The Ephemeric

song of the day: "Build Voice" by "Dan Deacon"

thing that makes me smile today: Obama completely burning Ed Henry. These journalists are clearly used to a President who keeps putting his foot in his mouth, but no longer.

pic of the day:

IN:
Bromst
West Middlesex
Michael Grandage

OUT:
Spiderman of the Rings
Chelsea & Westminster
William Shakespeare

Directed by Zack Snyder
Written by David Hayter (screenplay), Alan Moore (comic)
Starring Malin Åkerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson
Release date(s) 6th March 2009
Running time 163 minutes


Well it is finally here. After 25 years and so much hype, a lot of it coming from me (and I previously listed Watchmen on the 'hot tips' for 2009 post), Watchmen finally hit the cinemas yesterday amid a frenzied media blitz. Indeed unless you've been living locked up in your bedroom for the past few weeks you will have seen this film being mentioned, and hyped up, everywhere you look. I can't even walk out of my flat without seeing billboards plastered everywhere and commercials on tv and newspapers everywhere.

This degree of hype can be dangerous for a film, particularly when the source material is as revered as the original graphic novel in this case. I could prattle on for hours about how the book redefined the genre and the legacy it created, but frankly it would distract from the real focus of this article, the film in question.

Similarly I'm not going to go down the road many of the hackier reviewers have gone down in spending most of the review comparing this film to the Dark Knight. It's simply not relevant and the two are very different prospects. The Dark Knight was an original film idea with comic book characters, but it would have worked just as well as a crime drama with regular people. Watchmen on the other hand is a direct adaption of a comic book, and it has to be, in keeping with the main focus of the graphic novel, a psychological and sociological deconstruction of superhero archetypes and the genre in general.

SPOILERS - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Now there are two ways to evaluate the success of this film. First we look at how well they manage to adapt the book to the screen, no easy feat considering the depth of some of the darker themes in the graphic novel. Secondly one has to look at how well it works, simply as a cinematic experience in its own right.

First, how faithful of an adaption is it? It is pleasing for anyone who has read the comic to see that Snyder has treated his source material with complete reverence, almost to the extent where the film feels as much a tribute to the comic as an adaption of it, filled with nods to the original's fans. Now this is really neither a good thing nor a bad thing, just a risky thing. Fortunately while the film is full of this fan service, it never starts forcing it down the audience's throats, and so manages to avoid alienating first time viewers and those who have never read the book.

However, it is clear that a fair bit of the book is lost in the translation. The characters in this film simply are not developed to the extent that they are in the book. You don't get enough of an impression on how much of a pathetic loser nite owl is, and why he needs to be a hero so bad. In this film he is presented more as a standard everyman type. You don't get a good feel of the relentless idealism of Rorschach, making his principled stance in the film's finale, even in the face of certain death, seem almost out of character, just because his character has not been as fully established as in the novel.

Most crucially however, the comedian is not fully developed here. For me, the real highlight of the book is the comedian. He does some seriously horrendous and abhorrent things, but in the book you get more insight into his tortured mind, overwhelmed by the absurdity of the world around him. As the comedian puts it in the book, "once you realize what a joke everything is, being the comedian is the only thing that makes sense". You simply don't get this in the film, where the comedian comes off to first time viewers simply as a villain, a bad guy.

A 12 book series full of deep character development and complex themes was always going to be impossible to make a 100% translation to cinema, as with most book to film adaptions, and so this is to be expected. As a result it is hard for me to hold this against the film, but it is worth mentioning when considering why one of the most complex and deep comics of all time might not be so revolutionary on screen.

At the end of the day, Snyder has done a simply amazing job of getting as much of the book as possible into a film, so while it might be missing some of the depth of the book, it's a film so it's really all that could have been expected.

However, as a film in its own right, Watchmen is truly excellent. This film is a feast for the senses. The visuals, the direction, the cinematography, all are nothing short of breathtaking for the full duration of the movie. The soundtrack is stellar, and works perfectly (aside from Hallelujah during the sex scene) and Snyder does a miraculous job of telling a good deal of story in the time allowed, particularly in the inventive opening credits sequence set to the backdrop of Bob Dylan's 'The times they are a-changing".

The performances are generally very good too, and bring the beloved characters to life. Jackie Earle Haley is simply perfect as Rorschach and is rightly earning high acclaim for his performance, with many comparing it to Ledger's immortal Joker. I won't go that far, but his is still an amazing performance, truly Haley IS Rorschach. Patrick Wilson and Jeffrey Dean Morgan are also nuanced and exemplary as Nite Owl II and the Comedian respectively, but for me it is Billy Crudup's Dr. Manhattan that is the most impressive performance. Understated yet powerful, the computer graphics in this film mean Crudup is robbed of his eyes, which as any actor knows is a tall order for conveying emotion without. That he manages such an affecting performance without them is pretty special.

Really the only performance I was not so keen on was that of Ozymandias, who to me just didn't look right for the part, looked far too weazly and sinister, and the german accent didn't help, it all just made it seem to me a little too obvious that he was a bad guy, although admittedly it's hard to judge since I already knew the end of the story going in to this movie.

Now undoubtedly a lot will be said about the modified ending, however I have to say I did not like it. Don't get me wrong, I DON'T like the squid, and I think the idea behind this ending is a lot better, but I just don't think it was very well done. Considering how brutal and uncompromising the rest of the film is, the final scenes of destruction and chaos seemed a little flat and scaled back. They simply don't convey the magnitude and horror of it all, in the comics you literally see a gruesome sea of dead bodies, in this one you don't get any of that, it just looks like any old sci-fi movie sequence of destroying a city. It's Snyder's only real miss in this movie, but it is a shame nonetheless.

All in all, it is hard to dislike this movie, despite its flaws. As a film it only contains such minor flaws, and the only real complaints I can level at it regard the loss of depth from the novel, but quite frankly if you expected perfect transition of all that detail then you clearly know little about films, and so it is hard to hold that against this film.

This is simply, about as perfect a film as could ever have been made for Watchmen, and Snyder has pulled off something very impressive indeed, just don't expect it to equal the achievement of the graphic novel.

I like my new digs. It's weird to be back here again, especially with so many people who used to be in my life last time I was here who are now gone, either graduated, changing uni, or just plain vanished off the face of the Earth. I guess after three years of it some people just get tired of the social side of uni, because there are one or two people who literally, no one has heard from in months.

That being said it's a pleasant weirdness, and it's bloody good to be back in south London right in the thick of the action, able to go out and do things without an hour commute first! Crazy Larry's is still as epically cheesy as ever, the Slug still shows all the football, and god bless that cinema, been there twice in the past week.

Restaurants I've been to in the past week that earn my seal of approval: La Famiglia, The Big Easy, Bodean's and the Waterside. Restaurants that sucked: El Metro, dear god what an awful place.

However this weekend I am away, birthday party Saturday night (a long train ride away - oy vey) and Sunday, assuming I actually wake up before noon I'm going to lunch with the film soc. And then, finally, comes the final week in this accursed Chelsea & Westminster firm that has been taking so much of my time, followed by a quick excursion to Boston for my 4-day weekend, which will likely be filled with much boozing as it is the first time I'll have been in America since turning 21! kick ass, is all I can say.

Send you guys a post card from Boston, have a good weekend all!

4 short years ago, the Republican party had near complete control of the country, the White House, and both chambers of congress. Now, they have suffered one of the biggest defeats in modern political history, in an election with easily the highest turnout of any election. Now even high priority members of the party are sounding the alarms, warning that the GOP is on the verge of becoming a regional party. Today we ask, how did things go so wrong, and how bad are they really?



It was obvious for most of the election season these past two years that the GOP has been in major trouble. Their image and popularity is at an all time low as they become increasingly associated with ignorance, intolerance and deceit. Bush and his cronies used fear and intolerance to mobilize the masses, and last year the Republican party figured they could just pull the same tricks over again, and failed.

What happened next is a perfect example of the disdain and condescension with which the Republican party views the American people. The GOP then nominated Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate, a move that even McCain was against. The logic behind picking a political nobody who was not even highly regarded in her own state or party was that American women who were bitter at Hillary not being nominated would be dumb and shallow enough to vote for Palin, just because she was a woman, even though she was ideologically the opposite of Hillary. They weren't even shy about admitting this, as you can see from this example of many adverts aimed explicitly at Hillary supporters.

Needless to say, this was highly offensive to most women and backfired spectacularly on the party. At this point most Republicans were hoping that this would be a wake up call to higher ups in the party that these tired, childish tactics wouldn't work anymore on an increasingly informed and educated populace, freely accessing facts and information on the internet (the ultimate disaster for any Republican). Then they went and did the exact same thing again. In the wake of Obama's crushing victory, the GOP figured all it needed to get back on top was a few high profile minorities of its own; cue much hyping over up and comer Bobby Jindal and the election of Mike Steele to RNC chairman.

Not surprisingly these moves have proven to be disasters as well, with Bobby Jindal's hilarious attempt at charisma roundly panned and mocked by pundits and politicians the world over, and with Mike Steele's racist and token attempt to court minorities with speeches about giving the party an "urban-suburban hip hop makeover" and running an "off the hook campaign" to appeal to the kids. You know those really really bad comedy movies where old rich white guys start acting like young black guys and the viewer dies a little inside? Yeah that's essentially what's happening at the GOP right now. It's embarrassing and cringeworthy that the GOP really thinks it will appeal to minorities and kids by spouting off random buzzwords. Clearly the GOP is still completely clueless as to what it is about Obama that people like.

At this point, the state of the GOP was simply embarrassing at best, and mind numbingly stupid at worst, but that wasn't even the end of it. Amidst the chaos rises Rush Limbaugh to serve as a unifying voice for a party in disarray. Rush is basically your stereotypical fat, white, ignorant Republican who is more concerned with partisan victory than in what is actually best for the country, as exemplified in his completely humorless assertion that he wants the government to fail. So much for the GOP's "Country First" slogan eh?

On the surface it would seem easy to just ignore this guy, as simply another of many radio shock-jock idiots, but what really makes this guy scary is the power he holds within the Republican party. Not only did Rush give the keynote speech at the recent CPAC conference, but after initially strong bipartisan support for the Obama presidency, it was Rush on his radio show who threatened Republican members of congress that anyone who voted for Obama's stimulus would be campaigned against and lose their positions in the next election. Then surprise surprise they all complied, suddenly scared by the sway Rush holds over Republicans.

Particularly shocking is seeing even the highest ranking GOP politicians sucking up to Rush. South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford said that anyone who shares Rush's desire to see Obama fail is an idiot, before quickly and desperately apologizing making every effort not to offend Rush. Then congressman Phil Gingrey lambasted Rush for putting partisan politics ahead of his country, before publicly and explicitly imploring Rush for his forgiveness. Worst of all is when token RNC minority Mike Steele referred to Rush as just an 'entertainer' in an (actually pretty wise) attempt to distance the party from Limbaugh... sadly less than 24 hours later he took it back making absolutely clear that he did not intend to undermine the great "leadership" of Limbaugh. This clearly undermines his point, and seems to specifically refer to Rush as a 'leader' of the party.

So what does it say about a political party that is under the thumb of a sensationalist radio host like Rush? This may be one embarrassment too many for the party, as Republicans have effectively become split down the middle between those who hang on Rush's every word and really will boycott any politician who disrespects him, and those more respectable Republicans who wish Rush would shut up, and are mortified by the wishy washy weakness that GOP leadership is showing in dealing with him. It is especially devastating in the wake of everything else that has happened in the past year. It has become clear the the GOP is simply clueless, and doesn't seem to learn from its mistakes.

The result is a party consumed by infighting and division, which still treats its voters like uninformed dopes and somehow believes that the way to win back popularity is to act like stubborn babies and antagonize Obama's efforts. It is of course having the opposite effect as more and more people give up on the Republican party, which is crashing and burning far more quickly than anyone could have imagined. Recent surveys show a record low 27% of Americans see themselves as Republicans, fewer than the number of people who now see themselves as independents.

The message here is obvious, the Republican party is on the way out. It is torn between the extreme rightists of Rush, and Bush, and Palin and the more sensible Republicans who want to become a legitimate and respected political party again, a position which right now is irreconcilable. As long as the extremists maintain such a strong hold over the party, it will never recover. All signs point towards the imminent demise of the GOP.

So surely I should be thrilled and ecstatic about this? No, not even a little bit. Politics really is NOT a team sport despite what most Republicans seem to think. In order to work, this political system needs a counterbalance, the Democrats need opposition, and right now the GOP simply isn't providing that. The GOP NEEDS to fix itself or everything will fall apart, mark my words.

But as I said before, this will never happen with the GOP being run by Rush and his ilk... so what can be done? Most analysts are anticipating a party split, with the more central and pragmatic Republicans jumping ship to a third party of a similar ideological persuasion. The likely contenders? Smart money is pointing towards the rise of a New Libertarian Party, basically taking all the Republican ideals of economy and small government, whilst abandoning the absurdly backward social and religious aspects. These two parties have always been close ideologically, Ron Paul who ran for the GOP in 2008 was really a Libertarian, and most people agree that that seems the logical next step in American politics.

Frankly I am excited by this prospect. I strongly and vehemently oppose a political party based on lies, ignorance and rabid anti-intellectualism, but I am not opposed to opposition, so long as it is at least a sensible opposition. An America with two legitimate and respectable political parties at the core is a recipe for revitalization and renewal, and at this rate it could happen sooner rather than later. Another massive defeat in 2010 (which right now looks inevitable) and the GOP could well find itself falling behind third parties in 2012.

Genre Indie Rock
Label Fiction
Producer Ed Buller, Max Dingel
Release date(s) 19th January 2009



I had high hopes for this album, as many of you regular readers know. After hearing the first single Death, which was amazing, the hype started building for this almost to a fever pitch. And following positive endorsements from big names in the music industry, like the Killers, this album quickly rose to the top of many people's most wanted lists, billed as the first major release of 2009.

As is the standard on this website, we were a bit ahead of the curve, talking up the potential of this album for months now, and listing it on our New Year's list of hot tips for 2009. So clearly White Lies had a lot to live up to, and unfortunately I have to say that they have not managed this.

Death, is an excellent excellent single, as I have already mentioned. Dark and bold, this melodic single channels the epic grandiosity of 80s new wave bands like Tears for Fears and raised high hopes of an album that would follow suit and maintain this sound.

Sadly the album, aside from this song, seems to devolve mostly into a wannabe Interpol/Editors style. The lyrics are mostly over the top and obvious, and every single chord seems forcefully designed to scream 'oo look how dark and epic we are'. It's all very forced, and this comes across in the slow and clunky songs that seem less about music and more about appealing to depressed and nihilistic teens. What this results in is an album ultimately devoid of any originality or soul of its own that is, sadly, still destined to draw many fans and much fame (and as such I'm maintaining that my prediction of this album being big was accurate, even though I don't like it).

I really wanted to like this album, but none of the songs will live long in the memory aside from Death. Fortunately this one song is good enough to gain the album an extra star on my overall score from what I would otherwise have given.

song of the day: "Use the Same Old Song" by "Mighty Mike"

thing that makes me smile today: Tetris block ice cube trays

pic of the day:

IN:
Watchmen
New Libertarian Party
The Pirate Bay Trial

OUT:
Traditional Superheroes
Republican Party
The OJ Simpson Trial

Well it's been a tiring week. On the one hand I've finalized a flat for the rest of the year, by which point hopefully prices will be low enough that I can buy. But this hunt has been carried out on top of all the hardcore medicine I've been getting up to, 2500 word case study now complete, examinations are starting to come together, clinical skills solidifying, and frankly i've had about enough of clinical experience, can I have some more lectures please? Some words I never thought i'd say...

Now comes the fun part of having a flat, the housewarming. I'm a little hesitant after the furor caused by the last one, and because I don't much fancy getting my ass kicked out so quickly, but something will be done, and in traditional style it will be awesome. I think it's time to come up with a theme

However I have had the joy of a little privacy once again, with the entire house to myself for two weeks. I've resisted the urge to throw any crazy house parties during that time, but I've certainly been getting up to a fair bit of entertaining. Probably has something to do with how i've managed to find myself out more nights this week than not, which needless to say has not been doing much good for my hospital routine. Hell sometimes it's worth going in late the next morning when you have a reason to lie-in.

A friend of mine recently told me he's thinking of quitting Imperial, and it really got me thinking about this place. I'm starting to enjoy it again myself, after becoming a bit disillusioned, but I can see where he's coming from. At times this university feels less like College and more like a bad teen drama, i'm sure it has to do with the stressful course we're on, but far too many people here are just uptight, insecure and far too concerned with how people look at them. Not the first time i've said it, won't be the last, and it's exhausting sometimes. The important thing is to find the more laid back people around here and just let the rest drive each other nuts if they want.

In more amusing news, now that Hiddink is at Chelsea, suddenly those season tickets of mine are hot properties again, already got the next 3 home games booked out, let's just hope the team starts doing better!

And the most important news of all, it was Didier's first birthday 2 days ago! Happy Birthday Didier!

Didier - 3 weeks old

Didier - 1 year old, opening his present

Developed by Sports Interactive
Genre Sports simulation
Platform PC/Mac
Release date(s) 4th November 2008 (download), 23rd January 2009 (retail)



Football Manager, the seminal series from developer Sports Interactive, has long been one of the most successful and universally acclaimed video games series around for many years, ever since it went by its old name 'Championship Manager'. If you live in England, and you like football, chances are you play this game, and I'm sure the same is true all over the world these days.

As such it was only a logical next step in this increasingly wireless, online world of ours to create Football Manager Live, a massively multiplayer online version of the game.

The basic premise then, is to divide the game into different 'gameworlds' consisting of around 1000 players each. Each of these players then creates his or her own club from scratch. And I mean you can really design it from the ground up in full detail, you name the club, design the kit, design the stadium right down to the grass patterns on the pitch, and then you pick your team, with each team being able to pick players from the massive and world famous SI database of hundreds of thousands of players (and each player can only be picked once in each game world). You can then join a football association chosen depending on when and how often you plan on playing the game, and you can develop your management ability by training your own skills in classic RPG fashion. Of course there were serious reservations about this concept from long time fans, it all sounded very ambitious, and many had doubts that it would work well.

Well I won't sugarcoat it, it is a game that takes some time and effort... but then most people who play normal Football Manager probably waste plenty on that game as it is, so they can just redirect that football lust towards this game instead. And it would indeed be worthy usage of said time as well, because the game is very well done.

The first tip I should give is to join the game in a newly created gameworld, don't jump into one that's already several seasons in, it'll be far too much catching up to do with other clubs monopolizing all the money and good players. Join a new gameworld and get off to a good start to establish yourself as one of the big clubs, and make sure you remember the good cheap players from FM because money is hard to come by at first.

The first day you sign up will be spent mostly dealing with the background details of your club and picking the right squad, and then there will be a space of about a week to play friendlies and tweak tactics, build skills and generally sort yourself out before the start of the season. Then when the season begins it lasts about a month, during which time games are given deadline dates, and if the two people involved haven't played by that point one or both of the teams can be controlled by computer for that match, to make sure the season keeps flowing. This ensures that there are rarely problems involved with people not showing up when they're supposed to.

That's just one example of how well thought out the game is, they've clearly put a lot of effort into imagining the various issues that might come up with an online community of players and made smart moves to deal with issues, such as the one mentioned above. Similarly the user feedback system, working much like the eBay feedback system, works well, and is even worked into the game with manager descriptions in news items. For example, my manager was described as 'honorable' on account of my high sportsmanship rating. Its lovely little touches like this that make the game a joy to play, where even the little things and decisions you do have a visible and tangible effect on the gameworld.

However this is also where the majority of criticism for the game can be directed. The developers have clearly made a concerted effort to skew matters to favor casual gamers rather than people who put effort into the game. This is a smart game design move on the surface as it will increase the game's marketability and userbase, but bad in the sense that it ends up with them going 'too far' on a number of issues and compromising the integrity and realism of the game world.

For example, one can only have 5 players in their team protected by permanent contracts, which is a fairly absurd move designed to ensure that no team can just monopolize the best players, and that players constantly rotate around from team to team on a frequent basis. This heavily undermines the spirit of the game to run the 'club of your dreams', as they clearly don't realize how big a part player endearment plays in football club spirt and fandom. As a result this move simply ends up making the user very VERY aware that they are playing a videogame, rather than an effective simulation of football.

Similar to this is the decision to impose a 100% sales tax on all transfers for the first few weeks, going down to around 50% eventually. The aim of this is to prevent early players from signing the best players and then selling them at a massive profit in the first days of the game. I can understand the need for this to minimize the heavy advantage of the early bird, but 100%? that's just ludicrous. It would be like telling shops to sell all their goods at wholesale value, it's bad for the economy and the transfer market. Smaller taxes may have been a smart move, but such heavy ones simply serve to kill the market in the game for the first season. Stupid move.

It is just these few glaringly dumb moves to appease casual gamers that bring the game down in the end, but not enough to change how awesome the rest of the game has been pulled off. I definitely recommend this game to all football manager fans and to anyone who fancies trying an online game for a change.

Directed by Peter Avanzino
Written by Ken Keeler, David X. Cohen
Starring Billy West, Katey Sagal, John DiMaggio
Release date(s) 23rd February 2009
Running time 88 minutes



Most people already know how I feel about Futurama. For me it is one of the best tv shows ever made; one of those rare examples in television of a tv show that can successfully and poignantly mingle joyously silly and witty fare with touching and meaningful serious moments, which are all the more effective for their skillful juxtaposition. It's the sort of art that has been so successfully crafted by shows like Scrubs and Life on Mars in the past, but a tact the likes of which has never been dared before by any cartoon.

It is for reasons such as these that the tv show developed such a loyal fanbase that led to it following in the footsteps of Family Guy and being resurrected in the form of 4 movies (which was later converted into another season's worth of tv).

The first movie was exceptional, funny and yet also touching in classic Futurama fashion. The second and third movies were plenty funny, but really not quite up to the standards set by the show during its glory days. Giving this perplexing matter some thought, I figured that like with most tv shows, the beginning and end of the tv season are the best bits. As such I decided that while the second and third movies were most likely the filler from the middle of the season, and so this final film of the four would have to be pretty damn special.

In 'Into the Wild Green Yonder', an accident causes a piece of necklace to lodge in Fry's head, giving him the ability to read minds. He joins the Legion of Mad Fellows, who are trying to prevent evil from destroying the gateway to the "green age". Meanwhile, Bender falls in love with a fembot married to Donbot, head of the Robot Mafia and Leo Wong goes to demolish an arm of the Milky Way for a miniature golf course, prompting Leela, Amy and LaBarbara to join an eco-feminist society on the run from the government and Zapp Brannigan.

Now don't get me wrong, this film is still very funny, and hey, it's Futurama, so how bad could it possibly be? But unfortunately this one has turned out to be my least favorite of the four films. There are some sweet moments (the last 5 minutes are pretty good) but overall, the touching moments never match classic scenes from past adventures, and the funny jokes are just too few and far between for this to really be classic Futurama.

There was no moment in this movie where I really felt blown away by what I was seeing, nor was there any gag that really sent me into a laughing fit as usually happens at least once in any episode of Futurama. That 'Scary Door' episode from the third movie had me in hysterics for a long long time, there's simply nothing THAT funny in this one sadly.

What makes it even more disappointing is that this could well be the last ever adventure of Futurama. This is the final movie planned (and with no production of any kind planned for the future, it all depends on how well these movies sell, so fingers crossed) and as a big finale it simply doesn't hit as hard as it should do. A show like this, one would hope, would go out with a bang, and this simply isn't it. So what would have been just a mediocre episode of Futurama turns into a big disappointment, just because I was hoping for so much more from such a significant moment in the franchise's history.

Also something I was looking forward to this movie for was the explanation behind the mysterious The Number 9 Man, a character who has been placed mysteriously in the background of the show since the first season. They did something similar during the first 5 seasons where Nibbler was revealed to actually have been present in the very first episode (and he is, you can go look for yourself) which gave us an amazing moment of realizing that the writers had the whole thing planned out for years. Sadly this number 9 man has just got some generic shoe-horned plot and I can't help but feel they really missed an opportunity to do something cool here.

The final moments of the film are very nice, and I expect a lot of people would be satisfied if the show left things at that, but frankly I don't feel it leaves me with a big enough sense of closure, partly because of the intentionally open ending they gave it. So welcome back wonderful Futurama, maybe for the last time, but i'll remember you for much more impressive outings than this one.

Developed by Eversim
Genre Real Time Strategy
Platform PC
Release date(s) 20th January 2009



The mania surrounding President Obama has yielded much paraphernalia on which one would not ordinarily expect to see a President depicted; from designer fashion wear to Spiderman comicbooks (which now go on ebay for hundreds of dollars). Thus it was only to be expected that our 44th President would eventually become the inspiration for videogames, and that is pretty much what has happened here.

Last year Eversim released their first version of Geopolitical Simulator, towards which the critical response was something along the lines of 'well its the thought that counts...' and went largely unnoticed. Now they have come out with a new version, released on the day of Obama's inauguration, clearly hoping that his incredible popularity, and the unprecedented interest young people are now taking in politics as a result, would inspire people to buy this game. Indeed one of the game modes in single player even has you playing as a newly elected african american President promising change for a left-centre country, clearly based off of our current situation.

So what exactly is this game then? Well really it is just the most in depth political simulator you will ever see. If you have ever wanted to run a country right down to the smallest detail then this game is for you, the level of detail and the tiny minutiae you can control in this game is quite amazing.

You can take control of any country in the world, each one clearly having it's own economy, military, government structure and technology, and then you can guide them towards your vision of the utopian society. You can control the economy, agriculture, industry, energy, healthcare, education, labor, science and technology, military, espionage and intelligence, culture, sports, religion and much more. You can tweak the budget to suit your exact details, for example putting funding into specific lines of research like energy or computer technology, placing priority on different types of culture (film, literature, musical comedy), different facets of healthcare, even different sports to concentrate in and how much budget the organizations get, and that's just a small sample.

Clearly with the wealth of options here the possibility exists to really do whatever you want. Indeed when you play this game you ultimately go through three phases, first there's the overwhelming variety of things you need/want to take care of, then there's the sheer joy of realizing just how much you can shape the country to be everything you've always wanted it to be, then there's the realization of whether or not it all actually works.

So let me just tell you briefly about how things went for me in this game. First and foremost, the priority was to fix up the economy, as in real life. Now the tools for this are about as good a simulation of economic growth as i've yet seen in a videogame, so if you know anything about the economy, as I do, then you can sort out a system meddling with interest rates and controlling inflation in order to get it all back to normal within a year or so, though doing that whilst keeping unemployment levels low is a harder challenge. So far so good. However it's once the economy was under control that things started to go a bit haywire.

First of all, the people in this game that you preside over are the whiniest little pricks i have ever known, and i've known a few. They will protest in the hundreds of thousands if you do anything too drastic, I had mass riots in the streets over my proposed tax cuts for example... which is odd, I think i'd be quite happy if I found out i didn't have to pay so much in taxes. The secret in practice, however is just not to make any sudden movements, do it a little bit at a time and you SHOULD be fine.

Then things just went nuts. 2010 and the dems just made even bigger gains in congress, so I start putting in my energy bills (alternative energy) and social reforms (no religion in politics, tax breaks for real estate investment), culture reforms (reduced censorship, more funding), increased investment in infrastructure and making science and healthcare a priority. To top this off, I had successfully removed troops from Iraq and placated Iran enough to have both countries as my allies. The world was fast becoming a utopia...

Then suddenly, and without warning, Russia decided to invade America... soon they brought their friends China, North Korea and... err... Jamaica... with them to fight against me, and a third world war broke out for no particular reason. At this point it becomes painfully obvious that diplomacy does fuck all in this game as there are simply too few options and no country will ever accept anything you offer them from the options provided, this part of the game is simply broken. So war were declared, and my economy suffered due to extra expenditure on the military, but eventually peace broke out as suddenly and for no reason as it had been ended before.

Then as soon as I thought I could get back to making my utopia, the unemployment rate shot up to around 52% from the low 4% it had been for over a year... and again with no obvious cause as to why it happened. And so one short military coup later I was out of office, still with a 100% approval rating and having just won re-election oddly enough.

I'm only touching the tip of the ice berg here, there is a lot lot more that can be done with this game, but sadly little of that matters just because very little of it actually works well together, and like its predecessor, this basically becomes a game of good intentions that simply collapses under the weight of its own ambition. There's genius here, but there's also some really really dodgy simulation models, making the game nigh on unplayable at times since it's so prone to randomly implode without warning (and without an autosave, or even a multisave feature). It's hard to recommend this game unless you have too much money and too much free time, wait until they refine the game to the perfect version, and when that happens i'll tell you all about it.

song of the day: "My Road" by "Quinn Walker"

thing that makes me smile today: Valentine's day, always fun :)

pic of the day:

IN:
Hiddink
Circle Line Pub Crawl
BSc

OUT:
Scolari
Doctors and Nurses Pub Crawl
Clinical Experience

Directed by David Fincher
Written by Eric Roth (screenplay), F. Scott Fitzgerald (novel)
Starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett
Release date(s) 25th December 2008
Running time 166 minutes



Whilst I saw this film a while ago now, I never got around to reviewing it. However, in light of the fact that it has achieved an impressive number of thirteen oscar nominations, and seems to be a big front runner in the best movie category, I figure I should finally get off my ass and do this.

If you think that this lack of desire to write this article is an indication of my feelings towards the quality of the film, you're wrong. It's not my favorite film this year but it is very good.

The film is based off a short story by the legendary F. Scott Fitzgerald, and concerns the eponymous Benjamin Button, a person who is born as an eighty year old man and ages backwards throughout his life.

But the film is so much more than that. It bristles with intrigue and sighs with emotional paradoxes that many films would shy away from. It all cultivates a lavish period piece covering child rearing, undergraduate behavior and courtship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

If it sounds a bit unusual, it is, but Fincher has brought it all together here into a fantastic piece of cinema, a rich and satisfying example of storytelling at its finest.

The main acting performances here are equally impressive, particularly Brad Pitt giving perhaps his finest ever performance in this film as Button. If anyone still has any reservations about whether this boy can act, this movie should put that to rest, he is magnificent and nuanced and should consider himself one of the front runners for the best actor award.

If there is anything that can be said against this movie is that most of the emotional twists and turns can be seen coming from a mile away, and ends up feeling like a fairly by the numbers affair, not quite living up to the level of uniqueness one might expect from the premise and setting.

A very fine piece of cinema. Frankly it wouldn't be my pick for the best movie oscar, but seems highly likely to win it anyway.

Who would have known all those months ago that my cheap Obama button that I bought would turn into the must have fashion accessory of the year, and possibly this one too. This is a perfect example of the sort of hype and fanaticism that has swept the planet with regards to Obama. However at the end of the day he will be remembered for how he performs as a President, so let's look back on his first week and a half in charge and see how he's done so far.



After his groundbreaking campaign and unprecedented level of grassroots involvement, it was imperative that Obama find a way to carry this spirit over into his Presidency, and it is to this effect that the new website is designed, heralding a new style of open, transparent governance. It is also here that Obama delivers his weekly youtube address, earning him very strong comparisons to FDR and his fireside chats.

One of his first actions as President was what can only be described as 'the bleeding obvious', essential though it may have been. So universally despised is Guantanamo Bay, which has become a symbol of the hatred that has been directed at the United States these past eight years, that whoever became President would have closed that thing down as soon as possible, and put an end to the barbaric torture techniques used by the military. That there is anyone in the country who would justify the use of such techniques is one of the nation's greatest embarrassments of the last hundred years. The facility is being closed over the course of the next year so that care can be taken with relocating the inmates to suitable facilities.

After this came Obama's big gesture for the environment, indicating that America finally realizes how important it is to act NOW. He has allowed states to individually decide fuel emission standards, which means that states can forcibly impose stricter standards than automobile companies would have wanted. He also set in motion his grand plans for introducing clean energy cars and hybrids to the country and making them the dominant presence on the roads within just a few years.

On top of this, Obama's big stimulus package has passed in the house and now moves onto the senate. Many baulked at the ambitious plan to have the package ready and approved by mid February, but now it all seems very likely. Indeed if Obama can pull this off it will be incredibly impressive and a major coup for his administration at this early stage.

However the most important thing Obama has done, he did even before he was sworn in. All of a sudden the most hated nation on Earth is popular and respected again. The world newspapers are full of headlines like "The Day America Became Cool Again" and "Welcome Back America".

Suddenly our Government is stressing a commitment towards actually co-operating and working WITH other Nations, rather than treating them like inferior forms of life, starting with Obama's unprecedented extension of friendship towards the Middle East, live on Middle Eastern tv. "We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist" is the official line from Obama's now legendary inauguration speech.

This new approach is paying immediate dividends, with Iran responding to Obama's message with warmth and friendship, in a situation which until recently seemed bleak. On top of this Russia has backed down in it's very scary and controversial cold war-esque plan to install missiles in Kaliningrad to counter the proposed US anti missile shield, which they don't trust is really for 'defensive purposes'. This concession is very unexpected and a massive boost for the recently rapidly deteriorating relations with Russia, and he specifically cited Obama's 'new approach' towards foreign relations as the reason. McCain probably would have bombed them by now...

So not bad for one week eh? Hell compared to Bush's entire first term it still looks pretty good.

So how are the GOP responding to their new marginalized position? Not well. For starters they've gone and elected this man as their new chairman. When a party that has next to nil black people in their ranks, has never pushed for equal rights since the days of Lincoln and has a very large racist following, when they elect their first ever black chairman, immediately after their complete trouncing by the first ever black President... well one could be excused for thinking they're being a bit cynical in their approach.

Sarah Palin was forced upon an unwilling John McCain as a token woman, someone who they thought would steal votes away from disgruntled ex Hillary fans and women. Needless to say pretty much every woman was insulted by this insinuation and we all know how that ended up for them. Nevertheless they have continued in this fashion. Immediately after their defeat they began suddenly tipping every single minority in their ranks to become their next presidential candidate, hoping to recreate that Obama magic. Bobby Jindal was first, and now Steele has been put in a prominent position.

At the end of the day, the GOP clearly still thinks Americans are all idiots who will be impressed by intentionally picking minorities just for the sake of getting the minority vote. As awful as Bush's administration was, at least you could say that the GOP campaigners were clearly very good at what they do, but this is just becoming a parody. Embarrassing.

Steele has wasted no time in making an impression by giving a speech full of buzzwords like 'awesome' in a lame attempt to appeal to kids (getting even more embarrassing isn't it?) showing how the GOP really is out of touch with America and has no clue what it is that makes Obama so appealing. Using words like 'awesome' won't do it i'm afraid... On top of this Steele has become the first politician in America to actively speak out AGAINST bipartisanship. Because clearly co-operation between our politicians is bad, and the government works best when at each others' throats and trying to undermine each other. This is, of course, the most retarded thing anyone has said in a long time, but he said it nonetheless.

Steele has therefore encouraged all Republicans to shoot down everything the Democrats do, starting with Obama's stimulus package. However what he clearly hasn't noticed is just how small the Republican presence in our government is these days. This may just be too obvious for a Republican to realize, but in situations like this, acting like a bitter spoilt kid and throwing ones 'toys out of the pram' is really not going to get you anywhere. Instead, the masses who recently voted against you are going to see you as unprofessional, arrogant and not working in the best interests of the voters themselves, which is a sure way to get yourself voted out next time round. In short, if the Republicans don't grow up and start working with the new government they could well suffer even worse losses next time. Perhaps senate minority leader McConnell's prediction of the GOP devolving into a regional party is pretty accurate after all.

Developed by Valve Corporation
Genre First person survival horror
Platform PC, Xbox360
Release date(s) 18th November 2008



Now I want you to think about that film 28 Days Later. Remember that? Man that was a sweet film. Now I want you to imagine playing that film in a videogame form. Then you probably have a pretty good idea what this game is like.

This is a survival horror, where you control one out of a small group of survivors (either online with friends or offline on your own) and attempt to survive a zombie onslaught. These are no shuffling Resident Evil type zombies mind, this is more like 28 Days Later 'infected', running towards you in massive packs at high speed like a snarling animal and then lunging their teeth right into you. Your team consists of Bill, an aged, ex vietnam vet with a gruff demeanor and an ass kicking attitude; Lou, a regional assistant at some tech company with lots of pent up rage ready to be unleashed; Francis, a bad ass biker to whom a zombie invasion is like Christmas, Easter and New Year's combined; and lastly Zoe, a hot college student who watches too many horror movies.

You will end up fighting hundreds of these guys in open spaces as well as in claustrophobic corridors as you desperately attempt to make your way to the next safe house, and to do this you have access to all manner of goodies, double pistols, shotguns, assault rifles. It's incredibly frenetic, tense, and will shake you to your core. It's bloody brilliant.

Whilst clearly designed to work as an online game in your team of four, the single player will still keep you entertained for ages, thanks largely to some really excellent AI work, though I did encounter one or two glitches, players getting stuck and the like, but it ends up not mattering anyway as you can immediately start at any stage of the game from the moment you get it, as opposed to the usual mechanic of having to unlock new levels to play.

So what's wrong with it? Not a whole lot. I suppose some more could have been put into the single player mode, maybe some cutscenes tying together the individual chapters rather than making them so disjointed and abrupt, and as I mentioned I did encounter some AI glitches now and again. And of course, the game is really a bit short, not that that's a surprise for a game mostly intended for online play, but still.

Overall this is a very fine game and a must have for any fan of Valve or of zombie movies. Very exciting, very gory, very good.

song of the day: "First Time High (of Chicago remix of Eluardian Instance)" by "Of Montreal"

thing that makes me smile today: Arsenal slip sliding away out of the top 4, maybe even further

pic of the day:

IN:
Lost
Aston Villa
Snow!

OUT:
Heroes
Arsenal
No snow!