Free Weekend - Overwatch and Fallout 4 [Notification]

Just a quick notification for those that didn't know, that this weekend is a Free Weekend for two great games: Overwatch by Blizzard Entertainment and Fallout 4 by Bethesda Softworks.
To commemorate this amazing alignment of the planets that these two behemoths occupy, I created this 'Mash-Up' Image Header as a Reminder, which I will release as a Full-Sized Wallpaper, for fans of these two franchises, once it is complete... Soon™

A big fan of both companies' products, I was so excited about it - but I haven't had a chance to play yet! So, I'm trying to help out all of you fellow gamers and notify you that these games are Free and Playable all weekend - including being sold at lowered prices - but it's almost over! Get out there and jump in - and have fun! GOGOGO

See You In The Game!

Gwent - Playable By All Now As It Enters Public Beta Phase [Notification]

Update: Added Bugs Personally Found - 20170525, Ongoing

Update: Added Example of Patch Notes - 20170526
Update: Embedded The Gwent Cinematic Trailer 'jussferfun' - 20170527

Just a quick notification that Gwent, the Free-To-Play online card game based on The Witcher series, is now playable by all, as it enters the Public Beta phase (Open Beta).

Stress-Test the servers!
Find bugs and improve the game!
Have fun!

https://www.playgwent.com/

From the GOG.com Store Page:

"GWENT: The Witcher Card Game is currently in public beta. The game requires an online connection to play and offers optional in-game purchases. Single player campaign will be added at a later date."

And More: Revue - Fantastic Four (2015) [Spoiler-Free Review, Text-Only]

I love movies - who doesn't? I like reading Reviews of them sometimes (not all of the time) - who doesn't (sometimes)? Now, while this is more of a game-centered blog [well, supposed to be haha] I wanted to start sharing some Reviews of movies I write, here. Not often maybe - and don't worry, they won't be 'long' [my personal illness along with ADHD takes care of that]. Maybe I'll call them a movie 'revue' - borrowing from the term for 'review' in the sense of smaller summaries, jokes and plays that were based on larger works. Yeah, that's it: The Game Tips And More Blog Presents... fadeawayto...REVUE...fadeawayto...insert-movie-name-here... [Heh. Hmm, kind of cheesy, but not too bad..].

Note: 

All "Revue" articles will be SPOILER FREE (and to help with that, also image-free, other than a Title Screen / Header image) and Safe-To-Read even before viewing [I personally don't like to read Reviews before movies, but I know many do - please let me know if any of my Revues are 'too spoiler-y' and I will adjust them]. Enjoy!

Revue #1 - Fantastic Four (2015)

What an oddly finished product to make an opinion on... I just watched this on Netflix, and while it's not just that the movie feels disappointing, it also left me feeling 'empty' or even ‘sad’ somehow. Like the movie was a small animal that someone found, took in to care for, then forgot it out on the street again later on... That odd mixture of disappointment and sadness is what I came away from this movie with. 

Without getting into the ‘technical’ or ‘background’ details of it (how they handled the Origin Story is what most people did not like, for example), the first two-thirds of the movie is actually not bad, if a little slow-paced. It develops their backgrounds slightly and places them together, trying to get you to have empathy for the characters somewhat. It does in fact feel like a caring hand was hanging over it all, keeping it ‘realistic’ and the work put into that made me ignore the slow pace of the development. The cast themselves by the way, seem like they could become decent actors, but they all feel ‘held back’ and are almost stoic here. 

Then, after about three-quarters of the movie has gone by, they throw everything out the window and ‘chop together’ a 1980’s-quality “battle-with-the-bad-guy” that has none of the feeling of care and pace of the first majority of the movie. Now, I know production houses, crews and casts all have time limitations that put chains on a movie - turning into whips at times, urging completion; but this last section of movie feels like someone forgot about the animal they found out in the wild that they cared for so well up to now and left it out in the elements again... In my opinion, they could have even eliminated the ‘final battle’ and just finalized the development of the Origin of the characters - maybe with some ‘competition’ or other plot point, to end on; at least then, this could be an Origin Only movie and you would be left with some feelings for them after it was all over, not minding 'the wait' until the expected Sequel with 'real action' could come along. 

While the 2005 Fantastic Four is a bit ‘campier’, it still is in my opinion a better movie than this, because of its' overall polish and the mistakes of this one. In the end, I gave this movie, not a Zero like many, but a 2 out of 5 because of the effort that was put in ..at times

Review submitted and published on Netflix

[Personal Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Netflix in any way, pay my own account with them, and have not received any compensation, in any form, for mentioning them here. I am merely an enthusiastic user of their service; but have also utilized other, similar services as well, such as Amazon's PrimeVideo and Sony's Crackle and other online streaming services. All opinions herein are my own personal opinions and do not reflect in any way, any opinions or influences of the companies, production houses, peoples or persons involved with the projects mentioned (movies). These articles which are "Revue" posts are my own personal ideas/opinions/predictions and are not open to 100% re-posting or re-distribution (please try to stay ~50% re-posting of the text involved). Some Rights Reserved.]

And More: Corel's VideoStudio - Crashing When Using 'Open With' To Import Clips Into VideoStudio [Fix/Workaround]

Just last Month, I picked up version 20 of Corel's recently-updated video editing suite "VideoStudio" (nomenclature "X10") and am having a lot of fun learning what it can do and how to do it all (coming from mainly editing videos with Sony's Vegas 'Movie Studio' line of products [now taken over by MAGIX]). However, I quickly ran into a little issue with importing clips using the "Open With" option in Windows and wanted to share what I found...

Normally, in Windows you can 'right-click' a video file and mouse-over the menu option "Open With..", which brings up a sub-menu of known applications, to 'send' the file to ('opening the file with the chosen application'). Doing this, whichever application you select will startup and the file will be sent to it to work with.

However, doing this with a video clip and VideoStudio x10 I found, every time the program would open up, it would immediately 'crash' (close/stop/etc). Hmm... time for some Troubleshooting! I double-checked that the file in question was not corrupted excessively by playing it, testing it in a couple of video/media players, and even tried a few other clips that were 'known good' (that VS worked with before). Each time, using "Open With...", the Splash Screen for VSx10 would show up and then just as the program itself looked like it was opening, the entire thing would crash and show this message:

Example of the "Corel VideoStudio has stopped working" Error Window Pop-Up
when trying to import a clip into VideoStudio X10 utilizing the "Open With" shortcut in Windows

It's Not Just You ™ - Heroes Of The Storm 'Screen Shake' = 'Motion Sickness' (Dizzy, Nausea, Headache) [Notification]

Just a quick post to let others know that - if you are experiencing this phenomenon - getting dizzy or even nauseous while playing Heroes Of The Storm lately: It's Not Just You™... I even whipped up an Example of the effect, for those that aren't quite noticing it:

Example of 'the screen shake effect' I made, in GIF format
(Click to see slightly larger Full Size)

I first came across this in the Official Heroes Of The Storm Forums at Battle.Net. It was originally posted by "Phoenix" a couple of weeks ago, here. Although I have seen it personally in-game (noticed it), I have not suffered the nauseating effects that many may/do suffer with this Special Effect the game offers - even though I have experienced 'game motion sickness' from other games. [I did notice when testing and creating the above Example, that it made me slightly queasy however..]. Mainly, I have 'been lucky' with not experiencing it because I do not normally play the Heroes that have/produce this effect (the 'screen shake' effect). Here is a list of all the Heroes and Spells that can produce this effect, thanks to a helpful post by "Hatsoz" on the Official Forums:


Spells with Screen Shake
Zagara - Nydus Network (R)
Genji - Swift Strike (E)
Sgt. Hammer - Concussive Blast (W), Blunt Force Gun (R), Napalm Strike (R)
Gazlowe - Deth Lazor (W)
Lucio - Soundwave (Q), Sound Barrier (R)
Valeera - Blade Flurry (W)
Zul'jin - Twin Cleave (W), Guillotine (R)
Ragnaros - Sulfuras Smash (R)
Alarak - Lightning Surge (E)
Cho - Upheaval (R)
Karazhim - Radiant Dash (Q) (Only with Volley of Blows Talent Lv. 16), Seven-Sided Strike (R)
Anub'arak - Burrow Charge (E) (Upon resurface)
Li Li - Water Dragon (R)
Diablo - Shadow Charge (Q), Fire Stomp (W), Overpower (E)
E.T.C. - Face Melt (W), Stage Dive (R) (Landing only)
Falstad - Hinterland Blast (R)
Kerrigan - Impaling Blades (W)
Muradin - Thunder Clap (W), Dwarf Toss (E), Haymaker (R)
Sonya - Ancient Spear (Q) (On Hit), Leap (R)
Stitches - Slam (W)
Tyrael - El'druin's Might (Q) (On sword landing), Angelic Flash (Q) (Teleport to sword), Judgment (R)
Uther - Hammer of Justic (E), Divine Storm (R)

In One Sentence™ - Heroes Of The Storm - Hero Overviews [Very Short Reviews Of Each, Currently Text-Only]

[In light of the recent 'Heroes Of The Storm 2.0' release - even though this was a 'work in progress' since I started playing 'Heroes' again a bit ago and it is not fully compiled yet - I wanted to get this hopefully-slightly-helpful information up right away for everyone... So here it is - being added to as I complete it but without any Screenshots yet - I am collecting some together and plan to place them in-line within ...Soon™]

Update: Last Added - Arthas on 2017.05.04

In One Sentence™

A Heroes Of The Storm

Hero Thingy Overview  

By: The Game Tips And More Blog

Presented in Alphabetical Order, in a Document-sorta-but-not-really format

[Initially, was invited to the Heroes Of The Storm Beta; but was not able to play much at the time and so I didn't write about it much back then. I did work on a few articles, such as this one, adding to it the bit that I did play. Only recently (before I knew about "Heroes Of The Storm 2.0") I got back into this fun game, tallying up my own opinions and favourites, of each and every hero in the game. Seeing "Version 2.0" come along, I felt that, even though I have not fully compiled every singly hero yet, I wanted to share what I did have done, so that everyone - and especially newcomers to the game - could get a quick idea of each Hero and how they played in the game, helping them make a choice as to which one to try. I will be returning to this post and adding more Heroes as I play them... I hope you enjoy these little snippets of info for each one - and See You In The Game!]

Rating Key (if applicable to Hero, when used):

* = Heroes I ‘Liked’ (fit my personal playstyle(s), or is unique in some way)

** = Heroes that are A Personal Favourite (I myself would play often or ‘mainly’ would use (may not match your individual preferences dear reader, this is just a Personal Rating of mine))

Auriel = Finding myself playing more offensively than defensively with this Hero, I enjoyed her AOE and healing capabilities.

Alarak = With skills focusing on mainly attacking Heroes, in the right hands this high-damage-potential Assassin could be quite deadly.


Artanis * = Another Hero with skills focused on killing other Heroes, Artanis comes with high damage output potential - and although I was left feeling oddly ‘limited’ playing him, Artanis was fun to play overall.


Arthas = A mobile tank - big, tough, but a little slow [in my opinion] - with some light healing (and the possibility to heal yourself) and some nice offensive moves as well, Arthas can become quite competent in The Nexus.


Azmodan ** = This large and lumbering behemoth is capable of dealing out huge damage as a "Ranged Specialist" - just be careful as you have fun creating your own armies on the way to dish it out on the enemies’ base, as you are also a ‘heavy target’, so to speak. A Personal Favourite.