If it's in the game...

I remember when my parents first bought a computer. It was back in 2000, and I was excited as hell, if only because it meant I'd get to play games on it. I had never owned those nintendo/sega cartridge type game systems. I'd played on them at friends' places, and at those game shops, but now I was finally going to have a place to play video games on my own. These were exciting times.Back then, I remember that PC came preloaded with a demo version of Road Rash(epic game btw) and a demo version of Need for Speed: High Stakes. I played those two demos to death.

Then someone gave me Wolfenstein 3d ( in a floppy disk no less!) and so I was introduced to the First Person Shooter genre. Now Wolf ( as it was affectionately called) was a pretty old game even then, but that didn't make it any less of a completely, stupendously awesome game, so addictive, I remember I used to have arguments with my mother about the time I spent playing it.

I was enamored so completely with the game that I think it had a profound affect on what types of computer games I would like in the future.

So this post, I've decided, is going to be about the best FPS games I've ever played.

The list is in no specific order, but the very best shooters I've ever played (apart from Wolf, obviously) are,

QUAKE III ARENA - 1999 - Conceived as primarily a multiplayer FPS, this amazing AMAZING game featured a single player mode which had bots as opponents in a campaign through all of the brilliant maps that it had. The graphics engine was way ahead of its time, and the high flying, space jumping, super awesome maps made killing hours of time at a stretch immensely fun. I still remember the brutal satisfaction you felt when you fragged Xaero from across the map with a rail gun. (If you haven't played it, Xaero was the hardest bot in the game... I hated him.)

HALF LIFE - 2001 - Generally regarded as the best FPS game ever made, this sci-fi extravaganza is one hell of a ride, through time, space and the Black Mesa project. This was the first game I ever played which had such a detailed, such an intricate, and highly interesting storyline...what would have made a great movie in fact.

Who wouldn't remember the first time they brought down an apache chopper with a machine gun! Gordon Freeman, the game's protagonist is a legend in gaming circles. Definitely one of my favorite games ever. It was relaunched as Half Life:Source, modified to fit into the source engine that valve created later, making it graphically a bit prettier. But kicks ass any day any how.

HALF LIFE 2 - 2004 - No one thought that Valve could match their previous effort when Half Life's sequel was announced, but Half Life 2 blew the world away.

An indicator as to how amazing this game really is, is that the first time I played this was in 2007, and it was still the best looking game I had ever played.

The story, the narration, the action, the setting, the mood...everything was PERFECT, to say nothing of the spectacular graphics. It's also one of the more frightening games that I've played, with the 'We don't go to Ravenholm' chapter especially intense. It's been awarded the 'Game of the Decade' by several gaming publications. If you haven't played it yet, I strongly suggest you do.

FAR CRY - 2004 - Crytek Studios was almost a completely unknown game developer before Far Cry came out in 2004. After 2004, Crytek Studios was widely regarded as one of the foremost game developers in the world. Far Cry is, only one word for it, epic...on an EPIC scale!

This game revolutionized the way developers would make FPS games in the future. The true predecessor of Crysis, this beautiful game puts you on a tropical island. With no idea where you are, or what this place is, you gradually uncover a very interesting plot, marked by amazingly intense fire fights, beautiful tropical settings, a completely open world with highly non-linear gameplay. This game too, is one that will give you the creeps if you play it with the lights off and the

volume up on high. This too, I played in 2007, a long time after it came out, but I could play it today, and it would remain the game I'd recommend the most.

It's sequel though, Far Cry 2, was a huge disappointment.

CALL OF DUTY 4:MODERN WARFARE - 2007 - Call of Duty was a World War 2 FPS franchise before Modern Warfare came out, and though that genre had its merits, it had become stale. So Infinity Ward, the developers, reinvented themselves and came out with an exceptionally brilliant game. Almost everyone I know, who's only even a marginal FPS player has played at least the single player campaign of COD4. The multi player though, oh my god the multi player mode in Modern Warfare is the best thing about it. So maddeningly addictive, my friends and I, on average, spend about 12 hours a week going crazy with LAN parties at my place. With a rather affecting story line, COD4 is definitely one of the best FPS games to play, if you have a marginally good computer system.

BLACK(PS2) - 2006 - The only exception in this list of PC FPS games, this one is only on the Playstation 2 and XBox. Criterion Games, the pioneer of the Burnout series went crazy with this tremendously fun and graphically beautiful console FPS. It did "for shooting what Burnout did for racing - tear it apart". The main pull of this game is that everything...EVERYTHING is destructible.

You shoot a wall hard enough, it'll crumble...you shoot an RPG at the base of a pillared building, the pillars will fall, as will the rest of the building. It's spectacular! The gun design is so amazingly cool, you'd play it just to fire a few of the weapons in the air.

This game deserved a mention, if only for how well it's designed. The campaign should have been longer, and the lack of multi player made it a short, but a very exhilarating ride.

CRYSIS - 2008 - Crysis is regarded as a preview of what FPS gaming will look like in a few years. If that's true, I'm excited. The true successor of Far Cry, Crytek Studios once again showed the world what their CryEngine technology is capable of. Way ahead of its time, in my opinion, Crysis' biggest strength, and

ironically its major weakness is that it requires one hell of a monster PC to run at full capacity.

This extremely steep hardware requirement has caused a large proportion of the gaming population to miss out on it initially. My core i7, 1 gig graphics and seemingly enough RAM do not stop this game from causing my processor to throttle like mad if I run it on the highest settings.

Again, open ended game play like Far Cry, make this a very addictive FPS.

Other honorable mentions must include - Call of Duty 6: Modern Warfare 2, Unreal Tournament 2004, Left 4 Dead, Battlefield: Bad Company 2...and some others which I don't really remember, but then that also means they don't deserve to be included.

This list, by no means complete, makes for probably the most nerdy nerd post I've ever put up, but I don't care.

I'm awaiting with baited breath the release of what I hope will be three amazing games that I'll have to add to my list soon... Crysis 2, Call of Duty 7: Black Ops and Medal of Honor.

I sincerely hope they turn out to be atleast half as good as some of the games I've mentioned above, which would still make them extraordinary.

"Rise and shine, Mr.Freeman. Rise...and shine."

My Rant

A post is long overdue.

And so an overdue post is long.

I choose the absolutely 'wrong' moments to update my blog. My exams start from Monday. But then, when

have I ever cared about exams starting on Monday?

Wisdom says I should be studying right now.

Wisdom can kiss my...

At least I'm honest.

People tell me that if I studied, I could be a great student.

Who wants to be a great student?

People say that this generation, and by association, I, am uninspired, and passionless...that their generation had a fire, a burning desire to achieve.

Good for you.

I recently made an effort to make someone's birthday special...someone I rather admire, a friend who I really care about. I planned and I planned, and I executed my plans. I was excited, and then-

Poof!

An unforeseen consequence of this, though, was that I managed to ruffle some feathers, with certain parties that perhaps have vested interests in the person who's birthday I had so naively tried to enrich. Perhaps...

Apparently my efforts were nothing compared to what this other person could have achieved, given the opportunity.

My naivete is ashamed of itself.

Seemingly, neither was a birthday enriched, nor were feathers left unruffled.

It's almost ten 'o' clock. I should either be studying, or going to sleep, in order to wake up early tomorrow morning and study.

If you haven't guessed by now, what this post is, is in fact my thoughts appearing on the screen as they pass through my head.

Yes.

My butt itches.

No, well that wasn't an actual thought.

Even the cartoon above is random...almost.

Okay, getting back to the 'subject', my mom just walked into my room, as usual without knocking...apparently I'm supposed to eat dinner now.

I don't want to.

Supposedly, I have to.

But I'm not really hungry.

Supposedly, I've developed a habit of only eating delicious restaurant food.

The key word here is delicious.

Supposedly, I have to eat.

I really don't care.

Supposedly, I have an attitude problem.

Now I've pissed her off. And my mom reads my blog.

So why am I typing all of this?

Supposedly, I can't stop!

Okay, back to the rant...People are such hypocrites!

I hate people...most people. My attitude towards the random passerby has changed from being neutral to slight dislike. I became aware of this fact only recently. Perhaps I'm becoming a pessimist.

I suppose that would be a nice change.

Okay, I'm bored now, as, I'm sure, are you.

I'm not exactly happy with the world right now.

Perhaps I had better go and watch an episode of 'friends' and cheer myself up.

A post is long overdue.

And so an overdue post is long.

It's always darkest before it turns pitch black.

-Paul Newman

So how do YOU disappoint your father?

No...that's not a rhetorical question.

I'm not thinking aloud, 'Hmmm...I wonder what I can do to disappoint my father...'

It's actually a question, I'm asking you, tell me how do YOU disappoint YOUR father?

I disappoint my own father in many ways. And boy does he rub it in sometimes...its frustrating, really.

Hmmm...Let's see...

Maybe I didn't fulfill his expectations with the college I managed to qualify to attend. But then, it's his own college too. Funnily enough, in the movies, fathers dream of the day their sons would manage to attend their own alma mater. But maybe Thapar University isn't the stuff dreams are made of.

Come to think of it, it's not.

And yet, I blame myself for this eventuality. I remember in class 11 and 12, I conjured up dreams and aspirations of those god-damned IITs, an amazing future in 'ENGINEERING!!!' was before me. But it turns out that in order to do that, you have to give up on life for a few years and cram for a test that is really the bastion of nerdy, rake-thin, bespectacled individuals...people I honestly detest. And I love life too much to give up on it even for a day, let alone two friggin years.

Which brings us to what is probably the next bone of contention.

How I choose to live my life...Let's come straight to it, I'm lazy, and I'm damn well proud of it. I watch more movies, read more books, listen to more music than half the nerdy nerd people I know in college...combined. Call me arrogant and I say screw you!

I come home from college and on a good day, manage to watch a movie, a few episodes of my favourite TV show, read a few chapters of a good book, listen to an hour of awesome online rock radio...all before I go to sleep at what is usually the ungodly hour( for the powers that be...at home) of about 2 am.

According to my father, what I should be doing instead is... (hold your breath) going to the gym, go swimming, spend a few hours studying (a laughable notion, i admit), eating at the family dining table, and then after studying a bit more, going to sleep at the normal (for the powers that be...at home) hour of 11 pm.

Lets set things straight right now...I like the way I've lived my life so far, I damn well love it. And I will continue to live it the way I like, love and want to!

So I will not stop watching a hell of a lot of movies...I will not stop reading and rereading my favourite books on my bed( when I could be...playing outside?)...and I will not start going to sleep before the next day begins.

I am not an 80 year old lady, I refuse to live my life like one. I refuse to have a routine.

If I'm a disappointment, I'm sorry, I never meant to be. But this is who I am, this is how I choose to live my life, this is how I will probably live the next few years of my life(until a great big life-changing experience befalls me)...I'm happy, and people who love me and care about me can either choose to be happy about the fact that I'm happy, or they can choose to be miserable and disappointed because they see me making horrible HORRIBLE mistakes.

I've got news, I don't give a rat's fart either way.

I have never doubted and never will doubt the fact that my father loves me very much. More than probably anyone else in the whole world loves me(doesn't include you, mom!).

But I do wish I could be trusted enough to make my own mistakes, learn my own lessons and live my own life.

But now I ask you again, tell me, how do YOU disappoint your father?

PS- the picture above is largely unrelated...i just really loved it...

Glory...

I'll admit this upfront, this article probably is a fanboy's unbelievably biased rant about his team's season. So if anyone of you is looking for a neutral...balanced take on the outcome of the EPL this time, you're in the wrong place.

I'll also admit this...that I did, infact, with every fibre of my being believe that Wigan would somehow find the strength and resilience to hold off Chelsea and afford us all a very strange, and a very romantic happy ending to the season, one where everyone gets what they deserve.

But sadly, no...

I remember in one of the season's first few matches, back in August last year, Rooney scored a brilliant goal, his first of the season, and for some reason I texted a friend of mine, 'He's finally out of Ronnie's shadow, this is wazza's season, I can feel it...'

It was something most of us reds felt then. I guess the mere collective mental suggestion of this idea turned Rooney's season into one of the most memorable, fun and brilliant personal campaigns ever. Better than Ronaldo's 42 of 07-08, for some reason.

I just have to recap...

Ok, so...this season,

THE BALLAD OF MICHAEL OWEN...he's been there for so long. Meandering, a spark here and there but no real fire. But then Sir Alex calls, and Michael Owen becomes Manchester United's last line of offence, so to speak. A sticky draw? Call Owen...and he SCOOOOORES!!!

NANI DELIVERS...he always had it. He always had that glint of audacity and brilliance. But this year, he finally came through and despite a few glitches in the beginning of the season, Nani is finally living up to his promise. A few cheeky cheeky chips, a few back heels, and he's a hero at Old Trafford...

RIGHT WING? VALENCIA!!! It was a heck of a gaping hole that Cristiano Ronaldo left in United's right wing, but around the beginning of October last year, something seemed to click with this young but rather hyped player called Antonio Valencia from Ecuador. And then for the next two months there was nothing to stop him from putting in cross after brilliant cross into the path of Wayne Rooney, who tapped, headed and at one time chested the ball into the net with much gratitude.

THEY DO NOT AGE AT OLD TRAFFORD...Season after brilliant season, Ryan Giggs seems to be a living testament to that fact. Giggs and Scholes, the Old Boys of Old Trafford defy time and continue to be living legends. Scholes especially seems to prefer the highest stages to excel, like the Manchester Derby, with 15 seconds remaining, the title race hanging in the balance and he's there!!

FRESHMEN Gibson, Diouf, Macheda and Obertan, shaky though they have seemed at times hold the promise of an emerging star in the next few seasons. I especially look forward to Obertan playing a few more games next season.

Ok, so I will say that we did not have the best of luck at times. Steven Gerrard, the iron man of Liverpool suddenly forgets where his keeper is, and poof goes the title race.

Ok, shit happens.

But 3 years in a row that trophy has rested at Old Trafford. May it hate it's stay at Stamford Bridge.

Here's to '10-'11.

GLORY GLORY MAN UNITED!