MAX PAYNE 3 TRAILER UNVEILED

Boy Oh Boy.......At last.........Rockstar unveils the first trailer of the much much awaited Max Payne 3. Just wanted to share the Trailer in here. Enjoy!!!!

Upcoming

Heyy guys. It's been a long time since my last post. I have been sort of busy since the last few months. I haven't got times to play many games since my last post. I did play and complete an old game called Second Sight which came out in 2004. I liked it. And i have started with Mafia 2 but I haven't completed it yet. I'm still playing it. In fact I am playing it real slow. All the Grand Theft Auto games had a lot of bugs and glitches, and since this is a somewhat similar game in approach, I am taking my own time and hunting for as many bugs and glitches. Other than these two, I haven't really got time playing video games in these 5 months unless you count playing a little bit of MMORPGs online like Ultima Classic. However, I know I am going to get very busy from the end of this year. That's because some fantastic games are coming out very soon. Games that I can't wait to lay my hands on. Well here I am going to list some games that are going to be released very soon and are eagerly being waited by not just me but gamers all over the world. The ones I'm listing are the ones I'm too excited about. So, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER , here goes.

1) BATMAN :ARKHAM CITY

From my previous review of Batman Arkham Asylum, you can get to see how crazy I got after playing the game. It was fabulous. So you can very well imagine my excitement over the upcoming sequel. There's no way I can miss this one. I'm already making efforts to pre-order it. The previous installment took place inside the infamous Arkham Asylum prison. This game takes place inside a part of Gotham City which is being used as a prison. Portion of the city is dubbed " Arkham City" and it's perimeters are armed with tough private military contractors thus confining dangerous criminals in that part of the city. When pandemonium takes place inside Arkham City, Batman must once again infiltrate the city like he did Arkham Asylum last time and restore peace again. And this time, the thrills, the action and everything is double. Word has it that Catwoman even appears as a playable character in this game. There are talks of Robin being there as well. That we'll find out when the game releases on OCTOBER 18, 2011 but till then here's the trailer. The trailer used the track "This Ain't no place for a Hero" by The Heavy.

2) SPIDERMAN: EDGE OF TIME

This game is being developed by the not so known Beenox Developer company. This is the second Spiderman game released by them, the first one being Spiderman :Shattered Dimensions which came out in 2010. Honestly speaking, I have NOT played Spiderman :Shattered Dimensions but I read some reviews which turned out to be positive. This was a totally new concept where 4 different versions of spiderman from alternate dimensions of the Marvel Comic world work together . I wanted to check it out badly and by the time I decided to get a copy of this one, a sequel to this called Spiderman: Edge of Time was already announced. This one has not four, but two different Spidermen from two different time periods working together against a criminal mastermind. In the year 2099, an organization known as Alchemax has become too powerful and influential and rules the world with an iron fist. This is due to a villainous scientist who travels back in time from 2099 to the present in order to use his futuristic knowledge to found Alchemax much early for it's time. Now Spiderman 2099/Miguel Ohara and Spiderman Present/Peter Parker must work together across time to prevent this. Also Spiderman 2099 knows that Peter parker is to die at the hands of Anti-Venom due to the scientist's deeds. He has to save a spiderman from an alternate timeline. This is a concept I'm dying to see when the game releases. It would be great to have a storry spanning between two different timelines and be able to control the present Spiderman as wel as Spiderman of the future. I'm going to check out Spiderman :Shatter Dimensions very soon after that Spiderman: Edge of Time. Looking to pre-order this one as well. It releases on October 4, 2011. Checkout the trailer.

3) TOMB RAIDER

This one looks like a series reboot. An origin story of one of the most famous video game characters ever. Lara Croft has ruled the hearts of all gamers ever since she debuted with Tomb raider (1996). This new Tomb Raider game, published by Square Enix and developed by Crystal Dynamics is all set to narrate the story of Lara Croft's first ever adventure, the story of how she came to be as skilled as she is. Fresh from academy and in search of lost relics, a 21-year-old Lara journeys to an island off the coast of Japan aboard the Endurance, a salvage vessel . Before anchoring at bay, the ship is cleaved in two by an unforeseen storm leaving Lara separated from any other survivors and washed ashore. She must endure physical and emotional torture in order to survive the island . Unlike other games in the series, Lara will not have a weapon at her disposal when you begin controlling her and neither will you have much items. You'll just be dead tired and worn out just like a ship wrecked person cast onto an island is. The game begins with Lara devoid of any weapons, tools or essentials such as food and water, which the player must search for in order to survive. And the biggest thing is Lara Croft is not the tough woman we know from the previous games. She's a rookie and has no previous experience of any adventure. We will have to guide our heroine to safety. This one really sounds interesting as it sounds different from all the previous Tom Raider games we have played. I'm really eager for this one to come out, but this wait is quite long as TOMB RAIDER is to come out in Autumn of 2012. Here's the trailer.

There are some others coming out as well. A sequel to Max Payne 2 has been rumored snce the last 2 years but we didn't have one yet. However, this time, a third Max Payne installment is really supposed to be released sometime in 2012, but we have no other info yet apart from this promotional poster.

So all you gamers out there, you know what games you can expect in recent times. HAPPY GAMING.

REVIEW : TRON EVOLUTION

DEVELOPED BY :

PROPAGANDA GAMES

GAMESTAR

SUPERVILLIAN STUDIOS

PUBLISHED BY : DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS

RELEASED IN : 2010

I had promised a review for Tron Evolution a few days back , so here it is. I just finished with it last night. Tron Evolution is another one of those games which come out as a tie-up with the movie it is based on. Just like I said while posting a review for X-Men Origins Wolverine, these games try to generate more interest for the movie, and are released alongside the movie itself. Although most of these games have a plot similar to the movie but with a more elaborate story-line, Tron Evolution is a prequel to the movie. It bridges the gap between the original 1981 movie Tron and the 2010 movie Tron Legacy. There have been some tron games released in the past as well like Discs of Tron, Tron 2.0 . I had played Tron 2.0 long time back but just casually and never completed the game. It had some good graphics though.. However, Tron Evolution is better than Tron 2.0 though some of my friends and some other critics think otherwise.

Graphics : 6.5/10 The graphics in this game was good, bit still honestly speaking, I somehow expected it to be better than what it was. Some characters appear a bit blurred during the gameplay. Apart from that, stiff animations make the cool moves of the playable character less spectacular than they actually should. The animation is neat though. However, the digital world created for the game is impressive enough. It's like a glowing futuristic metropolis with blue neon lights glowing here and there. The appealing appearance of the digital world you play in is one of the major attractions of this game. Camerawork is not impressive . The playable character is high on jerkiness and therefore, even though there are some cool combo moves, it becomes difficult to say what happened and you hardly enjoy the comb moves. The aesthetics are pretty good and cool and make the game look good.

Gameplay : 6/10 Honestly speaking, the multiplayer aspect of Tron Evolution boasts of much better gameplay than the original story mode. The most appealing, spectacular and iconic aspect in the entire Tron franchisee is the Light cycle race. Unfortunately, you don't get that thrill in Tron Evolution. The light cycle sequence comes up 4 times in the story mode and though the sequences are quite cool, it's nothing like what you see in the movies, or even the trailer of this game. You just need to race through the grid while escaping a particular area and avoid some exploding stuff. I enjoyed the light cycle sequence the first time but then, I plainly got bored every time it came up. The concept of creating a light path behind your cycle which could derezze your enemies was almost absent in the game. However, the multplayer aspect of Tron Evolution does some justice to the light cycle aspect. You get the feel of TRON. You can even have 10 player light cycle deathmatches which is extremely fun. Other than light cycle, the game requires a lot of running on walls, making high sprint long jumps etc. Basically, you can perform various gravity defying moves ( of course you can't have gravity inside the grid, it's a digital world inside a computer). However, a level doesn't have much more to offer than what the previous one offered. The combat is not boring. It's quite cool but it lacks variety. You have 4 different types of light discs with different attacking capabilities. The whole game is running on walls, jumping long distances, throwing around light discs and running around to refill energy and health . The worse thing is the light tank. You get to control this vehicle as well sometimes like the light cycle. It's horribly slow, difficult to control and boring. I groaned every time I came to a point I had to step into a light tank . Despite all this, the game play isn't bad. You won't hate it.

Story : 8/10 The story of Tron Evolution describes what happened in between the two movies. You play an unnamed Security monitor program, created by Flynn to bring about peace between ISO's and Basic programs. ISO are programs that appeared by themselves inside the grid without being programmed by any user. This meant the system was miraculously evolving. However, Clu , the Basic program created by Flynn takes these ISOs to be threat and decides to destroy all ISOs in the grid and rise to power. The whole game involves you , as the security monitor, trying to prevent Clu's rise to power. The story is quite engrossing and if you wanted to know what happened in between the two movies, this game answers it all. The movie Tron Legacy describes the appearance of ISOs and their disappearance as well, and that Flynn has been trapped inside the grid for years. This game describes how and why all this happened in details.

Music : 8.5/10 Music during gameplay is an important factor that can influence your view about the game. This game does boast of some real good music while you go move around the Sci-fi hi tech glowing world. The two tracks " DEREZZED" and "ENTER THE GRID" were composed exclusively for the game. These tracks play while you explore the digital world and the electronic music totally fit into the world of Tron.. The music aspect is quite good I have to say. The DEREZZD track particularly plays during the light cycle sequences.

Possibility of bugs : OK, I don't know if anyone else has noticed this or not but this game strangely has a fetish for bugs. I came across two or three bugs in the game which mainly dealt with strange behavior of enemies. There was a time when the boss of a level didn't move even a single bit or perform a single attack during the fight...I just kept bombarding him with my combo attacks and soon it got derezzed. There was another instance where an enemy was strangely floating in mid air. I don't know how the game got shipped with so many bugs. It has certainly gone against the game. I will dedicate a post excursively to various bugs I have discovered in various games and will elaborate on the bugs in Tron Evolution there. But however, you have to keep in mind that there may be more undiscovered bugs. (undiscovered by me I mean). I am just bringing to notice the ones I encountered.

Overall, this game won't be a waste of money. It does manage to keep you engaged. The limited multiplayer part will be more appealing to most of you. Some critics have called this game a cyberpunk "Prince of Persia". Well that's a good one and I won't deny that. But that shouldn't stop you from buying the game. But then again, don't expect a great gaming experience from Tron Evolution. It just manages to pass.

The Most Irritating Flaws in the GTA series.

The Grand Theft Auto series, published and developed by Rockstar has always been one of the most famous video game series ever. Having played almost all of the games in the series, even I can say that the GTA games are fabulous and can keep you glued to your screen for hours at a stretch. These games have become a cult classic with it's different open world or Sandbox style approach. These games have often also generated controversies for extreme violence , immoral activities you need to carry out in the games, crude references to a particular race ie racism, and also for including sexual content. However, the most astonishing fact was that almost all the games in the series shipped with some major bugs and glitches. Rockstar later fixed many of them in later versions but still, I don't know why the games were not tested well enough. Well some glitches in the games proved to be beneficial to the gamer since the gamer could take advantage of these to get into an area which would usually be unlocked until you complete a certain mission.. For example, in Vice City, you can use your high bike jumps or can use a boat beneath a water bridge ( the entrance to the bridge is blocked because you are not supposed to get to the other side of Vice City before a particular mission) to actually get to the other side of the bridge and thus the other side of the city before the game would allow you to . The developers must not have thought of this. However, bugs and glitches of course have their problems. Sometimes you tend to fail a mission for no fault of your's. In Vice City, when you do the ambulance mission where you have to move about the city to pick up patients and bring them back to the hospital within a limited time period, you normally fail the mission if you don't get the patients to the hospital on time or if you accidently kill a patient by crushing him under the ambulance while stopping near him to pick him up. However, it happened with me TWICE that I stopped near the patient, but another car which seemed to have lost control ran over and killed the patient before it could get to the ambulance. And I failed the mission. That is extremely irritating. Apart from that, there is a glitch in GTA3 during the mission called Uzi Money where in order to fulfill the mission you need to drive around a particular area and shoot and destroy a particular number of Purple Nines ( A particular car model) but sometimes a glitch does not allow any Purple Nines to spawn in that area. You get simply stuck in that mission . Of course there are ways to get around the glitch like loading an old save game or a glitch fix can be got too. Apart from that, in GTA Vice City there is an extremely funny and amusing bug which a close friend of mine encountered while we were playing Vice City together. It happens when you mount a Sanchez and instead of riding the bike, you run while on it, taking the bike with you. See for yourself. You won't get this one if you don't see it.

There are lots of other bugs and glitches throughout the whole series. In most of the GTA games, you often see sights like pedestrians running into a wall to and froth (dashing into the wall, falling back and then again running into the wall again repeatedly). There are bridges and walls through which you can see your bike wheels go through. This happened a lot of times with me. In GTA San Andreas, there is a bridge in the area called Los Flores. The sides of the bridge actually can easily be driven through. Thus the bridge appears not to be solid. Add to all this the unreal ism as in if you commit a crime like running someone over in front of a cop, the cops will be after you but if another car does the same right under the nose of a cop, they don't even look twice.

Let me narrate another extremely irritating experience of mine while playing GTA4. There is this mission (Escuela of the streets) where you are supposed to trail a car without the driver noticing that you are. And you can't even get too close, or else he gets spooked up and you fail the mission. You need a maintain a distance between your car and his car. It so happened that there was some sort of a traffic jam or something, the car I was trailing got blocked by another car which didn't move at all. I waited for more than 20 minutes but nothing budged. I tried to move forward and as soon as I came a little close, I failed the mission. I started from the previous savegame and AGAIN it was the same thing. The car got stuck, I couldn't trail the car anymore and I was stranded. I had to load from a different savegame to get around this problem. These sort of things are in PLENTY in the entire GTA series. I just pointed out the ones I encountered, there are many more you can find if you surf the web. I wonder why Rockstar doesn't test the games well. Perhaps it's because they know that they have already created quite a brand with GTA and their games will sell no matter what. But a game without such flaws would be better all the same.

Movie Review : TRON LEGACY

Ok folks, it's review time again. This would be my first movie review. I had wanted to do this since a long time but there were no movies coming out in recent times for which I'd take the trouble of posting a review. I finally decided to go on with Disney's Tron Legacy which released last month.

They say that as you grow or expand your franchisee, you get better but I seriously doubt whether this concept is applicable when we're talking about a movie franchisee. I say so because I've noticed that most sequels of a great movie turn out to be crap. Of course there are exceptions. Some sequels really surpassed the original ( Terminator 2, Dark Knight and some more) but in most cases sequels lack the charm that an original movie had. And so, it's hardly surprising that Tron: Legacy falls into this category.

Tron: Legacy is the second installation in the Tron series (and hopefully the last), starring Garett Hedlund , Jeff Bridges, Olivia Wilde and Micheal Sheen among others and directed by first time director Joseph Kosisnsky. I don't know why the sequel was so late (Tron released way back in 1982). This movie, at all if anything, is a visual effects feast. In fact the movie relies only upon superb special effects and CGI. And to be honest, that's all the movie has to offer. The story is all hotch potch and confusing. The ones who have not seen the previous Tron movie will have a hell of a time trying to understand what's going on. And most people didn't even know there was a Tron movie that released in 1982.

And for some strange reason, Tron, the titular character on whom the series is based appears for only about 10 minutes in the film. He is not even a significant character. The plot is somewhat similiar to the original. The protaganist( this time the son of Kevin Flynn, the originl 1982 protagonist) is digitized into a computer mainframe. Yes, he is actually inside the digital world of a computer where computer programs look like humans and then there are battles and fights between humans ( called users in the movie) and programs,between good programs and bad programs and all ultra high sci-fi stuff.. One of those programs is Tron..who appeared in the 1982 version as the hero...turns villain in this one......then turns good again in the climax... and then dies(oops.. sorry.. I mean gets deleted)...and he manages to do all that by appearing only for 10 minutes in the whole movie..how sick is that ..Gosh...The story sure does suck....I wouldn't recommend this movie to people who want an interesting and engaging storyline.

But hey.......doesn't the story ring a bell ? Where have we heard that before ? Yeah.. THE MATRIX SERIES... The concept of getting transported into a computer digital network with programs walking all around you...It was there in the Matrix movies..but the concept had been treated well...But this movie does not come anywhere as close to the matrix series. The well defined storyline....the extreme style and suspense......twists and turns.....everything that made the matrix movies do well, none of them are visible in Tron Legacy. As said, the only thing that the movie can boast of is fantastic special effects. It is like the movie had been made just as an excuse for showing us some real good effects. The effects are without doubt simply awesome and will totally leave you spellbound. Especially the bike racing scene inside the digital world. And it's all the more better if seen in 3D. The digital world that was created is really worth appreciation. But then these scenes without an interesting plot has no meaning.

Another aspect that i didn't like was the wastage of Micheal Sheen's character. I like Micheal Sheen a lot and he is a damn good actor.I felt his character as that of an insane maniacal computer program who also appears for about 15 minutes and then dies( sorry again...I mean gets deleted) was a total waste. He is too dignified for that role and it could have been done by anyone. Actually his character could have been done without as well as it adds nothing to the already rotten storyline.

I would round up and say the first Tron was much better than this one. People say this one is better due to better CGI but then, back in 1982 the CGI shown was much advanced for it's time. People are forgetting the time periods. The effects can't be compared. See Tron: Legacy only if you are simply craving for some dazzling visual effects. If you want anything else, it's better to see any other good Sci-Fi movie.

MY FINAL RATING : 4.5/10

Checkout the movue trailer

There has been a game released alongside the release of the movie, titled Tron Evolution developed by Gamestar and published by Disney Interactive studio. The gameplay is supposed to from a storyline that is occuring between the two movies. Though I didn't like Tron Legacy, the trailer of the game boasts of some great graphics and gameplay. I am sure to lay my hands on this one. And as soon as I finish playing it, I'll be posting a review for it. Just keep waiting guys. Checkout the game trailer.

Games that I have played in 2010

...

Well, it's the last day of the year, as well as that of the decade. I'll just go about with a post listing various games that I have played in 2010. Please note this is not going to be an exact detailed review but just a list and maybe a brief thumbs up or a thumbs down. So in no particular order, here's the list:

1) Hitman : Blood Money - 9/10. This one was really good. Best Hitman game till date. A very interesting plot and also the realism and the different ways you can accomplish your goal makes it look more like a movie. So you can play again and again with new methods to kill the target. However the only thing i didn't like about the game is that, as 47 you need to kill a quite a few innocent people in the last mission. This, you never were compelled to do in the previous hitman games.

2)Grand Theft Auto 4 -8.5/10. Ok let's admit this. Vice City was much bigger than Liberty City and San Andreas is larger than Vice and Liberty put together. But when we are exploring Liberty in GTA4, how can it be better than the last 2 installments right ? WRONG !!! Rockstar has outdone itself again. Size of the city does not matter when you have superbly superior graphics, insane moves, a better and longer storyline and everything else, for example having a handheld mobile phone to take missions from rather than scouting the city for a public booth. Also multiple missions can be accepted together since some missions run for days unlike previous installments. And the Graphics is simply awesome. But one thing I noticed was the AI in the game was not that very good and sometimes you could easily defeat an enemy or evade the cops because of their foolishness. The AI could have been better. And there were fewer vehicles than previous installments. Other than that, a really good game. (But Tommy Vercetti of Vice City remains my favorite GTA playable character)

3)Aliens Vs Predator- 6.5/10 This one is the latest installment. Personally I liked only the first two Alien movies and the original Predator movie starring Arnold. I didn't play the original 1999 AvP game and the 2 AvP movies sucked. Ok the first one was still tolerable. So I wasn't really eager to play this one but a friend told me it had a Doom 3 feel in it. I had simply just loved Doom 3 so I picked up this one on his recommendation. And it was not that bad as I expected. But nowhere as close to Doom 3. Doom 3 is one of those games which had scared the living daylights out of me and I'll never forget the Doom 3 experience. It just didn't happen with AvP. It's just a one time play for me. Ok maybe two but not more. Storyline was quite poor and unimpressive though the good gameplay compensates for it. I thoroughly enjoyed controlling the Predator. The Alien and the marine part was not that enjoyable. And there was some unrealism. As a marine you could easily just knock back an Alien with a melee weapon which I found absurd. The multiplayer system was good though. Overall not a great game. But still it manages to be ok. And aah yes..It's a bit high on the blood and gore department.

4)The Saboteur-5.5/10 Yet another of those GTA clones. This one is set in 1940s Paris. Which has been taken over by the Nazis. You need to do stupid jobs like blowing their hideouts or racing in antique cars. This game has great graphics, but I found it very boring. Nothing exclusive or special about this one. And some missions are too hard. But what I loved about the game to rate it 5.5 was the graphics and the overall look. It had a somewhat classy look and a unique setting. But then that was the only good thing in the game. And yes, the AI was horribly disgusting. Avoid this one. Go for any GTA game instead.

5) Desperados 2- 6.5/10 This is a sequel to the Highly acclaimed strategy game Desperados which was set in the typical wild west cowboy country and released way back in 2001, yet boasted of Great graphics and superb gameplay. Now it even includes a Third person view. I remember I had played Desperados when I was 13 and had fallen in love with the game. Desperados 2 released in 2006 but i played it just recently. The game is good, but the story is very poor, and there is not much to do in a mission. I feel the first one was much better and addictive. If you don’t like Cowboys, avoid this one.

6) Ninja Blade-4/10 I installed this one only because I Love Ninjas. And it still disappointed. Frustrating controls, add to that you cannot save in between levels[which take anywhere between 2-3 hours to complete], with 4-5 bosses you need to keep fighting. Story is the same old viral infection type a.l.a Resident evil though playing experience is nowhere as close to RE. series. I only completed the game to actually scrutinize the game top to bottom or I had decided to delete the game midway without completing it . If there is any reason that I rated it 4, it's because of it's cool cinematography (It relies on quick time events which i appreciated) and because I like Ninjas in general. That's it. Just one word. AVOID.

7) Civilization V- 3/10. I cant believe how people find this game to be so good[it got a 9.2 rating on Gamefaqs]. Its horribly lame. Doesn’t even come close to the Age of Empires series which is another favorite series of mine. Its even worse off than Age of Mythology[which was released way back in 2002]. You just choose a hero[Gandhi for India], build a civilization, form pacts, and just sit around trying to figure out inane ways of keeping your population happy. That’s it. Just forget this game.

8)Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction-9.5/10 . Another game that I enjoyed playing. I have enjoyed playing all the Splinter Cell games and this one is no exception. This guy Sam Fisher is fantastic. He never does grow old. He's still as good as he was in the first installment( though he's grown quite grumpy in this game) Earlier I used to like Solid Snake from Metal Gear series more than Sam but with each Splinter Cell game, I'm liking Sam more. While the earlier installments relied more on stealth, this one has an equal dosage of direct action and stealth. I loved the storyline as well. It was like being in some James Bond Spy action movie. Sam's codename used by Third Echelon is "panther," and that's fitting. In past Splinter Cell games, enemies were meant to be avoided; in Conviction, Sam is a hunter. He isn't avoiding enemies, he's stalking them. The AI in this game is extremely strong( which obviously make the missions difficult sometimes) Two things about the game I didn't like. The first one was that it ended pretty soon. It had a very short length in comparison to previous installments. The second one was a continuity issue which I'm surprised nobody complained of. In Double agent, Sam had an option of either shooting Lambert or shooting Washington, a villain. So he may decide not to kill Lambert if he wants to. But Conviction doesn't take this part into account. The game assumes that you shot Lambert dead in the previous installment. ( I had not done that so I hated this part). But other than these two things, a really brilliant game. I'll play it again very soon.

9) Assassins Creed 2 - 8/10. Quite good. Lots of improvement over its predecessor. I enjoyed this game, it's highly addictive and it can indeed give you hours and hours of fun. And it has Leonardo Da Vinci.

10) Caesar IV -7.5/10- This game is one of the most addictive games I've ever played. I was just hooked on to my PC and couldn't stop playing. City building games have always fascinated me and I am also a Rome series fan. Caesar IV is about setting up the interconnected chains that civilization relies upon. You have to handle every detail, including housing, sanitation and health care, food production and distribution, security, religion, and more. Having plenty of workers means nothing if you can't keep them fed, nor does having lots of buildings if you don't have enough engineers to maintain them. The sheer variety of structures that you can build is impressive, and one of the satisfying moments in the game is when you do construct a self-sufficient city that produces such a large variety of goods. Unlike previous installments, now you can even view your city from different angles in 3D. The lighting and weather effects were fabulous. Cheers to Tilted mill Entertainment for giving us a fabulous classic game. Get this one.

11) Batman: Arkham Asylum- 10/10 . Last but not the least, probably one of the best games I have ever played. Batman Arkham Asylum. Well I think I have posted a full on review of this game a few months back so I will not write anthing new here. Just check out the review. All I have to say is that the game developers deserve a standing ovation for this gem.

That's all I played last year. I had started with Red Faction: Guerrilla but didn't get the time to complete it. But will do it soon.

HAPPY NEW YEAR..

My favorite Video Game Heroes......

Movies have given us heroes like Rambo and Bond, comics have given us heroes like Batman and Superman, so why should video games be left behind. A particular playable character in a game has often been repeated in sequels of the series and with time has become a cult classic and a brand by itself spawning several other merchandise. These video game heroes are no less a legend and are generally modified and refined with each sequel in a series. I have quite a few favorite heroes myself. I'm going to name the ones that are my absolute favourites. I think I'll cut it short to top 5.

5. Solid Snake

Game series : Metal Gear series

First appearance : Metal Gear (1987)

Last appearance : Metal Gear Solid 4-Guns of the Patriots (2008)

So are you fond of mercenaries ? If you are, there's no way you can hate Solid Snake. He is an outright action hero but somewhere somehow deep within himself he has a very soft part as well. He has been in the battlefield half of his life and is a hardened veteran. He takes orders from his superior Campbell in most of the games. The metal gear games are generally infiltration games where you need to infiltrate a very large enemy base . His attitude and personality actually keep changing throughout the series. While the first games show him to be cold-hearted , from Metal Gear Solid, a more humane side to him is clearly visible. He even flirts with Mei Ling , his technical assistant and shows extreme compassion for other NPCs like Meryl and Octacon. He is the typical rugged hansome tough guy a girl could fall for. He is a loner as well and in Metal Gear solid , it is revealed that he is the result of the Genome project, where the genes of the greatest mercenary of his time, Big Boss were used to create supersoldiers. Solid Snake and his arch-nemesis cum twin brother Liquid Snake were the first ones. He grows old as the series progresses, his thoughts grow philosophical and he aids Raiden the playable cgharacter of MGS2 in his mission. In later installments, an old Solid snake returns as a protagonist and though his skills are not as they were earlier, his willpower is still the same, he still cracks humoros jokes etc. At the end of his life, Snake finds peace and says he will live long enough to see what happens to the world he helped shape. He is basically the "Rambo" of the video game world.

4. Sam Fisher

Game series : Tom Clancy's Splinter cell series

First appearance : Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell ( 2002)

Last appearance : Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction (2010)

Sam Fisher is the one who beat Solid Snake in this competition by a narrow margin. They're both close competitors and I had a tough time deciding which one should have a better ranking. Both of them are exceptionally cool and somewhat similar. Ultimately Sam Fisher won because he has some extra cool moves , he's a bit more stylish . However, in case of a hypothetical combat between the two, I think Snake would win. Sam Fisher is a person with a moral fibre. He has a daughter, and is therefore a family person and on the other hand an NSA secret agent sent on dangerous missions around the world. He is perfectly able to balance his personal life and professional life and I loved the way he was calm when he lost contact with his daughter while on a mission in the first game. In the third one (Chaos Theory), when you are sent t0 rescue an operative in your first mission, you see him tortured and electrocuted to death while dangling from a pole. If you try to cut loose the corpse, you boss tells you to stop wasting time and carry on with the mission. The way Sam answers back saying " Just because he's dead doesn't mean I have to leave him hanging in there like a meat loaf" was fantastic. This guy is amazing. In the same game, Sam needs to destroy a crash site where a plane belonging to allies crashed sometime back. When Sam tries to get all the unconscious pilots to safety, before blowing up the site, his commanding officer again discourages him saying " You don't exist Fisher. This won't earn you any medals". To this he calmly says " Medals don't help me sleep at night" referring to his moral conscience . I love this attitude of Sam Fisher. He's extremely acrobatic as well, able to perform split jumps between two walls, he's an expert in stealth. He changes in look in Double Agent and sports a bald style. He works for a terrorist organization and for the NSA as well, being a double agent. Basically, I consider him to be the "James Bond" of the video game world.

3. Max Payne

Game series : May Payne series

First appearance : Max Payne (2001)

Last appearance : Max Payne 2 :The fall of Max Payne (2003)

The character of Max Payne has appeared in just two games so far but that didn't stop me from becoming a die-hard fan of this character. And that's because of the immense X-factor of the character. He does all the matrix inspired action(adrenaline moments), takes revenge on all those who wronged him and even takes out time to romance (and make love to) Mona Sax in between all this. He is one of those badass no-nonsense cops. In the 1st game, a group of junkies high on a drug called Valkyre kill his wife and infant son. He becomes the typical drunk, serious , revengeful , less talkative cop whose only aim is to kill the ones responsible for his family's death. Max Payne looks smart and there's something dignifying about his personality. His romance with Mona Sax, another non playable protagonist (she's briefly playable for some time in Max Payne 2) is also extremely eye-catching. In the first game, you can see the sparks between them. in the 2nd game, well, they even make love. You also can't help feeling sympathy for him. In most part of the two games, his actions make him fall under the wrong side of the law even though he is right. He is framed, his colleagues betray him, he gets shouted at by his superior. He is a tough character, being able to keep all the pain inside him to himself. His wife and son's murder keep haunting him throughout the game. The character of Max Payne is extremely

nicely created, defined and developed during the game. We are given just the right amount back ground information about Max .Everything we learn in the initial part of the game is crucial information that gives us a deeper insight to what will become Max' s dark life. It is the pain and the revenge from his murdered wife and child that fuels his fire and keeps him going where

others might have turned back. He gets drugged, beaten, arrested, left for dead. But there's no stopping our hero. He finds solace momentarily in Mona Sax but even she dies in the 2nd game. Due to the tough cop image of Max, he can be called the John McClane (a role made famous by Bruce Willis in the Die Hard series) of the video game world.

2. Lara Croft

Game series : Tomb Raider series.

First appearance :Tomb Raider (1996)

Last appearance : Tomb Raider Underworld (2008)

Lara Croft has got to be the fantasy of every male gamer. Perhaps people may question me why I ranked her second even before the likes of the ones above. Hell, comeon , I'm a guy. And I couldn't resist falling for Lara Croft. No one has been able to make action and adventure so spicy and sexy. And situations she's been in.......her sexiness is not the only factor in ranking her this high. The other heroes I mentioned don't have to fight supernatural forces. But Lara Croft has been doing so throughout the Tomb Raider series. She is an archaeologist and her adventures deal with many ancient myths, ancient artifacts that have long been forgotten. She travels to mythical underworlds where old evil creatures roam and she dares to set foot where the bravest of men wouldn't. I would say she is a lot tougher than many of her male counterparts. Apart from being an expert archaeologist, she is a fantastic shooter, brilliant acrobat, and has immense knowledge about ancient scripts, objects, creatures etc. She is a brave woman . She was forced into a certain personality since she lost both her parents at an early age. She's not a very easy going person though. She always looks like she's mad at everybody. She doesn't talk to any person not concerned with her job. However you know what ? The game developers have seriously allowed the gamers a treat for their eyes. Lara's sexiness has been increasing with each passing game. It's not very uncommon that people have concentrated more on Lara's body rather than what happens in the game world. Basically, she has taken adventure games to a new height altogether. And she can kick ass as well. And her opponents are rarely human. Easily, she is one of the most famous gaming heroes. Lara Croft was played by someone who could only make the character all the more sexier( Angelina

Jolie) in the movie franchisee.

1. Agent 47

Game series :Hitman series

First appearance :Hitman Codename 47 (2000)

Last appearance : Hitman Blood Money(2006)

Agent 47 tops my list of top 5 video game heroes. I am totally spellbound by this character. However he is more of an anti-hero than a total hero. 47 is a mystery. His character, origin and personality will be very difficult to explain if you are not familiar with the Hitman games. He was artificially created by combining the DNA of five men, each of whom were geniuses in their respective fields, most of them expert in combat and weaponry skills and one , a scientist. Therefore, 47 is the most perfectly evolved man in the world now. Engineered from conception to be the perfect killer, 47's strength, speed, and intellect are above the human norm.

His name comes from the last two digits of a bar code on the back of his head – (640509040147). He works for an agency as an assassin or hitman and performs various kills for the agency for a living. He speaks very little, has no friends or accomplices. He does not even exist for the whole world. He is like a phantom for the whole world, something like an urban legend.. Some believe in the feared killer called 47, some don't. He performs his hits very very carefully and no one ever even has a glimpse of him. He leaves the scene after performing the hit as quietly as he entered. He is a master of disguise and takes on a variety of disguises in all the games so that people don't suspect him. In the second game, Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, he seems to have softened down as he considers a priest in a church in Sicily to be a friend and cares for him. That was the time he had momentarily left his life of Sin. But circumstances force him to work for the agency again and kill. He realizes that he cannot blend into the society as a normal man and therefore resumes his earlier life. This portrays him as a man who actually feels remorse for his deeds but knows that killing is the only thing he can do because he has been specifically created for that. We can almost feel sympathy for him as a character who wants to run away from what he does but can't do that. And added to that, he has not a single friend and no one except the agency even knows he exists. His only ally may be called a woman named Diana Burnwood, the person through whom he contacts the agency and Agent Smith, another agency man who often keeps popping up in 47's missions. 47 has NEVER smiled till date and is always serious like something is always bugging him from inside. Maybe it is his guilt of living the way he is. The fibre-wire and silent silverballers are his favorite weapons. While on a mission, he is generally shown to be without a conscience and can kill( though you as the player have the option to just knock out ) anyone in his mission, even if he or she is not the main target. He is one tough guy and his superhuman strength, speed and superhuman intellect makes him the best assassin in the word. An assassin the world doesn't even know exists.