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!)

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/-

A long pause it was...awkward and awesome (maybe)

The pause was for both, for my blog entries and for my life too. I went home, and as a result, both of these things were paused. I call it awkward because when I went home, it was a time when I was supposed to be here, in IIT. I knew it, but I still went. It was more weird whenin the last days there, I started feeling that it was too long and I wanted to come here, which is strange. And well...after that, it didn't take me long to come back.
So back I am....and there are things which I would like to write about. First and foremost I would start with games, as usual. I finished Frontlines-Fuels of war. And it is a game i wont like to write a review of. To be honest, it doesnt do many things wrong. The problem is, it dosent do anything new in any way. I completed it for the sake of completion, cause I didnt want to install a 12GB game again.
After finishing it, I didn't have anything to do. It was then when I realized there was a game I needed to finish. It was Indigo Prophecy (or Fahrenheit as some people know it). I hesitated a bit, cause I knew its graphics weren't so good and I am a graphics junkie. But then I recalled its stellar gameplay. I re installed it and started playing. I resumed from where I had left the game and it didn't take long to again get sucked in the story and gameplay. The game only went better from there. When I finished it, I was only thinking how good 'heavy rain' would be. It is a bit sad for me that it is going to be a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Oh PS3 is huge in my mind these days because of all its stellar exclusive, released or unreleased.
Then once again, I didn't have anything to do. As I was looking in my installed games list, I saw a long ignored game- The withcer. I am not a big fan of RPGs, but The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion stands high in my favorites list. I had played Prologue and a bit of Chapter I of it a while back, and it didnt impress me much, so I was hesitating to play it. but I didn't have many choices and I started playing it again. But it didn't take me to realize that I was so wrong. The game is freaking awesome!!!!! I am not really sure if it triumphed Oblivion, but there is no hesitation in saying that it was nowhere below than that gem of a game. Everything about that game was stellar. I played it for two days continuously before coming here but couldn't complete it. I am looking forward to complete it. Till I played, the level- 'The swamp forest' stands out as the best level of the game. I am not writing a review as I haven't completed it, but will do it.

Apart from gaming, there didn't happen anything special, probably other than this thta I didnt go to Chhoti sadri. It is continuously second, and there are only two, time when I went home but didn't go to Chhoti sadri. The reason is not something I entirely know, but I know a big reason is this that Chhoti sadri is not as near from Udaipur as it was from Pratapgarh.
One more reason is this that there is less attraction since I vowed to stop going there for 'you know who'.

Hmmm...what else can I write about?????? Noting is coming to my mind as of now, so I am forced to close this entry rather than dragging it.