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A few bright spots prove that this clumsy, unsatisfying film tie-in could have been much better.

The Bad

• Constant story interruptions mess with the flow
• Oversensitive collision detection makes for clunky movement
• Unattractive visuals.

Have you ever conversed with someone who just went on and on about some dumb thing or another that you couldn't care less about? You know, the droning, talkative bore who makes you want to say, "Will you just shut up already?" G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra's story is the game equivalent of that same party pooper, interrupting the action so often with poorly written dialogue snippets that you can't get into a rhythm. The battles in this top-down shooter aren't anything special, but the gunplay has a simplicity that will initially appeal to fans of games like Commando and Ikari Warriors. It's too bad that Rise of Cobra so often puts the brakes on its own forward momentum by pointlessly pausing the action over and over again with story exposition outlined by hideous digitized portraits of the G.I. Joe film's stars.

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Before each mission in The Rise of Cobra, you choose one of six Joes and then proceed to clear jungles, deserts, and snowdrifts of the Cobra terrorists that stand between you and finishing the game. The Joes' attacks vary, but as a rule, you'll go in with a standard ranged weapon, a supply of grenades or other explosives, and a limited-use special attack, such as Heavy Duty's burst fire. Then, you proceed to run around blowing stuff up using only the D pad and face buttons. It doesn't feel as slick as it should: You can't move and fire simultaneously, and the limited eight-way shooting afforded by the D pad may make you long for the smoothness of a touch-based scheme (the system's touch capabilities go unexplored). Yet when the action is given room to breathe, The Rise of Cobra is fun in the way that many top-down shooters are fun. You mow down legions of baddies, fight against a few interesting bosses, and even wreak havoc in the occasional tank. It isn't bullet hell, but the missions do have some amusing and challenging moments that are enjoyable to tackle.

The missions also have some maddening moments. Every enemy and object has a layer of invisible padding surrounding it, and you'll sometimes face sizable numbers of enemies in cluttered spaces. This weird collision detection makes it easy to get hung up on buildings, girders, walls, and other enemies, and your attempts to tumble away from your foes are often hindered by unseen cushions of air. These cushions seem to exist to provide room for taking cover using The Rise of Cobra's useless automated cover system, which allows you to hide behind certain objects and take less damage. The cover mechanic feels clunky and imprecise, however, so rather than enhance the gameplay, it just gets in the way. It's better to give objects a wide berth and stick to running and gunning, which becomes monotonous but is mechanically sound.

Then there are the endless story snippets. You'll be gunning along happily for 30 seconds, only to have the action halt and a bunch of silly expository dialogue appear on the touch screen, along with unsightly representations of the actors in the G.I. Joe movie. The plain, charmless visuals and clumsy animations don't take advantage of the hardware's capabilities as it is, but these relentless breaks are doubly difficult to look at. It makes the single-player campaign choppy and inelegant; after a while it's hard not to let out a groan every time there's a pause. There are times when the story doesn't cause the action to stop, but the dialogue frustratingly covers up the minimap on the lower screen and sometimes appears in the middle of battle, which means you'll be too occupied to read the dialogue anyway. The story isn't great on its own, and the poor manner in which it's told is disruptive.

Die, pixilated fiends!

If you stick to The Rise of Cobra's limited but likable local multiplayer options, you'll be able to leave the stumbling narrative behind and concentrate on the action. It's unfortunate that every player needs his or her own copy of the game, but if you have three friends with cartridges, you'll find a simple but amusing team-focused experience in here. The mechanical issues with cover and collision detection are still present, but the multiplayer levels are less cluttered, and thus those flaws are less of an issue. There are three modes in all, but you should ignore the lackluster Team Battle mode and jump into either the Warhead or Defend the Base modes. Warhead is a capture-the-flag variant that requires the player returning the warhead to the opposing base to remain in place for a number of seconds until the base explodes. This extra vulnerability is a nice twist that keeps the attention focused directly on the warhead carrier. Defend the Base is also enjoyable and requires one of the two-man teams to destroy a series of objects while the defending team protects them. The mode is entertaining, though it's hard to tell how close you are to demolishing these objects due to inadequate visual feedback. We also experienced moments of slight but noticeable lag in every match we played.

If you don't have any friends with copies of the game, you'll have to stick to G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra's inconsistent, poorly paced campaign. The core action is based on a proven formula, so it works when the rest of the design gives it the chance. Unfortunately, the additions to this formula--copious written dialogue and an unnecessary cover system--drag the game down. That's too bad, because this film tie-in's potential was greater than the seemingly rushed product that landed on retail shelves.

Version reviewed: Overlord II

Good:
+Great story
+Amusing characters
+Great graphics

Bad:
-Buggy camera
-Stupid Autosave

System requirements:

OS: Windows XP/Vista
CPU: 2.3GHz Intel, AMD or equivalent
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics Card: 128 MB
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible soundcard
DVD-ROM Drive
DirectX 9.0c or 10

Evil. It is the center point for a lot of video games these days, as many tell the story of a brave and good character going up against the forces of evil and eventually vanquishing them in a tour de force. After that, all is well in the land, peace reigns and everyone can start hugging puppies and kittens until they feel sick.

But luckily for those who prefer to play on the dark side of things, the team at Triumph Studios has created the Overlord franchise, with the first title showing us just how good it is to be evil with your fellow companions and how much better it is to send your loyal minions into the fight while you think of your lovely mistress back at the Dark Tower.

Now the series is back with Overlord II, which promises to bring even more mayhem and feature a new Overlord with an even bigger hunger for power. The minions are also back, alongside a lot of new features like being able to ride mounts. With a new story, written by Rhianna Pratchett, and improved mechanics, promised by Triumph, Overlord II seems like a perfect title. But is it that good or has an evil presence meddled with it? Read on to find out.

Story

In terms of story, this is where the whole Overlord franchise can teach many other games some valuable lessons. Its writer, Rhianna Pratchett, has emphasized the key role of a good story in video games, and how writers should interact with the development team in order for everything to work as a smooth oiled machine.

The first game was filled with amusing characters, interesting twists and some unforgettable moments. The second brings much more than that, as you are now in the armor of a new Overlord, who must go against the Empire, a Roman-like civilization that hates everything related to magic and, subsequently, you and your minions.

In order to sabotage its grip on the land, the Overlord must go on several quests and wreak havoc in a few interesting locations – all the locations in the game are well thought out and have some unique characteristics. The colorful characters and the amusing one-liners from the inhabitants are also quite entertaining.

As in the first game, in a few cities you will meet some lovely female companions whom you can bring to your Netherworld fortress in order to make them your mistresses. Each of the three eligible young ladies offers unique talents and can help customize your Dark Tower. They are also instrumental in helping you defeat the Empire and, as an added bonus, the bedroom scenes are quite amusing.

You start off small ...	... but very evil

Gameplay

Overlord II delivers some very mixed gameplay. On the one hand you are treated with some upgraded things as opposed to the first title, like improved minion speed, wider areas of exploration or more destructible things, while on the other hand the buggy camera, stupid AI or very annoying Autosave mechanic are still present.

First of all, the game plays out pretty much like the first one. You are the almighty Overlord, meaning that you can make your minions do all the work for you. They come in four different “flavors”: the Browns are expert fighters; the Reds can absorb fire and are great at long range; the Greens are guerrilla fighters and have a powerful backstab attack; and the Blues can swim around and revive their fallen brethren. The animations and the attention to detail in terms of the minions is great, and you will definitely laugh when you see the little critters wearing peacock feathers, soldier hats or baby seal fur on their heads or bodies.

The Overlord itself can also be customized, as the Dark Tower has a handy Forge, where, at the expense of jewels, gold and other minions, new weapons and armor can be made. The RPG side of the action game doesn't end here, as you can buy upgrades for your minions, increase their skill level and even revive the best soldiers you lost in battle, meaning that you must not worry about sending your most well-equipped minions into battle.

Sadly, battles aren't extremely diverse, as there are only a handful of enemies, and their AI isn't the brightest. Sometimes though, they are present in many numbers and, coupled with some levels being constructed like mazes, might pose a significant threat to your Dark Majesty. But with some patience and clever micro management, it isn't something that hard.

The buggy camera and control system have stayed the same sadly, as you'll often find your camera fixed to minions that run around the area, even though you gave the command to regroup. One of the most irritating parts of the whole control scheme is the sweep maneuvers, when you must hold both mouse buttons and direct a group of minions around the room, on some steep ledges or in a hard-to-reach section. Sounds simple, but almost everything is left to chance; you can't adjust how many minions you want to go, where exactly you want them, what to do when they get there or how they can come back. If the mechanic hadn't been used a lot, it might have been alright, but there are scenes in game where this is everything that you do, making it extremely annoying.

Don't think that you can quit whenever you want though, as the game specifically relies on an Autosave function, which generates a check point every time you find a Netherworld gate, which are few and far in between. Also, once you load up a save, you're transported at your Netherworld Tower, meaning that you must teleport back to where you were and eventually start things all over again.

The boss fights are extremely scripted, to the point where you might encounter glitches that will halt all your progress. Oftentimes the objectives are quite ambiguous, meaning that you will need to start exploring all of the nooks and crannies in the game world or even go online and seek walkthroughs in order to find out just what you need to do in order to advance in the game.

On a lighter note, the mounts for the minions are quite interesting, as Browns can ride wolves, Reds can tackle salamanders and Greens can use spiders. All of them accomplish a specific goal, but you can only use them on certain levels, making them a novelty rather than a useful tool in battle.

Another break from the usual gameplay is the sections where you can man siege weapons, like catapults or ballistas, and where you can command boats. But although they seem novel, they aren't very efficient sometimes, giving you the feeling that you should have taken your minions and do the job properly.

Also, there are some sections where you take control of one minion and make him lead the others through some hard-to-reach places for your dark majesty. These are quite interesting, but will require a lot of strategy, especially when you need to recover the green hive.

Use your minions to power boats ...	... or disguise them to get past guards

Concept

In terms of concept, the whole Overlord series deserves to be applauded for bringing evil to the center of the game's story and making it the main character. The “good” guys in the games that appeared so far have been corrupted by their power and fell prey to their weaknesses. As a character in this new title will say at the end, there is no light without darkness, and the Overlord is a necessary presence in order to balance things out.

This second game brings back a lot of the elements from the first one, but also improves in terms of story and the wider variety of choices available. There aren't many in terms of exercising your dark power, but you do have a few more large quests to accomplish, even though they aren't mandatory to progress the main story.

Graphics and Audio

The first game was applauded for its story and concept, but in terms of graphics it wasn't much to look at. Overlord II, though, is quite a looker, giving almost everything in the game a fresh coat of paint. All of the environments are much more detailed, and let's not forget about the main character or the minions, who are extremely well built.

The other characters look pretty enough, but sometimes they border on ridicule in terms of design and the overall look of the empire. The textures are extremely nice, but enemies do have a tendency to pop in from time to time, even though they are on the side of the room you are standing in.

In terms of audio, you can't say anything to Overlord II. From the extremely funny one-liners said by your minions, to Gnarl's musings and the complaints of the inhabitants of the different cities, you will be amused. The orchestral score is impressive and is a vital part to the fighting sequences in the title.

Command new lands ...	... and become the best Overlord

Multiplayer

The game, despite featuring a top-notch single-player campaign filled with interesting things, also has a multiplayer mode, pertaining to both competitive and cooperative play. In terms of competitive, you can choose, alongside your rivals, to play the Dominate mode, where you must capture sections of the map and hold them against your rivals, or the Pillage mode, where you need to capture portions of a large treasure.

For those who want to collaborate, you will have to choose between Survival, which is basically a Gear of War 2 Horde mode, meaning that you will have to defend yourself against waves of enemies, or Invasion, where you will attack powerful foes alongside your friends.

Overall, although quite fun, the multiplayer modes seem a bit tacked on, as Overlord II is mostly about its intricate story.

Conclusion

All in all, Overlord II sways between two extremes. It is a very funny experience and it's guaranteed to make you laugh once you see your minions dressed up as children or as imperial guards and humming marching tunes, but thanks to the complicated camera and auto save system, it will make you angry most of the times.

If you're looking forward to wreaking havoc against your fellow men with the help of some extremely funny little critters, then Overlord II is definitely something you will love.

This naval-centric strategy game merely treads water.

The Bad

• Tactical combat won't float your boat
• Multiplayer campaign lost at sea
• Combat auto-resolve favors the AI.

East India Company is a mercantilist real-time strategy game set at the dawn of the global trade age. As governor of one of the great European East India companies, you must compete against others for dominance of the lucrative markets of Africa, the Middle East, and especially India. As the commander of a private navy that includes both merchant and military vessels, you'll stop at nothing to secure a profit, which includes seizing port cities from the natives, sinking the fleets of rival companies, and forming alliances to wage all-out war. Success in East India Company derives primarily from sound financial planning, measured growth, and innumerable boatloads of exotic luxuries. In addition, you'll find it necessary to personally direct every naval battle using the "tactical" mode for resolving ship-to-ship combat, which is sadly the weakest and most tedious element of EIC's gameplay. And unfortunately, multiplayer action is limited to these lackluster battles. While not without flaws, the trading gameplay is solid and should entertain many fans of the genre; however, those lacking in patience may find the laborious early tactical battles less fun than a watery grave.

EIC includes a time of day and weather cycle; this storm ended long before the battle did.

East India Company comes with four single-player campaigns, which cover the years from 1600 to 1750. During every campaign, you'll play the East India Company of one of eight Western European nations, all of which historically chartered such companies. This excludes the Holy Roman Empire, which was presumably included to represent the short-lived Austrian Ostend company. However, there is no real difference among the factions aside from the geographical locations of their home ports. Those locations may give England and Portugal a slight advantage over the others because they are in good positions to box in their rivals. Every campaign uses the same strategic map that covers Europe, Africa, and Asia, through India. The exclusion of China is somewhat disappointing because it could have been fun to play through the Opium War time frame. However, controversial trade goods, such as opium and slaves, are left out of the game altogether.

The bulk of your single-player experience will be spent at the strategic and port views. Here, you'll build ships and organize them into fleets, buy and sell trade goods for profit, conquer ports with marines, and negotiate with foreign companies. Such missions as sinking a pirate fleet, delivering a special commodity order, or upgrading a port facility provide some variety, but nevertheless, buying and selling goods gets repetitive. Despite the availability of detailed reports about the price of tea throughout your empire, the trading game seems incomplete because you can sell your exotic goods in only one European city--your home port. When you get inevitably tired of manually managing trade, you can set up automatic trade routes, but unfortunately, these take away any satisfaction you might have derived from maximizing profits by buying, hording, and selling at the right times. As it turns out, the real key to a successful company is not micromanaging trade deals, but rather balancing how much you spend on ships, munitions, and upgrades while leaving enough free capital to buy massive quantities of spices, silk, and the like. Be careful: A few careless expenditures could wind up ruining your company. Another necessary consideration is diplomacy. If you offend enough of the other companies, your fortune will end up at the bottom of the ocean.

Despite his lack of an awesome mustache, Captain Brill was proving to be a promising commander.

East India Company's interface functions capably on the strategic level, providing easy access to the location and cargo of your ships, the main trade goods supplied by various ports, detailed price histories for everything you have sold, and more. The strategic map is not very detailed--it mostly comprises empty expanses of land and ocean--but it is clear and easy to use. The port view interface, which you use to buy and sell goods, build and organize ships, and upgrade buildings works effectively as well, but only after you switch to 2D ports in the game options. 3D ports look great and function without a hitch, but the load times are absolutely intolerable. The music in port view is a nice touch because it rotates Indian, African, Arab, and European themes depending on the port's location.

Jumping around is a lot more fun than engaging in combat in this licensed movie adaptation.

The Bad

• Combat is predictable and unsatisfying
• Hacking minigame crops up far too often
• Some enemies are cheap.

With proper training, guinea pigs can be impressive secret agents. They can learn to speak to humans, wear jetpacks for improved mobility, and even wield powerful whips in their tiny paws. Just don't expect them to carry guns. The PSP version of G-Force uses many of the same environments and enemies as its console siblings, but it strips the adventurous rodents of their precious firearms. The lack of powerful, long-range weapons limits the appeal of combat, creating repetitive and often frustrating battles against aggressive kitchen appliances. You can only whip an angry toaster so many times before the thrill fades away. However, when you take a breather from the fighting, the game picks up, relying on deft platforming segments and rewarding exploration to make sure these pint-sized heroes carry their weight. Although the game drags at times, G-Force is still a fun adaptation of the blockbuster movie.

Who needs opposable thumbs when you have a whip?

Flash Player 9 is required to watch this video.

For the majority of this 10-hour-plus game, you play as Darwin, the field leader of G-Force. A nefarious being has tampered with the delicate circuitry of everyday kitchen appliances, causing them to attack their owners with merciless force. There is a surprising amount of story interspersed with the action; unfortunately, it's not particularly interesting or humorous. Every few minutes you'll have a brief back-and-forth with your support team, and though these exchanges point you in the right direction, they aren't entertaining and crop up far too often. These interludes don't muddle the action too much, given that you can usually jump around while your objectives are being laid out, but be prepared to put up with a number of groan-worthy puns and cheesy one-liners during the course of your quest.

When you aren't stuck in overly long cutscenes detailing the fate of these adaptable rodents, you run around large 3D environments, using your jetpack to reach otherwise inaccessible objects and cracking your trusty whip to take down all attackers. Combat was the highlight of the console versions, taking advantage of a diverse array of enemies and some lethal guns to keep the fighting fast and fresh. But with your guns unceremoniously stripped away in this portable edition, the wild and wooly combat loses its exhilarating appeal. You need only mash the square button to take down most attackers, and though Darwin flips and spins with style, the lack of different tactics or weapons to play around with quickly drags these parts down. As you get deeper into the game, the appliances develop more advanced combat techniques, but this only replaces the monotony with frustration. Flying blenders are equipped with fast-moving missiles, and when you get surrounded by these adversaries, the game borders on cheap. Darwin has no long-range weapons and limited combat mobility, so trying to fight your way out of a room with projectile-slinging enemies is aggravating.

At least the platforming is a lot more interesting. Much of the game has you hopping across precariously placed cardboard boxes or gliding up to cramped air ducts, and the smooth controls make it fun to just run around the environments. There are plenty of hidden passageways with collectible discs, and though your only reward for finding these items is unlockable concept art, it's still satisfying to try to uncover all the secret nooks. Because you have a jetpack on your back at all times, your jumps have impressive lift, and you can even use this boost on the ground for a speedy dash. The obstacles are also situated to take full advantage of your jumping prowess.

It's a good thing running and jumping is fun because you'll spend a fair bit of time wandering around for your next objective. You can call up your radar at any time to point you in the right direction, but this feature varies between painfully obvious and maddeningly vague. For instance, sometimes you'll be told to "run up the stairs," which couldn't be easier. However, other times, you'll be told to "enter the second air lock" only to find out later, after much fruitless experimentation, that you actually need to destroy nine harmless robotic arms before you can move forward. There are also a number of computers that must be hacked before you can proceed, and although this minigame is fun at first, it quickly overstays its welcome. It plays like a rhythm game, with notes dropping from the top of the screen, and you must tap the appropriate button when it reaches the bottom. At certain points of the game, a few of these are crammed in quick succession, and it's boring to do the same thing over and over again to progress.

Microwaves are deadly to pacemakers and computer mice.

The hacking minigames give you access to the most novel aspect of the game--the ability to control those rampaging appliances yourself. During certain sections, you must command a razor-shooting paper shredder, an ice-melting microwave, and other useful tools, which provide the moments of variety G-Force desperately needs. Although there is little challenge in these sections, it's a lot of fun flying around as the devilish blenders that have tormented you so often and using their missiles to take down a horde of intelligent machines. Savor these moments because there aren't any other cool sections to break up the jump-and-whip action. Without any boss battles to speak of or any other elements to mix up the pace, you'll spend the vast majority of the game going through nondescript government facilities without anything noteworthy happening. G-Force is able to stay interesting because the platforming mechanics are so well done, but a little more variety would have gone a long way.

G-Force is an inconsistent adaptation of the blockbuster movie. Younger players should get a kick out of scurrying around the environment, using the jetpack to sprint across the ground, reach high-up places, and hunt down hidden discs. But the combat isn't nearly as thrilling and relies on just a short-range whip for the entire game. The lack of variety is also distressing, although the sections where you can control an evil appliance are fast and rewarding. G-Force may not be able to stand up to the consistently fun console versions, but this is still an engaging adventure that should keep players occupied for more than 10 hours of rodent action.

This shallow, simplistic beat-'em-up is stuck in the past.
The Good

* Taps TMNT nostalgia
* Four-player co-op, online and local.

The Bad

* Shallow, repetitive combat
* Over in about an hour
* Uneven, annoying bosses
* Awkward hoverboard levels.

When Turtles in Time debuted almost two decades ago, playing as four of the hottest cartoon characters around and beating the crap out of hapless foot soldiers was novel and entertaining. Turtles in Time Re-Shelled gives the classic arcade game a 3D overhaul, sprucing up the visuals and giving the turtles more freedom of movement. Yet despite these tweaks, the gameplay remains largely unchanged. Repetitive enemies, finicky bosses, limited lives, and simplistic combat are the main components, and victory is achieved only through patience and vigorous button pressing. There is a challenge to be found here, but there isn't much in the way of good plain fun. Those who delight in overcoming adversity will find some satisfaction, but most others will find boredom and frustration.

luck movie review

the not much antisipated movie of bollywood "luck hindi movie" will release today july10th, you can get the " luck movie review " from various bollywood portals here. keep checking this page for luck film review. as we there are lots of movies releasing as due to the strike by bollywood producers had stocked up many movies for release so read the luck movie review before making your decision , check out this page to c if luck movie hit or flop

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luck movie story


luck is a wild roller coaster romp through the underbelly of a teeming metropolis, featuring an assortment of zany characters - a carthief, a conwoman, gangster, godman, film producer, builder, actor, his duplicate, mechanic, prostitute, chauffeur, hitman, cabbie etc;

Desperate men and women shadowboxing with the vagaries of chance and fate, whose madcap antics result in their lives getting inextricably entwined with each other, leading to madness and mayhem.

luck movie review- worth a visit!!!

really good movie you will love it surely luck is hit , below are the reviews of luck by popular bollywood portals check them out

luck movie review by times of india

toi rating of luck -

Fasten your seat belts for a zany black comedy that begins with Guru (Kay Kay) stealing a car, stuffed with money and ends after a colourful touristy ride through Mumbai's downside, as our beleaguered hero tries to pay back the lost loot. But not before he connects with the bad Bong girl, Mona (Rimmi Sen), who has her own get-rich-quick mission planned and needs a partner to swindle the pop-corn munching property dealer (Yashpal Sharma). Interestingly, the connection doesn't end here. Like an intricate web, it keeps adding other interesting links, without losing out on continuity and logic. So, Guru and Mona must first encounter the other wannabe millionaires -- the film producer, the actor's double, the don's sidekick, the disgruntled chauffeur, the absent-minded mechanic -- before they can return don Faujdar's (Anupam Kher) stolen money.

The film may have a raw look and lack technical finesse, but don't be fooled. For luck is a roller-coaster ride through downtown Mumbai (or any other metro) with its chota-mota crime and its chatpata characters. Truly, a delectable bhelpuri, marked by some fine acting by the ensemble cast. Standing tall amongst them is the mercurial Kay Kay and the quicksilver Rimmi Sen, who pitches in one of her best performances as the bindaas Bengali badmash, complete with the tacky clothes and the patchy make-up. Savour it.luck movie review by india times -

luck movie review by indiatimes

indiatimes rating of luck Rating:

Falling in the same genre of crime-comedy capers like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or the more recent Hindi film 99 , luck is a dark comedy with all grey characters in the city of Mumbai. Not really a roller-coaster ride, this one is more of a merry-go-round drive with several characters circularly connected to each other through multiple money rotations. Thankfully it’s not slapstick but follows a crazy-yet-credible storyline.


Guru (Kay Kay Menon) is a small-time car-thief who gets a facelift to his stolen automobiles through Ganpat (Dilip Prabhavalkar) before selling them off. On stealing a swanky Mercedes, Guru chances upon a crore of rupees in the vehicle but little does he know that the car belongs to Faujdar (Anupam Kher). Before he could return the riches to Faujdar, Ganpat loses his memory. Only he knows where the currency is concealed.

There are too many characters, too many plots, too many sub-plots, too many twists which fortunately sums up for too much fun. Multiple characters are introduced in the initial reels and are concurrently correlated with other characters. The writing by Pankaj Advani is wacky, witty, weird and wild. The pacing is too fast to breathe, gasp, feel, absorb, react or relate. Despite that the humour never gets farcical and the screenplay doesn’t muddle up into confusion and commotion

luck movie review by sify

sify rating of luck

luck may not boast of stars to lure the audiences, it may not have a colossal canvas (on the contrary, the making is very basic, it may not have a terrific musical score to act as a hook (there are hardly any songs here), but luck succeeds, and succeeds largely, in its endeavour: Make the viewer laugh at the right places.

Comedies, today, can be segregated into two categories - brain-dead entertainers and intelligent comedies. Films like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Bheja Fry and luck fall in the latter category.

Let's be honest. Not all of us can think whacky or come up with a crazy madcap comedy like luck. It requires a wild and imaginative mind to come up with one and most importantly, execute it with panache. Debutante director Pankaj Advani gets its right on both the counts. Sure, there are glitches in the narrative, but Advani compels you to sit and listen to the story he intends narrating.

Final word? Don't give luck a miss just because the film doesn't star the Khans or Kumars. This 'City' is worth a visit!

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pattanathil bhootham movie review , pattanathil bhootham review,pattanathil bhootham film review hit or flop ,pattanathil bhootham movie review hit or flop


the very antisipated movie of tollywood "pattanathil bhootham movie" will release tmro june 19th, you can get the " pattanathil bhootham movie review " from various bollywood portals here. keep checking this page for pattanathil bhootham film review. as we there are lots of movies releasing as due to the stike by tollywood producers had stocked up many movies for release so read the lets dance review before making your decition , check out this page to c if pattanathil bhootham movie hit or flop

pattanathil bhootham movie story

Film’s story moves around like that of adventure tales in Balarama. Unlike the magazine which attracts children and elders, this film seems to maintain only the attention of kids.

An evil magician gets the power over a Bhootham. He plans to use it for his filthy activities. The sorcerer loses Bhootham in an accident and it gets into the hands of children in the circus tent. It was the time when a foul play has taken place over the ownership of this circus. Kavya arrives as the daughter of circus owner played by Janardhanan who gets killed. What follow is conflict between good and the evil.

pattanathil bhootham movie review

E Pattanathil Bhootham is Kavya Madhavan’s maiden film released after her marriage. Kavya has only a limited role in the film, though she plays an important character.

Animation done in film is visible to the eyes of every other viewer who are watching visual amusements round the clock. Story line, characters, situations are all predictable and it is ok for a fantasy film like this. But it should have bound the viewers with its visual extravaganza.The film makes us remember Sakshal Sreeman Chathunni by Anil Babu.

Comedy by Suraj and Salim Kumar works well. Music by Shaan suits to film but is unimpressive.

Johny Antony’s E Pattanathil Bhootham was expected to release earlier during the school vacation but was postponed due to its pending post production works. The late release may hamper the film in many counts. The film has got every element to entertain the audience but somewhere it got lost in transition.

Johny Antony and his team have taken great effort in building up this two hour forty minute output. Young citizens can get ready to be amused.

pattanathil bhootham movie review by sify

sify rating of pattanathil bhootham

Welcome to a fantasyland folks, where director Johny Antony's Ee Pattanathil Bhootham happens. It's a world where a friendly ghost manages to escape from a fiery wizard and eventually saves a few from certain danger. Remember, that this film is aimed at the children and once bear that in mind, things will start making sense.
The film opens with a ‘Manthravadi’ (Pithamagan Mahadevan) an evil magician spiriting away a friendly ghost (Mammootty with horns) to obey to his commands and make money through crime. Meanwhile a group of kids and their benefactors are held hostage in a circus camp by the baddies, who has taken over the show.
Ancy (Kavya) is coming back from Delhi, to take charge of the circus company founded by her father Philipose (Janaradhanan), who was found murdered. On reaching there, she is told that her father was stabbed to death by a bike-jumper named Jimmy (Mammootty).
In fact Jimmy, his foster father Krishnettan (Innocent), aide Sisupalan (Suraj Venjarammood) and a gang of street children were all invited by Philipose to join his circus group.more..



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This World War II stealth sequel is extremely hard, but if you're the patient type, it's also rewarding.

The Good

The Bad

• Dark scenery requires some pixel hunting
• A few issues with the inventory system.
  

It may be a change of scenery, but the final Fallout 3 downloadable content pack ends the saga on a low note.

The Bad

• Focuses on Fallout 3's awkward shooting
• Boring mission objectives
• Poor storytelling.

A mysterious signal leads you to the remains of a crashed spaceship half buried in the rubble. You approach cautiously, but before you can inspect further, you rise into the air, awash with blue light. Soon, you're peering into the faces of several probing aliens. Thus begins Mothership Zeta. This is the final downloadable content pack for Fallout 3, and a rather disappointing one at that. Shooting is not the game's strong suit, yet this DLC consists primarily of taking aim at bloated alien noggins and turning them into goo. Granted, the signature slow-motion Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System kills never get old, and a few cool moments brighten this trek through the workings of a spacecraft. But Mothership Zeta serves only to underline Fallout 3's flaws--mediocre dialogue, poor AI, clumsy animations--while capitalizing on few of its brilliant strengths. These issues make this four-hour adventure a tough sell at 800 Microsoft points ($10).

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Nevertheless, there are some elements that Fallout faithful will appreciate, such as a few new weapons, like the alien disintegrator. Once you've come across your first one, you'll probably stick with it for the duration of the experience. This energy rifle is effective against every enemy on the spaceship, though you'll also get some mileage out of the drone cannon, which shoots plasma orbs that erupt in a flurry of energy when they land (and be sure to look for an improved cannon prototype hidden away). And as expected, slow-mo kills using the VATS combat system are always impressive to watch, though the confined hallways make it more difficult for the dramatic camera to find good views of alien limbs soaring through the air.

The stainless steel look of the ship's corridors and laboratories is a nice change of pace for a short while, but the endless gray hallways and cliched sterility of it all wears thin. Sadly, the action is unable to spice up the exploration. Fallout 3's second-rate AI seems all the more dunderheaded in narrow passages; somehow, these aliens have mastered interstellar travel, yet they cannot competently defend their spaceship. When you aren't shooting space invaders, you'll be heading to your next mission objective, which invariably involves pressing a few buttons and waiting a short while for something to explode. There are a few enjoyable sparks of energy, such as in a hangar sequence where you manipulate charged rods to fry a horde of oncoming nasties. Yet other objectives brimming with potential never bear any fruit. You'll be excited to don a space suit and float into space, only to find that your goal is just to press a couple of switches and teleport back inside. Like most of Mothership Zeta, this scenario is neither inspired nor atmospheric.

You aren't a lone captive on this bleak vessel. A few other unwitting hostages are there to keep you company, including a gracelessly voiced young girl who knows her way around the ship. One of them imparts a few different theories as to what the aliens are up to and what they want with their captives. His ideas are as good as any, as it turns out; you'll never know what the ETs are up to, what they want, and why they've got a death ray aimed at planet Earth. Nor does anyone seem particularly disturbed to have been abducted, as stiff animations and stilted dialogue make your cohorts seem more annoyed than traumatized. The only narrative elements likely to pique your curiosity are the various voice logs scattered about, which hint at the atrocities these aliens visit upon their unfortunate victims.

Ooh. More buttons to push.

You may have cringed at the idea of Fallout 3 in space, and if you have, you already know Mothership Zeta wasn't created with you in mind. Carrying alien zappers from space around the postapocalyptic wastelands while wearing samurai armor (another possible bit of loot you can carry back with you) certainly won't appeal to every Fallout aficionado. Open-minded fans will glean some enjoyment from this sci-fi-skinned dungeon crawler, but by isolating its game's weaknesses without catering to its strengths, developer Bethesda Game Studios has ended Fallout 3's run of downloadable content not with a bang, but a whimper.

The rerelease of this classic brawler will gladly take you for a ride, but the trip isn't without its share of potholes.

• Buggy lobby system
• Limited game search options.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2 has certainly done the rounds. After debuting at the arcade in the year 2000, it went on to find a home on the original Xbox, Dreamcast, and PlayStation 2. Now almost a decade old, the venerable 2D fighter has been brought kicking and screaming into the present with rereleases on Xbox Live Arcade and (shortly) Sony's PlayStation Network. And while it appears Capcom and developer Backbone Entertainment's are aiming to rekindling the feelings of nostalgia associated with pumping fistfuls of dollars into arcade machines by putting it on a current-gen system and adding online play, the transition hasn't been without its hiccups.

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Like its cousins in the Street Fighter series of games, MVC2 takes the tried-and-true formula of pitting players against each other in head-to-head combat on a 2D plane and then flips the concept sideways by offering a team of three selectable characters in place of a single bruiser. The game's expansive 56-player roster includes characters from the X-Men, Avengers, Spider-Man, Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, and Mega Man series. It also includes broader Marvel and Capcom universes, as well as a handful of original personalities. Unlike previous versions of the game that required you to earn points and spend them at the in-game store to unlock additional characters, arenas, and costumes, everything is available here straight out of the blocks.

The game is divided into two parts: single-player and multiplayer battles. Single-player includes mainstay fighter modes: Arcade, Training, and Score Attack. Arcade gives you an infinite number of continues to complete the game's seven rounds (in one of four difficulties) before facing off with final boss, Abyss. Score Attack works similarly to Arcade mode but grants you only a single credit with which to finish the game. Training gives you the chance to put together a team and give them a dry run against three opponents of your choosing. There's no tutorial here to help improve your skills, but practice and a little trial and error will definitely help you nail the timing required to string together serious combos. You'll also be able to fiddle with your super gauge power as well as toggle your target dummy character's stance and guard settings. Though Training appears fairly basic in terms of customisability, regardless of whether you're a returning MVC2 veteran or first timer looking to scope out the options, it is a great place to come to terms with the various abilities, and combat rules before you test your mettle.

Undoubtedly, the biggest new addition in this version of MVC2 is the inclusion of online play. Multiplayer supports both offline two-player battles and online ranked and player matches. Player matches allow you to have lobbies with up to six players, and you're cycled in and out of play as matches begin and end. A Spectator mode follows the players during character selection and into the match, which means you can cheer on your friends or study rivals as you watch from the bench. Ranked matches pair you with one other player of roughly the same skill level, and while his or her gamertag is obscured until your game begins, you're able to watch the other player make his or her character selection in real time. The lack of a ready-check system similar to the one in Street Fighter IV means you'll often sit there mashing the A button to start a game without being given any indication of whether it is working or being shown the other player's status.

It's battle of the robots as Iron Man takes on Mega Man.

As with any online game, ping is king, and when matched with another player with a decent connection you'll receive a solid fighting experience. Poor connection games can become an exercise in frustration as players warp around the screen, and you're left to watch as combos are executed against you. Players who lag out or disconnect while attempting to start a game often cause you to enter a limbo state, which requires you to quit out to the dashboard and restart the game from scratch. Search options for custom games are quite basic and will allow you to filter games by voice chat and number of players, but there's no option to prioritise results by ping.

You control Marvel vs. Capcom 2 using a slightly modified six-button setup, and in place of heavy punches and kicks, you'll find two assist buttons. While you'll only actively control one character onscreen at a time, these buttons allow you to have one of your sidelined buddies jump in and perform supporting projectile, antiair, dash, and capture moves. Resting characters as they take damage becomes crucial to survival and allows you to recharge a chunk of their health bar by keeping them out of combat for a period of time. Basic, light, and heavy button spam with the odd assist is enough to be competitive against other first-time players, but MVC2's robust combo, counterattack, and snapback system--which knocks the currently selected character out of the ring depending on which assist button you use--allows players to determine the tempo of a match. The accessibility of the game's controls means that even novice brawlers can be up and unleashing multihit combos in a short period of time. Both intricate and ludicrous, MVC2's brightly coloured, screen-filling super attacks are as simple to perform as tapping both assists simultaneously once you have enough energy, though stringing them together as part of larger combos will deal the most damage. The lack of double-quarter circle moves for super attacks means this game is perfectly serviceable when played on a gamepad, though as always, the Xbox 360's D pad leaves a lot to be desired. Arcade sticks are also supported.

Unlike Backbone's other revival project, Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 hasn't received the HD treatment and offers only a handful of visual settings. The game features widescreen support for modern televisions and stretches to fill the frame without distorting, though on a few occasions, overlays stop short and leave blank space at the edges of the screen. The 3D environments from the original game make a triumphant return and have come up a treat. The contrast of these animated backdrops against the sprites of the original 2D character models can be a little jarring to begin with, but you won't even notice them once the fists start flying. Two new character detail settings--crisp and smooth--are available and do a good job of scaling up image quality. Traditionalists certainly haven't been left out in the cold here, and should you wish to use it, the game supports a 4:3 aspect ratio and classic character models complete with the original sprites. Like the original version of the game, the frame rate is fairly sold, though you might notice notice some slowdown during particularly intense super combos and an occasional stutter at the character-selection screen.

Jill trades in her zombie whistle for something with a little more firepower.

The game's audio sticks closely to the original arcade and console source material. It also includes the annoying announcer and out-of-place jazzy lounge soundtrack. Though we find them delightfully cheesy, if they're not to your tastes, you'll be able to mute them from within the audio settings. This may save your sanity as you hear the same short, looping "take you for a ride" sample during character selection each and every time.

At 1,200 Microsoft points, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 represents good value for those who missed out on playing the game the first time around or those who want to play it again without dusting off an old console. Though it's a little rough around the edges in the implementation of its biggest new feature, online play, 2D fighter fans will find that Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is well worth adding, or re-adding, to their collection.

Ice Age may be kid-friendly, funny, and faithful to the movie, but it's also repetitive and over too quickly.
The Good
Varied gameplay
Genuine laugh out loud moments
Great voice acting from the original movie cast
Authentic character animation.
The Bad
Only one very easy difficulty level
Weak multiplayer.
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs is an action-adventure game based on the third movie in the franchise. It's a humorous, kid-friendly romp through the pre-historic period, featuring plenty of colourful characters in a wide range of game styles including action, platforming, shooting and racing. Its simple gameplay is unlikely to hold the attentions of experienced players, but young folks and fans of the movie should be quite satisfied.
When Sid decides to adopt dinosaur eggs it's your job to roll them back to the herd.
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The game's plot is loosely based on that of the movie and features the same cast that fans will be familiar with. When Sid decides to adopt a litter of baby tyrannosaurs, the broody sloth is subsequently taken by the babies' mother, and it's up to you to rescue him with the assistance of the herd and Buck the weasel. Unfortunately, the characters' motivations are a bit incoherent at times, which leads to plot confusion. For example, the game never properly explains explain why Sid decides to adopt the dinos, or why Buck is seeking revenge on a dinosaur.
Ice Age has a lot of variety in its gameplay, and each of the six playable characters offers a different experience. Buck is the main character, and both he and Sid take part in Ice Age's more action-packed sequences; their on-foot levels typically mix combat, puzzle-solving, and exploration. The combat is simple button mashing at its core, but Buck's basic combo system and fruit-based projectile weapons make the fighting amusing, though monotonous hordes of similar enemy dinosaurs eventually put a chill on the fun. It's sometimes easy to lose your way in these on-foot levels, and while gusts of wind will give you clues as to which direction to head in, the lack of a map means you sometimes need to backtrack to find your way.
As you progress through the story you get to experience a number of different gameplay styles. Each level puts you in control of one character, and you take advantage of their strengths to complete the section. For instance, Diego the sabre-toothed tiger chases down a gazelle in a racing level, and Manny the mammoth uses his tusks to clear tree trunks in another. Despite having playable roles, their sequences are brief, and it feels like they've been included merely to add a couple more characters to the roster. Following the style of the movies, Scrat, a sabre-toothed squirrel, has a separate storyline that focuses on his pursuit of an acorn that's always out of reach. You also get to play as his new love interest Scratte, a flying squirrel, and their endless quest for nuts incorporates some fun 2D side-scrolling platform levels.
Along with the action sequences, the platforming sections are the highlights of Ice Age 3, and jumping from platform to platform while dispatching pesky enemies is suitably challenging. It's a shame that the rest of the game feels so shallow because these levels give you a glimpse of how much fun it could've been. In the shooter levels you control a pterodactyl, which Buck has lassoed as a mount to navigate over sweeping landscapes. These areas require little skill to complete, making them more of a button-mashing chore than an enjoyable challenge to play. Because there's only one very easy difficulty setting, it shouldn't take more than a few hours for experienced players to reach the end credits. Ice Age lacks any substantial extras, although there are movies, music, and voice-over clips that can be unlocked by collecting crystals throughout the game.
Ice Age also includes eight offline competitive multiplayer games for up to four players. They're split into sloth- and dinosaur-based levels, and their quality is inconsistent. The most enjoyable game, sloth barge, involves balancing atop a snowball while knocking other players out of the icy arena. In other, less-memorable sloth games, you have to throw mud at your opponents, match Sid's cheerleading actions with the D pad, or outrace your opponents to the finish line. The rest of the games feature baby dinosaurs and are mostly forgettable, but one noteworthy exception is a lava-filled slalom course where you pass through gates while bumping your opponents away from theirs. Each multiplayer game has several options, such as adding hurdles or speed boosts to a running race, which increases the replay value somewhat. Ultimately, though, the multiplayer mode is similar to the story mode in trying to offer a multitude of different games and not doing any of them well. It's fun in short bursts, but it doesn't offer anything you'll return to again and again.

Scrat meets Scratte--a potential love interest, as well as a rival for his acorns.
The textures used on both the characters and environments aren't very detailed, which makes the world of Ice Age look a little dated. Despite this, some of the effects such as ice and water look good, while characters are convincingly animated in a manner true to the movies. The great facial expressions on the characters and the superb voice acting from the film's original cast also go a long way toward making the game feel like an interactive movie.
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs provides a good deal of variety and the occasional funny moment. However, it doesn't offer any real challenge, and the experience is short lived. While the action and platforming sections are fun to play, the racing and shooter levels are too simplistic and require only a modicum of skill and some button mashing to complete. The multiplayer modes, meanwhile, vary wildly in terms of quality. Ice Age is a game that younger players and fans of the movie will enjoy, but it's a game that attempts to cover a lot of bases without doing anything particularly well.

The cheap thrill of driving into crowds of mutants helps this car combat game overcome its obvious flaws.

The Bad

• The longer events get monotonous
• No finish line markers and other presentation issues
• No multiplayer.

Any number of games feature their share of zombies, mutants, and other humanoid horrors--but how often do you use them as literal fuel for destruction? Well, you can do it in Clutch. This car combat game attempts to bring the joyful violence of the Carmageddon series to a modern audience, encouraging you to take to the streets and fill up your boost meter by running over as many mutants as possible. Clutch has numerous flaws; presentational issues and monotony throw a monkey wrench into the engine. And multiplayer racing--a feature the game practically screams for--was apparently disintegrated by the same radiation that gave rise to the grotesque goons you're squishing. Nevertheless, a variety of events, a bizarre paranoid storyline, and the endless delight of staining the streets with mutant blood make Clutch an entertaining (if overpriced) look at modern technophobia.

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Considering the simplicity of its racing action, Clutch is more of a story-focused game than you might expect. The setting is near-future Europe, where an unexpected quantum catastrophe at the Large Hadron Collider (a gigantic particle accelerator due to open in late 2009) has turned most of the region's population into mush-brained mutants. As a racer named Clutch, you join a band of hoodlums called the Harvesters and attempt to discover the secrets of the Collider. There are no cutscenes or spoken dialogue; the tale is doled out entirely within journal entries displayed before story challenges. This isn't an engaging way of delivering a narrative (and some weird translation issues don't help), but you shouldn't take the game up on its offers to turn off journal entries. The images they conjure--a blind cult leader, human sacrifices--are bizarre and disturbing, and they create a vivid picture of a society driven mad by fear.

Under the weight of these grave circumstances, you take to the streets on and around the accelerator campus, participating in challenges and earning funds to spend on new vehicles and vehicle upgrades. It's an open world, albeit not a very large one, but it provides plenty of opportunity for standard racing and other events. In some cases, winning is just a matter of beating competitors to the finish line; in others, you need to crash into opponents as they speed about trying to collect artifacts. Some of these events go on for too long and have you retreading the same ground over and over again, which leads to monotony. But among arena face-offs, mutant killing sprees, and other challenges, you're given plenty of ways to experience the enjoyable, nuclear-charged mayhem. The highlights come within the Collider itself, where winding tubes and side passages add some sci-fi oomph to the action.

Rushing around the streets and corridors is fine, but the driving, on its own, doesn't feel very fast or furious. Fortunately, the mutated meanies are there to spice things up. Squashing them fills up your boost meter, which allows you to zoom along at a faster clip for a short period of time. It's also consistently funny, in a slightly horrific kind of way. Your hood will be covered with blood, bodies will fly everywhere, and mutants will emit bloodcurdling shrieks as you slam into them. Upgrading your vehicle with spikes and other melee equipment (sadly, there aren't any guns to attach) makes the slaughter even more gruesome--and more fulfilling. It's a sick and wonderful thing.

Yet, as fun as it is to mow down mutants while battling other drivers, it's impossible to overlook Clutch's numerous flaws because they're so easy to spot. This is clearly a budget game, evidenced not just by its slightly discounted price (it currently sells on the Steam digital download service for $29.99), but also by its production values. It looks fine but dated by modern standards, so don't expect fancy reflections, complex damage modeling, or detailed textures. Nevertheless, Clutch is easier on the eyes than it is on the ears. Engine noises are dull, and the soundtrack features artists you've probably never heard of performing grating tunes you never wanted to hear.

Clutch doesn't just feature blood. It also has sparks.

More notable is the jarring lack of transitions at the end of events. There is no visual indication of the finish line during races, and when you do cross it, the results screen immediately pulls up without warning. If you were tapping the boost button at the same time, you may end up restarting the event inadvertently because the boost button and the restart button are the same in some cases. This is a small but annoying issue that makes you realize how such a small element can make such a big difference. If you prefer a close-following third-person camera (there are a few camera views from which to choose), you may also get occasionally annoyed by camera jitters and positions that obstruct your view in the more confined areas.

It's a pity that you can't play the game with others, either locally or online; chasing after artifacts with real players on your tail would have been a riot and would have made the price tag more bearable. But even with this gaping maw unfilled, and in spite of a number of obvious flaws, Clutch is good fun and the first game in some time to cater to Carmageddon's "chemically imbalanced" crowd. It's also the only game to take place in the world's largest particle accelerator, which puts it in a class all its own.