LoL – Champion Rotation: S1 (Week 40), the Latest Patch, Brand and Free RP

Much later than usual this week, but the League of Legends free champion roster has finally rotated. We will be getting the champions below for the following week, and one suspects probably into tuesday the week after as well.

• Alistar


• Avinia


• Fiddlesticks


• Janna


• Malphite


• Nasus


• Sivir


• Miss Fortune


• Maokai


• Lee Sin

I'm sure many people will like this line up. There are a number of favourites (Fiddle, Malphite, Sivir, Miss Fortune) as well as some heroes that people would love to try out before buying (Alistar, Avinia, Maokai, Lee Sin).  The skill level for this group of heroes is slightly lower  than the previous 2 weeks, and this should make it for less feeding as people try out new heroes (hopefully). I personally am 50-50 on this weeks line up. Though I'm looking forward to trying out Avinia and Maokai, I already own most of the heroes that I would want to play on this list. I've also been rocking Nasus alot and it makes me sad that I'll now have competition to play him.

The latest patch was a massive one. Not only do we have the release of Brand (which I'll touch on below), but we also have tons of balancing tweaks. Many of the Tanky DPS heroes have been nerfed abit, while it seems that many casters, tanky or not have been buffed. I for one am especially glad that Teemo has been nerfed slightly. That little Yordle was much too mobile for his own good! I really hate shrooms!

The items are a mixed bunch, with Wriggle's Lantern getting a buff and a nerf of sorts. I think the change to convert the proc damage to magic, is going to cause junglers more problems than Riot imagines. I like that B.F. Sword has it's cost reduced by 200 gold for a 5 point damage reduction. This is definately going to be a big help to carries, as that cost reduction is going to allow many heroes to pick up the damage boost the sword gives much faster. I don't know why Riot decided to buff Infinity Edge though. It is not as if DPS chars are not already dealing loads of damage with the items as it is. With this buff, it is just going to make a tank's life that much harder, which by default is already a very thankless role.

Now on to Brand. I have managed to have a few games with and against the new fiery, Lich King from DotA wannabe, and these are my initial thoughts. He has high burst damage with a passive that is very Anti-Tank. He is also alot more useful in team battles than in a 1v1 situation. Brand is a hero that excels early to mid game, but doesn't scale as well late game. Team mates will be need to help Brand reap the benefits of his abilites. Smart teams will be able to greatly reduce Brand's effectiveness. I think that heroes like Amumu and Avinia, with AOE crowd control will have great synergy with Brand. Amumu's ultimate followed up by Brand's Pyroclasam ultimate is almost a guaranteed Ace is Amumu catches the whole team. Overall though, I find Brand less overpowered than heroes like Nocturne when he first came out. Not really my kind of hero, but with the free RP from Riot added to the blance RP that I have, I may just pick him up.

Yup. That's right free RP. Riot is giving away 350 RP for free to each player who logged in to the game in the last month to compensate for bad server performance of late. Thank you Riot!

Also looks like 2 new heroes are on the horizon! Rumble and the Monkey King!

Review: Shadow Era

I have been an avid Magic: The Gathering player for many a year, albeit casually. I started playing in the era of Ice Age and 4th Edition, whenIcy Manipulator and Zuran's Orb were awesome and when Shivan Dragons and Serra Angels were the top tier creatures. As such I have a great fondness for trading card games in general. When a friend of mine introduced me to Shadow Era, a browser based trading card game built on the Unity Player, a few months back, it was with much anticipation that I checked it out. I have to say I was a bit disappointed, though the making of a good game was in place, there were still many missing pieces. Certain abilities did not work yet and there were cards that worked with other cards that didn't exist. Needless to say I was not a happy camper.



Recently however, it was brought to my attention that with the latest patches, many of the issues I had with the game previously had been addressed. As such I paid it a visit again and as they say the second time's a charm. The game is more akin to the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game than Magic: The Gathering, borrowing many concepts from Blizzard's TCG option. Each player has a deck which must have a minimum of 30 cards, one of which must be their Hero. There is no upper limit to deck sizes. There are also no "resource" cards or "land" cards ala MTG. Instead a player can choose to sacrifice one of the cards in their hand to add to their resource pool at the beginning of each turn.

There are two factions in the game, Human and Shadow, and the cards in your deck must correspond to the right faction and type your hero is. Heroes gather shadow energy every turn, which some heroes, like Zaladar above, can use to activate abilities. There are a slew of cards which you can add into your deck of which the most popular are allies.



Ally cards are the creatures of the game. They are the ones you will be using to do most of the attacking. They can attack either the opposing hero or other allies. The attacker always deals damage first and if the defending creature is still alive, it gets to retaliate. Allies come in all shapes and sizes and have quite a number of diverse abilities. One ability of note is Defender. An ally with Defender can intercept attacks meant for heroes, taking the damage in their stead. Normally heroes just have to suck up the damage when attacked. Unfortunately as of now, there are no creatures with Defender in game that I know of. There is however an Ability card that grants an ally Defender.



Next come the Ability cards. These cards are pretty much the spell cards in the game. There are abilities that work immediately, while there are others which have the Ongoing property, which means they remain in play continuously generating their effect.



Last but not least are the Item, Armour and Weapon cards. These cards are equipped to the hero and a hero can only have one Armour and Weapon equipped at all times. Items and Armours can provide a bunch of different effects and the benefits they provide can range from card advantage to powering up your allies. Weapons grant a interesting effect. They allow your Hero to attack. This is very good as it provides you a constant source of damage which cannot be easily removed.



Shadow Era is free to play, and has two in game currencies. Crystals and Gold. You gain Gold from winning duels, either against the AI or in PvP. You gain Crystals in small amounts in when you level and at certain milestones, but they can also be purchased with a real money. Gold is the medium of transaction for individual cards, while booster and pre-constructed decks must be purchased with Crystals.



Shadow Era is definately the best browser based TCG that I've seen in a while and I'd recommend you give it a try. Shadow Era can be played at http://shadowera.com and has an app available for the iPhone as well. So you can play it even while you are on the move. I'm looking forward to seeing the advances in this game.

Sushi Tei @ Tropicana City Mall

I haven't had Japanese food in awhile, and when my friend JL (who loves Japanese food) was back in town for her birthday, a few friends and I took the opportunity to try out Sushi Tei in Tropicana City Mall. We went there for lunch where by happenstance we bumped into another friend, which grew our little group from four to five.

Flipping through the menu, reminded me of the toughest decision I always have to make when sitting down for food, "What to order?". There was a pretty healthy selection on the menu which was also supplemented by a lunch set menu. I did however find their selection of beef options a little lacking and was a little disappointed as I was looking to go down that route.  I was tempted by a number of the standard options but decided to try something a little experimental and went for the Onsen Tamago, which is essentially a soft boiled egg in broth, to start, followed by a Kani Ikura Fried Rice.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="574" caption="Onsen Tamago"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="574" caption="Kani Ikura Fried Rice"][/caption]

The Onsen Tamago was nice. A perfectly cooked soft boiled egg in some broth. At RM2.50 it wasn't too expensive either. I really liked the Kani Ikura Fried Rice. It was basically garlic fried rice with crab meat, ikura (salmon roe), pickled vegetables and seaweed to top it off. Nice texture and the taste was great with the saltiness and moistness of the ikura complementing the rice. The pickled veggies would have been a star for someone who likes sour components which I am not, but  I liked that it wasn't too sour for me to finish them all. My main issue with the dish would be the use of crab sticks in the rice instead of actual crab meat, which was a major disappointment for me.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="574" caption="Okosama Sushi"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="574" caption="Tako Sushi"][/caption]

One of  our little group went for a full sushi meal ordered the Okosama Sushi and Tako Sushi. Lucky for The Foodie Gamer, she doesn't like ebiko and that little morsel found its way into my tummy. My friend really liked  the tako and was sorely tempted to order another, but discipline won out in the end.

The birthday girl as well as the rest of our group all went for the Unagi & Potato Bento Set which came with Cawan Mushi and soup. The quantity was quite substantial on the set and the potatoes which were similar to croquettes, with a soft mash potatoish inside and a crispy exterior was delicious. The Foodie Gamer did not manage to sample the other components of the dish but those who did certainly seemed to be enjoying it.

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="574" caption="Unagi & Bento Set"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="574" caption="Asama Sashimi"][/caption]

And what Japanese meal would be complete without Sashimi? We went for the Asama Sashimi set which featured three types of fish; Salmon, Tuna and Hamachi in quantities of three, four or five slices. We as you can see went for the five slices. The fish was fresh and the slices were cut thick, and in the case of the tuna slightly too thick. I am not complaining however. I love hamachi and I haven't had it in awhile so this was a real treat.

Then came dessert. Being adventurous we ordered the Nama Matcha Ice Cream and the Chocolate Wafer. This was definately a hit and a miss. The Chocolate Wafer was nice with the vanilla ice-cream with a chocolate center housed in a wafer. Too bad the wafer was not as crispy as we would have liked. The Nama Matcha Ice Cream, was a complete miss. Though the ice-cream itself was tasty, but the powdery outer coating tasted terrible and most at the table would not venture beyond a nibble. One of the group even wanted to spit it out.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="574" caption="Nama Matcha Ice-Cream"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="574" caption="Chocolate Wafer"][/caption]

Overall it was an enjoyable meal and a nice experience. Would definitely visit Sushi Tei again, only this time I'll skip the Nama Matcha Ice Cream.

Arista @ Tropicana City Mall, Petaling Jaya

These past few days have been sweltering and I for one am hoping that the weather will improve soon. I think my air-conditioner is even having problems keeping up with the heat. Just this past Sunday, a few friends and I popped by Tropicana City Mall for lunch after church.  While deciding where to eat, Arista Bar & Grill caught our eye. It had a series of set lunches and each only cost RM13 with the next one getting 50% off! We were sold!

I forgot to take a picture of the place, so I stole this off Google images.

The group of us trucked in and looked over the set lunch menu. You get a main, a drink and dessert for your set and it seems that the mains change from time to time. Staff was pretty prompt, and our orders were taken as soon as we were ready. Though there were quite a number of us, we didn't order all the choices on the set menu, instead preferring to go with a choice of the following, Mushroom Fried Rice, Mexican Chicken Chop, Pan Fried Dory Fish with Salsa and Turkey Ham Cream Sauce Pasta.

Pan Fried Dory Fish with Salsa - Tasty and Fresh

 

Mushroom Fried Rice - Didn't get to try this but my friend said it was alright.
Personally I would have preffered a runny yolk on that egg.

Turkey Ham Cream Sauce Pasta - Tasted Nice, and the flavour was good.

Mexican Chicken Chop

I ordered the Mexican Chicken Chop. First thing that came to my mind as I saw it was "There is no Mexican on this plate.". It looks like I pretty nicely breaded chicken chop and all, but there is nothing Mexican about this dish. The breading on the outside is nice and crispy but the inside is dry. Nothing juicy about this Mexican Chicken Chop at well, although the flavour wasn't too bad.

Dry Chicken!

With the mains out of the way, it was time for dessert!

Chocolate Cake with Coffee sauce

Nothing to shout about here. Cake tasted alright but was dry and had some red colour sauce (on the cake so you can't see it) on it which we couldn't  identify. Overall it came up to about RM10 each inclusive of tax and after discount. The experience was So-so over all and it wasn't exactly mind blowing food, but I think it was pretty worth it for the price.

LoL - Lee Sin is real!

It looks like it anyway. New "proper" champion spotlight has been released with the latest and highly anticipated League of Legends hero Lee Sin. Read more about it here.




Top Chef All-stars: Finale

==== WARNING!!! SPOILERS AHEAD. ====

So I've just finished watching the Top Chef All-Stars finale and all I can say is I wish I was there in the Bahamas to try all that awesome food with them. I'm not going to give  lengthy recap of the episode, so in short Mike and Richard get to set up their own restaurant and have to cook a four course meal for the diners. Tiffany Faisson, Carla and Jamie were the sous chefs for Mike, while Richard got Spike, Angelo and Antonia (I was a little bummed that Fabio didn't get picked).  They both knocked it out of the park and the judges raved about dishes from both restaurants. However as they like to say, there can be only one winner.

Richard Blais is the new TOP CHEF! A worthy winner I believe. Was rooting for him all the way after Fabio was eliminated and he did not let me down. Woo Hoo! You can read Gail Simmon's thoughts on the finale here.

LoL - Champion Rotation: S1 (Week 38) and Lee Sin

So it's that time of the week again, the League of Legends free champions line up has rotated. You can see the original post here. This week we have the following champions available for free play:

• Ashe


• Blitzcrank


• Heimerdinger


• Rammus


• Singed


• Twitch


• Veigar


• Poppy


• Karma


• Nocturne

This is a pretty diverse line up. We have 2 Carries (Ashe, Twitch), 3 Mages (Heimerdinger, Veigar, Karma), 1 Assassin (Nocturne) and an assortment of tanks (Blitzcrank, Rammus, Singed, Poppy). So a pretty diverse line up. Keep in mind however that these categories are just general ones, and many of the characters can easily fit into other roles, ie AP Blitzcrank or Tanky Nocturne.

It seems that Riot's trend of putting their latest hero into the free champion line up a few weeks after the initial release continues, with Nocturne appearing. I personally think it is a good idea on their part as it allows the more cautious players to try out the heroes before purchasing them.

So what does this line up mean for the player base? Well brace yourselves for a slew of Twitch and Nocturne feeding, at least in the first few days. Many players who have seen how devastating these characters can be but have not played the characters themselves will try to emulate but will probably fail spectacularly in their first few initial tries. Both Twitch and Nocturne need a fair bit of skill to get right and are deceptively hard to play. Most Twitch builds are glass cannons and timing is key when using Paranoia, Nocturne's ultimate.

Other potential trip ups could be the tanks. All four can be tricky to use especially since quite a number of players these day's just want to kill without thinking about the needs of the team. Way too many players who should have tanked have gone Full AP or Full DPS and caused the whole team to collapse spectacularly. All roles are important people. If you are the only tanky character on your team, you need to tank!

Not much to say about the other characters. Heimerdinger will be nice to have on your team, as a good one will do wonders for your push. Veigar can be a pain and I have yet to see a good Karma player. Maybe this week I'll bump into one, hopefully on my team :D.



So this is a day late, but if you haven't seen this already please watch it. It is hilarious. This "new" hero Lee Sin is the center of the LoL April's Fool speculation. The negative feedback to this Riot troll is amazing, with Riot having to actually inject +9999 upvotes into the discussion thread to keep it alive. I personally think people are taking this way too seriously. We are supposed to "Expect the Unexpected" this April's Fool and so the jury is still out on if Lee Sin is real or what the joke will be but here are some of the theories thrown out so far:

• Lee Sin is fake! You've been trolled


• Like poor Urf, Lee Sin will die on April's 1st and Warwick will get a new Lee Sin skin


• Lee Sin is real since Riot is working so hard to make him seem like a fake


• Lee Sin is fake and Urf will be released instead


• Both Lee Sin and Urf will be realeased

What ever it is I'm sure we'll all have a good laugh this Friday. To see the original Champion Spotlight post click here.

Nasi Tendon (Beef Tendon Rice) @ William's Corner

Well I popped by William's Corner in Taman Mayang, Petaling Jaya last night for a bite. I had just finished BSF and hadn't had dinner just yet so as you can imagine I was ravenous. I met up with a few pals there at about 10pm and proceeded to order some drinks, of which I had the "Peach Blended". Which is basically an Ice Blended Peach drink with lychees and nata de coco thrown in.  I was one of the few of the group that night who was eating, and I decided to go with a dish that William (the owner), had recommended me the last time I was there, "Nasi Tendon" or Beef Tendon Rice.  So after a few minutes of chatting the dish in question arrived.

Looks delicious doesn't it?

It was a hearty plate of fried rice with different cuts of beef, beef meatballs and tendon. It was very tasty. As a lover of offal and other animal parts, I was glad to find the tendon firm but not chewy and really a joy to eat. It was seasoned nicely and the portion was quite sizable. It will easily fill most diners by itself. Alas that was not all arrived....

Apparently the Nasi Tendon comes along with a huge bowl of "Sup Daging" or Beef Soup. The soup was tasty, heavily spiced as are most mamak soups, though a tad on the salty side. It was filled with more of the same goodness that could be found in the Nasi Tendon. Delicious as it was though, I have to say I was defeated by the shear quantity and had to "ta pau"! My plan is to cook some instant noodles in that soup for a nice breakfast or dinner.

The meal inclusive of drink set me back RM39, with the "Nasi Tendon" and "Sup Daging" making up about RM30 of that. Well worth it in my book, especially as there was enough there to feed 2 people. One thing I can never fault William's for are their portions. Not the cheapest joint and not much for ambiance but the food makes up for it!