No.1 Gaming Geek

Monday, September 28, 2009

Hello hello my faithful readers. All seven of you. I have an urge to announce that today's post is going to be a short one yet again, but I've decided not to say that because every time I do, the post ends up to be on average length.

I spent the morning playing more of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. I'm playing a separate save file from the one I'm playing with my brother. Since the other save file is for the Anti-Registration side, I'm playing for Pro-Registration side.

That's Captain American and Iron Man's side respectively, for those uninitiated to the Marvel universe. The differences between the two sides are the path of progress, the boss battles, and the unlockable characters.

Anti-Reg side gets Captain America, Luke Cage and Iron Fist, and Pro-Reg side gets Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic and Songbird. The rest of the heroes can be played on either side. Needless to say, these heroes are only available if you play the correct side.

For some reason the Thing is locked as well. I know he stayed neutral and went to France during the Civil War arc, but if they wanted to stay true to the story and make him unplayable for both sides, then why even include him in the game?

Now I know that the game's story doesn't stick to the comic story arc, and the other than the characters I mentioned above, you are free to use the rest no matter which side you play, I can't help but feel that the game is subtly urging you to stick to the comic story arc.

For example, while both sides were at fault during the Civil War, majority of the readers supported Captain America's side because 1) He's Captain America; 2) All the cool heroes, like Spider-Man, and Hercules were on his side; and 3) Iron Man was a bit of a bitch during the arc.

While the game lets you make the decision whether you want to be Pro or Anti, from the moment you choose Iron Man's side, it feels as if the game is ranting at you. Every boss you defeat has something to say to you, all of which basically translates to "Shame on you, you fuck."

And then comes the hero selection. In the comics, the heroes were divided down the middle. Some followed Iron Man, some followed Captain America. The game lets you choose the sides of most of the heroes, but secretly, it wants you to follow to comics.

For example, Wolverine followed Captain America in the comics. In the game, it's fine if you want to use him while playing the Pro-Reg storyline, but he doesn't get any unlocks. However, he does unlock alternate costumes while playing the Anti-Reg storyline.

Alright enough of that. It was getting confusing anyways.

I met Say Yin and Marcus at Iluma in the afternoon. We were heading to the sexy Colosseum LAN shop. At first it was screwed up, because the server was down, meaning no Garena for DotA.

Still, we managed to get another 3 people within Colosseum to play a 3v3 match. We eventually lost, because one of their heroes was too fat, and the other was just imba on its own, but it was a fun match. Managed to learn some stuff from it, and that's all that matters.

We went on to play Team Fortress 2, but due to the screwed server, we couldn't connect into a proper game, and later we couldn't even open the game, so we went back to Warcraft 3 and played some Bleach vs One Piece game, which was fun.

Finally the servers were back up and Colosseum went from being quiet to being normal again. The giant screens went back on and the music started playing. I noticed that Colosseum had their own CG advertisement which was actually quite cool, and they had a good music play list.

Now with the servers back up, we went to play Team Fortress 2 online. The competition was tough, as it always is online, but I feel that we're all improving. At first, there was the urge to just chiong for the enemy Intel, but we soon learned to play the part of our characters.

The last match was especially fun because we made part of an ultimate defence. There was an Engineer who built a turret next to the Intel, and two of us stood at the sides of the turret, using Heavies. All we needed was a Pyro and a Demoman, then the ultimate defence would have been complete.

Throughout Team Fortress 2, we were also spamming all sorts of vulgarities to our opponents through the mics on our headsets. I'm usually a calm gamer, but I have to admit, it was fun. Good times.

Speaking of TF2, the amount of players for the game would probably increase by tenfold if the character select screen looked more like this:

After 3hrs at Colosseum, Say Yin and Marcus headed for dinner, while I went to Tiong Bahru Plaza to find my Yiling. I met her at Coffee Bean. I couldn't help feeling a little sad though, because we used to meet there every Friday night, with Kim.

Alright I'll tell you this now. I don't understand anything about Econs. The Econs textbook is scary. Words upon words upon words. Damn, at least put in a few photos. Still, it's alright because Yiling didn't understand my Med Soc textbook either.

We had budget sushi for dinner! Since I'm broker, and I refuse spending her money, we skipped the Sakea sushi dinner. Instead we just bought 14 pieces of that lower grade sushi from some other sushi store, and we went to eat at some playground nearby.

Ok I know this is going to sound gay and all, but I feel damn sad when I listen to that 'Love Drunk' song by Boys Like Girls, especially when I'm walking home alone at night. The lyrics just remind me of the past and it makes me think, which is not what I want to do.

I got back home and watched some giant machine drilling a hole in the ground at the construction site opposite my room for a while, then I just got back to reading World War Hulk. Now the Hulk has met his Warbound, a group of aliens, each about the same strength level as the Hulk, who have sworn to follow Hulk to the death.

Today was an alright day. I got myself confused trying to decipher what exactly Marvel Ultimate Alliance was trying to get me to do through all its subliminal messages. Colosseum was epic fun, whenever you people are going again, please count me in.

While I didn't get my Sakae dinner, I thought it was cooler having dinner at some ulu playground. And the talk was really deep and meaningful, totally made my day. I'm feeling much more at ease right now after hearing everything. It's all going to get better :D

Oh yes but I didn't manage to go for my run today which is a little saddening, but I guess its worth the trade off for the rest of the things I got to do today.

posted @ 11:26 PM
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Sunday, September 27, 2009

I was MIA for two days! Say Yin, Marcus, Yan Ming and Yeow Boon came over to my house on Friday, and some of them stayed over as well. And we still went to Junction 8 on Saturday. So I had no time to post.

I wanted to go running at Bedok Reservoir again today, like I did last Sunday, but my running buddy Fiona had work. So I ended up slacking the whole morning away. I played a bit of Xbox and just went back to reading Wiki pages on the Internet.

In the afternoon I went for a run by myself. I planned this new route that is actually quite good. Here's how it goes:

First of all, forgive the noobish drawing skills. I did it in Microsoft Paint, so you can't expect much. The star is the start point, the red line is the running route, and the red circle is the end point. I end there because there is an exercise area.

I met Yiling at Burger King and slacked there for a while. She was there studying with her friend, and me being me, I distracted them so much that they went from 'muststudymuststudy' to 'screw study'. Yes I am proud of that.

At night I started to read Empowered again, which is one of my favourite comic series. It's more of a fun series, although there are some heavier moments. The series revolves around the life of the character known as, you guessed it, Empowered.

She is a super hero who is part of a super team called the Super Homies. She has this super powered suit which makes her one of the most powerful super beings on the planet, but then only problem is she doesn't know how to use it.

She's also insecure about her looks and figures, despite the fact that she's smoking hot. I should probably mention that the series is meant for adults, and since it's an American product, anyone 17 years old and above is considered an adult. So I can legally read it ^^

Empowered is a nice series because it combines the art style of Japanese manga with the deeper plots of Western comics. The end result is fun to both read and look at. Like I said before, it's an adult series, so many of the things that happen in the comics are of adult nature.

That just makes it all the more awesome to read. If you ever get a chance to read any of the 5 volumes, you should.

Today was an alright day. I feel really satisfied because I went for a run, and I also exercised by arm muscles. I guess I've just realised that NS is not that far away, and I just have to start getting fit. Also, my arms are super weak now and I don't like that at all.

Also, I'm happy because I finally got to see Yiling after so damn long ^^

posted @ 11:56 PM
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Thursday, September 24, 2009

Here is another short post coming at you. I had nothing to do today. After spending the other days of the week mostly out of home, I just felt the urge to be lazy and stay at home for a day. Besides, I had Halo 3: ODST to keep me company.

Still, a game can only keep you occupied for so long. The appeal lasts even shorter when you've only got access to Firefight mode, because your sibling forbids you from playing Campaign mode without him.

I visited my usual few websites which I frequent daily, which isn't a lot to be honest. Soon I got bored and started reading random pages in Wikipedia. Then I stumbled upon the Wiki page for Marvel's recent World War Hulk series.

So I went to get the complete World War Hulk arc. I've only read the first few issues so far, but it looks promising. As we all know, the Hulk is one of the most misunderstood super powered beings in the Marvel universe.

Despite the amount of times he has unknowingly saved the Earth, majority of its occupants consider the Jade Giant more of a threat than a hero. After way too many of his rampages, Iron Man, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange and Mr. Fantastic meet to discuss a solution.

Finally, the decide to play God, and they vanquish the Hulk to a faraway planet by tricking him into a space capsule. However, the navigation on the capsule malfunctions halfway, and the Hulk crash lands onto the wrong planet.

Initially, the Hulk was meant to be headed to a planet with conditions close to Earth's. It had wildlife and vegetation, but no sentient life forms. No one the Hulk could hurt if he were to lose control.

Instead, the Hulk was now stranded on a planet with some of the toughest and most brutal species in the galaxy. Weakened by his entry to the planet, the Hulk is captured, and sold as a slave.

He is later thrown into a gladiator's arena, alongside other alien species. A towering alien beast is let lose upon them. The crowd grows wild rooting for the beast, especially when it swallows the Hulk, but soon silence falls upon the crowd as the Hulk tears his way out of the beast.

It takes a while for the crowed to recover from the shock, but soon they direct their cheers at this new champion. Unhappy with the results, the ruler of the planet, known as the Red King, dons his suit of battle armour, and he attempts to slay the Hulk.

The overconfident king charges head on at the Hulk, and he manages to create some deep wounds with his sword, but it only makes the Hulk angrier. Grabbing the king's arm, the Hulk tosses the King to the ground, and uses a blade to slash at the king.

Silence descends upon the crowd a second time, as they are shocked that the Red King, who claimed to be a god, could actually bleed. The king himself is shocked. The Hulk attempts to deal some more damage to the king, but the Red King quickly retreats.

His bodyguard, a female alien known as Caiera, defends him, and while the Hulk is distracted, the king attacks from behind with a powerful jolt of electricity, rendering the still weak Hulk unconscious.

That's about as far as I've read. Like I said, it's looking promising. On Earth, the Hulk is considered an Omega level threat. A force of nature. Amongst the top of the food chain. On this planet, he is close to the bottom. Interesting series.

Speaking of the Hulk, I unlocked him in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2! I had to search for 5 hidden Gamma Regulators throughout the game in order to get him as a playable character. While I'm not exactly that satisfied with him, I'm not disappointed either.

For starters, Hulk is the most damaging and has the most hit points among all the characters in the game. He has all his standard moves, like the ground pound and sonic clap. He also has a guided attack, as well as a powerful debuff.

I find the ground pound most useful because it uses up little energy, does moderate AOE damage, and it can be used in rapid succession. The sonic clap is alright, especially when surrounded, since it pushes enemies back.

But then, if I wanted to push enemies back, then I would just use the ground pound, since it's more damaging and has a larger AOE. What's more, the ground pound can juggle enemies in the air, and they still get damage while in mid air.

The guided move is basically a dash attack. Use it, and Hulk runs at an enemy like a mad gorilla. Of course, you can control the direction he's running in. This move is fun, especially when used on larger foes, because if you collide into them successfully, the Hulk will leap onto and pound the shit out of them.

But I find it stupid that the move cancels out upon the first hit. I mean, when the Hulk collides into smaller foes, why can't he just continue charging while battering other foes out of the way. Why the hell does one small soldier stop the Hulk from charging.

Finally, the debuff. While it might not seem like it, it's Hulk's second best move, right after the ground pound. When you use it, the Hulk bellows in rage, causing the entire area to shake. All enemies on screen get stunned for a few seconds, and their defence points go way down.

I guess Hulk is a fun character. He's biggest problem is probably the fact that his ground pound is overpowered, making his sonic clap and charge redundant. Still, it's awesome being a mindless beast who specializes in smashing.

Today was more of a boring day. But some times, boring is good. I don't mind going out, but I also don't mind staying at home and lazing the day away. Also, by staying at home, I don't spend a single cent!

Oh, and Yiling finally called me again today! ^^

posted @ 11:10 PM
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Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Today is the day I finally got to get my hands onto Halo 3: ODST! A full 24 hours after the game launched! Alright so I'm going to keep today's post short. I swear, it has got completely nothing to do with Halo 3: ODST's awesome, epic, super fun Firefight mode. Honest.

I headed down to Junction 8 to collect both my phone and my game. I headed for the game store first. They already packed my game and my freebies into a nice plastic bag. I claimed my copy, then I went over to the phone service centre, which was several stores away.

I had to wait for quite a while for my turn to collect the phone, so I just listened to some music. I didn't dare leave the area, because I didn't want to miss my queue number. Soon, even more people started to occupy the area outside the shop.

I was really tempted to check out the freebies that came with the game, but I didn't because there were too many people around and I didn't want to look like an idiot who was trying to show off.

Finally, after an hour of waiting, I got back my phone. I tested it. It turned on and worked fine, but it STILL didn't read my memory card. Damn it. I went to the information counter to complain.

I was kinda pissed by the attitude of the man and woman at the information counter. Both clearly weren't bothered to listen to my problems. I spent about two minutes explaining the problem in detail to the lady.

Once I was done with the explanation, she just started at me with her dumb looking eyes, nodded and said, "Uh huh, so what exactly is the problem." Luckily for her, the man at the counter stood up and came over to help me.

Seeing that her colleague had now got me off her hands, she proceeded to sign into her Facebook account and started tagging a photo of a dog with some guy's name. The man wasn't exactly great himself.

He seemed like he couldn't be bothered about helping me, and he had this tone in his voice and a look on his face that just made me feel like saying "Fuck you".

In the end, they took away my memory card. My precious memory card. The same one which I got so worried over at the Mac lab when I thought that I had misplaced it. I was worried that they would check the content. Even worse, if they decided to wipe out all those photos. That wouldn't be good.

Having wasted close to an hour and a half of my life at that dumbass repair center which paid dumbass retards who just slacked at the information counter, I took a train down to Vivocity. I met Syafiqah, who was already there, and we bought tickets for Crows Zero II.

Since we were watching it with others this time round, we decided to wait for them at the rooftop amphitheatre. It was here which I finally got a chance to check out the freebies which came with the Halo 3: ODST pre-order.

I already got the Sgt. Johnson unlock card back at Comex 09, which allows you to play as that character in Firefight mode. I got the Halo 3: ODST console skin, which is supposedly worth $40. It looks beautiful enough in it's cardboard casing, so I'm probably not going to stick it on.

Even if I do decide to stick it, I'll do so once the next Xbox is out, and then I'll be able to display my 360. Then I saw this small sticker on the cover of the game. And then I remembered. Every copy of Halo 3: ODST came with a beta invite to the Halo: Reach multiplayer!

Of course, the offer is on a 'while stocks last' basis, but then again, so was the Halo 3 multiplayer beta invite, which came with Crackdown back in early 2007. Even today, you can still see copies of Crackdown with the invite sticker.

For those of you who haven't heard, Halo: Reach is said to be the final Halo game being made by Bungie, who are the creators of the entire Halo franchise. After Reach, Bungie will be moving on to new game franchises. It is not confirmed whether Halo will continue to live on through another developer.

Halo: Reach takes place before the first Halo game, and some time after Halo Wars. Not much is known about it, but from the title, many have guessed that the game will be based on the novel 'Halo: The Fall of Reach'.

That novel explains the origins of the Spartan II super soldiers, the ways in which they helped humanity, and how majority of them met their demise. Master Chief may be the last remnant of that batch of soldiers, but there used to be a hundred and twenty of them.

This theory was later supported by a wallpaper which Bungie released, showing the planet reach, and the silhouettes of 5 Spartans. These are probably the same Spartans in Master Chief's squad in the novel.

Soon, we went to meet Damien and Shaun, and Julia arrived much earlier than expected, considering the fact that she finished work at 6pm and had to travel to Harbour Front from Orchard within 45 mins in order to catch the full movie. For her Japanese man, she can fly.

Watching the movie a second time was better than I expected. It still felt fun and fresh to watch, and it still remains within my top three movies of this year. While the movie mysteriously passed faster for both me and Syafiqah this time round, it was more funny because of Shaun's commentary.

After the movie, we went to Burger King for a late dinner, and then we all left for home. If all goes well, I'll probably be playing LAN at the awesome Colosseum in Iluma. Now, I need to go put down some more Grunts.

posted @ 11:15 PM
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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Today is the release day of Halo 3 ODST! I was waiting the entire day for a call from the game store which I pre-ordered the game from, but it didn't come until 3pm. By then I had already decided that I was not going to Junction 8 any longer to collect the game.

See, I have changed. I can now practice self restraint. Those of you who were in the same class as me during Sec 3 might remember me almost getting an orgasm while waiting for Halo 3 to be released. And I wasn't even queuing up for the game, my mom was.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like games are starting to take a lower priority in my life or anything. I've been a gamer for a really long while, and I think I'm probably going to be a gamer for the rest of my life.

It's just that in the past, I used to be more of a hardcore gamer. I would play online, try my best to unlock achievements, get the limited edition of every game which had a limited edition, and made sure that I got the games on their release days.

Now I'm more of a recreational gamer. Gaming is my hobby. I'm not in it to win. I'm just in it to have fun. I practice proper gaming etiquette during online gaming sessions, which means I hold back on the sarcasm and I ensure that I don't spoil some one else's fun, whether win or lose.

It's kinda amazing actually, when I stop to think back of how I was back then, and how I am now. I always got heated up in the past while gaming, especially when playing with cousins and my brother.

I find it increasingly difficult to get pissed off with some one during a game nowadays. It's a game. Some one has to win, some one has to lose. And no matter the outcome, everyone in the team has a part to play towards getting that result.

Well, I guess all those years of gaming has at least taught me proper social behaviour while gaming, and while doing anything else for that matter.

Yes, gaming can be beneficial for you!

Alright enough about that. Now that I no longer had to head down to Junction 8, I was free for the rest of the day. I decided to head down to Orchard to meet Say Yin and Yan Ming. We were meeting at Orchard Central.

Say Yin, Yan Ming and one of their classmates were there when I arrived. They wanted to go to Gelare because it is half price Tuesday. While looking for the Gelare, I asked Julia to join us since she had just finished work. Had to use a bait, but it worked.

So we headed to Gelare and I went out several times to look for Julia, who was supposed to be with her friend. We decided to meet at the Sony store on the fourth floor. So I went there. And I waited for close to twenty minutes.

I gave Julia a phone call, and she told me she was inside the Sony store. I couldn't see her at all. Then it occured to me. So I asked her if she was in Orchard Central or not. Turned out she was in Ion.

I do not know why the eff there was a Sony shop at the fourth floor of both Orchard Central and Ion.

So we walked back to Ion, where we met up with Julia and her friend. She went to get something for someone, then her friend and Say Yin and Yan Ming's friend left, leaving the four of us to head down to Burger King for dinner.

As we all know, Ion is a place of higher class, filled with products targeted at the rich. So how could a Burger King outlet possibly fit in? Well, they gave it a more designer looking entrance. Black walls, golden Burger King logo, LCD screens which displayed promotions and ads.

Inside, it's pretty much the same as any other Burger Kings, just that there's an exclusive area for the staff, and the prices of the foods are all jacked up. Since most of us there were close to being broke, it was painful to eat there, but it was the cheapest food available within that evil place.

So we just slacked and ate and talked. Yan Ming left after about 45 minutes, and the rest of us stayed there for about another hour and a half. When we left the place it was already 10.15pm, and it took me an hour of walking and waiting and travelling before I reached home.

I guess today was an alright day. I didn't spend much, and I got to meet friends. And since my brother is not allowing me to play Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 without him [yes, the MUA2 which I paid a full $75, and he didn't contribute a single cent for], it sure beats rotting at home.

Oh, and if anyone ever asks: Pikachu is a dog. And Bulbasaur totally is a freakin fat cat.

posted @ 11:52 PM
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Monday, September 21, 2009

Today was a public holiday! Within our on-going holiday! And I feel like I kinda wasted the day away. I mean, I don't exactly spend other days fruitfully, but I wanted to do so much stuff today, but ended up not being able to.

It's a public holiday. Meaning that everyone is supposed to be off, whether you're schooling or working. There isn't school for JC students today. And I wanted to pay a visit to one particular JC student whom I have not seen or talked to for quite a while, but I wasn't able to.

My morning was completely taken up because I had to head to my father's workplace to help my sister complete her D&T project, which is honestly crazy for Secondary School standard. Basically, she had to make this night lamp with three LED lights and a switch to activate them.

I actually had to solder the wires to the contact points of the switch and LED lights. For those of you who don't know, let me tell you. Soldering is a bitch. There's a high risk of you getting burnt, and the molten solder wire is annoyingly hard to move into place.

Still, I did that for her for several hours, and once I got bored, I went around my dad's workplace scavenging for stuff that can be useful for building my Big Daddy suit, which I plan to use to steal the show at next year's Games Convention Asia.

Here's a glimpse of my top secret plan, but don't try to steal it! I'm going to next year's GCA, dressed in a Big Daddy suit, with emphasis on the BIG. I plan the final suit to be about 2.5m tall, and it's going to be too wide to fit into an MRT train.

The suit will be made out of cardboard and expanding foam. The drill arm will be able to swivel. The portholes will have both green and red LED lights which can be turned on and changed at will.

There will be two speakers at the sides of the main body, which will play the bellow of the Big Daddy. The bottom of the boots will be about 30cm tall, to give an extra height boost.

Here's a few really good images I found in the Bioshock art book, which can serve as perfect blueprints for my very ambitious project.

Ah actually, forget what I said earlier. If you want to steal the idea, go ahead, but then you'll owe me a Big Daddy brawl next year at GCA, which would be awesome. Also, I need someone to cosplay as a Little Sister, so if any one's interested, let me know.

Anyways, I managed to snag a couple of green LED lights from the warehouse. I only need ten, but I have thirteen, so I have some back up. I also managed to get myself a soldering gun, some solder wire and tons of wires. A good start I would say.

So after I was done at the office, I headed back home, and I just slacked a whole lot until I decided that I was waaay too bored, so I decided to pay my cousins a visit. I wanted to pass them the WWE poster and stickers I got for them during GCA anyways.

I headed down to my grandmother's house and played a little with my cousins, then my auntie decided to bring both of them to my house, so I followed them back and we played several missions of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2.

If you're a gamer, or if you hang out with me often, chances are you know that the reviews for MUA2 are mixed. Some find it a great game, while others find it a bug and glitch fest. Well, I think that if you can ignore the bugs, then it's a great game.

The bugs aren't exactly game breaking. Enemies freezing, getting stuck by invisible barriers, clipping, etc. Minor stuff that's present in close to every game released thus far. Except they happen much more often in MUA2.

MUA2 is still the original game at its core, with prettier graphics and a larger sense of scale. You still have two attack buttons. You still have four special moves per character. But the new Fusion powers are awesome.

Now any two characters can combine their moves to result in one damaging and visually spectacular attack. For example, Human Torch and Storm can create a hurricane of fire, and the Thing can spin Wolverine around and launch him at enemies.

I'm kinda disappointed though with fact that Fusion moves can only be pulled of my two characters. Imaging how epic it would have been if all four members of the team could combine attacks. And why just limit to four. There should be at least 8 player support while playing online.

But overall, MUA2 is still a great, fun little button masher that will be really fun to play with a group of friends. If there's anything about it that really pisses me off, it's that dumbass in game camera, which is a total bitch.

posted @ 10:09 PM
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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Ok so today's post is going to be mostly photos of Games Convention Asia 2009, which I have a lot of, thanks to Fiona. Before heading down to Suntec, we went running at Bedok reservoir. Completed 4.8km in 36 mins, which is quite an achievement for people who have not exercised for quite a while.

After the run, I got to try out the showering facilities at Temasek Poly's swimming complex. To be honest, I expected the showers to be in crappy condition, but they turned out to be really good. The cubicles were super clean and there was warm water.

We took a bus to Suntec, and had Pepper Lunch for lunch once we got there. GCA wasn't as crowded today, probably because it's a Sunday, and also because most people just preferred to attend the food fair next door instead.

I followed Fiona around as she snapped photos of majority of the cosplayers, and she helped my take photos of certain things I wanted to have photos of, like the displays for the various games. After spending close to an hour deciding whether or not I should get Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2, I eventually did.

We then went to some coffee place to slack. I forgot the name of the place but it's in City Link Mall, near HMV. Fiona had her drink, while I marvelled at my new game. We then went to Esplanade were we slacked for about an hour and a half, then we left.

So yes, that's as summarized as I can make it. Now for the photos :D

posted @ 11:51 PM
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Saturday, September 19, 2009

Oh today was a busy day. I went to East Coast Park twice, once for a walk, and another time for seafood, and I also attended the third day of Games Convention Asia.

My sister had drama practice today, so she had to go to school early. Since my dad was sending her, and since her school is directly opposite East Coast Park, the rest of us tagged along. After dropping my sister off at school, we went for a walk along the beach, which was cut short by the rain.

We headed to McDonalds for breakfast, then we headed home.

After about an hour, my sister finished, so back we went to East Coast Park. My dad decided that we should all have seafood, since my sister did well for her common test, and my results for the sem test ain't too shabby either.

We ate at Long Beach and ordered the usual dishes. I'm kinda surprised by my appetite nowadays. It's not like it's increasing or anything. More like it's getting smaller. In the past, I could clear all the leftover foods without any problem, and I would usual eat three bowls of rice at least. Now, it takes just one bowl of rice, and small portions of each dish, and I'm done.

The lunch was satisfying though. It's been a while since I've had good seafood. I was going to Suntec to meet Say Yin and Yan Ming for GCA, so my dad gave me a lift. I was there earliest, so I spent some time walking around the painting galleries.

The various paintings all depicted famous scenes from big name video games, like God of War, Little Big Planet, Super Mario Galaxy, Halo and Gears of War. I never was a art person, but I can totally appreciate this kind of art. People should do more of them.

After Say Yin arrived, we signed in and went to walk around the hall for a while. There were many cosplayers today. There were these two guys, one dressed up as Sage Mode Naruto, and the other as Sasuke in his white and purple robes.

In fact, there were many characters from the Naruto gang there. I'm referring to the main characters of course. There were many other characters as well, but I didn't recognise many of them. Yiling actually got an invite to cosplay as one of the Naruto characters, but she was busy because promos are around the corner.

Soon Yan Ming arrived and we walked around some more, then I got an sms from Marcus, telling me that he was sick of studying, and asking if he could meet up with us. I played a bit of Brutal Legend, and we watched others play games like Street Fighter IV and The Beatles: Rock Band while waiting for Marcus to arrive.

Once he got there, we headed over to the arcade. In the past, I used to frequent the arcade to play those basketball and music games, and occasionally the shooters. Nowadays, it's all about the fighting games.

It was these kind of games that Japanese arcades were founded on, and they continue to be the kind of games that most people prefer to play up til today. Fifty cents gives you the chance to complete the entire game with a single character, considering that you don't lose a single round.

I played Marvel vs Capcom 2, Tekken 6, and House of the Dead 4. We spent close to two hours in the arcade, and then, after realising the amount of cash we had just spent, we decided to head for dinner.

Marcus had the urge to eat at Mos Burger, and I did not mind since I love their fried mussels. We headed over to Marina Square, thinking that there was a Mos Burger there, but it turned out that there wasn't, so we headed over to Carl's Jr instead.

I was super reluctant to spend my cash, because I am broke and all, but I ended up buying food at Carl's Jr, which isn't the cheapest fast food chain around. So now, I am broker than broke. Still, I'm planning to buy Marvel Ultimate Alliance within the next week ^^

After dinner, we left for home, and I actually managed to get home before 11pm, which was great.

Today was a great day. The weather was cooling, so I had an excuse to wear my hoodie jacket. I got to go to GCA 2009 with a bunch of good friends. I managed to keep my spending to less than $20. I got to play fighting games at an arcade using a fight pad, which is super old skool but awesome at the same time :D

I'll probably be going back to the final day of GCA tomorrow, then I'll make the decision whether or not to pre-order and purchase several games.

posted @ 11:45 PM
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Friday, September 18, 2009

As much as I wanted to attend Day 2 of Games Convention Asia, I could not, because I had to visit my cousin. Ah well, there's always tomorrow and Sunday. Since there isn't much to say for today, I was planning on posting my 'Top 10 Most Anticipated Games' list, but damn it, I can't find it.

So now I have totally no idea what to post for today. Oh wait, actually I do. A picture paints a thousand words, so a video probably paints a million.

The latest Angry Video Game Nerd episode. It's Godzilla this time. One of the best episodes ever in my opinion. Go ahead, press play. You know you want to :D

posted @ 11:57 PM
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Thursday, September 17, 2009

Ever had one of those days where you wake up not expecting much to happen, but a whole lot of stuff actually happens in the end? Well, I just had one of those days.

I got a woke up at 9am today, which is super early for me, and by 10am I was out of my house and on the way to Marina Square. Today marked the release of the Japanese movie 'Crows0 II', which is based of the manga series of the same name.

I was going to watch it with Syafiqah, who couldn't wait to watch it because 1) it was a Japanese movie, and 2) it was a Japanese movie with a lot of Japanese men in it. I was goingearly to ensure that we got tickets. Of course, at that time of the day I was still expecting several other people to turn up for the movie.

Once I reached Marina Square, it turned out that not everyone who we asked had been able to confirm whether or not they were interested in watching the movie. So I ended up having to wait a while.

I went to Burger King and got breakfast. I actually like having breakfast at a fast food restaurant, but the place has to be mostly empty. It has been really long since I just took my time with eating breakfast. After that I went on msn using my laptop. I talked to several people online.

After sitting there for close to two hours, I decided to leave Burger King since the lunch time crowd was starting to appear. I called Syafiqah and we decided to get two tickets, since we weren't getting replies from the others.

So I got the tickets. The seats were second from the back, and in the middle. Good seats. But I didn't like the fact that they cost $8.50. Are poly students applicable for student prices, or do we have to add movie tickets to the ever growing list of things we have to pay adult prices for?

Nonetheless, I was happy that I managed to secure us our tickets. Now I just had to find something else to do for the remaining two hours before Syafiqah arrived.

Since I had already been walking around Marina Square for the past hour and a half, and also since I have been there way too many times, I decided to walk to some place else.

So, there was Suntec, Raffles City, Central, Peninsular, Funan and the Esplanade. I'm a gamer above everything else, so which do you think I picked?

Once I got inside Funan, I began walking from store to store, checking if they sold games, and if they did, at what prices. Right now, the only game out that I want is Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. After comparing the prices today, the most expensive it's being sold for is $89, while the cheapest is $75.

I'll probably be getting the game next Tuesday, when Halo 3: ODST is out. I need to head down to Junction 8 to collect my copy of OSDT, and I also need to collect my phone. Since Junction 8 has possibly the best game store in the entire island, in terms of prices, I'll be getting Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 there.

Funan is a cool place and all, but there are only so many shops to check out before you realise you've actually swept through the entire mall. And anyways, I was beginning to feel a stomach ache.

I don't like Funan or Marina Square toilets, and I was thinking that the toilets in Peninsular would be even more screwed up. Then I remembered that nice, big, clean toilet at Suntec Convention Hall.

So I started making my way there. At first everything seemed normal. It was lunch time, so the sight of hordes of office people walking around wasn't anything unusual. But I did notice other people, people in civilian clothing, taking the escalators up. So I followed them.

The toilet I was headed to was located on the six floor, so I would have had to take the escalator anyways.

Once I got to the second floor, this huge yellow sign board caught my attention. 'Game Convention Asia 2009 17th-20th September' it announced. I checked the date on my phone, and it really was the 17th.

I was super excited at that point. I mean, I knew GCA was this month, but what I didn't know was that it started today. How lucky is that? Just because of the urge to use the toilet, and just because I was took picky to use any toilet except that one, I stumbled upon the freakin GCA.

For those of you who don't know. GCA is an event that showcases tons of games due for release in the upcoming months, and attendees get to be among the first in Singapore to get their hands on these games. There's also tons of freebies to collect, booth babes to check out, and attractive offers to enjoy.

However, while GCA does have a public segment, it is mostly a behind the scenes event which main purpose is to house the annual D.I.C.E conference, which is a conference for game developers to meet and discuss the future of the game industry.

Of course, those lucky bastards who make up the local game media get closed door previews of games, and these previews may or may not eventually be released to the public.

This is probably the closest we will ever get to experiencing the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) locally, so I couldn't let the chance slip. With all thought of using the toilet suddenly evaporating, I headed to the entrance.

All members of the public had to sign in with their name, IC and email, possibly for the lucky draw, and also so that if you break the embargo of the games, and post footage online, they will be able to pin point just who to send that lawsuit flying at.

Once you sign in, you get this cool sticker that has to be on you at all times while within the exhibition hall. Also, if you're wondering, entry is free of charge. Yes, you're interested in going now, aren't you?

Here's the best way to describe how I felt when I first stepped inside the hall. Think of your favourite things. Be it clothes, jewellery, sports equipment, girls, just as long as you pinpoint the one you like the most.

Now, imagine a massive exhibition hall, filled with various booths housing nothing but that favourite thing of yours. And if that isn't exciting enough, most of the things being showcased there aren't on sale yet. Also, the sole purpose of that exhibition is for you to try all those things out.

So yes, that's how it felt. I was fighting back the urge to go crazy and run from test console to test console, trying everything I could get my hands onto. But I willed myself to practice self restraint.

Fortunately for me, it was about 1pm on a Thursday when I was there, meaning that there weren't much school kids, as well as working adults. So majority of the test consoles were free of queues. In fact many of them didn't even have anyone playing the games they contained.

The first game I got to test out was Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. Like I mentioned earlier, the game already has been out for several days, but I still haven't bought it yet so I decided to try it out.

The portion which I played took place in some underground lab area. I later found out that the lab belonged to the Tinkerer. The team I used was already pre-set, and it consisted of Storm, Gambit, the Human Torch, and the Invisible Woman.

To be honest, I don't really have that much to say about the game. It's pretty much the same as the first game. Graphics are definitely prettier, and yes, the Fusion moves are both fun to use and impressive to see, but everything else is almost identical.

Next game I played was Halo 3: ODST. As you can expect, there were a little more people waiting around the ODST test consoles, despite the fact that there were six of them to test the game on.

So when it was finally my turn, the first thing I did was marvel at the graphics. The Halo series never put that big a emphasis on graphics, but damn, ODST is one pretty looking game.

The night sky, the looming skyscrapers, the flashing lighting, the gentle drizzle; everything on screen compliment each other, and the overall effect is a sight to behold.

Then I clicked on the visor mode. Wow. Every tiny detail on screen gets highlighted by a yellow outline with a faint glow. Things that you probably would never have noticed before instantly become obvious, and the whole city suddenly seemed alive.

Alright so Bungie did a remarkable job with the graphics. Next thing I wanted to check out was game play. But I didn't know what to do. I was in a huge city, with no radar like in prior Halo games, and to make matters worse, there seemed to be a possible route every where I turned.

For the first time in a Halo game, I was lost.

So I started walking towards the nearest path when a hint popped up on screen. Turns out there's a map in the game after all, and it's displayed on your heads up display. There were three possible areas to head to, so I went to the one nearest to me.

Along the way, I ran into a squad of Covenant. Several Grunts and a Brute. Of course, I saw them long before they saw me. Visor mode is definitely one of the best new additions.

Having a chance to test the new weapons, and threw a grenade into the fray, and fired at the enemy with my silenced SMG. The difference is instantly noticeable. The gun sounds softer, and the vibrations on the controller were much more subtle.

I tried rushing head on at the Brute, which was a mistake. ODST aren't Spartans, so they do not have energy shields. After being hit once by its Brute Shot, I was close to death. I backed away and waited for my health to regenerate, and then I switched to my other weapon, the pistol.

I am in love. Remember that beast in the first Halo game? The pistol that killed anyone with two shots to the head? It's back. Well, maybe it isn't that overpowered, but it feels powerful, and three slugs to the head were enough to put the Brute down.

Along the way I ran into another Covenant patrol, which I decided to avoid. When I reached my checkpoint, my visor highlighted an object lying on the floor. I went towards it and interacted with it.

After a brief loading screen, and a short cutscene, I no longer playing as the same character. Also, it was a different time of day, as the sky was now orange instead of maroon. Multiple arrows appeared on my HUD, pointing my to my objectives.

I was just thrown into the flashback, and I didn't really know what was happening. All I knew was that there were tons of enemies at the other end of the bridge, my people were on this side, and I had to blow the bridge up.

So I followed the arrows towards several of the bridge's support beams. There were already explosives placed on them, so I followed the onscreen prompt to arm the explosives. And then I followed the final arrow to a watch tower, triggered the explosives, and watch the spectacular explosion that followed.

While ODST was not my favourite game at GCA, I am certainly liking what Bungie did to it. The Halo formula was getting stale, so they changed it, but still managed to ensure that it still was a Halo game. Looking forward to that next week.

The next game I played was Borderlands. Oh man I am so tempted now to just say that it's Fallout 3 with cartoony graphics, but I am not going to.

Borderlands bears a strong resemblance to last year's Fallout 3, and it has cell shaded graphics, similar to those of anime based games, but it does certain things to ensure that it doesn't live in Fallout 3's shadow.

For starters, the game looks really good. I mean, most games these days look really good, but Borderlands is one of the few that manages to use more than the standard brown, grey and black in their colour palette. The whole game has this easy going, brighter vibe surrounding it.

I like the detail of the game, like how each of the various non playable characters look unique and carry on with their own individual set of activities. For example, I was just walking past this table where three men were playing a game of poker.

This character, whom I had just escorted in to the town, settles down on the remaining seat to play. Before long an argument breaks out, and finally the character whom I escorted pulls out a gun and blows the head of the man directly opposite him.

At this point of time, I'm given the choice either to help him, or to help take him down. If I help him, I have a whole town to fight off, but I will eventually get that character as an ally and I will be able to get free guns from him. However, I will never gain peaceful access to the town ever again. Of course, if he dies, I don't benefit from him at all, but I can stay at the town.

I also like the vehicle combat portions of the game. Details like motion blur and smoke are added as your vehicle accelerates, making it seem that you're travelling at extremely high speeds. The guns mounted on your vehicle have a mild auto lock on ability, to make it easier.

Next I went to play Brutal Legend. It might have been alright to say that I was exaggerating back then when I said that Brutal Legend was going to be the best game ever, since I had not played it and all, but now having played it, I can only confirm that statement once more.

In six words: Most awesome thing I've ever played.

I am an absolute metal head. I worship metal music. Brutal Legend was made by an entire team of metal heads. Brutal Legend worships metal music. I have been waiting my entire gaming life (about 6 years) for a game like this to come by.

I took over when the guy playing left, and it was some where halfway through the demo. Several minutes after I started playing it, I knew that it was something different. It's funny, it looks great, the controls are perfect, the voice acting and sound track are top notch, and most importantly, the game play is awesome.

Just listen to how freakin awesome the game is. I killed demons with a huge battle axe. Just by strumming the strings on my guitar, I attacked my enemies with lightning from the above and fire from below. I summoned a badass looking car by playing a sick guitar solo.

Then came that boss fight. Some huge snake thing came out of the ground, and I had to drive around in the car, which is called the Druid Plow by the way, and I had to use the nitro boost to avoid being crushed by the beast. While it's tongue was stuck to the ground, I had to boost the Druid Plow into it to rip it out of the snake's mouth.

After being satisfied with a taste of the game, I reluctantly let go of the controller in order to give others a chance to feel its awesomeness. Now that my eyes weren't glued to the screen, I noticed a small crowd gathering at one of the booths.

So I made my way there, and it turned out that the closed door previews were beginning. The games being previewed there were in the booths because they were considered the more 'mature' games, so it wouldn't be good if the kids saw them.

By right, you had to be 18 years of age to enter, but no one stopped me, so I just went with the flow of the crowd and got seated. There was some short presentation by some Asian guy with an American accent, telling us about the games we were about the preview.

Then we were allowed to preview the games. I'm really lucky that there weren't many people at GCA today, or else it would have taken a really long time to get a chance to play the games in the preview booth.

The first game I got to play was Assassin's Creed II, since there were four test consoles for it. The first thing that hit me was the colour. The portion of the game which I played took place in Venice, during the night. There was colour everywhere.

Then I noticed the crowd. How they seemed to be in significantly greater numbers as compared to in the first game, and how they behaved more realistically. They now talked to each other, apologized if they bumped into each other, and they responded appropriately when I interacted with them.

As you might have already guessed, the next thing I did was try to scale the nearest wall. The controls are basically the same as the first game, but the animations are way better. Ezio moves with a fluidity that his ancestor Altiar lacked.

Once I got onto the roof of the building, I started to make my way the the objective, which was this tall watch tower. I lept from rooftop to rooftop, until I stumbled upon a guard. The weapon selection system now consists of a ring of different equipment.

The weapon that immediately caught my attention? The hidden gun. It is freakin awesome to use. It takes about two seconds for Ezio to focus the aim of the gun, and then he fires it. There was a loud bang which echoed in the night, startled pigeons flew off, and the guard fell off the roof.

Ignoring the screams from below, I hurried to the watch tower and scaled it. There was a guard a the top, but I pulled him over the ledge and threw him down. I climbed higher up the structure, and I came upon Leonardo Da Vinci's flying machine.

At this point of time, I decided to hand the controller over to some other guy, because I had already seen that part tens of times in the previews. I just wanted to check out the controls and some weapons, and having done that, I was more than happy to go try something else.

I went to over to the projector screen, where a demo of Mass Effect 2 was being played. Since I didn't get a chance to play the game, I can't say anything about the controls, but the graphics, animation and sound seem to be better than the first game.

The last game I played at GCA was Dante's Inferno. It's a fun, violent little game that can benefit us all with its chartartic properties. Ok, so it's a whole lot like God of War, and the hundred other games that ripped off God of War, but it has its own unique flavour that allows it to stand out.

First of all, let me get this straight. Dante's Inferno isn't just another God of War clone. It borrows from God of War. Most action games do. Anyways, it's not like God of War invented action games with Quick Time Events, Shenmue did.

Basically, you control Dante, who is some historical figure. To save the woman he loves, he willingly steps into Hell, and fights through it's various circles, right to its core. Now, that is undeniably badass, but it's not all.

As well all know, Hell isn't a nice place to be in. Demons and tormented souls everywhere. And all of them are pretty much hostile to a living entity amongst them. So Dante has to fight them off as he goes deeper and deeper.

He has several weapons, but I only used two of them, and to be honest, those two are all you'll ever need. The first weapon is a huge scythe, which doubles as both a melee and range weapon. The staff portion of the scythe is able to extend and become flexible, turning the scythe into a whip with a serious business end.

The second weapon is this holy artifact that is able to fire out white, glowing crosses. These crosses not only damage enemies, they also stun bigger foes and push back weaker ones. The animation for this weapon is pretty badass too.

The game looks good, with moody colours and distrubing backdrops. Enemies look alright, but I only saw three different enemies in the demo, and I would appreciate more variety. The sound is great, as far as I'm concerned. See, you do not have to play metal music for a satanic vibe, classical music can do that too.

As for the gameplay, it's pretty damn awesome. I'm an Xbox person, so I've not been playing much God of War, but Dante's Inferno does play a little differently from the other game. That isn't necessarily a bad thing though.

While God of War puts heavy emphasis on puzzle solving, and there are 'dead' moments in the game, where you walk around to enjoy the scenery without being attacked, Dante's Inferno just throws at you wave after wave of unholy filth.

The action never stops and it can get overwhelming at times, which is great, since it's supposed to be the whole 'one man against Hell' thing anyway. The game is still about half a year from launch, so I'm hoping that there'll be a little changes here and there, but for the most part, it's great.

Now that I finally got my fill of gaming at GCA, I left the hall feeling super satisfied with myself. I walked over to Marina Square to meet Syafiqah, and we slacked at the food court for a while, before proceeding to the cinema.

Before we proceed into the cinema hall, I decided to go to the toilet, where I got an epic shock. I opened the door and looked into the mirror, and this freaky looking girl looked back at me. I was damn shocked man. It turned out to be an ad for some upcoming movie, and it was pasted onto the mirror.

The only other Japanese show I've watched in theatres was Detroit Metal City, and that was in Plaza Singapura, so I was a little surprised to see that the hall was actually super small. If I'm not wrong, only 80 people can fit in it.

2.5hrs later, I came out of the hall feeling happy for the most part. The movie was great. Fun to watch, cool characters, epic fight scenes, and it was filmed in a anime style, which was great.

I was a little disappointed though that the Japanese men dominated the movie, and there weren't much girls in it. The two scenes with a chance for something sexual to happen on screen also went against my hopes. Still, I enjoyed it, and I wouldn't mind watching it again.

We walked down to the Esplanade and slacked there for about an hour, then we left. Once I got home I immediately tried to upload the photos from today, but my freakin memory card is screwed so I don't think I'll ever get the photos back. Sorry Syafiqah!

Ahh well, today was a day well spent. I watched a good movie, spent time with a good friend and played tons of good games. So overall, good day. Damn it now that GCA is on I'm having an urge to attend it everyday until it's over. We'll see how it goes.

posted @ 11:13 PM
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