I wasn’t going to blog today, the reason being that I bought an Xbox arcade game last night and subsequently planned to be very busy for the rest of the week.

But then I reconsidered.

Gaming is a poor reason for not blogging, I thought. I cannot let my readers down, my poor deluded mind said, for they patiently await the next installment of What Did Sheylara Eat/Do/See/Drop on the Floor This Time? and would be very disappointed if they didn’t get to read about how I had a tasty ham sandwich for lunch.

Mind you, my decision to blog has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that I feel rather dizzy after two hours of playing Space Channel 5: Part 2, and need to look at something else for a moment.

Yes. Updating my blog today was a purely altruistic decision. That’s the kind of person I am.

 

 

The game is about 11 years old so I am not going to do a review. I first played Part 1 on the Dreamcast in 2001, shortly after which I broke up with the boyfriend who owned the Dreamcast. And then shortly after that, Dreamcast went kaput so I thought that was the end of the game for me, pity, cos I really enjoyed it.

It’s a music and rhythm game, involving jitterbugging space aliens who go, “Chu, chu, chu, hey, chu!”

Piers was very, very disturbed by the game. He said it was a crazy, crazy game. But he could be forgiven for thinking that because he only watched two minutes of it and those two minutes just happened to occur at a stage where my avatar was captured by a space alien monster flower with tentacles, one of which seemed all too ready to probe me for secrets.

And I had to try to shoot at the monster and dodge deadly flying petals while bound spreadeagle by tentacles.

And while all that was happening, the alien was going, “Left, right, left, right, chu, chu, chu!”

 

 

Sure, I can see how that might have looked slightly oddball to someone who hadn’t seen the beginning of the game and understood how important it was to save the planet from aliens, not all of whom had tentacles, it was just that flower monster, mind you.

Earlier this afternoon, Piers thought it prudent to dispense some more boyfriendly wisdom. We were chatting on MSN when he said, “Your stupid new game finished yet?”

I said, “What are you talking about? I just bought it last night. And it’s not stupid!”

“It will f*** up your mind,” he said.

“What’s wrong with it?” I asked.

“You fight strange creatures,” was his conclusion.

That was very fine for him to say. I didn’t say a word when, two years ago, he was obssessed with catapulting funny-shaped birds at hapless green pigs.

 

 

Anyway, I discovered last night that Space Channel 5: Part 2 was available on Xbox LIVE Arcade so I bought it immediately. While I was playing my new game on his Xbox, Piers was busy playing a fighter jet simulation game on my PC so he wasn’t free to look at my game.

Nevertheless, I said to him, “Hey, we can play co-op on this game. Would you like to play with me?”

His eyes still glued on the PC screen, he said, “Okay, honey, in a minute.” (Meaning: Okay, right after I’m done with pretending to be a fighter pilot, which could be any time between four hours and four years.)

But he did say okay, didn’t he?

Still, his first experience of my game was the tentacles, so I’m suspecting that he has maybe changed his mind since. I can’t imagine why, though. Most guys I know get excited when they see tentacles. I didn’t get a chance to persuade him anymore last night to play my game because we had to watch South Park.

We’ll have to see, tonight. And, for the record, my mind is still very sane and intact, thank you.

Piers pointed out to me today something funny that he saw on his Facebook feed.

There were my status updates where I was stressing about my essay, groaning about not having much time left to finish it. And then, on the same page, it also showed that I had been watching Prison Break on Netflix.

 

 

Now, this is a complete lie because, while I was toiling away at my essay, Piers was the one who was watching Prison Break on my Netflix account. Because my Netflix is linked to my Facebook, it auto-updated.

Stupid Facebook.

But it’s all good. I enjoy linking all my apps to Facebook so that everyone knows whenever I watch a movie, listen to a song, play a game or toast some bread.

Today, we live in the happy delusion that people actually care about every breath we take and every fart we make. If it keeps us happy and raises our self-esteem, why not, huh?

Indeed, why not.

But just remember not to believe everything you see in Facebook because someone could pretend to have watched an intellectual film just to appear intellectual, or another person could use someone else’s Netflix account to watch Prison Break while said someone else is supposed to be working hard on an essay.

But, still, all is good. I have scanned through Netflix quickly and not found any overly embarrassing films or TV programmes in there so Piers is welcome to knock himself out watching all the shows he possibly can because Netflix is like a TV buffet.

Anyway, the worst of my chicken pox is over now. I don’t even want to talk about it because it is the worst singular experience I’ve had in my life.

I am now trying my darnedest to catch up with my school work because I had to miss an entire week of classes, during which I was sick and miserable at home, at times fantasizing about rushing outside in the middle of the night to provoke random drunk students so that they would be inspired to stab me dead.

In the meantime, I have been honing my drawing skills on the new social game, Draw Something, which you can play on Apple and Android devices, and which you should because it’s fun. Download it and add me via Facebook or e-mail so we can play together and I can traumatise you with my crappy drawings.

Can’t stay to chat now. I have just finished writing a 5,000-word essay but I have one more to write, the contents of which were taught when I was absent from school.

Hoorah.

Have a good March and be as mad as a March hare!

I’m back! But I probably have only one reader left because everyone else must have been scared off by the scary anti-virus warnings on my blog.

(Piers is hard to scare.)

The viruses (malicious codes) are gone now. Lionel from Ripplewerkz scared them off for me. Yay.

On the bright side, no readers means I don’t have to watch my words and can be rude if I want to. However, I’m not in the mood to be rude today, so I think I shall do a bit of updating, instead.

Shall be rude another day.

 

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Studying in UK

I’ve finally completed all the paperwork and legwork. All that’s left now is to wait for my student visa to be approved and then for the school term to start (Jan 9, 2012).

My IELTS results startled me. I had expected to only borderline pass because it was such a tedious and tough exam. But I miraculously got an overall 8.5 (top score is 9).

 

 

For school, I have been given a reading list and tasked to read the first book before the course starts.

It’s rather old, the book, first published in 1948, so maybe some things have become either outdated or common knowledge. But I still find in it a wealth of information that’s intriguing and thought-provoking.

Can’t wait for the course to start.

 

 

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Facebook

When I quit Restaurant City and Cafe World (about two years ago, if memory serves), I swore I’d never play another Facebook game again because they’re too freaking addictive despite being exceptionally silly.

I was true to my word for two years.

I don’t know what happened, really.

I started spending more time in Facebook recently because I liked the latest layout with all the interesting additions such as scrolling real-time friend updates.

 

 

It took just one curious click on a Facebook game advert to suck me in before my brain remembered that I wasn’t supposed to click on ads.

But then I discovered that Facebook games have gone through marked improvements since two years ago; they are marginally less silly now.

I still hate how some games force you to beg your friends for in-game gifts. I had to make Piers play this cutesy game in order to gift me game items since he’s the only person I don’t mind begging from.

 

 

But he was understandably horrified about Facebook putting words in his mouth (see above picture) and promptly deleted the app.

I started many new games in the last few weeks and also quit many. Even if fun and cute, I refuse to play games that make you beg for stuff. You could pay for them but they cost too much for the paltry purpose they serve.

 

My current active Facebook games list:

Family Feud
Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?
Bingo Blitz
CSI: Crime City
1 vs 100
Games (has about 100 games in it)

 

By the way, feel free to stalk me on Facebook.

Stalking is the new socialising.

 

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Stalking

People in Facebook would have been able to see me jumping from game to game like a true gaming addict every day in the last few weeks.

I can’t hide. When I load up a game, my 1381 friends know that I’m awake and playing a game instead of doing something more useful with my life.

Piers noticed once that I was playing CSI: Crime City despite having said good night to him an hour earlier. It was a bit hard to explain to him why I felt compelled to solve crimes in the middle of a sleep.

On the flip side, I also know what my friends are up to every minute I’m in Facebook.

Supposedly, that is a scary thing. But it must also be cool. Times have changed, right? Stalking is not the exclusive domain of crazy stalkers anymore.

These days, people are willing to be stalked, which increases the demand for stalkers, a position easily filled because social networking has made it fun and easy.

Don’t try to stalk bulls, though. They don’t like it.

 

 

Piers and I encountered this bull in Guernsey (a little island in the English Channel) while driving around. It was standing alone just a few feet from the road, so I stuck my camera in its face and started snapping away.

It stood upright and bellowed at me angrily.

 

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Gaming

Other than Facebook games, I haven’t been gaming much. My iPad is only used for reading now but I expect to get tired of Facebook games eventually and go back to my iPad.

I recently tried a pretty cool game recommended by Swordplay. It’s a small independent game in alpha stage that’s a bit like Little Big Planet, called Way.

In this two-player game, you travel through a world, trying to get past obstacles with the help of a second player who is very likely a stranger from another part of the world. You’re not allowed to text or talk to each other, but you can communicate by manipulating your avatar’s facial expressions and arms. In this way, you try to work with each other to complete the stages.

It’s really tough and frustrating but also rewarding as you conquer each obstacle. But Piers and I cheated a bit; we were on webcam when we played it together.

We made this picture in the end:

 

 

You can “write” to each other in the game after you complete it.

 

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Jet lag

It is so very hard to adjust my body clock every time I come back to Singapore. For two weeks, I was sleeping at 9 am and waking up at 5 pm.

I tried making myself really exhausted by waking up early even after only sleeping three hours. I’d then go to bed around 2 am, hoping to wake up at 10 am, a goodly hour.

But then, I would wake up after only two or three hours of sleep and not be able to go back to sleep.

I tried doing that for three days, managing only to sleep about three hours a day. I finally collapsed from exhaustion one afternoon and slept all the way through to 9 pm, which completely undid my heroic effort.

Give up.

 

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And now it’s time to eat.

My appetite has been largely dead due to jet lag. But I only have one month left to enjoy Singaporean cuisine. What am I going to do?

 

I thought I was going to have to give up playing MMORPGs for a couple of years or so, what with my frequent travels.

From the perspective of a rabid MMORPG fan, that is the equivalent of a regular person having to give up drinking water or breathing air.

Yes, it’s very serious. I was stuck in England for two whole months without access to a gaming machine so when RIFT launched, I couldn’t join my friends in it. That was almost criminal.

But I came prepared this time!

Behold…

 

 

The Alienware M14x

 

What a beauty! I borrowed a set from the fabulous people at Dell in order to play RIFT while visiting England for a month this time.

It’s very comforting to know that I can instantly boot up a game any time I feel like playing an MMORPG, and not have to wait till I return to Singapore.

It’s quite graphically intensive, RIFT is, but a piece of cake for the Alienware.

On the M14x, I can play RIFT on maximum graphics with no problems. The gameplay is smooth and it’s beautiful, even when I have my regular applications all running in the background: Photoshop, Firefox, Tweetdeck, MSN.

 

 

Running on Intel Core i7 processors, Turbo Boost 2.0 technology and NVIDIA GeForce graphics, there can’t be any other 14″ laptops better for gaming.

But because of its supreme processing power, the battery life of the Alienware M14x is not as long as I’d like it to be. On a full charge, RIFT gaming lasted 75 minutes.

It does last three to five hours when doing less intensive tasks such as word processing or web browsing, which is decent. When not needed, the Nvida Optimus technology switches off the GPU to rely on the default Intel integrated graphics. Some users have even reported usage of six hours.

But I see the M14x as a portable second-home PC so the battery life is not too crucial for me. It’s great for taking to the office for some lunchtime gaming, or for overseas trips, or having LAN gaming sessions at your friend’s place.

In these cases, you want something small enough to carry comfortably but powerful enough to play intensive games and you can always leave it on AC power.

If you want more portability off the AC, there’s always the M11x, but then you’re giving up the 1600×900 resolution HD screen of the M14x. (Although I’m at 1366×768 for RIFT, which is good enough.)

 

 

The M14x gets quite hot after about half an hour of intensive gaming, although not to a degree I would be concerned with. What’s more noticeable is the noise the cooling fan makes when it kicks in. But even that doesn’t bother me too much when I’m engrossed in a game, which is good. (Although the fact that I get too engrossed in games isn’t so good.)

 

 

What really thrills me is that the M14x is also a model of stylish perfection. I think you can up your cool factor a lot just by being seen with this gorgeous piece of killer machine.

I feel great using it everywhere because it at once identifies me as a gamer and as a person of discerning taste.

 

 

Here’s Ringo the cute dachshund (belonging to Charlotte, who is Piers’ sister).

You can immediately tell that Ringo is a fashionable gaming dog.

 

 

Ringo’s favourite game is Pet Society.

I tried to introduce him to the fantastic world of MMORPGs, but it might take him a while to get there.

 

 

In the meantime, he really enjoys playing on the M14x.

 

 

Still on style, the colour-customisable backlit keyboard is just amazing. I’ve got my lights all in red to match the lid, but each section of the keyboard, even the touchpad, speakers and Alienware logos, individually, can be any colour you like.

It’s kind of fun changing the colours every few weeks or so, too. Makes you feel like you’re using a brand new machine.

 

 

I really love the keyboard. I think Alienware makes the best keyboards ever. (I’m also using an Alienware keyboard and mouse with my home PC.)

On Alienware laptops, the keyboards have a traditional tapered design which provides more space between individual letters. That makes it a lot easier and very comfortable to type and play games. Quite a welcome feature for FPS and MMORPG players who rely on the keyboard a lot for movement.

 

 

Now you want to know specs and prices, of course. The Alienware M14x starts at S$2,299 for the regular machine, which is what I’m using now. You have the option to pay more for improved processors and graphics cards and RAM and so on.

Click here to view full specs.

Oh, don’t forget that there’s now an Alienware concept store in Singapore. I think it’s slightly cheaper to buy from there than from online.

The store is at Suntec City Mall, #02-010C.

Or go to the PC Show this weekend. If you buy any Alienware laptops there, you can get free gifts with your purchase!

By the way, RIFT is a really great game. I don’t want to give my Alienware M14x back now!

 

 

 

Alienware.

The word that gets the gamer’s blood pulsing madly within me.

The word that incites pure desire in my gamer’s heart.

The word that seizes my very soul and doesn’t let go.

 

When you own your first Alienware, you’ll feel like you’ve joined a very select brotherhood (or sisterhood) that understands the passion that is gaming. Your gaming days will never be the same again.

That was what I felt when I got mine a year ago, anyway.

I felt like I had arrived.

 

 

 

Alienware in Singapore

Last weekend, the first Alienware concept store in Southeast Asia descended upon our shores, no doubt raising the temperature of the gamer throng in Singapore.

It certainly raised my temperature as the irresistable call of the glowing Alien heads started the blood pounding in my veins.

 

 

I loved the glowing blue lights fitted all around the store, which made me feel like I’d stepped into a sort of Alienware universe. Even after gawking at the displays for 20 minutes, I still couldn’t completely believe that I was standing in an actual Alienware store. Such happiness a gamer and a fan has never felt!

 

 

 

A driving simulator complete with moving seats is permanently installed in the store to keep fans enthralled as they try out the processing and graphical prowess of Alienware machines. I didn’t get to try it out because there were too many people queueing up for it, and I had to go check out the roadshow downstairs.

 

 

 

The Babes

No doubt temperatures were also raised by the appearance of costumed babes milling about at the Galleria Foyer of Suntec City Mall, where the Alienware Arena roadshow was held.

I love costumed cuties! They always brighten up an event!

 

 

From left: Angel, Sochii, Me (I wasn’t really one of them), Francesca, Aki.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Auction

On April 30, Four Alienware M14x laptops, each worth $2,299, went up for grabs with starting bids of $1.

Three lucky bidders went home with their new baby, paying $1,700 each, while the last winner of the day shelled out $1,900 in order to also take home additional goodies of Alienware merchandise comprising a cap, a t-shirt, a laptop sleeve and a beautiful headset.

Feel so happy for them. I’m sure they’re really enjoying their new toy now!

Class 95 DJs Glenn Ong and Vernetta Lopez made a guest appearance and heated up the action during the last auction.

The total proceeds of $7,000 were donated to Operation Smile Singapore, coincidentally my adopted charity, and also Class 95′s adopted charity.

 

 

 

 

 

The Tournament

With rows and rows of uber gaming rigs set up at the roadshow, Alienware hosted the League of Legends Season 1 Qualifiers. Two teams of four pitted their skills against each other as supporters watched the action on the big screens out front.

For the next couple of hours as the tournament progressed, the crowd got larger and larger, mainly men, mostly young, a smattering of mature. Where were the women?

But I was happy to make the acquaintance of Kelly, the only professional shoutcaster in Singapore. She provides live commentary for tournaments, describing the action as well as giving her opinion on team strategies.

Kelly helped create an atmosphere that drew a curious crowd, who wandered in and stayed to watch together with excited fans and supporters that were already there. It was at times tense during crucial moments and at times light-hearted when the teams did funny stuff or mistakes which Kelly would point out with good humour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Team Xan emerged victorious, winning for themselves $1,200 and an all-expenses paid trip to Sweden for DreamHack Summer 2011 to represent Singapore and Malaysia in Riot Games’ Season 1 Grand Finals.

Congratulations!!

 

 

 

The Challenge

On May 1 — Labour Day! — I got to work playing GO Kart for two whole hours against an endless stream of challengers.

Anyone who managed to beat me in a three-lap race won an Alienware goodie bag which included a cap, t-shirt, laptop sleeve and headset!

It was really fun. I was surprised to encounter all types of challengers, from experts to newbies, male and female, young and old. That fortunately gave me a chance to win races. I was worried that I would get only experts who have been playing the game since it was launched about half a year ago. (I’d only been playing half a day, max.)

I even had a few really young challengers, the youngest being a little girl of maybe four or five. So cute!

So, I won some and I lost some. Needed a finger massage after the whole thing ended!

Pictured below (in red) is Wei Song, my first challenger. He’s one of those experts I mentioned and he made me lose my first race, boohoo.

Oh, well. I’m happy for him that he got to go home with leet Alienware gear! =D

 

 

 

 

The Camwhoring

There was a lot of camwhoring that day, as you would expect at events. Here are a few more random posed photos!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Machines

Now, we want to look at the three bestselling Alienware laptops, the M11x, M14x and M17x.

The M11x is a compact beauty for the gamer on the go. With a choice of Intel Core i5 or i7, and up to 16GB DDR3 SD RAM, the new and improved specs are causing me to hyperventilate with desire.

 

 

The M14x is the new kid on the block, touted as the most powerful 14″ laptop in the universe. It balances hardcore gaming needs and mobility requirements with killer graphics and processing power in a manageable package.

 

 

The M17x brings you the best in 3D gaming technology on an impressive 3D-capable 1920×1080 HD display. You could choose to get the non-3D version but why would you do that?? A pair of 3D glasses is included with each purchase of the 3D unit.

 

 

Prices vary depending on the specs you choose, so visit the website for pricing and full specifications.

Tell me you don’t already have a puddle of drool collecting under your feet!

Once upon a time, we had to buy Alienware machines online on faith (which wasn’t at all hard to do) because there were no Alienware stores in Singapore.

Now you can touch and swoon in person. My brothers and sisters, get your ass over to Suntec City Mall, #02-010C, to complete your life.