Baby Incoming (!) + MK X

I think I mentioned that I have a baby on the way. I must have. A baby boy.

Anyway, we just came back from a doctor's visit last weekend. Baby's growing healthy well and looks handsome (just like his dad? LOL). He's due sometime in July, hopefully with no complications for Janice.

We've been going around buying loads of stuff for the baby, clothes, cot, equipment, diapers etc. Been thinking about what kind of training... I mean learning and development stuff we're going to introduce to the kid. It's going to be so weird taking care of a newborn baby, especially my own spawn (haha) but somehow I think I can handle it together with Janice.

3D Scan of my baby boy

We watched Book of Life over the weekend too. It was surprisingly a good movie, very colorful and thoughtful. Wonder why I never heard of it much, it kinda snuck in into cinemas, if it was showed here at all (I'm pretty sure it must have been). The plot revolves around the Mexican "Day of the Dead" celebration and it has quite a novel take on the lore.

On the gaming front: been itching to get into a new fighting game, was looking to get into Tekken maybe but its not out yet for next gen systems. Enter Mortal Kombat X. I've never really gotten into the MK / Injustice mechanics and combo systems before this. The combo system is quite clunky and I'm not sure how hit confirms into specials work in this game since most specials put you at significant frame disadvantage.

Still, I've been having fun relearning a new fighting system, especially one that was so non-intuitive to me. I've practised enough to perform combos with relative consistency and getting the hang of the button press kombo system. I've been focusing on just using Kenshi, the blind telepathic swordsman and I just love his Balanced variation; good at both long and close range to really mix it up.

I've also been getting back into Blizzard games, playing Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm mostly. I'm trying to make a good Control Priest deck but I'm missing the vital legendary pieces to really stand toe to toe. I also have a cheap no legends Warlock deck which isn't too bad. Heroes of the Storm, focusing on playing Sgt. Hammer (just love that hero) and just got her master skin, yay!

Ok that's all thanks.

Wow shit one year?

Lol I didn't realise I haven't updated this for a while. Quick updates:

Janice is pregnant; its a boy, expecting in July / August this year. Yay! No name yet.

Playing lots of Destiny, finished Dying Light (its above average) and getting back into Hearthstone for the arena mode.

Business is slow, I have ideas for a non-profit organisation to use games to do good things? Idk.

Going to Bali on Thursday for a CNY trip with the family. Going to Penang the week after.

What else? Not sure. Talk more later.

Demons Within and Without

Ok no drama with the title post, I just can't think of any good ones. And also cause I've been playing lots of Diablo 3.

So what's happening with my gaming now... haven't played Dota much since the Diablo 3 expansion came out. Yeah, I main a Female Wizard in D3 since the first time in came out. Was really sucky then, now not so much. Pretty fun runs in Adventure mode and Nephalem  Rifts and what not. I'll make a section to showcase off my Wizard some time.

For MTG, still haven't had time to power up the Cube yet, hopefully tomorrow I can get some of the prints done, cut them out in the evening and sleeve them up before the guys pop in on Wednesday. Should be interesting to see what kind of interactions they'll come up with.

On the working front, just attended a 5-day course on leadership and managing people etc. etc. The business simulation was fun, mostly cause we did well for it. We did a nice interactive presentation using Prezi for our resort business (called Fun Luanne Resort); check out Prezi if you ever want to make fun slides, much better than power point. All in all, was OK though its pretty much the same stuff I've heard on the subject again and again.

On to life stuff; so the wife and I are going for a trip to Cameron's for the weekend next week, just to get away from the hustle and bustle of town. Nothing much to do there so I guess the itinerary is 1. eat some scones, 2. relax and sleep and then 3. eat some more. Two week's from now though we'll be going to Redang Island with some of the guys, and that's always fun. Lots of seafood, doing nothing around the beach, playing some drinking games... that'll be a blast.

Alright that's it for now, signing out.

Insert interesting title post here

Long time since the last update! Time to get some things off my chest.

Some real life stuff first then. Wife and I have been trying for a baby for a year now but so far no luck :( She has something called PCOS which makes her eggs not come out when its that time of the month. That's fixed now since she went for a laproscopy but the problem is with my army of men; its mutated or something crazy like that, so they don't swim straight T.T So anyway I don't know what we're going to do to fix that, been cutting down on caffeine when I can, being more healthy and also taking some supplement pills but not sure if its helping. IVF is our last option I suppose but I want to avoid that if possible.

OK with the property business, its plodding along on the investment side; we have an investment in a smallish house in Seri Kembangan which we wanted to start renovation work on but the tenant still wants to stay on so we're happy to collect rent. We have another property we're buying in Brickfields / Bangsar but the loan is being problematic. Working on a renovation condo project for my parent's-in-law at the moment, big place and lots of things to do which is good, a step up from the smaller condo projects we have been working on previously.

Games... well I haven't actually gotten to finishing any new games. Pretty much been playing a fair amount of Dota 2, and more recently Diablo 3 since the Reaper of Souls expansion will be coming out soon. I probably want to get started on Far Cry 3 at some point as my next game, and there are a couple of new games coming out that may seem interesting so I might jump into those later on.

Other than that, Magic drafts keep on a coming. Few new regulars joining the Wednesday drafts now so that gives us 8-man drafts most times. We're gonna switch to the MTGO Holiday Cube soon, full with Moxes and Black Lotus and everything; that should be massive fun! At least for a while.

Alright then, tata!

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year 2014!

Escape Room and Mission Q

The new thing in town, real-life escape rooms courtesy of Japan. Nice concept and good fun. KL is home to two, the first being the Escape Room @ e-Curve and the second being Mission Q @ SS15, Subang Jaya.

Having played two rooms at each place, I have to say that Escape Room has the better atmosphere and decor overall, which leads to more engaging puzzles and a thematic feel to it. Mission Q on the other hand makes up for its lack of good props and theme with some innovative puzzles, though it does feel slightly "cheap" at times.

Even if you're not into these sort of escape room type games, if you like puzzles and problem solving you should give it a whirl. Prices don't differ too much between the two but it is a bit pricey at about 30 - 36 ringgit per pax per room.

The Loading Bar (eSports Bar @ Malaysia)

My friends and I are starting up The Loading Bar, an eSports themed bar for gamers to come chill out, have a beer or two, watch some live matches together with other gamers and just have fun. Visit the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/TheLoadingBarMsia) and give us a visit at our next event!

So many Zekes! (The Last of Us and World War Z plus other movies!)

We've got a zombie overload this week. The Last of Us by Naughty Dog came out about a week back and I've been playing it over the past week. It's an awesome game with an engaging story and plot (a must for any game in my book), stunning visuals, and solid (though safe) gameplay and mechanics. Even if you're not a fan of the zombie genre, this game is definitely worth a play.

Expansive scenery and details throughout the game.

The game's two main characters, Ellie (left) and Joel.

Cordycep zombies are the least of your worries actually...

World War Z also came out last week featuring Brad Pitt as a super calm super solider against the 'zekes'. Its an interesting movie based on an interesting book premise though quite straightforward in the telling. One of the least horrifying zombie movies I've seen to date (Resident Evil used to take that spot) but not the worst by far. Also worth a watch.

Not going to end well...

Watched lots of other blockbuster movies recently too. The week before we had Man of Steel; I personally enjoyed that despite many saying that it fell below expectations. What more can you expect from a Superman movie? What super duper depth are we looking for here? Maybe that's why Batman is always more popular than Superman. Also watched Monsters University yesterday, good movie, entertaining but not the best movie of the year by far.

In a fit of spontaneity, I bought a bouquet of flowers and a hand mixer for my wife. She finds it sweet :) Hand mixer sounds odd as a present (where's the diamonds?) but she likes baking and I like baking with her so it made sense?

Also gotten back into MOBA games. Its kinda fun when you play with friends I guess. I hate playing pubs cause of the various types of assholes that emerge. Waiting for the DC universe MOBA (the Flash is my pick!)... I'm sure Batman / Superman will be top tier heroes.

WoW Cube and The Cat Lady

We've started playing WoW! Well, more like skipped the starting part and just went right into it. My friends and I built a WoW Cube, and we've been playing that the past couple of weeks. The game is simple to play and not as deep as Magic: The Gathering but its new and its fun so whatever. If you played the Shadow Era, iPhone game, its pretty similar. So I've gone off the deep end with this cube drafting thing and created a whole blog dedicated to it. Go visit! Click here here here.

The Cat Lady. This game. So good, so sad, so EMO. Point-and-click adventure with dark, gritty and very adult themes. Lovely artistic presentation, great and gripping story and awesome characters. Some people say the voice acting isn't quite there but I think its awesome, I love Susan Ashworth's voice actor. The soundtrack is just as great, melancholy and fitting with the game. Go play this!

The game is filled with atmospheric scenes like this one

Not a good place to be, this.

KL Cube Drafters & Exalt Assets

MTG cube drafting has increased to a staple of 1-2 times a week and given how regularly we cube draft I figured it might be a nice opportunity to create a web blog about it, in addition to tracking and communicating the changes in the cube to the draft group. The web blog covers the contents of the cube, play logs, change logs and the winning decklist(s) for each draft. The last bit is interesting to me to explore the different kinds of archetypes that can arise, and I hope also would be useful for the other cubers to learn and improve from. We got a game going last night, so will be updating the play log section of the blog. Visit it at www.klcube.blogspot.com.

Exalt Assets has gotten its first house and its first renovation project! Woo hoo! Its a property investment and uplift company that a few partners and I started earlier this year. While there are still a few kinks in the business model and things we haven't sorted out just yet, I think its a good start to the business. Here's to hoping more business comes our way!

Dead Devil Cubes

First off, GONG XI FA CAI to everyone! Happy Chinese New Year to you all! Even if you're not Chinese!

Devil May Cry; I liked this game but it had major changes which I suppose most people just couldn't accept. Dante's change for one; I'm glad they revised him to look more like a young, arrogant prick rather than a young, emo f***tard that he was before but... he's not the same Dante we know and love. Gameplay wise, it was too easy to be taken seriously as part of the DMC franchise, even with the harder difficulties. The story was alright, a "modern" and "realistic" retelling of the original DMC tale. I loved the art direction, the character models and the world and how it was portrayed. Still, not enough to fill its dark soul with ligggghhhhtttt....

Dead Space 3; another game in these present times that fall victim, just like DMC, to the "inclusiveness" bug... i.e. game developers feel that they have to dumb down the game just so that EVERYONE can play. And when the game is so easy that everyone can play, no one really wants to. Where's the challenge? Dead Space 3 is really, really easy on any difficulty other than hardcore, and that's because of some cheap shots with falling rocks and space debris. Also, more action than horror which is a minus point for the series. Some closure with the ending, standard stuff really.

Cube drafting is where the fun's at... lots and lots of cube drafting this holiday, with back to back drafts, 8-9 people almost twice this past two weeks (oh joy!) and loads of fun to be had with new cards in the cube.

End of the Year

So yeah, didn't really get started with those games. Got sidetracked with a lot of other real life things, like work, business, etc. etc. Still, I managed to finish up all five episodes of the Walking Dead adventure game by Telltale Games. Its a great game with fantastic storytelling and a gripping atmosphere. As far as games go, its more than we can ask for these days. What else... started playing Pay Day: The Heist recently. Another awesome 4-player co-op game about robbers and heists. Good plain fun with lots of shooting and action. Had a go with ZombiU too, it was really good as well. Makes me want to get one but a single game doesn't warrant an impulse buy like that.

Board game wise, my friend got two new board games; Legendary, a Marvel themed co-op deck building game, and a DC comics deck building game. My thoughts; the DC one is good, it is fast paced and there's lots of interactions with other players. I felt it was kinda luck-based though. Marvel wasn't so great with me, too many cards for simple mechanics that didn't seem very fun to me. Granted I only played Marvel once, and I only played both games with two players but so far that's what I feel about these two.

On the Magic front, wow, added tons of new cards to the Cube Draft from Return to Ravnica, as well as some staples that other people use in their cubes. I've kept the power level down a notch (no Black Lotus or Power Nine for example) so that it doesn't feel too elitist for new players. That being said, I'm finding it difficult to find friends who play Magic AND want to draft the Cube...

Business-wise, the shop / website / retail business idea has come to a standstill, no thanks to our daily jobs as well as a lack of commitment, time and effort on our parts. The Property Renovation and Investment business is also kinda slow. We haven't checked out any new houses recently and the houses that we were interested in was too expensive for us. Hopefully we can start a project soon so we can see if this is worth investing time into.

Still, the board game creating and publishing business idea is still in progress; Project Momentum has been halted for a bit while we focus on Project Space, a sci-fi strategy card game. We've worked on the prototype for two races or capital ships now, the Terran Battle Destroyer and the Nixian Armada Carrier. Still working out the kinks in the gameplay (especially space fighter combat) and the card designs, hopefully we can get a finished prototype for these two decks out soon.

My wife and I have also invested in our second property, a RM800k apartment at Ara Damansara. Its quite expensive but I think that area is going to be big in the next couple of years. Besides, I wouldn't mind staying there for a while once the LRT is up and running.

That's it for now I think, till next time.

Three Down, Two to go

Finished Bulletstorm and on to Splinter Cell Conviction. Still have Bioshock, Darksiders 2, The Darkness 2, Just Cause 2 and The Force Unleashed 2 to finish up.

Long days ahead...

EDIT: Alright Splinter Cell was really short, finished it in 2 days. Nice gripping story, always liked the Tom Clancy-conspiracy-army-spy thriller storylines.

On to Bioshock then...

Just to add some background to some of these older games, I had already gotten them but thanks to my old OS that couldn't be updated, my direct X couldn't be updated which screwed up with the graphics for most of these games.

Now that I can finish them, I will.

EDIT: Force Unleashed 2 is done with. It has a decent story with an OK gameplay. Nothing too special really.

My Bioshock CD seems to be corrupted; can't install off it. Which means I'd probably give that game a skip, unless it starts working soon somehow. Next up is Just Cause 2, but I don't feel like playing that game just yet. Maybe will take a breather for now.

I have also revamped the completed games section; you can see the list by year in the Labels section.

Mission Complete

I've managed to finish 2 out of the 3 games I started; The Saboteur and Darksiders. I'm getting started on Square Enix's Sleeping Dogs and it looks like a long game so that will take me a while.

The Saboteur was alright I suppose to kill time but the story wasn't that compelling and the gameplay was the same old, same old after a while. The art style was kinda interesting though, and the boobs everywhere....

Darksiders was much more fun. It reminded me a lot of Kingdom of Amalur (another long game I have yet to finish) in art style and graphics and of Zelda in terms of gameplay. Story was enjoyable and epic, though not unexpected. Looking forward to playing the sequel soon.

The first hour of Sleeping Dogs seems alright though I'm already seeing a pattern of repetitiveness. The hand-to-hand fights are just like the Batman: Arkham series; right click to counter, left click to smack face. There's the GTA element of driving around the city. The camera controls suck ass for some reason, especially when you're trying to reverse. It tracks your facing properly when you drive straight though so it is bearable. So far the missions have all involved beating up people or driving cars off the road... I hope the next few hours hold some different missions in store or I'll be getting seriously bored.

EDIT: So I'm done with Sleeping Dogs. The game is seriously too easy, unless you're trying to get the best rank for all missions. Its hard to not roll over people on the sidewalks, let alone knock down a damn lamp post. The story isn't too bad, typical triad / undercover gangster cop inspired by the likes of  Infernal Affairs and Young & Dangerous. All-in-all, a fun but mediocre game.

Looking to try out The Darkness 2 and Darksiders 2 when I can. For older games, I still have Splinter Cell: Conviction, Just Cause 2, Star Wars: Force Unleashed, Bioshock and Bulletstorm. Probably will settle with finishing one of these first before I pick up the rest.

Hari Raya Boardgame Binge

What a binge. Played almost non-stop boardgames over the Hari Raya holidays. Started off on Friday with two friends of ours, playing Ghost Stories with Janice. Finally managed to win one game that night. Janice retired to bed, and we rounded up the night with 2 rounds of Nightfall

Saturday, we played with my old college friend and her friends. After a nice chicken rice lunch we squeezed in a game of 7 Wonders and Dix It to warm up, followed by 2-3 rounds of Ghost Stories (I sat this one out) and a final few rounds of Boomtown to wrap up by evening.

Sunday we took a break in the afternoon to shop @ 1Utama, though not very successfully. My ramen at Isetan was closed, and nothing looked interesting to buy so we called it an afternoon by 3. Instead, we went to Tropicana City Mall to catch the Expendables 2; leave your brain at the door and just enjoy the ride lol. After, we caught sushi at Sushi Tei and I ended up playing MTG Winston drafts with my friend till 10 or so, then we caught up with another bunch of friends for drinks.

Monday was another shopping day, this time at Gardens, Midvalley. We did buy some stuff this time, got a haircut too. By the time we got home, we decided to go to the Burger Lab for dinner but it was closed (as expected with my luck these few days). We ended up at Silver Spoon @ Publika for some good Italian food. Was supposed to go to Meeples that night to check out some board games but yup, closed too.

Tuesday was another round of all-in boardgame fun with my regular bunch; highschool mates of mine. Lunch at Food Foundry, then off to my house for more board games. We started off with 7 Wonders; I did dismally scoring a 47 versus the winner's 76. Next was Nightfall where I got my face smashed in, then a quick round of Monopoly Deal where again I was made a pauper with no money or properties in my name.Things turned around for me with Conquest of Planet Earth where I sneaked in a victory with my intelligent space-faring aliens that look like prawns. Last game of the day was Thunderstone where my combination of deck thinning and recurring drawing won the day for me.

On the games front, Darksiders 2 is out but I'm going to start with Darksiders 1 first to get the backstory. I started on The Saboteur, a 2009 sandbox game like GTA where you blow up Nazis and see lots of boobs in Paris. Another game I downloaded just last night is Sleeping Dogs, another sandbox game about a Chinese undercover cop trying to take down the triads (like Infernal Affairs I suppose).

All-in-all, a crazy holiday for me, and a busy few weeks with these 3 new games. Later.

Property, Stocks and Games

What I've been up to in the last 2 weeks:

1. Binge Eating / Drinking with my Aussie Bud
Like I mentioned in my previous post, my good friend from the good ol' days came back to Msia for a week to sort out her wedding stuff. Since her husband-to-be wasn't around, we ended up eating loads of good stuff and drinking lots of bad stuff (he's allergic to alcohol) throughout the week.

For food we ate at Dave's Deli (foot long sausages omg too sexy...), Sanuki Udon (great udon place!), Yu Ai (great curry seafood noodles) and Mango Loh (nth special). Drinks were had at a friend's and her house, we were pretty much wasted after drinking for many, many hours haha. Fun times... going to miss hanging out with my bud :(

2. Finishing up Some Games
I've just updated my finished games list for 2012; can't believe I haven't updated it since July last year. I must have missed out a few titles but I can't be arsed to think to deeply about it.

Anyway, I'll talk a bit about the few of the recent games I've played. I completed one run-through of Deus Ex: Human Revolution by Square Enix, which I borrowed from a friend. Its a nice game, gameplay is reminiscent of Metal Gear Solid only with more gadgets and no boxes to hide in. Story-line is nice but I think it could be more engaging... I didn't feel caught up in the conspiracy theories they were trying to spin. Maybe because Adam Jensen is so emotionless about everything. Good game nonetheless.

The Walking Dead by Telltale Games. This was a hit with me right when I found out it was an adventure game with focus on plot and character development more than killing zombies. The Walking Dead series were always more on that anyway and Telltale really clinched the delivery of that with this game. Its super easy to play, but that's not why you play it; the story and making the hard choices makes this game worth playing. A lot like Heavy Rain, without the convoluted and confusing plots.

Last on the list is Asura's Wrath. I thought I wouldn't like this game because of the mindless action and quick-time events, but somehow its grown on me. Its like watching a stylish anime and I love those that have a bit of attitude (kinda like Samurai Champaloo). Over the top and cool action scenes, great cinematics and amazing sounds makes for an enjoyable week of gaming.

3.Investing in Property and Stocks
Trying my hand at growing my money, so I've invested in some stocks recently. I've picked up 3 stocks for now; Mah Sing and Dijaya (property developers) and Genting (gaming and plantations play). Mah Sing is Malaysia's 2nd best property developer and has been seeing some nice appreciation thanks to SP Setia falling out of favor in the market slightly. I picked up Dijaya because I think it's pretty underrated at the moment and there is potential for it to develop the RRIM area. Lastly, Genting saw a 2 dollar dip thanks to expected lower quarter earnings; I feel this is short-term and prices will rebound (maybe higher even) once some positive news comes out. The dividends aren't too bad either.

Property-wise, we went to the Setia Eco Glades ballot yesterday. Prospects for that property is amazing; great capital appreciation potential, minimal capital outlay at 95% margin of financing and no stamp / legal fees. Too bad we didn't manage to get it, our chances seemed high as well. Based on my colleague's calculations, we stood a 54% chance of getting one of our ballots selected :(

That's all for now, till next time.

Welcome home homie!!!

Bff from Australia flies in today, to settle some of her stuff for her marriage next year. Last chance to hang out before she gets hitched so we're going to get properly wasted and eat like gluttons and what not. Time for some good times!!

Been playing Dungeon Defenders with Janice lately. Its been long enough for the both of us that we don't feel bored of that game so we're starting all over with a new character. Hopefully then we can finish the old challenges that needed other character classes to finish. Is great to be playing games with Janice, too bad there aren't a lot that she's willing to play.

I'm struggling to find a game to play now days. There's a slew of games that I will definitely play, too bad they are all coming out a few months to a year later. Till then, I'll be staving off my gaming needs with Dota 2. Max Payne multiplayer is getting kinda dry and Diablo 3 definitely has gone off my list of games to play.

On the cooking front, I made some Asian-ised Seafood Paella with Bomba rice and a sofrito base with prawns and clams. It turned out OK I suppose, tasted alright though I'm sure I did something wrong somewhere. For the sofrito base, I used canned tomato puree and cooked it with chopped onions, garlic and rosemary herbs with a dash of nutmeg powder (substitute for paprika? I think not). Loads of vegetables went in; peppers, shitake mushrooms and loads of onions. The prawns and clams were cooked separately, stir fried and boiled respectively, before being stirred into the rice. The rice was boiled in chicken stock and left to cook and voila! Paella rice.

Further down the road...

The competitive fever I had for Magic these past few months has kinda died down for me, partly because I have been reminded (again) how it can be a real drag playing here with unsporting opponents and a community who cares about themselves and their cliques, rather than newcomers. I'll just stick to playing casual drafts with the cube or repacks from now on.

Love the new Christina Perri song feat. Jason Mraz, Distance. Her songs are always so hauntingly harmonious and, coupled with Jason Mraz's easy listen voice / songs, this duet is pretty good.

I've finished Max Payne 3 of late, now replaying it on harder difficulties and multiplayer. Its a decent game, I always liked the Max Payne dark storylines and noir setting. MP3 is a departure from noir but it puts a fresh spin on the franchise so I'm not complaining. Besides upgraded graphics and a brighter setting, the game is similar to the previous two, lots of action, bullet-time and blood.

Janice and I planned a 'makan-makan KL' trip together last Sunday. It promised to be really good, lots of touring the part of KL we never go to while tasting some great food in almost exotic locations. Instead, what we got was lots of walking, closed shops and traffic jams (of both vehicles and people). Who closes a food shop on a freaking Sunday anyway?

After lots of walking, we decided to move on to Bangsar to explore the food at Lorong Ara Kiri. We had Char Kuey Teow (not so good), Pork Ball Noodles (even worse), Tom Yam Seafood Noodles (so so) and Sarawak Laksa (very nice - but not as nice as my friend's mom's laksa). Rounded it off with a pricey Caramel Latte at a small outlet. We're going to try again the week after next, maybe go to Malacca this time around since my good buddy will be back to settle her wedding.

Good times to look forward to.

"Making Customisation Affordable"

This would be a great vision for a company, I think. Simple, catchy and direct. The company can be involved in all sorts of customisation activities, like raw materials for customisations (e.g. paints, glues), customisation designs (e.g. art, decals) and so on. Wish I could build a business like this someday.

Think about... Socks

When you turn a sock inside out before keeping it in your drawers, you are actually using energy from the future now.