Edmonton Journal du lieu suivant : Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 64

66 FRIDAY, JULY 14, 2006 EDMONTON JOURNAL START MENU TOP 10 RENTALS Top video game rentals for the week ending July 9 1. Pirates of the Caribbean (PlayStation 2) 2. Hitman: Blood Money (PlayStation 2) 3. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (PlayStation 2) 4. Cars (PlayStation 2) 5.

Cars (Nintendo GameCube) 00 oooa oooooo 6. Hitman: Blood Money (Xbox) 7. Kingdom Hearts 2 (PlayStation 2) 8. Naruto: Ultimate Ninja (PlayStation 2) 9. Urban Chaos: Riot Response (PlayStation 2) 10.

Super Mario Strikers (Nintendo GameCube) Rogers Video UPCOMING RELEASES Tuesday NCAA Football 07 (PS2, Xbox, 360, PSP) Backyard Baseball 2007 (PS2) Blade Dancer: Lineage of Light (PSP) Miami Vice (PSP) Monster House (PS2, Cube, GBA) D1 Grand Prix (PS2) Stacked with Daniel Negreanu (PSP) Summon Night (GBA) Wednesday Barnyard (PS2, GBA) July 25 Tekken: Dark Resurrection (PSP) Barnyard (Cube) Contact (DS) The Ant Bully (PS2) gaming, gadgets and gizmos 0000000000000000900009 Advent Children fulfils writers Final Fantasy 'Nerd culture finally gets fill of fantastic FFVll followup VIDEO FILM REVIEW Final Fantasy VII; Advent Children Rating: (out of 5) 1 I 8 WIT I Now, one of the rules (honoured only occasionally in the breach) of the Final Fantasy series is that its increasingly-misnamed instalments aren't true sequels; each game has a unique cast and setting. So, with no true Final Fantasy VII 2 to play through for the continuing adventures of their (anti)heroes, gamers made do for nine years with online fan-fiction and their own fannish imaginations. until the recent release of the direct-to-DVD computer-graphic film, AdventChil-dren. Summer being what it is, I only now got around to clearing a sultry night for checking this film out honestly, I wasn't really all that eager and I'm sorry I waited. Friends this is pure fantasy superheroics.

On the sparest skeleton of plot no spoilers; it's basically two days of fighting three dudes the producers have draped a two-hour manifesto of what can and should be done to create fantastic action with the power of CGI. I can see where film fans might get sniffy about Advent Children; like I said, too; if you're not familiar with the FFVE milieu and, actually, even if you are I recommend hitting the Extras and watching the reminiscence reel to get up to speed before screening the feature. That way, you'll be able to get a hint of whatwefanboys are feeling when we see an aged Red XTJI looking down over the ruins of Midgar, when watching Tifa fight over that bright patch of flowers in the cathedral, when well, you get the picture. Operatic, overblown, mystical and convoluted to the point of confusion? Sure. But it's tight, witty and absolutely eye-popping, the kind of thing you can enjoy as the proverbial ''thrill ride" even if you can't figure out what the hell's going on.

Nerd culture at its fastest, flashiest and most sentimental. Final Fantasy: Advent Children returns fans to the cast of the original PlayStation release that helped launch the gaming system into the world marketplace. The word "beloved" gets thrown around a lot in the world of game marketing; basically, if your franchise made itontolunchboxesyougetto deploy the term in your marketing materials. "Beloved" has about as much objective meaning as "next-gen" or 'drilling." But some games really are beloved, in the dictionary sense, and Final Fantasy VII is one of these. Dropping onto the PlayStation in 1997, FFVII was the sensation that sold the system, a beautiful role-playing game whose epic storyline and cast of characters grabbed gamers and didn't let go.

Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, Sephiroth and my main man Red Xin became instant pop-culture immortals. there's not a lot of movie here. But what it does present impossible, physics-defying action in a manner so beautiful it can give you hives it does well better than anything. If some want to call it as they called the previous FF movie, The Spirits Within a technology demo, then that's fine but it's a demo that should be played, like a textbook, for every Hollywood director who's about to make a superhero movie. It's just screamingly, stupendously, laugh-out-loud, perma-grin awesome.

And, of course, it's purest fan service, Mercenaries II in stark contrast to Bono image Scientist on frontier of measuring excitement factor in different games Mathematical model would help companies screen out dud versions Chavez replaced by an '80s-style puppet who keeps both hands free to work pumps by keeping one foot on the neck of his people. Bono's gamemakers have simply found a very probable job mar ket for their titular Mercenaries. If World In Flames is going to desensitize Americans to the idea of brutal streetfighting in the suburbs of Caracas, well it looks like they're going to be getting used to it eventually, anyway. JK I SPORTS' V. Bono Remember how Bono sort of owns a big chunk of Edmonton's videogamey pride and joy, BioWare In last year's megadeal, the U2 frontman's Elevation Partners used 300 million rockin' dollars to unite BioWare and game developer Pandemic into a mighty powerhouse of indy development.

It was a good day for gaming, but it was only a matter of time before the optics of Global Peace Ambassador Bono holding the reins of Pandemic, who made a lot of their name (and loot) off FuUSpectrum Warrior, the commercial version of a military training tool developed for the Pentagon. That time is now, with the months-away release of MercenariesII: WorldlnFlames, in which "A power-hungry tyrant messes with Venezuela's oil supply, sparking an invasion mat turns the country into a war zone." As Gabriela Ramirez, a member of Venezuela's National Assembly, told The Associated Press, "It sends a message to Americans: 'You have a danger next door, here in Latin America, and action must be It's a justification for an imperialist aggression." Of course, this message is already being sent by the White House and its network of right-wing preachers (secular and otherwise), who'd love nothing more than to see Venezuela's democratically elected socialist president Hugo KEVIN GRIFFIN Vuncr uver Sun A computer scientist believes it's only a matter of time before she can develop a system to measure the amount of fun and excitement each video game generates. Regan Mandryk is the first person in the world to take physiological measurement of heart rate and facial muscle movements to quantify the emotional states of gamers while they play. In research funded by game-maker Electronic Arts for Mandryk's doctorate at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, the 30-year-old computer scientist created experiments to measure physical indications of excitement, fun, challenge, frustration and boredom. Three groupsof men between the ages of 18 and 27 played NHL 2003 by EA Sports while they were attached to physical sensors that included electrodes sewn in velcro strips placed on the index and ring fingers of the same hand.

"There's been along history of using physiological metrics to quantify emotional state that's what lie detectors do," Mandryk said in an interview from Dalhousie University in Halifax, where sheH be teaching a new computer science course this fall. "But you have a human expert inter-pretingthe information. Myapproach is to encode that human expertise in a mathematical model." Mandryk said while her research is still preliminary, the ultimate goal is to develop a system that's able to evaluate the emotional responses of gamers within an hour of finishing a game. Currently, game companies rely on the gut instinct of programmers and production managers and occasional product evaluation through time-corisurning interviews and focus groups once the game hits the market. At the moment, only one in 10 games in the development stage make it to general release; and of the games that get to the public, not all are successful.

Consumers in the U.S. spent $7 billion on video and computer games lastyear, compared to $2.6 billion in 1996, according to the Entertainment Software Association. "There's actually a huge investment in games that never make it to market," said Mandryk. "If you have a systematic way of determining whether games are actually fun and enjoyable to play in the development stage, developers and companies would be able to save a lot of money andhave abetter, risk-free way of de- SUPPLIED A research project used one of the NHL series by EA Sports to test the emotional states of volunteer gamers. It's the contrast between Bono's peacenik public image and the game his money's helping to design that even makes this a story, if Ted Nugent was funding war games, instead of just lending his image to cheap hunting simulators, who would think twice? Still, this line from Mercenaries II lead designer Scott Walker is pretty creepy: "One of the key reasons Venezuela was chosen for the setting of Mercenaries II is that is a fascinating and colourful country, full of wonderful architecture, geography and culture." So, uh join the virtual army, travel the virtual world, meet interesting virtual people.

and virtually kill them. Darren Zenko, Special to The Journal veloping good ideas." Her research revealed thatplayers like competing against friends more than against a computer. She also discovered that physiological responses measuring boredom, excitement and fun compared well with players' reported responses but challenge didn't. jf gb XtrXh Jilt vvX JtiLv $JL MJLALSSt odd "babiak Todd explores the human spirit with insight and humour in his blog at www.edmontonjournal.com Ay field Dinner Theatre presents By Jo-Ann Waytowich Music by Jo-Ann Waytowich Dianne Potts BOMMRDER presents 'in i jrycawA Jilt tulAKiou toUAMJuJL cotvwty If laughter's what you're after, join Ivanka as she mounts a crusade to help the masses who spend their lives worrying about being fat, over 40 and unl it. Armed with her Ten Poinl Personal Tune-Up, Canada's newest comedk motivational speaker has audiences across Canada rolling in the aisles as she pokes uproarious fun at all those self-help gurus, and invites you to "take a check up from the neck For Tickets Call 483-4051 Toll Free 1-877-529-7829 16615 109 Ave, Edmonton Buy Onlinel www.mayfieldinnedmonton.com ram mm.