Scrumming with the Hurricanes + Tales of Monkey Island
1
www.livemint.com SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2009 L9 Play LOUNGE Reboot ahoy! B Y K RISH R AGHAV [email protected] ···························· T here’s trepidation at first. Pacing around the room. A self-deprecatory chuckle or two. Biting of nails. Then a few sighs, a flash of annoyance. A picosec- ond of utter horror. Denial. Maybe even furious anger. Then, a reluctant acceptance. Calm, quiet. Maybe even fun! For many gamers, the first 5 minutes of Tales of Monkey Island could well be the most gut-wrenching gaming moments this year. Consider the weight on its shoulders. The first two Monkey Island games are held on Himalayan pedestals, as glorious relics of the golden era of adventure games in the early 1990s. With their wonderful humour and bizarre plots, they’re easily one of gaming’s most beloved titles. The news of the series’ resurrec- tion was greeted with equal parts joy and outrage, and the angry eye of the Internet was focused sharply on Telltale Games, at the helm of this reboot: Five episodes, one a month, each lasting around 4-5 hours. Not unlike a TV miniseries. So, first, the good news: The first chapter of Tales of Monkey Island , called Launch of the Screaming Narwhal , is a fun, sharply written game that is highly recommended. It man- ages to capture the spirit of the original and the voice-acting and music are all spot-on. The bad? It doesn’t seem to aspire to the dizzying heights set by its predecessors, and there’s a sense that in playing safe, Tell- tale didn’t have as much fun with the franchise as it could have. Mighty Pirate Guybrush Threepwood (“capital M, capital P”) returns to thwart Evil Pirate LeChuck’s plans of voodoo- powered world domination. Things, of course, go a bit awry. There’s a mysterious curse in the air, and Guybrush finds himself separated from his wife Elaine, stuck somewhere in Monkey Island is back after a nine-year hiatus. But does the reboot put fresh wind in its sails? GAMING REVIEW | LAUNCH OF THE SCREAMING NARWHAL whelming about Launch of the Screaming Narwhal. It does its job reliably—setting up the story arc, getting you excited about the premise—but it could have aspired for more. The secondary characters in Flotsam are a bit ho-hum, and some of the dia- logues are bland—something that would have dragged it down if it were a stand-alone game. But as a pilot episode, this could be the prelude to something won- derful. Fingers crossed. Lucky voodoo charms invoked. Bring it on, we say! Launch of the Screaming Nar- whal is available as a digital download at www. telltalegames.com/ monkeyisland. Currently, all five episodes can be ordered for $34.95 (around Rs1,750). the Caribbean, in a strange little place called Flot- sam Island. Controls are simple enough: Walk around using the the key- board, click to examine or pick up objects. The inventory also allows you to combine two objects to make something new. The puzzles mostly hit the sweet spot between practicality and insanity, and one sequence involving a mad doctor and a lab monkey deserves special men- tion for the way it’s crafted. If you’re stuck, there’s an in-game hint system that nudges you in the right direction. The graphics are sharp and colourful. So blame it partly on the colos- sal expectations that the series carries with it, but you can’t shake the sense that there’s something ultimately under- Island-bound: The pirate returns. RUGBY Scrumming with the Hurricanes B Y B LESSY A UGUSTINE & K RISH R AGHAV ···························· I t’s 7.30 on a Sunday morn- ing, and Kuldeep Bist owes his team a round of bananas. The 43-year-old rugby coach of the Delhi Hurricanes, sporting a John Lennon hairstyle and a leg brace out of a science fiction movie, is paying the price for his own decision. “It’s my fault, really,” he laughs, watching the rest of his team practise set pieces at the Jasola Sports Com- plex in Sarita Vihar. “There was a lot of filthy language being spo- ken on the field, so I decided to fine anyone who swears during practice. Turns out, I was the biggest offender.” But while bananas can bail you out if you use swear words, Bist isn’t so easy on sloppy play. “This team tends to get too comfortable, so sometimes a bit of kick in the back is necessary,” he says. “They’re almost like an extended family.” He’s not using a figure of speech. There are six pairs of brothers in Delhi Hurricanes, all from the same village of Maidan Garhi, where rugby is now the sport du jour. In 2004, when Bist, a former member of the national team, decided to form the Hurricanes, finding players was his first major challenge. Scouting for talent at a few local school matches, such as the Shiksha Bharati School at Dwarka, he found that even the so-called seasoned veterans knew little to nothing about the game they were playing. “The first question he asked us,” recalls Manoj Kumar, one of the Hurricanes’ most senior play- ers at 28, “was ‘What position do you play—Flanker or Winger?’ We were stumped. We had no idea what those terms meant.” Bist then shifted focus to getting the young, green recruits up to spec, and in that search found the village of Maidan Garhi. Located near the Indira Gandhi National Open Univer- sity (Ignou), where Bist lives and works as an administrator, Mai- dan Garhi is home to the Dagar clan of Jats. Bist noticed that most boys there were “heavily built and seemed to have a natu- ral inclination towards sports.” He hung around the village look- ing for “catch”. He got his most important catch in 20-year-old Arun Dagar, a national-level high jumper and discus thrower. When Bist asked Arun if he would play rugby, the youth, who had only seen rugby on television, agreed to try it out. Like Bist years ago, he fell in love with the game. Arun not only went on to become the team’s captain, he was also instrumental in get- ting other boys from the village to play along. Friends joined in, and brought their brothers along. There are around 18,000 rugby players across the country, but the village has given this year’s national team four players. Rugby hasn’t yet found a permanent home in Maidan Garhi, however. “Nearly 40 boys from the village played rugby at one point, but a lot of them left because they thought it had no scope,” says Arun. “There’s no space to play within the village, and even the fields have too uneven a surface for proper practice,” he says. Professional rugby is a little more than a decade old in India, and fledging clubs such as the Hurricanes, which partic- ipate in inter-city tournaments, operate largely in an amateur space—where sponsors are rare. Few, if any, can support themselves full-time with just rugby, and juggle jobs, house- holds and college with a game they love passionately. “My parents ask me what I’m going to get out of this game. I don’t have any answers to that, all I know is I love it,” Arun says. This familial objection gets louder, says 17-year-old Jagga Dagar, another player from Mai- dan Garhi, when you get injured. “The coach insists we all get insured, but insurance compa- nies pay only if you have been admitted in hospital. They don’t compensate if you have a frac- ture or are prescribed physio- therapy,” Arun says. “The boys all want to make a career in rugby, but are doubtful about it,” says Arun. “Their main ambition right now is to be selected and play in the national team.” All eyes are now on the 2010 Commonwealth Games where India, as host nation, qualifies automatically. Nitin Dagar, 19, who was named Best Forward at the Under-19 Bombay Gymkhana tournament in June, has con- vinced his parents that rugby is going to take off in a big way once the Indian team, currently ranked 83rd in the world, debuts in the games. Bist echoes the sentiment. “But I hope we don’t draw world champions New Zealand in the first match,” he says. “Then, we’ll have to plead with them to keep the score down a bit!” [email protected] A Delhi rugby team braves hostility and indifference to find passion and talent in the village of Maidan Garhi En route: The Hurricanes (coach Kuldeep Bist is in a black T-shirt) have shifted training grounds six times over the last year. Their current home in Jasola is also temporary. Rugby 101: A typical practice session involves complex set pieces, basic drills, discussions on strategy and, if you’re lagging, lots of punishment push-ups. The men’s rugby season kicks off in July, and goes on till the end of the year. All the metros have more than one local men’s team: Delhi has three—the Hurricanes, Lions and Bulls. Mumbai has the Bombay Gymkhana, and the Mumbai Magicians. Chennai has the Cheetahs, while Kolkata has the Jungle Crows, Future Hope and Kolkata Police teams. Bangalore has the Tigers and the Rugby Football Club. „ For more information on rugby in your city, visit the Indian Rugby Football Union (Irfu) or Rugby India (www.rugbyindia.in), or subscribe to the Irfu newsletter at Everything Rugby at www.everythingrugby.com „ Irfu organizes tournaments and training camps for both men’s and women’s teams. Rugby teams in India are organized into two divisions based on rank. At the end of each season, the most successful teams in Division 2 are promoted to Division 1, while the bottom-ranked teams are relegated. „ The Delhi Hurricanes, currently ranked second in Division 2, is scheduled to play at the Bhubaneswar Division 2 Callaghan Cup in October. „ This year saw nearly 40 schools participating in the annual Mumbai Irfu inter-school tournament, with 250 games played over two weeks in February. „ The first All India Women’s Rugby Tournament was held in May. The Indian women’s rugby team will travel to the Asian section of the Women’s Rugby World Cup qualifier in October. Blessy Augustine PHOTOGRAPHS BY MADHU KAPPARATH/MINT SEASON OF PLENTY Where to catch the lions and the bulls in the near future
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The Delhi Hurricanes Rugby Team plus a preview of Tales of Monkey Island
Transcript of Scrumming with the Hurricanes + Tales of Monkey Island
www.livemint.com SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 2009 L9
PlayLOUNGE
Reboot ahoy!B Y K R I S H R A G H A V
[email protected]····························
There’s trepidation at first.Pacing around the room. A
self-deprecatory chuckle or two.Biting of nails. Then a few sighs,a flash of annoyance. A picosec-ond of utter horror. Denial.Maybe even furious anger. Then,a reluctant acceptance. Calm,quiet. Maybe even fun!
For many gamers, the first5 minutes of Tales of MonkeyIsland could well be the mostgut-wrenching gaming momentsthis year. Consider the weighton its shoulders.
The first two Monkey Islandgames are held on Himalayanpedestals, as glorious relics ofthe golden era of adventuregames in the early 1990s. Withtheir wonderful humour andbizarre plots, they’re easily oneof gaming’s most beloved titles.The news of the series’ resurrec-tion was greeted with equal partsjoy and outrage, and the angryeye of the Internet was focused
sharply on Telltale Games, atthe helm of this reboot: Fiveepisodes, one a month, eachlasting around 4-5 hours. Notunlike a TV miniseries.
So, first, the good news: Thefirst chapter of Tales of MonkeyIsland , called Launch of theScreaming Narwhal, is a fun,sharply written game that ishighly recommended. It man-ages to capture the spirit of theoriginal and the voice-acting andmusic are all spot-on.
The bad? It doesn’t seem toaspire to the dizzying heights setby its predecessors, and there’s asense that in playing safe, Tell-tale didn’t have as much fun withthe franchise as it could have.
M i g h t y P i r a t e G u y b r u s hThreepwood (“capital M, capitalP”) returns to thwart Evil PirateLeChuck’s plans of voodoo-powered world domination.Things, of course, go a bit awry.There’s a mysterious curse inthe air, and Guybrush findshimself separated from hiswife Elaine, stuck somewhere in
Monkey Island isback after anineyear hiatus.But does thereboot put freshwind in its sails?
GAMING REVIEW | LAUNCH OF THE SCREAMING NARWHAL
whelming about Launch of theScreaming Narwhal. It does itsjob reliably—setting up the storyarc, getting you excited about thepremise—but it could haveaspired for more. The secondarycharacters in Flotsam are a bitho-hum, and some of the dia-logues are bland—somethingthat would have dragged it downif it were a stand-alone game. Butas a pilot episode, this could bethe prelude to something won-derful. Fingers crossed. Luckyvoodoo charms invoked. Bring iton, we say!
Launch of the Screaming Nar-whal is available as a digitaldownload at www.telltalegames.com/monkeyisland. Currently, all fiveepisodes can be ordered for$34.95 (around Rs1,750).
the Caribbean, in astrange little place called Flot-sam Island.
Controls are simple enough:Walk around using the the key-board, click to examine or pickup objects. The inventory alsoal lows you to combine tw oobjects to make something new.The puzzles mostly hit the sweetspot between practicality andinsanity, and one sequenceinvolving a mad doctor and a labmonkey deserves special men-tion for the way it’s crafted. Ifyou’re stuck, there’s an in-gamehint system that nudges you inthe right direction. The graphicsare sharp and colourful.
So blame it partly on the colos-sal expectations that the seriescarries with it, but you can’tshake the sense that there’ssomething ultimately under-Islandbound: The pirate returns.
RUGBY
Scrumming withthe Hurricanes
B Y B L E S S Y A U G U S T I N E &
K R I S H R A G H A V····························
I t’s 7.30 on a Sunday morn-ing, and Kuldeep Bist oweshis team a round of bananas.
The 43-year-old rugby coachof the Delhi Hurricanes, sportinga John Lennon hairstyle and aleg brace out of a science fictionmovie, is paying the price for hisown decision. “It’s my fault,really,” he laughs, watching therest of his team practise setpieces at the Jasola Sports Com-plex in Sarita Vihar. “There was alot of filthy language being spo-ken on the field, so I decided tofine anyone who swears duringpractice. Turns out, I was thebiggest offender.”
But while bananas can bailyou out if you use swear words,Bist isn’t so easy on sloppy play.“This team tends to get toocomfortable, so sometimes a bitof kick in the back is necessary,”he says. “They’re almost like anextended family .” He’s notusing a figure of speech. Thereare six pairs of brothers in DelhiHurricanes, all from the samevillage of Maidan Garhi, whererugby is now the sport du jour.
In 2004, when Bist, a formermember of the national team,decided to form the Hurricanes,finding players was his first majorchallenge. Scouting for talent at afew local school matches, such asthe Shiksha Bharati School atDwarka, he found that even theso-called seasoned veterans knewlittle to nothing about the gamethey were playing.
“The first question he askedus,” recalls Manoj Kumar, one ofthe Hurricanes’ most senior play-ers at 28, “was ‘What position doyou play—Flanker or Winger?’ Wewere stumped. We had no ideawhat those terms meant.” Bistthen shifted focus to getting the
young, green recruits up tospec, and in that search found
the village of Maidan Garhi.L o c a t e d n e a r t h e I n d i r a
Gandhi National Open Univer-sity (Ignou), where Bist lives andworks as an administrator, Mai-dan Garhi is home to the Dagarclan of Jats. Bist noticed thatmost boys there were “heavilybuilt and seemed to have a natu-ral inclination towards sports.”He hung around the village look-ing for “catch”.
He got his most importantcatch in 20-year-old Arun Dagar, anational-level high jumper anddiscus thrower. When Bist askedArun if he would play rugby, theyouth, who had only seen rugbyon television, agreed to try it out.Like Bist years ago, he fell in lovewith the game. Arun not only wenton to become the team’s captain,he was also instrumental in get-ting other boys from the village toplay along. Friends joined in, andbrought their brothers along.There are around 18,000 rugbyplayers across the country, but thevillage has given this year’snational team four players. Rugbyhasn’t yet found a permanenthome in Maidan Garhi, however.
“Nearly 40 boys from the villageplayed rugby at one point, but alot of them left because theythought it had no scope,” saysArun. “There’s no space to playwithin the village, and even thefields have too uneven a surfacefor proper practice,” he says.
Professional rugby is a littlem o r e t h a n a d e c a d e o l d i nIndia, and fledging clubs suchas the Hurricanes, which partic-
ipate in inter-city tournaments,operate largely in an amateurspace—where sponsors arerare. Few, if any, can supportthemselves full-time with justrugby, and juggle jobs, house-holds and college with a gamethey love passionately.
“My parents ask me what I’mgoing to get out of this game. Idon’t have any answers to that, allI know is I love it,” Arun says.
This familial objection getslouder, says 17-year-old JaggaDagar, another player from Mai-dan Garhi, when you get injured.“The coach insists we all getinsured, but insurance compa-nies pay only if you have beenadmitted in hospital. They don’tcompensate if you have a frac-ture or are prescribed physio-therapy,” Arun says.
“The boys all want to make a
career in rugby, but are doubtfulabout it,” says Arun. “Their mainambition right now is to beselected and play in the nationalteam.” All eyes are now on the2010 Commonwealth Gameswhere India, as host nation,qualifies automatically.
Nitin Dagar, 19, who wasnamed Best Forward at theUnder-19 Bombay Gymkhanatournament in June, has con-vinced his parents that rugby isgoing to take off in a big wayonce the Indian team, currentlyr a n k e d 8 3 r d i n t h e w o r l d ,debuts in the games.
Bist echoes the sentiment.“But I hope we don’t draw worldchampions New Zealand in thefirst match,” he says. “Then,we’ll have to plead with them tokeep the score down a bit!”
A Delhi rugby teambraves hostility andindifference to findpassion and talentin the village ofMaidan Garhi
En route: The Hurricanes(coach Kuldeep Bist is ina black Tshirt) haveshifted training groundssix times over the last year.Their current home inJasola is also temporary.
Rugby 101: A typicalpractice session involvescomplex set pieces, basicdrills, discussions onstrategy and, if you’relagging, lots ofpunishment pushups.
The men’s rugby season kicks off inJuly, and goes on till the end of theyear. All the metros have more thanone local men’s team: Delhi hasthree—the Hurricanes, Lions andBulls. Mumbai has the BombayGymkhana, and the MumbaiMagicians. Chennai has the Cheetahs,while Kolkata has the Jungle Crows,Future Hope and Kolkata Policeteams. Bangalore has the Tigers andthe Rugby Football Club.
„ For more information on rugby inyour city, visit the Indian RugbyFootball Union (Irfu) or Rugby India(www.rugbyindia.in), or subscribe tothe Irfu newsletter at EverythingRugby at www.everythingrugby.com
„ Irfu organizes tournaments andtraining camps for both men’s andwomen’s teams. Rugby teams inIndia are organized into twodivisions based on rank. At the end
of each season, the most successfulteams in Division 2 are promoted toDivision 1, while the bottomrankedteams are relegated.
„ The Delhi Hurricanes, currentlyranked second in Division 2, isscheduled to play at theBhubaneswar Division 2 CallaghanCup in October.
„ This year saw nearly 40 schoolsparticipating in the annual MumbaiIrfu interschool tournament, with250 games played over two weeksin February.
„ The first All India Women’sRugby Tournament was held in May.The Indian women’s rugby team willtravel to the Asian section of theWomen’s Rugby World Cup qualifierin October.
Blessy Augustine
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MADHU KAPPARATH/MINT
SEASON OF PLENTYWhere to catch the lions and the bulls in the near future
