Since April is the month leading to my final (and most critical) exams is May, I spent a large chunk of the month doing the most hateful thing on earth – studying.

Perhaps it’s the stress, but in the same month, I actually played FOUR games in a go!

First – RESIDENT EVIL 5:

I LOLed very hard when I first heard from my friend a few months ago what the game was about.

In the previous Resident Evil games (Resident Evil 1, 2, 3…), most of which I have played, we fought ZOMBIES, like human zombies that were real slow, gruesome, and always moaning stupidly.

But in Resident Evil 5, these human zombies are extremely sophisticated. Not only had they learned how to carry axes and throw petrol bombs,

… and how to ride motorcycles to chase you,

and even chase after you waving a chainsaw!

And you know what the most unbelievable part of this whole game is?

They made all the zombies black. Like African black. So racist! Even the plot is of the very typical type where a poor, rural village in Africa is being infected by some zombie virus and it is up to the strong, militaristic Americans to go and massacre them and save the world.

LOL!

Regardless, after finishing the entire game, I still feel that it is the best among the four games listed here.

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Another game that I played was DEVIL MAY CRY 4:

This superb fantasy-ego-feeding game with a super leng cai protagonist, ultra yeng attack moves and combo, and an incomparably cool attitude (smirking and taunting enemies even when they are 100x larger than you and spouting deadly flames…) that you can share with the main character when you are controlling him.

It really does make your balls feel monstrously larger while playing the game, I can quite guarantee that.

I think this is the kind of game that guys would want to play with girls around (or at least let them know that they’re playing).

Just imagine the scene when that most attractive girl of the gang comes over to your laptop/PC and peeks over your shoulder, “Hey, what game are you playing, James?” and you ‘happen’ to have just finished an ultra-difficult-to-do, super cool perfect SSS (smokin’ sick style) combo in front of her wide, amazed eyes…

Then you look up casually, and say:

“Uh what? Oh, Amanda… No, this is nothing… Just some easy game that I’m starting to get bored with.”

LOL!

I know girls don’t care and don’t find a 20-second SSS combo even remotely cool but unfortunately us guys don’t realize that. =) So yeah, this game is still uber cool.

If you’re still wondering what exactly the ‘combos’ that I’m talking about are, check out this video on Youtube:

If, after watching the video, you have no idea what just happened, or thought you saw nothing more than some flurry moving colours… then perhaps we can just forget it and move on to my third game.

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The third game is none other than the legendary LEFT 4 DEAD 2:

An excellent game to let of steam indeed, L4D2 is! After a long and hard day’s work/study, to go into a world where groups – no, I mean HORDES – of mindless zombies charging frenziedly towards you all trying to rip you apart!

That would have been nothing cool except that now, you have a good ol’ pump shotgun / heavy assault rifle with a hell lot of ammo. Merely by holding down the left mouse button and swaying your wrist left and right is sufficient to generate some kind of indescribable ‘high’.

This is in sharp contrast to Resident Evil 5 where bullets are a rarity and every shot must be calculated and accurate.

In L4D2, we shoot zombies Rambo style.

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The final (and longest) game that I played in April was…

-

POKEMON DIAMOND!

What? Don’t laugh la…

As I have written in my previous, long Pokemon article, I have been a great Pokemon fan since my pre-teen days. And until today I still find the entire Pokemon franchise bursting with sweet childhood memories, especially the original 151 Pokemon!

Now with Pokemon Diamond, it is absolutely bliss to return to my room every night and have a wonderful, carefree time playing the game before sleeping. Catching wild Pokemon, raising their levels, battling trainers, solving puzzles, winning gym badges… It’s just like last time! When I would cling to my Gameboy Color stubbornly, and sit on the sofa for hours until I was being forced to stop by my mom.

It’s kinda magical, The last Pokemon version that I played during my schooldays was Gold/Silver. And I had thought that I would never have the chance to play any other versions again (since I grew up)…

But then 2007 came and I (again the few weeks before final exams) suddenly started playing Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire version with one of my old friends! It was an absolutely amazing period when tons of sweet, long-forgotten memories from my childhood came flooding back to me just by looking at the screen.

It was also that period when I actually started re-watching the Pokemon series and movies, and actually found my Pokemon trading card game deck and played with it!

And now, I’ve FINALLY played Pokemon Diamond, the latest version. After more than ten years, I’ve actually caught up!

Haha but I’ve temporarily stopped after battling the 8th gym. I’ve still got the Victory Road and Elite Four in front of me but, so far, my Pokemon stand at these levels:

So… There you have it! Four games in a row in the very month before my final exams!

Haha somebody come try and break my record! Farmville, Mafia Wars, Cafe World and other Facebook games DON’T count! =D

*This is an entry of me reminiscing about the days when I was a huge Pokemon enthusiast. If you think having been crazy over Pokemon is lame or talking about Pokemon when I’m almost 20 now is childish, or if you think Pokemon is demonic, evil or simply boring, I suggest that you do not proceed in reading. Thanks! =)

*Warning: Ridiculously long entry ahead. Please make sure you’re comfortably seated!

I am no longer a kid, but I realized that the sweet memories of Pokemon in my life have never faltered – it was then, it is now, and it will be forever.

During my most stressful times of my final exams period last week, I was deeply stressed-out by intensive last-minute-revisions and the burdensome preparation works for the commencement of my new business. Topped with my newly developed anxiety problem, I thought I was going to lose my mind.

Those times were so terrible that it was quite impossible to get a break without having to think of my other concerns. With mostly drug-induced sleep and heavily unbalanced diet, those times were physically weighing on me as much as they were mentally.

It was at that time of suffering, that I was blessed with the sweet reunion of one of my greatest childhood ‘friend’ - Pokemon.

I was taking a break from studying that day when I came across this guy’s videos * on Youtube. It was so heartening… He’s got the whole collection of the English Pokemon Kanto series uploaded!

When I was watching the first episode, I was overwhelmed… It all came rushing back to my mind – The times when everything in my life was about Pokemon, and nothing was more important than playing and staying away from being caught by parents – I remembered, all of them. The memories so vivid, the emotions so strong.

The feeling was strangely mixed – joy and grief - happy because those were the happiest days, sad because the times are forever gone and will never come back… At that time nostalgia struck me so hard, I felt my eyes prickle and I wanted to cry.

For a moment I couldn’t believe that in this world with all its evil and selfishness, competitions and hectic lifestyles; something so innocent, so carefree, could still have existed in my memory at that time.

I think I was 13 when I knew about Pokemon, and gradually became an unstoppable Pokemon fanatic. Video games, cartoon series VCDs, trading cards, softwares, figurines, toys, apparel, movies, comics… Almost anything related to Pokemon, I daresay, I had ‘em all.

How it all began? Oh, I can remember it as if it was only a month ago…

Well, about 7 years ago…

It all started in my school, when some of my friends started playing ‘virtual’ Pokemon games among friends, with one person being the ‘game controller’ and the other guys being ‘players’. The game controller would narrate the story of the game and the players make decisions like to look for Pokemon, battle trainers, challenge gyms, use skills etc. We used fingers to represent the HP (health point) bar, and all the captured Pokemon / items were recorded in a book that served as the ’save file’.

I knew nothing about Pokemon when I participated in these games, but they were great. Soon, the Pokemon anime series came, but there were no English dubs for sale yet in Malaysia. So we bought Cantonese-dubbed VCDs, and it became the hottest conversation topic among friends at then.

At that time, I didn’t have a Nintendo GameBoy console, on which the Pokemon video game was supposed to be played. So I used a PC emulator (a software to play GameBoy games on PCs) and played my first Pokemon Blue version with it. I still remember I got the emulator through a diskette! Hah! My current PC doesn’t even have a drive for diskettes!

Eventually, I bought a GameBoy and played the Yellow version on it. It was huge, new-found freedom! Because at that time my mum used to limit the time of me using the computer, but somehow there was no limit for playing the GameBoy!

It was crazy, many of my friends were either playing, or have already played it. It was really an unstoppable and immensely influencial trend among my peers at that time, hardly anyone I knew didn’t know about Pokemon!

After that, Gold and Silver version became very popular. That was arguably the ‘golden age’ of Pokemon in my life! I was sitting on the couch all day ‘training’ Pokemon, reading and memorising video game walkthroughs (books with detailed written strategies in playing the game), and buying an enormous range of Pokemon merchandise.

To cap it all, the Pokemon English-dubbed anime series started airing weekly on NTV7 and the first and second Pokemon movies were released. I loved absolutely everything about the characters and I used to happily watch the movies over and over again.

It was at this period that I was so obsessed with Pokemon that I seriously wished our real world had Pokemon, and we could become Pokemon trainers and capture real Pokemon!

In fact, all the Pokemon stuff were so significant in our lives that I think I wouldn’t be too surprised if I suddenly saw a Pikachu bouncing happily out from a patch of grass beside me…

*day-dreaming* I would then probably try to touch it and “Pi…ka…chhiuuuu…!!”, receive a Thunderbolt attack from it and fall to the ground with spinning eyes and smoke emitting from my hair… Awww, well… =)

Soon after, I was hooked up with the Pokemon trading card game. I think I spent a huge fortune buying decks, booster packs, individual cards, and attending tournaments. I still recall myself used to eagerly going back to my school every Saturday morning to play trading cards with all the other guys who played it.

Every Saturday, the school canteen was unanimously agreed and understood as the arena for trading card games. Although I didn’t really liked school, I was always looking forward to going to school on Saturdays because those times were really fun!

We spent a great deal of time, err… in class, tirelessly thinking and building up different decks and card strategies on papers. I used to have many note books dedicated for deck building. Every now and then, an ‘invincible’ deck building strategy was created, but only to be replaced by another ‘more invincible’ idea created later.

Because our school banned its students from bringing trading cards to school, we used to create our own decks in school by cutting paper into card-shaped pieces, drawing imitations of the real cards on them, and playing them as if they were real!

Many not-so-happy things happened in school as well: Cards being stolen, decks being confiscated, people being conned into buying /selling cards at unreasonable prices, playing truants, and even some cases of students stealing money from parents/other students to buy the cards!

These things did happen, but not that regularly. Come on, there’ll always be something bad happening behind almost everything that’s good, won’t there?=)

Despite all these things happening, Pokemon typically promotes a very healthy, innocent, and good-natured personality. The entire Pokemon story plot promotes good values such as friendship, sincerity, determination, loyalty and trust.

The Pokemon franchise may be highly addictive to kids and younger teens, but I daresay it’s a healthier thing to be addicted to compared to other much worse, but more typical, alternatives.

Slowly after that period, the Pokemon craze started to fade for teens of my age; and my friends, including myself, started idolizing computer games. =)

So for the record: I stopped playing after the Gold/Silver version of the Pokemon video games, the “Neo Destiny” set of the trading card game, stopped watching after “Johto League Champions” series of the anime and the 3rd – “Spell of the Unown” of the Pokemon movies. All of which I started from the very first version/set/episode.

As for now, I’m rewatching the episodes of the first season from the Youtube address I stated earlier. (My VCDs are in my hometown) I’m also playing the Emerald version of the video game, attempting to catch up from where I left 7 years ago. Wow, what an experience!

It’s pleasant and quite shocking to discover that Pokemon is now over 11 years old and still a multi-billion Dollar worldwide franchise. Continuing after the Gold & Sliver version where I left off, the video games have developed into Ruby & Sapphire, and even the latest Diamond & Pearl versions!

The anime series is still very popular with 2 new main series “Pokemon Advanced Generation” and “Pokemon Diamond & Pearl series”, each with their own different sub series. And there are currently eight Pokemon Movies released! OMG!

The trading cards are even more well-developed. With a whole bunch of new sets that I couldn’t possible list all, I am so left out! I’m still keeping my last modified “haymaker” deck though! Anyone wanna challenge me? ^^

Strangely, the Pokemon phenomenon in Malaysia seems to be diminishing in influence, when it is still enormously huge in the US and some other countries! Why is our country not that hooked up anymore? Sigh…

Anyway, I know I won’t be as fanatic as I was before – now that I’m a university student, I have work to do and everything… But whenever I return to the Pokemon video games or anime, it’s always a tranquil experience to enter a world of innocence and dreams that no longer exist in our current lives.

Sometimes I really wonder why some people label Pokemon as ‘demonic‘, ‘evil’ or ‘Satanic’. I mean, it’s wierd enough to say that Harry Potter is ‘demonic’, but uh… Pokemon?

I don’t know whether the critics have actually took the time to know more in detail about Pokemon, because if they did, I don’t think they’ll find much demonic things perhaps except for a couple of Houndooms and Gengars.

Pokemon may be nothing more than a collection of fictional characters and an imaginative story plot, but it has been with me for many years, accompanying me through many joyful events and precious memories. Although the years are quite long past, they are still so dearly remembered.

I’m not being childish and I’m not being lame. If a person thinks that reminiscing about childhood events is lame and childish, pardon me then, I pity his childhood.

We all have our own childhood story to tell, don’t we? Yours could be much more interesting than mine!

Finally, I really want to say this:

Thanks, Mr. Satoshi Tajiri, for creating Pokemon; Nintendo, for bringing us into the Pokemon world; 4Kids Entertainment, for bringing Pokemon to life in English-dubbed animation; Wizards of the Coast, for the trading card game experiences.

and above all…

Thanks, Pokémon, for keeping my childhood alive in me.

*(Update 03/06/2007) Sadly, the Pokemon episodes on the Youtube account that I mentioned is no longer watchable. A great amount of episodes have been taken down by Youtube due to, err, you know… copyright infringement.

If you’d somehow still like to watch the Pokemon eps, you may come here. This guy has… Oh my God… ALL the episodes all the way till season 11! – that’s the season that’s being aired in the US currently… and ALL the Pokemon movies!

You’d need to add him as a friend before you can watch though, because those are private videos. =)

Windows XP is getting obsolete!

After more than 2 years hearing about its rumours, the monster has arrived! Windows Vista is here!

For those of you that are not really into technology, Vista is the latest version of the Windows operating system series by Microsoft, and an operating system’s basically the thing that controls and organizes your programs and files in your computer.

In the future, Windows Vista will most likely take over the Windows XP that you’re using now. With spectacularly enhanced graphics and various improved features, well, why not?

My friend and I purposely went to Low Yat Plaza today for this event! I’m not that much of a tech geek, but I know that Vista is really something gigantic.

Here’s the main exhibition area:

Once you step into the area, you will see huge LCD screens showing-off their latest interface and graphic abilities, leaving not even one pixel out of your sight for your own inspection.

Two great graphical features that I really like are the AERO interface and Flip 3D mode.

With the AERO interface, objects on your desktop become translucent, so you can see clearly what’s on your desktop at a glance even if it’s littered with dozens of opened folders and applications.

The Flip 3D mode can sort of organize your desktop objects in a superrealistic 3D line as you choose which to work on. I’m sure this will require no less performance from any video card since it is simply so-so-so cool!

You can even experience all those on the spot with these demo PCs:

Damn, even transferring files can win you prizes here! You can win up to RM1000 worth of prizes by signing up to this contest to test Windows Vista’s speed of file transfer using a thumbdrive! The guys at Microsoft are really confident at their product…

And OMG! There was an O2Jam competition!!! It started yesterday, and the finals is today!

Well, since O2Jam is a program by itself, I wonder if there would be any difference playing O2Jam on Windows Vista, I mean, would it be nicer or faster or something?

Although I really wanted to, but we didn’t have time to hang back and watch the competitions since we had to go to Sungei Wang to buy some stuff, then rush back to Cyberjaya before 6PM for an appointment. What a waste…

But anyway, we each got a free copy of HardwareMag and a bottle of Windows Vista mineral water before we left, at least! Wakakaka!

Man, really wanna change to Windows Vista soon, but aiks, better let them check out the bugs and security loopholes first, who knows, it might be like Windows XP all over again… =)