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Set 500 years after the original game, Fable 2 offers even more choices and features, while building on the core gameplay theme of Fable where every choice continually defines who you become, allowing you to truly live the life you choose. Fable II expands upon the scope and depth of the original by adding incredible new features and creating a wider, more complex kingdom of limitless choices and consequences. Players will have the option to play as a man or woman, get married, have children, and live a life of their own design — all leading to different destinies.

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — A Warner Bros. executive says the Batman sequel “The Dark Knight” has taken in $155.34 million to top “Spider-Man 3″ for best opening weekend ever at the box office.

The figures released Sunday show “The Dark Knight” more than $4 million ahead of the $151.1 million first weekend for “Spider-Man 3″ in May 2007.

Studio distribution chief Dan Fellman says “The Dark Knight” also broke the “Spider-Man 3″ record for best debut in IMAX large-screen theaters with $6.2 million. “Spider-Man 3″ opened with $4.7 million in IMAX cinemas.

Stoked by fan fever over the manic performance of the late Heath Ledger as the Joker, “The Dark Knight” also set a one-day box office record with $66.4 million on opening day, Fellman said Saturday.

The movie’s Friday haul surpassed the previous record of $59.8 million set last year by “Spider-Man 3.”

“The Dark Knight” began with a record $18.5 million from midnight screenings, topping the previous high of $16.9 million for “Star Wars: Episode III — The Revenge of the Sith.”

The opening day grosses for “The Dark Knight” far exceeded the full weekend haul of its predecessor, “Batman Begins,” which took in $48.7 million in its first three days in 2005.

Reviews were excellent for director Christopher Nolan’s “Batman Begins,” but they were stellar for his “Dark Knight.”

“We’ve really never seen anything like this,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. “The death of a fine actor taken in his prime, a legendary performance and a movie that lives up to all the hype. That all combined to create these record-breaking numbers.”

Buzz had been high for the Batman sequel well before Ledger died of an accidental prescription-drug overdose in January. Trailers last fall revealing Ledger’s demented Joker, with crooked clown makeup, turned up the heat even more. The critical acclaim over his performance that built from advance screenings left fans in a frenzy.

“It’s a combination of things. Certainly, that’s a great part of it, but I think this movie’s gross was partly because of the reviews it received and the incredible buzz and word of mouth that preceded it with our early screenings,” Fellman said. “And the success and quality of the last one, ‘Batman Begins,’ delivered by Chris Nolan just set the tone for the opening of this movie.”

“The Dark Knight” reunites Christian Bale as Batman, the vigilante crime-fighter tormented by personal tragedy, and co-stars Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Gary Oldman.

The film spins an epic crime duel as Ledger’s Joker orchestrates a reign of terror on the city of Gotham aimed to spread chaos and break down the restraint that keeps Batman on the right side of the law.

Although critics are taking the film seriously enough to suggest that Ledger could be in line for an Academy Award nomination, the action-packed movie also delivers as pure summer movie escapism.

“If you’re worried about mortgage payments and gas prices, when you’re sitting in ‘The Dark Knight’ for two and a half hours, you’re not thinking about any of that stuff,” Dergarabedian said.

By CNN

HOCKENHEIM, Germany (AP) — McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton has won the German Grand Prix for his fourth Formula One victory of the year.

Hamilton started from pole position but lost his lead because of a late pit stop, before overtaking Felipe Massa of Ferrari and then Nelson Piquet Jr. with eight laps to go for a 5.5-second victory over the rookie Renault driver, who claimed the first podium of his career.

The success gives Hamilton the sole lead in the overall standings, four points ahead of Massa, who finished third.

Nick Heidfeld worked his way up from 12th position to finish fourth ahead of McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen in fifth place.

It was 23-year-old Hamilton’s second win in succession — the first driver to do so this year — and the eighth of his career, a feat that hauled him clear of all his rivals and gave McLaren their first win at Hockenheim in 10 years.

Hamilton now lies on 58 points, four ahead of Massa. The Brazilian’s Ferrari team-mate, world champion Finn Kimi Raikkonen, is seven points adrift after finishing a disappointing sixth.

Hamilton dominated the first half of the race after powering away from the ninth pole position of his career.

The Briton had built-up a lead of around 12 seconds by lap 36 when German Timo Glock crashed out in his Toyota. Glock lost control of his car at the last corner when the right rear tire suddenly deflated sending him spearing into the wall.

The German, 26, slid backwards down the home straight before his wrecked car finally came to a stop.

Glock was clearly dazed after he got out of the Toyota and was later taken to the medical center and then a local hospital for a check-up.

“He has now completed these tests and they have confirmed he is fine. He has no concussion,” said Toyota team chief Tadashi Yamashina. “Naturally Timo is a bit shaken by the accident but all the checks have shown he is fine so we are not worried.”

Glock will be kept in hospital overnight for observation, but should be able to drive in the Hungarian GP on August 3.

Hamilton was kept out on the track as all his main rivals made their final pit-stops under the safety car.

The Mercedes-powered driver dropped to fifth when he was forced to make his final pit-stop, but soon passed team-mate Heikki Kovalainen for third spot.

Hamilton then hunted down Massa overtaking his rival on lap 57 as he forced his rival wide at the chicane to take second with Nick Heidfeld having pitted for BMW.

“I didn’t plan that. I would have preferred a more comfortable race,” said Hamilton. “We got a decent start, had two decent stints, but the team opted for me to stay out.

“Hey, we all have decisions to make, and for sure we will learn from this one. I then kept pushing after my second stop, and credit to Heikki who is a great team-mate, who could see I was quicker.”

Speaking on overtaking Massa and Piquet, he added: “I was told I was a second quicker than Felipe. I knew I only had a small window before my tires would start to grain, so I was able to get quite close.

“I managed to get him under braking, and it was great fun. I thought my work was done, but I was told I still had Nelson in front of me, but I managed to do that cleanly and fairly.”

Piquet, on the podium after starting a lowly 17th, said: “I got quite lucky, but I was on the perfect strategy and the team called me in at the right time.

“I knew I was leading the race at one point, but Lewis was much quicker than me and I decided to make it a safe second place rather than a third or fourth.”

With two Brazilians on the podium for the first time since 1991 at the Belgian Grand Prix when Piquet’s father, Nelson, was joined by Ayrton Senna, Massa was not too despondent at finishing third.

“The pace of Lewis at the start was so quick, half a second per lap quicker, and when it’s like that there’s not a lot you can do,” said Massa.

“Then after the safety car period the team did a normal, good job — although Lewis was perhaps a bit too optimistic there. Then on the final set of tires I didn’t have stability and I was having trouble on the brakes.

“I was not able to fight today, but at the end of the day it was a good race. We now have to work very hard for the rest of the season to give us a car to compete for the remainder of the races,” added Massa.

By: CNN

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (AP) — A man convicted of killing “Curious George” collaborator Alan Shalleck in South Florida has been spared the death penalty.

judge sentenced Vincent Puglisi to life in prison on Wednesday after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon.

His co-defendant Rex Ditto was given a life sentence in 2007.

Authorities said the pair went to Shalleck’s home in February 2006 intending to rob him.

Shalleck suffered 83 blunt force injuries and more than three dozen stab wounds.

Shalleck wrote and directed episodes of “Curious George” and co-wrote books with Margret Rey, who created the mischievous monkey with her husband more than 60 years ago.

Two years after the Helghast assault on Vekta, the ISA is bringing the fight to the enemy’s home world of Helghan. Taking the role of Sev, the battle-hardened veteran of the special forces unit known as the Legion, players will embark upon a mission to the planet Helghan to capture the Helghast leader, Emperor Visari, and bring the enemy’s war machine to a halt. For Sev and his squad, the invasion of Helghan is just the beginning. Tasked with securing Pyrrhus, the Capital City, the team quickly discovers that the Helghast are a formidable enemy on their home planet. Not only have they adjusted to the planet’s hostile conditions, they have also harnessed a source of power from the environment that can be used against the ISA. Sev and his team soon discover the fight is greater than simply addressing the enemy forces; the Legion must also learn how to handle the effects of the fierce enemy planet.

APPLE turned on the tap for its iPhone App store last week, unleashing more than 500 applications for iPhone users. If you have an iPhone, you just might forget the device is capable of making phone calls, since you’ll be so busy updating Facebook pages, coveting your neighbor’s co-op and wielding your handset to swerve around virtual racetracks.

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The store is an object lesson for other cellphone makers and carriers on how to make your customers’ phones indispensable. The App Store is simple to use, thanks to its elegant and intuitive interface. Many of the apps are free, and most cost $9.99 or less (although a select few cost as much as $79.99).

Five buttons — Featured, Categories, Top 25, Search and Updates — line the bottom of the screen, and that’s about all you need to navigate. Each app includes an overview from the publisher, a rating (one to five stars) and user reviews. If you’re considering a for-pay program, read the comments first because reviewers often describe glitches that might change your mind.

The Categories screen will give you a good idea of the sweeping breadth of apps available, from work (scientific calculators) to play (tossing cows), with an emphasis on fun.

If you know what you’re looking for, the fastest way to get it is to enter keywords in the search field. To download an app, simply touch and hold the Install key. The phone will ask for your iTunes password, and then will automatically load the app. If the app maker charges a fee, the amount will be charged to your iTunes account.

The most promising of the new programs take advantage of the iPhone 3G’s built-in G.P.S. to provide location-aware capabilities. Suppose you’re having a drink after work and suddenly sushi seems like an imperative. Apps such as Yelp can automatically pinpoint your current location using G.P.S. and display nearby Japanese restaurants.

The iPhone can also do double duty as a hand-held gaming console, thanks to its accelerometer, which, for instance, lets you use the device to steer a race car in a driving simulator game. Better yet, the graphics are surprisingly crisp.

Many of the software titles present information that you could also find using the iPhone’s Safari Web browser, but the apps often win out. Say, for instance, you want to check your Facebook page. If you navigate to the Web site using Safari, you’ll need to home in on a certain part of the page and enlarge it to read, then scoot around to other parts of the page as necessary. With the Facebook app for the iPhone, all the information is reformatted so it is readable and organized. No scooting required.

One important limitation is that applications don’t run in the background, so if you’re listening to an online radio station and toggle to your e-mail application, you’ll lose the radio feed.

Here are eight of the best applications currently available. (Visit nytimes.com/personaltech for a slide show that shows you these and 10 other top picks.)

Entertainment

BoxOffice (Free): BoxOffice takes advantage of the iPhone’s G.P.S. capabilities to find movies near you. You can browse by theater, movies, showtimes and distance. When you find what you want, BoxOffice provides a short synopsis of each movie and ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, a movie review site. It will also display the address of the theater, and locate it for you on Google Maps. You can even link to Fandango for ticket purchases.

Games

Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D ($9.99): Flip your iPhone horizontal and hop into a hot rod with the crusading Crash Bandicoot. The iPhone’s accelerometer enables you to steer your car by tilting the phone to the left and right. The game offers 12 tracks and environments, as well as plenty of opportunities to blast through opponents and crates of fruit. The graphics are mighty impressive, but be warned that this game will drain your battery faster than an S-curve wipe-out.

Health Care and Fitness

Epocrates Rx (Free): This prescription-drug database contains data on more than 3,300 brand-name and generic drugs. While it’s meant for health care professionals, Epocrates delivers a wealth of information that is useful to consumers, too. For instance, Epocrates spells out common medication dosages for adults and children, side effects, interactions with other medications and even photos of the pills to help you identify or verify medication.

Lifestyle

Yelp (Free): Yelp fuses social networking, user reviews and local searches into one easy-to-use app that’s essential for any iPhone on the roam. This portable version of Yelp.com, a Web portal that has been around for a few years, has a substantial stock of user reviews (with ratings) and content. You can use G.P.S. to search for nearby restaurants, bars, coffee and tea shops, banks, gas stations and drugstores. Click the Map button and Yelp will display all search results on a Google Map.

Music

Tuner ($4.99): When you tire of your own tunes (remember, the iPhone is also an iPod), turn on Tuner, an app that serves up thousands of Internet radio stations in a format that makes it easy to find exactly what you want to hear. You can either browse its incredibly comprehensive genres section (Albanian, anyone?), check out the Top 500 list, or simply search for your own favorite station. As with most Internet radio stations, the sound isn’t CD quality and the volume is sometimes a bit low, but the selection is vast. Be warned, however, that when you flip to another application, Tuner closes and you lose audio.

Navigation

CityTransit NYC Subway Guide ($2.99): This subway map (no folding!) is your guide to trains in the New York metro area. Plan your transportation via a map view or using a stop-by-stop subway line view. If you’re out and don’t know where to find the nearest subway, hit the Locate button for a list of nearby stations. Select one and CityTransit will plot the station for you on a Google Map. Bonus: The app also includes maps of Long Island Rail Road and Metro North.

Social Networking

MySpace (Free): The MySpace site is known for its unabashedly homely appearance, so it’s a bit surprising that its software developers delivered an iPhone app that is attractive, easy to use, and packed with features. The app offers many of the same features as the Web site (without the annoying music). Check on all your friends by viewing their photos, bulletins and comments. This app is an amazingly tight distillation of the full-fledged MySpace site.

Sports

MLB.com At Bat ($4.99): Stat-happy baseball fans will cheer for MLB.com At Bat, which delivers real-time scores of all Major League Baseball games. Click a game (they’re organized by date) and you’ll get an inning-by-inning rundown of runs scored, as well as stats on the winning and losing pitchers. Each game includes eight or so video clips of the day’s highlights (they look great on a Wi-Fi connection but woefully choppy on AT&T’s 3G network).

Nintendo’s global president Satoru Iwata is humble enough to admit that even he had been surprised by the epidemic-like success of the Wii console.

He told BBC News: “It was so fast. We knew the Wii was the right direction for the company. But the question was always how many years it would take to find success.”

The answer was two years. In that brief time Nintendo has dramatically altered its fortunes in the home console business, while at the same time maintaining, and even improving, its dominance in the handheld gaming space with the DS.

Play time

The change of fortunes began when Mr Iwata took over as president of Nintendo in 2002, only the fourth man to hold the position since the company was founded 109 years ago.

Speaking to BBC News at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) In Los Angeles, he said: “Five years ago when I was appointed I thought that if we didn’t do anything but took the same route there would be no bright future for the entire industry.

“So we decided we needed to increase the number of people gaming.

“We started thinking about people who weren’t playing games and asked ourselves why they were not interested. And why had some people stopped playing despite playing in their youth?”

The solution was not a rush towards a high definition games platform targeted at the hard core gamer but remembering the simple pleasures of playing with family and friends.

The Wii console introduced a mass market of gamers to motion-sensitive play, replacing the button-laden controller with a wand that could direct action with the flick of a wrist.

Within weeks of the Wii’s launch people were taking their new console around to the homes of friends and family, and word of mouth quickly spread.

“It was so fast because those who appreciated the new attractions of Wii must have been those who used to play video games. And these people were telling friends and family about the console.

“People who first started playing with the Wii were so excited that they had to spread the news.”

History lesson

The success came after the perceived disappointment of the GameCube, which finished its lifespan behind the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in terms of global sales, selling 22 million units over seven years.

Nintendo had tried to compete directly with Microsoft and Sony and failed.

Nintendo’s GameCube came a distant third in the console rankings

Its resulting and ultimately successful move was to realise that the market of people who could play games but were not was much bigger than the market of those already playing games on a regular basis.

“It was somewhat out of the boundaries of common sense for the time,” said Mr Iwata.

“From the perspective of people from outside the industry it might have looked like a gamble. But I do not think it was a gamble at all.”

One of the original criticisms of the Wii at launch was that the underpowered machine would increasingly suffer in comparison to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as the machines went through their lifecycle.

But Mr Iwata dismissed talk of a console lifespan as nonsense and somewhat irrelevant.

“After all, the primary concern is not to let consumers purchase hardware but to enjoy software,” he said.

Future fun

But that did not mean Nintendo was not already thinking about life beyond the Wii.

“However hard our software developers try to create new and unprecedented titles with great ideas eventually there will be a day when devs will say they have no more means with that hardware.

“That’s exactly the time we need to introduce people to new hardware. We do want to be flexible about this,” he said.

Wii sports games will get a boost from the new add-on

“We just don’t want to decide upon a fixed lifecycle of any platform.”

Addressing another criticism of the Wii, Mr Iwata said it was a “misunderstanding and misconception” to say that the console was struggling to attract support from developers outside of Nintendo.

“The number of third-party titles for Wii is actually more than what is available for other platforms.

“And in the initial launch platform period for any platform, the third-party software titles for Wii are outselling any of the third-party titles for other platforms.”

Nintendo remains the home for some of gaming’s most enduring franchises and icons, from Mario to Zelda and the success of the Wii has ensured they will remain part of the landscape for some time to come.

But there were no details of any new Mario or Zelda titles given at the recent press conference held by Nintendo to highlight its plans for the months ahead.

“At this E3 we had to focus on software for the mass audience and software that will be sold in this year or next.

“This one of the rare opportunities to reach out to mass audiences around the world.

“In order for us to create a new Super Mario game or Legend of Zelda game that can cater to the strong demands of core gamers around the world it takes two to three years.”

While its competitors battle to become the multimedia hub for the digital living room Nintendo is determined to continue on its course of “putting smiles on people’s faces”.

He said: “All we have got to do is carry on. People are going to get tired of new proposals. We have to offer them new proposals before they do.

“We really want to keep surprising people,” he said, then added: “It’s not easy at all.”

Nothing can prepare you for the adventure that is about to unfold - your own. The Galaxy is in a fragile state, balancing on the edge of War and Peace. New threats are emerging from the infinite darkness of space and with threats come opportunity. Will you aid your faction when duty calls or will you serve only your own needs? Do you fight with your fearless friends in an epic struggle against a hardened opponent or do you go it alone, facing the dangers as they come? Your decisions are your own, and the rewards are yours to do with as you please. As you begin your adventure, know that the true saga has just begun.

A revitalization of the Jumpgate franchise, Jumpgate Evolution brings exciting new game play, advanced AI engine, and a complete graphics overhaul to fans of the original MMO.

      BY: CNN

Two jets, one a Boeing 757, came within a half-mile of colliding over John F. Kennedy International Airport on Friday, Federal Aviation Administration officials said.

It was the second incident of its kind in a week.

The FAA moved quickly to change takeoff and landing procedures at JFK on perpendicular runways — the kind of runways involved in both incidents.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said Delta Flight 123 was arriving at the airport Friday when the pilot aborted his landing and executed a “go-around” — a routine procedure often used during heavy congestion. That caused the Delta flight to intersect with the flight path of Comair Flight 1520, a regional jet that was taking off on another runway.

The FAA ordered new procedures Friday afternoon to change the way takeoffs and landings on perpendicular runways are sequenced, Brown said.

The new procedures are designed to ensure “that aircraft of one runway clear out of the path of the other runway before the second flight comes down on the other runway,” Brown said. “We’ve had two events recently and I think we want to make sure the appropriate safety margins are in place.”

    By: CNN

Russia and China vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution Friday that would have imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe’s longtime president, Robert Mugabe, and 11 senior members of his government.

According to a draft of the resolution, the measure would have instituted a travel ban on Mugabe and others in his government, frozen many of their assets and imposed an international arms embargo on the regime.

The measure received nine votes — the minimum for it to pass. However, two of the five negative votes were from Russia and China, who as permanent members of the Security Council have veto power.

One Security Council member abstained.

The resolution was pushed by the United States after Mugabe ignored the Security Council’s appeal to postpone the June 27 presidential runoff election.

The vote initially was intended to be a runoff between Mugabe and opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai. But Tsvangirai withdrew days before, saying Mugabe’s supporters had orchestrated a campaign of beatings, intimidation and murders against his supporters.

With their votes, ambassadors for China and Russia said they wanted to give the rival political parties a chance to resolve the election matter on their own terms without undue interference from the Security Council.