A new trailer for X-Men: Destiny has been released, showing off new characters and explosions. The game will allow you to take control of the child of a “human zealot” that sees mutants as “nature’s greatest mistake”.  From there, you’ll have a choice of three different candidates, whom have all been “officially integrated into the X-Men cannon.”

Furthermore, you’re going to be put up against many tough decisions throughout the game that will likely alter the traits of your character.  Not only that, but you’re even going to be able to warp the powers of your own mutant by gathering the genes of other mutants.

In the month or so since its release, L.A. Noire has become pretty divisive, even in our own offices. On the one hand, the game is smartly written, visually fascinating and unlike anything else on the market. On the other, some find its system of evidence and interrogation too rigid and confusing, and its action tends to favor “dramatic” outcomes instead of, say, simply letting players catch up with fleeing perps. It’s not perfect, and it’s not for everyone.

So why’s it on this list? Ambition, for starters. At its core, Noire is a linear detective story that tells you when to investigate, when to shoot and when to ask questions, but it isn’t content to stop there, and lavishes an incredible amount of detail and personality on its freely explorable re-creation of 1940s Los Angeles. Its story pulls no punches, and is immensely compelling as a result, with memorable characters whose motion-captured faces turned out surprisingly easy on the eyes.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise. A masterfully remade version of one of the most celebrated and best-selling adventures our medium has ever seen? Of course it’s going to be in this article. And even though this remake of a 1998 game bumps something genuinely new off the list, we can’t imagine there’s much dissent. Everything that made Ocarina memorable back then is still relevant today, making this a perfect introduction to the series for newcomers, as well as a misty eyed love letter to those who sprinted home from school to ride across the Hyrulian countryside way back in 1998.

Bulletstorm, you see, is a deeply clever, intricate design masquerading as a big dumb action game. Far beyond simply emulating the “Kill ‘em all!” maelstroms of Doom and its ilk, Bulletstorm re-taught us a more important lesson from the pre-Call-of-Duty days of FPS. Namely meaningful player input in the cause of mastering one’s environment. Bulletstorm’s insanely imaginative weapon-set and its multi-layered combo potential re-empowered players to kill their own way, giving us back the ability to creatively express ourselves on a mammoth scale, using a million different shades of gore. Fun, laugh-out-loud funny, and with immense replay value thanks to its score-attack Echoes mode, Bulletstorm has as immediate an appeal as any shooter around, but the finesse and depth to keep the most technically calculating, second-shaving point-chaser or speed-runner happy for months.

It was 66 years ago, in 1945, when Indonesia victoriously liberated itself from more than 350 years of colonial rule by the Dutch and Japanese. This was not easy. The courage and bravery of Indonesian fighters in battles spread from Aceh to Medan, Padang to Makassar and Ambon and Bandung to Yogyakarta and Surabaya, to allow Indonesia to emerge as one nation.

On Aug. 17, Indonesians will take the opportunity to salute these fallen heroes, take stock of the long and painful journey in our national struggle toward independence and reaffirm the work still to be done.

So, in honor of this day, it is important to reflect on Indonesia’s accomplishments to date, assess the challenges still ahead and outline a plan for moving forward.

In the past 66 years, Indonesia has been through many changes—including President Sukarno’s era (Old Order), President Soeharto’s era (New Order) and the Reform era. Indonesia experienced tremendous growth due to an oil boom in the beginning of the New Order era, but its authoritarian character and restricted civil liberties were not sustainable. The reform era that began in 1998 is characterized by greater freedom of speech and autonomy.

The end of the New Order unleashed pent-up violent forces in places such as Maluku, West Kalimantan and Central Sulawesi. Indonesia also continued to face a prolonged conflict in Aceh that spanned more than 30 years. Yet, the election of Irwandi Yusuf — a former leader of the Free Aceh Movement rebel group — as governor of Aceh, had him leading the very people he once fought against. This was a great inspirational example of national reconciliation.

To this end, Indonesia has enjoyed a period of political calm offering a stable climate conducive to new investments. In fact, Indonesia has been a darling for investors, with its investment shares increasing 46 percent in 2010 alone.

Indonesia’s exports have also been surging, dominated by exports of coal and crude palm oil. It has rendered Indonesia the only country in the G20 with a declining debt-to-GDP ratio in 2009 and robust growth rates. Analysts all over the world foresee Indonesia standing tall as it becomes a global economic powerhouse.

However, this solid progress is not without difficulties. Indonesia now faces an emerging set of challenges unique to the country’s current demographic, economic, political and social realities that must be addressed head on.

While domestic oil demand is on the rise, national oil production is dwindling, resulting in large imports of oil. Although Indonesia has abundant coal, natural gas and geothermal energy, it uses more expensive oil to make electricity. This has the state budget earmarked with a whopping US$22 billion fuel and electricity subsidy, which has a disproportional benefit to the rich and is a major drain on tax revenues that would otherwise be spent on infrastructure, social services and agriculture.

Therefore, the agricultural sector is neglected – maintained by small budgets and imports. This unbalanced agricultural policy marginalizes the country’s farming communities, resulting in questionable long-term food security and extensive poverty in rural areas.

With few jobs in rural areas, millions are working abroad as domestic maids with the help of the government. Yet, fair agreements with destination countries to protect Indonesian workers from potential abuses, such as the June beheading of an Indonesian working in Saudi Arabia, Ruyati binti Satubi, have not been set up by the government. The lack of proper diplomatic acknowledgement in the June incident was a wakeup call that Indonesia needs to be better at preparing and protecting its migrant workers.

The rate of deforestation also is alarming. Three contradictory laws, which make it difficult to coordinate efforts to slow deforestation, are prime examples of a chaotic, decentralized process. With the market for forest-related products contributing greatly to Indonesia’s GDP and trade, harvesting forests remains economically important.

While the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has aggressively detained many perpetrators, corruption is still rampant. Transparency International ranks Indonesia 110 on the 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index.

A recent legal case illustrates the public’s disappointment with our legal system which is often perceived as generating injustice. Prita Mulyasari was given jail time and a hefty fine for complaining about a hospital, and a community fundraising drive collected more than US$47,000 (mostly in coins!) to help her deal with the unfair

punishment.

The government cannot afford to ignore any of these problems. An initiative by the government, at its highest level, is needed to craft intelligent strategies to resolve them. Leadership must provide a clear assessment of each challenge and remain focused not only on intelligent strategy, but robust implementation of new plans.  

Indonesia’s transformation from a sleepy, economic backwater to an economic powerhouse won’t be smooth, but the nation has shown a strong resilience thus far in gaining its independence and overcoming its past complex challenges. It can do it again. Dirgahayu (Long live) Indonesia! Merdeka (Freedom)!

Source : Jakarta Post

Even if you don't particularly like RPGs, Pokemon Black/White would still be a smart choice if you had to pick only one game to play for the rest of your life just for the sheer amount of content it contains. With over 600 Pokemon to choose from, each with so many ways to train and customize that two Pokemon are almost never exactly alike, you would have a difficult time exploring all the possibilities within your lifetime.

The original Dead Space was a grippingly tense sci-fi spin on the survival horror genre, yet it was only a modest hit, which is why many were worried about the prospect of a sequel. Logic and history dictates that any changes would only hurt the franchise, turning off longtime fans while failing to gain any new players. Instead the transformation between the first and second games was exploding with improvements for the series and made the original title seem lacking in retrospect.

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"The Witcher" combines spectacular and visually stunning action with deep and intriguing storyline. The game is set in a world created by best-selling Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The world shares many common features with other fantasy lands, but there are also some distinguishing elements setting it apart from others.

The game features the player as a "Witcher", a warrior who has been trained to fight since childhood, subjected to mutations and trials that transformed him. He earns his living killing monsters and is a member of a brotherhood founded long ago to protect people from werewolves, the undead, and a host of other beasts spawned from hell.

Here are some key features of "TheWitcher":

· Dynamic and visually spectacular action

· Real time combat with motion captured animations performed by a master of medieval sword   combat.

· Ragdoll and rigid body physics, powered by Criterion's Karma Engine to simulate interaction with opponents as well as elements of surrounding.

· Deep and intriguing storyline

· Interesting story full of twists and turns in a complex and coherent setting.

· Most quests can be accomplished in several ways.

· Three different endings that depend on player's actions and choices throughout the whole adventure.

· Original character concept and fantasy world

· The main character is a professional swordmaster and monster slayer.

· Game world which is more adult" and less fairy-tale" than typical fantasy.

· The world which is not black and white and is inhabited by believable characters.

· Easy to use

· Thanks to transparent and intuitive controls, players are able to enjoy the game right after beginning without a long learning curve. During the game depth of the system will be gradually discovered.

· All actions can be done using the mouse only, however all possible shortcuts are fully configurable.

After the outlandish setting, ingenious gameplay, and hilarious dialogue had all run their course, Portal left you with some pretty big unknowns. Chief among them were, "What happens now?" and "How did that whole weird situation come to pass?" Portal 2 sets out to answer these questions, and in doing so travels both forward and backward from the conclusion of Portal. The result is a sequel that doesn't try to replicate the successful formula of its predecessor. Rather, it expands upon that original experience, creating something that feels initially familiar. Yet as you progress through the enthralling single-player journey and tangle with the clever cooperative campaign, any worries that things might be too familiar are swept away by the scope of your adventure and the characters you meet along the way. Once again, you are caught up in the fantastic world of Aperture Science, where hilarious and endearing dialogue is delivered by disembodied voices and artificial intelligences, and where inventive gameplay mechanics and a smooth difficulty curve make the sublime satisfaction of puzzle solving accessible to all.