(snagged from CBSNews)
“A design consisting of two reflecting pools and a large grove of trees was chosen for the World Trade Center memorial after an eight-month competition that drew more than 5,000 entries from around the world, officials announced Tuesday.”
The design was considered the long shot of the 3 finalist designs, and will include the names of people from the WTC, Pennsylvania, and Pentagon crashes, along with the deaths from the 1993 WTC bombing.
(from Reuters)
“A German woman caused more than 100,000 euros ($128,300) of damage when an attempt to back out of her spot in a parking garage ended with her car on its roof and four other vehicles damaged, police said Monday.
Police said the woman reversed sharply out of her spot on the upper level of a multi-story parking in the southwestern town of Kirchen, writing off a parked Nissan and damaging a Mitsubishi next to it, police said.
She then accelerated forward, speeding through her original parking place and over a low protective wall — pitching her Audi some six meters (20 feet) down on to a lower level of the car park.
The car crashed on to a Renault, hit a Citroen and finally came to rest on its roof.
Police said the woman was treated in hospital but that her injuries were not life-threatening. “A blood test was taken after suspicions she was under medication,” a spokesman said.”
Let the woman driver jokes commence.
I picked up Wave Race: Blue Storm for GameCube last night. So far, I am not impressed. Nintendo had a great opportunity to give some competition to Jet Moto and failed. Instead they released a mediocre game for a system that could do so much better.
The graphics and sound arent that great. They went a bit crazy with a water-ripple effect all over the menu screens (like the logo on this page) which gets annoying after a while. The water can look awkward sometimes on the watercraft, and none of the textures seem really detailed.
Controls are decent but hard to tweak to your liking. It seems that every rider takes corners too loose, or too tight. Collision detection, which was never a problem ever since the SNES, comes back with a vengance. You will find yourself cursing the game as you get stuck in a corner that you obviously could fit thru without a problem.
Races are run for 3 laps using a buoy system. Every 5 buoys you pass gets you a turbo boost. Miss one and you lose that saved boost. Miss 5 in any one race and you lose the entire series, which sucks at the higher difficulties because they add a lot more buoys but still limit you to missing 5.
Stunts are a pain to perform also. Sometimes you have to release the gas, sometimes hold B, other times not. Stunts dont feel as smooth as they are in Jet Moto or SSX Tricky.
So whats good about the game? The voice dubbing (which is pretty good, what little of it there is) and the multiplayer. Up to 4 players at once, and thats always a good thing (memories of Gauntlet Legends). Rent it before you buy it.
Take some of the best graphics since Alice, throw in a lil Duke attitude, and all the frantic killing game style of Maximum Carnage and you get a pretty good idea of what Serious Sam is.
Heres the basic storyline: the future, Earth is invaded by aliens, you go back in time to the alien homeworld (which looks mysteriously like Egypt), and open a can on everything that moves. With me so far? Good, because now it gets interesting. Do these alien invaders have an organized army? Nope. How do they attack then? Simple – sheer numbers. Some games might have up to 100 enemies to kill but Sam has levels with over 400 enemies at a time (and thats on normal).
Another welcome addition is a score. After a few years of frags, FPH, pings and other FPS jargon, its good to see a game that rewards you for having an astronomically high score. As for multiplayer, you can choose from co-op (fun), fragmatch (killing), or scorematch (fight for highest score). I was able to hop into several games and play just fine with a ping of over 350 on my 56k.
Final opinion – buy this game. Its from Croteam, and pick it up wherever you can because its already sold out in most places.
Earth is in a delicate balance, controlled by the dragons of Heaven and Earth. One boy, Kamui, can single-handedly decide the fate of the planet by siding with Heaven or Earth. As with most series like this, he of course, doesnt want to do either.
I recently purchased X the movie, based on CLAMPs manga X/1999. Another classic example of apolalyptic anime. The film itself is very well done and the English voice actors did an excellent job in this one.
X, like most Manga releases, does not skimp on the violence. Many times during the film viewers are treated to maiming, cuts, and drowning in blood. The scene of Kamuis mother giving birth to the sword in the beginning was particulary disturbing, and a real turn-off.
I have been following X/1999 the manga in Animerica Extra for about a year now, but this is a film that needs intense knowledge of the storys background. X newcomers will likely be lost in the first view times thru the film.
While I wont give away the ending, I will say that CLAMP has promised the ending in the manga version will be different than the movie version.
After being ungodly disappointed at Squares FF8, I was a bit skittish about 9. My worries were misplaced though. FF9 KICKS ASS (to put it bluntly). Square got their act together and did it right this time.
I havent even passed the 1st disc so I cant pass judgement on the storyline (it seems very excellent so far), but the graphics are of FF8 quality while still hanging on to the anime-style exagerations of FF7. Battles arent spent constantly summoning stuff or drawing magic either, and they introduced a new card game (very addicting).
The music, although nice, isnt anything to write home about. I still love FF6 & 7s soundtracks much better. It ranges from slightly techno to regular background music. Thank heavens they brought back the old battle and victory music!!
Not everything is perfect though. As I mentioned, the music could be better in some spots. Battles seem to rely heavily on potion usage, and the game doesnt seem to like the texture smoothing option of the PS2 in some areas.
(via Ananova)
Pranksters in Troy, MI have managed to hijack the wireless frequency that a Burger King uses for its drive thru ordering. Customers ordering Coke have been told “We dont have Coke.” When they ask whats available, they reply with “We have nothing. Pull ahead.”
The pranksters are using very profane language much of the time (I can only imagine what happens to the poor fool who orders a King Size value meal with Diet Coke). The manager of the restaurant has apologized for the incident and they are attempting to change to a different wireless frequency.