Naruto: Rise of the ninja

I recenty got myself Naruto: Rise of the ninja. yes, I confess that I am a big fan of Naruto and follow its Manga (Comics) religiously. This game has been out for a while and I had heard good reviews about it. This game is part adventure and part versus action game. that is, you go around exploring and when you have battles, they are played out Street Fighter style. I must say that the animation is really fluid and its a treat to watch all the battles.

Speaking of visuals, the developers have created the entire leaf village, which looks absolutely gorgeous. Then, when you want to make those hand seals, you do a simple combination and fire up your jutsu (super power move).

The game has a story mode that follows the anime's story, but sadly it is not as engaging as the anime was. All the sounds in the game are in English, but i recently downloaded japanese sounds to play when i play the game.

Those who are a fan of this series, should try this game out and those who are not, should watch the anime because it has a great story. I collected a few screenshots and videos, which, you can watch below:

Here is the trailer:



and the review:



and some pictures to let you see how good it looks.

GIK's Parting Memories

One of the saddest things that happened in GIKI was that, I could never get a single graduation picture and the the convocation video made by my brother was skillfully overwritten without taking into account that the video might hold some value.

Anyway, as it turns out, mubeen had a video camera at that time, and even though I remember that he used it, I had already forgotten that I was the one who made the last video of GIKI with him with all of my comments and excellent photography :D. Here are a few videos that he recently uploaded. You can see me in the videos and then hear my commentary as my move around with Mubeen making the video.

Another good thing is that, you get to see Mandi, Kutts, Hammy, Nikka, Piracha, Bharam and a few other guys in the videos. So if you want to have some good GIKI nostalgia, see the videos right now.

Last day in GIKI Part 1:


Last day in GIKI Part 2:


The convocation

Thesis flows

In my last post, I was not too happy with the state of my thesis... now one day later, since I have fixed all the bugs, the thesis has finally started to take shape. The thing to do now is to get the XML parser working and once that is done, I think I will be on my way to completing the thesis real soon. Th problem is that, I need to convince my supervisor that the amount of work that I have done already is enough to count as thesis work. If he agrees, then all that will be left is going to be writing the 60+ page thesis and do the final touches on my code.

wish me luck!

My thesis woes

I do not think I ever explained what my thesis is about so here goes. the idea is to make a game engine that you compile once and then you get to change it as you please. Thus a normal user, who does not know any programming can change the game as he sees fit, without changing any code. the idea is great, if I say so myself but I have been having problems in the so many bugs that have popped up.

Somewhere, some code is being executed twice, which is making the objects show up twice. I want to get this thing fixed before I move on, but finding the wrong code is becoming problematic. oh well, back to work.

Deezer

I recently found out about Deezer, thanks to Saad Kiani, who was having problems installing anything on his office's computer. The idea is simple, have an online music player that keeps track of the songs you hear. So, you do not need to install any music player, just log into the site, make your track list and start listening, as simple as that. Those who would rather listen to songs that are according to their taste but not exactly what the have on their playlist, they should check out last.fm. Its a good way to listen to the new songs as it picks up songs according to your liking and plays them. Enjoy!

The angry baby

On 12th of February, another family member has been added to our family. This time its Ahmad Jamal, My second nephew, who arrived at 7 pm. My brother was exhausted on that day for obvious reasons, so it took him 2 days to gather the pictures up and upload them for all to see. The kid is really angry. He has smiled twice in 3 days' time and right now when I called them up, he was crying his heart out. Looks like people will need to be really careful around this kid.

Ever since I saw the pictures, I really want to hold the kid in my hands, so it looks like that I will need to go to Pakistan quickly. The kid is really healthy Mashallah which is good and I pray that he may stay healthy like this all the time.

Its funny in a way that my other nephew, Rafay, came some 7 months ago and now, 7 months later, he is already a bhaijan.


Sigh! if only mom was here, she would have been really happy.

Company of Heroes: The must have strategy game

In the real time strategy gaming world, where the norm is to build up a base, set up economy and then churn out forces, we have to agree that it has become too stale. We hoped for a breath of fresh air with the coming of Warcraft 3 which, in my opinion was a complete disaster with its extensive use of magic, buffs and all sorts of stupid icons being displayed on your units’ heads.

Then comes Company of Heroes, a breath of fresh air, a game so different that it totally changed the concept of real time strategy. Gone are the high tech science fiction weapons or crazy ass magic spells that sorcerers fire from their behinds. Here we have World War II era weapons, battling it out on mountain tops, country side and small towns. If you have played any of the WWII games, all the weapons are here and even some that you did not know that they existed. But rest assured, all are tied in well with history.

The basic mechanics are the same. You have a base, you build buildings and, you make forces. What is different is the resource mechanic. The developers used the Warhammer 40,000 : Dawn of War resource mechanic, where capturing the territory, gives you the resources. If the captured territory is not linked, you will not get resources. So the idea is to capture as much of the map as you can and keep it linked to keep a continuous flow of resources. Then there are three types of resources, munitions, fuel and manpower. Fuel is very important for all researches. Munitions is very important to use those researches. For example, if you researched grenades, then every time you throw a grenade, it costs 25 munitions. Also, the special abilities cost munitions and manpower too.

Then, when you battle it out, you gain experience points, much like in C&C generals, but you use these points after selecting the doctrine that you want to use. May it be Infantry oriented, armor oriented, defense oriented, it all depends on your playing style.

Speaking of playing styles you have 2 playable sides in the original (German Wehrmacht and Americans). The expansion pack, Opposing Fronts, adds the British and the Panzer Elite as 2 more sides. There is no buildup time. The game starts and you get right into the action and trust me the action in this one is extraordinary. There are so many things that need to be considered just like in real warfare. If your units are moving, they have less accuracy. If they enter a building, then the number of units that can shoot outside depends on the number of windows in that building. The infantry gets suppressed by machine gun fire. Tanks take more damage if you attack them from behind. There are three types of covers, green (strong cover), yellow (medium cover) and red (negative cover). The damage inflicted on the troops also depends on the type of cover they are in. It is these minor details that really make the game stand out.

And finally, the graphics; the game is beautiful and now with DirectX 10 support, it looks remarkable. But if you have a low end machine, that is, a machine that has nVidia geforce 6200 or equivalent, it will still run on it.

I have played enough multiplayer to decide that this game shines in that department as well, in fact, it is 10 times more fun than any RTS that is out there today. So if you are an RTS enthusiast, buy this game without a second thought and play it today. For more details, do visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Company_of_heroes