Bundu Reviews

We’re adding a new feature to this blog – Fridays’s Featured Video Game where we will highlight a game which has caught our eye.

Because I am like a kid and never really grown out of the whole WWE scene I am going to kick off with WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010 from THQ Interactive:

The best-selling fighting videogame franchise returns to the virtual ring with the most authentic, entertaining and compelling simulation of WWE programming to date. Featuring unparalleled creation tools, a robust Superstar roster, key franchise improvements and a few surprises, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010 delivers the empowering freedom to create, customize and share gameplay experiences. It’s your world now.
Features:

CREATE-A-SUPERSTAR REDESIGN – The franchise’s renowned customization interface delivers a new look, improved graphical quality and a host of new parts, allowing players to create Superstars who are comparable in quality with their WWE counterparts. Take creation one step further with a new Paint Tool to detail created Superstars with original tattoos, logos and other unique designs.

SHARE THE CREATIVITY – Share created content with the WWE Universe by uploading created Superstars, entrances, finishing moves, highlight reels, created storylines and more. Utilize the keyword search engine to view created content from around the world and download for use both offline and online.

SUPERSTAR THREADS – For the first time in franchise history, create alternate ring gear for Superstars by customizing the colors of shirts, logos, face paint, elbow pads, boots and much more. Save the alternate looks for use throughout the game and online to show off the Superstars in grand fashion.

WWE STORY DESIGNER – Embrace a directorial role to create and customize unique storylines. A brand new cut scene creation interface includes talent and location selections, dialogue writing, camera angles, Superstar emotions and much more. Construct each night’s show card with matches, unique match stipulations, interference events, and other story twists and turns.

ROAD TO WRESTLEMANIA – The popular story-based mode returns with key updates and new storylines, including a first-ever Divas storyline and a Create-a-Superstar storyline

Prices from online retailer Loot (11 – 13% discounted):

• Xbox360 – R617
• PS3 – R617
• Nintendo Wii – R412
• Nintendo DS – R392
• PSP – R354
• PS2 – R354

For anyone with even the vaguest interest in the stockmarket, daytrading or financial markets the new Michael Lewis book is apparently an absolute MUST HAVE!

Lewis is regarded as probably the finest financial journalist in the world at the moment and his books – including Liars Poker and Panic – have been absolute hits through the global financial crisis.

This is his latest offering and I can tell you now that I’m going to be reading this one. The synopsis reads:

“The Big Short” tells a story of spectacular, epic folly. It has taken the world’s greatest financial meltdown to bring Michael Lewis back to the subject that made him famous. His international bestseller “Liar’s Poker” exposed the greed and carnage of the City and Wall Street in the 1980s; he wrote it as a cautionary tale, but people seem to have read it as a how-to guide. Now, he wants to settle accounts. In this visceral tour to the heart of the financial system, Michael Lewis takes us around the globe and back decades to trace the origins of the current crisis. He meets the people who saw it coming, the people who were asleep at the wheel and the people who were actively driving us all of cliff. How could we have all been so deluded for quite so long? Where did it all start? Was it systemic? Was it avoidable? And who the hell can we blame? Michael Lewis has the answers. No one is better qualified to get to the heart of this labyrinthine story. And no one can make it such an enjoyable ride along the way.

It looks like an absolutely awesome read!

You can buy it from online retailer Loot in hardcover for R316 

This is a cracking little read from Harlan Coben.

If you like fast-paced crime fiction then this will definately tickle your fancy and it has a nifty little twist at the end of the tale!

The story line is good and reads a little something like this:

8 years ago David Beck and his wife were having a romantic getaway at a cabin in the woods when they were brutally assaulted. His wife’s body was discovered a few days after the assault, battered beyond recognition.

Fast forward 8 years and Beck is still battling to get on with his life and it isn’t helped when he receives a link to a street-cam which mysteriously features an image of his presumed dead wife. Suddenly Becks’ life is turned upside down as he begins to investigate the case again. However the deeper he digs the more people wind up dead or threatened.

The book rollicks along at a great pace and I’d finished reading it inside of two days – a real page turner (if you can use that term when you are reading something on the Kindle?)

Title: Tell no one

Author: Harlan Coben

ISBN: 978-0-440-24590-2

This is a cracking little read and I rated it a 4 out of 5 while my wife threw in her 2c and rated it 3 and a half.

You can buy the book online at Loot for R81 as a paperback.  It is definately worth it!

And the popular video games are…. listed below.

One really interesting title which I saw there was Outrun 2006 which was listed for R27.95 under Kalahari. Geez

dunno if any of you remember the ORIGINAL Outrun MANY years ago… wow that takes me back to my youth.
 

Take2.co.za
1.  Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Limited Edition – PC
2.  S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat PC
3.  Final Fantasy XIII PS3 
4.  Heavy Rain – PS3
5.  Street Fighter – PS3
6.  Assassin’s Creed II – PC
7.  Street Fighter IV Collector’s Edition PS3 
8.  Street Fighter IV Collector’s Edition – Xbox360 
9.  THQ Ultimate Box Set (9 Game Pack) PC
Titan Quest, TQ:Immortal Throne, Company Of Heroes, COH: Opposing Fronts, STALKER.: Shadow of Chernoby, Frontlines:Fuel of War, Supreme Commander, SC: Forged Alliance, Warhammer: 40K: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade  10.  World of Warcraft 60 Day Pre-paid Game Card European Server Version (PC) 

Kalahari.Net
1. Final Fantasy XIII – PS3
2. God of War 3 Ultimate Edition – PS3
3. God of War 3 – PS3
4. Battlefield Bad Company 2 – Limited Edition – PC
5. Battlefield Bad Company 2 Limited Edition – PS3
6. Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast – PC
7. Street Fighter IV – PC
8. Need for Speed Undercover – PC
9. Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight – PC
10. Virtua Tennis 2009 – Nintendo Wii

Amazon.com
1. God of War III – PS3
2. Pokemon SoulSilver Version Software Only – Nintendo DS
3. Pokemon HeartGold Version Software Only – Nintendo DS
4. Final Fantasy XIII – PS3
5. Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City – Xbox360
6. Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board – Nintendo Wii
7. Just Dance – Nintendo Wii
8. New Super Mario Bros – Nintendo Wii
9. Final Fantasy XIII – Xbox360
10. Wii Sports Resort – Nintendo Wii

Is it just me or are the Americans obsessed with food and politics titles?!

Sunday is here and once again we take a look at what books are proving popular with the various online retailers.

It looks like LJ Smith is still dominating the local scene and I am still very tempted to get my hands on that Flash Forward book!

Take2.co.za
1.  Vampire Diaries, Vol. 1, Books 1 & 2 – Smith, L. J.
2.  Vampire Diaries, Vol. 2, Books 3 & 4 – Smith, L. J.
3.  Pleasure of a Dark Prince – Cole, Kresley
4.  The Return: Nightfall – Smith, L. J.
5.  Black Jack – Leigh, Lora
6.  The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – Larsson, Stieg
7.  Girl Who Played with Fire – Larsson, Stieg
8.  Hot Rocks – Roberts, Nora
9.  Born to Be Wild – Warren, Christine
10.  Flash Forward  – Sawyer, Robert J.

Kalahari.Net
1. The Return: Nightfall – LJ Smith
2. Vampire Diaries: Bks. 3 & 4 – LJ Smith
3. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – Stieg Larsson
4. Vampire Diaries: v. 1 & 2 – LJ Smith
5. The Struggle: Bks. 1 & 2 – LJ Smith
6. The Gabriel Method: The Revolutionary Diet-Free Way to Totally Transform Your Body – Jon Gabriel
7. The Metabolism Miracle: 3 Easy Steps to Regain Control of Your Weight…Permanently – Dianne Kress
8. Captain in the Cauldron – Mike Greenaway
9. Pleisters Vir Die Siel: Soos Uitgesaai in Brekfis Met Derrich Op RSG – Riekert Botha
10. Introduction to business management – J. Strydom; G. du Toit; B Erasmus

Amazon.com
1. Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual – Michael Pollan
2. The Five Thousand Year Leap: 30 Year Anniversary Edition with Glenn Beck Foreword – W. Cleon Skousen
3. A Patriot’s History of the United States: From Columbus’s Great Discovery to the War on Terror – Larry Schweikart
4. World Peace Diet: Eating for Spiritual Health and Social Harmony – Will Tuttle
5. Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted – Daniel G. Amen
6. The Help – Kathryn Stockett
7. The Kind Diet: A Simple Guide to Feeling Great, Losing Weight, and Saving the Planet – Alicia Silverstone
8. Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight – Karl Rove
9. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson
10. Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang – Chelsea Handler

After the rather dreary Faye Kellerman I wrapped up last week, it is nice to be back to a book that’s got a bit of life and pace to it.

I downloaded: “Tell no one” from Harlan Coben and it is off to a rollicking start - REALLY enjoying it. Cracking pace, cracking story, lots of fun.

The write-up for the book reads:

For Dr. David Beck, the loss was shattering. And every day for the past eight years, he has relived the horror of what happened. The gleaming lake. The pale moonlight. The piercing screams. The night his wife was taken. The last night he saw her alive.
Everyone tells him it’s time to move on, to forget the past once and for all. But for David Beck, there can be no closure. A message has appeared on his computer, a phrase only he and his dead wife know. Suddenly Beck is taunted with the impossible–that somewhere, somehow, Elizabeth is alive.
Beck has been warned to tell no one. And he doesn’t. Instead, he runs from the people he trusts the most, plunging headlong into a search for the shadowy figure whose messages hold out a desperate hope.
But already Beck is being hunted down. He’s headed straight into the heart of a dark and deadly secret–and someone intends to stop him before he gets there.  

You can buy the book online from Loot for R81, well worth it!

Anybody else got any interesting reads for this week?  

I just wrapped up reading this latest offering from Faye Kellerman and it very rarely takes me a week to wrap up a fiction novel which I guess says something about how gripping the story was.

The intro was slow, but it did pick up a bit of pace in the middle of the story and wrapped up nicely enough.

The book was again focuses on Peter Decker and his police crew who have been called to the scene of a masasacre at a ranch owned by a rich property developer. What initially looks like a robbery gone wrong, quickly unwinds into a potential family feud which appears to involve a violent local gang.

The pace is measured and there were no real “twists” in the story and couldn’t say it grabbed me.

Title: Blindmans Bluff

Author: Faye Kellerman

ISBN:  978-0-00-734646-2

Rated the book an uninspiring 3 out of 5.

You can buy this book online from Loot for R96 in paperback.

And here is the list of the bestselling video games. It looks like Battlefield Bad Company, God of War and Street Fighter IV are all the rage this week!

Kalahari.Net
1. Battlefield Bad Company 2 – Limited Edition – PC
2. Final Fantasy XIII – PS3
3. God of War 3 – PS3
4. God of War 3 Ultimate Edition – PS3
5. Battlefield Bad Company 2 Limited Edition – Xbox360
6. Battlefield Bad Company 2 Limited Edition – PS3
7. Street Fighter IV – PS3
8. Assassin’s Creed 2 – PC
9. Virtua Tennis 2009 – Nintendo Wii
10. Rome Total War: Barbarian Invasion – PC

Take2
1. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Limited Edition (PC DVD-ROM) -
2.  S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (PC DVD-ROM) 
3.  Heavy Rain (PS3)
4.  Street Fighter IV (PS3) 
5.  Final Fantasy XIII (PS3) 
6.  Assassin’s Creed II (PC DVD-ROM)
7.  THQ Ultimate Box Set (9 Game Pack) (PC DVD-ROM)
Titan Quest, TQ:Immortal Throne, Company Of Heroes, COH: Opposing Fronts, STALKER.: Shadow of Chernoby, Frontlines:Fuel of War, Supreme Commander, SC: Forged Alliance, Warhammer: 40K: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade 
8.  World of Warcraft 60 Day Pre-paid Game Card European Server Version (PC)
9.  Street Fighter IV Collector’s Edition (PS3) 
10.  Street Fighter IV Collector’s Edition (Xbox 360) 

Amazon.com
1. God of War III – PS3
2. Final Fantasy XIII – PS3
3. Final Fantasy XIII – Xbox360
4. Mass Effect 2 – Xbox360
5. Just Dance – Nintendo Wii
6. Pokemon SoulSilver Version Software Only – Nintendo DS
7. Xbox 360 12 Month Live Gold Card – Xbox360
8. Heavy Rain – PS3
9. Nintendo Wii – Nintendo Wii
10. New Super Mario Bros – Nintendo Wii

We have not done a bestsellers list in a while so let’s take a look what books are proving popular with the online retailers and see if there are any inspirational purchases in there.

It looks like the Kalahari.net and Take2 listings are heavily skewed toward the various LJ Smith books and I am very keen to get my hands on the Flash Forward book… I’m just worried it might ruin the TV series for me! Here is the list:

Kalahari.Net
1. Vampire Diaries: Bks. 3 & 4 – LJ Smith
2. The Struggle: Bks. 1 & 2 – LJ Smith
3. Screw It, Let’s Do It: Lessons in Life – Richard Branson
4. Vampire Diaries: v. 1 & 2 – LJ Smith
5. The Return: Nightfall – LJ Smith
6. Breaking Dawn – Stephenie Meyer
7. The Metabolism Miracle: 3 Easy Steps to Regain Control of Your Weight…Permanently – Dianne Kress
8. SAICA Handbook 2009/2010 – SAICA
9. Eclipse – Stephenie Meyer
10. The Reunion: v. 3 & 4 – LJ Smith.

Take2
1.  Vampire Diaries, Vol. 1, Books 1 & 2 – Smith, L. J.
2.  Vampire Diaries, Vol. 2, Books 3 & 4 – Smith, L. J.
3.  Pleasure of a Dark Prince – Cole, Kresley
4.  The Return: Nightfall – Smith, L. J.
5.  Girl Who Played with Fire – Larsson, Stieg
6.  Black Jack – Leigh, Lora
7.  Born to Be Wild – Warren, Christine
8.  The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – Larsson, Stieg
9.  Hot Rocks – Roberts, Nora
10.  Flash Forward – Sawyer, Robert J.

Amazon.com
1. Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight  – Karl Rove
2. The Help – Kathryn Stockett
3. Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang – Chelsea Handler
4. Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get and Keep the Body You Have Always Wanted – Daniel G. Amen
5. Final Fantasy XIII: The Complete Official Guide – Piggyback
6. Rework – Jason Fried
7. Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College – Doug Lemov
8. Hypothyroidism Type 2: The Epidemic – Mark Starr
9. American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies that the Government Tells Us – Jesse Ventura
10. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson

Another relaxing Saturday is here and it is time to kick back and tuck into another good book.

So what is the Bundublog.com community reading this weekend?

My wife downloaded the latest Faye Kellerman book: “Blindmans Bluff” to the Kindle so I have just started on that. A little bit of a slow start in the book but then I am not the biggest Faye Kellerman fan so that might just be me.

Here’s the synopsis for the book:

Lazarus Guy Kaffey thought his wealth could acquire anything- including the best security money can buy. When his family are gunned to death on their vast Butterfly Ranch estate, it’s clear that he was tragically wrong. Lieutenant Peter Decker of the LAPD is given the task of piecing together what happened. From the start, he suspects an inside job and that the answer lies with Kaffey’s fortune. The daunting scale of Kaffey’s business empire produces no shortage of suspects: from members of his bodyguard, to business partners, rival tycoons, even family members. But as LA’s ferocious street gangs hire themselves out to unknown paymasters in a cycle of revenge and death, Decker’s own family is threatened. And if a billionaire like Kaffey can’t protect his own, what hope does Decker have?

You can buy the book online from retailer Loot for R252.

Post your reads and recommendations for this weekend below.