Indeed! I’ve changed my head this time with simple Christmas theme. This is because I saw wordpress having a snow feature on their blogs until January 4, 2010. When I activated my snow feature, I can’t see the snow since most of my blog is white. Now I changed it with Christmas theme and it looks nice.

I haven’t thought of a wishlist although pessimistic, I won’t be able to get them anyway. XD But I will still make one, it’s just a wish list.

Man, I’m starting to smell this Christmas breeze!! Love is in the air~! Romance is everywhere! Although bibingka ang other Christmas season food is not yet around.

I’m so dyying to see my barkada. The TRUE barkada I have right now. I remember what my Philo Professor said today that the small group of people are the ones who are in the true barkada and with that I’m very happy that it is very apparent in this barkada of mine. Despite being away from each other for most of the year (though only two of us in the barkada are the only ones that are not studying in UP. ), we are still intact as if we are family. We still contact each other when problems come or we just want to see each other, watch a movie, eat somewhere nice and take our big smiles home. And now, before we spend Christmas with our families, we are so excited to see each other again.

Ateneo stuff? Well, I’m trying my best to make new friends this time though it’s harder than I thought. But I don’t care really. Someone else has to comply if you’re doing your part well.

Man, I can’t believe these things are happening to me. Life’s unfair especially if you’re one of the unprivileged one. I wonder if there are people from my school who reads this blog because I don’t want to spill out rants that would cost me something big, say for instance, my education. I’m just so depressed about the things that I hear for the past few days and kept on destroying my day.

yes, rave. I wonder if a lot people know about this blog. Because instead of writing on my multiply blog, I will just write here, assuming that only a few people know this place. Anyway…

Relationships Again? I can’t get out of this topic because for one, it’s just plainly interesting to talk about. I’ve been serving a lot of friends by giving them advices and so on when it comes to relationships. Then I’ll use their scenarios for other friends who ask me stuff about it. I’m just surprised that most of my advices are working to think that I don’t have much background about it. Experience? nah. What’s awful with this kind of job is that when people are going well after your advice, you suddenly fade away from their view as if you’re a ghost and then go back when they seek you again. To me that’s pretty much disappointing.

DATING! I just remembered several stuff about dating. This is WOW!Philippines moment, actually. Here, there are several places where you can go for dates. Go for sophisticated places such as Eastwood, pretty handy if you are willing to spend big bucks which I don’t. More sophisticated in Makati, Greenbelt and Bonifacio High Street in Taguig. Ateneans tend to resort to Eastwood as it is the closest place from the university. Mehn, spending too much on dating, that’s tough.

And Ironically, that’s the catching factor in relationships nowadays. It’s not your capability to treat your partner for the day but the content of the treat and the sophistication. If you ask me, I’d rather go to place like Intramuros or…. or…….just Malls.  There might be a bit of sophistication but compare it to those mentioned above, I think it’s simple. Maybe you’re thinking I’m talking like this because I can’t afford something too sophisticated. I admit, I cannot. But what I cannot admit is that partners search for that glamour and high end names just for a date. I mean, I  am willing to burst a pocket when I’m married but while in a relationship? I don’t think so. That’s why it’s funny to see couples spend their entire time in such places and then watch them end up broken up. I would really laugh in front of them and say something like….um.. hi, stupid.

And that is why despite my rants about being someone like a Kuya makes me love the job. Couples that break up because of material things really makes it more spectacular to watch than pornography. Then make them realize their mistakes, their selfishness and so on. But at some point, I don’t like to mingle with stuff like that. Frankly, I love being a spectator instead of joining the event.

But to be serious? Most of the time I don’t care about having myself being, if you let me to be rude, “USED” as an advising organic bit. As long as I can help my friends, it’s fine with me. Sometimes they tell me to be a bit selfish because I’ve been helping people too much. From my point of view, I haven’t given enough help.

This is weird, actually. I know what to answer when people ask me about their problems in relationships, but I can’t get myself a “relationship”, a love life. Hahahah~! Oh well, eating’s fun for now.

I won’t be posting a lot of screenshots for this review as this will only be a short one. Why? because this game disappointed me in several ways. I’m just going to enumerate some disappointing and good stuff and compare the game to its predecessor made by Sony themselves, the F1-06.

I was actually excited to see this game when it was announced because there were a lot of changes made for the 2009 season including the aerodynamics and the KERS. yes, KERSSSSS… For some of you, KERS is the acronym for Kinetic Energy Recover System… Sounds geeky. What it does is it recovers energy from braking, charges the batteries and lets you have additional 80HP i think on a press of a button. It’s like a boost button to be simple and that goes with 2009 season.

So, to the game. I will compare this one to the F1 06 game.

CONS

1. GAMEPLAY – Championship mode is what you always like in this kind of game. Pick a driver from a team and race through the whole season. Nothing’s wrong with that. What’s wrong with it is when it goes down to the specifics. In the 2006 game, it takes time before you can fully tune your car with the track and with the considerations of external factors. In fact, the game will actually help you to match your preferred settings and then change smaller stuff afterwards. Not so with 2009 game as the game thinks you are too professional for seeking help and leaves everything in default and let you change them. I mean, for first time players, do you think you’ll have an idea what CAMBER, TOE, DAMPER BOUND & REBOUND would mean? of course not.

2. HANDLING – I’ve been playing F1 games since PSX and so far, this is the F1 game with the worst handling physics. In 2006 game, the turning is actually realistic because it takes time for the driver to make a complete steering wheel turn not like in 2009 where you can turn the wheel fast. And get this: if the driver can turn the wheel as fast as possible, the car, especially at the front, would respond quick as well, very apparent from your camera view. BUT NO. Also, while driving fast, it is apparent that the steering wheel shakes a bit, not like in 2009 where it’s as steady as a monument while driving straight.

3. GRAPHICS – I admit that in terms of game detail, 2009 wins it. However, there are a bit of flaws when it comes to the animations of the details. One is mentioned in #2. and then another is that while driving, the helmet of the driver shakes most of the time, trying to cope with the forces by the downforce, suspension bumps and so on. Not so with 2009, as the helmet is also as steady as a statue and only moves SMOOTHLY, not like a stuggling one, while turning.

4. SFX – the people speaking to you on the radio are boooring, compared to the 2006 game where the person is really talking to you, reminding you of your position in the pack as well as telling you that you’ve cracked the fastest lap time in a race.

PROS

1. CONTENT – Since the 2009 season was packed with enormous changes, those changes were also in the game. The KERS for instance is in the game and you can use it a lot. New teams such as Brawn are also there as well as the changes made for the cars. New tracks as well! you can now drive for the first time in NIGHT in Singapore as well as drive though the newly added Abu Dhabi GP course.

2. REALISM – Only a bit but the game actually replicated the physics for the new aerodynamic features of the 2009 season cars. Once you remove the driving aids, the cars are really hard to control. Unlike in the 2006 season where once you have speed, without the aids, you can drive with stability.

3. MUSIC – I love the music, far better than the 2006.

Codemasters could’ve done better. You’ve seen Colin McRae rally 2005 plus for PSP, that is bad-ass with realistic handling and graphics. But in this particular title, it seems that they’ve forgotten how to do it. The game would have become better than 2006 because the data, the representation is already there but they slipped through the game physics and replication of the motions.

It was actually my first time to go to Recto by myself and buy the books I need and I realized a lot of things already. One, I thought it was Saturday or Sunday and wondered why there are so many students from U-belt. Hahaha~! Shopping books at Recto on weekdays is like entering a battlefield. You have the entire U-belt as your enemy. Nevertheless, I tried getting these books and I know this will surely sound geeky and nerdy for some of you but here they are:

1. Electronic Devices and Circuit Analysis and Design (I don’t have the book right now, it’s on my shelf and I don’t know if I got the title right but still, it’s the book required on our ELC 107 subject)

2. Digital Design

3. Mechanical Engineering : Thermodynamics

4.Elements of Engineering : Electromagnetics

The first book was somewhere in the middle of “Easy to find” and “Rare”. There’s one at the very first bookstore I visit everytime I go to Recto but a batchmate of mine bought the last in stock. I saw one in another store which I would probably not visit them because of their very demanding prices….and I hate their fat faces too. The second one was easy to find though the stock is few, got one in the first bookstore I visit. The third book, it had its publisher’s store nearby, told by that batchmate of mine and bought one there instead in National Bookstore which had at least ten to twenty peso price difference. Then the fourth one… hahahah, this is the most difficult book to find. Few of my batchmates went there before and they didn’t see the book, even a second hand one. Those batchmates of mine searching with me that day was also having a difficult time searching the book and ended up searching for Philo books. I went on with searching and had the “underground” or “hidden” bookshops as my last resort. Happily, one guy brought out the book and gave me a discount for it. I asked him if there’s any hope of finding one or few more units but unfortunately, the copy I’m holding was the only one he had in his stash. If only there are more units available, I would have chased the people I’m searching with to tell them they can get the book from this particular store.

It was a tough day. Tiring, really… It left me having a headache the whole afternoon. I was suppose to visit Trinoma afterwards but because I’m sooooo tired (and there’s the fact that it was actually SALE in Trinoma meaning it’s crowded), I decided not to go instead. I decided to rest for the remaining hours of afternoon.

In my team of Assessors, I think all of them are great people. My team consists of freshmen, sophomores as well as juniors who surely excel in their field. Actually, I accidentally lined up Chem majors together with my assistant who’s known for being a “kwatro-kid”. Then a couple of ME (Management Engineering) people who are tough-ass people because their department has a retention requirement which is not to have any single “F” mark in their grades given that they have tough Accounting subjects. My gulay, I cannot do that especially I’ve been struggling with my majors for the past three semesters.  Then there are Legal Management and Management students who also embark on the evil of Accounting subjects. I also have an assessor who came from my high school and she’s with her friend serving under the accounting under SOSS team. Then I have another assessor from Health Sciences who’s really great when I saw her First year, first semester marks…nosebleed. There’s so many of them! Their background makes it difficult for me, then, to tell them to do certain stuff. I can only do that to them since they are in a different field but still. You can see their aura of being WISE around them, so bright~!

yeah, just a rant.

I still can’t believe why people cannot tell me directly what they want to tell me. Why can’t they be frank, tell me that I suck, they hate me, I don’t belong to this particular place and so on?

I don’t know but because of these circumstances, I think I’ll have to resort to one thing.

sheesh.

Like for example, a simple reply on email, how come they can’t do that while they can email someone else? why not the closest person? People make me feel important, place me in an important position and then make me feel annoyingly useless after being in that position for a certain time. I mean, come on, tell me if I’m doing bullshit in my place so that I know what I will do.

For one, at some positions I did not intend to be in there, I just followed what people above would like to do together with the thinking “Maybe I can do this”. But sometimes, people are so discouraging.

Is this college?

Am I gonna experience this again in work?

What the hell is going on?

That’s what I hated way back in high school, people there at that time are “backstabbers”, gossip people. They can’t tell me directly what I am already doing that is, according to them, not-so-normal. I cannot understand why people are like that. Some say so that they won’t be able to hurt the person. Oh come on, not telling that person what he or she is doing bad and then telling it to someone else, aren’t you hurting that person more? You are giving a bad impression to that someone while leaving the “victim” unable to redeem his or herself.

and now I’m in college for nearly three years and I thought those kind of people are things of the past. But I don’t think so. to think this is a private school and yet people don’t act as sophisticated as the school. Take UP for instance, when you’re there, you don’t have that feeling that people would hate you for wearing house attire or islander slippers.

Anyway,

I thought I… well…found the good people around. Yet I’m beginning to retrieve my BAAAD mentality towards people around me because of the… no other way to say this, the people around me. I will be frank here, if you want, that I’m starting to lose some trust to some people AGAIN. and I’m starting to get irritated in college.

and please. anyone who will read this please, you know my way.

This is just a light modification so I won’t let it have a major page on my blog. Here’s how the car looked after the mod.

Yep, I modified the back with several paint jobs to make it look like it sports a small diffuser and spoiler as well as the tail lights look like evo 9’s.

It’s really nice to have something where you can vent your anger, think about things, work stuff out…  For instance, I usually think things over or vent my anger on the hobby I like to do the most: Driving. Sadly I don’t have a car and fuel prices are shooting up so I have to resort to technology for that. I do have another hobby which is remote control modification but it’s such a big task to complete one modification that it leaves me no time for my studies. Which mean I can only do that hobby during vacations. Happily, I do play games but not that immersed because most of the games released nowadays are not my type. I only like simulations and the most recent simulation game I can play, related to my hobby of driving, was Gran Turismo for PSP. I do have a PSP and with a couple of software tweaks, I was able to get this game. This then lets me do my philosophical thinking over a lot of things, decisions and more. I don’t how it works for me but sometimes, answers just pop out of my mind while, for example, entering a corner with a certain fashion.

It’s like what drivers really do: Some of them go out at 4 in the morning, having the whole road network all to yourself.  It’s just you in your little metal shell. Though, in my case, everything’s digital but still.  This lets them get their freedom of mind, because everything’s clear, no distractions, no interruptions. Sometimes, I ask myself why do I pick that gaming device, start Gran Turismo and just do a run. I get up in the morning and start a small run. why? Well, I just love doing it. It makes me happy a bit. 

While driving, my mind, aside from anticipating the next corner, lets me relax a bit and tell myself to calm down a bit so that I can do my stuff properly. And also, sometimes, I do ask myself how to solve a problem the same way I encounter these corners on a chosen circuit or road.

Sometimes, I think what I’m doing is just making myself similar to an autistic person but I think people have their own ways of encountering problems in their life. People might have the same perspective as mine in the general sense but we are all unique in our way and for sure, we also have our own unique way of looking over things.

In the end, it is you who will go around the world. People will help you around, of course, but there will also be some people who will not cooperate with your progress.

After all of these efforts, in thinking, in considering decisions, in getting rid of the possible errors, in your life….

You get to see the fruit of your hardships, see the world yourself and enter in another expedition in your life. Zoom-Zoom~!

Knowing that NFS “shifted” to realistic simulation of professional racing, this upcoming title should be impressive and worth waiting. aaand I think it is, though not for the PSP. This title is the greatest proof, so far, that NFS is starting to fail in the PSP platform [together with PSP itself].

There are a lot of expectations due to their change of style. However in the PSP platform, that style did not take effect. When they said that the game would be a simulation of professional racing, the original NFS identity of arcade racing remained in the PSP. Let me get straight to the point: There’s no tuning whatsoever. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS PRESS THE ACCELERATOR AND STEER. and that’s it.

Intro….

There are two modes of playing: Quick Race and World Tour. World Tour is basically your “Career mode” and you’ll have to go through a series of races defeating “Race Kings” and along with it, you’ll be able to unlock more cars. Different challenges mean different types of cars to use. That’s why the cars are analyzed for Speed, Drifting and Grip.

Speed, Grip, Drift….. So the GT-R doesn’t grip very well? Come on….

For tuning part, there isn’t any. What’s in the game is the Loyalty Pointing system. This compensates to the removed tuning system. Loyalty Points are gained by using the same car in the races and gives you points for every win with that car. With these points you can unlock special parts such as Tires, additional NOS Shots, Tuned Engine and Bodykit. After each race, the game would show your improvements in grip, drift and speed style and your aim is to get your overall performance to 100% to obtain the best car in the game: the BMW M3 GT2

The only thing you can modify in your car is it’s livery design. You can select from a preset of livery designs or unlock signature liveries from defeated race kings or unlock the loyalty reward of livery. You can also change the colors from the livery presets or, if you are simple, you can select no livery at all.

Downside….

Again, NFS mentioned a simulation but I mentioned that this is simply an arcade racing game. What makes me say so?

1. Where’s the “Shift”?

The biggest downside of this game is this: They failed to simulate. They actually removed the shifting system of the cars, leaving the game in full automatic acceleration. Is that simulation? Although the car sounds like it shifts gears but, like what Jeremy Clarkson mentioned while reviewing Aston Martin Vanquish S’s transmission, it is the driver that knows the shifting points well, not the car itself. The worse is that while you are busy stepping at the accelerator, sometimes the shifting of the gears doesn’t go well and you’ll notice this when the car runs awfully at low revs.

2. Driving physics.

Um, they also failed here as well. The driving physics isn’t as good as before. I’d prefer the driving physics used in NFS ProStreet rather than this. The drifting is easily initiated by handbrake tap. The nitrous are now in shots rather than user indicated use… And, oh, the brake lights turn on when you use the handbrake. Again, they really did not simulate realistic racing… this might be an arcade racing game after all…

Good sides (helps a bit)

This is really a disappointing title but a bit of this game helps it to be playable for a few moments.

1. The Graphics

It may not be a gigantic leap from their usual graphics style but compared to the last title, the graphics are better and as good as the ProStreet graphics. The reflections of the car are better now, the rims designs have better look and more realistic. The environment is not barren anymore and they reflect well.

Looks realistic with the light reflection and detail. Watta Jump from the older titles

Mountain Passes are one of my favorite tracks as they really look nice.

Smoking from Tires looks better.

2. The cars’ brake lights

Though in other courses where the setting is late afternoon or nearly evening, the cars don’t have lighting. But at least their brake lights are better than the previous titles. Just take a look at this one:

Evil. Imagine Iron Man with eyes the same color as that…

Not only that, I’ve noticed that when you reverse, the reverse lights also turn on, which is realistic… only on that part… Though sometimes, it also fails… Take for instance the Nissan GT-R’s reversing:

Um… I believe the reverse lights should be in the inner center lamps….

3. The Crash Factor!

Though there’s a damage modelling, they only demonstrate how you car would look like when it crashes, then resumes your car back to its original state as well as its assumed speed after crashing with no damage.. Nice. But I don’t care much about the car recovering, I care when they display the car being damaged!

Crashing a BMW M3 GT2 in real life will really crush your heart. Just do it here~!!

Yes, I know. Good thing I don’t own one in real life.

They also gave a good attention to detail to crashes. For instance, there are wheels that still spin or at serious crashes, your hood flies off, your wheels roll away from the car.. But they will still go back altogether after the crash.

Look, the front wheel’s still spinning~!

Look, the wheel went off! Say hello to the audience with a wrecked Lamborghini!

You don’t see this everyday…. so play the game to see it everyday.

Crash, crash to another car, preferably a Veyron… and you don’t have to pay for the price.

Verdict:

Overall, I am again disappointed with EA despite the several shift of studios to develop a game, a decent NFS for the PlayStation Platform. They did this before, why can’t they perform better than last time? No wonder the first NFS in PSP which was the Underground received the greatest score.

Again, the simulation isn’t there, it’s just a pure arcade racing game. Honestly, I only liked the game because I can crash the cars and see how they look like. If I were to give a score out of 10, it’ll be a 5.0. Sorry, but it deserves that score, and I hope it wakes EA up. I mean, come on, the game receives good rating in the major consoles, why not do the same thing to get the same rating?

Driving TIPS:

1. SHIFTING DILEMMA – Once you hear the low-rev engine, release then step on the accelerator quickly.

2. DRIFTING ERROR – When the car has high drift rating, it actually means it slides easy but doesn’t maintain well. The long drifters are the ones with less drift rating. Just an observation.

3. CORNERING – The theory of the fastest way through a corner is through drifting is a lie. But it’s actually a truth in this game. Use handbrake drift to go fast through corners

4. UNLOCK BMW M3 GT2 QUICK – It’s in the line: quick. Do quick races as in increases your profile rates, leading you to unlock the M3 quick.

5. BMW M3 GT2 DOES IT ALL – It’s an all-around car in the game so if you’re lucky to unlock it early, you can use it at any race since there are no requirements in races. It may be down in the top speed category but it smokes high speed cars through it’s monstrous grip and acceleration. Afterall, it’s a Touring Car Specification.

Gallery: