The Karthik82.com Archives

Why So Serious?

Wednesday · 23 Jul 08 · 03:24 AM IST | Posted by Karthik | Category: Movies

I watched The Dark Knight on IMAX on Sunday.  The movie was amazing, and a 10/10 in my opinion.  I will write detailed comments on it later.  But for now, here is an edited photo of myself, inspired by this movie —

Why So Serious? — "The Dark Knight"-inspired photo of Karthik

Let's put a smile on that face, eh?  More details coming soon.  Meanwhile, I've used this as my profile picture on orkut and also for Google Talk.

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Two Doom Reviews: Dead Perfect, PN Slime Base

Wednesday · 23 Jul 08 · 03:21 AM IST | Posted by Karthik | Category: Doom

It's been a very long time since I posted anything related to Doom here.  Last Saturday afternoon, I downloaded a couple of WADs and was playing them, so thought I'd write about them.  Here are the two mini-reviews —

Dead Perfect by Yonatan Donner

Dead Perfect by Yonatan Donner, for Doom II

Two small Hell Revealed-style maps from 1997, replacing MAP01 and MAP02 of Doom II.  The text file says that these maps were initially made for Pursuit, and were originally deathmatch maps, later converted into single-player.  Therefore, both maps feature interconnected rooms and some symmetrical designs.  They're both packed with monsters and weapons.  I played both levels on Skill 1 only, and had quite a good time.  The maps are both quite good-looking and use only stock Doom II textures.  The author used some interesting features like having monsters stay in their place until being activated at a later point of time.  Should be an interesting set to blast through sometime — better players can try the higher skill levels.  Yonatan has provided demo recordings for both levels in the set.  For some reason, I got the nagging feeling that I played both these maps before.  Anyway, good stuff.  7/10.

PN Slime Base by PirateNipple

PN Slime Base by PirateNipple, for Doom II

As far as I can tell, this is the author's first released map, and it's a well-made one!  It starts you off in a green-brick courtyard and then takes you through some varying environments, sticking to the "slime base" theme.  No new textures used here, only the standard Doom II ones — towards the end the author throws in some more demonic marble-type areas slightly reminiscent of Ultimate Doom Episode 4.  It's quite a straightforward map route-wise, and there are some nicely staged fights.  An underground dark area especially provides a good surge of adrenaline.  You'll have to be careful with your ammo here and use the chainsaw provided as much as possible.  I wasn't careful, so I ran out of ammo in the very last area and completed it by cheating.  Otherwise I thought it was quite nicely balanced, and not too tough even on Skill 4.  8/10.

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Booked your tickets yet?

Saturday · 19 Jul 08 · 12:50 PM IST | Posted by Karthik | Category: Movies

Have a look at this —

Tickets for "The Dark Knight"

Yes, I will be getting to see The Dark Knight tomorrow.  After more than a year of hype, the movie was finally released on the 18th of this month (even here), and all the reviews I've read of it so far speak very, very highly of it.  Can't wait to watch it, in glorious IMAX!

In other news, the first official trailer for Watchmen is out — and in the US, it would be attached with prints of The Dark Knight.  I don't know whether it'll be shown in the theatre here, but it's possible to see the trailer already.  This page at The Movie Blog has an embedded version of the trailer (low resolution), but if you really want to see all the detail in it, you should download the hi-def 720p version of the trailer.  Of course, that file is a huge one — 100 MB for a trailer that's just a little over two minutes long.  But you'll see detail here that you won't possibly be able to see in the low-res version — like Richard Nixon on the TV screens behind Ozymandias and the canister being used by Rorschach as a flamethrower with the Veidt logo.  The trailer, needless to say, is fantastic.

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The Author
Karthik

Karthik Abhiram

27-year old Taurean (birthday 15-May-82), Assistant Manager - HR at Tata Consultancy Services Ltd in Hyderabad, India.  Previously, did Post Graduate Diploma in Management from T A Pai Management Institute (2003-05) and before that, Computer Science Engineering from Sree Nidhi Institute of Science and Technology (1999-2003).

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