Feed the boredom

Stole this from ZH's blog: http://polalion.blogspot.com

1) Where is the person you want most?
Right now? Probably working in TTSH.

2) Where will you be 2 hours from now?
Hopefully getting a nice sleep

3) Did your last kiss mean anything?
What kiss?

4) Does your ex miss you?
What ex.

5) Does anyone love you?
I bet you do <3

6) What are you doing tomorrow?
Try to make time move slower...again.

7) Are you easily confused?
At a great many things, yes.

8) Do you think you would make a good boyfriend/girlfriend?
I'll probably be a really good one when games really start to suck.

9) Where were you at 9am this morning?
Sleep :p

10) Do you fall for people easily?
Too easily than I could handle.

11) Everything happens for a reason?
Correction: Good things happen for a reason.

12) What does your last text message read?
"Hahahahaha"

13) What are you listening to right now?
MAZINKAISER ~Shitou! Ankoku Daishogun~ IN - Majin Kenzan!!

14) How was the week so far?
Awesome, but if will eventually end =/

15) Is there something you wish you could tell someone but can't?
Like 100 ways of describing how much life sucks?

16) Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?
Again with kisses.

17) Do you sleep with the TV on?
Never.

18) Are you too forgiving?
You are making me hate myself again.

19) Have you ever wanted to be a fire fighter?
That would be cool.

20) Who do you miss?
Mostly my younger self.

21) What was the last thing you put in your mouth?
Lotus Soup.

22) What are you stressed out about?
National Service.

23) Do you have anything in your pockets right now?
No.//

24) What do you do mostly in your free time?
Just thinking about it makes me stressed.

25) In the past week have you gotten sick?
Hahaha yeah man =D

26)Who was your last call from?
Missed call = Heber
Received call = my coy's armskoteman

27) What can't you wait for?
To down PES.

28) On a scale of 1-10 How good is life?
As long as I cannot decide what to do in the future, probably a 3. Could be alot worse.

29) Are you a high-maintenance?
After comparing with some people, I would say no...

30) Are you happy with the way life is?
No. And there are too many reasons why.

Anime Festival Asia 08 recap

This is probably the best weekend I spent since my NS started. To be honest, when I went I only went for 2 things: Mayn and SF4 competition.

On 22nd, I just queued up for the 2 day pass ticket and quickly entered Suntec City Convention Hall 403/404. I wasn't expecting much out of Saturday. I thought I didn't know much of Ichirou Mizuki's (aka Aniki) songs since I don't really know what on earth is Kamen Rider and stuff. The only song I recognize are from the Mazinger Z series.

So I went, played a few $1 (ouch) Melty Blood games, and watch the group SF4 competition matches. Only thing that I find notable is Weitian bringing Simon to the Loser's Bracket.

There were all kinds of booths...Hexaproject, Digipen, Bandai, Takashimaya, Odex, KKnM, Manga Kissa...it's quite a nice array actually. I must say I would be expecting more, but hey one shouldn't be too greedy.

So I waited with John until Aniki's concert. I wasn't prepared for what's about to come. Aniki is THE King. There's something about the way he sings that makes you...燃える。 I didn't know he sings Voltron or the Shin Getter Robo OPs. It is truely an experience that one cannot really express in words. You can feel the passion in his singing really.

On the 23rd (that's today), I arrived just in time to see Jianhui barely losing to Baehoon with his Balrog. Mayn is a great singer, but too bad she only sang like 5 songs. And she have to sing Youhei...yucks. Oh ya, I forgot to mention (because I probably instinctively remove it from memory) about the cosplay comepetition. English dubs scares me. I mean, people actually watch English dubs? It's so damn unnatural most of the time. It pains me to hear the Hitman Reborn cosplayer shouting "TO THE EXTREME!!!" out loud and hundreds of people clapping to it. It's just not right to me.

The most memorable thing about AFA08 to me is undoubtedly Aniki. I hope JAM project comes over soon...fat hope but one can dream right?

Review: "Fallout 3"

Many people had high hopes for this game.

It was a game that's waiting to be released.

Fans all over the world, have been waiting for it since Interplay died and with it "Fallout 3: No Mutants Allowed".


Many years later, Bethesda, creators of the Elder Scrolls Series, took over. Many people grumbled about how worried that Fallout 3 would become just 'another Oblivion with guns'. I am not a fan of Oblivion, in fact I don't even like Oblivion (I like Morrowind though, but that's besides the point). People start imagining what it would be like to have a FPS/RPG-like Fallout, and despite my imaginations, I can only expect the worse.

All I remembered about Oblivion was the Assassin's Guild quests, which was crafted decently. The rest of the game is just bullcrap, the standard issue save-the-world thing, along with a game mechanic which would work well only in games like Oblivion.

When I started off playing Fallout 3, my first impressions are rather good, after all, I have waited probably 8 years for this. Nostalgia blinded me immediately after I see Pipboy and the Vault suit. Then it wore off and something else took over. It was the exact same feeling as playing Oblivion. So the worse came true, Fallout, is after all the wait, an Oblivion set in post-nuclear-war setting with guns.

Stats and skills are poorly revamped. All the stats, save Intelligence, are crap on their own, espacially Charisma which doesn't give anything other than greater successes to <Lie> dialogs. Since skills are now capped at 100%, and since it doesn't cost more to add skill points at higher percentages, it's easy to create a character that is really good at a couple of skills and decent in many others. My currently character is currently just really crap at Speech and Barter, aside from other weaponry skills which I don't need since I already got 2 which are really high (ie I have Small Guns and Melee Weapons really high, I don't need Unarmed or Energy weapon).

Perks are really dumbed down. You don't even need to plan much any more. Too many shit perks that are just "Each time to take this perk your Medicine and Science skill increases by 5!".

The Wasteland setting, the environment rather, is boring. It's really one dimensional most of the time but I can't really bash on that. I mean, it is a wasteland setting so I guess it's meant to look deary, but really it makes travelling so damn dull.

Quests are overall pretty well done tbh, but they could be done better. A lot better. But considering today's RPGs, it's already rather good. I just...wish it could be better. I can't describe here to avoid giving away random spoilers.

And of course we come to VATS, the attempt to make Fallout 3 feel like a Fallout game. Like all gimmicks, it looks good at first, but gets boring after awhile. I don't think they have a choice though, since they are trying to mesh together Fallout, an inherently TBS game, with Oblivion, an inherently FPS game. It is actually quite cool since they abuse bullet time, and especially since they solve melee in VATS by teleporting you to the enemy if they try to run away. A broken yet amusing bug/feature.

But undoubtedly, I feel that Fallout 3 could become GOTY for 2008. Overall, it's still a rather good game. I'm just disappointed at the perks, skills and stats system. It almost feels as if they are forced to implement RPG elements into an FPS game.

Elitists

Alot of gamers are elitists. Alot of gamers WERE elitists. It is only natural.

It's hard to say what exactly I mean by a gamer nowadays, so I'll go by this simple defination: People who plays games seriously. Min-maxers automatically fall into this category.

I met up with this gamer dude in my platoon back in BMT. He's plays board games, DND as well as various console/PC games. I'm not talking DOTA and CS of course. I'm talking about great games like Baldur's Gate and Fallout...and new games like Mass Effect etc etc, you know the works.

He is damn elitist.

He shuns away 'ah beng'-type characters and looks down on 'typical' singaporean characters. I mean, he only talks to a couple of guys in my platoon. He knows I play tons of stuff more than him so he quickly associates himself to me. In front of me, he's nice and okay sort of guy, but then since I mix around alot with my platoonmates, I found an ugly side of him. He's apparently selfish, conceited and proud. He refuses to mix around with people who aren't gamers, people who clubs and plays soccer etc.

God, how is such a person going to survive at all?

Regarding about my previous post about no life, I believe that there is no life without people around you. The concept about making friends is so simple. You make a friend, you help him, he help you and possibly help each other in the future. If you make up with a cb ljpal, too bad, suck it up and continue being friends, if not mere acquaintances. Who knows that ljpal will change for the better in the future (or become a living joke for your entertainment if you are bastard like me).

Maybe because I'm too nice though. I love dissing people alot but I don't like to like literally tell them to fuck off. I only do it when someone is a real fucker.

I guess elitists can survive in the society after all, since there seems to be quite a number around the world and they haven't suicided or anything.

And congrats to all former elitists for quitting being one.

No-lifer

I haven't had a chance to post anything other than gaming due to 1) lack of time, 2) lazy to blog or 3) nothing else to blog about. So now I shall randomly post something because I have nothing better to do.  Most of my gaming time (via handhelds) are done in my bunk since we have ample free time, so when I get home, I prevent myself from touching them (why waste time playing PSP during book out when you can actually do it like 5-6hours a day in camp?).

So let's throw all these gaming topics aside for awhile.

Sometimes, I wonder what do people do at home, especially during their book out.  Book outs are precious and in turn causes people to plan and do their most enjoyable/favorite things. I'll leave people with girlfriends aside cause they will usually spend 90% of their bookouts with them.  Either that or they spent alot on them the previous week thus causing them to go into hiding for the next upcoming weeks to recuperate.

I'm more interested in what girlfriend-less non-gamer people do during their free time.

For me it's rather simple.  Whenever people ask me "What are you going to do during my bookout?", I'll just give a slight smile and go, "Bugis, maybe some DnD and I dunno, play some PC games." which would be followed by "Why Bugis? What is DND? What games...DOTA? CS?".

Most people in my camp know that I am, soul and heart, a gamer and a bit weeaboo and otaku (I just don't watch enough animes and even less now).  I spend most of my life playing games since primary school, holding my Game Boy wherever I go, and whenever, even playing in the dark with the light screen attachment thing while being car-sick (I get motion sickness while playing games in vehicles).  When I return home when I was only kindergarden, I would just turn on my SNES and play some mario and stuff.  When I go my uncle's house I would play on my 16-bit Sega all day.  Come to think of it, I don't think I ever spent a day without playing games until NS started.

A lot of people consider me a 'no-lifer'.  Most people classify people without a girlfriend or not actively searching for one a 'no-lifer'.  It's not that I do not want one.  It's just that having a girlfriend takes up a lot of sacrifice which I'm not willing to make yet, and also I have very high expectations of a girl.  I'd rather concentrate on my fucked up future first.

So anyway.  When I ask most people what do they do during their book outs, most would just reply either "Girlfriend" or "Club". Some would randomly jio a few friends to go eat some random food or play soccer. Others would just go, "erm...nothing much lor, just slack around at home."

That got me thinking for awhile.  For a person like me, slacking at home means playing computer games, some random piano or lie down read book and sleep.  For them, it means lie down and sleep? Most of them don't play much games other than DOTA or CS. Most don't even read books.  So if they have nothing to do, what do they do? Surf youtube.com? What do they surf on the internet? Hmm.  I'll ask next book in.  They must be doing something at home.  I don't believe people actually spend their book out solely on sleeping and laying down.

In the end, everyone has their own perspective.  Being the minority, I tend to get randomly bashed (verbally but it's not so bad cause it's just random).  Luckily it's the era of digital media.  So people who play a bit of games come to me for random gaming talk.

Oh well, I've involved the subject of games again. I guess it's rather inevitable huh? =p

Review: "The Force Unleashed"

If you like Star Wars alot, play this game, if not, it would be a more buggy and disappointing version of the God of War series. Being the former, I am able to look past the shortcomings of this game. Barely.

You play the secret apprentice of the Dark Lord Vadar, secret even to the Emperor himself. Together, both of you secretly plan to overrun the Empire. That is the basic gist of the game. You start off as Lord Vadar himself, slicing through hundreds of wookies (or stormtroopers if you like) and abusing his vast force energy and powers. From the very start, you begin the see two problems with the game: camera and the fact that your lightsaber is a giant glowy rubber bat. I take back my word on 'slicing wookies'...it should've been 'batting wookies off the screen'. Still, despite this, batting people away is amusing, so is flinging them off platforms.

Your character is this son of a long dead Jedi killed by Darth Vadar. As you progress through the game, you will gain either yellow, red or blue points (forget the specific names, I know blue = force, red = combos and yellow = stats). So there are 3 different tables, namely yellow, red and blue, for you to spend your respectively-colored points. Yellow points affect your total force power, regen, health, etc. Red improves your combat skills (via new combos and such) and blue is your force abilities (push, lightning, etc). It works just like the previous Jedi Knight series.

One gripe about this game that most people find irritating is the lack of invulnerability time at certain animations like getting up from the ground. In fact, the game has no invulnerability time for your character. When he gets knocked down, while getting up, he will still take damage from all the enemies smacking you as well as random rockets from off the screen. You can always try to 'tech' out before you fall, pushing away some enemies for a short distance, but there isn't even invul time for that so you still can get knocked down AGAIN by some random rocket while in the teching animation. Sometimes, a simple knockdown in the heat of the battle might just cost you the game.

Gameplay feel is pretty much the same as most of your hack and slash games. It mostly follows the cinematic style of God of War. The game feels edgy and stiff sometimes, as if something unintended is going to happen soon but it didn't. I managed to get myself under the terrain once but even so, it's hard to reproduce it. Still, it's fun because it's Star Wars.

Graphics are meh. Nothing much to comment other than it is very Star War-ish. As for the OST...it's Star Wars.

All in all, the main thing going for this game is its IP. Without it, it will be just another God of War wannabe clone and shelfed off to one corner of the world. Then again, in GoW, you don't get telekinetic powers.

[Game] Dawn of War II 20sec gameplay footage rawr

http://kotaku.com/5013734/dawn-of-war-ii-gameplay-footage

Very wank-worthy in my opinion. Nothing could've prepared me for what I saw. I could expect it, but seeing it is more than believing it.

EDIT: is there a way to make wordpress accept HTML stuff?