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Since they began in 2004 with their debut album “We all know is falling”, Paramore has recently shot up to fame within the pop rock, Paramore never really got the ball rolling. However, with the 2007 release of their second album “Riot!“, this respectful band has hit the right spot with their audiences, shooting themselves to some fame. Paramore’s music has been noted for it’s rare youthful enthusiasm, the main factor which contributed to their explosive music. It is so apt that their choice of title, “Riot!” itself actually means a sudden outburst of energy or emotion.

Let me admit personally that my first impression of the band was not exactly positive, after listening to their single “Misery Business”, yet I felt that I would not be doing them justice unless I got the entire album to listen to myself. With an entwining mixture of slow paced (such as “When it rains”, “We are broken”, “Let the flames begin”) and fast paced songs (”For a pessimist, I’m pretty Optimistic”, “Born for this”, “Misery Business”), I feel that on a general note, I’m impressed with the album as well as the band as a whole.

After my first run through the entire album, I was actually amazed when I found myself subconsciously repeating after their beats, which are simple, yet fits to the mood of their various songs to a T. Despite being what many would consider “simply yet another pop album”, “Riot!” actually has some redeeming qualities which distinguishes them from the rest.

With incredible catchy choruses, as well as an interestingly unique set of lyrics, courtesy of their lead singer Hayley Williams and backup vocalist Josh Farro, the songs would dance at the tip of your tongues for some time after listening to most of the songs. Paramore tries to be unique in the way that it tries to mix and match some of the monotonous tunes by having a sort of “roller coaster” tempo in some of their songs, for example “Crushcrushcrush”, and it has worked to some extent. Furthermore, Hayley William’s versatile vocals is able to cope and adapt to the changes in tempo and mood of the sings accordingly, while still being able to capture the essence and tone of a teenage pop girl.

However, at the same time, their experimenting with this technique has caused some songs(in my personal choice, “Misery Business”) to have some difficulties to flow. Yet, I feel that Paramore has already made up for it plus interest with the rest of their tracks. For pop enthusiasts out there looking for something new to sample, “Riot! (2007)” is a gem that gleams slightly brighter than the other albums out there. Injecting old ideas from fresh perspectives, their sounds would be stuck in your mind for ages. Another young prospect to look out for in the near future.

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We currently live in the period where some MMO-RPGs (Massive multiplayer online - Role playing games) dominate the gaming era. These titles include the all too famous World of Warcraft, Hellgate: London and even the amusing MapleStory. However, if any gamer were to perhaps spend some time investigating the origins of these genre of games, he would probably find out about one of the earliest kinds of RPGs ever invented, MUDs, which is exactly what Imperian is.

MUD refers to Multi-User Dungeon, or more recently, Multi-User Dimension. In a nutshell, imagine you are playing an RPG based on text, with no graphics at all. The text-driven game is identical to any RPGs in terms of gameplay, allowing you to interact with other players, objects, events as well as non-player characters in a typically fantasy world. Since having appeared in 1977, MUDs have evolved into the more popular graphic games that are so common these days, however, a market still exists for MUD players today. The successful company behind Imperian, Iron Realms, owns 3 other similiar MUDs, with a new graphical RPG in the making as well.

The first impressions of a text-based game would be, “That’s so shallow! What can I do in it, what’s the fun of not being able to see anything?” On the contrary, Imperian offers depth and an immersing environment. Within the game, world which you can explore in is huge, numbering to over ten thousand rooms to roam about, with intricate political system based on the concept of role-playing, as well as a complicated combat system. The combat system is structured in such a way that a newer character, if he knows what he is supposed to do, could easily defeat an aged and experienced character within the game, making the focus on individual skill rather than the quality of equipment your character carries, cropping the advantage the older players would be expected to have.

However, the complicated systems and the compulsory rule for role-playing within the game causes the learning curve for Imperian to become extremely steep. Newer players would find themselves easily overwhelmed and find the complicated gameplay hard to understand at first, as well as being unable to adapt to the role-playing requirements of the game. In addition to that, despite Imperian being free to play, the game uses a skill system where you need to gain lessons in order to learn such skills. Only a very limited number of lessons will be provided for you as you progress within the game, so in order to make the fullest of your character, you would need to spend a considerable sum of money on the game to purchase “credits”, which you use to convert into lessons to learn all of your skills.

Despite the steep learning curve for combat, as requiring a decent monetary capital in order to be able to fully enjoy all aspects of the game, Imperian serves as an addictive game which will simply draw you in for more once you get the hang of things. It is not surprising that some of the players describe the game as being “more addictive than drugs”.

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Face it, football or as some others call it, soccer, is one of the most popular sports in the world right now. We have individuals earning millions just because of their ability to dribble and shoot with a ball as well as global tournaments being held every 4 years for it, resulting in a huge market for soccer related goods. It has delved into the video gaming market, and Football Manager 2008 is one of the latest games to hit the shelves.

I’m sure many football fans have dreamt of managing some of the most famous clubs in the World, aspiring to lead them to honours, winning championships and leagues, becoming a Sir Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger of your favourite club. In a nutshell, Football Manager 2008 is a game where you assume such a persona, deciding the everyday actions of your chosen club from training to haggling for the best prices for player transfers.

One thing which Football Manager 2008 offers that is able to out beat similar clones like Championship Manager, is that it offers depth. Indeed, when I first booted the game, I was visibly impressed by the amount of information and leagues it contained. It not only provided comprehensive data of the more famous leagues, like the English Premier League in England and the Spanish La Liga in Spain, but also many lesser known competitions and obscure leagues that even I, a moderate football fan, could not even recognize. It even allowed me to manage the players of the clubs in my very own backyard, Singapore, despite the lack of popularity it has even with the locals here.

One slight setback, however, is its continual use of circular 2D markers to represent the players on the field , compared to some other similiar games offering a 3-D representation on a full pitch, it might seem monotonous and boring, robbing the usual excitement of watching a game unfold before your eyes. Also, another little annoyance was the lack of any music within the game, except for the fake cheers you would hear when a match was being played.

In addition to that, the interface was not really user friendly. On my first week of playing the game, I frequently found myself going in circles due to confusing signs and markers. Football Manager 2008 does offer depth, however, it displays too much information. Every click in search for any kind of statistics would probably throw a huge graph or ridiculously large and intricate tables of numbers in your face, leaving you confused and dazed.

Personally, I find that Football Manager 2008 would only appeal to hardcore football freaks. The main appealing factor of this game is depth, and any die hard fan would probably be a walking player encyclopedia, a useful skill when playing this game. Casual fans would undoubtedly be turned off by the humongous database of players and complicated system of the game, however, true football fans would find a game catered to utilising every nook and cranny of their soccer knowledge.

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“The first rule of fight club is, you do not talk about fight club. The second rule of fight club is, you do not talk about fight club.”

Fight Club (1999) is an intriguing movie which not only provides a refreshingly new plot, but also surprises and puzzles at every little turn of the movie. With an equally spectacular ending and finale, it is a brilliant film adaptation of a novel of the similar name.

Edward Norton stars as an unnamed narrator, telling the story from his point of view, about his life. The narrator is a simple domestic man, a slave to his job, which does product recalls for defective cars, living a simple, well-to-do life. However, he feels that his life is somewhat imperfect and undefined. As a result, he gets drawn to a materialistic type of lifestyle, where he thinks that he can define his success in life via his possessions, leading him to frequently purchase such extravagant furniture. Together the need of frequent travel due to his job, he becomes disturbed to the point that he suffers from chronic insomnia.

He quickly finds solace and “therapy” in the form of visiting various support groups which provide care and attention to those with terminal illnesses, fatal injuries and that sort of ilk. Through these groups, he feels the attention that he lacks in his usual life via meeting the people who are even more less fortunate then him, being addicted to these groups as a cure for his insomnia. However, when complications arrive, he finds himself unavailable to join these groups, and desperate for another solution, he meets a strange man by the name of Tyler Durden, played by Brad Pitt.

Tyler then introduces the narrator to the idea of a Fight Club, a club where a number of people who feel that they have lost their identity in the growing consumer world of today, and need an outlet to perhaps gain some form of healing in the form releasing aggression. The goal is to bring us back to our basic instincts, away from the complex world of today, acting as an eccentric form of psychotherapy to reduce the discomforts of the modern world. The story continues and follows these two men, and where the name of Fight Club might bring them into, escalating into a stunning storyline with a twist ending.

However, despite the originality of the movie, the complicated theme portrayed within the story would only appeal to a minority of people. The story deals the conflict that ordinary men today have with the consumerism lifestyle that our world is growing into, where one’s sense of success and meaning in life can only originate from their materialistic possessions, or so they think. These very mature themes, I’m afraid, would scare off the casual watchers, who would be confused about the meaning of several contexts within the film. In addition to that, Fight Club exaggerates the number of violent scenes in the movie, leading to much more gore than needed.

Despite having a plot which drives in a completely new direction, leaving the audience guessing to how the story would evolve, it is being offset by the mature themes brought forward in the film. This was probably the main result it failed terrible in the box offices, only doing much better in DVD releases. With a brain-bending plot and ending, Fight Club (1999) is still an excellent movie which would get an interested watcher grasping at the straws to understand the meaning behind every subtle action.

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Recently, due to my father’s friend who was worked within Creative, I managed to get my hands on a Creative Zen Vision W. I must admit, my initial reason for buying it was because of the huge discount I would get, and I was not sure what kind of device I was getting myself. After a while, it became apparent what it had to offer, and what it could not, against the portable media player giant of today, the Apple iPod.

The very first thing which struck me when I managed to actually use it was the sheer size. At a bulky 134 by 75 by 22 dimension, in terms of millimeters (or 5.27 by 2.95 by 0..85 in inches), this device is a giant compared to other media players I frequently see. Weighting in around a staggering 276 grams, its shape alone makes it something you would not want to lug around in your pocket wherever you go, defeating the main purpose of a “portable” player. Furthermore, its size already poses some safety issues. Personally, I would not feel at ease standing on a moving train holding a rough rectangular block which does not fit snugly into my hand, defeating the purpose of bringing it about.

Despite physical first impressions, the Creative Zen Vision W does have a few positive qualities. Firstly, a 4.3-inch wide screen display is a bright and comfortable change compared to the small screens one would usually expect, a remarkable feat matched by the PSP, which was not designed to stream videos in the first place, and a few Archos players. Instead of trying to compete with the iPod head on, Creative tries to, no pun intended, be creative and target a different market, people who are sick of having to squint at a small screen. In addition to that, powerful built in speakers are also a fresh change to the trouble of having to bring those annoying wired headphones.

However, despite its size, it lacks in a few physical departments. Its battery life, despite its size, can only last for roughly 4.5 hours on video and 13 hours for music, a modest amount at best. Also, contrary to its size, it loses out to the smaller iPod in terms of size-to-hard disk space ratio, coming in either 30gb or 60gb versions, but this can be countered due to its ability to use Compact Flash cards.

My main problems with utilising it so far has been how not user friendly it has been. Being unable to play MPEG-4 videos, it leads to the hassle of converting videos you would want to view into another suitable format. Yes, it does provide an installable program for your computer which includes an auto video converter, but it is buggy and unstable, forcing me to rely on third party programs. The upload speed is also nothing to be proud of, due to having to go through a troublesome procedure to add anything, compared to easier and simpler programs, for example, iTunes.

It may lose out in in a few categories, mainly portability, but the Creative Zen Vision W is still a decent gadget despite being much older then the other players (2006). Although there have been a few technical setbacks, I do not wholly regret purchasing it in the first place though, with solid graphic qualities, backed up by a larger then average screen, it still is a viable choice today.

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