Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Hello. Today is my sister's birthday, so happy birthday to her. I went out in the morning, then I stayed at home for the rest of the day. Surprisingly, I didn't play much Xbox today at all.I woke up early and went out for a while in the morning. When I was out, a thing which hasn't happened to me in a long time happened, and it felt nice. Please happen more often!! I got back home by 1pm.
I used my computer for a while, then I met my sister at the bus stop to help her carry her bag home. Once we got home, I played Mirror's Edge for a while and I got some Achievements. After that I started recording a few Rock Band videos.
I played the guitar for "Highway Star" by Deep Purple, and then I was playing the bass for "Learn to Fly" by Foo Fighters when the electricity got turned off. I thought it was a blackout, but when I opened the fuse box, every switch was in the right position.
So the electricity was cut off. I went to check with my neighbour and her house didn't have electricity either. I went down and I check with this guy who is in charge of the building management, and he told me that the PUB was doing some maintainance check, but he didn't know when the electricity would be back.
I ended up spending 2 hours without electricity. No TV, no Xbox, no computer, no fan. I was so bored that I started reading the newspaper. I stopped reading the news long ago because it's always the same thing. Last time I read it, the world was screwed, and now, nothing has changed.
Soon my cousins came to my house and after a while the electricity got back on, so we played a bit of Rock Band, then we played Call of Duty 4. As usual it was three of them against me, and as usual I won. We also played a fun game of Halo 3.
Instead of playing the boring old deathmatch, we played a match where all of us were only holding Plasma Pistols. We played in the Griffball arena version of Foundry, which is basically a big empty warehouse. We put the player speed at maximum, and gravity at minimum.
When wielding a Plasma Pistol, you will punch when you use a melee attack. So we played a high speed boxing match. It was fun. It's hilarious to see two people punch each other to death at the same time.
There was a whole lot of nice food, and I ate quite a lot, so now I need to go and run tomorrow morning. When my relatives were here, they were watching Channel News Asia, and I saw that the O level results will be out on the 12th of January 2009, which is next Monday.
It funny that before I knew the actual date, I was getting kinda nervous, and I was losing confidence about my results, but now that I know the date, I actually don't feel nervous at all, and I'm starting to feel confident again.
The cake was chocolate again, so I didn't really enjoy eating it, but I still did. After everyone left, I used my computer again, and I found out that EGM Magazine has been stopped. Sad news. Apparently, 1up has been bought by a new publisher, and this publisher feels that there is no longer any need for Electronic Gaming Monthly.
This is pretty sudden news. In this month's issue, it is still mentioned that next month's EGM will preview the Godfather 2. I guess they didn't expect the January issue to be the last.
I know that many people would be thinking, "It's just a magazine, so what?" Well, let me share something with you. I got my first issue of EGM when I was in Primary 5, as a Children's Day present. Back then, it really blew my mind. Remember, back then, gaming websites on the Internet were still few, and game magazines were the fastest and most reliable source of gaming news.
As I grew older, I bought only certain issues of EGM, depending on the game that was previewed, but as time passed, I grew a liking to EGM. It was genuinely funny, it had great articles, and it always had the latest news.
Soon I started buying EGM every month, despite the numerous gaming websites now available, and despite EGM's $12 price tag. I have bought every issue of the magazine since the start of 2006.
Now, after more than 20 years, EGM is finally stopping it's publication. It will still carry on as an online magazine, but there is no doubt that many will miss seeing the magazine at news stands and bookstores. I have pretty much grew up with EGM, and if I had never got that first issue, my life might be completely different now. Different, in a non-gaming related way.
EGM has a sentimental value to me, and it's only been 3 years since I really started collecting it. I can't even imagine how those who have bought all 232 issues of it might feel. You know what, I think I'm going to put my EGM 20 year anniversary poster back onto my wall. EGM may have died off today, but it will forever be remembered by millions all over the world.
Ok, enough of this emo-ness. Here's some news:
-Cuboid, a PS3 exclusive arcade game will be out soon on PSN for US$10.
-LittleBigPlanet, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2 and WoW: WotLK have been awarded Gold status for selling between 100 million to 200 million copies.
-Fable 2 has been awarded Platinum status--that status is reserved for games that sell between 300 million to 600 million copies. So far, less than 15 games have achieved this status.
-Two MySims games coming for the Wii and Nintendo DS.
-PS3 exclusive White Knight Chronicles is confirmed for North America, English version almost completing development.
-UK consumers spent £4.03 billion on video games alone during 2008, more than ever before.
-Silent Hill Homecoming finally receives a rating in Australia, coming in Q1 2009.
-iPhone adventure game 1112 is potentially coming to the Wii as a WiiWare download.
-The United States Armed Forces is apparently searching for new, trigger happy recruits in arcades. Hope Singapore doesn't do the same.
-Logitech's new series of PC gaming peripherals have been revealed. The headphones allow you to change the way your voice sounds, just like the Xbox 360 headphones. It's awesome fun, try it out. Picture below:
-Yakuza 3 edition PS3 being sold in Japan only, although I must admit, it is sexy as hell. Just looking at it makes me want to get it, even though I know I will never ever play it. Picture below:
-A Resident Evil 5 PS3 bundle is also going to be on sale, but it isn't as beautiful as the one above. It's just a regular black PS3 with the Tri-Cell logo on it.
-Microsoft and Sony face off in Street Fighter IV arcade version. The best Microsoft representative will be going up against Sony's best. This is going to be interesting.
Ok. Now that I've read One Piece up to date, I can finally continue typing my script. I need to sleep soon too, because I might be going out tomorrow morning as well. Ok, ending off, see you tomorrow.
posted @ 11:49 PM
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