Loading ...
Author Archive
Transformers was a true summer movie in all respects after a really *long* time. Straight in the league of Armageddon about 8 summers back, which was the last summer blockbuster that I truly enjoyed. The movie was made on a mega, multi-million dollar budget. And the result was a highly polished, taut presentation of our beloved Lego heroes’ story. But this is not about the special effects or the slick cars used in the movie. This is about what the tittle says. Yes, the music, which I believe is the major yet least talked about aspect of epic movies. Imagine STAR WARS without the classic John Williams score! Imagine Superman without the hugely orchestral yet very pop like theme by the same genius! Imagine Black hawk Down and Pearl Harbor without the ‘To die for my Country’ scores! You guys must have gotten the drift I guess.
And adore you too! Scared? Snap out of it!. Now that I have started off gushing, let me go all the way and state in a civil and courteous way (only temporarily, I assure you), that we thank you for your kind support right from the second the ANGRY pixel went online with the blog. Thanks for what, you ask? Read on:
Because of your co-operation and the efforts of our awesome and (handsome, eligible bachelor) Lead Content Editor, Krishnan Rajagopal, our website is now listed as the ‘Cool Site of the Day’. Check out http://www.coolsitetoday.com/ and you will know what I mean.
But that’s scratching the surface. Or an itch. Whatever. Our site was featured today in Mumbai Mirror (a leading newspaper for young Bombayites, published along with the Goliath called the Times of India ) in the ‘Website Watch’ section of the publication. Talk about a double whammy, eh?
Now we’re about as vain as anybody else (which is, to say, a lot) so we’ll take risk of sounding a bit too immodest, and say that we are proud of our efforts and proud of the guts of our community that has followed us out of our old home on the internet intoto this new pad - where we can stay together until time itself ticks out. That, or Reggie and Kris stop paying the bills. But since that is not going to happen any time soon, relax, we are here to stay.
I expect a lot more hits on the blog and the forum from now because, I know what the ‘Website Watch’ section means to most of the key demographic. Forgive me for being so excited about this, but a full record of TAP’s formation and achievements is in order at this point. But that is a story for another time and will be probably told better by the people who worked much harder than yours truly in the formation of the website.
On a parting note, another round of applause and bouquets goes out to the staff and our dear community members. And also, a hearty and warm welcome to the new people who visit us because of all the articles and the newspaper mention. See, we could have called you n00bs, but we did not! If that does not speak volumes about our character, then what does? We’re very generous that way.
Two full years have passed since we last had some amazing, finger crunching time with Dante. Devil May Cry 3 was undoubtedly the toughest game in the Devil May Cry (DMC) series. Also the most satisfying to beat. The sheer style factor was unbelievably high and harder you comboed the bigger advantages you reaped. We LOVED that system even if it meant dying 7 times while completeing ONE level. The game was so addictive that we always went back to it for more punishment, suckers for BDSM that we are.
Now hot on toes of Lost Planet and Dead Rising, the new iteration of DMC 4 is on the horizon waiting for the rise. I am sure all of you DMC fans out there cannot wait to take this one for a spin on your hot new X360s and the PS3s. But PC fans dont have to eat their hearts out. Poor DMC fans like me, who dont have the fortune of owning any next gen console can rest easy as the game is also slated for a PC release. Although all the footage in form of screenshots and videos that is available; is on the PS 3 platform, rest assured that the PC version will look tonnes better. It is based on the Lost Planet: Extreme Condition’s engine and judging by the way LP looks on my system, i am happy to say that we wont be disappointed. One only needs a good controller and they are set to enjoy DMC 4 on the PC as well.
Three days back, dear friend Jay Patel passed on the link to a sub-website registered to Ubisoft’s name, one that had something to do with the next game in the Ubisoft Tom Clancy series. In classic Ubisoft style, the website is extremely good looking and well designed. It is viral marketing as never before, as it has a continuous radio news cast giving clues as to what the game might be about.
This game does look mighty interesting AND bizarre. Forgive me as I rant on this. Understand that these are my OWN interpretations of the website and not facts by any means.
My guess, is the game is a logical conclusion to all the escalating conflict from all the Tom Clancy games yet. JSF refers to the “Joint Strike Force” program and presumably ~jsf28555833-80604722~ is a soldier from that elite unit.
1. jsf28555833-80604722: Supposedly the protagonist of the game. We see a injured man on the site homepage. The upper half of the screen shows a full status report on his vital signs, as the reports read “Mind Map status: Verified. RhD Antigen:(null) >0 or negative, Antibody analysis: No compatibility detected.” Now according to what they taught me in my first year of B.Tech, Rh factor refers to the rhesus blood group. RhD is an antigen that expresses itself on the surface of red blood cells, and helps in controlling their neural linkage to the brain. The emotion of pain is the said ‘linkage”, which means that JSF program’s suppressed RhD in their recruits allow them to FEEL NO PAIN. Kinda makes sense. The bastards have been blabbering about building super soldiers from the days of Project Invisible. A soldier who can’t feel pain is just the perfect warrior, dont you think? Sure they will die, but they won’t feel a thing until they actually do. That means longer stamina and longer staying power in tough firefights.
Apart from this, two of the links, according to me at least, are flashbacks to the recruit’s life. In one of them, we can hear him making a call from a railway station (I could hear the train announcements) from a government locked satellite frequency.
In other of the links, we can see a kid playing with some ornament and calling the camera ‘Daddy’ and a blast and gunfire seconds quickly follow. Maybe, this ties in somehow. If I have to take a wild guess, I’d say this guy has seen action in either the Ghost Recon team or the Rainbow team. He got banged somewhere in between and was taken in by the JSF program as he qualifies in every way - nothing to lose, familiar with battle and supposedly bitter at having lost his family.
2. Radio News: This was the most intresting bit of the whole deal. The news reader’s voice has a metallic, emotionless hum to it, suggesting automisation of media. This in turn signifies that the media is no longer controlled by ‘agendas’ and human governments nurturing them. The mood portrayed in the radio broadcast suggests a post nuclear warfare world. The timeline as mentioned in the newscast is 2028. The terrorist have supposedly nuked the German/France LOC some 12 years ago, thus sending Europe in the pit completely. The Euro has fallen down in the stocks and the market value of Europe as a tourist hub has also gone down. A report about how student tourists to Ibiza were forced to live in night clubs converted to hostels serves to heighten the point about the raging conflict in Europe.
The Caribbean nations have split up their market share and currency deal from US, thus causing the US Dollar to drop down a lot. Japan looks to be strongest economic power at that time apparently.
The news cast also speaks of sports and cultural activity. This suggests the world is trying to get back to normal, but terrorism is still prevalent apparently, on a large scale. The news cast also hints at a full scale war in Europe, with conflict raging between the British, Spanish and German forces. The death toll is very high and the news caster calls out the figures as if it is the most normal thing in the world for tens of thousands of people to die, suggesting that the war has gone on long enough for people to actually fear and rue over it.
The world is having a serious water and fuel crisis. The water reserves in the UK were stolen by the refugees coming across the English Channel, leading to a full sized genocide committed by the English forces on the refugees. There were also talks of reverse immigration to Asia and the MINDBLOWING population explosion in Asia. Some policy is apparently being formulated on the whole issue by the South Asian governments.
3. My thoughts on the whole deal: The stage is well set, and judging by the situations we are being told about, it seems a perfect premise for the typically corny, yet heroic entry of the US to the whole scene.
The videos show multiple references to the Ghost team and I could actually see Captain Mitchell with his typical gun stance in one of the vids. Let’s see where it takes us. I am hoping for a kickass, all consuming final fight against the heart of terrorism. But I could not find a reference to Sam Fisher, maybe I missed it. Let’s hear you people out!