Yes, you read that right… Civ junkies around the world are jonesing for their next fix… September 21st has been declared “Civilization 5″ day in Maryland. Evidently I’m in the wrong state for the true Civ junkies.
The new version looks to have had a serious facelift as well as some new mods to make things interesting… I’m sure it will suck time away just as well as the previous four versions and all their spinoffs have for me. The thought of having hexes instead of squares, the ability to have city-states, and a new system for dealing with politics and diplomacy… [drool]
I started playing when the first version was published in 1991… It was the end of college. And as I recall it caused more than a few (hundred) hours to disappear late into the night. Since then, I’ve played each major version and several of the side projects like Alpha Centauri and Colonization. Yes, I’m an addict. No, I’m not ready to seek professional help.
On September 21, I will get my next dose of Civ Fever and wear my lack of sleep proudly on my eyelids for a few months. We’ll see if my family disowns me during that period.
Any other Civilization freaks out there? If so, leave me a comment…
–Fitz (aka Fitzurabi, Fitzazulu, Fitzinator… You have to have cool names when you’re ruling an entire civilization for a few thousand years!!)
Howard Jones has been a part of the soundtrack in my head since the 1980s. With such an amazing career with tracks such as “Things Can Only Get Better,” “What Is Love?”, “No One Is to Blame,” and “Everlasting Love,” his synthesizer pop sound seemed to do no wrong as New Wave album after awesome album appeared on the pop charts. Even today, it’s impossible for me to hear “No One Is to Blame” and not sing along in the car.
Even in his mid-50s, Jones is still touring and playing music for his worldwide fans. His songs have appeared in several movies and video games over the last 30 years and there’s just some endearing quality about his talent and personality that keeps him and his music in the limelight.
1984 seems forever ago, but “Like to Get to Know You Well” was a worldwide hit on The 12″ Album. He followed it up with “No One Is to Blame” in 1985 on Dream into Action, the Action Replay EP in 1986, and my favorite album – Cross That Line in 1989 with “The Prisoner” and “Everlasting Love.” Back then, MTV was actually a place to watch amazing music videos such as Jones’ video for “Everlasting Love” featuring a pair of mummies seeking the perfect relationship.
Now he’s releasing a new album – Ordinary Heroes – which provides the same Howard Jones we know and love but with a bit older, wiser, and more introspective flair. He still loves to write about love (“Even if I Don’t Say”, “Love Never Wasted”, and “Someone You Need”), but now he is mixing in songs about children growing up and going out on their own (“Soon You’ll go”), the unrecognized heroes all around us (“Ordinary Heroes”), and the lives of ordinary people (“Straight Ahead”). All ten tracks on the album are wonderful, providing glimpses of an aging Jones who seemingly hasn’t lost a single step since I heard him in high school.
My favorite song on the album by far is “Soon You’ll Go.” There’s something about the concept of watching your children grow, change, and leave the nest that’s one of those amazingly consistent themes of life. Even the recent Toy Story 3 release deals with it in an emotional, yet inevitable way.
“Tiny fingers clutching round the edge of the bed / Wouldn’t listen to a single word your mother said… These things I will hold on to / when I can’t hold on to you…” Howard’s lyrics bely simple sentiments, based in the memories each parent has of their children from birth to the time they move on with their lives. And the piano, Jones’ voice – backed by a choir – and the obvious emotion just emphasizes the story of the lyrics.
“Ordinary Heroes” – the title track – is my other favorite. “Ordinary heroes / There’s one one on every street / You might not recognize them / ‘Cause they’re just like you and me…” Jones focuses on the people behind us, making us strong and safe. The mothers and fathers, wives, and family that make us who we are. Jones’ voice, piano, and a nice acoustic guitar melody woven through the composition reinforce that none of us are truly alone if we look hard enough.
Thoughout the album, Jones’ piano skills lend themselves from the upbeat tunes to the slow songs and his voice sounds just as good now as it ever did. Howard Jones continues the legacy of the ’80s and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down or losing his touch.
If you’re a Howard Jones fan or are simply looking for something more hopeful and upbeat than the current songs beating the airwaves senseless, I’d encourage you to give Jones’ Ordinary Heroes a listen!
For more details about Howard Jones, his albums, songs, or tour dates, be sure to check out HowardJones.com.
Yes, you read the title correctly. Evidently there’s a reboot of the Mortal Kombat movies based on the video game from the ’80s and ’90s. The new movie may be called Mortal Kombat Rebirth. This doesn’t look like the fun, arcade game-inspired movies that I actually enjoyed way back when… This looks like the movie studio (Warner Brothers) means business.
What do you think? There’s a bit more information in the G4 post where I saw this news and the teaser/trailer.
With big names like Michael Jai White and Jeri Ryan… maybe this might be good?
I actually think that, though this is uber-violent, it might actually provide an interesting setting. A more realistic world where freaks, monsters, and killers compete. Yeah, I get that it’s kind of childish to want to see these folks fight. But it might be fun… Who knows?
This past March, Telltale Games released the first episode of four for a new game along the lines of their Sam & Max series. Based on the Wallace & Gromit series of short and feature-length stop-motionanimated films from Aardman Animations, Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures is a shared venture between Telltale Games and Aardman. They’ve created an interactive computer adventure game where you get to control either Wallace or Gromit as they work their way through a number of challenges as they try to sell honey, create contraptions, and deal with a variety of odd characters as you would only find in Wallace & Gromit’s world.
I would liken this game to something along the lines of the various “Quest” series from Sierra Adventures back in the ’80s and ’90s (King’s Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, and so on) mixed with the complexity of the Infocomadventure games rom the ’80s (,em>Zork, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Enchanter, and so on). Somewhere among these games are the virtual parents of Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures.
Each episode is being sold not only for PC/Microsoft Windows machines, but also for XBOX on XBOX LIVE Arcade sometime in the future. The content should be identical between the versions, but the XBOX version won’t be available for a while yet.
The animation, though computer-generated, is amazingly like that of the Wallace & Gromit animated features. You’d almost swear that you were in fact controlling the characters in one of their cartoons. So as far as the look and feel, they’re spot on. But the voice of Wallace in the game sounds different to me than the voice used in the Aardman features. Peter Sallis has done the voice of Wallace in most of the Aardman features, but unfortunately he wasn’t available for the game. The voice actor in this case is Ben Whitehead and he can do a pretty spot on impression of Wallace, but it’s not quite the same.
The interface to me is a bit dodgy at times. I have to admit that I have not played any other game from Telltale Games, so I’m not sure if it’s the same interface they used for Sam & Max, but it involves a great deal of fiddling around to get in the right place so you can click on the right things. You use the arrow or WASD keys to move the character around, the shift key to interact with your inventory, and then use the mouse to interact with objects and characters. My earlier comparison to Infocom games was based on the fact that you almost have to be a kleptomaniac to figure things out, stealing things from devices, or on tables or bookcases, and then using them to work around various puzzles.
This game is definitely not meant for the kiddies, and not from a content perspective. My daughters (ages 4 and love Wallace & Gromit and always enjoy their features. But the puzzles are definitely a bit more difficult than some of the other puzzle games out for kids on PC or XBOX. I’m an experienced gamer (have been playing ever since I had an Apple II in 1982) and I even had difficulty with some of the puzzles. The good thing is that there are hints and if you get stuck, you just have to listen to Wallace to see if he can get you going in the right direction. Telltale anticipates that each episode will take between three and five hours of gameplay to finish, which isn’t bad at all.
Overall, I think this will be a great property for Telltale Games. There are Wallace & Gromit fans all over the world who will snatch up this series, and with as popular as the Sam & Max series is for them I anticipate Wallace & Gromit’s Grand Adventures will be another another blockbuster.
A month ago, I had an opportunity to review a new computer game for preschoolers from Knowledge Adventure (you can see the review here). Having purchased other Knowledge Adventure games in the JumpStart series in the past, I was familiar with their work and knew it would probably be pretty good and my girls would enjoy it.
Now I’ve had a chance to check out a new game from Canadian publisher Kutoka called Didi & Ditto: Mother Nature‘s Visit (Preschool). Until now, I had never seen any of their games before, so I was curious how their approach to educational software differed from that of Knowledge Adventure.
Well, when I first installed the game, I ran into a few issues running it on one of our machines. However, Kutoka’s support staff (thanks Mathieu!) was very helpful in getting us running on a different machine. Though we’re still not quite sure what was going on, we’re confident we will get to the bottom of the issue before too long.
That said, the game installed very quickly on our other machine from the DVD in the package. And from there my daughter and I were able to start the game and work through the opening menus.
Though we liked the disappearing clouds as we worked through the menus, I have to wonder at the number of options for your usual 2-4 year old. I suspect that their thought was that a parent would be present to help them get set up, but it might still be nice to have a quickstart option to perhaps use the same settings used the last time the game was run.
The story for Didi & Ditto: Mother Nature’s Visit (Preschool) is that the animals get a message from Mother Nature announcing that she’s coming to visit Smart Valley. They want to have a celebration and decide to hold an election to choose a mayor who will plan it. Zolt the Wolf loses the election and he’s mad. To get his revenge, he breaks all the musical instruments and hide the food in an attempt to ruin the party. Zolt thinks he’ll be able to step in as the hero to save the day when Mother Nature arrives.
Didi and Ditto see Zolt’s strange behavior and one watches Zolt while the other helps Hootdini the Owl to gather everything together again. The player gets to choose whether to play the girl (Didi) or the boy (Ditto) and run around Smart Valley so that Mother Nature has a great visit.
The opening movies are interactive and allow the child to jump right in to be involved in the story. I think this is a great approach, rather than watching a long movie where they aren’t involved at all.
The game includes many different min-games, including:
Matching Games
Alphabet Skills
Counting
Shapes
Colors
and Sorting
The biggest difference for me between Didi & Ditto and the JumpStart game is how mousing is handled. I thought it was difficult for my 3 year old to learn to navigate with the mouse in JumpStart. Not so with Didi & Ditto. It starts building the mouse skills right from the opening sequence and it was interesting to see my daughter pick up on the subtle feedback on screen. The mouse feedback is such that it provides a nice wide target area for clicks and the color of the pointer changes when you’re on a place you can click.
Also, keyboard play was great as well. Building hand-eye coordination in the form of a very simple arcade game, she had to hit the key to make the character jump at the right time. By the end, she had it down and was enjoying herself. But it was easy to get the hang of it.
The 3D graphics for the game also have a nice clean look with lots of creative, colorful characters to interact with. And, your child can pick whether they want to play a boy or a girl. Plus, lots of positive feedback makes them feel like they’re making progress and learning all the way along.
There were a few things I didn’t really like, though my 3 year old didn’t seem to care. One was the repetitive nature of the screens. Each screen had a few things to do, and then we’d go back to the signpost, pick another destination, and repeat it for the next screen. Again, she didn’t seem to mind the reinforcement.
The other thing I noticed was that the main character seemed to talk down to the kids, which may have just been a perception issue with the slow, deliberate quality to how they were talking. But my daughter didn’t seem to mind it at all, so it’s probably just me.
The only thing that really frustrated my 3 year old was trying to “catch” letters in the net. She’s developing a two-handed mouse technique for now, moving it and holding it still with one hand and using the other to click a button, which makes it difficult to move and click quickly. But I’m sure she’ll get the hang of it before long.
Really, Kutoka seems to have a great feel for how to get children starting to use the computer. The beautiful, three-dimensional world is just an extension of our own world for them and they can feel safe as they learn to use the mouse and keyboard and explore all the skills they’ll need as they go into kindergarten.
Except for the glitch we’re still working to resolve, this was a great find and a game that I know my daughter will enjoy for the next year or so as she gets ready to go to school. It’s available for both PCs and Macs, so if you have a computer and a preschooler at home I’d encourage you to take a look.
Didi & Ditto: Mother Nature’s Visit (Preschool) has its own web site, where you can get additional information and see some other Kutoka products. For now you can purchase the game from the Kutoka website directly, though it looks like the game may be available on Amazon sometime in 2009, as many of Kutoka’s other games are available there as well.
As a fan of the Resident Evil movie franchise, I was very curious to see what Resident Evil: Degeneration looked like. Completely done as computer generated animation, this movie picks up seven years after Raccoon City was destroyed.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Resident Evil backstory, let me provide some context. In 1996, Resident Evil (originally named Biohazard in Japan) was released on the Sony Playstation. It was a huge hit that has spawned multiple games (including Resident Evil 5 due out in 2009) as well as movies and other media. In 2002, Milla Jovovich starred in the first Resident Evil movie and has since gone on to star in two sequels.
Rating:
In the games and movies, a huge multinational corporation known as the Umbrella corporation had created Raccoon City, which was an entire industrial complex, complete with underground labs and above-ground fully functioning city. Unknown to the inhabitants of Raccoon City, deep below in the underground labs, Umbrella bioengineering scientists were working with something called the T-virus and it was accidentally released. The T-virus kills the infected person or animal and turns them into rampaging killer zombies, who can then infect others by biting them.
Resident Evil: Degeneration picks up seven years after Raccoon City was quarantined and destroyed by a nuclear weapon. A terrorist organization had gained access to the T-virus and was releasing it in small areas to test its effectiveness as a bio-terror weapon. To say the least, it was very successful.
Claire Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy, two of the rare survivors of Raccoon City are drawn into the intrigue as the airport in Harvardville comes under attack by a rogue warrior seeking revenge for the death of his family at Raccoon City. And as if the zombies created by the T-virus weren’t enough, the deadly G-virus is also released and creates a new rampaging mutant.
Though this movie follows the traditional Resident Evil plot of showing normal life or survivors, setting the T-virus in motion and releasing the zombies, and then fighting the big baddie at the end, I was shocked and amazed that a totally CGI movie that focused on human characters actually worked and worked well.
The animation was unbelievably detailed. A few scenes provided close-ups of characters where you could see skin, hair, and pores on generated characters for a photo-realistic touch. Fire, smoke, and dust were all extremely well rendered as well.
There are a few scenes where you still get that “video game” feel as you watch characters haltingly walk down hallways, guns or weapons drawn. But it’s improved markedly since the beginning of the CGI-created characters in video games.
In addition to the movie, the DVD includes a few odd extras.
The “The Generation of Degeneration” features interviews Makoto Kamiya and other CAPCOM staff as they talk about the film. It was interesting to hear why they used English voice actors for the motion capture and how they created the film itself.
“Character Profiles” provides a bit of text for each character in the film along with a video or photo profile taken from parts of the film.
“Voice Bloopers” was very strange. I think the creators of the movie wanted to try and introduce a blooper reel and this was about as close as they could get, reusing clips from the movie and simply adding “funny” voiceovers in places that were more odd than funny.
“Faux Leon Interview” was another odd feature. It had someone interviewing a guy dressed in a motion capture suit and riffing on what it was like to play Leon S. Kennedy.
“Resident Evil: Degeneration Trailers” provides the various movie trailers used for advertising the movie.
“Resident Evil 5: Special Footage” shows what the new Resident Evil 5 video game will look like when it is released in 2009. Two trailers for the game are included: one from the Tokyo Game Show 2008 and the other that was released as a special theatrical trailer. Both show off the amazingly smooth animation and motion mixed with gritty gameplay. Hopefully the next animated film will be done in a similar style.
“Previews” included on the DVD include trailers for Grudge 3, Vacancy 2: The First Cut, Boogeyman 3, Screamers: The Hunting, Red Sands, Zombie Strippers, and Starship Troopers 3: Marauder. I might have to check out Red Sands and Starship Troopers 3: Marauder when they come to DVD!
Overall I was very impressed with this movie. It didn’t pretend to be anything it wasn’t, but it proved how far CGI technology has come in a very short time and was a fun movie!
So check out Resident Evil: Degeneration on DVD on December 27, 2008!
Wow. It’s been a while since I had to admit an addiction to a game. Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Civilization 2, 3, and 4 are the most recent forms of addiction for me, but I have to add a new one…
Do you know what this game does to a roleplayer like me? It taps into some subconscious need to not only play UPS or FedEx driver, but it drives me to reload each time I die just so I can kill the monstrosities or bandits that happen to have sealed my doom…
Saphrym talked about it on his blog a while back. I waited. But evidently not long enough. This thing has created an itch I have to scratch!
It sucks you in so innocently… You start as a baby, grow up in the Vault, and then start chasing your Father down across the Wasteland. One thing leads to another and you get irradiated, blown up, shot at, eaten, stung, and who knows what else.
The images are clean and crisp (until of course you have radiation poisoning and you start getting blurred vision) and you do your best to not stare at the scenery too long or a sniper might get a lucky shot at you from a hidden position… It’s Oblivion all over again. [sigh]
Lucky for me I’ll get a break when I’m gone to Germany next week. But I’m guessing you’ll be seeing more updates from the Waste before I’m done.
If you get addicted to video games like Oblivion, stay away from Fallout 3. It’s insanely addictive. Insane. I can stop any time! Any time I say! Ha hahahaha hahahahahahaha!
[Sounds of sirens can be heard as the men in the white suits come to fit me for a snug fitting jacket...]
–Fitz
p.s. Whatever you do, don’t click these links to pick up this game from Amazon!
I don’t usually play a lot of Nintendo DS games. My wife and son usually take the honor of playing these games. However, recently I bought the DSgame “My Japanese Coach” for my son to get him more exposure to languages. After putting in the game and getting him setup as a user he was given a basic test to rate if and how much Japanese he knew.
Since my wife speaks some Japanese at home, and I speak some also he actually got a lot of the basic questions which was a nice surprise to me. At this point the game basically is broken into “lessons” and the first section is lessons 1-29. My son moved to lesson 5. For the next hour or so my son was consumed by the games and lessons and moved ahead 3 or so lessons. He retained a lot of the new words (maybe 30 or so) and was speaking and could understand them.
He took off to bed in the normal routine and after charging the DS a bit I took my turn. I have been speaking and studying Japanese off and on for about 16 years or so after I took it in college. I think of myself as mid-intermediate. I set up my account and took the test. I jumped to a lesson and took off.
My initial through (before I even opened up the game) was that this was pretty easy stuff and more for kids to use to start to learn a language. Wow was I wrong, and for the better. I was sucked into fun games, lessons, and training and really started to get into it. At the higher level it goes into verbs, adjectives, and the different writing styles (katakana, hiragana, and some Kanji).
This along with the game able to recognize Japanese writing was a really nice challenge. The writing system goes slow where you trace the characters with the stylus and after you trace it a few times it fades away and you have to write it without help. Even though I know all of the basic characters it really was nice to be able to practice my writing in a controlled manner. Then there are games to backup your writing with recognition games and speed.
I was only playing the game for few hours and I am only 10% in, it looks like! The difficultly slowly raises, but it is a fun and an interactive way to memorize and retain the language. If you have kids or your want to study a language this is a great way to start the adventure. I have only done the Japanese version and do not know how the other versions of the coach compare.
Sayonara…
Andrew
p.s. If you’d like to pick up this game from Amazon, click here:
Each time I see the promos for Max Payne, I get a little more interested. It looks like a combination of Constantine (which was panned, but I liked it) and a cop movie.
This is the first time that I’ve seen a comic approach to setting up the story online however… Check out this clip from IGN. It overlays a graphic novel approach with clips from the movie to give just a little bit of a feel for the backstory.
Let’s hope that Mark Wahlberg can pull this off. The story looks compelling. Hopefully the action will be too.
October 17 at a theater near you. Check it out. I know I will.
Music Review: Red Velvet Car – Heart - Hi again… Nothing beats live music. Hands down, the live experience trumps any audio or video recording I’ve ever seen of an artist performing. That said, the next best thing is a concert recording,... […]
DVD Review: Batman: The Brave and the Bold – Season One – Part One - Hi all! Though I’d seen a few comic books in my youth, my first exposure to the Batman phenomenon was in 1989 when I saw Tim Burton’s Batman on the big screen. From that moment on, Michael Keaton... […]
DVD Review: Rock Slyde - Hi there… Rock Slyde aspires to be a noir detective flick in the vein of Raymond Chandler‘s stories or the classic Steve Martin comedy Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. To say it missed the vein completely... […]
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There used to be an Amazon ad here, but since Amazon and the state of Colorado can't agree on how to handle taxes, they've blocked my affiliate account. From now on or until this is resolved, links to products will be through Barnes and Noble.
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love Wallace & Gromit and always enjoy their features. But the puzzles are definitely a bit more difficult than some of the other puzzle games out for kids on PC or XBOX. I’m an experienced gamer (have been playing ever since I had an ![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_c.png?x-id=9b6ba9b3-cd93-41f1-a809-2bdf229d4514)
Well, when I first installed the game, I ran into a few issues running it on one of our machines. However, Kutoka’s support staff (thanks Mathieu!) was very helpful in getting us running on a different machine. Though we’re still not quite sure what was going on, we’re confident we will get to the bottom of the issue before too long.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=b3fb0b09-b00a-42db-a022-0bbdd575fa01)
For those of you unfamiliar with the Resident Evil backstory, let me provide some context. In 1996, Resident Evil (originally named Biohazard in Japan) was released on the Sony Playstation. It was a huge hit that has spawned multiple games (including Resident Evil 5 due out in 2009) as well as movies and other media. In 2002, Milla Jovovich starred in the first Resident Evil movie and has since gone on to star in two sequels.
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