Archive for March, 2008
Napoleon’s March
From Edward Tufte’s “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information,” this chart by Charles Joseph Minard is a depiction of Napoleon’s forces on their way in and out of Russia in the winter of 1812.
We recently took a look at this chart as a fantastic example of a multivariate display or one that manages to pack multiple variables into a single diagram. This one is particularly awesome because it does the job so well. The narrative below the chart describes it a bit better, but the basic gist is that the large band shows the size of Napoleon’s forces as they marched to (light) and from (dark) Moscow during the 1812 campaign. Minard layers this over a map to better show you where Napoleon’s forces were when changes in size occured. Not only are location and force size mapped, but you can also find time, distance, and temperature information as well. But just look at how thin the returning line is. Hitler made the same mistake as Napoleon over 100 years later!
The lesson here is to never, ever invade Russia during the winter.
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney
The fourth entry in the acclaimed Ace Attorney series, Apollo Justice does a bang-up job of continuing the Phoenix Wright legacy. While old fan-favorite characters have made themselves scarce seven years after the end of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations, the new cast is nearly (but not quite) as charming and funny as Gumshoe, Edgeworth, and Maya were. A few new gameplay elements and an interesting storyline keep the formula fresh as well.
Some things never change, and Apollo Justice, like the Ace Attorney games before it, is a point-and-click adventure title at heart. Each case introduces you to a crime of some kind (now with upgraded visuals for the DS!) and places the defense of the supposed-perpetrator in your hands. Scour scenes for evidence and interview involved parties to get enough background information to go to court, then cross-examine witnesses and present evidence to get to the truth!
Apollo Justice mixes up the traditional formula a bit with some new additions. Forensic evidence plays a larger role in this game than in the previous ones in the series, and you’ll be able to examine evidence in full 3D. Psych-locks have been removed, replaced with a new “Perceive” system where Apollo can catch people in the act of lying by noticing their nervous habits. In addition, Emma Skye from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney’s extra fifth case fills in for Detective Gumshoe in Apollo Justice, allowing you to dust evidence for fingerprints, take shoeprints, and conduct other nifty forensic analysis.
While I’m not a huge fan of the new soundtrack, Apollo Justice’s graphical presentation has been upgraded substantially. Character sprites and environments are substantially more detailed than in previous Ace Attorney titles (which were all ported from the Game Boy Advance to the Nintendo DS for their North American release). The transition from GBA ports to a native DS title might seem subtle at first, but once you see the old 2D diagrams transform into 3D scenes, you know something’s changed for the better.
In the end, Apollo Justice is full of what makes the Ace Attorney series great: hysterical writing (Capcom’s English localization team is fantastic), interesting cases, and entertaining characters. The new additions do a great job at freshening up the series’ forumula, but don’t expect anything drastically different here. If you didn’t like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney or the other games in the series, Apollo Justice won’t change your opinion. That being said, adventure lovers and fans of the series will have a grand time with Ace Attorney’s latest rookie lawyer.
Plus, you get to yell “OBJECTION!” and point your finger in a menacing fashion at people. How awesome is that?