Jack Neo: I didn't do anything really really bad!

What the heck. All the old, new and future medias are cashing in on Jack Neo, and since I can't beat them, I'll just join in the fun!

Exclusive: Jack Neo reveals all about his affair in video



Courtesy of I.Z.Reloaded.

Latest RPG game: IR Chronicles - Rise of Gamblers

(Picture Source: http://www.gamespot.com)

IR Chronicles - Rise of Gamblers is the latest role-playing game which was released in Sentosa earlier in February and a second add-on is set to be released in Marina Bay at the end of April. It's a unique turn-based RPG (Role-Playing Game) where you have interchangeable main characters, as well as an interesting tactical battle system that involves looking for jobs, getting places to stay and gambling, all to survive in the magical world of Singaportasy.

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Walkthrough
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Create a character when you start a new game. There are a few classes of characters that you can choose from: Citizen, PR or New Immigrant, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.

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Citizen
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He is the weakness and also the least agile since his movements are restricted by the Ring of Gahmen Policies he must wear on his right hand. However he has high charisma so it is easier to recruit NPCs (non-player characters) into the team.

Strength = Low; Intelligence = High.

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PR
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He is a mix between the Citizen class and New Immigrant class. His movements are flexible and is able to move around quickly and easily with the Book of Other Country Passport.

Strength = Medium; Intelligence = Medium.

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New Immigrant
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He is the toughest fighter and will get the most golds at the the end of a battle compared to the Citizen or PR class. However he is vulnerable to the Sleep spell during battles.

Strength = High; Intelligence = Low.

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Resort Worlds - Lobby
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Head to where the long escalators are and move up. At the top of the escalators, you will reach the lobby. Proceed to the Save point and save.

If your character is a Citizen or PR class, go north to the Casino Levy. Talk to the man behind the counter. When he ask "Do you wish to donate 100 golds?", select "Yes" and he will give you a Casino pass. Skip this if your character is of New Immigrant class.

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Optional Side Quest
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If your character is a Citizen or PR class, instead of paying 100 golds at the Casino Levy, you can also proceed to this side quest. At the end of the lobby there is a man in black cloak. Go over and talk to him. He will ask "Do you want to borrow Foreign Passport for 50 golds?". Select "Yes" to start the quest.

Head west to the Casino Gantries. A security officer will stop you and ask for identity. Give him the Foreign Passport. He will then throw a coin into the air and ask you to select Heads or Tails. If you win the game, he will open the gantry. If you lose, you will have to fight him.

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BOSS Battle #1
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Attack his legs when he is performing his dog-eyes attack. He charges with his eyes looking up, so you should have time to block. Look for the leg that is glowing blue and attack it. Whenever he raises his walkie-talkie, you need to attack to stun him, or else he will multiply himself.

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Resort Worlds - Casino
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Once inside the Casino, you may head to any of the tables to start mini quests. At the four corners, you can find Coffee Machines. If your HP (Health Point) is low, use these to restore your health. You can also sleep on the ground to restore health, but that will take longer.

There will be men in black caps surrounding all the tables. You need to get near the tables before you can start any mini quest. Talk to these men in black caps to distract them until there is a gap large enough to squeeze through.

There will be women in red around the Casino. Do not talk to these women. They will steal golds from you.

Every mini quest that you play at the tables requires a certain amount of golds, depending on the table that you choose. If you run out of gold, look for the man with large ear lobes. He will usually be hanging around the bar area. You can get any amount of gold from him, but when you leave the Casino, he will appear at the exit and ask for nineteen golds for every three golds you borrowed. If you do not wish to pay him, you will have to fight him.

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BOSS Battle #2
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At the beginning of the battle, he is weak to Light spells. For every attack, he will suck HP from you and add it to his own. If he sucks more than 100 HP from you, Light spells will not affect him anymore. Use overlimits like crazy to stop him. You need to win this battle, or else you will lose all your HP and golds.

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BOSS Battle #3
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Once you entered the Casino, there will be a counter shown on the top right corner of the screen. The counter will increment from 0000 to 2400. You need to leave the Casino before the counter reaches 2400 or else you will need to fight the Casino Security.

This guy is faster than the security officer at the Casino Gantries. Some of his attacks are hard to stop. Be cautious when he get into his DL mode. Keep combo-ing and pounding him down. Sooner or later, he will use Boss Duster and his attacks will now inflict Paralyze. Keep using Give Chance Lah spell to counter his spell. After that, just finish him off.

You can buy a car, but you can't drive to work?

Cars are expensive in Singapore. Buying it is expensive, maintaining it with all the insurance, tax, petrol and ERP charges is expensive, but parking is even more expensive. A lot of us bought a car because we needed it to take us to work. Either our workplace is at some ulu pandan place where the nearest bus stop is a km away with one pathetic bus coming in every 15-30mins, or we need to be in office super early/super late. For me, it's always the first reason.

In the first company that I worked for, when we first moved into the building, parking was free and life was good. However as more departments moved in, the carpark is not adequate to support all 6 floors of workers. As a resort, the officials did what all Singaporeans fear most. They started to charge us for parking. At a rate that is equivalent to parking in Orchard Road/Shenton Way on a week day, even though our building is nowhere near town.

In order not to be too cruel, the official handed out free season parking lots to departments, with a few permanent staff sharing one and all the contractors in a department sharing one. With a population of about 10% permanents and 90% contractors in the company, our department ended up with 6 contractors sharing one little season parking. The rest of us? What else but pay two hundreds over a month for parking?

My second company was situated in a building with season parking lots as rare as diamonds, because there was a supermarket at the ground floor and the officials have to reserve lots for their customers. As a result, in order to avoid paying high parking fees, most of the workers ended up parking outside the private houses nearby. Oh yeh, thank God the area was so surrounded by private houses that we had no problem locating small roads without double yellow lines or non-breaking white dividers. But I feel kinda sorry for those private houses owners though, that privacy is lost when strangers park all over the road outside their houses.

Now to my third and current company, silly me had thought that parking will no longer be a problem, because the company is situated in a World-Class Research Hub whose official homepage introduced:

It is a self-contained development that includes serviced apartments, retail outlets, eateries, a supermarket, a fitness centre, a theatre, sky gardens and a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station. A Great Place to Work, Live & Play.

Phase 1 of was completed in 2001 at a cost of S$500 million. The 7-building complex, linked by skybridges, offers a built-up area of 185,000 sq m (2 million sq ft). Phase II was completed in 2006, and its 37,000 sq m (400,000 sq ft) houses more biomedical research institutes as well as private research organisations. Phase III is currently under construction and is expected to yield another 41,500 sq m (447,000 sq ft) of space to support clinical and translational research by end 2009.

But alas, when the naive me requested for the $90 season parking lot from the officials, I was so rejected...

We are sorry. From season parking record, your company had already exceeded the season ticket allocation quota based on every 250 m2 for 1 season ticket.

Yap, in such a gigantic World-Class Research Hub with many empty season parking lots, I get none, even if I am willing to pay for it.

One might feel that allocating season parking quota according to the company area size seems fair on paper. But is it really true that in a large company rich enough to own a whole floor, most of its employees drive? And that in a small company, most of its employees should not be driving?

I'll only say that the season parking allocation policy for this World-Class Research Hub is as flexible as all other policies found in the statboards...