Which brings me to the Grados. The SR225s are the second pair of Grado headphones I’ve owned. I started out with a pair of SR125s which, until these, were my favorite ‘phones for around-the-house listening. Large, soft foam-covered earpieces and an over-the-head style band do not make these ideal “out-and-about” listening devices. They’re also an open design and bleed sound like no other headphones I’ve ever used, subjecting anyone in the same airspace to whatever it is you’re listening to you. Calling them headphones is almost a disservice, they’re more like a head-mounted speaker system.

Which isn’t far off the mark, really. If I could continue the head-mounted speaker analogy, you might find that you need a better amp to drive these without distortion compared to smaller, less demanding headphones. The iPods have long been known for possessing a decent headphone amplifier for a portable device. When driving the Grados, I find noticeable distortion at volume settings that are clear and detailed with my Shure in-ear phones. These ‘phones exacerbate the problems with the MacBook audio circuitry like no others. The noise is painful and may make you want to invest in a decent external audio interface, which, if you’re serious about sound, you’ll want to do anyway.

So far, I’m making these out to be more of a pain than they’re worth, so you might be wondering why I’d have bothered to upgrade the SR125s to the 225s. And why I’d consider myself a serious enthusiast for these headphones.

The reason is that with a decent headphone amplifier, these headphones don’t sound like any other I’ve ever listened to. They have Real Bass. It’s detailed and palpable and extends far below where you might expect a headphone to go. The other reason is they possess an airiness and spaciousness unlike any other headphones. All that moving air your neighbours are being subjected to while you listen to these is the same air the Grados are using to magically create a soundstage inside your head.

If you like listening to music and consider yourself to be a person who likes nice things, and you have a decent sound system, you might want to do yourself a favor and audition a pair of Grados. Honestly, with the type of music I listen to mostly (rock and electronic music predominantly with occasional forays into jazz and classical), I don’t notice a huge difference between the SR225s and the 125s. The bass is a little more detailed and present, I think, but otherwise, without going into fruity audiophile language, I don’t think there’s a whole lot of difference. The build quality on the SR225s is marginally better though and they have a slightly longer and thicker cable.

If you do want to use these with a portable device like an iPod, you should consider an external amplifier. Here are a few links to well-reviewed headphone amps:

• Total BitHead (review on Stereophile)
• Grado RA1
• Creek Audio OBH-21

Also, take a look at Grado Labs’ website. They’ve expanded their product-line in the past couple of years and have some in-ear headphones as well as a slew of truly high-end ‘phones that you probably can’t afford but will lust after because they’re beautiful.

One final relevant link I rediscovered when looking for a place to actually purchase (US only) the Grados online: goodcans.com’s review of Grado headphones. They mention that the Prestige series that the SR225s belong to have been updated and have a new ‘i’ designation. Apparently the bodies have been redesigned and are a bit deeper which can only mean that they sound even better.

• SR225i on amazon.com, B&H Photo Video ($200)

“Wet” is short for “Wetwork”, you’re informed in the introduction. If you had any notions about this game being about sitting around in the bath tub, I’m sorry to disappoint. You control Rübi, a tough-as-nails assassin with a pair of nine millimeter pistols and a samurai sword for up-close work. The entire game has a gritty, dirty film quality to it which accentuates the grind-house feel. Voice acting is gruff and abrupt.

But all this atmosphere is merely backdrop to the action which starts immediately and seems to continue until the end of the chapter with very few cut-scenes. I’m all for action, as long as the game-play works. In this case, I’m afraid it’s kind of tedious.

I find the shooting controls feel very wooden. It kind of reminds me of Perfect Dark Zero, one of the first games to appear on the Xbox 360 also featuring a female lead character. Controlling your guns doesn’t feel quite right. To make matters worse, to give yourself a chance against the swarming squads of goons hell-bent on killing you, you have the ability to jump, dive and run along walls. This puts you into a bullet-time-like slow-motion mode that makes the aiming somewhat easier and allows you to dual-wield your pistols; the second one auto-aims. The net result of this is that you spend the majority of the action sequences, i.e., the majority of the game in a greyed-out slow-motion mode.

There are other annoyances. Health is delivered via “swigs” of whiskey littered around. Every time you take one, there’s a little animation of Rübi tossing the bottle and shooting it out of the air with a gun. It’s repetitive and adds nothing.

At this point, I’ll ‘fess up and admit that I’ve only played part of the first chapter. I was pretty turned off, especially after completing the unbelieveably good Batman: Arkham Asylum. That game proved that you don’t need bullet-time to simulate ultra-fast reflexes and super-human agility. Hell, I should stop reviewing Wet right now and tell you about how cool Batman was.

So, if you’re looking for a new game to play. Don’t waste your time with Wet. If you did waste your time with Wet and feel strongly about it, maybe you should leave a note in the comments. Otherwise, go get Batman right now.

Wet: I don’t know how many stars to give it because I only played it for 20 minutes and wrote it off.

One annoying bit that has irked me from the get-go is the relative inefficiency of the Cylons to completely destroy the humans. It would have been a short series if they were more effective, but let’s be reasonable. Artificially intelligent robots, with biological brains or not, would have some pretty impressive advantages in the realm of killing. Cavil in the final episodes lamented his human physiology. Having to watch a star go supernova “with these eyes” was a great disappointment for him. The mechanical cylons presumably have a wider spectrum of vision, highly-augmented hearing and a whole host of other sensors and doodads to make their given tasks easier. And more efficient.

Some of the scenes from the earlier seasons when humans were on the surface of some planet hiding in the woods and cylons were walking past without noticing them smack of silliness. Also, one of those same cylons with an integrated machine-gun for an arm missing a human at anything inside kill range is similarly ludicrous. They should be able to throw bullets as easily as any human can throw a rock and far far more accurately.

Still, the mechanical cylons were pretty damned awesome. In the episode “Boarding Party”, a group of cylons crash into the docking pylon on Galactica and start raising hell on the ship. One particularly vivid scene where a centurion dives into a group of people, guns-ablaze only to be shot down by a nerves-of-steel Lee Adama was one of the most memorable action scenes in the entire series. They could be terrifying in their swiftness and capability for violence. I only wish they’d been depicted like that more frequently instead of the plodding, inaccurate machines they usually were.

Similarly, the cylon Raiders weren’t piloted they were the pilots. In the episode where Starbuck finds the downed Raider and climbs aboard the gory interior remains, you fully-realize how incredible and alien these things are. Each one is an individual. We knew this from the episode “Scar” where Starbuck and her band of pilots have to contend with a particularly malicious and devious cylon raider in an asteroid belt, but it isn’t until you see the biological interior of the raider that you realize, hey, these things aren’t just spaceships with a chip or a cylon head bolted to a console – they are the ship.

Earlier comments about why these things aren’t capable of killing humans apply 10-fold here, but I’m willing to make allowances for how awesome the space scenes were. Still, most of the scenes were distant shots of squads of vipers plowing through cylon raiders by the hundreds. Each cylon raider should have been a more than capable adversary and this was never really felt.

Cylons were at their scariest when humans screwed up, which, I guess, they owe their entire existence to. Only when the humans made the mistake of linking their computers together did the cylons really come into their own. They seemed capable of taking down any computer system at will, not even requiring a physical connection to it. The Mark VII vipers were immediately made ineffective because of all the linked computer systems onboard. I guess it’s hard to beat machines with machines. Then again, the human Raptors were full of computerized systems. The Galactica had a bunch of separate computers to manage individual systems, only too primitive for the cylons to fully take over. Apparently cylons required a certain degree of complexity in order to take over a ship’s computer. Maybe it’s a warning about ubiquitous wireless technology.

The humanoid cylons could go one further and even interface directly with the machines on board Galactica. Sharon, aka Boomer and Athena (another Sharon)… Model 8 could plug light pipe from the ship’s systems into her arm and take control of that system. The cylon hybrids could do this as well and lived their gooey lives connected to the cylon base ships. That was never really explained, but surely they’d require some sort of physiology to allow that to happen. That should have made the earlier efforts to discover which humans were cylons easier. You’d think.

But wait, I hear music…

All Along the Watchtower. It’s a great song. The cover by Jimi Hendrix appearing in the final scene of the show may even be superior to the Dylan original because of the fantastic guitar solos. But, for all Bear McCreary did to vary it with piano and the “eastern” arranged version, is this really a piece of music that would echo through time and space calling humanity and cylons together? Wouldn’t a grander bit of music have been more appropriate? Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”? Maybe something moody from Liszt? Miles Davis’ “So What?” Anything other than a simple three chord folk tune, really. Integrating the lyrics into the show was a cute trick.

What was with 6’s glowing red spine (in the miniseries)? Never explained or repeated. We can assume it had something to do with her “joining” with Baltar or creating that weird mental image of herself in him. Those were never really explained either.

I can kind of forgive the Starbuck is an angel (/unknowable entity/ghost/alien/…) disappearance at the end. By that point I was like, “sure. Why not?” It kind of fit and the sudden disappearance was almost Kubrickian, though I would’ve liked a bit less of a reaction from Lee when he turned around.

Which brings me to the final, annoying bit. The really annoying thing about BSG: The religion. They had prophets. They had visions. They had ancient prophecies foretold and told again in ruined chambers buried on distant planets. Their mythologies roughly equivalent to Roman were superceded by the cylons’ weird monotheism. There was talk earlier in the show’s life that the writers were writing about the lost tribe of Isreal and the whole thing was the Story of Mormon. I don’t know if that’s true or not, and I tried to ignore as many of the religious themes as I could, possibly because that’s the way I deal with it in everyday, non-tv life. In any case, it was frequently annoying. Frequently broke the illusion that I was watching a piece of science fiction. And very frequently provided an easy out for the writers to provide a “reason” for something impossible to happen. Finding a planet? Sure, it was part of a prophecy. Being led to Earth? Starbuck had the Arrow of Hercules in her belt so she knew the way. The president’s having visions? Well, sure, it was prophesyed. And so on. If it were less frequent and maybe a little less intrinsic to how they managed to get around space, I’d have been happier.

So when people say that they couldn’t stand that Starbuck just vanished at the end, I say, “so what? You put up with it for this long”.

With all that said, I have to say that the final wrap-up with the “opera house” was fantastic and powerful. For all the times that I was annoyed in earlier episodes that they were showing me these cryptic visions, in the end I really thought that bit worked. Full props to the writers for that.

Overall, it was a great show. The fact that they didn’t overwhelm the show with the religious aspects and merely made it a part of the story was a good thing. And why not? Having 50-odd-thousand stragglers trying to make it across the blackness of space with no destination while a seemingly limitless army of sentient machines is trying to kill you might require a little help. It would have been easy to be heavy-handed there, but they managed not to be. There was enough to hold my interest throughout that I didn’t really mind the plot devices they used to get from Point Caprica to Final Destination. The varying stories about humans on their last legs struggling to stay alive were compelling, terrifying, frustrating and heart-wrenching in varying degrees, frequently all at once. This is what good story-telling does, it pulls you in and makes you feel it on an emotional level. The journey was a good one and I will miss it.

(also, no Boxey)

There’ve been a bunch of big game releases in the last few weeks for the Xbox360. The long-awaited Gears of War 2 was the first on my list of games to play after returning from holidayland. I’ve certainly got my money’s worth out of it so far. The single player game is fun, if not overly challenging or complex. Playing it on Hardcore is fairly straightforward and I’ve only had to repeat a couple of sections a few times. It’s improved, as in the previous game by playing with a buddy in co-op mode. Multiplayer is fun, with a batch of new levels and a free download including some favorite maps (though not War Machine, wtf?) from the previous version. The new “Horde” mode is probably my favorite addition to the game, allowing a team of 5 players to fend off wave-after-wave of Locust in increasingly-difficult configurations. We’re up to level 19 currently, and hope to crack the level 20 barrier this weekend.

It’s not perfect, mind you. There are a few puzzling inconsistencies in the game which I’m hoping they can iron-out in a future update. The party system has removed the requirement for players to signal that they’re ready which is nice to have when you have 8 players all taking breaks for refreshments. Gears rewards players who stick with it but I’m unlikely to ever get all of the achievements for this title as it requires a bunch of them to be gotten while playing ranked online play. For a casual gamer like myself, I’m unlikely to do much of that, and those account for nearly half the points.

Still, graphics from the Unreal 3 engine and gut-ripping sound-effects make this a viscerally enjoyable title. I give it a “fun+” rating of 4/5 stars. ****

I was planning on picking up Dead Space also after some pretty decent reviews, but I was deflected by another title, also from EA, called Mirror’s Edge (EA’s site, amazon is currently being a dick about finding it for the Xbox360, so you’ll just have to find it yourself). This award-winning, free-running-inspired game by ace game studio DICE looks great and has a killer graphics engine. The story is propelled along by a between-chapters anime with decent voice acting and visuals that remind me a lot of a couple of the stories from The Animatrix. Soundtrack is also appropriate to the genre with a kind of ambient techno backdrop that pulses in all the right ways.

This is a really cool-looking title and the game play is fast and intense. And therein lies my complaint: It’s too hard. As soon as you’re out of the training session, you’re thrown into this action/detective story-line that has bad guys (“blues”, usually good guys, or “police”) firing bullets at you and you’re forced to either engage them which is usually suicide, or run away from them, which is often suicide. I’d have preferred just a bit more of the running around along the roof-tops to all-out warfare. Even the included “race” mode is hard enough that I don’t see myself playing it much, and requires one of those annoying EA logins that you need to setup first to play it.

Mirror’s Edge is a neat game though, and if you’ve got the reflexes and tenacity, you may enjoy it. The fact that I’m still playing it and looking forward to playing it again despite its frustrating attempts to kill me, suggests that this is a good game. Rated: Fun. ***/5.

Last up on this list is a surprise acquisition. A friend was very insistent that I pick this title up, so, not wanting to disappoint, I put aside my resistance of, wait-isn’t-this-just-Resident-Evil-mixed-with-28-Days-Later-and-a-little-Dead-Rising? and bit the bullet. Where Left4Dead (warning: flash, amazon search is suxxors) differs from the others and breaks new ground is in being designed to be a co-op game from the ground up. Four survivors can play 4 different campaigns (each lasting between 1-2+ hours) in an attempt to escape some zombie-infested territory. The settings range from urban to rural and are quite decently-designed, though are probably less open than they appear. The feeling of unrestricted movement is pretty good though and the areas you’re thrown into are quite large thanks to the Source engine from Valve.

The other neat thing about Left4Dead is the Director. The AI that’s responsible for throwing hordes of zombies at you and playing creepy music. The game has a great cinematic feel to it that if you weren’t so busy fighting for your life, you might have a chance to be pretty scared. The campaigns each culminate in a final fight to escape that is truly harrowing. I have yet to make it out, but I’ve seen the end credits roll when my partner made the helicopter once. I can tell you that my final moments were both incredibly heroic and poignant as I was pulverized by a tank and what must have been hundreds of zombies as I attempted to fend them off so the helicopter could make good on its getaway carrying the precious cargo. “Go on. Get outta here,” I croaked.

These scenes are what make Left4Dead so neat. And because each campaign is going to be different each time based on where the director puts stuff, it promises to have some pretty significant replay value. Rounding it out, is a multiplayer “versus” mode where each team gets to take turns as the Infected trying to bring down the survivors. Haven’t played it yet, but maybe if a few of my friends pick it up (hint, hint) we can give it a go.

Tentatively, fun+, ****/5.

I’ve had my iPhone 3G for awhile now. When I first got it, I wanted to do a review of some of my favorite apps. Months passed. Summer turned to fall. There was still no review. But then, how could there be? I was still learning the territory, and there’s a lot to learn. iTunes for all its strengths and considerable weaknesses, is kind of a pain to use to find applications worth trying out. It’s slow. Recently, I discovered AppShopper which has greatly-improved my ability to find useful applications. There’s also 148Apps which lists and reviews the top 148(?) applications and was recently mentioned on LifeHacker.

Before I get into the meaty reviews, I should note that I haven’t paid for any iPhone apps yet. It’s not because I’m too cheap to pay 99¢ for a piece of software (honest!), I just haven’t found too many apps that I’d really consider necessary enough to pay for. There is one particular piece of software which I would love to buy, but haven’t yet because the developers haven’t released the final version of the desktop software yet. This is OmniFocus by the Omni Group which I use every day on my desktop but won’t trust the required beta software enough to make the jump to 1.1. C’mon guys, ship that sucker so I can give you some more money!

I think it’s also worth noting that the web, that much-maligned initial platform for application release easily fills the gaps left by software, and in many cases, makes stand-alone apps unecessary. I’ve played with Exposure (iTunes link) by Connected Flow and strongly-considered paying for it, but with flickr’s recently-updated mobile site, the need for an external app is a lot less. Gtalk is another excellent example of a web application on the iPhone. There are many others I have on my homescreen.

Twittelator (iTunes) (free for Lite version, $4.99 for Pro)
by Stone Design Corp.

My favorite of the twitter clients, I’ve been a happy user of the lite version since my iPhone’s first week. It’s not without its quirks — location tweets are rarely on the mark though it’s not clear if that’s due to the GPS hardware in the iPhone itself or a software flaw. Hitting the “star” to mark a tweet as a favorite is hard to hit precisely, as is the reply button. It also includes TwitPic integration for sending pictures when you’re out and about, but the pictures often get oriented incorrectly, a problem I think is linked to the camera and accelerometers because I’ve seen it in other apps as well. If you’re not a twitter user, this is probably not that interesting to you. If you are, check it out.

Shazam (iTunes) (Free!)
by Shazam Entertainment Ltd.

Ever been in a bar or restaurant and heard something on the sound system and you and your friends couldn’t identify it? Now you can! Tap the “tag now” button and hold your iPhone up to a speaker and wait for a few seconds for it to listen to it. It’ll buzz when finished, briefly communicate with Shazam’s system and then tell you what you’re listening to. Honest. Excessive background noise confuses it occasionally, but the few times I’ve used it, I’ve had pretty good luck. Once identified, you have the option to buy the tune in iTunes (!), view related YouTube content (!!) or share the tag with your friends who might want to remember what it was too. Sharing sends an email with information like, “I’ve just used Shazam on my iPhone to identify Leif Erikson by Interpol. I thought you might like this track” including some useful links. Great fun, useful and cool.

AIM (iTunes) (Free!)
by AOL

There’s a real dearth of iPhone/iPod messenger apps, probably because of the lack of push support. AIM is pretty much a direct iChat clone for the iPhone. Works well, and if you leave it running in the background, you get buzzes or notifications when you receive a new message. Great for chatting with your friends when you’re on the road. I’d love to see a port of Adium/Pidgin to the iPhone, but don’t think that’ll happen for awhile. Maybe by the time Apple releases clipboard support. (Snide clipboard joke required for any and all discussion of iPhone applications. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on.)

Fring (iTunes) (Free!)
by fringland Ltd.

Speaking of messenger applications, I discovered Fring this week and gave it a quick whirl. I haven’t even tried the instant messenger applications yet, mostly because they’re implemented through a back-end service and I don’t usually like giving out my passwords to other companies. Especially ones that have 3 different EULAs for various terms of service – one for privacy, one for the terms of use and one for their license. I haven’t read them all yet, so that’s why I haven’t tried using the instant messenger parts. What I have read in their privacy page looks pretty innocuous and is there to inform the user that their IDs and information may be exchanged with the third parties running the services (e.g., Microsoft for MSN).

So why is this thing in my top five if I haven’t even used it fully? Because it includes Voice over IP support. That’s right, you can connect to Skype or another SIP network and use it for voice communications. With Skype-out credits (or a SIP connection) you can even dial out to land-lines. I tested this on our asterisk system at work and was able to talk to a colleague. Sound quality was adequate with only a bit of VoIP warble and latency. Definitely usable. If you’ve got wifi access, you’ve got unlimited voice minutes no matter where you are in the world.

Last.fm (iTunes) (Free!)
by Last.fm

If you’re reading this, chances are you like music. Do you wish iTunes had included streaming radio support into the iPod part of your phone? I know I do. So I was pretty pleased when I discovered Last.fm’s application. It lets you stream recommended tracks, tracks from your library or start a new station based on an artist, tag or user. You also have a somewhat limited view of your profile including your friends and recently played tracks. I’ve been enjoying Last.fm’s service more and more recently and started scrobbling my iTunes and iPod playback and building an online collection. It’s an interesting view into my own catalogue and has provided me with a few decent recommendations. Plus it’s fun.

Last.fm isn’t the only option for online streaming to an iPod/iPhone though. Pandora (available in the States) will hopefully  make it through their somewhat troubled recent months (and come to Canada). I also found an app called fStream which will play mms:// streams to your ‘pod. I don’t really have any good mms:// streams so I haven’t played with it much. If you have any good streams to recommend, please drop ‘em in the comments.

Big Endean
This is by no means a comprehensive list of available applications. I’m sure I’m just scratching the surface here. Considering the app store is … less than 6 months old, there are a TON of great apps out there and an enthusiastic and talented developer community. It’s really a huge accomplishment and Apple deserves lots of kudos for it. There have been some growing pains, but I’m hoping the worst of it’s behind us. I’ll post a follow-up with some of the other useful apps I’ve found in the near future. peece.

Currently listening to Changes Are No Good by The Stills from the album Logic Will Break Your Heart

For the past five years or so, the Shure E3 headphones (now called SCL3) had been my sound delivery weapon of choice for serious business. Developed for stage use, they quickly became popularized for portable audio for their excellent 30db attenuation of outside sound and crisp sound quality. Some criticized them for less than impressive bass performance, perhaps with good reason. But the super-detailed middle and high ranges more than made up for it for me. The phones were updated about a year after I bought mine, becoming the E3Cs and available for the first time in white to appeal to the white headset crowd. Later they were joined with the E4s to round out the line and give people an option between the E3s and the really pricey E5s. This is somewhat surprising considering these are considered professional equipment for performing musicians, but obviously, people were buying them in enough quantity for Shure to notice and shift their marketing to accomodate.

These types of ‘phones are not without their drawbacks though. Inserting them into your ears required a bit of fiddling to get them in right. The cables were also meant to be worn behind the head which often meant some fairly ridiculous contortions if you were trying to put them on in a confined space, like, say, an airplane seat or a small shower stall. (What? Don’t you listen to music in the shower?) Also, the small yellow foam sleeves (or “foamies” as I like to call them) could be uncomfortable for prolonged listening. The various silicone ear pieces never worked for me, in any of the available sizes. Walking around while wearing them can create a “booming” effect as your feet hit the ground, channeling the shockwaves up to your ears through bone conductivity. You can hear yourself breathing with them on. Talking to people (even though you can’t really hear them) is also really difficult and kind of disorienting.

Still, despite all these strange oddities, I really like them. A lot.

Enter the SE530s. I’ve been eyeing these as replacements to the “E” line of earphones since they were introduced. As a more consumer-friendly set of in-ear monitors, they lack some of the harshness of the E3s which could be, if possible, a little too detailed. The SE530s are also a three-driver design with a separate tweeter and two separate bass drivers. The difference really comes through on music with strong bass-lines and dynamic drums like the National’s album “Boxer”. The bass sounds smooth and doesn’t get overwhelmed by the surrounding drums in quieter tracks like “Start a War”. The mid and upper range detail is still there too, but it seems better blended than with the E3s. The SE530s produce a smooth, buttery sound that will envelop you in music.

Another great improvement is in the new foam sleeves. The new ones are a black foam that is apparently washable which should greatly extend their lifetime. I used to go through the yellow foamies at the rate of a pair every couple of weeks, more if I was using them heavily. I’ve had the same pair of foamies on the SE530s since I bought them and they’re still in great shape. Protip: You should wipe ‘em off periodically with a non-alcohol based anti-bacterial gel.

Other items included in the box are 3 foot and 9 inch extension cables, a full set of ear pieces in varying shapes and sizes, an airplane adapter and a 1/4″ conversion plug. The phones roll up into an included oval carrying case. Shure does not disappoint with build quality and accessories in the box and retailing for the price of a top-end iPod, you better believe the box they come in is real metal. The earphones’ cables are also really nice, with a supple feel.

Speaking of cables, I just acquired and tested-out the Shure MPA music phone adapter which comes with a “voice port” microphone for use with my iPhone. The first call was deemed a success. The little command button even works as a play/pause or answer call button.

So, would I recommend these for everybody? No, I probably wouldn’t. I wouldn’t have bought them myself if it weren’t for the ridiculous deal I found on eBay (seriously, if you’re looking for a pair, check it out). If you’re a discerning audiophile, or just someone who loves music and looking for a compact, portable listening experience that can block out a lot of external noise, then these might be right for you.

Like the marketing copy says, it has surprisingly big stereo sound in a fairly small package. It comes with a rechargeable lithium ion battery making it a true portable. In case you don’t feel like listening to your iPod for some reason, it also has a built-in FM tuner and retractable antenna.

I tried the IM600 with my 5G iPod (video) and my iPod touch and it works great with both of those. I had an earlier iPod I plugged in that did not work. I was hoping to just leave the older 4G model docked all the time but it was not meant to be. The dock format changed from iPod generations 4G to 5G to accommodate video output and there is a composite video jack on the back of the Altec Lansing in case you wanted to plug it into a television which had a broken speaker or something. I can’t really figure out why I’d do that, but whatever! It’s there. Just in case. No S-Video output though, if we’re going to be picky.

Other connectors on the back of the unit are an auxiliary input jack in the form of a stereo mini plug and a subwoofer output jack for connecting to … a subwoofer! I couldn’t find a link on Altec Lansing’s site for their subwoofer, but they make the BB2001 which you can add to the IM600 to improve the low-end at the expense of portability. The compact design of the IM600 which folds up for travel make it a great portable speaker system you can move around the house or pack up and take with you on the road. The included remote works well and lets you play/pause and skip tunes on the iPod or tune to a radio station. It’ll also control your volume, so turn it up!

Note: The Altec Lansing IM600 is not waterproof, but it may float.

“Dark Messiah of Might & Magic Elements” (Ubisoft)

l like the fantasy adventure genre as a concept. In practice, I tend to get bored with them after awhile. Oblivion was like that, though I must say I got quite a bit of mileage out of it. Also, Oblivion was a great game and almost completely non-linear. You could do whatever the heck you wanted in Oblivion. It did get pretty serious after you completed several of the story-line quests and the world became a dark seething nether-pit of otherworldly hell dotted with swirling gyres bridging the membrane between our world and the planes of hell…

Dark Messiah is nothing like Oblivion. At its heart, it’s a first-person adventure game. I chose an assassin as a character, because I wanted to try being stealthy and didn’t want to futz about with spells too much. The graphics are gloomy and kind of drab, but not in the Gears of War way where they are a crisp and detailed many-shades-of-grey. No, they are almost fuzzy in their lack of resolution. This game looks like it belongs on the previous generation of Xbox.

But that’s fine. Graphics are not its strong suit. The combat is all first-personish. As an assassin, you start out with a pair of daggers which, when armed, are thrust in front of you blocking a good portion of the screen. You can crouch, sprint and parry. When you’re on the attack, holding the right trigger can do power moves. You have an adrenaline meter which when fully-charge lets you unleash a mighty attack cleaving your opponents in twain! You can also kick opponents into conveniently-located spiky walls or off of buildings.

The combat’s not very good. In fact, the gameplay kind of reminds me of Hexen from the Quake 1 era.

But the story! Let’s talk about the story for a bit. You start out as an apprentice to some sorcerer type instructing you through the game’s prologue. He coaches you on killing bad guys (everybody’s a bad guy in the prologue) and gets you through that business. Then there’s some business about a crystal and you’re given a slutty companion who… crawls into your head? Who frequently makes inappropriate comments but helps you get to a castle where you’re meeting a necromancer (aren’t they supposed to be bad guys?) to do something with a crystal (??) … whose daughter is kind of fetching but the slutty companion (in your head!) keeps making comments about…

the cyclops…

Remember in Oblivion how you could go anywhere you wanted and do whatever you wanted? This game is not like that. You can only go in one direction and you have to do it in the order that you’re told. There is no deviation. No side-quests. There are glowy relics which you can collect but they’re not very interesting. Also, the loot is pretty mundane.

Now, to be fair, I’ve only played this for a sum total of about 6 hours. I’m on chapter 4 so there’s some possibility this game is going to “open up” and turn into a fantastic adventure game, but I really don’t think it’s going that way. For a game rated M, it doesn’t seem very mature. There’s not enough blood in the combat and the innuendo by the internalized helper girl is jejune. I do enjoy seeing some of the magic and names from the Might and Magic series – they bring back fond memories of the Heroes of Might and Magic games I played on the PC. But this has none of the strategy or fun of those games.

1 star. If that.