It’s funny how the events that prevented me from publishing GGF on time yesterday are the very same events that I’m gonna end up talking about in this latest issue of GGF.

I had an absolutely exciting gamer girl friday (literally), hardly marred by the fact that I was running on only one hour of sleep and walking around with a painful sprain in my spine.

That’s why today is the show off issue. I have lots of stuff to show off!

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Table of Contents

1. Creator of Fable talks about Fable II
2. Meeting the lead designer of EndWar
3. Unboxing Warhammer Online Collector’s Edition
4. The Goonfather rates The Force Unleashed 9/10
5. I have a PlayStation Home
6. Results of last week’s contest
7. Ask The Goonfather
8. Win PlayStation Home beta accounts!!

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Creator of Fable talks about Fable II

Peter Molyneux, creator of Fable (for Xbox 360) and founder of Lionhead Studios, is in Singapore for GCA (Games Convention Asia) this week.

I didn’t have to go to GCA to meet him because the Singapore Xbox team hosted him at the Microsoft office with a bunch of journalists.

I know I’ve said this about a few other games before, but Fable II is the game to wait for. I’m superbly impressed and amused by it. It’s a Fantasy MMORPG meets The Sims and will appeal to both hardcore and casual gamers, and both male and female.

I’ll show you a video of Peter explaining the game, in a minute. Just keep in mind that I recorded it with a mobile phone so the quality is really bad. The game in real life looks a zillion times better than it does in my video. Sorry about that!

This is only Part 1 of the video because I don’t have enough time to edit the rest. I have more than 30 minutes of footage. In this video, Peter talks about:

1. The important role of your canine companion
2. True free roaming in an open-ended world
3. The ability to walk away from cutscenes literally
4. How the game promises an emotional journey with a dramatic story
5. The interesting combat system
6. The unique experience points system

More videos coming soon! Keep your eye on SheyaraTube!

In the meantime, here’s a picture of me and Peter. He is such a warm, charming guy despite having intimidating acccolades heaped on him such as “god of gamers” and “godfather of the UK gaming industry”.

I’m holding in my hands a very cute premium which I have to mosaic because I have an NDA on it. And I can’t tell you why, either. The gaming industry likes to be secretive like that.

More photos!

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Journalists photograph Peter Molyneux

Peter Molyneux interviewed by a journalist

Okay, will talk more about Fable II again!

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Meeting the lead designer of EndWar

Besides Peter Molyneux, I also met the lead designer of the upcoming hit game, Tom Clancy’s EndWar.

Introducing Michael de Plater!

Michael is the creative director of UbiSoft Shanghai and he is also amazingly nice. He showed me a picture of his cute daughter!

We did a video shoot yesterday of me interviewing him about the game and him playing a demo for us. The video will be available for download on Xbox Live Marketplace when it’s ready.

I guess I’ll talk more about the game when I have a chance to try it out.

I will get to, soon. I have a VIP demo download pass!

You MUST try out EndWar because it’s going to revolutionise RTS games with its amazing voice command feature.

Set during a fictitious World War III, The game is more than an RTS, actually. It’s a combination of action, strategy and simulation and you’re so gonna feel like a real army commander playing it.

The general public will be able to download a demo around end October, before the game launches on November 4.

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Unboxing Warhammer Online Collector’s Box

Between meeting Peter Molyneux and Michael de Plater yesterday, I had about an hour to visit the post office (to mail prizes), fix my SIM card (yes, it’s fixed, finally!!) and pick up my collector’s edition Warhammer Online.

It’s damn heavy lah.

I almost died yesterday travelling all over Singapore lugging around an immensely heavy game box, my netbook, all my other gadgets and hardware peripherals, and my usual barang barang.

But I survived! So here I am to show off to you my coveted Warhammer Online Collector’s Edition.

Many gamers who picked up the box a day before me also complained about the heaviness of the box.

Let’s unbox it together to find out why!

The box:

Back of the box:

It slides out like the drawer:

Ooh. A big book!

It’s a glossy, hardcover art book showing pictures of Warhammer characters, weapons and monsters:

Aah! Another big book! No wonder it’s so freaking heavy!

Nice! A comic book!

Aww, the last layer, the game box and a figurine.

The game box is usually the most exciting thing in a CE package but I don’t really need it since I already have the WAR client from beta. But I can’t resist looking into it, anyway.

Aww. Now, all I need is some time to play the game.

I totally wasted my open beta and headstart access, lol.

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The Goonfather rates The Force Unleashed 9

I received a copy of The Force Unleashed for the Xbox 360 from New Era on Thursday. Yay, thanks! I didn’t have time to play so I made the Goonfather play it and review it for me.

“Woah! This is a damn good game!” he said while playing it. “I love it! I rate it 9 out of 10.”

“Why not 10 out of 10?” I asked.

“Er…,” he said, and then went silent.

Five minutes later, I spoke up, “Your answer very slow leh.”

“I dunno lah!” he complained. “You ask me stupid question.”

“It’s not a stupid question,” I said. “If it’s such a great game, you’d give it a 10. There must be some reason you gave it a 9. Like, something missing or something not so ideal.”

“I dunno. Because we must always reserve 10 for another better game.”

“Then no game will ever get a 10 rating from you!”

“Yah.”

“That’s lame.”

“Okay, how about this. I f****** hate the holocrons.”

“What about the holocrons?”

“They have holocrons in TFU. It reminds me of my nightmare days in Star Wars Galaxies when the game was all about collecting holocrons to unlock the b***** Jedi character.”

“I think it’s a bit different in here right.”

“Right. It’s a damn good game.”

There you go.

The Force Unleashed starts off with you playing Darth Vader for one stage. You’re sort of wandering around killing Jedi until you suddenly bump into a toddler who yanks your lightsabre off your hands without even touching you.

That toddler grows up to be the apprentice (of Darth Vader). From there on, you’re playing the apprentice and doing evil stuff under the administration of your evil godfather, Darth Vader.

You know what, this game doesn’t need a review. It’s a damn good game.

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I have a PlayStation Home

So, another exciting thing that happened to me yesterday was that Brian from Ogilvy e-mailed me my PlayStation Home beta test account.

WOOTAGE! Brian is awesome!!

PlayStation Home is a new community service for PlayStation fans to interact in an online world that mirrors the real world. It has been in development since 2005 so it’s not, like, news or anything. But beta acccounts have finally been released so there’s a lot of hype over it now.

You can create an avatar, acquire a virtual home, and decorate your home with trophies that you earn from PlayStation games, then invite your friends over to watch a digital movie or gawk at your trophies and nice clothes.

It’s kind of like Second Life for consoles, I guess.

Well, I haven’t had the time to try it out yet, but you could! I’m giving out accounts to PS3 owners in this week’s GGF contest. Scroll down to the contest segment for more details! :)

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Results of last week’s contest

Yes, yes. I know. You guys have been waiting till you’re blue in the face for the results of this very, very popular contest.

So, without any more useless ado, here’s… a picture of the PSP pouch some of you will be winning!

Haha. Isn’t it cute?

Okay, then, HERE ARE THE FIVE WINNERS!

Lindy
tiger4
abraxis
austingy
aig

So, there you go! Winners, please e-mail me your name and mailing address if you want your prize!

And when you receive your PSP pouch, please remember to shower it with tender loving care because pouches also deserve to be loved.

Thank you, and congratulations!

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Ask the Goonfather

Please e-mail the Goonfather at if you have any questions on games, girls and lame jokes (which he is very good at).

King asks a PSP question:

Can PSP use a 16GB memory stick?

The Goonfather Says:

Can. 32GB also can. But it’ll probably be very slow. It’s advisable to buy offcial Sony memory sticks for better performance.

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Win PlayStation Home beta accounts!!

I have a limited number of PlayStation Home closed beta accounts to give out this week, courtesy of Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong.

How nice!

These accounts are very coveted so I need to know that only the most deserving people will get them. (If you win, you’ll need to give me your PlayStation Network e-mail address and ID).

To win an account, please post a comment here telling me why you really need to win this. The most convincing answers will win!

I have about five accounts to give away, maybe more if you guys can be really, really convinicng.

So, let the contest begin!!

Last day to enter is Sep 25, 2008.

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Okay, this is the end and I shall not ramble on anymore so I can publish this issue right now.

Thank you for waiting till you’re blue in the face! =)