German's sensation !!! Ger-Rus 2:0 !! IHCW 20111

After Russia twice beat Germany by just one goal at last year’s IIHF World Championship, many expected another tight affair to open this year’s tournament. But virtually no one foresaw the Germans coming out on top. It proves that anything can happen in modern international hockey.

In a rematch of last year’s semi-final, a 2-1 win for Russia, the blue-collar Germans held superstar attackers like Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Radulov, and Alexei Morozov off the scoresheet. Germany had never beaten Russia in 32 previous encounters dating back to March 1, 1954, during the epoch of the USSR and West Germany (23 losses versus the USSR, nine versus Russia).

Ice hockey world cup, just begun !!

Coat of Arms of Slovakia

The Slovak republic is one of the youngest European newsomers on the map. Although the first mention of the region of today’s Slovakia being populated was back in the late Palaeolithic age, i.e. about 250 000 B.C. and the first sign of Slovakia in today’s terms being particularly evidenced by going back to 1029 in the phrase ‘dux Sclavonie’, the road to the creation of the Slovak republic was incredibly long.

Darkspore, hmmm ...

In 2008 Spore promised us the world but delivered nothing more than five barebones games and a pretty interesting character editor. Darkspore, EA and Maxis' follow up to their sim-everything disappointment, didn't promise the world. Instead, it promised us a decently enjoyable, top down, Diablo-esque, sci-fi RPG using what was perhaps the best part of the original Spore, the character editor. It's basically Maxis' first foray into the action RPG genre, and it shows. The game is a little rough around the edges, but is, as previously advertised, decently enjoyable.

Shogun 2: Total War is your private teacher !!

Like the Rome, Medieval, and Empire games before it, Shogun 2 is as much an education of the time period as it is a game. The level of historical research on display is quite staggering, putting the vast majority of its competitors to shame, and it's in the little details that this really shines through: the costume designs of each unit, the suibokuga inspired campaign map, or the 'Bushido' and 'Way of Chi' branches to the technology tree. It'll come as no surprise that Creative Assembly has been employing the services of experts in Japanese history (such as Dr. Stephen Turnbull) in creating Shogun 2, ensuring that as fun as the game is to play throughout, it's also just as much a journey of self-improvement. You do get the sense that you've learnt a little bit more about Japanese culture after a few hours with Shogun 2, which is no doubt why the Creative Assembly team has received letters from fans in the past crediting their decision to read Japanese Studies at university having originally been inspired by the first Shogun game over 10 years ago.