Exodus

A smaller, more concise version of this article can be found here.



Exodus, the Podar college gaming fest is in its sixth year and going strong. The event was well organized, with hardly any technical glitches, something rare for gaming festivals. All the action was centered around the massive CS (Condition Zero) projection in the middle of the assembly hall, where CS clans battled it out with each other. Established clans from Navi Mumbai to Nashik to Pune had participated. If you don't know what clans are, they are either (A) Five extremely dorky pale skinned "people" who fidget whenever a computer screen is not in front of them, have evolved tactics more complicated than an European football team, and kick butt or ruin the fun of (B) five random buddies who have casually showed up and have to be taught which key to press to fire. There was plenty of action when the type A clans battled it out against the type A clans, but many a times it was an A ruthlessly butchering a B, which the crowd, amazingly enough, seemed to relish even more.
Quite a few people showed up for the NFS Underground 2 event too. AMD had provided their new Sempron chips, which is as yet unused anywhere else, and the difference in the graphics showed. However, True NFS fans were murmuring about the fact that Underground 2 was used instead of Most Wanted.
Exodus was also the platform to launch A3, the new MOMRPG game in India (sort of like Ragnorak) only, not many people showed up to play the game. When I photographed this, the guy, I guess from the A3 asked me to take a few pics and arranged for a good number of people to play the game. But they were mostly his assistants, so here is the engineered picture:



However, it was a loss to those who did not play the game. Playing it for free is a rare opportunity, and an unreleased game at that… The game itself is fucking amazing, bettering anything Ragnorak can do.
The Mobile gaming section also had a grand total of one participant three hours into the festival.



This time round, the festival also has a Car and Bike show, although people were wondering when these would show up. On the second day, the grand opening of the exhibition with one exhibit – something I swear can be passed of as a Honda City jazzed up a bit. No one knew what car it was, but it was sleek and it was red and silver, and more importantly, it blocked the entrance, so people skirted around it with obvious irritation.





The second day of the fest featured rappelling from the main tower. I spent most of the second day of the fest waiting in line to rappel. Some people went over the top after plucking up the courage to do so – its not easy just going over the edge seven stories into the air.









Others took the easy way out and came back down the way they had gone up.



The rappelling, often pronounced as rape-ling in the tower, was organized by the Hiker’s club of Podar.
A few people who went to rappel were given odd jobs like putting up a banner and to remove a plant that was awkwardly growing out of the entrance.
Prizes up for grabs included courses from MAAC worth upto two lakhs, internships at indiagames (the mobile gaming event sponsors), flash drives, mobile phones, et cetera.



There was also this Semperon gaming stall attached with a driving wheel and footpad, and I played my first 3d game. The entire game was rendered anaglyphically, the problem is that the organisers did not provide us with anaglyphic glasses. Anyway, nice to see that a concept I had thought of is already in execution by someone.

Bottomline: A resounding success for the CS or NFS U2 nuts, but only a start in the RPG and mobile gaming department.