Rock in India Megadeth and Machine Head Review

Bangalore’s kind of a spiffy little city, really. No sweat with the climate and the people but the rickshaw drivers really love you. Or your money, rather. For the price they quote for a 2 mile ride to anywhere in the city, you could rather get on to Virgin Galactic and feel weightless for a few minutes.

The reason for Bangalore was Rock in India, India’s first international rock festival, headlined by Machine Head and Megadeth. Silly name not withstanding, the whole place really felt like a carnival of sorts and there was nothing stopping me from getting close to my God, Dave Mustaine.

There were 2 stages, a smaller one for the Indian bands and the bigger one for 2 of the most prominent metal bands on the planet. Very few really gave a damn to all the Indian bands and were assembled near the main stage booking their places for Megadeth and Machine Head. The bands that played were Thermal and a Quarter, Millenium, Junkyard Groove, Motherjane, Prestorika and Pentagram which got a lot of boos from the crowd.Then it was time for Machine Head to hit the stage and the crowd sent a ear splitting scream through the Bangalore sky which was being interspersed with jolts of lightning, quite literally. Machine Head played some songs from their albums ‘The Blackening’ and ‘Ashes of the Empire’.

There was no let up of energy throughout their set and Rob Flynn sent his murderous riffs and his powerful vocals like cannonballs into the crowd. He got them involved like no other and left the hapless audience gasping for more. Machine Head veni, vidi and effin vici!

Megadeth were delayed by a good 20 minutes and the crowd condition got really pathetic. Everyone wanted water and all the DNA guys could say was “Let the show begin, they’ll forget every pain they know.” True, but inhuman. I suggested them to install water cannons at the next show.Finally at around 20:45, the Sleepwalker intro played through the PA and everyone knew, the moment had arrived. The endurance would pay off and the pain would be dissolved in a whirl of pure thrash metal. The lights went off for that moment and came back on with Mustaine and Co. sending ripples of relief into the exhausted and de-hydrated crowd.

Dave, Chris, James and Shawn did the only thing they could. Kick some serious butt, ‘Deth style. They displayed amazing energy on stage and never did the instruments go off even once. The vocals and overall sound disappointed and Dave even ran out of breath a couple of times. But no one seemed to give even half a damn, everyone was busy screaming their lungs out.

I could have possibly cried when they played A Tout le Monde. Such was the intensity of seeing my God live! Megadeth played some songs from Peace Sells, Rust in Peace, Countdown to Extinction, Youthanasia and Cryptic Writings apart from United Abominations. I would really have loved to see some more songs being played but time lost could not be gained again. Megadeth topped of the set by playing their most insane track, Holy Wars, which sent everyone into a tizzy. Chris played the Arabic solo, finger style and procured his plectrum back from thin air! Midway they switched to playing Mechanix and a large part of the crowd was just itching to sing Four Horsemen (if you did not know, 4 Horsemen actually happens to be Dave Mustaine’s composition). They resumed playing Holy Wars and hell was well and truly unleashed.

My jaw hit the floor with Mustaine playing the final solo and head banging as though he were applying butter on bread. That guy is crazy!That was the end of one of the best gigs I had attended but I felt the Megadeth set could have been longer had the time been managed better.

After the gig, we stormed into the bands hotel and we finally got to meet Megadeth. Do read it and tell me what you think!

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Tags: india, machine head, megadeth, rock

[XBox 360] Army of Two Review

ARMY OF TWO
Release Date: 3/4/2008
Developer: EA Montreal
Publisher: Electronic Arts

Playable characters: - Elliot Salem and Tyson Rios

Gameplay: - 8/10
This is one of the highlights of the game. It comprises mainly of interesting and innovative co-op moves which set the game apart from most of the other games. The game makes sure that you involve both the characters and focuses mainly on teamwork. The game will require you to boost your partner up a wall and he in return pull you up once they are up that wall. Other innovative combat features include; Back to Back and Co-op sniping. You can also diversify your arsenal of weapons by getting different weapons for Rios and Salem as they can simply swap weapons during the course of the entire game. You really need to work together to beat the game…especially on the higher difficulties.

Offence and Defense

There are a variety of weapons in the game which you can purchase and upgrade to your wants. The developers have a put a strong emphasis on the “Aggro” meter which, when starts filling up, enemies start paying you more attention. This helps your partner to attack them from behind and leave them in a calculated mess.

There is a neat feature in the game called “Riot Shield”. With this allows you to do is, rip out the door from a nearby car and use it as a shield; this helps you to cover yourself and your partner while advancing in the enemy territory. Other noticeable features of the game include dragging and healing your partner when he is injured.

Graphics: - 8/10

The graphics are somewhat of a mixed bag. The environments are not as nicely detailed as the characters are and they do tend to look slightly dull. Which by no way means bad-graphics-give-it-to-the-kids kinda game, but still, when compared to the best on offer, they aren’t what one would term best in class. That apart, what really takes the cake are the cut scenes which take care of all the storytelling.

Story:-7/10

There is nothing new to the story line though. Mercenaries for hire, being backstabbed and betrayed, the military having been privatized, taking missions in exchange for cash and the usual I-need-to-complete-my-mission type game. Halfway through the game and you find out about the conspiracy against Salem and Rios.

Controls (Learning Curve)

The learning curve of the game is about 15 minutes, which is about the same amount of time you spend in the in game training mode when you first start the game. However, when you actually take to the battlefield, you need another 15-20 minutes to get used to the controls.

Online:-

Army of Two features online Ranked and Unranked matches in which you and a friend team up and fight other teams (consisting only of 2 players) and try and complete the in game objectives and thus earning cash in return. See if you can top the Online Leader boards

You can also invite a buddy and play the story mode online with them. Achievements are more or less on the easy side and can be unlocked by playing most of the game and fulfilling the requirements.

Final Verdict:

Definitely worth buying, the game is fun to play on both online or offline. The online Ranked Matches increase the re-playability of the game dramatically. So, go on, form your own Army of Two and kick butt!

Screenshots

Features Offline:-

Players: 1-2
Players Co-op: 1-2
Multiplayer Versus
System Link: 2-4
Dolby 5.1 Surround
HDTV 720p
Storage Device

Features Online:-

Players: 2-4
Players Co-op: 1-2
Marketplace Downloads
Voice Messaging
Voice Support

This review was written by avid gamer and fellow Mumbai metalhead Shezan Shaikh. If his mood persists, we shall see some more reviews of the latest games from him. Yeah!

Tags: gaming, xbox 360

Nokia N82 Review

The N95 was happily sitting at its high perch as Nokia’s most premium and best selling phone when one fine day the stork delivered the N82 to the unsuspecting masses. This put the N95 into a spot of bother. Everyone thought it was promising and the ads on the idiot box looked good, the phone looked even better (in th ads, i.e.) but does the phone live up to the expectations? Lets find out.

Looks, design and build quality

The N82 bears a striking resemblance to the N73, except that it looks as if the N73 put on some weight. But surprisingly, this doesn’t translate into more mass and the weight seems well distributed all across. (It could do with some size shedding though). This gives the handset a sturdy solid and chunky feel. But nevertheless, it does feel as though it might just slip away the palm.

Sadly Nokia doesn’t have any more colors than the one shown in the picture. It looks nice alright, but the bright metallic shade might not be to everybody’s liking.

Keypad

The keypad has a rather odd design and you can operate it best when you have a slight overgrowth of fingernails. It looks like some old pocket calculator and I don’t think it was such a smart option. Giving something new(and stupid) is not always necessary, Nokia; a normal keypad would have done just fine.

Display

When I wrote about the iPhone back in August, I was sure of its tech trickling down in the other phones. Sure enough, we have the accelerometer making an appearance in the N82. What this essentially does is, when you tilt the phone horizontally, it changes the orientation of the screen to landscape. And back to portrait, when you hold it straight.

That apart, the display is a neat little 2.4 inch unit displaying 16.7 million colors. I had no problems reading the display even in bright sunlight.

Entertainment and Multimedia

Full marks to the N82 here. There’s hardly anything out of the blue that the N82 cant execute. The photo gallery, albeit a bit slow to load, looks delicious. The phone also has a 3.5mm jack to insert your own headphones and have fun.

Camera

Coming to the piece de resistance of the N82, its brilliant Carl Zeiss 5MP camera with a Xenon flash. Thank goodness for the small mercies I say. The camera on this phone is as good as I have ever seen. Color reproduction is fairly accurate. Here are some pictures (I ran out of battery juice when I wanted to take a macro shot)

PerformanceNokia phones are never really performers. They are more like elephants; loaded but slow. There’s no escaping the same sluggishness exhibited in other phones. But call quality and battery life are a lot better in that context.Thanks to that big size, I presume Nokia must have had enough space to plonk a big ass battery into the phone. And sure enough, we see a 1050mAH battery doing duty in the N82. You can easily go 2 full days without a run to the power socket. 2 days of listening to music 3 hrs a day, some camera usage, 1 hour of talking and some bluetooth usage.

Multimedia and Entertainment

N series phones have never had a problem being entertaining Geisha’s of a phone and this one just follows the rule. It can take on everything you throw at it and them some. It also has a 3.5mm jack so that you can fit in any god damned headphone you want. It also doesn’t miss out on a FM radio player.

The on board games too are worthy of a mention. You have FIFA 07, Asphalt 3 and Snake, which is a delight to play.

Conclusion A lot cheaper than the N95 and like me, if you hate moving parts, this is the one for you. If you don’t mind the size and the chunky looks of the Nokia N82 is a sweet deal considering the price which is a lot lower than the N95.

Tags: n series, n82, nokia