The first Army Of Two was a noble if ultimately failed attempt to build a truly ground-up co-operative experience for consoles. Despite its horrendous tone, clunky controls, brevity and limited multiplayer it was surprisingly engaging. Thankfully, the sequel is a massive improvement, ironing out all the kinks and delivering a first-rate online co-op campaign and delightful multiplayer experience. Once again you step into the shoes of private military contractors Salem and Rios but this time youre caught in the middle of a takeover of Shanghai by a mercenary outfit. The third-person gunplay is superb, co-op moves are diverse and fun, the AI is excellent and the graphical and audio presentation assured. The campaign is accompanied by a brilliant and amusing moral choice system, and weapon customisation is a hoot. Add in a wide variety of multiplayer modes and this is the years first essential purchase. Steven Fox Despite being dubbed the quintessential 1980s novel and giving the world the phrase master of the universe, The Bonfire Of The Vanities has often been sneered at by critics; sure it lacks nuance and any sense of subtlety but so did the decade it so powerfully skewers. Sherman McCoy, a hot-shot Wall Street trader, has an enviable life, a glamorous wife and a swanky Park Avenue condo. But when he and his mistress take a wrong turn driving home from Kennedy Airport one night and end up in the Bronx, McCoy inadvertently reverses over and kills a black youth. Rather than inform the authorities he makes a failed bid to distance himself from the accident cue the kind of scandal that would make Iris Robinson count her blessings. Tom Wolfes (pictured) compulsive satire of 1980s excess casts its net far and wide: from patrician Wasps, to black militants, religious fundamentalists and blood-thirsty hacks, nobody is spared the authors lacerating quips. And in the current climate, its hard to imagine a better time to read about a jumped-up financier meeting with a cruel end. Daragh Reddin There are all kinds of introduction points to Benin-born, US-based diva Anglique Kidjo. You might have first heard her on club anthems (her 1990s hits were remixed by house DJs), as a smart political commentator and Unicef campaigner or as a passionate champion of African arts heritage. Kidjos latest album extends her far-reaching appeal and if you havent heard her joyously powerful soul vocals before, its also a good place to start. As a singer, Kidjo is both easy on the ears and brilliant at shaking up expectations. Oyo features several cover versions but the familiar tunes take on a new and warmly personal lease of life. So her Yoruba- language version of Santanas Samba Pa Ti recalls weekend rave-ups in Benins capital, while a breezy rendition of Curtis Mayfields Move On Up D Monday, January 18, 2010 metrolife 17 TV Pick Of The Day Lawless Ireland Uncut Monday, TV3, 9pm When incomes are down and the economy takes a nosedive, crime tends to increase, so what better time for presenter Brian ODonovan to expose some of Irelands most daring raids and armed robberies captured on CCTV? Not content with revealing the homegrown hoods, the programme also investigates the foreign criminal gangs that are targeting Ireland. Go get em Brian. Adam Hyland PHOTOGRAPHY REVIEW Ten Miles Around Men, he recalls. His initial brief brush with fame came on an MTV singer/ songwriter talent show a decade ago, before ber-producer Timbaland took the young Tedder under his wing (I thought he was a genius; Id sit and watch him constructing tracks for hours he didnt ever follow a set pattern). One good song makes your career, and I made it my goal to be like a Swiss army knife lots of different functions, he says, although he does distinguish between his bands songs and those for other artists: The process is so different that its practically schizo. OneRepublics lyrics are deliberately personal to this bands experience, whereas when Im writing for someone like Kelly Clarkson, I get to be the romantic everyman with lyrics like I love you enough to let you go. I get a cathartic high out of that. Now that Tedder is in a position to choose his songwriting clients, whats his ultimate x factor? What attracts me is a talented artist who can take a song and deliver it as an event Leona, Adele and Beyonc can do that. All that matters is that the music is extraordinary. Is he ever tempted to check the music charts and think I am master of all I survey? He looks tempted, then bashful: Ill always find the hit song by someone else thats kicking my ass theres so much talent out there, its enough to keep me humble until I die. OneRepublics album Waking Up (Polydor) is out today. BOOK REISSUE The Bonfire Of The Vanities by Tom Wolfe Vintage, 10 GAME Army Of Two: The 40th Day XBox 360, 57 (also available on PS3, 57, and PSP, 36) DVD Dorian Gray Momentum Pictures, 15, 20 Director Oliver Parker proved a dab hand at Oscar Wilde adaptations with The Importance Of Being Earnest and An Ideal Husband but this, his take on the authors only published novel, The Picture Of Dorian Gray, is an uninspired, lacklustre exception. Those familiar with the dark tale, in which the narcissistic title character sells his soul in return for eternal youth, will be astonished by the films simplistic plot, and those who arent may wonder what the hell is going on, so lightly are the core narrative details explained. Sexed up for the Twilight generation with saucy romps in posh Victorian London brothels and a few cheap scares, the sinister Faustian theme of Wildes novel is lost in a dragging parade of unengaging, if attractive, set pieces that never hit the dramatic/erotic/horrific mark theyre aiming for. The biggest problem, however, is leading man Ben Barnes (The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian, pictured) whose dull, doe-eyed performance lacks the seductive charm and intensity the role demands. Extras: commentaries, making of, deleted scenes and three featurettes. Damian Tully- Pointon CD OF THE WEEK Anglique Kidjo: Oyo Proper Records (featuring John Legend) becomes a rallying cry for 21st-century African youth. There are vibrant tributes to Kidjos heroes Miriam Makeba, Togolese singer Bella Bellow and Aretha Franklin (on Baby, I Love You with jazzy chanteuse Dianne Reeves) but the albums most unusual number is also its most triumphant: Dil Main Chuppa Ke Pyar Ka, Kidjos cover of a soundtrack by legendary Hindi film singer Mohammed Rafi. It opens with classical flute and pulses with melodrama (the title translates as hidden in my heart is a storm of love) but evolves into a West African funk groove; Kidjo included the song because it was originally a hit in her Benin neighbourhood, years before Western pop culture discovered Bollywood. This multitasking international star always makes the music her own. Arwa Haider Last years AIB Prize winner Jackie Nickerson presents a new body of photographs exploring the rural community surrounding her coastal Co Louth home. Elegant portraits of a people and a place, Ten Miles Around both captures and withholds information muddy tyre tracks, unruly hedgerows and open gates that are all documentarian in nature yet reveal very little about its inhabitants. In the landscape shots, human presence is implied only by mans impact on the landscape in the ploughed earth, the tyre-rutted lanes, the toppled traffic cone; enigmatic evidence of a land shaped by its tenants via hedges, fences, barbed wire, burnt scrub and farm buildings. Meanwhile, Nickersons freckle-faced human subjects challenge traditional studio portraiture with their informal poses, mostly avoiding the viewers gaze. Their eyes, no longer windows to the soul, look beyond the lens, while titles are reductive: Girl In A Green Dress, Publican, and Mother And Child. We know that the young, Raphaelite-haired Girl In A Grey Top is called Nicole on account of her personalised necklace but nothing more. Beautifully shot and presented gallery spotlights and LightJet printing creating a luminous, almost lightbox quality theres an overriding sense of melancholy, the grey skies, the averted gazes and the wind-ravaged grassland nothing less than poetic. Lucy White Until Jan 31, Gallery Of Photography, Meeting House Square D2, Tue to Sat 11am to 6pm, Sun 1pm to 6pm, free. Tel: (01) 671 4654. www.galleryofphotography.ie maker index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html