Prince of Persia is... completed! I was obsessed with playing through the game the past few days, and I spent 8 whole hours straight yesterday on it. I was honestly shocked with myself, and now I kind of feel like a bum to be able to spend a whole day playing a game. Anyway, I got 2 really unexpected Achievements, because I never did plan to get them from the start. They are the cheevos for completing the game in under 12 hours, and being saved by Elika less than 100 times. NOWAI seriously? I'm happy.

And the game itself was brilliant, in my opinion. The environments are beautiful, the main characters really stood out through their interactions with each other (love the part where the Prince made Elika play a game with him), and the gameplay was satisfying enough for me. Sure it was easy to the point that you can't die, but I WANT to breeze through a game and I WANT to not die. There were a few things I didn't like, like dodging enemy attacks because it was absolutely rubbish (so I resort to deflects, which was way more fun), the yellow and green Power Plates which were the only things that never fail to annoy me, and the Warrior. Goddamn the Warrior. You can't deal damage to it, so you constantly have to lure it towards the platform's edge. I hated that.

But ahhh I love the game! I might get back to it again, but just to collect all the Light Seeds. Although I was a right fool to forget to make a manual save before heading to the final area. So now I have to go through the City of Light and Royal Palace again. Argh the Warrior! Also, I'm not sure if I should get the Epilogue for 800 MS points, for another ending. The original ending made me feel all hollow because of what you had to do.

Also if you haven't noticed, I made a new theme thanks to being so obsessed with Prince of Persia. Although halfway through I lost interest, so it's all messy and moody-dark now. Oh well.

Anywaaaaayz, back to F.E.A.R. now? I'm too lazy to, and I feel like playing Crackdown instead.

Oh yeh I totally forgot to mention this, but I'm DEVASTATED that K-ON! has ended. Anyone has anime recommendations that is of a similar nature? Light-hearted, funny, quirky, slice-of-life type I guess, if I need to describe it. Also, something new that I might not have heard of. GIVE ME!
In the meantime, I'll continue to devour Fables and read late into the night.

New things are good. Very good. I received Prince of Persia in the mail today, which I ordered through Play-Asia a week ago. I knew it was a Korean version but in English, although I never expected the whole box and manual to be in Korean as well. I checked the options, and there isn't a way of changing the language or subtitle to Korean. Not that I wanted to, but I thought it was just weird that it was intended for a Korean audience, but there's no way for them to play the game through their native language.
Anyway, I played about an hour of it to get to know the controls, and got till the part where Elika healed the first Fertile Ground. King's Gate I think. Doesn't matter. I really wish I was playing on some awesome-huge TV so I can look at the environments better. And so far, I'm liking what I see of the game and I'm REALLY liking its relatively absent difficulty. It's good to play something that doesn't frustrate you once in a while. And I actually like the combat, even though they're all one-on-one and nothing stressful. I love messing with the button combinations, although I can never remember most of what I did. So I eventually fell back to Elika's combo that was taught during the tutorial. I'm definitely getting back to the game as soon as possible, maybe even after posting this blog.

Completing F.E.A.R. is taking a backseat now.
Also, I kept dying in Lost Odyssey. I'm at the Sea of Baus with the boss battle against 2 Bogimorays in succession. Damn insect thingies kept charging, and damn Bogimorays kept absorbing the energy to build its MP for a Para-Flare. Although it IS my fault for being too lazy to ensure my party doesn't get paralyzed from that attack, which was basically how I kept dying.

Oh yeh, I installed the Dragonica CD I got from VGL because I was bored and messed around with it for a bit. Got on the Elga server because the dragon icon looked cooler (haha) and made a Thief because it's a tad less generic than making a Warrior. Or so I thought. I got in the game and OMG THIEVES EVERYWHERE! I only saw ONE Warrior and a couple of Mages and Archers. Anyway, Dragonica is hell of a lot more friendlier than Granado Espada but not as annoying to look at as MapleStory. Dare I say, I had a respectable amount of fun playing it? I did spend 3 hours on it straight, which is the longest I've had with a game nowadays. And I stopped only because I was sweating like a pig as there was no fan plugged in for ventilation, and my left hand was aching from being poised over certain keys for shortcut commands. My god, I can't imagine myself hunched over my keyboard playing some random MMORPG for hours into the night! Ok I'm not gonna get my fan out if I play Dragonica again, so I won't stay on long.

And I should mention this again. My PS2 is officially dead. As in, the console itself. My friend's BF let me borrow his power adaptor to check, and it didn't switch on. So ugh, I've got to fork out more for a new replacement console instead. So I guess that's where part of the money I'm getting from the government is going to.

I think that's all there is to gaming news.

I got a new fish! A betta again, because they're too adorable for me to resist. Not to mention pricey. I sold off Assassin's Creed, Battle Fantasia and Halo: Combat Evolved to fund for everything that I needed. Stabilizers are expensive. ):
So it's a marbled green-white Halfmoon, and I never got its age, but I think it's still just a few months old. It's so tiny! But aggressive. Seriously, I'm kind of worried that its constant swimming against the tank will stress it out. And it's such a damn glutton for something so small. Have you heard fishes eat before? For some reason, I felt compelled to put my ear near the fish while it was gulping down its food, and it was... kind of noisy... like how I can hear my dad chew from the next room over. -_-
My second sister was like "YOU GOT A FISH?! I'M SUPPOSED TO BUY YOU ONE!" so haha, she remembered. She's still getting me one apparently, along with another present because I did her a favour.

I've been doing some reading lately, and just got started on this graphic novel called Fable. Pretty good and imaginative stuff, about the characters you know from fairytales and nursery rhymes living in exile, as they were chased from their own lands from The Adversary and his army. I'm about to start on a new novel at the side as well, and one that has no relations at all to video games. Yay.

And to end this blog, I'll mention that I got a letter from the Ministry of Health. It congratulated me on turning 21 soon, which is nice, and then it started talking about how I should choose now if I wanted my organs to be donated when I die. There wasn't even a nice segue between the congratulations and the topic of people dying from organ failures. Anyway since I'm already donating my blood regularly and signed up to be on the bone marrow program, I might as well give my organs away to those who need it I guess. Even if I didn't want to, I'd have to pay for my own stamps to send my refusal. Tsk. What a sneaky government.

I finally have good news to talk about, and not some random, unfortunate crap happening to me this time! I'll be getting mooonnneeeyyy from the government again real soon, so that means I'll have more than 2 bucks in my bank account. Not only that, my dad passed me a letter in the mail from his workplace, and they have apparently approved my receiving of the bursary I was talking about a while back. More money. Money is good. As a result, I'm looking into getting a new HDTV, since my dad agreed to pay half of the price. However, not being able to spend as lavishly as before is making me rethink my choice of whether I REALLY need a new TV. Still, I'm not dismissing the idea of a new TV totally of course, but I'll at least keep an eye out for some ultra-omega-awesome-good deals.

And speaking of birthdays, the award ceremony for that bursary falls on my birthday, which is the 25th of July. How awesome is that? OWAIT birthday money from people? I'm getting greedy. Although of course, it's nothing compared to the stories I keep hearing and reading about American kids getting like, 300-500 bucks on their birthdays. 300 bucks is close to S$450 here. The most I've gotten? S$50 from just my mom. And no cake. I haven't had a birthday cake since... kindergarten? That's about 13 years ago. You know, I think I'm going to go buy myself that huge mango cake I've been eyeing each year. Also, I think my sister have forgotten about the fish that was promised. But it's ok. I'll get my own fish, and a different type of fish instead of a betta. And crystal oxygen balls. Let's see how effective that thing really is. Maybe I'll get it tomorrow. Humph.

Anyway, after Friday tomorrow, I'm fortunate enough to be exempted from marketing module and will only have cla.ss exactly a week later on Friday again. And after THAT Friday, it's my 1 week trimester break (and another marketing module still haha!). I know it's pathetic, but we can't do anything about it. Ugh shut up all you people enjoying your summer holiday. And for those who are working, you are good citizens, I applaud you. So what will I be doing during this blissful 2 weeks of nothingness?

The answer is... uhm... my Public Affairs essay and some reading for Media Ethics.

Haha I lie! Gaming of course!

... I think.

Ok I'll at least complete F.E.A.R.

I... think...

Actually you know what I think? I think ompleting assignments early is EXHILARATING.

Oh badminton session on Monday. Exercise! And then we're gonna pig out on ice-cream. Haha.