Certain games are only meant for playing when you're alone or when nobody's in the same room with you because video games these days are not as innocent / bubbly as they were decades ago. Sex and nudity are no longer unorthodox elements in a game.

Last night I was getting through the final hours of Heavy Rain, which include an interactive sex scene and performing striptease. When I say interactive, it means you're required to input a sequence of commands as prompted for the game to progress. Okay I was exaggerating, it wasn't entirely a interactive sex scene, more of an interactive make out scene which eventually led to sex. Unfortunately players no longer have control over the character during the sex scene.

Oh boy, it was really awkward, thanks to the presence of my mom in the living room. I like having the volume really high when I enjoy my games; thus, the characters were moaning. Thanks to her headphones, she was too busy listening to her pop tunes and hardly paid attention to what I was doing. Perfect timing because my dad went out to buy his cigarettes so no one was watching but still, there was tension in the air. 

If you think that's not much or it doesn't qualify as nudity, check this one out folks. Too bad for you if you're sensitive to boobs. Oh anyways, it's just pixels. ;) It's the shower scene where players get a close view of Madison's boobs. This scene took place last week and fortunately my dad was in his computer room.

My point is, it's just uncomfortable when you're enjoying a game but at the same time you're wishing that others do not pay any attention to you just for the sake of reducing awkwardness. I might sound stupid here because I'm already 18, it's perfectly fine for me to be playing games with sexual content but it just feels weird doing so in the living room with my parents there.

I'm gonna do a few more playthroughs to get the all the trophies. In other words, these awkward moments are inevitable.

A simple conclusion can be drawn from this, getting my own lcd/plasma is essential for full gaming comfort and enjoyment. 

Lest you have no idea what the hell is Heavy Rain, please don't make ridiculous judgments, no it's not a stupid sex hentai game. I don't dig those stuff. Those games are catered to horny people who love looking at japanese/anime looking chicks with huge breasts cry in pain when the male character inserts his very-- I think I better not go in detail. 

Entered the hall at 2 because it was already opened by then and we were told that the cosplayers would enter the hall before the show starts. So here's the hall before the crowd came in, stage isn't that big, so is the hall itself. It was comfortable though, not too cold. 

Cosplayers came in about 10-15 minutes before the concert commenced. Sadly, not many cosplayers turned up. My seat was far away so this is the closest picture that I can get. Surprise, 2 Final Fantasy characters! What's more surprising, if you look closely, you can see a girl who cosplayed as Hope from FFXIII! I'm gonna give her the credits for doing so, it's not a very wise choice, in fact, it's risky. First of all, FFXIII has been hated ever since its release and next, Hope isn't a very likeable character but nevertheless, I think she did well (a bold move indeed!) What's even sadder, the crowd looked confused when she introduced her character's name, only a handful few clapped, including yours truly. The guy on the far left emerged as the winner, it's obvious which game character he was cosplaying as; thus, the victory.

Parodies of video games and a bit of anime were shown to excite the crowd. They started off with a tribute to classical games. Throughout the whole song, there was a video montage of those good old games including 8-bit ones! The crowd was overwhelmed with nostalgia! Imagine those who grew up playing those games. Listening to the music being played live will surely evoke memories, be it good or bad. 

Tommy Tollarico introduced himself and his group of performers, including our  very own local National Symphony Orchestra and the conductor, Jack Wall if I'm not mistaken. Tommy talked a lot throughout the afternoon, gave many interesting or funny remarks. Many interactions took place. He talked about how many people out there think that video games are only for kids, video games music is nothing but just beeps here and there and how video games are blamed for violence and bad influence. When he was listing down these points, we boo-ed and there was one guy who said, "Kill them!", followed by laughter and agreement from the crowd. The irony.

After a pretty long tribute to classical games, the next song was Metal Gear Solid's main theme. A short clip of Hideo Kojima was shown before the orchestra team started playing the song. Bloody hell, I was so happy. Here's a video that I've recorded. Video quality ain't that good but audio-wise, it's tolerable. Check out the box, you'll appreciate that part if you've played MGS games. 

I can't really remember the exact tracklist but if I'm not wrong, God of War's theme was played next. The female vocalist, Laura Intravia did a fantastic job! The audience was in awe, my mom kept praising her. Little did we know she was also a flutist, this was eventually revealed when she performed music from Zelda, heck, she even dressed like one. Tommy invited one of the audiences to go up to the stage to play Space Invaders while the musicians play the theme song. A 43 year old guy volunteered and he did a pretty good job, we were all cheering for him. His movements were tracked so he had to move from right to left while using some kind of controller to attack the fiends. It was amusing. He didn't win the main prize though but he got a goodie bag.

Not sure what exactly was the next song but it should be music from Legend of Zelda  or Super Mario, followed by Shadow of Colossus and Megaman. It's quite difficult to remember the order of songs because I was utterly entranced. To be fair, I'd say the volume wasn't loud enough, there wasn't much "surround" effect that you'd expect to experience when you listen to this kind of music in a hall. It lacked the "oomph" so my mom and I were complaining throughout the first half of the concert. It was a waste because they played really well and the video footages complement the music.

What's great about this concert, it's actually educative! Tommy explained to us the origins of video games, the genius behind the whole concept, Ralph H. Baer! We were shown a black and white video of Ralph introducing the first ever Pong video game and after that, he was connected to us via Skype. I'm actually skeptical about that being live since videos like that could be timed but still it was pretty cool how we clapped and he told us to enjoy and waved at us. 

We had a 20 minutes intermission for toilet breaks and my mom actually went to speak with one of the performers. She complained about the volume but the violinist said he couldn't do much about it because his task was only to play the violin, not controlling the overall sound so too bad but it's weird because the volume during the second half was increased and it had more "oomph" as compared to the first half. My mom was being smug about this, I'm not sure myself whether it was a coincidence or what. Nonetheless, it was more heart pumping during the second half, maybe it was also because Tommy joined in together with his electric guitar so the distortion or gain gave the extra kick.

When Jack asked whether there was any Disney fans, we immediately knew that the next song would be a piece from Kingdom Hearts! They played Hikari, I was literally fangirling throughout the whole song for several reasons. Yes, KH was an enjoyable game but Hikari has a very special place in my heart (for the record, the original song is performed and also composed by my one and only J-Goddess, Utada Hikaru). This rendition sounds really beautiful when performed live, I was close to tears.

Tommy also invited the winner of Guitar Hero competition that was held earlier on before the concert to play with him on stage. Van Halen's song was played. That little boy has leet skills on that fake guitar thing! I swear it's harder to play on that toy than a real guitar, (even Slash said so himself!) At first he was only required to play on Hard mode but he insisted on Expert to show off his skills, quite a cocky boy ey? But really, he was quite amazing except for the solo part, he screwed up a bit. 

Other tracks include music from Sonic the Hedgehog, Warcraft/World of Warcraft, Halo. As if one MGS song wasn't enough to satiate the fans, we have Norihiko Hibino who specially flew in. He's the man behind Snake Eater which was used for Metal Gear Solid 3. One of my all time favourite video game songs, not to mention MGS3 was the first MGS game that made me a MGS fan that I am today. I kept replaying Snake Eater during my final terms break back in Form 1/2. Mr. Hibino performed Snake Eater on his saxaphone and oh boy, that rendition was really sexy and even more melodic than the original one. It reminded me so much of my secondary school years.

When Tommy said that the next song will be from a game by Square, it instantly hit us that it'll be a Final Fantasy song. Everyone was stoked and he kept asking us which Final Fantasy will it be. Everyone shouted their favourite FF and guess what, some shouted FFI, FFVI, (Terra's theme would be so epic), FFIX (this one has the most, I mean in quantity, great music out of all FF games) and most shouted FFVII (as expected-duh! fanboys never die). Guess which one they selected? As predicted, it was FFVII and before he could finish saying the composer's name, we shouted Nobuo Uematsu! Damn, that guy is REALLY an icon in the video games music industry. Hail Uematsu! (lol) and so my dream came true after waiting for ages, I was able to witness the profoundness of One Winged Angel live! Holy shit, I had goosebumps. Definitely an overrated song but it's just so sinfully addictive to listen to, especially the parts with choir.

When Tommy and others made their disappearance, we all kept cheering  or an encore. Soon enough, they came out and was ready to deliver more yummy songs.  Castlevania's song was played and it had that rock or a bit of metal edge to it, I really love it even though I haven't played this game throughout 19 years of my life. (yeah, yeah, I know how much I'm missing out) He also had us sing Mario's Overworld theme together, it was ridiculously stupid and cute.

Before the evening came to an end, music from Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross was played and apparently, this was due to so much demand from fans all over the world. I'm glad they actually considered what the fans want because Chrono Cross has such beautiful music though I haven't finished the game, put it on hold when I received FFXIII, lol. It started out soft and tranquil withJack and Tommy on the acoustics, and suddenly the tempo took a turn. The ever-talented flutist and Norihiko joined in and so did the rest of the musicians. One word to describe it-- EPIC. Oh my God, it was easily one of the best piece delivered. All the instruments blended together so perfectly. Even my mom kept complimenting this piece after the concert was over.

The concert lasted about 2 hours 30 minutes long, I was beaming as I was walking out of the hall, in other words, I was ecstatic. Like I said earlier this month, it was like a dream come true for me, the opportunity to listen to video game soundtracks played live. Paying RM 153 was definitely worth it,  you get such a different experience that you won't be able to get from attending usual concerts.  Imagine all gamers who truly appreciates video games and the music gathered together in a hall, all with the same purpose, to just have fun and enjoy the music like how we've enjoyed the games. But I might be wrong because I saw people in their 40s - 50s as well, perhaps it'd be more precise to say that the same purpose is to have fun and enjoy the music! :D

Oh yes, video games music is just like any other good music. In fact, they're better than some shit that they play on radios these days. You can actually feel it when you listen to video game soundtracks. This applies to certain animes/dramas/movies soundtracks as well. Video games music has evolved to the point where players criticize or refuse to play certain games just because of the music composer. Fanboys and fangirls can be so faithful (lol). If you haven't listened to video games music before, I'd suggest you do so because you're really missing out a lot, I'm dead-serious.

The only drawback was the audio system, they could've done better. Do realize I'm not referring to the skills of the musicians, they played well and the co-ordination was great, the choir members especially. If only they raised the volume. I do not have much knowledge about acoustics and all, perhaps it's the material of the walls or the positioning of the speakers. Either way, if this was improved, it would've been flawless.

And if they were to drop by in the future, I'd relinquish RM 200++to get front seats and hopefully by then they will play music from not so popular games such as Persona and Max Payne. Someone actually shouted Persona when Tommy asked what song to play next. Besides that, I was actually hoping to see Martin Leung but too bad he wasn't there because I really dig his rendition of Tetris's theme. Oh well. :)

Presentations and assignments are finally all done for this final semester so for the time being, zest is in the air! 

One of the reasons why I'm so happy and driven now is because VGL will be happening for the first time in Malaysia! (and all the while I thought of how I'll just die without witnessing the greatness of video games' music live because after all, this is Malaysia) It's certainly shocking that they've decided to include Malaysia in their tour. About time! I know there are many enthusiasts out there, those radical ones especially!

If you're still scratching your head and don't even have a single inkling about VGL, you're really uncool. Scratch that, I know how "many" gamers actually visit my blog or gamer friends. Was just kidding. Just because you do not play video games, it doesn't mean you should miss out this opportunity to attend this amazing concert! 

Who the hell's performing? It's difficult to answer, there are many involved, from the choir to the electronic percussionists, solo performers, etc. Picture the ambience when you witness an orchestra live, then combine it with something electronic, jazzy or rock-ish once in a while. A perfect blend of various genres, making the music come alive right before your eyes. The synchronization coupled together with beautiful visuals such as the lights and video games clips are utterly engaging, to gamers or non-gamers. Anyone who enjoys symphonic tracks or put simply, soundtracks or instrumental stuff will definitely find this a worthwhile + enjoyable experience. If these reasons are still not convincing enough, I'm hoping the price of the tickets will--- from RM 83 to RM 253! That's way fucking cheaper than your Super Junior concert which I think is totally crap. Sorry, my fingers tend to  move on their own sometimes.

I know people will still be hesitant (that is if my dear readers are actually bothered to read all these in the first place). Here are several videos that I got from YT, to exemplify the magnificence of VGL! Bear in mind all these are user-recorded; thus, the quality but they still rock.

FF Medley on Piano performed in Taipei - the word beautiful explains it all.

How often do you get such cool people touring Malaysia anyway? This is totally incredulous. Someone slap me please, HARD. All these envisioning is making me more excited by each second. This is almost like a dream come true for me. Music that will be performed obviously includes those from well-known titles or classical ones. Good examples are Final Fantasy, Chrono Cross, Metal Gear Solid, Silent Hill, Mega Man, Warcraft, Super Mario, Kingdom Hearts, Zelda, Dongkey Kong, Castlevania, just to name a few that I know of. 

If anyone's interested in joining, here are some important details of the concert.

For more information, here's the official website -- Video Games Live. Ticket pricing is available there, as well as ordering of course. 

Someone please remind me that Chinese New Year is already here because I just can't feel it. In spite I'll be getting a 2 days break coupled together with another extra 2 days because of my lovely Statistics lecturer, I'm not excited or happy about it. There's just no Chinese New Year spirit in me or perhaps there is one waiting to be awoken? Either way, I'm lacking enthusiasm. There must be something profoundly amiss with me these days. Is it the weather? Seriously, tell me why is it always incredulously hot when Chinese New Year comes? It's not even funny. There are days when it's so bloody hot that I'm about to strip naked and soak myself in a tub of ice, just like how those people in soap operas. Too bad for me, I do not have a tub and that immense supply of ice. To make things worse, there's mid terms right after Chinese New Year. First paper will be on Saturday and they haven't released the schedule for the exam yet. Well done, very efficient of you people. Now this makes it difficult for students to prioritize their subjects. As I'm typing this, IHMC isn't accessible. Oh wait, it is accessible but they haven't uploaded the schedule.

Just how nice it will be if I can spend Chinese New Year in dormancy. Do I sound a tad negative? Oh sorry, my mood shifts can be quite scary when the weather sucks. It affects the whole me. Let's just hope that my perspectives will change when I get back to Ipoh, receive a lot of money ang paos, and meet my friends. Speaking of ang paos, I think people are getting more parsimonious. Could that be actually the real reason I no longer look forward to Chinese New Year as much as I used to? 

Another thing that I cannot look forward to anymore-- bonding over joysticks. Before my secondary years when my cousins and I weren't that mature yet, we used to play wrestling or fighting games and Tony Hawk's on the PSX. Those were the days where we would go for endless matches of Tony Hawk's just to see who can get the higher score. And also the days where there was only one PC in my room. Each one of us would compromise, play a few rounds of CS with the bots while others wait patiently behind the current player. I still remember, before the existence of smooth graphics, we took turns playing old school games like Lost Vikings, Wolfenstein, Aladin and Prince of Persia. As an introvert, I am not really good at socializing with those who aren't around me for long aka my cousins who are from KL except for one that I've played a lot with since I was toddler. For others, there weren't many topics of interests but we could actually sit down and talk for long if there were gaming sessions. This is how technology or to be more precise, gaming consoles are capable of fostering relationships. 

Presently, these kind of events do not take place anymore. How unfortunate. Never mind that, I'm hoping for a great time when I get back to Ipoh. Although I dread going back to the house, cleaning it and sleeping in a dusty environment, I'm trying to be as optimistic as possible. Happy Chinese New Year people! 

By the time I get back from Ipoh, Utada's In the Flesh tour will be over. How ridiculously depressing for fans who couldn't make it. The venues weren't even beyond reach if I were an working person. London, NYC, Chicago. *inserts sad smiley* I pray that she'll tour again in a few years' time when I have the sufficient funds to travel overseas just too see her in person.

Can't say how disappointed I am right now. I didn't know disappointment can be so overwhelming.


So when they first announced a Claymore game for DS, I was excited, no, de facto, very fucking thrilled. Even though I do not own a DS because I'm a DS HATER, I did tell my friend that I might actually save up for a DS just to play the game. Sounds stupid? Not really. I've done worse things because of my penchant for fantasy like things. Anyways, I've changed my mind! I will absolutely not spend even a cent on the DS because the game is atrocious. Some disappointed fan was kind enough to post a short gameplay video of lvl 1. My first reaction was, what the fuck, WOLVES? They did not have wolves in the anime or manga. (correct me if I am wrong) So what the hell is Clare doing? She needs so slice wolves in the game? Funny. And when it comes to the battle with the Yoma, guess what, the Yoma jumped! It jumped around like a chinese undead. Amusing is the right word!


Tch. In the first place, they've already screwed up by making it a side scroller game. What's wrong with them? That's so incredibly dull. Not that I hate side scroller games. Mario was awesome, so was Prince of Persia for MS-Dos. But let's face it, people nowadays don't really crave for such games anymore. Claymore has a lot of potential if it were made into a game similar to DMC/KH style. In other words, 3rd person view, Hack N Slash style. Since Claymore itself already has a solid story, there is nothing to fret except for the gameplay. Then, it'd be epic! All Claymore aficionados will rejoice. In fact, I don't mind if they release a fighting game. At least, it's better than this piece of junk. The only thing that I will praise is the Yoki controlling system. It is pretty cool to control Yoki with the stylus.

Developers, please make a remastered version of this game for the PSP? PLEASE? Or should I write this to Santa? I'm dying to play a Claymore game. Or should I say, GOD, I PRAY FOR A CLAYMORE GAME FOR PSP but please make sure it doesn't suck ass like the DS version. Please make sure it's epic enough.

From the research I've been doing, it seems that Teresa, Miria, Irene and a few other significant Claymore characters will appear in the game. I wonder whether Galatea will make an appearance. *smirks* Although this game is really piece of shit, I'd still be glad if anyone is kind enough to lend me their DS so that I can get my hands on this game. ^_^



Thus, my day ends with not only disappointment but also sadness and anger as this game tarnishes Claymore.