Empire is a collection of short stories written by H. Beam Piper, and edited by John F. Carr. The book was published in 1981 by Ace Books, and again in 1986. Most of these stories take place in his Terro-Human Future History, with the sole exception being "The Return".
Shadow Complex is a 2009 platform-adventure video game developed by Chair Entertainment in association with Epic Games (using its Unreal Engine 3) and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade. The game was released worldwide on August 19, 2009. The original script of Shadow Complex was written by comic book writer and Star Trek novelist Peter David.
The game follows Jason Flemming and his new girlfriend Claire, who opts to explore some caverns the two stumble across. When she does not respond to his calls, Jason follows her. He finds a massive underground complex with soldiers and high-end technology. Jason must rescue Claire and discover the plot behind the faction operating the complex.
Shadow Complex's reception has been very positive. It has received and been nominated for several Game of the Year and Editor's Choice Awards. Critics praised the gameplay, narrative and graphics, with several reviewers also stating that its 1200 Microsoft Points price was a bargain. It also broke all sales records for Xbox Live Arcade titles, selling over 200,000 units within the first week of release and as of year-end 2011, has sold over 600,000 copies. A Remastered version was released for Microsoft Windows in December 2015 with plans for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions scheduled to be released in 2016.
Empire is an hour-long Western television series set on a 1960s 500,000-acre (2,000 km2) ranch in New Mexico, starring Richard Egan, Terry Moore, and Ryan O'Neal. It ran on NBC from September 25, 1962, to May 14, 1963.
In the second abbreviated season, from September 24 to December 31, 1963, it was renamed Redigo after Egan's title character, Jim Redigo, the general manager of the fictitious Garrett ranch in Empire, and reduced to a half-hour.
Egan starred in the series at the age of forty-one, having previously been in the hit film A Summer Place, with the catchy theme song. Redigo was a rare ranch manager, having a Master of Business Administration degree. The ranch was located somewhere in the American Southwest, but the exact location was never pinpointed. The Garretts did have an empire. Besides ranching they were involved in oil, agriculture, and mining. The series has unusually- titled episodes.
Empire also featured 22-year-old Ryan O'Neal, some two years before he gained greater recognition as Rodney Harrington in ABC's Peyton Place. O'Neal, who began acting in 1959, played the son, Tal Garrett. Terry Moore portrayed O'Neal's 33-year-old sister, Connie, who had a romantic interest in Redigo. Their mother and ranch matriarch, Lucia, was played by 53-year-old Anne Seymour (1909–1988).
Although each installment of the Final Fantasy series is generally set in a different fictional world with separate storylines, there are several commonalities when it comes to character design, as certain design themes repeat themselves, as well as specific character names and classes. Within the main series, Yoshitaka Amano was the character designer for Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V and Final Fantasy VI, Tetsuya Nomura was the character designer for Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIII, Yoshitaka Amano created and did the concept art for the characters while Toshiyuki Itahana was the final character designer for Final Fantasy IX, and Akihiko Yoshida was the character designer for Final Fantasy XII.
The series has often featured male characters with slightly effeminate characteristics, as well as female characters with slightly tomboyish, but still feminine, characteristics. This trend has generally increased as the series evolved. These characters are usually teenagers, which some critics have interpreted as an effort on the part of the designers to ensure the players identify with them. At the same time, some female characters have been increasingly designed to wear very revealing outfits. Square Enix has stated that a more rugged looking hero had been considered for Final Fantasy XII but had ultimately been scrapped in favor of Vaan, another effeminate protagonist. The developers cited scenaristic reasons and target demographic considerations to explain their choice. For Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix settled on a female main character, described as a "female version of Cloud from FFVII." This aspect of Final Fantasy can also be seen in Sora, the protagonist of Kingdom Hearts, a crossover series featuring Final Fantasy and Disney characters.
Ancient or ancients may refer to:
Ancient is an album by Japanese new age artist, Kitarō, which was released in 2001.
The album was nominated for 44th Grammy Awards New Age Best Album in 2002.
All songs written and composed by Kitaro.
Greatest is a greatest hits compilation album released in 1998 by the band Duran Duran.
Greatest was an update of the 1989 tenth anniversary compilation album, Decade: Greatest Hits. The new release included songs from their eponymous debut album through 1997's Medazzaland. The album includes all 14 songs featured in Decade: Greatest Hits, plus "New Moon on Monday" and four singles from the '90s, however both "Save a Prayer" and "Rio" are presented in their shorter US versions in order to fit on a single CD whereas they appeared in their full versions on the former compilation. For some unknown reason, "Perfect Day" (from 1995 album, Thank You) wasn't added to the album. "My Own Way" and "Careless Memories" were originally going to be in the album but due to the favor of the later singles. ("Serious" and "Eletric Barbarella")
The album was released by EMI after parting ways with the band after the disastrous Medazzaland album release in 1997, and marked the first of many releases designed to capitalise on the band's extensive EMI-controlled back catalogue.