XD birthday dinner.

My parents decided to bring me and my bro out to dinner. Since this is like the first time in a gazillion years (ok, not that long) since we had some fancy dinner, we decided to go to Pariss in Marina Square.

After lunch and a bit of messing around, we finally reached Marina Square at around 4. Since we booked the table at 5:30, we got about an hour or more to mess around.

So, while my parents went off to shop or something, me and my bro hit the Arcade. The Marina Square Arcade isn't exactly that bad, with World Combat 2 and Ghost Squad.

Or so, we thought.

World Combat 2 was alright, but as I've given the review for GameFAQs, it sucks compared to World Combat 1.

Then, came ghost squad.

The great thing about that damned machine is that someone inserted something into the card slot, resulting in me not being able to insert my card, and hence, I have to play as a level 1 nub, using the submachine gun, instead of my usual uber spamming TR-14.

Good practise...

If only the damned gun is more accurate, and the trigger button is more responsive...>_>

Oh well.

As all bad things come, some good things must happen.

And it did.

After being bored with GS and WCII, we had 15 minutes left to burn, and hence, we decided to play our all time favourite game: Time Crisis II.

The result?



2nd in the top 5. Hehe. Anything above top 5 means that when the operators reset the machine, the scores won't be erased. Sure, this isn't like those super ones in TM, where you need to get 1.58mil and above to even have a chance to get into the top 5 (Top was close to 2mil, IIRC), but hey, this score is pretty decent for us who were not chasing a top 5 spot.

Anyway, after the stress relief, we went over to Pariss, and started our meal. The place there was fantastic, with a huge variety of food. Some of the food are cooked on the spot, so that you won't be eating a cold hard steak or something. Their method is tossing a clip with your table number labelled on it, onto a bowl labelled with the food that you want, for example, chicken chop, and they will send it to you. A pretty neat way to get warm food cooked on the spot, on top of those which are already cooked.

However, as the time went on, more people came to fill up the empty spaces. This is where the flaw of the "instant cook" idea fails. With so many people ordering different dishes, the cooks have no choice but to cook quickly. While the meat is still good, though it took longer, the seafood, cooked in a claypot fails utterly. The 5 minutes they spent warming the claypot resulted in the claypot being warmed alone, and hence, the food in it is NOT heated. I had the joy of eating a cold mushroom in a hot claypot...

Still, the food is excellent, with a wide choice of drinks available, and the service staff was pretty friendly, especially the supervisor who had to explain to my dad why the pricing in Marina Square is different than the one in Tampines Mall (About $10 difference), since we were eyeing the price that was given to us in Tampines Mall. Heck, I had a free glass of red wine on the house, and to ensure that my dad is able to drive home later, I took the liberity of drinking half the glass. XD

After the dessert (Horrible, I must say. The only other bad point about the resturant), we went to play a game of pool at the arcade once again. As my brother has mysterously turned seventeen, I had to disappear for a while. I did so by watching some pros (4 of them) playing World Combat II, and then some nubs getting owned in Stage 1 of Time Crisis II. After 7 minutes, I entered the pool area without much of a problem, because I do look seventeen.

According to my brother, the guys were not exactly convinced that my brother was sixteen. Rofl. But still, my dad simply showed up, tossed his I/C (in our case, the FIN card) in his Moustached face, before picking the balls and walking to our table.

So, those guys obviously don't like us, as much as we don't like them.

It's obvious, since my mom, who had no experience in playing Pool, was trying to learn in an empty table beside us. Those dudes decided to use the microphone to tell us not to use that table.

It gets better.

We decided to take a few pictures as well, since the next time we get such a family outing is probably in December. However, this moustached dude appeared again and told us that no photography is allowed.

Oh well. Suit themselves.

Simply put: The arcade in Marina Square sucks. Machines that arn't working. Computers rusting away in a corner (there's another Lan Cafe, Raiders, just outside, and its packed with people. Why? It has newer comps. Nuff said.). The pool is charged at a rather steep price ($8 per hour? O_o), and the service sucks.

I'm not going back there again. Except perhaps to look at my high score. LoL.