Gamesome Tonight?

Some free-for-all sock ‘em and shoot ‘em action.

If the khel pundits and kundli walas of computing are to be believed, the future of electronically gaming is going to be sensational. Quite literally. Apart from being incredibly more immersive, games in the hereafter will toy, tease and enthrall all the five human senses. Seeing 3D holographic images and hearing realistic sounds aside, you feel a twinge of pain as a bullet nicks your shoulder, smell the burning napalm, or the dank foggy air, and even flavour a bar of chocolate...

Realism in the sight and sound department is already happening, I know. It is this savouring of cyber choco seems the farthest away to me. As for the virtual stink, companies like DigiScents and TriSenx are already in the process of devising devices like iSmell and SENX. These digital scent spectrum devices will hook to your USB port and release appropriate aromas triggered via program and Web events occurring on your PC! But that is another story...

Until till then we pujaris of play must make do with whatever's being served. And being the do-kauri ka admi that I am, my aukaat is only fit for chotu-motu freebies. And these are quickie boomtown brat relaxers I have on offer this week:

Scorched3D
A 3D version of the DOS classic. Chitty-chitty, bang-bang tank warfare genre of game. No complicate strategising. You make moolah from successful battles and use it to but new weapons and accessories. You can play with up to twenty four other players at a time, mixing virtual players with humans. And there are diverse changing environmental conditions and terrains to cope with. At the end of each round you can buy ammo using the prize money you won from previous matches. IT offers both single- and multi-player support with damn decent graphics and great artillery action.
www.scorched3d.co.uk

Little Fighter 2
This one is about street fighting... Not the Bunty ki Mummy versus Babli ki Mummy kinda street fighting but the mukka-mukki kind of thrash-'em-up fighting. Flash-based and 2D mebbe, but solid action boss! Thoroughly enjoyable retro graphics, varied cast of characters, a variety of attacks, hand-to-hand combat, gang wars etc. all make for addictive game play. You can play solo, up to 4 human players on one comp, or 8 characters in network play at one time. Game modes include VS mode, Stage mode (where one or more players move through the environment killing increasing numbers and difficulties of enemies), Championship mode and Battle mode (involving mass armies led by a player). Sock it to ‘em now!
www.lf2.net

Warning Forever
If you want to thrash your boss, perhaps this one is for you. Metaphorically speak. There are only two combatants: You and the boss monster spaceship, bristling with cannons, lasers, rockets, and other weaponry. And the more bosses you thrash, the tougher they become. Take on bigger and bigger bosses until you can't take no more. A 360-degree shooting game with vertical scrolling and an adjustable cannon reminiscent of the early space shooters, it will keep you glued.
http://www18.big.or.jp/~hikoza