Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart Interview
The awesome folk at Front Magazine have come up trumps this month with a great interview with one of my childhood idols… Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart.
He speaks about his time in the WWF, how much Vince McMahon Sucks balls, the infamous ‘Montreal Screw Job’,Drug abuse and how he made pink tights appear manly…
He said that steroids had helped have him maintain a career in a notoriously difficult trade: “In the very beginning, I struggled to gain any recognition from my peers, and if I hadn’t taken steroids it’d have been much more difficult”.
On his brother, the legendary Owen Hart’s tragic death, Bret said he was upset the show went on: “Vince McMahon would have stopped that show in a second if it had been his son Shane that dropped”.
He spoke about the Montreal screw-job. Bret was WWF champion – but was about to leave for rival brand WCW, and during the main event of the 1997 Survivor Series pay-per-view, was forced to drop his title via a bit of dodgy refereeing, and some extreme betrayal of trust by McMahon so he wouldn’t leave with the belt: “It was like I was playing poker with Vince for years but without any cards. Then all of a sudden, I look down and i’ve got a royal flush and I put all the chips over to my side of the table. It bothered him so much that he made an example out of me”.
His current thoughts on the state of the WWE: “Noone knows how to tell a story anymore…It shouldn’t be about how big your breasts are: It should be about whether you can actually wrestle.”
About the colour of his hyper-pink outfit: “It’s not my favourite, but always been my lucky colour. I kind of thought it looked pretty cool – kind of a fresh look. The whole idea of the pink was because people laughed knowing I was a villain. The first time Vince saw those pink tights, he fell over and said, “Don’t ever change that”.
How he views his career in the WWF: I’ve always been pretty happy with my wrestling life. A lot of people might wrongly assume I have a lot of bitter memories about my career, but the truth is I had a happy and great career”.
Top Ten Unbelievable Facts
Some things you hear about are just plain unbelievable. Infact, some of them sound completely made-up. I’ve rounded up ten of the most unbelievable facts I could find. I don’t know if they are really, truly, factually correct, but i’ve verified each fact on multiple sources so I can be kind of sure…
1. Back in the day, an asteroid smashed into the earth, wiping out every single dinosaur on the planet. Well not everything, because not a single salamander, tortoises, crocodiles or even toads were affected. Many people have tried, but know one knows why/how this could possibly be.
2. If you’re ever bored enough and found yourself digging a hole in the ground, you’d need to dig for about 4,000 miles to reach the centre. But that’s not the cool fact…If you felt like showing the earth exactly whose boss, you should drop a brick down your epic hole in the ground. The brick will take approximately 45 minutes to hit the middle (and probably cause a massive explosion wiping out everything but your pet toad Neville).
3. Like maths? Me neither, but next time some little twerp with his protractor wanders over to you sniffling, and gives you crap for sucking, unleash this bad boy on the bespectacled fool: 1 x 8 + 1 = 9; 12 x 8 + 2 = 98; 123 x 8 + 3 = 987; 1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876; 12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765; 123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654; 1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543; 12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432; 123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321
4. The average person dreams at least 1,460 times a year. Which if you want to get personal means that i’ve shared my bed with more Playboy bunnys than there are fat cops in a Dunkin Donuts.
5. One of my favourite facts of all time: It is physically impossible for a pig to look up at the sky. Brilliant.
6. Next time you sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to little Timmy, you need to be fully aware that you are infringing on the copyright of Warner Chappel Music. They own the rights to the song, and make over $1 million in royalties every year from commercial use of the song.
7. When we are born, the average human has 350 bones in their body. However when we reach adulthood we only have 206. So now you know that that creepy shadow you saw in your room when you were young was actually a bone doctor, bred for his skills in keyhole bone removal surgery. In reality however, its because some of your bones merge together because they are lonely, or something.
8. Children laugh a massive 400 times a day, whereas adults laugh just a miserable 15 times. Doctor, doctor I keep thinking there’s two of me…One at a time please… Thats 16 laughs now, right? Anyone?
9. If you shrunk the worlds population to 100, with all the population ratios remaining the same, the world would have; 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Americas and 8 Africans. Sadly there would only be one person with a computer. Everyone would be jealous, and the smallest ever world war would break out. Probably.
10. One for the righty’s: Statistics have shown that right-handed people live on average 9 years longer than left-handed people. You maybe have specially designed left-handed scissors, but at least we’ll live to use ours.
And thats your lot. Well, i tell you what, if you’ve had the patience to read through this little list, i’ll reward you with this final nugget of awesomeness: Hilter only had one testicle. No wonder he was so pissed off…
Wii Fit and Guitar Hero Scoop Top Gadget Awards
Last night, at the most anticipated awards ceremony in the technology calendar, the teams from T3 magazine and T3.com celebrated the great and good of technology 2008. With the biggest names in the industry battling it out for titles including Gadget You Can’t Live Without, Gaming Gadget and the much-coveted Gadget of the Year, there was drama, suspense, and even surprise… So, who were the winners of the 2nd Annual Garmin T3 Gadget Awards 2008?
So closely guarded that even the editorial staff didn’t know the winners until the night, T3 relied on more than 54,000 votes from their loyal readers in order to pinpoint winners in 11 of the 16 awards categories. Apple had the most successful evening, scooping four prizes – including Gadget of the Year, awarded to the Apple iPod Touch – while Activision’s Guitar Hero took the title for Toy of the Year. Car manufacturer Honda was perhaps a surprising winner in the Green Gadget category, thanks to the innovative Civic Hybrid, while the TomTom GO930 was named Gadget You Can’t Live Without.
“The Garmin T3 Gadget Awards 2008 really do reflect the cream of this year’s tech,” says Michael Brook, Editor of T3 magazine. “And this is thanks to the T3 readers who voted in their thousands to sort the men from the boys. It’s been important for us to have our readers involved in so many of the categories, since they are the ones using these products day in, day out, and can tell the hottest kit from the hype. The competition has been so strong this year, and some of the categories were just too close to call – we’re hoping that the gadgets will be as fantastic in 2009, for the third T3 Gadget Awards.’”
Full list of winners…
Gadget of the Year: Apple iPod Touch
Best Music Gadget: Apple iPod Touch 32GB
Best Imaging Gadget: Nikon D60
Drop Dead Gorgeous: Audi R8
Best New Media: BBC iPlayer
Gaming Gadget: Wii Fit
Toy of the Year: Guitar Hero
Commuter Gadget: Apple iPhone
Gadget Candy: MacBook Air
Retailer of the Year: Dixons.co.uk
Innovation of the Year: Sony XEL-1 OLED TV
Green Gadget: Honda Civic Hybrid
Home Gadget: Sky HD
Hi Def Award: Sony PS3
Gadget you can’t live without: TomTom GO930
T3 Magazine and its online arm t3.com have long been trusted sources of impartial and entertaining news about the tech industry, for gadget lovers around the world. Their second gadget awards ceremony took place on 9 October at London’s Intercontinental, Park Lane, and was a celebration of the great and good in the technology industry, as voted for by the public, with over 54,000 votes being cast. With a host of national and broadcast press in attendance, the event was hosted by TV Personality of the Year James Nesbitt.
World of Warcraft gets 10th Site on October 9th
The9 Limited, a leading online game operator in China, today announced that the 10th site of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, the Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), will be launched on October 9, 2008 (you’d think they could have waited one more day) to provide more servers and high-quality services for game plays in China.
The upcoming World Of Warcraft 10th site marks a major advance after the 9th site opened in April, 2008. There will be 8 servers opened at the 10th site as the first batch of new site launching.
Game account registration and activation have started at the same time. To attract more players, a Free-Trial Program will be available online at the 10th Site so that any player under Level 15 can play the game for free up to 30 hours within a 7 day-period.
“World Of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade” has many players in China, and once set a record of over 1 million peak concurrent users (PCCU). Existing and new gamers are more than welcome to this exciting Crusade and enjoy the epic game experience in the World of Warcraft.
Unreal Engine 3 to be Used for New Action Horror Game
Iconic Japanese developer Grasshopper Manufacture has licensed Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 3 for a new multiplatform action horror game to be published by Electronic Arts Inc. The new game is directed by innovative game designer Suda51 and produced by legendary Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami.
“Unreal Engine 3 is a powerful, easy-to-implement game engine that is helping the creative team at Grasshopper quickly bring our vision to life,” said Goichi Suda, CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture. “The innovative tools and technology in Unreal Engine 3 help developers create games faster, easier and with less risk.”
“It’s an honor to work with Suda-san and Mikami-san on their next project,” said Jay Wilbur, Vice president, Epic Games. “Grasshopper Manufacture is one of the most daring and innovative studios in the world, and we can’t wait to see what they’re able to do with Unreal Engine 3.
Review: FIFA 09
GOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLL!!!!
FIFA kicks off this season with a squad of new features, and some great ideas, but does it hit the back of the net like a Geovani freekick, or is it languishing in the bottom three?
Now before I dive into the review, I just though i’d let everyone reading this exactly what i had to do to buy this game. Heading to the local game store, i had in a gruby shopping bag; Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii), Top Spin 3 (Wii), Animal Crossing (DS), Lego Star Wars (360) and Viva Pinata (360), now the game cost £40, and I’ll give you one guess about how much I got for my unused games…
Anyway, my initial disappointment aside, i now had my hands on FIFA 09 for the Xbox 360.
First Impressions: The first thing you notice is that if you happen to not have an HDTV, then you will struggle to read any of the writing. I spent the first couple of minutes, with my face almost pressed against the screen, I was having a ‘Dead Rising’ moment all over again. Cursing my lack of finance once again i made my was through the extensive menu system to my first match. Naturally I selected AC Milan, and I picked my opponents (victims) – Chelsea.
Selecting the tactics, and changing players was fairly natural, after years of playing FIFA games, but again the writing is tiny, and the menu’s seem to sprawl off forever. The load times are swift enough, and I was in the tunnel watching my players in great detail get ready to give Chelsea the hammering they truly deserve.
Gameplay: This game is so smooth. I was instantly at home with the intuitive control system, pulling the left trigger and moving the right stick to perform tricks is a brilliant touch. The power bars drives me insane though, as if you play as a low level team its near impossible to score a goal. The passing system is fluid, the through ball manouveres come off well, and the heading sytem has improved so that you have a chance of connecting with the ball.
Graphics: The game looks brilliant. The ‘Be a Pro’ mode offers one of the most fun aspects of the game. As your player bears down on goal, the camera drops don behind the player, and shakes dramatically – imagine the Gears of War shakey-cam. It adds to the intensity of the matches, and makes scoring a goal really quite exhilarating. Goal celebrations are fun too for a while, as you get to run around and sort-of make your own celebration moments. However, after doing this maybe three times, I’ve just skipped it everytime since.
Online: Right, as i bought this yesterday, I’ve had one go online, not to mention the fact i played the single player ‘Be a Pro’ campaign all night last night. I’m taking Darlington to the top baby! The one match i did play seem me get totally destroyed 3-0 by a guy who picked Inter Milan, after i had picked Bolton. Online flowed great, and i can’t wait to get stuck into it even more, but it looks like i can kiss any kind of a life goodbye.
Overall: This is an enjoyable update of the series that’s been going strong since 1996. The advancements in graphics, playability, and the career mode have made this in to a thoroughly enjoyable affair throughout. Yes the menu system will drive you mad, and the tiny font will force you to buy glasses you never knew you needed, but you’ll be jumping around the room when you bury that goal in the 90th minute of the World Cup final.
Score: 9/10
Top 7 Most Controversial Games Ever
Over the years we’ve seen some pretty controversial games land on our shelves, but what are the baddest of the bad in terms of on-screen nasties and off screen media scare tactics? Here’s our top seven. Why seven? Well its lucky innit…
7. Carmaggedon
The classically violent-for-the-sake-of-violence Carmaggedon, upset a bunch of people even before the game was released way back in 1997 on the PC (dos version) when the publisher SCi submitted the game for rating to the BBFC for classification to boost its publicity, even though they didn’t have to (the game featured no video footage, therefore was exempt from classification). Sadly for the team, the move backfired and the board demanded that the violence be cut – which to them meant changing the human pedestrians in the game to robots and zombies instead. They appealed, and after a long ten months the game was released as intended.
Even with its troubled past, this game’s influence is clear to see. Just look at your games shelf, is that Grand Theft Auto up there?
6. Mortal Kombat
FINNISH HIM!! Do you remember the first time you were asked to do that? Although tame when compared to today’s gaming bloodbaths, this beat ‘em up caused chaos on its release in 1992. The mixture of detailed deaths, and brutal combat caused parents across the land to condemn the game. Publisher Midway slapped a ‘Mature’ rating on the game, but critics still complained and ask your friends if they remember being told “you can’t play that fighting game under this roof” by their parents. The game has courted controversy throughout the series, with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance criticised for “inciting violence” by the media when it was released. But c’mon, whats so bad about tearing someones spine out?..
5. Resident Evil 5
This game isn’t even out yet, and its already courted controversy for the predicted levels of violence and the more serious allegation of racism, as an early preview showed a Caucasian male killing hostile African villagers. Supporters of the title said that the scenes were necessary given the setting of the game, but a number of its detractors say that the images were insensitive at best. This one will surely be allover the media, and if you close your eyes you can even see ‘The Sun’s’ (idiotic uk newspaper) title: “Shock racist African murder game: do you know what your kids are playing”. Capcom better hire a decent lawyer.
4. Wii Fit
Nintendo and its squeaky clean image took a pounding from the media a couple of months back when the balance board, when sensing that a heavy thing was on it, announced to an eleven-year-old gilr that she was overweight. One reporter got his knickers in a twist flapping “what right does a video game have to call a girl fat”, and Nintendo were forced to apologise to the little chubber. Rumours that they sent round a box of donuts as a peace offering have been entirely made up by me. Brilliantly, the usually easily pushed around, Nintendo have refused to put a label on the box letting users know of the games limitations.
3. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
No surprise that this has made it in to the top seven. The game just asks for trouble with its plot lines including; stealing cars, shooting cops, and a running gang. The game got into even more trouble when the ‘Hot Coffee mod’ was discovered. The mini-game allowed your character to take part in fully-clothed sex with a pixel chick. The media went mental, and nerds all over the world learned that there was more than one way to have sex (sitting hunched over your computer at the dead of night is not the only one after all).
2. Doom
Released in 1993, Doom was an instant hit with gamers the world over. Graphically violent, the game’s weapons included chainsaws, shotguns, and gave birth to the legendary BFG (Big F##king Gun). The game involved ruthlessly slaughtering your way through levels and levels of monsters, and has been blamed numerous times for being a “mass murder simulator”. In 1999, almost six years after its initial release, the game found itself in the centre of a media storm when it was linked to the Columbine High School Massacre, when Klebold and Harris were said to be huge fans of the game. The games legacy continues to endure however, and its influence can be felt in pretty much every first-person shooter in the last 15 years.
1. Manhunt/Manhunt 2
Banned for “casual sadism” by the BBFC, Manhunt 2 was effectively banned from sale in the UK and Ireland. Although the game has finally been given an 18 certificate and will go on sale this year. The worst thing about this particular controversy was the media all jumping on the bandwagon. The fact of the matter is that because the game was near impossible to get your hands on, how the heck did the media seem to know so much about it. It seemed every mainstream paper wanted a piece of the hate filled pie. You have to feel sorry for Rockstar (but not that sorry, cause they’ve made millions). They have become a target, and every release from now till eternity will be scrutinised by know-it-all, do-gooders. The BBFC was condemned by gamers for its double standards. Movies like Saw and Hostel are aloud to show explicit violence, and that looks far more realistic.
And thats yer lot. I think the problem is, and will always be the media. These people need to write stories, and the gaming industry is an exceptionally easy target. However, with all controversial moments, the publicity inadvertently created helps these games sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Game publishers are going to have to get used to it, but I’m sure looking at their money in the bank they’ll feel better.
Review: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
After months of waiting, for the game to be released, I’ve finally got my grubby little mitts on a copy of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for the Wii. I chose to buy it for the Wii purely because of the unique control system. The idea of wielding a lightsaber, and slamming people around the place really appealed to me more than the Xbox 360 version, yes I know it has far nicer graphics, but c’mon people, you get to wield a frickin’ lightsaber!
Well as you may of guessed, I was really looking forward to the game, and in some aspects my dark side’s thirst was quenched, but overall i was quite disappointed.
The control system for the Wii, at first, is enjoyable. Using the nunchuck for movement, and force powers is efficient, however the thrusting forward of the nunchuck to open the countless barriers on your missions gets very old, very fast. The Wiimote functions as your lightsaber, which is something that should have been immensely enjoyable;, however there is no skill involved, you just shake it around and the game does everything for you. It takes away from the fun quite considerably, and has ruined the game for me.
The missions themselves are extremely linear, there is nothing that particularly stands out, and the storyline is pretty average. Multiplayer is not much better. When you expect greatness – lightsaber duels with your mates – its hard to not be critical. I played a few games various different characters, of which there is no difference. After a few trials it would appear that all the development team has done is overlayed a different skin over the basic framework rather than provide the character with plus and negative points. The levels themselves got pretty boring after about ten games, and I have no desire to re-visit them.
I want to play the game on the Xbox360, more to see how the controls differ than anything else, but i’m a bit annoyed about wasting £35. I love Star Wars, but i think the franchise needs to stop churning out games that are pretty average compared to the marketing departments hype.
My Score Card for Star Wars: Force Unleashed
Gameplay: 5
Graphics: 6
Storyline: 6
Multiplayer: 4
Overall: 6/10
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