No.1 Gaming Geek

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Hello. Another uneventful day has gone by. I didn't even leave my house today. Yeah, that's how dismal the whole situation is. I need to find a job soon. But since my father keeps on telling me how unattainable a job is right now due to the global financial crisis, he decided to offer me simple household jobs and he is willing to pay be $50-$100 for each job. I'm considering that.

Alright, the topic for today is:

Slipknot. One of the most controversial bands in music history. The metal band with the most amount of hardcore loyal fans, but also the band with the most amount of haters. When it comes to Slipknot, you either like them, or you hate them.

One of the main reason why people avoid Slipknot is because of the way they look. I understand. The masks they wear aren't exactly the most welcoming things. For a really long time, I have been wondering about the reason why they actually wore those masks.

Were the masks there just to boost the "hardcore" factor of the band? Or were they just a gimmick to make the band unique, so that their popularity could be increased? I had many theories, but no solid explanation. But now, I finally know the reason.

First, a little history about Slipknot. Slipknot is an American metal band from Des Moines, Iowa, formed in 1995. Their first studio album was released in 1999. The band originally consisted of only four members. They started wearing face paint during their live gigs.

By the year 1997, after members leaving and new members joining, the band was nine members strong, and all of these nine members are still in the band today. During one of their practice sessions, percussionist Shawn Crahan wore a clown mask "just for the fun of it", but the rest of the members eventually started wearing masks all well.

The masks aren't there for no reason. I agree that it adds to the "hardcore" factor, and it might help the band gain new fans, but the actual reason behind them is much more respectable. Basically, the reason why Slipknot wears the masks, or the identical clothes for that matter, is because they don't want to get fans because of the way they look, but because of the way their music sounds.

Just think about it. Who in the right mind actually buys Jonas Brothers CDs for the music. It's more like people buy the CDs because of the way the members of the group look. But when it comes to Slipknot, you don't know how they look.

Even if you did know how the members of Slipknot looked, I can assure you that they don't have the typical artist look. So you wouldn't be buying their albums because of the way they look. Unless you have really bad taste in guys.

The members of Slipknot aren't exactly in shape either. Some of them are fat, and others, while thinner, are still lacking the trim bodies you expect artists to have. In an interview, Slipknot's singer, Corey Taylor, went against claims that all Slipknot fans were fat and ugly kids by saying that the members of Slipknot were "fat and ugly kids as well".

So, the only reason why someone would support Slipknot is not because of their looks, nor because of their sex appeal, but rather for their music. Which is the way it's supposed to be in the first place. Artists should get fans because of their music, not because of anything else.

So now we all know the reason behind the masks, and I think it's a pretty damn respectable one. Slipknot may seem like a bunch of insane people to many, but behind the facade created by the masks, they are actually respectable people. I have even seen a video where they were all saying "thank you" to their bus driver as they got off the bus. Hardcore metal respectable courteous band.

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Mention worthy things:

I downloaded the Skate 2 demo and I played the hell out of it. It's a great skating simulator that actually requires skill to play, unlike the Tony Hawk series. Since it's an Electronic Arts game, I'll probably buy it soon with Lord of the Rings Conquest, then I can get $20 off.

I played Spider-Man 3 and I played what was probably the hardest level I've played through before. Basically you have to fight Kraven the Hunter, who is ****ing tough, and you have to fight him twice. Once you are done raping him, you have to fight a mutated version of Lizard, which isn't as tough, but solving the puzzle to beat him is a bitch.

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Some news:

-A new Mirror's Edge hack introduces third person view to the game. It can only be done on the PC, obviously. Picture below:

-Police cars are rumoured to be returning to Burnout Paradise through future downloadable. With the police cars back in the game, the Pursuit game type might be reintroduced as well. Picture below:

-This isn't really game news, but it is too awesome to miss. A bunch of hackers from Austin, Texas, did this to several electronic construction signs in the area:

-PS3 exclusive Killzone 2 doesn't disappoint, scoring an average of 9.4/10 among reviewers.

-It has officially been confirmed that there is no way in hell that the iPhone/iPod Touch can run Xbox 360 software. That video you saw on youtube about that guy running Halo 3 on an iPhone? It was fake. Obviously.

-The final map of the Halo 3 Mythic map pack has been revealed. It's called Sandbox. It looks some what like Sandtrap, but darker and with fewer hills. Each and every piece of this map can also be moved around in Forge mode, meaning this is another Foundry type of map. Picture below:

-EA has revealed a trio of new Need for Speed games. Need for Speed: Shift (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, PSP), Need for Speed: Nitro (Wii, DS) and Need for Speed: World Online (PC). An in game screenshot of NFS Shift:

-The next Resident Evil movie is in the works right now. It will be more similar to the second Resident Evil movie than the other two. Whatever it is, the movies don't really have much of a link to the games, so I don't bother about them.

Ok, I'm done for today. Ending off, see you tomorrow.

posted @ 10:30 PM
0 comments

Friday, January 30, 2009

Hello. Can you feel it? Change is coming. I mentioned yesterday that I would be trying something new for today's post. Change is almost always for the better. Change can reinstate something to its former glory. Change can reinspirit things. But change is like a double edged sword. It can be for the better, but also for the worst.

Hopefully, change is going to be for the better for this blog.

Basically, I'm done with doing those over detailed, under entertaining posts about the daily happenings of my life. I don't really do that much different everyday, and all the exciting stuff that actually happens are the stuff that I cannot openly mention on this blog.

So, instead of doing that, I'm going to find a new topic everyday, then I'm going to speak about my thoughts on the topic. Unless I did anything interesting on that day, I'll just mention the key moments. By focusing on one topic to write about everyday, I can also practice for the journalism aspect of my polytechnic course.

Of course I'll still be talking about my gaming and stuff, if not this blog wouldn't have a purpose of existing, but for the first time in my life, I am going to try to talk about some completely non-gaming related topics. I'm just trying it out for today, and I'll see how it turns out before deciding to continue. Commencing now.

So, the topic for today is:

Oh yeah. That's one controversial topic. All the better. Let's do this.

Today is the day we got to know the school we were posted to. While it was smooth sailing for all of us that applied for polytechnic courses, people who applied for Junior College were not as fortunate.

Out of all the people who I asked, less than five managed to get into their first choice of JC. And it is not as if the others didn't make the cutoff point or anything. Many of those who were denied a place in their JC of choice had on-the-dot scores, but there were a few that had L1R5 scores two points lower than the JC cut-off point, and yet they couldn't get in.

So the situation right now is, people everywhere are probably emo-ing. I can't exactly say that I understand how they feeling, since I got my first choice and I am happy about it, but I do know that the system is pretty screwed up. I mean, if your score meets the criteria, then you should be accepted.

Anyways, many people will be going to appeal tomorrow, so good luck with that. I personally don't see the point in appealing. If you want to get JC, and you get posted to some JC, but it's not the JC you want, aren't you still in a JC? What is the point of going through all the trouble.

Whatever it is, the most important thing is that you go down the path that you are interested in. Not the path your parents want you to take. You don't take a course you have no interest in just because you have friends taking that course.

You have to take control of you own life, because your future belongs only to you. Not to your parents, and not to your friends. That's why I realised over the course of these past few months. Despite having a score that could get me into a JC, I decided to go to poly. I did that because I'm sticking to my ambition.

And I already have everything planned out. In poly, I can get a degree in script writing/journalism. Then I'll have qualifications to be a professional writer. I need to get into the top 15% in my course, then I can get into a local University, then I'll study law there.

So now if I fail to get into the media industry, I'll still be able to be a lawyer. And many lawyers are authors too, so I'll still be able to do writing. This way, I'm diversifying my future options.

If I went to a JC:
1) I would have to study so much that I wouldn't have much leisure time,
2) I'll have to take A levels, which according to my mother, is the hardest exam someone could ever take,
3) I'll probably fail the A levels, and
4) I'll have no qualifications, so I'll have to go to a poly to get a degree.

What I'm doing now is basically saving myself two years of hardship. I'm just going to poly straight away, rather than go to JC first, then go to poly :D Ok, so I'm done with that. If you have any thoughts or comments, please feel free to tag them down.

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Mention worthy things that happened today:

I woke up an saw an sms on my phone telling me that I managed to get into Communications and Media Management in Temasek Polytechnic. I'm happy. So now I know that school starts in late April, and when it does start, I'm going to be in business school, which is one of the two faculties in any poly that has the most amount of girls :D

I finally got my ATM card. I'm very happy now. I haven't used it yet though.

I watched Yiling put a whole bunch of cosmetic products on herself. She even asked me if I wanted to try one of them on, and I readily declined her offer.

I went to pass pineapple tarts to Yiling and Desiree. Now I've passed all the tarts to everyone whom I wanted to give them to.

I am finally not with Yiling anymore. We are still friends, just not that kind of friends. And it wasn't emotional in anyway, I just talked to her for a while and that's it. I guess we were both already over each other. Anyways, it's for the better.

I played a whole lot of Spider-Man 3, and I unlocked a bunch of Achievements. The Achievements are probably worth more than 300 points altogether.

I watched the last of the American Idol auditions. The auditions are fun to watch, because the people auditioning are hilarious, but now that they are over, and the actual competition has begun, I'm not going to watch it anymore.

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The new chapters of Naruto and Bleach are now out. I uploaded some of the more exciting pages. Click to enlarge.

The new Naruto chapter is good, albeit a little confusing. Naruto is still kicking ass. It seems that even his clones can use moves that normally only the original ninja can use. Some pages:

Naruto is back in Sage mode, and he can continue to kick ass.

Naruto uses Rasen Shuriken, but it gets absorbed by one of the Pain.

In order to stop the pain from absorbing his attack, Naruto disguises a clone as the Rasen Shuriken, then he tackles into the Pain as he tries to absorb it.

Rasen Shuriken flying straight to the main Pain's face.

But because he is Pain, he can reflect the attack.

But Naruto makes use of the distraction to take down the Pain that can revive the other Pains.

This week's Bleach chapter has considerably more action than the chapters the past few weeks have been offering. Yammi appears, so Ichigo has to take on both Ulquiorra and Yammi, but then Ishida joins the fight to support Ichigo. Some pages:

Yammi wants to kill Inoue, but Ichigo can't rescue her since he is busy with Ulquiorra.

Then Ishida comes to the rescue...

And he seemingly takes down Yammi with an anti-arrancar mine. I don't think Yammi is dead yet though.

No new One Piece chapter yet, it will probably be out by tomorrow.
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Ok, I'm done for today. A whole lot of game related news will be coming tomorrow. For now, I need to sleep. Ok, ending off, see you tomorrow.

posted @ 11:52 PM
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Thursday, January 29, 2009

Hello. I thought that I was finally going to get my riches today, but I ended up being denied of them. Basically, I was supposed to get my ATM card today, but due to a screwed up turn of events, I ended up not getting it. That means I'm still poor now. ****.

This time of the year, the one that we are currently experiencing, is ****ing boring. I cannot stand it. Having school may seem crappy to those who are having it, but to someone like me, someone who has been spending the past few months rotting at home, school is something good.

The start of the year. No new movies, no new songs, no new games, no new anything. This is the time of the year that we all do the stuff left over from last year. But what if I'm the kind of person who doesn't like dwelling in the past? What if I don't bother getting back to something after its initial hype is over?

I'm not the kind of person who can do something over and over again for a prolonged period of time. I guess that explains why I am continuously buying new games so frequently. I could try to pass time playing on Xbox Live, or I could even play PC games online, but the only problem is that I've been doing that too many times. The appeal has worn off.

I could listen to music, but after listening to that much Slipknot, everything else pretty much isn't music to my ears. The fact that good music is so hard to come by these days doesn't exactly help either.

I could watch a movie I have never watched before, but I have watched most action movies, and right now I'm mostly interested in comedy movies. Not crap ones like Epic Movie and Superhero Movie, but good ones like Harold and Kumar and American Pie. Too bad I already watched all of them. Anyone knows any good movies like those, I'd appreciate it if you could let me know.

Since I can't find anything interesting to do with the aforementioned categories, I have turned to the Internet way too often. The Internet is a huge place. There's a lot of things you can do online. True. But I use the Internet for about 6 hours a day. Everyday. For the past 4 months. Even the Internet has become boring.

So there you have it. To summarise everything I just said, life is boring now. There you go, I just gave you a glimpse of life after the O levels. Really something to look forward to huh?

Anyways, let's get back to MY BORING LIFE now.

The things I did today that are worth a mention: I played Spider-Man 3. I fought Scorpion. Fun I guess.

I played the Resident Evil 5 demo again. I got my character's head lopped off twice by the chainsaw zombie, which is this really cool guy.

I gave my dad a half hug. Ok, that is all.

Racism in Resident Evil 5? Not really.

Now that I've been playing the demo of Resident 5 for a while, there's something that I have started to notice. The zombies in the game are multi racial. There are Caucasian zombies, African zombies, Middle Eastern zombies, Asian zombies, etc.

A little history about the development of the game. When Resident Evil 5 was first revealed, there was a massive uproar due to the fact that all the zombies in the game were African. People were like, "It's racist for a White dude to go around killing a ton of Black guys!!" Back then, I completely agreed. Now I realise that it's stupid.

In order to satisfy all these angered people, Capcom decided to diversify the ethnicity of the zombies, so that it would be seen as racist anymore. It was a dumb move. They should have just stuck to the Black zombies.

Seriously, someone please enlighten me. In what way is having African zombies in a African village racist? Just think about it. That's like saying having Chinese enemies in a game set in China is racist.

But if it was a more advance country like China, I would expect there to be at least some variety of races, because people are migrating there all the time. But who the **** migrates to some crappy African village.

When you watch movies and documentaries about Africa, do you see anyone in the villages other than the Africans? No. So why the hell must there be anything other than Africans in Resident Evil 5? When I'm walking in an African village, I will be seriously freaked to see an Iraqi guy all of a sudden.

So, the bottom line is, Capcom shouldn't need to succumb to the pressure. If there game is set in America, and the only people you kill are Blacks, then sure, that's racist as hell, but if the game is set in Africa, I only expect to encounter Africans. Capcom, it isn't too late. Still a month to launch. Please change it.

It blows my mind how overly sensitive people can be these days. "White guy can't shoot an African!! That's racist man!" Yes he can, if the African is in an African village. Douches.

Ok, I'm done with that. An article went up onto IGN.com today, and everyone is pretty surprised by it. Why? Firstly, it's not by an IGN editor. It's by Chris Fehn, one of the purcussionists of Slipknot. Secondly, it is the best IGN article in ages. IGN should give the guy his own column! Anyways, check it out by clicking HERE.

Ok, I'm going to stop here. Tomorrow I'll by trying to do my posts in a different way. I don't know if it'll be good or not, so I'll just be testing it out. Ok, ending off, see you tomorrow.

posted @ 10:51 PM
0 comments

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Hello. Let's continue from "yesterday's" post. We played Halo: Combat Evolved on the Xbox. This is the original Halo game. You know, the one that changed the way people looked at shooting games. I have not played this game for like four years, so I was really surprised when I played it.

The most noticeable difference here is the speed of the game. In Halo 2 and Halo 3, your character moved slower than most other game characters, so the overall multiplayer experience was much slower.

In Halo: Combat Evolved, the multiplayer feels more like Counter Strike. You move reasonably fast, and the animation of some weapons are similar to those in Counter Strike. For example, when you take out the pistol, your character twirls it by the trigger guard, just like in Counter Strike.

The weapons in Halo: Combat Evolved are satisfying as ****. The pistol is a beast. For of you who didn't know, the pistol in Halo CE is considered one of the most unbalanced guns in gaming history.

It takes only two shots to the head and three to the body to kill, and it has a zoom feature that allows you to kill someone halfway across a map with it. Unbalanced, but awesome to use. The Assault Rifle feels good to use as well. As you fire it, the vibrations on the controller are really strong and intense, making the gun feel super powerful.

We played a bit of Marvel Nemesis, then we played Bridge, and then mahjong. Joel went to play DotA on Battlenet after a while, then he left at 4am because he was going somewhere else later on. We continued playing mahjong, then we played Bridge. I was damn lucky for some reason. I kept getting Kings and Queens and Jacks and Aces. There were two times when I got three Aces in my hand.

Soon Sebastian's sister woke up to get ready for school, then we decided that it was time to sleep. We slept in Sebastian's room, and Yeow Boon slept by himself in Sebastian's computer room. I woke up at about 9.30am, then I went to pack up my Xbox. I played PSP for a while, then I went to take a shower in Sebastian's bathroom.

The bathroom is really cool because it's inside a cupboard. You open the cupboard doors, and there's a bathroom in there. There's also a window in bathroom that allows you to look outside, but people from outside can't see you because the mirror is tilted at an angle.

After everyone was awake, we played a few more rounds of mahjong, then my father came to fetch me. The rest of them went to eat their lunch, then they were going to meet Ethel for basketball. Since I sprained my ankle, I probably wouldn't be able to play, so I went home.

Once I got home, I had to go and pick up my cousin from school because my grandmother was at the polyclinic having a check up. So I went to pick him up, then I brought him back to my house since there was no one to take care of him at my grandmother's house.

I played Spider-Man 3 for a while. I borrowed this game from my cousin, so I have actually played the first few missions before at his house. However, while I was frustrated by the unforgiving difficulty of the game during my previous play through, this time I realised that the game is easy, and it is actually quite fun.

Anyways, I got a few cheap Achievements. The kind that requires you to smash 25 objects or swing 50 times from a pole. I also got an Achievement for defeating the Lizard, boosting my Gamerscore past the 13 000 mark. Now I think back of the times when I was satisfied with having a Gamerscore of 3000 points, then I laugh. lol.

I downloaded the Resident Evil 5 and Ninja Blade demos. Both are surprisingly small in file size [less than 500MB] despite the stunningly beautiful graphics both boast.

Resident Evil 5 Demo

The Resident Evil 5 demo is good, but there are a few things which I dislike about it. First, they just dump you into the middle of the action, without first having a tutorial. This would be fine if the game was easy to control, but unfortunately, it isn't. Just to do simple actions like reloading or a melee attack, you have to press two buttons.

There is also an incredibly low amount of ammo available for you to combat that large an amout of zombies. In most games that feature tons of undead, the pistol usually has unlimited ammo, so at least you have a weapon, albeit a weak one.

In Resident Evil 5, the pistol only has 30 ammo, and the shotgun has 6 ammo. Once you run out of these, you are screwed. To make things worst, the zombies take like 3 shots to die. And as far as I can tell, the bosses take like 50 shots to die.

Also, your health is really weak. A normal zombie can down a third of your health just by hitting you. I know that this will make the experience more intense and difficult, but there is a difference between difficult and ****ing impossible.

However, despite the difficulty, I still completed the demo. I completed the first level by just camping on some abandoned bus. The normal zombies can get onto the bus, but the big boss zombie cannot. I completed the second level by pure luck.

Ninja Blade Demo

The Ninja Blade demo was surprisingly good. I remember seeing the debut gameplay of the game and thinking that it wasn't anything special, so the demo really took me by surprise. After the first cutscene, your character free falls from a helicopter. You have to press buttons as they appear on the screen to cut through the enemies that attack.

Once you get into a building, you get to fight some enemies. You have access to four different weapons; three melee and one ranged. There's an all rounder sword, a fast but weak sword, and a slow but damaging sword. There's also a shuriken that creates a tornado where ever you throw it.

When I first tried out the combat, I was stunned by the graphical detail. When enemies die, they explode into a shower of blood and light. When you destroy vital parts of your enemy, the game goes into slow motion, and the camera zooms in so that you can see every detail of the damage done to your enemy.

Most importantly, this game isn't as hard as the Ninja Gaiden games. Sure, some people may play Ninja Gaiden due to the difficulty, but most people avoid it for the same reason. When I play Ninja Gaiden, I always feel the tension, because I don't know where my enemy is going to attack from, and also because one wrong move could mean death.

In Ninja Blade, the enemies aren't that hard, and they can be seen long before you actually attack them. Your character has a generous amount of health, and his health is tough enough to ensure that you don't die to quickly. If things look bad, you can still use a health pack to heal yourself back to maximum health.

After hacking and slashing through a group of enemies, a giant spider monster attacks, and you have to press another series of buttons to evade it. The next part is when the game went from being "cool" to being "holy shit awesome!!" to me. After leaping out of the building, you freefall down the side of the building, killing enemies that get into you way.

Once you reach the bottom, you have to run down a bridge to get to the spider monster. It shoots a series of shock waves towards you, and you have to dodge them while running towards it. When you finally fight it you have to use the heavy sword to destroy its armour, then you have to destroy its legs. Once you've damaged it to half health, the demo ends.

Both are great demos, and I think anyone with access to Xbox Live should download them. The Resident Evil 5 demo will be coming to Playstation Network next Thursady latest, and the Ninja Blade demo is Xbox 360 exclusive, so it can only be downloaded off Xbox Live. Anyways, videos of both demos coming tomorrow.

Some news:

-The Sims 3 release date is now in question. It was originally scheduled for a February 20th release, but now European retailers are being told to expect a delay.

-Mortal Kombat vs DC Universe has shipped 1.8 million units. The next Mortal Kombat game is already in production.

-The mobile category of the Independent Games Festival competition was completely dominated by iPhone/iPod Touch games. 11 out of 14 games were iPhone games, and the remaining 3 were a Nintendo DS game, a Flash game and a Java game. The PSP didn't win a single award.

-Despite the various claims and arguments, the final verdict of music based video game sales in 2008 has arrived. In 2008, Guitar Hero World Tour sold twice as many units as Rock Band 2.

-Hellgate: London will not be shutting down its servers after all. It will remain open as a free to play game.

-Many people were pissed upon completing Fallout 3 due to the fact that you cannot explore the wastelands after the final mission. This will be fixed by a patch coming in March for the PC and Xbox 360. Playstation 3 owners aren't getting the patch for some reason, so they will still be stuck with the ending.

-Fallout 3 "Operation Anchorage" expansion is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace for 800

.

-Sony is still an asshole. Not only did they shoot down IGN.com's PSP2 rumours, they also actually took the time to flat out insult the site. Here is a quote of what they said:
"Clearly, being a quiet time of year, many, what we thought to be credible websites, are making up stories about PSP2, and how it allows you to teleport across the globe, travel through time, and will be powered by the horns of baby rhinoceroses," Sony explained. "Hopefully, you can sense a mild tone of sarcasm, which should hopefully indicate how 'on the money' IGN are. Needless to say, we don't comment on rumour or speculation, but this is nonsense."
Wow, Sony. Just wow.

-There is no photography in Dead Rising: Chop til You Drop, which is coming out exclusively on the Wii. I don't think the game will be as good as the original one on the Xbox 360.

-LittleBigPlanet gets patched to 1.08, two free Chinese New Year costumes come with the patch.

-Flower will be available on Playstation Network on February 12th for US$9.99.

-Developers Lionhead Studios has confirmed that there will be no PC version of Fable 2, which released exclusively on the Xbox 360 last year. The only way to play it will be on the Xbox 360.

-Banjo Tooie will be available on Xbox Live Arcade in early 2009. It will probably cost 1200

.

-A patch has been released for the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV. The patch enhances the game's graphics, fixes Xbox 360 controller support and even adds support for driving wheels.

-Game Developers Conference 2009 [GDC 09] will commence on March 25th. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata will be delivering the keynote.

-There is quite a number of publishers who will be showing off their games during Comic Con 2009, which takes place during February 6th-8th. Here is the list of publishers and games:

Activision-Blizzard: X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, Prototype.
Atari: Champions Online, Ghostbusters: The Video Game, The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, Ready 2 Rumble Revolution.
Codemasters: Fuel, Damnation and Overlord 2 on Xbox 360. Overlord Dark Legend on Wii. Jumpgate Evolution on PC.
Electronic Arts: Spore Galactic Adventures, Godfather 2, Dragon Age, Burnout Paradise, Battle Forge and Battlefield Heroes.
Konami Digital Entertainment: Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, Blue Dragon Role Playing Card Game.
Namco Bandai Games America: Afro Samurai, Dynasty Warriors: GUNDAM 2, Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 4 (with tournament), Splatterhouse, We Ski, Snowboard and "much more."
SouthPeak Games: Velvet Assassin on Xbox 360. X-Blades on Xbox 360 and PS3. Roogoo: Attack on DS and Roogoo: Twisted Towers on Wii.
TC Digital: The Chaotic TCG.

Although there are no further details, Cryptic Studios, Mythic Entertainment, Rockstar Games, Sega, THQ and Ubisoft are also expected to attend.

-The upcoming MotorStorm: Pacific Rift patch will fix saves and bugs.

-Developer Ensemble, the creators of Halo Wars, is already looking into expansion packs for the game.

-Developer Harmonix met their target of having 500 Rock Band/Rock Band 2 songs by the end of last year, and this year they want to kick it into overdrive. The targeted size of the Rock Band song library by the end of 2009: 5000 songs. Yes that's three zeroes behind the 5. Damn. If they manage to do that, I will be ****ing amazed.

-Grand Theft Auto IV is the top selling game of 2008 in Europe and North America, much to the surprise of everyone. It sold 13 million copies there alone.

-A new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII has been released, featuring actual game play.

-Keiji Inafune, Capcom's media relations representative, confirms that Capcom is working on new Dead Rising and Lost Planet games, and Capcom is thinking about multiplatform, meaning that they might be on both Xbox 360 and PS3.

-Dawn of War 2 beta now available for download to all.

-A recent error by Microsoft allowed the gold plated Lancer, which is only available on the Collector's Edition of Gears of War 2, to be available to everyone on Xbox Live. It is now being fixed, and everyone who downloaded it will have it removed, so that it remains exclusive only to those who bought the Collector's Edition.

-Mirror's Edge DLC has been delayed to February 2009, but a PS3 exclusive map, "Synethesia", will be available on January 29th on Playstation Network for free.

Ok, I'm very sleepy now, so I am going to sleep. Be amazed by the logic of my previous statement. Ending off, see you tomorrow.

posted @ 6:12 PM
0 comments

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Hello. I'm running short on time now. I'm going out soon and I won't be back home until tomorrow, so I'll update this post later on :D :D :D Meanwhile, enjoy these hilarious [game-related] comic strips from Penny Arcade:

[From left to right: Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony]

Update: I played basketball in the morning with my brother and cousins, and I some how managed to twist my ankle. After that I went to visit four houses, then I came back home. I managed to used the computer for a few minutes to start this post and upload the comic strips.

My parents dropped me off at Sebastian's house in the afternoon. Since I was the first one there, I set up my Xbox first [the first Xbox. the black one], then I watched a few episodes of Gundam 00 and a Bleach movie with Sebastian.

After a while Say Yin and Yan Ming came and we played a bit of Halo 2. After playing Halo 3, and after getting so used to how the Xbox 360 controller feels like, I obviously wasn't used to the game. But I really prefer Halo 2's deathmatch options compared to Halo 3's. I know Halo 2 is really unbalanced and all, but that's the reason why it's fun.

We had our dinner and we watched TV, then Joel came. We spent about 20 minutes trying to decipher Sebastian's magic tricks , then they played a few rounds of mahjong. Yeow Boon came close to 11pm.

Whatever happened after all this is considered the next day. Since I'm so awesome, I shall continue writing tomorrow [which is actually today, but let's just call it tomorrow for authenticity sake]. Ending off, see you tomorrow. lol.

posted @ 10:59 PM
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Monday, January 26, 2009

Hello. Happy Chinese New Year to everyone who celebrates it. As we all know, Chinese New Year is a time for us to get together with our families. No wait, screw that. It's all about the money!! The only reason why we even sit through those long, boring conversations with family members is so that we can get our red packets. Chinese New Year is also about the food. 肉干 for the win man.

I didn't do much in the morning, but I followed my family to my grandparents house in the afternoon. I ate my lunch, then since my cousin's Xbox 360 was screwed, I had to play their Wii. Since Wii sucks, I decided to go old skool and play their PS2. I played Kingdom Hearts 2 for like two hours. Easily one of the best games ever made.

After a while we did the yusheng thing. Since I cannot eat all forms of seafood, they didn't but in the salmon first. **** the salmon is my favourite part of the whole thing. So I didn't get my salmon. I just ate the other stuff.

After that we went to my other grandmother's house. My paternal grandmother. This time I didn't bring any games , so there was really nothing to do. I just talked to my cousins about poly life and stuff, then I played cards with my cousin Shashi and his friend Ryan. They did the yusheng again and this time I managed to get a whole lot of salmon.

I managed to get four red packets today, and definite improvement over previous years. Tomorrow I'll probably be going to visit more people with Yiling, then I'll get more money :D Anyways, I took a bunch of random pictures, and I'm uploading them here:

This is a Smackdown vs RAW 2009 standee that my cousins won in a lucky draw. It is the only one in Singapore, so it is worth quite a lot.

Nerf Gun. I love these.

OMG l33t haxx it is Pokedex!!

WWE championship belt. The middle disc of the belt can spin.

Just to clarify things here, I'm just pretending to play a Wii. I would never actually play one anymore.

A picture paints a thousand words.

My favourite PS2 game, one of the all time best games ever. Kingdom Hearts 2 is too awesome.

Oh yay, let's make a big mess. We are actually going to eat that later on. Guaranteed stomach ache.

Cool I finally got a big strip of salmon :D

I got home and played Spider-Man 3: The Video Game for a while. I borrowed it from my cousins. I'm not to happy with the game. If I had played it before Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, maybe I would have thought that the game was good. After witnessing how good a Spider-Man game can actually be with Web of Shadows, I just don't feel any satisfaction in playing Spider-Man 3.

After that I watched the second half of IP Man with my father and brother, then I went onto MSN. I had a funny/weird/perverted conversation with Yan Ming, Sebastian and Ethel, then Yan Ming asked me to play some online gambling game, but my computer started to screw itself up so I just went to watch a movie instead.

Some news:

-The Oklahoma senator is offering tax incentives for game developers that create non-mature rated games, provided the game is developed within the state.

-US$25,000 worth of prizes being given out in the "13 Days of Gears" sweepstakes. To get in on the contest, you need to register here by Jan. 31, then play one match of Gears of War 2 in the daily designated gametype from Feb. 1 to Feb. 13.

-The Resident Evil 5 demo is now up on Xbox Live [Thanks to Ernest for the heads up]. The demo will be available to Xbox Live Silver subscribers a week from now, and it will be up on Playstation Network by next Thursday latest. All who consider themselves gamers please download. Picture below:

-Video games outsell movies on both Blu-Ray and HD DVD, music, books, comics and pretty much every other form of entertainment in 2008. Nothing surprising. Random funny picture:

-Gears of War movie director, Len Wiseman, tells entertainment magazines that he would like to make a trilogy of Gears films, and the Gears of War movie will be like a "harder-edged, more violent Lord of the Rings".

Ok, I need to sleep now. Yiling asked me to get up at 8am and call her, if not I will have to face her wrath. Just so you know, she didn't actually say the last part of the previous sentence. It's just my instinct. Ok, ending off, see you tomorrow.

posted @ 11:38 PM
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Sunday, January 25, 2009

Hello. As I'm typing this you guys are probably having your reunion dinners. I thought that I was going to be eating Maggi curry noodles for dinner, and that would have sucked since everyone else will be having good food for dinner. I ended up eating KFC, so I don't feel that bad anymore.

I woke up today and I was reading the older issues of EGM for a while, then I left my house. I took a train to Serangoon, then I played basketball at Serangoon CC with Say Yin, Sebastian, Yan Ming and Ethel.

We played a few matches, then I watched Say Yin, Yan Ming and Ethel play a different version of Horse. I didn't play because there was no way I would have been able to mimic them. I can't even dribble properly. Yan Ming tried to shoot the ball from behind the board, but it bounced off the board and it hit Yan Ming in the face. Best moment of the day lol.

Since everyone had to get to their own reunion dinner, we all left earlier than usual, and I ended up taking the ball back home. Once I got home I talked to my brother for a while as he played Runescape. A magical transformation has been bestowed upon him.

A few days ago, he secretly watched Harold and Kumar: Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and after that he became smarter or something. I'm not kidding. He is more fun to talk to, and he is getting funnier as well. Most importantly, he is becoming more open minded. I think I'm going to take him along on the trip to Japan :D

After he was done with Runescape, I went onto youtube to watch some live Slipknot videos. Now I understand why there was such a big uproar among the fans when the latest album was released.

Many people claimed that Slipknot wasn't as hardcore as before, but I didn't feel that way. Sure, the songs in the new album are softer, and it is no where near as good as the previous albums, but it was still good. But now I know what these people mean.

I could do a boring explanation, or you could just watch these two videos to see for yourself. Note the difference in the words used, the style and the amount of energy between the two videos:

Slipknot in 2002 [Pure awesome watch the entire video]

Slipknot in 2008

I rest my case. But I'm not saying that Slipknot isn't good anymore or anything. They are still the best ****ing band out there, and the best "live" band. I have never seen any other band with as much energy as Slipknot while play live. Just look at these videos of Slipknot and another metal band for example:

Slipknot [Sid jumps off stage into crowd. Sweet]

Avenged Sevenfold

As you can see, Slipknot is ****ing awesome live. Avenged Sevenfold is not so. Actually I can't really compare since Slipknot is in the Metal genre and Avenged Sevenfold is in the "Used to be Metal but we became gay" genre. I seriously wouldn't mind paying a hundred bucks just to watch Slipknot live if they come to Singapore again.

I just saw this awesome preview video of Street Fighter IV. Damn it, I honestly can't wait for this beast to hit home consoles. It's already out in the arcades, but it would be so much more awesome to have a personal copy that I can play whenever I want. February 17th couldn't come sooner. Anyways, check it out:

Some news:

-Capcom claims that the Lost Planet movie, which is based off the game of the same name, will cost about US$200 million to film. If that value doesn't amaze you, huge blockbusters like Transformers and The Dark Knight were cheaper to film, costing about US$151 million and US$185 respectively. We'll see how this goes.

-Ubisoft is the second major developer to agree that the next generation of consoles will be arriving by 2011 to 2012. This was originally predicted by developers Crytek. Both developers are already working on software for the next generation.

-Halo Wars has gone "gold" [meaning development is fully completed], and the demo will be available for download off Xbox Live on 5th February 2009. The demo will include two story mode missions, and one map where you can go up against an AI controlled opponent.

-Burnout Paradise's first premium [meaning you have to pay for it] downloadable content [DLC] will be out on 6th February 2009 on Xbox Live, Playstation Network and PC. A update will be released alongside the DLC. The update includes an in-game store, enhanced visuals, a restart event option [about time], easier barrel rolls and some vehicle and game mode tweaking.

-This week's new Rock Band/Rock Band 2 songs:

Grateful Dead Track Pack 2(800

/ $10)

"Hell In a Bucket" (160 / $2)
"Don't Ease Me In" (160 / $2)
"Cold Rain & Snow" (160 / $2)
"Doin' That Rag" (160 / $2)
"Fire On the Mountain" (160 / $2)
"Uncle John's Band" (160 / $2)

-It is rumoured that the Xbox 360 will be receiving a Resident Evil 5 bundle as well. Due to release alongside the game on 13th March 2009, it will include a copy of the game; a red Xbox 360; a red controller; an "exclusive" Resident Evil 5 theme and a download coupon for Xbox Live Arcade's Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD.

-Resistance 2 patch coming on Monday, fixes most current glitches. Well, that's what they always say. But do they always deliver as promised?

-The full set list for Guitar Hero: Metallica has been revealed. I'm not going to post it here because it is a disappointingly weak and short set list. No "And Justice for All"? And what's with the stupid choice of guest bands? Disappointment.

-The second Gears of War 2 patch is on the verge of being released, and Epic claims that they are already working on the third patch. Why the **** does there have to be so many patches, can't they just get things right before putting the game into a disc and selling it?

-Bungie has confirmed that there will be no Elites at all in the upcoming Halo 3 ODST. Bungie says that Elites were not on Earth yet during the time frame which the game takes place in [some where in the middle of Halo 2]. Um, so those red, blue and yellow armoured things I was shooting during the Earth city levels of Halo 2 weren't Elites? I am confused here.

Ok, going to watch Tenacious D now. I know it's a dumb movie, but it is hilariously dumb, and it has a certain strange charisma that prevents you from hating it. Ok, ending off, see you tomorrow.

posted @ 8:15 PM
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