GameDesignUpdate: Admiralty 1.0

Take a look at the Admiralty building which is going to be situated in the Harbor-city of the game. The backside of the house is going to stand directly on water and therefore it has some steps before reaching the ground floor. The front is going to be directly connected to the main road and has a huge entrance for visitors. In general a rather intimidating affect was wanted to bee achieve as this is going to be one of the main government buildings of that area and therefore is build by the people in power of the capital. 

The High Line: People can take an active part in their city’ s development

Generally people think their city development plan and decision making is up to city planners, architects and the local authorities, which is no surprise as this fields are difficult subjects to approach because they take a lot of time and effort to understand. Furthermore there can be hundreds of solutions and different approaches to different problems included in these subjects, which creates quit a mess. Therefore the language, technicality and expertise can be off putting for amateurs. However people can take an active part in their city’ s development by taking matters into their own hands changing their city and making it more sustainable as explained by the example of the High Line in New York an elevated park created out of unused train tracks.

6 reasons why Anno 2070 (or a the idea of an Anno developed around a scenario set in the future) is no "real" Anno.

-I remember the first thing I always did when playing a new Anno was to take the starting ship, direct it to the nearest enemy ship and look at the cannons firing, ships burning, mast cracking, wood splitting and in the and ships sinking. When I started Anno 2070 I moved on to do the same but I hesitated because this modern ship with its modern weapons had as much as zero charm to me. And I feared that the naval battle was going to be even worse. And it was like I feared. The naval battles in the new future world of Anno are no fun at all. I have to admit, that was a heavy blow for me.

Sword with Sauce

After the job of getting the traps to stick on the wall was done Vini only had one thing left to do. Make as much noise as he can. And after some seconds he heard people coming upstairs. Quickly hidden behind a corner and he could watch with excitement how the enemies fell into his trap and were taken out one by one.

In "Sword with sauce" the players starts by choosing a hand full of gadgets he wants to use in his next mission. These gadgets include known weapons as a gun, a shield and a bow, but also real film like gadgets for example a black hole grenade or see-through walls glasses. By combining the destructive and deadly power of these different gadgets the player has to take out all 35 enemies on the map. While in the missions the player can also pick up the weapons of his fallen victims.

Pride and Prejudice

Actually I am not the right one to judge English literature particularly Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" at it holds a great place in the English literature development. Therefore this review of mine may different from reviews of subjects (as gaming and films) where I am sure and confident of my judgment and knowledge and be merely a explanation of my humble opinion on this great piece of art.

The first thing I noticed about the book is the great sentence structure as the important part of the sentence or if you want to call it the kick is always in the end. Which is difficult to read (for a non native speaker like me) until you get used to it and afterwards it gives the reading pleasure a great flow.

Other than that I have to admit that I find that the "love" connection between Jane and Mr. Bingly  is explained to loosely or (expressed differently)  the reader is not allowed to really root for them. Through out the book it becomes very clear and quiet simply understandable that Elizabeth wants this connection of her sister to Mr. Bingly really much and we can also conclude that she wants it for the happiness of Jane. But in respect to Jane I do not get the feeling that she really wants to be with Mr. Bignly expect may be in the last parts of the books. This can be due to two things.

-The author wanted the reader to see and evaluate this connection through the  thoughts of Elizabeth and in the ending bee certain that they were meant to be together

-This cold relationship is wanted from the author to even emphasize the main theme more, that runs through the whole book.

Apollo 13

This film has a extremely stressful viewing experience for the audience, as many problems occur during the Apollo 13 (planed) flight to the moon. The film succeeded in keeping the viewers on their edge almost the entire film. This is mainly due to the fact that the different incidents are shown with great story-telling ability and the (compared with real historic events) dramatization of the situations. A fact we can witness when we compare the scene from the main incident ( in the oxygen tank) with the real audio footage of the astronauts report. And a situation also expressed by the real astronauts of the Apollo 13 flight. Amazingly we can hear on the historic audio tape that the astronauts were calm as hell, a fact that made my admiration for these men and the way they did their job even grow more. But that is more of a statement then a critic as I highly appreciated the excitement that is always on a peak but does not move the focus from other great parts of the film.

The integration of the scientific facts and explanation astonished me. First of all because it is not oversimplified for the film and almost all main problems and also little problems connected with the safety plan to return the astronauts were in a way present at the film.