The Gamer’s Litter Box

I think my Xbox 360 is dying. Recently, my Xbox 360 has been getting more RRoD flashes whenever I start it up. Although it usually resolves itself after I restart it, I’m concern that these signs are indicative of a permanent hardware failure.

If it does die in the end, I’m not too concerned. First, there’s that 3 year warranty program. Ever since I bought it last year, I had a great time gaming on it. I don’t regret my purchase; I wouldn’t buying another new model to replace it.

Update: My worst fears have come true. Upon reaching home from work, I can’t start up my console and I keep getting the RRoD. Sigh…guess I’ll be sending it to Gamer’s Hideout for repairs tonight…

Why is it all the good manga series that I like ends early, while the really shitty ones get prolonged plots that go nowhere, drawn out battles, and stupid endings? Why did this happen to Double Arts, a series that I was having fun reading for a while only to find out today that it has been canceled, after a mere 23 chapters?

Fuck you, readers of Shonen Jump Weekly.  Go ahead and continue to wank off to Naruto and Bleach. Because you wouldn’t know good storylines or series when you see it.

Wondering why your order for that Chu Chu Astram figurine hasn’t arrived yet in your local figurine store? Well, chances are it may have been consficated. Harian Metro, a Malay-language tabloid did a special investigative report on anime figurines, and reported it to the authorities, who promptly took action.

Young collectors with fetish for obscene dolls

PORNOGRAPHIC dolls, which can cost up to RM200 each, have flooded the local market and are being snapped up by well-off young collectors.

Harian Metro reported that collecting these dolls was a hobby to some, especially children from wealthy homes, according to the Home Ministry Quranic text control division central enforcement unit head Mohd Rizal Abidin.

The dolls were being sold in shopping malls in the Klang Valley.

“The traders told us that most of these dolls are popular with teenagers who bought them for their own private collection, or as gifts for their friends.

“Action has to be taken as such pornographic dolls affect society’s moral values,” he said after raiding several premises which sold such dolls in Bukit Bintang, Subang Jaya, Petaling Jaya and Brickfields since last Monday.

Mohd Rizal said they confiscated 114 dolls valued at about RM10,000.

(source: The Star Online)

The original report can be found here, courtesy of Google Cache.

Selling Indecent Toys (retrieved 12th August 2008)

I like it how the reporter grossly generalizes that these figurines are mainly bought by ‘anak orang kaya’ (children of rich people). I’m hardly wealthy, and I know quite a number of collectors who aren’t rich either - we just save our money like anybody else.

This incident reminds me of the infamous KOSMO! incident two years back, when the tabloid reported that anime was animated sex. Well, glad to see yet another tabloid of journalistic integrity picking up the pace!

Figure Mall’s Kevin is understandably pissed about this. Valho has a more reasonable outlook on the whole situation, though Setsuna is panicking.

Over the weekend, the latest news to raise eyebrows in the international gaming community was about the July 2008 issue of PC Gamer Malaysia, which had a cover story on GTA IV with the byline “Now on console, soon on PC”. Several popular gaming sites picked up the story before it was eventually debunked by Rockstar themselves.

Normally this would be a great scoop of a cover story, but when the article itself doesn’t have any details about the PC title - no release dates, no changes, no upgrades - then the cover story feels misleading. While the latest gaffe by PCGM brings publicity, it reflects poorly on the editorial integrity of the magazine as well as the rest of the gaming press in the country, judging from the remarks of readers and other gaming sites editorial staff.  Even PC Gamer US editors commented on their podcast (21st minute onwards) that they thought it was “hilarious” for PCGM to jump the gun, with the team likening PCGM to “A few tacos short of a combo plate”.

As a fellow videogame magazine editor, I’ve great respect for Alicia Mak, the current editor for PC Gamer Malaysia. But I do feel that putting a cover story on GTA IV without any confirmation or official word seem like a disingenuous move. While our industry thrives on rumors and early game news leaks, it’s one thing to report it as a rumor in box story. It’s another to publish it as a full-blown cover story.

Just when you thought you’ve seen everything, something like this monstrosity turns up. Truly, truly terrifying. XD Anime Fest 2008 in pictures, after the jump. Continue Reading »

I must admit that I haven’t read a lot of the School Rumble manga chapters, but I’m pretty sure there’s a lot of stuff that the recently released OVA did not cover. Wasn’t there supposed to be some sort of overseas trip with the School Rumble gang? Or confrontation with Eri’s suitor? The director decides to ignore all of them and skip to the last few dozen chapters or so, where Karasuma is leaving for America and Harima proceeds to bring Tenma to the airport so she can join him. WTF? Were there other School Rumble episodes that I somehow missed after the second season?

Okay, my StreamyX connection has been very erratic the last few days. Some nights, my connection either times out or I can’t login whatsoever. Other times, it’s butter smooth. It’s very, very annoying and frustrating not being able to check my mail, news, or downloads.

And when I call up the service center, the operator would say that there’s nothing wrong with their servers and proceed to run through their inane SOP: is your modem switched on? Have you rebooted your modem/router? Have you tried connecting directly to your phoneline? Have you flushed your DNS? Did you switch off your antivirus? Yadda, yadda, yadda. For goodness sake don’t treat me like I’m some damn imbecile new to computers. Something is definitely screwed up somewhere, as evident by this thread here on the LowYat forums.

TMNet, if you still have your balls and admit that there’s something wrong with your system or you’re upgrading or WHATEVER and post it online, instead of sticking your head in the sand. Pretending there’s nothing wrong only pisses us off even more, which also makes us more inclined to switch to another ISP. I’m already planning to move to a wireless provider at the end of the year if this keeps up.

Fuck you, Jin Kobayashi. Fuck you. What a shitty ending to your series. God, it was made of so much EPIC FAIL that not even a hodgepodge of Epic Fail Guy, Pool’s Closed, AIDS, and Face Palm can compare.

What a day. Woke up this morning and the first big news of the day from E3 is Final Fantasy XIII coming to the Xbox 360. Nice scoop there, Microsoft. Making the game ‘PS3-Exclusive in Japan’ is a bit retarded though.

Then again, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at this news. The game was long rumored for the Xbox 360, especially since it was developed on a multiplatform engine. Plus Squarenix couldn’t just simply ignore the Xbox 360 large user base in NA and Europe. Furthermore, it’s not the first time that Squarenix have partnered with Microsoft: Final Fantasy XI was released for the 360 a few years back.

I wonder if MGS4 will be next…

Plagiarism is a cardinal sin for any writer, and it takes great balls for a writer to copy and paste another writer’s work. The original review, taken from Pocket Gamer is one such example. Half of the review was copy pasted word-for-word and published in a rival local IT magazine. Sadly, I’m familiar with the writer who ‘wrote’ this mobile game review, so I must say I’m quite disappointed with his action.

Protip: Copying and pasting a part of an article without an intro is a surefire way to raise suspicion, especially when you begin a review with a conjunction.