PSP is dying

It is dying. The grand and mighty PSP. I love it, I hate it. It has so much potential. However 2 things killed the PSP. One is the PSP owners themselves. The second is Sony.

What did the PSP owners ever do? Well, not all PSP owners are to blame, it’s just that the rate of piracy for the PSP is freaking high. However, I do see a reason why “pirating” is not such a bad thing for PSP. I will explain in a while, in the mean time, I really would like to stress that piracy is killing the PSP. Many developers shy away from the PSP thanks to the piracy rate, their profit margins would drop at an insane rate. This would mean less games being developed, when less games are developed, less people will be interested, when less people are interested, even lesser games would be made. 

Sony. Sony decided to combat piracy with UMD discs (I should omit discs I guess), but by doing so, Sony “punishes” original game owners. Why do I say punish? For starters, a pirated PSP game loads much faster, a UMD consumes alot of battery and to add insult to injury, the UMD always makes a lot of noise. Sony is being arrogant. To develop a game, a developer must purchase/rent a PSP development kit from Sony. This is not cheap. Not cheap at all. Sony so far has released 3 versions of the PSP (I know it’s not exactly 3, but they’re roughly 3), the biggest improvement was from the first version to the second which made the psp lighter and slimmer. The last iteration was supposedly brighter and has a mic, big deal. No real reason to get it if you own an older PSP.

Now, a rumour of PSP2 being developed. I wonder would it be short lived? I might sell off my PSPs to get it, if it’s really worth it….

Dream Phone

When I was in high school, anyone who had a handphone was considered rich. During that time, there were no such thing as a phone with a camera, phones were using black and white LCD/monochrome. The first handphone I got was a Nokia 5300 I think. It was an entry level colour phone at that time and I was happy. Very happy indeed. I got that phone around 2004-2005. 

After losing a few phones thanks to my carelessness, I vowed to get a phone that I wanted without relying on my parents. The only time I can do so is when I work. Last year, I managed to scrape up money to buy a Viewty (actually my dad chipped in and I am thankful for that). Why did I get a Viewty? I always liked taking pictures, but I hate having to bring a camera everywhere I go. I feel like a stalker if I do so. With the advancement of technology, camera phones are a commodity. A handphone is a modern day neccessity, a camera is not. I bring my handphone everywhere I go, therefore it makes sense if I get a phone with good camera capabilities. That’s where I got my Viewty. Initially I wanted to get a Sony Ericson K850, I forgot why, but I scrapped that idea.

After using my Viewty for sometime, I grew discontent. It was a good camera phone but I would have preferred it to be better as a camera. It’s design was kind of ugly. That’s when I fell in love with Secret. When I saw it, I was shouting “that’s the phone I want” in my heart. I traded in my Viewty for a Secret. As a phone, my Secret functions well. The design is elegant, and it is sturdy. After time passed, I grew discontent. The Secret could not fulfill my hearts desire for a good camera phone.

Now we have entered the age of megapixel wars. Camera phones are flaunting off their high megapixel rate, which I find ridiculous. It’s just saying the phone is capable of taking a huge picture but at the “normal” rate of a 1 megapixel phone.  Megapixels need not be such an issue. What I want is optical zoom, good CCD lenses, xenon flash. Sad to say, most new phones do not have this. 

After doing extensive research I fell in love with 2 phones.

Sony Ericson W61s and Samsung SCH – V770. I will not be commenting much on them, suffice to say they are real camera phones, with great emphasis on the camera. I want one! If you really want to know more head all you need to do is JFGI (google this if you don’t know what it means). No matter how much I want them, they are not available outside Japan/Korea. Even if they were imported, they are not compatible with our GSM network. How sad.

If given a choice to “upgrade”, I would choose between Renoir and Sony Ericson’s C903. Yet, I doubt I would be satisfied. Heck, I do not want “just” a camera phone. I want a DSLR phone. I doubt that will happen so soon. To comfort myself, I took a few pictures in my garden to appease myself with my Secret.

 

Slightly a little grainy, can’t really zoom (digital zoom is a hoax) but I shall remain content for now…

Art of eating : Roti Planta

This article was created based on observations on how our demonstrator Ms.Rebecca Siew consumes her Maggi Goreng.

1. Analyze the roti planta.

2. Use the spoon to hold down the roti planta, while using the fork to flip a portion of the roti planta onto it self, continue this folding processing until the folded roti planta can be steadily supported by the fork.

3. Poke the fork in the middle of the foldings (not in between the foldings but by piercing the top to the bottom).

4. Lift the fork up.

5. Bite off whatever possible from this “lollypop”.

Art of eating Maggi Goreng

This article was created based on observations on how our demonstrator Ms.Charmaine Choo consumes her Maggi Goreng.

1. Start by using the fork to pull out a considerate amount of the mee for consumption.

2. Lift the fork up close to the mouth.

3. Open the mouth as if to eat it.

4. One would assume the food should be placed in the mouth, this is wrong, just before doing that you need to look at other people from the corner of your eyes without turning your head or body.

5. Enjoy your meal.

Konami the bully

Konami. I loved, this company a lot. It produced many games that I like, such as :

Castlevania series, Metal Gear series, Contra series, TwinBee, Yie Ar Kung Fu, Parodius series, Silent Scope series, Silent Hill series and of course the music game series. The music game series would be a series of Beatmania, Dance Dance Revolution and ParaParaParadise, there are others such as Guitarfreaks, Drummania and the not obscure Keyboardmania but the first 3 are the ones that I like and play.

By the way, heres a clip of an expert Keyboardmania player…

Konami pretty much invented the music game genre.

Why would I “hate” Konami?

With such a strong number of titles, which garners a large sum of revenue, one would expect Konami to be more competitive to their rivals. They could easily produce new games, with new innovations. Instead Konami decided to stick with their same old formulas and grow lazy. I stated that Konami is a bully. Why? Well Konami is always suing their competitors ass off, especially Pentavision, Andamiro and Amuseworld. Why? Konami claims they were infringing copyright laws by producing music games.

Come on. I regard music games as a genre. Suing someone for using the genre is like the inventor of the wheel suing others for using wheels.

Konami, why so lazy? Apparently it is in their benefit not to invest and develop a new music game, instead wait for others (their competitors) to invest and develop new music games and swoop in suing their asses off once that new game makes money.

Where is my fav dance game Ez2dancer? Gone! Sued off the face of the earth!

Next on the list would be DjMax, GuitarHero, Rockband…

Konami, come on! The only reason all these games rake in money is because you were lazy. Get off your fat ass and stop harrassing other people already!

Dedicated blog to Jessmin

I was chatting with Jessmin and she said this :

:: jess min :: says (9:02 AM):
hahaha
ish
blog la blog la
dedicate a post to me!
XD

So I’m dedicating this post to her.

Jessmin. How do I know her? Sayonara Camp 2006, she was a participant and was known to be one of the “black sisters” (or was it sistas?). She was a very fun girl but I didn’t really connect with her til Sayonara Junior Camp. She was revered as “Super Momma” as she was facilitating a group of 10 kids between the age 7-12 all by herself. Shes real super! She helps out in TRYBS alot and that’s where I normally hangout with her. Never went out with her as a normal friend before but bumped into her a few times at Mid Valley. The most notable bump was when she saw Zhu Sien walking towards the “I Need House” shop with Pei Wun not far behind.

Anyway, this post is for you!

For those who don’t know her, I hope the animation I made sums it all up….

Her blog can be found at http://minzles.blogspot.com/

Hope you’re happy with this post Min! XD

Johns true colours

He is what he is! Don’t Judge him!

 

Shit

Shit. Shit is dirty, shit is smelly, shit is digusting. Why would I want to write about shit?

 

It’s because I’m kinda pissed off with how people use public toilets (at least at my workplace). 

 

Sometimes I find shit in the toilet bowl unflushed or a smudge of shit on it. Sometimes I see traces of shit on the floor most probably due to “quick” shit washing.

 

I am sick and tired of “cleaning” up other people’s shit. In fact, seeing how people leave the toilet after shitting can give a good insight to their personal traits.

 

I hate people who are too “scared” to clean up their own shit. It’s shit, your shit. Learn to deal with it. It came out of you. Be responsible.

 

Would it kill a person to hose down their shit properly?

 

Sure it’s dirty, sure it can lead to disease, but if that is the excuse for not cleaning up after your shit, that would mean you are a selfish son (or daughter) of a bitch who would rather have other people suffer because of your shit.

 

Cleaners? Cleaners are hired to keep the place clean but I am sure that does not give you the right to leave your shit everywhere. Cleaners are people too. A proper job description for a cleaner is “keep the toilet clean” instead of “cleaning up other people’s shit”.

 

I will admit it, I do not like my own shit or anyone else’s but I enjoy shitting (it relieves feeling of not shitting) and bullshitting. However, I clean up my shit after I’m done regardless of how disgusting it is.

 

Sometimes when I talk about shit, people give me all kinds of reactions. However I feel that a lot of the people who react as though shit is a taboo are greatly overreacting.

 

After all…

 

It’s just shit.

Music Game

My cousin once asked me, “are music games actually any fun?”

 

In my opinion I would say it would depend on an individual’s personal taste.

 

However, I did ponder awhile on the question and came up with the criteria where an individual might find a music game fun.

 

To enjoy a music game an individual needs to :

 

1. Enjoy music in general

 

2. Enjoy the music available within the music game – this is very important

 

3. Know how to tap their fingers to the beat of a song

 

4. Enjoy games in general 

 

5. Knows or is interested in learning how to play a musical instrument

 

In general I believe if any individual were to fulfill the criteria above, the individual would certainly enjoy music games.

 

I love music games. The main reason I do is because first and foremost I am a gamer. I love gaming. Besides gaming what do I enjoy? Listening to music. Music games let me enjoy both games and music at the same time. A win-win situation.

 

Besides that, music games help improve my eye – hand coordination, improves my reflexes as well as my memory. It teaches me to be patient too (If I hurry I would be pressing the keys too early). The skills I obtain from music games can be applied to other games too.

 

To top it all off, music games are suitable for both casual and hardcore gamers. One can pick the game up, play it a few minutes then chuck it aside casually, unlike RPGs where hours are required to fully immerse oneself into the game.

 

There was a point in my life that I thought music games were stupid. The concept of the game is simple, press a button at the correct time. A simple game of Simon says. A childish brainless game. My view on this genre changed when I first gave it a try. One might underestimate the game, thinking it is a simple game- thinking it is easy. It is easy if the patterns are easy, but there are patterns insanely difficult which require 3 – 10 buttons to be pressed within the very short period of 1 second (I’m seriously not kidding on this).

 

Nowadays, whenever I find a person who does not like music games I fail to understand why they dislike the game. I bet if their favourite song was in the game and it is easy to play, they would be hooked.

Final Fantasy must die!

I do not hate FF (Final Fantasy), but I really feel that it should die. The title should die.

 

Don’t get me wrong. FF is a great series, I have played and completed a great deal of FF myself and enjoyed most of the experience.

 

Why would I want FF to die? Well, for starters, the first FF that was made was named FF as it was a “make it or break it” game for Squaresoft.

 

If the game flopped, Squaresoft would follow suit. Instead it did not flop. It was a success.

 

The point is, FF was the name given for Squaresoft’s “Final” fantasy. That made a lot of sense and the name is actually kind of epic.

 

So? What do I have against this name? Look. FINAL. FINAL means end, the last, no more beyond this point. How many “Final” fantasy sequals do we have?

 

FF is currently up to FFXIII (FF13 to those who don’t know how to read roman numerals).

 

FF has lost it’s meaning. I boldly say that Squaresoft is scared to create a new game using a new name.

 

To me and to most, FF would actually mean “epic JRPG made by Squaresoft”. Come on Square, you are creative enough to come up with a dozen well scripted stories with a gazillion unique characters yet you can’t even think of a proper title for your game?

 

Do you have to slap “FF” on the JRPGs that you make?

 

Lets step back and analyze. There are 13 FFs. 13 FFs FFS (for fucks sake). Can you point out how each FF is related to each other story wise? Here’s a FACT : Square could have named each and every FF without using “FF” with little to no consequence to any of the game’s story/plot.

 

To be thorough, some FF’s do in fact have connections to each other. Namely FF X and FF X-2. That right, FF 10 and FF 10-2. FF 10 – 2 not FF 12 or FF 11, FF 10 dash 2. That’s just great. A sequal to a sequal. Is that even logically possible? It’s mindblowingly insane!

 

Not only do the have sequals to a sequal, they have the almighty FFVII franchise which never seems to die. Expanding on this popular franchise is FF Dirge of Cerberus, which fucked the FF name by not being a “real” RPG. 

 

I’m not done with FF7 yet, no not yet. Enter FF Crisis Core. What is it? It’s a prequal to FF7. Great. A prequal to a sequal. First they have a sequal to a sequal now a prequal to a prequal. To be fair, it’s not the first time they did this. They did make FF Advent children, an awesome movie as a continuation of FF7, they did also create a prequal animation to accompany the movie. Great, a prequal to the continuation of a sequal.

 

FF Tactics and FF Dissidia are the only 2 FFs that tie up the other FF’s together by allowing characters from different FFs to exist in the same game. In FF Tactics, the characters from other games were actually bonus characters and didn’t really contribute to the plot. FF Disidia on the other hand is just a case of Square being lazy. Seriously. The original game they had in mind did was supposed to be another original FF game with all new characters. Instead they re-used character’s and villains from old FFs to market it. Wiki it if you doubt my words.

 

Am I the only person to point out how ridiculous FF has become? Let’s try and Imagine how Capcom games would be if they followed the same naming standards as Squaresoft.

 

Let’s begin with Megaman as Capcom’s “first game” (actually it was the first Capcom game I played)

 

Megaman -> Final Fantasy

StreetFighter -> Final Fantasy 2

DevilMayCry -> Final Fantasy 3

MonsterHunter -> Final Fantasy 4

ResidentEvil -> Final Fantasy 5

Megaman 2 -> Final Fantasy 1-2

StreetFighter Zero 3 -> Final Fantasy 2 – 0 – 3 (Capcom is guilty of making 3 sequals for a prequal)

MonsterHunter 2G -> Final Fanasy 4 -2G

 

Now do you see how ridiculous this all is?

 

Here’s how I would probably rename FF series.

 

Original Name/ Best Name I can think of/ Alternate name

FF / FF / Please help our company from bankruptcy

FF2 / Victory for the Resistance / Chocobo’s and Cid’s appears!

FF3 / The Orphaned Four / Moogles have been summoned

FF4 / Betrayal and Redemption / Childhood friend fighters!

FF5 / ExDeath / The Jobhoppers

FF6 / Esper impact / Clowns are indeed evil

FF7 / Cloud Chronicles / The one where Aerith dies

FF7 Dirge of Cerebus / CC: Dirge of Cerebus / Vincent Chronicles

FF7 CC / CC: Crisis Core / How Cloud thinks he’s a first class solier when he’s not

FF7 AC / CC: Return of Sepiroth / Let Cloud do all the fighting

FF8 / Magic Force from the future / Let’s draw magic

FF9 / Battletrance / The one with a “sexy” guy villain who has a tail

FF10 / Dreams of Eons / TIDUS (edited, thanks for pointing it out sape!) is not real

FF10-2 / Dreams of Eons 2 / Oh yes he is

FF11 / World of FF / Critical hit from harmless critters can kill you

FF12 / The War of Crystals / License funtime