Finally, I've managed to pry myself away from Metal Gear Soild 4: Guns of The Patriots long enough to get back to my normal routine, which of course includes the updating of this blog. It's been a while, so hopefully I can get back to track. After all, not too much has been happening lately. Nothing too exciting nor fanciful, but I like it this way some times. As long as I can taste Mabel's cooking, surf the net, and get to my games, I'm a happy man. Of course, I'd be a lot happier once we get a new member of the family at the end of the year.
Good friend Kelly celebrated her birthday along with us, and we were more than delighted to have Kiyaan joining us again. Babies grow at such a rate than once you blink, you'd swear that they've grown a few inches taller. He's such an active and cute baby boy that everyone was crowding around him to take pictures, and poor Kelly had lesser attention although it was her birthday. Nonetheless, Kiyaan was the real star and its pretty evident that Wee Lee and Kelly are happy and happy parents.
More close friends are getting pregnant lately, and this is truly the season to have babies. Cheryl and Adrian just welcomed their baby girl last week, and we visited them the next day to hear of their experience. We will have at least 4 more sets of couples expecting their child before ours, so more stories to come soon. Mabel and me need more experience sharing sessions so that we'd be better prepared for ours.
Ok, back to my story. PS3 was bought on the day MGS4 was released, as I promised 1 year ago. Completed the game in 4 days, 2 of which were working days, so I only played at night. 1st run through took me 21 hours. Doubt that I will be hardcore enough to go for the no kills and no alerts run, since my attention span doesn't run that long and that I have other games to look forward to. Completed my second run, and will be tempted to download a save file from gamefaqs to try out all the optional and secret items.
The game itself was magnificent, although I thought that 1st time gamers into the series would be totally lost. The plot is definately not a easy one to digest, spanning though decades and spreading across 5 games. Fans who have played the original Metal Gear Solid game on the Playstation are bought to be overwhelmed with nostalgia, due to the fact that the game revisits the locations of the very 1st MGS game, revamped in HD graphics of course. Hideo Kojima even gave us a dream sequence where we controlled the PS1 version of Snake at the start of the scenario. Truly awesome. Easter eggs and references were plentiful too, using gamers a sense of how far the industry's gone ahead, and how long the series have entertained us gamers. Remember back on the PS1, half way through Shadow Moses Island where we needed to change from Disc 1 to Disc 2? Here's a really funny codec conversation between Otacon and Snake. Really hillarious!
I bought Devil May Cry 4 along with the set and with MGS4, but never really had the time or chance to play it until 2 days ago. I was either playing MGS4/Metal Gear Online, or Dragon Ball: Burst Limit, which I bought a week after. I'm a fan of the series, having played through all the previous installments, so I'm familiar with the game style and the controls. Good stuff so far, fabulous graphics, and best of all the gameplay really shines. Hopefully this will take long enough for me to save up for another game.
Like I mentioned earlier, I bought Burst Limit a week after I got the set. Actually, I wanted to buy it along with MGS4, but during that time only the Japanese version was released. I was really tempted to buy it, but was afraid that the online aspect would only limit connections to asia regions, so I decided to wait for the US version instead. Came with the same bonus artwork as the Japanese version, but they didn't give the Goku figure. On the game, I actually didn't get like it at first. I enjoyed the one on the PSP, and this one made some changes which I didn't like. Sure the graphics were awesome and it looks like you're actually controlling the anime, but gameplay wise I actually preferred the PSP version. Button mashing sucks, but the depth of some of the gameplay mechanics makes up for this. Sadly, it only ends at the Cell saga so we'd be expecting yet another sequel pretty soon. Don't think I'll get it, unless they really revamp the system to make a better fighting engine. The online aspect sucks too, since I always get connected to countries far far away, and the game lags too much to be enjoyable. It's a good game still, and the only game I have which supports 2 players currently (except for the demo games I downloaded off the PSN network). On the topic of Dragonball, I hear the movie's teaser is going to be released soon. The official banner has already been sighted (picture on the right), so most probably we'll be getting some things to hopefully get excited about really soon.
Watched The Incredible Hulk with Mabel last weekend. While Ironman has actually set the standard pretty high, I thought that Hulk did well, although just short of the same level. Comparing to the Ang Lee version a few years back, I thought that both movies were very different and I preferred this one because it tries less to show the "torn apart" side of Banner, and concentrated on the action scenes with a kick ass final confrontation. There were plenty of references to the upcoming Justise League movie, just as Nick Fury's name popping up, talk of the Super Soldier project, and even a cameo from Tony Stark. I was pretty happy that Lou Ferrigno, who played the Hulk in the 1970s series, made a cameo in the show. And of course, Stan Lee was there too.
On the very same day, we met some friends and decided to watch a movie together. As it was already quite late, most of the other shows were either filled up or some of us had already watched it. So, we decided to watch Shaolin Girl (少林少女) instead. It was a really bad move. The movie was so bad that Mabel fell asleep and I had the urge to leave and head home. Even Kung Fu Dunk (which I thought was shit) was better than this. It had great potential, which went wasted and it went plotless for more than half of the movie. Please, stay away from this film. Stephen Chow better do better with Dragonball as the producer.
Engine Sentai Go-Onger's 2 new members call themselves the Go-on Wings: Go-on Silver and Go-on Gold. It's the first time in the series 32 years history that a female member's joined the original cast. They've got 7 regular members now, and I think more are coming. This translates to more figures to be collected, no? Well, that's all for this update, so I'm leaving with a scene from the series. Until next week, ja!
Sorry for the lack of updates for the past week! I've been staying up for nights, playing Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of The Patriots for the past week or so. Completed it in 4 days (actually nights since I still gotta work), and now on my second run. Got my set on the official launch of MGS4, along with the Dual Shock 3 and 3 games. Will try to tear myself away from the game and post an entry soon!
This week sees another birthday party for Mabel. Again, close friends gathered and while the girls gathered in the kitchen to prepare some home made food such as fried rice and pasta (complete with dessert), the guys brought along their PSPs and had a marathon session of multiplayer games. We played so much that each of us had to re-charge out sets halfway through the game. The rest of the time were spent talking and discussing about parenthood, since Cheryl and Adrian's baby would soon be due, and that we had a lot to learn from them. I've yet to read the book which they gave us as a gift last week. The title of the book is "What to expect when you're expecting". Well, don't expect Mabel to read anything except magazines so most probably I'll be the one to scan through and summarise for her in the end.I've logged nearly 80km as of today, and I've been running so much that I've hit over 22km in the past 3 days alone. I've also been exploring new places such as Pungol Park, where I did my 10km run in the morning on Sunday. I've been experiencing some pain with my knees, so I'll most probably cut down but will try to log a few km everyday. Reason? I've joined a couple of challenges with runners all over the world, and every run counts when you're trying to win. :p
I've also signed up for the Nike+ Human race 10k, where runners all over the world gather on the same day to run 10km, for the charity foundation of your choice. Sounds fun, since you're running for a good cause and it would be interesting to take part in an event of such a magnitude. It costs around $50, but you'll get a runners' pack along with a Nike shirt which you'll have to wear on the day of the run. Anyone else interested? We can go together, so get in touch with me!
This is a very special week too, because I've actually been counting down to the 12th of June since over a year ago. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots finally gets released this Thursday! I've been a big fan of the previous series, and this game is the definitive reason to own a PS3. I've always resisted getting the PS3, since the game I've wanted to play most has yet to be released. But all this will change soon, and I'm planning to get the game along with the set as early as possible, hopefully with an additional Dual Shock 3 controller as well as a few games. MGS4 has received a perfect score from Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu. Only eight games so far have received perfect scores from the publication, which is considered the most respected video game news magazine in Japan. Definately getting more and more excited since some of the videos show really really awesome stuff. While I try and decide which colour of the PS3 to get, check out a video of the game here:
Weezer released their new single called "Pork & Beans" not too long ago. The video for the single features many YouTube stars and Internet memes, such as the including Gary Brolsma (numa numa), the Afro Ninja, Chris Crocker, Miss South Carolina Teen USA, Kevin Federline , the Dramatic Prairie Dog (including lookalikes of H!P group Mini Moni), the Sneezing Panda, the Soulja Boy dance, and many more. It's awesome because all these people have ruled YouTube for the past years, and shows how much a Internet geek I am because I recognise so many of them. Haha.... yeah the video won't make much sense for non-YouYube regulars, but the song rocks so you need to check it out:
On Internet fads, YouTube stars and Internet memes, a South Park episode featured many more of these "stars", and the result was a truly hillarious episode. The video below includes clips of the original videos which were spoofed from, so you can catch up on them if you've missed any. Hope you have a good laugh, just as I did.
I might just be staying up overnight playing MGS4 while you're reading this, or playing a few rounds of Dragonball: Burst Limit over the internet, so I might not have too much time to post. Nah, I'll still have time when Mabel hogs the TV for her dramas. So until the next time in which I'll try to give my initial 2 cents on MGS4, I'm checking out. "Snnaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakeeeeeeeeeeee!""
Nope, of course that's not our baby. That's Jia Le, baby son of our close friends Wee Lee & Kelly. They became proud parents last november, and I'd be as proud if my baby was as cute and clever as little Jia Le. Although he did gave his parents a little trouble at the dinner table, everybody was delighted at how his smiles and every other little movement.
The occasion? It's Mabel's birthday once more! Time seems to fly, expecially when youth seems increasingly precious nowadays. A few of our close friends gathered for a buffet dinner, and we were chomping away at countless plates of asian cuisine, and as much as our bellies count hold. Cheryl & Adrian's baby girl will be due pretty soon, hence the tummy (no we didn't eat THAT much). Hopefully we'll get to see their baby girl pretty soon, so all the best to parents-to-be Cheryl and Adrian. Surprisingly, a lot of our friends are also expecting their bundle of joy to arrive this year, so I'll probably be posting more baby pictures in the next few months. Certainly a fertile year where we expect little mice to run around the next year (for the unaware this is the year of the Rat in the Chinese zodiac).
As for Mabel, she's just entered the 1st week of her 2nd Trimester, and things are looking much brighter for her right now. The nausea feeling is almost completely gone, and she can now enjoy her meals without the need to rush to the sink. Thank god, just as I was getting immune to clearing up the toilet and the sinks. The last visit to the doctor showed that the baby was growing fine, and to Mabel's slight dissapointment he mentioned that there is a 80% chance that the baby will be a girl. Well, Mabel prefers a boy, while I'm completely neutral. Both are as good, and health is the number 1 priority. Mabel's kinda accepted the fact, and refers the the baby as "ah girl" these days. We've even got a name ready, but I'll share it at another update. :P
I took some pictures of my collection for a forum recently. I uploaded the pics to my Facebook account, but I thought it would be good to add them for a blog posting as well. I've only took then out to clean once since I've moved in, and most probably cleaning will be an annual chore. I've been wanting to expand 2 more glass layers, but I guess that will have to wait. Picture on top shows my Bandai Vinvyl Soul of Tamashii Kamen Rider figures, and also the Den-O series RHS and Super Sentai series figures. There are roughly 4 rows of figures in each level, so behind the Go-Onger figures are 3 more rows of Gekiranger & Magiranger.
Here are the rest of the Kamen Rider RHS figures, from Kamen Rider Blade, Kamen Rider Hibiki, Kamen Rider Kabuto, and Kamen Rider Kiva. The front row is dominated by the candy toys and also the Kamen Rider SD Kids series. Bottom level consists of the Super Imaginative Chogokin series, mostly the figures from the Hibiki series. Also there are the Equip and Prop figures from Garo.
Last level consists of the bigger Bandai figures, from various Kamen Rider figures, and also Garo. The rest of the figures are the red rangers from all the Super Sentai series, which come from a set commemorating the 30th anniversary of Super Sentai. There are some random Spidey busts and Naruto/Bleach figures here too.
The next shelf consists of primarily Ultraman and Gundam models. First 2 levels show the Ultraman figures from the UHS, including other various candy toys and HD sets, and also the Ultimate Solid figures.
Next level also shows the remaining Ultraman figures, and the bigger figures as well. Next level shows my painted Gundam models, mostly the anime grade from the Seed series, and also a few Master Grade sets as well. All these were airbrushed by myself while I was very into painting, but it's been about 2 years since I last touched my air brush and compressor set.
Last level shows the other small anime and Gundam sets, mostly not air brushed because they were assembled before I got my airbrush kit. Includes some 1:60 kits from G Gundam, and some kits from Gundam Wing. These would be the first to go if I ever decided to clear away some to make more room.
Next, the area near the TV. Nothing really fancy, just some cute Ultraman stuff and more random stuff, including some softtoys and Ci Boy stuff. Also present is a resin figure of Yuna from FFX2.
Lastly, my current collection of the Kamen Rider Head Displays. More are definately on the way, so I'm thinking of how to create more space for them. I also store my DVDs and my PS2 games here, though I've barely touched them for months now.
Since Mabel's recovery from her 1st trimester sickness, I've finally gotten the chance to watch Ironman last weekend. I've been bugging for her to watch the show for weeks, and luckily we managed to catch a slot as the movie was going off the theaters soon. On the movie, I thought that it was fantastic. I've heard lots of good stuff for the movie, and it delivered in most aspects. I'm not going to write too much on the movie because it's a little dated now, so just some stuff which I thought was worthy of mentioning. First, the cast was fantastic. I loved Robert Downey Jr as Tony Clark. He did a great job and was convincing as a naive billionaire who thought that he was producing weapons for the betterment of his country. Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane was equally fantastic. His role was perfect for a origin movie, and set up the pieces for a final showdown although I wasn't quite convinced that he could manoeuvre the Iron Monger on his first try. The other cast members Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts) and Terrence Howard (Col. James 'Rhodey' Rhodes) were pretty funny in their respective scenes, and I was absolutelydelighted when Rhodes looked at the MK II armour and said "Next time." I'm no big fan of Ironman, but I do know of War Machine and this was certainly a nod and reference to future Ironman movies, which have been confirmed by the way. All in all, I'm already looking forward to the DVD release. Here's a cool animation featuring Ironman, together with Spidey and Hulk. Check it out:
Moving on the other super hero movies on the way, I'll looking at The Dark Knight and also The Incredible Hulk, which are due in a few months time. The Dark Knight continues where Batman Begins left off, with Batman now confronting The Joker and perhaps to a lesser degree, Two Face. I thought the first movie was ok, with great chase scenes but too little fight scenes and everything was too dark and the camera work was a little untidy. Batman's gear and the technology he used was explained in a realistic manner, which was good. Hopefully, the sequel will be better and we can expect more of the tank and also more chase scenes. I prefer Marvel to DC, but Batman is one of the few DC characters I like so I'm definately watching this one in the theaters. Check out the trailer here:
I thought the Hulk movie from Lee Ang a few years ago was ok. Like Ironman, I like Hulk but have never been a fan who read all the comics, though I can say I know the background and origins of most popular Marvel Super heroes. The movie was a little slow (as expected from Lee), and wasn't terribly exciting. This time round, the movie promises to deliever the Hulk in an all new action packed movie, and they are starting fresh from the beginning, with another origin movie. From the trailers, the Hulk looks really menacing this time, and much much darker than the first movie. I don't really see Edward Norton as a Bruce Banner, and he doesn't really look too much like the Hulk when he transforms. But well, I'm keeping my hopes high for this one. Trailer here:
On Super Sentai, I'm surprised to say this but I'm really growing to like Go-Onger a lot, and even more so that last year's Gekiranger! The episodes are short and connected, and are really really funny. The humor reminds me alot of Kamen Rider Den-O, which has since become my fave Rider Series because of the humour and storyline. In Go-Onger, nearly every episode has me bursting out in laughter and I'm not the type to laugh easily. I've been showing Mabel the funny scenes and she's also been laughing (either at the show or at me for being moronic). This has really got to be the whackiest and funniest Sentai series ever. Anyway, I love the show and hope it gets better. Here's a video of the ED theme shown in episode 14, in which some kids are shown, giving the users a chance to learn the dance. I'm sure they're going to market this and make a dance video soon. Ka-ching!
Ok, nearly midnight and tomorrow starts yet another busy week packed with meetings. At least there are things to look forward to: Japanese class, new episodes of Kiva and Go-Onger (with 2 new members, Gold and Silver pictured on top), and of course, looking forward to going home to Mabel on our little growing one. Still counting down, and see ya!
Finally, I've managed to pry myself away from Metal Gear Soild 4: Guns of The Patriots long enough to get back to my normal routine, which of course includes the updating of this blog. It's been a while, so hopefully I can get back to track. After all, not too much has been happening lately. Nothing too exciting nor fanciful, but I like it this way some times. As long as I can taste Mabel's cooking, surf the net, and get to my games, I'm a happy man. Of course, I'd be a lot happier once we get a new member of the family at the end of the year.
Good friend Kelly celebrated her birthday along with us, and we were more than delighted to have Kiyaan joining us again. Babies grow at such a rate than once you blink, you'd swear that they've grown a few inches taller. He's such an active and cute baby boy that everyone was crowding around him to take pictures, and poor Kelly had lesser attention although it was her birthday. Nonetheless, Kiyaan was the real star and its pretty evident that Wee Lee and Kelly are happy and happy parents.
More close friends are getting pregnant lately, and this is truly the season to have babies. Cheryl and Adrian just welcomed their baby girl last week, and we visited them the next day to hear of their experience. We will have at least 4 more sets of couples expecting their child before ours, so more stories to come soon. Mabel and me need more experience sharing sessions so that we'd be better prepared for ours. 
Ok, back to my story. PS3 was bought on the day MGS4 was released, as I promised 1 year ago. Completed the game in 4 days, 2 of which were working days, so I only played at night. 1st run through took me 21 hours. Doubt that I will be hardcore enough to go for the no kills and no alerts run, since my attention span doesn't run that long and that I have other games to look forward to. Completed my second run, and will be tempted to download a save file from gamefaqs to try out all the optional and secret items.
The game itself was magnificent, although I thought that 1st time gamers into the series would be totally lost. The plot is definately not a easy one to digest, spanning though decades and spreading across 5 games. Fans who have played the original Metal Gear Solid game on the Playstation are bought to be overwhelmed with nostalgia, due to the fact that the game revisits the locations of the very 1st MGS game, revamped in HD graphics of course. Hideo Kojima even gave us a dream sequence where we controlled the PS1 version of Snake at the start of the scenario. Truly awesome. Easter eggs and references were plentiful too, using gamers a sense of how far the industry's gone ahead, and how long the series have entertained us gamers. Remember back on the PS1, half way through Shadow Moses Island where we needed to change from Disc 1 to Disc 2? Here's a really funny codec conversation between Otacon and Snake. Really hillarious!
I bought Devil May Cry 4 along with the set and with MGS4, but never really had the time or chance to play it until 2 days ago. I was either playing MGS4/Metal Gear Online, or Dragon Ball: Burst Limit, which I bought a week after. I'm a fan of the series, having played through all the previous installments, so I'm familiar with the game style and the controls. Good stuff so far, fabulous graphics, and best of all the gameplay really shines. Hopefully this will take long enough for me to save up for another game.
Like I mentioned earlier, I bought Burst Limit a week after I got the set. Actually, I wanted to buy it along with MGS4, but during that time only the Japanese version was released. I was really tempted to buy it, but was afraid that the online aspect would only limit connections to asia regions, so I decided to wait for the US version instead. Came with the same bonus artwork as the Japanese version, but they didn't give the Goku figure. On the game, I actually didn't get like it at first. I enjoyed the one on the PSP, and this one made some changes which I didn't like. Sure the graphics were awesome and it looks like you're actually controlling the anime, but gameplay wise I actually preferred the PSP version. Button mashing sucks, but the depth of some of the gameplay mechanics makes up for this. Sadly, it only ends at the Cell saga so we'd be expecting yet another sequel pretty soon. Don't think I'll get it, unless they really revamp the system to make a better fighting engine. The online aspect sucks too, since I always get connected to countries far far away, and the game lags too much to be enjoyable. It's a good game still, and the only game I have which supports 2 players currently (except for the demo games I downloaded off the PSN network). On the topic of Dragonball, I hear the movie's teaser is going to be released soon. The official banner has already been sighted (picture on the right), so most probably we'll be getting some things to hopefully get excited about really soon.
Watched The Incredible Hulk with Mabel last weekend. While Ironman has actually set the standard pretty high, I thought that Hulk did well, although just short of the same level. Comparing to the Ang Lee version a few years back, I thought that both movies were very different and I preferred this one because it tries less to show the "torn apart" side of Banner, and concentrated on the action scenes with a kick ass final confrontation. There were plenty of references to the upcoming Justise League movie, just as Nick Fury's name popping up, talk of the Super Soldier project, and even a cameo from Tony Stark. I was pretty happy that Lou Ferrigno, who played the Hulk in the 1970s series, made a cameo in the show. And of course, Stan Lee was there too.
On the very same day, we met some friends and decided to watch a movie together. As it was already quite late, most of the other shows were either filled up or some of us had already watched it. So, we decided to watch Shaolin Girl (少林少女) instead. It was a really bad move. The movie was so bad that Mabel fell asleep and I had the urge to leave and head home. Even Kung Fu Dunk (which I thought was shit) was better than this. It had great potential, which went wasted and it went plotless for more than half of the movie. Please, stay away from this film. Stephen Chow better do better with Dragonball as the producer.
Engine Sentai Go-Onger's 2 new members call themselves the Go-on Wings: Go-on Silver and Go-on Gold. It's the first time in the series 32 years history that a female member's joined the original cast. They've got 7 regular members now, and I think more are coming. This translates to more figures to be collected, no? Well, that's all for this update, so I'm leaving with a scene from the series. Until next week, ja!
