Ranting about Windows and Linux

This is the list of software that I use and they don't come all in the same OS therefore renders me incapable of using only one OS.

For browsing I use Opera and Firefox. Both come on windows and linux.

For IM I use WLM and Empathy. WLM is pretty but bloated, comes only for M$. Empathy is very simplistic but comes only for Linux.

For Media Players I use SMPlayer and Windows Cinema Classic. SMplayer comes for both but I'd really like just to use Cinema Classic which is only for windows.

For Music I use Foobar2000 and Audacious. I wish I could just use Foobar but it only comes for windows. Therefore I have to use audacious on linux. With Foobar I can use the Now Playing status message on WLM, with audacious there are Pidgin plugins but they don't work. Also I don't use Pidgin, I use empathy.

Office Suite I don't give a crap. Anything works for me.

Games: StarCraft, StarCraft 2, Warcraft3, Counter Strike 1.6, Diablo 2. They run only on windows xp and only SC2, WC3 and CS run on Windows 7. Linux has no cool, stable games.

I use Gimp and Inkscape. They work well on both OS.

I use GuitarPro, Reason, Amplitube, Sonar. GuitarPro latest release was also ported to linux but for the others there must be windows.

mp3tag is such a great tagger and renamer to be left out of linux. However there is Audio Tag Tool for linux but it is not good enough. For renamers there is pyrenamer (linux) and advanced renamer (win)

Sure we can all argue that viruses are common for windows and hard but not impossible for linux. I don't care about it much. But sure, I like that I feel secure with the penguin.

I like how gnome looks (gnome 2 that is). I hate how Windows looks. I hate all that transparent glassy sh!t. I am right now looking for packs to style up windows to match my taste. However M$ makes sure that it is hard for me to get it because otherwise people would start thinking windows is not that good. I am looking for Linux/Ubuntu packs. They are of course, resource hungry (just like most themes). Which takes me to my next point: native stuff that comes in linux that windows lacks (I tried to think of the opposite case but found none.)

With Linux I have several workspaces. With Windows I have one.

With Linux I have Compiz and a wide variety of cool, sometimes not so smooth effects. In Windows I have smooth but boring effects. I don't really effects other than the expo, ALT TAB with preview and the one in which all the open windows line up so that I can see them all at the same time but in miniature.

I MUST have one panel for menu's and launchers and another for the windows list and notifications. Windows only has one taskbar, with linux up to 4. Docks are too retarded and resource hungry.

I hate my life in which I have to choose one or another. The only that contents my heart for now is to have 2 pc's on. One running linux and one running windows 7, whilst I must keep my old laptop with windows xp for the days when I want to play starcraft and diablo 2.

Musical Chords, Part I

After a while of not posting anything...  guess I'll keep up with some music stuff.

A quick summary:
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• The major scale formula was:

Tone, Tone, Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semitone. Use it with any note and there you have that note's major scale.

• Also that we are going to name notes according to their distance with the tonic.  Meaning that in C major scale:

C is the tonic, D is C's second, E is C's third, F the fourth, G the fifth, A the sixth and B the seventh.

However, E is D's second. When calculating what one note means to another we evaluate within that note's major scale. When the note we have in one scale doesn't match exactly with what appears in the major scale we are measuring it against, we use the terms flat and sharp as well, or diminished and augmented depending the case.

In example,  in C major scale we have CDEFGAB.  Let's search for what type of third we can find for E within this scale: G is not E's third (third major) because in E's major scale we find that G# is E's major third.  This means that G is E's Minor Third, or ♭3.
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Now, a chord is more than one note played at the same time.  We have several types of chords depending on what type of notes we use (according to the tonic).  To understand how chords are made, we first had to understand what is a third, a fifth and an octave. That's the reason I included a summary regarding that.

So, to make a chord all you need is more that one note, meaning that with two we already have a chord. However we only use one type of interval when using only two notes, so many times instead of calling them chords we call them for what they are, be them fifths or seconds or thirds, whichever.  I'll start with one of these chords:

Power Chords
Silly name isn't it? Heh, well that's what many called them and are very used when playing rock, pop or whatever.  They have a simple sound but a powerful one. They wont evoke mysterious or complex sounds, but rather just a note with an enhanced power thanks to its fifth being added.

So a power chord is: Tonic + Fifth (of course, the tonic will always be present because it's the chord's name main note).
For example C, its fifth is G so the C Power Chord is: C + G (That's it!)
Another example; B: its fifth is..  F#. So B Power Chord is: B + F# (which means B doesn't have a power chord in C Major Scale because we don't have F# in that scale!!)

Major and Minor Chords
You probably have heard about some chords being major and other being minor.  In the power chords we added the fifth, which adds power to the sound but doesn't contributes with a real change in the chord's feel.  Now we are going to add the third.  That's the note that makes a chord either Major or Minor.

Let's add C it's 3rd. According to C's major scale E is C's 3rd.  We have now:
C + E + G       This is C Major chord, made by Tonic, 3rd and 5th.  We can also add another C one octave higher.

Moving along in the C major scale we have D.  Let's try to make a chord for D using a 3rd.  Within this scale we can find to use:
D + F + A   According to the D major scale, F is not D's 3rd, that would be F#. F is D's ♭3rd!! Which means this is a minor chord.

If we evaluate which chords are major and which are minor in C's major scale we have:

1. C has a major chord. (E is 3rd, G is 5th)
2. D has a minor chord. (F is ♭3rd, A is 5th)
3. E has a minor chord. (G is ♭3rd, B is 5th)
4. F has a major chord. (A is 3rd, C is 5th)
5. G has a major chord. (B is 3rd, D is 5th)
6. A has a minor chord. (C is ♭3rd, E is 5th)
7. B is a diminished chord. (D is ♭3rd, F is ♭5th)

Diminished chords are the ones which doesn't have a perfect 5th but have a minor third.  Such is the case of the seventh note in a major scale.

Since the major scale is a math formula, it doesn't matter which note's scale we use, the second note's chord will be minor, the third minor, fourth major and so on.  Let's try it the second easiest major scale, G's. We know (or at least should know) that G's major scale is GABCDEF#

1. G has a major chord. 
2. A has a minor chord. 
3. B has a minor chord. 
4. C has a major chord.
5. D has a major chord.
6. E has a minor chord. 
7. F# is a diminished chord. 

Tritone
There is one interesting thing about the diminished fifth that is worth mentioning, and that is that the ♭5th's ♭5th is the tonic.  Now that must be confusing to read, but let's try to clear it out.

With A this time (to change it a bit)
A's ♭5th is E♭.  AND E♭'s ♭5th is A.

What's so special about ♭5th anyway? Well, if you hear it you'll notice that this chord has an incredibly tense sound.  Later on we'll learn more about why this tension is so important in music and how to resolve it.  That's about it for now. Cheers!!

[Thanks to Pazl for bringing to my attention some misspells :-) ]

Japanese Verbs: Indicatives

* * * * So... this isn't meant to be a reliable summary or anything, it's mostly meant to be like a chart to remind me of some stuff so I figured why not post it? Also I apologize for romanizing most of it, it's a hassle to type the kana in my current computer.

So the verbs can be categorized into three different groups depending in which kana their root ends.  The first group made of verbs that end in "u sound", the second of those who end in "ru" but the kana before it isn't an "i sound" kana and the third is made of compound verbs with "suru" and irregular ones.  We'll call the first one the U verbs and the second one the RU verbs.

Here's a few examples.

U verbs:

To drink_____-_____のむ_____-_____no - mu

To buy   _____-_____まつ_____-_____ka - u

To wait  _____-_____かう_____-_____ma - tsu

See? they end in U.  Of course not exactly the same kana, it's the sound of the kana which is U.

Ru verbs:


To eat     _____-______たべる     ____-_____tabe - ru

To see     _____-_____みる         _____-_____mi - ru

To think  _____-_____かんがえる_____-_____kangae - ru

Suru:

To do_____-_____する

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Now, conjugations.  Those up there are informal / present indicative / affirmative.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Informal * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Informal / Past Indicative / Affirmative 

* * * U verbs: This one is a handful.. change the last kana and add TA or DA

• If the U kana is SU then change the SU for the I kana (SHI) and add TA.

___________(To speak) Hanasu -----> Hana + shi + ta (hanashita)

•  If ends in KU change it for I (NOT KI, I) and add TA

___________(To write) Kaku -----> Ka + i + ta (kaita) 

•  If ends in GU change it for I and add DA

 ___________(To swim) Oyogu -----> Oyo + i + da (oyoida)

• If ends in MU, BU or NU change it for N and add DA

 ___________(To play) Asobu -----> Aso + n + da (asonda)

•  If ends in RU, U or TSU remove them and add TTA (small tsu + TA) 

 ___________(To win) Katsu -----> Ka + tta (katta)

   

* * * Ru verbs: Remove the RU and add TA. (piece of cake!!)

___________(To Eat) Taberu -----> Tabe + ta (Tabeta)

Informal / Present Indicative / Negative

• U verbs: The "U sound" kana is changed into the corresponding "A suond" kana, adding NAI after it.

___________(To Drink) Nomu -----> No + ma + nai  (Nomanai)

• Ru verbs: Remove the RU and add NAI.

___________(To Eat) Taberu -----> Tabe + nai (Tabenai)

* * * Past AND Negative: Drop the I from NAI and add KATTA
Nomanai -----> Nomamakatta
Tabenai  -----> Tabenakatta

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Formal * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Formal / Present Indicative / Affirmative

• U verbs: The "U sound kana" is changed into the corresponding "I sound kana", adding MASU after it.

___________(To Drink) Nomu -----> No + mi + masu  (Nomimasu)

• Ru verbs: Remove the RU and add MASU.

___________(To Eat) Taberu -----> Tabe + masu (Tabemasu)

* * * Negative: It's pretty much the same, change MASU with MASEN
Nomimasu -----> Nomimasen
Tabemasu  -----> Tabemasen


* * * Past: Change MASU with MASHITA
Nomimasu -----> Nomimashita
Tabemasu  -----> Tabemashita


* * * Past AND Negative: Change MASU with MASEN and add DESHITA
Nomimasu -----> Nomimasendeshita
Tabemasu  -----> Tabemasendeshita

Music, a thing or two.

For some time I have been wanting to write a few things that I've learned along the years about music, theory and other sort of things.  Go ahead and hate me for if this gets very basic sometimes but I can't go deeper without stating the starting point. So here I go.

Hopefully you'll know that music is an art based on sounds and silences, with changes of rhythm, pitch, melodies, harmonies, dynamics, etc.  Many may have different opinions about its bases, whether it's a complicated science or art, or a free artistic way of expression.  Truth is it may be less complicated to understand than what you may think, or on the contrary there may be more to it than you thought.  Let's go slow.


Musical Notes
There are musical notes. You probably have heard of them.  They can be named in two different ways and it's easy to learn both.  These are the ones hopefully you already know.

Do___Re___Mi___Fa___Sol___La___Si___Do

In english we know them as:

C___D___E___F___G___A___B___C               respectively.

You can see that this nomenclature seems to be alphabetical, and that A or La should be the first ones.  There is a reason to that but I won't get in there just yet. Now, it seems we have 7 different notes.  The last C is the same note as the first one however this one has a higher pitch than the first, this is called an octave (it's the 8th note of the scale).  But saying that there are only 7 notes is wrong.  There are more, they're the so called accidental notes that are between some of the above.

Musical Notes, accidentals
What we really have is 12th notes.  With all notes included we have
(note that all the notes are one semitone away from each other)

C___C#___D___D#___E___F___F#___G___G#___A___A#___B___C


The # on C# means it's a C sharp.  A sharp notation is used to indicate that the note that is shown there is not the one that is really meant to be used, but instead the note that is a semitone (also called half a step) higher.

But that is not the only way we can express accidentals.  We also have this.

C___D♭___D___E♭___E___F___G♭___G___A♭___A___B♭___B___C


The  ♭ on D♭ means it's a D flat.  A flat is the exact opposite of a sharp, its pitch is one semitone lower.  It's important to take notice that C# is exactly the same note as D♭.

Now, hopefully you might have noticed that between B and C, and E and F there are no accidental notes.  That is because they are already a semitone apart in distance, whilst for example C and D are a full tone (or whole step) away from each other.

The use of a sharp and the flat depends, but most of the time we use them in a way in which we use every single note once without repeating and without skipping.  So let's say we have a scale with C, C# or D♭, and E (and F, G, A, B etc, it's a made up scale). We must use then D♭ instead of C# because otherwise we would be skipping D and repeating C.

They could've called each note by a different name instead of using this notation for accidentals, I don't know.  Probably at the beginning they didn't saw them as different notes but as they are called, "accidentals".  Instead of hitting the one they wanted they hit one semitone higher/lower.

C___D___E___F___G___A___B___C  

The reason we are taught these notes in particular is because they are a scale, and the easiest ones to learn. This is the C major scale to be precise.

 Musical Scales
A scale is a sequence of notes that have certain harmony with each other. But they are only a mold that includes certain notes and excludes other for the sake of harmony.  The chromatic scale is the scale that includes all possible notes, so when I wrote above all the notes with all the accidentals included, I wrote the chromatic scale.

Scales are more like a mathematical formula which tells us which notes are included.  The most important scale is the Major Scale.  It is used as reference for all the other scales, therefore it's the first you should learn. The Major Scale of C is so popular because it doesn't includes any accidentals.

So let's get to the formula. What we can observe is that the notes included in the C Major Scale are C D E F G A B.  Let's start.

1. C is the tonic, meaning that it's the first note and that all the notes used in the scale are used relatively to this one.  
2. Between C and D we have a full tone. 
3. Between D and E we have a full tone.
4. Between E and F we have a semitone, remember that there are no accidentals between this two.
5. Between F and G there is a full tone.
6. Between G and A, another full tone.
7. A and B, a full tone.
8. Finally, since a scale is a sequence that repeats itself indefinitely we must go back to the tonic.  Between B and C there is a semitone (remember, no accidentals between this two either).

So the formula for a major a scale is...  Tone, Tone, Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semitone.  Use it with any note and there you have that note's major scale.  Let's take then G.

G(tone)A(tone)B(semitone)C(tone)D(tone)E(tone)F#(semitone)G

For future reference, A is G's 2nd, B is G's 3rd, and so on until F# is the 7th. (This is for G)

Music and physics 

This part is of little use, however it's pretty cool.  

As some of you know, sound has physical properties.  To keep it simple, the frequency of a sound wave determines its pitch.  Each note has its own frequency measured in hertz.  The lower the frequency, the lower the pitch.  We use a couple of constants for the calculation of the frequency of any note, one is the frequency of A.

A4 (or La4) has a frequency of 440 hz. Now, the other constant is the 12th root of 2, which is about 1.0594630943593... The importance of this second constant is that this is the ratio of the frequencies between two half tones.

This means that A# is the 12th root of 2 times A's frequency.
440 x 1.0594630943593 = 466.16376.. or so.

For the next note, which would be B, then we need to take A#'s and multiply it by the 12th root of 2.  Do it until you reach A's next octave and you'll get 880. Which means that an octave's frequency is the double of the note's frequency.  Pretty much as expected.

For a more complete formula, use this:
* don't forget that 12th root of two can be written like 2^(1/12) [^means powered]

f= 2^(n/12) * (440 Hz)

Where f is the note's frequency that we are looking for, and n is the amount of semitones between A and the note.  When it's higher pitched n is positive, negative if lower.

Let's try it with F4 then (which is lower than A4) which is 4 semitones from A.  Therefore n=-4

So F4 is at 349.2 Hz

(I know images are messed up with the background...sorry about that)

Cheers.

Experiment of the day, Compiz in xfce

The cool thing about xfce is that it is very lightweight and simple.  I was just trying it out because I got bored of Gnome 2.  Gnome 3 still feels weird to me and KDE has never been my DE.  However just because xfce is meant to run on low resources computers it doesn't mean I can't turn on some tweaks and effects.  So this is what I've got so far.

While running a Xubuntu session (since I'm using Ubuntu for this one) I went to the Terminal and typed:

compiz --replace ccp &

gtk-window-decorator --replace &

Then I kinda works. So I want it for every time I login in Xubuntu session.  Therefore I created a shell file with the following:

#!/usr/bin/
compiz --replace ccp &
gtk-window-decorator --replace &

I placed it in /usr/bin/ and added a link on the folder /.config/autostart.  However it doesn't does squat so I still have to do it over the terminal every time I want to run Compiz effects.  They are not vital but I think that if can't get it to work I might go back to Gnome...  Will keep on trying though...  =P

(Update!)

After moving stuff for a couple of days I returned to Gnome xD

Xfce was indeed more than what I expected, and with a couple more features I would've kept it.  I know it's meant to be for low resourced systems but with more optional effects it will become a fair option for any system.

Castlevania Lords of Shadow, Castlevania's latest 3D release

Konami released the game Castlevania: Lords of Shadow in October 2010 in both Playstation3 and Xbox360.  After playing myself Castlevania: Lament of Innocence and Castlevania: Curse of Darkness I looked forward to this game since 3D Castlevania games have been somewhat unwelcome by the series' fans, yet both LOI and COD achieved the style that gave them their Castlevania titles.  However, as soon as I started playing Lords of Shadow on my Xbox360 I noticed that this game is very different in style.  I will now try to review and analyze certain aspects of the game in contrast to LOI and COD which I enjoyed so much in the past when I played them on my good old PS2.  I must warn you first, that there will be spoilers.  I will try to tag them though :-)

What was expected?

COD, cover

Castlevania games very often focus on defeating Dracula.  Dracula is a very powerful vampire that keeps coming back from the dead in order to exact his revenge on humans.  However, from the very beginning there was a clan of Vampire Hunters that vowed to fight him every time we came back.  They are the Belmont.  

In all three games stated before we have the presence of a Belmont, and in two of them he is the main character.  

The Story and settings

For many players the story is the main element for a video game, and how is it exposed to the player.  The first issue for traditional Castlevania fans is that Lords of Shadow is not cannon to the storyline, in fact it is a reboot.  However, for many people just that the story is going to be different it doesn't means it can't be enjoyed.  So you might like the game even if you were expecting a continuation of some sort of the main original story.

LOS, Cover

In this game we follow Gabriel Belmont, who searches for someone known as Pan.  Gabriel says the Brotherhood of Light sent him because they dreamt that a message from his deceased wife, Marie, holds a clue to the world's salvation. With Pan's help he manages to communicate with her. She informs him that Spirits who founded the Brotherhood of Light are attempting to tell her that the power of the Lords of Shadow will save the world.  He then learn from Zobek, another character, of a secret prophecy that tells of a pure-hearted warrior who will claim the Lords of Shadow's power to overcome evil.  Now he will have to search and defeat the Lords Of Shadow who have the pieces of God Mask that may allow him to revive his wife.

Enemies

As for the beginning of the game the vampires or undead are nowhere to be seen.  Actually the enemies are goblins and trolls.  Lycans are also present and they are the enemies that most resembles a recurring element from traditional Castlevania.  However the story explains that one must travel into three different lands, the Lycans', the Vampires', and then the Necromancers'.  So these type of enemies are met in due time.  However these monster are a little different in appearance.

Looks 

The game is just beautiful, with great rendering and lighting. There is just no comparison of LOS graphics with its predecessors. However the environment is not Gothic at all, and so it falls out of the Castlevania style.   Castle are very scarce and most of the time at the beginning of the game you are outdoors.  The paths are not very linear, which is good since in makes it harder to know where to go, but part of the style was the corridors inside spooky castles.  However this made you get lost because everything seemed alike.  The ideal should be somewhere in between.

Gameplay 

Indeed gameplay is probably the most important aspect on a game.  With poor gameplay only a great plot twisting story with awesome graphics can lift a game from mediocrity.  LOS is a game with an incredible gameplay.  Battles are just amazing and the controls are very adequate.  

Weapons and Magic

  

In LOS there is only one main weapon which is the battle cross (the vampire killer equivalent on this game) and upgrades are done to it as the story unfolds.  There are secondary weapons that can be found and used and can also be combined with magic to obtain a different effect.  Magic can be gained by defeating enemies or  hitting a large number of successive hits without getting damage.  This magic can be channeled into either White or Dark magic which are used to heal and increase damage respectively.  

Lament of Innocence, boss fight 

In these aspects LOS is superior to LOI and COD.  On LOI we had the main weapon, secondary weapons, equipment, and magic as well.  However it was not incorporated in an appropriate way.  Magic was pretty much useless, and the combos were scarce. There are also other whips than the alchemy whip, which are embedded with elemental damage, but acquiring them is optional and is very easy to miss them.

In COD we had no secondary weapons and several main weapons.  Since the main character is not a Belmont the Vampire Killer is not an available weapon.  This was to alchemy being incorporated which could be used in order to create new stronger weapons with materials dropped and stole from monsters.  Magic was used to feed the health of the Innocent Devils, which are unique to this game.

Battle

In this game we gain experience which will allow us to buy combos that spice up a lot fighting monsters. There are also items to equip that will unlock new combos as the players finds them.  Magic is also used to elaborate different combos. There is also grabbing of the enemy which might start a sequence of different attacks according to the button that has to be pressed (which will be shown at the screen at are mostly random).  This makes the battle more interactive and harder.   The result is quite epic, while on COD and LOI it was very similar to fighting normal enemies, but with more health and more attack power.

Leveling up, experience 

LOS uses an experience system in which the player earns points that can be latter used to buy new attacks, however the character does not "level up".  He has fixed stats that wont change just by killing X amount of creatures.  This kills a little of the RPG-like experience.

Curse of Darkness

LOI didn't even used experience for anything at all.  The only way to increase attack/defense or some resistance to something was through equipment.  COD indeed has a level system for the character as well as for the Innocent Devil. Stats for Hector increase as well with equipment, while for the ID's their power increases with evolution and breeding. 

Other Items

Another feature common was the use of items and shops.  LOS we don't even have currency.  There are no consumables of any kind, nor are they really that necessary.  However I find that the idea of being able to collect money or stack up on items makes the game less straight forward and more enjoyable.   On LOI we had the alchemist who sold us all different types of items, even relics.  On COD there was the witch who served for the same purposes. 

Interaction with surroundings and puzzles

Shadow of the Colossus

I find the surroundings, as stated earlier, to lack the traditional Castlevania style.  However they are far more interactive.  There is a lot of climbing on edges involved, even during boss fights which resembles a lot another game, Shadows of the Colossus.  

In COD and LOI there was a lot of walking on corridors.  There were little puzzles. It was mostly about to defeat all current enemies in order to advance to another room, which was pretty much the same as the previous one.  Unless you're really high on stress and manage to relieve it with simple button smashing you might get bored.  So they were very shallow.

LOS in the other hand goes a little too far with the puzzles, sometimes being a little too hard for the common user. Also you will have to climb, swing and jump around a lot in synchronized movements in order to reach the top of a structure or jump from one side of a mountain the other.  When you think about it, it has a lot of platforming which should make it more like the traditional 2D games.

Further elements 

I'll discus miscellaneous in this section, focusing on what LOS lacks.  For instance, the game is divided in missions with objectives.  These missions are restrained into certain world areas which cannot be visited outside the mission.  To revisit a place you have to exit whatever mission you're on, being relinquished of any progress and enter the mission menu where you can access the previous levels and do them again from scratch while retaining any ability/equipment you currently have.  Also it is too often that from time to time within a single mission there will be points of no turning back, which limits a lot of the game IMO.   On the other games there is no such issue as there are no "missions".  You are free to go where you can and revisit as much as you want.

The camera is another element that differentiates LOS from LOI and COD.  In LOS we a fixed camera that is not manageable in anyway by the player.  This makes it very hard to catch a glimpse of certain things.  On LOI and COD we have a free camera always with the options of fixing the camera in front of the character's point of view or keep track of a target never loosing it from sight.  However, the epic boss battles that take place in LOS could never happen without the camera working on its own.   Therefore it was its cons and pros.

Saving of progress is done automatically in LOS.  Which means that if something came out different than what you expected and then was automatically saved then there is nothing  you can do about it.  Such an example is the viewing of a puzzle solution, which makes you forsake any reward.  On the other, more traditional games you have to search for the save/healing rooms and do the process manually.  I can understand for some that autosaving is much better, however I like the idea of safe spots being available.  Also manually you get to save on different files so you have a backup plan in case something goes wrong; however this wont apply as for corrupted data since all save files are stored on a single one inside the memory card, I don't know what happens to LOS if the data get corrupted by power going out during autosave.

Player and Innocent Devil against monsters

An impressive addition to Curse of Darkness was the Innocent Devil system.  The ID's are devils or demons that possess according to their type different abilities that will help you on your quest for revenge.  You can have many by the end of the game and they grow and evolve to different creature depending on how you feed them.  Then they will learn different abilities depending on their evolution.  This was much fun and even felt a little like pokémon. I think LOS could have done with something similar.

Characters and Bosses 

Gabriel is a new character and member of the Belmont clan and during the game we can see how he interacts with other characters such as Zobek and Pan.  

We are told by the narrator that his personality changes as the games advances however it isn't showed otherwise.  Actually I would say Gabriel looks to remain pretty much the same through the whole game.

They based bosses in recurring characters from the original series though with little connection other than the name. 

  

Music, Audio and Voice Acting

Music in LOS is pretty good, however they decided to go with Oscar Araujo since Michiru Yamane left the Konami team and his style is quite different.  I feel that Araujo's style gives more space and saturates less the audio mix making it less stressing, whilst Yamane's style was fuller with more notes and definitively more modern.  The absence of Yamane's music was very felt by me.

In voice acting we have live action actors.  Robert Carlyle made Gabriel's voice and Sir Patrick Stewart voiced Zobek/narrator.  They are big budget actors and preformed great, they add a lot of value to the game.   

Game's Epilogue [spoliers] 

I have to evaluate the ending, though it usually shouldn't be, because it is a little disconnected and doesn't feels like it goes with the flow of the game.  As stated at the beginning, LOS is a non cannon reboot of the franchise and states a different origin for Dracula.  At the end of the game Gabriel defeats the main antagonist and though he fails in reviving his wife he goes on living. However after the credits he is shown little less than a millennium later transformed into Dracula.  Later I learned that a sort of expansion pack for the story was released for the PS3 port that links a bit the ending with the Epilogue.  

Here is really about personal taste, but I like LOI's version of Dracula better.

[End of spoilers] 

Final Thoughts 

This game is very well done, very entertaining and very polished.  However it fails to become a proper Castlevania title since lacks a lot of little elements that must be present in order to be one.   Also it is more violent than usual, with gruesome deaths of bosses and other enemies.  There is a lot of blood and gore in this game so if you care about stuff like that, then beware.  Also there is awful nudity in the game. There is a demon you can summon whenever you have the required ingredients that has the most unappealing breasts I have ever seen on a video game.  Also the nude monsters have large pubic hair in order to hide what they thought would have been too much to show.  However how the hair is depicted it feels revealing enough to break down your imagination.  There are a few bugs and glitches here and there as well, I have fallen into nothingness a couple of times with nothing to do about it but to return to the last checkpoint via the menu.

You can call Lords of Shadow a game that doesn't deserve to be branded Castlevania, but it doesn't means it's any bad.  Actually I enjoyed it quite a bit and felt it has one of the best gameplay I have ever experienced.   It is definitively not what I expected it to be, but far from a complete disappointment. 

Top reasons why I cant leave Windows behind.

It has been most unfortunate for me that no matter how much I wish for it I cant just use a linux distro and leave windows behind.   This happens due to several reasons but to sum it up real quick, it is because I'm a very particular user.  As an user I have picked up several somewhat different softwares. In my need for this variety (and stability in these softwares) lies my dilemma.  

Now, when I had my first interaction with Linux I was marveled by the idea of a world where I would no longer depend on Bill Gates.   This happened in 2008 with Ubuntu being the one that called for my attention when choosing the most user friendly distro (Now I know this is not necessarily true). I tried it out and was most pleased with the results of my experiment.   However soon enough I learned what meant to use an OS that existed pretty much in a different world from MS Windows.

It turns out that since the OS's structure is so different from one another, you can't use a software from one in the other.  This is pretty obvious for many people and it was even for me, however I thought that I would find more ways to workaround this.  I have tried several different distros but the differences between them lie around the user interface and not so much in other factors that could help me (of course, I'll never abandon hope nor leave Linux).

  

So from now on I am going to number a list of software that I need, and that I have in Windows but cant use on Linux.  

1. Sonar

Cakewalk's Sonar is a digital audio workstation used for recording.   This hints you that one of my hobbies is music,  and so it is.  I enjoy making my own music and therefore I require a software that enables me to record my instruments, add digital midi instruments through plug-ins, and mix the audio.

Sonar is a proprietary software that is quite expensive and requires time in order to learn to use it dexterously.    

Among the main features of this software are:

1. Record and manipulate an unlimited amount of multitrack digital audio (only limited by hardware)
2. Comprehensively record and manipulate MIDI data
3. Apply any DirectX special effects, such as reverb and delay, many versions bundled with included effects
4. Automate the process of mixing audio
5. Utilize virtual instruments, such as software synthesizers, software samplers, software drum machines
6. Connect to other multimedia applications with sample accuracy via Rewire

This software is very demanding on resource, not on graphic rendering but on processing speed. In order to work efficiently with audio, high read/write speed is required.   For example, if you cant process audio fast enough then what you play will be delayed and the recording will fail.   Also it is normal to use lots of plugins that enhance the audio, all of them at the same time.   If you think it is exaggerated it just means that you haven't experienced what is working audio at least at a semiprofessional level.   Anyway this requirements are of course of hardware and as long as the hardware is reached by the software in a timely manner the OS has no fault there.

Since one requires decent hardware performance, running windows in a virtual box would create a giant latency.   I seriously doubt wine will ever be capable of managing a software as heavy and complex as Sonar, therefore leaving me with no choice but to replace sonar in order to stay away from windows.   So here comes the linux options.   The most prominent one seems to be Linux MultiMedia Studio.   Unfortunately due to hardware problems (see 5) I was unable to test it with my audio interface.   There are others out there and in due time I shall explore them in hope for an answer.
   

2. Reason

Propellers Head's Reason is a Rewire multimedia application.  It serves Sonar with sampling arrays.   It uses a midi file and sequences it to synthesize the audio into quite a realistic instrument.   This allows me to incorporate Musical Instruments that I don't physically posses into my music (such as entire orchestras).   Hopefully you will see with just this brief explanation how useful this software really is.  The results are very realistic and each virtual instrument highly customizable.   

This software could perhaps run under wine.   Nevertheless Linux software like Linux Multimedia Studio has no Rewire compatibility.  This means that even if I got LMMS fully working I would still seek out to Sonar because I need Reason.

  

3. Amplitube

IK Multimedia's Amplitube is a VST plug-in that allows me to emulate several different Cabinets, Amps and other effects for my guitar.   LMMS has VST compatibility meaning that there is a high chance I could get the two of them working together.

There is an important detail to take notice at this point.   Sonar, Reason, and Amplitube are all proprietary software.   I'm not on top of the prices now a days but if you are an user who buys all of these softwares then you have probably spent over $2000 on just software!!  Now, who would ever change from Windows to Linux if he has already spent that kind of money on software that would be rendered useless if he switched? Enought said.

  

4. CCCP

No, I'm not a soviet.   The name is Combined Community Codec Pack.   I found out about this codec pack when I started having problems viewing fansubs.   Now that the .avi format is considered obsolete, new ones have emerged with higher quality standards.   Such is the case of the .mkv.   The matroska file is quite advance and has a lot to offer.   

When we hunt for quality we will find videos of high resolution like 720 and 1080 and even higher.   The era of the 480 is pretty dead as well as the avi.   The problem is that the quality out there is more than what an integrated graphic card can handle.   The audio and the video will get out of sync and the charm will be broken.   So I would have to invest on a dedicated graphic card (between $200 and $600) to view what is considered normal quality in these days.   Then I found CCCP which helped a lot and allowed me to view some high bit rate 720 mkv's.   It allowed to join in the world where you get high quiality and dual audio in a single file as well as several different options for subtitles.

So what stops me from using it in Linux??? CCCP uses Direct Show which is MS multimedia framework.   This cant be available for Linux, so CCCP as well can't be. Seems that the only solution is to upgrade my hardware (and yes, I have tried several codec packs out there available for linux. They are not as good as CCCP).

  

5. Hardware, Particular Difficulties 

These can't be avoided, though almost always we can workaround them.   My audio interface which I use to record and work with audio is Firewire, and it has been a huge pain trying to get it working under linux.   For some reason Firewire devices are tricky to get working under Ubuntu particularly.   But well, as I said before this something that needs further time and work. 

6. Games

This one is pretty straight forward.   There are games that are installable with wine, though the result is a rather buggy game... I think that I have the right to have a enjoyable experience with my games.   Well...

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Of course I should just look out for which OS works out best for me... unfortunately this seems to mean that I will keep using both Windows pretty much as often as I use Linux as I still depend on both.   Oh well....