When I booted up iOS 5, the iCloud setup initiated automatically. I was curious so I decided to login using my apple authentication into the storage. The login worked and the final stage of the authentication was to verify my email. I waited for long time but the email never came. It wasn’t in my spam box and it didn’t seem to have got sent correctly.

So I went Google searching and found out that additional to all these changes, Apple has also changed the account settings. In 2006 when I bought my iPod, I setup an account in Apple with my custom username. Then when I got my iPhone 4, the mobile had setup a new account using my email address as the username. Both accounts have the same email addresses. Apple had failed to recognize it back then and therefore I had 2 accounts (one with a custom username and one with my email address as username) with them. The iCloud verification email system was confused about which account to send the email to. And therefore it failed to send any email at all.

There was only 1 solution to this. I had to reset one of the accounts with a new email address therefore both accounts will have unique email addresses.

1. Go to https://appleid.apple.com/
2. Click on Find out link under “Not sure if you have an Apple ID?” (see screenshot below)

1. Fill out your First Name, Last Name and the Email Address that you want to use for iCloud.
2. On the next screen, select Email Authentication option and click Next.
3. Check in your Email Inbox and you would have received an email from Apple.  Click on Reset your Apple ID password link in the email.
4. You can see multiple accounts  associated with the same email address. (see below)

1. Choose the Apple ID that you would NOT like to use for iCloud and click Next.
2. Enter a new password to reset the password for this account.
3. Go to https://appleid.apple.com/ and click Manage your account link.  Use the Apple ID that you would NOT like to use for iCloud and the new password that you had just entered.
4. Click on Edit link under Primary Email Address section, provide a new email address.  Click Save.
5. Click Sign Out.

Now that you have removed the 2^nd  account using the same email address, you can login to the primary account by going to https://appleid.apple.com/ once again using the credentials of the primary account. Below the email address, there will be a link to resend verification email. Click on that link and confirm the email address using the link you receive in your email.

This will clear up the accounts for you. Now your accounts will be unique with different email addresses. This unfortunate situation could have been avoided if Apple had made email addresses unique back then. Unfortunately they had put that limitation only now.

I used the Apple Software Update to update my iTunes. Once updated, the new iTunes booted up and I plugged in my iPhone again for update. This time the update started and the first phase was to backup my iPhone. The backup initiated and stayed in step 1 for a very long time (about 1hr which is crazy long). It didn’t seem to progress so I cancelled the sync. However, the backup had frozen somewhere and I had to force shutdown iTunes using task manager. Restarted iTunes and it kept freezing after a few seconds of loading. I thought some memory issue might be the cause and restarted the computer. After reboot, iTunes kept doing the same. I couldn’t figure out the cause of it doing this. It seemed like iTunes had got corrupt during the backup stage. So I uninstalled iTunes and installed it fresh. After installation finished, I got the same issue again. Uninstalled and installed 10.4.1 version. iTunes worked without issues. So it seems like iTunes 10.5 has something new that was having issues.

Googled around and asked in Apple discussion forums. Went through a few forum website discussions and one person had suggested a solution. I tried it and it worked.

Go to Start Menu -> Accessories -> Command Prompt.

Right Click and choose Run as Administrator.

Type netsh winsock reset and hit Enter.

Once it finishes, it will say that computer must be restarted to complete the reset. Restart the computer.

After this, when you initiate the update, it will run flawlessly. I believe for some unknown reason, iTunes 10.5 had crashed windows socket and it didn’t reset when the computer was restarted. Forcing the reset through command prompt seemed to work.

Credit goes to theresafromsearcy who provided the solution.

As a developer, one of the issues I’ve had during coding was remembering all the sessions I have created. I may have created a temporary session that gets used between a few pages or I may have a session that exists throughout the website for a long period of time. The difficult part is remembering which sessions have been created and in use. There are ways to check if a session already exists or not under a particular name. However, they require extra coding in every area where it’s used.

So what if there’s a work-around for this problem? What if you know exactly what session names are used and the data type of the sessions? This would reduce the coding in different areas and only checking that needs to be done is to see if any data already exists in the session (in other words if the session is empty/null or if it contains data).

In this article, I will explain a technique I follow in my C# coding to keep my session variables organized. It is very handy and very useful. I don’t have to go through or do Find search to look up variables I might have used to know whether I’ll be messing something up.

In my example to explain the technique, I will use a session variable called Username that will contain the username of the user who has logged into the site. This is a very common session variable in many websites. Instead of having to query the database for every page to retrieve the username, normally developers store it in a session variable for quick access.

First thing to do in my technique is to create a static class that will be used to hold all the variables. The class will basically be a reference through which the sessions will be accessed.

public static class SessionHandler
{
}

There’s no construct method for this class as it’s a static class. All methods used to access the variable defined inside the classes will be static as well since they will not change. Next step is to declare the name for the session variable.

private static string username = "Username";

Above code shows an example of how the variable name is declared. This is just the identifier of the session variable’s name. If you would have declared a variable called Session[”ABC”] back in the past, this variable will have xxxx (any name you want since it’s private known only within the class although it’s better to use a variation of the value so that it can be easily identifiable) with value of “ABC”. The value is the name known by the system session handler while the variable name is known within the class. The data type will always remain as string because all session variable names are text (string).

The purpose of declaring a variable like this is to avoid spelling mistakes. Since the variables are static, they can be directly accessed (which we will get into later) and avoid typing it wrong (which is something we developers do sometimes unintentionally).

Now we have a class and a variable declared within the class that holds the value that will be used as the identifier for the session. But we do not have a method to access this private variable. To access, we need to create a get/set method.

public static string Username
{
    get
    {
        // Check for null first
        if (HttpContext.Current.Session[SessionHandler.username] == null)
        {
            // Return null if session variable is null
            return null;
        }
        else
        {
            return HttpContext.Current.Session[SessionHandler.username].ToString();
        }
    }
    set
    {
        HttpContext.Current.Session[SessionHandler.username] = value;
    }
}

Above code shows the Get/Set method for the local variable username. Two important information that should be noticed in the method. First is that it’s a static method. Second is the name of the method. I have used the same name as the value of the local variable username. It is not mandatory to be that way but the method name is how you will access the session variable in your coding so make sure you use an identifiable name instead of random abc123. There is a third important information to notice which I will get into later.

First we’ll look at the Get method for the variable. In this method, we first check if the method exists or not in the current session. HttpContext  is a system class (available through System.Web) with a property called Current.. This provides access to the system session handler and the variable that we are trying to check will be identified by the value of SessionHandler.username (classname.variablename). This will look for a session variable that you would have accessed as Session[”Username”] previously. If the variable doesn’t exist, it will return a null value. If it does exist, it will return the value stored inside Session[”Username”] (notice that it’s been converted to string datatype before returning).

Set method is pretty straight forward. Whatever is sent to be stored into that session variable will be in value and it will be set to that variable.

This demonstrates how a simple session variable can be managed efficiently. Summarizing the example above, the SessionHandler class code will be like this.

public static class SessionHandler
{
    private static string username = "Username";

    public static string Username
    {
        get
        {
            // Check for null first
            if (HttpContext.Current.Session[SessionHandler.username] == null)
            {
                // Return null if session variable is null
                return null;
            }
            else
            {
                return HttpContext.Current.Session[SessionHandler.username].ToString();
            }
        }
        set
        {
            HttpContext.Current.Session[SessionHandler.username] = value;
        }
    }
}

To access the variable, all you have to do in coding is call SessionHandler.Username which will access the variable that you are after. You can get the data or set data into the variable without any hassle.

Now we get to the Third important information that I mentioned. In the example, I used a simple string session variable. What if the variable is not string and an object? How would it be stored? The answer to this question is pretty simple. Most of the code is the same.

So modifying the example used earlier, instead of storing the username, we store the user object that contains all user details including the username. The local variable declared will change from username to user (data type will remain as string). The value will change from “Username” to “User”.

In the methods is where the changes will be more prominent. The return data type in the method will have to change from string to User which is the object data type. The returning value from session variable has to be casted into the object data type before it can be returned.

If you want to access the object User, you can do it directly by calling SessionHandler.User. If you want to access the username variable within the User object, you can do so by calling SessionHandler.User.Username (assuming Username is a variable within User class with it’s own Get/Set methods).

The code below contains both examples in one class so that you can see how both types of variables are handled in a single class.

public static class SessionHandler
{
    private static string user = "User";
    private static string username = "Username";

    public static User User
    {
        get
        {
            // Check for null first
            if (HttpContext.Current.Session[SessionHandler.user] == null)
            {
                // Return null if session variable is null
                return null;
            }
            else
            {
                return (User)HttpContext.Current.Session[SessionHandler.user];
            }
        }
        set
        {
            HttpContext.Current.Session[SessionHandler.user] = value;
        }
    }

    public static string Username
    {
        get
        {
            // Check for null first
            if (HttpContext.Current.Session[SessionHandler.username] == null)
            {
                // Return null if session variable is null
                return null;
            }
            else
            {
                return HttpContext.Current.Session[SessionHandler.username].ToString();
            }
        }
        set
        {
            HttpContext.Current.Session[SessionHandler.username] = value;
        }
    }
}

You can add more session variables following similar pattern. Copy and paste the basic pattern (which would be the Username variable) and modify it to your needs.

When I had a chat with my fellow gamer friends about best RPG games after finishing Mass Effect 1 & 2, I was recommended 2 specific game series. One was Witcher and the other was Dragon Age. Comparing both, I was told that Witcher is more action oriented while Dragon Age is longer and strategic. Since Dragon Age was more team play style and I decided to give Witcher first try. I have already written blog about both Witcher games. Next round was Dragon Age.

As soon as I started the game, I was a bit lost. Compared to Mass Effect or Witcher, Dragon Age felt a bit complicated. Took me a while to figure out what was happening and how to play. But once I started getting the hang of it, the game really captivated me. It has a very intriguing story similar to Witcher.

At the beginning, you can pick your race and a sub type of the race which defines the prologue story. Races vary from Humans, Dwarves, Elves living in the lands of Ferelden. And if you select Elf like I did, you will be given the option of either being a slave elf living amongst humans or free elf living on the run. You can also pick your class of character varying between Warrior (strong att/def), Rogue (agil/cunning), and Mage (magic). These base classes can be further specialized as the game progresses. Each class has their special abilities which allows them to specialize further. Warriors are skilled in tactics and their attack and defense is stronger than other classes. Rogues are more agile and they have the ability to be stealth. Their speciality is to pick locks, detect /diffuse traps and sneak up on enemy and incapacitate them. It is always wise to have a rogue in the team to unlock all the locked chests and detect traps. Mages are those who are connected with the forces of magic. They can connect with the fade (metaphysical realm) and cast spells. Their speciality are spell-power (offensive and defensive) and protecting allies (healing, reviving). Dwarves cannot become mages because of their natural immunity to not being able to connect with the fade.

Based on the choices, the prologue story will begin. After the initial introduction to a traveling Grey Warden named Duncan, player will be invited to join the elite team known as Grey Wardens whose sole purpose is to stop the blight (invasion of dark evil monsters known as darkspawns lead by an archdemon) and protect other living beings. After the first encounter with the darkspawn horde, the hero will look for allies to assist in the battle against the blight. This is where the story gets interesting. Each ally that hero reaches out to has their own problems and hero must overcome their problems before he can ask for them to assist him in the battle. All the quests have their own twists and turns, sub-quests and side quests if you look deeper that will make the journey more interesting. Many of the decisions have small to big effects in later stages of the story. So it is unpredictable (unless you google about it and get spoiled) what consequences your decisions will have. Hero can get assistance from Dalish Elves, Circle of Mages, Dwarves in Orzammar and Kings of people against the blight.

During the journey searching for allies, Hero encounters someone who will be willing to accompany in Hero’s travel. These companions provide interesting story telling and gives different prospects to many situations. Some may react friendly towards the decision you make while others react strongly. So it is wise to pick those who will side with you most often to accompany you in quests while others wait for you in the camp. They also have their own little quests when you become friends and they are able to trust you. By interacting with them often and listening to them, you can improve the approval rating. Appropriate gifts are also very useful in improving the approval rating. Additionally, the banter between the companions when running around doing quests are hilarious to listen to.

There are potentially nine companions who will join if you want them to. They are:

• Alistair –  A fellow Grey Warden starting almost at the same time as the hero. Classed as Warrior.
• Morrigan –  Witch of the Wilds. Cynical character. Classed as Mage.
• Leilana –  A Chantry Sister. Very religious. Classed as Rogue (due to her past).
• Oghren –  A drunken Dwarf. Hilarious character. Very funny dialogues. Classed as Warrior.
• Sten –  A Quanari Warrior. Strong and Silent type. Classed as Warrior.
• Wynne –  Senior Enchanter from the Circle of Mages. Advises often. Classed as Mage.
• Zevran –  An Antivan Assassin sent to kill Hero. Interesting companion. Classed as Rogue.
• Shale (DLC) –  A War Golem. Has some very funny dialogues. Classed as Warrior.

Romance is possible with some of the companions once you have a high approval rating. You can romance multiple partners for a little while until you are confronted by those you romance at which point you have to choose. A few casual encounters are also possible but not as excessive as Witcher was.

Combat in Dragon Age is pretty complicated. Unlike Witcher or Mass Effect, Dragon Age requires some strategy if you want to survive (especially if you play in Nightmare mode like I did). While fighting is pretty straight forward using right click to target an enemy and using abilities carefully (must be aware of their cooldown period and stamina drain to use it wisely), pre-planning on who will attack from which angle will be needed when facing a horde of darkspawns. This is where Tactics comes into play. Tactics is something that is very handy where you can set up your companion’s attacking style. They can play their role and do as instructed in the tactics when you are not controlling them. I generally set up the tactics correctly for the companions and play with my hero in battle situations.

Inventory management is something essential in RPG games and Dragon Age is not an exception to that. Abundant amount of items are available in the game and you cannot store it somewhere. Only a limited amount can be carried around and rest has to be sold. This can interfere with the gameplay and concentrating on the story. However, once you have a good set of items equipped, then you can leave the rest or sell anything else you collect. Personally I used the mods to get appropriate armor and weapons for myself and my companions. So all the items collected were sold to merchants which gave me more money to buy health potions and injury kits.

The best part that gives Dragon Age an edge over other games like Witcher or Mass Effect is it’s mods. A website called Dragon Age Nexus has a collection of user developed mods that can enhance the game’s quality a lot more than what it is. I used a few mods that enhanced my gameplay which improved the game considerably. I played as a Dalish Elf and I had all the companions. None of the mods actually change the settings of the game but just allowed me to enjoy the game. I fitted all my companions and my hero with appropriate armor and weapons. However, they are not overpowered to imbalance the difficulty. This allowed me to save time of buying/selling unecessary items. Only items I collected are potions which are handy.

• DAO-Modmanager –  Easy way to manage Mods.
• Elvhenan Weapons –  A set of beautifully designed weapons suitable for Warrior/Rogue. My primary weapon mod for my Dalish Elf hero.
• Fox Nico Bow –  Beautiful bow.
• Dalls_Medieval –  Visual changes to make characters in the game look more medieval.
• No Helmet Hack –  Very important mod. While wearing helmet, the face is covered most of the time. Not wearing helmet either makes the set incomplete or reduces armor. So this allows you to add the helmet but not show it in screen thereby faces are visible.
• Armor of the Devout –  Armor for Leilana. Very fitting for her.
• Armor of the Elven Warden –  Armor for my main hero who is an Elf. Smooth armor.
• Grey Warden Runic Armor –  Armor for Warrior. Didn’t feel it was right for an Elf. So gave it to Sten for whom this fitted perfectly.
• Morrigan Sacred Ashes Trailer Robes –  Robe for Morrigan. User has created it based on Sacred Ashes Trailer. Very nice one indeed.
• Manolax’s Staff Collection For Mages –  Kept searching for suitable staff for my mages. This was a pack I got as a result. 4 different type of staffs.
• The Courage of Zevran –  A fitting armor set for Zevran. Includes 2 daggers as well but I gave him Elvhenan’s daggers instead.
• Weapons of Andraste –  Beautifully designed swords/dagger.
• Legacy of Sundown –  Alternate set of everything (weapons, armor) for Zevran. Too bright for me but had a nice theme throughout everything so kept it.
• Class and Specialization Pack –  In my opinion, essential mod. It expands the classes and specializations further so that you are not stuck to the only options they give. Instead you can specialize further that would fit your character better.
• Advanced Tactics –  Gives you additional choices to setup your tactics even better. Very handy.
• Combat Tweaks –  Tweaks the abilities to make it better.
• Class and Talent Rebalance Plus –  Another mod that tweaks the class and talent abilities appropriately.
• Extra Dog Slot –  I wish I had got this mod from the beginning. It would have been fun to take the dog with me all around without it equipping a companion slot.
• Forced Deathblows –  This is not essential but I liked it because it makes the kills more interesting. Instead of random stylish kills, this would allow you to kill with style all the time. Depending on the file you download, the kills will be stylish on those enemies.
• Morrigan Restoration Patch Dialog Fixpack –  This fixes some of the dialogue issues and adds some dialogues that were omitted in the final release of the game back to the scenes. Makes it more interesting.

No game is without faults. Dragon Age has a few issues that are fixable using the mods.

First issue I had was the helmet. If it is equipped during battle situations, it is understandable. But if it’s equipped all the time, it obscures the face of the hero and companions (those who have a helmet that covers their face is equipped). This can be resolved using the mod mentioned above.

The specializations offered by default in the game are very limited. For example, a Warrior can specialize as a Templer (suitable for humans) or Berserker (suitable for dwarves). However, an Elf Warrior doesn’t fit neither kind of specializations. Champion can be unlocked at a later stage which is the only specialization left. Instead, using the mod mentioned above, I was able to get additional specializations where I can have my warrior as lean aggressive type (mix of Rogue/Warrior style fitting for an Elf).

Difficulty of the game while playing in Nightmare mode is above average. While defeating certain monsters are incredibly hard, most are manageable. It is always best to have a right balance of aggressive offensive characters, ranged characters and defensive/healing characters in the team. Since I played as Warrior, I always took either 2 rogues (Zevran duel dagger and Leilana cross-bow) or 2 mages (Morrigan spells and Wynne healing) with me. This mixed with proper tactics and using the abilities gives you the edge. It takes a little while to get used to the fighting and tactics. Once you get used to it, then it won’t feel like a hassle.

Additional to User Mods, there are a few expansion DLC packs available from Bioware itself. 3 addons are available which adds some contents to the main campaign itself and 3 additional campaigns that can be played separately (not part of the main campaign). While Leliana’s Song was the only worthy additional campaign, the addons are worth to play as they give additional items that can be used. I played Return to Ostagar add-on early in the game and retrieved the item set of the fallen hero (name not mentioned to avoid spoiling) which was the set I gave to Alistair. He remained with that armor set till the end which speaks how good the item set is.

For many years, I have been using Incredimail as my email application. This was long before they brought in Windows Live Application and Outlook was not attractive. Incredimail was filled with many bugs. Duplicate emails being retrieved was one of my major issues in the beginning. But they had a lifetime purchase (including all future updates) which wasn’t much so I went for it since it was cheaper than Office. Later on the application stabalized and duplicate email was fixed. But a few other minor issues such as using the premier skin or certain notifier didn’t work. The backup facility also didn’t work in some versions.

When I thought of switching to another email client in 2007 (after Outlook became better), I realized that the email format of Incredimail was very different from all other email clients and therefore cannot be imported. So I either abandon all my saved emails or stay with Incredimail. Since the bugs were minor, i decided to stick with Incredimail and avoid the hassle.

However, since last version update of Incredimail, duplicate email issue is back again. This is now trying to download emails of ALL the accounts I have. That is a lot of emails and I didn’t want to hassle with it again. It was time for me to switch to Microsoft Outlook 2010.

By this time, all my emails are in Gmail. So I simply connected the IMAP to Outlook and started using it. What I didn’t realize was that Outlook has a preset location for IMAP that cannot be customized. I have configured my computer to have only OS in “C:“ drive and all the files in “D:“ drive. Outlook had put the IMAP’s PST files into “C:“ drive and it didn’t allow me to move it. This became a problem for me. Kept googling for solutions until I came across a question/answer site that contained the solution for me (you can find it here).

I had to implement the fix in the registry and still the PST location was in the default folder. I had to delete the email accounts and create a new one and that used the new registry entry location and put the PST files in that location.

These are the steps to follow to reconfigure the default folder directory for IMAP PST files.

Note: Make sure you backup your registry before you edit it. And it is always best to do this BEFORE you configure the IMAP. Would save some time having to redo it.

1. Close Outlook.
2. Create a folder where you want to put the IMAP datafile.
3. Copy the PST file with the name of your IMAP profile from C:\Users[Username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook to the desired location (eg the new created folder).
4. Afterwards, Click Start / Run and type “Regedit” (You’ll need administrator rights for this).
5. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook
6. Add a REG_EXPAND_SZ (Expandable String Value) with the name: ForcePSTPath
7. Fill in your new folder path as value.
8. Start Outlook.

This would work great. Now I’m trying to find a solution to import all my old Incredimail emails. Only solution I found is an expensive one (would cost £40 for the app with 1yr license even though I’ll be using it only once).

Atleast I’m moving away from Incredimail. What a big relief that is.

After playing Witcher 1, I was eager to play Witcher 2 because the ending of Witcher 1 was left open and I wanted to find out how the story had progressed. After hearing good reviews about the game, I decided to play it. I’m left with mixed feelings about Witcher 2. The game have changed in many ways and while some are wonderful welcome to the series, they should have kept some of the core features that made Witcher 1 a good game.

As soon as the game starts, one thing you notice is the graphics quality. They have made drastic changes to the graphics and now a lot of the graphics are well detailed. For example, I never knew that Gerald had a yellow dragon like eyes. The scars in his body are well detailed and so are his clothing and his weapons. However, because of the quality, it also demands high performance graphic card. Initially the Ultra Spec settings didn’t allow me to play the game smoothly until I checked in advanced settings where they had Ubersampling enabled. Currently most of the cards won’t process it and neither does mine. Once disabling that and leave the rest in ultra spec settings allowed me to play the game at best conditions. However I did notice some blur incidents when Gerald turns around before the graphics loads the environment graphics. I believe it is because of the memory capacity of my card since the game tries to load the environment on the move.

One of the features I appreciate a lot is the way the game loads. Instead of the old Witcher 1 style where every entrance and exit triggers a load, Witcher 2 loads the environment and auto saves while you play the game. So no more long time loading that would interrupt your gameplay. However, depending on your graphic card’s memory capacity and process speed, sometimes on the move loading might end up too much which will then trigger the old loading screen. Compared to the 1^st  game, this one definitely loads faster.

Developers must have listened to the user comments about the 1^st  game because they have made this game focused on the story and quests than the player running around collecting items or alchemy or other reasons. But they have removed the storage facility and the player is allowed to carry a max weight of 250 for all items (300 if you made a particular choice). So you cannot collect all the rare swords or items and have to dump a lot of it in order to create space for new items. There is a mod that can reset all the items’ weight to 0 so you can carry any amount of items you want. Can be considered a cheat or an alternative solution for storage. Up to you.

The story is more interesting compared to the 1^st  one because unlike the 1^st  one, this has more powerful players involved. Similar to the 1^st  one, this game also has decisions for you to make and face the consequences. However, they have really expanded the consequences by completely branching out the story in many ways. The 1^st  big decision would be in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 and 3 will be based on the decision made in Chapter 1. I really liked that because instead of playing the same scenario in two angles, I end up playing a different story interacting with different characters while the core story remain the same. Unfortunately this game has only 3 chapters and the 3^rd  one is pretty short to be considered as a full chapter.

Conversations are much better in Witcher 2 compared to the first one. However, unlike the first one where you can read the text and therefore know what Gerald is about to say, Witcher 2′s choice only shows a slight few words summary that may not be what he ends up saying. For example, in the prologue during the conversation with Aryan, I was given the choices to tell him to “Drop your weapons, Fool” which sounds like an insult provoking Aryan to attack and “Let’s settle this between us” which sounded like an honorable fight. Since I liked Aryan’s background, I thought the 2^nd option would save him. But Gerald ended up killing Aryan. Later on, I found out that the 1^st option would have convinced Aryan to surrender. When I had to replay because I died in Insanity mode, I chose the 1^st option where Gerald said nothing rude but actually reasoned with Aryan convincing him to surrender. So the text displayed do not necessarily mean what you think it means in their conversations. They have however introduced new feature where you can intimidate or physically attack or use Axii sign to will the person to do as you wish. That was pretty cool. But I enjoy being a bully because I find the way Gerald intimidates them funny.

The difficulty has been modified in the game. Unlike the first one where the hard difficulty was relatively easy, this game makes you earn your wins if you are playing in hard difficulty. They also have an Insane difficulty where if you die, that is the end of the game. All your prior saves of that difficulty gets locked and you have to restart again if you want to play the game. There is a way to overcome it (just press escape when you die before it tells you that you’re dead and load a previous save) but if you miss it, then it’s a waste of game play and time. As far as I’ve read, there’s no achievement for finishing it insane mode other than self satisfaction so unless you are really desperate for that, settle for hard difficulty. That itself is a challenge for you to play.

The keys have been changed from the 1^st game. I had to get used to the new keys after having played Witcher 1 for a while. The game is also compatible with xbox game controller which is actually better than keyboard/mouse. I had to use the xbox controller simulator to make it work with my Logitech RumblePad II.

They don’t have the combo attacks anymore. The fun in attacking has been taken away because you can just button smash instead of timing it right to execute a series of moves that Gerald executes stylishly. They have introduced blocking which doesn’t necessarily block all the damages but saves you from being stabbed. There are no group style attacking anymore (but you can unlock a talent to attack multiple when in adrenaline bar is filled) from the beginning which makes it difficult when you are surrounded by enemies and have to dodge around to save yourself. Really miss the group style attacking especially when you are playing in hard difficulty.

The talent points are also completely changed now. Now there are 4 branches of talents and you can spend your talents in each branch. They are categorized as swordsmanship, alchemy, magic and training. There’s no bronze/silver/gold talent points. So you have to spend the points you get in every branch. Plan carefully and prioritize the talents because you need to get some abilities as soon as you can (eg. parrying, arrow redirection) if you want to survive in the game.

They have expanded the armor kit for Gerald now. You have armor, gloves, and boots additional to the 2 weapons (steel and silver) and 5 slots and a trophy slot. That is a nice feature to have. Gerald has a hooded look if you wear the blue stripes jacket that is available at the beginning which resembles a lot like Assassin’s Creed game. They have also expanded additional weapons area. The 1^st  game had bombs only but this one has daggers, bombs, traps, lures etc. to add to your arsenal. If you can’t buy it, you can get it crafted (will be explained later).

Another feature they have changed now from before is the way the medallion works. In Witcher 1, the medallion is a big one in the top left corner of the screen and it starts shaking and glows red when danger is nearby. It indicates to the player that there is an enemy nearby. Similarly, pressing ALT key shows all the collectable items and character names or locations. Some are in front of the player and some can be further away that the player can follow to. I found that very useful. In Witcher 2, the medallion is smaller and I don’t notice it alerting me of enemy presence. Similarly, Gerald can trigger the amulet which will send out a magical wave to the surrounding area and make all the collectable items glow. However, the glow is not entirely accurate because the glow near the wall may indicate that the item you can collect is in the other side of the wall and not accessible at that time. Personally I prefer the ALT key use for this.

The map is not as clear as the 1^st  one. The new map is very messy and not detailed enough to indicate each location. It looks more like an old scroll and you won’t know what it’s indicating until you get to that location. For example shops. In the 1^st  game, you can see in the map which shop is in which area and therefore aim for it in the map and navigate there. In Witcher 2, the map simply shows all the shops and you have to visit every location before you can figure out what each shop is. You can’t choose a location where you want the guide to direct you. Some quests are shown in the map and some aren’t. Those aren’t will be a pain to find because you end up going through many houses to find the person or object you are looking for. These are the times you really appreciate this game’s on the move loading.

The game allows you to import Witcher 1 save. I was very happy when I found out this game has that feature because I wanted to use my special weapons I gathered near the end in the 1^st  game. Sadly they have ruined it by neutralizing the weapons. So I got the best weapons I had for namesake only. But their abilities are less powerful than a temerian sword which is a common weapon (although there’s a mod for this to tweak the imported weapon’s stats relatively better). Very disappointed with that. Only useful thing I had from importing Witcher 1 save is the decisions I took in Witcher 1 is continued on in Witcher 2. And the decisions are only relevant in very few places.

In the 1^st  game, there was an indication in the left side of the screen where it highlights the currently equipped sword type (steel or silver) and it’s style. Since this game doesn’t have style, they have removed that panel completely and therefore you won’t know which sword you are using unless they look very different visually. If the game automatically draws the sword, it picks the right one but the movement of Gerald drawing the sword or casting are very slow and by the time he draws it out, the monster would have started a combo attack on you. It would have been handy if there was an indication of what sword he is currently holding.

They have expanded the alchemy and crafting in the 2^nd  game a lot further. Now it’s a bit more complicated because you need to gather the diagrams for crafting before you can craft something. They are similar to scrolls in the 1^st  game. You can get the items crafted by many people. They can craft from weapons to traps for Gerald to use to catch monsters. But they have ignored a specific feature in the 1^st  game that I found useful in this one. The diagrams or formulas or books are not indicated by whether you already read it or not. In the 1^st  game it will indicate if I’ve already read it so that I can avoid buying it. But in this game, I have no clue whether I already read it or not therefore I end up buying it only to realize that I’ve already had it. Then I’ll have to sell it for a very low price. They should have kept that indicator in this game as well. Also, they really failed at the alchemy item listing part. The game does not show the highlighted item’s details when navigating through alchemy. It doesn’t recognize the item that is currently highlighted unless you move the highlight over to an empty slot and bring it back. I found that very frustrating.

Another major issue I had in this game was the sound configuration. They have only 2 options in the game for audio settings. 1 is for music and the 2^nd  one is for effects. Voices fall under effects so when there are background noises like ballista which drowns the voices during conversation. So I’d have to turn on subtitles and read them to know what’s being said if I wanted to know the story. I found this very annoying. Usually I’d reduce the music and sound effects lower than voice so that I can clear the conversations. But in this game, I can’t do that and had to suffer in many places.

Note: There is a bug that you may encounter during the 1^st  boss battle in Chapter 1 when you are facing the Kayran. The 2^nd  part of the attack involves QTE but if your graphic settings are at max (I had my resolution at 1920×1080 with High Spec), then you will have a problem with the button smashing moment in the QTE. No matter how hard you try, the bar will either not get filled or it will get filled but you will still fall off it’s tentacles. The solution that worked for me is by reducing the resolution to a lower one (in my case 1280×1024 with Medium Spec) and play that battle. Worked in the first try. Very annoying bug but had to work around it.

Overall, they have made a lot of changes to the original game. Some are very good and some are less desirable for me. If they had mixed both original game’s positive features with this one, they would have a solid RPG in their hands. The developers have really focused on producing an entertaining visually stunning game that they removed or changed some of the useful features in the 1^st  game to accomodate the new features. If they had managed to keep the old feature and implement the new feature, it would have been much better.

Normally I’m an RPG gamer who prefers shooting than swords and magic. I enjoy mythological games but clicking the button on a target to wield a sword is not my preference. Aiming and shooting is my style. Naturally I wasn’t aware of this game until a few weeks ago.

During a conversation with a few gamer friends, I was told about this game. They highly recommended it and said that the story is intriguing. Curiosity got the better of me and I asked one of my avid gamer friend who practically owns most of the RPG games to loan me his game. I wanted to try it first without having to spend some money on a game that I won’t keep playing if I didn’t like it.

Once I started playing the game, I was hooked. The opening action video clip looked fascinating. I wanted to find out more if whether I’ll be able to pull off moves like that in the game. Honestly the video exaggerated the moves but when you maximize your skills, you will be able to do smooth combo actions.

Seeing how I was completely new to the series and have no knowledge of the back story of the character or the world of Witchers, I was at a loss in the beginning. The story starts off with me playing the main protagonist Geralt of Rivia who is dragged into the Witcher’s sanctum and wakes up with loss of memory (apparently risen from the dead). Right from the beginning, I have to run around to prevent an invasion by those who wants to destroy the Witchers. It was good that I was given the opportunity to learn how to combat and operate. The prologue was basically a training for newcomers. I was introduced from combat to potion mixing and interact with various characters to get some back story. But I was still a bit lost on the characters. Personally I would advice anyone who wants to play the game to read the books and watch the TV series. Then you can enjoy the story a little bit more.

The story offers Gerald to take certain decisions and the plot progresses based on the decision. However, you won’t realize how your decision effects the plot until you have played well into the game so you can’t simply reload and choose another (unless you’d want to play the 4–5 hour gameplay again). You can choose to save or kill some monsters and choose to support one side in conflicts or remain neutral. I made my decisions as how I would make them which was not exactly how a Witcher would have made it. But I was satisfied with the results of my decisions.

The graphics are pretty decent. There are occasional glitches like enemies falling through a rock or a tree or Gerald swinging his sword and his enemy nowhere near the sword’s reach get damaged. But there weren’t any huge graphical issues. The game did crash a few times (I think the last count was 6) in my Windows 7 64–bit computer. Not sure of the reasons since it didn’t happen in the same place therefore I ignored it. The game allows you to play in the traditional RPG way by clicking the location of movement with mouse (known as isometric camera view) and the new RPG way by moving with W-S-A-D keyboard keys (known as over the shoulder aka OTS view). Personally I preferred the OTS view because then I can move around better.

Action was pretty solid. Instead of typical mouse clicking attacks, you have to time it right. The more experience you gain, the more talent points you get. And the talent points can be distributed into many skills like combat or magic or general skills like strength, stamina, intelligence. When you unlock each level of combat, it introduces a move in your combination hits. And if timed well, you can do significant damage to the opponent with a full combo. When I finished unlocking all the moves, I was able to kill most opponents after 4^th  combo hit. Gerald carries two types of main weapons (he can also carry a small weapon but I never used it in the game). He can have 2 steel weapons that he can use against humans and a silver sword to use against monsters. The combat talent skills are splitted into steel and silver and further broken down into the style of attack. Using both steel and silver, Gerald can attack in 3 different styles. Strong style are usually for strong opponents who have tough defense. Fast style is useful against agile opponents who dodge attacks. And Group style is very handy when you are surrounded by enemies (really useful when you face Drowners).

The game has a lot of documents varying from scrolls to books to notes. If you are a fan of knowing the whole story, then you’d want to read the documents. Some are bestiary entry books which are really needed. If you encounter a monster that you don’t have a bestiary entry for, you won’t be able to salvage anything handy from it’s remains. And then you’ll have to run around looking for the monster when you get a side quest to collect certain remains of the monster. I encountered this issue in the game when I didn’t have an entry for Alghoul and faced one of it first before I got the entry to it. Then I kept searching for the last alghoul marrow and only got it in the next chapter. After that, I tried to get all the books first before I embark on missions. Costs more but I’d get it back by doing all the side quests. Some bestiary entries can be from interacting with people like an old woman or a gossip lady in the tavern. Giving them food or beer will get them to tell you about monsters that you may not have an entry of in your bestiary. You can also find some of the books by going through all the optional houses and huts that has no significant purpose to the main/side quests.

Another important aspect of the game is it’s alchemy. You can get scrolls during the mission or from scavenging the places you go to and some of the scrolls are about potion mixing. They tell you about what potion you can make by mixing what ingredients. The remains from the monsters or herbs can be handy to make potions. Some are mutagen potions that will give you bonus talent or unlock an ability while others give you temporary boost in many areas. Some potions are very handy like Cat which allows you to see in the dark and Swallow which regenerates your vitality faster. You can dump all the extra items in the inn with the inn keeper.

I liked the whole time system in the game where some quests are time specific (dawn, dusk, midnight etc). However, the time is in +2 hours from our standard interpretation of them in the game. So when you click on dawn in meditate, it is setting it for 8.00am when the quest objective’s time is 6.00am. It took me a while to figure this out. I kept clicking on dawn or midnight in meditation mode and was confused why the person I was supposed to meet wasn’t there. Then I checked the current time and meditation hours and that explained why I was off the time. Some characters stay in the location while others go away if you don’t show up in time. Unfortunately the game doesn’t explain this.

The game has plenty of weapons and it depends on your preference of wielding what type of weapons. But in my opinion, most of the weapons are not that good. The Rune Swords are a good replacement of the Witcher’s Silver Sword and best created rune sword is one made with the same rune. Three Sun Rune Sword is a good choice to go for but by the time you get the 3^rd  Sun Rune (in Chapter IV), you will keep it only for a short while until you are given in my opinion the best silver sword known as Aerondight. Ofcourse that is assuming you made the right choices. As for steel swords, Three Red Meteorite Sword is the best choice to replace Witcher’s Steel Sword. That is until you get to Chapter IV where you can buy Gwalhir which is the most expensive weapon as well as the best choice to replace the Three Red Meteorite Sword. Unlike silver sword which you can carry only 1, you can have 2 steel swords. I kept my Three Red Sword as backup until I finished the dentist’s quest in Chapter V. He gifted me with G’valchir which lacks extra stats on abilities but has 100% damage and penetrates armor. I used G’valchir on the Order knights or Big Brothers wearing thick armor since this simply damages them as if they have no armor. Rest of the weapons are useless in my opinion. Unfortunately all the good weapons and armor gets unlocked near the end when the story is about to finish. So you can’t really enjoy the items you got for long time. I hope the items will be carried on to the next game.

One thing I noticed right from the beginning (I was forewarned about this) is that the game has excessive adult content (topless pictures). And I found it odd how they seem to bring in a romance card (if you can call it romance) with almost every female character in the game and peasants too. Gerald being an infertile witcher can have sex with almost all the females he encounters. From waitress at the inn, peasant in the village, courtesans in the street, town clerks to women he helps like Adda, Trish, Shani, Celina to She-Elves like Morenn, Toruviel; Gerald has a romance card with all of them and you can trigger every one of them. He even has a romance card with the Lady of the Lake (yes the same lady from King Arthur and if you satisfied her with your decisions, you’ll get a nifty gift). Only race Gerald didn’t have sex with is dwarf women (because there weren’t any around in the game). Some of the cards are ridiculous because of the timing when the option is offered. Like Toruviel’s romance card was right around the time when there is a big battle going outside and Trish’s card was as soon as she is saved from near death.

However, main romance is only between Gerald and two of the women from his past. If the game carried the romance to effect Gerald’s relationship with his main romance character and his decisions, then it would have been better. For example, if he romances someone like the town clerk or peasant or another recurring character in the game, then his relationship with his main romance character (don’t want to ruin it by naming the characters) weakens. That would have made it more interesting and the player would have to think to go ahead with the romance cards or not if he wants to maintain his relationship with his main partner. Ofcourse Gerald can decide to not have a relationship at all in which case the romance cards won’t have any consequences.

The difficulty of the game is somewhat unbalanced. I was playing in hard difficulty but until the end of Chapter III the game was relatively easy to handle. If I use the potions and signs with my attacks, then I can survive big battles. However, Chapter IV onwards, the game became very challenging because you encounter monsters who can kill you with a single hit or two. And some monsters become real skilled in dodging your attacks therefore you can’t continue your combo attacks and get caught to be attacked by another monster while trying to do the combo.

One of the major drawbacks in the game for me is that I can’t go back and do something in a previous location once the chapter is over. For example, I was looking up online about the meteorite stone locations to find out when I’ll be able to forge it and I realized I missed one of them in a cave because I didn’t know I was supposed to go back to the cave for a second time. Since there was no quests, I wasn’t aware that the cave has a new opening in there (was mentioned in a conversation but I didn’t put that much focus in that and ignored it as random chatter). Prologue area cannot be re-entered. And same goes for Chapter I. Chapter II and Chapter III are different districts in the same place (Vizima) and you can travel between them. Chapter IV is once again a sealed off area. And Chapter V takes you back to Vizima and some of the characters from Chapter II and III can be found there.

The game requires Gerald to run around a lot to complete the quests. And every location change from entering the house to exiting it will trigger a loading. So it’s wise to do all the tasks in one area and then go to the other location (for example going to the swamps) to complete the tasks there and then return back instead of going and coming back for every quest.

It is pretty hard to identify all the side quests because there are so many. The side quests sometimes give you important items like a meteorite stone or a scroll recipe or a valuable book but mostly it’s gold (or orens which is the currency in the game). Unfortunately, some quests are continued on to the other chapters and some are stand-alone quests for that chapter. It is really hard to identify which quest can be completed immediately and which can be finished in a later chapter. And some quests are ambiguous and not easy to complete because you are at a loss on what you should do next.

Overall, it is a good game to play. A bit tedious at times with all the running around and pointless items given. But the main story is pretty interesting. In the end post epilogue, you will be left with wondering what’s going to happen next. I’m curious to find out too.

Having been a Batman fan as a child, I still enjoy playing the vigilante hero in games. And to find an almost perfect Batman game, you don’t need to look further than Batman Arkham Asylum. The game deserves to be called as the Game of the Year because of many quality features. Originally developed as a console game, you can see the effect of it when you play it in PC.

The game came out in 2009 but I replayed it recently to write this blog highlighting all the features and some weaknesses in the game. For a game that was done in 2009, the graphics are high standard. My ATI Radeon HD 4670 supported the game to be played in highest settings so I was able to enjoy the maximum quality out of the graphics. The in-game video and the gameplay quality are almost at par which is impressive for me.

The story was simple yet intriguing. Batman was transporting Joker back to Arkham Asylum where Joker had set up a trap and took control of the island. Batman had to fight through all his foes and rescue the staff of Asylum and uncover a master plan by Joker and a conspiracy that was going on.

The game creators captured Batman’s movements and styles pretty well in the game. The combat moves up close or setting up traps for enemies are all typical of batman. Sometimes you can fight hidden by hanging in Gargoyles and catching a henchman off-guard or you can jump into a middle of a gang of henchmen talking and start fighting. Hand to hand combat also has counter attacking which if you time correctly will not only defend you from taking damage but also counter attack.

One of the other feature in the game that I find realistic to Batman is the way he grapples. Batman’s grapple can be used only on ledges or tops where you can grapple to. So you can’t simply grapple everywhere you go. Further into the game, you unlock additional tools that you can use in the game.

The interactions between Batman and his foes like Joker or Harley or even Riddler are in-character. I enjoyed listening to the interactions between Harley and Joker or Riddler mocking Batman’s intellect while trying to solve the riddles. One of the collectable items are interview tapes of patients of Arkham. It is interesting to listen to the tapes. Even though you don’t have any visual of what’s happening (they are audio tapes), you can listen to it and imagine it well. And if you listen carefully, they clue in on some of the back story of characters in the game and give clues to how Joker managed to set up his plan.

Difficulty wise, I would categorize it as relatively simple (played in hard difficulty). The actions are interesting but you can jump into a group of henchmen and can take all of them down without getting a single hit if you are comfortable with controller and sharp to observe. Only henchmen I found a bit difficult are those who carried stun batons since you can’t stun them and attack them. Knife wielders do most damage but easy to stun and attack. Gun henchmen can attack from a distance but if you are observant, you can take them down quickly and make sure no other henchmen take the gun after that. Most of the big bosses like Bane or the Titans you face here and there all require the same actions. Quick Batarang and Dodge. The game requires a lot of patience if you want to play avoiding damage.

Gameplay requires some old fashion climbing here and there or crawling through vents. But thankfully you can escape death if you fall down in your jumps. I appreciated that feature because I would have been annoyed if I had to replay from last checkpoint because I fell down in a jump.

Having said all that, the game does have it’s weaknesses too. One of the minor issue I had with the game was the Inverted Takedown ability. You need to upgrade it and I would highly recommend this to be the first upgrade you get. Batman will hang down (don’t necessarily have to hang down but I enjoy doing that) from gargoyle and when a henchman is right below you, you can catch him and tie him down to the gargoyle and leave him hanging. I enjoy doing that as batman but what I had a problem with is that the thug makes a lot of noise when batman does that. It should have been a silent ability. If you don’t immediately grapple to another platform after doing the hanging, you will be found by other henchmen.

Another annoying feature that I believe the game developers thought might make players play longer but I found annoying is collecting items. Some items are hard to find and some are visible but unable to reach. Further you go into the game, you unlock more tools of batman or upgrade the existing tools. And then you have to go back to the old places to use the tool to get the item. I found this annoying because I had to walk through the same places again and again to collect the item instead of playing the main story. For new beginners, I would advice not to waste your time collecting items or trying to solve all the puzzles as it distracts you from the game. Keep playing and collect the obvious ones or solve the riddles when you can but don’t keep running around trying to figure out where they are. Because you may not have the tools at the time even if you find them. Once you finish the game, it allows you to walk through the island. So you can do the collecting after that when you have all the tools.

One of the major issue I found in the game is it’s conversion from console gaming to PC. Since the game is produced by Microsoft for PC, they have enforced the controller to be Xbox. So other controller like Logitech Wireless RumblePad II is not configured properly. This is a major flaw (or marketing manipulation that I dislike) in all Windows Live games that exists in this game too. There were 3 key issues I found that required custom editing of the configuration file (make sure you take a backup of the file before you edit anything. Or else you’ll have to reinstall it again if you mess it up). You need to make the file editable (by default it’s read only) and then make it to read only after the editing.

1. Issue: The direction batman walks is in reverse. So if you push the left analog stick forward, Batman will walk back towards the camera instead of forwards.
   
   Solution 1: Go to BmGame folder and Config folder within it. Find a configuration file called DefaultInput.ini. Search for XboxTypeS_LeftY.
   You will find a line (the 1^st search result) saying
   .Bindings=(Name=”XboxTypeS_LeftY”,Command=”Axis aBaseY Speed=1.0 DeadZone=0.3 | Axis aRawLHJoyUp Speed=1.0 DeadZone=0.0″ ).
   Replace it with
   .Bindings=(Name=”XboxTypeS_LeftY”,Command=”Axis aBaseY Speed=-1.0 DeadZone=0.3 | Axis aRawLHJoyUp Speed=-1.0 DeadZone=0.0″ ).
   
   The change is in Speed (both Speeds in that line) where the value is changed from positive 1.0 to negative 1.0 (there is a –  in front of 1).

   Solution 2: In the game launcher (BmLauncher.exe in binaries folder of the installation), go to SETTINGS. Choose MOVEMENT CONTROLS at the top. Change INVERT FORWARD/BACK to INVERTED. (I found out this solution after I edited the config file)

2. Issue: The gadgets in cross diagonal axis are not accessible through D-Pad.

   Solution: Only way to change this is by editing the same configuration file as Solution 1 and changing the left and right D-Pad keys to rotate through the gadgets. Annoying but it’s better than having to use the Keyboard for the switching. To do this, go to BmGame folder and Config folder within it. Find a configuration file called DefaultInput.ini. You will have to make 2 changes here.

   1. .Bindings=(Name=”XboxTypeS_DPad_Left”,Command=”Button bGadgetSelectLeft | DebugMenuLeftPressed | OnRelease DebugMenuLeftReleased”)
      .Bindings=(Name=”XboxTypeS_DPad_Right”,Command=”Button bGadgetSelectRight | DebugMenuRightPressed | OnRelease DebugMenuRightReleased”)
      should be changed to
      .Bindings=(Name=”MouseScrollUp”,Command=”Button bGadgetSelectLeft | DebugMenuLeftPressed | OnRelease DebugMenuLeftReleased”)
      .Bindings=(Name=”MouseScrollDown”,Command=”Button bGadgetSelectRight | DebugMenuRightPressed | OnRelease DebugMenuRightReleased”)
   2. .Bindings=(Name=”MouseScrollUp”,Command=”GadgetSelectLeft”)
      .Bindings=(Name=”MouseScrollDown”,Command=”GadgetSelectRight”)
      should be changed to
      .Bindings=(Name=”XboxTypeS_DPad_Left”,Command=”GadgetSelectLeft”)
      .Bindings=(Name=”XboxTypeS_DPad_Right”,Command=”GadgetSelectRight”)
      

3. Issue: This is not so much an issue but a personal preference. In most games that supports PS3 controller format, the action key is usually Button X (Button 2 in Rumblepad II). But because of Xbox controller format, the keys 2 and 3 are reversed. Similarly 1 and 4 are reversed. I found that very uncomfortable. So I decided to switch them in the configuration.

   Solution: Go to BmGame folder and Config folder within it. Find a configuration file called DefaultInput.ini.

   .Bindings=(Name=”XboxTypeS_A”,Command=”DebugCamSingleFrameStep | Run | ContextSensitive  |CapeGlide | AcceptConversation | Evade | DebugMenuSelectA | CancelBatarangCamera”)
   .Bindings=(Name=”XboxTypeS_B”,Command=”HangFromVantagePoint | BlockBreaker | DebugCamMoreSpeed | OnRelease DebugCamNormalSpeed | ExitAgilityMode | SkipCutscene | CancelGadget | DebugMenuSelectB | CancelBatarangCamera”)
   .Bindings=(Name=”XboxTypeS_X”,Command=”QuickStrike | AttackSilentFinish | DebugMenuSelectX | CancelBatarangCamera”)
   .Bindings=(Name=”XboxTypeS_Y”,Command=”Grab | ActivateNoise  | AttackFearFinish | DebugMenuSelectY | SpecialMoveCheat | CancelBatarangCamera”)
   should be changed to
   .Bindings=(Name=”XboxTypeS_B”,Command=”DebugCamSingleFrameStep | Run | ContextSensitive  |CapeGlide | AcceptConversation | Evade | DebugMenuSelectA | CancelBatarangCamera”)
   .Bindings=(Name=”XboxTypeS_A”,Command=”HangFromVantagePoint | BlockBreaker | DebugCamMoreSpeed | OnRelease DebugCamNormalSpeed | ExitAgilityMode | SkipCutscene | CancelGadget | DebugMenuSelectB | CancelBatarangCamera”)
   .Bindings=(Name=”XboxTypeS_Y”,Command=”QuickStrike | AttackSilentFinish | DebugMenuSelectX | CancelBatarangCamera”)
   .Bindings=(Name=”XboxTypeS_X”,Command=”Grab | ActivateNoise  | AttackFearFinish | DebugMenuSelectY | SpecialMoveCheat | CancelBatarangCamera”)
   
   XboxTypeS_A=Enter
   XboxTypeS_B=Escape
   XboxTypeS_X=LeftControl
   XboxTypeS_Y=Delete
   should be changed to
   XboxTypeS_B=Enter
   XboxTypeS_A=Escape
   XboxTypeS_Y=LeftControl
   XboxTypeS_X=Delete

If you want the edited Configuration file without wanting to edit it yourself, you can download it here. But make sure you take a backup of the original file and make the file editable (untick read only option) before overwriting with this file.

Overall, I really enjoyed playing Batman Arkham Asylum. This is one of the games I played 100% including collecting everything to unlock bios of the characters in Batman.

Hi,

When I created this site (especially the eBooks section), I created it for only one purpose. It is to allow people to share the knowledge and learn. I was a student a while back (still am as a matter of fact) and I was given list of books I was supposed to refer to learn for my modules every term. The books cost a lot of money and I did not have enough to pay for that along with my fees. So when I looked online, I found many ebooks sites. I started collecting them so that I can use them and learn. I kept on collecting more and more until I had a big library of ebooks.

Then when I wanted to create a site where people can come for references and learn (still haven’t finished building it), I thought I’ll share the books here. Unfortunately, that also meant that many publishing companies are able to see them as well. I have received a few emails from big publishing companies with requests to remove their books or face lawsuits. I do not want any legal actions against me so I removed all the eBooks altogether to avoid any future problems.

I apologize if this is inconvenient. But I cannot handle any legal problems additional to the things I already face in my life. I hope everyone understands my reasons.

Kind Regards,

Janahan Balasingham (JB)

Recently, I was approached to design a website plugin that will monitor user feed of more than 1 tweeter and display it. The project required the users to be customizable and based on filter option chosen by the user, display only the tweets of those who fall in that category.

I never programmed anything in twitter based before so I didn’t know how to do what was asked from me. I googled online and most of the results I got was about following one particular tweeter’s feed. There are other sites which requires me (or the website owner in this case) to sign up and fill each user’s twitter feed link and it will populate a code that can be copied and put in the website. But I didn’t feel comfortable using that because of many reasons. One of them is the limitation of the number of links that can be posted and the need for registering.

Then I came across a script that was written by Martin Angelov. It does exactly what I wanted only a little bit differently. Since the code was open source, I decided to use it and customize it according to my needs. The end product is what you see here.

var buildString = "";

$(document).ready(function(){

	$('#twiupdate').slideDown('fast');
	
	for(var i=0;i<tweetUsers.length;i++)
	{
		if(i!=0) buildString+='+OR+';
		buildString+='from:'+tweetUsers[i];
	}
	
	var fileref = document.createElement('script');
	
	fileref.setAttribute("type","text/javascript");
	fileref.setAttribute("src", "http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q="+buildString+"&callback=TweetTick&rpp=50");
	
	document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(fileref);
	
});

The code above is the main method of the twitter feed function. It will start as soon as the page gets loaded. It builds the search string (user list required for the FOR loop here will be constructed later) and the return result will be passed onto another function called TweetTick.

function TweetTick(ob)
{
	var container=$('#twiupdate');
	container.html('');
    container.append('<ul>');
	
	$(ob.results).each(function(el){
	
		/* var str = '	<li class="clearfix">
                    <div class="tweet">
					    <div class="t_avatar"><a href="http://twitter.com/'+this.from_user+'" target="_blank"><img src="'+this.profile_image_url+'" alt="'+this.from_user+'" /></a></div>
                        <div class="user"><a href="http://twitter.com/'+this.from_user+'" target="_blank">'+this.from_user+'</a></div>
                        <div class="txt">'+formatTwitString(this.text)+'</div>
					    <div class="t_meta">'+relativeTime(this.created_at)+'</div>
                    </div>';*/

        var str = '	<li class="clearfix">
                    <div class="tweet">
					<div class="t_avatar"><a href="http://twitter.com/'+this.from_user+'" target="_blank"><img src="'+this.profile_image_url+'" alt="'+this.from_user+'" /></a></div>
					<div class="user"><a href="http://twitter.com/'+this.from_user+'" target="_blank">'+this.from_user+'</a></div>
					<div class="t_meta">'+relativeTime(this.created_at)+'</div>
					<div class="txt">'+formatTwitString(this.text)+'</div>
					</div>';
		
		container.append(str);
	
	});

    container.append('</ul>');
	
	container.jScrollPane();
}

This code is the function TweetTick. This is where the search results is received and formatted in the way I want it to display in the page. It can be customized anyway you want to. Most of it is self explanatory. Let me know if you have any questions about customizing this.

function formatTwitString(str)
{
	str=' '+str;
	str = str.replace(/((ftp|https?)://([-w.]+)+(:d+)?(/([-w/_.]*(?S+)?)?)?)/gm,'$1');
	str = str.replace(/([^w])@([w-]+)/gm,'$1@$2');
	str = str.replace(/([^w])#([w-]+)/gm,'$1#$2');
	return str;
}

This code has the function formatTwitString. This function is invoked within TweetTick to format the tweet message received from the search results through RegEx. I have updated it to fix a minor bug that was there in the original code.

function relativeTime(pastTime)
{	
	var origStamp = Date.parse(pastTime);
	var curDate = new Date();
	var currentStamp = curDate.getTime();
	
	var difference = parseInt((currentStamp - origStamp)/1000);

	if(difference < 0) return false;

	if(difference <= 5)				return "Just now";
	if(difference <= 20)			return "Seconds ago";
	if(difference <= 60)			return "A minute ago";
	if(difference < 3600)			return parseInt(difference/60)+" minutes ago";
	if(difference <= 1.5*3600) 		return "One hour ago";
	if(difference < 23.5*3600)		return Math.round(difference/3600)+" hours ago";
	if(difference < 1.5*24*3600)	return "One day ago";
	
	var dateArr = pastTime.split(' ');
	return dateArr[4].replace(/:d+$/,'')+' '+dateArr[2]+' '+dateArr[1]+(dateArr[3]!=curDate.getFullYear()?' '+dateArr[3]:'');
}

This code is another function called relativeTime that is being invoked by TweetTick function. The purpose of this function is to format the time specified by the search result to relative to current time. So instead of showing 11.00pm, it would say 1hr ago or 2hrs ago as it would show in a twitter feed.

Note: All the code above can be put in a single javascript file (call it twitter.js for example) and can be reused in any project. The user list will be external therefore avoids the need to edit this javascript and cause any problems.

    <script type="text/javascript">
		var tweetUsers = ['antdavidson','edb_lotusracing','redbullF1spy'];	
	</script>

This code above is where the user list is entered. This is page specific because that is how my requirements needed it. Based on the filter option chosen, different pages are loaded and each page will contain the user list for the script to use. In here, I have mentioned a few random names but I had plenty more for the project.

This code is very important as the twitter function will not work without valid user names in the list.

Note: This plugin requires jQuery as well. So include jQuery (http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.3.2/jquery.min.js) in the pages where this twitter plugin is used.

@charset "utf-8";
/* CSS Document */

#twitfeed{
	float: right;	
}
#twiupdate{
	width: 163px;
	height: 245px;
	background-color: #fff;
	margin-right: 20px;
	overflow:: auto;
	padding: 10px;
	color: #333;
	font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}
#twiupdate a, #twiupdate a:visited{
	color:#00F;
	text-decoration: none;
}
#twiupdate a:hover{
	color: #333;
	text-decoration: underline;
}

#twiupdate ul, #twiupdate li{
	padding: 0; margin: 0; list-style: none;
}
.t_avatar{
	float: left;
	width: 60px;
}
.txt{	
	color:#FFF;
	font-size:large;
	padding-bottom:10px;
}
.t_meta{
	font-size: 0.833em;	
	color:#FFF;
}
.user{
	font-size: 0.833em;
	color:#FFF;
}

For those who are not familiar with CSS, the above code may be helpful. It is the CSS I used to suit my design for the plugin. Each div has been applied a style through CSS. To make it look differently, additionally to customizing TweetTick method, this must be customized too.

This is the plugin I developed with the help of Twitter Ticker. I hope this helps you to know how to customize the original script the way you want.