But if a game is designed with the limitations and features of the iPhone in mind, then it can be great.

I can’t claim that Galcon was designed for iPhone, because it has existed as a desktop (Windows/Mac/Linux) game for some time now.  It is shareware and a worthwhile download.

But the truth of the matter is that Galcon on a PC is an inferior experience.  The blame lies squarely on the mouse as an input device.  In a game that requires you to click madly all over the screen the mouse is a bit of a hindrance. This doesn’t mean that isn’t a fun game, but playing the iPhone version makes the limitations of the PC version clear.

Galcon is completely at home on the iPhone.  The touch interface is faster and more intuitive than the mouse, enabling frantic gameplay without the occasional implulse to smash your mouse.

So now you’re 6 paragraphs into this review and I haven’t actually told you what Galcon is.  Galcon is a galactic conquest strategy game.  You command fleets of spaceships which you send to conquer other planets.  Computer controlled players also control planets and attempt to defeat you.  The objective in most game modes is to eradicate your enemies from the galaxy.

The gameplay is simplicity itself.  Your planets are a particular color.  In the screenshot above the player is green an has a single planet with 15 ships on it.  This ships can be sent to colonize unoccupied gray planets or to attack the planets of other players.  Once you’ve conquered a planet it begins to produce additional ships for you, with large planets producing them faster than small ones.

There are five modes of play.  In Classic you and your enemy each start with one planet.  In Stealth you can’t see where your enemy is sending ships.  Beast mode presents an enemy that has already conquered much of the galaxy, forcing you to move fast to try to get a foothold.  3-Way mode is similar to classic, but there are two enemies.  Finally, if you’re non-confrontational you might appreciate Vacuum mode in which there are no enemies and you must colonize the galaxy while racing against the clock.

There are 10 levels of difficulty, which means the game can be set to provide anything from an impossible challenge to a quick thoughtless diversion.  Most games last about a minute, which makes this a perfect time waster when you don’t have much time to spare.

If you lose there is the option of replaying the same map over, which on the difficult levels gives a sense of satisfaction when you finally master a map.  As far as I can tell the maps are randomly generated so there is no limit to the number of different games that might be played.

Besides a sense of satisfaction this game gives on the harder levels is a palpable sense of dread.  You get to a point at which your options are being shut down one by one and you can feel that doom is near.  Of course this also serves to bolster your sense of satisfaction when you finally beat a particular map.

Do I have nitpicks?  Yes.  Sound is not there yet, and is coming in an update that has already been submitted to Apple.  Personally I’ve enjoyed playing in silence (in space no one can hear you scream) but I could imagine that it would be nice if you’ve got headphones one.

Second, I’d like the option to pinch to select multiple planets.  Right now that isn’t possible because you can tap and drag from multiple planets at once, which I believe precludes the pinch gesture.

Finally an option to play online would be nice.  The update for that is said to be coming, but is still a few months off.

These concerns are minor though.  Galcon for iPhone is the best game I’ve played on the iPhone.  It is like the game and the device were made for each other as opposed to other iPhone games in which the interfact is limiting.  It is also the best $9.99 I’ve ever spent on a videogame.  You can get it from the app store here.

In many ways there is little to say about this film that hasn’t already been said. It is as good as you’re all hoping. Ledger’s performance is jaw-dropping. It is visually arresting, with epic action sequences and an adroit deployment of CGI that doesn’t override the film’s darker bursts of greatness. Complex, rich, extremely well-acted characters. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Rachel Dawes is far more nuanced and complex than the saccharine Katie Holmes. Nolan is a filmmaker whose talents are as unique as they are obvious.

Oh, and the Bat Bike kicks ass.

Still, this is more than a superbly executed action film or even the best to date of the superhero genre. This is, at its core, a message film that refuses to browbeat its audience with message. This is a story about what happens to a society saturated with and driven by fear, and about blurring the lines that separate good from evil deeds and people. Ledger’s Joker (Jack who?) mesmerizes from the moment he takes the screen, taking viewers in quite literally with a magic trick. He is terrifying—a terrorist in the profoundest sense—yet driven by a nihilistic and anarchic arithmetic that seems to flow naturally and inexorably from the rubbish-heap of self-righteous order civilization attempts to impose on itself. His violent impulse is not creative or even destructive but rather deconstructive. It moves the world not by imposing an alternative kind of order but by inverting the logic of existing, artificial order on itself. How do you catch a forest bandit motivated not by greed but by the sheer exhilaration of the crime, Bruce asks Alfred.

By burning down the forest.

Running perpendicular to Joker’s axis of sublime chaos and misanthropic disgust are the triangulating coordinates of indignant justice and focused outrage of Batman (a character almost wholly distinct here from Bruce Wayne). Not unaware of the structural weaknesses inherent in the proper legal and political order of things, Batman operates within the undefined, unordered, dark space at its edges. If the question of his status—hero or vigilante?—vexes the residents of Gotham, none is more positively tortured by it than the Batman himself. He and Joker cascade toward each other with an elemental ferocity matched in intensity only by their tormented humanity. Both the products of cruel childhood violence, the nearer each gets to the other, the more staggering the breakdown of the hero/villain binary. Just minutes after hearing him castigate the well-meaning Harvey Dent for allowing his visceral rage to threaten his moral authority and his ability to combat terror in a botched torture session with a low-level conspirator, we recoil in horror as Batman allows his own rage to assume control while bludgeoning the none-too-pleased Joker. Part of the point of the XY-axis analogy is that the two must intersect, and as the two outlaws share the space of the interrogation room we see this convergence.

The other point of intersection is in the character of Harvey Dent who, through a cruel twist of fate, has his uncompromised and fearless commitment to justice torqued into an insatiable thirst for vengeance. As Gotham’s white knight he is a symbol for civil and civilized justice that Batman can never be. His ascendancy even furnishes hope for Wayne’s desire to relinquish his dark, heavy armor. As the blighted, unflinchingly cruel Two-Face, his violence is spurred by a personal sense of violated propriety for which Joker has only sneering contempt. Dent’s moral reversal is Joker’s victory—by driving the public hero and bastion of moral justice and civil(ized) order into a murderous rampage of vengeance-taking, he has created a personification of the hypocrisy he sees at the heart of modern society. I’ll refrain from spoiling, but on a certain level, Joker fails by underestimating the goodness of the people his violence is aimed at ruining. But if his terroristic goal was to turn heroes into villains, he has manifestly succeeded.

In the end, that is all we’re left with. This is The Unforgiven of superhero movies. The mythologies are deconstructed piece by piece, and we experience the chaotic result, the post-film, post-superhero trauma, if you will, on an almost visceral level. The Dark Knight is an anti-hero in the profoundest sense.

Yours truly,
Cinnamon J. Scudworth

This whole thing presents several pertinent questions….but I can’t for the life of me think what they are.  Your thoughts?

The casting, however, is top-notch. The three main chimps are voiced by Andy Samberg, Cheryl Hines and Patrick Warburton, with Stanley Tucci, Jeff Daniels, Kristin Chenowith, and Jane Lynch also in key roles. Not bad. The script is a solid B-effort—provided, of course, that you don’t overthink. The jokes come at a steady pace, sprinkled with the requisite pop-culture/sci-fi references, with the double entendres limited to acceptable minimum. Thankfully, the movie’s running time feels just about right. And Space Chimps‘ tone is light and doesn’t beat you down with any heavy-handed pop-psychological or environmental (Happy Feet, I’m looking at you) sermonizing.

The premise revolves around the appearance of a wormhole just beyond the lunar orbit and transports objects to a planet across the galaxy inhabited by strange, day-glo beings (think Boobah or Yo Gabba Gabba!, only less psychotic). Wary of sending humans, NASA decides to launch some chimps (descendants of the original pioneering primates) as part of a test mission. A slacker protagonist redeems himself while teaches others to lighten up, etc., etc. Zaniness ensues. There’s nothing profound or particularly insightful here—thank goodness; there’s also nothing inappropriate for even the youngest child in this G-Rated movie.

It’s hard to say how Space Chimps will do when it opens this weekend. Fox has been running promos for it on Nickelodeon almost non-stop. But it’s one of several kids’ movies released this summer, and seems likely to generate a lot less interest than Wall-E or Kung Fu Panda. This is probably a film that does better on home DVD than in the theaters. On the other hand, if parents are looking for something to take their kids to, this should cause a lot fewer nightmares than The Dark Knight or Mamma Mia!.

Have you been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon? If not you are missing some superb television.

Tomorrow a new episode will air, followed by another new episode Friday and then Saturday is the big four-episode series finale. If you haven’t been watching the series go get caught up on the wikis here and here then watch the last few episodes.

This is good drama and good times folks. The story arc through the three seasons has been consistently coherent and compelling. The character development is outstanding. And the build up to the finale has been riveting. Unlike some shows on TV (I’m looking at you BSG!) one never gets the feeling that the writers were making things up as they went with this series. There has been a clear beginning, middle and end. I trust the grand finale coming up will satisfy as well. 8:00 PM on Nick.

Questions:  Is this right?  Is this fair?  Was Jessica dropped by Will?  Did he do it on purpose?  What’s the deal?  Your thoughts?

Anyone manage to get one?

What’s really annoying is that according to TUOW analysts are giving Apple top notch marks for how it performed the rollout. [Strong language deleted] What on earth are these analysts smoking? I’ve heard of folks who were in line Thursday night who still haven’t got an iPhone.

We present to you the soon-to-be award-winning KulturCast™, Kulturblog’s humble attempt at world domination. This edition was moderated by yours truly, accompanied by our roving specialists Susan M., Clark Goble and MCQ. In it we discuss such critical topics as the upcoming Arrested Development movie, what TV we’ll watch over the summer, So You Think You Can Dance as well as other monumental fluff. But wait, there’s more! We’ve included a bonus track at the end with Susan M. and Brian V. pontificating about the meaning of life…or a song. Or something.

You will note that Clark had some technical difficulties with his audio so we had to use a replacement. Don’t fret, his soothing voice returns at about the 10 minute mark. You will also note that the intro music is a little louder than the rest of the podcast. Actually, I’ve already noted that. Thanks.

Please listen and give us feedback, what you liked, what you didn’t like, etc. (remember that this is our first try so be nice.) We have other ideas up our sleeves but aren’t averse to hearing yours. Also, technical tips would be nice too.