Metal Gear Solid 4

Guns of the Patriots ROCKS!!!!

 

Behold! My Windswept Locks!!

Synn bought this for me as an anniversary gift a couple of days ago and I’ve been fortunate enough to have an hour or two every other night to play this game.

Having been a big MGS fan since the early days, this supposed ‘Final Instalment’ of the series is pretty much the only reason fanbois buy a PS3.

Do I Look Fat In This?

For me, the other reason is Final Fantasy. But more on that another day.

Obviously, with Tristan around, I can’t game as hardcore as I used to, but suffice to say, I’m still in it, and the controls are easy to pick up having played the previous instalments of the game.

Unlike some others who go round the game as Rambo, I’ve always preferred playing the game the way it was meant to be: SNEAKING. You gotta love that new octacamo suit Snake’s now taken to wearing. The graphics supporting this suit are fantastic. The suit blends to whatever surrounding texture Snake is near if he stops moving for 2 seconds.

Peekaboo.

I don’t always get it right the first few times, obviously. Getting the enemy alerted more of often than not results in scores of enemies getting called to flush you out, so I normally just restart the game (yes, I’m THAT much of a perfectionist).

Snake's New Special Move - Iron Fist Meets Open Crotch.

However, no matter how many times I restart the part I messed up, sneaking around the beautifully rendered environments is a real joy. I’ve absolutely loved how the game engine makes use of light/shadow, sound/silence and movement/stillness to shape the gameplay and this game just gives me more of what I love.

There are some really weird enemies in this game, and the Gekko is no exception:

Mooooo.

They really do moo. I kid you not.

In any case, I’m still only ankle deep in Act 1, and I’m salivating at the prospect of playing more of this solid game.

Go Snake.

Sideshow’s World of Warcraft Diorama!!

As you may know, Synn and I played WoW for about 2 years before we retired to start Project MiniMe. This was before I had gotten addicted to collecting statues.

So, obviously, when Sideshow announced they were making a statue based on two memorable years of our lives, I was all over it. The diorama is based on the teaser artwork that was shown by Blizzard just prior to the release of The Burning Crusade expansion, introducing two new races, Blood Elf and Draenei, to the game.

The composition captures a Rogue Blood Elf in mid air, coming down on a Paladin Draenei. Rogue in mid-strike, Paladin’s shield raised in defense, preparing for the return smash of the hammer on leather.

The Blood Elf Rogue is geared in Tier 2 Bloodfang Armour, but I can’t for the life of me recall what blades those are. They look so darned familiar.

The Draenei is geared in PvP Lieutenant Commander’s Battlegear Armour, wielding a Hammer of the Naaru.

 

This piece was announced more than half a year ago and I had it preordered the moment I heard about it, so you can imagine my excitement when I finally laid eyes on the statue in front of me!

Beautiful, beautiful piece! To me, this is seriously one of those pieces where pictures don’t do it any justice.

I have to admit, I had my reservations at first when I saw some of the initial pictures on the forums. There were some concerns on the unusually long-ish facial sculpt of the Blood Elf, but they melted away when I saw it for the first time.

There is an amazing amount of detail that has to be seen in person to be appreciated. So much disparing textures to look out for on it! The leather, the steel, the cloth and even the texture of the paper in the tome…it’s simply incredible. I can’t say I’ve seen more colour on any other diorama or statue, and with such richness and so many various tones as well.

The slash marks and chips on the battleworn armour and shield.

 

The flowing hair and billowing cloak.

Check out the tattered and frayed cloak on the Draenei. Beautiful detail.

 

Even the worn leather bound tome looks…well…beautifully worn and leather bound.

 

I love the detail on the Draenei’s hooves!!

 

All these little details, together with the colour and composition of the piece, comes together to make up a beautifully dynamic diorama!!

 

Kudos to the Pablo Viggiano’s team on creating such a masterpiece! You can check out the making of here. 

My only grouse with the piece are the poor facial expressions. They both look rather poker faced. Grrr. But even without much expression, there is still so much detail to admire on the Draenei’s face. Absolutely beautiful.

 

I think facial expressions would have lent the piece an added sense of epic-ness of these two characters’ intense fight to the death.

But aside from the poker faced facial sculpts, I’m in WoW heaven…*orgasm*…this really brings back memories of my gaming days. It’s too bad I didn’t have a chance to get the Sideshow exclusive, which would have given me an extra Netherwhelp pet. It’s not that cute, but it would have been a welcome addition, hehe. Oh well, I’m a happy camper as it is with this piece already.

I truly hope there’s more in store for this line of statues, what with the next expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, already announced.

Capcom’s Street Fighter 4!!!

Having played Street Fighter since my secondary school days in the old Katong Shopping Centre (Ten Pin Bowling Center), the news that SF4 was in development had me stoked. 

My PS3 will be put to good use in days to come.

The screens of the bosses look fantastic:

 

As do the versus scenes:

The action sequences look super intense!!!

Can’t wait to get my hands on this when it’s released. I think it’ll be quite an interesting experience to play this with Tristan when he gets older, hehe. 

And of course, in anticipation of the game, the associated statues must be had as well, heh:

 

World Of Warcraft Clay Figurines…and some memories

Hehe. Just found out about maidemao’s SUPER cute WoW figurines. SO CUTE!

Too bad her site’s in Chinese, it’d take me the rest of my life to decode her first page lol.

But check out the cute Voidwalker and the Undead mount! And the little felhunter! And the murloc with the mobile!

  

 

And check out this cool Tier 5 Blood Elf Warlock!

Sigh. This really brings back a lot of memories.

I played WoW for about two years with Synn before we decided to retire and start Project MiniMe. It was a fantastic ride. I retired at what I felt was the peak of my game at the time.

I was healing class leader of a guild that was, at its time rated at top 10-15 on the server in terms of content progression.

 

We’d cleared Karazhan, Gruul’s Lair as well as Magtheridon. We were just about to start on Tier 5 content when the guild fell apart and most of the core players left for other servers. I’d achieved 4/5 Tier 4 gear and most of the dps gear from Karazhan at that time.

For sure they did try to get me to join them, but after 2 years of playing, I thought it was a good time to retire.  T_T

I was debating whether or not to turn my account to someone else who’d be able to better make use of it or to just keep it dormant. At the moment it’s dormant, I haven’t decided what to do with it.    But…who knows, right? 

However, I still miss the excitement of exploring a new instance, the rush when we down a boss for the first time and the comaraderie that you feel with your team during the mindless banter while waiting for others to show up.

I remember the pranks we’d used to play on one another, like how Zesk would use his warlock skill to conduct a ritual of summoning over a very high ledge to summon Toes. Obviously Toes would appear over thin air and fall to his death, and we would be rolling over ourselves in peals of laughter.

Or how we’d all be jumping on Toes’ gnome because he was so short.

It was Zesk’s warlock playstyle that inspired me to take up my warlock again. It was Synn who convinced me to stick it out with the warlock and I’m glad I listened to her.

 

By the way, Synn is a 3/5 Tier 4 Mage who was always top few dps. She’d come a long way since starting out as a noob.

Those were fun days, and I really miss the guys. So Skimed, Toes, Zesk, Bbt, Nis, Parize, Relique, Succour and all the others I haven’t mentioned who’ve given me so many many memories, if you’re reading this, I hope things are well with you and all the cool gear that you want drop and you win the rolls for them!

I hope I can see you guys again in-game sometime in the future.

2008, here I come!

So many things to look forward to in 2008!

Movies to look forward to: Ironman, Sweeny Todd, The Dark Knight and Wall.e, amongst others!

Project MiniMe!!

More baking recipes!!

Hopefully, Starcraft 2!! C’mon Blizzard, I want to play SC2!!

Maybe, just maybe, a return to World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King…

Masterpiece Starscream and Sideshow World of Warcraft Diorama!!!

Stay tuned.