Becoming a Resident of Evil

It was the year 1996, The first Playstation just came out a year ago and not everyone owned it, it was new and expensive and it ran games on CD; The future was now, and the games that were on it were the subject of discussions throughout the school, it was the thing dreams were made of and an object of desire to every high school student I knew. 

Luckily my close friend at the time named Ahmed was one of the blessed ones that owned a PlayStation, I remember how mesmerized I was seeing the early games that were out, games like Wipeout and Ridge Racer, it was unlike anything I have witnessed before. Games were hard to find though, and expensive! We were only students and allowances were not nearly enough to cover the cost of a brand new game, even illegal copies at the time cost around BD10 (USD25) due to the high cost of blank CDs, gamers were just starting to make the transition between floppy disks/cartridges to CDs as it was a new tech leap at that period. 

Enter the day where our gaming lives changed forever, Ahmed gives me a call and tells me about this kick ass demo he has for an up coming action/horror game, I immediately told my dad  not to pick me up the next day from school as I will be heading to Ahmed's house immediately after. And so I did, and after devouring lunch we ran to the PlayStation and booted up this awesome game he was going to show me, as soon as the demo started I immediately remembered one of the most memorable games on PC, Alone in the Dark, the tank controls, the creepy mansion, the fixed cameras, the zombies, all screamed new AITD game, and I was immediately in love.     

Going through the Resident Evil demo time after another, we did not mind the repetitiveness but we were thirsty for more! I went on dreaming about this game and how it might feel like to explore and go through that mysterious mansion. Days later I get a call from Ahmed, he just said "I got it". I immediately knew what he was talking about as I was screaming on the phone in excitement, and immediately ran to tell my parents that I needed to be at Ahmed's FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK! Obviously they declined my request but they did allow me to go the next day and possibly the following, and so I did, and began a wonderful journey of exploration and puzzle solving in this creepy zombie infested mansion. 

As I mentioned already, the PlayStation was a new console at the time and transitioning from SNES/SEGA or any 16-bit era console, the concept of save game was not very common, sure some games had the ability to save progress in the cartridge itself, but as I said it was not very common and only a few games had it. So imagine playing all your PlayStation games up to Resident Evil without owning a memory card, yes we did it the old fashioned way, if you die you had to start from the beginning! Every time we started the game we progressed a little further, and further, until it was bedtime, and I had to go back home, Ahmed told me not to  worry as he switched the TV off, and told me we will continue our game tomorrow, yes, we left the console on overnight for many, many nights because we didn't want to lose our progress, talk about fire hazard indeed! That brick power adapter was the first to burn out obviously. Eventually Ahmed gave up and managed to get his hands on a memory card, and we were finally able to progress through the Hunters area without having to start the game over from being decapitated by them every single time. 

   

So what made this game so special? Well, other than my passionate love for Alone in the dark, it was an improvement and a new generation release of a familiar game, it was a survival game, sure; it had a few jump scares, but overall it was mostly about running and hiding rather than engaging the enemies, bullets and resources were scarce so you had to manage it well, you could only hold a certain number of items so inventory management was essential, of course the cheesy dialogues during the cut scenes and the fun out of place puzzles in the rooms, all these things combined are the core elements which made Resident Evil a memorable experience. 

School ended, we graduated and I moved away to study abroad, didn't own a PlayStation at the time, so I didn't get a chance to play the long awaited sequel until about a year after it came out, it was fine during those days; as no internet brats were there to spoil the gaming experience for you, no "let's-play" videos being streamed, actually not much going on with the internet all together, so whatever I experienced with the game was fresh and unspoiled. 

    

Moving on, going though Resident evil 2 was a blast, I mean literally; the satisfaction of pumping that shotgun so early in the game and blasting zombie heads remains satisfying till this very day. It felt familiar, similar yet innovative, the sequel packed a punch and like the first game, it had 2 wonderful campaigns which played differently in some way or another, adding replayability value as always. I still remember getting to the part where the Tyrant first bashes through the wall, I was in my college dorm room with a friend and we literally fell of our chairs. Such an exciting and memorable game and no doubt why it is critically acclaimed to be the best entry in the series. 

Many sequels followed the RE franchise, I tried my best to keep up with them, RE3: Nemesis and RE Code Veronica maintained the classic RE formula, I remember when the first footage of RE4 was leaked, which showed a new style of rear camera with a blend of fixed camera play in some areas, it looked like the future of RE was headed in the right direction, until we actually played the final version of RE4, the camera was over the shoulder and fixed cameras were gone for good, nonetheless, it still remained true to its roots, it had the RE feel even though it was a completely new style of gameplay, and as exoected, alot of people did not accept it at first, but after playing it for a while most people have come a realization that this is still a true RE game, and it turned out to be a great part and one of the best in the series overall. 

Sequel after sequel, and many spin-off games released, the spin-offs usually were inspired by the RE universe but with new gameplay styles introduced and new characters, for example, the RE:Survivor games are light gun based games, while outbreak introduced an online co-op concept which was ahead of it's time, as not many multiplayer co-op games were out then. Others include shooters and 8-bit scrolls, the list goes on and on. It was a lot for any RE fan to try to catch up with all the RE releases over the past 2 decades, I mainly dedicated myself to stay with the main game entries and perhaps try some spin-offs, ones which I found interesting at least.  

And here we are, exactly 20 years later, and at E3 2016, Capcom revealed a  teaser which was announced to be the 7th entry of the main Resident Evil game. 

Was I excited? No. 

Where do I even begin? So I tried not to be skeptical  as always and not jump to conclusions mainly by a teaser, which as I saw it, had nothing to do with the Resident Evil franchise, it's almost as if they created a new IP and just decided to stick the Resident Evil name on it last minute, again, not jumping to conclusions, I will wait to see some actual gameplay from the final game before I decide wither I will be giving up on the franchise or not. 

Well, good thing is that Capcom immediately released a playable demo, available to download at the time of the teaser announcement, I decided to watch some streams of people playing the demo to see if it's worth downloading or not, well, it's a P.T. clone, nothing more. 

From a business perspective, I can fully understand why Capcom decided to move quickly and jump on the PT bandwagon, especially that PT/Silent Hills got canceled, and how fans reacted to the news, the fans were hungry for more and Capcom gave them just that, very smart move indeed. 
The gaming industry relies heavily on first person games nowadays, I used to enjoy first person back when I was playing Wolf3D and Doom on my 286 PC, not so much nowadays, I don't know what it is but I simply despise first person, I have missed out on so many games because of my sheer hatred for first person games, I simply cannot stand them. 

This is a game targeted at the younger players, the kids that enjoy watching reaction videos of other people playing first person horror games, and before anyone mentions it, yes, I do understand this is mainly a playable teaser that has nothing to do with the main game, but Capcom did announce that the final game will be in first person, it will be horror themed and will be about survival. 

I can completely accept this game if it was another Resident Evil spin-off, call it RE:VR or RE:The House or anything, why did you have to call it RE7? Are we going to suddenly forget about the S.T.A.R.S members? What about Umbrella corp? Wesker? 
Well we don't know about what they are doing story-wise yet, but the gameplay is just... JUST LOOK AT IT! 

What's even sadder, gaming online personalities that claim to be hardcore RE fans are absolutely Fine with it! I haven't seen anyone complain about this yet, everyone seems to welcome it with open arms! 

When Capcom announced that RE will be returning to it's horror roots, I really was expecting a new RE1 style mansion/fixed camera type of game, when was the franchise anything like this? 

I am beyond disappointed at this stage. 

The 2D Souls

Being preoccupied with Dark Souls 3, I didn't get a chance to actually talk about this gem of a game which was released 2 weeks prior to DS3, a lot of people thought it was a good "filler" game to pass the time while waiting for DS3 to finally release, to me it was more than just a filler, it was a very enjoyable solid experience. 

I first heard about this game nearly 2 years back when it was still in development, it was last year when VaatiVidya released a gameplay video of this Souls-Like game as he puts it, the video got me intrigued and had me follow the development progress. Game was made by fellow Souls fans, a team of husband and wife that wanted to show their love for Dark Souls in their game, it is an indie game, but do not take this game lightly, as I soon as I hear the term "indie" I immediately think of a $5 game with 5 hour gameplay and retro graphics.. This is a full-on complex ARPG, this game took me over 22 hours of gameplay to reach NG+ (yes there is a NG+ surprise surprise) Value for money indeed!

As soon as you start the game, you will immediately have this grin on you face because the first thing you notice is how familiar the character customization is, it has a very similar layout to Dark Souls 1, and even the selection sound is similar, you will feel right at home from the very beginning. 

Alot of people immediately shouted Rip-Off, but I see this as a gift to every souls fan, made by a couple of souls fans, it is very much inspired, to the point that you will think you are playing a 2D DarkSouls 1, yes it is that close, fromthe clunky sounds of your heavy armour while walking, to the messaging system where you leave notes to other players online! 

This is what Dark souls 1 would have been if it was made in a Castlevania style, the level design is absolutely brilliant, complex levels of ups and downs, platforming elements, shortcuts to open only to realize that you are back to an area you were at a few hours ago! 

This game has crafting even, equipment and weapons and boss weapons that effect your gameplay style, even classes which offer replay value (and the ability to reset skill points), so you can play as strength build, dex, caster or faith, again, similar to Dark Souls. The skill tree system may seem overwhelming at first glance, but you will realize how easy it is to customize your build, if you are familiar with the grid system of FFX, it looks similar to that. 

I heard alot of people complain about the art style, the art work fits the game well, and the variety of different environments are beautifully sketched in a hand drawn style, although I do agree with the big-eyed characters, but have no fear, you will soon cover their faces with some bad-ass helmet or mask. 

I always wondered how well would a 2D Dark Souls be in terms of combat, but again, these guys knew what they were doing and created a tight combat system which feels great to play, rolling and blocking actually does help you with bosses, once you get used to the controls, my only down point is that I wish I was able to switch the controls scheme to match DS. 

If you are a Dark Souls fan it is a must play

If you are a Castlevania fan I highly recommend it.

If you are a fan of both... Well... Why are you still reading this? Go play it already!

The Lara Relationship

It was February of 1997, my Pentium PC had a CD-ROM drive installed for over a year now and it's been itching to try out new games, CD games were expensive at the time and hard to find, we were still trading games on floppy discs but occasionally you get some friends that will lend you their CD games, so to quench my thirst; I saved up for an issue of PC Gamer magazine every couple of months or so which came with a glorious demo disc of the latest games in the market, each disc usually had around 5 or 6 games which kept me busy till I managed to save some more money to get myself another issue 2 months later. 

It was this particular disc that attracted my attention, I have read an article on this game and have already seen a couple of screen shots, it looked fascinating and unlike anything I have seen at the time, especially that the disc cover had this bad-ass looking girl packing shotguns and Uzis, what's not to love?

The cover image and and the in-game screen shots did not do this game any justice. My mind was blown by the way this game looked and felt, how it played, the combat, the movements, the level design, and the protagonist with a name that I will always remember.. Lara Croft. 

I can't remember the number of times I have played that demo over and over again, it consisted of 2 levels, and I played them enough times to memorize every nook and cranny, where every enemy was, all the hidden items and the secret room locations. What I kept wondering was; if the demo had 2 huge levels, how big is the actual game? 
Once again I was not prepared for how huge this game was, the demo was nothing compared to the design and complexity of the later stages of the game (Looking at you St. Francis Folly). 

The original Tomb Raider game has a special place in my heart, and I am sure it is the case for a lot of players that grew up in the 90's, it was an adventure like no other, starring one of the first digital crushes any boy would have at the time. We weren't really used to play as female characters, that generation was mainly about choosing the biggest, baddest, meanest looking dude as your main video game starring role, not some skinny girl in shorts and a pony tail. Beat em' ups and fighting games were on the rise and they all had the option to play as female characters, not that anybody chose to play as them, but they were there regardless. 

There was something definitely different about Lara, she was a unique character, strong, bad ass, sexy, nothing can get in her way, she will elegantly somersault in the air while putting a bullet in between a grizzly bear's eyes, and will make that moment beautiful. 

The franchise was a phenomenal hit, yearly sequels were being put out and fans were multiplying, Lara was off to more exotic places, riding vehicles and fighting more terrifying and supernatural beings. We thought we had seen it all until the "Legend" game came out in 2006, it was the 2nd time they tried to reboot Lara (after the arguable Angel of Darkness), it wasn't a story reboot but more of a technical upgrade, a new graphical engine with smooth and easy to use controls, controlling Lara was never easier or this satisfying, it was a Lara suited for the new generation of gamers.  


























As much as they managed to blow my mind with Legend, I was not expecting

the best Lara entry yet, my absolute favorite til date, Tomb Raider Anniversary, they basically took the original Tomb Raider, with the same levels and everything, added a few areas in some levels (without taking anything out), restructured the Boss fights to make them more intense, and applied this whole package on the new Legend graphical engine. This was the Remake of dreams! This is how you Remake a game, if only other companies followed that example. 

I was never a fan of reboots, never was then and still, wither we are talking about a movie or a game, I am old fashioned and not easily accepting of change, if I like something a certain way I like to keep it that way. This being said, this was Lara we're talking about here, I've been with this girl for over 15 years, played and completed every single title til then, how can I pass on this "new" Lara they're introducing? 

It wasn't a terrible game, it wasn't the best either, they wanted to make a Lara that is more adapted to the new age, the new way of thinking, a female survivor that will fight her way out against an army of gun men. Actually all I remember was a weakling screaming and crying her way throughout the game, shooting arrows at rabbits while eating scraps off the floor. Apparently this was the Lara that SJWs and feminists wanted, as if Lara wasn't already the true symbol of feminism. Think about it, a bad ass female that: kicks everyone's ass, ventures alone, acrobatic, strong, athletic, intelligent, has charisma and good looking? So they ignored all that because they had a problem with her large cup size and short-shorts? 
I sometimes wonder what these feminists are aiming to achieve, they cry about freedom and how Muslim women are oppressed yet they oppress video game female characters and demand to have them censored? 

The latest entry entitled "Rise of the Tomb Raider" promised to take us straight into the action, a continuation of the previous "Origin" entry with actual tombs to raid this time around, well they weren't wrong, the game starts off with an amazing drop into a beautifully designed tomb, Lara is wearing a blue tank top, which is a homage to the classic Lara uniform, and it just felt amazingly nostalgic. The opening prologue was a work of art, this was the moment I have been waiting to see for years, Lara is back raiding tombs and kicking ass... 

It was a great feeling until the short prologue ended and you were dumped in a snowy field looking for scraps and shooting arrows at rabbits... 
NOT THIS S**T  AGAIN GODDAMMIT!  

      
Maybe it's about time I gave up on Lara... 

Or I'll just go play some Anniversary instead. 

A game of Souls...

My first experience of the Souls franchise was not a very pleasant one, I'm sure that is how most people say their first time was, but I wish it was like that, it was off-putting due to a coincidental negative perspective of the game on my first viewing... Allow me to explain.

A friend of mine was very much into Demons Souls when it first came out, I remember him being all excited and went on demonstrating the game on the PS3 at one of our weekly gatherings, I saw the gameplay and it did not attract me; it was mainly due to the fact that as soon as he started playing the game he got invaded by another player and died within seconds... Not really the best demonstration now is that? Especially considering how much I hate PvP in general, I was always more PvE focused when it comes to RPGs, so with that, I did not even give it a second glance..

Years pass, and Dark Souls comes out, the same friend is hyped yet again, trying to get other people hyped over it, I ask what game is that, and he mentions that it's an indirect sequel to demons souls.. Trying to remember what game that was, then I remembered the awful demonstration and again was not interested, not in the slightest.. 

Weeks pass and my friend is back and trying to get us all on board the Dark Souls hype train, he decided to give us a demonstration of the game by letting another friend play a section of the game. Now, I did not know which part of the game it was at the time but now I remember it very well, It was Sen's Fortress. So picture this- if you are already familiar with Dark Souls- imagine a newbie getting thrown into Sen's fun house (a trapped filled tight spaced hell of a castle level)..

Yes, you guessed it...The "You Died" screen got imprinted into the Plasma... 

Not even an exaggeration here, this is basically ALL I remember from that god awful demonstration, and with some miracle, they even managed to get to the Iron Golem boss, well you can imagine how well that fight went. Another horrible viewing of another Souls game. 

Years later, and it was around the time Dark Souls 2 was first announced, with a teaser coming out and people on social media losing their minds, I got a bit curious and started asking around. luckily there was a very convincing person -whom I just met at the time- that got me excited for the 1st time about any souls game, I still had that awful taste in my mouth from the first time I laid eyes on Dark Souls, but this guy was so passionate about Souls he somehow managed to convince me to get over my fears and try out the game myself, he even provided excellent beginner tips and gave me the best advice and the key to overcoming the challenge of Souls... Patience. 

Such a simple advice, yet it IS the main thing you need to have when getting into these games, you need ALOT of patience, this is not the type of game that holds your hands, it is challenging, yet it is fair, the only reason you get defeated is because you have made a mistake, so you need to learn from them. This was the exact way we used to play games, the majority of NES games which we grew up playing were tough as nails, yet we had all the time in the world so we didn't care, whenever a game over screen came out you needed to play the game from the very beginning! But we pressed Start with a big smile and a heart full of determination, knowing exactly how and when we failed, and learning from that, just to progress a little further each time. 

I am still to this day very grateful that I was pushed into this, to embark on a journey which was playing Dark Souls for the first time, it was an experience like no other, a journey into the depth of hell , the suffering, the agony, and the despair, and yet returning from that journey as a survivor, a conqueror, a human.  
I spent months on that game and nothing else, I lived and breathed Dark souls, I was thinking about it when I wasn't playing, and that was something I haven't experienced in a long time, as games got stale over the years, to finally find a  game that got me excited when talking or thinking about it; it was a great feeling to have back. 

From the frustration of being constantly defeated by the Asylum Demon, to achieving Platinum on Bloodborne, I sure have come a long way, and now, with Dark Souls 3 in just days away, it's good to be back and feel that delicious pain once more, as my body started experiencing some withdrawal syndromes...  

Souls, one hell of a drug... 

Return to Gransys [Dragon's Dogma]

It's good to be back, I really missed this magical place...

It has been a few years since I spent hundreds of hours venturing through the great land of Gransys, the setting for this fantastic Action RPG title from Capcom. The game was struggling with some performance issues due to the PS3's limitations and capabilities, so a PC version was only a dream at the time, judging how difficult it is to port games from PS3 to PC, so the news of the January 2016 release last year was explosive to the gaming community especially the die-hard Dogma fans. 

  What a great port it is, it runs smoothly wither I am running it on my gaming PC or my work laptop, both are able to handle the game superbly, with a constant 60fps and resolutions over 1080p, it feels great to replay this magnificent game. 





This game has its flaws, it's not a perfect game, nor are we claiming it is, it is like a pet you had long ago that was messy or smelt bad, yet you loved it and had great memories with, and you smile whenever you look back at the time you had together. 

The combat, character customization, and class progression, these are things that really make the game great, its the kind of game where the game play is much more enjoyable than the story, kind of like Dark souls (and all Souls games for that matter). 

but what really makes this game special to me (and many others) is the sense of adventure... 

Think back to classic D&D style of games and board games, you pick up your party and head out into the wilderness, into the dark mysterious forest, into the windy mountains or dark catacombs. This is the kind of game where preparation for your journey is a must, checking the map, knowing the route the take, how long will this route be? should we risk a shortcut? what supplies should we take with us? Who should I recruit as party members? 

These are the kind of questions you need to ask yourself before heading out of the safe town area, making sure your party rests and that you head out first thing in the morning, as the sun might set while you are still wondering around, and the night can be a scary and dangerous time to be outside. 

You will get lost, you will blink and didn't realize you just spent the last 4 hours going from point A to B to do a simple optional task, and encountered many monsters and obstacles on the way, and that's the beauty of it, you will end up skipping (unintentionally) many of this game's side quests and areas, only to do them next time around in NG+ when you read about the things you have missed during your first play though. 

I don't have much time for games as I used to, and I rarely replay games, this however is one of the few which I do not mind re-visiting, and now that it is on PC, the modding community are hard at work to make this game an even better experience than it used to be, making the replay worth every bit. 




Give it a go if you enjoyed action RPG games such as Dark Souls or Shadow of the Colossus... available on Steam 

Chasing the Clouds... My #Vaping Experience in #Bahrain

It has been almost 20 years since I picked up the disgusting habit of smoking, I have tried to quit many times before but have failed every time, I couldn't last a couple of days before giving up and getting back at it... 

Not sure if it was the recent incident of my brother being diagnosed with cancer that made me re-evaluate my current life style, but it sure was a push towards a better end; eating healthy, not drinking and exercising was already a part of my daily routine, which is natural once you hit 30 and you start to realize that you cannot live the same way you did 10 years ago; smoking however was still a part of me which I couldn't let go of and it was extremely difficult to adapt to it's absence, I was determined to do it this time, so I started to research about something called vaping. 

For those that are unfamiliar, here is a quick explanation of what Vaping is:

[Source: http://www.vapersoul.com/ ]

So basically as explained, there is no burning here, no smoke is being produced, and what you are inhaling and exhaling is vapor, I had to do a lot of research before obviously taking a risk of getting myself involved in another habit which could be worse than cigarettes/shisha, but what I discovered was a real eye opener. 

Over the past few years, the Bahrain Ministry of Health (MoH) has been doing nothing but creating a bad image of vaping and fill everyone's mind on how disastrous this thing is, I was under the impression that vaping will immediately kill you since it is the inhaling of pure chemicals, this ideology of course was growing in my mind due to the propaganda that the MoH was spreading, have these people done any form of research? do they have any laboratory test results to back up all these claims? We needed to go deeper..

So my "quit smoking" mission was still at its preparation phase, I decided to visit a few local tobacco shops and investigate about these e-cigarettes, all of them immediately told me the same thing: It's banned / it's illegal /  we don't want trouble / we will get fined / don't talk about it / leave the shop please. 
They made it sound as if I was asking for crack-cocaine, what was going on? 

Apparently MoH was raiding these shops, confiscating any e-cigarette related products, as well as fining the shops for BD1000 and threaten of closure, the Bahraini shop owner of one of these tobacco shops didn't mind explaining this to me, unlike the other shops, and told me how illegal this thing is, and he mentioned "I don't know you, you could be an undercover investigator for all I know, so I will not provide you with any information on wither I was selling these, or will be selling in the future", talk about paranoia.  
Since he was nice enough to chat, I decided to ask him what he personally thought of vaping, and according to his understanding, he truly believed it was a very dangerous habit which he did not wish upon his worst enemy, "As if this is the healthy option?" I replied as I pointed at the cases of tobacco and shisha products that were on display at his shop, he did not reply. 

moving on, it seamed like I stumbled upon a dead end here, when I remembered a friend mentioning that they sell e-cigerretes in Kuwait, I spoke to him and luckily he was heading to Kuwait in a few days time, I decided to go ahead with it and get my first e-cigarette.   

A little more research was done while I was waiting for my goods to arrive from Kuwait, with a more focus on the e-liquid or E-Juice, what is it? what goes in it? 

The main components of E-juice are Vegetable glycerine (VG) or propylene glycol (PG). VG is a natural produce extracted from types of vegetable, while PG is a chemical used in cosmetics and food products, it has been FDA approved to be generally safe for consumption, and inhaling tests have been made on lab rats with no side effects.  

All the studies that you can dig up will tell you that there are effects from vaping as far, and they will all state that no long term effects can be determined for sure, which is a fair statement since vaping is still considered relevantly new, but people have been vaping on daily bases for the past 5 years at least, some users in forums claim they are still vaping since they quit and are in top health.

It's has been 3 months now since my last cigarette... And I couldn't be happier...
That awkward pain in chest... Gone
That disgusting bad smell... Gone
My blocked sinuses... Gone
My heavy breathing during sleep... Gone
I can smell things, I can taste things, my facial features are getting better and skin lighter, I can exercise better without getting out of breath, my teeth are cleaner...

Sad, truly is...

People are not stupid, anyone with a phone can look up the information and researches and can come up with their own conclusion, spreading lies is not going to go that far, let's look at the bigger picture here, if MoH is truly concerned about the public's health, why aren't shishas and cigarettes banned? The effects of shisha smoking is even far worse than is of a cigarette, is this truly the reason? Are the MoH of Bahrain more concerned about their citizens health than the UK MoH?

My last visit to the UK about a month ago was a true eye opener, vape supplies EVERYWHERE! They sell them at grocery stores right next to the cigarette packs behind the counters, they are encouraging people to quit smoking and use vaping devices. and the amount of people vaping in the streets, if 3 out of 5 people are smokers, 1 out if the 3 was vaping! It was so refreshing a thrilling to see how people have moved to a less fatal habit. 

I was standing outside "vaping" when I was approached by an elderly English gentleman, he was curious about the device and had questions, although I was new to the scene myself, but I was happy to answer his questions, and how the transition between smoking and vaping was, hoping that he would consider quieting his 40 year old habit, it's never too late. 

Back to Bahrain, I managed to get some supplies from the UK while I was there, but I was curious on how the vaping community was growing, I decided to look up Bahraini vapers on Instagram and was surprised at the increasing number of people selling products each day, where are these people getting all these products from? 

Out of curiosity's sake I did try ordering through Aramex, I made 2 separate orders as a "test", one for a bottle of e-juice, another for a tank (no battery just a spare tank), both were declined and were labeled as unaccepted material. 

The vaping community on Instagram were selling products at at least twice the price, in some cases 3 times as much, a starter kit by Kangetech which cost me around BD27 in the UK is being sold here for BD70.. But hey, that's the black market for you. 

And if that was not bad enough, a new "crack-down" was going on these Instagram accounts, fining them for as much as BD3000 for promoting and selling e-products!  This is getting really ridiculous and out of hand. 

I wonder what's next? Arresting anyone who is actually using them? I wouldn't be so surprised. 

Studies have also claimed that number of cigarette smokers are declining yearly in the US and Europe, over 10% per year and rising, this is not a small percentage when you are talking about 45 million smokers in the US alone, think about the loss that the tobacco industry is suffering from yearly from this, which brings us to the realization that the ban in Bahrain is nothing more than economical. 

All this nonsense about not being able to regulate the e-products as the MoH claims, didn't they regulate it in the UK? If you are worried about control, allow only licensed sellers to sell the products, same case as tobacco, and if you are worried about minors, then make sure that sellers are selling them to 18 years and older, again, same case as tobacco. But spreading lies? Come on, what are you going to do when you suddenly realize that there is good money to make from this? Tell the people to "forget everything we ever said about e-products!". 

Its all about the money, its all about the dum dum duh dee dum dum 

I wonder if anyone in Bahrain went all Walter White and started making homemade e-juice... because I'M RUNNING OUT OF JUICE AND I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK TO SMOKING!

The OSN Killer?

It was quite a surprise for me last night with the sudden launch of Netflix in the middle east region, I couldn't believe it was finally happening as I entered the site and was NOT greeted by the "We're sorry but this service is not available in your region" message I got so familiar with. 

I'm not Tech-oblivious, I try to keep up with technology and upgrade my tech when my pocket allows it - after taking care of the house and family of course - but I did not use Netflix as many users in Bahrain were already doing by using it through VPN, I just want my tech services HASSLE FREE, yes; I am that type, I don't want to go through the hassle of getting a US-based credit card through one service and paying for a VPN through another service only to downgrade an already pathetic excuse of an internet speed we have to make my subscribed content un-watchable, not to mention the chance of your account being banned if VPN use was detected.  
NO, I want to be able to pay with my own credit card and get the content I subscribed to directly. 

What we have been stuck with basically is OSN, I got their services a few years back and the main reason for that is so the wife can catch up with her trash TV, I honestly don't remember the last time I gathered the family around the TV to watch something amazing that OSN was showing, or just flipping through the channels when I am alone at home, their content seemed to be catered mostly for tweens and Egyptian house wives, nothing seemed to be attractive for me to watch. 

then they launched their "on demand" services where you can basically download movies and series you want to watch, nice idea but: It took FOREVER to download anything! You have a lonely night and want to watch a movie? Well tough luck! you need to download that shit overnight!   
And if that wasn't the only issue, the newer content you needed to pay for individually, as if my $88/month subscription fee wasn't enough to cover that! 

Don't even get me started on the crappy customer service they provide, they are really fast when it comes to taking money, they only call if they want to force new packages on you, and the only messages you will get from them is when they suddenly decide to increase your current monthly charges! 

And what amazing PR they have! 
A lot of companies now reach out to their customers directly through social media, why wouldn't they? They can easily reach out to direct complaints and inquiries, while customers can publicly show their complaints to all their followers - and I know kids with a lot of followers are abusing such power, but that's a topic for another day - But take someone like; me with a handful of followers, what damage can I cause? I mean yes, I may have complained about their prices and content a couple of times, but seriously, did I really need to be blocked from following your account? I sometimes wonder if their account is managed by an actual PR personnel, or a 13 year old girl. 

The transition from OSN to Netflix I can see happening in the near future, although most homes will not be able to let go of OSN completely, but perhaps they will change their subscription to the minimum package to have it along side their Netflix subscription. 
Ease of use is also a factor to keep in mind, with OSN it's mainly a remote click away from watching your content, so the first thing I did when I created my Netflix account was to show my wife how easy it was to simply turn on the Playstation 4 and access Netflix, she was happy and I can see her using it on her own when I'm not around. getting your family members acquainted with new services and tech is what makes such transitions much easier at your home. 

What's next? Well, to start with, I really hope OSN begin reviewing their current packages and prices, because they have some serious competition now, and as for Netflix, its only been a day, but I hope the content we receive is contestant with what is being provided for the US. 

Guess we can finally "Netflix and chill" like these white kids been talking about....