Sightseeing in Liberty City - a set on Flickr

Nico Bellic is not the only star in GTA4. Liberty City itself, which is a replica of New York City, is also the key attraction in the game. Flickr user Matthew Johnston has done up a series of pictures comparing actual buildings in NY and screenshots of the same locations found in the game. The similarity is simply astonishing. If you're a fan of the game, you have to check out the Flickr photoset.

Posting to multiple places

Blog It by TypePad seems to be a pretty useful app. With it, you can use Facebook to post to several blogs at once, and also update status on multiple locations. I'm trying it out with my Blogger, Vox, and Twitter account. I wonder if it works on mobile.

Father of D&D Gary Gygax: RIP

I just read from a Slashdot post that Gary Gygax, the creator of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game has passed away. This news filled me with sadness and a great sense of nostalgia. The influence of D&D is without a doubt far-reaching. Computer games won't be what it is today without the influence of the tabletop game. Come to think of it, would games like Baldur's Gate, Oblivion, and many other gaming classics be without D&D?

I played D&D during my secondary school days. In those days, I had little money to buy the player's handbooks. I borrowed them from my friends, photocopied them, and saved up so that I could buy a set of crystal blue dice. Those were the times when some alarmist folks would view D&D as a "satanic" game. Me? I just thought it was really fun to play a tough fighter or a powerful magic-user.

My fondest memory of a D&D gaming session was one where after battling some enemy (which I can't remember), there was a magical sword set in stone calling out to me. The greedy loot-grabber that I played as, my fighter reached out to grab the sword. Alas, it was a cursed sword and it was stuck to my hands! I then made a decision to actually chopped off my hands so that I won't be penalised with all the "minus" modifiers that came with this cursed sword. Ah, good times!

I would say that D&D contributed to my love of games, sci-fi and fantasy... mainly geeky stuff. It also got me interested in technology because computers started to have RPGs.

Goodbye Mr. Gygax! Thanks for all the dice-rolling memories.

Rat king in the year of the rat

I saw this on Boing Boing, and since it's the Year of the Rat, it's just so appropriate.

What you see here is known as a Rat King. According to Wikipedia, it's

said to arise when a number of rats become intertwined at their tails, which become stuck together with blood, dirt, and excrement. The animals consequently grow together while joined at the tails, which are often broken.

Gross to the extreme.

"Still Alive" in Japanese

"Still Alive" is the end song from Portal that I keep playing inside my head since it is so damn catchy. This one is a version sung in Japanese, and it's also cute.
Anyway, I've yet to play Portal, but I believe it'll be excellent. I've just completed Half-Life Ep 1, and I'm actually going through it again just to experience the developer's commentary. All I can say is that The Orange Box is excellent value and I'm having tons of fun with it.

LEGO Blackbird

A SR71 Blackbird forward quarter
Originally uploaded by Lego Monster.

Wow... an amazing Lego model of the Blackbird spyplane. This is done by Lego Monster and the full photoset can be found on Flickr here. I wonder how long this takes.

Cute LEGO portal recreation

Long time no post... but this is so delightful that it deserves a shout-out. It is a LEGO re-creation of the Value game Portal found in The Orange Box. Lovely.

Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon on an Asus Eee PC

The Asus Eee PC actually looks pretty sweet, if not for the low res screen, I'll probably get one. The next few versions will be ones to look out for. Anyway, it'll be a great system to put Ubuntu on. Check out the link to know how to put Gutsy Gibbon on the sweet little computer.

Amazing Metroid Prime Cosplay

Best. Cosplay. Character. Ever. Check out the photos of a Cosplayer donning the Metroid Prime costume and pretending to be Samus. Lovely.

Connecting to XBOX Live via a WinMob cellphone

These guys won't let the lack of an Internet connection stop them from gaming on their 360s. What they did was to hook up their boxes to their Windows Mobile phone to get connected to Xbox Live. I guess they really want to Finish The Fight.

LEGO-shaped cakes

Someone please make this LEGO shaped cake for me? Recipe found on Betty Crocker.com.

PS3 or Wii? This can help you decide

If you can't decide between a PS3 and a Wii, this funny video can help you to make your choice. Hit the link to have a good laugh over how the two consoles are depicted. But what if you want to make a choice between the Xbox360 and a PS3?

Verify Email Address

If for any reason, you want to check if an email addy is working, this tool will come in handy. It is suppose to "actually connects to the mail server and checks that the mailbox exists". Hope that it is not a email spam farm though.

LEGO minimalism

I love LEGO, and I adore these LEGO ads. While the complex structures that LEGO Master Builders build are great, nothing beats simplicity and imagination.

Young DJs in da house

Young DJs with mad skillz. DJ Sara is 8 and DJ Ryusei is only 5.

Amen Brother

Here's the story of a drumbeat that influenced pop culture. Break on, bro.

Halo 3 will change the world

I"m so looking forward to the release of Halo 3. So are the folks at SarcasticGamer.com. Hilarious.

Model Trains Fetish

I've heard of foot fetish, shoe fetish, and I understand that there are just about as many type of fetishes as you can ever think of. However, this has got to be the most unusual fetish that I've heard of. This is Model Trains fetish and this DVD called "Crush by Venus" has a hot chick crushing model trains, cars and buildings. Sort of like Gozilla, except that this Gozilla is a hottie. More details on Hobby Blog.

Games Convention Asia 2007

For the last two days, I was at the Games Convention Asia 2007 (link the my set of picts on Flickr is here). This was suppose to be the E3 of South East Asia with focus on a conference on games development and business, and also an exhibition for the public showcasing new games. Some of the sessions in the conference were excellent. I was most impressed by the keynote given by Alexander Fernandez from Streamline Studios. His speech was inspiring and, if you're a game developer, you'll be certainly stirred by his short but evocative speech.

The showfloor, however, leaves quite a bit to be desired. Not a lot of games were shown. Particularly, I was looking out for the big titles such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero III, but they were missing. Also, Microsoft and Atari, both of whom are present in Singapore, were not even around. However, I would say that it was still a good start and hopefully, future GCA will attract even more developers and publishers to showcase their new games. I'll skip the negativity and highlight some of the good stuff I liked about the show:

• Singapore game developer Mikoishi showcasing their NDS game Dropcast.


• Audio Odyssey: a Wii prototype rhythm game by MIT-GAMBIT Game Lab.


• A Konami battle card game for the NDS. Not sure what the English title is...


• Booth babes...

Marcus Fenix brick

GOW01
Originally uploaded by legohaulic.

This is pretty awesome! Legohaulic has posted his creation of Marcus Fenix from Gears of War using LEGO bricks and it is super rad.