Columbia Pictures

"The news coming out of Skyfall certainly suggests a back-to-Bond-basics approach."

It looks like James Bond is going old-school in Skyfall -- especially where his motor is concerned. Reports from the set of Skyfall find 007 back behind the wheel of his Aston Martin DB5, which fans will instantly recognise as Sean Connery’s Bondmobile of choice in Goldfinger. 

Exactly how big a role the car will play is being kept under wraps. The car cameoed in Casino Royale (Bond won it in a poker tournament), but recent 007 flicks have featured Fords and Jags among the latest Astons, while Range Rovers have also been snapped on the Skyfall set. 

The news coming out of Skyfall certainly suggests a back-to-Bond-basics approach, just in time to celebrate 50 years of 007 movies. The first official shot of the movie, as well as spy snaps taken on the London set, saw Bond wielding his iconic Walther pistol, which will no doubt see some action as he tries to defend MI6 from an assault led by bad-guy Javier Bardem. 

Skyfall will also feature the return of MI6’s much-loved Quartermaster, better known as Q -- the god of gadgets, from car ejector seats to the exploding attache case. Determined to keep things Casino Royale-fresh, they’re not going down the grumpy old codger route, instead casting 31-year-old Ben Whishaw. The fresh-faced actor has been acclaimed for his Hamlet on stage -- proper thespian alert -- as well as BBC drama The Hour. 

Skyfall will be released in November.

AMC

"Why should it take an apocalyptic scenario for a man with actual balls to have value?"

People have attributed a lot of metaphorical significance to zombies since George Romero released his second undead movie, Dawn of the Dead, in 1978. In that movie, the zombies hung around the places they used to lumber through in life, specifically an awesome mall with a fully stocked gun store outside of Pittsburgh. The suggestion there was that these people were already “zombies” before they were dead, but, presumably, with a little more interest in the food court Sbarro (then again, maybe not). 

Where zombie metaphors aren’t obvious, people tend to use the undead horde as stand-ins for whatever group they currently don’t like. Hate the Tea Party? Zombies. Christian conservatives? Zombies. War protesters? Zombies.

Zombies, though, at their best are a natural disaster: a Hurricane Katrina, Haitian earthquake or Japanese tsunami. They are a worldwide extinction-level threat that forces the living characters to be stripped down to what they really are. Watching these plots unfold, you have to ask yourself how you’d handle a similar situation. Are you a leader or a follower? Are you strong or are you weak? Are you a man or are you a member of the indie-folk rock band Modest Mouse? There’s not much call for banjo and ukulele players in the zombie apocalypse is what I’m saying. Pick up a few survival skills, Isaac Brock, if you know what’s good for you. 

Zombies, Metaphors And Masculinity 

That’s when metaphor gets turned on its head. Where zombies might be used to represent aspects of our culture, the actual survivors represent us as individuals. On FX’s The Walking Dead, we are presented with two alpha male characters who are vying for group leadership: Rick Grimes and Shane Walsh. One of those guys is the perfect leader: not only can he keep his people alive in a world filled with zombies, but he can actually find a way to make that world a safer, more livable place. The other one is Rick Grimes. 

I think this speaks to a larger issue with men in the real world. Specifically, how society expects the modern man to be a sweaty, weak-kneed manchild who is overly concerned with ruffling the feathers of people who have no business being covered in feathers in the first place. A mangina who knows in his sensitive, bleeding heart that violence doesn’t solve anything and killing the bad guy, be it serial killer, murdering terrorist or genocidal evil dictator, makes you just as bad as he is. War, man, what is it good for? 

It would be awesome if that stuff were true, but it’s make believe. Sometimes the bad guys don’t stop being bad until they’re dead. Violence can and has solved lots of problems, and war, I’m sad to say, can serve a purpose -- like freeing an entire society, ending slavery or stopping a holocaust. And if you haven’t ruffled somebody’s feathers with something you’ve said, then you’ve never really said anything worthwhile in your life. 

Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln, is supposed to be the hero of The Walking Dead, but why? Because he’s a decent, sensitive man? Every decision Rick makes ends up with another member of their group injured or dead. Here come some spoilers: Merle, Carl, Otis, Sophia, Amy, Jim, Ed, and Jacqui have all died or nearly died as a direct result of actions Rick has taken in the show. 

Meanwhile, Shane, played by Jon Bernthal, is the guy the show wants you to think is too unstable and violent. But he’s the reason every single character alive on the show is still alive. That includes Rick’s harpy wife, his slackjawed kid and even Rick himself. Shane actually kills Otis so that he can get away from a group of zombies to save Rick’s kid, who got shot in the chest in the first place (by Otis, no less) because Rick was an idiot. 

The thing, of course, is that it’s a zombie show. People are going to be eaten once in a while, or you don’t have much of a show. Without hordes of cannibalistic zombies, gruesome kills and constant paranoid danger at every turn, you just have a show about a bunch of whiny, insipid white people sitting around on a farm, killing time between pharmacy trips by complaining about one other and shooting cans/logs as target practice. And, I mean, nobody wants that. 

The problem, I think, is the writers’ societal conditioning. The way they were raised in this man-hating era is causing problems within the story. There’s no question that if there were really a zombie apocalypse (like the one I’ve been planning and preparing for my entire adult life), a Shane will keep you alive and a Rick will have a zombie picking pieces of you out of its teeth. Why should it take an apocalyptic scenario for a man with actual balls to have value? Why should cowardice and conformity be accepted as virtues? 

Why would a guy who wants to calmly discuss the barn full of hungry zombies as if it’s some sort of zoning problem be a better leader than the guy who wants to kill them all immediately? I guess we’ll have to keep watching The Walking Dead to find out, but right now I’m not convinced.

- The Walking Dead, 10pm Fridays, FX

Sony PlayStation

"Tip: Asda's kicked off the PS Vita price war and has it from £197"

PS VITA IS HERE
Tomorrow, following a celeb-packed party at the PS Vita Rooms in London last week, Sony launches the really quite brilliant PlayStation Vita here in the UK.
There’s a stack of launch titles including WipEout 2048, (the superb) FIFA 12, Virtua Tennis 4 and Uncharted: Golden Abyss, with Call of Duty confirmed for an autumn debut – all of which are available either as fiddly, offline game cards or as downloads. The 5-inch OLED touchscreen is stunning, the design’s a winner and the gameplay (powered by quad-core processing) and graphics will blow you away.
Now you just have to decide if all that is worth shelling out £230 (Wi-Fi only) or £280 (Wi-Fi + 3G), plus games (up to £45!). Tip: Asda’s kicked off the PS Vita price war and has it from £197 here. It still won’t be an easy decision, so to help you, check out the full AskMen UK review here. Mine’s going on the birthday list. Which reminds me…

NEW MUST-HAVE APP: CLEAR
Looking for a next-generation take on lists? No, I wasn’t either. But this week, the five-star Clear has found it’s way onto my iPhone and now there’s no turning back. The app makes list-keeping simple, quick and – achieving the impossible – even satisfying to use.
Lists are priority-graded in colour from not-that-important yellow to list-topping, mega-urgent-red. It’s super-intuitive with swipes and pinches and… it’s British! Born in Brighton. So show it some love, as it’s a mightily reasonable 69p on the App Store. Here’s a video to convince you to stick it on the shopping list.

iCADE JR: ARCADE GAMING FOR iPHONE
The original iCade – an arcade-style cabinet gaming controller and dock for your iPad – was a sell-out success. Now its offspring is on the way: iCade Jr. It’s a similar set-up, only smaller to fit your iPhone/iPod Touch. The controls connect via Bluetooth and it works with all compatible game apps, including the 100-title Atari’s Greatest Hits app. Grab one, stick it on your desk and work will be a distant memory. Meanwhile, anyone with a 21^st century Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Gold membership can grab a free demo of EA Sports’ upcoming SSX reboot (ahead of the snowboarding title’s March 2 launch on PS3 and 360) now in the Xbox Live Marketplace, or get it queued to your downloads here.

25,000,000,000 APP DOWNLOADS
More app news for Man vs Tech this week, with word that Apple’s grip on Earth tightens as it hits a staggering 25 billion app downloads from the App Store (at least a billion of which may well be on my cluttered iPhone). To celebrate this milestone, whoever downloads the 25 billionth app wins a $10,000 App Store gift card. How do you organise ten grand’s worth of apps on your homescreen? Check out this fascinating new Pinterest board of random people’s iPhone homescreens for inspiration, and be sure to add your own.

AND FINALLY… HOW MUCH TO BUILD A DEATH STAR?
Students at Lehigh University in the US who run economics blog Centives have figured out how much it would cost to build the ultimate tech: the Death Star. Answer? Approximately $852,000,000,000,000,000 (and that’s just for the materials), equivalent to roughly 13,000 times the world’s GDP. Even if we could afford it (and we most definitely can’t), using Earth’s present steel production rate (they assumed it would be made from steel, like an aircraft carrier), it would take… 833,315 years to build.

EA Sports

The Vita has arrived. You can read AskMen's take on PlayStation's heavy duty assault on the handheld market here, and our tech columnist Gavin Brett's advice on the best place to pick one up right here. But what games should you be picking up for your flash new toy? Here's our verdict on the five titles we'll be forking out for. Starting with that old AM office favourite, we also look at WipEout 2048, Motorstorm RC, Uncharted: Golden Abyss and F12001. Simply click on the next page to take you through to the next review. FIFA FOOTBALL
FIFA 12 recently became the best-selling sports game of all-time. That's not an easy act to follow. And while FIFA 13 faces a daunting task, it's an even more forbidding proposition for FIFA Vita – a game which, by its own admission, aims to reproduce the next-gen FIFA experience on a handheld.

For the most part, it succeeds admirably. Start, menu and loading screens are indistinguishable from those in FIFA 12. But it's the gameplay that really showcases what the Vita can and can't do. One of its major successes is preserving FIFA's core gameplay undiluted – moving, passing, shooting, all remain unaltered.

In-game visuals are fairly impressive throughout, with player likenesses remaining strong and stadiums looking impressive. This impressive continuity, however, doesn't extend to all aspects of the gameplay. Defending remains unchanged – you'll still be containing the opposition through a hectoring mix of applied pressure and jockeying. Precision dribbling, however, seems to have suffered. Players don't seem to have the same degree of close control. It's not a major fault; it just niggles slightly if you've made it a big part of your FIFA 12 game. It also serves as a reminder that while this looks and, for the most part, plays like FIFA, it's not the same game.

And nor should be. FIFA Vita isn't a slavish reproduction of its console cousin; it takes full advantage of the unique hardware at its disposal, using both the front touchscreen and the rear touchpad (although both are entirely optional), with varying degrees of success. Using the touchscreen to pass and switch between players simply does not work as a viable alternate control scheme. While basic passing between players is possible, anything more ambitious or attacking is too tricky to pull-off, even for the most digitally dextrous. Try it, and you're liable to lose possession and/or drop your brand-new toy. Furthermore, once you start tapping the screen, you're no longer able to see the overall field of play.

In contrast, the use of the rear touchpad for shooting is inspired. The conceit is rather elegant: given their comparable dimensions, the touchpad represents the goal. To shoot, simply tap on the pad where you want to aim your shot. The longer you hold down, the harder the strike. It's simple, and once you get your head around using the touchpad within a game, from a side-on perspective, it's a really fun addition to FIFA, and it makes it a much more accessible game.

Once mastered, the rear touchpad shooting mechanic turns everyone into vintage Paul Scholes – you'll be regularly smashing in shots from the edge of the box into the top corner. This is both a good and a bad thing, of course, depending on what you want from a FIFA game.

For those wanting something a little bit more in-depth, there's Career Mode. The interface, again, is entirely in keeping with FIFA 12, and loading/advance times are mercifully short, actually making the mode enjoyable on the Vita. Other FIFA standards – Be A Pro, Virtual Pro – are also present, but fans of Ultimate Team will disappointed by its absence. But you can't have everything, and there's certainly enough crammed into FIFA Vita to make it a must-have launch title.

Online multiplayer is also present. While at times online matches suffered from some minor lag issues, it never really affected gameplay, though it made timing slide tackles a little precarious.

Next Page >>

Fotolia.com

"When you're feeling unsure about the change in your life, turn to those close to you for a fresh point of view and to help make your change seem more familiar."

Change can be hard. This is especially true for men since they tend to be creatures of habit. Some habits or ruts are comfortable, which is OK, but sometimes a necessary change needs to occur. For that reason, it’s a good idea to understand the process of change. Equipping yourself with the tools to deal with and embrace change will effectively ease difficult transition periods.

Keep in mind that change, even if it is tricky to maneuver, is not always bad. New girlfriends or changes in relationships, new jobs or relocating for a new career are changes that may enrich your life. I’ve outlined some tips on how to accept, deal with and embrace such changes as they come your way. As you read, keep in mind that changes in life mean that you’re growing as a person.

Focus on the good things

When faced with a change that will entirely upset your life, it can be really easy to dwell on all the negative aspects. For instance, moving in with your girlfriend can evoke terrifying images of her sitting around all day in her sweats nagging you, or of not being able to invite the guys over for a boozy game of poker. Instead of focusing on the aspects you won’t like, think of all the great things the change will bring, such as sharing a bed with her, early morning nooky and fresh sheets. Although the move will still be a huge adjustment, you will find yourself more into the idea and ready to embrace the change. The best way to keep on top of this sort of fear is to keep a mental repertoire of the things you look forward to in the change, and pull them out as needed to keep yourself calm and happy. Try to think of new and exciting things to anticipate, and if you’re really in doubt, ask others for help in coming up with them.

Involve those around you in the change

It’s easy to have a one-track mind when you’re faced with a big change. Use your support systems; family and friends are invaluable when it comes to making you realise what a great thing is happening to you. They are able to put a positive spin on the change because they have a whole different perspective on your life and will, therefore, consider elements that you haven’t. So, when you’re feeling unsure about the change in your life, turn to those close to you for a fresh point of view and to help make your change seem more familiar. If you have to move to a new city, ask your friends to help you move there or tour the city with you. These types of activities will make the change feel friendlier, and you’ll look forward to it in no time.

Be open-minded about the change

Chances are that you detest the thought of change because you’re happy with the way things are. You may feel that because you like the way things are now, it’s the only way you’ll ever like them. It’s important to recognise that there are many situations that will make you happy, and sticking to the one that you’re comfortable with might actually cause you to miss out on all the others. Also, be aware that it’s sometimes necessary to relinquish control of your destiny in favor of what falls in your lap.

Dealing with change doesn’t mean you should burn your bridges… Next Page >>

Yes Man - Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures

Optimism is good for you. It's good for your health. It can nurture friendships and professional relationships and improve communication skills. Optimism can't -- and shouldn't -- be dictated by the economy or other exterior factors. It should come from an attitude within -- positive reactions that are borne of a philosophical approach to bad news and unfortunate experiences -- and like any skill, it takes time to develop.

What follows are some ways that will help teach you how to be an optimist.

Set boundaries on downers

Paul Stanley from KISS used to say that if you wanted to learn about terrible things and have your spirit crushed, turn on the news. If you wanted a good time, go to a KISS concert. And believe it or not, the man had a point.

Limit your exposure to pessimistic people and heaps upon heaps of upsetting media. The truth is that you can find both in great abundance these days, and they do nothing for your sense of optimism. Try to trim the Debbie Downers out of your life, and choose a single source for news and media and stick to it, as opposed to jumping from site to site and story to story. Doing the latter, one is bound to chronically come across awful stories that, when taken cumulatively, breed pessimism.

Smile more often

It may sound like the tritest advice imaginable, but smiles really do foster optimism. There are even some research studies that, while admittedly remain too subjective for serious scientific consideration, suggest even a “fake it till you make it” approach can actually affect your physiology as well as the physiologies of those around you.

Believe in the best possible outcome

Quite simply, start trying to cultivate a glass-half-full perspective. When reasonable, assume the best possible outcome of events, or at least focus on the most hopeful aspects of a situation. Doing so doesn't make you someone who’s blind to reality; it just provides you with a fresh perspective.

In discussing Ronald Reagan, George Will, writing for the Washington Post, said that optimists, like Reagan, "do not deal in unrealities… [they] create realities that matter -- perceptions, aspirations, allegiances." While it's important to face facts as they are, it's also important to approach them in creative ways and to communicate them accordingly.

Learn to respond constructively

Instead of latching on to the worst aspects, seek out the positives, especially when talking with friends about their personal or professional situations. Turn off knee-jerk “no” reactions, and take active steps toward realizing your goals rather than passively letting things happen to you. Do the same with your friends: When one loses a job, you can commiserate, but you can also remind them of their positive attributes as well as remind them of previous victories in their lives, ones that were redeeming and inspirational. And you can do this without being too Norman Vincent Peale (where “everything is rosy”), through the power of positive thinking.

How to be an optimist continues after the break… Next Page >>