It's not that I've been playing my Xbox until there's nothing left of my life, its just that for the past few days, I've just been plain lazy to post. This has to be my best Christmas since I got my GameBoy Advance :) My aunt got me the Halo 2 Xbox Bundle. It came with the green xbox (really nice), Halo 1 and Halo 2. I remember playing DOA Ultimate for one hour at around midnight when I came home from my Aunt's house. The next day, I started on Halo 2.To tell the truth, I never really had the guts to play Halo 2; it was too addictive that I just kept telling myself, 'Ok, stop at the next checkpoint' but that next checkpoint never came, I managed to stop after a few levels later.
The only games I have so far are DOAU, Soul Calibur 2, Halo 1 and Halo 2. I've only touched Halo 1 once. I've already played through Halo on PC so I didnt really care about Halo. But Halo 2! Haha! The multiplay is pure fun and madness. The last few days, I've been playing split screen with my brother and trashing him ;) If only I had Xbox Live... I know 10 bucks a month or 88 bucks annually doesnt sound too bad but I need a frickin credit card! It's kinda boring playing with just another person and limited to the same screen too.
I've already unlocked 8 costumes for Kasumi in DOAU and one or two with Ayane and I unlocked 3 secret characters in Soul Calibur 2. There's this Weapon Master mode in SC2, its basically the 'story' mode, and you select your matches in this 'world map' and there are some matches with victory conditions like 'Winning only with a Ring Out' and stuff like that. You can also buy new weapons for your characters but they're mostly for cosmetic purposes, I dont really see them do more damage. The dumbest thing of all is that the Weapon Master mode is 95% Japanese. The names and menu options are in English, thats it. So I completely do not understand why I'm fighting this guy or able to read the victory condition. I had to search gamefaqs.com for the FAQs which translated the text and gave hints.
So far, I'm most probably about 1/3 through the campaign. Since my xbox came with the Special Edition Halo 2; which includes a Convenant perspective manual, 'Behind the scenes' DVD and to top it off, instead of the ordinary box, this one comes with the oh-so-shiny silver metal box! And you get all this for 5 bucks more! Aint it worth? I just love the action in Halo 2. One of my favourite weapons has to be the energy sword! Oooh yeah baby! You need skill using this baby. Well first of all, you have to get at least 10 feet to that guy for you to execute that one-hit kill Lunge Attack. So in multiplayer, it might seem a bit tough. But in campaign, those AI bots are pretty dumb and, since I'm on easy, I take less damage so I just charge in and slice em up! There are limitations though... The energy sword has a 'battery', so that means it has a limited lifespan, you can only so much out of it. But in mutliplayer, there is NO battery! Wahaha! So awesome! My favourite dual wield combo has to be the Plasma Rifle/SMG. Plasma rifle to take down the shields, SMG to finish them off. But there's usually a lack of SMG ammo in SP, since I mostly find Covenant weapons. Then again, all I find among the slain masses of bodies are usually plasma pistols and needlers, or Covenant carbine, which sucks... I just dont like it...
I'm trying to finish the campaign by this week or so. With just 4 days left to school, I'm really starting to, freak out! I'll miss the hols and my old class. Now that I'm in Sec 3, I cant afford to FK around anymore, since the subjects are even more difficult. I gotta work hard to get to A band. And also, I have to wear long pants instead of shorts. Oh how I'll miss low short pants. I look terrible in long pants. They're too long for me, argh! And I just plain look funny! Ergh!
I've finally finished my CSI book. I think I'll go find more of the CSI novels. They've got quite a few, I hope they're in Singapore... Then I have to start on my Star Wars Medistar novels... Maybe tonight?
30 December 2004
25 December 2004
Happy holidayz/Merry Christmas/Happy New Year
Ahah, came back from my cruise to Penang and Phuket on Thursday. But I'm not gonna go into that 'cos I lost all inspiration/ideas/choo-choo train of thoughts and whatnot. Well, its Christmas today, now, at 1 AM! I just came back from my Aunty's house. Had dinner there and watched TV and had fun killing my cousin's Sims in Sims 2 :D Haha, they died in a fire if you were wondering :p At 12AM just now, I sent everyone a Christmas greeting... In fact, I had already received one or two before 12.
There's something wrong with M1... Up till now, I still cant seem to send to other operators and only those on M1 can receive my SMSes. Well, Reldon was one exception. After an exceptionally long sending time, it managed to squeeze past the 'traffic jam'. Well, so far, Justin and Linette have responded, both on M1. Justin doesnt seem to have any problems while Linette does. At least I know I'm not the only one in this sh*t. A'well, just gotta wait till tomorrow.
I got 4 presents from one aunty and another one from another. So far, I got some pouch, Astro Boy towels :), a box of Kit Kat cubes or something, a 'bonus' Incredibles torch light and the last one, a Billabong wallet.
Damn... Its Christmas so soon... That means its the beginning of the END (of the hols)... So my birthday, and Christmas, is kinda like a gift and a curse. Boohoo... Every hour, every minute, every second from now on would be pure torture and filled with anticipation for tomorrow... Haha, I most likely wont be posting so I'll say so now - my aunt (ANOTHER one) got me an Xbox!!! Wooo! Gonna play DOAU, Halo 2, Soul Calibur 2 and maybe something else the whole night! Goodbye my life! Haha, gonna try to play online! Cant wait! It's gonna be extremely anti-climatic if I find out that my Aunt didnt buy an Xbox :S But then again, that's highly improbable because, well, shes my aunt right. And we're pretty close... Well, I already bought 2 Xbox games, would be a waste if I didnt get an Xbox... Hmmm...?
There's something wrong with M1... Up till now, I still cant seem to send to other operators and only those on M1 can receive my SMSes. Well, Reldon was one exception. After an exceptionally long sending time, it managed to squeeze past the 'traffic jam'. Well, so far, Justin and Linette have responded, both on M1. Justin doesnt seem to have any problems while Linette does. At least I know I'm not the only one in this sh*t. A'well, just gotta wait till tomorrow.
I got 4 presents from one aunty and another one from another. So far, I got some pouch, Astro Boy towels :), a box of Kit Kat cubes or something, a 'bonus' Incredibles torch light and the last one, a Billabong wallet.
Damn... Its Christmas so soon... That means its the beginning of the END (of the hols)... So my birthday, and Christmas, is kinda like a gift and a curse. Boohoo... Every hour, every minute, every second from now on would be pure torture and filled with anticipation for tomorrow... Haha, I most likely wont be posting so I'll say so now - my aunt (ANOTHER one) got me an Xbox!!! Wooo! Gonna play DOAU, Halo 2, Soul Calibur 2 and maybe something else the whole night! Goodbye my life! Haha, gonna try to play online! Cant wait! It's gonna be extremely anti-climatic if I find out that my Aunt didnt buy an Xbox :S But then again, that's highly improbable because, well, shes my aunt right. And we're pretty close... Well, I already bought 2 Xbox games, would be a waste if I didnt get an Xbox... Hmmm...?
18 December 2004
Before I go... For my holiday...
Wow, look at the time... Its already past 2am... Well, I stayed up watching the Mean Girls DVD on my com, Reldon bought it for me along with Scary Movie 3, Taxi and White Chicks in China. Cant say Taxi was the best quality, but the other 3 are pretty good.
The last few days have been quiet. Today, I went out with Reldon, Rayson, Ben Lee and Roderic for our last get-together with Roderic. The latter, along with Nik, is going to ACSI. Apparently, they took the entrance test and they got in. So we went to Cine today and watched National Treasure. Well before that, I bought those cookie message 'lollipops' from Famous Amos for everyone of them. I wont be seeing them next year so its really sad... Yea... Then after some 'hide and seek' with Reldon and Roderic, we bought the tickets, ate at Pasta Mania and payed Reldon what I owed him for the DVDs when I got change when we went to E Zone (the Arcade) to play. Haha, I played DOA2 for around 5 or 6 times and I trashed Reldon, Rayson and Roderic (the 3 'R's :p). They were mostly button-mashing and I kinda knew the moves for my character and after learning my lesson, stayed to the same tactic - waiting for their combos to end (they were button mashing) and attacked when they paused after the combo. There was one TERRIBLY close match between me and Reldon. We were down to the final deciding match and well, I won :) Keeping an iron fist over my gaming kingdom :p Ok, thats really dumb I know... Roderic kinda like wasted a few a coins trying to beat me then we went to play Time Crisis 2. Roderic had already spent his 2nd credit while I was only down 1 health bar! In case you have no idea what that means, Roderic sucks at the game. I guess being a gamer nurtures fast reflexes (which I inexplicably have) and they say gamers are quick thinkers. Well, seems the only thing I noticed was the reflexes so far :) Then again, its could be due to the fact that I played Time Crisis 2 so many times I know where all the enemies ended up. We completely lost track of time and it was just 5 minutes before the movie started so we dropped the guns and left the game on just like that. Haha, better to be a kind soul and let some lucky guy play for free rather than being selfish and ending the game prematurely.
We didnt buy any popcorn but I did buy a drink. National Treasure is like those conspiracy novels like the DaVinci Code or if you read any of Dan Brown's novels, you know what I mean. Its pretty exciting and interesting at the same time, about this Ben guy who finds some treasure and stuff and one clue leads to another and another until it leads to plenty of skeptism that it doesnt even exist.
Not much happened after the movie but I had 2 coins left for play and with just one coin, I played DOA2 against the 3 'R's until they exhausted their coins. Since everybody wanted to go home, I kinda lost the game against the computer. It was pretty half-hearted. I mean, after all that satisfaction from beating my friends who were complete n00bs at this game you didnt care if you were playing against Artificial Intelligence. I can still vividly remember that extremely close match against Reldon, I almost lost for a second and Ben Lee, beside me, was going "You're gonna lose, you're gonna lose!" and I was thinking, "Oh man, I think I'm gonna lose!" but in the end, I kept to my tactic and won with like 1/8 of my health intact. I just love Kasumi's flying kick combo! I still have that last coin with me now.
It's really amazing how the holidays are coming so soon, to an end. If you ever looked back, maybe and reflect on what you've done, maybe you thought you should've done this instead of that or spent some time on something more meaningful. I guess, at that time, it seemed like there was so much free time, you decided you can do anything you want. Well, school is reopening very soon and I think I'll spend my time or someting more meaningful and worthwhile sometime, like playing my Xbox in the LAST week of the holidays. I know its not New Year yet, hell, it isnt even Christmas yet, but my New Year Resolution for next year would be to put that controller down, shut down the computer and try to study to improve my grades. Sec 3 is going to be a LOT harder. Did you see that A Maths book!? It's even thicker than my HTML book! And sucking SO MUCH at math, I'm really afraid :S Kinda the opposite of Cady, the character Lindsay Lohan plays in Mean Girls, she was really great in Math but she purposely failed to get her crush to tutor her. Haha, I wish it was the OTHER way round for me :p Its getting way too early in the morning, its dark. I think I should really go to sleep now, I've screwed up my body clock enough and its going to be difficult to adjust when school reopens.
Mean Girls is really a great movie about this girl, Cady, who so-called 'falls to the dark side'. She befriends the mean girls so that she can tell her actual friends about what they say about others and she kinda, gets way too into it and soon enough, becomes one of them. Then something bad happens and everyone in school thinks it was her fault and in the end, everything returns back to normal and she becomes a real human being instead of the slut/bitch she became. It's really nice to see how those mean girls become nice and friendly at the end of the movie. You would've thought "That kind of slut/bitch/whatever-is-bad could never be that nice!" but hey, seeing impossible things become possible is always amazing. There are some really funny moments and there's a handful of mild sexual references so that NC16 rating should be more than enough to warn you. But hey, if you're not so sensitive to such stuff, there wasnt really much need for that NC16 rating. It kinda hovers inbetween PG and NC16, so if you're 14 or 15 (like me), and can tolerate such stuff like all that kissing and making out, you might find that Mean Girls has a pretty endearing and meaningful story behind it all.
Wow, I've typed so much... And like 2 paragraphs ago, I was supposed to sign off. Well, this is for real; I'm stopping here. I wont be around much lately 'cos Im going for a short holiday this Sunday, so that means Im not going to church. I'll be back soon enough. Heh, I almost cried watching Mean Girls, the ending was really emotional and Lindsay Lohan's voice has that sweet little innocent girl voice. Oh crap, wandering off again. Ok stop here... HERE! Ok im stopping here... Crap! I cant stop!!!
P.S. Judging from that 'why no one post' msg on the Tagboard, I believe Ben Lee made it. Little imposter... I can go on and on about how I deduced that but I seriously HAVE to stop now. Its already 3 pm and I ought to be sleeping. See! I just cant stop! My fingers have a mind of their own!!!! Im hitting that Publish Post button right now!!!
The last few days have been quiet. Today, I went out with Reldon, Rayson, Ben Lee and Roderic for our last get-together with Roderic. The latter, along with Nik, is going to ACSI. Apparently, they took the entrance test and they got in. So we went to Cine today and watched National Treasure. Well before that, I bought those cookie message 'lollipops' from Famous Amos for everyone of them. I wont be seeing them next year so its really sad... Yea... Then after some 'hide and seek' with Reldon and Roderic, we bought the tickets, ate at Pasta Mania and payed Reldon what I owed him for the DVDs when I got change when we went to E Zone (the Arcade) to play. Haha, I played DOA2 for around 5 or 6 times and I trashed Reldon, Rayson and Roderic (the 3 'R's :p). They were mostly button-mashing and I kinda knew the moves for my character and after learning my lesson, stayed to the same tactic - waiting for their combos to end (they were button mashing) and attacked when they paused after the combo. There was one TERRIBLY close match between me and Reldon. We were down to the final deciding match and well, I won :) Keeping an iron fist over my gaming kingdom :p Ok, thats really dumb I know... Roderic kinda like wasted a few a coins trying to beat me then we went to play Time Crisis 2. Roderic had already spent his 2nd credit while I was only down 1 health bar! In case you have no idea what that means, Roderic sucks at the game. I guess being a gamer nurtures fast reflexes (which I inexplicably have) and they say gamers are quick thinkers. Well, seems the only thing I noticed was the reflexes so far :) Then again, its could be due to the fact that I played Time Crisis 2 so many times I know where all the enemies ended up. We completely lost track of time and it was just 5 minutes before the movie started so we dropped the guns and left the game on just like that. Haha, better to be a kind soul and let some lucky guy play for free rather than being selfish and ending the game prematurely.
We didnt buy any popcorn but I did buy a drink. National Treasure is like those conspiracy novels like the DaVinci Code or if you read any of Dan Brown's novels, you know what I mean. Its pretty exciting and interesting at the same time, about this Ben guy who finds some treasure and stuff and one clue leads to another and another until it leads to plenty of skeptism that it doesnt even exist.
Not much happened after the movie but I had 2 coins left for play and with just one coin, I played DOA2 against the 3 'R's until they exhausted their coins. Since everybody wanted to go home, I kinda lost the game against the computer. It was pretty half-hearted. I mean, after all that satisfaction from beating my friends who were complete n00bs at this game you didnt care if you were playing against Artificial Intelligence. I can still vividly remember that extremely close match against Reldon, I almost lost for a second and Ben Lee, beside me, was going "You're gonna lose, you're gonna lose!" and I was thinking, "Oh man, I think I'm gonna lose!" but in the end, I kept to my tactic and won with like 1/8 of my health intact. I just love Kasumi's flying kick combo! I still have that last coin with me now.
It's really amazing how the holidays are coming so soon, to an end. If you ever looked back, maybe and reflect on what you've done, maybe you thought you should've done this instead of that or spent some time on something more meaningful. I guess, at that time, it seemed like there was so much free time, you decided you can do anything you want. Well, school is reopening very soon and I think I'll spend my time or someting more meaningful and worthwhile sometime, like playing my Xbox in the LAST week of the holidays. I know its not New Year yet, hell, it isnt even Christmas yet, but my New Year Resolution for next year would be to put that controller down, shut down the computer and try to study to improve my grades. Sec 3 is going to be a LOT harder. Did you see that A Maths book!? It's even thicker than my HTML book! And sucking SO MUCH at math, I'm really afraid :S Kinda the opposite of Cady, the character Lindsay Lohan plays in Mean Girls, she was really great in Math but she purposely failed to get her crush to tutor her. Haha, I wish it was the OTHER way round for me :p Its getting way too early in the morning, its dark. I think I should really go to sleep now, I've screwed up my body clock enough and its going to be difficult to adjust when school reopens.
Mean Girls is really a great movie about this girl, Cady, who so-called 'falls to the dark side'. She befriends the mean girls so that she can tell her actual friends about what they say about others and she kinda, gets way too into it and soon enough, becomes one of them. Then something bad happens and everyone in school thinks it was her fault and in the end, everything returns back to normal and she becomes a real human being instead of the slut/bitch she became. It's really nice to see how those mean girls become nice and friendly at the end of the movie. You would've thought "That kind of slut/bitch/whatever-is-bad could never be that nice!" but hey, seeing impossible things become possible is always amazing. There are some really funny moments and there's a handful of mild sexual references so that NC16 rating should be more than enough to warn you. But hey, if you're not so sensitive to such stuff, there wasnt really much need for that NC16 rating. It kinda hovers inbetween PG and NC16, so if you're 14 or 15 (like me), and can tolerate such stuff like all that kissing and making out, you might find that Mean Girls has a pretty endearing and meaningful story behind it all.
Wow, I've typed so much... And like 2 paragraphs ago, I was supposed to sign off. Well, this is for real; I'm stopping here. I wont be around much lately 'cos Im going for a short holiday this Sunday, so that means Im not going to church. I'll be back soon enough. Heh, I almost cried watching Mean Girls, the ending was really emotional and Lindsay Lohan's voice has that sweet little innocent girl voice. Oh crap, wandering off again. Ok stop here... HERE! Ok im stopping here... Crap! I cant stop!!!
P.S. Judging from that 'why no one post' msg on the Tagboard, I believe Ben Lee made it. Little imposter... I can go on and on about how I deduced that but I seriously HAVE to stop now. Its already 3 pm and I ought to be sleeping. See! I just cant stop! My fingers have a mind of their own!!!! Im hitting that Publish Post button right now!!!
15 December 2004
Christmas cheer!
Wow, last few days have been filled with Christmas shopping and nothing but the spirit of Christmas :)
I went to watch the Polar Express at Plaza Sing with my mum and brother. Its really a mediocre movie and if you're a 7 yr-old kid, you're most probably gonna enjoy this much more. The movie's pretty much 90% propaganda about Santa's existence. It's about this boy, who waits for Santa and finds the Polar Express pull up right in front of his doorstep and SOMEHOW, it doesnt wake up the entire neighbourhood. Its stupid really. I mean come on, which locomotive with the name 'POLAR EXPRESS' will cause as much noise as a mouse's squeak? Utterly absurd! And then stupid things which are suppposedly "magical" start happening from solid 'Ghosts' to floating tablecloths which can support a dancing luncatic high on hot chocolate, and the dumbest of them all is Santa Clause appearing at all! Awww c'mon, we all KNOW Santa Clause doesnt exist! I know NASA still cant find life on Mars but at least NASA should be able to find out if theres one fat bloke living with a million elves in the North Pole! Sheesh, dumb movie for dumb little kiddies... Yea, I know, I'm being cynical right now... But then again, if there WAS Santa, he's gonna have to be more high-tech these days because I want an iPod!!! Or maybe a that Radeon X800 or maybe that... Oh go check my previous post for my wishlist!
We also did some Christmas shopping. My mum got me 2 new T-Shirts and some kind of bermudas from OP and some other stuff for my cousins too.
Woke up early (is 11am early?) this morning because we were gonna buy my school textbooks. While I was in the shower, my dad bought me a new chair (I broke my old one, not funny -.-') then it was not until 12 noon before we left for my brother's school, ACSJ, to get his school books first. Gee, I must say, JS is still as smelly and old and dirty as before... It really hasnt changed much, except for the huge useless banner overlooking the quadrangle. Blah, nothing to say about JS, so thankful now that Barker is so new and clean, wheee!
Then we went to my school to get my school books. Sheesh, there were so many books missing because they ran out of stock. Gonna have to get some other day. I still hold a grudge with the school. If they hadnt removed A4, me, along with Justin and the many others who scored JUST below the mark wouldnt have gone to B band. Crap, I just lost my train of thoughts while talking to Leonard. And I've got another reason that games arent all that bad! While talking to Leonard, I asked him to check out page 454 of the Physics textbook and he said there was NO page 454 in his textbook. I found it strange and after some cross-references, Leonard realised that he got the wrong books! I went to check out the school website and found out that Leonard bought the Combined Science books! Half-Life is an actual physics term and pg 454 of my Physics textbook explains it. Wow! Ya see, games arent all that bad! If Half-Life wasnt such a big deal, I wouldnt have told Leonard about it and then Leonard wouldnt have discovered such a big boo-boo and then when school reopened, he would've found it out too late and everyone would have a laugh. Now don't go dissing games now would ya', it helped save a life! Leonard's gonna thank Gordon Freeman :p
Ok so after buying my textbooks, we went to Waffletown! Damn! I absolutely love the waffles! Its like hard on the outside and soft on the inside, and it so totally melts in your mouth... Mmmmmmm... Go down to Balmoral Plaza and try it out. While you're there, you might also wanna check out the chicken rice restaurant next to the GNC there. Then after that, we went to United Square and I bought/rented 3 new books - Star Wars Medistar 1 and 2 and some CSI book. My mum also got me the Xbox game Dead or Alive Ultimate for my birthday, yay! It also said it came with some figurine but you have to go down to Funan to collect it -.-' I'm currently trying to get more info about it and after 20 minutes, my search has proven futile.
We sure bought a lot of stuff today... I just posted a thread on the GameAxis Xbox forums and hopefully, I get an answer tomorrow.
I went to watch the Polar Express at Plaza Sing with my mum and brother. Its really a mediocre movie and if you're a 7 yr-old kid, you're most probably gonna enjoy this much more. The movie's pretty much 90% propaganda about Santa's existence. It's about this boy, who waits for Santa and finds the Polar Express pull up right in front of his doorstep and SOMEHOW, it doesnt wake up the entire neighbourhood. Its stupid really. I mean come on, which locomotive with the name 'POLAR EXPRESS' will cause as much noise as a mouse's squeak? Utterly absurd! And then stupid things which are suppposedly "magical" start happening from solid 'Ghosts' to floating tablecloths which can support a dancing luncatic high on hot chocolate, and the dumbest of them all is Santa Clause appearing at all! Awww c'mon, we all KNOW Santa Clause doesnt exist! I know NASA still cant find life on Mars but at least NASA should be able to find out if theres one fat bloke living with a million elves in the North Pole! Sheesh, dumb movie for dumb little kiddies... Yea, I know, I'm being cynical right now... But then again, if there WAS Santa, he's gonna have to be more high-tech these days because I want an iPod!!! Or maybe a that Radeon X800 or maybe that... Oh go check my previous post for my wishlist!
We also did some Christmas shopping. My mum got me 2 new T-Shirts and some kind of bermudas from OP and some other stuff for my cousins too.
Woke up early (is 11am early?) this morning because we were gonna buy my school textbooks. While I was in the shower, my dad bought me a new chair (I broke my old one, not funny -.-') then it was not until 12 noon before we left for my brother's school, ACSJ, to get his school books first. Gee, I must say, JS is still as smelly and old and dirty as before... It really hasnt changed much, except for the huge useless banner overlooking the quadrangle. Blah, nothing to say about JS, so thankful now that Barker is so new and clean, wheee!
Then we went to my school to get my school books. Sheesh, there were so many books missing because they ran out of stock. Gonna have to get some other day. I still hold a grudge with the school. If they hadnt removed A4, me, along with Justin and the many others who scored JUST below the mark wouldnt have gone to B band. Crap, I just lost my train of thoughts while talking to Leonard. And I've got another reason that games arent all that bad! While talking to Leonard, I asked him to check out page 454 of the Physics textbook and he said there was NO page 454 in his textbook. I found it strange and after some cross-references, Leonard realised that he got the wrong books! I went to check out the school website and found out that Leonard bought the Combined Science books! Half-Life is an actual physics term and pg 454 of my Physics textbook explains it. Wow! Ya see, games arent all that bad! If Half-Life wasnt such a big deal, I wouldnt have told Leonard about it and then Leonard wouldnt have discovered such a big boo-boo and then when school reopened, he would've found it out too late and everyone would have a laugh. Now don't go dissing games now would ya', it helped save a life! Leonard's gonna thank Gordon Freeman :p
Ok so after buying my textbooks, we went to Waffletown! Damn! I absolutely love the waffles! Its like hard on the outside and soft on the inside, and it so totally melts in your mouth... Mmmmmmm... Go down to Balmoral Plaza and try it out. While you're there, you might also wanna check out the chicken rice restaurant next to the GNC there. Then after that, we went to United Square and I bought/rented 3 new books - Star Wars Medistar 1 and 2 and some CSI book. My mum also got me the Xbox game Dead or Alive Ultimate for my birthday, yay! It also said it came with some figurine but you have to go down to Funan to collect it -.-' I'm currently trying to get more info about it and after 20 minutes, my search has proven futile.
We sure bought a lot of stuff today... I just posted a thread on the GameAxis Xbox forums and hopefully, I get an answer tomorrow.
13 December 2004
Sunday mornings...
I agree with the TV, 'Your Sunday mornings will never be the same again!'. Since last week, my Sunday mornings have grown longer by a lot. I must've mentioned this before but I really dont like how I have to stay for so long. Sitting through the sermon is boring to tell the truth. My 'class' has been pushed up and instead of going for it halfway during the service, I have to attend after the whole thing. And my parents have to end up waiting for me till 12pm. Haha, thank goodness I dont have to attend SS next week because Ill be away on holiday.
We went to Parkway after that and I had that Chicken Con Carne for lunch. Man, that was good! It has a reasonable amount of chicken chunks and they add some chilli in it. I also saw some kidney beans in it. Then my mum went Christmas shopping and bought plenty of girl's stuff for all my female cousins. Then after some browsing, we went to the arcade and I must've set a record or something! I spent only one credit and I almost completed the ENTIRE Time Crisis 2!!! I died at the VERY LAST part when I didnt see that laser machine heading for me :S Whoo, Im so proud of myself, I had almost finished the entire game with just 1 credit! Woohoo! Then we went to Isetan where I bought two T-shirts, one plain blue one and the other one is black and has some kind of Matrix rain print! Haha, so surprised the M looked so large. I only tried it when I came home and it fit me quite well, just a bit too tight at the collar :S lol! Went to MPH where I bought PC Gamer and my mum met her friend. Haha, really amazes me how PC Gamer churns out their mags so damn early! Its still a long way but PC Gamer has their January issue out already!
I really wish the holidays wouldnt be gone so damn fast. Each year passes too quickly sometimes. I can still remember this year and all the funny stuff (some I dont want to mentioned) that happened at the start of the year. A lot has changed I must say. Looking back, I really regret not spending more time with my friends and appreciating them more. Omg, I'm gonna cry! Haha, this is really mushy... Well, I wont be with my best friends next year considering that I failed maths and went to a different class... Although I've had one or two friends I'll be with for the 3rd year already, it doesnt really comfort me much because I'm not really close to them. Hell! I've known Justin for as long as we could remember. Although we're quite close, Ben, Sean and Reldon are pretty much the closest to me. Roderic and Nik will be going to ACSI next year which means I wont be having another chance to see them. Me, Reldon, Sean, Ben and Roderic are gonna watch one last movie together with Roderic next week, one last farewell movie. Dont ya all just hate farewells, especially with those closest to you. Well, I'll make sure I'll do well next year so I can move up to the A band and most likely be with Ben, Reldon and with some luck, Sean. Then we can all be together! 2004 has to be the best year so far, comparable only to 2002. Sure, there have been some bad times but then again, they will also be missed. I hope next year turns out alright. I'm gonna miss you guys... Blah, farewells just suck... I cant really think on the bright side for now. There's no optimism for 2005 considering that my morale for next year has more or less been shattered due to the fact that there's most likely gonna be plenty of discrimination being in a lower band... I guess we're all expendable in some way, there'll always be someone to replace another person's place in our hearts.
We went to Parkway after that and I had that Chicken Con Carne for lunch. Man, that was good! It has a reasonable amount of chicken chunks and they add some chilli in it. I also saw some kidney beans in it. Then my mum went Christmas shopping and bought plenty of girl's stuff for all my female cousins. Then after some browsing, we went to the arcade and I must've set a record or something! I spent only one credit and I almost completed the ENTIRE Time Crisis 2!!! I died at the VERY LAST part when I didnt see that laser machine heading for me :S Whoo, Im so proud of myself, I had almost finished the entire game with just 1 credit! Woohoo! Then we went to Isetan where I bought two T-shirts, one plain blue one and the other one is black and has some kind of Matrix rain print! Haha, so surprised the M looked so large. I only tried it when I came home and it fit me quite well, just a bit too tight at the collar :S lol! Went to MPH where I bought PC Gamer and my mum met her friend. Haha, really amazes me how PC Gamer churns out their mags so damn early! Its still a long way but PC Gamer has their January issue out already!
I really wish the holidays wouldnt be gone so damn fast. Each year passes too quickly sometimes. I can still remember this year and all the funny stuff (some I dont want to mentioned) that happened at the start of the year. A lot has changed I must say. Looking back, I really regret not spending more time with my friends and appreciating them more. Omg, I'm gonna cry! Haha, this is really mushy... Well, I wont be with my best friends next year considering that I failed maths and went to a different class... Although I've had one or two friends I'll be with for the 3rd year already, it doesnt really comfort me much because I'm not really close to them. Hell! I've known Justin for as long as we could remember. Although we're quite close, Ben, Sean and Reldon are pretty much the closest to me. Roderic and Nik will be going to ACSI next year which means I wont be having another chance to see them. Me, Reldon, Sean, Ben and Roderic are gonna watch one last movie together with Roderic next week, one last farewell movie. Dont ya all just hate farewells, especially with those closest to you. Well, I'll make sure I'll do well next year so I can move up to the A band and most likely be with Ben, Reldon and with some luck, Sean. Then we can all be together! 2004 has to be the best year so far, comparable only to 2002. Sure, there have been some bad times but then again, they will also be missed. I hope next year turns out alright. I'm gonna miss you guys... Blah, farewells just suck... I cant really think on the bright side for now. There's no optimism for 2005 considering that my morale for next year has more or less been shattered due to the fact that there's most likely gonna be plenty of discrimination being in a lower band... I guess we're all expendable in some way, there'll always be someone to replace another person's place in our hearts.
12 December 2004
Santa Clause is coming...
A few more weeks before Christmas arrives and not long after that, school reopens and that signals the end of the festive season. You might say although good things come to an end, its the start of better things but I think NOT in this case. School is NOT a good thing, something that I defintely do not enjoy or cherish.
Ok so, I've installed the snowing script which you most likely have to be patient enough to see it. It usually appears after like 10+ seconds... Don't ask me why it takes so long, I have no idea myself. And for the Gamer version of 'The 12 days of Christmas's sake, I've decided to put the picture of a Spartan in a Banshee on this webpage to make more sense to the lyrics... Although some may find that it can still be pretty much senseless if you're not a gamer...
Gamer's dictionary
Spartan - The Spartan referred to in those lyrics is not your typical greek. Basically put, a Spartan is that cool Halo dude in that green armor (MJOLNIR) with that shiny visor and carries a big gun.
Banshee - You wont find screaming ethereal irish sirens in Halo but a flying vehicle that takes after them when it turns sharply.
Rainbow Six - Rainbow Six is a team of covert crack anti-terrorists.
5 freedoms for Sam - Now, if you dont play Splinter Cell, you obviously wont understand this part. Sam has 5 Freedoms. I cant exactly remember all 5 (why should I? I'm not entitled) but its the stuff a spy like him is allowed to do. The Freedom to steal, kill, spy, infiltrate and something like that, to protect his country.
Live! - Shortform for Xbox Live!, an online service for the Xbox
Wookie - A furry, hairy, smelly, over-grown hamster-like creature found in Star Wars
Bards - Some kind of profession an RPG player can take up.
---------------------------------------
Well, hope that makes more sense to the lyrics at the bottom of this screen.
Ok so, I've installed the snowing script which you most likely have to be patient enough to see it. It usually appears after like 10+ seconds... Don't ask me why it takes so long, I have no idea myself. And for the Gamer version of 'The 12 days of Christmas's sake, I've decided to put the picture of a Spartan in a Banshee on this webpage to make more sense to the lyrics... Although some may find that it can still be pretty much senseless if you're not a gamer...
Gamer's dictionary
Spartan - The Spartan referred to in those lyrics is not your typical greek. Basically put, a Spartan is that cool Halo dude in that green armor (MJOLNIR) with that shiny visor and carries a big gun.
Banshee - You wont find screaming ethereal irish sirens in Halo but a flying vehicle that takes after them when it turns sharply.
Rainbow Six - Rainbow Six is a team of covert crack anti-terrorists.
5 freedoms for Sam - Now, if you dont play Splinter Cell, you obviously wont understand this part. Sam has 5 Freedoms. I cant exactly remember all 5 (why should I? I'm not entitled) but its the stuff a spy like him is allowed to do. The Freedom to steal, kill, spy, infiltrate and something like that, to protect his country.
Live! - Shortform for Xbox Live!, an online service for the Xbox
Wookie - A furry, hairy, smelly, over-grown hamster-like creature found in Star Wars
Bards - Some kind of profession an RPG player can take up.
---------------------------------------
Well, hope that makes more sense to the lyrics at the bottom of this screen.
07 December 2004
Getting paranoid...
It must've been the recent events of malfunctioning blogger that has gotten me to archive my template and stuff...
Well anyway, if blogger fails, MSN just provided me with another blog! Well, Garrett intro'ed me to MSN 7 beta. For those who also want it, go to http://messenger.msn.com/beta. Has some new features which I'll leave for you to find out. So when I was checking out the new features, there was this MSN Spaces thingy which gives you a webpage where you can put interesting stuff like a Book List, your music playlist, blog lists, links, a blog itself, and my favourite, the photo album! MSN gives you 10 megs of space for you to upload and display pics which gets displayed on the main page! I'll leave the rest for you to check out, dont wanna spoil any surprises :p My 'Space' is at http://spaces.msn.com/members/adrielch
I've got nothing to say... Hmm... Oh and do remember to archive your posts and templates. You don't know what may happen to blogger... Even though MSN has a blogging service, I'm sticking to Blogger... After all the trials and tribulations haha... 'Till death do us part'! Lol, sounds like some personal relationship... Although I personally think blogger will die first, haha! Mmm, I love pasta :)
After waking up so late, my body clock is officially screwed up! Wonder how I'm gonna wake up at 6am when school reopens... Right now, I'm psyching myself up as the holidays draw to a close... Sure, theres like 1 more month to go, but 1 month passes by very quickly especially the month of December. Its real sad that my best friends wont be with me next year... Damn! I gotta look on the bright side... Almost always, things just dont ever go your way. Remember to appreciate your life now, it could have been worse. Then again, you might argue that your life might get better instead. But what are the odds of that when terrorism is rampant among our neighbours (not immediate neighbours, country). Remember, screwing up is a lot easier than undoing it, just like how easy it is to gain but not lose weight. Appreciate your family, your stuff, your limbs, your body, even the air you breathe! The Earth is greatly taken advantaged of. When you're in outer space and you're low on air, you would give anything for it! Thank God for what you have now, you might not have a chance to next time...
Well anyway, if blogger fails, MSN just provided me with another blog! Well, Garrett intro'ed me to MSN 7 beta. For those who also want it, go to http://messenger.msn.com/beta. Has some new features which I'll leave for you to find out. So when I was checking out the new features, there was this MSN Spaces thingy which gives you a webpage where you can put interesting stuff like a Book List, your music playlist, blog lists, links, a blog itself, and my favourite, the photo album! MSN gives you 10 megs of space for you to upload and display pics which gets displayed on the main page! I'll leave the rest for you to check out, dont wanna spoil any surprises :p My 'Space' is at http://spaces.msn.com/members/adrielch
I've got nothing to say... Hmm... Oh and do remember to archive your posts and templates. You don't know what may happen to blogger... Even though MSN has a blogging service, I'm sticking to Blogger... After all the trials and tribulations haha... 'Till death do us part'! Lol, sounds like some personal relationship... Although I personally think blogger will die first, haha! Mmm, I love pasta :)
After waking up so late, my body clock is officially screwed up! Wonder how I'm gonna wake up at 6am when school reopens... Right now, I'm psyching myself up as the holidays draw to a close... Sure, theres like 1 more month to go, but 1 month passes by very quickly especially the month of December. Its real sad that my best friends wont be with me next year... Damn! I gotta look on the bright side... Almost always, things just dont ever go your way. Remember to appreciate your life now, it could have been worse. Then again, you might argue that your life might get better instead. But what are the odds of that when terrorism is rampant among our neighbours (not immediate neighbours, country). Remember, screwing up is a lot easier than undoing it, just like how easy it is to gain but not lose weight. Appreciate your family, your stuff, your limbs, your body, even the air you breathe! The Earth is greatly taken advantaged of. When you're in outer space and you're low on air, you would give anything for it! Thank God for what you have now, you might not have a chance to next time...
05 December 2004
Kasumi kicks ass!!!
Heh, previously, I had this really long (and supposedly funny) post about SI about what it meant to different people. But since blogger screwed up, I don't know WHAT happened, it seems that it wont be displayed. Well, what happened was that, I published the post, it said 100% published, I clicked to view the webpage and the post was there! With the title sans the CONTENT!!! 2+ hours worth of 'reflection' GONE! Ok, I don't wanna talk about it... Bleaurgh...
Updates in the Gaming World first...
Just a few days ago, Valve (the creators of Halflife 2) released HL2 deathmatch! Its basically playing multiplayer HL2 and you have the ability to use a gravity manipulator gun and fire various mundane objects at people to hurt them along with the many other HL2 weapons. Haha, what was missing though was the good ol' crowbar! I guess the gravity gun has championed the crowbar but, the crowbar will still hold a place in our gamer's hearts as the one and only, undisputed headcrab whacker.
Currently, there has been no news of World of Warcraft reaching our Singapore shores anytime soon. Current speculation (from me) is that it won't be released till next year. Blizzard (the developers) have announced with an official statement that WoW will be released to the European market next year in January, so most PROBABLY and hopefully, it too will be released in Asia.
And thats about it for gaming news regarding me. For more news from the gaming front, check out (how many times have i said this?) www.gamespot.com!
On Saturday, yesterday, went to Downtown East with my family. My parents and brother went to Wild Wild Wet while I spent a good 4 hrs playing Xbox games non-stop at the Xsquare. Im hydrophobic ya know :p Haha, of course not! I got that gold swimming test award crap, and I can swim. Nah, I just plainly succumbed to the temptation of the Xbox!!! I don't really like the outdoors (unless I'm forced to) and my skin... Ahh nvm... I spent at least 2 hours with Kasumi from Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate! Oh yeah! Has to be one of the greatest fighting games ever! I spent most of my time playing as Kasumi, playing through the campaign twice and then trying out the various modes of play (like tagteam and survival). And Kasumi has to be the fastest fighter in DOA. She can kick really fast with her long legs and theres this move where she jumps in the air, does some kind of somersault and with that amount of momentum and force, kicks her opponent across the map! Ooooh yeah! But too bad, her arms arent that long so I have to be dangerously close to my opponent when I string my punching combos. There's an extensive move list and contains a lot of depth. There are at least over 10 different unlockable costumes for the DOA characters and the girls seem to have more than the guys. Gee, talk about girl power :P Haha, but don't label me as a traitor 'cos I also play as Ein, the 'boyfriend' of Kasumi! The guys tend to go for power and less speed but generally, I prefer the faster and more agile Kasumi :)
Also spent some time playing Soul Calibur 2, that stupid WWE Raw 2 which was a terrible game and I didnt know how to control the wrestlers, and I also played Ninja Gaiden which was terribly difficult and I also played Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow. After that, we went to United Square where I cut my hair, had dinner and stuff like that. I also bought/rented some Star Wars book which I'm already almost close to completion of it. This is bad, I'm seriously running out of books to read. My preference of genre is mostly Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels, although I do love Dan Brown's conspiracy novels too. I need someone to recommend me a good book!
From today onwards, my sundays will never be the same again. That's 'cos since I'll be Sec 3 next year, my, for a lack of better word, SS 'class' will start horribly much later and I have to attend the full chapel service instead of 'bailing out' halfway through as most of the other kids do. I really hate this change: Firstly, I have to sit through the whole chapel service. Secondly, no one really likes staying back so damn late! And my parents will have to wait for me till 12, bleaurgh... A'well, life sucks sometimes huh...
And just now, my mum, brother and me went to watch the Love Unending concert organised by my church. Met Justin and Natalie doing usher duties (although it seemed more like lamp post duty, 'guarding' the exits). Not my type of genre, didnt really like it. My brother even slept halfway through. Bah! Dunno what to say anymore... Shall stop here... And remember, Kasumi kicks ass!!! mwhhahaha
Damn... Holidays ending soon... Half of it gone already :'( Boohoo
Updates in the Gaming World first...
Just a few days ago, Valve (the creators of Halflife 2) released HL2 deathmatch! Its basically playing multiplayer HL2 and you have the ability to use a gravity manipulator gun and fire various mundane objects at people to hurt them along with the many other HL2 weapons. Haha, what was missing though was the good ol' crowbar! I guess the gravity gun has championed the crowbar but, the crowbar will still hold a place in our gamer's hearts as the one and only, undisputed headcrab whacker.
Currently, there has been no news of World of Warcraft reaching our Singapore shores anytime soon. Current speculation (from me) is that it won't be released till next year. Blizzard (the developers) have announced with an official statement that WoW will be released to the European market next year in January, so most PROBABLY and hopefully, it too will be released in Asia.
And thats about it for gaming news regarding me. For more news from the gaming front, check out (how many times have i said this?) www.gamespot.com!
On Saturday, yesterday, went to Downtown East with my family. My parents and brother went to Wild Wild Wet while I spent a good 4 hrs playing Xbox games non-stop at the Xsquare. Im hydrophobic ya know :p Haha, of course not! I got that gold swimming test award crap, and I can swim. Nah, I just plainly succumbed to the temptation of the Xbox!!! I don't really like the outdoors (unless I'm forced to) and my skin... Ahh nvm... I spent at least 2 hours with Kasumi from Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate! Oh yeah! Has to be one of the greatest fighting games ever! I spent most of my time playing as Kasumi, playing through the campaign twice and then trying out the various modes of play (like tagteam and survival). And Kasumi has to be the fastest fighter in DOA. She can kick really fast with her long legs and theres this move where she jumps in the air, does some kind of somersault and with that amount of momentum and force, kicks her opponent across the map! Ooooh yeah! But too bad, her arms arent that long so I have to be dangerously close to my opponent when I string my punching combos. There's an extensive move list and contains a lot of depth. There are at least over 10 different unlockable costumes for the DOA characters and the girls seem to have more than the guys. Gee, talk about girl power :P Haha, but don't label me as a traitor 'cos I also play as Ein, the 'boyfriend' of Kasumi! The guys tend to go for power and less speed but generally, I prefer the faster and more agile Kasumi :)
Also spent some time playing Soul Calibur 2, that stupid WWE Raw 2 which was a terrible game and I didnt know how to control the wrestlers, and I also played Ninja Gaiden which was terribly difficult and I also played Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow. After that, we went to United Square where I cut my hair, had dinner and stuff like that. I also bought/rented some Star Wars book which I'm already almost close to completion of it. This is bad, I'm seriously running out of books to read. My preference of genre is mostly Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels, although I do love Dan Brown's conspiracy novels too. I need someone to recommend me a good book!
From today onwards, my sundays will never be the same again. That's 'cos since I'll be Sec 3 next year, my, for a lack of better word, SS 'class' will start horribly much later and I have to attend the full chapel service instead of 'bailing out' halfway through as most of the other kids do. I really hate this change: Firstly, I have to sit through the whole chapel service. Secondly, no one really likes staying back so damn late! And my parents will have to wait for me till 12, bleaurgh... A'well, life sucks sometimes huh...
And just now, my mum, brother and me went to watch the Love Unending concert organised by my church. Met Justin and Natalie doing usher duties (although it seemed more like lamp post duty, 'guarding' the exits). Not my type of genre, didnt really like it. My brother even slept halfway through. Bah! Dunno what to say anymore... Shall stop here... And remember, Kasumi kicks ass!!! mwhhahaha
Damn... Holidays ending soon... Half of it gone already :'( Boohoo
30 November 2004
Hiee!!! HL2 review!
Yay! Since I've got absolutely nothing to do after watching PCK and Living with Lydia, I'll go rant on and on and on about HL2!
It's been 6 years since the dominant reign of Halflife on the gaming world! And now in 2004, Halflife 2 sure strengthens its position on the throne as Game of the year! Haha, I've actually never managed to complete the first Halflife because it was too, erm, 'scary'. I bought the HL platinum edition mainly because of CS. So now, I'm all grown up and I've taken on what Valve has created for in the last 6 years, Halflife 2!
Yea, so by now, we all know Halflife 2 is better than Doom 3 (mwahahah!) and its the sequel to the best-selling game of all time, besides the Sims, Halflife. Back then in 1999, Halflife revolutionized the genre and the gaming industry, setting new standards for its brilliant graphics and fantastic storytelling. Our old pal, Gordon Freeman, was left with 2 choices at the end of the game - to work for the enigmatic and ever mysterious G-Man, or to die trying to survive endless onslaughts of aliens. So of course, the only logical choice was to live and work for the G-Man and with that said, HL2 drops you into City 17, 'where its safer here!', onboard a tram after listening to the G-Man's speech. There's more freedom this time round and you can interact with the other strangers who tell you stuff about the story. Unlike most other games, the lip-synching and facial expressions are done perfectly. It's like talking to a real person, albeit the computer-graphic looks. You can take your time to explore the train station but you wont have a chance to when the fighting starts later on in the game. The environments are all oh-so-wonderfully created. I've heard of people who survived rollercoaster rides without vomitting but they start feeling dizzy and nausea when they play this game! It shows how realistic HL2 can be!
With the new proprietary Source engine by Valve, it has the power to render so many textures, AA, AF, water reflections and the blurry effect above a flame (whatever you call that). But then again, you would need a damn powerful graphics card to enjoy all these. But those with lower graphics cards (like me!), the game allows for better performance and frame rate by sacrificing some of the graphical details and streaming it to DirectX 7/8/8.1! It worked perfectly fine on my computer without some minor lag and stuttering at times. It was only when I cranked up the graphical details then did my computer start to show some major drop in framerate at those scenes with many details and characters. The characters feel like real people, as mentioned earlier, looking so much like them. I don't think I've seen any 2 same character models in the whole game but some DO look like each other. When they talk to you, it looks as if they really are talking to you. Their facial expressions also convey certain emotions when they are talking to one another. Valve has done a great job in recreating human facial expressions and the character models faces sure looks like they have muscles in them. They don't look one bit stiff. As again, the character you play, Gordon Freeman, doesnt talk at all and the people around him rely on him a lot! After managing to survive Black Mesa, Gordon is treat like some sort of hero and just because he's a physicist, the people around him think he knows what to do. Sometimes, I myself am left wondering where to go after I complete a certain area.
Some puzzles are awfully confusing and some are just scripted. I was stuck at one puzzle for 2 hours. My airboat was supposed to go over this ramp and into a tunnel. At first, there was no obvious way to the ramp and you're actually supposed to blow up these two, inconspicuously placed barrels which allow access to a pathway to the ramp. I had accidentally managed to get into the pathway 'illegally' TWICE, and when I tried to enter the tunnel after going up the ramp, I hit an invisible wall -.-' Twice! The misinformed game guide I read was what mainly got me stuck there for the 2 hrs... Moral of the story? Never trust FAQs with your life! Not all of them are a 100% accurate! Especially the one I referred to so many times in the game. The levels are also a bit confusing some times. Some puzzles make use of its physics engine where items are like what they are in real life. The puzzles emulate reality. Its like, if something in real life can happen, it can happen in the game too. Like when the objects have their own weight and they mostly obey the laws of physics. Empty crates are supposed to float while bricks sink in water. The puzzles arent just finding keycards now, although they still have the same base structure, but a bit more complex and sophisticated, like using bricks to hold one end of a see-saw down so that you can jump off the elevated end to the other side.
In HL2, there are 3 new weapons namely, the Gravity gun, pulse rifle and the bugbait. Thats pretty pathetic in my opinion. Valve should've devoted more time to the development of weapons. Overall, there all only 11 weapons in the game. But you only have the bugbait on one level and for a very short while too. So you can count that as 10 weapons... You'll find that ammo is often scarce throughout the whole game and oh, don't waste your SMG ammo on the striders, it almost has no effect on them. The AI in the game has to be revolutionary! Bad guys run, take cover and use tactics to flush you out like throwing grenades and stuff like that. There are also quiet a number of scripted events and fighting with the good guys against the Combine really feels fun as you try to keep them alive and they make their own comments and warn you against incoming attacks. It feels quite realistic thanks to HL2's superb AI. They do take cover and stuff like that and they know when to run. Your allies will gladly swap their current weapon for better upgrades and those equipped with rocket launchers are pretty good at taking down the striders. Overall, the atmosphere created is like the Rebels against the Imperials in Star Wars, except that this time, it's urban warfare instead of lush jungles. Hm, I might've even grown attached to them if they didnt die so quickly (I had god mode on :p). But the AI does have it flaws. Like when you enter a room, all of them will go inside with you and it gets really cramp with so many people inside and you have to shove your away out.
I like it when your squadmates pick up new weapons and they go 'Oooh baby...' :) The music in HL2 is pretty lowkey although it IS pretty good. The music is roughly a mix of techno (not those cheesy disco 'techno' hits) and rock/metal. They kick in at only certain times of the game like when you're about to face off a major foe or when you're about to enter a new area. I must say, the music is pretty deserving of its own retail soundtrack. Too bad the soundtrack is only available on the Gold edition of HL2 which is only available on Steam (online). I would buy the soundtrack (as well as Halo 2's) if it was actually sold in Singapore! I actually love those techno tunes and their quality is far more superior to those disco or techno CD ads you see on TV (well, at least in Singapore here). If only I could somehow extract the music files... Hmm...
Halflife 2 doesnt come with deathmatch but that doesnt mean theres no HL2 multiplayer. The multiplayer portion of the game is actually a remake of the original Halflife mod, Counter-strike. This time, the good people at Valve have used the Source engine on CS to make it Counter-Strike: Source. It's still pretty 'young'. The graphics are tremendously improved and expect to see more particle effects and water splashes. There's only one character model to choose from on either team, T or CT, so I guess Valve is leaving it to the mod community to create more character models and improve on the game. Certain parts of Condition Zero are implemented into CS: Source like the ability to pick up grenades, and some from v1.6 are gone like the annoying shield which most servers ban due to balance reasons. But I still prefer to play the normal CS 1.6 instead of Source. When playing Source, the framerate drops quite a lot and for First Person Shooter veterans (like me), we need everything moving fast and not a milisecond late because aiming is everything and we have to be precise. I find that the low framerate count and lag are mainly the cause of my deaths in Source. Most of the more common maps have been ported to Source like de_dust and dust2. They also contain barrels and other objects like glass bottles which help add to the chaotic atmosphere where during gunfights, barrels will roll and glass bottles will shatter. Not that the barrels add much strategic depth but they do help in hiding snipers. I bet most people would like to see HL2 deathmatch and Valve is leaving it to the mod community's creativity to it.
From the standpoint of a hardcore Halflife fan, the story would be horribly unsatisfying with its horribly abrupt cliffhanger. I think I previously mentioned this, but the ending of HL2 is like just a small portion of the an epic saga. Think the lightsaber duel in the Empire Strikes Back, or any large-scale battle in the Lord of the Rings. It's like an unfinished story and leaves nothing but more unanswered questions and even more to be desired. For casual gamers, Halflife 2 would be a great game to pick up and enjoy, difficult for any action fan not to enjoy. Graphics are great, gameplay is just as great, physics play a good part in this kind of an action game and overall, this whole game is just superb. I'd like to quote something from gamespot, 'Although Halflife 2 doesnt revolutionize the genre, it's a worthy successor to Halflife'. If I put that here and didnt mention gamespot, it would be unfair to them because thats exactly what I think too. Because of it's great graphics and the ability to run on lower end computers, HL2 gets my score of 9.5/10 :)
Here's the lowdown:
Highs - Fantastic graphics, better than Doom 3; Great implementation of physics; lovely soundtrack; ability to run on lower-end machines; its Halflife 2!
Lows - Comes only with 5 cds in paper sleeves and no manual; no HL2 deathmatch; upsetting ending; sometimes confusing level design; but its still Halflife 2!
It's been 6 years since the dominant reign of Halflife on the gaming world! And now in 2004, Halflife 2 sure strengthens its position on the throne as Game of the year! Haha, I've actually never managed to complete the first Halflife because it was too, erm, 'scary'. I bought the HL platinum edition mainly because of CS. So now, I'm all grown up and I've taken on what Valve has created for in the last 6 years, Halflife 2!
Yea, so by now, we all know Halflife 2 is better than Doom 3 (mwahahah!) and its the sequel to the best-selling game of all time, besides the Sims, Halflife. Back then in 1999, Halflife revolutionized the genre and the gaming industry, setting new standards for its brilliant graphics and fantastic storytelling. Our old pal, Gordon Freeman, was left with 2 choices at the end of the game - to work for the enigmatic and ever mysterious G-Man, or to die trying to survive endless onslaughts of aliens. So of course, the only logical choice was to live and work for the G-Man and with that said, HL2 drops you into City 17, 'where its safer here!', onboard a tram after listening to the G-Man's speech. There's more freedom this time round and you can interact with the other strangers who tell you stuff about the story. Unlike most other games, the lip-synching and facial expressions are done perfectly. It's like talking to a real person, albeit the computer-graphic looks. You can take your time to explore the train station but you wont have a chance to when the fighting starts later on in the game. The environments are all oh-so-wonderfully created. I've heard of people who survived rollercoaster rides without vomitting but they start feeling dizzy and nausea when they play this game! It shows how realistic HL2 can be!
With the new proprietary Source engine by Valve, it has the power to render so many textures, AA, AF, water reflections and the blurry effect above a flame (whatever you call that). But then again, you would need a damn powerful graphics card to enjoy all these. But those with lower graphics cards (like me!), the game allows for better performance and frame rate by sacrificing some of the graphical details and streaming it to DirectX 7/8/8.1! It worked perfectly fine on my computer without some minor lag and stuttering at times. It was only when I cranked up the graphical details then did my computer start to show some major drop in framerate at those scenes with many details and characters. The characters feel like real people, as mentioned earlier, looking so much like them. I don't think I've seen any 2 same character models in the whole game but some DO look like each other. When they talk to you, it looks as if they really are talking to you. Their facial expressions also convey certain emotions when they are talking to one another. Valve has done a great job in recreating human facial expressions and the character models faces sure looks like they have muscles in them. They don't look one bit stiff. As again, the character you play, Gordon Freeman, doesnt talk at all and the people around him rely on him a lot! After managing to survive Black Mesa, Gordon is treat like some sort of hero and just because he's a physicist, the people around him think he knows what to do. Sometimes, I myself am left wondering where to go after I complete a certain area.
Some puzzles are awfully confusing and some are just scripted. I was stuck at one puzzle for 2 hours. My airboat was supposed to go over this ramp and into a tunnel. At first, there was no obvious way to the ramp and you're actually supposed to blow up these two, inconspicuously placed barrels which allow access to a pathway to the ramp. I had accidentally managed to get into the pathway 'illegally' TWICE, and when I tried to enter the tunnel after going up the ramp, I hit an invisible wall -.-' Twice! The misinformed game guide I read was what mainly got me stuck there for the 2 hrs... Moral of the story? Never trust FAQs with your life! Not all of them are a 100% accurate! Especially the one I referred to so many times in the game. The levels are also a bit confusing some times. Some puzzles make use of its physics engine where items are like what they are in real life. The puzzles emulate reality. Its like, if something in real life can happen, it can happen in the game too. Like when the objects have their own weight and they mostly obey the laws of physics. Empty crates are supposed to float while bricks sink in water. The puzzles arent just finding keycards now, although they still have the same base structure, but a bit more complex and sophisticated, like using bricks to hold one end of a see-saw down so that you can jump off the elevated end to the other side.
In HL2, there are 3 new weapons namely, the Gravity gun, pulse rifle and the bugbait. Thats pretty pathetic in my opinion. Valve should've devoted more time to the development of weapons. Overall, there all only 11 weapons in the game. But you only have the bugbait on one level and for a very short while too. So you can count that as 10 weapons... You'll find that ammo is often scarce throughout the whole game and oh, don't waste your SMG ammo on the striders, it almost has no effect on them. The AI in the game has to be revolutionary! Bad guys run, take cover and use tactics to flush you out like throwing grenades and stuff like that. There are also quiet a number of scripted events and fighting with the good guys against the Combine really feels fun as you try to keep them alive and they make their own comments and warn you against incoming attacks. It feels quite realistic thanks to HL2's superb AI. They do take cover and stuff like that and they know when to run. Your allies will gladly swap their current weapon for better upgrades and those equipped with rocket launchers are pretty good at taking down the striders. Overall, the atmosphere created is like the Rebels against the Imperials in Star Wars, except that this time, it's urban warfare instead of lush jungles. Hm, I might've even grown attached to them if they didnt die so quickly (I had god mode on :p). But the AI does have it flaws. Like when you enter a room, all of them will go inside with you and it gets really cramp with so many people inside and you have to shove your away out.
I like it when your squadmates pick up new weapons and they go 'Oooh baby...' :) The music in HL2 is pretty lowkey although it IS pretty good. The music is roughly a mix of techno (not those cheesy disco 'techno' hits) and rock/metal. They kick in at only certain times of the game like when you're about to face off a major foe or when you're about to enter a new area. I must say, the music is pretty deserving of its own retail soundtrack. Too bad the soundtrack is only available on the Gold edition of HL2 which is only available on Steam (online). I would buy the soundtrack (as well as Halo 2's) if it was actually sold in Singapore! I actually love those techno tunes and their quality is far more superior to those disco or techno CD ads you see on TV (well, at least in Singapore here). If only I could somehow extract the music files... Hmm...
Halflife 2 doesnt come with deathmatch but that doesnt mean theres no HL2 multiplayer. The multiplayer portion of the game is actually a remake of the original Halflife mod, Counter-strike. This time, the good people at Valve have used the Source engine on CS to make it Counter-Strike: Source. It's still pretty 'young'. The graphics are tremendously improved and expect to see more particle effects and water splashes. There's only one character model to choose from on either team, T or CT, so I guess Valve is leaving it to the mod community to create more character models and improve on the game. Certain parts of Condition Zero are implemented into CS: Source like the ability to pick up grenades, and some from v1.6 are gone like the annoying shield which most servers ban due to balance reasons. But I still prefer to play the normal CS 1.6 instead of Source. When playing Source, the framerate drops quite a lot and for First Person Shooter veterans (like me), we need everything moving fast and not a milisecond late because aiming is everything and we have to be precise. I find that the low framerate count and lag are mainly the cause of my deaths in Source. Most of the more common maps have been ported to Source like de_dust and dust2. They also contain barrels and other objects like glass bottles which help add to the chaotic atmosphere where during gunfights, barrels will roll and glass bottles will shatter. Not that the barrels add much strategic depth but they do help in hiding snipers. I bet most people would like to see HL2 deathmatch and Valve is leaving it to the mod community's creativity to it.
From the standpoint of a hardcore Halflife fan, the story would be horribly unsatisfying with its horribly abrupt cliffhanger. I think I previously mentioned this, but the ending of HL2 is like just a small portion of the an epic saga. Think the lightsaber duel in the Empire Strikes Back, or any large-scale battle in the Lord of the Rings. It's like an unfinished story and leaves nothing but more unanswered questions and even more to be desired. For casual gamers, Halflife 2 would be a great game to pick up and enjoy, difficult for any action fan not to enjoy. Graphics are great, gameplay is just as great, physics play a good part in this kind of an action game and overall, this whole game is just superb. I'd like to quote something from gamespot, 'Although Halflife 2 doesnt revolutionize the genre, it's a worthy successor to Halflife'. If I put that here and didnt mention gamespot, it would be unfair to them because thats exactly what I think too. Because of it's great graphics and the ability to run on lower end computers, HL2 gets my score of 9.5/10 :)
Here's the lowdown:
Highs - Fantastic graphics, better than Doom 3; Great implementation of physics; lovely soundtrack; ability to run on lower-end machines; its Halflife 2!
Lows - Comes only with 5 cds in paper sleeves and no manual; no HL2 deathmatch; upsetting ending; sometimes confusing level design; but its still Halflife 2!
29 November 2004
How my gaming life began...
I've just finished HL2. The ending leaves off at a cliffhanger and what seems to be half the story and leaves even more questions unanswered. Well, I was daydreaming in the shower, thinking about when I started gaming. And I mean, serious hardcore gaming. As far as I remember, I think Pokemon started it off. Sure I've played some other pinball and action games on my first Win 3.1 computer and the main interface was 80% DOS, but what I believe got me into gaming has to be Pokemon.
I remember seeing Pokemon in primary 2. More than 6 years ago! Wow! Has Pokemon lived for so long!? Then the Pokemon cartoon starting showing on Saturday mornings and then there was this Pokemon hype and soon, everyone knew about Pokemon with its yellow, bunny-looking mascot - Pikachu. So my dad bought me a GameBoy Colour and the Pokemon Yellow version cartridge. Then I remember getting a new computer in Pri 4 and that was when I was introduced to the internet. Then I started playing Neopets for a good measure of time and I started playing Runescape at the same time. I stopped Neopets for some time and concentrated on Runescape till I got horribly bored and then I continued playing Neopets. Runescape isnt like what it is now if you actually care to go check it out. I sold my Runescape account in Pri 6 and played more Neopets for some time before I managed to acquire back my Runescape account one year later and played it for a while before selling it again. By then, my computer was getting horribly outdated and I could only play those DVD packaged, bargain bin games. I got pissed and starting finding out the cause of why some newer games were unplayable. Thats when I learnt about all about the computer hardware and technical jargon. I regularly visited gamespot.com on my old com. I also played Jedi Knight 2 in some LAN shop and when I got that game for Christmas, it didnt run on my old computer. I visited that LAN shop till I completed the JK2 and I spent most of my time on my old computer chatting using MSN.
Then came Enter The Matrix, Warcraft 3, Jedi Academy. I was a huge fan of the Matrix back then. I even bought Enter The Matrix even before I got my new com. So finally, my mum bought me this HP com, moved house, new com was left there before we shifted. I set up the computer, connecting all the wires and stuff. Installed Enter the Matrix and played around with it for some time. Then I had Jedi Academy, Halo and Warcraft 3. Well, it was a new com so I was very excited. Then I learnt more in-depth stuff about video cards and relised how damn pathetic my current video card is. I remember I also had Knights of the Old Republic, a Star Wars RPG. I remember I played it for one week almost non-stop. It was a really fascinating game! There was so many quests, there was just the urge to complete them all. Just one more quest, one more! And you find you cant stop.
Oh and how could I forget! I also bought the Halflife Platinum Edition. It came with Halflife, Blue Shift, Opposing Force, Team Fortress Classic and Counter-Strike. That was when I was P6. I played A LOT of CS and till now, I'm still playing CS. For 3 years already. I also bought Diablo 2 in Sec 1 when everyone was talking about it and I had no other game to play then. Spent a lot on D2 and in the end, I didnt even bother to complete ONE single level. Yup, not even ONE. I cheated a lot tho, fought a few bosses here and there. In the end, I sold off my Diablo 2 to Justin just this year. Wasted plenty of money on D2. Sheesh, wonder what so great about D2.
Last December, I bought Need for Speed Underground not long after KOTOR if memory serves me right. Later in the year, I also bought Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow, Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War, Battlefield Vietnam, Sims 2 and lately, Halflife 2.
And I forgot to mention my GameBoy Advance! I got my GBA after my PSLE. Had these 6 cartridges - Medabots AX, Monster Rancher Advance 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 and FIFA 2004. But I almost never touch my GBA and spend most of my time playing CS on my com.
I think I've had enough of my PC (partly because of my video card) so now, Im gonna 'focus' on my soon-to-be Xbox. I've already bought the fighting game Soul Calibur 2. Cant wait to play it! Maybe console gaming would be a more refreshing change from PC gaming... Who knows? But I'll still play those big title PC games. Ill go write my HL2 review later. Its already 7 now. So much time has passed since I started writing this.
I remember seeing Pokemon in primary 2. More than 6 years ago! Wow! Has Pokemon lived for so long!? Then the Pokemon cartoon starting showing on Saturday mornings and then there was this Pokemon hype and soon, everyone knew about Pokemon with its yellow, bunny-looking mascot - Pikachu. So my dad bought me a GameBoy Colour and the Pokemon Yellow version cartridge. Then I remember getting a new computer in Pri 4 and that was when I was introduced to the internet. Then I started playing Neopets for a good measure of time and I started playing Runescape at the same time. I stopped Neopets for some time and concentrated on Runescape till I got horribly bored and then I continued playing Neopets. Runescape isnt like what it is now if you actually care to go check it out. I sold my Runescape account in Pri 6 and played more Neopets for some time before I managed to acquire back my Runescape account one year later and played it for a while before selling it again. By then, my computer was getting horribly outdated and I could only play those DVD packaged, bargain bin games. I got pissed and starting finding out the cause of why some newer games were unplayable. Thats when I learnt about all about the computer hardware and technical jargon. I regularly visited gamespot.com on my old com. I also played Jedi Knight 2 in some LAN shop and when I got that game for Christmas, it didnt run on my old computer. I visited that LAN shop till I completed the JK2 and I spent most of my time on my old computer chatting using MSN.
Then came Enter The Matrix, Warcraft 3, Jedi Academy. I was a huge fan of the Matrix back then. I even bought Enter The Matrix even before I got my new com. So finally, my mum bought me this HP com, moved house, new com was left there before we shifted. I set up the computer, connecting all the wires and stuff. Installed Enter the Matrix and played around with it for some time. Then I had Jedi Academy, Halo and Warcraft 3. Well, it was a new com so I was very excited. Then I learnt more in-depth stuff about video cards and relised how damn pathetic my current video card is. I remember I also had Knights of the Old Republic, a Star Wars RPG. I remember I played it for one week almost non-stop. It was a really fascinating game! There was so many quests, there was just the urge to complete them all. Just one more quest, one more! And you find you cant stop.
Oh and how could I forget! I also bought the Halflife Platinum Edition. It came with Halflife, Blue Shift, Opposing Force, Team Fortress Classic and Counter-Strike. That was when I was P6. I played A LOT of CS and till now, I'm still playing CS. For 3 years already. I also bought Diablo 2 in Sec 1 when everyone was talking about it and I had no other game to play then. Spent a lot on D2 and in the end, I didnt even bother to complete ONE single level. Yup, not even ONE. I cheated a lot tho, fought a few bosses here and there. In the end, I sold off my Diablo 2 to Justin just this year. Wasted plenty of money on D2. Sheesh, wonder what so great about D2.
Last December, I bought Need for Speed Underground not long after KOTOR if memory serves me right. Later in the year, I also bought Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow, Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War, Battlefield Vietnam, Sims 2 and lately, Halflife 2.
And I forgot to mention my GameBoy Advance! I got my GBA after my PSLE. Had these 6 cartridges - Medabots AX, Monster Rancher Advance 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 and FIFA 2004. But I almost never touch my GBA and spend most of my time playing CS on my com.
I think I've had enough of my PC (partly because of my video card) so now, Im gonna 'focus' on my soon-to-be Xbox. I've already bought the fighting game Soul Calibur 2. Cant wait to play it! Maybe console gaming would be a more refreshing change from PC gaming... Who knows? But I'll still play those big title PC games. Ill go write my HL2 review later. Its already 7 now. So much time has passed since I started writing this.
27 November 2004
Incredibles and Taxi
Im feeling so bored and lethargic right now... I'm pretty off form on CS and I don't feel like playing HL2... I need a new book... How many more days till Christmas and I get my Xbox? *counts* 29 more days till she will be mine, haiz... Soul Calibur 2 has to be my FIRST Xbox game I bought... And I bought it only for 40 bucks! Is that cheap or what!? Normal Xbox games usually cost 70. I also made some enquiries about World of Warcraft and it seems that it wont be out anytime soon in Singapore. Blizzard has no Asian servers yet and they're only accepting US-based credit cards. It's also gonna be pretty damn expensive. One online retailer (local) was selling WoW for 110 bucks... At thats just the standard version... I wonder how much the prepaid card would cost... E-Games Interactive will start selling WoW when they receive the second shipment when everything is more or less stabilised and ready for the Asian regions.
I think I'll start my movie reviews now...
From the makers of Finding Nemo (Pixar) comes the Incredibles. It basically revolves around this family of superheroes. Mr Incredible has superstrength and quite indestructible, Mrs Incredible (or Elastigirl) can stretch a lot and is pretty flexible. Their children also have superpowers. Dashielle has hyper speed and Violet can turn invisible and create forcefields. The youngest in the family is Jack-Jack and he hasnt shown any signs of superpowers. He's still an infant after all, but at the end of show, he DOES show some superpowers. The movie looks just like Finding Nemo in terms of the visuals. Its all CGI animation and as usual, the voice work is impressive. The movie runs for a good 1 and 3/4 hrs. This one's for the young ones, most adults wont really like it I guess, because of the more cartoony feel. The plot is simple, good guys fight bad guys. But there are a few surprises here and there. It sure can be pretty funny at some times. But overall, this movie is a must see.
Taxi is highly underrated! You guys should go see it now!!! The story revolves around this loser cop and funky Afro-American woman who gets her taxi liscense and mods her car till it becomes something like a Nissan Skyline. After a failed assignment, the loser cop heads out to vindicate himself when he learns about a bank robbery. He gets into the Afro-American woman's taxi and together, they chase the criminals for the rest of the movie. Expect plenty of laughs along the way. Its like 60% comedy and the rest action. Trust me, this is better than Incredibles! You people just have to watch it. The ending isnt so great but who cares! This movie ROX!
Ok, there's my 2 cents on the Incredibles and Taxi. If I have to compare, I'd say Taxi is better than the Incredibles. Incredibles just gets more publicity, while Taxi has absolutely no advertisments. But I got my Taxi tix for free :)
I'm currently taking a break from HL2. Like I said, its really too gory and visceral. At some times, it gets quite tedious to me. Especially when I cant find doors and I get so frustrated. There was one puzzle which got me stuck for a long time and to add to the trouble, the FAQ I read on the internet was horribly misinformed! Oh and EA has announced the first Sims 2 expansion, The Sims 2 University! Now the teens can go to college and have their own dorms and work part time! For more news and stuff, just check out www.gamespot.com or www.gamespy.com :)
I think I'll start my movie reviews now...
From the makers of Finding Nemo (Pixar) comes the Incredibles. It basically revolves around this family of superheroes. Mr Incredible has superstrength and quite indestructible, Mrs Incredible (or Elastigirl) can stretch a lot and is pretty flexible. Their children also have superpowers. Dashielle has hyper speed and Violet can turn invisible and create forcefields. The youngest in the family is Jack-Jack and he hasnt shown any signs of superpowers. He's still an infant after all, but at the end of show, he DOES show some superpowers. The movie looks just like Finding Nemo in terms of the visuals. Its all CGI animation and as usual, the voice work is impressive. The movie runs for a good 1 and 3/4 hrs. This one's for the young ones, most adults wont really like it I guess, because of the more cartoony feel. The plot is simple, good guys fight bad guys. But there are a few surprises here and there. It sure can be pretty funny at some times. But overall, this movie is a must see.
Taxi is highly underrated! You guys should go see it now!!! The story revolves around this loser cop and funky Afro-American woman who gets her taxi liscense and mods her car till it becomes something like a Nissan Skyline. After a failed assignment, the loser cop heads out to vindicate himself when he learns about a bank robbery. He gets into the Afro-American woman's taxi and together, they chase the criminals for the rest of the movie. Expect plenty of laughs along the way. Its like 60% comedy and the rest action. Trust me, this is better than Incredibles! You people just have to watch it. The ending isnt so great but who cares! This movie ROX!
Ok, there's my 2 cents on the Incredibles and Taxi. If I have to compare, I'd say Taxi is better than the Incredibles. Incredibles just gets more publicity, while Taxi has absolutely no advertisments. But I got my Taxi tix for free :)
I'm currently taking a break from HL2. Like I said, its really too gory and visceral. At some times, it gets quite tedious to me. Especially when I cant find doors and I get so frustrated. There was one puzzle which got me stuck for a long time and to add to the trouble, the FAQ I read on the internet was horribly misinformed! Oh and EA has announced the first Sims 2 expansion, The Sims 2 University! Now the teens can go to college and have their own dorms and work part time! For more news and stuff, just check out www.gamespot.com or www.gamespy.com :)
26 November 2004
HL2 is MINEEE
How long's it been!? One week? Two weeks?? Who cares!? I've got Halflife 2 baby!!! WOOHOO! I havent been posting 'cos I didnt want to until I had HL2. So on Wednesday, my mum brought me and brother out to watch the Incredibles and she bought me HL2. Im not gonna review the Incredibles here but you just have to know its a damn good show! Its basically about this family of superheroes and fighting crime to save the world! I bought my HL2 at Times the Bookshop which came with some extra game called Warrior Kings, some crappy and useless RTS.
So when we got home, I headed for my room, turned on the computer and installed it. Installation was pretty smooth. I was even surfing the net while installing but it sure was laggy... After 5 cds, I still had to authenticate and validate my copy. Validating took under a minute but it took an HOUR to decrypt the files from Steam. But it didnt really matter 'cos I was watching TV. So at 8pm, it was ready to go (after more updating). I played till 8.30. Well, Charmed came first... So after Charmed, I played HL2 till midnight! And boy, HL2 sure lives up to its M-rating. It's highly visceral and gory. Plenty of blood. And with such great graphics, it sure looks EVEN more scary especially in Ravenholm, the zombie ghost town. HL2 is truly a spectacle and the graphics amazing even on my pathetic Radeon 9200. HL2 is such a spectacle to behold, I don't know where to start. I've got lotsa time even though its already midnite now. Woke up pretty late this morning... Or should I say afternoon...
Hm wait, I don't think I'll review HL2 here first... Maybe tomorrow... But I'll give my 2 cents on HL2... Well, first of all, HL2 is pretty scary... But not as scary as Doom 3 of course. The graphics are fantastic and beats Doom 3 outright. Well, for the outdoor scenes that is. Doom 3's engine scores in the indoor level department instead. Doom 3 is kinda claustrophobic anyway. So anyway, I got pretty worried when I had to go to Ravenholm. Apparently the bad guys had busted our secret location and the ceiling collapses seperating Gordon (technically, me) from Alyx. So im forced to make it through Ravenholm and meet up with Alyx later. As you walk through the underlit tunnel to Ravenholm, scary music starts playing and along the way, it saves and loads Ravenholm. I bet Ravenholm is pretty memorable because of what it is, Ravenholm. Ravenholm is entirely desserted save for the infestation of headcrab zombies. Its all dark and scary and headcrab zombies after your neck. But with the gravity gun, I could pick up explosive barrels and launch them at the zombies. But it wasnt so scary because I had god mode on so I never died :) For the most part, its pretty quiet and theres hardly any music so you hear the zombies' moaning and the headcrabs' chatter. There are lotsa sawblades lying around so you can just pick up the sawblades and fire them at the zombies which slices them in half! Neat huh! I killed 4 zombies at once with this :) I'm not going to spoil the rest of the story so you go buy the game and find out for yourself.
Of course, I didnt play Ravenholm at night. I did that on Thursday. But before that, me, Sean and Ben went to watch the movie Taxi at Cine (as usual). I even bought the Xbox game Soul Calibur 2 when I don't even have an Xbox... YET... Gotta wait till Christmas... *sigh* Trust me, Taxi rocks!!! Its half comedy, half action and its one helluva great movie! Ok, so now that means I have 2 movies and 1 game to review on my to-do list.... Right now, I've almost finished HL2. I'm taking breaks 'cos HL2 is just too visceral and mind-numbing for me. Till then, I'm off to finishing my Star Wars novel. And waddya noe, it took me an hour to finish this entry. Its 1am now... Good morning!!! Haha, im pretty 'nocturnal'...
And boy, do I need a haircut...
So when we got home, I headed for my room, turned on the computer and installed it. Installation was pretty smooth. I was even surfing the net while installing but it sure was laggy... After 5 cds, I still had to authenticate and validate my copy. Validating took under a minute but it took an HOUR to decrypt the files from Steam. But it didnt really matter 'cos I was watching TV. So at 8pm, it was ready to go (after more updating). I played till 8.30. Well, Charmed came first... So after Charmed, I played HL2 till midnight! And boy, HL2 sure lives up to its M-rating. It's highly visceral and gory. Plenty of blood. And with such great graphics, it sure looks EVEN more scary especially in Ravenholm, the zombie ghost town. HL2 is truly a spectacle and the graphics amazing even on my pathetic Radeon 9200. HL2 is such a spectacle to behold, I don't know where to start. I've got lotsa time even though its already midnite now. Woke up pretty late this morning... Or should I say afternoon...
Hm wait, I don't think I'll review HL2 here first... Maybe tomorrow... But I'll give my 2 cents on HL2... Well, first of all, HL2 is pretty scary... But not as scary as Doom 3 of course. The graphics are fantastic and beats Doom 3 outright. Well, for the outdoor scenes that is. Doom 3's engine scores in the indoor level department instead. Doom 3 is kinda claustrophobic anyway. So anyway, I got pretty worried when I had to go to Ravenholm. Apparently the bad guys had busted our secret location and the ceiling collapses seperating Gordon (technically, me) from Alyx. So im forced to make it through Ravenholm and meet up with Alyx later. As you walk through the underlit tunnel to Ravenholm, scary music starts playing and along the way, it saves and loads Ravenholm. I bet Ravenholm is pretty memorable because of what it is, Ravenholm. Ravenholm is entirely desserted save for the infestation of headcrab zombies. Its all dark and scary and headcrab zombies after your neck. But with the gravity gun, I could pick up explosive barrels and launch them at the zombies. But it wasnt so scary because I had god mode on so I never died :) For the most part, its pretty quiet and theres hardly any music so you hear the zombies' moaning and the headcrabs' chatter. There are lotsa sawblades lying around so you can just pick up the sawblades and fire them at the zombies which slices them in half! Neat huh! I killed 4 zombies at once with this :) I'm not going to spoil the rest of the story so you go buy the game and find out for yourself.
Of course, I didnt play Ravenholm at night. I did that on Thursday. But before that, me, Sean and Ben went to watch the movie Taxi at Cine (as usual). I even bought the Xbox game Soul Calibur 2 when I don't even have an Xbox... YET... Gotta wait till Christmas... *sigh* Trust me, Taxi rocks!!! Its half comedy, half action and its one helluva great movie! Ok, so now that means I have 2 movies and 1 game to review on my to-do list.... Right now, I've almost finished HL2. I'm taking breaks 'cos HL2 is just too visceral and mind-numbing for me. Till then, I'm off to finishing my Star Wars novel. And waddya noe, it took me an hour to finish this entry. Its 1am now... Good morning!!! Haha, im pretty 'nocturnal'...
And boy, do I need a haircut...
20 November 2004
I want HL2!!!
*sobs* *sobs* I must've been the one most anticipated about HL2 but in the end, I must be the LAST to get HL2!!! HL2 was released officially on Friday, yesterday. I spent the day at home playing CS and the Sims 2 and chatting. I even ordered KFC but I didnt feel like going out at all. I've read some feedback from threads in forums and even one Gamespy article. Both agreed that the Collectors Edition wasnt worth, especially at 130 bucks! I intended to get HL2 today but I had to go to a relative's house. Boohoo, I want HL2!!!! I'm the class's gamer, I should be the first to get all the new releases right... But earlier this afternoon, Justin smsed saying he already had it and was at the Ravenholm level!!!! Just now, Leonard told me (on MSN) that he already had it!!! Sure is a blow to my reputation :S
Thxfully, I've got some 20 dollar voucher from Times :) Im gonna need to save up as much moolah as I can cos World of Warcraft is 99 bucks!!! And I'm gonna have to pay even more to continue playing. Right now, I'm still wondering whether I should invest in my Xbox or PC... A'well... Hu carez...
Thxfully, I've got some 20 dollar voucher from Times :) Im gonna need to save up as much moolah as I can cos World of Warcraft is 99 bucks!!! And I'm gonna have to pay even more to continue playing. Right now, I'm still wondering whether I should invest in my Xbox or PC... A'well... Hu carez...
17 November 2004
Song update!
Wooohooo!!! After 2 hours, I finally managed to type the code and sync the lyrics with the song! The lyrics were from gamespy.com, I previously posted about this. If you're downloading this for the first time, it may take a little long and cause it to go out of sync with the lyrics. May this song drive you crazy like it did to me! I had to sync it and listen to that song for over 30 times!
-Edit- Bah! I deleted the whole damn thing so theres only the 12th day. Forget about the entire song, it just wasnt working...
-Edit- Bah! I deleted the whole damn thing so theres only the 12th day. Forget about the entire song, it just wasnt working...
What I want for Christmas/Bday...
Yay! Since my Birthday and Christmas is just ONE day apart, I get TWO presents :) This year has to be extra special because my aunt has got me an Xbox!!! Ok here's my wishlist:
1. World of Warcraft Collectors Edition
2. Halflife 2 Collectors Edition
3. Halo 2
4. Soul Calibur 2
5. Burnout 3
6. Need for Speed Underground 2
7. Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
8. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
I'm not gonna expect too much so that wishlist was all below a 100 bucks. But, anyways, I have another wishlist for stuff ABOVE 100 bucks :)
1. ATI Radeon 9800 XT (AGP 8X)
2. Nintendo DS
3. Sony PSP
4. Creative MuVo FM TX
5. Razer Viper Mouse
6. ZBoard gaming Keyboards
7. Razer Viper Mousepad
8. XBox Live
Hey wait... The Xbox live and Mousepad are below 100 hundred bucks... A'well *shrugs* I doubt I'll be getting any of these :S But hey! Cant I fantasize a bit!
I find it so weird that I've been waking up VERY early the last few days... I never managed to sleep past 12pm... Damn! And can anyone help me find a solution - My 'View Source' on Internet Explorer doesnt work, when I click it, nothing pops up.
1. World of Warcraft Collectors Edition
2. Halflife 2 Collectors Edition
3. Halo 2
4. Soul Calibur 2
5. Burnout 3
6. Need for Speed Underground 2
7. Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
8. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
I'm not gonna expect too much so that wishlist was all below a 100 bucks. But, anyways, I have another wishlist for stuff ABOVE 100 bucks :)
1. ATI Radeon 9800 XT (AGP 8X)
2. Nintendo DS
3. Sony PSP
4. Creative MuVo FM TX
5. Razer Viper Mouse
6. ZBoard gaming Keyboards
7. Razer Viper Mousepad
8. XBox Live
Hey wait... The Xbox live and Mousepad are below 100 hundred bucks... A'well *shrugs* I doubt I'll be getting any of these :S But hey! Cant I fantasize a bit!
I find it so weird that I've been waking up VERY early the last few days... I never managed to sleep past 12pm... Damn! And can anyone help me find a solution - My 'View Source' on Internet Explorer doesnt work, when I click it, nothing pops up.
16 November 2004
Druid, Mage or Warlock???
I've been pondering, these few days, over which class to be in World of Warcraft... Im horribly undecided over which class to choose... For the unitiated, I'll list down the main differences and you can help me decide :D Tag my board ok?
Druid: The Druid is basically the jack of all trades and master of none (like what Duncan would describe me in CS). The Druid is good in both close combat and magic attacks. But its main power is shapeshifting. Druids are able to shapeshift into a bear form (mainly used for an all out offensive attack), cat form, travel form (to travel faster) and aquatic form (for travelling underwater). But when in these forms, items cannot be used and spell cannot be cast. The Druid can also heal but it aint much, and he can also resurrect! The Druid is also restricted to leather/cloth armor which aint protecting much...
Mage: The Mage would be your primary spellcaster. It focuses on 3 primary aspects of magic, namely Arcane, Fire and Frost. Arcane would kinda be like the General category, while Fire does Fire damage and Frost, well, Cold damage. The cool thing about Mages are that they can teleport and blink (short distance teleporting). Blinking actually removes buffs and curses and some other negative effects. Another cool spell has to be Polymorph! As in Warcraft 3, Polymorph turns targetted foe into a sheep! Yep, a sheep :) Great for crowd control. Mages have also powerful Area of Effect spells which helps deal damage to multiple enemies. Frost spells can slow down the enemy or freeze them for a certain period of time. Oh and did I mention Mages can summon food and drink to heal you :) Like all spellcasting classes, Mages are vulnerable in close combat which is utterly inevitable when soloing. Mages can only wear cloth armor thus, unable to withstand much punishment. I like to take Mages as a half support class and half power class. Mages can also remove curses and stuff like that to a certain extent.
Warlock: I like to picture Warlocks as the Sith lords, good guys gone bad. Warlocks are like Mages of the dark side. Warlocks are the all out offensive Mages. They focus on bad magic and use extremely powerful spells which require soul shards. Soul shards are obtained by casting Drain Soul on a dying monster and they do not stack (meaning, it takes up one inventory slot) for balance reasons. Warlocks have many spells that require reagents, a certain item required for that spell, and most of these are rare but the spells are mainly powerful. Warlocks cannot heal others and they do not have any other 'healing' spells like removing curses and buffs, but it can heal itself using Drain Life. While Warlocks are heavily combat orientated (they're like the magic version of the Warriors), they have pets which they can summon. They can summon their own Felsteed horse mount instead of purchasing one which tends to be rather expensive. Warlocks use dark/shadow magic so most Priests should be able to counter such effects. The downside has to be its vulnerabilty to close combat and some powerful spells are a hassle to cast, requiring a few party members or reagents and soul shards. I'm not sure about this but I think most spells would require more time to cast.
Ok so there, thats my take on the characters I'm currently undecided on. So pls help me cure this dilemma! All look pretty good, I'm not sure which I should use. I'm kinda leaning to the Mage side because of Polymoprh and Blink.
Yea, so excited about my Xbox :) I've created a list of the 3 games I'm gonna buy. 1. Halo 2; 2. Soul Calibur 2; 3. Burnout 3: Takedown. I've always felt that fighting games were meant for the console. Its only right, the few buttons and D-pad make it a good choice. From a PC Gamer's perspective, Halo 2 (First Person Shooters) is/are meant for the PC because of the accuracy of the mouse. But thankfully, because of the inaccuracy of the Xbox controller, most games have a larger crosshair and any target inside the crosshair is shot, take Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow for example. But trust me, once you get used to playing Halo 2 on the XBox, you won't find the controller a problem (like me). Because my big TV blew up (about a year ago), my family is left with a tiny TV which is gonna suck a lot when I play my Xbox on it. I've done my research and found out theres this adapter which lets you connect your Xbox to a LCD screen monitor :) But I think my mum is gonna buy a LCD TV sometime soon... I hope... Analysts predict the price will drop in the next few months and Digital Life says that its best to hold on for a few more months before buying them. I kinda have to agree, I remember seeing a 37" (i think) LCD TV for around 3k, thats pretty cheap you have to admit. The brand was JVC or was it Panasonic, I cant remember. The adapter is called the X2VGA+ adapter. It can even allow you to switch between your Xbox and computer with a press of a button! How cool is that! Click here for more information.
With that said (and nothing more else to say), I'd like to end off this post here. Oh and by the way, anyone have the song Rumors - Lindsay Lohan? Pls send it to me!
Druid: The Druid is basically the jack of all trades and master of none (like what Duncan would describe me in CS). The Druid is good in both close combat and magic attacks. But its main power is shapeshifting. Druids are able to shapeshift into a bear form (mainly used for an all out offensive attack), cat form, travel form (to travel faster) and aquatic form (for travelling underwater). But when in these forms, items cannot be used and spell cannot be cast. The Druid can also heal but it aint much, and he can also resurrect! The Druid is also restricted to leather/cloth armor which aint protecting much...
Mage: The Mage would be your primary spellcaster. It focuses on 3 primary aspects of magic, namely Arcane, Fire and Frost. Arcane would kinda be like the General category, while Fire does Fire damage and Frost, well, Cold damage. The cool thing about Mages are that they can teleport and blink (short distance teleporting). Blinking actually removes buffs and curses and some other negative effects. Another cool spell has to be Polymorph! As in Warcraft 3, Polymorph turns targetted foe into a sheep! Yep, a sheep :) Great for crowd control. Mages have also powerful Area of Effect spells which helps deal damage to multiple enemies. Frost spells can slow down the enemy or freeze them for a certain period of time. Oh and did I mention Mages can summon food and drink to heal you :) Like all spellcasting classes, Mages are vulnerable in close combat which is utterly inevitable when soloing. Mages can only wear cloth armor thus, unable to withstand much punishment. I like to take Mages as a half support class and half power class. Mages can also remove curses and stuff like that to a certain extent.
Warlock: I like to picture Warlocks as the Sith lords, good guys gone bad. Warlocks are like Mages of the dark side. Warlocks are the all out offensive Mages. They focus on bad magic and use extremely powerful spells which require soul shards. Soul shards are obtained by casting Drain Soul on a dying monster and they do not stack (meaning, it takes up one inventory slot) for balance reasons. Warlocks have many spells that require reagents, a certain item required for that spell, and most of these are rare but the spells are mainly powerful. Warlocks cannot heal others and they do not have any other 'healing' spells like removing curses and buffs, but it can heal itself using Drain Life. While Warlocks are heavily combat orientated (they're like the magic version of the Warriors), they have pets which they can summon. They can summon their own Felsteed horse mount instead of purchasing one which tends to be rather expensive. Warlocks use dark/shadow magic so most Priests should be able to counter such effects. The downside has to be its vulnerabilty to close combat and some powerful spells are a hassle to cast, requiring a few party members or reagents and soul shards. I'm not sure about this but I think most spells would require more time to cast.
Ok so there, thats my take on the characters I'm currently undecided on. So pls help me cure this dilemma! All look pretty good, I'm not sure which I should use. I'm kinda leaning to the Mage side because of Polymoprh and Blink.
Yea, so excited about my Xbox :) I've created a list of the 3 games I'm gonna buy. 1. Halo 2; 2. Soul Calibur 2; 3. Burnout 3: Takedown. I've always felt that fighting games were meant for the console. Its only right, the few buttons and D-pad make it a good choice. From a PC Gamer's perspective, Halo 2 (First Person Shooters) is/are meant for the PC because of the accuracy of the mouse. But thankfully, because of the inaccuracy of the Xbox controller, most games have a larger crosshair and any target inside the crosshair is shot, take Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow for example. But trust me, once you get used to playing Halo 2 on the XBox, you won't find the controller a problem (like me). Because my big TV blew up (about a year ago), my family is left with a tiny TV which is gonna suck a lot when I play my Xbox on it. I've done my research and found out theres this adapter which lets you connect your Xbox to a LCD screen monitor :) But I think my mum is gonna buy a LCD TV sometime soon... I hope... Analysts predict the price will drop in the next few months and Digital Life says that its best to hold on for a few more months before buying them. I kinda have to agree, I remember seeing a 37" (i think) LCD TV for around 3k, thats pretty cheap you have to admit. The brand was JVC or was it Panasonic, I cant remember. The adapter is called the X2VGA+ adapter. It can even allow you to switch between your Xbox and computer with a press of a button! How cool is that! Click here for more information.
With that said (and nothing more else to say), I'd like to end off this post here. Oh and by the way, anyone have the song Rumors - Lindsay Lohan? Pls send it to me!
15 November 2004
For once, life is good...
Oh yeah! Went to Plaza Sing today with my mum and bro. Earlier on, they went to watch that Winnie The Pooh live show with my neighbour and when I woke up, they were already back. Later on, we went to Plaza Sing and bought lotsa stuff from Times the Bookshop. My mum bought me the Star Wars: Republic Commando book, a tie-in with the game of the same title to be released next year. I also bought PC Gamer. I wanted the Night Elf cover but Times didnt have it, only the Orc cover :( My mum bought some other book. There was an in-store promotion - Buy Playworks (local gaming magazine) and get two movie passes for the movie Taxi! Yay, so this Thursday, Im gonna watch Taxi with Ben :) On the way home, my aunt called to tell my mum not to buy a Xbox for me because she had already bought one for me :D Whooo! I'm getting an Xbox! My mum originally didnt want to buy one for me because I went to B band instead of A band (boohooo). Yay! So damn happy!!! Can't wait for Christmas :) Yay!!! Heh, this is the only place I'm telling anyone about my XBox so I know who are the ones who check my blog :) Yaaay! Im gonna get an Xbox! Im gonna get an Xbox!!!
14 November 2004
Hari Raya Weekends
I've got so many thing to blog this weekend but havent had the time to. I just came back from my cousin's house (which I spent the whole day at) but I'll start from yesterday...
Yesterday was the day I learnt what made Halo 2 so damn special, why its so damn special and how its so damn special!!! I personally tried Halo 2 at the X-Square at Downtown East. I had to play with my brother (co-op) whether I liked it or not. We first played on the normal flat screen TV (not plasma or LCD, plain projection TV) and the visual graphic quality SUCKED!!! Everything was small and pixelated. The XBox I had seemed to be broken or something as it kept stuttering and lagging till the framerate was below 5 (TERRIBLE!!!). So I complained to the staff and they transferred me to the XBox stations with the projector!!! Yea baby! Larger than your 49" plasma TV! I looked around and the TV that offered the best visual quality had to be the LCD TVs. The graphics were simply gorgeous! Amazing! The XBox at the projector was MUCH better. Gameplay was smooth for the rest of my 4 hours there and though the graphics wasn't up to par with the LCD TVs, the quality was pretty much better. And man, for the next 4 hours, I didnt not move my body. I just sat on the chair and PLAYED, glue to the screen! Halo 2 is fantastic! Would give it a 9.5!!!
My only gripe was the levels... They were confusing (at times) and ,though not as much repititive as its predecessor, I got lost on a couple of occasions. But damn! Was it fun! The cinematics were impressive, the storyline (with a dash of humour) was engaging, the gameplay was immersive, the character models were detailed (with more polygon count) and the audio just completed the whole package! In my 4 hours with Halo 2, I have NEVER heard the same line of dialouge from my AI team mates twice! Except for the scripted sequences, thats different. The graphics are top-notch save for a few minor bugs I spotted (shadowing not appearing correctly) but that occured VERY rarely. Master Chief aint looking too blocky now and Cortana's got a haircut! I remember in one of the reviews I read, it said that the first time you jack a vehicle, you'll never forget and how right it is! Imagine Covenant Ghosts swarming all around, and one particular one is heading your way. Without knowing it, I held X long enough to get onto the front of the banshee and kicked the rightful owner out of his Ghost! The strangest thing was I pulled it off on my first try! Talk about beginner's luck! Later in the level, I realised how hard it was to jack another Ghost when its at top speed. I remember jacking a Wraith tank where I tossed a grenade into the cockpit and was left with one less problem to care about :) But then again, when you're jacking a vehicle and on top of it, you're completely invulnerable to enemy fire so you had better do it fast. I learnt that the hardway when I had to punch the pilot of another Wraith tank out inside of throwing a grenade. In less than 5 seconds, I was dead with all the plasma fire in the air!
The levels were pretty much linear and theres usually only one path you can take. But it doesnt really matter when theres so much action! Sitting there for 4 hours straight, I stood up and the 'popping' of my neck and back proved how immsersive a game Halo 2 is.
I'd like to share something I learnt in church today. You see, everytime theres a problem, we try to solve it to the best of our limits by ourselves. When we realise that theres no hope, we start to pray. In short, we use God as our last resort. When all else fails, we pray. That's not the way it should be. We should put God first and not wait till the last resort then we seek greater power. God doesnt want to be last. Its like having a problem with a particular maths sum and the last person you find it your teacher or tutor (depending on availability). You search all reference books and try the calculator again and again, swearing its malfunctioned, when you should've gone to your teacher in the first place. I believe this happens to everyone including me. We just don't realise we need God that much and we should really try to put God in our daily lives and not be used as our LAST resort. Admit it, I'm sure that when you find yourself in a suitation where theres no way out and you've tried everything then you finally pray to God when the situation becomes dire.
So after church, my aunty invited us out to lunch. I spent the rest of the day at my cousin's house (which is also my aunty's and uncle's), watching movies, playing with my cousin and around 4pm plus, we went to East Coast to cycle until around 6+. I cycled for 2 hours and thats why my hands kinda hurt right now. I find it weird that my hands should hurt instead of my legs. Thats only logical when you cycle right? I guessed I must've gripped the handle too much for my hand to hurt of this magnitude. I went back to my cousin's house for dinner. We ordered pizza (from Pizza Hut, duh) and stayed until 11+... Its way past midnight and I really have to sleep... I woke up at 8+ this morning which is horribly early for me when I slept at 1.30 the night before. Yep, 8 hours aint enough, I need at least 10 :p
Ooooh! And PC Gamer's lastest issue features World of Warcraft!!!!!!!! YAAAAAYYY!!!!!!!!!!!! I saw it at 7-eleven just now but the issue they sold was the solo version (without the CD) and was 10 bucks instead of 7. Even if it was 7, I wouldn't have bought 'cos I wanted the CD. Gonna get it at some major bookstore later this week... G'nite...
Yesterday was the day I learnt what made Halo 2 so damn special, why its so damn special and how its so damn special!!! I personally tried Halo 2 at the X-Square at Downtown East. I had to play with my brother (co-op) whether I liked it or not. We first played on the normal flat screen TV (not plasma or LCD, plain projection TV) and the visual graphic quality SUCKED!!! Everything was small and pixelated. The XBox I had seemed to be broken or something as it kept stuttering and lagging till the framerate was below 5 (TERRIBLE!!!). So I complained to the staff and they transferred me to the XBox stations with the projector!!! Yea baby! Larger than your 49" plasma TV! I looked around and the TV that offered the best visual quality had to be the LCD TVs. The graphics were simply gorgeous! Amazing! The XBox at the projector was MUCH better. Gameplay was smooth for the rest of my 4 hours there and though the graphics wasn't up to par with the LCD TVs, the quality was pretty much better. And man, for the next 4 hours, I didnt not move my body. I just sat on the chair and PLAYED, glue to the screen! Halo 2 is fantastic! Would give it a 9.5!!!
My only gripe was the levels... They were confusing (at times) and ,though not as much repititive as its predecessor, I got lost on a couple of occasions. But damn! Was it fun! The cinematics were impressive, the storyline (with a dash of humour) was engaging, the gameplay was immersive, the character models were detailed (with more polygon count) and the audio just completed the whole package! In my 4 hours with Halo 2, I have NEVER heard the same line of dialouge from my AI team mates twice! Except for the scripted sequences, thats different. The graphics are top-notch save for a few minor bugs I spotted (shadowing not appearing correctly) but that occured VERY rarely. Master Chief aint looking too blocky now and Cortana's got a haircut! I remember in one of the reviews I read, it said that the first time you jack a vehicle, you'll never forget and how right it is! Imagine Covenant Ghosts swarming all around, and one particular one is heading your way. Without knowing it, I held X long enough to get onto the front of the banshee and kicked the rightful owner out of his Ghost! The strangest thing was I pulled it off on my first try! Talk about beginner's luck! Later in the level, I realised how hard it was to jack another Ghost when its at top speed. I remember jacking a Wraith tank where I tossed a grenade into the cockpit and was left with one less problem to care about :) But then again, when you're jacking a vehicle and on top of it, you're completely invulnerable to enemy fire so you had better do it fast. I learnt that the hardway when I had to punch the pilot of another Wraith tank out inside of throwing a grenade. In less than 5 seconds, I was dead with all the plasma fire in the air!
The levels were pretty much linear and theres usually only one path you can take. But it doesnt really matter when theres so much action! Sitting there for 4 hours straight, I stood up and the 'popping' of my neck and back proved how immsersive a game Halo 2 is.
I'd like to share something I learnt in church today. You see, everytime theres a problem, we try to solve it to the best of our limits by ourselves. When we realise that theres no hope, we start to pray. In short, we use God as our last resort. When all else fails, we pray. That's not the way it should be. We should put God first and not wait till the last resort then we seek greater power. God doesnt want to be last. Its like having a problem with a particular maths sum and the last person you find it your teacher or tutor (depending on availability). You search all reference books and try the calculator again and again, swearing its malfunctioned, when you should've gone to your teacher in the first place. I believe this happens to everyone including me. We just don't realise we need God that much and we should really try to put God in our daily lives and not be used as our LAST resort. Admit it, I'm sure that when you find yourself in a suitation where theres no way out and you've tried everything then you finally pray to God when the situation becomes dire.
So after church, my aunty invited us out to lunch. I spent the rest of the day at my cousin's house (which is also my aunty's and uncle's), watching movies, playing with my cousin and around 4pm plus, we went to East Coast to cycle until around 6+. I cycled for 2 hours and thats why my hands kinda hurt right now. I find it weird that my hands should hurt instead of my legs. Thats only logical when you cycle right? I guessed I must've gripped the handle too much for my hand to hurt of this magnitude. I went back to my cousin's house for dinner. We ordered pizza (from Pizza Hut, duh) and stayed until 11+... Its way past midnight and I really have to sleep... I woke up at 8+ this morning which is horribly early for me when I slept at 1.30 the night before. Yep, 8 hours aint enough, I need at least 10 :p
Ooooh! And PC Gamer's lastest issue features World of Warcraft!!!!!!!! YAAAAAYYY!!!!!!!!!!!! I saw it at 7-eleven just now but the issue they sold was the solo version (without the CD) and was 10 bucks instead of 7. Even if it was 7, I wouldn't have bought 'cos I wanted the CD. Gonna get it at some major bookstore later this week... G'nite...
11 November 2004
Gaming Service Announcement
Need For Speed Underground is already out in stores now and retailing for 55 SGD (I think...)
Halflife 2 will be in stores on the 19th and not the pre-expected 16th of November due to shipping and whatnot. Halflife 2 will come in two editions, the Normal one will retail for 70 SGD while the Collectors Edition, which includes CS: Source and Halflife: Source, a Halflife 2 T-Shirt (only available in Men's XL) and a Prima Halflife 2 Book, will retail for 129.90 SGD. When I meant 70 SGD, its rounded up. The actual price would save you 10 cents (wth, what u gonna spend 10 cents with?)
Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines will be released on the same day as Halflife 2. Vampires is a 3D RPG based in White Wolf's pen-and-paper role-playing series. Its set in a Gothic and very dark Los Angeles and lets you play as a vampire. It'll run on the Valve's proprietary Source engine and expect horrors, gore and plenty of blood in this one. Rated M for Mature. For more news, check out Gamespot's coverage on Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines here.
Halflife 2 will be in stores on the 19th and not the pre-expected 16th of November due to shipping and whatnot. Halflife 2 will come in two editions, the Normal one will retail for 70 SGD while the Collectors Edition, which includes CS: Source and Halflife: Source, a Halflife 2 T-Shirt (only available in Men's XL) and a Prima Halflife 2 Book, will retail for 129.90 SGD. When I meant 70 SGD, its rounded up. The actual price would save you 10 cents (wth, what u gonna spend 10 cents with?)
Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines will be released on the same day as Halflife 2. Vampires is a 3D RPG based in White Wolf's pen-and-paper role-playing series. Its set in a Gothic and very dark Los Angeles and lets you play as a vampire. It'll run on the Valve's proprietary Source engine and expect horrors, gore and plenty of blood in this one. Rated M for Mature. For more news, check out Gamespot's coverage on Vampires: The Masquerade - Bloodlines here.
10 November 2004
Blog update
Ok, the WoW Legends file was kinda big and was giving problems. Was using too much bandwidth I think... But I changed it to this! The theme of Teldrassil! Teladrassil is the Night Elves' capital city. Its just a sample of it actually, thats why its too damn short. I get these mp3s from the Blizzard website, downloads section if you're wondering...
I think this musical score reflects the Night Elves very well... Mysterious, enchanting, spellbinding, everything a Night Elf is! Awell, cant wait for World of Warcraft, not to mention Guild Wars...
I think this musical score reflects the Night Elves very well... Mysterious, enchanting, spellbinding, everything a Night Elf is! Awell, cant wait for World of Warcraft, not to mention Guild Wars...
Sing this!
The Abridged Twelve Days of a Non-Denomenational Holiday (or NDH):
On the twelfth day of NDH
my true love gave to me...
12 foxy fighters
11 ninjas slicing
10 aching fingers
9 wrasslin' rappers
8 Bard's a-singing
7 angry Wookiees
6 months of Live
5 freedoms for Sam
4 badass X-Men
3 Rainbow Sixes
2 destructive skaters
and a Spartan in a Banshee!
-Will, Gamespy.com
I got this from Gamespy.com and I loved this so much, Im posting it on my blog! Sing to the tune of 'The 12th of Christmas' or whatever that name of the song is.'...and a Spartan in a Bansheeeeeeeeeee...'
06 November 2004
Theme update!
Remember how I always dissed MMORPGs? Well, seems that I'm having second thoughts and taking a breath of fresh air! I've played many MMOs and the last was Ragnarok Online. Its MMOs like these that I hate! Its just based on building up your level and winning bragging rights. They waste your time and life! Its boring! Its mundane! Its monotonous! Its about whacking stuff till you gain levels and show your friends that you're better than them! Well, with a new breed of MMOs ahead, its no wonder that I've gone ga-ga over them and changed my theme to World Of Warcraft! MMOs to look out for are Guild Wars and Wow!
Guild Wars first. My experience with Guild Wars was shortlived but overall, entertaining and funfilled. Guild Wars wont be out till next year, one day after New Year but ArenaNet has given us gamers, a chance to try it out in its Worldwide Preview Event last weekend! I downloaded the Guild Wars client and had to wait for some time for it to download most of the files. Guild Wars has fantastic graphics! The background scene of the main menu and the musical score is great! In Guild Wars, you can create a character with two different professions (havent I mentioned this before?). I created an Elementalist/Monk character. He mostly specialises in ranged combat and is more to the support side. I named him Carijin Ralda. Not sure where I got Carijin from but Ralda was inspired from Eldar, one of the factions of Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War. A bit of background info, the Eldar is a mysterious race and arent very versatile but specialise heavily in the different areas of combat. Just like what I want my character to be. He sucks at close-combat but he's the jack of all trades in the different elements. So now you know that I didnt get Ralda from Reldon!!! I wanted Carijin to be more offensive and I didnt really specialise in ONE element but put my level points on all of them. Namely fire, water (or cold), lightning and earth. Fine, so it isnt really specializing but thats as close I can get to specializing in everything. Being offensive, my character also has to be on the offensive so he's more advanced in the Monk's Smiting Prayers than the Protection prayers levels. I also pumped his Healing prayers levels so I can heal myself when encountering close-combat.
That's basically the overview on my E/Mo character. There are a wide variety of skills and spells that you can attain. 75 for each profession but the flipside is that you can only carry 8 into battle. I usually bring the basic healing spell and another Monk spell (like Remove Hex or Resurrect) and the rest are mainly Area of Effect offensive spells. My favourite spell has to be Earthquake! I tried it in the PvP (Player vs Player) arena where teams of 6 battle each other until one loses. Earthquake requires high mana and a rather long casting time but the effect is worth it! When cast, Earthquake deals around 40+ damage and knocks foes around the target to the ground! Because those idiots love sticking together as a pack, I usually target the guy in the middle and knock all at least 5 down! They never saw it coming :) I like doing this at the start of the battle when both teams are charging towards each other while my team's Warriors get the advantage on them.
Guild Wars isnt the type of MMO where you abandon your low level skills for more powerful 'high level' skills. Nope, never! Fire Storm is one of the lower level skills that can be quite staple depending on your type. You cast Fire Storm on the enemy and rain of fireballs fall from the sky damaging foes for 10 seconds! Its the strategy and teamwork that counts to your sucess. Say if your Monk (your healer class) is slacking, you guys can say goodbye quickly if your enemy overwhelms you. Planning your attacks are also vital is you want to beat your enemies. You can also combo your attacks like the Mesmer which has the spell Epidemic which spreads any negative conditions by the target to all nearby foes! So you can combo that with Conjure Phantansm which makes the target lose health (quite a lot! Been the target of this many times) and use Epidemic to spread it to all your foes! Not to worry as there are plenty of counters and solutions to the many combos (which I havent thought of yet). But my favourite combo for my class has to be Whirlwind followed by Aftershock! Whirlwind deals damage and knocks adjacent foes to the ground. Aftershock strikes any adjacent foes and deals more damage to knocked down foes! Reaps favourable results all the time! I usually deal 100+ damage with this ;)
Like earlier mentioned, its the strategy, planning and teamwork that counts. A high leveled Warrior wont be able to deal with multiple mid-leveled foes and expect to live. Although this might work in many other MMOs, you have to rely on your fellow monks to heal you if you want to live through that. You can check out Gamespy's take on Guild Wars here.
World of Warcraft is another MMORPG. Its set in the world of, needless to say, Warcraft! What makes it special has to be its sheer diversity. There's gonna be a monthly subscription unlike Guild Wars but I'm sure its going to be worth it. I'll play WoW if I can find a suitable method of payment but currently, Blizzard is still working on it and havent decided on the payment details yet. The graphics are brilliant and mostly on par with Warcraft 3 but it seems that they've improved on it and added more polygons to everything. I've never touched WoW before 'cos the countless open/closed betas were exclusive to members of certain publications like Fileplanet and Gamespy. WoW has plenty of spells and huge maps just like Guild Wars. It has a reaslitic diplomacy system for example, the Alliance is obviously enemies to the Horde right? So any Alliance character would get attacked by any Horde NPC when they go into their territory and vice-versa. Neutral factions like the Goblins do not allow any fighting in their territory. So if you choose to pick a fight, the Goblins will start to attack you and you lose standing with them and if you lose enough, they might attack you the next time you enter their territory. You can also travel around the world (of warcraft). There are different modes of transportation like in the air, you can travel via Wyverns, Gryphons and Zeppelins. On land, you can ride mounts like those huge panthers the Night Elf Huntress rides on or you can take the Dwarven train. On sea, the obvious would be ships. Havent heard of submarines so far... Well, this IS fantasy based after all and not some sci-fi movie.
There are many other features which you can check out at the WoW website. What you're listening to now is the same music featured in its E3 demo (thats what the website says). The new picture you see up there features the Night Elves' Huntress and the Night Sabers. The Night Sabers are her mounts and are supposed to be fierce looking.
Guild Wars is released on the 2nd of January, 2005 while World of Warcraft will be released on the 26th of November, 2004. Once again, World of Warcraft is WoW!
Guild Wars first. My experience with Guild Wars was shortlived but overall, entertaining and funfilled. Guild Wars wont be out till next year, one day after New Year but ArenaNet has given us gamers, a chance to try it out in its Worldwide Preview Event last weekend! I downloaded the Guild Wars client and had to wait for some time for it to download most of the files. Guild Wars has fantastic graphics! The background scene of the main menu and the musical score is great! In Guild Wars, you can create a character with two different professions (havent I mentioned this before?). I created an Elementalist/Monk character. He mostly specialises in ranged combat and is more to the support side. I named him Carijin Ralda. Not sure where I got Carijin from but Ralda was inspired from Eldar, one of the factions of Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War. A bit of background info, the Eldar is a mysterious race and arent very versatile but specialise heavily in the different areas of combat. Just like what I want my character to be. He sucks at close-combat but he's the jack of all trades in the different elements. So now you know that I didnt get Ralda from Reldon!!! I wanted Carijin to be more offensive and I didnt really specialise in ONE element but put my level points on all of them. Namely fire, water (or cold), lightning and earth. Fine, so it isnt really specializing but thats as close I can get to specializing in everything. Being offensive, my character also has to be on the offensive so he's more advanced in the Monk's Smiting Prayers than the Protection prayers levels. I also pumped his Healing prayers levels so I can heal myself when encountering close-combat.
That's basically the overview on my E/Mo character. There are a wide variety of skills and spells that you can attain. 75 for each profession but the flipside is that you can only carry 8 into battle. I usually bring the basic healing spell and another Monk spell (like Remove Hex or Resurrect) and the rest are mainly Area of Effect offensive spells. My favourite spell has to be Earthquake! I tried it in the PvP (Player vs Player) arena where teams of 6 battle each other until one loses. Earthquake requires high mana and a rather long casting time but the effect is worth it! When cast, Earthquake deals around 40+ damage and knocks foes around the target to the ground! Because those idiots love sticking together as a pack, I usually target the guy in the middle and knock all at least 5 down! They never saw it coming :) I like doing this at the start of the battle when both teams are charging towards each other while my team's Warriors get the advantage on them.
Guild Wars isnt the type of MMO where you abandon your low level skills for more powerful 'high level' skills. Nope, never! Fire Storm is one of the lower level skills that can be quite staple depending on your type. You cast Fire Storm on the enemy and rain of fireballs fall from the sky damaging foes for 10 seconds! Its the strategy and teamwork that counts to your sucess. Say if your Monk (your healer class) is slacking, you guys can say goodbye quickly if your enemy overwhelms you. Planning your attacks are also vital is you want to beat your enemies. You can also combo your attacks like the Mesmer which has the spell Epidemic which spreads any negative conditions by the target to all nearby foes! So you can combo that with Conjure Phantansm which makes the target lose health (quite a lot! Been the target of this many times) and use Epidemic to spread it to all your foes! Not to worry as there are plenty of counters and solutions to the many combos (which I havent thought of yet). But my favourite combo for my class has to be Whirlwind followed by Aftershock! Whirlwind deals damage and knocks adjacent foes to the ground. Aftershock strikes any adjacent foes and deals more damage to knocked down foes! Reaps favourable results all the time! I usually deal 100+ damage with this ;)
Like earlier mentioned, its the strategy, planning and teamwork that counts. A high leveled Warrior wont be able to deal with multiple mid-leveled foes and expect to live. Although this might work in many other MMOs, you have to rely on your fellow monks to heal you if you want to live through that. You can check out Gamespy's take on Guild Wars here.
World of Warcraft is another MMORPG. Its set in the world of, needless to say, Warcraft! What makes it special has to be its sheer diversity. There's gonna be a monthly subscription unlike Guild Wars but I'm sure its going to be worth it. I'll play WoW if I can find a suitable method of payment but currently, Blizzard is still working on it and havent decided on the payment details yet. The graphics are brilliant and mostly on par with Warcraft 3 but it seems that they've improved on it and added more polygons to everything. I've never touched WoW before 'cos the countless open/closed betas were exclusive to members of certain publications like Fileplanet and Gamespy. WoW has plenty of spells and huge maps just like Guild Wars. It has a reaslitic diplomacy system for example, the Alliance is obviously enemies to the Horde right? So any Alliance character would get attacked by any Horde NPC when they go into their territory and vice-versa. Neutral factions like the Goblins do not allow any fighting in their territory. So if you choose to pick a fight, the Goblins will start to attack you and you lose standing with them and if you lose enough, they might attack you the next time you enter their territory. You can also travel around the world (of warcraft). There are different modes of transportation like in the air, you can travel via Wyverns, Gryphons and Zeppelins. On land, you can ride mounts like those huge panthers the Night Elf Huntress rides on or you can take the Dwarven train. On sea, the obvious would be ships. Havent heard of submarines so far... Well, this IS fantasy based after all and not some sci-fi movie.
There are many other features which you can check out at the WoW website. What you're listening to now is the same music featured in its E3 demo (thats what the website says). The new picture you see up there features the Night Elves' Huntress and the Night Sabers. The Night Sabers are her mounts and are supposed to be fierce looking.
Guild Wars is released on the 2nd of January, 2005 while World of Warcraft will be released on the 26th of November, 2004. Once again, World of Warcraft is WoW!
Ladder 49 & Shark Tale
I was too tired to blog yesterday 'cos I spent the whole day at cine!!! I went to collect my report book yesterday from school. I went to B3 btw. Its based according to the subjects you take so B1 is the Literature class, B2 is the POA class and B3 is the Geography class. Justin, Martin, Ryan, Heng Hao and Wayne are with me. There's no major difference between the A and B band except that B band is combined science but its taught at the pure science level. So next year, the books I buy are the same as the A band! That's good 'cos I can ask for help with my homework from my A band friends.
So after 'school', me, Sean and Reldon went to Cineleisure. We didnt know what to do at first... We went from each level to find a toilet but all were closed (for cleaning). We were still in school U and we had to change you see. The security guard must've thought we were crazy or playing truant. We went to the Hereens but it was closed so we went back. This time, we found a toilet at the basement level.
We went to the ticketting booth and took 10 minutes to decide which movie. We met Ryan, Clifford, Amoz Boon, Dexter and Zhirong there too. The ticket booths were closed so we went down to Burger King to eat and we also met Ryan & gang there too. It was around 9.30AM at that time and many shops werent open. In the end, we decided to go to Burger King. Reldon and Sean ordered from the breakfast menu while I ordered the BK Chicken Sandwich :) They cooked it specially for me :) It was 10+ and when we finished, we went back to the Ticketting Counter to buy the Ladder 49 tickets. I SMSed Ryan our row (as requested) and Ryan & friends entered the cinema when the movie started. Ladder 49 was pretty ok... Its about this firefigher who gets trapped in this burning building and 75% of the movie are flashbacks of his life when he falls 12 stories and survives while the rest of the firefighters try to get to him. I'll leave the rest for you to find out. I was too full (after the BK meal) to buy any popcorn. We were deciding where to go next when Benjamin, who was supposed to come after his prefect stuff, SMSed me that he didnt want to. After futile persuasions, we went to play LAN at Egames! We spent about an hour when Roderic SMSed us saying that he was at cine. He was at the second floor when he saw us at the 3rd floor (we were waving). We then took the lift down to first floor and had Roderic go on a wild goose chase :p We then had our lunch at Subway. I ordered the Sweet Onion Teriyaki Chicken foot long sub and finished it all! Roderic & Reldon ordered just a 6-inch while Sean ordered a soup and a drink. Lol, I was sooo damn full after that and all that Sweet Onion sauce was on my hand. Had to go to the toilet to wash my hands.
We bought the Shark Tale tickets just 3 minutes before it started! Of course, I didnt buy popcorn. Shark Tale is quite a good movie. Its about this small fish who 'beats up' this big shark, not the way its supposed to be right? But theres something unusual about that. At the end of the show, the cinema was quiet. Then out of nowhere, someone just laughs like an idiot and the whole cinema bursts in laughter and looking in the direction of the sound! We went to the arcade (after lotsa walking around) and played for about 30 minutes. We wanted to play LAN (at egames) but Roderic was wearing school U. We went around the shops to buy a T-shirt for him but most were over 20 bucks. We passed a bikini/lingerie shop and told Roderic to try one.
After walking for quiet sometime, we decided to go home. The skies were turning grey and I got to the MRT station before it started to rain... Yesterday sure was fun :) Too bad, I wont be seeing any of them next year. Sean will be in A1, Reldon will be in A2, Roderic in A3. *sigh* Later that night, I helped Reldon set up his webcam (Hybrid digital camera)
So after 'school', me, Sean and Reldon went to Cineleisure. We didnt know what to do at first... We went from each level to find a toilet but all were closed (for cleaning). We were still in school U and we had to change you see. The security guard must've thought we were crazy or playing truant. We went to the Hereens but it was closed so we went back. This time, we found a toilet at the basement level.
We went to the ticketting booth and took 10 minutes to decide which movie. We met Ryan, Clifford, Amoz Boon, Dexter and Zhirong there too. The ticket booths were closed so we went down to Burger King to eat and we also met Ryan & gang there too. It was around 9.30AM at that time and many shops werent open. In the end, we decided to go to Burger King. Reldon and Sean ordered from the breakfast menu while I ordered the BK Chicken Sandwich :) They cooked it specially for me :) It was 10+ and when we finished, we went back to the Ticketting Counter to buy the Ladder 49 tickets. I SMSed Ryan our row (as requested) and Ryan & friends entered the cinema when the movie started. Ladder 49 was pretty ok... Its about this firefigher who gets trapped in this burning building and 75% of the movie are flashbacks of his life when he falls 12 stories and survives while the rest of the firefighters try to get to him. I'll leave the rest for you to find out. I was too full (after the BK meal) to buy any popcorn. We were deciding where to go next when Benjamin, who was supposed to come after his prefect stuff, SMSed me that he didnt want to. After futile persuasions, we went to play LAN at Egames! We spent about an hour when Roderic SMSed us saying that he was at cine. He was at the second floor when he saw us at the 3rd floor (we were waving). We then took the lift down to first floor and had Roderic go on a wild goose chase :p We then had our lunch at Subway. I ordered the Sweet Onion Teriyaki Chicken foot long sub and finished it all! Roderic & Reldon ordered just a 6-inch while Sean ordered a soup and a drink. Lol, I was sooo damn full after that and all that Sweet Onion sauce was on my hand. Had to go to the toilet to wash my hands.
We bought the Shark Tale tickets just 3 minutes before it started! Of course, I didnt buy popcorn. Shark Tale is quite a good movie. Its about this small fish who 'beats up' this big shark, not the way its supposed to be right? But theres something unusual about that. At the end of the show, the cinema was quiet. Then out of nowhere, someone just laughs like an idiot and the whole cinema bursts in laughter and looking in the direction of the sound! We went to the arcade (after lotsa walking around) and played for about 30 minutes. We wanted to play LAN (at egames) but Roderic was wearing school U. We went around the shops to buy a T-shirt for him but most were over 20 bucks. We passed a bikini/lingerie shop and told Roderic to try one.
After walking for quiet sometime, we decided to go home. The skies were turning grey and I got to the MRT station before it started to rain... Yesterday sure was fun :) Too bad, I wont be seeing any of them next year. Sean will be in A1, Reldon will be in A2, Roderic in A3. *sigh* Later that night, I helped Reldon set up his webcam (Hybrid digital camera)
04 November 2004
The holidays have begun...
Ok, I kept telling myself to write my blog tonight... For 1 week, I've kinda neglected my blog... I've been too upset to blog since last Thursday but I've gotten over it now... Well why? 'Cos Im going to B band... Yea, reality sux... I like totally failed my maths :S Irony, I scored 80+ during Term 3 and had an A* for maths during PSLE... A'well... I've finally accepted my fate (sure took long) after Cyber Gaming for a week already... I missed A band by 0.6 marks (yea, dat sux) and 3 class positions... Im 29th, 26th guy got into A band (BARELY!) 27th missed by 0.1!!! Life really sucks big time... Sometimes... I've written an appeal letter which I feel is kinda redundant... ARGH! I don't wanna think about it!!! On the bright side, seems I'll be seeing plenty of familiar faces from this year and from other classes. But on the other hand, I'll be missing plenty of good people in my class this year... But hey, I'll always be on MSN! I hear Marcus Liang (and twin), Justin, Wayne, Martin, Ryan, Bryan Yam and many others (whom I know) will most likely be with me next year... And the principal says that everything taught in B band is at the A band standard so theres not much of a difference (cept for the big BAND difference) and IF I do well enough, I can make it to A band in Sec 4...
Friday was the last day of school and those guys at Techno (namely KJ!!!) wanted me to go the extra mile for techno... Had to take photos and record videos... Sheesh, couldnt even enjoy my last day of school together with my class/friends... See, life SUCKS... Ill upload some of my pics later (like maybe next week if I remember)... And its time for a theme change... My splinter cell theme is getting outdated and Im losing some enthusiasm... Maybe I should change to a Halo 2 or Halflife 2 theme... Hmm, most likely Halflife 2 'cos I don't have an Xbox and the Halo 2 port (to the PC) should take some time... But where am i supposed to find a Halflife 2 sound file...?
This whole week, I've been playing CS and DOD everyday without fail... I wake up at like 1pm+ and my record this week was 3pm :) I slept at 12am though... Its amazing that when I wake up at 3pm, later that night, I can still fall asleep easily while waking up at 11am, I find myself unable to sleep... I have EXTREMELY queer sleep patterns...
I feel that DOD is highly under rated and very little people play it... Its a real pity... Its just like CS, it still has its charm and keeps the fun even though the graphics arent that good by today's gaming standards... There are only a couple (3 at most) DOD servers online and the handful of us who play it see each other in the same server. I even made a new friend playing DOD today! With online gaming, you meet a lot of people (good or bad) and sometimes theres even a sense of melancholy when you have to leave... After fighting over 100 battles, theres bound to be some relationship forged right?
Tomorrow, I have to go back to school at 8am (YAWNNN) to collect my report book. So after that, me, sean, reldon, ben and roderic are gonna watch Shark Tale at cine. We have to meet ben and roderic at a later time because Ben has some prefect stuff going on (BEING A PREFECT SUX!!!) and Roderic has his ACS(I) exam which his parents forced him to take even though he doesnt want to, so he said he would fail it on purpose.
Its the holidays and I spend my days gaming rite... I've played 3 new game demos namely, Need For Speed Underground 2 and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.
NFSUD2 is almost the same as its predecessor and prequel, Need for Speed Underground. The graphics are the same and most of the game mechanics and gameplay are the same except this time, instead of going through plenty of menus, you menu is now an entire free roam city. This may be good or bad, its up to you because some people may like the idea of less menus and driving to the shops themselves but on the other hand, it may seem as a hassle because you have to take time to drive there yourself. Finding it isnt so much of a problem because your car has a Global Positioning Satellite system which when engaged, an arrow appears at the top of the screen to guide you. There's now rain which affects your car's traction and makes the roads slippery. The road will start to look more glossy (even though its glossy all the time) and you have a higher chance of skidding. The weather system is highly queer as it seems to rain very often... For the 1 hour period I was playing it, it rained for around 10 times! As usual, the graphics are good but they look mostly the same as the first NFSUD. Theres a new soundtrack for NFSUD featuring some new R&B, Hip Hop and Rock tracks from plenty of different stars (eg. Ludacris). There's also the multiplayer which pits you against players around the globe. Cant say much for the multiplayer (which I havent tried) but NFSUD2 should've gotten a bit more tweaking and polishing.
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is the sequel to last year's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time which was based on introducing the prince to the world. This time, the Prince is back in a darker and more deadly tone. He looks more dishevelled and menacing (those dark eyes) and is hellbent on saving his ass from fate... Previously in the Sands of Time, he screws up time and some mean monster wants him to pay the consequences, Death! So he hatches a plan to save his sorry ass from that monster - to destroy the Sands of Time before he unleashed that cataclysmic disaster previously (helps if you played Sands of Time). The gameplay is roughly the same (like most sequels do) but now, you can wield two weapons at the same time and combo them. And the end effect is horribly SPECTACULAR! The prince is still as agile as ever but now he comes with a barrage of new attacks and combat moves! The can spin around and attack multiple foes at the same time while jumping in and out of the battle and he can sever heads and slice enemies in half! That's where the M rating comes in. Ubisoft has set a darker tone for this game so expect to see lots of decapitations and rivers of blood (not literally). While your fingers would be having a workout, your brain too will be having a workout. The puzzles (I hear) are quite difficult. Once you've finished the game, the only reason to play it again has to be the multiple endings and cinematics. On top of that, there are plenty of different weapons 'to master' and try out although you should be able to try them out already the first you play. The one thing I hate about the POP series is the camera!!! I've played Sands of Time (borrowed it, wasnt worth buying) and the biggest suckiest thing about it was the camera. I feel that playing POP would be more enjoyable with a gamepad or on the other consoles. Controlling the camera with the mouse is horrible, it just doenst feel right...
Finally, Medal of Honour Pacific Assault. Gamespot already has a review of it here so theres no reason to actually read my mini 'review'... But for the sake of making this post longer...
I've never played the prequel, Medal of Honour Allied Assault (MOHAA) which was released in 2002 but from what I know, it started a trend of the many war-based games. From my experience with MOHPA (sounds dumb, I know) the graphics are pretty good but you need a pretty high end com to bring out its full potential (eeh sounds like those baby milk ads). I have lotsa complaints though... The frame rate was pathetic... Worse than Pandora Tomorrow! The mouse was too sensitive for my liking (couldnt do anything to change it) but I doubt thats a major issue and theres too damn little ammo!
Its getting pretty late, gotta wake up early tomorrow to make it to school... Heh!
P.S. I heard Reldon say the f-word the first time this week! And David, I GET IT!!! I'LL UPDATE IT LATER!!!
Friday was the last day of school and those guys at Techno (namely KJ!!!) wanted me to go the extra mile for techno... Had to take photos and record videos... Sheesh, couldnt even enjoy my last day of school together with my class/friends... See, life SUCKS... Ill upload some of my pics later (like maybe next week if I remember)... And its time for a theme change... My splinter cell theme is getting outdated and Im losing some enthusiasm... Maybe I should change to a Halo 2 or Halflife 2 theme... Hmm, most likely Halflife 2 'cos I don't have an Xbox and the Halo 2 port (to the PC) should take some time... But where am i supposed to find a Halflife 2 sound file...?
This whole week, I've been playing CS and DOD everyday without fail... I wake up at like 1pm+ and my record this week was 3pm :) I slept at 12am though... Its amazing that when I wake up at 3pm, later that night, I can still fall asleep easily while waking up at 11am, I find myself unable to sleep... I have EXTREMELY queer sleep patterns...
I feel that DOD is highly under rated and very little people play it... Its a real pity... Its just like CS, it still has its charm and keeps the fun even though the graphics arent that good by today's gaming standards... There are only a couple (3 at most) DOD servers online and the handful of us who play it see each other in the same server. I even made a new friend playing DOD today! With online gaming, you meet a lot of people (good or bad) and sometimes theres even a sense of melancholy when you have to leave... After fighting over 100 battles, theres bound to be some relationship forged right?
Tomorrow, I have to go back to school at 8am (YAWNNN) to collect my report book. So after that, me, sean, reldon, ben and roderic are gonna watch Shark Tale at cine. We have to meet ben and roderic at a later time because Ben has some prefect stuff going on (BEING A PREFECT SUX!!!) and Roderic has his ACS(I) exam which his parents forced him to take even though he doesnt want to, so he said he would fail it on purpose.
Its the holidays and I spend my days gaming rite... I've played 3 new game demos namely, Need For Speed Underground 2 and Prince of Persia: Warrior Within.
NFSUD2 is almost the same as its predecessor and prequel, Need for Speed Underground. The graphics are the same and most of the game mechanics and gameplay are the same except this time, instead of going through plenty of menus, you menu is now an entire free roam city. This may be good or bad, its up to you because some people may like the idea of less menus and driving to the shops themselves but on the other hand, it may seem as a hassle because you have to take time to drive there yourself. Finding it isnt so much of a problem because your car has a Global Positioning Satellite system which when engaged, an arrow appears at the top of the screen to guide you. There's now rain which affects your car's traction and makes the roads slippery. The road will start to look more glossy (even though its glossy all the time) and you have a higher chance of skidding. The weather system is highly queer as it seems to rain very often... For the 1 hour period I was playing it, it rained for around 10 times! As usual, the graphics are good but they look mostly the same as the first NFSUD. Theres a new soundtrack for NFSUD featuring some new R&B, Hip Hop and Rock tracks from plenty of different stars (eg. Ludacris). There's also the multiplayer which pits you against players around the globe. Cant say much for the multiplayer (which I havent tried) but NFSUD2 should've gotten a bit more tweaking and polishing.
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is the sequel to last year's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time which was based on introducing the prince to the world. This time, the Prince is back in a darker and more deadly tone. He looks more dishevelled and menacing (those dark eyes) and is hellbent on saving his ass from fate... Previously in the Sands of Time, he screws up time and some mean monster wants him to pay the consequences, Death! So he hatches a plan to save his sorry ass from that monster - to destroy the Sands of Time before he unleashed that cataclysmic disaster previously (helps if you played Sands of Time). The gameplay is roughly the same (like most sequels do) but now, you can wield two weapons at the same time and combo them. And the end effect is horribly SPECTACULAR! The prince is still as agile as ever but now he comes with a barrage of new attacks and combat moves! The can spin around and attack multiple foes at the same time while jumping in and out of the battle and he can sever heads and slice enemies in half! That's where the M rating comes in. Ubisoft has set a darker tone for this game so expect to see lots of decapitations and rivers of blood (not literally). While your fingers would be having a workout, your brain too will be having a workout. The puzzles (I hear) are quite difficult. Once you've finished the game, the only reason to play it again has to be the multiple endings and cinematics. On top of that, there are plenty of different weapons 'to master' and try out although you should be able to try them out already the first you play. The one thing I hate about the POP series is the camera!!! I've played Sands of Time (borrowed it, wasnt worth buying) and the biggest suckiest thing about it was the camera. I feel that playing POP would be more enjoyable with a gamepad or on the other consoles. Controlling the camera with the mouse is horrible, it just doenst feel right...
Finally, Medal of Honour Pacific Assault. Gamespot already has a review of it here so theres no reason to actually read my mini 'review'... But for the sake of making this post longer...
I've never played the prequel, Medal of Honour Allied Assault (MOHAA) which was released in 2002 but from what I know, it started a trend of the many war-based games. From my experience with MOHPA (sounds dumb, I know) the graphics are pretty good but you need a pretty high end com to bring out its full potential (eeh sounds like those baby milk ads). I have lotsa complaints though... The frame rate was pathetic... Worse than Pandora Tomorrow! The mouse was too sensitive for my liking (couldnt do anything to change it) but I doubt thats a major issue and theres too damn little ammo!
Its getting pretty late, gotta wake up early tomorrow to make it to school... Heh!
P.S. I heard Reldon say the f-word the first time this week! And David, I GET IT!!! I'LL UPDATE IT LATER!!!
25 October 2004
DoW match
Me, Justin and Ryan trashing the computer! Don't be fooled by this picture, theres a WHOLE army on the way! The blue guy is from my faction and the white one was Justin. Ryan's guys don't seem to be in the pic. The bad guys are at the bottom!
Me, Justin and Ryan were playing DoW with each other. 3 of us VS 3 AI Standard bots! We were struggling to survive and I conferenced both Ryan and Justin' calls so we were talking throughout the whole match and we talked for about one and a half hours! Thxfully I have free incoming calls! We played 3 matches but Justin was laggy the entire server up so we had to quit halfway so we only played 2 full games. Till now, I've been left traumatized!!! Me and Justin's base were closest to the enemy and Ryan's was inbetween ours. The enemy starting launching their attacks and I havent even built my Armory!!! I was struggling to build troops and control the combat while trying to build my base at the same time! I was crying when the enemy came with Defilers and Avatars!!! Btw, those are really good units. While I was massing Space Marine Squads at trying to fight them off! In total, I guess I lost over 50 Space Marine Squads! There was lotsa swearing and cursing over the phone! The computer just came wave after wave and I only had 5 minutes to, what we call, 'recouperate' and build my troops before endless relentless waves of bad guys came pouring into my base! And the funniest part was Ryan had his huge army, 'chilling out' at his base while I was being 'gang-banged' by Defilers and Obliterators!!! *Gang-bang is gamer slang for being overwhelmed* I was clicking non-stop and I couldnt really use the hotkeys because my hand was on my phone so I had no choice but to click. The battle finally ended when Ryan and Justin launched their attack on the enemy base while I had to 'recouperate'. For 95% of the time, I was desperately trying to hold off the bad guys and building more units as my guys were dying FAST! It was so bad that I didnt even have time to build heavy weapons!!! And Ryan was on the phone, commenting about Justin's mini Rocket Launcher squad! Ryan's and Justin's forces camped at the middle of the map while I was 'recouperating'. I'm so thankful I massed Bolter turrets at my base or else, my base would've been destroyed!
That was the second match, the first match we played was much easier... For me... The computer were the Orks and they attacked Justin's base first. He was asking for reinforcements from us and I was the last one to get attacked! Haha, while Justin and Ryan were fending off the enemy, I secretly built a thermo-plasma generator at Ryan's base. The slag deposit was actually his but since that was the only one at his base and he didnt build anything on it... I was struggling with the first half then I started to mass Dreadnoughts and the enemies were easier to deal with... The whole map was like this huge alley and I was the first to advance faster than Ryan and Justin. I dont know what happened but Ryan's forces overwhelmed his enemies and attacked my enemies from behind! The screenshot I took was when we were mopping up the last Ork base! Ryan even suggested that we play against Insane computer! We were struggling with Standard and playing against Insane would be well, INSANE!!! Haha, this afternoon sure was fun!
24 October 2004
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War review
Ok... I realise that I DO have a DoW review but its not really complete... So here goes, my COMPLETE DoW review...
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War is the latest game to from the Warhammer 40k universe. For those who are new to this (like me), Warhammer 40k is like a tabletop game (think Heroclix) where you have these miniature figurines set in the 40th Century where war is everywhere, who try to kill each other and wage war across a battlefield. There are many factions but in this game, theres only the Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Orks and the Eldar. There have been many Warhammer 40k games but I hear this one is the best. Warhammer 40k: Fire Warrior is an FPS which didnt garner much attention or good reviews while the other few games are ANCIENT that you shouldnt probably bother much about...
Dawn of War is basically a Real Time Strategy game that most focuses on combat. Theres nothing much new about this for most RTS players so its basically the usual fare. Previously mentioned, combat is most prevalent here instead of the resource gathering in other RTS like warcraft or C&C: Generals which make you really pay attention to your resources so half the time, you worry about resources than outright destroying your enemy. The strategical part comes into play where you think of ways to defeat your enemy. Cutting off their supplies and resources are pretty much out of the question as they wont really impact them much... Resources are mainly 'Requisition' and 'Power'. Power can be obtained by simply building Thermo Generators or Plasma Generators while Requisition can be obtained by capturing Strategic Points and Critical Locations. An additional structure, called The Listening Post, can be built onto them to increase your Requisition Output.
The campaign is rather short lasting for around 12 missions. The storyline is simple: The Blood Ravens of the Space Marines are seeking to cleanse the world of the bloodlustful Orks. Various twists and turns makes the plot a bit more interesting but thats about it. You can only play as the Space Marines in the campaign so an expansion pack is expected. The meat of this game lies in the multiplayer but Ill go onto that later. The campaign is mostly linear where you just build a base and destroy the opposition. Theres not much surprise but as you proceed, you'll be able to unlock the many different units available to you. Not that you need to to play them in the skirmish or multiplayer missions.
The battles in DoW are spectacular and with the highly functional camera, it allows you to zoom in up close into the battles and it really keeps you immersed with the savagery and gore of the ongoing battle. All the units are superbly animated and you can actually see them fighting and interacting with each other but as you can closer to the action, you actually notice that their blows arent really connecting. Most of the units also sport really cool finishing moves like plunging their chainsaws into the enemy and ripping them to shreds. These may be fun to watch but after awhile, you'll soon get bored of it as it gets rather repititive. The units could also use a higher polygonal count. If you're observant enough, you notice that each limb only consists of about 4 or 5 polygons at most (yep! Thats how far you can zoom in!) but then again, this is an RTS where you control your units from high above and everything looks tiny so it doesnt really matter much.
Instead of building (wait, you dont actually build them, they drop from your mothership in pods) individual units, you actually call in squads and from there, you can purhcase additional squad members and equip them with better weapons like rocket launchers and plasma guns. This way, it doesnt get too messy controlling individuals. But then again, its a double-edged sword. You cant get the guy who's taking all the damage to move to the back because you're selecting the squad as a whole. When you purchase additional squad members, they appear from out of thin air and join them. Another new strategy concept is cover. You units can take cover in craters and undergrowth which lessens the amount of damage taken from ranged attacks but at a cost of less movement speed. In addition, morale also plays an important part in your strategy. Morale is like the status of your squad's efficiency. The higher the better. When your morale is too low, the squad breaks and no longer fights as well and becomes utterly disorganised thus, being less efficient.
The cut scenes in the game arent very impressive. They're renderred using the game engine and the lip synching is pretty much mediocre. This reminds me of those cut scenes in Warcraft 3 where all your units are identical and animated similarly, synchronously. The cinematics are one to look out for like the opening intro. It reallys gets you into the mood for some mass slaughtering. Its a really impressive intro to the Warhammer 40k universe, one full of war and death.
The audio is quite ok. The background music is mostly techno and metal but its pretty subtle. Nothing memorable or awesome about the soundtrack here. The units' acknowledgement lines are really long! Just clicking on the 'hero' unit and he gives you some advice on knowledge! Who cares when you're about to get killed attacking the enemy! A simple Yes or 'Ok' would do right? Like most RTS, the lines get repititve after a well as the units have only a few Acknowledgement quotes. The most irritating one was the Chaos Space Marines' Heretic... He sounds so irritating and makes stupid noises that you wished you could just shut up him and do his job! The Ork's sound really good I must say. Their gruff and stupid attitude is evident in their sentences saying stuff like 'Da and Humies and Boyz. The voice overs are quite good for this particular faction and they really bring out the essence of the Orks here.
The Multiplayer is cream of the crop here as many others agree on. You can play the Skirmish missions against the AI with Easy being, well, the easiest where the computer is totally stupid and useless and Insane, well, being insane! I'm not really an RTS pro but standard was already quite a challenge for me. The multiplayer works well here and it uses the Gamespy servers. You're required to signup for a Gamespy account if you havent had one. Once you log in, you're greeted by this lobby where you chat with the other players. Theres a Quick Match function which matchmakes you with the fastest server according to some of your options or you can manually select from a list of servers.
There's also this Army Customization tool that allows you to create your own banners and customize your Army's colours right down to their underwear! Nah, just kidding... Its not really a big deal but this is one for the fans.
Overall, I would say that the campaign was lacking and it needed more depth. The game could also use more factions and like I said earlier, an expansion would be expected some time soon. The four diverse factions should keep you busy trying to use them well and last you for quite some time like many great RTS do. This game is great for any RTS buff and if you like Sci-Fi and combat, you should be able to enjoy this as much as I did!
Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 8.5/10
Gameplay - 9.5/10
Replay - 8.5/10
Overall - 8.8
Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War is the latest game to from the Warhammer 40k universe. For those who are new to this (like me), Warhammer 40k is like a tabletop game (think Heroclix) where you have these miniature figurines set in the 40th Century where war is everywhere, who try to kill each other and wage war across a battlefield. There are many factions but in this game, theres only the Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Orks and the Eldar. There have been many Warhammer 40k games but I hear this one is the best. Warhammer 40k: Fire Warrior is an FPS which didnt garner much attention or good reviews while the other few games are ANCIENT that you shouldnt probably bother much about...
Dawn of War is basically a Real Time Strategy game that most focuses on combat. Theres nothing much new about this for most RTS players so its basically the usual fare. Previously mentioned, combat is most prevalent here instead of the resource gathering in other RTS like warcraft or C&C: Generals which make you really pay attention to your resources so half the time, you worry about resources than outright destroying your enemy. The strategical part comes into play where you think of ways to defeat your enemy. Cutting off their supplies and resources are pretty much out of the question as they wont really impact them much... Resources are mainly 'Requisition' and 'Power'. Power can be obtained by simply building Thermo Generators or Plasma Generators while Requisition can be obtained by capturing Strategic Points and Critical Locations. An additional structure, called The Listening Post, can be built onto them to increase your Requisition Output.
The campaign is rather short lasting for around 12 missions. The storyline is simple: The Blood Ravens of the Space Marines are seeking to cleanse the world of the bloodlustful Orks. Various twists and turns makes the plot a bit more interesting but thats about it. You can only play as the Space Marines in the campaign so an expansion pack is expected. The meat of this game lies in the multiplayer but Ill go onto that later. The campaign is mostly linear where you just build a base and destroy the opposition. Theres not much surprise but as you proceed, you'll be able to unlock the many different units available to you. Not that you need to to play them in the skirmish or multiplayer missions.
The battles in DoW are spectacular and with the highly functional camera, it allows you to zoom in up close into the battles and it really keeps you immersed with the savagery and gore of the ongoing battle. All the units are superbly animated and you can actually see them fighting and interacting with each other but as you can closer to the action, you actually notice that their blows arent really connecting. Most of the units also sport really cool finishing moves like plunging their chainsaws into the enemy and ripping them to shreds. These may be fun to watch but after awhile, you'll soon get bored of it as it gets rather repititive. The units could also use a higher polygonal count. If you're observant enough, you notice that each limb only consists of about 4 or 5 polygons at most (yep! Thats how far you can zoom in!) but then again, this is an RTS where you control your units from high above and everything looks tiny so it doesnt really matter much.
Instead of building (wait, you dont actually build them, they drop from your mothership in pods) individual units, you actually call in squads and from there, you can purhcase additional squad members and equip them with better weapons like rocket launchers and plasma guns. This way, it doesnt get too messy controlling individuals. But then again, its a double-edged sword. You cant get the guy who's taking all the damage to move to the back because you're selecting the squad as a whole. When you purchase additional squad members, they appear from out of thin air and join them. Another new strategy concept is cover. You units can take cover in craters and undergrowth which lessens the amount of damage taken from ranged attacks but at a cost of less movement speed. In addition, morale also plays an important part in your strategy. Morale is like the status of your squad's efficiency. The higher the better. When your morale is too low, the squad breaks and no longer fights as well and becomes utterly disorganised thus, being less efficient.
The cut scenes in the game arent very impressive. They're renderred using the game engine and the lip synching is pretty much mediocre. This reminds me of those cut scenes in Warcraft 3 where all your units are identical and animated similarly, synchronously. The cinematics are one to look out for like the opening intro. It reallys gets you into the mood for some mass slaughtering. Its a really impressive intro to the Warhammer 40k universe, one full of war and death.
The audio is quite ok. The background music is mostly techno and metal but its pretty subtle. Nothing memorable or awesome about the soundtrack here. The units' acknowledgement lines are really long! Just clicking on the 'hero' unit and he gives you some advice on knowledge! Who cares when you're about to get killed attacking the enemy! A simple Yes or 'Ok' would do right? Like most RTS, the lines get repititve after a well as the units have only a few Acknowledgement quotes. The most irritating one was the Chaos Space Marines' Heretic... He sounds so irritating and makes stupid noises that you wished you could just shut up him and do his job! The Ork's sound really good I must say. Their gruff and stupid attitude is evident in their sentences saying stuff like 'Da and Humies and Boyz. The voice overs are quite good for this particular faction and they really bring out the essence of the Orks here.
The Multiplayer is cream of the crop here as many others agree on. You can play the Skirmish missions against the AI with Easy being, well, the easiest where the computer is totally stupid and useless and Insane, well, being insane! I'm not really an RTS pro but standard was already quite a challenge for me. The multiplayer works well here and it uses the Gamespy servers. You're required to signup for a Gamespy account if you havent had one. Once you log in, you're greeted by this lobby where you chat with the other players. Theres a Quick Match function which matchmakes you with the fastest server according to some of your options or you can manually select from a list of servers.
There's also this Army Customization tool that allows you to create your own banners and customize your Army's colours right down to their underwear! Nah, just kidding... Its not really a big deal but this is one for the fans.
Overall, I would say that the campaign was lacking and it needed more depth. The game could also use more factions and like I said earlier, an expansion would be expected some time soon. The four diverse factions should keep you busy trying to use them well and last you for quite some time like many great RTS do. This game is great for any RTS buff and if you like Sci-Fi and combat, you should be able to enjoy this as much as I did!
Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 8.5/10
Gameplay - 9.5/10
Replay - 8.5/10
Overall - 8.8
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