“New Season of `Lost’ Is Found Thursday

Are the island castaways of “Lost” mere hours from rescue? Or will their latest chance at freedom turn to dust, like all the others?

That’s a no-brainer. The title of the ABC series isn’t “Found.” And as the long-awaited new season of “Lost” begins Thursday (9 p.m. EST), the first episode strongly suggests the castaways are about to lose again.

They’re awaiting help from a rescue party from a freighter anchored offshore. But as they wait, the chilling likelihood takes hold that their potential saviors could instead spell their doom.

There are no shockers in the episode, the first of eight in the series’ truncated fourth season. But this is a gripping hour involving all the principal characters that sets the stage for the season ahead. And after eight long months’ absence, it’s a welcome sight. (Relax: No spoilers ahead.)

From last season’s finale, we already know that rock star Charlie (played by Dominic Monaghan) made a perilous quest to disable a jamming device that had prevented the group from summoning help from a just-acquired satellite telephone. He died carrying out his mission, but not before relaying a warning to his comrades to beware of the so-called freighter people.

The next step in the rescue plan was for the group to make a trek to the radio tower and shut off a tape-loop rescue plea that also was interfering with any other transmissions.

There Ben (Michael Emerson), the less-than-trustworth y overlord of the Others, implored Jack (Matthew Fox), the survivors’ reluctant leader, not to place the call to the freighter people.

Jack sneered at Ben’s words. The call was made, and the new episode begins, much as last season’s finale did, with Jack somewhere in the future — drinking. With this recently added flash-forward storytelling feature, Jack is seen in his Los Angeles kitchen mixing a morning cocktail when his eye falls on TV coverage of police in hot pursuit of a speeding motorist.

The car crashes and the driver is arrested. Jack realizes it’s one of his fellow former castaways, who is haunted by the past and sees visions of the dead. Jack, who himself is plagued by substance abuse,unrequited love for Kate (Evangeline Lily), and other demons, pays this person a visit. There is mention of a dreaded secret they share.

In a scene back on the island (and back in time), the portly Hurley (Jorge Garcia) runs into Locke (Terry O’Quinn), who long ago had “gone native” and has no desire to ever leave the island.

“It’s gonna be hard to talk (Jack) into thinking they’re not coming here to rescue us,” says Hurley, who, with Locke, shares Ben’s alarm for what the freighter people might do.

“We’re just gonna have to try our best,” says Locke, “because if we can’t talk him out of it, then Charlie died for nothing.”

By the end of the hour, the castaways are split into two factions — those aligned with Ben and Locke who believe the freighter people represent a mortal threat and Jack’s group, still holding out hope for rescue, even as they start to fear the worst.

Thursday’s new episode will be preceded by “`Lost’: Past, Present & Future,” a recap hour of the saga of the Oceanic flight 815 crash (8 p.m. EST). And Wednesday, last season’s splendid two-hour finale will be repeated (9 p.m. EST) in “enhanced” form, with on-screen text containing commentary and clues.

In short, “Lost” fans should be rejoicing. And even with just eight episodes currently on tap thanks to the writers strike, ABC has promised another 40 will eventually follow, leading up to the series’ finale in 2010.”

Taken from: http://tv.msn.com

The whole world knows by now that the actor Heath Ledger has died. But now i read that a church is planning on protesting the man’s funeral because he played a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain! They seriously believe that “God” has somehow killed him and sent him to Hell because of that! How stupid and insane can you possibly be?! Hello people Its the 21st Century!! There are gay/bi/straight/transexual/whatever you want to call them living all around us! There is nothing wrong with these people…most of them are the nicest most friendly people in the world…but being they are gay means they are going to burn in hell? But they are the ones going to heaven because they actively discriminate against different people…including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, Muslims, Roman Catholics and Jews as well as certain nationalities, and that is doing “God’s” work! They even protest fallen American soldiers’ funerals! I think they are the ones that should be thrown into Hell and burned for eternity because they are the ones that are discriminating, attacking, hurting others! These people should be the ones “God” should not allow to be born onto this earth because all they do is create hate, hostility, discrimination, violence, etc! Their radical religious beliefs benefit no one and hurt many! Seriously these people are so blinded by their “faith” that they cannot open their eyes to the REAL world! This reminds me so much of the movie “Jesus Camp”, which is a documentary about a radical religious group that sends their young children to this camp to be “saved” by “God”. They are not even teenagers and these children are so religious it makes me feel as though these will be the people that will be killing the name of “God.” They cannot see true morals about getting along peacefully with people and help each other live life to the fullest and just enjoy life….they would rather start some religious war because there are (OMG!) different people around us that we arent used to! So instead of getting to know them as the people they are they want to have “God” kill them for the things they are! Man…i know im ranting but religious fanatics are the one type of people that really push my buttons. They believe they are so good in the eyes of “God” but it is them who truly are sinning and committing horrible acts of discrimination.

Article: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,324966,00.html

Westboro Baptist Church’s website : www.godhatesfags.com (Seriously!!! How is this not a sin?!?!?!)

Westboro Baptist Church’s blog: http://blogs.godhatesamerica.com/

*****Online Petition to Revoke the leader of this radical religious group’s ministry license!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!********** http://www.petitiononline.com/master/petition.html

Vote for UND players!!!

Over the holiday break I was finally able to rent one of the “best games of the year.” I had downloaded the demo and found it rather entertaining…but it wasn’t long enough to get a good feel for it. So rent it I did and I was completely surprised. This game really is amazing. The visuals are very stylish and realistic. The whole world of Rapture is so detailed it’s just wonderful. I love the abilities that you get to use also, its a nice change from the average pistol, machine gun, sniper, etc. Regenerating enemies can be annoying at times, but can also be beneficial with gaining more money. Love the game, definitely worth buying.

Call of Duty 4: 9/10

This game is brilliant in many ways. First of all, the story is big. It is very new and creative and will set a new standard for FPS and WWII fighters especially. It doesn’t actually take place in WWII but it still has the feel of the previous CoD games with the added technology of the future. Now let’s move on to the multiplayer/online gameplay. One word: addicting. There are many acheivements that you can complete for added XP points to upgrade your arsenal. The more you play, the more you unlock. The gameplay itself is very smooth, fast paced and addicting. There are a variety of levels that are all created beautifully with a lot of detail which is nice to see in multiplayer levels. All I can say is go out and buy this game, especially if you love to play online.

Assassin’s Creed: 6/10

Ok, I know this game got all kinds of high reviews and praise for being so beautiful and inventive. But I got to say that I really didn’t like this game. It is beautiful, the graphics and magnitude are amazing, the controls are new and rather fun once you get used to them. But it jut wasn’t enough for me. Here’s why I didn’t like it: Repetitive, Repetitive gameplay-climb up buildings, kill people, gain intelligence, run from place to place, repeat. Sure a game can be beautiful, but it needs to have immersive gameplay that keeps you engaged. The story is the only thing that kept me playing, and then the ending came and I wanted to chuck it out the window. But back to the gameplay: it sucks. Once you have gotten in one fight, you have been in them all. The different weapons are pretty much worthless except the throwing knives are handy. Another thing, once you have played through the game once, it is over. There are no other difficulties, there is no online, there is nothing except the one story mission. Sure you can go back in and find all of the hidden flags (zzz…) or you can go and save all of the women being attacked by groups of bad guys (also zzz…) or you can sell it back for a portion of what you paid and go buy a real immersive game like the two above.

Burnout Paradise: 8.5/10

I have been waiting for the new Burnout game for a long time. I have loved Takedown and also Revenge, both are amazing games. Paradise is a sort of re-imagining of the series with the change from menus into complete gameplay. You roam around the city to find your challenges, races, etc. I am still not sure whether I like this a whole lot because it can be frustrating traveling around the city looking for the challenges, but it is also enjoyable because of the huge scale of the city, the beautiful graphics, and amazing physics involved with the crashing…its just beautiful all around. The only part of the controls i dont like is the changing from moving forward to moving backward or vice versa. It takes too long for me and can be frustrating when there is a wall in front and you need to turn to get away from it. But the controls are realistic to how a real car would handle…so its just a minor detail that I dont like personally. I love the ease of getting online and doing what you want there by using the d-pad. I actually enjoy roaming around the city looking for billboards or shortcuts that need smashing. All-in-all its a great game, I miss the offline multiplayer though, I always enjoyed playing with people on my own system, especially my younger nephew who loves these games because of the fast cars and the crashing…but I guess I will just have to go back and play the previous titles to do that…

Note: I will never give out a 10 bc a perfect game is impossible. I will add more game reviews when I play more new games.