Category: My Good Life

Categories
Diary

A Typical Day – Reload

Couple of days ago, I wrote an entry called A Typical Day.  As I keep reading the entry, I realize that last Tuesday is not as typical as it sounds.  Is there such a thing as a typical day?  Or every day can be special?

So I want to try once more, penning down what happened this Thursday.

7am

I love you, my avid readers.  You know exactly what I am going to type here.

7am my alarm clock rings.  I spring out of my bed in my usual vigor eager to face the day!  OK, I have to admit that my body feels somewhat stiffer than yesterday.  Last night was a tiring night.  I had a call with a business champion from UK till 8.30pm.  By the time I grabbed my chicken rice dinner, by the time I grabbed a cheap can of Japanese beer from a convenience store, and by the time I gave up waiting for Cynthia who was having a business dinner, I returned home at 10pm.  I bathed, then I played Mass Effect 3.  The robots I vanquished in the game came haunting me in my dream.  Because of that, I did not have a good sleep.  In my dream, I was the prey.  My stronger than usual desire to pee in the middle of the night saved me from my nightmare.

On the Road

Now that we have our car back, we listen to music of our choice.  Or rather, my choice.  And that is, Katy Perry.

Cynthia and I seldom fight over the car stereo.  She let me have it.  It is hard to define couple compatibility.  Letting somone to have the control over song choice is one.  In return, I let her have the TV remote control.  I watch anything that she throws at me.  Dogs.  More dogs.

There is a report on newspaper today.  Jessie J was in town and apparently, she sang 15 songs and she sang them well.  I knew she would sing well in live.  I doubt she would perform more than an hour or an hour and a half with only one album in her pocket.  Perhaps when she releases more songs, I may consider forking out some money to watch her performance.

Katy Perry

You must be thinking, I am crazy over Katy Perry, can’t stop talking about her.  I have a theory.  To the female audience, a female singer having a voluptuous body is a liability.  I further speculate that to the male audience, it is the complete opposite.  No wonder Cynthia did not like Katy Perry.

But, you know me.  I value song craftsmanship and music delivery more than … ahem … physical appearance.  The One That Got Away is my favorite track.  The music sounds so happy, but the story seems so sad.  I am a hopeless romantic.  The lyrics hit me like a homing missile.  The song speaks to me.  Katy Perry speaks to me.  I am in love, with her music.

9.05am

One buddy of mine sent me a non-work related email.  COE – a certificate that allows Singapore residence to own a car for 10 years – for cars above 1,600cc has breached the S$80,000 mark!  I cannot imagine how much my car would cost today.  The news further mentions that a similar phenomenon was seen in 1994, when that piece of certificate cost S$95,000 to S$110,000.

I hit reply and joke with my buddy that mid 90’s was round about the time when I was ditched by my ex-Singaporean girlfriend.  She did not think that I could provide for a certain level of lifestyle.  Seconds later, he replies that it is funny.  I hit reply and type that back then, it was not that funny, lol.  Send!

OK, that isn’t the complete picture.  But you know how history is written by those who type out blog entries in black and white.  There you have it.

9.53am

Feedback of the business requirement definition (BRD) document written for the Financial Markets folks starts to arrive at my electronic mailbox in batches.  After more dings and dongs, I have finally get a consented picture.  I made an update, and more updates, and I hit that send button at 11.46am.

One trusted colleague of mine who is holding onto a DHL parcel filled with books sent by a publisher for my review seems to be missing.  I inquire further and find out that she is on medical leave.  I guess, not today.

Lunch

Sophie Kinsella and I have a connection.  The library has messaged me saying that my reserved copy of Kinsella’s new novel is availability for collection.  I have been jumping up and down in joy since I received the news.  This morning, I have a plan on how to conceal this library book after the collection.  You see, a guy like me carrying a chick-lit novel painted in pastels under the broad daylight is not cool.  But like all things in life, I have forgotten to bring an envelope.  So I have to proudly proclaim my deep affection to chick-lit on a public street full of people, during lunch hours.

I call Jason, my old time buddy who now works a couple of blocks away from my office building, to join me for lunch.  I have no clue what girls talk about when they meet.  But here is a laundry list of our lively conversation.

  • He talks about Sony Playstation 3.
  • I chip in on the new Mass Effect 3 video game.
  • He talks about a flying man who mounts a pair of rocket engines behind his back.
  • I talk about last week’s Formula One in detail, breaking it down into drivers, car technology, engineers, and politics.
  • He talks about GP Motor because he is a bike lover.
  • I bring the topic back to Formula One.
  • A waiter who looks like someone straight from a Japanese anime comes to our table and asks: what base [of the pizza] would you like?  My friend answers round.  I answer tomato.  That is so funny!  I can’t stop laughing.
  • My friend says he wants to change his mobile phone.
  • I say why not get an iPhone (you wouldn’t believe I said that right?!)
  • He says he wants an Android.
  • I say I am thinking of getting an iMac.
  • He screams, “You?!”  He knows how much I dislike Apple.
  • He asks if an alien race visits Earth and wants to know three must-read novels that are entertaining, what would I recommend?
  • I say the first one is easy.  The Unbearable Lightness of Being written by Milan Kundera.
  • He replies: the unbearable what?
  • I continue.  If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino.
  • He says: what?!
  • I speak slowly, mouthing each word in perfect pronunciation, with an Italian accent.
  • He asks: is that even a legit sentence?
  • Duh.  As for the third one, it has to be one of the books by Doris Lessing.  I haven’t decided on which one of hers I like the best.  By then he seems to lose interest.  So we talk about movies.
  • Over the library counter, while I collect the chick-lit, Jason asks out loud, “You read chick-lit.  Are you gay?”  He speaks slowly, mouthing each word in perfect pronunciation, with impeccable Singaporean accent.
  • Duh.

You see.  Guys don’t think of sex all the time, in contrary to what you girls think.

PS. I have to say there is this particular girl I see in the mall …

More Updates

After lunch, I return to my desk and continue updating another BRD document.  This one is content intensive.  And I do need to think pretty hard.  I have a forum to attend hosted by my boss’s boss’s boss at 5pm.  I have to work faster!

4.21pm

I hit that send button and the Word document has instantly been disintegrated into a finite, albeit long string of one’s and zero’s, flashed down through the cable at the back of my laptop, and into the false flooring.  This string of invisible wave form hits the network exchange box and is transmitted to a computer server in chucks.  Within nano seconds, chucks of my beloved document are reconstructed into its former glory, ready for the recipient to perform yet another round of review.

4.45pm

My contact in UK messages me via instant messaging, asking for clarification on BRD #1.  I really need time to prepare for the 5pm forum!

4.55pm

My contact in Singapore calls me, asking for clarification on BRD #2.  He finally gets that I have another meeting to attend.  He possibly hears me running up the stairs, in an enclosed area full of echos.  Let’s talk tomorrow, he says.  I hope that he doesn’t mistakenly think that I pick up his call inside a loo with one hand on the phone and another hand on …

Nah.  I can never do stuffs like that.

5pm

It is my first time being so up close and personal with my boss’s boss’s boss.  A forum is for a group of people to meet face-to-face and to contribute ideas.  As always, there are some who speak a lot.  There are some who are perpetually quiet.  I strike a happy medium between the two extremes.

6.05pm

After the forum, I continue my online messaging with my contact in UK.  Looks like more work needs to be done.  I have a party organized by my boss’s boss to attend.  My UK contact understands.  There is always tomorrow.

After I have shutdown my laptop, I pop by my department’s area and ask if anyone need a ride for the party.  We gossip on who our next matchmaking target would be.  And etc.  We giggle.  It is girls’ talk, plus one man – a man who enjoys reading chick-lit.

7.15pm

The drive to Riverside Point is brutal.  There are at least two road accidents along the highways.  I often eat first, before any party, or media event, even though food is served at the venue.  I choose Subway, because I know exactly what to order and what to expect.  At the queue, in front of me is an old Western man.  He drops his walking stick while ordering his sandwich.  I hesitate, wanting to see how flexible his body is when he picks it back up.  Well, one day I will arrive at that age.  And I want to know what I will be able to do.

Of course I don’t have the heart to see that.  So I quickly – after a few nanoseconds of hesitation that really doesn’t count – pick up the walking stick and hand it over to him.  He seems delighted.

7.50pm-ish

I am late!  The party is already in full swing.  Drink and food is served.  People are having a great time.  It is good to catch up with some colleagues and external business contacts.  Some are local.  Some fly in from overseas.  Is it work?  Sure it is.  While I am at it, why not have fun out from it?

I have one pint of fruit beer that looks like watermelon juice.  And several pints of ice water thereafter.  Someone has ordered ultra spicy buffalo wings.  The watermelon juice has painted my face pink.  These wings turn my face red, bright red.  I forbidden anyone to take a photo of me.  I do not need a Facebook disaster to haunt me for the rest of my life.

During the party, I have overheard a story.  A funny story.  A story with a morale.

In one village, there was a sage who had a problem.  He wore a loincloth, the only piece of garment he wore round his waist.  Every time he hang his cleaned loincloth for drying, a rat came by and bite a hole onto it.  What should he do?  He consulted his friend and his friend told him to get a cat.  Because cats chase away rats.

So the sage bought a cat.  But the cat did not chase after the rat.  It kept running away from home.  The sage returned to his friend and asked, “What should I do now?”  His friend answered, “You have to feed your cat with milk!”

Because the sage was a busy man, more often than not, he forgot to buy milk home.  The cat was not fed and the rat was still there chewing onto his loincloth.  The sage visited his friend again for advise.  His friend then proposed, “Why not get a cow?  You can milk your cow to feed your cat.  Problem solved!”

The sage listened to his friend and bought a cow.  Then he realized that it took time to milk a cow and the task was tedious.  He just did not have the time!  Now that his problem escalated, he approached his friend again.  His friend gave it a thought and said, “How about hiring a helper to help with your domestic work?  She can milk the cow and you can carry on with your work.”

When the village learned that the sage was living with a young maiden, there was an uproar.  How could a wise sage stay with a young maiden under the same roof?  That was preposterous!  Now that the sage ended up with a bigger problem, all because of a piece of loincloth, he turned to his friend in desperation and asked, “Tell me.  What shall I do now?”

“Marry her”.

10.10pm-ish

The party is great.  But I am getting sleepy.  My boss seems a bit tipsy.  So I offer to send him home.  My another colleague asks if I could drop her off to a train station near my home.  I offer to send her home instead.  I mean, it is getting late.  I don’t have the heart to drop a lady in the open dark.  Who knows what sort of monsters spawn out when the clock strikes twelve.

I drive to the east, and then to the west.  By the time I reach my home in the north, I have clocked in a total mileage of 150km for the day.

11.30pm

Cynthia greets me at the door.  After a long day at work, seeing her renews me.  I am happy.  All my tiredness melts away.  That is a magical moment.  Cynthia is magical, even though she looks half asleep.  Time for a hot shower!

Midnight

Time now is twelve and I am stuck with a movie review deadline.  I keep hitting the wrong buttons, typing in the wrong words.  I must persist.  There is a deadline to meet!

1.07am

I hit that publish button.  The review for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen is live!  Mass Effect will have to wait.  I submit my entry via electronic mail.  Now, I need my bed, bad.

Categories
Diary

A Typical Day

This morning, some time between seven to eight, I had this wonderful idea.  Why not write a blog entry on what I do today?  I mean, I have been encouraging people to start blogging, or at least keep a personal diary.  The common response would be, “My life is boring and there is nothing interesting to write”.  To that, I would reply, “It is all about perspective, yes?”

Little did I know that my ‘typical’ day is not that typical at all!

7am

Every working morning, my alarm clock rings at seven.  I jump out of my bed in my usual vigor and ready to face the day, which is going to be great.  I am in great spirit with a big smile on my face.  What a great night I had with my buddy Melvin.  We nailed those 11 waves of robotic and organic enemies in our Mass Effect co-op mission.  Not once, but twice.  33% of online matches end up a failure, according to the global statistics.  Winning twice in a roll has a success rate of 45%.  Yes, we nailed it.  I am so looking forward to nailing it again, with my buddy.  Maybe tonight.

Stretching exercise is good.  I do that almost every morning right after I brush my teeth.  My body has been stiff since the day I have come to know my body.  Every morning, I hope to touch the ground with my long stretched fingers as I bend over.  Every morning, my hope is dashed a little bit.  Never mind.  There is always tomorrow to try again.

Showering is the best time for reflection.  Yesterday, I have spent a lot of time – like 10 millions others I would imagine – going through the media kit Blizzard has released for their upcoming World of Warcraft expansion Mists of Pandaria.  I have tons of questions.  After my shower, I head to my computer, log into the game’s forum, and post my questions.  Seconds later, there are responses.  And more responses from the community at the ticking of the clock.  Despite all these responses, I am still confused.

Ironing too is the best time for reflection.  Yesterday, I have attended a media invite to watch Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. There is a deadline for the movie review submission.  What shall I write?  It is a great movie.  I love it.  Before I can type out the review in my head, my shirt is ironed.  Time to have my breakfast!

Breakfast is prepared by Cynthia during weekdays, always.  Over breakfast, I ponder upon the new reputation system in Mass Effect 3.  I have tons of questions.  I open up my browser, log into the game’s forum, and post my questions.  Minutes later, there are responses.  Useful responses.  I love the BioWare community.  They seem to be more mature than the Blizzard community.  I wonder why.

Washing dishes is not the best time for reflection.  I wash the dishes as fast as I can.  Cynthia and I sing Go West on our way out.  It is time to go to work.  Hooray!

8.37am

Every working morning, I drive 17km to drop Cynthia in town, and then drive 17km to my office in the east.  Today, we are still driving the rental car, which is old and smelly, dusty inside and a big splash of monkey shit at the bonnet outside.  We miss our car, which is still in the workshop, after that stupid accident.

We seldom listen to radio in the morning.  We listen to our music instead.  This rental car with a daily rate of S$90+ does not give us many choices.  So we listen to the Married Man on radio, like we have for the past one week.  Sometimes, the program can be really funny.  Most of the time though, it is a blah.

This morning, the DJs talk about Facebook.  Should employers investigate potential employees’ background via the social networks?  Personally, I wouldn’t check out my colleagues’ social network pages.  My time is precious.  I would rather spend time reading something interesting.  Besides, what you do outside the professional world is not my business.  For one, I do not want to unread what I may have read, including those weird photos.  You are my colleague and I only want to know you as my colleague.

At 8.37, one of the DJs announced, “Time now is eight seventy-three”.  The DJs break into laughter.  We break into laughter.  Sadly, that is the funnest thing we have listened to from the radio this morning.

The car workshop calls.  My car is ready for collection.  Hooray!  I will collect the car at day end, I say to Calvin.

Early Morning

Finally arrived at work, I head to my usual bench area.  The window seat is taken so I take the aisle seat instead.  I am not a fan of the middle seat.  Lucky for me, it is relatively early and there are still options.

Every morning when I arrive at my office, the first thing I do is to pee.  It has been a long drive.  The second thing I do is to fill up a bottle full of water.  The third thing I do is to go through my electronic mailbox.  There are follow-ups, and more follow-ups.  One of my business-as-usual activities is to analyze the change requests.  Truth be told, there are so many other things to do so much so that analyzing the change requests often get bumped to a lower priority.

There is an escalation, on some requests being stuck in the pipe for far too long.  My fault!

Oh great.  Time to write more email replies and to detonate the situation.

11am

It is time to meet our negotiator!  I am excited.  After months and months of organizing workshops and studying the feasibility of a product, it is time to let money does the talking.  The negotiator and I work in the same office.  I see her often and she sees me often.  It is the first time we are introduced.  I quickly get her up to speed on what we are doing and where we are.  Here are the ammunition.  Go shoot something.  I do not actually say that, of course.  But I make it sounds as though she is our savior, and our last hope.  It is true.  We hit a wall.  The price is too high.  It is time to send in our professional negotiator and lawyers and get the job done.

One way or another.

12pm

I go back to my laptop and, you guess right.  I check my electronic mailbox.  Out of nowhere, there is an urgent email sent by my boss: There is a workshop at the vendor venue this week, see if you can attend.  Lovely.  This tosses my schedule off the window, crashed by the landing planes.

All of a sudden, there is an incoming instant message from my colleague who sits very near to my boss’s boss: Are you going for the workshop?  Sure, I say.  It is time to call the car workshop and arrange for an early release.

After Noon

I don’t have a super long lunch break.  The workshop is 35km away from my office.  Time for high fuel burning driving mode!

I arrive at the workshop faster than I thought.  Calvin greets me warmly, with the invoice.  I pay the S$500 insurance excess.  I pay the S$700+ car rental fees.  The total repair costs more than S$3,000.  Out of the total bill, S$1,000 is for the spraying work.  My car now has a shiny backside, I joke with Calvin.  It is true.  View from the back, you would have thought that I have bought a new car.  I wonder when I will receive the reimbursement from the one who hits my car.

On the Way Back to Office

I am hungry.  I am tired.  And I am sleepy.  The only thing that propel me forward, on this never ending highway, is the vision of a large gourmet sandwich dangling right in front of me.  Katy Perry’s latest song plays on the radio.  My vision of a large gourmet sandwich has instantly been replaced by a totally different vision.  Oh man.  Katy Perry.

By the time I am near to my office, I change my mind.  Why not have my quick lunch at the airport instead?

At the Airport

Lasagna talks to me.  I can’t recall when I last ate a lasagna.  So I have a combo meal that comes with warm garlic bread and a can of Coke Light.  After my quick lunch and as I am heading to my car, horror strikes.  Where is my car key?

I dash back to the restaurant.  Combed through the entire counter and the black colored floor, together with the help of the restaurant’s manager and staffs.  My car key is nowhere to be found.  Panic!  I leave my number to one of the staffs, and trace my way back to the car.

Nope.  I pray very hard, and still, I see no car key.  I body search myself very hard, and I find my key at my back pocket.  Oh gosh!  Since when I put my car key … there?!  Morale of the story #1: accident often occurs when you do something unusual.  Morale of the story #2:  what you are searching may have been right there with you all along.  Morale of the story #3: do not underestimate the power of prayers.  For all you know, God may have retrieve the key and put it into my pocket.

I would not have known.

2.02pm

Due to the little episode at the airport, I am late for a 2pm meeting.  For two minutes.  No one seems to notice.

It is the first time the new business analyst team gets together, and introduce among ourselves.  When asked what my favorite animal is, I blur out pandas.  I blame the World of Warcraft media kit I read yesterday.  Year 2012 will be a year of pandas.

Again, I am tasked to look into the project’s overall quality and standard.  That is fine.  I like discipline and I love templates and processes.  I am as rigid at work as my stiff body at home.  Halfway through our meeting, the fire alarm goes off.  A false alarm it turns out to be.  Typical.

3.15pm

I rush back to my desk  and clear some of my work.  Because I need to rush to the workshop in town at 4.30pm.  Another colleague asks if I can share my business continuity plan with her so that she can copy the contact information into her fire drill document.  Sure.  I love to help, always.

My boss’s boss emails me asking if I can review a document crafted by one of the global heads.  Sure.  I love my job, always.

And my work plan for the rest of the week can be flushed into the drain, for good.

3.45pm

The drive from my season car park in Changi to my season car park in town takes less than half an hour.  The workshop is two train station away from where I park.  So I walk to the station and take a train from Bras Basah to Promenade.  Suntech City is right next to the new Promenade station.  OK, it is not really that new a station.  But it is my first time emerging from Promenade.  I am delighted, very delighted.

4.15pm

When I enter the large meeting room on 18th floor, our team and the vendor’s team are locked into a focused discussion.  It is so focused that out of twenty people, only one notices my arrival.  I am specialized in being invisibility.  This ability has its merit in helping me to survive in a corporate world.  For instance, the bosses may one day gather around the table, or at the pub, and they may ask among themselves: Who shall we fire next?  Invisible man does not usually get fired.  Because no one sees him.

5pm

During the break, I am finally spotted.  Some are shocked, “When did you come in?”  I reply, “I materialized into this meeting room, that’s why!”

I think I shall stop playing video games.

This meeting is utterly strategic, talking about upcoming new features, areas we could potentially benefit from the overlooked features, and the road map ahead.

6pm

The meeting does not end on schedule!  The host announces that 6.30pm is the new target.  Somehow, I know that she is not going to keep her words.

6.30pm

This meeting sees no end, as I have predicted.  You should know by now that the reason why I am so good in anticipation is because I can see the future.  I am Twilight’s Alice and Invisible Man combined.

6.40pm

Zzzz.  I am getting hungry.  My Spanish class is starting in 20 minutes’ time!  Hurry please!

7.02pm

Finally, this meeting has ended.  I have no idea how the American on the call can stay awake till 4am in the morning.  I would have fallen asleep.  Time to take a train back to Spanish school, which is two stations away.

7.30pm

There is no point in rushing to class.  I am super late, anyway.  So I take my time and have a bowl of fish soup served with rice at a hawker center nearby.  The food is not memorable, like most of the food in Singapore.  It fills my stomach.  That is its sole purpose.

7.55pm

Knowing that the era of my Spanish learning journey may come to an end, I put in extra effort during today’s class.  Learning Spanish is getting harder and harder.  I feel as though I need the time to digest and to experience the language.  Not in a classroom setting, but rather through reading and listening.  Today, we have so much fun practicing to articulate what we are afraid of.  To be honest, the only thing in life that freaks me out most as of now is Spanish oral examination.  The class laughs when I say this out loud.

9.02pm

The class gets stretched a little bit.  My mind is somewhere else when we get down to the last set of exercise.

We have an assignment.  In this assignment, we are the the scriptwriters.  We have to make a video in order to present a set of images that are completed with Spanish narration.  Cynthia and I share the same assignment – a movie titled Singing Under the Sun.  This is going to be fun, I think.

By the time I reach home, I have clocked 150km of driving distance today.

10pm

After a nice shower, time to start writing a blog entry titled A Typical Day.  I target to complete this entry by 11pm so that I have one hour to play Mass Effect 3.  Commander Shepard awaits.

11.30pm

Cynthia has retired to the bedroom and I am still stuck in front of the computer writing this entry.  I am a sad panda.  I am wondering: Am I a slow writer?

12.22am

Time to push that publish button.  I have read and edit this entry a couple of times.  I will spend more time tomorrow morning to do more editing.

My beloved bed here I come!

Categories
For the Geeks

Mass Effect 3: First 40 Hours, What A Blast

Books and movies tell us stories of heroes whom we may or may not be able to relate.  Video gamers are at the frontier of active entertainment.  When you play an epic game like Mass Effect, you write your story.  You make your decisions and live with the consequences.  No longer are you sitting back at your sofa or bed reading or watching a story unfolds.  You are the story.  It is your world that is in jeopardy and it is your galaxy that you are going to save.  You lay waste to the enemies at the battlefield.  You engage in a romantic relationship in the mist of this galactic warfare, making friends and enemies along the way, and making difficult decisions whereby morality is not as black and white as you would hope.  You are Commander Shepard.  You can be male or female, straight or not.  You can make your Shepard looks completely different from the Shepard your neighbor is playing.  It is a franchise not to be missed.  So, game on!

Single Player Mode

“Make no mistake.  This is girl power!” – A screenshot taken from within the game.

If my memory serves me right, the first installment was released five years ago.  Then we have the second installment released in year 2010.  For many fans, this space-role-playing-game-slash-first-person-shooter franchise has been a long affair.  Decisions made in Mass Effect are carried forward to Mass Effect 2.  And now, Mass Effect 3.

Are you new to this franchise?  Here is what you are going to do.  Start with Mass Effect 3.  Preferable get the Digital Collector’s Edition (From Ashes DLC is a must).  You get to experience the climatic ending of a trilogy.  Since you have not played the previous games, the background story has been defaulted for you.  There is enough in-game codex for you to catch up on the lore and technology.  Once you are done with the first play through, go back to the original Mass Effect.  Finish it and import the saved game into Mass Effect 2.  Make sure you buy the Arrival DLC (downloadable content).  I regret missing that important story link.  Then play Mass Effect 3.  The experience will be more holistic.  But that will certainly take a longer time.

Besides the benefit of carrying through your stories across the installments, when you import your first game into the second, you get a little boost to your character’s level and resources.  And when you import your second into the third, you get a massive level jump of 30.  That is pretty neat and rewarding.

“OK, I see a Reaper.  I ain’t gonna down that thing, am I?”

The original Mass Effect has its charm.  I in particularly like how immerse the game is.  In order to explore a foreign planet, you land onto one with a vehicle.  Some terrains are so irregular that navigating would be a pain if you fail to observe the best possible path.  You get out of a vehicle to interact with the environment.  You could talk to your teammates during any mission.  Back then, the technology was so advanced that no ammunition was required.  You could shoot as long as your weapon did not overheat.  There was inventory management.  You got to modify your weapons, assign weapons to your teammates.  It was a role playing game in space, with a bit of shooting.  The ending moves me to tears, every time I experience it.

“Check out the field of depth in Mass Effect 3.  This game is an art.”

Mass Effect 2 has turned into a first person shooter first, role playing second.  I like the original Mass Effect a lot, and felt somewhat betrayed.  Ammunition (or rather thermal clips) – the hallmark of a shooter game – was and still is a must.  God knows why enemies left behind ammunition all over the floor for you to pick up and shoot them with.  At the end of each mission, there is a scoreboard to tell you how well you performed.  Loading screens replaced elevator rides that were used to be an opportunity for news announcement.  You could not talk to your teammates during missions.  Planet exploration has turned into scanning through the terrain thousands feet above ground.  All these shooter friendly mechanics killed the immersion, just a little bit.  The ending did not move me.  I played once, and stopped.  Mass Effect 2 is still good.  The story in between is compelling.  The computer graph is beautiful.

“Space traveling is like previous installments.  Scanning planets though has an overhaul.”

Mass Effect 3 so far seems to be a happy medium of the two previous installments.  From the role playing view point, there are enough side missions to keep me happy.  The dialog is lively.  I cannot help but chuckle at some private jokes (like Conrad on thermal clips).  Each dialog has at least two types of responses: paragon or renegade.  You can be a ruthless Shepard.  Or a nicer Shepard.  There are big decisions to be made.  What I like about this installment is that prior to that decision, you get to see things in different perspectives.  At times, that turns the decision making process even harder than it already is.  Characters who survive the last two episodes according to your actions and decisions make a return to Mass Effect 3.  Romance can be rekindled.  All those people you have saved in the past?  They are going to lend a helping hand either directly or indirectly.  One noteworthy improvement on this third installment is that characters move around quite a fair bit in and out of the ship.  Most of them are no longer stationary at the same location waiting for you to have a conversation.  Some may even have a conversation between themselves.

“Centered to the galactic survival is the War Assets.  Commander Shepard must travel all over the Milky Way to rally support.”

In Mass Effect 3, everything you do – be it as main or side missions – contribute to the chance of success ‘when the time comes’.  The story begins with Earth being under attack by the Reaper – a mechanical race that purges organic life forms in cycles.  In fact, the entire galaxy is under siege.  As Commander Shepard, you must leave Earth and rally the support from all alien races, friends and foes, to save Earth.  Given the political complexity of the different races, it can be a tedious and dedicate matter.  Those numbers add up.  Every trooper you add into the War Assets matters.  Even the most insignificant mission seems significant when looking at the overall picture.

“Overlay on top of the War Assets is Galactic Readiness.  If co-op mission is not your cup of tea, 50% of readiness is all you get.  But fear not, according to BioWare, you can still have a good ending if you complete enough missions in the single player game.”

By default, on the single player mode, galactic readiness is set at 50%.  You may be able to gather 10,000 strength.  But effectively, you get half of it.  To boost it, you have to play co-op missions.  Fortunately, even as someone who hates co-op first person shooter mode, I love Mass Effect 3 multiplayer mode.  Before I get there, let’s talk about the combat.

I am not a fan of first person shooter.  So I struggled a great deal with Mass Effect 2.  In Mass Effect 3, it is even harder.  I have to take cover, jump over obstacles, dodge, and sprint.  On top of that, I have to aim and shoot and use my bionic power.  Some may disagree.  But I find the control a bit clunky.  My character somehow does not do what I want all the time.  I get stuck in cover, wanting to run through door only to find myself going in cover, and etc.  But I live.  I learn to cope with the mechanic and enjoy the game.

“Weapons now come with a level.  And you can modify them as well.”

Another reason why I feel that this installment is a good middle ground between the previous two is that weapons now come with a level, and means to modify them as well.  I sense a better incremental progression without the headache of inventory management.  Because the total number of weapons you carry adds onto your weight.  That inversely affects the recharge time of the bionic power.  Hence, there is a trade off on what to bring to the battlefield.  This varies between different classes of course.

Multiplayer Mode

Not in a million years would I imagine myself liking the multiplayer aspect of the game.  I am not a competitive first person shooter.  And I don’t like shooting other people.  In Mass Effect 3, multiplayer is a co-op mission.  Four players go against the enemies in 11 waves that last around 20 minutes.  It is fast pace, action filled, and quite honestly, doable.  Even for a novice like I am.  I have so much fun that lately, I spend more time playing co-op mission than the single player mission.

“In co-op mode, you don’t get to play as Shepard (thank God, imagine the otherwise).  You are one of the foot soldiers who answer to Shepard’s call and stand against the enemies.”

Co-op missions are rewarding.  There are three ratings – gold, silver, and bronze – according to difficulty level.  If your team succeed, you receive a heap of experience points and credits.  Credits can be used to purchase rewards that may include one time use items, better weapons, and unlocked characters.  Receiving the same weapon increases the weapon’s level.  Receiving the same race, sex, and class combo gives you experience bonus.  You can take control of multiple characters of different classes.  Once one of the characters reach the level cap of 20, you may promote him or her to the single player story and add that into War Assets.  This action increases your leader board rating as well.  More importantly, each co-op mission you complete ups the galactic readiness.  From my experience, it does not take long to get that index from 50% to 100%.

“There are four types of packs that cost a certain amount of credits, or even real money.  You may gamble for an expensive pack for a better chance of getting some good rewards.  Or you could go for the cheap Recruit Pack to quickly level your weapons and mods.”

In Summary

Initially, I wanted to continue my First Eight Hours series with Mass Effect 3.  That is proven to be impossible.  I spent the first eight hours admiring the in-game artwork, talking to other in-game characters, and refreshing my knowledge of the lore with in-game codex.  Completing missions now require you to pay good attention to the dialog.  Combat mechanic has also become more complex.  Even the planet scanning mini-game requires me to run like hell when my ship is spotted by the Reapers.  All in all, Mass Effect 3 is, to me, the hardest of the three installments.  But once I get over the initial learning curve, I am cruising and enjoying the journey.  I like both the single and co-op aspects.  I do not know when I will finish this game.  When I do, I will certainly discuss the ending here.  No spoiler on the comment section please!

“The female version of my Commander Shepard looks like this.  What about yours? How does he or she look like?”

 

Categories
For the Geeks

Nokia Lumia 800 – First 7 Days

Nokia passes me a review unit and wants to hear what I think of the Lumia 800 Windows phone.  Sure.  Especially some of you have expressed your interest on this phone.  As always, I am not going to rate a product because what works for me may not work for you, and vice versa.  I am not technically inclined so I am going to type out what I observe from a everyday user’s perspective.  To my new readers, I have done a fair bit of review work on Symbian phones and have now moved onto the Android platform.  I am aware of such a thing called iPhone, though our paths have yet to cross.  And here I am, reviewing a Windows phone.  Throughout this review period, it is also fortunate for me to hear feedback from friends who have used different platforms.  In a way, I hope this article is as objective as it can be.

Love that Shape

Looking at form factor, no doubt, Nokia Lumia 800 is a winner.  Arguably the most beautiful phone made today.  This phone feels solid.  It is slim and  sleek.  And it features a fully enclosed design.  No longer are you able to have physical access to the battery and its internal components through the back of a phone.  The only opening is a tiny latch at the top that elegantly conceals the USB outlet.  It can be popped open with the right touch at the right spot (hmm).  If you peep deep inside, you may find the only screw you can find in the entire phone.  Once the latch is opened, you may slide the MicroSIM holder out and change your card.  The entire operation does not require an external tool.  Screen lock button is placed by the side of the phone.  It is naturally positioned at where the index finder is, rather than on top like most phones do (or if you are a left-handed, your thumb).  When I switch back to my old phone, I begin to realize how uncomfortable it is to lock the screen using a button at the top.

It is hard to describe the glass screen in words.  You have to see for it and feel it yourself.  The glass appears to curve towards the edge, so smooth that you can glide your finger through the surface.  And the glass design flows through the sides of the phone.  The screen size is 3.7”.  Those who find that the smart phones are getting too big these days may like the size of Lumia 800.  The screen appears as pitch black when viewed directly above.  But it turns dark grey when viewed from a side angle.  New phones these days manage to remain black throughout the different viewing angles.  I prefer my screen to stay black.  If this does not bother you, it probably means nothing to you.

Unlike some other brands, the Nokia logo remains subtle.  So are the three touch screen buttons at the bottom of the phone.  All in all, an elegant form factor Lumia 800 has delivered.

User Interface, Touch Screen, and Responsiveness

When you first interact with Nokia Lumia 800, the first thing you would notice, from the user interface point of view, is how sleek and economically simplistic it is.  The background remains black and the contents stands out in white.  The first page consists of a list of tiles that are of a color theme of your choice.  Some of the tiles appear very much “alive”, constantly updated with relevant information.  Such as the number of incoming messages you have, your friends’ latest activities, and the latest notifications from that social network.  Swipe to the second page presents you a list of applications.  Hold the back button at the bottom and you can scroll through a list of applications currently running in the background.  Hold the home button and you can activate the voice command.  The third button connects you to Bing, Microsoft’s very own search engine.  No, you can’t configure that to other search engines, the best I know.

I am not a fan of virtual keyboard on smart phones.  Nokia Lumia 800’s virtual keyboard has changed my perception.  It is accurate and utterly responsive, even on such a small real estate.  Its auto-correct function is intelligent enough to correct my typos while leaving some of the words that are not in the dictionary alone.  To be honest, I am surprised that I could type that well on a virtual keyboard.  Cynthia concurs with me as well and she is now holding onto the phone, tight.  Words with spelling errors are highlighted, very much like what Microsoft Office does.

This phone is powered by a single core 1.4GHz processor.  Depends on the experience with your current phone, you may be thrilled or you may not.  During the review period, looking at the standard out-of-the-box features, the phone is responsive.   Some third party apps though, could be quite slow to start up.  I will cover that in later section.  Lumia 800 has a screen resolution of 800×480.  It is comparable with some Android phones but is slightly behind iPhone.  The difference is noticeable to some.  Weighed at 142g, it is as heavy as iPhone, much heavier than my Android phone.  I suppose that is the price to pay for a metal casing rather than a plastic one.

Lumia 800 has an internal storage of 16GB.  Like iPhone, that cannot be expanded.  I am using a 8GB Android phone and I am struggling with space.  Personally I would prefer a larger storage.  Like 32GB or 64GB.

On voice command as well as search by voice, my friend Jason and I have tried out different scenarios.  The results could be quite hopelessly hilarious.  In general, the “call” command seems to work well.  You could say, “Call Wilfrid” and the phone would call my number immediately.  Or you could say, “Call Jason” – which by the way I have a few Jason entries in my address book – and a list of Jason is displayed for the picking.  We have tried the “find” command and could not quite get that to work.  We have tried the voice searching and voice typing function in a rather noisy environment.  The results did not seem to be consistent.  How often do you use the voice command?  Pretty seldom for me.  So, next.

It is All about Contacts

One major headache when you switch to a different brand is what to do with your current address book.  Different manufacturers provide different ways for you to overcome that hurdle.  With Android, so long as you can extract your phone book in a CSV format, you can upload it to Google Contacts.  With Nokia Windows phones, so long as you can pair your device with your old phone via Bluetooth, you could extract the numbers into your new phone.  I have tried pairing Lumia 800 with my Android phone.  That works.  I have yet to make it work for iPhone because iPhone somehow refuses the Bluetooth connection.  I don’t know.  Perhaps Apple is a jealous lover who wants you for life.

You could also link your Facebook, Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft Live, Twitter, LinkedIn, Nokia Mail, and Outlook accounts into Lumia 800.   This has a few interesting consequences.  First, MSN Messenger and Facebook Chat are integrated with SMS.  So communicating with your friends through these channels becomes seamless.  Now, why doesn’t Lumia 800 include Yahoo! Messenger and Google Talk?  I do not know.  Second, you can have a quasi-holistic view of your friends’ social network activities.  By that, I mean Facebook, Live, and Twitter.  What about Google+?  You guess right.  It is not there.  Third, contacts from Facebook and Live are synchronized with your phone book.  In fact, all the phone contacts imported from your old phone are now automatically added onto your Live account.  Depending on how many friends you have in Facebook, this can be overwhelming.  I don’t recall seeing my contacts from Yahoo! or Google.  Then again, perhaps that gets integrated into my old phone book that is used as an import for my new phone book.  Nokia Lumia 800 will attempt to link similar contacts and these contacts can also be linked manually.  That linkage knowledge resides with the phone.  One advantage of registering these accounts with Lumia 800 is that photos of your friends are now displayed in your phone book.  For reasons beyond my comprehension, I am unable to find the search contact function in Lumia 800.  But tapping onto the alphabet heading (as Cynthia has discovered), allows you to jump to a new alphabet heading of your choice.  Unavailable ones are smartly grayed out.  You could of course create groups to better organize your contacts.

Once you have added your accounts to Lumia 800, you can directly share a photo or a link onto the registered social network sites, exclude Google+ of course.

Who cares about MSN Messenger or Facebook Chat these days when you have Whatsapp?  The good news is that there exists a Whatsapp app on Windows platform.  First year is free.  Subsequent years cost $0.99.  The bad news is that as of today, it is a poor port.  Way too basic compares to my Android version.  It takes 5 to 10 seconds to start up.  I am not entirely convinced that the push technology works all the time.  You cannot mute a certain channel.  The emoticons are not presented graphically.  You can’t tell if someone is typing.  In short, usable but leaving much to desire.

When you register your Google, Yahoo!, and Live accounts with the phone, three mailboxes are created.  These mailboxes are functional.  You can read your emails and you can reply your emails with it.  Unfortunately, these mailboxes do not seem to replicate the delete command to the actual mailboxes in the web space.  So you may need to go back to the web version and delete those read messages again.  You can do what I do.  Have those mailboxes appear as tiles on front page so that you are notified when there is a new message.  Use the mobile web version to operate your emails.  I do that even with my Android phone.

The standard calendar app though not visually pleasing is highly functional.  It gives you a consolidated view of your Facebook, Live, and Google calendars, color-coded according to where the items originate from.  When you create a calendar item, you can choose to create it as a Google item, or as a Facebook invite.  I think it is one of the best out-of-the-box features.

Note: I have not tried Nokia Mail, LinkedIn, and Outlook integration during this review process.

The Web Browsing Experience

This is where the diversity of opinions kicks in.  I have talked to my friends.  Some are happy browsing with their tiny 3.5” iPhone.  I wish that my 4.2” Android has an even bigger screen.  The 3.7” Lumia 800, for me, is too tiny for browsing in portrait mode.  I find that browsing in landscape mode a much better option, although I am not used to such orientation.  It takes about 5 seconds for the Nokia phone to detect and switch orientation.  I find it a bit slow compares to my Android’s sub-second response time.  You may be fine with it and argue that other platforms are too sensitive.

Web pages on average load at a decent speed.  Scrolling and page pinching is silky smooth.  I do however encounter scripting errors in some sites, as well as videos that are unable to be played.  Those videos and  links work fine with my Android phone.  So I gather perhaps that has to do with the browser’s compatibility.  Is it a short term or a long time issue or a one-off problem?  I cannot tell.  Also, I have yet to figure out how to perform a mouse-over action on the Windows phone.  And there is no menu function for selecting text.  You have to “highlight” the word but pressing it.  Sometimes, for some particular sites, that does not work for me.

That Lovely Home Screen

Of the few things that grow on me, the home screen is one.  When you tap the phone by the side and unlock the screen, you are greeted by a home screen.  You slide it up (not from the bottom you Android users but from the middle!) and you have access to the phone.  That home screen has useful information such as date and time, number of unread emails or messages, your next agenda item, alarms if any, and on top of the screen, if you are listening to music, the mini-player is right there.  You can fast forward a track, go backward, and what have you.  You can put your favorite photo as wallpaper.  In the absence of a notification light (duh!), this home screen is the next best thing to provide a summary of activities and more.  Keep tapping, and keep checking.  I wish they have a notification light though.

There is no pattern screen password like the Android phones.  However, you may set up a numeric password of more than 4 digits.

Oh, you can select ringing option on that lovely home screen too.  You can set to ring, vibrate, or ring + vibrate.  What about total silence?  Lumia 800 does not seem to have that option.

Please Fix the Music / Sound Playback!

Of the few things that I wish this phone could better, an improved music playing experience is on top of my wish-list.  Why?  There seems to be some annoying flaws with the whole sound package, however insignificant they seem.  First, plugging a headphone onto the phone triggers a rather sharp clicking sound.  Much louder than any recent phones I have tried.  Invoking any menu items that involves sound also triggers the clicking sound, and some short background noise thereafter.  During the playback of music, at the end of each song, there is a noticeable clicking sound.  Like the sound you hear when you turn off a microphone.  If there is an incoming message notification while you are listening to music, there is a small chance that the volume of the music would suddenly go up (come to think of it, this happens to my Windows laptop as well).  There is no equalizer setting option.  Having said that, the playback quality is not too bad comparing to other phones.  I feel that in general, there is a lacking of a punch so as to speak.  And yes, you can repeat a single song (as a Android user, I drool).

Perhaps I have an unrealistically high expectation due to the Nokia brand.  Nokia used to make high quality hardware, yes?  Or is it a software issue?  Point to note, Cynthia does not seem to pick up these flaws though.  I guess it all depends on how critical you are, when it comes to music.

Oh, That Camera

While you are not going to throw away your DSLR or your mirror-less camera because of this phone, Lumia 800 does have a better white balancing than some of other phones I have tried.  It takes picture fast.  You can even tap the screen once and fire a shot.  There are quite a few camera options you can play around with, including effects and scene recognition.  My sister has tried out the video function.  The only comment she has is that you can’t trim the video from within the phone, unlike her iPhone.  I suppose that would be a good feature to have.  Lumia 800 comes with an 8MB Carl Zeiss camera.  You and I know that megapixel means little for a phone camera.

(Oh, have you read that rumor about that next Nokia’s phone that has a gigantic megapixel camera?)

Other Goodies such as Office, Nokia Drive, Nokia Map, and Nokia Music

When you sign up for a Windows phone, it should come as no surprise that you have access to the Office apps – Words, Excel, and PowerPoint.  You can even create those documents using the phone.  Jason and I have tried out Nokia Drive – a voice guided GPS navigator.  It acquired the signal fast, though it did not seem to accept postal code as a destination input.  Nokia Map is like the good old map.  You can pre-download maps of any country, free.  To use it, you must have a data connection.

Nokia Music allows you to play back music and video contents.  It also has a store that enables you to purchase DRM-free music online.

Let’s Talk about OS

For iPhone, the OS and hardware are both created by Apple.  It is a closed system.  If anything goes wrong, you can always point your finger at Apple.  For Android, the OS is created by Google and each manufacturer creates the hardware, most elect to customize the OS.  You have the manufacture to turn to when things go wrong.  It is a model that may create inconsistent experience among the community because some manufacturers may take a while, if at all, to customize any new OS version.

As for Windows OS, my limited experience tells me that it is like the PC model.  Phone update is done directly with Microsoft Zune.  You don’t need to wait for the manufacturers to tweak and test the new OS version.  Manufacturers then create apps that sit on top of the OS.  The only consideration for this model is that when things go wrong, you have to do some troubleshooting before you can decide who to talk to.  Microsoft?  Or Nokia?

Each model has its pros and cons.  You may have already made up your mind.  To the least, I thought you should know.

What about Ecosystem?

When you buy a phone, it is no longer just a phone.  You are buying into the entire ecosystem.  I am in touch with the gaming scene.  I know that iOS’s games often top the rating chart.  Also, Apple has a lot more cool apps than any ecosystem out there.  Apple App Store is reaching its 25 billion downloads very soon as we speak.

Android ecosystem is not a bad one.  Sure, there are junks inside.  But the top apps are usually nicely done.  Also, Google products are best to be run in Android platform.  When switched to Windows platform, what I miss the most are the Google G+ app, YouTube app, and Google Translate.

As for Windows ecosystem, it does not seem vast though there are some interesting apps.  Many well-known ports are not even good, if at all present in Windows platform.  Whatsapp and EverNote both have a Windows version.  They are just not as good as other platform’s equivalents.

Oh yes, I miss Blizzard’s WoW Armory app.  It took a while for Blizzard to venture into Android platform.  In that sense, as and when Blizzard creates a Windows version of the WoW Armory app, it is a good indication that Windows’ ecosystem has matured to be a worthy competitor of iOS and Android.

The Power of Zune

To update your Windows phone, you must do it via Zune.  To download photos and videos from the phone, you must do it via Zune.  To upload music and podcast to the phone, you must also do it via Zune.  Unless you hack the phone, there is no way to access the phone’s contents using anything but Zune.

Having used Zune, I am impressed by the design.  It must have been created with a touchscreen monitor in mind.  It is user friendly and it is a joy to use.

Now, if for reasons that you are unable to connect your phone to Zune, you are pretty much stuck with a dead phone.  That happened to us on Feb 29.  After some heavy investigation, it seems that Zune had ran into some digital certification problem on that day.  We spent hours trying to troubleshoot.  The good news is, the next Feb 29 will not come until 4 years later.

What Other Reviewers May Not Talk About

Don’t count on the battery life of Nokia Lumia 800.  After some intensive comparative testing, this phone consumes more than double amount of battery with a similar level of activity with, say, my Android phone.  Bring your charger.  Even better, keep your portable charger with you at all time.

Note: I suppose Lumia 800’s battery consumption is comparable to iPhone because my Android phone often beats iPhone on that department by a good margin.

During my 7 days review period, this phone hang twice.  Once was right after a call.  Another time was during web browsing.  Holding the switch for 8 to 10 seconds restarts the phone.  Well, at least there is a way out.

In order to charge the phone, it must be switched on.  I have no idea why it has to be so.

In Summary

I now can see why Nokia is going Windows, instead of Android.  It is a sleek platform, with tons of potential.  I like its simplicity a lot.  No longer do we need to go through some of the mind blowing and technically challenging settings in order to tweak the system.  You don’t even need to figure out if an app should reside on the phone memory or on the SD card.  The entire phone is now a closed system – from external design to internal setup.  The only way to manage the phone’s contents is via Zune – a user-friendly Windows PC application.  For the Nokia fans, it is a joy to see that the company has finally moved away from Symbian OS.  For the Android users, Lumia 800 has the design – both inside and out – that is refreshing.  For the iPhone users, you may feel that Nokia and Microsoft could have done a better job in utilizing the real estate of the user interface.  Or could have made the phone runs faster.  You may even miss a lot of your apps.  Whichever the case is, Nokia Lumia 800 is a phone worth checking out.

My boss’s boss once shared with me over a dinner table that in the not so distant future, iOS will still be there and Windows will rise.  He is not too optimistic about Android.  I am not too sure why.  Perhaps the next time I meet him, I shall casually wave the new Windows phone in front of him and see what he has to say about that.

Categories
Concert

Evanescence Live In Singapore

While our friends were changing diapers, feeding toddlers, and making babies, Cynthia and I watched yet another rock concert in Singapore.  I wonder how many of you can spell Evanescence correctly.  I surely can’t.  We were seated at row 13.  In front of us was a small pool of standing crowd.  So, in effect, we were at the front row.  The last time I was seated so close to the stage was in UK, a Pink Floyd concert.  We were grateful, even though we paid S$323 for a pair of tickets.  Never trust the auto seat selection by Sistic.com.sg.  I am glad that I picked the seats instead.

To be honest, I struggled quite a bit, to watch or not to watch.  Amy Lee does not come across to me as someone who can sing live well.  I think she did OK on tonight’s show.  Some songs, especially the old ones, she did really well.  Some songs, I am not too sure.  BUT, taking all in, including the new band setup and that exceptionally energetic drummer, tonight’s show was awesome.  The songs are good, with so much raw power.  Evanescence‘s third album is easily my favorite out of the three.  For the past 2 months, Cynthia and I have listened to nothing but Evanescence.  That pays off.  Amy Lee worked her magic, played the piano, and the crowd was pretty hot.  Looking back, this one hour long concert might have been better if staged at Fort Canning Park.  Half of the Indoor Stadium was sealed off.  Even so, it was only half full.  I was mildly surprised that it was not a full house.  Maybe because today is a Monday.  Some may still be at work.

I wish that the concert lasted more than an hour, and the music arrangement was different from the album.  Somehow, that seems to be the norm.  To keep the music scene alive here in Singapore, I think the bands – International or not – need to give more.

Categories
Diary

Anything Else Was, Well, Anything Else

It sucks to be away from my family for three days.  But it is best to stay positive.  So I have decided to discard an entry drafted during my business trip and replace it with this shiny, happy one.

Malaysians are the friendly bunch.  That naturally includes those who are soaked in Malaysia for quite some time.  It was good to catch up with old friends during my trip – those whom I have known since school days and those whom I have met at various junctures of my career.  One, I presumed, saw me leaving the office.  He took the effort to chase me down the building and down the street.  Turn left, turn right?  He took the right turn.  So did I half a minute or so before him.  On my way back to the hotel, I was busy concentrating on walking among some of the most hideously maintained roads in Petaling Jaya.  I leaped from one platform to another, dodging low hanging trees and cables and avoiding suspicious looking objects on the ground.  Suddenly, I heard someone called my name.  I turned and it took me some time to recognize who he was.  “It is [me]!” he exclaimed.  “It is you!” I exclaimed, doubled his enthusiasm.  Marriage must have done him good.  This Indian buddy of mine seems to have gained some weight – a sign of prosperity and happiness as we Chinese believe.  He was wearing a pair of trendy spectacles.  Perhaps that slowed down the face matching algorithm running inside my brain.  His wife is expecting.  That is good news.  I invited him over to the hotel I was staying for a drink in the evening – like I have for everyone I have talked to – “Meet me at Uncle Chilli’s. You can find me there every night.”  He did not turn up that evening.  I suppose a husband with a pregnant wife at home has certain priorities that must be respected.  I do not know for sure.  But that much I can imagine.

There are only two reasons why I camped at the hotel’s pub Uncle Chilli’s on every evening.  OK, maybe three.  First, that is the only location in PJ Hilton that provides free Wi-Fi.  I missed my Internet access, to catch up with my friends on Whatsapp and to catch up with news from all fronts.  Second, the Filipino band was good.  Really good.  Third, I don’t mind having some cold beer after a long day at work.  Only on the last day of my stay have I spotted a lineup of girls who appeared to be Filipinos at the back of the bar.  Maybe they were legitimate customers.  I do not know.  Looking at the human interactions that took place in the dark, I sensed a great disturbance.  But hey, I was there for the free Internet, great music, and overpriced crap beer.  Anything else was, well, anything else.

Filipinos are the musically talented bunch.  I am not sure if this extends to those who are soaked in Philippines.  The band that captivated my attention for three straight nights has four vocalists – Muscle Man, Bad Boy, Sexy Goddess, and Singing Queen.  Their dance moves were tightly choreographed.  It doesn’t matter what size, gender, age, and sexual orientation you are, there bounds to be one whom you would fancy.  My buddies unanimously worshiped the Sexy Goddess.  I pointed out that the good looking decently shaped Singing Queen sang so much better, and she danced with so much fluidity.  Unless you have an inclination towards tiny, demure, young, and cute girls, Singing Queen has got to be the one who owned the stage.  They shrugged and said, “Who cares”, further sealed the argument by pointing out that Singing Queen’s black dress and blue stocking did not match.

But, who cares?  Besides, I have not seen anyone attacked Whitney’s I Will Always Love You with such bravery, confidence, and improvisation without deviating too much from the original legendary delivery.  Singing Queen has my vote.

One Western buddy with me that night has worked in Singapore for quite a few years.  He observed that while girls in Singapore may look pretty and cute, they are lacking of that something.  He then looked up to the smoked filled ceiling desperately searching for the missing words.  I could see that he was drawing inspiration from that Sexy Goddess of whom he fancied.  In my heightened sense of cognitive intelligence thanks to glasses after glasses of bad beer, I offered my explanation, pinpointing what the girls in Singapore may be lacking of.  That appeared to hit him hard.  And he went, “Ah ha, that is it!”  Alcohol is a wonderful drug.  We so easily concur with one another under its influence.  In my opinion, it is not what’s on the surface that makes a girl looks sexy.  It is what radiates from within.  And that something is …

OK, next topic.

For two consecutive evenings, my buddy Kah Lok took me out for dinner.  I am grateful that he and his lovely and happy wife took the trouble to accompany this lonely man.  22 years we have known each other.  He too is under the spell of prosperity and happiness.  “I have grown fat,” he said with a distained look.  “Well, friend, this is a happy sign,” I replied.  On day one, before we parted after our Malay meal, he promised he would take me to eat the “All In” clay pot chicken rice tomorrow.  He emphasized the word “All In”.  He described the content with vivid details.  He even drove pass where he would take me the day after.  The food in Malaysia is good.  I could not wait to taste the “All In” clay pot chicken rice.  I literally dreamed about it.  And I thought of it the whole day.  My mouth watered when we finally arrived at the open food center the next day.  Rows of stoves filled with red hot coal ready to turn rice, chicken, Chinese sausage, salted fish, condiments, and sauces into “All In” clay pot chicken rice.  The chef behind the stoves perpetually has a burning cigarette dangling at the corner of his mouth.  I was too far to examine closely if any of that long ashes mixed with the “All In” product by accident.  Ignorance is bliss.

For those who have previously stayed in PJ Hilton, you may wish to know that the hotel has undergone a major renovation.  It is about time.  Now, the room looks modern.  There is a wall mounted flat panel television.  The old stinky carpet and curtain are gone.  Part of the bathroom wall is now replaced by floor-to-ceiling glass, tastefully shaded by the blinds.  The bathroom now comes with open compartments that store different kinds of towels.  There is no door separating the shower area and the dry area.  Only a partial glass wall.  What I love most is the “rain shower jet”.  The water jet is a big disc mounted up onto the ceiling.  I hate to waste precious water. But the gentle caress of the rain shower at full blast gives forth a unique experience that I am Tarzan and here is Congo.  I used to tease my friend in Singapore why such rain shower facility is at all desired.  Now I know that I am wrong and she is right.  Mounted on the walls at either side of the bed are two reading light.  There is even a pillow menu that provides five different types of pillows for different needs.  There is still no free Wi-Fi inside the hotel room.  Otherwise, it would have been perfect with me playing Tarzan underneath the rain shower while watching National Geography clips on YouTube.

The three days business trip seems to have come and gone.  So are the 22 years, come to think of it.  Kah Lok insisted that he is two years younger than what he really is.  “Look friend,” I said, “This is 2012.  It is 2010 no more.”

“Even an obvious fabrication is some comfort when you have few others.” – Margaret Atwood, The Penelopiad

Categories
Diary

Distorted Hideously Beautiful Aliens

I seldom celebrate anything in a big way these days.  Why is it so?  Perhaps novelty wears off after years of the same motion.  Last Tuesday, attending our weekly Spanish class was a bunch of married people.  The singles, we presumed, were out celebrating Valentine’s Days.  I wanted to do something special.  But work lately has been hectic.  It zapped all my juice away.  The best thing to do is to chill at home.  Last evening, Cynthia asked if I wish to celebrate my Ex-O birthday in a big way (don’t ask what ex is!)  Gee, no thanks.  It will be on a Tuesday.  If we have not given up learning Spanish by then, we would be celebrating my big Ex-O birthday with our Spanish classmates and teacher.  That is a big if.

Learning Spanish has been a rough journey lately.  To me, it is like scaling Mount Everest.  The lack of coursework and the absence of an end-of-the-course examination seem to have put me onto an auto pilot mode.  That means, doing nothing.  Spanish grammar is confusing.  Subjunctive – a mood that expresses how one feels about the action – brings me down to my knees.  It is like taking the already confusing Spanish grammar – indicative in different tenses – and doubled it up.  For every conjugation that exists in the mood of indicative, there is an evil twin that has the label called subjunctive.  These distorted hideously beautiful aliens multiplies, and soon making me unlearned all that I have come to know.  Oh dearest subjunctive, why must you be so mean?

Year 2012 turns out to be a golden year of video gaming.  It is like having the top ten world renowned writers suddenly decide to publish a book this year.  It may take you eight to twenty hours to read a book.  Games these days may take up to 100 hours to consume.  If I spend two hours a day playing video games, it would take fifty days to finish one game.  Possibly seven games a year, top.  For now, if my favorite games are to be released on time, I am likely to have Final Fantasy XIII-2, Kingdoms of Amalur, Mass Effect 3, Diablo 3, Guild War 2, another Blizzard game, and BioShock: Infinite to complete the top seven spots.  Oh yes. I suppose I will see you next year instead.

What do a bunch of technologists talk about over a dinning table?  Technology.  Given a choice, I would rather talk about the latest Hollywood gossips.  Or even better, the upcoming F1 season that is due to start in less than a month’s time.  Or Japanese hornets raiding the honey bees.  Or any bizarre videos I have viewed lately in YouTube.  Even the new Nikon DSLR camera could be well qualified as a mouthwatering dinner topic among a bunch of business associates.  No, we talked about software bugs.  Now, before you yawn and dose off, that evening, there was something profound I have come to reflect upon.  You see, I was once a Bug Whispererâ„¢.  I have devoted the early part of my career in squishing bugs.  I can see the bug’s roots like no other can.  For the bugs that can be surgically removed, I weed them out without hesitation.  For the bugs that are too entrenched into the scheme of work like tumor cells, I quarantine them and render them ineffective.  Back then, I pictured myself as a surgeon, dealing with some of the ugliest things hidden underneath a file name.  I took pride in what I did, believing that I was on a mission to make this world a better place.

My question is: Why do we see bugs as acceptable features?  You buy a car and do not expect it to come with any defeats.  You buy a kettle and expect it to boil water every time you press that button.  It is almost impossible to see defeat free software application, or a bug free game.  We have patches after patches to fix the problems.  We have a big team of technicians solving issues and testing fixes.  We build an economy whereby people’s livelihoods depend on the very existence of bugs.  And hence contributing to the resilience of the bug nation.  Software is unlike machinery.  A bug free piece of code could last for eternity.  Perhaps building bug free software is as impossible as crafting a machine that runs forever.  It is time that wears down the latter; it is the lacking of that plagued the former.

The happiest moments of my day are two.  I wake up seeing that someone is still sleeping; I travel to town and pick that someone up after work.  My friend’s wife once commented that Cynthia is like my pet.  Wherever I go, she is there.  Whatever I do, she is also there.  The more I think of it, the more I am convinced that I am her pet instead.  That’s right.  No dogs in the house please.  I don’t want my role to be made redundant.

Kupo?

Categories
For the Geeks

Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning – The First Eight Hours

“My name is Cara.  I was dead and am resurrected at the Well of Souls.  I am reborn with no destiny, thanks to the gnomes.  I am the fateless one.  And I choose my destiny.  I cannot remember my past, nor do I know what my future will bring.  Where is the Well of Souls?  Destroyed, perhaps.  I could be the last mortal in Amalur who has cheated death.  You may say all things happen for a reason.  Why does this happen to me?  I honestly do not know.”

Finally, Kingdoms of Amalar (KoA) is out.  I have started playing the minute the game is live and have clocked in eight hours of play time so far.  I reckon the first eight hours into a game gives us a good feel as in whether or not we shall continue investing our time into playing it.  Hence, I am starting a new First Eight Hours series in my website.  If time permits, I shall write a first forty hours follow-up and post it here.

I doubt KoA would satisfy all the role playing gamers out there.  Even Skyrim – recently awarded Game of the Year by AIAS – may have drawn a fair share of criticism that may or may not work for some.  Below are my observations.  Does KoA work for you?  Only you can decide.

Engaging Combat System

My take after playing the demo is still valid.  I have not seen a combat system quite like KoA in any role playing game.  Using a gamepad for the PC platform is highly recommended.  Because of the flexible character development, you can possibly find a balance that suits your play style.  Special moves can be unlocked.  With the dodging and blocking, charging and slashing, very soon, you may find that you are playing an arcade game.  Yes, all combats happen in real time.  There is no pausing and re-positioning.  You roll, you hack, you slash, and you loot.

Open World, Vast but not that Vast

Some say KoA is an open world.  Some say it is merely zones connected by narrow tunnels.  However you see it, KoA does require a fair bit of walking and exploration.  If you feel that walking is too inefficient, you could sprint.  If you feel that sprinting is not good enough, you could open up the world map and perform a fast travel.

The zones are not that vast.  You do not need to comb through a huge area to look for that something.  It is less likely that you will get lost.  It does not feel too empty like some other open world role playing games I have played.  There are always packs of enemies lurking somewhere, guarding some treasure chests.  Some enemies may spawn from nowhere and charge onto you.  There are herbs to collect, and other mini-games to play such as lock picking and dispel.  Enemies seem to respawn at a regular interval.   So there is no shortage of loots and gold, experience points and action.

“Ah, the great outdoor!”

Artwork has a Cartonish Feel

Some despise gaming environment that is too cartoonish, say it is too dated.  Some dig it.  I happen to love how the fantasy world is painted in KoA, as I am a big fan of World of Warcraft.  Since I have only played the game for eight hours, there are two towns I have seen.  One is colorful and shiny like the picture above.  The other is gloomy and dark, full of spider webs.  I can understand why some may prefer artwork to have more realism.  While I am on the topic of graphics, the retail version has a much higher quality than the demo version.

A Game for the Casuals?

Should games be hard?  As hard as, say, Demon’s Souls or Dark Souls?  Some enjoy dying a million times before seeing the ending.  A true test of skill and concentration.  Some prefer playing a game to relax.  The normal mode of KoA is accessible.  My character has yet to die once.  There were some hair rising moments, including a curse that indefinitely zapped my mana and rendered my character incapable of casting any spell until she visited a healer.  But with a bit of dodging and a bit of potion drinking, my character seems to do fine.  Some gamers find the normal mode too easy.  And they find the hard mode too easy too.  If you are one of those, there are always ways to make such a game very challenging.  Inspiration can be drawn from here.

Questing and Questing, Wait, Where is the Main Story?

Coming from the background of a massively multiplayer online game, I find the questing structure of KoA perfectly acceptable.  Each town is a questing hub.  You get to talk to the town folks, learn the town history from different perspectives.  Some may need help from you.  You may ignore and continue pursuing your main quest.  Or you should spend time doing some side quests.  Of the eight hours I have poured in, ignoring the beginning bit that is more like a tutorial, the time I get to experience the main story is very minimal.  There seems to be so much to do.  It take a quality assurance game tester 200 hours to test out all the quests on easy mode, skipping all the dialogues.  It would probably take more than 300 hours to complete everything, if I so choose to.

I have not completed many quests so far, just a handful because it does take time even to tackle one.  Some do have memorable stories provided that you have the patience to listen through the scripts.  I do.  Because I want to know what I am doing, why I am doing things.  For those who prefer to skip through the audio dialogue, these quests would likely be reduced to the common tpes of kill and collect, collect and kill, FedEx, and escort.

Also, because this game encourages open questing, the main story may not seem as tight as those that are scripted linearly.  Pros and cons, for either approach.  I enjoy both extreme.

“OK then, let’s talk.”

PC Version or Console?

I don’t really have a choice.  Because KoA and FF13-2 are released in the same time period, I play FF13-2 on PS3 when Cynthia is not watching TV and I play KoA on PC when she is.  PC provides a higher resolution but requires you to be seated quite near to the monitor, unlike playing console games on a large flat panel TV.  I play KoA through Origin and my progress is saved onto the cloud online.  You can also take screenshot on a PC.  For trophy lovers, you can more easily brag about your achievements on a console platform, or if you play via Steam.  On PC, the switch between keyboard + mouse and gamepad is seamless.  I don’t think playing KoA using only keyboard + mouse is a wise decision.

I am inclined to say that for some, the console version may be slightly better.  Field of View and Level of Detail – both are hot topics on the forum, a concern for the PC gamers.  KoA may be more tuned to console gaming, from the graphics point of view.  Playing KoA on a PC may cause motion sickness.  I would strongly advised you to play as far from the screen as you can.  And yes, a gamepad would help.  KoA is not a first-person-shooter.  You don’t need to spin your view that fast.

Fancy a Re-spec?

I have not tried the re-spec function yet.  But I read that it is possible to reset all your point allocation and potentially play the game in a completely different way.  If stealth is not your cup of tea, no problem, try out a magic caster, or a strong melee.  If you don’t like your skill specialization, reset it!  If you don’t like a hybrid class and want to try out a pure class, pay some gold and get it done!

For my first play through, I have picked a three-way hybrid class.  She is certainly not the most powerful being in Amalur.  What to wear has always been a struggle (armors are itemized to the pure classes).  But I enjoy a bit of flexibility.  Because I cannot decide.

Did I Mention Player’s Housing?

Without giving away too much spoiler, yes, you can have a house of your own.  You can even pay someone to upgrade your home by stages.  There is a stash that store your hard earned loots.  A mirror that allows you to change your appearance.  Your home is going to be very functional too.  You will see.

“Welcome to my home in Amalur!  There is a bedroom upstairs and a basement below too.”

Categories
For the Geeks

Final Fantasy XIII-2: The First Eight Hours

In the opening scene of Final Fantasy XIII-2, when protagonist of the previous episode Lightning rode in her new divine outfit carrying a silver shiny shield, I was in tears.  I could not breath and my emotion ran high.  This is the pinnacle of video gaming when audience are fully immersed into the story, or rather, a series of stories.  International fans have played through part one.  We were moved and we want more.  For a moment, perhaps a brief moment, we could forgive and forget how the game developer Square Enix destroys the franchise by releasing the disastrous Final Fantasy XIV Online.  So, time for a rewind.  We move forward from episode thirteen to episode fourteen and now back to thirteen part two.

I sincerely hope that the genre Japanese Role Playing Game remains as it is.  Trying to please the West too much may lose this genre’s unique flavor – beautiful animation, deep dialogues, and wild imagination in all possible dimensions.  Not to say that I do not enjoy Western RPG.  I do.  But the two should have distinct flavors.

In some ways though, the inevitable influence is there.  This new installment has been improved upon based on international fans’ feedback.  The story is less linear.  Many cut scenes you could choose not to trigger if you prefer action to sit back and enjoy a good anime clip.  Even the cinematic clips now demand your full attention.  Some of these moments play like action games such as God of War III.  The English version of Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3) is a new game released last week and I have spent eight hours so far with it.  Two chapters I have completed.  Barely scratching the surface, for sure.  If you have played or heard of the previous installment and wish to know what improvements or changes have been made, look no further.  Here is a breakdown for you.  I will write another post once I arrive at the next milestone.

Does Time Travel Make the Game Less Linear?

What a coincident that the two games – FF13-2 and WoW – use the same concept of time traveling in roughly the same development period.  Both looks upon end time on how the future may have been and both stories send ripples to the worlds by allowing the heroes to change the events in the past.  In FF13-2, Lightning the new Goddess of Warrior reined over a mystery world called Valhalla, which seems to be constantly under siege by evil forces.  Noel, the last of the humanity, goes through the time portal hoping to change the past, meets Lightning.  Lightning sends him back to the past to find her sister Serah.  In Serah‘s reality, Lightning has disappeared after the fall of Cocoon.  In the previous episode, it was Lightning who searches for her sister.  In this episode, it is the other way round

In FF13, we pretty much follow a linear story that is filled with lengthy cut scenes.  In between the thirteen chapters, there is an open world called Gran Pulse for us to quest and grind.  In FF13-2, each chapter is separated in time and place.  There is a main story that we can go back and forth.  And there are branches to other side stories too.  It may appear that there are choices to be made.  We get to decide how the story is consumed.

Another point to note is that unlike FF13, FF13-2’s map has more options for exploration.  You could of course head from one story trigger to another.  Or you could spend some time to explore and be rewarded with extra items and more side quests.

Where are the Quests?

It seems to me that in FF13-2, we are encouraged to talk to people who are wandering around the area.  It gives you a good sense of where the story is heading.  More importantly, some are quest givers who you would not have known had you not talked to them.  This is old school.  We are so used to newer role playing games that feed us with the question marks on top of the quest givers.  In a strange way, I enjoy this aspect of exploration.

Where are the Monsters?

Vanished.  You hear right.  Unlike FF13 and other role playing games, the monsters in FF13-2 are invisible.  They ambush you instead.  As you walk, all of a sudden, the monsters may appear.  You then have a few second to turn around, move to the monsters, and attempt to hit them before they sense you.  That is the new Preemptive Strike mechanism.  If you remember FF13, this mechanic requires you to go behind a moving monster, which can be a bit frustrating.  I quite like this new mechanism in FF13-2.  Also, it seems more interesting not to see a world populated with groups of monsters that pace around a fix location.

Thank God there are breadcrumbs on the mini map.  I would have been disoriented by the change in direction, all the time.

Where are the Other Members?

Gone.  That’s correct.  Gone are the days when we get to pick which main characters we wish to bring along for a party of three.  In FF13-2, we have Serah.  And we have Noel.  In FF13, from the role playing perspective, if we do not like certain characters, no problem.  We can swap them out.  Not so for this new episode.  We better love Serah and Noel because we are stuck with these two.

I do not think Serah has the well loved character of Lightning.  She does not have the ever so positive personality of Vanille either. As for Noel, he is not as demanding as Hope (phew).  But he does not have the strong personality as Serah‘s now disappeared boyfriend Snow.  Maybe it is still early in the game.  I am hoping to see more from the duo.

Now, to compensate for the lack of playable main characters, we can tame monsters.  Almost every monster out there can be tamed and can join the party.  Each monster is preassigned with one role.  They can be leveled up with raw materials, very much like how weapons in FF13 can be upgraded.  The whole monster management business is in fact pretty complex.  You will need a good guidebook to take you through.  I happen to use one (see the advertisement below).

What the Mog?

Mog is a stuffed toy that flies.  A creature sent by Lightning to Serah through Noel.  And Mog is now Serah‘s companion.  Its job (so far) is to hunt for near invisible items.  Yes, keep your eyes wide opened when playing FF13-2 and look out for those near invisible objects.

How cute is the Mog?  Check out the trailer below.

Action Cinematic and Dialogue Choices

Cinematic clips now require us to pay attention on the screen and press a combination of control buttons.  Very much like Heavy Rain.  Failing to execute the combo will lose extra rewards.  However, you will be rewarded with an alternative clip.  The end result is the same (I think).

This same action feature also becomes a must during battle, when your party’s controlled monster charges up a full bar of Feral Link.

Some dialogues now have four options.  I am unsure if it matters which option I pick.  It plays a different clip though.  Long time ago, I debated on why a linear game may not be bad because we get to see all the contents in one run.  Now, we may need to play it multiple times to see the different dialogue clips.  If you are a completionist, that is.

Paradigms, Roles, and Crystarium

The concept of paradigms and roles do not change much, although FF13-2 seems to reward us for shifting paradigms often during battle (ATB fully charged every other turn when shifted to another paradigm).  Crystarium has undergone a revamp.  Instead of the three dimensional “talent tree” that gives you options of which non-mandatory point to pick, FF13-2 flattens the entire Crystarium into one linear scale.  We now pick which role we level.  Crystarium expands once we reach a certain cumulative level and allows us to pick a bonus (such as ATB+1 or a new role).  It does not affect me too much.  Perhaps simplification is good, much like what WoW is going to do with the talent tree in Mists of Pandaria.

Optimization of Serah and Noel‘s Crystarium is not easy.  I use a guidebook that comes with tables and charts.  I do not think I have time to play a second run in near future.  So I prefer to do it right on first try.

Do We Need to Grind?

I don’t mind grinding.  But I know some do.  If you don’t read the guidebook and play the game as you like, you would probably grind less.  I follow the guidebook’s recommendation to tame certain monsters.  And taming takes time because not every battle yields a crystal.  I ended up going back and forth trying to encounter a particular type of monster and hope to tame one.

This takes time.  But I am not complaining (yet) because I am rewarded with in-game currency and raw materials that can be used to level up the tamed monster.

A Guidebook, Recommended?

I bought the official FF13 guidebook after I have finished the game.  I wish I had one during my initial play through.  This time, I invested on the official FF13-2 guidebook upfront.  I have the Collector’s Edition.  It is beautifully bound and contains tons of useful information presented in eye pleasing colored format.  To get the best out of the game, I would strongly recommend you to get the official guidebook.

Strongly recommended.

Too Long Didn’t Read

Are you a fan?  If you are, buy FF13-2 and play.  You won’t regret it.  The changes are mostly good.  It still plays like the game you have adored a year ago.  Be ready to commit time if you wish to see every aspect of it.

Categories
For the Geeks

Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning – A Demo Play

Update Feb 7, 2012: I have pre-ordered the game and have started playing since last evening at eleven.  The graphics display is so much better than the demo version.  I use a game pad (Xbox Controller) on a PC version.  All the clumsiness of the keyboard and mouse control has gone!  Yes, use a game pad to play this game.  And if you are put off buy the demo quality, I am happy to say that the full game version is so much better.

I have not heard of Reckoning until recently, when the media starts to pick up on this upcoming western role playing game.  Some label this as one of the most anticipated games in 2012.  Wow, really?  So I gave the demo a try.  Now, before I get into that, here is a little background for you.  Lead designer of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Ken Rolston is the executive designer of Reckoning.  Fantasy author R.A. Salvatore writes the lore and Todd McFarlane, creator of Spawn, creates the artwork.  In 2009, THQ sold Big Huge Game – the then developer of this game – to 38 Studios, which is owned by former baseball pitcher Curt Schilling.  And EA Game is the publisher for Reckoning.  I think so far so good except the last bit.  I am not a fan of EA Game (recently broke the $1 billion mark in 2011 by the way).  While I am pretty sure EA Game will destroy any sequel Kingdoms of Amalur may have – as how they destroy the Dragon Age franchise and more – let’s enjoy Reckoning while it lasts.

Reckoning is a vast open world western role playing game with an engaging combat system.  It plays almost like a hybrid of Oblivion and God of War.  Because the executive designer comes from The Elder Scrolls, Reckoning has a distinct Oblivion feel.  I have not played Skyrim.  Reckoning appears to have fixed a lot of annoyance I found in Oblivion.  I don’t need to keep jumping or walking in stealth in order to gain level.  Lock picking seems less frustrating.  Spell casting and melee fight appears to be more seamless.  It is so much easier to target, execute the moves in arcade style, dodge out of the danger, and continue to hack and slash, mixing magic with brutal melee attacks.  And the dialogues?  They have brought in the experts from Dragon Age team to help.  Hence the strong resemblance.  Although I must say, try not to expect the same level of cause-and-effect as it is in the Mass Effect universe.

There are four playable races.  Two look like human race while the other two look like elves.  You don’t get to pick a class, but rather you may specialize into might, finesse, and sorcery abilities.  That roughly maps to a warrior class, a rogue class, and a wizard class.  You can also have a hybrid of two, or even three.  According to the interviews I have read so far, hybrid classes are totally viable.  And you get to reset your choices in-game, if you so wish to.  In another word, you don’t have to get stuck with a character development that you may have regretted.

Specializing into finesse can be very satisfying.  As a rogue like class, you can eliminate your enemy with one-shot (that comes with decent animation).  I  have also tried a wizard like class.  For these sort of games, I often find it hard to survive as a magic player.  Reckoning‘s combat system makes it somewhat easier.  But I still prefer a strong melee warrior type of character.  I am just not too good at button mashing.

This game will be available on Feb 7 for the three gaming platforms.  I feel that the game play may flavor the use of a controller, rather than keyboard and mouse.  I have tried the PC demo.  It does require my fingers to be quite acrobatically agile.  To sprint, I need to toggle the left control key while performing the traditional WAD mashing.  To execute the reckoning nuke move, I need to press and hold the X key while moving around and mashing both the keyboard and the mouse.  There is no jumping in Reckoning (boo?).  Pressing space bar enables your character to dodge at a direction you desire (yes, more button mashing).  Some dislike the menu system.  It does require quite a few clicks to get to where I want and quite a few ESC buttons to get back to the game.  Because of the traditional inventory management system like any good old role player game has, I tend to visit the menu quite often to equip items during game play.  I wish they could streamline how items can be equipped rather than the need to click through different categories in order to equip them.

I have played the demo twice.  The game is certainly growing on me.  The lore seems interesting and the encounters are refreshing.  According to the developers, if you are to play Reckoning on easy mode skipping all the dialogues, it will take you 200 hours to complete all the quests.  This is one very lengthy game, be warned!

  • Click here to view in-game images (with captions).

If you find the demo unplayable, you are not the only one.  EA Game has sent the 3 months old code (prior to reaching gold standard) to a third party to package into a demo version.  The result is a disaster.  This is so typical of EA Game of course.  On one end of the spectrum, we have games like Diablo III whereby the demo or beta is almost flawless.  The game takes forever to be released.  On the other end of the spectrum, we have Reckoning whereby the demo is so broken that it leaves many on the fence.  Shall I pre-order or shall I not?  Ken Rolston is right about one thing though.  EA Game does generate the buzz as promise.  I hope it is a good buzz.  If you have time, you may wish to read Curt Schilling’s sincere apology.  That post moves me.  According to one official game reviewer, the game in its released form plays smoothly, with no issue.  So it could well be the demo’s poor quality and not the full game.  Back to the PC demo, if you have a black screen problem (like I did), go to video setting and disable the post-processing option.  If you are unable to connect to EA server and claim your bonus items should you buy a full game, open the personal.ini file located in your document directory, wipe away the “blaze_email” entry, and restart the demo.  This should solve your problem.

PS. Reckoning is the title of the last episode of Legend of the Seeker season one.  In that episode, the Seeker’s eyes send out beams of light, just like in this game.  And in this game, the destiny card for a character that generalizes into three abilities is coincidentally called the “Seeker”.