Author Archives: Lucas Holmes

Frost’s Editor Catherine Balavage Writes How To Be A Successful Actor Book

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Frost’s Editor, Catherine Balavage, has written a book on How To Be A Successful Actor. It is called How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur. It has gotten as high as number 5 on the Kindle charts under Stage & Theatre. It will also be released on paperback and Smashwords soon. Handpicked Future did a great piece on it and Catherine was on the front page of the Entertainment section in The Huffington Post with her Actors Who Make Their Own Work article. You can also read an article by Catherine written on her own blog.

howtobeasuccessful_actor_book_cover The book is available here for UK readers and here for US readers. It is also available worldwide.

Cover art by Steve McAleavy

 

 

The Top Ten RTS Missions of All Time

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Forget the metronomic RPGs, the mindless shooters and embrace the true epicness that is the Real Time Strategy genre. It has been a sad time for the RTS game recently. The shift to consoles and mobile gaming has not been kind. That said 2013 is setting up to be a great year with both Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, and Rome Total War 2 set to be released. Here are my all time favourite top ten RTS missions. Apologies for those which I have left out, there will probably be many. Please add comments if you think I’ve missed something.

10. Homeworld 2 – Mission 9 Counter attack

Homeworld 2 has some very tough and challenging missions. In every mission you fight as an underdog and occasionally I found it a bit frustrating. It takes you so many missions to find the Dreadnought (a very powerful war ship) and capture the damn thing that the best Homeworld 2 mission has to be mission 9, the mission when you finally get to use it. The trouble is its main weapon, the ion cannon, is knocked out of commission almost immediately and swarms of enemy soon approach. This a very challenging and enjoyable mission.

9.  Starcraft 2 – Defend to the Last Missions

Some of my favourite RTS missions are where you have to just hold out and survive for long enough against overwhelming force. In Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty there are three of these missions (if you include the last Protoss mission) and they are all brilliant. There is something very satisfying about mowing down millions of Zerg units as they batter uselessly against your walls. The missions in Wings of Liberty are by in large excellent. Cleverly designed and very fun to play.

8. CnC Red Alert 2 –Allies Cuba Mission

Red Alert 2 was a great follow up to Red Alert 1 even if it wasn’t quite as good as its predecessor. There are a tonne of very cleverly designed and fun missions. The best is probably mission 11: Operation Fallout where you have to stop nuclear missiles being launched from Cuba using the chronosphere.

7. Gettysburg Scourge of War – On to the Roundtops
This relatively unknown highly realistic game is fantastic and one of my favourite games of all time. Superb if you’re a fan of history. Every mission has different scenarios (all of which can play out differently for replay-ability  and they are all excellent and tremendous fun to play. My favourite has to be the ‘On to the Round tops’ mission. You must lead your rebel division to reverse history and capture and hold Devils Den and Little Round Top.

6. Cossacks – Ukrainian Mission 1

A simply brilliant mission as many are in the excellent ‘Cossacks’ but this was definitely my favourite. Being the first mission of this campaign you might think it would be easy and short. You would be wrong! This mission is hard and then some. Starting off as a small group of Serdiuks (a unit which has no melee ability, a problem in this period in history!) you must fight your way through to a friendly village. Upon reaching the temporary safety of the village you are soon overwhelmed by the innumerous enemy. Your only hope? A thin palisade wall which will fall quickly.

If you somehow survive you must fight your way out across the map to save your captive Cossack brothers before it’s too late. A very difficult but extremely rewarding mission which is brilliantly designed.

5. Hearts of Iron 2 – Poland

Without doubt one of the best RTS games ever created although its tremendous depth and steep learning curve will not appeal to everybody.

The game lets you recreate the events leading up to and through WWII as any country in the World. My favourite and most challenging option was taking over Poland in 1936 and preparing and attempting to stop the coming German invasion. It should be impossible but it’s not. Once you’re done with Germany you can then go about taking over the rest of the world.

Berlin falls!

4. Rome Total War – Julli campaign

You can’t have any RTS list without including a total war game. Rome Total War is the best game in the series so far (Rome Total War 2 is coming out this year). I really liked the way you took over one of three roman families (something which won’t be available in the sequel) and the ultimately took over the whole of Rome for yourself. My favourite was the Julii family

3.  Supreme Commander – UEF mission 5

This game blew me away the first time I played it. It is truly epic and was miles ahead of its time. There are many great missions. What is unique about Supreme Commander is that your game map continues to expand throughout the mission. So you start off in a relatively small area and the map expands as you complete objectives. I really liked the fifth UEF mission operation forge. The opening briefing sets the mood very well. The war is going against you and you are now the last hope. It’s very challenging. You have to build defences against nuclear missiles and defend against constant attacks. ‘The strategic launch detected’ warning chills you to the bone the first time you hear it. A great game and a great mission

2. CnC Red Alert – Spy mission

There are many great missions in this brilliant game but the absolute best has to be the fantastic allies mission 10. One of the best RTS missions ever. Stalin is losing the war and in fury he’s about to launch a mass nuclear strike. Your only hope is to get to his launch controls and blow the missiles up in mid-air.

This mission starts off as a standard but excellent base mission. You mine resources build units and kill your enemy. But after you capture the enemy control centre that’s not the end as the mission continues inside. Your small specialist team of spies, engineers, medics marines and yes Tanya (if you can find her) must deactivate all those missiles before time runs out. It feels like a James Bond mission but as an RTS. Brilliant!

1. Starcraft Brood War – Patriot’s Blood (The traitor mission)

 

Zerg!

The best RTS mission has to come from the best RTS game of all time. Starcraft: Brood War. The only installation mission on Brood War, and my all-time favourite mission. What makes this mission so great is how its woven into the plot of the whole game and a major plot point takes place during it.

You start the mission in a Terran installation with nine marines. Your mission without wanting to give too much away, assassinate the traitor. But before you know it objectives and the whole story line have changed. Now the entire facility has been penetrated by the Zerg and there all coming for you! You’re going to have to fight your way through but the damn critters are burrowed in the walls and floor all around you. Worse still you’re running out of time. No mission encapsulates the true fear and horror of the Zerg as well as this one. I remember the first time I played this over ten years ago being absolutely terrified as I desperately tried to keep my small band of units together as I fought through the swarm. Without doubt the best RTS mission of all time.

Apple iPad 3 and iPad 4 Anger Latest – Exclusive – Apples Major Blunder and What You Need to Do to Upgrade

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As you probably know, along with launching the iPad mini yesterday, Apple also launched a major update to the iPad 3. Understandably, many people who just bought an iPad 3 are very upset that there product is immediately and unexpectedly out of date. See our full earlier article here for more.

At the moment the situation is unclear. There are reports that one Apple shop will give you a free upgrade if you bought the iPad 3 less than 30 days ago. This represents an extension to the standard 14 day return policy. However you’re still not going to be happy if you bought it 31,32 days ago etc. days ago.Today we tried to get to the bottom of the matter.

Our Findings

We bought an iPad 3 in early October (Outside the 14 day but inside the 30 day policy). We first called the Apple care centre. They told us it was a false rumour that there was a new iPad and that we were not entitled to a refund or an upgrade. This was  frustrating and irritating to say the least. However we had more success when we called the store where we’d bought the iPad from. They told us that if we returned the iPad to the store within thirty days of our purchase they would be happy to refund us.

So that’s what we did. We went into the store and explained the situation. The staff were helpful and friendly as always but initially reluctant. In fact we had to be pretty insistent (and point out that we’d already been offered a refund on the phone) before they  offered us a refund. There was no way to pre-order or upgrade we could only get a refund. The member of staff said to us, ‘We don’t really have a clear policy and we’re not sure what’s happening at the moment’. So we got our refund.

What You Need to Do

You need to call the store where you bought it and insist on an upgrade/refund. If your iPad was bought longer than 30 days ago you may struggle. I would try and call the store first, get the name of the person you spoke to and then go into the store in person. Try and not put this off as you don’t want to go over the thirty day period.

What is going on?

Apple’s management has really screwed up on this one. Apple should have predicted this before the launch and certainly should have had a clear policy in place by today. What’s obvious is that no one has any idea what’s going on and store managers seem to have been left to fend for themselves. This is a PR disaster.

Apple may be trying to ignore this and hope it goes away. In my opinion that’s a very poor strategy. They fear a mass recall of iPad 3s. Going by recent sales, 5 million iPad 3s might be eligible for a recall within the 30 day period. That’s a lot of iPads for a product which is no longer supposed to sold. It would be a big problem but Apple needs to bite the bullet on this one. At the moment a lot of people are upset and they risk doing lasting damage to the brand.

What’s clear is they didn’t plan for this. What a terrible strategy to offer us a refund and not an upgrade. We might take that money and spend it elsewhere (such is the strength of the product we won’t). There should have been a clear way to upgrade.

This incident raises serious questions about Apples strategy and its management. Where is the leadership?

Apple’s iPad 4 has Caused it a Huge Headache as Angry iPad 3 Owners Demand Justice

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Update – Our Investigation and What You Need to Do to Upgrade.

Apple just caused itself a huge unnecessary headache by bringing out the iPad 4. It’s not really a complete new iPad but more of a minor upgrade to the iPad 3.

The new iPad features a new A6 chip which Apple claims is twice as fast as the old A5. It also has twice as fast wi-fi, LTE connectivity and the new lightening connector charger which also charges the new iPhone and iPods. All of this is at the same $499 price.

The trouble is these are actually really significant differences and everyone who just bought an iPad 3 is extremely and understandably upset. As one person on twitter said the new iPad 4 chip will be powered by the tears of iPad 3 owners. In the end though consumers may actually be the ones to benefit. There are already reports that one Apple shop will give you a free upgrade if you bought the iPad3 less than 30 days ago. And if one Apple store is, it’s pretty certain they all will. However you’re still not going to be happy if you bought it 31,32 etc days ago.

My guess is that millions of iPads could be exchanged and this could end up damaging Apples brand and costing them a fortune.

My questions, why did Apple do this? Has it planned for the consequences? Where on earth does this leave the iPad 2? What happens to all the returned iPad 3s?

Part of the reason Apple has done this, is that it fears the new iPad mini will start cannibalising sales of the larger iPad. If this happens it could significantly cut into Apples margins. They felt they had to offer something extra to encourage people to spend the extra money and go for the larger version.

Of course the other reason is that this keeps Apple even further ahead of the competition. But has it planned for the upset iPad 3 owners? My guess is no, because the lack of clarity and the strange inconsistent messages we’re getting from Apple stores. If that’s the case it’s a big mistake and Apple has made a huge strategic error. But Apple must have planned for the large number of iPad3’s, it must have sitting in its inventory at the moment, which are now obsolete.  So what happens to them all.

The trouble is the iPad 3 is too similar to the iPad 4 to conveniently drop it into a lower price category. That would hurt margins and only upset iPad 3 buyers even more. Moreover this would also kill the iPad 2 and then its price would have to be dropped as well. So how does Apple offload the iPad 3? Could they be sent back to the factory and upgraded cheaply? If that’s the case the situation might not be to bad. The next few days will tell us a lot more.

Apple store iPad comparison

The iPad 2 pricing is also messed up in my mind. The iPad 2 now seems very expensive when it is only $100 more for an iPad4.

Apples share price is down 3% today. This is largely because it slipped out during the presentation that Apple had only sold 15 million iPads in the fourth quarter as opposed to the 18 million expected by analysts. But a better reason in my mind is the confusion between the iPad 4 and iPad 3. What a bizzare situation. Apple has damaged itself by releasing a better product at the same price.

Despite all this I felt the presentation was impressive. It is amazing how many new things Apple has announced in the last two months. The new 5mm iMac was particularly incredible, more impressive than the mini iPad in my opinion.

 

 

 

UK Youth Unemployment Hits a Million – A Fundamental Not A Short Term Problem

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UK youth unemployment rose above 1 million, its highest level since 1996 according to government figures. Employment Minister Chris Grayling blamed the Eurozone debt crisis for the rising number of jobless. Looking at the table below we can see that youth unemployment in this country has been rising for many years even before the recession.

May-July 2004 580,000 12.2
May-July 2005 600,000 12.6
May-July 2006 706,000 14.5
May-July 2007 711,000 14.6
May-July 2008 727,000 14.8
May-July 2009 944,000 19.8
May-July 2010 921,000 19.4
May-July 2011 973,000 20.8
July-September 2011 1,020,000 21.9

Source: Office of National Statistics

Typically and not unexpectedly the politicians have sought to push blame and responsibility elsewhere. The coalition blame everything on the Eurozone, Labour just want to capitalise on the situation and refuse to take any responsibility for a problem which they largely created. They still claim they did a brilliant job with the education system.

This isn’t a cyclical problem. It’s not about getting the economy to grow (as we keep hearing) it’s about the fundamental failure of our education system to prepare young people for work. The statistics above don’t lie. The problem is an obsession with grades and targets when we should be obsessed with skills. See my earlier article here. The previous Labour government became pushed as many students as it could into universities and it shunned apprenticeships. I myself have first-hand experience of the system I came out of school and university with top grades but totally unprepared for work.

Almost 28% of UK graduates who left university in 2007 were still not in full-time work three and a half years later, figures have suggested.

But if you think it’s bad here and can’t get any worse think again. Youth unemployment in Spain is at an astonishing 46.2% and youth unemployment across Europe has soared. This has been going on for much longer than the Eurozone crisis.

The exception to the rule is Germany. Please politicians look at the German system. The German system is defined by flexibility. It is designed to suit the individual Germany has five different types of secondary school. The German education system is geared to getting people into work. It has an incredibly successful apprenticeship system which allows young people to gain valuable experience and skills. (p.s. It has little or no tuition fees as well) The coalition government has made some progress in regard to apprenticeships but it is not nearly enough. Our entire curriculum, system and culture needs to be completely revised.

I am writing this article not to complain or blame the government but to make people aware of this serious fundamental problem. Make no mistake if we don’t fix this we are heading for a crisis. It will not be fixed overnight. We need a radical overhaul of our education system, if we continue down this path we are heading for disaster. The coalition government thinks it has done enough, it has not.

 

A Failing Education System – A Recent Student's Perspective

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The education system in the UK is failing, despite what the politicians may tell us. Recently a Labour party MP illustrated what a wonderful job they had done in power. It was the usual infuriating Labour spin and refusal to accept any responsibility. She set out an array of meaningless statistics, stating how much grades and standards had improved.

Frankly grade statistics mean absolutely nothing. Grade inflation benefits everyone. It benefits the, politicians the teachers, the parents and the students. Is it any wonder grades keep increasing? Only one statistic really matters, youth unemployment. Youth unemployment will soon hit a million. It is a damning indictment of Labours 10 years in power. For all the great grades people may have it means nothing when it comes to getting a job and ultimately that’s all that matters.

What’s the problem? The problem is teaching culture. It is an obsession with exams and teaching the test. Teachers have become very good at teaching tests and students have become very good at doing them. Everything in the exams can be learnt. There is no opportunity for the students to show their own ideas. All the answers have to fit into a mark scheme (which we studied extensively) even the so called evaluation questions (where a student is supposed to be expressing their own ideas). All this stems from uncreative rigid syllabuses all again designed to fit into a nice and easy marking scheme. This is not how learning should be.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not blaming the teachers it’s certainly not their fault. Most teachers would love to spend more of their time doing real teaching but what choice do they have when their jobs are on the line. The problem is excessive central control and a system which treats everybody as a statistic rather than an individual and is obsessed with targets.

How many practice papers do you think I undertook for each A level module. 5? 10? The true number was closer to 25 per module. By the time I got into the exam I’d already seen and answered all the questions before. Was it any wonder I got great grades? But was it really a test of my intelligence and skill? What did I really learn? I’ve now been doing exams every term since the age of 8. If the education has left me with one thing it’s the ability to pass an exam.

When I came out of the education system I naively thought that with my great grades I would walk into a job. As it was I was completely unprepared.

In my next article I will show what we need to do to fix the system and prevent the country becoming engulfed in crisis in the future, because believe me, if we don’t fix this, it will. In the meantime please add your own ideas and thoughts below.