Well, hands-on Splinter cell. first thing i can say, not a metal gear killer. it is far far away from being a metal gear killer. far far away... about the bad things. first, there is the camera. you rotate the camera by adjusting the right analog stick, thus, unlike metal gear, you get 360 degrees of freedom. that is good, for one thing. since this is a stealth game, free cameras are suppose to be very important, as you lay still in one corner while observing whats going on around you meanwhile you just rotate the camera. Then comes the awful fact that the camera feels the game came straight out from a PC port. If you played MDK2 on PC, then you would remeber how innovative the game is by incorporating the mouse to be used to control the camera angel. That's what happened to SC's camera here. While it does gives you complete freedom, it just feels stupid to have to adjust the camera whenever you moved half a turn around a corner or down some stairs. Further more, there isn't a center camera button. What's fuck with that? Why no center camera button? This is a console game for god damn sake. The next bad point, those lighting effects isn't really that revolutionary. I saw ICO and went aweeeee. I saw SC, and thought, "ok, that's acceptable, but what's wroong with the framerate?" the game doesn't moves smootly as i had expected. MGS ran at 60fps for most of the time, so does ZOE2. Yet, when there are so little things in SC, why does that fucking framerate so damn low? It's almost on par with that GTA3 game. Then the controls. This game wasn't made for you to take out all the enemies with your tommy gun, since the aiming system really sucks. Think of the getaway, no wait, it wasn't that bad, think of any tom clancy and u'll get the idea. Next, no in game save. How many games nowadays doesn't allow you to save anywhere you like? (except those RPGs, minus wild arms 3...) You only get to save at the end of the mission, and that sucks. And then, there isn't subtitles in this game. Damn, why does those people talk in strange accents, no wait, whisper in strange accents. I had to tune up my volume until i can hear Sam's footsteps, and whenever that god damn enemy discovered me, the music became so loud i had to tune down the volume again. ALL GAMES MUST HAVE SUBTITLES! And that includes you, Jak and dextor. Now the good stuffs. The gameplay rocks. You get to do rapelling off walls, climb poles, slide down ropes, and most important, get to knock off enemies right in front of their face (although that gets stale after sometimes). The night vision goggles totally knock me off, like the thermal ones too. All in all, this feels like a PC game stuck in a console. They shouldn't have developed this for PS2. Totally not a MGS2 killer. Graphics: 7/10 (i had seen better), sound: 7/10 (damn those fucking accents and no subtitles!) control:4/10 (damn, have you ever suffered from motion sickness in a third person view game cos the camera sucks?)

Today is a Saturday. This may sounds rudimentary to some out there, but this saturday is a big day for me. It's one whole year after BMT, and the tekong section buddies are coming out to celebrate. There is Paul, me, Yuan Feng, Si qiang, Chao wei, Xian Rong, Sydney and Simon. Jeffery, Jun wei and Reduan couldn't make it. Heard that junwei's in brunei. Got attached there as a signaller, i heard. Lucky bastard, pay increased to head out to a nether world to enjoy his lobo days. About a year ago, junwei sat beside me in alpha/bravo lecture room. We haven't knew each other yet. He was just sitting beside me. Then, i don't even knew he was that tall of a guy, since he's just sitting beside me. Before we knew anything was going to happen, we were told to fill up our partivulars on pieces of papers. One of those headings was "Your Best Friend", and his particulars. With no one in my mind at that moment, i asked the completely foreign junwei, "would you be my best friend?". Fuck yes. Days later, Bravo company was resuffled. Junwei then slept 2 beds away from me. Talk about fate and things.

niways, today's outing was on the whole, enriching, and small fun. We hadn't talk much to each others about the old bmt days, but to stare at those plates of sushi at the sake sushi restraunts at Bugis. Damn, I haven't gotten so excited over plates of sushi. Having them on conveyor belts indeed pumps up your adrenaline level as you decide and do fast calculations in split seconds in your head, wheather or not the plate of sushi is worth your dime. Then it went away for most of the time. Anyway, Si qiang, who is a commisioned officer now, paid for the meal. His birthday he said. We bought him 3 glasses as presents. We had forgotten it was chao wei's birthday too, so we gave him one of those glassess. Pretty glass i would say. Perfect present.

Next up we watched "Tears of the sun" together. Last yeer this time, i watched "Collateral damage", that arnie's flick, if anyone remebers. CD was actually quite a good show, a stable plot, some actions, bits of twist (a big twist at the end though), but not really a good arnie show. "True lies" was a classic arnie flick, so is that kick ass terminator-i-come-from-future-to-save-the-world-show, which later, many other cliched shows will base their plots more or less similar to the above mentioned. But CD was out on the wrong time -- a good show released at the wrong time. It was postponed due to that 9/11 attack on US. Perhaps everyone was so anti-terroists --and that show was so much about terrorists--that makes it rather unpopular at that time. At that time, what people needs are musicians who haven't shown their faces for a couple of years, artists who we haven't seen onscreen or offscreen and even on those mini tabloids, to come out and console people with words like "united", "terrible disasters", and more to think of. All these but not an arnie flick depicting how one guy wipe off the entire terrorist camp. Then "Tears of the Sun" is another show that came out at the wrong time. It should have come out before revolutionary films like "Saving Private Ryan" and "The thin red line" was released. Before that, people can be doped into believeing Silvester Stallion can really defeat a whole batttalion army by himself. After SPR, everything was so changed. The show's plot now can be as shallow as Saddam Hussein's words on that he had already disarm himself, but there must be gore and scenes which depict how suffering was experienced during wartimes. And a great soundtrack too. All these but not a show with a one man army, causing a whole battalion of soldiers who surprisingly couldn't shoot a target who is like 10 feet away, not with bazookas, LAWs, SAWs, and heck sometimes i saw people with GPMGs , not all these could hurt that one man army. Cos, when that one guy runs past the battalion, the battalion of soldiers are suppose to fall down and play dead... Then in Tears, its one section of commandos (or is it NAVY SEALS??) versus one battalion of soldier, in which you might think is more logical, since we now have got more man in our side of the army, but if you do the maths, its still perhaps 1 guy versus 20 to 30 enemies at any one time. And Bruce Willis survived, of course, since so many people had since sent hate mails to Hollywood, complaining why Bruce had to die for Ben Affleck in Armageddon instead. Ben should have die and i should have gotten Liv Tyler, and Tears should be such a good movie. Sadly, it was just released at a very bad time. Anyway, few plus points about the movie is it's amazing soundtrack, and its vivid adaptation of commandos at work. Damn. They are so cool to watch, especially that sniper guy with that silenced sniper gun he got.

Next week, I'm going to that inaugmentation parade (whatever the fuck that is), while wearing MOPP4, under the hot sun. Hope everything turns out well for me. Until next week, it's ciao then, unless i have more to write the next morning i wakes up. By the way, i bought Splinter cell, and there is a pasam balam downstairs. Can't wait to play.

It's monday, and I'm still at home??? Day off, haha. Good for me. But the thought of going back makes me feel so sick. I heard we've got encap suit training endurance tomorrow. Siong man. Anyway, didn't managed to catch Tears of the sun afterall. Met Shun rong on ICQ, he said quite a good show, if not above average. Well, latest news on USIRAQ war, the Iraqis are fighting back, giving back the US soldiers some deterence. When are they going to end this war? Haiz, end it soon, and I want to get my original life in army back. Anyway now is also quite good, since CO said that security now comes first, training second. Maybe, just maybe, the war can stay.. No wait, that will implicate alot of people's life. The wat should go!! Yeah! Must go! I had watched Black Hawk Down, the uber realistic war show, and understand how war is so ugly and stuffs. P E A C E

About the games I bought: ZOE2 kicks big asses! Really great graphics, but sometimes horrible camera angles. Actually the cameras helps somewhat in presenting the game's complete freedom to move, yet, it makes viewing things so complicated too. Especially on that destroy-the-train level. The camera will force itself to focus on the turrets on the train itself, completely ingnoring those missiles which bombarded me overhead. Next is the soundtrack. Man, this must had been composed by someone related to that oscar show, Crouching tiger Hidden dragon. Remeber that Vic Viper stage? The music was damn cool! Then the one when you have to drag Arojet all the way up from some installment or chasm, that music was cool! And those cinemas, damn, they reminds me of Metal Gear Solid 2's cinematics. And then the controls, they, well, in a word, sucks. You have to juggle so many buttons at anyone time. MGS was great, somehow, for having so many buttons for so many actions. But MGS was practically a slow game. You can plan, hide, use your stealth, slowly. So you can push your buttons slowly. But ZOE was damn fast, these button smashing wasn't what my fingers can keep up with.
And that Sakura Taisen game, couldn't understand a word of Jap. Sadness. Should have bought that Dark Cloud 2 instead. Now watching Oscar. Hero didn't win any award. It was a terrific show, although the story was quite lame, come to think of it. But the way Zhang Yi mou presented the story, that was something new. Until next post, ciao.

Been a while since i post. Had been in camp the whole of last week. U know they are right when they said NS took over your whole life. Sometimes for the good, other times, bad (most of the times, really). Last week nothing happened much. I was made the IC of the platoon again. Damn, all the specs are attached out for some athletics event this week. I was so busy, had to take care of my own work, plus the specs' too. And worse thing is, my platoon mates ain't cooperation with me. US had officially attacked Iraq too. Right now, the security status of my camp is tigher than before. Guard personnels are increased from the previous 5 to the present 10. Sianz... Bought another 2 games. ZOE2 and Sakura Taisen. The former, great graphics, immense fun. The latter, couldn't understand a word of japanese. Maybe after i buy the guide for it then i'll play. Going to watch Tears of the sun later. Will post the review after the show. Heard it was a really sucky show. Hope so not..