GTA : Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto fans, get ready for the next in the series.. GTA IV. 

Check out the compilation video of the other 9 or more GTA titles..

Compilation video

Check out the trailers:

Trailer 1
Trailer 2

The graphics looks amazing as expected. The story seems to be very
interesting and GTA like. You better have a next-gen console at home. I'd
personally prefer to play it on a PS3.. but since, I own only a XBOX 360..
got to settle for that I think.

Check out:
GTA4 Wiki for plot spoilers and heads-up on the story/setting and theme. Can't wait!!!

Civilization

Type "Civilization" in google and see the result you get. It might not be something you expected. But, it was something I expected to come up as the first link. Civilization taught me a lot of things in life. As a good observer and a person who loves creativity I feel that anything that's created by people has a lot of philosophy behind it. I don't know if he remembers it, but I was introduced to this game by my friend Shankar in school. Civ2 was an amazing experience.. more than the strategy aspect and fun aspect involved, I loved the way you could recount the historical civilizations of the world. It instantly kept me hooked for hours and hours. I might have spent at least 1 to 2 months of my life in the game in all (which might be very less compared to the diehard civ fans). Strategy games are real fun. For example, Impressions Games' city-building series: Caesar, Zeus, Pharaoh, Emperor etc.. are amazing fun and graphically impressive. Sim City is also another game in which I might have spent 3 or 4 months of my life. And, I read somewhere the other day that "The Sims" became the most successful PC game ever. Anybody who has not heard about it is probably missing the chance to play a lifetime, well two lifetimes, well .. a generation of different families .. virtually. The next time you are sitting around doing nothing just give these a try and let me know if you got hooked or not. There are several other RTS games that are astounding .. for eg. Rise of nations, Medieval Total war 2, Age of Empires series etc..

Strategy games are the joy of PC gaming ... anybody who hates videogames will surely reconsider their choice if they play strategy games. They teach a lot to both kids and adults alike.

This is Sid Meier, the creator of one of the greatest PC strategy games, Civilization.

Sivaji : The boss

Summa athirudthu thala! I nearly cried when I saw Rajnikanth come down the escalator after the opening scenes. I grew up seeing him, enjoying his movies. A total entertainer, a profession I personally respect. He's done what he does best in the movie. It was way above the expectations that have been piling up from all corners of the earth (the media of course was the reason behind the hype). But, the movie experience .. well, there's nothing like it. It will certainly live up to the hype and do even more (probably break a few records).

It feels as though we're in a state of anachronism, like as though we're in the present and we are seeing the superstar of yesterday in a spine kindling new version. Even if our hero's face shows his age at certain points in the movie, he's a very good example to prove that the commitment to entertain is still fresh in his blood. Well, as modest as he is when he said in his interviews that all the credit should go to Shankar, it is true that Shankar has done a really remarkable job with Rajinikanth.

A truly amazing experience. Any true Tamilian who was born around & after the late seventies would surely share my opinion and I can guarantee you that. Shivaji rocks! Anybody who has still not seen it get ready for a spicy platter served up Rajini style with the usual Shankar magic coupled with Shriya,Vivek and the divine music of AR Rahman. You wouldn't be able to hear the background music with all the fans screaming in the theater, but trust me it is one of the thousand highlights of the movie.

vaada vaada ... vangikkada.. vayila beeda pottukkada.. .. Cool!

Looptopia, May 11

At the square just next to Washington/State station I witnessed a free performance which was part of Looptopia. It is a night long celebration with music/dance/drama and art in downtown Chicago's loop area. Well, I'd heard about the festival, but I never remembered that it was today. I knew there was something unusual when I saw the CTA trains overflowing with people, carrying maps that noted places of activity and festivities.

There was this desi band performing "bhangra" alongside "Sweet Home Alabama". People were dancing to the beat even as Chicago's weather slumped down to the 50s(in F) yet again. Might have been mighty fun, but I had to do some last minute shopping before my trip. Got some shoes, replaced the battery for my macbook and came home to rest.

Spidey 3 at Navy Pier

As I was walking along the now familiar stretch of Grand avenue towards Navy Pier, where Spiderman 3 was released today, with the wind in my face I was thinking of all the time I'd spent watching movies back home in India. I was one of the privileged few to have reserved the tickets quite in advance(again a habit from my movie watching experience in India) for a special 12:00 AM show. Well, it was worth the wait I should say. The IMAX screen coupled with fantastic special effects and the usual antics of spiderman made my early morning sojourn at the theater enjoyable. Everyone who enjoyed 1 and 2 will surely enjoy this one too. Guys and girls alike were sporting spiderman costumes and posing in front of the lone cameraman who was covering it for the 7'o clock news the same morning.

Toby, Kirsten and James all play their roles equally well (Toby steals the show at one point in the movie, literally and at some points you feel sorry for Kirsten, both in the movie and as an actor) and at some points there is more comedy than action. Overall worth watching.

What a Bummer! But anyways.. !

The ICC (International Cricket Circus) provided one of the worst world cup finals ever. The players who put up with it deserve more than this. Anyways, negatives aside.. what a match for Australia!! Gilchrist's 149 off 104 balls easily the best match-winning innings I've seen in quite a while in a crunch match like a world cup final. Hats off to both the Aussies and Sri Lankans who provided the entertainment in an otherwise dull tournament, the only two sides along with New Zealand, South Africa, Bangladesh and Ireland who need to be applauded for their efforts. Well, let's hope other teams fight better in the next one in 2011. And.. Goodbye Glenn! We will be looking for someone like you for a long time!!

A repeat of 1996

Like I'd hoped Sri Lanka is going to the final to meet the Aussies who are on a winning streak like no one has ever seen before just after having drawn the semi-final against South Africa. They have never lost a single world cup match since that tie in 1999 which shows phenomenal attitude and the push for victory everytime they take the field.

The finals which would be a repeat of 1996 between Sri Lanka and Australia should be a good contest. Let's hope its not as one-sided as the semi-finals were. Australia would be looking to stop Sri Lanka from doing it twice and Sri Lanka would give their best to put an end to the world cup winning streak of Australia. Let's hope the final atleast makes this world cup memorable for the right reasons.

Super Eights : Right now

God.. I'd lost the pace (like Irfan had), as soon as India crashed out of the world cup and various incidents that had taken the spirit out of the game. But, I'm so happy to witness the spirit of the Sri Lankans (Kumar Sangakkara seems to be their spiritual leader, always creating something behind the stumps, he is a match-winner).. Check this video out from youtube, which emphasises the importance of such a player in such a side, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlFF98dM8sA. And, wow ... is Bangladesh making a name for itself or what. If they improve their consistency with the bat from now on, they can beat any team in the world on a given day and can fight till the last ball. Their bowling and fielding is god-like at the present, something I would expect of my own Indian team. Well anyways, here is how the points table looks like:

Super Eights	Mat	Won	Lost	Tied	N/R	Pts	Net RR	For	Against
Australia	4	4	0	0	0	8	+1.510	1053/161.1	864/172.0
Sri Lanka	4	3	1	0	0	6	+1.549	1057/196.0	747/194.2
New Zealand	3	3	0	0	0	6	+1.437	567/109.4	560/150.0
South Africa	4	2	2	0	0	4	-0.629	855/179.5	996/185.0
England	4	1	3	0	0	2	-0.062	955/200.0	911/188.2
West Indies	4	1	3	0	0	2	-1.177	776/188.1	993/187.2
Bangladesh	4	1	3	0	0	2	-1.775	641/168.0	778/139.1
Ireland	3	0	3	0	0	0	-0.934	566/133.0	621/119.4

After India went, I started to support Sri Lanka. Well, they were my second favorites anyway to win the world cup eventhough I had the feeling, Australia's world cup winning streak will take some doing to break. When Sehwag got out in the most dubious fashion with a slow throw from Sangakkara during their India tour, I believed that he would create such opportunities in the world cup and he did. Brian Lara's stumping off Vaas was un.... believable! Malinga's 4 in 4... Murali's performance against India, Jayasuriya's 100 against the West Indies, Ashraful's tenacity against the world no. 1 team (his scoop over fine-leg, I mean..), Aftab's amazing sixers, Tamim Iqbal coming down the wicket against Ntini (and Zaheer Khan of course, who can forget that... no Indian who was awake that night can forget that.) etc.. send a strong message to the world, that now, the sub-continent has 4 world class teams who believe they can win at the highest level (well, two of the teams haven't proved themselves of late.. but they will eventually as soon as other petty/off the field issues get solved and they concentrate more on the game) .

Well, I hope either Sri Lanka (which seems all set for the semis), or Bangladesh do well in the next stage.. and who knows we might as well have a sub-continent world champion. And if Sri Lanka manages to do it.. it will be the first sub-continent team to win the world cup twice!..

Go Sri Lanka.. take the world cup!

Day Nine: Big Day

When Jayasuriya had a word with Tharanga in the first over and they started dropping down balls and running, I expected that they would try to unsettle the inexperienced opposition. How different the bowlers looked, erring in line and length when the batsman took the attack to them. Jayasuriya made merry joining in the sixes fun, like the other teams.They went quickly onto a 96 runs at nearly 7.00 per over, With Jaysuriya having made a 50 already. The experienced Rafique then got the breakthrough by taking Tharanga, but looked like the damage was already done. After having made 318 runs of their 50, Sri Lanka wrapped up the Bangladesh innings for 118 runs, with Ashraful the lone survivor and Malinga picking up 3. Jayasuriya was adjudged man of the match.

Day Seven: Ohh! my God!!

What is in store for us here?? Sehwag saved.. (That was about time) Yippee Yuvi and savior Saurav. Dhoni, Sachin and Dravid too in the end coming to the party. One memorable loss to another memorable victory, India have performed once again when they were cornered. Only Robin Utthappa missed out. For India, it rained sixes and fours as they sent the Bermuda bowlers' balls out of the ground many a time and they reached 413/5 in their 50. Then even though Zaheer made the early breakthroughs, Bermuda put up a brave batting display with Hemp shining, but everyone else failed. India breathed a sigh of relief as the umpire finally adjudged an LBW for Kumble after turning down really plumb ones and beat Bermuda by 257 runs a new ODI record. A lot of World Cup records fell, with India posting the highest score, the 8th 200+ partnership in ODIs, when India features in 4 of those.. etc..

While West Indies made sure they made it to the super eights with a safe win with Zimbabwe, Lara taking the Windies home with a four and a six to finish in emphatic fashion. It was really an up and down contest. First Zimbabwe slumped with 2/2 and then fought back to post 200 odd runs.. and the West Indies took their time to get there, maybe getting some practice. What matters is that they have reserved their berth in the super 8's the 2nd team to do so after the Aussies.

Day Six: On the field

Australia played like they should against Netherlands and made 5 more runs than what South Africa made in 40 overs. (358 runs) Brad Hodge let his bat do all the sweet talking and made 129 off 83 balls and Michael Clarke made 96 , while Gilly made a 50 too. Australia won this one quite easily eventhough there was a positive aura about Holland's batsmen today, they saw the back of batsmen quite frequently and never let anybody settle down too much. Brad Hogg picked up four, while McGrath and Bracken took 2 each even while they went for over 4 an over to wrap it up quickly.

England having to win this one and leaving Flintoff out of the side, after sacking him as Vice Captain, went about their business, not as blistering as Australia, but good batting by Vaughn, Joyce and Collingwood /Nixon to take England to a very defendable 279. Canada's 5th wicket partnership between Samad and Mulla posed a slight threat but England fielded well, kept their nerves and kept Canada down to 228/7 to post the points in a must-win match.

Day Six: What ??

As a very close follower of the events of the world cup, besides the gloomy conditions which have perturbed the cricket quite frequently a filthy shadow was surrounding the Carribbean right before the world cup. A world cup where a lot of money was involved, there are battles all over the place not on the field, but off the field. Like world history shows, people's minds are poisoned when three things are involved: money, women and land.
How big a loss was yesterday to everyone who put so much effort/money into the world cup? You never know. Starting with Shoaib and Asif's exclusion and ending with sacking of Flintoff as vice-captain under nasty circumstances it was getting quite dramatic off the field, while Gibbs was burning record books on the field. But, today morning when I glanced at cricinfo.com as I always do, I was aghast. "Bob Woolmer unconcious in hotel room... " it read. It had just one line which was surprising in itself and looked bad enough. Then after a while, it said something about vomit around him.. then the article completely changed with the disturbing news of his death. After a while, nothing in the initial article was found, except that now it read he collapsed and died, while there was a life history going on about his life.

Now the same article says something about the medical report not ready yet.. and that the team is not sure, if he died of a heart attack. If that is so, it is so unlucky for his family, for Pakistan cricket and world cricket, but its quite a coincidence for it has come just after Pakistan's worst loss ever at a very important time.

Day Five: Triumphant Bangladesh & A Sad Pakistan

India batted first on a track that seemed to do a lot for the quick bowlers. Mortaza hit the deck consistently and picked off Sehwag and Utthappa quite softly while Razzaq followed it up with a great arm ball to get Tendulkar. Then Dravid missed a quick one from Rafique first up and was lbw while Ganguly stayed at the crease all along this drama. Yuvraj and Ganguly played cautiously and paced the innings properly and India was set to score around 220 - 240.. but, India lost 5 wickets for 2 runs.. from 157/5 to 159/9 when finally Munaf and Zaheer put up a valiant effort to make 191. India's woes continued when, Tamim went berserk coming down the pitch to Zaheer hitting him for a six after being hit in the neck with a short one. Bangladesh youngsters Tamim, Mushfiq. Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan powered Bangladesh with awesome shots and calculated risks to reach the total slowly but the innings were well-paced with a nice 4th wicket partnership between Shakib and Rahim. Finally, India had lost in a match in which they were dominated right from ball 1.

While Trinidad looked bad enough for a top sub-continent side against a lower ranked side, Jamaica was worse, where Pakistan made an early/sad exit due to the failure of the Pakistani batsmen to either fire or consolidate their innings against a spirited Irish side backed by an equally spirited crowd on St.Patrick's day which restricted them to 132 runs. Even while, everyone hoped Pakistan will win this with a very good bowling line-up and Sami made early inroads removing Bray who had made an impressive 115* in the previous tied match against Zimbabwe, Pakistan struggled to keep the runs down and put pressure on the other ends. Even as wickets fell down, some lusty blows and truly brilliant strokeplay assured that Ireland won this one by 3 wickets. (bad light had stopped play for sometime, but play resumed eventually)

Now, I'm pretty sure no one will use the word "minnows".

Fourth Day: Godzilla Gibbs & Sensible Styris

South Africa displayed world class batting as it should be while Netherlands had no answer to the onslaught of the likes of Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher. But, it was the effervescent Gibbs who overshadowed even a century performance by Kallis, by becoming the first batsman in the history of international cricket to hit 6 sixers in an over off Van Bunge. With an enormous total of 350 odd runs off 40 overs(the match overs being reduced due to overnight showers and a wet outfield), they easily won the match by 221 runs.

England batted inconsistently with partnerships being broken quite often with the upper and middle order struggling to score quickly in a quite slow pitch where Bond bowled a good line eventhough not at the pace he's expected to bowl ending up with 2 wickets and 19 runs off ten. England eventually being bowled out for 209 saw a glimmer of hope when Anderson struck in the beginning removing Lou Vincent and Fleming cheaply while Plunkett took care of the talented Mr.Ross. But, it was Scott Styris (87) along with Craig McMillan and Jacob Oram who plugged the hole in a sinking ship and made sure the sails and masts were intact as the Kiwis cruised slowly but surely to a good win.

Third Day: Impressive Ceylon & The Fighting Irish

Ireland's tall and bald(?) opener, Bray made his presence felt against Zimbabwe in their opener. A game which was very weird and a last ball tie. Sibanda missed a sitter(or was it a stander) when in 2nd slip, but had made up for it by hitting 60 odd, when he was dramatically hit out. Matskinyeri tried well, but after his fall, Ireland had everything going their way, with half-naked fans and their leprechauns backing them all the way. Was a good game to watch. Never know how that might affect the group.

Sri Lanka lost Jayasuriya and Tharanga early, but the Sangakkara/Mahela duo batted sensibly and briskly to take Sri Lanka to an expected score of 320 odd runs, with C Silva and Maharoof joining the party in the end to get them above the 300 mark. Then the bowlers picked off Bermuda's batsmen one by one while Malinga missed out on a hatrick and Maharoof got four. Bermuda finished at a dismal 78 all out.

If the opener, was anything but exciting with the likes of Samuels, the Dwaynes and Lara giving great work to their willows, while Pakistan struggled with inconsistent bowling and to get the partnerships going, I can't wait to see more. Even the Ireland/Zimbabwe match was quite exciting to watch. The battle of the lesser teams and upsets will be the most memorable of the group stages I think. And, fans will be longing to see their star players coming to form.

Earlier yesterday, Tikolo led his side like a king amassing his troops with a warcry against an ordinary looking Canada side who didn't try enough to a very good win. Ponting on the other match again led from the front with a blistering 113 in quick time while the bowlers made merry with Glenn McGrath taking three, while Brad Hogg impressed with a 15 ball 40 which came from the last two overs when Scotland looked like they would restrict the Aussies below 300.

Cricket World Cup 2007 is upon us. The carribbean sets up a very special stage for the world's most exciting cricketing event this year.

The West Indian batsmen were cautious and beligerent at the same time, with
Marlon Samuels, Dwayne Smith and Dwayne Bravo kicking off an aggressive start to their world cup. Then when Pakistan batted, they bowled and fielded like champions to register their first win of the world cup with much more to come I suppose. Dwayne smith was man of the match with a fast knock and 3 wickets 2 of which were Yousuf and Inzi.

We haven't seen a very one-sided game just as yet, except the trouncing of Scotland by Australia by 203 runs which should have been around 40 runs less, if not for the last two overs when Brad Hogg and Watson went berserk. Scotland bowlers had very good deliveries coming once in 10 overs and taking wickets too.. they were wavered otherwise. The stumping of Hussey was especially impressive.
Ponting was the king with a win and 100 odd runs under his belt.

Kenya's Steve Tikolo gave nothing away as a captain, bowler, batsman to the Canadians who looked like they needed some inspiration of some sort to get going. Dhaniram's quick hit helped them to score 199, but he was involved in one runout too many. Kenya got there easily with capt. Tikolo scoring 70 odd runs.

Books during Winter Break

Three books I am reading during winter break:

1. Understanding Exposure : Revised Edition , Bryan Peterson

2. The Complete IDIOT's guide to Drawing Manga , John Layman & David Hutchinson
3. The Lord Of The Rings : Gollum - How we made Movie Magic , Andy Serkis

Well, I thought I'd learn something exciting and new during the winter and something that will sharpen my creative skills for which I haven't paid much attention lately.

The first one, by Bryan Peterson might help me improve my photographing skills. The second should probably improve my drawing skill and the third will definitley inspire any kind of artist in the world.

I'll let you know if the books did some good to me.

Of Pirates, Chip valleys, Jobs & Fortune

Have any of you watched "Pirates of the Silicon Valley"? I really didn't know there was such a movie until my friend Dinesh showed it to me last weekend. Previously I'd tried to read Bill Gates' biography or do you call it autobiography? Never got to more than 2 pages.. Then, I'd heard of Steve Jobs too (and fascinated that he was behind Apple Computers & talked about karma). Well, eventhough I was skeptical when I first started to see the movie as soon as I started watching the lives of two very important guys in the last 3 decades maybe, It really kept me hooked. For some reason (maybe that's not so unknown among the industry), I liked Steve Jobs better, maybe because he was more of the fighter type than Bill Gates who was the more of the successful/lucky type. There might be people who completely disagree with me.. but as far as I saw, and have heard and read.. just off the top of my head I think that.
And I had to write this blog mainly because I was blown off, by some of the presentations that Steve Jobs had done previously. For example, I think the 1991(I think the year might be a bit off) presentation for the Next Computers' OS. He was describing about features that are part of MacOSX now! And I especially loved the part where he runs Lotus 123 in DOS (in the OS itself) and uses a /f command in the command line interface in Lotus and comments "great user interface" (or somethin' like that) with sarcasm. The other reason was the commencement speech at Stanford in 2005 which was quite inspiring atleast for me. It was surely interesting looking into the lives of both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. More interesting was the relationship between them. Eventhough I am not sure how far there is truth in that movie, I would recommend watching "Pirates of the Silicon Valley" for anyone who wants an inside look on the lives of both the gentlemen.

Howl's Moving Castle, Spirited Away & Cars

Today, I saw "Spirited Away", by Hayao Miyazaki (hope I got his name right the first time I'm typing it out). It is a fantastic animation movie, which deserved the oscar it earned. This is 4 weeks after I saw "Howl's Moving Castle", which permanently made me a Miyazaki fan. Then 2 weeks ago I saw Pixar's Cars. All three are great animation movies. In Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away the imaginative genius of Miyazaki just steals the show with stunning visuals and well thought out scenes. In Cars , you could definitely feel that John Lasseter (who coincidentally starts off the DVD version of Spirited Away introducing Miyazaki and those who don't know who that is.. go and watch Luxo Jr. by Pixar) can make any movie scene with just cars in it, like for example a courtroom scene.. If you notice closely even small insect cars make a cute appearance. After watching "Howl's Moving Castle", I was simply mesmerized by the music/OST that the movie has. I've been hearing the theme song every night since that day before I sleep( or maybe repeat it as I sleep) .. Simply amazing and fits the story/screenplay perfectly. The characterization in all the three movies leave you with memories of characters which are not human/not of this world etched forever in your brain. Lightning McQueen, Mator, The Doctor and those 2 Italian cars (I loved the one which I put up in the above image, go see the movie and you too will fall in love with that) in Luigi's tires just steal the show from "Cars". Calcifer (and Billy Crystal who voices him) , Sophie and Howl just keep you mesmerized in "Howl's Moving Castle".

Just watching these movies gives me inspiration and gives me enormous hope when I think about my future in the same entertainment industry, be it games / animation / movies.

23 years

Whew! 23 years.. today. Man.. I feel old. Anyways.. I've enjoyed every moment of my life, even the moments when I was asleep. It seems like eternity though. I don't know still if I'm taking a road that was least trodden, but I'm sure of one thing. No human's life can be similar to another in every single way. I've made a lot of friends, enriched the lives of my parents and relatives and followed my dreams with the wonderful support of each of the people I know extended in their own way. I thank everyone for being part of my life and putting up with my overzealousness, overconfidence and overindulgence. Okay.. and finally as I end this one.. Happy Birthday to me..

Nov 26, 2006 3:19 AM. - Arunan Rabindran