reviews

i finished two things this weekend .. the first was shaq's autobiography .. shaq uncut .. i bought it when i went to dubai last month .. i read most of it on the plane .. i only had a few chapters left but you know after i got back i just couldn't be bothered anymore .. but i finally finished it .. it's actually a decent book .. although it's written by shaq so it's not exactly deep or profound .. no disrespect but he's an athlete not a writer .. so you know .. but despite the lack of any real insight it's still interesting when shaq dishes about the drama that went on between him and kobe or later on between him and pat riley .. needless to say if you are not an nba fan then you should not read this book .. you might appreciate the earlier parts in the book when he talks about his upbringing and family and such .. but once he gets to the nba part you will be completely lost .. simply because you will not get any of the references .. but all in all it was a nice light read .. i think any true nba fan would appreciate it .. regardless whether they are a fan of shaq or not ..

the other thing i finished was assassin's creed revelations .. the fourth installment in the series .. and apparently not the last one .. enough already ubisoft .. make a final one already .. so you are ezio once again .. although every now and then you have a flashback as altair .. a very old altair .. who cannot run or jump .. in fact he can barely walk .. anyway .. they made a few minor changes as they always do .. took a few things out .. put a few things in .. but overall the game remains the same .. the setting is turkey this time by the way .. so you run around and jump and leap and kill and climb and purchase shops and all that stuff we have come to be familiar with .. once again the story makes zero sense with all its animus templar mumbo jumbo but the gameplay is wonderful .. looking forward to the next one ..

movie and a game

watched the movie she devil .. it is an old movie .. 1989 .. remember roseanne .. yes that roseanne .. she's in it .. meryl streep steals her husband .. so she destroys both their lives .. it's a nice movie actually .. watching her go about her evil plan is quite satisfying .. and meryl streep .. oh she was hot back in the day .. damn .. not to mention she is an amazing actress .. i enjoyed the movie .. 9/10 ..

playing rage these days .. picked it up earlier this week but only opened it this weekend .. it's produced by id and published by bethesda .. id brought us doom and bethesda brought us fallout .. and that's how this game plays out .. a mix of doom and fallout .. in other words .. fricking awesome .. also they included a racing element in the game .. again .. fricking awesome .. i'm still nowhere in the game .. only logged in about two hours of playing time .. also i'm playing on hard .. so this is gonna take a while ..

best game ever revisited

v

i beat heavy rain over the weekend ... heavy rain is probably in my opinion the best game ever made ... the last time i beat it was like two years ago ... never played it since then .. well not really two years ago .. like a year and a half ... but that's not the point ... i don't usually write about games here but this game deserves a post ... as good as la noire was but heavy rain is better ... there is no other game like heavy rain ... basically it is like a movie ... you're just watching a movie ... but occasionally the game lets you decide what the character should do ... most of the time you're just watching a movie unfold ... but here is the thing ... the game makes you a part of the movie ... you get to control the slightest things ... like when your character is dancing you just press the button prompts that pop up on the screen ... or when you are bandaging a wound you roll the analog stick in a circle to wrap it around the person's arm ... or changing a baby's diaper ... or applying lipstick ... or shaving ... or breaking into a mansion and shooting the place up ... or hitting golf balls while a rich tycoon tries to buy your silence ... or even making out ... it's just magical ... and the graphics ... oh the graphics ... such detail ... right down to the last small thing ... what a work of art ... but it's short ... like i said i beat it over the weekend ... and i didn't get the same ending i got the first time i played ... see that's another thing ... depending on your choices the movie unfolds differently ... people can end up dead or alive at the end ... or together or broken up ... it's just the best game ... there is no other game like it ... it's in a league of it's own ...
but it's a very dark very depressing movie ... which i guess only enhances the immersional experience of the game ... the game or the movie revolves around four different characters ... they don't know each other but they come to do so ... and you get to control them in the various scenes of the game ... but the main character is ethan mars ... he once had the perfect family ... beautiful house beautiful wife two beautiful little boys ... then one day at the mall his son got hit by a car ... and he blames himself ... and now he and his wife are separated ... then one day he takes his other son to the park and loses him as well ... he is kidnapped by a serial killer ... and now it is up to ethan to save him ... so there's ethan ... the other three are an fbi detective who is also on the case ... and he has a drug addiction ... then there's the private eye investigating the case but you never really know who hired him ... which serves for a very unexpected twist at the end ... and there's madison ... the sexy journalist who is following the serial killer story and falls for ethan ...
so far i played the game twice and both times the son is rescued alive at the end ... but there are endings where he doesn't live ...
maybe i'll play it again in another two years .. until then ...

LA Noire

game of the year ... and that's all i have to say about that ...

this is a post about gaming

i'm playing la noire these days ... and loving it ... definitely one of the best ps3 games out there ... which inspired me to create a top ten ps3 games list ... here goes ...

1. heavy rain
2. uncharted 1 and 2
3. batman arkham asylum
4. la noire
5. bioshock
6. need for speed hot pursuit
7. fallout 3
8. god of war
9. assassin's creed 2
10. crysis 2

honorable mention: ninja gaiden, guitar hero metallica

this is not a post about gaming

although it might sound like one at first ... i went to the video game store today ... i had a game in mind ... LA noire ... it was just released ... it was a highly anticipated game ... from the infamous rockstar games ... and the reviews all came in ... the game doesn't disappoint ... BUY IT NOW ... and me being the mindless drone that i am ... said ... OK ... i put it on my to do list ... which brings me back to my story ... today after work i drove over to the store ... i walked over to the new release shelf ... scanned the titles ... hmmm no LA noire ... so i asked the store clerk if they had it ... the conversation went something like this ... fee game jdeede nizlat isimha LA noire ... the guy nodded and said eewa mamnoo3a ... doesn't surprise me ... rockstar games always get banned ... anyway i was like oh mamnoo3a ya3ni ma 3indkum yaha ... and to my surprise he pulled it from under the counter and put it out there in front of me ... oh baby ... i was like tayeb ana jai ashtareeha ... so as he punched the transaction on his little screen ... i noticed he had a limited edition box edition of castlevania lord of shadows ... not quite a new release but also a game which was on my to buy list ... so i was like 3indak il 3adiye ... because usually limited edition box sets tend to be more expensive than the standard release ... and he's like tara nafs si3r il 3adiye ... i was like oh baby ... and replied ma3nato hai kaman ma3aha ... aaaaaaaaand here's where the story begins ... this guy walked in to the store ... this particular guy had tried to walk in earlier when i was still waiting outside for the store to open ... you see it was still prayer time when i arrived ... and as i stood outside waiting this same guy had tried to enter the store but the door was still locked ... so he left ... me ... i stayed there waiting for the doors to open ... anyway ... he came in and asked wislat? ... then he saw my game on the counter and his face lit up ... wislat wislat ... then the weirdest thing happened ... the clerk told him hadi a5er nus5a wil rajjal kan 7ajizha min ams ... what that's not true ... but i didn't say anything ... and kept a straight face ... eeh wallah kan 7ajizha min ams 7atta jani thalath marrat yis2al 3anha ... the guy became very sad and was like tab ana ashtareeha minno and he laughed and gave me a pat on the shoulder ... inside my head i'm thinking what if he's serious ... i could stand to make some serious profit ... but i just smiled and told him hard luck ... and he's like la 3adi ... anyway i left ... pondering what the fuck just happened ... why did the clerk lie like that ... i'll never know ... anyway i haven't played any of them ... i'm saving LA noire for the weekend tomorrow ... i did open the box set though ... it comes with a soundtrack cd ... also this cool little mask that you can use as a display decoration ... i found a picture of it online ...

the manager's lair

when you walk into my office you will usually hear music playing ... i have a ton of music that i copied on to my work computer from my personal computer ... it helps me work ... makes things a little less boring ... i never turn it off unless someone "important" walks in or it's time to go home ... anyway ... one of the files in my music folder is the nine inch nails discography ... and one of the albums in that discography is the quake soundtrack ... remember quake ... it was a popular pc game back in the day ... anyway ... today one of my staff came in to ask me some questions ... and this song happened to be playing during the entire conversation ... i thought it was kind of amusing ... i couldn't help but wonder what was running through his head as he heard it ...

zoom zoom zoom

there is this game i'm really into these days ... the new need for speed ... suffice to say it's effing awesome ...
anyway one of the events you can play is hot pursuit ... and you can be the racer or the cop ... for some reason i enjoy being the cop more ... i think it might be because as the cop your goal is to wreck everyone and shut down the race .... whereas when playing as the racer your focus is more on evasion and reaching the finish line ... in other words being the cop is more offensive whereas being the racer is more defensive ...
in reality though ... i imagine i would rather be the racer ... sticking it to the man so to speak ..

i leave you with a small sample of what i'm talking about ...

fool me once

in honor of today being april first and the whole april fool's thing ... wired.com's gaming blog published a post about the top ten tricks played on us by videogames ... you don't have to be a gamer to appreciate it ... check it out ...

the joy of christmas

is it just me or does he appear to hump the box at the 0:45 mark ...

nostalgic death

some perspective

Just how successful was the launch of Modern Warfare 2?

The game's publisher, Activision, says more than 8 million gamers played the game in its first five days. That’s more than the number of soldiers in the world’s top-five armed forces combined.
Activision has conveniently broken down the numbers for you. According to the publisher, “Modern Warfare 2” has:

* more than twice the number of troops in NATO’s 28 member countries combined (3.9 million active troops in NATO)
* more than three times the number of troops in the world’s largest army (People’s Liberation Army of China with 2.3 million)
* more than five times the number of active duty military personnel currently serving in the United States Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force combined (1.4 million)
* more than six times the size of India’s Armed Forces (1.3 million)
* more than seven times the size of North Korea’s Korean People’s Army (1.1 million)
* And, eight times the size of personnel in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (1 million)
source

in a related story ...

the golden wii

in case you were wondering what to get me for christmas ...

The Nintendo Wii SUPREME Officially the most unique and expensive in the world. Six months of precise workmanship went into creating the ultimate gaming station which boasts over 2,500 grams of solid 22ct gold. The front buttons are home to 78 x 0.25 ct Flawless diamonds which total 19.5 ct. Available as a limited edition of only 3 to be made.
Price - £299,995.00

they also make golden ipods ... diamond blackberrys ... no kidding ...

playstation world

if you like playstation 3 ... and you live in riyadh ... there is a new store on tahliye street called playstation world ... it is like the sony world stores ... same company ... faisaliya group ... anyway yesterday was the opening ... they had like two dudes dressed as characters from playstation games ... and spotlights outside ... and confetti ... and what not ... i was having dinner with my friend at a restaurant in tahliye so we happened to pass by ... we went in for a few minutes then left ... too many people ...
if you want to check it out ... it's facing chilis ... where quiznos used to be ...

me driving home from work

The Curse

it seems the madden curse is real ... it just happened again ...

Mario Teaches Us About Life

Coming PS3 Releases

this list makes me wish i had a machine that could fast forward time ...

Oh Baby

you know the guitar hero games ... well now they're developing a dj hero game ... i'm so getting that shit when it comes out ...

Currently Playing