What to buy in Sinapore?

While in a mall called Vivo City this past Sunday, I happened into an electronic store. There, on a 42” LCD, was Killzone 2.

“That’s right,” I thought, “It came out this week!”

I quickly scanned the shelves: No KZ2. I looked for more games: No KZ2. I asked the chubby (very rare) salesgirl: “Not yet, only the demo. Maybe in a few weeks.” The energy drained from me; there went my idea of owning a Chinese copy of Killzone 2.

The next day (Monday), I went out in the evening with a fellow gamer. Karen owns a PS3 (a white one!), but plays very different games than I do. She likes Final Fantasy and RPG style games. She took me to Sim Lim Square: 360,000 square feet of electronic stores! We looked through the whole place and found only one copy of KillZone2: at the Sony story. So, for S$80 (about US$54 – no bargaining with a new release in the Sony Store) I purchased the English/Chinese version of KillZone 2. (I used my PlayStation credit card.)

It’s still in the shrink-wrap sitting in my hotel room – mocking me. I told myself I will not open it until I get home (I want to surprise ElMico). My plane is scheduled to arrive after 10 PM Friday night (06Mar2009), then I will join Alpha Team and teach the Helghast how to hold a StA52 Assult Rifle!

Anguissette in Asia

While here in Singapore, I had the awesome privilege of having dinner in a coworker’s home. I enjoyed a wonderful ‘Northern Chinese’ meal. And my coworker’s wife, Linda, was a pleasant hostess and a beautifully charming woman.But why am I telling you this in my PS3 blog? They also own a PlayStation3. It had been over 17 days since I last played my PS3 (no, that’s not 100% true: I played briefly at a duty free shop in Sydney airport). My fingers were itching to get back to the action. First let me tell you about a difference I found. The actions of the X and O buttons were switched – most notably in the XMB. This drove me nuts because I had to think rather than zip through choices by instinct. It also appeared in all the in-game menus – Select and Back were swapped. It must be a difference between the USA and Asian builds of the software. I began playing Little Big Planet. I introduced another co-worker to video games – she claimed to have never played them before. Starting with a cute game like LBP was the right move; very soon she was in full control and navigating through the beginning levels. Thank you ShuYun for letting me introduce you to the joys of gaming. Everyone in the room was laughing at the antics and actions of Sack Boy and Sack Girl. We made it through 2 ½ continents before switching to the more mature Call of Duty: World at War. My co-worker – who is farther than me in story mode – had never played multi-player online. I only played two games of DeathMatch to introduce him to the concept; then we moved to split screen co-operative mode. The violence, foul language, and subject matter did not have the same crowd-pleasing effect that LBP had. (LOL) We quickly switched to passing the controller around while playing some arcade classics. What a fabulous evening of food, fun, and friendship. After laying siege to North America, “Anguissette” has gone multinational from Singapore. Gamers are the same wherever you find them – except for that X and O swap.

Absense makes the...

...gamer more aggressive! I will be away from my PS3 for a few weeks: I am going to Sydney Australia (for fun) and Singapore (for work). So "Anguissette" will not be on PSN until March 1st. The flight to Sydney is 14 hours! And the flight home from Singapore is 19 hours! I'll survive by sleeping (Ambien), reading (La Reine Margot, Blink, and Philip K Dick book), and my PSP (God of War: Chains of Olympus and Patapon). I know it is not relative to this blog, but maybe I'll post some pictures when I return.

But when I get back, Look out!

The Merlion and "Durian" building in Singapore