Advantages: GREAT GAME ENGINE, FLAWLESS GRAPHICS
Disadvantages: NONE

...I RECIEVED THE DEMO OF THIS GAME ABOUT THREE MONTHS AGO, USUALLY I DONT EVEN BOTHER WITH THIS SORT OF ADVENTURE GAME, BUT TEH REVIEW IN THE MAGAZINE REALLY CAUGHT MY EYE. ONCE INSTALLED, I RAN THE GAME, AND WOW I WAS UNBELIEVABLY IMPRESSED, TOP NOTCH GRAPHICS, EXCELLENT ATMOSPHERIC SOUND AND BACKGROUND NOISES, VERY STRONG CHARACHTERS, AS WELL AS ACTION IN ABUNDANCE. WHAT I DIDNT REALISE IS THAT THIS WAS THE FIRST OF MANY SIEGE GAMES, THE OFFICIAL SITE http://www.siege-of-avalon.com HAS SEVERAL CHAPTERS THAT ARE DOWNLOADABLE, SO UNLIKE WAITING FOR AN EXPANSION PACK, HERE YOU CAN GET THE GAME WHEN YOU WANT, THE FIRST CHAPTER IS TOTALLY FREE AND IS SET AROUND THE CITADEL OF AVALON, YOU HAVE JUST ARRIVED IN AVALON, AND HAVE TO PICK A CHOICE OF THREE CAREARS, MAGIC, SCOUT OR FIGHTER, MAGIC IS BEST, THE SPELLS ARE HYSTERICALLY GOOD, AFTER... Read review

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Advantages: Visually unique mix of art film and sci-fi movie - half Matrix half Eastern European masterpiece and yet better than most of either
Disadvantages: The dodgy aria that is sung throughout the film

...Something of an oddity by anime director Mamoru Oshii, Avalon is a live action film, written, produced and directed by the Japanese but filmed in Poland, in Polish with Poles in all roles. Hardly what you would expect from the director of the influential Ghost in the Shell and its sequel, but then again maybe it is. On the surface Avalon looks to be one of those movies influenced, like so many alongside it, by the matrix - but, frankly, it's nothing of the sort. Without going into details of plot (as of yet, anyway), one important point to make of the film is that it treats the unusual and the mundane everydayness of life with equal skill and respect. Both are rendered visually stunning; thus though, as will be somewhat revealed, though there is considerable story to be told there are also moments which are remarkably everyday... Read review

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Advantages: pure fantasy with a historic touch
Disadvantages: look into the opinion

...Mists of Avalon What is life doing with us? What do we do with our life? You can read a book, you can understand a book but it is also possible to live a book. In the human fantasy is enough space for a fairytale that we would like to belief in. Didn't we trust in the fairytales that grandma told us? Are you still fascinated from fairytales, which can be in your mind live and seems to be true? Books aren't for me Pages, who wanted to be reed in the meaning of consume. There is always a new space in my mind that wanted to be filled with Marion Zimmer Bradley words. The reading will be unconscious and the thoughts find their own way into this fairytale. The Author ~~~~~~~~~ There is not so much known. In the book cover you can find information, but in the most cases there is only a picture of her. The most outstanding of her... Read review

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Advantages: Interesting to see the advance graphics
Disadvantages: Storyline not that original

...This animated film is based in Paris 2054 and is a story surrounding the disappearance of Ilona Tasuiev a researcher at the Avalon Corporation. Avalon is a company that has managed to gain great power in society and their motto 'Avalon we're with you for life' can be seen and heard from the entire city. Ilona is abducted, but this is not strange in this futuristic Paris, as kidnappings are at an all time high. However as we later learn, Ilona is a special case and the Avalon Corporation or namely the head of the corporation Paul Dellenbach wants her found without delay. The local law enforcement is called in and Captain Barthélémy Karas is placed as the head of the investigation team and seems to be quite good at finding and retrieving abductees. You get the impression of this from an earlier scene where he saves a young boy being... Read review

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Advantages: Beautiful and tragic story, poignant characters
Disadvantages: Hard on tissues if you cry while reading books

...Originally published as The Forest House, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Avalon novels can be read as stand alones, but they do provide background, history, depth and insight into the setting the books are all based on. Writing An eloquent writer, her prose and descriptions would reduce you to tears one moment and outrage the next. Those who have read her books before will definitely agree that her novels jump out of the pages and envelope you in its world like a dream. Story Without giving away the story more than necessary, here's a very short summary : it is a tragic story set against a backdrop of Roman invasion. The union that came from the pains and suffering of Eilan and Gaius, who are on opposing sides, shall produce the ultimate defender of the land, and they will both be condemned by their world for that. The story is poignant... Read review

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Advantages: Beautifully performed warm floating piano and perhaps the best packaging I have ever seen
Disadvantages: He's retired!

...Avalon Sutra is perhaps pianist and composer Harold Budd's masterwork. It is made up of two CDs, the first being Avalon Sutra itself, the second is a one-hour remix of As Long As I Can Hold My Breath, the final track on Avalon Sutra could sleep. It also boasts what is perhaps the most beautiful packaging of any CD that I've ever come across, being covered in the most glorious and luscious pictures of flowers that I've ever seen - and I'm not on an individual particularly enamoured of flowers. When I first unfolded the digipak, revealing the two CDs, emblazoned with elegant simplicity, I had high expectations for both disks though I had previously heard excerpts from Avalon Sutra. Were my expectations fulfilled? Without a doubt. As with all of Budd's work the music has a wonderful simplicity and yet is almost impossibly warm when... Read review

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Advantages: Different
Disadvantages: Maybe to feminist

...I am a historic romance lover and this is my favourite type of literature. Long time that I have heard about this peace of Marion Zimmer Bradley “Mists of Avalon”, composed by 4 volumes with around 300 pages each. A real masterpiece for thousands of people, but it never gave me any special interest due to (and I have to admit it) be a piece that is born thru a utopian legend and it is writhen in a fictional and fantasised perspective. Magic is used like a normal thing in an Era from which there were almost no registrations, where the superstition ruled. In deed, everything was seen as an act or a will of the Gods and it was then that christens started to gain more and more followers. This way, you can see that there is a lot of material for the writhers, especially in the legend and mythology “field”, in an Era... Read review

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Advantages: A really thought provoking interpretation of a familiar tale.
Disadvantages: Loses momentum towards the end.

...The Arthurian myths have been told an retold countless times, and I generally tend to avoid works on this subject as on thee whole, most of them are stale as soon as written and have nothing new to say. "The Mists of Avalon" is however, quite unlike the body of the Arthurian reworkings. The book is narrated by Morgan le Fay - known to most of us as Arthur's evil half sister who seduces him and gives birth to Mordred, who eventually kills Arthur. In this telling, Morgan becomes a far more real and sympathetic figure, both an active element in the plot and a victim of politics. She comes from a long mahical line, priests and prietesses of Avalon. Her mother is Igraine (also Arthur's mother) Her grandmother is Vivianne, Lady of the Lake (a title which eventually becomes Morgan's.) Her grandfather is Taliesin, Merlin (another title.) While... Read review

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Advantages: wobble board
Disadvantages: crowds

...First time I went to a festival and I lost my Glastonbury virginity to Rolf Harris! Sounds odd, I know but anyone who saw the great Rolfaroo in action on the Avalon stage/tent will know what I mean. The guy who followed Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport with Edwyn Collins' Girl Like You didn't get any reviews from the press who were to concerned with Travis, Bowie and the Chemical Bros. However, the crowd who gathered to see Rolf stretched all the way back to the Jazz Stage and that's a long way! And I doubt anyone will forget being in the middle of that. Everyone was just having a laugh. After all, it's not just "all about the music, man (peace sign)!". That was the right festival spirit! And if you were one of the women at the back who said "come to the back, Rolf, and let us throw our knickers at you!", good on you love!!!!... Read review

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Advantages: Some top obscure bands, lovely people, not much crime, good sandwichs from the Happy Cheese Company
Disadvantages: Too expensive, new band tent on the MOON, a bit chaotic

...My First Glastonbury- Having managed, spectacually, to miss everybody I was meant to meet, or even knew (beyond an old one night stand in the theatre tent) I watched the bands instead. I wasn't too impressed by the Pyramid Stage line up, though Bowie was fantastic and looked like a prowling lion, but the new bands stage and the avalon stage proved to be great for my obscure tastes. The Egg, Black Box Recorder (the singer resplendantly dressed as a crash test dummy) and The Flaming Lips were all brilliant- the first delivering a weird mix of Radiohead (they are from Oxford) style guitars and ambient. However, the Flaming Lips delivered almost the best gig I have ever seen, for they went crazy-mad on entertainment and all sorts. Their music is fantastic as it stands, and immensely likable, but then you add a rubber nun hand... Read review

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