Former Seattle Seahawks player Jerramy Stevens, far right, listens during a bail hearing for Stevens in Kirkland Municipal Court. Stevens appeared in court for a domestic violence probable cause hearing. He was released without conditions by the judge who didn't find probable cause to hold him.
Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO / SEATTLEPI.COM
The two were planning to get married Tuesday -- on Stevens' 33rd birthday.
Stevens appeared in court after a fourth-degree assault arrest stemming from an incident at a Kirkland house Monday in the early morning hours. According to a police report, Stevens was arrested after police were called to an altercation in which Solo's older brother, Marcus, used a "stun gun" while allegedly fighting a group of males who were not invited to a party at the house.
According to the report, 34-year-old Marcus Solo was the one who called police Monday. When they got to him, he had blood on his forehead and knees, and a freshly bruised eye, police said.
Tesla's Model S electric sedan earned Motor Trend magazine's award for top car for 2013, becoming the first electric car to ever do so. The magazine compared the car to a Rolls-Royce, Chevrolet Equinox, and the Toyota Prius.
The Tesla Model S is the first ever electric car to ear Motor Trend magazine's top car award.
Tesla Motors may only make a few hundred cars a quarter, but that’s not preventing it from taking Motor Trend’s highest honors.
The Model S has been named Motor Trend’s 2013 car of the year – the first electric car to get the nod in the magazine’s 64-year history.
Praise for the car was, in a word, effusive.
“It drives like a sports car, eager and agile and instantly responsive. But it’s also as smoothly effortless as a Rolls-Royce, can carry almost as much stuff as a Chevy Equinox, and is more efficient than a Toyota Prius,” Motor Trend said.
While Motor Trend praised the Model S’s design, engineering, and energy efficiency, the magazine was most impressed that the car exists at all. “The mere fact the Tesla Model S exists at all is a testament to innovation and entrepreneurship, the very qualities that once made the American automobile industry the largest, richest, and most powerful in the world,” the magazine said.
And things can only get better for Tesla Motors from here. During its quarterly earnings report earlier this month, the company said it had reached a turning point in production that will allow it to transition from being a small-scale car maker to a large-scale manufacturer. That’s a big deal, as it pushes cars like the Model S closer towards the mainstream (assuming that $90,000 price tag comes down, anyway).
But for Motor Trend, Tesla Motor’s electric car is in a pretty good spot where it is. ”At its core, the Tesla Model S is simply a damned good car you happen to plug in to refuel,” the magazine said.
The show whittled down to five for next week's semifinals. Did your favorites get the boot?
9:10PM EST November 13. 2012 - "We're all worried," said Emmitt Smith to co-host Brooke Burke-Charvet near the start of Tuesday's Dancing With the All-Stars double elimination results show.
That's right —- two celebs were about to be sent packing.
Kirstie Alley was at the bottom of the leaderboard, way below everyone else. The actress, 61, definitely seemed doomed. But who else would get the boot?
Kylie Minogue kicked off the show in such a short white dress that she looked ready to take the floor for a sexy samba. But instead, she sang Locomotion, her 1988 hit.
And then came the first results. Tom Bergeron told Melissa Rycroft and Shawn Johnson they're going to the semifinals. No surprise there (although Monday night judge Len Goodman tried to make us think Shawn might be in trouble.)
The cast of Broadway show Newsies performed. And so did Ne-Yo, who sang his new song Let Me Love You(Until You Learn to Love Yourself).
Time for the first elimination. Kelly Monaco and partner Val Chmerkovskiy and Kirstie Alley and partner Maks Chmerkovskiy chatted with Brooke. Said Kelly, "It's hard to be up here with Maks and Kirstie, knowing one of us is going home."
Kirstie, however, was optimistic. "I feel lucky. We have the best fans in the world. The opportunity to do this the second time around is nothing short of a A) a miracle, and B) sort of stunning!"
But Tom Bergeron announced that Kirstie was done. Going home. She didn't weep. She smiled and said this season "was very special to me." She said she "learned more about dancing." And she added, "I want to thank Maks because he's so patient with me." She also thanked the judges and the fans.
Next up: Stars picked dances and themes for each for next week's semifinals.
Kelly and Val picked "Caveman Hustle" for Melissa and Tony Dovolani.
Emmitt And Cheryl Burke picked "Knight Rider Banghra" (Indian folk dance) for Shawn and Derek Hough.
Apolo Anton Ohno and Karina Smirnoff picked "Mad Monk Merengue" for Gilles Marini and Peta Murgatroyd.
Gilles and Peta then picked "Big Top Jazz" for Apolo and Karina.
Shawn and Derek picked "Espionage Lindy Hop" for Emmitt and Cheryl.
Kelly and Val were left with the "Surfer Flamenco."
Anna Trebunskaya performed with Val Chmerkovskiy, Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild, principal dancers from the New York City Ballet.
Finally, the moment we've all been waiting for. Emmitt was deemed safe, leaving Apolo and Gilles (up until last week, the highest scorer in the competition) as the final two. Both guys looked nervous.
Eliminated (gasp!): Gilles. The crowd moaned. "In the end, it's just an incredible experience," said Gilles. "I tried my very best. Peta was an angel out there," he said, "and I want to thank my wife. ..., Without her, I'm really nothing."
Kirstie Alley and Gilles Marini were eliminated from "Dancing With The Stars: All-Stars"
on Tuesday, Nov. 13, 2012 /
ABC
American voters circled their wagons around their own and sent a Frenchman packing on "Dancing With The Stars: All-Stars" Tuesday.
With the elimination of points laggard Kirstie Alley all but assured, the big question on double-elimination night was who the second unlucky contestant would be to fall short of making the semifinals.
Genial Gilles Marini, the suave French actor who spoke softly but carried a big six-pack, was the first big gun to go as the all-star edition of the show whittles itself down to the final few. It's a big loss of a performer who combined skill, sex appeal and real artistry.
French actor Gilles Marini turned
to the spray
tan hose to help him
with his Bollywood number on
"Dancing With The
Stars: All-Stars"
on Monday, Oct. 15, 20012
/
ABC
"It was a wonderful experience, I got to do it twice," said Marini, who was consistently one of the top performers of this season. I think my favorite dance from Marini was his Bollywood routine, where he uncorked the bronzer bottle and went from French to Indian for a really fun routine.
"Gilles, what I love about him, every week, 100 percent, full-on, flat-out, giving it everything," said head judge Len Goodman.
Also bidding a long-overdue adieu, was Alley, the comic actress who, at 61 years old, couldn't keep pace with the younger dancers. But Alley did show them a thing or two about comic timing and audience manipulation. Alley hung on about three rounds past her actual skill level, which says a lot for her show biz savvy.
Comic actress Kirstie Alley and partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy perform a
quick step in the second week of "Dancing With The Stars: All-Stars" Monday, Oct. 1, 2012
"You know, the second time around was very special to me," Alley said after getting the bad news. "I just love dancing!"
Five teams made it to the semifinal show next week. Generally, in sports, a semifinal round has four competitors, but, whatever. The scores are all so high, and the remaining competitors are so closely packed together on the scoreboard that the audience vote will be a real deciding factor in the weeks to come.
Breathing a big sigh of relief are Apolo Ohno and Emmitt Smith, former "DWTS" champions who haven't quite hit their stride the second time around. The three remaining ladies, Shawn Johnson, Melissa Rycroft and Kelly Monaco, are a solid length ahead of the boys heading into the final stretch.
Next week, the stars will be performing to the music of Michael Jackson's "Bad" album. It will be the same week ABC airs a documentary special about the making of that classic album.
As part of the hijinks, the stars also assigned each other weird dances to perform next week to cryptic titles yet to be explained. Here's the zany lineup for next week:
"Surfer" Flamenco -- Kelly Monaco
"Caveman" Hustle -- Melissa Rycroft
"Espionage" Lindy Hop -- Emmitt Smith
"Big Top" Jazz -- Apolo Ohno
"Knight Rider" Banghra -- Shawn Johnson
It all leads to the finals of the all-star season in two weeks, which look to be a Shawn Johnson, Melissa Rycroft standoff -- if they can stay uninjured. The dancing and performance levels have been so high this season, it should be a great final two weeks.
But with the exits this week of Alley and Marini, it does feel like a part of the heart of this season will be gone.
Google Nexus 4 Android smartphone sold out quickly in Australia and the U.K.
Want the new Google Nexus 4?
You'd better get your credit card ready. The device, which is the latest
to ship with a stock version of Android, goes on sale via the Google
Play Store at 12 noon Eastern/9 a.m. Pacific. It is likely to sell out
quickly.
The device went on sale first in Australia, where it sold out in several
hours. Later, the Nexus 4 hit the Play Store in the U.K., where it also
sold out in about an hour. In addition to the quick sellouts,
disappointed would-be Nexus 4 shoppers complained of slow performance of
the Google Play Store website, which strained under the demand for the
Nexus 4.
Why so much fuss over an Android smartphone? Google releases only one Nexus-branded handset per year. It is meant to serve as the developer device for its Android smartphone platform. Previous versions include the Galaxy Nexus (released in November 2011), Nexus S (December 2010), and the Nexus One (January 2010).
The Nexus 4 and its predecessors all run a clean, stock version of Android. In the Nexus 4's case, that means Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. Nexus devices are free of carrier and manufacturer bloatware. They are also the first devices to receive major and minor system updates and features throughout the year. In other words, if you want to be on the cutting edge of all things Android, the latest Nexus is the device you want.
The Nexus 4 is being sold for an incredibly low price: The 8GB model costs $299 and the 16GB model costs $349. These are the prices to own the device outright, which is being sold unlocked and without a carrier contract. That means the Nexus 4 can be used on most any GSM-based network.
In the U.S., it is compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile's 2G/3G networks, which includes their fastest HSPA+ mobile broadband. While HSPA+ is fast, however, LTE is much faster. The Nexus 4 lacks LTE support for any network.
Features of the Nexus 4 include a 4.7-inch 1280 x 768 pixel display, 1.5-GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor with 2 GB of RAM, 8-megapixel camera with 1080p HD video capture, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, NFC, and wireless charging.
Summary:Buyers have snapped up all the Nexus 4 smartphones
offered via the Google Play Store, the company has confirmed, after
people claimed on Twitter the Android Jelly Bean 4.2 handset sold out
within minutes after its launch.
The LG-made Nexus 4 has sold out on Google's store on the day of the smartphone's launch in the UK, Google has confirmed.
Would-be customers posted on Twitter when they realised the handset was no longer available to buy through the Google Play store, with many saying it was out of stock within 30 minutes of going online on Tuesday morning.
Nexus 4 sold out in the UK already, only on sale for 15 minutes! — Jason McCabe (@Mini_J) November 13, 2012
Would-be customers posted on Twitter when they realised the handset was no longer available to buy through the Google Play store, with many saying it was out of stock within 30 minutes of going online on Tuesday morning.
Both the 8GB and the 16GB models of the Nexus 4, which cost £239 and £279 respectively, displayed a dead 'order' button and a live 'notify me' stock alert button to visitors.
Google confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that it no longer has any inventory of the Jelly Bean Android 4.2 phone to sell.
"The Nexus 4 is sold out on the Google Play store in the UK," a Google spokeswoman told ZDNet. "We're not sure when it will be available again."
However, the smartphone is still in stock at O2, the only network provider with rights to carry the phone right now. People can get the phone for free on contracts over £36 a month, via O2's online or high street outlets.
In addition, online retailer Carphone Warehouse is offering the Nexus 4 on plans from O2, Vodafone and Three, with a free handset on tariffs over £31 a month.
The LG-built Nexus 4 has an 8-megapixel camera, NFC capability and wireless charging. The smartphone, Google's fourth, runs the latest Android OS, Jelly Bean 4.2.
eBay listings
Already, listings have appeared on eBay for Nexus 4 handsets, with the sellers saying they bought them from the Google Play Store. At the time of writing, for example, an 8GB model had a bid of £270 (a £31 premium) with 18 hours of the auction still to go, while a 16GB version had an offer of £350 (a £71 premium) with 20 hours left.
Tuesday also saw the release of the Google Nexus 10 on the UK Google Play store, though the tablet is still on sale for £319 for the 16GB model and £389 for the 32GB version. The Google Nexus 10, reviewed by ZDNet earlier this month, comes with an A15 processor, a 10-inch display and the highest screen resolution of any tablet on the market.
Call of Duty continues to march out a game every year, but has it managed to stay in line with what gamers expect from the series? How do you keep a game fresh, while keeping it the same? Is Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 a game you'll want to buy or put on your wishlist? Find out in our full review below! Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Review: The Call of Duty franchise has continually steamrolled the competition, and as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 releases this holiday season, it enters a field crowded with competition. Just the past few weeks alone have brought us Borderlands 2, Halo 4 and Medal of Honor: Warfighter, with two of those games dominating our free time, and the other one… not. And that’s just the recent FPS lineup. Suffice it to say, there are plenty of games to divert your attention right now.
There’s a 2 on the Box For A Reason!
Black Ops 2 is a sequel in both title and story, although it does not pick up immediately where the first game left off. Instead, we’re years in the future, where the present time is now 2025. You’re still playing as Mason, although this time it’s David Mason, son of Alex Mason from the original Black Ops. He’s visiting Frank Woods, his father’s old (literally) partner who has information about Raul Menendez, and possibly a terrorist attack on the United States.
That’s where the train begins to pull out of the station in Black Ops 2, and it will take you on a wild ride around the world, and jump through multiple points in time. You’ll be back in the boots of Alex Mason, running missions again alongside Woods, and you’ll encounter historical figures in the game, like Oliver North and Manuel Noriega, who they casually nickname “Pineapple Face.”
You’ll see the bond between Woods and the elder Mason deepen, based on missions they carried out post Black Ops, and you’ll also find out just who Raul Menendez is, and why Treyarch considers him to be “the most dangerous terrorist since Bin Laden.” Although you’ve played through the campaign at least once, you’ll probably conclude that Menendez is much, much worse.
But for the majority of the game, you’ll be doing duty as David Mason and often following directly in your father’s footsteps as you trail Menendez and try to stop a global terrorist event by his hands. During your time as David, you’ll be partnered up with fellow soldier Harper, voiced by and modeled after Michael Rooker who does a fantastic job throughout this game. We’re just glad he never went full Merle Dixon on us.
The team was extremely proud to be able to bring screenwriter David S. Goyer in as a story consultant on this title, and it shows in the plot. This is a massive story with some truly horrific moments embedded in it. It entwines a fantastic story into the plotlines of Black Ops, and does a commendable job of pushing us 13 years into the future. While the Rare Earth Elements storyline might seem farfetched at first, if you do a little digging into the science behind it, you’ll find that it is eerily on target.
Little things like the fact that some of the missions (and a multiplayer map) take place aboard an aircraft carrier named the USS Obama, and the usage of biometric identity bracelets that insert your image into advertisements aboard a luxurious floating city seem grounded in the reality of today. Then there’s all of the future tech you’ll get to play with, like wing suits and flechette guns with exploding rounds. Most of the really nifty toys aren’t available in multiplayer, giving the campaign another notch in its replayability belt.
Replay’s The Thing
Speaking of replay, while the game has a fairly epic campaign that should take about eight hours to complete in full, for the first time in a Call of Duty game, there are finally reasons to replay the campaign besides just upping the difficulty level. There are branching decisions throughout that will affect your story, and ultimately the ending of the game.
Some of these decisions will also trigger Strike Force levels, which are optional levels that will appear from time to time within the game. While you don’t have to take part in these at all, your decisions here will also affect the endgame. Plus, you can also fail these levels, although you can try to replay them if you have the resources. But they will only be available for a limited time, and once the window closes, they are gone forever.
The branching events in the campaign are where the story treads into the “interactive storytelling” realm. Sometimes these can be somewhat trivial and cosmetic, and at other times they can have a bearing on future campaign events and on Strike Force levels. You can easily identify these moments as they happen in the campaign with certain achievements, or you can see them in the level menus where your progress is marked.
Case in point on the trivial side: During a later mission to a luxurious floating city, Harper remarks that if he was on his own time, he would get some “hot chick” action. When I replayed the game, in an earlier mission, where we were fleeing the wrath of Menendez, I accidentally steered our car under a jet of flame, badly burning half of Harper’s face. When made our way to the floating city, and Harper makes his “hot chick” remark, one of the other characters quips, “Not with that face.” Ouch!
With these decisions and levels boil down to is a first for the franchise: multiple endings. While it isn’t a new idea in the video game industry, it’s a novel approach for Call of Duty, and it will make you want to replay the campaign more than once.
A Strike Against Strike Force
While we fully support branching storylines and welcome decisions that have a direct affect on the outcome of your game, unfortunately these Strike Force levels are a bit of a misstep. First of all, they are meant to be strategic. Offering the player a satellite level top-down view of the battlefield, you can issue rudimentary commands to your units like move and attack.
Unfortunately, the artificial intelligence in these units just isn’t enough to get the job done, and after much frustration you’ll find that it is often much easier to jump down into a single soldier unit to get the job done. A good example of this was in a level where we had to plant three beacons at different locations on at a cargo ship port. After issuing movie commands to our units, they would frequently get pinned down by enemy fire, or easily taken out by gunfire.
While part many Call of Duty multiplayer matches involves you lone-wolfing it, we didn’t expect to be leaving squads and units behind in the campaign in order to secure or complete objectives. Thankfully you can gain the ability to continue trying Strike Force levels as you complete campaign missions, but they vanish after you progress past a certain point so if you’re a completist you’ll have to act fast or forego that level forever.
Our advice: after beginning a Strike Force level, figure out the objective, and then issue rough move commands to your units before jumping into a single soldier and then go Rambo on the situation.
Loading Out
Another first for the Call of Duty series is the ability to change up your loadouts before missions, giving you variety to how you play the single player missions. You’ll encounter challenges in each mission that will require certain weapons, and besides just completing a missions, you can now stat-track each one as well to see what your “score” was. While this doesn’t create a massive different, it is nice to see some variety here, and to select your preferred weapon set before launching a mission.
The loadout changes carry over into multiplayer as well, where the biggest change to that mode comes in the form of the new “Pick 10” system. Now you can pick only ten different items: weapons, perks, attachments, wildcards, etc. to outfit yourself with before a match begins. As you progress through multiplayer, you can gain wildcards that allow you to carry two primary weapons, or have more than one Perk 1 and so one, but you continually have to juggle your ten so you don’t go over.
Multipass, No Leeloo Dallas Required
If you’ve ever glanced at the top of the online gaming charts for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, then you know that Call of Duty titles frequently own the top slot. But this presents the developers with a unique problem where they need to innovate, while adhering to the adage ‘If it ain’t broke… don’t fix it.” So while they haven’t radically changed multiplayer, they have definitely kicked it up several notches.
First and foremost is through the Pick 10 system, which introduces arguably the largest change to single player since perks were first introduced. The one real effect that the system has is that it will cause you to constantly fiddle with your loadouts. In Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3, Modern Warfare 2 and so on, players tended to find a loadout they preferred, and would just stick with it.
With Pick 10, you’ll find yourself diving into the menus between matches to change something minor, or alter your loadout completely by equipping two primary weapons, or by equipping no weapons whatsoever (which equips your melee blade by default) and trying to rank up your knife. It’s a simple system, but one that provides a ton of variety. We just wish it had a giant slot machine handle built in that could dial up a random loadout at any time.
There are multiple new attachments in the game that are unlockable as you rank up your weapons, many of which are new to the game. These include millimeter-wave scanners that can show enemies through obstacles, and shock charge grenades that stun enemies that get near them. Taking a page from Gears of War, your assault shields can now be embedded in the ground as well, giving you portable cover that you can move and place at will.
Scorestreaks are now replacing Killstreaks, and those have been tweaked as you would expect and updated with “future” 2025 weaponry. Some of these changes are small, but extremely welcomed. Sentry Guns now fight autonomously, or you can jump into them at any time to take control. The same goes for the Autonomous Ground Robot drone that you can jump in and out of.
Easily the most useful and devious Scorestreak at our disposal was the Guardian. This sets up a microwave-based turret that can be aimed in one direction. It will cause an enemy to slow down, become disoriented, and if they don’t get out of the way of the beam fast enough it will kill them. In one of our Search & Destroy matches, a teammate planted the bomb and set up a Guardian on the bombsite. He was subsequently killed, but the lone remaining enemy could not get close enough to disarm the bomb without cooking himself. Ultimately, he sacrificed himself while trying, giving us the win.
A La Mode
Multiplayer has also shaken up the modes this time around, and thankfully gone is the CoD Cash/Points system from the original Black Ops. So instead of Wager Matches you just have Party Games, but they bring back Sharpshooter, Gun Game, One in the Chamber, and Stick & Stones. Combat Training is also more integral to multiplayer as well, with up to three live players and three bots being able to take part in Bootcamp, where you can also rank up from one to ten. You can also play Objective modes with bots beyond level ten, although you’ll only earn half XP.
Objective modes are now round-based, so for instance in Domination, players will now switch sides in the attack and defend back and forth. There are some new modes as well, including Hardpoint, which is basically King of the Hill with a constantly changing target. Or it might be more appropriate to call it Headquarters… without the Headquarters. Custom Games are back as well, with multiple options to tweak including bots in all game modes, and the ability to change Pick 10 to Pick 3 up to Pick 17.
Also new is League Play, where you can team up and rank up as a league. There’s a large, ladder-based tier system in play here, framed loosely after the Diamond etc. ladders in StarCraft 2. However in our brief time with the game, we weren’t able to see how accurately it rates your play here. Although like StarCraft, you do have to participate in a number of placement matches before you get an actual ranking, which is promising. Hardcore Clan players, this is probably where you’ll want to take your teams to play.
Another addition is Multi-Team play, which has up to 18 players and six teams competing with each other. It’s somewhat chaotic when multiple teams are on the map, sometimes forcing you to try and work with another team if one of the others starts to pull way ahead. At least, it forces you to do that as much as you can in CoD multiplayer, where kill first, ask for cooperation later is normally the rule of thumb.
The Theater mode has been tweaked as well, with players able to store 20 clips (which can all be merged into one big clip), and the ability to attach the camera to objects in the game, like the Dragonfire quad-copter scorestreak, or the RCDX remote control car. You can also now CoDcast recorded games, which
But easily our favorite addition was the ability to create an instant highlight reel. Simply pull up a match and select this option, and a reel of your best moments in the game will be created on the fly. You can play with the settings for the moments it captures, but right out of the box it does a fine job of making a brag reel to share without all of the video scrubbing and editing.
How Prestigious is Prestige?
Prestige has also been revamped here, with level 55 as the target number for Prestige, and at 10 levels deep. But this time hitting Prestige does not wipe your slate clean. It now continues your level progression, and your weapon XP and attachments are not reset, nor are the challenges. Your unlocks stay unlocked. You’ll be able to choose one of three rewards whenever you hit the magic number, allowing you to add a new Create a Class slot (up to 5), get a Refund of unlock tokens, or get a Fresh Start which actually does reset all of your stats and kicks you back to level one.
eSports Are eHarmony For Some, Not For Others
Treyarch has bent over backwards to satisfy the eSports community with Black Ops 2, which includes the aforementioned League Play and also encompasses shoutcasting and livestreaming as well. With CoDcasting (their version of shoutcasting), there are multiple controls in the game that allow a commentator to navigate through any game with a variety of tools including picture-in-picture, map view, a score panel, name plates, and the ability to drop in and out of player conversations.
During our review event, professional shoutcaster Hastro watched a match we played in, and then CoDcasted out the entire game in commentary mode, and we captured the video here for you to watch. While it might only be a very small group of gamers that take advantage of this mode, expect it to pop up frequently as people try it out. One thing we learned: it’s tough to make an entire Call of Duty multiplayer match sound exciting the whole time.
You can also livestream your matches out directly to the web, giving everyone the ability to become a YouTube superstar. Again, this is going to result in a ton of content, but it will be up to you to separate the good from the bad.
The Undead Just Keep On Coming
Much has been ballyhooed about the new Zombie mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and while it initially feels huge, it’s not quite what we were hoping for. Black Ops provided a rich undead experience with so much Zombie DLC for the game made available after launch, including the fan-favorite Call of the Dead, and the Rezurrection DLC which was only zombie maps.
We fully expect that trend to continue, as right now Zombies in this game feels like only part of a sprawling puzzle that has yet to be unlocked. That doesn’t mean that the zombies aren’t fun here, we just expected something bigger given that the mode now has it’s own menu screen and selection system. Although it’s a statement unto itself that we’ve come to expect to much from this game mode, which almost felt like an afterthought when it was included with Call of Duty: World at War.
The largest change to Zombies is the Tranzit system, which finds you and up to three other survivors struggling to stay alive at several different locations, which can be visited via an automated bus on a looping route. Starting out at a semi-destroyed bus depot, the animatronic bus driver (think Johnny Cab from Total Recall and voiced by Nolan North) will kindly honk before pulling out and taking the journey to the next stop. You can opt to stay on the bus (yes, it will get attacked by zombies on the way and while stopped), or stay at your locations. But as a warning: if you try to run from location to location without the bus, you’ll get attacked by these nightmare-inducing baby things that leap onto your skull. Don’t try it unless you have a death wish.
But Zombies is all about exploration, and to augment that fact the team has created “Buildables” in the world of Zombies now, giving players the chance to combine parts at workbenches in order to create useful items. For instance an electric fan and a dressmaker’s mannequin make a power turbine. Naturally, right? You can also find single-use items such as a ladder that can be attached to your bus to allow rooftop access, or a wedge for the front of the bus to shove zombies aside.
There are a wealth of secrets to unlock in here, just like any good zombies map, and while we like to think it will keep gamers busy for weeks, we have no doubt that there will be full unlock guides on YouTube by the end of launch day, augemented by the fact that Zombie games can now be loaded in the Theater. The development team definitely played coy with us here, and there’s still a lot to find even after our team managed to stay alive through 15 waves of zombies.
Zombies also adds a new grief mode where you can play another team of four (it’s always the FBI vs. the CDC, as an FYI) in humans vs. humans vs. zombies. The goal here is to outlast the other team, and thankfully there are some mechanics to aid you in that goal, like chucks of meat you can find and toss into the midst of the enemy team, bringing with it rabid hordes of the undead.
What we recommend: Jump into Survival which has up to four players trying to survive waves in the locations from Tranzit. The Buildables are still there, and it will give your team a chance to learn how they work without having to worry about multiple locations for now.
All On Accounta Pullin’ A Trigger
Honestly, the most impressive thing about Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is that Treyarch and Activision didn’t just dump a few new maps and weapons in here and slap a “TWO” on the box. A ton of work has gone into this game from top to bottom, and it stands as a real testament to the developers who didn’t want to just coattail this one into the books. Nearly every system and aspect of the game has been tweaked or overhauled, and it certainly shows in the final product.
While the Strike Force levels are welcomed because of their eventual affect on the outcome of the game, the presentation and AI in them needs a serious overhaul. Call of Duty has always been about the first-person shooting experience, and attempting to add a strategic element to that could work at some point, but it doesn’t really come together here. Likewise, the Zombies mode feels slightly hobbled, and while that will probably be filled out via DLC, we would like a more complete package out of the box.
But despite the slight dings in Strike Missions and Zombies, the series continues to shine with its incredibly ambitious, globe-spanning, epic single player campaign, which is now augmented with an incredibly high replay factor. And it should come as no surprise that the multiplayer continues to shine, and will dominate the online game boards in the weeks and months to come. The series has come to be strongly identified by its online multiplayer, and the same holds true in this latest release. They’ve perfected the scratch to the itch you have when you feel the need to jump online and shoot things.
And as with most Call of Duty titles, stay tuned after the credits for something extra. Although this time, be prepared for the truly bizarre. Seriously. It still has us simultaneously scratching our heads and tapping our toes.
Earlier this year, the world was introduced to real-life living Barbie doll Valeria Lukyanova. The Ukrainian girl rose to international fame and recognition when pictures of her unrealistic body features surface. The 21-year-old "human Barbie" doll will be featured in the latest issue of V magazine, which is slated to hit newsstands on November 15.
Many had speculated whether Lukyanova was actually real, with many claiming her to be an internet hoax. However, V magazine wrote in its "Living Doll" feature, "The truth is that Valeria is very much real."
V magazine wrote: "We brought this viral phenom to New York City, entranced by her unnaturally thin waist, dramatic curves, and trendy, new age sense of style, which often includes pastel spaghetti-strap crop tops, navel piercings, and bindis."
When asked about whether Lukyanova had plastic surgery to achieve her doll-like looks, she told V: "Many people say bad things about people who want to perfect themselves." She also went on to say, "Many people say bad things about people who want to perfect themselves. It's hard work, but they dismiss it as something done by surgeons or computer artists. But I don't take them seriously. I'm even flattered! It's what success is like. I'm happy I seem unreal to them, it means I'm doing a good job."
Since pictures of Lukyanova surfaced, many people have followed in her footsteps to imitate the Barbie look. She told V: "Indeed, I've noticed a trend. Every good-looking woman with fine features and a slim figure looks like a doll. I won't deny that I play along with people's perceptions. I'm amused by the reactions. I don't take it seriously."
Before Valeria Lukyanova became an internet sensation by achieving the first human barbie doll look, pictures of her before her extensive plastic surgery and procedures had also emerged.
In the photos, she appears to look healthy and normal. Although she reportedly denies the claim that she had any surgical procedures carried out, the photos on this site show that she looked like a healthy normal girl.
According to Dr. Anthony LaBruna, a Plastic Surgeon Director of Manhattan Plastic Surgery, "A women needs to get breast enhancements to be a 38DD and cut some ribs out to get an 18" waist, make the hips wider and change her face. Of course, the woman would have to go blonde like Barbie." LaBruna appeared on "Good Morning America" earlier this week and said he reckons the cost of surgery would be somewhere in the $100,000s.
She's a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world. She definitely looks plastic, and it's, uh ... fantastic? Valeria Lukyanova says she's the "most famous woman of the Russian-speaking Internet," and it's easy to see why.
Known online as the "real-life Barbie," Lukyanova boasts a shockingly tiny waist coupled with Barbie's famous -- and realistically disproportionate -- curves. Interestingly, V Magazine decided to photograph and interview Lukyanova for their "Girl Power" issue, which features a wet, topless Scarlett Johansson on its cover, and a nude S&M photo spread with Rihanna and Kate Moss.
In the interview, Lukyanova responds -- sort of -- to detractors who criticize her overly artificial appearance. "Many people say bad things about people who want to perfect themselves," says Valeria. "It's hard work, but they dismiss it as something done by surgeons or computer artists. This is how they justify not wanting to strive for self-improvement."
The living Barbie doll claims she's not obsessed with appearance. "People don't understand that it has nothing to do with looks," says Lukyanova. "There are many good-looking young women, but why are they completely unknown? Because looks are just a bonus."'
But, aren't Valeria's looks exactly how she became well known enough for V Magazine to fly her to New York for the photo shoot?
Well, now that we know she's not obsessed with her appearance, just what does Lukyanova do all day, besides post photos of herself online? "In the morning I work on my face and I get a massage, then I spend some time on the Internet. I meditate and travel in my astral body, and after that I work out at the gym." See? Meditiation and astral body travel -- it's not all about looks.
Valeria purports to be an out-of-body traveler, who teaches others spiritual travel techniques. In her spare time, she's also a "professional mountain climber." OK, then.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Four-time NASCAR champion Jeff Gordon avoided suspension Monday when NASCAR instead fined him $100,000 and docked him 25 points for intentionally wrecking Clint Bowyer at Phoenix International Raceway.
Gordon was also placed on probation through Dec. 31. But he'll be allowed to close out the season Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway despite his actions in Sunday's race, which triggered a fight in the garage area between the two crews.
"I take responsibility for my actions on the racetrack," Gordon said in a statement. "I accept NASCAR's decision and look forward to ending the season on a high note at Homestead."
Rick Hendrick was also docked 25 car owner points, and crew chief Alan Gustafson was placed on probation through the end of the year.
"I've always respected Jeff for standing his ground," said Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. "We also respect that NASCAR needs to police the sport and send a message when situations like this occur. It's been a great year, and we're going to put our focus on finishing in a positive way this weekend."
Bowyer crew chief Brian Pattie was fined $25,000 and placed on probation through the end of the year.
NASCAR vice president of competition Robin Pemberton considered the matter closed after issuing the penalties.
"There's no doubt that a unique set of circumstances combined with a championship battle on the line resulted in raw emotions coming into play," he said. "We consider the penalties appropriate and those involved understand our decision and we expect them to abide by them."
Meanwhile, Brad Keselowski was fined $25,000 and placed on probation for having an electronic device inside the car — the phone he used to tweet during a red flag period caused by Gordon wrecking Bowyer. Keselowski first did it during a red flag at the season-opening Daytona 500, and NASCAR later banned the practice.
