Crash

My GW guild member recommended a movie called Crash. So, I went and watch it. I'm glad he did. It was one of those movies that was released under the public's radar on 2004. Despite that it won alot of accolades. Anyway, its a movie directed by Paul Haggis and it is casted by alot of big names like Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser, Ryan Philippe and some others. Whats amazing about this film is that it manages to capture its idea and encapsulate it into an intelligent, orderly series of events.

The general outline of this film is that it shows how people react to racial stereotypes. How we, upon seeing a tattooed person, automatically brands him a gangmember. The only problem is, he might be and he might not be. At the same time, the film also shows us how stereotypes were born. Its a thought provoking film and manages to impart its messages. The film also shows us that no matter what people are, they have other things about them. For instance, we all hate bullies at school. But for all we know, he might be a bully but at home he has to care for his elderly parents who can't do squat. Its even more frustrating for him since he doesn't have siblings who can help him and his old folks are demanding people. The film makes us think that there is more to people than what they portray.

I would recommend everyone to watch this film, at least once in their lives. It will open your eyes to people around you.

Crazy weekend ...

GW (thats GuildWars for the uninitiated) has updated with loads of fun stuff yesterday in preparation for the sneak peek pvp event this weekend. What kind of sneak peek? 2 new classes and a number of new skills for the core classes that are coming out for the expansion (Its called GW: Factions). Should be starting at about 4 pm this afternoon. I think its gonna be crazy with the pvp areas being filled to the brim! Anet (the company that made the game) are dangling a carrot right at our noses and if they don't stop it, the number of people who are going to buy the expansion will rise exponentially. The cool thing about the expansion is that its a standalone expansion. Which means you don't have to own the original one to be able to play but like a Magic: The Gathering deck, you have an advantage in owning both to only one.

That being said though, this weekend might be filled. I have a kenduri to attend and help, a friend's wedding to attend and not to mention a look into d&d minis tournament that is happening this weekend at Comic Corner in Atria after lunchtime. In between those? Hopefully playing GW.

Of old times ...

I just remembered how fun it was to play at cybercafés (CC) last time. My friends and I would go there and play loads of games. The earliest of such was Quake. We played at the Java Café in Uptown Damansara. If I remembered correctly that was the time that most of us converted from keyboard play to mouse and keyboard combo. Anyway, it was fun times. We shouted, we screamed threats and we all had fun in the process. Nowadays though, thinking of going to CC are just a hassle. Either its too far or the games that we want to play are not available. Having said that though, there are some of my friends who still frequent Virtual Arena (VA) in Hartamas for a few games of war3’s (warcraft 3) most famous mod, DOTA.

Talking about games though, one cannot deny the fact that you have to come up with a nick to suit the game. My nicks ranged from Slice and Dice all the way to the one I am using now which is Koross. Most of this nicks were thought out seriously and with research while some were made at the spur of the moment. I remembered a nick I used during my Counterstrike (CS) days, it was SayItFast JoeBor with hilarious results! There was this one time that my friend was using that nick for fun and he was racking up the kills. The funny moment came when he was the only one alive in the team and he was killing the other team one by one ala Rambo. The funny moment came when one of the dead guys actually shouted in the CC “You can do it JoeBor!”. Probably its not that funny when you read this but it was funny when you heard that nick voiced out. If anyone else in the game didn’t understand what the nick really meant, it was made apparent when one of the guys actually said “Huh, say it fast? JOEBOR JOEBOR JOEBOR JOE … HAHAHAHAHA!”. Ah yes those were fun days.

The awesome games that came to my mind that my friends and I had loads of fun playing last time was Shogo (Doubt if anyone remembers this game), Rainbow 6, Quake (1,2 and 3), C&C: Red Alert, CS, Battlefield, Rome Total War, Vietcong, Serious Sam, war3, etc. There are probably more but I can’t recall now. Some of my friends were really good in those games too. Most of us were above average in the games we played but there are some exceptional ones that come to mind. I have a friend who is a pilot freak in Battlefield. He was very good piloting the copters in the game that one day he showed me how good he was. He could literally fly the copter sideways into a hangar building, move abit inside and then come back out without it touching the building or crashing. THAT’S FREAKING AWESOME! Till this day I still can’t pilot the copters properly. Another one of those really funny moments in gaming was when my friends and I were playing Rainbow 6 team deathmatch. It was some sort of a highway map where its literally a straight road with each team spawning at each ends. Anyway the funny part was that one of my friends was slow because he was looking around the road and admiring the hills and canyons. Then suddenly, without any gunshots fired, he died. The death music came on and we all went “Eh, macam mana ko mati?”. He was scratching his head and said “Aku tak tahu la. Mungkin kena hempap batu kot”. At this point, everyone literally stopped playing because we all went into fits of laughter. Just imagine, the best SWAT team the world has to offer and a member died because he was crushed by a rock. How the heck that happened in the game, I don’t know but it was funny nonetheless. Ah those were funny moments. Wished that there are more in the future.

Neverwinter Nights and Tribes ...

For some reason I have begun playing Neverwinter Nights (NwN) again. This is because of a certain fascination I have on a character from R.A. Salvatore’s works. I bet most of you are thinking of Drizzt Do’Urden now. Well its not. Its Drizzt’s arch nemesis: Artemis Entreri. He is the total polar opposite of Drizzt. Firstly, he is human. Secondly, he rivals Drizzt in swordplay (him being human and managing to do this is impressive enough) and thirdly, he is a lot more interesting as a character. Being the bad guy and a loner means he must be on his toes all the time (just to make sure that he doesn’t get backstabbed by the ones who he does business with) and he must be cunning and able to take his opportunities whenever or wherever they may come. Oh yes, Artemis has a lot more character than dear old Drizzt.

I just finished reading ‘The Paths of Darkness’, which should explain more my fascination of this character. Don’t get me wrong, Drizzt is an interesting character in his own right but that seems to lessen now ever since he is in a somewhat secure position now. He is among friends and the world doesn’t seem that big and daunting anymore. Whereas Artemis seems to be in a world where there are only enemies and friends are only people who would use you for their own ends and discard you once your uses are gone.

Anyway as I said, I’m replaying through the original chapters (OC) of NwN with this newly made character that’s supposed to be my version of Artemis and for the most part he is rocking. Never mind that I scoured the whole of the official NwN forums for a build that would indeed rock and still be something that would fit Artemis’ character.

In addition to that a friend of mine got me playing Starsiege: Tribes again. For the uninitiated, Tribes is a FPS game with a minor twist: jetpacks. In my opinion it’s a lot more challenging than the standard FPS games because now, you have to take into consideration of the z-axis as well. The most played game type is capture the flag (CTF) and this is where this game shines. Speed play a major role as stealing the enemy’s flag and bringing it back to your own base is something easier said than done. In fact, most people who play Tribes up to this day are addicted to the speed that can only be found in this game. This is the only game I think that a flag steal can occur in the blink of an eye. Just imagine that you are the flag defender of your team and you are standing vigilant. Glancing around trying to see from where would the enemy come from because deep down you know that if the enemy comes, it will be very fast. So you take your eyes off the flag for a second to take a closer look at the hill in front of your base only to be alerted by an onscreen text message: YOUR FLAG HAS BEEN STOLEN!. You quickly turn to the flag stand (just to confirm the message) and look around in panic to see if you can spot the flag stealer. In most cases, the only thing you’ll see is either nothing (which means you totally missed it) or the fleeting image of the flag stealer in the sky with your flag on his back quickly fading into the distance and you know even if you chase, it won’t mean squat unless the flag stealer does something stupid which is rare.

The learning curve for this game is quite steep and the amount of good players in this game would make newbies stop playing fast but if you are patient and master this game, the experience is fun! This game is available as a free download in Fileplanet so give it a try since its only 138 mbs big.