Third Child of The Goat: Part 1: Banish The Irish

In a far, far away land, there's this eating out place which named itself  "West Ireland Cafe". It could as well be East Ireland, but that doesn't change things much. I saw it a couple of times while driving by; it's in the  rich and posh area of the city. 

To seem authentic, and genuine, like either of the first two goat children, they even put up a shamrock logo on top of the restaurant signboard. However, what follows below is not only mysterious, but also defies any logic that the most over the top Rajinikanth stories suggest. 

"A Thai and Continental food place". Wait, what? THAI? As in not the body part thigh, but rather the food genre that represents the country Thailand? Since when did Irish men (or women, to cover all scenarios; ah well, I am also adding mad men/women and children) start being good at cooking eastern Asian cuisine?

When you hear about Irish men, some of the few things that pop up in our minds is an Irish pub. In every notable tourist location, you will find an Irish pub or two. They serve beer, steaks, and a variety of other stuff, but nothing Thai. Or even if they do serve Thai food, they never promote or highlight this as their culinary specialty. 

However, this guy, one of the third children, have heard that Thai food is in vogue. So he decided to add it with his fake Irish themed food store to attract more customers. "Enhancing the appeal and broadening the scope of attracting more customers", he thought. 

While people are still searching for Irish themed authentic restaurants and filling their test buds in genuine Thai food places, this guy is wondering why his restaurant stays empty, stays fool.

I am also wondering.

Third Child of The Goat: Intro

Third child of the goat is an unfortunate soul. He or she has to wait for her mother to finish feeding his elder siblings; hoping that there would be enough milk left for him when they are done drinking.

But alas, what happens in reality is that by the time the third child is ready for feeding, the mother has already depleted her internal source of food for the children. The third child feels sad, but before reacting, he notices that his siblings are now well fed, and they are jumping in joy. 

The third child, without thinking much, starts jumping up and down; just like his siblings--the first and second child of the goat mother. 

After a while, the third child forgets that he has not yet received any food/drink, and there isn't really any reason behind his profound happiness.

But he keeps on rejoicing. Just because others are doing the same. After a while, he even forgets why he was there and what he was supposed to do. He only imitates the feelings of others, and joins the bandwagon.

All hail the third child of the goat. 

I wanted to add a nice, shiny picture of three jumping goats here, but couldn't find anything appropriate. If I ever find something like that, I will definitely add it here.

This'll have to do for now. 

First Two Hours of GTA V

Well, the first few hours of a game can be very, very crucial. Especially, for a game as anticipated as GTA V, these initial levels can set the tone for the rest of the game. In contrast with earlier titles in the series, or at least the last one, I almost immediately found myself inside the game with one of the three characters, yielding a gun. 

Things looked familiar, but not everything was exactly like there were in GTA IV. The crosshair was too small for me, and I haven't yet found a way to change it. But then again, I haven't been exposed to much gun play either. 

The scene unfolded inside a bank. My character was part of a heist job, and things seemed to go really smooth. I was slowly being introduced to gameplay basics and controls, and it felt like a good old tutorial level. But suddenly things got chaotic, and after some adrenaline high minutes, I found my character alone; all his buddies have died and apparently he was getting caught by the law enforcers. 

Suddenly, I was taken elsewhere, credits rolled in, and I was now controlling another character. The gorgeous graphics was showcased for a while, and Los Santos never looked better. Yet, flashes of GTA San Andreas came back to my mind. Saw some bicycles, homes designed like CJ would come out of them any moment. 

I wasn't allowed to do much with the first character, which I came to know (not from the game) as Trevor, but this new character was duly introduced. He is an African American person named Franklin, and he works in a automobile sales store. I was introduced to a number of supporting characters over the next one hour, and I was also introduced to Franklin's special skill. In true GTA style, I completed a few driving missions. 

I wouldn't get much in to the mission details, but from the 2 hours I've managed to play, I felt happy and contented. When I come back to play the new episode of a long running franchise, honestly speaking, I don't want a hell lot of innovation. I do want to have some new things, but the core gameplay should stay true to the series's theme. 

I liked the fact that police is still vigilante. It's not really possible to hijack a car in broad day light and get away with the theft without alerting the authorities. Also, GTA is still not carmageddon. Killing off innocent bystanders and ramming on to other vehicles has dire consequences, and they can be adequate to cause the failure of your mission. 

After completing a mission, I was walking in the streets and suddenly I saw a tram. I just hopped inside without thinking much, and nothing really happened. I saw some guys chatting away, and after 30 seconds, a cut scene started playing. After a while, I was dropped in a station closed to my next mission (it was the only available mission at that moment). I was actually impressed. I don't know why. This doesn't seem to be a technological marvel, but I didn't have to select my destination, pay any money or do anything other than hopping in. It just felt good.

Hijacking cars is easy as always, and there are ample ammunation shops for grabbing those ever useful sources of firepower.

The game looks and plays a lot like GTA IV, but the graphics has been vastly improved and there are a number of subtle improvements.

But world interaction still stays limited; considering the vast opportunities that lie around.

More to come...