Review: My Childhood Memory Can Sleep Well Now

Michael Bay, stand aside, Guillermo Del Toro (writer of The Hobbit movie, director of Hellboy) just showed how robot movie should be done! As for me growing up watching robots and monsters movie, Ultraman, Gundam, Jurassic Park and Godzilla, I was hoping I can watch a made in Hollywood monsters vs. robots movie, Pacific Rim is that movie. Giant mechs? Check. Giant robots? Check. And boy, it delivers!

In the near future, giant alien monsters, known as Kaiju (Japanese for monsters) have risen from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean through a portal, which took a heavy toll on the human race. The world decided new solution is needed, hence the creation of giant humanoid robots, know as Jaegers (German for hunter), pilot by two pilots in neural link, to fight these Kaiju.

The plot is not bright, but is serviceable to this movie. Not all movie needs great storyline, but Pacific Rim is definitely better than those visual effect fest movies in recent years. It makes you at least believe that is "Oh shit! We need robots!" The acting of the movie is just normal, not particularly bright, but one got my attention, the no non-sense Jaeger program leader, Stacker Pentecost, played by Idris Elba, luckily they chose him over Tom Cruise, whom I think is not suitable at all. The only problem with it is one or two of the subplot is not necessary.

Now let's talk about the spectacle, for that, this movie is absolutely pitch perfect. Well probably, because it just channeled out some of my nerdiness. The robots vs. monsters is something to behold, Guillermo Del Toro made the sequences believable, the Kaijus are something fearsome and scary, Jaegers are fearsome and powerful as well. They made it fit at least to some extent of the laws of physics, which the Jaegers are big and powerful, but due to size, are not fast and agile. Once the talking and explaining has settled, the movie is in full on attack mode, endless wave of Kaiju attacks, with different weapons variations.

It's amazing how in just these few years that the visual effects has evolved significantly, it's just two years since the last Transformers film, we though last time, "Wow, how are they going to beat that?" They did that with Pacific Rim. What's sets it apart from others is that the movie takes place primarily at the ocean, which gives audience a different take of these kind of movie.

In a nutshell, Pacific Rim is one heck of a movie for the summer, it set out on doing what it needed to accomplish, and it did, by creating grand spectacles of giant robots fighting monsters. It is the entertainment spectacle of the year, a movie my childhood memory deserves. I felt good watching this.

Score: 5/5

Why I'm Convincing My Sister to Play Mass Effect

I wanna say, my sister is a big sci-fi fan, she reads a lot of novels, watches a lot of movies that is categorised as sci-fiction, she is the reason me and my other sister is a big Star Wars fans as well. That's why I have been trying to convince her to get a shot playing Mass Effect, but haven't succeed yet.

Convince her to play the games is a no-brainer, Mass Effect series is a fitting game to her taste. Plus, she is a gamer as well, even though she has since retreated to playing more casual games nowadays, she used to play Red Alert and SimCity, just to name a few. She might need time to get familiar with Mass Effect, but I guarantee, she will like the series, a lot!

Why? To me, Mass Effect is one of, if not, the best sci-fi game to come across gaming in recent years. I love the fact that the trilogy is completely related to each other, even the decisions, for example, the character you decided to kill off in Mass Effect 1, will not be returning in 2 and 3. Sometimes, there are different variations of certain missions at play if the character is not involved, which is truly unique.

In Mass Effect series, you play a character named Commander Shepard, the galaxy's first human Spectre, which he/she is the humanity's symbol in the galaxy and legend. There's no real Shepard defined, he/she is defined by the players depending on the choices they make. Players can choose to be a hero, who try to play out the game in a much positive, excellence figure, or complete the missions at any costs, regardless of casualties, or a mix of both.

Female version of Commander Shepard

But the main highlight of the series is definitely the storyline and the emotions. Throughout the entire trilogy, I've grown fond with most of the characters, laughing and crying along with any ups and downs through the story. I remember one time in Mass Effect 3, one of the characters (a squadmate in Mass Effect 2), decide to sacrifice himself for the greater good of the galaxy. I can't stop him, even there's a button to try to convince him again, he will continue regardless, due to I've done something in Mass Effect 2. Watching him facing his inevitable death is painful. This shows how alive and interesting these characters that existed in the universe.

I admit, along with millions of other gamers around the world, criticising the nature of the ending of Mass Effect 3. Even though the extended edition has rectified most of the problem, it still has the feeling that the ending is rushed, with the decisions of the final phase doesn't matter at all. It's beautiful, of course, but there's a sense of lacking with all boom! end! of the ending, it fits well as a cinema going experience, but not as a game you spent countless hours on. But, that doesn't deter from saying that the trilogy isn't amazing.

This is the main point of Mass Effect series

Not to mention the final expansion pack of Mass Effect 3, the Citadel, which features all of the beloved squadmates from the first to the third. With witty punchline from all the characters and unbelievable funny jokes. It fits well as a final send off and tribute to Commander Shepard and the crew of the Normandy (name Shepard's ship).

Mass Effect is one of my favourite stuffs in recent years. Great storylines, characters, music and great voice acting are the main reason why it is a success. My sister is a sci-fi fan, she will love this. With all the paths that will be crafted by herself, she will have her own Shepard.

I'm not Anti-Apple, but that doesn't mean Apple must be good

I have been asked many times regarding my stances whenever there's a conversation about tech, for example: "Why so anti-Apple?", "Why all the negativity about Apple?", "You’ve always been an Android fan,” and many more. All these questions and statements come from my family, relatives, friends and even on social media. I wanna take this opportunity on this post and said, “NO, I am not anti-Apple.”

I think the assumption was made probably because when people asked my tips on what smartphone I would recommend to them, I recommend them go for Android smartphones rather than the iPhone. There’re reasons to that, I would love to go through that.

On why people ask why I always recommend them Android phones, it is because they tend to start with “what phones have good specifications that you think is good?” This will gives me an impression that you want a phone with a good camera, speakers, top of the line processors and memory. In that case, I choose Android 10 out of 10 times, because it’s what they asked for. Apple isn’t and won’t be in contender for best performance, what they offer is software, the system inside it. If you ask me on which phone I would recommend if you want the ease of use and smoothness, or unified softwares across the iOS platform, iPhone is the choice.

I am not an anti-Apple, anti-Android, anti-Windows Phone kind of guy. Yes, I do prefer Android, but I would recommend any good phones to anyone, based on their preferences. I understand there are always people with different needs and wants in their life, smartphone is no exception.

Apple is a great brand, I admit. They have been building great software with a decent hardware. The iOS of iPhones and iPads have been great, with great smoothness, almost lag-free experience and easy to pick up and use. With the closed system of the OS, it’s really easy to transfer content from device to device in Apple’s ecosystem. I was impressed and like the iPhone 3GS and 4 and even the the lastest iPod Touch. Not to mention that the Mac line-up is incredible as well, the great looks of Mac OS and ease of integration between iOS and Mac is useful as well (Microsoft, learn from this!).

But iPhone won’t be good for those who are after specifications. The processor is not the fastest, not enough memory to stack up against the big boys. Heck, I won’t recommend iPhone for camera until iPhone 5. The closed system of iOS is one of the big flaws as well, the use of App Store or iTunes is a must by default, there’s no other option for the users, no competition, and it’s hard to get apps at an affordable price for iOS.

Another problem with Apple is that they overhype things too much. Sure, it works, but ever since the late Steve Jobs left the company, many of the news seems meh for now. The iPhone 5 lacks the 'WoW' factor of iPhones, the 4th iteration is just pure milking of the iPad brand. The decision to dump Google Map as the go-to map application for iOS for the disastrous Apple Maps didn’t help the cause either. The recently iOS 7 unveiling is more like a been there, done that from other companies.

You could say that Android is my go-to OS. I admit that, I love Android. Why? Because in Android, is all about flexibility, and I love that. You could use Android phones as everyday phone, to power user where you can manage a whole lot of tiny details inside the phone. Android is open source software, means that phone makers can use it with their own customisation, and it’s competitive too. Vendors like Samsung, HTC, Sony, Huawei, Motorola and others to keep competing to get the most out of the software and make a good hardware. With an open system, you can get content anywhere you like, don’t like Google Play Store, get it from Amazon or any similar stores.

The worst thing of Android could also be the best thing of Android, the open source. This leads to uncontrollable fragmentations of the Android ecosystem, I could say that there are hundreds of thousands of cheap phones and cheap knockoffs of famous brands available in China right now, running Android. There’s so many customisations done to different phones on the market, so updates and after sales services are poor on phones with lower price point. With those big vendors keep slapping their own skin on top of the OS, the experience can be ruined as well. Only phones with Nexus brand and Google Play Edition (the recently relaunched HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4) can be considered as pure Android experience.

Lastly, it’s the Windows Phone. Now in the new iteration of Windows Phone 8, Microsoft is looking more and more serious as a contender for mobile market. Windows Phone is more between Android and iOS, with customisation and some closed system security. Windows Phone have been set up a range of specs developers can work on, this means even the lower spec-ed Windows Phone can run smoothly on many of the apps. And the sleek and flat UI is extremely attractive too. I only have test drives of Windows Phone devices, and I can say the Windows Phone has the potential to be a big player.

The partnership between Nokia and Microsoft for Windows Phone seems to have paid off too. I previously doubted it, but I was wrong. With Nokia, Windows Phone have a brand new opportunity to break into new market faster, particularly Asia, where Nokia has a strong brand presence. And Nokia has the best camera for phone without a doubt, the camera quality of Nokia Lumia 920 is top notch!

Flaws? Well, right now the apps ecosystem of Windows Phone is still lacking, so apps and games is less than what Android and Apple offered. It's a short experience of the Windows Phone for me, so not much to criticise yet.

In the end, Apple is great! But that doesn't mean I like it, and I won't totally shun Apple because they still offer great stuffs and advantages over its rivals, but I admit that there are obvious flaws from all three systems. So, don't call me Anti-Apple, I'm open to everything.