F.E.A.R.

First Encounter Assault Recon - a special unit to deal with extra-terrestrial forces.. this FPS starts off just like a lot of other similar games do.. no foreworks.. just a simple intro.. and straight into the story and the game..

But as I progressed I realized that this was no ordinary shooting game.. it actually freaked me out on a number of situations and the way in which the story plot is laid out is also very engaging.. the slow-mo feature which is now a std part of most games is used very effectively here..

graphics are up to the mark.. and AI is EXCELLENT - the enemies actually plan out methods to kill me.. absolutely stunning..

the climax is a bit of a let down.. but the last last shot is chilling!!

Score : 84 - great game.. dont miss!!

Of Kanda Naal Muthal, 15 Park Avenue, Aathi and Paramasivan..

I caught a few movies over the last few days.. but as usual.. didnt find the time to update here.. so heres one blog with all the reviews!!

Kanda Naal Muthal : Excellent movie.. good potrayal of a soft romance.. good performances by all of the lead cast.. Prakash Raj gives a great offering to Tamil cinema again!! The only real downer in this one would be the duet songs in the 2nd half.. but Yuvan has ensured that the songs are good enough to overlook the intrusion on the story.. Dont miss!!

Score : 76

15 Park Avenue : Aparna Sen is back and this time she has Konkona Sen Sharma playing a schizopherniac.. The film is somewhat slow and though it has its moments I didnt really empathise with the central character.. All the actors give commendable performances but the climax completely spoiled the movie for me.. this is a movie for godsake.. not a short story!!

Score : 64 - skip the climax

Aathi : This one actually starts off quite unlike a Vijay movie (he is not in the first frame.. and there is NO intro song).. even the Script is quite decent.. but as we progress the normal Vijay elements come in.. amazingly huge logic loopholes.. useless songs.. unnecessary dialouge banter.. heavy fights with the Matrix BGM..
Vijay is getting better and better as an actor.. but the films he chooses to do leave a lot to be desired.. he better choose carefully if he wants to be a strong future top star!!

Score : 54 - average

Paramasivan : This is supposed to be Ajit's comeback vehicle.. and P.Vasu's great offering post-Chandramuki.. and it was quite disappointing.. the only saving grace was the lean and fit looking Ajit.. otherwise, there is little that really stands this movie up.. can be missed!!

Score : 52

The Matrix : Path Of Neo (PON)

This one has been a long time in development and has finally hit the shelves this year.. a video game which ACTUALLY allows us to play in the shoes of NEO!!

Straight away the game introduces a novelty.. in choosing the game difficulty setting.. we are allowed to play the lift lobby scene and based on how well we play the difficulty setting is chosen!! COOL..

From this point on, the game follows the oh-so-familiar storyline of the movies.. allowing us to play all the interesting parts!! One major change from "Enter the Matrix" (ETM) is that the special moves are much better defined here.. we can actually choose XYZ key combo to bring about that cool looking move!! Also the graphics and sound are much much better... one thing which is worse compared to ETM is the cutscene scenario.. in PON we basically have the film footage very hastily edited and put together for effect while ETM had exclusive video footage..

Also Neo acquires more and more powers as the game goes on.. and towards the latter stages.. we can pull off some really awesome link combos.. where Neo thrashes 4-5 guys at a time!! One thing which irked me was that as soon as the "reloaded" architect scene got over.. we r pushed to the grand finale "Smith" fight.. sure "Revolutions" has almost nothing going on inside the Matrix. but the game guys could have put something here..

Overall.. very interesting game.. even though u already know the story.. it is worth playing just to see all those cool stunts which Neo does..

Score : 79 - dont miss it if u plugged into the Matrix!

And so we start again...

Not very long back.. there were almost no matches (cricket or otherwise) being played between India and Pakistan due to political reasons.. this in turn led to big value being placed on any such match which did take place.. so finally when we started playing each other on the sub-continent the marketing gurus took over and ensured that the potential mega-bucks were realised.

There is no doubt now that the entire cricket world is dependent on Asia, and India in particular for its revenue.. lot of recent events incl India dictating schedules being evidence of this.. the Aussies play the best cricket but wherever we turn, ad revenue is from India, so everyone wants more Indian matches!! This is also the reson why we are having so frequent tours of Pakistan.. and so few tours of the Windies!!

Another recent phenomenon on the rise is the so called "mental wars" before a series with evry other player sounding off their verbal abuse on their opponents.. as can be expected, the Aussies indulge in this activity heavily.. but India-Pak? Surprise.. surprise.. Shoaib says he is better prepared (forgot the World Cup - ur career almost ended there man), Afridi says Sehwag is the only real prob (so what abt Sachin, Dravid and Laxman - BTW is Afridi going to be in the playing 11?), Inzi says we have "plans", bouncy pitches, we will stop Sachin (man u r going to eat ur words).. of course, the Indians are also mouthing off these days - but atleast they are not tall claims.. but I say that Saurav Ganguly has the best chance to emerge as the dark horse.. to make his critics eat their words..

So who is better prepared? The Pakis actually murdered the English team who just came of a historical Ashes win.. while the Indians are continuously notching up very very competitive victories under their belt..

My prediction : based on sheer talent .. India shld win 2-1.. lets see how it unfolds!!