So how is the campaign? It takes place in South Africa, where Raiden is protecting a politician, but things turn sour from the beginning a group of Cyborg Mercenaries and their army plan to cause chaos throughout the World.
Raiden cannot save the politician, and therefore in the process is almost killed on duty, but he manages to survive through the help of MSC.
Tomb Raider
Before I explain my experience of Tomb Raider, I shall give a brief history of this great character.
Lara's first debut was on the Playstation in 1996. During that period, the game rose to fame. Lara certainly grew on me. It was a fantastic adventure/puzzle game, with a great story. Over the years under publisher Eidos. I felt the games started to decline on PS2 & PS3 in comparison to the PS-era.
Wave after wave of mediocre games continued and in 2010, a new publisher was revealed, Square Enix was now in control of Crystal Dynamics.
My pocket is full of keys, ready to take out the vast amount of cars waiting for me in my garage, I am in the Need For Speed! Well, not in reality I can only dream! but I can do this on the new Need for Speed game.
This is the second instalment from developer Criterion, Who is Criterion? Well I certainly remember them during the PS2 era when the hit series Burnout was born and was a huge success, an arcade racer, focusing on speed & carnage! This is what put Criterion on the map.
When Criterion took over development of NFS (Need For Speed), it was no question in my mind, that the series was resurrected from developer "Black Box". Criterion had a great NFS debut with Need For Speed's Hot Pursuit. A game full of exotic cars, police chases, and law breaking excitment that you wouldn’t dare to attempt on the streets of the UK!
Have you ever heard the saying “no two items are equal” well, no two games are equal and this game set the bar high! For every final fantasy game after. Yes we are going a little old school to add a play station one game to our URBRUM Gamer List, but this game is a must.
Final Fantasy 7 released in 1997 on the Play station, the game is filled with action from start to finish, a compelling and heartfelt story line that will make you weep and fill you with joy seriously! All I could say is why is this not a book??? and if it is where can i find it?
Hey every one we have something very exciting for you, we have just released URBRUM Magazine issue 2!
Which has some of our amazing articles to inspire the whole of Bimringham.
Whether your a Football player, Singer/Song Writer, an Artist with a passion, or an avarage joe we have something for everybody.
Little Big Planet in your hands
Who would have thought, that a small little character, filled with wool, zipped up, would turn out to be the most loved character on PlayStation 3. Who am I talking about? Let me re-introduce Sackboy! He was born on PlayStation 3 back in 2008, and went on to become the PlayStation mascot!
Graffiti Art originated from New York in the 70's and was a big part a of the hip hop movement, it was mainly painted on subway trains and a new Art form had been created. Graffiti Art came over the seas to the UK in the early 80's by way of a book called Subway Art and a documentary film called Style Wars.
Born and bred : My name is Duane Courtney, Lozells will always hold a special place in my heart, as this is where I was born, bred, and have had some of my fondest memories. For the first 4 years of my life I lived at my grandparents’ house in Handsworth, I attended Holy Trinity Primary with my cousins and quite a few boys from my ends. I then moved to Lozells with my parents, and lived there for approximately 11 years. ‘‘Believe you me” living in Lozells in the 90′s as a young black male was challenging. Even though there was a tight knit community, it was still easy to be side tracked or miss led by your peers, not intentionally or out of spite, but mainly out of boredom. My parents then decided to move to Oldbury, at the time I didn’t understand why, but now I know that it was for the best, the reason being my life may have taken a different path if I stayed in Lozells, Many people say this but in my case it’s the truth. Continue reading
One boiling hot Friday in May Reach the People Charity were invited down to MTV in Camden Town, London for a one off special master class hosted by Media Trust. Media Trust is a national youth organisation who works with young people in the media. I took Alex and Martin from one of our young people’s services down to the studios to get involved in the planning of the EMAs 2012 being hosted in Festhalle, Frankfurt in Germany in November.
On a visit to Pakistan in 2007 I wanted to ‘connect’ with my family’s culture and heritage that I feel I had neglected to connect with whilst growing up. I used the camera as my way of developing this reconnection. I decided to take pictures that capture everyday activities and environments yet were imbued with vibrancy, colour, intrigue, and were unique to this region.
In early 2011 I exhibited my pictures at Ward End Library for two weeks to generate interest and discussion about family heritage and cultures. My intentions were two-fold. As the geographical area around Ward End Library has a high proportion of people of Pakistani origin, the exhibition was used to evoke remembrance, reflection and nostalgia for those who have migrated to this country.
But more importantly I wanted to gain the attention of young people who possibly like me grew up with littler knowledge of their familial background and detached themselves from this knowledge as a way of displaying their level of ‘assimilation’ into the wider English culture.
The exhibition was met with great interest and warmth from a cross section of people with many people commenting about my photographic skill. Yet I have no qualifications or training in photography- just an interest in capturing images on an ordinary camera to generate a discussion and debate on issues that are important to me.
Meet Leviete Gibbs an aspiring entrepreneur and single mom on a mission to turn her dreams into reality.
“I don’t want to be a spectator watching the world go by I want a role, to be a part of it”
“At the moment we exist and my mission is to make us live life to the full”
Life has thrown many obstacles in Leviete direction but she has done her best conquer them, making sure that every mistake she makes is a lesson learned.
At 15 I was spiraling into an attitude barrier, and left school with no qualifications what so ever. After 2 years of only summer jobs and unfinished college courses I realised I had to get serious if I wanted any future prospects. I enrolled at City College and did my Maths and English, but after completing, I still had no direction.
Keemz, an up and coming solo artist, is typical of the emerging talent in Birmingham. Chanelle Yearwood took time out with Keemz to listen to his story on his success. His family have fed his passion for music – and for communicating about life. His story moved us to find words to sum up his message.
One of Asher’s special services is fusing pictures together with pencil art “what I do is draw an individual next to their idol or fantasy character”
If you would like to use any of our service’s please contact: ashertheartist@gmail.com
The ‘Everyday Olympian’ documents people involved in local community sports, be it a 12 year old swimmer, 60 year old hockey player or 30 year old amateur boxer. These are the people that make up the underbelly of sports that thrive at grass roots level across the region. They may not have the skill or talent to be an Olympian, however it is through their commitment and participation on a weekly or daily basis that so many sports still function and exist.
“The Kalaboration project is a phenomenal opportunity for me to expand my practice and create a significant body of work around one of the biggest sporting events this country will ever see. I am enormously honoured and privileged to be selected and I hope that this will be the start of something special.” Jaskirt Dhaliwal
‘Everyday Olympian’, 18th June – 8th July, The Drum.
By: Jessica Key
I’m loving life and loving my job. I have been working at Birmingham Mind for nearly 2 months now and have managed to marry my two passions; caring for people and being creative. It hasn’t been easy and I know all too well how hard living life can be when you have no job, no income and bills to pay. But staying positive and finding things to do to keep myself active and interested was essential in getting to where I am now.
Sara Fowles - ‘Knit Together’ (K2TOG) Graffiti knitting is inspired by the colours of the Olympics, Jamaican, US and UK flags. This project will see the façade of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery covered with the knitting of local communities, individuals and enthusiasts.
Kalaboration has been devised to deliver a programme of visual arts activities in celebration of the 2012 Olympic Games and commemorate the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence.
Kalaboration is a partnership project between The Drum Arts Centre, School of Art Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD) Birmingham City University and RoguePlay Theatre. It is funded by Arts Council England and Birmingham City Council and granted the Inspire mark by the London 2012 Inspire programme.
Inspired by the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games, somewhereto_ is a nationwide project to help young people find the space they need to do the things they love, within sport, culture and the arts.
Eddy Aigbe is a Nigerian born Birmingham based visual artist, multimedia painter and art tutor. Since graduating with a B.A (Ed) in Fine & Applied Arts from the Delta State University in Nigeria, he has been actively and passionately producing art to an international audience.
Young film makers look at the riots
On the 1ST March the Urbrum team hooked up with three young men from Birmingham: Jordan Jones, Lemar Salmon, and Courtney Fuller, who are currently working on their second short film ‘Broken Society’. The film looks at the impact the Birmingham riots of 2011 had on various characters. There has been a lot of debate and talk regarding the riots and the lack of communication between the youth and the police, so these three young men have looked at possible stresses and strains people had been going through before and during the riots, and how they surfaced when chaos broke out.
The URBRUM team have been searching for Birmingham’s talent and we were successful in finding just that. Here is the interview Chanelle Yearwood undertook with an up and coming solo artist by the name of MS Martha J. URBRUM took time out with Ms Martha J to listen to her story on her success as an up and coming solo artist in Birmingham. She gave us a tale of inspiration, organisation, appreciation and people helping each other out.
Barbershop is a community magazine promoting positive mental health and wellbeing to men living in areas of deprivation.
In particular, it reaches those who are most likely to be excluded from health and community participation – such as men in the criminal justice system, those from Black and minority ethnic communities, gang members, drug users and those not in employment or education.
Born and raised in the United Kingdom, DaVina grew up in the heart of England, Birmingham. DaVina started song writing from the age of 12, although the lyrics didn’t always make sense and completely oblivious, she found she could express herself through singing from a very young age.
Article written by: Richard Weafer
Reflections on the riots by young people of Birmingham
During that fateful week in early August, life for some of us changed forever. Wherever you were you could not help but be affected by what you saw, the communities in which we live bore witness to scenes of looting and arson of unprecedented levels, scenes we thought we would never see in Britain, it seemed to be almost disaster movie stuff.
I’m coming from a family of 10 (3 sisters and 6 brothers) with loving parents. Although my dad wasn’t always there, he was always a part of my life.
Growing up, I lived in Erdington for a number of years then moved back home to Handsworth, when I started secondary school. Handsworth was the place that helped mould me into the person I am today. When I was in primary school, I started boxing with one of my big brothers and one of my younger brothers. Continue reading
Wow Birmingham got talent
I can honestly say, with first-hand experience that Birmingham has got talent, if like me you were in the city centre on Saturday the 1st September 2011 you would have seen a huge crowd built up outside the pavilions shopping centre just past the bullring.
I recently interviewed Shireen Thomas (Entertainer/Event Director), Samuel Mcpherson (Entertainer/Rapper) and a small handful of the Birmingham Christian Centre group, who gave me VIP access to watching them perform.
For more information on the article build up please click here:
I had the same dream, the same ambition, and the same idea about the position I would like to be at in a few years time.
But what’s the point? I thought.
Years of telling myself that I’m not worth anything then my dearest mother having a stroke made me feel no more then useless.
The URBRUM team hooked up with Beccy in Edgbaston to find out a bit more about this local up and coming singer and of course to get some inside information about X Factor.
If you have been one of the millions tuned into X Factor on a Saturday night, you may have noticed local teenager Rebecca Shaw. Beccy who attended Swanshurst Secondary School in Billesley, was one of many that were selected for the boot camp stage on X Factor.
Olton Brown, known to everyone as Professor Black, has been making carnival costumes for 20 years. He has won several awards for his elaborate designs which rival the costumes made for Notting Hill Carnival.
His workshop, based at the Oaklands Centre in Handsworth, is where he designs and builds his magnificent, award-winning creations.
The vibrant sounds and colours of the Caribbean created a carnival to be proud of in Birmingham this year.
Crowds of people hit the streets to see this spectacular event return to the place where it all started back in 1984 –HandsworthPark.
Sometimes I wake up feeling locked in a cell
An alarm is ringing and my brain rings like a bell
All you get in life is recurring pain
The hassle of it all drives you insane
People think Im being bad because of the fights
Im just a youth fighting for my rights
Now this is why Im telling you this.
Back in the day he was a doting dad but when his family fell apart, Shamus became a shameless Casanova, carelessly hopping from one girl’s bed to the next until, one day, his horn turned to corn…
It all started when I went on a night out with the lads and met this girl from Liverpool. We linked up and I was with her for about seven years. Everything was smooth and we’d go out all the time, enjoying each other’s company. When she fell pregnant we moved in with each other but then it all started going wrong.
Obesity in Birmingham is on the increase. Too many people are overweight and leading an unhealthy life-style – particularly in my area of Small Heath. Unfortunately I was one of those people.
In 2006, whilst working in customer service, my diet started to decline and continued so for another four years as I took the path towards an unhealthy lifestyle.
Throughout that period my diet consisted mainly of sweets and fast food… chocolate, cola, crisps, fried chicken, chips, kebabs… this is what I was eating every day and I never realised how it was affecting my health.
Is ‘Rap’ poetry?
Something is going on that’s changing the face of poetry.
At the heart of this change is something called ‘Spoken Word Poetry’ and it’s giving the dry, academic look of poetry a welcome facelift. Rather than being read from old school books, ‘Spoken Word Poetry’ is the live dynamic performance.
Matt Windle, David J. Dreadlock Alien, Spoz, Charlie Jordan, Fatima Al Matar, Kate Tempest, Bohdan Piasecki and Polar Bear
I’m 25 years’ old and I’ve lived in Birmingham all my life. I’m proud to be called a “Brummie”.
I got involved with this project when I was approached by the project leaders, Caron and Stephen. They explained to me what it was all about, and what they aimed to achieve, but they were struggling to come up with a name and asked me if I had any suggestions.They told me that one of the aims of the project is to get young people like myself involved in the social issues that affect the citizens of Birmingham and to use the social media to bring these issues to the fore. This was definitely something that I wanted to be a part of.
