Natalia brings you the latest news on Adele’s interview with Anderson Cooper, Kristen Bell’s interview on Ellen is auto tuned, Ladehawke’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.
Marina and The Diamonds are working on some new music, but Marina is being very secretive about it. Although the release has been delayed, she let’s us in on some secrets about the new album, and how alcohol changed her life.
Spyro’s back for another romp on the next gen platform circuit. And this time, it’s personal. No, not really… or at least I’m not sure if it is or not. You see, I haven’t played a Spyro game since the first one came out on the original Playstation, and from the first minute of gameplay in The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon (Spyro), it’s obvious that the little purple dragon has grown into his own and spread his wings.
Activision’s Spyro begins with two purple small dragons encased in a crystal, a goblin touches the crystal and it explodes, then two snake necklaces are placed on the two dragons as they wake up in an underground laid fighting a giant fire monster. The green necklaces bind the two together and while they can fly, fight, and use elemental powers (Spyro can use fire, ice, earth and lightning, while Cynder (the evil other dragon) can use dark powers such as fear, poison, shadow, and wind?), they must work together to escape with the help of a tiger named Hunter and a loud mouthed dragon fly named Sparx. Make any sense? No? That’s how I felt playing this title as it seems to be a direct continuation from the past title, unless you played that last title they don’t give you any back story to work with. While on the topic of not making any sense, Cynder controls the evil elements, I understand that, but since when was wind considered bad? Linka never used her wind power for evil when calling on captain planet. Another issue I have with sense-making is that these two small dragons can fly at any given time, they can glide through entire levels, EXCEPT when there is a wall covered in vines, then all of a sudden they forget how to fly and must physically climb up the walls.
Changing subjects a little bit away from my rant, when playing Spyro, I couldn’t help but feel like this game felt very similar to something and after an hour of gameplay it hit me. Spyro is an E rated version of God of War! All the mechanics from GoW are present: action buttons, colour specific gems that provide health, mana, or exp, and when you have enough experience, you level up your spells the same way as GoW. The same scale battles and feel of fights are present, wall climbing, similar puzzles, rolls, giant monster battles ending with action buttons and an overall feel of GoW is present throughout the game, but cuter, colourful and with the ability for two player coop.
The controls are again, much like gears of war, using the D-pad to select your elemental spell, having a weak attack, strong attack, block, dodge, elemental attack A, elemental attack B, grab and player change. To fly you triple jump then beat your wings to gain altitude. Specific actions must be made by either Spyro or Cynder to open doors using specific elements such as blowing wind into a horn, or shocking a switch, so puzzle action utilizes more than one dragon at any given time. With two dragons flying around and as many as 10 bad guys on the screen at once, the gameplay can get a little hectic, add on top that both players can fight to control the camera angle and you get confusion and fire blasts left right and centre.
Graphically I was taken back by how great this title looked compared to the only other Spyro game I ever played over ten years ago. The detail in animation of all the little monsters running around, as well as the quality in terms of level design were great! The reflections on the monster’s slimy skin and the scales of Spyro are seen throughout the game and along with the artistic stylings of each element (especially Sypro’s fire and Cynder’s shadow elements) the game is a fast paced graphical enticement for the eyes.
With full voice over acting, and aside from cheesy script writing and unfunny jokes, Spyro’s voices are great. In fact, the voices are all filled by A-list stars that each fit their roles very well. Elijah Wood voices Spyro, Gary Oldman Ignitus, Wayne Brady as Sparx, Christina Ricci as Cynder and Mark Hamill as the evil Malefor. If I didn’t read the names on the back of the box, I would have never guessed these big names lent their talents to this game, and am amazed at how great they sound and work in a mysterious dragon world.
In an epic feeling conclusion to the Spyro world, The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon doesn’t leave much out, if only they could have clued in new gamers to their world before diving head first into continuing the story. The one thing I missed most was Spyro’s confidence issue about being the smallest dragon in his clan. It seems somewhere within the last ten years he overcame his height issues and became a full fledged dragon hero.
Gameplay: 3.5/5
Graphics: 4.0/5
Sound: 4.5/5
Replay Value: 3.0/5
Sierra Entertainment and Etranges Libellules have just released a fact sheet regarding the latest game in the Spyro series – The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon. The game will be supported on the PlatStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo DS platforms. The game is to be released in October 2008.
In the final edition of the trilogy, players find Sypro teamed up with Cynder, his former enemy, to face the most challenging mission yet in the gaming series. The Dark Master’s evil is taking over the world, and Spyro must fulfill his destiny and unlock the power of the purple dragon to defeat the villain.
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon features several new elements, such as Spyro’s ability to fly at any time and drop-in/drop-out co-op with Cynder. Both of the characters can complete the game separately as well. There has also been new elemental attack moves/combos, enemies and environments added to the combat game play. The game features an all-star voice cast, including Elijah Wood, Gary Oldman, Blair Underwood, Christina Ricci, Wayne Brady and Mark Hamill.
