PCs always proved to have superior graphics to consoles and P&C showed them how. I admit that I was lucky enough to have enjoyed this genre when the graphics were pretty much comical illustrations. There were three games I loved the most – These games changed the way I looked at gaming and general problem solving. I will forever credit them for being some of the best games in time for the countless hours of fun spent on playing and re-playing them over and over again!

The first of these, is Leisure Suit Larry: Love for Sail. Sure, the story is about a dirty old pervert but it was the animation, jokes and puzzles that really caught me. I was probably way too young to play this game, but I didn’t understand 80% of the adult humour in it anyway – Didn’t bother me… I just wanted to finish the game. Larry is an old pervert looking to get laid. That’s it. The whole game revolves around him trying to get into the pants of every babe he meets on the cruise ship. Obviously he gets up to no good as things never go his way – But we go through a hell of a journey to help get this desperate guy some loving.

We all live for our own purposes. These purposes aren’t pre-defined by a divine being and instead are defined by our own choices, actions, goals and influences. These definitions are forever changing based on the influences from the world around us, our state of minds and so-forth.

Just imagine a time of your life when you felt the urge to become the most popular kid on the block. You’d be hooked on social gatherings and parties with your friends. This was pretty much your purpose in life (at that time): To achieve that social status and be recognized amongst your peers. Even as a kid we had goals like becoming the greatest football player football in your school – This goal similarly translated into your purpose in life during that period of time.

Why? I believe that if you are sincerely putting your 200% effort into a goal, the impact you would have on the world is pretty much based on the outcome of that goal for that period of time.

So as we grow older, our goals shift & transform and hence so do our purposes in life. Some goals last a life-time (even when we forget about them) and so we keep this, while many are abandoned and left in our past. Eventually our goals stabilize when we join the working force because this is the time of our lives when we have to care for ourselves and our future goals begin to cater for survival and general success influenced by the world around us (as it has been throughout our lives, anyway!).

We start to aim for the top of the career ladders; to make investments for improved financial security; to finding our soulmate and starting  our own families… And hence this becomes the meaning of our lives: To strive for greatness in what we do to prepare a better future for our children. 

Now, the question is… Why conform to this generalized definition of why we exist? As mentioned, these goals have already been influenced by the world around us – Who says being on top of the career ladder exhibits success?

All I have to say is, choose your goals wisely and don’t just go with the flow. Also, don’t wait too long to stabilize these goals there won’t be a point knowing your meaning of life when there isn’t much life left to live, anyway.

Nissan Cube

You know the list is going to be a concoction of nasty when the Nissan Cube is at the bottom of it. That rear-window-combined-with-side-window wreaks of a try-hard attempt to be ‘hip’.

Did you know that the market the design was targeted to was evenly split between 18-to-25-year-old males and females?

Bond Bug

Produced in 1970-1974, the Bond Bug was considered to be a sportier Reliant Robin. The reason why this is higher up on the list is because this little two-seater has a 750cc engine providing 31 bhp, is capable of up hitting speeds of up to 126km/h, is lighter and seats two people. Oh, and it’s a ONE-door coupe(!), check out the photos. So yeah, many cool-points for this car.

Did you know that the model of one of Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder from Star Wars was built upon the chassis of a Bond Bug?

Tata Nano

Yes, I know this car has been infamously created as the cheap alternative in India. Yes, I know that this is done by budget-cuts on materials making it extremely unsafe. Yes, I know it looks even stupid in the photo below because of the way it’s trying to be sporty with it’s angled wheel. But trust me… It’s a lot slicker looking than the others in this list – At least for the Nano, you can see some effort was put into the design process.

Did you know that the Nano’s trunk is only accessible from the inside as the rear hatch does not open? Makes you wonder where the spare tyre sits…

Bajaj RE60

This beauty from India has been dubbed the ‘convenient and inexpensive commercial transport on the road’. I understand that it’s supposed to be an affordable car but I swear this was designed after a cardboard box.

Did you know that the RE60 runs on a 200cc engine generating a maximum power of 20bhp? It’s like the family-hatchback version of the sportier Bond Bug.

Scion Hako Coupe (concept)

So I’m pretty sure this car was inspired by the Nissan Cube. Someone in Scion must’ve thought ‘wow, that Cube is sure as hell ugly, I bet I can do better!’ – He didn’t. This attempt at a vintage style clearly fails due to clashes with the contemporary design features.

Did you know that the Scion Vice President, Jack Hollis said “Scion’s Hako Coupe Concept embodies a distinct global perspective on today’s youth”? With today’s youth going batshit crazy over Bieber and Edward Cullen, I can see some truth in this.

Fiat Multipla

Come on, admit it. When you saw one of these on the roads you were disgusted at the realization that a car company had ACTUALLY decided to design a car based off a frog. This has got to be one of the more recent horrors on the road.

Did you know that the Multipla won the ‘Ugliest Car’ award in the 1999 Top Gear awards but then subsequently won ‘Car of the Year’ in 2000 and ‘Family Car of the Year’ over 2001-2004? How is that possible…? It’s NOT a fucking car!

REVAi a.k.a. G-wiz

Ah, the G-wiz. The electric car made famous by Top Gear. Produced by RECC (funnily enough, a company that also makes Golf Carts) since 2001, the G-wiz is ugly. No, really, that’s all I have to say about it.

Did you know that in Europe, this car is exempt from most crash test rules because of its low weight and power which registers it under the “heavy quadricycle” category? Ouch. That’s both dangerous and a big hit to any owners’ ego.

Weber Sportscar 2007

Most of the time, it’s hard to say a supercar is ugly since plenty of money is spent on their designs so to one person it may be ugly but this may not be the case to others. The designs are always justifiable by someone… But not in this case. This looks like an aluminium box was used as the chassis and lazily carved out; the headlights and taillights are horrendous; the sharp edges remove any hint of ‘sleekness’ and has anyone yet realized that idiots try to make something look sporty by splashing on a coat of orange paint? Look at the list so far and how many cars are orange! Also, doesn’t the front grill make you think the Pringles moustache?

Did you know that this has a stupid name? Oh, and the newer 2008 version is called the Faster One.

Stay Puft Car a.k.a. Fat Cars

I don’t know anything about this car. I just stumbled upon it in my searches and it probably deserves to be in a Top 10 ugliest car mods list but I just had to post it. This is like a troll car. I can’t say much about it… It’s has so much fail in it that it’s win.

Did you know any more information on this?

Update: Okay, looks like this isn’t really someone’s car but instead is a ‘work of art’ by Erwin Wurm as part of his ‘Fat Cars’ series. Doesn’t matter, still deserves the 2nd spot in this list along with all of his other creations, found here.

Corbin Sparrow 1/2

And in the number one spot, we have the Corbin Sparrow. Two models were produced, both of which are below. The first was dubbed the “jelly bean” model while the Corbin Sparrow 2 was nicknamed “pizza butt”. In all honesty, the jelly bean model sorta looks like a penis… “Har har! James, is that what your penis looks like? HO HO HO!”… Get over it, it does. And the pizza butt model just looks like a car got amputated of its rear wheels and this was what grew back. I do see the effort in trying to make these cars look sleek but they’ve still turned out to look ghastly.

Did you know that several Sparrows were featured in Austin Powers Goldmember, the Sparrow was initially produced by Myers Motors which was founded by Mike Corbin? Wow, that’s just… A strange coincidence?

Wishin’ everyone a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Unfortunately, did not get to post all of this earlier due to being way too busy over the holidays. Having that horrid sore throat didn’t help either. But here we are in 2012 – The last year of human civilisation according to the Mayans so let’s make it count!

Going to avoid writing too much on this, just going to attach a few photos from New Years at Waverton Park.

http://www.humblebundle.com/

As much as this seems like advertising, it definitely isn’t. I believe in a good cause and being appreciative of hard work (especially when it comes to Indie gaming).

Support the Child’s Play Charity. I have and always will be in full support for the Child’s Play Charity (which has nothing to do with that movie with Chucky the doll). CP is a game industry charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with toys and games in our network of over 70 hospitals worldwide which includes purchasing new consoles, peripherals, games, and more for hospitals and therapy facilities. Yes, I’m part of the major population that isn’t a dumb fool who thinks gaming causes mass murderers.

Support the Indie gaming industry. I think it’s brilliant and extremely gutsy what these Indie developers have done to let you buy their bundle of games for whatever you feel like paying. These games are immensely addictive and I hope you’ll all pick up a bundle and give it a shot.

How much? That’s completely up to you. Unless you’re going to be throwing in $165 (the estimated cost of all these games), you’re getting discounted, high-quality games. On top of that, you’ll definitely meet the average and get the five bonus games.

So this Christmas, do a good deed and have a great time with these casual games while you’re at it!

But why? I’m not a Christian, let alone a hardcore one and I grew up surrounded by the Asian culture.So when Christmas comes, why do I feel that excitement and eagerness as if something special is going to happen on the 25th of December?

Memories. When I was a wee little baby in Australia, my Dad dressed up as Santa Clause over a couple of Christmas celebration and I have to say those memories are still with me today. Chinese-eyed black eyebrowed Santa rocking up to my house was cool – Apparently my brother even asked my Mum, ”Mummy, why does Santa Clause look Asian?”. This was only the beginning.

Media. When I think of Christmas, some things come to mind including Macaulay Culkin smacking aftershave on his cheeks in Home Alone, imagery of Mr. Bean with his head up a turkey and that episode where Alvin & The Chipmunks (the cartoon, ofcourse) play the Jinglebell Rock. These pieces of media always told us stories of Christmas miracles which were extremely inspiring.

Faith(lessness). I learnt a lot about the right things to do (ethics) and the beauty in simplicity (humility) throughout my childhood. Today, nobody can deny how disgracefully the world has evolved: Filthy rich people with dirty money doing illegal shit, spending it on alcohol and drugs; governments playing god, making decisions on how societies should live out their lives; people wasting time on their cellphones or computers to read and comment on their friends instead of actually spending time with them. I guess this sort of goes back to Media – back in the day, Christmas media always showed how the world would transform on Christmas and act saintlike. So every Christmas  gives me that glimmer of hope that I’ll be able to see a completely different world of happiness, humility, togetherness and generosity (yeah, I can be a hippy too).

Put these things together and you have a Christmas Addict looking for ways to make things feel more Christmas-y. Presents are only a fraction of the festival and deserve a lot less focus than they have today. If we put more focus on giving and less on the taking, the world would be a better place… For a day even, it would be well worth it.

Enjoy the photos of the beautiful displays at David Jones taken yesterday, below.

All this aside, what I really want to talk about is the Frisbee-ing. Throughout our adolescent life, we grow up building our skills: We learn basic mathematics so we can calculate whether it is worth while to make a purchase; we learn to run and kick a ball to build up that stamina and speed to catch the bus we’re running late for; we learnt to make up great exciting alibis for our teachers when we forgot our homework to use that exact same skill on our bosses to take sickies. Almost every skill or knowledge we picked up through our life has been transferable to something we do today (with the exception of useless subjects like History).

So I was a pretty decent player of that oh-so-awesome online game, Gunbound and while playing Frisbee on Saturday, I realized how similar this throwing-of-a-plastic-plate was to Gunbound. If any of you don’t know what Gunbound is or may have forgotten, it was a simple game where you’d use your character and fire projectiles at your opponents – Like Worms (see image to the right)

In this image, we have the cute little Boomer that threw boomerangs that were significantly affected by the wind. This made it possible for trick-shots at weird angles like doing back-shots (firing it in the opposite direction but being blown backwards to your opponent).

With this in mind, I adjusted my angles and power to based on the wind speed, and attempted “skill-shots” with the Frisbee. Needless to say, I failed pretty hard. Once, I even threw the Frisbee over a barb-wired fence into some dodgy area with snakes and crocodiles. This was when I used my transferable skipping-school fence vaulting skills to re-obtain our flying discus.

When I finally convinced myself that my golden hammer from Gunbound wasn’t going to help me out here, I started from scratch and eventually got the hang of it. Now, let’s see where these Frisbee skills will be transferable.

Photos of the X’mas BBQ, Kris Kringle, some Frisbee action and Gizmo’s new friend, Mosby below. Thanks for taking the photos, Sonia

As this is a large post, it has been split up into two posts:

• Top 10 Things to look forward to in 2012 (6~10)
• Top 10 Things to look forward to in 2012 (1~5)

The Dark Knight Rises
Type: Movie/Action
Date: 20th July 2012

The Dark Knight Rises comes in fifth place on this list probably because of the comic book geek within me and the fact that Arkham City was such an impressive game. After the success of second installment, The Dark Knight featuring Heath Ledger as the Joker, it’s no surprise that this movie is topping several “most anticipated movies of 2011″ lists.

Admittedly, there are many themes of Arkham City/Asylum that I wish were part of Chris Nolan’s Batman but compared to several other superhero full motion video movies (particularly DC), Nolan does an excellent job and I have no doubt that the next installment will be very entertaining.

For the third installment of the Batman film series, Christian Bale is joined by Tom Hardy as Bane and all-time babe, Anne Hathaway as Catwoman.  Never been a big fan of Catwoman so no big deal to me but let’s hope that Hathaway takes some tips from Arkham City where Catwoman was  portrayed perfectly. Bane on the other hand will be an interesting addition of brute strength.

Here’s something I’ve noticed: In the first movie the main villain was Ra’s al Ghul whose fighting style incorporated agility and speed; in the second installment, the Joker’s intellect was his main weapon using puzzles and illusions to his advantage; and now Bane is thrown into the works – Raw brute strength up against the Dark Knight? Hell yes.

If you haven’t yet seen the trailer for this movie, then please get out from under that rock and watch it below:

Game of Thrones Season 2
Type: TV Series/Drama & Action
Date: April 2012

This year, season one of the Game of Thrones TV series based on the novel blew our minds away with its complex multi-leveled plot and vivid characters. Nudity was a common element in the series but was often done so artistically and sometimes gave the audience a sense of realization as to what age the TV show was set in. Although I have not yet read the book, fans of the novel have generally given Benioff and Weiss’ creation two thumbs up.

The finale of season 1 ended with several cliff-hangers making myself and probably most of the fans of the shows extremely eager to learn what happens next. The first season only revealed a handful of the 7 kingdoms so along with the drama going on, I am so looking forward to seeing the other kingdoms.

As long as the series follows the same mixture of elements it had in season 1, the second season will be just as good or maybe even better. 

Sony Playstation Vita
Type: Game/Console
Date: 23 Feb 2012

During the 2011 E3, Sony had a lot of explaining to do after their servers had been taken down due to an unauthorized breach claimed by famous underground hacking group, Anonymous.

Not only were they able to shrug this event off with a joke, but they also announced the new successor in Playstation’s portable series – the Playstation’s Vita.

When I was young, I played games like Pokemon and Zelda finishing them with ease. Inever realized how much time I spent on my Gameboy until glancing and my large collection of unfinished games. The PSP and DS were great during uni days but interests in these handhelds died down when smartphones brought gaming to us. Who needed these handhelds anyway when we had iPhones and iPads with an almost infinitely large library of games? Well, after years of trying all these games, the touch-based controls will just never compare to our old friend, the D-Pad. This is one reason I’m deeply interested in getting back to a handheld and hopefully immerse myself in a very addictive RPG.

2

The Avengers
Type: Movie/Action
Date: 4 May 2012 (AU)

So what makes a movie so good that it takes second place on a list over Apple’s latest product, a new handheld gaming device and even Batman?

1. An all-star cast of Robert Downey Jr, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evans and many more (including the cameos);
2. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to oversee the direction of the movie;
3. six of the greatest superheroes on the silver screen finally joining up to form a team dedicated to defending the world on a universal and multi-dimensional level;
4. finally seeing something I’ve been dreaming about since the Ultimates comic.

I’ve heard that the Ultimates will heavily influence this movie and this is one of the major selling points for me. If you didn’t already know, the lineup will be Iron Man, Captain America, The Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, and Hawkeye. I still reckon Pym & Wasp need to be a part of the Avengers but I guess adding too many characters would make it confusing. A cameo by Spiderman is also very much desired since he’s actually an official member of the Avengers (and the Fantastic Four) in many of the Avenger/Ultimates universes.

The way this movie came about was genius. Having secret scenes after the credits of the movies for each of these superheroes (except Hawkeye who unfortunately got a short cameo in Thor) contributed to the massive hype and eventual build-up to this movie.

The only thing I can predict that may go wrong is how these actors will perform together: With this many main characters, it will be difficult to build on each of them – Yes, each of the characters have already been developed in their individual movies but a) we don’t know much about Hawkeye who actually has an extremely emotional history and b) the movie can’t just throw us into a setting with zero character introductions. So the main obstacle for the writers will be balancing the character development and the action. Fulfilling the wet dreams of millions of comic-book fans and movie buffs will be a tough job – But most of the recent Marvel movies have been doing great (ever since they stopped casting idiots like Toby Maguire as Spiderman).

Now, when will DC bring the Justice League to the silver screen?

Diablo III
Type: Game/RPG
Date: Q1 – 17 Jan 2012 (rumoured)

It’s been a long countdown but we have finally gotten down to number one. There is no contender when it comes to what the most anticipated thing will be for me in 2012.

Blizzard focuses on quality and quality alone. and no one can ever question them – If they say “Sorry, we’re delaying the release of this game till next year”, we just nod our heads and go “yeah, they probably have to iron out some things, it’ll be worth the wait” whereas we’d be raging our arses off if the next MGS was delayed by a day. It seems that we have this unspoken trust in Blizzard to produce awesome games. And who can blame us what with the quality of Blizzard games that are still being played today despite being over a decade old (Yes, I’m talking about Starcraft and Diablo II).

Development of Diablo III commenced in 2001 and we’ve come a long way since. Expectations have changed and we’ll be looking for something that will revolutionize the MMORPG world since World of Warcraft. Yeah, that’s right – Although Diablo III has much less role-playing aspects and more focus on dungeon-running than massive PvPing, Diablo III’s main competition is Blizzard’s WoW. This is actually good news though, because Blizzard has the template of the most successful MMORPG to work from and knowing this company, they will take a step further to differentiate Diablo III from WoW.

Currently, five classes have been announced: Witch doctor, Barbarian, Wizard, Monk, Demon Hunter. Which will you be?

The term epic is often overused these days but this trailer proves that epic can only describe but a fraction of what’s to come.

As this is a large post, it has been split up into two posts:

• Top 10 Things to look forward to in 2012 (6~10)
• Top 10 Things to look forward to in 2012 (1~5)

Windows 8
Type: Software/Operating System
Date: Q2/Q3 2012

I have always been a sucker for visuals and previews of Windows 8 definitely wow’d it for me. With a focus on minimalism and simplicity (styles that I am extremely fond of), Microsoft has made it obvious that usability is their main priority here. The start menus will  be replaced by the start screens often found on Windows Phone which have been dubbed the new ‘Metro-style’ experience. Just like the majority of people who aren’t idiots in this world, I’m an advocate of Internet Explorer (IE) and as usual, IE10 will come packaged with Windows 8 – This time however, the Metro-based user interface will include an ‘immersive’ version of IE10. If this makes it easier to browse and merge websites with my desktop then I’m all up for it.

As can be seen, I’m mainly excited about the new interface. Though we have to be wary of the fact that this design-style was made for Windows Phone so until the final release of Windows 8, it will be difficult to determine whether Microsoft’s colourful new screens (where hopefully the palette does not include that awful eye-burning Blue)  make our lives easier or just end up feeling clunky and annoying (a bad habit that Microsoft needs to get out of).

Toyota GT-86
Type: Vehicle/Sports Coupe
Date: TBA 2012/2013

Since the Celica, Toyota hasn’t really come out with anything sporty. Heck, in the recent years, mid-ranged affordable Japanese sports coupes like the Toyota Supra, Honda S2000 and Honda Integra have not been released nor have these models been updated. The Mazda MX-5 has probably been one of the few that have gotten some facelifts recently but in my opinion that model needs a fresh updated. What has taken the place of these focus-on-speed machines? Hot Hatches. The Golf R and Renault Megane RS are great examples of this – Performance with added luxuries and convenience. I don’t dislike hatches, but they’re always lacking the sleek bodies I’ve related to ‘speed’ growing up.

Finally, through a joint development by Toyota and Subaru, the GT-86 will return as the new hot coupe based on the FT-86 concept designs. At 197 kW, it probably isn’t as impressive as a Golf R, but cars in this range weren’t big on taking down turbo cars (stock at least). I have to say the styling is extremely aggressive with a hint of class instead of the usual raw-power-look you get with the old Japanese coupes. Even the interior has a strong resemblance to a fighter jet plane’s cockpit.Then we get to the price, the GT-86 is rumoured to cost $40,000AUD-$55,000 after extras and so forth. This is where I we start to shake our heads in disapproval. Not because we’re cheap but for the following reasons.

With it’s current performance specs and predictable minimum interior features, this is a downright rip-off. Cars in this range are supposed to be famous for being affordable (because people usually spend more money modifying them anyway) and if the GT-86 costs this much, there are plenty of cars you can get at this price that would out-perform it in every way. So let’s all keep our fingers crossed that this car will be in $30,000 range it’s supposed to be in and I’ll get to post a review on driving this beauty next year!

1. 42-inch LCD TV ($600)
2. Playstation 3 console ($400)
3. Five PS3 games ($400)
4. Monster Beats Solo HD ($200)
5. Stanton ST150 + Serato SL1 + Stanton SA-3 ($1000)
6. Macbook Air 15″ ($1,400)
7. HPI Nitro RS4 RC Car ($420)
8. Holidays ($4000)
9. Four suits ($1,250)
10. Three pairs of shoes ($350)
11. Gifts/Presents ($550+$250)

Total: $10,820 AUD

Hey! That’s not so bad. In fact, I think I did pretty good. However, since these are just the large-ish purchases from the top of my head and a deep hole still burns in my wallet right now this brings the question: What the fuck have I been spending on?!