Darren Straight's Blog

The party invites have been sent and everything’s set. Although get ready to invite one more to your Wii Party, as every copy of this Wii Party will come with a white Wii Remote!  With this extra Wii Remote, you’ll be able to enjoy the many multiplayer games with your friends and family when the game launches across Europe on 8^th October 2010!

Sharing the instant accessibility of titles like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, Wii Party brings more than 80 different mini-games into your home.  The inventive game offers non-stop fun and unparalleled variety as you, your family and friends grab up to four Wii Remotes and try your hand at a host of inventive and intuitive gaming experiences. To add to the enjoyment, you’ll play as your Mii character and see them in action like never before!

Wii Party comes with 13 different game modes to get to grips with. House Party mode turns your living room into a pivotal part of the game play. On top of the new level of interactivity introduced by the House Party mode, Wii Party also includes Pair Games and Party Games modes – both of which keep the varied challenges coming thick and fast as you cooperate or compete with fellow players.

The House Party games include:

• Hide ‘n’ Hunt (2-4 players) – one player hides the Wii Remote(s) somewhere in the room, whilst the other players wait outside. All the players are then invited back into the room to start the search. Their only clues are the sounds made by the Wii Remote(s).
• Animal Tracker (2-4 players) – players listen for the animal sounds coming out of the Wii Remote controllers and decide which one is the correct animal. Whoever picks up the -correct Wii Remote first is the winner.
• Time Bomb (2-4 players) – a game where the players pretend the Wii Remote is a bomb and must pass it around without shaking it.
• Word Bomb (2-4 players) – similar to Time Bomb, however, instead each player has up to 10 seconds to say a word from a given category. If the player doesn’t say a relevant word and press the A Button in time, then the bomb explodes and it will be game over.
• Buddy Quiz (3-4 players) – one player chooses (or is randomly chosen) to be the ‘Buddy’ and then has to answer a set of questions. The rest of the players then have to predict how the ‘Buddy’ would have answered. 

The Party Games include:

• Board Game Island (1-4 players) – players take it in turns to roll the dice and advance along a single route towards the summit of the mountain. At the beginning of each turn, everyone plays a mini-game, and the order the players come in determines which bonus dice they receive. This is a board game like no other – expect the impossible.
• Globe Trot (1-4 players) – a board game that has you travelling the world to earn souvenir photos. The players must select one card at a time from the cards they have in their hands and advance the stated number of spaces towards the country they are aiming for. There is also a minigame before each turn, and based on the results, players win coins which they can use to buy movement cards and souvenir photos.
• Bingo (1-4 players) – each player receives a bingo card covered in Mii characters. If a “Mii Ball” comes out of the bingo machine, you have to check off that Mii if it appears on your card, while if a “Mini-game Ball” appears, you play a mini-game. The winner can check off any Mii of their choice. The winner is the first to make a line horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
• Swap Meet (1-4 players) – Have fun matching Mii characters wearing the same colours and playing minigames. The aim of the game is to make each row consist of Mii characters wearing the same colour.
• Spin Off (1-4 players) – each Mii takes a turn to spin the wheel by holding the A Button and flicking the Wii Remote. Depending on where the wheel stops, you could be in for some point-scoring medals.

The Pair Games include:

• Balance Boat (1-2 players) – this game involves working together to place Mii characters on a ship in perfect balance so that the ship does not tip left or right and none of the Mii characters fall into the sea. You clear the game if you manage to place 20 Mii characters on the ship. The two players attempt a mini-game together, and if they manage to clear it, they will each have to place a Mii of the same size. However, if they fail to clear the mini-game, the Mii characters will be different sizes.
• Friend Connection (2 players) – two players complete a simple test of how in tune they are and play a mini-game together. The results are used to judge how close they are as friends. Do you think you’re completely in tune with your friend’s tastes and opinions? Play this dynamite little game to find out!
• Match-Up (1-2 players) – a take on the classic game of pairs. Match paired Mii characters in the park area, but be careful not to lose any hearts.

Case-mate, maker of cell phone and Apple cases and accessories, has a new video series circulating on the web via YouTube.  Their first straight-to-web effort, these new clips range from eerie to “Dear, Me!” 

First up, Kung Fu Hustle meets Stanley Kubrick – to make a custom iPhone Case, you can make your own iPhone 3GS and soon for iPhone 4 case at www.imakemycase.com. I certainly do like some of the designs on there and the fact that you can actually design it yourself!

2010: A Case Odyssey

While next, one poor sap awakes to discover the plight of living with hands made from Steel Wool – and the damage that can be done to iPhone’s glass screen when making an emergency call.

Living With Steel Wool Hands (How I Lost My Nipple)

Millions of Madonna fans across the world will be celebrating the Queen of Pop’s 52^nd birthday today, and download trends from Ovi Music show the Material Girl is still as popular as ever with fans around the world.

Nokia’s trends snapshot reveals Madonna is the second most popular female solo artist on Ovi Music, according to downloads by fans using Ovi’s unlimited track download service – beaten only by Lady Gaga, 28 years her junior.

• Nine time Grammy award winner Madonna is the second most popular female solo artist online, and fifth most popular overall artist according to downloads
• Ahead of Madonna in total global Ovi Music downloads are: Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Jay Chou and Black Eyed Peas
• Madonna retains her name as Queen of Pop in the offline world, as the 2011 edition of the Guinness World Records crowns her the top selling recording artist
• There are 487 Madonna songs available in the Ovi Music catalogue. If every track available were downloaded it would take 80 hours to listen to all of her music
• Download data from across Ovi Music’s 36 markets shows that Madonna is most downloaded in Brazil followed by Finland, Mexico, China, UK and Singapore

After a late night party, a group of friends are awoken in the dead of the night by an eerie light beaming through the window. Like moths to a flame, the light source is drawing people outside before they suddenly vanish into the air. They soon discover an otherwordly force is swallowing the entire human population off the face of the earth. Now our band of survivors must fight for their lives as the world unravels around them.

Official Skyline website now live here

Nev, a 24-year-old New York–based photographer, has no idea what he’s in for when Abby, an eight-year-old girl from rural Michigan, contacts him on MySpace, seeking permission to paint one of his photographs. When he receives her remarkable painting, Nev begins a friendship and correspondence with Abby’s family. But things really get interesting when he develops a cyber-romance with Abby’s attractive older sister, Megan, a musician and model. Prompted by some startling revelations about Megan, Nev and his buddies embark on a road trip in search of the truth.

Catfish centers on a riveting mystery that is completely a product of our times, where social networking, mobile devices, and electronic communication so often replace face-to-face personal contact. Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman’s grounded documentary is a remarkable and powerful story of grace within a labyrinth of online intrigue.

‘I dropped it from a hot air balloon’ and ‘my dog mistook it for his favourite toy and chewed it to bits’ are among the bizarre insurance claims made for lost and damaged iPhones over the last 12 months, it emerged yesterday.

Other unusual claims include ‘I lost it while skydiving’, ‘I dropped it in a blender’ and ‘It fell into the kettle’.

The weird and wonderful claims came to light in a study by gadget insurers www.protectyourbubble.com.

It also emerged one in five iPhone users have made an insurance claim during the past 12 months.

Most common claims include cracked screens, lost or stolen iPhones and iPhones dropped in the toilet or bath.

A spokesman for Protect your bubble said: “With so many people carrying an iPhone with them wherever they go, it’s no surprise that they are being lost or damaged in a host of unusual ways.”

“Most of us know someone who has managed to drop their iPhone in a pint of beer or down the toilet – but these bizarre claims we have uncovered must be one-offs.’’

The study also found 45 per cent of claims have been for accidental damage to iPhones.

One unlucky customer lost his iPhone after leaning over the side of a boat in Cyprus, to see it fall out of the rucksack and plop into the sea.

And one owner reckons he was happily sitting in the local pub, when a friend spilled his pint of beer all over his phone.

Another unlucky male drove sharply round a corner, to witness his beloved iPhone sliding across the dashboard and straight out of his open window.

Other iPhone insurance claims include losing the phone under the wheels of a bus after it flew out of a pocket, and a teenager being forced to hand over his phone to thugs after they threatened him with a machete.

And one coffee shop assistant was busy making an espresso for a customer, only to turn around and find he had walked off with his phone which was sitting on the side.

The spokesman for Protect your bubble added: “The amazing ways people manage to be separated from their iPhone goes to show that you never know what’s around the corner – and it pays to get your iPhone insured.’’

Other more usual claims include losing internet connection, screen freeze, pets knocking the phone off a work surface and the fact the phone doesn’t charge.

TOP 10 MOST BIZARRE IPHONE CLAIMS

1. I dropped it from a hot air balloon
2. I lost it while sky diving
3. It broke when my son used it as a table tennis racket
4. I lost it while building a sand castle for the kids
5. I accidentally buried it in the garden
6. It fell into the kettle
7. I dropped it in a food blender
8. My dog chewed it to pieces
9. Juice from a defrosting piece of meat leaked into it
10. It flew out of the car window

TOP 10 MOST COMMON IPHONE CLAIMS

1. Cracked screen
2. Stolen while texting
3. Couldn’t hear the other person when making a call
4. Leaving phone on the car roof so it falls off when driving
5. Pet knocked the phone off the surface
6. Stolen from handbag
7. Internet connection completely broken
8. iPhone doesn’t charge
9. Dropped in the bath / toilet
10. Screen freezes

Nintendo will kick off this year’s gamescom trade fair in Cologne on 18^th Augustwith a mixture of traditional classics and innovative games. Offering something for everyone, Nintendo’s booth at gamescom will be dedicated to games that will certainly cater for all tastes. From legendary franchises like Mario and Zelda to the exciting and innovative Wii Party, Nintendo offers a range of titles to get family and friends playing together all over the globe.

Charles Martinet – the voice of Nintendo’s plucky plumber, Mario, and many other Nintendo characters for more than 20 years, will be present at the show, where guests can play all of the Mario games that have ever appeared for Wii and Nintendo DS, including the latest cosmic funfest Super Mario Galaxy 2.  Visitors to the Nintendo stand will not only be able to get their hands on an exciting range of upcoming game titles – including The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, Metroid: Other M, Donkey Kong Country™ Returns, Wii Party and many others – but popular TV celebrity Tim Feldner will be on hand to provide fun and excitement.

In fact, anyone planning on visiting the Nintendo booth in Cologne can look forward to an altogether engaging experience playing some of the most fun and exciting games in motion- and handheld gaming from both Nintendo and third-party publishers on Wii and Nintendo DS. Nintendo-published games available to experience on the showfloor include (release dates included):

• Art Academy: Learn Painting and Drawing Techniques with Step-by-Step Training (Nintendo DS) which launched on Nintendo DS on 6^th August will give you the opportunity to brush up your artistic talent this summer.  Your Nintendo DS Touch Screen will transform into your very own canvas, as you follow the step-by-step lessons. Art Academy offers lessons and art materials to get you started on your initial artistic journey, as well as containing more advanced art courses for more adventurous artists wanting to take their art to the next level.

• Metroid: Other M (Wii)is the incredible new Metroid game developed for Wii through collaboration by Nintendo and the world-renowned Team NINJA. Prepare yourself for a Metroid adventure like no other, as stunning action and a moving personal story come together in an unforgettable way across Europe on 3rd September 2010. Playing as Samus, players will seamlessly switch between third-person and first-person gameplay for the first time in a Metroid game. In another series’ first, Samus is getting more physical in Metroid: Other M, with a range of melee attacks up the sleeves of her Power Suit.

• More than 25 years after the launch of the first-ever Tetris® game, Tetris Party Deluxe (Wii & Nintendo DS) will be launched on 3rd September 2010across Europe for both Nintendo DS and Wii. This new version of Tetris Party will thrill both old-time Tetris fans and newcomers to the genre, as more than 20 modes, online battles and local multiplayer action have been squeezed into this fun-packed game.

• When Wii Party (Wii) launches across Europe on 8^th October 2010, there will be something for all generations. Pit your personalised Mii characters against each other in 13 different party game modes and more than 80 mini-games. For the first time, Nintendo is moving gaming out of the TV and straight into the room you’re in.  In House Party games – one of three modes in Wii Party – you’ll need to interact with one another in the real world to get the results you want in the game. Coupled with all that fun, also watch out for the many Party and Pair games which will keep your friends and family entertained for hours.

• Step into the latest adventure and enthralling mystery, as Professor Layton and his young apprentice Luke return in Professor Layton and the Lost Future (Nintendo DS) on 22^nd October 2010 for Nintendo DS. A brand new storyline and 165 new brain teasers, riddles and logic puzzles are all guaranteed to challenge and delight in the most epic and emotional instalment yet. Follow Professor Layton and his trusty apprentice Luke to seek out and solve puzzles in a future London to help save the city from a terrible fate! 

• Donkey Kong Country™ Returns (Wii)is a brand spanking new side-scrolling platformer from Retro Studios, featuring fully rendered 3D environments and launching across Europe later this year. Donkey Kong is back and this time Diddy Kong not only joins the quest, but for the first time the franchise features the availability for two people to play together at the same time – one as Donkey Kong and one as Diddy Kong. Players can navigate the levels separately or as one unit. Diddy Kong can ride on Donkey Kong’s back and hop off whenever he pleases, allowing novice players to ride on Donkey Kong’s back through more challenging areas of the game. 

• Golden Sun^™: Dark Dawn (Nintendo DS) is a classic role-playing game launching later this year which branches out with a new look, countless adventures and heroic battles. Golden Sun^™: Dark Dawn picks up 30 years after the first two games in the series left off, with amazing graphics and beautifully animated summoning abilities that span both Nintendo DS screens.

• Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Wii)caused much buzz and excitement at this year’s E3 Expo. Now you too can try out Kirby’s first console platform game since the Nintendo 64™ days. Step into Kirby’s world of cloth and textiles and enjoy the creative gameplay techniques which are woven directly into the game. In this one-of-a-kind platformer, explore high and low for hidden objects and fun adventure when it arrives in Europe in Q1 2011for Wii.

• Mario vs. Donkey Kong^™: Miniland Mayhem (Nintendo DS) which launches in Q1 2011 on Nintendo DS will see players draw red girders and control items with the Nintendo DS Stylus, and play games moving items such as pipes, springs and conveyor belts. The goal is to bring the Mini Toys to the door. Using an intuitive tool kit, players can create new level maps and share them with the public via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

• Worldwide anticipation continues to build ahead of the upcoming launch of The Legend of Zelda™: Skyward Sword (Wii) in Europe in 2011for Wii. For the first time, the precision of Link’s sword movements will be exactly replicated due to the required Wii MotionPlus accessory. Players can also enjoy the beautiful graphics which give you the feeling of walking straight into a painting. With a plethora of new gameplay mechanics, Link’s latest adventure has been given a refreshingly different feel from all the past titles in the series.

Beginner and expert animators alike can scoop a prestigious Raindance film award by producing a winning clip with free CGI software, Muvizu, which can be downloaded at http://www.muvizu.com/.

Muvizu is a free 3D animation application, integrated with an online collaborative community, that gives individuals or groups the power of the Unreal Engine 3 to create compelling videos in minutes, not months. You don’t need specialist kit or training, just a good idea.

The joint competition invites anyone to download Muvizu 3D and use it to create an animation of no more than one minute and thirty seconds.

Submissions close on 31 August 2010 and the winning films will be screened at the 18th Raindance Film Festival between 29 September and 10 October in London’s West End.

On top of worldwide recognition with Raindance, award-winning makers of high-end 3D systems Workstation Specialists are supplying the following prizes:

1. A high-end mobile graphics workstation: WSM – Power 15.6″ 3D Graphics Configuration with Intel® Core™ i7 720QM 1.60GHz 64Bit Quad-Core Processor;
2. A high-end graphics workstation: WS1600 High End 3D Graphics Configuration with Intel® Core™ i7 930 2.83GHz 64Bit Quad-Core Processor;
3.  A graphics workstation: WS1400 with Powerful 3D Graphics Configuration.

To enter:

Upload your video to YouTube through Muvizu in 720HD resolution (keeping the .set file) and set it to ‘Private’.

Start your film title with “Submission for Muvizu prize competition at Raindance Film Festival” then email the video’s url to raindance@muvizu.com together with your name and contact details.

Entrants must be 13 years or over to enter the competition individually, but a Muvizu gatekeeper account holder can submit an entry or entries on behalf of younger children.

Raindance Founder Elliot Grove said: “Raindance has always believed that filmmaking should be an experience which is accessible to anyone, and true to this, the wonderful people at Muvizu have created software which allows people to make animated videos without specialist hardware, software, or training.”

The Muvizu application, which includes all the assets and tools needed to create 3D movies, is available for free download from www.muvizu.com, a portal that enables users to collaborate on film, audio, and drama projects with easy-to-use tools and results you can view in real time. The philosophy behind Muvizu 3D is for content creators to put less energy into animating characters and more effort into directing them on-screen. The goal is to foster collaborative fillm-making by uniting people with contrasting skills through Muvizu’s virtual workspace and storyboarding capabilities.

The Muvizu website also offers new users tutorial videos to help get then started.

The Social Network is an upcoming 2010 drama film directed by David Fincher about the founding of Facebook, I saw the trailer for it yesterday at the Cinemas and it reminded me a little of The Pirates of Silicon Valley Movie (1999), a film about Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

Anyhow The Social Network film features an ensemble cast which consists of Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Brenda Song, Rashida Jones, Max Minghella, Rooney Mara, Malese Jow, and Joseph Mazzello.

The film was written by Aaron Sorkin and adapted from Ben Mezrich’s 2009 book The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal. The film is distributed by Columbia Pictures and is set for an October 1, 2010 release. None of the Facebook staff, including founder Mark Zuckerberg, will be involved with the project. One of the co-founders, Eduardo Saverin, was a consultant for Mezrich’s book.

Here’s a trailer for The Social Network Movie:

And here’s a trailer from The Pirates of Silicon Valley Movie:

I was playing Call Of Duty Modern Welfare 2 today and all of a sudden my Rank Level shot up from Rank Level 28 to Rank Level 70 Commander! :-O

On seeing this I was pretty angered to say the least! However lucky enough I was able to recover my original Level, well one level back from the orginal anyhow, I managed to recover my stats back to Level 27! What happened to me is that Call of Duty placed me in a Hacked Server Lobby which hacked my Level to Level 70, unbelievable I know but it does happen: here and here and man more here

I managed to restore my level by doing the following:

1. First of all ensure you do not have CODMW2 open and running.
2. Navigate to “C:\Program Files\Steam\Steamapps\common\call of duty modern warfare 2″
3. Right click on the “C:\Program Files\Steam\Steamapps\common\call of duty modern warfare\players” folder and choose “Properties” then select the “Previous Versions” tab.
4. Find the folder version just before the hack occurred.
5. Copy it to a secure location such as your desktop.
6. Delete the “C:\Program Files\Steam\Steamapps\common\call of duty modern warfare 2\players” folder or rename it “players_hacked” for example.
7. Copy the restored “players” folder to “C:\Program Files\Steam\Steamapps\common\call of duty modern warfare 2\”

1. Navigate to “C:\Program Files\Steam\userdata\”
2. Right click on the “C:\Program Files\Steam\userdata\randomnumber” folder and choose “Properties” then select the “Previous Versions” tab.
3. Find the folder version just before the hack occurred.
4. Copy it to a secure location such as your desktop.
5. Delete the “C:\Program Files\Steam\userdata\randomnumber” folder or rename it “randomnumber_hacked” for example.
6. Copy the restored “randomnumber” folder to “C:\Program Files\Steam\userdata\randomnumber”
7. It’s worth noting that the C:\Program Files\Steam\userdata\randomnumber” folder is all your userdata from all your steam games so you could browse into this folder and just restore C:\Program Files\Steam\userdata\randomnumber\10190″ which is the specific folder for COD 6.