Flat 22's Xmas Dinner

Courtesy of my amazing house mate's May and Melissa, we enjoyed an early Christmas dinner on the 21st of December. Here are some pics of the people who I ate the dinner with: in order, May and Melissa, Alan and Heidir and Lance (Alan and Lance are also my house mates).




And here's the menu we savoured:

1. 15th Salad - Rocket wrapped in Prosciutto ham, served with Tangerines and Mozzarella Cheese (Picture courtesy of Alan Chew)


2. Prawn Cocktail - Prawns in Salad Dressing served with Lettuce and Fried Bread Crumbs


3. Roast Lamb and Aubergines in Plum Tomato Sauce & 3 Cheese Risotto


4. Bread & Walnuts


5. Red Cupcake with Cream Cheese Topping from Hummingbird Bakery


It was a really, really nice dinner, thanks again M&M! Here's hoping we have an Xmas dinner together in the future! Merry Christmas everybody!!!

Dungeon Keeper 1 & 2

As I'm writing this I've just finished Dungeon Keeper 1 & 2. This game really frustrated me when I was younger with its simple yet hard-to-master control and building system. Imagine how relieved I finally was to finish both these games at last.

Both Dungeon Keeper 1 & 2 are RTSs that put you in the role of a Dungeon Keeper, a evil and devious lord in charge of dungeons for your own dark ends. In each dungeon you are in charge of building rooms, mining gold and making sure all your minions get enough food and gold, all while training monsters, researching spells, torturing prisoners and killing your opposition, whether they be the Forces of Good or rival Dungeon Keepers.


What makes this game interesting is its unique (although frustrating at times) control system. You don't control your minions directly, rather you give suggestions to them to do this by picking them up with your disembodied hand. Yup. Example, you pick a creature up and dump it in a training room - you're saying " Hey you, train there. Now." If he doesn't listen, just slap him/her/it. Fun times for all. Also, dungeon construction plays a big part of completing each level. Many a time had I had to restart a level because I splurged all my resources on the wrong things or built my rooms too big for the small space given to me. The definite plus point of this game is torturing creatures. Its just really fun, try it if you don't believe me. In the game mind you, I'm not liable for anything if you start torturing people for real.


Well, what can I say about the graphics? Its terrible but give it a break, its really old. The gameplay, witty comments and humorous jokes throughout the game more than make up for it. The music is really catchy and the effects are awesome, especially when torturing your victims. DK2 has much better graphics so if it concerns you that much, play DK2 instead. In my opinion, DK1 was the better game. A must play if you haven't played this before and a must replay even if you have.

Update coming soon!

I know its been a really long time since I updated my blog but I'm gonna do it soon... just to let you all know this blog is some what alive. Not lots has been happening over the xmas holidays but I'll keep you all posted. Till then (which WILL be very soon).

Evaluating me

After a nice chat with a close friend of mine the other day, I decided to critically evaluate me. I've always given little thought about what makes me who I am so now, for all my readers (which should be only myself), here's a list of my pros and cons.

My Good Points:
1. Excellent personality
2. Hides emotions easily
3. Fun?
4. Nice?
5. Um.. for a lack of a point, averagely good at computer games?

My Bad Points:
1. Gets emotional too often
2. Wishy washy
3. Forgetful
4. Makes promises he can't keep
5. Unintentionally (and sometimes intentionally) hurting those close to him
6. Drinks too much
7. Doesn't sleep early
8. Can't see things through to the end
9. Afraid of commitment
10. Unreliable
11. Irresponsible

So yes, as you can see, I'm a bad bad person. Hmm... lol well I guess its easier for me to see my bad points than the good ones. Oh well haha.

Raiding tombs is one thing, doing it with boobies is another

Tomb Raider: Legends for some insane reason was awesome. Not so much for the setting or the shooting (which is actually quite dull... well its exactly like the classic tomb raider's auto-aim system so nothing new) but more for the climbing and jumping and swinging and all that agile stuff she has to do. I love it. Oh and of course her boobies are as large as ever ;)


Well the story behind the game tells of the fate of her 'deceased' or rather missing mother. When she was a wee bit lass, her mother managed to 'kill' (2nd quote) herself by taking out the 'sword from the stone' (3rd quote). No, seriously. The truth behind it all is that she gets teleported some where unknown, to Nirvana apparently. I'm not going to reveal the twist in the story but now you know there is one.

Lara Croft goes on her adventures as usual, jumping around traps and tigers while shooting down baddies with guns and swinging on poles to get to places. Her costume really varies this time; my favorite of them all is the one piece dress she wears with a really low cut. She then proceeds to rip it off at the legs so she can jump around and shoot people. Practicality eh? Those boobs look fake btw.


And there you have it, Tomb Raider:Legends in a nut shell. Its basically Tomb Raider with slight style and gameplay revamps but still the same Tomb Raider none the less. But I'm a sucker for jumping around dark musty tombs with sexily dressed ladies with big boobs... but I'm a guy. Seriously, the game is quite good. Try it if you can. Oh and just because she's sexy, we have 3 images this time. Hurrah!

Finally my video is done... now come the tournament woes

I'm finally done with the 7 minute video I was supposed to do... although I said and know its not assessed, some how I managed to devote my whole afternoon and evening to coming out with something decent. Well, I don't know if its decent but it should be fine I guess. In any case, its over and done with. Here's the link to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLz2Agnz9Cw

That's done with. Now on to the next damn thing on my list: my final year project meeting which is of major importance and the start of the tournaments. The tournaments fill me with dread. Even though I shouldn't really care if no one turns up, I always feel really down when the thing doesn't go well. Oh well I guess I can't have everything right? So I guess all I can do is steel myself for the next challenge and do my best. Organising this tournament is going to be a bitch: there's minimal publicity, almost no emails for registration and above all I have no idea how to run it. Whatever, I'll just do my best damn it...

Anyway I hope I can win the 1000 pounds for the Ideas Challenge; it'll be my funds for my holidays next term. Heh though I think my chances are quite slim. A steamboat restaurant in the UK? lol... its funny even thinking about it.

Projects and Coursework

Projects and coursework hit me all at once. It feels like ages but no, according to that calender of mine, it's been only 2 weeks. What the heck. I'm totally tired out although I really didn't do much. My first completed project was the Business Economics project. I'm quite disappointed with this project, for some reason I feel like I could have done much better since I really like Economics. I had to write up on the different impact of a rise in price on the different hotel industries in the UK. Exciting huh?

At the same time I was working on my Innovation Management project based on Sony Ericsson. Nothing too exciting, I had to find out about their innovation strategy which I based on how they released their products and how they protected their inventions. Its still ongoing actually though I already finished my part, my group mates said my part was good. Haha, all I care about is that I don't have to work on it anymore. I'm in charge of a presentation video for it though, a 7 minute video to be put on You Tube. Its not assessed though so I probably won't do it haha.

The most interesting one of all is the graphics coursework. A lot of programming but I feel like I did something worthwhile. Although I did copy line by code line my friend's code but still... I feel like I understand what's going on at least. Here's the textures and renderings I did.... hope you enjoy it.

Dawn Of War

Yet another RTS game to add to my list of completed games. Not much to say about this except that its based on Games Workshop's best selling Warhammer 40K series, a kind of sci-fi and fantasy setting blended together. You get orcs with guns, daemons, elves using futuristic weapons and all that kind of stuff.

The gameplay is exactly like Company of Heroes (same developer, same gameplay format). There's cover, there's weapons u can buy for your infantry, vehicles like tanks, walking robots and APCs. There are 4 sides among many covered in this game. The Space Marines, human monks religiously devoted to serving their emperor, and by serving I mean dishing out a whole lot of bullets and rockets to the enemy. The Chaos Marines, the polar opposite of the Space Marines; they use Chaos magics to summon demons and the like. The Eldar, the 'elves' of the game using superior technology and magic. And finally the brutish Orks (no I didn't spell that wrong) who use brute force and numbers to win battles.


In the campaign mode you only play the Space Marines unfortunately. Following the story of a Force Commander (basically a beefed up Space Marine commander) you are sent to a planet to repel an Ork invasion. Soon matters escalate in proportion as the Orks attack in exponentially increasing numbers and underneath it all, the Chaos Marines and Eldar are plotting something devious. So you wade into battle and sort it all out. Daemons and what not. Its quite a good storyline actually, its a shame they didn't manage to create several campaigns for the other races. All in all, a good, solid RTS game.

Graduation week + party + 2nd gaming session

This week was graduation week for my university. A whole bunch of my friends graduated last year and I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend the ceremony. I have to be truthful, it wasn't a whole shebang of fun for me (though seeing my friends graduate is a big, big plus: congrats to those who graduated!) and was actually pretty boring at times. It lasted 2 hours I think, I can barely sit in lectures for 30 minutes without sleeping. The graduation ceremony was way more boring than a lecture. Eventually we managed to get out of the place, where I took pictures along with the newly graduated people. And then we all went for some tit-bits and champagne in a marquee. Pretty nice affair. Dreading the ceremony when I graduate next year :/

Next up is the house warming party a bunch of friends of mine held last Saturday. First off, I think these guys are crazy: they invited almost 200 people! Thank god only 100 (!!!) of them turned up ONLY. Geez. As you can imagine, it was pretty crowded. I could barely walk around to get a drink, let alone to the loo. Somehow I managed to socialise a bit and ended up drinking LOTS with everyone. Even people I never knew! I saw some crazy stuff that night, a lot of boob groping was going around, puking, swearing, fighting, the normal stuff. I somehow managed to screw myself by actually getting REALLY high (not drunk! I swear! I was still coherent and I remember everything!). The drinks I had in order of appearance are as listed below:

1. Whiskey Coke (meh - 1/5 on the drunkenness scale)
2. Cranberry Vodka (girls drink - 0.5/5)
3. Beer (not rated - n/a)
4. Some funny red drink with sugar at the bottom (2/5)
5. OMG mix of every single liquor in the house! (4/5)
6. Beer! (4/5)
7. THE KILLER ONE WHOLE GLASS OF VODKA DOWNED IN ONE SHOT (6/5)

Yup as you can see the vodka at the end killed me. Sigh. I shall not go into detail about what I did in the toilet. Suffice to say I won't be doing it again. Not in this quantity at least.

Today we had our 2nd gaming session! Yes, for those who don't know, I am in charge of organising computer game events for my society; which is more of a burden than anything else actually cause so few people turn up and I have to be there for 5 frickin hours but oh well I put myself in this spot. Ok so it wasn't a total flop but I have totally no idea how we're going to run this thing properly cause everyone has different interests. Well I'll figure it out some what. Overall, it went well and I was pretty satisfied with the overall outcome.

That's all for now, review will be out next so it'll be a while before my next life update post. Stay tuned? lol

Halo

Wow it really took a while for me to start on the review for Halo. Well what can I say, I've been really busy doing other... important stuff. Well, lets get down to it then.

The story begins with the reactivation of the Master Chief (you, the protagonist) aboard a human cruiser being pursued by Covenant forces (Aliens) in deep space. Due to a emergency hyperspace the ship ends up next to a huge ring like structure which will come to be known as Halo. From then on, the Master Chief uncovers that the installation is actually one of many arrays of superweapons which, when activated, will wipe out all life in the galaxy to prevent the rebirth of an ancient parasitic alien race called 'The Flood'. As expected, the game revolves around trying to stop the reactivation of the weapon while fending off attacks from The Flood, Covenant forces and the Constructs trying to reactivate the weapon.

The game is intense throughout, with gunfire flying everywhere and enemies coming from all directions most of the time. The levels get quite repetitive at one point when each room you enter looks exactly like one you walked through before. Apart from that, the game throws different kinds of enemies at you at regular intervals. Since certain weapons are better against certain enemies and you can only carry 2 weapons at a time, preparing for the enemies ahead is pretty important. The storyline is gripping from start to finish, with a nice jeep-riding-escape-from-the-burning-ship experience at the very end. Overall, the game is really good though it falls short of a 5 star rating from me due to the repetitiveness of some of the levels. Good game, go try it and the other 2 sequels as well if you can.

... And now back to life in the UK...

Sorry about the long absence of posts on this blog, been really busy as of late what with job applications, finding a new house, moving into my new house, studies, etc. I'm settling in a little now but my situation now is still a bit shaky. As expected, I haven't finished many new games.... except for one! Yes, I managed to pull off finishing one game despite all my social, financial and academic difficulties! And the name of the game is... Halo 1! When I have time I shall put up a review but right now I'm still a little busy so, yeah sorry.

Its only been 2 weeks since I left but it seems like a really long time. Leaving like I did left me with a lot to think about, about my future and other stuff too. Hopefully I'll get my life sorted out in the next few months.

Hmm so what's new? Well I got rejected by Bear Stearns and Barclays Capital so far. I failed my part time job interview... thats probably the worse. I can't believe I could fail something so trivial lol. Now I have zero confidence in my interview ability. Oh well. On the not so bright side, I have an interview with McKinsey! The dread of humiliation awaits me.... sigh.

My house is looking up, cleared away more furniture. The vertical sofa, some cupboards and miscellaneous objects lying around the house. We might start cooking meals soon! Yay!

Guess that's it for now, I'll post the halo review and new news on me sometime soon I guess. When I'm free-er I expect. Ciao then!

PS. WHAT IS FAN MIN???

World of Warcraft: The Board Game

I got this game for my birthday this year from my housemates and a few other uni mates of mine. See, when I saw it while on holiday in Vienna, I went like, "Wow, WoW looks so good! I want it!" and since it was near my birthday, they got it for me.

The game impresses in terms of visuals... the board is nicely made, character sheets are detailed and are of some quality, not just some cheap piece of cardboard. The skill, item, quest cards etc. are detailed and most include some form of flavor text. The models are pretty ok too although its not much to look at, you can barely tell one from another. Unless its like a really huge monster or something.

Ok so thats all that is good about the game. Gameplay-wise, it sucks. Big time. It takes at least 3 hours to finish the game and one of those hours includes setting up the damn board. The models are really irritating too after a while. First off, their so hard to differentiate from one another that you end up spending a lot of time looking for the pieces you need. Being color coded into blue, red and green doesn't really help much. The main point of irritation is probably that there's little to no player interaction. Sure, you have PvPs but those last another 2 hours just for one round of PvP combat so no one wants to do it. You're literally playing with yourself. Masturbating yourself takes much less time and is a whole lot more satisfying.

I hate to say it but the current game just sucks. I've forced myself to play it and well, I didn't actually hate it but after every game I think I would rather have done something else. Games shouldn't make you feel that way. Well I'll be trying to tweak the game rules a bit to try and make the game faster and more interesting, we'll see how it goes. Verdict: don't buy this game. Heh lucky I got my friends to buy it for me.

End of the summer holidays

Yet another summer holiday is coming to a close. I've always looked forward to summer, 3 months holiday after working hard for exams and on projects is much needed. This years summer however was special. Me and some of my best friends managed to go on our first trip together to the beach. It was great fun and I miss that time. My only regret is that we won't be doing it again so soon I think... and that we probably will never do so again. But it was fun and I enjoyed myself tremendously. I got a little too tipsy too that time (sexy dance lol).

I played a lot of football this summer too. I'd be glad to say I've improved by leaps and bounds, which I have... I was terrible before. Still its not good at all so I'll just play it for fun with my friends whenever I can. I need the exercise more than anything.

Merdeka day was quite eventful... I went to a barbeque at a friend's place for a while. Sandra, Samantha and Carol... I'm sorry I scared you. Lol! Guess they won't be reading this blog but still.. haha. Then I went over to another friend's house to get myself wasted. It wasn't too pleasant but... I wasn't really feeling myself. Fireworks were fantastic. Well, they were like any other fireworks display (maybe not even as good as some I've seen) but fireworks always brings back memories to me. Like 1st year in UK. And now like Merdeka day on the summer of my 3rd year.

Overall, this summer was really a blast. To all my friends out there, no matter how much or how little I know about you, you have my love. To those I may never see again, the times were good and great. I'll always treasure them. I'm going to go all out for my 4th year so watch me! If I die, then I'm going to at least die with a bang!

Giants: Citizen Kabuto

Giants was one of my favorite multi-player games back in my high school days. It incorporates 1st and 3rd person views as well as RTS elements of base building. Plus you get to play as a big ass godzilla thing called the Kabuto. Whats not to like?

After replaying it recently, I actually found the single player missions kind of... boring after a while. While the humor between levels was refreshing (although pretty lame at times), each level played out nearly the same. For the Meccs, it was always a "blow-up-some-barracks" mission, for the Reapers it was that annoying ReaperSki race and Kabuto seemed to just wanna eat everything. Needless to say I got really, really bored after a while. I just finished it for the sake of finishing it.


Its the multi-player experience that really makes this game shine. Its really just a free-for-all between the 3 sides; Meccs who use technology such as jet-packs and rocket launchers, Reapers who use magic and arrows and the kick-ass Kabuto who just eats everyone up. It was so much fun, Reapers and Meccs will all be hunting the Kabuto player cause killing the Kabuto gives you the most points while the Kabuto stomps on everyone trying to kill him and in the meantime the Reapers and Meccs will be killing each other too to stop each other from getting the Kabuto frag. Fun times for all!

Overall, this game is the bomb. The single player campaign may be as boring as shit but the multi-player gameplay more than makes up for it. That is, if you can actually find people to play this game with you now days...

Company of Heroes

I have to admit; I'm a sucker for WWII games. The gritty, chaotic environments, explosions everywhere and no so much as a laser gun in sight. Don't take it the wrong way though, its not as if I condone war of any kind. And WWII is probably one of the bloodiest conflicts this world has had. Which makes it all the more attractive in a gamer's point-of-view.

The game starts off with the initial landing for the invasion of Normandy... where else but the all famous Omaha Beach. You take control of Able Company, one of many infantry divisions and try to storm up the beaches of Omaha while under machine-gun fire. If you've ever played Medal of Honor or Call of Duty, I'm sure you'll know what it was like in first-person. Now though you have to do it RTS style. The game follows on with a company of paratroopers, deployed within enemy lines to disrupt German forces and to seize control of the roads linking the two beaches where the landings take place. The game then follows some of the major battles that the paratroopers and infantry face to capture Normandy, like the battle at Carentan and the closing of the Fallaise Pocket.

Immediately we're introduced to the very important concept of cover; cover is what keeps your units alive in the game. Lack of cover usually spells 10 seconds of life expectancy for your troops. You can use almost anything for cover; fallen trees, sandbags, low walls, ditches, etc. Buildings play a large part in defending a sector as it provides a major cover bonus for troops within.

Units in the game can be categorized into 3 types: infantry, light vehicles and tanks. With infantry you have snipers, engineers, riflemen, paratroopers and the like. Light vehicles consist of armored cars and anti-tank guns. Tanks offer the use of Shermans, Tank Destroyers, Tigers, etc. In terms of units, the game balances itself out nicely. Infantry are cheaper and strong in numbers, but lose out easily to snipers. Snipers lose out to light vehicles like jeeps. Jeeps are weak to almost everything else though. Tanks are easily the strongest units in the game, but lose out to superior positioning of anti-tank guns or flanking tactics from infantry with bazookas.

You also get to choose the kind of commander you want to be. You get to choose between being an infantry, paratrooper or tank commander. Infantry people want to... defend a lot for some reason. So you get loads of defense and cheap, quick reinforcements. Paratroopers get planes and the ability to put troops where their needed fast. Tank commanders focus more on using vehicles to gain the upper hand. I've tried for days and days now to prove infantry commanders are of some use but... I've failed. Paratroopers or tank commanders are way, way better. If anyone has a decent use for the infantry commander skill tree, please let me know.

I would rank this above C&C3 which came out around the same time. The detail put into the graphics, the tactics and strategies you need to employ on the go, the fast-paced action and split-second decisions that make or break your game make me believe that Company of Heroes is one of the best RTS games I've seen for a long, long time.

Starcraft & Starcraft: Brood War

When I was around 13 to 14 years old, I used to play this game a lot. This game is probably the first game I ever played in a cybercafe. We used to go this really dingy and run down one near my primary school called the PC shop. The computers were old and funky and there were only 7 working ones (an odd number lol) but we still had great fun.

So I recently finished this game (again) over the summer holidays, for a lack of a better game to play. Well it sure brought those memories of the good old times flooding back to me. Compared to the 3D graphics you get in most RTS games today, I kind of prefer the style Starcraft incorporates. It just gives me a really retro feeling...

The single player campaign comprises of 6 episodes (2 for each of the 3 races) which detail the coming of the Zerg (Aliens) and the Protoss (Predator?) to the unsuspecting Terran (Human) colonies. The plot is interesting enough to keep you playing from mission to mission, using cinematics and pre-mission briefings to move the story along. The gameplay is pretty decent with a good balance of difficulty. Players new to RTS games won't find it too hard and those who are good at them won't find it too easy. Towards the end though, especially in the expansion when you have access to the whole tech tree, the game becomes a little too easy. There aren't any difficulty settings for one. Also, once you have access to your best unit (like Battlecruisers or Guardians) then all you have to do is defend your base till you have a large army of them and you win.

Its the multiplayer experience that makes this game really shine. Amazingly enough, Blizzard has managed to balance out the strength of the 3 races (with a few patches here and there) so that each race has its own tactical advantage. The Zerg have weaker but cheaper units, the Protoss build powerful but really expensive stuff and the Terrans are the game's Swiss Army Knife; they are suited to handle all kinds of combat situations. Maps are balanced and beautifully constructed with terrain and resource points providing a lot to think about when playing it against a human opponent. The mix of units allow for all kinds of strategies like covert-ops, all-out attacks, sieges, ambushes, etc.

All in all, Starcraft is a beautiful game, even if the graphics may put some people off (not me of course). Which goes to show why after all these years Starcraft is still considered one of the best RTS games of all time (especially by Koreans)