Tag: freelance-feat-november

The Story of the Biggest Minecraft YouTuber: Dream

Dream is undoubtedly one of the biggest Minecraft content creators on YouTube. His speedy rise to fame through the fan-favorite Minecraft Manhunt series is also definitely a story to tell, breaking all records and expectations from the community. However, Dream is also not free from the fair share of controversies of famous pop culture stars today with his speedrunning allegations that occurred last year. With that said, let’s take a look at the story of how this Minecraft player from Florida was able to gather millions of loyal followers and become one of the most successful YouTubers in Minecraft History.

Before Youtube Popularity: How the Dream Team got assembled

Source: MunchyMC

Dream actually created his Youtube channel way back in 2014. However, we may never see what the old videos look like since Dream either private or unlisted all of them. What we do know about his activities in those days is playing in the Mc PVP server, where he also met his most notable partner in crime: Sapnap. Dream was never really into the grind of posting YouTube videos for a long time until he came up with an idea to create his own Minecraft server. This is ultimately when he learned his useful coding skills since he coded the entire server entirely by himself. His work also got noticed by BadBoyHalo, which used to be a much more popular YouTube channel than Dream and consequently asked him to join Bad’s server (MunchyMC) developer team. Coincidentally, Dream crossed paths with another favorite figure we all know as GeorgeNotFound in the dev team. And thus, the Dream team bond that we know and love today has been forged.

The Start of the YouTube Grind

Dream hadn’t made any moves on YouTube for 5 years after the creation of his channel. However, he decided to change his fate forever. He posted a comment on Discord, mentioning that he will be a giant YouTuber and that he will do anything to achieve this goal. Thus, he began studying the gears that run the YouTube website, how the infamous algorithm works, and how to manipulate it to his own advantage.

After months of research, he uploaded his legitimately first YouTube video entitled “This Cursed Minecraft Video Will Trigger You”. The video was relatively simple and essentially contains Dream breaking all the unwritten rules of Minecraft like mining dirt with a pickaxe, killing your pet dog, not using shear with right-click, and so on. Despite its simplicity, the video was able to blow up due to its easily sharable moments; not bad getting more than a million views for your first video. However, the video also shed some light on Dream’s programming capability when he was able to sleep in the nether and make a pig blow him 10 feet into the air.

Dream continued to post these “triggering” Minecraft videos for quite a while, and all of them were all viral hits. However, while most YouTuber’s might decide to stick with the winning formula of success, Dream improvised and initiated another project that is correlated with one of the biggest names on the website: PewDiePie.

The PewDiePie Saga

Source: PewDiePie

In July 2019, PewDiePie decided to create a YouTube series on Minecraft. The game was somewhat considered to be dead, and many avid fans have left the game for good. However, PewDiePie ultimately relighted Minecraft and brought back millions of audiences to the game. PewDiePie’s viewers were also incredibly curious in getting his Minecraft’s world seed, and Dream took this opportunity to do the impossible: locate the exact seed out of 18 quintillion possibilities. He gathered a team of Minecraft experts and tried to reverse engineer PewDiePie’s world seed using coordinate locations, maps, and other crazy shenanigans. They eventually succeeded and released the world seed to the public. However, a few hours later, PewDiePie spoiled the party by announcing that he won’t be releasing the world seed until he defeated the Ender Dragon. Dream ultimately was under fire from a barrage of criticism and made an apology video towards the matter. Luckily for him, some people recognized the sheer skill, effort, and time required to find the world seed, further growing his following on YouTube.

Before Manhunt

After the charade with PewDiePie, Dream quickly took advantage of the fame that he had accumulated and released yet a novel series on his channel called Minecraft Unsolved. The series tackles intriguing questions in Minecraft, such as the infamous Herobrine and the longest possible jump in the game. Needless to say, the series far exceeds expectations and showed the knowledge Dream had about Minecraft. The videos are also deeply researched and highly informative, which helped Dream establish his trust with his audience and the community.

The next series that Dream released was exponentially popular compared to the previous one, namely the coded Minecraft challenges. Here, Dream showcased his programming skills that he has learned to create Minecraft plugins that infinitely increase the game’s excitement. He also teamed up with all of his friends to complete these challenges. Some of the popular videos from this series are beating Minecraft with X-ray on, placing a massive black hole that slowly swallows everything, and random gravity flips.

Yet again, Dream continues to improvise and implement the element of PvP in these coding challenges. Instead of working together, Dream and his friends would duel to the death and be the last man alive. A popular video from this series is Minecraft Block Shuffle, where players have to stand in a designated block before the timer runs out. Minecraft Death Swap is another example of these PvP coded challenges and, this time, players would have to cleverly set traps before swapping positions with the opposition.

The Manhunt Era

Source: Dream

The YouTube series that needs no introduction. Dream created the Manhunt series as another iteration of the coded PvP challenges and titled the first video “Beating Minecraft, But My Friend Tries To Stop Me”. As we know, the videos displayed Dream’s prowess in Minecraft PvP in an incredibly fun fashion. He also did several modifications to Manhunt such as the “Assassin” video where Dream’s opponent will one-shot him but will freeze if Dream placed locks his crosshair on the opponent. It was also around this time that Dream broke through the 1 million subscriber mark, a feat that is probably not that amazing considering his later achievements. The Manhunt era eventually still lasts until today, producing over 25 videos and a million Reddit-worthy plays or clutches that you are all too familiar with. If by any chance you haven’t experienced any of this fun, here is the playlist for all of Dream’s Manhunt videos.

Dream SMP

The Dream SMP initially just started out as a private server between Dream and GeorgeNotFound, where they try to explore the new Nether Update in Minecraft. Soon, Dream invited some of his team crew, with the likes of Sapnap and ItsAlyssa, to join the server. Eventually, more content creators joined the fray, and the Dream SMP spiraled into all the chaos we all know today. The content made in the server ranges from drama, war, politics, friendship, and betrayal, you name it. Most of the events that occurred in Dream SMP are only shared on Twitch streams, so a majority of Dream’s YouTube fans might never get a full glance at what truly transpired in the server. However, you can check out the fascinating Dream SMP documentary below to catch up with all the drama.

Speedrunning & Cheating Controvery

To train for the Manhunt series, Dream decided to embargo his journey of Minecraft speed runs. After all, random seed Minecraft speedruns require a similar set of skills (excluding PvP) and achieve the same goal of eliminating the ender dragon, like Manhunt. Streaming and doing Minecraft speedrun essentially kills 2 birds with one stone: train for Manhunt, and try to get a world record in the speedrunning category. Dream did his speedrun streams for quite a while and things went pretty normally. However, in early October of 2020, Dream achieved a world record and placed 5th as the fastest runs in the 1.16 random seed category. He subsequently submitted his run on speedrun.com and his name was placed on the podium. 

Unbeknownst to Dream, another Minecraft speedrunning expert has been spectating his stream and noticed the significantly higher drop rates of Ender pearls in his runs, an integral item to have in this category. A few weeks later, Dream denied all allegations of cheating or tampering with his Minecraft drop rates, dismissing it as another form of cherry-picking random events.

However, after two months of rigorous investigation by the moderators of speedrun.com, Dream’s run was concluded to be not legitimate and was consequently removed from the leaderboards. A YouTube video on Geosquare’s channel (one of the speedrun.com mods) and an in-depth report were soon released to explain the whole matter. In short, the primary reason behind the verdict to discard the run was Dream’s insane drop rate odds of 1 in 7.5 trillion.

Guilty or not, Dream was considerably pissed off at the whole thing and went on a Twitter and discord rant that produced quite the drama, to say the least. Nevertheless, he still believes that the allegations are false and will soon hire an expert to back his perspective. On December 23, Dream released his response as well as the report made by an anonymous statistician claiming that Dream’s odds were much closer to 1 in 10 million, far less than the initial 7.5 trillion. However, the report eventually received a lot of criticism and other statistics or math experts, such as the likes of Matt Parker, quickly pointed out existing errors and still stand on the side of the moderators. At the end of the day, Dream did not get his speedrun reenlisted on the leaderboards, and the controversy was at a stalemate. On the one hand, we have people who believe in the maths and, on the other, we got people who do not exclude the chance of someone’s lottery-winning lucks.

Fortunately, the drama was finally concluded on May 30, 2021, when Dream made a statement that admits that he accidentally had a mod that tinkered with the item drop rates. So yes, Dream did cheat, but it is now only an issue of whether it was done unintentionally or blatantly

Other Ventures Outside YouTube

On April 2021, two YouTube giants, Dream and MrBeast, did a crossover no one expected. MrBeast collaborated with Dream to release the Dream Burger in his MrBeast Burger fast food restaurant.

Unbeknownst to most of Dream’s fans, he also released several songs on his music channel. His first-ever song, titled “Roadtrip” was released on February 4, 2021, as part of a collaboration project with PmBata. “Mask” was released a few months later on May 21, and his latest song, “Change My Clothes“, which features Alec Benjamin, was released on August 19.

 

Featured Image: Dexerto

10 Game Terbaru yang Dirilis pada November 2021

Bulan November biasanya menjadi bulan terbaik bagi para gamer karena judul-judul besar biasanya menjadikan bulan ini sebagai bulan perilisan sebelum masa liburan datang. Namun November tahun ini mungkin bukan menjadi bulan terbaik, yang bahkan terasa lebih sepi ketimbang bulan Oktober lalu. Tapi bukan berarti bulan ini tidak memiliki game-game yang wajib dinantikan.

Perhatian utama untuk untuk bulan ini ada pada pertarungan dua game first person shooter terbesar yaitu Battlefield 2042 melawan Call of Duty: Vanguard. Keduanya membawa tema yang berbeda dengan keunggulannya masing-masing. Selain itu ada seri terbaru dari Forza Horizon 5 yang membawa kita ke Meksiko dan nuansa nostalgia dengan 3 game GTA:The Trilogy. Berikut daftar lengkapnya:

Call Of Duty: Vanguard

5 November 2021 – PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

November ini dibuka dengan Activision yang membawa para pemain kembali ke masa lalu lewat Call of Duty: Vanguard. Dikembangkan oleh Sledgehammer Games, game ini memberikan pengalaman klasik dari seri Call of Duty terutama pada campaign berlatar Perang Dunianya yang kini dihadirkan dengan twist di dalamnya. Selain itu, game ini juga membawa mode multiplayer dan juga zombie yang dicintai oleh para fans.

Forza Horizon 5

9 November 2021 – PC, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One

Salah satu game dengan hype tertinggi tahun ini nyatanya didapatkan oleh game balap milik Playground Games. Membawa pemain menjelajah ke alam Meksiko yang eksotis, Forza Horizon 5 menyediakan map terbesar yang pernah ada dalam serinya sekaligus ratusan pilihan mobil yang bisa dikendarai. Pemain juga akan disibukkan dengan berbagai aktivitas mulai dari balapan hingga mengeksplorasi reruntuhan kuno yang tersembunyi.

Jurassic World Evolution 2

9 November 2021 – PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Siapa gamer yang tidak ingin menjadi pemilik dari sebuah taman bermain yang berisi dinosaurus? Dan bila Anda menjadi salah satu yang telah menunggu lama sekuel dari game SimPark bertema dinosaurus maka bulan ini menjadi bulan yang menyenangkan karena developer Frontier akhirnya akan merilis sekuel Jurassic World Evolution. Dengan campaign baru, berbagai kostumisasi, dan juga ‘Chaos Theory’, game ini akan menguji kehandalan pemain menghadapi skenario tidak terduga.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim Anniversary Edition

11 November 2021 – PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Terlepas dari teriakan para fans yang telah lelah dengan TES: Skyrim, nyatanya Bethesda masih melihat potensi besar atas salah satu mahakaryanya ini. Dan dalam ulang tahunnya yang kesepuluh, Skyrim kini mendapatkan edisi Anniversary yang sejatinya adalah Spesial Edition yang telah dirilis pada 2016 lalu dengan tambahan berbagai konten dari Creation Club dan juga fitur-fitur baru seperti mini-game memancing.

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition

11 November 2021 – PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Impian para fans Grand Theft Auto agar trilogi game 3D universe mendapatkan remaster kini menjadi kenyataan. Meskipun pada akhirnya para fans memiliki reaksi yang beragam terhadap trailer perdana yang dirilis. Rockstar membawa GTA III, Vice City, dan San Andreas dengan tampilan modern sekaligus masih mempertahankan style originalnya.

Shin Megami Tensei V

12 November 2021 – Nintendo Switch

Meneruskan serinya yang sudah berjalan lama, instalasi terbaru dari Shin Megami Tensei ini akan siap dimainkan oleh para pemilik Nintendo Switch. Ia akan kembali mengajak pemain ke Tokyo di dimensi lain untuk membasmi para iblis. Seperti seri-seri sebelumnya, pemain akan melakukan negosiasi dan fusion dengan iblis lain untuk mendapatkan kekuatan khusus dalam pertarungan bergaya press-turn yang ikonik dari serinya.

Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One

16 November 2021 – PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

Bagi para pecinta detektif legendaris, game Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One akan menjadi game yang tidak boleh dilewatkan. Developer Frogware mengambil langkah baru dengan membawa pemain ke masa muda Holmes dalam menginvestigasi rumah masa kecilnya. Game ini memiliki variasi gameplay mulai dari pemecahan misteri hingga aksi pertarungan yang seru.

Battlefield 2042

19 November 2021 – PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Saingan dari Call of Duty ini memang datang lebih belakangan, namun kelihatannya hal tersebut tidak membuat EA dan DICE takut. Karena, Battlefield 2042 menjadi game Battlefield paling ambisius yang tidak hanya membawa serinya ke akar aslinya sebagai game multiplayer, tapi juga membawa map-map klasiknya menjadi satu tanpa embel-embel remaster atau remake.

Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl

19 November 2021 – Nintendo Switch

Nintendo kelihatannya tidak ingin ketinggalan tren remake dan remastered yang dilakukan game-game PC dan konsol lainnya. Maka tidak mengejutkan bila Nintendo kini akhirnya menghadirkan game Pokemon mereka dari masa Nintendo DS ke Nintendo Switch. Para pemain akan diajak kembali berpetualang ke Region Sinnoh dengan grafis yang telah dirombak total menjadi lebih modern dan indah namun tetap mempertahankan gameplay original klasiknya.

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker

23 November 2021 – PC, Mac, PS4, PS5

Untuk yang terakhir ini mungkin memang game baru, namun Endwalker merupakan ekspansi terbesar yang didapatkan oleh Final Fantasy XIV. Dalam ekspansi ini, akan ada banyak konten termasuk kelas baru yaitu Sage dan Reaper yang akan membuat para pemain sibuk, sekaligus memberikan konklusi akhir ke dalam cerita panjang yang telah dibawa oleh game-nya. Namun Square Enix juga memastikan kepada para fans bahwa hal tersebut bukan menjadi pertanda bahwa Final Fantasy XIV juga akan berakhir.

Penutup

Itu tadi adalah game-game menarik yang akan dirilis pada bulan November 2021 ini. Duel antara Call of Duty Vanguard dan Battlefield 2042 mungkin akan menjadi perhatian utama, ditambah dengan aksi balapan di jalanan Meksiko lewat Forza Horizon 5. Anda juga bisa bernostalgia dengan deretan remastered dan remake dari game-game klasik seperti GTA, Skyrim, dan juga Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl.

Spesifikasi, Benchmark, Hingga Harga Prosesor Intel Gen 12 Siap Bantai Tim Merah?

Pada 27 Oktober kemarin, Intel secara resmi mengumumkan processor generasi terbaru mereka dengan arsitektur “Alder Lake”. Mereka mengumumkan bahwa seri processor generasi ke-12 mereka itu akan meluncur ke pasaran pada 4 November mendatang. Namun, di perilisannya nanti, hanya seri unlocked atau biasa dilabelkan dengan huruf K dan KF yang akan terjun ke pasaran. Di sisi lain, seri lainnya akan rilis di tahun depan.

Spesifikasi dan harga dari Intel Alder Lake (Image Credit: Intel)

Ada 6 processor dari Intel yang akan rilis di 4 November, yaitu Core i9 12900K, Core i9 12900KF, Core i7 12700K, Core i7 12700KF, Core i5 12600K, dan Core i5 12600KF. Sekadar informasi, huruf K mengartikan bahwa processor tersebut telah ter-unlocked untuk di-overclock dan huruf F berarti processor tersebut tidak memiliki integrated graphics bawaan.

Untuk harganya, flagship terbaru dari Intel, yaitu Core i9 12900K dibanderol dengan harga US$589 (Rp8,36 juta) dan US$569 (Rp8 juta) untuk seri KF. Intel Core i7 12700K dibanderol dengan harga US$409 (Rp5,8 juta) dan untuk seri KF-nya berada di US$384 (Rp 5,45 juta). Terakhir, ada Intel Core i5 12600K dengan harga US$289 (Rp4,1 juta) dan US$264 (Rp3,75 juta) untuk seri KF. Semua harga yang tertulis di atas merupakan harga MSRP dari Intel.

Line-up processor yang diklaim oleh Intel sebagai “processor gaming terbaik di dunia” ini mengusung chip Intel 7 (10nm) yang dikombinasikan dengan teknologi hybrid terbaru milik Intel. Tidak tanggung-tanggung, arsitektur cache milik processor Intel teranyar ini juga didesain ulang, menghasilkan jumlah cache yang lebih tinggi.

Image Credit: Intel

Teknologi hybrid dari Intel ini memungkinkan processor memiliki dua tipe core yang berbeda, yaitu performance core (P-core) dan efficient core (E-core). Sesuai namanya, kedua core ini memiliki fungsi yang berbeda — P-core diperuntukkan untuk mengejar performa tinggi dan E-core lebih ke efisiensi daya serta dapat membantu meningkatkan performa multi-thread. Berkat teknologi hybrid ini, dengan daya hanya 65W, Intel Core i9 12900K dapat memberikan performa yang sama dengan i9 11900K saat full power (250W).

Uniknya, E-core ternyata diambil dari desain core pada Intel Atom. Yak, processor yang biasanya ditemukan pada sejumlah laptop budget friendly, kini dipakai di processor tercanggih Intel. Metode ini bukan hal yang buruk, karena E-core yang terdapat di Intel Core generasi ke-12 ini sudah dirombak total hingga menyaingi performa arsitektur Skylake dari Intel. Jadi, E-core ini tidak hanya efisien daya, performanya juga tidak main-main.

Berbicara tentang daya, Intel kini menjelaskan TDP dari processor mereka secara lebih rinci. Pasalnya, mereka menampilkan dua TDP untuk processor Alder Lake ini — yaitu base power (PL1) serta turbo power maksimum (PL2). Tadinya, mereka hanya menampilkan satu TDP saja di semua spesifikasi processor mereka.

Hal tersebut membuat banyak orang bingung untuk memilih kapasitas power supply yang tepat untuk PC mereka. Sebagai contoh, Intel Core i9 11900K memiliki TDP hanya 125W. Namun, saat pemakaian di dunia nyata, Core i9 11900K ternyata dapat menarik daya hingga 295W.

Image Credit: Intel

Intel juga memperbarui kofigurasi management daya di processor mereka. Dulu, untuk semua K-series, Intel mendesain konfigurasi daya yang dapat naik turun ke PL1 hingga PL2 sesuai kebutuhan. Namun, ternyata hampir semua motherboard mengabaikan konfigurasi tersebut dan membuat konfigurasi daya sendiri — yaitu memberikan daya PL2 (maximum turbo boost) setiap saat. Hal ini membuat pengguna bingung akan konfigurasi mana yang benar.

Untuk mengatasi ambiguitas ini, Intel merombak konfigurasi daya di processor Alder Lake terbaru ini untuk mengikuti konfigurasi yang dipakai oleh motherboard. Jadi, processor Alder Lake sekarang akan jalan di daya maximum turbo power secara bawaan pabrik. Namun, pengguna juga dapat mengganti konfigurasi daya ke sebelumnya secara manual.

Image Credit: Intel

Lanjut ke spesifikasi platform-nya, semua processor generasi ke-12 yang telah diumumkan oleh Intel memiliki 16 jalur PCIe 5.0 dan 4 jalur PCIe 4.0. Lalu, chipset Intel Z690 juga menambahkan 12 jalur PCIe 4.0 serta 16 jalur PCIe 3.0. Jadi, untuk konektivitas ke GPU dan M.2 SSD pastinya sudah lebih baik dari generasi sebelumnya.

Socket yang dipakai oleh Alder Lake juga berbeda dari generasi sebelumnya, yaitu LGA 1700. Jika socket pendahulunya memiliki bentuk yang kotak, LGA 1700 memiliki bentuk seperti persegi panjang.

Untuk overclocking, Intel Alder Lake menyediakan banyak hal yang bisa diotak-atik — seperti rasio P-core dan E-core, frekuensi ring/cache, graphics, memory, hingga base clock. Intel juga membiarkan penggunanya mengatur individual core enable/disable, kontrol voltase, offset AVX, dan banyak lagi. Semua ini dapat dikonfigurasi di software Intel Extreme Tuning Utility versi 7.5 terbaru.

Pilihan DRAM untuk Intel Alder Lake juga bervariasi. Pasalnya, processor ini kompatibel dengan RAM DDR5 maupun DDR4. Namun, pengguna harus memiliki salah satu — karena motherboard untuk support RAM DDR4 dan DDR5 berbeda. Jika memilih RAM DDR5, Intel memiliki teknologi XMP 3.0 baru yang membawa segudang fitur baru. Seperti profile XMP yang bertambah menjadi 5, CRC Checksum, On Module Voltge Control, dan lainnya.

Image Credit: Intel

Kini, saatnya membahas klaim Intel tentang “processor gaming terbaik di dunia”. Menurut pengetesan Intel di 31 game yang berbeda, i9 12900K secara rata-rata lebih unggul 13% dari i9 11900K. Pengetesan tersebut dilakukan dengan resolusi 1080p dan pengaturan grafis high.

Kedua processor tersebut dikombinasikan dengan NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090. Bedanya, i9 12900K menggunakan RAM DDR5-4400 sedangkan i9 11900K masih menggunakan DDR4. Penggunaan RAM ini patut diperhatikan karena menurut Intel, DDR5 memberikan performa gaming yang lebih unggul dari DDR4.

Intel vs AMD (Image Credit: Intel)

Tidak hanya itu, Intel juga membandingkan i9 12900K dengan pesaingnya, AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. Menurut pengetesan itu, performa i9 12900K kalah 3% di Shadow of the Tomb Raider dan unggul hingga 30% di Troy: A Total War Saga. Namun, angka-angka ini tidak sepenuhnya akurat karena pengetesan dilakukan dengan OS Windows 11 sebelum bug performa AMD diperbaiki.

Memakai teknologi yang baru, pastinya ada beberapa rintangan yang harus dihadapi. Sayangnya, karena teknologi hybrid dari Intel, seri Alder Lake tidak kompatibel dengan Denuvo VRM. Hal ini mengakibatkan sebanyak 91 game tidak dapat dijalankan dan 32 di antaranya sedang diperbaiki.

Image Credit: Intel

Beralih ke produktivitas, performa processor Alder Lake diklaim meningkat signifikan dari pendahulunya. Menurut pengetesan Intel, processor generasi ke-12 mereka lebih unggul sekitar 30% dari generasi ke-11 di sejumlah aplikasi Adobe. Menariknya, benchmark Adobe After Effects Pulse menunjukkan bahwa i9 12900K lebih cepat 100% dari i9 11900K.

Anehnya, Intel tidak membandingkan processor teranyar mereka dengan kompetitornya dalam segi produktivitas. Mereka juga tidak membuat klaim processor tercepat untuk produktivitas layaknya yang mereka lakukan di segi gaming. Apakah ini artinya AMD masih lebih unggul dari Intel dalam produktivitas?

Di sisi lain, Intel juga menyiapkan GPU terbaru mereka bernama Arc. Kartu grafis ini disebut-sebut akan rilis pada awal tahun 2022 mendatang. Hmm… Sepertinya Intel sangat ambisius untuk mengambil kembali pasar PC.

Featured image credit: Tom’s Hardware

Kompilasi Review Guardian of the Galaxy: Petualangan Antar Galaksi yang Ternyata Menyenangkan

Marvel Guardian of the Galaxy menjadi salah satu game terbesar yang dirilis pada Oktober ini. Square Enix dan Eidos-Montreal memang punya tugas besar untuk menjadikan game ini lebih baik dari Marvel Avengers yang sebelumnya mendapatkan kritikan pedas.

Baru saja dirilis beberapa hari yang lalu, Guardian of the Galaxy ternyata mampu memberi kejutan dengan mendapatkan review yang mayoritas positif. Mayoritas media tidak menyangka bahwa Square Enix dapat memberikan sebuah game linear yang berfokus penuh pada cerita. Bahkan Polygon menjadikan game ini sebagai ‘biggest surprise of the year‘.

Cerita para Guardian yang tetap menarik

Image Credit: Square Enix

Meskipun nama Guardian of the Galaxy sudah cukup terkenal setelah mendapatkan dua film adaptasi, namun Square Enix ternyata masih memperlakukan game ini sebagai perkenalan kepada para pemain. Seperti yang dituliskan oleh Game Revolution, kisah dalam game ini menyimpang dari MCU maupun komiknya.

Namun bukan berarti Anda akan sulit menikmati cerita baru ini. Malah, cerita yang diangkat oleh Eidos-Montreal memiliki kedalaman baru yang mungkin tidak ditunjukkan di versi film layar lebarnya. Seperti bagaimana interaksi Peter Quill alias Star Lord kepada ibunya sebelum diculik ke luar angkasa. Sam Loveridge dari GamesRadar+ bahkan memuji narasi game ini sebagai kisah unik yang memorable.

Cerita berbobot tersebut juga didukung dengan para pengisi suara dan juga motion capture berkelas. Kombinasi semuanya nyatanya mampu membuat karakter-karakter dalam game ini seakan benar-benar hidup dengan kepribadian uniknya masing-masing.

Visual dunia luar angkasa Marvel yang menakjubkan mata

Menjadi game yang berfokus pada pengalaman single player tentunya mengharuskan Guardian of the Galaxy memberikan pengalaman visual maksimal di setiap adegannya. Untungnya developer Eidos-Montreal berhasil menghadirkannya di game ini dengan baik.

Gameranx bahkan menyebut bahwa game ini memiliki dunia yang menakjubkan dengan visual yang menarik. Pujian memang pantas diberikan kepada Eidos-Montreal yang tidak menahan diri untuk menghadirkan semesta antariksa yang cukup gila-gilaan untuk dijelajahi.

Apalagi game ini juga menggunakan teknologi ray-tracing yang memang cocok dengan tema fiksi-ilmiah dan futuristis yang diusung. Meskipun sayangnya, Wccftech mengatakan bahwa implementasi ray-tracing dalam game ini kurang optimal sehingga menyebabkan stutter.

Gameplay bervariasi yang tetap berimbang

Image Credit: Square Enix

Berlanjut ke gameplay-nya, Guardian of the Galaxy memiliki gameplay dasar layaknya game single player action adventure pada umumnya. Pemain akan memerankan Star Lord yang akan mengekesplorasi dunia linear sekaligus beraksi dengan kedua pistolnya.

Namun selain formula klasik yang telah digunakan di banyak game single player tersebut, Guardian of the Galaxy juga menyuntikkan beberapa variasi gameplay untuk membuat jalannya cerita dan pertarungan di dalam game-nya lebih menarik. Bahkan Paul Tassi dari Forbes menyebut game ini telah mendorong penyampaian cerita di jalan yang belum pernah ia lihat sebelumnya.

Yang pertama adalah sistem pilihan dialog yang akan mempengaruhi cerita layaknya game telltale. Pilihan dialog ini akan muncul di beberapa momen di dalam game-nya, pemain dapat memilih satu dari dua atau tiga opsi jawaban yang akan memiliki konsekuensi pada kelangsungan cerita ke depannya.

Sistem pertarungan unik penuh strategi

Melanjutkan poin sebelumnya, saya memutuskan memisahkan sistem pertarungan dalam Guardian of the Galaxy ini menjadi penjelasan tersendiri. Hal tersebut dikarenakan keunikan dan keberanian Eidos-Montreal dan Square Enix untuk mengimplementasikan sistem pertarungan yang interaktif dan memberi warna baru pada game single player.

Kami telah menyebutkan sebelumnya bahwa Star Lord beraksi hanya dengan dua pistolnya. Dan, dalam aksinya, bisa dibilang dia adalah karakter dengan damage terkecil daripada karakter Guardian yang lainnya. Namun pemain dapat mengkomando para Guardian lain untuk menyerang musuh sesuai arahan pemain. Sistem ini mirip dengan sistem yang diaplikasikan oleh Square Enix di dalam Final Fantasy VII Remake.

Sistem ini membuat aksi para Guardian lain terasa signifikan tanpa harus dimainkan secara langsung oleh pemain. Meskipun begitu pertarungan dalam game juga akan memacu pemain untuk menyusun strategi yang pada akhirnya disebut oleh Game Informer sebagai pertarungan yang sangat menghibur sekaligus memberikan tantangan yang cukup.

Penutup

Image Credit: Square Enix

Guardian of the Galaxy secara mengejutkan tampil cemerlang dengan kelebihan dan berbagai hal yang disukai oleh para gamer terhadap game single player. Kekuatan utama dari game ini terletak pada narasi sekaligus presentasi yang disajikan oleh Eidos-Montreal yang membuatnya disukai.

Sayangnya game ini juga memiliki kelemahan terutama masalah optimalisasi. Karena beberapa media seperti PC Gamer menyebutkan bahwa Guardian of the Galaxy memiliki bug dan glitch yang dapat mengganggu jalannya game. Namun ketika Square Enix dan Eidos-Montreal telah menyelesaikan masalah ini, maka game ini menyajikan sebuah petualangan di dunia intergalaktik Marvel yang menarik untuk diikuti.

The Great Reshuffle After The International 10: Week 1

A week has passed since the conclusion of perhaps the most unpredictable TI in Dota 2 history. We see esports giants make an early exit with the likes of OG and EG. We have also witnessed the sequel of Dota 2’s cinderella story when Team Spirit won it all from the lower bracket. After all of TI’s chaos ensues, we fans are only waiting for the inevitable roster reshuffles that will happen across the world. And with all of the upsets we have seen in the tournament, I am sure that we are going to be treated to the spiciest roster reshuffles yet. Many people have placed their bets and prediction on Reddit regarding the future of competitive Dota 2 will look like. Some have logical predictions backed up by the most credible sources, while others may have formed their own fairytale or fan fiction. So, after 3 hours of scrolling through countless posts and comments on Reddit, I will be compiling and summarizing some of the most probable predictions in this article. But before we do that, let’s see some of the roster changes that have occurred for the time being.

What we know so far

Even though it has only been a week since TI ended, many players and orgs have already begun to initiate their own set of moves. South America had a pretty lackluster performance at The International, and so they were naturally the first region to start their roster shuffles. Right after TI ended, Thunder Predator immediately disbanded its whole roster consisting of Mnz, Leostyle-, Frank, MoOz, and Mjz. Thunder Predator did have quite the unfortunate run at TI, virtually losing all of their games, going 0-16, and being the first the exit the tournament. Despite being org-less, the players are still planning to stick together for the next season of DPC, and are still currently looking for an organization to sponsor them.

Two days later, on 18 October, NoPing Esports, which finished 4th in the South American qualifier, also released their roster but was soon picked up by the empty Thunder Predator. Thus, the new Thunder Predator roster consists of:

  1. Crhistian “Angel” Savina
  2. Gonzalo “Darkmago” Herrera
  3. Oscar David “Oscar” Chavez
  4. Farith “Matthew” Puente
  5. Jose Leonardo “Pandaboo” Padilla Hernandez

SG Esports finished last beside Thunder Predator and also bid farewell to their entire player lineup on 21st October. As of now, Costabile, 4dr, Tavo, Thiolicor, and KJ are completely org-less, and we should see some updates on their plans for the near future.

Moving on to China, PSG LGD once again fell short in claiming the Aegis even after their attempt to comeback their 0-2 deficit against Team Spirit. Needless to say, the many Chinese fans were incredibly upset with PSG LGD’s runner-up result in TI and soon fired a barrage of criticism towards the players. Zhang “xiao8” Ning, the coach of the roster, even faced allegations of betting and purposely throwing the Grand Finals match due to the questionable decisions he made during the draft. Although these claims are unconfirmed (and most likely false), it just goes to show the measure of disappointment of the fans rooting for PSG LGD. Despite all these negative comments the roster received, they announced their unanimous commitment to stick together for the next DPC on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform.

Xiao8 and the PSG LGD roster | Source: Gamebrott

As for Asia, TNC initiated the region’s roster shuffle when they released their entire roster on 17th October. The news was definitely a surprise for many fans as their performance last DPC was not that bad, finishing 2nd in the TI qualifiers and top 8 in WePlay AniMajor. Nevertheless, Tims immediately joined Boom Esports while the TNC’s captain, Boomy, found a spot at Polaris Esports, a new Philippines-based esports org. Gabbi, Armel, and Bok haven’t made any of their own moves and are still currently LFT.

Ng Kee “ChYuan” Chyuan and Yang “Deth” Wu Heng also recently departed from Fnatic, the second SEA team in TI besides T1, due to their contract expiration. It is undoubtedly weird to not see both of them getting an extension since they haven’t stayed for very long in the team. Despite joining in Q2 of 2021, the team still managed to qualify for TI, outperforming old dogs like TNC. Even though it is sad to see the lost potential of the new SEA powerhouse, the team and players undoubtedly have only set a better plan for Fnatic in the future.

Quincy Crew was one of the favorites coming into TI, especially for many NA fans. Unfortunately, they did not manage to reach their expectations, only finishing 9-12th place. Quincy Crew’s manager, Jack Chen, quickly hinted at a roster change after the conclusion of the tournament. A few days later, Lelis, the team’s offlaner, officially announced his departure from the roster on Twitter


On the EU landscape, Alliance’s expected underperformance in TI possibly prompted the org to modify its roster. On 21st October, Alliance announced the departure of their midlaner, Limmp, and support, fng, on its blog. At the end of the week, the legend Gustav “s4” Magnusson himself also parted ways with Alliance. We haven’t had any additional news if s4 will retire or will take his talents elsewhere. 

The former 2-time TI winner OG, also had quite an early exit at TI, possibly signaling the end of an era. Sebastian “Ceb” Debs also hints at retirement, saying that TI10 is going to be his last tournament. Although no official statements have been released, Misha, OG’s coach has stepped in as Ceb’s former role as team captain, further suggesting Ceb’s departure from the competitive scene.

Future Roster Shuffle predictions

Before discussing or predicting roster shuffles, let’s briefly filter out the teams that will most likely not make any changes. The first and probably the most obvious one is the winners of TI, Team Spirit. I don’t think I have to explain why a winning team would not want to change their player lineup; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. PSG LGD, as we have seen previously, has also followed this route and stuck together as a roster.

The second runner-up, Team Secret, is will also not likely to make any changes. This point is imperative to clarify since many have speculated some player swaps between Secret, EG, OG, and even Nigma. TI10 was the first major breakthrough of Team Secret in The International, and they were able to achieve this goal by not making any roster changes since 2019. Therefore, I highly doubt that Team Secret will modify its roster for the upcoming DPC season. One prevalent theory that always pops up when Secret fails to win in TI is the rejoining of Arteezy, consequently trading MATUMBAMAN to EG. This trade will probably never happen since it is more of a downgrade than it is of an upgrade for the Secret roster.


People have split opinions regarding the future of T1. Some suggest that they will not stay together, while others think that they are already a perfect match. Judging from their latest interviews and tweets, I don’t think that the team will split up for the next DPC season. Their current roster is only assembled in early 2021, and with enough time and effort, T1 could truly be one of the top contenders in TI. If they were to split up, SEA’s potential to build their new powerhouse would be incredibly wasted.

Virtus.pro is another team that will possibly stay with the same lineup due to their amazing run at TI, managing to place 5th. Lastly, fan-favorite Team Tundra, who almost kicked OG out of the TI qualifiers, is highly likely to stay together for the next DPC seasons. The team is relatively new, forming only in early January, but already has promising prospects as the new “OG” in Dota. Now that we have clarified the teams that will stay out of the roster shuffle, we can now make some predictions about the team lineup changes that will occur throughout the Dota competitive scene.

Let’s start with one of the big guns who had quite the upsetting results at TI: Evil Genius. NA’s Dota 2 powerhouse, EG, had an unusually early exit at the tournament. For many, EG was always considered a top 3 team in the entire world, and they rarely or hardly ever finished below 6th place in a tournament. This TI, however, only finished 9-12th beside their NA brethren Quincy Crew. With this incredibly disappointing performance, fans quickly speculated of a roster modification in EG. PPD, a former captain of EG, predicted EG’s future lineup on Twitter.


If the lineup prediction above were true, Abed and iceiceice will presumably return to SEA Dota, while CCNC and Lelis (who parted ways with Quincy Crew) will join EG to fill the void. However, these rumors were quickly dismissed by Cr1t- on his 19th October Twitch stream. “I mean, it just makes no sense. Abed is literally like the best midlaner in the world. There’s no doubt in my mind about that. There is no way we would part ways with him.” Cr1t- commented on Abed.

EG’s coach, Kanishka “BuLba” Sosale, was also under fire for his stale and uncreative drafts throughout TI. For instance, Abed was mostly constrained to only playing the “spirit” heroes, even though his hero pool is much more versatile. Arteezy was never given access to his patented farming heroes and is forced to play more aggressive carries with the likes of Razor. Many EG fans have wanted BuLba out of EG for quite some time and let Fly do the drafting; TI10 could just be the straw that broke the camel’s back. If BuLba were to leave EG, PPD or Aui_2000 could be both suitable substitutes in the coaching position.

Kanishka “BuLba” Sosale | Source: Liquipedia

Another organization with a major upset in TI is OG. We have previously established the possibility of Ceb retiring from pro play (maybe going back to coaching), and this prediction has been somewhat confirmed by Misha taking over the captain role. Topson and N0tail have also hinted at retirement options some time before TI10, but they have yet to make follow-up statements after the tournament. If Topson were to exit OG, Sumail can have the option to go back to the mid position, which he has been playing in his recent Twitch streams.

One far-fetched but still possible theory that has been crafted is the reuniting of Fly and N0tail. After all, Gorgc, who had previously had connections with OG, mentioned that the roster shuffle will be “spicy”. Furthermore, both EG and OG have massively underperformed at TI, putting them on the same boat. If these two players were to reunite, the Naru-tail and Sasu-fly storyline that the fans have created will ultimately be complete. However, as much as I want this to happen, it is more likely to be a fairytale than reality. The closest thing we can get to this theory is some form of player swaps between the two orgs, maybe Abed and iceiceice going to OG, for instance.

“The Handshake”

The slightly more plausible theory is that some SEA free agents will step into either EG or OG. Gabbi, Mikoto, and Armel are all org-less players who have explored options to play in EU or NA teams after TI10. Kpii and InYourDream can also fit into this category of players.

Let’s see how these SEA free agents can fit in OG. Gabbi can take the carry role in OG as Sumail switches to mid. If Sumail were to stay in position 1, then Armel, Mikoto or InYourDream can take the position 2 role. Kpii can fill the void that Ceb left behind.

In fact, the same arsenal of players can also be a part of Team Nigma, who recently merged with Galaxy Racer to form Nigma Galaxy. InYourDream, who is currently in Team Nigma Galaxy SEA, can possibly join the EU section of the organization while the rest of the roster moves to the rebuilding GeekFam. This is somewhat likely to happen since Valve does have a rule that only allows one roster per organization to compete in TI. Therefore, I highly doubt that Nigma Galaxy SEA will work out in the long term.

All these available org-less SEA players do have the potential to join EU or NA teams, but it is also likely that they will stay in their region and form a new team or join a pre-existing SEA team. If you recall, Fnatic has parted ways with their midlaner ChYuan and offlaner Deth. So, as you may expect, Armel/Mikoto and Kpii fit both of their roles in the team. If iceiceice were to return to SEA, he could also possibly return to Fnatic, his previous team before EG, as its offlaner as well.

A common prediction surrounding OG’s shuffle is the entry of Aliwi “w33” Omar. Around April 2021, w33 was surprisingly moved to the inactive roster of Nigma Galaxy and is substituted by younger Russian talent. Igor “iLTW” Filatov.

Many speculated that w33 will soon leave Nigma for good and join another EU organization, the most obvious candidate being OG if Topson were to retire. Hopefully, the transfer would not be similar to when OG picked up Pajkatt to fill Ana’s role in hard carry after TI8. Pajkatt ultimately only stayed in OG for 38 days and left due to chemistry issues. W33 could also take his talents to Alliance, which recently parted ways with Limmp. W33 would undoubtedly be a massive upgrade for Alliance since he is a far more superior and experienced midlaner compared to Limmp.

Another popular prediction is Nine and 33 going to OG. Indeed, they have a great potential to fit the OG’s team structure. Nine always has a similar playstyle to Topson, so the team would not have any problems adjusting. 33 also spent a short time and had some experience in OG as a stand-in during ESL One Los Angeles 2020. However, both Nine and 33 are currently part of Team Tundra, which I believe will not break up for the next DPC. But if this were all to happen, OG might have the necessary caliber to step up as real contenders in the next year. Both of them could possibly also go to Alliance with the recent exit of s4.

Team Tundra’s offlaner, 33 | Source: Liquipedia

A recent rumor stated that Yapzor will be moving to NA, while Cr1t- wishes to join an EU team. However, the rumor is not very solid, and both of these players seem incredibly invested in their respective teams at this point. Secret’s had massive success in TI partly due to the high-level support plays from Yapzor. Cr1t-, despite being Danish, is considered by most fans to already be an NA player and probably 2nd or 3rd best player in EG.