Differences in Federal and State Systems Could Complicate Prosecution

Now, however, as the prosecution phase nears and both federal and state courts pursue the case, complications will inevitably appear ? beginning with the vast number of potential witnesses, and further magnified by the sometimes sharply different requirements of the two court systems.

The complications extend to the rules of evidence. Arizona state and federal rules differ significantly on what defense attorneys are entitled to hear before trial, and the federal and state teams could also head toward very different outcomes as well if ? as many legal experts expect ? Jared L. Loughner?s lawyers mount an insanity defense. Arizona, unlike federal law, does not allow a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity. A defendant can only be found guilty, not guilty or guilty but insane.

?This is not a whodunit ? it?s pretty straightforward,? said the Pima County attorney, Barbara LaWall, whose office is expected to file a state criminal case in the coming weeks against Mr. Loughner, 22, on top of the federal charges already filed. ?It?s also very complicated.?

While the systems differ, the facts are clear-cut: Mr. Loughner, the accused gunman, was caught in the act in front of many witnesses; after a brief search for a man who turned out to be an innocent taxi driver, it became clear that there was no conspiracy; records showed that Mr. Loughner bought the gun legally; there were no interstate connections to explore, nor fugitives to hunt down; the suspect?s Internet postings and papers at his home provided a roadmap to his mental state and fixation on his apparent target, Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was having an event in the shopping center parking lot where the shooting occurred.

There are human entanglements too. Ms. LaWall, in preparing to counter an insanity defense on the state side, said in an interview that she may get help, in a way, from one of the murder victims: John M. Roll, the chief federal judge in Arizona, who had been a supervising prosecutor in the Pima County attorney?s office decades ago, when she joined it as a young prosecutor.

?I learned to defend against the insanity defense from John Roll,? she said.

The disconnect between the relative simplicity of the investigation and its extraordinary importance is also manifested in appearances.

After the attack, President Obama asked the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, to fly out to Tucson and personally oversee the effort. He did, and the news conference he gave on Sunday sent a calming message to the public that the government was in control of the matter.

But Mr. Mueller?s role was not to run the investigation. He flew back to Washington on Monday, then returned briefly to Tucson later in the week. And while he attended some briefings in Arizona as the inquiry unfolded, he also spent time visiting victims in the hospital.

Instead, the investigation has been primarily run by Nathan Thomas Gray, the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.?s Phoenix division, who has nearly three decades of law enforcement experience and a long history of important bureau positions. He is being helped by an assistant special agent in charge, Annette Bartlett, who runs the division?s branch office in Tucson.

At the F.B.I. offices here in a sixth-floor suite downtown, people are working at every available space, according to a description provided by two F.B.I. agents, all revolving around a glossy dark brown conference table that agents refer to as the main battle station, seating 18 to 20 people.

Phone lines and computer cables thread the room together, but there are also voluminous stacks of paper, neatly organized, extending to chairs along the walls. A projector illuminating the list of various leads to cover, referred to as the virtual command center, hangs overhead.

Judy Clarke, Mr. Loughner?s lawyer, did not return a phone call or e-mail requests for comment.

Even as the F.B.I. leads the investigation, however, the Pima County Sheriff?s Department, five miles away in a low-rise complex hard between the County Fairgrounds and an industrial park, has become the main source of information about what has actually been uncovered. The discovery of a black bag on Thursday in a Tucson neighborhood by a man walking his dog illuminated the odd trajectory of news, evidence and turf that swirls around the case.

Investigators had been looking for the bag since being told by Mr. Loughner?s father that he had confronted his son about it on Saturday, before the shootings, and Jared Loughner ran into the desert carrying it. The recovery and detail about its contents, 9-millimeter ammunition ? the caliber used in the attack ? was the stuff of a sheriff?s press release. Later in the day a sheriff?s spokesman said the bag had been turned over to the F.B.I., which had not commented about it.

Webmaster Forum | SEO Forum | Coding Forum | Graphics Forum

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=86853474899b5bd422f64d4c76f6e1f5

the chipmunks seattle public schools worldstarhiphop the game season 4 episode 1

Bit-Gamer Competition #3

Bit-Gamer Competition #3

Posted on 5th Jan 2011 at 11:48 by Joe Martin with 24 comments

As we return from our Christmas break, we?ve got another bunch of goodies to give away ? this time not on Twitter! This week three lucky readers will win a copy of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, a matching t-shirt made by Jinx and a copy of Chris Ryan?s Medal of Honor novella.

To stand a chance of winning all you need to do is pledge your allegiance by liking our new Bit-Gamer facebook page. If you want to increase your chances then you can post a message to us as well and tell us what games you are playing at the moment, but you don't have to.

We wouldn?t ask you to do anything we wouldn?t do, so rest assured that we?re already Bit-Gamer fans and we?ve tinkering with Princess Maker 2 lately. Make of that what you will.


The deadline for the competition is January 12th, but we?ll have a new competition lined up shortly after that. We also post regular ad-hoc competitions to the Bit-Gamer Twitter and Facebook accounts, so you can still grab some goodies even if you don?t win this time around.

Speaking of which, it?s time to reveal the winner of our Christmas competition! We asked you to tell us what game you are most looking forward to in a bid to win the lush Assassin?s Creed: Brotherhood Codex Edition. The winner was @Eugenypankov, who told us he was looking forward to The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings ? but worried that he?d have to upgrade heavily before then.

Let us know your thoughts in the forums!

Webmaster Forum | SEO Forum | Coding Forum | Graphics Forum

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/Dbg5xBDe1Fo/

scelestious stephanie seymour and son david nelson the chipmunks

iPhone Review: Bad Company 2

They say they devil is in the details, in which case you should imagine Bad Company 2 for the iPhone as having red skin, horns, a trident tail and breath that smells worse than wet, rotten garlic. What really kills Bad Company 2 is the lack of fine polish ? and that, sadly, makes a huge difference to the overall experience.

This is a shame, because Bad Company 2 initially looks good. It has a lengthy singleplayer campaign, which slots neatly into the story of the full, proper Bad Company 2, plus a four-player multiplayer mode that?s supported over WiFi and 3G. The graphics are lush, and it packs in plenty of variety too, despite a disappointing tendency to resort to turret sequences.

The multiplayer is especially impressive, in fact. While five levels and support for four players might not sound like a lot, it?s actually a perfectly judged limitation for a mobile phone game. If you want to sit down and invest yourself in lengthy tournaments and huge clan matches, then you're better off going back to the full version of the game. The iPhone version is much more suited to drop-in, drop-out games that keep you occupied while you?re patiently enduring whatever dross happens to be on TV.


Unfortunately, midway through enjoying these delights, the devil tends to rear his ugly head. There are numerous tiny niggles, such as performance problems on anything less than a full-spec iPhone, and a few crashes to the home screen too.

Worst of all, however, is the way the level design frequently infringes on the game itself, with players constantly getting caught in corners or bumping straight into the walls due to occasionally unresponsive controls. It?s never enough to ruin the game, not at first, but it's a constant irritation and the only saving grace is that the game is balanced so that, on medium difficulty, it?s actually quite hard to die.

While it?s impressive that so much detail and depth has been brought to the iPhone version, with melee attacks, iron sights and secondary fire options putting Bad Company 2 a step above most iPhone shooters, it?s still a shame that some basic features are lacking. There?s no Game Centre support, for example, while the three different control configs are only titled A, B and C, meaning you have to spend time trying each in turn if you want to see how they work.


On the whole, Bad Company 2 remains an interesting and enjoyable addition to the app store, but it?s mainly because of the quantity that?s on offer, rather than the quality of the experience. A few performance tweaks and some further level optimisation is all that would be needed to elevate Bad Company 2 on the iPhone to Recommended status. Lacking them, however, means it?s stuck at being merely average.

Verdict: Fun and lengthy, Bad Company 2 is wounded by a few design oversights and missing features. Still, it?s definitely worth picking up if you?re itching for some mobile violence.

Webmaster Forum | SEO Forum | Coding Forum | Graphics Forum

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/M5KkFZp7fzs/

lebron james twitter jimmer fredette thomas tew rum issaquah school district

Solving the Climate Crisis At a Profit

A decade ago, environmentalist Hunter Lovins published Natural Capitalism, coauthored with her then-husband, Amory Lovins. The book influenced some business leaders to embrace what was a counterintuitive notion: that going green could be a way to save or make lots of money. Since then, she has gone on to establish Natural Capitalism Solutions, a Colorado-based firm that helps businesses and governments become more energy-efficient and better prepared for the global threats of climate change. She recently wrote Climate Capitalism, a book due out this spring that presents the climate crisis as a giant business opportunity.

TR: If you look back at the thesis of Natural Capitalism, what has changed and what has been surprising since then?

HL: Ten years ago, we were observing what the few best companies were doing to implement sustainability profitably. And we derived a set of four principles of natural capitalism, the first of which is to use energy resources dramatically more productively. In the intervening years, this is what most businesses that manage themselves as green or sustainable or responsible have been doing, and with massive savings. One surprise is how many savings still remain.

What are some examples of those kinds of savings?

My team walked into a company last year that had 6,300 computers and monitors that they left on 24/7 because of some urban myths: that it shortens the life of the computer to turn it off and turn it on. Well, no, that's not true. Or IT needs them left on [to do maintenance]. No, that's not true either. One night a week would do fine. In that company, just publishing a policy to turn the darned thing off when you're not sitting in front of it could save them $700,000 in the first year. This is free money.

What company is that?

I can't tell you, but it is endemic throughout society. In the United States alone, we waste something like $2.8 billion each year leaving computers on that have nobody in front of them. So a surprise is that even though we and a lot of other people have been saying this for 10 years, the opportunities still exist, and if anything, they are getting better.

So principle number one remains valid.

Yes, although a change in Climate Capitalism is that we've redefined the first principle to be: Buy time by using resources dramatically more productively.

What do you mean by "buy time"?

What the world is shortest in is the time to deal with the challenges facing us. Things like the climate crisis. Some scientists are saying it's too late.

Do you believe it's too late?

The short answer is we don't know. Maybe I'm just being an optimist, but in looking around, I believe that if the world's businesses did what is manifestly in their own economic interest, implemented all the available, cost-effective efficiency improvements, we could solve the climate crisis?and at a profit.

That is the thesis of Climate Capitalism. Suppose the climate crisis is a hoax. Frankly, don't go to Vegas on the odds of this being true. But if all you are is a profit-maximizing capitalist, you would do exactly the same thing as you would do if you were scared to death about climate change.

Webmaster Forum | SEO Forum | Coding Forum | Graphics Forum

Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=378702b49d2e8dba9467aece3ad87d8c

the game tv show lasso of truth terrence j most popular thanksgiving side dish

Windows 98 traffic higher than Windows Phone 7 traffic?

Chitika, a Web advertising company, has posted some interesting graphs that show Windows Phone 7 isn't doing so well. After analyzing data from more than 100,000 websites and about 3 billion monthly ad impressions in their advertising network, Chitika has concluded that visits from users running Windows 98 is still almost double the visits from Windows Phone 7 users.

Windows 98 grabbed about 0.019 percent of all traffic on Chitika's ad network at the beginning of January. By contrast, Windows Phone 7 secured a little less than 0.010 percent market share.

WP7 is still very new, and it is growing, but not very quickly. In December, WP7 was sending about 0.40 percent as much traffic as iPhone and Android (combined). At present, that number has risen slightly, to an average of 0.44 percent.

While we realize that Chitika's conclusion is a grab for attention, it still makes us wonder about Windows Phone 7's progress. Even after what LG said about the Windows Phone 7 launch, we still find this data surprising. Last month, Microsoft announced it sold 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices to retailers, but wouldn't say how many of those consumers had actually purchased.

Webmaster Forum | SEO Forum | Coding Forum | Graphics Forum

Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/41988-windows-98-traffic-higher-than-windows-phone-7-traffic.html

lights out nyc school closings scelestious stephanie seymour and son

Fingerprints Go the Distance

Over the years, fingerprinting has evolved from an inky mess to pressing fingers on sensor screens to even a few touch-free systems that work at a short distance. Now a company has developed a prototype of a device that can scan fingerprints from up to two meters away, an approach that could prove especially useful at security checkpoints in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

The device, called AIRprint, is being developed by Advanced Optical Systems (AOS). It detects fingerprints by shining polarized light onto a person's hand and analyzing the reflection using two cameras configured to detect different polarizations.

Joel Burcham, director for projects at the Huntsville, Alabama-based company, says AIRprint could help make authorization more efficient in lots of settings. Instead of punching a keypad code or pressing fingers to a scanner, individuals could simply hold up a hand and walk toward a security door while the device checks their identity. "We're looking at places where the standard methods are a hassle," says Burcham. For instance, AIRprint could be linked to a timecard system, he says, to help avoid a logjam at manufacturing plants at the start or end of the workday.

Slightly smaller than a square tissue box, AIRprint houses two 1.3 megapixel cameras and a source of polarized light. One camera receives horizontally polarized light, while the other receives vertically polarized light. The two cameras capture 30-60 frames per second, helping create a clean image even if the person is moving from side to side. When light hits a finger, the ridges of the fingerprint reflect one polarization of light, while the valleys reflect another. "That's where the real kicker is, because if you look at an image without any polarization, you can kind of see fingerprints, but not really well," says Burcham. By separating the vertical and the horizontal polarization, the device can overlap those images to produce an accurate fingerprint, which is fed to a computer for verification.

The prototype device, which scans a print in 0.1 seconds and processes it in about four seconds, can handle only one finger at a time. Also, the scanned finger must remain at a fixed distance from the device. But by April, Burcham expects to have made significant improvements. By then, he says, the device should be able to scan five fingers at once even if a person is moving toward or away from the cameras, and the processing time ought to have dropped to less than a second.

Webmaster Forum | SEO Forum | Coding Forum | Graphics Forum

Source: http://feeds.technologyreview.com/click.phdo?i=9a4ef5f79cc41a3dcf41200cd83c6e07

david nelson the chipmunks seattle public schools worldstarhiphop

iPhone Preview: Dead Space

iPhone Preview: Dead Space

Posted on 3rd Jan 2011 at 08:33 by Joe Martin with 15 comments

It?s too easy to use the word ?impressive? to describe some of the new releases hitting the App Store lately; the word is starting to lose meaning and isn?t that useful to start with. We?re talking about games running on a mobile phone ? all they have to do is be even semi-playable and they end up way ahead of expectations.

Dead Space for the iPhone, however, looks very impressive.

The kudos here doesn?t stem just from the graphical detail that?s been ploughed into the game though, but more from the depth of the gameplay. Dead Space on the iPhone is essentially that ? Dead Space for the iPhone, feature complete. It has the same third person perspective, the same sprawling and haunting levels and the same focus on dismembering enemies. Lopping limbs off with your array of mining tools and scavenged weapons is a little bit trickier on a touch screen than on consoles or PC, but it?s still manageable and fun.


Dead Space?s first level didn?t leave a great impression, however. Once more cast as engineer Issac Clarke, the preview opened with a glorified mine cart sequence, with us trying to stop Necromorphs from swarming us. There was only a limited amount of movement and the entire thing felt very ?on rails?, thus negating the glory of the graphics. It was all too easy to yawn through the battles and assume that the entire game would be made of similar sequences.

After the shaky start, however, things quickly improved. The next level drops Isaac into a familiar-looking space station lobby and lets him roam freely. Workbenches and vending machines offer the chance to upgrade weapons and armour, build new weapons and buy extra ammo, just like in the original game. Even the holographic displays that wowed us so much in the original, PC release make a return too and, while we didn?t get a chance to see them first hand, the developers assured us that the zero-gravity sequences would make a return as well.


What?s most amazing about all this, however, is that Dead Space brings all this variety across to the iPhone without losing any of the accessibility. The controls in Dead Space are, with only a few minor exceptions (shooting the special Kinesis power can take some getting used to), so fluid and easy to use that they put other shooters on the iPhone to shame.

Our only concern, in fact, is whether or not the idea of playing Dead Space on our mobile phones is one we?ll actually find all that attractive in real life, as lengthy singleplayer games aren?t an easy fit with the platform. This isn?t the type of thing we can imagine ourselves dropping in to and playing for the 10 minutes it takes for the bus to turn up. Then again, if this iPhone version ? which will apparently help bridge the gap between the original Dead Space and the sequel due in early 2011 ? manages to be as gripping as the first game, then we might make an exception.

Dead Space is being developed by Electronic Arts and will be released for all iDevices in Q1 2011

Webmaster Forum | SEO Forum | Coding Forum | Graphics Forum

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/_dItrfoNyRk/

lebron james twitter jimmer fredette thomas tew rum issaquah school district

Palin Joins Debate on Heated Speech With Words That Stir New Controversy

As she sought to defend herself and seize control of a debate that has been boiling for days, Ms. Palin awakened a new controversy by invoking a phrase fraught with religious symbolism about the false accusation used by anti-Semites of Jews murdering Christian children. It was unclear whether Ms. Palin was aware of the historical meaning of the phrase.

?Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own,? Ms. Palin said. ?Especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence that they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible.?

The video from Ms. Palin, running nearly eight minutes, was recorded in her home television studio in Alaska and released early Wednesday morning. Her words dominated the political landscape for nearly 12 hours before President Obama arrived in Tucson to speak at a memorial service honoring the six dead and 14 injured in the shootings.

For Ms. Palin, a former Alaska governor, the video provided one of the clearest signs yet that she is carefully tending to her image as she decides whether to seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. And it showed her continued determination to do so on her own terms and under her own control, without responding to questions or appearing in a public forum.

She spoke in a somber tone, absent the witticisms often woven into her political speeches, as she sought to contain a debate that had linked her ? unfairly, she argued ? with the assassination attempt on Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat of Arizona.

In the midterm elections last year, Ms. Palin used a map with cross hairs over several swing Congressional districts, which Ms. Giffords highlighted in a television interview at the time as an example of overheated political speech. In the video statement, Ms. Palin rejected criticism of the map, and sought to cast that criticism as a broader indictment of the basic rights to free speech exercised by people of all political persuasions.

?We know violence isn?t the answer,? Ms. Palin said, sitting against a backdrop of a fireplace and an American flag. ?When we take up our arms, we?re talking about our votes.?

The video stirred an emotional response from some Democratic lawmakers, Jewish groups and even some fellow Republicans, who said it was in poor taste for Ms. Palin to deliver her statement on a day that was devoted to remembering victims of last weekend?s shooting. The video played throughout the day on cable television and on the Internet.

Matthew Dowd, a former political adviser to President George W. Bush who has become a frequent critic of Republicans, said that the tone of Ms. Palin?s message was not appropriate for the moment of national grief and that she had missed an opportunity to be seen as a leader.

?Sarah Palin seems trapped in a world that is all about confrontation and bravado,? Mr. Dowd said. ?When the country seeks comforting and consensus, she offers conflict and confrontation.?

Advisers to Ms. Palin did not respond to interview requests on Wednesday, and she did not cite any specific examples of what she considered to be unfair coverage or commentary. Ms. Palin offered her deep condolences for victims of the shooting, then went to on dismiss suggestions that political speech should be toned done. She did not mention the shooting suspect, Jared L. Loughner, by name, but said that the violence could not be blamed on talk radio or those who participated in political debate.

?There are those who claim political rhetoric is to blame for the despicable act of this deranged apparently apolitical criminal,? Ms. Palin said. ?And they claim political debate has somehow gotten more heated just recently. But when was it less heated ? back in those calm days when political figures literally settled their differences with dueling pistols??

Ms. Palin also turned to the words of former President Ronald Reagan, saying that society should not be blamed for the acts of an individual. She said she had spent the last several days ?praying for guidance,? as she sorted out the lessons of the Arizona tragedy.

?We must reject the idea that every time a law?s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker,? Ms. Palin said. ?It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.?

The video, which seemed to be aimed at appealing to her committed supporters rather than winning over her critics, contained several references to the country?s ?foundational freedoms? and the intentions of the nation?s founders. Twice, she called the United States ?exceptional,? a frequent dig at Mr. Obama, whom conservatives accuse of not believing in the concept of ?American exceptionalism.?

The White House did not comment on Ms. Palin?s statement, and the president did not mention her in his address on Wednesday evening.

?President Obama and I may not agree on everything,? she said, ?but I know he would join me in affirming the health of our democratic process.?

Webmaster Forum | SEO Forum | Coding Forum | Graphics Forum

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=5d9b7dab37c405a322b31b06503d7956

the game season 4 episode 1 freddie mitchell simon chipmunk lebron james twitter

Obama Calls for New Era of Civility in U.S. Politics

The president directly confronted the political debate that erupted after the rampage, urging people of all beliefs not to use the tragedy to turn on one another. He did not cast blame on Republicans or Democrats, but asked people to ?sharpen our instincts for empathy.?

It was one of the more powerful addresses that Mr. Obama has delivered as president, harnessing the emotion generated by the shock and loss from Saturday?s shootings to urge Americans ?to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy and remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together.?

?At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do,? he said, ?it?s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.?

At an evening memorial service at the University of Arizona, the president led an overflow crowd in eulogizing the six people who died on Saturday and asked for prayers for the wounded, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who the authorities say was the target of an assassination attempt.

He warned against ?simple explanations,? and spoke of the unknowability of the thoughts that ?lurked in the inner recesses of a violent man?s mind.? He suggested that the events should force individuals to look inward but also that they should prompt a collective response against reflexive ideological and social conflict.

While the tone and content were distinctly nonpolitical, there were clear political ramifications to the speech, giving Mr. Obama a chance, for an evening at least, to try to occupy a space outside of partisanship or agenda.

?If this tragedy prompts reflection and debate, as it should, let?s make sure it?s worthy of those we have lost,? Mr. Obama said. ?Let?s make sure it?s not on the usual plane of politics and point scoring and pettiness that drifts away with the next news cycle.?

As members of the House reconvened in Washington for the first time since the shooting, setting aside a partisan health care debate to honor the lives of the victims, the memorial service here took on the form of a national catharsis, including a presidential reading from the Book of Psalms. But thousands of students and others in the crowd cheered at several other points during Mr. Obama?s 32-minute address, which took on the feel of a rally dedicated to the Arizona victims.

?If, as has been discussed in recent days, their deaths help usher in more civility in our public discourse,? Mr. Obama said, ?let us remember that it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy ? it did not ? but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation, in a way that would make them proud.?

The president spoke after stopping to visit Ms. Giffords in her hospital room. He said he was told that shortly after his visit, Ms. Giffords opened her eyes for the first time, a moment that was witnessed by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York; Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California; and other lawmakers who were here to pay their respects.

?Gabby opened her eyes for the first time,? Mr. Obama announced to the crowd. ?Gabby opened her eyes!?

The scene inside McKale Memorial Arena was a mix of grief and celebration, where a capacity crowd of 14,000 gathered beneath championship banners for the University of Arizona Wildcats. The service, which was televised nationally on the major broadcast and cable news networks, gave the president an opportunity ? and burden ? to lead the nation in mourning during prime time.

Aides said Mr. Obama wrote much of the speech himself late Tuesday night at the White House. Laden with religion overtones, Mr. Obama seemed as though he was striking a preacher?s tone with a politician?s reverb.

Helene Cooper reported from Tucson, and Jeff Zeleny from Washington. David M. Herszenhorn, Janie Lorber and Jennifer Steinhauer contributed reporting from Washington.

Webmaster Forum | SEO Forum | Coding Forum | Graphics Forum

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=65f61fbd5aa2e83cc866bc731ddc56c4

lebron james twitter jimmer fredette thomas tew rum issaquah school district

iPhone Preview: Dead Space

iPhone Preview: Dead Space

Posted on 3rd Jan 2011 at 08:33 by Joe Martin with 15 comments

It?s too easy to use the word ?impressive? to describe some of the new releases hitting the App Store lately; the word is starting to lose meaning and isn?t that useful to start with. We?re talking about games running on a mobile phone ? all they have to do is be even semi-playable and they end up way ahead of expectations.

Dead Space for the iPhone, however, looks very impressive.

The kudos here doesn?t stem just from the graphical detail that?s been ploughed into the game though, but more from the depth of the gameplay. Dead Space on the iPhone is essentially that ? Dead Space for the iPhone, feature complete. It has the same third person perspective, the same sprawling and haunting levels and the same focus on dismembering enemies. Lopping limbs off with your array of mining tools and scavenged weapons is a little bit trickier on a touch screen than on consoles or PC, but it?s still manageable and fun.


Dead Space?s first level didn?t leave a great impression, however. Once more cast as engineer Issac Clarke, the preview opened with a glorified mine cart sequence, with us trying to stop Necromorphs from swarming us. There was only a limited amount of movement and the entire thing felt very ?on rails?, thus negating the glory of the graphics. It was all too easy to yawn through the battles and assume that the entire game would be made of similar sequences.

After the shaky start, however, things quickly improved. The next level drops Isaac into a familiar-looking space station lobby and lets him roam freely. Workbenches and vending machines offer the chance to upgrade weapons and armour, build new weapons and buy extra ammo, just like in the original game. Even the holographic displays that wowed us so much in the original, PC release make a return too and, while we didn?t get a chance to see them first hand, the developers assured us that the zero-gravity sequences would make a return as well.


What?s most amazing about all this, however, is that Dead Space brings all this variety across to the iPhone without losing any of the accessibility. The controls in Dead Space are, with only a few minor exceptions (shooting the special Kinesis power can take some getting used to), so fluid and easy to use that they put other shooters on the iPhone to shame.

Our only concern, in fact, is whether or not the idea of playing Dead Space on our mobile phones is one we?ll actually find all that attractive in real life, as lengthy singleplayer games aren?t an easy fit with the platform. This isn?t the type of thing we can imagine ourselves dropping in to and playing for the 10 minutes it takes for the bus to turn up. Then again, if this iPhone version ? which will apparently help bridge the gap between the original Dead Space and the sequel due in early 2011 ? manages to be as gripping as the first game, then we might make an exception.

Dead Space is being developed by Electronic Arts and will be released for all iDevices in Q1 2011

Webmaster Forum | SEO Forum | Coding Forum | Graphics Forum

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/_dItrfoNyRk/

thomas tew rum issaquah school district the game tv show lasso of truth