Finding Mimo

Mimo:- I first met him online via orkut. He seemed like a really excited dude online (you know how scary that can be!), but he turned out to be a very nice guy with a good sense of humour, and we turned out to be good friends. Been 2 years since we know each other now. I remember last year when he had decided to drop by in Pune to have a meet up. He came all the way from Baroda (all by himself and he's 16; What a bindaas guy!) and randomly landed at Chaphekar Chowk. He called me to pick him up. Luckily Chaphekar Chowk wasn't that far so I could pick him up. It was really nice meeting him. It was like we really knew each other (even though we had met for the first time.)

That was a year ago. It was time for a second meet. This was last week. He was free at the moment so decided to come to Pune. I asked him to stay for a week but he could only stay for 4 days. Good enough. "You have to pick me up wherever I land." OMG! No! Told him to get down at Chinchwad or somewhere nearer; or else i'd have to go all the way to Pune and bring him back home. He got down at Wakad. I asked him to come till Danghe Chowk, while I'd take my kinetic and reach there. It was hot, dusty and windy outside. So we met up. I brought him back home. Benji was happy to see him and guess what? As soon as we got home, the first thing I heard was "Take Benji for a walk". Oh well...

Mimo had brought many PS2 games with him, which was a good thing as I could test them on PCSX2. He also showed me his work. He is currently working on a RPG using engine 001. For more info on the tool, visit www.engine001.com. I also showed him how much I've worked on RTFS Adventure 2 so far. Gee, I need to complete it soon.

Those 4 days passed quickly, but we had a lot of fun. We enjoyed Super Smash Bros Brawl a lot, me whooping his butt. Muhahaha! Yash, gonna hafta wait yer turn fer a-whoopin' ya hear? We also watched movies like Highlander: The Search for Vengeance. Kickass movie and smooth as butter animation. Imagi rocks!

Finally it was time for us to leave. Mimo's folks had a bus from Pune so they were coming back from their Mahabaleshwar trip. There were like 2 hours left, so we headed to Crosswords at Sohrab Hall. The content felt less that day. But there was some interesting stuff to read no doubt. We took out issues of Forge and sat reading. Time passed by. Mimo got a call from his dad and then it was time for us to leave. The bus stop was close by. Met Mimo's folks for the first time. I was kinda nervous. What would they be like? They turned out to be very nice people. Mimo's mother gave me a box of fresh strawberries and some jelly sweets to take home. Gee, that was very sweet. Time to catch the 7 o clock local. Wow it was like everything had been planned systematically, for when I reached the station the local had just arrived. Talk about timing!

Bye Mimo, it was really fun having you here. I wanna come to Baroda soon, but after my exams get over. See you pal.

Watchmen demo impressions

[Click on the screenshots for a bigger view.]Firstly I am new to Watchmen. I haven't read the graphic novel, but I will someday; I'm not familiar with the characters, but the game lets you play as Rorschach and Nite owl. I haven't watched the movie either and nor have I read the motion comic yet but I intend to check them out soon. So here are my impressions on the Watchmen: The End is nigh demo.

The game uses the "Kapow" engine. I mistook it for the Unreal 3 engine. Hehe. When you get something dark, cinematic with plenty of eye candy, one thinks its Unreal 3 engine. Remember when the Doom 3 engine used to be the talk of the day? Anyway back to topic...

The story in the demo has Rorschach and Nite Owl visiting some prison where the prisoners are wreaking havoc and having a party inside. The cops are fools as always and refuse to cooperate with the vigilantes. Dumbasses...so anyway, the vigilantes land there to help tame the crazy criminals inside. The cops threaten to shoot the vigilantes instead of taking care of the criminals. Man why are cops so stupid? They hardly thank superheroes for helping them bust crime. Instead of thanking them they decide to shoot them down. Wow! What a bunch of incorrigible stupid bums! So the criminals are set free while the cops chicken out, leaving Rorschach and Nite Owl to do the dirty work for them. So you beat up thugs using various combos, move ahead to a new part of an area, more thugs show up, you kick their butt and so on. I played as Rorschach and pretty much had a good time doing so. Didn't feel like trying out Nite Owl.

So the game has you punch, kick, throw enemies (the wiser option). Its fun when the thug you throw falls on the other idiots. Its pretty satisfying. Its also fun when you fling them off and they fall to their deaths. The game has plenty of eye candy and some good physics, but seriously...does a dirty prison actually shine that much? The floor seems to be so shiny that no matter how dirty things get, you can always see the reflections. Shiny floor with reflections lol. That's what eye candy often boasts about. There's also a lock picking mini game in the demo for Rorschach to do which seems pretty easy. Rorschach has a rage meter which increases as he fights enemies and by pressing RT or R1, makes him charge at enemies. Sweet. After you clear out one phase of crazy whackos, you can
wait a bit while you regain your lost health. As a beat em up game, it gets pretty repetitive but hey its fun. I've enjoyed beat em ups since school days. Remember TMNT?

The plot in the demo gets more interesting as you go on and then bang! End of demo. Damn. I look forward to playing the full game.

If you enjoy playing beat em ups, get the Watchmen. Its available for PC, Xbox360 and PS3. Also make sure you have a friend to join you. That makes it more fun. Later.