Share the load

Can't. Stop. Saying it.

Prince of Persia

So it's that time again. Time for me to waffle on about how much I love a game I'm currently playing (there are much better/more important things to be talking about, I know). This time it's not from the Zelda, Katamari or Ico camps but from a francise I haven't before visited. I'm talking about the (apparently) classic games Prince of Persia.

Worryingly, I decided to buy this game having only seen one screenshot (see post about Jake Gyllenhaal) and nothing else, so it's to my great relief that I'm completely in love with it. Think of a cross between the illustrated beauty of Okami, crossed with the companionship of Ico and the broad lanscape and adventure of Shadow of the Colossus and you might have an idea of what this game is like. Oh and the cheek and borderline terrible wit of Han Solo and/or Indiana Jones in the shape of 'Prince' (you never actually learn his name and I resent having to call him that as it conjurs up images of tiny men in purple tights).

You play as 'Prince' who, looking for his beloved donkey Farah, stumbles into a drama between a Princess and her father, which ends in 'The Tree of Life' being destroyed and the subsequent release of a demon which spreads 'corruption' across the land. You and the Princess - Elika, join forces to restore peace and light to the land and ultimately banish the demon back into incarceration.

Whilst I have made comparisons to Ico, Elika is no Yorda. She is a princess with great magical power and with the ability to carry you across great distances, heal you in battle, attack enemies at will, rescue you from falling, and heal the 'corrupted' lands. In the words of Hilary Goldstein from IGN in her review: "This is a story about love. Not the love between the Prince and Elika, but between you and Elika". She is truly awesome. I have a slight crush on 'Prince' too... even if he is a bit buff and all... "These trousers were new!" (you'll get that when you've played it).

So yeah, I don't want to go on and on about it but I highly recommend this game and implore you to at list visit these sites to read more about it from the experts and then maybe buy it.

IGN review of Prince of Persia (XBox 360) - 9.3 (Outstanding)
Official Prince of Persia website - Ubisoft

I don't remember this episode...

Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe sneaks onto QVC

Contains rude words...

Hiphopopotamus

Fresh Prince of Persia

Click for bigger.

Fun with packaging

Vile.Vile. Vile. Vile. Vile. Vile. etc.

Who seriously fancies this man?

Sir David Attenborough Picture of the Day

So we're going to see the Boosh...

I was a massive fan of the first series and had a few laughs at the second but it has since descended into student-style in-jokes and fashionable band name-dropping now... not to mention Noel Fielding's head (and hair) getting bigger and bigger. However. I was offered tickets to see the live show in Portsmouth, and Bek and me sure as hell aren't missing an opportunity to see Julian Barrett in the flesh! Don't let me down, Moon.

Arnie gets everywhere

Found here.

Sir David Attenborough Picture of the Day

David Attenborough takes part in a stick-dance at a Qashqa wedding in Iran - part of a TV series in which he examined the importance of tribal art and tradition, which began in 1975.

A Message for Obama

“What do you want to say to Obama, now that he’s about to become President of the US? A greeting? A warning? Some sage (or silly) advice? An idea? Hold up your message to the camera and tell the world what you’d like to tell him.” — A message for Obama.

The Guardian set up a group on Flickr called A Message for Obama with the above message. If you get the chance to look through them, it's really interesting - especially some of the comments. There are a few bewilderingly controversial ones in there too...

Heidi Willis

I stumbled upon this lady's art just shortly after the post below so I apologise for it's repetitive 'botanical-art' nature... It's really beautiful stuff. See more of it on her official website.

About A 97-Year-Old Botanical Art Maestro

This guy's amazing...

"97-year-old Chikabo Kumada, known in Japan as a pioneer of botanical art, has made countless book illustrations and picture books about the subject. For 71 years (!), he’s been drawing the insects, animals, and plants that live in his garden and neighbouring woodlands. But only in his 70s his career took finally off! PingMag MAKE spoke to him about his experiences in life."

Midna cosplay

It's pretty clever how she did it. Read all about it here.

World of Warcraft mentalist

This man clearly lost some marbles some time ago:

"For my keys to send to all instances of WoW on my 11 computers, I use Octopus 1.3.2. Maximizer in Octopus allows me to start up all WoW instances at the same time or any individual instance such as if a WoW instance has crashed. It also allows me to shutdown all of the computers at the same time."

<-----This guy springs to mind, and to quote the old guy at the chicken farm in Napoleon Dynamite: "Son, I have no idea what you just said." AND if I could find her, he'd be getting a 'Greta' right now.

Do you know what makes it worse too? The super-positive comments after the article! "I wish you were my dad!!11". It's a sad world we live in...

Silent Hill: Homecoming

Well having read this review, seen some swanky screen shots and a rather atmospheric trailer, I'm really looking forward to playing this game. Release date Boxing Day? Double Helix marketing: you fail.

ID cards plan 'still on track'

The Home Office today denied that it was performing a "complete roll-back on identity cards by restricting trials to workers at just two airports.

Airside workers at all UK airports were due to be issued with ID cards from the second half of 2009 under the Home Office's delivery plan, which was published in March.

But Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, is now expected to confirm that there will be an 18-month pilot scheme at just two airports – London City and Manchester.

Her decision follows opposition from the Unite union, which argues that ID cards require fewer checks than existing security measures. The unions also argue that staff would have to pay £30 for a card to do their jobs – although cards would be free of charge during the pilot scheme.

Phil Booth of the NO2ID campaign said: "We are seeing a rather transparent attempt, I think, to save some ministerial face.

"The unions and the industry are clearly opposed to this and if the government were to try to force this on the 200,000 airside workers they had previously claimed, then they would find themselves either in court or facing industrial actions," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He added that the pilot scheme represented a "complete roll-back" from the government's original intention.

Non-EU foreign nationals who are students or marriage visa holders will be issued with ID cards later this month.

The Home Office's delivery plan, published on March 6, then states that: "From 2009, the scheme will be extended to UK citizens. The first ID cards will be issued to people working in specific sensitive roles or locations where verification of identity will enhance the protection of the public. This will start in the second half of 2009, with the issuing of identity cards to those working airside in the country's airports."

The Home Office said that the second half of 2009 would mark "the start of the roll-out" and that it was "still on track in that way".

Later today, the home secretary is expected to unveil plans for private firms, shops and the Royal Mail to bid for contracts to fingerprint millions of people for the new identity cards.

The government is aiming to contract out the task of gathering biometric data for new passports and ID to the private sector, according to the Daily Mail.

Applicants will have all 10 fingerprints and their faces scanned. The data will then be passed to the Identity and Passport Service to be stored on the new, computerised national identity register.

A Home Office spokeswoman confirmed that the government wanted to create a network of "convenient outlets" where people could easily go to complete the application procedures for the biometric documents.

Smith, who is delivering a keynote speech on ID cards later today, is also expected to disclose that the cost of the scheme - previously estimated at £4.5bn - is now closer to £5bn.

Booth warned that private companies were unlikely to be interested in bidding for contracts which would be scrapped if Labour loses the next general election.

Full story here.

Sir David Attenborough Picture of the Day

This 1961 image shows David and Elsa, the lioness, who became a household name after the release of 'Born Free' by Joy Adamson - a book describing the amazing story of Joy's relationship with this beautiful animal. David set off into the wild bush country of northern Kenya to film the lioness and her cubs for a BBC documentary.

So Obama made it...

I'm very cynical and generally believe that all politicians are w*#kers, so please sir, prove me wrong.

Still, as everyone has pointed out: the better of two evils.

Read/watch his speech here.

Prince of Persia and the Jake Gyllenhaal mystery

This game looks amazing and I can't wait to play it on the XBox 360. But that's not what I'm posting about. I'm confused. The picture above shows a fairly slender man with quite well-built arms and legs, right? So how did Jake Gyllenhaal end up making the following transformation for the up-and-coming Prince of Persia movie?

All I can say is 'shudder'. A bad shudder that is.

City in the Sky and The Temple of Time

Haven't got this far yet but, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy...

Sir David Attenborough Picture of the Day

The Night of a Thousand Shows in 2000 brought David together with the likes of Greg Dyke and Patrick Moore as Michael Parkinson and a celebrity audience celebrate the 40th anniversary of BBC TV Centre.

I don't know why, but this amuses me...

The evolution of Link

click image for bigger version.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

It's been a while since I had a rant about a computer game and an even longer while since a rant about the Zelda series, but here I am again. I've been playing Twilight Princess on the Gamecube so it's probably a paler version of its Wii form but it's amazing and beautiful nonetheless. I read in a review somewhere that the game was actually originally built for the Gamecube which is quite incredible really when you look at some of the graphics; beautiful landscapes in washed-out colours not too dissimilar to PS2 classic Shadow of the Colossus, very realistic looking water, and some breathtaking cutscenes.

Twilight Princess is definitely a game for hardcore Zelda fans. Unlike Wind Waker and The Phantom Hourglass, TP has used the old tried and tested land of Hyrule but has gone one step further than The Minish Cap and Majora's Mask by revisiting all the original places from N64's Ocarina of Time. Players can expect to visit Garudo Desert, Hyrule Castle, Death Mountain, Zora's Domain, Lake Hylia and Kakariko Village. The Zoras are back as are the Gorons, as well as some redesigned Poes and Skulltullas.

But if you think this will be the same adventure, you're sorely mistaken. This time our hero, Link, is a simple goat herder living on the outskirts of Hyrule, who gets drawn in to a quest to save his fellow villagers from the encroaching mysterious 'twilight'. Upon his first visit to this twilight realm Link finds himself transformed into a wolf, which may have been a hindrance had it not been for the help of his new friend Midna, a creature of the twilight but one with seemingly good intentions. It's now up to part-time-wolf-part-time human-Link and Midna to track down the source of the twilight and with a little help from the awesome Princess Zelda stop the ultimate destruction of Hyrule.

Old weapons remain: the Master Sword, Hylian (Hero's) shield, iron boots, slingshot, boomerang, arrows, clawshot and bombs. A few new weapons are intruduced: bomblings, water bombs, and the spinner. Oh the spinner. I can't tell you how much I love the spinner. I dream about the spinner. With this new weapon you can float for as long as the momentum can take you (much like chickens do if you grab one and launch yourself off of a tall building), but much more exciting than that you can travel at high speeds along tracks such as these:




















I've nick-named this the 'hover cog' and am so in love with it, I'm thinking about starting an internet phenomenon called 'Ligwit' aka 'Link is great, what is that...?!?!'



I don't want to spoil this game for anyone and if I waffle on any longer, I'm sure to, but suffice to say: this game is awesome. It picks up right where Ocarina of Time left off for giving me that feeling like I want to always be playing this game until it's completed... It's surely now going to be a tough decision choosing the best Zelda game. Recommended for sure.

Beautiful Official Site here.
Some awesome Zelda wallpapers here (Wind waker, The Minish Cap, The Phantom Hourglass style).

Sir David Attenborough Picture of the Day

Modest Mouse - Dashboard

For some reason there are no versions of this on YouTube that I can embed. But this is an amazing video (in my opinion)... Modest Mouse meets Uncle Albert...

Blast from my past

This meant nothing to me at the time, but now...!

The Hands resist him

The Hands resist him is a painting, painted by Californian painter Bill Stoneham in 1979. I recently found a thread about it online as well as a video which suggests that the painting maybe "haunted". I'm not too sure about this, but the picture really scares me!

The glass door behind the boy (who is flippin scary, and is also the painter age 5)is meant to represent the door before this world and the world of dreams, and the doll is meant to be the boy's guide through the door. The painting was put on Ebay in 2000, and the sellers also mentioned that the painting may be possessed and that during the night the figures leave the painting. The doll in the painting is also said to have turned red.

Ridiculous meme? Regardless of if this picture is haunted, the boy and the doll really scare me.

Wiki entry

A creepy video

Sir David Attenborough Picture of the Day