Call of Duty 4

Got this game in November last year but been busy at work so all my free time was pretty much spent in playing this game (and others) .
I had my doubts about the series moving away from World War 2 to a modern setting, in fact I was really disappointed with this move since I really liked the World War 2 games. I decided to buy the game after reading in a review that the game had a single player campaign. The gaming press was so smitten with the multi player component of this game that the single player campaign wasn't even mentioned in the previews.
The game is fantastic, the missions are very well crafted and move along at a very good pace. The variety of weapons is very good and the game also provides a good mix of stealth and 'Rambo' style missions. Its definitely another winner from the developers at Infinity Ward and highly recommended to first person shooter fans.

Pulsar 220

Well after much thinking and evaluating I bought the bike last month. I've got the red color (Cocktail Wine Red to be exact). I have not driven around much yet but the bike rides great. Easily out accelerating other vehicles (specially on inclines) and sounds great too. I love the headlights, the back-lit icons under the switches and the digital dashboard.

Crysis Preview

Just look at the trailer! This is why I upgraded my PC and this is why I might upgrade to Vista.

Ocean's 13

This movie franchise desperately needs a prequel, even if it is just to reduce the number of characters (Ocean's 2 would be a fine start). I did think this movie was better than Ocean's 12 though, at least the time line moved properly, the villain was better and the heist was actually done at the end. The downside was that it all looked too easy, even the hiccups in the plan did not raise any doubt whatsoever that the plan would be a complete success.
Overall I think its still fun to watch and hope that the next movie is a prequel.

Fantastic Four 2

Where was Galactus? I really feel shortchanged after the movie portrayed Galactus as a giant black cloud. The movie first seems like a marriage video and then a family squabble reality show. The Silver Surfer had hardly any screen time and the climax was very disappointing. Most of the time its Fantastic Four vs. Dr. Doom on the surfboard with the Silver Surfer's rebellion against Galactus coming as a footnote near the end.
I hope that this movie makes enough money for the studio to authorizes a Silver Surfer spin-off movie. Then we can expect a good movie without any marriages and family arguments to spoil the story.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3

Again I had to watch this movie dubbed in Hindi since there were no English shows available. I admit that the movie would definitely have been better in English but still not good enough to compare with the first one (or even the second, yes its that bad). The movie suffers from most ailments associated with sequels - too many characters and hardly any plot. It seems like they script writers wrote up a bunch of scenes for the characters and strung them together with a climax that feels too long and a little over the top.
The best we can hope for is that this was the last movie for this franchise.

Spider Man 3

Well I must start with saying that I saw this one dubbed in Hindi since the English shows were during the afternoon. That said I don't think I would have liked this movie anyway.
The movie feels like a love story instead of an action movie, in fact there are too many similarities with our typical Bollywood love stories. The villain who repents at the end, the guy who lets success gets to his head, the girlfriend who feels ignored and the friend who gives up his life to save the hero.
The first Green Goblin vs. Spidey fight was pretty good but the action went downhill from there. Sandman and Venom were under utilized in my opinion and the movie could have done with more scenes with them rather than Mary Jane and Aunt Mae. Overall the script tried to please both action and romance fans but managed to disappoint both.

My New PC

Well it took a long long time but finally I was able to assemble a gaming PC.
CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo 6420
MB - Asus P5B
RAM - 2GB Kingston DDR2-667
GPU - eVGA 8800GTS 640MB
HDD - Seagate 250GB SATA-II with 8MB Buffer
Keyboard - iBall Compact
Cabinet - Zebronics Peace
SMPS - NavTech 550W Power Supply

Pepsi

Shot of some diet pepsi cans.
I posted this from my K790 to try out its photo blogging feature.
P.S. - My online photo gallery is now at Flickr.

Casino Royale

I had my doubts about this movie since the critics rated it quite well and they were confirmed on seeing the movie. The movie is about Bond's assignment just after being promoted to a '00' agent by M.
First things first - Craig is nowhere near as suave looking as Brosnan, get over it. He might have been cast in the next Die hard movie (if Bruce Willis was not in it for some reason) but he does not look the part of 007 at all. Now to the movie.
The chase sequence just after the title sequence was quite good but things went downhill from there, the film had far too many mushy scenes instead of the usual Bond fare - girls, gadgets and gratuitous violence.
SPOILER ALERT!!! Ending and plot details below.
Near the end of the film it was almost intolerable, when everyone was waiting for the climax as Bond was being tortured someone else killed the villain and spared Bond's life. Then we were made to sit through more scenes (PG-13) of Bond cavorting with his girlfriend and resigning from his job to 'settle' down with her. At this point everyone was discussing if she would betray him or will terrorists kill her, as it happened both were sort of correct.
This movie gets a thumbs down from me, they've turned a James Bond movie into a chick flick.