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 again, we are presented with not only a movie tie-in game, but another reboot of a product from the 1980s – G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero. Except this time, the subtitle is The Rise of Cobra. Which is interesting, and a let down at the same time. What makes this interesting is that the writers of this particular adventure had the option of reworking characters many of us grew up with and expanding on their history and tenuous (at best) relationships which had been established within the G.I. Joe universe. The let down however, was that they chose to completely ignore that option, and instead push another lackluster, under-developed game out the door in time to coincide with a summer movie release, and pray that the name alone would trump up some sales numbers.
The basic gameplay of GI Joe is that of a third-person action adventure. And it really doesn’t expand from that point. You run, you shoot, you find some computer-controlled doors, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll even use a vehicle or two, if the controls don’t force you to hurl your controller at the screen within the first few minutes. GI Joe tries, albeit pathetically, to add shall we say, “unique” controls to the game – and by unique, I mean a cover system which is an obvious rip-off from Gears of War, although the developers didn’t seem to find the time to test whether the cover system worked, or if pressing the A button would simply result in your character doing rolling dives right into the path of an enemy tank. Repeatedly.
The game also borrows heavily from the Contra series, in that you are constantly working through each level with a partner character (of your choosing – there are a total of 18 playable characters, including 4 COBRA characters as well, if you can find the necessary items to unlock them), who is controlled for the most part by the computer. The benefit of this is that your partner is invincible; you can hide behind some cover and simply let them take the brunt of the damage as you wait agonizingly for your health to recover. Having this secondary character is also the gateway to the game’s Co-op mode, which allows for another human player to grab and controller and hit start, and immediately drop-in or drop-out of the game. And for the most part, they’ll be dropping out.
At least it looks nice...
The camera in this game is not only laughable, it’s an insult to everything that has been developed since Super Mario 64 was released. You have no control over the angle, height, distance or zoom of the camera, which means you will more than likely end up shooting at a wall, bunker, health container, or enemy at the other end of the map than at the turret/tank/ninja who is slashing your face. The manual even boasts that you can control the target lock-on system, but I have yet to find it successfully follow my instructions and stay locked on the target that is actually killing me. It will track for a few seconds, but if you’re moving around (and you will be – there are sometimes as many as ten enemies all shooting incredibly large missiles and laser bolts at you at any given time), and the camera will simply choose another enemy at random to lock on to.
The level design is just as simple as it was back when the original Contra was released – Jungle Level, Ice Level, Desert Level, Factory Level, etc. At least you know where you’re going, since you can move around the globe pretty easily after completing only a few missions in each zone.
The GI Joe we remember and love.
There are a few spots of light within the drab existence of GI Joe, and that mostly comes from the special features you can unlock by collecting dog tags, briefcases, and file cards scattered throughout the levels. Some unlock concept art for the game, others information on the new – and even the original – characters and vehicles, and others unlock old public service announcements and characters to be used in the game, should you want to go back to replay any of the missions. This is probably the best nod to the original series, since the only other indication that GI Joe is based on anything is when you activate the Accelerator Suits that were used in the film. Once you’ve beaten up or killed enough baddies, you can unleash your supersuit to cause more wanton destruction – and for the duration of this act of ridiculousness, you’re treating to a tiny, heavy metal version of the original G.I. Joe theme-song opening. The first time you hear it, you feel nostalgic and happy, and you want to see if there are any other hints at good things to come. By the second zone, you’re ready to unplug your speakers if you have to use the suit one more time.
I’m very tempted to say that GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra is something that only a true, die-hard fan of the original series could really enjoy or appreciate. Unfortunately, even they will be disappointed with this sorry offering – there’s hardly anything more to be found here than on the recently released DVD of the original cartoon season, and the fact that you have to struggle through an incomplete game to try to find it is unacceptable. To borrow an overused and clichéd line, knowing is half the battle. The other half is never dropping this disc into your drive.
Graphics: 2/5
Gameplay: 2/5
Sound: 2/5
Replay Value: 1/5
