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/

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.

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.

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.

(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.

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.

Staying Up for E3 Press Conferences

During the earlier half of last week, this year's E3 was being held in the USA. When I heard that they were going to have Live streams of the various company press conferences, I decided to stay up till the ungodly hours of the morning just so that I can catch them first hand. Of course, this meant that I would be a zombie the next day I went to work but it was still (kinda) worth it.

GameSpot was one of the sites offering Live Stream for the press conferences and the videos are still available for watching.


Microsoft (Monday Night, 1:00 am - 3:00 am)


Microsoft cut to the chase by showcasing their games and demos (instead of boring the audience with sales pitch, sales figures, powerpoints, etc).

Most notable titles to me:
- Modern Warefare 2: CoD4 multiplayer all over again? Sign me up.
- Halo 3 ODST: Droppinng in September 2009!
- Halo Reach: Fall 2010. I'm gonna get my hands on the Fall of Reach novel.

Unfortunately, I went to sleep at 2:30 am and missed out the last 30 minutes where the really fun stuff happened. I caught them all later on video.
- Hideo Kojima came out to reveal Metal Gear Solid Rising. I am sure the audience was just as shocked.
- Felicia Day (from The Guild) came to reveal that Facebook and Twitter will be coming to Xbox Live in fall 2009.
- Project Natal was revealed; Microsoft's motion sensor technology. It's nice and all but seems to be aimed at casuals.


Nintendo (Tuesday night, 12 midnight - 1:30 am)


I was actually falling asleep during Nintendo's press conference. I felt as though I was back in school sitting through a boring lecture. Way too much talking, presentation slides, sales figures, yadda yadda.

Everyone agreed that it sucks bad. GameTrailers slammed it for wasting 58 minutes, then finally showing 12 minutes of goodness at the end. This Penny Arcade strip pretty much sums up the entire Nintendo conference. Team Ninja + Metroid = Win.


Sony (Tuesday night, 2:00 am - 4:00 am)


Sony's press conference dragged a little at the beginning with PS2/PSP related stuff. But once they got on track and started showing PS3 games, it was great. The press conference had a lot of jaw-dropping moments. The PS3 has possibly the best line-up of exclusive games coming up.

Most notable to me:

Assassin's Creed 2 (multiplatform) - Game looks amazing. I loved it when the audience was like "Whoah!" at the part where Ezio knifed two enemies in the face at the same time.

Uncharted 2 Among Thieves - Game looks stunning.

MAG - 256-player FPS. Never thought it would work out but there they were, demo'ing it on stage.

Final Fantasy - After rolling some footage of the new Final Fantasy XIII, Sony suddenly announced that Square will be bringing Final Fantasy XVI (14) to the PS3 as well. At that moment, the audience went completely silent. I, too, sat there dumbfounded. Was this Sony's killer app? 13 was not out yet and they were talking about 14 already? But then the game footage rolled and the title flashed: FFXIV Online. Haha.

Do I even have to mention God of War 3?

Sony also brought out their motion sensor technology. Looks like everyone is out to get Nintendo. But I still think it's aimed at casuals, so until I see any actual games for it, it's just a gimmick to me.

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

The E3 press conferences were all great (except for Nintedo's). Looks like there is another great year of gaming ahead for everyone.