Veteran advocate Tammy Duckworth served in Iraq as an Army helicopter pilot and received combat injuries that cost her both legs. She ran for an Illinois congressional seat in 2006, spoke at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver, and was appointed last year as Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs in the Department of Veterans Affairs.

She answered questions Tuesday about Veterans Affairs via podcast from the White House.

Blast asked: “How will the VA handle the mental health needs of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan?”

She responded:

“Mental health needs of veterans is a really important issue and one of the things that I mentioned earlier that we’re doing at VA is we’re screening 100% of our Iraq and Afghanistan veterans when they come through the doors of VA. Even if you come in for a sprained ankle, your first time through a VA facility you will get screened for traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress. That’s really critical because many people don’t even know that they’re suffering from post traumatic stress.

We’re also expanding services across the country. I talked about the mental health hotline. We also have a chat room. We developed the chat room because we realized that a lot of our vets are still in the service. They’re still deployed. They need to be able to talk to a counselor even while they’re down range in Iraq or Afghanistan. So we have the chatroom. It’s “suicide prevention.lifeline.org.” And they can actually access that. We made both available to family members because a lot of times the vets themselves are in denial, and they’re not asking for help, but it’s mom or dad or wife or husband or child that actually sees the symptoms and needs help, so they can call in as well.”

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), over 100,000 combat veterans sought help for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health problems between 2001 and 2007. They also say that the youngest veterans–those aged 18 to 24 years–have the greatest risk of mental health diagnoses.

According to a study this year in the American Journal of Public Health, nearly 40 percent of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans receiving health care from VA hospitals suffer from mental illness.

1. Earlier this week, when asked how ordinary people can participate in Veterans Day, Tammy Duckworth of the Department of Veterans Affairs said “Number one, you can thank a vet for their service.”
2. Officially, it’s “Veterans Day,” no apostrophe. The government — not retail stores — has the last word in this matter.
3. Veterans Day was created by Dwight Eisenhower in 1954 due in part to the efforts of Alfred King, a shoe salesman from Emporia, Kansas.
4. Veterans Day replaced “Armistice Day,” a commemoration proclaimed by Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and made an annual holiday by Calvin Coolidge in 1938.
5. Armistice Day was “dedicated to the cause of world peace” but was more popularly about commemorating the heroes of World War One.
6. Veterans Day is November 11 because the armistice between the Allies and Germany took effect at eleven o’clock in the morning on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918.
7. The “Uniform Monday Holiday Act” of 1971 moved Veterans Day to the fourth Monday of October everywhere but Mississippi and South Dakota.
8. In response to popular sentiment, Veterans Day was moved back to November 11 in 1978.
9. Veterans Day honors all who have served in the armed services, living and dead, in wartime and in peace. It’s distinct from Memorial Day which was specifically created to commemorate Americans who have died in military service.
10. Veterans Day especially shouldn’t be confused with Patriots’ Day (note the apostrophe) as the latter celebrates just those involved with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. It’s only recognized in Massachusetts (where it is becoming better know as “Marathon Monday”), Maine (once part of Massachusetts), and, for some reason, Wisconsin.

Let us start with this: The fair use doctrine applies to works of parody. This means that we can take something copyrighted and use it in a parody — it’s protected free speech under the first amendment, even if people disagree with it.

But that doctrine doesn’t apply to Hitler, apparently.

Constantin Film, the company that produced “Downfall,” the movie that spawned dozens (perhaps hundreds) of “Hitler finds out…” video parodies, recently ordered YouTube to take down all the parody videos.

The parodies had used a fuming monologue in the German-language movie by Bruno Ganz’s Hitler after he realizes he is about to lose World War II, changing the subtitles to make it appear like Hitler was ranting about everything from the Amy Bishop case to video game bugs.

The parodies, apparently, drew complaints from groups, including Jewish advocates.

BRISBANE, Australia — After more than 60 years, the wreck of the doomed hospital ship AHS Centaur has been located.

The wreck, which was found by Bluewater Recoveries on December 20, lies due east of Moreton Island on a seabed approximately a mile and a half under water.

It is a grave to 268 medics and sailors who lost their lives when the Centaur was sunk without warning by a torpedo from a Japanese submarine on May 14, 1943, about 50 miles north-east of Brisbane.

Only 64 people survived the attack.

Acting Prime Minister, Julia Gillard said the sinking of the AHS Centaur was a sad day in the nation’s history, which should always be remembered.

"The photographs of the Centaur resting peacefully on the ocean’s floor will help ensure the lives of the brave crew and nurses who died so tragically are never forgotten," she said. "I hope by locating the final resting place of the AHS Centaur, the family and friends of those men and women … find some resolution."

A commemorative plaque (which was laid at the starboard side of the fore deck) honors those who lost their lives in the service of the nation.

David Mearns, the principal director of Bluewater Recoveries, led the search for the wreck on board the Australian Defence Maritime Services support vessel, the Seahorse Spirit.

An approximate location, calculated by the Centaur’s navigator 40 minutes before the vessel was torpedoed, was used as a guide by the search team.

"While the wreck is intact, Centaur’s hull appears to be partially broken in at least one and possibly two locations. No doubt the torpedo strike would have caused one of these breaks," Mearns said. "Remarkably (the wreck) is less than one nautical mile from the dead reckoning position I calculated from (navigator) Gordon Rippon’s track. I can’t remember finding a wreck as close to the position reported by a primary source witness."

Mearns, whose team also helped lay the AHS Centaur’s commemorative plaque, said the wreck was approximately 30 miles due east of the southern tip of Moreton Island.

"Following the plaque laying we spent four hours filming individual pieces of wreckage found in the small debris field immediately adjacent to the wreck," he said. "Personal items were found including ankle boots (with the laces intact), a trunk of personal belongings and a felt slouch hat."

"I consider it one of the great privileges in my life to have led this important project,” he added.

The AHS Centaur has since been declared an historic shipwreck under the Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976, meaning that the vessel cannot be interfered with in any way

Good TV night on Sunday coming up with premieres of AMC’s “The Prisoner” at 8 p.m., “Drive-Thru” on Fuel at 8:30 p.m., “Tough Love” on VH1 at 9 p.m., and a great feature called “WWII IN HD” on History also at 9. Blast has seen “WWII in HD” and we approve, especially for military history buffs.

In news news, CNN quickly replaced Lou Dobbs with the king of the touchscreen, John King. King will host a weeknight political show at 7 p.m.

Spike has a new cars show called “Unique Autosports: Miami,” starting February 28 at 10:30 a.m. There will be eight half hour episodes combining cars, celebrities and beautiful Miami. Guests will include LeBron James, Diddy, and players from the Yankees.

A bunch of news out of SyFy today. The network formerly known as Sci-Fi has a comedy series coming out called “Outer Space Astronauts” starting December 8 at 9:30 p.m. The show is about eight quirky soldiers who travel the stars looking for adventures. It’s basically making fun of Stargate, and it shows how much the network has changed in 10 years.

SyFy got good ratings on the premiere “Ghost Hunters Academy” on Wednesday, drawing 2 million total viewers, the best ratings for a reality series on SyFy since January 2008′s “Ghost Hunters International.”

Famed author Ray Bradbury will executive produce a six-episode miniseries about six of his short stories. “The Bradbury Chronicles” hasn’t been picked up by a network yet.

In a short statement Tuesday morning, Blast learned that The Weinstein Company’s “Shanghai” will no longer be opening on September 4. The film has been pushed back, and a new date has not yet been announced.

“Shanghai” is set just before the outbreak of American involvement in World War II. An American expat travels to Shanghai in the months before Pearl Harbor because of the death of a friend. The film’s stacked cast includes Jeffrey Dean Morgan, John Cusack, Franka Potente, David Morse, Chow Yun-Fat and Ken Watanabe.

It was a half an hour before they were set to take the stage at Boston’s Harper’s Ferry, but the band members of A Cursive Memory weren’t wasting time stressing over their upcoming performance. After all, there were zombies to be killed and no time to waste.

“Since Colin (Vocalist and guitar player Colin Baylen) got the PS3, we have done nothing but play ‘Nazi Zombies’ from ‘Call of Duty: World at War’,” confessed Shaun Profeta, 19, who plays guitar and sings alongside Baylen, who’s also 19. “Like literally. I wake up and I’m thinking about killing zombies. I go to sleep, and I’m thinking about killing zombies. And while I’m sleeping, I’m dreaming about killing zombies. I’m playing a show on stage, and I’m thinking about killing zombies.”

They were required to take a respite from the murder and mayhem Wednesday night as they took the stage in Allston. They tried to make a shout out to the game during their performance, but the audience dominated by girls who looked at Baylen with blank stares as he asked who had ever heard of “Nazi Zombies.”

“We’re the band where (people ask), ‘Hey, do you want to go to this chick’s house,” Baylen said, “and we’ll be like, ‘Umm, yeah, we’re actually going to this different chick’s house.”

“And we’re actually playing ‘Nazi Zombies,” Profeta confessed.

“Bands hate us,” added Mark Borst-Smith, 20, who is the bassist and keyboardist for the group.

Profeta, Baylen, Borst-Smith and drummer Brian Bolen formed A Cursive Memory when they were in seventh grade. Back then their band was called Sincerely Me and not The Vagrants, contrary to information on Wikipedia.

Baylen said the band wrote and recorded most of the songs they perform now when the band first got together six years ago.

“By the time we were seniors we had a record done, and by the time we left high school we had a record contract and we were signed to Vagrant (Records) and on tour the summer after high school,” he said.

Drummer Dillan Wheeler, 20, eventually replaced Bolen. Profeta, played drums in between Bolen’s departure and Wheeler’s arrival.

A Cursive Memory was the first band to be signed by M-Music, the music management provision of Bunim/Murray Productions — the company behind shows like “The Real World” and “The Simple Life.”

The band’s managers incorporate their singles into the various television shows produced by Bunim/Murray and then allow viewers to go to websites like MTV Overdrive to find out what the songs were. Profeta said it was a good opportunity for the band to gain recognition.

“We’ve been their first project,” Profeta said. “They put some of our music at the end of some of the TV shows and it’s like, kids will watch their favorite show and hear a song and [...] if they liked it then they will check [the band] out.”

Profeta is the younger brother of ex-Hellogoodbye drummer Chris Profeta. He said Chris’ experience with Hellogoodbye allowed A Cursive Memory to understand what type of people they should and should not gravitate towards.

A Cursive Memory’s first tour was opening for bands like Hellogoodbye, Boys Like Girls and The Rocket Summer in 2007.

“For a first tour for such a young band, that was something cool that my brother and his band helped us actually get and do and that was really cool,” said Profeta.

A Cursive Memory’s performance on Feb. 18 was their third time returning to Boston. They said though they weren’t fans of Boston sports, they enjoyed their time in Boston Wednesday. It was an abnormally warm day for this cold Boston winter, so it was almost as though the Los Angeles-based band brought a bit of California to the east coast with them.

“Respek,” A Cursive Memory’s first EP, was released in 2007. The album derives its title from an episode of “Da Ali G Show” that the band quotes as an inside joke.

Baylen said the idea for the title came when the band was trying to come up with a name for the album, and someone said, “Respek! What should we call it?” The name stuck after that.

“You’re the first person that’s ever asked or ever brought up the (reference), so that’s kind of cool,” said Profeta of the album. “Not a lot of people know that EP, either.”

Their full-length album, “Changes,” was released almost a year ago on Feb. 19, 2008.

The band said they have big plans ready following the conclusion of the tour.

“I think once we wrap up this tour, we’re going to build a spaceship,” Baylen said.

“There’s a really great recording studio on the moon,” said Profeta.

“Yeah, drums sound amazing there,” agreed Wheeler.

All joking aside, Baylen said they would definitely begin working on a new album when they conclude the tour.

“I feel like we’re all so much more focused,” said Profeta. “Before we didn’t really know what we were, what A Cursive Memory was. We’ve found sort of our niche and our sound for the next record. We’re definitely excited.”

As for the influence of the song, some of their enthusiastic gaming might find a way to leak itself onto the new record.

“(A song) about a Nazi zombie?” asked Profeta. “I’m pretty sure there’s already three of them written. There’s nothing subtle about it.”

There is no doubt that Nazi Germany was a haunting place to live in the wake of the Holocaust. Bernhard Schlink addressed these hardships in his 1995 novel “The Reader” and through lectures in Boston last week.

“The Reader” personalizes the Holocaust by illustrating the turmoil of a man who is in love with a woman who commits a monstrous crime.‚  Many Germans who lived during the Holocaust dealt with the same struggle.‚  Furthermore, those who were born in the next generation struggled with the guilt of these crimes.

“I think those who commit monstrous crimes are not monsters,” commented Schlink at Boston‚  University.‚  He discussed the presence of the Holocaust in today’s world saying that, “for my generation the past is still very present.”‚  He continued with saying how, “future generations can learn from the Holocaust.”

Schlink said confronting the past is important to‚ prevent equally devastating events in the future and recognize the onset of such events in the present.‚  Although today’s generation, the third after the Holocaust, does not feel as much guilt as its predecessors, the past continues to have a presence in Germany.

“Historical events are always unique and always comparable,” said Schlink.

In The Reader the main character’s, Michael Berg, dilemma falls between love and justice.‚  Eight years after a love affair with an older woman, Hanna, Berg is a law student witnessing Hanna’s trial. She was a Nazi guard.‚  He is in a moral battle between what is lawful and what is moral.‚  Many people found themselves in‚  this situation during the Holocaust.‚  Although, many people do not find themselves in the extreme situation that many of the Nazi workers found themselves in – a unique historical event – moral battles transpire daily.

Despite the necessity to confront the past Schlink clarified that, “fixation on the past is the flipside of the past.”‚  He demonstrates this in‚ Berg, he is a man who does not appear to find happiness throughout his life and is fixated on his love affair with Hanna and her crimes.

Director Stephen Daldry accurately portrays the emotional turmoil of post-Nazi Germany in his adaptation of Schlink’s novel.‚  The many layers of the novel are present throughout the film, which portrayed the struggles and guilt of the Holocaust and post-Holocaust German generations.‚  When a film student asked Schlink what he thought about the movie, which was released Jan. 9, he concisely responded, “I liked the movie.”

Originally, Anthony Minghella had the rights of “The Reader”, starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes.‚  Eventually he let Daldry and David Hare make the movie.‚ ‚ ‚  “The Reader” was nominated for four Golden Globes.‚  Kate Winslet won Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture.‚  The film has been nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture, Directing, and Adapted Screenplay.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The words “World War II” bring to mind images of soldiers crawling up the beaches of Normandy on D-Day, facing down machine guns and dodging shrapnel.

The mere mention of The Holocaust raises visions of emaciated prisoners at Hitler’s concentration camps flashing before your eyes.

What makes the film “Defiance” so unique is that without ever seeing concentration camps and with barely any physical presence from the Germans, director Ed Zwick was able to tell the story of the Jews’ plight during World War II almost as masterfully as Stephen Spielberg did with “Schindler’s List.”

Zwick’s “Defiance” tells the true survival story of four Jewish brothers who were able to evade capture by the Germans by creating camps in the forests of Poland for over three years until the end of the war.

Zwick used the heroic story of the Bielski brothers and their staunch will to survive to represent the untold story of Jews that were not bound to concentration camps.

The fear and pain etched into the faces of the refugees who traveled with the Bielskis and started to learn hope and love again before the Germans came too close, forcing them all to flee start all over again, told a story deeper than its history.

“Defiance” covers a span of little over a year, starting with the Germen’s destruction of the Bielski’s hometown in Poland and ending during one of many near-death escapes from the Germans, who continue to try to find the folklore-ish Jews hiding from them in the woods.

Over the course of that year, and the two subsequent ones that are discussed in the text following the movie, the Bielski brothers gathered a following of fellow Jews who were evading German capture — a following which eventually numbered close to 1200 people. Zwick admitted in an interview that he took liberties with some of the forest camp-dwellers’ stories, but each of the characters created represented a small piece of the bigger picture.

The opening of the film, which was a combination of historical footage and attached textual facts, felt more like the opening scenes of a documentary than the opening of a dramatic film. Though “Defiance” regulated itself about five minutes in once the actual film footage started rolling, the opening sequence was the only part of the movie that felt off-kilter. From the second the documentary footage dissolved into a filmed scene of the German’s attacking the Bielski’s hometown, “Defiance” was flawless.

Zwick drew moving performances from his leading men: Daniel Craig (Tuvia Bielski) and Liev Schreiber (Zus Bielski). Craig shed his ice-blue Bond stare for actual emotion, and Schreiber offered an equally touching performance.

Two performances that really stood out were those of Mark Feurerstein and Allan Corduner, playing a scholar and a rabbi.. Their banter throughout the movie not only provided some much needed comedic relief from the film’s somber and dramatic tone, but the relationship that so beautifully developed between the characters that had such distinctly delineated views on the world was just one of many insights Zwick made about the basis of human nature.

In a scene where a German is caught snooping too close to the forest camp and gets captured by Aron Bielsky, the youngest brother, and the Jews in the camp start mobbing around the soldier, it’s not just another scene about the Jews versus the Germans. It’s about one group of people rebelling against all the injustices in the world. When one woman cried out, “You killed my son! He was only fifteen! He had blue eyes!” before being the first to slam the butt of her rifle into the solider, the agony in her voice was such that any person, ignorant of the persecution of the Jews or not, felt tears fill their eyes in empathy.

What was most important was that “Defiance” wasn’t a story about the Holocaust. It wasn’t about World War II. It was about survival and faith and hope and love.

When learning the game, Call of Duty: World at War, was being developed by Treyarch (who previously produced the laughably stale, unbelievable mediocre Call of Duty 3), I thought it had to be more of the same. With the Call of Duty series being co-developed by Infinity Ward (the brilliant minds behind games like Medal of Honor: Allied Assault), and Treyarch, switching off every other game in theory sounded like a breath of fresh air, but in reality, it meant every other Call of Duty game would be good from this point on. In short — Infinity War made good games, Treyarch made bad ones.

Until devoting a good half week to plowing through CoD: WaW, I was sure that this would be the case. It would be more of the, “I take myself way too serious. Games are an art form and this is art,” type of nonsense, where the dialogue is far too cheesy and far too serious for me to do anything but scoff at the interactions between the blatantly unoriginal protagonist and his stock crew of rag tag warriors. But after busting through the single player and enjoying the fact that Nazi Zombies, a game mode involving four players in a two story building who must fend off wave after wave of progressively stronger zombies, as well as logging plenty of hours into the solid multiplayer mode, I was proven wrong.

CoD: WaW does take itself too seriously. That hasn’t changed; the single player campaign involves two different perspectives during World War II, one from the perspective of a Russian soldier who unbelievably survives multiple near death experiences, and the other perspective is from one of the most generic American soldiers in his trek through Japan. Both characters are surrounded by stock dialogue and characters. The only exception to the monotony that is dialogue in most war games, and especially any war game created by Treyarch, is the inclusion of Kiefer Sutherland as a voice actor for a sergeant in the American campaigns platoon. He offers a little bit of variety in terms of expectations but that is all, his lines are still boring

The campaign only lasts a few hours, ending with the Russian soldier planting a flag, and hardly does anything in terms of changing the structure of a Call of Duty game. That doesn’t mean it’s all bad necessarily, the levels are varied and the environments are fleshed out, but that isn’t a good thing either. Playing it safe behind the Call of Duty games that came before it, WaW’s campaign is as satisfying as a McDonald’s happy meal. Everything looks great, but it doesn’t fill you up, and it sure as hell doesn’t do anything new.

The ending is not very exciting and once the credits started to roll, I felt empty. After the last of the credits though, a new game mode was introduced. Nazi Zombies. I couldn’t have thought of a better idea, a better twist, on the World War II shooter than the inclusion of a four player, co-operative game that involves a variety of ways to destroy zombies. Getting a bunch of friends together to play this game mode is a well spent use of your time. Not only is it fun to shoot zombies with rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers and flame throwers from the 1930s & 40s, but the difficulty gets progressively harder. While the first wave of zombies is a synch, by wave ten, if you haven’t devised a strategy, you’ll most assuredly be overrun. Able to play online, as well as offline, this game mode gives CoD: WaW a much needed boost in terms of separating it from the plethora of other first person shooters to date. And with Valve’s, Left 4 Dead, right on its heels, Treyarch did a miraculous job of stealing some of that games thunder before its release with this game mode.

The multiplayer modes don’t very much in terms of what Call of Duty 4 did, by revolutionizing the way multiplayer first person shooters should be, and instead incorporates every facet of that, juxtaposing World War II guns for Modern guns. They’ve also replaced the helicopter, the boost you get from a seven kill streak in CoD4, with dogs. While this is annoying, more annoying than the helicopter, it is a valid inclusion to the game. The dogs are difficult to shoot at and prove nearly as effective as the helicopter. One major plus, and the only reason I continue to go back to WaW’s multiplayer instead of CoD4′s is the map design. Almost every map is very huge and very detailed, with numerous buildings and angles to shoot at enemies.

This offers a wide variety of confrontations due to the fact that nearly every time there is gunfire it is in a different location. The one thing I would remove completely is the inclusion of vehicles in the online modes. CoD is about intimate, skillful, combat where players actually have to excel at one thing or another to succeed in any aspect the game, not about unbelievably ridiculous carnage brought about by amateurs in a tank.

While Call of Duty: World at War is a solid game, it still lacks in its ability to innovate. It instead acts more like a modification of Call of Duty 4, and at $60, you’d have to be a dedicated fan of the series, or of first person shooters in general to fork that over. Or you just have a lot of money.

Video gaming has grown leaps and bounds as an industry in Russia, turning into a $500 million industry.

Akella is at the forefront of all that, and we recently had the opportunity to play one of their upcoming games, A Stroke of Fate, which is a WWII adventure title coming out in a few months.

“Fate” is looking like a pretty solid game. It has beautifully detailed scenery and compelling mini-game puzzles like playing poker with Nazi officers to earn their trust and flirting with a receptionist to get information.

Here are my concerns: The English script needs work. It still feels like the Russians translated it into English. They need to have a native speaker rewrite it entirely to adapt it to an American audience. Also, some of the puzzles are not very intuitive and require going back and forth between four or more rooms.

Finally, there’s no voice acting, just text. I called Akella out on that, especially since they’ve been working on the game for almost two years. In response, they’re adding an ethnic German voice track — it won’t be English, but it will breathe some life into the characters.

“We’re working on voice over. All NPC and male hero speak perfect German,” said Akella’s Boris Tolkachev.

What really impresses me about this game is the amount of research and work that has gone into it so far. They recreated the “fuhrerbunker,” where Hitler took refuge as the war turned against him. The developers also researched Nazi artwork and German decor at the time.

The game’s developers from SPLine Games spoke to Blast through Tolkachev, who is our English-language contact over there.

Tolkachev said SPLine worked with a history consultant and pulled a bunch of history books, and bear with me because I’m going to list some things here –

• Walter Warlimont: “Inside Hitler’s Headquarters”
• “The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel”
• Antony Beevor: “Berlin: the Downfall, 1945″
• William L. Shirer: “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”
• ¯‘€¾²¾¹ ‘€º°´¸¹ ¤µ´¾‘€¾²¸‘‡: “’¾»‘‡‘Å’¸ »¾³¾²°: ´¾»‘Å’‘„ "¸‘‚»µ‘€ ½° ²¾¹½µ, ² ¿¾»¸‘‚¸ºµ, ² ±‘‹‘‚‘Æ’”
• Leonid Mlechin: “Hitler and his Russian Friends”
• B. V. Sokolov: “Hunt for Stalin, Hunt for Hitler”
• Chuev S. G.: “Special services of the Third Reich”

I have no idea what the book is that’s in Russian, but they also gave me a list of like 30 website references too. Take a look at that here.

“In other words, we were very serious about it,” Tolkachev said.

But enough of that, people work hard to make every video game that comes out there (okay, most of them). Why is Stroke of Fate any different? It’s really a self-answering question. This is a chance to play a WWII adventure from an authentic Russian perspective, and I guarantee that no matter how many History Channel specials you’ve seen, there’s a lot about the Russian involvement in WWII that Americans don’t get exposed to.

The game, with voice acting and maybe a few more interactives like non-linear elements and repeatable minigames, has real potential. It’s mouse-driven, so you’ll do a lot of clicking, but what we seem to have is a good, cerebral adventure game with real historical backbone.

This is not a game you may have heard of. Gamespot hasn’t covered it. Blast is the first American media outlet to take an interest in the game, and we’re publishing the first hands-on review of it. Don’t expect Fallout 3 or a billion-dollar game. It’s a gutsy, conversational, alternative history lesson.

Here’s some of the newest artwork Akella has released for the game:

This is one of the rooms in RSHA (Main Imperial Office of Security) at the end of the war in April of 1945.

Under the table is a can of gasoline which Meyer must get. Also, a sculpture of Richard Wagner made by Arno Breaker can be seen. Wagner was a favorite composer of Hitler.

Hitler had his music accompanied by the news from the front, performed at the convention of NSDAP and parades. Breaker was the author of numerous heroic portraits of the party bonzas from the Third Reich.

The implementation of forging signatures in the game process.

Bread cards imposed by the fascist occupying forces in the territory of Ukraine.

Vortex engine by Victor Shauberger

“A Stroke of Fate” will be published in English at the end of the year.

Lighthouse Interactive and its project partners, developer Discus Games and Graviteam‚ announced Monday that their upcoming WWII tank simulation game, Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942, will hit shelves across North America in early November and set a firm date of November 7 for European stores.

Steel Fury is known in previews as a historically accurate and thickly detailed war game. The PC DVD-ROM game features the Russian‚ T-34/76 1941 tank.

“The events of‚ Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942‚ are based on a little-known Russian offensive that occurred during May 1942, in which a German counterattack had three Soviet armies surrounded, forcing them to fight their way out of the Barvenkovskiy Kotel “meat grinder,” the companies said in a statement.

Game summary:

Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942‚ is based on real-life events that took place from May 12-28, 1942, which engaged the Red Army in the fight of their lives. During a vicious German counterattack that began on May 17, 1942, three Soviet Armies were surrounded and were forced to fight in what has become known as the “meat grinder.” Through the monstrous roar of tanks and military vehicles, and the blaring sounds of war, players will experience bitterness at the loss of their comrades during battle and elation when they are victorious.

Game features:

• Historical Authenticity:‚ Missions are based on true historical events recreated from archives and photo references, including the interiors and exteriors of vehicles and tactical markings. The player has access to vast battlefields without obstructions from impenetrable forests or other obstacles, allowing them to choose any path available to achieve victory!
• Fear and Fury Filled Missions:‚ Throughout 30 playable missions in three unique single-player campaigns, experience large scale battles with numerous active vehicles.
• ‚ Vehicles:‚ Interact with and command all units involved in the advance against the enemy, including: more than 40 different realistically modelled vehicles, with three playable tanks: T-34/76 mod. 1941, Mk.II “ËœMatilda’ III, and the Pz. IV Ausf. F2.
• Take Full Control:‚ In first and third person views, assume crew positions for Commander, Gunner, Loader, Driver, and Hull Gunner.
• Realistic Game Physics:‚ The advanced game engine allows for precise calculation of ballistics and collisions models. Objects can be destroyed and the terrain is deformable. Both player and AI controlled vehicles are subject to realistic physics.
• Realistic Environments:‚ The game engine supports dynamic lighting, featuring night-time missions and different weather conditions. The engine’s particle system allows for realistic smoke and water effects, as well as debris from explosions.
• Damage Model:‚ Everything in the path of a tank-round can be destroyed. Vehicles can damage buildings and knock down trees. Due to the advanced game engine, impacting shells create craters and trenches take damage when tanks run over them, deforming the terrain.
• Difficulty Levels:‚ Players can adjust the level of complexity the game offers. Missions gradually raise the difficulty level by introducing more vehicles, troops, and harder to achieve mission goals. Thanks to training missions, the player can easily learn how to control their tank and supporting AI troops from all crew positions.
• ‚ Editors and Utilities:‚ Players have the ability to create custom missions and make modifications. Easy-to-use editors make it possible to add new vehicles and weapons to the game.

For more information on‚ Steel Fury: Kharkov 1942,‚ visit the official websites at‚ www.steelfury.info‚ and‚ www.lighthouse-interactive.com.

I put up a pretty quick review of Midway’s‚ TNA Impact!, but as you know, from time to time I like to dig a little deeper into a game.

So I’m playing an early version of Stroke of Fate, a WWII adventure title in the works from Akella.

Russian game mogul Akella had been a foreign name to me until meeting up with them at E3 this year. The Moscow-based company was founded in 1993 and headquartered in Moscow and was the first real game developer and publisher in Russia and is well-known for their naval games, including some Pirates of the Caribbean/Disney titles.

They are now a key game distributor in former Soviet bloc countries, which has grown to a $500 million industry. But what attracts me to them is the unique corps of games under development and license, including Stroke of Fate, which is being developed by SPLine Games.

The game puts you in the shoes of an SS soldier during the last days of WWII and Adolf Hitler as you pretend to be loyal to the Nazis, only to plot an assassination.

They’ve gone to painstaking efforts to recreate, in accurate historic detail, the infamous “furerbunker,” where Hitler took refuge as the war turned against him.

This is simply a game that American audiences — even an adventure game whore like me — might easily miss. And before Sarah Palin goes to war with Russia and messes everything up, I’m going to play a few games.

I’m playing Stroke of Fate‚ now and will have the results in the October issue.‚ 

Here are some pretty pictures in the mean time:

Company line:

Genre: adventure
Platform: PC
Publisher in Russia and CIS: Akella
Developer: Spline
Release date: Q4 2008

A Stroke of Fate is an interactive detective story framed in authentic surroundings of the fascist Germany in the 1940s. A gamer has a unique opportunity — to conduct a compelling investigation of the most mysterious secret veiled by the 20th century — Adolf Hitler’s preterm death.

The main character, a special sabotage and espionage agent is making every effort to squeeze into Adolf’s closest minions. You’ll need to act as a true patriot Germany has ever seen “" attentive Gestapo eyes are watching you all the time! A most challenging task to fulfill – to prepare an assassination of “Lieber Fuhrer” himself “" will show whether you have learned what it is to be a good spy! The Stroke of Fate will take you to the authentic landscapes and surroundings relevant to 1941-45 and controversial but still powerful personalities like Hitler, Himmler, Muller, and Goebbels. But what is even more important “" you’ll even be able to breathe that time”¦

Key features:

• Compelling pseudo-historical plot
• Ingenious brainteasers and quests to reflect German peculiarities of the 1940s;
  Realistic graphics
• Authentic places and historically derived personalities: Muller, Goebbels, and Hitler;
  You can walk along the Secret Police building and Hitler’s private study

One game we didn’t see much of at E3 was Atari’s Heroes over Europe, the WWII flying combat simulation sequel to Heroes of the Pacific, which was a very strong PC and PlayStation 2 title in its own right.

Heroes over Europe brings the combat to high definition on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in Q4 2008.

The sequel to the mighty World War II flight combat game Heroes of the Pacific, Heroes over Europe takes aspiring combat pilots into the bullet-ridden heart of major World War II European air battles in glorious dogfight-friendly high definition. Heroes over Europe follows the Allied campaign from the attacks on London to the destruction of Berlin, with players under orders to strap themselves into the authentically rendered cockpits of the campaign’s iconic aircraft. Their mission: to survive the most ferocious dogfights ever seen in a flight combat game.

Game features:

• Best tactical dogfights in HD: relive the best tactical dogfights in over 40 types of ultra-realistic iconic warplanes of the era, all presented in stunning high definition graphics with realistic localised damage on aircraft
• Meticulously rendered environments: detailed landscapes and landmarks recreated in painstaking detail including faithful representations of London and Berlin to bring war-torn World War II to life
• Legacy of ‘Heroes’ series: new instalment in the Heroes series builds on its impressive legacy with highly detailed realistic visual presentation and more online options
• Comprehensive online gameplay: fight for the skies with 4 modes of online multiplayer action for up to 16 players
• Downloadable content: additional downloadable content will be available from launch

Operation Wintersun is a boring game.

I knew I was in trouble when it took me a half hour to get past the tutorial-style intro. I finally had to turn to the manual to find out that I needed to — no lie — dig in the trash, find a potato, scatter the potato onto a special part of the ground so that a crow would fly off a branch to eat it. I then needed to tear down that branch and “combine” it with a loose bar sticking out from a nearby window.

I was then supposed to use the stick/bar to open another window that was too high. This was all done so that I can overhear two British spies talking, but as soon as I got the window open, one of the spies came outside to talk to me and the level was over.

…

Then the gameplay started to get slow.

The rest of “Undercover” is summed up best by Brett Todd, a Gamespot reporter “Anyone who can solve this spectacularly hard game without resorting to a walk-through deserves a ticker-tape parade like the kind they used to give generals and astronauts.”

The game is hard. The puzzles are completely non-intuitive. But worst of all, the gameplay and movement is so ridiculously slow that you don’t want to go spend days going through it all.

I really tried to like this game. It has a pretty interesting plot, good graphics and landscapes and a full voice cast. I even tried to forget the fact that Lighthouse Interactive, the game’s publisher, is largely European-based, so slowly developing, verbose, detailed plots are natural (just watch any British or Canadian crime drama).

The film-noir plot casts you as British physicist John Russell, drafted by intelligence to check out a Nazi plot to build a nuclear weapon.

The script is solid enough, but in the end I just couldn’t get past the fact that I was falling asleep at the mouse. And I don’t mind a slow, noir-style video game (Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit, Tex Murphy: Overseer) — the fact is that Undercover: Operation Wintersun just isn’t a good game, period.

Quick hits:

Publisher: Lighthouse Interactive
Developer: Sproing
Platform: Windows PC-CD
Genre: Adventure
Players: 1
Launch Date: August 28, 2007

Playability: 1 out of 5 stars
Learning Curve: 2 out of 5 stars
Sound: 3 out of 5 stars
Graphics: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Overall: 1.5 out of 5 stars

From Acorn Media comes Clive Cussler’s The Sea Hunters, a 3-DVD collection of the acclaimed television documentary.

The set features eight daring shipwreck expeditions to the depths of World War II’s most deadly naval battles and attacks.

“Rather than looking for treasure, the Sea Hunters seek only to complete the historical record. Besides delving deep into each site’s history,” said one writeup. “You’ll sit in on prep sessions as the team struggles with the technical challenges of their dives. Then you’ll see exactly what they see, thanks to dramatic underwater camerawork. And in each episode, you’ll hear exclusive interviews with survivors, witnesses, and other experts, bringing a human dimension to historical events.”

With the rising popularity of the Discovery Channel, History Channel and now the Science Channel in the U.S., The Sea Hunters is a great gift for dads and anyone interested in seeing sunken submarines and destroyers.