message in a bottle (02.2003 - 09.2008)

I had forgotten how much I enjoyed puzzles until I picked up Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

I am Iron Man.

Ah, could not resist the most over-used statement of this week. But hey, I am not going to write about how much I dug this movie. Just watch it, if you haven’t already.

Truth is that I am sinking in to the Zelda universe at the speed of light. What started as a quick round of gaming to kill some time on a boring evening is quickly turning into an obsession. After I finished Phantom Hourglass, I spent hours browsing the Internet reading up on it, looking at fan art etcetera. But this was not enough and I had to play more of Zelda! I coaxed the gamer to finish the game just so I could look over his shoulder while he was engaged in those fantastic boss fights. But it became increasingly difficult for me to shut my trap and let him figure out what to do next in the game, and so I finally picked up another Zelda game, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess!

Although this one is on Wii, which means I have to stay at one place to play it and have to go through the hassle of changing the wires (too many consoles are also a headache) every time I sit down to play. Also, I cannot play it if there are people at home who want to watch television, but still, I think picking up this game has been my best-est decision in last one week! The game rocks so hard that my house’s ceiling is cracking up.

I have just begun to play it and since this is the first hardcore game on a console that has got me so interested, (DOA, Wii Sports, Virtual Fighters are all games that one plays in short spurts!) I am thinking of maintaining a regular journal about my progress in it.

So I have just begun. After struggling for hours to catch a fish to lure the cat back to his home so that the silly shop owner would sell me a slingshot, I managed to complete my errands around the village. Until this point, I was enjoying the game but was not really hooked to it. Once I got my hands on a couple of weapons (even if they are both wooden!), the actual fun began. As I galloped on Zoe (yes, I renamed Epola) towards the forest to catch the naughty kid and the naughty monkey, I found myself not looking at the map often enough, something which I do automatically on the DS. But what I found most different from the DS experience was the dungeon. On a big screen, with proper sound effects, it can actually get scary. While playing on the handhelds, it is hard to get so much into the game that a sudden movement in the darkness actually scares you. This effect, however, can be easily achieved on a console.

I have reached the point where I turn into a wolf – another thing that took me by great surprise. It is at times like these when ignorance can actually be bliss. Any gamer worth their while would know about the gimmick of the game but not me. Nonetheless, it worked for my benefit as I found it difficult to get it out of my head even when I went to the bed.

Oh by the way, I am yet to see Zelda. The chick never did show up in the last game I played.

I finished playing God of War: Chains of Olympus yesterday after four days of being addicted to the gruesome beast called Kratos! I have not played God of War I or II, and this one is actually a prequel to the first one but can be still played and enjoyed stand alone! Now, I have not been a great fan of traditional action games but God of War is something different.

Fans of the God of War universe have been waiting for this game with bated breath and I have been urged by more than one person to give a shot to the first game however, as I am soon realizing I am more of a hand-held gamer than anything else. I can sit and enjoy a game on the PS2, Wii, or 360 for a few hours but if I am to finish a game, it has to be on a console that I can carry around. Anyhow, I picked up this game when I was stuck in one of the last levels of The Legend of Zelda and I wanted a break. I played God of War for ten minutes and I knew this was going to be the next game after I finished Zelda. And it was.

The game is based on Greek mythology and is a story of Kratos, a Spartan soldier who is haunted by nightmares of his past and is pledged to serve Gods of Olympus. In the beginning of the game, you find yourself slaughtering a few Persian soldiers. Where did these Persian soldiers fit in is something I am not very clear about but I guess if I had played the first two games, it would fit in somehow. However, this is just the first ten minutes of the game so maybe they are there just so you can practice the controls! Then you are faced by a huge monster and the fun begins. The game is extremely generous to you, really. One it allows various difficulty levels: easy, normal, God, and whatnot! Two, in the easy mode it makes the enemy give you health when you kill them. What fun, I say. Enemies are mystical creatures out of Greek mythology and are beautifully done. The graphics of the game is something to write home about. The screen is full of gorgeousness all through the game. The weapons and the magic make for a happy fight and enable you to kill those enemies with reckless abandon. The puzzles and the fights at all levels are fairly easy to get, so I did not find myself struggling much anywhere in the game. However, all this easiness is forgotten when you reach the final boss. Here you fight the wife of Hades*. And she is one killer woman!

The game is an artistic achievement as far as PSP games go. So even if you are not into gaming but appreciate beauty, have a look:  God of War: Chains of Olympus.

Note: This is a spoiler of sorts, I know. But I really doubt anyone is going to read as far as this and even if someone does, I doubt any gamers read my journal. So there.

This is my fourth attempt to make a post since last evening. The first time, I started to write about “The Benefits of Dating a Geek,” but my thoughts trailed and I found myself writing about a videogame I am playing. Ctrl + A, Delete.

Second time around, I started to write about how having no friends at work makes me spend most of my time in front of the workstation. But then I found myself writing about how I play the videogame sitting at my desk, shoulders arched, head bent, volume muted. Ctrl + A, Delete.

Then I began listing things (besides work) that I do while I am in my cubical. And when I reached the list item gaming, I found myself detailing its awesomeness. Ctrl + A, Delete.

I have a feeling I want to talk about The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. You reckon?

So because I cannot help myself, I will write about my awesome gaming experience. But because you may not be interested in reading it, I will put it behind a cut.
 

The book

I have no idea what took me so long to pick up “Neverwhere.” Have had an e-version of the book sitting pretty in my mailbox for over a year now. But I love reading the old fashioned way; just the way I like shopping the old fashioned way. My reading material must come with a faint papery smell. Coming back to the point, I am on page 66 of the book and am already sure that I love it. This urban fantasy is set in both London and London below; you know, like Wonderland where Alice roamed? Its witty, its curious, its inventive, and all things Neil Gaiman.

The movie

Again, I have no idea why I have not heard people swearing by “The Iron Giant” every time I uttered the words - animation movies. The most endearing film I have seen in a very long time tells the tale of a little boy with a big name, Hogarth Hughes. Hogarth has a chance meeting with a massive giant, who probably is an alien, but is extremely gentle and peace-loving. But since he is a giant and eats iron, it is kind of tough for Hogarth to keep him a secret. Be it animation or emotions, the movie is so well done that I prefer it over both “The Incredibles” and “E.T,” although both these happen to be my super favorites. I sat on the floor, my eyes glued to the screen, a single tear running down my face, and my heart tearing up for the friendly iron man-type thing. T’was brilliant.

The video game

I started playing the game "Elite Beat Agents" because it was there. However, it took the Elite Agents under three minutes to have me hooked. EBA is a rhythm game, where you listen to the beats of rock numbers and use the stylus of the DS to do stuff at the right moment. Sounds simple? Think again. Or rather, pick up the game and find out for yourself. The story of the game is presented in the comic book style, which only makes it much more fun. So there are different unrelated characters that are in trouble, and the Elite Agents come to get them out of the crisis. The success of this mission depends on you and your hand-eye-ear coordination. The game includes tracks like Chicago’s “You're the Inspiration” and The Rolling Stones’ “Jumpin' Jack Flash.” Fun fun fun!

They are blobs and they need guidance. I start with a cute yellow one and then eat up orange fruits and pink bugs to grow in size. I skip atop flowers, slide on rainbows and snowy hills, swing on vines, jump on stars, and sometimes when I have to glide through a narrow tree trunk, I shout and screem and then split into a number of little ones. I am playing LocoRoco, the funnest game ever.

For over a year now, I had believed Katamari Damacy to be the happiest game and had been dying to play it. I got a flavour of it some two months back and I enjoyed it immensely. However, LocoRoco beats it hands down, in my opinion. These little blobs are so cock-a-hoop that you cannot get enough of them. They are not only delightful to look at but also sing lovely songs that grow catchier with every passing level.



If all this fun makes you think that I am talking about some simple game for tiny tots, think again. All the prettiness aside, the game has its own little challenges. For one, it is not a very simple task to collect all 20 blobs and other collectables in each level. Then, there are sleeping friends that I can wake up only if I have the right number of blobs at that moment. Not only that, the lively music will grow loud only if I collect a decent number of blobs. Then there are enemies that make me sit up and curse. I hate them with all my being when they suck up one of my happy-faced friends. In fact, the enemies are almost as hideous as the blobs are endearing. They come in a wide verity just like the environments and make the fun game pretty dark at times by gobbling up my friends. It also breaks my heart everytime I leave one of possible blobs behind.

If you do not own a PSP to play this game, at least have a look at this to get a glimpse of the happy world of LocoRocos and MuiMuis. Rejoice.

So the much dreaded Delhi winter is almost here. The days are shorter and I cannot read my book on my way home from work anymore. What does a girl do when she cannot read her book? Listen to music, of course. Now, I am this iPod-less poor girl, who has to make do with a select few songs on her cellular phone that has 41 MB memory only. Less memory combined with my inexcusable laziness in changing my playlist every other day resulted in boredom after listening to the same songs for the first three days of the week. On Thursday evening, I switched to Radio.

The good thing about listening to the radio on my cellular phone is that I can change the staion with the slightest push of the tip of my thumb. This enables me to listen to non-stop music (not necessarily good music, but non-stop nonetheless) by switching stations as soon as a song ends. Or at least I thought so.

I remember when the private radio stations first hit Delhi back in 2003, Radio Mirchi was my favorite out of the three stations. The RJs were livelier, puns were mildly funnier, and the jazz worked for me. Things seem to have changed now. I discovered, this Thursday, that Radio Mirchi hardly plays any music. I think they ask their peon to randomly pick some seven CDs from their library every morning and then play the same songs over and over, all day long. Sometimes, the peon takes an off, and they play the same music all week long. However, they do have a wide range of advertisements. So, everytime a 'Salam Namaste' song ends, there is a string of twenty two advertisements followed by a meaningless comment by the RJ. And, then they play a song from 'Neil and Nikki'.

On Friday, I realized that I cannot do this. I cannot listen to advertisements on three different radio stations all through the winter. Until the days get longer again, I have to bring out my GBA. So, here I am, with a spanking new cartridge of Ultimate Spiderman and a borrowed Advance Wars 2. Homeward journey should be fun again.