Thursday, August 30, 2007

Call Of Duty 4 Beta Impressions

Well after i reached home from office today i anxiously checked to see if the COD4 Beta download is completed or not, it was, honestly for couple of seconds i didnt knew what to do, being an explorer i am i decided to check out the beta being offline so i could get the hang of things :P i guess people at Infinity Ward are well aware of my kind of people and they have made it compulsory for everyone to learn the beta the hardway i.e. play,kill or be get killed method.

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First thing i noticed was joining a multiplayer game was different from any other game i have ever played, from what i have learned the game matches your skill level and connection to available games and puts you in a suitable game, pretty neat i must say but i would love to have an option of making a game and let my friends join it by selecting it from a list.

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At the start of your "career" you are limited to three classes and things start unlocking as you progress through the game, i love this system and i love the fact that there are no multiplayer achievements in this game :D

I have to admit that it took me some time to get used to things and i conveniently got owned couple of times, much of that has to be blammed on the fact that i was learning the map and to play, by the end of my first game i had four kills, not bad for a n00b! :)

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There were 16 players in the game but lag was barely noticeable atleast for me, i presume mostly they were either from Germany or from France because their language seemed like oga laga shaka laka to me, my local desi friends can easily compare what i was hearing to the feeling of listening couple of pathan's talk in pushto!

The "perks" system is pretty neat, it basically gives you a special ability, there are three slots and at any given time you can only selecty one perk for each slot, thus it makes the game more challening since you don't know what other person would be using, from deep penetrating bullets to fast sprinting your enemy can be using any combination of perks according to his or her playing style

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I will update this post once i am back, my urge to play more isn't fullfilled ! :D

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Farewell At Office Of Tabish And Imran Chd

Well today was a sad thing in a way, two of our dear colleagues are leaving and today we gave them their farewell at Arizona Grill, what can i say about both of them

Tabish, well he is a nice chap, very jolly and a big heart, he takes all the verbal and practical jokes we at the office play at him and keep on smiling on them, his only weak point is his Harmonium AKA Laptop he bought for himself, if you say anything against it he will get offended hehe!

Imran Chd, one word to describe him would be GENTLEMEN, very soft spoken and always willing to help you out, we will definately miss our Dear Key Manager, Go RSA!!!

Anyways here are the pictures from the farewell


Most of us agreed that Rafay looks like a PIMP in this picture


Rafay Again, He has this certain politician's way of talking on the phone


Sajid is in hurry to eat while Qamar trying to teach him some manners

Imran Chaudhry, We are going to miss him and his British accent! :-)

Vaqar and Shoaib, One is happy eating and the other is happy being in office


Arsalan (We all miss our dear ol HR Manager) and Vaqar (He honestly didn't cared about the camera that day he was busy munching away, Especially coz Ahmed was paying :D


Shoaib getting sick at me cracking jokes at him, Honestly he is one gem of a person

Mubarak insisted on having an exclusive picture taken, so there you go!


Me, Not one of my best shots but than again this is how they usually come *grumble*

Tabish and Sheheryar, Validation team members thoroughly missing Yaseen

Well that's about it with pictures, hope you guys enjoyed them, we are going to miss Tabish and Imran.C from our office, Especially after Tabish left there is a huge absence felt during lunch time.... I pray all the best for your future ... stay happy folks

Got Selected For Call Of Duty 4 Beta

Woooohoooooo!!!!! i love those peeps at infinity ward, i never thought i would get in the beta but i did, now i can't wait till the download finishes and i get a chance to play the beta ! :D

Monday, August 27, 2007

Car Tints, What's The Problem?

This story starts with me getting stopped and than given a challan for a tinted car, the funny part is that i was driving a Toyota Vitz which originally comes with tinted windows i.e. i didn't had that after market black paper

WHY WHY WHY and WHY aren't car tints allowed in our country? it makes no sense to me what so ever, we live in a country where sun screws with our skin majority of the time in a year, we get challan if we have our car's tinted and i see no logic behind it. Law enforcement agencies think that "terrorists" or "mobile snatchers" or "thieves" or "decoits" uses tinted vehicles to do their activities, i find this kind of ironic because most of such activities are done bikes and i have yet to see a "tinted bike"

The second intresting fact is that his law is only for people who don't have any "contacts" yes if you know someone in goverment or in law enforcement agencies than you are excused from following this law, If you are reading this blog and know some higher ups than kindly do let me know so i can get away with police stopping me :)

Goverment should allow medium tints and tinted cars should be subject to checkpoint stops and other police check points yes that would make life miserable for people with tints but i rather have that than not having my car tints in this hot humid climate

Traffic In Karachi, Who Is Responsible

Hmmm, my my, where should i start from, Just to give you all an idea of what i go through every day, my office is located on I.I.Chundrigar Road, now if anyone of you had the idea or experience of coming or going from this particular road in past few months know how horrible the traffic conditions are, I just love the people who sit and abuse and accuse Mr.Mustafa Kamal for it.

I salute Mr.Mustafa Kamal for his work, that guy is bloody brilliant apart from being workoholic, i swear i can't understand where he gets all the energy from? Mr.Mustafa Kamal if you EVER happen to read my blog (by some conincidence or miracle) than do email me and let me know your secret.

Anyways coming to the point, yes the roads are dug and are being repaired but they are for our own good in the long run so i can't and won't comment on that, problem in my own opinion is not the conditions of the road but the conditions of people especially there mental state

People apparatenly are always in hurry and they will use and abuse any small inch or cm of space on the road to move ahead, if it means going wrong way than hell they will do it, at times i feel like getting out of my car and slapping the bastards (which i can't do because i am weak and don't have any "back") because eventually what these people end up doing is blocking more traffic and creating congestion, and than these very same people call up the media (they are media whores to get cheap publicity and our media is also thirsty for "juicy news" so this gay relationship works well in our country) and complain about goverment and system, they conveniently forget to mention how much of an asshole they are and how much problem they give to the system on their own.

I feel sorry for the poor traffic police people who stand in all kind of weather conditions trying to fix a problem which they can't because the root of all evil is nothing else than our own mentality and our thirst to twist the law in our favor

Sunday, August 26, 2007

I won't dine at Salatin again

Okay i am not a picky SOB who creates fuss about anything and everything, infact if you ask my colleagues and friends they will tell you that i am a very down to earth perosn who respects anyone and everyone. Around a week or so back we went to Salatin (self claimed resturant, one of many modified DHABA's if you want my honest opinion) the food was average but the experience in the end left me speechless and i made a promise to myself that i won't go to that place ever again.

In the end the waiter brought us the bill and gave him 15 Rs tip, well to many that may sound too vague but the bastard refused to take it and insulted me, well that was a new one for me, as i believe that giving tip to any waiter is a personal matter and i don't think so i "owe" them any obligation for tip, anyways i offered him Rs 50 out of frustration and he refused to take that even, i blew my fuse and i told him to fuck off (excuse my language) he can shove his ego up his ass for all i care and coz of my own personal ego i ain't gonna recommend that place to anyone ever again nor i am going to dine there anymore

Khuda Kay Liye

Well yesterday night i took a plunge and decided to check what was all the hype about, yes i am talking about the controversial movie by Mr.Shoaib Mansoor by the name of KHUDA KAY LIYE also known as IN THE NAME OF GOD.

To set the record straight i couldn't find the dvd of the movie and theaters were all booked so i did what i do normally, yes i downloaded the movie and watched it .... yeah call me bastard pirate but that's what i did, to credit of Mr Mansoor i have to say that next week i am taking my family to theater to watch the movie AND i am going to purchase a copy of the DVD, i guess that's says a lot about movie (if you are coming from "watching movies for free via downloading" frame set of mind)

The movie was stunning from the start to the end, Shaan performed exceptionally well and i personally believe if the poor chap is given good directors,writers and producers he can get more fame than mr SK of Bollywood, yeah the guy have potential its just coz of our crappy movie makers we are not getting the fame we should be getting, Hat's off to Mr.Naseer-Uddin Shah, i guess his role was for around last 20 so minutes of the movie but he put a totally NEW life in the movie

I won't spoil the movie story for others (you must have heard it from zillions others but not from me, i can be a pirate bastard but i can't stand the title of spoiler bastard along with it :p ) just go and watch the darn movie with your family its worth watching and kudos to Mr Mansoor again (i know i am repeating myself) for creating such a master piece

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Call Of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare

I am a hardcore gamer and i am never ashamed of the fact, there are games on which you just become speechless and there are not many of them, but lately i came across two such titles which just made me speechless, on happens to be BioShock (which is taking a lot of my time now days much to disgust of my wife) and the other happens to be COD4:Modern Combat.

For those who have been following COD series will instantly notice that instead of based in WW2 era this fresh episode (as the name suggests) is in modern era and from what i have seen from E3 and other videos literally blew my socks off

I suggest you guys do check out http://www.charlieoscardelta.com which is official website for the game and check out videos and images among other things posted there.






All the above posted images are copyright of their respective companies, i do suggest you check out their website for more mouth watering images ... :)

Rain In Karachi

Its ironic that round the year we pray for rain but when it rains we wish it just stops, no its not because we don't enjoy the nice fresh air or cooled down atmosphere its the "Value Added Services" we get (without asking by the way) in our city.

I must say that KESC has improved a lot, now at times we have electricity through out a heavy down pour which is way better than how it used to be when i was growing up, the most annoying thing is complimentary swimming pools we get on every empty plot and roads.

Defence Housing Society (DHA) is for some odd reasons known as POSH area of the city, Damn some jackass should come and visit this so called POSH community as see and compare how much better is areas like Nazimabad and North Nazimabad are in comparison to us.

Whole Phase IV and Phase VI were literally unaccessible after like 8 hours of down pour, The main seaview road was BROKEN and the part of the road i am talking about is not even old it finished construction like a month or so back

Karachi during rain is just a sorry sight *sigh*

Monday, August 20, 2007

NED Tech Elite Event

Oh my, i don't know where to start from, i was supposed to manage the event on behalf of my company, Now at the last moment i was informed that i would not be getting the alloted man power for the event due to some "urgent matter" and i was left alone to cover the event.



It was hectic but it was challenging and fun, Preparing a last minute presentation to meet deadline reminded me of good old university days, I was supposed to give the presentation in place of our GM who was busy, the topic i choose was "User Names And Passwords" and much to my surprise the presentation went really well hehe!



Will be posting pictures of the event soon ! i must mention names of Ijlal and Ayeesha from NED University who were in coordination with me for the event and these students did a really good job so kudos to them for pulling off a event on such scale! :)



GEO Tv covered the event along with another TV channel (which i can't recall) and i got interviewed by them which was the first ever media exposure for me, still have that tinkering feeling hehe! Although the day was very hectic but one single act made it perhaps the most memorable day for quiet sometime, When my presentation ended a gentlemen approached me and complimented my presentation, i came to know that he was Chairmen of NED Computer Sciences department and i was flattered :-)

Check the TechElite team in the picture below (Courtesy of Ijlal from NED) these are the hard working boys and girls who made that event possible in the first place, the only gripe i have is that they lost our banners and now i have to go through hell for that :/