Daily Archives: February 27, 2012

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

  By AcaZ | February 27, 2012 - 21:51 | Computer & Console Games, Computers
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Ubisoft breaks cover and reveals its variety show of a stealth

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Red Storm
Format: Xbox 360. PS3
Origin: France, US
Release: May

According to Ubisoft Paris level designer Florent Guillaume, the process of making Ghost Recon: Future Soldier “was an interesting way to work. There was lots of prototyping, with levels like gameplay blocks we could rearrange.” The truth of his words becomes evident in our hands-on session with the singleplayer campaign: no two missions feel the same, and the most polarised, and gripping, of those we dip into are opposites in both pace and structure.

The first is a manic shootout through the streets of Peshawar, Pakistan. With traffic at a standstill, you and your three fellow Ghosts need to push through a miniature army of enemy soldiers and panicked oncoming civilians to reach the other end of the main street. Vehicles can be used for cover, but the aggressive enemies, many wielding shotguns and hellbent on close-range kills, mean that you have to keep your blind spots under careful observation. The best strategy, then, is to make use of your gadgetry. Throw a drone up into the air (selected with the D-pad and launched like a grenade with a tap of the left bumper) and you can scan the area ahead for hostiles. Its elevation needs to be controlled via triggers to avoid detection, but once you have the enemy in your sights a press of the right bumper can tag up to four units for your squadmates to prioritise or eliminate simultaneously on your command.
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Hitman: Absolution

  By AcaZ | February 27, 2012 - 21:30 | Computer & Console Games, Computers
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Can we abilities redeem a different breed of Agent 47 for series fans?

The mission is simple: rescue a young girl from an orphanage that’s been overrun by violent, masked mercenaries. But when a representative from IO Interactive plays through this level twice in order to demonstrate the breadth of strategy that Hitman: Absolution will offer, the pair of approaches we see couldn’t be more distinct.

The first time around, Agent 47 creeps and skulks through the orphanage’s blood-stained halls, sticking to cover, crawling through air vents, and taking care to avoid being spotted by making timely dashes from point to point. Eventually, 47 quietly subdues a guard and hides the body ir. a laundry bin, stealing his outfit in order to walk among the rest of the hired killers undetected.

The second playthiough, however, is carnage. Where before guards were overcome with sleeper holds, now necks are snapped and bones are broken in savage takedowns. The stealthy 47 improvised his way from room to room, throwing toys to distract his foes, and borrowing syringe-based sedatives found in the medical wing. His violent alter ego is equally happy to make use of items left lying around, but it’s the fire axe he seems to prefer. Previous titles saw 47 fumble up close — at least when he wasn’t attacking from behind — but melee combat in Absolution does a better job of preserving its star’s proficiency. There’s a hint of QTE about the takedowns, though, with split-second slowdown telegraphing when it’s time for you to land the next blow.
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Trigger Happy

  By AcaZ | February 27, 2012 - 21:11 | Computers
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Is it OK to simulate torture as long as it tops up our revulsion of it? If so, where do we draw the line?

You pick a shard of glass out of the broken window and stab the guy in the mouth with it. He doesn’t tell you what you want to know, so you start punching him in the head. He spits blood, and then spills the beans. Now you can go happily on your way, probing the unlocked new playspace with your permanently tumescent rifle.

What’s obscene about this moment in Call Of Duty: Black Ops isn’t so much the lovingly simulated blood and violence, but the implication of its embedded national security ideology: that torture is an effective way to elicit mission-critical information. In most videogames, a quick scene of torture porn is just functionally equivalent to pulling a lever. And this might even lead to you an argument that such scenes in games aren’t too graphic, but on the contrary, they aren’t graphic – or prolonged – enough.
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It Should Be ILLEGAL To Be This Good In Bed

  By AcaZ | February 27, 2012 - 20:54 | Man & Woman
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Hey there… my name is Shawna, and as a girl who’s been with both guys and girls, I can tell you 2 facts I know about sex that are totally true:

1.  Women instinctively know the spots on an­other girl’s body to touch – and how to touch them – to make her feel INCREDIBLE

2.  When a MAN knows these same spots and how to touch them… it feels even better!

But here’s the problem…

Most Men Don’t Have The First Clue

About How To Touch A Woman…

Have you ever been with a woman and worried she may have been disappointed with your performance or that her last lover was better in bed than you are?

If so, you’re not alone. Do you know the biggest reason why women cheat on their partners? It’s very simple…
(more…) «It Should Be ILLEGAL To Be This Good In Bed»

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Maskim Chmerkovskiy doesn’t want his workout spot doubling as a pickup joint

  By AcaZ | February 27, 2012 - 20:47 | Bodybuilding & Fitness, Sport
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He wants a gym—a serious one where nobody’s socializing, serious athletes dot the landscape, and everyone’s moving with purpose. And god forbid there’s a Shake Weight anywhere in sight. “I hate when people go to the gym and do the same routine,” says Chmerkovskiy, a former competitive dancer. “You are lying to yourself.”

It’s a few days before Christmas, and Chmerkovskiy is eyeing the equipment at Peak Performance, a spartan, no-frills operation in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. It’s his kind of gym—there’s even a rottweiler patrolling the office—and he’s eager to break a sweat. “This is great,” he says, watching a gym patron push a weighted sled. Chmerkovskiy is ready to move hard. He occasionally fusses and musses his thick black hair. His beard is a perfect 5 o’clock shadow.

Picking his way through Peak’s offerings, he points out a heavy rope. “These burn your back, your arms, your shoulders, the whole thing.” He moves to a machine that mimics run­ning with resistance. “Working out your legs is very important,” he says. “Our style is Latin, so it’s explosive. We don’t go at the same pace for a long period of time. You could run 10 miles a day but jive for a minute and you’re dead.”
(more…) «Maskim Chmerkovskiy doesn’t want his workout spot doubling as a pickup joint»

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Four Reasons You’re Still Fat

  By AcaZ | February 27, 2012 - 20:41 | Bodybuilding & Fitness, Sport
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You can hit the gym religiously or even be a pro athlete making millions off your fitness and still have a belly. It means something’s gone wrong in your training and diet. Four of the biggest factors likely limiting your progress:

1/You always do the same workout
• If you’re not switching your routine every three to four weeks, your body will get used to what you’re doing, and the workout that was once effective will start burning fewer and fewer calories. To avoid that trap, make sure your workout is constantly evolving-try to change one variable, like the in­tensity or duration, each time you head into the weight room.
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The 30-Minute Fat Blaster

  By AcaZ | February 27, 2012 - 20:34 | Bodybuilding & Fitness, Sport
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Limited time for the gym? Here’s how to make the most of it.

FIND AN EMPTY MACHINE
Don’t worry if it’s not your favorite type of cardio. You won’t be there long. Instead of slogging away on one machine for your entire workout, your new goal is to rotate among three to four different options, hitting each as hard as possible and keeping your rest period between machines as short as possible.

WORK UP A SWEAT
Do a two-minute warm-up on the first machine, then your first five-minute set. work as hard as you can-imagine a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the hardest, and aim for a 7 or 8. When your five minutes are over, jump to another apparatus for five more minutes, and then another, and so on. After your final five minutes, do a two- to three-minute additional cooldown.

HAVE A BACKUP PLAN
Somebody snag the empty StairMaster you had your eye on? Grab a jump rope instead and spend five minutes with it. You’ll burn just as many calories (or more) without having to fight for space.

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Blast Fat Like the SEALS

  By AcaZ | February 27, 2012 - 20:30 | Bodybuilding & Fitness, Sport
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Join the elite with these three tough-as-nails, fat-burning routines BY ADAM BIBLE

When soft and plump high school kids who just signed their lives over to the military are weeks away from a punish­ing boot camp, they turn to Stew Smith, C.S.C.S., former Navy SEAL, BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) trainer, and author of The Complete Guide to Navy SEAL Fitness. Besides helping forge new warriors and getting our most elite war fighters combat-ready, Smith also trains FBI agents and SWAT teams. He knows tough, and he knows fitness. We asked him for three quick routines you can do at the gym, in your home, or outside in the park for the ulti­mate in real boot camp training. Get strong, get lean, get some.
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Time Bell Training – 15 Minute workout

  By AcaZ | February 27, 2012 - 20:22 | Bodybuilding & Fitness, Sport
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Work your whole body fast with just dumbbells

• if you’ve got a set of dumbbells at home, or a wall-length rack at your gym, you can get in and out fast with this routine. You can use the same pair of dumbbells for every exercise.

Directions:
Perform the exercises as a circuit. Do one set of each without rest in between. Afterward, rest one minute, then repeat for three total circuits.
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Far Cry 3

  By AcaZ | February 27, 2012 - 13:41 | Computer & Console Games, Computers
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Ubisoft returns to the tropics for an open world shooter you may be crazy about

Far Cry 2 offered a selection of hardened mercenaries to play, as but but Far Cry 3′s hero is a norma! guy. An aptitude for murder aside. Jason Brody’s ordnariness is the point: this is the story of one man’s descent into violence when he’s cut off from the society he knows and has to resort to extremes to survive.

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: In-house (Montreal)
Format: 360. PC. PS3
Origin: Canada
Release: 2012

Combat is gimmick-free, offering a familiar toolset, but it’s the freedom to use it however you see fit that sets Far Cry 3 apart. That said, the game’s upgrade system w ll see Brody improve his various abilities over time.

Pause Far Cry 3 and, alongside the usual slate of menu options, you’ll see a blobby, butterfly winged shadow of a Rorschach ink blot fill the screen, with peeks of lush foliage visible between splotches of darkness. It’s the perfect symbol for a game fixated with the loss of sanity, and set on making players question their own.

Thinking can be key in its fighting too, with Ubisoft Montreal’s game offering the open-ended combat the series is known for, letting players plan encounters from miles off. The approach is up to you: charge in for a frontal assault, hang back to snipe enemies from a distance, or slap a C4 charge on the side of a jeep and send it barrelling straight into an enemy encampment. But all this freedom is tied to a narrative that drops the hard-edged political cynicism of Far Cry 2 for a focus on the personal, charting one man’s spiral into violence, and quite possibly madness, on an archipelago where everyone else seems to have a head start.
(more…) «Far Cry 3»

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