My Reelity

… to his ninth ICT. And we were told somehow we won best battalion again for the division.

We are still wondering how on earth we won that, and if we are the best, then we cannot imagine how bad is the worst. 😛

That aside, I decided to write this entry because I had the weirdest dream last night in camp. The details are kinda sketchy but it involves me joining a group of friends from a previous dream sequence for a a round of drinks at some pub. And apparently I was buying that night. We were having loads of fun, and these people that are in my dream are not people I know personally. But they seem to have appeared before in a dream sequence that I didn’t blog about because I keep forgetting the details of those previous sequences.

BUT I now realised that someone in this particular sequence is in fact someone I do know in real life. And she has appeared topless twice so far in this sequence; one in the previous dream sequence and now in last night’s one.

Although she appeared topless, I must stress there was nothing sexual about it in the dream.

Which makes it all the more mind boggling.

On another note, the bill for the drinks came out to be $600.

So my doctor just called me up all of a sudden to tell me that he saw me on telly last night.

Apparently, they did a rerun of my Incredible Tales episode last year in a brand new rehash series called “The Best Of Incredible Tales”.

He told me he didn’t know it was me at first; in fact he was drawn to the episode because he thought the lead actor was acting very well. He was intrigued and wanted to know who this actor was, and as he watched he gradually found him more and more familiar. So he purposely waited until the credits rolled and lo and behold, much to his amazement, it was yours truly!

He told me my acting was very natural and that I’m really a good actor. Needless to say, by the end of the conversation, he had me beaming to the skies.

Audience appreciation, at a time when I’m at my most jaded, couldn’t be more timely I guess. But to be honest, I don’t know if this is enough for me to stay the course.

But more on this subject another time. Right now, I just want to bask in the moment a bit.

On another note, I guess this should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt I can do non-villiany roles. 😉

Server is down so I thought I’ll do a little review…

First Impressions
Been playing the game since before launch and I have to say this is one of the best MMORPG launches so far. The gameplay, graphics and even sound have been very smooth and even with 30fps, you feel as though you are playing at twice that frame rate. Its that smooth and you don’t really need a state of the art system to play this. I can safely say if your machine is 2 years old, you should still do fine, assuming two years ago your system is top notch.

“How you doin?”

Gameplay
The first twenty levels, on hindsight, its kinda like a tutorial. They let you learn how to play the game, immerse you in the gameworld, and then tell you to go forth and seek your destiny.

One great aspect of the game is the voice acting; almost every NPC you meet that gives you a quest will speak to you quite audibly. This is the one feature that really makes you feel immersed into the game, as the voice acting is very good. Heck, they even have a bit of acting on the NPCs itself. Unfortunately, the voice acting is confined to destiny quests after you leave Tortage, which made me felt a bit cheated. But better some voice acting than none at all.

“How you doin?”

Combat wise, there’s a bit of strategy involved. And the best part of doing combat well is seeing your moves do Mortal Kombat like fatalities. Some which I’ve seen so far are decapitations, hewing a body in two and sticking a weapon in a body before yanking it out again. This is the fun part of the combat, its so fun it almost takes the pain of dying away. Check out the screenshot below. The blood even splatters onto your screen.

Headless in Hyboria

Hack! Slash!! Kill!!!

After the first twenty levels and you leave Tortage, one gets the feel that this is where the MMO starts proper. And depending on your race, your starting town will either be in Aquilonia, Cimmeria or Stygia. Levelling becomes more or less the same grind as compared with other mmorpgs, and you really really miss the immersing factor of voice acting.

But having said that, the fatalities help to take the grind away, as well as the beautifully crafted scenery of the game world. At this point of time, you can either continue to do quests or start your crafting career.

I decide to leave crafting till later. Why? Cuz I’m a damn barbarian and there are heads needing to be bashed, goddamit, just like the ones below.

Right now, my only gripe is the UI, which really needs more polishing. But its not unbearable, and I’m sure they’ll improve it soon enough.

If you are playing, look me up and we’ll bash a few heads together, by Crom! I’m on the Thog server, character name’s Ruok. 😉

Next up, details on the really big guild I’m in and the collector’s edition.

Last night my dreams brought me back to a past adventure; continuing a dream sequence from a couple of months back.

At first, I thought it was a new sequence, as I did not find the people around me familiar. But of course, as usual I was supposed to have known them already in the dream. I can’t really recall what went on in the earlier part of the dream, save that we were in a Javanese themed hotel/resorty place.

It was this hotel that made me realised that I have been here before, although I couldn’t really remember what I was doing here before. It might have to do a bit with the girl I was with, I suspect. I tried going through my past archives, but I still cannot place if I’d ever journaled this adventure before.

Speaking of the girl, I’m sure I’ve not seen her before in RL. And as I really can’t remember the beginning of the dream, I still haven’t the foggiest idea why, quite suddenly, with the bunch of us somewhat in the middle of the road, she suddenly went topless. There was a slight drizzle at that time as well, and strangely enough, only my dream self made the attempt to go over to her side and tried to cover her up. Which strangely involved my hands covering her breasts.

And that somehow led to us kissing. I felt her tongue, pensive at first and then stronger and I kissed her back as well. We would have continued making out if not for the oncoming cars hooting at us.

We then made our way to a cafeteria of sorts to dry ourselves. I can’t remember much of the conversation we had there, but I know it ended with an understanding that we are starting this relationship. We then head back to the hotel room and I extended the stay to one more night. I find myself asking the concierge if I could change rooms; and that was the time I realised in the dream that I’ve been to this hotel before. But the last time I was here, it was in another wing or something.

Anyway, the concierge lead me away, I think he meant to show me what other rooms they had. But midway through, he advised me not to change rooms as they might not have available rooms elsewhere.

I started to make my way back to the hotel room, and by this time it was getting dark. Suddenly the surroundings seemed very foreign and I find myself lost. I wanted to get back to the girl asap, but I seemed to have stumbled off the wrong path.

It was at this moment that I entered into the “change outcome loop” and I find myself transported back to the lobby again. However, I’m not quite sure at which point of time in the dream I have transported myself into and that was when I woke up.

I’m really puzzled over who this girl is. I’m quite sure I have not seen her in RL before.

My vivid dreams have been returning but for the life of me, I can’t seem to remember them in the morning.

It was the same again for the night before, and it was not only last night that I realised the previous night’s dream was about you. The details are hazy, and what I can remember was that somehow I was at this resort kinda island, with a bunch of friends who seemed so familiar to me in the dream but I can’t quite place them in real life.

I’m not sure why I was there; not sure if I was on a holiday or anything. But you were there as well; rather, I happened to find you there as well. And the details are rather hazy, but somehow we got together. And then we made love.

But for some weird reason, we got interrupted mid-coitus; some of the residents somehow spotted us while we were at the supposedly deserted beach and “reported” us. I think we tried to find another place to continue, like somewhere in the park, but we also got spotted. We were frustrated, of course, but we were also quite bemused by the whole thing.

I can’t remember the rest of the dream from this point on. The weird thing was that this was the last thing I typed before my computer went kaput… almost as if the powers to be deem it unfit to have any more details documented down.

But I think we were happy in the dream. And you looked great again.

It was nice seeing you again babe.

I’ve believed, up till now, that I’ve stopped dreaming of you.

But last night’s dream told me otherwise. Its been a long time since I’ve remembered my dreams and last night I find myself plunged into another story sequence, only that I know I’ve dreamed of this setting before. Its a camp of sorts, looks like one of those OBS/Survivor training ones. And I’m either a trainer or trainee. Its been a particularly tough day, and I was just bidding goodbye to the group when I saw you walking by.

You looked just the way I remembered, and your group members gave me a wide berth as I approached you. We made some casual small talk and I think you were on your way back to your quarters. I had this urge to hold you there and then, but all I could muster was a slight graze of your bum and a hand around your waist, and even so it was only for a few seconds. It was as if I remembered that we shouldn’t be seen this way again, and I slowed the pull away of my hand to make the gesture as innocuous and innocent as possible.

I noticed you didn’t seem to mind, and I wondered if you had crave for my touch as much as I have craved for yours again. After you were gone, I walked around a bit, trying to make sense of time and space that I’m in. It was as if I’ve taken over my dream-self fully now, and I roamed the camp a little bit more.

Random faces greeted me, but their conversation to me made no sense, and I can’t really recall much of it now. Then I heard gossips about me and you again and people trying to figure out what exactly was our relationship. The chatter even brought mention about my dream-self’s meeting with you earlier and about how I seemed to be quite intimate with you…

Then everything came to a freeze and I entered into a particularly weird loop. I recognise this looping of events; it only happens when I attempt to change something in the dream and fail, and the loop will bring right back to where I can try again, and will keep looping till I succeed or give up trying.

I got woken up in the middle of the loop, and that made me forgot what the hell it was that I was trying to remedy in the dream.

You looked sad in the dream. I hope you are happy in real life, babe.

I think its been a long long time since I could really recall my dreams.

The one I had last night was pretty interesting, I’m sure, but for the life of me, I can only remember this part :

Having a bird shit on the left side of the jeans that I was wearing. And me not being too upset about it.

So what does this mean har?

I dreamed I attended a wedding dinner last night. Its funny how when I wake up, I forgot whose it was.

In the midst of it, I noticed an acquaintance having his wedding dinner in the restaurant down the road as well, and decided to go over and say “hi”. As I walked there, I tripped over something and by the time I recovered, it turns out his banquet had started and the doors were closed. I looked at my watch, its 10 minutes to eight, and I thought to myself, gee they start so early ah?

Undeterred, and since I was already there, I opened the doors and walked in, trying to act as if I’m invited amidst curious stares from the other wedding quests. I soon found the groom, who quite suddenly turned into a different person! The weird thing is that “I” still had known the groom before and the groom had in turn also recognise me.

He was however surprised to see me and asked how come I know he was having his wedding dinner here, as we have lost contact with each other for quite awhile. I told him that I happened to be attending another wedding dinner nearby and happened to see him here, so I thought I’ll pop over and say hi.

He didn’t really buy my story so we went out, and I pointed to him where I came from. You mean you could see me from there, he wondered in amazement. I told him I really was not shitting him and asked him to come with me to the restaurant where I’m attending the other dinner, so that he can see for himself.

However, as we approached the other restaurant, we noticed the doors were closed as well. But from where we were standing, I could still see clearly the people over at his restaurant.

“You see that old man over there? I can see his face clearly. Can you?”

He shook his head, and looked at me weirdly. However he wasn’t willing to pursue the matter, and instead passed me his name card and an old class photo of us together. I thanked him and wished him all the best before I started to head back towards my other wedding dinner.

Enroute, I somehow made a wrong turn (which is weird, seeing how the restaurant is less than 50 metres away) and had to track back. While tracking back, some dude whom my dream self apparently knew called out to me, but I told him I couldn’t chat as I’m late for a banquet.

I managed to make it back in time, it seems for although the doors were closed, they have not started the first dish. Time check, its just past 2030. The weird thing is, even though I could have sworn this was the same restaurant that i took off from, there’s something different about it as well as the people I’m supposed to be seating with. I looked at the class photo the guy gave me and found the people in it familiar, not that I know them in real life, but I know them from a previous dream…

And that’s when I realised that its a continuation of one of my dream sequences again. It seemed a lot had happened in between, which I have no recollection of. Man, I can’t believe I’m having amnesia with my dreams. -_-”

You know what, I think the trip I had somehow triggered this and before I made my way to the other restaurant, it seemed I was just having a normal dream…

Last night’s conversation seemed to have brought me dreaming about her again. The details of the dream are sketchy right now as I was woken up by a wrong number … the only thing that I remember from the dream is how we were going through a test to measure the intensity of our feelings for each other. I think the phone woke me up before the results were out (not that the results were ever in doubt :P)

It was good seeing you again in my dreams babe.