The last two weeks, I’ve been so busy that the only time I got to play anything was during my four hours of Xbox duty.

We played Left 4 Dead, which was, as usual, hilarious, because the gamers on Xbox LIVE possess an unreserved quota of nonsense, which amuses me greatly.

This morning, I woke up at 6:30 am, suddenly depressed over a couple of things. I couldn’t quell the bad feelings, which meant there was no way I could go back to sleep. So I got up and turned on my PC.

I loaded up Guild Wars (after two weeks of enforced abstinence).

My one enduring cure for depression: MMORPGs.

I played for five hours straight before I was satisfied. Character dinged two levels. Depression totally cured. And still on schedule to work on Gamer Girl Friday!

Life always works out. Eventually.

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Table of Contents

1. Countdown to Guitar Hero: Metallica
2. Your dream girlfriend
3. Singapore’s biggest Halo fan
4. Help put Singapore on the gaming map
5. Speaking at Media Fiesta 2009
6. Results of last week’s contest
7. Win an Xbox 360 laser pointer LED keyring!!

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Countdown to Guitar Hero: Metallica

The good news about the release of GHM: I am a huge huge huge Metallica fan.

The bad news: I don’t have Guitar Hero World Tour.

It’s no secret that I’m pro Rock Band because I own Rock Band, by virtue of it being the first to offer drums play.

Because of that, me and the Goonfather influenced all our friends to buy Rock Band, so, like, everyone has a Rock Band set, also meaning that we have already collectively invested a significant sum of money on song downloads.

Therefore, it was with some horror that I found out Metallica had gone Guitar Hero. Does this mean I must now switch allegiance and spend a few hundred bucks on a GHWT set?

Headache.

Argh! But it’s Metallica!

Guitar Hero: Metallica is releasing in Singapore on March 29 (only the game software for now. A bundle comprising game software and one guitar will be available in May).

I had a go at it yesterday at the New Era office, together with some other media people.

Metallica is awesome!! We played Enter Sandman, Battery, Fade to Black, The Unforgiven, Master of Puppets and Seek & Destroy.

For a full list of GHM tracks, check here. I can’t look at the list without hyperventilating!!!

And a few more !!! for good measure.

The game also comes with bonus videos of Metallica recording the songs, wearing motion capture suits. It’s quite funny to watch.

And, if you can’t get enough of James Hetfield, there’s this silly place where you can go to make him say stuff by pressing button combos.

Well, we’ll see when the game is officially out. Be still, my heart.

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Your dream girlfriend

Meet Amanda Johnstone, who was last month appointed by Xbox as the hottest Halo fan in the UK.

This was announced last month before the launch of Halo Wars (of which I have a copy that hasn’t seen the light of my Xbox 360 console, because I haven’t even had time to part it from its wrapper).

What a novel way to rally the dudes to the Halo cause.

You must admit she is very sexy. Not to mention lovable. Girl gamers are always a welcome sight!! If I may say so myself.

Click here to read more about Amanda and see more pics.

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Singapore’s biggest Halo fan

The launch of Halo Wars sure gave rise to a ton of fringe activities. One of the most fun (to me) was the Biggest Halo fan competition.

Five finalists reported to the Xbox Xperience Zone at Challenger Funan last month to perform five minutes of show-and-tell each.

There was so much Halo stuff (brought in by the finalists) that you could have opened a Halo store there and then.

It was quite entertaining watching them convince the crowd to vote for them. I have videos, but no time to edit yet. Next time, okay?

Some of the Xbox gamers that day complained that I had worn the wrong accessory.

Note: Gears of War COG tag.

What the heck lah. Who says cannot wear GOW stuff to a Halo event?

Here’s a look at the five contestants (with me and Merdeka).

They were all wearing quite similar clothes because there aren’t many Halo clothes in the world.

And the winner was…

Marcus Lim, aka SPLiTZiCE (right), aka the guy who won the Halo vest from issue #37 of Gamer Girl Friday! He even went and got his name embroidered for the vest. Impressive!

He won a one-of-a-kind Halo medal, an exlusive Master Chief helmet and a $50 Takashimaya voucher.

Here’s a group photo of the remaining Halo fans who had stuck around till the end.

Photos were printed out on the spot for everyone.

So nice, right?

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Help put Singapore on the gaming map

This is our chance for more glory, people!

Some time back, I mentioned CarneyVale Showtime, a made-in-Singapore game which had won a global game development contest by Microsoft, after which it was nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 11th Annual Independent Games Festival.

Okay, I know you lazy asses didn’t read that last mouthful. But the following bit is important:

You can now vote CarneyVale Showtime for the Audience Award at IGF. Go here to submit your vote. Let’s give our fellow Singaporeans some support!

Yes, I played the game. It’s quite fun and addictive, in fact.

All the best, Team Gambit!

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Speaking at Media Fiesta 2009

I just wanted to mention that I was part of Media Fiesta 2009, thanks to Nicholas Aaron Khoo, a CNET blogger (among other things).

In case you have been living in your own world, like I sometimes do, Media Fiesta 2009 is the first month-long media festival that will be happening annually.

Nic had invited me to speak at the SCOGA Gamers Forum, one of the main events during the festival launch at Marina Square Atrium.

Basically, we had a panel of assorted professionals discussing the viability of gaming as a career, as well as the causes and effects of gaming addiction.

Basically, I look damn chubby on the big screen.

Basically, I look quite ugly when I’m talking.

Basically !!!!

Here’s a backstage photo:

Well, not a very good photo, but I generally prefer photos of myself not speaking midway.

Our backstage was kind of weird. It was an enclosed room but the walls were transparent. We could see people milling about outside and people could see what we were up to inside.

The place I was sitting at was a dressing table, complete with the lightbulbs-around-the-mirror thing.

I’m not sure exactly whom it was catered for, but I know I certainly won’t like being made up in the middle of a public arena.

But the whole setup was pretty cool, generally.

Man, Prasad is so tall (standing beside me)!! And I was wearing two-inch heels!

Prasad is a professional gamer, the captain of the famous Team Titans from Singapore.

Basically, professional gamers are teh winzorx!!!

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Results of last week’s contest

It wasn’t technically last week, but never mind. Let’s get on with it.

We have two winners for this very awesome limited-edition SF4 calendar!

Sorry this has taken quite a while, guys. Well, you still have at least nine months to enjoy it!

Ah, yes, the winners!

And the winners are …

1. moralis
2. ahtiong

…by virtue of their entries being slightly amusing.

You go!!!

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Win an Xbox 360 laser pointer LED keyring!!

I have this to give away this week:

Length: 6cm, not counting chain. Has laser pointer (red) and LED light (white) activated by two different buttons.

Let’s do something fun this week.

Let’s play Five-Word Story!

Someone start a story (in the comments) using only five words. Then someone else continues it using also five words. (I’m sure you’ve all played this forum game before, so I don’t need to explain, right?)

THAR BE RULES!!!

1. Strictly five words per entry.
2. No R-rated language or themes.
3. No flaming, attacking or insulting any individual. You can make fun of friends insofar as it is in good humour.
4. You can post more than once, as long as you don’t continue your own post.
5. Ignore regular comments interspersing the game.
6. Your continuation must flow logically. (For example: “She ran into the woods / Happy Birthday to you, dude” is wrong because, obviously, it doesn’t sound logical.)
7. In case two people post at around the same time, leading to the slower post being illogical, the slower poster is disqualified.
8. Do not end the story before the closing date.

Anyone breaking any of the rules above will be disqualified.

Everyone who participates and doesn’t get disqualified will get a chance to win the prize.

Bonus: The person who starts the story will get three chances in the randomising stakes (unless you get disqualified halfway through). (This is a special incentive for GGF campers.)

Closing date: March 19,2009, 11:59 pm.

(The story can continue beyond that, but I will stop counting entries posted after the cut-off date.)

YAR! Let the game begin!

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My friends are coming over to my place tonight with their laptops to play Guild Wars while I’m on Xbox duty. Wah lau.

In other news, don’t believe all the bad press you read about gamers and violence. There might be a correlation, but people just like to sensationalise things because it’s more interesting to report that gaming causes violence, rather than, say, movies cause violence.

Like, when a non-gamer does something violent, why don’t journalists report: “Movie causes psycho to gun down 10 strangers”?

Do we ever see: “Man apes serial killer after reading detective novels”?

No.

Yet, every time a gamer so much as gets into a scuffle, the press has a field day with “GAMES CAUSE BOY TO KILL FRIEND” headlines.

There are WAY A LOT MORE violent non-gamers than violent gamers, if it comes to that.

And it is perfectly logical to argue that movies and books and real life issues can cause an individual to become violent.

So, don’t pin all the blame on games!