Notice

I have moved to Wordpress:
http://penguinsnest.wordpress.com/

However, this Blogspot will still be used to try out new template designs and serve as a back-up.

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Christmas 2009

The Christmas holidays began for me on the 24th. After my half day at work, I met up with Duelist, Addict and Mambo at Funan Centre. We shopped around and then had a late lunch at Shokudo at Raffles City. I realized all these open food bazaar restaurants always have rosti which I really like. haha.

On Christmas itself, I met up with Kyo, Akira, Brainy, Bahamut and Mango for dinner at Suntec City. At first we were planning to have Kuishinbo but it turned out that the buffet charges were much higher that day. We ended up eating at Kenny Roger's which was just as fine since I love their chicken.

At night, we went over to Bahamut's place for some BlazBlue. I haven't touched the game in months and ended up spamming a handful of combos that I could barely remember. I can't wait for Continuum Shift!

(As I post this, I realized that I should be more cam-whorish and be daring enough to snap pictures next time...)

I spent my Saturday at home playing video games. I was in the mood for some music and picked up several rhythm games to keep myself busy; DJ Hero, LIPs Number One Hits and Guitar Hero Van Halen.


Here's the obligatory Prinny-with-new-toy photo. And yes, I have to stack up several empty boxes every time I want to play.

On Sunday, I met up with YongHao to catch Sherlock Holmes at AMK Hub. It is always fun to see Robert Downey Jr. in any movie. I don't know much about the character but I guess they were going for modern-day Holmes who has some character flaws and can fight really well. The plot was a little weak to me but it does hint at a sequel. The show has a lot of investigative moments when it reminds me of CSI. haha.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Looking at the Halo Legend Anime Series (Part I)

Halo Legends starting airing over Xbox Live on alternate Saturdays since November. I believe it is up on YouTube and other sources as well. Some of you may have watched it so here are my brief personal views on the episodes out thus far.

1. The Babysitter
Studio: STUDIO4°C


This is actually currently my favourite episode so far. Nice, clean traditional anime character designs and a memorable story to boot. The plot is based on a familiar concept from the novels (the rivalry between the ODSTs and Spartans). There was a cool twist at the end that left me thinking. Looking forward to see the upcoming "Origins" episode which is done by STUDIO4°C as well.

Halo Geek Moment: That Brute 's Gravity Hammer must be out of batteries seeing how totally UN-destructive its impact is.


2. The Duel
Studio: Production I.G.


This episode centers on one of my most favourite subject matter in the Haloverse; the Sanghelli (aka Elites). The story takes place before they actually joined the Covenant. Seeing them portrayed as olden day honourable Japanese warriors (complete with Kimono!) was a nice touch. Fight scenes were cool, too. Unfortunately, the animation did not do it for me. It was said that they were going for a CGI-meets-watercoloured-painting look but all I saw was a pixelated mess. Some may applaud it for its unique animation style though. Ah well.

Halo Geek Moment: We get to learn how the "Arbiter" became a 'bad' title.

3. The Package
Studio: Casio Entertainment


I found this to be my least favourite episodes so far. So the Spartans are supposed to retrieve a 'package' from a Convenant ship. What ensues is 15+ minutes of filler'ish back-to-back action sequences that seem to serve no purpose other than to showcase the studio's 3D polygons/CGI rendering prowess. It's very mindless and disappointing to me.

Halo Geek Moment: In some parts of the action scenes, the camera switches to a first-person view (complete with crosshair) similar to the video game. This would've been a cool gimmick... if they did not re-use it multiple times during said action sequence.

-----------------------------------------------------

The remaining episodes will be aired over the first few months of the new year. I am actually planning to get the DVD/Blu-Ray just so that I can experience the anime a second time in Japanese. hehe.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

TIme to Clear Leave

It has been a while since I had a normal update. Everyday has been the same for me: It's all work and games.

There was a period of time when I actually thought that I may be out of the job soon because my agency was in danger of not hitting our quota to stay in business. However, things are starting to look fine now so it is no longer a cause for worry.

I started clearing my leave this month. I was advised against clearing several days at one go so I went and spread out my 3 days to one day per week. It doesn't seem ideal but it is actually not too bad since I end up coming to work only 4 days a week.

Clearing my leave actually reminds me that I need to negotiate with my boss for more annual leave next year. I always felt that 7 days a year is quite pathetic. I'm gonna see if I can ask for something more reasonable like 10.

Monday, December 14, 2009

VGA: Halo Reach



When I first saw the Halo Reach world premiere trailer during the Video Game Awards (live stream) on Sunday morning, I felt cheated. So much hype and they just showed a 2-minute pre-rendered cutscene without a single gameplay video.

It was only later in the day that I realized that whole trailer was running on the in-game engine. I went to catch it again on Gametrailers and also downloaded it off Bungie to watch on my laptop. Still felt it was nothing to write home about.

I got back from work today and saw that the HD trailer was up on the Xbox Live Marketplace. I decided to give it one more shot.

I ended up watching it several times. It suddenly looks and sound so different on my usual gaming setup. I managed to catch little tidbits that I missed out. The music of Halo never fails to impress. Spring 2010 seems so far away.

For those wondering why the game has such an odd name, it's based on the events of the first novel.

Monday, December 07, 2009

More MW2

Penny Arcade hits the nail on the head once again.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/11/30/

Those knife runners (Marathon+Lightweight+Commando) and Akimbo 1887 shotgunners are overpowered.

I finally Prestiged today on MW2 (360). Haven't been able to spend much time with the PS3 version due to the "Fetching Playlists" bug. It is kinda annoying not being able to play whenever I want.

Friday, November 27, 2009

Camp of Duty: MW2

I have been playing Modern Warfare 2 every night (It's fighting with Dragon Age Origins over my attention). I'll probably get around to finishing the campaign and play some SpecOps one day but for now, MW2 is all about the multiplayer.

It's just like CoD4 all over again but somehow, I feel that the magic is somewhat lost. Does MW2 live up to all the hype? For me, it's a Yes and No.

I) Maps Maps Maps

The maps in CoD4 were very well done and fun to play. In MW2? Not so.

The map choices mostly consist of run-down urban areas with many buildings and tons of little hiding spots. Up till now, I still don't know some of them by name because they look rather similar. And then there is Wasteland which is possibly the worst map ever designed in any FPS. I think you can see what I am getting at. The way the maps are designed actually encourage way too much camping. I used to refer to CoD4 jokingly as "Camp of Duty 4" and it looks like it has come true!

A few gems stand out, though. My favorites are Terminal, Highrise, Sub-Base and a few of the smaller, non-camping ones. Even so, they are nowhere near the polish of the CoD4 maps.


II) Whatever Happened to Green Bars?

Throughout my 2+ weeks of playing, I have only been dropped into a grand total of 3 Asian servers via the public matchmaking system. It seems to think that players on the other side of the globe are a good match for me and 1-2 bar connections are perfectly okay.

In CoD4, the matchmaking system would prioritize matching me with Japanese, Hong Kong, Taiwanese and other Asian players. Something needs to be fixed.


III) You've Got Your RNG in my FPS

In my opinion, the Care Package/Emergency Air-Drop killstreaks are somewhat imbalanced and out of place. Sure, a bit of randomness is fun. But in an FPS? A competitive FPS? Something is terribly wrong. What were they thinking?

It's still a good game, though. I am sure Infinity Ward can fix things with a patching and some DLC maps.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Back from ICT 2009

My ICT is finally over. Other than being deprived of sleep, it was actually not as bad as I thought. It has been years since I was forced to wake up as early as 6 am.

The training programme ended up being completely different from what was uploaded online. During the in-pro briefing, they actually warned us not to post any sensitive material regarding our ICT on our Facebook, blogs, Twitter and whatever social networking sites we had nowadays. I'll just be briefly posting my own personal experiences and feelings about this year's ICT.

- Right on the first day, my feet were hurting like mad. I thought I had worn my brother's boots by accident so I went to buy a new pair of size 11s from the E-Mart using army credit. When I got home that night, I realized that I did outgrow my boots after all. I never thought I would still be growing at my age. It must be my feet getting fatter.

- My uniform was lacking a lot of the new badges because I was unaware of the recent changes. With the help of my guardian, I managed to have everything ready before the last day as there was a spot check before we out-processed. They also told us that there will be another new SAF uniform coming up and we have to buy that next time (it's not the crappy-looking pixelated green one).

- Most annoying thing about this ICT to me was the outfield exercise. Thankfully, it was short & sweet and, once it was over, the rest of the ICT went by rather quickly.

- Went to Jurong Superbowl on Thursday for unit cohesion programme. That was the first time I ever touched a bowling ball and probably the last time as well. I took a cab home after that and it costed $41 thanks to the peak hour charges. It was my most expensive cab ride ever.

- Watched the movie "We Were Soldiers" as it was aired after one of the lectures. Very nice. It feels so different when you watch a war movie in an army camp while in uniform. lol

Well, that's it for this year. We were informed that our next ICT is in 2011. It seems that other people get called back every year but we get it once every 2-3 years.

1 High Key, 1 Low Key down. 6 High Key, 2 Low Key to go.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

ICT 2009 Approaches

My reservist ICT begins next week and will last from the 9th to the 14th of November. This is actually only my second ICT. It has been 3 years since I was called up. I was hoping the SAF may have forgotten about me.

I have been rather sad about it for the past week and chose to drown my depression in Dragon Age: Origins, the new epic RPG by BioWare. It helps to take my mind off things.

Seeing that there is only one day left, I decided to read up on my ICT today. I actually had no idea what was in store for me until I checked the NS.sg website. Back then, the unit training schedules were never updated but this time, they actually bothered to uploaded it.

I was very relieved to learn that there would be no field camp this year. In fact, the only thing I found annoying was a TOPO exercise. Aside from that, it seemed to consist mostly of lectures & briefings. The schedule did not indicate whether if this was as stay-out ICT or not, but seeing that each day's activities end at 5:30 pm, it keeps my hopes high!

Sunday, November 01, 2009

More Holiday Titles

Continuing the crazy onslaught of holiday game titles, I picked up the new Ratchet & Clank game on Friday after work. I was planning to spend my weekend just gaming. Anything to take my mind off my upcoming ICT. I actually took leave next Tuesday to rest because it was getting me down.

Despite sleeping through most of the weekend, I still managed to spend over 15 hours on Magna Carta 2. At one point in the game, the story had me gripped and I kept on playing to see what happens next. It also helps that the battle system is actually fun. MC2 is shaping up to be one of my favourite JRPGs on the Xbox 360.

Ah, well. It's November. Titles that I am looking forward to this month:

03/11: Dragon Age Origins
- Massive RPG by Bioware.

10/11 : Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

- It's like the whole world is waiting for this game. But my ICT... ugh.

19/11: Assassin's Creed II

- Enjoyed the first game and the sequel looks awesome.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

No Boredom to be found in Borderlands

I picked up Magna Carta 2, Borderlands and Tekken 6 over the weekend for the 360. I am kinda overwhelmed by all these new releases. Dragon Age Origins and Bayonetta are coming. I am sure I will work something out and give each of those games the time that they deserve.

I thought I would bring up Borderlands, the new FPS-RPG by Gearbox. It is unlike anything that I have played before. The best way to describe it: It's Diablo with guns. I was totally hooked and clocked 19 hours on it over the weekend soloing and co-op'ing with friends. Despite its highly repetitive nature, it is just so addictive.

It also helps that the game was released with a whole bunch of goodies. (Thank you, FunZ Centre.)


If the world ever becomes a nuclear wasteland, I'll have my survival bag and mug to tide me through.

Oh, and one last thing: Borderlands is for real gamers. Casual gamers can go play their sissy games like Halo and Call of Duty*.

*PS: Not to be taken seriously

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

PlayStation 3 Slim

I went to FunZ on Monday night with Raccon and Justin to get my PS3 Slim. Raccon bought his as well and Justin picked up some games.

I have been wanting to get a PS3 for quite some time but thought I would hold it off until there was a game that caught my attention. Never would I have realized that game would be Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. But come to think of it, considering the kind of games that I like, it shouldn't really come as a surprise at all. Uncharted 2's timely release was also a contributing factor to my PS3 purchase.



Impulse buy or not, I am quite happy that I can now enjoy the best that both the 360 and PS3 has to offer.

The next thing on my to-do list is to get a Bluetooth headset. My first attempt at organising a multiplayer session over PSN was an exercise in frustration. And not being able to communicate during a game made me feel 'handicapped'.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Impulse Buy?


Prinny came home with a little something today.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Games of November 2009

It's the end of the year again. This means all the big game releases are coming. I'm gonna be picking up a lot of games from now till the end of the year.

The following are all on my list for this month alone.

13/10 - Brutal Legend: Hilarious writing and awesome cast of characters!
13/10 - Magna Carta 2: I need my J-RPG fix. It has been quite a while.
20/10 - Borderlands: A Diablo-esque FPS-RPG which looks awesome.
27/10 - Tekken 6: I may not be a huge Tekken fan but I will never pass up a chance to learn an arcade game in the comfort of my own home.

29/10 - Bayonetta

"Non-Stop Climax Action", Bayonetta!

One of my most highly-anticipated games this year. The first time I laid eyes on the trailer back in 2008, I fell in love with it. It has the makings of everything I like for a game of the genre. The action, the style, the music. It's all just... wow.

The game was directed by Hideki Kamiya, the creator of Devil May Cry (keep mind that I did buy my 360 to play DMC4). If the one coming this month is the Asian version, I'll definitely be getting it.

On a side-note, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 and Uncharted 2 are calling out to me to pick up a PS3 Slim at long last. I wonder if I will succumb. Then again, my friend Siegeholler asked me if I would still be playing Uncharted 2 after Modern Warfare 2 releases next month. Gah.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

ODST - Prepare to Drop

I have been playing Halo 3 ODST for the past week. By some amazing luck, I actually had time to pick it up last Tuesday during my lunch hour from FunZ Centre @ Orchard Central. As part of a pre-order deal with BoB forums, I got a FunZ membership card for free. How nice. I was actually thinking of properly applying for one. haha.


Omg, Chinese text.

The pre-order came with a bonus DLC and a skin (which I am still wondering whether I should appy to my console).

The game is a side story to Halo 3. The campaign is a tad short but the game's Firefight mode and repackaged Halo 3 multiplaer disc makes it a very good value for money.

One thing that really stood out to me was the music during the night city sections. It's beautiful and fits the mood very well. Bungie even mentioned during their weekly update that one listener was moved to tears by the soundtrack. Who says FPS are all about mindless violence?

Monday, September 21, 2009

Finally Getting Better - How Glourious!

I was very sick for the past two weeks. I had 2 days of MC and even missed the Comex because I slept through the entire weekend. I actually wanted to go to the Comex to renew my SingNet contract (I heard they were giving away a laptop) and look games. Doh.

On the following Monday, I still felt terrible with my constant headaches and blurry vision but I refrained from seeing the doctor again. Another day of MC would have done wonders for me but it would also leave a bad impression on my boss and colleagues.

Fortunately, the Hari Raya weekend was upon me and I looked forward to it very much.

I started the weekend by going out with my gaming friends for dinner at Plaza Singapura's Swensens after work on Friday. Even though I have only been sick for slightly more than a week, I felt as though I haven't gone out in ages. I had curry chicken baked rice and ice cream despite having a cough & sore throat.

After that, we went to catch Inglourious Basterds!


(The fact that both words in the title are deliberately mis-spelt adds to the coolness factor of the movie!)

I was really looking forward to watching this show but it was not quite what I expected. All the trailers out there make it out to be a stylish and comedic, over-the-top action flick about Nazi-killing (I mean, it's directed by Tarantino after all!). But what we really have here is a movie that is extremely heavy on dialogue and spends most of its time building up the plot towards its climax. The movie (all 2½ hours of it) was probably like 90% dialogue and 10% action.

After getting over the initial 'culture shock', I feel that it is still a nice movie. It's clever, tense and sophisticated, and the characters are very memorable (especially Hans Landa played by Christoph Waltz).

Oh, and it was only after I reached home that I finally realized why the final act of the movie was dubbed "The Revenge of the Giant Face". haha.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

RT Obese Group

Haven't been updating in quite a while. I am currently in phase 2 of my RT so...

3-days-a-week RT + Working on Saturdays (feels like 'guard duty') = sad life

I actually got into the Obese Group of my RT so the training is not as tough as before. I know I am not grossly overweight but in RT, anyone with a BMI greater than 27 is considered 'obese' so that is how I got in. The training is very slack, the PTI is slack. I don't really mind. At least I don't go home feeling nauseous or sick.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

HK Holiday - Part 2: The Peak

Finally gonna continue my HK trip entry. Rest of the photos can be found in my Facebook.

Day 2 (Saturday) - 1st August 2009


It was day 2 of our trip. We have agreed on 11 am as our meet-up time.



Max took us to Causeway Bay by MTR to have dim sum at a restaurant. I rarely had dim sum (being more of a Western food person) but it was great.

After that, Max managed to get in touch with a friend's friend to show us around some local TCG shops. We took the MTR to Cheung Sha Wan to meet up with him and he showed us around one of the shopping centres.

It was close to 6 pm when we decided to visit the Peak. It was one of Hong Kong's famous tourist attractions. We had to travel up a mountain via tram. It took quite a bit of walking to reach Peak Tram Station. Upon arrival, we saw a massive queue that snaked round and round outside the building.

Max managed to learn that there was a special ticket package that allowed us to join the express queue, so with the power of money (tm), we found ourselves ahead of the pack and actually inside the station. We were marveling at the fact that we just shaved off possibly 2+ hours of waiting time. After some more waiting, we finally got on the tram and were on our way to the Peak.







The first thing we did when we arrived was to have a quick dinner at McDonald's. After that, we were off to the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. The first thing that greeted us was the wax figure of Obama but we weren't allowed to take any pics because it was a paid photo shoot.

We walked around the place and posed with the various stars. I was actually surprised that they allowed people to touch the wax figures. The place was a lot larger than I thought, spanning several rooms and a few floors. It took well over an hour to check out everything.












It's Jackie Chan! Recognize the pose?

At one point, there was an attraction that was like those 'haunted houses' at amusement parks. Inside, there were no barricades separating us and the actors, so we were told to walk with our hands clutching the person in front of us. We had to keep it that way cos' if at any time we hit the actors or caused any injury, the whole thing would be called off.

It was actually quite well-done. The rooms were very dark and illuminated by dim flashing lights. It was set up to look like a mental asylum. As we made our way through, actors would jump out to scare us or by smashing some props. I definitely screamed a lot.

Looking back, I wondered what the heck was a haunted house doing in a wax museum. It was definitely out of place. haha.

After the wax museum, we went up to the sky tower, which was an open-air balcony where we could view the city. It was quite scary to be so high up in the mountains and looking down with the wind blowing in our faces.



It was finally time to leave. We didn't really want to go through the hassle of taking the tram down again so this time so we decided to share a cab. We all agreed that the cab driver was a real 'pro', driving down the steep and narrow mountain road rather quickly with so many twists and turns. He probably watched a lot of Initial D.

To finish off the day, we went to Lan Gui Fang for drinks.


Max described this place as being similar to Clarke Quay. It was all pubs and bars, chicks and loud music. We stuck around and had a bit of drinks at one of the bars named Coconut before returning back to the hotel.

On the way back, we stopped by at the 7-Eleven and I had curry chicken for supper. HK instant foods are awesome!

Sunday, August 16, 2009

STGCC 2009 - Looking Back



I went to the Singapore Toys, Games & Comics Convention on Saturday. Met up with Miya, Akira, Mango and Rhyfe who all came and left at different timings. My experience this time was a whole lot better than last year's since I did not just walk one round then left due to the massive crowd.

I mainly checked out the booths selling graphic novels and toys. I didn't realize that the Mighty Muggs here were tons more expensive than what I saw at the ACGHK2009. This made me feel that I should've bought more from HK; they were only like SGD$10 apiece and would've made great gifts.

Some pretty Japanese collectible figures caught my eyes but, once again, I refrained from buying them. I know that one of these days, I'm so gonna give in. lol

I managed to catch a bit of the cosplay competition that went on. There were a lot of cool costumes like the Predator (of which there were two), Wolverine (complete with cigar!), the Master Chief, the Prince from Hellboy 2, Jason (Friday the 13th) and many more.




Wolverine looking real manly with his cigar.


Master Chief: "You can count on me to Finish the Fight!"

There was this laughable red ghost from Pac-Man (the emcee kept referring to the ghost as "Pac-Man"...). The guy looked like he just draped a large red cloth over himself. What was even more upsetting was that the he actually won the bloody competition.



No offense to the guy, but unless there is some complex wire-frame structure underneath that red cloth holding the costume up, I am very, very unimpressed. 'Thanks' to the audience who voted him just for the lawls.

I stayed on at the event until around 7+ pm. By then, the crowd has mostly cleared out and, while I was making my last pass through the various booths, I chanced upon something that I had missed the first time round:


Many have argued that it's a shameless Mighty Muggs rip-off but I still think he looks cute!

Some cosplayers that stood out to me:


There was a too-cool-for-words home-made Bumblebee (complete with flashing lights) walking around but I forgot to snap his picture.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Real American Heroes



Hooray, another nostalgic remake of an old series. Watched it with Max & Akira over National Day weekend. I was very excited about it ever since I saw the trailers and movie posters!

G.I. Joe was kinda average for me, though if graded purely as an action movie, I guess it passes with flying colors. The entire movie is a non-stop action-packed romp from beginning to end. Strangely, all the fight scenes made me feel as though it is one big commercial to promote the new toy line. lol

It throws any semblance of a plot out the window and all back-story is told through the numerous flashback sequences for the various key characters. Speaking of which, it feels weird that almost every major character is mysteriously related to one another. And fans who watch the movie keeping an eye out for their beloved Cobra Commander might be a little disappointed.


Sort-Of-M.I.A.

Oh, well. Storm Shadow is still a badass!

After the movie, I started digging YouTube for some old G.I. Joe cartoons. I managed to catch the 90's animated movie as well as a darker series named G.I. Joe Resolute which was just released this year.

I found the 90's movie opening very catchy. All the lasers and things blowing up. All the fighting around the Statue of Liberty. This show probably taught American kids to be patriotic when they grew up. lol

Sunday, August 09, 2009

HK Holiday Part 1 - Arrival

I woke up at 5 am on the 31st of July (Friday) and the nice uncle gave me a ride to the airport. I reached Terminal 1 at around 5:40 am and it was not long before Akira, Max and his friend, EK, arrived. We boarded our Cathay Pacific flight at around 8 am. Among all the in-flight movies, I chose to watch Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li. I finally knew why people kept saying that the movie was rubbish. haha.

It was around 3½ hours before the plane landed in HK. At the airport, our coach was ready to take us to our hotel. We were staying at the CityView Hotel at Yau Ma Tei. We finally arrived at our hotel at 2 pm. We unpacked a bit before moving out.

The plan for the day was just to check out the stores around our hotel. By some luck, according to the little shopping guide that Akira found online, our hotel was located right in the heart of "Hong Kong's Akihabara". We proceeded to check out all the stores that were mentioned in the guide, as well as a couple more that we found along the way.

We spent more time at Sino Centre. The entire building was full of shops that sold manga, music, figurines and games. Akira had a field day picking up several music CDs. I caught sight of a HobbyJapan KOFXII guidebook at a store. However, it was behind a glass display so I didn't bother to ask for it. I thought I may come across another store selling it as we visit more shops.

Soon, it was around 6 pm. I had arranged to meet my mother at the hotel lobby so we made our way back. Max and EK would be going to have dinner with Max's uncle while Akira would go recce the ACGHK2009.

I met up with my mother who had come down from Guangzhou to look for me. We decided to have dinner nearby. I caught sight of a signboard for a steak restaurant and decided to give it a try. It was called Steak Expert, though its Chinese name was a much catchier "扒王之王". I found it difficult to read the menu which was in traditional Chinese (you'd think a Western-style restaurant would have an English menu) so my mother did the ordering.

We chatted a bit. I asked her how she was doing; she asked me how I was doing. She expressed concern on my daily life at home. Normally, I would brush this off as 'nagging', but seeing that we have not seen each other for months, it was only right that I filled her in on what went on at home.

After the sumptuous steak dinner (it was great!), my mother followed me back to my hotel room. She wanted me to try on some clothes she bought for me (good thing Akira was not around...). Before she left, she gave me some extra spending money just in case. It was then I realized that I forgot to take a photo together with her. Doh. Oh well.

It was only like 8:30 pm. I started unpacking my stuff and watched some TV.

Akira only returned much later at around 11 pm with a lot of phat lewt from the ACGHK2009. I was very surprised since he was only there for a couple of hours. hehe. We both went to the 7-Eleven right outside our hotel to buy supper. The variety of instant foods one could find there was astonishing. I went with the chicken baked rice. As we were paying for our food, we spotted Max and EK who were on their way back to the hotel.

When we were all back in our hotel room, we discussed about our plans for the next few days. Saturday would be the start of our vacation proper.


This was just the first day so no real photos yet!

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Home Sweet Home



I just returned from Hong Kong on Tuesday past midnight. Home sweet home!

I was very tired but the first thing I did (after taking a bath) was to surf the net. There was like 5 days worth of news and mail to catch up on. Then I collapse in bed and had a good sleep.

I am on leave today so I'll be back to work tomorrow. It'll soon be back to normal working life for me. So sad. I'll be blogging about my trip a bit at a time.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Not So Much of a Broken Plot Device

I recently purchased the book, Nuclear Hoodie to show my support for the Broken Plot Device webcomic and its talented creator who is an independant web artist. It arrived in the mail over the weekend and I was very pleased to be able to hold it in my hands before my trip.


Yup, that is one glossy cover. hehe

The series itself is very well done. The story & humor are great. The characters are unique and the artwork is consistently good. I find myself looking forward to its twice-a-week updates all the time. This has replaced Penny Arcade as my all-time favourite webcomic.

I ordered the Artist Edition of the book so I got to request for a character drawing. I asked for Inix, the dragon mystic. How cute!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Halo Legends Anime

Halo is getting an anime! I was like really happyface when the news was first announced. Now there is a trailer for it as well.



The series will consist of 7 shorts produced by several Japanese studios: The BONES, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G., Studio 4°C, and Toei Animation.

Halo has such a rich universe and backstory with tons of interesting characters. That's a lot of source material right there to base an anime on. Despite the fact that they are standalone shorts (and possibly not heavy on plot), I am still excited at how the anime will turn out.

The action sequences in the trailer reminded me of Gundam. Even more strangely, the characters in this screenshot look like they were taken out of an episode of Gundam SEED (ZAFT uniform lol).


Excuse me, you've got your Gundam in my Halo.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Cracking Open my Box of M10

For the first time ever in a TCG, I actually felt like I got my money's worth from opening a booster box.

Rares from my box of M10 + 1 booster from White Starter deck
Total: 38 rares (36 rares + 1 foil rare and 1 extra)


Ball Lightning x3 (OMGWTFBBQ)
Drowned Catacombs x2 (B/U land)
Rootbound Crag (R/G land)
Glacial Fortress (B/W land)
Elvish Archdruid
Baneslayer Angel
Birds of Paradise
Pithing Needle
Great Sable Stag
Twincast
Darksteel Colossus
Royal Assassin
Gargoyle Castle
Howling Mine
Ant Queen (foil)
Hypnotic Specter
Protean Hydra
Mind Shatter
Guardian Seraph
Traumatize
Clone
Coat of Arms
Earthquake
Might of Oaks
Chandra Nalaar
Djinn of Wishes
Open the Vaults
Warp World
Lurking Predators
Mind Spring x2
Underworld Dreams
Nightmare
Shivan Dragon
Mirror of Fate

---------------------------------------------------------
A good mix of good rares and crap rares. haha.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

BlazBlue - Calamity Trigger -


Music: -Ao- iconoclast by KOTOKO
(Though I somehow prefer the simpler Arcade opening. haha)

BlazBlue is awesome. I never expected it to be this good. Currently maining Ragna and he plays like Sol Badguy.

Th 2D high-definition graphics are gorgeous. Daisuke Ishiwatari's rock/metal music still kicks ass. The game has a small cast of 12 characters but each is extremely diverse and play very differently. The gameplay system/mechanics is highly reminicent of GG-XX but it's just so much better.

What makes BlazBlue stand out is its great netcode and robust online multiplayer features. Arc System Works really went all out here and it really shows. There is stat-tracking, leaderboards, 6-player lobbies (winner stays, loser rotates) and even the ability to save/download replays.

Despite all that, there is one thing that annoys me: balance. You'd think that, with a small cast, Arc Systems would have realized during testing that v-13 (Nu) is overpowered and playing against her is an exercise in frustration. I think they based Nu-13 on Amuro Ray's Nu-Gundam (heck, her alternate DLC color is proof of this) . "Ike, Fin Funnel!" *pewpewpew*

I am keeping my fingers for a balance patch. Or BlazBlue XX #Reload Slash Accent Core. Then maybe we'll get a Robo-Jin as well (lol).

Somehow, I am beginning to miss this as well.

It's classic!

Magic the Gathering: M10 Pre-Release

I attended the M:TG Core Set 2010 (aka M10) pre-release at Suntec yesterday. I managed to contact Kelvin Soh who met me at the event itself. Saw a lot of familiar faces such as the old AMK MTG guys (most notably Reno!) and even some old VS System players.

I realized that this is actually the first sanctioned M:TG event I have ever attended! haha.

After opening my six packs, I went with a Black-Red deck because I got some pretty good commons/uncommons and these two:


For my four matches, I went like:
1-2 L , 1-2 L , 2-0 W , 1-2 L
At least I played decently and did not get 2-0'ed. Such close matches. Meh.

I was most delighted to pull an Honor of the Pure from the one pack I won.

White Weenie for the win.

Sunday was supposed to be rest day but I somehow got dragged by Raccon to play some more M10 sealed in Pasir Ris. Meh!

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Some People Change...

A friend asked me out for dinner today. It has been many months since we last spoke so I was rather delighted. He told me that he had left his job. It kinda made me think that he chose to have dinner near Geylang because... well, maybe he wanted some drinks and some *ahem* interaction with the opposite sex.

So I met him after work and we settled down at a nearby coffee shop.

And then he tried to pull some MLM shit on me.

Turns out that his office was in the vicinity.

I refused as politely as I could but he tried to psycho me for an hour. He pulled the "don't you trust me? I'm your friend!" schtick but I was completely immune. Such things don't work on me.

He was rather persistant despite me dropping a lot of hints that he was crossing well over my comfort zone. Last thing I remembered doing was getting up, cursing out loud, banging my fist on the table and leaving.

The night was ruined. What was supposed to be a night of fun and catching-up turned into nothing but business and sales pitches. I was very, very disappointed.

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Weather Forecast: Boring Weeks Ahead

I have been feeling very tired of working life lately. Even the weekends don't seem long enough to be fun anymore.

Oh, well. I got my Hong Kong trip at the end of the month to look forward to. I am excited and a little nervous at the same time. Excited at the fact that it will be a fun & refreshing escape from my routine work life. Nervous at the fact that I have not taken a plane in a long, long time and there is also the global H1N1 scare.

Whatever the case, I just hope the end of the month comes soon so I can spend a couple days away from work.

I started getting back into Magic: The Gathering again. I spent the past two weekends drafting and hunting for cards. I can't believe I am spending $10++ on pieces of cardboard again. I just feel somewhat disappointed that I can only play cards on weekends. Gone are the days when I have free time to play cards on late weekday nights and cab home.

When I am not thinking about card games, I'm playing BlazBlue on the Xbox 360. The game is awesome and far exceeded my expectations. And I didn't even put any tokens into it in the arcades. It's truly a well-designed and polished fighting game. I'll probably blog more about it when I've spent more time with it.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen



Watched Transformers 2 on Saturday night with Darrell and Chaosmag at Toa Payoh. There seems to be a lot of mixed opinions about the movie online. Overall, I thought it was pretty okay and enjoyable. The action scenes were a little confusing for me and the epic battle dragged on for waaaay too long.

The show was a more light-hearted than I expected with lots of funny moments. The crude humor (hogs humping, Wheelie humping, Devastator...) was a little overdone, though. And yes, Megan Fox is hot.

Soon after I came back, I started browsing forums and came across this totally hilarious video review about the movie from the Nostalgic Critic. It is simply too crazy to describe. The guy is a genius. Great stuff!

Nostalgic Critic's Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Review
*Warning: Full Plot Spoilers*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNge0wMA6xU

Check out his other videos as well at:
http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Duels of the Planeswalkers



Last week was rather exciting for me with the new Magic the Gathering game, Duels of the Planeswalkers being released on Xbox Live.

Being an Arcade title, the whole game is actually very basic. There are only 8 pre-con decks in the game with very limited 'customisation' (if you can even call it that). You can only add cards but not remove, meaning your deck will go over the optimal 60 cards. It feels kinda like playing a draft/sealed with all the overcosted, vanilla creatures and weak spells. It seems to be more geared towards newcomers which can also a good thing.

Despite all its shortcomings, it somehow manages to get quite a number of people hooked. I found myself totally addicted to the game, playing online ranked matches to the wee hours of the morning.

There are people saying that the entire game is one big advertisement to promote the actual card game. If so, it's really working cos' I found myself interested in picking up M:TG again.

I was trying to dig through my collection for my old cards in vain. It was only until I decided to run a search on my own blog when I realized that I sold all my damn cards years ago!!! AAAAH!!!

I still have my (incomplete) Ghost Council deck from Ravnica block, though. I think I'll wait for the new Core Set 2010 (aka M10) before I see if I want to play the game back.

Raccon was nice enough to sell me one of the new Alara block cards to add to my good old cat cards collection. Meow.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

New Furniture

Finally got time to put up photos of my new shelf and TV bench. Both are from Ikea.


No more putting my soundbar and Xbox on the floor. And my action figures finally have their own space. haha.

Here are photos of the old ones so that I'll remember them.

I just realized I went from brown to white.

I am still in the midst of re-arranging my stuff so my room is actually still quite messy with things all over the floor. The new table will be ready tomorrow.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Mobilization: Saturday Burnt!

I got mobilized on Saturday! I really did not see this coming since the last time they actually mobilized us was in October 2009.

I was even playing Prototype on my Xbox 360 (which I bought from the PC Show) all the way through Friday night and only slept at 5 am. When I received the automated notification on my handphone at around 2+ pm, I was cursing. I quickly got everything ready and the nice Uncle (my guardian) gave me a lift to Tanjong Gul camp. I was quite hungry as I totally missed breakfast and lunch.

I arrived at the camp at around 3:30 pm. It was then my phone rang and the Detachment I/C told me I was activated to which I replied rather irritatedly, "Yes, I am there already."

I was quite surprised when they gave me the M+1 tag. I felt somewhat happy at the notion that I may be released early. So I sat down and waited. And waited. The new CO of our company was walking around and chatting with everyone. He asked me what I did for a living. He seemed like a nice guy.

But then... hours passed. The M+2 and M+3 people were all coming in but I was still not allowed to go. Looks like they are not releasing us in batches like the last time. I happened to meet a familiar face from the my first ICT years ago and we chatted a bit. It turned out that he was a job recruiter with Adecco; maybe I can look him up in future. Our next ICT together is coming up in November.

At around 5:30 pm, the M+1 batch were finally allowed to go. There goes my Saturday. haha.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

(Not So) Home Alone

My mother left for her overseas business trip on Monday. She will be gone for a whole year as she is travelling to various countries (USA, Hong Kong, etc) and going back to Indonesia for some time.

She made arrangements for the family before she left so life will go on as for normal. She had an old friend of hers move in with us as an acting guardian. He'll take care of all the bills and stuff. With all the basic necessities being taken care of, I'm actually more worried about her safety. I think it's dangerous to be traveling alone in foreign lands.

I wanted to take leave today to see her off at the airport but she told me it was not needed. We said we will keep in touch by phone/SMS. Maybe I could pay her a visit in Indonesia or whatever country she is in during the holiday seasons.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

March of the Penguins

I went to Ikea at Tampines to shop with my mother on Saturday. I was going to pick a new shelf and a desk for my room.

This was my first time at Ikea and the place was huge. I didn't know the place had only one floor for display, and if you wanted to buy something, you had to copy down the item number and go collect it yourself from their stores area. Everything would come unassembled and it was all DIY.

We spent over two hours there but I managed to pick some simple designs that I liked. We wanted to have lunch at the cafeteria (it looked real nice; had some Swedish theme going on or something) but it was overcrowded so we went home.

The rest of Saturday went on for normal with me playing video games. That was until one particular commercial on TV caught my eye; March of the Penguins! And it would be shown at night on Okto.



I heard it was one of the few movie-documentaries that was popular last time. I remembered one of the reasons I didn't watch it was because it would contain 'violent' scenes (as are most documentaries). Now, I am fine with violent movies, but in documentaries, everything that happens is real so it makes me feel uncomfortable.

That was years ago so now I felt like giving it a try. The show was in French with English subtitles. The story was narrated as if spoken by the penguins themselves. It basically touches on the Emperor Penguin's breeding/mating habits and the hardships that they faced. The show was very heartwarming and there were many scenes that touched my heart (and I am not saying this just because I am biased towards penguins).

There were some 'violent' bits that were somewhat cruel and made me uncomfortable and sad. I guess they were essential to evoke emotions from the viewers.

The March of the Penguins really left an impression on me. After watching it, I realized that penguins are really amazing creatures.