Metalwars review

I thought i'd try something new by writing about some of the iphone apps that i've been using and iphone games that i've been playing and today the topic is Metalwars by Goorusoft.

I had started out playing the lite (i.e. free) version and got so hooked on it that i had to get it (at $0.99, daily discount of the day i think) for the extra levels, although a little disappointed only a total of 18 levels for the full version.

Basically it is based on Mechwarriors (anyone remember that?) where a single human pilot gets into a robot that is armed to the teeth and they battle it out. The graphics is quite impressive with your view a 3D perspective slightly behind your robot. The controls are relatively straightforward with two circles appearing on the bottom corners of your screen (landscape mode). The "left control pad" controls movement while the "right control pad" controls the direction of the turret and fires the weapon at the same time. To point at a direction without firing, just tap the edge of the circle in the required direction. It can be a real challenge at first to master this, but once you get the hang of it, it is quite exciting to be able to run and gun, duck behind cover, change weapons and repeat. Weapons need time to reload, so it's best to have at least 2 so you can rotate while the other is being reloaded. You can't reload midway so you have to expend all your ammo (unlimited reloads i think) before the reloading can begin. You can get caught out and be defenceless at times if your weapons are all reloading, so just have to make like Gump and RUN!

Weapons can be changed via the little button next to the "right control pad" and this cycles through all the weapons you have mounted on your mech. My bugbear with the controls is sometimes this button does not respond when i try to change weapons, not sure why, could be an overlap with the right control pad. You can also give simple orders to your buddy which are self-explanatory: Follow me, Attack, and Hold.

The game offers 3 different slots for you saving progress of your game and offers a total of 18 stages for you to clear. Each stage consists of destroying all enemy mechs with the help of a fellow mech and you actually get graded for this, with the amount of money you earn corresponding to the grade you get. Each subsequent stage has harder (more well armed and well armoured) enemies, and is unlocked only if you get a minimum D grade. Basically this just means you're the last mech standing after everyone else (including your buddy) has been destroyed. The money you make varies from level to level, but generally if you do well, you can get an A grade which gives you 160. And if you really well, an S grade gives you the most money at 200. There is a buddy bonus (of 100) if he survives when you clear the stage, but i don't think this adds to your money, the only catch being that I haven't been able to get an S grade with my buddy dying along the way so i assume he has to survive as well to get that. The stages have different environments from a space-station arena, to a city grid, to a town set in the desert. Unlocking stages also gives you access to buy better weapons at the shop.

The shop is where the money you've been making becomes important as it allows you to upgrade your mech with better parts. These are catergorised into: Lower, Upper, Weapon, Extra, Wingman, Lower Paint and Upper Paint. Parts generally get more expensive as you go on so it's important to save up for them. Sometimes it's worth replaying a level, even though you've already attained 'S' for it, just so you can get more money. This can be such a mismatch at times when need more money and replay stage 1 and utterly pwn the scrawny machine-gun toting mechs.

Lower bodies come in a variety of flavours and vary in AP (hitpoints), speed, acceleration and loadage. Having a larger upper body gives better AP and allows you extra slots for weapons and of course, having more weapons is good in view of the reloading period. The maximum of weapons is 4, using the Guardian, which is interesting because the next (and penultimate) upper body that you unlock is the Impulse, which costs the same, has the same AP but can only carry 3 weapons. LOL

Do be aware that you are restricted by the amount the lower body can carry (i.e. loadage), so while it's nice to have a fast lower body (with corresponding lower loadage) and huge upper body with 4 weapons, this ain't gonna happen, which is cool. One quick tip is that placement of the weapons does matter. For upper bodies with more than 2 weapons, the 3rd (and 4th) weapons are placed on the top, allowing you to fire them at enemies if you're behind a low enough partial cover. Very useful as the computer controlled mechs generally can't get to you when you're behind cover (whether partial or full), but note that this does not work for missile boxes.

Weapons range from your basic MG (you start out with with the 20mm, with 30mm and 40mm later) to cannons of varying sizes to missile boxes (reminds me of the TOW missile on the standard M2 Bradley) to flamethrowers and laser beams. These vary in power, range, cartridge (magazine size), delay and reload time. The MGs are generally good and i can even use them all the way until the later stages when better weapons are unlocked. The cannons are powerful but have really long delays between shots and you're pretty much screwed if you need them to reload quickly, 'cos they take ages to do so. The shotgun is useful if you're a bobo shooter and is useful for close quarter battles (CQB), although not as good as the almighty flamethrower. I don't really like the laser beam but the computer controlled mechs seem to do alright using it. The missile boxes are interesting because the initial box comes with 7 missiles and fires them one at a time, and they will try to home in on the enemy provided you are facing the right direction and within range. Can be frustrating to fire your missiles and see them wander elsewhere, or even worse it hits your buddy (which does them damage so watch what you're shooting!). Later stages unlock spreadmissile boxes which fire in salvoes of 3 missiles for 3 waves which can be quite devastating. There is also a curious missile box called Skybot, which fires a bot that flies around the enemy shooting them with a small beam (a true fire and forget weapon). I usually try to keep the enemy mechs far away from me, using a mixture of skybot/spreadmissiles and MGs (cannons are too slow for me). At the same time, i'd outfit my buddy with a missile box or two and CQB-type weapons (flamethrowers are awesome!) and let him go upfront and attack while i engage from distance (from an angle).

The extras provide either a defensive laser that intercepts incoming missiles with a green beam (note long 'reload' time between shots) "Hard Kill" or extra AP "AP Up", and these come in 2 different levels, 5-10% for the AP. I did not notice any difference between Hard Kill 1 and Hard Kill 2, only that it takes up more loadage (from 5 to 10) so i stuck with Hard Kill 1.

The wingmen don't really matter so you can stick with the present given guy unless you have money to burn. Same thing for the change of paint for your mech, although it's really cheap and only costs 5. You can also rename your mech (for free).

Do remember to assemble your mech after buying your parts from the shop. This is especially useful if you want to do well (not just clear) at the various stages. There are some stages where it would be better to assemble a faster mech with less weapons, and there are some where you can go in armed to the teeth and just blast the enemy away.

My standard mech has the Guardian as the upper body as i prefer to have more weapons. I use a Skybot, a spreadmissile and a pair of 40mm MGs in that order (together with a Hard Kill 1, which gives max loadage of 110). I'd fire the Skybots, followed by all waves of my spreadmissile, then i get behind a low wall (try the wall of the compound that you start out in stage 1) and engage the enemy from safety. By the time i finish through my cycle, the Skybot would typically still be reloading, while my spreadmissile is loaded, so i fire another couple of waves at the enemy, then engage with my (now reloaded) MGs. Then back to Skybot, rinse and repeat. =)

Cover is very important in this game and it pays to use them. Stay away from open areas of the map unless you are heavily armoured and can deal death from afar accurately. Also be careful before letting loose your weapons, least you hit your buddy and try not to engage with your missiles until you have a clear line of sight to the enemy mech. If using your guns, try to park behind a building with just the gun sticking out, so you can engage the buggers at the same time, for this you'd need to be aware which gun you are firing and adjust your cover accordingly. Like i said earlier, if you have more than 2 weapons, make sure your MG/cannon is the 3rd (or 4th weapon) so that you can park behind a lower cover and engage with impunity.

Typically the enemy mechs start out at a position directly opposite you on the other side of the map. They will then make their way down, and usually use the same routes, although i have seen some variation at times. So playing through a stage can give you some idea on which side of a building to walk towards. =)

Also know that some stages pay more money that others, stage 7 for one pays 260 for an S grade, which is the highest i've found so far. The enemy mechs aren't particularly difficult to kill, especially if you use the tips above so that's easy money to be earned. Most stages have only 2 enemy mechs, but stage 6 has 3 and stage 15 has 4(!). Stage 15 is particularly hard as 3 of the mechs are small and quick and carry flamethrowers which can make short work of you if they all close in on you at the same time. One way of clearing this stage (D grade) is to send your buddy up to engage (to his death) while you try to pick them off but this can be difficult. An easier method would be to assemble a light fast mech with a big cannon and subsidiary MG and just run away. They will chase in line with the direction you're running so it's easy to just pick them off like that (try a 100mm cannon hahahaha), provided you are fast enough. This works especially well if your buddy managed to take out the non-flamethower mech early and then joins you for a quick jog around the rather open map. =)

There are still some bugs in the game, like sometimes after a freak shot or something, the mechs run around without an upper body (or weapons), which gives you an easy kill.

Overall, this is a game which can occupy you for some time. It can be frustrating at times, especially if you want to get S grade for all the stages, but the gameplay is good enough to sustain you for some time. Replayability is limited as once you get the set up you are comfortable with, you don't really have much more to fight for aside from more money or bragging rights.

Diary of a reno 3

More updates to our home:

Bought and installed sidetable extension for our study table.
Bought a winefridge and a Philips soundbar.
Installed a custom-made tower-of-power cabinet for our connections to the TV and our CD/DVD collection.
Ikea mirror bought for our bathroom.

Movie review: Toy Story 3

I remember when i watched the first toy story back in 1995. I didn't have much expectation of it, given that it was a cartoon-type movie, and boy was i wrong. My first thought at the end of the movie was that it was too short! I wanted more!! Granted that it was a pretty cliched storyline but it still touched me and made me want to return to my childhood. They repeated this formula of relying our good memories of childhood and sentimentality (is that even a word?) for Toy Story 2, and now Toy Story 3 as well.

The natural progression of things meant that Andy is now heading off to college and how this would affect the toys. I'll stop here as i don't want to spoil it for anyone who either hasn't watched it yet or has been living under a rock (we appeared to be the only ones who hadn't watched it!). Of course, the usual mix of gags and laughs were there for the kids, but Pixar managed to reach out to everyone by appealing to the child in us.

For me, the quote of the movie came from Barbie:

"Authority should derive from the consent of the governed, not from the threat of force!"

which made me want to yell out "or a lawsuit!" LOL

Updates for the bean bag

I just realised that blogger hadn't been notifying me that i had comments awaiting moderation! Sorry crufty!

Interestingly enough, i see that i have made more posts this month than the entire of 2009. LOL

For our regular readers (all 5 of you), you may notice that we have a new layout! I kinda like this format as it may imply whatever i'm writing is backed up by books *sagely pause* hmmmmm.

Am also in the process using the labelling system, so i'll use that little widget once more posts have been labelled. Updates to follow!

There may be no tomorrow...

The above came to mind when i saw tomorrow.sg still listed in my bloglines feed.

The last post was 31 May and since then, I have submitted a couple of articles relating to Singapore for approval but still no updates.

Either:
Singapore is so exciting that the standard of my articles is not enough to pique the editors' interests (i think there more than 1 editor at large needs to approve each submission);
or
the submission mechanism at tomorrow is spoyr (i.e. not working, for those non-Singlish readers) and no one from the editors has noticed the darth of submissions;
or
tomorrow.sg is dying a slow death. Maybe it can be reborn as a better tomorrow? LOL

Airy automobile

As a follow up to my previous post, we are now in the market for a car, as the two scenarios of our present car end with losing it: a) insurer declaring it a total loss and paying us market value (not much) and b) insurer repairing the car then we sell it (for safety reasons).

Option b gets us more money, but entails fighting the insurer from declaring it a total loss. I think i'm going to go through some hair and blood loss in dealing with them, and all the 5 cent 10 cent comments people offer do not really help even though they mean well. Sigh.

So anyways, a friend was selling his 1-series beemer convertible at a reasonable price (wouldn't call it cheap!) in that with the increasing car prices, we wouldn't make much of a loss on it after a year or two. However, price aside, the car would be difficult to use as a daily family car, given that it only has two doors, usable 2 backseats and a tiny boot, which may barely be able to take our pram. The idea of owning a convertible of course appeals but the reality of running it to the mall for groceries and other stuff might derail this thought. Which is a pity, because being rear-wheel driven really gives it beautiful handling, once you get some speed. May explain why ww found it hard to perform a 3-point turn as she struggled to turn the steering. Nice to have a drop top although the guy was saying it was only the second time he's ever lowered it, as weather in SG doesn't really help!

We also visited VW, Volvo and Subaru over the weekend to scope out new car prices, which are steep! Really bad time to buy (although you wouldn't have thunk it with the amount of people in the showrooms!!) with COE prices so high.

Sigh

In His time

Had the joy of playing for mass on Sunday, and with my friends from HT and it still seems as if we have it down tight. LOL. Tom is away healing his back, so Shaun took over stick duty and we had Louis joining us on the guitar.

Good (but long) sermon from Fr Tay as usual and he had to sneak in a mention about the band again. Quite embaressing to be referred to as "these guys are not professional but they play good music just like professionals". Awww....Fr Tay we love you too. =)

One of the songs we played was "In His time" which tied in very nicely with his sermon on living the word of God. My summary was "to turn the other cheek" but he goes one further by saying if we ever have the urge to say something bad or unkind about or to someone, change it to something nice, with feeling. It is a huge change of mindset but helps us love our neighbour. I have been trying but it is of course hard, even though i try to break it into baby steps: instead of saying anything, i try not to keep silent and let the wave of ill feeling pass. I may not be successful all the time, but at least i'm trying. And when it works, i do feel happier inside, although it is also a concious effort not to bottle things up, so must let it go...... LOL

This is song is close to me right now, especially hearing the congregation sing it so beautifully.

In His Time
Am Dm7 G7 C
In His time, in His time,
Dm7 G7 C C7
He makes all things beautiful, in His time,
F G7
Lord, please show me everyday,
Em Am
As You're teaching me Your way,
Dm7 G7 C
That You do just what You say, in Your time.

In Your time, in Your time,
You make all things beautiful, in Your time.
Lord, my life to You I bring,
May each song I have to sing,
Be to You a lovely thing, in Your time.

Tried to upload a version that we played (and managed to record) but having some technical issues here. Will sort it out soon

butterflies and twitters

Maybe it is my preference to be non-confrontational (you can stop snorting) but somehow the idea of handing in my notice this time round seems so difficult and is giving my tummy a bit of a strain with all the stress and anxiety.

Aside from the fact that my boss is extremely busy so it has been difficult to get some facetime, the thought of leaving this place, seems to make me procastinate. Even though i know i will feel better after i do it, i still feel a sense of loss at a place where i have spent a majority of my waking hours for the past years. Promises to keep in touch aside, i also know it will never be the same for some as we are used to just walking over for a yarn and a laugh, while the great unknown is waiting for me on the other side.

Interesting yet strange thoughts on a poignant day. I think a haircut is in order (it always balances me out!). =)

Sucky vac saleman

Had an incident that I nearly went librarian poo-poo about.

Someone bought a vacuum cleaner system and saw it fit to recommend this to us, so the appointment was fixed over the weekend. I had to attend mass (was supposed to play but long story) and got a little worried when i got an sms from ww asking about our existing (rather old but still working) vacuum system, the Rainbow, about whether it had a filter. In view of my car-less state, my parents attended mass with me, which was very heart warming, so we all headed home after.

Found that the saleman had displayed his wares all over my bedroom when i got home, and wanted to demonstrate the system to me. He said that it is more than a vacuum, it can also purify the air, clean your mattresses and more. I took one look at it, and noted that it was similar to what we already have (which can do the same lol), but i indulged him and listened to his speel, while ww had her lunch. He tried to head off the fact that we already have a Rainbow by showing us pictures of a Rainbow system with a filter. (ed: i think this is the updated Rainbow with the Hepa filter, ours is older! lol) Strike one.

I guess he thought he was losing me 'cos he said to me (and my mum), "you know, it does not matter because your wife has already ordered it." At this time i paused and got suspicious, because i knew ww wouldn't commit to readily. Walked over and checked with her and she was like "eh?" Strike two.

Then when i went back in, he claimed that my father-in-law (who had brought lunch for ww) approved of the system and said ok to buy, which was strange because the first thing my FIL showed me was that our Rainbow did not have a filter (which i already knew), and he was wondering what the saleman was talking about. Strike three.

So i decided enough was enough, and i said:
"I'm sorry but i just got into a car accident and we don't have the money to plonk down 3.4k for this. Thank you for your time, we are not interested"
and
"I appreciate your time, but we already have a Rainbow which does pretty much the same thing. I know your system is updated and it is a good system, but we don't need it right now."
and
"Look, i don't really need to see your demo, because i know what it can do, since you said for yourself that this was developed by a guy who worked in Rainbow, so i already know what it does. My time is limited (weekends are precious!) and i'm sure yours is as well, so thank you for your time but we are not interested."

Getting nowhere with me, he headed outside to try to convince ww (leaving his junk still all over my bedroom). By which time, i was getting pretty heated up and wanted this guy out of our house. Still he persisted in repeating his speel, broken record style, and i rebutted with the above statements, this time more forcefully, even to the extent of showing him the door. At this point in time, guess who shows up at the door? It's his assistant with.... (wait for it)..... a brand new set in a box! Very close to raising my voice at this point in time (no, not even close to 50% volume for me yet really), but still i managed to remain calm with a cold stare. He got the idea and sent the guy away (quickly) and relented enough (finally!) to go pack up his system.

He did have a few parting shots about how happy he was that we were not buying the system (saves him trouble?) and how the system was not for everybody. He also wasn't talking to me at this point in time but addressing everyone else, which is pretty disrespectful, but no matter, i just wanted him out.

Looking back, i think i was just a few moments short of "you have two ways to leave, either you pack your stuff and leave, or it can follow after you." I don't know why but it got very territorial for me at that point in time, as if responding to some basic primal instinct. I think i had provided sufficient verbal warning to call the cops at least, if not physically restrain him until the cops got here, which would have really turned ugly.

Moral of the story: never invite salepeople into your house, they will basically try not to leave until you buy their product and will do everything short of chaining themselves to your dining table to make you do so.

As an epilogue, he called ww the next day, quite persistently asking whether she was still interested in the vacuum. She said a firm "Thank you, but no, not interested". LOL

Public transport

So, with the revision of bus and train fares to 'distance-based', i find myself one of those paying more. As stated in this article, i am one of those who take short trip to and from work, so my bus fare has gone up from 68 cents to 71 cents per trip. Am amused with this statement though:

Acknowledging that this group of commuters (ed: those who take short trips) are not benefiting from the fare revamp, Mrs Lim hoped they would review their travel pattern weekly instead of on a "per trip basis".

Eh? Let me review my travel pattern weekly then. If i were to take a bus to and from work, that would be 68c*2 = $1.36 per day, which would mean $6.80 per week under the previous 'stage-based' fares. Under the new 'distance-based' fares, i would pay 71c*2 = $1.42 per day, which would mean $7.10 per week. It may only be an increase of 30 cents but it is still an increase. This is one of the reasons why i walk to work even though i have the options of taking a bus (5 bus stops) or train (1 stop). Bleah

FYI, the very enthusiastic folks (ha!) at asiaone forum came up with "A Challange to SMRT CEO, Ms Saw Phaik Hwa".

Car sigh...

There is a possibility that we might be changing car sooner than we thought. This is because I managed to prang the car while driving to soccer a couple of Saturdays back. The accident happened at exit 10A of the ECP (going towards Changi) and occurred after rain had been pouring the whole day and was just easing up. I lost traction while heading up the off-ramp and hit the reinforced wall with my front left corner, then managed to limp to the side after.

It didn't look as bad on first glance as it was a low speed impact (none of my 6 airbags deployed), but the damage was more than skin deep. Am looking at a
new: bumper, headlights, engine mounts,
repairing: chassis (cracked), bonnet, left fender, left front rim, front axel

On the upside, I was alone in the car and only came away with a few scrapes and bruises.

Sigh

Leaders of the fee world

Singapore almost topped the list! Yay!

From the Economist, 5 July 2010

"Lee Hsien Loong, the prime minister of Singapore, tops our list of selected leaders' salaries. He is paid more than 40 times the city-state’s GDP per person. At the other end of the scale, Manmohan Singh, the prime minister of India, reaffirms his reputation for saintliness by taking a modest sum from Indian taxpayers."

FYI The reason for the discrepancy between the graph and the above paragraph is because the Kenyan PM rejected his pay increase (while his fellow ministers gave themselves a pay increase as well).

I guess all the numbers reported are in US$, based on the (old) wikipedia reported figure of S$3,091,200 (US$2,037,168) (note, this is pre-pay increment).

Using the figures from the article, our GDP per person (assuming the conservative figure of 40 times our GDP per person) works out to $2,183,516/40 = $54,587, and converting this using today's exchange rate gives S$75,935.94.

If we use the figures from wiki instead, i.e. his pay divided by GDP of (US$37,293), he is paid more that 70 times our GDP per person.

Facinating, yet depressing, 'cos while i'm heading to a new position soon, my pay is nowhere near this......or GDP per person......or even gone up. Sigh

Saab 9-5

I think i found a car to ponder, pictures here. Now looks-wise it does take some lines from popular kimchi cars, but bear with me.

That interior is just beautiful. I must admit abit of gadgetry lust here (was taken by the BMW 335's electronic joystick-type shifter).

On the upside, the 9-3 will be cheaper and hopefully i'll be able to pick one up secondhand on the cheap. =)

blogging hiatus

Have been holding off on all posts in memory of a friend who passed away, it may seem like a silly thing, but he had such a huge online presence (at least to me) that i just wanted to maintain silence for a hundred days to remember him.

So lots of things been happening in the meantime of course, so i'll try to catch up on them as we go along.

normal transmission resumes in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1......