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.

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 "ζ‰’ηŽ‹δΉ‹ηŽ‹". 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!