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Woot! I just found my new favourite hangout!

Well, okay, I didn’t find it. It found me. Haha!

I was recently invited to check out Game Haven, an entire building made for gamers and for people who love having fun!

It houses 160 PCs for LAN gaming, six private rooms for console gaming and one function room for gaming parties (as well as a pub and restaurant).

What a gaming haven!

It’s not officially launched yet, although it is already open for business, so me and my friends are one of the first people to preview the place! Yay!

Waiting at the lobby for all my late-coming friends.

We were first shown the function room, which holds 10 PCs and one LCD TV for console gaming.

There was a little kid’s birthday party going on and they looked like they were having the time of their lives.

Guitar Hero World Tour was set up for play on the TV but I think the kids were more interested in the balloons at that point of time.

The Goonfather wanted to crash the party but we all pulled him away before he started traumatising the kids beyond repair.

By the way, the party room (with 10 PCs) is also very suitable for clan training sessions. I envy professional gamers! I want to be really good at FPS, but it’s just not my thing. All I’m good at is being a sitting duck.

We went on to tour the PC floors.

In the background, my friends studying are the PCs intently.

The guys just couldn’t wait to get started on some heavy-duty FPS action.

But we adjourned to our private gaming room first. Our room was called Thunderbluff. All the rooms are named after World of Warcraft zones! There’s, like, Ironforge, Silvermoon, Undercity and so on. Coolness!

Our room had two PCs, as well as one TV set up with a Wii. We decided to play Wii because we don’t have Wii at home.

My friends sitting around gawking at the TV and doing nothing else. Sometimes they do the darnedest things.

Anyway, we finally got started with a round of Wii Sports.

First round: The Goonfather vs. Morte!

Since only four people can play with the Wii at once, two guys parked themselves at the PC table. All the latest and most popular shooters and MMORPGs are installed in all PCs in the building.

So guess what game Unker Kell started up when he commandeered the PC?

None.

He logged in to Facebook.

!!!!!!##$$!!!!

We all yelled at him, “We are in a gaming centre! We have free play of all the games available and you’re checking your Facebook!!”

“What’s wrong with Facebook?” he tried to argue.

“Facebook is not a game!”

“Weeeell….. Facebook has games in it. Sort of.”

Anyway, you’ll have to excuse him. It’s just in his nature to act like a moron sometimes.

We played many more Wii games through the afternoon.

Our favourite (not shown in picture) was Raving Rabbids 2. It’s one of the best party games out there, allowing up to four players to make fools of themselves at once.

You’re a roll of pink toilet paper if you come in last!

We took turns to challenge one another while also taking turns to play Counter-Strike on the PC. It’s kind of a neat arrangement!

Here’s a video of us playing Wii and being very, very noisy (you have been warned):

We were also served snacks from the Honshitsu Japanese Buffet Restaurant (located in the building).

Yummy!

The restaurant serves a special tea-time buffet at only $15++ for adults ($10++ for children) and we were contemplating eating there first before gaming, but that would have compromised two hours of our gaming time, so we decided to just order in. Heheh.

The best parties in the world are when you put food and gaming together!

After a few hours, we decided to abandon the Wii and troop up to the PC floor to indulge in our blood lust.

We were given eight PCs in a cluster so we could physically yell at each other while we fragged each other.

Happening!!

Unker Kell really wanted to play Left 4 Dead, the popular survival horror FPS, but he got severely overruled because we started off with Call of Duty 4 and we all got so hooked on it we couldn’t stop playing it.

We played till 7:50 pm, by which time we had to leave because we had a dinner reservation at 8 pm at Funan, which is just a short walk/drive away.

Even then, the guys, especially The Goonfather, didn’t want to stop playing.

“Can we skip dinner?” he asked.

I would have been happy to oblige, normally, but we were going to lo hei that night and I wasn’t going to miss my yu sheng!

By the way, Game Haven also has a pub called Nova! There are gaming stations inside the pub!!! COOOL!

We were given a tour of the premises. It only opens in the evening, so we had the whole pub to ourselves in the afternoon. Woohoo!

The entrance to the Nova.

A promotional shot of Nova’s gaming corner.

Nova has a section where you’ll be able to enjoy Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 gaming while drinking and partying. Is that cool or what?

There’s also an annex pub on the rooftop of the building which you can access through a staircase on the 6th floor.

Another promotional photo.

Well, we visited the place in the day so it looked like this:

Alfresco area on the rooftop.

The view is quite nice at night!

As we walked out of the building to go for dinner, the guys started saying, “Hey, let’s come back after dinner!”

Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded.

The rates are rather reasonable for LAN gaming — $1.50 an hour for Game Haven + SAFRA members, $1.90 for SAFRA members and $2.50 for guests.

They also have discounted rates and promotions from time to time. Anyway, you can find out more details at the www.gamehaven.sg.

We’re definitely going back again!

Game Haven is located at 29 Carpenter Street, very near Clarke Quay MRT Station. Click here for map and transport directions.

If you ever see me there, come up to me to say hi! Perhaps we could play some games together! ;)

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For the usual gaming news, updates and miscellaneous anecdotes, there’s always here. I will announce contest winner tomorrow. Don’t go away!! (Yes, camp here for 24 hours. lol.)

Happy Friday the 13th!