FLL Challenge 2013 Nature's Fury Our community, 56 want it Our community, 4929 want it Our community, 2934 want it Our community, 3167 want it Our community, 3021 want it Our community, 5572 want it Our community, 3549 want it Red Five X-wing Starfighter Our community, 4487 want it Year of the Snake Our community, 607 want it Our community, 63 want it Our community, 89 want it Our community, 108 want it Our community, 65 want it Our community, 74 want it Our community, 113 want it Our community, 160 want it My First Train Set Our community, 130 want it Our community, 184 want it Our community, 69 want it Our community, 66 want it Our community, 83 want it Our community, 60 want it Our community, 78 want it Jake's Pirate Ship Bucky Our community, 95 want it Our community, 94 want itSuccess has made the Lego games quietly lavish. Take the Batcave as an example.
In the Dark Knight's latest adventure, it's a complex network of gantries and glittering rock, built around a column of falling water. Secrets beckon from every alcove, while studs jitter and jump from even the darkest corners of the screen. It's a reminder that, despite the headline IP, the Lego games have never really been about creativity. What they're about is busyness - and as the hardware improves and the production budgets increase, they've never looked busier than this.Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham promises a suitably busy agenda, too. As the name suggests, Traveller's Tales is leaving the second game's glorious open-world city behind for the most part. Instead, it's sending Batman and the Justice League up against Brainiac, who has a diabolical plan that will take our heroes out into space to visit the Lantern planets alongside other locations. An open-world approach simply wouldn't work here. The new threat's suitably dangerous that classic DC heroes will eventually have to unite with classic DC villains if they want to take him down.
Fancy switching from Batman to the Joker, or the Flash to Lex Luthor? It's the kind of set-up that only the canon-scrambling playfulness of a Lego game can really deliver on.Judging by a recent developer playthrough, the delivery's looking colourful and chaotic. The current demo is drawn from the early part of the game and sees Batman and Robin summoned to the JLA's orbiting Watchtower, where the Joker and Lex Luthor are causing trouble. Scattershot jokes come thick and fast as Superman's date with Wonder Woman is cut short and the launch of the Batrocket leaves Lego ducks bobbing around in pieces on the surface of the Wayne Manor pond.Beneath the jokes is a game that's building on previous instalments in a typically conservative manner. Batman and Robin's special suits will return, and you're able to select them via a radial menu whenever you want. Many of the suits now feature fuel mechanics. Robin's illumination suit requires batteries for its torch to work, for example, while Batman's space suit has a jetpack that will allow him to fly - as long as you've collected enough propulsion canisters.
This time, plenty of other characters can get in on the costume-switching tricks too, mind. Cyborg has suits that allow him to transform into a giant robot to fight big enemies, for example, or a stealth suit that, brilliantly, turns him into a little Lego washing machine. The Joker and Lex will have their own suits as well. If Batman's been upgrading his arsenal since the last adventure, then so has everyone else. Beyond that, new headline features include hacking games - these now span a wide range of mechanics, apparently, although the ones we're shown offer simple mazes and platforming - and an emphasis on levels set in space. The team at Traveller's Tales has clearly been spending a lot of time working out how best to map the series' knockabout action to the interplanetary void, and while a handful of different approaches are promised throughout the course of the campaign, the one being demonstrated today suggests Resogun's been a major influence. As Batman takes on the Joker's defences around the perimeter of the Watchtower, a hectic 2D shooter is grafted to a screen that behaves like a drum as you zip backwards and forwards.
There are waves, power-ups and even smartbombs, and if you return in freeplay mode, you'll be able to ditch Batman and drop in other heroes, such as Superman. If, for some reason, you like Superman better than Batman. (Perhaps you're Lois Lane?)As Batman and pals work their way up the Watchtower, switching between Cyborg with his magnetic suit to the Flash (who can spin like a dynamo and complete multiple brick builds at once), while laser grids spark and rockets rain down, it all looks as entertaining as ever. If you're expecting a revolution in basic mechanics, you've come to the wrong series - Traveller's Tales hasn't even switched out Courier, or a close relative, as the end-of-level breakdown font despite the fact that it still looks weird. What you're getting here is more of the same, with a few new ideas and, yes, a certain quiet lavishness. All things considered, that's probably what most of the fans are after.January 3 is the 125th birth anniversary of J.R.R. (John Ronald Reuel) Tolkien who was born in 1892 in what is now South Africa in Bloemfontein.
Tolkien’s hobbits celebrated their byrding days (birthdays) by giving gifts to others rather than simply receiving gifts themselves. Tolkien has clearly gifted the world with his writing; his work has been translated into over 60 languages as well as having been adapted as movies and even video games. This is the perfect time to come in and check some out some of his writing and works he inspired today. The Hobbit: or, There and Back Again The first and perhaps the most accessible of Tolkien’s novels set in middle earth, The Hobbit tells the story of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit whose life is changed when Gandalf the Wizard transforms his safe ordinary life into one of adventure. My first encounter with it was the cartoon from the late 1970’s, which is available at some BCCLS libraries. Also available to check out is Tolkien’s epic Lord of the Rings published as three volumes (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King) which continue to be influential on many contemporary writers and is the archetype of High Fantasy.
If you would like to start listening to them right now visit Hoopla for digital audiobook copies. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Films Directed by Peter Jackson You can borrow several of the ambitious films that Peter Jackson directed including The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey from HPL. I saw The Lord of the Rings trilogy with my father who was overjoyed with the special effects laden and visually stunning adaptations of books he had loved as a teenager. The Hobbit movies were a bit controversial with some fans due to the addition of new characters and plot lines to allow for three films; check them out and see what you think. Video Games Set in Middle Earth Not satisfied with merely reading or watching about Middle Earth, immerse yourself in the epic battles with Lego The Lord of the Rings for the Xbox 360 or PS3. The game allows you to unlock over 80 playable Lego versions of Middle Earth characters.
This game is rated E 10+. For those looking for a more adult game check out Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor for the PS3, PS4, Xbox One, or Xbox 360 rated M; you play as Talion, a Ranger of the Black Gate and is set prior to the events in Lord of the Rings. Also available is the rated M game The Lord of the Rings. War in the North for Xbox 360. The Story of Kullervo If you are already a fan of Tolkien and looking for something new then you might be intrigued by The Story of Kullervo. Although only recently published, The Story of Kullervo is an early short story from circa 1915, which is based on part of the Finnish epic Kalevala. Also included are transcripts of Tolkien’s talks on Kalevala. The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams by Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski Tolkien was part of a literary club in 1932 called the Inklings, who first met at Oxford University. The Inklings critiqued each other’s works and debated the hot topics of the time.