The Promise

I haven't blogged in yonks and here I am posting an entry after watching a Mix FM sponsored premiere of "The Promise" starring Cecilia Cheung and some Korean dude. I can't remember his name at all cos' He wasn't that good looking to begin with. The other notable in the movie was Nicholas Tse who played the bad guy.

I didn't have any expectations at all for the movie and went into the cinema not knowing what was in store for me. In short I must say I was pretty amused by the movie in general. To its credit the cinematography was alright with some really nice angles & framing. Plus some of the scenery was breathtaking but that's all the praise the movie is going to get from me.

The plot was simplistic and it meandered on for most of the movie. It felt like one huge uncontrollable fairy tale complete with ridiculous scenes of people flying in the sky. Some of these scenes were supposed to be romantic but I think a lot of us in the cinema ended up laughing instead of being touched. Sigh ... you know a movie is in trouble when you see a guy pulling his lady love through the sky like a kite. There were moments when it could have been really romantic but somehow everything just falls flat because of the direction the story was being steered into. There were moments of campiness in the movie too; especially Nicholas Tse's weird stick weapon that had a gold hand with its index finger pointing out. The movie is just filled with moments that confuse you; should I be laughing now or should I be crying?

The casting was pretty weak too. The Korean guy wasn't a very strong lead actor and I must say that Nicholas Tse overshadowed him on all counts. I mean if you don't have acting chops at the very least be good-looking-lah ... aiyo! Cecilia Cheung felt miscast too! I mean she's always this sweet character in all her previous roles but in this one she's supposed to be a seductress whom men would die or kill for. I didn't get that at all and honestly I don't see why everyone in the movie wanted her so much. Silly men!

The writers tried to deal with a wide variety of themes but I think in trying to deal with so many themes everything just diluted along the way. Personally as a amateur writer I've found from experience that having too many themes just confuses the audience and the end-product just becomes weak. Here are some of the themes that I think they were trying to deal with:

• Love (sacrificial, unrequited, scorned, etc)
• Loyalty & Honour
• Fate & Destiny

I suppose the main theme of the movie was about fate and how one can't really change it but it just doesn't come out strong because of way the scenes were being treated. At the start of the movie there's this scene where the Korean dude races through a herd of stampeding bulls and I tried suspending my belief but I couldn't. The movie is filled with cartoonish instances like that and I guess the movie suffered from the treatment it was getting from the director.

Sigh ... at the end of the day I don't hate the movie. The whole group of us who went had a nice laugh outside the cinema and I'd say we were amused at the very least. If you're a Nicholas Tse fan skip this one cos' there are embarassing instances in the movie that the director puts him through. Cecilia Cheung fans ... um ... she's pretty-lor. That's all I can say. If you're expecting another Hero or Seven Swords then please, please give this one a miss. Go watch "Perhaps Love" starring Takeshi Kaneshiro & Jacky Cheung. Now that's a good watch! Or better yet just catch "King Kong" - it most definitely wins my vote for movie of the year!

Cheap XBOX!

I just got a call from my buhd over at Gamester Direct in 1U about a sweet deal for an under-played XBOX for just RM800! If I could afford it I'd probably get one but as it is I've already made my one brand new console purchase for the year already. Yes ... I must admit now that I have gotten me a brand new NINTENDO DS and it's still not even a month old. Anyway if anyone of you are interested in the XBOX just head on over to Gamester Direct in 1U and ask Eddie at the shop. Tell em' you read about it on Chris Leow's blog. The XBOX package contains the following:

• 2 S-controllers (the smaller sized XBOX controllers not the clunky ones)
• 2 original games (Halo 1 & Star Wars: Clone Wars)
• 150 "other" games
• The XBOX unit itself plus the cables (TV, power cable, etc)

I'm not too sure what colour it is though so if check it out if any of you out there are interested. It's a pretty sweet deal I must say! Meanwhile I gotta get back to my DS ... I've been playing with it a whole lot more than my GameCube or my PS2. The touch screen on that baby brings a unique flavour to gaming and I must say I've been having loads of fun playing Kirby: Canvas Curse and just recently acquired a copy of Meteos too which I have yet to spend much time on.

Long live NINTENDO!

Lazy Blogger

I realise that I am such a lazy blogger. I am not compelled at all to write on a daily basis. I think that's because I keep a journal of my own which contain all my thoughts. Writing is therapeutic and I think my personal journal is one of the things that helps me get through life. It unravels the jumbled mess that's in my mind and it's sorta like talking to God too. I've been keeping a journal since 2003 I think and I've yet to go back and read all the stuff from before. It's like I pen all these things down just to get it out of my system.

The BIGGEST news I have is my brand new iBook (well almost brand new cos' I bought it 2nd hand from my Singaporean friend's girlfriend). Macs are totally cool and OS X is a joy to use. It's UNIX roots are something I have yet to explore fully though and the thought of writing time-saving AppleScripts sends a tingle down my spine. Looks like the programmer in me isn't that dead after all.

I wish the iBook had a bigger hard-drive though cos' I loaded it with MP3s and I pretty much filled the hard-drive already ... BUMMEROO! White objects are so hard to keep clean and already the pristine white surface is getting dirty. Sigh ... time to plonk more money down for some expensive cleaning solution. Will probably get some when I hit Singapore at the end of the month since all items TECH are cheap there. MacASIA is really ripping us off; this anti-static protector I saw which costs USD17.00 is being sold for RM99 bucks which is soooooo expensive. Man! Talk about a huge profit margin.

On another note, working in Oops! Asia is uber cool. The music industry is cool although it's a real challenge to figure out how a small label like us can make a difference. Malaysians are a tough bunch; no one really supports local musicians and it's at times like this that I dislike being one. I'm the same too and I guess it's an ugly reflection of myself that I never really thought about. I don't watch local movies and I don't listen to local music. Funny how I'm now in a local music label. God certainly has a sense of humour. Don't get me wrong though ... I love what I'm doing now and I wouldn't trade it for anything else.

Hmm ... looks like I'm back to my old habit of rambling. Unfortunately it's not about video games. Maybe I'll write something about video games after this. Till then ... ta!

Resident Evolution

Hello one and all ... Happy New Year to all of you who are celebrating the Year of the Rooster over the next few days. Festivals don't seem to be as joyous nowadays; I guess once you've grown up it isn't as big a deal as it used to be. Ha ha! Maybe I'm just jaded but it was all so different when I was a kid.

I borrowed Resident Evil 0 for the Nintendo Gamecube (GCN) and rushed through it over the past week or so just to experience what a traditional Resident Evil game is like. I must say that after playing through it once, I can see why the Resident Evil (RE) series is a big turn off to some people. Here are some of the gripes that I had about old-school Resident Evil.

Up is forward & "Back" is back
Resident Evil's control scheme has got to be one of the most awful control schemes I have ever used in a video game. Pressing up on the analog stick or D-pad is very confusing and it took me awhile to get used to it. To be fair it did get tolerable after awhile.

Door-opening irritation
Loading times were a bit of a pain as the game required constant backtracking; forcing you (the player) to sit through loading animations of doors opening or climbing up ladders to load levels.

Insane & inane puzzles
Puzzles in a traditional RE game are pretty ... um ... "puzzling". There is some logic behind it which isn't that hard to figure out but the most frustrating thing about the puzzles is figuring out which objects in the backdrops are interactable. With no visual cues whatsoever the puzzles become a chore rather than a challenge to tackle.

After playing through RE0 it made me appreciate Resident Evil 4 all the more. I'm glad that Capcom dumped the old-school RE stuff and made a brand new game with RE4. Yes ... for those of you who have been following this blog, I bought RE4 about a month ago and it was a fun romp. The developers focused on action but left in a lot of spine tingling moments at the same time. It's a brilliant game, deceptively simple and yet addictively replayable. Within days of my first run through the game I went through it again after unlocking some of the super weapons just for the heck of it. I was in the middle of my 3rd playthrough on the "Professional" difficulty but then decided to pass it to my friend Kar Yean in exchange for "Resident Evil 0" and "Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem" because I wanted to find out what the backstory was for the RE universe. Eternal Darkness isn't a RE game by the way, I just wanted to play it because I've heard so much about it. RE0 was somewhat disappointing to say the least; mostly because of the 3 points I raised in this blog. I'm glad that RE4 threw away all that and made a fresh start because RE4 was such a blast to play!

If you're an action junkie then RE4 comes highly recommended. I had loads of fun and when I get it back from Kar Yean I'll have some more fun with it. RE fans who love the puzzle elements might be disappointed with RE4's simple puzzles but then again the action more than makes up for it. PLUS the enemies you battle are truly creepy; a hallmark of any Resident Evil game. Give it a whirl if you're a Gamecube owner, if not wait till Capcom releases the PS2 version. My money's on the Gamecube version though cos' the game was developed from the ground up for the GCN and it's unlikely the PS2 version will be as polished graphically as the GCN one. Resident Evil 4 definitely lived up to the media hype and certainly exceeded my expectations. Here's my final verdict on RE4; a truly evolved form of Resident Evilness.

Fun Factor: 10 out of 10
Addictiveness: 10 out of 10
Graphics: 10 out of 10
Overall Grade: 10 out of 10

Stung!

It's 12:35am and I am now sitting here at the computer listening to more Sting while I write this. 3 hours ago I was in Stadium Putra Bukit Jalil watching Sting perform LIVE! I loved every minute of it even though I'm not too familiar with the songs off his latest album Sacred Love. It was an hour and a half of pure magic as the whole stadium listened to a mix of both old and new stuff. There were songs from his older solo efforts as well as crowd pleasers from his days with The Police.

My favourite last night was definitely "Every Breath You Take" which till today remains my all time favourite Sting track. Listening to songs like "Fields of Gold" and "Fragile" live was pure bliss. Dominic Miller, Sting's guitarist was brilliant as he played his Sunburst Strat with such precision. His guitar work is so sublime and for some reason he's one of my favourite guitar players because of his work with Mr Gordon Sumner.

I'm glad I could go; almost didn't make it cos' my friend Paul and I thought there would be Leaders Meeting in church tonight. Much to our surprise and slight chagrin we found out that there wasn't gonna be any meeting. And so on Monday morning began our frantic calls to find out if there would still be tickets for Sting or not. By God's grace there were tickets that fit our budget and so we made bookings yesterday for 2 tickets.

And so my journey to the concert began at 4:30pm as I took the LRT to Kerinchi to meet Paul so we could drop by Midvalley to pick up our tickets. We had dinner at Carrefour nearby before finally driving into Stadium Putra at 7:15pm for our date with Sting.

The song that most surprised me last night was "If I Ever Lose My Faith You" and the duet he sang with one his backup singers for the rendition of "Whenever I Say Your Name". I must say that it sounded a thousand times better than the studio version he sang with Mary J. Blige. Sting's energy was amazing; being 53 years old and all. He is in my opinion one of the most defining musicians in our generation with his music that ranges all kinds of musical styles. His lyrics are pure poetry and well I truly consider him a musical genius! The band that played with him was awesome. The times when they broke into musical interludes was amazing. You could just feel the jazz in their souls as they jammed.

All in all I'm most glad I could go watch Sting; one of my all time favourite artistes in the universe. For that short moment in time I was truly STUNG! Now if only Dave Matthews would come down sometime. Heh heh!

Oh by the way check out Paul's blog here to find out what he felt about Sting. Till next time ... I leave you guys with these magical words ... STING TRULY ROCKS!

The PSP, DS & RE4 Edge

I am so hyped over the newly released Resident Evil 4 for the Nintendo GameCube. The major online video game sites have had nothing but good things to say about it. The visuals, the gameplay and the exquisitely cinematic presentation just increases the anticipated arrival of my copy. My regular supplier unfortunately can only get it in on the 17th which fortunately isn't that far away. I already have visions of crazed villagers being shot by Leon S. Kennedy dancing in front of my eyes. Man ... I wish I had a bigger TV to contain all that graphical mayhem.

On another note, I've been splurging on video game magazines this week and bought 3 issues of Edge. It is by far the best gaming publication I have ever read. The articles are thought provoking and well written. It is THE publication to read if you want to get a grasp of REAL issues in the video game design community. Check it out at www.edge-online.com. The layouts are nice and there's a design sense to them that should intrigue some of you designers out there.

I've been drooling over the PSP and Nintendo DS. The graphics on the PSP is amazing. Crisp graphics on the largest screen I've ever seen on a portable. On the other hand the DS' touch screen has tons of possibilities. It's still too early to get one as the software lineup is still kinda poor. The sexy graphics on the PSP makes it very appealing but the battery life reportedly is horrible compared to the solid 10 hours you get out of the DS. Oh well ... it's not like I can afford either at the moment anyway.

So ends my token blog post to start the new year. Yeah yeah yeah ... I know it's already 13 days into the new year but this is my first blog post of 2005. I'm such a slacker.