Chp 614. Steam Summer Sale 2016

So how was it? How was it???

How many of you are still trembling from all the excitement and adrenalin rush the past one week? OMG, what an awesome Steam Sale that was! Looking at all the unbelievable discounts across so many awesome games, it was one of the best moments of this year for me.

For a long time, I never understood women, the way their demeanour would change the moment there's a sale at their favourite brand outlet. Suddenly, the very nice and calm girl-next-door who smiles at you sweetly and blushes when you open the door for her turns into this ferocious blood thirsty venom-spitting fire-breathing Valkyrie who grabs every piece of outfit she can lay her witchy fingers on, amidst a sea of other such women during an ongoing sale.

I used to be like... "whaaa... there's always a sale somewhere".

But then, I didn't understand the value of brand recognition. I was happy buying one of those "Buy 1 get 5 free" shirts of an unheard of label, because a shirt was just a shirt to me. But to most women, that is not how they think. The fact that it was their favourite brand on sale meant a lot to them.

I finally understood that when I signed up on Steam.

Steam is considered to be the world's largest distribution platform for PC gaming, with well over 125 million registered accounts. And every now and then, there would be a sale on some of the popular games. But what most steam users look forward to, are the official Summer and Winter sales, which lasts for about a week, and during that sale, most of the popular games are on incredible discounts.

Check out this video to know what I'm talking about :)



At the beginning of the Steam Summer Sale, this was my profile stat -



After the sale ended, this was me -



Yup, even though I tried my best to control, I ended up buying 75 new games! Jeez I'm so gonna feel the consequences later this month. Dal roti for the next few weeks it is. But at least most of them were really cheap, like just 10 bucks or so, while others were a bit expensive but they were at more than 80% discount from the original price.

I even levelled up my "Summer Sale Badge" to a level 10 during this short period. 



So, for all you gamers out there and those of you who might want to try out new games, here is a list of some of the prominent games I bought this Summer Sale. Hope you find it useful.



This War of Mine [link] - Original cost ₹ 565. Bought it for ₹ 141



A long time ago, I downloaded the pirated version of this game, just to know what the game is about. I played it the entire day, and by night, I was sooooo depressed that I couldn't sleep properly. The game is sad and realistic. It is about survival during a war time, from a civilian's perspective, and you have to struggle every day for food, water, medicine, etc. Small things matter a lot. If you scavenge for food and stuff, you get tired and hungry, if you don't have a bed to sleep on, you end up with body aches the next day, if nobody's guarding your house, you get robbed, if you kill other people in order to steal their food, you become guilty and depressed which can even lead to suicide if untreated! As the game description aptly says, "The game provides an experience of war seen from an entirely new angle". I bought the game this time to show my support to the developers and as a form of payback for having downloaded a pirated version before.



Amanita design

The moment I came across games by Amanita design, I fell in love with them immediately. The art style and ambient features are exactly the type I would want to spend a long weekend with. I bought three of their games at once - Machinarium, Samorost 2 and Botanicula at 70% discount each.



Machinarium - Original cost ₹ 249. Bought it for ₹74
Samorost 2 - Original cost ₹ 129. Bought it for ₹38
Botanicula - Original cost ₹ 249. Bought it for ₹74

Just take a look at their game screenshot -







According to the game description, "Machinarium is an award-winning independent adventure game about a little robot who’s been thrown out to the scrap yard behind the city. He must return and confront the Black Cap Brotherhood and save his robot-girl friend". Oh that is so sweet :)

Meanwhile, Samorost 2 is "An adventure quest in which you must help out a little space gnome as he searches for his dog, which has been taken away by aliens". A space gnome? Searching for his dog? That has been dognapped? Lolz, who would have thunk all that? I'm sure I'm gonna have a lot of fun playing these games.



That Dragon, Cancer [link] - Original cost ₹ 479. Bought it for ₹ 287



This had been on the top of my wishlist for a very long time. When the Steam Summer Sale started, I was really disappointed that this game wasn't on sale :( But then a few days' later, it was! :)

Here's the game description - "An immersive, narrative videogame that retells Joel Green’s 4-year fight against cancer through about two hours of poetic, imaginative gameplay that explores themes of faith, hope and love."

Now are you ready for the sad true story?

This game was developed by husband and wife duo Ryan and Amy Green. It is an autobiographical game based on the couple's experience of raising their son Joel, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer at twelve months old! Though Joel was only given a short time to live, he continued to survive for four more years before eventually succumbing to the cancer in March 2014. Can't get any deeper than that. This is one experience I'm definitely not going to miss out on.



Invisible + Contingency Plan Bundle [link]

Cost of both game and DLC ₹ 565 and ₹ 259. Bought it together for ₹ 261



This game is about stealth, precision and infiltration. It is from the same people who made "Mark of the Ninja", which is currently one of my favorite games on Steam. Hence I know it's not going to disappoint me. I also like the art style of this game (have any of you played "CounterSpy" by Dynamighty? Unfortunately, CounterSpy isn't on Steam, but I see a lot of similarities in the visual and art style). Will install this game once I complete my "Mark of the Ninja" campaign :)



A Bird Story [link] - Original cost ₹ 229. Bought it for ₹ 68



The only reason why I bought this game is because it's made by the same people who gave us "To The Moon" which I blogged about here. "To The Moon" is the most emotionally touching game I have ever played till now, and even though some of the reviews of this game said it wasn't as deep as "To The Moon", I still bought it, just to support the developers :)

As the game description says, "A simple & surreal 1-hour interactive animation about a boy and an injured bird, told without dialogues", let's see how this game is in the coming days.



GTA Collection Bundle [link]

GTA III - Original cost ₹ 652
GTA Vice City - Original cost ₹ 652
GTA San Andreas - Original cost ₹ 783
GTA IV - Original cost ₹ 978
GTA Liberty City - Original cost ₹ 978

Total price of all games ₹ 4043. Bought it for ₹ 522.



I'm not a fan of Grand Theft Auto, but it is a very popular franchise and definitely one of the games a collector must have. And what better opportunity than this to buy five of their popular titles at an 86% discount? I may not install those games right now, but I'm sure there will come a time when I say, "Ok, time to check out those GTA series" one day :)



Banished [link] - Original cost ₹ 565. Bought it for ₹ 192



Every time I come across a new game that involves city-building and micro-management, there's always one or two reviewers who recommend "Banished". And so here is me looking forward to playing this game about controlling a group of exiled travellers and coping with the scarce resources that has been provided. This looks interesting.



Swapper [link] - Original cost ₹ 479. Bought it for ₹ 95



"What if someone knew your mind better than you did? The Swapper is an award-winning, narrative driven puzzle game set in the furthest reaches of space." - The mere description of the game itself convinced me to buy this game (and of course the fact that it was on an 80% discount :P ) 



Punch Club [link] - Original cost ₹ 369. Bought it for ₹ 92



Ok this is the only game so far that I bought during this Summer Sale that totally disappointed me. It had been in my wish-list for a long time because I was really interested in the game-play (we are planning to develop a similar game like this too). The game is about managing your fighter and earning your place in the Punch Club ranks, while micro-managing your daily routine, like earning money, training etc. When the sale started, it was on a 75% discount! And so I bought it immediately.

I then installed it immediately. Two hours into the game and I was already regretting it.

The game is a complete grind-fest. That is a gamer's term for making you play the same ol' missions again and again in order to generate resources. But in this case, there is no proper game balancing at all. I need to train to become a better fighter. For that I need money to train. For that I need to work to get money. For that I need energy to work. For that I need to rest to have energy. For that I need to eat in order to rest. For that I need money to buy food to eat. And then suddenly, you're stuck you're out of one of those criterion. WTF.

And even though I grinded and grinded, I ended up being robbed by a stronger fighter because I was carrying too much money (transportation cost time or money too so most of us would carry as much as possible). Even after figuring out that I will get robbed when I carry a certain amount of money, I trained my fighter hard enough to take on the robber, but the next time I was at a higher level, the robber was at a higher level than me again! That totally suck.

The fact that in spite of all this grinding in order to train your fighter's stats, the bloody stats reducing every day was the last nail on the coffin for me. I will not play this game again until the developers fix this issue. And looking at all the other reviews, I certainly am not the only one. The concept is really great, and the dialogues are witty and funny, but the game balancing needs to be fixed asap, otherwise there is absolutely no point in playing this game.



The Stanley Parable [link] - Original cost ₹ 479. Bought it for ₹ 95



This is apparently one of those Mind-f**king games. Schrödinger would approve. And so I bought it :D Just read the game description and you'll know what I'm talking about - "The Stanley Parable is a first person exploration game. You will play as Stanley, and you will not play as Stanley. You will follow a story, you will not follow a story. You will have a choice, you will have no choice. The game will end, the game will never end." Whaaaa? :)



Bleed [link] - Original cost ₹ 259. Bought it for ₹ 51



This is another interesting game that caught my eye. Game description - "Wryn is a girl with a big arsenal and big dreams - she wants to be the ultimate videogame hero! Help her take down the Greatest Heroes of All Time in an action-packed bid to claim the title for herself and show the world what a true hero looks like!" Oh yeah, that rocks! :)



room13 [link] - Original cost ₹ 349. Bought it for ₹ 69



Again here, it was the art style that mainly attracted me to this game. Will install this game once I'm done with the other games mentioned here. This one really looks promising.



Schein [link] - Original cost ₹ 359. Bought it for ₹ 71



I'm a sucker for platformer games. And any platformer games that involves using "the magic of light to explore hidden worlds, solve challenging puzzles and defeat deadly beasts" is definitely my cup of tea.



Crypt of the NecroDancer [link] - Original cost ₹ 479. Bought it for ₹ 119



Crypt of the NecroDanceris a very popular "award winning hardcore rogue-like rhythm game". The only reason I bought this game is because I keep seeing a "special offer" on this game almost every other week. So yeah, in order to stop getting those discount notifications, I decided, what the heck, lemme just buy it (after all, it is a very popular game anyway). Now for those of you who think you may have missed out on the sale of this game, don't worry, they will definitely be back with the same discount in a couple of days or weeks :)



Door Kickers [link] - Original cost ₹ 565. Bought it for ₹ 84



Among all the games I have bought this Summer Sale, this is the one game I have enjoyed playing the most (though to be fair, I haven't played most of the other games yet). This game is about strategy where you control a SWAT team to take out the bad guys while preventing the least amount of casualties on your side. The best part that I love about this game is the fact that the locations of the bad guys are randomized, making each mission (and retries) really challenging.



Full Bore [link] - Original cost ₹ 479. Bought it for ₹ 95



Another block puzzle game that is apparently about a "Boar's darkest hour". Lolz. This game "throws the player into an open world of crumbling mines, arcane ruins, and technological wonders with only curiosity to lead the way". Would be a good game to check out.



Dungeon Defenders Collection [link ] - Original cost ₹ 989. Bought it for ₹ 197



I bought the part 2 of this game during a previous Sale. But seeing that this was available at an 80% discount, I grabbed it as well. Also because there were some Portal and TF2 game elements in this one, hehehe.



Rocket League (4 pack) [link] - Original cost ₹ 1179. Bought it for ₹ 707



This popular game needs no introduction. This is where football meets driving, where you drive a bunch of cars and try to score in your opponent's goal. I read the reviews and people said it is extremely fun playing with your friends via LAN too, and so I bought the 4-pack bundle. Gifted them to three lucky colleagues of mine - Amit, Ashish and Das.

That was such a SCREW-UP! Never make the mistake I made.



So I gifted these three friends of mine the game. They excitedly accepted the gift, but it was then that we discovered this game does not work on freaking Mac. Ashish and Das had a Mac system. So in the end, my plan of play a 2 vs 2 match in office was blown to smithereens as only Amit and I could play this game. Such a waste of money :(



Super Meat Boy [link] - Original cost ₹ 479. Bought it for ₹ 47



Played for around 10 minutes and I am still stuck in the third level, lolz. Good stuff.



RPG Maker VX Ace [link] - Original cost ₹ 1369. Bought it for ₹ 191



For a very long time now, I have always wanted to own one of these bad boys. But since there are so many different versions of it, I couldn't make up my mind which one to buy. And then this one came with an 86% discount so I bought it immediately. One of these days, I will explore this software thoroughly, experiment with it and soon come out with my own RPG games that will overtake the likes of "To The Moon" :D



Primordia [link] - Original cost ₹ 369. Bought it for ₹ 110



This game goes along the lines of Amanita design games mentioned earlier above. Cool art and description too - "Life has ceased. Man is but a myth. And now, even the machines have begun to fail. Lead Horatio Nullbuilt and his sarcastic sidekick Crispin on a journey through the crumbling world of Primordia, facing malfunctioning robots, ancient secrets, and an implacable, power-hungry foe".



Prison Architech Introversioner bundle [link] - Original cost ₹ 849. Bought it for ₹ 212



This is another game that has an overwhelmingly positive feedback. It's about building and managing a Maximum Security Prison :) I've never micro-managed prisoners before, so this is going to be fun. Also, this "Introversioner bundle" pack came with four other games - Uplink, Dawrinia, DEFCON and Multiwinia. Woot!



Battleblock Theatre [link] - Original cost ₹ 479. Bought it for ₹ 95



I really didn't understand much of the game play from the images, but since this game has an overwhelmingly Positive review (both recent and overall), I bought it.



Anomaly Über Bundle [link]

Anomaly: Warzone Earth - Original cost ₹ 369
Anomaly 2 - Original cost ₹ 479
Anomaly Korea- Original cost ₹ 259
Anomaly Warzone Earth Mobile Campaign - Original cost ₹ 259
Anomaly Defenders - Original cost ₹ 369

Total price of individual games ₹ 1735. Bought the entire bundle for just₹ 145



I've always wanted to play one of these Anomaly games for a long time, but they were too expensive for me. The very concept that it is a reverse tower defense action-strategy game interested the hell out of it. So yeah, when five of their games were at a 91% discount, swipe goes my credit card! Hoping to play one of these games this coming weekend.



Lisa [link] - Original cost ₹ 369. Bought it for ₹ 184



"The miserable journey of a broken man". There, I'm sold immediately on the one liner game description itself.



Fran Bow [link] - Original cost ₹ 479. Bought it for ₹ 239



I just realized, many of the games I have purchased this summer sale are about mental pain or torture or disorder or something like that, lolz. Am I alright? Here is another such game - "Fran Bow is a creepy adventure game that tells the story of Fran, a young girl struggling with a mental disorder and an unfair destiny". Awww yissss. :D




The Sims 3 [link] - Original cost ₹665. Bought it for ₹166



The Sims. This game too needs no introduction. I realized I didn't have a single Sims game in my Steam collection, so I bought it, especially since it was a good discount. Will play it one of these days.



Goat Simulator [link] - Original cost ₹ 369. Bought it for ₹ 92



Goat Simulator. Heheh need I say more? :)



Shellshock Live 4 Pack [link] - Original cost ₹ 565. Bought it for ₹ 367



Love this! Currently it is still in "Early Access Game" mode, but most of the bugs people are reporting are about server disconnect etc. I on the other hand bought the "4 Pack" bundle and gifted 3 of them to my colleagues and we are having so much fun playing over LAN. Now others are also planning to buy another 4-Pack bundle so we can have an awesome 4 vs 4 match in office. Really brings back so many memories of "Pocket Tank" days. The single-player campaign seems to be great too, though I haven't had much time to play that version yet.



PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX + All You Can Eat Edition Bundle [link] - Original cost ₹ 984. Bought it for ₹ 246



The screenshots say it all. This is Pac Man lethal overdose :)



METAL SLUG Bundle [link]

METAL SLUG - Original cost ₹349
METAL SLUG 3 - Original cost ₹349
METAL SLUG X - Original cost ₹349

Total price of all three games ₹ 1047. Bought it for ₹ 259



I decided to buy this legendary 2D run & gun action shooting game series just to feel retro again. Hopefully I'll install them in the coming days. 



Mirror's Edge [link] - Original cost ₹ 665. Bought it for ₹ 166



This is another game I'm planning to install once I get myself a Steam controller. Watch the gameplay video in the link above and be amazed. I really like the plot too - "In a city where information is heavily monitored, agile couriers called Runners transport sensitive data away from prying eyes. In this seemingly utopian paradise, a crime has been committed, your sister has been framed and now you are being hunted." Cool! Plus, some say the main female lead in the game looks like my girlfriend :)



Paper's, Please [link] - Original cost ₹ 369. Bought it for ₹ 184



Glory to Arstotzka! :D This is very much an interesting game, and the soundtrack is… communisty, if you know what I mean. The game file size is just around 40 MB, and there are many interesting things happening in the game. You play the role of an immigration inspector, checking passports and other documents. Watch out for those expired dates and discrepancy in their personal info. I only reached till day 6 as of now, but will definitely take more time to play it properly later. Glory to Arstotzka!



Tropico 5 Complete Collection [link] - Original cost ₹ 849. Bought it for ₹ 212



I played Tropico 3 a long time ago. When I saw that this one was available for 212 bucks only, I decided to buy it. The one mistake I made with Tropico 3 was that I played most of the campaigns using cheat-codes, and it kinda got boring quickly after that. Now that I'm going to play Tropico 5 through Steam, I won't use any cheat-codes because you cannot earn achievements if you use cheats. So I think this is really going to be interesting.Plus the graphics have vastly improved as well.





Looking forward to making prominent detractors or dissidents "disappear", lolz. Time to make the Capitalists pay, unite all the Communists!:D



Monkey Island Special Edition Bundle [link] 

The Secret of Monkey Island - Original cost ₹ 369
Monkey Island 2 - Original cost ₹ 369

Price of both games ₹ 738. Bought it for ₹ 119



If you haven't played Monkey Island back in the early 90's, then I really pity you. This is an enhanced or remastered version of that classic game and I am really looking forward to playing this game soon too.



PC-ported mobile games

For some strange reason, I decided to purchase some of the popular mobile games that had been ported to Steam too. I already own a couple of such games, like Evil Defenders, Lyne, Hexacell, Rayman etc. I bought these games even though I had already played them on mobile,mainly to get the Steam achievements, and also because I really enjoyed playing them.

And so this time I bought Ichi, Geometry Dash, World of Goo, Badland, One Finger Death Punch. And Nihilumbra.



Ichi Double Pack [link] - Original cost ₹ 319. Bought it for ₹ 31



This game is available on the Play Store for ₹ 80. Buying a double pack (2 copies) on Steam for just ₹ 31 seemed to be much more economical for me :) :P This game is one of those casual time-pass puzzle games, some levels are quite though, while others are easy. All in all, very good level design, you can see that a lot of thought had been put into it. I have a spare copy, lemme know if this is the type of game you like :)



Geometry Dash [link] - Original cost ₹ 229. Bought it for ₹ 57



Big mistake buying this on Steam, playing this popular rhythm-based action platformer on my PC is much much tougher than on my mobile. I recommend you do not buy this game on Steam if you already have it on your mobile device. Also, the frames tend to skip a bit on my PC.



One Finger Death Punch [link] - Original cost ₹ 259. Bought it for ₹ 129



I haven't installed this yet, but I'm hoping I'll get the same experience I got while playing on my mobile :)



World of Goo [link] - Original cost ₹ 369. Bought it for ₹ 73



Now THIS is the type of PC-ported mobile games I really enjoy playing on my PC. From what I have experienced so far, those mobile games that involves just "tapping" give a much better experience on mobile, and games like this where you need to join and construct stuff, give a good experience on PC as well when you use your mouse instead of your finger.



BADLAND Game of the Year Deluxe Edition + Digital Art Book & Soundtrack [link] - Original cost ₹ 409. Bought it for ₹ 102



Badland is one of my favourite mobile games. I love their monetization feature where you must watch an ad compulsorily if you want to play the next level (or become a premium player). I think it was one of the first popular games to follow that revenue model. I bought it just to see what changes they have made in their Steam-ported version, and also to check out their Digital art book. Yeah who doesn't love Badland art style? :)



Nihilumbra [link] - Original cost ₹ 349. Bought it for ₹ 104



Urrmm… ok I don't know why I bought this game. It's available for free on the Play Store. Maybe because this was the only game the developers have made so far, maybe I felt an urge to help out a fellow indie-developer. I just bought it, and hope it gives me a good experience. :)




And so, those are some of the few games I bought this summer sale. Now I promise I will not buy another game for at least the next 6 months. I need to save moneyyyy!

Cheers everyone.

Chp 612. And We Have Launched!

FINALLY, after 6 months of hard work and sleepless nights, we have finally launched our next game. This is the biggest game I have ever worked on till now, and it sure feels good to be a part of it. This morning, I woke up so refreshed and relaxed, you know, with this overwhelming feeling of self-accomplishment and gratification.

The past 4 months, I didn't even take a single day's leave, and I worked almost every Saturday and Sunday as well. So yeah, you can imagine my joy and relief of waking up soooo happy this morning :)



We were officially supposed to launch our game yesterday, June 30th, but you know, as any software product launch goes, there are always last minute bugs and errors, and solving one just creates more and more bugs. And so we spent the entire day and night in office the past 3 days working our ass out while gorging down Red Bulls and stale Bubsterr pizzas at 5 in the morning, and once we got the green light from our QA team last night, the deployment team got into action and the game was finally uploaded on PlayStore at around 1:00 AM this morning.

Our game is currently in closed beta, so it is not available to the general public as of now. Around 5000 selected testers and reviewers have access to it, so we will know the feedback in the next few days. But based on all the feedback we have received from our focus-group testing phases earlier, both gamers and non-gamers really seem to like it, so we are hoping for a positive feedback!

I'd love to talk more about this game we're launching, like what's the name of the game or what type of a game is it, the way I used to freely and passionately talk about all our games in the past, but I'll have to leave that to our PR and marketing team. Being a part of a large corporate house now, there are certain dos and don'ts, like stuff that I can't talk about in public without the management's approval, or things which might have legal implications etc. So I'll stop at this for now. All I'm saying is, once we officially launch the game later this month, I'm sure you're gonna love it :)

So until then, I hope to regularly start updating my blog again. 

Meanwhile, here are some photos of my colleagues taken at 4-5 in the morning. Without these people, we would have never completed the game. Look at them, completely tired and drained of any energy. That my friend, is what hard work and dedication means, the key to any success. I feel so proud to be a part of their team.

Cheers!

Chp 611. Brexit

This has got to be the MOST gruelling one month I've ever experienced. Our game will finally release on June 30th, after two deadline extensions. We are now on our focus group testing phase, making changes wherever required, along with game economy balancing. We still need to put in a lot of effort before the launch, but I'm sure glad we are almost there now.

My TeamFortress 2 buddies even mailed me to ask if I was still alive because I haven't logged in this entire month! That speaks volumes on how busy I was with work. :(

Having said that, yeah, I didn't have time to blog at all either. I did write a couple of stuff, but then work piled up and by the time I was done, I was either too tired to continue writing or the momentum had passed. I have many unfinished blog posts, like the one I meant to publish on our YMA day, another post meant for my girl's birthday which also passed, a food related post about smoked pork, yet another post dedicated to my girlfriend's recent launch of her "Summer Breeze" collection.

I will definitely complete writing that last post when I have more free time. Right now, I just want to quickly update my blog about an important event before this momentum too passes, and that is #Brexit.

As we all know, in a historical referendum, 51.9% of British citizens voted to leave the European Union, while the remaining 48.1% voted to remain. And I'm sure we have seen our fair share of jokes and cartoons forwarded on WhatsApp and Twitter regarding this.





I'm not gonna bore you or rant about my opinion on Brexit, because clearly I don't have any solid info on this issue. My view and understanding of the matter depends on which articles I read - Leftist journals make you believe exiting is the worst possible idea, whereas Right-wing journals do the opposite. I look at my Facebook timeline feed and many of my friends who are now in the UK are extremely vocal about it. I totally understand them and why they are deeply opinionated, because after all, they are living there and its gonna affect them directly. 

Take the WhatsApp group of my batch-mates from IIMB for example. I mean, being a drop-out, I was quite surprised to be added to the group. But then again, many of them were close friends. And so, I would just keep quiet during any discussion, too shy to leave the group because they would all see that, and at the same time hesitant to take part in their discussion because they know so much more stuff than me. But even as a silent reader, what they discussed about is always deep and insightful. In other WhatsApp groups, while people were just forwarding Brexit jokes and discussing about how it might impact football (?), in this group people were talking about the actual economical impact and other possible financial outcomes.



At least I understood some of the words they were using in their conversation :D :P

See, these are the people who really know what they're talking about. Not people like me. People like me are the useless kinda breed, you know, who have no clue about the world's financial and economic affairs.

So how do I update my blog post about Brexit without any knowledge of its implications?

Well, this morning, I woke up, and even though today is a Sunday, I had to go to work. And so I quickly ordered breakfast from Zomato. When I opened the app, I got this push notification!



I mean, wowww. Just as I was approaching the land of broke-ness, zomato had to rub salt into my wounds with this! :)

With the tax season just over and Steam's ongoing "Summer Sale 2016", along with me having placed an order for the OnePlus 3, this month had been heavy on my wallet. Hence it was relieving to see such an offer :)

And so I decided to order an English breakfast combo from Where Else Café.




I went for the BROKE promo offer and I got a cool 15% off (INR 48)




A good breakfast indeed - scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, pork sausages, hash browns, grilled tomatoes and baked beans with bread toasts.



So what is so Brexit about my breakfast. Well, it was English, and I got it at a BROKE discount.

Haha, I know, very lame joke indeed. But like I said, I wanted to post at least one blog update regarding this before the momentum passes. Lolz, ok back to work for me now. Cheers. Hihiii.

:)

Chp 610. Watching Game of Thrones legally

I know, it's that time of the year again when everybody's talking about Game of Thrones. Six episodes into this current season now, and I have already purchased my own customized GoT shirt!



Don't you just love the above quote by Tyrion? :)

And like the past few years, we are seeing a tremendous number of downloads on torrent sites again.

However, the big difference is, this year, HBO is apparently cracking down on illegal torrents. According to this article on torrentfreak, thousands of the latest GoT torrents are being removed as HBO is asking ISPs to track down those IP addresses involved in sharing.

For those who are unaware, GoT was the top pirated TV show for both 2014 and 2015. And HBO more or less used to turn a blind eye to this overwhelming statistic. 

The reason why HBO is now suddenly being so anti-piracy proactive is because they apparently want people to subscribe to their online streaming service HBONow where subscribers can watch the latest GoT episodes legally, for a small fee of course. And as one article mentioned, HBO is targeting only Americans who are downloading through torrent because after all, HBONow is available only in the US. So for the rest of the world, I guess it is still pretty much safe to continue with torrent.

Here's the thing about popular TV shows and piracy. Many of us aren't downloading the latest episodes from torrent just because they are free. People like us have no other option but to download from torrent sites because (a) The show is currently not available in our country, (b) The legal streaming options are also not available in our country, (c) Even if such shows run on our cable channels (like here in India for example), they are shown much much later. By then, everybody already knows all the spoilers. (d) And even if the option to watch episodes online legally are available, many of us have bad internet connection and cannot watch it via streaming. Last but not the least, (e) Censorship!

For me, personally, the reason why I download GoT episodes from torrent is because of that last point. Censorship. Aaarrrghhh. I hate it when scenes are censored out. And I am not talking about the nudity or sex scenes. Lolz, believe me, if I want porn, there are much better sources for that :P I care about censored scenes because cutting them out makes you lose sense of the ongoing plot. Take the very first episode of Season 1 for example that aired on cable here. Bran climbs up the tower. Bran peeks into the window. Suddenly Jamie Lannister appears out of nowhere and pushes him down. Why? Because censorship.

And here in India, they not only censor out all the "hot" scenes, but all the "gory death" scenes as well. I once made the mistake of watching "The Pacific" on cable. I am a huge fan of war drama, and "Band of Brothers" is one of my all-time favorite mini-series. But that day, as I sat on my beanbag in front of my TV, all excited about watching "The Pacific", hehe I was sooooo disappointed. Nothing made sense because they censored out all the death scenes. Suddenly, important characters were no longer in the show. And I had no idea what the hell happened to them because the scene where a head was split open by a sniper or where a marine stepped on a mine and blew himself to smithereens were all censored out. It was only when I downloaded the same TV show from torrent that I finally understood the story!

Coming back to the topic of Game of Thrones, yeah, this year, when I heard hotstar was going to screen the series to their premium subscribers here in India, I immediately signed up. I was ecstatic because FINALLY, I had the option of watching the show legally.

Here are the Pros and Cons of watching Game of Thrones via hotstar.


PROS:

1. It costs just INR 199 a month, with the first month being free. That's cheaper than my daily cigarette pack.

2. The biggest problem with being a GoT TV fan (yeah I haven't read the books) is the show timing. It airs in the US on Sunday 9 PM ET, which is Monday 6:30 AM IST here. Monday means work. Back then, I had two options - (a) download from torrent after work, and (b) download from torrent before work. The problem with option "a" is that by the time you come back from work at the end of the day, you already know all the spoilers because of your asshole friends on social media :) And the problem with option "b" is that you not only end up going late to work, but all the early torrents don't have any subtitles for the Dothraki and Valyrian parts yet, not to mention poor video quality. The legal version solved all those problems.

3. Hotstar really listens to their subscribers' feedback. The past few episodes, many subscribers asked for English subtitles. And the latest episode came with English subtitles!

4. Flexibility – Out of the 6 episodes released so far this year, I didn't have internet at home on two occasions (thanks Reliance), and so I went to office earlier than usual, and logged-in to my hotstar premium account to watch the show before most of my colleagues reached office.





5. And last but not the least, the hotstar stream version is uncensored. Totally. :)


Now here are some of the CONS:

1. Hotstar accepts only credit cards as of now, so for the large majority of debit card users out there, you can't become a premium subscriber yet.

2. Though I mentioned in point #2 of the PROS that I can now watch the show before going to work, it is still not early enough. The latest episodes are available around 7:45 - 8:00 AM IST (an hour after it is aired in the US). So yeah I still end up reaching office a bit late, though you won't have a problem if you have a different schedule.

And of course you might ask, why don't I just watch in office like the two times above when I didn't have internet at home. Well, did I not mention it's an uncensored version? Yeah, it was not comfortable at all with colleagues walking around while I was watching the show. I had to be alert all the time to switch windows quickly whenever I suspected a boob was going to appear on the screen. :D

And so that's my experience of watching GoT legally online. A fine experience, and it fills you with a good feeling of doing something legally finally :D

Cheers then. Until the next episode. For the Door.

Chp 609. English Premier League 2015-16

As somebody who has been blogging for the past 12 years, one of the things I love the most about blogging is reading some of my old posts. It's like walking down memory lane when I read about some of the stuff that took place many years ago.

My blog is kinda like my public diary sometimes, where I write about events that really mean something to me.

And I never fail to write about Arsenal. I've been a hardcore Gooner much before I started blogging (in my defense, there was no blogger.com platform back then) and so, to this day, I get the occasional banter from friends that Arsenal has never won the League since I started blogging :P

But in all fairness, you gotta admit that is true. The frustration we Arsenal fans have the past few years is obvious. And that is what banter is all about. We, as football club fans, tend to make fun of rival fans as much as we can.

Take ManUtd fans for example.

Until 2013, they kept taunting Arsenal fans with, "We got more FA Cup trophies than you". And then in 2014 Arsenal equalized that record and they’re like, "Heh, you still haven't broken our record", and then Arsenal broke that record in 2015 and they’re like, "FA Cup is such a plastic cup, nobody cares", and then this year 2016 suddenly they won the FA Cup and they're like, "FA Cup is the bestest cup in the whole wide world". :D

See, that's how banter works.

Here's one of the many many many examples… When Arsenal won the FA Cup last year, the Vice-President of the "Chennai Mizo Works at Manchester United Die Hard Fan Association" (CMWMUDHFA) commented -"Arsenal won a Chicken Noodle Cup, and they are so happy about it, lulz".



This year though, Arsenal won the Community Shield and ManUtd won the FA Cup. The same person above (now promoted to President of the CMWMUDHFA because the only other person in the fan club went back to Mizoram) commented - "ManUtd won the glorious FA Cup this year while Arsenal only won a Chicken Noodle Cup".



Ahhh… ManUtd fans :D

This dear friend of mine tries so hard at trolling Arsenal fans, but always ends up getting trolled back. Here's one such image I received on our WhatsApp group.



Man, whoever made the above meme is so evil. I wonder who that person is… :)

And this particular pic I received today really matches the above meme! :D



Remember what Paul Scholes said to ManUtd earlier this year, "Don't be like Arsenal who only think of FA Cup and aiming to come in 4th"… It's pretty sad for him that Arsenal finished SECOND this season, not fourth, whereas ManUtd couldn't even reach fourth position… :D

Banter is all about making people eat their words.

Pretty much like my friend Lalramenga who is a hardcore ManUtd fan :D He would always update his Facebook status with the results of the latest Game Week matches on Mondays, but only when ManUtd won while Arsenal lost. Hence, this ENTIRE season, he got to update his status about the Game Week results only twice :D :D :D :D

And then there's my colleague here at work, who's also a ManUtd fan. He and I made a promise last year that we would both wear our respective team jerseys to office on Mondays whenever our team won during the weekend. Now that this season has ended, my Arsenal jersey is completely worn out while his ManUtd jersey is still brand new :D

Yeah I like making fun of my ManUtd friends, mainly because this entire season, whenever Arsenal was playing, they would be extremely active in the many WhatsApp groups I was in. But of course when their own team played, they were nowhere to be seen. It was as if they watched only Arsenal matches this entire season (after all, who can blame them, Arsenal matches are beautiful).

These past three years had been a complete comedy for them, finishing 7th, 4th and 5th (with three different world-class managers and top-flight player signings), whereas Arsenal came in 4th, 3rd and 2nd (Arsenal didn't even sign a single outfield player last summer transfer!) Yet they never fail to troll Arsenal fans even though Arsenal is evidently class apart from them. They're like the former local celebrity of yesteryear, you know, somebody who once used to be quite famous in your locality, but these days, nobody cares about him and he'll do anything to stay relevant, and that includes bitching about the current new celebrities that people actually respect. :)

Anyhoo, enough of ManUtd for now, let's take a look at Tottenham Sp*rs. Arsenal's arch-nemesis. Our reason to celebrate St.Totteringham's Day.

For years now since we last won the League in 2004, Sp*rs fans were like, "Is that all you think about? To finish the season above us even though you didn't win the League?" And that was the retort they all had for the past 12 years. They made it sound so convincing that it was more important for them to win the League rather than finish above their North London derby rival.

But suddenly when Leicester City won the League this year (A BIG congrats to them), their tune suddenly changed to, "Doesn't matter if we won the League or not, all that matters is we're above Arsenal!!!!" and they sang songs mocking frustrated Arsenal fans with, "We want Wenger to stay, he makes us stay above you".

They were happy and content with staying above Arsenal, even though they didn't win the League. Their words, not mine.

And then suddenly on the last Game Week of this season, Arsenal beat Aston Villa 4-0 whereas Sp*rs lost to a relegated 10-man Newcastle United 5-1. And all of a sudden, Arsenal was in second place, above Spurs once again. And immediately, Sp*rs fans all over the world were like, "Is that all you think about? To finish the season above us even though you didn't win the League?"

Back to the same old banter I guess. Ahhh Sp*rs :)

Twitter exploded at the last match of the season. Like this tweet for example, from an Arsenal fan…





Hehe nice opportunity to show-off one's butt I guess… And she's much more beautiful and classy than that Miss Bumbum whatshername from Brazil who got blocked by Messi on Instagram.

And of course there were the other jokes…







This season's last Game Week had been an utter frustration to me though.

Yeah it was a great result for Arsenal, but still, it was the ONE FREAKING DAY I was really looking forward to the ENTIRE year, because the last Game Week of the season is usually exciting, as all matches are held at the same time. This year, even though Leicester City had won the league, there were still a lot of uncertainties till the very last Game Week matches. And I earlier blogged about my new set-up [Split-screen dream come true] where I now have this sweet setup of a 32" flat-screen as my monitor, with a 10 Mbps broadband connection. Yeah, I could watch all the big matches simultaneously using a split window. I even posted this pic back then…



And guess what Reliance did? They disconnected my connection just 2 days before the final Game Week day!!!! Aaaaaaarrrrrgghhhhhhh.

I even subscribed to a HotStar premium account, paying quite a hefty fee, mainly to watch the latest Game of Thrones episodes before it came on Torrent, but also because I can watch the last Game Week matches simultaneously in case other live streaming sites were down. All that money spent went down the drain.

I hate Reliance so much. I finally got back my net connection yesterday, but by then, the damage had already been done. I missed the last Game Week of this season :(

Still, I guess, this year was not so bad. Moving from 4th to 3rd to 2nd, I'm sure next year it would be 1st. And that is when I'll be able to say "Hey, my blog is not older than the last time Arsenal won the League" :P

Cheers everyone, including y'all ManUtd fans. Love y'all nonetheless :)