November 09′ Hot Picks

The Blackest Night Saga continues with Issue 4!

Ho ho! I just picked up the latest issue of DC’s on-going epic crossover and I just can’t wait for it to end. Each month is a grueling wait to see what the creative team of Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis have up their sleeves. The latest issue doesn’t detail much about what Hal Jordan & the Indigo Lanterns are up to and focuses very much on Barry Allen (the Flash), the Atom & Mera as they fend off the Black Lantern horde of undead heroes & villains on earth. Pretty cool stuff.

The Broken Steel logo

And here’s some news from the gaming front: Am in the midst of downloading the “Broken Steel” expansion also since I’ve been sitting on my unused credit on my Singapore PSN account. I’ve heard some good things about the expansion from my colleague over at 9/10.com. It’ll be good to continue the adventures of the Wasteland Wanderer and go past the level 30 cap. The download’s taking a bit of time so I might just leave my PS3 on today whilst I’m at work. Fallout 3 was and still is a great game. Am missing RPGs on the PS3 though and I’m very tempted to pick up a copy of Bioware’s “Dragon Age: Origins”. 😛

“Uncharted 2: Among Thieves” was really awesome and I’ve yet to find time to write up a review of the game. I’ll have to make time to do that cos’ there are quite a few differences compared to the original and while its a great game I think I preferred the original a lil’ bit more. The new one feels different even though it kept a lot of the gameplay elements of “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune”. Multi-player is fun too but it takes ages to get into a game cos’ you’ve gotta wait and wait for player match-ups. Look out for a review soon cos’ I really wanna write this one up properly.

I’ve also been re-reading a lot of my older comic books lately in my spare time on weekends and on what free week nights I have. I’ve been going back to the following old favourites on & off over the past few years and here are some books that you should look up if you’re into comic books:

• Infinite Crisis
• Crisis on Infinite Earths
• Earth X

Really good stuff. Anyways, just thought I’d write up something a bit more fun instead of all the serious reflections that I’ve been putting up in the last week or so.

Have a great day everyone!

Fallout 3

Fallout 3

A superb game that captures the essence of what Fallout is all about. Tack on Bethesda’s flair for creating an open world and you’ve got one huge game that gives the player a tonne to do.

Putting the game into first person was a decision well made and the FPS-styled gameplay benefited Fallout 3 tremendously and the inclusion of V.A.T.S. (a Fallout hallmark) made the game even more memorable.

I must admit that the ending of the game wasn’t that satisfying but that’s just a minor quibble on my part. All in all Bethesda have certainly proven that they are worthy successors to carry on the legacy of Fallout that began over 10 years ago with Interplay’s original game.

I give it a 5 out of 5.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

A Non-Weekend… Almost

It's a prepaid thing.

It’s been an almost non-weekend. Been working on stuff for Happy most of the weekend in between jaunts in the wasteland that is Fallout 3. At least I had the game to keep me somewhat sane even as I worked so hard on the stuff that we need to get out to the client. The past few weeks have been crazy and work has just been full up with multiple projects on top of this one. It’s madness!

Preparing for the future in an irradiated wasteland.

On top of that there were things to do to for Four Forty to close our books for the last financial year that just ended. It’s been so difficult to balance things out but I’m thankful that I’m finding my groove.

Highlight of the weekend was worship at church this morning and lunch after with D & her cell. The sermon jumped through a lot of scripture and to be honest I found it difficult to pay attention because the topic of discipleship just wasn’t hitting home. The low-light of the weekend was missing out on hanging at The Curve with my friends cos’ I had to home to continue working on Happy. *Sighs* … at least I had Fallout 3. Heh.

It’s now officially Monday. And so another week begins. I leave everyone with these infamous lines from Fallout …

“War … War Never Changes”

Perspective

I was thinking about writing about this yesterday and filed the idea away in my brain so here it is … I got up pretty early on Tuesday and was getting ready to settle into my daily routine of reading the Bible & writing in my journal when my mom calls me to let me know that she & dad are on the way to my apartment and they wanna have breakfast together.

Anyways, to cut a long story short … I was having breakfast with my mom & dad at the market when this little Standard 2 boy walks up to us to sell nasi lemak. My parents have bought nasi lemak from him before many times and as I observed this exchange a thought struck me that us young adults can be very selfishly stuck in our own wants, desires & petty problems. Here I have in front of me a very young boy going from table to table, person to person to help his parents make ends meet. Sigh … It’s all about lifestyle really … all of us are caught in a trap where we want to look good, have the latest things … have luxuries. I know I’m caught … I have an expensive hobby in comic books, video games & movies and when it comes to food, gosh I find it hard to resist a nice meal at Chilli’s or some other eatery that has a price tag of at least RM10 above for a bite to eat.

What really is need & what really is want? A lot of the things in my life are wants rather than needs. A real need is to have food on the table & clothes on our back. A need is having electricity & running water. A need is having the means to get from point A to point B in whatever form of transport that we’re using. A need is being loved. Wants are all those shiny new things that eventually we get tired with. How do we stay contented? The answer to that eludes me right now and I’m still trying my best to be more sensible with my money. After spending the whole of 2007 going crazy on purchases I’m in a better place now although I still have to clear things off with my mom for my lack of self-control.

That little boy gave me a sense of perspective. Are we looking around us to get a little perspective or are we all stuck with our eyes fixed on our own problems & selfish desires? Just some food for thought. I’ve been telling myself that I need to order my life more and also work on keeping those expensive purchases in check. This is my wishlist of stuff for this year.

Number 1
A pair of Levi’s jeans. The one pair I have now just doesn’t cut it. Actually any other pair of comfortable jeans would do … it’s just that I don’t know any other brand other than Levi’s that are actually very comfy. You do pay for what you get I suppose.

Number 2
A couple of new shirts. I don’t really buy clothes for some reason. Heh heh!

Number 3
Some ties … Again … the reason why I’ll have to pick some up is cos’ I don’t have any nice ties at all! Ha ha!

Number 4 (the FUN stuff – clothes aren’t FUN!)
Video games of course! In alphabetical order:

Fallout 3 (PS3)

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3)

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3)

Resident Evil 5 (PS3)

Super Smash Brothers Brawl

As you can see the list of things to buy never really ends. But I think I shall keep it to these few items this year and these will really cost a bomb. At the end of the day I guess I really want to be wise with what little I have. I do realise that money & material possessions aren’t everything and so these items will remain as wants rather than needs. It’s really hard right now cos’ I know I want a nice lifestyle as much as the guy next door and perhaps God is teaching me to simplify the way I live. I always figured myself to be an anything goes kinda person but that’s increasingly becoming not true.

I guess by putting down all those things above I hope to really keep my frivolous purchases to a set of items this year and learn how to save for them or work a freelance job or two extra to afford them. After all I do get my reality escape fixes at the movies already don’t I? No more comic books this year I guess…

Perspective & contentment. These are 2 good principles to live by don’t you think?