Hunting for commies in a box

I went to Funan IT mall today to check out some of the new PC game releases. My main aim to go there was to get the Red Alert 3 Premium Edition, standalone without all those pesky goodies that inflate the price to a whopping S$219. I just want the game, not the goodies..haha. Btw, I still have the original Red Alert 2 box+disc stored at the back of my cupboard k...haha. As always, I start my hunt first at the shop nearest to the window elevators. No sign of any of them, so off I go to bug main base at the Challenger store. Plenty of regular RA3 lying around and there's the premium edition but it seems that they are selling it together with the pesky goodies without the standalone. I gather that the Challenger store wasn't a good place to get it as I figure out that the smaller stores are more willing to sell it in standalone. Anyways, as I was searching around the Challenger store, I noticed that they've finally started to sell Guild Wars and it's sequel GW: Factions. Well, it's long overdue..I remember at a time when I had to go to Comics Connection or order online to find them..lol

As I recalled visiting some blogs, I went to visit this specific small shop since someone actually claimed to have bought the standalone from there. However, apparently I was too late and there was no more available. From then on, I just randomly visited different small shops and all gave the same reply of "No". I was going to give up liao when I recall that I always go to this particular shop whenever I can't get any of the products. It's like a last resort place that I would go. It's quite a good shop actually but I just don't know why I always go there only as a last option..haha.

I wasn't feeling particularly optimistic but then I saw the gold box of the premium edition on display at S$79. Wow, I managed to find one and a standalone some more! I double confirmed with the shop owner that it was a standalone and he was preparing to get a new one for me from the stocks. Ohh, and interestingly (and it was nice of him), he gave me a S$3 discount. The economy must be real bad hmmm..After searching, they apparently don't have any new ones (oh no, not again) and the shop owner asked me if I mind taking the display set, which was the last one they have. I said it was ok and I'm actually glad that he still wanna sell it coz I doubt anywhere else in Sg would have it as standalone. Even if they have, it would be long gone because those peeps in the southern island were quick to snap it up at the launch date which was like a month ago. Hmmm..it seems that only 8000 premium editions are being shipped to this part of the world. On the other hand, the shop owner was quite worried that I might get critical about the display set and spent time explaining to me about why they removed the CDs from the box for security reasons. Lol, I'm not a fussy buyer and I'm fine with it as long as the CDs and stuff in the box are in mint condition. Accckkk, I also had the cheek to ask the shop owner whether he got any free RA3 poster and I managed to get another last of the item from him for free =p. Lol, I have to say the service is good there.

After getting my purchase, I went to makan at Pastamania again since I didn't manage to get a decent plate of good creamy pasta when I returned back to Malaysia. Obviously KL and Subang Jaya sells good ones in the shopping centers but I don't have the automobile resources to go there. Lol, maybe if I managed to finish up my driving test this December than next semester I can use mama's car. Then I won't be stuck in one place. And I will be everyone's best friend..lol! Oh yea, I managed to get started on my criminal law thesis paper reading materials after slacking my brains senseless for the past 2 weeks. Everyday sleep in the wee morning hours and bangun during afternoon lar. Time to whack this lazy ass up...

Mass Effect

Lol..I completed Mass Effect yesterday on the PC, so I'll write a little review on it. Hmmm, I wished the main storyline was longer but it was fun nonetheless..haha. As usual Warning : Spoilers Ahead.

Mass Effect is another high-quality role playing game developed by the famed BioWare studios, creators of Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire and Knights of the Old Republic. Bioware is something like the equivalent of Blizzard for Real Time Strategy games and BioWare really produces great storytelling contents in their games. For Mass Effect, it's welcoming to see them producing a game that is very original in its storytelling, especially in the domain of science fiction where they succeeded in not being too closely associated to Star Wars and Star Trek. Mass Effect is a world on its own, and has some novel elements that distinct it from the rest of the science fiction genre. Lol, that's the thing about creating your own science fiction universe where it's difficult sometimes not to end up being associated with Star Wars or Star Trek.

Mass Effect's background setting is placed in 22nd century when probes on Mars discover an ancient seafaring alien technology that allows vessels to travel in the speed of light to other parts of the galaxies. Of course, there's close encounters of the third kind with aliens and it's interesting to see the producers coming up with their own original design line of aliens with their own special unique way of communications in some of them. Humanity is considered to be the junior race to the rest of the aliens as it is alleged that they are the latest to embark on the deep space exploration. The protagonist, or rather the person you're gonna control is Commander Shepard who could either be male of female depending on your choice at the starting menu.

Basically, the main plot is that a rogue Spectre (something like a commando) has gone haywire wrecking havoc using his army of synthetic lifeforms. At first, it looked as if he's the antagonist but it turned out that he was merely a pawn of a more sinister plan of some powerful bunch of fellas who saw it as their task to continue the cycle of creation and apocalypse (like the constant rise and fall of Empires). Lol, for the ending, I actually manipulated the situation to let the Council (the ruling exco) die and installed humanity as the prime rulers instead. Btw, the final boss in Mass Effect (reborn undead Saren) is not too challenging to defeat actually and its level of difficulty is less than Darth Malak or Darth Traya (Kreia). Lol, I didn't break a sweat trying to whack it and half the time, it's trying to avoid the massive firepower provided by my team. Most of the time, I didn't bother to shooting him with my weapons but kept spamming my electronics ability..hahaha. =p Oh yea, another interesting thing is check out the fictional galactical map of the Milky Way which places the real Solar System as opposed to the rest of the fictional systems.

Mass Effect's gameplay is a fusion of RPG and First Person Shooter. It's more FPS if you take the class of Infiltrator or Soldier and more of the RPG if you take the ranks of biotic classes like the Adept. Mass Effect have some "magic power" elements in it, something like Force Push, known as biotics, where you can do stuff like creating warp fields and flinging your enemies about by lifting them up. So, biotics are Mass Effect's science-fiction equivalent to wizards. If you're playing Mass Effect on computer with a great graphics card, the sight of biotic powers is very eye-catching indeed. Speaking of graphics, Mass Effect contain nice touches and options to enhance its graphical outlook. There's an option for film grain and blur motion to make the gameplay and characters look realistically good! My lappy graphics card could handle the high texture detail but it lags a little during gameplay. So, during sequences which required timers, I switched off all the goodie enhancements and reduced high textures to low to ensure the completion of that sequence. Voice acting is superb and great job by the voice actors in bringing out the liveliness and characteristics of the main characters in the game. Unlike Knights of the Old Republic, the protagonist does have a voice based on the conversations that the players have chosen. Of course, that meant that the game comes in a lot more massive at 8-10 GB. Hmmm..if there's one annoying aspect about Mass Effect is that the Mako vehicle can controls can be oversensitive and it's extremely irritating to use it to navigate some of the planet surfaces. Mhmmm..the side assignments locations can be rather repetitive as most of them are mere reskins to prevent the size of the game from overspiralling. But these are just small minor side issues in a great game..haha..

As with the distinct features of all Bioware games, Mass Effect also has a morality measurement level in the form of Renegade and Paragon points. If you are a badass commander who goes round killing unnecessarily, you'll get renegade points while goodie commanders get paragon points. These points are also given through the type of interaction given by Shepard with the rest of the other characters. Renegade points helps to provide intimidation, which could prove to be useful in some situations while paragon points are more for charming conversations. Anyways, if you play under the Renegade banner, you get some pretty hilarious outcomes..haha. In the game, there will come to a point where you have to make a choice to sacrifice one of your team members. Not only that, the interesting is that you'll also have to decide at one point whether to kill another of your team members. Unlike Knights of the Old Republic, gaining light side points will not reduce the dark side points and vice versa, which means that both meters can be filled up together.

Of course, one of the controversial aspects of Mass Effect when it comes out is on the apparent "lesbian" alien scene or the excessive showing of booties in a copulation scene. Ok, some may argue that the asaris, despite being voiced by a female, is actually a mono-gender species...hahahaha. Even for the heterosexual run of events, the digitally imaged side view booty of the female soldier, Ashley Williams, is deemed to be too exposed! Seriously, I think it's only a minor matter that got blown up into big proportions. It was a case of over sensualization by a bunch of people who have not played through the game. James Bond movies show more skin that the game seriously. And most of the time, the characters in the game are covered from head to toe with body armour. It certainly created of hu-hahs in the media but that controversial scene is only like a mere one minute or so only in the whole game. And it must be noted that it was done artistically instead of the "in your face" kind of material. It was meant to be some sort of culmination for the romantic subplot nearing the end of the gameplay. Of course, it got slapped with the M18 rating which means that the game is only suitable for 18 years above. Actually, the general style of conversations in the game does feel adult-ish where it's not the typical taglines or conversation you find in a typical video game. To some extent, there's dark humour in some of the character lines too..haha.

To sum it all, Mass Effect is a RPG game which offers a fantastic experience. Running through the cinematics and plot storyline coupled with the orchestra+electronica accompanying music does make it feel like the players themselves are watching a blockbuster movie, with the exception that this ""movie" allows the players to be interactive and determine its course of events. The final cutscene was awesome, just like the final battle with Darth Malak. Hmm..I would say, Mass Effect does fascinates me with some of the concepts that are brought up in the game, kinda like it makes me think a little rather than buzzing past the game for the sake of it. I would love to play a second round of the story again but there's law thesis papers and quite a number of other new upcoming games for me to complete up..haha. The good thing bout Mass Effect is that it has replaybility value where you can use an existing completed character to replay the storyline again. Not only that, the latest 1.01 patch also contains a whole new level of exploration and combat. It would be nice to see Bioware coming up with another new title, particularly Knights of the Old Republic 3 but it seems that they are not producing KotOR 3, but a new MMORPG based on that. Woahhh...that would be interesting to see how it develops in the future. Hopefully it has the same business model of Guild Wars rather than the profit maximising payment mode of Blizzard's WoW..hahaha..

8 delicious PC games for the hols

Games to look forward to for this November/December Holidays!

1. Call of Duty : World at War - Call of Duty returns back to World War 2, focusing now on the Russian Eastern Front and the Pacific War. It's an upgraded game engine using the one from Call of Duty 4. It'll be most interesting to see how they approach Pacific theater of war, just as what Medal of Honor had done with Pacific Assault.

2. Command and Conquer Red Alert 3- Lol, the Red Alert series has always been one of my favourite series. It won't get my vote on the fast gameplay and rush tactics but the graphics and cinematics are awesome. I was only in Sec 1 when Red Alert 2 came out, and I was gaga over it..lol. I'm really looking forward to see RA3 coming out and the previews makes it look very delicious. The cast of the cinematics include famous Hollywood names like Kelly Hu (Yuriko from X-Men, Sorcereess from Scorpion King), George Takei (Star Trek and Heroes) and Peter Stormare (John Abruzzi from Prison Break, Ernst Roehm from Hitler rise of Evil). Oh, and they have a new 3rd faction up replacing Yuri. It's Japan, the Empire of the rising sun and they have all those Gundam like units flying around..lol.

3. World of Warcraft : Wrath of the Lich King - Yups, level cap shifted to level 80 and there's new hero class based on the death knight which starts immediately from the late levels. It's time to head towards the snowy regions of Northrend. Looks like more grinding to do and the expansion plus reload card are sure to cost a bomb..zzzzz..

4. Brothers-in-arms Hell's Highway: When I first played BiA Road to Hill 30, i find it a rather unique game in that it focuses on tactics rather than hit and run like the medal of honor and call of duty series. You can refer to it as a World War 2 ghost recon..lol. The storyline's great and what I like is that the developers put in a lot of effort to actually recreate the place in the game as it was in reality. In the bonus section, you can see the pictures of developers travelling to France and all those D-Day areas to map out a very accurate environment. And BiA is not going to go easy on the gore, pointing out that real-life war is as bloody as that or even worse.

5. FIFA 2009 - Gosh, the graphics are double the quality than that in 2008. Rooney looks almost real-life like. When I looked at the screenshots for the PC version, I thought I was looking at the Xbox 360 one. It seems that there's new elements in the play in that players can now even use the mouse to control the game. That would be interesting..hehe.

6. Football Manager 2009 - What's this?? 3D engine for the first time for the FM series?! Wow...this would mean in the future, we might even see FM having graphics like FIFA series. Actually EA has that sort of managing game, but it's really sucky as compared to the realism provided by the FM series. Even in 2D, FM gets the adrenaline pumping and all the tactical brainwork interesting. It would be most interesting to see how the developers changed the game with a 3D engine. Will there be graphical Ronaldo stepovers?..hehe..New media options include holding press conferences, answering reporter's question and if you wanna be a badass manager, you can choose to storm out of the conference..haha..

7. Need for Speed Undercover : Maggie Q is in this! The protagonist in this is a undercover cop, so you can expect pretty much what the storyline will be. It seems that Undercover is touted to be way much better than the not-so-acclaimed ProStreet.

8. GTA IV - Finally! PC version for one of the most anticipated games in the market. Lol, Rockstar always starts with the console first. GTA IV returns to New York, the same city as GTA 3. This time, it would be an Eastern European fella chasing the American Dream. Gosh, the graphics in this is totally breathtaking as seen in Xbox 360. It's practically Call of Duty 4 graphics fueled GTA. I'm gonna shudder at the amount of space taken by this game. 15 GB easily? haha..
all i gotta say is..Eye Candy!

Hitman Blood Money

Classically Executed : Agent 47 looks on coldly at his target

Hitman Blood Money is the fourth installment of the series featuring Agent 47 on his assassination contracts from an organization known as the Agency. I've just finished playing it recently and I'm quite pleased to say that I got the 'Silent Assassin' rating for all the levels except for the alcohol rehab centre. I got 'Silent Assassin' for all the levels at Hitman Contracts too but Blood Money was more challenging in that I did not rely on any clues from any websites but just play the game as it is and explore through trial and error. Warning: Spoiler's ahead in the review..

Blood Money is way much more violent and gory compared to its predecessors (except for the Meat King level in contracts). New systems of play are introduced such as distraction using coin, human shield, strangulation from elevator and customization of weapons. Blood Money seriously looks like some murder simulator, in that players had to clear up the mess, steal security tapes and study movements even more than before. There are containers available around the levels to dispose bodies but some of them are meant to distract. One vital pattern that I found out was that death by accidents caused by mines would affect rating but the discovery of the dead body does not affect rating as long as nobody witnessed the killing.

The level of detail has being increased. For instance, especially for head shots, the projectile direction of the bullet would determine which part of the head would bleed or be punctured. For instanced, if you shoot the cheek, only the cheek area will be bloodied, and for the eyes, only the socket will be affected. So, if someone is a sadistic maniac and pumps a few shots in at every part of the head, the whole face would turn into some red bloodied mess. And headshots by the shotgun would automatically turn half the face red.

The venues in Blood Money were quite a variety, although it's less so than Hitman 2. I still remember in Hitman 2 where Agent 47 actually visited the Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia! For Blood Money, Hitman travels to South America first, then to France and the remaining ones are in America itself but in different states like Mississippi, New Orleans, Las Vegas and Washington D.C. The gameplay is very open-ended, in that it allows just so many ways for the players to choose to eliminate their target.

The storyline is really good! And I don't understand why the movie didn't adopt even half of the plot from there. The storyline basically revolves around the continued storyline that Agent 47 became so notorious that the FBI are all hot on his trail despite the public's perception that he was just some urban legend. Seems that some folks didn't like the idea that Agent 47 is a living specimen of a succesful clone. So, a government-backed organization called the Franchise set itself to eliminate the members of the Agency and in the end, only Agent 47 and his good pal Diana (the infamous briefing lady voice..haha) are left. But alas, it does seem at first that Diana betrayed 47 when she stabbed him with a fatal dose of injection at their last meeting. However, 47 (and the player) did not realise that the so-called fatal injection was meant to fake the death of Hitman (similiar to the one used to fake the death of Agent Smith in the alcohol rehab center). At the cremation/funeral ceremony of Agent 47, Diana quietly administered the antidote and departed from the area. The epilogue is just fantastic. At first it shows the rolling credits and the synonymous theme song of "Ave Maria" being played for the funeral to supposedly mark the end of Hitman. However, players are supposed to actively engage and press the forward button to revive Agent 47. So, if no action is done, Agent 47 would just be cremated and that's the ending. If 47 is revived, he goes on a killing rampage of all those that are attending the funeral and leave no witnesses alive as he escapes. And the last target that 47 encountered would most probably be the poor nosey reporter at the beginning who is desperately trying to escape the compound. Unfortunately, the gate is locked by Diana and well, it's up to the players then to decide how to finish him off, and being 47, it's probably the point-blank headshot execution style. Now, the real credits roll over with an epilogue cut-scene showing Htman (well and alive) entering into the Blue Lotus gang establishment and this promises that a sequel would be on the way.

One thing which Blood Money achieved is that it successfully tagged Schubert's "Ave Maria" to the Hitman franchise and which the movie used for its trailers too. I think it's really the song encompasses and provides the deathly, melancholic and slightly tragic anthem for the background music to represent Agent 47.

P.S. Ohhh, on the end note, I shall mention about one of the fun Easter Egg that's present in the game. By following certain instructions, players can unlock the zombie mood in the Mississippi boat level. It's kinda creepy cos it feels like Resident Evil! Pack a shotgun to get the feel of Alice..haha. And not only that, after Zombie mode is initiated, the people coming after 47 can only be put down through a headshot. Body shot would just make them lie dead for a while and like the undead, they will creepily just continue coming. I tried to survive the mass onslaught but not possible cos 47 would definitely run out of ammo and the screen lags terribly from the overwhelming amount of characters congested in one area. Here's the screenshot below to show how 47 is being "chased" by "zombies"..lol.

The day when Agent 47 becomes Alice from Resident Evil

When cold war becomes hot

In 1989, the Cold War was supposed to end. But it didn't.

The storyline of World in Conflict is set in 1989 when the Soviet Union waged war to prevent her Eastern European satellites from falling. I've finished the campaign about a month ago but only found time to write a review on it now..lol. This real time strategy game draws inspiration from movies such as Red Dawn and notable PC games such as Freedom Fighters and Command and Conquer Red Alert. WiC is unlike many of the traditional RTS which requires players to build up a base, mind resources and create armies. Instead, players are assigned reinforcement points and play only a particular part in the battle. Thus, the need to coordinate with the AI in the mission is rather similiar to the idea in Call of Duty. Of course, unlike Red Alert, WiC does not contain any sort of "out-of-this-world" weapons, chronosphere or tesla coils. The units are based on historically correct military equipment used in the late 1980s such as the Abrams tank, Apache helicopter and troops using M16 and AK 47.

The campaign started off at the edge of Seattle where the Soviets were landing troops at the docks after disguising themselves in cargo ships. Then, there's the defence of Fort Teller in the Cascade Mountains to prevent the SDI to be known as a facade to the Soviets. There were some flashbacks to the European NATO campaign against the Soviets in the early days of the American colonel. And the final part is the counter attack and pushing the Soviets off Seattle. After going through the campaign, one probably wondered how Bannon could rise to rank of Captain in the first place. There's 14 missions altogether and I've completed also all the secondary objectives where they award US service medals with it. The campaign difficulty were generally easy but very fun to play. The more difficult ones are located at the last few missions especially on the one where two locations are needed to be defended simultaneously with the need to assault a base to complete the mission. Missions with specific timer on them could sometimes prove challenging too.

But 14 missions is a lil' short considering the theme has many potentials to expand other than "Seattle conquered-Flashback Europe-Seattle liberated". I would love to see more action in Europe itself and possibly the march to Moscow or something. Actually, if WiC put in more real-life cinematics like Red Alert instead of painted pictures with narration, the campaign fun factor would increase doubly.

Liberate Manhattan and Lady Liberty from the Spetsnaz (Russian Commando)!

Multiplayer in WiC is quite interesting in that it divides players into 4 different roles such as infantry, armour, airforce and artillery. So, players have to coordinate their attacks or defenses with one another. Units were very well developed, with special attacks and smoke screens. For example, the infantry has the M203 grenade barrage while airborne troops have the ability to call down light artillery strikes. Personally, my favourite unit is the Apache with its barrage of anti-tank missiles. Lol..quite fun to watch the heavy tank disintegrate with a few packet of shots.

Gameplay in WiC is quite fast paced and the need for quick decisions. It is unlike however, traditional RTS games which measures how fast you click. WiC focuses more on which kind of units you are using against the opponents, how the artillery is position and how effectively the tactical aid is being used. Tactical aids are also another fun factor in WiC. It's kinda like some sort of super weapons that helps to reduce your opponents to dust or soften a large invasion force. They are stuff like napalm strike, heavy artillery barrage, tactical nuke strike, carpet bombing
and laser-guided bombs. There's a long recharge time for these tactical aids and tactical points are needed to be earned in order to use them.

WiC is graphically awesome with the terrain battleground actually in 3D format. So, one could actually 360 the area, zoom in and out as close as 3rd person view, look up to the sky and enjoy the overall scenery. Too bad my lappy could only play it at low settings in order to get maximum efficient speed. It's kinda strange considering that Call of Duty 4 was of no problem to my lappy. I figured out that it could either be that the Nvidia 8400 is still too weak (gasp!) or that the lappy Intel processor is not as powerful as the desktop ones. But gameplay is not affected that much as long as the player doesn't zoom in too much to get horrifying polygons from the units.

Ivan got pounded heavily

Overall, WiC is a refreshing experience from the traditional RTS and encourages players to think more while playing instead of zergling rush through with a particular unit. Zergling rush tactics rarely worked in WiC since a whole battalion of a particular unit could be decimated easily by a mere few units that could exploit its weakness. However, I do wish that there would be more developments to the single player campaign. The ending of the campaign could give a clue perhaps that an expansion could be on the way.

Level 70!

I continued on World of Warcraft subscription with a new pre-paid card seeing that my next 2 months is all clear to play. After putting on the chiongster mode to grind the exp points, my Draenei paladin finally reached the level cap today! Actually, I could easily reached it this morning but I resisted completing the final few bits so that I could PvP in Battlegrounds bracket of 60-69 to reach my 1k kills. Level 69 was the last chance to get some noobs who play in BG at the lowest minimum level. I thought that 1k kills was enough for it to get listed in the armory but it seemed that the tally needed was 1337 (yes, the leet number..lol).

The grind doesn't stop at 70 and now have to farm like mad to get proper gears. If I do feel bored, maybe I'll just pop over to my toons at the more docile Aggramar server..lol.

GW vs. WoW (Part 1 - Intro & Level Cap)

My World of Warcraft three months subscription ended yesterday at 8.34 pm (lol..i still remember the time). So, after 3 months of playing time, my current characters are a level 66 Draenei paladin, level 44 Night Elf hunter and a level 10 Blood Elf mage. My level 66 could have been a level 70 easily if not for the long hiatus from the Internet that I had. Haha, so I guess that now I could comment on these two mmorpg that are often the source of comparison by many players. I'll divide my posting to several parts/series since they are so many aspects of it to look at.

I've played Guild Wars for almost 2 years plus since 2005 and I've completed all the campaigns. WoW has a solid international reputation, thanks to Blizzard's fame as a quality game maker. However, I did not jump at the band wagon when it first started becoz it's quite costly and secondly, I'm schooling and using maths, the fees paid to play WoW is not worth it. So, that's y I chose to play GW instead. I think that GW is not that famous in South East Asia itself apart from the Philippines or maybe in Singapore. But even in Singapore itself, it's rather limited but at least they had some established guilds like Sg Knights. I doubt GW is really heard of much in Malaysia. So, most of the GW player base are from the USA, Europe or Korea. This is also partly because the origins of the companies of NCsoft and Arenanet. I have to say that Guild Wars remains one of the few mmorpgs that could stand up against the superiority of WoW in terms of quality wise and professional development. Cheapo 2D stuff like Maple Story or Runescape (which are more famous in the SEA region) are just no where near in challenging Guild Wars.

After my A Levels, I decided to give WoW a try to see how different the two games are and I'm fortunate to have some of my SJI friends playing at the same time for company. So, here goes my review...

Price

The most notable difference between Guild Wars and World of Warcraft has to be the price. Guild Wars require only one time payment and you can play as many or as little as you want afterthat. On the other hand, WoW requires one to pay for the game itself, and then also monthly fees if players want to continue playing. So, if you wanna have some fun but don't wanna waste so much money, then Guild Wars is the economical choice. If you're feeling rich, have lots of spare time or don't really bother with the ratio breakdown of price per day, then WoW's tremendous pricing is not really an issue. Of course in the US or UK, the subscription fees is peanuts but if converted to Asian currencies, it's pretty much expensive for folks in the South East Asian region. It's quite manageable in Singapore for S$ 50 for two months but in Malaysia, RM 100+ for that is just mind blowing to keep up. Not only that, it's nonsensical that the BC expansion is priced at S$79.90, double the price of the original. It's even more absurd that I could get a nice package deal of S$69.90 of both original and expansion through the Battlechest as compared to S$118+ if I were to buy them separately. The moral of the story is that you ended paying more for some CD covers if you started playing earlier before the Battlechest came out.

Level Cap

Another notable difference is the level cap. Guild Wars sets it at level 20, while WoW at first started with 60 and then to 70 for the BC expansion and in future 80 when another new expansion arrives. This level cap also determines the type of players that it would attract. Guild Wars developers explained that the low level 20 cap is to ensure that emphasis is on the numerous amount of skills that the game offers instead of focusing on level grinding to survive in the game. Also, Guild Wars is geared towards PvP and so, level 20 makes it easier for skill balancing and enables players to be quickly equipped to battle in the arena. I think this level 20 cap is the pivotal reason why GW does not have a huge following in SEA.

From my experience, I've known quite a number of my friends who started GW but stopped quite quickly afterthat because there is no "ding!" or levelling up motivation to continue once they reach level 20. This low level cap also does not allow them to player kill and have the "superiority complex" over other players. But for the players from America that are in my friends list, many of them are still actively playing in their account. From this observation, I figured out that Southeast Asian gamers just get the orgasm from seeing big numbers in their RPG characters.

In my opinion, there ain't much difference to me for a lvl 20 GW character or a lvl 70 WoW character since both essentially enable players to deal with high-end stuff in their respective games. And in WoW, the level grinding is really attrocious especially in the Outlands when the player is between lvl 60-70. In Azeroth, there are plenty of quests that ask the player to kill 10 of "insert monster name" and maybe 20 at the higher ends. But in Outlands, the number rises to 30 and then the ultimate one that annoyed me was 50. These repititive kills are the only ways for players to overcome the huge levelling gap other than the other more creatively crafted quests. So, at times, one just spends his sorry ass time by completing quotas. GW does have its fair share of grinding with the introduction of achievement bars. But the consequences of not grinding in GW is not that severe or even affects the effectiveness of the character as titles are pretty much aesthetic. In WoW, not grinding and levelling characters meant that one cannot visit many of the high end places and are disadvantaged in many ways (eg. armour gears and mounts). Low levels are prime targets too for maxed out gankers and PKers in PvP servers. So, WoW players do have to spend a huge amount of time and also have the patience to reach the higher echelons of the game.

Ok, I'll comment on other aspects of the comparison at my next gaming post before this gets too long..lol

Call of Duty 4

The makers of the game that revolutionise World War II combat from Medal of Honour has now turned their attention to modern warfare. In 2003, Call of Duty is probably one of the first to offer authentic weapon targetting with the players using the genuine "iron sight" and reticles of weapons for aimed shots rather than just some cheap zoom in crosshair. After 3 or 4 installments of the series, the team had probably exhausted the list on which WWII battle they should work on. However, CoD 4 is ain't any history lesson since the storyline is fictitious with modern inspirations from the Iraq War and Somalia. Nevertheless, the wide-ranged of authentic arsenal of modern weapons like the M4A1 carbine, AK-47, G3, MP5 and RPGs were interesting. Now, players get to try on the iron sights of modern weaponry with the M16 bringing some memories back for me personally..lol. Oh, and check out the Javelin anti-tank missile! It really makes you feel the awe of how much rocket launchers have improved since the days of the Panzershreck or the Bazookas. Btw, one missile cost around US$80 000 and it was said to be very effective in hunting down Iraqi tanks during the war.

I've finished the single player campaign and I must say, the gameplay experience was excellent although short. The game's "Mature' rating certainly points out that it is gonna deliver some really serious stuff in combat warfare. The wide range of colourful vocabulary from the accented British S.A.S and the blood splatter on the walls from headshots and bullet sprays are some of the stuff that helps CoD 4 earn their audience rating..lol. From the start to the end, CoD 4 captured the combat experience very well and maintaining the adrenaline. Graphics wise, it was truly one of the best eye-candies I came across. Human facial model features were thoroughly detailed. The whole level of Prypiat in Ukraine was modelled authentically on the real-life location in Chernobyl with the eerily famous ferris wheel. Of course CoD 4 don't have any mutants like S.T.A.L.K.E.R roaming around, just some legions of whacko ultranationalist armed with Ak-47s swarming all over the area. On the experience line, CoD 4 again offers something new this time, "death" simulation! They actually produced specially scripted level scenes just to allow players to helplessly feel the grasp of "death" and the seconds just before everything would come to an eternal blank. Very creepy too and it could give the players the shudders. Some interesting plot twist also came from those "death" scenes.

The one small thing that I would be critical about the game is that it sometimes forces you to take the initiative to storm forward so as to get the game script moving. For instance, especially in the US Marine missions, unlimited amount of enemies will come streaming in if the player do not take the initiative to storm forward to certain checkpoints. Technically, the player won't run out bullets (since the floor is packed plenty with fallen corpses) and so, camping would just meant that he would be locked in some eternal firefight. This problem doesn't arise much in S.A.S operations though since they are covert-ops in a specific area instead of an all out war that the USMC engages in.

Overall, CoD 4 is a brilliant game in every aspect especially the FPS experience and probably one of the best I played in my life. It gets me going to research more on modern weaponry too!..haha. They really should get an expansion set going :)

Hitman Movie

After church, I went with Shi Xian to catch the Hitman movie. It's great to watch the movie with a fellow Hitman game player. Afterall, it was Shi Xian who introduced me to play Hitman in Sec 1 and yea, I was very mesmerized by Jesper Kyd's composition in Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. The orchestra music composed by Jesper Kyd really struck the ideal chord, with the mafia theme in Sicily being one of the outstanding ones. Well, like all the video games that are being made into movies, the Hitman movie unfortunately falls into the same trap as the others.

The concept of the movie was great, as in how Agent 47 carries out his assassination and his killing methods. Nice to see Diana and the Agency appearing..lol. However, the storyline is just terribly weak and confusing. The plot is rather haphazard and there ain't much to say about its link with the game itself. The villains ain't that interesting as those in the game plus Agent 47 is sometimes portrayed as some Rambo fella. Of course, if Hitman is to be played in the game as like in the movie, you can forget about getting the Silent Assassin rating..haha. In my opinion, I think they should just take one of the plots in the game, like the meat king level in Hitman: Contracts. That level, is really one of the creepiest, sick and most violent thematics I have ever encountered in video games. The highlight in that level is the room with the upside-down hanged corpse, cult-like altar and some disturbing oldie love music. And the concept in that level is what makes the Hitman franchise stands out. So, maybe the fans should wait for Hitman movie 2 and hopefully they put one of the game plots together? Haha, anyways, I'll stick with the Agent 47 in the game and I'll be eager to get my hands on Blood Money once I manage to get my new laptop =p