Imran Malek

• By Imran
•  on May, 11 2009
•  in Gaming

Another week, another game down in a weekend Poopsock session, and I will say that FEAR 2 was an enjoyable, albeit stale experience.

I’m not going to go into the details about the first game’s history or the story because the game does a pretty good job of catching you up with the story and moving forward at a brisk pace.

I will, however, throw a few words in about the gameplay. I’m really starting to suspect that I’m getting some serious console shooter fatigue because even though this game had everything I loved about shooters, including great, powerful weapons, glorious gore, and of course the requisite slow motion (which is, still, pretty cool).  I guess ultimately my problem with this game is that it reminds me so much of Monolith’s other game, Condemned 2.

I really enjoyed Condemned, and FEAR to me just seems so similar to Condemned (they use the same engine, after all) that I kept wishing for my character to drop the gun, put up his dukes, and go to town.

I will address one bit of the story, though - the ending. The game ends so abruptly and so nonsensically that I really think they just totally rushed the ending so they could just get the game out on time - that, or they really, really, really want to make a sequel.

The game’s totally worth a rental, but not much more beyond that I’m afraid.

• By Imran
•  on May, 2 2009
•  in General

I’ve been trying a lot of new things with Fitness lately. First, I decided to drop crossfit entirely - the program really rocked me into good shape, but for reasons that I’ll be getting into later, I’ve decided to drop it in favor of the Westside Barbell routine - particularly, Westside Barbell for Skinny Bastards. Why? Well, Crossfit has a lot going for it if you’re using that as your main source of physical exertion - but for me a lot of my conditioning work is being redirected in the form of Martial Arts training - 5 days a week.

I’ve started to train over at Redline Fight Sports here in Cambridge, MA, and so far I’ve been absolutely loving it.

Let me give you an idea of my schedule:

• Monday - Jujitsu
• Tuesday - Ketsugo
• Wednesday - MMA
• Thursday - Russian Sambo
• Friday - Rest/Conditioning
• Saturday - Jujitsu part 2

So far I’ve been getting the best sleep of my life, and the added weight training has been putting me in my place - but for the first time in awhile I’m feeling like I’m working at 100%. It’s always great to get to work and realize that the shape you thought were in is nothing compared to the shape that’s demanded of you.

Oh well, it’s time to put up or get out.

• By Imran
•  on Apr, 7 2009
•  in Gaming

The next game in the Resident Evil franchise recently dropped, and despite my initial aversion to the control scheme (”Tank controls can’t work in the post Gears of War world”), I have to say that the game has once again gotten its hooks in me and I am happy to admit that I believe that Resident Evil 5 ranks near the top of the series (The all time favorite for me is, was, and always will be Resident Evil: Code Veronica). 

I will say this right off the bat - if you enjoyed Resident Evil 4 you’ve made it half way, because Resident Evil 5 is pretty much Resident Evil 4 in HD. Well, with one extremely important addition.

CO-OP

The frequently used gaming adage of “Everything’s better with coop” is pretty much dead on, and when you put CO-OP on top of an already good game, you get a fantastic game. 

Throughout the whole game, you see little indications that the design really is for coop, from things as subtle as level design tweaks that put you in an elevated position watching over your partner sometimes to blatantly obvious actions and quick time events that require you and your partner to hit buttons in synchronicity. 

Yeah, the combat is still Resident Evil 4 style, but the addition of Coop moves to actually makes them pretty darn fun. Have your partner shoot the enemy in the knee and then use that opening to deliver a mighty uppercut to see what I’m talking about. 

The story is typical Resident Evil, with a tighter connection to previous games - so if you’re into that, great! If not, well, the narrative doesn’t exactly get in the way - you just need to realize that there are big monsters that need to get shot at.

Speaking of big monsters, the boss fights are pretty darn good as well - the extra edge offered through cooperative play make some of them really fun. The often used example of this is the phone with the enemy with a vulnerable spot on its back, so in order to attack it your partner needs to get the monster to focus their attention while you flank and pump some rounds into ‘em. 

The only major frustration I had with the game was the fact that even now the game really relies on Quick Time events. The frustrating coop quick time events make things even worse, as if your partner suddenly misses, you have to repeat the entire sequence from scratch - not exactly the best way to promote team bonding if you ask me. 

After you beat the game, you get the standard set of unlocks but the highlight for me was the Mercenaries mode, which throws enemies at you and your partner while you try to build a combo meter - I’d honestly be willing to drop 20 bucks just for that. 

Overall, if you’ve got a friend to play with, you really should Resident Evil 5 a fair shake - just don’t play it split screen, because the split screen for this game is absolutely abysmal. 

• By Imran
•  on Apr, 6 2009
•  in General

This post has been in the backlog for awhile now, I’ve finally decided just to put it up and get it over with.

While continuing the same train of thought from my previous post, I finally got a chance to check out Watchmen movie. Before I go into any specific details about it, I will say this - I absolutely loved it and wished it wouldn’t end.
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• By Imran
•  on Mar, 16 2009
•  in General

It happened - after a constant onslaught of media since I saw the first trailer during The Dark Knight, I finally gave in and started the journey into exploring the Watchmen universe. I just put the motion comic away and I have to say - I can see why people love this so much, but for some reason I just can’t bring myself to calling it the “be all, end all” of graphic novels.

Anyway, the hype train begins with a simple fascination with the character of Rorshach - for some reason, his attitude and “No Shades of Grey” demeanor really appealed to me as I played through the fun beat em up Watchmen: The End is Nigh. This fanboyism was further enhanced with the Watchmen motion comic.

Sure, Nite Owl was a cool dude and Dr. Manhattan was the epitome of a “Super” hero, but Rorshach was clearly the star of the show.

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• By Imran
•  on Jan, 27 2009
•  in Gaming, General

So, by now everyone on the planet knows about the Wii. It’s Nintendo’s heralded return to the console scene, and if the NPD numbers have anything to say about it, Nintendo didn’t just conquer the current video game market, it created a new market for itself.

One of the Wii’s biggest and most important contributions to the interactive entertainment space is the controller, the “Wiimote” a motion sensitive controller that really changed the way people perceived video games. The “ooh, aah” appeal of the Wii was even more apparent when Nintendo unleashed Wii Fit. Wii Fit, is basically a set of mini games strung together with some rudimentary stat tracking – it’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but the perfect storm of Wii hype, an overweight America, and the appeal of Yoga somehow brough the Wii Fit and its balance board into the mainstream.

On the subject of the balance board, it’s a pretty simple concept – a device that measures your weight on a location-specific basis on the pad. With that information, you can do a lot of number crunching behind the scenes to create some neat results. For relatively cheap (well, at least cheap compared to some of the weighing systems you see employed at universities), you can have your own personal scale with four pressure points – using information from those four points, you can pretty much pinpoint the pressure and weight that you’re putting on any point of the board (you’ve got your coordinate plane right there!)

However, the remarkable hardware comes bundled with some pretty lame software. This can be fixed though, as a few simple changes in the exercise database, competitive  tracking system, and social media functionality can turn this into a “Soccer Mom’s” toy to a serious fitness machine.

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• By Imran
•  on Dec, 28 2008
•  in General

Just in case the above reference makes no sense to anyone:

I’ve recently switched Webhosts - I was getting a bit tired of Omnis.com’s shared hosting and it was really starting to slow down for me (not to mention phpmyadmin was down for a bit),  and I really felt that I didn’t feel like I was justifying spending 8 bucks a month for my web host. Now, I’ve officially made the switch over to NearlyFreeSpeech.net - it’s speedy, it’s cheap, and best of all - you only pay for the bandwidth you use (I’m sounding a bit like Billy Mays here). I don’t forsee my website being that high-traffic anytime soon, so In order to trim around the edges with regards to my finances, I’m trying to cut back wherever I can - this way, I get out of my website what I put into it, so I’m pretty happy.

In other news, I recently purchased a 16kg kettlebell - I’m really excited by this, as I recently started getting a lot more serious about physical fitness and I thought - hey, a kettlebell would be great to just have at home. I’ve named him Randy.

We’ll see how useful it ends up becoming in the coming weeks!

• By Imran
•  on Dec, 21 2008
•  in General

So last weekend I got a chance to check out the movie “Bigger, Stronger, Faster*” about the proliferation of steroid use in America and the debate behind the use of muscle enhancement drugs. It was kind of a perfect storm for me because I’ve recently started going to the gym a lot more, and while I still never, ever plan on using any kind of  anabolic steroids, this movie really opens my eyes on the use of steroids. More…

• By Imran
•  on Dec, 8 2008
•  in Gaming

I’m a newcomer to the Gears franchise, noting that I haven’t ever played Gears of War 1 aside from the briefest bouts of coop multiplayer on the first level or the occasional romp on Gridlock, a symmetrical multiplayer map that seems to hold the same esteem as de_dust does to Counter-Strike players. Despite the fact that I “missed the boat” for the first game in the franchise, I’m proud to say that that I just finished the 2nd game on “Hardcore” and I must say, I really enjoyed it!

I started playing Gears 2 in multiplayer as part of my job functions at gamerDNA, where I enjoyed some fun during a gamerDNA community night. Oh how I wish I got into the game sooner, as it really is one of the more engaging experiences I’ve had in a shooter. Everyone’s already aware of the whole “stop and pop” combat mechanic, as well as the “active reload” system, which frankly I think should be in more games, because there is something incredibly satisfying about nailing that reload and having your gun roll out a torrent of bullet justice.

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• By Imran
•  on Dec, 3 2008
•  in General

Or, as I describe it, “Working until you gas out”.

I’ve been trying to work a lot harder lately, in a lot of things - from actual “job” work, to working harder in the gym, to working harder on the pavement when I’m going out for a jog. Basically, I’ve dubbed the entire procedure as “Operation Redline” in my head.

Unfortunately, the name also implies an important distinction - I can’t keep up the pace for long. Maybe I can structure it out by refueling on the weekends, but if I want to keep up my physical shape, I’m going to have to start using weekends for more extended conditioning - so I guess that really just leaves Sundays as an all-around rest day.

Let’s see how this plays out.