Plants vs Zombies - "Braaaaaains!"

Pop Cap have released some fantastic time sinks, I mean, games in the last few years. Bejeweled, from its humble beginnings on mobile phones has now become a Facebook addiction, and is now available on Xbox Live Arcade. One of the other Arcade games that they released is the hilarious Plants vs Zombies.

As you know, Sarah loves zombies, so this game is the mix of Bejeweled and zombies that Sarah was looking for. She considered downloading it, but then it showed up in her work, so she picked it right up. In a frightening role reversal, I was forced to watch her play the game for at least 5 hours yesterday as she ploughed through the various levels, with a vast array of plants, from the basic Peashooter, the Wall-Nut and Sun-flower (you need sun to grow plants) to the fun 'Little Shop of Horrors' rip, the Chomper, the Jalapeno and my personal favourite, the Squash. He squashes the zombies.

The zombies are not just run of the mill brain-nomming zombies. Sure you have garden-variety zombies who shamble, but it doesn't stop there. Some Zombies use traffic cones, screen doors or buckets to protect themselves, and then there are the more humorous ones, such as the Disco Zombie who summons back up dancers, and the Zomboni, which ices up a lane for a bobsled zombie team.

Situations change, sometimes the zombies attack during the day, when the sun is out. Other times they attack at night when there is no sun, so you will have to create it with you plants. If the front yard doesn't work, they attack the back right through your pool, meaning you have to prepare for aquatic zombies.

It is no surprise to see that P vs Z appears on the top 20 Arcade titles for Xbox Live on Major Nelsons blog (www.majornelson.com) when he posts the latest online activity. It is an ingenious, fun and exciting game, and shows that sometimes the best games have the simplest premises'. Zombies who want your BRAAAAAAAINS!

Plants vs Zombies Game of the Year Limited Edition

WWE: Inside WWE News Sin Cara joins WWE

Inside WWE - News - Sin Cara joins WWE
STAMFORD, Conn. – WWE today unveiled their latest Superstar signing, Sin Cara, formerly known worldwide as Mistico. The announcement took place today during a press conference in his hometown Mexico City, where passionate fans of all ages turned out to see their favorite performer become the newest addition to the WWE roster.

Having already forged a strong international fan following, Sin Cara, known for his high-flying style and awe-inspiring acrobatics, is expected to reach new heights of global success with WWE.

“Sin Cara is a tremendous performer who brings the crowd to its feet every time he steps into the ring,” said Stephanie McMahon, Executive Vice President, WWE. “With us, his stardom will only get bigger and brighter.”

Upon his signing, Sin Cara said, “WWE is the pinnacle of sports-entertainment. It is an honor and a thrill for me to be able to perform with the world’s best. Being a WWE Superstar will present new challenges, new mountains to climb and new competition. It is a new beginning and a new life. With that in mind, I have chosen the new name of Sin Cara in hopes to represent all the legendary Mexican masked performers and to carry the banner of their legacy to the entire world.”

Libya and evolved dictators

Unless you have been living under a rock, you will be well aware of some torrid events occurring in North Africa and the Middle East. Libya is the latest of these nations to find a voice clamouring for democracy.

A quick history lesson about the Libyan revolution of 1969

"On 1 September 1969, a small group of military officers led by then 27-year-old army officer Muammar al-Gaddafi staged a coup d'état against King Idris, launching the Libyan Revolution. At the time, Idris was in Turkey for medical treatment. His nephew, Crown Prince Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida al-Mahdi as-Sanussi, was exercising regal powers at the time as King Idris had sent a signed document indicating his intent to step down as King on 2 September 1969. It was clear however that the revolutionary officers, who had announced the deposition of King Idris, did not want to appoint Crown Prince Hassan over the instruments of state as King, so the Crown Prince never attained that position.

Gaddafi was at the time only a captain and his co-conspirators were all junior officers. Nevertheless the small group seized Libyan military headquarters (due to the sympathies of the stationed men) and the radio broadcasting station with 48 rounds of revolver ammunition. Before the end of the day, Sayyid Hasan ar-Rida had been formally deposed by the revolutionary army officers and put under house arrest. In the meanwhile the revolutionary officers abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the new Libyan Arab Republic. Gaddafi was, and is to this day, referred to as the "Brother Leader and Guide of the Revolution" in government statements and the official Libyan press." (www.wikipedia.org)

So how do dictators in our day and age hold on to their power? Alexander, Xerxes or Caesar would have simply sent the Elites, Immortals or Praetorians round and cut you, and you family, into little pieces. Nowadays, communications mean this kind of behaviour ends up on Twitter before it hits the New York Times.

Mubarak declared a state of emergency in Egypt for 33 years, ending any chance of democratic elections, until, spurred by events in Tunisia, the people decided to remove the element that prevented them from having a fair chance to vote their own officials. They had some rough times, but eventually got what they wanted. Not what there leader wanted, what the people wanted. Sounds like democracy.

Gaddafi, on the other hand, claims that he is not an elected official and therefore cannot be removed. As dictators go, Gaddafi is probably one of the craziest, next to Mahidamenajad of Iran.

I mean, come on, does this image look like a guy in control. He shows up in a tuk-tuk, with a brolly, says "I'm not in Venezuela" and now he's good to stay as ruler of Libya!

In all seriousness, the violence that has come from the proceedings is shocking and frightening, showing that there are Libyan's more loyal to a man than their nation. I dare anyone to find a good thing Gaddafi has done for Libya or its people. I doubt you will, as his own people have decided that, in all honesty, he hasn't.

I pray daily for the people of Libya, that they can become the nation they want to be, and no longer be shackled to the whims of ludicrous, outdated dictator

WWE: Superstars Where Are They Now? The Mountie Classic Photos

WWE: Superstars Where Are They Now? The Mountie Classic Photos

A look back at the WWF's classic personalities, back in the days of over the top characterisation for wrestling angles.

The Horde - French Zombies "zut alore!"

Sarah has a real penchant for Zombie movies. When it comes to horror she isn't usually the biggest fan, especially of anything paranormal. But zombies are obviously not real, so she likes them! Last night she brought home The Horde from work.

It started with a loose plotline to give us a reason why people with guns are in a condemned building in France. During the botched assault the cops and criminals find themselves in the middle of Judgement Day, surrounded by zombies, and watching there friends and neighbours who they just killed in the shoot out come back to get them.

There is some attempts to get a decent plotline in here, and perhaps if I spoke French I would have cared, but I didn't. As zombie movies go it managed to avoid quite a few clichés, building on the success of recent zombie-esque movies to avoid the usual tense moment build ups that are now common place.

It is violent, perhaps not in some aspects and in comparison to other zombie flicks, but watching one of the main characters flatten a zombies face on a pillar was pretty gruesome. One of the key features of this film was the hand to hand combat with the zombies. It suffers from clear editing and frame rate issues, but its pretty imaginative as you don't often see the humans squaring off with the undead. The movie has an overall arc, the beginning and the end essentially showing that everyone ends up dead, zombiefied or not.

If you are a zombie nerd like my wife and I, this is worth a watch. If you are casual on horror's, don't bother.

Monday Night Raw 2/21/11

Some big developments tonight on Monday Night Raw.

John Cena called out The Rock. Whether this will lead to an actual match is to be seen. His "Fresno" rap was quite amusing.

The much anticipated return of The Undertaker was interrupted by the return of HHH. In all honesty I couldn't see anyone other than HHH facing The Undertaker at WM27. The whole episode was a incredible display of the respective Superstars personalities with the WWE fans. Neither had to grab a mic to get the biggest pops of the night, culminating in the expected WrestleMania throwdown.

John Morrison better get a push soon. He is the next HBK if they give him the opportunity.

The tag team titles became The Corre's at Elimination Chamber, but now they defend them against The Miz and John Cena. The Miz railroads Justin Gabriel for the win and Miz and Cena celebrate somewhat together. However, Wade Barrett calls for the rematch clause to be enacted immediately, so the Raw GM calls for the bell! Props to The Miz, Cena and The Corre for making this match live up to what has been a big night for returns. Eventually, despite the crowd cheering him on, The Miz lives up to his heel name and turns on Cena.

6 weeks to WM27

Supreme Commander

Well I just finished another wild skirmish game of Supreme Commander. SC is a RTS game... and at this point I almost said like Command and Conquer. But its not. It is a totally unique RTS game. The sheer volume of units and the scientific, yet easily manageable level of resource allocation is superb.

It can be really daunting to manage all these units, especially as I play on the Xbox 360, but of all the RTS games I have played on a console, its control system is probably the most robust and slick I have ever used.

Its all good right? Well, the few problems I have encountered have been the AI's ability. Even 3 Supreme commanders got annihilated by me in about 1 hour as there tactics are all a bit obvious, and playing over Xbox Live is pretty difficult as hardly anyone plays it. But if its so good why don't they play it online?



Frame rate issues and freezing, that's why. If you don't install this game to your hard drive you might as well put the kettle on, because its slows down a lot once you have a ton of units on the screen. It can also lock during the end of a mission and when it saves. Installing it solves most of these problems.

I am a bit late to the Supreme Commander party, but I am really enjoying it now!

Assassins Creed Brotherhood Mutliplayer

As those who know me are aware, I have stayed as far away from CoD:Black Ops as I can. The reasons for that are for a completely other post. Anyway, I have been playing AC:Brotherhood Multiplayer a great deal these last few weeks.

When I initially started to play it, I only play Wanted, which is essentially a Free-for-all with all the playable personas having a single target to find and kill. It's Assassins Creed, so off you go steathily to kill your target. But guess what? No one plays Wanted with stealth. Every time I got killed on Wanted it was by someone sprinting around. It felt like the spirit of the game was not being observed. Typical n00bz. Oh well, I always say, play to win.

So I moved on to Manhunt. Now this is a game type where the spirit of the game is being met. You work as a team to either hide together and escape your pursuers, gaining more points by hiding close together and stunning your hunters. When you are doing the killing, you have to find your targets through all the morphed, disguised and hidden targets. Teamwork and efficiency are essential to make sure you don't get whipped.

The targeting system can feel a bit wonky, and you often find yourself assassinating a persona that walks in the way as you go to kill your target, then promptly get stunned. This can be frustrating, but it doesn't happen too often.



Look out for AC:Brotherhood multiplayer tactics, coming soon!