DATE: August 23, 2009
TIME: 10:40 AM - 6:00 PM
PLACE: SM Megatrade Conference Room B, 5th Floor


I didn't take the time and effort to post the UPCAT Refresher course, but what the hell its a long time go and I'm too lazy to post it.

Alot of people didn't attend the refresher course though. But it was still fun.
Unfortunately, she was one of those who didn't came :(

Well me and Katrina arrived at SM Megamall at around 10:00
we saw Seadd and Gio outside waiting for the doors to open. I told them that you can go in since we need to be in the hall by 10:40. We got in, and saw Chelsea behind us. We went to the Hall and registered for our seats, our free lunch and snacks.

The program started late though. Since alot of seats were still empty.

BTW. Today was also the day that SM would hold an Otaku convention in the Megatrade Hall next to the conference room. We would expect alot of people cosplaying by the time we were dissmissed.

So back to the refresher course, the program started with the singing of the National Anthem and the opening remarks by the founder of Ahead. We started our discussion with the Language Proficiency part. As usual Gio, would go out to the restroom at the start of every subject disucussion. It was slightly boring and EDWARD ,some guy who acted like Angelo Conferido, started getting attention from the room when he was called to answer a question.

Lunch followed afterwards. Shakeys sponsored our food. It was a basic Chicken and Rice combo. We were upset that there was no mojos served unlike last time. But platters of chicken and rice are served at the sides of the room in case we wanted more.

After lunch, we had a game. The game is a trivia quiz of Ateneo, one person would represent his or her class in the review center (if Hannah Omengan was our representative, then we could have won the game). The winner would get an extra box of pizza for his class later at snack time.
Unfortunately, our class didn't win.

Math was next, Sir Wacks POGI was going to teach us the different techniques that we can use for the ACET. We had a game at the end of the disucussion and our team lost again.
We had snacks, a single slice of hawaiian pizza, for 30 mins.

After snacks, we had another game. This game was funnier cause it composed 3 "best" categories, BEST COMEDIAN, BEST PERSON WITH A SOFT BODY and BEST PERSON WITH THE HARDEST GRUNT. The "BEST PERSON WITH A SOFT BODY" was the funniest category since the contestants needed to dance around to the tune of "Careless Whisper".

After the game, we had our final discussion which was Logical Reasoning and Abstract Reasoning. This was the time when our brains started to hurt because of too much information.
Couldn't describe more though.

We were supposed to be dismissed after the last discussion but EDWARD's wallet was lost and accdg. to the teachers, someone stole it. After a little while we were told to leave the room as the teachers and EDWARD had to discuss about the stealing of his wallet.

When we went out, we saw everyone wearing anime costumes and waiting outside the convention. Probably the convention was full or they were done for the day. I wasn't done though. Me and my cousins went to G4 to watch GI JOE which is AWESOME.

DISSIDIA: FINAL FANTASY for the Playstation Portable System

Everyone knows final fantasy. It was one of the first RPG's that was ever released and it is now one of the top gaming series in the gaming industry. Spanning over 14 original games and a lot of spinoffs, remakes and sequels, the final fantasy series has been a force to be reckoned with over the past 2 decades.

Dissidia Final Fantasy is the latest installment in the Final Fantasy Franchise. Its a fighting game with little RPG elements thrown in like equiping items and managing your move sets in a match. Its combat like gameplay is similar to that of the Kingdom Hearts series and Crisis Core FFVII. The gameplay may look simple. You fight one-on-one in an area and you beat the living hell out of your opponent. But if you look closely you'll see that it sometimes takes strategy to play the game.

In a battle you have these what you call "Bravery Points". These Points are used to damage an opponent. You gain bravery points by attacking an opponent with the O button. You can compile Bravery Points and use these to perform a damaging attack with the _(square) button, when you do this you spend your Bravery Points and it goes back to 0. You do this repeatedly till you win. This is basically a main point of how a battle is progressed but there are things like summons and Limit Breaks that make it more complicated.

The graphics look good and the characters look very much alike to their game counterparts in their indie games. The DUBBED voice is cool but some people say that JAP voices sound better. I don't really know, but I'll take the DUBBED version to understand the story.

Speaking of the story, its basically the conclusion of the battle between chaos and cosmos which lasted for eons. The Villians of the Final Fantasy series comprise the side of Chaos, while the Heroes of the series comprise the side of Cosmos. In story mode you take part in a chess-like board in which you move towards the goal at the same time beating enemy pieces in the board.

Longevity:

The Story Mode is not long and short. There is Ad-Hoc, to keep you playing the game after the story. There are a ton of things to unlock and you can level your characters up to lvl100 and customize them in any way you choose. They could've included other characters like Auron, Zack and Vincent. Ther is also no online mode though, which is the biggest downside of the game.

But Overall, its still a good game. There's alot of things to unlock. The combat system has minor flaws but its still great. The story and the setting is also great. If you're a final fantasy fan then this is a must-buy for you. If not, still, get it.

FINAL VERDICT:

4.5 /5