I was there to catch the CosCon event which was only held yesterday.. So I grabbed this opportunity to go there, even on Singapore’s National Day Parade and also Team Blue’s console session..

So the event starts off at the main stage area(I was playing the game Too+Human when it started), the host introduces the panel of judges and also the 24 competitors tht entered the cosplay contest..

Although I was kind of late in covering the beginning of the contest, I managed to take some shots of the last few contestants being interviewed by the host.. We got Predator..

Then we have the Green Ranger from Power Rangers..

Well, here are the 24 contestants on stage.. Left side..

And the right side..

After the 24 contestants are announced, voting was carried out to find the TOP 9(The 10th contestant went missing so not counted) of the cosplay competition..

While votes are being made, the event shifted to singing.. There were quite a few number of Japanese songs being sung.. The ones I like were the song “Daybreak’s Bell” from the 1st OP of Gundam00..

The other was “Seikan Hikou” sung by our very own Ranka Lee.. ^^

Her singing was alright but the plus point was that she did some of the same dance moves as the real Ranka in Macross Frontier..

After the singing event, it was time for the D-Grayman group to do Hare hare Yukai.. They were supposed to do something better using the song “Gekidou”.. However, the disc with the music in it went missing so they had no choice but to go for Hare Hare Yukai dance..

Well, at least there is the Haruhi cosplayer who cosplayed as Lenalee during CosCon.. XD

The group doing Hare Hare Yukai..

So after the dance, it was back to the cosplay competition.. After the TOP 9 was announced before the Hare Hare Yukai dance, it was time to announce the winners of the competition..

3rd place goes to Haruhi (or what the host referred to as Naruhi??)..

2nd place goes to.. Darn, I need help in identifying this character..

The 1st place was given to the Link cosplayer.. She(Csoplayer) looks cool with the shield and sword.. ^^

Now from here onwards are some of the pictures I took of the cosplayers during and after the CosCon event.. I would like to say sorry for some of the blurred pictures.. My camera wasn’t good at taking shots under dim lighting..

Anyways, enjoy the pictures..

Wow.. Best scene yet.. I didn’t know D-Grayman has a love scene..

Scandalous… XD

This seems nice..

Rei from EVA..

Rei with Yuki Nagato Bad Witch outfit..

Well, that is the end of this entry.. I hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures.. I shall wait for the upcoming Natsu Matsuri which will be held at Japanese Primary School at Changi on the 23rd of August.. Click here for details..

There would be another Natsu Matsuri event at VivoCity but I need to check online to confirm the date.. There will be another cosplay event there but as I said it, need further checking…

So I would end this entry with a video I recorded during CosCon.. It is the Caramelldansen dance by a group of cosplayers on the main stage.. Enjoy watching!! ^^

…I decided to go on a short break before sinking into studying and all that exam stress.

This includes a trip to WCG 2008 at the Suntec Convention Centre (yes, you non-Singaporeans, a lot of stuff happens there).

When we (me and my bro) got there, it was pretty actually pretty empty, since it was still “early” (11.30 AM). Some people had already started gaming on the display consoles, including some of the staff.

But this surprised me:

Wait…what?

When you think of Cheers, do you immediately think of Xbox 360s, DoTA and Red Bull? Well, they seem to think you do, apparently. They even had some girls going around handing everyone cans of Red Bull, reminding them that they don’t quench your thirst.

In fact, they made me even more thirsty.

Too Human @ the Xbox Pro booth

I had a go at Too Human, which hasn’t been released in Singapore yet. When I played it, I got the feeling that this was what Hellgate London should’ve been like, except that Too Human didn’t try the whole marrying FPS with RPG bit, instead going for target-based aiming, which was OK.

Interesting bit (which took me a while to get used to) was that you use the right stick of the controller to control your melee weapon, so holding it in one direction initiates a combo, while spinning it spins your weapon in a circle.

I played till my friends came, and I joined up with them, leaving my bro alone with Too Human, since there was another highlight of the event: CosCon!

Gorgeous Delicious Deculture!

So basically, there was a competition with 24 contestants (unless there was some qualifying round that I didn’t know about). The Haruhi that went on-stage (not the one in the background above, that’s a judge) was horrible. Take my word for it.

There were some cool ones, like the hunch-back Predator and the Ranka above, who launched into the Seikan Hikou dance routine, which was an admirable effort on her part. Singing isn’t up to Ranka’s level, but to reach that level would mean she’s the perfect Ranka cosplayer.

Here’s a video of the cosplayer in action, with the Seikan Hikou OP from Macross Frontier below for reference:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtLkBzy1JJY]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYIN256Yc_s]

The MovieMania people (who were in charge of CosCon) sent in two judges for the competition: a movie buff and an anime buff. The movie buff was dressed in a full suit, tie and all, while the anime buff cosplayed as Haruhi in the Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi costume.

She’s missing the sword.

I thought it was a bit funny that those two were simply standing at the side, expressionless, as each contestant had their turn on-stage. The people from the RC car booth were laughing at most of the cosplayers, especially that retro-esque dude who danced on-stage. I still don’t know who he’s cosplaying. -_-;

Here’s the OP of the Suzumiya Haruhi no Tomadoi game for reference’s sake:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PdTS8a3Bbg]

Although the competition took place inside, there were more cosplayers waiting outside posing for the cameras. A few notable ones were the Kamen Rider Blade cosplayer dressed in cardboard, the Neku cosplayer from The World Ends With You below and a certain Touhou character, though my bro didn’t take any pics of her, sorry.

Oh, hey Neku.

So, after hanging around outside, we went to McD’s for lunch, then went back to observe the CoD4 tournament. I got bored quickly, and split off from them for some Kane’s Wrath, since nothing else except Too Human interested me.

I kept losing to medium though. -_-

Then me and my bro decided to head outside to hopefully catch some of the fireworks near the Esplanade (essentially abandoning my friends, sorry guys). When we arrived there, most of the roads were blocked, and the only alternative was up a ramp nearby, and a whole crowd of people were trying to reach the top.

Fortunately, we managed to squeeze through to the middle, and let me tell you, there were times I felt like saying “Bloody Singaporeans”, especially at the point when some people suddenly started pushing like mad, and “Don’t push lah!”s started ringing through the air.

Finally, at around 8.05 PM, the fireworks showed themselves, and when it seemed like it had stopped, we decided to head back, but just when we reached the bottom, more fireworks were fired into the air.

Elusive.

The Singapore Anthem started playing at this point, so we turned to leave…only to hear a last run of fireworks at the end of the anthem.

We managed to catch a train home before the leaving crowd arrived at the station, so it wasn’t too stuffy on the way. ^.^

Ah yes, by now, I’m sure you’ve noticed the new blog banner. The character’s indeed Hatsune Miku (of which we’ll go over some time), and I used three renders in all: this (PSD of the render provided o.O), this, and this. Do leave any comments/suggestions, I appreciate the feedback.

Oh, and by the way, Happy Birthday Singapore!

So the area outside the event was pretty much empty at that particular time.. Even the area around the booth nearest to the main entrance; Intel and Samsung has none to quite a few number of visitors in their respective area..

The only booth that was packed with quite a large number of people would be the World of Warcraft booth.. Nope, they aren’t selling any World of Warcraft PC games.. They are showcasing the WoW Trading Card Game(TCG) cards and see how players play the game skillfully..

After that I went around the whole convention looking at the rest of the booths..

What surprised me was the Cheer’s booth that was at the convention.. Cheers is one of the many convenience store in Singapore which dont sell video-games related stuff nor do they promote much of it..

However, judging by the booth, it seems that Cheers has taken into a liking to X-Box360 games like Need for Speed ProStreet.. There were about 10 consoles up for free gameplay..

Next up will be X-Box360 booth, the biggest I’ve seen in the convention.. Not only they have alot more consoles than the other booths have to offer..

But they showcased a game that has not been released on the market yet.. The game, “Too+Human” will be released next week or the week after that but as you can see, visitors who visit the WCG get to play the full version of the game beforehand..

Well, other than just that particular game, there is also the Project Gotham 4 game.. The best thing is that the video is streamed onto a big screen for all to see.. XD

Other than just playing the games there, you can watch players battle it out in the WCG tournament held there.. But I wasn’t too keen on watching them play for too long.. ^^

Here is the main stage area dedicated to show what tournament is being held currently and the video are shown streamed from the tournament area nearby.. Commentator spoke about the battles etc from somewhere..

There was also a booth that showcase real cars up close.. Though I forgot what was the comapny’s name that showcase the cars..

The cars looks splendid IMHO.. ^^

At the Intel booth, they were kind enough to show us the new Acer Predator gaming PC.. It looks totally awesome, especially the casing itself.. Though the colour of the LCD monitor looks weird in orange colour..

Here we have the WCG Guitar Heroes 3 tournament held at the Samsung booth.. The winner if I am not mistaken was Singapore(BZ playing C&C3: Kane’s Wrath nearby).. Congrats Singapore! ^^

Well, that is all I have for the standard coverage of the World Cyber Games Singapore 2008.. However, this is just the general stuff..

The real reason I was there was because of the CosCon that was also held at the WCG convention just today recently in the afternoon.. I was there early to play all the new games that I didn’t get a chance to play and did so before CosCon starts.. There was quite a number of cosplayers who attended the event..

Anyway, here is a sneak peek of what is to come 2morrow when I have more free time to edit the pictures and also do the Caramelldansen video I recorded during CosCon..


Hope you enjoy reading this entry.. ^^