2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa
PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PC
It is tempting to complain about EA’s habit of releasing two or more iterations of its soccer games every year, forcing fans continually to shell out for updates. But EA’s soccer games are generally too good to miss, both in terms of superficial polish (this version, released for the World Cup, includes great animations of real-life managers on the sidelines) and gameplay mechanics, better than any other on offer right now.
Wii Fit
Nintendo Wii
On paper it shouldn’t have worked: give people an electronic board to stand on and make them do aerobics moves in their living room. But work it did, and Wii Fit — less a game, more an exercise guide — has been a huge hit since its release in 2008, adopted by institutions as varied as health clubs and military rehabilitation clinics.
Forza Motorsport 3
Xbox 360
A racing game of enormous scope, allowing you to burn around a dozen real-life tracks (plus more made-up ones) in everything from an Aston Martin to a Renault Twingo. Critics have praised its realistic physics: unlike games in which cars remain pristine from the beginning to the end of a race, Forza’s vehicles get the hell beaten out of them and show it.
Punch Out!!
Nintendo Wii
Gratuitous exclamation marks aside, this update of an 1980s arcade boxing game is excellent. Making perfect use of the Wii’s motion-sensor controls, players shadowbox in front of the screen, seeing their movements translated into uppercuts and jabs in the game. Tiring, but very, very fun.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located