My second baby

Do you have a kid whom you would like to gift a game that is educational and enriching at the same time? The game that runs on PC and hones building and puzzle-solving skills.
You don’t have to look anywhere else, MySims on PC is just the game for you.

Here are the details:
http://www.mysimskingdom.com/pc/

Reason why I am acting as a salesman: I am one of the developers for this game:-) . My second shipped game whoo-woo!!!

Assassin’s Creed

AC is really good but only for first 3-4 hours. Then it becomes repetitive to a point that I decided to give up playing. My rating for the game is 6.5 / 10. It is an impressive stealth game though. Best part of the game is:

a) You can climb anything in AC. You feel this immense power of a super-hero, who can climb everything he lays his hands on.
b) Simulation of people wandering in town, that makes the town real
c) Experience of cities like Damascus, Jerusalem is very hard to resist
d) Riding horses, collecting flags, rescuing citizens are good gameplay features but are short-lived

Assassins however are not creative and make player follow the same protocol over and over again. This is a best game to borrow and try your hands on rather than buying yourself.

CoD4

Yep, this is another game review, review for Call of Duty 4. Having never played first 3 sequels of the franchise, I was impressed by the 4th one. It’s a very polished game which one might expect when a game comes out with its 4th edition. The big change with the 4th edition is that it involves around modern warfare as compared to the previous ones which involved around WW2. I liked gameplay the most where player is bombing the enemy territory while sitting in a helicopter, not that I complain about blowing the tanks and enemy choppers from the ground. My friend mentioned me that Chernobyl (Russia) in the game is the exact replica of the real city which is quite mind blowing. The ending of the game beats a Hollywood climax by leaps and bounds. I would recommend this game as a ‘must play’ for first person shooters out there.

Portal

Yeah, I know, I am getting addicted to the games. But in my defense the games released in last 6 months have been awesome and truly stand to the definition of next-generation. Take Portal for example, Portal is different than other games in so many ways. It’s a puzzle game and you have to solve the puzzles by creating 2 portals, one for the entry and other for the exit. Well, each portal can be used as an entry / exit portal. It’s a short game, fun and enriching in many ways. The last level of the portal has a better climax than most of the current movies. I would recommend everybody to play this game as it is quite a learning experience. My rating for this game is 8 / 10.

Bioshock

is definitely the best game of the year 2007. No matter whether you are a beginner, mid-level or an expert gamer this game is for everybody. I would rate it 9 / 10, hoping that someone would make a better game in the future to match my 10-point scale. Here are the highlights of the game:

- The storyline and setup of the ‘city under water’ are impressive
- The set of powers that player can exercise is creative e.g. telekinetic power
- Levels and npc characters are interesting to play and interact respectively
- Tasks assigned to player are fun, for e.g. kill a guy, take his snap with a camera and put the taken picture in a frame to finish the incomplete art work
- Graphics are no doubtable matching the next-gen standards
- Overall, the great world filled with lots of interactive objects is too addictive to give up playing

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.

My first kid!!!

Well, not literally. I am talking about my first game getting shipped and hitting stores on 18th of September. It’s called MySims and it’s available on Nintendo Wii and DS. It feels nice to see your work getting out and being available to the whole world. Till now the work that I have done was to impress my teachers in school and score some good points. I see this as a new phase of my life where the whole world is my teacher and my work is to keep them happy. Yeah you are right, that was quite a cheesy line….

Finishing a product exposes one to the complete development cycle and all the related problems associated with it. Having some failed projects under my belt, I would relish this game for some time. This product was a result of a newly assembled team, new IP game made for a new platform Wii, with a newly built game engine. Keeping these all ‘new’ factors in mind, the labor pains were not unbearable, especially when it was followed by the good news of making a sequel for the game.

If you want to have a look at the game, visit MySims.com.