Anime
Review
Cowboy
Bedop:The Movie [Knocking on Heaven's door]
By
Lancer
If
you've never ever heard of anime before, Cowboy Bebop is the PERFECT
way, bar none, to get started. And while people who have seen the
series swear that it is the finest story told (animated or otherwise,
ever), the movie Cowboy Bebop: Knocking on Heaven's Door is every
bit as good.
The
premise: A bomb blast on a truck carrying a deadly biological
weapon wreaks untold havoc on a city in Mars, and the bounty hunters
on the space-faring "Bebop" are out to get the mastermind
(who incidentally has the largest price on his head EVER). At least,
that's how things will start...
The beauty of
Bebop has been in a very many things: the sublime artwork, the fluid
action sequences (you'll notice our hero Spike Spiegel moves almost
completely like Bruce Lee... and the fact that you can notice that
should tell you a lot), the beauty with which a simple story is told,
the characters, the music. You name it!
The
artwork and animation I won't mention because it has to be seen to
be believed. Studio Bones, who have some amazing titles to their credit,
are brilliant as usual... and you'll notice...
The characters,
every one of them, are incredible in that they are so completely human
- Spike, who's a bit of a doofus, Jet, who's a bit more of a doofus
for being eminently sensible, Faye Valentine who, besides being ravishing
is quite a handful, the insanely gifted hacker Ed, and even Ein the
dog! And there's still the mysterious man of evil who is Cool... and
Electra...
I
guess if there's one flaw, it's how some of the side characters get
cut out of the main loop rather quickly... but that's just if you
MUST find a flaw. The fantastic thing is how you start the movie,
get wowed all over by the action (which truly is breathtaking) and
by the end of the disc you sit back and go "WOW!" as the
credits roll and you realize it's not because of the fancy stuff..
it's because that there really was substance to go with all that style.
The
best part is that you can find a copy of the DVD at Rifle's Square....
which is more than you can say for most anime. Now, you have no excuse...
go get this movie!
<reviewer takes
no responsibility for riots at video stores for not subsequently finding
the animated series....>
Game
Review
Singles: Flrit Up Your Life
A Tragic "sims" clone,
Focusing on Romance
By Niloy
What do you get if you take the popular
game The Sims and expand its romantic features? A highly
appreciable game. The Singles: Flirt Up Your Life definitely
tried that approach, unfortunately, in vain. The game lets you control
the romantic involvement of two singles up in an apartment in a game-play
environment much like that of the Sims.
The
five men and women you'll be pairing here represent various types.
The career-minded manager guy might find himself paired with the cold-on-the-surface-boiling-on-the-inside
lady scientist. Or the slick ladies-man might move in with the shy
girl-next-door. Each pairing requires you to intuit the types of interactions
that each would most enjoy. Beyond that, the pairing of a messy and
clean Single creates its own problems.
Though
your roommates share the same types of needs and seek the same types
of satisfaction found in The Sims, much of the bathroom-going,
food-cooking, nap-taking action is automated. You can still direct
each individual shower if you wish -- trying to get two people up
and out the door in time for work will almost require it -- but the
real emphasis here is on building up the various types of relationships
that exist.
Singles
relate on different levels -- as friends, as romantic partners, as
lovers -- and it's up to you to build up each of these meters to unlock
new interactions which, in turn, allow for greater intimacy. This
loop is really the heart of the game and the interactions between
your roommates is genuinely fun to watch...at least the first dozen
times. At each new interaction, you'll be treated to a scripted scene
between the two potential lovers. The only complications along the
way arise when one of the roommates isn't pulling his/her weight with
the housework.
And though
that's really about it in terms of game-play there are a few other
options to consider. For one thing, your Singles earn skill points
as the game progresses. These skill points can be used to improve
your domestic or romantic skills or to improve the pay you bring home
from work every weekday. But these considerations of work or domestic
chores are incidental to the romantic aspects of the game. And since
the only pastimes in your house are cleaning the toilet or spending
some time with your lover, that's probably the way it ought to be.
That's
not to say that the more mundane aspects of management aren't interesting
or at least problematic, particularly when you consider it takes an
hour for one of the roommates to take a shower. Early on you'll need
to spend a lot of time repairing things. I appreciate that starting
characters should have the crappiest of appliances; it gives them
a reason to go to work. But to have a shower, toilet, stove and refrigerator
that break down on an almost daily basis is kind of ridiculous.
Eventually
you'll want to buy a better toilet just to keep from having to keep
repairing it. Though there are indeed several qualities of toilets,
there aren't too many types of items to buy for your home.
Sure, there are couches and tables and beds and TVs of various qualities,
and you can buy plants and paintings and appliances as well. The real
issue is that there's precious little that you and your roommate can
interact with. You can watch TV or have dinner together but the game
really could use lots more in the way of relationship-building objects.
More than just board games and chick flicks at least. (This lack of
variety is carried over into wardrobes as well; apart from their main
outfit, each Single wears the exact same outfits.)
I
think it's smart to expand on one particular aspect of life rather
than compete with The Sims' more general approach. And romance
is probably the best topic to try. But as a consequence of this romance
focus, the other areas of your Singles' lives seems pretty flat and
uninspired. Unfortunately, there's simply not enough depth in the
mechanics of romance here to compensate for the loss.
The game
excels in the area of graphics, though. The character models are superb.
The faces are quite realistic and are capable of a wide range of emotions.
The rest of their bodies ain't so bad either. It's hard to build game
characters that are both realistic and genuinely attractive but the
developers done that nicely. The environments are a bit of a step
down from the characters but they're not really the point, are they?
Since you can view the action from almost any angle with your free-roaming
camera, there isn't much to complain about.
The
apartment has large windows that look out on a very natural seeming
neighbourhood. The windows also allow sunlight into the house. The
lighting changes as the day moves on providing appropriate atmosphere
for morning, day, evening and night. While it's a nice effect, the
game snags and loads an entirely new light model rather than gradually
increasing and moving the sunlight across the house.
Sound
wise, we're treated to the same sort of unintelligible gibberish that's
found in The Sims. It's as charming here as it is there and
definitely allows you to fill in the content with your imagination.
Though this eventually gets repetitive, it's no where near as repetitive
as the club music that plays throughout the game.
The
main problem with the game is that it's not ambitious enough, relying
on the romance angle to generate initial interest without supporting
that with over the long term with compelling game-play. Though it's
interesting to manage a romance between two roommates, it lacks a
sense of complication. The path to reach the goal is fairly standard
and, once it's reached, there's nothing beyond it. At least in The
Sims you can focus on some other aspect of life.
Acer
Ferrari 3200
What do you get
the formula one racing fan who has everything? A Ferrari laptop of
course. Scuderia Ferrari and Acer have joined forces to bring you
the Ferrari 3200, a powerhouse of a machine with the style to carry
it off.
From the outset
you can see this is a machine that means business. The main styling's
the shiny red highly polished case that sets the scene nicely. Of
course in the real world it's going to be smudged with greasy fingerprints
in minutes, but it's still a beauty to behold if you are into that
kind of thing. Rather than just make a red laptop (why do laptops
always come in black or silver) the tale-tell sign that money has
been spent is the addition of the Ferrari logo that is sealed into
the finish- no tacky stickers here please.
To match in with
the top of the laptop the sides have also been painted red, however
open it up and you're dazzled by the silver interior with the odd
touches of carbon fibre to give you that racing car feel.
Mouse control
is a touchpad as standard or using an enclosed standard optical mouse
(also in red with the prancing horse logo). The keyboard has been
slightly curved, presumably for a more ergonomic design and there
are the usual Acer preset buttons to launch email, internet and two
programmable options of your own.
Under
the bonnet, you would be forgiven for thinking the unit actually is
a Ferrari, it certainly has the performance and power. Running the
latest low-power mobile AMD Athlon 64 processor 2800+ the machine
is no slouch. With a very square and therefore large 15-inch TFT screen,
an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 with 128MB dedicated video RAM, base system
memory of 512MB DDR RAM, scaleable to 2048MB, and a 80GB HDD it all
ensures a powerful machine inside, rather like the cars themselves.
The side of the
laptop presents a slot loading DVD-Super Multi drive that supports
DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-ROM and DVD-RAM and the drive seems
rather similar to the Apple PowerBook range tucked neatly out of the
way.
For the photographer
the machine also offers a 4-in-1 reader offering support for MMC/SD,
SmartMedia and MemoryStick. Rather strangely the memory card reader
doesn't include Compact Flash, used by most professional photographers
or the xD Picture card used by Olympus and Fuji the number two and
three in the market. Those ports are easily added via USB but it's
a minor bugbear at having another piece of plastic to carry around.
Connectivity is
offered via either inbuilt 802.11g wireless or Bluetooth while the
machine possesses more input/output options that Michael Schumacher's
podium finishes. As well as the DVD reader/burner and 4-in-1 memory
card reader there's also S-Video out, FireWire/IEEE 1394 and four
instead of the usual pair of USB 2.0 ports.
Obviously running
the large screen, DVD drive and input/output ports has a heavy effect
on battery life, but Acer still believe that the battery will give
you around three hours of usage and so far in tests we have found
this to be true. As long as you don't get too heavily involved in
Command and Conquer Generals or Morrowind, even gamers should find
this length of power satisfactory.
The unit runs
Windows XP Home Edition and it's a shame that this laptop currently
isn't shipping with either the Professional edition for the more network
and business savvy or in actual fact the 64-bit processor version
to take advantage of the AMD chip on-board. Admittedly through no
fault of Acer, Microsoft is still to ship the 64-bit version of its
OS, which is currently stuck in beta with a launch hopefully set for
later on in the year. While the Ferrari 3200 works perfectly well
with the OS at hand you can't help feeling that it's like one of the
prized Ferrari cars merely with a speed restrictor enforcing an under
80 miles an hour limit- but the underlying specification seems like
the ideal base for upgrading.
VERDICT
This is a great machine that looks good and more importantly has the
performance to match and a vast improvement on the previous Ferrari
model that Acer launched. However, you will pay a premium for the
Ferrari Red casing. If you are looking for even more power and technological
whiz for your money there are better alternatives on the market. That
said, nobody takes notice of a clapped out-mini do they? Gamers can
still shortlist it thanks to a great graphics system, but had there
been an OEM upgrade voucher for 64-Bit XP, that would have earned
this an award.
Source:
Internet
Review
by Gokhra
Cast
Mia
Thermopolis: Anne Hathaway
Queen
Clarisse: Julie Andrews
Viscount Mabrey: John Rhys-Davies
Joe: Hector Elizondo
Lilly Moscovitz: Heather Matarazzo
Lord Palimore: Tom Poston
Paolo: Larry Miller
Sir Nicholas: Chris Pine
Superheroes
are often a male fantasy whereas the princess myth fulfills the little
girls dream of glamour and a life lived happily ever after. So is
this movie only for little girls?
Beautiful Anne
Hathaway (Princess Mia) at 22 was a typical American teenager whose
mother raised her in a converted San Francisco firehouse where she
could slide down the pole every morning. Queen Clarisse of Genovia(Julie
Andrews) visited her to reveals that Anne is actually the queen's
granddaughter and next in line to the throne. Then she became a princess
following a well-crafted out ugly duckling to swan sequence.
In the sequel
she is still 22 and has becoe the princess of a kingdom the size of
a movie set. It is situated somewhere in Europe and populated by citizens
who speak American English except for a few vilallainous types with
British accents. Ever wondered why most of the movie bad guys have
British accents? In p[art 2 we are given a few more details about
Genovia which looks like a theme park rather like Disneyland.
So there is Princess
Mia, who is given a deadline of one month to either marry or forfeit
her rights to the throne. Mia is having a great time until she discovers
a typically creaky hidden staircase and spies on a parliamentary meeting.
She learns of a Genovian law stipulating she must be married if she
is to rule. The evil Viscount Mabrey (John Rhys-Davies) wants to disqualify
her because his nephew Sir Nicholas (Chris Pine) is next in line to
the throne and will ascend if she fails to marry in 30 days. Desperate
for a husband and learning that Queen Clarisse was perfectly happy
in an arranged marriage, Mia decides to marry for the love of her
country.
Using
a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation to view all available European
royals, Mia A suitable bachelor: Andrew Jacoby (Callum Blue) Duke
of Kenilworth. She accepts his proposal despite the fact that something
in the back of her mind keeps nagging her that an elusive "something"
is missing. Could it be that her heart sends mixed signals when the
supposedly bad guy Nicholas is in the room? According to her Nicholas
is all sneaky and smug……….and cute.
The good news
is that "Princess Diaries 2" does eventually come down on
the side of marrying for love rather than government. A cast of supporting
characters, including Mia's love interest and possible usurper Sir
Nicholas (newcomer Chris Pine) adds momentum that was missing from
the original as well as stronger laughs.
So maybe it is
not a movie only for little girls. It does have a decent fairy tale
like plot. It makes a nice change from the mindless explosions of
almost every other movie. There are quite a few solid laughs including
a scene where Mia has a party in her bedroom with all the girls enjoying
a good dose of mattress surfing. The movie ends up to be a smooth
and ultimately smarter sequel.
