Agency Gathering @ Ice Cold Beer

I went to Ice Cold Beer at Emerald Hill on Friday after work to chill with friends from work. It was 'Auntie Stacey' who initiated the outing via mass agency e-mail. The turn-out was greater than I expected. Everyone joked it was to "give her face". I had a pint of Hoegaarden just like the rest and we shared nachos, chicken and a pizza.

Everyone just chatted and talked crap. I witnessed another side of them that I never saw at work. haha. I rarely go drinking/pubbing but I guess sex talk is a pretty common topic over drinks. At around 9 pm, everyone started having refills. I finished my one pint and decided it was time to go. I kinda enjoyed myself that night. It was nice to get to know them outside of being insurance agents at work.

Since Orchard Central was nearby, I decided to go and check out FunZ Centre. As I made my way up to FunZ, I realized that I was having a bit of 'shaky vision' like what a WoW character experiences when he chugs beer. It was kinda funny but all was okay as I took a cab home later.

Two Weeks into the New Year

Ever since the start of the New Year, I have been...

1) Trying to sleep early on weekdays. Cos' going to bed at 1:30 am - 2:00 am is just plain unhealthy and affects my work. Nowadays I now try to sleep at 12:30 am.

2) Spending less times on gaming. It's not that video games are getting boring. Sometimes I want a bit more variety in my daily life. Instead of spending 4 hours every night on games, I try to watch some TV, surf the net, read some fantasy/ sci-fi novels. None of which are any more constructive than playing video games but what the hey.

So far so good though going to sleep earlier does take some getting used to.

On the subject of work, I had some small problems last week with someone complaining about me but I'll just leave it at that.

Over the weekend, I went to watch The Spy Next Door (starring Jackie Chan) with friends at The Cathay. It was one of those family-oriented movies with throw-away villains and a plot that makes little sense. But it was funny. And it had Jackie Chan in it!

On the way home, I dropped by at Funan to pick up Darksiders. I actually kinda regretted my purchase. I blame it on Bayonetta. Even though they are somewhat different, Bayonetta has set the bar for action games so ridiculously high that I cannot help but mentally draw comparisons to it while playing Darksiders. I hope I will grow to like it as I spend more time with it. I probably should have done what some of my friends did: Play Darksiders first then Bayonetta.

Non-Stop Climax Action - Bayonetta!

I have been looking forward to Bayonetta ever since I saw the old "You want to touch me?" trailer from TGS08 and learnt that Hideki Kamiya (creator of Devil May Cry) was working on it.

I finally got my hands on the 360 Asian release last week. Boy was I blown away. As I watched the Prologue cutscene, I marveled in awe at the over-to-top action, complete with hammy dialogue and an upbeat JPop-meets-Jazz musical score. Once I got control of my character and started playing proper, I had a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. It was that same feeling I got when I played the first Devil May Cry. I was reminded why I loved such stylish yet ridiculous games. Kamiya hasn't lost his touch.

I may have gone a little overly dramatic there but that was the best way to describe my feelings. I might be biased but I feel that Bayonetta is fantastic and may have raised the bar for action games. In a sea of generic and cliche action titles, Bayonetta dares to be different and delivers a highly refreshing and entertaining experience.

The presentation is incredible with the game running at a blazing smooth frame rate accompanied by tons of animation going on in the background. When I first saw the trailers for this game, I almost thought it may be too much for human eyes to handle. The combat system is like DMC's engine gone into overdrive. It's frantic, fluid and fun, and yet has a lot of depth to it (as evident by all the insane combo videos one can find on YouTube).

The enemy Angel designs are highly creative and abstract. The boss encounters are the true highlight here. In my opinion, any of Bayonetta's major bosses could have very well be the final boss of some other game.

The music for the game is brilliant as well even though it may not be to everyone's taste. The battle tunes will forever be stuck in my head because they are so catchy. I probably will end up getting the OST which spans 5 CDs and has over a hundred songs. Yes, 5 CDs worth of tracks for a 'mere' action game. I find it amusing that the game's theme song is "Fly Me to the Moon" which is the same as the Evangelion anime and both involve slaying angels.

My first run through of the game on Normal took 9+ hours. I was actually a little sad when I knew I was nearing the game's end. Ah, well. The game is meant for multiple playthroughs and I'm looking forward to challenging myself on the higher difficulties.

I may have overdone it with this blog entry so it's time to sum up: Bayonetta is possibly the greatest action game I have played in a long time. It is awesome in many ways and is a masterpiece that should not be missed.

/END fanboyish raving

P.S.: I took a photo of this from a scene in-game. It's part of the background/scenery. It seems that someone on the development team shares my love for chicks as well.

It's 2010!

First entry of 2010 and I am already having my first Monday Blues of the year. :(

I actually didn't feel any different on Thursday night when the clock struck midnight to usher in the 1st of January. It felt just like any other holiday to me. Maybe I am slowly turning into a boring person. Oh no.

I met up with the MYM guys for dinner at AMK on Friday. We ate at Popeye's and then hung out at McDonald's. Note: I am beginning to think that Popeye's taste quite similar to KFC. hehe.

Over the weekend, I played games and watched the DVDs which I rented from VideoEZY. I guess it has become a custom of mine to rent movies during holidays.

Yup, all 3 are comedies. I enjoyed the Pick of Destiny and Fanboys. There were a lot of genuinely funny stuff in the both of them. On the other hand, Tropic Thunder was lame and nonsensical.

I especially liked the Master Exploder dream sequence in the Pick of Destiny! It's just so ridiculous and funny!


After watching all three, I realized that there were some recurring actors across them all. Jack Black was in the Pick of Destiny and Tropic Thunder. Jay Baruchel was in Tropic Thunder and Fanboys. What a coincidence. I was like: "Didn't I see just see this guy in that other movie?" haha.