games – Metropolitan Muslimah

I Ramble: 27 December 2018

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Meowsies.

Where do I even begin.

About ushering in 2019? Summarise 2018 and wrap up the year? About games and gaming? About being ill? About my husband? About life? About journalling? Ai yai yai yai yai. So many things yet so little energy for anything.

Maybe we’ll start with the following photo.

This is me taking a shot of my television, showing a gameplay of The Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End on PS3 by my husband.

Yup, it’s close to eleven PM when we were playing a bit of POTC. I firstly want to express that I enjoy being married to someone who not only shares my hobbies but also engage in them. Best part is that neither of us were overly particular about how each other play. I must admit that I wanted him to save his gameplay on a separate file but then my better judgment got me to realise that hey, I can always replay the level if I ever feel like immersing myself fully in the game or being a completionist through collecting every single item and unlocking every chest and so on. There isn’t any pressing need for me to not share the gameplay anyway. But yes, if I was working on unlocking achievement seriously, I wouldn’t let him have the controller. Hahahaha!

The game was a fortuituos buy. Remember, I wanted to buy the first installment of Uncharted? Well, my husband and I stumbled upon a copy at Games Resort @ Compass One. It costs $30. My husband was telling me to just get it as PS3 games have noticeably dwindled in the shops. But when you’re the sole breadwinner of the family, you will obviously get sensitive about the price. $30, albeit half the price of what PS3 games usually cost, is still a pinch to me. So I decided not to get it from Compass One. Then, just yesterday, I jio-ed mum to go to Tampines Mall to look for a bullet journal. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the journal I wanted to get but then I remembered there were two game shops at one of the levels. The first shop that I went to didn’t carry Uncharted so I decided to try the adjacent shop, GameXtreme. I found a copy and it costs $25. So I thought I might as well get it because I don’t know when my next trip to Tampines will be and that I probably couldn’t get a better deal anyway. Lo and behold! Just as I wanted to make payment, the dude noticed a sticker on the case and said, “This one three for $10. Go and get two more with a sticker.”

Gnarly! What a deal! So I grabbed POTC and Assasin’s Creed: Brotherhood because nothing else interest me. For POTC, I played it on Wii before and I really enjoyed it so I thought I’d play it again on PS3 instead. Then I simply chose AC because my husband likes the franchise. Wow. It’s so different when you’re a single gamer and when you’re a married gamer, huh? Hahahaha!

So yup! Lucky me bought Uncharted for just 1/3 of $10 instead of $30. That’s like…errr…my fractions is not good. 1/3 of 1/3? Cos you know, it is like three times less of three times less? Oh, bollocks, nevermind me. Point is, it pays to be frugal. And nice. Cos nasty customers won’t get good recommendations. Muahahahaha!

So that’s about yesterday and games and gaming. It’s been a while since I’ve touched my console so I feel the vertigo pretty damn badly this time. My head just fucking hurts all the time now. Sheesh.

Oh, yeah, I mentioned about wanting to get a bullet journal. I know, I can just use any old notebook but I really wanted to emulate the creator of the bullet journal and I think that the dots would be pretty helpful in making markings and estimating the amount of space I need for certain sections of the bullet journal.

So there goes the dream. I know I can just get it online but like I said, I have to be frugal as I am the only person who is holding the money.

But yeah back to gaming, I haven’t started on Uncharted yet ironically enough. Hahahaha! That shows just how much I enjoyed playing POTC on Wii. To be honest, I can’t recall going through the same sort of experience on the PS like I did on the Wii! Let me just check for a moment if my instincts are true. Both versions really feel a whole lot different to me! Or is it I’m demented? Let me just check for a sec.

Oh yes, they are indeed different! Oh, my God! I recall smashing crates a lot more in POTC Wii and spending more time in the sea prison in the beginning chapter. POTC PS3 is like a super condensed version of the movie and I didn’t spend as much time in the beginning chapter.

Oh, wow, wow, wow! Nonetheless, this PS3 version that is new to me, is still enjoyable. It does have that Uncharted feel in terms of having to figure your way out and scaling walls and shimmey-ing ledges. So I figured that POTC is a great warm-up game to gear me up for POTC.

I found out about the versions being different from GameSpot. Man, it has been a while since I’ve been there and blog there. Now, I miss blogging there about games and all that jazz. Really takes me back given just how much I have rambled on about games in this post! Felt like the good old times!

For a proper game post, I should write about the differences I experienced in both versions and whether I enjoy one more than the other. Apparently the Wii version is the same as the PSP and PS2 versions but the PS3 and XBox360 versions are different, with the XBox360’s varying slightly from the PS3’s.

Wow, amazing! We all discovered something new!

Anyway, I feel like I rambled on long enough. Will definitely want to complete the games I started playing on both the PC and on the PS3. Also, will definitely want to get back to bullet journalling and be more life-organised.

I really like to make up my own words sometimes. Just how do you guys live with me? Hahahaha!

And Allah is Al-Wahhab, the Supreme Bestower. – MM

I Ramble: 19 September 2018

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Meowsies! I’m back again! Work has been bad for my body that I’ve been rather ill. I’m still not well and I feel worse now. Huhu. Anyway, le husband has been great to me. I woke up today to find that he had washed my clothes and loaded them in the dryer, knowing that I will be needing my work clothes for tomorrow.

And now he’s cooking for us! T_T

I don’t know how my life would be wouldn’t this amazing human being right here. Sighs.

Okay, on other news…hm…what else is there to talk about?

It’s pouring here in Buangkok so I guess it’s basically indoor time today with le husband. We’ve had a few rounds of PUBG and I’ve smuled with much hilarity and maybe later we’ll be guitaring together…because I finally brought another acoustic guitar from my Tampines home to my Buangkok home. Yippy! It’s been really cool and fun and chill to just sit with le husband and play random stuff. I would be practising my chords and he would be playing arpeggios or riffs.

So yup, hopefully those who are affected by the weather will have a good day in today.

Here’s something for the eyes to see. Random vid lol.

And Allah is Al-Malik, the King.

I Plan: Visual Novel Project – Title Screen Second Draft (A Singer’s Dream)

In the name of Allah, the All-Compassionate, the All-Merciful.

Huzzah! So I’ve decided to pick up my visual novel project again. I just started learning about switches and variables in RPGMaker VX Ace, explained in Chapter 2 of the guide book I’m using. I’m barely into a few pages of it and I’m already having a headache now. There is quite a lot of information to absorb. However, I managed to figure out the very basic mechanics of having a switch that opens up a door and transporting the player sprite to another map by going through it. I was completely overwhelmed by it at first but after trying it and seeing the result, it just dawned on me how easy it can be. Like the lightbulb just switched on by itself after you tried so hard to light it up. Hahaha!

My progress is definitely going to be very slow but at least I managed to try out something new and grasped the idea of switches already.

Also, I went for a redraft of the title screen. Image and font used were taken from sites that allow their resources to be used for free, even for commercial use, and no attribution is required.

Psst! Here are my resources!

Fonts: http://www.1001fonts.com/free-fonts-for-commercial-use.html

Images: https://pixabay.com/

And here is my new title screen!

title screen

And Allah is Al-Aziz, the Almighty, the Self-Sufficient. – MM

I Ramble: 5 May 2017

In the name of Allah, the All-Compassionate, the All-Merciful.

So I spent yesterday at home instead of attending my sister’s graduation as planned because I still wasn’t feeling too well. Plus, the fact that the doctor gave me an MC for yesterday as well just shows that it ain’t fly for me to spread my ‘blessings’ with the world. Hehehe.

So what I did yesterday was to clean my room. Damn, it feels good to finally be able to see the floor of my room. I threw out a lot of things too. I can’t possibly hold onto every single thing. I can’t take anything with me to the grave eventually. Now I’m left with is the dusting of shelves and sorting and organising. That would take a lot of time so I’m hoping to do something about it on Sunday. I’ll be spending today working on my Malay children’s portfolios. Tomorrow, I will be packing up and listing whatever it is I need to do for the Malay resources at work. I’m getting le fiance to swing by to speed up the process and then we’ll zhao for paktor from there.

As I was trying to get back some control in my life, I realise that if there is something that I’m blessed with that doesn’t get messy, it would be my relationship with le fiance. It’s a healthy relationship and a very loving one. I never felt like I have to try so hard to make it work. In fact, I feel like I should try harder in loving him back! Hahaha!

My man has roped me into playing Cabal Online with him and it has been amazing and fun!

He is always reassuring me and always coming to my rescue without me telling him or asking help from him.

He even brought me to a dungeon with him although I pretty much suck at dungeon mechanics. The way he played with me and guided me through it is very kind, just like the way Nora does it. I really gotta give it to Nora for roping me into cool games and roping me into MMORPG. As for my man, he pulls me in deeper into the mechanics of a game. He loves programming more than gaming so it was really refreshing for me to see a different perspective of games and computer technology in general. In fact, his passion inspired me and I have been reading up on computer science such as this:

It’s a very good read. I would recommend it for anyone who wishes to know some historical backgrounds on the pioneers of computer science and how a mathematical problem transpires the technology we have today. Call me dumb but I finally get what SQL and Boolean strings are from reading this book although they were mentioned briefly. I must admit I don’t understand the entire book 100% but for an average reader like me, I really got some general insights from it. If ever, this makes a good introductory read to computer science.

That aside, I received my first wedding gift! Hehehe. I’m not married yet but since I’m leaving the workplace soon, my ever reliable colleague decided to get the gifting out of the way. Hehehe. She’s older than me and gets amused by my antics and she is one of the people who knows how my friendship with A turns into a relationship and finally engagement. She really bought me a classy gift, which I felt is much needed for my soon-to-be-new home.

She’s only a part-timer yet I feel the love so much. I guess that’s what happens when you touch people’s lives enough for them to show some care towards you. I must admit, I enjoy the positive human emotional aspects in a workplace.

With that said, well, here’s to moving forward.

And Allah is Al-Malik, the King. – MM