Posts tagged review
Death of Peter Parker :The dawn of Superior Spiderman
1This post contains spoilers, so if haven’t read The Amazing Spider-Man issue #700 yet, do not read. If you don’t care, sure enjoy reading my rant.
I’ve been a spiderman fan for so long and to the point where people started calling me Spider-Man. Comic books, collectibles, T-Shirts, I’ve done them all. I read every The Amazing-Spiderman issue out there. Till yesterday all 699 (and a few x.pointers too) of them. And today I picked issue #700.I thought I’ve seen everything Spiderman could do, basically what writers can make him do. But this time writer Dan Slott did something I never expected any writer to do. He killed Peter Parker.
I am still in a state of shock.
For those reading Spiderman (and those not reading spiderman but reading this article to find out what the whole deal with Peter Parker dead is), in recent issues #696 onwards, Doc Ock (Doctor Octopus, 2nd movie’s villain, guy with 4 metallic arms, remember?) on his deathbed, plays his last trick. He swaps his mind with Peter Parker a.k.a Spiderman and retains Spiderman’s memories. Now Peter Parker in a dying body of Otto Octavius (he also has his own memories as well as Doc Ock’s) must find Peter Parker’s body (which has Otto Octavius’ mind) and switch back. Catch? He’s dying and has few hours to live.
So Peter (in Doc Ock’s body), gets help from Hydro, The Tinkerer and Scorpion (since nobody else knows about body-swap).
The final showdown happens in Avenger’s Tower where Octavius (in Spiderman/ Peter’s body) has collected all Peter Parker’s family and friends. They fight each other, in a last ditch effort Peter (in Doc Ock’s body) throws himself and Doc Ock (In Spiderman / Peter’s body) out of the top floor window. Dock Ock (in Peter/Spiderman’s body) saves himself. Doc Ock/Peter still tries to mind-swap but couldn’t succeed. The real Doc Ock (Spiderman now) has iron-shield mask protecting his head. So instead, Peter projects his memories in Doc Ock’s brain. Letting him experience the pain he endured all his life, the happy moments, the reason of it all. That with great power, must come great responsibility. And finally Dock Ock understands. Peter Parker (in Doc Ock’s body) dies in the hands of Dock Ock (who’s now Peter Parker/Spiderman).
That wasn’t very confusing was it?
See the selected panels to get a feel :
So here we have it my friends. Peter Parker is dead. Doc Ock (in Peter Parker’/ Spidermans body) is the new (and hopefully good) Spiderman.
This right here is a dawn of a new Saga. 700 issues, hundreds of Spiderman stories told and we have a clean slate now.
What will happen? Even though Doc Ock has Peter parker’s memories, he doesn’t have our friendly neighborhood Spiderman’s moral compass. He may have Brain far superior than Peter Parker but will that be enough? This new Spiderman’s brain holds memories of two people now. Will that cause psychological issues. I’d sure like to see that.
In the end, this was a bold move by Marvel. I hope they have something kickass to deliver and this Superiour Spiderman proves to be Superior.
In other news (which now I realize is old now), 14-october-2012 was declared by New York’s mayor as NYC Spiderman Day. yay!
P.S. : RIP Peter Parker. You will be missed.
Temple Run on Kindle Fire : Game Review
3The popular game for iOS : Temple Run is now available on Android Platform. The game is one of the most popular iOS app. In the iTunes store, it has been in the top 50 most-downloaded apps in December 2011. Many Android owners like me were eagerly waiting for it’s release for their devices and some (including me) even tried crappy bad copies. Since I am from India and I can’t access Amazon App Store (I don’t know if this game is available there yet) and I can’t download from Google Play store either (unrooted Kindle), I had to side-load the game .APK file. The game is free and I am writing this mini review after playing it for 3 hours non-stop. Yes! It’s that addictive.
- Title: Temple Run
- Publisher : Imangi Studios
- Release Date: March 27, 2012
- Tested On : KINDLE FIRE (unrooted)
- Requires Android: 2.1 and up
- Category: Arcade / Action / Running
- Size: 26M
- Price: Free
- Google Play Store Link : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.imangi.templerun
- Wikipedia Entry : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Run
Screenshots :
My Kindle Fire running Temple Run.
Temple Run (Screenshots taken from AndroidPolice).
Gameplay :
Basically all you have to do in this game is to make your character run, jump, slide and turn to evade obstacles and collect coins to unlock achievements, power-ups, utilities, characters and wallpapers (Wallpapers are not available on Android Version yet!). The story is simple: You’ve stolen an ancient artifact from a temple. Crazy Demon monkeys are chasing you and you have to run as far as you can. There are no levels or no checkpoints.
On my Fire the game looks beautiful (for it’s size and price). This is a fun game to play on a Tablet or on any supported device for that matter! It takes a lot of juice though. Just playing it for 3 hours brought my Fire’s battery charge level to 57% from 92%.
I think I’m going to keep this game around for sometime. There is only so much one can play Angry Birds you know
Reviews from Community :
The game’s getting great reviews from Android users despite few glitches in the game.
Reviews on Google Play Store (at the time of this writing).
Reddit Thread : http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/rffyu/temple_run_is_out/
Issues :
Since the launch of the game yesterday various users are experiencing different issues with the game. Major one being that it’s not coming up in search results when you search it in Google Play Store. Frequent crashes and lag is another problem. Even in my Kindle Fire it crashes whenever I tap “Run Again” after loosing a run and it seems I’m not the only one who has this issue 
. On some devices including SGSII-i9100G and RAZR-MAXX it doesn’t even work!
Verdict:
Since the game is just in version 1.0 and is just launched yesterday I hope the glitches will be solved soon enough. This is a good game which can provide casual gamers hours of fun. My Own Rating : 4.6/5. So go, download and play! 
Facebook Timeline : It’s Different
7Yesterday I was cursing Facebook for blatantly copying Google+ features. It copied Smart Lists feature from Google+ circles and the feature of Commenting From Sidebar. Today Facebook unvailed Facebook Timeline a new killer interface for your own profile. It provides a look at everything that has ever happened in your Facebook lifespan. With this feature Facebook is really like a Book – A book of your life on Facebook.
My words can not express it. Here are few screenshots of Facebook Timeline:
Facebook Timeline : Status Posting
Facebook Timeline: Friends and Likes
and finally the Full Page View:
Facebook Timeline : Full Page
This feature is only available to facebook developers for now (You need to be in developer mode). But there is a trick we can use to get an invite for it in 9 simple steps :
1. We go to our facebook page and log in.
2. Now we enable developer mode (If you are already a Facebook app developer – skip this), for this, type “developer” into the Facebook search box, click the first result (developer app), and add the app.
3. Go to developer app (usually Facebook it opens by itself when you add it).
4. Create a new app. Give your new app any display name and a unique namespace you see fit. Read and Agree to Privacy statement.
5. Make sure that you’re in your new app’s main settings screen. You should see your app’s name near the top of the page
6. Look for the “Open Graph” in Left Sidebar, and click the “Get Started using open graph” link.
Create a test action for your app, like “read” a “book”, or “eat” a “sandwich”
7. This should take you to an action type configuration page. click through all three pages of settings (Next Next Next.)
8. Wait couple of seconds
9. Go back to your Facebook Home-Page. An invite to try Timeline should be waiting at the top of the page
____________________________________
You can follow above given procedure to get the timeline now or you can wait few weeks.
After getting the timeline, you will have the option to edit and publish it right then else your timeline will go public in a week.
Just after trying this feature for an hour or so, I’m simply in love with it. Facebook just did something innovative. Do try out and leave comments. Did you like it?
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows : 2 – End of a Saga?
0“After all, to the well-organized mind
, death is but the next great adventure.” – Albus Dumbledore
“After all, to the well-organized mind
, end is but the next great adventure.” – Ashwin Saxena
Can you ever forget the joy of reading a Harry Potter book? 
With recently released Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2, the epic saga that’s been running for 14 years comes to an end(:?:). Since the release of first Harry Potter book on 30 June 1997 to the release of last HP movie on 15th July 2011, everyone got hooked to the magical world of J.K. Rowling. Do you remember when you picked up your first Harry Potter novel? How magical it felt when you finally finished it? When you speculated the future of series? How you discussed with your friends about the illogical differences in books and movies?
I remember too! I am one of those people who read books first and watched movie later. I read the first book back in 2002 when I was 14. After that I read Harry Potter books multiple times. I used to troll around MuggleNet forums discussing theories, reading editorials and dissing people who believed Harry & Hermione will pair-up eventually. The fun days!
Yesterday I watched the final installment of Harry Potter movies – Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows : 2. The movie is great for those who’ve only watched HP-Movies till now. It summarizes the novel very well, but for novel fans like me, the movie felt rushed and had a number of logical inconsistencies. For example why Crabbe (the disgraced Jamie Waylett) was replaced as Malfoy’s henchman by Blaise Zabini in the climax’s Room Of Requirements sequence? The sequence in mystical King’s Cross feels too final, it seems ridiculous that Potter still has another big duel with Voldemort to come. What took an instant (Voldemort’s death) in book took 10 minutes in the movie. The battle of Hogwarts while had some awesome special effects, it didn’t feel as much epic. Where was Hagrid? Why add a throwaway line to create a romance between Neville and Luna?
Still I’m not disappointed with the movie. When it comes to book’s based movies, you can’t satisfy everybody. Some sequences in movie were clearly a work of art, Snape’s flashback, for example, is as emotionally devastating in the film as it is in the book, revealing him to be the greatest hero of the series in a sequence of ever-more-poignant vignettes. Snape did it all for love – which is the basic theme of the Harry Potter books. In fact if you ask me, the only love more stronger than his was of Lily Potter who died to protect her child.
Danial Radcliff, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson are fantastic actors and I hope they don’t meet the same fate as of Elijah Wood (Froodo of Lord of the Rings, where is he anyways?).
I was too happy to see the ‘After 19 years’ sequence in the movie. It gives the story a proper closing. But is it really the end?
J.K. Rowling made sure that people won’t be able forget Harry Potter so soon. With the The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ theme park at Universal Orlando now open for public and the new Harry Potter themed social networking site by J.K. Rowling herself- PotterMore coming this October, I don’t think potter-mania will go away anytime soon. J.K. Rowling has promised 15000 words of extra content, related to books to be available in PotterMore, that should keep most of the fans hooked.
In the end I would like to say that Harry Potter books were a great influence on me. Because of them, reading and writing became my passion and after them, I read many amazing novels, some even more satisfying than even Harry Potter books. If you have only watched Harry Potter movies till now- I suggest you go grab a book right now!