Been a long time since I blogged almost a month ago......in between I had my birthday (1st March BTW), MBA exams, Job hunting and etc. Anyways I still try to find time to play video games as much as possible.

Few of the games I ended till now:-

Call of Juarez : Bound In Blood - Much better than the 1st IMO. 7.5/10

Bioshock 2 - Again much better than the 1st. 8.5/10

Wanted - Fun for awhile curving bullets and all but it doesnt last long. 7/10

Sphinx and the cursed mummy - One of the best platformer games I have ever played on the PS2 with a long campaign taking about 12-14 hours to beat. 8/10

Burnout Paradise - Another fun racing game in the burnout series. 8/10

Power Rangers Super Legends - A beat em up with co-op which I played with my nephew. An easy game but not worth it in the end. 6.5/10

Serious Sam : Next Encounter - Even with average reviews i never find any serious sam game bland or boring. Amazing arcade fun on the PS2. 8/10

Van Helsing - Actually a good game based on a movie. A lot like Devil May Cry. 7/10

Stranglehold - If you love non stop shooting this one's for you. 8/10

Resident Evil 5 - Good game, enjoyable and fun but nowhere near to resident evil 4. 7.5/10

Would be posting my reviews on certain games later on. Anyways would love to hear your comments on these games. Till then take care.

Mayank

The Dark Knight makes a return once again in the video game world to redeem himself of all the poor quality games involving him. So is Arkham Asylum worthy of redeeming him....?? Lets check it out.

GAMEPLAY - The gameplay is absolutely FANtastic. You get to play batman in a third person view which helps you easily maneuver him in any direction with fluidity. On top of that the most amazing part was the camera angle......it never barrs your gaming experience nor causes any frustration. Batman has amazing weapons to his disposal which make the journey to arkham asylum more fun. The cutscenes are top notch. High quality production values are littered throughout the game which makes it a must play even if your not a fan of batman. The only problem people complain is that the action is reduced to a button masher but I feel that it's really cool to have one or two buttons to kick some major butt rather than having 10 button combo's.

9.5/10

SOUND - The music is amazing the score is top notch. The voice acting is by far the best among video games. Mark Hamill the voice of Joker makes him sound as crazy and as sinister as we could have ever imagined and not to forget Kevin Conroy as Batman. They simply do justice to the characters.

9.5/10

GRAPHICS - Absolutely breath taking. The asylum comes to life with such beautiful looking graphics. The best part was I faced no graphical glitches no invisible walls and other trivial glitches which are generally present in games. The porting of the game from consoles is perfect. Wish the other developers followed this game as an example.

10/10

STORY - The joker gets himself captured by Batman during one of his heists but little does Batman and Commisoner Gordon know that they have a long night ahead of them as Joker and Harley Quinn plan to takeover the asylum with the help of killer croc, scarecrow and others to put an end to Batman forever.

9.5/10

FINAL VERDICT - Fan or no fan of the franchise you are going to love every minute of this action packed fun filled game. I can safely say that this game is a brilliant master piece which no one should afford to miss . I am not a major fan of Batman even though it's one of my favourite characters from DC universe, I was a major fan of Punisher while I was growing up but anyways finally the batman movies and video game are on track now if only someone helped superman get back on track.

9.5/10

Tony Montana returns in this videogame sequel to one of the best movies ever made Scarface - The World Is Yours.

GAMEPLAY - The gameplay is similar to the Gta series i.e the sandbox $tyle You can jack cars, shoot enemies but not innocent people since it's against Tony's ethics, bribe cops and lots of stuff. Ironically GTA - Vice City was a fictional take on Scarfae revolving around drugs, money, and the 80's music and now Scarface borrows the gameplay from the GTA series and recreates Miami city which looks wonderful on screen with sun kissed beaches and etc.

7.5/10

SOUND - The music is amazing since it contains all the tracks from Giorgio Morodor's composed soundtrack from the movie plus there are loads of other songs ranging from rock to electronic. Even though Al Pacino did not voice Tony for this game the voice artist who portrays Tony has done an excellent job.

8/10

GRAPHICS - Graphically it looks amazing and works smoothly with no problems. The character modelling is good since Tony looks really good with all the shader effects.

8/10

STORY - The story starts where the movie ended, but instead of dying from the bullet wounds in the movies final scene here Tony manages to escape the mansion in order to survive and get back on his feet to takeover Miami city from scratch.

7.5/10

FINAL VERDICT - Fan or no fan of the movie if you love playing video games and have played GTA over and over again then you wont mind playing another GTA clone since the game is really good and stands out on its own. You can make money by buying cocaine from the streets and selling it to junkies to laundering money in the bank plus there are tons of guns, side missions and other stuff to explore that you can spend plenty of hours even after you finish the main story. Though the swearing is on the heavy side since every sentence has some explicit word that comes out of Tony's mouth but still who cares the game rocks. Hope they commision a sequel to this game since it did brisk business. Sold 2 million copies worldwide.

8/10

"Say Hello To My Little Friend".

Need For Speed Undercover returns after the bad and boring Need For Speed Pro Street and it returns to it's roots of illegal street racing. So lets check out what the new edition in NFS series has to offer.....

GAMEPLAY - The gameplay has changed alot specially the handling of the cars which makes it easy for the driver to curve the car even at high speed's making it more fun and less frustrating. The city has a more highway feel to it making the roads very wide with more than 174 km's of area to cover al ot like the midnight club series $tyle The overall gameplay is much more enjoyable since you wont be crashing to often.

7.5/10

SOUND - The music has been the high point of the series since NFS - Hot Pursuit 2. With a mix of techno to hip hop to punk metal making it an enjoyable experience while you zoom past your opponents

8/10

GRAPHICS - Graphically it looks amazing and best thing is it runs smoothly on low end machines and there are no jerky animations.

7.5/10

STORY - The story involves an anonymous cop going undercover ala Brian O'Connor to catch hold of underground illegal street racing gangs. The story is basically a Fast and Furious rip off. So you know what to expect even though the plot aint that tight and is barred by annoying real live cutscenes but still it's an ok campaign and you wont be dissappointed.

6/10

FINAL VERDICT - Need for speed reinvents itself every year and tries to bring us something new to make high speed driving an enjoyable experience. I would recommend it since I had a lot of fun driving around wide roads like Midnight Club series and the lengthy and not boring single player campaign will keep you occupied for more than 7-8 hours. Maggie Q is the face of this NFS edition looks super hot but is presented in really bland and boring cutscenes which werent
really necessary since the story is not that hard to follow. Any how I feel this NFS edition is one of the better ones from pro street and carbon. So do give it a try and you will feel the difference.

7.5/10

Serious Sam is back with a fresh coat of paint but is it worth the effort and the money to buy a game thats already been played tons of time and done with?? Lets check it out.......

GAMEPLAY - The gameplay involves our hero shooting through hordes of bad guys that come raining in from left and right with multiple weapons involving 13 levels of mayhem. With the new serious engine 3 it shows potential that a new serious sam 3 game would be more than welcome in the near future. I hardly faced any bugs as reported by gamespot but I did encounter one major bug right at the end level when you are about to fight with the final boss.

6/10

SOUND - The sound of the guns and everything hasnt been changed or anything in fact they retained the sounds from the first game.

7/10

GRAPHICS - Graphically it looks amazing and best part about the serious engine is that it can be optimized to such an amount that the game can run on low end PC's without any hiccups or ugly graphics

8/10

STORY - The plot is the same as Serious Sam : The First Encounter released in 2001. It's the remake in HD.

8/10

FINAL VERDICT - Still a great game to play and enjoy after such a long time but even though it's a $20 game I dont find it necessary to recommend it as a purchase as there isnt anything new except for the graphics. If you missed out the first time then surely give it a look but if you already have the original then why not pop in the old CD and relive the glory moments minus the HD and saving those 20 bucks.....

7/10

PS : Requirements - This was another problem that I faced. I recently upgraded from Vista to Windows 7 and one major problem was that it came with DirectX 11 and it is not supported by this game. So if you are installing this game on windows 7 then make sure you install DirectX 9 so as to not face any problems playing the game.

Picked this game up after reading the review on Gamespot which gave it a good score of 8.....So i bought it thinking what could go wrong????
And boy i was so happy i picked this title up because it's a great action packed game with goofy humour and story.....

GAMEPLAY - This game is an all out beat em up. You need to beat up rowdy's to progress through the next area which might satisfy people who like old school beat em up games like Double Dragon otherwise you might be bored just button mashing.

8/10

SOUND - The music consists of a western electro composition which sounds good while playing.

8/10

GRAPHICS - Great graphics for a 2005 game on a PS 2.Even though there are occasionally some clipping issues but other than that every thing looks great and so colourful with great looking cutscenes.

8/10

STORY - Well the story is good but it aint that great or tight that might suck you in. This game is just a fun,mindless beat em up.

7/10

FINAL VERDICT - Go get this game if you like old school beat em up games i surely loved it.

8/10

Mini Ninjas is one of the sleeper hits of 2009. The game is an excellent rendition of the samurai era of Japan in the lovable form of small Ninjas.

GAMEPLAY - The gameplay is technially a hack and slash with a few magic powers but it is perfectly blended so as it doesnt become too monotonous and also it comes from the house of Eidos (Tomb Raider) so you will get to shimmy over ledges a bit.

7/10

SOUND - The music is composed of old japanese compositions which include flute's and drums and is easy to the ears and plus also helps building up the tension to a certain extent.

7.5/10

GRAPHICS - Nice graphics which can run on low end computers with a consistent frame rate.

8/10

STORY - The story is good which builds around a clan of Mini Ninjas who are sent to investigate mysterious happenings in the jungle when suddenly they start dissappearing one by one.

7/10

FINAL VERDICT - Good game if you want to get away from all the blood and gore kind of games for a while. You will love looking at the plush views in the game that represent the old samurai era as portrayed in movies like "The Last Samurai" and "The Forbidden Kingdom" and this game is very easy so it's kid friendly too.

7.5/10

These are the top TV shows that i found really entertaining and would recommend them to other people (Most of them are from the 80's and 90's)...........These are compiled based on the entertainment value, quality content, star presence.......

1.Nitro circus (2009) - Travis pastrana is the god among daredevil stunt artists....You gotta see the stunts he pulls off to beleive them......Jumping of the grand canyon on a dirt bike THRICE with a parachute.....Damn.....


2.Jackass (2000-2002) - Needs no introduction as Johnny Knoxville and his crazy ass friends do some crazy ass stuff that would leave you shocked. TV series later made into a very succesful movie in 2002 with a successful sequel in 2006 as well.

3.Hung (2009) - After a string of flop films Thomas Jane tries his luck in a TV show about a coach who becomes a male prostitute in order to survive in the times of recession with troubled teenage kids. Hilarious and funny show. Cant wait for season 2.


4.Metalocalypse (2006) - Dethklok is the biggest, baddest, and most famous heavy metal band in the world. The quintet, consisting of Americans Nathan Explosion (vocals), William Murderface (bass), and Pickles the Drummer, along with Scandinavian guitarists Toki Wartooth and Skwisgaar Skwigelf, have to deal with their fame and other situations in their lives, all the while being monitored by a government organization out to destroy them. An amazing animated show for adults by adults on the adult swim network.


5.Aqua Teen Hunger Force (2000) - The adventures of a Meatball, a flying shake and french fries who together try to solve cases with hilarious results while getting in trouble with their next door neighbour Carl. Another fine animated show from The adult swim team. Spun off into a succesful movie in 2007.

6.Prison break (2005-2009) - Amazingly intense show involving an ex con who is prisoned for a crime he did not commit while his brother hatches a plan to break him out of the prison. Must watch for thrill seekers.


7.Sons of Anarchy (2008 ) - A great show with bikes, beer, babes and rock n roll. A biker gang known as sons of anarchy tries to survive in a city with other gangs and the police involved. Ron Perlman is plain awesome.


8.Miami vice (1985-1990) - First thing you remember about Miami vice is surely the amazing opening them by Jan Hammer, simply sensational. The show revolves around two undercover detectives Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs and how they try to solve crimes. Had some guest appearences by then unknown John Leguizamo and Bruce willis and others.Spun off into a succesful movie in 2006 by the Michael Mann the creator of the original show.


9.Supernatural (2005) - Seriously havent seen a horror show this good with great production value and special effects and a good story.


10.Robot chicken (2005) - Old-school stop-motion animation and fast-paced satire are the hallmarks of this eclectic show created by Seth Green and Matt Senreich. Action figures find new life as players in frenetic sketch-comedy vignettes that skewer TV, movies, music, and celebrities. It's television especially formulated for the Attention Deficit Disorder generation.

11.The Brak Show (2000-2004) - The Brak Show is a story of a neighborhood. It's the story of a family. It's the story of what happens when adults have children and those children go to school. And Brak is in it. He lives in a house. A house on a quiet street not unlike yours or mine. A house in a neighborhood. That's The Brak Show." So goes Cartoon network's description of the new sitcom starring Brak, the absent-minded space pirate from the Space Ghost cartoons. He goes through the all the typical sitcom situations with his friend Zorak.

12.Street Hawk (1985) - Loved this show to death and sadly it died with only one season under its belt. An ex motorcycle cop Jesse Mach becomes a vigilante with Norman tuttle and a high speed motorcycle to fight terror and crime in California. Another great opening theme by Tangerine Dream.

13.A-Team (1983-1987 ) - Four Vietnam vets, framed for a crime they didn't commit, help the innocent while on the run from the military. MR.T is in it yo fool. Being remade as a movie with Bradley Cooper releasing around 2010 or 2011.

14.Desperate Housewives (2004) - Ok ok you might wanna call this show a girly show but beleive me once you watch it you are gonna get hooked to it, it has an amazing plot with thrills and entertainment packed into it. Story about 4 housewives who have to deal with their day to day problems ranging from children to their husbands or their jobs and how they tackle them.

15.2 Guys A Girl And A Pizza Place (1998-2001) - Circa 1998 : Ryan Reynolds (who ????) Yup in 1998 you might have not realized that one day this lanky looking fella from TV is gonna be a superstar. Three twenty-somethings share a Boston apartment and hang around (and work) at a pizza place. A hilarious show with Ryan Reynolds stealing the show everytime with his prefect comic timing.

16.Manimal (1983) - No one probably remembers this show as it ended after airing just 8 episodes.A man who can change himself into any animal fights crime.

17.Crystal Maze (1990-1995) - One of the 1st reality shows starring Richard O Brien as the gamemaster where contestants had to complete certain tasks before time expires or other wise they would be locked in the maze. Amazing show.

18.Fresh Prince of Bel Air (1990-1996) - Big Will's amazingly amazing comedy show about how a boy from the streets of Philadelphia comes to live with his uncle Phil in the posh area of Bel Air. One of the most hilarious show's ever made. And the introduction of the biggest African American superstar WILL SMITH. From winning grammy's in music to being nominated for 2 oscars with more than 10 hits with $100 million collection. He surely has come a long way, Baby.

19.Small Wonder (1985-1989) - An amazing show i actually grew up watching and have fond meomries of it. Father Ted Lawson creates robot, Vickie. The family, Ted, Joan, and Jamie, keep the information that Vickie is a robot secret, and pretend that she is their daughter. Harriet, their nosy and annoying neighbor, has a crush on Jamie and plans to marry him.

20.Birds of Prey (2002) - This show was actually spun off from the movie Batman Returns. The story involves Batmans daughter and the Oracle who are the new protectors of gotham city since Batman vanished into oblivion. Good show and had potential but was cancelled by warner bro's after one season.

21.How I Met Your Mother (2005) - Egged on by his best friend's upcoming nuptials, Ted believes he finds the woman of his dreams in Robin -- though destiny might have something different in mind. And his friends trying to help him find someone to settle down with while something or the other happens with hilarious results. Neil Patrick Harris rocks as Barney Stinson.

22.Doogie Howser MD (1989-1993) - A great show that caught the attention of America by storm. A teenaged genius deals with the usual problems of growing up: having a girlfriend, going to parties, hanging out with his best friend, all this on top of being a licensed physician in a difficult residency program starring Neil Patrick Harris.

23.Wierd science (1994-1997 ) - Starts off right from where the movie ended (A great movie by the late John Hughes).Gary Wallace and Wyatt Donnelly create their dream woman, Lisa, on their computer. Lisa had extraordinary powers and could grant the boys their wishes for short periods of time.

24.Batman The TV Series (1966-1968 ) - This series shows how batman and robin fight crime and save Gotham city in a more comic book and humorous way. Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin were simply amazing.

25.Friends (1994-2004) - Saved the best for the last. As the one of the most popular shows i dont think it needs any introduction which stars Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, David Scwimmer and Matt LeBlanc.

26.Mortal Kombat : Conquest (1999) - This show is strictly for the fan's of the Mortal Kombat games and for the people who like the 1st movie and loathed the 2nd movie. Had an extremely good production values but was cancelled due to high budget requirements. Lasted only one season and starred Kristanna Loken who went on to become the T-X in Terminator 3.

I know there are many more shows that i havent included but these are the shows that i have seen and would love to recommend to other people. I would love to read your thoughts and views on this.

Till then Take care........

I was never a Tomb Raider fan until i played Tomb Raider Anniversary last year which made me realise what i had missed over the years.

Tomb Raider Underworld is an excellent addition to a superb
franchise.

GAMEPLAY - The gameplay is great with Lara being flexible
in her movements largely due to the motion capture except for
the fact that the camera does get in your way a lot when you are
about to perform a jump or shimming down ledges.

7/10

SOUND - The tomb raider music has always been a highlight of the franchise right from the opening sequence to the end credits.

8/10

GRAPHICS - Beautifully rendered locations that look absolutely breathtaking. You
might want to take some time out just to look at the locales.

8/10

STORY - The story is good but players who havent played
Tomb Raider - Legend wont be able to figure out what is
happening as the story takes of right where Tomb Raider - Legend ended.

7.5/10

FINAL VERDICT - A great action adventure game and a good addition to a popular franchise makes it a must buy for Tomb Raider fans.

8/10

Black is an action packed game from start to finish which gets over to quickly before you can start appreciating the content.

GAMEPLAY - The gameplay is superb as the game has been rendered as an action movie influenced game, with guns blazing from every direction but it's cut short by only 8 levels. So all in all the action gets over to soon.

7/10

SOUND - The sound of guns and grenades has been taken from various movies such as Die Hard and True Lies. So you can expect a big bang whenever you fire a shotgun.

7.5/10

GRAPHICS - Amazing graphics which truly show that the PS2 still has the potential.

8/10

STORY - Sadly a dissappointing story which involves USA in some political terrorist controversy. The story is the only let down of this amazing game.

4/10

FINAL VERDICT - Great game to play and enjoy on a 9 year old console with amazing graphics and sound but the only let down being too short with a terrible story line. All in all I would suggest if you love action games with guns and bombs you wouldnt regret buying and playing this game.

7/10

Well i actually read a blog entry by MISSMORPHINE and her take on the new entry in the Smack down franchise.

I realised how 10 years have passed since the original WWF smackdown came out for the PS1. And i remember i was just a 12 year old kid who was madly in love with wrestling and how i wished i owned a PS1 so that i could be The Rock Or Stone Cold.

And with the turn of the century came an emulator called BLEEM.....I think everyone is familiar with it and the fate it met....But anyways i remember how i used to play that game on Bleem for 5-6 hours straight and then came Smackdown 2 (Last smackdown game for the ps1) and i similarly enjoyed part 2 over the years with a better season, more superstars and stuff to do.

Even though i am 22 and dont watch wrestling anymore but i still love playing Smackdown games on my wii and PS2.

And 1 thing to note here is that this is one of the best franchises in the video game industry with 50 million units being sold according to wikipedia.

And the most curious thing is that they have a habit of introducing something new over the years in each and every game they have published. The games have never felt monotonous.

Anyways i sure hope we get to see WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2011 next year. With something new in store for us.

Till Then Take Care