The new year is for playing old games!

So far, I have been making good on my new year’s resolution (aka spend more time gaming) by digging out all my old games to play. This week, I’ve played Grand Theft Auto IV, Happy Tree Friends: False Alarm and Penny Arcade Adventures Episode Two.

Peculiar choices, I know. I just wanted to start off with the more frivolous titles, the ones you can have fun with for 30 minutes or an hour, and then walk away without having to sacrifice a piece of your heart.

It didn’t really work. I still ended up spending way more time on each title than I’d scheduled for. I think I have been game-deprived for too long.

I don’t dare touch my RPGs now.

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Table of Contents

1. Penny Arcade Freaking Long Title
2. Grey’s Anatomy: The Video Game
3. Hope for Singapore game developers
4. Don’t forget this weekend
5. Get featured on Gamer Girl Friday!
6. Win a silver USB optical mouse!!

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Penny Arcade Freaking Long Title

The full, unabridged title of this game is Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode [ ].

I started off with Episode Two because the Xbox Team just happened to have a spare download code lying around. I never played Episode One (which is recommended because the story is a continuation and wouldn’t make sense if you jumped in midway.)

I’m not going into a full review because it’s an old game (in gamespeak, yesterday is old), but I just want to say that I enjoyed it immensely, even though I jumped in midway. I enjoyed it so much that I played it 1.5 times.

I completed the game within two days (could have been one day if I had started early in the day). And then the next day I played through half of it again just to get the last Xbox LIVE achievement. Yep, I managed to max out achievements for a game for the first time! (Well, it’s only 200 points.)

The Goonfather was very puzzled by my apparent addiction.

“Why are you playing this stupid game?” he asked.

He had tried it last year and didn’t like it.

The next day…

“Why are you still playing this stupid game??”

He thought the game’s boring because it kept making him read comics.

Well, Penny Arcade is a comic, duh.

The humour is quite wicked (although it’s not funny all the time) and the illustrations top-notch. I wouldn’t recommend it for kids, though, because of the liberal use of a certain popular French word.

The game has puzzle, adventure and RPG elements in it, so I found it very entertaining.

I guess you need to have a perverse sense of humour and an appreciation for irreverence to enjoy this game. I’m thinking of getting Episode One now.

Penny Arcade Adventures can be played on PC or Xbox LIVE (as an Arcade download).

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Grey’s Anatomy: The Video Game

Yoi requested that I feature more PC content for GGF. So, how about Grey’s Anatomy? lololol.

Apparently, you can play your favourite doctor from the hit TV series, enjoy romances with the other doctors, and perform surgeries. What more could we ask for in a game?

No, seriously. I have faith in Ubisoft.

The game will be coming out for the PC, Wii and DS. I might give the DS version a try. I like frivolous games because I don’t have time to play any other kind. ETA is March this year.

The response from the gaming community isn’t too promising, though. Some random responses from various gaming websites:

lonestarmt
omg…. why

J Wayne
FAIL

Dont Panic
I am at a loss for words, just…. really!?!

Pokrface
Will the game let my player character sleep with attending doctors to charge up my SurgeryMeter?

CapnRob
aw, heck. I was hoping for a _House, M.D._ game, in which you randomly guess one of twenty diseases, four times, and then the patient gets better. Or dies. Randomly.

Cwalat
can someone repeat after me:

FlopelyFLOP

Gary “ElfShotTheFood” McLean
Not even a Katherine Heigl nude patch could save this.

hagfish70
count me out.

Cajun Chicken
They’re concentrating on THIS instead of a Heroes game? What the HECK is wrong with Ubisofts choices of licenced IPs?

And the conflicting responses from fans of the show:

Svlad Cjelli
Well, my girlfriend is certainly excited about this. I came home tonight and told her about this, during the commercial break for Grey’s Anatomy.

tda-danny
My wife is a huge fan of this show, and owns a ds. I told her about about it jokingly and she replied, “Oh christ, that will be bad”.

Even people who dont know anything about video games & love the source material know this wont be good…

Reading comments can be really entertaining.

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Hope for Singapore game developers

Last year, a bunch of Singaporeans won the grand prize in a global Microsoft game development competition, picking up US$40,000 in cash prize and lots of recognition. (I wrote about it here.)

This year, the same team has been selected as a finalist in the 11th Annual Independent Games Festival for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize award. If they pick up this award, it’s another US$20,000 in cash prize and even more recognition and exposure!

Team Gambit’s success has prompted MDA to set aside S$50,000 grant packages for aspiring game developers in Singapore. Application is still open, so don’t forget to check it out!

I wish Team Gambit all the best for the IGF award!

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Don’t forget this weekend

Remember to drop by Xbox Xperience Zones (Best Denki VivoCity or Challenger Funan) this weekend to enjoy the launch of some of the most fun party games, ever!

There will be Lips and Scene It? Box Office Smash competitions going on throughout the day (11am till 5pm) so either come as a spectator or take part yourself!! Yes, you can just walk in and sign up to take part if there are slots left. (Each mini competition lasts about 15 minutes.)

Participants will receive this cool freebie!

It’s a microphone lollipop! Heh.

Also, you can get $20 Kbox vouchers with any purchase of Lips, Scene It? Box Office Smash or You’re in the Movies. It’s while stocks last so don’t wait already! I promise you the games are fun!! =)

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Get featured on Gamer Girl Friday!

I am going to take reader contributions for GGF now because you guys make me laugh in the comments. I’m giving you the chance to make other readers (who don’t read comments) laugh!

Okay, your contribution doesn’t have to be funny. I’m just saying.

If you send me something and I find it suitable for publication, I will feature it here with a credit to you and a link to your website, if you have one.

Some examples of what you can send me:

• Screenshots with a caption or description.
• Anecdotes (interesting real-life stories).
• Reviews of new games (not too long).
• Drawings you did.
• Videos you made (send me a link, not a video file).
• Links to interesting gaming news or stories.
• Photos of gaming events you attended with descriptions.
• Money.

These are just examples. You can send me anything you like as long as its not porn or a death threat. It must be game-related, okay, since this is a gaming column, duh.

Please e-mail all contributions to and mark it “GGF Contribution”. Include your name exactly as you would like to be credited, and your URL (if any).

Just note that only suitable material will be published. And I reserve the right to define the term “suitable”. I also reserve the right to edit your entry for better, easier reading.

General rule of thumb: It should be entertaining or at least informative. If not, there’s no point, is there?

Thank you. I look forward to seeing if anyone will send me any money.

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Win a silver USB optical mouse!!

From a previous contest, I realised that there are many people needing mice and, lucky you, I just happen to have another to give away!

It’s not a mini this time. It’s kind of halfway between mini and regular sized. (About 2″ x 3.5″)

The packaging says it’s white but it looks silver to me so, I dunno.

To win this, tell me what you like most about GGF by posting in the comments here.

Closing date is January 15, 2009, 11:59 pm.

All entries will be thrown into a pot and boiled into sludge.

The one that survivies will get the mouse.

Ganbatte!!

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By the way, I really suck at game driving. I failed an early GTA IV mission 11 times!!

The mission is a long one. First, I had to beat up some thugs, then I had to perform a violent car chase (violent because I kept bumping into lamp posts, mailboxes, people and other cars). Then I had to beat up a thug leader.

The beating up isn’t a problem; it’s just button mashing. But the driving really kills me, especially like when the thug car suddenly turns 90 degrees into an invisible narrow alley at breakneck speed.

It doesn’t help that the game camera keeps shifting perspective when your car spins. It changes perspective without warning, and left will become right and right will become left and it freaking keeps changing!!! Factor in having to deal with reverse directions and it’s one heck of a confusing toggle.

Compound to all that the fact that you’re chasing a car, meaning speed is imperative, and that the game keeps trying to foil you by throwing obstacles in your way, such as hugeass trucks that materialise in front of you out of nowhere, it’s just insane.

I set my car on fire more times than I can count.

It’s frustrating, although I have to admit that watching your car defy all laws of physics and nature is pretty cool.

I finally passed the mission on the 12th try, so don’t say I’m hopeless. If nothing else, I have patience and perserverance. lol.