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

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'.

Impulse Buy?

Prinny came home with a little something today.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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!

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.