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...

A Short Love Story in Stop Motion

/Film's VOTD is a short stop motion video by Carlos Lascano that is actually really good. The production quality is simply awesome, but don't take my word for it - here it is:


A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

See what I mean? Brilliant. On his blog he has loads of production details about making it.

Star Wars - TIE Fighter attack renenacted in office

LOL! Brilliant.

Lightning strikes!

Whoah, that's close! Think the guy recording it about dropped the camera.

Drobo keeps your files safe

The Time Machine from Apple was a good idea, but in practice wasn't very good. Not only did they use hard drives more commonly known as "Death Stars" due to their high failure rate and the closeness of their real name to it (Deskstar) but when actually using them at work we had nothing but trouble with them and eventually sent them back for a refund. This alternative backup drive from Data Robotics seems much better and it allows them to be stacked, and can be connected to your network via an addon.

The safe, expandable Drobo storage solution protects your data against a hard drive crash, yet can expand dynamically at any time in just seconds. With nothing to configure or manage, Drobo is now the ideal solution for primary storage as well as backup.

Sounds pretty cool.

The Force.... Unleashed!

So, The Force Unleashed demo will be unleashed onto XBox Marketplace on Thursday which probably means there's going to be an awful lot of people downloading it that day - myself included. From watching the exclusive gameplay videos that GameTrailers.com have I did wonder if it's the sort of game that's going to be repetitive and whether it's going to be boring. But who am I kidding? It's Star Wars! With really cool Force powers! I MUST PLAY IT!

Far Cry 2 trailer

O..M...G that actually looks good. I had my doubts about another Far Cry as beyond the graphics in the first one, there wasn't much to it - but this looks good.

How-to: Subversion

Over on my web development blog, New Earth Online, I've published a new article on using Subversion for managing your code versions so that you don't lose anything you're working on.

Keeping code safe is important for any project whether it's big or small, and it can sometimes be important to revert changes - this is where version control comes in. Subversion is one of the most popular version control systems available and this article shows you how to use it in *nix or Windows.

Hopefully it should be nice and easy to follow and you'll be using SVN in no time.

Read "Subversion - Managing your code repository"

Review: Lost Odyssey

I didn't pick up Lost Odyssey immediately when it was released - I waited for a while due to the sheer number of XBox 360 titles that had been released around the same sort of time. Eventually I got round to starting, and finally I've completed it.

Lost Odyssey is an RPG with turn-based combat by the creators of the award-winning Final Fantasy series. Unfortunately I've never had the opportunity to play any of that series so did not know what to expect, or have anything with the same style to compare it to. I've played almost every RPG that Bioware have made to date, and really enjoyed Baldur's Gate and Mass Effect - so expected to compare it to those and Bethesda's The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I was wrong - it's not really anything like those games, this one stands alone (well not including the FF series anyway).

So, starting the game you get introduced to a "boss" battle immediately, but it's one where you can't actually lose so it gives you chance to get used to the turn-based style of combat. As the story unfolds it soon becomes clear that you're one of a few immortals, and one of two who survived the battle at the start of the game. The story unfolds as you're sent on a fact finding mission to see if the Grand Staff construction is to blame along with Seth (the other immortal), and Jensen.

To familiarise myself with how this compares to Final Fantasy, I decided to watch the Final Fantasy Retrospective on GameTrailers.com which explained nicely the history of the series, and the differences between each game in the series. By the time the developers got round to Lost Odyssey they've refined the combat system further. Originally in Final Fantasy, skills were learnt through objects rather than the character levelling up in the traditional sense. What happens here is that as characters win battles they gain experience and eventually level up - when this happens they gain more health and mana, but do not gain skills. Skill slots can be increased through items found in the game, and new skills are learnt by using items such as "Treasure Goggles" in battle. In addition to this, immortal's can learn their skills using the new "Skill Link" - which lets them learn skills from mortals that they are in formation with during combat. To increase attack damage there is a variety of weapons available, and a ring system that allows you to build rings to cause more damage with your weapon. For example, with enough magma in your inventory you can construct a Fire ring, and when equipped it will cause slight fire damage from a good or perfect hit.

The later Final Fantasy games had their mini-games such as cards that were either part of the storyline that had to be completed, or were optional elements that could be played as a distraction. In Lost Odyssey there are memories that you can remember through various points in the game and these form the "Thousand years of Dreams" which is a written story. Some of these stories are a little boring and I got fed up with reading them after a while, so decided to skip through most of them and read them after completing the game. Another feature followed from Final Fantasy to this one is the concept of having a ship that eventually gets converted so you go under water and through the sky in it - although you don't gain access this to much later in the game.


The story of the game is also very well written by award-winning Japanese novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu. As you play through the game you gradually get to learn more about Kaim's past as he does and by the end of the fourth disc you care about the character's fate. In fact, you'll feel kind of sorry for him by the end of the first disc - but I won't go in to any detail there.

In addition to the great story is a great soundtrack done by Nobuo Uematsu. It was so good in fact that I've now ordered the two disc soundtrack so I can listen to it whenever I want (definitely will be putting it on my iPod too).

The visuals of the game, especially the cut scenes are very well put together with every last detail being carefully planned out which really does put the Unreal Engine 3 to good use. It's not all special effects though, I know it sounds cheesy but I think in the case of Lost Odyssey they really do help the storyline especially during the cinematic moments.

Okay now onto the gameplay - there are several points which are quite slow such as when you're wandering around Numara. After a while the random encounters in the field get annoying when they start happening every few steps, and a few of the earlier bosses feel a little too hard for your character's level at that time - but persistence and luck gets you through it.

Rating: 4/5

Tomb Raider: Underworld trailer

Saw this video on /gamer, thought it was worth sharing!

Imperial Fleet in San Francisco (Star Wars)

Potter delayed until 2009

Warner Bros has just announced that they are moving Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from November 21st 2008, back to July 17th 2009. The reasons given are that the summer season is a more ideal window for for a family tent pole release, and that the writers strike left a big gap in the Summer calendar.

Well that's not good, so now we have to wait an extra 8 months to see it! I can't see the point really - there may be other good films out around that time but I can't see them putting much of a dent in the box office takings for Potter.

Highlander: The Search for Vengeance

When the original Highlander film was released the combination of the sword fighting and the Queen soundtrack quickly made it a hit at the box office. To this day the original film remains a cult classic, and remains a favourite among many fans. Four sequels and three television series later the franchise was becoming stale, and the last film offering was decisively unfaithful to the series roots as Duncan Macleod is one of the survivors in a world gone crazy as he searches for the "Source". I won't spoil the ending for you, but it is a really bad film with an even worse ending. Now Highlander: Search for Vengeance is something new - it is an Anime take on the series and is set in a similar time to the animated series that revolved around Quentin Macleod.

The start sets the scene and introduces us to a post-apocalyptic world full of warriors and mutants, where it's every city for itself. It is the tale of Colin Macleod and his ever lasting search for vengeance - hence the title. The animation style, and the artwork are really well done. Within the first few minutes we see our first animated sword fight, and a quickening to go with it - one that is a little more dramatic than we’re used to from previous films and episodes but of course it being animated the explosions can be bigger without the cost skyrocketing.

Another welcome change in this animated feature compared to the last couple of movies is that instead of the metal soundtrack it's gone back to it's roots of being rock although there is very little of it - most the music now is just ambient.

We learn that in this Highlander meets Mad Max world, things have gotten the way they are due to a terrorist attacks, and then eventually a virus that has started decimating the worlds' population. We also, in traditional Highlander flashbacks, learn that in 125BC in Scotland, Colin was to lead an army of Scots against Marcus Octavius who intends on enslaving them. Colin's love, Moya, is certain of their doom and poisons Colin to stop him leading them to war, and then gets into the Roman army's camp and "kills" Marcus Octavius (who is an immortal) who in turn wipes out Colin's army and kills Moya. It is this that causes Colin to spend the next few thousand years seeking vengeance against Marcus.

When we switch back to the "present" day, we find that the city Colin in is happens to be run by the immortal Marcus. Marcus also has his own flashbacks (unusual for us to see a villain's flashbacks) to 16th century feudal Japan where he gains the eternal gratitude of a female Japanese samurai. Shortly after Colin learns it is Marcus who is running the city and goes after him in the city's tower where he's hiding. This immediately rolls into another flashback to where Colin first goes after Marcus, but he is captured and then fights in single combat. Here he sustains an brutal slash across his face that leaves him dead for many days - but is not beheaded by Marcus due to Colin falling onto holy ground (which happens to be a stone circle, presumably Stonehenge). It is here that Colin comes across a druid and learns he is immortal and there are others like him. Just in case you're wondering why holy ground is so important, it's because it is a rule amongst immortals that they cannot fight on holy ground – the only place an immortal can be safe.

We're then treated to a thousand years of flashbacks as Colin chases after Marcus through the ages taking part in many a well-known conflict, but always failing to kill him. Then eventually they meet in battle, as is expected. The short fight scene is brilliant - I don't think I've ever seen a sword fight take place whilst the combatants are sliding down the face of a building and eventually to his "death".

I was dead, but it's not the first time.

-- Colin Macleod

He then explains to Dahlia, the girl he went to the tower with that he's an immortal seeking revenge for 2000 years because of the death of his wife. In a "dream", the druid then explains that throughout time the women that have been falling for him have all been Moya, but reincarnated. When he awakes he's back at the rebel's base and is treated as a hero who everyone knows is immortal.

The ending is way better than Highlander:The Source as well which is a definate bonus, and in this final battle Colin has something to fight for this time other than vengeance; the lives of every man and woman in New York. So of course as expected he wins, and the quickening has the unexpected effect of destroying the virus.

One thing to remember is that this is by the director of the Animatrix, and again he's produced something that is well worth watching. If you're a fan of the original Highlander movie, it's very likely you'll like this.

"The Thing" re-enacted using G.I.Joe

Boba Fet does Flashdance

Fresh Prince of Gotham

How Star Wars Episode IV Should Have Ended

How Star Wars Episode IV Should Have Ended

007: Never Gonna Give You Up

Reading /Film today, they've got this poster there that someone created - kind of like a "what if Rick Astley was 007". Now that would be a scary thought.

Daniel Craig would surely be a better Bond! Can't wait to see Quantum of Solace - should be good.

Upcoming Reviews

Continuing in my season of anime reviews, the following will be coming over the next few weeks:

• Ghost in the Shell 1 and 2 boxset - the first of these was one of the most influential films in it's genre due to it's seemless blend of computer generated imagery and traditional animation. It's $20 million sequel takes it's story from the Manga of the same name,
  
• Lost Odyssey - the award winning game for the XBox 360 by the creators of Final Fantasy,
• Akira - the most well known and critically acclaimed movie of the genre, probably most famous for it's bike,
  
• Princess Mononoke - one of the most popular anime movies in Japan, and directed by the famed Hayao Miyazaki,
  
• Spirited Away - directed by Hayao Miyazaki it was the winner of an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and was the first anime movie to win an Academy Award,
  
• Final Fantasy 7: Advent's Children - part of the compilation of Final Fantasy 7 series acontinuation of the game that many fans see as being the best in the series,
  
• Tales from Earthsea - the series loosely based on the 1st, 3rd and 4th books of the Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin
  

Already reviewed is the new Batman: Gotham Knights and the first volume of the Black Cat series. At the end of these reviews I'll be reviewing the new Origin: Spirits of the Past that is just being released on DVD in the UK with a special edition being released by HMV. These reviews will be available both on New Earth Online and Musing of a Developer.

Rick rolling Obama

What started as a prank on April 1st 2008, where user's would be duped into following links under false pretences only to find out it's a video of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up", became known almost immediately as being "Rick-rolled".

Now a video has been put together featuring various speeches from the hopeful future President of the US where his words from the speeches match the lyrics of the song.

I'm sure that must have taken ages to put together; but he's never gonna give it up.

Review: Robot Chicken - Star Wars

Let me just start by saying that I've never actually watched an
episode of Robot Chicken before, but I had seen various clips from this
Star Wars special on YouTube in the past.

The entire production is made using crudely designed dolls and
action figures in a humorous way. The first clip on the DVD that I
found particularly amusing is the one where Darth Vader telephones
Emperor Palpatine to explain that the Death Star has been blown up.
There are plenty of other memorable scenes too such as the one where
George Lucas visits a Star Wars convention and is rescued from the mob
of fans by another fan dressed as a Taun Taun. A lot of the sketches
are really amusing, but I can't say there were many I really laughed at
though this could be because it wasn't quite the same as British
humour. The viewing time of the episode is quite short as you'd expect
- it's about 30 minutes as opposed to their normal run of about 15
minutes. Family Guy's Blue Harvest may have spoofed Star Wars after
Robot Chicken but I think they did a better job of it.

In terms of special features there is actually quite a bit:

• Commentary by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich,
• An animation meeting with Seth Green where he discusses the various sketches,
• "Bumps" where various people from the production talk about the production,
• Promos,
• Behind the scenes,
• Alternate audio,
• Production design,
• Time lapse,
• Photo gallery,
• And Panel presentation.

It then includes 3 bonus episodes: Robot Chicken "The Deep End",
Harvey Birdman "The Dabba Don" and Frisky Dingo "Pimp my Revenue".

So, overall it's not bad even though it's not the funniest of Star
Wars spoofs I've seen. I'd only recommend this if your are a fan of
Robot Chicken or Star Wars.

Rating: 3/5

Kung Fu Red

Kung Fu Red is a new short by the people that made Ryan vs. Dorkman. It is well choreographed and is fun to watch - whether you like martial arts or not.

Edward James Olmos directed Cylon movie coming soon

Galactica Sitrep, a blog about Sci-Fi channel's Battlestar Galactica is reporting that when the series ends next year we'll continue to see more Galactica in the form of TV movies - kind of like Stargate SG-1 fans have with Ark of Truth and Continuum (by the way I'm a big fan of Star Gate).

Months before its final 10 episodes begin airing in January, we now know for certain that "Battlestar Galactica" will live on -- in the form of a two-hour special on the Sci Fi Channel to air in 2009 after the series concludes.

...The stand-alone will document the Cylons' attempts -- those of two agents in particular -- to grapple with human survivors, both those aboard ships and those left alive on planets, shortly after the Cylons' destruction of human home worlds.

So it's a flashback, but not all the way back.

So that sounds pretty cool, and apparently it will be directed by Edward James Olmos (Admiral Adama) so should be interesting to see how it turns out. I guess if it does well we may see more. Apparently the sales from the last Galactica movie, Razor, did extremely well domestically as well as internationally. Galactica's pretty popular over here in the UK too, so I'm not that suprised it did well.

White Knight 2 - The VSS Enterprise

Notice the name on the fuselage... Enterprise!! Hopefully commercial space travel will ignite enough interest in space exploration to actually get people doing a little more that just sending up the odd satellite. It's funny that people back in the 60's thought we'd be taking holidays on the moon, and people would be on Mars by now. Maybe someday... maybe someday soon.

Star Wars - A New Halo

Saw this, thought it was fairly amusing.

Review: The Dark Knight

The Dark Knight, well what can I say about it overall? I'd say it's a stunning film. I remember walking out the cinema after Batman Begins and being totally blown away by how cool a job Christopher Nolan had done, and it's no different with The Dark Knight. There are so many great scenes it's nigh on impossible to pick any single one as being the best.

Almost everyone has been raving about the amazing of performance of Heath Ledger as the villainous Joker, and I have to agree with them. You've probably seen the Tim Burton Batman movie - if so you'll remember the performance of Jack Nicholson as being a believable one of a madmen. Heath Ledger's performance I believe puts his to shame. One of the best moments for the Joker is his "magic trick" where he says he can make the pencil disappear and then proceeds to slam it into one of the mobsters eye. It's a sadistic, crazy thing for the Joker to do - but it's great, and the delivery of it just shows what a nutjob the Joker is - and again it's believable.

In the old films (2 by Tim Burton, and the terrible 2 by Joel Schumacher) they constantly redesigned the bat-suit and the batmobile for no apparent reason other than to try and make them look cooler. In TDK they don't do this, if there's a change there's a reason for it. Fans of Batman Begins commented on the batsuit being too bulky in it making it hard for Batman to turn his head - this was the only major complaint people seemed to have about the film, so in TDK the bat suits been redesigned to make it more mobile. This time it's explained by Batman finding it hard to turn his neck to see things coming (when he's attacked by dogs). We also see the introduction of the Batpod which turns out to be an escape pod for the Batmobile when it is destroyed by the Jokers attack in a lorry.

As with Batman Begins parallels with the Frank Miller version of the Batman origin story, The Dark Knight draw parallels with Jeph Loeb's "The Long Halloween" which told the tale of Batman, Commishoner Gorder, and DA Harvey Dent working together to bring down the mob bosses in Gotham until they retaliate against Harvey, scarring him both mentally and physically - turning him into the criminal Two-Face.

I found Nolan's interpretation of Two-Face to be believable as something that could actually happen to a person in real life due to the way it's told, and the way he is scarred. I did however find it surprising that they apparently killed Two-Face off at the end of the film - I'd assumed they'd keep him alive for possible reoccurrences. The death of villains is something I always found to be a mistake in the previous Batman films. Again the conclusion of the villains is similar to Batman Begins in which Scarecrow (who also appears briefly in TDK) survives and is sent to either Arkham Asylum or Blackgate prison (whichever they have in the Nolan-verse) and Ra's al Ghul is killed (though from the comics we know he can be ressurected by the Lazarus pits which he'd been using to sustain his life for hundreds of years). In TDK it is Joker who survives to be sent to Arkham, and Two-Face who dies.

I really can't fault the film and definately recommend watching it, even if it's only on DVD (when it's released).

Rating: 5/5

Review: 10,000 B.C. on DVD and Blu-ray

What can you say about a film like this? The point of the film is to not take it too seriously or look for historical inaccuracies - which there are many. So let's start with the basic plot. There is a narrator that tells us about this tribe of prehistoric man that hunts Mammoths at the same time each year, but in recent years it's been getting later and later. We then learn of a girl from another tribe who has survived a vicious attack from a group of outsiders that wiped her tribe out. The girl, Evolet is taken to the "Old mother" and a prophecy is told of an impending battle where Evolet would prove to be important. We then jump forward a few years and Evolet (played later by Camilla Belle) is to be the prize of whoever brings down the mammoth in the hunt. We learn D'Leh (played by Steven Strait) wants to win, not because he also becomes the chief of the tribe - but to win Evolet as the pair had secretly been in love for years. Okay, that's the first very cheesy part of the story - and some would probably say it's cliched too. It get's worse though. The hunt goes ahead and D'Leh, by accident, kills the Mammoth and wins the "prize" - but feels guilty about it as he didn't demonstrate bravery so hands back the white staff (which symbolises leadership) and gives up Evolet. Shortly after they are attacked by the same outsiders (of which some look Arabic, and some look Indian, but dress like the Monguls) that wiped out Evolet's tribe and they take her prisoner. D'Leh swears to bring her back and travels over the mountains to bring her back.

As soon as they get over the mountains the snow is left behind for dense jungle, okay a little strange but maybe possible, and make their first attempt here at freeing Evolet. The plan fails and they run for their lives through what looks like Chineese bamboo, with the intention of trying to save her again later. Again they give chase, but D'Leh falls into a pit where there's a trapped Sabretooth cat. He free's it, and in one the of the cheesiest moments of the film the cat decides to leave him alone instead of eat him. Like we didn't see that one coming. They then continue their tracking across the desert to where they find what looks like a South African tribe. They don't entirely trust D'Leh and his hunters, until the sabretooth cat turns up again and after seeing D'Leh it leaves them alone. Okay, that is waaaay to cheesy for me - it seems he may have gained a pet sabretooth. The other tribe decide he must be the chosen one who free the slaves from this other ancient civilisation that D'Leh's clan were attacked by. Confusing isn't it. They then proceed with their new allies and they come to where their enemies are building 3 great pyramids and a Sphinx. This is one of the most complained about bits by film critics as the pyramids were almost certainly not there in 10,000 BC even though there is the possibility that the Sphinx was. No points for historical accuracy there then. Oh, and whilst we're talking about accuracy there was no vegetation along the nile, like there would have been 12,000 years ago.

As more of the story unfolds we then get to another point which is just as cliched as many other parts of the story. Evolet dies, and then miraculously comes back to life. Yes, I've spoilt the ending - but at least it means there's no point wasting a couple of hours of your life watching this film as you won't get that time back. I got the feeling towards the end that Roland Emerich might have been deliberately trying to make the film cheesy - but that's just my thoughts on it.

The extra features on the DVD are pretty poor, though buying it from Play.com means it comes with a special limited edition film cell. It's a bit small though. For those that are actually interested, the special features include two short documentaries (less than an hour combined) a couple of deleted scenes, a "Digital Copy" of the film on the second disc.

Rating: 1/5

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

J K Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter series, last year produced a number of hand-written copies of "Tales of Beedle the Bard" - a book of fairytales given to Hermione Granger by Albus Dumbledore in the final book, The Deathly Hallows. The only handwritten copy of this book to go on sale fetched almost £2 million, and was sold to Amazon - all proceeds went to charity.

On December 4th this year the book is going on general sale, albeit in a more basic, printed manor by Bloomburg and Scholastic. There will be a Standard Edition in hardback for £6.99 RRP (though Amazon have it currently at £3.99), and a special Collectors Edition replica of the original for £50.00. The collectors edition is limited to 100,000 copies and will only be available from Amazon.

The Collector's Edition looks far more like the one's produced originally with the metal bits over the leather bound book, and comes inside a special velvet bag inside a large book-style box.

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven"

Quoth the raven, nevermore.