UPDATED STARCRAFT II CAMPAIGN IMPRESSIONS

Playing the beta? Here's what you're missing.

April 23, 2010 - I don't envy the team at Blizzard who has to design StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. Following up one of the biggest PC games of all time is no easy feat, and the demands of nostalgic fans must be overwhelming. Think about it: If Blizzard were to release a game that was largely the same but with better visuals people would complain they didn't do enough, but if they drastically change the core gameplay elements -- like so many other RTS games have done lately -- franchise veterans would scream and shout that they destroyed all the good things about the original game.

 

 

But Blizzard is a company full of experts in their craft, and has made a game that feels wonderfully balanced between being "something new" and "something familiar." Alongside the mostly recognizable artstyle and classic gameplay elements that other RTS franchises have largely abandoned (harvesting resources, for instance), Blizzard has introduced loads of new lore and customization options that will give even the most hardcore StarCraft player something to experience for the first time. And if multiplayer is your thing, or you think it might be and are scared to try it because you don't know what you're doing, Blizzard's kept you in mind, too. A new series of Challenges are included for players to tackle in order to cut their teeth before diving headlong into multiplayer, or for seasoned players to play in order to see just how good their skills really are.

MORE INFORMATION

SIMPLE PERFECT

Rules:

I, You, We, They -> have + past participle verb
He, She, It -> has + past participle verb

Indicators:

Ever
Already
Yet
Just
Once

Examples:    

• She has just arrived.
• He has worked here since 1992.
• I have been studying English a lot recently.
• They have moved into a new apartment.
• Have you ever visited Camboja?
• Haven't you ever smoked marihuana?
• I haven't seen a good movie for a long time.

Usos básicos:

• Ações que podem voltar a ocorrer;
• Ações que acabam de ocorrer;
• Ações que começam no passado e vão até o presente.

THE SIMPSONS

The Simpsons is an American animated television sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a working-class American lifestyle epitomized by its eponymous family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, and Maggie. The show is set in the fictional city of Springfield, and lampoons American culture, society, television and many aspects of the human condition.
The family was conceived by Groening shortly before a pitch for a series of animated shorts with the producer James L. Brooks. Groening created a dysfunctional family and named the characters after members of his own family, substituting Bart for his own name. The shorts became a part of The Tracey Ullman Show on April 19, 1987. After a three-season run, the sketch was developed into a half-hour prime time show and was an early hit for Fox, becoming the first Fox series to land in the Top 30 ratings in a season (1989–1990).
Since its debut on December 17, 1989 the show has broadcast 459 episodes and the twenty-first season began airing on September 27, 2009. The Simpsons Movie, a feature-length film, was released in theaters worldwide on July 26 and July 27, 2007, and grossed US$527 million worldwide.

The popularity of The Simpsons has made it a billion-dollar merchandizing industry. The title family and supporting characters appear on everything from t-shirts to posters. The Simpsons has inspired special editions of well-known board games, including Clue, Scrabble, Monopoly, Operation, and The Game of Life, as well as the trivia games What Would Homer Do? and Simpsons Jeopardy!. Several card games such as trump cards and The Simpsons Trading Card Game have also been released. Many official or unofficial Simpsons books such as episode guides have been published. Many episodes of the show have been released on DVD and VHS over the years. When the first season DVD was released in 2001, it quickly became the best-selling television DVD in history, although it was later overtaken by the first season of Chappelle's Show. In particular, seasons one through twelve have been released on DVD in the U.S. (Region 1), Europe (Region 2) and Australia/New Zealand/Latin America (Region 4) with more seasons expected to be released in the future.
In 2003, about 500 companies around the world were licensed to use Simpsons characters in their advertising. As a promotion for the The Simpsons Movie, twelve 7-Eleven stores were transformed into Kwik-E-Marts and sold The Simpsons related products. These included "Buzz Cola", "Krusty-O" cereal, Pink doughnuts with sprinkles, and "Squishees".

Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HAVE YOU EVER SEEN THE RAIN? – CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL

Creedence Clearwater Revival (often abbreviated CCR) was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums.
The group consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty, his brother and rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford. Their musical style encompassed rock and roll and swamp rock genres. Despite their San Francisco Bay Area origins, they are sometimes also cited as southern rock stylists.
CCR's music is still a staple of American and worldwide radio airplay and often figures in various media. The band has sold 26 million albums in the United States alone. CCR was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Someone told me long ago
There's a calm before the storm
I know, it's been comin' for some time

When it's over, so they say
It will rain a sunny day
I know, shinin' down like water

I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
Comin' down on a sunny day

Yesterday, and days before
Sun is cold and rain is hard
I know, been that way for all my time

And forever, on it goes
Through the circle, fast and slow
I know, it can't stop, I wonder

I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
Comin' down on a glorious day

Yeah!

I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
Comin' down on a glorious day

VAMPIRE DIARIES

Four months after the tragic car accident that killed their parents, 17-year-old Elena Gilbert (Nina Dobrev) and her 15-year-old brother, Jeremy (Steven R. McQueen), are still adjusting to their new reality. Elena had studied and she is considerate beautiful, popular and involved with school and friends, but now she had found herself struggling to hide her grief from the world. Elena and Jeremy are now living with their cool-but-overwhelmed Aunt Jenna (Sara Canning) who is doing her best to be a surrogate parent.
Elena manages to find some comfort with her familiar social circle – best friend Bonnie (Katerina Graham), frenemy Caroline (Candice Accola), and former boyfriend Matt (Zach Roerig) but Jeremy had stayed on a more dangerous path, hanging out with the stoners and had used some drugs to hide his pain. Jeremy is also trying to figure out why Matt's sister, Vicki (Kayla Ewell), is suddenly rejecting him and hanging out with Jeremy's rival, Tyler (Michael Trevino).
As the school year begins at Mystic Falls High, Elena and her friends are fascinated by a handsome and mysterious new student, Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley). Stefan and Elena are immediately drawn to one another, although Elena is puzzled by Stefan's increasingly bizarre behavior when he appears suddenly at the cemetery where her parents are buried. What she hasn’t realized is that Stefan is hiding a dark, deadly secret of his own – the fact that he's a vampire. At a bonfire party the next night, Elena and Stefan are just getting to know each other when chaos erupts after Vicki is attacked and left bleeding from a savage bite to the neck.
Fearing that he knows who is responsible for the attack, Stefan returns home and finds his older brother, Damon (Ian Somerhalder), whom he hasn't seen for 15 years. Damon is also a vampire, and the two brothers have a long and bitter history. Damon ridicules Stefan for rejecting their legacy of violence and brutality, but he understands his brother's obsession with Elena, since she looks exactly like a woman Stefan loved more than a century ago; a woman that Damon tried to make his own. Now these two vampire brothers – one good, one evil – are at war for Elena's soul and for the souls of her friends, family and all the residents of Mystic Falls, Virginia.