The Dark Knight Rises review

WARNING! Contains Spoilers!

 "The Dark Knight Rises" takes 8 years after the "The Dark Knight." Bruce Wayne is an old hermit in Wayne Manor. He has no cartilage in his legs or arms. Catwoman steals his mom's necklace. He is blamed for the death of Harvey Dent even though he was not responsible. There is not any organized crime because of the "Dent Act." If the lie gets out organized crime will kick back into action. Bane comes and takes over the city. The CEO of Wayne Enterprises is actually Talia, daughter of Ra's al Ghul (Rãsh âl Gool). THey threaten the city with an atom bomb and Batman gets rid of it. I rate this movie a 9.4/10

Portal 2 co-op review

Portals 2's co-op feature is like the single player version but with two people. It's fun to play with a friend or enemy. You have to complete puzzles and other challenges in order to move on. There are lasers and turrets. It's fun to get side tracked and kill your partner (a bunch). There is a faint story behind all of the puzzles. You have to open a big vault to free humans to test more. GLaDOS is once again voiced by Ellen McClain which is very good since she did an excellent job on the single player. She is the only voice except for little sounds which come from the robots you are playing. It was well done and I give this a 8.3/10

The Amazing Spiderman Movie Review

The Amazing Spiderman is a good movie which really captures who spiderman and Peter Parker is. Peter starts out as a four-year old who comes to live with his Uncle and Aunt. He finds a briefcase of his dads and finds a newspaper article in it. It shows his dad with Dr. Connors, a famed scientist. He visits Dr. Connors and gets bitten by a spider. He soon discovers he has spider-like abilities. He gets mad at his Uncle Ben and runs off and his Uncle follows him and gets killed. Entangled in rage he goes off to find his uncle's killer. In the meantime Dr, Connors makes a formula to grow back his lost arm, it works but he gets changed into a big lizard. He tries to poison the whole city but Spiderman ends up stopping him. I really enjoyed this movie and I give it a 9.1/10

The City of Ember Book Review

The City of Ember is about two people, Lina, and Doon (I can't remember the last names) both of which live in the strange City of Ember, all around the city (so far as the people of ember know) there is total and complete darkness. The city relies on a generator that creates all of the electricity for the city (The people do not know about fire) And the generator is failing. One day Lina finds a strange box with ripped up note that may have the answer to embers problems. The story is full of very interesting... parts, anyway the City of Ember is a very interesting city made by "The Builders" who created the city of ember (for unknown reasons) and they have certain specified jobs, once the children finish school (age 12) they get to pick a random job out of a hat, and once they pick the job they get it forever! The story is like a mix of bee movie, national treasure, and Indiana Jones. This book (in my opinion) deserves a solid 8.8/10    

Inception Movie Review

Written by: Game Dude,

Inception is another oscar wining movie by Christoper Nolan Who also directed batman begins which used to be my favorite movie of all time, until this movie. Inception has a very complex story but basically someone has invented a device where someone can do into someone else's dream or make there own and the person join the dream fills it with their subconscious, if the dreamers alter the world to much then the subconscious will attack the dreamers only when the dreamers die in a dream they wake up. They also have extractors who go into the dream and take ideas away from that person, a man named Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is the most skilled extractor when suddenly he is asked to preform inception (putting and idea in someone else's head) which is really challenging, and to add to the difficulty his evil wife is chasing him through the dreams. The movie also have dreams within dreams and paradoxes as well as many more awesome things. Inception is a very awesome movie and you need to watch it three times to understand it all. A kid older than 11 could understand this movie but anyone below 12 will not get the movie. I rate Inception a 10/10.      

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games DS Game Review

Written by Game Dude,

This game is the sequel to the very fun game called Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games. This game is not quite as good as the first game but it still has its upsides such as lots of new events, although the events do not have the same entertainment value as the first game. Another disappointing thing is that sometimes the computer players are unnaturally good and sometimes the computer players are unnaturally bad which can be very annoying. There are many other reasons why this game is not as good as the first, but It still can be fun I give it a 8/10 whereas the first game got a 8.9/10

Chek it or Regret it     

Real Steel Movie Review

Written by Game Dude,

This movie came out on dvd Jan 24 2012 it is the 26th now so this movie came out two days ago, so is it worth 5$ to rent or is it worth waiting for  it to come out in the library? Well yes it is worth waiting for, I'm not saying that this is a bad movie i'm just saying that its free to wait so ya. Real Steel is not the movie you would expect, It starts out where Charly Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is up to his head in det and he needs to find a fighting robot that will win a match for him and make him money! This movie surprisingly is not a violent Transformers type movie its more like a father son movie only with robots killing each other. I recommend this movie for ages 9 to 109 and I give it a 7.7/10

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Game Guild Express Videos

Recently we here at the game guild decided to make really short reviews for people who do not have time to watch a full review we called these reviews Game Guild Express Reviews, We even made a new intro for these reviews! These reviews are on The Game Guild youtube page here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGameGuildreviews/videos

And here are the links for the two express reviews that we made:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr0-KhUTkKQ&feature=plcp&context=C3da4119UDOEgsToPDskLPG4sSY9zFRlIxvE2mfyb3

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX62M7Arfoo&feature=related

We hope you enjoy our reviews!

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How to write a game review

        Here is a simple way to write a good game review. I will go through the steps so you can become a good review writer. You will soon have fun writing game reviews as we do.

   The Opening. You can start this out by telling how the game works and looks. Do you like it? How does it feel? Are the controls good?

   The Meat. This is the main part of the review where you tell about a small part of the game. You can tell what the story was like and how you liked playing as the character.

   Gameplay. The Gameplay is an important part of a review because it shows how the game is played. It can tell about the controls and the graphics, and even the sound.

   Graphics. This is without doubt the easiest part of the review. Talking about the Graphics is simple. Just tell the reader if they were "Spectacular!" or "Totally Lifelike!" Or you can say they sucked! It depends on how you think about graphics.

   Sound. Well this is the part of the review where you talk about the sound. Is it good? Was it realistic? What was your view on the sound?

   Value. Is it worth buying, or a rent only? Does it have multiplayer? Tell about that!

   Fun. Was this a fun game? Was it addicting? Well, good!

   The Score. This is a tricky thing to find out. Sometimes I usually just feel what I should rate the game. You might not feel that way though. What I would do is I would lay out pros and cons about the game. For example if I was reviewing a racing game I would put;

+Good Controls

+Amazing Courses

+Good Graphics

-Bad Voice Acting

-Terrible Storyline

    So I would probably rate this game a 7.5/10.

Well that is the end of this tutorial; I hope you guys get a lot out of it!

Rise of the Planet of the Apes Movie Review

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rise) is an AWESOME MOVIE!!!! However... I recommend watching the first planet of the apes because there are some refrenses to the first film (kinda like tron legacy only better) So basically Rise is about the a scientist names Will Rodman (James Franco) who has discovered the cure to a variety of brain diseases. They test out the serum on apes. One ape escaped and they had to put all of the apes down, but Will Rodman manged to save a baby ape and named him ceasar (Andy Serkis). Andy Serkis is awesome as always as Ceasar. James Franco has improved greatly with his acting and is very good in this movie. So overall Rise of the Planet of the Apes is an awesome movie and I give it a 9/10

Remember to Chek it or Regret it

Top Five Movies (GameGuy)

5. Batman: Under the Red Hood More Info!

4. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King More Info!

3. The Dark Knight More Info!

2. The Count of Monte Cristo More Info!

1. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers More Info!

Top 5 Movies (GameDude)

5. Rise of the Planet of the Apes More Info

4. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest More Info!

3. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers More Info!

2. Batman Under The Red Hood More Info!

1. Batman Begins More Info!

Terminator Review

-By GameGuy

 Terminator is a violent movie with a violent storyline. It is 2035 and robots have taken over the earth. A group of freedom fighters end one of their guys back to 1984. They are trying to stop a terminator robot from trying to kill a mother of her unborn son. So, the son is the leader of the freedom fighters. It is entertaining if you are extremely bored. The special effects aren't good. The terminator Robot is stop motion at the end of the movie. There are scenes where The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) shoots and kills countless people. I recommend the movie for 12+. It isnt that exciting, I would definately watch the 2nd over this. We rate this a 5.4/10

Uberstrike Game Review

Written by: Game Dude,

Uberstrike for the mac is a very good game and here is why. Uberstrike is a first person shooter where you have 8 types of guns, melee weapons, handguns, machineguns, shotguns, sniper riffles, cannons, splatterguns, and launchers. now if you are a parent and you think that uberstrike is bad for kids then you would be wrong unless the kid is 7 years old, uberstrike is 100% kid friendly no blood, no gore, nothing bad like that. as you eliminate other players you gain xp then you level up and you can unlock new guns and you will be able join clans (you need two reach level 4) clans allow you to privet chat with people and they will be on your team if you play. You can promote people in the clan if you made it which is a neat touch. If you want to join our clan its called TheGameGuildreviews clan all you need to do is chat with GameDude6400 (me) we will invite you to the clan if you want the good thing about clans is that you need to specifically invite someone to the clan. Uberstrike has no single player its all online multiplayer. I give Uberstrike a 9/10 it is very good and now you can get it for free on the app store!!!!

Chek it or Regret it, 
 
 

Bolt DS Game Review

 Written by: Game Dude,

Bolt for the DS is based on the movie that came out a long time ago and was kinda ok, but anyway, "Bolt" is a third person action game the Y button does a normal attack, the X button does a more powerful attack, the B button jumps, the A button ground slams, and the touch pad is used for becoming invincible. There are also button combos such as Y Y Y and Y Y X and so on. One of the issues of Bolt is that the levels are way WAY WAY to long which is not good for a handheld device such as the DS. The reason most DS games are good because they have short levels so that you can just pull it out of you pocket on the bus and beat a level and that is why I give this game a 6/10 Bolt needs shorter levels otherwise I would have given it a higher score.

Chek it or Regret it

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) Game Review

 Written by: Game Dude,


Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games for the DS (MSOGDS) is an awesome game!!!! MSOGDS is basically a glorified minigame collection and a good one at that. The best part about MSOGDS is the replay ability, The only gripe about the replay ability is that there are to few good events. Each character has their own stats there are four groups of skill typs speed, skill, power, and all around which means that you will need to chose your charictor wisely. For instance if you were going to do the 100 meter dash you would need a speed charictor and so on. You also have an achievement system which just adds even more to the replay ability. Overall MSOGDS is VERY VERY AWESOME!!!!!!! I give it a 9/10.

Coming soon: Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games DS Review 

Batman Arkham City!!!!!

Batman arkham city is the sequel to the epic batman arkham asylum. Now keep in mind that this is not a review I really wish it was but it is not because I do not own the game. Batman arkham asylum is on the app store now unfortunately I am not allowed to play teen rates games dew to the supreme command (my mom) I have been trying to get game guy to buy it but to no avail. anyway batman arkham city is is a third person action game and it is awesome I will not spoil what happens in the beginning (I wached  walkthroughs). If you cant tell we here at the game guild absalootly dc nerds we love dc so naturally if there is a good dc game on the market then we will want to buy it emedetly well at least some of us. so overal buy the game I cant so you should one we get it then we will do walkthroughs and all that awesomeniss. so anyway this has been the game dude and buy batman arkham city now. Chek it or Regret it  

Captain America: The First Avenger Review

By GameGuy

  Captain America was a great movie that is definitely worth the watch. The main character is Steve Rogers, otherwise known as Captain America. He starts out as a skinny little guy with a lot of courage. Doctors see the Courage in him and transform him into Captain America! The Villain in this story is "Red Skull." Red Skull has the same stuff that made Captain America, except he has an early stage of the serum so he has a side effect that makes his face red. The special effects are exceptional, but like most movies they have flaws. This is movie has a great storyline and I enjoyed every second. Captain America will return in The Avengers. I give this movie a rating of  8.7/10

Minecraft Game Review

Written by: Game Dude,

Minecraft at first glance is a boring lame low quality game that everyone just really seems to love, kind of like Twilight. But once you start playing the game that’s when it becomes awesome, but why is it awesome? Well you have almost unlimited possibility’s I say almost because you have a limited block list. When you first open the game you will need to find a shelter and some wood. You get wood by going over to a tree then you hold down the left mouse button and in a few seconds bang, you have wood after that you can make a crafting table for crafting items I suggest that you open this link whenever you need to craft on Minecraft  Minecraft Wiki

    There is also another mode called "Creative Mode." On Creative Mode you have unlimited blocks, you cant die, and you can fly. Which is awesome for building huge structures. Well that is it I hope you guys get Minecraft it is a very, very awesome game I give it a 9/10

Book Review: Design Thinking by Peter G. Rowe

Written by: Szeedawg,

Following is a critical review of the book Design Thinking, by Peter G. Rowe. 

Introduction

Design Thinking (Rowe 1987)[i] provides a synopsis of the eponymous topic and provides specific context to architecture. It provides a serviceable overview of the historical progression of design thinking procedure, and it offers a specific examination of the topic from the perspective of architecture. On a meta-level it may also point to useful method for applying normative analyses of design thinking to a discipline-specific framework. The book was published before some important recent work on design thinking appeared, so an updated edition is necessary. Lastly, it would be better organized if it made more integrative use of the philosophy of science content in the final chapter. 

Case Studies & Method

Rowe outlines the overall objective of the book as follows: To “account for the underlying structure and focus of inquiry directly associated with those rather private moments ‘seeking out’ on the part of designers…”[ii] He starts the discussion with some practical examples of designers tackling real-world challenges, following the method discussed in Hayes (1981, 51-57)[iii] and Pohlman (1982)[iv] of reconstructing the steps and procedures used by the designers as they recall their interior thought processes. At this stage it would have been helpful for the author to openly declare his specific methodology and philosophy of science approach instead of leaving that discussion to the end of the book, and then doing so in a general, synoptic manner. Had he been more clear about is nomothetic, interpretive approach at the outset it would have put his subsequent survey of design inquiry approaches into sharper relief.[v]

Two further criticisms of the case study examples are worth noting. First, the thought processes in each case study were not clearly presented and their summarizations were not clearly outlined. The sketches are unhelpful because they are reproduced in a virtually illegible size and are not well incorporated into the inquiry process description. Second, the cases are only peripherally referred to in the rest of the book. Instead of referring back to the cases and the summarized learnings, the author uses the cases as interesting anecdotes in the subsequent inquiry of process and normative guides, but leaves them otherwise unrelated to the book’s findings. A tighter connection between the research and the findings would have made this a stronger work. 

The cases were nevertheless valuable illustrations of the fact that many challenges faced by designers are brought upon themselves: By committing to a concept without sufficient inquiry into the project’s practical requirements, by forcing a style into a project where it may not be the most appropriate, and by failing to reconcile two competing ideas at the outset of a project. This sets the stage for the remainder of the book by showing that design thinking cannot be examined on a purely procedural basis because its episodic nature inevitably requires a normative discourse to guide the problem solving at each stage of inquiry. Procedure is a necessary but not sufficient condition for successful design.[vi]

Procedure

Before tackling design thinking procedure the author offers a broad and useful overview of problems and problem solving theory. The author eventually lands on the information processing theory of problem solving from Newell, Shaw and Simon (1957),[vii] which the author indicates is the then-current dominant school of thought. As noted before, this finding comes abruptly, without sufficient substantiation, and without consistent reference throughout the rest of the book.

The remainder of the procedural section contains helpful summaries and overviews of important concepts of problem solving. He rightly concludes that there is no single, definitive design process because process alone is limited epistemologically to “knowing-how” versus “knowing-what.”[viii] For the reviewer, this overview was helpful and effective in summarizing what at the time of publishing was the most recent thinking on the subject. 

Normative Positions and Application 

Having identified the inadequacy of procedure on its own, the author turns to normative positions and their application to design thinking. Of most interest to the reviewer was the normative framework of analysis, because of its possible use in applying design thinking to other disciplines and fields beyond architecture. Across the top of the grid we move from common to divergent elements (orientation, leitmotifs, style) and against these themes we mark the major categorizations of subject matter thought: functionalism, populism, conventionalism and formalism. This method of mapping large-scale objectives of the discipline against specific, existing schools of thought can provide a useful way to apply design thinking normative inquiry to other disciplines, and merits further analysis.

This brings us to one of the primary criticisms of this book, which relates to its currency. Being published in 1987, the author predates some of the more recently influential work on design thinking that presumably would have influenced some of this analysis. For example, had Krippendorff’s (1989)[ix] contribution on circular cognitive processes been available it likely would have informed the author’s discussion of the interplay between process and normative decision-making, possibly bringing to a more integrative conclusion. A similar statement can be made about the body of work by Martin[x], Verganti,[xi] Buchanan[xii] and other more current design thinkers. 

Realms of Inquiry

The author finishes the book with an overview of two realms of inquiry into architecture: external and self-referential. First, he covers architecture’s relationship to the external world by canvassing the major philosophies of science and their approaches to architecture as a social endeavor. He covers the current dominant philosophy, functionalism, planning orthodoxy, systems approaches,[xiii] and then the usual “alternative” scientific approaches, including humanism, structuralism, tacit conventions, phenomenology, and logical falsification. The second approach to inquiry is self-referential within the field of architecture. The author concludes, pointing to three modes of re-interpretation and outlines some corresponding challenges.

The author’s analysis would have been more coherent had this final chapter appeared early in the text and formed the backdrop against which the survey of design thinking unfolded. Had the author gone one step further and taken an approach similar to Burrell and Morgan (2008),[xiv] in which they clearly define and delineate the entire scope philosophical approaches at the outset and then discuss the various applied positions in detail, this work would have formed the basis for an enduring analysis of design thinking as applied to architecture.

Conclusion

Design Thinking made a useful contribution but it needs a new edition in order to incorporate recent contributions to design thinking. The book would also benefit from a tighter integration of the research, and from using the philosophy of science inquiry as a logical thread to give this broad topic more internal consistency. 

---

[i] Rowe, Peter G., (1987). Design Thinking. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

[ii] Ibid. p. 1.

[iii] Hayes, John R. (1981). The Complete Problem Solver. Philadelphia: Franklin Institute Press, in Ibid. p. 2.

[iv] Pohlman, Richard W. (1982). “A System for Recording  Bahavior and Occupying Design.” In Omer Akin and Elanor F. Weinel, eds., Representation in Architecture, pp. 121-138. Silver Springs Maryland: Information Dynamics, in Ibid. p. 2.

[v] This research method is of particular interest to the reviewer for reasons of expected subsequent design thinking inquiry, and the reviewer would have preferred more in-depth description of the method.

[vi] Parenthetically, the discussion of episodic nature of design inquiry reminds the reviewer of Kay, Regier, Boyle, Francis (1999), and related open systems thinkers, whose work on self-organizing holarchic open systems, in the sense of their application of systems theory to complex systems that respond to exergy by adapting until it can no longer be absorbed, at which time the self-organization becomes chaotic and must re-establish a new homeostasis. (Kay JJ, Regier HA, Boyle M, Francis G, An Ecosystem Approach for Sustainability: Addressing the Challenge of Complexity, Futures 1999;31:721-742.)  In terms of the reviewer’s subsequent research open systems and complexity theory will be of particular interest in identifying a framework for design thinking analysis.

[vii] Newell, A., Shaw J.C., and Simon H.A. (1957). “Elements of a Theory of Problem Solving.” Rand Corporation Report P-971, March.

[viii] Schoen, Donald A., (1983). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York: Basic Books., in Ibid. p. 112.

[ix] Krippendorff K., “On the Essential Contexts of Artifacts or the Proposition that “Design is Making Sense (of Things),” in Margoulin, V. and Buchanan, R., eds., The Idea of Design, MIT Press, 1995, pp. 156-184.

[x] Martin, Roger, (2009). The Design of Business: Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Press.

[xi] Verganti, R., (2009). Design-Driven Innovation: Changing the Rules of Competition by Radically Innovating What Things Mean. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Press.

[xii] Buchanan, R., “Wicked Problems in Design Thinking.” In Margolin, V. and R. Buchanan, eds., The Idea of Design, MIT Press, 1995, pp. 3-20.

[xiii] An interesting outcome of this discussion, from the reviewer’s perspective, is that closed systems approaches can at times be problematic to designers insofar as they may require a restrictive categorization of variables as exogenous to the system; an approach antithetical to a holistic, design-based approach.

[xiv] Burrell, G. and Morgan, G., (2008). Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis: Elements of the Sociology of Corporate Life. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing Company.