The James Logan Courier

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

The Vegas strip in "Fallout: New Vegas" is minuscule compared to the vast Nevada wasteland that surrounds it, but because it's the only place in the whole region that sparkles like nuclear war never happened, it beams in the horizon for miles from any direction.

When you spot it for the first time in your travels, "Vegas" doesn't break from the action with a cutscene or make any fuss whatsoever. Like everything else in a "Fallout" game, it's just there, and players will spot it in ways and under circumstances that are organic and unique to the story they've spun for themselves up to then.

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

The new, subtitle-free "Medal of Honor" can signify all it wants that it's a new beginning, but make no mistake: If you've played a warfare game in the last few years — "Battlefield: Bad Company" and "Modern Warfare" most especially — then you've seen this before.

Don't automatically confuse that for a swipe against the game, which has a consistently entertaining (though rarely exemplary) single-player campaign and a strong (if loosely familiar) multiplayer component. The groundings in real-world Afghanistan give it a hook the other games lack, and while "Honor's" dabbles in fiction with its storyline, it displays a reverence for its soldiers that's eluded the war shooter genre since it abandoned World War II.

But seriously, you've done this before. "Honor" throws players into the usual FUBAR scenarios that pop up in war games with creative liberty at their feet, so expect to be ambushed a few times and pinned down while fighting a Taliban force that has 10 soldiers for your every one. Expect, also, to dodge gunfire on an ATV, man a turret gun in an Apache, call in laser-guided airstrikes, pick snipers off a mountain range and stalk Taliban in pitch blackness with the assistance of night vision goggles.

By Ben Fritz
Los Angeles Times (MCT)

LOS ANGELES — The legacy of this weekend's box office seems certain to be a victory for a visual effects-heavy event movie over a sophisticated adult comedy and a children's animated tale.
"Tron: Legacy," Walt Disney Studios' big-budget resurrection of the 1982 cult favorite, is a sure bet for the most popular movie this weekend in the U.S. and Canada. People who have seen pre-release audience surveys say it should take in about $50 million, a solid but not spectacular start for such a highly anticipated movie.

Warner Bros.' animation/live-action hybrid "Yogi Bear" is appealing mainly to families with young children and is expected to kick off its run with a so-so $20 million.

Abeera Sohail, Courier Staff Writer

Impossible by Nancy Werlin is a suspense-filled book with a fantasy world with magic and curses.

In the book, a 17-year-old girl, Lucy Scarborough finds out about a family curse that causes all the girls to get pregnant at age 18. All the girls get pregnant without getting married and all have baby girls so the curse can be passed on from generation to generation. Each girl then goes completely insane.

It’s up to Lucy to break the curse by following the ballad song called the “Scarborough Fair”. The only problem about following each task in the song is that each task is impossible.

This book is exciting, with something new in each chapter. It’s a mysterious adventure as Lucy tries to do each task and finds hidden secrets.

By Tish Wells
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

As part of the 30-year anniversary of classic movie "The Empire Strikes Back," J.W. Rinzler has produced an in-depth look not only at the film, but the creation of a film studio — Lucasfilm.

"The Empire Strikes Back" was the second of the six movies that make up the "Star Wars" saga. "The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back — The Definitive Story" shows that its success was done with intense planning, extremely hard work, and a lot of enthusiasm.

By Justyna Torres, Courier Staff Writer

Add shine and sparkle to any outfit with sequins!

With the holiday season soon approaching, catching the shine, shimmer and whimsy spirit in your outfit is crucial. By wearing sequins, you are sure to catch eyes with your style.

Whether you want all eyes on you or just a subtle shine, sequins can work for anybody. You can go all out by wearing a top or dress completely covered in sequins. If this is the statement you want to make, keep accessories, make-up and hair relatively subtle to let the shine do the talking.

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

Gaming's 2010 holiday season is fueled almost entirely by sequels to and remakes of games you've already played, so the mere air of mystery surrounding the brand-new "Enslaved: Odyssey to the West" makes its presence welcome by default.

Fortunately, "Enslaved" wholly earns that welcome by telling a fresh story, telling it well, and backing it up with continuously great third-person action.

"Enslaved" stars players as Monkey, a prisoner who escaped a crashing prison ship only to become subservient to another escapee, Trip, who planted a device on Monkey that forces him to obey orders and help Trip return home alive. (The story, in addition to boasting outstanding voice acting and exceptional character and environmental details, pretty capably makes surprising sense of the details behind Monkey's predicament.)

By Julia Ortiz, Courier Staff Writer

"Tangled" triumphed over Harry Potter at the box office, bringing forth a wonderful animated story of Rapunzel the long lost princess. It has all the makings to become another successful Disney classic.

Trapped in her tower, Rupunzel longs to be free of the confinement in which her mother has left her. She teams up with the handsome Flynn Rider—who is wanted by the royal guard—on a whirlwind adventure that takes them from bars filled with thugs to a sky lit by a thousand lanterns.

By Amanpreet Tatlah, Courier Staff Writer

Armenian-American Tamar Kaprelian first dazzled listeners with her cover of OneRepublic's "Apologize". Listeners are now falling in love with her new album, Sinner or a Saint. The first single, "New Day", reflects how the rest of the album will be. Her first single has a very sensational and an inspiring tone. The music is not dull; instead it’s moving and exciting, which makes people want to listen to more.

Kaprelian began writing and composing piano accompaniments at 14. She was first discovered by a talent scout after she was seen performing with a school group at 15. She was then signed by a company but went off to college, at which point she stopped recording.

By Justyna Torres, Courier Staff Writer

The controversial trend of fur has made its way back onto the fashion scene.

This fall many stars and runway models have been adorned in furs. But this year, designers and consumers are avoiding controversy by turning to faux fur. This is now a win-win situation for animal and fashion lovers alike.

Of course, fur has been around for many years, but this fall it’s taking a fun new twist. This fall the must-have item is a fur vest. This accessory tops off almost every look perfectly. It can give the wearer a layered look the best finish or give new life to their favorite tops.

By Satpreet Kaur, Courier Staff Writer

Looking for a new and exciting video game can be considered by many as a favorable pastime that all kids share? Whether you're are probing for new innovations to gaming consoles, or just simply expanding upon one adventure after another: video games are fun for the whole family.

Recently, Nintendo released a new chapter in the beloved Donkey Kong series for the Nintendo Wii. Not only does this new edition, Donkey Kong County Returns, give the old-timer a chance to be transported into simpler times: where all that mattered as trying to get as many bananas as you possibly could, but also introduces a new aspect to the already incredible and awe striking features DK Country had displayed sixteen years before. What I personally love the most about this game is the return of the legendary soundtrack, featuring the unmistakable DK Theme Song.

By Billy O'Keefe
McClatchy-Tribune (MCT)

Another fall means another round of hockey games from the usual suspects, but the rules have changed slightly for 2010.

The biggest twist is "NHL Slapshot," a brand-new, Wii-only game with arcade tendencies that harken back to EA's early hockey days and a pack-in hockey stick peripheral that makes it a beast of its own creation.

The stick is nothing more than an enclosure for the Wii remote and nunchuck, and those who wish to play "Slapshot" without it can do so with two alternative control schemes. But the scheme designed around the stick — buttons play a role, but the act of swinging the stick allows players to shoot, check and deke — is surprisingly fun and, thanks to "Slapshot's" arcade leanings, plenty precise enough to work.

By Philip Bocog, Courier Staff Writer

Calicove, originally out of the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas, have a unique style that they call Rap n Roll, in which the the styles of rap and rock are mixed together. They are a unique group that should be well known very shortly.

Already, many club-goers in the Bay Area and Los Angeles counties from which they hail know of them. They perform at various clubs in the Bay Area to try and get themselves known and exposed.

It seems to be working, as people who have heard them like their music and performance style.

By Kimmai Nguyen, Courier Staff Writer

Nu-metal band Linkin Park debuted A Thousand Suns, their new album, this September. Diehard fans had high expectations for this comeback album, but their hopes for a crazed album fell short. Despite the hype generated by The Catalyst LP's live release at the 2010 VMA’s, this CD isn’t as good as their previous three.

The new album has fifteen tracks, five of which are intros and preludes. Some intros were unnecessary, like "Jornada Del Muerto". The intros seemed to simply be thrown in, weren’t cohesive and failed to give beautiful transitions to the next song. Although many tracks didn’t flow with their intros, the band did an outstanding job introducing the song "Iridescent" with the intro track "Wisdom, Justice, and Love".

By Randy Lewis
Los Angeles Times (MCT)

LOS ANGELES — The beleaguered record industry couldn't have been happier about the return to the spotlight in 2010 of rapper Eminem, the biggest-selling artist of the new millennium, and heaped upon him a field-leading 10 Grammy Award nominations for his album "Recovery," including nods in all three top categories of album, record and song of the year.

Although it was widely expected that Eminem would do well in this year's Grammy competition, Hawaiian-born producer-singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Bruno Mars caught many by surprise as runner-up to Eminem with seven nominations, announced Wednesday in conjunction with a televised Grammy nomination concert from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.