One Shot - Review

I am feeling complicated after finishing this game. This is the game that you should play it on your own instead of watching someone else playing it! Download the game here now and play it before continue reading this post or else you will regret! What I can say without giving spoilers is this game gave me surprises that I never thought I can feel so bonded with a virtual character in a mere 2D pixellated computer game. I thought that only horror games can really trigger your inner feelings (in this case, fear), but this one changes my view towards 2D RPG games (the first one that changed my view towards computer games was The Witch's House). Getting a good game (and free one) to play is becoming difficult, but I am glad that I came across this game on rmn website. This game got lots of excellent reviews and a very high rating from people. So I gave it a try and now I am left amazed, writing this review right away!

Warning!!! Your scrolling should stop here!!! Play the game!!! Spoiler ahead!!!

The main character named Niko, a boy with cat eyes (cats are always mysterious, right?). Wait, you are not the main character, but you are you, the nerd (probably you are one, hahaha) sitting in front of the screen! So you play as 'god' to guide Niko, the 'messiah' in saving the world which is at the edge of getting destroyed as the sun is gone (relax, it's nothing religious). You have to solve puzzles (I tried to get some hints on internet when I stuck but couldn't find anything. So I got a little bit of help from my brother at the beginning and lots of lucks near the end of the game) which might make you feel dumb (at least it did that to me, hahaha) and at the end you have to decide Niko's and the world's fate: to save Niko or to save the world. Niko will get a light bulb (which is the sun of the world) and try to put it back to where it belongs to so that the dim world can be lit up again. But you can choose to shatter the bulb into pieces so that Niko can go home again.

The story line of the game sounds pretty common like hero-rescues-the-world type. What makes it so special is that you can only play the once (that's why the name of this game is 'oneshot'), which means you cannot quit the game in the middle of progress (which will lead to Niko's death) or replay the game at all means (you can replay it on other computers or reformat your computer though). It is a life or death decision, once you make the choice, there is no way you are going to undo it or load the game like other games you played. Maybe this gives you a little bit of stress to take the game more seriously. Another point that causes the decision making even difficult is that you can interact with the game. The game knows your name and will mess around with your computer and IT IS JUST SO REAL. As if the game is alive, Niko is alive, and the shits are getting real (so imagine if they use this concept in a horror game, woooo). Yeah you will have simple interactions with Niko which is quite sweet but this leads to your reluctance in final decision-making at the end of the game. Besides, the puzzles are cleverly designed that you need to work your rusted brain a bit harder or you will end up feeling frustrated. Look out of the box (this is an important hint *wink*) and get the clue.

Despite being a 2D computer game, the graphic is beautiful. Niko looks just so adorable and lovable. The soundtrack receives compliments from others but I find it somehow disturbing to me that I feel nausea when listening to it for too long (so I took off my earpieces sometimes). The whole concept of this game is new to me but I am not sure whether you will be impressed (hopefully it does!). The developer of this game should really get the credits!

Archery - Aim for the Best

The moment when the arrow leaves the string, brushes pass the bow and cuts through the air before landing on the target board with a thud. The feeling is seriously amazing (but it won't complete without the thud, if you know what I mean, hehe). I was lucky enough last semester to grab one of the limited places in the archery class on Saturday morning (to fulfil one of the requirement to graduate, we have to take two credit hours of co-curriculum activities, so why not we choose something interesting)! Archery is not as common as bowling, so the chance to lay a finger on a real bow is quite precious to me *evil smile*. The class consisted of only thirty students (out of thousands of students in the university) instructed by Mr. Ashraf, a cool facilitator from Sports Science (having a cool facilitator means less stress, more fun, hahaha, I am truly grateful).

Kikyo. (image taken from wiki Inuyasha)

Due to the influence by anime (my favourite Kikyo from Inuyasha), I fell in love with archery like looooooog time ago, just that I didn't have the chance to do so. We were always reminded by Mr. Ashraf that that weapon can kill, and we did believe in that (as proven in the anime, too, haha). For safety purpose there are a few safety gears we have to put on during the shooting section: chest guard, arm guard and finger tab. You can choose not to wear those things though, just be ready to suffer some pain which can bring bruises and swollen skin, as a result of fast-vibrating string after releasing it. A pair of enclosed shoes is a must so that you won't accidentally spear your feet by arrows embedded under the grass, accidentally. Last but not least don't walk over to the target board when someone else is shooting! That's the most dangerous thing to do (and the silliest one). Of course don't crowd around someone who is shooting, too. There are some other precautions too such as don't use an arrow without the bullet (the head, fast moving air travelling into the hollow arrow will cause explosion) and don't pull the string when there is no arrow on the bow (the vibration of the string might hurt you as there is nothing that ease the vibrating force, and that sound might freak people out as people might think that you are trying to shoot when it is not shooting section).

It looks cool in ready position holding bow and arrow, right?

The quite accurate posture while drawing the arrow (that's Mr. Ashraf standing behind). 

After learning about all the equipments, knowing how to install a bow from pieces (the putting on the string part is so hard that I still fail to do so now, not enough strength maybe?) and practising using a tyre strip (to get used to the stretching while drawing the arrow) for a few classes, we finally got to start shooting. The equipments we used were the basic one like what you see on the photo above. The bow we were using was a wooden recurve bow (if not mistaken? according to some information on internet) and arrows with fallen fletchers (the 'feathers' at the end of the arrow) due to low maintenance. The fletchers are very important to make sure your arrow travel in straight line without much diversion. If you shoot using an arrow without fletcher, your arrow might end up at other's target board. It technically changes direction with a jerk. We started off at a distance of less than ten meters (i think?) which is super lame seriously. But even with distance that near sometimes we failed to simply hit the target board (stupid arrow without fletcher!). I could successfully pull the string for the first few shots but after that it started to get unstable as my energy drained.

Cheng Chu Sian, our national archery player demonstrating a super consistent shooting skill during one of our classes when he coincidently practising on the field. It is surprising how a person can get all the arrows on the same spot on the target board.

The equipment he used. Looks awesome!!!

Ready! An archery tournament in our university. Archers stood side by side quite close with one another.

Target boards lined up at the stadium. I wonder whether the archers will accidentally shoot the arrow on others' board.

Besides weekly practices, we were compulsory to take part in the Co-curriculum Mega Carnival where all other co-curriculum sports classes (tennis, basketball, badminton etc.) worked together to organise this event. We were free to choose what form of activities we wanted to carry out during the carnival, so we decided to so something like an archery class open to limited number of university students (we called it 'clinic'). It was not something difficult to do as we just taught the participants about things we learnt before, but it rained that morning! The wooden bow should not be exposed to water to avoid damage. So we had to halt the activities and just stayed around, looking at the rain mundanely and observing some primary school kids having football match in the rain.

Target boards under the overcast sky on the hill. That's where the clinic was held.

The crew in red (my classmates, hahaha) searching for missed arrows among the grass. The efforts gone into the drain after rain as some of the arrows got underground deeply due to the wet and soft soil. 

Posing around after the activity. Ah I should look cooler than this, hahaha...

Kai Tian, a super cool girl especially when she is riding a motorbike, hehe...

I should have written this post long time ago before the semester ended but it is still good to stir up some memories in this time, right? Hahaha. I am glad to know some awesome friends in the class and also our facilitator. Thank you everyone for the great experience I had for the last semester. Thank you Mr. Ashraf, hope that we might meet in the future. =)

Bonus photo! Mr. Ashraf showing off his skill! =P

Photoblog - Trip to Cameron Highlands with Family

It is the third week of my semester break (already??) and I just came back from a Cameron Highlands trip with my family last evening. Vacation is a really good rest for people like me because I survived without using the laptop for more than twenty four hours (hahaha such an achievement)! I would rate this trip as a nice one (despite the fact that I caught a cold as soon as I reached the destination) because it has been such a long time since I last went for a vacation and I decided to post a photoblog of Cameron Highlands.

Me with my bro's new pet, hahaha...

First stop: Restoran Foh San, Ipoh 

(When I was a child I went to Ipoh about twice per year to visit my grandparents in Gopeng. The journey there was always awful because I would get dizzy and vomit and very tired of doing nothing on the car. Now I realised that the journey to Ipoh on highway is just merely one hour plus plus. Why would I make it looking like a big deal ten years ago?)

Destination: Cameron Highlands

(The weather was colder than I expected. Too bad I am not really in a good shape that the first cold breeze caught me as soon as I left the car. So I was accompanied by a cold along the whole two-day trip. This photoblog should have been more creative and interesting and rich in information but I just couldn't do it in my current condition)

FLOWERS, one of the attractions on Cameron Highlands where flowers are displayed and sold to tourists (and they can hardly live or flower in much warmer climate  down here).

LEAFY PLANTS & CACTI, which are the safest plants to buy (with the greatest chance to survive, hahaha). Without the flowers they really thrive well out of Cameron Highlands except some species of colourful cacti which technically rot after some time. Cactus is really cheap there and those tiny ones are really cute! I fell in love with some of them and we ended up bringing home a dozen of them. We are really determined in bringing them up. Hope they enjoy their stay here, hehe (and live a little more longer).

VEGETABLES, everywhere. You can see white tents set up all over a large area of slopes or vegetables farms scattered all over Cameron Highlands (some claims to be hydroponic but I still saw that they use soils, did I misinterpret the meaning of hydroponic?)

STRAWBERRIES & GRAPES, children simply love these pink colour fruits. They are quite tasteless and expensive to me but they are really popular on Cameron Highlands that you can see many strawberry farms there. So far I have not tried to self-pick the fruits due to the price. For grapes, I only saw a little of them, others seemed wilted. Maybe it was not the season for grapes, yet?

(this was really expensive that I can't help to caption it!!!)

PITCHER PLANTS & FERN-LIKE PLANTS which cannot be found in warmer parts of Malaysia (I think this was the first time I noticed these tree-like ferns). Don't buy any pitcher plants there, they never survive the weather here.

TEA PLANTATION, which we often see on tv during the tea commercials. I love milk tea very much (no matter it's the English style, or teh tarik, or the one with gula Melaka, just not the taiwan style) but I was quite disappointed with my experience of having tea on two tea plantations there. The tea was tasteless and one of the plantations did not seem to be maintained well.

BEES. We did not visit the bee farms this time, just looked around in one of the small bee museums. The buzzing sound was really threatening to me, haha. It never fails to send shudder down my spine. However, bees do play an important role in pollination which contributes to our agriculture.

MOTHS, the unexpected visitors! I did not expect to see so many different species of moths in our apartment in this cold climate! ID please!

I was kinda excited at the beginning of the trip and took quite a lot of photos but the running nose was wearing me out and I kinda gave up at the end to just enjoy the trip. We didn't visit any farms which require entrance fees (they are not expensive though, an average of RM5 for adults) but still manage to enjoy this trip. I hope that next time when I visit Cameron Highlands again I have a stronger body that I can brave through the cold (freezing tap water!!!). The butterfly farm got my attention, hahaha... Well, although this trip was not a very pleasant one *sneeze*, at least I got some rest and now it's time to work!

A little extras:

Balcony of the apartment.

Good morning, Cameron! 

You can see hungry koi fish at most of the man made pond at tourism sites. Poor fishy...

A super big tree which looked like a huge marimo, hahahahahaha...