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Review: Arms
There's something to be said about Nintendo throwing curve balls to keep players from becoming complacent.3.5
Most fighting games are cut from the same cloth as trailblazers like Street Fighter II and Virtua Fighter, beholden to side-view perspectives and an array of melee and projectile attacks. These longstanding norms can grant a sense of familiarity even to the weirdest of the weird, from Ballz (where all combatants are made of, that's right, balls) to Primal Rage (where seven prehistoric beasts duke it out and eat humans between blows). But Arms truly strikes a bizarre path within its genre, putting the camera right behind the player's avatar and equipping each character with an assortment of arms that can nearly stretch the length of any arena in the game. Even though it might take several hours for players to get used to this unusual brand of boxing, it's hard not to admire the daringness with which Nintendo shakes up a conservative genre with the creation of this entertaining new sport.
The basic rules of Arms are straightforward. You can jump, dash, throw punches, block, fling an opponent, and perform a multi-hit super move after you charge up enough energy via punching. Motion controls or a standard controller can be used to play, though the latter option is more responsive to the player's intent when it comes to, say, executing a quick right-left combo rather than launching both arms for a throw. Before each fight, you must customize you arms, which, depending on your character, can be fitted with everything from boxing gloves to dragonheads that spit fire. That the left and right arms can be very different weapons encourages an attention to footwork and spacing that, as in boxing, separates the wannabes from the winners.
A variety of factors make fights trickier and enable strategic options that go beyond those of the standard fighting game. If you launch an arm into your opponent's arm, the effects will vary. If the arms are similar in strength, they'll stop each other. If one arm is bigger, it will brush aside the smaller appendage for perhaps a direct hit. Players can throw straights or hooks with either their right or left arm, so guessing the trajectories of the Slinky-esque limbs is essential to dodging and countering. All the while, rivals must deal with the environmental factors of the different arenas, such as steps that can give an advantage to a higher-positioned fighter or hover platforms that allow one to zip around at an elevated level. One of the joys of Arms is discovering the ways you can exploit various components at play here so as to make a strong offense your best defense, or vice versa, and ensure victory for yourself.
Unfortunately, unfair or simply cheap components abound throughout the game. The inclusion of Byte & Barq rejects balanced one-on-one competition by forcing the opponent to account for two entities at once: a big police robot, who has arms like the rest of the cast, and his dog, an AI-controlled helper that can attack and serve as a platform for the officer. What's more, timed power-ups can restore health and charge up one's super move faster, but these rewards arbitrarily favor whoever happens to be near them when they materialize in the heat of battle. And for a game that wants players to pay more attention than usual to the dynamics of left and right punching, Arms shifts the focus away from fighting with random volleyball, basketball, and target-practice matches that seem beside the point.
Still, there's something to be said about Nintendo throwing such curve balls to keep players from becoming complacent. Arms also demands skill and awareness in that online ranked matches become available only after the single-player mode is completed on normal difficulty (however, despite unlocking the ranked option, I could only get unranked matches to work). Unlike many other fighting games (including the recent Tekken 7), the average difficulty setting in Arms, expressed in game as a four out of seven, provides a stiff test, as the computer will punish you if you overlook the intricacies of the rules and fail to develop strategies to account for the different types of arms that your opponent may use. It's more than a little ironic that a game that banally frames its fights as part of a television show can restore some excitement to a genre notorious for resisting significant change.
Developer: Nintendo Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Nintendo Switch Release Date: June 16, 2017 ESRB: E10+ ESRB Descriptions: Cartoon Violence Buy: Game
Review: Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout Is More Like the Ultimate Pain
Even when Fall Guys is working perfectly as intended, its appeal is limited.2
Cuteness isn't in short supply across Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, from the customizable Minions-like blob you control to the wacky games that will have you dodging giant pieces of falling fruit or running through spinning windmills like a ball on a mini-golf course. This is an unmistakably fast and frenetic battle royale, but one in which actual fighting isn't really an option: Your tackle has all the force of a pillow, and your grab is effective only at momentarily slowing both yourself and an opponent. Your goal? To outrun or outlast your 59 adorable foes over a series of various elimination stages, and should the opportunity arise to gently push a rival off a ledge, you'll want to take it.
No amount of cuteness, though, is a proper substitute for competent design. The majority of the game's 24 challenges are more a matter of luck than skill, with players often forced to fling themselves into plushy and disastrous pile-ups of their peers, hoping that they'll be able to funnel through an obstacle just fast enough to break away from the pack. As for those unfortunate enough to stay mired in a mob of competitors, good luck catching up with the rest of the field. It's already hard enough to land a tricky series of jumps given the game's imprecise physics, let alone to do so when players keep colliding with you in mid-air.
Other minigame-filled titles like Mario Party and WarioWare are memorable for their diversity—how each activity throws something distinct, unpredictable, and truly competitive at players. By contrast, Fall Guys generally just throws other players at you. The contestants are the only variable that really changes. The races themselves feel all too similar, especially once you've done them a few times and have learned the fastest routes, and survival challenges are just a series of repetitive actions in which you wait for an often-unseen opponent to mess up first. The game rarely encourages you or gives you the time to appreciate all of the anonymous strangers getting knocked off a course by a foam hammer. You're too busy ignoring them, after all, trying to avoid the same fate. As a result, courses that are designed to fit 60 players end up feeling under-populated and empty when it's just you ahead of the pack.
The game also suffers from major balancing issues, and not just in terms of how difficult it is to walk and jump across narrow cylindrical beams in "Slime Climb." For one, Fall Guys presents itself as a player-versus-player action game, but nearly a third of the challenges it offers are team-based. If you were playing with actual friends, it might be fun to strategize how to best (and most ridiculously) gather eggs from a central area and horde them in your team's zone, striving to have more eggs than the other teams after two minutes. But you can't communicate with your randomly assigned partners, so you just have to hope that they're not actively trying to troll you, as when, in a game of "Team Tail Tag," your allies keep trying to grab your tail instead of protecting you, or when a game of "Fall Ball" gets nasty, with teammates actively trying to score own goals with the oversized soccer ball. And nothing has been built into the game to discourage such behavior, as there are no leaderboards, no rankings, no low-priority pool, only an endless grind for trivial cosmetic loot. Nothing disincentivizes players from choosing to find their fun at your expense.
Even when Fall Guys is working perfectly as intended—no server issues, quick matchmaking, good teammates, balanced levels—its appeal is limited. If you're doing well, you're likely to find yourself racing well ahead of the pack, unimpeded by competitors, in which case you're essentially just playing the same brief level over and over again, grinding out loot. And when you're doing poorly, you at least have to contend with others' unpredictable antics. It's here that the game feels like it might have a point, however accidental, because losing at Fall Guys feels like democracy in action: You can see exactly where you need to go, but you're trapped in place by the dozens of obstinate others who maddeningly insist on doing things their own way.
This game was reviewed using a retail copy obtained by the reviewer.
Developer: Mediatonic Publisher: Devolver Digital Platform: PlayStation 4 Release Date: August 3, 2020 ESRB: E ESRB Descriptions: Mild Cartoon Violence Buy: Game
Review: Destroy All Humans! Is Dated and Prescient in Equal Measure
To say that the game feels like a relic from a different age would be an understatement.3.5
To say that Destroy All Humans! feels like a relic from a different age would be an understatement. The original 2005 game, goosed up by Black Forest Games for current-gen consoles, is a snapshot of gaming on the cusp, back when wild ideas and great writing could live in a sort of digital middle class right alongside big-budget blockbuster titles, and feel right at home. From its approach to problem solving and to its unabashed politics, there's an anarchic streak running through it. That it stood out less in 2005 is somewhat damning given where we are now, but this remaster's upgraded visuals, controls, and mechanics have made everything special about the original release shine much brighter.
Set in 1959, the game begins with a UFO crash-landing on Earth, leaving its pilot, Cryptosporidium-136—Crypto for short—in the grubby hands of a government agency known as Majestic. Soon after, Crypto's clone, 137, and their boss, Orthopox-13 (Richard Horvitz, again bringing his uproarious Invader Zim voice out to play), sends their mother ship to Earth for some extraterrestrial vengeance. And by vengeance, they mean anal probes. For everyone.
In a nutshell, Destroy All Humans! suggests a '50s-era alien invasion movie where you get to play as the aliens. Just the idea of hopping in a flying saucer and laying waste to the cities of men would carry a game all by itself, and doing it as a period piece even more so, which makes it rather surprising that we haven't seen another game quite like this one in recent years. Which makes it somewhat of missed opportunity that this new version of the game lacks for a black-and-white filter that could have supplied an extra mood boost.
But we still get the lasers and flying saucers, and, of course, the permission to lay gleeful waste to '50s suburbia. Outside of his saucer, Crypto gets to walk around on foot, either disguising himself as a hapless human or wreaking havoc with all the alien rifles, probes, and psychic powers at his disposal, and these are the sections where the game gets to show off much more of its creativity. Crypto can lift and throw all of Earth's pitiful creatures with his telekinetic powers, and there's plenty of weaponry allowing you to either shock enemies to death, reduce them to skeletons, or shoot a device that allows Crypto to probe them so hard that their brains pop out. No one ever accused Destroy All Humans! of being a particularly mature game.
Except when, surprisingly, it is. There's a mean undercurrent to this game, whose human characters are all '50s caricatures, many of them suggesting white-bread castoffs from a Norman Rockwell tableau. And with Crypto's mind-reading powers, you get to hear that which is thinly disguised behind the upright citizen's façade: the racism, the Nixon and McCarthy worship, the self-hating homophobia. "I wonder if I ought to hit somebody with my nightstick," thinks one police officer. "Could be fun." All of that suggested a smirking parody of a not-so-great America back in 2005 when the game was originally released, but today it plays as an unsubtle reminder of how little things have changed in this country since the '50s. The game's political humor simply hits very different now, and it makes all the different ways that Crypto can mess up Main Street, U.S.A. all the more impactful.
The good news is that it's definitely much easier to do that now than in 2005, with the remake getting a whole host of much welcome and smartly implemented quality-of-life improvements that bring the original game's clunky controls up to code. What was once a stiff, finger-tangling process of switching between weapons and telekinesis is handled with a modern, elegant weapon wheel, and a separate button for telekinesis. A mid-air dash and, later, a pair of hover skates make on-foot traversal much easier, and more dynamic.
All of that, however, isn't exactly a panacea for the things that haven't aged as well. The highly regimented and rote mission structure still makes some missions feel a bit empty, especially now that open-world quest mechanics have evolved so far past how the original version of Destroy All Humans! did things. The difficulty curve swings wildly from mission to mission, which could have been flattened with a dedicated button for lock-on targeting. This is a game before its time in many ways, but there are parts here that were clearly made in 2005.
Still, Destroy All Humans! moves at such a steady clip that you won't find yourself fixating for too long on the things it does wrong. Even the more annoying missions tend to breeze by, ushering players toward the next nifty weapon or hilarious cutscene without breaking stride for much more than to let players upgrade their arsenal. And there's a relief to that. Modern open world games are designed in such a way that bad design decisions tend to stew and linger in ways they don't here. This is the kind of game you don't realize you missed until you start playing it, one that doesn't demand much of the player's time or commitment or discipline but is just trying to find new ways to amuse you from one stage to another.
Developer: Black Forest Games Publisher: THQ Nordic Platform: PlayStation 4 ESRB: T ESRB Descriptions: Violence, Sexual Themes, Violence Buy: Game
Review: SWERY's Deadly Premonition 2 Is a Janky, Navel-Gazing Exercise
Everything about your quest feels dragged out to mask how little substance there is to Blessing in Disguise.1
Lise Clarkson's body has been found after 14 years, her dismembered body parts pristinely reassembled and frozen in a block of ice, like something out of Bryan Fuller's Hannibal. Every bit as striking as this opening to Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise is the reveal that the prime suspect in Clarkson's murder is none other than Francis Zach Morgan, the "metaphysical offender" who was at the center of 2010's Deadly Premonition. But it quickly becomes clear that this game, both a sequel and prequel to the original, is largely unconcerned with taking Zach's potential guilt seriously. It is, though, quite interested in waxing rhapsodically about the power of pizza, and having you bow down before creator and director Hidetaka "SWERY" Suehiro's love of esoterica.
Indeed, Clarkson's murder is just a bait and switch. You think you're going to delve into the supernatural horrors surrounding her death, but instead you spend most of your time listening to characters quip about how a personal connection to the 1986 Sylvester Stallone film Cobra can help one to appreciate frozen pizza, or, in one of many fourth-wall-breaking moments, how by-the-book F.B.I agent Aaliyah Davis and her eccentric techie partner, Simon Jones, would be "the perfect stars for the latest video game." These asides are endemic to Blessing in Disguise, the bread and butter of both the brief 2019 sequences and the remainder of the game, which transpires in 2005 in Le Carré, Louisiana and features Zach's earlier self, Francis York Morgan. (If you haven't played Deadly Premonition, this won't make any sense, as A Blessing in Disguise can't be bothered to bring newcomers up to speed.)
The game's present-day timeline is little more than a non-interactive visual novel, as Aaliyah's investigation is limited to her asking Zach about random objects, like a shrine of milk cartons, in his one-bedroom Boston apartment. The game never stops shunting the mystery to the side, but being restricted to Zach's apartment at least keeps things somewhat focused, and because the action all transpires within a few hours, it at least has a feeling of immediacy. York's 2005 case allows him to more freely, albeit sluggishly, roam through Le Carré, but he's essentially going through the same rote click-to-investigate motions as Aaliyah, the difference being that the objects he interacts with are thousands of meters apart, a distance that he inexplicably chooses to cover on a skateboard he calls "my darling." Like its predecessor, A Blessing in Disguise operates on a 24-hour schedule, and while you certainly feel the pull of time, you don't feel the urgency to investigate the game's various crimes, which take a back seat to your attempts to set high scores at barely functional minigames like rock-skipping and bowling.
Everything about York's quest feels dragged out to mask how little substance there is to Blessing in Disguise. The game's 24-hour schedule forces you to spend a good chunk of each chapter literally wasting time by smoking cigarettes and camping out in the street, waiting to trigger events that only occur at dawn or during an establishment's business hours. But as empty as it feels to use inventory items to force time to pass, that's still preferable to the other activities the game offers up: hunting squirrels, dogs, gators, and bees; foraging for items in dumpsters, mailboxes, and fields; and shooting mysterious miniature UFOs out of the sky.
Throughout, the materials you collect, or the stat-boosting charms you craft from them, are somewhat necessary, but the disappointing rewards further spell the game's irrelevance. There are "realistic" systems in place to account for York's hunger, sleepiness, body odor, and sobriety, but they're barely connected to the plot. (Which is to say nothing of how questionably realistic it is that otherworldly monsters tend to drop fresh cups of coffee when slain.) And the meaningless of the game's busywork is compounded by the poor frame rate and low-texture graphics that would've seemed cut-rate even on an early-2000s console.
Given the disconnect between the game's various systems, it's hard to view SWERY as anything more than an amateur auteur. He imitates others, but to what end? In the vein of Hideo Kojima, he suffuses his games with pop-cultural references but never shows poetic aspirations. He channels Suda51's irreverence but not the satirical bite of No More Heroes. He even has Aaliyah indiscriminately quote Nietzsche, which would be a well-intentioned effort to guide players through a philosophical inquiry of crime and morality, if only these references connected in the slightest to the story at hand. Referencing hyperrealism and likening the way York's hand transforms into a Psychogun as being like that scene from David Cronenberg's Videodrome doesn't make this game smart; it outs it as a spectacle of flimsy appropriation, which is evident even in the demonic "Pains" that York faces in the Other World, all inexplicably named after stock characters from commedia dell'arte.
This is also a game that mistakes character development for quirky things happening to characters or being done by them. In one scene, a family's patriarch forces his son-in-law to feed his own arm to an alligator—a cruel moment that's never acknowledged again. In another, a character delivers a five-minute-long monologue detailing all of the work he's put into the ritual he's about to enact, only to anticlimactically set his knife down, having changed his mind mere moments later. Rather than have to address the effect of these decisions, Deadly Premonition 2 generally just kills off its characters, a particularly maddening move when it comes to the game's transgender character, Lena, whose efforts to settle things with her family would have benefited from even a superficial grasp of her emotions.
And that's how the game treats its main characters, as the side ones are either stereotyped and saddled with tics that invite our laughter more than our empathy. There's a crawfisherman whose most memorable feature is his dwarfism, a bartender who stands out only on account of his tight white underpants, and the employees at the hotel you're staying at who are all the same person, each one defined by a different, terrible accent.
Ironically, by the time A Blessing in Disguise finally gets around to introducing monsters into the mix, you may find yourself longing for the quirkiness of its shallow caricatures of people. Not only do three of the game's four chapters end in identical red-misted corridors with no distinguishing features or puzzles, they also recycle the same three enemy archetypes: a creature with giant scissors who snips toward you, a giant chained to a doorway who releases lock-shaped explosive crabs from his bindings, and a half-naked woman who slinks toward you, summoning tentacles. These survival horror sequences are neither scary nor fun, and the most challenging thing about them, beyond their forcing you to try to auto-adjust your aim in order to account for the stuttering lag in the frame rate, is how you have to push past boredom. Consider, then, these sequences not so much a premonition but a warning born of experience: Turn back all who enter here, for there is nothing good awaiting within.
This game was reviewed using a press key provided by Thunderful.
Developer: Toybox Inc., White Owls Inc. Publisher: Rising Star Games Platform: Switch Release Date: July 10, 2020 ESRB: M ESRB Descriptions: Blood and Gore, Use of Drugs, Violence Buy: Game
Review: Ghost of Tsushima Lacks Ambition but Is Rife with Poetic Flourishes
The game has the look of a thoughtful samurai epic, but the façade flakes under scrutiny.3.5
Despite the game being about as far as you can get from a story set in 13th-century Japan, there's a quote from Mass Effect 3 that kept echoing in my head throughout the 40-plus hours it took me to complete Ghost of Tsushima: "Stand amongst the ashes of a trillion dead souls, and ask the ghosts if honor matters." It's a wonderfully poetic line of dialogue, from a game that's every bit as concerned with how people fight a righteous war, and how much tradition and legacy and optics play a role in that.
Poetry can be wrung from human attempts to justify horrific but necessary actions—it's just that, aside from the occasional line of dialogue like the aforementioned one, video games as a medium are often lunkheaded when it comes to deploying poetry. Bless Ghost of Tsushima, then, for trying to do so. Sucker Punch's latest has a rich, painterly beauty that places a premium on silence, and on the way its systems treat swordplay, creating environmental systems that bring awe to even the most mundane scenes. And the game very much explores the relevance of honor in a world that requires the wetwork of bastards. Quite often, Ghost of Tsushima suggests poetry in motion, but it's still playing in a space that relies too much on imprudence for mass appeal.
That foolishness was baked into Ghost of Tsushima right from the conceptual stage, as this is a game about Japanese culture and traditions that doesn't have a single Japanese person credited as a writer or creative director. It's a problem somewhat mitigated by how many Asian creatives were still involved in its making, but this is still a game that caters to players who've maybe seen Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and aren't likely to do a double take while their character composes (largely meaningless) haikus some 400 years before Matsuo Bashō was even born, or being told that a particularly murderous Japanese woman had to teach the Mongols, of all people, how to properly use a bow and arrow. Nonetheless, if you're willing to extend the good-faith exception to Ghost of Tsushima and judge it not for its historical accuracy, but for its true aim of delivering a lurid, pulpy tale of samurai vengeance set in one of the most strikingly beautiful open worlds ever crafted for a video game, you will find that it's a ringing, if pointedly unambitious, success.
The game is set in 1274, as the Mongols, during their first invasion of Japan, raid their way across the tiny island of Tsushima. Our hero, Jin Sakai, and his uncle, Lord Shimura, are the first to try their hands against the invaders, but led by Khotun Khan, a soft-spoken but hulking, brutal warlord, the Mongols lay waste to the island's best samurai—save for Lord Shimura, who's held hostage, and Jin, who's left for dead on a beach until a thief named Yuna nurses him back to health. Determined to get his uncle back by any means necessary, Jin adopts a few tactics frowned upon by proper samurai warriors, and makes a name for himself across the countryside as the Ghost, defending the weak and striking fear into the hearts of his enemies.
You could be forgiven for thinking that sounds more like the stuff of Batman than of the code of Bushido, but it's difficult to deny that that game makes it feel really good to play as a samurai caped crusader. It's gratifying to wander beautiful watercolor valleys and approach marauders with steel in the eyes and hands, taking them down with extreme prejudice. And, in general, the combat is exquisitely simple, for basically forcing players to match their sword style with that of their enemies at the push of a button, and for the way the game's forgiving parry system leads you to harshly punish enemy mistakes. Ghost of Tsushima's most thoughtful and well-executed element is its Standoff mechanic, where pressing a button within a certain distance invites a group of enemies to send their best warrior for a face-to-face quickdraw, which is quite literally predicated on the visceral release of tension, of letting go of the attack button and opening an enemy's neck.
The game largely follows the open-world action-adventure playbook to the letter, with all the map exploration, base-clearing, and collectible hunting that implies. On its face, that's disappointing, especially given that Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice was more ambitious on that front. But that's also a game that breathlessly hinges on survival and has no interest in giving you power and exhilaration. Sekiro is out to kill you, whereas Ghost of Tsushima is literally and figuratively guiding players to follow where the breeze takes them.
Across this game, Jin takes up the sword not just for the scattered resistance fighters attempting to force the invaders off their land, but in the name of farmers in search of their dead families, warriors looking to avenge their fallen comrades, dying family members looking to clear the enemy out of their ancestral cemeteries, and just straight-up bloody revenge against a horde of bandits. Alluring little side stories dot your path to the next major objective, and as you're constrained by the limits of having to travel such long distances by horseback, the game gives you plenty of opportunity to get lost—all the better to let its beautiful and tranquil approach to storytelling wash over you. The basic bones of Ghost of Tsushima are open-world tropes, but they hold up thrilling little dimestore tales that could have been pulled from a collection of Lone Wolf and Cub manga, and those tropes are executed with a deliberate elegance that's rare in the big-budget game space.
It's frustrating, then, how often the game pulls the reins back on our joy, to remind us that we're somehow playing the role of a samurai wrong. As much as dissonant ludonarrative guilt usually grinds up against the sheer glee of stabbing an enemy in the back here, it's especially unfortunate when one of the lovingly rendered assassinations triggers a cutscene with Lord Shimura reminding Jin how he promised never to do that same exact thing. But for what it's worth, the best elements of the story also seem self-aware of such hypocrisy.
For one, the first samurai you ever see on screen attempts to face Khotun Khan face to face, with honor, and the warlord retorts by setting the man on fire. Later, when Jin finds himself playing dirty against Khan's forces, resulting in an aftermath that would be horrifically grisly if it wasn't against proven monsters, Jin proudly states that he did what had to be done to crush the enemy. Throughout, you probably won't regret anything, and the story will, by and large, take your side over strict samurai doctrine. It's made abundantly clear that this is a fight that requires monsters, and aside from two very story-specific missions, you're allowed to confront the enemy in whatever way you see fit, with no long-lasting effects on the game world itself.
Then again, why even attempt to instill guilt on the player at all if there's no imperative to change the way you play the game? Even The Last of Us Part II has the sense to use the player's own bloodlust against them, as a means of underlining how emotionally tiring and spiritually numbing it is. The guilt over becoming the Ghost, and all the grotesquery that implies, is the crux of Ghost of Tsushima's story, but it's a non-issue until the game sporadically decides it is one, admonishing us for using stealthy, ninja-like tactics but giving no impetus to want to stop doing so. It's not until the emotionally complex epilogue that regret means anything for more than a few scant minutes at a time, and plopping the need for regret in the middle of the game's most magnificent and cathartic moments of savagery comes across half-hearted at best.
That's a byproduct of Ghost of Tsushima not pushing the envelope far enough away from its open-world ancestors. The things that would rush the game toward maturity—a firmer handle on history, a more in-depth exploration of the deeply stratified and elitist samurai caste system, or making Jin's defiance of his uncle's teachings a more proactive thing in the player's hands—are largely left underdeveloped. Instead, like many big-budget prestige games, this one settles for "that primally satisfying violence you're doing is bad."
That Mass Effect 3 quote is a good summation of Ghost of Tsushima, but there's a much more poetic one enabled right from the options menu: a visual filter called Kurosawa mode that renders the whole game in grainy black and white. You can even turn on the Japanese language track for an extra hint of verisimilitude, and some particularly strong performances from the voice cast. But no matter how excellent those performances are, or how much the visuals suggest deleted scenes from Rashomon, it's hard to ignore that the characters' lips are in sync with the English dub, and that the subtitles fail to convey what the Japanese actors are saying. Which is to say, Ghost of Tsushima has the look of a thoughtful samurai epic, but the façade flakes under scrutiny, revealing that it serves Western blockbuster tastes and tenets above all. It's a game that so desperately wants to be 13 Assassins but more times than not ends up looking like The Last Samurai.
Sony Interactive Entertainment did not respond to our request for review code. This game was reviewed using a retail copy purchased by the reviewer.
Developer: Sucker Punch Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment Platform: PlayStation 4 Release Date: July 17, 2020 ESRB: M ESRB Descriptions: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity Buy: Game
Review: Paper Mario: The Origami King Is a Cut (and Fold) Above Other Comic RPGs
While a lot of care has gone into refining the game's combat, there's no shortage of things to do outside of battles.4.5
Late in Paper Mario: The Origami King, Mario's charming new origami companion, Olivia, thanks him for all his hard work in saving both her and the Mushroom Kingdom from her power-mad brother, Olly, and his Folded Soldiers. Though Mario's efforts are credited to "the power of flat paper," and Mario himself is a literally two-dimensional character, there's nothing flat about this latest Paper Mario game, a delightful ode to craft and creativity that squeezes new possibilities (and puns) out of the beloved series.
Being a more-is-more game, it isn't enough for The Origami King to have Olly's evil henchmen be sentient art supplies, or have cleverly named attacks, like the bright and pointy missiles in Colored Pencil's "art-senal." Nor is it enough that each baddie has a vivid and comic identity, like the gangster Tape ("Stick 'em up" indeed) or Stapler, an attack dog with metallic "teeth." On top of all that, each boss fight is yoked to a unique gimmick, from Hole Punch taking chunks out of the arena to Handaconda forcing you to play a high-stakes game of Rock-Paper-Scissors mid-battle. Even after nearly 30 hours of immersion in this latest Paper Mario, which now brings massive open regions like the Scorching Sandpaper Desert and The Wind Waker-like the Great Sea to the mix, the game continues to surprise and delight.
Though based on a decades-old formula, The Origami King never feels like more of the same. A river-rapids minigame is followed by an in-depth trading quest within a Japanese-themed amusement park, Shogun Studios. A relaxing stay in the hot tubs of Shangri-Spa is first interrupted by a chase sequence involving a papier-mâché Chain Chomp and later by a Mario Party-like series of minigames on the game-show-within-a-game Shy Guys Finish Last.
The Origami King does feature traditional dungeons, but even here, the puzzles and themes remain wholly distinct; the closest overlap is between two types of sliding block puzzles. One, in the Water Vellumental Temple, involves moving slabs around to form a path. And later, in the Ice Vellumental Temple, you'll have to find a way to hammer your icy floe from wall to wall across a slippery floor. And as for the game's character work—well, let me just say that this reviewer didn't expect to ever feel so much compassion for Bowser's long-suffering magician, Kamek, nor to fall heartbreakingly in love with an amnesiac Bob-omb.
The game's biggest change, though, is its spin—literally—on combat. Like most of the Paper Mario games, battles are turn-based, with Mario using various Boots and Hammers (and the occasional Fire and Ice Flower or Tail) to attack foes. Active timing is still key, with extra damage awarded (or blocked) if players press a button before each animated attack lands. But now, in addition to those components, each battle opens on a dartboard-like grid that's divided into four circles and 12 slices. Players are given a limited amount of time and a set number of moves with which to slide or rotate enemies into place: Putting four enemies in a column means that Mario can hit all four with a single, down-the-line jump attack, and the proper alignment of all your foes not only awards bonus coins, but grants a damage multiplier.
As this long-winded explanation of combat suggests, regular encounters can sometimes get a little overcomplicated and tedious. But that's almost apt given the game's origami theme. After all, folding and creasing should be more complicated than the collage-like combat of Paper Mario: Sticker Star or the card-combining mechanics of Paper Mario: Color Splash. Moreover, it's not just some slapdash extra feature. While bosses all require unique and specific interactions with the board, even regular enemies often gain an extra dimension from the ring-based arena, like vanishing Boos, whose positions must be remembered, or Lil' Cutouts, whose intimidating paper-chain armies must quickly be spun back down to size.
While a lot of care has gone into refining the game's combat, there's no shortage of things to do outside of battles. Each region is teeming with hidden question-mark blocks and Toads that have been folded up into amusing new objects, and a "fax travel" system allows you to fairly quickly backtrack in your fight against "orgamized crime." The Origami King has so much exuberance and confidence in all of its designs that even if you're not completely sold on the combat—and there are modifiers that allow you to get rescued Toads to help solve it for you—the game will still win over all but the most puzzle-phobic and pun-hating players.
This game was reviewed using a press key provided by Golin on July 17.
Developer: Intelligent Systems Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Switch Release Date: July 17, 2020 ESRB: E ESRB Descriptions: Mild Cartoon Violence Buy: Game
Review: Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break Is Irreverent Fun, Up to a Point
Make & Break is at its best when injecting variety into the campaign, not only mixing up the environments but the game modes.3
Julius Caesar. Genghis Khan. Queen Elizabeth I. Moctezuma. According to Chilean development studio ACE Team, these historical figures do battle according to a blueprint followed since the very beginning of time—that is, rolling huge boulders down a winding track, weaving between enemy defenses, and ramming castle gates, hoping to squish an opponent who will give a high-pitched squeal whenever a door is broken down.
The first Rock of Ages is one of the stranger games to ever receive multiple sequels, but Rock of Ages 3: Make & Break (developed in conjunction with Giant Monkey Robot) hardly alters the formula of its predecessors. You place trebuchets, towers, catapults, and other objects in hopes of obstructing and damaging the enemy boulder until it's time to take control of your own, grappling with its considerable momentum to guide it to the target.
The concept has always felt a little chaotic and unrefined; the strategy portion is hardly unimportant, but the time constraints and the limited selection of units you bring into each battle give it something of a fevered, random quality. The boulder-rolling again seems far and away more consequential, dependent on who hits the enemy's door first and hasn't lost as much momentum along the way. But the chaos is certainly thrilling, too, as objects crumble beneath your boulder and you pick up potentially unwieldy levels of speed.
Filled with irreverent cut-out animations that depict things like the flying head of Elizabeth I shooting lasers, Make & Break has a blissfully goofy quality to it. Some of the obstacles you'll place are whales or lions hanging from balloons, and the strange proceedings unfold against a soundscape of screams and incongruously stately classical music. Across the campaign, you'll launch not only a variety of jumping boulders with faces at the enemy gates, but a snowball, a meatball, a wheel of cheese, and one rock shaped like a huge fist.
In short, to take the game with any particular seriousness, to regard it as anything more than exactly the madcap diversion it aspires to be, would be to miss the point. And Make & Break is at its best when injecting variety into the campaign, not only mixing up the environments but the game modes. Though each campaign location contains a classic "war" confrontation with some historical figure, activities like time trials, obstacle courses, and an all-defense mode against an onslaught of enemy boulders stave off any monotony.
But at their core, these are markedly repetitive games. In practice, the obstacles change very little of how you play, with one demanding a split-second jump rather than another that mandates you dodge to the side. And with that in mind, the level creator introduced here is hardly transformative; the environments of these games have always seemed vaguely interchangeable, and being able to design your own tracks only highlights the fundamental similarity between them. The series mainly distinguishes itself through its bizarre atmosphere, as well as its capacity to surprise by introducing new environments and characters, but remixing familiar templates in a level creator captures little of that charm.
This game was reviewed using a press key provided by Tinsley PR.
Developer: ACE Team, Giant Monkey Robot Publisher: Modus Games Platform: PC Release Date: July 21, 2020 ESRB: T ESRB Descriptions: Cartoon Violence, Mild Blood Buy: Game
Review: Polygon Treehouse's Röki Barely Stands Apart in a Crowded Field
Few of the game's problems would be insurmountable in the face of an engaging narrative.2
Magical creatures fill the corners of Polygon Treehouse's Röki, many of them plucked from Scandinavian myth: the trolls under bridges, the miniature Tomte helpers that look like garden gnomes, the Fossegrim, the Nokken. None, though, occupy so large a space in this adventure game as the fabled Dead Mom, whose loss a human girl named Tove must confront while she searches the forest near her home for Lars, her missing brother.
The rhythms of Tove's mission won't be surprising to most players, as she combs the forest—and, then, a castle—for objects to stick in her inventory and later use to solve puzzles. But there are broader, and also familiar, shortcomings within the game. Solutions tend to come in the form of exacting and roundabout item combinations, such as one where you use a large bone as part of a torch rather than, say, any of the branches that litter the forest. And some solutions may elude the player altogether, as they're not always noticeable even when you press the button that highlights an area's interactive objects. Elsewhere, you'll likely find yourself tackling puzzles through process of elimination, interacting with everything you possibly can until you find the solution, such as the seeds in a small puddle that apparently must be ground up in a mortar and pestle to grease some gears.
Though much of the game involves unlocking shortcuts between one area and another, they're never so transformative as to dull the meandering puzzle design that favors backtracking. Worse, the interface always seems to require a few too many button presses to accomplish simple tasks: To pull a mushroom out of the soil, you must open the inventory and select the trowel and drag the image of the tool from your inventory bar onto the mushroom in the game world. Then you do it again, perhaps many times over if you don't immediately notice the slight but important structural differences of the mushrooms in your inventory before you re-bury them elsewhere. Even the moments that confine you to a small area seem to take forever, as in one scene that finds you watching the same handful of slow climbing animations while Tove laboriously maneuvers around to place mirrors in different locations.
Irritating though they may be, few of these problems would be insurmountable in the face of an engaging narrative. But like countless other pretty games trading on emotion, Röki drones on about feelings, namely grief—all of it documented in Tove's illustrated journal, and complete with occasional asides about Dead Mom or Sad Dad. Repressed memories, shadow selves, and mysterious environmental sicknesses rear their tired heads. Beyond the trappings of Scandinavian myth, there's precious little to set Röki apart in an already overcrowded space.
This game was reviewed using a press key provided by Heaven Media.
Developer: Polygon Treehouse Publisher: United Label Platform: PC Release Date: July 23, 2020 ESRB: T ESRB Descriptions: Blood, Violence Buy: Game
Review: Rädical Rabbit Stew Is a Comic Medley of Things That Work
Metaphorically speaking, the developers at Pugstorm have left more than half the carrot buried in the soil.3
Swedish-based developer Pugstorm's Rädical Rabbit Stew doesn't reinvent the wheel, but that doesn't prevent this madcap arcade puzzler from being entertaining. Its nonsensical plot, involving a hungry and jealous Rabbit Queen abducting a bunch of intergalactic space rabbit chefs, frees up the gameplay to be equally ridiculous. And considering that the game already begins with the volume of its antics turned up to a 10, with your cleaning-boy protagonist figuring out the right angles at which to whack ravenous rabbits into cookpots, it's impressive how much louder things get. Throughout, you'll encounter bomb-filled pirate ships, slippery ice arenas, a dark cemetery haunted by ghostly bunnies, and a variety of tricked-out, gameplay-altering spoons for your hero to wield.
Rädical Rabbit Stew takes a lot of cues from games like Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle and Goof Troop, whose devious puzzles are covered by a veneer of comedy. The foundational gameplay is solid, with much weight placed on the jokes found across 60-plus levels—and they largely hold up. The first boss fight, for instance, is against a giant dog wearing an ill-fitting bunny costume. His name is Pugs Bunny, and you must defeat him by knocking his vegetable-laden model trains at him as they steam past. Familiar elements like pressure plates, moveable blocks, and slippery ice are all executed well, and the spoon-slapping mechanics occasionally offer novel ways to interact with such mainstays of puzzle games, but if wanton punnery isn't your thing (Planky McBoatface, Lava Bunthedral, and Bunningham Castle are some of the level names), the game is bound to wear a bit thin. The general lack of difficulty might be a factor in that: While there are 69 (groan) optional medals, collecting them usually just requires that you notice a path hidden just out of camera range, not in solving any more challenging puzzles.
It's a little disappointing, then, that the developers at Pugstorm didn't dig a little deeper; metaphorically speaking, they've left more than half the carrot buried in the soil. One level introduces a super carrot that, when knocked into the same row or column as a bunny, causes enemies to crazily charge directly toward it, smashing through any obstacles in its path. This mechanic is never encountered again, not even in Rädical Rabbit Stew's modest level editor. It's sad enough that the cannon-like cauldrons that shoot you across gaps and the armored, knife-wielding bunny knights that pursue you are underutilized in the campaign, but it's downright frustrating that you can't use them in the level editor. The game's local multiplayer is also similarly underwhelming, as there are only four timed stages, each of which revolves around vying with up to three friends to pot the most bunnies.
Considering that Rädical Rabbit Stew can be beaten in under an hour (though a first run will take at least three), it speaks to the quality of the level design that the gameplay doesn't feel rushed. If anything, it's stuffed with a wide variety of ingredients. A lot of care has gone into distinguishing enemy classes, like the unstoppable bombardier bunnies clad in aviation caps and goggles or bat-like bunnies that swoop toward you, as well as arming you with unique weaponry, which includes a grappling-hook spoon called the Helping Hand and an explosives-making one known as the Bomb Scoop. These creations are each well-defined and enjoyable, which makes it all the more frustrating that you aren't given more time to play with them. As a result, Rädical Rabbit Stew sometimes feels like more of an appetizer than a main course.
This game was reviewed using a press key provided by Wonacott Communications, LLC.
Developer: Pugstorm Publisher: Sold Out Platform: PlayStation 4 ESRB: E Buy: Game
Review: Amanita's Creaks Dazzles by Foregrounding Its Seussian Spirit
The game is primarily a vehicle for Amanita Design's brand of typically immaculate artistry.3.5
In Amanita Design's Creaks, players will find a mansion situated somewhere inside the walls of a nameless young man's house. Abiding by an almost Seussian logic, it's alien and angular, its gargantuan rooms piled on top of one another. Amid all the levers and ladders that complicate your journey to the bottom are the creatures of the game's namesake, who look like flying jellyfish and goats and dogs but, beneath the beam of a lightbulb, transform into furniture. A dog's single eye will morph into a handle, its open jaw melting into an ordinary chest of drawers, never to move again until the light flips back off.
Rendered in a beautiful, spindly style by the developers at Amanita, the expressive characters move in skitters and shuffles. The hand-drawn art and its consciously restrained color palette evoke a children's book, albeit one with detailed concentrations of lines that lend the game a faintly sinister, foreboding air. Silhouetted cutaway scenes even depict the protagonist's various deaths at the hands of the creaks, who are hostile to varying degrees: The dogs give chase if you get too close, but the jellyfish only attack if you're in the path of their floating patrol and the goats run away until you've cornered them.
Much of the game involves maneuvering through the mansion's interconnected puzzle rooms by manipulating the creaks' behavior, often by getting them to stand on switches or get out of the way long enough for you to, say, pull a lever that moves a bookcase or bridge blocking an exit. When the dogs chase you, for example, they will stop at the base of a ladder you've climbed for a short while, out of the way long enough for you to perhaps double back over the territory they guarded. They will return to their beds on little mats, but they know better than to cross any beams of light. That is, you must expose them by surprise, by flipping on a switch or moving obstacles that momentarily obstruct the beam. Though you sometimes progress by simply transforming creaks into static furniture to hold down switches, at other times you must take their full range of behaviors into account, when they're free to roam around.
Across approximately five hours, the mechanics trickle forth gradually. Throughout, new ideas mingle with the old, as you're introduced to the dogs, then the jellyfish, and then later a scene with both creatures that reveals the dogs to cower in fear of the jellyfish, clearing a path for you to slip by. Finding the puzzle solutions at all is generally the goal here, rather than performing precise actions; you're given a generous amount of time to flip the proper switches and get into the right positions once you've figured out how to progress. And if you're stumped, a few moments of experimentation with the levers and such tends to reveal the answer, and there are few instances where you can become stuck and need to restart a room.
As a result, the game does lack some of the sense of accomplishment and "ah-ha" moments of the best puzzle games. Reasonably clever though Creaks may be, it's primarily a vehicle for Amanita's brand of typically immaculate artistry, augmented here by the way the jangly music from composer Hidden Orchestra changes as the puzzle pieces fall into place. Though you encounter familiar configurations of levers and passageways and other obstacles, the mansion's rooms all feel distinct, subtly interconnected in a way you likely won't even notice unless you hit the load screen and see that every puzzle is coherently plotted on a zoomed-out side view of the mysterious mansion. Creaks hums along smoothly and pleasantly without calling attention to itself, to its sporadic detriment but mainly to its strength.
This game was reviewed using a press key provided by Amanita Design.
Developer: Amanita Design Publisher: Amanita Design Platform: PC Release Date: July 22, 2020 Buy: Game
Review: Superhot: Mind Control Delete Takes Killer Aim at Gamer Expectations
The game feels like the brainchild of students who were into debate club as much as programming.4
When Superhot was released in 2016, much praise was heaped on its novel "time moves when you move" gimmick, though some criticized the game for its brevity. Superhot: Mind Control Delete, initially planned as DLC but now releasing as a standalone game that's bigger than the original, is a brilliant rebuttal to that criticism. Whereas Superhot subversively riffed on the tenebrous nature of control, Mind Control Delete slyly questions the purpose of extra content and how long a game should or shouldn't be.
Mind Control Delete at first appears to exist for one reason: to deliver more Superhot. The blinking red box that greets you each time you boot up the game promises as much. "MORE," it reads, and that's what the game delivers. And not just more of those first-person fights where you step between slow-motion bullets to punch a shooter, grab his weapon and use it to pick off a sniper, hurl it at another foe, and then jump-punch your way to another enemy.
To this already volatile mix, there are now more levels, more abilities, more enemy types, more story. In-game, "MORE" is repeated as much as "SUPER HOT," and so much so that the word practically loses all meaning, which is when you begin to see the way the game serves as a critique of itself. "There won't be any closure," we're warned, "just more senseless killing." There's a fine line here between entertainment and annoyance, and the developers at SUPERHOT Team ride it like they're playing the nerviest game of chicken, pushing players to the point at which the joy of pulling off that perfect sequence perhaps begins to sour.
Though Mind Control Delete has clear intentions, it never resorts to cheap tricks to make players step back and realize that sometimes less is more. There are two new and improved endless modes, each of which can be tackled with a variety of superpowers and "hacks." These abilities shake up the basic concept of Superhot, so while you're still throwing objects or shooting guns at bright red enemies, carefully clearing a room of its foes, your options for doing so are broader. With the grenade.hack enabled, every once-innocuous item—be it a stapler or a billiard ball—now detonates when thrown. And if you utilize the recall.core, you can summon a thrown katana back into your hand, just like a Jedi.
Elsewhere, you'll have to make use of new skills like ricocheting bullets and close-range invulnerability, because levels may now include explosive mines and spiky enemies that release shrapnel when hit. You'll also sometimes be faced with unkillable enemy archetypes like the charging Dog, katana-master Nindza, and position-swapping Addict, each one reflecting a toxic aspect of the gaming community such as avarice, addiction, or anger.
Though it's an intentional choice, players may find themselves missing the deliberate encounters of the original Superhot, which featured pre-set scenarios to fight your way out of. Mind Control Delete instead randomly generates most of its challenges. Players wander through an ASCII map of interconnected nodes, each one containing somewhere from five to 10 levels, all of which must be completed within a set number of lives in order to progress. Fail a node, and your next run may pull an entirely different lineup out of its pool of over 30 maps, some of which are noticeably easier than others. The Kitchen's meat locker and the Prison's guard station are easy to camp in, whereas the Disco and Dojo have dangerous wide-open spaces. Levels like the Yakuza hangout are filled with useful weapons, whereas the Library and Studio leave you with non-lethal books and paintbrushes.
It's not uncommon to have a run cut short because of bad luck with the hacks you get, your starting locations, or even the spawn patterns of enemies within each level—and this can quickly get frustrating as players go longer and longer without the respite of a checkpoint. Still, this randomness does a fine job of amplifying Mind Control Delete's message about meaningless violence, and if it's a bit too pointed, perhaps that, too, is the point.
Mind Control Delete feels like the brainchild of students who were into debate club as much as programming. Each new layer of gameplay exists to both argue for and against its inclusion, right up until the final twist, which allows players to progress only by their being willing to give up some of their hard-won new abilities. Until this point, players have been free to do as they like, experimenting with all the different combinations of power-ups in challenge nodes that send infinite waves of foes at players. But to keep that freedom, and to not have to give anything up, players must stop progressing through the campaign. And it's at that point that you must determine what you value more: the ability to play a game ad infinitum or the opportunity to reach the ending, even if that comes at the cost of your enjoyment.
This game was reviewed using a press key provided by Evolve PR.
Developer: SUPERHOT Team Publisher: SUPERHOT Team Platform: PC Release Date: July 16, 2020 ESRB: M Buy: Game
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Luke Wilson doesn't make a big deal about needing to gain 25 pounds to play his role in the "Middle Men."
That's because to Wilson it was pretty easy. And actually kind of fun
"It's not like I did a De Niro, obviously," said Wilson. "As you get older if you just stop exercising and don't eat well, in a week you can add 12 pounds."
Wilson needed the extra padding in the middle to effectively play the regular-guy businessman caught up in the insanity of the early-days porn industry in "Middle Men." The look works as does Wilson in this winning performance. While the filmmakers behind the film praised Wilson for his dedication and his performance, he said he just added the food he usually tends to stay away from.
"It was like, 'Great, I'll have pasta, Mexican food and beer,'" he said. "All the things I usually avoid."
The only problem was taking it off. "I'm still working on it," said Wilson.
The actor, who went from the movie to film a national ad campaign for AT&T, has reluctantly realized that at 38 he has to watch what he eats and regularly exercise to keep the weight off.
"As you pass 30 and then 35 things happen," he said. "I thought I might be immune."

subset: commoncrawl


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Ed Orgeron tried to be Pete Carroll.
When he left USC to become Mississippi's head coach in 2005, Orgeron said he attempted "to do everything we did here with Coach Carroll."
It did not go as planned.
"Some of them worked and some of them did not," said Orgeron, who compiled a 10-25 record. "I thought about it long and hard, waiting for my shot again. I really evaluated myself."
Orgeron now has an opportunity to show what he learned. On Sunday, USC Athletic Director Pat Haden fired Lane Kiffin and selected Orgeron as the Trojans' interim coach.
The gravelly voiced Louisiana native, the Trojans' defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator, takes over a team that is 3-2 overall and 0-2 in the Pac-12 Conference.
Carroll told reporters Monday that Orgeron would "do great."
"Ed has been through enough as a head coach and he's got a real way about him that resonates," said Carroll, who left USC to become coach of the Seattle Seahawks in 2010. "And he can take control of a very difficult situation and make something happen that's positive."
Orgeron, 52, is accustomed to making adjustments. Since returning to USC as part of Kiffin's staff in January 2010, he has lived in a hotel room across the street from campus. His wife and three sons live in Louisiana, and he returns home when he can.
During a news conference Sunday, Orgeron spoke of providing "energy" and "excitement" to the job and the sideline, welcome news for Trojans fans distressed about Kiffin's seeming preoccupation with a laminated play-call sheet.
USC has an open date this week, so players and fans will get their first dose of Orgeron as head coach on the night of Oct. 10, against Arizona at the Coliseum.
Don't expect "over the top, rah-rah" from Orgeron, former Trojans defensive lineman Lawrence Jackson said. Orgeron's stint as Mississippi's coach from 2005 to 2007 changed him.
"Once you are in charge of an entire team and an entire coaching staff, you have a different perspective," said Jackson, an NFL first-round draft pick who played for the Trojans from 2004 to 2007. "The old Ed that I know as a coach, he's grown based off his experience."
However, Orgeron remains fiery after nearly three decades in coaching.
Haden said he was "blown away" observing Orgeron putting players through their paces during practice a few weeks ago.
"The passion that Ed had coaching defensive linemen through that same stupid bag drill he's run for 27 years, it's just incredible, " Haden said.
Senior Devon Kennard has played defensive end and linebacker for the Trojans. He does not anticipate Orgeron changing his style much now that he is overseeing the entire team.
"Coach O is Coach O," he said. "He's going to bring energy that a lot of guys aren't used to. ... I'm excited for everybody to feel what we feel in the D-line room."
Orgeron said there would be differences.
"Being the head coach, you can't do the same things you do as an assistant," he said. "You have to choose what you do and what you say."
Orgeron worked at Northwestern State, McNeese State, Arkansas, Miami, Nicholls State and Syracuse before Paul Hackett hired him at USC before the 1998 season.
Carroll kept Orgeron on staff in 2001 and also made him the recruiting coordinator as the Trojans built the foundation for their return to prominence.
Orgeron left for Mississippi after the Trojans defeated Oklahoma in the 2005 Bowl Championship Series title game. He was fired in 2007 after the Rebels finished 3-9 overall and 0-8 in the Southeastern Conference. Orgeron joined the New Orleans Saints staff for a season before Kiffin hired him at Tennessee.
While at Tennessee, he had a star turn of sorts when he appeared on the big screen with Academy Award winner Sandra Bullock in the movie "The Blind Side."
It was a small, supporting role, Orgeron playing himself as Mississippi's head football coach.
"She was one of the nicest ladies I've ever met," Orgeron said of Bullock. "We had fun. It was a good time."
But the most memorable moment for Orgeron came when he arrived on the set.
"I think most of the guys making the movie were graduates of USC," Orgeron said, "because I walked in there and they were saying, 'Hey, Coach O! Fight on!' "
Now, he will succeed Kiffin, with eight games to show USC fans, Haden and possibly other athletic directors that he is a capable head coach.
It's a short audition, but for Orgeron it's the role of a lifetime.
Twitter: @latimesklein
Times staff writer Sam Farmer contributed to this report.


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Larry Moore Answers Your Gardening Questions
Longtime gardener Larry Moore has been showing you how to grow your own food.
On Thursday, he answered gardening questions from viewers.
L.D. asked: "You said you'd have tomatoes in 57 days. I planted Beefsteak, and they said 80 to 90 days?"
Larry said Beefsteak is a late-maturing variety. Early Girl, one of five varieties Larry plants, will have ripe tomatoes in 57 days.
Paula asked: "I planted my tomatoes and put a cup of soybean meal in each transplant hole. Somebody said that's not the way to do it."
Larry said soybean meal should be put on when the first green tomatoes are the size of marbles. Otherwise, it's too much nitrogen.
Neal asked, "If you could plant only one kind of tomato, what would it be?"
Larry said that in the Kansas City area, Celebrity Hybrid seems to be the most disease-resistant and most tolerant to our heat, rain and drought conditions.
For more gardening tips, visit Larry's Page.
Send your gardening questions to email@example.com.


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Join the Tafseer of Surah Maryam Course for FREE!
As salaamo alaykum wa rahmatulaahi wa barakaatuh,
If you would like to give yourself an opportunity to allow the Quran to enter your life like never before by learning Tafsir and memorizing in an easy way, read below!
Join the Class: http://e-jaazah.com/?eps=episode-1304866136
The Qur'an Made Easy
I know, I know. You've tired to memorize the Qur'an before. You had such determination. No one was going to stop you this time. At last! The verses that eluded you for so long were now yours for the taking.
You started.
Day 1 was great!
Day 2 was good.
Day 3 was so-so.
Day 4 was a weekend day so you gave yourself the day off.
Day 5 was another weekend day (day off).
Days 6-9 saw the dismantling of your determination and quiet exit from another attempt to memorize (I hope my wife doesn't say anything to embarrass me)
Sound familiar? I know all too well! Being a native English speaker, the Qur'an was always difficult for me to memorize because I didn't adequately understand what was being said.
We at E-jaazah.com are endeavoring to make the studying of this glorious book easy for the non-Arabs. We are offering Tafsir, implementation advice, and a user-friendly way to memorize the ayats as effortlessly as possible insha Allaah.
Here is how it works:
Step 1: Join the Class: http://e-jaazah.com/?eps=episode-1304866136
Step 2: After watching the class listen to the "Memorization Helper". The Shaykh recites the verses and you recite with him. Only focus on the verses covered in class so as to not overburden yourself and be discouraged. The recitation is in an mp3 format so you can listen and recite along while you are in your car, on the train, on a horse (if you have one!) or anywhere else. Listen to a sample here.
Step 3: If available, spend a few minutes explaining to your wife and or children what these verses mean after dinner. Don't spend too much time as they may not be accustomed to the change in you and you may want to introduce them slowly to keep them fully interested.
Question: What am I going to get out of this class, when I'm so busy????
Answer: Insha Allaah you will have a grasp on the ayats that you never had before as you will not only learn the meanings of the ayats from the scholars of Tafsir (Ibn Kathir, Qurtobee, and others) but you'll also be in a position to implement them into your life.
This will give the Qur'an a whole new station in your life that you may never have had before as you will:
1. Learn the Tafsir of the verses in a user-friendly video
2. Endeavor to implement the verses in your life through your understanding of them
3. Memorize the verses in a way that caters to the Muslim with a busy schedule
Question: How long is it going to take? I've started and stopped so many times!
Answer: The classes are about 45 minutes each. The special memorization helper mp3 is around 20 minutes (depending on the ayats covered). However, there is no real need to be sitting and listening for twenty minutes. You can be driving in the car, cooking dinner, or doing both (if you have a grill in the back seat). Classes are once a week, so it will not be a big burden to you insha Allaah.
Question: Where can I find these classes?
Answer: E-jaazah.com Click here to start!
Question: How much does it cost?
Answer: You must agree to make dua for all of the staff and teachers at E-jaazah.com if you benefit from it.
Question: What Surah will we be studying?
Answer: Surah Maryam
Question: Why Surah Maryam?
Answer: Most of the brothers and sisters at E-jaazah are ex-Christians and seem to have a love for the story of 'Eisa (Jesus). Knowing Surah Maryam is also a great opportunity to help others learn the true nature of 'Eisa and his Mother (peace and blessings upon the both).
Question: How many classes will there be?
Answer: There will be 9 classes to cover the entire Surah insha Allaah.
Question: How often are the classes?
Answer: Once a week.
Question: I'm really busy these days? How do I know I can make the classes?
Answer: The classes are pre-recorded so that you can cover the material at your leisure. The program is designed for the busy person to learn on a high level.
Join the Class: http://e-jaazah.com/?eps=episode-1304866136
jazakAllaahu khayr,
Wow.. do you think I would wait anymore?! I signed up and got my first lesson immediately. I like the teacher really..smiling face..mashaa allaah.
If Allah gives us an oppurtunity to learn His Deen, never ever miss it. What is more important than learning the Qur'aan in our life?
I am in!! YOU??
Tag Archives: schedule


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|Up a level
Kaštelan, Darko and Kraljević, Ivana and Kardum, Iva and Kasović, Mario and Dušek, Tina and Mazalin Protulipac, Josipa and Giljević, Zlatko and Perković, Zdravko and Jelčić, Jozo and Aganović, Izet and Koršić, Mirko (2007) The effects of the level of physical activity on calcaneal ultrasound measurements: bone properties of medical and physical education students. Collegium Antropologicum, 31 (3). pp. 701-704. ISSN 0350-6134


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Gulzar was born on 15 august 1964. around 2 and a half year back, he has started his career as chef on tv with hum tv. He did chef management course from Ginza Tokoyo hotel Japan. He had spend 12 year in Japan for training and job purpose. Famous for his dancing skills more than cooking skills, you will sure love his entertaining cooking show.
Easy Frozen Dessert Recipes and Cooking Videos, ready-to-make recipes for busy families .. only neater to eat. KhanaPakana.com has hundreds of trusted, authentic and KP community tested traditional and non-traditional Frozen Dessert recipes and videos complete with ratings, reviews, and making tips.
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Mossberg's Mailbox
Verizon iPhone and Android World Phones
I know I cannot use the Verizon iPhone to place or receive calls in most countries overseas. Can I use it to surf the Net when I am in a Wi-Fi hot spot provided by a hotel or Starbucks, etc.?
Yes. Except for its cellular radio innards, the Verizon model is essentially identical to the AT&T one and that includes its Wi-Fi capabilities, which worked fine in my tests in Hong Kong. Although I didn't test this, I suspect you could even make Internet phone calls overseas over Wi-Fi, using apps like Line2 or Skype. One other good use for Wi-Fi: performing online data tasks while on a Verizon voice call in the U.S. Unlike AT&T's, Verizon's 3G network doesn't allow tasks like fetching Web pages or new email while on a cellular call. But if you're on Wi-Fi while you're making that call, you can perform such tasks, because they'll be carried out on the Wi-Fi network, not the cellular one.
I am one of those loyal Verizon customers eagerly awaiting the iPhone, so I read your recent review with great interest. However, I was disappointed that you did not address my main interest, as a grandmother, in the video calling capability. With great envy, I saw this operate on our daughter's AT&T iPhone.
I did test Apple's built-in FaceTime video calling on the Verizon iPhone, and it seemed to work about as well as it does on the AT&T model, which is to say generally quite well.
This isn't one of those functions where the cellular networks even matter, as Apple has restricted it to working over Wi-Fi only. So its quality varies mainly by the strength and congestion of the Wi-Fi networks at either end.
I am a very satisfied Verizon customer but I miss being able to use my phone when traveling in Western Europe. I will be able to upgrade my phone in August (just in time for our annual Europe trip) and I am hoping there will be another Droid available by then that will be able to operate on the GSM system. Will there be?
Verizon already offers Android "world phones" that contain both its normal radio for use in the U.S. and a GSM radio for use in Europe and elsewhere. These currently include the Droid Pro and Droid 2 Global by Motorola. I don't know whether any new ones are planned, or whether the current ones will still be on the market in August, but I'd be surprised if there wasn't an Android world phone available when you're ready to upgrade.
You can find Mossberg's Mailbox, and my other columns at the All Things Digital website, http://walt.allthingsd.com. Email firstname.lastname@example.com


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1996 Fur Rondy Collector Pin
This is the 1996 Official Anchorage Fur Rendevous Collector Pin, the design features a mama grizzly bear and her cub.
Each year since the late 1930's, trappers have been coming into the "big city" of Anchorage to trade and sell their furs, pick up supplies, and let off some steam! In modern times, the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous is our mid-winter carnival, people travel from around the world to visit Alaska in the middle of the winter for this exciting experience. The sale of Rondy merchandise is what helps to put on this festivity year after year. Rondy pins are a favorite souvineer each year, but complete collections are quite rare and very valuable. The pins originally sell for just a few dollars, but as they get older, some become quite expensive. Each year, the Fur Rendezvous Committee makes a pricelist for some of the different collectibles, we use these prices as our guide and try to offer the pins below the suggested price. We may have other pins not shown here, please send any inquiries to: email@example.com


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From Muddling Towards Maturity. He quotes Chuck Colson on the pursuit of happiness.
Our founding fathers understood the pursuit of happiness to mean the pursuit of a virtuous life. This concept of happiness comes from the Greek word eudaimonia—which refers to a life well-lived, a life rooted in truth. That is what happiness means, and that is what every man and woman has an inalienable right to pursue—a virtuous life.
And as I wrote in my book The Good Life, this is the definition of happiness that we need to reclaim in American life—especially within the Church. After all, a Barna survey revealed that more than half of evangelicals agreed with the statement: "The purpose of life is enjoyment and personal fulfillment."
Come on. If the last 50 years have taught us anything, it's that consumerism and hedonism (the pursuit of unbridled pleasure) do not lead to happiness, but instead to personal and societal misery.
[…]The goal is not pleasure; it is righteous living, decency, honor, doing good—in short, living a virtuous life.
I've heard J. P. Moreland write about this, too, in his book "Love Your God With All Your Mind". (And again in "Kingdom Triangle")
J.P. says in chapter 1 of LYGWYM that freedom is "the power to do what one ought to do". he right to the pursuit of happiness means that no individual or government has the power to prevent you from living the virtuous life that God intended for you. That is why I come down so hard on the secular left. When they force Christians to deny their faith and act like atheists in public, (e.g. – to perform abortions or lose their jobs), then the government is thwarting the pursuit of happiness, rightly understood.


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The list below contains the scientific production of the French Institute of Pondicherry from 2009 onwards. It includes books, edited books, CD-ROMs, maps, book chapters, articles, published conference papers, theses, reports, working papers, awards and other miscellaneous publications.
For publications brought out under the imprint of the IFP and available for sale, please visit the Bookstore page. For the IFP's scientific production deposited in the HAL-SHS open archive see the IFP's HAL-SHS page.


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At last! The Amazon App is now in the Windows Store! Wow, the really took their time coming. EBay and Newegg have been rocking the Store since Jove knows when, now Amazon joins the hustle. As you can see the App already garnered 98 ratings at almost 4 Stars. I wonder who are those people who rated it, as those are not the public, the App is just out! Probably those are Microsoft internal users and testers who were testing for Microsoft and Amazon as they need to get this right the first time.
I have just installed the App, I just simply said Wow! when I first opened it. It is beautiful, it is comprehensive, to use my favorite term, it comes with kitchen and sink. Yes, it is worth the wait.
Once you login, the App lights up with your history and purchases, there are recommendations for you based on your search and buy pattern, they have columns for everything that might interest you. Can't place screenshots here else you'll be privy to my weird collections of Barbie pops . But seriously, you'll have to see this App for yourselves. Here is how Amazon (or is it MS, wink wink, nudge nudge) described it from the Store:
The Amazon app allows you to quickly make purchases, search, compare prices, read reviews, and share products with friends using a simple yet elegant interface. Shop just as you do on the web.
You can access any of Amazon's sites around the world from a single app by simply selecting your desired Amazon country store or shipping destination. You have full access to your existing cart and wish lists.
Search for products using the Amazon app, and easily add them to your shopping cart to purchase. (Note: the app uses the Amazon search engine, which is a non-Microsoft commerce engine.) All purchases made on Amazon are routed through our secure servers just as they are on the web.
View popular products and recommendations
Quickly search for products
Read product descriptions and reviews
Add any product to your Shopping Cart and/or Wish List
Purchase products
Access any of Amazon's sites around the world
I can tell you for fact right now that these screenshots didn't do justice to the App. You need to download it and login to see the App light-up with your Amazon universe. So what are you waiting for, it doesn't cost you a dime. So go right ahead and download via the Source link.
Source: Windows Store
P.S. You didn't think for once that the Barbie pop collection joke was true did you?


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Return to Narnia: Get Ready for Prince Caspian
- 2008 14 May
This week, Hollywood is bringing the second book of C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia to the silver screen. And whether you are a parent introducing your kids to Narnia for the first time, or looking for an excuse to recapture the magical wonder of your own childhood, it is a good time to dust off a copy of Prince Caspian.
While you will not find the spiritual lessons in Prince Caspian quite as obvious as those you remember from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, you will find plenty of profound truths about the Christian faith—delivered in a way that only the master, C. S. Lewis, could do.
The saga of Prince Caspian unfolds in a world hundreds of years removed from the Narnia of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. In this age into which the Pevensie children are suddenly thrust, the evil King Miraz reigns and only a remnant of people actually believe those childish stories of Aslan, the Stone Table, and a time when animals talked.
Like Lucy, Edmund, Susan, and Peter, we enter a world of skepticism that is very much like our own. Let's just say that the best-selling books in Miraz's kingdom could easily have been titled The Aslan Delusion and Aslan Is Not Great. Like our children, young Caspian grows up in an age when most people say, "Who actually believes in Aslan nowadays?"
As in the previous stories of Narnia, a cosmic battle between good and evil continues to rage. But unlike the direct head-to-head conflict between Aslan and the White Witch, the conflict in Prince Caspian is being waged between the followers of the opposing powers. On this cosmic stage, individual faith is tested. Will Prince Caspian believe in the stories of Narnia? Will Lucy follow what she believes to be Aslan?
Here is something with which Christians today can certainly relate. It is one thing to be among the first witnesses who exult in the risen Christ. It is quite another to act out of faith when the stories of His witnesses are so many centuries removed from our world. As Jesus told doubting Thomas, "Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed" (John 20:29). This is our world, and this is the world of Caspian, as well.
In this tale, as much as we learn about faith and doubt, there is also much to learn about the nature of Jesus. As Leland Ryken and Marjorie Mead put in the newly released, A Reader's Guide to Caspian, what Aslan is like is the "primary theological question of Prince Caspian." And in it we find several answers that apply to our own Christian walk.
After not seeing Aslan for a long time, when the children are finally reunited, Lewis tells us that the children "felt as glad as anyone can who feels afraid, and as afraid as anyone can who feels glad."
I do not have time to share all the riches to be gleaned from reading or re-reading Prince Caspian. So whether it is for your own spiritual growth or that of your children's, or simply being prepared to talk about the deeper spiritual themes with a friend, use the impending release of the film as a reason to return to Narnia. I promise, you will be glad you did.
Copyright © 2008 Prison Fellowship
BreakPoint is a daily commentary on news and trends from a Christian perspective. Heard on more than 1000 radio outlets nationwide, BreakPoint transcripts are also available on the Internet. BreakPoint is a production of The Wilberforce Forum, a division of Prison Fellowship: 1856 Old Reston Avenue, Reston, VA 20190.


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And then it closed.
Fast-forward three years. Cascadian Farms, for some reason, has their cereal on CRAZY-huge sale, and so although normally I never buy it at all, now I buy, like, two boxes of everything every time I go to the store. And I also don't really like to cook. And thusly, a revelation strikes:
I could have my own cereal bar. Just like Cereal Barn.
We didn't have a billion kinds of cereal, but we had at least eight, plus bananas, frozen blueberries, walnuts, and soy milk:The babies had a spoonful of everything, heavy on the blueberries, light on the soymilk:I had cinnamon grahams, Puffins, granola, blueberries, and carob chips, heavy on the soymilk:
I loved it. I ADORED it. It's in heavy rotation on the menu now.
All I need is a storefront.


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I've been slacking on my blogging duties this week, but it's not without reason I assure you.
It's rare when my day job, various writing gigs and other freelance work converge so densely as they have (and still are) this week. But it does happen. Sadly, LENNDEVOURS is often the neglected party in these cases.
But fear not loyal readers. Most everything except the day job will wrap up by the end of the weekend and we'll be back to regular posting here on LENNDEVOURS.
In the meantime, I thought a picture of our little guy would help fill the void. And, here are some of the best wines I've tasted lately:
- Bedell Cellars 2005 TASTE Red: Ripe, rich and outstanding. You'll see more on this soon.
- Treleaven Winery 2006 Dry Riesling: Clean, balanced and nimble...
- Lieb Family Cellars 2005 Pinot Blanc: Not a newbie, but always a goodie
More soon people.


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Yipee! These, plus the Elear and Aeon, will be one of the headphones I am saving up for. One step at a time.
InnerFidelity Update December 2017
Oh man! Lots more stuff showing up on the stoop. Worry not, the Sennheiser HD 660 S review will be up by weeks end, but I figured you'd want to see the measurements for a couple more soon-to-be-reviewed headphones: the Klipsch Heritage HP-3 and the Focal Clear. You'll get my comments then.
Klipsch Heritage HP-3Measurements
It's worth mentioning that this is the second Focal Clear I measured...needed to make double-damn sure I didn't get an odd man out sample like I did with the Utopia. They look pretty much the same this time. Previous Clear measurements here.
The Klipsch measures almost exactly like a K812 only with more bass and treble.
I'd rather have the Fostex TH-610 for half the price...
Obviously, by your measurements, the choice is clear, if they fit your ears.
of Clear look like a semi-open one since it attenuate outside noise. The previous measurement of Clear shows that it even attenuate half of the noise.
I can only imagine by the measurements and from the hype that the Klipsch is a pretty big disappointment.
So I guess I should just eat at my local hell's kitchen. I should remain oblivious to it being a source of enough cases of foodborne illnesses to fill an entire hospital ward. I should do this just because life is to be enjoyed, not examined. Smart cookie there, except I just tossed my cookies following your advice. ;P Seriously though, here's my informal philosophy: always strive for the very best through careful study and observation; don't succumb to the pitfall of analysis paralysis; and, above all, always remember to have joy in the journey. Most users here would probably say they believe the very same things. No one here is advocating to quit listening to their headphones, instead relocate to an isolated hilltop monastery, and there madly stare at a computer screen comparing graphs for years on end until our eyes are bloodshot red, all in the name of obtaining humanity's most proficient headphone. A little thought-provoking analysis never hurt anyone, pushing the envelope here and there and reaching a little higher. In reality, this is the end goal, not the end in itself. So relax, take a deep breath and... merry Christmas!
Since the Klpisch and the AKG K812 have a very similar FR from 800 Hz to 7 kHz, it would be useful to include a comparison between these to in your review. Those two are very different sounding dynamic headphones. And measurement noobs could understand how to look closer at IR. And what is not present in measurements.
except for the up to 5 dB differences within that range and the huge differences outside it, especially in the lower mids and entire bass range which completely change the tonality of the headphone, the additional resonance at 8-9 k and at around 14 kHz.
I don't understand what these huge differences have to do with objectivity/objectivism. If these sound the same to you, even within the narrow range that you have mentioned, then you shouldn't look for these headphones but instead shop for $10 ones.
I wrote that these are very different sounding dynamic headphones and that this would remain even when the FR would be adjusted on both headphones. You imply to me dumbness. That's kind of typical for objectivists who know it all better.
Lift the pads, are you joking? These are $1,000 headphones, they are measured to be what they are, who's going to be listening to $1k headphones with chunks of foam sandwiched between their head?
Are you posting a review video of the Focal Clear?
Bass.........20 Hz to 250 Hz
Midrange....250 Hz to 2500 Hz
Treble......2500 Hz to 20,000 Hz
This represents the range of Human hearing, and divides the frequencies into the old standards of Bass, Mids, & Treble. These have been the widely accepted definitions for many years.
In the table below, the further subdivisions are useful to more accurately describe the audible spectrum, which have developed over time, to describe the ten octaves we can hear as illustrated below. Note also the frequencies that most refer to as ("presence") and ("air" or "sparkle"). It is important that we use these standards in naming the different bands of frequencies in order to have a common language. If not referring to this standard, the only alternative is to talk in terms of the frequencies in Hz, and mention only the numbers.
Sub Bass...........10 Hz to 25 Hz
Low bass...........25 Hz to 50 Hz
Mid Bass...........50 Hz to 125 Hz
Upper Bass........125 Hz to 250 Hz
Low Mids..........250 Hz to 500 Hz
Central Mids......5oo Hz to 1000 Hz
Upper Mids.......1000 Hz to 2000 Hz
Low Treble.......2000 Hz to 4000 H ....('presence region'
Central Treble...4000 Hz to 8000 Hz 3 kHz to 6 kHz)
Upper Treble.....8000 Hz to 20,000 Hz .('air/sparkle' 10 kHz & up)
According to this review - http://musicalhead.de/2017/12/17/test-audio-technica-ath-adx5000/ - Sennheiser HD800/HD800S is comprehensivekly and convincingly dethroned. The king is dead, long live the new king : ATH-ADX5000


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-PREVENTION AND TREATMENT- Fungal nail infections (onychomycosis) are often mischaracterized as purely cosmetic. However, if left unchecked, onychomycosis can cause serious problems ? particularly among those with... (Read More)
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Celeb unions: Much more fun than the movies
Here's a news flash: Another celebrity love match for the ages has gone south. This time it's Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie.
Last time, the pair going splitsville was gonzo comedian Tom Green and actress Drew Barrymore– who spent a good chunk of 2001 denying they actually were married. Then they announced that they are filing for divorce after five– count 'em– long months of matrimonial bliss.
"I love Tom very much. He has always been a great friend and that won't change," says Drew, who once starred in a film called, of all things, Irreconcilable Differences, the official reason for the divorce.
"Drew is a wonderful woman; I love her very much," says Tom, for once guilty of understatement. As his fiance, after all, Barrymore appeared on Green's controversial "Cancer Special" on MTV, in which he documented the removal of his tumorous testicle. "Wonderful" doesn't begin to describe a gal who would sit through that.
But the magic ended around that brief moment that Vanilla Sky– the action thriller starring the twice-married and twice-divorced Tom Cruise and the current love of his life, Penelope Cruz– topped the nation's box office. And even as 68-year-old screen vixen Joan Collins announces plans to stroll down the aisle for only the fifth time, this time with a 36-year-old theater manager. "They are both very happy and are very in love with each other," says a Collins' spokeswoman.
Of course they are.
On the level of pure entertainment, celebrity marriages, marriage-like couplings, and declarations of lifetime love are akin to the movies themselves. Indeed, the marriages– and the inevitable divorces– are frequently easier to watch than the films made by the same actors.
And yet who can deny that there is something deeply dissatisfying about such spectacles? The reason: It's simply too great a suspension of disbelief to ask the audience to take such unions seriously. When we sit in a movie theater and the lights go down, we're willing to believe just about anything. We can almost believe, for instance, that Tom Cruise is a race-car driver, or an Irish immigrant, or a even a doctor– roles he played in Days of Thunder, Far and Away, and Eyes Wide Shut, three dud movies that also starred ex-wife Nicole Kidman.
But despite the occasional long-lasting celebrity relationship, the simple fact is that Dennis Hopper's eight-day marriage to Michelle Phillips in 1970 remains the Hollywood standard. Does anyone really doubt the clock is ticking on such latter-day Abelards and Heloises as Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Madonna and Guy Ritchie, Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt?
During their lives, movie stars enjoy fame, money, and adulation beyond any reckoning. They are famously indulged in their every whim. But when they ask for credibility in their love lives, they ask for too much.
If that harsh reality is too tough for them to take, they can always console themselves with this: True love is certainly just around the corner. Again.
Nick Gillespie is editor-in-chief of Reason magazine, where a version of this essay first appeared.


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My Poll
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Here are the current poll results
Srixon Z F85 Fairway Woodsview other products
Having a go-to club when your driver is misbehaving is key, and Srixon's Z F85 fairway is a great choice if you want explosive distance and great accuracy.
Every Z Series fairway wood has higher launch and more distance than ever before. This comes from the Stepped Crown, whilst the Carbon Crown moves mass to the perimeter for greater forgiveness as well.
Key features and benefits:
- The Z F85 features Cup Face for more ball speed and increased distance
- The Carbon Crown increases forgiveness, giving more accuracy off the fairway and tee
- Stepped Crown lowers the centre of gravity for consistent distance on every shot
- Available in 15 (3-wood) and 18 (5-wood) degrees
If you're considering upgrading your woods then make sure you try out this exciting range from Srixon.