Mario Tennis Open

Game: Mario Tennis Open
Platform: 3DS
Genre: Sports
First 3 Hours: Gameplay is fast paced. I still don't get what are the colourful circles on the court are for. But it makes for an intense match
What I liked: Gameplay, Courts, Characters
What I didn't liked: Lack of variety.
Status: Finish a single tournament with Mario. There are still a couple modes. Probably get that later
Score: 4/5 Tennis balls

Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon

Game: Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon
Platform: 3DS
Genre: Adventure
First 3 Hours: Besides the title sounding like a Transformers movie. The game is awesome. It's Ghostbusters with a vacuum. There are a lot of interesting ways to catch a ghost and the feeling on sucking them in is utterly satisfying
What I liked: Storyline, Level up system, the vacuum, Stages
What I didn't liked: No jump, no checkpoints, restarting the same mission over again
Status: Finish the main story mode and rescued Mario
Score: 5/5 dark moon pieces

The Maze Runner

Just watched another dystopian teen survival movie. It's basically the same premise but with an added bonus. A maze to run in. Seriously, for a movie called the maze runner I would expect it to focus more on the maze. It has little to do with the maze running and more to do with the characters. Not to say it's a bad movie. It ended with a cliffhanger. Had to Wikipedia to find out what's the story about.

3/5 Mazes

The State of Gaming

Since there is nothing new to report I am just going to write about the state of gaming in my home country Malaysia. Where to start? Let me break it down the the consoles, genre, players and environment since that the best way to gauge how Malaysian view gaming. Its going to be a too long too read article.. but since no one views my blog anyway... I would say this is just for me to keep a record of things

Gaming is divided into 2 categories. Console and PC gamers. Which is also divided into 2 different categories. Those people who plays a single game (i.e FIFA, DOTA 2) and people like me who likes the art of gaming. 

DS

Let's start with the most popular Nintendo console ever (in my opinion). Over here piracy is king. Don't get me wrong there are people who still buy original games. But I could say that is less than 15% of the market. Most of everyone who owns a DS, will own an Acekart, R4i gold or a generic flash cart to play backup roms. The funny thing is that the roms are damn easy to find and all you need is a micro sd card to put all the games in. A single 64gb card can fit close to 400 or more games. I believe that the reason that the DS manage to sell a lot of units. Who doesn't want a console that can carry a lot of games and that is portable. I rarely see people play a DS on the street. Probably is because of...

PSP  

Actually this is not the reason. The main reason why handheld gaming is less than 5% of gaming in Malaysia is because of the apples and andriods of the world. In a world where you can unlimted supply of games in your tablet. Who wants to bring a dedicated gaming machine.'Well, as I said in my previous post that everything here, piracy comes first. This console is no stranger. With CFW (custom firmware), players are able to download and load any game they want. For me the best game on this machine is still Killzone Liberation ad-hoc multiplayer wifi. I think handheld gaming is almost dead here since everyone has a smartphone and they can get better games (so they say) on that...Personally pressing a screen is nothing compared than pressing buttons. Which brings me to...  

PS3, XBOX 360 and Wii

I'm doing all three last gen console at once since they all share a common theme... Piracy. Don't ge tme wrong there are still people who buy original games. I think there are around 100k-150k people still buy original games in order to access the PS Network, Xbox Live and err.. whatever Nintendo does... But the main issue here is old people (37++ age group) view console gaming as toys for kids. I've seen kids who can't even reach the third row of a shelf play Grand Theft Auto V and COD Modern Warfare... I think they think that the parents are idiots. I think that the parents are not bothered to educate themselves on what the kids are playing. So they will just go to a store and buy the game that little Timmy has been wanting to play for a long time...Idiots... Where was I, oh yes, parents will see consoles as babysitting tools. So they don't want to fork up a lot of money on original software. Since you can get a game here for as low as $3, why don't just buy that. So that why these 3 consoles are popular with the old people. As for the young people, they are practically cheap (gaming is an expensive hobby, no denying it) It's better to save a couple bucks then to buy original software. Among the 3 console, the most popular is the Xbox 360. Its easy to hack, games are cheap and most people just want to play FIFA on it. The Wii is more like a 15 minute of fame type of console. Once you are done with Wii Sports, you are practically done. I almost forgot to touch on the best console of all. The...

PC

Master Race. So that what people like to call it. I used to be a PC gamer until the games were just to advance for my PC to handle. Now I just use it to stream movies. PC gamers are a funny bunch. Since 100% of PC software you can get it for free. Most of them already play free-to-play games. Young kids nowdays love to play DOTA 2. I honestly have no idea what that game is all about... Doesn't look like fun when your face looks like its going to poop all the time. Seriously... that game is fun as a kick in the nuts... I have never seen anyone crack a smile while playing this game. Maybe that's just how the game is played. Seriously... Another famous game is Counter-Strike. I call it the poor man FPS but its still a cracking good time when you load it up. Oh yeah... and of course FIFA... You can't forget about FIFA. PC gaming has become the most expensive gaming medium. Every 1 year, your technology becomes obsolete. Upgrading is the same cost of buying 4 consoles your machine needs a fine tuning every now and then. If you stick the low spec games, you should be fine for another 10 years. I would like to end my rant with the...

FUTURE

The Future of gaming in Malaysia. Lets see... In the handheld department, the 3DS will have loyal Poke'mon and Nintendo followers (ie Me). It is hackable but from what I heard recently, the console with the specific hacking firmware are selling like hotcakes. Sooner it will just be another rare item on the list of pirate goods. The Vita is cheap.. but there has little traction over here. Since the console is not modding friendly, the game carts cost a lot of money. Plus the memory cards are also not cheap. A lot of people over here (90%) don't seem to know that the Vita is the most profitable console of all since you can get free games with a yearly subscription of $50. The only console that is doing well over here is the PS4. Those stuff are selling like hotcakes. FIFA (of course) is one of the best seller. The Wii U is like a unwanted mole... Nobody wants it and no shop wants to keep it in their stock. Its like the kid in the group that no one likes to be friends with (but I really wanted a WII U :((....). The Xbox One has only 10 followers. I say 10 since I saw 10 shops carrying it... So probably 10 people will snatch it... The current generation is one step ahead of the pirates. But its going to be a  matter of time until the pirates figure a way to bypass all of the systems countermeasures. Probably in another 5 years. Until then... I would say.. Its a great time to be a gamer... rock on