SCIV - Do or Do Not. There is no Try

I picked up Soul Calibur IV last week! SCIV is a direct-to-console game so I think it prompted a lot of long-time series fans and arcade-goers to purchase a PS3/Xbox360 to play the game. I am hoping this influx of players will mean that the game will have a nice, long-lasting online community.

I've never played a Soul Calibur game before but I am enjoying the game so far. The game is a whole lot easier to pick up than VF5, which I am convinced by now, requires a PhD in rocket science to learn. The first character I picked was Nightmare based on looks and I like him so I guess he is my main for now. He's kinda slow which means I have problems with faster characters that get in my face. I hope I can be a decent, non-scrubby player at least.

One thing I find pretty out-of-place about the game are the female characters that looked like they stepped out of Dead or Alive, skimpy clothing and all. Throw in an extensive character customization mode and it's... welcome to the flesh parade! Have a look. And beware; the last character at the bottom of the page is naked (shield your eyes!). Yup, they even call it OppaiCalibur (Go Google what Oppai means. haha).

There is even a Japanese comic teaching how to play the game which is funny and suggestive.

(Scanlations by Otadesho)

- Part 1 - Part 2 -

And some of you may have noticed... yes, Darth Vader and Yoda are in the game. Xbox users get Yoda first and Vader probably later. It's weird when he speaks Japanese.

It's Time for NS Matters Again

Last Thursday, I got called up for a reservist Mob Briefing from 2 pm to 4 pm at Seletar Camp (which means I got the day off!!!). That is actually the same camp where I had my first reservist ICT 2 years ago.

I gathered at the auditorium above the cookhouse with other NS men. I recognized a few familiar faces from 2 years ago. They probably don't know me and it was a little awkward but I just went ahead and sat with them.

I overheard their conversation and realized why I hadn't been called up for ICT for 2 years. They were trying to clear the old birds and let them ROD first so they are going for all the recent ICTs, including one to Thailand. I hope I will never have to go for overseas ICT but I think there is a chance that everyone will get it.

The briefing was about a trial mob activation, but this time, we know they will surely activate us on a certain day in October to test-run their new system.

There is also another mob period in November but the officer just smiled and remarked that we haven't been activated in 3 years and the 'higher-ups' were very pleased with our last activation in 2006 where the attendance rate was 97%. So... if that is a clue, I still have no idea whether they will activate or not. haha.

At least I know that I don't have ICT this year. I guess I'll get it next year. Meh.

And my RT is starting again on 10th August, after National Day. This will be my 3rd year. It is sad to be sign-on RT for life.

Movie Streak

I have been going to AMK Hub for movies for the past three weeks in a row so here is my belated movie impressions post!

Wanted


I watched Wanted with Michael. It was pretty okay, though the plot felt a little weak. For a movie about stylish gunplay/action, I actually felt there wasn't enough action scenes! But the few that were present were very well done and had an over-the-top Matrix feel. It's always cool to see bullets that curve and sniper rounds that travel halfway across the country before bursting through someone's head in a bloody mess.

I found it funny that the beginning of the show felt like a typical American sitcom with monologue and narration by the main character. It was like watching Scrubs.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army


I watched this with Michael, Jeryl and YongHao. It was kinda a last-minute thing. I only went to AMK Hub to pick up Unreal Tournament III and was gonna play it all night. Then it turned into another movie night.

I remembered the trailers on TV (the "if monsters didn't exist..." one) and it actually made the movie seem nice. It turned out to be a little disappointing, though. There was nothing particularly exciting about it, nor there was anything horrible about it. It was pretty 'meh' all the way. Some of the characters even looked like they stepped out of an episode of Power Rangers.

The action scenes felt very, very weak, despite the fact that the movie was based on an action comic. It's all seemed like a brutish slug-fest to me. At least the fights were not as rubbish as those in Ghost Rider.

The Dark Knight


I watched this with Mog, Akira and Max. The whole world probably watched this movie by now. No doubt about it; it's a great movie. The pace was very good. There was never a draggy moment.

*Spoilers ahead*

The Joker was real sinister and devilishly clever; I love how he was portrayed in the movie as being totally psychotic and twisted. I liked how he rigged the two ships and forced the passengers to choose to blow up the other ship. My favorite scene for that segment was when the big, brutish convict walked up to the police officer and showed him how to be a man. It kept me on the edge of my seat.

I was kinda expecting the show to feature two main villains like Batman Begins, seeing how Harvey Dent was featured so prominently on the movie posters. I was a little disappointed by TwoFace's minor role; he was more of a plot device and tool for the Joker. It was all still pretty good.

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That was probably the last of the movies I wanted to watch this quarter of the year. I missed out on Get Smart and Hancock. I wonder what's the next nice show to hit the cinemas.

Twelve Months Has Gone By!

Last Friday I was sick and didn't go to work again. That morning, I woke up, got dressed then left the house as for normal. As I got off the lift, I asked myself honestly if I was fit enough to go to work. I was feeling feverish so the answer was 'no' and it was back to bed for me. This time, I actually felt guilty about it; I've taken MC 3 times in 12 months already. My boss commented about me falling sick often when I returned to work the next day.

Come to think of it, I have been here for a year already! Wow, 12 long months. How did I survive one whole year with such a without any long breaks? (WTB: one-week long government-declared holiday for working people!) If life was a videogame, I'd be expecting an 'achievement unlocked' pop-up any time now.

Throughout my one year here, I actually learnt a lot of things that are not typical desk-job fare. One thing I had 'fun' (to put it very mildly) doing was helping my boss with general insurance. (Examples: car insurance, foreigner worker insurance, workman compensation; the kind that people have to buy because it is required to by law, etc.)

Since day one, my boss has wanted to let me handle his general insurance cases and taught me how. I ended up being quite familiar with it, acting as the middleman who prepares the necessary documents and liasing with the behind-the-scenes people. It's not a big deal but it does feel good when people thank me for it. Sometimes, the greedy side of me wonder if I should ask for a raise. haha

I actually plan to stick with this job until they don't want me anymore or until the agency makes it big. This agency actually started last year, several months before I came, so I kinda feel like I should probably stick around and see how everything turns out. The lady-boss has set her goals high and wants the agency to make their first million in sales by 2011. That's three years away. I wonder if I will still working here by then.

I recently exchanged Facebook and MSN contacts with a few colleagues. Now I feel real silly that I actually waited one whole year to do it.

Rock Band @ E2Max

I went for a Rock Band jam session last Sunday at E2Max (The Cathay) with Rhyfe and his two friends. The rental price was actually pretty much a rip-off ($25 an hour) and E2Max was pretty cheapskate. They only had one set of instruments so only 3 players could play at any one time. We had to take turns.



My impressions...

The Stratocaster guitar is probably the worst plastic guitar I have ever laid my hands on. The guitar parts actually felt hard due to the stricter timing window and eye-straining HO/POs. Drumming was actually pretty fun, though I got a real work-out with the foot pedal. My ankle hurt as though I had just finished an RT session.

People always say the vocals are the most unpopular and now we know why. Most of us got pretty bored with it after a while and soon, not many felt like singing. Maybe cos' it's pretty mundane (it's just a mic after all; how interesting can it get?) and simply not as fun as holding a plastic instrument in your hands.

I sang a few songs that I knew: Train Kept A' Rollin (Aerosmith), Highway Star (Deep Purple) and a few recognizable songs from Guitar Hero. If I could hear myself sing, my hair would probably all stand on their ends. The hardest song in the game was Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld. I heard that this was supposed to be a funny song out of South Park. haha.

It was pretty fun. The 3 hours went by rather quickly. We wanted to capture a few perfomances on video but an E2Max staff told us that we were not allowed to take pictures. I wonder why. Meh.

I won't be playing Rock Band @ E2Max again due to the ripoff prices. Maybe if I ever come here again, I could try other stuff.

PhoneCam Hero: Pink, It's My New Obsession

When you are bored and realize that your phone camera can take passable videos, you start to think of all the cool stuff you can do.

Here's my fresh attempt on the Lou battle again. This time it's a little more dramatic because I got screwed for more than half the battle then ended up winning (at 3:50) when my life was flashing red and about to fail. It was all by luck. Hmm, now if I had failed during the 'Finish Him' section, I would've been mad.

And yes, I do realize that I can hear the loud plastic tapping of my guitar strumming. It actually sounds pretty nice. haha.



And here is a little bonus vid for someone who has a blog that screams PINK! And nope, it's not a crazy perfect, full-combo video. I happen to like this song and it's for fun. I even miss already during the first 60 seconds of the song. But I got a pretty decent score, didn't miss the initial tough bit (at 1:40) and it even ends nicely with the 100-streak message popping up. haha.

The Penguin Went Down to Georgia, He was Looking for a Soul to Steal

OH. MY. F**KING. GOD. I beat the Devil!!!



I finally beat the Lou boss battle in Guitar Hero 3 on Hard after a two-month break from the game. This was accompanied by much cheering and cursing (in a happy way). I couldn't believe it myself. Everyone says he's cheap & random and some may never beat him for weeks, maybe months.

After playing a lot of GH: Aerosmith, The Devil Went Down to Georgia no longer seemed as impossible as I remembered it from months ago. The lyrics will be etched in my mind because I tried it so many times. It's actually quite catchy and tells a story which is mimic'ed by the in-game boss battle.

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The Devil Went Down to Georgia
GH3 version covered by Steve Ouitmette
Link: Video

The devil went down to Georgia, he was looking for a soul to steal.
He was in a bind 'cos he was way behind: he was willin' to make a deal.
When he came across this young man sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot.
And the devil jumped upon a hickory stump and said: "Boy let me tell you what:
"I bet you didn't know it, but I'm a fiddle player too.
"And if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you.
"Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy, but give the devil his due:
"I bet a fiddle of gold against your soul, 'cos I think I'm better than you."
The boy said: "My name's Johnny and it might be a sin,
"But I'll take your bet, your gonna regret, 'cos I'm the best that's ever been."

...

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(That's just the first verse, which I find quite memorable. haha)

Sadly, the blue fret button on my guitar controller is pretty messed up right now (did I stress it too much?). I hope I can get it fixed or I'll just have to get a new one.

Same Old Song & Dance

I picked up Guitar Hero: Aerosmith last week. Have been playing it every day from the moment I come home till way pass my bedtime without even realizing it.

The game may be just an expansion but I found myself enjoying it very much. For me, it was like GH3 all over again but minus the insane levels of difficulty. I was able to beat Hard in Aerosmith without too much frustration and, over the weekend, I cleared Expert by barely scraping by all the songs.

What I loved about the game were the Aerosmith interview videos. They were real nice and I got to learn about the band and took an interest in learning more about them. Steven Tyler actually seems like a funny guy and Joe Perry is so cool.

I actually went to YouTube to dig out their music/concert videos to watch. My favourite songs so far are:
- Walk This Way (Run DMC)
- Sweet Emotion
- Ragdoll
- I Hate Myself for Loving You (A well-known song. By Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)

(The title of this blog entry is actually an Aerosmith song, but that's found in Guitar Hero 3 instead. haha.)

You Don't Mess with the Chuck. I mean Zohan.

I had dinner at AMK with Yonghao, Shein & friends on Saturday. We ate at Ramen Ten (argh, $2.90 for a can of coke) and then we went to Andersen's for brownie & ice cream (the brownie was real nice).

Later in the night, we decided to catch You Don't Mess with the Zohan with Michael after his work. I saw that the tickets were selling fast on the display monitors. I did not want this to be my 3rd time in a row sitting in front for a movie so I had an idea; I quickly went to use one of the computer terminals to book the tickets online.

Throughout the whole movie, there was one thing that was on my mind...

The title even reminded me of the very old Mountain Dew commercial. Maybe I am thinking too much. haha.

Zohan does crazy things like kick through walls, catch bullets with his hands and seems to be practically invincible. The jokes are actually very absurd to the point of being ridiculous, with a lot of crude, sexual humour involving Zohan's... schnitzel. The one thing strange about the show is that it actually has *gasp* a plot and *double gasp* some character development which makes it feel a little draggy for a comedy.

On a side note, trailers for Wanted were showing. It's a stylish gunplay/action movie that I would like to catch. I read from GameAxis magazine that it's actually based on a comic though the plot was totally changed for the movie. It's about a regular guy who learns about the death of his long lost father and has to follow his footsteps by taking over an organization of assassins.

In the original comic, the assassins were supervillains who have defeated all superheroes and took over the world. It sounds a little far-fetched for a movie so I guessed that is why they had to change the supervillains into assassins. haha.

Oh, and there's Angelina Jolie is in it.

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Sunday would be another day out of the house. Things did not start out fine because I realized lost my house keys! I tried searching for it. The maid tried searching for it. But it was gone. I suspect that I may have left the key stuck on the door when I came home the night before. Some crook may have taken it. My family decided to change the lock to be safe.

I stayed home most of the day and, at around evening time, I met up with Max, Kyo & Akira to go to the Toys & Comic Book Convention. It was a little disappointing to me because it was way overcrowded. It reminded me very much of all the IT shows I have been to. We could only move in the direction of the crowd and there was no way to stop and admire each booth without obstructing traffic. I normally would like to take pictures but it was impossible.

I was trying to keey an eye out for McFarlane Halo figures but there weren't any. There were weird booths like McDonald's. Even the Wii was on display, too. There was a circular platform in the centre with two girls playing Guitar Hero III. It made me wonder if they were paid to play Guitar Hero all day long during the convention.

We then had Karl's Junior before going home.

While I was at the convention, I managed to spot an Ichigo (Bleach) cosplayer. I later learnt that this Ichigo was a 'she' because she queued behind me at the taxi stand when I was going home. She was not in full costume but was carrying her cosplay sword and joking with her friends whether the taxi driver would think it was real.