Sabtu, 28 Februari 2009
Kamis, 26 Februari 2009
Dante's Inferno
23-Feb-2009 The Dead Space team tackle God Of War in Hell... as PSM3 debuts Dante's Inferno
As high-concept pitches go, 'Dead Space meets God of War... in Hell' takes some beating. The devil in the detail, however, is that the developers of 2008's cult hit Dead Space are basing their big 2009 blockbuster on... a 700-year old poem widely regarded as one of the seminal works in literary fiction.
[More info and a exclusive screenshots are in the full article, found in issue 111 of PSM3 magazine, on sale now. ]
However, as unlikely as it sounds, Dante's Inferno is perfect videogame material as PSM3 discovered when we ventured to EA's HQ in San Francisco to bring you the first details and screens this side of Hell and Earth.
Why are we so excited? This time last year, no-one had heard of Dead Space, until EA's sci-fi horror revealed itself as the perfect sublimation of Resident Evil-style third-person shooting and vintage Silent Hill-era tension, wowing critics and proving 2008's big surprise hit. In 2009, the same core team - assisted by God Of War 2's lead designer and a mystery Hollywood screenwriter - are crafting an action game worthy of Kratos himself. In the same way that Dead Space stole Resident Evil 5's thunder, Dante's Inferno might just work the same infernal curse on God of War 3.
The source material belongs to Dante Aligheri, a 14th century Florentine poet, whose book The Divine Comedy describes a nightmarish journey through the nine circles of Hell. The devs had to take some liberties, mostly with Dante himself who's now a muscular six-foot tall knight with magic powers, a giant scythe and a bloody cross-shaped tapestry sewn into his chest that depicts the worst moments from his life. Again, it's a Kratos tribute.
His milky skin isn't the result of a vitamin deficiency - mild spoiler - it's because he's stained with the ashes of his dead family. Rather than stroll ponderously through Hell like the poem, Dante's fighting his way through Lucifer's minions to save his lost love, Beatrice, who has been killed and wrongly sent to Hell.
Hell bound
It's a Hollywood liberty that'll have Oxford dons choking on their pipes, but the game is surprisingly faithful to the poem's structure. Give or take the odd screen-size demon.
The game's been partly designed by artist Wayne Barlowe, the guy responsible for the grotesque creatures in Guillermo Del Toro's Hellboy movies. His famous book. Barlowe's Inferno, was based on Dante's poem, so his involvement in the game was a given from the start according to the game's producers.
We could spend paragraphs describing the controls, but it's easier to say this; it's God Of War in Hell. Button-for-button the controls are identical to GOW's - from using the right stick to evade, to regular and heavy attacks being mapped to r and w. The similarities may be shameless, but the system's ideally suited to a third-person action game - it didn't hurt FIFA to borrow the PES controls, after all. We'd much rather a developer implemented something tried-and-tested than invent a 'novel' new control scheme for the sake of it.
Dante's size belies his grace of movement. Combos (easily strung together by simple presses of the light and heavy attack buttons) see his scythe move in a blur, swiping enemies legs away and slicing them in two. Holding u and pressing r lets you knock enemies into the air Devil May Cry-style and keep them hovering with a volley of rapid, light attacks.
It's standard third-person action stuff, but the fluid animation makes it feel satisfying and smooth. Fallen enemies disappear in a burst of energy, dropping health and magic orbs that Dante can absorb. Orbs can also be collected from chests, opened by tapping e. Whether it has the depth of Onimusha and its Issen system remains to be seen, but Dante has numerous unlockable powers that the developers couldn't reveal.
Impressively, the game's already running at a constant 60fps - a must for fluid beat-em-ups - emphasising the elegant swipes of Dante's scythe. It may look heavy, but the weapon has the grace and finesse of a samurai sword. Which is handy, since most of the game is spent wielding it.
What really sets this apart from God Of War is the setting. While Kratos' world is one of grand, crumbling temples and towering marble pillars, Dante's trip through Hell is altogether more unpleasant.
Twisted creatures burst from doorways, lava spews from inverted crosses and bottomless, fiery pits yawn deep beneath your feet. The Divine Comedy describes Hell as having nine circles, each more horrific than the next, which suits the linear action game format perfectly.
Supercharged
You begin your journey in Limbo, the tamest of the nine circles, ending in Treachery, home of Beelzebub himself. Dante, a knight of the Crusades, ventures into Hell after his girlfriend, Beatrice, is murdered. The game begins with him killing Death himself in a revenge-fuelled fury, nicking his magical scythe and plunging into the abyss after her.
In fitting with the otherworldly setting, Dante has access to magic powers. He can use a gleaming silver cross to fire blasts of holy power, unleash screen-clearing magic spells and even tame Hell's wild beasts to use against his enemies. In an early level, the boatman Charon who takes Dante through Limbo is re-imagined as an ancient, ornate galleon with an animated human face at its bow. A battle takes place on the deck with hordes of imps and a 20-foot tall monster with a demon riding its back.
After injuring the beast enough, it bows its head and the game switches to a QTE event as Dante climbs its furry mane, knocks the rider off and takes the reigns to use its powers for himself. It easily matches God Of War in terms of pure excitement.
Reaping rewards
In commercial terms, Dante's could be seen as EA plugging a portfolio gap with a God of War-style actioner. But the subject matter is utterly unique. And as Dante delves deeper into Satan's lair the game will get a Hell of a lot wilder and more unpleasant. If Dead Space's awe-inspiring final boss is any indication, just imagine your final battle with Satan himself.
A shameless God of War tribute? Sure, but Dante's Inferno is epic enough for EA to sacrifice a little soul. Prepare to unleash Hell for its late 2009 release.
As high-concept pitches go, 'Dead Space meets God of War... in Hell' takes some beating. The devil in the detail, however, is that the developers of 2008's cult hit Dead Space are basing their big 2009 blockbuster on... a 700-year old poem widely regarded as one of the seminal works in literary fiction.
[More info and a exclusive screenshots are in the full article, found in issue 111 of PSM3 magazine, on sale now. ]
However, as unlikely as it sounds, Dante's Inferno is perfect videogame material as PSM3 discovered when we ventured to EA's HQ in San Francisco to bring you the first details and screens this side of Hell and Earth.
 |
The source material belongs to Dante Aligheri, a 14th century Florentine poet, whose book The Divine Comedy describes a nightmarish journey through the nine circles of Hell. The devs had to take some liberties, mostly with Dante himself who's now a muscular six-foot tall knight with magic powers, a giant scythe and a bloody cross-shaped tapestry sewn into his chest that depicts the worst moments from his life. Again, it's a Kratos tribute.
His milky skin isn't the result of a vitamin deficiency - mild spoiler - it's because he's stained with the ashes of his dead family. Rather than stroll ponderously through Hell like the poem, Dante's fighting his way through Lucifer's minions to save his lost love, Beatrice, who has been killed and wrongly sent to Hell.
Hell bound
It's a Hollywood liberty that'll have Oxford dons choking on their pipes, but the game is surprisingly faithful to the poem's structure. Give or take the odd screen-size demon.
The game's been partly designed by artist Wayne Barlowe, the guy responsible for the grotesque creatures in Guillermo Del Toro's Hellboy movies. His famous book. Barlowe's Inferno, was based on Dante's poem, so his involvement in the game was a given from the start according to the game's producers.
 |
Dante's size belies his grace of movement. Combos (easily strung together by simple presses of the light and heavy attack buttons) see his scythe move in a blur, swiping enemies legs away and slicing them in two. Holding u and pressing r lets you knock enemies into the air Devil May Cry-style and keep them hovering with a volley of rapid, light attacks.
It's standard third-person action stuff, but the fluid animation makes it feel satisfying and smooth. Fallen enemies disappear in a burst of energy, dropping health and magic orbs that Dante can absorb. Orbs can also be collected from chests, opened by tapping e. Whether it has the depth of Onimusha and its Issen system remains to be seen, but Dante has numerous unlockable powers that the developers couldn't reveal.
Impressively, the game's already running at a constant 60fps - a must for fluid beat-em-ups - emphasising the elegant swipes of Dante's scythe. It may look heavy, but the weapon has the grace and finesse of a samurai sword. Which is handy, since most of the game is spent wielding it.
What really sets this apart from God Of War is the setting. While Kratos' world is one of grand, crumbling temples and towering marble pillars, Dante's trip through Hell is altogether more unpleasant.
Twisted creatures burst from doorways, lava spews from inverted crosses and bottomless, fiery pits yawn deep beneath your feet. The Divine Comedy describes Hell as having nine circles, each more horrific than the next, which suits the linear action game format perfectly.
 |
You begin your journey in Limbo, the tamest of the nine circles, ending in Treachery, home of Beelzebub himself. Dante, a knight of the Crusades, ventures into Hell after his girlfriend, Beatrice, is murdered. The game begins with him killing Death himself in a revenge-fuelled fury, nicking his magical scythe and plunging into the abyss after her.
In fitting with the otherworldly setting, Dante has access to magic powers. He can use a gleaming silver cross to fire blasts of holy power, unleash screen-clearing magic spells and even tame Hell's wild beasts to use against his enemies. In an early level, the boatman Charon who takes Dante through Limbo is re-imagined as an ancient, ornate galleon with an animated human face at its bow. A battle takes place on the deck with hordes of imps and a 20-foot tall monster with a demon riding its back.
After injuring the beast enough, it bows its head and the game switches to a QTE event as Dante climbs its furry mane, knocks the rider off and takes the reigns to use its powers for himself. It easily matches God Of War in terms of pure excitement.
Reaping rewards
In commercial terms, Dante's could be seen as EA plugging a portfolio gap with a God of War-style actioner. But the subject matter is utterly unique. And as Dante delves deeper into Satan's lair the game will get a Hell of a lot wilder and more unpleasant. If Dead Space's awe-inspiring final boss is any indication, just imagine your final battle with Satan himself.
A shameless God of War tribute? Sure, but Dante's Inferno is epic enough for EA to sacrifice a little soul. Prepare to unleash Hell for its late 2009 release.
Prince of Persia Epilogue DLC
16-Feb-2009 Interview: Ubisoft spills all on the core-focused PoP update
Everyone agreed that this generation's first Prince of Persia game was visually stunning, but opinions on its wider success were a little more divided.
Some felt the game was a bit repetitive, while others weren't blown away by its combat. Perhaps the criticism that stood out the most was the fact that it was too easy.
Having listened to the feedback, associate producer Jamal Rguigui explains to us how Ubisoft Montreal has addressed fans' concerns with the core game in the PS3 and 360 Prince of Persia DLC that launches on Thursday.
Ubisoft was unwilling to talk about pricing details at this point, or to elaborate on why the content isn't coming to PC.
So the Epilogue DLC continues right from where the core game left off?
Jamal Rguigui: The story serves as an epilogue to the retail game. It starts just minutes after the end of PoP and has allowed us to add considerably to the character development of Elika and the Prince as well as to the back-story of our new universe.
What can you tell us about the size of the DLC, and about how much added play time it will offer?
Rguigui: As soon as we decided to do a DLC for PoP we immediately set to work making it significant - this is easily one of the most ambitious DLC projects Ubisoft has yet undertaken. Expect more than three hours of additional gameplay from start to end of the epilogue.
Prince of Persia was a gorgeous game. What's distinct about the new area, the Underground Palace, visually?
Rguigui: We've kept the illustrative art style and created a completely new region which is entirely corrupted. This new region takes place in huge rooms, inspired by the feeling of awe we felt when seeing the Mines of Moria in The Fellowship of the Ring. It creates a dark ambiance and claustrophobic feeling that we feel nicely contrasts the large, open, colourful world from the main game.
And how does the new region differ from the others, gameplay wise?
Rguigui: Given the Epilogue-style nature of the DLC, we have at our disposal all of the forms of Corruption to allow us to create some spectacular and more challenging sequences. Of course, having the production of an entire game under our belts, we've also learned some excellent tricks in terms of acrobatic sequences that feel great upon completion - the level design in the DLC is definitely some of our best.
In addition, the new power of Elika brings an additional timing challenge to the mix that helps us raise the challenge factor even further.
Some of the feedback we received from fans of PoP is that they wanted more puzzles - the DLC was an excellent opportunity for us to service this request.
We kept the philosophy of large 'set piece' puzzles that fill an entire room or area (and the rooms in the DLC are huge), but put additional focus on the need to use switches to modify and create pathways that your acrobatic abilities will then allow you to follow. There is one particular puzzle that I'm really looking forward to reading fan feedback on. It's a clever one.
Can you tell us a little more about the Prince's and Elika's new abilities?
Rguigui: Elika's new power "Energise" facilitates acrobatics but is different in that it adds a timing challenge. This power allows Elika to "materialise" an area of the environment for a short period that was previously destroyed. This then allows the Prince and Elika to reach destinations that were previously unreachable, assuming they move quickly enough.
In order to push the intensity of combat and reward players who focus on offense, we added the "sprint" move to both the Prince and his foes. When at a distance from the enemy, the player can mash the Acrobatic button to sprint which leads to an opportunity for the player to stun his opponent and therefore take the offensive. I'm very proud of this feature as I feel it has the potential to really change the dynamics of combat.
What else can you tell us about the more cunning foes, cleverer traps and level design?
Rguigui: All the enemies are more aggressive in the Epilogue. For example, they won't hold back from attacking when the Prince fails to block an attack. But most notably, the enemies all have the new ability to sprint, making them dangerous even at a distance.
In addition the Mourning King is now even more powerful as his powers are constantly growing. So much so, that the Prince will not be able to defeat him on his own. This forces the player to adopt a new fight strategy - thanks to her abilities inherited by Ormazd, Elika's attacks can temporarily weaken the Mourning King, making him vulnerable [to] the Prince's attacks. This further encourages team work between the Prince and Elika with spectacular results.
The Shapeshifter is an enemy that takes the form of two of Ahriman's most fearsome Lieutenants, The Warrior and The Hunter. Though the physical form is familiar to our heroes and the player, it will require a particular strategy to defeat the Shapeshifter, rewarding the player that takes advantage of the new sprint feature exclusive to the Epilogue.
The trap challenge is based on understanding the patterns in a series of traps and timing your acrobatics properly to pass through them. For the main game, players could discern the proper timing by focusing on just the first and second trap of the sequence. Now, in the DLC, the number of traps for one sequence will be higher and players will need to look at the third, fourth and further traps to understand the pattern and find the right timing.
In general - more traps, more diverse patterns, more aggressive enemies will significantly increase the challenge.
Was upping the challenge level a direct response to criticism from some people that said the core game was too easy?
Rguigui: We heard our fans loud and clear - what the hardcore Prince of Persia gamer missed in our main game is some of the hair-pulling challenge that featured so prominently in the past PoPs. We understand this and feel the DLC is the perfect opportunity to provide our fans with that sort of gameplay.
Figuring out how to pass through a long acrobatic sequence mined with a tough trap challenge, or how to defeat a more aggressive boss before he regenerates his energy will definitely be more intense.
Is there anything else that you think will make the content stand out?
Rguigui: This new content has been given as much attention as the original and has been developed by the same team that worked on the original one. And you will be surprised to see how well all the elements described above have been put together.
Some players love that they get to continue a game with DLC, while others say it's unfair they have to pay extra just to get to the game's 'true ending'. Do you sympathise with the second point of view?
Rguigui: Prince of Persia is a complete game and the ending is definitely the one we had in mind, literally, from day one. The Prince of Persia Epilogue is a special added bonus that goes on to illustrate events in the characters' lives following the closure of the game. In fact, that's basically the definition of an epilogue - it's a passage that is not integral to the story, but that gives an insight into the future of the characters.
The creative team behind Prince of Persia developed a story that they hoped would make players reflect upon the adventure that they had lived and why the story unfolded as it did.
Sometimes, wrapping up all of the mysteries of a story is not the best way to conclude - we wanted to leave some doors open to mystery. There is a short narrative text at the beginning of Prince of Persia:
The wind is free, but the sand goes where it is blown. Unaware of the world around it, whirling on the breath of the Gods, at the mercy of the storm that engulfs it. What is one grain of sand in the desert? One grain amongst the storm?
It was our hope that people's interpretation of this text would change as they played the game and as they lived the adventure of Prince of Persia. What did this phrase mean to you when you first started, what did it mean when you finished? And, possibly, does your perception change once again once you play the Epilogue?
Is this the only DLC we'll see for Prince of Persia that adds new environments and gameplay experiences, or are you planning more?
Rguigui: Nothing has been announced yet for after the release of the DLC.
What has Ubisoft Montreal learned from the game's development that it'll take into the next Prince of Persia title, or its next project?
Rguigui: Definitely that the line between accessibility and too easy is a tight one; so we still need to make sure that our games remain accessible (easy to pick [up] and control) and in the meantime we have to give a sense of challenge and accomplishment to the players.
Everyone agreed that this generation's first Prince of Persia game was visually stunning, but opinions on its wider success were a little more divided.
Some felt the game was a bit repetitive, while others weren't blown away by its combat. Perhaps the criticism that stood out the most was the fact that it was too easy.
Having listened to the feedback, associate producer Jamal Rguigui explains to us how Ubisoft Montreal has addressed fans' concerns with the core game in the PS3 and 360 Prince of Persia DLC that launches on Thursday.
Ubisoft was unwilling to talk about pricing details at this point, or to elaborate on why the content isn't coming to PC.
 |
Jamal Rguigui: The story serves as an epilogue to the retail game. It starts just minutes after the end of PoP and has allowed us to add considerably to the character development of Elika and the Prince as well as to the back-story of our new universe.
What can you tell us about the size of the DLC, and about how much added play time it will offer?
Rguigui: As soon as we decided to do a DLC for PoP we immediately set to work making it significant - this is easily one of the most ambitious DLC projects Ubisoft has yet undertaken. Expect more than three hours of additional gameplay from start to end of the epilogue.
Prince of Persia was a gorgeous game. What's distinct about the new area, the Underground Palace, visually?
Rguigui: We've kept the illustrative art style and created a completely new region which is entirely corrupted. This new region takes place in huge rooms, inspired by the feeling of awe we felt when seeing the Mines of Moria in The Fellowship of the Ring. It creates a dark ambiance and claustrophobic feeling that we feel nicely contrasts the large, open, colourful world from the main game.
And how does the new region differ from the others, gameplay wise?
Rguigui: Given the Epilogue-style nature of the DLC, we have at our disposal all of the forms of Corruption to allow us to create some spectacular and more challenging sequences. Of course, having the production of an entire game under our belts, we've also learned some excellent tricks in terms of acrobatic sequences that feel great upon completion - the level design in the DLC is definitely some of our best.
In addition, the new power of Elika brings an additional timing challenge to the mix that helps us raise the challenge factor even further.
Some of the feedback we received from fans of PoP is that they wanted more puzzles - the DLC was an excellent opportunity for us to service this request.
We kept the philosophy of large 'set piece' puzzles that fill an entire room or area (and the rooms in the DLC are huge), but put additional focus on the need to use switches to modify and create pathways that your acrobatic abilities will then allow you to follow. There is one particular puzzle that I'm really looking forward to reading fan feedback on. It's a clever one.
 |
Rguigui: Elika's new power "Energise" facilitates acrobatics but is different in that it adds a timing challenge. This power allows Elika to "materialise" an area of the environment for a short period that was previously destroyed. This then allows the Prince and Elika to reach destinations that were previously unreachable, assuming they move quickly enough.
In order to push the intensity of combat and reward players who focus on offense, we added the "sprint" move to both the Prince and his foes. When at a distance from the enemy, the player can mash the Acrobatic button to sprint which leads to an opportunity for the player to stun his opponent and therefore take the offensive. I'm very proud of this feature as I feel it has the potential to really change the dynamics of combat.
What else can you tell us about the more cunning foes, cleverer traps and level design?
Rguigui: All the enemies are more aggressive in the Epilogue. For example, they won't hold back from attacking when the Prince fails to block an attack. But most notably, the enemies all have the new ability to sprint, making them dangerous even at a distance.
In addition the Mourning King is now even more powerful as his powers are constantly growing. So much so, that the Prince will not be able to defeat him on his own. This forces the player to adopt a new fight strategy - thanks to her abilities inherited by Ormazd, Elika's attacks can temporarily weaken the Mourning King, making him vulnerable [to] the Prince's attacks. This further encourages team work between the Prince and Elika with spectacular results.
The Shapeshifter is an enemy that takes the form of two of Ahriman's most fearsome Lieutenants, The Warrior and The Hunter. Though the physical form is familiar to our heroes and the player, it will require a particular strategy to defeat the Shapeshifter, rewarding the player that takes advantage of the new sprint feature exclusive to the Epilogue.
The trap challenge is based on understanding the patterns in a series of traps and timing your acrobatics properly to pass through them. For the main game, players could discern the proper timing by focusing on just the first and second trap of the sequence. Now, in the DLC, the number of traps for one sequence will be higher and players will need to look at the third, fourth and further traps to understand the pattern and find the right timing.
In general - more traps, more diverse patterns, more aggressive enemies will significantly increase the challenge.
 |
Rguigui: We heard our fans loud and clear - what the hardcore Prince of Persia gamer missed in our main game is some of the hair-pulling challenge that featured so prominently in the past PoPs. We understand this and feel the DLC is the perfect opportunity to provide our fans with that sort of gameplay.
Figuring out how to pass through a long acrobatic sequence mined with a tough trap challenge, or how to defeat a more aggressive boss before he regenerates his energy will definitely be more intense.
Is there anything else that you think will make the content stand out?
Rguigui: This new content has been given as much attention as the original and has been developed by the same team that worked on the original one. And you will be surprised to see how well all the elements described above have been put together.
Some players love that they get to continue a game with DLC, while others say it's unfair they have to pay extra just to get to the game's 'true ending'. Do you sympathise with the second point of view?
Rguigui: Prince of Persia is a complete game and the ending is definitely the one we had in mind, literally, from day one. The Prince of Persia Epilogue is a special added bonus that goes on to illustrate events in the characters' lives following the closure of the game. In fact, that's basically the definition of an epilogue - it's a passage that is not integral to the story, but that gives an insight into the future of the characters.
The creative team behind Prince of Persia developed a story that they hoped would make players reflect upon the adventure that they had lived and why the story unfolded as it did.
Sometimes, wrapping up all of the mysteries of a story is not the best way to conclude - we wanted to leave some doors open to mystery. There is a short narrative text at the beginning of Prince of Persia:
The wind is free, but the sand goes where it is blown. Unaware of the world around it, whirling on the breath of the Gods, at the mercy of the storm that engulfs it. What is one grain of sand in the desert? One grain amongst the storm?
It was our hope that people's interpretation of this text would change as they played the game and as they lived the adventure of Prince of Persia. What did this phrase mean to you when you first started, what did it mean when you finished? And, possibly, does your perception change once again once you play the Epilogue?
Is this the only DLC we'll see for Prince of Persia that adds new environments and gameplay experiences, or are you planning more?
Rguigui: Nothing has been announced yet for after the release of the DLC.
What has Ubisoft Montreal learned from the game's development that it'll take into the next Prince of Persia title, or its next project?
Rguigui: Definitely that the line between accessibility and too easy is a tight one; so we still need to make sure that our games remain accessible (easy to pick [up] and control) and in the meantime we have to give a sense of challenge and accomplishment to the players.
Street Fighter IV: Advanced tips
21-Feb-2009 Guide: Top SF player Anil Das-Gupta exposes expert secrets
This is not a guide for beginners. By now, we'll assume that you can perform all commands from your character's move set easily, and are familiar with the range and speed of your moves.
This guide will delve deep into the Street Fighter IV system and uncover a variety of tricks and tactics used by the experts.
[The full guide, which includes beginner tips, and even more advanced tactics for the most elite players, comes as a meaty SFIV Guidebook with the latest issue of PSM3 magazine, on sale now.]
Reversals
If your timing is good enough, you can perform many moves as 'Reversal Attacks'. Typically used in combination with special moves, such as Dragon Punches, this is the art of going immediately from the last frame of hit stun/block stun/rising animation etc into a Special, Super or Ultra.This is a vital part of Street Fighter, as reversal moves are often the only way to escape from certain traps and situations.
An example is escaping a tap throw attempt (explained a little later) by an opponent. Let's say your opponent knocks you down and as you're getting up they perform Ken's crouching MK (also known as a 'meaty' move). Here you are forced to block the move as you get up. The only other option is a reversal attempt.
If you perform a Dragon Punch as your character is getting up (the animation where they're picking themselves up from the floor), you will see a message saying 'Reversal' printed to screen. During a Reversal your character is invincible for a couple of frames, meaning that instead of being hit by your opponent's move, you will hit them clean instead. If this worked correctly, you will snuff Ken's crouching Medium Kick, but if you mistimed your attempt, Ken's kick will clobber you.
Cross-ups
Cross-ups are a sneaky tactic that often confuse novice players. Usually when an opponent attacks with a move, you only have to focus on blocking them high or low. However, cross-ups add a third variable into the mix - which side to actually block from.
Ken's jumping MK and Ryu's jumping HK are classic examples of cross-up moves in Street Fighter IV. If you time these correctly, you can get them to hit the back of your opponent as you jump in. The upshot to this is that the opponent must block in the opposite direction by holding 6 rather than 4.
To make this even trickier, you can create 'Ambiguous' cross-up situations. This is where you attack an opponent in such a way that it's hard to tell which side they'll strike from. Again with Ken's jumping MK, it's possible, based on the distance you jump-in from, to subtly alter which side the opponent must attempt to block.
By mixing up cross-up attempts, you can confuse an opponent and engineer combo opportunities easily.
Many characters possess cross-ups, including Ryu, Ken, Blanka, Sakura, Abel and Rose, and many more. If your character has a cross-up, it's a wise idea to include it in your offensive game.
Meaty moves
Sometimes known as an 'early' move, meaty moves can be used to force an opponent to block, allowing you to dictate the pace of a match.
A meaty move is a move that starts hitting an opponent as they are getting up from a knockdown, but stays active for long enough so they have to remain blocking the move for a split second, even when fully out of the getting up animation. A good example is to knock your opponent down with Ryu and to then use a meaty crouching MK. Start the move a little before the opponent is getting up to execute the move.
Meaty moves offer many advantages, but one of the best is that it disables the opponent's ability to throw as they're getting up. If you time a meaty move correctly, any attempt by the opponent to throw or throw escape you as they're getting up will be stuffed.
In addition, after a meaty move is blocked, it leaves the player who used the meaty move as an advantage. This means that they recover slightly faster than the opponent, allowing the meaty user to make the next move, such as throw attempt, or to continue poking away.
Block Strings
A block string is a term used for a series of hits that keep the opponent blocking, and push the aggressor back to safety. This allows an offensive player to dictate the flow of a match and force the opponent into a series of guessing games.
An example of a simple block string with Ryu is to get in close and use cr.LK, cr.LP, cr.LP. Ryu can even perform the first cr.LK as a meaty move.
In this sequence, Ryu hits an opponent 3 times and pushes him back to safety. Upon completing this string of hits, the Ryu player can opt to walk up and throw, wait for the opponent to make a move, jump over the opponent, throw a fireball and many more.
The idea with block strings is that by using them in your offensive game, you can alternate your offence with different methods to create damage on your opponent whilst remaining relatively safe.
A good sequence with Ryu after knocking your opponent down would be as follows - meaty cross-up Jump HK, cr LK, cr LP, cr LP, walk up throw. This gives your opponent various problems. First, he must deal with a cross-up, forcing him to block in the opposite direction. The next hit is a cr.LK which must be blocked low. He must then guess if after the cr.LK if you will attempt a throw or continue the sequence. Finally after the sequence is over, he must try to throw escape or perform a move that will beat a throw. Tricky stuff.
The next time you create a knock down, you should vary the sequence. You could try starting with a meaty, or a jumping HK that does not cross-up, or by throwing after the first cr.LK. By mixing and matching your block strings with follow-ups, you will break your opponent's guard far more easily.
Tap throws and command grabs
'Tap' or 'tick' throws are old-school tactics in Street Fighter, which were once considered cheap. This is because it's a powerful technique that can be frustrating for the victim when used effectively.
The idea is to jam your opponent into blocking so that, at an unspecified moment, you'll go for a throw that is more likely to succeed. By alternating the timing of when you move in for a throw, you'll often succeed in landing damage on your opponent as they attempt to tech a throw that was never actually coming.
A very simple example of a tap throw is as follows - Ryu jumps in on an opponent with a HK, that is blocked. As soon as he lands, he goes for a throw. By jumping in with a late HK, the opponent will still be blocking as you land, meaning that if you time the throw perfectly, they have no choice other than to attempt a throw escape or reversal.
Again, keep your moves varied. The next time you try this tactic, you could go for a cr.LK before you go for a throw. This way, if the opponent anticipated a throw after the HK, you will hit them with a surprise cr.LK.
This can help engineer a situation where you confirm into combos.
In this situation, after trying a tick throw after the blocked jumping HK the first time, the second time you can go for a hit confirm combo of cr.LK, cr.LP into a Dragon Punch. This means that if your opponent was fooled by your tick throw guessing game, you end up damaging them with a combo. However, if they block, you have enough time to not go through the combo, meaning that you will also remain safe.
'Command grab' is a term used for throws that require a command to execute, such as Zangief's Spinning Pile Driver, or Abel's Tornado Throw. Command grabs have a big advantage over regular throws, they cannot be tech-ed. This means that if an opponent wants to escape the command throw setup, they have to go for risky options such as a reversal, jumping away or back-dashing. If one of these attempts is anticipated, it can lead to the player under pressure taking a lot of damage.
We have brought up command throws in this section because they should be used in similar manner to tap throws. A simple tactic of Zangief's cross-up splash tapped into a Spinner Pile Driver is almost as old as the Street Fighter franchise itself, but to this day, it's a frighteningly effective tactic.
Mind Games
The idea of mind games is what really makes fighting games, and Street Fighter IV in particular, great. The concept of a mind game is the idea of playing with your opponent's tendencies and patterns and duping them into making mistakes as a result.
A mind game that should be very familiar to you at an intermediate level is the fireball war mind game. Picture Ryu and Ken fighting. I'm sure that you have realised that if close enough, if you can anticipate an opponent throwing a fireball, jump over it and execute a combo. This means that there's a situation where a player either throws a fireball or bluffs a fireball before going for a dragon punch to beat what he anticipates will be a jumping attack by the opponent.
However, at intermediate level, you'll want to use far more advanced mind game situations. If you've been reading the other sections of our intermediate guide, you'll have seen many examples we've already hinted at such as cross-ups, tap throws and so on.
A good way to maximise the power of a mind game in conjunction with these techniques is to fake a pattern when setting up your opponent. Let's take a cross-up setup as an example. After knocking your opponent to the floor with Ryu, he takes two steps back before jumping in with a cross-up - it succeeds. The next time you knock your opponent to the floor, try doing the same thing initially - taking two steps backwards, but this time instead of going for a cross-up, try jumping in with a LK.
The LK will make Ryu land on the nearside of the opponent. Now by disguising this manoeuvre with the setup of the cross-up attempt used previously, you'll most likely confuse your opponent into trying to block a cross-up. Of course, because you jumped into the nearside, your opponent will get hit by this move, allowing you to go into a brutal combo.
Now the third time you go for this tactic, your opponent will be panicking like nothing else. Will you go for the cross-up, or bluff it? They don't know, and it's down to a guessing game. This can lead to your opponent making obvious mistakes, such as going for a dragon punch in an attempt to knock you out of the air. This in turn means you can generate more punishment opportunities, and therefore create more damage.
Juggle System
Street Fighter IV has it's own unique juggle system that determines how many hits you can connect into an Ultra with, using Focus Attacks to 'absorb' an opponent's move.
At this stage of play, it's really worth looking at adding the power of Focus Attacks into your game. A useful technique that can be used with Focus Attacks is the ability to 'absorb' a hit, allowing you to get in a little bit more easily on the ground. For example, if an opponent throws a fireball at you and you push MP + MK just as the fireball is about to connect your character will go into their focus attack animation, and they will temporarily lose life as the fireball is 'absorbed'.
However the real use of this technique is that you can then dash-cancel out of the Focus Attack forwards. The result is that you effectively travel 'through' your opponent's fireball. This allows a way to advance against opponents without having to risk jumping.
But focus attacks can be used for more than just Fireballs. If you are confident that an opponent is going to strike, you can Focus through the attack. Take the earlier example where you set up a cross-up situation. Let's suppose that after using this tactic a few times, you have scared your opponent into the stage where you are sure they are going to wake up with a crouching Hard kick and attempt to sweep you. In this case, you can charge your Focus Attack and 'absorb' the hit. You can then release the Focus Attack and hit your opponent.
You can even dash after the animation connects and follow up with a combo, varying your play and scaring your opponent.
Focus Attacks in detail This part of the system is what separates SFIV from previous iterations of the series. In Japan they're known as Saving attacks. Hold MP + MK at the same time to start 'charging' a Focus Attack. The length of time you hold the buttons down for determines the level of the attack that is generated.
Crumpled state
In this state, an opponent is helpless. You get a free hit on them, which can start a combo. However, the crumpled state is unique. The opponent is not as easy to combo as if they were stunned. It's one of the nuances of SFIV that's easier to understand by seeing a video in action or actually playing. You only have a finite amount of time to hit the opponent when they're crumpled.
It's typically best to unleash your Ultra Combo, if you have it, when your opponent is crumpled because it's guaranteed to hit. During the crumple state, there are two stages the opponent goes through before falling to the ground. The first stage is a very vulnerable one - the opponent can be hit with nearly anything.
However, if you're too late, the opponent will fall, and you'll lose the ability to hit them with a full combo. this is why we recommended dashing after connecting a Focus Attack successfully. The window of opportunity to combo shrinks dramatically if you don't dash forward. It's not because of timing, instead it's down to the distance between the two characters and their range.
Armour
Focus Attacks allow you to absorb a hit, but they're not the only moves that allow this. Some characters have an EX version of special moves that also have armour properties. Taking Abel as an example, if your opponent throws a fireball at you, try an EX Change of Direction. You'll notice that the Change of Direction will travel through the fireball (although you will temporarily lose health, just like a focus attack), before striking your opponent.
Other characters that have moves with this property include El Fuerte, Zangief, Balrog and Gouken.
When using Focus Attacks bear in mind that not all moves in the game can be 'absorbed' Some moves, as defined in the command list for every character have 'Armour-breaking' properties. Armour-breaking moves, when used against a Focus Attack or any other move with armour will cause a 'glass shattering effect. You'll also hear a noise of breaking glass.
So if you see an opponent charging up a Focus Attack, it can be a good idea to execute an armour breaking move so that it breaks their Focus Attempt. For example, if you are a Ryu player and you see Ken charging a Focus attack, if you're close enough you can execute a Hurricane Kick to break the armour and punish Ken.
Hit confirm combos
Some combos in Street Fighter IV can be executed by linking from several LP or LK's. This means that you can use a powerful technique when attempting combos - 'hit confirming'.
This type of technique involves using a combo such as Ryu's cr.LP, cr.LK linked into a Dragon Punch. The advantage of using such a combo is that it enables you to remain safe if your opponent is blocking. Let's imagine that you knock an opponent to the ground.
As they are getting up, with Ryu, you go for a meaty crouching LK. If the opponent blocks, you can continue with a block string or tap throw. However, if you hit, you can continue the combo with cr.LP If both of those hit, you should have enough time to react and go into a Dragon Punch. However, if they were blocked, you will push yourself back and will not risk a Dragon Punch that would otherwise be punished.
Ryu Strategy
He's been in every Street Fighter game since the beginning and he's without doubt the character you will see most both online and offline. Fortunately, he happens to one of the high tier characters with the tools to deal with any situation and some excellent combos.
Mr Versatile
Although many characters are better than Ryu in certain areas, he's good at everything and doesn't have and obvious weaknesses. This means that you can play him in any way you want. Make a rush, play defensively, use an old-school control style, or mix in all three. You can even 'switch gears' mid match to throw off your opponent.
Tools of the Trade
Ryu's standing HK, 2 + SK and LP and SP Dragon Punch make up his lethal anti-air game. Furthermore, learn the art of countering at the right time with Dragon Punches to make them more effective. If you counter with an early LP Dragon Punch and pop your opponent into the air, you have enough time to catch your opponent with an EX Fireball, Super or Ultra. This leads to massive amounts of damage from a simple anti air move.
Similarly, the HP Dragon Punch sometimes trades with an opponent's jump-in, but don't fret if this happens. After you've recovered, dish out an Ultra and it will catch your opponent on the way down. As part of your ground game, use Ryu's excellent cr.MK and Fireballs to control your opponent from range.
Learn the recovery and ranges of your Fireballs so that you do not get caught out with counter jump-in attempts. Standing HK and crouching MP are other useful pokes at this distance if your opponent gets close. Don't forget about EX Fireballs which can be lethal at mid-range, scoring you a knock-down.
Shinkuu Hadoken
Ryu's Super Move is one of the best moves in Street Fighter IV. It has an excellent range and travels quickly. You can even control the speed to a certain extent - it's determined by the strength of punch you use to activate it. One of the move's main uses is as a punishment tool. Moves such as Blanka's horizontal roll that Ryu can not usually punish are vulnerable when he unleashes a Super. It also works well when used straight after a nicely timed cr.MK.
FADC Dragon Punch
One of Ryu's best weapons is his ability to Focus Attack then Dash Cancel from a Dragon Punch. This allows him to tag an Ultra onto the end of a combo, leading to over 50% damage easily.
What's even more useful about this technique is that if your opponent blocks, you are still relatively safe. You can go for a throw or another Dragon Punch as you dash forwards. This will give you a good chance of catching your opponent out. It allows you to attempt a reversal and remain safe if your opponent reads you in time.
This is not a guide for beginners. By now, we'll assume that you can perform all commands from your character's move set easily, and are familiar with the range and speed of your moves.
This guide will delve deep into the Street Fighter IV system and uncover a variety of tricks and tactics used by the experts.
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If your timing is good enough, you can perform many moves as 'Reversal Attacks'. Typically used in combination with special moves, such as Dragon Punches, this is the art of going immediately from the last frame of hit stun/block stun/rising animation etc into a Special, Super or Ultra.This is a vital part of Street Fighter, as reversal moves are often the only way to escape from certain traps and situations.
An example is escaping a tap throw attempt (explained a little later) by an opponent. Let's say your opponent knocks you down and as you're getting up they perform Ken's crouching MK (also known as a 'meaty' move). Here you are forced to block the move as you get up. The only other option is a reversal attempt.
If you perform a Dragon Punch as your character is getting up (the animation where they're picking themselves up from the floor), you will see a message saying 'Reversal' printed to screen. During a Reversal your character is invincible for a couple of frames, meaning that instead of being hit by your opponent's move, you will hit them clean instead. If this worked correctly, you will snuff Ken's crouching Medium Kick, but if you mistimed your attempt, Ken's kick will clobber you.
Cross-ups
Cross-ups are a sneaky tactic that often confuse novice players. Usually when an opponent attacks with a move, you only have to focus on blocking them high or low. However, cross-ups add a third variable into the mix - which side to actually block from.
Ken's jumping MK and Ryu's jumping HK are classic examples of cross-up moves in Street Fighter IV. If you time these correctly, you can get them to hit the back of your opponent as you jump in. The upshot to this is that the opponent must block in the opposite direction by holding 6 rather than 4.
To make this even trickier, you can create 'Ambiguous' cross-up situations. This is where you attack an opponent in such a way that it's hard to tell which side they'll strike from. Again with Ken's jumping MK, it's possible, based on the distance you jump-in from, to subtly alter which side the opponent must attempt to block.
By mixing up cross-up attempts, you can confuse an opponent and engineer combo opportunities easily.
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Meaty moves
Sometimes known as an 'early' move, meaty moves can be used to force an opponent to block, allowing you to dictate the pace of a match.
A meaty move is a move that starts hitting an opponent as they are getting up from a knockdown, but stays active for long enough so they have to remain blocking the move for a split second, even when fully out of the getting up animation. A good example is to knock your opponent down with Ryu and to then use a meaty crouching MK. Start the move a little before the opponent is getting up to execute the move.
Meaty moves offer many advantages, but one of the best is that it disables the opponent's ability to throw as they're getting up. If you time a meaty move correctly, any attempt by the opponent to throw or throw escape you as they're getting up will be stuffed.
In addition, after a meaty move is blocked, it leaves the player who used the meaty move as an advantage. This means that they recover slightly faster than the opponent, allowing the meaty user to make the next move, such as throw attempt, or to continue poking away.
Block Strings
A block string is a term used for a series of hits that keep the opponent blocking, and push the aggressor back to safety. This allows an offensive player to dictate the flow of a match and force the opponent into a series of guessing games.
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In this sequence, Ryu hits an opponent 3 times and pushes him back to safety. Upon completing this string of hits, the Ryu player can opt to walk up and throw, wait for the opponent to make a move, jump over the opponent, throw a fireball and many more.
The idea with block strings is that by using them in your offensive game, you can alternate your offence with different methods to create damage on your opponent whilst remaining relatively safe.
A good sequence with Ryu after knocking your opponent down would be as follows - meaty cross-up Jump HK, cr LK, cr LP, cr LP, walk up throw. This gives your opponent various problems. First, he must deal with a cross-up, forcing him to block in the opposite direction. The next hit is a cr.LK which must be blocked low. He must then guess if after the cr.LK if you will attempt a throw or continue the sequence. Finally after the sequence is over, he must try to throw escape or perform a move that will beat a throw. Tricky stuff.
The next time you create a knock down, you should vary the sequence. You could try starting with a meaty, or a jumping HK that does not cross-up, or by throwing after the first cr.LK. By mixing and matching your block strings with follow-ups, you will break your opponent's guard far more easily.
Tap throws and command grabs
'Tap' or 'tick' throws are old-school tactics in Street Fighter, which were once considered cheap. This is because it's a powerful technique that can be frustrating for the victim when used effectively.
The idea is to jam your opponent into blocking so that, at an unspecified moment, you'll go for a throw that is more likely to succeed. By alternating the timing of when you move in for a throw, you'll often succeed in landing damage on your opponent as they attempt to tech a throw that was never actually coming.
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Again, keep your moves varied. The next time you try this tactic, you could go for a cr.LK before you go for a throw. This way, if the opponent anticipated a throw after the HK, you will hit them with a surprise cr.LK.
This can help engineer a situation where you confirm into combos.
In this situation, after trying a tick throw after the blocked jumping HK the first time, the second time you can go for a hit confirm combo of cr.LK, cr.LP into a Dragon Punch. This means that if your opponent was fooled by your tick throw guessing game, you end up damaging them with a combo. However, if they block, you have enough time to not go through the combo, meaning that you will also remain safe.
'Command grab' is a term used for throws that require a command to execute, such as Zangief's Spinning Pile Driver, or Abel's Tornado Throw. Command grabs have a big advantage over regular throws, they cannot be tech-ed. This means that if an opponent wants to escape the command throw setup, they have to go for risky options such as a reversal, jumping away or back-dashing. If one of these attempts is anticipated, it can lead to the player under pressure taking a lot of damage.
We have brought up command throws in this section because they should be used in similar manner to tap throws. A simple tactic of Zangief's cross-up splash tapped into a Spinner Pile Driver is almost as old as the Street Fighter franchise itself, but to this day, it's a frighteningly effective tactic.
 |
The idea of mind games is what really makes fighting games, and Street Fighter IV in particular, great. The concept of a mind game is the idea of playing with your opponent's tendencies and patterns and duping them into making mistakes as a result.
A mind game that should be very familiar to you at an intermediate level is the fireball war mind game. Picture Ryu and Ken fighting. I'm sure that you have realised that if close enough, if you can anticipate an opponent throwing a fireball, jump over it and execute a combo. This means that there's a situation where a player either throws a fireball or bluffs a fireball before going for a dragon punch to beat what he anticipates will be a jumping attack by the opponent.
However, at intermediate level, you'll want to use far more advanced mind game situations. If you've been reading the other sections of our intermediate guide, you'll have seen many examples we've already hinted at such as cross-ups, tap throws and so on.
A good way to maximise the power of a mind game in conjunction with these techniques is to fake a pattern when setting up your opponent. Let's take a cross-up setup as an example. After knocking your opponent to the floor with Ryu, he takes two steps back before jumping in with a cross-up - it succeeds. The next time you knock your opponent to the floor, try doing the same thing initially - taking two steps backwards, but this time instead of going for a cross-up, try jumping in with a LK.
The LK will make Ryu land on the nearside of the opponent. Now by disguising this manoeuvre with the setup of the cross-up attempt used previously, you'll most likely confuse your opponent into trying to block a cross-up. Of course, because you jumped into the nearside, your opponent will get hit by this move, allowing you to go into a brutal combo.
 |
Juggle System
Street Fighter IV has it's own unique juggle system that determines how many hits you can connect into an Ultra with, using Focus Attacks to 'absorb' an opponent's move.
At this stage of play, it's really worth looking at adding the power of Focus Attacks into your game. A useful technique that can be used with Focus Attacks is the ability to 'absorb' a hit, allowing you to get in a little bit more easily on the ground. For example, if an opponent throws a fireball at you and you push MP + MK just as the fireball is about to connect your character will go into their focus attack animation, and they will temporarily lose life as the fireball is 'absorbed'.
However the real use of this technique is that you can then dash-cancel out of the Focus Attack forwards. The result is that you effectively travel 'through' your opponent's fireball. This allows a way to advance against opponents without having to risk jumping.
But focus attacks can be used for more than just Fireballs. If you are confident that an opponent is going to strike, you can Focus through the attack. Take the earlier example where you set up a cross-up situation. Let's suppose that after using this tactic a few times, you have scared your opponent into the stage where you are sure they are going to wake up with a crouching Hard kick and attempt to sweep you. In this case, you can charge your Focus Attack and 'absorb' the hit. You can then release the Focus Attack and hit your opponent.
You can even dash after the animation connects and follow up with a combo, varying your play and scaring your opponent.
 |
Crumpled state
In this state, an opponent is helpless. You get a free hit on them, which can start a combo. However, the crumpled state is unique. The opponent is not as easy to combo as if they were stunned. It's one of the nuances of SFIV that's easier to understand by seeing a video in action or actually playing. You only have a finite amount of time to hit the opponent when they're crumpled.
It's typically best to unleash your Ultra Combo, if you have it, when your opponent is crumpled because it's guaranteed to hit. During the crumple state, there are two stages the opponent goes through before falling to the ground. The first stage is a very vulnerable one - the opponent can be hit with nearly anything.
However, if you're too late, the opponent will fall, and you'll lose the ability to hit them with a full combo. this is why we recommended dashing after connecting a Focus Attack successfully. The window of opportunity to combo shrinks dramatically if you don't dash forward. It's not because of timing, instead it's down to the distance between the two characters and their range.
Armour
Focus Attacks allow you to absorb a hit, but they're not the only moves that allow this. Some characters have an EX version of special moves that also have armour properties. Taking Abel as an example, if your opponent throws a fireball at you, try an EX Change of Direction. You'll notice that the Change of Direction will travel through the fireball (although you will temporarily lose health, just like a focus attack), before striking your opponent.
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When using Focus Attacks bear in mind that not all moves in the game can be 'absorbed' Some moves, as defined in the command list for every character have 'Armour-breaking' properties. Armour-breaking moves, when used against a Focus Attack or any other move with armour will cause a 'glass shattering effect. You'll also hear a noise of breaking glass.
So if you see an opponent charging up a Focus Attack, it can be a good idea to execute an armour breaking move so that it breaks their Focus Attempt. For example, if you are a Ryu player and you see Ken charging a Focus attack, if you're close enough you can execute a Hurricane Kick to break the armour and punish Ken.
Hit confirm combos
Some combos in Street Fighter IV can be executed by linking from several LP or LK's. This means that you can use a powerful technique when attempting combos - 'hit confirming'.
This type of technique involves using a combo such as Ryu's cr.LP, cr.LK linked into a Dragon Punch. The advantage of using such a combo is that it enables you to remain safe if your opponent is blocking. Let's imagine that you knock an opponent to the ground.
As they are getting up, with Ryu, you go for a meaty crouching LK. If the opponent blocks, you can continue with a block string or tap throw. However, if you hit, you can continue the combo with cr.LP If both of those hit, you should have enough time to react and go into a Dragon Punch. However, if they were blocked, you will push yourself back and will not risk a Dragon Punch that would otherwise be punished.
Ryu Strategy
He's been in every Street Fighter game since the beginning and he's without doubt the character you will see most both online and offline. Fortunately, he happens to one of the high tier characters with the tools to deal with any situation and some excellent combos.
 |
Although many characters are better than Ryu in certain areas, he's good at everything and doesn't have and obvious weaknesses. This means that you can play him in any way you want. Make a rush, play defensively, use an old-school control style, or mix in all three. You can even 'switch gears' mid match to throw off your opponent.
Tools of the Trade
Ryu's standing HK, 2 + SK and LP and SP Dragon Punch make up his lethal anti-air game. Furthermore, learn the art of countering at the right time with Dragon Punches to make them more effective. If you counter with an early LP Dragon Punch and pop your opponent into the air, you have enough time to catch your opponent with an EX Fireball, Super or Ultra. This leads to massive amounts of damage from a simple anti air move.
Similarly, the HP Dragon Punch sometimes trades with an opponent's jump-in, but don't fret if this happens. After you've recovered, dish out an Ultra and it will catch your opponent on the way down. As part of your ground game, use Ryu's excellent cr.MK and Fireballs to control your opponent from range.
Learn the recovery and ranges of your Fireballs so that you do not get caught out with counter jump-in attempts. Standing HK and crouching MP are other useful pokes at this distance if your opponent gets close. Don't forget about EX Fireballs which can be lethal at mid-range, scoring you a knock-down.
Shinkuu Hadoken
Ryu's Super Move is one of the best moves in Street Fighter IV. It has an excellent range and travels quickly. You can even control the speed to a certain extent - it's determined by the strength of punch you use to activate it. One of the move's main uses is as a punishment tool. Moves such as Blanka's horizontal roll that Ryu can not usually punish are vulnerable when he unleashes a Super. It also works well when used straight after a nicely timed cr.MK.
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One of Ryu's best weapons is his ability to Focus Attack then Dash Cancel from a Dragon Punch. This allows him to tag an Ultra onto the end of a combo, leading to over 50% damage easily.
What's even more useful about this technique is that if your opponent blocks, you are still relatively safe. You can go for a throw or another Dragon Punch as you dash forwards. This will give you a good chance of catching your opponent out. It allows you to attempt a reversal and remain safe if your opponent reads you in time.
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Lost Planet 2 is Xbox 360-exclusive
Wednesday 25-Feb-2009 10:41 AM
Updated: Capcom doesn't rule out other versions
Capcom has released the first official info on Lost Planet 2, confirming that the sequel's in development for Xbox 360 - but no mention of any other platforms.
Update: Capcom's given Edge a bit of an update on whether or not the game's going to be exlusive. A rep said, "All we can say at this time is that we've announced Lost Planet 2 for the 360. That's all I can say."
The tea leaves are telling us this will be timed 360 exclusive. Update out
The company also confirmed the inclusion of 4-player online co-op for the follow-up, which you probably guessed from the debut trailer.
The "strongest features" from the first game will return in Lost Planet 2, says Capcom, which basically means more enormous Akrids, anchor gameplay and a "wide variety of new actions".
"Lost Planet 2 picks up 10 years since the events of the original adventure and the landscape has evolved dramatically. With the success of terraforming activities, the planet's ice has begun to melt, giving way to lush tropical jungles and other new environments," says the company's official blurb.
"The story has advanced beyond Wayne Holden as players will now follow the exploits of their own customized snow pirates on their quest to seize control of E.D.N III. Players will move their heroes through different stories creating a truly unique and interactive experience. With this concept, gamers will have the opportunity to engage in the story in a more dynamic way as plot threads evolve from various perspectives."
Apparently Capcom's spent a considerable amount of time reviewing community feedback and incorporating it into Lost Planet 2, which is weird because the sluggish characters still look like they move slower than an OAP on a Segway.
"Beyond the deep single player mode, Lost Planet 2 is loaded with one the most extensive multiplayer campaign seen in a shooter to date. The intense and action packed campaign mode comes with the ability to form teams of up to 4 players online to clear mission objectives with friends," Capcom adds.
More info is promised "in the coming months".
Updated: Capcom doesn't rule out other versions
Capcom has released the first official info on Lost Planet 2, confirming that the sequel's in development for Xbox 360 - but no mention of any other platforms.
Update: Capcom's given Edge a bit of an update on whether or not the game's going to be exlusive. A rep said, "All we can say at this time is that we've announced Lost Planet 2 for the 360. That's all I can say."
The tea leaves are telling us this will be timed 360 exclusive. Update out
The company also confirmed the inclusion of 4-player online co-op for the follow-up, which you probably guessed from the debut trailer.
 |
"Lost Planet 2 picks up 10 years since the events of the original adventure and the landscape has evolved dramatically. With the success of terraforming activities, the planet's ice has begun to melt, giving way to lush tropical jungles and other new environments," says the company's official blurb.
"The story has advanced beyond Wayne Holden as players will now follow the exploits of their own customized snow pirates on their quest to seize control of E.D.N III. Players will move their heroes through different stories creating a truly unique and interactive experience. With this concept, gamers will have the opportunity to engage in the story in a more dynamic way as plot threads evolve from various perspectives."
Apparently Capcom's spent a considerable amount of time reviewing community feedback and incorporating it into Lost Planet 2, which is weird because the sluggish characters still look like they move slower than an OAP on a Segway.
"Beyond the deep single player mode, Lost Planet 2 is loaded with one the most extensive multiplayer campaign seen in a shooter to date. The intense and action packed campaign mode comes with the ability to form teams of up to 4 players online to clear mission objectives with friends," Capcom adds.
More info is promised "in the coming months".
Victoria Beckham Jual Gaun Rp 27 Juta Dalam Sekejap
Victoria Beckham (ist)
Gaun-gaun rancangan Victoria itu dijual di sebuah situs fesyen ternama net-A-Porter. Dalam situs tersebut, Vic sapaan akrabnya menjual tiga buah gaun.
Dikutip Female First Kamis (26/2/2009) gaun strapless berwarna cream, gaun bermotif geometric serta gaun berwarna ungu rancangan istri pesepakbola David Beckham itu masing-masing berharga 1.300, 1.600 serta 1.311 Pound Sterling atau sekitar Rp 22 - Rp 27 juta.Wow!
Namun dalam sekejap ketiga gaun itu diminati para fashionista dan terjual. Dulu kemampuan Victoria sebagai desainer sempat dipertanyakan banyak orang. Bahkan jeans rancangan Posh 'Spice' yang berlabel DvB sempat diboikot beberapa butik ternama Inggris.
Namun kini Vic kembali bangkit dan membuktikan kehandalannya.
Bunga Citra Lestari Glamour Bersama Suami Barunya
Rabu, 25/02/2009 11:15 WIB 
BCL (bow/hot) Jakarta - Penyanyi Bunga Citra Lestari membuat video klip untuk single terbarunya 'Hanya Untukmu.' Dalam video klip tersebut, Bunga tampil glamour bersama suami barunya Ashraf Sinclair.
Bunga atau akrab disapa BCL menggandeng Ashraf jadi model video klip karena memang single 'Hanya Untukmu' adalah soundtrack film mereka, 'Saus Kacang'. Agar ada kesinambungan, sang suami sengaja dipilih oleh BCL.
Video klip teranyar BCL itu disutradarai oleh Rizal Mantovani. Pelantun 'Pernah Muda' itu mengangkat tema fashion and beauty dalam video klipnya tersebut.
"Selama ini Bunga kan dinilai casual, sekarang lebih glamour, karena beda segmen, beda juga selera fashionnya," jelas BCL saat ditemui di studio Gudang Jl Mandala V no. 24, Cililitan, Jakarta Timur, Selasa (24/2/2009) malam.
Menurut BCL, para fansnya kini telah semakin bertambah usianya. Misalnya mereka yang dulu SMA, sekarang telah duduk di bangku kuliah. Makanya ia mengikuti perkembangan sang penggemar tersebut dengan berusaha tampil dewasa dan glamour.
Walaupun glamour, BCL mengaku tak akan menghilangkan kesan tomboy yang ada dalam dirinya. Dengan potongan rambutnya yang kini pendek itulah, ia mempertahankan ketomboyannya.
BCL (bow/hot)
Bunga atau akrab disapa BCL menggandeng Ashraf jadi model video klip karena memang single 'Hanya Untukmu' adalah soundtrack film mereka, 'Saus Kacang'. Agar ada kesinambungan, sang suami sengaja dipilih oleh BCL.
Video klip teranyar BCL itu disutradarai oleh Rizal Mantovani. Pelantun 'Pernah Muda' itu mengangkat tema fashion and beauty dalam video klipnya tersebut.
"Selama ini Bunga kan dinilai casual, sekarang lebih glamour, karena beda segmen, beda juga selera fashionnya," jelas BCL saat ditemui di studio Gudang Jl Mandala V no. 24, Cililitan, Jakarta Timur, Selasa (24/2/2009) malam.
Menurut BCL, para fansnya kini telah semakin bertambah usianya. Misalnya mereka yang dulu SMA, sekarang telah duduk di bangku kuliah. Makanya ia mengikuti perkembangan sang penggemar tersebut dengan berusaha tampil dewasa dan glamour.
Walaupun glamour, BCL mengaku tak akan menghilangkan kesan tomboy yang ada dalam dirinya. Dengan potongan rambutnya yang kini pendek itulah, ia mempertahankan ketomboyannya.
Persija Temukan Ritme Terbaik
Jum'at, 20 Februari 2009 - 22:26 wib
JAKARTA - Persija Jakarta mampu menemukan ritme permainan terbaik sehingga mampu menekuk Pelita Jaya U-21 dengan skor 5-1 dalam duel ujicoba di Stadion Lebak Bulus Jakarta, Jumat (20/2/2009).
Tiga gol Persija pada babak pertama dibuat Robertino Pugliara, Aliyudin, dan Agus Indra Kurniawan. Sedangkan Greg Nwokolo dan Bambang Pamungkas menyumbang gol tambahan di babak kedua. Satu-satunya gol Pelita U-21 diciptakan Rizky.
Pelatih Persija Danurwindo hanya menurunkan tiga pemain asing pada pertandingan, yakni Abanda Herman, Robertino Pugliara, serta Greg Nwokolo. Sedangkan Pierre Njanka dan Fabio Lopez tak dimainkan.
Pada laga tersebut, Danur melakukan delapan pergantian pemain pada babak kedua. Hanya Bambang Pamungkas, Greg Nwokolo, dan Aris Indarto yang tampil penuh 90 menit. Sedangkan pemain lainnya diganti pada babak kedua.
"Saya memang harus berani melakukan rotasi pemain. Sebab, kompetisi sangat padat dan semua pemain dituntut selalu siap tempur baikdi Liga Super maupun di Piala Indonesia. Sejauh ini, saya puas melihat kinerja pemain inti maupun cadangan," kata Danur.
Danur menegaskan bahwa timnya akan tampil menyerang saat lawan Persiba Balikpapan pada babak perdelapan final Piala Indonesia. Kamis (26/2).
"Yang kami butuhkan adalah kreasi serangan. Artinya, pola menyerang tidak hanya bertumpu pada striker, namun juga pemain tengah dan sayap. Pencetak gol hanya masalah penyelesaian akhir," tandasnya. (muh sahlan/Sindo/tan)
Persijap dan Momok 16 Besar
Selasa, 24 Februari 2009 - 16:45 wib 
JEPARA - Babak 16 besar Piala Indonesia bak momok menakutkan bagi Persijap Jepara. Sejak pertama digulirkan pada 2005, tercatat sebanyak dua kali langkah mereka kandas di babak ini.
Kini, Laskar Kalinyamat -julukan Persijap- akan bersua Persikabo Kab. Bogor dibabak 16 besar. Leg pertama akan dimainkan di Stadion Gelora Bumi Kartini (SGBK) Jepara, Rabu (25/2/2009) sore.
Masalah membayangi tuan rumah jelang duel ini. Menurunnya kebugaran Evaldo Silva de Azis dkk usai menjalani empat laga secara beruntun diajang Liga Super menjadi kekhawatiran Pelatih Persijap Djunaedi.
Tapi, status mereka sebagai tuan rumah pada leg pertama ini membuat Persijap lebih diunggulkan. Apalagi, lawan yang akan dihadapi berstatus anggota Divisi Utama atau satu strip di bawah mereka.
Rekor belum pernah kalah dalam lima pertandingan terakhir yang disandang Persijap diharapkan mampu mengaburkan kelelahan yang dialami Evaldo dkk.
"Selama Februari, kami dihadapkan pada lima pertandingan dengan jeda waktu yang sangat mepet. Tapi tekad kami meraih poin penuh atas Perskabo di leg pertama ini sudah bulat. Bagi pemain, sudah terlanjur masuk babak 16 besar, sayang kalau dilepas begitu saja," cetus defender Persijap Anam Syahrul, Selasa (24/2/2009).
Harapan sama juga disampaikan Bang Djun -demikian Djunaedi akrab disapa- jelang laga ini. Bahkan secara tegas, Bang Djun menyatakan jika langkah Persijap yang selalu terjegal dibabak 16 besar hanya sebagai mitos. Meski kondisi pasukannya sedang tidak menguntungkan, tapi bukan berarti Persikabo bisa dengan mudah memecundangi Evaldo dkk.
"Materi Persijap sekarang dan dulu sudah beda. Kondisinya pun juga lain. Jadi tidak bisa disamakan. Kalau dulu Persijap terhenti di babak 16 besar, bukan berarti sekarang juga akan mengalami hal yang sama. Semoga pemain bisa mengatasi masalah ini," tegas mantan Asisten Pelatih Persiba Balikpapan itu.
Bang Djun bisa saja mengabaikan faktor kelelahan yang menimpa anak asuhnya. Tapi yang jadi masalah, hingga detik ini dia masih buta kekuatan calon lawan. Sukses Laskar Padjajaran menduduki peringkat ke-6 klasemen sementara Grup Barat menjadikan anak asuh Suimin Diharja ini patut diwaspadai.
"Ini yang membingungkan saya dalam menentukan strategi dan komposisi pemain. Jangankan tahu bagaimana cara mereka main. Materi pemain yang dimiliki Persikabo saja saya tidak tahu," tukasnya terang-terangan.
Pola kovensional 3-5-2 yang selama ini menjadi senjata Laskar Kalinyamat ketika tampil di kandang akan kembali ditampilkan. Duet gado-gado Pablo Frances dan Johan Johansyah dibarisan depan diharapkan mampu kembali bicara banyak. (Agus Anggoro/Sindo/fmh)
Kini, Laskar Kalinyamat -julukan Persijap- akan bersua Persikabo Kab. Bogor dibabak 16 besar. Leg pertama akan dimainkan di Stadion Gelora Bumi Kartini (SGBK) Jepara, Rabu (25/2/2009) sore.
Masalah membayangi tuan rumah jelang duel ini. Menurunnya kebugaran Evaldo Silva de Azis dkk usai menjalani empat laga secara beruntun diajang Liga Super menjadi kekhawatiran Pelatih Persijap Djunaedi.
Tapi, status mereka sebagai tuan rumah pada leg pertama ini membuat Persijap lebih diunggulkan. Apalagi, lawan yang akan dihadapi berstatus anggota Divisi Utama atau satu strip di bawah mereka.
Rekor belum pernah kalah dalam lima pertandingan terakhir yang disandang Persijap diharapkan mampu mengaburkan kelelahan yang dialami Evaldo dkk.
"Selama Februari, kami dihadapkan pada lima pertandingan dengan jeda waktu yang sangat mepet. Tapi tekad kami meraih poin penuh atas Perskabo di leg pertama ini sudah bulat. Bagi pemain, sudah terlanjur masuk babak 16 besar, sayang kalau dilepas begitu saja," cetus defender Persijap Anam Syahrul, Selasa (24/2/2009).
Harapan sama juga disampaikan Bang Djun -demikian Djunaedi akrab disapa- jelang laga ini. Bahkan secara tegas, Bang Djun menyatakan jika langkah Persijap yang selalu terjegal dibabak 16 besar hanya sebagai mitos. Meski kondisi pasukannya sedang tidak menguntungkan, tapi bukan berarti Persikabo bisa dengan mudah memecundangi Evaldo dkk.
"Materi Persijap sekarang dan dulu sudah beda. Kondisinya pun juga lain. Jadi tidak bisa disamakan. Kalau dulu Persijap terhenti di babak 16 besar, bukan berarti sekarang juga akan mengalami hal yang sama. Semoga pemain bisa mengatasi masalah ini," tegas mantan Asisten Pelatih Persiba Balikpapan itu.
Bang Djun bisa saja mengabaikan faktor kelelahan yang menimpa anak asuhnya. Tapi yang jadi masalah, hingga detik ini dia masih buta kekuatan calon lawan. Sukses Laskar Padjajaran menduduki peringkat ke-6 klasemen sementara Grup Barat menjadikan anak asuh Suimin Diharja ini patut diwaspadai.
"Ini yang membingungkan saya dalam menentukan strategi dan komposisi pemain. Jangankan tahu bagaimana cara mereka main. Materi pemain yang dimiliki Persikabo saja saya tidak tahu," tukasnya terang-terangan.
Pola kovensional 3-5-2 yang selama ini menjadi senjata Laskar Kalinyamat ketika tampil di kandang akan kembali ditampilkan. Duet gado-gado Pablo Frances dan Johan Johansyah dibarisan depan diharapkan mampu kembali bicara banyak. (Agus Anggoro/Sindo/fmh)
BLI Loloskan 69 Transfer Pemain LSI Putaran II
JAKARTA - Hingga Kamis (19/2/2009), Badan Liga Indonesia (BLI) telah mengesahkan 69 transfer pemain pada putaran kedua Liga Super Indonesia (LSI). Bursa transfer sendiri baru ditutup Sabtu (28/2/2009).
Perekrutan defender Mauly Lessy oleh Klub Sriwijaya FC menjadi proses pengesahan terakhir yang dilakukan BLI. Mantan pemain Persipura ini pun sudah mengenakan kaos Laskar Wong Kito - julukan Sriwijaya - sejak pertengahan Februari lalu.
"Pengajuan transfer pemain sebenarnya mencapai 80 lebih, namun setelah kami selidiki dan verifikasi, ternyata hanya 69 yang memenuhi syarat. Sisanya, ada yang ditolak dan ada juga yang ditangguhkan," tegas pengurus BLI bidang Status dan Alih Status Pemain, Tigorshaloom Boboy.
Hampir semua klub LSI gencar melakukan perburuan pemain anyar karena, persaingan pada putaran kedua jauh lebih keras dibanding putaran pertama.
Klub papan bawah klasemen seperti Deltras Sidoarjo, PSIS Semarang, PSMS Medan, dan Persitara Jakarta Utara telah merekrut amunisi baru untuk menyelamatkan diri dari jeratan degradasi.
Adapun klub papan atas seperti Persija Jakarta, Sriwijaya FC, Persiwa dan beberapaklub lainnya juga gencar menambah pemain baru. Hanya Persipura Jayapura yang tidak aktif dalam bursa transfer putaran kedua karena sudah yakin dengan komposisi pemain yang membawa Persipura menjadi juara paruh musim.
Bursa pemain putaran kedua diramaikan oleh tiga jenis transfer, yakni perekrutan pemain baru yang sebelumnya tidak memiliki klub, kemudian perpindahan atau pertukaran pemain antar klub, serta mempromosikan pemain amatir menjadi profesional. (Muh Sahlan/Sindo/fmh)
Perekrutan defender Mauly Lessy oleh Klub Sriwijaya FC menjadi proses pengesahan terakhir yang dilakukan BLI. Mantan pemain Persipura ini pun sudah mengenakan kaos Laskar Wong Kito - julukan Sriwijaya - sejak pertengahan Februari lalu.
"Pengajuan transfer pemain sebenarnya mencapai 80 lebih, namun setelah kami selidiki dan verifikasi, ternyata hanya 69 yang memenuhi syarat. Sisanya, ada yang ditolak dan ada juga yang ditangguhkan," tegas pengurus BLI bidang Status dan Alih Status Pemain, Tigorshaloom Boboy.
Hampir semua klub LSI gencar melakukan perburuan pemain anyar karena, persaingan pada putaran kedua jauh lebih keras dibanding putaran pertama.
Klub papan bawah klasemen seperti Deltras Sidoarjo, PSIS Semarang, PSMS Medan, dan Persitara Jakarta Utara telah merekrut amunisi baru untuk menyelamatkan diri dari jeratan degradasi.
Adapun klub papan atas seperti Persija Jakarta, Sriwijaya FC, Persiwa dan beberapaklub lainnya juga gencar menambah pemain baru. Hanya Persipura Jayapura yang tidak aktif dalam bursa transfer putaran kedua karena sudah yakin dengan komposisi pemain yang membawa Persipura menjadi juara paruh musim.
Bursa pemain putaran kedua diramaikan oleh tiga jenis transfer, yakni perekrutan pemain baru yang sebelumnya tidak memiliki klub, kemudian perpindahan atau pertukaran pemain antar klub, serta mempromosikan pemain amatir menjadi profesional. (Muh Sahlan/Sindo/fmh)
Rafa Dipecat Akhir Pekan Ini
Doni Wahyudi - detiksport
Demikian prediksi yang dibuat oleh rumah taruhan kenamaan Inggris, William Hill. Meski sudah memberi titel Liga Champions, namun ketidakmampuan Rafa membawa The Reds berprestasi maksimal di Premier League disebut-sebut jadi alasan pemecatan tersebut.
Diberitakan Eurosport, sampai Selasa (24/2/2009) malam waktu setempat, Rafa cuma diprediksi akan menerima surat pemecatan dengan koefisien 20/1. Namun kemudian jumlahnya melonjak ke posisi even sebelum akhirnya bursa terpaksa transfer ditutup sementara pada pukul 9.30 pagi waktu setempat.
"Tingkat ketertarikan akan dipecatnya Rafa tak pernah terjadi seperti ini sebelumnya. Kami akan terkejut kalau dia tetap menjadi pelatih Liverpool pada Minggu malam," ungkap jurubicara William Hill, Rupert Adams.
Liverpool akan bertandang ke Real Madrid di babak 16 besar Liga Champions dalam beberapa menit ke depan. Jika tak mampu melanjutkan kiprahnya di ajang ini, The Reds terancam tak meraih gelar di musim ini setelah ditundukkan Everton di Piala FA dan didepak Tottenham Hotspur pada ajang Piala Carling.
Meski di paruh pertama musim lalu dia sempat membawa Steven Gerrard cs bertengger di puncak klasemen, namun menyusul banyaknya hasil imbang yang mereka dapat (delapan dari 15 laga terakhir), kini The Kop tertinggal tujuh angka atas The Red Devils.
Sementara soal suksesor Rafa di Anfield, Kenny Dalglish diunggulkan dengan koefisien 3/1, menyusul kemudian Mourinho pada posisi 10/1. ( din / krs )
Reuters
Liverpool - Sempat memuncaki klasemen cukup lama, belakangan Liverpool lebih sering bermain imbang yang membuat mereka terus tercecer atas Manchester United. Dianggap tak memuaskan Rafael Benitez dipecat akhir pekan ini.Demikian prediksi yang dibuat oleh rumah taruhan kenamaan Inggris, William Hill. Meski sudah memberi titel Liga Champions, namun ketidakmampuan Rafa membawa The Reds berprestasi maksimal di Premier League disebut-sebut jadi alasan pemecatan tersebut.
Diberitakan Eurosport, sampai Selasa (24/2/2009) malam waktu setempat, Rafa cuma diprediksi akan menerima surat pemecatan dengan koefisien 20/1. Namun kemudian jumlahnya melonjak ke posisi even sebelum akhirnya bursa terpaksa transfer ditutup sementara pada pukul 9.30 pagi waktu setempat.
"Tingkat ketertarikan akan dipecatnya Rafa tak pernah terjadi seperti ini sebelumnya. Kami akan terkejut kalau dia tetap menjadi pelatih Liverpool pada Minggu malam," ungkap jurubicara William Hill, Rupert Adams.
Liverpool akan bertandang ke Real Madrid di babak 16 besar Liga Champions dalam beberapa menit ke depan. Jika tak mampu melanjutkan kiprahnya di ajang ini, The Reds terancam tak meraih gelar di musim ini setelah ditundukkan Everton di Piala FA dan didepak Tottenham Hotspur pada ajang Piala Carling.
Meski di paruh pertama musim lalu dia sempat membawa Steven Gerrard cs bertengger di puncak klasemen, namun menyusul banyaknya hasil imbang yang mereka dapat (delapan dari 15 laga terakhir), kini The Kop tertinggal tujuh angka atas The Red Devils.
Sementara soal suksesor Rafa di Anfield, Kenny Dalglish diunggulkan dengan koefisien 3/1, menyusul kemudian Mourinho pada posisi 10/1. ( din / krs )
Hiddink: Lawan Juve, Chelsea Menderita
F: Daylife
LONDON - Chelsea boleh saja keluar sebagai pemenang di laga leg pertama babak 16 besar Liga Champions melawan Juventus, Kamis (26/2/2009). Namun, pelatih Guus Hiddink menyatakan, timnya menderita sepanjang pertandingan menghadapi tekanan Juve.
Gol tunggal Didier Drogba memaksimalkan umpan daerah Salomon Kalou di menit 12, membuat peluang The Blues terbuka lebar untuk melangkah ke babak perempat-final. Hiddink punya pendapat lain tentang peluang timnya. Menurut pelatih Timnas Rusia ini, Juve akan memberikan kesulitan lebih di Turin, leg kedua nanti.
"Saya pikir kami memulai pertandingan dengan baik, setidaknya di 20 menit awal babak pertama. Beruntung kami mencetak gol cepat. Seharusnya ada gol lain yang tercipta, namun gagal," jelas Hiddink seperti dilansir Sky Sports, Kamis (26/2/2009).
"Sejujurnya, kami memang menang. Tapi Juve bisa membuat kami menderita sepanjang pertandingan," lanjut pelatih asal Belanda tersebut.
Juve mampu bangkit dan menguasai jalannya laga, usai gol Drogba. Beberapa peluang tercipta dari Alessandro Del Piero, David Trezeguet dan Pavel Nedved. Beruntung tidak satu pun yang berujung gol.
"Kami harus bekerja lebih keras lagi di leg kedua nanti. Pertandingan kompetisi Eropa tidaklah mudah. Juve bukanlah tim yang enteng, mereka sangat pintar. Meskipun demikian, peluang kami jauh lebih besar," lanjut pelatih bertangan dingin ini.
Leg kedua akan dimainkan di Stadion Olimpico, 11 Maret 2009. Di musim ini, Juve sudah meraih dua kemenangan dan satu kali 0-0 melawan BATE Borisov, pada babak kualifikasi. The Bianconeri butuh kemenangan lebih dari 2-0 untuk bisa melaju ke babak selanjutnya.
Gol tunggal Didier Drogba memaksimalkan umpan daerah Salomon Kalou di menit 12, membuat peluang The Blues terbuka lebar untuk melangkah ke babak perempat-final. Hiddink punya pendapat lain tentang peluang timnya. Menurut pelatih Timnas Rusia ini, Juve akan memberikan kesulitan lebih di Turin, leg kedua nanti.
"Saya pikir kami memulai pertandingan dengan baik, setidaknya di 20 menit awal babak pertama. Beruntung kami mencetak gol cepat. Seharusnya ada gol lain yang tercipta, namun gagal," jelas Hiddink seperti dilansir Sky Sports, Kamis (26/2/2009).
"Sejujurnya, kami memang menang. Tapi Juve bisa membuat kami menderita sepanjang pertandingan," lanjut pelatih asal Belanda tersebut.
Juve mampu bangkit dan menguasai jalannya laga, usai gol Drogba. Beberapa peluang tercipta dari Alessandro Del Piero, David Trezeguet dan Pavel Nedved. Beruntung tidak satu pun yang berujung gol.
"Kami harus bekerja lebih keras lagi di leg kedua nanti. Pertandingan kompetisi Eropa tidaklah mudah. Juve bukanlah tim yang enteng, mereka sangat pintar. Meskipun demikian, peluang kami jauh lebih besar," lanjut pelatih bertangan dingin ini.
Leg kedua akan dimainkan di Stadion Olimpico, 11 Maret 2009. Di musim ini, Juve sudah meraih dua kemenangan dan satu kali 0-0 melawan BATE Borisov, pada babak kualifikasi. The Bianconeri butuh kemenangan lebih dari 2-0 untuk bisa melaju ke babak selanjutnya.
Jumat, 06 Februari 2009
Digital Pirates Winning Battle With Studios
By BRIAN STELTER and BRAD STONE
Published: February 4, 2009
On the day last July when “The Dark Knight” arrived in theaters, Warner Brothers was ready with an ambitious antipiracy campaign that involved months of planning and steps to monitor each physical copy of the film.
The campaign failed miserably. By the end of the year, illegal copies of the Batman movie had been downloaded more than seven million times around the world, according to the media measurement firm BigChampagne, turning it into a visible symbol of Hollywood’s helplessness against the growing problem of online video piracy.
The culprits, in this case, are the anonymous pirates who put the film online and enabled millions of Internet users to view it. Because of widely available broadband access and a new wave of streaming sites, it has become surprisingly easy to watch pirated video online — a troubling development for entertainment executives and copyright lawyers.
Hollywood may at last be having its Napster moment — struggling against the video version of the digital looting that capsized the music business. Media companies say that piracy — some prefer to call it “digital theft” to emphasize the criminal nature of the act — is an increasingly mainstream pursuit. At the same time, DVD sales, a huge source of revenue for film studios, are sagging. In 2008, DVD shipments dropped to their lowest levels in five years. Executives worry that the economic downturn will persuade more users to watch stolen shows and movies.
“Young people, in particular, conclude that if it’s so easy, it can’t be wrong,” said Richard Cotton, the general counsel for NBC Universal.
People have swapped illegal copies of songs, television shows and movies on the Internet for years. The slow download process, often using a peer-to-peer technology called BitTorrent, required patience and a modicum of sophistication by users. Now, users do not even have to download. Using a search engine, anyone can find free copies of movies, still in theaters, in a matter of minutes. Classic TV, like every “Seinfeld” episode ever produced, is also free for the streaming. Some of these digital copies are derived from bootlegs, while others are replicas of the advance review videos that studios send out before a release.
TorrentFreak.com, a Web site based in Germany that tracks which shows are most downloaded, estimates that each episode of “Heroes,” a series on NBC, is downloaded five million times, representing a substantial loss for the network. (On TV, “Heroes” averages 10 million American viewers each week).
A wave of streaming sites, which allow people to start watching video immediately without transferring a full copy of the movie or show to their hard drive, are making it easier than ever to watch free Hollywood content online. Many of these sites are located in countries with lackluster piracy enforcement efforts, like China, and are hard to monitor, so media companies do not have a clear sense of how much content is being stolen.
But many industry experts say the practice is becoming much more prevalent. “Streaming has gotten efficient and cheap enough and it gives users more control than downloads do. This is where piracy is headed,” said James L. McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research. “Consumers are under the impression that everything they want to watch should be easily streamable.”
Some of the first fights over video piracy on the Internet involved YouTube, the Google-owned Web site that introduced many people to streaming. Some legal disputes between YouTube and copyright owners remain, most notably a $1 billion lawsuit filed by Viacom, but the landscape “has improved markedly,” Mr. Cotton said. YouTube uses filters and digital flags to weed out illegal content.
But if media companies are winning the battle against illegal video clips, they are losing the battle over illicit copies of full-length TV episodes and films. The Motion Picture Association of America says that illegal downloads and streams are now responsible for about 40 percent of the revenue the industry loses annually as a result of piracy.
“It is becoming, among some demographics, a very mainstream behavior,” said Eric Garland, the chief executive of BigChampagne.
The files are surprisingly easy to find, partly because of efforts by people like Mohy Mir, the 23-year-old founder of the Toronto based video streaming site SuperNova Tube. The site, run by Mr. Mir and one other employee, allows anyone to post a video clip of any length. As the site has grown more popular, SuperNova Tube has become a repository for copyrighted content. On a recent day, the new movies “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and “Taken” could easily be found on the site by following links from other sites, called “link farms,” which guide users to secret stashes of copyrighted content spread around the Web.
Obama Washington Post Editorial: "The Action Americans Need"
In a Washington Post op-ed, President Obama defends the stimulus plan currently before Congress against what he calls "misguided criticisms."
In recent days, there have been misguided criticisms of this plan that echo the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis -- the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can meet our enormous tests with half-steps and piecemeal measures; that we can ignore fundamental challenges such as energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive.
I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. They know that we have tried it those ways for too long. And because we have, our health-care costs still rise faster than inflation. Our dependence on foreign oil still threatens our economy and our security. Our children still study in schools that put them at a disadvantage. We've seen the tragic consequences when our bridges crumble and our levees fail.
After detailing the positive benefits of the plan, Obama concludes:
So we have a choice to make. We can once again let Washington's bad habits stand in the way of progress. Or we can pull together and say that in America, our destiny isn't written for us but by us. We can place good ideas ahead of old ideological battles, and a sense of purpose above the same narrow partisanship. We can act boldly to turn crisis into opportunity and, together, write the next great chapter in our history and meet the test of our time.
The op-ed might cheer some congressional staffers who worked on the bill and are dismayed by the attacks on their efforts. But at Politico, economist Dean Baker writes that Obama didn't go quite far enough.
"President Obama is far too generous to his political opponents when he suggests that their opposition is motivated by ideological beliefs," Baker said. "It would be very difficult to identify any coherent ideology in the arguments put forward by opponents of the stimulus package."
The op-ed is part of a larger stimulus sales pitch by the president, Chris Cillizza reports:
President Obama will significantly ramp up his salesmanship of his economic stimulus plan over the next week with a prime time news conference planned for Monday and an address from the Oval Office on the topic also being considered. Obama is coming under increasing pressure to convince wavering senators of the necessity of the $900 billion stimulus package following a report in the Post on Wednesday that Democratic leaders do not have the votes to pass the bill as is. Obama outlined his plans for the press conference and potential Oval Office address during a stop at the Senate Democrats' retreat at the Newseum on Wednesday in response to a question from California Sen. Barbara Boxer about how he would sell the American people on the bill, according to a source in the room.
According to CNN, Obama is privately telling members of both parties that he thinks the bill will pass the Senate by the end of the week.
"We will have the votes," said a senior administration official.
The 10 Best American Movies
It’s Top Ten time again, and like everyone else I have a list, in my case a list of the 10 best American movies ever. Here it is, with brief descriptions and no justifications. Only the first two films are in order. The others are all tied for third.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), directed by William Wyler. Regarded as producer Sam Goldwyn’s masterpiece, this deeply felt study of soldiers coming home after World War II boasts career-best performances by Fredric March (who won an Oscar), Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, Dana Andrews, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O’Donnell, Hoagy Carmichael and the amazing Harold Russell (two Oscars), a double amputee and first- and last-time (non)actor who played a double amputee.
The movie is filled with thrilling and affecting scenes – the moment when Milly Stephenson (Loy) realizes that the person at the door is her husband, Al (March), who has come back a day before he was supposed to; the moment when Homer Parrish (Russell) waves goodbye to his two new friends and his parents see the hooks that are now his hands for the first time; the moment when Fred Derry (Andrews) hoists himself into a military plane like the one he flew in so many times and hears in his mind the engines of the other dead planes surrounding him in rows. The three intertwined stories are resolved with a measure of optimism, but with more than a residue of disappointment and bitterness. Al Stephenson is still a drunk. Fred Derry is still poor and without skills. Homer Parrish still has no hands.
Sunset Blvd. (1950), directed by Billy Wilder. Notable for Gloria Swanson’s triumphant comeback performance in a movie that denies her character a comeback, the film also has William Holden doing his “morally-flawed-person-in-an-attractive-package” act to perfection, not to mention the ancillary pleasures of a young, boyish and humorous (world you believe it?) Jack Webb, a self-parodying turn as a director/husband-turned-factotum by Erich von Stroheim, a silent appearance by silent star Buster Keaton and a cameo performance by Cecil B. DeMille playing himself.
The voice-over narration of the story by a dead man floating in a swimming pool seems not bizarre but exactly right; Joe Gillis (Holden) was morally dead before he hit the water. When the movie begins, Gillis comes across as a nice guy, somewhat down on his luck, and Norma Desmond (Swanson) comes across as an egomaniacal monster who pressures him into becoming her boy-toy. But even before the final incredible scene of Desmond descending a staircase while the camera, empty of film, rolls, she has earned the sympathy we extend to the terribly needy, and he has revealed himself to be the true monster, a betrayer of Desmond, of the young girl (Nancy Olson) who sees more in him than there is, and of himself.
Double Indemnity (1944), also directed by Billy Wilder. This time Wilder’s anti-hero — played by Fred MacMurray, who could do tall but weak with the best of them (see “The Apartment,” “The Caine Mutiny” and “Pushover”) — is not dead but dying as he narrates the story into a tape-recorder destined for the ears of his boss, Barton Keyes (the incomparably great Edward G. Robinson).
You know what’s going to happen the moment Barbara Stanwyck — you see just her legs — slinks down the staircase of her house, and Walter Neff (MacMurray) probably knows it, too; but he, like us, is compelled to see the plot through the inevitable downward spiral to its ending. Phyllis (Stanwyck) predicts it all when she says, “It’s straight down the line for both of us.” Keyes, the indefatigable unlocker of puzzles, is even more precise: “They’re stuck with each other. They’ve got to ride all the way to the end of the line. And it’s a one-way trip; and the last stop is the cemetery.” Just before that stop, the true love story of the film announces itself when, in response to Keyes’s acknowledgment of the depth of his feelings for his protege, Neff says “I love you, too,” and dies.
Shane (1953), directed by George Stevens. In this beautifully photographed western, a laconic, stoic stranger rides in out of nowhere and rides out again ( perhaps mortally wounded) in the same direction, as Joey Starrett ( Brandon De Wilde) implores him to “come back, Shane.” In between, Shane (Alan Ladd, in the performance of his life), a man at once steely and sentimental, hard-edged and effeminate, becomes the love object of almost everyone in the movie. Joey loves Shane; his father (a tree-like Van Heflin) loves Shane; his mother (Jean Arthur, luminous in a role she disliked) loves Shane; the cowhand played by Ben Johnson learns to love Shane; and even Wilson, the gunman portrayed so memorably by Jack Palance in a breakthrough role, loves Shane in the way one can love one’s mirror image.
The movie is at once clichéd – the settlers vs. the cowmen; the lone, rugged individualist vs. the community – and elegiac. Like the pastoral, the western caresses a landscape it knows to be already lost and alive only in the imagination; and in “Shane” the caress is lingering, loving and sad.
Red River (1948), directed by Howard Hawks, is not elegiac but looks forward to the days when western beef will supply eastern tables. But before that can happen, there has to be the first cattle drive, and its adventures and obstacles provide the plot for this film. The real center, however, is once again the love and hate relationships among the key characters.
There are two triangles and one dyad. The first triangle is made up of cattleman Tom Dunson (John Wayne in the role he should have won an Oscar for), Dunson’s adopted son Matthew Garth (Montgomery Clift, matching Wayne’s screen power despite the disparity in their physical presences) and family retainer Groot Nadine (Walter Brennan playing the irascible, principled old coot to perfection). Garth and Groot love Dunson; Dunson loves Garth and Groot; Groot loves Dunson and Garth.
None gives his love unconditionally. Groot tells Dunson at a crucial moment, “You was wrong, Mr. Dunson.” Garth leads a mutiny against his father. Dunson vows vengeance against his son and promises to kill him. He is prevented from doing so (although it is unlikely that he would have ever really gone that far) by Tess Millay (Joanne Dru), who makes up a third of another triangle with Dunson and Garth. Garth, in turn, forms a dyad with Cherry Valance (John Ireland, in his best role except for his bravura turn in “All the King’s Men”), a fast gun who competes with him but is devoted to him, and risks his life to protect him. Brooding over all these characters is the cattle drive itself, a force both of nature and history. And a generator of excitement and purpose all on its own.
Raging Bull (1980), directed by Martin Scorsese. Tom Dunson, in “Red River,” almost brings everything he has fought for and loved down on his head, but is redeemed at the last moment. Nothing redeems Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro, in an Oscar-winning performance ), who can find the worm in any apparently happy situation and who systematically drives away everyone who cares for him with the same relentless brutality he displays in the ring. Anything can set him off, even a steak that may or may not be overdone; and if there is nothing in view, he can make the provocation up, as he does when he accuses his brother (Joe Pesci) of betraying him with his wife (Cathy Moriarty). For La Motta, rage is the default condition, the ordinary, everyday emotion; anything else is an anomaly he cannot abide and he soon removes it.
Most boxing movies trace the classic pattern of rise, fall and redemption (“Somebody Up There Likes Me,” “The Cinderella Man”), or tell a moral tale about the corruption of the sport (“The Harder They Fall,” “The Set-Up”), or detail the corruption of the protagonist (“Champion,” “Body and Soul”). “Raging Bull” offers no triumph, and no moral. It just exhibits the self-destructiveness of its central figure again and again; even the depiction of La Motta’s later career as a nightclub entertainer extends rather than ends the pain. The wonder is that Scorsese was able to make something lyrical out of a polluting self-destructiveness, but that is what he did.
Vertigo (1958), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Here again is a love that destroys, not in the form of rage, but in the form of obsession and control. Hitchcock was one of two directors (the other was Anthony Mann in, for example, “The Man from Laramie”) who saw that Jimmy Stewart’s nice guy persona could have a dark side.
This is a movie about manipulation and the fabrication of reality. Scottie (Stewart) is manipulated by his friend Gavin, who also manipulates the woman (Kim Novak, brilliant in a dual role) who in turn manipulates Scottie. When the deception is complete and Scottie believes that the woman he loves has died, he is lost until he sees a girl who resembles her. (She is her, but not her, at the same time.) He then does to her what had been done to him – he manipulates her, denies her her own identity and makes her over until she is the simulacrum of a woman who never was. When he discovers how he had been fooled by a theatrical illusion, he hisses, “Did he train you? Did he rehearse you? Did he tell you what to do and what to say?” – apparently not realizing that he is furious and indignant about the very behavior he has been exhibiting.
There is an abstract geometrical quality to the relationships in this film and they work themselves out in the space of a strangely abstract San Francisco, empty, dreamy and in brilliantly enameled Technicolor. There’s no getting to the bottom of this movie; it’s vertiginous.
Groundhog Day (1993), directed by Harold Ramis. Another Pygmalion story, but this time the material the sculptor works on is himself. Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is a jaded, dyspeptic, arrogant, cynical and obnoxious TV weatherman who on Feb. 2 finds himself covering the emergence of the groundhog in Punxsutawney, Pa. When he wakes up the next morning, he finds that it is not the next morning, but Groundhog Day all over again and all over again and all over again. (His own spring will be late.)
His responses to being trapped eternally in the same day include disbelief, despair, excess and hedonism before he settles down to make the best of the situation, which, it turns out, means making the best of himself — a self-help project that takes forever, but forever is what he has. (It is as if he were at once the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future and the object of their tutelary attention.). By bits and pieces, fits and starts, he makes himself into the most popular fellow in town and wins the love of his producer, the beautiful Rita (a perfectly cast Andie MacDowell). The miracle is that as the movie becomes more serious, it becomes funnier. The comedy and the philosophy (how shall one live?) do not sit side by side, but inhabit each other in a unity that is incredibly satisfying. This is a “feel-good” movie in at least two senses of the word “good.”
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), directed by Vincente Minnelli. When the calendar finally turns a page in “Groundhog Day” and Phil and Rita walk out of the bed and breakfast to start their new life together, Phil says, “Let’s live here,” which means let’s live in small-town America, where everyone knows everyone else and everyone takes care of everyone else. In “Meet Me in St. Louis,” the characters already live there (yes, St. Louis is a city, but in this movie it’s a neighborhood), and the plot centers on the question (not exactly burning) of whether or not they will be able to stay.
The real center of the film is the loving depiction of a loving family, four sisters, a son, a mother and a father, a grandfather and a cook (the redoubtable Marjorie Main). To be sure, there are tensions, but they are the innocent tensions found in every family – between teenage sisters, between husband and wife – and as viewers we know that they will be dispelled. A film in which the inability of a young man to find a tuxedo for an important party counts as a crisis isn’t ever going to disturb your equanimity. It is only when Esther (a glorious Judy Garland) sings the achingly sad “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” to her sister Tootie (a scene-stealing Margaret O’Brien) that a sense of the pains life often brings intrudes; but not long after, their father (Leon Ames) renounces his plan to move to New York (the only real villain of the story), and everything is once again well.
This is a woman’s movie. Only the grandfather (Harry Davenport) is a fully drawn male character. The strength belongs to the sisters, to the cook and to the mother, excellently played by Mary Astor. And of course there is the music, with Garland at the top of her form, especially in the “Trolley Song” sequence, perhaps the three most exhilarating musical minutes in film history. Despite the lavishly beautiful production, this is not a big movie – no grand ideas, no moral dilemmas, no transformations of character, no deep insights. All it is is perfect.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), directed by Elia Kazan. Another happy family, but this one maintains its closeness despite the obstacles of poverty and a father given to drink who has trouble keeping his job as a singing waiter. In his first directorial effort, Kazan draws incredible performances from Dorothy McGuire as the wife and mother who is so beaten down by life’s hardships that she cannot afford the luxury of emotions; from James Dunn (who won an Oscar) as the dreamer who has nothing to give but love; from Peggy Ann Garner (special Oscar) as the daughter for whom his love is enough; from Joan Blondell as the slightly disreputable but warm hearted Aunt Sissie.
What is said of many movies is true of this one: it will break your heart, not once but many times – when you witness Francie’s beautiful faith in her father despite the evidence of his failures (“faith is the evidence of things not seen”); when her mother is unable to sustain her feelings for a husband who cannot be a provider; when mother and daughter reach an understanding as they wait for the birth of a child who will never know its father. But the heart it breaks – in the film and in the audience – is made whole again by the strength of the family that refuses to bend in the face of a world that offers it little. A tearjerker, to be sure, but so what?
So there they are, 10 movies marked by sentiment and cynicism in equal doses, but with sentiment winning out more often than not. There were of course others I would like to have included, and I list a Second Ten here, without comment and in no particular order: “Quiz Show,” “The Wild Bunch,” “Nashville,” “My Darling Clementine,” “How Green Was My Valley,” “The Night of the Hunter,” “Lonely Are the Brave,” “Detective Story,” “All About Eve” and “Ace in the Hole.”
Of course, expanding the list to 20 rather than warding off criticism affords it even more scope. Let the disagreements begin.
**********
Editors’ note: In the description of “Groundhog Day,” the job description of the Bill Murray character has been adjusted from an early version.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), directed by William Wyler. Regarded as producer Sam Goldwyn’s masterpiece, this deeply felt study of soldiers coming home after World War II boasts career-best performances by Fredric March (who won an Oscar), Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, Dana Andrews, Virginia Mayo, Cathy O’Donnell, Hoagy Carmichael and the amazing Harold Russell (two Oscars), a double amputee and first- and last-time (non)actor who played a double amputee.
The movie is filled with thrilling and affecting scenes – the moment when Milly Stephenson (Loy) realizes that the person at the door is her husband, Al (March), who has come back a day before he was supposed to; the moment when Homer Parrish (Russell) waves goodbye to his two new friends and his parents see the hooks that are now his hands for the first time; the moment when Fred Derry (Andrews) hoists himself into a military plane like the one he flew in so many times and hears in his mind the engines of the other dead planes surrounding him in rows. The three intertwined stories are resolved with a measure of optimism, but with more than a residue of disappointment and bitterness. Al Stephenson is still a drunk. Fred Derry is still poor and without skills. Homer Parrish still has no hands.
Sunset Blvd. (1950), directed by Billy Wilder. Notable for Gloria Swanson’s triumphant comeback performance in a movie that denies her character a comeback, the film also has William Holden doing his “morally-flawed-person-in-an-attractive-package” act to perfection, not to mention the ancillary pleasures of a young, boyish and humorous (world you believe it?) Jack Webb, a self-parodying turn as a director/husband-turned-factotum by Erich von Stroheim, a silent appearance by silent star Buster Keaton and a cameo performance by Cecil B. DeMille playing himself.
The voice-over narration of the story by a dead man floating in a swimming pool seems not bizarre but exactly right; Joe Gillis (Holden) was morally dead before he hit the water. When the movie begins, Gillis comes across as a nice guy, somewhat down on his luck, and Norma Desmond (Swanson) comes across as an egomaniacal monster who pressures him into becoming her boy-toy. But even before the final incredible scene of Desmond descending a staircase while the camera, empty of film, rolls, she has earned the sympathy we extend to the terribly needy, and he has revealed himself to be the true monster, a betrayer of Desmond, of the young girl (Nancy Olson) who sees more in him than there is, and of himself.
Double Indemnity (1944), also directed by Billy Wilder. This time Wilder’s anti-hero — played by Fred MacMurray, who could do tall but weak with the best of them (see “The Apartment,” “The Caine Mutiny” and “Pushover”) — is not dead but dying as he narrates the story into a tape-recorder destined for the ears of his boss, Barton Keyes (the incomparably great Edward G. Robinson).
You know what’s going to happen the moment Barbara Stanwyck — you see just her legs — slinks down the staircase of her house, and Walter Neff (MacMurray) probably knows it, too; but he, like us, is compelled to see the plot through the inevitable downward spiral to its ending. Phyllis (Stanwyck) predicts it all when she says, “It’s straight down the line for both of us.” Keyes, the indefatigable unlocker of puzzles, is even more precise: “They’re stuck with each other. They’ve got to ride all the way to the end of the line. And it’s a one-way trip; and the last stop is the cemetery.” Just before that stop, the true love story of the film announces itself when, in response to Keyes’s acknowledgment of the depth of his feelings for his protege, Neff says “I love you, too,” and dies.
Shane (1953), directed by George Stevens. In this beautifully photographed western, a laconic, stoic stranger rides in out of nowhere and rides out again ( perhaps mortally wounded) in the same direction, as Joey Starrett ( Brandon De Wilde) implores him to “come back, Shane.” In between, Shane (Alan Ladd, in the performance of his life), a man at once steely and sentimental, hard-edged and effeminate, becomes the love object of almost everyone in the movie. Joey loves Shane; his father (a tree-like Van Heflin) loves Shane; his mother (Jean Arthur, luminous in a role she disliked) loves Shane; the cowhand played by Ben Johnson learns to love Shane; and even Wilson, the gunman portrayed so memorably by Jack Palance in a breakthrough role, loves Shane in the way one can love one’s mirror image.
The movie is at once clichéd – the settlers vs. the cowmen; the lone, rugged individualist vs. the community – and elegiac. Like the pastoral, the western caresses a landscape it knows to be already lost and alive only in the imagination; and in “Shane” the caress is lingering, loving and sad.
Red River (1948), directed by Howard Hawks, is not elegiac but looks forward to the days when western beef will supply eastern tables. But before that can happen, there has to be the first cattle drive, and its adventures and obstacles provide the plot for this film. The real center, however, is once again the love and hate relationships among the key characters.
There are two triangles and one dyad. The first triangle is made up of cattleman Tom Dunson (John Wayne in the role he should have won an Oscar for), Dunson’s adopted son Matthew Garth (Montgomery Clift, matching Wayne’s screen power despite the disparity in their physical presences) and family retainer Groot Nadine (Walter Brennan playing the irascible, principled old coot to perfection). Garth and Groot love Dunson; Dunson loves Garth and Groot; Groot loves Dunson and Garth.
None gives his love unconditionally. Groot tells Dunson at a crucial moment, “You was wrong, Mr. Dunson.” Garth leads a mutiny against his father. Dunson vows vengeance against his son and promises to kill him. He is prevented from doing so (although it is unlikely that he would have ever really gone that far) by Tess Millay (Joanne Dru), who makes up a third of another triangle with Dunson and Garth. Garth, in turn, forms a dyad with Cherry Valance (John Ireland, in his best role except for his bravura turn in “All the King’s Men”), a fast gun who competes with him but is devoted to him, and risks his life to protect him. Brooding over all these characters is the cattle drive itself, a force both of nature and history. And a generator of excitement and purpose all on its own.
Raging Bull (1980), directed by Martin Scorsese. Tom Dunson, in “Red River,” almost brings everything he has fought for and loved down on his head, but is redeemed at the last moment. Nothing redeems Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro, in an Oscar-winning performance ), who can find the worm in any apparently happy situation and who systematically drives away everyone who cares for him with the same relentless brutality he displays in the ring. Anything can set him off, even a steak that may or may not be overdone; and if there is nothing in view, he can make the provocation up, as he does when he accuses his brother (Joe Pesci) of betraying him with his wife (Cathy Moriarty). For La Motta, rage is the default condition, the ordinary, everyday emotion; anything else is an anomaly he cannot abide and he soon removes it.
Most boxing movies trace the classic pattern of rise, fall and redemption (“Somebody Up There Likes Me,” “The Cinderella Man”), or tell a moral tale about the corruption of the sport (“The Harder They Fall,” “The Set-Up”), or detail the corruption of the protagonist (“Champion,” “Body and Soul”). “Raging Bull” offers no triumph, and no moral. It just exhibits the self-destructiveness of its central figure again and again; even the depiction of La Motta’s later career as a nightclub entertainer extends rather than ends the pain. The wonder is that Scorsese was able to make something lyrical out of a polluting self-destructiveness, but that is what he did.
Vertigo (1958), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Here again is a love that destroys, not in the form of rage, but in the form of obsession and control. Hitchcock was one of two directors (the other was Anthony Mann in, for example, “The Man from Laramie”) who saw that Jimmy Stewart’s nice guy persona could have a dark side.
This is a movie about manipulation and the fabrication of reality. Scottie (Stewart) is manipulated by his friend Gavin, who also manipulates the woman (Kim Novak, brilliant in a dual role) who in turn manipulates Scottie. When the deception is complete and Scottie believes that the woman he loves has died, he is lost until he sees a girl who resembles her. (She is her, but not her, at the same time.) He then does to her what had been done to him – he manipulates her, denies her her own identity and makes her over until she is the simulacrum of a woman who never was. When he discovers how he had been fooled by a theatrical illusion, he hisses, “Did he train you? Did he rehearse you? Did he tell you what to do and what to say?” – apparently not realizing that he is furious and indignant about the very behavior he has been exhibiting.
There is an abstract geometrical quality to the relationships in this film and they work themselves out in the space of a strangely abstract San Francisco, empty, dreamy and in brilliantly enameled Technicolor. There’s no getting to the bottom of this movie; it’s vertiginous.
Groundhog Day (1993), directed by Harold Ramis. Another Pygmalion story, but this time the material the sculptor works on is himself. Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is a jaded, dyspeptic, arrogant, cynical and obnoxious TV weatherman who on Feb. 2 finds himself covering the emergence of the groundhog in Punxsutawney, Pa. When he wakes up the next morning, he finds that it is not the next morning, but Groundhog Day all over again and all over again and all over again. (His own spring will be late.)
His responses to being trapped eternally in the same day include disbelief, despair, excess and hedonism before he settles down to make the best of the situation, which, it turns out, means making the best of himself — a self-help project that takes forever, but forever is what he has. (It is as if he were at once the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future and the object of their tutelary attention.). By bits and pieces, fits and starts, he makes himself into the most popular fellow in town and wins the love of his producer, the beautiful Rita (a perfectly cast Andie MacDowell). The miracle is that as the movie becomes more serious, it becomes funnier. The comedy and the philosophy (how shall one live?) do not sit side by side, but inhabit each other in a unity that is incredibly satisfying. This is a “feel-good” movie in at least two senses of the word “good.”
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), directed by Vincente Minnelli. When the calendar finally turns a page in “Groundhog Day” and Phil and Rita walk out of the bed and breakfast to start their new life together, Phil says, “Let’s live here,” which means let’s live in small-town America, where everyone knows everyone else and everyone takes care of everyone else. In “Meet Me in St. Louis,” the characters already live there (yes, St. Louis is a city, but in this movie it’s a neighborhood), and the plot centers on the question (not exactly burning) of whether or not they will be able to stay.
The real center of the film is the loving depiction of a loving family, four sisters, a son, a mother and a father, a grandfather and a cook (the redoubtable Marjorie Main). To be sure, there are tensions, but they are the innocent tensions found in every family – between teenage sisters, between husband and wife – and as viewers we know that they will be dispelled. A film in which the inability of a young man to find a tuxedo for an important party counts as a crisis isn’t ever going to disturb your equanimity. It is only when Esther (a glorious Judy Garland) sings the achingly sad “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” to her sister Tootie (a scene-stealing Margaret O’Brien) that a sense of the pains life often brings intrudes; but not long after, their father (Leon Ames) renounces his plan to move to New York (the only real villain of the story), and everything is once again well.
This is a woman’s movie. Only the grandfather (Harry Davenport) is a fully drawn male character. The strength belongs to the sisters, to the cook and to the mother, excellently played by Mary Astor. And of course there is the music, with Garland at the top of her form, especially in the “Trolley Song” sequence, perhaps the three most exhilarating musical minutes in film history. Despite the lavishly beautiful production, this is not a big movie – no grand ideas, no moral dilemmas, no transformations of character, no deep insights. All it is is perfect.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), directed by Elia Kazan. Another happy family, but this one maintains its closeness despite the obstacles of poverty and a father given to drink who has trouble keeping his job as a singing waiter. In his first directorial effort, Kazan draws incredible performances from Dorothy McGuire as the wife and mother who is so beaten down by life’s hardships that she cannot afford the luxury of emotions; from James Dunn (who won an Oscar) as the dreamer who has nothing to give but love; from Peggy Ann Garner (special Oscar) as the daughter for whom his love is enough; from Joan Blondell as the slightly disreputable but warm hearted Aunt Sissie.
What is said of many movies is true of this one: it will break your heart, not once but many times – when you witness Francie’s beautiful faith in her father despite the evidence of his failures (“faith is the evidence of things not seen”); when her mother is unable to sustain her feelings for a husband who cannot be a provider; when mother and daughter reach an understanding as they wait for the birth of a child who will never know its father. But the heart it breaks – in the film and in the audience – is made whole again by the strength of the family that refuses to bend in the face of a world that offers it little. A tearjerker, to be sure, but so what?
So there they are, 10 movies marked by sentiment and cynicism in equal doses, but with sentiment winning out more often than not. There were of course others I would like to have included, and I list a Second Ten here, without comment and in no particular order: “Quiz Show,” “The Wild Bunch,” “Nashville,” “My Darling Clementine,” “How Green Was My Valley,” “The Night of the Hunter,” “Lonely Are the Brave,” “Detective Story,” “All About Eve” and “Ace in the Hole.”
Of course, expanding the list to 20 rather than warding off criticism affords it even more scope. Let the disagreements begin.
**********
Editors’ note: In the description of “Groundhog Day,” the job description of the Bill Murray character has been adjusted from an early version.
Theory and Experiment Meet, and a New Form of Boron Is Found
Boron is a simple atom: five protons, five or six neutrons, five electrons. It is not as ubiquitous as hydrogen. It does not, as helium does, make your voice sound like Donald Duck. It is not as famous as carbon, its neighbor to the right on the periodic table.
Perhaps it is held back by its name — sounds like boring.
Yet it remains an element of mystery.
For more than two centuries, boron has confounded scientists, resulting in what Artem R. Oganov, a professor of geosciences at Stony Brook University, calls “a stream of discoveries and misdiscoveries.”
Now researchers led by Dr. Oganov have added to the actual discoveries. They have found a form of boron that is nearly as hard as diamond.
This discovery even illustrates the power of the idea of evolution, using a so-called genetic algorithm to decipher the structure of the new boron crystal.
“This work is a beautiful example of cooperation between theory and experiment,” said Aitor Bergara, a physicist at the University of the Basque Country in Spain. Dr. Bergara was not involved with the research, which was published online by the journal Nature.
Boron has a long history. Mentions of boron compounds like borax date back millennia. In 1808, within a week and a half of each other, two research efforts, led by the great chemists Sir Humphrey Davy in London and Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and Louis-Jacques Thénard in Paris, announced that they had isolated boron. They had not. Another great chemist, Henri Moissan, later showed that the two earlier groups had made a compound consisting of 60 percent boron.
Moissan also claimed to have isolated boron. He too was wrong, although he did do better: a compound with 90 percent boron.
Not until 1909 was a sample of 99 percent pure boron produced.
Just as pure carbon can come as diamond or graphite, boron comes in multiple forms — as many as 16 have been reported. But even tiny amounts of impurities can alter the structure, and it seems that the element has only four pure forms, Dr. Oganov said.
One, known as alpha boron, is a dark but transparent red. Beta boron is black and looks like coal. Even today, scientists do not definitively know which of these two forms is the stable form. (It is probably beta boron.) The third form is a horrendously complicated structure known as T-192. The fourth form is the newly discovered one.
Boron’s unusual properties come from the three electrons in its outer electronic layer. For similar elements like aluminum, one row down on the periodic table, the three outer electrons are easily torn away, and the element behaves as a metal. But boron is smaller, and so its nucleus holds on to the electrons tighter, more like an insulator.
“Boron is a truly schizophrenic element,” Dr. Oganov said. “It’s an element of complete frustration. It doesn’t know what it wants to do. The outcome is something horribly complicated.”
Two of the collaborators on the Nature paper, Jiuhua Chen of Florida International University and Vladimir L. Solozhenko of the National Council for Scientific Research in France, independently produced the new boron phase in high-temperature, high-pressure experiments in 2004. But they were not able to deduce what exactly they had produced.
For that, they turned to Dr. Oganov, who employed a computational technique that encodes parameters of the crystal structure in a string of data. Starting with a number of trial crystal structures, the program calculates the energy needed to hold each together, and discards the versions that do not pack together comfortably. Then, as occurs in biological evolution, the crystal parameters are tweaked (the equivalent of mutation) and portions of the structure swapped (the equivalent of recombination). After generations of calculation, the answer converges on the stable form.
This algorithm had previously revealed new phases of iron sulfide, calcium carbonate, sulfur and even a superconducting form of oxygen, subsequently confirmed by experiment.
The form of boron is stable at super-high pressures — more than 100,000 times the normal atmospheric pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch — and consists of two substructures. One is a spherical shape of 12 boron atoms. The other is a dumbbell shape of a pair of boron atoms. These two sub-substructures stack together in the same way that table salt (sodium chloride) does.
When the high pressures were eased, the boron remained in the new configuration. Subsequent experiments confirmed that the material had the properties predicted by the algorithm. Although gamma boron is not quite as hard as diamond, it is more heat-resistant, which could make it attractive for certain industrial uses.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 4, 2009
An article on Tuesday about a newly discovered form of boron misstated the number of pure forms of the element. It is four, including the new one, not t
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Penulis : Dra. Lucie Widowati, M.Si.Apt; peneliti pada Puslitbang Farmasi dan Obat Tradisional, Jakarta.
Seorang teman bercerita, betapa frustrasinya ia menumpas tuberkulosis (TB) paru-paru. Digempur pakai obat-obatan medis, si penyakit tetap saja eksis. Ia juga panik, karena katanya, bakteri TB bisa kebal terhadap gempuran obat yang diracik apotik. Untunglah, saat nyaris frustrasi, ia "menemukan" pegagan dan kawan-kawan.
Menjalani "takdir" sebagai penderita TB paru-paru memang tak gampang. Jika tidak ulet, alih-alih sembuh, pasien bisa mati bosan. Maklum, proses penyembuhan TB, selain cukup sulit, juga makan waktu lama, berkisar 3 - 6 bulan. Itu pun dengan catatan, pasien berdisiplin minum obat dan rajin memeriksakan diri ke dokter.
Lamanya pengobatan itulah - apalagi jika disertai kendala biaya - yang kerap menyebabkan pasien frustrasi. Ya frustrasi minum obat, ya bosan menanggung derita. Padahal, disiplin minum obat menjadi faktor penentu dalam proses penyembuhan. Pengobatan yang tidak tuntas dapat menyebabkan bakteri TB resisten terhadap beragam obat konvensional, termasuk obat kombinasi.
Dengan kata lain, pasien TB sebenarnya dilarang keras menoleransi kata bosan, apalagi sampai putus asa. Itu sebabnya, buat teman tadi, perjumpaan dengan pegagan dan kawan sejawatnya menjadi sangat berarti. Paling tidak, ia merasa tak "sendiri" lagi menghadapi tuberkulosis. Ketika banyak sanak saudara dan handai taulan menjauh lantaran takut tertular, pegagan dan kawan-kawan menjadi teman paling setia.
Yang paling penting, harga mereka murah dan tak membuat kantung cekak jika dikonsumsi dalam kurun waktu lama.
Mematikan dan bikin bosan
Tuberkulosis pertama kali diketahui keberadaannya tahun 1882 oleh ahli bakteri Jerman, Robert Koch. TB tergolong penyakit menahun nan mematikan.
Menurut Survei Kesehatan Rumah Tangga (KRT, 1995), sebagai penyebab kematian secara umum, TB menduduki peringkat ketiga setelah penyakit kardiovaskuler dan infeksi saluran napas. Namun, khusus di kelas penyakit infeksi, ia ada di posisi nomor satu.
TB umumnya dipicu oleh perumahan yang kurang sehat, terutama di tempat yang memiliki tingkat hunian sangat padat. Bisa juga lantaran makanan yang disantap kurang bergizi, serta kurangnya kesadaran dalam menjaga kebersihan lingkungan. TB ditandai oleh hadirnya bakteri tahan asam bernama mikobakteria tuberkulosis yang memiliki sifat rada beda dari kuman lain pada paru-paru.
Sifat-sifat berbeda itu di antaranya cepat mati bila terkena sinar Matahari, cepat mati jika berada dalam air mendidih, dan akan mati setelah 24 jam terkena cairan karbol 5%. Namun sebaliknya, basil tuberkulosis dapat hidup berminggu-minggu dalam ludah, di tempat yang sejuk, dan berbulan-bulan di tempat yang gelap. Ia juga dapat dengan mudah menular lewat hidung atau mulut.
Penderita TB paru-paru, seperti yang terjadi pada teman tadi, merasa badannya lemah dan nafsu makan berkurang. Timbul batuk yang kadang disertai darah (awalnya cuma sedikit), muka pucat dan berat badan terus berkurang, serta suhu badan naik terutama pada petang dan malam hari. Selain itu, pada malam hari penderita sering mengeluarkan keringat, kadang suaranya berubah menjadi parau atau serak.
Dengan suara parau, teman tadi terus bercerita, termasuk pertemuannya dengan seorang kawan lain yang membawa pencerahan. Kata teman sang teman, mengandalkan obat-obat medis memang tidak salah, tapi melengkapinya dengan meminum air rebusan tumbuhan berkhasiat layak dicoba. "Kalau Tuhan mengizinkan, bisa sembuh lebih cepat," jelasnya.
Sejak itu, asa teman tadi tumbuh kembali. Ia mencoba mencari tahu, beragam tanaman obat yang telah diteliti oleh berbagai institusi penelitian maupun perguruan tinggi di Indonesia. Ia mendapati, ternyata cukup banyak tanaman obat yang secara empiris telah dikenal masyarakat. Beberapa tumbuhan yang sempat tercatat, antara lain pegagan, singawalang, bunga tembelekan, dan bumbu tali.
Menghambat & menghancurkan
Pegagan atau nama kerennya Centella asiatica itu tumbuhan liar yang ada di dataran rendah, sampai sekitar 2.500 m di atas permukaan air laut.
Secara empiris, biasa digunakan sebagai tonik, antiinfeksi, antirematik, penenang, mempercepat penyembuhan luka, dan diuretik. Berbagai penelitian telah dilakukan guna mendukung manfaat empirisnya.
Misalnya, penelitian yang merujuk pegagan sebagai antiinflamasi, antioksidan, antitumor, atau untuk meningkatkan daya ingat (susunan saraf pusat), eksem (luka terbuka), dan hepatitis. Hal itu berkaitan dengan kandungan senyawa yang dimiliki pegagan, yaitu asiaticiside, thankuniside, medecassoside, brahmoside, brahminoside, madastic acid, vitamin B1, B2, dan B6.
Penduduk asli India dan Malaysia konon suka menanam dan menyimpan pegagan dalam bentuk ready stock, agar siap digunakan sewaktu-waktu. Oleh warga dua bangsa itu pegagan lazim disimpan dalam bentuk kering untuk mengobati beragam penyakit. Terkadang mereka juga membuat jus daun segar, yang diminum untuk menghilangkan pusing ringan.
Dari berbagai penelitian in vitro terhadap pegagan menemukan kemampuannya menghancurkan berbagai bakteri penyebab infeksi, seperti Staphylococcus aureus, Escherechia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, dan sejenisnya. Sementara dalam bentuk infus atau ekstrak etanol, tumbuhan ini dipercaya dapat menghambat pertumbuhan bakteri.
Laorpuksa A. dan kawan-kawan dalam penelitian pada 1988 membuktikan, estrak air pegagan dapat melawan bakteri yang menyebabkan infeksi pada saluran napas. Sementara Herbert D. dan kawan-kawan dari Tuberculosis Research Center di India mencoba efek pegagan pada bakteri tuberkulosis H37Rv secara in vitro. Hasilnya, pegagan tidak langsung berefek pada bakteri tuberkulosis. Namun, Herbert menyarankan penelitian lebih lanjut terhadap senyawa aktif asiaticoside.
Feeling Herbert terbukti benar. Berdasarkan penelitian lanjutan, senyawa aktif pegagan itu ternyata dapat melawan Mycobakterium tuberculosis dan Bacillus leprae (Oliver-Bever, 1986). Penelitian berikutnya yang dilakukan Walter H. Lewis juga menyatakan, pegagan termasuk kelompok tanaman yang menghasilkan zat seperti antibiotika dan asiaticoside.
Keampuhan pegagan juga telah diuji coba oleh Boeteau P. dan kawan-kawan, yang menginokulasi binatang percobaan marmut dengan bakteri basilus tuberkulosis selama 15 hari. Injeksi 0,5 ml 4% asiaticoside yang diberikan pada marmut, terbukti dapat mengurangi jumlah lesi tuberkular di paru-paru, hati, dan limpa. Senyawa asiaticoside membuat pegagan tak hanya dapat menghambat pertumbuhan bakteri tuberkulosis, tapi juga berpotensi sebagai imunomodulator - peningkat daya tahan tubuh.
Secara empiris, pemanfaatan pegagan untuk membasmi tuberkulosis paru-paru dapat dilakukan dengan berpedoman pada resep berikut. Cuci 30 - 60 g pegagan segar, lalu rebus dalam 3 gelas air sampai tersisa 1 gelas, dan diminum 3 kali sehari. Untuk TB kulit, lumatkan pegagan, kemudian tempelkan pada bagian yang sakit. Kajian etnobotani di Bogor.
Masih ada sejawat pegagan yang bermanfaat serupa. Singawalang (Pertiveria alliacea), menurut R. Indra Pandu Gunawan, yang melakukan kajian etnobotani di salah satu kampung di Bogor, Jawa Barat, juga dapat digunakan untuk mengobati tuberkulosis. Kesimpulan itu diambilnya setelah masyarakat di kampung yang diteliti itu sukses menggunakan singawalang untuk mengobati batuk darah akibat TB.
Weniger B. pada 1988 pun menyatakan, masyarakat Haiti, Republik Dominika, telah sejak lama memanfaatkan tanaman ini untuk mengobati radang paru-paru. Singawalang sendiri merupakan tanaman berbentuk semak, tingginya bisa mencapai 1 m. Secara empiris, singawalang sering digunakan untuk peluruh kencing, peluruh dahak, peluruh keringat, dan pereda kekejangan.
Penelitian in vitro memang menunjukkan, singawalang mampu melawan bakteri Staphylococcus aureus dan Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Namun, penelitian langsung pada bakteri tuberkulosis belum dilakukan. Dosis pemanfaatan singawalang: 5 lembar daun yang telah dicuci bersih ditumbuk sampai halus. Hasil tumbukan diseduh dengan air panas, dibubuhi garam dan gula merah secukupnya. Aduk sampai larut, saring dan minum setelah dingin. Frekuensi meminumnya dua kali sehari.
Masih ada lagi yang namanya bunga tembelekan (Lantana camara). Tumbuhan ini dapat hidup secara liar atau ditanam sebagai tanaman hias dan tanaman pagar. Perdu setinggi 0,5 - 4 m dan berbau ini secara empiris berkhasiat meredakan demam, penawar racun, penghilang nyeri, dan penghenti perdarahan. Ia tumbuh di dataran rendah sampai 1.700 m di atas permukaan laut.
Untuk melawan tuberkulosis paru-paru dengan batuk darah, digunakan bunga tembelekan kering sebanyak 6 - 10 g, direbus dalam 3 gelas air bersih sampai air rebusannya tersisa separuh. Setelah dingin, air rebusan itu disaring, dibagi untuk 3 kali minum (pagi hari, siang, dan sore) masing-masing setengah gelas.
Jangan lupakan juga tanaman bambu tali (Asparagus cochinchinensis). Tumbuhan asal Cina, Jepang, dan Korea itu tingginya dapat mencapai 1,5 m. Daunnya berwarna hijau, berbentuk helai panjang, runcing, dan halus. Bagian yang digunakan untuk obat adalah umbinya. Untuk mengatasi penyakit tuberkulosis yang disertai batuk darah, digunakan 6 - 12 g umbi kering bambu tali, direbus dalam 1,5 gelas air. Air rebusannya diminum dalam keadaan hangat dua kali sehari, sampai penyakit sembuh.
Obat "hati"
Kalau mau digali lagi, sebenarnya masih banyak tumbuhan - berdasarkan pengalaman empiris nenek moyang - dipercaya dapat digunakan untuk memerangi TB.
Salah satunya daun legundi (Vitex negundo L). Untuk menggunakannya, 3/5 genggam daunnya dicuci, lalu direbus dengan air bersih sebanyak 3 gelas makan, sampai air rebusannya tinggal 3/4 gelas saja. Sesudah dingin, disaring lalu diminum dengan madu seperlunya. Frekuensi minumnya 3 kali sehari.
Ada lagi serbuk biji pronojiwo (Euhrseta horfieldii Benn). Untuk pengobatan diperlukan 3/4 sendok teh serbuk biji pronojiwo, diseduh dengan air panas sebayak 1/2 cangkir dan madu 1 sendok makan. Dalam keadaan suam-suam kuku, ramuan diminum 3 kali sehari. Atau bunga kembang sepatu (Hibiscus rosasinensis L). Ramuannya, 3 kuntum bunga kembang sepatu dicuci bersih, lalu digiling halus, diberi air masak 1/2 cangkir dan madu 1 sendok makan, kemudian diperas dan disaring. Ramuan diminum tiga kali sehari.
Bisa juga dicoba bidara upas (Merremia mammosa). Ambilah 1/3 jari bidara, dicuci bersih lalu diparut, diberi air masak 1 sendok makan dan madu 2 sendok teh, diperas dan disaring. Obat alami ini diminum tiga kali sehari.
Terakhir, daun gandapura (Gaultheria fragrantissima). Diperlukan 1 sendok makan serbuk kering daun gandapura. Bahan itu diseduh dengan air panas 3/4 cangkir dan madu 1 sendok makan. Seduhan diminum dalam keadaan suam-suam kuku. Frekuensinya 3 kali sehari.
Melihat begitu banyaknya alternatif, teman saya jelas makin girang. Kini ia tidak hanya lebih optimistis menyikapi hidup, tapi juga lebih telaten merawat tanaman-tanamannya, terutama tanaman pegagan dan kawan-kawan. Buat sang teman, mereka bukan hanya andalan baru untuk mengusir TB paru-paru, tapi juga mengisi sepi dan mengusir frustrasi.
Catatan :
Satu Tanaman Lain Sebutan Pegagan dikenal juga sebagai daun kaki kuda (Jakarta), antanan gede (Sunda), kori-kori (Halmahera), kolotidi menora (Ternate), gagan-gagan, gangagan, kerok batok, pantegowang, panigowang, rendeng (Jawa).
Nama lain bunga tembelekan adalah bunga pagar atau kayu Singapura. Di Sunda kerap disebut kembang satek, saliyara, tai ayam atau tai kotok. Sedangkan di Jawa kadang disebut oblo, puyengan, pecengan, atau waung.
Bambu tali atau bambu apus suka juga disebut awi tali (Sunda), deling apus, deling tangsul, jajang pring (Jawa) atau tiing tali, tiing tlantan (Bali). Tumbuhan lainnya, legundi, punya nama alias gendarasi (Palembang) atau langgundi (Minangkabau). Sedangkan bidara upas kerap disebut blanar (Jawa) atau hailale (Ambon). *
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Penulis : Dra. Lucie Widowati, M.Si.Apt; peneliti pada Puslitbang Farmasi dan Obat Tradisional, Jakarta.
Seorang teman bercerita, betapa frustrasinya ia menumpas tuberkulosis (TB) paru-paru. Digempur pakai obat-obatan medis, si penyakit tetap saja eksis. Ia juga panik, karena katanya, bakteri TB bisa kebal terhadap gempuran obat yang diracik apotik. Untunglah, saat nyaris frustrasi, ia "menemukan" pegagan dan kawan-kawan.
Menjalani "takdir" sebagai penderita TB paru-paru memang tak gampang. Jika tidak ulet, alih-alih sembuh, pasien bisa mati bosan. Maklum, proses penyembuhan TB, selain cukup sulit, juga makan waktu lama, berkisar 3 - 6 bulan. Itu pun dengan catatan, pasien berdisiplin minum obat dan rajin memeriksakan diri ke dokter.
Lamanya pengobatan itulah - apalagi jika disertai kendala biaya - yang kerap menyebabkan pasien frustrasi. Ya frustrasi minum obat, ya bosan menanggung derita. Padahal, disiplin minum obat menjadi faktor penentu dalam proses penyembuhan. Pengobatan yang tidak tuntas dapat menyebabkan bakteri TB resisten terhadap beragam obat konvensional, termasuk obat kombinasi.
Dengan kata lain, pasien TB sebenarnya dilarang keras menoleransi kata bosan, apalagi sampai putus asa. Itu sebabnya, buat teman tadi, perjumpaan dengan pegagan dan kawan sejawatnya menjadi sangat berarti. Paling tidak, ia merasa tak "sendiri" lagi menghadapi tuberkulosis. Ketika banyak sanak saudara dan handai taulan menjauh lantaran takut tertular, pegagan dan kawan-kawan menjadi teman paling setia.
Yang paling penting, harga mereka murah dan tak membuat kantung cekak jika dikonsumsi dalam kurun waktu lama.
Mematikan dan bikin bosan
Tuberkulosis pertama kali diketahui keberadaannya tahun 1882 oleh ahli bakteri Jerman, Robert Koch. TB tergolong penyakit menahun nan mematikan.
Menurut Survei Kesehatan Rumah Tangga (KRT, 1995), sebagai penyebab kematian secara umum, TB menduduki peringkat ketiga setelah penyakit kardiovaskuler dan infeksi saluran napas. Namun, khusus di kelas penyakit infeksi, ia ada di posisi nomor satu.
TB umumnya dipicu oleh perumahan yang kurang sehat, terutama di tempat yang memiliki tingkat hunian sangat padat. Bisa juga lantaran makanan yang disantap kurang bergizi, serta kurangnya kesadaran dalam menjaga kebersihan lingkungan. TB ditandai oleh hadirnya bakteri tahan asam bernama mikobakteria tuberkulosis yang memiliki sifat rada beda dari kuman lain pada paru-paru.
Sifat-sifat berbeda itu di antaranya cepat mati bila terkena sinar Matahari, cepat mati jika berada dalam air mendidih, dan akan mati setelah 24 jam terkena cairan karbol 5%. Namun sebaliknya, basil tuberkulosis dapat hidup berminggu-minggu dalam ludah, di tempat yang sejuk, dan berbulan-bulan di tempat yang gelap. Ia juga dapat dengan mudah menular lewat hidung atau mulut.
Penderita TB paru-paru, seperti yang terjadi pada teman tadi, merasa badannya lemah dan nafsu makan berkurang. Timbul batuk yang kadang disertai darah (awalnya cuma sedikit), muka pucat dan berat badan terus berkurang, serta suhu badan naik terutama pada petang dan malam hari. Selain itu, pada malam hari penderita sering mengeluarkan keringat, kadang suaranya berubah menjadi parau atau serak.
Dengan suara parau, teman tadi terus bercerita, termasuk pertemuannya dengan seorang kawan lain yang membawa pencerahan. Kata teman sang teman, mengandalkan obat-obat medis memang tidak salah, tapi melengkapinya dengan meminum air rebusan tumbuhan berkhasiat layak dicoba. "Kalau Tuhan mengizinkan, bisa sembuh lebih cepat," jelasnya.
Sejak itu, asa teman tadi tumbuh kembali. Ia mencoba mencari tahu, beragam tanaman obat yang telah diteliti oleh berbagai institusi penelitian maupun perguruan tinggi di Indonesia. Ia mendapati, ternyata cukup banyak tanaman obat yang secara empiris telah dikenal masyarakat. Beberapa tumbuhan yang sempat tercatat, antara lain pegagan, singawalang, bunga tembelekan, dan bumbu tali.
Menghambat & menghancurkan
Pegagan atau nama kerennya Centella asiatica itu tumbuhan liar yang ada di dataran rendah, sampai sekitar 2.500 m di atas permukaan air laut.
Secara empiris, biasa digunakan sebagai tonik, antiinfeksi, antirematik, penenang, mempercepat penyembuhan luka, dan diuretik. Berbagai penelitian telah dilakukan guna mendukung manfaat empirisnya.
Misalnya, penelitian yang merujuk pegagan sebagai antiinflamasi, antioksidan, antitumor, atau untuk meningkatkan daya ingat (susunan saraf pusat), eksem (luka terbuka), dan hepatitis. Hal itu berkaitan dengan kandungan senyawa yang dimiliki pegagan, yaitu asiaticiside, thankuniside, medecassoside, brahmoside, brahminoside, madastic acid, vitamin B1, B2, dan B6.
Penduduk asli India dan Malaysia konon suka menanam dan menyimpan pegagan dalam bentuk ready stock, agar siap digunakan sewaktu-waktu. Oleh warga dua bangsa itu pegagan lazim disimpan dalam bentuk kering untuk mengobati beragam penyakit. Terkadang mereka juga membuat jus daun segar, yang diminum untuk menghilangkan pusing ringan.
Dari berbagai penelitian in vitro terhadap pegagan menemukan kemampuannya menghancurkan berbagai bakteri penyebab infeksi, seperti Staphylococcus aureus, Escherechia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella typhi, dan sejenisnya. Sementara dalam bentuk infus atau ekstrak etanol, tumbuhan ini dipercaya dapat menghambat pertumbuhan bakteri.
Laorpuksa A. dan kawan-kawan dalam penelitian pada 1988 membuktikan, estrak air pegagan dapat melawan bakteri yang menyebabkan infeksi pada saluran napas. Sementara Herbert D. dan kawan-kawan dari Tuberculosis Research Center di India mencoba efek pegagan pada bakteri tuberkulosis H37Rv secara in vitro. Hasilnya, pegagan tidak langsung berefek pada bakteri tuberkulosis. Namun, Herbert menyarankan penelitian lebih lanjut terhadap senyawa aktif asiaticoside.
Feeling Herbert terbukti benar. Berdasarkan penelitian lanjutan, senyawa aktif pegagan itu ternyata dapat melawan Mycobakterium tuberculosis dan Bacillus leprae (Oliver-Bever, 1986). Penelitian berikutnya yang dilakukan Walter H. Lewis juga menyatakan, pegagan termasuk kelompok tanaman yang menghasilkan zat seperti antibiotika dan asiaticoside.
Keampuhan pegagan juga telah diuji coba oleh Boeteau P. dan kawan-kawan, yang menginokulasi binatang percobaan marmut dengan bakteri basilus tuberkulosis selama 15 hari. Injeksi 0,5 ml 4% asiaticoside yang diberikan pada marmut, terbukti dapat mengurangi jumlah lesi tuberkular di paru-paru, hati, dan limpa. Senyawa asiaticoside membuat pegagan tak hanya dapat menghambat pertumbuhan bakteri tuberkulosis, tapi juga berpotensi sebagai imunomodulator - peningkat daya tahan tubuh.
Secara empiris, pemanfaatan pegagan untuk membasmi tuberkulosis paru-paru dapat dilakukan dengan berpedoman pada resep berikut. Cuci 30 - 60 g pegagan segar, lalu rebus dalam 3 gelas air sampai tersisa 1 gelas, dan diminum 3 kali sehari. Untuk TB kulit, lumatkan pegagan, kemudian tempelkan pada bagian yang sakit. Kajian etnobotani di Bogor.
Masih ada sejawat pegagan yang bermanfaat serupa. Singawalang (Pertiveria alliacea), menurut R. Indra Pandu Gunawan, yang melakukan kajian etnobotani di salah satu kampung di Bogor, Jawa Barat, juga dapat digunakan untuk mengobati tuberkulosis. Kesimpulan itu diambilnya setelah masyarakat di kampung yang diteliti itu sukses menggunakan singawalang untuk mengobati batuk darah akibat TB.
Weniger B. pada 1988 pun menyatakan, masyarakat Haiti, Republik Dominika, telah sejak lama memanfaatkan tanaman ini untuk mengobati radang paru-paru. Singawalang sendiri merupakan tanaman berbentuk semak, tingginya bisa mencapai 1 m. Secara empiris, singawalang sering digunakan untuk peluruh kencing, peluruh dahak, peluruh keringat, dan pereda kekejangan.
Penelitian in vitro memang menunjukkan, singawalang mampu melawan bakteri Staphylococcus aureus dan Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Namun, penelitian langsung pada bakteri tuberkulosis belum dilakukan. Dosis pemanfaatan singawalang: 5 lembar daun yang telah dicuci bersih ditumbuk sampai halus. Hasil tumbukan diseduh dengan air panas, dibubuhi garam dan gula merah secukupnya. Aduk sampai larut, saring dan minum setelah dingin. Frekuensi meminumnya dua kali sehari.
Masih ada lagi yang namanya bunga tembelekan (Lantana camara). Tumbuhan ini dapat hidup secara liar atau ditanam sebagai tanaman hias dan tanaman pagar. Perdu setinggi 0,5 - 4 m dan berbau ini secara empiris berkhasiat meredakan demam, penawar racun, penghilang nyeri, dan penghenti perdarahan. Ia tumbuh di dataran rendah sampai 1.700 m di atas permukaan laut.
Untuk melawan tuberkulosis paru-paru dengan batuk darah, digunakan bunga tembelekan kering sebanyak 6 - 10 g, direbus dalam 3 gelas air bersih sampai air rebusannya tersisa separuh. Setelah dingin, air rebusan itu disaring, dibagi untuk 3 kali minum (pagi hari, siang, dan sore) masing-masing setengah gelas.
Jangan lupakan juga tanaman bambu tali (Asparagus cochinchinensis). Tumbuhan asal Cina, Jepang, dan Korea itu tingginya dapat mencapai 1,5 m. Daunnya berwarna hijau, berbentuk helai panjang, runcing, dan halus. Bagian yang digunakan untuk obat adalah umbinya. Untuk mengatasi penyakit tuberkulosis yang disertai batuk darah, digunakan 6 - 12 g umbi kering bambu tali, direbus dalam 1,5 gelas air. Air rebusannya diminum dalam keadaan hangat dua kali sehari, sampai penyakit sembuh.
Obat "hati"
Kalau mau digali lagi, sebenarnya masih banyak tumbuhan - berdasarkan pengalaman empiris nenek moyang - dipercaya dapat digunakan untuk memerangi TB.
Salah satunya daun legundi (Vitex negundo L). Untuk menggunakannya, 3/5 genggam daunnya dicuci, lalu direbus dengan air bersih sebanyak 3 gelas makan, sampai air rebusannya tinggal 3/4 gelas saja. Sesudah dingin, disaring lalu diminum dengan madu seperlunya. Frekuensi minumnya 3 kali sehari.
Ada lagi serbuk biji pronojiwo (Euhrseta horfieldii Benn). Untuk pengobatan diperlukan 3/4 sendok teh serbuk biji pronojiwo, diseduh dengan air panas sebayak 1/2 cangkir dan madu 1 sendok makan. Dalam keadaan suam-suam kuku, ramuan diminum 3 kali sehari. Atau bunga kembang sepatu (Hibiscus rosasinensis L). Ramuannya, 3 kuntum bunga kembang sepatu dicuci bersih, lalu digiling halus, diberi air masak 1/2 cangkir dan madu 1 sendok makan, kemudian diperas dan disaring. Ramuan diminum tiga kali sehari.
Bisa juga dicoba bidara upas (Merremia mammosa). Ambilah 1/3 jari bidara, dicuci bersih lalu diparut, diberi air masak 1 sendok makan dan madu 2 sendok teh, diperas dan disaring. Obat alami ini diminum tiga kali sehari.
Terakhir, daun gandapura (Gaultheria fragrantissima). Diperlukan 1 sendok makan serbuk kering daun gandapura. Bahan itu diseduh dengan air panas 3/4 cangkir dan madu 1 sendok makan. Seduhan diminum dalam keadaan suam-suam kuku. Frekuensinya 3 kali sehari.
Melihat begitu banyaknya alternatif, teman saya jelas makin girang. Kini ia tidak hanya lebih optimistis menyikapi hidup, tapi juga lebih telaten merawat tanaman-tanamannya, terutama tanaman pegagan dan kawan-kawan. Buat sang teman, mereka bukan hanya andalan baru untuk mengusir TB paru-paru, tapi juga mengisi sepi dan mengusir frustrasi.
Catatan :
Satu Tanaman Lain Sebutan Pegagan dikenal juga sebagai daun kaki kuda (Jakarta), antanan gede (Sunda), kori-kori (Halmahera), kolotidi menora (Ternate), gagan-gagan, gangagan, kerok batok, pantegowang, panigowang, rendeng (Jawa).
Nama lain bunga tembelekan adalah bunga pagar atau kayu Singapura. Di Sunda kerap disebut kembang satek, saliyara, tai ayam atau tai kotok. Sedangkan di Jawa kadang disebut oblo, puyengan, pecengan, atau waung.
Bambu tali atau bambu apus suka juga disebut awi tali (Sunda), deling apus, deling tangsul, jajang pring (Jawa) atau tiing tali, tiing tlantan (Bali). Tumbuhan lainnya, legundi, punya nama alias gendarasi (Palembang) atau langgundi (Minangkabau). Sedangkan bidara upas kerap disebut blanar (Jawa) atau hailale (Ambon). *
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