About time

Nice fluffy snow. Not the killer storms that some idiots were predicting.

Technorati tags: Snow London

Video game snobbery

Games Radar has a fun (but ironic) article on the seven steps needed to become an elite gaming snob. Below are my thoughts.

Step 1 - Swear that system X has no good games. At all
I don't think I have ever thought about that, apart from maybe dismissing the Xbox console because I was heavily into PC then. I do realise that every system I have never owned has some great games on it. I also had the opportunity to play with both SNES and Mega Drive when I was young so these fanboyism trait is a rather new phenomenon. Yes my gaming habit seems to be 'very Nintendo' of late, but If I have the money I would even buy a PSP.

Step 2 - My console's games can beat up your console's games
I did think that Resident Evil 4 on GCN was better than PS2, but then again I also own a PS2, so in hindsight it does not matter. It is crazy when fanboys love a particular game because it happened to be developed by Nintendo/Rare/Bungie/Sega/Sony/Square Enix. Just to rile people up I think I would probably go... Dragon Quest >>> Blue Dragon. :P

Step 3 - You hate on anything popular
I may be guilty of this. Let's see. Final Fantasy VII. Hated it. Final Fantasy VIII. Hated it. Halo. Hated it. iPod. Despised it. All with good reasons but I won't delve into those. However I am looking forward to playing the immensly popular Final Fantasy XII. For one I heard it is actually quite good. I even own a DS Lite, the first console (revision) I ever got before launch.

Step 4 - You care at all about geeky tech speak
I do care about tech speak, when it comes to PC. I am ashamed that my PC is at least 2 generations old. Heck my Samsung CRT is 6-7 years old. All rubbish. I don't do tech speak on consoles as they are all outdated anyway. I rather concentrate on the games.

Step 5 - Affixing the rose-colored glasses to your face
I believe games are susceptible to age badly. If you ask me to play Ocarina of Time again, I will refuse. And how can people honestly say that Goldeneye > Half-Life 2? Fanboyism does cloud people's judgement.

Step 6 - Bitching about minute, trivial changes
People like me who get bored easily hardly notice minute changes, so this doesn't affect me. Castlevania new art direction? Not that great, but not something I would fuss about. Playing as Raiden in MGS2? Well he is pretty damn cool. 2D Metroid fanboys who bitch about FPS Metroid are bloody annoying.

Step 7 - Obsessing over packaging
I am slightly guilty of this. For one I do not like the 'platinum' edition covers. I would not care about it if it is bloody cheap, but if I can find a used original issued at a heavily discounted price in an almost mint condition, then I would rather have that instead. I am not a sad collector though.

Technorati tags: Video Games

Big Bother

I would love to see Qantas attempt to ban the following offensive items:

The Christian 'dog-collar'
The hijab
The Jewish skull cap
Religious stuff (eg. Christian cross, Star of David)

You can't have it both ways.

Regarding the utter tripe of telly culture that is Big Brother I thought I would chime in with my 10 pence worth of opinion. Please forgive me. Even I cringed as I typed this.

Personally I doubt anything that has so far happened in the house can be construed as 'racists'. That opinion is based on the 5 minute clip that Channel 4 broadcasted when Davina McCall interviewed Jade Goody (BTW they share the same PR agent - also includes the other two annoying BB presenters), which were the only segments of this year's series I ever bother to watch (to see what was the fuss all about).

So... bullying yes, racism probably not. Having said that they deserve the public crucifixion anyway as bullying in any form is wrong. But then again Big Brother has always encourage bullying within the house, so why all the fuss now?

I believe that Endemol has been worrying about the sliding ratings hence their decision to dump an old controversial and dysfunctional housemate in. Since the news of her and her mates being allegedly coached before Jade Goody left the house last weekend, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they actually encouraged her in bullying in the first place. The fact that she decided to pick on a non-white foreigner was a bonus (for rating terms at least). I am curious to see if an equal amount of fuss is generated if the contestant being bullied happened to white!

As far as Ms. Shilpa is concerned, as she chose to enter this crude TV competition, can't say I have any pity for her. The only positive outcome that can happen with this whole sorry episode is the total axing of the current and future Big Brother and other degrading 'reality' TV programmes. That sadly, would never happen.

Technorati tags: Big Brother Jade Goody

All DVDs should be released on digipaks by law

I was clearing out some stuff, dumping some of it on eBay (mind you, for profit) as well as tossing general junk out. Haven't been watching Nip/Tuck (I am still missing half of season 3) for quite some time but their boxsets just lovely.

I am a great fan of digipaks/digipacks. I just hate it when studious release TV series on those newer thin plastic DVD cases - they look like pirated DVDs, so why buy them? Even worse are half season boxsets, but I digress. Some of my favourite albums are in digipaks, such as the early editions of Arch Enemy albums (Burning Bridges and Stigmata, both fantastic stuff if you are into Swedish death metal).

Nip/Tuck season one region two PAL boxset:





The amazing Shadow of the Colossus boxset (I got this for 60% off at WHSmith - they are a great place to look for cheap out of print games since nobody shops there):

Should I go WoW?

So... with all this excitement over WoW: Burning Crusades, any advice on someone who is mulling over whether to start playing WoW? A mate of mine who quit playing WoW several months ago gave this rather helpful opinion: "Do not do it".

I do have the internet connection on my side. With the amount of lag between my PC and the wireless router I can see that any sort of online gaming will be a hopeless activity, for now. It will save me a fortune in monthly fees. Still the £1.99 DVD with 14 day trial is awfully tempting, if only to see what the fuss is all about.









And for the first time in my life I have been tempted to get a PSP. And all for Kojima's Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. I probably should wait for the inevitable fixed console port. Unless someone can loan me one over the weekend.

Killerspiele

Ah those pesky Germans. Love to blame video games for all their misbehaving criminals. German tabloid Bild-Zeitung (equals to Murdoch's The Sun) is putting the blame squarely (no pun intended) on Square's horrid Final Fantasy VII, dubbing it a killer game, after police arrested two teenagers who killed a mother and father.

Video gaming persecution seems to be on the rise, isn't it? Quite a nice coincidence too. EU lawmakers in Brussels has recently agreed on a set of rules limiting the sale of 'violent' video games to minors, which is all fine and dandy, except that they are also planning for more stringent banning orders.

Do take comfort in knowing that while Germany is keen on imposing bans, they realised that each member state will be able to decide which games are violent and so on. Or so insists Franco Frattini, the EU Justice and Security Commissioner. If I remember correctly this guy (whom I dubbed EU twit) insisted on a blanket ban on Rule of Rose.

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I wrote a nice article that some how relates Final Fantasy last night before I had the chance to read about the EU debacle. I will probably post it later. I am not a FF freak, but with the release of Final Fantasy XII next month, you can forgive me if I appear to be. Ta.

Technorati tags: Final Fantasy Final Fantasy VII Killerspiele Germany Video Games

Can a speaker with no receiver pick up a broadcast?

The strangest thing happened today. While we were still sleeping we were awakened by the sound of a man talking. The sound, which was like a man chatting through his walkie-talkie, was coming from inside the room. Peering out the window to make sure that there isn't some dodgy guy hanging outside, I saw a fire engine parked outside on the street. There wasn't anyone climbing around though.

I double checked the telly and made sure it was turned off. It was. The PC was also turned off but the connected speakers (a JBL) were left on. Listening closely I found that the voice of the man was crackling through the speaker. According to Jenni some of the words she picked up were "gas", "5-2-1" etc. Thinking that we have picked up the radio transmission of the firemen outside, I turned it off and went back to bed before realising how peculiar it was that the speaker, not having a radio receiver, could be receiving broadcasted radio communication. I just hope this isn't one of those so-called freaky "paranormal activities"! An explanation from a wise engineer would be appreciated.

Final Fantasy IV Advance review

There is a reason why Final Fantasy IV is on my Top 100 games of all time as of November 2006. It is the story. This arguably was the first 'proper' Final Fantasy game that mixes epic storyline laced with (the then) excellent gameplay. So it is all good and proper for us when Square-Enix decided to port the game over to the GBA, putting an end to the excuse to playing an illegal ROM on a dodgy SNES emulator.

The plot is classic FF. Bad guy plots to take over the world by stealing crystals and the hero saves the day. However FF IV also introduced more than just a great plot (with twists). It introduced developed characters. Looking back, the development between the characters, particularly Cecil Harvey, the dark knight of Baron, and Dragoon Kain Highwind, his childhood friend, was what made me love this game so much.

Then there is the relationship between Cecil and Rosa. The two twin sages Parom and Porom provides slight comic relief, during when the plot may seem to be heating up. Yes, so many interesting characters to write about. There is also Edward, the cowardly prince who hides himself every couple of turns, and Tellah, the 60 year old Sage, hell bent on exacting revenge.

Another great thing about FF IV is the ability for the player to take control a vast number of playable characters, as in by having them in your party. It does make levelling-up a chore, where players need to turn to serious grinding whenever a new character replaces a dismissed one.

The graphics are based on the WonderSwan port. It looks nice - marginally better than the original SNES version, though still seriously outdated (God knows that they should make a FF III DS style remake, or at least something on par with The Minish Cap or Golden Sun). But man am I glad to see those deformed sprites. Lags do happen during battle sequences where 4 or 5 party fights a larger group of enemies. It isn't really a problem, but can get annoying when navigating the 'Active Battle System' menu. I also didn't like the typefaces used. It is annoying having to wear glasses to play this, but there you go.

Best Final Fantasy? Not really (that would go to VI, and maybe XII if the reviews are indicating), but a close one. Definitely better than VII though. If you haven't yet experience the depth which was IV now is your chance.

8/10

Buy now from Play-Asia or Amazon UK