The Crystal Impulse (v8.0 - Shining Star)

._.

2010-08-02T21:17:00.001+08:00

This.

Was.

Unexpected.

.....

3rd nendo coming soon ._.'''

Introducing a new member of my nendo family.

2010-08-01T10:31:00.002+08:00

Luka + Tako Luka and Azusa and Azu-nyan nigou~

Azu-nyan!

I guess collecting nendos is probably gonna be my primary hobby. Gonna cut down ID I guess. :)

Speaking of which, I FT'd the 8v -_-

Because I can.

2010-07-29T23:41:00.003+08:00

One week ago, I had 2 SS cards.

This week.....

3rd SS card - Cy*Azusa. Pictured above is my DC2. There is also an AE86 and a Supra in the same card.

:)

Somehow, it just feels real good.

Now it's just Cy*Megumi at A2 to focus on. Tuning cars of course :) The GC8 is about...8 steps away from full-tune :D

Oh, and three posts ago I posted the "Congratulations! SS rank pic" and said it will probably be the only time I see it? I've seen it 4 times now. The fourth being Matt's RINOA card, which I helped to get to SS too >_>

And yet again.....:P

2010-07-18T22:46:00.002+08:00

SS rank for my Cy*Lyn, seen here paired up with my Cy*Kotomi (first SS card I had).

This one took a fair while (5 months), but =D second card in ID5 v2.0 SS'd. Picture says it all.

Now to concentrate on the GC8. >=)

Comments disabled.

2010-07-15T18:17:00.002+08:00

And probably for good reason: spambots.

-_- man, away from the blog so long and this is what happens.

And here I am again.

2010-07-13T23:56:00.005+08:00

It's been a long while since I last updated :D Like seriously, I think at least a year!

Life right now? Pretty busy at work, and at ID. I'm starting to feel that I'm the utility person, having done so many roles over the last 8 months. It's great to learn, but it's been taking a toll on me mentally....it's hard to absorb so much within a short period. But life's like that I guess.

I stopped WMMT3DX. It comes as a shock to some, but the biggest driving factor was the fact I lost my card holder containing my MT cards...the most painful loss being the SS8 RX-7 FD I built up from an S8 rename. I did recover back in time for MT3DX+..with a RX-8 rename (Luka*), but to replace all my cards again..that was never likely going to happen...so, whatever I had left (besides the RX-8), I passed to WZ, who probably used whatever I have left to good effect. I kept the SS5 Luka* RX-8...simply coz I fully dressed it already. It was fun while it lasted but the cost to replace all the cards is too much.

Team affiliation wise, I guess Rouge Vitesse died along with me, as well as Dope and Kenji when all of us decided to quit. It was fun having a team, having our serious and fun moments. Our team managed to go all the way without any enemies or hitches. Sure, we were nowhere as popular, but I think that, we've done well. Thanks for all your support guys. ^^
And to replace WMMT3DX was ID5...2.0. No online though, despite Sega implementing an area code for Malaysia (MYS). I may not like the physics, but the new aura system kept me hooked. I have an SS card now...two different FD models plus the RX-8...as well as other cars but lower ranked. Of course, tuning is way way cheaper now :). Shame that there's only two locations with it. and of course, shame there's no online too.

Probably a one time only thing in my entire ID5 playtime will I ever see this..hence the snapshot. :)

I am thinking to start a Nendoroid collection of my own. Somehow, since the Luka nendoroid I had, I kinda got hooked to it. Feels nice to own one, and have it pose the way you like (restricted, but yeah, still....). Course, the downside is it's expensive, but I guess a nendo or two per month won't kill anyone.

And of course: here's my Luka! :D Tako Luka waves hi too :D

Anyways, its getting real late (12.34am), will update tomorrow with more stuff to rant about. Hopefully this time I will be able to continue my updates regularly. :)

Been a long time.

2009-05-23T01:31:00.003+08:00

Well...it's been 7 months since I last posted here O_o.....

Let me recap on what has happened in this 7 months:

- Finally got a job! :D Working at IBM Bandar Utama. Working life's been tough so far, but I'm holding on...I think? So far, I managed to be good friends with the trio Kelvin, Chuu Yang and Eric. (though lately we haven't been going out lunch much coz we each have our own work to do...). Job satisfaction? I'm okay I guess.

- Had started WMMT3 DX when it came out in December...and stopped in March end when ID5 came along. I need to find time to balance between these two games since I have teams in both games (Rouge Vitesse in MT, @D4 SnS in ID)...but it's not really possible for now. I did manage to hit my preliminary targets for MT3DX though before I stopped, that including getting 1000+ battle stars for my 280HP > 825HP RX-8. I knew the car will come in handy someday :D

As for which game I enjoy more? ID for now I guess. :/

- Picked up Clannad After Story, then K-On! (Mio-chan~~~~) and now Haruhi (yes, she's back....). Haven't been watching others yet, although Yian recommended me Toradora! and Phantom: Requiem of the Phantom, and so far it's been good (only watched the first/second ep tho...).

In the meantime, it's K-On! madness. I'm fairly addicted to the songs "Don't Say Lazy" and "Fuwa Fuwa Time" right now. Feels like it has good rhythm to me (note: personal opinion). Been listening to it non-stop now. (Not as extreme as Kenji's 500+ plays on the same song just yet...)

By the way, Mio is moe. There. I said it. :D

- Got Pokemon Platinum for my DS. Speaking of which, my white DSL's right hinge broke off :( The crystal casing is holding the top and bottom together for now, but more or less, it's near its end life. I wonder if I should invest in a DSi.....

As for Pokemon Platinum...I just love the game...good additions compared to its predecessors Diamond/Pearl such as the Battle Frontier and the Trainer Cafe.

- My laptop...who has been a trusty friend ever since Uni days, is starting to show signs of collapse...seems like if I restart my com...my hard disk won't be detected...I have to turn it off manually and turn it back on. :/ Not sure why yet, but I think I'll have to send this to Dell for servicing....

- In the end, my relationship with my current girl couldn't last. So for the best, we decided to break off...and with her not coming back for a good few years, it'll be hard for "another chance". Still....I guess since we broke off on good terms (still keep in contact with her once in a while)...I guess it's all good.

You know, it amazes me how half-a-year has passed just like that? When I look at my last blog entry (End of October) and the date now (End of May), yet it just seems like yesterday.

Anyways, with work at office now to juggle....unlike previous "mini-revivals", I'm not going to say I'm gonna update this more often because:
1) I'll end up not doing it anyway
2) Work flowing in at a fast rate now.

Anyways, till the next time. ^_^ Cypher, out.

Surprises.

2008-11-02T03:15:00.003+08:00

Well, I certainly didn't expect a certain matter to go to a certain extreme, but when that happens, I can't do anything. I'm abit in disbelief too.

Oh well...shit happens...I just wanna get that one problem out of my system soon..

(Comments disabled for this post).

Sonic Mega Collection Plus for the PC.

2008-10-12T03:28:00.004+08:00

So I picked this up at Sg. Wang for RM24.90 (that's about...just USD7 at time of post). Not a bad deal....considering it's original. Is this a really good bargain?

The compilation covers pretty much every Sonic game in the Sega Genesis (not including any of the add-ons such as the Sega CD or the 32X). There's also a few Game Gear games in there as well. At first glance, it's a nice buy, and since I'm a Sonic fan, it would be nice to own the collection legit.

Playing the game so far though, it's like playing a game straight out of the Genesis. No graphical enhancements, no sound enhancements. It's the exact same game a decade ago. However, I did notice slowdown with some (actually, most) of the games....and I found out why - apparently the PC version port uses the PAL 50hz version of the games instead of the NTSC version - and this means the game plays slower (and no, there is no way to "fix" it). And having played the games before...the slowdown is quite noticable. I haven't played the game long enough to say if it sucks or not but although it hasn't really messed up my timing in terms of jumps or dash somewhat, it does kill the tempo of the game slightly since the game's all about speed.

The game also comes with a bunch of extras (movies related to Sonic Heroes, comics, manuals etc), which is nice, but really, only for novelty reasons....and to be frank...the movies are the whole reason why the default install is 3.2gb. (Installing just the games, letting the movies run from disc is just 470MB...that's like nearly just 1/8th of the install!)]

So far, this looks like a decent buy, but that's it. The slowdown gets quite annoying...especially when you've played the faster NTSC versions. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty lucky that I seriously didn't pay more than RM25 for this. Nice compilation, but seriously, could be better.

This is made of so much win.

2008-08-20T22:05:00.004+08:00

This is my R32.

And the number of stars it has is...l33t. Woot~ 1337 FTW~

Writers' block

2008-08-18T00:41:00.003+08:00

:/

Can't think of anything to cook up lately. Been stressed too :/

Oh well.

Oh, and congrats to Lee Chong Wei for bringing home a silver medal for Malaysia in badminton. Sure, he got outplayed to hell but all things considered...a medal is already an achievement.

Saluran Olympik anda? Don't make me laugh.

2008-08-11T00:27:00.004+08:00

This is referring to our free TV stations RTM (Radio Televisyen Malaysia) who recently had the rights to air the Olympics on TV. So the unlucky chaps without ASTRO can actually go and watch it. RTM, saluran Olympik anda? HELL NO.

I'm referring to the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics that took place last Friday. It started at around 8pm. Guess what our "Saluran Olympik" was airing?

The national news - till 8.30pm.

Great, first 30 minutes of the ceremony missing. What, you can't air the damn news earlier? This is a once in four years event, not something you see everyday. And hell, you have TWO channels! Use the other one for heaven's sake! It's not like you can't reschedule the news can you?

Then again, maybe you didn't even consider the possibility =.=

Oh and if it wasn't bad enough, we had tons of commercial breaks. In the space of an hour you could probably have five to six commercial breaks. I would personally prefer to watch the opening ceremony UNINTERRUPTED thank you.....this event isn't a medium for your advertisers (in this case, DiGi) to show its yellow man following in the Beijing games. We want to see the damn fireworks!

And ironically, speaking of fireworks....

RTM cut off the last part of the ceremony....abruptly. To make way for the news/other shows/whatever.

The Government speaks of making RTM the best free TV channel in Malaysia. Well..maybe they could start by going the right way, because they are going in a backwards direction =.=...NTV7 or TV3 would have been a better choice to air the Games instead of this sorry excuse of a TV channel.

The color code test

2008-07-30T00:11:00.001+08:00

Your result for The Color Code Test...

Color Code: WHITE: The Peace Keeper

9% Red, 17% Blue, 54% White and 20% Yellow!

Here is the basics: For a more in depth analysis, I suggest you look up the Color Code, and take a more intensive test.

WHITE MOTIVE: PEACE

WHITE NEEDS: To feel good (inside), To be allowed their own space, To be respected, Tolerance.

WHITE WANTS: To withhold insecurities, Kindness, Independence, Contentment.

SUMMARY: Whites are motivated by peace. They will do almost anythign to avoid confrontation. They like to flow through life without hassle or discomfort. Feeling good is even more important to them then being good. Whites need kindness. They resent being scolded. They dislike harsh words. They open up instantly to people who are kind, but Whites recoil from those who are hostile. Whites prefer quiet strength. they enjoy thier quiet independence. This can often be percieved as bullheadedness. Whites like to keep a low profile. They like to be asked their opinions but they won't volunteer them. Whites are independent. Unlike Reds and Blues who want to control others, Whites seek only to avoid being controlled. They don't like to be pushed, and they can be fearsome when they finally "blow up." Whites are motivated by other peoples desires. They want suggestions however, not demands.

Take my other Test : Which Tarot Card Guide Are You?

http://www.helloquizzy.com/tests/tarot-card-guide-test

Take The Color Code Test at HelloQuizzy

Comments: Interestingly..this test was actually one test that was spot on. Every single line in the whole analysis is very true indeed. But that's me for you. Have always been this way since forever. But I suppose being a peacekeeper is fine for certain situations.

Ever changing....

2008-07-26T02:33:00.005+08:00

Ana (CLANNAD Original Soundtrack)

Lyrics: Ogiwara Yuu
Vocal: Lia

The place changes and goes. Like a wind, like clouds.
Like the traces of the heart, no halt at the places.

The place is so far away. be far apart.
people's hand does not reach,so merely has (the) worship.

The place is a lofty lord. can't meet nobody put on.
We will lose the place.so lofty which changes.

Not all were desired. However, we're never sad.
still, there is still the place.far away. far away.

(The wind) blows through the place. an endless,with all.
Like the ripple float on the water, It blows as it goes.

the place is No make at all. Nothing is shown.
Like the sand clasped by hand, It falls vainly.

The place is (a) profound lord,and wear the vain faint light.
But we will find it in the place.The hut at which it stands still.

if not concerned with all,It will maintain that No dye.
therefore there is still the hut.It's lonly, solitary.

no halt at the wind.it soars to the sky.
Like the verdure (which) meets with sunrise, It grows up as reborn.

The hut has held new one.that's different from all.
like the sand castle of the children,but realized with the mind.

The person is a vain statue.wear taciturnity calm.
still,We will know a huge flow.It is stopped by nobody.

soon,the wind wears the snow cloud. will be dyed to snow-white.
Summer grass will incline.No sunlight,feebly shade.

The place buried in deep snow.like the collapsing castle.
like the head of the shade,figure will be thrown away

The hut buried in deep snow.It sinks in to the flood.
and The "not dyeing" is dyed out,and waits for a oppose one.

Even if all are healed, be gonna no return.
there is still the place.far away. far away.

The place changes and goes. Like a wind, like clouds.
Like the traces of the heart, no halt at the places.

The place is a lofty lord. can't meet nobody put on.
still,there is still the place.far away. far away.
----------------------------------------------------------------
(Lyrics found from animelyrics.com by the way..nice site)

Don't mind the Engrish...it's still a beautiful song. When this song was played at Kouko's wedding (Ep9) and Tomoyo's meeting with Tomoya in the snow (Ep24), it was perfect for the mood...

...damn I'm feeling sad again.

Gloomy days.

2008-07-26T02:09:00.002+08:00

Lately I feel pretty gloomy.

It's not difficult to explain though. If you gave me this freedom this size I would surely say yes. But now...somehow I think that I am better off without it. Every day follows the same routine now and I've got to get a job soon...and even that's not going smooth. I'm applying by the masses and so far...not going well. This week is a dry spell = not a single interview.

I do know I've got to get a job by September...but suddenly even I'm not sure of that anymore. Eesh....

Besides that?

I feel like erasing myself out of existance for this gloomyness....I'd like to fly away somewhere far away...hmm..I think listening to piano pieces when you're a bit on the depressed side gets to you. Oh, and reading on sad story mangas too (Tomoyo After ~Dear Shining Memories~, I'm looking right at you).

[No, I'm not going to jump off a cliff and die -_-]

Oh well...just got to intensify efforts..before this gets worse.

New layout again....

2008-07-21T00:27:00.002+08:00

Yea yea I know -_-....

In which times are getting harder...

2008-07-20T22:03:00.005+08:00

Been away for abit (and mood's not too good these days)...I'll tell what I've been through lately.

>Friday<
I went for an interview at APL, an international shipping company for a position of Documentation Coordinator at MidValley. At first it didn't seem too bad, even at the interview room. Alas, I closed the door to this job myself (yes, not the interviewer). Here's why.

The pay was not that great. Yes, I'm a fresh grad, I'm not entitled to complain at all about that...but the reason I complained was because I will have to work odd hours. No, I'm not going to be doing some 9am to 6pm work hour, I'll be working at like..shift based hours. Still 9 hours, but I'll be working till 1am (starting from 4pm). However, it's not like I wasn't informed about this BEFORE the interview - so why did I still go for it you may ask?

Simple.

On their website, it was posted that there was two options, first being the late hours (one that I was offered), second was the usual hours (which is fine by me). I hope I could ask for the usual hours, but sadly they aren't hiring anyone for those hours at that point. Now, you could say, just work lah!

I did consider the prospect of working late hours (thats why I accepted the interview in the first place). But by the interview time I've come to realise that it's simply difficult for me. First off I have no own transport (which I should; but that's for another day) - that means going home at 12 or 1 is hard. Second was the fact that I simply can't leave my grandfather alone at night. Sorry, nowadays the world ain't a safe place - especially at night - and I've come to worry about his safety because of that.

If only they had those early hours I would have gone for it....but it's not happening...

The interviewer did point out that my degree entitled me to a higher pay, but they simply couldn't pay me what I wanted since they did have a fee structure to follow (understandable)...the interviewer even said it's better for me to find somewhere else coz of that.

But as time passes by (even now as I type) - I've come to realise that it's getting very difficult to get a decent job with my kind of degree (2nd lowers). I won't regret this - what good does regret does? I just have to keep on looking. And time isn't on my side...

To carry on with my day - I spent the rest of the day in the arcade while waiting for dad for dinner - did play some games but nothing too much..and at around midnight I went for yumcha with Sato, Jimmy and Tracy at some mamak store in Happy Garden (can't remember the name...)

>Saturday<
Usually, Saturdays are @D4's team meetings/outings...this week's lack alot however. Initially, me, IN and Sato were to go to Sunway but parking was impossible (rounded the place for 1/2 an hour) so we head off to IOI instead...IOI was a boring place...and I still don't like those Wangan players...total Osaka whores last time I've been there so this time I don't even bother to accept challengers...because I'm so so so so sick of freakin' Osaka. Geez. There, I only finished by 2nd loop story mode - and my R32 is then 166 games away from S9. Meanwhile IN and Sato used my ID4 card C*-Eve (because they forgot to bring theirs)..and racked up 6 wins to bring my card consecs to 41. Jimmy and Tracy dropped by but left early. I didn't find out why though.

The thing was Sato had to go back home around 7pm (he's heading back to Japan for a week)..so after sending him back...me and IN..had nothing to do..he sent me back and later we were supposed to go out again with Jimmy for another meeting.

...which never happened by the way.

And what wonderful timing it was for Streamyx to FAIL. Lagging connections..and I've read on forums it was nationwide too. Geez TM, buck up your freakin' services...I didn't pay RM99 to surf at dial up speeds.

...Then again, maybe I did.

>Sunday<
Watched the Clannad Ep24 (the Tomoyo-Tomoya OVA)in the afternoon. Will blog more about that later.

I went to MV later in the evening....and I finished the Perfect GT-R arc on my card as well as clearing 7 out of 10 stages on the first Devil Z arc....and from today I decide to just NOT do the 200 ghosts..and finish another story loop (6 games saved)..therefore..I'm 147 games away from S9 on my R32. I also got...something else. But that..remains a secret. Eventually people will find out though. But until then, it's a secret =D.

I came back, and finished all the Generals Challenge for my CnC Zero Hour game...now to uninstall it. That's about it for now...right now, I'm pondering over some things.

That's all for the 3 days - and trust me, the way things are going...the next week is going to be a crucial one.

Fun in Facebook (and other stuff)

2008-07-14T21:30:00.011+08:00

Lately I've been doing a lot of stuff at Facebook..to cure boredom -_- (hey, when you're broke you don't have a lot of options do you?). Among them:

Ace Hockey

Playing Air Hockey against the CPU. Going for a clean tourney, but not happening so far (must remember to not hit the puck into own net -.-).

Nations

Making my own nation >_> titled "The Empire of Cyan Starr" =D.

Description (as of blog post) as follows:
The Empire of Cyan Starr is ordered by Emperor Jason Cheong Khai Soon. In this nation, only those who make large donations to the government are allowed the right to vote. Personal computers are given to each citizen and children are taught to type at the age of 12 months. This nation's advancements in health care has subsequently founded the concept of the 'Medical Insurance Company', allowing more people access to medical care, but further segregating those living below the poverty level.

Life in Cyan Starr is very safe due to the right of the police to randomly search private property. This country sports an impressive military force which operates fully on testosterone-driven body builders which are used to intimidate any adversary. Religious practice and public observances are allowed, but no policies may be created to advance any given expression of religious thought. Education in Cyan Starr is of great importance and vouchers are given to any student who cannot afford schooling.

Huge concerns about the environment have prompted this government to research how humans impact nature and then hire a prominent public figure to exaggerate the information to ensure citizen participation. The free market is allowed to decide policy provided the government is in agreement with any decisions made, and any freedom which a citizen understands should be available to them is made available once it is forwarded to all known acquaintances and posted in their front lawn for the public to review.

The use of baby seals as an alternative fuel has been permitted by Jason Cheong Khai Soon and the defenseless animals are being slaughtered by the dozen.

Marijuana has been legalized in Cyan Starr, but the sales tax has insured that only the rich can afford this luxury.

Jason Cheong Khai Soon has instituted National Citizen Appreciation Day and has made every citizen feel just special enough to quit complaining about the poor leadership of the government.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, I kill baby seals for an alternative energy source. I'm evil :3

Make A Baby - link here
I made one with my special someone :D
Introducing:

Lili ReiHeart-Crysallis :D Isn't she cute :P Born on 22nd June :p and recently me and Tabitha have been spending a lot of time on her..and well now she's in the "Kindergarten level" :3

Pacman 2.0 - link here.

OLD SCHOOL GAMING! This is when I'm really really bored though, but it's fun when you need to kill time :D

Superpoking.

Although recently I've been poked more :3, I ought to poke people later :S

Giving gifts out.

Giving out gifts is a norm in Facebook. I don't do it alot actually..but sometimes when I'm in the mood (read: free time to click) I'll just give gifts out. Winnie the Pooh is just one of them by the way.

Gamer Social

Being a gamer myself, this app comes in handy to keep track of what I've been playing, what I am playing now, and I can also review games through this handy app. :D

My City.

- Looks like SimCity..but everyday one of my friends (and myself) can add 1 citizen into my town. It's small at the moment (just 33 at time of post), hope to get more soon. :D

And many more,these are just a few of my favs. :D I love Facebook.

And in other news:
WMMT's S class project:
R32 is now 186 games away from S9 (now A3 Ace demo car)[thanks to Lynn for the games..although you didn't really have to help >_<], RX-8 remains unchanged. Hmm....

Purple Fantasy.

2008-07-13T04:14:00.004+08:00

What?! Another blog layout so fast?!

Yes. Unfortunately while the last one was very good (I wanted to keep it too - it's Clannad damn it), the problem was the background file..if the layout fails to load properly (It's happened a bit too often to my liking...)...then you ain't seeing anything without highlighting... :( So I'll change to this...at least if photobucket failed or something you can still see the post. I did keep a backup of the last layout though, in case I need it.

For now though, this will do. This layout looks pretty neat....thanks to LLP for showing this to me that day =D

As for changes to the blog, both Imeem and PA ads are removed. - Imeem because nobody uses it and it loads slowly...and PA..well..no use for now. I still have the codes though, so I might re-add it in future.

Oh and the blue Blogger bar is back. :D

Geez.

2008-07-13T03:15:00.002+08:00

This blogskin seems to malfunction abit...not sure if it's my connection or what but the background doesn't always show, and this ALWAYS distrupts the blog posts (coz the background is dark).

Might consider changing it....it's not even two weeks I think!

Differences.

2008-07-10T23:31:00.003+08:00

Today, I met up with Zackler at Amcorp Mall. It's been a long, LONG time since I've seen him...close to probably a year now. I think the last time I saw him was eight months ago over a chance meeting in Sunway while playing ID4. (I could still remember tuning my 86 Trueno then). Amcorp has truly changed majorly since I was there..sure the ground floor looks pretty much the same..but as I head to the upper floors..the difference was simply too much.

Yes, the cafe is still there. Yes, Uncle Snacks is still there. Yes, the book rental shop is ALSO still there. But man has things changed. The cafe hasnt changed much honestly (I can see the back PCs still using the old stuff). Cheryl's working there now (although just on Thursday apparently)..and that just goes to show I haven't been completely forgotten :3.

Had a walk around Amcorp with Zackler, and talked with him a little over a drink at Uncle Snacks...well thanks mate, I sorta have an idea on what to do next. Hopefully it all just goes well...and if it doesn't, well I just got to keep on moving.

Next up was me going to MV for a bit, where then I by chance met up with a really old friend of mine, Lynn. Okay, maybe I was exaggerating a little but I guess it's been a long time. When I last saw her, she was slightly shorter than me, and now she's the same height :S, and now she's let her hair down completely.

It seemed just like yesterday when we chat about things...somehow it evokes memories of old..she's a whole lot different than before, seriously...before she used to crack jokes at every opportunity but now...she seemed pretty normal, very different. And the way she dresses changed too...it's always been something cute but now its just t-shirt and jeans...but of course, people change over the course of time, so I guess she's just now..different? Well at least she remembers me >_<...considering I don't have a lot of people remembering me :(

But it seems when I asked her the question of how was things with her boyfriend she quickly dodged it...as if she didn't want to talk about it. I was quick to catch on so I quickly changed the topic, but I can very well see she felt very distressed.

Sure enough, as we walked around Metrojaya for a little coz she wanted to have a look around at some things (and I was bored then so..)..it happened. She cried. Not a cry that would attract attention but it certainly got me worried...seeing I never saw her cry before..knowing her as a happy-go-lucky girl - but I guess even THAT changed too.

I'm not going to say what happened between her and her boyfriend (she says it's alright for me to blog about it, but I'd rather not)...but it wasn't a happy story that's for sure. I wasn't very pleased to see how such a happy girl that I know to change to such a pale shadow of herself..all within just 3 years. I told her to go on with life but it seems that she is struggling to get out of the shadow...I wonder what did her boyfriend do to her..seriously...it really hurts as a friend...to see another friend go down like that.

I spent some time with her in the arcade (she's a pretty good Outrun 2 player - and I didn't know she plays Time Crisis 4 too - tagged with her), and she was nice to spend me some games on Wangan Midnight Maxi Tune 3 (didn't want to but she insisted). Then I sent her off to the KTM train home before I made my way back too.

It was a good day in gaming perhaps (25 games to A2 for my R32)..but really, it got me wondering how much she's changed over the years. I guess that one incident really shook her till this day.

That's all for my blog post today.

Hmmm.....

2008-07-09T02:56:00.000+08:00

Initially I wanted to post something here but I forgot.

-_- Oh well.

The plan :3

2008-07-08T03:06:00.008+08:00

I hereby bring forth my WMMT plan to...S class two of my aces. :D

The first one:
Lili★ - Nissan Skyline GT-R (BNR32) - Rank A3 - Next Generation.

How to get there: 2x story mode (2 rank ups) + 86 ghost wins (1 rank up)
Rank will go in this order: A3 > A2 > A1 > S9
Total games to go as of today: 212.

I'm currently doing this one first as I use this for battle alot. If I feel like it I will also go for another 100 ghost wins for a place in the Level 10 Ghost slot (which then bumps my rank up to S8 :D). As for the title, I hope to change it but I'm not sure to change to what just yet.

The second one:
C★Eve - Mazda RX-8 Type S (SE3P) - Rank A2 - RX-8 King.

How to get there: 2x story mode (2 rank ups)
Rank will go in this order: A2 > A1 > S9
Total games to go as of today: 159.

My pride and joy seeing this is my second car (first was the Evo IX) that I tuned from scratch (and the first to make it through the story undefeated >_>), and stuck to this for some time. :3 But I'll do this one later after I'm done with the R32. As for any more rank ups after S9...that I need to give it a thought seeing I don't do so well in battle with this car (1000 stars - 1 rank up - possible S8 - currently at 651), and if I am willing to do any more story mode/ghost battles - this car is already a Level 10 ghost. As for the title - I'm abit reluctant to change it :p coz it sounds cool :D

Bottom line: Need money first >_>, or this plan won't be completed fast... as for what plans after this two has been done...that's for another day, coz I haven't given it much thought :3

I'm off to sleep -_- hopefully I don't wake up at 2pm AGAIN. -_-

-.-

2008-07-07T14:47:00.000+08:00

Woke up at 2pm again. =.=

This is so not good. =.=

Getting back to business...

2008-07-06T13:45:00.008+08:00

Okay this was what happened yesterday. Bullet points with some elaboration :

- Lunch with a special someone.
No comment :)

- Went out with my @D4 teammates (IN, Alpha, Sato) to Sunway Pyramid.
As usual, like every week. Nothing to elaborate upon :3 but this is the first time IN paid for parking (for an hour at least).

- Met up with Kenji (my fellow RV teammate and also leader) as well as -KS- since they were there too.
Before the day itself, Kenji asked me to join them but I had the lunch going on, but anyways it was fun meeting up with these guys.

- Got ★1588 R32 card like everyone else :3
Not exactly "everyone else" but I guess having connections helps. :3

- ID4 Iro DH Wet 2'45"4 RX-8...just for fun.
Just 2 games. Not pushing it. I'm supposed to be done with this game remember?

- Tuned the -R.V- R32 from Level 40 to Level 42 dressup.
Seeing Kenji was away with -KS- for dinner, I went and helped Kenji tune to the first neon. Ghost Battle Mode is boring.

- Metro Highway Tokyo with my own Lili★ R32, testing 760HP/D, with one big hit, ends at 12'12"014.
760HP/D surprisingly feels nice...but needs a lot of work in C1. I'm losing a fair bit of time there..but for a first try I guess it's pretty nice. And if it wasn't for the one hit at the S turn before the Yoko Down/C1 Out split I would have gotten 11.5..ironically the same time on the card. :)

- Dinner at Cilli Padi (met Jimmy and his girlfriend Tracy here) near Happy Gardens - had Chicken Maryland and 2 scoops of Chocolate Ice Cream.
Chicken Maryland was pretty decent..nothing really special for RM18...but the ice cream was fantastic :D

- Received a note that the the -R.V- R32 card is ready..now to fork out money...
This is R32 number.....5 i have. (6 if you count CY+JA which is with Ricky (@GT2))
- Lili★ - Current one, A3 rank, 1283 stars.
- Lili★ - Second one, given to the special someone, B2 rank but I have it for the moment, 443 stars.
- Lili★ - Third one, but first Lili★ made. Currently at 800HP/DG, Stage 44. No stars. :3
- ★1588 - Pros call this the rubbish car (I think it's just the reputation of that team...)but hey this card is so famous so I wanted one (and those connected to the pros all have one too). I don't remember how many stars this had...6000+? But these stars aren't mine anyways.
- -R.V- - Coming soon. :3 Don't remember how many stars (exactly 300?) but this one comes with a red aura - None of my cars have such an aura :3 - they are all either green or purple.

- Played Outrun 2 at MV...
Heart Attack mode owns. Although to be honest, I can only do so well at the Easy splits..the hard ones I can't do well..especially the blue cone request.

- .....and also played Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3 at MV and had a 4 win streak going on.
- Hohoho, the first three wins I was pretty calm..the fourth one in Osaka..I think I spun out of control..my playstyle that is. I think that was the first time I got fired up on instinct...and I don't know why either!

- Finished Story mode 2nd loop for my Lili★ R32 till Stage 20.
Technically, 226 games more till S9 for my R32..provided I don't battle. Can be done by September..but I'll need a job to confirm that (No money = No WMMT)

- Tagged with Sato for Time Crisis 4
.....and found that all enemies still have double HP even when the partner is dead. :( I died at the last section of Stage 3 Area 1 because the double HP really kills my concentration...I needed to dodge more red sights I wasn't expecting (I usually play Solo because of this reason).

- Had a drink with my @D4 mates at Stevens Corner OUG right after...for about like 10 minutes.
Nothing much to say here...

- Posted my teammate's record.
- Needed to do it before I forget the 4 digit key because I don't have it noted anywhere.

That's all. :)

Reflections of the past.

2008-07-06T03:35:00.005+08:00

[Disclaimer: This blog post is 100% on my reflections on my past, and thus will detract from the happy tone I'm used to blogging. However, I would prefer to dwell on my past rather than keep it inside]

As I settle down in front of my laptop, with my cup of tea in hand, I begin to ponder and reflect on my past, and things that should (or should not) have happened. To me, I feel this was an important section of my life..and one that I have really regret over the years.

This was leaving the Comic Fiesta community back in 2004 - end year, barely even a year after i joined the community. We had fun times during the outings, I can still remember them even to this day.

To be honest...it does pain me to leave the community. Yes, there were controversies in the manner which I did leave (I won't elaborate here but those who were closer to me then would know...)...but somehow, I feel very regretful...heck, I actually felt I was very stupid in all this. I just "disappeared" off the radar of all my Comic Fiesta friends just like that. I don't know what they feel towards me now (nothing? hate? anger?) but I know that I really should not have done so. To be honest, this is currently the single most regretful thing I've done...ever.... and if there's a way for me to get back in touch...i will.

I don't know if any CFers I know (or used to know) will read this, but if you do...I really would like to apologize for my mistake...even if you guys won't accept my apology.

I'm closing off for the night...I feel terrible.

EDIT: Somehow I can't sleep anymore.

Oh my....

2008-07-05T14:15:00.004+08:00

My oh my, $500,000 and just one step away from being a million dollar winner! :D :D :D, with one lifeline to spare too :D :D :D
Errr.....errr.....err......Honolulu = GMT-10, and NY is GMT -5 but NY observes DST.... omg...still thinking......

I think it's 6am....It can't be 6.30 or 8..... I'm pretty sure its 6am....Final answer? Yes >_<

!!!! One million dollars is mine! :D :D :D :D :D I'm a millionaire!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(back to reality...)

.......

:( :( :(

A golden opportunity...gone to waste?

2008-07-05T10:26:00.004+08:00

This morning, like...10 minutes ago, a guy from Elken called me - offering me some Product Executive job. Seems like there's always one stumbling block - my lack of a driver's license.

T_T

So unfortunately, they are "reconsidering" (well, they said it was a handicap and they didn't write me off completely)...although my bad feelings tell me: is this bad news for me? :( coz you know what happens when they usually say "we'll call you".

In the meantime, please allow me space as I bash my head upon the walls of this blog seeing I probably threw it away, sigh...

*bash bash bash bash bash bash bash* :(

Bottomline: I need a driver's license (for a host of other reasons too...)

New look :D

2008-07-05T02:26:00.006+08:00

Well, there you have it. I figured it was time I changed my layout as I've been using the last one (the Bluebird one) for at least a year now. However, I will be the first to admit that I am no art designer, so I went over to Blogskins to look for a skin, and this was it.

I prioritized Clannad in my search, and it returned me two blogskins (one of which was this). This one looked pretty good, so I decided on this. The skin's name was "Eternally Divine", in which I included it into the blog name (hence "The Crystal Impulse [ver. Eternally Divine]). However, once I downloaded it, problems began to surface, and it wasn't for at least an hour that I realised that this blog skin needs to be used in the classic interface (the new one would just reject all the codes). It sounds simple, but then I'd realise I had to recopy ALL my widgets, from the tagboard, to the clock, and then the links again.

The most difficult part was the IMEEM music player on the sidebar. I had to crop it up to the sidebar's side (170 pixels), but the cropped look doesn't look very nice so I may remove it or replace it with a new song later. Also, I had hesitations on whether I wanted to re-add the Play-Asia ads (as I don't do reviews anymore), but for now I'll just keep it there in case I ever do a game review - I doubt so seeing I rarely touch my DS now.

I have realised the Blogger "bar" on top of the blog doesn't exist. It's part of the skin I guess. Also, the font is nice, but abit small...I might try fixing it up - but I think it looks pretty okay for now.

I've also copied over the links from the previous layout and added a few new ones. I have decided not to link any of my old reviews unlike the previous layout however - I've noticed my Nintendo WiFi Connector review being one reason why people come to my blog - which is nice.

As for WHY a Clannad skin? Well...coz I'm a pretty huge fan of Clannad ever since I've watched the anime last year. I kinda wished it was Kotomi and not Nagisa up there, but hey this is a fantastic skin nonetheless (The other blogskin did feature Kotomi - heck it actually featured all the other Clannad heroines, but I think this one is just fine). Overall, I say this blogskin is fantastic and credits to Jocelyn for making such a wonderful Clannad blogskin :)

Anyways I'm pretty tired from having to copy over and fix up the blog, so I'll sign off now.

Music: None. Yes, silence. Golden isn't it ;)

New layout.

2008-07-04T22:51:00.004+08:00

Currently restoring buttons and stuff...be back later.

Changed the layout back to the old one....

2008-07-04T16:17:00.006+08:00

For all the pink-ishness in the last Blogger layout, it started to look VERY messy. I reverted it back to the last one. I'll look for another one later but I think I'll remain with this for abit.

EDIT: Yes, the banner (by penman) is missing. I'm looking for it =.=

EDIT2: If I can't find it, i'm going for a new layout. -_-

Alarm clock woes.

2008-07-04T14:31:00.002+08:00

I think I seriously need a new alarm clock.

Basically my old (actually lost/stolen/whatever) phone Nokia 6300, i used that as my alarm. If i missed the alarm, the phone would just ring again after like..10 minutes..so I usually woke up slightly later.

But this 5610 Xpress Music -_-

I set my alarm clock to 10am for the past 4 days. For the record I've gone to sleep at 3-4am. Here's the times I woke up:

Day 1 - 12.30
Day 2 - 1.10
Day 3 - 2.40 <--- YES, FOUR HOURS AFTER THE ALARM WTF GG
Day 4 - 12.40

-_- Turns out that this thing STOPS ringing after the first time.....and it's not as loud as the one before. -_- damn it now I have to buy an alarm clock that works, and I'll need it too -_- can't imagine what would happen if I was employed and the above happened >_>

Mission complete. Now I can finally officially quit ID4 TA with a happy end...

2008-07-02T00:00:00.010+08:00

Irohazaka DH Dry 2'43"655 RX-8 Type S (SE3P) - my CP times.

Okay fine, so I didn't really hold true to my vow and quit ID4 TA - but now, I can finally do so. When I did that post down below, I was abit unsatisfied, since I didn't really get to achieve what I wanted - or at least something I can be happy about. Nevertheless, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be serious about ID4 ever again.

Well...at least till today.

I had some major form going on when toying around (just for fun since the MT3 machines were full) with my MR2 (1-1-1-1-0 tuned)...did 2'46"955 Iro DHD with it so I thought hey, why not give it a try again. So I tried my fully tuned RX-8 then. For 8 games I tried I kept getting good CPs with it. While the above time was abit of a disappointment (CP3 was +0.4 off my last personal best of 2'44"1xx) nevertheless it is still a 2'43.

Could I have pushed it? Yes, probably....but no more. I do notice that if I had not messed up the third section (due to the fact I lost 10km/h coming out of the final jump) I would have gotten a 2'43"2xx which would have really been nice, but I don't think I want to push this anymore...seriously, no more....

As far as my ID4 TA times are concerned, this is it...its the end..300+ days since I first touched the machine in Sunway Pyramid. I will never declare that I will stop ID4 for good (like, 100%) because inevitably I will play battles or have some fun games no matter how I try to resist. But as far as seriously time attacking is concerned, "Time Is Up". I neither have the passion, nor the resources to commit myself to this, more towards the former...

What next for me? First priority now is to get a job. Yes, I know it's been overdue for so many months now....but I will be the first to admit its partly due to my laziness. Now though, I should get serious regarding this, because despite being in such a mental state that I'm lazy yet I definitely need a job reality hits hard - I need money, and I need it if I'm going to survive.

Signing out for now, bad Streamyx connection doesn't allow me to surf the net much.. being limited to local sites and MSN sucks.

Current music: Nobuo Uematsu - Submarine Nautillus (Final Fantasy 3 DS OST)

Ooh..my Japanese name is....

2008-06-30T14:06:00.000+08:00

My authentic japanese name is 長谷川 Hasegawa (long valley river) 有祐 Yuusuke (have aid).
Take your real japanese name generator! today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

Watashi wa Hasegawa Yuusuke desu. Dozo yoroshiku ne :D

One picture that made a whole new difference.

2008-06-28T15:15:00.003+08:00

Well, who would have thought just a class picture of the old years would bring me back from the depths of seperation from old classmates. And also re-sparked my interest on Facebook.

Just about two weeks ago, I was bored online so I went to my rather dull and boring facebook account. At the time I didn't really use it much, probably once or twice every week but no more than that. The lack of activity factor was the main reason - why would I want to go on a site to do nothing? And yea, that time, my list of friends on Facebook was rather absymal (It actually still is now). So I thought I'd do a fun search on my old school SK Seri Mega and lo and behold I found a group.

Not just any group. I found some of my old school mates there. And the pic of my ol' 6 Seroja class. So I intro'd myself in one of the topics and commented on the pic. Within a few hours I got some replies from old friends such as Desmond and Esther :).

The rest from there? Well, I met up with Wen Jian, Esther and Sue Li (albeit for a short while) yesterday for yumcha. Had a great time talking about things nowadays (and I do realise I missed out on a lot of things :( ).

Then I managed to communicate with some other friends like Yuen Mei and Brian. Now my facebook routine has changed from once a week to like three to four times a day. Could say I'm addicted now. I'm sorta glad that I actually made the decision to search, or else..well, I'd still be pretty "isolated".

I've felt very happy about the whole thing, all this in just a matter of two weeks. :)

Well wouldn't you believe it....

2008-06-26T01:46:00.003+08:00

http://idforums.net/index.php?showtopic=34691

Initial D 5. How long was it since the last version came out in Japan? Not even 2 years. -_-. Now IF it comes out I surely hope it's nothing like the crap that was ID4 because ID4 was a huge mess.

And what razorsuke said on the thread was right - no point getting good at the game because the next version comes out so fast. What the hell man. -_-..

It's official in my book. I quit Initial D 4.

2008-06-23T02:34:00.005+08:00

Yes, you read it right. *cue WTF WTF WTF*

I quit Initial D Arcade Stage 4 as of 22nd June 2008. The game has became too frustrating to play for me and this in turn makes it money consuming. As I'm already playing Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3 (far more enjoyable than ID4 ever will), I will devote any arcading funds to that game from now on.

Seriously though, ID4 had its chance to redeem itself through v1.5 and the new physics completely killed the game for me. Why penalize players with an idiotic oversteer? Yes, maybe the better players will come here and say "You just don't know how to do the turn right". Well I say, forget it. The physics suck. That's my opinion, you can keep yours to yourselves. Furthermore, I have no other incentive to play when Wangan is so much more fun.

I will still be with @D4 (my Initial D 4 team) as they are still my friends and I will still go out with them on team meets. But I won't play ID4 seriously anymore...because I am frustrated. Very frustrated.

Will I ever make a u-turn to my decision? Highly unlikely, unless a miracle happens (or a new physics ver comes out which is highly unlikely now...). Will I play an Initial D 5 if it exists? Sure, why not? Just don't make them physics damn retarded as this one.

In the meantime... goodbye mountain roads (sans Hakone) and hello to the Metropolitan highways.

Mission accomplished! ...but not with a good end!

2008-06-08T04:03:00.004+08:00

Start date: 22 May 2008
End date (supposedly): 8 June 2008
Duration: 17 days (School holiday)
Mission: Gain the next level up from battle (400 stars)
Start point: 100 stars (22nd May 2008)
Ended with: 415 stars (7 June 2008)
Total stars attained: 315. (average: 18.5 stars per day)

With the school holidays approaching I figured it would be the best time to bump my star count up (and rank up: I'm planning to go for S class for my R32). Actually, this wasn't even in my initial plan, seeing that I WAS supposed to go Penang with Team -KS- but in the end that didnt work out for me because of some "problems".

It started off badly on the first day. The first half of the day yielded only five stars out of five games. Totally lost form, kept getting 3rd or 4th...consecutively. Later that day my form improved though it didn't really "come back".

Then later, I was at my best. For the next 10 - 11 days, races kept going my way (luck played a really huge part in some of them), and I easily hauled up to 20-30 stars a day with just ten bucks. Last place finishes were a rarity. I was definitely at the peak of my game, even more so than when I used the RX-8 to battle.

Then when I reached the 370+ star mark, my form started to slide. It started as a slow downhill, then today, it became a steep cliff. I've never had a form this bad that I had literally screw myself out of sure-fire stars just because I was greedy. I did eventually reach the 400 mark on the same day, but still, there were stars that was as good as mine, only to be thrown away at the last 1km.

Nevertheless, mission accomplished. Although the end wasn't such a good thing. I wonder if I need to lay off on Wangan for abit, it seems that my form is on the slide now that its not really a good idea to battle...not for now at least.

Well, at least I managed to come close to beating my personal best of 12.11.9 with Kenji's R32 with my own...came up short by 0.2xx but its my first ever successful TA with the 3rd person camera view...so I guess there are better things to come :)

What's next? Hmm...I guess the next level up (1000 stars) isn't too hard..but that, will be for another time. :)

Disappointing day.

2008-04-23T02:57:00.002+08:00

Today was a pretty sad day to be honest. :( Not in the best of moods.

In the afternoon, I went to MV to have some Wangan games, and i picked up the R32 while I'm at it. Then we started battling (4 players). First three to four battles were nice, getting a lot of stars out of just four bucks was awesome.

Then the world turned upside down.

After that, my luck just turned for the worse. I kept finishing third or fourth. Worse was on some of the situations it was because I misjudged the traffic of the roads. I even managed to blow a huge lead from first just to finish dead last in C1.

I had a smooth patch later where I kept getting 1st or 2nd, but just before dinner, I battled two games again. This time I had 2 plays left, and was at 598 stars, so I figured it would be cool getting 600 before I had to renew it.

Oh how bad my luck was.

I finished dead last despite leading the race on Hakone IB, meaning down to 1 play and still 2 stars short of 600. DAMN! By then I had the sense of defeat; I've never had a patch of bad runs THIS bad before in the entire history of playing Wangan in my entire life. So I took a rest after being so demoralized while Alan took my RX-8 for a battle at Hakone OB, and won it. 601 stars and still a free game.

Seeing the guy sitting next to Alan got off, I told him to come in and I took back position on my own car. Then in the battle, I finished last. Again.

I was even more demoralized by now. I was intending to test my R32 in battle, but seeing I already am in a bad patch, I figured it was best I stopped there and then. I just waited for Matt to finish his games before me and Alan went for dinner at McDonalds.

Then when the battle ends, I went and played some games with my R32. Perhaps the only positive thing of the day was that I found my R32 to be pretty great, and worth the money. I also had one battle with Matt 1 on 1 on his insistence on Osaka (which I lost, but I didn't really care anyway by now...). Also I ran Wangan Line Eastbound with my R34 with a time of 4'02"101, which is pretty bad, but I don't really care seeing I don't like Wangan Line in the first place.

At the end of the day, when I got back home, let's just say I never felt this worse. Perhaps I overrated myself and thought I was pretty good. Man, that was the worst ever thought I had. I'm not good, I'm just overrating myself.

For the next few days I REALLY need to think how I handle my battles from now on. I don't think it's the RX-8's problem (although my mind tells me it is, I know that's just an excuse), but it's the driver. Me. For now, I just want to get my R32 set up well...

I'm back.

2008-04-23T02:39:00.002+08:00

Been a while since I updated this blog. Heh.

I didn't really update it since I am lazy honestly. But now, I think I can devote some time back seeing I have nothing to do now. I'm gonna focus more on personal life rather than gaming now so this blog won't have much gaming articles as before.

Anyways, I hope to be able to update again soon. :)

My ID4 TA video :D

2008-01-11T03:58:00.001+08:00

Course: Irohazaka Downhill Night Clear
Time: 2'45"051 <-- OMG!! T_T
Car: Honda S2000 (AP1)
Driver: me (D4@Cypher)
Cameraman: D4@Satoshi (yes I know the vid says Alpha but that's the mistake of the editor >_>)
Editor: D4@Larmo
Song: glacial - BeForU

Yes, I know I could have filmed a better run. But hey, when you're working with limited funds I don't have many rounds to toy with.

Anyways, enjoy.

Note: Yes, the video is not on my Youtube channel, but it's on the team's Youtube channel :)

Just blabbing.

2008-01-11T03:46:00.000+08:00

It's exactly 4am on my clock (yes I'm still awake, shut up, don't ask why) and I'm not feeling good. I keep thinking about some things that I really do not need to think about.

Yet I should be thinking about it.

.....

I don't know lah, life just sucks now.

Thoughts of the Week #1: Initial D Arcade Stage 4 : A game that fails to live up to its predecessors.

2008-01-06T21:53:00.000+08:00

It figures that I can't leave this blog dead for too long. So I'll be active again :)

So, lets see now. It's Initial D. It has wide screen. It has better graphics and sound. Surely the game would be as successful as its predecessors.

Apparently, not.

Take a look at ANY arcade with Initial D 4 and you will find it mostly dead. In contrast, Namco's arcade racer Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3 (hereby referred to as WMMT3 from now on) has taken over the arcade as THE racer to play.

What has certainly gone wrong. Well, I managed to find reasons for it.

1) Lack of courses.
When Initial D 1 came out almost 4 - 5 years ago, arcade racers were given four course to choose from. When the sequel came out, it became even better, with two new courses, totalling six. And when the third installment came out, it became even better, with three courses added. Now certainly, you'd expect the fourth one to have more than that?

Not quite the case.

Sure, the fourth installment introduced 3 new courses (Lake Akina, Myogi (now a mountain based course and not the circuit one in the three previous versions) and Tsukuba), but as a trade off they removed Usui, Akina Snow, Shomaru, Tsuchisaka. Thats FOUR removed. Sure, the game engine changed (ID4 uses the Sega Lindbergh board unlike the other three), but surely Sega could have readded them? Unless they are L-A-Z-Y.

And it doesn't end there too.

2) Certain car models removed.
Yes, I know they have added the Evo IX and GDBF.

But did Sega have to remove more cars than they add?

The original lineup in the Japanese release was seriously lacking cars it wasn't funny. In V3 there were at least 30+ cars in the game. And when V4 came, at least 8-10 were missing. That included the "king" car of V3, the RX-8. Sure, they fixed things up for the English version when they re added three cars back (Miata, Altezza, RX-8), but come on, is this an upgraded version or a downgrade.

3) No transferral of cards from previous version.
This one takes the cake as the main reason why people just simply did not want to play V4. Previously you could have transferred your cars to the next version at the expense of the cost of the new card. Which is cool. You keep your points.

Then when V4 came out, you couldn't transfer the card - mostly probably because the tuning system has changed. Lots of people didn't like it coz they had to start over.

4) Tuning system was tedious.
One FT car will set you back RM450. Why?

The tuning shops that improve the car performance comes every six ejects. No, not games. Everytime you pull out the card counts as an eject. That's tedious.

Then there's thirty five performance parts to install 35 x 6 = 210.

Yup, you pull the card 210 times. Whoopeedoo.

And the card only holds 150 plays...so you have to renew the card at least once. Which brings me to my next point.

5) Error 403 says hi.
If you read my blog before, I've got this before.

You insert your card.

You pay the amount required for a new card.

Your invalid gets spit out.

.....

Nice red sign comes out saying license couldn't be dispensed. Call the technician!

Sucks doesn't it? Now most arcades know how to fix this error, but seriously, if it happens often enough, it's a problem. Considering point number 4, this is serious.

6) Lack of battle auras.
Yes, I know the Japanese have them.

But we don't.

See, the reason people battle nowadays is because they want to get to see some cool ass flame that rises up before the start of the race perhaps as super intimidation or coolness factor. I wonder why Sega did not fix the battle auras to be included. This reason alone is the reason why all the battlers stuck to the last version.

7) Weird physics that makes it difficult to play.
From those videos you see on Youtube it looks like you could try full gassing all the way and it works, right? Well yes, you can. But then halfway thru the turn you get this funky understeer. And even if you do avoid hitting the wall, you still get a funky accel penalty. WTF?

That's where penalty cancel comes in play. Perhaps the most retarded physics exploit ever. With a simple tap of the brake coming out of the turn/understeer, the accel gets restored.

Except it's not easy to execute in theory. If you don't do it right, it won't work.

So what does that mean?

a) If you don't know what is this, you're screwed in PvP battles.

b) If you don't know how to execute this properly, you're...still screwed in PvP battles.

The gap between those that know how to play and those who don't are so wide new players are deterred from playing. This also effectively makes this game have an unusual high learning curve. Sadly, the physics might look easy to play, but in theory it's not.

Conclusion
So much failure reasons that deter this game from being the game to play. I play it because I can adapt to it, but not everyone can. It's not really crowd attracting. Just shows that graphics don't drag the crowd. Just look at Wangan if you don't believe me.

Thanks for reading Thoughts of The Week #1 XD

Mission accomplished. (and..."OMG! Similar features!")

2007-12-28T01:57:00.000+08:00

2'59"808 Akina Downhill Dry with the AE86 Trueno.

My IR entry. Ranked 31st in the world as of 28th Dec 2007, 0214 hrs.

Finally dipped below the 3'00 mark. Don't know if I could go any faster, but that is for another day.

And this is my latest avatar for the last card I made:
....hey wait a second she looks like...

And no I didn't do it on purpose, I only realised it when I got home, LOL!

O_O OMG. Hair and Shirt/Vest colours seperate them!

That's all for today :p

Freedom?

2007-12-27T17:44:00.000+08:00

After the hell that is Uni is over (well, at least until the results are out), let me recap on what has happened.

- Uni exams have been hell.
Let's just say if I pass, it's a freakin miracle. I screwed up. Bad....

- Been doing a fair amount of ID.
I have a few targets in mind. Some not even hit yet.

- Picked up another FD
And since I was paid to tune it, woot. :D

- Bought an RX-8 for Wangan Midnight Maxi Tune 3.
So far so good, still haven't lost in story mode. :p

- Finished tuning my Evo IX after about 2-3 months from buying the card.
Finally got around to tuning it XD

- Had some annoyances with some people.
Ever want people to shut up while you are playing but they can't? I wish they would. Yet there are a fair few idiots who don't know how to zip their mouth. If you're reading this and you KNOW it's you, do me a favor and shut up next time. I do not need to hear your comments especially since 95% of what you say is utter trash.

- Met up with Dom (shadow_zero) after so long.
Sorry mate that we couldn't have a better outing, hopefully next time we could do something better.

- Finally met Jake @ Haseo.
Yes you freakin' ant. No more dino jokes. Coz we know YOU're the real dino :D

- 9999999 All 300s SSAY Ouendan 2 Hard & Insane modes done again. XD
The scores were worse spinner wise so no new High score.

- Finally scored the final trainer card in Pokemon Pearl.
I lucked out in the Beauty Contest Master Rank with my Ranger Manaphy (thank you Drifblim for using such useless moves over and over :D). And with a friend of mine cooperating with the CTF bit of the trainer card, I've done it.

- Had a wonderful time at the @D4 Christmas BBQ on the night of Christmas. Unfortunately I forgot to get pics -_- but the outing was a major success. :D

With just barely less than a week till 2008 I hope the remaining days will be a good one. And I'm sure it will. :)

My ID4 cars

2007-11-29T22:17:00.000+08:00

Feel like introducing my cars :D In order of acquiring them:

My FD. First car ever :D All my noob games in this :p

My RX-8. One of the better cars that I liked. :D (I have since changed the GT wing to the same one with the RX-8 below :P)

My first S2000. I rarely used this one....because of....

THIS awesome lil' baby that turns fast and accels fast! Makes my other three cars before this feel..uhh...crap. :(. One of my main cars.

Now this one I bought for Iro. Turns fast, is small. Too bad the accel sucks :(

This one was on request from a special someone. I actually like this better than my Black S2000. One of my more used cars besides the 86.
There seems to be a mysterious aura behind this RX-8 (this also is meant for the special someone). I seem to be doing better in this RX-8 than my own. -_- . I'm using this as my primary car at this time.

Oh by the way, I hardly ever use the first three on this post. My team mates use it more often than I do. -__-;;;; ah well, since I have one of only two FDs in the team....I guess it can't be helped. :P

Will I add more cars? Maybe if my interest in this game doesn't die. Somehow Wangan 3 seems more fun than this....

Tagged.

2007-11-21T08:20:00.000+08:00

Gonna make this quick.
Rules:
1. Do this tag and answer all the question into your own blog.
2. Delete one question from all the question and add one of your own question, make sure it is 20 question.
3. Tag 8 person.

Questions:
1. What is your dream when you are small kid?
-_- Racer ~_~

2. What is the happiest thing in your whole life?
Succeeding in life I suppose.

3. What you wish to have now?
Money. Rest decide later.

4. How long you never horselaugh?
Long time ago.

5. What did you realize this recently?
No idea.

6. Which bad habit that you cant accept the most?
Annoyance.

7. When you got something unhappy, what will you do?
Sleep. Greatest way ever.

8. What you afraid of losing?
Friends, and time.

9. Within 5 years, which target is the most realism one?
-_- just get more money I guess.

10. When you met someone that you like, will you profess or hide your feeling?
That, figure out for yourself.

11. List out 3 kind of people you hate the most.
Annoying, look down on people, and unfriendly. <--- same answer with SWATwolf :D

12. What is loneliness?
Loneliness is when people don't care about you even though you feel you are close with them.

13. Do you satisfy of your life now? Do you think any changes should make?
No. More money and time I guess.

14. When is the most recent time you feel touch?
Lucky Star Ep 22, when Kanata came back to Konata and dad's house. Yes I'm pretty emo sue me pls.

15. Where is the place that you visited and you feel the most beautiful?
Sigh, none.

16. Use a song to describe you feel for this recently.
Feel Like a Girl - Lia.

17. If you have a wish to come true, what is it?
Give me a good life.

18. Do you have anything to worry or scare this recently?
Time not enough to finish my assignments.

19. If the World is going to end, what will you do?
Live it out till it ends.

20. Do you think that you are cheap or expensive?
Expensive? Can't say for myself.

Who else to tag? Uhhh....any eight from my sidebar.

Gtg finish my assignments bb.

OMG. L Block > Link

2007-11-05T12:54:00.000+08:00

Today was the finals of the GameFAQs Character Battle VI. Four contestants, one winner, between Link, Cloud, L-Block and Solid Snake.
Everyone expected Link or even Cloud to win. But....

OMG PWN. L-Block > LINK!

All hail the Tetris L-Block!

ASCII art courtesy of the GameFAQs contest board forumers. :D

HAIL the L-Block! XD

EDIT: Oh yeah I finally got around to adding the shoutbox. Spam away :D I'll get around to updating more tomorrow.

Removed Cbox.

2007-09-27T22:46:00.000+08:00

Hmm...seems like people using Internet Explorer are getting pop-up ads via Cbox. And when I surfed over to Zoro's blog he said the same as well.

I took down the Cbox. I will add a different one later. When I am less busy T_T

The escape from Error 403. And a blast into the past.

2007-09-23T19:04:00.000+08:00

It would have been a bad day entry, but it ended well so I actually feel quite upbeat. Hm.

Anyway, on Friday I went to Mines to renew my YUMI* AE86 card. Now, when I bought the card (also at Mines), I already encountered Error 403 (rotten luck, but I was only buying the card, so no loss there :D). But this time around, the stakes are so much higher -_-

So I popped in the tokens for renewal, got my expired card out. And then I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Then..

Error 403 =___________=;;;; with all the "unable to dispense the license card" explanation bla bla bla.

Uh oh, sounds bad right? The prospect of losing my data was staring right in my face.

Luckily for me, there was a technician who knew how to fix it. (I know how to as well in case he didn't, but it was very convenient that he knew everything from the start). And he helped to recover my data. Granted the other technician present ALMOST screwed up the process (T_T), but in the end it all was good :D and the renewal was good :D Recovery was a success. :D

The end result?

And before I forget, here's Yumi* in full colour. Taken with my Nokia 6300:

As for who is Yumi, let's just say she taught me some IDV2 basics back LONG ago. (Yes, GIRL tutoring ME a GUY -_-) My first mentor you could say :). Unfortunately she isn't, well...with us now if you know what I mean, so as a tribute. The avatar is based off what description I could get of her from some of my fellow ID friends.

Anyway, all's well that ends well. Good night.

Of apple pies, boost off battles, peer pressure and nostalgia.

2007-09-15T21:52:00.000+08:00

Okay okay fine, so I didn't update for so long >_< >_< so sorryyyyyy :(

Today was a pretty fine day in my book. One that lifted up my spirits.

I got myself to Sg Wang for two reasons today.
a) My team mate and good friend Loong's girlfriend is present to take the card that I've been tuning for him (-_- and ironically I confirmed its bad luck status, once it got off my hand I feel 99.6% more relieved)
b) Samuel (a good ol' friend from the IDV3 Kotaraya days) called me out to play ID4. (despite me at the bottom off the barrel in money terms :( )

So I got out to Sg Wang from Tun Sambanthan Monorail (its 50 cents cheaper damn it, and I didnt want to walk from TS -_-) and when I searched out Samuel, he hasn't change a single bit. Still super tall as he used to be, I don't think I noticed anything different as I spotted him right away. He however, like 75% of the people I know said "how different I look from before" =_= omg really now, am I THAT different from before?

Immediately, we got down to business. Since there was this S2000 accepting challengers, I decided to bring out my 86, and dragged him to Akina Downhill. Since he asked for boost off, I obliged. Immediately, like ants there was a crowd behind me. Like what? o_o And in the end I managed to pass him at the Death Corner (I like the name, woohoo) and ran away 300+m. Now usually, this will scare off the challenger right?

Nope.

He came back for Tsukuba as expected. Boost off again despite me knowing how dangerous it is, but I looked at his TA times and suspected something. Which was confirmed the moment we hit the first turn in CP3. Coz with a crap speed I was actually catching up and passed him by the start of CP4 -_-;;; and ran away by 100+m.

With my free game I pulled off a 2'50"9 Tsukuba OB with my then 7-2-1-1-2 AE86T. -_- It was such a nice run but I hated the highway CP that was CP2. -_- Now, during the free game, I received some calls on my phone, I didn't think of much.

Until I saw who called that is. -_- Now I had to wait till 4.30 to pass back the card. Bad feeling UP!

Anyway, I got Samuel to make his ID card. Luckily enough there was no 403 (Sg Wang is notorious for such an error -_-) and I got him to buy his Trueno. Well....actually initially he wanted to buy the Evo 4 or the GC8v...but I showed him the awesomeness that is the Trueno (yay free game for my card again XD) and he bought it. He immediately showed interest in Iro, which I showed him how (well...at least for 3 CPs -_- I kinda reversed on the fourth jump, and it was damn nice too =.=).

Then, he started playing Iro, first game being something like a 3'06, but I managed to help him a little with wall ramming and stuff, and when I taught him the all important penalty cancel tech, he actually did it very well. Better than me even O_o. I see his accel brought back to life everytime he uses it. He then brought his time down to 2'59"0 within a few games. Then he himself got into a battle, which he won. First win for him. Congrats :D

What happened next was pure awesomeness.

Sam: Eh, so pressing the view change + start button, what will happen ah?
Me: Force Quit...you've played V3, you should know.
Sam: Like this?
"TIME IS UP"
Sam: Oops.
Me: WTF YOU WASTED YOUR FREE GAME
(guy next to him was hoping to rechallenge but he can't :p)
Sam: Err...(takes card) I didn't know ma
(I walk away with him)
Me: Let's admit it, you did it on purpose so that the other guy didn't get the chance to challenge back.
Sam: Yeah la of course :p

LOL.

Then we head off to McDs downstairs, where Samuel treated me to a Med.Coke, and an Apple Pie. Thank you! ^o^

Although I wonder why you want me to eat the apple pie that badly O_o

Me: (chats about other things)
Sam: Yeah, cool. Eh, eat the apple pie la.
Me: -_- Later la.
(30 seconds later)
Sam: (chats and suddenly...) Eh, eat the apple pie la!
Me: -_- Yes la eating la.

So we chat a lot actually, among things the old Kotaraya gang and where the others went to (that's Yian, Barry, Alv, David (Croix), Nic, Jason (the OTHER one), himself (Sam), Ash, Roy, Ceres and the other specky dude that the name escapes me). Somehow, talking to him brings back thought of the good old days where i used to be super free for ID right after class, or before it. Before it all came crashing down thanks to the main V3 arcade closing. Sad.

Then we went back up to the arcade to see him play some more Akina and Iro. -_- I wished he'd listen to what I say.

Me: So this corner, use In-In-Out lining yes?
Sam: Ok.
(sees Sam use Out-In-Out)
Me: =_+ errrrrr......
Sam: Sorry got used to it -_-
Me: =_= right....

Then, Loong's gf called and I made my move to Royale Bintang and passed the card to her. Suddenly my mood returned after a few days of absence :D

Next, we headed off to TS, where I picked up some more battles. Awesome. I didn't see anyone I know except Kim (who disappeared right after saying hello =_=) and that "X-FAST" kid. =_=. Poor Sam lost 2 battles in V3. :( Disappointing day for him. I got something like an 06 for Akina Downhill with 7-2-2-1-2 but I was so disappointed that I didn't do better. Then we went off to dinner at the TS food court upstairs where I had my Fried Rice and Sam having er...Salty Fried Kuey Teow =_=;;; which he returned and got the...not so salty one which he theorized that they put his Kuey Teow through water and then served it out again.

After that we head off back to the arcade where Sam finally realized he's overspent for the day (not really broke but he didnt expect to spend so much XD). But somehow my bored self managed to coax him BACK to Sg Wang where I got 2 battles (won the first, lost the second, damn my Akagi sucks, and first loss for my 86) and Sam got his 57 Iro. I then tried Iro with my own 86, and got a crappy 2'48"9 with 7-2-2-2-2. Lost 10km/h for some of the turns. Felt like screaming but never did -_-

Then I managed to pull this off:
Sam: Eh dude, that 2'48 is quite fast ah...
Me: You can do it too. Wanna try my car? :D :D :D
Sam: Eh cannot la I overspent already!!!
Me: My Yumi* Trueno is calling out for youuuuuuuuuuuuuu.........
Sam: .... (goes to the counter)
Me: XD (whee free game for my car :D)

And he ran like...a 55"9 or something. Trying to tempt him again didn't work -_- :p.

We walked all the way down from Sg Wang to Kotaraya. Was fun to chat with him continuously haha. Then we got to Kotaraya to have a look see around the former hangout for us. Somehow, it doesn't feel the same. It's now 1.5x times more smoky (there's even smoke coming out of some of the aircon vents =_=). More importantly. where did the last pair of V3 machines go? All they have now are crappy as hell V2 machines, and a bunch of Cyber Cafes (as if that building needs more than 2...). And the former "main hangout"...well..it's empty now. Deserted. Crap man, thinking about all this makes me and him almost cry.

Then we split from there. A nice and interesting day to cap off what was a high and low week. I didn't expect so much from this, but in the end there were many things that were memorable.

Thank you for reading, and good night :)

(And while I wish I capped this off with pictures, I didn't take any. Sorry >_<)

The evolution of Kaze. Wahahahaha.

2007-08-20T03:21:00.000+08:00

Something basic....

Change the shirt a lil....

And the eyes and hair colour...

Add a jacket....

But then I decided to do a complete makeover with the hair, clothes and the lips. XD

Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekisou review

2007-08-06T03:05:00.000+08:00

Language: Japanese
Run time: Combined - 3 hr 15 min (2 DVD)
Video format: NTSC
Screen format: 4:3, 16:9
Release date: 27 July 2007
DVD Region: 2
(pics of my DVD coming soon)

On the 18th of March this year (that's roughly.....4 months ago?), a concert featuring the Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi) voice actors was staged. The Haruhi anime was a big smash hit last year, and it was no surprise that eventually something like this happened. Simply put, it is THE event for all anime fans (especially for the Suzumiya fans) to go to.

Unfortunately for non Japanese (like me), getting to Japan is no easy job. And most likely, you've missed out on this event. But no fret, as Lantis has released this on DVD. Woot. But there's a slight catch - this is an R2 DVD which means you need an R2 DVD player (or a region free one, whichever works for you).

The first DVD introduces all the seiyuus (well at least the main ones) from the anime (and I think the author of the light novel). Following that was talk with all the seiyuus. (Note to self: Shiraishi's Wa Wa Wasuremono is STILL the win - this is before he sung the longer ver on Lucky Star mind you).

Wa Wa Wa Wasuremono....Whoaaaaaaaa!! XD

Towards the end of the DVD, the SOS-dan seiyuus did a skit made of absolute win. Even if you don't understand Japanese, the skit is still hilarious.

Sugita Tomokazu (Kyon) with the Othello board XD

L-R: Sugita Tomokazu, Ono Daisuke, Chihara Minori, Yuko Goto, Hirano Aya, during the hilarious skit.

Obviously, DVD 1 won't mean much if you don't understand a shred of Japanese. No there are no subs you can stop dreaming now :D

The second DVD is where the fun begins. It's the concert where the seiyuus sings some songs from the anime or their character CD. It was a wonderful performance from all the seiyuus who performed. Quite a lot of the songs are from the character CDs so you are more likely to have heard them for the first time unless you've been buying them.

Some shots from DVD2:

Yuko Goto starts the concert with Koi no Mikuru Densetsu.
Chihara Minori's performance during "SELECT?" The fans are going wild. Damn I wish I was there. =_=
Matsuoka Yuki (Tsuruya-san)'s performance. My fav song of the lot :p
Hirano Aya and her live band performing "Lost My Music".
Chihara Minori, Hirano Aya and Yuko Goto during the Hare Hare Yukai performance. The most lively song of them all.

The DVD ends with a backstage visit of the seiyuu's at the end of the concert. And the fans absolutely loved the concert judging by the reactions.

Is this a worthy buy? Yes. If you are a Haruhi fan it is a crime if you don't have this in your collection. If you like anime music in general this DVD is great too. Nevertheless this DVD rocks!! Woohoo!

You can buy the DVD from Play-Asia or YesAsia. Thanks for reading and good night :)

Sunway Pyramid Arcade pics (20/7/2007)

2007-07-24T00:45:00.001+08:00

Since I've taken them, might as well post them here. No flash. Yes, some of the pics would look way better. But I was being paranoid of looking like a suspicious character. (or worse, getting on the bad side of the arcade operator!)

Behold! It's Mario Kart Arcade GP! :p

And there are four of em :D

OMG. It's Initial D 4 XD. SABRE is the dude who gave some tips to help me beat LotS for the first time :D

My good friend Zackler taking on Kozo Hoshino. Doryaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!

In-game....

This is Initial D 3 Japanese Ver. heaven. English version? Tadak. :p
(Oh btw, mistake on my part, there was only 10 machines....)

Save the world...deluxe style XD

Character Customization rocks!

2007-07-24T00:19:00.001+08:00

This is Kaze, my Initial D 4 character: Last Tuesday (left), and last Friday (right). Yes, the pics dont have the same size because they both are seperate pics, and I was never any good in camera pics :D

I'm pretty happy with the look Kaze has now. Unless something good comes up through the roulette.

Cancelled

2007-07-23T22:55:00.000+08:00

A month plus back I posted regarding me and SWATwolf preordering Gyakuten Saiban 3.

Well....

Cancelled.....

I cancelled the order. Both his and my copy. His because he wants to buy other stuff. Me because I have higher priorities now. Not that I would lose anything because being a Japanese game stocks should be plentiful.

As for the Haruhi DVD preorder, it's still on. Coz I want the DVD :p. Though I just hope it doesn't get taxed or I'll end up dead as I only have just the right amount + a little more.

The Gaming Outing (or Initial D 4 ROX)

2007-07-17T20:44:00.000+08:00

Having heard that Initial D 4 is out in Sunway, me and two of my friends checked it out at Sunway Pyramid. We went at around 12. That time there was no one playing Initial D 4 so there's me and my chance to play. So I created a card (RM18...OMFG). It is understandable considering it has 150 card plays, able to store 3 cars, and is solid. Meaning you can't destroy it unless you intentionally do so.

The card is better than Initial D 3's that's for sure. :D.

After buying the car, you pick your gender portrait (they are randomly generated, one male and one female), your name (up to 6 letters), your car and the colour of the car.

Here's the details of my card XD

Name: Kaze
Gender: Female (Note: shut up. And the female portrait generated for me looked far better)
Car: Mazda Efini RX-7 Type R (FD3S) (I have no intention to fill up the two empty slots as of posting)
Colour: Black

Then the game starts. There are only six tracks (Lake Akina, Myogi, Akagi, Akina, Irohazaka, Tsukuba). The story is animated and the voice acting is Japanese with English subs (this is the English version). And during gameplay you can actually hear them talk ala ID Special Stage for PS2. (can be turned off, I did because I found it annoying).

And the screen is widescreen. High definition drifting FTW.

The physics are changed completely. It almost mimics Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune, but on mountain courses. In fact, any ID3 skills don't work anymore. Back to square one I suppose. The difficulty is also ramped up. (I took several rounds to beat Takumi on Akina. Grrrrr.....).

In store battle mode works almost like the old ones, but I can't figure out how to turn the accept challengers on/off without going through the main menu.

At the end of the whole ID time, I managed to finish the Legend of the Streets mode once. The game is great but will take forever to adjust to.

Oh and being a new game, it attracts attention. Whoo! Especially in a battle. I racked up 2 wins XD. Blind attack = WIN :P

And while I was looking around, I saw Mario Kart Arcade GP! Not a bad game, and it was great to be able to play it again. I picked up a card as well.

The card is like Initial D 3's. But I picked it up anyway.

Details:

Name: tsukasa (hiragana spelling)
Driver (Kart) : Yoshi
Rank: Super Rookie :p

It's Mario Kart. In full arcade goodness. What else can I say :p But there is no one playing there so it wasn't so fun (they had 4 machines).

Other notable things:
- Seats near the Para Para Paradise machines. For who? Good question.
- 12 Initial D 3 machines. TWELVE! All of them Japanese. And yet hardly anyone plays them!
- Time Crisis 4 Deluxe cabinets. Whee! You don't see this everywhere. :D

The day was fun overall. :P Will definitely go back there soon :D

Thanks for reading.

Limit.

2007-07-16T00:17:00.000+08:00

When you are playing something competitively, be it an FPS game like Counterstrike or a racing game like Initial D or even a music game like Guitar Hero, you will always have a limit of your own when you play.

Training or learning on your own does help you improve your game, but eventually when you are at the top of your game, there will be a barrier. This barrier is different for everyone (can come late or early) but this barrier is usually a barrier that is tough to knock down because there is (usually) no more room for improvement. At least for the person.

Maybe for example, you reached a pinnacle by scoring a fast time in Mario Kart, but as hard as you try you never seem to be able to beat that guy who was way faster. Eventually you might beat it, or you might not. It can turn into a psychological mess if you stress yourself over it.

Here's my example, with Initial D v3:

This is...or rather, was my best track/weather condition to play in Initial D v3. And I might be second now, but I'm happy to know that I at least managed to snag the top spot for a short while.

When I first started playing this map, I got an early 2'49"737 (see rank 10), and thats with plenty of mistakes. Even then, I continued to improve and I got what I wanted, a 2'49"190 (rank 5), but it took me roughly 5-6 months for this (as well as buckets of money retrying). I thought I was on top of my game....

Until I got beaten.

At that time when I posted the 49"190 up, I was 1st. It didn't take very long for it to get knocked down to 2nd. And then there's the urge to take back the record. And so began the battle against the barrier.

A huge barrier. I actually thought of giving up because there was hardly room for improvement. The feeling went on until during the last game, I saw a big improvement. And the fight went on until I broke the barrier. And scored a 48"787. :D

Which was #1 for 9 months until it got shot down. By that point I've already stopped so I didn't bother to continue. I might be able to beat it...or...naaaah...

More or less I was inspired to break the barrier because of the feeling of rivalry. (The dude that is #1 btw, is a Sarawakian, from Miri IIRC).

Looking back at Initial D, there were plenty of runs which were not at limit yet, but with Version 4 already out in Malaysia, and the fact that I have better priorities with my money now, makes me decide not to pursue such targets anymore.

And recently, just yesterday, I finally reached the limit for now....for Ouendan 2.

There was no other game has managed to push me to display my best before this. Not Ouendan, not EBA, not Mario Kart DS, not Tetris DS, not Counterstrike, and not even Initial D. It was Ouendan 2 which managed to bring the best out of me. Why? I don't know. And to think I spent MORE time each on all of the other games!

Initial Target: 187000000
Current: 188120370

It was an unexpected one. My calculations told me I would be hard-pressed to reach even 185 million. When I got to 187 million, I thought there was NO way I would be beating this.

And 6 hours later, I managed to push that to 188 million. But futile attempts to increase that suggest that I probably have hit the limit for now. Not the absolute max, but it did take a lot of work. (And I managed to get Zenryoku Shonen on Insane all 300'd too :p). Whether I might be able to push this to 189 million....well...that's hard to say.

So for now, thats my limit for both games....in Initial D, I will never go back to test the limit anymore seeing that the newest version has arrived, and as far as Ouendan 2 is concerned...it's not the absolute best score, but I'll have to work hard to increase this further. But I must stress that although it is difficult to break the barrier once you reach it, learning is a wonderful process, and it helps to break the barrier. There are many more limits in life that I have experienced, but it will take me a very long while to blog it all out.

What are your limits? Be it in gaming, or in life, strive on, and you will be able to set new limits for yourself.

Thank you for reading.

My sister's first S rank.

2007-07-15T23:51:00.000+08:00

YMCA Breezin' (Elite Beat Agents)

My sister (12 years old) has her own DS Lite, Light Blue's the colour. Once in a while, she'll borrow my games. And she loves to play Elite Beat Agents and Ouendan. So I see her play, and she gets better and better every time she plays. So it's inevitable that one day, she'll get her first S rank. And it's been a long time waiting, since she got a string of As. An in the end, she did. Although it is a pretty close S...but it's still an S eh?

(Oh, and she can spin the spinners better than me too -_- she beats all my spinner bonus scores T_T)

Ouendan 2 R4 SAV with the Elite Beat Agents unlocked.

2007-07-11T23:59:00.000+08:00

For the ones who are not bothered to use the Action Replay codes, I have made a Ouendan 2 sav (for R4 and M3 Simply users). This one just enables the Elite Beat Agents from the very beginning. Meaning you have to unlock the songs yourself.

Click here for the save file :) Enjoy!

Note: If you are not using an R4, I suggest looking for the save-file converters out there in the net. Google for them.

Indian Thriller, with "English (sounding) subtitles".

2007-07-10T22:29:00.000+08:00

Some of you have definitely watched this before, but this is worth a repost.

THIS is made of absolute win.

Ouendan 1 - Atsuki Kodou no Hate Cheer Girls S rank ALL 300

2007-07-10T14:50:00.000+08:00

I haven't scored an all 300 victory in the first Ouendan before this, but I have now :D

My first all 300 run on the first Ouendan :D

At times like this I wished there was a replay option on Ouendan 1 :(

Moonshell + DPG = Anime on DS?

2007-07-09T19:46:00.000+08:00

The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi Ep 12 BTW. :p

I was wondering how Moonshell would work with movies. Moonshell is a homebrew (it comes with the R4, but you can download it for your flashcart if you want) designed to play mostly music, but you can also use it to view images and view DPG videos. Does it work well? Welll....sort of....

First things first, Moonshell has a limitation of not being able to run most video formats. No AVI, No WMV, and certainly no MPEG. So far, I've only seen it able to run DPG formats. And here is where the complications arise:

Converting takes a lot of time. With an AMD Athlon XP 1.8ghz and 1GB RAM, a simple Hare Hare Yukai (remember the TV size full ver dance?), set to the best quality and optimal settings take +/ 20-25 minutes.

The size of the file was only in the end, 4.5MB. But it took THAT long. Not for people with no patience.

Wait, then that first screenshot....

Well, that one took me 45 minutes to 1 hour. But its set to Normal quality. Ultra (best quality) would take more than 1 hour probably. The file size came up to 57MB, roughly 1/3-1/4th of the original file.

Yes, I can STILL see the subtitles :P

As for the quality itself, do not expect anything spectacular. It's only average at best. But for a free player, you can't really complain. If you want something better looking on the DS, you'd be better off going for the Nintendo Play-Yan Micro (review by SWATwolf), which does all these things better.

Thanks for reading :)

And Raikkonen wins again in Britain!

2007-07-09T02:39:00.000+08:00

And when all McLaren fans thought they had the Championships in the bag....the last 2 GPs change everything :p

It is too bad Massa stalled during the start of the race :( Otherwise it could and would have been a Ferrari 1-2.

Nonetheless, a great result for Kimi! Congratulations!

Let's hope the next GP in two weeks time would bring more positive results for Ferrari!

Old, but still gold - Ouendan 1 thoughts.

2007-07-09T02:05:00.000+08:00

Simple, is it not?

Browsing through my DS games, I had a quick look at this. It's the first ever Ouendan that would end up getting a sequel and a spin-off. Seeing that I had a few minutes to spare, I decided to pop this back into my DS. And man, does it bring back good feelings about it.

The graphics, sound quality...heck..everything was far weaker than what EBA had to offer. So why did I not get rid of this? (No, I'm not selling this, go somewhere else for a second hand Ouendan). I mean, hey, it's a quick way to get a couple of bucks.

One word: "Memories"

"This guy's insane already. Call the men in the white coats"

Whoa, hold it right there. It's true.

This game reminded me of how noob I was. :p

- Tapping the notes the moment it showed up. >_>
- Spinning AND changing direction on the spinners mid way through it <_<>_> <_<>_>

And it also reminded me of
- my first S rank. Loop & Loop on Normal. What? >_>
- the painfully hard song (then of course) of Ready Steady Go (damn you lifebar)
- How awesome this game was (that lead to the purchase of EBA :p)

After playing RSG Insane (yay S rank, boo 5.9 million :( ), I can say that despite the massive shortcomings (lack of replays, bad graphics), it's still a damn good game to play.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to finish the stage (Shanghai Honey go!) I was playing. Thanks for reading :p

The Great LYN Nintendo DS Meetup July Editon

2007-07-08T18:02:00.000+08:00

Hm, it's that time of the year again. It's on:

Date: 21st July (Saturday after this)
Time: 1200-1700hrs.
Location: Hotel Armada PJ (nearby Asia Jaya LRT)

As usual, the FAQ.

1) A hotel?
Yup.

2) Why there and not (location X)?
Because according to THE MAN himself A.K.A Mr. Penman:

For a change, we are going to have something different and more comfortable. We are gonna have a Hi-Tea Buffet LYN Nintendo Gathering, it's RM35++ person at Hotel Armada. Currently, there's a "2+1" promotion going on, i.e. if we can get a group of 3, it'll only cost less than RM30 per person.

And as for payment, again I refer you to THE MAN:

Payment
we'll take the TOTAL amount, then divide by attendance on that day. It'll be great, if we can find a group of 3s, e.g. 3, 6, 9, 12, etc.

3) WTF.
Hey, you are paying for good food here. :) And it's free flow too. You can eat until you can't. So....yeah.

4) But what if I DON'T want to eat?
Think of it as lunch? :) (Tagged: I'll leave this to Mr. Penman to answer, as I've run out of a proper answer >_<)

5) What do you guys do in the outing?
Well...besides eating....

We play Multiplayer games of the following:

a) Mario Kart DS (if possible bring your own carts/R4/whatever)
b) Clubhouse Games
c) Tetris DS
d) Metroid Prime Hunters (in case...just..in case)
e) Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan (note, bring your own carts, as there is no download play)
f) Elite Beat Agents (again, bring your own carts if possible)
g) Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii: Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 (and yet again, bring your own carts if possible)
h) Bomberman DS
and more :D

Take this time to show off your l33t skillz in the games :)

6) But what if I don't own Mario Kart DS/EBA/Ouendan 2?
Flash cart users have no excuse :p

But if you aren't, then we can accomodate you with download play. :)

7) Erm...my games are...you know la, not the "real" kind, so can I come?
Yes you can. We don't discriminate against "ahem" users. (Original zealots, STFU)

8) I don't have a Nintendo DS but I'm interested. Can I still come?
If you're coming just to meet up, why not? It's an opportunity for fellowship. However, please confirm your attendance HERE. Please do not confirm by leaving a message here!

Though when we get to play games, there will not likely be a spare DS for you, sorry.

9) Confirm your attendance?
Yes. Coz we need to do reservations for the Hi-Tea. And please honor your reservation. Meaning if you say you're coming, you really come. This is serious business.

10) Any preparations if I'm coming?
Charge your DS/DS Lite. Very important. We don't want you to run outta power. Unless you bring your own charger (and find a power outlet) coz most of us don't.

11) I'm staying quite far away, but since most multiplayer games have the Nintendo WiFi Connection, can I use that to communicate with you guys?
Sorry. I doubt the hotel has free WiFi. Therefore, it's not possible.

12) Any rules during multiplayer matches?
No rules. This is just a friendly meeting. However, I advise and stress that NO cheat devices be used in the outing. Don't spoil the fun of others. We are here to have fun, not rake in wins.

(As far as Mario Kart DS is concerned, note that generally we do NOT do snaking matches)

13) What about behaviour? Any rules on that?
Although I've been told that it's okay to behave normally like previous outings, because we are going to do it in a hotel, please do not put yourself in a bad light in front of other hotel guests. I'm not saying you can't scream and what not, but please don't go overboard. You don't want to get yourself banned from that hotel and you sure as hell don't want to offend any guests.

A special message from Reveur : He says that pwetty girls are invited :P

(But if you want to come, go here to confirm your attendance lah)

Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekisou preordered!

2007-07-04T22:36:00.001+08:00

Made of win? OH YES!

Around four months ago there was a concert made of absolute win, starring the casts of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu anime. And now...in roughly four weeks the 2 DVDs of the show will be out.

And:

Look at the last item. Nyahahahaha.

A good friend of mine happened to help me preorder the DVD (along with his stuff. Thanks :). Life is indeed wonderful with friends :) I can't wait for the end of the month wheee!

Here's the DVD preview on Youtube:

If you're looking to preorder the DVD you can head over to Play-Asia or Yes Asia here. Be warned though that this is a Region 2 DVD so please check if your DVD player works with it (US = Region 1, SEA/Malaysia = Region 3).

Thank you for reading :D

Chuck Norris Commercial

2007-07-02T19:54:00.001+08:00

You shall not mess with Chuck Norris.

Woohoo!

2007-07-02T04:11:00.000+08:00

Ferrari menang! XD Where are all the McLaren fans on my MSN? XD XD XD

On a roll~ Kira kira no Pop Star @_@

2007-07-02T02:22:00.000+08:00

EDIT: Moved to sub-site. Click here.

Pinky Street Kira Kira Music Hour review

2007-07-01T21:45:00.000+08:00

Cute ain't it? The title screen I mean :p

No, I didn't pick this up. My good friend picked it up over the weekend when on holiday in Japan so I figured I'd review it. Even if it isn't technically mine >_> but I put quite a few hours into this (Sorry Ouendan 2 :( )

Pinky Street Kira Kira Music Hour, is as is name says, a music game. However, it's no Ouendan with no real life people singing in this, rather you are playing to the instrumentals. Not that it's a bad thing of course.

Once the game started I entered a name (has input for Japanese and English letters, but I did not test how many characters), the blood type (huh?), the type of music I like to hear (there's a selection, and surprisingly "Anime" and "Para-Para" were among them), and finally your horoscope (the words are in Japanese, but the symbol is obvious enough). I'd have reason to believe that this game was targeted more towards the female audience when.....

You are apparently given a "house" of your own in Kira2 Music Hour.

.....the character model looks so much more female. And by the way, I had NO opportunity to select gender.

From what I understand, the game is free roam, somewhat like Ouendan 2, with several locations with different types of music.

Your world map. Small is it not?

So far I've played several of the world locations and the one I liked was the classical music area (the real name escapes me at the moment). In every area you will be able to go into shops to purchase things. Of course, the main attraction of every area is the "music room".

Stages are laid out in a way that you will most of the time end up taking on a CPU.

"You" chatting with the person you are going up against.

The game is slightly more text heavy unlike Ouendan, so you might (or might not) miss out on a few things. Still, it isn't too difficult to play. Gameplay however, you will have to place your DS sideways ala Brain Age.....

The game allows you time to tilt the DS apparently. Btw, the Hori Play Stand proved useful here.

Let the battle begin!

The gameplay is pretty simple. Your objective is to simply outperform the other CPU (who will randomly screw up). As shown in the picture, there are 3 panels. When lit up, they are:

Top being yellow
Middle being green
Bottom being blue.

As the music plays, the upper part of the touch screen (when flipped of course - I'm referring to the black "box" with the green music note) will show the three colours. You are supposed to tap the correct colour panel when the music note (which bounces) synchs with the panel on the box (ala Ouendan's timer circles). The timing is rather strict, and it will be the difference between getting Rainbow (spot on), Kira2 (close) or Good (off but still hit). As long as your lifebar (blue) overpower your opponent's (green), you win! But be careful. A string of mistakes will sink your bar to the wrong end pretty quickly (my full bar sunk completely to the other end after missing two beats in a row. TWO!!!!), especially painful if you are at the end of a song.

On Normal mode, you may also have to slide on the panels if needed. If the panel lits up AND also has a >>>>>> or a <<<<<<<, you will need to slide on the panel according to the direction as well (tapping won't count). You will also sometimes have to slide down on all three panels.

Overall, I say this game is pretty nice. It's no Ouendan, but it's still a pretty solid DS game. The gameplay is a bit too simple, but nevertheless it's still pretty addictive. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to play somemore before I return this :(

You can pick up the game from Play-Asia here.

Alone - Movie review

2007-06-29T01:00:00.001+08:00

Movie poster for this flick. Scared yet? :p

Language: Thai (w/English subtitles - Blurry Chinese and Malay subtitles also included -_-)
Rating : 18-PL
Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes.
GSC website: Here
Sypnosis: (taken from GSC.com.my)

Looking roughly at Pim’s life, she is just another ordinary woman. She moved from Thailand and started a new life in Korea with her caring and loving husband. But one night, a phone call from Thailand changes her life forever. Pim learns that her mother is gravely ill with an unknown disease, and she and her husband Lee rush back to Thailand.

The moment she arrives in Thailand, the flashbacks begin-painful memories, long buried, along with a strange familiar feeling. These things only grow stronger, as she reaches the house where she grew up. She is inundated with a nostalgia that is sweet, but with an undercurrent of terror, a realization that someone is “there,” right beside her, always. And that someone had always been there.

The secret of Pim and her family has slowly been revealed: she was once a Siamese twin! Ten years ago, Pim and her conjoined twin sister underwent as operation to separate them. But her sister died during the attempt. And now, Pim suddenly feels her presence once more, relentlessly.

Will she regain the normal life she once had – her own and hers alone?

My thoughts
(Apparently, this is based off a true story, the twins with the same name Pim and Ploy did get seperated in 1994)

Since this movie is directed by the duo that also directed Shutter (a good Thai horror flick as well, must watch for horror fans), I had some expectations on this movie. After watching it, I can safely say that it is a good watch.

The scare tactics (hey, thats why you came to watch the movie right?) are more of the same old stuff, but even so you'll still feel shocked when you actually WATCH it. (eg. beach scene). I personally found some of the same scare tactics in Shutter reused in this flick (coming from the same directors, this is expected), yet the scare factor is still there. Kudos to the directors for being able to keep the horror feel in each scene. (Lift scene anyone? Woot.)

Marsha Wathanapanitch did a splendid job as the lead in this flick. Her acting definitely was superb, and definitely doesn't look fake. (It got me scared too >_<). One of my fav scenes involving her was (minor spoilers ahead):

Doctor: (takes out art that looks like a butterfly)Tell me what do you see?
Pim (Marsha): Batman
Doctor: ......
Pim : If I said butterfly, you will say I am normal, but if I said anything else, you will say I am insane.

As for the plot....well, I'll be frank. Simply just reading the sypnosis will NOT work....as a matter of fact, the turn of events that will be revealed towards the end are rather shocking. It kinda reminds me of Phoenix Wright in a way...(a VERY horrific way). Even the ending was actually action packed - And that I did not expect.

Overall, the movie was worth a watch. If you are one that are pretty much immune to scare tactics this probably won't change a thing, but nevertheless, the plot was superb, something I don't expect in a horror flick.

Rating by me: 4/5

The one gaming wish

2007-06-29T00:51:00.000+08:00

Tagged by Reveur

If there is one wish, one gaming related wish. What would you wish for? Would you wish for PS3? Would you wish for cheaper price? Would you wish for the best game ever to come now?

Hm, Reveur wasn't too far off when he said "Ouendan mastah". But I simply just wish for more of these games to come out :) It's so fun and addictive, and I would not mind being a mastah for all of them kakakakaka.

I hearby tag everyone reading this :p

(I don't have much to say, hence the short post)

Deal or No Deal?

2007-06-28T01:51:00.000+08:00

Does anyone watch that show? It's on NTV7 (Malaysia) on Mondays and Tuesdays at 7pm, in Mandarin. I think in the US NBC shows it (in English obviously). Basically the premise of the game is this. After being the one selected from the contestants, the contestant has to pick a case (from about 20 over cases) for the contestant to keep (for the duration of the show obviously). Then, the contestant has to choose from the remainder of the cases to open, revealing the sum of cash to be "deleted" off the score-board. The main aim here on this portion of the game is to have the lower sums removed from the board (e.g RM0.10 [yes THAT low is in the game too]. And here's why:

After a number of cases are removed, the "Banker" will call, offering a sum of money to the contestant to purchase the briefcase he/she earlier chose (the very first one), in which either the contestant can either choose to "Deal" or "No Deal". The amount the banker offers will be based on the contestant's performance - Do well by getting rid of the lower amounts and the amount offered will be high, do bad by getting rid of the higher ones and the offer will be lower. Regardless, if Deal, the case will be sold to the banker for that sum of money, if no Deal, the contestant has to open more cases to delete more values.

And then the banker calls again, with a higher/lower value to offer for the case (dependant on performance) and the option to Deal or no Deal comes up again. If "No Deal", the contestant has to open more cases. The banker calls more often towards the end of the game where there are only few cases left to open (usually by then it's pretty clear whether the Deal or No Deal option is better).

Once the contestants chooses "Deal", the contestant has to answer a further question - failing in which the contestants will take home only 20% of the amount offered by the bank (though I don't think this is in the US version of Deal or No Deal...). And at the end of the game, the value of the very first case chosen by the contestant will be revealed (to show if it was a "good deal" or a "bad deal" - It'll really suck if the contestant sold off the briefcase containing RM100,000 for a lower amount the banker offered LOL).

Anyway the game is based on luck as you don't know what cases hold which amount (and they are not preset obviously), by all means you could have Lady Luck with you and open up all the low amounts forcing the bank to offer you absurd amounts of cash for whatever value it is inside the case or in most cases, have luck turn against you and you are stuck with lower values (and in turn, lower banker offer). It's still fun to watch as a TV show.

If you want to play this online, NBC (US) has a flash version of it on their site here. Of course this is just for fun and you won't get real money from it.

What I don't understand is what drove the idiots named Golden Star Software (whatever company this is) to release a DS game based on this game show when you can play the flash version for free. And to top it all off, there's no reason to buy it anyway - There is nothing to do but open cases and reject / accept the banker's offer. Fun to watch as a viewer, fun to play as a REAL LIFE contestant where you win real money.

But in a game where I probably will get a "CONGRATULATIONS YOU WIN US$(insert amount here)" at the end of the game and then get booted back to the title screen? At least Who Wants to be a Millionaire has a point to be released on the PC/PS because it tests your knowledge. But this? LOL. I pity the idiots who buy it.

Speaking of which....Ouendan 2's EBA mode.

2007-06-27T02:22:00.000+08:00

Woot Chieftain's gonna cheer on a kid! Woot woot!

'Case anyone doesn't know yet, between 28 June to 11 July, there will be an event for Ouendan 2. (page in Japanese - Announced here) Apparently, if you go to a DS Download Station in Japan (YES JAPAN ONLY stop asking whether will it be in your local game store in the US/Malaysia/wherever) you can download the Agents and the Cat to your DS.

"HOLD IT! Then how the hell did you get it so fast?"
Here's the deal. I don't like getting screwed out of things that could have easily been an unlockable. And it's not like Japan is right next door or anything like that. No, I do not have wads of cash that I can fly to Japan within the next few days. Anyway, it is probably understandable that importers like me do not get such luck with Japan only specials and Nintendo of Japan doesn't recognise imports, but for something like this that they practically KNOW will have loads of people importing (EBA came coz of Ouendan being mass-imported by us non Japanese) I'm not really too pleased.

Google's lousy Japanese -> English translation. Want a better one? I'll do it for you. Only available on 28 June to 11 July in JAPAN DS DOWNLOAD STATION. Not in Japan? F*** you.

So there was only one way of getting them of course - The ~~great~~ Action Replay DS *woohoo*

Before I proceed, I will provide a disclaimer: I will NOT be held responsible if your Ouendan 2 save gets corrupt or anything like that. Please note that the codes below are NOT created by me. I am only providing it here for you, the reader's convenience. If you do not want to take risks with your savefile, I recommend you DO NOT proceed.

Here's the codes, courtesy of someone over at 2ch.

Game ID (you need this for your AR to recognise the game)
AO2J-B9A91626

EBA Mode
220D7397 00000001

I see no need for the (m) code seeing that I got it to work on BOTH the original cartridge and the ROM on the R4 without it.

With the code on, on the difficulty select screen there should be a button of the EBA emblem - That's to activate the EBA mode. You WILL need to trigger the game to save to keep the mode. (Beat a high score or go to options, hit the top-middle button, enter and exit)

But hey, I don't want to use an AR to get them! Is there really no other way?
There has been no way so far in game to unlock them. Definitely not by points (I'm already past the last rank by some distance). So unless you happen to be Japan, and you don't want to use an AR, you're screwed out of them.

And before anyone screams of using the AR as a matter of gaining an advantage in the EBA mode, let me remind you AR-haters that this does NOT affect gameplay whatsoever. All this mode does as explained by Nintendo is to replace the skins of the Ouendan with the EBA. That's it. It is only for decoration (though it looks cool to see Chieftain do the Ouendan cheering :p).

Keep in mind - If you choose to reset your game (as in delete data), your EBA mode is gone.

In which I Ouendan 2'd the day away.

2007-06-27T00:11:00.000+08:00

And so I played Ouendan 2 as usual, trying to secure better S ranks. Then I did Music Hour on Insane-Hidden. The try came out....

259 300s, 1 100

Oh yes, that 1 100 is sticking out like a sore thumb. So I spent the next hour trying to all 300 the thing, finally doing it at last! (after X amount of tries - I didn't count)

ALL 300 Music Hour. Take that you stupid game!

And then came Countdown. Doing it on Insane-Hidden as well...and then history repeated itself.

168 300s, 1 100

ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Oh and by the way, I didn't manage to get all 300 on this one....first section is so hard to get the timing right *sob*)

[EDIT: I got Glamorous Sky in Hard-Hidden ALL 300'd right after this post. HAH! Take that you stupid game!)

Glamorous Sky ALL 300 with EBA's Chieftain! Take that!

In which I review some food at last.

2007-06-27T00:07:00.000+08:00

Location: Berjaya Times Square 10th Floor Food Court (there's a name for it, but blah I don't remember it)
What is this?: Penne Arrabiata <--- (this spelling is wrong I think, someone correct it pls) How much $$$: RM7.90 (not inclusive of tax)

Since i was at the outing, I figured that I'd have dinner there as well. So I ordered this from the Italian store over at the Food Court (it's very near to the IMAX entrance, can't miss it). RM7.90 is rather steep for a food court pricing, but that's a good price for good food like that (FYI, RM7.90 is nothing compared to the other stuff they have on the menu which cost double-ish more)

How does it takes like? You obviously do not (and cannot) compare it to true Italian joints, but nevertheless it manages to replicate the taste a little. The spicy tomato sauce really tastes good and gives it the Italian taste right there. I don't have any complaints about this pasta, it's just that good! (Again, price is a non-issue here).

I would certainly recommend this to anyone who needs a good place to have lunch, especially if you are right in the middle of Bukit Bintang. :)

The LYN NDS Gathering - A mini review.

2007-06-27T00:06:00.000+08:00

Before I begin, here's a log from the LYN forums outing thread.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Time : 1030hrs - 2000hrs;
Date : Saturday, 23th June 2007;
Battleground : Food Court, 10th Floor, outside IMAX Cinema, Berjaya Time Square;
Status: SUCCESSFUL!

Attendance
01) Mudmaniac
02) Mudmaniac's friend
03) Phoenix_Cypher_K1
04) Corez
05) Pr1me_Minister
06) Yuki Ijuin

Games played:
Mario Kart DS
- Round 1 (Mudmaniac, Corez, Yuki Ijuin - DL play)
- Round 2 (Mudmaniac, Corez, Yuki Ijuin, Mudmaniac's friend, Phoenix_Cypher_K1 - DL play)
- Round 3 (all - DL play)
- Round 4 (Pr1me_Minister, Corez, Yuki Ijuin, Phoenix_Cypher_K1)

Tetris DS
- Round 1 - (Corez, Mudmaniac, Mudmaniac's Friend, Phoenix_Cypher_K1)
- Round 2 - (Corez, Mudmaniac) <--- this was interesting tongue.gif
- Round 3 - (all)

Elite Beat Agents
- Round 1 - Corez/Phoenix_Cypher_K1 vs Yuki Ijuin (DL play 2 vs 1 tongue.gif)
- Round 2 - Corez/Phoenix_Cypher_K1 vs Yuki Ijuin/Pr1me_Minister (DL play 2 vs 2)

Ouendan 2
- Corez/Phoenix_Cypher_K1 vs Yuki Ijuin/Pr1me_Minister (DL play 2 vs 2)

Pokemon Diamond/Pearl (trade)
Phoenix_Cypher_K1, Pr1me_Minister (thank you for the Togekiss and Articuno tongue.gif hope you enjoy the Latis)
---------------end report------------------------------------------------

Well, I went there at around 11.40am (was busy uploading vids to Youtube coz the GameFAQs forumers were asking for some Ouendan 2 EBA mode vids - hence the lateness - and said vids are also uploaded to my subsite, check the sidebar). When I reached, I could not find them, till I saw them over at the seats outside IMAX. Mudmaniac and friend, Yuki and Corez were already there. Pr1me Minister arrived last, and there were no more arrivals after that.

The games were fun. Pr1me and I definitely enjoyed switching leads on top of the MKDS leaderboard at least a dozen times while Corez did enjoy his moment of fun on top for 2 rounds. Tetris, no contest, again, Corez won most of the matches. I pulled a win tho :p. Then EBA and Ouendan 2 gaming sessions, were pretty limited (download play), but it was still fun (I'm not used to playing Normal mode tho)

The meeting effectively ended at 5, but Yuki, Corez, Pr1me and me stayed back for dinner (Yuki having the worst Yong Tau Foo ever), and had single player fun (Yuki finished Nanostray !_!, Corez playing The Anthem on EBA till...his battery packs ran out, and Pr1me actually playing Ouendan 2 despite having a busted touch screen, I played Ouendan 1 in the meantime, while pulling off another (crap) 9999999 on SSAY Insane-Hidden on Ouendan 2 when I did get to play it.

At 8pm, Corez and Yuki went off, while me and Pr1me went off to Starbucks, as he wanted to surf on his Ninty DS browser (while I took the advantage to eat cake + Mocca Frap :p), before we both took the train home.

As for the outing, as per report it was a success. However, Times Square is starting to be a cursed place for outings for low turnouts. I'm beginning to think about NOT suggesting Times Square in future.

Cleanup.

2007-06-25T23:23:00.000+08:00

Ah, I just did it anyway.

I created a sub-site where I will archive any Youtube vids I post up after 5 days on the main pageover there (be it mine or anyone elses). I will leave a link on the main site (that's HERE). :p So that the main site don't get cluttered with YT windows :p

Ouendan 2 vids (previously shown on blog)

2007-06-22T23:11:00.000+08:00

Click here. I archived it onto a seperate site now.

LYN Nintendo DS June Meetup

2007-06-21T11:53:00.000+08:00

[Bumped up once]

We interrupt the regular scheduled programming for a special news bulletin :D

It's the official LowYat.Net Nintendo DS Gathering June Edition. It's on this Saturday the 23rd.

Click HERE to go to the discussion thread over at LYN forums :D

As usual the FAQ in case ANYONE missed it.

1) Where in Times Square? SO BIG LA!
10th floor food court, same as IMAX. Take the lift at the far left end (Borders side)

2) Why there and not (location X)?
It's always good to know that Times Square is massively crowded on weekends EXCEPT for the upper levels. (Because except for IMAX, it is deserted). And lo and behold the food court is located at the upper levels.

3) What do you guys do in the outing?
Play Multiplayer games such as Mario Kart DS, Clubhouse Games, Tetris DS, Metroid Prime Hunters, Ouendan/EBA/Ouendan 2 and more. Take this time to show off your l33t skillz. No cheating pls -_-

4) I'm not a LowYat.Net member? Can I still come?
Of course. The more the merrier. Of course, sign up later for post-outing discussions! :p

5) Erm...my games are...you know la, not the "real" kind, so can I come?
Yes you can. We don't discriminate against "ahem" users. (Original zealots, STFU)

6) I don't have a Nintendo DS but I'm interested. Can I still come?
Well, it might be a problem to find a spare DS/DS Lite for you, unless you plan to just come as an observer. I *might* bring the spare I had, but due to technical issues with it (Hint:R button) I might not.

7) Any preparations if I'm coming?
Charge your DS/DS Lite. Very important. We don't want you to run outta power. Unless you bring your own charger (and find a power outlet) coz most of us don't.

8) Why the meeting end time is so uncertain?
This depends on location, and the outing goers' free time. We all can't sit inside some place till night right? (Actually some can :D)

9) I'm staying quite far away, but since most multiplayer games have the Nintendo WiFi Connection, can I use that to communicate with you guys?
I'll shorten last month's FAQ answer: No because of battery consumption issues, and there is no WiFi at the location anyway.

10) Any rules during multiplayer matches?
No rules. This is just a friendly meeting. However, I advise and stress that NO cheat devices be used in the outing. Don't spoil the fun of others. We are here to have fun, not rake in wins.

(As far as Mario Kart DS is concerned, ask first if it's a snaking match or not)

11) What about behaviour? Any rules on that?
No. But I'd advise NOT to get over your head. We don't want to get kicked out of the place.

12) Why is the banner PINK?!
According to the creator, it is effective at warding off certain...things.

13) You make it sound like a ghost story.
-_- No.

Oh, and Reveur says that pwetty girls are invited :P

Layout changed :D

2007-06-21T10:44:00.000+08:00

Well, changed the layout abit. Thanks to a good friend who helped out :) It's nice no?

(Yeah, this blog post is a one-liner, I'll be sinking this to the bottom soon, bumping a previous blog post up for this weekend's event :p)

A tale of three DS'es (Part 2) - The White and Pink Partnership.

2007-06-18T18:57:00.000+08:00

(My first NDSL. Awwwww....:p)

Yup, thats the box. The US version. It didn't have a strap so I curi from my phat DS (I had it at the time so meh :p). Also the edges are pretty dirty (no way to clean it AFAIK unless I rip off that plasticky cover thing). The DSL's pretty good. :P

Opened up....

(That's Shirosaki Rin cheering by the way. :D Go!)

Now, one thing I didn't like about the White DSL was the fact that it collected stains fast. (You can probably spot them on the pic...) I didn't really notice them until Pr1me_Minister told me about it some 4-5 months after owning it (Yes I'm pretty oblivious to the stains). The D-pad, and the buttons (except one...) works fine till now, as so does the touch screen. (The alignment is very slightly off in the center but everywhere else, it's fine and dandy :D)

And when I put it up Flat....

(Baby BANG BANG BANG! XDXDXD)

No, despite mine being the "famous White US DS Lite that cracks", mine didn't so I put it up flat. That's a relief. (Actually, it's pretty cosmetic anyway). And pardon the picture, I'm not too good with the digital camera (just got it back after a long while :) )

So, this DS Lite was pretty fine. Until the R button got stuck and became 50% responsive. (Probably due to MKDS :( ). I already sold off the phat DS at this point of time, and since the R button was pretty important, I figured that it's time to pick up the Pink.....

(Box shot with the Pink DS Lite)

(Tsukasa Hiiragi desu~! Balsamic vinegar FTW!)

This one I bought from Gamers Hideout (no not the subforum in LYN, the shop over at Cineleisure). Recommended by SWATwolf actually. For quite a nice sum, this pink was all mine. And yes, I was criticised left and right for picking pink of all things.

And no, the casing and all are bought later. :p

(The Pink DSL when opened. And yeaaa....99999. Walking the dog everyday helps. Woohoo!)

This DSL served me quite well. It's all fine except for the touchscreen. It's...off. Well, not that bad actually. The left and right of the touch screen are perfectly fine, but.....

(OMG nooooooo!!!!!!!!!!)

......the center is off (not by much). And attribute it to Ouendan all you want, but considering that I've been abusing the White DSL even longer, I'm pretty surprised.

Not that it really hurts, since I'm still playing Ouendan on it despite the White one having a better touch screen. And it doesn't seem to affect me at all O_o

But anyway, these two DS Lites have been such a partnership. I use the Pink one more than the White, but the White one still has its uses. *coughR4cough*. In any case,

(All my DS stuff. Oh, and don't bother looking for the R4, it's not there)

(Oh, and if you haven't noticed the subliminal messaging, buy Ouendan and Ouendan 2 :D)

Nintendo DS FTW. :D

A tale of three DS'es (Part 1) - The DS Phat and the beginning.

2007-06-15T00:52:00.000+08:00

I joined the NDS community rather late. May 2006 late (Hey that's a year and a month ago! :p). All this while before I had the DS I had only my faithful GBA SP (Silver, sold off). But anyways, my friend in a way influenced me to the way of the NDS.

At the time, I didn't think that the ~~Big Mac~~ DS would be so much big of a difference to the DS Lite (note: I am not all that bright back then -_-), but anyway the DS suited me more, so for a nice sum from a shop at Sunway Pyramid, I picked up the phat DS. Silver it was and it was the Asian version (from Maxsuck/Sucksoft/Maxsoft, whatever you want to call it, any one is fine). I then picked up Advance Wars Dual Strike (first ever DS game I had woohoo!) over at Mission World at MV.

Of course, then I picked up Mario Kart DS (from the same shop) a week later. [And it turned out to be the only game I had that lived through my several rounds of selling DS games] The phat DS was a fine piece of hardware I had at the time, and certainly it was 580 well spent I might add. Fun with friends w/MKDS? Oh yes.

But then by end of June, the shortcomings of the phat finally overran me.

1) Bulky. When it is open, it feels comfy. But when it's closed, it's....not so compact as I think it would be. (And for one, I always put my handhelds in my pocket, I can attest to that)
2) Battery Life is not enough :( (P/s - This time last year, I had time to burn. Obviously, I can no longer say the same now)
3) Weak backlighting. It made the GBA SP frontlight look good. (No offence...but I feel so)

So come July, despite being barely two months into its life, I decided to pick up another NDS - This time, I decided to get a DS Lite. A white one, US version (which currently serves me to this day). And it is well worth it.

*End of Part 1*

Note: I am not bashing the phat DS - I just feel it's just a bad purchase on my behalf. If you feel the phat DS is more godly than the DS Lite that's all fine and dandy because I have friends who think that and I respect that. However, I will delete flaming comments on sight. Keep them to yourself.

Note2: And no, I do NOT have pics of my Silver Phat DS because I sold it off to a friend (I'll make mention of this in future updates). I'll make sure there'll be some pics in the next one though.

Gyakuten Saiban 3 preordered.

2007-06-14T20:05:00.000+08:00

Preordered Gyakuten Saiban 3 yesterday, along with Steven (SWATwolf)'s copy.

(Yes, obviously there is 2, and yes I used FedEx. The PA coupon that came with Ouendan 2 was of great use. Kakakaka)

I have played the previous two games and it was such a good experience that I decided to pick the third game up. It's definitely worth the money (its already on Best Price too :p). The game arrives on August 23.

You can preorder Gyakuten Saiban 3 here. Or if you are willing to wait for Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations (comes out a month later), you can also preorder it here.

What's on your desk?

2007-06-13T22:49:00.000+08:00

Tagged by SWATwolf

What's within arm's reach on your desk, without leaning forward too much?
For me it's

My Pink Nintendo DS Lite (w/Tsukasa Hiiragi Custom Cover + Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu gashapons attached to the strap)
My White Nintendo DS Lite (with nothing else, not even a game cart in it)
My DS Lite Pouch with all my games + R4
You're Under Arrest Theme Song Full Collection CD Case
My PC + Logitech Speakers + WiFi USB Connector
My (lousy) Nokia handphone
My Initial D Arcade Stage 3 Lv31 RX-8 :D (Invalid though)
An inkless Epson Stylus C40UX printer
Initial D Super Eurobeat D Selection 3 CD
Goddess Family Club CDs
Unreal Tournament 2004 Manual (the CDs are somewhere else unreachable :p)
MP3 player
A pair of pens
Suo Mikoto School Rumble Ni Gakki Gashapon
My Dell Inspiron 1501 Laptop
A (used) Play-Asia coupon
House Phone (Cord)
Aztech Modem

I take this opportunity to tag Reveur, Rumizu, Dyna-Storm, PM, Penman and everyone else who's reading this. :) Don't forget to link to the one who tagged you :)

Yes!

2007-06-10T17:58:00.000+08:00

This one above is Hard + Hidden SSAY (Sekai wa Sore wo Ai to Yobunda ze). Actual score: 10636410. Did it last night.

If that Cheerleaders+Hidden SSAY took me 3 hours, this one took me at least 12 hours (on seperate days, not one sitting). Quite simply, on Cheerleader difficulty, the cue to hit them is when the markers start to disappear. On Hard, it is 1 second AFTER it disappears (I'm practically tapping on an invisible marker- aka NOTHING). I thank the white line which served as guidance(and I don't think have served me any purpose before :D). This is definitely harder than the Cheerleader one (in Hidden) even though it has less markers.

Of course, the pink Touch Pen Attachment I bought(click here to go to Host Play for review) was a major help. ALL HAIL! :D :D

Hare Hare Yukai and the parodies of it.

2007-06-07T00:48:00.000+08:00

I was surfing over at Kotaku when I spotted:

Hare Hare Yukai, Pokemon version. Interesting it is.

Also, a Megaman ver :p in all the 8 bit glory. :D

Here's the original ver from Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu (The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi for reference:-

The mini RanTank.

2007-06-03T22:51:00.000+08:00

Don't you just hate it when something screwy happens with your PC?

Earlier I logged off because of rain, and when I came back on, I was greeted with a CMOS Checksum Error. Great. Windows won't start. So I tinkered with the BIOS and found my CPU overclocked settings reset to Disabled. Turning it back on makes it work fine. (and for some reason my SATARaid controller got uninstalled, luckily the drivers are still onboard the PC) God knows what triggered it (I suspect dying CMOS battery; the XP clock stopped...but I swore I saw the BIOS clock was correct when I went into BIOS), but at least it's working fine for now. I backed up all the important stuff of course in case.

As for the exam itself, I think I should be fine but I'm not so confident. Something is bugging me. I can't figure out what is it from the top of my head. I guess I'm gonna have to go study more for a bit.

Elite Beat Agents Review

2007-06-03T02:37:00.000+08:00

Elite Beat Agents. The US counterpart to Ouendan. How does it fare?

EBA plays like Ouendan. If you've played Ouendan you will feel right at home. You tap along to the beat, slide to the phrase markers and spin (ala touch screen destroyer style) the spinners, usually towards the end of the song.

What sets EBA and Ouendan apart are the characters. Instead of the male cheerleaders you see in Ouendan, you now have MIB-ish agents dancing to the beat. One thing I noticed that unlike Ouendan (BOTH 1 and 2), this one seems to have original dance moves for each song. Yes, you get to see the agents do the YMCA during the song. A rather nice effect. One notable absentee from this game is the combo flames, but I think they were removed due to the theme of the game.

The song selection was made in line for all ages. Classic songs such as September from Earth, Wind and Fire to Jumpin' Jack Flash from the Rolling Stones to recent songs such as La La, Survivor and Sk8tr Boi are present in this game. Is the song selection justified? Yes to some, no to some. Some have great beats to tap to while others are horrendous just playing to it. It's immensely difficult to keep the beat to for certain songs because the song itself sounds weird.

Feature wise, it is a step up of Ouendan 1 with the introduction of replay saves where you can save one replay per song. It is also compatible with the Rumble Pak (although I personally don't find much use for it). You can also skip the intros at the start of the song (but not the end; a feature later implemented in Ouendan 2).]]

Is it a recommended buy? Definitely. It will and has appealed to many, and even if you do not like the song itself, the gameplay will blow you away. I myself didn't like many songs because they were a chore to play to begin with but I grew to like them soon enough.

You can purchase Elite Beat Agents from Play-Asia here.

Shin Lucky Star Moe Drill Tabitachi Review

2007-06-03T01:29:00.000+08:00

Lately if you've been up to the news, the DS has been used for learning purposes in Japan. Great isn't it? Shin Lucky Star Moe Drill Tabitachi is just that, a learning game. Is it good?

For those not in the know, Lucky Star is a rather popular anime now in Japan. Hit up your favourite Japanese anime torrent index to find out. (No I will not provide links, but I'm sure Uncle Google glady will). The game in my opinion doesn't really live up to the hype generated from the anime. As a matter of fact I don't think this game really relates to the anime judging from the different voiceovers in game compared to the anime. (Perhaps to the drama CD - Lucky Star had two different seiyuus for each character)

The game itself is pretty easy to jump into actually. There are three main sections in the game. The first one is a fairly basic Mathematics battle between you and the CPU where the premise is rather simple: If you get it correct, you deplete the enemy life bar and vice versa. Getting it wrong will hurt yourself. (Although I am fairly sure the CPU NEVER gets it wrong). You are actually given roughly 2-3 seconds to answer before the CPU answers. But here's something I did not like. It's pretty easy to answer questions like 8 x 9 or 32 - 14. But what if you are hit with a question like.... 234 / 9? Yes, for some odd reason, questions like this show up and while it is challenging, I don't quite like the sudden spike in question "difficulty" when you are blazing through most of the easy questions.

The second section is based on kanji. I can only fairly assume it has something to do with basic Japanese knowledge, though due to my lack of Kanji knowledge, I cannot verify on this. Perhaps someone would like to fill me in on this?

The third section is a simple Japanese-English test. The format of battle is the same as the Mathematics, except this time, it's more of a "fill in the blanks" thing. Basically, the screen will show you the Japanese sentence, as well as part of the English translated sentence. The main purpose is for you to translate the red parts of the Japanese sentence to English. Most of the answers are fairly hilarious (Konata would probably be the one be designing these tests IMO LOL)

Story mode is fairly straightforward and revolves around all three of these "tests". I highly doubt there is much of a story involved if at all. As far as multiplayer is concerned, you can choose to go on local wireless or Nintendo WiFi Connection for a head-to-head battle for the three above tests. Not too fun, but...it is nice to be able to challenge someone far away with things like this I suppose.

Is it import friendly? Not that much. This game is clearly designed with the Japanese in mind, and as a result, if you are planning to import, you will need a sufficient amount of Japanese knowledge to get through (this is important if you intend to play the Japanese kanji test...).

You can get Shin Lucky Star Moe Drill Tabitachi from Play-Asia here.

The day in review.

2007-06-03T00:54:00.000+08:00

I guess I shouldn't procastinate on updating, plus if I don't update it now, I'll probably never get around to updating it at all since exam is knocking on my door.

The day began...from yesterday. Since I spent the night bashing to Ouendan. (Lesson: Never play Ouendan when your eyes want to close shop. You'll end up smacking the beat to the left or the right of the actual marker).

Anyways, I got to LRT Taman Jaya at 7.20am, 25 minutes before Penman's supposed arrival at 7.45. SMS'd him too. 10 minutes before the supposed arrival I got a nice reply >_>

So I glanced and looked around to check on where on earth he is, and then I found out that he is in Taman Bahagia. WTF.

Taman Bahagia =/= Taman Jaya. ZOMG.

Next time, I'm gonna double-triple-quad confirm, even to the extent of checking on the surrounding areas. Anyway, met Andy up at the station (also another victim >_>) and took the train to Taman Bahagia, where Mr. Penman was happily waiting. Then we went to pick up his girlfriend and went to Hong Kei Dim Sum for Breakfast. Halfway through Reveur and his girlfriend joined us and we had a good breakfast. :)

Then we drove to the Litt-Tak Bandai Clearance Sale. (whatever you call it, it feels like a clearance sale to me!). There Mr. Penman lead us to the finest Final Fantasy adventure ever where followed a sign that says "Welcome: Gundam Land", promptly gotten lost, fought no monsters (someone must have equipped "No Encounters" armor), but only served to do 99999 to the self-owned meter. Which wasn't too bad actually. A good morning walk after breakfast was good.

So then when we FINALLY reached the warehouse, I guess it was a relief we didn't get lost. Personally speaking the warehouse sale feels great for everyone but me. I did like the Tomy Train Set though. But they are expensive !_!. As for Gundam, I came close to picking one up but I guess I resisted, somehow. Anyway for a more complete coverage of the event head over to Mr. Penman's blog. :)

I didn't figure that Penman would be from my church. LOL! I had no clue till I saw the empty envelope stuck to his err..."Sun Shade", or whatever he called it. LOL. I didn't quite figure also that he'd be more involved in the church than me, with the Calvary Life Ministries site designed by him. Nice job.

Anyways, the outing ended after the sale, and I headed back. That's about it.

Now to catch up on some studying. Out.

Blog update.

2007-06-02T12:50:00.000+08:00

Added the Game-Lah link to the sidebar, as well as Mr. Penman's blog as well as Zio's :)

I'll blog more later. I'm quite tired and I have to finish studying. Zzzzz.

The Lit-Tak Bandai Clearance Sale (or whatever you want to call it) was interesting though at least for Gundam fans. Be back with more in a bit...

EDIT: Make that tomorrow or Monday.

Sexual Harassment and You.

2007-05-27T15:59:00.000+08:00

Follow these rules to avoid a lawsuit flying at your workdesk. :D

That's....cute.

2007-05-25T12:44:00.000+08:00

Was busy looking through Play-Asia when I saw this. I'm not sure what other purpose it serves besides being a "diary". And that tamagotchi-like device on the box is cute.

You can buy it from Play-Asia for USD48.90(click here). If any of the readers do pick it up do let me know how it works :)

The LYN Nintendo DS Outing May Edition. And a FAQ to boot.

2007-05-25T00:10:00.000+08:00

Figured that I should do some advertising for the outing. Anyways, this Saturday, we'll be having a Nintendo DS outing over at the McDonalds opposite Ikea. The meeting will start at 11am and will end at...well...when it'll end :p

Here's some Q&A :p

1) What do you guys do in the outing?
Play Multiplayer games such as Mario Kart DS, Clubhouse Games, Tetris DS, Metroid Prime Hunters, Ouendan/EBA/Ouendan 2 and more. You can also take this time to show off your l33t skillz. Of course, you can also show off your cool DS mods :p

2) I'm not a LowYat.Net member? Can I still come?
Of course. The more the merrier. Of course, sign up later for post-outing discussions! :p

3) Erm...my games are...you know la, not the "real" kind, so can I come?
Yes you can. We don't discriminate against "ahem" users.

4) I don't have a Nintendo DS but I'm interested. Can I still come?
Well, it might be a problem to find a spare DS/DS Lite for you, unless you plan to just come as an observer. Thankfully, yours truly will be bringing a spare DS Lite along on outing day :D In case we have visitors :D

5) Why the meeting end time is so uncertain?
This depends on location, and the outing goers' free time. We all can't sit inside some place till night right?

6) I'm staying quite far away, but since most multiplayer games have the Nintendo WiFi Connection, can I use that to communicate with you guys?
Unfortunately, the answer is no. The battery consumption is very painful so as a result we do not prefer to go on WFC during outings, especially since regular wireless eats into the battery already. Furthermore, I can confirm that McDonalds opposite Ikea DOES NOT have ANY WiFi whatsoever.

7) Any preparations if I'm coming?
Charge your DS/DS Lite. Very important. We don't want you to run outta power. Unless you bring your own charger coz most of us don't.

8) Any rules during multiplayer matches?
No rules. This is just a friendly meeting. However, I advise and stress that NO cheat devices be used in the outing. Don't spoil the fun of others. We are here to have fun, not rake in wins.

(As far as Mario Kart DS is concerned, ask first if it's a snaking match or not)

9) What about behaviour? Any rules on that?
Well...no. But I'd advise NOT to get over your head. We don't want to get kicked out of the place.

10) Can I come over to annoy you people?
If you're that annoying person(s), get a life. And as reveur said over at the tagbox: fags, mofos and idiots are not allowed.:P

Hope to see you guys there on Saturday :D

Feel the heat.

2007-05-25T00:01:00.000+08:00

Don't know what's really going on, but at twelve bloody AM, it certainly is hot. It doesn't help the really quiet mood, thanks to a certain you-know-who. In any case, nevermind, it is irrelevant. All that matters now is the heat and really, it's killing me.

(And see?! I can't even type a basic proper post!)

Finally!

2007-05-23T18:57:00.000+08:00

Three and a half hours. A lot of near misses. A lot of WTF moments. But I finally did it.

Here's a little history.

Last Friday, someone over at GameFAQs found out about the hidden timer circle mode. The thing that makes it worth playing was it multiplies your score by x1.5. The very next day, alkaliph (a really great Ouendan player) posted a 9999999 score on Sekai wa Sore o Ai to Yobunda ze Cheerleader difficulty with the hidden circles option on, proving now it is very possible to max out the score counter. (It is - you can score roughly 7 million++ in Sekai wa Sore o Ai to Yobunda ze in the regular Cheerleader difficulty provided you never missed, multiply that and you have roughly...10.5 million?)

So having S ranked this song on the regular Cheerleaders, I thought of trying the hidden circle mode. It was a bit of a chore memorizing where are the quick-double, double, quick-triple, and triple taps. There were SO many times that I could have scored better. (To clarify on this, even though the score counter caps at 9999999, the game continues to count your score; this is reflected on your total overall score/rank menu - And I found out my final score was actually 11258610) So many 100s that were 300s in the other (failed) attempts. But in the end, after the final spinner, it was worth it.

I think I just hit a high point in my rhythm gaming life. :)

(Oh by the way, the screenshot was taken with an Emulator - but I did it on my original cart. I just transferred the replay to my R4 and just so happened the emulator uses the same style of sav with the R4. I don't have my digital camera at hand now, so I had to use this)

Now to watch Lucky Star Ep. 7. Been sitting on my HDD for some time now :p

Plagiarism and such.

2007-05-21T01:07:00.000+08:00

While chatting with Chi-san online earlier, she made mention on plagiarism.

Ah yes, plagiarism. A word I thought I'd only hear in my university. But anyway, this gave me a thought - How do I protect my work from such. Sure, there is obviously no way I'd know someone would simply copy and paste (but I will be obviously very pissed if I see any of my works online on some other blog - even more so when I am not asked about it). So I'd take some precautionary measures. If any smart alecks try to pull a fast one on me by editing what is clearly my work and put it as theirs, I have that to back me up.

What is "that"? Look around in my blog. I'm sure you can find it.

Layout swap. (possible rants ahead)

2007-05-21T00:30:00.000+08:00

I switched the layout abit, figured it would look a little better.

Don't you just hate assignments? I sure as hell do. But in this last one, I'm relieved. It's a thousand words, yes (1000 for those who cannot count -__-) but at least I don't have to critically evaluate X or investigate Y. I'm already doing it as I type this.

In which case, I am signing out. Ja ne~

EDIT: I have someone who's gonna be moderating/taking care/whatever the blog. So don't be surprised if *I* review something I don't play :D