New York trip

Last weekend I was in New York City with bunch of friends, I have been in NY state before but never had the chance to visit the city. This time we made sure to run through it. Here is picture of Broadway and Wall street.

I dont know if its this time of the year or this is a year round phenomenon, its filled with European tourist, being a Desi from a bay area I'm used to a lot of English accents, including my own but it was even hard for me to understand some of those, we only chatted with few and they were having a good time and so were we. Took me while to find a pizza place. Pizza was not exceptional but the crust was pretty damn good. We rode the subway around and I was honestly surprised to see how dirty the city is, I guess the folks there are used to it but took us a while to stop talking about that. Earlier we drove to upstate and that was really beautiful, If I get another chance I'll spend more time exploring upstate a lot more next time.

Braid - Some More Info

I got some more info and links for Braid, first of the official website is braid-game.com and the developer blog is braid-game.com/news. There is a ton of information there about the game, however the best thing i found so far was this video review by giantbomb.com

Click here if the video above doesn't show or doesn't play.

Also turns out Braid is the highest rated xbox live arcade game ever!

Braid

Braid is a Mario like puzzle paltformer that I heard about on kotaku first, I downloaded the free trial version and man was I hooked right away. Its creator Jonathon Blow admits Mario's influence and there are many hints in the game that show the Nintendo love in general. I have not been impressed with a puzzle game like this since Portal.

If my word is not enough then checkout the Joystiq Meta Review which is basically 4 reviews in one. 1up guys gave it an A+, which if I'm not wrong is the highest possible. The Eurogamer guy summed it up best:

"I've gone to bed thinking about Braid, and I've woken up thinking about it. From the fragments I remember, I'm pretty sure I've dreamed about it as well. Braid is that sort of game."

If you like puzzle solving games you have GOT to check it out. Hey, the trial version is free!

How to choose a better Service Tag

In Halo 3 you no more see your teammates emblem on top of their heads, instead you now see whats known as the Service Tag, the 3 letter word that you choose in your profile, for example M28 or F08. Its up to you to choose what you want to however I have few suggestions that I'd like to share.

First of all one should realize that unlike the emblem the Service Tag is mainly for your teammates, NOT for you. You can choose the emblem to whetever you feel like in order to represent yourself but choose the Service Tag that will best help your teammates identify you. If they cant easily identify you with your tag they wont be able to help you, so in the end its your loss.

Here are some rules that might help:

RULE #1 is that the letter part of your service tag must be the first letter of your gamertag, or basically the pronounced part of your gamer tag, for example Hubristis should use H but IamDank should use D, or III NME III can use N or E.

RULE #2 is that if there is some number in your gamer tag it should be used in the number part of the service tag, so Spidey 2222 should use S22 and Jonny12Gauge should be J12.

RULE #3 is that if you dont have numbers in your gamer tag but your emblem has a number than use that as your number part. Emblems are hard to remember but sometime they stick out and over time you tend to remember them.

Rule #4 if the above doesnt work for you is to use your gamer tag in l337 speak, so for example Ceaser could use C35 or Nate could use N47. Of course its not always easy to remember and recognize but over time it starts to stick in.

Making a recognizable service tag really helps when you are taken down and trying to communicate back from the death lobby because the red X doesnt not show your gamer tag, it only shows your service tag.

I should also mention that when communicating from death lobby try to communicate the location you die as compared to "my X". For example "One shot by BR rock" is a lot helpoful then "One shot my X". I know I make that mistake too sometime but I'm trying not too.

Happy communicating

500 Points FTW!

Finally my mindless submissions to every sweepstake in the world paid off!

Dear naveeda: Congratulations! As the official judging organization for the Xbox LIVE GTA IV Promotion, it is our pleasure to inform you that you have been selected as a Third Prize winner! Your prize is 500 Microsoft Points!

Yay!