What does Infinity Ward mean, anyways?

I am convinced now, this is how an office works: some men and women don't do anything in work environments other than wander off to gossip with friends and leave the work for you to do! If they're not wandering off to gossip, then they're sitting at their workstations, pretending to work and throwing panic attacks! Don't complain though, noooooo. Never complain, as that's an ATTITUDE PROBLEM and they won't stand for it! And neither will any of the other hens in this house, buster! CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK, say hello to Human Resources! "I need to talk to you of our policies regarding harassment in the workplace. And by that I mean you're fucking fired."

Now that I have my misanthropy and angst out of the way, lets talk games. Seen Call of Duty in action? It is like some people at 2015 saw their own MoH:AA, and said, "We can do this better!" And then they formed Infinity Ward, and went ahead and kicked every World War II games ass to kingdom come. Call of Duty is a first-rate achievement. The sensory overload is amazing, and the interaction with intricately scripted action set-pieces is a big step forward for the art form. Whats more, the emotional context of the battles is quite strong here and the consequences of your own successes and failures are readily apparent and meaningful. Till now whenever I've been yearning for some offline classic WWII shooter action, I've found it in Medal of Honor, or Commandos II. Thanks to Infinity Ward, there's a new place to get my fix. Game of the Year material.

Blow Cold

The winters? They are a-coming. There is always some sort of associations you make with weather because of your earlier experiences. And the winters depress me. Not in a bad mood always gloomy face kind of way, but in a sobered down anxious kind of way. And that happens because, to me winters signal the end of a year. And there is sense of doom somewhere in the background of my subconscious faculties attributed to the fact that while another year has passed, I still haven't done half of what I had thought I'd do. It also doesn't help that I have always, always been dumped during the winters. This year, though its not so bad. That sinking feeling in my stomach hasn't arrived as yet. And I am still peppy. Not jumping with joy, but you know, kind of at peace.
Don't get me wrong though, I love the season. I love the rain, and then I love the winters. Summers... well, I live in Delhi. There's no escaping that. Its just that the feeling of impending disasters, and beautiful, foggy winter mornings are a great combination. Well, sort of.

Its a hectic time at the office, and this is going to be my only update this week, so to all my friends, Merry Diwali. Have a great time.

Hush

So this weekend was huge fun. Schumacher won the championship, with more than a little help from Barrichello. Valentino Rossi defended his championship by winning his seventh race in Sepang. Beautiful races, both. I met Bushbush after a long time, had a few drinks, chilled with the rest of the gang. Then went out and bought a few books, games and comics. Anandamath, Sun Tzu's Art of War, and E=mc², were all bought as supplements, but I couldn't afford the one I really wanted to buy. Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. It was available only in hardback, and would have set me back by around 850 INR. Ouch! I guess I'll wait for the paperback.

I finally got my hands on Daredevil:Yellow. Nice noir-ish book, and the water color look was amazing. Tim Sale's minimalistic anatomy in some frames, with the extra dash of colors, did however, work against it a little. Still, pretty good. Jeph Loeb is darn good storyteller. Another winner by Jeph Loeb that I got was Batman:Hush. And I was dissappointed when I realized it was Hush #3. I have Hush#1, but I missed #2! :(

I bought another DC novella, Green Lantern:Dragon Lord. I just can't stay away from 'the beginning of' type books. The usual repertoire of Ultimate Spiderman and Batman Adventures were accompanied by Avengers, and Fantastic Four #1. Fun fun fun.

I also bought American McGee's Alice, to replace my existing, mangled, scratched version. Why, after 3 years, and finishing the game twice? Well, simply because the game is Level Design 101. You don't have it, you are sad. End of story. Also got Midnight Club II. I'm not much of a racing game fan, except for the occasional Colin McRae Rally 3.0, F1 2002, NFS:HP2, Moto GP2, and now MCII. Heh. actually, even with all these titles, racing is the genre I neglect the most after Flight Sims. But I bought this for the sheer unadulterated arcade racing fun, not seen in a long time. Also, it is very well done. Shiny!

Except that couldn't meet Andy, and forgot to get a haircut(again!), it was a hugely fun weekend. Did I say that already? Well, piss.

Kissing Chaos



This weekend I realized that I absolutely needed to get some books by Arthur Dela Cruz, J. Michael Straczynski and Frank Miller. I came across the work of Arthur Dela Cruz several times in recent times. Though I had never bought anything by him, I liked his art style a lot. Arthur's pencil work is very, very cool - a sketchy, loose but solid style, and his knowledge and mastery of anatomy and proportions shows in every panel. His work reminds me a lot of how Piro draws. Both of them have a pencil work that just draws you in. Though I am a great fan of good coloring and flamboyant art, sometimes minimalism has its own impact on story-telling. I intend to pick up his Kissing Chaos book soon. The slightly grim story is well-done and told in a style that grows on you. There is a noir style to the whole book though, so its not recommended for people who don't appreciate noir (there's a sizeable number, believe me). Also, sometimes the art seems sparse, but then again, it is one of the strongest points about the book too.
You might have come across Cruz's work if you saw covers for various Oni Press books including Barry Ween, Sidekicks, and Nocturnals.

Pop Culture Lemming

So I hope I find you in good health, kind sir/ma'am? Lovely day, isn't it? I am happy today. Are you happy? I am. Happy, I mean. So you didn't tell me... ARE YOU HAPPY? ARE YOU?
I watched them in a loop so many times, my eyes might bleed. I am still all tingly after the experience. Woo!