You are now in Bad Company!

I picked up Battlefield: Bad Company last week. The story is mainly about a squad of insubordinate soldiers from B-Company (where all rejects/cannon fodder get posted to) who go AWOL on a personal quest for gold deep behind enemy lines. It's actually pretty funny with its likeable characters and cheesy dialogue.

This is one of those games that I picked up due to all the marketing. It had several funny trailers featuring its cast poking fun at other war games, most notably Metal Gear Solid.

The game comes with its trademark smiley-face grenade. It's supposed to be a stress ball by the way. I just couldn't resist it. It's so cute.

Penguins are bad company.

You Know What They Say About Dirty Laundry in Public...

It was last Friday morning when I was making my rounds around the office, dropping letters into people's lockers. It was then I spotted a printed note stuck on the front of one of the lockers.

Being ever curious, I went to have a closer look but was overcome by the smell of something most pungent and vile. It was then I noticed a pair of smelly underwear jammed into the slot of the locker. I stood at a safe distance and began reading the attached note. It was a messy, unpunctuated wall-of-text. I didn't stick around too long for fear of people seeing me (and there's that smell). I only got the gist of it but it went something like...

"Dear XXX, here is the underwear of the man you slept with. You are such a slut for sleeping with a married man during the school holidays. You cheat peoples' feelings so that they will buy your policies and allow you to hit your quota. I don't want to be your scapegoat any longer.

PS: Don't bother turning off your phone when you are having sex. I know everything."

It sounded like it was from an angry lover. I always thought such things only happened in TV dramas. I thought normal people would try to hide their dark (and smelly) secrets. I would have snapped a picture but I didn't want to draw any attention to myself and quietly went away.

The smelly underwear was gone after I came back from lunch. Thank goodness. I wonder who else saw the note that day. haha.

It's Pandaaaamonium!

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Saturday Out of the House

Work, Work.

I had work on Saturday as usual. I was going about my usual websurfing when a lady came by my room and asked for help with the photocopy machine. She seemed like a real nice person and I gladly helped her out. She kept smiling and thanking me. She actually came to look for me two more times for help later on and we chatted a little.

She commented that she wished her assistant was around that day to help her prepare stuff for an appointment with her client. When she finally mentioned her name, I knew who she was; my boss used to be under her. (At his point, I was actually wondering if she would tell my boss she walked in on me surfing the net. I hope she won't.)

She then asked me if she could pay me to work overtime that day and help her prepare stuff for her afternoon meeting. She asked so nicely that I actually would have had trouble saying 'no'. But I had already planned to meet Angelo after work a Suntec to pass him something so I had to go.


Suntec: IT Show

I dropped by at the IT Show at Suntec City after work. It was very crowded but good thing it wasn't like the previous one where it was so packed that I gave up and went home. I mainly checked out gaming stuff. There were a lot of attractive X360 promotions going on but I controlled myself because I didn't want to buy games that I cannot commit myself to play and complete. The most notable one had to be the 120 GB HDD that went for $139 instead of the usual $280. I didn't buy it cos' I wouldn't know what to do with so much storage.

I then made my way home, stopping by at White Sands to buy lunch and rent some DVDs (they had Sports Movie! Never knew there was such a thing). It has been a long day and I was looking forward to lying in bed (PS: My air-con FINALLy got repaired!).

I arrived home at around 4+ pm and this was when Brainy suggested catching the Incredible Hulk at night. So off I went to AMK Hub to meet YongHao, Brainy and friends.

The Incredible Mr. Green



I actually read that the movie was pretty good and not like the one by Ang Lee which was a steaming pile of crap. You can tell Marvel was ashamed of the first Hulk movie because they retconned stuff and got an all-new cast.

And like the Iron Man movie, the Incredible Hulk had a surprise cameo at the end; the only difference being that we don't have to wait till after the credits to catch it. Unless there was actually more. haha. I love all this build-up to the upcoming Avengers movie.

Off Day! Ninja Gaiden II!

Tuesday was the day of Ninja Gaiden II's release. There was an event at Funan so I took leave to go and collect the game (didn't want to be distracted at work). I woke up pretty early and went to Funan at 12 noon when the redemption began. The queue was longer than I expected (there were over 400 pre-orders after all) but it moved very quickly as there were 3 redemption counters. I got my game and the nice T-shirt (good thing it was Large).

The whole thing was a rather simple affair, with a redemption counter, retail booths and many demo stations. And there was an emcee who kept referring to the game as "Ninja GAY-den" (it's 'Guy', not 'Gay'!).

I met up with Shein and his classmate who were there to collect the game as well. We hung out at KFC until the 1 pm lucky draw for a the NG2-skinned Elite X360 console. Oh well, no luck for any of us. I wanted to catch Ryu Hayabusa & his two lovely ladies for a photo opportunity but I felt a little shy. haha.

When Shein & friend left, I went to shop around until Akira arrived at 1:30 pm. We had lunch at Pasta Mania, talked about games, WoW, and joked about the boob nerf in Age of Conan (they were imbalance! Nerf!). We then made our way to Books Kinokuniya at Orchard. I took my time browsing and chanced upon The Art of Mass Effect. Unfortunately, it was bundled with a guidebook that I had no use for so I dropped the idea. We then went over to the hobby shop at CineLeisure where Akira picked up several new figures to add to his Pinky St. collection.

I cabbed home and eagerly popped in Ninja Gaiden II to play. I have always heard that the series was well-known for being difficult and unforgiving. Which was why I started the game on easy mode. I played for a couple hours and it was great fun. The regular enemies were very aggressive and all bosses thus far killed me in a few hits. But really, getting thrashed by cool-looking bosses with awesome specials is what make these games so fun. (The game only served to remind me of DMC4's very sad boss roster.)

Also, in a most surprising turn of events, NGII creator Itagaki left Tecmo and is now suing them. Right on the day of the game's release! Now that's pretty controversial. I actually didn't know about the guy until I started reading up on NGII and now he just leaves after putting out his last great game. Ah, well, he seems like a really talented guy so I hope he joins a new studio and carries on with his work.

My Weekend with a Beercan

There was a chalet on Sunday organized by one of the agents (also the boss' sister), Ann, to celebrate her baby's first birthday. She invited everyone in the office so I thought I would be a good sport and attend it to get to know my colleagues better. The chalet was at the National SAFRA Resort & Country Club at Changi Coast. I've never been there before. The place was totally out of the way and rather inaccessible by public transport.

I decided to go there late at 5:30 pm, but to my surprise, I was the first from the office to arrive. The rest were all Ann's relatives. I helped myself to the food while watching even more car-loads of relatives pull up the driveway.

I decided to kill some time by checking out the place. The NSRCC was a typical resort/chalet. I wondered towards the reception office building where all the fun stuff were. I passed by the swimming pool and also went to check out the bowling alley, karaoke, pool tables, and so on. Typical resort facilities.



When the clock struck 6:30 pm, I ended my little tour and went back to the chalet. The place was really packed by now. Both my bosses had arrived. Tiffany was there but she left almost immediately after finishing her meal. Ah, well. Hope the rest will come soon.

As I went to get another helping of food, someone was passing beer around and thrusted a can of Heineken into my hand. I looked at the little can in my hand and it looked me back in the eye, its shiny green body glistening with power from within.

With Mr. Heineken in hand, I went into the living room and watched... some olden-day Chinese war movie that I didn't know the title of. I had Mr. Heineken to keep me company. I stuck around, glued to the unidentified movie on the TV until around 7:30 pm. When the first disc was over and no one else swapped in the second disc, I felt it was time to take my leave.

And I actually left without taking my bag!!! It was leaning against the wall right next to me. How could I forget??? *hic*

The Air-Con-Man

Thinking about my aircon makes me feel sad. Mr. Electric Fan is back in my room again. I thought it was repaired already but it seems to only want to work when it feels like it.

I got my mother to help tend to the technicians while I am at work (can't wait for the weekends anymore or I'll go crazy). They can't seem to figure out the problem and would suggest ridiculous ideas like replacing the whole thing, which almosts entails to renovating my room. Every trip they make is an easy $50-$80 for servicing some new-found 'problem' that does nothing to fix my aircon. And this is their 3rd trip already. I am beginning to feel it's one big con job. (I think I just made a pun; air-CON-man!)

No longer wishing to be their 'carrot head', I decided to hop online and get a different company to come check things out: http://www.coolserve.com/ . Once again, my mother tended to them while I was at work. She said they looked real professional when they dropped by with their uniforms and assortment of gadgets. After a thorough examination, they said that the gas may be leaking but they didn't want to start work on it and charge us when our aircon was still under the service guarantee of the previous air-(con)man. And they just left like that. My mother even offered to pay for their transport but they turned her down. They came and left empty-handed. No payment, no nothing. Just like that. And I felt that was pretty damn awesome.

As of now, my airconditioner still remains in a semi-broken state, though I think I am beginning to see a pattern. Whenever my brother is home and uses his aircon, my room would instantly become a sauna.

Anyway, I am trying really hard to put this behind me. It feels terrible to brood over my aircon every day for the past two weeks. Maybe I really should get used to a fan. I keep telling myself it's 'just an aircon' but I still feel distraught because my once perfect room is no longer perfect. It no longer has that 'everything is the way I want it' kinda homely feel to it whenever I come home from work.

Guitars and Nasty Little Robots

I went to check out the E-Life Gaming Challenge at Suntec on Saturday. I was accompanying Rhyfe because he wanted to participate in the Guitar Hero 3 qualifiers. First thing I realized was that there was a new underpass leading to Suntec. Something felt different, though; either I couldn't find the way to the old overhead bridge or it was really gone. Hmm.



I had a hard time finding the place which was actually one whole section on the 2nd level of Suntec with a bunch of IT stores. As for the event... Rhyfe was the only one who participated (??!!). I guess all the participants are spread out over a couple of weeks. He ended up having the set to himself since there was no one else. He happily practiced away since he didn't own the game/console (that may change if he has what it takes to place top 3 in this contest). I played a little, too. I hope the staff didn't think we were being hogs. Meh. I guess I should have come when the finals are held instead.

Anyway, it wasn't too bad. We hung around and watched the Halo 3 competition in the earlier part of the day. It was mostly one-sided matches, though.

I spent the rest of my weekend at home playing Viking: Battle for Asgard (which was pretty okay) and Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness (link).



Yup, Penny Arcade; that webcomic. They have their own game now, available on the PC and costing a whopping $30++ on Xbox Live.

Most. Expensive. Downloadable. Game. Ever. And this is just the first episode of four in total. The price turned me off and I was a little disappointed after hearing that it was only a 6-hour long game. I don't really consider myself a big fan but I read Penny Arcade a whole lot. (Recognize that Prinny pic?)

I hated to give the game a miss so I gave in and purchased it. The game is an RPG with frantic battles and lots of Penny Arcade humour. You get to fight hobos, psychotic clowns (who show you the birdie a lot), killer mimes and... of course, those lovable Fruit F**ker robots with their hip-thrusting, fruit-humping antics.

I finished the game in two sittings on Sunday and now I am left wanting more. Dammit, bring on the next game already.

I'm Melting!!!

Tuesday night was a real bitch. My air con was not working properly (again) and released a constant stream of warm air into the room. And it just got serviced for leaking water (again) last week. I have more or less resigned to the fate that my sucky air con is forever irrepairable and the only way to solve my problem would be to move out.

Back to crappy Tuesday night. It was so hot that I actually missed being at work which was wrong in every way (the day that work > home is the day the Earth implodes). The heat got to my head and actually made me forget what I was planning to do for the night. I ended up missing CSI on TV. I forgot to check out the sites that I visit daily. Couldn't even draft out a proper blog post (note: I am posting this from work). I did force myself to play my Xbox but it wasn't very fun when I was probably sweating as much as my in-game character, running around a vast island on foot in Viking: Battle for Asgard.

I opened my windows and had a little fan running but it was still hot. And the thing about open windows; they scare me. I live on the 8th floor but I keep thinking that some random projectile or stray animal is going to fly right in and hit me in the face. Maybe an airplane blows up in mid-air halfway across the world and the wind carries a chunk of its debris to Singapore and flings it right through my window (I got quite an imagination there).

I can go on to whine about not being able to call the air-con repair people myself because they get off work at the same time that I do, but never mind, I just feel overly disgusted that a perfectly fine day at home got wasted. Time to endure anothre 8 hours of work before I earn the right to go home again.

Saturday Night Movie Marathon

This weekend was pretty exciting for me as I had a sorta impromptu movie marathon.

On Saturday, I went to AMK Hub in the evening to watch Iron Man with Akira, Max, Kyo and Yonghao. I kept hearing good things about it so I knew I was in for a good time. I was quite surprised that the show was quite popular since Iron Man seemed pretty obscure when compared to mainstream names like Batman or Spiderman.

After Iron Man, we went for dinner and everyone was making their way home. I actually kept passing by FunZ to shop around because I was being indescive at buying something I want. haha. I ended up chatting with Michael & Yonghao and... I don't know how it happened but suddenly, we talked about catching the late-night show for Speed Racer. I was very reluctant because it would mean staying out real late and reaching home at 3 am. Oh well, Speed Racer was the next on my 'to watch' list and, since I am always complaining I hate staying home on weekends, I decided to give it a go. haha.

I did reach home at 3 am and, by the time I was through with my usual net-surfing routine, I went to bed at 6 am. At least there was the new McGriddles breakfast waiting for me when I got up. I love that.

Here are my little impressions for the two movies!

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"I want a Cheeseburger."

The story in Iron Man was pretty good. It touches on serious issues like war and the weapons-making industry. Robert Downey Jr. played the perfect Tony Stark! Heck, he even said he IS Tony Stark in a magazine interview. He is funny and has a lot of amusing one-liners. The Iron Monger was... a little boring for a super villain (I didn't even know 'it' had a name!) but I guess he was a much-needed key character to introduce backstory of the series.

The mention of SHIELD towards the end was a nice touch (Security Homeland... wha?). As we left the cinema, Akira pointed out that there was supposed to be a surprise after the end credits; Samuel L. Jackon appearing as Nick Fury and hinting at a future Avengers movie! Doh. Why do they like to trick viewers by putting such things after ten-minute long credit rolls. Hope there will be a video of it on Youtube or something.

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"Go, Speed Racer, Go!"

I got quite a pleasant surprise. I did not have high expectations for Speed Racer but I must say it was pretty good, too! I knew the movie was by the Wachowski Brothers but I did not expect it to remind me of the Matrix movies. haha.

The entire show had an eye-catching cartoonish/anime look with bright colours and somewhat absurd-yet-cool character designs. There were a number of memorable funny bits and they all made me laugh out loud. And the fighting scenes... wow, I thought stylish, eye-popping fight scenes belonged only in the Matrix trilogy. I am really a sucker for the over-the-top fight sequences. The plot may be pretty generic but I found Speed Racer to be a fun ride. Definitely worth checking out.

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Oh yes, both movies I watched were 2-hour movies! I am beginning to see a pattern here.
2-hour movies == good movies.

On the subject of movies, here's a first look at the upcoming ang mor Dragonball movie. Oh my god... I think that's Chow Yuen Fatt there.

Grand Theft Auto IV is Out!

Like most other gamers in the world, I really looked forward to the worldwide release of GTA IV in Singapore on Tuesday. The MDA started putting ratings on video gams, which is why this once controversial title is now freely available on our sunny little island.

I was so anxious that I went all the way to FunZ Centre to pick it up during my lunch break that day. While I was at the shop, things were sure busy. The phones kept ringing and Chriz & friends would pick them up and promptly reply that GTAIV was in stock. There was also a constant stream of people coming in to purchase the game and go off. I settled on getting the normal edition since the special edition was more than double the price and I would end up leaving the goodies untouched in the corner of my room.

I had to endure the rest of the day at work before I could finally go home and play the game. First thing I noticed was that 99% of the people in my Friends List, and even their friends, were all playing GTA IV on launch day. haha.

I would say the game is very good and addictive but doesn't really deserve all the online hype (every single video game site gave it a 10/10 rating and IGN even proclaimed it the "best game in the last 10 years"). GTAIV certainly has its fair share of problems and, in my honest opinion, the much-touted multiplayer mode is rather bad. The single player mode is still the real star of the game. It is a totally immersive experience with tons of things to do, backed up by a plot and script that rivals Holywood blockbusters.

By the way, it is official and you may have seen it in the local newspapers: Microsoft has slashed the prices of all Xbox 360 packages in Singapore (cos' MS love us!), making it the cheapest of the next-gen consoles. The standard Pro console set is now $499 and I just bought mine for $620 two weeks ago. Meh.

Two Plastic Guitars are Better than One

I picked up Guitar Hero II recently! I really liked Guitar Hero III and was yearning for more songs even though I'm still not very good at the game. Hard mode is a pain with its really steep learning curve but it's actually fun and satisfying to play through.

GHII comes with the X-plorer but I don't like it. It's an abomination (to me anyway; there are people out there who love it). I am simply too used to holding the the Les Paul that came with GHIII. Here's hoping that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will make it to our shores with the new bad-ass (and more 'normal'-shaped) guitar.

In the meantime, this means I have 2 guitars now! *chants*multiplayer multiplayer multiplayer!