In his latest movie, The Woman In Black, Dan traded his Hogwarts uniform for a totally new role as a Dad.
Natalia brings you the latest news on Adele’s interview with Anderson Cooper, Kristen Bell’s interview on Ellen is auto tuned, Ladyhawke’s latest music video and much more!
Natalia discusses what’s new with Pharrell Williams and her thoughts on Karl Lagerfeld’s mean comments towards Adele’s weight. She also shows a roster of animals behaving like humans and, wait until you see the new size of coffee available at Starbucks!
Natalia dishes the latest news on the Juno Awards nominees, the upcoming Spiderman 3D film starring Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield and is Katy Perry hooking up with Tim Tebow? Watch today’s episode to find out.
When The Kooks are in the studio they’re focused and most importantly, sober. Watch Hugh and Luke explain their reasoning below.
The Kooks released a new album called “Junk of the Heart,” and you would think Hugh and Luke would be very excited about it. Well, they seemed rather indifferent to be honest. We spoke about that and why they don’t care about critics.
Natalia dishes the latest in entertainment news on Joan Rivers, Lana Del Rey and a brand new trailer for the movie Hunger Games.
Natalia talks about how Snooki might be pregnant, Nicolas Cage’s Cage Rage, Elisabetta Canalis is dating Steve-O and more for Feb 1, 2012.
Natalia dishes the news on Miley Cyrus breaking her tailbone, a 100 year old woman who plays the Nintendo DS to stay young and Houston, Texas contemplating a statute of Beyonce.
David Beckham debuts a new line of underwear, the worst dressed celebrity – Shy’m and Matthew Broderick is back as Ferris Bueller with a brand new commercial airing during the Super Bowl on Feb 5th 2012.
Daniel Radcliffe is back with his new movie The Woman In Black. It’s a bone chilling remake of a film from the ’80s. Ironically, Daniel actually scares very easily but he’s not afraid of ghosts. In this interview he tells us what really gives him the creeps.
Next time you’re struggling to make conversation, try asking this question: “If you could invite anyone (living or dead) to the perfect house party, who would it be?”
Graffiti6 is starting to make their North American invasion, and they are hitting up the Tonight Show. Does this sound familiar? Well the Beatles made the exact same journey over 40 years ago. Naturally, @jordans_life had to make some comparisons.
Nick plays World of Warcraft. Not only that, he’s the head of his guild, demonstrating that it IS possible to juggle being a hardcore gamer with being a top-selling recording artist.
During a LIVE interview on andPOP.com Nick Carter gave out a number and took phone calls from his fans. These were real phone calls from real fans who we gave exclusive access to one of the biggest recording artists of our generation.
There were great questions about music, fitness, the backstreet boys but the most popular question, however, was about his underwear. In this clip Nick talks about his his ‘Haynes’ and covering his fans with glow in the dark paint.
When releasing new music today, half the battle is online promotion. However, contests, signed merch and giveaways aren’t always the best solutions. When working on their latest album, Hedley came up with a brilliant idea, they decided to make trailers.
It’s hard to prepare for an interview with Hedley. So in this interview, we threw caution to the wind, got a 24 of beer and broadcast the interview live on our USTREAM (andPOP.tv). Eventually Jacob, Dave and @jordans_life ended up talking about hairy legs, their newest music video and more.
Diamandis from Marina and The Diamonds talks to us about her very serious disease. It’s called synaesthetic. And we lied, it’s not a disease. More like a cool condition. Diamandis explains further.
Would you be embarrassed if someone scrolled through your iPod? We sit down with Spee and Brendan to talk about the diverse music on their playlist.
The Nintendo DS with two screens and stylus touch option seems like it was almost made for the purpose of strategy gaming. Using one screen to plan and one screen to execute commands, and commander in training can get an overall feel for the battlefield easily and comfortably. This is why I have been waiting for a Fire Emblem title to hit the DS for some time now and why I am pleased to review Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon (FESD) for the Nintendo DS.
Released February 17th developed by intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is more of a remake than a sequel. Yes, that is correct; through FESD you can relive the legend of Prince Marth (I only know of him through Super Smash Brothers titles) over and over again with updated graphics, two screens and online play. Actually this is the SECOND remake of the first Fire Emblem title. The overall story surrounds Marth having his family and kingdom taken from him by the evil Dohlr and backstabbing ex-ally Grust kingdoms, as he escapes with a few soldiers Marth is tasked with increasing his army numbers, gaining magical items, and rescuing villages along the way.
I enjoyed the writing in this title more than I initially thought I would, Intelligent Systems goes pretty heavy into the mentality of soldiers as you try to win them over to their side, sometimes even questioning their own existence and choosing death over abandonment of their kingdom. Pretty deep stuff… Otherwise there are childish comic relief characters who think it appropriate to tease someone about their name in the middle of a battle.
FESD is a top down strategy game where you have a set amount of soldier types (such as cavaliers, archers, mages, ballista, and more) which can level up and be upgraded or change their classes to different types and you lay them out trying to get Marth to the castle gate most of the time. Opposing you are rival soldiers of various classes and you take turns moving and attacking. There are also stores, villages, houses and arenas to visit along the way. What I like most about FESD is that other than Marth, when one of your characters die in battle, they’re gone for good adding a sliver of realism to this fantasy title, as well there is a small hierarchical chain within the game; axes are strong against spears, spears are strong against swords and swords are strong against axes. Adding onto this we have archers strong against flying soldiers, hammers strong against armored soldiers and so on, and finally there are specific weapons that are strong against specific soldiers (such as the Ridersbane spear being strong against soldiers on horses). With all these strategic elements thrown into the fray, players must plan carefully before each move.
Probably my favourite aspect of FESD is the controls. In so many Nintendo titles, players lack a choice in manipulation, not in Fire Emblem! You can use your stylus to move characters see the battlefield, what other enemies can do and plan accordingly without the touch of a single button. You also have the option of using only buttons for times when the precision of a stylus is hard to control (I call this subway mode). The best aspect of this is that it is not by choice through an option, you can mix and match your button choices as you play, switching from stylus to button control at your whim. The game is turn based so there are no problems in terms of confusion of control or lack of speed / hand cramps, and with a select or cancel majority of choices, the controls are pretty hard to mess up.
Graphically the game isn’t much more than their last Game Boy advanced rendition. Smooth 2D animations on the battlefield with slightly updated mediocre 3D models show executing minimal movement in two second battle scenes. Using hand drawn art and text during cut-scenes, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon lacks anything overly spectacular compared to their earlier titles, not that it needed it. As well the game sounds similar to past titles, medieval epic overtones, simple action music, and the clash of weapons round out the generic audio experience. We can’t forget about the character screams during deaths of course.
Length wise this game lasts about 25 missions which last on average a half hour each depending on how intensely you take your strategizing. With dozens of recruitable soldiers, the challenge of playing through without anyone dying and acquiring all soldiers and weapons, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon will last you hours of commanding fun. As an added bonus, two players can battle locally or through Wi-Fi using five of your best combatants into a battle to the death. Online stores and voice support are also very much appreciated bonuses in this title.
Gameplay: 4/5
Graphics: 4/5
Sound: 4/5
Replay Value: 4/5
