Now Playing: Final Fantasy 4 (Nintendo DS)
This is my latest craze nowadays. It is probably one the the best games with a very high production quality. Rarely does the producer's vision goes the down route which most games go nowadays. Look at Assasin's Creed on the DS, a shameful execution in the name of brand realization by Gameloft. But Square Enix is in its league of its own. Always maintaining the highest production quality in their titles. I remember my first PS2 game was Final Fantasy. It left such an everlasting impression upon me. I used to think whether such high production values would be achieved in handhelds? Well this game has just proved me correct and only Square Enix (apart from Nintendo themselves) can achieve such high production vales in their own IP's. Square Enix makes all its profit only from its Final Fantasy series. So does Nintendo from its own first party titles. Such is the power of creating original IP's. Everyone should notice the strengths in creating such original IP's and must not shy away from taking risks. I'm not saying go bankrupt chasing the original IP route, but at least allocate some portion of your effort in trying to create one. I'm sure companies like Nintendo and Square Enix would have stumbled many a times and then succeeded in creating true brand IP power.

Well coming back to the game itself. I'm still just a few hours into playing this game. Died a many times, upgraded the levels of my party, conquered dungeons and killed lots of enemy foes, loved every bit of this fantasy rpg. I shall review this game as soon as I finish it. Till then you can watch the trailer of the game below (this is the opening trailer of the game, so enjoy it):

Mortal Kombat Online Multiplayer is so much fun!!

Playing "Ultimate Mortal Kombat" for the DS is so much fun, especially the online mode. I love playing the online mode and kicking everyone's ass on the internet. It is just so much fun. Well the true story.....I get my ass kicked more from other players online!! But no regrets. The online mode of this DS version is the best I've seen so far from this series. There has never been a more satisfying online multiplayer experience on the DS thank this MK game. It perfectly sets you up with other players online who are just waiting to show of their moves. I have always been a huge fan of the multiplayer online version games available on the DS and this game proves to be on top of my list.

Watch the online Wifi multiplayer experience below:


Well coming back to the experience part, so how does it work? Well simple, you just switch on the game, chose multiplayer option and BANG! you are thrown into the MK world where your opponent is randomly selected. Then comes the player selection screen where you select your favorite player, and then you are into the game! The matches are configured as a normal MK game, 2 rounds = 1 match. After every match your rank is updated online. So in real-time you can track what is your ranking among other players around the world who are playing MK. I'm rated 1988.

The single player campaign is your regular MK 3 title format where you have an option to choose any of the 3 choices, easy, normal and hard category and then fight! The sound effects are top quality, no compromises here. The visual quality though is a little let down considering this is an actual port of the original MK 3 game. No visual improvements here. But no regrets, every downfall in visual is made up by seeing so much BLOOD! The blood effects are in full flow!

After you complete the single player campaign, you have an option to play the Puzzle mode which I'm not a big fan of. I liked to dive into the online mode more often than to play any of the other modes.

Sop if you are an MK fan and want to have a great fighting game on your DS, this game scores on all your requirements. If you want to play a online fighting game on the DS, then this game is a must buy. So keep fighting....FATALITY!

Real-time Ocean Rendering using FFT
Ever wondered how do games render those beautiful oceans in real-time? Well a quick answer would be Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT). These are magic words which allow you to compute some of the best looking water rendering bodies. Have a look at the video below where a ocean was computed using FFT:


FFT is a tricky subject and involves some deep math to understand its concepts. The below article discusses some of the nuances of ocean computation and rendering using FFT.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3036/deep_water_animation_and_rendering.php

The below video shows another example of how FFT is used for ocean rendering: