marshmallow mod

Been playing GTA IV since I got it on launch day so much so that I've been neglecting almost every other thing. Anyway, I did the marshmallow mod on my Rock Band stock drum sticks today. Found it to be way easier and effective than buying those foam pads and modding the drums itself.

Advantages:
- 5 mins job
- cheap (FOC - found the single sided foam tape in store room )
- no loss of sensitivity so far
- minimised the ''tok tok'' noise - very noticeable/audible
- fairly bouncy - good for those more difficult songs

Disadvantage:
- other than looking weird, none so far.

Credit to brauks on the official RB forum for this idea.

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!

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.