March 17, 2008

Legend Lara

Never has a game made me write a review. This is a first. It all started with me going to Crossword, because I had

nothing better to do. They do sell video games at Crossword. Oddly recent games like Tomb Raider: Legend and Hitman:

Bloodmoney were priced at just Rs. 300. I had to get the game. After about 2 hours of deliberating I decided to get



Tomb Raider: Legend.


What made me get the game? Gamer TV gave it a 5/5 rating. I make a mental note of every 5/5 Gamer TV game. Lets see,

Star Wars Lego.. Ghost Recon 360.. Legend Of Zelda Wii.. there are more which I don't have time to remember..

Anyway to the game, the plot is pretty well, creative to say the least. Lara, on investigating the death of her mother, realizes that she has to get the sword of Excalibur, the parts of which are scattered in different countries. The game follows Lara to these diverse countries. The scenery is amazing, although I when I switched on the "Next Generation" display setting the game speed reduced to a halt.. almost.

The countries are as diverse as Bolivia, Peru, Japan, Kazhakistan, Ghana, and Nepal. Each country has a different piece of the sword.

Also, Lara is looking her best yet in this game. Check this out
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/ff/LaraCroftTombRaiderEvoWUnderw.jpg

Lara's tricks are dependent on timing. Theres no specific tutorial for the tricks, you have to find that out yourself. Like pressing the F key the right number of times and at the correct intervals will get her to somersault and stuff.

What impressed me was the combat, although I had to change the weapon keys, the combat was extremely fluid.

Also, I didn't get bored at all. Lara has some really funny and witty conversations with Zip (her right hand man), who speaks to her via some satellite thing from her mansion. Its sorta like the Prince Of Persia talking to himself or having conversations with his darker side.

Another new feature is the use of a magnetic grapple, which is used to attach to higher objects and then swing from it or to pull objects towards herself.

The game is fairly easy (in Normal mode) and short too. I finished the whole thing in 2 days. Gamespot had an issue with the length and the camera angles. The camera angles are pretty good actually, save for some instances, and some levels. The camera goes berserk during the last boss battle.
Also, sometimes Lara doesnt respond properly. For example, Lara will sometimes do a back flip even though you've pressed Right and Jump.

Frankly, I couldn't find too many faults with the game, or maybe I'm just overlooking them. Even if there are some, the other aspects more than make for it.

FPS w/o the S

I've not always liked games which focus on combat, although I do play them for lack of choice. But its always great to see a non-combat game come along (I'm not talking of RTS or RPG's). Looks like EA DICE (yet another EA branch) have taken the initiative. A game called "Mirror's Edge" will be out soon. Unfortunately theres no real gameplay footage yet, but what I've heard of the game is awesome. Believe it or not, its an FPS, without guns! So its not a shooter, its just FP.. The game is like Assassins Creed (but not Sandbox). It involves a girl called "Faith" who can scale any surface. The focus is on jumping & running from building to building. Here you outrun enemies instead of fighting them. The full story here

Tech 2 'Mirror's Edge' Preview

February 25, 2008

Blu-ray emerges champions

For some reason this really important piece of news reached my very late. The papers didn't carry it, or maybe I just missed it. Who knows?

But while just surfing Tech2, I found out Blu-ray had won the next-gen disc battle with the HD-DVD. Something I didn't not expect. I thought HD-DVD might overdo BD (Blu-ray Disc), not that I was rooting for it, I just thought that the HDDVD might win.. but guess not..

Microsoft Pulls Plug on HD DVD Players

All About Blu-ray


25 GB!!!!

The 80th Annual Academy Awards

A bald guy with a sword covered in gold. Thats America's and possible the entire worlds most coveted award.

Jon Stewart was back as host this time, after Ellen Degeneres didn't really click last year. I'm not exactly a fan of Jon's Comedy Central show on CNN.

Arrow will be happy to note that Juno won for Best Original Screenplay :P

I try to make it a point to watch all the Oscar nominated shows the following year.. at least I try to.. I've never actually completed it..

No Country For Old Men took away Best Picture. It got 4 wins out of its 8 nominations..

No real comments on this years Oscars. Just a normal annual thing. Nothing REALLY unique.

Also since the awards just ended 10 mins ago.. amazing gow Wiki is already completed updated..