Fake Live Action Thundercats

Mafia 2 Trailer

Looks amazing! Can't wait to try it.

Most Amazing Speech(es) ever!

The following video was posted on /film and is cut togetehr from some of the most inspirational speeches in films. Enjoy!

Terminator Salvation Trailer #2

This film is starting to look really good, I doubt it will live up to many expectations (sequels never do as they get too much hype) but I think this will still be a good film if this trailer is anything to go by. There's a few good references to the Terminator 1 and 2 as well.

Mirror's Edge DLC and goes 2D!

The above video is for the first Mirror's Edge DLC available in January - it's only going to be time trial maps though. If you can't wait that long, then try the 2D Mirror's Edge!

http://www.bornegames.com/mirrors-edge-beta/

Ghostbusters: The Videogame

I didn't have an opinion of this game before, and probably wouldn't have got it... but now?! Yes! I've got to try this, even if it's just because the original actors are doing the voices!

2 minute preview of Lost season 5

Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5 trailer

I really can't wait for Season 4.5 of BSG to start... and this trailer makes me want to wait even less!

Black Mesa Source

A fan made trailer for the first Half-Life game using the Source engine.

Real-Life Quidditch

Okay...I've seen it all now

Mirrors Edge Theme song

The music video is nothing special itself - in fact it's quite boring. The reason I've posted it though is that it's the theme tune to Mirror's Edge and that is something that is quite cool. So here it is! Fresh from GameTrailers!

Mirror's Edge

I think watching people do free-running is pretty cool; and I think that is what makes Mirror's Edge so appealing - you get to try it for yourself with none of the danger (but also with none of the adrenaline). It'll be interesting to see how well the sales figures for this game are after a few weeks on sale. I for one think I'll have to give it a go (noticed the price is currently £26 on Amazon UK by the way).

Batman: Arkhma Asylum

It'd be nice to get a decent Batman game... maybe this one will be it!

Survivors on BBC 1

In a world where the population has been devastated by virus there are a few who are immune to the virus - the survivors. Survivors was originally a TV series back in the 70's and was written by Terry Nation - the creator of the sensational Doctor Who bad guys, the Daleks. In the wake of the success of the revived Doctor Who TV series, Survivors hopes to mimic that success and get a new generation of viewers following the story of the survivors in the 6 part story that started tonight with a 1 hour 30 minute episode.

Starring in the show is Julie Graham as Abby, who we last saw on our screens in the BBC "archaeology" drama - Bonekickers. Although that show was considered by most as a failure it was almost watchable if you could take their silly "looks like we've got a riddle to solve" antics with a pinch of salt. In this case she starts off playing a weaker character who gradually finds strength, a strength which is needed if she is to survive in this "new" world.

Only time will tell whether this new series is worth sticking with....

Doctor Who 2008 Christmas Special preview

This is the preview clip that they aired during Children in Need on Friday.

Prince of Persia Story Trailer

Didn't think this was the best of trailers, but still looking forward to the next outing for the Prince of Persia.

Spirited Away

This film by Miyazaki tells the story of a young girl named Chihiro. It starts with Chihiro and her family moving to a new house much to the young girls disappointment; but along the way her father takes a wrong turn and they find a mysterious building. Believing it to be an abandoned amusement park from the 1990's they enter (against Chihiro's scared and persistent begging not to) to find that over the fields and across a stream there are many restaurants - one of which has freshly cooked food. Her parents soon begin feasting on this food, while Chihiro wanders off to explore and comes across a bridge to an amazing looking bath house. It is here on the bridge that she first meets Haku, who appears to be a young boy about her age. He tells her to run away and get back to the other side of the stream before the lanterns are turned back on (as it suddenly starts getting dark); and run she does. She gets back to her parents, who by this time have turned into pigs, and spirits have started to awake as the lights are turned on. She leaves her parents and runs back to the stream to find it is now a massive river that she cannot cross - she is trapped.

Haku finds her and tells her to go to the Bathhouse and to not leave - she must keep asking for a job until she is given one no matter what and it's likely to be the worst job they have. She sneaks into the Bathhouse and speaks with a spidery like person who sends her up to the top floor to see Yubaba - mistress of the Bathhouse.


Past that I don't really want to go into too much of the plot details, other than we learn that the building they entered was a doorway to the spirit world, and the bath house run by Yubaba is used by the spirits to replenish themselves. The general outline of the story is that Chihiro (who is named Sen by Yubaba) is traveling through the spirit world and is learning from her experiences to make her a better person through the friends she meets and what she experiences. The concept of how Yubaba having control over Sen by taking her name and it having a special power over her is something that is echoed in various literature and myths of how names are powerful; just as the concept of the spirit world, and river spirits being based upon old eastern cultural beliefs.


If you like world cinema, Anime, or anything with a bit of cultural reference to it then I strongly recommend giving this film a try - it is one of the best Anime movies I have ever seen. It is even one the whole family can enjoy (violence is only implied and is never actually seen though).

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Street Fighter 2 HD Remix trailer

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Here's the new International teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

Fallout Retrospective

Cool Guitar playing

This guy has some really impressive Guitar-playing videos. The one above is his rendition of Toto - Africa; but there are some others where he uses the guitar as a "drum" a lot more too.

Alan Wake - new trailer

The Obama Rap

Bioshock 2 teaser

Alex Ross: Designing the cover for DC vs. Mortal Kombat

Trailer for Joss Whedon's Dollhouse

Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

It should come as no surprise that if Tim Burton is directing a new film Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are bound to be in it - again it proves to be true. It was already confirmed that Depp would be lending his skills to some performance capture for the role of the Mad Hatter. It now seems that Helena has joined the cast as the Queen of Hearts. Also announced as a cast member is Anne Hathaway who will be playing another Queen who is on the same side as Alice (who will be played by an Australian actress).

I think it's going to be an interesting film to keep an eye on - as with all Tim Burton movies they end up quite dark, but a lot of them do turn out to be quite good.

A Sequel too Far

Sometimes a film doesn't need a sequel, but when the powers-that-be see the film as a success they see it more as a cow to be milked and that is what is happening with 28 Days Later. When the first film graced the silver screen it was a welcome surprise and was very popular with cinema goers - especially in England due to it's familiar surroundings that people could relate to (it being set in London). This made it a success and the studio soon decided to make 28 Weeks Later. It wasn't as good, but it was still fun to watch and nice to see familiar places. Now though, the studios have decided to milk the cash cow one more time... 28 Months Later; didn't see that one coming. I'm not sure if it's a good idea to make a third film, but it seems studios are only interested in new films now if they can make a franchise of 3 or more films out of it. Crazy. One reason I think it might fail, at least in the UK, is that they're moving the location to another country - Russia apparently. Might be okay, just so long as they don't add any Cold War prejudice to it... it's not like anyone really cares about the Cold War now... we're all friends aren't we?

Reviewed: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

I'm a huge fan of Star Wars, any one who knows me knows that. Which is why I found Star Wars The Force Unleashed to be good, but not great. Now let me tell you why...

To start with the story attempts to fill in a small space between Episode 3 (Revenge of the Sith) and Episode 4 (A New Hope) which is a period of 18 years - so this covers approximately a year at a guess not long before the fateful meeting of Luke Skywalker and some droids that were for sale. Although for a FPS the story isn't too bad, it doesn't really fit well with the Star Wars Universe. Every confrontation is just another mission, there's no real flow to it until it gets to the second act when you begin to redeem yourself as you make friends with those who will begin the Rebel Alliance. The better of the game's two endings is for the light-side; it's not the best ending for a computer game but it is better than a lot of Star Wars game endings and it ties nicely with what we know is to come in Episode 4. It explains why things are the way they are. The dark-side ending however isn't so good - it throws caution to the wind, and the Star Wars canon for that matter; it makes Episodes 4-6 impossible by allowing Darth Vader to be "out the way".

The gameplay is okay though, the range and effects of the Force powers is great and unlike anything we've seen before - mostly because they now have some degree of physics applied to them so that they affect the environment as you would expect. There's also a few "epic" moments such as bringing down an Imperial star destroyer using nothing more than "Force pull" (not really a spoiler as it's in the trailer for the game). Unlike the Jedi Knight series of games, this one only gives you one weapon to chose - your lightsaber; but it is customisable to some degree as you can change the crystals that your lightsaber uses. The game also uses an experience system to allow you to pick your force powers as you progress and also to reallocate the experience points as you need to so that you're best equipped for the situation.

The soundtrack has some new recordings, and also borrows from the original trilogy's recordings by John Williams. One of the best moments is hearing the Imperial March music whilst casually using the force to throw enemies to one side - it's what makes an average game into a great Star Wars game with a good Star Wars atmosphere to it.

To wrap up, I must say that if you enjoy Star Wars and want to know a little more about how the Rebel Alliance started and what happened during those 18 years between Episodes 3 and 4 then this is the ideal game for you. It is true that in some ways it is not as good as Jedi Outcast or the Knights of the Old Republic, it is the best Star Wars game to come out since then, and is the first one out for the "next-gen" consoles.

Rating: 4/5

Building the Falcon

Found a site that is dedicated to a construction project, but it's not just any construction project - it's someone who is detailing the building of a model Millennium Falcon.

Building-the-falcon has loads of great pictures showing the progress to date and even details some of the methods used for things like the weathering effects to make it look old. At the time of writing it looks like he's just got the cockpit left to go.

Blade Runner 2

Over on /Film they've discovered that Eagle Eye Co-writers are working on a sequel to Blade Runner. Can you imagine that? Whilst it sounds cool, and it'd be nice to see more Blade Runner, would it be right to make a sequel? Most remakes of old films seem to turn out bad, and I don't just mean "oh, it's not as good as I remember it"-type bad but astonishingly bad. I can name three films that say a sequel shouldn't be made:

1. Alien vs. Predator
2. Alien vs. Predator 2
3. The Phantom Menace

Is that enough proof that a sequel shouldn't be made? I thought so.

The Place Promised in Our Early Days

I hadn't heard of this film before I saw it in my "Recommended" list on Amazon, so I thought I'd give it a try. "The Place Promised in Our Early Days" is a film about three best friends who during their last summer together make a promise to go to the Hokkaido tower - a towering structure that they've always seen in the distance, and have wanted to visit it. At first I found it hard to decide what time period the film is set in, but towards the end there are signs that it is set during the 1990's (albeit an alternative timeline). In this alternate world, Japan has been split into a North and a South, with the North being controlled by the Union.

In the South, Hiroki Fujisawa and Takuya Shirakawa are two friends currently in their last year of middle school. It starts on the last day before spring break and introduces the characters by having Kana, a friend of Sayuri, confess her feelings for Takuya which he does not feel for her in return. We soon find out that secretly, both of them have feelings for Sayuri. Hiroki stays behind for archery practice, and Sayuri does for violin practice. When the two meet on the train platform for their journey home they get to know each other and become friends. As she leaves the train though she comments that she'd had a dream that they would meet on the train like they did - an omen of what's to come. This whole section of the film seemed a bit like "The Wonder Years" due to the voice-over that was looking back at their times then. During the spring break they work for Mr Okabe who runs a factory that specialises in the manufacturer of missiles, so that they can pay for parts they need to finish rebuilding the crashed drone they found (that they've named the Bella Ciela). During the last term, Sayuri goes with them to see the plane and they make a promise that they'll fly their plane to tower. Whilst watching them work, Sayuri has a dream that foretells the tower exploding. This is the last time they were all together before the events that take place 3 years later.

During that last summer at middle school Sayuri had mysteriously disappeared, Hiroki and Takuya had abandoned the work on the plane, and the two friends had more or less stopped speaking. We then learn that Takuya has been successful and is not only at High school, but is working with the NSA researching parallel universes at the Hokkaido tower. The function of the tower is to transfer matter surrounding the tower between different parallel worlds but only has limited functionality. The cause of this as we soon learn is that when Sayuri went missing she had fallen into a coma and had been "sleeping" for the past 3 years. Although she is unconcious, her mind is another reality where the world has been devastated by a war between the North and South.

Mr. Okabe who was the former employer of the boys later turns out to be the leader of the Uilta Liberation Front that wants to destroy the Hokkaido tower in an attempt to reunify North and South Japan as one (occasional I did wonder if they were talking about Korea since the Americans were there interfering) and he reveals his plans to Takuya. Meanwhile, the past 3 years haven't been as kind to Hiroki - his dreams have been plagued by visions of Sayuri which has led to him being continuously depressed and never knowing what to do. This cycle of depression is broken when a letter from Sayuri finally reaches him (it was written before she fell into a coma) and it sets him off looking for her. His search leads him to a hospital where she'd not long been moved from, and briefly they speak to each other in a dream. The place where Sayuri's comatose body has been moved to though is the facility that Takuya works in.

By this point I did find myself starting to lose interest in this 90 minute film, but I'll attribute that to me being tired at the time. The ending is actually not that bad an ending, Takuya and Hiroki after a brief fight decide the best course of action is to work together to rescue Sayuri and to bring her mind back to her body by flying her in the Bella Ciela. Around this time we learn that the United States want to declare war on the Union due to the Union wanting to use the twoer as a weapon to replace the world with that of a parallel universe (the only thing stopping this is Sayuri's dreams). Due to Takuya being injured, and there being only 2 seats, Hiroki and Sayuri fly the Bella Ciela to the "promised place" which makes Sayuri wake from her coma. As this causes the weapon to activate, Hiroki fires a missile that destroys the tower.

My best friends and I thought about only two things that summer - flying, and falling... in love; and when you're in love you make promises.

It's not your typical action-packed anime movie, it's more of a "heart-felt" tale of friends as they grow apart, but to ultimately be reunited (whilst their country also happens to be on the brink of war all this time). If you enjoyed any of Makoto Shinkai's other award winning work, you're bound to also enjoy this one as it is a continuation of his style, and an improvement in terms of the quality of animation. I think based on this it will be interesting to see what work Makoto come's up with in the future, especially as this one won quite a large number of awards.

There are two versions of this on DVD, the standard one disc version and the collector's three disc editon. The standard edition and the first disc of the collector's edition both feature the full 90 minute film, 3 interviews, and some trailers. The second disc from the collector's edition has a number of storyboards to cover the entire film, an interview with Makoto Shinkai, and an animated gallery of his work. The third disc is only a CD-ROM and contains images and sheet music. There is also a book of storyboards included in the collector's edition. Unless you're a big fan of Makoto Shinkai or the film I probably wouldn't recommend bothering with the collector's edition as it doesn't feel anything special.


Rating: 3 / 5

Mirrors Edge (Xbox 360)

I've been in two minds whether or not to try Mirror's Edge when it comes out - it just feels too much like one of those games that is only there to show off a concept. Ages ago Red Faction did this for demonstrating modifiable terrain, Doom 3 did it to sell it's engine, and Mirror's Edge seems to do this with the idea of "free-running". If they release a demo I think I'll give it a go, otherwise I'll wait until I hear reviews of it. Anyway, below is a trailer for it that shows the origin story.

Google, T-Mobile and HTC introduce the G1

The new Google Phone that utilises their Android technology has apparently been in development for over 3 years by Google, T-Mobile, and HTC. The first thing that impresses me here is that Google got HTC to build their handsets - I've always been a fan of HTC's devices running Windows Mobile as they do look simply great. One big difference between the iPhone and the HTC G1 is that Google aren't putting the same restrictions on application development that Apple is doing with their AppStore. Whether this sets a precedent that Apple will eventually follow in the footsteps of I don't know but it is always a hope.

Rather than a virtual keyboard like the iPhone it has a small keypad for typing with - I'm not sure what the practicality of this is going to be like - personally I'm not too keen on tiny keyboards as they feel clumsy. The 3.2-inch LCD touch-sensitive screen (running at 320 x 480 HVGA) provides easy access to Gmail, YouTube, Google Talk and Calendar. Apparently it is also integrated well with Google Maps, but there is no mention of how well it works with Google Docs and Spreadsheets.

For network access it has a 3.5G and Wi-Fi which it will switch between depending on what is available meaning your able to collect emails pretty much anywhere - though saying that I'm sure I could find somewhere that neither connection would work at all (for example I'm sure it won't work in the middle of the Nazca desert - which is a good point actually, if anyone is interested you can actually get a mobile phone reception from Machu Picchu surprisingly).

I do question the default interface, take a look at it and tell me what you'd do to read text messages, or even send them for that matter. It's okay being able to email and all these other great features such as performing Google searches - but where are the features that make a phone a phone? It has of course got a call and a hang-up button at the bottom of the phone, and there's the "Dialer" application which I assume contains the contacts list. Though how you use SMS on it I've got no idea.

Halo 3 video

Well not sure what it's supposed to be advertising for Halo 3... maybe a new campaign that's possibly a prequel? Let the speculation begin!

The Dwarf is Back!!

According to reddwarf.co.uk, Robert Llewellyn (aka Kryten) has said they're making 4 specials - two of which will be proper episodes.

Doug Naylor will be masterminding the four half-hour instalments, and the regular cast will all be reprising their iconic roles. They are being made by GNP for UKTV's free-to-air channel, Dave

And a few more details:

"It's very new news to me - I really only fully heard the details yesterday," Robert told comedian/host Michael McIntyre. "We're doing four new shows with the original cast. Two of them are going to be, like, proper episodes of Red Dwarf. One of them is so exciting I've been asked not to say anything about that because other people will steal the idea - and it is a great idea, quite challenging for us as performers. And the other one is a kind of behind-the-scenes-y... the truth. There's been so many rumours and gossip about Red Dwarf, about whether there's going to be a movie and whether we all get on, all those things... The downside for me, which is just dawning on me now, is I've got to do the 'rubber' thing again, which I haven't done for ten years."

So that's good news for any Red Dwarf fans!

Max Payne: The Beginning featurette

Movie News!

It's unbelievable to think that a prequel for "I am Legend" has been confirmed - what more is there to see? During the film we saw flashbacks to Robert Neville's (Will Smith) life as people were dying, so all we're going to see is more of that with some extra tidbits of information. Seems pointless to me.

Another surprising announcement in the movie world is that Johnny Depp is going to play Tonto in a remake of The Lone Ranger, will play Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's animated version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and will return as Captain Jack Sparrow for Pirates of the Caribbean 4.

Adobe CS4 Suite revealed

Adobe have today unveiled their latest version of the creative suite of products, named CS4. They'll be releasing this as at least 6 different collections:

1. Design Standard
   
2. Design Premium
3. Web Standard
   
4. Web Premium
5. Production Premium
6. Master Collection

The Master Collection will feature all their CS4 products, and will consist of:

1. InDesign CS4
2. Photoshop CS4 Extended
3. Illustrator CS4
4. Acrobat 9 Pro
5. Flash CS4 Professional
6. Dreamweaver CS4
7. Fireworks CS4
8. Contribute CS4
9. After Effects CS4
10. Adobe Premiere Pro CS4
11. Soundbooth CS4
12. Adobe OnLocation CS4
13. Encore CS4
14. Adobe Bridge CS4
15. Adobe Device Central CS4
16. Dynamic Link
17. Version Cue CS4

Let's start off by looking at Dreamweaver as some people still insist on using it. The first of the new features is the code hinting for Ajax and JavaScript frameworks - this means when you're writing JavaScript using jQuery or one of the other supported frameworks it will provide a dropdown list to help auto-complete function names as you're typing and show the syntax for the function you're trying to use. There is also the new "Related Files and Code Navigator" and a few other minor changes to the UI but nothing special really. Dreamweaver now supports AIR and Subversion, as well as helping you with CSS best practices.

Photoshop CS4 Extended has changed quite a bit since CS3. It now sports "revolutionary 3D painting and composition" with it's new ray-tracing engine and support for common 3D formats. Another new feature is the "content aware scaling" - this is a way of stretching an image without it stretching everything within in. It's a hard feature to explain, but once you see it in action you'll understand what I mean.

Flash CS4 is another application to go through major changes. One of the changes is 3D animation for 2D objects (which I suppose means the 2D object is actually 3D) with various translation and rotation tools. Another amazing new feature is the Bones tool which offers a great way to get linked models to interact correctly. It is now also possible to add XMP metadata to SWF files for better accessibility and I guess to also aid Googlebot in indexing your SWF files. There is now support for Adobe AIR and H.264 as well.

On the video side of the creativity suite, After Effects CS4 can import 3D objects from Photoshop, a new cartoon effect for making video instantly look cell-shaded, author video for mobile devices, and finally supports XMP metadata. Premiere Pro CS4 adds supports for new tapeless formats such as AVCHD, P2, XDCAM EX, and XDCAM HD without the need for transcoding the video. Another great new addition is the support for burning to Blu-ray discs, and 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray discs. This same enhancement has also made it's way into Encore CS4.

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

After recently being reintroduced to Japanimation I started to look to see what there was that was worth watching. One of these is an old(ish) movie that's been out in Japan for a long time but is only just making it's way over to the UK in a couple of months. This film is called "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" - the title alone is enough to spark interest, and if that isn't enough then here is a trailer for it:

Oktapodi

Seen this cool animation on Vimeo about 2 octopi:

Xbox 360 Avatars

A short video from Major Nelson's blog describing how to use the new avatar builder that will soon be coming with the XBox Experience update:

Quantum of Solace theme

The theme tune for the new bond movie is out! Sung by Alicia Keys and Jack White it's called "Another Way to Die".

W3 Foundation

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, as most people know, is credited with the invention of the World Wide Web as we know it. As a way of moving forward with the Internet he has launched a foundation that aims to promote a web that is free and open, and to expand the Web's capabilities and robustness. The World Wide Web Foundation has already had $5 million put into it by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The aim is to launch this new organisation next year so that it can focus on three areas:

1. Web Science and Research
2. Web Technology and Practice
3. Web for Society

As an outcome, the group hopes to be able to anticipate and ensure the web's future through the study of how it currently works, and to research the issues it currently has that impacts the users. It is hoped that they can make the web more stable and secure, and bring this information to the masses so that people can be trained to think this way through University and College courses on Web Science.

With it being headed by Tim Berners-Lee, and the W3C CEO Steve Bratt, how can it fail? I hope it manages to succeed in improving the web as although it is usable to the majority at the minute it's like a piece of artwork - there are always ways it can be improved and I think the only way this is going to happen is if people stop and think about it, they need to be innovative, yet also mindful of how users actually want to use the 'net and what they use it for.

Mysterious Cities of Gold

Anyone born in the 80's is likely to remember "The Mysterious Cities of Gold" a true classic that has finally been released as a boxset on DVD in the UK (Region 2). After the 20 or so years since it first aired, does it still stand up to modern television? Time to find out...

Before we look at the DVD it's important to remember a little about what made the series so great during the 1980's. It was an animated series by DiC Entertainment and Studio Pierrot first released in Japan as "Taiyo no Ko Estueban" (roughly translated as Esteban, Child of the Sun) and had a mix of actual historic facts and science fiction. A good portion of the series is set in Peru and the surrounding areas - having been there myself it's nice to see these places in an animation and actually know the places that the characters are talking about and travelling through.

What’s more, The Mysterious Cities Of Gold holds up incredibly well. The animation may look a little dated, but it harks back to a time in the 1980s when ambitious programmes such as these were filling the childrens’ TV schedules. And this was the best of the lot. With a darkness and edge that you simply wouldn’t expect, it’s a gripping tale, expertly told. Further icing the cake, the DVD set that The Mysterious Cities Of Gold arrives on is nothing short of majestic, bursting with interesting features and a real care and attention that befits the programme itself. Which goes to make this collection something really very special indeed, not only bringing back a genuine classic from the archives, but doing it with a style that others would do well to match. Brilliant. --Simon Brew

The story follows the adventures of Esteban, a young Spanish boy who was orphaned when he was very little, Zia (an Incan girl), and Tao, the last survivor of the empire of Hiva. The story starts in 1532 with Esteban listening in on the tales of sailor's adventures until he is called for to help bring out the sun - making the sun shine when he wants it to is something that happens throughout the series but is never explained. Shortly afterwards he joins Mendoza, Pedro, and Sancho aboard Gomez's ship that is taking Zia, an abducted Incan girl, back to the Americas in search of fortunes and the mysterious cities of gold (though Esteban believes his father may still be alive and goes in search of him). Mendoza joins the crew as a navigator and it is revealed that it was Mendoza that saved Esteban many years before and has half the other half of Esteban's amulet - one that Esteban's father gave him just before disappearing beneath the waves during a great storm. Over the course of the next few episodes we see the journey from Spain to South America (specifically Peru) during which time Esteban becomes friends with Zia. Eventually Esteban and Zia get split up on the rest and meet Tao, the last descendant of the people of Hiva on what is evidentally the Galapagos Islands - the proof of this is the wildlife that they see such as the giant tortoises and the approximate location we know them to be in. For the next 30 or so episodes we see them travelling across South America discovering things like the Golden Condor, a flying machine made of gold. They reach sites such as Machu Picchu, which of course at the time would have been a working city as was depected here - but was referred to as the city above the clouds. Eventually they come across the Olmecs, and ancient civilisation that were deformed from radiation by the war between the builders of the seven cities. They plan to use the power source of the cities of gold for their own ends, but when the city of gold is found their plans are foiled and the city destroyed. They then part ways with the trio flying off in the Condor in search of the other cities. It's an entertaining story, but I don't want to cover it in great detail due to the shear size of it (it spans 39 episodes).


The dialogue isn't amazing, though the majority of the voices aren't too annoying. One annoyance is the number of times you can count Zia shouting "Esteban!" - there's too many times this happens to easily count! One thing most people will remember about this series though is it's memorable theme tune. As a special feature this theme tune is available with words for Karaoke. The rest of the music has an Andean feel to it, and some of the incidental music such as the piece for the Golden Condor is good to listen to.

In terms of animation it isn't as detailed as you would see today, but it is very symbollic of the style of children's Anime that was about at the time. On the 6 DVDs in the boxset there are the original documentaries that featured after every episode, deleted scenes, production documentary, biographies of cast and crew, original storyboards, a 32 page booklet, a double sided poster, and 6 postcards.

All I can really conclude with is that if you enjoyed this series before, then you're bound to enjoy it on DVD too!

Rating: 3.5/5

(Also review on http://www.newearthonline.co.uk/article/589)

Duke Nukem 3D XBLA trailer

The Day the Earth Stood Still (7 minutes)

The Truth...

New Bond Trailer!

Apple Rocks and Releases

Today Apple have announced a few updates to their product line-up. As of today user's can download iTunes 8 which has the new Genius Playlists feature. The Genius Playlists is a way of creating a playlist based on a similar songs to the one you're currently listening too - quite cool, especially if you have a large library of songs. A similar feature is the Genius Sidebar - this picks songs from the iTunes store that are similar to music you already own. Quite an interesting idea for both of these, but the latter is one that to some degree has been a feature of Amazon for a long time. Other changes include the addition of a grid view, High Definition TV shows, improved accessibility, and a new Visualiser.

The next announcement from Apple is the change to the iPod nano. First point it now comes in a wide range of colours! Their website has it showing in White, Black, Purple, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red and Pink. Another change is that it now has a Genius feature for creating playlists, and rotating the iPod rotates the screen! One questionable feature is that if you shake your iPod it shuffles your songs. So what if you're jogging or cycling with it? You're going to be reshuffling every few seconds! There is also a new iPod Touch out with these features (of course!) in 8Gb, 16Gb, and 32Gb flavours.

Star Wars: The Choices Unleashed

It is so close now to the date when The Force Unleashed, the latest Star Wars game, is due to hit the shelves. A number of online retailers are offering various exclusives if you pre-order the game from them.

HMV, are offering an exclusive Stormtrooper Commander figure if you pre-order with them. If you pre-order with Play.com they're offering an exclusive General Rahm Cota costume to use in-game, and similarly Game are offering bonus in-game content in the form of extra abilities. I think there's a good chance that eventually the bonus in-game content will be made available as DLC, though the same can't be said about the exclusive figure.

Needless to say, I've cancelled my pre-order with Play.com and have chosen to go for the HMV exclusive!!

Clone Wars series coming in October

As the title says, the new Star Wars Clone Wars series starts on Cartoon Network in October. Whilst you wait for it to start they have a trailer for the new series, it does look better than the film that was released a few weeks ago.


http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/clonewars/

Red Alert 1 is free to advertise Red Alert 3

The first ever Command and Conquer game I played was Red Alert. It was great fun and I played it for hours on end. As many of you know, Red Alert 3 should be out by Christmas /Hanukkah, but what you might not know is that as a promotional piece to advertise the new game they're giving away the original on their site.

http://www.ea.com/redalert/news-detail.jsp?id=62

Origin: Spirits of the Past

Let me start off by saying what my one problem with the UK release of this DVD was - the theme tune hadn't been translated into English for the English track so to understand it you have to turn the subtitles on and then turn them off again when the story starts. Obviously not a big problem, and may prefer to hear the opening sequence it in Japanese anyway.

The story is set in 300 years into the future when the face of the planet has been changed by trees that were genetically engineered to grow in harsh environments. Due to the impatient nature of one of the scientists the experiment (which was taking place on the moon) goes out of control and eventually splits the moon in two - sending seeds to the Earth. On the Earth however this got out of control and quickly overgrew cities and destroyed civilization. The main protagonist of the story is Agito, a young boy who lives in Neutral City - a place that exists between the forest and the military city of Ragna. Him and his friend, Cain, are racing from the top of the city down to the water provided by the forest, but careful not to disturb the druids that protect the forest. They are caught and Agito dives underwater where he discovers a building from the old days and discovers a girl in stasis, Toola.

In fear, the forest empties the water from the pool, flooding the building Agito and Toola are in and they narrowly escape and get back to Neutral City. It is then that we learn that there was another person awake from stasis years ago who eventually decided to leave Neutral City and go to to Ragna. This other, Shunack by this time has learnt of Toola's existence and believes her to be the key to restoring the world to it's former "glory". Agito explains to Toola the history of their city and how his father Agashi was one of the ones who helped build the city after being "enhanced" by the forests power. Those who are enhanced have their hair colour changed to silver from the effects of this power. When Agito takes Toola to see Agashi we learn more of the effects of this enhancement - over time someone who is enhanced slowly becomes part of the forest. Agashi is practically a tree when Toola see's him and is at first a little afraid of this. When he tells her that she must decide whether to let go of the old world or leave, she runs off upset and comes across Shunack who is waiting for her.

Agito sees Shunack is going to take Toola away and tries to stop him, but Toola goes willingly in hope that she can make a difference and get the Earth back to the "way it was meant to be". Toola and Shunack head back to Ragna by train - this bit has an interesting change in animation style. It seems whenever we see an external shot of the technology, rather than it being hand-drawn it looks more like CGI. Agito then returns to his father to tell him the news, but is told that he will soon become one with the forest and it is up to Agito to make his own decisions. Now that his father, the wise mentor, is ready to pass on Agito decides to become enhanced by the forests power (much to the dismay of Minka) like his father was. He travels down to the forest and asks for the power to be able to go after Toola and stop the destruction of the forest. They grant this power and almost immediately is the first trial of his new powers as he stops some Ragna war machines from attacking the forest. So, begins the "hero's journey".

After getting his new powers, Agito runs as fast as he can to Ragna in an attempt to save Toola. When he gets there he sees Toola, now dressed in the same clothes as the other people of Ragna which is symbolic of the "shapeshifter" archetype whom changes sides. They're all there waiting for Agito at the "train station" ready to spring what is obviously a trap. Despite his new powers, Agito is subdued with knockout gas and awakes in manacles with Toola and Shunack watching over him. Shunack, as a typical villain does, tells Agito their plans to leave Ragna and use Toola's Raban (kind of like a PDA worn as a necklace) to activate Estoc, the device that will change the world. They leave using this peculiar train like vehicle that is basically two trains on separate rails with a big engine that pulls them both. Agito uses his newfound plant powers to break free (changing his right arm into a plant kind of like Swamp Thing) and chases after the train. In an attempt to kill Atigo, Shunack orders the other train to be released and then fires on it with a rocket.

Whether we join the forest or fade to dust, our future depends on you now
-- Agashi to Agito

When Agito recovers, Yolda (the leader of Neutral City) helps him and explains that Agito should concentrate on "the seed within" him to return his arm to normal otherwise he may not be able to change back to human form. At Estoc, Shunack shows his true colours by turning on the military of Ragna and declaring that the weapon is for him alone to use and then leads Toola into the complex. When Toola inserts her Raban into the dias inside Estoc it turns out that it is inside a volcano that has been turned into a huge weapon capable of wiping out all life on Earth, thereby creating a kind of "reset". Meanwhilst the Raban military prepare to attack the traitorous Shunack as the mountains separates from the ground and sprouts huge metal legs and starts walking towards the forest. This part I had a bit of problem with as I don't believe it's technically possible for a volcano to be moved with technology no matter how advanced yet still have it active. I ignored this though as it's supposed to be a cross between science fiction and fantasy anyway. We learn at this point that Estoc was built by Toola's father as a fail-safe for the people in stasis to return the planet to "normal" in the event of the trees getting out of control. Not only this but we learn it was her father that headed the project that created the trees, and it was Shunack's fault the experiment got out of control with his over eagerness to excel and prove his work successful.

Atigo manages to get on board and faces off against Shunack. The two fight and eventually Atigo sacrifices himself to give Toola a chance to remove her Raban from Estoc to stop the process of it destroying the forest. In his sacrifice he becomes a great tree and traps Shunack inside of it. Toola realises the importance of the forest and removes her Raban - almost immediately the mountain starts a self destruct that threatens to kill anyone who's still inside. Instead of trying to escape Toola climbs back up to the tree that was Atigo and cries at the side of it. At this point we see what I presume is a scene on the "spirit plane" - Atigo see's his father, and a redeemed Shunack and they say his time to join the forest has not come yet, he must teach others of the importance of the forest and that the forest can give birth to humans. Atigo then falls from a "pod" on the tree and escapes with Toola.

The animation style is very good, and many of the shots of the characters and the long shots of the places contain a lot of detail making it visually pleasing with well designed set pieces. The character development is also pretty good though doesn't delve deep enough into the history of Toola, nor the druids. It would have been nice to learn more about the druids and dryads to see just what relationship they have with the forest, and more of what the world was like before the devastation. The opening theme and the music throughout is quite good, although the opening theme is by far the best music in the film. Unlike some anime, the voices are well dubbed for the western audiences.

There isn't really any extra features on the first disc other than some trailers, but on the second disc there is a "Making of" documentary that is quite good and goes into a reasonable amount of detail.

To conclude, following the "hero's journey" type of story gives the story some edge and is enjoyable to watch whilst also being visually pleasing. Although there are better films out there (many of which this one has borrowed from) it is a recommended viewing for any Anime fans.

Rating: 3.5/5

Opening Theme:

Fallout 3 achievements

Go see!!

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/achievements.php?gameID=261

Fallout 3 video-fest

Golden Axe: Beast Rider trailer

Can we live in Pyramids now?

World Architecture News has some cool pictures of a carbon-neutral development in the shape of a pyramid that a company called Timelinks, based in Dubai, will be exhibiting. Apparently the Ziggurat (the name of the Mesopotamian pyramids) is capable of holding up to a million people - now that's a lot of people in little space.

Going in to the details of the planned project makes it sound extremely futuristic, but would also be a huge boon to the environment if such a project could take off. Inside the Ziggurat there are no roads - as there are alternative forms of transport that travel both vertically and horizontally. According to the reports such a structure would take up less than 10% of the land that current cities take up meaning there would be land to use for agriculture - but there would also be landscaped parks and agricultural land inside the Ziggurat.


We've all seen science fiction movies where huge numbers of people live in such buildings so for some, large communities in a self-contained city is their view of what the future will be like. If it's carbon-neutral and saves on land then I can imagine that one day they certainly would come in handy as the population continues to grow. Many people might not like the idea though as it'd be like living in a large building which rarely gives them a view of the outside world.

New tabs in the future of Firefox

It wasn't that long ago Mozilla Labs was talking about the Aurora concept browser that they envisioned for the future. Now they're talking a little more short term, with something they're planning to add to Firefox in the very near future. This is the idea of "contextual tabs". What they mean by this is that when opening a new tab it will give a search box on the page as this is what most users open a new tab to do, but it will also provide additional information based on any highlighted text from the last tab. So if you highlighted an address on the previous tab then on this new tab it will provide an option to see that address on a map.



The other new concept that they're talking about is providing news in the tab area - this concept I'm not so keen on but it's still worth watching the video on it.

The Mona Leia

Reading /Film this morning, I noticed an amusing post they've made about an artist called Jim Hance.

He's produced a piece of work called the Mona Leia which is obviously an amusing parody of Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Now that's a pretty cool piece - worthy enough to be in any Star Wars collectors' collection.

eBay get Greedier

With the new fee increases eBay are planning to introduce next month it seems like they are trying to focus on businesses and Fixed-price auctions. Last time they did this a few months ago it caused a lot of sellers to boycott the auction site in protest of the price increased - and now they are set to do it again.

These latest price increases are geared more towards encouraging users to sell more items and have eBay shops - though this isn't any use for your basic auctioneer.

Overall, we are continuing our commitment to moving the cost of selling an item on
eBay.co.uk away from the front-end insertion fee and increasing the final value fees, so that
the majority of fees are paid only when you successfully sell an item.

What on Earth are they talking about? They've increased both prices! So I'm not sure quite how that's supposed to work. Their table shows their price increases with the 3rd column being current prices, the 4th column being new prices for non-shop sellers, and the following 3 columns being for eBay shops.

They ARE decreasing prices, but only if you're on of their featured shops, or anchor shops. Private sellers and small shops will (for cheaper items) be paying a lot more.

Final Sale Price	Final Value Fee (current)	Final Value Fee (new)
Item not sold	No Fee	No Fee
£0.01 - £29.99 £30.00 - £49.99	7.5% 4.5%	9.9%
£50.00 - £599.99	4.5%	5.9%
Over £600	1.9%	1.9%

It seems these price increases are to make up for the dwindling number of sellers after their last price increases just a few short months ago. Although a steady increase in profits is necessary for an ever growing company such as eBay it should probably not be done this way as it will only mean more people will eventually stop selling on the popular auction site. It may actually mean that eventually it will become impractical for private sellers (not businesses) to sell their "stuff" on eBay.

They're just too greedy.

CAD - Dual Braining

I'm a big fan of the Ctrl+Alt+Del web comic, if you've not heard of it or haven't been reading it lately you might not know that Tim Buckley has been doing little "sillies" lately.

I thought I'd link to one here as it's about Force Unleashed and Warhammer Online. Two great games!

http://cad-comic.com/sillies.php?d=20080823

Photosynth'd Machu Picchu

This year I went Peru, I took a load of photographs at Machu Picchu with the intention of stitching some of them together, here is the result (requires you to have Photosynth installed to view in 3D):

Jousting at Warwick Castle

Although I only went Warwick Castle last year, I decided to go again this year to get some pictures of the Jousting as it wasn't on the last time I went (though that time I did get to operate the Trebuchet).

This time I managed to take a lot of pictures of the jousting (which included sword fighting) and a few other shots around the castle such as one of myself holding a sword.

If you're interested in seeing some of the pictures, be sure to head over to the set on Flickr!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jedi58/sets/72157606908922249/

Stargate Universe

Just as we're told Stargate Atlantis is coming to an end and will be having a 2 hour pilot and series in 2009, we're also told that Stargate Universe - a third spin-off series has been greenlit.

The premise behind this third spin-off is that they are onboard a ship heading to the edge of the Universe with no way to contact home. At this point I'm wondering if I'm talking about a Stargate series, or Star Trek Voyager. Oh well.

Better outdoor portraits

I do enjoy taking photographs, and today I saw this video on how to take better outdoor portraits.



The video comes from "Pro Photo Life"

Star Wars Retrospective Episode VIII

This is the latest instalment in GameTrailers.com's Star Wars Retrospective.

I did play Galaxies for a short time, but stopped long before the NGE so I can't really comment on how it was after then, but it was fun before.

Don't forget the Force Unleashed demo is out today for Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles!

Red Alert 3 Trailer

Olympics 2008 - Monkey!

A Few more reviews lined up...

In addition to the Anime movies and games I mentioned previously that would be getting a review, I'll also be adding:

• Aeon Flux
• Blood
• Grave of the Fireflies
• Howl's Moving Castle
  
• Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
• Ninja Scrolls 10th Anniversary Edition

Hopefully some of you will enjoy reading them. Let me know if there's any films, anime or otherwise that you'd like to see reviewed here!

Free Coldplay song!

Coldplay.com are giving away a free MP3 of "Death Will Never Conquer". If you like the band you may as well go there and download it!

World Clock and Statistics

A couple of days ago I found this Flash application that shows statistics about our planet in "real-time". Quite cool, but I'm not sure how accurate it actually is as they can't possibly know the exact figures for certain. It does also have world times on it so that's quite cool.

Duke Nukem 3D blasts his way onto the XBLA

It looks like the release of Duke Nukem 3D for the Xbox Live Arcade might be closer than we thought. Xbox360Achievements.com have a list of the achievements in the forthcoming port which must mean it's close(-ish) to being ready.

	Piece of Cake	25
	Complete "L.A. Meltdown" on any difficulty or in co-op.
	Let's Rock	25
	Complete "Lunar Apocalypse" on any difficulty or in co-op.
	Come Get Some	25
	Complete "Shrapnel City" on any difficulty or in co-op.
	Game Over	25
	Complete "The Birth" on any difficulty or in co-op.
	Duke's Mighty Foot	10
	Step on 40 enemies after using the Shrinker on them.
	Looks Like Cleanup on Aisle 4	10
	Step in a pile of excrement.
	Shake It Baby	10
	Tip an exotic dancer.
	Oomph, Uugh, Where is it?	10
	Find 70 secret areas.
	Alien Maggots are Gonna Pay	10
	Finish the "Hollywood Holocaust" level in under 3 minutes.
	Gonna Rip Em' a New One	10
	Get 100 total kills in ranked Dukematch games (Online).
	See You in Hell	15
	Get 250 total kills in ranked Dukematch games (Online).
	Hail to the King, Baby	25
	Earn respect and get 500 total kills in ranked Dukematch games (Online).

Oh, I've waited so long to be able to play this game again! Don't know if any of you will remember it, but back when Dukeworld.com was going strong I was developing a Stargate total conversion for it called "In the Hands of the Serpent" which featured new levels, new enemies, new graphics, new music, and well new everything really. It was never quite finished, but I've still got a near finished version still sitting around on my harddrive - now if only it would work on the XBLA version I'd get it finished!!

It's time to kick ass and chew bubblegum, but I'm all outta gum...