The Gamer’s Litter Box

It’s the Year of the Ox and according to my horoscope, I’m going to have a fantastic year. ^_^ Probably the only disappointing news that I learned from Kurogane was that Aya Hirano has already left the country…sigh, and I had even printed an interview request letter for her. Oh well, I guess there could be another time - she did leave the country with a fairly positive impression, so maybe she might return again some day.

I’m gonna chill out today and enjoy a nice simple lunch with my friend. Probably do some grocery shopping as well as catch up on the anime series that’s currently on my backlog.

Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, but I’ve no plans to celebrate it because I can’t be arsed to get stuck in traffic and pay through the nose for overpriced drinks. I’m saving up for a trip next month, and I can’t afford to blow it away on a single night. I’m still going out the day after for a simple lunch with some mates - it’s a better way to welcome the new year than getting piss drunk and not remembering what went on the night before.

Maybe I’ll watch the new Touhou anime. I’ve read that it comes with pretty decent English subs.

Results

有効コードがある票の順位
1位　1037票　柊かがみ＠らき☆すた [Hiiragi Kagami @ Lucky Star]
2位　976票　柊つかさ＠らき☆すた [Hiiragi Tsukasa @ Lucky Star]

Woohoo! Go Kagami! In commemoration of Kagami winning SaiMoe 2008, here’s my most favorite Kagami picture from my collection. Fresh from her victory, Kagami flashes the biggest, brightest smile from her heart. Congratulations Kagami!

A Red Alert 3 launch in Malaysia? OH SNAP!

Being the first Electronic Arts title to be launched in Malaysia, Gamers Dotcom, the official local distributor for EA games had a special Red Alert 3 launch at Leo’s Cafe, SS2 where gamers could pre-order the game and pick it up on the day of the event. Even a representative from EA Singapore came down to open the launch. There were lots of food and fun to be had, especially with the Red Alert 3 showgirls (and guys) stealing the event with their costumes. I managed to win a copy of Red Alert 3 thanks to the media lucky draw, so I’m gonna install and play it right after this post. In the mean time, check out the image gallery below!

 

The TGS 2008 may already be over, but I still see some news trickling out here and there, since the game show wasn’t terribly exciting this year. Also for people who were disappointed with the recent E3 clampdown on skimpily-dressed booth babes, they could find some solace with the booth babes at the TGS2008. Most of them were dressed pretty classily, though some dared to show off their waists. I wasn’t able to take pics of all of the booth babes due to lack of time (I was too busy playing the latest game demos and watching game trailers) but I still managed to compile an adequate pictorial collection of the booth babes of the show.

Much more pictures after the jump! To view a larger size of the image, right-click and select ‘View Image’ in Firefox.  Continue Reading »

I haven’t been able to blog about my trip in Japan recently as usually at the end of the day, I’m so pooped from walking around that I usually head to bed immediately. That, and the hotel Wi-Fi has been very iffy for the past couple days. The good news is that the connection seems much better now. For now, here are some pictures of the schwag that I’ve gotten so far from Akihabara a couple days ago.

Besides getting the G’s Festival November issue for the Haruka Nogizaka Oppai Pad, I got a bunch of Lucky Star fortune slips and some miscellaneous anime bookmarks for dropping a small fortune (oh hey, pun! I so smart) at Gamers. I got one Excellent Luck, 1 Good Luck, 5 Normal (half?) Luck, and one Bad Luck.

The Haruka Nogizaka Oppai Pad packaging, which also contained 2 badges of Toradora and To Aru Majutsu no Index, and 3 mobile stickers. I also picked up a copy of Takamichi’s collected artwork. Those Lucky Star stickers were free.

Was around the Tokyo Anime Center where they announced the 2nd season of Spicy Wolf. The announcement was made at the 15th anniversary event for ASCII Media Works, the main publisher behind light novel series such as Shakugan no Shana and Spicy Wolf. There was an artbook for Spicy Wolf which quickly sold out, but there were plenty of Horo’s Canned Apple Juice, which came in two different designs at 150 yen (RM5) each, so I bought both of them. There were also lots of Spicy Wolf paraphernalia, such as pencil boards, stickers, stationery, and plushies, but I decided to spare my wallet.

Success! I managed to obtain the discontinued and hard-to-get Lucky Star pair Kagami and Tsukasa Hiiragi miko pair at Gamers. Got them at 8033 yen (RM282).

Yeap, I visited a meido cafe. It was a fairly normal one, located on the 3rd floor of a shoplot. I wasn’t allowed to take any pictures of the premise, and they were charging 500 yen (RM17) to take a picture with one maid. Still, they let me take this banner home since it was my first time at a meido cafe.

Basically at Akihabara, I spent most of my time looking at the various anime and H-manga titles. I also spent quite a bit of time at the arcade, playing Konami’s new music simulator Jubeat, and Capcom’s Street Fighter 4. I found Jubeat fun while Street Fighter 4 boring. Yeah, yeah, SNK fanboy here. I’m not denying that SF4 looks great, but the gameplay feels and plays very Street Fighter II Turbo.  I haven’t seen many people taking advantage of the new feint/move cancel gameplay. At this rate, I still prefer Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.

I gotta rest up for tomorrow’s Tokyo Game Show 2008. I’ll be posting some TGS updates on The Zone from my notebook so check it out if you want to see the latest photos from TGS2008!

I’m quite tired from attending the launch since this morning at 8:45 a.m. so I’m just going to post the gallery here for your convenience. Some pictures have captions to them, which should explain most of the event that went on this morning. In the meantime, I’m taking a catnap!

 

12 hours have passed since I last visited the launch event area in the morning. The queue has grown considerably (there’re more than 50 people waiting in line now), and the players taking part in the 24-hour gaming marathon continues to see a steady stream of players replacing other contestants when they lose their matches.

Continue Reading »

Just a day to go to the launch of the Sony PlayStation 3 in Malaysia but things are already moving. This morning, I went to the event launch area to check out the 24-hour gaming competition and found a couple dozen gamers waiting around the main entrance, watching Sony staff set up the event area. Pictures and mini-report after the jump!

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Just received the press release from Sony Malaysia on the launch event. The press release more or less confirmed that the launch event will still take place on the 20th of September 2008 at 1Utama Shopping Centre. However, the number of cash vouchers that will be given out to early birds has been increased to 120. Good news for those who thought they might miss out on the goodies.

Points to note in the press release:

- Launch is confirmed 20th September 2008 at 1Utama.
- Special bundle price is confirmed RM1,799, which comes with the 80GB PS3, SCIV, One selected PS3 game (Resistance, Ratchet and Clank Future, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, or Assassin’s Creed), one PS3 tote bag, and one SCIV CD holder
- The number of cash vouchers given out to early birds who line up on the day of the launch is now 120, instead of only 100.
- The PS3 will be available at all Sony Style outlets and selected Sony Centre outlets from 20th September
- Confirmation of the Game Girls Competition and Game Marathon competition

Press release after the jump!

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