Anna Paquin

Actress Anna Paquin - "True Blood" 25th Annual Paley Television Festival - ArcLight Cinemas, Los Angeles. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Anna Helene Paquin (pronounced /ˈpækwɪn/; born 24 July 1982) is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1993 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history.[1] Her acting career took off almost half a decade later when she appeared in a string of successful films including She's All That, Almost Famous and the X-Men franchise.
Paquin has received critical acclaim for her role as Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO series True Blood, for which she won the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama.
Contents  [hide]
1 Early life
2 Career
2.1 Child actress
2.2 X-Men and beyond
2.3 Theatrical career
3 Personal life
4 Filmography
5 Theatre credits
6 References
7 External links
[edit]Early life

Paquin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, the daughter of Mary Paquin (née Brophy), an English teacher and native of Wellington, New Zealand, and Brian Paquin, a high school physical education teacher, native Canadian. Paquin is the youngest of three children; she has two older siblings: a brother, Andrew, a director, born in 1977, and a sister, Katya, born in 1980,[2][3] who is the partner of Green Party co-leader Russel Norman.[4] Paquin's family moved to New Zealand when she was four. She attended the Raphael House Rudolf Steiner School until she was eight or nine.[5] Her musical childhood hobbies in New Zealand included playing the viola, cello and piano. She also participated in gymnastics, ballet, swimming and downhill skiing, though she did not have any hobbies related to acting.[6][7]
While in New Zealand, Paquin attended Hutt Intermediate School from 1994–95. Having begun her secondary education in Wellington at Wellington Girls' College, she completed her high school diploma at Windward School in Los Angeles, where she moved with her mother following her parents' divorce in 1995.[8] She graduated from Windward School in June 2000 and completed the school's community service requirement by working in an LA soup kitchen and at a special education center. She studied at Columbia University for one year, but has since been on a leave of absence to continue her acting career.
[edit]Career

[edit]Child actress
It was in New Zealand in 1991 that Paquin became an actress by chance. Director Jane Campion was looking for a little girl to play a key role in The Piano, set to film in New Zealand, and a newspaper advertisement was run announcing an open audition. Paquin's sister read the ad and went to try out with a friend; Paquin herself tagged along because she had nothing better to do. When Campion met Paquin—whose only acting experience had been as a skunk in a school play—she was very impressed with the nine-year-old's performance of the monologue about Flora's father, and she was chosen from among the 5000 candidates.[7]
When The Piano was released in 1993 it was lauded by critics, won prizes at a number of film festivals, and eventually became a popular movie among a wide audience. Paquin's debut performance in the film earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the age of eleven, making her the second-youngest Oscar winner in history after Tatum O'Neal.[7] The Piano was made as a small independent movie and wasn't expected to be widely known, and Paquin and her family did not plan to continue in the acting circles.[6] However, she was invited to the William Morris Agency, and she kept receiving offers for new roles. She systematically refused them, but she did appear in three commercials for the phone company MCI (now Verizon) in 1994.[9] She later made a series of television commercials for Manitoba Telecom Systems in her birth city of Winnipeg.[10] She also appeared as a voice in an audio book entitled The Magnificent Nose in 1994.
In 1996, she appeared in two movies. The first role was as young Jane in Jane Eyre. The other was a lead part in Fly Away Home playing a young girl who, after her mother dies, moves in with her father and finds solace in taking care of orphaned goslings.[11]
As a teenager, she had roles in films including A Walk on the Moon, Amistad, Hurlyburly, She's All That and Almost Famous.
[edit]X-Men and beyond
Paquin returned to worldwide prominence with her role as the mutant superheroine Rogue in the Marvel Comics movie X-Men in 2000,[1] its sequel X2 in 2003, and its third instalment, X-Men: The Last Stand, in 2006.


Paquin in 2006
In the fall of 2006, she completed filming Blue State. She was the executive-producer of the film, the film having been made by Paquin Films, a production company formed by both her and her brother, Andrew Paquin.[12] In November 2006, she completed the film Margaret, which was released in 2011.
In 2007, Paquin received an Emmy Award[13] nomination for Supporting Actress In A Miniseries Or A Movie for her role as Elaine Goodale in HBO's made-for-TV movie Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, based on Dee Brown's best-seller. She also received Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations in similar categories.
In 2008, Paquin appeared as waitress Sookie Stackhouse in the HBO series True Blood, her first role in a TV series. The show is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris, set in the fictional town of Bon Temps, LA.[14] Paquin won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Drama Series for her role in the show, and also won a Satellite Award in a similar category. She was also nominated for the same category in the 2009 Golden Globe Awards. The second season of True Blood premiered in the US in June 2009. Season three premiered in June 2010, and season 4 in June 2011.
In 2009, Paquin played Irena Sendler, a Polish woman hailed as a heroine of the Holocaust, in The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler, a CBS TV film biographical film based on the book Mother of the Children of the Holocaust: The Irena Sendler Story, by Anna Mieszkowska. The film was made in Latvia, and was a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation for the network.[15] Paquin's performance earned her a 2010 nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Film.
Paquin's film The Romantics, a romantic comedy with Josh Duhamel and Katie Holmes, was released in the US at selected theatres in September 2010.
Paquin was cast in a cameo role in Scream 4, which was released on April 15, 2011.[16]
Her next film is Straight A's, co-starring Ryan Phillippe, due for release in 2012.
[edit]Theatrical career
Paquin made her stage debut in 2001 in a production of The Glory of Living at the MCC Theater. She won a 2001–2002 Theatre World Award for her performance.[17] She has since appeared in a number of other plays, but only once outside the USA, when she appeared on the West End stage in London in a production of This is Our Youth in 2002.
[edit]Personal life



Paquin with husband and True Blood costar Stephen Moyer, 2009
On 5 August 2009, it was announced that Paquin was engaged to her True Blood co-star Stephen Moyer, whom she had been dating since filming the series pilot in 2007.[18][19][20] On 21 August 2010, Paquin and Moyer married at a private residence in Malibu, California.[21] Through her marriage to Moyer, Paquin has a step-son, Billy, born in 2000, and a step-daughter, Lilac, born in 2002.[22] Paquin and Moyer reside in Venice, Los Angeles.[23] On 17 April 2012, it was announced they are expecting their first child together, due in the fall.[24]
On 1 April 2010, Paquin came out as bisexual in a public service announcement for the Give a Damn campaign as part of the True Colors Fund, an advocacy group organised by Cyndi Lauper dedicated to LGBT equality.[25] The True Colors Fund was created to “inspire and engage everyone, especially straight people, to become active participants in the advancement of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality” [26]. The video features Anna Paquin stating, "I'm Anna Paquin. I'm bisexual, and I give a damn". [27] When asked about her participation in the video, Paquin responded by saying, "It wasn't like it was a big secret, it was just a cause I cared about and privately supported, but not one that I had ever had an opportunity to speak out about in a way that would be useful. Obviously I know that one person's voice doesn't necessarily do that much, but I just wanted to do my bit." [28] Anna also supports other charities and foundations such as the Children's Hospital Los Angeles and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. [29]

Pyramid scheme

A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment, services or ideals, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme or training them to take part, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public. Pyramid schemes are a form of fraud.[1][2]
Pyramid schemes are illegal in many countries including Albania, Australia[3], Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China[4], Colombia[5], Denmark, the Dominican Republic[6], Estonia[7], France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Iran[8], Italy[9], Japan[10], Mexico, Nepal, The Netherlands[11], New Zealand[12], Norway[13], the Philippines[14], Poland, Portugal, Romania[15], South Africa[16], Spain, Sri Lanka[17], Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand[18], Turkey[19], the United Kingdom, and the United States[20].
These types of schemes have existed for at least a century, some with variations to hide their true nature, and many people believe that multilevel marketing is also a pyramid scheme.[21][22][23][24]
Contents [hide]
1 Concept and basic models
1.1 The "Eight-Ball" model
1.2 Matrix schemes
2 Connection to multi-level marketing
3 Connection to franchise fraud
4 Notable recent cases
4.1 Internet
4.2 Others
5 In popular culture
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
[edit]Concept and basic models


This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (February 2009)
A successful pyramid scheme combines a fake yet seemingly credible business with a simple-to-understand yet sophisticated-sounding money-making formula which is used for profit. The essential idea is that a "con artist" Mr. X, makes only one payment. To start earning, Mr. X has to recruit others like him who will also make one payment each. Mr. X gets paid out of receipts from those new recruits. They then go on to recruit others. As each new recruit makes a payment, Mr. X gets a cut. He is thus promised exponential benefits as the "business" expands.
Such "businesses" seldom involve sales of real products or services to which a monetary value might be easily attached. However, sometimes the "payment" itself may be a non-cash valuable. To enhance credibility, most such scams are well equipped with fake referrals, testimonials, and information. The flaw is that there is no end benefit. The money simply travels up the chain. Only the originator (sometimes called the "pharaoh") and a very few at the top levels of the pyramid make significant amounts of money. The amounts dwindle steeply down the pyramid slopes. Individuals at the bottom of the pyramid (those who subscribed to the plan, but were not able to recruit any followers themselves) end up with a deficit.
[edit]The "Eight-Ball" model
Many pyramids are more sophisticated than the simple model. These recognize that recruiting a large number of others into a scheme can be difficult so a seemingly simpler model is used. In this model each person must recruit two others, but the ease of achieving this is offset because the depth required to recoup any money also increases. The scheme requires a person to recruit two others, who must each recruit two others, who must each recruit two others.

The "eight-ball" model contains a total of fifteen members. Note that unlike in the picture, the triangular setup in the cue game of eight-ball corresponds to an arithmetic progression 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15. The pyramid scheme in the picture in contrast is a geometric progression 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 = 15.
Prior instances of this scheme have been called the "Airplane Game" and the four tiers labelled as "captain," "co-pilot," "crew," and "passenger" to denote a person's level. Another instance was called the "Original Dinner Party" which labeled the tiers as "dessert," "main course," "side salad," and "appetizer." A person on the "dessert" course is the one at the top of the tree. Another variant, "Treasure Traders," variously used gemology terms such as "polishers," "stone cutters," etc. or gems like "rubies," "sapphires," "diamonds," etc.
Such schemes may try to downplay their pyramid nature by referring to themselves as "gifting circles" with money being "gifted." Popular schemes such as the "Women Empowering Women"[25] do exactly this.
Whichever euphemism is used, there are 15 total people in four tiers (1 + 2 + 4 + 8) in the scheme - with the Airplane Game as the example, the person at the top of this tree is the "captain," the two below are "co-pilots," the four below are "crew," and the bottom eight joiners are the "passengers."
The eight passengers must each pay (or "gift") a sum (e.g. $1000) to join the scheme. This sum (e.g. $8000) goes to the captain who leaves, with everyone remaining moving up one tier. There are now two new captains so the group splits in two with each group requiring eight new passengers. A person who joins the scheme as a passenger will not see a return until they advance through the crew and co-pilot tiers and exit the scheme as a captain. Therefore, the participants in the bottom 3 tiers of the pyramid lose their money if the scheme collapses.
If a person is using this model as a scam, the confidence trickster would make the lion's share of the money. They would do this by filling in the first 3 tiers (with 1, 2, and 4 people) with phony names, ensuring they get the first 7 payouts, at 8 times the buy-in sum, without paying a single penny themselves. So if the buy-in were $1000, they would receive $8,000, paid for by the first 8 investors. They would continue to buy in underneath the real investors, and promote and prolong the scheme for as long as possible to allow them to skim even more from it before it collapses.
Although the 'Captain' is the person at the top of the tree, having received the payment from the 8 paying passengers, once he or she leaves the scheme is able to re-enter the pyramid as a 'Passenger' and hopefully recruit enough to reach captain again, thereby earning a second payout.
[edit]Matrix schemes
Main article: Matrix scheme
Matrix schemes use the same fraudulent non-sustainable system as a pyramid; here, the participants pay to join a waiting list for a desirable product which only a fraction of them can ever receive. Since matrix schemes follow the same laws of geometric progression as pyramids, they are subsequently as doomed to collapse. Such schemes operate as a queue, where the person at head of the queue receives an item such as a television, games console, digital camcorder, etc. when a certain number of new people join the end of the queue. For example ten joiners may be required for the person at the front to receive their item and leave the queue. Each joiner is required to buy an expensive but potentially worthless item, such as an e-book, for their position in the queue. The scheme organizer profits because the income from joiners far exceeds the cost of sending out the item to the person at the front. Organizers can further profit by starting a scheme with a queue with shill names that must be cleared out before genuine people get to the front. The scheme collapses when no more people are willing to join the queue. Schemes may not reveal, or may attempt to exaggerate, a prospective joiner's queue position which essentially means the scheme is a lottery. Some countries have ruled that matrix schemes are illegal on that basis.
[edit]Connection to multi-level marketing

Main article: Multi-level marketing
The network marketing or multi-level marketing (abbreviated MLM) business has become associated with pyramid schemes as "Some schemes may purport to sell a product, but they often simply use the product to hide their pyramid structure."[26] and the fact while some people call MLMs in general "pyramid selling"[27][28][29][30][31] others use the term to denote an illegal pyramid scheme masquerading as an MLM.[32]
The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns "Not all multilevel marketing plans are legitimate. Some are pyramid schemes. It’s best not to get involved in plans where the money you make is based primarily on the number of distributors you recruit and your sales to them, rather than on your sales to people outside the plan who intend to use the products."[33] and states that research is your best tool and gives eight steps to follow:
Find — and study — the company’s track record.
Learn about the product
Ask questions
Understand any restrictions
Talk to other distributors (beware shills)
Consider using a friend or adviser as a neutral sounding board or for a gut check.
Take your time.
Think about whether this plan suits your talents and goals[33]
Some believe MLMs in general are nothing more than legalized pyramid schemes.[21][22][23][24]
[edit]Connection to franchise fraud

Main article: Franchise fraud
Franchise fraud (or 'franchise churning') is defined by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation as a pyramid scheme. The FBI website states:
pyramid schemes :—also referred to as franchise fraud or chain referral schemes—are marketing and investment frauds in which an individual is offered a distributorship or franchise to market a particular product. The real profit is earned, not by the sale of the product, but by the sale of new distributorships. Emphasis on selling franchises rather than the product eventually leads to a point where the supply of potential investors is exhausted and the pyramid collapses.[34]
One of Pearlasia Gamboa’s (president of the micronation of Melchizedek) franchise fraud schemes was described by the Italian newspaper La Repubblica as “one of the most diabolical international scams ever devised in recent years.”[35]
[edit]Notable recent cases

[edit]Internet
In 2003, the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) disclosed what it called an internet-based "pyramid scam." Its complaint states that customers would pay a registration fee to join a program that called itself an "internet mall" and purchase a package of goods and services such as internet mail, and that the company offered "significant commissions" to consumers who purchased and resold the package. The FTC alleged that the company's program was instead and in reality a pyramid scheme that did not disclose that most consumers' money would be kept, and that it gave affiliates material that allowed them to scam others.[36]
WinCapita was a scheme run by Finnish criminals that involved about €100 million.
[edit]Others
The 1997 rebellion in Albania was partially motivated by the collapse of pyramid schemes.
In early 2006, Ireland was hit by a wave of schemes with major activity in Cork and Galway. Participants were asked to contribute €20,000 each to a "Liberty" scheme which followed the classic eight-ball model. Payments were made in Munich, Germany to skirt Irish tax laws concerning gifts. Spin-off schemes called "Speedball" and "People in Profit" prompted a number of violent incidents and calls were made by politicians to tighten existing legislation.[37] Ireland has launched a website to better educate consumers to pyramid schemes and other scams.[38]
On 12 November 2008, riots broke out in the municipalities of Pasto, Tumaco, Popayan and Santander de Quilichao, Colombia after the collapse of several pyramid schemes. Thousands of victims had invested their money in pyramids that promised them extraordinary interest rates. The lack of regulation laws allowed those pyramids to grow excessively during several years. Finally, after the riots, the Colombian government was forced to declare the country in economical emergency to seize and stop those schemes. Several of the pyramid's managers were arrested, and these are being prosecuted for the crime of "illegal massive money reception."[39]
The Kyiv Post reported on 26 November 2008 that American citizen Robert Fletcher (Robert T. Fletcher III; aka "Rob") was arrested by the SBU (Ukraine State Police) after being accused by Ukrainian investors of running a Ponzi scheme and associated pyramid scam netting US$20 million. (The Kiev Post also reports that some estimates are as high as US$150M.)
Throughout 2010 and 2011 a number of authorities around the world including the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Bank of Namibia and the Central Bank of Lesotho have declared TVI Express to be a pyramid scheme. TVI Express, operated by Tarun Trikha from India has apparently recruited hundreds of thousands of "investors", very few of whom, it is reported, have recouped any of their investment.[40][41][42][43][44]

What is Traded?

The simple answer is MONEY.

Because you're not buying anything physical, this kind of trading can be confusing.

Think of buying a currency as buying a share in a particular country, kinda like buying stocks of a company. The price of the currency is a direct reflection of what the market thinks about the current and future health of the Japanese economy.

When you buy, say, the Japanese yen, you are basically buying a "share" in the Japanese economy. You are betting that the Japanese economy is doing well, and will even get better as time goes. Once you sell those "shares" back to the market, hopefully, you will end up with a profit.

In general, the exchange rate of a currency versus other currencies is a reflection of the condition of that country's economy, compared to other countries' economies.

By the time you graduate from this School of Pipsology, you'll be eager to start working with currencies.




Major Currencies

Symbol Country Currency Nickname
USD United States Dollar Buck
EUR Euro zone members Euro Fiber
JPY Japan Yen Yen
GBP Great Britain Pound Cable
CHF Switzerland Franc Swissy
CAD Canada Dollar Loonie
AUD Australia Dollar Aussie
NZD New Zealand Dollar Kiwi
Currency symbols always have three letters, where the first two letters identify the name of the country and the third letter identifies the name of that country's currency.

Take NZD for instance. NZ stands for New Zealand, while D stands for dollar. Easy enough, right?

The currencies included in the chart above are called the "majors" because they are the most widely traded ones.

We'd also like to let you know that "buck" isn't the only nickname for USD.

There's also: greenbacks, bones, benjis, benjamins, cheddar, paper, loot, scrilla, cheese, bread, moolah, dead presidents, and cash money.

So, if you wanted to say, "I have to go to work now."

Instead, you could say, "Yo, I gotta bounce! Gotta make them benjis son!"

Or if you wanted to say, "I have lots of money. Let's go to the shopping mall in the evening."

Instead, why not say, ""Yo, I gots mad scrilla! Let's go rock that mall later."

Did you also know that in Peru, a nickname for the U.S. dollar is Coco, which is a pet name for Jorge (George in Spanish), a reference to the portrait of George Washington on the $1 note?

Forex - Dollar higher vs. euro but trims gains against yen

The U.S. dollar extended gains against the euro on Thursday, following remarks by European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, but trimmed gains against the yen as a dollar rally sparked by Japan’s currency market intervention fizzled.

During U.S. morning trade, the greenback was sharply higher against the euro, with EUR/USD tumbling 1.27% to hit 1.4140.

Earlier in the day, ECB head Jean-Claude Trichet said the bank will conduct more cash operations to provide liquidity to banks over the next six months as the region’s debt crisis deepens.

The central bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1.5% in a widely anticipated decision, with Trichet saying that rates are still “accommodative” and inflation risks “remain on the upside.” 

The greenback was also down against the pound, with GBP/USD shedding 0.64% to hit 1.6321.

Earlier in the day, the Bank of England said it was maintaining the benchmark interest rate at 0.50%, as expected.

Elsewhere, the greenback trimmed gains against the yen and dipped against the Swiss franc, withUSD/JPY up 2.35% to hit 78.86 and USD/CHF slipping 0.13% to hit 0.7692.

Earlier in the day, Japanese officials intervened in currency markets for the first time since March to curb the yen’s gains and support the country’s largely export-led economy, sending the yen sharply lower against all major currencies. 

The Japanese intervention came one day after the Swiss National Bank cut its key lending rate to a narrower range calling the Swiss franc “massively overvalued.”

In addition, the greenback was higher against its Canadian, Australian and New Zealand counterparts, with USD/CAD rallying 1.19% to hit 0.9734, AUD/USD tumbling 1.63% to hit 1.0579 and NZD/USD dropping 1.25% to hit 0.8526.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, jumped 1.33% to hit 75.18.

Also Thursday, official data showed that the number of people who filed for unemployment assistance in the U.S. last week fell unexpectedly.

The Labor Department said the number of individuals filing for initial jobless benefits in the week ending July 29 fell by 1,000 to a seasonally adjusted 400,000, confounding expectations for an increase to 406,000.

Forex - NZD/USD down during the U.S. session

 The New Zealand Dollar was lower against the U.S. Dollar on Thursday after the release of U.S. data on Initial Jobless Claims.

NZD/USD was trading at 0.8443, down 2.23% at time of writing.

The pair was likely to find support at 0.8428, today’s low, and resistance at 0.8842, Monday’s high.

Earlier in the day, official data showed that U.S. Initial Jobless Claims fell unexpectedly to a seasonally adjusted 400K last week from 401K in the preceding week whose figure was revised up from 398K.

Analysts had expected Initial Jobless Claims to rise to 406K last week.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand Dollar was down against the Australian Dollar and the Euro, with AUD/NZD gaining 0.15% to hit 1.2470 and EUR/NZD rising 1.01% to hit 1.6753.
Forexpros 

Black Mirror III Review

Black Mirror III is sufficiently spooky but is burdened with a dreary pace and frustrating puzzles.

The Good

• Spooky settings and morose gothic horror storyline   
• Some smart, challenging logic puzzles   
• Creepy musical score.

The Bad

• Incredibly sluggish pace   
• Tedious inventory problems   
• Initially confusing story  
• Horrible voice acting.

The Black Mirror trilogy of point-and-click adventures goes out just the way that it came in, with scares and frustration running neck and neck. Cranberry Production's Black Mirror III, subtitled The Final Fear in some markets, is certainly as chilling as its predecessors, but the game is also afflicted with a slow-moving plot and maddening inventory puzzles that are exceedingly difficult to solve without the help of a walkthrough. This is old-time adventure gaming at its best and worst. While this haunted-house ride should keep you hanging around to see how everything wraps up, expect to be tempted to give up more than once by the sleepy pace of your progress and the many obtuse problems that defy logic.

Most of the clickable hotspots do little aside from give the protagonist a chance to mutter sarcastic comments.

The scariest thing about Black Mirror III may be how unfriendly it is to newcomers. The game begins right where its 2007 predecessor left off, with possibly crazy protagonist Darren/Adrian Michaels/Gordon being arrested for murder and arson in front of a burning mansion creepy enough to have been a set for a Hammer horror film. You're dropped into the action with no backstory, no flashbacks, and no assists of any sort to give you the slightest inkling of what's going on. The story sort of makes up for that later on, with a stretch of explanations that beat you over the head with What It All Means, but the early hours have your head spinning with references to the evil Gordon family, serial murders, a secret order, false death certificates, a crooked hotel owner, a ghost looking for her long-lost child, and much more. Because most of the gameplay deals with right-now inventory puzzles and set-piece head-twisters, you can still muddle through. But if you really want to get the most out of this eerie saga, you need to hunt down copies of the first two games and play through the series in its proper order. Not that you're dealing with timeless storytelling here.

While the vast majority of Black Mirror III's grim locales pleasingly resemble doom metal album covers, the graphics are dated, especially the mannequin-like character models. There are few close-ups, so most areas are shown from the same panned-back camera angle featured in adventure games going back to the 1980s. Fortunately, there is a smart sense of style in the art itself. There are loads of chilling locales in the game, some expected, some not. Everything is spooky, from the cemetery and morgue torture chamber to a village church and even a rundown convenience store.

Fine details make these areas look lived-in. Little touches constantly catch your eye, such as the dreamcatcher on the window in the therapist's office at the start of the game, the rack of used books at the corner store, and the oil paintings in the egotistical hotel owner's office. Few people populate these areas, though, establishing a captivatingly lonely mood accentuated by the sparse, plinking piano score. Clumsy voice acting slices through this thick atmosphere on a regular basis, however. While there are a couple of good performances, many of the lead roles seem to have been voiced by non-English speakers, and horrendous accents have been lathered on top of a number of characters. Darren/Adrian lugs around a Bawston accent that's borderline offensive, and Inspector Spooner's thick Irish brogue is voiced by a guy whose closest connection with Ireland is holding a bar of Irish Spring in the shower.

Ghosts in the woods and a grim atmosphere lend the game an ominous vibe.

All of the visual detail is also somewhat problematic. Every scene is crammed with hotspots that can be examined. Even a tiny cabin in the middle of the woods features a dozen clickable locations. But the vast majority of these spots deal with common items like toilets, mailboxes, tree branches, and other background scenery and have absolutely nothing to do with the storyline. All you get from clicking on them is an acerbic comment from the protagonist that accomplishes nothing but to slow down your progress and pad a six- to seven-hour game into a 10- to 12-hour one. Of course, you can't skip clicking on everything, because one hotspot in every seven or eight is an object that you can actually pick up or that leads to a real clue. Dialogue is similarly stretched out, with nonsensical conversations that drag on forever. And you can't skip them, either, because you need to reveal all pertinent facts to unlock sections of the map. So even if you've deduced something already from previously acquired evidence, you still need to go through the motions to prove to the game that you actually know what you're doing.

Dense puzzles also slow things down. This is a point-and-click adventure with horribly old-fashioned mechanics, so you're stuck picking up everything that isn't nailed down. You whip up MacGyver-ish contraptions, use corkscrews in very interesting ways, and haul around bones for no particular reason. There are worse adventures out there when it comes to this sort of thing, and at least here you make a point of dropping big items like chainsaws after use instead of dragging them through the entire game. Still, there are a lot of annoying moments when you're forced into random experimentation or hunting online for a walkthrough. Some of the inventory problems make no sense and involve illogical steps that are really tricky to figure out on your own. Logic puzzles are more interesting, at least. A fair number of them are spread throughout the game, and most involve interesting sidelines like setting up a film projector, deducing the location of a grave, breaking various codes, and more. All are solvable with careful study, and most deliver a sense of satisfaction.

Black Mirror III really plays to its audience. Old-school adventure gamers might appreciate how it stays true to a familiar formula and offers smart logic puzzles, even while groaning at the protracted pace and the tedious inventory collection. Aside from the somewhat modern visuals and the large number of voice samples, there isn't anything here that couldn't have been featured in an adventure game released 20 years ago. Those who don't appreciate this style of game or simply don't want to relive the early 1990s will not find anything here to change their minds.

By Brett Todd, GameSpot