3DS Test Run First Impressions!

Hey guys!

Yesterday I went to Westfield at Shepard's Bush in London with my sis and Shin. As fate would have it I saw a closed area with 3DS written on it. On impulse I pulled my sis and Shin to the queue and once we went in, it was quite packed! at least 30 3DSes were set up for people to try them out! Sadly no photography was allowed in there so I can't show you guys how it looked.

The games I tried were:
Nintendogs + Cats - This was pretty cool! The 3D added depth to the animals, making them look more solid and adorable~ Though my sis and Shin didn't see that..
Legend of Zelda - Didn't really get to play it but the 3D element was not bad.
Steel Diver - This was a submarine commanding game. You do this by toggling forwards or backwards, up or down on a dashboard which looks pretty cool
Lego Star Wars - Also didn't get to experience this fully.
Dead or Alive - Pretty lame demo. All I did was choose a character and mashed the A button and after a few seconds I won and it was over.
Resident Evil - This was pretty sweet! I think I enjoyed this demo the most. It was basically choose a character and then score as many points as possible before the time was up.
Street Fighter 4 - First one I tried after getting in. The 3D effect added depth to the fighting but after a while my eyes felt strained lol.
Kid Icarus - Shin and I tag teamed on this, she aimed while I dodged and shot. It's a pretty good game, I'll be getting this if I got a 3DS.

It's basically the size of an NDS Lite I would say. New features include the analog stick, an extra camera in front to take 3D photographs, overhauled starting interface, a 3D slider on the top half and different location for the Start, Select and Power.

First of all I am not impressed with the position of the Power switch. Thinking it was Start, I pushed it a few times sort of screwing the console for a while lol.

Now for what this console is bringing to the table, 3D and without the glasses. The effect is more noticeable in some games than others. But all in all they add depth. But there's one thing I noticed. Shin and my sis said they got dizzy after playing once. I felt alright because I was absorbed into it. But after stopping and moving on I felt strange, a bit disorientated. So I guess the rumours about getting crosseyed from the game isn't that far off. The good thing is you can turn the 3D effects halfway or even off, giving you the traditional gaming experience without sacrificing your eyes.

Here's a part of the brochure they gave. It opens up to be a 3DS I found that quite cool ahaha.


~Fox

Chinese New Year Celebration in London 2011!

Hey all!

Hope you all have had a wonderful week of celebration especially those back in Brunei! As for me, on New Year's day I had a lecture from 7-9pm -___-; And thinking that the celebration in London was on Saturday, Shin, my sis and I went to Trafalgar Square only to see them setting up the stage and booths.

We went the next day, on the 6th February 2011. We kinda missed the front bits cause we were late lol. I missed the lion and dragon dance! OMG epic sadface! Anyhoo, the place was packed :S The booths and ideal viewpoints were swamped with people we couldn't see anything and decided to stand far from the stage, slowly inching forwards when people moved out of the way ahah.

They had dance, music, aerobatics, even magic and comedy performances finishing with a finale of fireworks!
Beware this is an image heavy post!

Apium Noodle Bar Review

Hey all!

Finally my work is finished (at least for now, still got some to go sigh..) and I'm at a loss on what to write about so I'll just tell you about this great Malaysian-style food place near Barbican tube station in London!

The Apium Noodle Bar first caught my attention when me and my coursemates were walking towards a pub nearby. It looked empty and seemed like no one goes there at first glance. But as fate would have it, I went there after a while because of the limited food choices in that area.

The people are friendly and service very good! The food was as you read, Malaysian. The style is really Asian, from Laksa to fried vermicelli to fried rice to curry lamb! It was all good!

These photos were taken a while ago but I've been there at least 4 more times after this and tried different dishes and each time it was great!

Fried vermicelli I had. It was good.

Fried vermicelli my friend had, it was more or less the same as mine.

Lamb curry. It is hot and great for warming up your body on a cold winter's day!

Fried... something... Udon I think. Haha haven't tried this but my friend said it was not bad.

And the highlight of the dishes was... It wasn't that pricey! There are definitely more expensive places out there that serve sub-edible food. Apium is definitely the place to go if you like Malaysian or general Asian cuisine.


~Fox

Taro Japanese Restaurant Review

Hey all!

Here's a review of a Japanese Cuisine Restaurant we went to the other day. Taro's situated on 10 Old Compton Street W1D 4TF, just a while from Tottenham Court Road tube station.


In my previous 3 years stay in England, I only remember having Japanese food twice. And frankly, they both were costly, and sucked.


So when my girlfriend said a friend of ours recommended Taro, I was skeptic at first until she said the friend was the one who recommended the Korean restaurant we liked.


Anyways we went as a party of 4: me, my sis, Shin and her bro. And here's what we ordered:

I got the tonkatsu ramen. Honestly, it was THE best ramen I had in my life! It didn't only look good, it tasted awesome! The soup base taste was what I imagined it was for a ramen base, and more. Sadly the restaurant back home only used miso soup. This one however, is hypnotising; a spoon full of the soup shines golden~ (or maybe that's just me) I give this dish 5 exploding volcanoes out of 5.

Sis had the bento. She thought it was pretty good but I didn't like the over sticky rice lol.

Shin's bro had tonkatsu curry. He thought it was pretty good too and said the rice was too much lol.

Shin had the chicken udon I think. She also seemed satisfied with it. The soup was miso though, so I thought mine was superior! Mwahaha.

Finally I wanted to try their sushi. This was sub par and waaay below my expectations. The front piece... I actually put wasabi and ginger on it, and realised I didn't take a picture. My sis told me to turn it over and so I did and we lol'd. The salmon looked bigger from there. So I went "LOL I should over turn the rest then!" And when I did, the top right one.... is only rice. It was the butt of the roll. Taste-wise, I've definitely had better. I did say I wasn't impressed with the over sticky rice, and coupled with the small portion of filling, made a pretty tasteless rice ball.


Conclusion
All in all, I thought Taro was pretty good! If you like Japanese cuisine for a budget price, this is the place to go! The taste and quality (for the most part) is better from the others I've tried. But do order the bento(set meals) or noodles or something. The sashimi and sushi on the other hand, will have you pay through the nose.


Definitely worth a try if you are looking for a new place to have lunch or dinner. Oh and they charge 10% service charge during evenings so dinners are more costly.

I would say Taro gets a 4/5 just because the ramen outweighs the bad experience significantly!




~Fox

Back to unexpected freeze

Hey everyone,

Just got back from Nottingham today to a freezing London and I’m not doing anything so I decided to make another entry. Why go to Nottingham and come back on a weekday, you ask? What? You didn’t ask? I’ll tell you anyway! It’s because I only have classes on Thursdays and Fridays and I want to see my gf :P. Apparently there was something added to the timetable while my internet was down during the weekend so I went to Notts not knowing. So… oh well.

Nuisances in Notts

Nothing much happened there other than some of my girlfriend, Shin’s flatmates at Broadgate Park halls making noises and causing her to be stressed. The wardens there seem to have their hands full with delinquents too, I guess. They should put similar years’ people together not first years who just want to party and have fun with final years who are drowned in work and stress. They just need to be complained about anonymously to the higher ups, hopefully they’ll grow up and see the light.

Surprise in Notts

One of the night there I “accidentally” saw an invoice from Superdry while Shin was checking her e-mail. I started to poke fun at her compulsive shopping and turns out she bought me a hoody which looks awesome, and I’m not just saying. I decided to take a few pics of it and show you guys. Sorry for my bad photography skills.

Front

Front logo

Back

Back logo

Much thanks to Shin <3 <3

Back in London

It’s surprising how easy it is to fit back into my Hall in London, from getting cafeteria food dinner to playing pool with the friends I met here, it’s all good. Hope my class tomorrow will be something interesting. I really hope my course will shape up sooner or later…

As always, thanks for reading peeps, add a comment if you wish.

~Fox