Movies to see if you haven't yet

About a boy
Growing up has nothing to do with age.

Will, a rich, child-free and irresponsible Londoner in his thirties who, in search of available women, invents an imaginary son and starts attending single parent meetings. As a result of one of his liaisons, he meets Marcus, an odd 12-year-old boy with problems at school. Gradually, Will and Marcus become friends, and as Will teaches Marcus how to be a cool kid, Marcus helps Will to finally grow up.

Almost famous
Experience it. Enjoy it. Just don't fall for it.

William Miller is a 15 year old kid, hired by Rolling Stone magazine to tour with, and write about Stillwater, an up and coming rock band. This wonderfully witty coming of age film follows William as he falls face first to confront life, love, and lingo.

American beauty
... look closer

Lester Burnham is suffering a mid-life crisis that affects the lives of his family, which is made up of his super bitch of a wife Carolyn and rebelling daughter Jane, who hates him. Carolyn is a real estate agent, a little too wrapped up in her job, who takes on an affair with business rival Buddy Kane. Meanwhile Jane seems to fall in love with Ricky Fitts, the strange boy next door, who is a drug dealer/documentarian and lives under a roof governed by a very strict marine father and a speechless mother. Lester's mid-life crisis causes him to drastically change his life around when he quits his job and works at a fast food restaurant. He starts working out to gain the attention of Angela, a friend of Jane's, who brags about her sexual exploits every weekend. Lives change and not for the best.

American History X
United by hate, divided by truth

Derek Vinyard returns from prison to find his younger brother, Danny, caught in the same web of racism and hatred that landed him in prison. After Derek's father is killed in the line of duty by a minority, Derek's view of mankind is altered, but while in prison, he discovers that there is good and bad in every race. The task before him now is to convince Danny of his newfound enlightenment.

Apocalypto
When the end comes, not everyone is ready to go

n the Maya civilization, a peaceful tribe is brutally attacked by warriors seeking slaves and human beings for sacrifice for their gods. Jaguar Paw hides his pregnant wife and his son in a deep hole nearby their tribe and is captured while fighting with his people. An eclipse spares his life from the sacrifice and later he has to fight to survive and save his beloved family.

Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)
David is 11 years old. He weighs 60 pounds. He is 4 feet, 6 inches tall. He has brown hair. His love is real. But he is not.
In this futuristic fairy tale, "David", a highly-advanced robotic boy, hopes to become a real boy so that he can win back the affection of the human mother who abandoned him. Like Pinocchio, he goes on a long journey hoping to find his "Blue Fairy," who can make his dreams come true.

Batman Begins
Are you ready to begin?

Batman Begins explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight's emergence as a force for good in Gotham. In the wake of his parents' murder, disillusioned industrial heir Bruce Wayne travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. He returns to Gotham and unveils his alter-ego: Batman, a masked crusader who uses his strength, intellect and an array of high tech deceptions to fight the sinister forces that threaten the city.

Black hawk down
Leave No Man Behind

Action/war drama based on the best-selling book detailing a near-disastrous mission in Somalia on October 3, 1993 where nearly 100 U.S. Army Rangers, commanded by Capt. Mike Steele, were dropped by helicopter deep into the capital city of Mogadishu to capture two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord which lead to a large and drawn-out firefight between the Rangers and hundreds of Somali gunmen which led to the destruction of two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters in Mogadishu, and the heroic efforts by various Rangers to get to them, centering on Sgt. Eversmann, commanding one Ranger unit named Chalk Four, leading Rangers to the first black hawk crash site, to Warrant Officer Durant who was only survivor of the second black hawk crash site and whom was captured, to Col. McKnight who leads a rescue convoy for the Rangers only to get lost within the hostile city, to Sgt. Sanderson desperately trying to get to the first crash site, to Staff Sgt. Yurek who leads two fellow Rangers, Nelson and Twombly to meet with up their squad, Chalk Four, at the first crash site, to many others involved who where either killed or survived.

Braveheart
Every man dies, not every man really lives.

William Wallace is a Scottish rebel who leads an uprising against the cruel English ruler Edward the Longshanks, who wishes to inherit the crown of Scotland for himself. When he was a young boy, William Wallace's father and brother, along with many others, lost their lives trying to free Scotland. Once he loses another of his loved ones, William Wallace begins his long quest to make Scotland free once and for all, along with the assistance of Robert the Bruce.

Bridge to Terabithia
Close your eyes, but keep your mind wide open.

A little imagination can sometimes go a long way. The story of young and artistically talented Jesse Aarons, who is sharing concerns and money problems with his family. He's having trouble at school with the bullies and there is a bully like troll who charges the kids a dollar to go and pee. He is fighting for the attention of his father, against his baby sister. Life for young Jesse isn't looking up, that is until the adventurous, imaginative and non-conformist Leslie Burke arrives in town. Together they form a bond and Jesse's life shall never, again, be the same. Adventures and amazement in other worlds center around these two kindred spirits, and for once, for Jesse, life isn't so bad after all. If your mind is wide enough then let your imagination take you over the Bridge to Terabithia.

Forrest gump
The world will never be the same once you've seen it through the eyes of Forrest Gump.

Forrest, Forrest Gump is a simple man with little brain activity but good intentions. He struggles through childhood with his best and only friend Jenny. His 'mama' teaches him the ways of life and leaves him to choose his destiny. Forrest joins the army for service in Vietnam, finding new friends called Dan and Bubba, he wins medals, starts a table tennis craze, creates a famous shrimp fishing fleet, inspires people to jog, create the smiley, write bumper stickers and songs, donating to people and meeting the president several times. However this is all irrelevant to Forrest who can only think of his childhood sweetheart Jenny. Who has messed up her life. Although in the end all he wants to prove is that anyone can love anyone

Hot Fuzz
Big Cops. Small Town. Moderate Violence.

op London cop, PC Nicholas Angel is good. Too good. And to stop the rest of his team looking bad, he is reassigned to the quiet town of Sandford. He is paired with Danny Butterman, who countlessly questions him on the action lifestyle. Everything seems quiet for Angel, until two actors are found decapitated. It is address to as an accident, but Angel isn't going to accept that, especially when more and more people turn up dead. Angel and Danny clash with everyone, whilst trying to uncover the truth behind the mystery of the apparent "acidents".

Vita e bella, la (Life is beautiful)
An unforgettable fable that proves love, family and imagination conquer all.

In 1930s Italy, a carefree Jewish book keeper named Guido starts a fairy tale life by courting and marrying a lovely woman from a nearby city. Guido and his wife have a son and live happily together until the occupation of Italy by German forces. In an attempt to hold his family together and help his son survive the horrors of a Jewish Concentration Camp, Guido imagines that the Holocaust is a game and that the grand prize for winning is a tank.

Little Manhattan
Nothing is as big as your first love

In Manhattan, the 10 ¾ years old Gabe (Josh Hutcherson) finds his first love when he meets his former kindergarten mate, the eleven years old Rosemary (Charlie Ray), in his karate classes. Confused with his new feelings and with the divorce process of his beloved parents, Leslie (Cynthia Nixon) and Adam (Bradley Whitford), he experiences the delightful unknown sensation of being in love for the first time.

The Lord of the rings- the fellowship of the ring
Middle Earth comes alive...

An ancient Ring thought lost for centuries has been found, and through a strange twist in fate has been given to a small Hobbit named Frodo. When Gandalf discovers the Ring is in fact the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron, Frodo must make an epic quest to the Cracks of Doom in order to destroy it! However he does not go alone. He is joined by Gandalf, Legolas the elf, Gimli the Dwarf, Aragorn, Boromir and his three Hobbit friends Merry, Pippin and Samwise. Through mountains, snow, darkness, forests, rivers and plains, facing evil and danger at every corner the Fellowship of the Ring must go. Their quest to destroy the One Ring is the only hope for the end of the Dark Lords reign!

The Lord of the rings- the two towers
The Battle for Middle-earth Begins!

Sauron's forces increase. His allies grow. The Ringwraiths return in an even more frightening form. Saruman's army of Uruk Hai is ready to launch an assault against Aragorn and the people of Rohan. Yet, the Fellowship is broken and Boromir is dead. For the little hope that is left, Frodo and Sam march on into Mordor, unprotected. A number of new allies join with Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Pippin and Merry. And they must defend Rohan and attack Isengard. Yet, while all this is going on, Sauron's troops mass toward the City of Gondor, for the War of the Ring is about to begin.

The Lord of the rings- the return of the king
There can be no triumph without loss. No victory without suffering. No freedom without sacrifice.

Gondor is overrun by the orcs of Mordor, and Gandalf rides to Minas Tirith to aid the humans in the war that is ahead. Aragorn must realize his true identity and purpose as the King of Men, and journey with Gimli and Legolas to summon the Army of the Dead so that the battle against evil can be won. Meanwhile, paranoia and suspicion rises between Frodo, Sam and Gollum as they continue their increasingly dark and dangerous travel to Mount Doom, the one place where The Ring can be destroyed once and for all

Notting hill
Can the most famous film star in the world fall for just an ordinary guy?

Every man's dream comes true for William Thacker, a successless Notting Hill bookstore owner, when Anna Scott, the world's most beautiful woman and best-liked actress, enters his shop. A little later, he still can't believe it himself, William runs into her again - this time spilling orange juice over her. Anna accepts his offer to change in his nearby apartment, and thanks him with a kiss, which seems to surprise her even more than him. Eventually, Anna and William get to know each other better over the months, but being together with the world's most wanted woman is not easy - neither around your closest friends, nor in front of the all-devouring press.

Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941 - It Was A Sunday Morning...

Rather than writing the plot synopsis, I would write something else here. The reason is that there are many people who hate this movie, especially Americans . The reason might or might not be this that obviously they wont like the way it is shown in the movie, Japanese sinking their ships all around (although I don't think there is another way to show the bombings of Pearl harbor). Not that I hate USA, I actually like the country, it is just that I can't find a really good reason why so much hate for the movie. Agree that there are some cheesy scenes, token characters etc., but the movie succeeds in many more areas. No doubt that the movie is a grand spectacle, there are adrenaline pumping scenes and the misery of war is shown in a way it moves. Whatever the reason, this one is one of my favorite movies.

Pitch Black
There's only one rule: Stay in the light

A transport ship containing 40 passengers heading to other worlds for, among other reasons, settling, New Mecca, and for one passenger, Riddick, another cell. The ship encounters a tiny meteor storm and crash lands on a barren planet with only 1/4 of its complement surviving. Survival is tough with Riddick on the loose and no water in sight. However, come nightfall, they have even more to fear...
Roman Holiday
Romance in romantic Rome!

Princess Anne embarks on a highly publicized tour of Europian capitals. When she and her royal entourage arrive in Rome, she begins to rebel against her restricted, regimented schedule. One night Anne sneaks out of her room, hops into the back of a delivery truck and escapes her luxurious confinement. However, a sedative she was forced to take earlier starts to take effect, and the princess is soon fast asleep on a public bench. She is found by Joe Bradley, an American newspaper reporter stationed in Rome. He takes her back to his apartment. The next morning Joe dashes off to cover the Princess Anne press conference, unaware that she is sleeping on his couch! Once he realizes his good fortune, Joe promises his editor an exclusive interview with the princess.

Rushmore
She was my Rushmore

Max Fischer is a more than determined student at his prep school, Rushmore Academy where he oversees anything with the word "extra-curricular". He befriends a preschool teacher named Ms. Cross, whom he ends up falling in love with. Only to find things take a turn for the worst when his mentor, Herman Blume, an unhappy millionaire falls for her as well. As a result, their personal and professional lives spiral out of control.

Saving Private Ryan
In the Last Great Invasion of the Last Great War, The Greatest Danger for Eight Men was Saving... One.

Following the Allied invasion of Normandy, two brothers lay dead in the wake of the onslaught. Meanwhile, in New Guinea, a third brother has been killed fighting the Japanese. After the Army General Staff learns that a fourth brother is missing in the French countryside, a rescue mission is ordered to find the young soldier and return him safely home. The mission is mounted by a veteran Ranger Captain commanding a squad of men who have mixed feelings about risking their lives to "Save Private Ryan".

Schindler's list
Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.

"Schindler's List" is the based-on-truth story of Nazi Czech business man Oskar Schindler, who uses Jewish labor to start a factory in occupied Poland. As World War II progresses, and the fate of the Jews becomes more and more clear, Schindler's motivations switch from profit to human sympathy and he is able to save over 1100 Jews from death in the gas chambers.
Shawshank redemption
Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.

After the murder of his wife, hotshot banker Andrew Dufresne is sent to Shawshank Prison, where the usual unpleasantness occurs. Over the years, he retains hope and eventually gains the respect of his fellow inmates, especially longtime convict "Red" Redding, a black marketeer, and becomes influential within the prison. Eventually, Andrew achieves his ends on his own terms.

The Matrix
Free your mind

Computer hacker Thomas Anderson has lived a relatively ordinary life--in what he thinks is the year 1999--until he is contacted by the enigmatic Morpheus who leads him into the real world. In reality, it is 200 years later, and the world has been laid waste and taken over by advanced artificial intelligence machines. The computers have created a false version of 20th-century life--the "Matrix"--to keep the human slaves satisfied, while the AI machines draw power from the humans. Anderson, pursued constantly by "Agents" (computers who take on human form and infiltrate the Matrix), is hailed as "The One" who will lead the humans to overthrow the machines and reclaim the Earth.
The Matrix Reloaded
Reload before the revolution begins.

Roughly six months after the original "Matrix", Neo begins to have nightmares about Trinity plunging to her death. Meanwhile, the rebels have returned to the city of Zion to learn that 250,000 sentinels are digging towards them in order to seek Zion and wipe out the human resistance. The Oracle gives Neo instructions to find the keymaker and seek out the source. If Neo fails the mission, then the rebellion will be crushed, and the machines will win the war.

The Matrix Revolutions
Everything that has a beginning has an end.

t is a dark time for the world. Neo is trapped in the "Train Station", between the Matrix and the Source. Zion is doomed to be crushed under an unstoppable army of countless Sentinels. But it is not only the human race that is in peril. The machines press ever onward against the humans, unaware that one force within the Matrix has slowly been growing, and has taken over that world completely: Smith. There is only one hope for both races, the one force that can stop Smith, and that is Neo. One final battle must ensue. And the outcome of this battle will decide the fate and future of both races.

The Truman show
The World is Watching

Truman Burbankis happy with his life. He is a successful business man, he has a nice wife and many friends. However, Truman finds his life is getting very repetitive. Actually every moment of his life is being filmed, being watched by millions, and that his world is limited in a small Hollywood film set. Truman decides to follow his discovery no matter how hard and how much it pains him.

Transformers
Their war. Our world.

High-school student Sam Witwicky buys his first car, who is actually the Autobot Bumblebee. Bumblebee defends Sam and his girlfriend Mikaela Banes from the Decepticon Barricade, before the other Autobots arrive on Earth. They are searching for the Allspark, and the war on Earth heats up as the Decepticons attack a United States military base in Qatar. Sam and Mikaela are taken by the top-secret agency Sector 7 to help stop the Decepticons, but when they learn the agency also intends to destroy the Autobots, they formulate their own plan to save the world.

Troy
For Honor

It is the year 1250 B.C. during the late Bronze age. Two emerging nations begin to clash after Paris, the Trojan prince, convinces Helen, Queen of Sparta, to leave her husband Menelaus, and sail with him back to Troy. After Menelaus finds out that his wife was taken by the Trojans, he asks his brother Agamemnom to help him get her back. Agamemnon sees this as an opportunity for power. So they set off with 1,000 ships holding 50,000 Greeks to Troy. With the help of Achilles, the Greeks are able to fight the never before defeated Trojans. But they come to a stop by Hector, Prince of Troy. The whole movie shows their battle struggles, and the foreshadowing of fate in this remake by Wolfgang Petersen of Homer's "The Iliad."

V for vendetta
Remember, remember the 5th of November

Adapted from David Lloyd's graphic novel of the same name, "V for Vendetta" tells the story of Evey Hammond and her unlikely but instrumental part in bringing down the fascist government that has taken control of a futuristic Great Britain. Saved from a life-and-death situation by a man in a Guy Fawkes mask who calls himself V, she learns a general summary of V's past and, after a time, decides to help him bring down those who committed the atrocities that led to Britain being in the shape that it is in.

Vanilla sky
Open Your Eyes

During the week he turns 33, NYC magazine publisher David Aames, a playboy who has strange dreams, spends a night of passion with Julie, "a friend he sometimes sleeps with," and a night with Sofia, a witty, knowing dancer with a Spanish accent - a night with intimations of love. David is charming, rich (his mother's Monet, "Vanilla Sky" is in his bedroom), and feckless: he inherited the magazines and his minority partners want him out. Jump ahead: he's in jail, wearing a prosthetic mask, talking to a sympathetic psychologist to get at the truth behind a death. Who has died? How? And who's Ellie? Popping up often on TV is Benny, a dog who survived for months frozen in ice.

Our society- Male dominated and/or Unsafe for women and/or too well structured and defined and/or restricted by itself?

I am not getting inclined suddenly towards thinking about different issues, I have been thinking about them for a long time. But then again, I am neither preacher nor someone who knows a lot or can figure out a way to remedy all that makes us suffer. That was the reason I never wrote anything about anything here. But this time what I thought was more interesting, or at least I thought it was so.

It was about 9:30 in night as I was standing outside a Sai temple, on crossroads. A lot of people were there, leaving and coming. I had to stay there for a while so I just started looking at girls. But before you assume that I was checking them out, let me tell you that I was rather analyzing that how many were wearing western dresses and how many were wearing Indian ones. Not that I have any kind of prejudice for any of above dressing senses, it was just to get an idea of female demography of dressing sense in Udaipur.

But I was soon thinking about something else. What happened was that I didn’t find many girls to come to any conclusion. In about 8 minutes, only 13 girls passed, 7 wearing western and 6 Indian. What I started thinking was about the reason of dearth of girls. Not only girls, there were very few women too, while men were everywhere. Last I saw, India had a sex ratio of 1000:933 (2001 census), which is quite OK, at least it made sure that there was not actually a true dearth of females. It was there for some reason-for some reason females were not coming out, especially in night. I can confirm that this is not the case in daytime. After thinking a while, I narrowed it down to four reasons-

1. 1. Our society is male dominated-Which means here men ‘call the shots’. So they decide to go out and decide what to buy or not, not needing the female opinion or help. Women are restricted in homes, doing all that they are supposed and asked by men. Men don’t care for, and won’t need, any kind of suggestion from their female friends of relatives and so, no woman out there. But this argument fails to provide a sufficient reason for the presence of women in daytime.

2. 2. Our cities are unsafe for women- Easiest reason to think of. It is dangerous for women to come out in night, for there are eve-teasers and offensive people. No need to elaborate.

3. 3. Our society is indeed really well structured and defined- Which implies that women and men both are given their specific tasks and everything goes as supposed. Men are supposed to do all the stuff which needed to be done outside, like buying stuff, getting laundry, booking tickets or even bringing someone home. Women are supposed to do all the stuff that goes in home, like cooking, cleaning, feeding the children or anything else. So it can be said that women are not actually restricted to homes, it is just that they are happy and satisfied with the system, doing what it expects from them. A simple and satisfying argument it might be, but just like the first argument, it fails to explain that why then there are enough females out in daylight and not in night. But still, we must consider it in absence of specific data and professional opinion.

4. 4. Society restricts itself- Ever heard of an infamous girl, who used to come home at 12 in night daily? Sure you have. But who actually knew why she did so? Some people might know. It is highly possible that she was doing a job at some BPO firm or was chief chef at a restaurant. But rather than thinking along these lines, those who didn’t know the reason, were thinking that she was ill-character girl who was probably hanging out (and going further) with her male friends. This made her infamous, and some even called her a whore. Who girl, who knows this incident, would like to go to buy something late in night (provided the markets are open anyway)? Probably very few. So it turns out that women are not coming out because they don’t want infamy in society and hence, the society is restricting itself.

Conclusions-

Argument 2 and 4 are more probable, as they at least successfully explain why there are women out in daytime and not in night.

There can’t be a single argument summing it all. In a society like this which is so complex, there must be families with different reasons for this. Let’s say in one family, men indeed call the shots (and women of those families neither come out in night nor in daytime) or that some regions of the city are indeed unsafe for women or some families do have a well defined job for everyone or that though coming late in night is not a material in high-rise buildings but is in middle and lower class families.

I am neither professional nor I know anything about this, I just wrote what I thought was a little bit interesting and insightful. I am not writing a thesis or doing survey or research on it. It is just a proof that sometimes, when you have got plenty of time and nothing to do, you come out with interesting things.

Any other reason popped in your mind? It will be appreciated and will entered here with due credit. Contact me at- kittoo4202004@gmail.com

Stupid girl gets a girlfriend…..

It might seem nonplussing more than funny, or Lesbian than straight, but it’s just a ‘not so practical’ joke I am using almost everywhere. Thanks to 'Friends', which I am watching more and more these days.

This phrase wasn’t in the same form in there as it is here, it was rather this- ‘Stupid guy on my phone’, which must be seen to be realized how funny it is. And even I don’t use it in the same form everywhere. What actually happened that I was stuck in a ‘Red-light’ stop when I saw a guy with his girlfriend (pardon me friend if she was your sister) on bike and as I am all alone these days, I just recalled the Friends phrase and said instinctively- ‘Stupid guy gets a girlfriend’ and somehow, without any apparent reason, I liked it a lot. So I was saying it whenever I saw a couple. But how its lesbian counterpart came along is a quite different story. It happened when I was coming back from a ‘new kind of experience’ (which I am going to talk about later), when I saw a really hot girl with some guy on bike, but it turned out later that it wasn’t a guy she was with, but it was another girl, and so the titled phrase slipped out of my tongue.

OK, getting back on more regular topics. I am watching a lot of ‘Friends’ these days, as I don’t really have many a things to do. And by a lot, I mean it literally. The only dilemma I face while watching it is that whenever a ‘sexually explicit’ scene comes along and my family members are there, it becomes weird to watch. I finished ‘Rainbow six- Vegas II’ as expected and also finished ‘Chronicles of Riddick- escape from the Butcher bay’. But what was unexpected, was that I finished –F.E.A.R. - Perseus mandate’ too. I will come honest, I didn’t like it much, and I just finished it because of three reasons-

1. If I finished this, I would have finished all games of F.E.A.R. series.

2. It would have added another name in my ‘Games completed’ list.

3. I didn’t have many more games to play.

I am not sure if I want to do a review of Perseus mandate, but I would write a few things about it. It is the same thing all along which was F.E.A.R. The gameplay isn’t much different, except that what seemed great and innovative in F.E.A.R. has turned into mediocre. It doesn’t scare anymore, and the game only gave me one creep all along, so Doom3 pees over it in this area. The story doesn’t progresses much, more in the fashion revolving here and there and actually goes nowhere. And pardon me if it did progress a bit (I did hear the word ‘Project Origin’ here and there, which is the name of the upcoming true sequel of F.E.A.R.) because I just wasn’t into it. The graphics have no upgrades whatsoever (guess this way, in the stress test, my card had 133FPS average, at 1280*1024 and 4xAA, 16xAF with all settings high and all soft shadows and everything like that turned on. And BTW, even the test is the same as it was in F.E.A.R.). So all in all, it’s a game if you want to play more F.E.A.R., that’s it.

But the last statement puts me in a perplexing position; cause isn’t the same statement true for ‘Rainbow six- Vegas II’? I mean, after all, it is the same game, just the story progressing. But there are little differences here and there, like the addition of support for Anti Aliasing, and some little more upgrades to the graphics engine. And then again, the story does progresses much more than let’s say….in the contender above, and the arc ends, although the story wasn’t that great. So I can give much more credit to Rainbow six: Vegas II than Perseus mandate.

Chronicles of Riddick was much better game than anyone would expect from a movie game but it’s too old to be reviewed. Still I would say that if you haven’t played it, go play.

The game I really want to review as of now is- ‘The Witcher’. Yes I have finished it and the good news is this that it is really really good. Then again, I want to give it as much credit as it deserves, so I would be reviewing it in a whole new entry entirely dedicated to it.

And now to the ‘new kind of experience’ I was talking about. It started this way that some MLA got a heart-attack and some MP came to meet him in Udaipur. That MP was somehow related to us and so I had to go there with my mom to meet him. To be honest, the highest authority I have ever met will probably be the head of DUGC committee in IIT. So meeting a MP was kind of a big deal. But that isn’t the ‘new kind of experience’ I was talking about. What I was talking about was the experience of seeing how things go on when there are a bunch of politicians. As soon as we entered the hospital premise, we encountered police vehicles everywhere, policemen were everywhere and for the first time I saw that it was taken care of that who parks his/her vehicle where. Inside the premise was no different, except the fact that there were many many more people there. As far as I could guess, there was only one family which really had someone dear in ICU, other than the MLA of course. The family was relegated to a corner of stairs (not to ruin the mood, but one of the two girls in the family was really hot) and some high profile people were talking in very amiable way to each other, going over the top most of the time. Some were introducing lower profile persons to their high profile ones, which most of the time was to get something done (most of the public was there to get something done anyway). Handshakes, hugs, smiles and compliments were flying everywhere and there was a lot to wonder on the question that if those good people were so bad-mouthed politicians actually, how come they are perceived so badly?

In the end, after a long wait, we did meet the MP we came to meet, and it was a meeting that lasted less than a minute, in which I was not even introduced! I didn’t want to go in the first place, but mom kept forcing me, citing that it would be nice to get introduced to some ‘high profile’ people and that how can it be bad, if not good? I probably did fall for those, but thank God I didn’t fall for her suggestion that I should touch feet of that MP for benediction when we meet him. In a place where everyone was getting his/her job done in any way possible, it is not hard to guess that such action would have been perceived as great flattery.

Finally, I returned home at 11:30 in night, exhausted and irritated, but what I earned was this ‘new kind of experience’ and that was probably the only good thing about that (except checking out that hot girl of course!)

A tribute to first love....and moving on

Anything tributary is usually written in the end, but I am writing it in the beginning. Reason- I wanted to end it before moving on. Despite of me having said that I was not going to write abuot Bhumika, I am writing this because all those who saw me as 'one woman man', or better to say as 'one girl boy', and appreciated for that (Oh I so recall Ravi tahiliani right now) will cry if I dont do this. So here, first I write a tribute to Bhumika.

A blurring memory she is, with aeons passed since I last saw her. A good companion, a better friend. I lost her because of some follies and tried to ger her back as hard as I could. After lingering on for long, I am finally moving on, when all doors are closed and hate is the only feeling she has left for me. I couldnt have said it better myself, so I use these lines from one of my favorite movies- 'Little Manhattan',

"Love is an ugly terrible buisness, practiced by fools. It will trample your heart and leave you bleeding on floor. But what does it give you really in the end? Nothing but a few incredible memories, that you can never shake. The truth is, there's gonna be other girls out there. But, I am never gonna get another first love. That one is always gonna be her."

So, I completed my tribute and am ready to move on. Hence, let is move forward with the juicy thing.....

It was a boring afternoon, as I was lying on the bed in hospital, waiting for the daily checkups, I saw a foreigner girl coming towards my ward. She went towards the nurse, showed a note and asked about 'Kamal'.
"Oh! That would be me." I said.
"Hi, Kamal. I am Rebecca."
It turned out that she was a member of the IIT Bombay foreign students association or something like that. They do some welfare too. They heard about me and my condition and all, and she came to wish me well.
She is from Sweden, and is, obviously, fair as milk. Now dont expect that I would write anything bad about her, so keep reading only if yuu want to know what happened next.
After talking a few minutes about all that I was going through, we moved on to different things. Whether call it good or bad, we are at extremes only about our dislikes or likes. Either we love the same thing (or hate) or either hate absolutely what the other one likes. For example, her favorite band is 'The corrs', which is same with me. But then again, she likes 'The Cranberries' and I think that all their songs other than 'Zombie' are crap. She absolutely loves 'Smallville', and so do I. But then again, I like 'Seinfeld' as I think it is one of the best TV series ever made, but she thinks its characters are unreal. In movies, we agree on 'Vanilla sky', but differ highly on 'Requiem for a dream', as I think it was really slow paced movie.
Then we talked about many other things, like girlfriends and boyfriends. I told her all the truth from my side and dont ask how she reacted. Guess from the fact that she too split from her boyfriend about half an year ago, before coming here (Oh thank God for that).
We talked for about one hour, before my checkup time came. As she was leaving, I somehow managed to ask this daring question- 'Will we meet again?' and well, what she said was rewarding. 'Sure, why not? Lets go to McD tomorrow evening and murder a big mac or two. Are you free?'
Although I was free, I could have cancelled anything to go with her.
I prepared a lot for that 'going out'. Shaved. got a hair cut, bought a new pair of dress and prepared a lot about what I was going to talk about.
"Are you ready?" Her call came exactly at 5pm.
"Yeah, absolutely."
"Good, cause I am standoing outside your hostel." So she proved that she did posses some sense of humor.
As I went out, I saw that gorgeous girl waiting for me. She was wearing knee-cut jeans and sleeveless T-shirt with something like hand version of leggings (sorry I dont know what they are called exactly).
Unfortunately, she was also wearing high-heeled sandles, with lesses rounded up high. No-no, they were absolutely fine as far as looking good is concerned. The problem was, when she came to hospital, I couldnt exactly compare her height with mine. I was afraid that she might be a CM or two taller than me (BTW, I measured my height after a long time and was surprised to see that I am 176CM now, and not 173 which I was about two years ago!). Those high-heeled sandles worried me more. But in the end, even with those 5-6CM high heels, she was only almost as tall as me. So without heels, I am about 3-4CM taller than her. Yippy!!!!!!. And those who say that it is fashion having taller female companion, citing Tom-Katie or Sarkozy-Bruni, I say I still prefer the old way, although I do believe that the difference should be minimal.
Before moving on, I would describe how she looks, as this is a good opportunity. She is kinda slim, which makes her look taller than she is. But then again, no one ever said that I was a fatass. Her color is, as I said earlier, fair like every girl (and some boys like me) dream of. Her hair are mostly blonde, with some brown ones here and there (I didnt ask if she colored them). She wears specs when she studies and hence obviously, she wasnt wearing them there. Needless to say, she is gorgeous.

We walked till McD, which was about 2 and a half KM from my hostel.
And for a surprise, and a huge one at that, her favorite topic for talking is video games! For a girl, that is really really strange, but I am so damn impressed. We even sang lines from 'Still alive' song from game 'Portal'-

"And then science gets done,
and you make a neat gun,
for the people who are still alive."

That was really beautiful.
Then we had a competition of drinking hot Espresso- that who would drink it faster. This, although debatable, I won.
After having a lot of fun, we came back at about 9:30pm. And when I was leaving, this time she asked- "Maybe we can do it again, this time somewhere funny."
Oh!!!!! How could I have asked for more.
"Yeah, of course. This Saturday."

And then I returned back, cheerfully.

So folks, this saturday, I am going to IMAX with her. how I became so lucky to be with such a gorgeous girl and so unlucky to have so little time remaining in life?
Yes, I do want to ask her that what she thinks about me, but as a guy who himself dosent know whether he is going to live more than four months, I cant take this risk. And then again, howsoever blur she may be, Bhumika is not totally out of my mind. I am trying hard to forget her, and Rebecca made it much much easier, but till I get both these things sorted out, I wont ask her anything.

Review- Assassin’s creed

A truly next-gen game marred by last-gen problems

Hype- that’s the one word which drove the game on top. But being top in sales didn’t come from stellar reviews. The game, which was thought to be an all-new experience in previews, didn’t get as good as reviews as it was supposed to. An all new experience it is, still. There is little doubt that this go anywhere game is truly next-gen, allowing you to do things no other game ever allowed. But the problem stems from this only. The truth is, with this much nextgenness, this game could have been so much more. But what it actually is is a bunch of repetitive missions, clad is different masks.

Discussing good things first, then we will go towards the problems with this one.

The good-

1. 1. The ‘Go anywhere’ system- If this is not next-gen, there can’t be anything. In this game, you are never ever stopped from jumping and grabbing any ledge, window or bar you think can be grabbed. Climb anywhere, go the way you want. This freedom certainly comes handy in chases. When you are being chased by soldiers, it is so much fun to take sudden turn in the next street and then jump on any home and go on roof, out of sight, and hide.

2. 2.Animation, Graphics and the recreation of the era- This one contains one of the best animations you are supposed to see in a game. The movement of our character, Altair, is so fluid and smooth, especially considering the level of interactivity this game allows, that there is no reason why you won’t want to pat Ubisoft Montreal on their back. Animations of all other characters and NPCs are top-notch.

Graphics are another high-point. Although I didn’t much appreciate that this game runs in a cinema scope kind of way, there is no denying that scimitar engine is good. The lightning must be appreciated, although the sudden and frequent alternating between sunlight and shadows because of moving clouds wasn’t as interesting as it sounds. The textures, although bump mapped, are a bit low res, probably because the game was primarily designed for consoles, which have less RAM. The areas are absolutely huge, no denying that. All cities and especially the kingdom are mind-boggling in size. Engine supports Anti-Aliasing which works perfectly fine. At 4xAA, there was very little jaggedness to be found. How good this engine at AA, must be seen when Altair views whole cities from a high-point.

All three cities are recreated realistically and are meticulously detailed. Each city has its own color palette. The reason, why developers did this, is something I didn’t think much about. It looks good and is interesting anyway. Acre is bluish, Damascus is orangey/brown and Jerusalem is yellowish (over bright too, probably because of over HDR). All cities feel living-breathing with mostly realistic reactions from NPCs on our actions.

3. 3. Some parts of the combat system- I say some parts because the combat system truly polarized me. There are some parts where it feels really good and works perfectly fine, then there are some parts where it will feel frustrating. We will talk about the worse parts later.

I loved throwing knives. It was a refreshing concept, especially for a game which contains slashing most of the time. The stealth parts were good enough, although a bit hard, especially when you were going to kill someone who was on high ground than you. Altair kills his foes in many different ways, all brutal, which is fun. There are not many combos and I never actually tapped many different keys to do any special kill, Altair used it to do himself.

The Bad-

1. 1. Some parts of the combat system- There are no combos, so actually you can’t do much else than keep pressing the keys faster and faster. In a condition when you are surrounded by many soldiers, you can’t do anything if one is coming from behind to kill you and you are beating someone in front of you. In theory, there is thing to say that you can lock the one who is coming from behind, but whenever I tried, either I ended up locking someone third guy, or the guy whom I left fighting, beat me.

The tutorial says that the short blade is the best weapon to fend off multiple enemies, but whenever I tried to use it, I died real quick. I preferred to use the sword instead.

2. 2. Stupid, uneven A.I. - Will they notice, will they won’t? They made me confused all the time. Sometimes, when I killed someone, and blended immediately, a soldier who should have seen me immediately, will keep searching for the killer, uttering- ‘come on, show yourself’. And sometimes, when I am blended and just moving in street, a soldier suddenly recognizes me and I have to run for my life then!

Soldiers wait for their turn in a fight, most of the times. It’s a good thing and bad both. It’s good because if they had attacked simultaneously, the combat system would be in need of a total revamp, and must be then made on the lines of PoP series. It’s bad because it its utterly stupid that they wait for their turn. It’s worse because they don’t always wait, they do attack from behind a few times. And then the combat system fails because it is too hard to lock the other one and fight him.

3. 3. The hiccups- On a super powerful system which is my system, I had to face hiccups here and there, especially in cities. They didn’t take away much from the immersion as such, but they were distracting.

4. 4. The menus are irritating and long- It takes a long time to enter the game and to get out of it. PC users can do Alt+F4 as a rescue though.

5. 5. Repetition of NPC dialogues, beggars and jar carriers- It might seem a small thing to mention, but it’s not. NPCs have very few dialogues. Every time I was on roofs, or many times in the cities, I heard this dialogue every twenty seconds- “Thief, you are filth.” And- “You dare steal in my presence! I will have your hand for that.” There are a few more dialogues, but they are not many. This absolutely distracts from the feeling that this is a living, breathing city.

There are jar carriers everywhere. They probably are equal, if not more, in numbers than other NPCs. The tutorial says that hitting jar carriers can easily make you socially unacceptable, but they are so many roaming here and there, and drop their jars even when Altair is only passing near them, it is hard to bother about them, because it’s going to happen anyway.

The Ugly-

1. 1. It’s a technically incomplete, highly unstable game (PC version) - It crashes a lot, take my words for that. I don’t know about the patch, but the first version is highly unstable. It will crash every once in a while, and is really frustrating when you finished a hard mission, or a brutal fight, and you will have to do it again. I almost stopped playing the game once because it crashed so much after a specific mission that I wasn’t able to advance in a game. After killing William, which itself unevenly hard if you go by conventional ways, every time I was returning to The Bureau, it crashed. It happened five times and I gave up, stopped playing the game. When I returned after five days, and replayed, it worked.

2. 2. It’s a lot repetitive- The whole game is the repetition of same mission. Go in a city, climb towers, do two or three side missions, and then finally kill the final target. Go in a different city, do it again. Do this thrice for every city and you have finished Assassin’s creed. It is more frustrating because it is clear that this game could have been so much more given the technology it runs on, but unfortunately it isn’t.

This can be summed just like I did in my title; it runs on a truly next gen technology but falls apart by problems which are present in gaming from eternity. In a time when games like Crysis are reaching new heights in gaming, avoiding most of the pitfalls, Assassin’s creed could have been stellar if it just had avoided those mistakes, just like Crysis did.

7.5/10.

Price- 1299/-

Review- The Witcher

A RPG gem from CDProjekt, don’t let this sleeper hit go off on your radar

When I started playing games, and for a long time after that, I wasn’t into RPGs. But then came ‘The Elder scrolls IV: Oblivion’, which changed my opinion about RPGs. It was the first RPG that gave me some of the best gaming moments I ever had. Unfortunately, there was no RPG after that gem which gave me such satisfaction.

Then came The Witcher, the RPG I didn’t play for a long while after playing its Prologue. But in the days when I didn’t have any other game to play, I returned to it, and it wasn’t long before I realized that I was missing one of the best games ever!

If Oblivion is the grand daddy of all RPGs, The Witcher certainly is another in its territory. I wanted to say ‘The Witcher’ the grandchild, but I just can’t because they are so different, in spite of both being RPGs. While the world in Oblivion was extremely vast, the world into The Witcher is not as big. While Oblivion used streaming as a solution to allow player wander into that world (and hence giving hiccups here and there, which I hated totally), Witcher prefers loading every area separately. While Oblivion refrained from all kind of adult material and/or nudity, Witcher contains both in plenty for a game. While in Oblivion you could go anywhere with a click (once you have discovered the place), in Witcher you can’t. While the combat system of Oblivion was kind a tried and tested in many games, Witcher invents a totally click-based combat (which BTW, works flawlessly), more on which later. There are many many more differences but let’s leave them at that.

There are similarities too, like both having top notch background score and voice acting, gorgeous graphics and some technical problems.

Now we will leave comparisons behind, and will focus on The Witcher.

It begins with an awesome CGI movie, in which Geralt of Rivia, the protagonist and our character, lifts curse from a princess who has become a striga. If anyone has doubts about the production values of The Witcher as it comes from a small studio (CD Projekt), which is making its first ever game, they should vanish after seeing this CGI. Then the story moves in mean times, when Witchers are all vanished and death roams the lands freely. You, who has lost his memory, are saved by a group of good folks who take you to a safe place where you are treated by the gorgeous Triss Marigold (and after a while you are going to have sex with her, giving an idea how The Witcher dosen’t refrain from it). After a little fight, which serves as tutorial, you are set free to find out who you truly are and to be drawn into the story.

I, when I was playing the first time, left playing it after that. When I returned, it just didn’t let me go. The places you will go after prologue, be it the Outskirts of Vizima, Vizima, Swamps, Village or fields, they are all living, breathing and gorgeous.

Graphics- The Witcher runs on highly modified Bioware Aurora Engine and looks absolutely incredible and next-gen. Yes, it has its fair share of technical problems, like frame rates dropping in some certain areas without any apparent reason, but it impresses in the end. Animations though, could use a little help. Not to say that they are absolutely worse, but they are blocky sometimes. The other common complain, probably mentioned by every reviewer, are that almost every second characters look same. All dwarves look same, every old woman is the same one and there aren’t many different looking males or females.

To sum up, it might not be no Crysis, but it looks better than most of the games- 8.5/10

Gameplay- Puts all the fun tricks of RPGs in perfect fashion, modeling the best RPG this year. First and foremost, the click-based combat system. The beauty of this system lies in its simplicity. It feels altogether new way of slashing sword, but how great it is. You just have to click on the right time, when the cursor turns in sword or flaming sword, and that would be it. There are three styles- fast, group and strong, which will be used according to the enemy, to be effective. Then there are signs which replace what are ‘spells’ in most of the RPGs. There are five signs, each having their own effect.

Then there are your decisions, which indeed model the game. There are many games which claim, but few succeed, and The Witcher surely is one of those few. You will encounter some critical decisions, which will decide your friends and foes.

The quests involve fighting and figuring out mostly, but thanks to the a well organized map, figuring out isn't a tedious task, as it might seem. Some quests will require you to use your conversational skills and/or pleasing someone by giving some gift. These too are fun and not hard to figure out.

Although the game uses a day-night cycle, you can move time ahead quickly by meditating near any fireplace. Meditation is also the time when you distribute your talents, which decide levels of your skills. The inventory and talents menu might be a bit nonplussing initially, but once you get used to them, they aren’t that hard to figure out.

Then there is sex, which although really isn’t something important to the progression of the game, is fun sometimes. Every sex unlocks a specific sex-card, depicting an erotic picture. BTW, you will have chance to have sex from prostitutes to princess to Goddess, so there are plenty of options.

Overall, it is the best RPGs have to offer- 10/10

Presentation- As I said already, even though CD Projekt is a small studio and this is their first game, the presentation is A-grade. The music, especially, is superb and suits the game perfectly. The voice acting is good too.

The story is quite good, but I don’t really know if it follows the book. Nonetheless, it is able to draw you in and as it progresses and you make friends and foes, you will get attached to the character, which many games don’t succeed in.

There are some technical issues with the game, especially with the loading times. In version 1.0 of the game, they are really long. The good news is this that patch 1.2 improves them a lot, so that is highly recommended.

9.5/10

A.I., Controls, Accessibility- A.I. is generally good; better than most of the games, even high profile ones (Assassin’s creed being one of them). At least I didn’t find a single when NPCs making fool out of him/her. When it rained, they took shelter and cursed the rain, thugs only came out in night and even animals and birds reacted realistically whenever approached to.

The controls, mainly revolving around the signs and click based system, might feel a bit odd initially, are appreciable once you get used to. The inventory might feel a bit cluttered and unorganized sometimes, but won’t make you frustrated.

9/10

Conclusion- A game this good doesn’t come along often, grab it. It makes it more special cause it’s a sleeper, a game which probably didn’t come on most of the people’s radar in the busy holiday season.

Overall- 9/10

Price- Rs.1299/-