I finally found out the name of the song that had been playing in my head for so long... yays! ^^
Everlong
By: Foo Fighters
Hello
I've waited here for you
Everlong
Tonight
I throw myself into
And out of the red, out of her head she sang
Come down
And waste away with me
Down with me
Slow how
You wanted it to be
I'm over my head, out of her head she sang
Chorus-
And I wonder
When I sing along with you
If everything could ever feel this real forever
If anything could ever be this good again
The only thing I'll ever ask of you
You've got to promise not to stop when I say when
She sang
Verse 2-
Breathe out
So I could breathe you in
Hold you in
And now
I know you've always been
Out of your head, out of my head I sang
Chorus-
And I wonder
When I sing along with you
If everything could ever feel this real forever
If anything could ever be this good again
The only thing I'll ever ask of you
You've got to promise not to stop when I say when
She sang
Chorus-
And I wonder
If everything could ever feel this real forever
If anything could ever be this good again
The only thing I'll ever ask of you
You've got to promise not to stop when I say when
She sang
29 September 2010
19 September 2010
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo~~~~~~
I always thought that my bladder is very strong, and boast that I can hold up to 3 hours when it feels urgent... But holding just an hour yesterday... I'm still having a tummyache for it now...
What a painful lesson learnt... Never overestimate your "powers"!
What a painful lesson learnt... Never overestimate your "powers"!
16 September 2010
Threadless...?
Since the previous instance when my brother had specially ordered tees from this website, I had been really curious... And this opened the Pandora's box...
Haiz~ How now brown cow? Should I make my order...?
Haiz~ How now brown cow? Should I make my order...?
15 September 2010
The Ultimate Battle...
No thanks to my recent investment in a Band Hero set, now I'm currently hyped up with the fake guitar and drum set sitting in my living room. However, being the perfectionist I am, such fake music simulations is simply not enough! I want to learn the real thing!!!
Which brings me back to a little dream I have buried within me since university days. I've always wanted to join a band, be it as a keyboardist or vocalist. But that was in the past. I've joined a band which lasted for 2 jamming sessions and I'll say they were pretty disappointed in me... But in my self defense, I couldn't help it! We were too different, I'm more into Chinese pop music while the rest were more ang moh and the songs we initially practised were all songs sang by male vocalists. HOW IN THE HELL CAN I SING SUCH A LOW KEY WITHOUT BRINGING UP THE VOCAL RANGE??!!! Ok sorry for that outburst, but I understand why the others are stubborn about leaving the key as it is, since if we bring the key up the song difficulty becomes really much tougher for the guitarists. But, putting that aside, I really practised my vocals hard on my own... Though later we chose a song sang by a female vocalist, the keyboard part was really heavy and without any training I couldn't play the keyboard and sing properly at the same time. So yeaps, ultimate and epic failz.
I do know the piano, but keyboard is simply very different from the piano in a manner of speaking. The techniques are rather different (unless we're talking about a good keyboard that costs a bomb, touch, which is everything when playing the piano, is something that is non existent in playing the keyboard), and there are many sound effects which could be exploited when using a keyboard. But I'm always hesitant to invest in a new instrument. Keyboards are expensive, and if I'm getting an instrument, I will not be satisfied with a lousy one.
This leads to my next point, which is.... I do have an acoustic guitar sitting at home, which I've borrowed from my friend. Though this is different from my original idea of probably playing an electric guitar, at least I can start somewhere if I'm really going to learn an electric guitar... Guitar is kinda my style, since I'm used to playing instruments that can both solo and have heavy melody lines in songs. But I'm interested in drums too, I think my rhythm sense is lacking in terms of accuracy and learning drums will help rectify that...
Given my time and financial constraints, I could only learn 1 instrument... Guitar vs. Drums... which of you will reign???
How now brown cow???!!!
12 September 2010
寂寞寂寞就好
剥离了回忆 开始寻找孤独
找到孤独 就不怕寂寞了
寂寞寂寞就好
歌手：Hebe 田馥甄
還是原來那個我 不過流掉幾公升淚所以變瘦
對著鏡子我承諾 遲早我會還這張臉一堆笑容
不算什麼 愛錯就愛錯
早點認錯 早一點解脫
我寂寞寂寞就好 這時候誰都別來安慰擁抱
就讓我一個人去痛到受不了 想到快瘋掉
死不了就還好
我寂寞寂寞就好 你真的不用來我回憶裡微笑
我就不相信我會笨到忘不了 賴著不放掉
人本來就寂寞的
借來的都該還掉
我總會把你戒掉
還是原來那個你 是我自己做夢你有改變什麼
再多的愛也沒用 每個人有每個人的業障因果
會有什麼 什麼都沒有
早點看破 才看得見以後
我寂寞寂寞就好 這時候誰都別來安慰擁抱
就讓我一個人去痛到受不了 想到快瘋掉
死不了就還好
我寂寞寂寞就好 你真的不用來我回憶裡微笑
我就不相信我會笨到忘不了 賴著不放掉
人本來就寂寞的
我總會把你戒掉
找到孤独 就不怕寂寞了
寂寞寂寞就好
歌手：Hebe 田馥甄
還是原來那個我 不過流掉幾公升淚所以變瘦
對著鏡子我承諾 遲早我會還這張臉一堆笑容
不算什麼 愛錯就愛錯
早點認錯 早一點解脫
我寂寞寂寞就好 這時候誰都別來安慰擁抱
就讓我一個人去痛到受不了 想到快瘋掉
死不了就還好
我寂寞寂寞就好 你真的不用來我回憶裡微笑
我就不相信我會笨到忘不了 賴著不放掉
人本來就寂寞的
借來的都該還掉
我總會把你戒掉
還是原來那個你 是我自己做夢你有改變什麼
再多的愛也沒用 每個人有每個人的業障因果
會有什麼 什麼都沒有
早點看破 才看得見以後
我寂寞寂寞就好 這時候誰都別來安慰擁抱
就讓我一個人去痛到受不了 想到快瘋掉
死不了就還好
我寂寞寂寞就好 你真的不用來我回憶裡微笑
我就不相信我會笨到忘不了 賴著不放掉
人本來就寂寞的
我總會把你戒掉
11 September 2010
09 September 2010
Heavy Rain
It's the raining season, so it's only appropriate to talk about the heavy rain.
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No, I mean =this= Heavy Rain. The interactive fiction work on the PS3 that has won many acclaimed reviews and finally, I had the chance to understand why other players are so excited about this title. Actually I've completed this a few weeks back, I just didn't have the chance to really sit down and blog about this, and I didn't want to let that experience just fade away with time, so here's my little review to imprint it into my memory...
This story-intensive piece begs players to answer the question: How far are you willing to go to save someone you love? The story revolves around the Origami Killer, who is a serial that strikes during the heavy rain season in fall by kidnapping a child, leaving the child to drown due to the heavy rain, near a railway a few days later with an orchid and an origami figure. Players first start out with the father of the latest victim, Ethan Mars, who has received origami figures containing instructions about the trials the killer has set out for Ethan to save his son. Along the way, a private investigator Scott Shelby visits the families of the previous victims to learn more about the killer. FBI agent Norman Jayden works together with the Police to help bring the Origami Killer to justice, while journalist Madison Paige suffers from chronic insomnia, and conducts her own investigation on the Origami Killer after her fateful meeting with Ethan at a motel.
Summary aside, let's just jump straight into what I think about this work. This is not really a game technically speaking, it's more like a mixture of film and interactive fiction. But I'm really awed by the writing and design of this piece, as the player actions influence the outcome. Characters can die if the player is not careful (or did it on purpose), and this kind of writing is very lacking in most games currently in the market. In addition, I am also awed by the themes and trials set up for the players to undertake. I can still remember the trial where I have to decide whether I am willing to sacrifice a part of me physically to save my son. Ok, technically that's not my son but Ethan's, but you get the idea. The immersion of this title is... awesome. And I remember and feel the pain and stress vividly when I had to achieve this task within 5 minutes.
The graphics and animation helps add realism and immersion during my playthrough, though there were awkward animation moments. I liked how the character models are shown close up with some slight animations during loading times, it's a wonderful showcase of how detailed the character textures are, and how well the lighting is done, even for the eyes. I used to think that a model's eyes were the most telling of whether the model is real or just CG, but I guess I live in the past generation.
My favourite character is Madison (as seen above), maybe because I'm biased since I'm a female. At first I did not think she's pretty but after going through the entire ordeal with her, I think otherwise. All characters are flawed in terms of personality -- they all have some psychological problems they had to go through, which is a little cheesy to me, but I think this characterizations are necessary to bring out the control interface, which emphasizes on the psychological state the character is going through at the moment. It is totally cool, with some movement control with the PS3 controller, but this interface have its flaws too.
Another feature which I really liked was.... *surprise surprise!* the pause screen. When the player pauses the game, random rain droplets would appear to fall on the screen, and the screen will appear as though as it's a normal water surface with all the ripples from the raindrops. Any effects programmer would say "Hey that's just a simple trick!", but I was awed, because the normal gamer who doesn't know game programming would think this effect looks good, and it is really simple to achieve this effect. It's a nice and neat solution to creating a cool looking pause screen without getting additional assets for it.
Let's talk about the interface, which I had touched on slightly earlier. The tilting of camera view is controlled by the left analog stick, while walking requires both the left analog stick and R2 on the PS3 controller. All other actions to be carried out are done either with the right analog stick, the 4 buttons, by thrusting the entire controller up, down, sideways, or rotating the controller. The visual cues on screen to allow players choose the action they wish to carry out could be blurred, depending on the psychological impact of the action on the character. I think this aspect allows players to better immerse themselves in the story and to empathize with the character. A really good example would be Scott feeding the baby in the screenshot above, I really feel I'm mothering... oh I mean, fathering, the baby. On the other hand, I felt the controls for movement and tilting of camera was not that intuitive and obvious, perhaps they should be swapped, since most of the time players would be moving their characters around, instead of changing camera view. The current control scheme for moving characters just feels too cumbersome in my opinion.
Speaking of camera views, most of the time the camera view is fine. However there are some camera glitches, albeit minor ones at specific locations, which will cause the game to be unable to proceed. I once got my character stuck after he jumped over a fence to his neighbour's house in his garden. I couldn't go back or move forward and I couldn't even see my character at all. In the end I had to get out of the current game and play again from my previous auto save point.
Norman has really cool glasses and gloves, and I absolutely love playing with his ARI glasses. Opps I side tracked! I wanted to talk more about the actions available to players, and I felt sometimes that certain action options are not made known to the players good enough. Sometimes, perhaps due to the camera angle, the visual cue to input and execute an action could not be seen clearly, despite the character being relatively near to trigger the action. On other cases, I could see the option to carry out an action, but I have no idea what kind of action I could do. Sometimes that action which I would do in mistake was not what I wanted. Perhaps for the less obvious actions, some verbal cue could be given before allowing the users to decide whether to proceed with the actual action. An example would be in the Madison's dream sequence, where she could choose to take the sleeping pills in her bathroom to help her with her insomnia. I actually did not want to take those pills but I did it unknowingly in the end, which caused me to miss a few sequences subsequently.
In conclusion, Heavy Rain is a really immersive title which I would suggest for potential gamers to try and stay away from any walkthroughs during their first playthrough. I made the mistake of spoiling myself and reading through all the options to make sure I get the best ending (since I only intended to play the entire title once) and that really reduced my Heavy Rain experience. I was left with a lingering thirst at the end of the story, and I would like to see more of such similar experience, be it in games or in interactive fiction.
.jpg)
No, I mean =this= Heavy Rain. The interactive fiction work on the PS3 that has won many acclaimed reviews and finally, I had the chance to understand why other players are so excited about this title. Actually I've completed this a few weeks back, I just didn't have the chance to really sit down and blog about this, and I didn't want to let that experience just fade away with time, so here's my little review to imprint it into my memory...
This story-intensive piece begs players to answer the question: How far are you willing to go to save someone you love? The story revolves around the Origami Killer, who is a serial that strikes during the heavy rain season in fall by kidnapping a child, leaving the child to drown due to the heavy rain, near a railway a few days later with an orchid and an origami figure. Players first start out with the father of the latest victim, Ethan Mars, who has received origami figures containing instructions about the trials the killer has set out for Ethan to save his son. Along the way, a private investigator Scott Shelby visits the families of the previous victims to learn more about the killer. FBI agent Norman Jayden works together with the Police to help bring the Origami Killer to justice, while journalist Madison Paige suffers from chronic insomnia, and conducts her own investigation on the Origami Killer after her fateful meeting with Ethan at a motel.
Summary aside, let's just jump straight into what I think about this work. This is not really a game technically speaking, it's more like a mixture of film and interactive fiction. But I'm really awed by the writing and design of this piece, as the player actions influence the outcome. Characters can die if the player is not careful (or did it on purpose), and this kind of writing is very lacking in most games currently in the market. In addition, I am also awed by the themes and trials set up for the players to undertake. I can still remember the trial where I have to decide whether I am willing to sacrifice a part of me physically to save my son. Ok, technically that's not my son but Ethan's, but you get the idea. The immersion of this title is... awesome. And I remember and feel the pain and stress vividly when I had to achieve this task within 5 minutes.
The graphics and animation helps add realism and immersion during my playthrough, though there were awkward animation moments. I liked how the character models are shown close up with some slight animations during loading times, it's a wonderful showcase of how detailed the character textures are, and how well the lighting is done, even for the eyes. I used to think that a model's eyes were the most telling of whether the model is real or just CG, but I guess I live in the past generation.
My favourite character is Madison (as seen above), maybe because I'm biased since I'm a female. At first I did not think she's pretty but after going through the entire ordeal with her, I think otherwise. All characters are flawed in terms of personality -- they all have some psychological problems they had to go through, which is a little cheesy to me, but I think this characterizations are necessary to bring out the control interface, which emphasizes on the psychological state the character is going through at the moment. It is totally cool, with some movement control with the PS3 controller, but this interface have its flaws too.
Another feature which I really liked was.... *surprise surprise!* the pause screen. When the player pauses the game, random rain droplets would appear to fall on the screen, and the screen will appear as though as it's a normal water surface with all the ripples from the raindrops. Any effects programmer would say "Hey that's just a simple trick!", but I was awed, because the normal gamer who doesn't know game programming would think this effect looks good, and it is really simple to achieve this effect. It's a nice and neat solution to creating a cool looking pause screen without getting additional assets for it.
Let's talk about the interface, which I had touched on slightly earlier. The tilting of camera view is controlled by the left analog stick, while walking requires both the left analog stick and R2 on the PS3 controller. All other actions to be carried out are done either with the right analog stick, the 4 buttons, by thrusting the entire controller up, down, sideways, or rotating the controller. The visual cues on screen to allow players choose the action they wish to carry out could be blurred, depending on the psychological impact of the action on the character. I think this aspect allows players to better immerse themselves in the story and to empathize with the character. A really good example would be Scott feeding the baby in the screenshot above, I really feel I'm mothering... oh I mean, fathering, the baby. On the other hand, I felt the controls for movement and tilting of camera was not that intuitive and obvious, perhaps they should be swapped, since most of the time players would be moving their characters around, instead of changing camera view. The current control scheme for moving characters just feels too cumbersome in my opinion.
Speaking of camera views, most of the time the camera view is fine. However there are some camera glitches, albeit minor ones at specific locations, which will cause the game to be unable to proceed. I once got my character stuck after he jumped over a fence to his neighbour's house in his garden. I couldn't go back or move forward and I couldn't even see my character at all. In the end I had to get out of the current game and play again from my previous auto save point.
Norman has really cool glasses and gloves, and I absolutely love playing with his ARI glasses. Opps I side tracked! I wanted to talk more about the actions available to players, and I felt sometimes that certain action options are not made known to the players good enough. Sometimes, perhaps due to the camera angle, the visual cue to input and execute an action could not be seen clearly, despite the character being relatively near to trigger the action. On other cases, I could see the option to carry out an action, but I have no idea what kind of action I could do. Sometimes that action which I would do in mistake was not what I wanted. Perhaps for the less obvious actions, some verbal cue could be given before allowing the users to decide whether to proceed with the actual action. An example would be in the Madison's dream sequence, where she could choose to take the sleeping pills in her bathroom to help her with her insomnia. I actually did not want to take those pills but I did it unknowingly in the end, which caused me to miss a few sequences subsequently.
In conclusion, Heavy Rain is a really immersive title which I would suggest for potential gamers to try and stay away from any walkthroughs during their first playthrough. I made the mistake of spoiling myself and reading through all the options to make sure I get the best ending (since I only intended to play the entire title once) and that really reduced my Heavy Rain experience. I was left with a lingering thirst at the end of the story, and I would like to see more of such similar experience, be it in games or in interactive fiction.
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