The Gamer’s Litter Box

Sure, everyone knows that the British Academy Film and Television (BAFTA) Award looks like a theatrical mask. But have you ever wondered how it looks from behind, or why nobody bothered to show its back? No? Well, who’s to stop me from indulging you with some worthless trivia that you can use on your snooty friends and relatives who think they’re so smart? I managed to capture the surprising truth behind the mask when Codemasters Malaysia brought back the award last month to highlight its win in the Best Sports Game (2009) category with Race Driver: GRID. Click the jump for the shocking truth. Continue Reading »

Earlier today, I took part in a mini Rock Band competition which was held at Sony’s booth at the Games & Gadget event in MidValley. I came in 2nd place, so I won myself a Sony PlayStation Portable. Since I don’t really game much on the go, I asked the prize sponsor if I could sell back the PSP and get a discount instead for a Sony PlayStation 3 instead. Luckily, Sony PS3 Evangelist Teoh Wah Keong was there and I managed to get a discount for the Sony PS3 bundle, which was selling at RM1699. I bought inFamous for RM209, and they threw in a free DualShock 3 controller.

Total cost? RM1088 (USD310). That’s some massive savings there for a brand new game console which can also play high-def Blu-ray movies. I can’t deny that if I weren’t a videogame magazine editor, I probably would not have gotten the discount. So many thanks Sony Malaysia and Tan Electronics! I’m now off to set up my PSN account and start playing inFamous! :3

Update: My PSN name is FatCatLim. Add me!

A bloody mess in more ways than one.

Where do I start? The wooden acting? The Engrish lines? Poorly edited fighting and story scenes? The incredibly obvious CG blood and monsters? Or the stupifying ending that left half the audience speechless? It’s all of them, really. Continue Reading »

I’m now at CyberFusion 2009 at CyberJaya, where nearly 200 gamers are attempting to break the Guinness World Record for longest LAN party with a record of 38 hours. The record will begin at approximately one hour’s time at 12 Midnight, and will end at Sunday 2 p.m.

Right now I’m just updating some drivers and chillin’. I’m kinda kicking myself since I forgot to bring my copy of Call of Duty 4 to the event, but I reckon Team Fortress 2, Left 4 Dead, Sudden Attack, and Dawn of War II will keep me awake for the duration of the record.

I will be twittering every now and then, so keep an eye on my Twitter page @fatcatlim

Tomorrow I’ll be at the CyberFusion 2009 event at Cyberjaya MMU, where I’ll be one of over 200 Malaysian gamers attempting to break the world record for Longest LAN party. The current record was achieved during the NVISION event last year with a record of 36 hours. From Friday 11 p.m. tomorrow, we’ll attempt to stay up for 38 hours to break the world record.

To record my progress, I’ll be posting on my Twitter homepage as often as I can. That was the main reason why I recently integrated my Twitter account to my blog here. At the same time, I’ll try to cover as much as I can of the event here and on GameAxis.com.

Frankly speaking, most of my colleagues and family members think I’m crazy to take part in the event. Even though I’m only 27, I find that I can’t stay up as late compared to my Uni days. But I feel like I want to achieve something in my lifetime, even though this record will eventually be broken by another energetic mass of gamers.

Another reason why I decided to take part in it may be that I miss the camaderie that one gets when playing with like-minded friends. The last time I ever did anything of the sorts was in college, when I hung around the arcades and met up with friends for an evening of DDR and KOF. Or perhaps I want to do something where later in life I can start spinning yarns to friends and/or children and go “Ah…I remember that event: I actually took part in it.” and start relating to them the trials of gaming nearly non-stop for such a long stretch of time.

Whatever my reasons may be, I’ll find out tomorrow night. Wish me luck.

Tomorrow’s Earth Hour, where 1 billion homes will switch off the lights for one hour from 8:30 p.m. I won’t be able to participate since I’m rushing for the deadline, but I’ll switch off my computer at home (normally I leave it on the whole day for anime and ‘mature reading materials’ torrents), not play any video games in return, and switch off the lights at my cubicle.

What will you be doing for Earth Hour tomorrow?

Busy weekend as I attended two anime and game events - the Anime Comics Games Convention event at Tropican City Mall, and Hotlink Games and Anime Festival at Berjaya Times Square. I’m pretty tired and I’ve a backlog of work to sift through in the office, so I probably won’t be posting here until the end of the month.

Although the walk-in crowd at ACGC Tropicana wasn’t that great, I found it a lot more varied and interesting compared to the Hotlink Games and Anime Festival at Berjaya. Actually, the “anime” part at the Hotlink event was erroneous because I didn’t see any related anime events or activities there, except for a couple hired cosplayers and the cosplay competition on the 2nd day, which I didn’t attend. It was cool to see the Malaysia-Singapore matchup at the Sudden Attack booth though.

Sometimes I can’t help but admire the endless energy that cosplayers seem to have for their series and craft. I can’t see myself exhibiting the same enthusiasm, like going on stage to do the Caramelldansen performance when the song plays. Probably I’m just an oldfag who can’t adapt to the new generation of anime and videogame fans.

The main website for DaiCon has gone LIVE. What’s DaiCon? It’s the brainchild of the EMINA club, the same group of people who brought the GACC in MMU Melaka, which saw two notable seiyuus such as Masakazu Morita (voice of Kurosaki Ichigo of Bleach) paying a visit to Malaysia and giving a Q&A session to anime fans.

Will DaiCon be any different? Inviting a special VIP to the event? Perhaps. I’ll leave it to the organizers to reveal it themselves.

DaiCon Main Website

I have a bad habit of shutting myself out of everything when I’m especially preoccupied with a particular game, such as Persona 3. I’ve already sunk over 65 hours in the game in the last week, and I think I’m only halfway through the game. I have’t even started the FES chapter, which I read will take about 30 hours to complete. Yikes. If that’s the case, I think I’m gonna leave Persona 4 aside for awhile once I complete Persona 3.

In the past week, I’ve been busy working with organizers Outpost Events and Sony Malaysia to make the Street Fighter IV tournament a reality. Last week, we managed to iron out most of the main details for the tournament and we’re proud to announce the Malaysia Street Fighter IV tournament. Although I won’t be competing, I’ll nonetheless be relishing the event since it’s been a long time since I last took part in a fighting game tournament.

January 14th is Rukia Kuchiki’s birthday, which also happens to be mine as well. How cool is that? I wonder how old is she now in Soul Society compared to human society? Anyway, it’s been a while since I last read Bleach, so maybe once the Vizoreds appear in the current arc I’ll return to the series.