Metro Last Light, Walking Bank and Businessman Trophies

     I'm making my way to this game Platinum trophy. I just want to share a quick method I used to do the Walking Bank and Businessman trophies, even if you probably already figured it out by yourself.

    The method is plain simple: the Bandit chapter is the only one where you have access to both a vendor and a good number of opponents. The full level homes around 30 human enemies, mainly equipped with personalized Lolife, Duplet and Ashot.

    These weapons are worth around 25-65 military rounds each. Because of this, even in the worst scenario, you should be easily able to reach the 1000 military rounds amount needed for Walking Bank by just gathering the dropped weapons and running back to the vendor to sell them.

    Remember you can't sell all your weapons (Artyom will always keep at least one with him), so this can take a while, but it's neverthless the quickest way to complete the trophy.

    The Businessman trophy comes by itself just after completing the previous one: the best way to do it is to quickly buy and resell Throwing Knives at the above mentioned vendor. At a minimum cost and in no time, you'll also get this trophy.

    Good Luck & Have Fun ;).

FATE STAR WARS on paper!

    I just received the printed version of the FATE STAR WARS book, translated in Italian language by MAMMUT RPG . Both the translation and the final physical result are quite satisfying.

    When I want to print a book from PDF (or another digital format) to paper, I use YouCanPrint services .

    You can build an estimate directly from the website, and the final costs are always quite good, if you print in Black&White. For most of the books I printed so far, the shipping costs have always been higher than the book itself, because YouCanPrinte uses SDA Courier instead of taking advantage of the lower costs Itialian Post Office can offer for books delivery.

    Preparation times aren't incredibly fast, because they prepare a draft of the final product you need to approve before they proceed with print and delivery. All of this took around 3 weeks, if you answer quickly to their mails.

    They publish your books, too, as eBook or paper: the one YOU write, I mean :), taking charge of everything is legally needed.

    I'm quite satisfied by this print-on-demand service, and I strongly reccomend it to anyone who needs somthing similar.







   

Spigen Nexus 5 Hybrid Back Covers (Part 1 of ... boh??)

    If you are the lucky owner of a Nexus 5 smartphone like me, you are perhaps using a Spigen Nexus 5 Hybrid cover. The feature I like most of this cover (which is overall quite good, even if a bit big in size, vote 7/8) is the possibility to put an image as a cover for the back side of your phone. You just have to find a suitable one, use a template to "build" it in the right way, print it out and cut it.

    I've played quite alot with this, creating some very ugly covers, but today I camed out with a couple of good ones (I think, at least), mostly thanks to the beautiful arts by Ale Giorgini. My favorite is the one on the right, which is Star Wars themed, but the others are cool, too.

    I'm going to share them with you all, along with the template to build your own, as you can see by the picture attached to this post. To gain the printable versions, just right-click on the picture you want to download and choose "Save Picture as...", or whichever option your browser uses for this purpose.

    I suggest to print these pictures on some kind of photo paper, which is more solid and resistant than common paper. You cna easily use a scissor to cut out the longest edges, but you should switch to a cutter when taking care of the camera hole, which don't need to be perfect, as the edges are somehow hidden by the cover borders themself.

Have fun, artists ;) .

The Big Lebowski	Indiana Jones	Spigen Nexus 5 Hybrid Template

2 new children, brothers and friends!

    Meh, I just noticed I haven't made any post on the two new guys who share my home! I adopted them from Arzignano's shelter, around 3 months ago, which is a long time without putting something about them on my blog :) !

    Povia is the biggest of the two. I'm so sorry it was given such a nasty name in the shelter, but that's it, he is used to it, so I kept it, even if he is Anakin for me (you know, black, missing a limb, somehow self centered and possessive/protective). He is a beautiful belgian shepherd who was hit by a car during his life on the road, and had his left front leg amputee. Neverthless he still is a force of nature: he runs like a bullet, fast like the wind and jump without a problem to great heights; sure, he become tired and winded quickly, but the athletic prowess he shows, even with the handicap, always leav me breathless. He search cuddle and contact alot, and always try to keep attention on him, especially when you try to give it to the other dogs. It's a pity my other two furred babies are a bit scared from his size compared to their, while playing, so Povia is often left a bit aside during games, and he suffer for this, even if I play with him. When he jumps on you, giving his only frontal leg to attract attention, or just sit doing the same, he is absolutely irresistible :)

    Cedric is much smaller. Smaller than Ennoia, in fact. He is stocky and strong, a little bit chubby, with short legs and massive feet which face outward. He is clumsy and not athletic at all, but has a lot of strength and loves to play with Ennoia. He also play with Povia often, but gets tired quickly, since Povia mouth is bigger than his head, so there is little to do ;). I kept the name he was given at the shelter, too, although he is Obi-Wan for me (brown and white, good-hearted, positive attitude and pretty quiet, but always ready for action). You can't say he is beautiful to look at, but is incredibly nice and fun, and has a set of attitudes (as he sit down, how he looks at you, how he search for cuddling) that can not steal some smiles.

    So, they're my two new joys, even if now I spend a capital for food, veterinary and the like and al the three of them can become quite an hurricane in the moments of maximum activity :)

A Small Anecdote

    Before last Christmas, between October and November 2013, I finally decided to give a deeper try to Star Wars: The Old Republic (the MMORPG from Bioware / EA), which I played in its early days, with little enthusiasm.

    This time I decided to pull out the 12 euros needed to play "full powered" for a whole month. After createing my human Jedi Guardian with thriving joy, I went into the Galaxy of the Old Republic, loving the experience alot.

    Massive amount of quests (many of which quite funny and interesting, though, in the end, they always resolves around the usual take quest - go clik/kill - report), several instances (trying to learn how to tank all those enemies with ranged weapons!) and a lots of hilarious PvP (funny!). All of this without joining a clan, enjoying the freedom to explore the game with my times and some privacy. So, I often used the public chat for help or a talk here and there.

    During one of the many breaks, wasting time on the Republican orbital fleet, a bloody discussion on God, religion and similar dangerous arguments exploded in the public chat. After spending a few minutes reading the verbal confrontation, I decided to intrude with a "joke". So I wrote, perhaps in favor of one of the factions, but not on purpose, the following sentence: "I find your lack of faith disturbing"... The result? A sudden shift to general laughter, and a burst of Star Wars quoting by everyone, with the addition of the almost instantaneous dissipation of the controversial discussion (and including a good amount of private messages from amused strangers).

    Moral: You can solve most arguments in life with a good and solid Star Wars quote :) . Darth Vader Approves!

Joe Dever's Lone Wolf game books revival

    When I was a youngling (of well, ok, I still am, somehow!), I spent tons of hours playing & replaying the mythic Lone Wolf saga, by Joe Dever. This long serie of game books covered the adventures of a Master Ramas, moving in a dark fantasy world to save it from Evil and Darkness.

    I really loved those stories, and I delved alot in all the game books I was able to recover (there were alot around, besides Lone Wolf, which told fantasy, oriental, post apocalyptic, horror stories: a true boon for my thirst of fiction).

    I just discovered that a small Italian editor is publishing this saga from scratch, revisited and "remastered". I must admit I'm heavily tempted to buy these books again, even if I still own the old, original ones.

    Anyway, for everyone who can be interested in this new publication, this is the link for a direct buy:

    Vincent Books - Lupo Solitario 1, "I Signori delle Tenebre" (Italian language).

    I wish you the best of lucks in Magnamund ;).

Evolution Pulse for FATE Core/Accelerated

    So, I got the chance to read the beta rulebook of this interesting new setting for FATE.

    The project is an Italian one, and I don't really know if there will be an English version, but if you can understand my native language, you should definitively have a look at this rpg.

    Evolution Pulse is a dark and cruel reality, set in a far future where technology is far beyond our actual standard and where flesh and machinery are now melt together.

    A spoon of cyberpunk, mixed in a mug of horror with some drops of mysticism and esotherism, all served on a plate of post-apocalyptic moral sci-fi, make this game a shiny pearl for tastes like mine. Yeah, ok, it don't have lightsabers, but it's cool anyway!

    Everything about this game is very inspired: the manual, the graphics, the history, the background, the way it uses FATE mechanics and the adult approach to a reality teared apart by a massive and unbearable change.

    Even if I will not be able to play this game easily, it will be a pleasure to support it and buy the final version if it will be released for money.

    If you like to deepen your knowledge about Evolution Pulse, Alberto Tronchi is the author, while Evolution Pulse is the Facebook page; you can ask for the beta PDF directly to the author, but only in Italian language ;) (I think, at least...).