Nostalgia, Technology, Video Games

Games that have impressed me over the years

3 Comments
I have always been an avid video game player. Like everyone else, I started off with 8-bit games, got a PC and then subsequently upgraded the hardware as games evolved over the years. Somehow, I never got around to buying a console. For me, nothing can beat the keyboard/mouse combination.
Following is a list of games that have impressed me a lot over the years. I will not do full reviews (I’ll include links for those), but briefly state why I found them so appealing. I have included the Plot summaries from wikipedia
System Shock 2 (1999)

I have always been fascinated with Sci-fi, FPS & space. System Shock 2 combines all this with the horror genre and the result is a very addictive and mesmerizing game.

I got this game from Sector 17, Chandigarh, unfortunately, just before Diwali. I was so engrossed in the game that I spent most of Diwali playing it and ignored everything else. 










The reason I liked this game so much was because it conveys a feeling of loneliness. You are the only human (almost) in a city-sized spacecraft light-years away from home. Everything is deserted and the enemies appear suddenly, scaring you.
Also  fascinating for science fiction  lovers is how the overall structure of the Von-Braun and the Rickenbacker are slowly revealed and you discover how the spacecrafts are built to sustain an entire ecosystem. You feel sad, lonely and scared most of the time.
It’s a pity that there was no sequel to this fantastic game (even though the finale is open-ended). However, irrational games did release Bioshock, which is called the “spiritual successor” of System Shock.
Tomb Raider Series (1996 onwards)

Many would consider the Tomb Raider series as girly. Some others (who have only watched the movies) might have a different perception of the character. However, I found the games very fascinating due to the following reasons

  1. Most of the time, you are alone in a deserted location. This conveys a feeling of loneliness & mystery.
  2. The locales are just fascinating. Lara Croft travels through exotic locations, like the City of the Dead, Angkor Vat, South America, the Arctic Ocean etc. A full map of her adventures can be found here
  3. You get to walk, run, jump, drive vehicles, swim underwater etc
  4. The path forward is not always clear. You have to find your way most of the times, time your jumps, look for clues etc.
  5. The soundtrack is fantastic. Most of it, composed by Nathan McRee. They can be downloaded here

The later parts of the games have migrated to more modern settings, however, the earlier versions would remain closest to my heart,
Janes USAF (1999)

 
Jane’s USAF is one of the many Combat Flight Simulationsreleased by Jane’s Combat Simulations, but undoubtedly one of the best. You get to fly several US Air Force planes like the F-105 Thunderchief, F-4E Phantom II, F-16C Fighting Falcon, F-15C Eagle, F-15E Strike Eagle, A-10A Thunderbolt II, F-117A Nighthawk, and the F-22A Raptor  to different sorties, major missions like Vietnam and Desert Storm and 2 missions set in the future. You can switch from one plane to another within a mission as well. 
The controls were very slick and the graphics very good for that era. Too bad the game refused to run at all on Windows XP onwards.


Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012 (1998)










Rogue trip is a vehicular combat game and one of the few games I’ve played extensively on my friend’s Playstation (PS One). Even though I played it in Black & White (He has a PAL system but NTSC discs), the game was very enjoyable.
The main aim is to take aliens on a sight-seeing trip in various locales in the US. There are other cars who want to do the same, so there’s stiff competition as they try to kill you and vice-versa.



The cars are fun and you have a bevy of weapons including ballistic missiles. I have very fond memories of playing this game. The soundtrack is especially good including the Rascal King by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Here’s the song
[youtube
Max Payne (2001/2003)

This is the game that changed it all. It put my graphics card, my processor and my overall computer to shame. I had to invest money into buying new hardware for my computer, especially to play this game. With an almost brand new system and a lighter pocket, this game was a pure pleasure to play. Some things that stand out for this game

  1. Unique storyboard based gameplay
  2. Amazing haunting music
  3. The innovative gameplay style featuring Bullet-time motion, with slow-motion stunts. You can see bullets slow down and travelling through the air, causing shock-waves while you dive for cover and fire back at the same time
  4. The snowy landscape of New York is a joy to travel through
  5. Unique weapons like the Molotov Cocktail

I still vividly remember the opening cut-scene

“Stand by, 10-10 investigated reported disturbance at Aesir plaza.”
“10-4, Dispatcher, verify address.”
“It’s Aesir Plaza, repeat, Aesir Plaza.”

The sequel, though not as great as the first part is still pretty amazing.
Grand Theft Auto (1997 onwards)

My first sojourn with a Grand Theft Auto game was when I played GTA II demo on a Chip CD. The gameplay, though 2D as still quite enjoyable.
GTA-III started the 3D era for the GTA series. GTA-III onwards, the gameplay features a sandboxed city, in which you can navigate to complete different missions. The main points are

  1. You are given access to an open world. You can go anywhere in the city you like, steal an vehicle you can find (including a Tank)
  2. An innovative “RADIO” system. You can switch between radio channels and listen to the obscure in-game radios.
  3. You can sleep off your injuries

GTA-III had one of the best gameplays/graphics of that era and subsequent sequels improved upon it and maintained the high-standards.
The latest version, GTA-IV is widely regarded as one of the best games of all time. Again, I had to spend a lot to upgrade my computer to be able to run this game. If your computer is up for it, the graphics are pure bliss. No other game till now has managed to re-create such a beautiful city in its entirety

The best part about such games is that the game never gets over. You still have the whole city to explore and you can just roam around for hours killing people, fleeing from the police, stealing cars and bikes.

Some other games worth mentioning are Microsoft Flight Simulator, Microsoft Midtown Madness, Crysis 2

Education, Rant

Murder of English

6 Comments

These days, especially in North India (no offense meant), people have a tendency to abuse and murder English. Reading facebook posts always puts me in throes of revulsion. Also, I am not even talking about accent (which is pardonable) or pronunciation yet. These are purely grammar and punctuation errors. This is surprising because English is one of the easiest languages to learn and with the simplest grammatical rules.
It’s more infuriating because most people these days consider it fashionable to use English for conversation within their family, instead of their native language.
I know that English is not our “National” language, but is still very important in today’s age, considering that almost everyone works for a foreign company. If you don’t like English, at least make an effort to correct yourself, failing which just write in any other language.
Following are the predominant mistakes made by people these days. I have included some examples from Facebook.
1. People are misers when it comes to using uppercase at proper places. People don’t start their sentences with capitals. Even worse is when they don’t write their names starting with Capitals. If you can’t write your name properly, you can’t write anything else.

2. When it comes to punctuation marks, the same people are very generous and use them liberally. It is very common to see sentences ending with multiple full stops (I am so sad……) or multiple exclamations (I am so happy!!!!!) or the combination of different punctuation marks (I am so drunk!!! Hell yeah !!!@!@@). People also use incorrect punctuation, as seen in the example above. Here’s another example

This is very surprising, considering that this guy had an affair with our office English coach. I guess they didn’t talk much.
Although, there are some people who don’t use punctuation much and merge several sentences into one.

3. People also make a lot of spelling mistakes, even for simple words. It’s like they don’t even make an effort.

4. People use incorrect grammar. This is the most common and widespread problem among people today.  Its as if they were all sleeping in class for years when the English teacher was working hard to teach us, or that they didn’t want to learn at all. Sometimes the sentences don’t make any sense at all. This is the worst example of English I could find, with examples of all of the above. I didn’t even erase the name

I attribute this degradation due to the following factors

  1. People don’t consider learning English an important thing to do. They somehow pass the exams and then forget about it during higher studies.
  2. Most English teachers in this country are English-illiterate themselves. I was lucky enough to have come across very good English teachers for most of my education timeframe.
  3. People don’t read/write much. Most people in North India (no offense meant) act surprised to know that people actually pay to read novels. One of the most common sentences I hear is “Padhai ki kitaabe kam hai jo aur kitabe khareed li?” (“Don’t we have enough study books that you got some more?”)
  4. The “hip-hop” culture has caused the worst damage to people. It teaches people to deliberately mis-spell and mis-pronounce words. Apparently emulating how black Americans speak (no offence to the black)  is considered cool.
  5. People also suffer from the lack of will to take criticism constructively. Such “correctors” are scoffed at and termed “Angrez” (“Englishman”).
Rant

Why you should not bargain with poor people

3 Comments

Bargaining is an integral part of the Indian psyche. An Indian has an intrinsic urge to get the best deal out of every situation. They bargain in stores, hotels, taxis, airports and even Restaurants. While some of the bargaining is pardonable (when dealing with situations where the price is not justified), one should not bargain with poor people e.g. Rickshaw-wallahs, auto-wallahs etc. (unless he’s trying to rip you off, of-course)
I will provide an example. A middle-class woman takes a rickshaw from Point A to Point B, the rickshaw puller asks for Rs 20/- for his labour. The woman’s internal instincts take over and she haggles with the rickshaw puller for ten minutes, saying that Rs 20/- is too much and Rs 15/- is what he deserves. She would prefer to waste ten minutes of her time, just to save 5 rupees.

Now I ask this- What is 5 rupees for a  middle-class woman? Not much. Now, what is the same amount for a poor rickshaw-puller who works 14-15 hours a day just to bring food to the table? Certainly much more than what it is to the woman.
Now consider the same woman, in a mall, shopping at an expensive retail store. She wouldn’t bat an eyelid putting down a few thousand bucks for some dress manufactured at a rich designer’s factory, with a manufacturing cost 1/20th of the retail price & not worth it.  It is obvious that the rickshaw puller works 10 times as hard as the designer, but earns less than .0001% of the latter, just because he was born in a poor family and not provided the means to earn anything more.
Also what I don’t agree with is people giving away 10-20 rupees easily to a beggar but not to a person who works hard.
I find it shameful that people haggle for petty amounts with the poor, especially when giving away 5 to 10 bucks would not matter much to the giver, but would mean a lot to the recipient.
Because of such attitude, the rich get richer and the poor stay poor. Just because labour does not have a price tag, doesn’t mean you can decide what it costs.
I would request everyone in such a situation to think if haggling is worth it. If it is going to make a poor man happy at almost no expense on your end, don’t bargain.

Rant

The inscrutable Haryanvis

2 Comments

This is not aimed at 1 particular Haryanvi, but all of them. Also, I have nothing against them, many of my friends are Haryanvis.
I witnessed a curious scene today morning. I visited the local Puncture repair shop to get my bike tire fixed. While the guy was working on my bike, a Maruti SX4 stopped near the shop with 1 flat tyre. 2 Haryanvis (wearing traditional garb) stepped out and instructed the puncture-wallah in Haryanvi to fix the tire. Let me describe the car in more detail.
It had silver license plates with the numbers written in golden. Completely incomprehensible unless you look at it from just the right angle. Also, there were no alphabets, only numbers. All the windows (including the windscreen) were covered with pitch black (illegal) film. While the door was opened for a few seconds, I could see that the upholstery was bright red in colour.
With the car out of the way, let me describe the folk in detail. They talked in loud voices in Haryanvi, were wearing a lot of jewellery and looked completely un-educated. It was obvious that they were one of the people who had sold their farms at exorbitant prices to the government, had a lot of money and didn’t know what to do with it.
After instructing the Puncture-wallah, they opened the car boot. One of them asked the nearby shop-keepers to bring out a couple of plastic chairs and had them set up on the pavement. The other got out a huge hookah from the car boot. The Hookah was one of the biggest I had ever seen. It was set up in between the chairs. The base was heavy and stationary, the part above it was rotating, to facilitate passing the pipe between multiple people.
Within 5 minutes, the Hookah was lit and the Haryanvis bubbled away peacefully while the puncture-wallah toiled. I have nothing against smoking the Hookah (having tried the non-tobacco version at a Cafe Coffee Day outlet once myself), but what I failed to understand was the desire to have it right there, on the pavement next to a busy road, while the puncture was being repaired.
In sometime, the work done, the puncture-wallah asked them for 400 rupees (he had installed a new tube). The Haryanvis started abusing him vehemently, threatened him of dire consequences, gave him 300 bucks and sped away. While reversing, the car emitted the tune of a popular Hindi song and everyone around them laughed. After they were far away, the puncture-wallah abused them and their mother and sisters vehemently in return.
As for me, I had a good laugh early morning.

Rant

The Great Indian Elevator (lipht) paradox

5 Comments

One thing I have noticed since a long time (albeit with much frustration) is that Indians can never operate the Elevator (also called lift or lipht) properly. 99.9% times, people press the wrong buttons and mis-use the elevator. A few common scenarios
1. People press the DOWN button to call the elevator down, the UP button to press the elevator.

The UP and DOWN buttons are used to select which direction you want to go. If you want to go up, just press the UP button irrespective of where the elevator is. The next elevator going up will take you with it.
Most of the times, these people end up stopping the elevator going down (when they need to go up), get on the elevator, crowd it up un-necessarily and then the elevator stops again on its way up.
2. People get on the elevator even if its not going the same direction they want to go.
This just crowds up the elevator. The elevator is NOT a joyride, wait for your turn and then get on it.
Sadly, such behavior is not only exhibited by un-educated folk but also well earning people. This is just something that Indians are not capable of.
Music

Great Gig Part-2

4 Comments
June 30th, 2011 was a day I had waited for a long time. Think Floyd performed for the second time in Hard Rock Cafe. I had informed everyone of my absence from the other responsibilities of life days ago, as soon as the dates were announced. The concert was slated to start at 10:00 PM, we reached there at 07:00 PM, waited till 8 to get the tickets. The concert actually started around 10:30 PM.
For those who don’t know about the band, read my last post or facebook fan page
https://thescurvydawg.com/2010/05/22/the-great-gig-in-hard-rock-cafe/
http://www.facebook.com/thinkfloydindia

I had a few apprehensions on what the playlist would be like on this occasion. My minimum requirements were Dogs, Sheep, Echoes, Shine on you Crazy Diamond & of course, whole of Dark Side of the Moon.
Un-like last time, the concert started with Coming Back to Life, followed by Poles Apart and then High Hopes. Just when I was yearning for some classic(old) Pink Floyd songs, they Started with Dark Side of the Moon and played the whole album, just like last time.
While they were playing, I started looking around the crowd, hoping to catch a glimpse of Vasundhara Vee, who sang the part last time; however, I could see no signs of her. We were all surprised when the Sax guy (whose name I never heard or forgot) played the vocal parts on his Sax. It was simply amazing and played perfectly. All in all, I can safely say that “The Great Gig in the sky” was the song which surprised me most both the times.
After this came the mandatory alcohol top-up break after which they started with Echoes, followed by Sheep, Dogs, Shine on you Crazy Diamond, finishing with comfortably numb.
A few differences from last time

  1. The show was technically more successful. Last time the Sax sound went in and out, the keyboards couldn’t be heard on many songs, but this time everything seemed good.
  2. Everyone seemed more drunk than last time. Gaurav Chintamani looked like he was almost about to throw up.
  3. Rohit Kulkarni had more role this time, did most of the lead guitar work.
Overall, a very satisfying experience. I hope they do play “Careful with that Axe Eugene” next time.
Music

Return of the Gig!!

3 Comments
More than a year ago, on Thursday, May 20, 2010 something legendary happened. Think Floyd played at Hard Rock Cafe Delhi and changed our lives forever.
For people like us who would never see Pink Floyd live, this was the next best thing, and the best thing we can get ever. I covered this event on this blog a couple of days later
https://thescurvydawg.com/the-great-gig-in-hard-rock-cafe/
One reason the evening was so special was we had mediocre hopes from the concert and instead they blew us away. We didn’t expect a Sax player or Vasundhara singing “Great Gig in the Sky”.
Since then, we have all been waiting for a reprise, and after more than a year the dates have been announced. It’s June 30, the same venue at 9:00 PM (right!!)
http://www.hardrock.com/live2/eventDetails.aspx?LocationID=542&eventID=49111&MIBEnumID=3
With expectations already so high, will the band exceed expectations again or fail to live up to it’s expectations? Only June 30th will tell and we will be there.
Rant

Honey I shrunk the sweaters

Leave a comment
I am quite new to household chores and especially when it comes to washing clothes, I have next to no experience. I just know where to put the clothes into the machine, which knobs to turn and where to put the soap. I had no idea that woolen clothes don’t like appreciate the same treatment as summer clothes.
I washed my sweaters one day, in the way described above and when it was all over, the sweaters were all a size that would fit a 5 year old boy. I had no idea what happened.
Reading/asking around, I came to know that woolens are not to be washed with usual soap; and while most shrinkage is irreversible, there were a few things I could try.

I soaked my sweaters in warm water, hung them on a clothes stand and with clips attached to one end, stretched as much as I could and attached clips to the other side.
The sweater does look normal for now, let’s see how it fares up when it dries.

Nostalgia, Rant

Here comes the rain

Leave a comment

Yesterday was a good day. My dad called to tell me that the Registration card for my bike, which I assumed lost for years was back from the dead (from a pile of old stuff actually). I had long been dreading another trip to Nagpur, just to get a replacement registration card.
I remember the last time this happened. I spent 10k for air travel, a few thousand I paid to the RTO guy, had to wait for months to get a replacement and on top of which my Dad impounded my bike till I got it. So as you can imagine, it was a relief.
I had been roaming around with a constant apprehension that I would be stopped by the cops and without Registration, I would have to fork out a hefty bribe. Now, however, I will get my insurance renewed as well and be in the clear completely.
On this happy note, I left for office and while leaving back for home, was surprised to see that it had rained and rained well. The streets were wet, a cool breeze was blowing and there were the occasional drops of rain. I instantly traveled back in time, to college days, where bike was our only means of transportation, be it rain or sunshine. (I am being nostalgic a lot lately)
I rode slow, took my time to reach home and enjoyed every minute of the ride.
Well, after the seemingly unstoppable approach of summer, we were delighted by heavy rains and the temperature has gone down to a comfortable 15 again.

 

Looking for years of pleasurable biking to follow.

Earth bound misfit, I