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.
Once in a while a rare game comes along and shatters all of your expectations from the previously established genre and elevates it to an entirely new level. Left 4 Dead is undoubtedly one of these games.
If you’ve ever played a co-op shooter or watched a zombie movie and enjoyed either, then it’s a no brainer to pick up this game and start enjoying yourself. Left 4 Dead combines the greatest aspects of both and truly blends them into an action packed cinematic experience that can be enjoyed by all.
We don’t know what happened and we don’t care. All we know is that two weeks ago everything was fine and after a virus of some sort spread everywhere the entire world has turned into an insane mess of flesh eating zombies. A few people are immune and have armed themselves to the teeth and decided not to go out without a fight.
Meet the team: Francis, the no nonsense biker with tattoos and a bad temper. Zoey, the cutesy college girl, horror movie buff, who coincidentally also happens to be a crack shot. Louis, the I.T. professional still wearing a dress shirt and tie, but has taken time out of his busy day to heft a shotgun and take care of business. And finally Bill, the aged Vietnam war vet who has been keeping his M16 well oiled and waiting for this day to arrive ever since he got back from The Nam.
These unusual partners in survival have to band together and fight their way through four separate campaigns that each plays as its own distinct horror movie. The first (No Mercy) is a frantic flight through the city and sewers in an attempt to reach an air evac from a hospital. The second (Death Toll) is a romp through tunnels to a small town in the countryside. The third (Dead Air) finds the team fighting their way to an airport and finally the fourth and last campaign (Blood Wake) is a furiously paced run through a woodland and rural setting. The levels have obviously been crafted with love and consideration by the designers, because they always find a way to try and split up the team and drown you in enemies. But you can’t fight zombies with sticks and stones. No my friends you need firepower.
When you begin each level a small array of weapons are laid out before you and it is your choice whether to carry a shotgun or a Sub-machine gun, you always have the pistol on hand and if you have a sharp eye, you can find a secondary later on in the mission and pull out twin hand cannons to take down zombies wholesale style. Usually halfway through the mission you can drop your previous weapon for an auto-shotgun, M16 or hunting rifle. They all have their strengths and weaknesses and it really depends on your playing style and tastes. However, having used them all, I have to say that they all ‘feel’ good. Valve really got the gun mechanics, sounds and overall sensations right in this one. The thrown weapons are also fantastic. Molotov cocktails that spread fire across the ground and light up bodies like birthday candles, pipe bombs that draw away the undead and pop them in a gore filled blast and even propane tanks and gas cans that can be picked up and strategically placed in harms way and ignited for ‘explosive’ results. Also let us not forget the mounted chain guns that are sparsely placed throughout the missions to help you mow down wave after wave of rushing undead.
Speaking of the undead. These aren’t your grandma’s zombies, from the early black and white talkie pictures. You know, one of them is hanging around in the backyard or a dark alley and if you aren’t careful, by golly, he’s gonna getcha! These are the 28 days later style that storm forwards in a violently aggressive rush attempting to tear the flesh from your bones. It’s not just the regular zombies either, there are: Hunters who pounce from the shadows and pin you to the ground. Smokers, who constrict and strangle you with their tongues and slowly suffocate you while dragging you up the side of a building from 100 feet away. Boomers, who will vomit on you immediately drawing down the wrath of any zombies currently shambling around the level. Tanks, who are ridiculously hard to kill and can end your life with two punches. They also like to tear up chunks of the ground and throw them fifty feet into you or your friends and have also been known to swat cars around like tennis balls. And finally Witches, let’s just say that you don’t want to get in these zombies faces. They don’t like to talk and if they’re disturbed, they’re sure as hell going to ruin your day too. The best part about these new and twisted enemies is that in the versus mode you get a chance to play as them and hunt down other live players online. All in all these enemies are a pretty fresh take on zombies and for the most part they are hardcore. What I’m trying to say is that this menagerie of undead don’t generally stand around waiting for you to take a leisurely headshot. Try playing on expert with some friends and you’ll see what I mean.
So you and three buddies on live think you have what it takes to play this game. Well I hope you can trust them, because if one of you is a lone wolf or a straggler, chances are, you’re gonna die. This game is built around the one central concept of teamwork. Sure there have been co-op games before, but breaking formation never meant instant death for everyone in your party… well now it does. Valve have developed a truly ingenious artificial intelligence director, that in a similar fashion to a movie director marks, charts and actively decides the flow of the gameplay. If you are doing well against his horde of undead, he might give you a break and let you rest easy for a minute or he may decide to throw a tank in your faces and teach you who’s really running the show. He might even decide to pick off the weak member of the team who is crippled and hobbling just a few feet behind the rest of you. If one of you isn’t there in a moment’s notice, to save him, then he’s as good as dead. The beauty of it is that each and every time you play any level in Left 4 Dead, it’s a completely different experience. Different items at different points, different enemies, and the most unnerving derivation is that just when you’ve become accustomed to fighting an especially large wave of enemies at one point, the next time, they don’t show up, or they show up early before you’re ready. It’s really a stroke of genius that adds a ton of replayability to this title.
The only real weakness that I could find with this game is that the campaigns are disappointingly short. Mind you I’m obviously a fan of the game and could easily play a single mission for more than two hours. I would say that for total completion of the main game it won’t take you more than eight hours. It is short, but it is also very sweet. The ray of light in the future may very well be the unlimited potential of the online modding community and the numerous variations and new campaigns that can be produced by anyone. Hopefully there will be new missions and downloadable content to keep this game fresh in the coming months. Until then, we’ll have to make due with the four campaigns and the frightfully fun versus mode.
On a final note, Valve has once again hit it out of the park, after the vast success of the half life series, this year’s sleeper hit Portal, the ever popular Counter Strike and Team Fortress Classic, they may very well have another giant on their hands. But why don’t you judge for yourself. Go out, buy a copy, play till the sun comes up.
Gameplay 5/5
Graphics 5/5
Sound 5/5
Replay Value 4/5
