Rune's Thoughts

Mad Catz Steampunk/retro mouse: Cyborg R.A.T

2010-01-08T10:57:00.004+08:00

Mad Catz has unveiled their newest mouse that is coming this March/April. It is such a manly mouse if I have to say so myself. Alot of knobs, screws and very steampunk-ish. I hope the mouse functions as cool as how it looks. Now, I wonder how much dust you have to clean off from it whenever you want to use it. In addition, Kotaku has a video on the mouse, with a walkthrough by the Mad Catz rep. Check it out >HERE<.

Tech: Another company tackles cloud computing, watch out OnLive!

2010-01-08T10:38:00.001+08:00

Unashamedly ripped from Gamespy, "According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, David Perry's cloud gaming service Gaikai has raised $5 million to kick-start the project (via Industry Gamers). Perry's GaiKai service is similar to Steve Perlman's OnLive, as it will stream games running on remote computers to the PCs of subscribers, side-stepping the need for gamers to invest in top-tier hardware. The Gaikai project is based in the Netherlands, and is founded by GDC advisory board members David Perry, Rui Pereira and Andrew Gault. Neither OnLive nor Gaikai have set firm release windows for their service."

It seems someone else has seen the future and have the funds for it. All in all, competition is good. The more choices there are for consumers, the better. Can't wait to see the price wars on these services.

Video: OnLive

2010-01-04T14:56:00.002+08:00

OnLive is a service that lets you game or watch movies from either a TV, PC or from your iPhone through cloud computing! The only limitation is your bandwidth. I have watched the vid and I am very impressed although I know this won't be coming into my country anytime soon. However, even if this service goes bust, you cannot deny that this is the future.

VIDEO: Pure genius, SNATCH + STAR WARS

2010-01-04T13:28:00.002+08:00

I am not sure how long this vid has been here but this is pure comedy genius. If you though Vader was badass before, now he is truly the stuff of nightmares!

Gaming: Alien vs Predator

2009-12-23T12:13:00.002+08:00

STORY TRAILER

This is the latest storyline trailer by Rebellion on Alien vs Predator. Just when you thought the game had no storyline, well, this trailer will put the naysayers to rest. Lance Henrikson continues to spook and whoop us with his fatherly mercenary type voice and I (as a fan) welcome it. Who else is better suited to play the role of Bishop other than the man himself? Oh man, I can't wait for this game to come out. The gaming world needs its AvP goodness back.

Castle Age on Facebook

2009-12-17T12:11:00.003+08:00

With a minimum amount of coaxing, my friend managed to get me to play Castle Age and for now, I find the game interesting enough to keep me playing. I just downed my first summoned boss, which yielded a nice finisher story which you can read below. Btw, my character's name is Capricious Bull.

"Gildamesh sweeps his axe in large arcs as he rushes at you and Celesta. Celesta dodges his blows but suddenly falls backward as she trips on the jagged rocks below you. The Orc King grins. Your party is busy fighting his minions. You know this has to end soon. With blinding speed, the Orc King raises his axe and rushes at you again.

You dodge swing after swing until you are cornered. The Orc King raises his axe and brings it down. Suddenly you see Kiana rush up from the side and deflect his blow. Maximilian comes up from behind and bashes his shield on the Orc King. Your friends have defeated his minions! You take the opportunity to attack!

You stun Gildamesh with the blunt side of your weapon and with a quick motion, you bring your weapon down a second time, piercing his armor.

Gildamesh Grunts: You've proved yourself a worthy adversary, Capracious Bull...But we shall meet again!

A burst of intense light blinds you and suddenly, the Orc King is gone.

You have defeated the Orc King and already claimed the Crystal of Fire. Now it is time to journey to the Land of Earth and search for the Crystal of Earth."

Updates

2009-12-16T10:40:00.002+08:00

So after a long time of not updating my blog here are some updates:

Modern Warfare 2

Believe it or not I have abstained myself from buying this game simply because of the shoddy response they are giving to PC gamers in regards to their no community dedicated server stance. I heard a lot of good reviews on the game though, which I know is true. Anyway, just putting my foot down on Infinity Ward's stance even though I know it won't matter in the long run.

RIP WIFI Router Modem

My router modem got fried last night when I was surfing the net during a storm which I thought was letting up. Apparently it didn't as it gave a lightning strike near the vicinity of my house, tripping the circuits and my router modem literally popped. Suffice to say, I could only stand half an hour without the net before I went to the nearest mall to get myself a replacement. Phew, all is right with the world when I finally got my net back.

Games I am playing

I gotten back to playing Champions Online after some week of absence. I have stopped playing Dragon Age: Origins because it something I always go through with deep RPGs. I have to stop myself because I tend to always want to restart the game (I want a perfect character, dammit!). So I stopped and played a bit of Torchlight and now I am back on Champions Online.

Gaming: Torchlight review up on Kotaku

2009-11-19T10:56:00.003+08:00

So the review for Torchlight is up on Kotaku, which you can check it out. The reason why I specifically point out to Kotaku is because I find their review system refreshing and doesn't force any of their opinions on us, the user. They try to give a neutral review by giving the pros and cons and leave it at that. I think it is quite effective in their attempt to not make biased reviews, which most review sites seemingly do (often as of late).

Personally though, I find the game addictive. At first I tried the demo of the game via STEAM and before you know it, 2 days have passed and I had already made 6 characters. The demo has some restrictions, which are a character level limit and dungeon limit. I proceeded to buy the game so I can continue my excursions. And now, I play that in between my Dragon Age gaming as a temporary break.

What I like about the game is that it has everything that you would want in an action RPG. The graphics are colourful and easy on the eyes, the skill system is complete and allows freedom for a number of builds, and the storyline is simple enough (but engaging) that it doesn't interfere with the real gist of the game: getting better items. More details on the game can be found at the Kotaku review, which I am at an agreement with the points. A good start for Runic Games.

One more thing though, this game allows modding since they released the editor. The modding community is small but already churning out a lot of mods. I believe these mods will increase the lifespan of the game. Already I have used some of those mods, mods that change your pet cat to a tiger, have enemies use random weapons instead of fixed, a respec mod, brighter map mod, etc, etc.

Gaming: Dragon Age Origins Collector's Edition

2009-11-04T14:28:00.003+08:00

November 3rd 2009 has arrived (I know that was yesterday but I was lazy) and I manage to snag my copy of Dragon Age: Origins Collector's Edition from The Software Boutique. Got some goodies as a pre-order bonus and I went home contented. Above are the content of the stuff. On the floor are the T-Shirt (large size) and the poster. On top of it are the contents of the boxed retail pack, yes it is wood. In the middle is the cloth map, above it is the plastic sleeve (top left) and on the right of it is the front lid of the retail pack. On the left side of the cloth map is the DVD retail pack and on the right is the back of the wooden retail pack. All in all, pretty sweet.

Unfortunately, my DVD drive can't read the installer DVD. However, it could read the bonus DVD with video content. I proceeded to test the installer DVD on a notebook and lo and behold, it could be read. So I am going to buy a new DVD drive. Hopefully I can play the game by today.

Movies: Michael Jackson's This is it!

2009-11-04T14:22:00.002+08:00

“This Is It!” has been out for a while and I decided to watch it during my off time. As a child of the 80s, MJ is considered one of the legends for my generation. No other performer has given a lasting impression on me other than MJ. So, having the opportunity to watch the final moments of his life preparing for his final concert was a given for me.

“This Is It!” is a behind the scenes documentary on what was supposed to be the final MJ concert. It features clips and commentary from the start of the concert rehearsals until the final day where MJ was alive.

Let me tell you this, for someone who is in his 50s, MJ still has his moves. As you watch the movie, you realize how alive and animated he is. Never once in your life did you ever think that this was a man who would be meeting his death some time soon.

It is amazing how much presence he has even though it was on a movie screen. MJ is a down to earth type of guy. However, he is professional and very hands on. I think all of the crew find him to be a very likeable person.

Nostalgia hit me when I saw MJ performing all his greatest songs. I am utterly impressed how MJ continues to improve on his performances as he goes through them during the practice rehearsals. He chooses his words wisely and makes sure that everyone gets what he says. I like the part where he stops and says “I think the VALUE would be greater if you held that part longer” and he was right.

If you were a fan or you’d just want an insight on how one of the best performers of the world prepares for a concert, this is the movie to watch. MJ is undoubtedly the King of Pop. I suggest you sit down, get relaxed and let the music wash over you.

Blurbs: Assassin's Creed Short Movie

2009-10-28T11:01:00.002+08:00

Most game to movie adaptations suck. Apparently the one that I am about to show you, doesn't. It is profesional and awesome. This is the first in a series of short movies that are being developed by Hybride Technologies, the visual effects studio behind 300 and Sin City, which Ubisoft bought last year for just this sort of project. I can't wait for the 2nd episode. News courtesy of Kotaku.

Blurbs: Dragon Age Penny Arcade Comic

2009-10-26T11:27:00.004+08:00

The folks of Penny Arcade has finally completed the 8 page comic for Dragon Age, which you can view >HERE<. The art is beatiful and it makes me want to play the game right now. I believe the comic was successful in giving out the gray area moral ambiguity that will be prevalent in the game. As it is, there has been quite an entertaining debate in the official forums regarding the comic and the subject matter: tempars. Which, you can browse and read >HERE<. If you haven't read the comic, I strongly advise that you do so.

Gaming: Leaked L4D2 Trailer

2009-10-23T10:42:00.002+08:00

Apparently there is a leaked L4D2 trailer that has made its rounds in the net. It's still hot since the news was from yesterday. I am not sure if it is really leaked or one of Valve's insidious plans ... Anyway, enjoy the vid.

Blurbs: Lone Wolf!

2009-10-21T16:49:00.001+08:00

When I was a kid I had fun reading this so called adventure books. Basically you are reading a character and you control what path s/he takes by flipping to the appropriate page. It was awesome and the best I have read so far was the adventures of Lone Wolf.

I have found a website of the author and he has made all his books available online to be read! Check it out >HERE<.

Gaming: Aliens vs Predator

2009-10-20T13:42:00.002+08:00

I have always liked the Aliens and Predator franchises. The original movies for both rocked and made their own niches in the market. Unfortunately the recent movie attempts are something less to be desired. However, fret not, the game is coming soon and it looks awesome. Rebellion have released the latest Alien trailer for their AvP game and it showcases some alien gameplay. Watch and don't pee in your pants ...

Video Games | Aliens vs Predator | Alien Terror Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Blurbs: D&D

2009-10-20T10:55:00.002+08:00

Dungeons & Dragons is such an old IP and almost every old (relatively) gamer I have met have actually played this pen and paper marvel. When the 4th edition came out last year, a group of my friends and I decided to give it a try. We only went as far as two sessions. I blame this on the "real life" monster invoking itself into our DnD scheduling. We might try again this year ... or maybe not seeing that this year is about to end in two (or three, depending how you count it) more months.

Penny Arcade has started putting up their DnD exploits and I find the read interesting. Not to mention the podcast of their adventures that is hosted by Wizards of the Coast, which are the makers of DnD. Penny Arcade has posted up some articles on their DnD adventures alot of times already but this one is interesting to see. The way he sets up the board is awesome! Check it out >HERE<. You may need to scroll downward since it's the second article.

Penny Arcade has been spending alot of money to get the appropriate minis and boards for their DnD game. So I am not surprised if they are thinking of getting the Microsoft surface for their DnD gaming. Currently it is a work in progress but the vid shows that it is functional. Catch it here in Kotaku. Looks awesome.

Gaming: Mass Effect 2 dated

2009-10-20T10:36:00.002+08:00

One of the most anticipated PC games of next year has finally been dated by Bioware. Mass Effect 2 will be coming out in North America on the 26th of January 2010. Europe will be getting it 3 days later (29th). Hopefully, it reaches the shores of my country somewhere in between that. I can't wait to play Mass Effect 2, continuing the adventures of Shepard from Mass Effect 1. Hopefully, Dragon Age will keep me entertained until then.

Gaming: Dragon Age Character Creator tool

2009-10-14T14:14:00.005+08:00

The interface

And so I installed and played around in it. There's not much you can do. You can muck about some graphical options but that's about it. Other than seeing what the character creator can do, there's nothing else. So I don't have much to comment about. The interface looks straightforward and after you have chosen your gender, race, class and background, you can only change the facial appearance of your character. There are sliders but it is quite simplistic. Just another tease before the full game comes out.

The main menu

A cute female dwarf

Blurb: Mass Effect: Redemption comic by Dark Horse

2009-10-14T10:58:00.002+08:00

So apparently as part of their marketing for their next installment into the Mass Effect Universe, Dark Horse is making a comic to prepare players for Mass Effect 2. So they have a preview up, which you can check it out >HERE<.

I read the seven page preview and it looks nice. I think the art goes well with the sci fi type of visuals that is needed from the Mass Effect universe. Question is, will I buy it? The game, a definite yes but the comic ... I'll think about it.

Gaming: Dragon Age character creator is out!

2009-10-14T08:36:00.002+08:00

Just when you can't get enough of Dragon Age: Origins, there is more! Bioware just released the character creation tool to the masses! Presumably, you can download, install and create your characters as if you owned the game. The only downside off course, is that you can't play the game yet since it is only the character creator. Fortunately, at this point, any freebies by Bioware on their game is a warm welcome. I am downloading it as I type this so I will update this post when I have installed it and tried it.

Rants: Last minute work load

2009-10-13T15:23:00.003+08:00

Don't you hate it when you get a lot of work piled onto your desk at the last possible minute? Even worse, getting the same job even though you have already said that you are not available for that same job and to relegate it to someone else, then have it dumped on you at the last second anyway?

I feel so pissed right now. And you know what they say: When it rains, it pours. Suddenly I get a phone call reminding me about some stuff that is about to happen at the same time and now I'm just crazily angry. I don't feel panicky but instead I feel pissed off. These things I can handle but the way it came and how it came about really bothers me.

Oh well I'll get over it I guess. But sometimes ... work really kicks you in the groin. Anyway, just needed to get it off my chest. I can't shout in anger where I'm at, which is still in the office.

Gaming: Champions Online

2009-10-13T11:24:00.002+08:00

My characters, L-R: Pendekar Keramat, Durjana, Penjejak Neraka (Main), Flame Lord, Kesatria Angkasa.

My latest MMO foray has been Champions Online. As one of my articles from before, I was testing City of Heroes and I found that although the character creation was fun, the game itself was slow (IMO). So when Champions Online decided to come out to Open Beta phase, I was compelled to test the game. Suffice to say I was happy with the game and was planning to subscribe after a the first month of the game going live has passed.

Why not immediately? As any MMO gamer know, the first month of any MMO is usually frought with constant bug fixes and rebalancing. So I do not want to experience that. Not to mention there will probably be a lot of server down time as they apply new patches. That was my original plan anyway. However, my friends bought the game for me when my birthday came. So, being impatient, decided to subscribe even though my original intent was just to test to see if the cd-key was valid or not. Not that I don't trust my friends but more to make sure that the product works.

The game is now into its second month and it is still undergoing massive patches and fixes. However, the frequency is starting to slow down as they manage to fix the majority of the game breaking bugs. Unfortunately though, I seem to be experiencing a very weird network problem with the game. I am fine when I play the game alone but when I team, I get bad rubber banding which makes it unplayable. This situation is worsened since my main character has reached level 27 and most of the missions from that point requires teaming. In light of this, I decided to level up my ALTs to 20 so that I can decide whether to keep or scrap those characters.

Cryptic is trying to fix the network issues some users are having. I hope they fix it soon. In the meantime though, I am still having fun with the game. It is amazing how different the game can feel by what travel power you chose!

Gaming: Dragon Age Origins - A Living World trailer

2009-10-13T11:06:00.002+08:00

Dragon Age: Origins is coming in next month and I can't wait! The only downside is that the game will reach my side of the world a week later than the release date which is 3rd of November 2009. In the meanwhile, just to whet our appetites, Blur studios have released a new cinematic trailer for the game and it is looking sweet. I think it is safe to say that the star of the trailer is the spider lady!

Something to think about: Self help courses

2009-10-12T17:49:00.003+08:00

Self help courses are a dime a dozen nowadays. And why is that? Is it because the world today is very different? Is it because people today suffer from depression, tiredness and emotional stress more?

Then again, how do self help courses operate? What kind of regulations do they have to adhere to? How do we, the public, know that the self help courses actually help instead of making matters worse? This are interesting things to think about. Especially when you read this article: Self help course may have led to her suicide.

Gaming: The Road Rash that never was

2009-10-12T11:38:00.003+08:00

So EA is saying that they are reviving some of their old games and most of us were thinking of their golden era greats. One of them was Road Rash! Man that game rocked when it was on the Sega Genesis (Megadrive for the Japanese version). It was the ultimate beat-em-up motorcycle game. I still remember playing that game for hours on end, hitting the nitro and see all the other bikes pass by ... only to hit a cow crossing the road and fly over a few kilometres only to hit the hard ground a few seconds later. Man, that was awesome. Anyway, a vid was leaked on the Road Rash that was presumably on production but halted.

News source: Kotaku

Blog: Header pic updated

2009-10-12T11:26:00.002+08:00

So I decided to keep the current colour scheme of the blog and just change the header graphics. I think its nice and simple. Before any Japanese assassins come and get me though, let me just say that my game handle/ nick is Koross. Which is why the katanas up there ...

And hopefully now I can start posting up stuff.

My thoughts on Subject categories

2009-10-09T14:27:00.003+08:00

So after a little bit of thinking. Here are the categories:

- Random Thoughts: It could be literally anything and most probably would be short articles.
- Blurbs: This is a shoutout to cool things that I have encoutered either in real life or in the internet.
- Something to think about: This will be heavy stuff.
- Gaming: Things about gaming.

I guess these are it although there might be changes and some additions but we shall see. Anyway this is to make it easier to organize my thoughts.

Time to resurrect this blog

2009-10-08T15:12:00.003+08:00

I think its time to resurrect this blog. It would be a good idea for me to have an objective on what I want this blog to be. So here is the plan:

1) Change the blog graphics abit.
2) Come up with categories of topics so I can post appropriately.
3) Actually post.
4) And post some more.

There you go. Hopefully, this happens.

City of Heroes trial

2009-05-08T08:57:00.005+08:00

I had been playing Warhammer Online for some time and after all that, I have reached the point where it is starting to feel more like work rather than entertainment. So I decided to stop and try something else. I had heard about City of Heroes for a long time and decided to give it a try by grabbing the trial. First off, after the installer have downloaded the necessary files, it was only 2.7 gb. A far cry to the sizes of most MMOs of today. In logging in, I was very impressed with the character creation and in fact, spent most of my time trying out making different characters. I hope this customizability stays with their next hero MMO foray called Champions Online. Sometimes, the fun is in the making of your character rather than playing your character. The pic above is what I settled for as my first character in the game and dubbed him Penjejak Neraka aka Hell Walker. I decided to create an East meets West type, hence the cowboy look and katana weapons.
The gameplay is quite slow, compared to Warhammer Online. There are no auto attacks and you have to constantly press your skill buttons to attack. Nevertheless the game has its own charm but the trial version does limit your character somewhat. Firstly, you can't whisper other players, which makes any attempt at finding a party somewhat difficult but not impossible. Saying that, I haven't tried looking for a team since I am after all, only level 4. Anyway, my trial lasts until May 18th and so we shall see what conclusion will I come up with the game.

2009-04-16T10:03:00.002+08:00

This was the shoutcaster from Gamestah.com whom was invited for Cyber Fusion. He speaks like a motor boat and he knows his stuff! He primarily shoutcasts for DotA but the way he does it makes anyone just passing by want to look at the screen. If you want to view more vids from the Cyber Fusion event, just click on the vid and it should take you to the youtube page with more Cyber Fusion vids.

Guinness World Record Broken - I was there to witness it

2009-04-14T10:39:00.004+08:00

April 10th to 12th would be a historical date for all Malaysian, especially Malaysian gamers as the Guinness World Record for the longest and largest LAN party ever held was finally broken! The new record, which is with a total of 257 participants in a LAN party held on for 40 hours of non-stop gaming and fun! At the end of the day, some of them were literally zombies and there were a few that felt asleep in the middle of scooping their breakfast into their mouths! I had a great laugh on that one.

However, there were a lot of technical problems but were solved on the fly by ingenuity. I had a lot of headaches on that day. But it was all worth it since we managed to break the record. Btw, I was there not as a participant but my company was one of the main sponsors of the event and I was there to help out. When nightfall came, the other company booths were empty but only ours were lit up and buzzing with activity as people tried out our games. In addition, we helped the LAN party run their mini tournaments and technical problems (with our games).

Above is me fooling around while we set up our booth on the 9th of April. Oh yeah btw, I finally managed to play Street Fighter IV (SFIV)! It was cool. Unfortunately it was on the PS3. I say unfortunately because I hate the joypad. It was hard to do moves properly since I am not used to the joypad layout. However, of all the characters I tried, for some reason Abel was the easiest to pull off combos. On my first try on that character, I managed to do a 4 string combo followed by an ULTRA which ended the match. It was awesome! Can't wait for this game to come out for the PC and I will get myself an arcade stick.

Premiere Movie: Fast & Furious

2009-04-03T10:36:00.002+08:00

I was delivering some marketing materials after work and the person whom I was meeting with pointed me towards Cineleisure Damansara and I proceeded there. I was grumbling at this point, primarily because I was feeling lazy and this was after office hours. When I got there, I couldn't find him and I had to call him two to three times to finally get him.

Apparently his company was taking care of the premiere on that night and he surprised me by saying if I wanted to watch Fast & Furious. I heard about the movie but I didn't know it was being released on the next day. I was looking forward to the movie anyway because it marked the return of Vin Diesel to reprise his role. So, I was still thinking if he was serious or not (It was April 1st btw) when he just ushered me in and pushed me into one of his subordinates and they proceeded to find me a cinema.

Not bad for what started as a grunt delivery job. Anyway, we managed to get me some good seats, the back row sofa seats and I just enjoyed the movie. The downside was that apparently I missed 15 to 30 minutes of the start.

The movie itself was typical Fast & Furious affair. Non stop muscle cars, chics, awesome driving and action sequences. However, I felt the movie lacked something. It felt as if the movie had less budget than the previous ones. The CGI effects were less and there were no crazy camera into the hood, exiting through the exhaust sequences (except for one time). In addition to that, Paul Walker is still in it. I hate that guy, he acts the same for all his movies. Anyway, you can read about the reviews and info on the movie on this IMDB link >HERE<.

I'm wondering if my luck in getting free movie tickets will continue. We shall see ...

Video of the week: EVO 04

2009-03-29T20:38:00.002+08:00

Video of the week is of the Street Fighter 3 (SF3) semi final match between Daigo and Justin. Definitely the best video of all time on the awesomeness of what you can achieve in a simple 2D fighting game like SF3. The fact that everyone went ape shit at the end of the vid speaks volumes of what Daigo achieved on that day. He will forever be remembered for this vid.

Street Fighter IV is out and it is revolutionary. Haven't tried it yet though because I am waiting for the PC version. I can't freaking wait. In the mean time, I have been watching non-stop SFIV vids in youtube to quench my hunger. It seems Daigo is the number one SFIV player in Japan at this moment of writing. There are rumours that Momochi might climb up to that position soon (or has he?).

First time Movie Premiere!

2009-03-28T10:10:00.002+08:00

Holy shit I haven't updated this blog for almost forever (internet time). However, this time I gotta update it because I have participated in my first ever movie premiere!

My friend hooked me up with some free tickets for the movie Knowing for a first of many marketing events his company is planning to do. They are making a social networking website, something akin to Friendster but with more features and at this moment, more localised. So, check out ruumz and see if you feel like joining. If you are interested to join, click >HERE<. :)

Anyway, the first thing I asked him about the movie premiere was what kind of clothing can I wear. For some reason I was imagining those big gala movie premieres and was thinking that this was the same thing. Fortunately, it was relatively similar to a normal movie night out, except that we get to watch this movie before it was released on the next day. However, he told me to not wear singlets, shorts and slippers. :P

About the movie? The movie was good in the special effects department and in some ways managed to capture what it was going for. However, I dislike movies like this because it touched alot on religious issues and interpreting it into their own explanations. Without delving too much into it, I suggest everyone read the imdb link I posted above to know what is the movie about and see the movie critics review on it.

So, laters. Hopefully I update more.

Gamer's Bill of Rights

2008-08-30T12:36:00.002+08:00

The boyos at Stardock and Gas Powered Games have proposed that all publishers adhere to their Gamer's Bill of Rights:

1. Gamers shall have the right to return games that don't work with their computers for a full refund.
2. Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
3. Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game's release.
4. Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.
5. Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will adequately play on that computer.
6. Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won't install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their express consent.
7. Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
8. Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
9. Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.
10. Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

Sign me up for full support on this. All publishers must follow this but then again, who are we kidding right?

Source: Click me

Chuck Norris Bring on the Pain

2008-08-28T11:41:00.004+08:00

I haven't updated my blog for some time but this warrants updating! Despite having busy days with playing Warhammer Online Public Weekend recently and such but nothing holds the candle to this bit of news.

Chuck Norris Bring on the Pain is a game by Gameloft coming to a handphone near you! It took them long enough but after alot of Chuck Norris facts in the internet showing how badass he is, a game embodying that fact wouldn't be too far coming.

So check out the vid below of the game in action. It has no audio but I trust you will input your own brand of sounds for the bone crunching, punch impacting and round house kicking fun!

My Impressions: Space Siege demo

2008-07-31T10:53:00.004+08:00

So I got my hands on the Space Siege demo that was just released yesterday and I have finished playing it. First off, this are by the same people who made Dungeon Siege. So expect similar gameplay elements except that this time, it is scifi instead of medieval fantasy.
First off, the demo weighs around 900++mb. The installation was no problem for me and everything was functioning nicely. So onward to the game. It is a classic isometric view with the ability to pan the camera and zoom in and zoom out of your character. Your character is a soldier in the human vessel that was escaping an alien invasion force. They almost succeeded except that one of the alien boarding ships managed to latch on. So it is your duty to help repel this invaders. The gameplay has your character repelling the first horde of invaders that has just made it to a main corridor. After succeeding in blasting their hides either with a ranged weapon or melee, you will have to proceed to the engine room to synch the engines in order for the ship to utilize its thrusters and escape.
The controls seems to be simple and I got used to it in the first minute of play. The graphics are somewhat acceptable for this age and time. The heavy weight comes from the excellent particle effects and physics that seems to be present in everything in the screen. However, judging from the demo itself, it seems to be an average game. It plays almost the same as Dungeon Siege and from the demo you control one protaganist. As you explore the map you are able to find weapons and also cybernetic enhancements that will replace your limbs if you choose to do so. They bring about good bonuses but will decrease your humanity points. Not to mention some weapons need you to have cybernetic enhancements to be able to use them. What does your humanity points do isn't explained in the demo. There is also a skill screen where you can alotte points into the skills of choice but you won't get to do so in the demo. The demo is fairly short which should take you around 15 minutes of play to complete it. The final leg of the demo is your character defending seemingly endless waves of enemies against the last transport train in your area.
Another thing worth mentioning is that your enemies and some environment items will drop upgrade scraps when they are destroyed. With this upgrade scraps, you can upgrade yourself, your weapons and also make health packs and grenades at work benches which will appear sporadically in the map in Aid rooms. At the same time, you can also replenish your life and energy in the Aid rooms. I am not sure since the demo doesn't have a save feature but it could be surmised that the Aid rooms will also be your save points in the game as well.
Conclusion from the demo is that the game is very average. However, the demo only scratches the surface of the game and doesn't properly showcase the game at all. So, after the final product is out, it might be way better than what the demo shows.

Pen and Paper

2008-07-31T10:40:00.004+08:00

I have finally experienced the pen and paper RPG experience! Last weekend, my friends and I decided to play table top RPG using the newest Dnd 4th edition rules. It was a blast and we had alot of laughs. Took almost half a day just to create our characters, even though some of us have already made ours earlier. Anyway, I made a tiefling warlord and it is an awesome class to play. It is generally a melee buffer. It could tank although not as good as a fighter while giving out passive and active buffs to everyone or to the character of my choice whenever is needed. I made a joke that my character is a rapist and it seems to have stuck even though I made sure not to show those kind of tendencies on my character when I was playing him.
I am in the process of writing a journal based on what happened during my play with my character. I am 1/4ths done but I hope I will finish it before this weekend. Things of note was that one of our party members spent most of the time unconscious top side (either from failing a fortitude check after emptying a tankard full of dwarven ale and another from sleeping it off later), another took exclusive care to pick pocket any chance he could get and lastly during our final encounter of the day, two of our team mates actually bolted to get out of harm's way. My character, Pendekar Laut (yes, that's his name) will remember what transpired on that particular encounter. So I can't wait for the next game this coming Sunday.

Mass Effect BDtS is out and Space Siege demo is out!

2008-07-30T11:52:00.002+08:00

Mass Effect on PC fans can rejoice because the Bring Down the Sky downloadable content is out with the latest patch. So be sure to log on to the main website >HERE< and get your download on. However, judging from the massE PC forums, there is a particular problem that have cropped up. The lava textures on the planet of Therum seems to be missing and a Bioware spokesperson has replied on a fix. All you have to do is go into the config tool and use the 'repair' section and select the "Delete Local Shader Cache Files". That should fix it automatically.

Space Siege which is the spiritual successor to Dungeon Siege will be released next month and the demo is out! The demo weighs around 900++mb and will give you a taste on what the game is about. You can grab it >HERE<. If you ran into some loopy resolution problem with the demo, inputting this line "fullscreen=false" into one of the ini files (I am assuming) would fix it.

Long time no update so here's the skinny

2008-07-30T11:34:00.003+08:00

I haven't updated my blog for some time now. I would lie and say because I was busy but then again I was just lazy :P. Anyway here is the skinny on what have happened since then:

AND THE HEAVENS ... SHALL TREMBLE!

The announcement by Blizzard during the World Wide Invitational (WWI) on Diablo 3 had the gaming world by storm. It was a well kept secret of sorts but everyone knew about it, wished about it, kept wishing about it and finally it was made real by Blizzard! If you were living under a rock the Diablo series was one of the first action RPGs that totally captured the gaming community's attention. It was addictive, simple to get into but needs skill and knowledge to truly master it. In one fell swoop, Blizzard managed to bring heavenly news and made the world whoop in ecstasy for a few seconds. Below is the cinematic trailer to Diablo 3 but you can see other tid bits and info on the game at their official website >HERE<.

WHY SO SERIOUS HMMM? LETS PUT A SMILE ON THAT FACE!

Then the next Batman movie came out and it was awesome! Continuing the series of Batman which is now played by Christian Bale and directed by Christopher Nolan, the bring a more realistic and more grittier approach to the world of Gotham. Continuing from Batman Begins, this time the villain that will grace the silver screen is none other than the great nemesis of Batman himself, the Joker who is played by Heath Ledger. As if the original cast of Batman Begins isn't enough to pull you in, Heath Ledger as Joker brings the movie to new heights of emotion and depth. I won't be lying if I said that Heath Ledger single handedly made The Dark Knight movie a true master piece. He brings the madness, insanity and cruelty of Joker so belieavably into the silver screen that you can almost touch him. Christopher Nolan has topped himself in this sequel by bringing more emotion and depth. I won't go into details but I will assure you that this is a movie that you will not want to miss. Below is the trailer for the movie for your viewing pleasure:

Real Life Facebook

2008-05-17T11:13:00.002+08:00

I find Facebook useful as the next person, which is quite darn good. In keeping in touch with your long lost friends, nothing is better. I used Friendster before and it lacked a certain security in terms of making sure the people who are connected to you are only the people you know. In Facebook, I found it more secure but the thought of making another account for this type of websites a bit daunting, especially going through the process of getting your friends. As such, I use such facilities shallowly, only to keep in touch with people I have known. It annoys me to no end when people whom I don't even know wants to facebook me or invite me into the useless apps strewn about the website. So I can really relate this video on what would happen if Facebook was indeed happening in real life.

Battleships Forever's Future

2008-05-14T13:52:00.002+08:00

th15 has been silent for some time, especially regarding any further updates on his game Battleships Forever (BSF). I have read an interesting article in this month's local Game Axis magazine with him attending the 10th Annual Independent Games Festival (IGF). He was nominated into the top 10, which was why he was invited. So grab your local copy of Game Axis and check it out. Anyway, the article aside, th15 has broken his silence in the BSF forums by saying this:

"I guess I owe it to you guys. I haven't released anything new for some time because I'm busy with work. However, that work involves remaking Battleships Forever in a better engine. What this means is multi-player, better performance with hundreds (maybe thousands) of sections. Think everything that makes Battleships Forever, Battleships Forever and multiply that by ten. This will take some time. But not an absurd amount of time, Battleships Forever isn't exactly the most complex game ever. I'll confirm features, timeline and other stuff as and when I'm able, for now, just hang in there!

Sean 'th15' Chan 11-05-08"

Source: http://www.wyrdysm.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=2186

Personally, I can't wait for this to be released. I hope he is not hitting into snags and get a working beta out soon. LoL. Anyway, I wish all the success to th15 for making this a reality.

Force Unleashed won't be coming to PC!

2008-05-14T13:41:00.002+08:00

Lucas Arts has finally given up on the PC after announcing that Force Unleashed won't be releasing for the PC! The only thing that comes to my mind with this news is CRAP! And that is being polite. I can't believe this. Lucas Arts has always been a staunch supporter of the PC. Heck, it started off with the PC. And now this. The most coolest Star Wars game is coming out soon and it won't be out for the PC. This just plain sucks. Here is the copy and paste on why they won't be bringing it to the PC:

[If we made the game for high-end PCs], someone with a low-end PC would have a watered down experience, they would have to turn all the settings down and it wouldn't be the same game. On the other hand if we made that game for as many people as possible then it's not taking advantage of what those $4,000 systems can do.

What a load of BS! It's not as if they don't know that you can scale graphics on a PC game. Nice try on the excuse but please try again. Oh well so much for supporting Lucas Arts. Anyway, just to add some salt to the wound, here is a vid on the game below.

Watched Iron Man again!

2008-05-11T01:14:00.004+08:00

Yeap, you heard that right. I watched this movie a second time and it still rocks! Can't quite get past the awesomeness when Iron Man makes his first maiden flight. This time, I watched it at TGV and it literally sucks. Not to mention that they don't have THX and somehow the screen had a weird gamma setting. It seemed too dark. At the same time the screen was flickering at odd moments. It detracted the movie somehow but not too much. Iron Man still rocks. Unfortunately, I gotta seriously reconsider watching anything there. GSC is simply better.

Almost watched Forbidden Kingdom though. Unfortunately, didn't as my friend wanted to go home as he had a gaming schedule instead. Gah I really want to watch Forbidden Kingdom and not many (if at all) of my friends want to watch a Chinese movie. The first movie that has Jet Li and Jackie Chan in it and I haven't even watched it, damn! Getting mixed reviews about this movie though, some say it is awesome because of the two and some say it is quite bad because of the American dude in it. Add to the fact that the movie is more of a western production, to cater to the wider demographic. Man, whatever. :P

More Lineage 2

2008-05-11T01:00:00.005+08:00

I am playing more Lineage 2 now and there are some funny stuff going on. Like the pic below for instance ...

This is my character after getting buffed by a GM. The GM buffs are pretty powerful and usefull and generally lasts for about an hour. So usually when we find some news about a GMs whereabouts and s/he is buffing people, we'd spread this news to the alliance chat. When people know there are GMs about, people would come immediately for the buffs! The only downside, or upside, depending on where you look at it, you get a bighead for your buffs as well. Just as a sign that you were buffed by a GM. Kinda funny the first time. Although it does go away after some time.

This is my character in dual wield mode. I use this twin swords when the party doesn't need AE. On a single target, it gives me the best DPS. Can't wait to take my secondary class as gladiator as that class specializes in dual wielding. For now, I just use 'em but have no skills to properly master them. However, dual wielding does look cool. ^^

This is my new character, Selucia, a female orc. Finally decided to make a destroyer, which is a double hander single target DPS machine. I made this character to experience something different from my main and so far she is kinda fun, although still low level. Another reason is the female orcs in this game are hot! Quite weird I know but she has a nice muscled athletic build.

Awesome Macross Plus editing

2008-05-03T22:42:00.004+08:00

Check this youtube video out! Somehow the person edited clips out of Macross Plus anime and placed in Topgun audio and it is quite interesting. It is awesome how the characters mime the words perfectly!

Another Alien novel

2008-05-03T09:30:00.005+08:00

After I watched the movie Iron Man, I headed for MPH to check out the books there. As usual, I usually check out the sci-fi and fantasy sections. Lo and behold! I found a new Aliens novel. I am quite a collector of Aliens novel, since I am a fan of the series. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to find Alien novels at where I am at. So I was particularly happy to see there was a new one out. I have just started reading it and the synopsis is interesting. Apparently this story is before Alien the movie, detailing and explaning on how The Company had information regarding the aliens. Can't wait to read it till the end which I am doing right now juggling between farming my character in Lineage 2 and this book.

Iron Man

2008-05-03T09:16:00.004+08:00

Finally, the movie industry has done right in delivering what a comic adaptation should be. You don't need me to tell you that this movie rocks, it is everywhere in the web! My personal opinion, this movie brings justice to Iron man. Robert Downey Jr. is a great actor and it is a shame that not many people know that. He brought Tony Spark with all the swagger that he could muster, befitting the multi million tycoon.

The storyline is a simple one. It tells on how Tony Spark, being confident in the world he created with his products, suddenly gets to experience a different perspective which shatters his perception of the world. He later goes on a journey of self discovery and ultimately, Iron man.

The action in the movie is top notch with spectacular visuals and effects whenever iron man is in the shot. Surprisingly, Jeff Bridges plays a great villain. I hope he plays more villains in the future, his look in this movie is badass! All in all though, the cast in the movie is great and able to portray their characters believably.

But trust me when I say the true star of the show is Iron man himself. Composed entirely in CGI, he looks awesome! So I highly recommend this movie to everyone, especially comic buffs and Iron man fans! Hopefully, any future comic adaptations are as great as this one. Certainly, this sits well with Spiderman the movie as one of the better comic adaptations into the silver screen.

Good enough to eat!

Human and Dwarf

2008-05-02T19:25:00.003+08:00

There are a few playable races in Lineage 2 and they are humans, dwarves, orcs, light elves, dark elves and kamaels. Here is a picture of my character beside a cute female dwarf. You might recognize the tree behind us. Anyway, just wanted to show how cute some of the characters can be, despite the limitation on the game.

Lineage 2 Farm

2008-05-02T19:18:00.005+08:00

Gah I am busy farming my character in Lineage 2. It is a good time to farm now since there is a 2x experience event till the 6th of May. We have this particular good spot, somewhere in the middle of some undead zone. What I do is pull the undead mobs and let them run after me untill we reach a tree, where I unleash my AoE damage on them. Most of the time, it runs fine, unfortunately, there is a chance that I may get stunned and this will put more pressure on the healers. However, this has yielded the best experience so far in a group. Hope I can last till level 60 by the end of the event. As of this moment, my character is level 56.

The Impera tree

I unleash my AoE

Lineage 2

2008-04-23T09:07:00.003+08:00

You might not believe this but I have started playing Lineage 2. At first I never saw myself playing this game as it was touted as grindy and hardcore. But, as a measure to help our gaming community, Celestial Order, I tried the game nonetheless. And was rewarded with exactly what people were warning me about. Now, after Guild Wars, I am quite bored out of grinding. The only consolation is that I am doing it with my guild mates and it makes it somewhat tolerable. That is not to say that this game is not without merits. I personally like the character designs, armours and weapons. They are not as outlandish as say, WoW but they look more realistic in so far as to look similar to european medieval time armours. The game is still new to me and the first thing I learnt from the game is that everything is expensive! Teleporting will cost you thousands of adena (the game's currency). Even when you have a clan hall, you have to pay rental! And it is not cheap.

My character in the game is a warlord. Which is a crowd control melee class. Quite contrary to the type of classes I choose which is usually single dps melee classses. However, I am taking a liking to him as I get to run a mechanic that I have been aware for some time but never get to experience it. Which is train-ing. Literally, you aggro as many monsters as you can and you train them to a location where you can maximise your weapon's angle. The name of the game is to hit as many of them in one time, with the least swings as possible with the class' AoE (area of effect) attacks and skills. As you can no doubt see, this class is a good levelling companion and most people would want a warlord in the team. Anyway, recently the game just updated to Chaos Throne version 1.5 and there is also a 2x experience event happening. Seems like everyone is on a levelling rampage to take advantage of that. I guess I am on that bus as well.

Aliens: Colonial Marines

2008-04-21T16:26:00.002+08:00

This could be old news but I had to say it anyway. There is an Aliens game in production! Woohoooo! It is named Aliens: Colonial Marines and will be during James Cameron's Aliens movie timeline! Awesome! Those colonial marines were badass! I can't wait to play this. The cool thing is that there will be four player coop where you will be covering each other's assses while getting some objective of some sort done at the same time. No information on when it is going to be released but I can't wait for any news regarding on the game for now. The game is being done by Gearbox and will be released by Sega. Hopefully, the game delivers on the hype. There are a few pics up of the game in its current state in the net now but for me, this particular pic sold it for me:

From that pic, the guy burning the doors together should hurry up because the aliens are just outside, ready to knock the door and they aren't selling girl scout cookies!

Battleships Forever

2008-04-20T17:14:00.003+08:00

There this awesome game that has been out for some time but I only got my hands on it quite recently. It is still in beta though but most of its features are complete. It is roughtly a 2D top down RTS game. It looks simple but it is quite complex. The best thing is that you can create your own custom ships with the included Battleship Maker. I have created two fleets as of this moment and you can check them out: Aquilonian Fleet and Neo Genesis. Check out the pic of my Aquilonian Fleet:

Check out Battleships Forever by clicking >HERE<.

Long time no post.

2008-04-20T17:12:00.001+08:00

After a long time of not posting, I have decided to do some changes! So here you can see I have added in a custom blog skin. I probably would change the header image to make it alot more different.

My Opinion on Rambo 4 the movie.

2008-01-29T14:30:00.000+08:00

After 20 years, the sequel to Rambo III has arrived. John Rambo comes full circle this time around with some closure on the character. Just like Rocky Balboa (2006), Rambo IV marks the last of what we will see of Rambo. This doesn't mean that the character dies but merely the fact that I honestly believe that there will not be anymore Rambo films in the future. At least, not by Sylvester Stallone and starred by Sylvester Stallone.

We find John in a secluded river village somewhere in Thailand. He ekes out a living by ferrying people around in his river boat and other odd jobs. It is at this moment that we notice that John doesn't look happy with himself. He looks reserved but you can sense that he is not satisfied. Whether it is with himself or with the situation around him, we do not know. However, he receives a plight from a group of Christian missionaries to ferry them into the neighbouring country, which is embroiled in civil war (Burma). He declines at first, but after being persuaded by Sarah, the only female in the missionary group, he finally accepts even though he himself sees that their lending of aid into Burma is a futile effort.

As expected, the missionary group gets captured by the Burmese army and are subjected to harsh imprisonment. Later, the head of the Christian Church that the missionary group hails from, approaches John in the middle of the night to ask for a rescue mission. Fearing for Karen's safety, he accepts. With the help of some mercenaries, John goes into Burma.

So that is the general plot. Or storyline if you will. Nothing complex, nothing too hard to grasp and no twists near the end. What happens next is pure adrenaline pumping, testosterone inducing, Rambo action. Alot of violence, bullets flying everywhere, deafening explosions, blood & guts are the main offerings. The movie portrays the violent Burmese soldiers really well and you can't wait for Rambo to let loose hell on them. Personally I found the movie satisfying and definitely something you should watch to cure your boredom. If you have watched the other Rambo movies, then there is no reason not to watch this one. Definitely another classic!

Check out the Rambo IV trailer below:

Of Movies and Soccer

2007-07-17T21:10:00.000+08:00

So I wanted to watch Harry Potter last Sunday. Unfortunately, the cinemas were swamped and most of the tickets were already sold out by the time I arrived. At the same time, Transformers and Die Hard 4.0 were sold out as well. So my friend and I decided to watch something else since we were already there. We decided to watch Dead Silence. The funny thing was that everyone else had the same mind since they couldn't buy tickets for the movie that they actually wanted to watch. Fortunately for us, we actually got tickets and it was good seats.

The movie was a great watch. Its a horror movie and the interesting part that caught my attention was that it was from the writers of the movie Saw. Saw, despite being disturbing, was a very good movie. It had an awesome twist and at the same time there was a moral message in there, behind the gore and sick tortures. Now, its not as sick as Hostel, nothing can top Hostel (Except for Hostel 2 of course). Anyway back to Dead Silence, I found the storyline and theme quite original. For people who have watched Saw, there are some easter eggs in the movie, like seeing the Saw doll in Dead Silence. So I quite enjoyed the movie.

Finally! We all knew it in our hearts but this past week, the whole world has known that Malaysian soccer is in a very sorry state! Suffering a 5-1 thrashing to China, only to be topped by getting 5-0 to Uzbekistan in the recent Asia Cup, we can only hope that we don't give that many goals for the last match for Malaysia against Iran. Since Iran drew with China, I am expecting Iran to have a goal bonanza. So what's wrong with our soccer scene? Simple, we have placed too much importance in the academic aspect of our schools. The sports scene from school is pretty sad. There is no quirks in being great in sports from schools. Without that kind of pull, are we surprised that our talent base in Malaysia is kinda stale? Unfortunately, this problem cannot be rectified in the frame of 5 to 10 years. It will be a long arduous process. If we start now, we'd only be seeing the results in a 20 years time. So for now, Malaysian soccer is dead. The ironic thing is that next month will be Malaysia's Independence.

Die Hard 4.0

2007-07-11T09:15:00.000+08:00

John McClane is back with a new brand of ass kicking in this fourth instalment of the movie. He is older, bald, has a tired expression on most of the time but he is still the same badass that just moves forward against a wave of terror. This time though, technology has caught up to him and he has to stop a gang of terrorists from hacking the government and causing chaos to a whole nation.

Yes my friends, McClane has came out from single areas (the former die hard movies were all on single locations) and out into the whole city! This movie kept me entertained from the start to the finish. The stunts were over the top and it was spectacularly done. Some scenes are quite impossible to happen in real life but that's what movies are for.

To help McClane combat this so called cyber terrorists, Matt Farrell (Justin Long), a hacker who is unceremoniously paired with him after being targeted by the same terrorists. Both of these characters were perfect for each other and their screen time together are quite entertaining to watch. Matt Farrell is the brains with his seemingly in depth knowledge on hacking but seems fragile in the physical department. However, McClane more than makes up for it as the brawn of the pair.

Timothy Olyphant plays the leader of the terrorists and I should mention that he plays a cool villain. This should be interesting since he will also play as Agent 47 in the movie adaptation of the game Hitman which will be coming out soon.

Die Hard 4.0 bleeds action from the get go and its everything I expected from the movie. The only downside is that the action is considered a little tame after watching the Transformers movie. Even so, Die Hard 4.0 is a must watch for all movie goers.

My review on Transformers the live action movie

2007-07-05T19:05:00.000+08:00

After watching Transformers the movie, I had to deliberate a few days to properly conform my thoughts. The movie is awesome and its perfectly one of the biggest block busters of the year. Case in point, my workmate asked me how to spell Transformers and I spelt it out for him. He said it was wrong. Transformers is spelt 'a-w-e-s-o-m-e' and for the most part, I agreed with him. Never will you see an action movie that blends detailed CGI robots with live action environments and actors so believable than in Transformers.

The robots themselves are designed specifically for detail and realism. How else can you explain bipedal robots transforming into vehicles or other objects without designing the robots to have detailed transforming parts that conform with the object? In addition to that, the CGI is so photo realistic that never once will you be thinking that the robots were not part of the scene. Starscream flying in the sky overhead, then swooping low and then transforming into robot mode and firing his cannons into the crowd in one smooth transition would make your jaw hang open in awe. Don't take my word for it, just go ahead and watch it if you haven't. This*is*the movie to die for this year.

Now that is out of the way, we move on to the cons of the movie. Yes, there are cons to the movie and it will be so apparent to the fans of Transformers the cartoon. No where in sight did I see any familiar faces except for Optimus Prime. The fact that they blatantly disregarded to design any of the robots in the live action movie to at least conform to things that make them our lovable autobots/ decepticons aren't there. The closest that they succeeded (other than Prime) was Bumblebee. His cheerful demeanour was nicely translated into the movie and also his yellow colour scheme. However, it was totally destroyed when you hear him speak for the first time at the end of the movie in perfect British accent.

Prime looked quite magnificent, if he had his visor on all the time like in the cartoon series but for some reason or other they had to design lips and it was the worst looking lips ever. To give you a mental picture on how ludicrous the lips were, try pinching your mouth from the sides with your hands ... thats exactly how they look. Ironhide looks like an ape whereas Jazz and Ratchet were quite unmemorable to me. Other than their faces, the robots looked incredible. Unfortunately it didn't suit the whole Transformers theme. If they followed the colour schemes of the robots to appeal to us fans would be ok. Heck, they should have followed the faces of all the robots to make them more appealing and identifiable. Unfortunately, because you can't properly identify the robots, the battle scenes although were rocking, appeared hectic and quite chaotic when the camera likes to take close shots and all you see is detailed wires and metal and not 'two robots bringing the pain on'.

Another rant of mine is the way the whole movie seems to revolve more on humans rather than the Transformers. I didn't know the movie was called 'Humans'. However, the human cast was quite commendable. Especially Spike who was portrayed true to his cartoon persona. The heroine (Mikaela if I'm not mistaken her name was) seems more like eye candy than anything else although she did 'lend a hand' to Bumblebee. Despite all that though, we will be seeing 2 more sequels to the movie as the actors have signed contracts for two more Transformer movies.

I conclude by saying that this movie rocks, I kid you not. This is the best movie I have seen, period. Unfortunately, its not Transformers. Transforming robots does not equate to Transformers. Oh well, I'm catching Die Hard 4.0 later and then perhaps a round of Transformers the animated movie.

Countdown to Transformers

2007-07-01T22:30:00.000+08:00

There are great reasons to be in Malaysia and one of them is that Transformers the live action movie is shown here earlier than the States! In fact, it started playing in the cinemas here on the 28th of June! FYI, it is coming out in the States on the 4th of July. Unfortunately, due to work, I haven't watched the movie yet. Yeah, a blasphemy I know. BUT! This coming Tuesday is my off day and I will march to the nearest cinema and immerse myself in the greatness of Transformers! However, I am also interested to watch Live Free or Die Harder. I'm not sure when its out but if I can catch both on my off day, I'll do so.

In the meantime, I can just count the hours ...
T.T

Joke of the day

2007-06-17T15:55:00.000+08:00

While I was in Kedah there was a curious girl looking around our hardware. She was particularly inclined towards our huge LCD screens which we used to show videos of our games. Spotting the exhibitor's tags we were wearing, she proceeded to ask my Event Manager.

Curious Girl: How many inches. *pointing towards the LCD screen*
E.Manager: 32 inches.
Curious Girl: Oh. *Nods and takes a last look before leaving*

Spotting the humour in the situation I quickly told him to add "Can you handle that much man?"

In hindsight, he could have given a lot of answers that could have ended up with a sexual harassment act. One of them being "Can you handle that many inches?" or "It changes from hot to cold."

Almost a road statistic

2007-06-14T19:35:00.000+08:00

Something crazy happened to me this morning on my way to work. I was almost involved in an accident. The day started normal for me. I left home at around 9:40am and just exited Jalan Duta into Jalan Muzium and I was about to put the pedal to the metal when I notice that there were two police cars on the speed lane. Behind them was a Mercedes and they were moving relatively fast. So I decided to join in the que. Bare in mind though, we weren't going that fast at all. Something along the lines of 100 kmph-ish. So I was driving fine and we passed the Istana, only to notice a lot of tourist bus stopping on the other side. Normally, this was normal but what made it weird was that the busses were stopping on the lane nearest to the middle of the road (ie the speed lane). As I went on, I could see more busses joining the line.

We finally reached the section of the road where it joined the highway (in front of the private air field) and then I noticed a convoy of several cars with police escort coming into the highway. They were moving at an average speed and this was when it got weird. For no apparent reason, the police cars that were in front of me braked into a full stop. At first I didn't notice that they stopped fully so I just applied a little pressure on the brakes. I mean, its not normal for cars to suddenly brake in the speed lane when there's nothing happening in front of them. Then I saw the Mercedes braked and it was at that moment that I noticed that the distance between my car and the Mercedes was rapidly decreasing. I slammed the brakes hard!

At first the car was slowing down considerably but it immediately skidded to the left. My car was starting to get out of control when I notice that I was getting dangerously close to the car in front of me. Trying to right myself, I turned the steering to the right. The car overcompensated and it was skidding to the right now, right into the guard rails! In the meantime, The Mercedes' bumper looked dangerously close. In that span of time, I immediately yanked the steering to the left. The car immediately swerved to the left narrowly missing the Mercedes but this made my car leave the lane. It went horizontal and it occupied the middle two lanes of the road! At that moment I prayed to god that no cars were going to crash into me because I was well aware on how precarious the position of my car was.

Seeing that my car was in continuous momentum towards the left side of the road, I managed to peek to my left side to see a car slowing down. After seeing that surety of no incoming car is going to crash into me, I turned my steering wheel and righted my car back to the right, right into the left most lane (ie slow lane). I spent a couple of moments to make sure that my car was in the right direction and only then did I slowly let go off my brakes and slowly put pressure back on the accelerator pedal. At that moment my head was completely blank, my chest was thumping like a madmen on the drums. Then I was trying to recall back what had happened when I looked ahead only to see the three cars in front of me were moving as if nothing happened behind them. I highly doubt that they didn't notice the screech of brakes that were sounding loudly behind them. For some reason, I felt as if the policemen knew they were in the wrong and that was why they went on their way as if nothing happened. To stop was to assume responsibility ... and probably my wrath.

Funnily the next few moments I felt really angry. Not angry at the policemen but rather at the general situation of it all. I felt angry at everything and untill this moment of typing, I couldn't really explain why. Then it occured to me that the whole incident might have only occured in bare seconds. Most probably it didn't even reached ten seconds. Everything happened so fast and I could recall that I wasn't thinking at all. Everything happened instinctively. Maybe it was because of this that I came out safe or maybe it was because the road was 4 lanes wide or maybe I missed the busy traffic time.

Suffice to say, I drove on the slow lane all the way to work. I was being over-cautious and I knew it. I seem to recall a Satria Neo honking at me after my predicament and the driver was looking at me with a gesture that said "What happened?" Not feeling like explaining the whole thing in the car, I just looked at him and shook my head slowly with a look that said "I'm just glad I didn't crash."

When I reached work I proceeded to check on my car, especially my tyres to see if they were worn. Weirdly they weren't. It still had its treads and the car was relatively new. So I was wondering how the hell did I started skidding. Well, it was simple really. We were moving relatively fast. It was the speed lane afterall. Then the cars braked unexpectedly. Being a Mercedes, I suppose its brakes and ABS could compensate that but my Proton Satria, I highly doubt it. Not at that speed and sudden stop. So looking back, I suppose anything can happen when you are driving. Its just a matter of you being in a position of relative safety. Thankfully, I managed to get out of it unscathed and there's nothing more than I could wish for at that moment.

Back from Kedah ICT Carnival 2007!

2007-06-12T23:11:00.000+08:00

When I was there, Kedah was very hot. Which was one of the reasons on why we ate at KFC twice while I was there. It was for the air-cond. The Kedah ICT Carnival was a three day affair from Friday to Sunday (8th - 10th of June). It was more like an IT Carnival where various companies had booths to showcase their technology. Companies ranging from MDEC to MIMOS to TMNet. Our booth was by far the largest since it housed around 80 PCs for the Counter Strike 1.6 tournament and also some free play, courtesy of Valve and also Cubetech (Last Chaos MMO). The tournament was slated for 32 teams but in the end, only 17 teams registered and entered. The top teams Hybrid and DiV were there and also PwyH, which seem to be in every tourney we made. Although it was a three day affair, we came two days earlier to set up and make sure everything worked. Let me tell you, it was tiring carrying all the equipment and even more so when we set it up. Nevertheless, everything was ready for the event day itself.

The place where we rested. Alot of snores were heard from this room :P.

Being a guy, I couldn't help myself but to check out the Northern Malay chics there. There were a lot of pretty faces and most of them weren't that difficult to have a chat with. However, their northern accents (loghat utara) were quite thick and sometimes I had to stop to think on what they just said. Unfotunately, it was just short chats and therefore no numbers were exchanged.

This was where the Counter-Strike tourney took place. Not too shabby eh? ;).

The CS 1.6 tournament took off without a hitch although it did cause a small problem to our head marshall as he was thinking on what proper format to use. As the tournament went on, it was quite a straight forward affair as the top teams went on to the next stage, leaving the other teams in their wake. However, there was a major upset and surprise which came in the form of PwyH's victory over team Hybrid in the lower brackets. At first, Hybrid was pushed into the lower bracket courtesy of DiV which was quite a surprise as well but being Malaysia's number 1 and 2 teams respectively, the situation wasn't that big of a surprise anyway. But PwyH trouncing Hybrid to a 16-4 score was quite a phenomenal achievement! Its even more surprising that the night before the match, PwyH had an impromptu wrestling match amongst themselves (free-for-all-format) in their hotel room! Seeing the performance of PwyH, even DiV thought that they might lose. Unfortunately, DiV won for the finals, placing them champions with PwyH in the second place and Hybrid in the third place. Good game!

Me with the third place checque. I was sweating because the pic was taken during the tear down.

After that it was the closing day ceremony as well as the prize giving ceremony. Then it was the tear down of our booth and we had to move everything back into boxes and into the store room for transportation on the next day. On Monday we had our last breakfast at our hotel, which was the Grand Continental and proceeded to transfer the equipment into the lorry. Funnily, it wasn't as tiring when we had to set up the equipment. Some of us went back to the hotel for a last shower while I proceeded to go to the Pekan Rabu which was nearby to shop for some sweets and delicacies (kuih-muih). I bought some dodol and some other kuihs which I can't recall its name. Oh wait, one of them was telinga monyet and another was kuih cakar ayam.

I don't smoke but I had to take this picture! Vista enabled ciggies!XD.

We gave the lorry a two hour head start before we checked out of our hotel and went after it! Suffice to say, we got ourselves a speeding ticket and proceeded to go F1 all the way! We left at 1:30 from Alor Setar and reached KL around 5:30! Somehow, we caught up with the lorry near Rawang. Sheesh, two hour head start was too much.

The event was successful to me and here's hoping we have another one ... closer.

Pics of Carnevale!

2007-05-29T19:23:00.000+08:00

Heya dudes! Finally I have managed to acquire myself a USB all-in-one card reader. Here are the pics:

This is the stage. Kinda nice no? Anyway, its empty now because they are still setting it up.

Here is the general viewing area, where the people are going to sit. Right now though, the clowns have it to themselves.

Unfortunately for the clowns, guests start to arrive and they were hurriedly kicked out. Hehehe.

Below are the booths that were up that day. You could buy merchandise and try some games by spending your One Card points.

This is the booth where I was supposed to be supervising. It was called the Wizard Shop. Maybe some of you are familiar with the shop in OU? Anyway, I was there just to make sure that the computer hardware was installed and handled properly and also to see that the game tournament was handled profesionally. Unfortunately, due to lack of advertisement (not on my part), the amount of people who joined the games were very little.

On the first day there was an opening ceremony and some stage performances which you can see below:

She was literally hot stuff as she fire breathed on the stage!

Which was followed by some waist shaking dance! It was mesmerising. Hmmm, is she winking at me?

Of course, what is complete without a magician and his hat of magic tricks? Not to mention the beautiful assistant.

She arrives in a Mini Cooper S and starts telling jokes. Mostly about her smaller figure and her 'longkang' :D. Which then follows with the opening ceremony of the One Card Carnevale! I'm sorry but for some reason I forgot her name.

Should have been there coz this car was one of the prizes offered.

I was only there for a day but the celebration was fun while it lasted. There were finger food and drinks being offered by waiters all around. Guests mingled and later were visiting the booths to try their luck in the games. Again, it was a very well done carnival. Hopefully next time, that Mini Cooper S will be mine.

God has a sense of humour ...

2007-05-27T13:33:00.000+08:00

Indeed, sometimes, life has a really funny sense of humour. I just read a funny news article which you can read here, courtesy of philly.com.

Long story short, a couple was having a fight inside the boyfriend's car and it got heated enough that the boyfriend parked the car on railroad tracks and left quickly while a train was en-route. What happened next was totally unexpected in that the train hit the rear of the car and propelled it into the fleeing boyfriend, killing him on the spot! The girlfriend however was sent to the hospital with some injuries where she is in stable condition. Talk about sweet poetic justice!

Stupid Canon Powershot G3 camera drivers doesn't work with Windows Vista platform. Apparently I have to get a Vista compatible card reader, whatever that is. (I thought all card readers are compatible with any OS :P). So pics of the Carnevale will be delayed.

One Card Carnevale!

2007-05-25T02:37:00.001+08:00

There's a One Card Carnivale going on this Friday to Sunday. It's to reward the One Card users to some cool and fun activities as well as some chances to win some prizes. For clarification, the One Card is a shopper's card that can be used anywhere in the One Utama Shopping Mall which is located in Bandar Utama. Everytime you buy something there, you will be rewarded in the form of points. The more points you accumulate, the more prizes or benefits you can get.

I will personally be at the Wizard's Shop booth, monitoring the Counter Strike: Source Mano-a-mano tournament which will be going on there. You just need to have a One Card to be eligible to enter and at the end of the day, the player with the most rounds won will stand a chance to be in the grand finals, which will be on this Sunday. For people without the One Card, there will be special booths for you to get one.

At the same time there will be other booths that will be present at the new wing concourse, offering other activites, games or just selling of merchandise. So, if you have the time, head on to One Utama Shopping Complex and take a peek. I will be there for Friday only. ;). For more info, check it out here.

The Gaming World Held its breath ...

2007-05-21T09:05:00.000+08:00

For Blizzard to finally announce their new game that they have in the works during the Worldwide Invitational event in South Korea. Cheers erupted as the CG Video was played in a huge screen and later, all the rumours were finally confirmed as Blizzard unveiled Starcraft 2! What followed was another video of the game in action. It still retains the isometric view that is so famous with all RTS type of games but the models look bigger, more detailed with a lot of added effects. However, it still just look like Starcraft 1 with a new face lift and some new units.

I just pity the RTS games that have already released or are going to be released before Starcraft 2 will be released. Supreme Commander, Command and Conquer 3, although great games in their own regard ... but we are talking about Starcraft here. The sequel to the most played RTS game of the century. After this announcement, I bet most people would say "CnC3 wha-at?" and I'd just agree with them.

If some of you reading this haven't heard of the news, or want to watch the vids and screenshots first hand, you can check out the official Starcraft 2 website ...

Oooooh ..!

2007-05-21T08:52:00.000+08:00

Wow I finally changed the blogger format to a new one. Its so easy with a lot of things that you can change and edit into your blog. Wished I did this sooner. Kinda cool. Hmmm, now if I just could update my blog often. :P

The Devil wears Prada

2007-03-19T22:05:00.000+08:00

So I just watched Devil wears Prada. Somehow its one of those movies you don't tell your friends about because it's something that I am unlikely to watch. However, after hearing great reviews on the movie, I managed to find the time to get a copy of it. When I bought it with my friend, I didn't tell him what I bought seeing that he got himself Babel and Hills have Eyes.

I am not sure how close to reality is the movie itself about high market magazines but thats not what makes it a great watch. The transformation of Anne Hathaway's character 'Andy', from a normal girl next door who doesn't give a hoot about fashion to a Runaway girl who has fashion sense. The story is coherent enough for anyone to understand and it blends naturally with the allure of the movie. Most say that this movie is a comedy and it has small doses of that but the acting that goes on in the movie lends an air of credibility and gives more than just 'comedy'. This movie make you feel sorry, angry but you will always understand the situation that Anne Hathaway is in. The 'Devil' in this movie is played by Meryl Streep who IMO is so right for the character of Miranda Priestly, fashion magazine editor. As in any type of movies like this, Miranda Priestly is a no nonsense, straight to the point, holier than thou type of character and Meryl Streep carries her so realistically its astounding!

The cast of the movie is great but the one of the messages of the movie (if there ever was one) was that whatever you do, you are always given a choice. Unconsciously, you make the best decision to you at that moment. It could be the right choice or it could be the wrong one but no matter what it is, the choice that you choose must be the one that is honest to yourself. For that matter you must be positive about your future because its the only thing that you have.

I find that the journey of Anne Hathaway through the movie was an inspiring one. In the end, I found her to more mature and attractive than her other parts in the movie. There's 3 phases of 'Andy' in the movie: the everyday woman, the woman on a date and the woman in between those two. The latter was what the ending 'Andy' was. For you girls out there, I'd recommend you to watch it. For guys, watching this movie with your girl friend is a good cover up, just don't show too much enthusiasm about it. :D

ACG

2007-02-09T10:36:00.000+08:00

After months of planning, ACG has finally kicked off at Cineleisure Damansara on the 20th and 21st of January, coming into the new year of 2007 with a bang. Its first official event with the Counter-Strike 1.6 qualifiers. One of the first CS qualifiers for the year 2007. So, for an event that would be covering four games (CS, GW, DoD, SDO), we started setting up on Friday night. Sounds a bit far fetched? Trust me, so did I when I heard about this. On the events themselves, I was to oversee and be the head marshal for two tournaments. Namely the Day of Defeat (DoD) and Guild Wars (GW) tournament. Since the events was about 2 weeks ago, I’m just going to summarise everything.

FRIDAY
After work. Convoyed to PC supplier. Hauled 80 PCs or so into a truck. Tired as heck. Sweated like an ox. Then drove to Cineleisure to help unloading. Was done faster because had three trolleys. Unloaded everything into store room first. Then had dinner at Kopi Oh. Dinner was sponsored. Went back home to bath and change clothes. Went back to Cineleisure at 11pm after shops were closed. Started setting up. Carpets were already done so started with chairs and tables. There were 2 huge sections with smaller sections in them. Setting up PC took longer. Hardware wise, everything was set up at 4am. Then Intel started setting up for software wise. Personally, didn’t look like everything could be done in time for the event. Went back home. Changed clothes and immediately slept.

SATURDAY
Woke up to a phone call telling to get my ass back to Cineleisure. It was 9am. Reached to find all comps were set up and switched on. Tested DoD island. Got error. Technician fixed it. Can run DoD tournament but dedicated server is a no go. Event started. On paper, 12 DoD teams qualified. Reality, only 7 teams turned up. CS island was a no go, there were technical difficulties. DoD tournament ran smoothly. The team that I figured had the most chances to win, won the tournament, in a lopsided win in the finals. CS tournament finally started in the middle of the DoD tournament. DoD prize giving ceremony was on that day itself. After that, rest tired legs. Sitting down felt good. Alas, problem on the horizon. GW island, internet is laggy. One GW running, laggy, two GW running, can’t move. OH NO! Made some calls to internet service provider. Said they’ll sent an engineer tomorrow. Went home. Mandi, change clothes and slept early.

SUNDAY
Came back with enough sleep. First one there. Noticed the internet provider engineer there. He checks and says its ok. I told him 2mb line for 16 comps won’t cut it and how did that happen anyway? He says he’ll try contacting HQ but its Sunday so whatever. I told him whatever it is, just contact me back ASAP. Work mates start coming in. We discussed about the line issue and tried some things. At the meantime, GW contestants start arriving. I try my best to explain the situation but I can’t do anything. After a long time, we tried the comps, the line was still bad. Talked to boss, decided to postpone GW tournament. Told the GW contestants. Gave them goodie bags to at least make them feel better. All the while the CS tournament has been going. Nothing of note happens. Remember checking out the SDO booth since their tournament was today. Some chics dancing on the dance mat. Otherwise checking out Gears of War at Gamer’s Hideout. ACG ended with prize giving ceremony for the SDO and CS tourneys. Now the tiring part started. Had to start packing up the comps and hardware, tables, and carpet. Finished around 11ish. We all decided to crash to the nearest mamak for some eats.

Aidiladha and 2007

2007-01-03T08:37:00.000+08:00

The Aidiladha celebration marked the last day of 2006. On the first day of 2007, my mosque was slaughtering cows for Aidiladha as a religious sacrifice. Most of the meat is to be given to the poor and some will go to the people who contributed on purchasing the cow. My family was there to bear witness as our cow was slaughtered (cow number 8). There were a total of 23 cows and 2 goats that was slaughtered on that day. Initially I came to help out for the event but as I looked around, all the stations were manned and there wasn't a place where it looked lacking. So I hung around where the cows were slaughtered with my friend who was MCing on that day. As always the case, the first few cows were quite docile but the last cows were quite rowdy and wild.

It was all finished by noon and we got to enjoy some of the meat as the women division cooked some of the meat for lunch. I sat there slurping my 'sup tulang', I thought: What a way to start the new year. So, happy new year to everyone and hope 2007 give us a lot of choices to better ourselves.

This is the tongue of my cow

The days of calamities

2006-12-27T23:42:00.000+08:00

First, the Godfather of Soul died. Yes, the great James Brown died of pneumonia at the age of 73. Even at the end, he was ready to go and sing for the New Year's Eve bash. What a guy. I told my parents about this during dinner on that day and their response was mild to say the least. I was thinking that James Brown was their 'era' and maybe they'd give a little more response. Heh.

Then today came, with a humongous earthquake in Taiwan with a monstrous 7.1 on the Richter scale! 2 people died and some submarine data cables were damaged. Instead of fearing for the lives of the people there, people are whining on why the international links are down due to the earthquake damaging the data cables. The problem is big as this means that Asian countries will have very high pings and packet losses to US and European hosted websites. However, this episode just teaches me how dependable are we on this 'technology'. Reading the forums of Lowyat.net, I can see that most of them are complaining as if the problem was solely on a local internet provider's fault. Not that it is not warranted but fortunately this time, it was not their fault at all. I have always thought that most of the forumers who frequently post at that forum are rather childish and it is even more so now.

The thing that we should learn from this is that technology, no matter how much we depend on it, must never cloud our empathy toward human lives. Times such as theses, we should sit down and pray and hope that tomorrow, we are much better than today. We must always remember that technology is there to aid us ... and never to let it control our lives (which seems to often happen now).

I'm not saying I'm a perfect individual but its something to be aware to be imperfect and strive to be perfect rather than not doing anything at all.

UPDATE: So according to sources, the repairs will take about 3 weeks. Although the ships will reach the point where the cable was damaged in 3 days. Thats the bad news. The good news is that the tsunami alert has been taken down by most countries. Just hoping that there are no more quakes occuring in this timeline. In the meantime, any internet activities is going to be a pain.

Say bye bye to Starbucks Mont Kiara

2006-12-12T22:49:00.000+08:00

Heya,
As of this moment, I have officially resigned from Starbucks. All I can say is wow! I have been working there for four years and more. Unfortunately, the hectic working life demands my everyday attention and I have no more time to be a part time barista. Its quite sad for me since the working environment has always been excellent. Sure there were times where I wanted to be anywhere else but Starbucks but the people (partners and customers) were what cheered me up whenever I came for work. Looking back, I have quite a lot of memories in the business. Granted, I was always a barista but I joined when the golden age of Starbucks Mont Kiara started. And I stayed on untill it was overshadowed by other Starbuck outlets. Nevertheless, the company that I was with stayed ever friendly.

As I stopped over tonight to give in my apron and uniform, I am again bombarded with the seemingly calm and cheery outlook of the outlet. Never again will I feel this way (Starbucks was also my first job). I hope to stay in contact with the people whom I know there. Now, all I have to do is look forward and hope that there are similar working places with the same atmosphere out there.

The drow and a human

2006-11-22T21:18:00.000+08:00

The second book of the Sellswords series rock! Its continues the story of the partnership between the drow Jarlaxle and the human Artemis Entreri. It took me two days to finish the book while I was manning a booth at a recent children's charity fund event at BSC. Anyway, the story is well written and the storyline is superb. Here again we see different facets to Artemis even though he was a straightforward evil dude. In addition, we get a peak into Jarlaxle's agenda near the end of the book. Everything just hints to something but not answering it fully in this book. I can't wait for the third book to be released in paper back form!

In addition to that I just organized a Guild Wars tournament. Its not easy let me tell you that! Especially when you had to take pictures at the same time! Anyway, it was a random 4 vs 4 mini tournament and I hoped everyone had fun. I had fun randomizing everyone to be in balanced teams and I think I did a pretty good job of it. Anyway, there's another one coming up this weekend which I will be organizing as well. Hopefully I do a better job of it.

Neverwinter Nights 2 rocks! I can't seem to get enough of it. However I am always looking back to think up of better builds that suit my play style. That has always been my weakness. I always end up rerolling my characters that I end up not finishing the game. Nevertheless, I will finish up with my current character (a lawful evil dude) just to see how the story ends.

Nightfall and now, Neverwinter Nights 2

2006-11-11T09:41:00.001+08:00

Nightfall came and I got myself a Collector's Edition. It came with goodies inside and I am fine with it. The art book is nice but Factions' one was nicer. However, the making of Nightfall DVD was excellent. I hope someday in the future I get to work in an environment such as the Arenanet office. Anyway, Nightfall itself is very atmospheric. It oozes the mystical Arabian enchantment. I like how the game developers manage to portray Elona. The storyline however is quite longwinded. I am not sure if its me for not getting into character or something along those lines but I think the quests are too numerous. And there are things that you must do in order for the storyline to progress. Although thats normal, its not fun when it borders on grinding. However, on a general scale, Nightfall is an awesome game. The inclusion of heroes gives us more options for playing alone (which is ironically enough, going against the MM in the MMORPG). The bad side of this is that there are even fewer people who wants to play with another human being.

So Nightfall is great and all but I am waiting for the grand-daddy of all RPGs: Neverwinter Nights 2! Woot! I was supposed to get my hands on it yesterday but because of work and family dinner I didn't have the time to actually get it. Although I asked a guild mate of mine to get it but when he reached the shop, it was closed (15 minutes early!). Oh the mockery of it all. Hopefully I will get it by today. Simply because I need something to play in offline mode since tmnet started screwing up again. But whats new right? To quote my Singaporean friend who came up to KL and tried our broadband "Now I know what kind of hell do you guys have to live with."Is he being overly dramatic? I think he hit the nail on the head with that comment.

The way back ...

2006-10-26T21:20:00.000+08:00

Heya,

Ok so the Ipoh scene was fun. Everyone was there and I managed to say hi. Ate a lot of food and its all home cooking over there. Thats why it tastes soo good. Yum Yum. Can't say the same thing for the journey back though. Usually it takes us 2 hours for the journey but it started to jam after Tanjung Malim which slowed our journey down by an hour. So it took us 3 hours for the whole journey back. Man ...

This jam sux!

Oh well more bad news. Despite the planning, the event for Nightfall this weekend has been cancelled. I don't know why but I feel hugely responsible for that. Anyway, its being done differently and alot better in my opinion. Oh well, live and learn I guess. One thing to look forward for though, Nightfall will be at my office by tomorrow. Boss has confirmed it so will be looking forward to that. Wowwers!

Hari Raya time

2006-10-25T09:19:00.000+08:00

Heya,
So today is the second day of Aidilfitri and I am filled to the gills with food! Every house you go you'd say ok I won't eat alot and then you spot something unique and you find yourself eating it. Bah.

Anyway today I am leaving for Ipoh for visiting for a day. Hopefully the traffic is ok since I am working tomorrow. Argh and this weekend is going to be busy. Supposedly Nightfall is suppose to reach on Thursday. Hmmmmmm.

What my sis was having at my house.

Chocolate cake is awesome for Raya! This one was anyway.

Silent Hill or Haze?

2006-10-20T14:12:00.000+08:00

The haze ...

Heya,
The haze has been quite bad this year. The thought of it being a yearly occurence is rather troubling. Anyway, the pic above depicts how bad the haze is and that pic was taken right after it rained. Usually the haze disappears completely after it rains but nowadays it doesn't. Our neighbours gotta tackle this problem seriously as it happens year after year.

Anyway, tomorrow is Deepavali and on Tuesday is going to be Hari Raya Aidilfitri. So, happy holidays to those that celebrate the two momentous occasions. Hopefully the roads are clear by then.

Posters yeah!

2006-10-16T20:01:00.000+08:00

Da posterz! The Factions Box is for size reference

Heya,
Awesome news today. My boss decides to award me for my efforts by giving me this two cool Guild Wars posters. One features the Factions assassin while the other one has the Nightfall dervish plastered all over it. The posters are awesome! Never have I seen something printed that big with the character filling most of it. The detail is superb.
This just brings up my poster collection to 4. One of the other two is a Guild Wars poster thats medium size and the other is a poster of the anime movie Akira.
Despite that though, I haven't hung those posters up yet simply because my room is in a state of chaos. Time and time again I have told myself to arrange and clean the place up to at least have a sense of order about. Unfortunately I can't seem to bring myself to it. Being the last child in the family, your room sort of becomes the store room for your other siblings to throw their stuff in.

Time to cast resurrection!

2006-10-15T23:26:00.000+08:00

Heya!
Long time no see. This blog has been pretty dead for months now. Its not that I didn't have anything to add but more that I'm lazy. Anyway things to bring us up to speed.

I'm working right now. Yeah, kinda cool. Working in a gaming company. They are the sole provided for the license of a certain game company in South East Asia. In addition to that, the company also promotes e-sports amongst Malaysians. So its kinda fun so far. However its only been 2 weeks.

Been playing Guildwars less and less this days. Been busy with life and also work. But more importantly been playing Neverwinter Nights more. Neverwinter Nights 2 is coming out at the end of this month and I am playing the first one to keep my hunger quenched till then. However, there are a number of games coming out this month that looks awesome. First there's Neverwinter Nights 2, then Gothic 3, there's also Battlefield 2142 and lastly, Guildwars: Nightfall is coming out as well. Hmmm, gotta start counting the money. And here I was thinking that I wanted to upgrade my PC by the end of this month. Oh well ...

Hopefully I will have the will power and time to write on my blog for the days to come. Just a place to note my days and also to speak my mind.

Traffic Jams and Olympics

2006-03-16T08:00:00.000+08:00

Rain and jam goes hand in hand.

The mechanics of a traffic jam escapes me. Sure, its usually a case of a particular time of day, versus the amount of people on the road at that time. So its quite normal that jams normally occur at mainly used roads and in the morning and afternoon (times when people go to work and go home from work). The funny thing is though, when jams occur on highways, everything goes whacked. Firstly, the speed lane is not supposed to be the slowest lane. Heck, its called the speed lane for something. Instead, what I notice is that its either the slowest lane or it just plain not moving. And then you go through the decision of whether to change lanes or not and wondering if you just wait for a while and hope that it will move back to speed soon. The worst is when you do make the decision to change lanes and just after you do that, the new lane that you are in stops and the lane that you just vacated from, moves. Secondly, there's something of an invisible line. This invisible line marks the spot where the jam magically is gone. There's no explaining it. At one moment you are grumbling because its so slow and suddenly cars are speeding off in front of you and there isn't a jam no more. ITS MAGIC I TELL YOU!

Ah its that time again. The time where athletes from around the world compete with each other to see who owns who. Sure, you get the global friend thing but in the end, its just a case of seeing who are the better athletes and which records are going to be broken. As usual, Malaysia is chock full of positive reports even before the event starts. Although I do hope that it doesn't end in our usual manner. Usually what happens is our athletes fail to garner medals that were targeted and the usual finger pointing ensues. Nevermind the highly positive views and articles the day before. Personally though, I think this year we will bag more medals but I digress. What can be sure of though, is that our attitude of being an 'emtpy can' is highly expected of us (Concerning our news reports before the games).

The Weather Man ...

2006-02-08T13:46:00.000+08:00

I just watched The Weather Man starring Nicholas Cage. You can read the review and details about it on the link I provided on the movie name. Its one of those frustrating to watch kind of movies because you know its one of those things that has a big chance to happen to you in the future. Typically, Cage is an average Joe who has a dysfunctional family. He tries to get it to work though. Everyday he moves through his days with things he planned to make right but as usual (like most of us), situations and things happen that derail you off course. It’s this kind of small failures that make us less and less the ideal person of what we want us to be. In the end, you just have to go through life one step at a time and try to make the best of each situation even though it might get you nothing but grief. I find this movie very true to life and scary to the point that it’s going to reflect your life someday. I rate this movie a 4 out of 5 stars.

Had my first taste of a Starwars mini (SWM) tournament last night and I must say that I need more minis. There were seven of us of which one had to leave mid game because he had a family emergency. He was winning too. I on the other hand, had 3 losses to my record of my first DCI tournament. Apparently the famous pieces of the day were Han Solo (rebel hero), R2-D2 (both flavours) and Aura Sing. In this 100 point squad tournament, I concentrated on my first and third game. Something happened while I was playing my second game and I lost my concentration simply because the guys around me were talking too much. It’s hard to think about tactics and what’s your next move is when there are people around you giving hints to what moves you should take and pressuring you to do the right thing. Anyway, the whole night wasn’t wasted as I managed to get 3 common minis at the end of the tourney. For some reason I dislike playing swm because my dice rolls go out of whack and the game usually revolves around ranged attacks. I prefer ddm as there is more going on behind the lines and melee gets centre stage. You really get punished severely for bad dice rolls in swm but in ddm there’s always a fallback. Or maybe I’m just not playing the tactics right in swm.

Fearless ...

2006-02-02T11:52:00.000+08:00

Watch Fearless recently and it was an ok movie. If you are used to Jet Li's movies, this one is a little tame on the action department (as in there were no out of this world moves). However, I love Jet Li movies (not the Hollywood production ones) as it usually ties in to history and there are moral and patriotic messages (which most people lack nowadays). I wouldn't call this movie a cinema kind of movie because it lacks any special effects or audio sounds that truely utilizes cinema viewing. That being said I'd probably give this movie 3 out of 5 stars.

While my friends and I were having our dinner after the movie, we somehow dug up a very funny situation that happened to my friend a long time ago. I remembered that my friend was looking for some porn and he decided to ask the vcd shopkeeper about it. Well, its quite embarrassing to ask someone about that so he decided to ask about it in a non straightforward manner. "Boss, ada cerita panas-panas tak?" was what he said. The shopkeeper looked puzzled at first but then brightened up almost immediately and said enthusiastically "Ada, ada!". The he went to a corner and pointed to a particular movie. I took a look at it and it was the movie Volcano! We looked at it for a second then burst out laughing! One of my friends ran out of the shop to laugh like crazy, while I turned around and laughed quietly. My other friend who asked in the first place didn't know whether to laugh or be frustrated. All in all, it was a funny situation!

The real kicker is that, it has happened to this friend of mine not once, but twice! The second time however, he was looking for hentai games. So he asked the shopkeeper (it was a different store) "Ada game panas-panas tak?". The shopkeeper looked at him quizzically but somehow looked as if he caught on. Then he showed the game ... it was Diablo. LoL, makes you wonder if they are all related or something. Considering the business they are in, you'd think they'd understand the terms people use. Apparently they aren't! This time though, we all laughed like crazy simply because we remembered of the last occasion that was similar to this (which was told above)! Oh god sometimes I think if there were a movie about things that happen in my life, people would laugh like crazy! Just goes to show that whatever it is, going straightforward is better although not funner!

Crash

2006-01-26T11:09:00.000+08:00

My GW guild member recommended a movie called Crash. So, I went and watch it. I'm glad he did. It was one of those movies that was released under the public's radar on 2004. Despite that it won alot of accolades. Anyway, its a movie directed by Paul Haggis and it is casted by alot of big names like Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser, Ryan Philippe and some others. Whats amazing about this film is that it manages to capture its idea and encapsulate it into an intelligent, orderly series of events.

The general outline of this film is that it shows how people react to racial stereotypes. How we, upon seeing a tattooed person, automatically brands him a gangmember. The only problem is, he might be and he might not be. At the same time, the film also shows us how stereotypes were born. Its a thought provoking film and manages to impart its messages. The film also shows us that no matter what people are, they have other things about them. For instance, we all hate bullies at school. But for all we know, he might be a bully but at home he has to care for his elderly parents who can't do squat. Its even more frustrating for him since he doesn't have siblings who can help him and his old folks are demanding people. The film makes us think that there is more to people than what they portray.

I would recommend everyone to watch this film, at least once in their lives. It will open your eyes to people around you.

Crazy weekend ...

2006-01-20T12:45:00.000+08:00

GW (thats GuildWars for the uninitiated) has updated with loads of fun stuff yesterday in preparation for the sneak peek pvp event this weekend. What kind of sneak peek? 2 new classes and a number of new skills for the core classes that are coming out for the expansion (Its called GW: Factions). Should be starting at about 4 pm this afternoon. I think its gonna be crazy with the pvp areas being filled to the brim! Anet (the company that made the game) are dangling a carrot right at our noses and if they don't stop it, the number of people who are going to buy the expansion will rise exponentially. The cool thing about the expansion is that its a standalone expansion. Which means you don't have to own the original one to be able to play but like a Magic: The Gathering deck, you have an advantage in owning both to only one.

That being said though, this weekend might be filled. I have a kenduri to attend and help, a friend's wedding to attend and not to mention a look into d&d minis tournament that is happening this weekend at Comic Corner in Atria after lunchtime. In between those? Hopefully playing GW.

Of old times ...

2006-01-17T13:36:00.000+08:00

I just remembered how fun it was to play at cybercafés (CC) last time. My friends and I would go there and play loads of games. The earliest of such was Quake. We played at the Java Café in Uptown Damansara. If I remembered correctly that was the time that most of us converted from keyboard play to mouse and keyboard combo. Anyway, it was fun times. We shouted, we screamed threats and we all had fun in the process. Nowadays though, thinking of going to CC are just a hassle. Either its too far or the games that we want to play are not available. Having said that though, there are some of my friends who still frequent Virtual Arena (VA) in Hartamas for a few games of war3’s (warcraft 3) most famous mod, DOTA.

Talking about games though, one cannot deny the fact that you have to come up with a nick to suit the game. My nicks ranged from Slice and Dice all the way to the one I am using now which is Koross. Most of this nicks were thought out seriously and with research while some were made at the spur of the moment. I remembered a nick I used during my Counterstrike (CS) days, it was SayItFast JoeBor with hilarious results! There was this one time that my friend was using that nick for fun and he was racking up the kills. The funny moment came when he was the only one alive in the team and he was killing the other team one by one ala Rambo. The funny moment came when one of the dead guys actually shouted in the CC “You can do it JoeBor!”. Probably its not that funny when you read this but it was funny when you heard that nick voiced out. If anyone else in the game didn’t understand what the nick really meant, it was made apparent when one of the guys actually said “Huh, say it fast? JOEBOR JOEBOR JOEBOR JOE … HAHAHAHAHA!”. Ah yes those were fun days.

The awesome games that came to my mind that my friends and I had loads of fun playing last time was Shogo (Doubt if anyone remembers this game), Rainbow 6, Quake (1,2 and 3), C&C: Red Alert, CS, Battlefield, Rome Total War, Vietcong, Serious Sam, war3, etc. There are probably more but I can’t recall now. Some of my friends were really good in those games too. Most of us were above average in the games we played but there are some exceptional ones that come to mind. I have a friend who is a pilot freak in Battlefield. He was very good piloting the copters in the game that one day he showed me how good he was. He could literally fly the copter sideways into a hangar building, move abit inside and then come back out without it touching the building or crashing. THAT’S FREAKING AWESOME! Till this day I still can’t pilot the copters properly. Another one of those really funny moments in gaming was when my friends and I were playing Rainbow 6 team deathmatch. It was some sort of a highway map where its literally a straight road with each team spawning at each ends. Anyway the funny part was that one of my friends was slow because he was looking around the road and admiring the hills and canyons. Then suddenly, without any gunshots fired, he died. The death music came on and we all went “Eh, macam mana ko mati?”. He was scratching his head and said “Aku tak tahu la. Mungkin kena hempap batu kot”. At this point, everyone literally stopped playing because we all went into fits of laughter. Just imagine, the best SWAT team the world has to offer and a member died because he was crushed by a rock. How the heck that happened in the game, I don’t know but it was funny nonetheless. Ah those were funny moments. Wished that there are more in the future.

Neverwinter Nights and Tribes ...

2006-01-09T14:47:00.000+08:00

For some reason I have begun playing Neverwinter Nights (NwN) again. This is because of a certain fascination I have on a character from R.A. Salvatore’s works. I bet most of you are thinking of Drizzt Do’Urden now. Well its not. Its Drizzt’s arch nemesis: Artemis Entreri. He is the total polar opposite of Drizzt. Firstly, he is human. Secondly, he rivals Drizzt in swordplay (him being human and managing to do this is impressive enough) and thirdly, he is a lot more interesting as a character. Being the bad guy and a loner means he must be on his toes all the time (just to make sure that he doesn’t get backstabbed by the ones who he does business with) and he must be cunning and able to take his opportunities whenever or wherever they may come. Oh yes, Artemis has a lot more character than dear old Drizzt.

I just finished reading ‘The Paths of Darkness’, which should explain more my fascination of this character. Don’t get me wrong, Drizzt is an interesting character in his own right but that seems to lessen now ever since he is in a somewhat secure position now. He is among friends and the world doesn’t seem that big and daunting anymore. Whereas Artemis seems to be in a world where there are only enemies and friends are only people who would use you for their own ends and discard you once your uses are gone.

Anyway as I said, I’m replaying through the original chapters (OC) of NwN with this newly made character that’s supposed to be my version of Artemis and for the most part he is rocking. Never mind that I scoured the whole of the official NwN forums for a build that would indeed rock and still be something that would fit Artemis’ character.

In addition to that a friend of mine got me playing Starsiege: Tribes again. For the uninitiated, Tribes is a FPS game with a minor twist: jetpacks. In my opinion it’s a lot more challenging than the standard FPS games because now, you have to take into consideration of the z-axis as well. The most played game type is capture the flag (CTF) and this is where this game shines. Speed play a major role as stealing the enemy’s flag and bringing it back to your own base is something easier said than done. In fact, most people who play Tribes up to this day are addicted to the speed that can only be found in this game. This is the only game I think that a flag steal can occur in the blink of an eye. Just imagine that you are the flag defender of your team and you are standing vigilant. Glancing around trying to see from where would the enemy come from because deep down you know that if the enemy comes, it will be very fast. So you take your eyes off the flag for a second to take a closer look at the hill in front of your base only to be alerted by an onscreen text message: YOUR FLAG HAS BEEN STOLEN!. You quickly turn to the flag stand (just to confirm the message) and look around in panic to see if you can spot the flag stealer. In most cases, the only thing you’ll see is either nothing (which means you totally missed it) or the fleeting image of the flag stealer in the sky with your flag on his back quickly fading into the distance and you know even if you chase, it won’t mean squat unless the flag stealer does something stupid which is rare.

The learning curve for this game is quite steep and the amount of good players in this game would make newbies stop playing fast but if you are patient and master this game, the experience is fun! This game is available as a free download in Fileplanet so give it a try since its only 138 mbs big.

Great weekend with Starwars miniatures!

2005-12-27T12:32:00.000+08:00

Last weekend me and my mates went to visit a friend at his new place. Its a very comfortable area and his apartment was on the 4th floor which was the highest floor on the building. After enjoying the view (there were some girls in the swimming pool below us on the ground floor) and helping his sis move the furniture in her room around, we decided to play a game of Starwars minis (which was the whole point of the visit anyway). We played on his veranda which was airy and cool and provided us with a good view. It started to rain at the beginning of the session but the lightning and thunder lent some nice special effects to the game.

There were six of us so it was a classic 3 on 3, rebel alliance vs the empire. The rebel alliance's squad was comprised of all the notables: Obi Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Chewbaca, Leia, Wedge Antilles, R2D2 and C3P0 with some Fringe help from Dengar and Bosk. The empire team was lead by none other than the Emperor himself, followed by Mara Jade, Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, General Veers with the added Fringe strength of 4Lom and IG88. It was a great game. The rebels had the strength of numbers but the Empire had more potent characters. In the start it looked like the rebels had the clear advantage but as the game wore in, it steadily grew to the Empire's favour. Crippling the advantages of some of the rebel's power characters and some lucky ambushes led to the ultimate demise of the rebels. As Darth Vader sinks his saber into the last rebel, he uttered the words "You do not know the POWAH of the dark side!".

The man of the match was clearly IG88 with its highly successful supression firing and killing Leia and Wedge in the same round. The great moment of the game and also the turning point was when the Emperor got the jump on Leia, injuring her badly and killing the other rebel units who happened to be near her with his force lightning. After that, the rebels were scattered (as if their morale was low) and the majority of them went for Vader (who ran into a room to force a melee match). Which later became their undoing when they turned around to face the Emperor and ignored Vader.

The most shocking/surprising moment of the game was when friend A was about to throw the dice to determine if he hits the target or not. If he succeeds then the target would be destroyed. Fortunately, he doesn't need a high roll to succeed and at that moment of the game, the kill would benefit the rebels alot. Unfortunately, the randomness of the dice got him and he threw a 2 instead (which meant he missed). The funny thing was, when the dice was rolling and it finally flipped to 2 (it didn't even settle yet), friend B (who was on the rebel team and incidentally sitting beside friend A) literally jumped up and lunged into friend A and shouted "F*** YOU!!!". The funny part was that the number 2(from the dice) haven't even registered in our minds yet and the outburst happened so fast. Friend A was soo surprised that he was speechless for a few seconds. Hahahahaha! 'How fragile the bonds of trust during trying times'. Fragile indeed. Anyway he later apologised for his outburst.

At the end of the day it was a great game. Hope to have more of this sessions in the future.

How was school for you?

2005-12-25T20:10:00.000+08:00

I recently acquired a manga called Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO). For the uninformed, manga is the Japanese word for comics. Outside of Japan,it usually refers specifically to Japanese comics. GTO is about a fresh university graduate who is living out in the real world trying to find a job. Unfortunately, Onizuka isn't what you would call a true student material as he was quite a rascal during his school days. Known to be a bike gang member, also part of a 2 man team the 'devil bomber', his reputation during his school days were well known. Anyway, now he is trying to find a job but unfortunately, he is still the same person he was before: a gangster and a pervert to boot! This might be bad for him but he has a dream to fulfill, and that is to become the greatest teacher in Japan! So the manga is about his journey onward to realizing his dream. He encounters a lot of trials and tribulations and just goes to show that being a 'bad apple' in school last time doesn't mean he knows all the tricks of the trade.

Anyway I liked the manga! The drawings are really good and the storyline is well thought out. Although it gets over the top sometimes (when does it not get over the top for a manga?), there were well thought underlying moral implications in there. Ultimately though, it gives rise to the question of "How was school for you?". Ah the memories ...

Sentinel loves coffee!

2005-12-21T19:42:00.000+08:00

Heya,
While I was working at Starbux my friend came by and brought his humongous sentinel figurine. Apparently, you buy smaller figurines of the Marvel universe and you get parts of the sentinel. Collect the whole set and you get the whole sentinel! The set is called Marvel Legends and the idea is quite cool. Anyway, the sentinel itself is very cool with articulation! This gave me and my friend some ideas on posing it. The pics below are the result of such endeavour.

This is the sentinel relaxing after a day's work of killing off mutants. A sentinel's life is never easy!

Here's a closeup of the sentinel drinking his favourite cup of coffee. Since he doesn't have lips, a straw is needed.

Here we see him posing with his favourite coffee bean. He just loves his coffee.

This is what happens when you get drunk with coffee. Suffice to say, some people were killed the next day. :P

First Post: King Kong and MINES don't go together

2005-12-20T21:12:00.000+08:00

Heya,
First post in what seems to be my blog! Oh well. It had to happen sometime. Anyway, whats with the title you say? Well I recently watched King Kong at MINES shopping center and although the movie was exciting, the crowd left me with a sour taste in my mouth.

Firstly, why oh why do parents bring small children to the movies (to watch King Kong)? Especially toddlers. I mean, its not like they will remember the experience. And come on, what toddler wouldn't be scared when there are sudden booming sounds coming from left and right? Suffice to say, my experience was ruined because of the constant whining and crying of the baby. Another thing, parents should chain their children to their seats. Man, they were running up and down the stairs in the middle of the movie! Add all this to the fact that there were a group of guys at the back of my seat who thought that chatting about the movie while watching was the ideal thing to do. The worst thing was that they were talking about lawak bodoh kind of stuff. Luckily though, the movie went up a few in the volume department during key action scenes that reminded me that I was here to watch a movie in the first place.

In conclusion, that has to be the last time I'm watching a movie in MINES ever again. And I'm going to watch movies at night to avoid having children in the theater.