Wii U: Rise of the Second Screen.

Nintendo released their new console, the Wii U, in America yesterday and reviews have been flooding in left right and center! Unfortunately Europe won't be seeing a release for 2 weeks so doing a full review won't really be possible on this blog yet. So, in order to celebrate the release of the Wii U I thought I'd do a small summary of the new features available with the console, as well as a list of release titles

Video Game Tracks: 10 Themes You Should Listen To

Inspired by a post I saw on another blog about great music in Halo, I decided to list my favourite video game music of all time. Music in games can really add or subtract from the gameplay itself, and can really immerse the gamer. Plus, lets face it, boss battles are made a hundred times better by fast paced music that makes you feel epic. The best video game music stays with you forever, and can bring back the feelings you felt the first time you heard it. Here I have compiled a list of my very favourite music and a few reasons why I think it's great. Hope you enjoy listening (or re-listening in some cases!) to these brilliant pieces of art.

The Tragedy of the Anaesthetised Cat

A couple of weeks ago I was told that in one of my modules (Medical Physiology for those who are interested) we would be performing certain tests on an anaesthetised cat. This was probably a little naive of me, but I got a little excited with images in my head of an actual anaesthetised cat. My friend put me in line though, reminding me we don't tend to do things like that anymore and that it would probably be a computer simulation. Still, I was rather impressed, cutting open a virtual cat or pumping it full of drugs sounded like it could be pretty interesting and a fulfilling learning experience for a budding biologist.

It wasn't.

I got to the practical yesterday, dragging myself out of bed at 7 to have a hearty breakfast and a shower, so that my mind would be fully prepared to intake whatever I learned. I arrived on time, rearing and ready to go. They split us in two groups, and sent us to do different experiments and swap later. Slightly sad that I was put in the group that had the cat experiment last, I grudgingly went along. I had to analyse some data and present my results, so I pressed onwards quietly and efficiently with the cat program in the back of my mind. Toward the end of this I was getting eager, although I heard muttering coming from the other group about how boring their experiment was boring. "Nonsense!" I thought, "They mustn't understand what they have to do." I finally finished the experiment and our groups were swapped. I eagerly logged into the computers and loaded up Anaesthetisedcat.exe (great file name MMU). It loaded up, and I was immediately confused. This is what I was presented with.

Yup. Two lines, one measuring heart rate and one measuring blood pressure. Drugs could be selected from a drop down menu to be "applied", and the lines would change accordingly. I had a bit of fun and although I didn't learn anything new it helped refresh some things in my mind (namely alpha/beta adrenoceptors, but I won't bore you with that). I got talking with the lecturer who presented it after though and told them about my mistake. I got him to reminisce about experiments he did as an undergrad, before the time of strict enforced Health and Safety and Ethics Committees.

This got me thinking about whether students nowadays are missing out on a big chunk of Biology with these restrictions being pushed upon them. I think most of us will remember a time when a teacher cut open a heart in a science lesson, or they got to cut open some form of organ (my personal favourite has to be cutting open a sheep's eye, really felt like I learned a lot about eye anatomy that, and let's face it, it was so amazingly gruesome I'll never forget it).

If you watch films and shows from the 80's and 90's the "typical" Biology lesson always seems to consist of cutting up some small dead animal. People find this interesting, this is supported by the fact that the Channel 4's "Inside Nature's Giants" show was as phenomenal success and a big talking point. These days though, these things are either brushed aside or done virtually. You get the occasional anatomy lesson where you or the person taking the lesson will cut open some tissue, but these are pretty rare (I can only think of a handful of times I've got a chance to do this).

I really think this is a shame. Obviously there are ethical considerations, and that's a great thing in science. If you look at the lack of ethics that has been in science in the past you'll see why. Scienctists are only just beginning to shed the stigma of "Madman in a white coat" (admittedly there are plenty of those types around though) and moving toward something else.

Humanely obtained samples can still be retrieved and should really be used in schools. It can really help to get kids interested in science, as it stops science lessons getting stuck with the label of "boring".

Halo 4 Multiplayer (Infinity) First Impressions

I've been playing a lot of Halo 4's Infinity Multiplayer recently, and I've been meaning to get round to doing a brief review of it. Althought I still haven't progressed past SR-50 and unlocked the specializations yet, I've got a feel for all the game modes and maps. So without further ado, let's begin!

Why GTA V is going to be fantastic.

With all the news that's been released about Rockstar's next installment of the highly acclaimed Grand Theft Auto series, I thought I'd make a quick summary of all the great features that are going to make GTA V a game to remember. The new trailer was released yesterday, and so my hype toward this game has completely been restored. We get to see the new protagonists in action, and some sneak peeks of the kind of missions we'll be doing throughout the game. Here's the new trailer:

PC Black Ops 2 players are sent Mass Effect 2 on a Black Ops disk

In a hilarious mix up by Activision/Treyarch, PC players who bought physical copies of the newest Call of Duty game were shipped Disc 2 of Mass Effect II! The video I posted here shows one of these "victims".

I can't even begin to imagine how this entire things happened. The two games are made by different companies and their release dates are years apart. Why were the Mass Effect 2 files just laying around waiting to be mass copied in this factory anyway?

6 Great iPhone RPG's You Should Play!

Apple's app store, as we all know, can be absolutely brilliant but also be a pain to sort through! When you're not wading through the endless scam apps, tower defense games and those weird code exchanging clan games, you're sifting through questionable user comments and reviews trying to find out whether App X is really worth paying £0.69 for!

If you're like me, you enjoy a good RPG to sink some time into, something that has a nice story or addictive gameplay. Good quality RPG's aren't easy to find on the app store though, the charts for this category are filled with the sorts of games that you buy coins for and build pointless things (I'm looking at you "Tap -insert business here- series!"). So I've compiled a short-list of my favourite Apple Store RPG's for you to download and try. These are all worth buying, and will give you hours of playtime. These aren't in any particular order as they're all rather different: