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Things that happened since I last blogged

Jagadish — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:22:28 +0000

As always, there are too many things to write and too less time. I really enjoy teaching a lot and I love it when I teach these kids new things and they are just amazed like I did some magic trick. The thing I hate about teaching is that it takes up a lot of time. It really does not allow me to do other things. I spend a lot of time making homework problems, solutions for them and grading. The grading part of teaching is probably the most aggravating aspect. You see the kind of blunders they make in homeworks after going through all the trouble of explaining things, it really pisses me off.

Anyway, a lot of things happened since I last blogged. A few things I really hated and a very few things I enjoyed. Just thought I’d make a list in no particular order.

Nadal lost
Federer won French Open. I kinda expected this would happen though
Deccan chargers have won the IPL. Chennai kings lost in semis.
My girlfriend bought me a macbook. I don’t know if I should cheer about this or not. I am a windows guy, not a great fan of Mac. But I will have to try to use it and see I guess.
Apple released a new iPhone which I really wanted to get. I even planned to get out of my contract with Sprint but really not a wise move considering AT&T has really bad network. Coming from a Sprint customer that is a huge insult.
Palm pre, the most loved phone since the original iPhone has finally been realeased, it is another phone I still want but I might not get it because I just don’t want to spend all that money and change my existing $30 SERO plan.
E3 has come and gone and soo much to cheer about .
Microsoft – great show, highly impressed with Project Natal but I doubt it would work as well as they showed it would. It is not going to be an easy task pulling it off. And honestly, Peter Molyneux should shut the fuck up. He has a big mouth and I doubt if Milo would work as well he touted he would. Artificial intelligence is a still thing of science fiction and we are far from it. This is coming from a guy who does programming for a living, you better believe it .
Nintendo – probably the most boring show of all three. I am a rabid Nintendo fanboy and even I couldn’t help but yawn a few times but the announcement of Metroid: Other M has completely offset everything. Also I heard that there is a new Zelda in the making, there was a trailor for Super Mario Galaxy 2 and finally Little Big Planet Mario style. All exciting things but Nintendo is still missing that one puzzle piece, Wii-HD. Get it done, Nintendo. Give us HD.
Sony – Sony came up with the regular stuff. They had a brilliant show and very entertaining as well. God of War 3 was amazing, the Last Guardian trailer was awesome as well. Have to say, their motion controller seemed very interesting too. But they only showed a bunch of tech demos and no games yet. This kinda proves that MS and Sony have finally adopted the Nintendo philosophy and they jumped on the bandwagon a little too late. It might still take them a year or two to pull it off but HD is one thing Nintendo is far behind, so unless Nintendo comes up with Wii-HD, MS and Sony will be moving ahead this generation.
India lost the T20 World cup. They didn’t even qualify for the semis. They have been winning a lot lately, so this was expected to happen one day. I had no interest to start with anyway.
Lakers WON!! Enough said!

I guess that covers everything. Maybe I will blog often now that I have gotten that off my chest

My thoughts on Braid

Jagadish — Sun, 31 May 2009 18:02:49 +0000

I finished playing braid yesterday and as always quite late when it comes to finishing games . Given that I spent about less than an hour every day and no use of walkthroughs, it was quite an arduous task. I have to say as frustrating as it gets playing the game, it is really very satisfying when you figure things out on your own. Jonathan Blow has done a marvellous job in making this game. He had put all the right ingredients to make the game look innovative and yet familiar. Most people would confuse Braid to a platformer but it really is a puzzle game with an interesting time travel mechanic. It has a brilliant sound track and great visuals.

The story follows a typical Mario style adventure, an ordinary guy trying to rescue the princess. But when you get to the end of the game, it is kinda anti-climatic. I wouldn’t want to give too much away but it surprised me. I was shocked to say the least. It is for these kind of moments you become a gamer. You want to be surprised even if it is an unpleasant one. It was the shock that made me love FF6 when the world was destroyed half way through the game. It was the kind of shock that made me love KOTOR when I realized the main character was the Sith Lord, Raven. I could go on and on. The ending is, I would say on par with many great games but the game itself is not perfect.

My biggest gripe about the game is the stars that you have to collect at the end of the game. Having Speed runs is an interesting thing but collecting the stars is a really pain staking exercise. Most of them are hidden in really obscure place and takes a long long wait. I might still try to get them when I am absolutely bored but I wouldn’t try to attempt it otherwise. It also a short game for its price. There is very little to go back for once you done playing through once. Very little replay value. Even with all these complaints, I think Braid is a solid 8.5/10.

Updated review: Civ 4

Jagadish — Wed, 02 May 2007 14:38:00 +0000

I probably rushed my judgement there. Agreed Civ 4 is a great game and has the juiciest graphics for a turn based Strategy game but it gets too boring and repetitive after awhile. You research more techs, build more farms and cities, build an army to destroy other civilizations and after that, what? You start another game, probably in another map and do all the same. There is ofcourse the challenge of terrain and other things. But these are small variables to change. It becomes awfully boring to watch other civilizations taking their time with their turns. Moving their tanks around in a 3 tile island gets awfully boring. While you know it, 5 turns took 30 minutes to be done with. Frankly those days when I can spend hours on a game are really gone now. I’m into those quick games where I can make decent progress in a couple of hours, save it and come back to finish it off later. So Civilization is not for me. I am sure Sid Meier is awfully disappointed now.

Sid Meiers Civilization 4

Jagadish — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 15:13:00 +0000

Sid Meier’s Civilization 4 has got to be one of the addictive games I’ve ever played. It is brilliant the way it is made. The way you build up your city in small square blocks and watch your borders grow is really awesome. You develop an unhealthy obsession to obliterate any civilization in and around your vicinity and spread your pink borders all over the map. You would want to go back to the game for another session of 30 minutes, do some more research earn more gold, think of the ways to make your people happy. Its awesome the way the game makes multi-tasking look soo easy. I’m not too far into the game but I can tell this is only going to get better when I invent nuclear technology. I’m getting wicked thoughts already.

Well, there does seem to be some kind of an agenda regarding the addiction that the civilization games cause. There is a site online called Civilization Anonymous. It seemed to some kind of a rehab for all the addicts. It is probably the first of its kind where there is an organization helping addicts of a specific game instead of the gaming in general. While, I agree the game is indeed addictive, I did not find it addictive enough to take all the time off my regular activities to play it. It is good but definitely not that good. So lets hope that everyone keeps it real and instead of blaming the publisher and the game developer for their weakness, it would be nice if they owned up to their irresponsibility and moved on. After all, its just a stupid game. How bad can it get?