Category: My Good Life

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For the Geeks Game Reviews

God Of War III – “You Are Dead”

Picture this.  I would be siting on the sofa manhandling my gaming controller with such vengeance and ferocity; Cynthia would be siting on the floor reading newspapers or doing her own thing.  Often when she looked at our plasma television, she would see the words in font size one million that said: You are dead.  Cynthia would look at me in puzzlement, on every occasion, and asked, “What kind of god are you?  You are dead again.”  Soon, query became mockery.  Too bad.  Cynthia was not at home when I smashed Zeus’s face until my plasma television was literally painted in blood.  What a vindication it would have been.

I was Kratos – a Spartan, a protagonist, and a demigod.  It just happens that I suck at action and platform type of game.  But with such a highly acclaiming rating, as a proud owner of a Sony PS3, I have got to give “God of War 3” a try.

The Story

Some say “God of War 3” has a story.  I am not so sure about that.  “Final Fantasy” has a story; “Heavy Rain” has a story; as for “God of War 3”, the story is merely taking down one god or titan after another till you face Zeus.  I have not played the previous installments and am a bit lost as the story develops.  I suppose this game would mean a lot more to those who know who is who and what is what.  Cut scenes are short and minimal (which could appeal to the mass public?) except the last set of cut scenes, which manage to tell a rather moving story.  But I was not attached to the characters.  I wanted to cry but I couldn’t.

Maybe “God of War 3” does have a good storyline, as an action game.  It does prompt me to research into Greek Mythology.  It is a typical story of a demigod against the titans and the gods of Olympus.  It is a journey from the Mount Olympus to Hell and back to Mount Olympus.  It can be epic, seeing from that angle.

The Sex

Sex sells.  And the sex episode in “God of War 3” could easily be the most artistically done, exceeding the “Mass Effect” or “Dragon Age” franchises.  Aphrodite – the goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality – is beautifully rendered.  The action requires ”˜participation’ using the game controller, which if your timing and accuracy is off, you could screw up the scene.  The Smith God – Hephaestus – who has fallen from the grace of Olympus, who is the husband of Aphrodite and creator of Pandora’s Box and Pandora herself, as the story goes, unable to be with Aphrodite.  That is why the goddess has to pleasure herself with two chamber maids.  And that is why you – Kratos – come into the picture.

The best part is, you can do it as many times as you like.

The Action

Broadly speaking, there are three kinds of action.  Fighting against the humongous titans is insanely epic.  That involves quick thinking and good timing of special moves as prompted on screen.  Fighting against the bosses and special enemies is insanely frustrating.  This got me thinking.  Game designers could either repeat the similar encounters many times throughout the game (like “Final Fantasy” or “Dragon Age”) or create unique and difficult encounters that require some gamers to keep trying.  The third kind of action tests gamers’ reaction time and precision in executing platform type of maneuver.  Such as flying through a tunnel full of obstacles that have to be avoided.  The tolerance of error can be so low that it can be equally frustrating.

Fortunately, there are plenty of save points.  And there are plenty of auto-saves.  The game play is about 15 to 20 hours.  I have seen “You Are Dead” for close to 300 times at God level (average difficulty).  Yes, I am an idiot.

The Puzzle and Treasure

Most of the puzzles are straightforward.  Some can be pretty hard.  All the jumping and puzzle solving reminds me of “Tomb Raider”.  There are items to be collected within the game to upgrade Kratos’s ability.  Some require venturing a little bit out of the main path or line of sight.  Some require a special technique to retrieve their locations.  Some are rewarded as and when puzzles are solved.

Wait a Minute, This Game Reminds Me Of …

This game reminds me of “Tomb Raider”, “Portal”, and “Guitar Hero”.  “God Of War 3″ only has one main quest.  The weapon and item acquisition path is fixed by the storyline.  There is only one way to solve any given puzzle, with the same set of rewards.  Not that I am complaining.  Does it mean that “God of War 3” is linear?  (On the record, I am OK with linear games, whatever linear means.)

Most Memorable Moment?

Graphically, the game is pretty stunning (running at 720p) and the battle scenes are bloody and epic in scale.  The cut scene and the environment is still not as beautiful as “Final Fantasy” but I reckon it is better than many games out there.  The most memorable moment of the game, for me, is when Kratos teams up with Pandora.  I felt less ‘solo’ and more with a ‘purpose’.  Too bad, that moment is relatively short.  The entire game seems relatively short (between 15 to 20 hours).  Perhaps that is the norm for this genre?

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For the Geeks

Hands-on With Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro

After attending the Sony Ericsson blogger event, the devices that left the most impression were the Xperia series.  Mainly because of my curiosity to the Google Android operating system.  When contacted if I am interested to get hold of a test unit for review, my initial reaction was to wait out for the new firmware update.  But since I was told that it would not make too much of a difference to the mini version, I shall try out the X10 Mini Pro first and the X10 later.

X10 Mini Pro is tiny.  Some asked how tiny it is.  Well, a picture speaks a thousand words.  As you can see in the picture above, in today’s world whereby phones are getting bigger and bigger, I am delighted to see some phones do get smaller.  X10 Mini Pro is still quite thick.  Mainly because of the full QWERTY keyboard.  But that is the trade-off.  I have tried phones with virtual full keyboard.  Thanks but no thanks.  Nothing beats a real keyboard.  For this phone, the keys are sturdy.  My only comment is that there are gaps between the keys.  I am used to keys that are closer to one another.  But that is a personal preference.

It is my first experience with the Android operating system (version 1.6) on a touchscreen phone.  It is responsive to my touch (via fingertip, not fingernail).  Indeed, I am satisfied with the sensitivity.  Because the screen size is tiny, at times some icons seemed to get in the way when I tried to navigate.  It is a matter of getting used to, I think.  There are four shortcuts at the four corners of the desktop: message, phone, music, and address book.  The phone supports multiple desktops that are available for customization.  At the bottom of the phone, there are three physical buttons.  Leftmost is the menu button that has different set of functions for different applications and scenarios.  Middle one is the quick access to desktop and applications.  Holding the middle one brings out the active application menu for you to toggle between running applications.  Rightmost button is to go back to previous menu or acts as a cancel command.  Overall, the design is intuitive.  In no time, I was acquainted with how the phone works.

The test unit comes with several key applications.  Facebook application works within my expectation.  So do the Google applications such as Gmail, GTalk, and Maps.  Additional applications can be downloaded from the Market app.  I have tried out the MSN Droid.  It is OK.  I have also tried out the SMS function.  Messages are organized into conversations.  In rare occasions, the virtual keypad may block the view of the newest message while replying a SMS.  Besides that, it is working as intended.

The browser is a real surprise.  Some of my friends are skeptical on web browsing using this tiny phone.  Surprise, surprise, the experience is positive.  First, the browser is responsive.  Second, there is a mechanism to easily zoom out to page view and zoom back into the web page’s location you want to read.  Effectively, you can jump to anywhere in the web page without scrolling left and right, up and down.

I am a music lover and have mixed feeling on the X10 Mini Pro music player.  The interface is basic.  Most of the operations are needed to perform in the computer linked to the phone – such as creating playlists or managing tracks.  I don’t seem to be able to find the repeat track function.  While the quality of the external speaker is a real good surprise (quite possibly the best compare to other phone models), the sound quality coming out from the headphones is basic.  It is not as dynamic as I would prefer and there is a constant background noise that you probably wouldn’t notice when music is played.  That noise appears to be more obvious in between tracks.

Continue with the music player, there is an Infinity icon (same goes to personal contact) that upon clicking, relevant videos are retrieved from YouTube within the player and it is pretty cool to be able to view the videos directly without the need to open up YouTube and search for the artist.

If you need a tiny phone with a touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard that fits well onto your palm, Xperia X10 Mini Pro is a good option.  Personally, I am much impressed by what a tiny Android phone can do.  Cynthia thought that it would be even cooler if the X10 Mini Pro swings out 90 degrees (just like the TV series Gossip Girl) instead of sideways.  As for me, I am happy that some phones do get smaller.

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Diary

Freezing Time

The above picture was taken by Benny.  In the picture are Lora, Cynthia, my niece Bethany, and I.  We were in a restaurant of my choice, near Bird Park.  Quite possibly the most authentic Dim Sum restaurant that we can afford, that my sister and I have located so far.  I asked if I could take little Bethany to see the birds in the park next door.  Her parents looked at each other as though it was one of the rather bizarre requests they have encountered.  Our deadlock was saved by the pouring rain after our sumptuous lunch.  Thank you Lora for picking up the bill.  It was a lovely birthday celebration.  O happy day.

I love my insurance agent.  I would recommend her to anyone in need of a coverage.  On Friday, she called me, “Tomorrow is your birthday and I wish you a happy birthday in advance!”.  I hesitated and said out loud, “Tomorrow is my birthday?”  She went silence hiding in embarrassment.  I broke my silence and screamed, “Tomorrow is my birthday!”.

The first thing that came to my mind when I thought of what I wanted for my birthday was to freeze time.  “What age you want to be at then?” asked Cynthia in the car.  Without thinking, I answered, “26”.  She asked why.  I had no idea except subconsciously, being 26 was the happiest time of my life (so far).  She asked again, “Why?”.  I did a mental scan on the major events that happened when I was 26.  That year, I fell in love.

30 minutes before the clock struck midnight, I have initiated an assault to my storeroom.  Something I have been wanting to do for more than a decade of inhabiting in this cosy apartment of ours.  Systematically, I torn out the pieces of junk covered in decade old dust and moved them by batches to the disposable area at my ground lobby.  The process took a lot lesser time than I thought, which makes me wonder why I have been putting this off for so long.  The next morning, my mother called.  “You remember my birthday!” I exclaimed.  In retrospect, what a dumb thing to say.  Of course she does.  It must have been a memorable day of pain and relief for her.  When I told her what I did last evening, she said, “Things that you haven’t used for two years you should throw them away.”  I love my mother and her easy-to-follow guidance.

Cynthia was speechless looking at her dream came true in the most unexpected day of the calendar.  The next morning, on my birthday, I made another assault to my common bedroom – the extended storeroom.  This should make my mother and mother-in-law happy too, as they do stay with us in that room occasionally.  If you could see the before and after images of my storeroom and common bedroom, you too would be shocked by the amount of space reclaimed.

What should I do with my 40 feet tall music CD tower if I am to stake them on top of one another now that I have digitalized them (to the best of my measurement)?  It is a tough decision, tougher than throwing away magazines in plastic wrap, sentimental items that serve no purpose, and items that are in at best partially working condition.  For now, I tug them alphabetically in cardboard boxes.  Since there is no point to display a subset of my CD collection in my living room, I have re-purposed my CD rack into a DVD rack, which involved a re-positioning of 21 beams across 140 holes in total on both sides of the stand.  24 hours into my impromptu spring cleaning, on my birthday, I was thoroughly exhausted, feeling the body ache here and there.  But it was a satisfying exercise, a precursor to our long overdue renovation.

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Diary

The Cloud Watcher

I am not a sociologist.  But I suspect that when you temporary move someone from one environment to another, that causes a temporary change in behavior that may linger for a little bit when you move that someone back to the original environment.  For the last two weeks, in France, I constantly kept an eye on the sky.  The quality of light on my subjects and finding the spot to have the most beautiful blue sky as a background is something I would look for when taking pictures.  I observe that the portion of the sky that is nearest the giant light bulb – the sun – is often less blue than the portion that is furthest away from it.  Of course, how deep the blue is depends on the absence of cloud, the air humidity, and the time of the day.  At least that is how I would form my theory literally from thin air as I explained to Cynthia in the car this morning.  In any given normal day in Singapore, I would not pay that much attention to how the sky looks like.  But because I was so used to watching the sky while we were holidaying in France, I have this temporary habit to pause and scan our atmosphere.  What a beautiful day this morning!  I could see patches of light blue in the sky hiding behind countless of fluffy cotton-like cloud.  I read somewhere that there is a terminology for cloud of that form.  But I forgot what it is called.

“How come the blue sky in Singapore is not as blue as the one in France?” asked Cynthia.  And that was when I pulled out that theory of mine from thin air.  She bought it, like she is buying all my bizarre theories.  The same way as I am taking everything that she attempts to cook.  That is what couples do, yes?

This morning, the blue sky dotted with fluffy clouds was exceptionally adorable.  At one spot, we caught two patches of blue sky, in two different taints.  A lighter blue on top and a darker blue at the bottom, separated by a rather thick thread of cloud in the form of a white scarf.  As we looked ahead, we have seen something unusual.  A skyline that was not there before we left town two weeks ago.  We can see the faraway commercial buildings, a view that was blocked by the long rows of trees along the highway.  What happens to the trees?  The tall ones are now replaced by the shorter ones, younger looking ones, different looking ones, with different types of colors, in the form of an inverted mop.  Part of the highway expansion project, perhaps?

I think drivers in Singapore should at least try to rent and drive a small car during one of the overseas trips.  Like a 1.4 litre diesel car that we drove in France.  I have become more aware of the slower moving vehicles on the road.  I have become – temporarily – a more gentle driver, which surprisingly good I am feeling.

Last evening, we drove pass Cineleisure at Orchard after watching a movie at the very building.  Cynthia exclaimed, “Look, there is a new McDonald’s!”  We visit Orchard often and where does the McDonald’s come from?  We were away for merely two weeks!  More shockingly, we noticed a brand new building facing Cinelesiure, linked by the new McDonald’s.  I searched deep into my memory.  A long time ago it was a road.  And the road became a green patch of state land, a park perhaps.  I thought hard till I hit a mental void.  Then suddenly I thought of the Japanese animation Evangelion:1.0 whereby mechanical buildings spawn from the ground at night changing the landscape of the entire city.

I am serious.  Where does that building come from?!

This morning, after I parked my car at my office area, in the far east of the city, I greeted the lady who handles my season car park payment.  She was not her usual self.  What’s wrong, I asked.  A lizard (gecko), she screamed.  Geckos are friendly animals.  They eat up the small insects.  I tried to explain.  She jumped out of her counter, called out in Malay, and soon a male cleaner came by with a broom.  A type of broom with short, hard bristles.  Leave it alone, I pleaded for mercy on behalf of a harmless animal.  I have not seen someone murders a gecko in real life and I was speechless as I saw the cleaner in one swift motion pinned down the animal with the broom and stepped onto it.  And I saw a lifeless gecko.  A sizable one.

Outside, the sky was as beautiful as an hour ago, when Cynthia and I stepped out of our home.  I wonder when I will stop admiring the sky and return to my usual routines.  There are things that are out of our control (poor gecko); there are things that we can influence (more gentle driving on the road); there are natural gifts that are free (the sun, the beautiful blue sky, and the shape-shifting clouds); and there are ever changing man made landscapes that remind us that today is not the same as yesterday is not the same as the day before.

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Diary

Summer Blog Episode 11 – Headphones and Lipsticks, Testicles and Handbags (Final Episode III)

On the Friday before our two weeks summer holiday to Europe, what a beautiful morning it was.  Life had been hectic, up until that morning.  I felt so lifted that morning.  And as I walked towards our car, I stopped, and realized that I have forgotten to bring something important to work.

“Oops. Where are my headphones?” asked I.  Cynthia reached into her handbag and asked, “Do you want to borrow mine?”  I shook my head and answered, “Don’t worry.  I have another set in the car.”  “Another pair?!  How many headphones do you have?!”

Well, we are men.  We have backup accessories and devices everywhere we go.

“Like me having a lipstick on every handbag then?” Cynthia pondered.  “You have a lipstick in each of your handbag?!” exclaimed I.  And she nodded.  Maybe it is a girl thing.

You see.  Even after living with that someone for more than a decade, there are still much to be learned.

On the way to work, we were in an exceptional chatty mood.  Cynthia has recently moved into a new role, dominated by men.  Out of nowhere she asked, “Is it normal for men to shift the testicles during meeting?”

Good question.  I am pretty sure I have seen it before from time to time, when we have meetings with only men.  I mean, it is like scratching your head or digging your ears, yes?

“Hmm.  Do girls shift the boobs in an all-girl-meeting, when no men are watching?” I innocently inquired.  “Of course not!  We are civilized.  Not like men,” replied Cynthia.  “What do you girls do then?”

“Hmm.  We talk about makeup and handbags?”

Just when you think you know what the world of the opposite sex is like.

By the time you read this episode, I shall be on my way back to Singapore.  Right now as I am doing my final round of edit for this entire series, I feel as though I have time traveled forward, picture how you would react reading this series, and back.  And by the time I read this again, I wonder if I would think that this series is indeed a silly idea.  Don’t blame me.  Blame Bob the Botâ„¢.

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Diary

Summer Blog Episode 7 – Organic Vegetable Noodle With Soup

Recently I have been experimenting in becoming a quasi-vegetarian.  There had been in the past heated debate between my friends and I on how healthy, or rather not healthy some vegetarian dishes are.  Granted.  San meat does not mean that it is good for health.  To take one level up, recently I have been experimenting with organic vegetarian food.  And there is one that I frequently visit, with Cynthia, because the restaurant is near to our Spanish school.  To be frank, Cynthia is not too keen on the dishes.  For me, when it comes to new experiences, my mind is pretty open.  And I think the “Vegetable Noodle with Soup” dish has put my open mind to the test.

Having tried almost all their menu times, I was curious on what “Vegetable Noodle with Soup” tastes like.  The amazing is, after spending close to half an hour consuming it, I have managed to deciphered how to cook it.  Here is the recipe.

Step 1 – Boil the water, cook the noodle, drain the water from the noodle, and put the noodle aside.

Step 2 – Boil the water, put in one piece of organic sweet corn, a few slides of dried seaweed (there is no organic seaweed, is there?), a few slides of organic tomatoes, a few slides of organic cabbage, a few slides of organic carrots, and two pieces of organic tofu.  I presume you know the order of which one to cook first (for example, sweet corns and carrots take the longest to cook).

Step 3 – Resist the temptation to add salt or any seasoning or flavoring.

Step 4 – Put the cooked noodle inside the organic vegetable soup.  Bring to boil and serve hot.

When Benny – my brother-in-law – heard my experience, he asked, “Is it appetizing at all?”.  I suppose that was why I took half an hour to consume the dish.  And when I looked around, there were dinners who took longer than I to finish their food.  I think that answers Benny’s question.

PS. Believe it or not, I am considering to add this into my regular home cooked diet because it is so easy to make.

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Diary

Summer Blog Episode 5 – Lifts Going Crazy

This is a true story.

The problem was not without warning.  At first I discovered that the buttons that called the lifts were not as responsive.  At times when I pressed the button, it remained dull, and nothing happened.  As if determined by some random events behind the electrical circuits, the button would light up, eventually.  At random.  In a modern living environment going by the observation that since this was a common problem, someone would have reported it, and hence there was no need for me to take action.  Perhaps that was why this problem was escalated to a second stage.

One warm afternoon, I was back from my grocery trip.  Carrying with me bags and bags of goods, I could barely walk on a leveled ground.  Called for the lift but none of the button worked.  I waited for a divine intervention but there was none.  Strangely, the lifts went up and down under their own will.  At times, a human or two got spat out of the metallic container and before I could enter, it closed its mouth.  How did those able to board the lift if no one could signal it to stop at their floors?

Lack of options, I walked up the stairs, carrying the heavy bags.  On my way up, I saw someone on the way down.  We greeted silently and exchanged a reluctant smile that did not say much but said it all.  I wonder what would happen if I was 100 years old.  The stairs looked indeed daunting.

Shortly after, I needed to get out of the apartment.  I attempted to call for a lift, it did not seem to work.  Lifts went crazy going up and down on their own.  While contemplating if I should take the stairs instead, one lift arrived at my floor.  I dashed inside without much thinking.  Suddenly it struck me.  What made me think that I could control the lift from inside?  As it closed its mouth, I felt as though I had been swallowed by a crazy lift.

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Diary

Summer Blog Episode 4 – I Am A Wallpaper

Year 2000, Kevin Bacon played the character of Hollow Man.  Being invisible, this fictional scientist takes full advantage of his new found ability doing stuffs that he would not be able to do, including spying on his female neighbor.  Rumor says that there is a deleted rape scene too.  The film prompted me to read “The Invisible Man” by H. G. Wells.  Imagine what I would do if I can be invisible.  Imagine what you would do.  That sense of invincibility.  Even if one perishes, no one knows (assuming that invisibility persists through death and beyond, which I recall according to the story, it is not the case).

The opposite of Hollow Man is not any one on the street, I think.  The opposite of being invincibly invisible is being visible but no one takes notice.  Like fading into the background or becoming a piece of everyday wallpaper that no one stops and takes notice.

One day, I went into a restaurant alone.  The staffs were busy doing the things they did.  I chose a seat in the middle of the restaurant.  Still, no one attended to me.  I stood up, picked up a menu nearby, returned to my seat, and started reading.  Quietly contemplated on what my lunch would be, I could not help but to observe that people around me were aware of my presence but liked a piece of wallpaper, I had faded onto the background.  Perhaps when the lunch hour was over, when the rest of the customers had eaten, paid, and gone, the staffs might notice someone siting in the middle of the restaurant reading a menu.  And they might wonder when did I step into the restaurant in the first place.  Or not.

It seems to me that the only time when we get to notice, examine, and appreciate the wallpaper is when the room is empty, newly renovated perhaps.

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For the Geeks Game Reviews

Final Fantasy XIII Scores Very High In My Book

I have always said that Japanese’s imagination knows no bound.  And their commitment to production quality is truly an inspiration.  If I am to combine all the cut scenes from the game Final Fantasy XIII, it can easily be one beautifully made anime in full HD glory (1080p).  It takes me 80 hours to see the ending (still not completing the game yet) and I have lost track on how many and how long the cut scenes are.  Especially in the beginning, I could literally spend a few minutes playing the game and then here comes the cut scene.  It is long enough for me to make a cup of tea, finishing eating an apple, and wash my hands.  As the story unfolds, the gap between the cut scenes lengthens depending on how fast or slow you progress.

Quite a few friends of mine asked if FF13 is indeed linear.  To be frank, non-linear game does not mean that it is good.  Linear game does not mean that it is bad.  It is all about execution.  In terms of storyline, there is nothing you can do to change the outcome, unlike other games.  That also means that you do not need to play the game multiple times to see the complete set of sub-stories.  For FF13, you play it once and be totally immersed.  There is a fixed number of characters and gears you can develop,  But which ones to pick is entirely your decision based on your preferred strategy.  In fact, looking at the game play, the key feature that sets the game apart from the rest is that it has little to do with your reflex actions.  It is the strategy you deploy prior to each battle and the ability to think on your feet every 5 seconds or so during the battle.  The combat system is unique and has earned a lot of praises.  There is no need to mess around with the positioning of your characters during a battle and it does not require you to frantically press the buttons on your controller to beat the enemy.  At a macro level, you control the roles of your characters and switch them at one go by up to 5 defined sets created by you.  At a micro level, you can choose to execute a specific action for the character that you have a direct control with.  And because of the variety of enemies, you are forced to adopt a different strategy for each battle.  Be it as a different role set combination, or even a different set of characters and gears.

Another noticeable difference compares to other role playing games is that the enemies in FF13 do not level as your characters level.  You can go back and revisit your old foes that gave you a hard time and beat the crap out of them in seconds.  Or you may get trashed by some unknown enemies that are so powerful that in the early stage of the game, all you can do is to flee.  Because the enemies re-spawn, there is no shortage of action.  In later part of the game, you can explore the area in any direction you prefer.  Tackle the missions in any order you prefer.  Or if to see the ending is all you want, you could skip the side missions.

While the enemies do not level, at the end of each battle, there is a 5 stars rating system.  The more powerful you become, the target time goes down.  In another word, you still need to work hard for a 5 stars rating.  In some cases, it pays off to get that rating.  Some of you asked if there are a lot of grinding, like other role playing games.  I suppose the choice is yours.  But I find it rewarding to do a bit of grinding to get more powerful and to farm materials to improve the gears. 

Majorities of the battle are quite easy, I must say.  The boss fights from the main storyline are often long (like more than 10 to 15 minutes of intense thinking).  The boss fights from the side missions can be extremely hard.  Some of the tough battles you may take a defensive stance, sacrifice the 5 stars rating, and win.  Others will slab you with a doom counter if you are taking too long.  A doom counter is one that you must beat the boss in 3 minutes or there will be an instant death.  In short, there is no shortage of excitement.  Needless to say, some are so tough that you have to further develop your characters and return for another attempt later.

Judging FF13 from the Western standard, it may fall short a bit (it is after all a Japanese RPG).  But I happen to be thrilled by how beautiful the game is made – the colorful and unique environment, the memorable characters that are so easily to fall in love with, and the dramatic story development.  These days, it is hard to find a non-violence game that does not come with blood and gore and sex – like FF13.  If you wonder what the game play is like, here is a brief breakdown.

Part One – Stories And More Stories

In the first part of the game, you do not get to choose whose is or are in your team.  It depends on how the story unfolds.  There are lots of cut scenes.  The combat system progressively gets more complex, a good learning curve that I like.  Some comment that this part is too linear.  I happen to like the fact that I am forced to learn how to cope with different characters and different team composition.  In FF13, all the characters have different strengths and weaknesses.  Part one took me about 30 hours to complete.  It also accounts for the story of the 13 days prior to where you first started the game.

Part Two – Open Side Missions

Once you reach Gran Pulse, you get to venture to different parts of the map.  As you complete side missions, portals are open to aid you in warping to a different location in the map.  In this part, you also get to pick your team composition.  You do not have to complete all the side missions.  But they are rewarding.  It did not feel like grinding to me, although I have to pass the same area multiple times.  There is always something to be discovered.

Part Three – Head to Chapter 13

FF13 is divided into 13 chapters.  After Gran Pulse, you can do one chapter and return to do more open area exploration and complete more side missions.  The last two chapters can get pretty hard.  That is where the experience (and confidence) you gather while doing the side missions pays off.  Personally I love the story of FF13, although I must admit that I do not quite understand the logic of the Japanese.

Part Four – Open End Game Missions

This is where I am at right now.  After the final boss of the main storyline is beaten, after the story is concluded, I am brought back to the save point right before the final boss.  The difference is that I can now further develop my characters.  There are 64 missions in total.  Quite a number of them are designed for the end game.  Missions can be retaken if getting a 5 stars rating is what you are aiming for.  Or just for the fun of it.

Talking about save points, another good thing about FF13 (compares to other JRPG I read) is that there are tons of save points.  You can pick up the controller, play for 10 minutes or so, stop and do something else in real life.  I find that very useful.

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Diary

A Comic Relief – Uh Huh … Say Hello To mioTV?

I love watching Formula One on TV, at home.  Getting another setup box because ESPN is moving back to SingTel this July is something I dread, but inevitable.  I suspect under the umbrella of mio Home – a bundle of land lines (yes, plural!), broadband, and television – I may have saved some money.  It took the super patience SingTel sales consultant at Bishan Junction 8 one full hour to explain to me how mio Home works.  Who says the SingTel service is bad?!  After that one hour fruitful session, Cynthia commented that both of us were like a broken record.  “F1 will be broadcast in mioTV?”  “Yes, F1 will be broadcast in mioTV.”  “You sure F1 will be broadcast in mioTV?”  “Yes, I am sure F1 will be broadcast in mioTV.”  “I am signing up for this only because of F1.”  “Really?  Just F1?”  “Really, just F1.  So you sure come this July I can watch F1 on mioTV?”  “Yes, F1 will be on mioTV.”  “This July?”  “Wait a minute please.  Let me check.”

OK.  At least he admitted that he was not that sure.  All that drilling was not going nowhere.

After what appeared like 10 minutes, this friendly SingTel sales consultant emerged from his office and produced a screen printout for me.  He said with a big smile, “This is not easy to come by!”.  And I wondered why.

I love working with sales and service consultants, face-to-face or on the phone.  I always picture them as someone cheerful, always eagers to help.  After my mioTV installation appointment was made, I needed to shift the morning session to afternoon.  No problem, the hotline said.  A few days later, I needed to shift the afternoon session back to morning.  Sorry sir, all fully booked – so said the hotline.  On the day itself, SingTel called me if I could shift the appointment to the morning.  Really, I kept my entire day free just for SingTel.  Of course you can.

There is one good thing coming out of this mioTV exercise.  The sales consultant was so helpful that upon further poked by me, I was informed that the promotional rate for my 3G mobile broadband add-on (30 GB) will be expired on July 2nd, this year.  It will be a hike from S$12.57 per month to S$39.99!  My oh my, how lucky I am to discover this than years later, when I would discover that I had been paying so much more per month for a much slower speed.  Like before.

July 2nd I will be out-of-town.  Can I sign up for another promotional deal for July 2nd onwards (S$13+ with a reduced quota of 10GB, a cap of S$39.99 a month – finally! – and the speed is increased from 1 Mbps to 7 Mbps!)?  Hot-line replied: Nope, because today is not July 2nd and you can only do it on July 2nd.  OK.  Great.  And I am told that to enjoy the promotional rate, I have to sign up online.  Are there any other ways?  Yes, the hot-line replied.  But I will have to pay S$1 extra per month in order to sign up via the sales consultant on the phone, instead of DIY via online.  This really makes sense.  Especially when I am out-of-town.

Fine.  I requested to terminate my 3G data plan from July 2nd onwards and will deal with it when I am back from my summer holiday.  How I love SingTel for prompting us to be alert and creative in solving problems.  All the so-called savings from mio Home bundle would have been wiped off by the silent hike of the 3G data price.

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The duo who installed mioTV for me were fantastic.  101% service oriented, dramatic with a good sense of humor.  If there was a feedback form, I would have punched in 5-star rating for all categories.

Hours ahead of the scheduled appointment, this duo appeared at my doorsteps.  The Chinese guy had such a big pair of eyes and defined face line that I bet girls would melt seeing him.  After opening the phone socket at my living room near to my telephone, one guy got a shock.  Where was the 2nd line?!  The what?!  2nd line!  The Chinese guy turned the tracer on and the Malay guy (equally charming) went to the phone switch box outside of my apartment armed with this bizarre hand machine that emitted sound.  I suppose this futuristic device is to determine the phone signal without having to tap onto the physical wires.  How nice if the Matrix has incorporated this idea into the film.

“Is there a tone?” the Chinese guy would shout.  “No!” the Malay guy would reply.  The Chinese guy would switch to another bare wire and shouted out loud, “Is there a tone?”  “No!”  “How about this?”  “No!”  “And this?”  “NO!”.  “THIS?”  “NO!”. “THIS?”  “NO!”. “THIS?”  “NO!”. “THIS?”  “NO!”.

Déjà vu.  It was broken record once again.

“Where is the main wire?” asked the Chinese guy.  “Erm, I have no idea,” I replied.  Shortly, I realized that he was talking to himself.  Next, three of us – the good looking duo and I – were busy going round my apartment to hunt for that missing wire.  Later, after some detailed explanation from the Chinese guy, I understood that outside my home, there is a telephone cable that concealed 3 pairs of wires.  This cable goes underneath the floor outside my home, into my home, and emerges from a main socket somewhere.  And our job was to find out where.

As the hunting team combed through my apartment, I was busy concealing all the not too PG stuffs.  Like my used socks and what not.  One socket after another socket, we frown in disappointment.  Finally, we have located the source.  When we opened the case, it was empty!  The Chinese guy exclaimed, “The cable should come out from there!”.  “But there is nothing inside!” I replied in equal if not more enthusiasm and drama.  The duo stormed through my kitchen, through my storeroom, even went into the false ceilings of the bathrooms turning my house upside down.  I really give it to their positive work attitude.  After what appeared as a fruitless exercise, we concluded that the contractor who renovated my home back in 2000 must have forgotten to connect all six wires from the cable outside to my home inside.

What does that mean?

Well, my home could potentially support three telephone lines.  How SingTel has this vision that a tiny home like mine would need three telephone lines?  I do not know.  With mio Home, one phone line is dedicated to broadband Internet access shared with my main telephone line.  Another phone line is dedicated to watching TV channels on demand.  Interestingly, because of this 2nd phone line (that comes with a new telephone number!), I now can have two telephones at home!  Cynthia can talk to her mother in Indonesia while at the same time, I to my mother in Hong Kong.  One happy family.  The Chinese guy laughed when he heard me thinking-out-loud and commented that incoming calls for the 2nd phone line is not free, unlike the first one.  “Huh?” I said.  “But you can set up a fax machine and receive faxes for free!” he hinted.

Things you would not have known if not thinking-out-loud.  SingTel puts in a lot of hidden bonus materials for those who care to ask.

Back to the drama, we failed to locate the 2nd phone line.  There was no 2nd phone line in my home.  What a disaster!  “What shall we do now?” I asked.  The duo proposed that they would route a new cable from outside, use the existing StarHub concealed cable truck, drill a hole through my wall, and route the line around my living room to where my telephone is.  Concealed and free-of-charge.

Free?!  Wow.  It is not even SingTel’s problem.  But they were happy to make this works for me.  Though I am not a big fan of mioTV.  I am touched.  Not only did they do all these for free, the Chinese guy was sensitive enough to ask if I have a vacuum cleaner.  “For?!” asked I.  He took out his huge and long tool (I swear I have not seen such size before) – a driller – and told me that if we could suck the dust while he drilled, my home would not be so dusty thereafter.  Good idea.  He drilled and I held the sucker (sorry I forgot the English term for that).  And to add onto the drama, our driller failed to go through!  He tried until his face was all red.  I stayed still and looked at his driller in puzzlement.  Later, we found out that his driller had hit a metal plate put in by StarHub as an attempt to defend its cable (whoever came out with that idea is a true genius).  Wrong hole.  So he positioned his tool up a bit and drilled.  It went through OK.

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It is true.  There is a high chance that if you do not know what you are doing, your mioTV may take 30 to 40 minutes to get switched on.  The SingTel duo said to me that it is IMPORTANT to switch off the power at the mioTV box BEFORE turning off the power main.  Failing to do so may incur a 30 to 40 minutes penalty the next time you switch on mioTV.  If I may backtrack a bit, I also love SingTel for keeping us alert and proactive in not creating a problem in the first place.  The solution can be so simple that you feel like a genius knowing it.

PS. What if I have a sudden power failure while mioTV is on?  Read on and you will understand my concern.

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Contrary to how some may perceive, I love to embrace change.  Take wireless phone as an example.  I have changed from Nokia 8850 to Nokia N85 to Nokia N95 to Nokia N96 to Nokia 97 to now, a Nokia N900 over a decade (on a more serious note, I did change from nVidia to ATI and being a PC gamer to a PS3 gamer).  My next phone is likely to be a different model of a Nokia.  So, how does changing from StarHub TV to SingTel mioTV feel like?

Since during this promotion period (what a scary marketing phrase coming from SingTel), all the channels are opened for viewing, I requested for my favorite girl-fight-girl, girl-fight-lots-of-guys, girl-feed-girl-with-blood movie “Blood, The Last Vampire”.  It is on demand, so once I click OK, the movie started.  Wow.  That is pretty cool.  OK, the censorship is horrible (that’s why I seldom buy DVDs here) but that is nothing to do with SingTel.  Will I pay S$6.42 per movie?  I suppose if I think deeper on how much I spend on StarHub TV’s movie channels a month (S$28) and end up probably not watching any, if I think deeper on how many DVDs that I have bought thinking that I would watch but still in wraps, S$6.42 per movie may seem reasonable.  I don’t think Cynthia will be delighted to drop the Star Movies, HBO, and HBO HD channels currently playing in StarHub TV.  So all these thoughts are purely academical.

Net-net, what does this mean to me?  It means Cynthia now has StarHub TV and SingTel mioTV channels to watch.  I can say goodbye to console gaming and eBay off my PS3 today.

PS. I do like mioTV’s ability to retain the signal’s aspect and resolution and let us have 3 levels of zooming in and stretch and what not.  That way, the faces and arms on TV for the non-HD channels are not stretched unnaturally.

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I have always wanted to make a listing of the electrical appliances used across four power sockets in my living room here in my website.  I guess now is a right time to do so.

I think I may have reached a critical stage on how many electrical appliances I can support in my living room.  I kid you not.  If I am not careful in manually load balance the demand, the circuit breaker would trip.  If I am lucky, my home would be blacked out.  Otherwise, the entire tower may black out.  I pray that none from my condo reads this.

In no particular order, here is a laundry list of what are plugged in, of which three of the four power mains can be switched off if not used.  That is a pretty sophisticated power saving mechanism I have derived lately.

  1. Plasma TV
  2. Wireless headset that is perpetually connected to the TV
  3. Main telephone
  4. Portable telephone (with charger)
  5. Sony Playstation 3
  6. Network-attached Storage (my home server and more)
  7. Squeezebox (to stream my music wirelessly)
  8. Squeezebox controller (believe it or not, it is a computer on its own)
  9. Audio amplifier (that is also used for gaming, video, home studio, and etc.)
  10. CD player
  11. Blu-ray player
  12. Radio player
  13. StarHub Hubstation HD
  14. mio Box (modem and home network for broadband)
  15. mioTV setup box
  16. Wired modem for mioTV
  17. HDD recorder (because my mioTV does not come with one)
  18. Network switch (yes, I have that many devices)
  19. 24″ LCD computer monitor
  20. My power hungry computer
  21. Maxtor external on-the-fly backup drive for my computer
  22. Printer
  23. 22″ LCD computer monitor
  24. Cynthia’s computer
  25. Computer speakers for Cynthia’s computer