Medieval Suits Of Armor In Video Games

Whether you like it or not, you can learn much from historically based video games such as Civilization IV or Medieval Total War. These games are great for getting a general education in historical events, cultures, and building types and ancient warriors. If you are looking to buy a suit of armor, then you may want to read this article to learn about how these games can help you do some preliminary research on your suit of armor.

Medieval II: Total War (which we will call MTWII for the rest of the article) is a great place to look at some historical armor. It is the latest game from the Creative Assembly so the graphics are top notch and you are able to see with pretty good detail what soldiers wore back in the medieval ages. For example, playing as the French faction in the game, you'll eventually get a whole host of knights are your disposal. Knights are the primary example where most of the suits of armors in castles and in today's homes are found. Why? Because they were often the most heavily armored to serve as shock troops and to bust through hard lined defenses. Once you get so far in the game, you can see about 5 different types of armor that the knights wore. They include a Gothic style armor and a Milanese type of armor. They also have the standard crusader and sugar loaf type of armor.

The surprising thing is that if you look around shopping for these, you'll see similar designs in today's retail stores.You can also get a good look at suits of armor by playing role-playing games. Why? These are from a third person perspective and you'll be able to see with great detail the armor that soldiers wore. Just pause the game and take a look at a suit of armor a character is wearing. You'll casually learn what designs seem to be popular in the medieval ages.

John Hilde is a historical weapons and armor collector and owns his own online store selling authentic armor and weapons. Please visit http://www.armorvenue.com to learn more.

AP - A Texas judge has set a Friday arraignment for Vice President Dick Cheney, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others named in indictments accusing them of responsibility for prisoner abuse in a federal detention center.

Doom Game Movie Fragged by Critics

The Doom game franchise has proven its popularity.

A movie titled after its namesake has proven its box office might.

Sarge and his crew have raked in $15.5 million-- not a bad haul.

Yet, noted critic Phil Villarreal said it most succintly in his review of this movie, asking why we don't just simply tape someone's first-person shooter games instead of watching this heaping pile of Doom game franchise filth.

Only a rotten 19% of Doom game movie franchise reviews were favourable on the rottentomatoes.com site at the time of this article.

While the non-gamer film critic looks on with apathy, the gaming community would flock to see the Rock struggle to convey emotion on the big screen while enthusiastically fragging demons.

Gamers are proliferating, and we've seen awkward attempts at game to movie transitions in the past like Mortal Kombat - Annihilation in 1997.

Yet, Doom seems quite pervasive. It's the granddaddy of our contemporary first person shooter genre.

It earned a #1 Game of All Time award from noted PC Gamer. This is admittedly one of my favourite genres.

Just not on my iPAQ, that's all.

This stretches to the PDA realm with free releases like the Pocket Doom game beta available for the Cassiopeia E-100 series, posted in 2000.

It required the doddering MS Windows CE 2.11 operating system, initially released in Feb. 1999.

Unfortunately, porting this game to a movie was significantly more successful than Pocket Doom PDA development attempts.

It's a form factor thing.

Most PDAs aren't structured well enough to handle the first person shooter genre, unless you'd like to give up your keyboard and mouselook for a D-Pad and hardware buttons.

There were quite a few forum posts about the awkward nature of Pocket Doom.

The Pocket PC developers performed their Doom game conversion, but in their eagerness they neglected to think about fragging clumsiness with a D-Pad and hardware buttons.

A select few Pocket PC games, like the Anthelion PDA space shooter seem to make the first person shooter perspective a decent experience, at least from a space fighter Wing Commander-like cockpit.

If it weren't for the leagues of space separating you from other ships during a dogfight, blasting enemy ships may have proven more difficult.

The complexity lies in restricted D-Pad movement. This is par for the course for PDA-based first person shooters.

I analyzed Pocket Quake benchmarks in an XCPUScalar overclocking article.

Fragging monsters was a blast, but strafing with a D-Pad can prove difficult.

Even without the Pocket Doom game there's plenty of gaming gold in those PDA hills yet.

Damian Julien is a Pocket PC gaming authority and long time general gaming hobbyist and reviewer.

He is an IT specialist by trade and has posted numerous articles on Pocket PC emulators, gaming and trends in the industry.

http://www.pdagameguide.com/

AP - Army and Navy recruiters took one look at 330-pound Ulysses Milana and told him to forget about joining. "'You've got to lose weight,'" Milana remembers them saying. But Marine recruiters were willing to work with him as he began his weight-loss journey in December 2007.

Phone Conference Calling - Why is Older Technology Still Preferred?

For years, businesses have used conference calls to keep their businesses connected. Before certain advancements in technology, they were forced to use phone conference calling as it was the only method available. This allowed them to connect other business associates who might not be in the same city, state or even country. It kept people connected without having to worry about distance or proximity.

Audio vs. Video Conference Calling

Now, with certain technological advancements, there are new ways to connect with others. Computers and video technology has enabled the use of video conference calls. Many people still don't like the new version, however.

Video brings different aspects to the conference call. With video, the person has to worry about being judged on what they look like or how they're dressed. With phone conference calling, business can be conducted professionally and without prejudice, exactly as it was meant to be.

Using the phone is still prevalent among businesses even though other forms of conference calling exist. Phone is often cheaper than other methods. Businesses can conduct a conference call with other business partners or potential partners and only have to worry about the phone bill.

Party Lines

For some businesses, the phone is still the best way to do business. Conference calls via telephone aren't used primarily for business, however. Many social groups use them also. They call this a party line in which like minded individuals can join without having to be in the same room, city or even the same country.

Phone conference calling brings people together without having to worry about judgment or prejudice. People can converse, ask questions and gather information in real time, at the same time. The use of the telephone to conduct conference calls has prevailed throughout the years despite the invention of such mediums such as e-mail and video. The phone is still preferred by many as a way to bring others together.

Despite recent technological advancements, phone conference calling has prevailed and will continue to do so as long as people want to be connected despite being far apart from each other.

It is the perfect way for sales teams to report numbers to a sales manager. It is the best way for managers to report to higher executives. It is also a great way for people to meet other like-minded people, even if those people live on different continents.

To learn much more about phone conference calling , visit http://www.conferencecallingtoday.com where you'll find this and much more.

The Christian Science Monitor - Financial support for the beleaguered US auto industry? In today's Washington, that may represent a bailout too far.

Naruto - Rise of the Ninja

Naruto: Rise of the Ninja follows the story of the popular anime series. The game's style is that of a 'beat 'em up' with RPG aspects, for example, your character's stats do increase and they will learn new moves and abilities as the game progresses.

Whilst I really liked the style of this game, and the use of cell-shading I was disappointed that the developers had not re-animated the cut scenes in the same manner (unlike the new Dragonball Z game), instead they have simply inserted actual slips from the anime into the video game. I actually find this to be quite lazy, especially since the game can be completed in about 10 hours. If they had added some nice CGI it would have made it a little bit more enjoyable.

Despite the length of this game, I really enjoyed playing through it. The graphics are impressive, the story immersive and the voice acting exactly what you can expect from a top class anime series. However, despite the impressive graphics, there is one very obvious flaw, and that is the fact that the in game characters never actually move their mouths to speak, the voice over's simply sound, this is unlike the Dragonball game where they speak even in battle.

I think that they have cut many corners in this game, there are things that I personally would have included in the game in order to improve the style and feel of it. I would have been much more impressed if they had bothered to animate things other than a simple walk, run and jump cycle. The fact that they simply didn't bother to animate the mouths at all throughout the game, leads me to believe that they simply wanted to release this game as soon as possible, with as little work required.

Missions CONSTANTLY require you to travel from A to B, and then back to A, and back to B about five times before you can proceed with the games actual story. This becomes ridiculous and irritating after the third time, and I couldn't help but think I would have enjoyed the experience a bit more if they had bothered to allow you to be transported to the correct location.. And before I get the, "Maybe they couldn't" line, they could and this is proven since after each mission, you can warp back to Leaf Village.

However, despite the many gripes I have about this game, and its lazy development, I am still highly pleased with the game and have enjoyed playing through it, and even though the game was only 10 hours long, I felt should it have continued, my patience would have been tried. I have even decided to watch the complete Naruto series, something that up until now I have failed to manage.

So, hopefully you will find this review useful, and I hope it helps you make the correct choice in your next video games purchase.

Kristen Barghout

Blog: http://www.animezonecentral.com

I am a professional programmer, with a keen interest in all things related to anime and video games. I don't just like certain genre's, I like all genre's, and will always give my honest opinion.

I can't always find the time to post my articles here, but if you visit my blog, there is lots of news and reviews, so please check it out.

Reuters - On a misty mountaintop on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, scientists for the first time in more than eight decades have observed a living pygmy tarsier, one of the planet's smallest and rarest primates.