title: Porto Alegre

text: There are three important universities in Porto Alegre: the Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre (UFCSPA), the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) all of which ranked among the top universities in Brazil and Latin America. UFRGS is also one of the 3 main universities in the country for post-graduation work. The PUCRS technological park – TECNOPUC – is one of the largest scientific and technological parks in Latin America with interaction of graduate courses, research and innovation. PUCRS is also one of the best universities for air transport and pilot formation in the world. Other very important universities are the Lutheran University of Brazil - (Universidade Luterana do Brasil) - ULBRA and UNISINOS, among other university centers.


title: Porto Alegre

text: With an eclectic style, the building was designed by German architect Theo Wiederspahn. Originally it was the headquarters of the Fiscal Surveillance Agency of the Federal Revenue Office. Nowadays, it hosts the largest public collection of art works in Rio Grande do Sul.


title: Porto Alegre

text: Created in 1903, this is the oldest museum in the state. Its collection comprises thousands of pieces related to the local history, from Indian relics to objects and iconography about the Ragamuffin War and the Paraguayan War, including an important section showing fine sculptures from the Jesuitic Reductions.


title: Porto Alegre

text: This is an important museum with a large collection of archaeological artifacts and photographs of Porto Alegre's old times. Its historical building, dating from 1845 to 1855, is one of the few intact relics of colonial architecture inside the modern urban environment.


title: Porto Alegre

text: This museum displays a huge collection of documents, maps, objects, prints and other items related to the state's history. Its building, designed by Theodor Wiederspahn, is one of the finest examples of eclectic architecture in the city.


title: Porto Alegre

text: An iconic landmark in the southern part of Porto Alegre, the Iberê Camargo Foundation houses the permanent installation of gaucho artist Iberê Camargo. It also hosts traveling exhibitions which change several times a year. The building, designed by Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza was opened in 2008 and offers views of the Guaiba river as well as downtown Porto Alegre.


title: Porto Alegre

text: Projected by Oscar Niemeyer, the Luiz Carlos Prestes' Memorial is a recent addition to the city' cultural landscape. Besides the wall presentation of Prestes' life, a hall for cultural, social and political events is placed to the citizens of Porto Alegre.


title: Porto Alegre

text: The Porto Alegre Carnival began in the 18th century with the entrudo, a prank brought over by the Portuguese from the Azores, whereby people threw flour, water, and ""limão de cheiro"" missiles at each other. At the end of the 19th century, two important Carnival associations were born. Rivalry between the two long dominated the city's Carnival. The corso, a parade of floats down Porto Alegre's streets, was a celebration enjoyed by the more well-to-do of the city's inhabitants.


title: Porto Alegre

text: One of the most important Carnival personalities is King Momo. At the beginning of Carnival, usually in February, he receives the keys to the city from the Mayor of Porto Alegre, symbolically governing the Carnival during the four days of revelry. Vincente Rao was the most popular King Momo.


title: Porto Alegre

text: The traditional beverage is chimarrao, a South-American caffeine-rich infused drink. The Chalet of the XV de Novembro Plaza is located along the Glênio Peres Square, it is one of the most traditional bar-draught beer-restaurants in the city, where the last ""lambe-lambe"" photographs of the region work. "Lambe-lambes" are photographers who develop pictures outdoor using the oldest method known. In the Bavarian style, with art nouveau traits, the centenary Chalet was built up on a demountable steel structure, keeping its original chandeliers and tiles even nowadays.


title: Porto Alegre

text: A wide range of cultural events are held in Porto Alegre. In addition to the traditional celebrations, a wide variety of activities are organized at Porto Alegre during the different seasons.


title: Porto Alegre

text: Salgado Filho International Airport serves commercial flights to most major cities all over Brazil and to smaller cities in the South of the country. There are also international flights to other South American countries, Panama, and Portugal.


title: Porto Alegre

text: Canoas Air Force Base - ALA3, one of their most important bases of the Brazilian Air Force, is located in the nearby city of Canoas.


title: Porto Alegre

text: The Port of Porto Alegre is situated in the Eastern margin of Guaíba Lake. The port lying on the eastern bank of the Guaíba lake at the point where its waters empty into the huge Lagoa dos Patos is one of Brazil's largest ports. Located near the main access roads to Porto Alegre, it is away from the Salgado Filho International Airport and has access to the light railway station, through the docks of Mauá and Navegantes. Its geographical position enables a permanent traffic between Porto Alegre and Buenos Aires, transporting steel-industry products and mainly agricultural produce.


title: Porto Alegre

text: Porto Alegre has a rapid transit system operated by Trensurb, which links downtown Porto Alegre to its northern neighborhoods and to cities to the north of the metropolitan area, as Canoas, Esteio, Sapucaia do Sul, São Leopoldo and Novo Hamburgo. The line has stations at strategic spots, such as: the Public Market, the bus station, the airport and many other important and urban spots throughout Porto Alegre and the other cities the metro covers. The line is built at surface level (30 km, totally segregated) and elevated (12 km).


title: Porto Alegre

text: Trensurb is operated jointly by the federal government, the state government of Rio Grande do Sul and the city of Porto Alegre through the company Trensurb S.A. (Company of Urban Trains of Porto Alegre S.A.) and has 22 working stations, with a total extension of nearly , carrying about 130,000 users a day.


title: Porto Alegre

text: Building of the (sole) Line 1 of the metro started in 1980. The choice of path was made to relieve the heavy traffic of highway BR-116, which already presented serious problems with the transit at the time. The line was inaugurated on March 2, 1985, between the Central Public Market and Sapucaia do Sul. In December 1997, it was extended to Unisinos. An extension of São Leopoldo–Museum was added in November 2000, after two months of trial service. , an extension to Novo Hamburgo is being completed, with the first station already fully functional.


title: Porto Alegre

text: A metro system inside Porto Alegre only is currently planned and it is already subject of much publicity and speculation. However, no project has been approved so far and the beginning of the constructions is yet undefined.


title: Porto Alegre

text: There are two federal highways in the city, BR-290 and BR-116, both running close to its northern and northwestern border. The small number is due to the inexistence of many destinations southeast or south of Porto Alegre (considering the landmass east of Lagoa dos Patos), if not for the cities of Pelotas (the third-biggest in population in the State) and Rio Grande (which hosts the State biggest port). Nonetheless, when coming from west, both highways bond in the neighbor municipality of Eldorado do Sul, running mostly jointly within the borders of Porto Alegre, only coming to separate at the very interchange to Canoas. This way, BR-116 has virtually no sole run within Porto Alegre.


title: Porto Alegre

text: BR-290 highway runs east–west across the state, linking the northeast coast of the state to the Uruguay–Argentina–Brazil border. It runs close to the northern border of the municipality. Coming from west, as it reaches the urban area of Porto Alegre, BR-290 highway becomes a high-standard long freeway that connects to the coast and to the BR-101 highway. The latter is an important way to get to Porto Alegre from the north of the country, by the city Osório. BR-101 connects to Curitiba, Florianópolis and northern Santa Catarina state, and has been recently upgraded to highway standards, with multiple lanes. By entering the BR-290 freeway/BR-101 system, and the other highways it connects to, it is possible to drive from Porto Alegre to as far as Rio de Janeiro or Belo Horizonte almost entirely through 4-lane (or more) highways.


title: Porto Alegre

text: The other road, BR-116, is a longitudinal highway, running northeast–south across the state, linking Porto Alegre to several satellite cities and other Brazilian capitals to the north, and Pelotas and Uruguay to the south. Within the municipality, it only touches the northwest side of the city, close to the end of Rio Gravataí (Gravataí River), sharing its entire run with BR-290, only separating when heading north onto Canoas.


title: Porto Alegre

text: A third road, BR-448, is currently under construction. BR-448 is planned to connect the northeast of Porto Alegre to Sapucaia do Sul, as an alternative to BR-116, notably jam-packed on its Canoas-Novo Hamburgo stretch during traffic rush hours.


title: Porto Alegre

text: The connection between downtown Porto Alegre and the highways is made by Avenida Presidente Castelo Branco (President Castelo Branco Avenue), which is a short - - avenue also bordering the northwest side of the city, Avenida dos Estados (States' Avenue), which is the access way to the Salgado Filho International Airport, and Avenida Assis Brasil (Assis Brasil Avenue), the main Avenue in the northern Porto Alegre.


title: Porto Alegre

text: The city has a functioning transportation system, especially the autobuses. Porto Alegre has also mini-buses from and to all the main neighborhoods in the city, with sitting-only transport and the possibility to hop on and off at any point but also higher fares. "Linha Turística" (Tourist Line) is a bus that leaves from Usina do Gasômetro tourist terminal around six times per day. During 90 minutes, it traverses the various districts of Porto Alegre, for a modest price. Exclusive bus lanes in the median of seven radial corridors that converge on the city center are used by both urban and regional lines. The bus fleet totals 1,600, with 150 minibuses. About 325 million people use the system annually.


title: Porto Alegre

text: Those lines have no prefix. It is quite common to switch buses at downtown but since there is a myriad of lines there, it can be challenging to find the right terminal for the next bus. Transversal lines prefix "T" (T1, T2, ..., T11), connect different neighborhoods without going through the downtown area, which effectively eliminates the need of changing buses for the most common trips. Circular lines prefix "C" (C1, C2, C3), as the name indicates, run in a circular manner, usually connecting parts of the downtown area to the nearest neighborhoods.


title: Porto Alegre

text: Mayor José Fogaça renewed his agreement with EMBARQ and the Center for Sustainable Transport Brazil (CTS-Brasil) to improve accessibility and mobility in downtown Porto Alegre. The agreement, signed on March 11, includes a new partnership with the Andean Development Corporation, a Latin American multilateral financial institution that is expected to provide $1 million in non-reimbursable technical assistance to help Porto Alegre complete the preparation phase of the ""Portais da Cidade"" bus rapid transit project, a groundbreaking transport system designed to reduce pollution and congestion downtown. The system will include a southern extension to accommodate activities for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. CAF's technical assistance will be administered through CTS-Brasil, which has been working to expand sustainable transport in Porto Alegre since 2005.


title: Porto Alegre

text: The bus station downtown and is served by several national and international lines. It is also connected to a Trensurb station (Porto Alegre Metro) and several municipal bus lines. Northbound passengers can rely on good bus connections throughout Brazil. However, an express bus might be recommended to travel to Uruguay or Argentina to avoid several stops en route.


title: Porto Alegre

text: Porto Alegre has a total of 3,922 authorized taxicabs, with 317 taxi stops. Regular taxis are colored red, whereas


title: Porto Alegre

text: Football is a passion of the people from Porto Alegre. There is a big rivalry between two football clubs, Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense, founded in 1903, and Sport Club Internacional, founded in 1909. Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense and Sport Club Internacional currently play in the top league in Brazil, the Serie A. Both have successful histories, having won national and international titles, including the South American top honour, the Copa Libertadores, and the highest global trophy for football clubs, the Intercontinental Cup, now known as the Club World Cup.


title: Porto Alegre

text: Porto Alegre was one of the host cities of the 2014 FIFA World Cup held in Brazil. The modernization of the Beira-Rio Stadium, home of SC Internacional and the city's 2014 FIFA World Cup venue, left the venue with a capacity for 56,000 spectators. Internacional's former home, the Estádio dos Eucaliptos, was a venue for the 1950 FIFA World Cup. Local rivals Grêmio play in their own stadium in the Humaitá district. The Arena do Grêmio stadium replaced the Estádio Olímpico Monumental in 2012 and meets CONMEBOL/FIFA standards. The Arena do Grêmio stadium has a capacity for 60,540 spectators.


title: Porto Alegre

text: American football is also played in the city, with two teams: Porto Alegre Pumpkins, the oldest in the state, and Porto Alegre Bulls, who play with the Esporte Clube São José, a club with multiple sports.


title: Porto Alegre

text: On January 22, 2015, Porto Alegre hosted its first Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the Gigantinho. was headlined by former heavyweight champion Frank Mir making his Brazilian debut, knocking out Brasilia native Antônio Silva.


title: Porto Alegre

text: Neighborhoods of Porto Alegre are geographical divisions of the city. There is no devolution of administrative powers to neighborhoods, although there are several neighborhoods associations devoted to improve their own standards of living. Porto Alegre has nowadays 81 official distinguished neighborhoods.


title: Ico

text: The protagonist is a young boy named Ico who was born with horns, which his village considers a bad omen. Warriors lock him away in an abandoned fortress. During his explorations of the fortress, Ico encounters Yorda, the daughter of the castle's Queen. The Queen plans to use Yorda's body to extend her own lifespan. Learning this, Ico seeks to escape the castle with Yorda, keeping her safe from the shadowy creatures that attempt to draw her back. Throughout the game, the player controls Ico as he explores the castle, solves puzzles and assists Yorda across obstacles.


title: Ico

text: "Ico" introduced several design and technical elements, including a story told with minimal dialogue, bloom lighting, and key frame animation, that have influenced subsequent games. Although not a commercial success, it was critically acclaimed for its art, original gameplay and story elements and received several awards, including "Game of the Year" nominations and three Game Developers Choice Awards. Considered a cult classic, it has been called one of the greatest video games of all time, and is often brought up in discussions about video games as an art form. It has influenced numerous video games since its release. It was rereleased in Europe in 2006 in conjunction with "Shadow of the Colossus", the spiritual successor to "Ico". A high-definition remaster of the game was released alongside "Shadow of the Colossus" for the PlayStation 3 in "The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection" in 2011.


title: Ico

text: "Ico" is primarily a three-dimensional platform game. The player controls Ico from a third-person perspective as he explores the castle and attempts to escape it with Yorda. The camera is fixed in each room or area but swivels to follow Ico or Yorda as they move; the player can also pan the view a small degree in other directions to observe more of the surroundings. The game includes many elements of platform games; for example, the player must have Ico jump, climb, push and pull objects, and perform other tasks such as solving puzzles in order to progress within the castle.


title: Ico

text: These actions are complicated by the fact that only Ico can carry out these actions; Yorda can jump only short distances and cannot climb over tall barriers. The player must use Ico so that he helps Yorda cross obstacles, such as by lifting her to a higher ledge, or by arranging the environment to allow Yorda to cross a larger gap herself. The player can tell Yorda to follow Ico, or to wait at a spot. The player can have Ico take Yorda's hand and pull her along at a faster pace across the environment. Players are unable to progress in the game until they move Yorda to certain doors that only she can open.


title: Ico

text: Escaping the castle is made difficult by shadow creatures sent by the Queen. These creatures attempt to drag Yorda into black vortexes if Ico leaves her for any length of time, or if she is in certain areas of the castle. Ico can dispel these shadows using a stick or sword and pull Yorda free if she is drawn into a vortex. While the shadow creatures cannot harm Ico, the game is over if Yorda becomes fully engulfed in a vortex; the player restarts from a save point. The player will also restart from a save point if Ico falls from a large height. Save points in the game are represented by stone benches that Ico and Yorda rest on as the player saves the game. In European and Japanese releases, upon completion of the game, the player has the opportunity to restart the game in a local co-operative two-player mode, where the second player plays as Yorda, still under the same limitations as the computer-controlled version of the character.


title: Ico

text: , a horned boy, is taken by a group of warriors to an abandoned castle and locked inside a stone coffin to be sacrificed. A tremor topples the coffin and Ico escapes. As he searches the castle, he comes across , a captive girl who speaks a different language. Ico helps Yorda escape and defends her from shadow-like creatures. The pair makes their way through the castle and arrive at the bridge leading to land. As they cross, the Queen, ruler of the castle, appears and tells Yorda that as her daughter she cannot leave the castle. Later, as they try to escape on the bridge, it splits up and they get separated. Yorda tries to save Ico but the Queen prevents it. He ends up falling off the bridge and losing consciousness.


title: Ico

text: Ico awakens below the castle and makes his way back to the upper levels, finding a magic sword that dispels the shadow creatures. After discovering that Yorda has been turned to stone by the Queen, he confronts the Queen in her throne room, who reveals that she plans to restart her life anew by taking possession of Yorda's body. Ico slays the Queen with the magic sword, but his horns are broken in the fight and at the end of it he is knocked unconscious. With the Queen's death the castle begins to collapse around Ico, but the Queen's spell on Yorda is broken, and a shadowy Yorda carries Ico safely out of the castle to a boat, sending him to drift to the shore alone. Ico awakens to find the distant castle in ruins, and Yorda, in her human form, washed up nearby. She wakes up and smiles at Ico.


title: Ico

text: Lead designer Fumito Ueda came up with the concept for "Ico" in 1997, envisioning a "boy meets girl" story where the two main characters would hold hands during their adventure, forming a bond between them without communication. Ueda's original inspiration for "Ico" was a TV commercial he saw, of a woman holding the hand of a child while walking through the woods, and the manga series "Galaxy Express 999", where a woman is a guardian for the young hero as they adventure through the galaxy, which he thought about adapting into a new idea for video games. He also cited his work as an animator on Kenji Eno's Sega Saturn game "Enemy Zero", which influenced the animation work, cinematic cutscenes, lighting effects, sound design, and mature appeal. Ueda was also inspired by the video game "Another World" ("Outer World" in Japan), which used cinematic cutscenes, lacked any head-up display elements as to play like a movie, and also featured an emotional connection between two characters despite the use of minimal dialog. He also cited Sega Mega Drive games, "Virtua Fighter", "Lemmings", "Flashback" and the original "Prince of Persia" games as influences, specifically regarding animation and gameplay style. With the help of an assistant, Ueda created an animation in Lightwave to get a feel for the final game and to better convey his vision. In the three-minute demonstration reel, Yorda had the horns instead of Ico, and flying robotic creatures were seen firing weapons to destroy the castle. Ueda stated that having this movie that represented his vision helped to keep the team on track for the long development process, and he reused this technique for the development of "Shadow of the Colossus", the team's next effort.


title: Ico

text: Ueda began working with producer Kenji Kaido in 1998 to develop the idea and bring the game to the PlayStation. "Ico"s design aesthetics were guided by three key notions: to make a game that would be different from others in the genre, feature an aesthetic style that would be consistently artistic, and play out in an imaginary yet realistic setting. This was achieved through the use of "subtracting design"; they removed elements from the game which interfered with the game's reality. This included removing any form of interface elements, keeping the gameplay focused only on the escape from the castle, and reducing the number of types of enemies in the game to a single foe. An interim design of the game shows Ico and Yorda facing horned warriors similar to those who take Ico to the castle. The game originally focused on Ico's attempt to return Yorda to her room in the castle after she was kidnapped by these warriors. Ueda believed this version had too much detail for the graphics engine they had developed, and as part of the "subtracting design", replaced the warriors with the shadow creatures. Ueda also brought in a number of people outside the video game industry to help with development. These consisted of two programmers, four artists, and one designer in addition to Ueda and Kaido, forming the base of what is now known as Team Ico. On reflection, Ueda noted that the subtracting design may have taken too much out of the game, and did not go to as great an extreme with "Shadow of the Colossus".


title: Ico

text: After two years of development, the team ran into limitations on the PlayStation hardware and faced a critical choice: either terminate the project altogether, alter their vision to fit the constraints of the hardware, or continue to explore more options. The team decided to remain true to Ueda's vision, and began to use the Emotion Engine of the PlayStation 2, taking advantage of the improved abilities of the platform. Character animation was accomplished through key frame animation instead of the more common motion capture technique. The game took about four years to create. Ueda purposely left the ending vague, not stating whether Yorda was alive, whether she would travel with Ico, or if it was simply the protagonist's dream.


title: Ico

text: The cover used for releases in Japan and PAL regions was drawn by Ueda himself, and was inspired by the Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico and his work "The Nostalgia of the Infinite". Ueda believed that "the surrealistic world of de Chirico matched the allegoric world of "Ico"". The North American version lacks this cover as well as additional features that become available after the player completes the game once. The development team was unable to provide Ueda's cover or the additional features such as the two-player mode in time for Sony's planned North American release date, but included them for the later releases in Japan and PAL regions. Since release, the North American cover has been considered one of the worst pieces of cover art for video games in contrast to the game's quality and the Japanese/PAL cover. On reflection, Yasuhide Kobayashi, vice-president of Sony's Japan Studio, believed the North American box art and lack of an identifiable English title led to the game's poor sales in the United States, and stated plans to correct that for the release of "The Last Guardian". For its original release, a limited edition of the game was available in PAL regions that included a cardboard wrapping displaying artwork from the game and four art cards inside the box. The game was re-released as a standard edition in 2006 across all PAL regions except France after the 2005 release of "Shadow of the Colossus", "Ico"s spiritual sequel, to allow players to "fill the gap in their collection".


title: Ico

text: "Ico" uses minimal dialog in a fictional language to provide the story throughout the game. Voice actors included Kazuhiro Shindō as Ico, Rieko Takahashi as Yorda, and Misa Watanabe as the Queen. Ico and the Queen's words are presented in either English or Japanese subtitles depending on the release region, but Yorda's speech is presented in a symbolic language. Ueda opted not to provide the translation for Yorda's words as it would have overcome the language barrier between Ico and Yorda, and detracted from the "holding hands" concept of the game. In the non-North American releases, playing through the game again after completing the game replaces the symbolic text with appropriate language subtitles.


title: Ico

text: "Ico"s audio featured a limited amount of music and sound effects. The soundtrack, , was composed by Michiru Oshima and sound unit "pentagon" (Koichi Yamazaki & Mitsukuni Murayama) and released in Japan by Sony Music Entertainment on February 20, 2002. The album was distributed by Sony Music Entertainment Visual Works. The last song of the CD, "ICO -You Were There-", includes vocals sung by former Libera member Steven Geraghty.


title: Ico

text: A novelization of the game titled was released in Japan in 2004. Author Miyuki Miyabe wrote the novel because of her appreciation of the game. A Korean translation of the novel, entitled 이코 – 안개의 성 ("I-ko: An-gae-eui Seong") came out the following year, by Hwangmae Publishers, while an English translation was published by Viz Media on August 16, 2011.


title: Ico

text: Costumes (including Ico and Yorda), stickers, and sound effects from "Ico" are part of an add-on pack for the game "LittleBigPlanet", alongside similar materials from "Shadow of the Colossus", after being teased by the game's developers Media Molecule about two weeks prior. Ico makes a cameo appearance in "Astro's Playroom".


title: Ico

text: In 2010, Misher Films said that a film adaption of "Ico" may come about based on the success of their then-planned adaptation of "Shadow of the Colossus".


title: Ico

text: "Ico" received critical acclaim, becoming a cult hit among players. The game has an aggregated review score of 90 out of 100 at Metacritic. In Japan, "Famitsu" magazine scored the PlayStation2 version of the game a 30 out of 40. The game is considered by some to be one of the greatest games of all time; "Edge" ranked "Ico" as the 13th top game in a 2007 listing, while IGN ranked the game at number 18 in 2005, and at number 57 in 2007. "Ico" has been used as an example of a game that is a work of art. Ueda commented that he purposely tried to distance "Ico" from conventional video games due to the negative image video games were receiving at that time, in order to draw more people to the title.


title: Ico

text: Some reviewers have likened "Ico" to older, simpler adventure games such as "Prince of Persia" or "Tomb Raider", that seek to evoke an emotional experience from the player; IGNs David Smith commented that while simple, as an experience the game was "near indescribable." The game's graphics and sound contributed strongly to the positive reactions from critics; Smith continues that "The visuals, sound, and original puzzle design come together to make something that is almost, if not quite, completely unlike anything else on the market, and feels wonderful because of it." Many reviewers were impressed with the expansiveness and the details given to the environments, the animation used for the main characters despite their low polygon count, as well as the use of lighting effects. "Ico"s ambiance, created by the simple music and the small attention to detail in the voice work of the main characters, were also called out as strong points for the game. Charles Herold of "The New York Times" summed up his review stating that "Ico is not a perfect game, but it is a game of perfect moments." Herold later commented that "Ico" breaks the mold of games that usually involve companions. In most games these companions are invulnerable and players will generally not concern with the non-playable characters' fate, but "Ico" creates the sense of "trust and childish fragility" around Yorda, which leads to the character being "the game's entire focus".


title: Ico

text: The game is noted for its simple combat system that would "disappoint those craving sheer mechanical depth", as stated by GameSpots Miguel Lopez. The game's puzzle design has been praised for creating a rewarding experience for players who work through challenges on their own; Kristen Reed of Eurogamer, for example, said that "you quietly, logically, willingly proceed, and the illusion is perfect: the game never tells you what to do, even though the game is always telling you what to do". "Ico" is also considered a short game, taking between seven and ten hours for a single play through, which Game Revolution calls "painfully short" with "no replay outside of self-imposed challenges". G4TV's Matthew Keil, however, felt that "the game is so strong, many will finish 'Ico' in one or two sittings". The lack of features in the North American release, which would become unlocked on subsequent playthroughs after completing the game, was said to reduce the replay value of the title. "Electronic Gaming Monthly" notes that "Yorda would probably be the worst companion -she's scatterbrained and helpless; if not for the fact that the player develops a bond with her, making the game's ending all the more heartrending."


title: Ico

text: Francesca Reyes reviewed the PlayStation 2 version of the game for "Next Generation", rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "Intensely involving and wonderfully simple, "Ico", though flawed, deserves to find its niche as a quiet classic."


title: Ico

text: Despite the positive praise, the original title did not sell well. By 2009, only 700,000 copies were sold worldwide, with 270,000 in the United States, and the bulk in PAL regions. Ueda considered his design by subtraction approach may have hurt the marketing of the game, as at the time of the game's release, promotion of video games were primarily done through screenshots, and as "Ico" lacked any heads-up display, it appeared uninteresting to potential buyers.


title: Ico

text: "Ico" received several acclamations from the video game press, and was considered to be one of the Games of the Year by many publications, despite competing with releases such as "Halo", "", and "Grand Theft Auto III". The game received three Game Developers Choice Awards in 2002, including "Excellence in Level Design", "Excellence in Visual Arts", and "Game Innovation Spotlight". The game won two Interactive Achievement Awards from the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences in 2002 for "Art Direction" and "Character or Story Development", and was nominated for awards of "Game of the Year", "Game Design", "Level Design" and "Sound Design". It won "GameSpot"s annual "Best Graphics, Artistic" prize among console games. It was one of three titles to win the Special Award at the sixth CESA Game Awards.


title: Ico

text: "Ico" influenced numerous other video games, which borrowed from its simple and visual design ideals. Several game designers, such as Eiji Aonuma, Hideo Kojima, and Jordan Mechner, have cited "Ico" as having influenced the visual appearance of their games, including "", "", and "", respectively. Marc Laidlaw, scriptwriter for the "Half-Life" series, commented that, among several other more memorable moments in the game, the point where Yorda attempts to save Ico from falling off the damaged bridge was "a significant event not only for that game, but for the art of game design". The Naughty Dog team used "Ico" as part of the inspiration for developing "Uncharted 3". Vander Caballero credits "Ico" for inspiring the gameplay of "Papo & Yo". Phil Fish used the design by subtraction approach in developing the title "Fez". The developers of both "" and "Rime" have "Ico" as a core influence on their design. Hidetaka Miyazaki, creator and director of the "Dark Souls" series, cited "Ico" as a key influence to him becoming involved in developing video games, stating that "Ico" "awoke me to the possibilities of the medium". Goichi Suda aka Suda51, said that "Ico" save game method, where the player has Ico and Yorda sit on a bench to save the game, inspired the save game method in "No More Heroes" where the player-character sits on a toilet to save the game.


title: Ico

text: "Ico" was one of the first video games to use a bloom lighting effect, which later became a popular effect in video games. Patrice Désilets, creator of Ubisoft games such as "" and "Assassin's Creed", cited "Ico" as an influence on the game design of "The Sands of Time". Jenova Chen, creator of art games such as "Flower" and "Journey", cited "Ico" as one of his biggest influences. "Ico" was also cited as an influence by "Halo 4" creative director Josh Holmes. Naughty Dog said "The Last of Us" was influenced by "Ico", particularly in terms of character building and interaction, and Neil Druckmann credited the gameplay of "Ico" as a key inspiration when he began developing the story of "The Last of Us".


title: Ico

text: Film director Guillermo del Toro cited both "Ico" and "Shadow of the Colossus" as "masterpieces" and part of his directorial influence. Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead considers, of his top ten video games, ""Ico" might be the best one".


title: Ico

text: , released for the PlayStation 2 in October 2005 in Japan and North America, was developed by the same team that developed "Ico". The game features similar graphics, gameplay, and storytelling elements as "Ico". The game was referred by its working title "Nico" ("Ni" being Japanese for the number 2") until the final title was revealed. Ueda, when asked about the connection between the two games, stated that "Shadow of the Colossus" is a prequel to "Ico".


title: Ico

text: Team Ico's third game, "The Last Guardian", was announced as a PlayStation 3 title at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2009. The game centers on the connection between a young boy and a large griffin-like creature that he befriends, requiring the player to cooperate with the creature to solve the game's puzzles. The game fell into development hell due to hardware limitations and the departure of Ueda from Sony around 2012, along with other Team Ico members, though Ueda and the other members continued to work on the game via consulting contracts. Development subsequently switched to the PlayStation 4 in 2012, and the game was reannounced in 2015 and released in December 2016. Ueda has said that "the essence of the game is rather close to "Ico"".


title: Ico

text: "Ico", along with "Shadow of the Colossus", received a high-definition remaster for the PlayStation3 that was released worldwide in September 2011. In addition to improved graphics, the games were updated to include support for stereoscopic 3D and PlayStation Trophies. The "Ico" port was also based on the European version, and includes features such as Yorda's translation and the two-player mode. In North America and Europe/PAL regions, the two games were released as a single retail collection, while in Japan, they were released as separate titles. Both games have since been released separately as downloadable titles on the PlayStation Network store. Patch 1.01 for the digital high-definition Ico version added the Remote Play feature, allowing the game to be played on the PlayStation Vita.


title: Serendipity

text: Serendipity is an unplanned fortunate discovery. Serendipity is a common occurrence throughout the history of product invention and scientific discovery.


title: Serendipity

text: The first noted use of "serendipity" was by Horace Walpole on 28 January 1754. In a letter he wrote to his friend Horace Mann, Walpole explained an unexpected discovery he had made about a lost painting of Bianca Cappello by Giorgio Vasari by reference to a Persian fairy tale, "The Three Princes of Serendip". The princes, he told his correspondent, were "always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of." The name comes from "Serendip", an old Persian name for Sri Lanka (Ceylon), hence "Sarandib" by Arab traders. It is derived from the Sanskrit "Siṃhaladvīpaḥ" (Siṃhalaḥ, Sri Lanka + dvīpaḥ, island).


title: Serendipity

text: The word has been exported into many other languages, with the general meaning of "unexpected discovery" or "fortunate chance".


title: Serendipity

text: The term "serendipity" is often applied to inventions made by chance rather than intent. Andrew Smith, editor of "The" "Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink", has speculated that most everyday products had serendipitous roots, with many early ones related to animals. The origin of cheese, for example, possibly originated in the nomad practice of storing milk in the stomach of a dead camel that was attached to the saddle of a live one, thereby mixing rennet from the stomach with the milk stored within.


title: Serendipity

text: Serendipity contributed to entomologist Shaun Winterton discovering "Semachrysa jade", a new species of lacewing, which he found not in its native Malaysia, but on the photo-sharing site Flickr. Winterton's discovery was aided by Flickr's ability to present images that are personalized to a user's interests, thereby increasing the odds he would chance upon the photo. Computer scientist Jaime Teevan has argued that serendipitous discovery is promoted by such personalisation, writing that "people don't know what to do with random new information. Instead, we want information that is at the fringe of what we already know, because that is when we have the cognitive structures to make sense of the new ideas."


title: Serendipity

text: Serendipity is a design principle for online activity that would present viewpoints that diverge from those participants already hold. Harvard Law professor Cass Sunstein argues that such an "architecture of serendipity" would promote a healthier democracy. Like a great city or university, "a well-functioning information market" provides exposure to new ideas, people, and ways of life. "Serendipity is crucial because it expands your horizons. You need that if you want to be free." The idea has potential application in the design of social media, information searches, and web browsing.


title: Serendipity

text: William Boyd coined the term zemblanity in the late twentieth century to mean somewhat the opposite of serendipity: "making unhappy, unlucky and expected discoveries occurring by design". The derivation is speculative, but believed to be from Nova Zembla, a barren archipelago once the site of Russian nuclear testing.


title: Serendipity

text: Bahramdipity is derived directly from Bahram Gur as characterized in "The Three Princes of Serendip". It describes the "suppression" of serendipitous discoveries or research results by powerful individuals.


title: Serendipity

text: In addition, Solomon & Bronstein (2018) further distinguish between perceptual and realised pseudo-serendipity and nemorinity.


title: Cortisone

text: Cortisone is a pregnene (21-carbon) steroid hormone. It is a naturally-occurring corticosteroid metabolite that is also used as a pharmaceutical prodrug; it is not synthesized in the adrenal glands. Cortisol is converted by the action of the enzyme corticosteroid 11-beta-dehydrogenase isozyme 2 into the inactive metabolite cortisone, particularly in the kidneys. Cortisone is converted back to the active steroid cortisol by the action of the enzyme 11β-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1, particularly in the liver.


title: Cortisone

text: The term "cortisone" is frequently misused to mean either any corticosteroid or hydrocortisone, which is actually another name for cortisol. Many who speak of receiving a "cortisone shot" or taking "cortisone" are actually receiving hydrocortisone or one of many other, much more potent synthetic corticosteroids; it is unlikely that the drug administered is actually cortisone.


title: Cortisone

text: Cortisone can be administered as a prodrug, meaning it has to be converted by the body (specifically the liver, converting it into cortisol) after administration to be effective. It is used to treat a variety of ailments and can be administered intravenously, orally, intra-articularly (into a joint), or transcutaneously. Cortisone suppresses various elements of the immune system, thus reducing inflammation and attendant pain and swelling. Risks exist, in particular in the long-term use of cortisone. However, using cortisone only results in very mild activity, and very often more potent steroids are used instead.


title: Cortisone

text: Cortisone itself is inactive. It must be converted to cortisol by the action of 11β-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1. This primarily happens in the liver, the main site at which cortisone becomes cortisol after oral or systemic injection, and can thus have a pharmacological effect. After application to the skin or injection into a joint, local cells that express 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 instead convert it to active cortisol.


title: Cortisone

text: A cortisone injection may provide short-term pain relief and may reduce the swelling from inflammation of a joint, tendon, or bursa in, for example, the joints of the knee, elbow and shoulder and into a broken coccyx.


title: Cortisone

text: Cortisone is also used by dermatologists to treat keloids, relieve the symptoms of eczema and atopic dermatitis, and stop the development of sarcoidosis.


title: Cortisone

text: Oral use of cortisone has a number of potential systemic adverse effects, including asthma, hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, anxiety, depression, amenorrhoea, cataracts, glaucoma, Cushing's syndrome, increased risk of infections and impaired growth. With topical application, it can lead to thinning of the skin, impaired wound healing, increased skin pigmentation, tendon rupture and skin infections (including abscesses).


title: Cortisone

text: Cortisone was first identified by the American chemists Edward Calvin Kendall and Harold L. Mason while researching at the Mayo Clinic.<ref name="Mason/Myers/Kendall"></ref> During the discovery process, cortisone was known as compound E (while cortisol was known as compound F).


title: Cortisone

text: In 1949, Philip S. Hench and colleagues discovered that large doses of injected cortisone were effective in the treatment of patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis. Kendall was awarded the 1950 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine along with Philip Showalter Hench and Tadeusz Reichstein for the discovery of the structure and function of adrenal cortex hormones including cortisone. Both Reichstein and the team of O. Wintersteiner and J. Pfiffner had separately isolated the compound prior to the discovery made by Mason and Kendall, but failed to recognize its biological significance. Mason's contributions to the crystallization and characterization of the compound have generally been forgotten outside of the Mayo Clinic.


title: Cortisone

text: Cortisone was first produced commercially by Merck & Co. in 1948 or 1949. On September 30, 1949, Percy Julian announced an improvement in the process of producing cortisone from bile acids. This eliminated the need to use osmium tetroxide, a rare, expensive, and dangerous chemical. In the UK in the early 1950s, John Cornforth and Kenneth Callow at the National Institute for Medical Research collaborated with Glaxo to produce cortisone from hecogenin from sisal plants.


title: Cortisone

text: Cortisone is one of several end-products of a process called steroidogenesis. This process starts with the synthesis of cholesterol, which then proceeds through a series of modifications in the adrenal gland to become any one of many steroid hormones. One end-product of this pathway is cortisol. For cortisol to be released from the adrenal gland, a cascade of signaling occurs. Corticotropin-releasing hormone released from the hypothalamus stimulates corticotrophs in the anterior pituitary to release ACTH, which relays the signal to the adrenal cortex. Here, the zona fasciculata and zona reticularis, in response to ACTH, secrete glucocorticoids, in particular cortisol. In various peripheral tissues, notably the kidneys, cortisol is inactivated to cortisone by the enzyme corticosteroid 11-beta-dehydrogenase isozyme 2. This is crucial because cortisol is a potent mineralocorticoid and would cause havoc with electrolyte levels (raising blood sodium and lowering blood potassium levels) and raise blood pressure if it were not inactivated in the kidneys.


title: Cortisone

text: Because cortisone must be converted to cortisol before being active as a glucocorticoid, its activity is less than simply administering cortisol directly (80–90%).


title: Cortisone

text: Addiction to cortisone was the subject of the 1956 motion picture "Bigger Than Life", produced by and starring James Mason. Though it was a box-office flop upon its initial release, many modern critics hail the film as a masterpiece and brilliant indictment of contemporary attitudes toward mental illness and addiction. In 1963, Jean-Luc Godard named it one of the ten greatest American sound films ever made.


title: Cortisone

text: John F. Kennedy was regularly administered corticosteroids such as cortisone as a treatment for Addison's disease.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: 24: Live Another Day (also known as Season 9 or Day 9) is a "24" limited event television series that premiered on May 5, 2014, and concluded on July 14, 2014, airing on Fox. Sky 1 simulcast the premiere on May 6 in the United Kingdom and Ireland but switched to Wednesday nights for the rest of the episodes. It began airing in Australia on Network Ten on May 12, 2014. Set four years after the events of season 8, it adheres to the real time concept of covering the events of a 24-hour period and begins and ends at 11:00 a.m. However, there is a 12-hour time jump within the final episode.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: "Live Another Day" takes place four years after the events of season 8. James Heller, now president, is negotiating a treaty in London, where a hacker collective preaching freedom of information has enlisted the help of Chloe O'Brian. Jack Bauer, who has been tracking the activities of Chloe's group while living in exile, resurfaces when he hears of an imminent attempt on Heller's life.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: While anti-drone protesters gather outside the American embassy where President of the United States James Heller is staying, agents at a CIA station in London find and apprehend federal fugitive and former Counter Terrorist Unit Agent Jack Bauer. Due to her husband's conviction, CIA Agent Kate Morgan is being forced to resign. However, she gets herself reinstated when she realizes that Jack is infiltrating the CIA to gain access to ex-CTU Data Analyst turned hacktivist Chloe O'Brian. Kate is too late to intervene and Jack breaks Chloe out of interrogation with the help of his friend Belcheck, an ex-Serbian Mob enforcer. Still distrustful of Chloe, Jack follows her to Open Cell, an organization that specializes in leaking government documents. He explains that he is on the trail of Derrick Yates, a former Open Cell member who has become involved in an assassination attempt on James Heller. The attempt is revealed to involve drones when he programs an unmanned aerial vehicle to fire on British and American troops. The pilot, Chris Tanner, is falsely arrested on murder charges.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: Jack and Chloe learn that Yates' device has been taken by Margot Al-Harazi, a known terrorist trying to avenge the death of her husband. When their attempt to capture her daughter Simone fails, Jack breaks into the American embassy to analyze Tanner's flight key and prove that the threat is imminent. Jack locks himself in a room with three hostages and tries to upload the data to Open Cell's leader, Adrian Cross. Marines break in before the upload finishes but Kate Morgan is able to place him in CIA custody instead. In the President's quarters, Chief of Staff Mark Boudreau expresses concerns that Bauer is a terrorist and drafts an agreement for extraditing him to Russia. Suspecting that dementia has clouded Heller's judgement, he forges the President's signature and vows to protect his wife Audrey from any further pain related to Bauer. Jack is ultimately proven right when Margot Al-Harazi broadcasts a video calling for Heller to turn himself in or face attacks on London from six U.S. drones.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: When Simone's husband Navid tries to sabotage the attacks, Margot executes Navid. Leaving her son Ian to pilot the drones, she sends Simone to silence Navid's family. When a missile kills several CIA Agents, Heller authorizes Bauer to go undercover with an arms dealer known for working with Al-Harazi. From transaction records, they are able to track Simone and see that she has been struck by traffic in her pursuit of Navid's niece. When Margot learns that Simone is being interrogated in the hospital, she sends a drone to destroy it. Jack and Kate escape with Simone and convince her to reveal Margot's last known whereabouts. The subsequent raid uncovers enough information to give Chloe access to the drone's camera. Meanwhile, CIA Agent and analyst Jordan Reed uncovers evidence that Kate's husband Adam Morgan may have been innocent all along. CIA Agent and Station Chief Steve Navarro arranges to have him killed in order to cover up his own involvement in selling intel to China and framing Morgan. The assassination does not go as planned and leads to the deaths of both Agent Reed and the hitman.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: With Margot's deadline approaching, Heller decides to turn himself in and put an end to the civilian losses though he first pardons Jack for his crimes. Jack delivers his friend to Wembley Stadium where Margot's drone is waiting but convinces him to turn back when Chloe devises a plan to loop the video feed. Thinking that Heller is still inside, Margot and Ian fire on the stadium and then sink five of the six rogue drones. Upon learning that Heller is alive, Margot and Ian try to attack Waterloo station with the last drone. Jack arrives with a CIA team before this can happen and kills both of them. Jack takes Yates' device back to the CIA to be analyzed. Upon arriving, he learns that Jordan's body has been found and identifies the second body as an assassin working for Navarro. Before Jack can apprehend him, Navarro escapes with the device and delivers it to Adrian Cross. Adrian explains to Chloe that some underground dealings with China are needed to finance their activism and takes her to an Open Cell chapter. They find that all of their colleagues have been murdered by Cheng Zhi, who wants to reprogram the override to start a war between the United States and China. Cheng kills Adrian, kidnaps Chloe and fabricates a torpedo launch order that sinks a Chinese aircraft carrier.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: Russian operative Anatol Stolnavich contacts Mark Boudreau about the rendition order. When Boudreau tries to withdraw it, Stolnavich threatens to reveal that the signature has been forged. Boudreau co-operates and gives him access to a frequency used by Bauer. As a result, Jack is attacked by Russians on his way to retrieve the override and Cheng has time to escape. Upon discovering that his encrypted frequency was given to the Russians from within the White House, Bauer confronts Boudreau and tells him that Russia will benefit if the United States and China go to war. Heller immediately arrests Boudreau but then delays custody, allowing Boudreau to assist Jack in the raid of a Russian diplomatic compound. He distracts Stolnavich long enough for Jack and Kate to break in but Stolnavich dies in the ensuing struggle. Audrey meets with a contact of hers, the daughter of a high-ranking Chinese official, hoping to convince her that the naval attacks were perpetrated by Cheng and not the American government. Even though Cheng is unable to stop Chloe from escaping, he uses a sniper and has Audrey's secret service guards killed. He contacts Bauer saying that Audrey will die unless he gets safe passage out of England.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: From the files in Stolnavich's compound Jack finds out how Cheng is planning to escape and sends Kate to rescue Audrey without attracting attention. Chloe re-establishes contact with Jack and sets up satellite surveillance of the freighter that Cheng has boarded. While Jack and Belcheck raid the ship, Kate eliminates the sniper and tells them that Audrey is safe. However, a second shooter in the area fires several shots and Audrey dies in Kate's arms. Devastated by her loss, Jack kills all of Cheng's bodyguards and transmits proof of Cheng's whereabouts to President Heller and President Wei. He kills Cheng immediately after the authenticity is verified. As the military advances are called off, Heller is told that his daughter is dead and Jack and Belcheck see that Chloe has gone missing again. Jack receives a phone call from the Russians demanding that he turn himself in to them.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: Twelve hours later, Kate resigns from the CIA out of regret and Mark awaits trial for committing treason in his attempt to save Audrey. Heller is left to mourn his daughter as his memories start to fade away, and Jack reluctantly gives himself up to Russian agents in exchange for Chloe's freedom despite being pardoned by Heller.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: In May 2013, "Deadline Hollywood" first reported that Fox was considering a limited-run "event series" for "24" based on a concept by Howard Gordon, after failed efforts to produce the "24" feature film and the cancellation of Kiefer Sutherland's series "Touch". David Fury confirmed on Twitter that he would also be involved, pulling "double duty" with Gordon's new series "Tyrant". The following week, Fox officially announced "24: Live Another Day", a limited-run series of twelve episodes that would feature the return of Jack Bauer. Fox CEO Kevin Reilly said that the series would essentially represent the twelve "most important" hours of a typical "24" season, with jumps forward between hours as needed. As with the rest of Fox's push into event programming, the production will have "a big scope and top talent and top marketing budgets."


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: In June 2013, it was announced that former "24" director Jon Cassar was signed on as executive producer and director of "Live Another Day", directing six of the twelve episodes. The remaining six episodes were given to former "24" director and producer Milan Cheylov, and new "24" directors, Adam Kane and Omar Madha. Executive producers and writers Robert Cochran, Manny Coto and Evan Katz were also announced to return. Sean Callery returned as the music composer for the series.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: The writing process began on July 1, 2013, with David Fury pitching the first episode, which was tentatively titled "6:30–7:30". On July 11, 2013, executive producer Brian Grazer announced in an interview that the "24" miniseries would "be a limited series that would then spin off into a series itself. Fox is doing it, Fox studio and Fox network, and we're totally thrilled by that." In October 2013, it was confirmed the series would be set and filmed in London, England, United Kingdom. Pre-production and location scouting by the crew, including Jon Cassar, began in November 2013. The production offices for "Live Another Day" were based in the Gillette Building in west London, previously used for "Red 2". Production began on January 6, 2014.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: A promotional video was shot on January 22, 2014, with filming beginning for the series on January 26. The first teaser for the show aired on Sky1 on January 21, 2014, but did not show any new footage. The first American trailer, titled "Street Chaos", followed four 10-second teasers during Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014, but didn't show any footage from the series. Also, a promotional image was sent to "Entertainment Weekly" on February 20, 2014.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: In March, another promo with actual footage was released, showing the President of the United States arriving in London; Bauer being spotted there on camera by the CIA; and him telling Chloe that "there's no going home" for him. A 20-minute preview of "Live Another Day" was released by Fox on April 7 and broadcast on May 3.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: Kiefer Sutherland was immediately cast as Jack Bauer on May 13, 2013. Mary Lynn Rajskub was announced as the second official cast member in August 2013, reprising her role as Chloe O'Brian. In October 2013, it was confirmed that Kim Raver and William Devane would reprise their roles as Audrey Raines and James Heller, respectively.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: The first new character to be cast was Michael Wincott's hacker character Adrian Cross. One month later, two more characters were added to the cast: CIA agents Erik Ritter and Jordan Reed played by Gbenga Akinnagbe and Giles Matthey respectively. On December 19, 2013, it was announced that three-time Primetime Emmy Award winner Judy Davis had joined the cast as the villain Margot Al-Harazi. However, Davis later exited the role for "personal family matters"; the role was recast with Michelle Fairley. On January 13, at a TCA panel discussing the show, it was announced that Yvonne Strahovski would play CIA Agent Kate Morgan. Benjamin Bratt was cast as her boss Steve Navarro.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: On January 21, Tate Donovan was cast as Heller's Chief of Staff and the husband of Audrey Raines, Mark Boudreau. On January 24, Stephen Fry was cast as the British Prime Minister Trevor Davies, later renamed Alastair Davies. On the same day, relatively unknown actor Charles Furness was cast in a "small guest part" as Peter, a member of Chloe's hacker group. On January 26, Ross McCall was revealed to have acted in "Live Another Day" by Jon Cassar playing Ron Clark, assistant of Mark Boudreau. The next day, John Boyega was announced to be playing drone pilot Chris Tanner. Among the last actors to have his role announced was Colin Salmon playing U.S. General Coburn.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: "Solitary" is a story extension included in the "Live Another Day" Blu-ray set which was released on September 30, 2014. It takes place approximately three years after the events of "Live Another Day" and features the return of Carlos Bernard as Tony Almeida as he attempts to be released from solitary confinement. In "Solitary", Tony requests to be moved from solitary confinement to general population, in an interview with a Department of Justice attorney and the prison administrator. Tony explains that he could supply inside information to the government regarding other criminals, such as Mexican cartels and al-Qaeda. When the request is denied, and a guard uncuffs him, he attacks the attorney, throwing her to the ground. During the attack, Tony is able to take her glasses without anyone noticing. Later, the attorney calls a man to confirm that Tony has the plans. Back in his cell, Tony puts on the glasses, which reveal they have escape plans in the lenses.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: "24: Live Another Day" received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes the series has an approval rating of 82% based on 55 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Filled with strong action sequences, "24: Live Another Day" is a return to the formula that made the original series popular – though it also suffers from familiarity and sameness." On Metacritic the series has a score of 70 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: The season's finale was met with critical acclaim, with reviewers praising the performances by Kiefer Sutherland and William Devane, the mix of fast action and emotionally wrenching content and the skilled use of emphatic silences.


title: 24: Live Another Day

text: The series was nominated for Best Stunt Team at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards and for Best Limited Series and Best Actor at the 5th Critics' Choice Television Awards. It also received three nominations for the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards.


title: Leslie Uggams

text: Leslie Marian Uggams (born May 25, 1943) is an American actress and singer. Beginning her career as a child in the early 1950s, Uggams is recognized for portraying Kizzy Reynolds in the television miniseries "Roots" (1977), earning Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations for her performance. She had earlier been highly acclaimed for the Broadway musical "Hallelujah, Baby!", winning a Theatre World Award in 1967 and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 1968. Later in her career, Uggams received renewed notice with appearances alongside Ryan Reynolds as Blind Al in "Deadpool" (2016) & "Deadpool 2" (2018) and in a recurring role on "Empire".


title: Leslie Uggams

text: Uggams was born in Harlem, the daughter of Juanita Ernestine (Smith), a Cotton Club chorus girl/dancer, and Harold Coyden Uggams, an elevator operator and maintenance man, who was a singer with the Hall Johnson choir. She attended the Professional Children's School of New York and Juilliard. Her aunt, singer Eloise C. Uggams, encouraged her musical training. One of her grandfathers was Coyden H. Uggams, twice pastor of Zion Presbyterian Church in Charleston, South Carolina from 1902 to 1906 and 1913 to 1919.


title: Leslie Uggams

text: Uggams started in show business as a child in 1951, playing the niece of Ethel Waters on "Beulah". That same year she appeared as a featured performer at the famed Apollo Theater in Harlem, alongside Ella Fitzgerald. She made her professional debut at the age of six on Jack Barry's NBC show "Stars And Stardust." Following that, she performed on "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts". Uggams got her biggest break on "The Lawrence Welk Show" and was a regular on "Sing Along with Mitch", starring record producer-conductor Mitch Miller. In 1954, ten-year-old Uggams made a record for MGM, which included a reworking of the song Santa Baby as "Uncle Santa," with words suitable for a child. In 1960, she sang, off-screen, "Give Me That Old Time Religion" in the film "Inherit the Wind". Uggams came to be recognized by TV audiences as an upcoming teen talent in 1958 on the musical quiz show series "Name That Tune". A record executive was in the studio audience and signed her to a contract. Her records "One More Sunrise" (an English-language cover of Ivo Robic's "Morgen", 1959) and "House Built on Sand" made "Billboard" magazine's charts.


title: Leslie Uggams

text: She appeared in her own television variety show, "The Leslie Uggams Show" in 1969. This was the first network variety show to be hosted by a black person since "The Nat King Cole Show" of the mid-1950s. She had a lead role in the 1977 miniseries "Roots," for which she received an Emmy nomination, as Kizzy. In 1979, she starred as Lillian Rogers Parks in the Emmy-winning miniseries "Backstairs at the White House". She also made guest appearances on such television programs as "Family Guy" (as herself), "I Spy", "Hollywood Squares", "The Muppet Show", "The Love Boat" and "Magnum, P.I.". In 1996, Uggams played the role of Rose Keefer on "All My Children". She won a 1983 Daytime Emmy Award as a host of the NBC game show "Fantasy".


title: Leslie Uggams

text: Her film career includes roles in "Skyjacked" (1972), "Black Girl" (1972) and "Poor Pretty Eddie" (1975), in which she played a popular singer who, upon being stranded in the deep South, is abused and humiliated by the perverse denizens of a backwoods town. She later appeared in "Sugar Hill" (1994) opposite Wesley Snipes, and played Blind Al in "Deadpool" (2016) in February 2016. In April 2016, she portrayed Leah Walker, the bipolar mother of Lucious Lyon in the hit Fox series "Empire". Uggams appeared as Sadie in the 2017 television film "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks", and in 2018, she returned as Blind Al in "Deadpool 2."


title: Leslie Uggams

text: She is an active Democrat and hosted a 1984 Democratic Telethon. In 1999 and 2021, she guest starred in two episodes of Family Guy. Additionally, she is also slated to reprise her role as Blind Al in "Deadpool 3".


title: Leslie Uggams

text: Uggams was picked to star in "Hallelujah, Baby!" after Lena Horne declined the role of Georgina. The musical premiered on Broadway in 1967 and "created a new star" in Uggams. She won the Tony Award for Best Actress in a musical (in a tie with Patricia Routledge). She appeared on Broadway in the revue "Blues in the Night" in 1982 and in the musical revue of the works of Jerry Herman, "Jerry's Girls" in 1985. Uggams replaced Patti LuPone as Reno Sweeney in the Lincoln Center revival of Cole Porter's musical "Anything Goes" on Broadway in March 1989. She had played Reno in a US tour in 1988–1989. Later Broadway roles include Muzzy in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (2003–2004) and Ethel Thayer in "On Golden Pond" at the Kennedy Center in 2004 and on Broadway at the Cort Theatre in 2005.


title: Leslie Uggams

text: In 2001, she appeared in the August Wilson play "King Hedley II", receiving a nomination for the Tony Award, Best Actress in a Play. In January 2009, Uggams played Lena Horne in a production of the stage musical "Stormy Weather" at the Pasadena Playhouse in California, directed by Michael Bush and choreographed by Randy Skinner. In June 2012, Uggams played Muzzy in a production of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" at The Muny in St. Louis. In 2014, she starred as Rose in Connecticut Repertory Theatre's Nutmeg Summer Series production of "Gypsy".


title: Leslie Uggams

text: Uggams has been married to her longtime manager Grahame Pratt since 1965, at the time a rare high-profile interracial marriage. “It was not as hard as I expected it to be,” Uggams says. “I think the reason is that Grahame was not an American white man. But of course we did get mail.” Uggams met her husband at the Professional Children's School of New York, where they were both students. The couple ran into each other while she was performing in Sydney during one of Uggams's celebrity tours in Australia, and he became her manager afterward. After their wedding, the couple decided to reside in New York, which was then more tolerant of interracial relationships. The couple are parents to daughter Danielle, born in 1970, and son Justice, born in 1975.


title: Miuccia Prada

text: Miuccia Bianchi Prada (; born Maria Bianchi on 10 May 1949) is an Italian billionaire fashion designer and businesswoman. She is the head designer of Prada and the founder of its subsidiary Miu Miu. As of October 2021, "Forbes" estimated her net worth at US$4.8 billion. In June 2021, "Bloomberg" estimated her net worth to be $6.62 billion, ranked 464th in the world.


title: Miuccia Prada

text: The youngest granddaughter of Mario Prada, Miuccia Prada took over the family-owned luxury goods manufacturer in 1978. Since then, the company has acquired Jil Sander, Helmut Lang and shoemaker Church & Co. In 2002, Prada opened her own contemporary art museum.


title: Miuccia Prada

text: In March 2013, Prada was named one of the fifty best dressed over-50s by "Forbes". The magazine listed her as the 75th most powerful woman in the world in 2014, when she had an estimated net worth of $11.1 billion.


title: Miuccia Prada

text: Born Maria Bianchi on 10 May 1949 in Milan, she took the name Miuccia Prada in the 1980s, after being adopted by an aunt. Her biological parents were Luigi Bianchi and Luisa Prada. She has two older siblings, Albert and Marina.


title: Miuccia Prada

text: Prada attended Liceo Classico Berchet high school in Milan and graduated with a PhD in political science at the University of Milan.


title: Miuccia Prada

text: Prada trained at the Teatro Piccolo to become a mime and performed for five years. She was a member of the Italian Communist Party and involved in the women's rights movement during the seventies in Milan.


title: Miuccia Prada

text: By the mid-Seventies, Prada entered into her family's business of manufacturing luxury leather bags, a company established by her grandfather in 1913. She initially oversaw the design of accessories. In 1978 she met her future husband and business partner, Patrizio Bertelli.


title: Miuccia Prada

text: Prada's first successful handbag design was in 1985. It was a line of black, finely-woven nylon handbags. By 1989, she designed and introduced her first women's ready-to-wear collection. In 1995 she launched her first menswear line. The Miu Miu line was introduced in 1992 as a less expensive womenswear line inspired by her personal wardrobe. She named it after her own nickname, Miu Miu.


title: Miuccia Prada

text: In 1994, Prada showed her collections in both New York and London fashion weeks. She had already been exhibiting at Milan fashion week. Bertelli, Prada's husband, is responsible for the commercial side of products and Prada's retail strategy. The design house has grown into a conglomerate that includes labels such as Helmut Lang, Jil Sander, and Azzedine Alaïa. The company has expanded into leather goods, shoes, fragrances, and apparel for both men and women.


title: Miuccia Prada

text: In 2020, Prada presented her final collection as the brand's sole creative director; because of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was unveiled in a sequence of short films directed by artists including Martine Syms and Juergen Teller. She has since been sharing that responsibility with Raf Simons.


title: Miuccia Prada

text: In 2010, Prada designed costumes for the Verdi opera "Attila" at the New York City Metropolitan Opera House.


title: Miuccia Prada

text: Prada deliberately avoids merging high art with fashion, saying "Art is for expressing ideas and for expressing a vision. My job is to sell."


title: Miuccia Prada

text: Along with designer Elsa Schiaparelli, Prada was the subject of the 2012 exhibition, "Impossible Conversations" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.


title: Miuccia Prada

text: In early 2014, Prada and Patrizio Bertelli were put under investigation as part of a tax avoidance probe by Milan prosecutors. By 2016, both paid more than 400 million euros ($429 million) to settle their tax positions.


title: Miuccia Prada

text: Prada is married to Patrizio Bertelli, a businessman. Their two sons were born in 1988 and 1990 the elder being rally driver Lorenzo Bertelli. The couple lives in the apartment where she was born.


title: Miuccia Prada

text: Prada is a collector of contemporary art and owns several artworks by Young British Artists. She is friends with the artists Cindy Sherman and Francesco Vezzoli.


title: Exam (2009 film)

text: Exam is a 2009 British psychological thriller film written by Simon Garrity and Stuart Hazeldine, directed by Hazeldine, and starring Colin Salmon, Chris Carey, Jimi Mistry, Luke Mably, Gemma Chan, Chukwudi Iwuji, John Lloyd Fillingham, Pollyanna McIntosh, Adar Beck and Nathalie Cox.


title: Exam (2009 film)

text: Eight candidates dress for an employment assessment exam at the company DATAPREV. The group enters a room and sits at individual desks. Each desk has a paper printed with the word "candidate" and a number from one to eight. The Invigilator explains that they have 80 minutes to answer one question, but there are three rules: the candidates must not spoil their paper, leave the room, or talk to him or the armed guard at the door. If they do, they will be disqualified. The Invigilator asks them if they have any questions, then leaves.


title: Exam (2009 film)

text: As the exam starts, it turns out that the papers are otherwise blank. Within minutes, an Asian candidate is disqualified for spoiling her paper by writing on it. The seven remaining candidates realize it is permissible to talk to each other and collaborate. One candidate, "White", assigns nicknames to each candidate based on hair color and skin color: Black, Blonde, Brown, Brunette, Dark, and Deaf (for one candidate who does not speak or respond to the group).


title: Exam (2009 film)

text: In the hour that follows, the candidates use lights, bodily fluids, and fire sprinklers in attempts to reveal hidden text on their papers, to no avail. They speculate on the exam's purpose and the nature of the company. Dark claims that the CEO is highly secretive and has not been seen since the initial public offering. It is gradually revealed that the company is responsible for a miracle drug designed to treat a condition afflicting a large part of the population due to a viral pandemic. In the chaos, White takes control of the group and engineers the disqualifications of Brunette and Deaf for spoiled papers.


title: Exam (2009 film)

text: White also begins taunting the others, saying he has figured out the question but will not tell them. In response, Black knocks White unconscious and ties him to a chair. As White passes out, he pleads for his medication, implying he has the virus. Brown turns his attention to Dark, who demonstrates knowledge of the company's internal workings, and tortures her into revealing that she works for the company. It is revealed that Black is a carrier of the disease. White goes into convulsions, proving he has the disease. Dark pleads to the Invigilator for help and is disqualified.


title: Exam (2009 film)

text: Blonde retrieves White's medication, which was stolen from him earlier by Brown, and uses it to revive him. The others release White and demand to know the question. White suggests that there is no question and the company will simply hire the last remaining candidate. Black steals the guard's gun, but it requires the guard's fingerprint to fire, giving White time to retrieve it. By forcing the guard's hand into the trigger, White coerces Brown to leave the room, disqualifying him. As Blonde also exits, she turns off the voice-activated lights, allowing Black to attack White.


title: Exam (2009 film)

text: The lights come back on after Black is hit by a gunshot. Blonde hides in the hallway, still holding one foot inside the room. Before White can kill her, the exam timer runs to zero. White addresses the Invigilator, sure of his success, but is disqualified. It is revealed that Deaf had earlier removed a few minutes from the countdown clock. Blonde remembers that Deaf had been using glasses and a piece of broken glass with an exam paper earlier. Taking the abandoned glasses, she finds the phrase "Question 1." on the exam paper in minuscule writing. Blonde realizes that Question 1 refers to the only question asked of the group by the Invigilator at the beginning of the test ("Any questions?"). Blonde answers "No."


title: Exam (2009 film)

text: The Invigilator enters and reveals that Deaf is the CEO of the company. He found the virus cure but also discovered a method of rapid cell regeneration capable of providing "the gift of life". The bullet that hit Black contained this cure, reviving him. With high demand for the drug and a limited supply, the company needed an administrator capable of making tough decisions with attention to detail while showing compassion, all traits that Blonde displayed during the exam. Blonde accepts the job.


title: Exam (2009 film)

text: After seeing some of his friends' films fail due to studio interference, Stuart Hazeldine decided that he wanted full control over his feature debut. The original story involved an exam at a school, but Stuart Hazeldine changed it to be a job interview. The ending is also Hazeldine's creation, as the original story didn't have one. Hazeldine wanted to separate the characters by race, culture, gender, and, especially, worldview. The film's pandemic was influenced by contemporary fears of bird flu and distrust of pharmaceutical companies. Originally, the script had more science fiction elements, but Hazeldine stripped them out to keep the film grounded. About the twist ending, Hazeldine said he wanted the film to be about more than just the twist, and he tried to appeal to audiences who seek a story about human nature.


title: Exam (2009 film)

text: The film premiered in June 2009 as part of the Edinburgh Film Festival and was then part of the Raindance Film Festival 2009. It was released in UK cinemas on 8 January 2010.


title: Exam (2009 film)

text: On 11 February 2010, IFC Films acquired the rights for the US release, where it was released as part of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The DVD and Blu-ray were released in the UK on 7 June 2010. There was no theatrical release in the US, but IFC Films released the film via video on demand on 23 July 2010 and on DVD on 16 November 2010.


title: Exam (2009 film)

text: Tim Robey of "The Telegraph" said that the film starts off well but loses its way. Lael Loewenstein of "Variety" called it "a smartly conceived, tautly executed psychological thriller." Philip French of "The Guardian" called the film clever and "ingeniously developed" but criticised the ending as disappointing. Also writing in the Guardian, Peter Bradshaw gave the film two out of five stars and said the film does not live up to its intriguing premise. Awarding the film four out of five stars, "Total Film" compared the film to "Cube" and the work of Jean-Paul Sartre. Becky Reed of Screen Geek compared it to "12 Angry Men" and "El Método (The Method)", a 2005 Spanish film.


title: G N' R Lies

text: G N' R Lies (also known simply as Lies) is the second studio album by American hard rock band Guns N' Roses and was released on November 29, 1988, by Geffen Records. It is the band's shortest studio album, running at 33 and a half minutes. The album reached number two on the US "Billboard" 200, and according to the RIAA, the album has shipped over five million copies in the United States.


title: G N' R Lies

text: "Patience" was the only single released from "Lies", and peaked at number four on the "Billboard" Hot 100. This is their last full album to feature drummer Steven Adler following his departure in 1990, shortly after the single "Civil War" was recorded, and featured on "Use Your Illusion II" (1991), as well as their last album to be recorded as five-piece band members.


title: G N' R Lies

text: The first four tracks consist of the previously released EP "Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide". These four tracks were also included as bonus tracks on the 2018 reissue of "Appetite for Destruction".


title: G N' R Lies

text: The last four songs were recorded with acoustic guitars. They were written and recorded in only a few studio sessions (with the exception of "You're Crazy", which appeared in an alternative version on "Appetite for Destruction"), which producer Mike Clink called "one of those magical rock and roll history moments".


title: G N' R Lies

text: In later interviews, Axl Rose stated that while he loved how the band sounded on the last four songs, he hated the sound of his voice. Rose recalled that his voice was husky and scratchy from the band's lengthy touring at the time, and if he could he would have re-recorded his vocal tracks in a separate session.


title: G N' R Lies

text: A significantly faster version of "You're Crazy" with electric guitars had previously been released on the band's debut album, "Appetite for Destruction", and was now recorded as originally intended.


title: G N' R Lies

text: "Used to Love Her" was written as a joke after Izzy Stradlin disliked a song he heard on the radio featuring "some guy whining about a broad who was treating him bad". Slash stated that "People think it's about one of our old girlfriends, but it's actually about Axl's dog."


title: G N' R Lies

text: Three of the four songs from the "G N' R Lies" EP are included on the 2018 remastered release of the album "Appetite for Destruction", with the exception of the controversial "One in a Million".


title: G N' R Lies

text: The cover is a parody of tabloid newspapers, as are the liner notes. The album's cover art underwent several minor modifications when the title was released on CD. First, in the bottom left corner reading "LIES LIES LIES" originally read "Wife-beating has been around for 10,000 years." Secondly, instead of "Elephant gives birth to midget", the original headline reads, "Ladies, welcome to the dark ages." Many copies of the original LP release also contained an uncensored picture of a nude model on the inner LP sleeve.


title: G N' R Lies

text: The UK/Euro WX 218 924 198 - 1 release had 2 stickers on the cover; Special Limited Edition containing Sheet of Japanese Peel off Stickers, and Contains language that some people may find offensive 924 198 - 1. The Peel off Stickers are on a 21mm x 30mm sheet.


title: G N' R Lies

text: The cover art bears a resemblance to John Lennon's "Some Time in New York City", an album that contains Lennon's controversial "Woman Is the Nigger of the World", a song Axl Rose cited when he defended his use of the word "nigger" in "One in a Million".


title: G N' R Lies

text: In addition to the album cover, the song "One in a Million" caused significant controversy and raised accusations of racism and homophobia. Rose denied that he was a racist and defended his use of the word "nigger", claiming that "it's a word to describe somebody that is basically a pain in your life, a problem. The word nigger doesn't necessarily mean black." He cited the rap group N.W.A. and the John Lennon song "Woman Is the Nigger of the World" as other examples of musicians using the word. Several years later, Rose conceded that he had used the word as an insult towards black people who had tried to rob him, and because the word is a taboo. In response to the allegations of homophobia, Rose stated that he considered himself "pro-heterosexual" and blamed this attitude on "bad experiences" with gay men.


title: G N' R Lies

text: "Rolling Stone", in a 4 out of 5 star review, stated "Given that Guns N' Roses could probably release an album of Baptist hymns at this point and go platinum, it would be all too easy to dismiss G n' R Lies as a sneaky attempt by the band to throw together some outtakes and cash in on the busy holiday buying season ... The good news is that Lies is a lot more interesting than that ... The calm folk-rock melodies of these four acoustic songs reveal yet another welcome facet of Guns N' Roses. They should also end any further mutterings from the doubting Thomases out there who are still making snide comments about the band's potential for longevity." "Allmusic", in a 3.5 out of 5 review, criticized some of the songs on the acoustic side, stating "Constructed as a double EP, with the "indie" debut Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide coming first and four new acoustic-based songs following on the second side, G N' R Lies is where the band metamorphosed from genuine threat to joke. Neither recorded live nor released by an indie label, Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide is competent bar band boogie, without the energy or danger of Appetite for Destruction. The new songs are considerably more problematic. "Patience" is Guns N' Roses at their prettiest and their sappiest, the most direct song they recorded to date. Its emotional directness makes the misogyny of "Used to Love Her (But I Had to Kill Her)" and the pitiful slanders of "One in a Million" sound genuine.


title: G N' R Lies

text: In a negative review for "The Village Voice", Robert Christgau stated "Axl's voice is a power tool with attachments, Slash's guitar a hype, the groove potent "hard rock", and the songwriting not without its virtues. So figure musical quality at around C plus and take the grade as a call to boycott, a reminder to clean livers who yearn for the wild side that the "necessary" link between sex-and-drugs and rock-and-roll is a Hollywood fantasy" while condemning "One In a Million" and "Used To Love Her".


title: G N' R Lies

text: In a 2014 review "Metal Hammer" dissected the controversy around the album, stating "Conceived as a stop-gap release, the second Guns N' Roses album remains a remarkable one-off – in every sense. "Ultimate Classic Rock" stated "Ironically, G N' R Lies' tabloid-style cover art also hinted at the incessant scandals and resulting paranoia that would soon engulf the band, and its singer in particular, sowing the seeds to their eventual dissolution after the twin "Use Your Illusion" behemoths, and protracted creative silence until 2008's historically delayed "Chinese Democracy" opus."


title: Mass Effect 3

text: Mass Effect 3 is an action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. The third major entry in the "Mass Effect" series and the final installment of the original trilogy, it was released in March 2012 for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3. A Wii U version of the game, entitled "Mass Effect 3: Special Edition", was later released in November 2012. The game is set within the Milky Way galaxy in 2186, where galactic civilization is invaded by a highly advanced machine race of synthetic-organic starships known as Reapers. It concludes the story of Commander Shepard, an elite human soldier who is tasked with forging alliances between species for the war.


title: Mass Effect 3

text: Similar to "Mass Effect 2", the player can import a completed saved game into "Mass Effect 3" that influences the plot by taking previous decisions into account. In general, "Mass Effect 3" revolves around increasing military strength by completing missions and gathering resources. As BioWare designed the game to be accessible to both old and new players, many of the series' traditional gameplay elements remain, such as cover-based third-person shooting, but new aspects are introduced as well, such as a multiplayer component. The game's score was written by a variety of composers, who aimed for a balance between the orchestral sound of "Mass Effect 2" and the synthesizer-driven sound of the first "Mass Effect". "Mass Effect 3" also supports a variety of downloadable content packs, ranging from minor in-game items to more significant plot-related missions. Notable packs include "", "", "", and "".


title: Mass Effect 3

text: "Mass Effect 3" received critical acclaim for its art direction, characters, emotional depth, improved combat, soundtrack, and voice acting. However, its ending was poorly received by fans, who felt that it did not meet expectations. In response to the controversy, BioWare released the "Extended Cut" pack, which expands upon the original ending. The game received several year-end awards, including Best RPG at the Spike Video Game Awards and Game of the Year from "Game Informer". A standalone sequel, "", was released in March 2017. In May 2021, "Mass Effect 3" was remastered as part of the "Mass Effect Legendary Edition".


title: Mass Effect 3

text: "Mass Effect 3" is an action role-playing game in which the player takes control of Commander Shepard from a third-person perspective. Shepard's gender, appearance, military background, combat training, and first name are determined by the player before the game begins. If the player has a completed saved game from "Mass Effect 2", the character from that game can be imported. By importing an old character, decisions from prior "Mass Effect" titles are carried over, which impacts the plot of "Mass Effect 3". Similar to previous installments in the series, the player is able to choose from six different character classes that each have their own unique set of skills. For example, the Infiltrator class is proficient in stealth and sniping abilities whereas biotics-inclined classes possess psychokinetic powers. By completing assignments and quests, the player is rewarded with experience points. Once enough points are earned, Shepard levels up, which allows for the unlocking or upgrading of skills along a tree.


title: Mass Effect 3

text: "Mass Effect 3" has three pre-set campaign modes: Action, Story, and RPG. In Action Mode, conversations have automatic replies and normal combat difficulty; in Story Mode, conversations have manual replies and minimal combat difficulty; and in RPG Mode, conversations have manual replies and normal combat difficulty. The game contains various role-playing elements, such as the ability to augment guns with different ammo types, barrels, modifications, and scopes to improve their effectiveness in combat. If the player has Kinect, customization choices can be made verbally instead of selected using a controller. Upon beating the game, a New Game+ is unlocked, which allows the player to restart with certain bonuses, such as the ability to further upgrade weapons.


title: Mass Effect 3

text: The primary mode of transportation in "Mass Effect 3" is a star ship called "Normandy SR-2". From the inside of the ship, players can use a galaxy map to choose a destination point, scan planets for resources, or start missions. To aid the player in managing tasks, the game automatically logs available missions in a journal; however, unlike previous titles in the series, the journal does not distinguish between main quests and side quests. In general, "Mass Effect 3" revolves around increasing "Effective Military Strength" (EMS) to prepare for its final mission. EMS is calculated by multiplying "Total Military Strength" (TMS) and "Readiness Rating" (RR). TMS is increased by acquiring "War Assets", which include accomplishments from all three "Mass Effect" games, whereas RR is increased by playing the multiplayer mode.


title: Mass Effect 3

text: Unless it is set to Action Mode, the player interacts with non-player characters in "Mass Effect 3" by using a radial command menu where dialog options depend on wheel direction. Most conversations are advanced by choosing either a Paragon (diplomatic) or Renegade (intimidating) option, which appear to the top and bottom right of the wheel, respectively. By conversing with squadmates aboard the "Normandy", Commander Shepard can develop friendships or, in some cases, romantic relationships with them over time. Same-sex relationships for both female and male Shepards are available. If Shepard was imported from "Mass Effect 2" and achieved a love interest in each of the prior "Mass Effect" games, then both characters vie for Shepard's attention in "Mass Effect 3". During some conversations, the player is prompted with a context-sensitive interrupt option that offers a temporary alternative to what is available on the dialog wheel.


title: Mass Effect 3

text: On several occasions, the player must make decisions that impact the game's narrative. For example, one mission asks the player to side with one of two species, which can lead to one of them being eradicated. Over the course of "Mass Effect 3", dialog and narrative decisions result in "Reputation Points", which are added together and unlock further decision-making and dialog options as they accumulate. The conclusion of the game is influenced by accomplishments earned and decisions made throughout the series.


title: Mass Effect 3

text: Combat in "Mass Effect 3" takes place in real-time but also allows for pausing to aim, change weapons, or use skills from a menu. During battle, the player has direct control of Commander Shepard from an over-the-shoulder perspective, who can move around the map by climbing up ladders, combat rolling, or sprinting. Shepard is typically accompanied by two squad members who are controlled by the game's artificial intelligence; however, the player can still order them into position or choose their powers. Kinect users are able to issue these commands verbally. If squad members die, they can be revived using the Unity power or an on-screen prompt if the player is in close proximity.


title: Mass Effect 3

text: Enemy encounters generally involve navigating opposing forces that work together and support each other with varying roles. For example, a typical confrontation involves defeating suppressor-type enemies who shoot from afar while also managing more aggressive enemies that are constantly charging. To avoid taking damage, the player can go into cover behind objects on the battlefield, but harder difficulties necessitate that players stay mobile as well. If Shepard or the squad members are hit, damage is dealt to their shields until they run out, at which point a final layer of health is gradually depleted until the individual dies, health is restored, or shields regenerate.


title: Mass Effect 3

text: Opposing forces are damaged with gunfire, melee attacks, or specialized skills such as combat drones. If desired, the melee system can be a vital aspect of gameplay. For example, players can execute heavy melee attacks that vary depending on character class. All enemies have protections that are susceptible to particular attack types, such as armor, which is weak against the Incinerate skill and weapons with a slow rate of fire. Sometimes, the player is presented with alternate offensive approaches. For example, if the player encounters an Atlas Mech and defeats its driver without destroying the entire suit, Shepard can climb inside and take control of its heavy-duty weaponry.


title: Mass Effect 3

text: "Mass Effect 3" includes a multiplayer mode called "Galaxy at War". In this mode, up to four players join to complete horde-style cooperative matches in which the participants must survive escalating waves of enemies and complete a series of objectives. As rounds are completed, the player earns in-game currency that is used to buy randomly-generated packs of unlockables, such as new character types and weapons. In-game currency is also available via microtransaction. For the first year of the mode's existence, players could participate in BioWare-sponsored challenges with special objectives and increased rewards.


title: Mass Effect 3

text: In contrast to the single-player mode, where the player can only play as a human, the multiplayer mode has a wider variety of species to choose from. Every race has unique powers, such as a "Krogan Charge" for krogans. Combat is based on its single-player counterpart but has some differences such as no pause menu to change weapons; instead, weapons are changed by holding down a button. Frequency of play and number of multiplayer missions completed affect the outcome of the single-player campaign.


title: Mass Effect 3

text: The "Mass Effect" trilogy is set within the Milky Way galaxy during the 22nd century, where interstellar travel is possible through the use of mass transit devices called mass relays, a technology believed to have been built by an extinct alien race known as the Protheans. A conglomerate body of governments known as the Citadel Council controls a large percentage of the galaxy and is responsible for maintaining law and order among races of the galactic community. Races that belong to the Citadel Council include humans, asari, salarians and turians. Other alien races include the warlike reptilian krogan, the nomadic environmental suited quarians, and their wayward creations, a race of networked artificial intelligences known as the geth.


title: Mass Effect 3

text: "Mass Effect 3" begins in 2186, six months after the events of "Mass Effect 2". The galactic community lives in fear of an invasion by Reapers, a highly advanced machine race of synthetic-organic starships that are believed to eradicate all organic civilization every 50,000 years. Meanwhile, the krogan face extinction because of the genophage, a genetic mutation developed by the salarians and deployed by the turians as a bioweapon to contain the krogan; the quarians prepare to retake their homeworld from the geth; and the human supremacist terrorist organization Cerberus is regrouping after a temporary alliance with Commander Shepard to defeat the Collectors, indoctrinated and genetically modified remnants of the Prothean race who were abducting human colonies. Shepard has been relieved of duty and is confined on Earth, awaiting court-martial by the Systems Alliance.


title: Mass Effect 3

text: The protagonist of "Mass Effect 3" is Commander Shepard (Mark Meer or Jennifer Hale), an elite human soldier who is Commanding Officer of the "Normandy SR-2" starship. While the exact roster can vary, Shepard's squad members generally include Systems Alliance officers Ashley Williams (Kimberly Brooks) or Kaidan Alenko (Raphael Sbarge), Systems Alliance marine James Vega (Freddie Prinze Jr.), asari information broker and researcher Liara T'Soni (Ali Hillis), turian military adviser Garrus Vakarian (Brandon Keener), the "Normandy's" artificial intelligence EDI (Tricia Helfer), and quarian engineer Tali'Zorah (Ash Sroka). The Prothean endling Javik (Ike Amadi) is included as an optional squad member by default with the Wii U version of the game. Other characters include Systems Alliance admirals David Anderson (Keith David) and Steven Hackett (Lance Henriksen), "Normandy" pilot Jeff "Joker" Moreau (Seth Green), Cerberus leader the Illusive Man (Martin Sheen), Cerberus assassin Kai Leng (Troy Baker), Citadel Security (C-Sec) Commander Armando-Owen Bailey (Michael Hogan), and asari crime boss Aria T'Loak (Carrie-Ann Moss).