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Apocalypse Tomorrow: A Pin-up Calendar fit for a Cataclysm

prawn1 — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:45:05 +0000

Illustrator Andrew Tarusov imagines that our world that has undergone a cataclysmic event and has designed a sexy pin-up calendar as a pick-me-up for the hard times. Each month of the calendar features a different type of apocalypse and pretty lass suitably (un)dressed for the occasion.

Check out Apocalypse Tomorrow after the jump, be warned some months may be NSFW.

[via Ufunk]

The Blue Marble Through the Years

prawn1 — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:31:33 +0000

On December 7th in 1972, far far above our heads, Apollo 17 blasted off from the Earth on its way to the Moon. About five hours into the journey, the spaceship was 45,000 kilometres away and at the point where it was facing the Earth, the astronauts onboard took photos of our planet. One of those photos (AS17-148-22727) which showed a fully-illuminated Earth looked like a glass marble to the astronauts, and is famously called The Blue Marble.

NASA has continued The Blue Marble series with similar photos in 2000, 2002, 2007, 2010, and the two most recent images date from just a few days ago. The initial image was captured by the Earth-observing satellite Suomi NPP and focussed on North and Central America. Due to popular demand NASA released a second image, this time displaying Africa, Saudi Arabia, and India to the east. Have a look at these two amazing images after the jump.

Western Hemisphere (Flickr)

Eastern Hemisphere (Flickr)

And here are some of the previous Blue Marble images.

2010 (Flickr)

2007 (Flickr)

2002 (Flickr)

2000 (Flickr)

1972 (Wikipedia)

[via Wired]

The Most Beautiful Sea Jellies

prawn1 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:45:26 +0000

It’s not the first time that we’ve posted about the Alexander Semenov. The marine biologist works at the White Sea Biological Station (WSBS) in northwest Russia and photographs the most wonderful undersea animals as part of his job. After four years at WSBS, Semenov is now the chief dive master and a camera is always on hand when he journeys into the depths of the White Sea.

When I first began to experiment with sea life photography I tried shooting small invertebrates for fun with my own old camera and without any professional lights or lenses. I collected the invertebrates underwater and then I shot them in the lab. After two or three months of failure after failure, I ended up with a few good pictures, which inspired me to buy a semi-professional camera complete with underwater housing and strobes. I’ve spent the following field season trying to shoot the same creatures, but this time in their environment. It was much more difficult, and I spent another two months without any significant results. But when you’re working at something every day, you inevitably get a lot of experience. Now after four years of practice I get a few good shots almost every time I dive.

There are over 1500 known species of jellyfish in the world and Semenov has photographed quite a few, especially the Cyanea genus of stinging jellyfish. After the jump you will find some of the striking deep sea jellies that Semenov has encountered, more specifically photos of Cyanea capillata, the lion’s mane jellyfish.

See more of Semenov’s amazing undersea photography on his website or on Flickr.

[via Design Taxi]

We Review: Lord of the Rings: War in the North

Fayyaad — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:38:42 +0000

Lord of the Rings: War in the North is a co-op action RPG in that takes place in J.R.R. Tolkien’s famed fantasy universe, and details the events that occur around The Lord of the Rings, but which doesn’t actually include many of the actual written events from the story. The game follows the style of the films, but also includes many settings and characters from the book. Personally, I love The Lord of the Rings series. I make a point of reading the entire series through at least once every two years or so. But those are the books. The question is: does this game capture the essence of The Lord of the Rings? Or is it best consigned to the Cracks of Doom? Let’s find out.

Since this is a video game review, you’re going to get a small smattering of video game history here, since you may not be aware of War in the North‘s pedigree. If you’re a fan of RPGs, you’ll recognize the names Black Isle Studios and BioWare, the wonderful people who created the classic PC RPG Baldur’s Gate. The sequel to the game, Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance, was created Snowblind Studios (the history of WHY this was the case is a little too much for this review), and to this end, Snowblind created the Dark Alliance Engine to run the game’s graphics. The Dark Alliance Engine saw most of its use on the PS2 and original Xbox (notably for the hilarious Bard’s Tale spoof RPG), but the engine has since been upgraded from it’s last-gen habitat to bring us War in the North. That’s enough history for now, though. Let’s see what this game is about.

Lord of the Rings: War in the North follows the adventures of three characters: Farin son of Norin, a dwarf warrior (a character class called “Champion” for this game), Eredan son of Baranor, a human ranger (Dúnadan in the lore of Middle Earth, and also incidentally the same class as Aragorn), and Andriel of Rivendell, the token female mage (called a “Loremaster” in this game). The plot of the game follows what events were transpiring in the north of Middle Earth while Frodo and his companions were merrily skipping along the road from the Shire toward Mordor. The game introduces one of Sauron’s lieutentants, Agandaûr (pronounced “agg-an-dower” for those of you unused to Tolkien’s usage of non-standard letters), as this game’s Big Bad. Along the way to figuring out what Agandaûr is up to, you’ll take the heroes wading through swathes of goblins, undead, trolls, and other such Tolkienesque monsters. You’ll also run into many of the characters from the films and the novels, so for anyone who is a massive fan of the series, it’s a treat meeting some of the characters in person.

I would be lying if I said that the upgraded Dark Alliance Engine didn’t look pretty, because the game is definitely incredibly atmospheric and suitably moody, as befits the scenario. Whether you’re flouncing about the Barrow Downs, or larking about on the Ettenmoors, the game depicts the settings much in the way you might have imagined it. Settings that take place in the films, such as Bree and Rivendell, for instance, are also depicted according to the film’s portrayals. And where the artists had to take bits of inspiration from both, it was faithful enough that it didn’t feel out of place. For example, it was interesting coming face to face with Elladan and Elrohir, the two sons of Elrond, early on in the game, because even if you weren’t aware that they were Elrond’s sons, their faces are so closely modelled on Hugo Weaving’s that it’s impossible to come to any other conclusion!

As I mentioned before, the game is a co-op RPG, and as you might have surmised by now, gameplay supports up to three players. If you’re playing all on your one-sy, the other two allies will be controlled by the AI. The game AI isn’t too bad, and support usually comes fast enough as needed. You can issue some basic commands—attack, defend, that sort of thing—but it’s no replacement for real people. One thing to note is that you cannot switch characters mid-game. If you need some healing done or some extra muscle to help out, you’re stuck with relying on the AI. If you want to try playing as one of the others, you have to quit the game session, go back to the intro screen, and reselect the character from there (and pick things up from the last checkpoint). If you do this, note that you will also have to change the weaponry and equipment that the character is using, since the the other characters don’t maintain what equipment they’ve chosen or what skills they’ve levelled up. Trust me, you’re far better off playing this game in pure co-op. One good reason for this is that each of the characters can perceive the world differently, and if you want to maximize the loot you get from the game, you’re going to need all three pairs of eyes represented by human players. No offence to any elves, dwarves, or hobbits out there.

Still, the action works for this game, even if the action IS a mite on the shallow and repetitive side. The game is quite brutal, and you get extra points for violent and messy kills. Enemies come at you in satisfying numbers, and at the higher difficulties you’re going to have quite a challenge on your hands. The game tries to straddle the “action” and “RPG” platforms a little too much though, and never quiet makes a success or failure of either. The game mechanics are nothing we’ve not seen before, and even the skills are fairly run-of-the-mill, with nothing to make you say “Holy wow! Did you see that!?!”

The sound, likewise, is nothing too out of the ordinary, although in my opinion it would have stood the developers in good stead to actually get the original actors to rehash their parts. It was incredibly weird seeing someone with Aragorn’s face talking, but it wasn’t with Viggo Mortensen’s voice. Likewise with Arwen. The music is composed by Inon Zur, who, if you follow video game music composers, will know as the artist who composed the music for the Dragon Age series of games, amongst a whole host of others, including Prince of Persia, Fallout, and Ace Combat. No complaint here, though. I’m a huge fan of Mr. Zur’s music, and the composition works wonders in this game, and may perhaps be one of the best things about it.

I think the worst part, in counterpoint, is the fact that it’s almost painfully clear that the story is was not written by Mr. Tolkien himself. It was perhaps written by someone who knows an awful lot about Middle Earth, but definitely not anyone with even the same level of proficiency at character and setting as Mr. Tolkien. I honestly couldn’t find myself identifying or feeling any empathy for any of the characters you play with. Even with the voice of the talented Nolan “I must voice every game” North as Eredan.

At the end of it, I felt the game was a little on the bland side, and also possibly ill-timed. It had to contend with a ridiculous number of anticipated releases, and in all the hype of the other games, this one was a little lost. Perhaps if this game had been delayed somewhat and its release timed to coincide with the release of The Hobbit later on this year, it might have seen a bit more traction, as well as give the studio time to polish up its flaws. Still, its co-op is top notch, and that alone drives the score up, provided you are playing this game with friends (it supports split screen play!). The action might be a little button-mashy and repetitive, but it’s not bad, just…average. In the hands of a more competent writer and with better timing, I think this game could have been a brilliant, worthy addition to the Middle Earth universe. As it stands, however, it’s just merely something slightly short of magical.

Final Score: 7 hobbit-sized prawns out of 10 (only reason it’s not 6 is that the co-op is actually awesome fun)

Detailed information:
Developer: Snowblind Studios
Publisher: Warner Brothers
Distributor: Nu-Metro
Platform: PS3 (reviewed), Xbox 360, Windows
RRP: R599 (PS3, 360), R399 (PC)
Age Rating: 18

We Review: Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7

Fayyaad — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:27:32 +0000

The Lego series of games have been coming at us at a fairly steady pace, and the latest one completes the latter half of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter story. The game follows the movies far more closely than it does the books, but does it do a decent job of it? The ultimate goal of any review is to answer the question “is it worth spending money on?” Let’s find out.

Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 (which, sadly, I did not review, but did play in preparation for this review—I take my reviews seriously!), which covers the events of the first four films, came out in 2010 for just about every conceivable current video game platform. I joke not: the game even appeared for Windows, Mac OS, and iOS. The PS2 had to be left out in the cold with this version. I think that Traveller’s Tales figured that porting the game to a ninth video game platform was perhaps pushing it a little. Either way, they’ve gone and done it again for Years 5-7, because the second Lego Harry Potter game, released in 2011, is available for every available video game system, and then some (nine platforms at last count, with a possible tenth later on this year). The PS2 still gets left out of this release, though.

If you’ve never played a Lego game before (and haven’t read either of my prior Lego reviews—shame on you if you haven’t!) it runs a little something like this: cute, themed Lego characters run around in beautifully rendered scenery, re-enacting said themed plot, and collecting as many little Lego studs as they possibly can. Also, it’s very child-friendly. Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 (I’m just going to refer to this game as LHP2 from now on! This 5-7 business is downright tiring!) is both superior to and inferior to other Lego games, for some very interesting reasons. For the sake of disclosure, please note that this review discusses the PS3/Xbox360 version of the game, which ostensibly includes the Windows version. The mobile versions are notably different, and are not covered here.

Thankfully, LHP2 uses the same game engine that was introduced in Lego Indiana Jones 2, and allows for the same dynamic split-screen play, instead of the players being locked to the same screen, as was seen in older Lego games. What makes the Lego Harry Potter games different from the Lego games, however, is that there are two hub stages, as opposed to the usual one (for example, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean has Port Royal as its hub, while the first Lego Star Wars game used the Mos Eisley Cantina). The first hub is Diagon Alley and London, which is where you can buy characters, spells, gold bricks, red bricks, and replay past chapters to find all the students in peril and the bits of the school crest. The other hub is Hogwarts castle itself (including the village of Hogsmeade), and I must say that this is possibly what sets the Lego Harry Potter games apart from the others. Hogwarts is simply HUGE, with so much to do that it’s difficult to get bored. You’ll spend more time in and around Hogwarts than any other location in the game, so it’d serve you well to learn how to navigate the place, since it can get insanely confusing. Aside from progressing the story, there are character buttons to be found, students to rescue, spells to learn, things to explode, things to try spells out on, monsters to face, puzzles to solve, beasts to ride, mischief to be had, and tons and tons and tons of things to break and studs to collect. It’s simply crazy how much there is to do in this game. And all this is without actually doing anything in the story itself! If that isn’t value for money right there, I don’t know what is! Another aspect that sets Lego Harry Potter apart from most of the other Lego games is that, unlike the other games where you progressed quite noticeably from story chapter to story chapter, the transition between exploration and story level is far less noticeable here. The game plays far more seamlessly than the others, which, in my honest opinion, makes for a superior game.

As is proper for a game based around wizards and witches—and like Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4—in LHP2 you have access to a number of spells. The basic few are attack spells and levitation spells (I’m deliberately staying away from the actual spells names for fear of alienating any readers who aren’t familiar with the Harry Potter universe), but there are also spells that spew water from the wands, spells that produce light, and so forth. Furthermore, for reasons that will become clear later, each spell has a particular color attached to it. It can be a little bit daunting at first, especially if you’re coming from a Lego game other than Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4, but you get used to the idea of switching spells very quickly, and it all becomes second nature by the time you’ve cleared the first few story levels.

If you are coming from Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4, I have lots and lots of good news for you, and one piece of bad news. For one thing, the levitation spell is assigned to a single button permanently, and does not require you to be on the correct spell any more. This means that as you wander around the game, things that are interactible will highlight, regardless of which spell you have selected. Furthermore, the highlighting of objects is far less fickle than the first game, and it’s now much easier to select what you want to destroy/fix/alter/throw. Curiously, Diagon Alley is the reverse of what you saw in the first game, and the locations of where you obtain your characters, bricks, etc, have all been altered. Red bricks, for example, must be bought from the Leaky Cauldron, and not Eylop’s Owl Emporium as was the case with the first game. On the other hand, everything is still just as breakable, if not more so, and you also don’t have to get too used to spells being in different places on the spell wheel, since Traveller’s Tales have tried to make the transition between the two games as painless as possible. Boss battles have also been simplified. Each boss is a simple one-on-one magical battle where you have to match the color of your spell with the color of spell of your opponent. Just in case you are colorblind (like myself), the relevant spell slot also flashes, which is a nice touch.

One of the things I was grateful for in this game is that Traveller’s Tales, the developers, seem to have sorted out a huge problem that was quite noticeable in Lego Star Wars III and Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4, which being the manipulation of objects in the game. In my review of Lego Star Wars III, I mentioned that using the Force to move stuff around gets frustrating and silly, because trying to move something around in 3D space can be confusing, especially if the object in question doesn’t really want to go in the direction you want it to. It’s not a nice feeling to lose a battle of wits to a simple Lego brick, and I am not a man so overendowed with wit in the first place. It was thus a pleasant surprise to find that things move around far more fluidly than before, so that’s one really brilliant point for the game.

This brings us to the single bit of bad news that I have. The game lacks online play. “So what?” I hear you say. “You griped about this in Lego Star Wars III and Lego Pirates of the Caribbean, what makes you think that Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 will be any different, you silly reviewer you?” I’ll respond to that insult with this one single fact: Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 had online play for both PSN and Xbox Live. I’ll sit here smugly while you clear the O_O look off your face. Yes, go back and read that again: an older game included online play and was removed for a later version. One can only hope that Traveller’s Tales will do what they did with Lego Indiana Jones 2 and patch the game to enable this.

All of this brings us to a very minor point: if you’re not a fan of the Harry Potter universe, I doubt this game will do very much for you. On the other hand, if you love the humor and charm of the Lego games as a whole and aren’t too fussed about the plot, you’ll find this game brilliant fun. Fans of the story will appreciate the way that an increasingly dark tale is kept child-friendly and light throughout. It’s a testament to the brilliance of the talented fellows who somehow extract the most important parts of the plot and distil it all down to six chapters per story.

Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 is definitely a worthy addition to the Lego series of games, and with so much (local co-op) fun to be had, it’s a great game for bonding with kids over. Even if you’re childless, but love the Harry Potter universe, you’ll have a magical time pottering around Hogwarts and surrounds, breaking things and collecting things. If you were sitting on the fence about buying this game, do yourself a favour and buy it. If you were over there on that side of the fence about it, well, I doubt there’s little I could say to tempt you over to this side anyhow. But you’ll be missing out on a lot of fun.

Final Score: 7.5 brick-shaped prawns out of 10

Detailed information:

Publisher: WB Games

Developer: Traveller’s Tale

Distributor: Nu-Metro

Platform: PS3 (reviewed), Xbox 360, Windows, iOS, Wii, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Playstation Vita, PSP

RRP: R499 (PS3, 360), R399 (Wii, PC, DS, 3DS, PSP), TBA (Vita)

Release Dates: 18 November 2011, ETA 22 February 2012 (Vita)

Age Rating: 7

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We Review: Quarrel

prawn1 — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:11:25 +0000

Thanks to the ambiguous nature of the English language, a quarrel could be an angry dispute or a bolt fired out of a crossbow. It also happens to be the name of a rather interesting word-based strategy game that was initially released only for iOS devices in 2011. While there can be no Quarrel amongst Android and PlayStation 3 owners, (for they haven’t received the game on their platform) Scottish developers Denki sought fit to bring the fight to the Xbox Live Arcade.

Having played a variety of wordy games on Android—Wordsmith, Wordfeud, Word Search, Word2yourmother*—I eagerly jumped at the chance of playing Risk-meets-Scrabble in Quarrel. The war of words continues after the jump.

Presented in a colourful and cutesy style, Quarrel is played out on a set of tropical islands where you as the player start out with a set amount of territory. The main aim of Quarrel is to extend your territory by invading your neighbour’s turf, and eventually gaining control of the whole island. Instead of the usual guns, swords, and spells, it is your words that do damage to your enemy. At the start of each campaign, the territory is divided up evenly amongst the players. Each space contains a number of troops, and you use these troops to invade a neighbouring space. As players go up against each other in the fight for territory, they are presented with a random selection of eight titles, each displaying a letter and the score value of that letter. When you engage and enemy or another has a quarrel with you, the number of troops you have available on each space correlates to the maximum number of letters that you can use to make your word. Find the best possible (highest scoring) word from the jumble of letters in the fastest time possible, and you’ll beat your opponent. As you laud your lexical prowess over your enemies, your victories result in the growth of your territory while theirs shrinks into obscurity. It’s a supremely satisfying experience, and one that proves very addictive from the start.

Strategy comes into play very quickly in Quarrel. As you beat a player and take over their territory, your squad moves over to the conquered territory, save the sole trooper left over to watch over your original space. Because the number of troops you have on a space determines how many letters you can use, it becomes imperative to move troops between the territories that you have captured to ensure you have enough troops to make a successful attack/defence. Luckily there are ways to bolster your squad. Every word you make adds to your “treasure store” and filling it up gains you backup troops that you can call into action on an ad hoc basis. If you are outnumbered yet beat your opponent, you take their troops as prisoners and they’ll then fight on your side. And when you’re not directly in conflict, there is a “bonus time” round where you are presented with the same letters that the other opponents are playing with. Make the 8-letter anagram and you’ll win the big bonus treasure.

At the end of each round that you play, Quarrel displays the words that have been played, accompanied with their definitions. This is certainly informative and I’ve added a few new words to my lexicon, most notably priapism (children, please do not google this term). And after each island has been conquered—an exercise that can often take more than 20 to 30 minutes—you are presented with various statistics about the game, including your Word IQ. An average of 150 indicates that you’re good, and a maximum value of 200 means you’re the perfect word geek.

Depending on the size of your vocabulary and the efficacy of your war game strategy, Quarrel can become quite difficult from the early stages. The nine AI opponents that you butt words with have different playing styles, from the one who plays fast and loose with their letters to the “elite” players who not only decode the anagrams regularly, but seem to have an extremely thorough understanding of Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”. The strategy might not come easily to some players and the ruthless AI players in the later stages of the game might prove a little too much for some.

In the campaign mode there are 12 different islands maps that you need to conquer. Additionally, there is a Challenge mode that tasks players to complete extra mini-objectives within each word battle, and a Showdown mode that has the player in head-to-head challenges with opponents of increasing Word IQs. And your quest for further word domination can be taken to Xbox Live. When you can find competition that is.

While Quarrel’s online promises up to four player tournaments, I found it difficult to find people to play with, be it in either the ranked matches or even just a quick match. Yesterday I spent precisely 7 minutes, 55 seconds, and 834 milliseconds waiting for opponents in a three-player match. I don’t think I need to tell you that waiting for a seemingly interminable amount of time to find a match can become tedious, but when you eventually find other Quarrel-ers, the word battles become fun, intense, and absorbing.

Another little gripe I have is about the leaderboard. It only seems to register the statistics from the single-player campaign and it only does so if you happened to be signed into Xbox Live at the time. Any wins and words you make offline are not reflected in the leaderboard.

Despite the niggles, Quarrel is a compelling niche game. And I’ve neglected to mention one of its most attractive features—the price. It’s available on Xbox Live for a paltry 400 Microsoft Points. With its cutesy art style and quirky mix of strategic warfare and word play, Quarrel is sure to interest the budding (and domineering) logophile in you.

Score: 8 knowledgeable prawns out of 10

Detailed information:
Developer: Denki
Distributor: UTV Ignition Entertainment
Platform: Xbox Live Arcade
Release date: 25 January 2012
RRP: 400 MP
Age Rating: 3 (PEGI)

*Not a real app.

We Review: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Fayyaad — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:45:07 +0000

The Legend of Zelda is one of the most beloved action RPG franchises out there, and usually for good reason, among them being that it was one of the first console action RPGs in existence. The latest Legend of Zelda game, Skyward Sword, is the second Zelda title for the Wii, and the first of these titles that was made exclusively for the Wii (the prior, excellent title, Twilight Princess, had a simultaneous Gamecube release). Is Skyward Sword the best Zelda game out there? The worst? Let’s find out.

Those of you who are thoroughly familiar with The Legend of Zelda can probably safely skip this part. The first Legend of Zelda game appeared back in the mid 1980s for the NES console—1986, to be precise. The game was fairly rudimentary by the standards of today’s Zelda games, but it set many of the tropes that remain with the series today, including a heavy emphasis on environment- and tool-based puzzles, a fairly heavy exploration bent, and so forth, down to many of the same musical cues and themes that have appeared in just about every Zelda game in existence. The game was popular enough to spawn a slew of sequels, and just about every Nintendo console has had a Legend of Zelda game for it. That’s all the history you’re going to get for this review; The Legend of Zelda as a phenomenon is fascinating enough to warrant its own article.

The Legend of Zelda, if you are unfamiliar with it all, follows the adventures of an all-around nice guy named Link (well, as long as you accept the default name) as he travels across a land called Hyrule, undergoing Epic Quests and Doing Important Things. More often than not, it’s saving the world, or saving Zelda. In Skyward Sword, Link lives on a floating island called Skyloft (in the sky, no less! Above the clouds, even!), and he’s aspiring to be a knight of Skyloft. Unlike regular, ground-based knights with horses that positively drip with DLC armor (ahem—Oblivion—ahem), the knights of Skyloft ride on giant birds called Loftwings. Not just Skyloft’s knights, mind, but they’re the chaps who probably own the majority shareholder stake in Loftwing Farms™. The legend around Skyloft is that no one has actually ever seen the ground below the clouds, since the layer of cloud is so thick that no Loftwing will penetrate it. Do you smell plot? I smell plot.

Skyward Sword was created to take full advantage of the Wii MotionPlus accessory (or the Wii Remote Plus, if you have one), which promises 1:1 motion control. The concept itself is awesome, and with the promise of a proper sword fight this time, I popped the game into my trusty Wii and fired it up. First thing that happens is that the game assures you that it cannot be played without the Wii MotionPlus, so I feel it’s only fair to pass along the same warning.

Near the start of the game, you receive some basic instruction in how to flail about properly, and I was quite impressed with how well the swordplay worked on stumps of wood. Slash horizontally, and Link performs a horizontal slash. Slash vertically, and Link does likewise. Diagonal cuts work the same, as does a forward poke. Having mastered the basics, off I went to go learn how to fly a Loftwing. It took me a while to get used to not using the Nunchuck to control the bird, but I must admit that changing the angle of the Wii Remote to change the angle of flight makes moving about in 3D space really easy. Such a pity that the bird has an awful turning circle. Furthermore, the steadiness of your Loftwing depends very much on the steadiness of your own hand, so if you’re of a nervous disposition, you might struggle here. Mercedes would never allow such steering. Just saying.

Inevitably, Zelda makes her disappearance, and of course it’s up to Link to go and hunt her down to drag her back to Skyloft, whether peaceably or kicking and screaming. This also, inevitably, means discovering precisely what lies beneath the thick cloudy barrier. In every Zelda game, Link has a guiding companion of sort. In Ocarina of Time it was Navi. In Majora’s Mask it was Tatl. In Twilight Princess it was Midna. In Skyward Sword, your companion is Fi, the embodiment of the sword you carry. Fi acts as your guide, adviser, and often enough, all around Ms. Obvious, and she can become incredibly annoying. Do we need to know from her that there is a “75% chance” that the treasure chest we spotted earlier “contains the means forward”? No, Fi, we figured that out for ourselves. We’ll call you if we need your meaningless statistical percentages on how the story is going to proceed. Or whether we need to “refresh our health”. Or even, I swear this is true, whether the batteries in the Wii Remote are dying. Personally, I preferred Midna, who was much friendlier and didn’t offer so many dratted meaningless numbers. I also don’t recall Midna bothering me every time the batteries needed changing, but that may just be my faulty memory. Still, Fi’s who we are stuck with for this game, so make the best of a bad situation, and remember to keep a store of spare batteries handy, because the WiiMotion Plus will drain your batteries like Dracula drained Mina Harker (okay, a bad analogy, since Mina actually survived, but the point remains).

The battles in Skyward Sword are more than your standard “waggle-waggle-ooh-I-hit-it” affair. Because the Wii MotionPlus picks up on every subtle nuance of motion you make (well, in theory, anyhow), the monsters have been upgraded to make battles more than just a matter of timing. Now you also have to deal with hitting the monster from the correct direction, because they are often blocking from most of the other directions. As mentioned, this is how it’s supposed to work.

And here is where things start to go ever so slightly wrong. It’s almost like watching a waiter stacking plates to create a great glass-and-gravy tower, complete with teacup on top, and then watching as he makes his wobbly way toward the kitchen. You fear the inevitable crash, and you’re watching with a sense of “Will he make it? Or will he have to clean up the porcelain carnage afterwards?” The motion sensitivity can be a somewhat fickle mistress to tame, and you’ll as often find yourself performing a downward strike when you meant to perform a diagonal strike as you will perform a poke stab when you meant to perform a horizontal strike. You’ll also as often poke the enemy when you want to shield-bash with the Nunchuck. It can all get a little frustrating at times. Later on in the game you’ll receive a harp (lyre?), and strumming that harp is another one of those “glass-and-gravy” scenarios. To play the harp you have to sweep the Wii Remote back and forth in wide, sweeping movements in time to a ticker. Saying that it can be tricky to get this motion right is about as understated as saying that a trash dump is only a little mess; at one point I spent well over five minutes or so with my arms threshing about in wild abandon, trying to get the timing and motion right before the game was satisfied that I had waved my arms in the proper manner. Whenever I could foresee a harp section looming ahead like a buffalo about to charge, I felt dread in the bowels of my abdomen at the mad windmilling I’d have to go through to make the game happy.

One last point to note about control is that with the Wii MotionPlus the Wii Sensor bar isn’t as necessary any more. It may take a while to realize this, so here’s a helpful hint: any time you need to aim anything, point straight at your screen before engaging the tool, whether it be a flying beetle, slingshot, clawshot, bow-and-arrow-shot, shot-put, or just plain shot-in-the-dark; the MotionPlus assumes that wherever you’re currently pointing when you engage the tool is the center of the screen, even if you’re blatantly pointing behind you. Which I do frequently enough. Don’t ask.

Mind you, I’m griping at very little here, plainly because there’s very little to otherwise complain about with Skyward Sword. It’s a beautiful and amazingly fun game, minor flaws aside. And when I say beautiful, I mean it. The art style is attractively and deliberately simple, and has an impressionistic feel to it. Flying around in the clouds can be incredibly soothing, and the musical score is also suitably soaring. It’s one of my favorite Zelda soundtracks so far, and I really love the soundtracks in the Legend of Zelda games. Apparently, this is the last time we’ll see this sort of art style in a Zelda game, which makes me a little sad, since I’m not sure I want to see a more realistic style. There’s a sort of whimsy to the art that somehow reinforces the fantasy of the game, making it more engaging, possibly because you’re more willing to forgive and overlook minor art problems and glitches. If it were a more realistic art style, the flaws in the art become far more pronounced, jarring with the immersion in the game. I hope that Nintendo take this sort of lesson to heart when designing the next Legend of Zelda game (which we’re assured will be for the forthcoming Wii U console).

Even the environments are beautiful to play in, whether it be Skyloft and its surrounds, or whether it be the forest, volcano, or desert below. As par for any Zelda-shaped course, there are plenty of puzzles to be had, and most of the puzzles center around the tools you combined with the environment. It’s all great fun.

Of course, if you’re tired of the missions down on the surface, there are plenty of side quests and missions to be had up in Skyloft itself, whether it be taking pumpkins to a shed, hunting insects, or simply fetching something for someone. Even the bosses can be seen as a kind of puzzle: in prior Zelda games, the item you were just given was what you used to defeat the boss of that stage, but this is not necessarily the case with Skyward Sword. I’m also not saying that the object you have isn’t used to defeat the boss, but you need to do a little thinking around most of the bosses you encounter. The puzzles and bosses remind me an awful lot of a very similar game: Okami (which if you haven’t played, you should be kicked), and if you’re one of the rare, wonderful individuals who has played Okami (either the Wii or PS2 versions), you’ll feel very at home with Skyward Sword. For me, however, it felt as if there were far less of “go back to an old stage with new tools to find new stuff” as there was in Twilight Princess, but I’ll have to replay Twilight Princess to be sure, so take that with a healthy dose of sodium chloride.

All in all, I’d highly recommend The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. It might have its small niggles, but then what game doesn’t? Even if you’ve never played a Zelda game before this, Skyward Sword doesn’t pretend to be part of a series, so you can jump straight in knowing very very little about the Zelda universe or its timelines or even its characters. The game is filled with a veritable army of charming folk, a hard-drive’s worth of memorable moments, and the kind of environment-driven gameplay that’s missing from many similar button-masher-style action RPGs. To answer to question I posed at the start: is it the best Zelda game out there? It’s certainly one of the best, in my opinion, and the two Legend of Zelda games alone—Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword—are certainly worth buying a Nintendo Wii for. You definitely won’t be disappointed by this amazing game.

Final score: 8.5 treasure-shaped prawns out of 10
Detailed information:
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Release Date: November 2011
RRP: R499
Age Rating: 12

Why This Kolaveri Di: The Tanglish “Soup” Song

prawn1 — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 07:07:08 +0000

Translated from Tamil, “Why this kolaveri di” means “Why this murderous rage, girl?” The song is taken from the sountrack to an upcoming Tamil film and is performed by playback singer Dhanush. What is more interesting than the quirky title is the tongue that Dhanush sings the song in — Tanglish, a mixture of English and Tamil. Why This Kolaveri Di is also called the Soup song, where soup is Tamil slang for young men who fail at romantic relationships.

The music video has been viewed over 38,000,000 times on YouTube! For more about the song and its history, Wikipedia has all the details.

[thanks Salma!]

Pizza Boomerang is Deadly to Penises

prawn1 — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:30:24 +0000

Picture the scene. A He-Man-esque super hero waits patiently for his pizza to warm up in the microwave. Fearing the fast food might be a little too hot, our hero flings it from his home planet towards the earth. Thus begins the utterly bizarre journey of Pizza Boomerang, a pizza so epic that it could slice your penis off.

[thanks Andy!]

We Review: Ico and Shadow of Colossus HD Remastered Set

GoDsGiMp — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 07:10:27 +0000

A decade is a long time in the video game industry. Technological advances happen each and every day and game designers push the envelope of possibility further and further. But ten years ago Ico pushed so hard it changed everything. And soon thereafter Shadow of Colossus gave its own gigantic shove! If you mention either of these two games to most veteran gamers, you are likely to receive an enthusiastic earful. Simply put: these games were revolutionary in their time. But has the steady passage of time dulled the experience? Is the HD treatment enough to bring these two classics up to date? Find out after the jump.

I have stated before that I’m new to console gaming; my gaming roots are firmly enmeshed in the PC realm, and for me games such as Baldur’s Gate and Duke Nukem defined my experience. This explains why I was so upset at the trash that was Duke Nukem: Forever. Yes I’m still not over it. With Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, however, I had few preconceived notions. I had heard of both games, certainly, usually spoken in the same breath as “awe-inspiring” and “fantastic”. In fact, so many of my friends had told me their stories of their first time playing Ico that I was quite nervous.

I shouldn’t have been. These games withstand the test of time, holding fast against the tide of years washing at their HD-encrusted feet. They are, in short, brilliant. There are some quirks, of course, and I think it’s safe to say these games won’t inspire everyone, but if you’re even remotely interested in games that have depth and aren’t simply glossy Hollywood movie-alikes, you’ll undoubtedly love them.

Lead designer Fumito Ueda’s vision of a Japan populated with supernatural forces, the reverent tone of the games and the emotional connection between the characters stand up to the passage of time with ease. The restrained art style benefits greatly from the HD investment, but it is the scale of the architecture and levels and the grandness of it all that captures the imagination. The first time you stand atop a windy castle tower in Ico, or your first sighting of a Colossus in Shadow, are moments to savor. I literally had to put the control aside for a bit and just enjoy the experience.

Ico is a thought-provoking adventure wherein you play the role of a young boy abandoned in a vast castle as a result of his ‘curse’ which manifests as a pair of horns on his head [Ed: As opposed to a pair of horns...elsewhere?][Auth: Ever seen a rhino?]. Your child hero seems insignificant, surrounded as he is by the vastness of the castle in and on which the game takes place. It is truly epic in proportion, and there’s a sense of scale here that is quite daunting. Haunting music and touches of brilliant sound design, such as echoing footsteps, reinforce your absolute isolation. So when you finally find your companion, Yorda, there is a sense of relief. Holding her hand to guide her around and over obstacles and to protect her from shadowy assailants seems less of a chore and more of a way to stave off the isolation. Emotional attachment like this is indeed a rare thing in a game; I never thought holding hands would be such a meaningful part of a game and also such a good game mechanic! I held my breath each time she leapt a gap and I was there to catch her on the other side.

While Ico isn’t an action game in the usual sense and the pace is perhaps just a little slow at times, there’s enough puzzling and enough stick whacking of shady spirit creatures to keep you riveted. I had a slight problem with the clunky save system (you have to seat yourself and your companion on a bench to be able to save!) but that’s certainly picking bones. Another problem is that Yorda is a little slow on the uptake, I’ll forgive this PS2 game for its faulty and often irritating AI, but I wouldn’t forgive a game of this generation. This game was outstanding for its time and even now I would recommend a play-through to most anyone.

Then there’s Shadow of Colossus. While it’s never clear if Shadow is a sequel or prequel to Ico it seems clear that they take place in the same world, or at least, the same general universe. Here, the hero, a young man, is on a mission to save a girl. In a Shyamalanistic twist, it seems that this time the girl is already dead and is going to take some serious saving. You’re told by a mysterious voice that you can save her by killing sixteen colossi that roam the land. As with Ico, in Shadow you have a companion, this time in the form of your horse. The two of you will gallop across the vast open landscapes in search of the giant [Ed: Colossal, even?] colossi. Once again, the vastness of the landscapes and the epic proportions of the buildings had me gazing in awe and feeling rather small [Ed: I have a suspicion that this may actually have been part of their cunning plan].

And then I met my first colossus. The scale of these giants is simply breathtaking: they are massive and imposing and in most games I would have run from them. But not here. Fortunately, each colossus has a weak spot or two. Climbing their bodies and solving the puzzle gets more and more difficult with each colossus you defeat, and you will frequently scratch your head and swear as you fall to the ground for the umpteenth time. But you’ll keep going, because it’s Just That Good. After a while, the moral implications start to really get you down. Why was I killing these giants? Just how the game twists your feelings to this degree is a measure of how good a game it is. The number of times I’ve played a game through and casually killed hordes of creatures and scores of human assailants and never batted an eye are without count. Yet, here I was, three colossi down and it was getting the better of me. A video game playing with emotions other than anger! Who would have thought!

On their own each of these games would be a great addition to any gamers collection. Together in one set these games make for something special indeed. While Ico has a few quirks, I would struggle to find fault with Shadow. They complement each other well. If you value video games for their playability, uniqueness, and as works of art, then look no further than this amazing set. After having played them for myself, I finally understood what everyone was raving about. Ten years hasn’t dulled the experience: instead, it has served to highlight just how good these games were for their time, and indeed how good they still are. Play them, you won’t regret it.

Detailed information:
Studio: Team Ico/Bluepoint Games
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEE)
Distributor: Ster-Kinekor
Platform: PS3
Release date: September 2011
RRP: R360
Age Rating: 12

Attack of the Japanese Hornets!

prawn1 — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 06:45:16 +0000

With its large body and wingspan, the Japanese giant hornet is quite the fearsome creature. It is known to prey on bees, often dismembering heads and limbs in the heat of battle. It eats their honey too, because after all, to the victor belong the spoils.

It is claimed that a single Japanese giant hornet can kill 40 honey bees in a minute, so can you imagine what damage a nest of them could cause? The BBC did exactly that. In this clip, a band of 30 Japanese giant hornets unleash hell upon a colony of 30,000 diminutive European honey bees. The attack is timed to some epic orchestral music.

The original clip along with the relevant commentary can be seen after the jump.

[via BlackNotes]

The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics

prawn1 — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:29:34 +0000

The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics is a cute little animated short film that won an Academy Award in 1966. Based on the book of the same name, this short film, directed by Chuck Jones, tells the story of a line who falls in love with a dot. The love is not reciprocal, for the dot sees the line as too straight, and directs her affections toward the wild and rebellious squiggle. Despite the stern rejection, the line turns to unconventional methods to gain the attention of his love. Does the story have a happy ending? Find out below.

[via Infosthetics]

We Review: Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Fayyaad — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:10:05 +0000

Ezio’s back, and this time he’s brought Altaïr with him in another fun-filled, stabby romp around around Europe. This time, Ezio takes us to beautiful Constantinople (now it’s named Istanbul). Is the outing to Constantinople any better than the picnic in Rome? Do we prefer renaissance Turks to renaissance Italians? Let’s go exploring to find out.

If you’ll recall in my review of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, I rated it exceptionally highly, and saw it as an improvement over Assassin’s Creed 2 in almost every way. If you like, I’ll even wait while you go read the aforementioned review. I also made the mistake of thinking that Brotherhood was the interim game before Assassin’s Creed 3. Silly me: looks like Ubisoft have Capcom Syndrome, and also have an enormous mental block to overcome in performing the seemingly simple task of counting to the number 3 (remember Street Fighter 2? Followed by Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition? Followed by Street Fighter 2 Hyper Fighting? Followed by Super Street Fighter 2? Followed by…agh…you get the idea, but it eventually culminated in the ridiculously-named Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo HD Remix. Really, Capcom? Really?) In any case, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is allegedly the last Ezio game to make an appearance in the Assassin’s Creed story, and this game also takes the time to finish off Altaïr’s storyline. Aren’t they just so nice? I’m not going to make the mistake of saying that the next game will be Assassin’s Creed 3, though. Fool me once…

The events of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations occur almost immediately after Brotherhood. Desmond wakes up on Animus Isle while his body lies in a coma. He meets Subject 16 who tells him that to wake up from the coma he must reconcile all of the memories of Altaïr and Ezio until his genes have nothing left to tell him. To this end, a gateway exists that fires up the remaining portions of Ezio’s life. Cue 1511 AD: Ezio makes his way from Masyaf to Constantinople, looking for five keys (most of which are in Constantinople, and one of which is in the underground city of Cappadocia) that will open the doors to Altaïr’s library. With the acquisition of each key, Ezio explores the memory that Altaïr left on the key, showing the events post-Assassin’s Creed 1 (fun fact: Altaïr’s accent in Revelations is not American like it is in Assassin’s Creed 1 due to, so we’re told, a more advanced Animus. Still the same voice actor, though!) That’s the plot in a very small nutshell. Incidentally, If you pick up any of the special editions of the game, you’ll also get the short film Assassin’s Creed Embers, which closes off Ezio’s story for good. It’s a brilliant watch if you’re into the story.

Much of Revelations is a case of “pity that it’s…”, starting with “pity that it’s not as massive a leap forward as Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood”. You could, I guess, call it a minor upgrade, because aside from a few minor changes (your hidden blade becomes a hookblade, for example, and you now have the ability to craft a variety of bombs), the game isn’t terribly different from Brotherhood. The Borgia towers have been replaced by Templar towers. Rome has been exchanged for Constantinople. Machiavelli has been replaced with Yusuf Tazim. Leonardo has been replaced with famed cartographer Piri Reis. The prostitutes have been exchanged for Romanies (gypsies, to us plebs). The thieves and mercenaries are precisely the same, as are the guards. You still have all the same weapons and tools as before. You can still summon bands of assassin’s from the deepest bowels of every nearby haystack. And the list goes on. Heck, even some of the music is spookily similar.

Still, as the old adage goes: “if it ain’t broke, don’t f**k with it”. And Ubisoft haven’t. Well, mostly. Assassin’s Creed has always been about the story and the characters and the richness of the history and setting. It’s what makes the game so beautiful. That, and the stunning sunsets from the top of the Hagia Sophia. So what IS different about Revelations? The one thing you notice almost immediately is the fact that it’s now far more difficult to reduce your notoriety meter to zero. Whereas in AC2 and Brotherhood you had the ability to remove posters from wall, this game gives you only heralds and officials, and even they’re not guaranteed to appear. Furthermore, the act of renovating Constantinople automatically raises your notoriety, meaning that all you need to do to get the guards chasing after you is renovate four or five shops. Combat is mostly the same, but there’s now more of an emphasis on stealth and misdirection than outright action. One of the other minor changes from Brotherhood to Revelations is that the various assassins you manage to collect and send around the Mediterranean can actually be permanently posted to another city, leaving an opening in your merry band that you can fill in the usual way. Cities under assassin control also tithe money and bomb components at regular intervals, so there’s a nice incentive to keep it that way, because if you ignore a city long enough, the Templars take control again.

The biggest change to the gameplay occurs after you’ve captured a few Templar towers (which convert to Assassin Dens upon capture). If you leave your notoriety on high (i.e. 100%) for long enough, the Templars will try to wrestle control of the den back from you, starting one of the most hated aspects of Revelations: a tower defense-like minigame called “Den Defense”. In Den Defense, you stand on a rooftop overlooking the street leading up to the Assassin Den, while Templars march merrily along with various weapons and so on in an effort to take the den back. Your task is to post assassins to various rooftop and street-level points in the avenue in an effort to try to stop said merry Templars. It’s typical tower defense: some assassins are short range and powerful, others are long range and weak, others sit in barriers that you erect and skirmish with the Templars. Each Den Defense level can take up to 5 or 10 minutes to play through, although it may seem longer if, like me, you don’t particularly like tower defense minigames. The good news is that, if you’re an excruciatingly careful player—like myself—you can limit the number of times you play Den Defense to precisely once.

On the other hand, if you enjoyed hunting around Italy for subject 16’s glyphs, you’re going to be severely disappointed: there are no hidden glyphs. It’s a pity, because solving those puzzles are one of the things I really loved about AC2 and Brotherhood. Furthermore, if you enjoyed the minor shop quests, you’ll not find those either. Nor will you find any of Leonardo’s fantastic contraptions. Nor either much in the way of courtesan, thief, or mercenary missions. It’s like they’ve taken away much about what was so awesome about Brotherhood and replaced it with bombs. Lots of them. Almost 150 different kinds of bombs. Most of which do the same damn thing (i.e. violently and amusingly asplode stuffs). Mind you, although the Subject 16 glyph puzzles have been removed, they have been replaced with “Desmond’s Journey”, five Portal-esque puzzle 1st-person platforming sections. They’re neither long nor overly difficult, but it’s something, I suppose.

Not everything about Revelations is inferior to Brotherhood, however: the multiplayer segment has actually been improved somewhat, what with the addition of new characters, new weapons, and new multiplayer modes, including deathmatch and CTF modes. The matchmaking in multiplayer has also been vastly improved over Brotherhood’s, and I managed to find games in less time that it takes to slaughter a squadron of Byzantine guards. The multiplayer is just as paranoia-inducing and fun as before, and I for one absolutely love a game based more on stealth and paranoia than simple outright blasting in on all cylinders. Note that you’ll need an online pass to play multiplayer; just something to watch out for if you ever end up getting this game second-hand.

All in all, Revelations is not a bad game, not by a LONG shot, despite my constant curmudgeonly behavior. I’ve played bad games; bad games are not fun. Assassin’s Creed: Revelations is more fun than you can reasonably hide in a random cart of hay on a random street beneath a random high tower. However, when compared to Brotherhood, Revelations seems lacking (although it’d have scored higher if they’d taken away the idiotic tower defense in exchange for some more missions!). It’s difficult to rank a game like this on its own merits purely because it comes from a line of other games, and when you have something to compare it to… well, let’s just say it’s human nature to stand things up against other things. Should you buy Assassin’s Creed: Revelations? Hell yes. If you don’t play it for the story, at the very least get it for the paranoia-inducing multiplayer. And if that’s not enough for you, if you buy the PS3 version of the game, you also get Assassin’s Creed 1. Just because.

Despite everything that’s wrong with this game, there is so, so much that still comes brilliantly and murderously right.

Score: 8.5 killer prawns of 10

Detailed information:
Publisher: Ubisoft
Distributor: Megarom
Music by: Jesper Kyd
Platform: PS3 | Xbox360 | Windows
Release date: November/December 2011
RRP: R599 (PS3, 360), R499 (PC)
Age Rating: 18

Beautiful Undersea Photography by Alexander Semenov

prawn1 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 07:58:42 +0000

Alexander Semenov is a marine biologist stationed at the White Sea Biological Station (WSBS), a remote research centre that is located on the Karelsky Coast in northwest Russia. Semenov is part of the dive team at WSBS and during his excursions, takes close-up shots of the truly beautiful and bizarre fauna lurking in the depth of the White Sea.

Have a look at some of Semenov’s amazing undersea photography after the jump.

Clione limacina

Aglantha digitale

Beroe Abyssicola

Coryphella verrucosa

Cyanea Capillata

Limacina helicina

Sarsia tubulosa

Aurelia aurita

Caprella septentrionali

Tubularia indivisa

You can see much more of Semenov’s incredible undersea photography on Flickr.

[via Behance Blog]

Reddit’s Guide to Fitness

prawn1 — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 13:56:31 +0000

Even the foolhardiest of drunks must be awake by now. Hello, and welcome to 2012! Allow me to wish you a very happy new year! Here’s hoping all the best for your life, love, gaming, and everything else in between.

Of all the new year resolutions that have been drafted, I can imagine “getting healthy” is on many a list. You might not think it but Reddit is a bountiful source of information for the individual who wants to lose the flab and get fitter.

The people over at The Greatist have collected tips and tricks from the Fittit subreddit (/r/fitness) and created a handy infographic to help those who want to go from fat (or skinny) to fit. Have a look at Reddit’s Guide to Fitness after the jump.

Click the image to see it bigger. You may need to click the expand icon in the top right corner of the image to see it in its full resolution (1.9 MB).

[via @davidcheddar]

The Best Bails and Fails of 2011

prawn1 — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 07:59:14 +0000

The human race is capable of a great many things. Failing is certainly one of them, and thanks to the collective efforts of TwisterNederland8, you can now see a glorious 12-minute compilation of the best bails, fails, and blood trails from the year gone by.

[via @6000]

Hilarious “Phonetic Punctuation” by Victor Borge

prawn1 — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:49:10 +0000

The late Victor Borge was not only an accomplished classical pianist but a hilarious comedian to boot. In the early 1940s, Borge (originally Børge Rosenbaum) escaped the Nazi menace in Denmark, travelled to America, and started performing his now-famous routines. One of those skits is called Phonetic Punctuation, where Borge creates different silly sounds for the punctuation that he encounters as he reads a romantic story.

Borge also did duets and a particularly funny one involved singer Marilyn Mulvey who valiantly tried to perform Caro nome from Rigoletto, despite the many interruptions from the pianist. See that clip after the jump.

More of Borge’s comedy routines can be seen on YouTube.

[via @Fayyaad]

Filmography 2011: The Year in Movies

prawn1 — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 15:08:46 +0000

There are only 15 days to go until the end of this year. If I could remember anything, I would say 2011 was a year like no other. There was good, there was bad, and everything else in between. In his retrospective montage, Filmography 2011, YouTube user genrocks celebrates the year in movies.

This mashup is composed of clips from 230 films that were produced or released this year. For more info on the film and music selection, visit the Filmography 2011 tumblelog.

[via Live For Films]

Fleeting Light: Striking Geminid Meteor Shower Time-Lapse

prawn1 — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 07:30:09 +0000

Los Angeles-based photographer and film maker, Henry Jun Wah Lee camped out for three days in the Joshua Tree National Park in southeastern California, and during this visit in December 2010, the photographer witnessed a spectacular thing — the Geminid meteor shower. The meteors in the shower originate from the constellation Gemini and scientists have noted that the numbers seem to be increasing with each year, with sightings of 120 to 160 meteors per hour!

Not all of the light streaks captured in Wah Lee’s time-lapse video are meteors. They tend to appear in one or two frames, the trails that last longer than a few frames are slower moving aircraft. Wah Lee titled his most amazing video, Fleeting Light: The High Desert and the Geminid Meteor Shower, because as spectacular as shower may have been at the time, it is long gone now.

[via The Huffington Post]

We Review: Need for Speed: The Run

prawn1 — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:48:08 +0000

It’s not been that great a year for fans of arcade-style racing, with only a handful of titles like Dirt3, MotorStorm: Apocalypse, and Mario Kart 7 vying for our attention. Of course, no year in arcade racing can be complete without a game from the seemingly interminable Need for Speed (NFS) series.

When you think of Need for Speed, you are reminded of thrilling arcade racing with great looking cars and even better graphics. Plot is almost always inconsequential. From face value, it would seem that the latest NFS title (and 18th title in the series), Need for Speed: The Run, has all the hallmark qualities one would expect from the franchise. But something in the machinery is horribly broken. The Run misfires in a quite a few places and didn’t give me the thrill ride that it had promised. Find out why after the jump.

Developed by EA Black Box, The Run is another attempt to create a narrative-driven racing game. Their previous try, NFS: Undercover, was underwhelming and, given history’s propensity to repeat itself, we’re already off to a shaky start. The plot in The Run follows a “No speed limits. No rules. No allies. No fun.” race from San Francisco to New York to win a prize bag of $25 million. It’s like a Gumball Rally of sorts. There’s something about an Italian crime organization and lives being threatened if certain owed monies cannot be paid back, but no one really cares. Cardboard cutouts have more personality than our vacuous protagonist, Jack Rourke (or his friend Matt if you’re playing the Wii/3DS version), who must enter the race to pay his debts. His shit-eating grin doesn’t stop from beginning to end despite being marked for death. Clearly, he is not taking the story seriously, so why should you? The Run could be about getting from your house to the corner shop in the most long-winded way possible, but I couldn’t be bothered about the plot. I don’t need to know why I have to race; I just want to do it.

In The Run, the coast-to-coast race is carried out in 10 stages (five for the Wii/3DS), with multiple sections within each stage. At the start you’re at the back of a 200-car mob, with an end goal of reaching the destination—some 3,000 miles away—in first place. This requires you to not only win the races, but also to avoid the police and the criminal syndicate in the process. This main objective is cut up into smaller more manageable goals, where you have to overtake a certain number of racers, or beat an overly aggressive rival, or be in a predetermined position as you approach a certain location. It’s a pretty cut and dry metric: if you don’t meet the criteria to make it to the next section/stage of the race, you replay it (and replay it) until you do. The game tries to helpful here with checkpoints and a reset mechanic. As you pass a checkpoint, any crashes further on resets you to that checkpoint, but for this to occur you need at least one reset token. Depending on the difficulty level you select, you have a limited amount of reset tokens; use them up, and it’s the long trek to the starting line for you. It’s not just wrecking that will use up a reset token, however: getting busted by the cops or straying but a little off the track will also result in the dreaded reset. It is the latter that proves the most irritating in The Run, where in certain parts of races, it allows you to cut one corner, but try the same a few corners later, and you’ll be reset. It’s inconsistent, and made much more annoying by the lackadaisical traffic that suddenly swerves into your path at crucial moments and the cops who, more often than not, seem to concentrate solely on your presence (evidently, the other racers don’t matter).

Aside from all the obstacles you have to deal with, The Run throws a massive spanner in the works by limiting something you’d least expect—your (officially licensed) car selection, and more importantly, your ability to change them during the race. As you compete in races, you earn XP to unlock different cars (and racing abilities such as drafting and nitrous), but the number of cars available in the single-player campaign is surprisingly small. Considering the nature of The Run, you hardly expect a mobile garage to follow you around; instead the only opportunity that you have to change your car is at one of the gas stations that you encounter. These gas stations are extremely race, usually one per stage, and if you miss it, you’re stuck with your car until the next gas station, which may be many races away. There is no indication of what environment you will move to from one location to the next, so while the twitchy heroin addict of a Lamborghini may be great in speedy chases in one race, the next race may very well find you hurtling down a windy, slippery mountainside in the same vehicle. With no chance to change your vehicle, you will have to replay the race until you have won it. This can become very frustrating.

Another source of irritation is the age-old rubber band AI. At times when you’re ahead, the competition is right up your back bumper, and is relentless right until the end of the race. However, Rubber Band Lane is a two-way street. When you’ve messed up, the game is quite tolerant and will happily drive some your competitors off mountains and into obstacles so that you can catch up to the pack. This often results in exhilarating photo-finishes but the shine is taken off your achievement knowing that your mediocre run still resulted in a win.

For the first (and hopefully last) time in a NFS game, The Run allows the player to set foot outside the car and leg it to avoid capture. Whatever preconceptions you have had, please check them at the door. The few sections that do involve our character making a run from his vehicle are a series of rudimentary quick-time events. They’re so incidental and unnecessary that a cutscene would have proved more interactive.

While there are missteps in gameplay, there are no such issues in the graphics department. The race from San Francisco to New York contains some of the most amazing scenery yet seen in an NFS title [Ed: Which scenery? The landscape rolling by, or the scenery of Sam Harper, voiced by Christina Hendricks?]. The Frostbite 2 engine, in its first outing with something other than an FPS title, does a fantastic job at rendering the environment as you race from treacherous icy mountain roads, to the sun-drenched rural countryside [Ed: Sam Harper], through the thirsty stretches of Death Valley, past the starry lights of Las Vegas, and onwards towards the finish line in the Big Apple [Ed: and also Sam Harper]. The Run is breathtakingly beautiful to watch [Ed: So is...ah, too easy.] that you do get distracted by the scenery [Ed: still too easy] and blinded by [Ed:...] the light [Ed: Drat]. In fact, there is so much lens flare in The Run that you think the developers hired J.J. Abrams of Star Trek fame to be their lighting consultant. One thing that isn’t in your face is the soundtrack. It’s largely generic and doesn’t make much of an impact, expect at some of the more climactic moments in the game. If you have driving tunes of your own, you’ll be happy to know that the game supports custom soundtracks.

Experienced players can blast through the single-player mission of The Run in four to six largely-forgettable hours (quite possibly shorter on the Wii/3DS). Thankfully the race isn’t quite over, for the multiplayer is where most of the excitement is at. The Run’s multiplayer works with a system of “playlists”, where a certain playlist contains three to five events. You earn points and XP for competing in the playlists, completing objectives within the races, and placing top of the leaderboard at the end of the playlist. There is an interesting addition in the “bonus wheel”. Before the start of a playlist, a giant wheel of fortune is spun to determine what you rewards you might win for placing in the top three, or being the overall winner. These rewards range from new vehicles, to profile pictures, to thousands of XP and give you a little something extra to race for.

The eight-player online racing is simple to get into (obviously not available on the Wii version—two-player split screen is all you get), competitors are found relatively quickly, and you move from one playlist to another without having to return to the lobby. When it works, it works well, but there were a few times when people leaving the playlist resulted in a five to 10-minute wait until the system found more racers to fill the empty slots. While it tried to find more people, the players who were waiting got tired and left too, leaving the system to find more. It’s a bit of a vicious cycle, and tested my patience on a few occasions. Despite the intermittent problems, the multiplayer experience is a highly enjoyable one and certainly breathes much need life into the game. There is also the “challenge series” mode. Any of the events cleared in the single-player campaign are unlocked in the challenge series and you race against the clock to complete these events. New cars are unlocked as rewards for successfully completing these events.

The Autolog social competition system makes a return in The Run, keeping track of your times and constantly reminding you to be competitive. It suggests different races to try and informs you when your friends have bested your race times. If you have the 3DS version, then Autolog supports Street Pass, allowing you to upload your best scores to friends’ devices.

Overall, in The Run, the attempt at a story-driven racing game lacks any sort of sophistication and is as memorable as that car you overtook in traffic on a Thursday in 2005. The plot is hackneyed and the characters are really quite vapid. The shortcomings extend to the gameplay as well with a rubberbanded AI system, too few opportunities to change your vehicles, a frustrating reset system, and a series of useless quick-time events that take you out of the vehicle. The Frostbite 2 engine, however, shines and creates some of the most beautiful terrain I’ve seen in an arcade racer. The multiplayer, too, is solid and accessible and provides a variety of playlists and challenge events to keep you interested once the campaign is a distant memory. The NFS franchise is 17 years old now, and its age shows, wrinkles, warts, brittle bones, and all. Last year’s Hot Pursuit went a long way to reinvigorate the series, and much was expected for this new outing. Unfortunately, The Run is running on fumes, if nothing else.

Score: 6.5 speeding prawns out of 10 (Most of those points are for the multiplayer gaming).

Detailed information:
Developer: EA Black Box
Distributor: Electronic Arts
Platform: PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Windows, Nintendo 3DS, Mobile
Release date: 18 November 2011
RRP: R599 (PS3)
Age Rating: 12