Nine Over Ten 9/10

My girlfriend’s knack for picking rare Series 16 Be@rbricks continued when she picked out the DJ Ozma Artist Be@rbrick (1/48). Admittedly, both of us found it a little weird looking (with the girlfriend calling it the ugly chick Be@rbrick), but no matter, a rare Be@rbrick is still a rare Be@rbrick. Thanks babe.

Thanks to her, I also got the Mint Designs (1/192) Be@rbrick.

P/S: ActionCity stores in The Gardens and 1U seem to yield better results compared to buying at XL-Shop. Pictures obtained from http://www.toycyte.com/bearbrick-series-16

I never fail to notice that TGI Friday’s wait staff would usually adorn their vests with colourful badges. Now (in my best Joker voice), how bout putting these Rockman 20th Anniversary Can Badges on them vests?

These badges, produced by Yujin, are part of a long line of Rockman 20th Anniversary merchandise and Play-Asia has them in stock! Priced at USD 1.49 each, there are a total 23 different badges to collect. Interested? Click here for further details.

For more Rockman merchandise, check out my listing here.

I’ve noted the differences between the box art for Japanese and American versions of games ever since my review of Atari Happy 10 Games (a.ka. Retro Atari Classics) more than one and a half years ago. And time and again I’ve always favoured Japanese box-art with the exception for Konami Arcade Hits

Anyways, I was reading IGN’s review of From The Abyss when I found that the box-art looked rather familiar. Since the review mentioned that game is the English version of a Japanese game released earlier this year for the Nintendo DS, I decided to search for it.

So, here’s the American solution to the dark, evil looking Japanese box art that you see above: add an androgynous looking character in questionable body armour (is he/she wearing nude coloured-pants?) to be front and centre on the cover art.

Anyways, if you need to get this (it did get good scores from IGN), the game is available in Japanese (click here) and androgynous boy on cover version, I mean, English (click here) from Play-Asia.

Did you know that the proper resolution for hooking up a PC with a Samsung R7 32-inch TV is 1360 * 768? This resolution wasn’t on my video card settings (I’m using an ATI 1600 PRO) but after downloading the latest drivers from the ATI site, everything was peachy at last :).

With the display settings no longer being a bother, I tested a couple of games:

• Warcraft III and Its Whathisface Expansion - The game looks beautiful (go on, take pot shots at my PC configuration, I’m using an AMD 64 3000 processor, 1.5 GB RAM, 120 GB HDD and a 256GB ATI 1600 PRO Video Card)
• Halo: Combat Evolved - I’m using a multiplayer-only version, which is fine by me, and unlike Warcraft III, this Xbox port supports 1360 * 768! Woot!

Now, time to dig out that copy of Dawn of War I have lying around.

There is a country in the world today whereby its new currency and its inflation rate will put a 39,900,000,000,000 dollar price tag on a 80GB Sony Playstation 3 (based on the USD 399 price tag on Amazon).

According to TIME magazine, Zimbabwe recently released its new $100 billion banknote, which is equivalent to
one U.S. dollar.

With the country’s inflation rate being at 2.2 million percent, the new banknote can get you 3 eggs at a local Zimbabwean market (picture taken from Wikipedia)

I was fortunate to watch WALL.E on Friday night at a really nice cinema hall at Cineleisure Damansara. Having had conflicting reviews from my parents (one of them fell asleep while watching the movie), I came in with mixed expectations.

The thing about American animated films is that they tend to feature a lot of dialogue. Show Toy Story to a 5 year old and he might end up speaking like Buzz Lightyear. WALL.E on the other hand takes a different approach, at least for the first half of the movie.

For starters, Wall-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class) is a mini trash compacting robot, the last of his kind, spending his days doing among other things, compacting trash and building high-rise mounds of compacted trash in a small part of a desolate Earth.

Humans no longer inhabit the Earth, having left for the stars after consumerism has taken its toll on the planet’s resources, and leaving the planet, and its heavens a gigantic garbage yard.

Naturally, with no one to talk to, there is no dialogue as Wall-E goes about his day-to-day tasks. At the end of the day, the robot retires to a home of sorts, complete with a storage area for collectibles (my girlfriend and I exclaimed “Collector!” the first time the scene came up); knick knacks that he picks up while doing his trash-compacting duties.

The movie moves into more familiar territory with the arrival of Eve. Soon enough, Wall-E is on an intergalactic adventure, etc, etc. Depending on who you ask, WALL.E can be a movie with a unique first half, and generic ending, or a movie with a boring first half, and an action-packed ending. With such disparate views, you are better off watching the movie in order to form your opinion.

And I think it’s one of the better movies I’ve watched all year.

The newly announced Sony PSP-3000 is really something, if you believe in over-statements. New improved screen with no glare (certainly beats my Nintendo DS, no arguements there), PS button (what’s that for?), built-in mic (I tots its has one,  no? in my best lol-cat impression). A laundry list of changes (over-statements ftw)…and before I forget, a picture of it from the news-breaking article itself:

What’s the single most weird thing have you eaten in the past few days? For me, that would be the soursop. According to Wikipedia, the fruit is hard to eat directly, and for good reason, as the pockets of pulp are separated by almost indistinguishable fibrous membranes. Dig in to that without thinking and you’ll end up with a sweet and sour meal with an acidic aftertaste.

Weird looking (not to mention weird-tasting) fruit aside, what weird video games have you played recently?

I’ve blogged about this particular Elvis Presley Be@rbrick before, and now collector’s item is available at a rock-bottom price of USD 9.90, down from its original price of USD 17.90!

What are you waiting for? Get the King at this bargain bin price over at Play-Asia. Click here for further details.

This Kid Icarus stuff is rather tough. No wonder I have got no love towards platformers. However, the “I’m Finished!” message had me in chuckles the first time it appeared after the character plunged to his death.

I still think it’s due to a programming issue (deliberately or otherwise) that doesn’t allow the player to descend down levels, leaving only one way, up.

The game actually looks grittier than its own cover, and an interesting note for collectors, the game was released as part of Nintendo’s Famicom Mini Series, number 24 to be exact. Sold out on Play-Asia, I can only find one used copy on eBay.

R4DS owners and other flashcart owners would be happy to know that the game runs pretty well on the nesDS, with no problems so far. Now if only I can get pass that old hag..