GTA IV Released!

Today is the official release date for Grand Theft Auto IV here in Singapore and worldwide. Went straight to collect my pre-ordered Special Edition for PS3. Welcome to Liberty City!

Boys will be boys

Today we went to help out those ''Bad Boys'' in 71st Junior Boys Brigade Company at South View Primary School. It was a fun way to spend my Saturday morning with those juniors. BB brings back some fond memories of mine being in the 28th senior BB company during my secondary school days. Actually this was my first time involved in a junior BB event and the boys being primary 3 to 6, are rather wild as company to what I experienced during my senior days. We had fun planning the games for these boys (actually its Yanni's good planning) and it was great fun, especially during the ''boss'' round whereby the boys went berserk against us.

GT5 Prologue

The driving simulator is out! Went down to Gamescore Funan this afternoon to get my preorder - Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, which actually arrived yesterday, a day after this US Import was officially released. Had been waiting for this to be out since the Jap/Asian version was released last december. But too bad my Jap & Chinese reading skills cannot make it so gotta resort to waiting for the US version.

This US release edged out Jap version as it has 34 more cars, one more track, two player split screen, drift trial, Quick Tune mode, Free Run mode, additional single player races, and a bunch of bug fixes already included in the Blu-ray disc. But those who got the Jap/Asian version can obtain this update to 'par' it online. I tried for a little while earlier and the HD graphics damn chio!

My 1st car on GT5 Prologue: Mazda RX-8 Type S. My phone video cam does not do justice to the realism of the graphics.

Super Hero Cows

Captured this rare sight while on my way to driving lesson. Notice those superhero cows with red flying capes erected across the piece of empty state land? New markings to replace our regular 'State Land' signs? I've absolutely no idea. Perhaps, this piece of land is reserved for near future development of intelligent cows?

GTA IV Special Edition

Grand Theft Auto IV will be released worldwide on 29 April 2008 and I'm damn excited to have secured a pre-order for this special edition. It will be US$89.99 for the special edition, so including S&H, it should not be more than S$150.

The Special Edition includes:
- A customised metal safe deposit box.
- A Rockstar keychain for the safe deposit box keys.
- A limited edition Rockstar duffel bag.
- Production artwork in the Grand Theft Auto IV Art Book.
- Selected soundtrack CD from Grand Theft Auto IV.
- A specially packaged version of the game.

can't wait for Mr Postman...

Zine(s)

Resistance = Fall of Man. The more I tried to resist my regular trips to HMV, the stronger the lure. Somehow I ended there.

While getting my ''irregular fix'' @ HMV, I knew I had to buy this month's issue upon seeing the Star Wars cover. Though I admit I am a Sony fanboy but I seldom purchase the PS mag. This month's issue also include 2 important reads for me - GTA IV & Resistance 2.

Some regular zines I managed to avoid/resist/control - Kerrang, Revolver, Metal Hammer, Rock Sound, Total Guitar & PSM. So, huge savings/cost avoidance this month.

Army of Two

So I gave in to my temptation n finally bought Army of Two last Thursday. Considered a laggard since this game was launch slightly over a month ago. Reason for buying? To assess what's all the hype about the co-op play and the aggro thing that EA had been bragging prior to its launch.

I just completed this game on all 3 difficulty level - recruit, contractor and professional and also unlocked all the weapons and such. The length of the single campaign isn't long, I completed within a day. Co-op mechanism works well enough and the graphics are good. Online play is fast paced and fun at first but after a while, 2-on-2 seems bored for me.

Conclusion: better than average shooter, fun online element. I would rate a 7/10

Beats

Purchased the game Beats from PlayStation Network via PS3. Its a very nice music game for a mere $8.30. This game allow you to use any music stored on the memory stick, analyse it and play them on your psp! It works with all musical styles/genre and the beats of each songs are spot on!

I tried out a Rap/Hip-Hop chinese song by MC HotDog & it analyses the beats and plays well. You can play multiplayer, make music using on of its function and saves it for playback. For a $8.30 title, this is awesome!

Just completed drums on RockBand easy mode (yeah, no bragging rights I know). But hey! It feels kinda cool drumming 40 over songs to it.

There's 4 difficulty settings - easy, medium, hard & expert to vocal, guitar, bass & drums. Its progressive learning and jamming online & offline. I'm very impressed with the gameplay and presentation aspect of RockBand.

Time to rock on!