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MOVIE PREVIEWS

STORIES THAT WILL CAPTIVATE (HOPEFULLY)

By Orin

As far as movies are concerned, 2011 has been very bland. And that's us being polite. Apart from the few exceptions, almost all 2011 movies let us down in one way or another. From the Transformers to Thor to Hangover 2, the movies were just big names and nothing else. The New Year however, couldn't look more promising. With Nolan returning with Batman and movies like The Hobbit, we have a lot to look forward to. RS gives you a preview of what's to come in 2012.

The Dark Knight Rises: Release July 20. The Dark Knight Rises is set in eight years after its prequel, as terrorist leader Bane arrives in Gotham City. Bane pushes the police force to its limit and forces Batman to come once again to light after Harvey Dent' death. This is the movie to look out for this year, with Chris Nolan's brilliance and the support of a star-studded cast. If you have not seen the trailer yet, it's probably because you are hibernating.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: Release December 14. Fans have waited since its announcement in 2007 for Peter Jackson to reunite the old Lord of The Rings cast to embark on a new journey. Martin Freeman portrays Bilbo Baggins as he joins the quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from Smaug, one of the last few remaining dragons of Middle Earth. It is on this epic journey that he encounters Gollum. Yes, we all want the year to pass as quickly as possible so we can watch The Hobbit.

Brave: Release June 22. Scottish princess Merida defies tradition, destiny and fearsome beasts as Pixar takes on fairy tales for the first time. Brave depicts the courage needed to curve your own path in life, as it follows the princess who is trying to become an archer (hold your arrow in the knee jokes people). Pixar movies are something worth being excited for.

Lincoln: Release To Be Announced. Daniel Day-Lewis stars as the great American president in this new Steven Spielberg movie. Apparently the actor has been in the character since mid-2011 and it's going to be one of the movies that everyone's going to be talking about at the end of the year, we assure you.

The odd life of Timothy Green: Release August 15. A couple who are unable to conceive dream up traits and life-events of their ideal kid on paper and bury it in their backyard. A kid called Timothy appears after a stormy night and claims to be their son, and the Greens are amazed at the unexpected gift from nature.

The Amazing Spiderman: Release July 3. With the tagline 'The Untold Story', the new Spiderman movie is the story of Peter Parker's making of a superhero.

Andrew Garfield (from the social network) plays the high-school going Peter Parker in this prequel.

The Great Gatsby: Release December 25. F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous novel's film adaptation is going to be released next year's December, and with Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan in lead roles, it looks promising.

Skyfall: Release November 9. Skyfall picks up from where Quantum of Solace ended. In the twenty-third edition, Bond's loyalty to M is tested as MI6 comes under attack. Judi Dench and Daniel Craig return in their old roles but not much is known about the storyline. That's not a problem though; we don't need much to be excited about a Bond movie.

As you may have already realised, this is a somewhat balanced list. There are a few other movies that we are curious about, The Avengers for one. And then there some movies coming out in 2012 that we don't really know what to make of. The Ice Age 4, a Matt Damon-less Bourne movie, Snow White and the Huntsman (featuring Kirsten Stewart as Snow White), Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter or the fourth Paranormal Activity movie fall into that category. That being said, we are definitely looking forward to the end of the Twilight movies. Thankfully they have run out of books.


MOVIE PREVIEWS


Games we'll be wasting the last year of our life on

By Mahir

2011 is at an end and for gamers the year wasn't as great as it promised to be. Revelations was a disappointment, Skyrim (not Skeerim) lurked between good and better and some other games failed to impress its own fans. Games like Red Dead Redemption and God of War were missed and no good alternatives came out. However, 2012 looks like it just might make up for this year's failures.

Mass Effect 3: BioWare's Mass Effect 3 is arguably THE most anticipated game of 2012 and also the last game of the series. The trailers show neat graphics and an awesome gameplay. It comes out on March 6th so the countdown can begin.

Max Payne 3: Admit it, you've missed this guy. Max Payne should be in or around the top five of the coolest video game characters ever. But this time he is not in the noir, lonely underbelly of the Big Apple in the middle of a blizzard. He is in Sao Paulo, Brazil. While the trailer looks brilliant, Sam Lake isn't writing the script for this game. Cause for concern? We shall see, come March 2012.

Hitman Absolution: Hitman fans have waited a long time for this and finally it's coming out this year (no date has been confirmed yet). Our second most favourite bald badass (first one being Kratos) will have a new ability called instinct which is a lot like Batman's detective mode or Ezio's Eagle Vision. According to developers, “The game is familiar and yet significantly different experience from other Hitman games.”

Tomb Raider: Lara Croft has also joined the list of characters getting gritty reboots. We go to the origins of this iconic female character, where she is much more human. Check out the trailer to see what we mean. Also, apparently the gameplay is going to be tougher, which is excellent. We're getting bored with the easy stuff. Third quarter of 2012, watch for it.

BioShock Infinite: Unlike the previous BioShock games the new one will take place in the floating city of Columbia rather than in a submerged town. Gamers will have to play as Booker DeWitt who will be tasked with rescuing a young woman called Elizabeth. Once again the trailers promise a pretty good game but I guess we'll have to wait and see. No release date for BioShock Infinite has been declared yet.

Halo 4: Halo 4 is set in the aftermath of Halo 3 and Master Chief returns once again to save the universe. Halo 4 is the start of a new trilogy and it's expected to come out in the last quarter (Q4) of 2012.

Assassin's Creed III: Assassins creed III will be coming out in Q4 of 2012 and as promised it'll introduce a new character as the protagonist and in the meantime, Desmond will be looking for his own answers. So far Ubisoft gave very little information about this game but rumour has it that the plot will be set in either Japan or Egypt.

Besides these, some other games coming out are Diablo 3 on March 31st, Twisted Metal and Ninja Gaiden 3 both on February 14th (celebrate Valentine's Day with Sweettooth), Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City on 6th January (for PC) and March 20th (for consoles), Prototype 2 on April 24th, and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Another game announced in the 2011 VGA is The Last of Us by Naughty Dog Studios which will also be coming out in 2012. So, these are all the hotshot games coming out this year and you can start making the list of the games you want cause with these many awesome games coming out in the same year, finance may get a little critical.


UPCOMING GADGETS

By Padya Paramita

Tech toys keep getting better and better with each year. 2011 saw Apple unveil the iPhone 4S with the demise of the legendary Steve Jobs as well as Nokia proving their worth as hefty competition by introducing their own take on smartphones.

Starting with Apple, after we got over the iPad craze, they had to bore us with an iPad 2. Well, guess what's in store for 2012? iPad 3! Yep, the world ending doesn't sound like such a bad idea after all. This iPad's screen resolution is supposed to be higher than the previous two, along with an LED flash support camera and an SD Card slot.

However, we can also look forward to the iPhone 5, which will be half an inch longer, wider as well as thinner. It will have more internal memory, with the iOS 5 built in, along with being fireproof and supporting wireless charging.

Sony will also be pretty busy next year. The Xperia Play - the PlayStation phone should finally be out complete with the rumoured 5.1 mp camera, access to social networking sites, stereo speakers, 8 GB of storage and more.

There is also word of a PlayStation Vita packed with a high definition screen, suitable for its quad-core graphics processor, and it even has touch screen to accompany the analogue sticks.

For both aspiring photographers and those who love photography as a hobby, the Canon 5D Mark 111 DSLR camera is definitely one to watch out for, with 21 megapixels and an OLED screen.

Amazon takes its previous Kindle models to a whole new level as it plans on releasing the long-awaited Kindle Fire tab outside the USA, with video streaming options. It comes at a reasonable price as well.

Gamers can also be aware of the Wii U as Nintendo hopes to eliminate Xbox 360 and PS3 from its league. This strong HD console comes with a tablet controller with buttons as well as a touchscreen. The games can be played on the tab, leaving the TV for other programs!

Asus is also supposed to have a busy year. They have plans to release the Padfone, packed not only with Android 4.0 but also Nvidia's Tegra 3 quad-core CPU. They should also unveil the EE Pad Transformer Prime with similar specifications as the Padfone.

Speaking of tablets, the Windows 8 tabs are supposed to come out as well with a new touch interface supporting ARM processors such as the Tegra 3.

So there - sounds like a rather exciting year for the introduction of flashy gadgets huh? It's high time you start saving your money and buckle up. The gadget world is in for a great ride.


WEB-COMIC REVIEW

OCTOPUNS A Slimy Review

By Munawar Mobin

First off all, apologies for the lame title. This writer has been going through some… er, difficult times (9gag's latest captured soul) so he really doesn't have the patience to sound funny, but he has the time to sound lame; damn that 9gag. However this isn't about 9gag, so let's move on.

This here is about the latest (not really) web comic artist who is so mysterious that we have unfortunately not been able to find out his/her actual name. The creator of Octopuns deserves some credit. We don't want to sound sexist, but it sounds like a guy so let's just assume so for the rest of this article. Right, so this guy was probably very bored one night, and just like the rest of the geniuses on the internet, he exercised the full potential of the power of his boredom. He created Octopuns. What are Octopuns? Puns about octopuses, or revolving around octopuses, basically anything and everything to do with octopuses, but sometimes they're just random drawings of inanimate objects which aren't really octopuses.

They're tiny comics about the most insanely literal things in the world, but with octopuses as the main characters. The comics are brightly coloured and one could call the drawings 'cute', but most of the stories have sad endings with some inanimate object or the other crying, dying or getting destroyed. It's still pretty hilarious.

The creator is absolutely brilliant and after just a few slides you'll get hooked. And even though it absolutely kills your free time and you'd probably become enslaved too, it's all for the greater good. Hopefully. So do go check them out!

 
 
 

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