The Singaporean Gamer

As seen last Sunday (May 3rd 09) before the match. Guess who is rounder?

Recently, GamersGate.com had a Ubisoft 50% sale. I was perusing the games on sale and I saw that Far Cry 2 was marked down to US$14.95. Taking a liberal US$1=S$1.55, I calculated it should cost me about $23. Not a bad price I must say. It’s still retailing around S$60 and 2nd hand sales still figure about S$30 or so, which I am not too keen on, because of the install limits.

However, I was willing to take a chance on GamersGate, as in a particular FAQ section, it states its policy on install limits.

How many times can I download and/or install my games?

Any game bought on GamersGate is yours to download and install as many times you like. Some games are protected with an activation limit but that limit is easily reset with an email to support@gamersgate.com

Also, Reclaim Your Game, a website explaining the ins and outs of DRM and other related gaming issues, has given a positive light on GamersGate’s tech support.

Quality of Tech Support: Very good. My only issue with them was actually a billing problem they weren’t directly responsible for, but they still helped me to resolve it within a matter of days. GG has an overall very good reputation for tech support.

I felt like it was alright for me to go ahead with my purchase, and since it was a very good offer, I decided to take the plunge.

I did not regret it. Far Cry 2 is great!

To be honest, I have “tried” Far Cry 2 before, albeit in a not so legal way. I loved it too back then, and after completing the initial tutorial mission, I promised myself that if I were to continue playing this game, I would really enjoy it so much more if I were to purchase it.

I’m running it smoothly on “Very High” at 1280×1024 resolution on my system and I never noticed a slowdown or any drop in frame rate, even when there seemed to be a lot of action on screen. I could probably push it further, but it is already looking awesome. It really feels like a well-coded and optimized game, unlike a few other games in my arsenal, notably Grand Theft Auto 4 and Neverwinter Nights 2. (For NWN2, at the time, I was running a 7900GT, a mid high-end part. And the game is still sluggish that I have to turn off so many settings. Thus, I didn’t think it was a well-coded app at the time. I think if I were to replay NWN2 now, it would be better, due to my graphics card being more powerful.) I have read that the game runs well at higher settings even with a mid-end graphics card, and it is quite well-deserved.

I have extolled on the virtues of open-world games before. I love it. I’m not too keen on having a pre-scripted and pre-determined location on where to go and what to do. I feel restricted by it. I don’t mind it, but the choice of letting me go off-track is nice.

However, I can see that this openness setting may not be for everyone. There is a lot of driving to be done, and although it is a cool part of the game, it could get pretty boring for some. There won’t be any enemies while you’re on the road. There may be other convoys passing through who will shoot you on sight, but those are far between. The roads are mostly empty. There are the occasional roadblocks and guard posts along the way, but it’s pretty much the same thing over and over again. Repetitiveness will set in and it quickly becomes boring. I’m not much of an FPS player, so the whole been-there-done-that has not set in yet.

Anyway, the protagonist you play seems to be a mercenary, hired by the U.N. or N.A.T.O. or something, to kill this guy called “The Jackal” who has been supplying arms to the warring factions in this African setting. At the very beginning, you get malaria, and while you’re lying sick in your motel room, The Jackal has already found you. For some reason, he doesn’t kill you, citing that since your original mission to kill him has already failed due to you contracting malaria, you have no reason to hunt and kill him now. He leaves and you go back to your feverish sleep. When you wake up, your motel seems to be caught in the middle between of a firefight between the two factions. You can kill as much as you like, but somehow, the script requires you to “die”. You’re taken to someone’s base where he explains that you may have killed some of his men, and you have to somehow work off your debt to him or something, by doing the various missions he has for you. Anyway, when this whole sequence is over, you’ll end up at some locale with a bar and a weapons shop (which will probably serve as your “home base”). In the bar, you’ll meet a couple of guys, for reasons really unknown to me, will suddenly be your BFF.

Huh? Whatever…

Plotholes aside, I haven’t seen much of the missions yet, but being an FPS, I shouldn’t expect anything more complicated than “kill-them-and-blow-shit-up”. Even on some missions that require you to get some item or other, you just have to go to the required location, kill everyone, grab item, go back and get reward. It’s not that deep but the whole kill everyone part is pretty fun, and cathartic even. Especially after a hard day at work, it’s great to be killing some dumb virtual humans.

Oh yes, I said “dumb” because I’m playing it on “Normal” difficulty. My brain and twitch trigger finger aren’t as sensitive as they used to be. I remember being able to beat old Sega Genesis games like Super Street Fighter 2 and Thunder Force 3 on the hardest difficulty setting. Now I get my ass kicked even on the normal setting of those games (who’s dumb now? :P). In Far Cry 2, the AI isn’t so difficult on normal, just nice for newbies like me to feel like superman. Armed with a constantly jamming sniper rifle and the entry level pistol, I can pretty much make short work of anyone from far away. And that’s how I like it! The map shows you everything, like guard posts and other places of interest, where the enemy will surely be. So I can stop some way off, sneak in and try to gain the high ground. And nicely pick off the bad guys one by one. Shoot first, ask questions later. Of course, the whole thing is made more exciting by the fact that my sniper rifle is a weapon that I got off someone I killed, so it’s very prone to jamming. I need to complete the weapon shop missions so that I can unlock the other nice weapons to buy.

I don’t really like the music score though, but this is simply a matter of opinion. I feel like I’m using the music to know if there are other baddies around, because when you’re fighting the enemy, the tempo will increase to provide you with that mood. But when you finished off the last guy around, it will simply fade away. Thus, this can be used as an indicator if you have cleaned out that particular area or not. There was a time where I scouted around with my sniper scope but couldn’t see anyone, but the music was still pumping on. I found out that there were 2 guys coming from the side and behind. I felt like a cheat as I knew there still were enemies around because of the music.

I have only played around 4% of what the game has to offer. I have just read somewhere that at the beginning, it is best to do the weapon shop missions, which will unlock the rest of the available weapons to buy, so that’s what I will focus on for now.

Overall, I like this game. It’s like GTA4 from a first-person perspective, but without the headache-inducing over-contradicting storyline, where the protagonist agonizes about killing some guy in a cut-scene, but murder dozens of innocent civilians when you’re playing. Of course, I can’t comment yet on how much the story from this game will suck (and it will, judging from the opening act which I can’t really fathom). Being a mercenary for hire, I would expect to be playing for both of the warring sides, since I don’t have an allegiance to one side in particular.

In the mean time, I’m having too much fun killing and blowing shit up.

Maybe this is why the PS3 isn’t selling as well as other consoles. Sony can’t make a commercial to save its own ass.

This Rubik’s Cube thing was a little wierd:

Ok, maybe I get the part where twiddling the sixaxis controller would move the eggs. But transforming them into crows when they smash against the wall ups the creepy factor by 10:

And the pièce de résistance:

I hate dolls that looks remotely anything like an infant. Those lifeless eyes stare right into your soul, as their unwavering smile plastered on their face mocks your very existence.

Which Sony marketing guru approved these ads anyway? Now I’m scared that when I do get my PS3, I won’t be able to sleep very well…

(Additional “and-other-stuff” that I just feel like adding..)

Speaking of creepy dolls from hell…

For more freakish ads, check out Cracked’s article 10 Awesome Ads (For Traumatizing Children). The PS3 baby and the giggling doll ads are numbers 2 and 1 respectively.

Today is Wednesday, which means that there will be a copy of Digital Life included with The Straits Times. I’m really not a big fan of this, but to be brutally honest, I love to read it for comedic value. Tech news and articles that are a week old, considered ancient by web standards, are published and I love to gleefully run through the usually abysmal reviews and articles.

However, the 2nd page editorial, entitled “High Tech Disgrace” stood out today. The gist of it is how the tech-savvy these days use their gadgets as an excuse on public transportation to not notice others who needs the seat more than them, like the elderly or pregnant ladies. The gadgets provide “a more effective camouflage than newspapers as they shut out both your visual and hearing senses”.

Now my response is this: if you don’t wanna give up your seat, you don’t need an excuse. I’ve seen plenty of people, who obviously notice the person in question who would benefit from the seat more, simply ignoring it. They don’t need newspapers, mobile phones or portable music players. Their skin is thick enough!

To a gadget user like me, this is blatant generalization. I stay in Bedok and used to go to school at Boon Lay. Now I’m working at Jurong. That means a commute time of 1.5 hours each way, 3 hours per day, 15 hours per week (for a 5-day week). Do people truly expect me to be on the lookout for the needy every time I’m on public transportation? It’s simply unpossible. I need my gadgets so that I won’t go crazy from staring at each train and listening to the repetitive announcements over, and over, and over…

I do admit that I could have missed noticing a person in need, because I was plugged in to my iPhone while solving some puzzle on my Nintendo DS. However, let me set the record straight: it is not intentional. My intent for doing so is for my personal enjoyment and to stave off boredom, not so that I can keep my seat. You want proof? I also listen to music while gaming, even if i don’t get a seat. And if someone does get up, I’ll still be on my DS. It’s not like I’m joining the throng of people who are eyeing at it greedily, like some wolf staring at its next meal.

And the solution offered by the editorial? “Creating an online hall of shame”. How typical Singaporean fashion! A solution to every problem is either throwing money at it, or shaming the perpetrators. Which website would thrive by shaming others? Oh wait, this is Singapore. We already have one! Sponsored by the official state newspaper, no less. Nothing much to see there, just showing the world how idiotic, compassion-less and ego-centric Singaporeans are.

This problem isn’t one-fold. It’s two: the person giving, and the person receiving. And the mindset of a whole country. Zen Habits, one of my favourite personal improvement blogs, has a very nice article for Singaporeans: 5 Tiny Steps to Quit Being Such a Jerk. 5 steps that cannot be more simple, in my opinion:

1. Admit you’re not perfect.
2. Place yourself in the shoes of others.
3. Act with compassion and kindness.
4. Practice, practice.
5. Do 5 little things.

Please visit that page for a more detailed analysis. But the basis is simple: place others before self. I hope you do realise that this whole economic crisis thing is also due to greed and not placing others before oneself. Money isn’t the root of all evil; desires are. The desire to have a nice seat for your long commute. But at what expense?

Of course, it’s easier said than done. I do realise that I shouldn’t preach without practice. Rest assured, I’m not. With my upcoming marriage, it’s even more imperative that I walk this talk.

[5 Tiny Steps to Quit Being Such a Jerk]

I recently met one of my old buddies from my firefighter hey-days. (Yes, I was a fireman once as part of my national service, don’t ask.) We talked some and he found out I was working with computers (it’s hard to explain what software testing is all about in layman terms). And of course, I got the obligatory question: “Do you know what’s wrong with my computer?”

Apparently, his PC is unable to run any exe files. It was intriguing, as this is the first time I heard of such a thing. So I decided what the hell, since he stays very near me, I might as well take a look.

Whenever his PC tries to run an executable file, it will open up Microsoft Word (of all applications) and because it is unable to read the file, some file conversion dialog will pop up and display the contents. Of course, since it is a binary file, the data displayed are all weird logos. I forgot to take a screenshot, but it looks similar to this one I found in Google Image.

This happens for most exe files. I said most, because apparently, from the Start menu, you can run IE if you click on the top-most “Internet” shortcut. But if you were to try to start a browser from Start > Programs, it will fail. Rebooting into Safe Mode didn’t help either. It was still exhibiting the same behaviour, so I suspect it has to be a corrupt registry setting.

First thing I did was to check the Task Manager. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. All the processes running seem to check out. I googled those with weird names and found out that they were legitimate.

The Startup folder in the Start menu also did not contain any funny looking shortcuts.

Next, I wanted to check the registry, which was a problem in itself, because I am unable to run cmd.exe or regedit.exe. Knowing that the problem was with the exe setting, I decided to try running a batch file.

echo This is a test...
pause

Surprisingly, it did run in a command shell and printed those out. Next I tried to run regedit.exe from within a batch. It worked!

echo This is a test...
regedit

Found a workaround! Of course, I have no idea why. If someone could explain why running an executable from a batch file is different from starting it via windows explorer or a command prompt, it will be great.

So I poked into the normal areas where processes are executed upon startup (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, etc). It all checks out, so I’m guessing that the rogue process is no longer there. Googling this problem brought me to this page. I wasn’t keen on running the com file hosted there at first, but everything that was listed in Method 2 checked out perfectly. Taking a gamble and performing the cliché act of swallowing my saliva before taking the plunge, I downloaded and executed the com file.

It worked!

I’m not sure why it is so, when all the registry entries I checked out in the section Method 2 is fine. Anyway, if you’re having the same problem in XP, be sure to grab that file.

[Unable to Start a Program with an .exe File Extension]

His last name says it all.

This has got to be the best trials video I’ve seen thus far. I feel he is as smooth as Ryan Leech but much more gnarlier. His technique is as perfect as it could be.

This vid is also making its rounds on twitter.

1:05 - Riding a fence!
1:23 - That’s the highest so far I’ve seen a trials rider doing that!
2:03 - Tailwhip ON THE GROUND!
3:06 - I’ve seen backflips on a 26″, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone do a freaking FLAIR! And off a TREE!
3:14 - How the hell do you balance off a freaking wall!?
4:11 - Riders jump down stairs all the time, but on a downhill bike, with proper suspension systems, not a trials bike!
4:28 - Another tailwhip! With a perfect landing!
4:44 & 4:52 - People have broken legs dropping off those.

You know, I’m inclined to think that this is just a CGI character, and ILM is just showing off its latest new tech to create the ultimate reality.

I’m just proud to tell the world that I can do a one-handed trackstand.

My thumbdrive has been plagued with this issue for centuries!

Each time I plug in my thumbdrive, I would have to click Continue Without Scanning, as I knew my drive is in (somewhat) perfect condition. Of course, being the lazy ass bum that I was, I decided enough is enough. As usual, Google to the rescue! And within seconds, I found the answer!

The problem was that I have not always been very diligent in clicking Safely Remove Hardware before ejecting the drive. I do that most of the times, but there were quite a few moments where I would just forcibly eject the drive. Of course, I did this fully aware that there were no write operations going on at the time. Never ever eject a drive while it is writing something to the drive! Of course, this means no pulling out the drive when you’re copying/moving files in, running programs (like PortableApps) from it, or even during boot-up. I’ve heard of a few cases where it totally killed the drive. Though I can’t verify the authenticity of such stories, I would rather play it safe than sorry when it comes to my own data.

I did the fix recommended by the site and it resolved my issue! Amazing! I reproduced the problem and re-tried the fix, and again it worked the second time. Nice.

The fix is to select Continue Without Scanning when you receive the message. Then immediately open the Windows command line and run chkdsk drive /f, where drive is your USB drive.

I guess this is one of those instances where Vista adheres strictly by its rules, but instead comes off as annoying. Wait a sec, Vista abiding too hard and not being flexible, coming off as annoying?

(Vista == SG ruling party) ? "Yikes!" : "...";

[Resolve Vista Scan and Fix Error When Plugging in IPOD or other Devices]

Woohoo! This is my 100th post, as according to my Wordpress dashboard.

Here’s looking forward to my next 100 public rants!

…Qui-Gon Jinn!

As proof, this video has been circulating the interwebs..

I love his argument with Watto!

“Republic credits will do fine.”
“No, they won’t.”
“Republic credits WILL do fine.”
“No, they WON’T!”

Oh, that’s soccer for you Americans.

This is some awesome sh*t! Previous record was 33 hours, so Bristol Academy & Leeds Badgers played a match that lasted 36 hours, with 98 minutes of injury time!

Final score: Leeds Badgers 285 - Bristol Academy 255.

Oh I would love to have participated!

Update on April 16th 2009: Wrong score was shown. Fixed.

[Record Breakers: The world’s longest football match ever]