Not My 50th First Date...

I missed WWE RAW last night so no RAW report this week eventhough I'll catch the replay tonight. I went out with my girlfriend Trish last night and we went to the Star Cineplex to watch the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore movie, 50 First Dates. This was a really fun movie to watch and I don't regret missing RAW over it either.

Anyways, Trish has got me on a dietary suppliment and Vitamin C tablets to help me lose some unwanted weight. Problem is, I seem to be more hungry after taking it! Oh well. Hopefully, my Extreme will power will help overcome my craving for sustinance. She's become a real health nut since she started working at a pharmacy.

Another deadline and Japantapes.com has delayed it's reopening again! Another weeks delay till 5/4/04. Hopefully the guy gets his sh*t together and fixes whatever is wrong. If things get this f***ed cause he took one vacation, what's gonna happen when he closes for two months to move to his new place?!? Can we say 'Closed Indefinately'?

Happy Birthday, Bro!

I might be a little late posting this, but my brother in Singapore is celebrating his birthday today. Happy Birthday, Bro!
Now where's my N-GAGE?!? Just kidding.

With that out of the way, I seldom come up with ideas of the top of my head for articles to write. But something Jim Ross said this past week on Byte This! radio show really pissed me off. To read my rant on JR, head on to the Extreme Puroresu page and let me know what you think.

Other than that, I've posted my puroresu tape review of ZERO-ONE's 2003 Fire Festival Finals. Enjoy.

Updates

My regular end of the week posts are up. Lots of news and 'Spoiling the Illusion' in the Puroresu page for you all to check out.
I've also put up a fun post in the Metal section where I posted the results of Revolver magazine's reader's survey poll, which is a total contrast to what the editor's picks were previously. The People have spoken!!!

EXTREME SPORTS WEEK - DAY 5 - OUTLAW VOLLEYBALL
On the heels of the beach volleyball craze and the follow up to Outlaw Golf! But unlike DOA Extreme Beach Volleyball, this game emphasizes the volleyball portion of the game more than the T&A. Well, maybe not…
Some of the colorful characters from Outlaw Golf make their return here, Killer, Ice Trey, Harley, El Suave and Summer to name a few. Like Golf, you start off with four characters and have to play through the game to unlock the rest of the zany (and scantily clad) cast.
Graphics are good on the eye-candy. The backgrounds are OK, but it’s the characters that are the main selling point of the game (wink wink). All the characters have their own trademarks, but I’m not sure about the coding in the game. For example, I’m don’t think it was intentional, but some of the cast are prone to ‘clothing malfunction’ (i.e Natasha). I’ll bet that last sentence alone will sell a few hundred more units…
The in-game music is pretty good as they’ve used actual licensed songs ranging from punk to rap. You also get to hear your players bark orders to each other and the announcer from Outlaw Golf is back, but he’s more redundant here than ever!
The gameplay is real easy to pick up and learn. You control one character while the CPU controls your partner. Not really a bad thing, but at times you get frustrated at your CPU controlled partner as when he has a complete opening to score, will instead hit the ball rignt into the opponents waiting hands! And it can get annoying when the opponents constantly pass the ball back to your CPU partner instead of you so you can’t set up a point winning shot and are left to rely to your partner. About 90% of the time you lose can be squarely pinned on your CPU partner!
You also get special shots, but their totally useless as they can be blocked and returned without any difficulty. And expect some lengthy exchanges as you fight for points.
Overall, this game gives you hot babes, good graphics (looking at hot babes), OK gameplay (playing as hot babes), OK music and sounds (listening to the hot babes shout), and oh yeah, let’s not forget the hot babes. No bones about it, this game is 90% eye candy.
Ratings:
Graphics – 7
Sound – 7
Gameplay – 6
Lifespan – 7
Overall – 7

OK, this is the end of my first special video game feature. I'll admit there weren't alot of plusses here, but coming soon: EXTREME SURVIVAL HORROR WEEK!

Slow day, so I just posted some music video reviews as well as today's edition of Extreme Sports Week.

EXTREME SPORTS WEEK - DAY 4 - OUTLAW GOLF
I’ll admit it. I like golf games! I wouldn’t watch it on TV, but I’d play the games. Well, not all of them. Only ones that stand out like this one!
In Outlaw Golf you play as one of a handful of over the top characters: Latin heartthrob El Suave, white rapper Ice Trey, Redneck Biker Chick Harley, Dominatrix Mistress Suki and others. You have four to select from the start and unlock the others by winning tournaments and such. And the locations you play aren’t your average courses either. You have to watch out for bizarre obstacles like overhead bridges and such! You also have a ‘composure’ meter that measures your player’s mood. Though I haven’t really noticed what it really effects in the game. You also have the option to ‘beat up’ your caddie to increase your composure.
The graphics are pretty good, but they could have touched them up a bit for the PS2 conversion. The in-game music is OK too. And then there’s the announcer who sounds funny at first, but gets repetitive really quickly.
The game does have a bit of a learning curve to it though. To beat any of the courses requires you to play a near perfect game against CPU controlled opponents, who play almost flawlessly every time! Definitely not fair, though you might get the hang of it after playing it a few (maybe more) times. You also get to play mini-games to improve the in game character’s stats.
I would definitely recommend this game to fans of golf games who want something a little different in their golf. To others, I warn that it takes a lot of patience to play this game (much like the real thing). But I’ll definitely be waiting for them to port Outlaw Golf 2!
Ratings:
Graphics – 7
Sound – 6
Gameplay - 6
Lifespan – 6
Overall – 7
Tomorrow: OUTLAW VOLLEYBALL!

WWE RAW in Canada

My RAW report is up and it was a good show to follow up Backlash. Two title matches, a big announcement, a debut and some new starts to push RAW in the right direction for the coming weeks.

I'm getting a bit impatient waiting for Japantapes.com to be active again. The guy went on one vacation and when he comes back, his whole operation seems to go to the crapper. First he postponed operations till 15/4/04, then he delayed it again till 21/4/04. And now he's delayed it again to 26/4/04! Add to that, he plans to close down indefinately for two months as he'll be moving soon. Hopefully there aren't any further delays after this.

PS2 EXTREME SPORTS WEEK - DAY 3 - MLB SLUGFEST 2004
I’m also a fan of America’s favorite past time, but if you’ve ever watched a real baseball game its usually boring compared to all the fun clips they play on the news or the way its depicted in movies.
I was originally interested in the 2003 edition as I was hooked on the theme song by Dry Kill Logic. Unfortunately, the 2004 edition uses Hoobastank’s 'Crawling In The Dark'. Lame song, but the game is pretty much the same as the previous game.
Slugfest plays out like most other baseball games, but there are a few twists, much like the NFL Blitz series. You have turbo meters to pull off special moves, hitting consecutive homeruns can set your player on fire (like NBA Jam), and violence is encourages as you can take swipes at the in-fielders or charge through them to prevent getting struck out. There’s also the very fun Home Run Derby mode.
Graphics are pretty good with fun win loss animations depending on how well you play. Sound is good too. The commentary team are OK to listen to and they don’t recycle their material too quickly.
My only complaint would be the lack of a tutorial or options to change the controller settings so you know what does what when you first get started. There are also a few control issues as it can be frustrating to not be able to control specific outfielders to catch fly balls, and at times the game seems unfair. But with a little practice, you can get the hang of things.
Overall, the game is recommended to fans of Baseball games, though others are welcome to give it a try if they can find it in the bargain bin.
Ratings:
Graphics – 7
Sound – 6
Gameplay – 6
Lifespan – 6
Overall - 6
Tomorrow: OUTLAW GOLF!

Champion Carnival Winner Crowned!

All Japan's 2004 Champion Carnival has come to a close! Check out my short report to find out who won!
Also posted a short article on yesterday's Backlash match between Randy Orton and Mick Foley with an interesting view on the match in general.

PS2 EXTREME SPORTS WEEK: DAY2
PS2 Game Review: NFL STREET
I’ll admit I’m not a big fan of American football, but I do watch it occasionally on ESPN. And by playing the NFL Blitz series, I learned a lot of how the game works. Basically on offence you get four plays to advance a certain number of yards, and you lose possession of the ball if you fail to achieve that number of yardage. And of course on defense it’s your job to prevent the opposing team from scoring.
Now, in NFL Street, the rules are almost the same. Except your team’s not in uniform and their playing in a variety of none-linear locales including the beach and the street. There are many other locations to unlock in the game. And the rules are a little less restrictive too.
The game itself looks good, graphically it resembles Def Jam Vendetta. And the audio is passable with an all rap soundtrack if your into that. The one complaint I do have of the game is the controls. They seem simple with it being advertised as ‘pick up and play’, but that not really the case as there isn’t even a tutorial mode to help you out.
Still, this game targets the NFL audience as well as previous EA Madden NFL games and that’s exactly who should pick this up. I’d recommend the NFL Blitz series to those not to familiar and want easy to learn controls.
Ratings:
Graphics – 7
Sound – 7
Gameplay – 6
Lifespan – 6
Overall – 5

Tomorrow: MLB Slugfest 2004!

Lash to the Back!

My WWE Backlash PPV report is up! Good show with two fun main events. My PPV predictions for the show are 5-2-1, the 1 being the last minute La Resistance VS Helms/Rosey match. So my total record for 2004 so far is 21-9-3. Next month: WWE Judgement Day!

Also got a tape review up for the Osaka Pro HeatWave 2000 show, main evented by an awesome JUSTICE VS L.O.V elimination ladder match! Check it out to see what I thought of the overall show.

And now, the Extreme presents: PS2 EXTREME SPORTS WEEK! That's right! I bought a ton of games while I was in KL awhile back, and from now till Friday I'll be posting one Extreme (or non-linear) sports game everyday! So here goes with the first review!

PS2 Game Review: BEACH KINGS STUNT RACER
I picked this up at the bargain bin and turned out to be an OK game. Basically, you drive a beach buggy as you drive through a level performing stunts and collecting diamonds to impress the girls. Each stage requires you to collect a number of diamonds and score a certain amount of points.
The graphics are OK, nothing really outstanding and the in game carnival music might get annoying after awhile. The controls are where the game suffers a bit though. Remember, your driving a buggy, which doesn’t handle as easily as say a BMX or a dirt bike. And I’ve noticed that all three characters have the same batch of stunts other than their specials. Where’s the variety?
Another complaint I have is the degree of difficulty. For some reason, the game physics just don’t seem right. Your driving right, but the ramp your jumping is aiming left. So when you hit the ramp you buggy jumps left instead of the direction your aiming in. This makes the game harder than it should be as you’ll be stuck over and over again trying to complete one jump to get to a hard to reach diamond, and once you finally collect the diamonds, you don’t have enough time left to complete the points objective.
I might recommend this to fans who would try extreme sports games like surfing, jet-skiing etc, extreme games that are different. But if you do think about getting it, do what I did and pick it up from a bargain bin.
Ratings:
Graphics – 7
Sound – 5
Gameplay – 6
Lifespan – 5
Overall – 5

OK, So I couldn't start off the feature on a high note, but tomorrow: NFL STREET!!!

Updates!

It's the return of Spoiling The Illusion! I've also posted my predictions for tomorrow's WWE Backlash Pay Per View, My current record for PPV predictions this year is 16-7-2. How many will I get right this time? And can the RAW roster finally put on a good pay per view?

I've also posted a tape review of Osaka Pro's 2000 Namihaya Dome show as well as adding all the new tapes to the tape list, so check it out.

Hellboy of a night
Last night me and Trish went out for the belated celebration of her birthday. First up after picking her up from work, we tried our luck and bought 4D of her birthdate. Wouldn't you know it would come out today as 4016 and I bought 0416?!?! If I bought a full set I'd be RM250 richer!
Anyways, We then headed off to the Miri Waterfront for a seafood dinner. We were there for almost two hours since it took about an hour just to wait for the food! Yup, the waterfront is a busy place, but the food was worth it.
Then we went to the Star Cineplex at Bintang Plaza to watch Super Sapiens, The Hellboy Movie. I really didn't know what to expect since I wasn't really a fan of the comic, though my brother had a few issues laying around. Maybe I should have read them to research it a bit? Either way, it was an awesome movie. Ron Perlman did an excellant job in his portrayal of Hellboy. It's good to see him finally get a good lead role after playing the heel in tons of other movies. And darn did Kroenen bare more than a slight resemblance to Voldo from Soul Calibour or what?!? I highly recommend everyone to go watch this movie!

Happy Birthday, Girl!

Today is my girlfriend Trish's birthday! Unfortunately, since she was working the afternoon shift we didn't have time to celebrate. So we just went out for supper and delay the celebrations till tomorrow.

New Tapes are in!

Just received a new batch of puroresu tapes in the mail today! I'll be adding them to the tape list soon.

Also, I've posted my review of an awesome Triple Crown title match in the tape reviews blog so check it out and let me know what you think.

Lotsa News!

Big post in the Extreme Puroresu section. Got the RAW report up and it was a heck of a show as they head to this weekend's Backlash PPV. I've also posted a TON of Japanese Puroresu news and thoughts so check it out and let me know what ya think.
Coming Soon: I bought a whole lot of games while in Kuala Lumpur, so you can expect a lot of PS2 game reviews to be posted in the following days. Unless I get lazy or addicted to a certain game for too long....

New Page Up!

Hey yo! I've just added a new page to the blog, My Puroresu Tape List. It's where you can find complete match listings for all the shows I have for sale. New shows will also be added there as I get them. As usual, for ordering information and price listing, feel free to e-mail me.

Fun with Osaka Pro!

Posted my first tape review of the new batch of tapes I received, and of course I chose to first watch Osaka Pro's 5/29/01 Korakuen Hall show! Fun show! I'll post more reviews in the coming days so check back.

In Memory Of...

I wrote a special article in the Extreme Metal section that I hope everyone would read and give some feedback on, even if your not a fan of hard music in general.

OK Bro, here's your freakin' Ostritch pic. Now where's my N-Gage?!?

The Extreme is back!

Hey Yo, Everybody!
Finally I’m back from my long trip to Kuala Lumpur, and it’s been quite a 12-day trip I had. I actually got back last night, but have only now had the time to get to work updating my blog.
Due to my late return, I’ll be skipping my WWE RAW report and Spoiling the Illusion column for this week. But I’ll update some recent puroresu news if I can. They tapes consist of two classic All Japan shows, a Osaka Pro show and a DDT PPV.
Some good news, my tape order from GoldenBoyTapes just arrived today! I’ll review them and add them to the puroresu tapes section soon.
Also, expect some changes to the blog soon, so keep checking back.

My 12-Day KL Trip Diary

Day 1
Arrived at KLIA at about 3PM. Ignoring the ‘private taxis’, I head to the airport taxi counter to catch an official cab to Sungai Buloh Industrial Park thinking it would be cheaper, I instead ended up paying 78 bucks! It took awhile to find the TWI (The Welding Institute) office where my course was being held to get my hostel key. It took about an hour to get there and then we had to search for the place. Finally getting the key, we then had to find the hostel. We soon found it and as luck would have it, the cabbie was staying in the same area! So I got his number so I could arrange to for him to send me to KL city after my course was done.
The hostel itself was a small house with 4 bedrooms that were rented out as the hostel. I was in room 3, and man was it small! It was almost half the size of my PC room back home! And I had to share the bathroom with the next door room. After searching the house, even though I found traces of life, I in the end deduced that no one else was in the hostel but me since the course started Monday and I had arrived 2 days early.
That evening I went out to the small shopping area near my hostel, about a five minute walk. No offence to the local residents, but the place really sucked. Couldn’t even find any cyber-cafes. At least there was a drive-through McDonalds where I could get some real food every now and then. And they had milk shakes!

Day 2
Being Sunday and having nothing to do, I decide to figure out how the cab or bus system worked. A cleaning crew came to clean up the house and was surprised to see me there. I just gave them the OK to clean up while I was gone.
I couldn’t find a bus stop, so I caught a cab to KL town. I spent the rest of the afternoon blasting away at the arcades playing Time Crisis 3, King of Fighter 2003, SVC Chaos, and of course my two favorite sniper arcade games, Silent Scope 2 and Sogeki. Walking around, I even bumped into an old acquaintance of mine while walking around.
Getting to town was easy, but getting back to the hostel was HELL! The stupid cab driver had no idea how to get to my area, even after asking for directions from other cabbies! Fed up, I recommend he just drop me off at a cab stand so I can catch another cab that knows the way. It was about 2 hours since leaving Sg. Wang Plaza that I FINALLY managed to get back to the hostel.
Bit of a surprise later that evening when one of the other course participants showed up at the quarters and tried to open my door with his key. His name was Mr. Wong from Hong Kong, and he couldn’t read the number on the key, even I couldn’t! That brought out the other guy that had already came in, an Indian guy from Singapore. We just decided to try every door till we got a match and finally found it as door no.1!

Day 3
First day of the course and we had to walk to the training centre from the hostel. It was about a fifteen minute walk. There were quite a number of us taking the course, fifteen different guys from all walks of life; two shipyard workers from Sibu, a Frenchmen from Singapore, an Indian Dr. of Physics from Singapore as well as a host of others from all around Malaysia.
Our course instructor was Mr. Trevor, or Trev he’s have us call him. After the formal introductions, we got down to business. That’s where trouble started as I had trouble making any sense of what the guy was saying! Trev said things would be a bit dull and confusing the first day, but our interest would be caught tomorrow. How wrong he would be….

Day 4
We didn’t have to walk today as another course participant staying at the hostel from Melaka had a car and was kind enough to give us daily rides to and from the training centre.
Now yesterday things were bad, today things got really boring and even less understandable. We came to learn how to do blasting/painting inspection, but the guy is telling us how the molecular structure of paint works and what binds the paints together so it sticks! Needless to say, a lot of us were scratching our heads by the end of the day.

Day 5
Finally making some progress as we get our first chance to use several different paint reading gauges. Things still aren’t any easier though.

Day 6
Heavy on the practical today as we all had to learn how to use all the different paint measuring gauges. Finally something I can absorb without much difficulty at least. And I managed to bump up my exam date from Monday to Saturday morning by swapping places with one of the other participants. That means I get the weekend off without any interruptions!

Day 7
Last day of the course before tomorrow exam and we find out that our notes aren’t complete! Trev had to scramble to get the missing pages printed for us to finish the course. After which we all gathered to take a group photo. Luckily I brought my digital camera to take a shot for myself. We also received our course participation/attendance certificates.
That night I spent all night studying, but it’s not as easy as it sounds as I’ve mentioned previously how difficult this course was. I studied till about 11PM and stopped there to rest my mind and watch Survivor on NTV7. Then I went to bed, but had trouble sleeping that night for some reason. Heck, I hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep since my first day here, but this was an anxiety insomnia attack at it’s worst. I think I got all of two and a half hours sleep total.

Day 8
Exam day! I had to walk by myself since everyone else at the hostel either had their exams in the afternoon or on Monday. I was a bit shocked to find out only TWO of us would be taking the exam that morning!
What was worse was that I had a SEVERE case of mental block once the exam actually started! Things eased up a bit during the practical, but I just couldn’t get most of the answers out for the written exam even though I knew the answers! Hopefully my overall score with my practical will be enough to get me a grade 3 passing mark.
After the exam, the guys who were taking the exam in the afternoon expectingly asked us what the questions in the exam were. I did my best to not give a direct answer, but the other guy flat out told them what to expect, which is totally unfair considering what I just went through! He may be confident in his passing abilities, but that is still no excuse to help the others cheat!
This would just be start of my troubles for the day. I had pre-arranged with my taxi driver from day one to pick me up and send me KL city this afternoon at 1.30pm. 1.30pm comes and no cab. I try calling the guy, but the damn line couldn’t get through. I was fed-up by 2.30pm and decide to go down to get another cab. Wouldn’t you know it starts to freakin’ rain! I was stuck at a gas station while waiting for the rain to stop. I finally managed to get through to the cabbie on the phone and the son of a bitch said he forgot about me and was currently at the air port!!! F#*k you @$$hole! I decide to get another cab when the rain finally stopped and met a nice cabbie by the name of Alex Ho. We went back to the hostel to grab my stuff and then to TWI to return the hostel key before heading out to KL town. Surprisingly he knew a short-cut to KL and got me there in almost half the time!
I checked in to Seasons View hotel, where my family always stays when we visit KL. I was surprised to find my hotel room was almost smaller than my hostel room and almost cost twice as much! Geez. Anyways, I didn’t have much time to make myself at home as I had to rush out (no pun intended) to meet my buddy, TenzanTeam2K at Sg. Wang Plaza. I didn’t even change out of my partially rain soaked clothes and just put my jacket on over it. We spent the next few hours talking all about what was cool and what wasn’t in the puroresu world. He’s probably the only guy I know that I could have an intelligent conversation about the Japanese pro-wrestling scene with.
That evening I called it an early night since I was almost exhausted. I didn’t even bother to review the answers to the questions I couldn’t answer in the exam.

Day 9
Finally getting a good night’s sleep, I felt good since I had the next few days all to myself. I decided to spend my first day of vacation going some place I’ve always wanted to visit: Zoo Negara! Yup, I like animals. I only went to the zoo once previously a few years ago with two of my good friends, but we had to cut it short since one of them wasn’t feeling well. I actually spent longer than I had anticipated ‘cause it started raining again and most of us tourists were trapped in the reptile house while waiting for the rain to stop. Only managed to leave the zoo at about 4pm. Then went to Kota Raya to look for cheap PS2 & PC games and Anime DVDs.

Day 10
Spent most of the day at Sg. Wang Plaza and the Bintang Walkway area again cause my feet hurt too much from the previous day from walking around the zoo all day. Found some good CDs in the bargain bin at Tower Records, but it’s hard to find any good CDs in Malaysia anymore that aren’t pirated.

Day 11
Went to City Square today and kinda got lost looking for the arcade! Finally found it and spent most of my morning there. After lunch, went looking around City Square, which was insanely HUGE. On my way back, I stopped by Imbi Plaza and bought myself a DSL Modem as I plan on applying for Streamyx soon. The modem was dirt cheap too!

Day 12
Really had nothing to do today except wait for my taxi to fetch me to the airport at 4pm. But unfortunately the latest the hotel could give me to check out was 2pm, so I spent two hours at a nearby arcade doing the best I could to defeat the evil Johann in Rage of Dragons. That victory over him still eludes me….
My taxi picks me up right on time and I get to the airport by 5pm. Had a small dinner/snack at KFC, then went to the departure hall to wait for my flight. 7pm I say goodbye to another KL trip and sleep off most of the flight back.