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!

Rock Band!

Finally got the Rock Band Special Edition with all the peripherals for the PS3 from FunzCentre. I enjoyed the stare of the other customers when I carried this big box out of the shop. Ha ha.

Box Contents : Drums, Wireless guitar, batteries for it, Bluray disc and the microphone package.

After bout 20 minutes of assembling, this is what is gonna take over my life.....

Google up "Rock Band Broken Pedal" and you'll see all sort of frustrations and complaints that people had their stock kick pedal broken. Initial batches of Rock Band had this problems and both EA and Harmonix acknowledged that.

In order to prevent this and the lengthly return policy/replacement/shipping/all sorts of craps, I got the COMPLETE MEGA PEDAL from MEGA PEDAL (see here).

Note : Those thinking of getting Rock Band, this is mandatory!!

Mods - removing the stock kick pedal. Its a rather simple process; max 20 minutes.

MEGAL PEDAL vs Stock Pedal. Tell me, which is more heavy metal, more hardcore? hee hee.

Final touches to the pedal

All done up, pretty simple process. Time to rock and roll!

A New Low

Got this in my gmail inbox today, wasn't filtered as spam perhaps due to the spam-friendly email title.


How low can these spammers/fraudsters get! Once I open this particular email, I can see all sorts of terrible mistakes that warrants a warning that this is just a damn crap.

1. Fedex and not FedEx
2. First name and last name in small caps? how careless from "Fedex"
3. FedEx employee with a .edu email address?
4. How inefficient are they? since 4th Dec 2007 in the in-tray? 4 mths of delay is not the FedEx I know of...
5. Grammar mistakes all over this mail
6. Contact person with a hotmail address??

Maybe there's more mistakes in this email but this fraudster is just rather amateur sending out a poorly constructed email. Guess he/she is too eager to make some quick buck without doing a proof-read first.

Project completed

As of right now, I have not slept in the past 26.5 hours! I'm damn tired now but can't sleep now coz somehow it past my biological clock. After a week of intensive preparation, I've finally completed my Oxford Brookes University (OBU) project. It consist of a main report a max 5000 words and a sub-report of a 1500 words excluding the appendixes and bibliography. I managed to clock in 4979 and 1481 respectively. This research and analysis thesis really sucked my week into it - no gaming, guitars, no fun.

Now I'm ready to send out to Oxford tomorrow morning (together with £50) and be awarded a BSc (Hons) Degree in Applied Accounting later this July 2008. Now, if only I can get some sleep...

Super Smash Bug Brawl

Stupid bug came visiting yesterday night while I was busy rushing my project. Too bad it was smashed by my remote.

Hmm... no blood but just some white mess to clean up after that.

How to upsize PS3 hard disk

My Ps3 was running low on harddisk space will all the games data, demos, HD videos, etc. Fortunately, Sony had designed in such a way that we can DIY without voiding the warranty. So b4 any last minute panic, I have to upgrade my HDD first with the 250GB HDD I've bought couple of days ago at the IT Show.

1. Backup all necessary data (game saves, etc) to an external storage drive, which has to be in FAT32 file structure else the PS3 cannot recognise the external drive. Use the backup facility under PS3's XMB to backup.

2. Turn off the PS3 (front n power switch at the back) and unplug all other cables prior to the actual hard disk swap.

3. Remove the plastic HDD side panel. Use a flat tip screwdriver and the small space on the right side of the panel to pop it off. Careful not to apply too much pressure to scratch ur shiny machine.

4. Use a phillip screwdriver to remove the blue screw which secures the hard disk tray.

5. Raise the small metal handle and slide the whole thing to the right to remove it.

6. PS3 OEM hard disk (pictured left) is in the metal tray. Remove the 4 screws (2 on each sides) to remove the hard disk. Swap the new drive (pictured right) into the metal tray and install those 4 screws.

Note : These 4 screws are very tight and be very careful not to strip the screws. Use a fitting phillip screwdriver to remove and tighten after the swap. Do not over tighten the screws.

Sony is using the OEM Seagate Momentus 60GB 5400rpm. I'm swapping with my newly purchased Samsung HM250JI 250GB 5400rpm. Don't go wasting ur $$ to buy a more expensive 7200rpm hard disk because the speed increase is negligible. (I did my reading up)

7. Put back the hard disk and slide back to its left. Then put the blue screw back on to lock the drive. Put the HDD side panel back on, attach all ur cables and start the PS3.

8. Follow on screen instructions to format and set up the new drive.

9. There you go -> whooping 200+GB of free space. Don't worry bout the "loss" of disk space coz the PS3 reserves that for other stuffs.

10. Finally, restore ur data that u backup prior to this and u're done!

All I need to get now is an enclosure to use the PS3's OEM 60GB as another external hard disk!

IT Show 2008

Went to the IT Show this afternoon at Suntec and this time, I would say the range of products and exhibits this time round is one of the widest and anyone would be spoilt for choices. Typical stuffs like laptops, PMPs, cameras, HDTV,etc. Level 3 was all SONY (well, the other smaller side-Starhub).

PlayStation 3 booth

I was browsing the selection of Blu-ray titles at the booth and at $118 for 3 titles, its a rather good deal. I was also playing with Sony's Alpha range of DSLR cameras they had on display particularly the A350 and A700. I'm not thinking of getting myself a DSLR anytime soon but if I were to choose, I would prefer the Canon EOS 40D.

Being the 1st day of the exhibition, crowds not as crazy thus I could navigate through the crowd easily and take my time to look around for interesting gadgets and stuffs, and of course, the booth promoters. Too bad I did not took any pics of them.

Hard disk prices were getting cheaper over the years even those smaller laptop hard disk. Managed to buy a Samsung 250GB SATA 2.5-inch laptop size hard disk for $170. That's 68cents per GB! Since my 60GB PS3 is 'eating' up the space with all my media and game data, I decided to upgrade my PS3 with this new hard disk.

<- Samsung Spinpoint M series HM250JI 250GB 5400RPM 8MB Cache SATA laptop hard drive

Free Earphones from Deal Extreme

Got this in the mail today. Took slightly more than a week for Deal Extreme to air mail over to Singapore. Paid for this from proceeds of some online activity, so to me its foc!

Ordered the metallic red colour to match my PSP slim and it looks great! The in-ear design provides excellent attenuation of ambient noise-perfect for the long commute .

Format war is over

Blu-ray vs HD DVD finally comes to an end with Blu-ray the victor.

Yeah this was always going to happen. Might sound like a fanboy here but when people argued that PS3 is crap compared to 360 (without reasons to) they always seem to leave out the RRODs failure rate and of course, the HD formats. BluRay's obviously miles better as seen by actions of those major players in the industry. Toshiba's official announcement to stop HD DVD production brings an end to this format war.

Freedom!

ORD Farewell Dinner

I finally got my FREEDOM (and pink IC) back today after working in the airforce as a regular for 5 years! It's damn tough to have to work and study for ACCA at the same time. Only started my part-time ACCA studies like 2+ years ago but it was very difficult phase of my life having to rush to classes after work, weekend burned to attend classes and revision, etc. Damn! I can't really explain or described the feeling of a regular like me to ORD. It's finally my turn after seeing so many batches of my NSFs ORD-ing. Will miss some of my mates there.

First thing I did after my official clearance from the airbase, I came back for a good shower and head off to a salon to dye my hair brown! Next, get a good camera phone. These 2 to-dos are strictly prohibited in the armed force ha ha.

Bought the above LG Viewty KU990 from Jacky at his shop right after spotting a new hair colour.

Ended a phase of life, need a well deserved break to enjoy n embrace life before the next major change to my life.

Boo DS Stylus

Got this purple Boo Nintendo DS Lite stylus from a Gashapon machine at Toys R Us, Suntec for only $2. This is the 3rd mario related stylus in my current collection. Too bad the Gashapon machine that dispenses the Bomberman series was empty.

Time Crisis 4

Bought this today (Christmas) coz I need some some games to tide over the holiday period and to enjoy myself after the exams. Affordable pricing $129 for a Region 1 title from Play Craft, Lot 1.

Many reviewers gave TC4 a mediocre rating but I've been playing TC in the arcades way back till now, its 4th installment in the Time Crisis series. Now I can play the arcade mode in the comfort of my room. A black Guncon 3 would be much prefered than this sucky orange one. This could be a great game to release work stress at the end of long day.

Exam Review - Dec 08

After 3 consecutive days and 3 core papers for this dec 08 sitting, I'm physically and mentally tired. This sitting, we are the 1st batch to be examined under the new ACCA syllabus and all I can say is, I did my best for all the papers. Should be able to score for P1 Professional Accountant and P3 Business Analysis. As for P2 Corporate Reporting, this is one of the toughest and lowest passing rate among the final year papers-no high hopes for this paper.

As usual, back to work day after the last paper. But hey, on a brighter side, Christmas and year end just round the corner and I will be gradually clearing and handing over my appointments and work stuffs coz I'm a month away from leaving the airforce after 5 damn years!

PES 2008

Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 is finally released for the PS3. Here goes my simple review.

Next-gen PES gives a HD boost and some change to the AI but its not perfect. Frame-rate drops when the game gets busy especially during replays. Graphics are slightly poor to for a PS3 title. Only 2 official teams for the English Premier League, but u still can edit yourself.

It seems like the developers at Konami applies the 'if it ain't broken, don't fix it' tenet but I feel that PES 2008 could benefit from some more development - just feels like a scrappy finished product to me.

Though a little disappointed, it is still one of the most realistic soccer experience.

Flu-zy day

This is what I've been surviving the whole day while studying for my Business Analysis paper. Had been sick the whole week and its nearer to my exams. Damn hard to concentrate with a leaking nose n headache!

Yoshi DS Stylus

Got 2 x Yoshi DS Lite stylus for 4 bucks each this evening from the Gashapon machine at Jurong Entertainment Center.

Easier to hold than the original stylus (which feels like holding a tooth pick) plus its cute!

The Legend of Zelda!

I finally got my hands on a copy of The Legend of Zelda - Phantom Hourglass for the DS! Been waiting for the US version of it ever since it was announced some months back. It was a Jap release back then, but nevertheless, I got the US retail of this game. Finally.

This game is seriously addictive so much that I played during my lunch break in the office for the past few days. It's the first Zelda game of its series to hit the portable DS and its damn good! Unique and innovative touch screen based control, so far so good (I've not even half complete the game) with some cute dialog n interesting storyline.

I'm so addicted and loving it that I customised my DS case with a Zelda pic.