Yeah, that's it. I had more problems with my net connection early March and then came my semester exams. So I was busy with the exams. I've done my exams okay and now I have my semeser vacation which should last about 3 weeks. I'm glad to be back at GS but the problem is other than meeting the olo' guys, GS has little to offer me as of now. My interest in gaming is waning(Maybe it's just temporary).

Currently I'm occupied with Travian

A Gamer's Take on Some of 2009's Anticipated Games

I just wanted to express my opinions on some of the much talked about games that are slated to release this year. These are merely my opinion formed around the news and facts I've heard and read about these games. First on...

HALO WARS(X360)

One of the most popular FPSes on the Xbox is finally getting an RTS cousin. Great ain't it? Probably not so great after all. With Ensemble Studios in trouble and so much confusion that has prevailed around this game's development and release, there is a healthy chance that it might turn out to be an anticlimax to the great series. Perhaps they are milking the series too much.

Expectation Quotient: 2.5/5

BIOSHOCK 2: SEA OF DREAMS(X360, PS3, PC)

Bioshock was indeed a true cIassic. With its mind-boggling vistas and an eeire atmosphere which made you jump by the mere absence of enemies, few games make you feel the way Bioshock did. Here comes the second in the series... the sequel (or maybe a prequel, as some say it is). Given the record of the three -Shocks that preceeded it, this one might make it the elite league too.

Expectation Quotient: 4.5/5

F.E.A.R 2: PROJECT ORIGIN(X360, P3, PC)

Here comes another sequel in our list. While the original F.E.A.R was a success, the two games that were released under the same banner did not match up to the standards set by the original. F.E.A.R 2: PO continues where the original left albeit with a different character as the protagonist. This one is promising.

Expectation Quotient: 3.5/5

DIABLO 3(PC, Mac OS X)

The game that brings back sweet memories of mindless zombie and monster massacre. Blizzard has finally decided to go on and bring one more Diablo to the table. While so much has been said about the change in art ****and some nifty new features, Diablo will be the same mindless hack n' slash at heart including the frenzied clicks that will probably be one of the main reasons for buying a new mouse( No seriously). Fans are gonna lap this one up.

Expectation Quotient: 4/5

GOD OF WAR 3(PS3)

One of the most celebrated PS3 exclusive action games is back, maybe bigger than ever before with all its adrenalin pumping action and frenetic button mashing. Make way for Kratos and his awesome arsenal of moves. This one is surely gonna be a bloodbath... definitely not for the faint-hearted. With this ending the trilogy fans are in for a wild treat.

Expectation Quotient: 4.5/5

RESIDENT EVIL 5(X360, PS3)

The fifth installment of this survival horror series has already made a bang with its 'cool as hot' stills. There's the part about the important part lighting is going to play in the game. With a gameplay similar to RE4, some additional features, a new story and a whole new setting, Resident Evil 5 might turn out to be the best in the series.

Expectation Quotient: 4/5

STARCRAFT 2(PC, Mac OS X)

After about a decade in the backburner, Blizzard has revived the game that revolutionized RTS gaming, especially multiplayer. As is the nature of Bliz relatively little has been made public given the fact that the game is so close to release, but the hype has already grown out of proportions. Can Bliz weave the same magic again. The decision to break the game into three separate parts is not very encouraging. But then, it IS a Blizzard game. I just hope that the hype does not become the game's villain.

Expectation Quotient: 3.5/5

WARHAMMER 40,000: DAWN OF WAR 2(PC)

Sharing the fate of F.E.A.R, Dawn of War had an initial success which it failed to repeat on its expansions. That aside, the sequel has veered from its styIe and has done away with the 'distraction' of base-building, which hitherto has been a main component of the gameplay. It's one for the fans but how much fans are going to like it is yet to be seen.

Expectation Quotient: 3/5

EMPIRE: TOTAL WAR(PC)

As much as there have many spin-offs, none have come close to emulating Total War's success in this niche RTS-TBS genre. Sure enough, Sega and Creative Assembly has brought a new member into the Total War. Let's give Empire a arm welcome. With a whole new setting, and the absence of non-ranged infantry Empire is bringing some entirely new features and gameplay pinters to the gamers. Another one for the fans.

Expectation Quotient: 4/5

Comment on what you expect from these games. Do you think any of the games are over-hyped? Or perhaps some of those don't deserve to be on this?

If any of you feel that more games have to be included, just say so and I'll do a second part with those games included.

WHY ATHEISM IS NOT NECESSARILY A SOLUTION

"THERE'S PROBABLY NO GOD. SO STOP WORRYING AND ENJOY YOUR LIFE." If you have been reading the papers recently or if you have been to London of late, you would have probably noticed this. This is the newest avatar of the atheist campaign that is gaining popularity globally. The fact that the campaign was able to raise £140,000, £135,000 more than what its founders originally intended, while human welfare organisations are struggling for funds, speaks for itself.

Some of the recent events that have taken place in the name of religion and God are certainly very disturbing and undermine the very aim of the faith. These events lend credit to the claim that the path of religion leads to destruction of self and others around, as some have come to say.

This brings us to the big question. Is atheism the solution? Will atheism show us the way to end this madness? Perhaps not. Instead of trying to prove why religion is the best, I'll demonstrate why atheism is not exactly the best solution.

Religion has been the founding stone of civilization. It set the basis on which man could congregate and build empires that did not fall apart at the touch of the hat. In fact, religion was initially no more than a set of beliefs and rules strung together, but it kept communities from disintegrating, providing a platform to settle internal disputes and maintain order in the community. Ancient Egypt or Rome can be cited as good illustrations to the role that religion played in shaping them as two of the most powerful civilizations of the ancient world. In fact every civilization worth its annals in history had its strong religious background that made it what it was.

Historically religion has been cornerstone of civilization, but one might ask if it holds relevance in the modern world. It certainly does. We might have come a long way from hunting and foraging for food but Man's gut instincts remain the same and it takes little for him to return to his ancient unsavory ways. Don't we have more lot more gun totting tots? Where's the world going? As the world embraces atheism more, it has also been taking a step back in terms of morals. Of course, it might be purely co-incidental. But then again it may not.

The main reason that we have been able to come so far through all the hard times is this religion. Think of a world where religion as a concept did not exist. At least in the case of the old world anarchy would have been the ruler and mankind would have destroyed itself a hundred times over by now.

Proponents of atheism argue that religion has been and still is the root cause of many a bloody conflict. Think Crusades, they say. Think about the recent spate of terror attacks, they say. However, religion in itself is rarely the cause for violence. The politics behind it is the culprit. People in power abuse their ability to reach out to the masses, use religion as a tool and bend the public to do their bidding, all because of selfish gains or to enforce their idea of a perfect world.

The Babri Masjid problem, in spite of it having religious roots, did not flare up because of the religion itself. Some people high up in the political and religious order perhaps decided that it was time garner some publicity or perhaps they simply did not like the way things were now. There was a lot of political lobbying on either camp on the issue and it ended with one of the bloodiest religious riots in the country in recent times.

Now the next question will be – If not for religion, then these so called selfish people in authority would not have been able to charm the people to do their dirty work, will they? If religion did not exist, then there will surely be something else to fight about – competition to be the best, clash of ideologies that have nothing religious about them, dispute of materialistic possession, etc. Bickering and quarrelling is in our genes. There will always be something to politicize and ultimately result in strife. Even trivial things as an untimely sneeze would be enough to cause uproar.

All major religions in the world are built around a code of ethics, which is aimed at showing the individual how to live in harmony with the society while working for the betterment of self and the society as a whole. Each religion openly condemns acts of mal-intent bound to cause harm to fellow human beings even though the measures used to curb those acts and enforce its rules differ.

Even the laws of today's political administration which we are obliged to follow have been adopted from religious code and adapted to suit specific demography oriented needs. However, at a personal level of the individual the reach of religion is more pronounced than the law. 'Law is blind', it is said and in this case it is certainly true. Law cannot see the individual needs and cater to it, because that would probably be seen as a breach of its clause of impartiality and equality. Contrarily, religion is flexible and can mutate suitably to address to individual whims while at the same time conserving the essence of its faith. In this respect religion transcends law in maintaining public order. No wonder religious ideals have spread more successfully than has any form of government.

'Crime cannot be controlled unless the criminal decides to forego it', another popular saying. This obviously shows that the change must be effected from within the person and no matter how it is framed, law has been and will always be seen by the general public as an external agent meant to govern it. While the law reaches out to the analytical mind, religion has the power to reach the person's emotional centre. Even the mighty law resorts to religion to correct its transgressors.

What would happen if the world shuns religion? Each person would probably do as he sees fit, oblivious to its consequences, because he does not have the inner 'conscience', usually built in the course of faith, to tell him what is right and wrong. Baser instincts would take over in the absence of a self-imposed abstinence from things considered wrong. Once again chaos would be the order of the day. Of course, I might be wrong, but then there is a good chance that this might happen. If that happens we might end up in a worse position than we are today.

It is an acceptable fact that in spite of its shortcomings of some of its laws, religion is a guiding light to a person's perspective of good and bad, something which will not develop on its own. It must be taught, instilled in the mind of the individual at a younger age, and practically religion has been and still is one of the best teachers.

Atheists might say that 'atheism' is simply the non-belief in the existence of God, and not discarding of the self-imposed rule. For all practical considerations, when there is no form of higher authority to fear or feel that you are obliged to answer, the individual will be lax in following those rules. Even though the concept of an omnipotent ever-seeing being might be creepy to some, it does play a commendable role in keeping people from choosing the wrong path. There is a good chance that thoughts like – "I'm not responsible to anyone. So why should I care?" crop up and that combined with the other nagging thought – "I'll circumvent my rule this one time. After all it is a rule I set for myself" form a deadly duo that is likely to take the person down his path of destruction. It's a natural and there are not many with a will strong enough to fight back those misleading thoughts.

Not only that but religion also provides the necessary incentive for the individual to be considerate and helpful even when the individual knows no one is looking. It may just be fear that drives it, but the end result is desirable. The person need not be religious to be spontaneously 'good' to others, but it is not an inherent attribute of atheism.

Moreover without a consensus on the rules that are to be followed, disagreement and misunderstanding are bound to erupt, with each person advocating his or her code of ethics as the right one. What is the chance that a whole section of the population believes in a single set of rules, without any external agent imposing it upon them? Not much, I believe. This defeats the purpose of atheism – a society devoid of violence and disagreement, the two undesirables which supporters of atheism claim are the domain of religion.

As an added bonus man can fall back to the bastion of religion when he has been rejected by friends and isolated by the society. It is the only form of soothing escapism that is not entertainment and helps the individual to get back on his feet.

Let me come back to the first line of this article, the quote from London's buses. When there is no proper unified set of rules to follow and no sense of responsibility at a personal level, confusion will prevail and that is quite likely to spawn violence and corruption. What was an inter-communal conflict soon becomes an inter-personal one. Under such circumstances how is anyone supposed to enjoy life?

Simply put atheism does not have the faculty to manage the complications arising out of the clash of individual agendas in a society without a unified code of conduct This one factor is enough to let loose the Pandora's Box. Not as an example of atheism but as an example of a society marred by the clash of individual agendas, I would put forth several African countries, most prominently Congo which reels under the pressure of civil war, with each faction fighting to have its own way.

Religion is nowhere close to being the foolproof method of preserving order in a society but it is a relatively better alternative to a world without religion. Atheism is just as good at being a solution as it is to being the source of troubles.

Far Cry's turned out to be not as good as I'd like it. So I've dropped the idea of pinning it on my favs list. Read the review here:

Far Cry 2 review by sandyqbg

Recommend it if you like it.

First, the bad news:

Unable to obtain Medieval 2 Total War, I decided to satisfy myself temporarily by playing Rome TW.So I pop the RTW disc in my optical drive and wait... Nothing happens. Only then I find out that my RTW disc is not working. Great! That's 400 bucks down the drain.

To make matters worse the NFS MW that I've been playing for the past two weeks just gave up on me. I just wish the save files are intact.

Now for the good news:

I just completed Crysis. What a great game. My only gripe is that it is not optimized. Time for a game update:

Gaming Update

Games I have finished till date

-CnC3: Kane's Wrath
-CnC3
-Comapny of Heroes
-PoP:SoT
-Pokemon Red/Blue(finished both once)
-Age of Empires: Age of Kings
-Medal of Honor Airborne
-Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare
-Pharaoh
-Pokemon Silver
-Portal
-Half Life 2
-Fable: The Lost Chapters
-Mass Effect
-Crysis

Finally. After over a month(or was it nearly two) I managed to cross L20 chasm. Hope things will go pretty fast from now on.

Good News: I got Red Alert 3 today. YAY to me. Actually there's little to celebrate now that I've played he game a little, as you'll know in my impressions.

First Impressions

Far Cry 2: The game's great - enough to make it to my favs list. I needs a little more evaluation tho. The first thing you notice in the game is its beatiful vistas and awesome sound efeects. The gameplay mechanics, however is nothing to go all oohs and aahs about. It's good enough to keep you entertained but there isn't anything that says "You gotta try this out no matter what".It plays the free roam way with a number of primary and secondary objectives. The secondary objectives get a tad too repetitive but can do away with them if you don't wanna play them. The other nag is the AI. It's not so 'brilliant', even tho you can expect to be flanking and cover tactics from the enemy.

Red Alert 3: Once again the first thing you notice is the graphics... which to me is quite a letdown. The gameplay also feels a stale especially playing with that graphics. To make matters worse the game has been complicated with stuff like each unit having a secondary attack or form which can be toggled to, and that gives the unit a different play style. It's all too confusing. Not CnC enough for me.

Good news first - I finally got my copy of Far Cry 2 today and I'm excited. But I'm not gonna throw myself at it immediately. I still have Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts to tend to. I don't want to leave it just like that. So I'll try completing at least the British campaign before I start with FC2.

I've written a new Review for Anno 1701. It's just a short review.

First Impressions for Comapany of Heroes Opposing Fronts:

The game rocks... CoH **** The game preserves most of the elements from the original and adds two new campaigns - the British and the German campaigns. However the game has become a little complex with the addition of specialized units for each faction. This kinda makes the game lose some of its sheen from the original CoH whose simplicity was charming. The focus has also shifted away from the infantry(as was in the original CoH) and this coupled with mostly not-so-normal units have made the game forsake its close to WW2 feel. Nevertheless it rocks.

Exams over and it's vacation time now. Time for gaming and more GS. There's the industrial training but then that's still a week away. It's time for...

Gaming Update

Games I have finished till date

-CnC3: Kane's Wrath
-CnC3
-Comapny of Heroes
-PoP:SoT
-Pokemon Red/Blue(finished both once)
-Age of Empires: Age of Kings
-Medal of Honor Airborne
-Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare
-Pharaoh
-Pokemon Silver
-Portal
-Half Life 2
-Fable: The Lost Chapters
-Mass Effect

Games I am currently playing

-Hearts of Iron 2 Doomsday
-Crysis

Games Bought Recently

-Company of Heroes Gold
-Anno 1701

Games Looking Forward to Get Shortly

-Far Cry 2

I also searched for Red Alert 3 and Medieval 2. *Sigh* Nobody has any of them. At least I've been assured by the good guy behind the desk that he'll have Far Cry 2 shortly.

The guy, however tempted me with Crysis Warhead and Resistance World in Flames. Which do you think is the better deal?(Both are priced equally.)

Impressions

Anno 1701: Okay but it feels more like the developers ripped the basics from some micromanagement game like Pharaoh or Caesar and dumbed it down. It hardly presents a challenge. There'snothing wrong in it. The graphics look cool and the game plays out quite well, but there is little in the game that makes you wanna play it.

Hearts of Iron 2 Doomsday: One of the best large scale RTSes based on WW2. It looks so much like a TBS but plays in real time. It's all about large scale tactics and strategy planning. And yes there's a decent amount of micromanagement and research thrown in. But I warn you, it's a worm that you can't get out of your head. I spent a lot of time just planning my course of action even when I'm not sitting at my PC. With over 90 hours of gameplay time and several more hours wasted just thinking about it, there's no need for further justification.

I'll be having my sem exams the whole of this week and the next. That means I won't be able to be active on GS for the next two weeks. There's still a lot of preparation to be done. Will return once the exams are over with FC2(hopefuly).

Sign off - Sandy

That's right. I seem to have to hit a wall. I've been stuck in level 20 for more than a month and between 50 and 70% level progress for nearly 2 weeks. I'm beginning to wonder even if I'd make it to Level 21. What a drag.

How's it been for the others?