February is a very exciting month (which translates to busy for me).

Apart from Valentine’s Day, which is totally irrelevant to today’s column but is being mentioned for the sheer fact that it just so happens to also fall in February, we’re looking forward to all the many games releasing this month.

Plus, and more excitingly, we’ll be experiencing big game launches for three big titles in Singapore, namely Halo Wars, Ninja Blade and Street Fighter IV.

There are so many activities planned for this month I’m getting dizzy sorting through all the info.

But I managed to sort through everything (huzzah) so read on to find out what’s what.

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Table of Contents

1. Halo Wars
2. Ninja Blade
3. Street Fighter IV
4. Funtown Mahjong
5. Lips – Grammy songs
6. Results of last week’s contest
7. Win a limited edition UNSC Spartan vest!!

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Halo Wars

The popular Halo franchise comes in RTS (real-time strategy) format for the first time!

To be launched on February 26 (Japan & Asia Pacific. Yes we get it before the Americans and Europeans do), Halo Wars is already getting ahead with a slew of pre-launch activities.

Here’s a summary. See if anything catches your fancy!

1. Play Halo Wars demo free at E2MAX Feb 14-22
2. Halo Wars tournament at E2MAX Feb 21-22
3. Singapore’s Biggest Halo Fan contest, now on till Feb 22
4. Halo Wars pre-order available till Feb 19
5. Halo Wars demo now available for download on Xbox LIVE marketplace

If you need more details on anything, they’re all here.

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Ninja Blade

Ninja Blade is flying your way on Feb 12! Have you tried it yet? If not, get your butt over to XXZ this weekend! (Feb 7 and 8, Best Denki VivoCity and Challenger Funan.)

There will be Ninja Blade demos and free play, as well as guest appearances by Xbox Xpert Merdeka and a special Ninja mascot!

Merdeka’s looking very cute deadly at the bottom of the poster.

More details here.

Ninja Blade pre-order is still availabe at XXZ until Feb 8. Get your Ninja Blade letter opener quick!

Also, take note that there will be launch activities at both XXZs on Feb 14 and 15.

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Street Fighter IV

Street Fighter IV is also launching on Feb 12! How lah! So many games!

If you’re a Street Fighter fan, you don’t want to miss a thing!

Free SF4 calendar

From Feb 12 to 28, show XXZ staff a copy of your SF4 game, or purchase a copy there on the spot, and receive this cool calendar!

SF4 Launch

Go to any XXZ on Feb 14 and 15 to enjoy launch activities!

XXZ is at Challenger Funan and Best Denki VivoCity.

Digital Life party

Digital Life and Microsoft Xbox Singapore are hosting a party on Feb 14 for fans. You’ll get to play the game with other fans and win prizes! This is an invite-only party! You need to send an e-mail to get an invite.

Win an Xbox 360 console and SF4 games

One Xbox 360 and five SF4 games will be given away to lucky winners in an SMS contest. Details here.

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Funtown Mahjong

I just downloaded this game from Xbox LIVE Marketplace. It’s so fun! I can’t wait till more people download it too so I can play multiplayer instead of playing with the cheating AI. (Well, they always win just before I’m about to win big!!)

The game is very Anglicized. When characters throw out cards, they will announce the cards in English names. For example, “Bamboo 4”. That takes a bit of getting used to.

Even the tiles are Anglicized, although you have the option to change them to traditional tiles.

The gameplay is a little bit different from the mahjong I’m used to. The rules are roughly the same, but this is 16-tile mahjong (whereas in Singapore, we usually play 13-tile mahjong).

That means your play strategy has to be slightly modified. For instance, there is less time to build very exciting big combinations. The game ends a lot faster since everyone gets three extra tiles in the beginning, meaning there are less facedown tiles to open up.

The above is a Chinese New Year special background which I downloaded for 200 MS Points. It’s pretty cool. The original background looks like this:

And you get to choose which cutesy AI opponents you want to play against.

I really dig this game, although the 16-tile gameplay annoys me because I like building big cards.

Still, it’s a very nice “break time” game to play for when I only have 10 or 20 minutes to spare.

And I think it’s a good game for beginner players because there’s a fully guided tutorial on the rules of mahjong, and the game seems to encourage a play strategy of “anyhow build your tiles just to win fast”, which is the strategy that most beginners adopt.

Drop me a note if you download this game. Let’s play together! =)

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Award-winning songs for Lips

Lips launched late last year with quite a sad selection of downloadable songs.

But over the months, the list has just been exploding, with three to six new releases every single week.

I think now would be a really good time to buy Lips if you haven’t already.

Available from today are three new Grammy Award winning songs:

Fallin’ – Alicia Keys
In My Place – Coldplay
Building a Mystery – Sarah McLachlan

And coming up next week:

Buttons – Pussycat Dolls
Magic – Olivia Newton-John
My Happy Ending – Avril Lavinge

Yowza!! Siiiiiing! Sing a sooooong! Sing out louuuuuud! Sing out strooooooong!

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Results of last week’s contest

Dominic wants an IAHGames iCash card to buy Expert scrolls and Enchantment boosters and +7 his weapon to make it bling.

VERY WORTHY GOALS, MY FRIEND!

So, Dominic wins a $10 IAHGames iCash card! Congratulations!

Please e-mail me to claim your prize, thanks!

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Win a limited edition UNSC Spartan vest!!

I suddenly have a lot of stuff to give away!! But one at a time, eh?

This week, I’m giving out a very special exclusive item which I have kept since 2007.

It’s a limited edition vest that was given out as part of the Halo 3 launch campaign in Singapore in 2007.

I thought this might be a timely thing to give out, while the search is on for the Biggest Halo Fan in Singapore.

It’s still brand new, never been worn before.

To win this, I need from you:

1. 3 reasons why you need the vest
2. 3 reasons why you deserve the vest

Please post your reasons here. I will pick the most convincing, sincere, heartfelt, touching entry. In case there are too many convincing, sincere, heartfelt and touching entries, I will get Mr Randomiser to help me decide.

Closing date is Thursday, Feb 12, 2009, 11:59 pm.

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Phew! Mission accomplished! A winner is you!