hmvblogs - blogs by hmv

taking a break from raiding tombs

I told you on Monday that Lara Croft herself was going to be visiting hmv.com towers this week. Well she came in today to record an interview with me, which I’ll be posting on the site next week, and dressed in all the Lara gear, she looked fantastic. Here’s a pic…

Her real name is Allison Carol, and she was absolutely lovely – not only did she look the part, but she genuinely seemed delighted to be the latest ‘face’ of Lara Croft, and answered all her questions with loads of enthusiasm and sincerity.

Click the ‘more’ button to see a picture of me looking even more ugly than ever, standing with the very beautiful Allison…

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in joint 1st place...

My TWO favourite albums of the year are now No Age - Nouns   and newly joined by Eagles of Death Metal - Heart On both are too cool and there's nothing to choose between them.   

what we do is secret

I finally got to see 'What We Do Is Secret' yesterday - the film about the LA punk band The Germs. It was weird seeing actors playing the band members & other characters who are still around. Fortunately I wasn't familiar with Shane West (of ER) and most likely enjoyed his portrayal of Darby Crash more for it.
Whilst not a great movie, it was still enjoyable and well worth seeing if you like punk bands of the late seventies. The fact that there is a film about the band is great in itself. The music was well done and even though I knew how the story ends, I still found it pretty gripping. Well worth checking out when the dvd comes early next year.

HELP - I’m no good at talking to women!

It’s true, blog fans – I’m not the confident ladies man that you might expect me to be. So the fact that I’m interviewing Allison Carol, the new ‘face’ of Lara Croft for hmv.com this week, is slightly disconcerting. Other than the fact that she’s totally gorgeous, she’s also athletic, funny, intelligent AND she loves games (apparently). Which means the likelihood of me being reduced to a blithering wreck from the moment she walks through the door is highly likely.

I need you help readers. What questions should I ask her? As well as all the typical “what’s it like to be Lara” questions, which she’s probably had to answer a thousand times already, what other things do you think I should ask her about? Leave any suggestions you’ve got as a comment, and your help will be massively appreciated!!

Don’t forget to check back here next week, I’ll be posting the video interview on these very pages. Thanks in advance!

Assassin’s creed of Persia?

It’s been over a year since Assassin’s Creed came out, and if you’ve been pining after the game’s protagonist Altaïr, then this might just be the fix you needed. The new Prince of Persia game is being released on December 5th, and today Ubisoft announced that you’ll be able to play through the forthcoming game in the white and red outfit of Altaïr’s ancient order.

To get access to the ‘skin’, you’ll need to set up a Ubisoft.com account and link it to your Xbox 360 or PSN account, which you can do right now by going over to www.princeofpersia.com. Do this, and when you begin your Prince of Persia adventure you’ll be able to immediately unlock this exclusive reward. Well go on – go do it now…

(by the way, I hate to brag, but pre-order Prince of Persia from hmv.com, and you'll get a super-cool exclusive Prince of Persia sleeve, which looks way nicer than the original - so go pre-order that now by clicking here)

GTA IV DLC coming Feb 09

E3, 2006, and Microsoft have two very special announcements to make. Not only will Grand Theft Auto IV be launching on the Xbox 360, but there’ll also be exclusive downloadable game content in the form of 2 separate episodes, made available after the game is released. The deal worked amazingly well for Microsoft, and helped them beat PlayStation 3 in day one sales of the game by a ratio of about 60/40.

Two and half years later, and over 6 months since GTA IV was released, and the first details of any substance about the first piece of downloadable content have emerged. The Episode is called The Lost and Damned, and will be available on February 17th 2009. Which is slightly disappointing, as we were semi expecting to be playing it by Christmas Day. Anyway, definitely something to look forward to.

In the game, you’ll play as a protagonist Jonny Klebitz, who you may remember from the original game - he was the head of biker gang The Lost Brother hood, and one of the early missions actually features him. According to Rockstar boss Dan Houser: “Johnny is a very different character than Niko, with a very different background. I can't go into too much detail on the story, because we try not to give away too much plot before the game is released. But I can say that the story will show you a different side of Liberty City."

 

Stay tuned for more details!

covered in food but it's alright

Reading Jonny's picks of the year post reminded me that i've yet to settle on mine. Whilst there's been loads of good music i'm finding hard to pick out a clear winner. Far easier, but only just, to choose from one of the great singles to have been released. Currently in the lead would be one of the 2 Hunx sevens, 'Good Kisser' probably just edging 'You Don't Like Rock & Roll' for top spot. Both remind me of the first time i heard 'Leave Home' or 'Rocket To Russia'. The formula seems to be Glitter Band drums, girl group backing vocals & ultra camp singing (Paul thought it was a girl singing when i was playing this the other day). Anyway, i'm looking forward to an album arriving in the new year.

Larkin around last night...

Had the pleasure of attending a cracking showcase last night from Sky Larkin, a new three-piece indie outfit from Leeds at London's quaintly intimate 12 Bar Club in Denmark Street. Katie (vocals, guitar, Korg), Doug (bass) and Nestor (a real pocket dynamo on drums) make up the group. They're signed to the excellent Wichita label and their debut The Golden Spike is out in January. They have a terrific energy and their sound is like a real throw back to good old fashioned indie guitar thrash from the late 80s / early 90s, nice and loud with shimmering guitars and  Katie's very distinct vocals rising above the din. Think Harriet from The Sundays but louder and more in-yer-face. Current comparisons for me would be Duke Spirit, certainly on the vocal front. I can't wait to see them again soon, only next time i hope for their sake the stage is bigger than a snooker table! No offence intended to the 12 Bar!  

My favourite releases of the year...

A lot of best of the year charts are starting to appear in magazines and on the net at the moment, so i thought I'd post mine. When thinking this over i realised this has actually been a great year for releases of both CDs and DVDs, and both lists could easily have been twice or three times as long! I've agonised over this in my head for ages, so here goes, starting with my favourite DVD releases this year...

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beat neversoft at their own game

Ever wanted to take on the makers of Guitar Hero and try to beat them at their own game? Log on to Xbox LIVE next weekend, and you’ll be able to do just that! Throughout the weekend of the 28^th November, guitarists, drummers and vocalists who register and play Guitar Hero World Tour multiplayer (co-op) can win special prizes, such as a Samsung television home theatre package, collector’s edition GHWT drum sticks, 1GB memory sticks and Guitar Hero portable USB/battery powered speakers.

Highlighting the weekend’s activities, on Sunday, November 30 from 10:00pm – 01:00am GMT, virtual musicians will have the opportunity to prove their rock god skills online against none other than Neversoft Entertainment, the creators of Guitar Hero World Tour. For those up for the challenge, be on the look-out for the following development team Gamertags:

GHDevTina – Producer

GHDevLee – Associate Producer

GHDevCorey – Production Coordinator

GHDevAnthony – Midi Designer

GHDevChris – Midi Designer

GHDevJason – Lead Animator

GHDevZack – Junior Programmer

GHDevJosh – Jr. Sound Designer

GHDevKristina – Mocap Supervisor

GHDevJustin – Mocap Tech

GHDevAdry – QA Tester

GHDevBrandon – QA Tester

GHDevTravisR – QA Tester

Of course, if you ever fancy a real challenge, I’m always up for a good game of Guitar Hero. So add my gamertag Ninnero to your friends list, ands hopefully we can have a good online jamming session sometime soon.

when the going gets tough...

I was missing my motorbike over the weekend so I decided to watch the Tough One, one of the most extreme dirt bike races, there's some great on-board camera moments on this taking you closer to the action allowing you to see how tough and physical these enduro comps really are. It all made me reminisce about the tv programme Kick Start and Junior Kick Start that I used to love when I was a kid, especially the bit when they used to ride over the VW Beetle, be great if it got released on dvd, gonna start a petition now.  Here's a clip of the Tough One,  I'll hunt one out from Kick Start later, watch this space...

downloadable content worth killing for!

I’m loving my copy of Guitar Hero World Tour, which I picked up on Friday – the drums are amazing, and the track list is fantastic. We had friends round on Sunday night, and when you’ve got four people rocking out to good music, it’s a great experience (at least it was a great experience until the drums broke!).

Anyway, I found out yesterday that from November 25th you’ll be able to download three tracks from The Killers to play in the game. As well the tracks ‘Human’ and ‘Losing Touch’ from the new album, you’ll be able to play the awesome classic track ‘Mr Brightside’, which I think is just going to be incredibly cool. I swapped my broken drums over for some news ones today, so roll on the 25th!

The three tracks will be available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace for Xbox for 440 Microsoft Points, and on the PLAYSTATION Store for the PS3 for around £4.