Latest News from Author Madhav Tankha

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Madhav Tankha

Game Review: Far Cry 3 is a journey into the heart of darkness

Dec 10, 2012

The opening minutes of Far Cry 3 are full of fun, surf and sunshine. As Jason Brody, a young man on vacation in the pacific with his friends and brothers, you're partying, adventuring, and basically busy making the memories of a lifetime- until you find yourself captured by pirates and #Far Cry 3 #GameReview #Jason Brody #Vaas
Assassin’s Creed III: The stakes are higher than ever

Nov 8, 2012

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series finally moves out of its 16th century European setting and into revolutionary America. As before, you take the role of Desmond Miles, a modern day member of the secret Assassin order fighting against the powerful Templars while simultaneously trying to avert the end of the world. #Assassin's Creed 3 #GameReview #Ubisoft
Borderlands 2 review: Twisted humour and a ‘gazillion guns’

Oct 3, 2012

The dystopian world of Pandora and it's freakishly weird inhabitants are back in Gearbox Software's sequel to the aclaimed Borderlands; Borderlands 2 is bigger, better looking, and more polished than its predecessor. Once again, you take the role of one of four vault hunters in their search to find the hidden #Borderlands #Borderlands 2 #GameReview #Pandora
Mass Effect 3 extended cut: Not perfect, but satisfying

Jun 27, 2012

The Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut is out, addressing several issues with the ending of the game that fans expressed outrage at. While the original ending was most certainly flawed (See our analysis of it here), Bioware has taken a step that few other game developers do. The Extended #Electronic Arts #Extended Cut #GameCrit #Ghost child #Mass Effect 3 #Mass Effect 3 extended cut #mass media #Reapers
Game Review: The Heavens and Hells of Diablo 3

Jun 21, 2012

Now that people can finally log onto the Diablo 3 servers and partake in its endless grind, it's time to sit back and think about what other games in the Role Playing Game (RPG) genre can learn from Blizzard Entertainment, and what Blizzard should have learnt from them. Let's start #Blizzard Entertainment #Diablo 3 #GameCrit #Multiplayer online games #The Witcher
Call of Duty Black Ops 2 may not be a sell out

May 2, 2012

Crysis 3 has just been announced for a mid- 2013 release, and as expected, a new Call of Duty game will be out this year, likely in November. The trailer will be released on 2 May, but looking at the teaser it’s almost certain that the title will be Black #Call of Duty #Crysis Warhead #Electronic Arts #Far Cry #First-person shooters #GameCrit #Games #Multiplayer online games
Halo 4: Get ready for a leaner, meaner Master Chief

Apr 20, 2012

New Delhi: Everybody knew that Microsoft wasn’t going to be done with the incredibly successful Halo franchise anytime soon, and they were right. The excitement of millions of Xbox 360 owners around the world now has a tangible focus: November 6, 2012 is when Halo 4 will be released, marking #GameCrit #Halo #Halo 4 #Halo characters #Master Chief #Microsoft games #Xbox
Fans win: Mass Effect 3 ending to be explained further

Apr 11, 2012

The massive wave of fan outrage towards Bioware’s conclusion to its widely popular Mass Effect series seems likely to be soothed soon. The company has launched a new 'Extended Cut', downloadable free of charge, which will include some additional ending cinematics that provide additional explanation and closure These will also be #BioWare #Electronic Arts #GameCrit #Mass Effect #Mass Effect 3
Fan outrage: Why the Mass Effect 3 ending sucks

Mar 21, 2012

Years ago, Bioware’s Mass Effect series set out to be the Star Wars or Star Trek of video games by creating a galaxy teeming with different species, rich with history, conflict, and politics. For the most part, they succeeded, but as the dust settles around Mass Effect 3 (ME3), there’s #GameCrit #Mass Effect #Mass Effect 3 #Video Games
Kingdoms of Amalur: Exciting gameplay, mediocre quests

Mar 7, 2012

There’s a lot that fantasy buffs and role playing game fans will find familiar in the world of Amalur. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning introduces you to the immortal Fae (basically elves), that were once divided into two harmoniously balanced courts of summer and winter, but which have now fallen into #GameCrit #Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning #Quest #Role Player Game

The best from the blog

Need your self-esteem shredded? Come on a makeover show in India

Sep 6, 2012
We don’t have the stomach to watch Tendulkar fail

Sep 6, 2012
Why Mumbai’s prime office rates are rising in a depressed mkt

Sep 6, 2012
Does a disrupted Parliament mean electoral reforms are in the offing?

Sep 7, 2012
Was Arsenal’s win over Chelsea down to sheer luck?

Oct 31, 2011

New bloggers

Mid-wicket Tales

S. Giridhar is Registrar and also the Head of the University Resource Centre at Azim Premji University. V J Raghunath retired as CEO of Addison Paints and is now a senior training consultant. Both share a great love for test cricket. Both have combined to
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Sugandha Dubey

Sugandha Dubey has over 18 years of work experience in marketing, sales and brand management for iconic brands like Tanishq, Gillette, Group 4 and Getty Images. She turned entrepreneur in 2008 and launched SIBSA Digital Pvt Ltd, a total photography solut
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Editor's picks

Why India should have been prepared for Uttarakhand floods

But we aren’t helpless: we’ve failed because, though we’ve done our homework on how not to fail, we haven’t actually turned these lessons into practice.
Why the political isolation of Narendra Modi is temporary

If Modi stands in splendid isolation today, it would appear that he represents a break from the consensual leader. But once again the disagreement over Modi is all about optics.
Why is the Kedarnath pilgrimage so important? Five key points

According to reports, while the temple is safe, the outer compound has been damaged and the town around the temple has suffered massive losses as it felt the full force of the rising waters.
It's batting vs batting as India take on SL in Champions Trophy

The key player battles for the Champions Trophy semi-final between India and Sri Lanka in Cardiff.

The 4 MLAs who helped Nitish Kumar keep calm and carry on

Nitish Kumar’s fate today might swing on six independents. Four of them have extended their support, and two are undecided. Here we give you the low-down on who the decision-makers might be today
Hauz Khas Village: The hypocrisy of high-end 'alternative' chic

HKV provides Delhi’s socialites and chatterati with what they need most: Obnoxious status display masked as anti-establishment virtue.
Why diversification is at the heart of a good financial future

Diversification is a risk management technique that mixes a wide variety of investments within a portfolio. The rationale behind this technique contends that a portfolio of different kinds of investments will, on average, yield optimally desired returns while lowering a risk that is posed by any individual investment found within the portfolio.
India lose 1-5 to Australia, crash out of Hockey World League

An error-prone India needed a miracle to topple Australia in what was the 100th international fixture between the two sides.

Lok Sabha polls 2014: Back to basics for Congress and BJP

With the playing field level, from now on it will be a battle of strategies for the Congress and the BJP
Chidu's 'Ferrari' of reforms has an autorickshaw engine

A slew of economic reforms has been promised this month, but one should not expect anything more than fancy footwork from the FM.
From a fed-up, die-hard fan: An open letter to SRK

Forget all this surrogacy business. The reason we love Shah Rukh Khan is that he’s been one of Bollywood’s smarter actors. But of late, SRK’s been a bit disappointing, complains a fed-up, die-hard fan.
Dhoni has Ganguly's touch but with a difference

Rohit, Kohli, Raina, Jadeja, Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar, Umesh – that’s the core of the Indian team today and perhaps it wouldn’t be wrong to say that they are Dhoni’s boys.

Vajpayee, Advani, Modi: Every leader has given Hindutva a twist

From Vajpayee to Advani to Modi –the Sangh Parivar has come a long way, presenting before India every few years a Hindutva face rendered presentable through a shrewd makeover
Why Nitish 'really' dumped the Modi-led BJP

While prima facie it might seem to be a clash of two strong personalities i.e. Modi and Kumar, there is much more to the split than that.
3 Indias at war: Sensex India, Maoist India, and Bharat

The current tensions in India can directly be traced to three visions of India – one of which will involve breaking the country
Last man standing: Why it's easy to feel sorry for Misbah

Sympathy for a Pakistani cricketer, especially a batsman, is a novel emotion for those of us coming from the 90s.

Fear of the unknown grips the BJP in Bihar

Although the party is maintaining a brave face, the eventuality of a split has left many leaders on tenterhooks.
In Mamata's Bengal: Zero tolerance for rape or protesting against rape?

Bengal tops the list in violence against women. There have been several reports of gang rape in the past few weeks. The Mamata government has taken quick and stern action – against the women protesting the rapes in front of the CM’s residence.
Food security: For poor’s sake, jholawalas must speak up

The subsidy to the rich accounts for more than 7 percent of the GDP while that for the poor, with the food security act, would account for 1.1 percent.
Patients get HIV in Assam hospital after blood transfusion, panic spreads

Many patients who were administered blood from the same blood bank fear the worst.

Why a BJP-JD(U) split will be good for India

Neither UPA nor NDA is an alliance. And the BJP and JD(U) were mere power-sharers, not allies. To grow, alliances have to be built around principles not just power-sharing
Chidu takes comfort in Fitch upgrade, but where are real reforms?

At a press conference, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, however, did not reveal any concrete steps but promised more reforms by August. He said the rupee’s decline is in line with that of the currencies of other countries with high current account deficit like India.
Why cutting interest rates will have little impact on industrial production

The index of industrial production (IIP), a measure of the industrial activity in the country, grew by a meagre 2% in April 2013, in comparison to the same period during 2012. The index was expected to grow by around 2.4% (source: India: Weak growth and sticky retail inflation. Sonal Varma and Aman Mohunta, Nomura). In [...]
Why 'Sir' Ravindra Jadeja is a people's genius

If one was simply to go by numbers, young and jolly Jadeja is on course to be a great. That’s not overrating him — it’s the simple logic of statistics one cannot argue against.