The Aftermath

Yesterday we were finally able to go to the aid of my in-laws. They had been trapped on the second floor of their house due to the 10-foot flood waters that engulfed their area of Cainta all from the liquid rage of typhoon Ondoy. Their vicinity has always been prone to flooding at the fall of hard rain. The house garage has been modified a few years ago to prevent water from entering the garage with the van and the house itself. Nothing though could have prevented this flood from doing the damage it just did.

The van was totally submerged in water for two days. The entire ground floor was consumed by the flood, everything in it, the living room and dining room with all the furniture, now useless. The refrigerator, oven, beds from the lower bedrooms were destroyed and everything covered in mud. It was a depressing sight while fatigue and hunger filled each of them. We brought them food and water and as many clothes as we could hold. As we suspected, everystore in the vicinity has been damaged with no goods to sell. Dozens of people were bringing out their furniture and other once useful belongings, now rendered useless by the ravage of the flood.

As we wash out the mud, dirt and flood water, we have fun as we work together, as if it was a family reunion of sorts. But beyond the laughter, the thought remains, unadmittedly by my father and mother-in-law, how will we recover from this loss and damage? By the grace of God.. by the grace of God..

Flood

This just in: The flood is rising as I type this. The rain has been going on since last night and without letting up. The river across my condo is begining to overflow. The name of the culprit: Typhoon Ondoy. News reached me that the first floor of my in-law's house is already under water.  Their house was renovated and the garage elevated to eliminate the risk of rising flood waters. They were never prepared for this height. Ninang Jude and family are trapped inside their flooded house.  The news reports more areas submerged by the relentless rain.  This is not good. I hope the rains stop really soon and the waters go down... Lord help us...

Typhoon Weekend

It's a stormy Saturday morning here at home.  I'm all alone since Jel has to be at work today.  There's no practise for the band either so I guess I'll have time to play Prince of Persia on the PS3 a little more.  It's a really fun game since you get to run across all sorts of environments.  They say the game holds your hand a little too much by feeding you tips a lot of times throughout the game but for me, I sometimes like that especially when my brain feels tired after a week of stressful work.  And one of the best things about PoP is that you can save anywhere, absolutely anywhere.  Even in the middle of a fight you can save the game.  This is a great feature when you need to drop the controller and go to sleep.  I'll probably write a review of this game once I beat it.

R4 Is Hopeless...

Another day and still no hope for the R4 DS flash cart.  It never seemed to be an issue with me, until Nintendo came up with an uber secure with anti-piracy checks game called Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.  I'm a real sucker for RPGs so when I heard of this, I was really waiting for it to make its english appearance.  When it did however, it was unplayable with the R4 cart.  The only time I saw this game actually work was with my friend's DS running an M3 DS Real cart.  If our friends from hack land don't come up with an R4 fix (and I finish beating Mario and Luigi: Partners In Time) I'm strongly considering buying an M3.  I just wish I knew where to get one (I hope I can afford it too)..

It's getting hard to wait for when M33 is going to come out with CFW ver.6 (or at least version 5.50 which was mentioned that they have no intention of making).  With games like Motorstorm Arctic Edge and Disgaea 2 out on the PSP, the wait becomes more unbearable.  Maybe I should consider applying CFW GEN 5.50 instead?  A lot of forums say that we should wait for Dark Alex but does anyone really know what happened to him or is he ever going back to the PSP homebrew scene?  Feel free to enlighten me: how bad can it be to upgrade to CFW GEN 5.50?  Should I upgrade or wait for DA's much awaited version 6?

I'm Back (again)!

Hey guys! I'm back again after another very long time to give my latest blog. My site has undergone another image (and topic) change but this time I feel like I have finally found my purpose to do a continuous blog. So to begin this new start, I am going to write what I think about one of the games that has me hooked to the Nintendo DS Lite - Geometry Wars: Galaxies.

The reason why I got to like this game is because earlier I was able to download a demo of Super Stardust HD from the Playstation Network. It got me hooked.  Although the demo would only allow you to play for five minutes then halt and tell you to buy it if you like it, I would have another go, and another, and another.  It was so addictive that I wondered if they had this on other platforms. Hmm...

Sure enough there was a similar game on the Nintendo DS called Geometry Wars: Galaxies. Hey, it's no HD game in terms of visuals but it presented loads of shooting fun just the same.

The concept is simple: you pilot a ship equiped with a drone and you shoot everything that stands in your way. Almost everything on screen is presented with lines and shapes of different colors. I even makes you feel like you're playing one of those old PC games on a green screen. Enemies are made to look like pin wheels, diamonds, circles and other kinds of shapes. As the game progresses, the screen tends to get really poplulated and razor sharp reflexes are necessary not to bump into any of those shapes flying towards your ship. The aforementioned drone has different modes to choose from before starting a level. The drone can help you shoot down baddies, act as a shield spinning around you or help you collect geoms from downed enemies. These geoms are later used to unlock drone abilities and other planets for you to blow up.

Controls are spot on although a bit awkward. You control your ship with the directional buttons and your firing direction with the stylus on the touch screen at the bottom. Your DS will tend to slowly slip from your hands as you play though so it is hard to maintain stability especially if you have sweaty palms like me. When things get too crowded onscreen with gazillions of enemies and you need a way out, just press the left or right shoulder buttons to release a bomb that wipes out every enemy ship across the entire area. Nifty.

Unless you own a PS3 and have Super Stardust HD, Geometry Wars: Galaxies  is the best portable alternative and will satisfy any gamer's space shoot-em-up craving. I just wish I knew what those different shapes are called.. I shouldn't have fallen asleep too often during geometry class..

Dude rating: 4 of 5