Interesting Read -- Crescent Dawn

I have always been a fan of Dirk Cussler's books, especially the Dirk Pitt series. It all started when I was in Secondary 2, when I had nothing to do at home and asked one of my friends to recommend something to read. He passed me the book "Inca Gold", which was first published in 1994 and is the 12th book in the Dirk Pitt series. And it all commenced from there.

Crescent Dawn is the 21st book and the latest installment in the series, and is co-written along with his son Dirk Cussler. It was only released in 2010, so it's actually quite recent. When I saw it displayed at the library shelves under the "New Titles" sections, I swooped in for the kill without hesitation.

A narrow escape from a pirate attack by a Roman galley in A.D. 327, a mysterious explosion of a British warship in the North Sea in 1916, and a cluster of mosque bombings in Turkey and Egypt in the present day. How are all three unrelated events intricately linked together? As Pitt and his son Dirk Jr. investigate the truth behind the spate of strange happenings, evildoers Ozden Aktan Celik and Ozden's sister, Maria, who are bent on Muslim domination of the Middle East, are determined to restore the prestige of the Ottoman Empire. In addition, their investigations may well lead them to the existence of a mysterious "manifest" lost long ago. The plot thickens...

Generally, the Dirk Pitt series are written in the style of fast-paced action, and follow a simple storyline. Most of these stories start off with a historic event, which will ultimate lead to the main story and Pitt's intriguing adventures. In this latest installment, it covers the events pertaining to HMS Hampshire and Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, as well as the attack on a Roman sea galley. What attracted me to this series is the highly detailed descriptions of these events. Cussler's detailed style of writing also extends to the protagonists' adventures, as well as other events and technology that are not necessarily mandatory to get the story across.

Aside from being envious of the various places that Pitt travelled throughout his adventures, I have always been inspired by the protaganists' tenacity and determination to overcome adversity and near-impossible odds (in this case, the deaths of their allies and friends and of course, the relentless and mad pursuit of the Celik siblings). It has taught me to believe that nothing is impossible so long as one perseveres.

Overall, being a fan of the Dirk Pitt series, reading Crescent Dawn has left me wanting for more adventure! If you are new to this sreies, start by reading this book (and perhaps search for its previous installments as well) and engage yourselves in an adventures that will bring you across land, air and sea!

Start Your Season with FIFA 12!

Finally. The moment I have been waiting for...

My copy of the highly anticipated FIFA 12 is finally in my hands! (Cheers)

Prior to the game's release, there have been talks of how EA Sports have planned to give a complete overhaul of the franchise this year. This was more or less expected actually, as FIFA 11 was disappointingly more of an expansion pack to its predecessor than an improved game by itself. These are what I felt about the changes:

1. One of the most greatly discussed changes in FIFA 12 is Tactical Defending. Players should have known what they are in for when they start the game off with a tutorial on defending. The past iterations have been using Legacy Defending. To start off, let's differentiate between these two defensive styles.


Legacy Defending -- A button press will cause an AI player to hone in on the player in possession of the ball. Classic Fifa defending style.

Tactical Defending -- Pressing the Tackle button in this new system will not result in you going for a conservative tackle. Instead, it positions you to contain your opponents. This means gamers still have to do the tackle themselves, meaning timing and tactics are crucial.

To be honest, tactical defending is much closer to real-life defending, where players have to decide and know how to position themselves for a tackle or an important interception.

So after trying Tactical Defending for quite a while, it took me a flurry of red cards, matches strewn with defensive errors, and a losing spree to finally get used to this new system. Now I can interchange between both legacy and tactical defending. Yay.

2. Player Impact Engine is the new physics engine used in this game. It is built to deliver real-world physicality throughout the game. It also directly affects injuries sustained by players during a match. This makes contact and interactions between players more realistic, but I felt that the impact engine could have been too sensitive. A light tackle on your opponent will see him stumbling or falling too easily from the challenge. I think being a new system implimented in the game, the impact engine is not too bad, just that it has greater room for improvement.

3. Understandably, the AI of the players have greatly improved. Compared to previous editions, even playing semi-pro on this version does not guarantee the gamers to win by a landslide. ( But then and again, this could have been attributed to my poor skills. However, being an AWESOME guy, I prefer to push the blame on the enhanced Pro Player Intelligence.)

4. For the first time ever, two broadcast teams will be featured – Martin Tyler and Alan Smith and Clive Tyldesley and Andy Townsend. Fans can customize audio to their preferred commentators for any matches. However, the commentary seems to be off sync from the on-field action at times.

5. My favourite part of the game, Career Mode has been greatly improved with the calendar, news story displays and news feeds, which aim to make information such as upcoming events, transfers, and rumours more accessible. Transfer markets in Manager Mode and Player-Manager Mode are closer to real-life situations, with rival clubs targetting your best players and last-minute transfers. Unfortunately, Player Career mode seems to get too stagnant for me, as gamers only play matches like a real-life player and there is little interaction with other aspects of the club.

Overall, FIFA 12 is a great step forward in making the football experience more surreal for gamers. Possibly one of the best games to have this summer! :D

Something I Heard Off The Radio...(which I thought was good)

Heard this off the radio this morning...
I thought it was well-written, because it fully captures what the roles of a wife and a husband in order to make a family complete. What makes it more interesting is that both statements follow the numerical order from one to ten, using words with similar pronunciation to replace some of the numbers. It's in Chinese, but here we go.

To the husband:
一个温暖的家；两只操劳的手；三更不熄等你归家的灯；四季注意身体的叮嘱；无微不至的关怀；六旬婆母的微笑；起早贪黑对孩子的照顾；八方维护你的威信；九下厨房为了你爱吃的一道菜；十年为你逝去的青春……这就是你的妻子。

To the wife:
一个男人的责任；两肩挑起的重担；三更半夜的劳累；四处奔波的匆忙；无法倾诉的委屈；留在脸上的沧桑；七姑八姨的义务；八上八下的波折；九优一疵的凡人；时对家对子的真情……这就是你的丈夫。

And because my translation skills are pretty bad, I shall not trouble myself in case I mess it up. Anyway, the English translation doesn't really encapsulates the original meaning as well as its Chinese version or come across as poetic either. Yea.

New Design for My Blog! ٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶

Haha.
As the title states, I have finally come up with a new picture to put as my blog design.

Enjoy. ٩(-̮̮̃•̃)۶

Kick It With Fifa Online 2! ^.^

While waiting for Fifa 12 to appear in stores starting from 27/30 September 11, I decided to look out for alternative sources to satisfy my footballing craze.
And here we go: Fifa Online 2. This game has been around for quite a long time since 2006 and is  jointly developed by EA Singapore and Neowiz Games.  Teams and their kits have been updated tokeep up with that of the current real-life season. Users can either play through a season or to play against other online players. Playing matches earns you LP, which is the in-game currency used to buy stuff in the game.

My encounters with Fifa Online 2 hd actually spanned over a couple of years. I started playing in 2009 but did not immediately fell in love with the game. While I was immensely glad that I had finally found a free downloadable soccer game, I was not particularly impressed with the graphics of the game and the lagging gameplay (partly due to my ailing computer, but mostly because of the slow connection to the servers) then.It was not long when I became frustrated of Fifa Online 2's shortcomings and quitted the game altogether. Seriously, take a look at that screenshot on the right, and you will figure what I mean.

It has been 2 years since I last touched this game, and when I tried it again for the second time, I was surprised by its many changes. The first thing that caught my attention was its considerably upgraded graphics. Players on Fifa Online 2 now looked much realistic and more alike to real-life players. Gameplay is a lot smoother and more challenging. Every touch of the ball by the players felt pretty real and it was as though I was orchestrating a real match. Now Peter Crouch looks a whole lot happier.

There is also a new World Cup 2010 mode, in which players can lead their favourite national teams to winning the coveted trophy. I tried playing with team Singapore and managed to lead them all the way to the quarter-finals until Paraguay gatecrashed the party with a Lucas Barrios penalty. Oh well.

In addition, there's also the team report card, which gives users an in-depth analysis of each team's performance. This includes personal performances of the players, as well as fouls, shooting accuracy and pass successful rate. Users get to better experience how it feels like to be a manager, who only gets to build the team and strategise tactics in the past before the major upgrade. Users can use the teams they build and play against each other in the PvP mode.


Overall, if you are looking for a online soccer game, this is the game to go for. It's not as brilliant as Fifa 11 or the upcoming Fifa 12, but it more than holds its own as an online game. Get kicking with Fifa Online 2 now!

No Pokemon On Facebook? Be A Tamer At Monster Galaxy!

Calling all Trainer wannabes! For those who are unable to satisfy your Pokemon trainer dreams on Facebook, then this is the game for you!

Monster Galaxy is developed by Gaia Interactive.  Like Pokemon, it is a role-playing game where players can fight and collect over a hundred wild monsters. The monsters, known as Mogas in Monster Galxy, have various element types which are classified according to Zodiac. A Moga with a certain Zodiac type has its strengths and weaknesses when facing off against Mogas of other Zodiacs. For example, a Turtlenie (which is of Virgo zodiac) is very good when battling against Aquarius Mogas but will fare poorly against Sagittaurus Mogas. This makes it challenging and interesting for Moga trainers, as they have to pick the right Moga to battle their opponents. Luckily, Monster Galaxy also gives Tamers a guide on how your Moga will fare in each battle (e.g. 3X more effective, less effective etc.), hence removing the hassle of memorising the strengths and weaknesses of each Zodiac.

As the game is still rapidly developing, Monster Galaxy is still adding new Mogas to its list. Wild Mogas can be found at every location, and its availability and capture rate is highly dependent on its Rarity, so it is not everyday you get to find a Legendary Moga. Monster Glaxy has also recently added the new feature of evolving your Mogas. To evolve a Moga, tamers will have to catch a certain number of the same Moga and possess a certain munber of Evolution Potions, depending on the species of the Moga. Naturally, evolved Mogas have much stronger stats and are much rarer. As Monster Galaxy is still adding on to its Moga variety, there are still many unknown evolutions and thus, many surprises are in store for us.

Other than the variety of Mogas one can collect, Monster Galaxy also has loads of quests that can engage the players in. These quests will reward Tamers with Blue Coffee (which is equivalent to Max Revive of Pokemon), Starseeds (like Pokeballs). Of course, adding to the challenge and fun is the Collection system, whereby Tamers can trade in Zodiac cared collections for items like Starseeds, and sometimes even Rare Mogas that can never be found in the wild! These cards can be found randomly after battles.

So what are you waiting for? Put on your Tamer boots and start your adventure in Monster Galaxy!

19 Aug 11 -- Ubin Adventure! :D

Haha, finally a post in Aug! It has been a busy for me, hence things have been pretty quiet here. But at least, I am BACK! XD

Anyway, just last Friday, my department went to Palau Ubin for a branch cohesion. Admittedly, I was both a bit apprehensive and excited about going to Ubin. Such mixed feelings were due to the fact that I have not stepped on the shores of Ubin since 12 years (hence the excitement) and the prospect of cycling there scares me (I told you I can't cycle -- hence the apprehension!). Luckily, the organiser decided that we should just walk all the way to Chek Jawa, and that had me heave a sigh of relief.

Anyway, we set off for Palau Ubin via speedboat at about 9am, and it took up a 10 minute ride to reach the shores of Palau Ubin. Palau ubin has changed massively since the last time I had been here. All the residents have since moved out, and all that is left on the islands are just the eateries and bicycle rental shops to cater to the visitors of the island. Hence, it was as though this is my first time here.

A 40 odd minute-walk from the jetty into the depths of the well-preserved rainforest brought our group to an information counter at the heart of the forest, where a tour guide offered to bring us futher into the forest and to our destination Chek Jawa.

As we made our way towards Chek Jawa, the tour guide shared with us many stories as well as information on the plants and animals that still live in the forest. After a 15 minute trek, we finally reached Chek Jawa. It is very different from the last time I was here! Back then, when I was on a cycling trip with classmates and teachers (of course, I am not the one cycling.), there was no proper road for cyclists or trekkers, so it as a pretty muddy trip for our class. Fast forward 12 years later, shelters and elevated walkways have been built for people to walk/cycle and at the same time, look out for the natural wildlife living in the rich ecosystem there. As we reach Chek Jawa at about 10-10.30am, the tide was about 1.1m high and hence, we missed out on a lot of creatures like the Noble Volute (a large, beautifully marked snail sometimes encountered on sandy areas near seagrasses and coral rubble, but frankly, they are all buried in the day so there was no way we could have seen them around at that time) and the Common Sea Star (which is ironically not very common given the fact that the tide was pretty high and more importantly, the massive flooding in Johor during early 2007 nearly wiped them out). However, we did manage to catch a glimpse of Fiddler crabs and mudskippers.

After enjoying the scenery at Chek Jawa, we travelled back to the jetty via the same route. We had lunch at an eatery near the jetty before we travelled back to mainland Singapore.

Personally, this is an enriching experience as it is near impossible to observe such wildlife in mianland Singapore, where everywhere is surrounded by buildings, vehicles and roads. A pristine, natural habitat in Ubin cannot be found in most parts of Singapore anymore, and this is a sad fact.