One About Top Speed Closed Beta Registration

Murphy's Law.

When it rains, it pours.

I must say that the past month has been nothing short of a Nightmare-on-Elm-Street-I-know-what-you-did-last-summer horror flick. Various issues and problems all happening back to back. Nevertheless, we are in the midst of putting out fires and solving them, one at a time. So please bear with us in the meantime.

With all the recent server issues and bugs, IMC has their hands busy resolving them... which means that, unfortunately, there will be a delay in the schedule for V2.6. We are re-looking at the timelines right now and likely to announce a date pretty soon. On the bright side, the beta version of the V2.6 client is scheduled to be installed on our test servers this Friday, 30 May 2008. Once we have done some initial testing and if the client isn't too buggy, only then can we set a date for the launch of V2.6 The Requiem.

Meanwhile, I do have my hands full with preparation for our upcoming casual racing game, Top Speed! The CBT registration has just been open so sign up early over here: http://topspeed.iahgames.com to avoid disappointment! IAHGames gamers will always have priority for all our CBT signups, so no worries there, if you are a current IAHGames passport holder.

For guaranteed access to the CBT for your other non IAHGames passport holder friends, there are some gaming sites that are giving out CBT keys as well:

MMORPG.com
MMOSITE.com
ONRPG.com
MMOGamez.com
Arenammo.com.br
CGE Network (Many thanks to Daniel Aleksovski for being so supportive and helpful!)

I wanted to end this blog post but it just feels weird and wrong due to my 'no peekture no talk' principle in life. Since I haven't posted a single peekture in this blog entry, and no blog entry is complete without a visual, I'm gonna give you guys a sneak peek of the upcoming new website skin design for V2.6! Enjoy!

P/S: We are gonna get a new V2.6 forum skin as well!

The One About More Upcoming Games!

If you haven't already seen the front page of just about every gaming magazine out there, GTA4 (Grand Theft Auto 4) for Xbox 360 and PS3 is set to hit stores tomorrow.


The 20,000 copies of GTA4 which we are distributing for the region has been completely sold out to various retail stores even before its launch date tomorrow!

What I am most looking forward to is getting my hands on the Limited Edition GTA4 set which is absolutely to die for... Check out the limited edition boxset which comes with a duffel bag, safety deposit box, art book, keychain and the soundtrack which has some very impressive tracks:


Fresh from the warehouse:


I managed to get a chance to test out the game and I was simply blown away by how detailed it was and the AI had definitely improved to an even more stunningly realistic feel compared to the previous versions of GTA. Getting flung and crashing through the windscreen of my car upon major impact was definitely something I need to get used to in Liberty City. This game is an absolute MUST TRY. The cinematics are so well directed that you feel like you are part of an epic movie.

Another upcoming game that is likely to be released pretty soon is a casual racing game called Topspeed. But before you write it off, thinking that you ain't interested in cars or racing games ( like I did ), it's more than just some car racing game. Its kawaii factor is undeniable and one of the hugest draw factor (to me at least) are the various items you can collect along the race track that you can use to sabotage other players to slow them down or to boost yourself to drive at top speed.


Other attractive elements include being able to drift around corners (like InitialD!) and put together your own kart with various parts and even customizing it to be as badass as you like it to be or even as cutesy as a cow!

Batmobile, anyone?

Got Milk?

More coverage coming your way soon!

In the meantime, if you haven't already heard by now, V2.6 The Requiem is scheduled to be launched on 12 June 2008. Currently, we are still on schedule - having recently handed over all localization material & new voiceovers for Bai Hu and Vincente Rio to IMC who is working on producing the new V2.6 client and patch. Let's all keep our fingers crossed and hope that nothing major crops up last minute!

The One About Philippines - Domination II

I just got back from Philippines and oh man... I was simply blown away and hopelessly inspired by the GE Philippines gamers. In all honesty, the past few months had me feeling rather burnt out and weary. But this trip to the Philippines - seeing how passionate the gamers were, the strong bonds they have created within this community was more than enough to cast revitalize me again!

Domination II was a HUGE event with a massive turnup of 18,000 people! Seriously long queues...

From external queues...

...to internal ones!

Each of the games featured at Domination had its own stage and booth. Here's the booth setup pre-event:

Granado Espada Booth

Cosplay is a really big thing in Philippines, such that they even had a huge cosplay area, splat right in the middle of the entire event setup, with all kind of props like bridges and mini stages for cosplayers to pose. Here are some of the Granado Espada cosplayers: Catherine, Elementalist, Wizards, Grace Berneli (Bistre Costume) and Feng Ling!

Granado Espada Characters Coming To Life!

There were many events that went on that day - from PvP tournaments, to Philippines Community Heroes prize giving ceremony etc.

Some of the most unforgettable moments of the trip:

1) Faction Banner Competition

It was such a sight to behold! Seeing massive numbers of faction members who created their own faction banner and coming down to support the event. The atmosphere was so highly charged with cheers and shouts. It was a superbly rah-rah event and a strange reminder of my freshman orientation camp back in school. The unity and bond of trinity could not have been any more real during those moments:


In the finals, there was a tie between Vradical's banner and Outcasts' banner. It was finally decided that whoever cheered loudest for their faction would win the competition. Outcasts Faction nearly deafened us with their screams and cheering. LOL. Congratz to Outcasts Faction!


2) Show me the money!

We were delayed at the airport customs for some time due to the tons of prizes and gifts that we had lugged all the way from Singapore. Amidst the Seagate hard disks, Microsoft Vista and Office, Limited Edition Boxes etc... was also the USD2500 that was meant for the top 3 winners of the Fantazzztic Film Awards:

Show me the moola!

Framing the money into picture frames was a last minute inspiration from our Marketing Vice President, Yoda Chuan. Which has us scrambling to buy picture frames and sticky tape at the very last minute.
[Backstage] 10 minutes before the moolah ceremony....

Last minute art-and-craft session of pasting cold, hard cash into picture frames!

3) Meeting the Philippines Bloggers Group

Having regularly read their blogs for almost a year, it was such a heartwarming feeling to finally meet these great writers in person! And I must say they are as intellectual and interesting as their blogs.

Philippines Bloggers Group - A REALLY tight group

I was particularly delighted to meet "THE VOICE" that launched a thousand laughs. That's right. I'm talking about Mena Family who did all the voiceovers for one of the winning films of the Fantazzztic Film Awards, Le Blanc. His real life personality is truly as multi-faceted and colorful as his amazing spectrum of voices! I certainly wish I had a friend in Singapore that was just as hilarious and entertaining as he is!

The Voice that launched a thousand laughs - Mena Family

It was a wondrous reunion with the first blogger of Granado Espada, NineMoons, who was the very first gamer from the Philippines that I had met up with on my last trip to the Philippines 1 year ago. I guess I will always have this soft spot for her due to this =]

Also got a chance to meet the talented director, Reclusion Family (Carracci), who had bagged the top 2 prizes in Fantazzztic Film Awards. This guy is incredibly gifted - both KingKongJon and I agree that he will be someone great in future. (Don't forget me when you become famous one day, Darrick!) On the other hand, Artaxerxes & Fiksdotter really impressed me with their friendly and kind demeanor and Stiles was a very charming, little sweetie. :)

The most touching moment of this entire trip was when they presented me with a photo mosaic that was made up of all the photos they had taken together. It was likely one of the most moving, overwhelmingly feel-good moments in my entire RCM life. ~>.<~

*Touched* is an understatement...

4) The Dinner Poll

After the Domination II event, we (me, Yoda Chuan, KingKongJon and Alex) were privileged enough to have a dinner with the Pinoy Faction leaders, their deputy leaders and the Bloggers group. During this dinner, we got to hear a lot of feedback from them and we also shared with them some of the operational issues we had on our end. We also shared with them some of the upcoming plans for V2.6 tentative launch on 12 June 2008 (*May be subject to change)

There's this famous dish in the Philippines called Balut (I dare not post images here lest you lose your appetite, but if you are REALLY up for the challenge, here's google image search results)

Desanggria Family was particularly evil! When the dish arrived, she did a dinner poll:

"Who would like to see RCM Hrin eating Balut?"

All hands unanimously shot up, including the hands of my DEAR IAHGames COLLEAGUES.

?!?!#!~@!#@$%#^......"Et tu, Brute?"

Ah well. The community has spoken. I lit my torch and ate Balut.

The vague image of Cockatrice pecking me to death flashed in my mind briefly.

Strangely, it tasted like Marmite. Hmm. Does that mean that Marmite is made up of...?

5) Meeting the Egames Peeps!

The peeps from Egames were such great hosts! They were so hospitable and sweet to us, that we felt so loved and well taken care of. Bonds were formed on a much more personal level, with all the jokes, laughter and conversations held.

And I have a new BFF (Best Friend Forever)! Bye bye Leticia, hello Jason! Audition's Community Manager, CM Jason, is THE most hilarious dude ever! We got along so fabulously - there's not a single moment of boredom with this guy. Here is Jason endorsing Coca-Cola...

CM Jason amusing us endlessly with his comical antics

Many, many thanks to you guys at eGames for making our time there so meaningful and well-spent. :)

Photo Sources:
Ninemoons
[CM] Veya

Reclusion

Artaxerxes
Mena

The One About IAHGames Upcoming Games!

It's gonna be a busy yet exciting year ahead for us. Some of you may have heard already - we will be launching FIFA 2 Online in the Quarter 3 of 2008. We are all very much excited about it!

As mentioned in the newspaper articles below, it's likely to be a Free to Play game, but gamers can purchase extras such as jerseys and improvements - like helping Liverpool's Peter Crouch shoot better.

But before we even hit Quarter 3 this year, the next game that we will be launching in Quarter 2 is Dragonica! It's a casual type MMORPG that is screaming with cuteness overload. I am aware that there are a lot of anime fans within the GE community so this might just be your cup of tea every Thursdays from 0900-1700hrs. (Yes! During GE maintenance time :p )

Dragonica's game developer is Barunson Interactive and their Korean publisher is NCSoft. Here's the promotional video:

MMOsite has done up a lovely feature section on it over here. Here are some of my fave screenshots from MMOsite:



We are currently undergoing Alpha testing with a select group of gamers and in the midst of completing localization. Closed Beta Testing will be launching pretty soon! Meanwhile, Dragonica website and forum are scheduled to be up by next month. I'll let you guys know when we have officially launched the website. In the meantime, you can also visit CM Kaye's Dragonica blog for more information and updates!

The One About Granado Espada Special Edition 2008 Diary

Well, I've got some pretty exciting news! My boss had gone to Korea recently to visit IMC and Hanbitsoft and he brought back some goodies! Amidst the V2.6 posters, GE stickers etc... there were 2 items I fell hopelessly in love with...

One) Jabra- Granado Espada Bluetooth Earpiece

I swear it was love at first sight. Or maybe lust at first sight... considering how I went into psycho mode, pounced on it ruthlessly and declared that it was mine! MINE! MINEEEEEE!!! Well, you would probably do the same too once you've laid eyes on this baby!


Two) Granado Espada Special Edition 2008 Diary!

Yeah, I do realize that Quarter 1 of Year 2008 is already over... But this diary is absolutely gorgeous!


Not to mention it is timeless - the weekly schedule doesn't have any dates on it. Thus, you can input the dates for that week instead.


The world map is the first thing you see when you open up the diary:


The last few pages have snippet scenes from GE.

My Best Friend, Leticia's Portrait

Gotta love Novia...

Baihu (White Tiger)! Very likely the most powerful martial artiste of 'em all

Calyce, the first crossbow user!

And... we are going to have a contest to give out 10 of these diaries to the community! As for what this contest is, we are still discussing it, so feel free to give your suggestions.

April Fools is coming up and there will be an in-game event programmed by IMC that is going to patched in pretty soon. We've received the documents and are in the midst of translation and localization. And of course, Dark Lord Returns Part 3 is coming up soon. There's going to be role playing for this event - both on the forums and in-game, something that I am really looking for to!

Well, it's late now. Gotta sleep soon. Goodnight folks! :)

P/S It's pretty obvious by the end of this blog entry that I am a terrible photographer. Sorry about that folks. The real diary looks a lot better in real life... >.<

The One About Bad News, Good News and Congratulatory News

Well, I'm finally back to work after being down with one of the worst flu bugs ever, which left me bed-ridden for more than a week.

And well, I hate to be the bringer of bad news but... Bahamas Swamp which was scheduled to be released on 20 March 2008 is now postponed to 17 April 2008 instead.

Nyuuu! Say it isn't so!

IMC has a certain set of requirements before they allow Bahamas Swamp to be opened up. I'm not allowed to reveal the exact statistics but in summary, it is a % combination of Expert Characters and equipment that give a good rating. Their concern is that by opening up Bahamas when the majority of the community is not yet ready will further widen the gap between the hardcore users and the casual gamers.

So guys, getting to veteran level is still not enough! Aim for Expert! And at the same time, do strive for better equipment. We're discussing with IMC about expanding the Weapon, Armor and Craftsman Toolboxes to include more Elite 84 Armor Recipes. Meanwhile, do strive to get your Elite 92 weapons from the old man at Los Toldos. I'll write another blog entry about the Los Toldos recipes, but there is already a very good guide on the GE forums done by KENZAI / FungForever from Vivaldi (Thanks KENZAI! ) here about Los Toldos Elite 92 Recipes and how to get the various spirit stones to craft these weapons.

With Bahamas Swamp being postponed, the original release of pretty boy Gavin Jameson would have to be delayed as well since his questline involves the Bahamas Swamp. We haven't yet decided the release date, most likely 24 April 2008, Thursday.

With all the bad news out of the way, I do have some good news as well! We are currently discussing with IMC about preparations for the release of V2.6! V2.6 will likely see the release of bard-type RNPC Vincente Rio, crossbow-type RNPC Calyce and taekwondo-type RNPC Bai Hu (White Tiger). Their names haven't been decided on yet though - I will need to discuss with the localization manager regarding this. Once again, likely to be released on a monthly basis.

Some pretty interesting features about V2.6 include an in-game bulletin board (Think: in-game forum), new items like belts and earrings and a new chat tab which allows you to add up to 50 people in a chatroom. This would definitely spice up colony war faction alliances! We are hoping to launch V2.6 some time in late May-early June.

More exciting news is that IMC is currently working on V3.0, which is likely to be named "Third Civilization". From what I understand, there will also be a third currency, in addition to vis and gpoints. As for what this currency is for... let's wait and see. Meanwhile, the pet function is undergoing development stage and from what I hear (assuming nothing gets lost in translation), this pet function might even have harvesting abilities!

Alright, enough excitement for one day already. Before I end off, I would like to wish the very first sGE blogger, Ninemoons Family from Cervantes, for her blog's one year anniversary! Kudos to you, dear & faithful Ninemoons! I'm truly touched that your love for Granado Espada has withstood the test of time and overcome all trials. It takes a tremendous amount of perseverance to write as faithfully as you have done. (Not to mention, they were interesting and well-thought-out blog entries!) And it only serves to reflect your strength and character. I truly admire you for that, Lady Ninemoons! Thank you for your continued support through good and bad times and may you never lose that spirit and innate strength that far and few possess. :)

Love, Hrin.

The One About Airforce Three

Someone emailed me the other day asking me why was it that a Level 100 Elite La Ventisca Recipe will produce a Elite Level 92 La Ventisca and not an Elite 100 type armor.

I think there's a slight misconception here. Ok, you see, an Elite La Ventisca Recipe says this:


Thus, one might assume that it is an Elite Level 100, but this is not the case. Now let's look at the finished armor:


From the description, it shows that it is Level 92, yet exclusively for Veteran.

Thus, it has the stats of an Elite 92 armor, but can only be worn at Level 100 (Veteran). Hope this helps clear up the confusion - of whether such similar recipes are Elite 92 or Elite 100.

Since we are on the topic of elite 92s, from what I understand so far, Elite 92 armor recipes drop from normal mobs at Katovic Snowfield. I haven't explored enough to know if there are any other mini bosses that drop them. The old man over in Los Toldos (will be unlocked when you do the Baron Quests) sells only Elite 92 weapon recipes, and not Elite 92 armor recipes. Rafflesia and Chaos Boneless at the Secret Temple Super Fight do drop Elite 92 armor, but since they are raid bosses with a rare drop rate for these armor, thus, the hunt for Elite 92 armor recipes will still need to be at Katovic Snowfields.

"But Katovic Snowfield mobs are painful and I don't have good armor!"

Not to fear! There is always the Airforce Three way to go. Some of you probably already know this, but this little tip is more for the casual gamer who wishes to conquer Katovic region.

What is Airforce Three?

Airforce Three means to have 3 levitating characters like wizards, Emilia The Sage or M'Boma.

With levitating characters, most of the Katovic Mobs will be unable to target and hit you 80-90% of the time.

Hurrah for levitation! Time to start training them wizards! ;)