FXLabs is busy with Dhoom 2.5 and Ghajini, while Trine Studios’ got Streets of Mumbai. So where, oh where, will we be seeing an Indian developed game based on Indian mythology, quality not withstanding (at this point, sucking is only half the problem)? Pyramid Saimira and Aurona Technologies (in collaboration with Sony Entertainment) are up for the task, and they’ll be summoning the Monkey God himself, Lord Hanuman. According to AnimationXpress’ Money Sharma:

Pyramid Saimira with its gaming arm Aurona, will develop game on Lord Hanuman, titled as ‘Hanuman’. Currently in the development stage, the game will portray some part of epic Ramayana and is slated for late 2008 release. The action adventure game is a role playing game and is being worked at Aurona’s Hyderabad studio with close to 60 artists working on it.

… Aurona Technologies Business Development Director Hetal Bhuva shared, ‘Our objective behind having collaboration with Sony is to explore the Indian gaming market and Indian content. The Hanuman game will be targeted at kids of age group of 6 – 16 worldwide, who are familiar with the Indian culture and mythology and can easily relate to it.’

Shucks, would’ve been nice to see Aurona take the source material and go all blitzkrieg like David Jaffe and co. with God of You-Know-What. Although their site doesn’t specifically mention what projects they’ve worked on, Aurona did have a hand in the development with Colin McRae DiRT and… uh, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties? Well, it still beats the pants off Agni. I guess.

(The picture inserted above was taken from here)

I can tell what you’re pondering. No, I know what you’re pondering. Here you are, setting idly in your chair and skimming through random game message boards. The howls and cries of the current console generation are anywhere and everywhere, whether its about how balls-to-the-wall it is too see how much Nathan Drake can get his shirt-wet in gorgeous wide-screen high-definition or the municipal assertion that the waggle generation is here to stay, just so long no one has to endure Nintendo’s smutty online service for too long. Yeah, you’ve been there. But not too long back, you were rubbing your thumbs red over a console that reserved a special place in your heart for more than 7 years. Good times! Wonderful times! And now they’ve departed.

“If only there were still some new games to play,” you think to yourself.

Splendidly, it so happens that this April will be seeing several titles released on the PS2, and if you find yourself curious (and you should be), you’ll want to thank – who else – but Japan (or at least the company Atlus for publishing certain titles)! After all, it’s the only country in the world that still has an extensive backlog of games that most people haven’t even heard about.

“Wait, wouldn’t mean they were too crappy for public ingestion or…”

Quiet, you! Now hit the jump like a good munchkin.

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Ever had one of those days when your private stealth jet’s AI decides to go sentient, rampaging all across the Middle East while trying to “find” itself the meaning for its existence - especially while on the day when you really, really need to get somewhere fast? It’s only one of the more creative excuses I could come up at this time, because despite being invited to the God of War: Chain of Olympus Launch Event in Mumbai (with a special appearance of Gran Turismo 5: Prologue), none of us from TAP went. I have a throbbing pain in my chest, and her name echoes agony!

Fortunately, such was not the case with GamingIndians stalwart and Gran Turismo junkie Sameer Desai. Not only was he able to break inside the Sony Auditorium with the utmost ease, Sameer tracked down Sony Computer Entertainment of India’s Country Manager, Atindriya Bose, for a little round of one-on-one (Latino Kratos need not apply). How conveniently convenient! Time for some “good cop, bad cop” - GI style. More after the jump, yo.

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I’ve always been a huge fan of quizzes, having been through hundreds of contests all through school, college and even the workplace. I’ve even spent a small fortune on Microsoft Encarta just so that my brain can be treated like a soft punching bag for hundreds of hours by the MindMaze’s dungeon dwellers. So when I first saw Buzz! almost two years back, it was head-over-heels love at first sight, with other games getting completely ignored until the disc gave up the ghost from overuse. But for all us Indian gamers that can’t wait until around March for the next-gen version of Buzz! Quiz TV for the PS3, SCEE, eager to duplicate the SingStar Bollywood experience, has launched an Indianized version of Buzz! The Mega Quiz, finally bringing the cheesier-than-cheesecake Buzz and his lovely redheaded assistant Rose (you know, the one with the exploding bustline in a Size 6 dress) officially to the country.

Working with the local quizzing legend Derek O’Brien and his talented team, Buzz! The Maha Quiz - now with 40% localized content (yum!) - looks like its set to complement the thousands of general knowledge questions already in the game with an assortment of questions that should be “more relevant to the Indian audience”. I guess that probably means that they’ve swapped out a lot of the Hollywood and Western music content for Bollywood films and songs (uh-oh!) and replaced a lot of the general knowledge trivia geared towards the Americas and Europe in favor of India - which is something that we’re really happy to see.

Launching the game at the swank Vie Lounge in Mumbai last Thursday, Sony Computer Entertainment India’s Country Manager, Atindriya Bose joined big-ticket personalities (what, no David Amor?) including cricketing firestorm Sreesanth, Radhakrishnan from NEO Sports, Rajeev Masand from CNN IBN and Bollywood celebs Neil Mukesh and Sonia Mehra in the first official Buzz! quiz in the country. We’re not really sure who won that round, but in an official press release sent our way, Atindriya Bose quipped:

Buzz enjoys a tremendous fan following across the globe because of three key elements - accessibility, character and sociability. It’s the live-in-your-living-room game show experience that everyone can enjoy, thanks to the Buzz! Buzzers. The cheeky personality of Buzz guides the tone of the game and related communications, setting it apart from bland competitors. Rose with her vixen-like appearance and appeal, also adds glamour to the game. After the success of Singstar Bollywood, it is only natural that we bring in Indian game contents in such a popular franchise as Buzz! ™: The Maha Quiz.

Amen, but wait… “bland competitors”? Was that a dig at the terrible voice acting and the annoying IR-based “Big Button Pad” controllers for Scene It? Lights, Camera, Action that turned out to be infuriating ripoffs of the Buzz! Buzzer? Oh well, we’re just happy that Sony India has released a great party game for the PS2 and has gone to enough trouble to show that they care about actually generating localized content for their games, instead of just importing the generic UK versions we are so used to getting. We’re still to get our most eager hands on the game, but this definitely looks like it could knock Guitar Hero off from its “Most Played Game at Parties” throne. Buzz! The Maha Quiz is priced at INR 1499 and is available now at all game outlets.

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Looks like the Scots are putting their own unique spin on the gaming world. After awarding the first Unreal Tournament III world record, the folks over at the Guinness World Records are now coming out with the Guinness World Records Gamers Edition 2008 on February 8th, 2008. Meant to be a collection of astounding videogame-related records, the book will carry detailed profiles on the best videogames ever made, interviews with record holders and a ton of awesome trivia that should prove to other people how big a videogame nerd you are - like knowing, for example, that Faiz Chopdat has served the “Longest Prison Sentence For Playing A Computer Game” after refusing to turn off his Tetris game while on board an airplane and instantly becoming my lord and master.

But wait, that’s not all, if you’ve been boasting all your life about kicking ass in Guitar Hero, here’s your chance to put your money where your mouth is by taking part in the very first Highest Scorer on Guitar Hero World Record attempt. All you gotta do is cosplay like your favorite guitar hero and end up on February 6th, 2008 at Paris, London, New York, Toronto, Los Angeles or Australia and prove you’ve got what it takes to to be the best damned GH player in the world. According to the official rules:

Players will rock in pairs to one song before passing on to the next Guitar Hero, with just 15 seconds changeover between jams! Paris will kick off proceedings followed by the London, New York, Toronto, LA and Sydney. Players will also be given the chance to form a group and compete for the highest score set by a 6 people playing one guitar, with each person allocated a key and the strum bar to play!

I suppose if you suck at that, you could try showing the world how you’re the best when it comes to 100%-ing every song on Expert with the standard Xbox 360 controller… and then get fed through a straw for the rest of your life…

So the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) banned Manhunt 2 in the UK. No, they banned it twice! But that won’t stop our friends at Rockstar who’ve clearly established that there’s 3 levels of everything, from executions to game releases!

Manhunt 2 has been in the British news for some time now because of the BBFC’s decision to not rate the game, therefore translating to the fact that it can not be sold off the shelves in merry ol’ England. However, Rockstar have challenged the ban at the Video Appeals Committee and the VAC has spoken in their favor.

Rockstar, are understandably pleased at the decision and are happy that the game is recognized as one that falls into an established 18+ rating system.

Now as I understand it, if the BBFC does not do anything, the game is defaulted to a 18+ rating system and goes on sale, thereby bringing smiles on the faces of millions of sadistic-gore-loving-Brits.

So there you have it. Britons do not like violent games and will not tolerate them. Of course, there’s always the ultra-violent football hooligans to ban as well, but hey - no one learns violence from real life! Artistic simulations do just fine, thank you!

I’ve always felt sad for people with Erectile Dysfunction. Especially if they happen to be married to sexually active women just writhing with unbridled lust. Well, now me and the rest of the Indian gaming community know just how those poor guys feel! After months of poking and prodding, it looks like Rock Band is finally available via Microsoft India’s eBay store for INR 1999 / $50. Good news, right? Nope, not really! We get the game, but we don’t get anything else - no guitar, no drum kit, no microphone!

Sure, all you guys elsewhere could just plug your GH2/GH3 guitars in and thrash away, but we don’t have those either, so we’d be expected to play with just the Xbox 360 controller, which frankly, sucks big time! If I don’t get the drums, I don’t want the game! Thank you very much, but you can have your copy back! We’re going to be contacting Microsoft India about this and try to find out whether the distributors at Redington will be importing the accessories and the Special Edition bundle as well, but with Country Manager Mohit Anand letting it slip at the Delhi Game On event that Guitar Hero 3 could cost upward of INR 6000 or $150, one wonders how much the Rock Band Special Edition would cost. Way more than what we can afford, that’s for sure!