Big Boned Gamer

Kurt Cobain 1 – 0 Justin Bieber ..

WARNING : This aint just a game!!

This game does not have Epic bloodshed like the Gears series, nor does it look horrifying like Silent Hill.. But still I got the creeps playing it couple of months back.

The games storyline fails to give me a headshot but altogether its a must play for all types of gamers, this game had me glued to my seat for a long time. The game world despite being a fantastical realm of twisting shadows and realities, is solidly anchored in authenticity. Outstanding environmental design and some brilliant visuals and sound makes the game and its mountainous surroundings look and feel alive. Remedy’s done a great job of mixing elements of written work, television, and videogames to create an experience full of scares, laughs, and thrills that’s just as fun to play as it is to watch.

On September 13, 1985, Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan, meaning the world’s most famous plumber’s most famous game is now 25 years old. Happy birthday!!

The Epic run doesnt end here.. Soon to be released is Mario Kart on the new Nintendo 3DS platform as well, I’m guessing Mario is here to stay for a long long time..

Being a Game tester I’ve had my time with the Nintendo DS, Sony Ps3, Sony PSP, Nintendo Wii, Xbox360 and the good ol PC as well. Honestly I enjoyed playing on all the consoles, yes even the Nintendo DS. A Console for a gamer is like a weapon for a warrior. Picture this : Every warrior cannot wield a sword, some of them use bows or daggers etc.. Just like this every gamer is comfortable with one or more gaming consoles, but the point is there is always a personal favorite, for me its the Xbox360..

I’ve been hooked onto MMORPG’s for sometime now, and always loved playing with human beings rather than just the AI [Artificial Intelligence].  I will share the MMO experience with you guys soon, but firstly playing games online for me is a better experience and a nerve racking challenge that gets better and better.. Trust me..

So which console gives me a good online experience? And where do I find good mature gamers? So many questions in mind before choosing the console.. But then when it comes to just online games Xbox360 provides a massive platform for online games with good servers and superb games to it.. And not to forget the insane gaming communities with ‘classy’ players up for the competition, the madness simply doesn’t end.

I only play games on my console, I hate watching movies, pictures and the gayest reason possible the marketing guys tell you to buy the console for.. A Gamer needs a console to play games on. Seriously!! Think!! If you need a gaming console then the X360 is the right one, and if you need your lipstick and makeup kit then there are other consoles you can find in the market.

My advice for anyone buying a console is :

1. Figure out your needs, Hardcore Gaming vs Makeup Kit !
2. Check your budget.
3. Get a demo of every console in the same category.
4. Dont get carried away by just looking at the BLING!!
5. Still confused? Breathe!! and try step 1 again..

I’ll tell you how difficult it was for me to choose, its like having these choices :

vsvs

All of them satisfy the hunger.. Its just a matter of Taste!!

EAVB_YIOLRLGTZP

Bungie has confirmed that Halo: Reach will be made available in three different forms when it’s released this autumn – Standard, Limited and Legendary.

Hmm.. now lets check whats in those different forms :

Standard Edition :

Limited Edition :

And LEGENDARY :

And then i read this : The two special editions will be available only while supplies last, so fans who want to secure their copy and ensure access to the exclusive in-game armor sets are encouraged to preorder quickly.

Although the special editions look promising its not worth Rs 7500/- for a Indian gamer like me, the reason being the resale value we get on our games out here. Special Edition or not, we guys get mugged here by the local Gaming Dealers and there’s nobody who could help us out.. I have enough reasons to play Halo Reach and might just go with the Standard Edition to end the Epic Saga, I hope bungie has a BANG! stored in for us..

What is Mapathy ? Why is it driving Mordern Warfare 2 gamers mad ? Is there a cure for this syndrome ? Check out the video for all your answers..

I liked the way these guys came up the video and a good marketing idea to release a DLC rather than the typical sterotype fashion. Im sure this DLC will bring back the love for Modern Warfare II.

London, Mar. 24 (ANI): Al Qaeda is laying deadly “booby traps” by equipping its female suicide bombers with explosive breast implants that are impossible to be detected at airport security checkpoints, British intelligence agency, MI5, has claimed.
“Women suicide bombers recruited by al-Qaeda are known to have had the explosives inserted in their breasts under techniques similar to breast enhancing surgery,” The Sun quoted Terrorist expert Joseph Farah, as saying.

The lethal explosives called PETN are inserted inside plastic shapes during the operation, before the breast is then sewn up, he added.

According to MI5, Al Qaeda doctors have been trained at some of Britain’s leading teaching hospitals before returning to their own countries to perform the surgical procedures.

The intelligence agency has also discovered that extremists are inserting the explosives into the buttocks of some male suicide bombers.

Top surgeons have confirmed the feasibility of the explosive implants.

“Properly inserted the implant would be virtually impossible to detect by the usual airport scanning machines,” one surgeon said.

“You would need to subject a suspect to a sophisticated X-ray. Given that the explosive would be inserted in a sealed plastic sachet, and would be a small amount, would make it all the more impossible to spot it with the usual body scanner,” he added.

A sachet containing as little as five ounces of PETN could blow “a considerable hole” in an airline’s skin, causing it to crash, experts say.

- Yahoo News

You got to be kidding me! This was the first news I saw this morning and trust me this one was the sickest of all things possible.. What the fcuk is happening in todays world, Humans are gonna be the source of their own destruction!! Stuff like this leads to another abuse for the innocent Muslim friends around the world, I somethings wish I could do something about these things.. Being a mere gamer I could just post my views about it!

Sony has launched a new section of PlayStation.Blog where users can submit new ideas and feature suggestions for PlayStation products.

PlayStation.Blog Share allows users to post their own ideas and also vote on the suggestions of others, with Sony promising to monitor and act upon the most popular.

The FAQ for the site claimed that Sony is looking for “any idea that will help make the PlayStation experience better. Period. Game title ideas. PS3 ideas. PlayStation Home ideas. Hey, maybe even PlayStation.Blog ideas!”

Currently the most popular three suggestions are cross game voice chat, software emulation for PlayStation 2 games and auto-synching of Trophies.

Users will initially be restricted to one submission per day, in order to ensure a variety of submissions, but the most popular authors will be placed in an online leaderboard.

At the same time as the new service was announced site administrators have warned of a “crack down on Blog comments”, with moderation for off-topic comments becoming “much more strict”.

The Most Popular idea so far with 13,810 votes was “Cross Game Voice Chat” closely followed by “Software Emulation for Ps2 Games on the Ps3 Console” and the third popular one was “Auto-Syncing Trophies”.

Some more stats :

Sony is finally giving its users a chance to “Voice” out their suggestions, this is a GAMER FRIENDLY move by Sony unlike our Big Giant Friend MICROSOFT.. Wake up Microsoft!!

When I read this I felt sorry for the gamers in Switzerland.. Switzerland’s parliament has passed a law that could lead to the outright ban of violent games in the country.

An initial proposal was put forward last month, calling for the banning of any game that “requires cruel acts of violence against humans and human-like creatures for in-game success”, and that motion has now been passed by the Swiss National Council.

According to a GamesMarkt report, while the request has now been formally accepted, the government still needs to decide on the specifics of the law.

Now that parliament has voted in favour of the move, it is free to decide on the specific legal text – although citizens are able to challenge any new law passed by parliament if they can show sufficient opposition to it.

One motion, put forward by the Christian Democratic Party has called for the ban of all first-person shooters rated 16+ or 18+ by PEGI.

If this takes place then it calls for an end to games like ModernWarfare 2 and mostly FPS Multiplayers..

I say this is total bullshit! They dont stop PORN sites, nor Movies which have violence, but it has to be games.. How can we live without games? They are more than bread and butter to me, its a lifestyle I choose and I think we all should have rights to access any game we want, not what our government wants!!

Getting up at 4 in the morning has always been a horrible task to do. To add to that was the 3 hour journey to Mumbai, the city is boiling to be honest, costal city heat I must say.. The reason I went through all of this was to attend a workshop by Ernest Adams on the Fundamental Principles of Game Design which was held in Velvet Lounge in Hotel Renaissance. The Settings for the Workshop was pretty groovy as it was located right next to the BAR.. ummmm.. My Thoughts were when is the Bartender gonna throw out some shots at us. We reached the event nearly 2 hours early of the scheduled time. And to my pleasure I was attending this workshop with a bunch of Designers and a Associate Producer, which was a bag of mixed emotions.
The Event started with we guys being the only ones on time and to my disbelief the others turned out way later, I guess that is Indian Standard Time which we follow apart from the actual IST.. My First Impression of Ernest Adams was that of a American Santa-Claus, the guy is not as big as me but has a good white beard to be the father of christmas.

In the course of this workshop, what we did was…

* Join a design team in one of five roles:
o Lead Designer
o Game Designer
o Art Director
o User Interface Designer
o Level Designer
* Define the key resources and core mechanics of a game.
* Create the challenges and player actions at the heart of the gameplay.
* Devise and document a user interface.
* Choose an art style and produce concept drawings.
* Invent the main characters and storyline of the game.
* Brainstorm some levels the game might include.

The Schedule was as follows :
09.30  Setup
10.00  Introduction and Overview
10.15  Lecture – Fundamental Principles of Game Design
11.30  Coffee Break and division into teams
12.00  Design Stage I: Teams receive game idea – Collaborative work begins
13.00  Break for lunch (group work continues over lunch)
14.00  Design Stage II: Individual work begins
15.00  Design Stage III: Consolidation – Teams combine work onto the Lead Designer’s template.
15.30  Coffee Break
15.45  Presentations – Lead Designer on each team presents team’s idea
16.45  Concluding remarks from Ernest Adams
17.00  Workshop ends, tear-down
17.30  Room clear.

We were divided into teams by the classic way of every individual having a number and the people with the similar number were put into one team. And as it usually happens with me that the luck factor is always 0%, I ended up being in a team of NON-DESIGNERS!! This was really hard to work with. We were given a dream[project] to be a kid who likes to drive bulldozers and steam shovels. This was quite easy for me to think as I’ve spent enough time working on Casual Games and watching cartoons.. But this time I wanted the other guys to come up with some concept but I was wrong again, none of them had a good idea or even knew what they were ranting about. In the end I came up with a solution of a 2D Side Scroller Game, here we included gameplay which was already done with games such as “Mario” to the latest one “Shank”. And to make it more interesting since I was the Lead Designer on this one I wrote a Story in which the kid tries to clean up the world with his Transformer-Bulldozer, I know it sounds cliche but c’mon its for the kids in the end.

The Other teams also did come up with Good Designs, but I missed out the part in which they would be appealing to the gamers they were targeted at. The Day/Event ended with Ernest giving us positive and negative feedback on the work we had done. For the first time I didnt get time to make more friends then I could have, I guess it was my love for Game Design that killed the Socializing Factor within me for the time being. Another 3 hours of journey lied ahead of me, with Bhavin, Shantesh and Ashish in the same car it was easy to survive the journey.

Game Design is a craft, not an art or a science. – Ernest Adams.