Okie Dokie. What turn-based game is so addictive, and yet it crashes every single time? I think I’ve asked this question before, but nevermind, here’s the answer again: Dungeons and Dragons: Tiny Adventures on Facebook. I’ve been clocking in the hours on this game, and like my friend said: You’ve been busy.

Burnt-Out?

That aside, I’ve tried out Burnout Legends for the DS. According to conventional wisdom, if game review sites label a game as sucky, it should suck. But hey, at Nine Over Ten 9/10, to hell with conventional wisdom, lets play the game and find out for ourselves.

Now, if I was driving, and subjected to driving Burnout Legends style, I would be suffering from major whiplash without even trying to hit something. But once you get used to the driving style, and getting tossed about in collisions, you can probably appreciate the rest of the game. For one, the graphics are rather decent, and it does feel like the PS2 game has been transported over to the DS.

SONYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!11

It looks like Sony Malaysia would be revising the pricing of the PS3 bundle for the launch on 20th September. In lieu of a possible price hike…I is sad. Anything above RM1700, lol, and I’ll just sit here, wait, and probably get one of those Xbox 360s, however dodgy they may be with 3ROD.

Have you been to your local bookstore lately? Browsing through the Sci-Fi and Fantasy sections would probably yield a number of books which are video game tie-ins. The usual suspects are Diablo, Starcraft, Warcraft and Halo.

The next question would be, as a video gamer, are you ever inclined to read these books? Well, I for one wasn’t, until my brother got me a Halo 3-book set for Christmas, and the books turned out to be an interesting, if not, enjoyable read bar one.

Hello Halo

The three books in the set were “The Fall of Reach”, “The Flood” and “First Strike”, and are best read in the aforementioned sequence. Everyone’s favourite hero in green armour (I’m not talking bout Link) gets his introduction and backstory in “The Fall of Reach”.

Here, you get to know how John, became the Master Chief and that there are other Spartans as well. “The Flood” basically retells the first Halo video game, and it reads like a video game as well. This picture best sums up my feelings for this book:

First Strike shares the same author as The Fall of Reach, and is pretty good, but having said that, you’ll need to read The Fall of Reach to get an idea on what’s going on. With my first batch of video-game tie-ins read and sitting pretty on my bookshelf, are there any other recommendations?

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)

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 got a copy-cat going on. Anyways, I’ve ditched my 14-inch CRT monitor and replacing it is a 32-inch LCD monitor. Actually, I brought back my Samsung R7 LCD TV from my old house along with my PC and bought a new VGA cable for them to be friends with each other.

Here’s a pic of the new setup:

Nothing much to shout about, but I’ll be retrieving the Dreamcast which is in exile in another house, and once I get new controller pads for the SNES, it should be fit to be placed along the PS2.

The weekend is finally here! That means more time for games and for the Olympics! Anyways, I’ll be taking a look at Time Ace, Gunbullet Trainer and several more Nintendo DS games, so stay tuned for the reviews in the near future.

On other matters DS related, do you ever wonder what’s inside the box of a Club Nintendo game? Do they put extra reading material inside or there’s a certificate inside?

I’m just guessing but at the same time really tempted to do away with the shrink wrap on my copy of Zekkyo Senshi Sakebrain [Club Nintendo Limited Edition] (get your own here)

I actually intend to keep mine in mint condition for posterity, but I’m really tempted to open it. What say you guys? Want pictures? LOL

Do you have a dog as a pet? If so, do you check the expiry date on the dog food packaging every time you buy one at your local store? Well, I hope you do. As humans, I think we would make quite a fuss when served expired food, and if pets could talk, they would most certainly voice their disappointment in us if we were to extend the same “courtesy”.

I was at the Giant hypermarket in Kelana Jaya earlier this evening shopping for dog food. I make it a point not to buy Pedigree or Alpo (or Purina as a matter of fact, all these are made by the same manufacturer) as eating these causes my dog to scratch herself incessantly (it drives both dog and owner crazy).

Since Giant stocks an entire range from Alpo’s manufacturers, I pick the only other brand available, Smart Heart, which I’ve been feeding my dog for the past several months (the dog scratches much lesser now). To my surprise, I found most of the stock (the ones costing RM 26) to be expired or near expiry. One actually expired back in February, and another in June!

I told one of the workers who was stocking the shelves that the dog food was expired. He took a look and then walked away muttering something. I understand that migrant workers are cheap, but don’t put them in direct contact of customers without giving them some customer service training.

Anyways, I grabbed one of the 7 kg packs (RM 49.90) instead as they only expire in 2009. After paying for it, I made a complaint about the expired dog food at the Customer Service counter. The staff there, being local, were courteous and one of them went immediately to check out the dog food.

They mentioned that they do check every morning but I’m guessing if it’s a slacker (migrant or otherwise, I don’t really care) doing the checking, get ready for more complaints.

I just got back from the Adidas King of the Road 2008 race at Shah Alam earlier today. My time for the 10 KM run? 1 hour 5 minutes and 14 seconds. Not bad for someone who took a break from running for a couple of months.

No More Rubber Smell

This year, the Adidas King of the Road race is held at the state capital of Selangor, Shah Alam. This is a breath of fresh air compared to last year’s venue, the uber-stinky NPE highway near Sunway (due to the close proximity of a tyre factory and an oxidation pond). And unlike last year, the weather was really cool, and it helped a lot.

I had fun running in the race, but since the girlfriend wouldn’t allow me to run at her pace, I was running on my own. And I found out something useful to keep me going on uphill stretches: “For every up-hill challenge, there’s always a downhill reward”.

And Finally

Back at the finish line I saw a runner being stretchered by a bunch of medics, he had this wide-eyed look staring straight at the sky. It was pretty freaky but I hope he recovers from whatever malady he’s having. On the other hand my other running kaki passed my certificate of participation for the New Balance Klang Pacers Half Marathon (I actually ran the 10 KM race) and there was a picture of me on the cert! Thanks Klang Pacers!