Tuesday, October 23, 2007

This is how the world ends......

Before I blog about Halo 3 I would like to use abbreviation mil for million as I am afraid this word would be used quite frequently in this blog.

The game that made 170 mil$ in first day, 1 mil online users and 300 mil$ in first week, the game that broke all the records, the game that made history financially. Its quite irony for a employee of EA like me to praise Microsoft and Bungie studios. But the matter of fact is that it has gained popularity across the globe. It even boosted the sales of Xbox360 and overtook sales of Nintendo for a month.

Gamewise (yeah thats my made-up word), I would rate Halo3 7 / 10. Here are my observations:

1) Graphic scenes are mind boggling
2) Cut Scenes are fantastic
3) Story ends in expected way but in good taste
4) Player's HUD view is a bit realistic and makes you believe that you are looking through a helmet.
4) However Sword slashing is different from the previous popular 'in-your-organs' style
5) Player's jump seems to lack gravity
6) Level design is a bit redudant as it involes lots of backtracking, player is asked to go to the same place from where he began his task
7) Campaign mode is noticeably short
8) The last part of the campaign mode that involved driving through the world, which is about the break down, was quite impressive.
9) I am not sure whether it was the hype or the game itself, I was bit unsatisfied with the campaign.

However I have hopes for the multiplayer mode which has always been a successfull formula for Halo franchise.

I would like to see Bungie testing new waters as they now went independent from their adopted dad MS.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Mulholland drive

After hearing much hype about the movie finally I got my chance of getting awed by it. To summarize the film, it’s different. It is different in many ways viz., story narration, cinematography, short scene sequences and filming style. David lynch will show your eyes something which will not make sense at all or you would be able to make something out of the scene after a while. He in fact denied explaining the story of Mulholland drive. Thanks to IMDB, confused people can now get their answers. After you understand the story the whole movie would make lot of sense. The movie is considered to be one of the ground breaking movies of the new century. I am not sure that I loved his style as it keeps the audience frustrated and feeling stupid. Maybe his movies are considered as one of those abstract paintings where you are supposed to appreciate it even if you feel that your 2 year old nephew can draw and paint better.