TRIBIC GAMING MAGAZINE - Premier Issue

FEBRUARY

THIS ISSUE HIGHLIGHT

Interview with Mass Luminosity & Gaming Tribe President And Ceo Mr. Angel Munoz Courtesy Shashwat Pradhan

Features and Articles PC Tech

By Nathan Davis AUDIO & TECH

By Rheannzell Febru Ibale Game Reviews Dylan Goelz: Brawlhalla Beta Alejandro Soto: Transistor Francis Ronald Aguilar: DA: I ANIME CORNER

By Alexandros Kaziakos

Plus: Letter from our Interim Editor and Fun stuff from our Community and Much More!

THE G CREW

A Message From Our Editor

NATHAN DAVIS

Hello GTribers!

Welcome to the first Issue of TRIBIC, Gaming Tribe's magazine made by Gtribers FOR Gtribers! I know you TECHNOLOGY COLUMNIST RHEANNZELL FEBRU IBALE

AUDIO & TECH COLUMNIST FRANCIS RONALD AGUILAR

all want to rush in and read the wonderful articles we have prepared for you, so I will make this short. TRIBIC was an idea first envisioned by me, but it was really brought to light thanks to the support all of the team gave me; if it wasn't for them, there wouldn't be TRIBIC today. So I would like to personally thank the members who worked in the staff, Nathan, Rheannzell, Francis, Dylan, Alejandra, Mark, Santiago and I would like to give a personal shout out to my very good friend and the co-lead of TRIBIC, Mark Albiar. This man worked day in and night to prepare this and made the magazine THIS bloody awesome.

So for TRIBIC: Premier Issue, we have prepared a variety of articles for you and behalf of the team, I would like to thank you for reading them! All of them took many re-fixes to get published, to ensure that we bring the best quality to you guys. Lastly, I want to thank Gaming Tribe and Angel Munoz for creating AND maintaining such a great community; TRIBIC is our way of saying thanks. Now, I am done rambling! Go on and enjoy GTribe's ONLY OFFICIAL magazine!

-Alexandros Kaziakos

TABLE OF CONTENTS GAME REVIEWER DYLAN GOELZ

TRIBIC TALK: COMMUNITY DISCUSSIONS Gtribe NEWS DESK: GAME SOUNDS:

Our Audio Columnist Checks out the Soundtrack from the Game BATTLEFIELD !

GAME REVIEWER ALEJANDRA SOTO

TGM TECH: Our Tech Columnist Compares the Best of Budget GPU’s for the Budget-Conscience Gamer!

GAME REVIEW: Francis Ronald Aguilar reviews the PC game Dragon Age: Inquisition!

GAME REVIEWER SANTIAGO ACTIS

GAME REVIEW: Game reviewer Alejandra Soto checks out the game Transistor!

GAME REVIEW:

Game Reviewer Dylan Goelz Provides a Review for the Game BRAWLHALLA! Have a Look!

COMPETITIONS ALEXANDROS KAZIAKOS

OLD but GOLD: The TGM Oldies PC Games Columnist Brings us Back with a Review of ZORK!

COMPETITIONS: ANIME CORNER MARK KRIJGSMAN

Our Competitions Editor Reviews the Championship Round of the LoL Tournament!

ANIME CORNER:

Our Anime Enthusiast Alex Kaziakos Reviews BAKUMAN - See What he Thinks of this Anime!

INTERVIEW WITH ANGEL: The Interview with Angel Munoz, Right Here, for You. OLD but GOLD COLUMNIST MARK ALBIAR

TribicGamingMagazine@gmail.com LEAD DESIGN & LAYOUT

NEWS DESK

TRIBIC TALK:

COMMUNITY DISCUSSIONS

THE HISTORY OF GAMING TRIBE - PART

Thank You Jose Ma. Jaime Evidente

It started with Mass Luminosity, Inc., an innovative social media company and a powerful initiator of global engagement and community experiences created Gaming Tribe on March , . It was on March , that Gaming Tribe’s Facebook page was officially launched with its first ever Facebook post.

Gaming Tribe started out as a Beta-released registration and authentication system for Mass Luminosity’s popular giveaways. It has its own Gaming Tribe Facebook application that was used to register and authenticate entries for the giveaways.

On May , , Mass Luminosity released Beta of Gaming Tribe further improving the social media experiences of gamers. As Mass Luminosity’s popularity grew beyond expectations in the following months, Gaming Tribe Beta continued to evolve along the way.

The increasing number of global participants for the popular giveaways caused server crashes several times and many Mass Luminosity fans accidentally missed the giveaways due to email issues, spam filters, Facebook feed overload and other peripheral factors. To address this growing concern, the Mass Luminosity team developed a free PC application software called Gaming Tribe Alert System on March , .

WHAT TRIBERS ARE TALKING ABOUT: Here is the latest batch of Popular Hash-Tags used on Gaming Tribe: #gtribers #showmydesktop #gameon #gamingtribe #massluminosity #gtribe #friends #hardware #pc #showmeyourdesktop #sharing #gaming #dota #ces #razer #farcry #wow #coolermaster #geek #elitedangerous #steam #ram #worldofwarcraft #overclock #bf

Cool Posts by Members:

The GT Alert System app version . was a proprietary notification system that bypasses Twitter, Facebook and even mail and was the first version to be released to the general public after being beta tested by community members over a month period. It quietly sits on the Windows system tray and notifies the user only when there is a new giveaway notice.

Sometime in June , The Gaming Tribe Giveaway App was officially approved by Facebook. It became the world’s top suggested app! A share feature was later on added to it on July , .

By Gaming Tribe will have its own exclusive social media network community and the start of the Exodus.

The improvements to Gaming Tribe are awesome! I just realized such improvements as the Leaderboard (I'm # in popularity for the week ) as well as the games Leaderboard.

Very nice. A big thank you to those who are putting in their talents and efforts into this site every day!

-Edgar Camama

Game on! (To be continued - next issue!)

New features to the Gaming Tribe Leaderboard! www.gtri.be/leaderboard ) On the Personal Rankings (Popularity, Friendships & Activity) we've increased the number of ranked members from to . ) We've also added a new category between the Personal and Page Rankings, named "Games". This new category ranks which games have the most amount of GTribe fans.

NOTE: If you want to become a fan of your favorite game, search for the title at www.gtri.be/search//games/ and click the "Like" button on the game's page. ) We've also added another new category named "Covers." This one ranks the GT Pages with the most amount of Cover subscriptions.

To select a cover go to the Profile Edit Page at www.gamingtribe.com/edit/ and scroll down to the Favorites section.

Now select your favorite sponsor and your favorite Page cover. Once you save the new settings the cover will display on your Gaming Tribe profile page.

Did you know in , PC games were released? X more than any other platform. ( - Sony PS & - Xbox) -Christopher McCarthy

SOUNDTRACKS

GAME MUSIC BATTLEFIELD SOUNDTRACK REVIEW - By Rheannzell Febru Ibale

H

ello and welcome to the Soundtracks Review! For our very first review ever we have Battlefield under the limelight. When Battlefield was released by Electronic Arts on October , it was in a state that many players called “broken”, the most notable issue being many players not able to play multiplayer. These issues were so significant that some even took legal action against EA. Dice, the game studio responsible for BF development, was quick to roll out patches and updates, spanning only weeks apart that included many fixes and game balancing improvements and even went as far as putting all other major projects on hold to focus their entire manpower on fixing the game’s issues.

Despite the game having a very rough start, the number of players steadily rose after the implementation of fixes and improvements with the majority of the players playing on the console version of the game. With the introductions done, let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Battlefield ’s Original Soundtrack was released to iTunes and Amazon on November , . There are a total of tracks that fall under the electronic and ambient genre. Most of the tracks were produced and composed by Johan Skugge, a Swedish musician, and Jukka Rintamäki, a Swedish Finnish musician, both of whom also composed the soundtracks for Battlefield .

The “Warsaw” theme was the only track of the OST to be produced by Rami Yacoub, also known as “Rami”, a Swedish music producer that has worked with numerous successful acts in the music industry. In addition to the tracks that were released as the Battlefield OST, one track called “Hannah’s Theme”, that did not appear on the final version of the OST, was leaked on youtube.com on March , not much is known about why the song was cut in the first place. Most of the time when we talk about electronic music we think of high-energy pop-like music that are generally in a happy or bubbly mood, the composers however did the exact opposite.

They chose to make the music feel depressing and tense, and it fits the general plot which is about war and the casualties that it brings. During the single player campaign the soundtracks add a general ominous atmosphere to the game, heightening the level of immersion for the players as well as adding to the emotions during cut scenes so they can be felt more clearly.

Adding to the immersion, the atmosphere also makes players stay on their tiptoes as it brings a level of “things are going to hit the fan real soon” feel to the single player campaign (a tank spawning on an area you swore was clear a second ago anyone?). The feelings conveyed by the soundtracks almost seem to be an anti-war message that has been intertwined with the rage and anger of a game about simulating war.

Multiplayer however, is a different story, you only get to hear the soundtracks when loading a map and after finishing the game, in between those two events however, the ballad of gunfire and a symphony of explosions fill the otherwise music less atmosphere. If I were to choose which of the soundtracks to play during multiplayer, it would have to be the “Warsaw Theme”. This track just makes you feel like a super soldier in a super team, imagine a team of competent players that actually work together, making the best use of the various available land, water, and air vehicles to increase their advantage and utterly crush and dominate the opposing team (one can always dream right?).

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SOUNDTRACKS

GAME MUSIC

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So how did loyal fans of the Battlefield series respond to the new OST? Fans responded to the new OST with mixed opinions, on one side a good amount of fans love the new OST because it fits the game, and on the other side an overwhelming amount of players did not take a liking to the new soundtracks for reasons such as: Battlefield is heading towards the same direction as COD with their music and that and that previous versions of Battlefield such as Battlefield Bad Company , Battlefield , Battlefield , Battlefield and all have a better sounding OST. Out of curiosity I decided to listen to Battlefield ’s main theme in order to compare it, and in all honesty I like the new Battlefield theme. Battlefield ’s theme is like the more intense version of Battlefield ’s theme, and if they could bring that same level of intensity using the techniques used to produce the OST of Battlefield , then I would personally be golden.

At the end of the day, the composers achieved in making the OST fit well with the plot of the game and earned a rating of / from me because the tracks do get a bit repetitive and because multiplayer needs more music. If I had to choose favourites from the OST I would choose the “Warsaw Theme” for being the perfect music to achieve a - Kill Death Ratio, and “A Theme for Kjell”, this track is dedicated to a fallen DICE programmer named Kjell Reuterswärd, and I find it very serene and sad (*sigh* I might have a thing for emotional stuff...). That is all for this month’s Soundtrack review section, I hope you enjoyed reading!

Sources: http://www.gamespot.com/articles/class-action-lawsuit-commenced-over-buggy-battlefield- -ea-callsit-meritless-update/ / http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ battlefield-

- -

-dice-has-halted-future-projects-while-it-fixes-

http://bf stats.com/ http://battlefield.wikia.com/wiki/Battlefield_ :_Original_Soundtrack http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johan_Skugge http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jukka_Rintam%C %A ki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rami_Yacoubthe main duo. http://youtu.be/v qo n xyeA?list=PLstXdGXEYegfXGOvf J HfFEOmovWuIz-

TGM TECH

By Nathan Davis

One of the most common questions I see posted around the GamingTribe community is "What graphics card should I get for my PC?" It's a deceptively simple question whose answer is often fraught with nuance and peril – and for good reason! The Graphics Processing Unit, or GPU, is the one component of our gaming PC's that most directly contributes to how good our games look and how well they play. For PC gamers on a budget, these issues become magnified by the fact that, while we don't have that much money spend, we want to maximize the graphics performance we get for that money!

Methods & Considerations In an ideal world, I would have the time and money to review and benchmark all the graphics cards on the market under US to determine which GPU's offer the best price to performance ratio. However, this being the real world, I thought it more realistic and helpful to our community to approach this comparison the same way most gamers do: by researching and comparing results from in-depth review sites, benchmarking sites, and pricing sites, while also bringing in some comparison tools of which our Gtriber community may not have been aware.

Since price is a significant factor for the gamer on a budget, I decided to divide the GPU's into three classes: EntryLevel (Under US), Budget ( - US), and Mainstream ( ), based on price data from GPUBoss.com, Logical Increments, and PCPartPicker.com. This helps account for price segmentation while also presenting a variety of GPU's. I also wanted to present options from both AMD and Nvidia in each budget category, discussing the pro's and con's of each option before crowning one card in each category as the winner.

FEATURED ARTICLE

Now that I've clarified how my decisions were made, let's see who wins!

Entry Level (Under US) In the first round, we have an interesting pair of entry-level gaming GPU's duking it out. AMD's entry is the Radeon R X, a re-badged version of the efficient Radeon HD GHz Edition. Its Oland-based graphics chip features GCN Cores clocked at GHz mated to GB of GDDR clocked at , MHz. At just under US for the XFX model pictured above, the R X brings some excellent value to the table; it has a nearly : ratio of performance to power, using just W to produce . FPS in Shadows of Morder at the p/Low Preset.

Its opponent is the Geforce GTX from Nvidia. It features a cut-down version of the GM chip found its sibling, the GTX Ti, and is based on the Maxwell architecture found in the series, but produced using a nm process. Its CUDA cores are clocked at , MHz and are fed by GB of GDDR clocked at , MHz. While the EVGA GTX SuperClocked model pictured is more expensive at a penny under US, it is capable of pushing . FPS in Shadow of Mordor while using only W, yielding a performance to power ratio of about .

FPS per watt! Both GPU's feature power-efficient architectures requiring so little power they don't even need an additional PCI-E plug. Both are capable of playing games at greater than FPS at Low detail settings. Both use a -bit memory bus, and demonstrate similar performance in both benchmarks and games. So, who is the victor in the Entry-Level GPU Showdown?

Winner: Nvidia Geforce GTX – It's a narrow victory, but the GTX higher performance per watt give it the edge in this showdown.

RADEON R7 250X

's superior power-efficiency and

GEFORCE GTX 750

WINNER

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TGM TECH ....CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

Budget ( US) I'll go ahead and admit: narrowing down this price bracket to just two GPU's was very difficult. There are at least a half-dozen different GPU's that fall in this price range, and all are good options depending on your needs.

Ultimately, it came down to considering which GPU's provide the best price-to-performance ratio, while also representing both AMD and Nvidia. Hence, our two contenders: the AMD Radeon R and the Nvidia Geforce GTX Ti. The AMD Radeon R is a re-tooling of the Radeon HD with a lower, W TDP and slightly lowered clock speeds, but similar performance. It still features the full Pitcairn graphics chip (renamed Curacao for the R series), meaning that it has the same , GCN Cores slightly downclocked to MHz (vs.

MHz for the ), but connected to , MB GDDR memory clocked at , MHz (vs. , MHz in the ). Its -bit memory bus gives the R a distinct advantage over its opponent. With a price to performance ratio of . US/FPS in Shadow of Mordor at the p/Medium Preset, and a performance to power ratio of . FPS per watt, the R is an excellent value proposition.

RADEON R9 270

GTX 750 ti

Nvidia, though, continues to excel at power efficiency, as evidenced by the GTX Ti, which produces . FPS in Shadow of Mordor at the p/Medium Preset while using only watts! It features the full GM graphics chip, granting it CUDA cores clocked at , MHz backed by , MB of , MHz GDDR memory. The GTX Ti does have an Achilles' heel in its -bit memory bus, which limits its memory bandwidth to . GB/s, less than half that of the R . While the EVGA GTX Ti SC is US cheaper than the Radeon R , its lower performance yields a price to performance ratio of . US/FPS. So, who is the victor in the Budget GPU Showdown?

Winner: AMD Radeon R - The R wins this round handily. Its % superior performance, despite using watts of power, combined with a wider memory bus that helps prevent bottlenecks, means the R provides more bang for the buck. Unless you need a GPU that consumes less than W, the R is the GPU to buy.

WINNER

LOOKING AHEAD...

Next issue Nathan checks out more hardware! Tune in for the Tech!

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TGM TECH ....CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

Mainstream ( US) Much like in the Budget Showdown, narrowing the field of contenders to just two took some work. While the choice from Nvidia was obvious, it was much less clear which AMD GPU should represent in the showdown. Two GPU's in particular featured near identical performance despite very different designs: the Radeon R and R . Being a budget showdown, price again the decision in favor of the R , though the R gets an "Honorable Mention."

The AMD Radeon R is very similar to the Radeon HD Boost Edition on which it is based. It features the Tahiti graphics chip with a single SM cluster deactivated, yielding , GCN Cores clocked at MHz with over GB of GDDR memory clocked to , MHz. With nearly teraflops of floating point performance, the Radeon R can handle large compute tasks just as easily as it can render game graphics. Its only real disadvantage is its W TDP, which means it will consume more power than its Nvidia rival. The strongest argument in favor of the Radeon R is its price; the XFX Double Dissipation model shown above is available for only . US. That puts the R 's price to performance ratio as . US/FPS in Shadow of Mordor at p/Ultra.

FEATURED ARTICLE

Nvidia's Geforce GTX comes with some surprises of its own. Based on the brand-new GM graphics chip on the Maxwell architecture, the card is clocked at an extremely fast , MHz on the , CUDA cores with GB of GDDR memory clocked to a blistering , MHz! While the GTX 's memory bus is only -bit, it is still capable of over . teraflops, though memory is limited to GB/s. The GTX 's most impressive feat is that it can do all this on only W of power, putting its performance to power ratio at . FPS/W. The key disadvantage of the GTX right now is that it's a new product, and suffers from having a new product price of . US. While that is an entirely reasonable price given its performance, it can't match the R 's value proposition.

Winner: AMD Radeon R - The R wins this round. Its similar performance to the GTX while costing US less on average means it is the better value right now. While Nvidia continues to do amazing things with its power-efficient products, their price remains too high to recommend unless you need that power efficiency for your build.

Well, there you have: three winners in three GPU showdowns. The Geforce GTX , Radeon R and R help you get your game on without completely emptying your wallet. They are the most Tribic GPU values for today. But, the GPU market is an ever-changing one, and rumor has it that AMD will soon release its -series GPU's beginning in March. Who knows what we will see in the near future? In the meantime, gear up and game one, Gtribers!

RADEON R9 280

GEFORCE GTX 960

WINNER

PC MASTER RACE

GAME REVIEW DA: INQUISITION - By Francis Ronald Aguilar

This Tolkien like saga has gone full scale this time, ditching the repetitive design maps and the flawed tale of mages and templars of Dragon Age with a more open world landscapes and stupendous amount of quests.

With Inquisition, players are tasks once again to save Thedas from a new burgeoning evil, laying the foundation of what a typical Bioware RPG has become, recruit your allies, explore regions across, and build trusts among members.

Mages and Templars, two massive forces that has been a staple of the Dragon Age Saga continues its ongoing rivalry, throwing you as the Inquisitor to end the conflict, but it's just the tip of the iceberg. Demons from the Fade are summoned and scattered all across the regions, and it's your tasks as the Inquisitor to close the so called rifts. The game wastes no time in throwing you into its world, much like other rpg's where you start with a fresh character and unable to do much, I never expected to come across a boss battle just moments after the prologue.

The moment my Inquisitor wakes up from Haven, things get a little more exciting. I was never amazed this much on a home base as much as what Inquisition has to offer. Its large vast areas are truly to behold. Haven, one of two home bases you'll get to hang with is already huge, with NPCs around to occupy the place. But it's how Bioware trusts you to a world so detailed and rich that just by reading notes or codex already makes up for a worthwhile stay. Much like Kirkwall before it, Inquisition's home base also offers some neat side-quests, while some can be bit annoying like the never ending fetch for herbs and recipes, its characters are what makes the game more enjoyable. You'll get to meet some familiar faces from the previous titles, Leliana, a bard who works her way to the top of the rankings is simply adorable and as always likeable.

The battle system strives to innovate this time. Dragon age was praised for this because it delivers a truly action oriented style of gameplay as oppose to Origins' more tactical and slow pace combat. Here, switching from tactical view offers a unique way of how you handle your enemies. It lets you take advantage of the camera view by either moving the mouse or turning left to right.

The larger than life regions across Thedas are what makes up most of my time playing with it. I enjoyed navigating from one place to another, feels like every place has something new to offer. While this is true, Inquisition's greatest weakness is that it doesn't really know what it wants you to do on those huge open world areas. What makes up most of my time in these regions are fetching herbs and recipes, or doing sidequests that gets to repetitive as you progress. Thedas is huge, a lot of things to do but sadly those overflowing quests are somewhat too many for you to care about. Why would I want to escort a lost Druffalo back to his owner?, while doing so grants you "power", in order to unlock quests or new places, these little sidequests just doesn't fit my style of play.

Dragon Age Inquisition is truly a next gen role playing game. Graphics aside, its nothing short of spectacular.

Frostbite engine's rendering makes every detail and environment come to life.

THE FINAL BREAKDOWN:

Overall score: out of G’S

PC MASTER RACE

GAME REVIEW TRANSISTOR REVIEW - By Alejandra Soto

I want to start this article by saying "Thank you", SuperGiant Games. Because following your award winning success debut Bastion, you made this. You set out to surpass your previous milestone and deliver yet another title worthy of praise. That being said, lets talk about Transistor. A game set in a technocratic and musical dystopya. Our main character Red, has been attacked with the great sword Transistor. The blade intended for her missed and instead killed the man trying to protect her. The soul of this man is now trapped inside the blade, as well as Red's voice. And so begins Transistor.

Starring Red, an enchanting songstress (and part-time freedom fighter) who must battle against The Process, an evil robotic force commanded by highly ranked bullies: The Camerata. Transistor is a game that has a lot to offer to future tactical RPGs. Its dynamic, turn-based, time constrained mechanics suggests a world of possibilities for emerging gameplay design styles (battle arena + tactical TBS mechanics + teams… ya' feel me?).

Challenge is a core element of Transistor's immersive qualities and the game provides you with plenty.

This introduces great concepts like "limitators": Advantages you can freely provide to your enemies in exchange for additional experience points. There are also in-game challenges you can complete to practice more efficient and effective combat strategies and gain extra experience points. Transistor exudes artistry in every aspect of the game. While gameplay is challenging and innovative; music, art and writing (along with voice acting) are equally polished.

There is no Transistor without music and I don't say this lightly. It's a key part of its charm (and its wit). The lullaby-ish humming and melancholic tunes just add to the game's appeal and add the humanizing touches to an already passionate game. The sound design is neatly crowned with Logan Cunningham's amazing voice acting.

Transistor has won several awards including Best Downloadable Game in the Game Critics Awards, Best Indie Game in Electric Playground, amongst many others who ranked it among The Best of E .

However, there are a couple of issues with this game: mechanics are a bit hard to master. They can pose a threat to gamers not used to isometric view games with a keyboard and there is a slight ( or . second) delay between you issuing the command and the character actually moving. It doesn't take much to figure it out though and it shouldn't stop you from enjoying the game.

THE FINAL BREAKDOWN:

Overall score: / out of G’S

PC MASTER RACE

GAME REVIEW BRAWLHALLA (BETA) REVIEW - By Dylan Goelz POW, CRASH, BOOM, Awwww %&

#*, Crowd Cheers. This is Brawlhalla. As of recently most of my weeknight conversations have been influenced by this game. Anyway the game of which I am speaking of involves heart pounding action, string pulling story and above all else expletives muttered often; just kidding, all you do is murder your friends.

Brawlhalla a new game being currently developed by Blue Mammoth Games who is an independent developer based out of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Brawlhalla consists of action packed multiplayer PVP matches that currently are set to a max of people with no mention if this will be increased or not.

The gameplay is a lot like the popular Nintendo game series Super Smash Bros. This game is of course a D platform fighter perfect for breaking friendships and causing children to be rushed out of a room (in my case anyway because language can be foul) The game is simple enough to quickly apprehend and get into the ring with.

The game currently offers online matches, local matches both team and free for all, and several characters. Each character has different skins and several colors to choose from currently and there are several weapons also with customizable skin choices available. With several arenas, characters, customization options and real live people to play with this game has quickly become a favorite among the gaming group in which I participate. The game is of course still in beta but it is free to sign up at www.brawlhalla.com at which you just enter your email and they will release steam keys for the game in batches.(I got mine up) Once the game goes open beta it will be free to play for all.

hours after signing

Now for my opinion. Overall I have a high opinion of this game. It is visually pleasing, colorful and the animations are mostly smooth. The characters have variety and the gameplay is intoxicating. There are of course a few bugs involved as to be expected in any beta game. The skins are slightly expensive in my opinion but for a free game I cannot complain too much. All in all I would give this game out of Gs.

THE FINAL BREAKDOWN:

Overall score: out of G’S

OLD BUT GOLD ZORK Series - By Mark Krijgsman Trilogy - Made by Tim Anderson, Marc Blank, Bruce Daniels and Dave Lebling | 1977 (PDP-10) (This was an unfinished version of Zork on MIT computers) | 1980 (Zork I) | 1981 (Zork II) | 1982 (Zork III)

THEM GOOD OL’ DAYS

Back in the dark days before graphic heavy gaming there was a genre in games that was exclusive on the Computer. It was a niche genre that did pave they way for a lot of things we have today, in a smaller extend off course. These game were all about exploration, problem solving, the story and most of all a certain freedom of choice. Some of you might remember the "make your own story" books from when they were young these books gave you the same certain freedom of choices these games gave you, In order to get to the true ending of the book you had to follow a certain way, but you were free to deviate from that path which would result in an untimely end or not the end you wanted your adventure to have. What genre am i talking about ? Well..Text Adventures. Before these games were created most of the games were more action oriented arcade style games.

The reason Zork: The Great Underground Empire is this month's Old but Gold is because what this game brought to the table of text adventures, and even though it might be an ancient game by today's standards it is still a great game to play.

In Zork you basically play yourself, you find yourself standing in front of a small white house and that is all you know, no intro videos or explanations, no, you are just in front of this small white house with out any idea how you got there or what to do next. So what do you do ? You start exploring and investigating.

You navigate the world of zork by the 4 main directions, north, east, south and west. What also made Zork a great game was that it was not limited to simple text parsing like "hit troll" but had a genuine Sophisticated Text parser that would allow more detailed action "hit troll with glowing rock". In the Zork games, the player is not limited to verb-noun commands, such as "take lamp", "open mailbox", and so forth. Instead, the parser supports more sophisticated sentences such as "put the lamp and sword in the case", "look under the rug", etc.. The game understands many common verbs, including "take", "drop", "examine", and many more. The games also support commands to the game directly.

While the three games are one story the games are different from each other. Zork I is an adventure game where you collect treasures, battle some enemies and solve puzzles. The second game was more a straight forward treasure hunt. The third game had a timed event , something that could lock you out from getting to the end of the game, so players should have to think carefully what they would do when, something that could have lead several players to madness trying to figure out how to get past that point.

The game is still a good game because it does not hold your hand along the way It punishes you with not being able to get the end if you made some wrong choices, but provided you with the freedom to make those mistakes instead of making you go game over when you slashed the Egg instead of boiling it, etc.

You have to realize this was before the internet and game magazines, so if you wanted to know how to get past something or get something you had to find people who also played the game and talk with them or play again and try to do it diffrently. It gave you a sence of accomplisment when you got past a difficult puzzle or when you realized something you had previously not done that did get you further.

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OLD BUT GOLD Not everybody will like this and the effect of no internet is lost with all the maps one can find and all the hints one can find online and this makes Zork at times a little more forgiving then it was back in the day of its release.

Zork spawned several Sequels from this original one game trilogy with some excelent and genuinly funny FMV Adventures in the 90's

THEM GOOD OL’ DAYS

Personal thoughts.

The text versions of the game series aged rather well even so well there are mobile versions of the game. The games are a lot of fun to play and experiment with. If you decide to give these games a try then dont look up the maps online or a walkthrough and just play it like back in the day.

Pro's No graphics to look outdated all the images are inside of your head.

Lots of exploration The lack of hand holding leads to nice experimentation The sophisticated text parser makes it more deeper then other text games.

Has been released on mobile so you can play it on the go.

The difficulty will make solving a puzzle in the first game a reward on its own.

Con's Being unable to finish the third game due to the timed objective can be frustrating.

It is not always clear what you are supposed to do.

No graphics means people who are not visual minded will have less fun then those who are.

The dificulty can be steep if you dont know what you are doing.

The lack of a map can be very confusing.

There is no soundtrack what so ever

THE FINAL BREAKDOWN:

Overall score: out of G’S

TOURNAMENTS AND COMPETITIONS

By Santiago Actis

The last thing everybody saw, was the second time a player who does not play mid-lane, getting an MVP prize – at Worlds – in his own country – after winning the final.

The domination of the Korean LoL's Champion League comes from 2 years back (taking into account that we're now on 2015), when the most dominant team was the 5 star all-around beasts that were SKT Telecom T1. When 2013 ended, with not a slight edge for other teams, the Koreans were already known by their amazing rotations, jaw-dropping mechanics, and of course that non-human mid-laner "Faker". Well, that time passed, and came 2014, with which a new powerhouse began to grow in Korea.

COMPETITIONS

That basically settled everything for 2014 Worlds Championship, SKT left behind, couldn't even make it into playing the tournament, leaving Samsung Blue and White, and NaJin White Shield to represent the Champions League.

But not everything is Korean, as we may well know. The Chinese were coming back, to make another stand in the main stage. It was once again Star Horn Royal Club, with only Uzi remaining from the other Worlds, to meet up with the Koreans, and well, if you don't know how that ended up, I suggest you Google that 4 matched Final.

What to say about NA and EU? Well you may say that both scenes have grown. The inclusion of coaches and analyst made them start to watch the game beyond the players' talent, and start focusing on a more objective-control style, mostly on EU. Alliance and Roccat were the teams that would show an interesting predisposition to take control over the objectives (wards and zoning), while Fnatic remained to be that team that has nothing to show (except maybe in the midlane) until the team-fighting arrives.

On NA, Cloud 9's dominant performances (with minor slip-backs), in my humble opinion, were the result of a playstyle similar to the EU's one, objective control mind-set. If we add to that, that the team is the one with the longer time holding 5 players in the same roster, and that neither of them players is simply BAD at the game, you get a win-win-win combination, EXCEPT on the play-off finals (bet that no one saw that one coming!).

On Worlds, EU was represented (poorly) by Alliance, Fnatic and SK (whose Svenskeren may be the cause for them not coming through group stage), and NA's TSM (winner of the playoffs), Cloud9 and LMQ (which was the monster puppy that the Challenger scene brought).

Worlds for EU was… well, pretty much disappointing. But for NA, reaching the Quarter-Finals was quite alright, besides, both teams (TSM and Cloud9) would face the Koreans powerhouse sister team's from Samsung.

On the next article: What will the 2015 bring? Roster changes and Korean migration.

SHOWS AND MOVIES

ANIME CORNER BAKUMAN REVIEW - By Alexandros Kaziakos

TRIBIC's first ever Anime Corner finds itself presenting Bakuman, a very popular anime that aired in seasons, the first airing in . The last episode was broadcasted on March , . The creators, Tsugumi Ohba (story) and Takeshi Obata (art) are the same combo that created one of the most highly appraised works ever, Death Note.

The plot is about two teenage boys, Mashiro Moritaka and Takagi Akito, who aim to become mangaka and live through manga, with Mashiro as the artist and Takagi as the writer. Tsugumi and Takeshi admitted that they loosely based that on their own relationship, but the characters turned out to be rather different from their counterparts!

After Takagi invites Mashiro to work with him and create a manga work of their own, the later finds himself unwilling to do so; his late uncle was also a mangaka and he seemed to think that it was his work that lead to his death. However, through Akito he talks with Azuki Miho, the girl he had been in love with since he was a kid and finds out that she aims to become a voice actor. Mashiro and Akito both offer Azuki the lead role of their heroine, if their work ever becomes an anime. Mashiro however, adds a condition to that offer; in the case that this comes true, he asks Azuki to marry him!

Shocked but happy, Azuki agrees to this but asks that she and Mashiro should not meet until their dream comes true and only encourage themselves through mails. Thus begins the story of Bakuman, as Mashiro and Takagi enter the vast world of manga and strive to create a work worthy of becoming a masterpiece.

My personal opinion about Bakuman is that it's a great anime with a great story, but unfortunately rather weak characters; you can't relate to them very well. Mashiro is the shy kid who can't even look at Azuki without having a heart attack and Takagi is getting pushed around a lot. As the story progresses, this gradually becomes better but not to the point where you can sympathize with the characters. However, the concept of showing the steps of how a manga is created, alongside with the usage of some of the most dominant titles in the history of manga definitely helps with the story. They manage to bring the shounen in a story without flashy battles and aliens, but instead the struggle inside the manga world, where artists come and go and it's hard to keep a series running and even harder creating a story that is able to become an anime series.

The animation and art is clean and bright and very detailed; as one would expect from the creator of Death Note. Since the setting is in the real world, they couldn't go overboard, but it's true that the backgrounds turn to be rather plain after a while. Also, quite a few mistakes can be spotted if you watch carefully (or in my care, rerun it for the fourth time!) What sets this anime apart in my opinion is the voice cast; they brought life to the characters and they even managed to overshadow many of their drawbacks; this is especially true for the main duo.

THE FINAL BREAKDOWN: Art: /

| Story: /

| Characters: /

| Voice Cast: /

| Sound: /

Overall score: out of G’S

Originally Posted on Gaming Tribe

by Angel Munoz

Over , members have completed our rigorous veriďŹ cation process and received a veriďŹ ed network badge, unlocked photo uploading and are entered into special promotions.

The top

countries with the most VERIFIED members are:

) United States ) Philippines ) Canada ) United Kingdom ) India ) Italy ) Romania ) Greece

) Indonesia ) Germany ) Netherlands ) Pakistan ) Croatia ) Serbia ) Australia

THE INTERVIEW

WITH ANGEL MUNOZ

Interview with Angel Munoz, Founder and CEO of Mass Luminosity - By Shashwat Pradhan (Date Unknown) . With the Mass Luminosity community getting their hands on revolutionary technology like Gaming Tribe. How do you see Mass Luminosity utilizing new technology in the future?

We have two primary goals at Mass Luminosity in reference to our software development: a. Make the experience faster and easier for our general audience & b. Enhance interaction with (and between) our hardcore fans. We’re currently putting the final touches on our GT Giveaway Facebook app (https://apps.facebook.com/gtgiveawayapp/). This app enhances the functionalities we initiated with Gaming Tribe and merges our robust interactive system with our large Facebook audience. Entering our giveaways and promotions will be much faster and simpler, the app will work from mobile devices and tablets and our users will be notified directly on their Facebook pages when Mass Luminosity launches a promotion. . With the PlayStation moving to X architecture (Same processor architecture as used by Pcs), will the PC (Generally superior in quality) vs. Console game quality gap reduce as well?

I’m excited that AMD technology is now at the core of the new PS ; but I still believe that the entire concept of a closed gaming box in an era of exponential technological development is not very prescient. The quality gap between PC and console will close for a few months after the PS launches, but then PC’s will take off again. That’s why I think that we are moving into a new era of PC gaming. PCs are an open system that a user can upgrade as needed, and it’s the only reasonable alternative to address the accelerating advancement in technology. Of course, I also understand that consoles are simple, generally appealing to a younger audience, and certainly have a place in the gamer experience.

GAMING TRIBE

. What impact do you think the exponentially growing indie game developers; have on the game ecosystem in general?

Indie developers are critical to the entire industry because they introduce fresh ideas and offer unique experiences to gamers. Although Mass Luminosity currently has been representing AAA gaming titles, we are developing a number of cutting-edge partnerships with indie game developers. That’s really all we can say at this time… :) . With a massive community size, Mass Luminosity is the best place to get an idea of all new gaming/technology trends.

What new upcoming trends do you see going big?

I think it’s easy to lose perspective by focusing exclusively on technology when something a lot more significant is taking place right before our eyes. What we’ve discovered, as the Mass Luminosity community races to , , members, is that gamers from all over the world have a strong desire to connect with each other and transcend the barriers of race, gender, age, etc. We are excited that Mass Luminosity has become one of the fastest growing gaming communities in social media, and that we have such a rewarding relationship with our fans. We want to enhance this trend with technologies that connect us in new and unique ways, and we see a near future in which the Mass Luminosity community gains strength and influence worldwide. . What other technology is Mass Luminosity developing to enhance its interaction with its fans?

In addition to the GT Giveaway Facebook app, we are also finalizing a notification app (GT Notification App) that sits in the user’s Windows system tray, allowing us to send direct messages to our fan’s desktops when we launch one of our global promotions. It also supports one-click entry to our giveaways. We’ve had this software in development for several months and about of our fans have helped us with valuable feedback during the beta test. The next version, which we will release in a few weeks, should be ready for the general audience after a brief private testing period.

I’m simply not a fan of email for time-sensitive communication, therefore we’re pursuing unique methods to end that dependency and in the process create more effective ways to interact with our global community of gamers and technology enthusiasts.

Did you know?

Mass Luminosity donates at least two percent of its gross retail revenue to select charities assisting people in need across the globe.

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