Ancient Egypt stars in 'Cleopatra: Riddle of the Tomb' PC adventure game

An interesting landscape along with some engrossing puzzles make "Cleopatra: Riddle of the Tomb" stand out from many other PC adventure games.

Gamers don't actually play Cleopatra, named after the legendary ancient Egyptian queen. Instead they get to play lowly Thomas, a young apprentice to Akkad, Cleopatra's astrologer.

This little twist turns out to be a great background storyline. Plus, everything doesn't necessarily revolve around you.

The puzzles in "Cleopatra: Riddle of the Tomb," rated T for teen, are well thought out and you get to tinker with items related to Egyptian culture. So you find yourself reading star constellations, sleuthing around ancient wonders such as the Lighthouse of Alexandria and placing statues of Horus, Isis and Anubis on boards.

The game, published by Toronto's The Adventure Company and developed by France's Kheops Studios, has a standard PC adventure game inventory system, where you can combine objects that you acquire as you scour the landscape while clicking through various screens.

Egypt is depicted as a golden dusty yellow sandscape, populated with crocodiles, pyramids, hieroglyphics, papyrus and gorgeous buildings, complete with minor animations like realistic running water and burning fire.

An interesting feature is the opportunity to select an astrological sign for your character. This influences the difficulty of some of the challenges you face.

There are 'good' days and 'bad' days depending on what you selected. It points to an interesting possibility allowing for puzzles to be completed in a couple different ways - a feature sorely lacking in many PC adventure games.

It's also no surprise that moving around the locales is a snap with the map feature - this is the same studio that brought us "Destination: Treasure Island" last summer which also features an easy movement system.

Plus, gamers are rewarded with a number of exceptional cutscenes naturally placed at regular intervals to move along the storyline and break up the bottlenecks as you complete puzzles.

"Cleopatra: Riddle of the Tomb" has the usual amount of hammy dialogue common to PC adventure games but it does a great job with crisp voice-overs.

It's a strong PC adventure game offering that will appeal to fans of the genre and is easy enough for newcomers. It also has a few ideas that advance PC adventure gaming a couple of steps.

News from �The Canadian Press, 2008

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Willem Dafoe - Dafoe Prefers Evil On Screen

WILLEM DAFOE prefers playing bad guys on film, because they give him the chance to be more creative.

The actor plays a cop in new movie Anamorphic, but has made his name taking on big screen villains - from a blood sucker in 2000's Shadow of the Vampire, to comic book villain The Green Goblin in the Spider-Man series.

And he is happy to keep turning to the dark side on screen.

He says, "It's more difficult to play someone virtuous. It's less rich fantasy for me. I'm always moved when someone does something generous or heroic in a movie, so you like to play that character.

"But, in approaching it, the dark side is often more fertile."

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Rocker injured on stage at gig

ROCKER Ian Brown was treated for a head injury after a terrifying incident on
stage on Friday night.

The former Stone Roses legend, 45, smashed his head as he was pulled from the
stage at the Academy venue in Sheffield.

His performance at the Isle Of Wight festival on Saturday night was thrown
into doubt, but he decided to travel to the island to perform after
treatment on the injury.

The singer's camp have said they are not sure if it was a deliberate attack.

Ian was set to play on Saturday's bill before headliners The Sex Pistols.

Kaiser Chiefs and N.E.R.D were among the acts to play on Friday's first night
of the event which is the festival season's curtain-raiser.

A spokesman for South Yorkshire Police said: "No-one has come forward
regarding the incident and we are not investigating it any further."

Paul McCartney and Wings

   
Artist: Paul McCartney and Wings

   Genre(s): 
Pop
   Rock
   

---

Discography:


   
 Band On The Run Cd 1

   Year: 1999   
Tracks: 10


   
 Band On The Run 25th Anniversary Edition (Disc 2)

   Year: 1993   
Tracks: 21


   
 Venus And Mars

   Year: 1975   
Tracks: 12


   
 Band On The Run

   Year: 1973   
Tracks: 10

---

Following his moment solo album, Ram, in 1971, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and his wife, Linda, formed Wings, which was intended to be a fully fledged recording and touring band. Denny Laine, a one-time guitar player for the Moody Blues, and drummer Denny Seiwell filled out the lineup and Wings released their first base album, Wild Life, in December 1971. Wild Life was greeted with poor reviews and was a congener dud. McCartney and Wings, which now featured one-time Grease Band guitar player Henry McCullough, spent 1972 as a operative band, cathartic triplet singles -- the protestation tune "Give Ireland Back to the Irish," the reggae-fied "Virgin Mary Had a Little Lamb," and the hard-rocking "Hi Hi Hi" -- in England. Red ink Rose Speedway followed in the leaping of 1973, and while it standard sapless reviews, it became his second American number nonpareil album. Later in 1973, Wings embarked on their low British hitch, at the determination of which McCullough and Seiwell left hand the isthmus. Prior to their exit, McCartney's idea to the James Bond moving picture Live and Let Die became a Top Ten strike in the U.S. and U.K. That summer, the remaining Wings proceeded to record a new album in Nigeria. Released late in 1973, Isthmus on the Run was McCartney's best-reviewed album to appointment and his most successful, outlay little Joe weeks at the top of the U.S. charts and eventually going triplet atomic number 78.


Following the success of Striation on the Run, McCartney formed a new version of Wings with guitar player Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Geoff Britton. The young card was showcased on the 1974 British single "Junior's Farm" and the 1975 strike album Venus and Mars. Wings at the Speed of Sound followed in 1976, and it was the low Wings record to feature songwriting contributions by the other bandmembers. The album became a giant success on the ground of deuce McCartney songs, "Silly Love Songs" and "Let 'Em In." Wings supported the album with their first international hitch, which skint many attendance records and was captured on the live triplet album Wings Over America (1976). After the hitch was completed, Wings rested a snatch during 1977, as McCartney released an instrumental adaptation of Random access memory under the nominate Thrillington and produced Laine's solo album, Holly Days. Later that year, Wings released "Mull of Kintyre," which became the biggest-selling British single of all time (at the time of its release), marketing over iI million copies. In 1978 Wings followed "Mull of Kintyre" with Jack London Town, which became some other pt book. After its tone ending, McCulloch left hand the isthmus to get together the re-formed Small Faces, and Wings released Back to the Egg in 1979. Though the record went pt, it failed to produce whatsoever big hits. Early in 1980, McCartney was arrested for ganja possession at the beginning of a Japanese hitch; he was captive for 10 years and then released, without whatsoever charges being pressed. Wings embarked on a British hitch in the spring of 1980 earlier McCartney recorded Paul McCartney II, which was a one-man-band cause like his solo debut. The following year, Laine left hand Wings because McCartney didn't want to duty tour in the wake of John Lennon's assassination; in doing so, he efficaciously bust up Wings, which quietly disbanded as McCartney entered the studio later that yr with Beatles producer George Martin to make his 1982 album Tug of War.





REM to headline Oxegen

The Longest Day - 6/3/2008

D-Day wasn't just fought at Omaha Beach, though Hollywood may have thought so before The Longest Day. D-Day involved a cast of thousands, and it took producer Darryl Zanuck, five screenwriters, four directors, and three hours just to bring it to the big screen. In fact, Spielberg cribbed large chunks of this film verbatim for Saving Private Ryan. Ultimately, Ryan is the better picture, but The Longest Day shows you more of the story (and it's closer to reality), from the paratrooper force sent in as a diversion, to a half-dozen beach battles, to the French Resistance and how they helped. Aside from a great war tale, Day also marks what must be the only film where you can see John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Fabi�n, Sal Mineo, Eddie Albert, Red Buttons, Peter Lawford, and Sean Connery all fighting the same war. And on the same side, no less.

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Nbc - Sports Make Primetime Comeback

Suddenly sports telecasts are scoring big ratings for the television networks. After
a steady skid in ratings over the past six years, hockey finally has begun drawing
a significant audience on network television. Monday's fifth game of the Stanley
Cup Finals on NBC gave the network a rare primetime win (actually the triple-overtime
contest ran well past primetime and into early Tuesday morning), the biggest numbers
for any hockey game since 2004 and the biggest for a game that wasn't the final and
deciding game since 2002. Meanwhile, the start of the NBA championship series between the
Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics is expected to draw the largest audience
for any network telecast this summer.

04/06/2008

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Jessica Simpson - Fascinating Fact 5324

JESSICA SIMPSON landed a rocking backing group when she performed for U.S. troops at Camp Pendleton in California on 8 May (08) - ZZ TOP joined her for a rendition of her NANCY SINATRA cover THESE BOOTS WERE MADE FOR WALKING.

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