title: Thomas Dekker (actor)

text: Dekker starred in Gregg Araki's "Kaboom" (2010). It is the first film ever awarded the Cannes Film Festival "Queer Palm Award" for its contribution to LGBT presence in cinema. Dekker was a "top candidate" for the lead role in Paramount's remake of "Footloose" (2011), but the role went to Kenny Wormald. In April 2011, Dekker starred as Lance Loud in the HBO original film "Cinema Verite", about the creation of America's first reality television series, "An American Family". Dekker played the role of Adam, the male lead on the television series "The Secret Circle" developed by The CW.


title: Thomas Dekker (actor)

text: He appeared in Daughtry's music video for their single "Waiting for Superman", which was released September 17, 2013.


title: Thomas Dekker (actor)

text: Dekker was a regular on the 2015 Fox crime drama "Backstrom", playing Gregory Valentine, the gay underworld contact and roommate of Rainn Wilson's title character, revealed to be his half-brother.


title: Thomas Dekker (actor)

text: Dekker was brought up with a musical background, and started writing music at age ten while living in Canada. At the age of fifteen he landed a record deal; however after feeling that he wasn't as involved in the music as he would have liked, he left to concentrate on making his own music. At the age of sixteen, Dekker started writing and producing his own classical music influenced by electronica which he describes as "electrofolk". His debut album "Psyanotic" was released in 2008.


title: Thomas Dekker (actor)

text: Dekker has stated that for much of his childhood, he was a victim of sexual molestation. In his teenage years, he was part of a "metalhead" subculture, where he "caused trouble in Las Vegas," and was arrested "five or six times."


title: Thomas Dekker (actor)

text: Dekker was involved in an auto accident on October 15, 2009, when he hit a 17-year-old cyclist training for a race on a freeway onramp. Originally charged with two counts of felony DUI, the charge was reduced to one count of misdemeanor reckless driving when it was found that the cyclist was at fault. He pleaded no contest, and was sentenced to a fine of $300 and two years of informal probation, and ordered to attend a 12-hour alcohol-education class.


title: Thomas Dekker (actor)

text: On April 20, 2011 in an interview with "Out" magazine Dekker spoke about his sexuality, which had been the subject of speculation:


title: Thomas Dekker (actor)

text: On July 13, 2017, Dekker came out as gay and revealed that he married Canadian actor Jesse Haddock in April that year.


title: Google News

text: Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web.


title: Google News

text: Google released a beta version in September 2002 and the official app in January 2006. The initial idea was developed by Krishna Bharat.


title: Google News

text: The service has been described as the world's largest news aggregator. In 2020, Google announced they would be spending billion to work with publishers to create Showcases.


title: Google News

text: As of 2014, Google News was watching more than 50,000 news sources worldwide. Versions for more than 60 regions in 28 languages were available in March 2012. , service is offered in the following 35 languages: Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Cantonese, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese, Kannada, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Malayalam, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.


title: Google News

text: The service covers news articles appearing within the past 44 days on various news websites. In total, Google News aggregates content from more than 20,000 publishers. For the English language, it covers about 4,500 sites; for other languages, fewer. Its front page provides roughly the first 200 characters of the article and a link to its larger content. Websites may or may not require a subscription; sites requiring subscription are noted in the article description.


title: Google News

text: On December 1, 2009, Google announced changes to their "first click free" program, which has been running since 2008 and allows users to find and read articles behind a paywall. The reader's first click to the content is free, and the number after that would be set by the content provider. Google on December 1, 2009 changed their policy to allow a limit of five articles per day, in order to protect publishers from abuse. This policy was again changed on September 29, 2015 where this limit was changed to three articles per day. In October 2017, this program was replaced with a "flexible sampling" model in which each publisher chooses how many, if any, free articles were allowed.


title: Google News

text: Additionally in July 2011, the Sci/Tech section of the English Google News versions was split up into two sections: Science and Technology. It was announced that this section split would be performed on other language versions as well. , this split had not been applied to all language versions of Google News.


title: Google News

text: In June 2017, the desktop version of Google News saw a thorough redesign that according to Google had the goal to "make news more accessible and easier to navigate ... with a renewed focus on facts, diverse perspectives, and more control for users." Yet several options such as the search tools menu were removed along with the redesign, making searches much more difficult. It now uses a card format for grouping related news stories, and as summarized by Engadget, "doesn't look like a search results page anymore", removing text snippets and blue links.


title: Google News

text: Historically users could choose to hide articles originating from a news source. These hidden sources can still be listed in a user's settings however these exclusions are no longer honoured. The option to exclude a source of news items is no longer presented.


title: Google News

text: According to a 2020 study in the journal "Nature Human Behaviour", Google News prioritizes local news outlets when individuals search for keywords specifically related to topics of local interest.


title: Google News

text: In March 2005, Agence France-Presse (AFP) sued Google for $17.5 million, alleging that Google News infringed on its copyright because "Google includes AFP's photos, stories and news headlines on Google News without permission from Agence France Presse". It was also alleged that Google ignored a cease and desist order, though Google counters that it has opt-out procedures which AFP could have followed but did not. Google now hosts Agence France-Presse news, as well as the Associated Press, Press Association and the Canadian Press. This arrangement started in August 2007. In 2007, Google announced it was paying for Associated Press content displayed in Google News, however the articles are not permanently archived. That arrangement ceased on December 23, 2009 when Google News ceased carrying Associated Press content.


title: Google News

text: In 2007, a preliminary injunction and then a Belgian court ruled that Google did not have the right to display the lead paragraph from French-language Belgian news sources when Google aggregated news stories, nor to provide free access to cached copies of the full content ("in cache" feature), due to both copyright and the sui generis database rights.


title: Google News

text: In May 2011 the ruling was upheld in appeal after Google reiterated most legal defences from the first grade plus some new ones, which the Court rejected based on the "Infopaq" ruling and others.


title: Google News

text: In July 2011, Copiepress publications were restored on Google News after they requested so and renounced any complaint based on the judgement.


title: Google News

text: Nevertheless, in a 2017 briefing on the ancillary copyright for press publishers paid by the European Commission, Prof. Höppner thought the "sui generis" database right was not violated by most platforms on the basis that the "substantial part" criterion may be too high a bar after C-444/02 "Fixtures Marketing v. OPAP" and that no publisher was known to have won a case with it.


title: Google News

text: Some Europe-based news outlets have asked their governments to consider making Google pay to host links. In Germany, their lobbying lead the introduction of the ancillary copyright for press publishers in 2013. In October 2014, a group of German publishers granted Google a license to use snippets of their publications gratis; the group had first claimed that such snippets were illegal, and then complained when they were removed by Google.


title: Google News

text: In December 2014, Google announced it would be shutting down the Google News service in Spain. A new law in Spain, lobbied for by the Spanish newspaper publishers' association AEDE, would require that news aggregators would have to pay news services for the right to use snippets of their stories on Google News. Google chose to shut down their service and remove all links to Spain-based news sites from international versions of the site.


title: Google News

text: The attempt at establishing a publisher right on press publications was then repeated at EU level with the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market.


title: Google News

text: Newspapers representing more than 90 percent of the market in Brazil opted out of having their links appear in Google News according to reports, resulting in only a "negligible" drop in traffic.


title: Google News

text: Google in June 2020 announced that it will begin paying news publishers that are located in Brazil, Germany, and Australia. Some of the partners for Google's new program include luminaries as Schwartz Media (Australia), Solstice Media, The Conversation, and Der Spiegel (Germany).


title: Google News

text: A pull-down menu at the top of search results enables users to specify the time period in which they wish to search for articles. This menu includes options such as: past day, past week, past month, or a custom range.


title: Google News

text: Users can request e-mail "alerts" on various keyword topics by subscribing to Google News Alerts. E-mails are sent to subscribers whenever news articles matching their requests come online. Alerts are also available via RSS and Atom feeds.


title: Google News

text: Users used to be able to customize the displayed sections, their location on the page, and how many stories are visible with a JavaScript-based drag and drop interface. However, for the US site, this has been disabled in favor of a new layout; roll-out of this layout is planned for other locales in the near future. Stories from different editions of Google News can be combined to form one personalized page, with the options stored in a cookie. The service has been integrated with Google Search History since November 2005. Upon its graduation from beta, a section was added that displays recommended news based on the user's Google News search history and the articles the user has clicked on (if the user has signed up for Search History).


title: Google News

text: A revamped version of Google News was introduced in May 2018 that included artificial intelligence features to help users find relevant information.


title: Google News

text: On June 6, 2006, Google News expanded, adding a News Archive Search feature, offering users historical archives going back more than 200 years from some of its sources. There was a timeline view available, to select news from various years.


title: Google News

text: An expansion of the service was announced on September 8, 2008, when Google News began to offer indexed content from scanned newspapers. The depth of chronological coverage varies; beginning in 2008, the entire content of the "New York Times" back to its founding in 1851 has been available.


title: Google News

text: In early 2010, Google removed direct access to the archive search from the main Google News page, advanced news search page and default search results pages. These pages indicated that the search covered "Any time", but did not include the archive and only included recent news.


title: Google News

text: During the summer of 2010, Google decided to redesign the format of the Google news page, creating a firestorm of complaints.


title: Google News

text: In May 2011, Google cancelled plans to scan further old newspapers. About 60 million newspaper pages had been scanned prior to this event. Google announced that it would instead focus on "Google One Pass, a platform that enables publishers to sell content and subscriptions directly from their own sites".


title: Google News

text: In August 2011, the "News Archive Advanced Search" functionality was removed entirely, again generating complaints from regular users who found that the changes rendered the service unusable. Archival newspaper articles could still be accessed via the Google News Search page, but key functionalities such as the timeline view and ability to specify more than 10 results per page were removed.


title: Google News

text: On September 7, 2008, United Airlines, which was the subject of an indexed, archived article, lost and later not quite regained US$1 billion in market value when a 2002 "Chicago Tribune" article about the bankruptcy filing of the airline in that year appeared in the current "most viewed" category on the website of the "Sun-Sentinel", a sister paper. Google News index's next pass found the link as new news, and Income Security Advisors found the Google result to be new news, which was passed along to Bloomberg News, where it was briefly a current headline and very widely viewed.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: Reflection is the change in direction of a wavefront at an interface between two different media so that the wavefront returns into the medium from which it originated. Common examples include the reflection of light, sound and water waves. The "law of reflection" says that for specular reflection (for example at a mirror) the angle at which the wave is incident on the surface equals the angle at which it is reflected.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: In acoustics, reflection causes echoes and is used in sonar. In geology, it is important in the study of seismic waves. Reflection is observed with surface waves in bodies of water. Reflection is observed with many types of electromagnetic wave, besides visible light. Reflection of VHF and higher frequencies is important for radio transmission and for radar. Even hard X-rays and gamma rays can be reflected at shallow angles with special "grazing" mirrors.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: Reflection of light is either "specular" (mirror-like) or "diffuse" (retaining the energy, but losing the image) depending on the nature of the interface. In specular reflection the phase of the reflected waves depends on the choice of the origin of coordinates, but the relative phase between s and p (TE and TM) polarizations is fixed by the properties of the media and of the interface between them.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: A mirror provides the most common model for specular light reflection, and typically consists of a glass sheet with a metallic coating where the significant reflection occurs. Reflection is enhanced in metals by suppression of wave propagation beyond their skin depths. Reflection also occurs at the surface of transparent media, such as water or glass.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: In the diagram, a light ray PO strikes a vertical mirror at point O, and the reflected ray is OQ. By projecting an imaginary line through point O perpendicular to the mirror, known as the "normal", we can measure the "angle of incidence", "θ" and the "angle of reflection", "θ". The "law of reflection" states that "θ" = θ", or in other words, the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: In fact, reflection of light may occur whenever light travels from a medium of a given refractive index into a medium with a different refractive index. In the most general case, a certain fraction of the light is reflected from the interface, and the remainder is refracted. Solving Maxwell's equations for a light ray striking a boundary allows the derivation of the Fresnel equations, which can be used to predict how much of the light is reflected, and how much is refracted in a given situation. This is analogous to the way impedance mismatch in an electric circuit causes reflection of signals. Total internal reflection of light from a denser medium occurs if the angle of incidence is greater than the critical angle.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: Total internal reflection is used as a means of focusing waves that cannot effectively be reflected by common means. X-ray telescopes are constructed by creating a converging "tunnel" for the waves. As the waves interact at low angle with the surface of this tunnel they are reflected toward the focus point (or toward another interaction with the tunnel surface, eventually being directed to the detector at the focus). A conventional reflector would be useless as the X-rays would simply pass through the intended reflector.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: When light reflects off of a material with higher refractive index than the medium in which is traveling, it undergoes a 180° phase shift. In contrast, when light reflects off of a material with lower refractive index the reflected light is in phase with the incident light. This is an important principle in the field of thin-film optics.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: Specular reflection forms images. Reflection from a flat surface forms a mirror image, which appears to be reversed from left to right because we compare the image we see to what we would see if we were rotated into the position of the image. Specular reflection at a curved surface forms an image which may be magnified or demagnified; curved mirrors have optical power. Such mirrors may have surfaces that are spherical or parabolic.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: If the reflecting surface is very smooth, the reflection of light that occurs is called specular or regular reflection. The laws of reflection are as follows:


title: Reflection (physics)

text: In classical electrodynamics, light is considered as an electromagnetic wave, which is described by Maxwell's equations. Light waves incident on a material induce small oscillations of polarisation in the individual atoms (or oscillation of electrons, in metals), causing each particle to radiate a small secondary wave in all directions, like a dipole antenna. All these waves add up to give specular reflection and refraction, according to the Huygens–Fresnel principle.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: In the case of dielectrics such as glass, the electric field of the light acts on the electrons in the material, and the moving electrons generate fields and become new radiators. The refracted light in the glass is the combination of the forward radiation of the electrons and the incident light. The reflected light is the combination of the backward radiation of all of the electrons.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: In metals, electrons with no binding energy are called free electrons. When these electrons oscillate with the incident light, the phase difference between their radiation field and the incident field is π (180°), so the forward radiation cancels the incident light, and backward radiation is just the reflected light.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: Light–matter interaction in terms of photons is a topic of quantum electrodynamics, and is described in detail by Richard Feynman in his popular book "QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter".


title: Reflection (physics)

text: When light strikes the surface of a (non-metallic) material it bounces off in all directions due to multiple reflections by the microscopic irregularities "inside" the material (e.g. the grain boundaries of a polycrystalline material, or the cell or fiber boundaries of an organic material) and by its surface, if it is rough. Thus, an 'image' is not formed. This is called "diffuse reflection". The exact form of the reflection depends on the structure of the material. One common model for diffuse reflection is Lambertian reflectance, in which the light is reflected with equal luminance (in photometry) or radiance (in radiometry) in all directions, as defined by Lambert's cosine law.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: The light sent to our eyes by most of the objects we see is due to diffuse reflection from their surface, so that this is our primary mechanism of physical observation.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: Some surfaces exhibit "retroreflection". The structure of these surfaces is such that light is returned in the direction from which it came.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: When flying over clouds illuminated by sunlight the region seen around the aircraft's shadow will appear brighter, and a similar effect may be seen from dew on grass. This partial retro-reflection is created by the refractive properties of the curved droplet's surface and reflective properties at the backside of the droplet.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: Some animals' retinas act as retroreflectors (see "tapetum lucidum" for more detail), as this effectively improves the animals' night vision. Since the lenses of their eyes modify reciprocally the paths of the incoming and outgoing light the effect is that the eyes act as a strong retroreflector, sometimes seen at night when walking in wildlands with a flashlight.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: A simple retroreflector can be made by placing three ordinary mirrors mutually perpendicular to one another (a corner reflector). The image produced is the inverse of one produced by a single mirror.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: A surface can be made partially retroreflective by depositing a layer of tiny refractive spheres on it or by creating small pyramid like structures. In both cases internal reflection causes the light to be reflected back to where it originated. This is used to make traffic signs and automobile license plates reflect light mostly back in the direction from which it came. In this application perfect retroreflection is not desired, since the light would then be directed back into the headlights of an oncoming car rather than to the driver's eyes.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: When light reflects off a mirror, one image appears. Two mirrors placed exactly face to face give the appearance of an infinite number of images along a straight line. The multiple images seen between two mirrors that sit at an angle to each other lie over a circle. The center of that circle is located at the imaginary intersection of the mirrors. A square of four mirrors placed face to face give the appearance of an infinite number of images arranged in a plane. The multiple images seen between four mirrors assembling a pyramid, in which each pair of mirrors sits an angle to each other, lie over a sphere. If the base of the pyramid is rectangle shaped, the images spread over a section of a torus.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: Note that these are theoretical ideals, requiring perfect alignment of perfectly smooth, perfectly flat perfect reflectors that absorb none of the light. In practice, these situations can only be approached but not achieved because the effects of any surface imperfections in the reflectors propagate and magnify, absorption gradually extinguishes the image, and any observing equipment (biological or technological) will interfere.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: In this process (which is also known as phase conjugation), light bounces exactly back in the direction from which it came due to a nonlinear optical process. Not only the direction of the light is reversed, but the actual wavefronts are reversed as well. A conjugate reflector can be used to remove aberrations from a beam by reflecting it and then passing the reflection through the aberrating optics a second time. If one were to look into a complex conjugating mirror, it would be black because only the photons which left the pupil would reach the pupil.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: Materials that reflect neutrons, for example beryllium, are used in nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons. In the physical and biological sciences, the reflection of neutrons off of atoms within a material is commonly used to determine the material's internal structure.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: When a longitudinal sound wave strikes a flat surface, sound is reflected in a coherent manner provided that the dimension of the reflective surface is large compared to the wavelength of the sound. Note that audible sound has a very wide frequency range (from 20 to about 17000 Hz), and thus a very wide range of wavelengths (from about 20 mm to 17 m). As a result, the overall nature of the reflection varies according to the texture and structure of the surface. For example, porous materials will absorb some energy, and rough materials (where rough is relative to the wavelength) tend to reflect in many directions—to scatter the energy, rather than to reflect it coherently. This leads into the field of architectural acoustics, because the nature of these reflections is critical to the auditory feel of a space.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: In the theory of exterior noise mitigation, reflective surface size mildly detracts from the concept of a noise barrier by reflecting some of the sound into the opposite direction. Sound reflection can affect the acoustic space.


title: Reflection (physics)

text: Seismic waves produced by earthquakes or other sources (such as explosions) may be reflected by layers within the Earth. Study of the deep reflections of waves generated by earthquakes has allowed seismologists to determine the layered structure of the Earth. Shallower reflections are used in reflection seismology to study the Earth's crust generally, and in particular to prospect for petroleum and natural gas deposits.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: South Park: The Fractured but Whole is a 2017 role-playing video game developed by Ubisoft San Francisco and published by Ubisoft in collaboration with South Park Digital Studios. Based on the American animated sitcom "South Park", it is the sequel to the 2014 video game "". The game's narrative occurs one day after the events of its predecessor; it follows the New Kid, who has recently moved to South Park and becomes involved in an epic roleplay involving two rival superhero factions vying to create their own superhero media franchises. The superheroes' game unintentionally uncovers a conspiracy to raise crime in the town, bringing them into conflict with supervillains, genetically engineered monsters, the police, crime families, and the new kingpin of crime.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: The game is played from a 2.5D third-person perspective, replicating the aesthetic of the television series. The New Kid is able to freely explore South Park, interacting with characters, undertaking quests, and accessing new areas by progressing through the main story. The player can choose from up to ten superhero archetypes ranging from high-speed Speedsters, close-combat Brutalists, powerful Psychics, and healing Plantmancers; each offering unique abilities. The New Kid and up to three allies fight their enemies using attacks including melee, ranged, and powerful farts. Battles take place on a grid, around which participants can move freely. Attacks have specific areas of effect, requiring tactical positioning for attack and defense.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Following Ubisoft's purchase of the rights to "The Stick of Truth" in 2013, the company moved development of the sequel from Obsidian Entertainment to Ubisoft San Francisco. "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were unsure whether to make a sequel to the 2014 game or work on a new film project, opting for the game. Parker and Stone were involved throughout the game's production; they wrote its script, consulted on the design, and voiced many of the characters. The show's composer Jamie Dunlap worked on the game's soundtrack alongside Ubisoft San Francisco, creating music that was heavily inspired by the scores of several superhero films.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Like its predecessor, the release of "The Fractured but Whole" was subject to several delays. The game was initially set for release in December 2016 but it was postponed for nearly a year. It was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 17, 2017. The game received generally positive reviews, which praised the improvements and creativity of combat scenarios and faithfulness to the source material. Reviewers were divided over the story; some critics called it a humorous improvement, while others said it was less effective and relied too much on toilet humor. The game received post-release, supplemental story missions as downloadable content (DLC), and a Nintendo Switch version in 2018.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: "South Park: The Fractured but Whole" is a role-playing video game that is viewed from a 2.5D, third-person perspective. The player controls the New Kid as they explore the fictional Colorado town of South Park, around which the player-character can be freely moved. A fast-travel system allows the character to be moved between unlocked travel points.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: The game allows the player to select one of ten archetypal superhero player-characters; the nimble Speedster, the short-range, high damage Brutalist, the long range, moderate damage Blaster, the weather-based Elementalist, the offense-attracting Cyborg, the long-range, status effecting Psychic, the stealthy Assassin, the gadget-using Gadgeteer, the healing Plantmancer, and the high-damage, swift Martial Artist. At first only three choices are available (Blaster, Speedster, and Brutalist); the New Kid can eventually access all ten classes, freely matching powers from the available classes, for example, the player can use the Blaster's fire blasts, the Assassin's knives, and the Martial Artist's kicks. The player can assign four powers from the classes, three regular attacks and one ultimate attack. Ultimate attacks can only be used after filling the Ultimate bar, a pool of points shared between the New Kid and their allies that is increased by completing timed button presses during attacking and defending phases. Throughout the game, the player can select up to three allies from twelve characters to accompany them in battle, each possessing three powers and an ultimate attack.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: "The Fractured but Whole" retains the turn-based combat of the previous game in the series, "" (2014). Instead of taking place on a static plane, battles are fought on a variable-size grid on which the player and enemies can move freely to create strategic advantages. The grid can contain environmental hazards such as exploding chemical barrels, and lava (red Lego bricks). The player selects attacks from a menu. Attacks can be augmented with contextual button presses for extra damage. Timed button presses during enemy attacks can recover some health after being hit and increase the Ultimate meter. Attacks offer effects including abilities with "knockback" damage, which can be used to forcibly move an opponent around the battlefield and inflict status effects such as poisoning, freezing, burning, and bleeding, which inflict damage over time.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Each attack affects a different area of the grid, requiring strategic positioning to hit enemies and avoid attacks. The attacker can increase damage by knocking targets into each other or into an ally. Healing items can be used in battle, requiring one turn per use. The player can collect artifacts and equipment to boost the player's Might, making them stronger in battle and offering benefits such as increased defense; more artifacts can be used as the player's level increases. The player-character has a DNA slot, allowing them to use strands of DNA to boost attributes called Brawn, Brains, Health, Spunk, and Move. The non-player character, PC Principal, can teach the player to recognize microaggressions in enemy dialogue, which allows the player a free in-battle attack against an enemy. Some characters, such as Jimbo and Ned, Classi, Gerald Broflovski, and Moses, can be summoned during battle; Moses heals all allies while the others deliver powerful attacks.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: The New Kid can manipulate time with their farts; this ability can be used in battle to skip an opponent's turn, pause time to move around the grid and inflict out-of-turn damage, or summon a past version of the New Kid to join the battle. The New Kid's farting power can also be used to reverse time, fix objects, and pause time to avoid obstacles or fast-moving targets. Some areas of the town are inaccessible until the player gains specific allies who can use the New Kid's farting power to overcome the obstacle: Captain Diabetes can be sent into a rage that allows him to move heavy objects; the Human Kite can fly the New Kid to otherwise unreachable heights; Toolshed's sandblaster can clear paths that are blocked by lava that cause the player to combust; and Professor Chaos can launch a hamster from the New Kid's rectum to reach and sabotage electrical panels.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: The player can modify the New Kid's appearance, superpowers, gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity at any time in the game. Gender choices include male, female, and non-binary. Costume items can be collected, mixed together and recolored but have no influence on the New Kid's abilities. The New Kid's race selector is represented as a difficulty level slider, with lighter skin being easy and darker skin being harder. The slider does not affect combat but affects the amount of money the player can receive and the way some characters speak to the New Kid.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: The game has three combat difficulty levels, which affect the power of enemies in relation to the player; "Casual" (weaker enemies), "Heroic" (normal enemies), and "Mastermind" (stronger enemies). A crafting system allows the player to use recovered or purchased resources such as duct tape, glue, sports drink bottles, and taco-related products to craft items such as healing burritos and quesadillas, costumes, and artifacts. The player is encouraged to explore the wider game world to defecate in toilets in a mini-game, find yaoi art depicting intimate moments between the characters Tweek and Craig, or take self-portraits with town residents to increase their followers on Coonstagram, an Instagram-like social media feed. The player must amass a certain number of social media followers to complete certain story missions. The character's cellphone serves as the game's main menu, containing items including the inventory, character profiles, and active quests.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: "South Park: The Fractured but Whole" is set in South Park, a fictional town in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The game's events occur one day after those of its precursor, "The Stick of Truth"; the player again controls the New Kid, a silent protagonist. The children abandon their fantasy role-playing game to become superheroes and create a superhero media franchise. Unable to agree on who will get a film or Netflix series, the characters split into two rival factions, Coon and Friends and the Freedom Pals, and vie to create their own franchise first.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Led by the raccoon-clawed Coon (Eric Cartman), Coon and Friends operates from the Coon Lair, the Coon's basement. The group includes The Human Kite (Kyle Broflovski), the life-leeching Mosquito (Clyde Donovan), the super-fast Fastpass (Jimmy Valmer), the powerful Super Craig (Craig Tucker), and the New Kid. The Freedom Pals are led by the telekinetic Dr. Timothy (Timmy Burch), and includes Mysterion (Kenny McCormick), Toolshed (Stan Marsh), the weather-wielding Wonder Tweek (Tweek Tweak), and mechanized Tupperware (Token Black). Other heroes include the hacker Call Girl (Wendy Testaburger) and super-strong Captain Diabetes (Scott Malkinson). The heroes' journey brings them into conflict with groups including the local elderly population, ninjas, the sixth graders, the Hooters-parodying Raisins girls, hobos, Kyle's cousin Kyle Schwartz, and the supervillain Professor Chaos (Butters Stotch).


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: "The Fractured but Whole" features characters from the series' history, including: Stan's father Randy, Butters' father Stephen, Kyle's father Gerald, the school principal PC Principal, Moses, Seaman, school counselor Mr Mackey, Detective Yates, strippers Spontaneous Bootay and Classi, Big Gay Al, gun enthusiasts Ned and Jimbo, Father Maxi, Jesus, the Crab people, the Memberberries, Towelie, and a Kanye West-inspired Gay Fish. The game also features Morgan Freeman as a taco shop owner. Locations from the show featured include the City Wok restaurant, the Peppermint Hippo strip club, Kenny's House in the abandoned, gentrified district SoDoSoPa, the classier Shi Tpa Town containing Skeeter's Bar and Jimbo's Guns. The Memberberry Farm and the road to Canada are also featured in the game. Many of the characters are voiced by "South Park" co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Cartman and the other children decide to play superheroes with the goal of launching a superhero media franchise by finding a missing cat and claiming the $100 reward. The New Kid joins the game and Cartman provides them with a tragic backstory; having witnessed "your dad fuck your mom", with Cartman apparently not realizing that this is normal, not an act of betrayal.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: The children's search uncovers a conspiracy led by a new kingpin who has united the police; the Italian, Chinese, and Russian crime families; and the sixth graders to steal cats and use their urine to contaminate drugs and alcohol, making the townspeople act crazily and raising crime, which will be blamed on the mayor. Coon and Friends defeat the kingpin's henchman Professor Chaos and Cartman surmises that the mastermind is Mitch Conner, a crude hand puppet drawn on Cartman's left hand. The New Kid and Chaos are sent to infiltrate the Freedom Pals to gain more information, culminating in the two groups co-operating to take down the police department, who are helping Mitch become the new mayor so they can have fewer restrictions on fighting crime. Afterwards, the children join Freedom Pals after learning they have developed a franchise plan that is more inclusive than Cartman's.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: The next day, Mitch kidnaps the New Kid's parents and destroys the Freedom Pals' franchise plan. The Freedom Pals capture Cartman, who insists he has no control over Mitch and reveals that the New Kid's parents are being held at Dr. Mephesto's genetic engineering lab. There, the Freedom Pals learn Mitch has been funding the creation of an army of mutated cats and sixth graders, which Mitch unleashes on the children. Battling through the mutants, the New Kid finds their parents and is forced to kill one of them to continue. At the exit, the Freedom Pals are ambushed by a mutated clone of Kyle's cousin—and Mitch. The New Kid uses a powerful fart to defeat the clone, which accidentally transports the Freedom Pals one week into the future, where Mitch is the mayor.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: With aid from Morgan Freeman, the New Kid learns to time travel with their farts. They travel to the future where Mitch has completed his master plan to make every day Christmas Day, causing drunken anarchy throughout the town, and have to fight the Woodland Critters with the help of Santa Claus. They then travel to the past and confront Cartman before he can start the superhero game. Mitch reveals himself and punches the New Kid, causing a fart that sends them back to the New Kid's superhero origin. Cartman and the New Kid's interference prevents the New Kid's father from having sex with their mother, changing the past. The New Kid's parents reveal their secret; they have the superhuman ability to amass social media followers. The government kidnapped the parents to harness their powers, during which time they fell in love and had the New Kid. They escaped to protect their child and gave them medicine to suppress their powers, causing extreme flatulence.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Knowing the truth, the New Kid time travels with Cartman to the day of Mitch's inauguration. Cartman escapes a confrontation with the Freedom Pals and prepares to be sworn in as Mitch. The Freedom Pals use social media to publicly reveal Mitch's plot and accuse Cartman of raising crime so the Coon would have more crime to fight, giving him a bigger franchise. Mitch confesses he was traumatized as a child because "someone fucked my dad." Mitch's mother appears on Cartman's right hand and reveals that it was her and asks for forgiveness. They fight and both "die", ending Mitch's plot, while the townspeople resolve to obtain clean drugs and alcohol from the neighboring town.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: After the credits, the New Kid returns home to find both parents are alive and, unburdened by the secret they were keeping, their relationship is happier. While the New Kid's parents go upstairs to have sex, Professor Chaos confronts the New Kid with the truth that no matter how much they change the past, "your dad will always have fucked your mom." Chaos offers the New Kid a chance to take an alternative, darker path.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: In March 2014, Matt Stone and Trey Parker stated they were open to making a sequel to "The Stick of Truth", depending on its reception. When Ubisoft offered to develop a new game, Parker and Stone discussed the proposed game sequel or the possibility of making a film. They wanted to ensure quality control and decided that because of commitments to the television series and their families, they could only work on one big project and chose to work on the game.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: During development of the previous game by Obsidian Entertainment for publisher THQ, Ubisoft bought the rights to the game after THQ went into bankruptcy. Ubisoft chose to develop the sequel internally, replacing Obsidian Entertainment with the nearly 100-member team at Ubisoft San Francisco (USF). The team, which was responsible for the "Rocksmith" series of music video games, recruited experts in role-playing games and their related systems. Additional support work was done by Ubisoft Osaka, Massive Entertainment, Ubisoft Annecy, Ubisoft Reflections, Blue Byte, and Ubisoft Quebec.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Parker and Stone were involved throughout the development cycle. At the beginning of development, they met with the team at Ubisoft to determine the game's storyline and elements of "The Stick of Truth" they were unhappy about. Ubisoft game developers, including senior producer Jason Schroeder, visited "South Park" studios twice monthly for a few days or conducted teleconferencing meetings. Schroeder was responsible for declining Stone and Parker's requests when necessary. Although meetings still took place, Parker and Stone became less available to the Ubisoft team during production of "South Park", which had a tight production schedule.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Ubisoft adapted Snowdrop, its proprietary game engine, to allow the importing of the Autodesk Maya art assets used in the show rather than emulating them as in "The Stick of Truth". This allowed the Ubisoft team to iterate and implement changes to the game and storyline late into the development schedule, meaning it could satirize recent events that occurred only months before release and incorporate elements from "South Park" episodes produced during the game's development, including the character PC Principal, and the gentrification areas of the town. Of last-minute changes, Schroeder said, "If it doesn't mess with our age rating? It shouldn't be a problem". Senior animator Lucas Walker said the changes to the engine took approximately a year to implement, but they were necessary to allow more seamless collaborations with South Park Digital Studios, including the use of the original animation rigs to emulate movement.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Even with the ability to easily import the "South Park" series' assets, the engine was designed for the development of 3D environments not 2D animation. The game required an amount of detailed work to match the movement style of the show and the expressions used by the characters. The game's executive producer, Nao Higo, said building all of the game's content would have been impossible for the relatively small team, believing they would need three-or-four times the staff to accommodate the project. USF worked extensively with South Park Digital Studios, which helped create animations and assets for the game.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: "The Fractured but Whole", was publicly revealed on June 15, 2015, at Ubisoft's press conference at the 2015 Electronic Entertainment Expo, and in June 2016 a release date of December 6 was set. In September that year, the game's release was postponed to early 2017. In February 2017, it was again postponed to between April 2017 and March 2018. In May 2017 it received its eventual release date of October 17. Discussing the delays, Higo said USF was unhappy with the game's quality and wanted more time to refine it. These refinements often led to story changes—sometimes for pacing or comedy purposes—which meant entire sections of the game and their assets needed to be reworked. Some missions were completely removed despite being far into development. Unlike more typical videogame prototyping, in which designers experiment with simple gameplay demos, USF relied more heavily on interactive storyboards of the script to gain a sense of the location and the narrative. Parker and Stone provided feedback and the designers would change the storyboard until it was considered to be perfect. "The Fractured but Whole" was officially released to manufacturing on September 22, 2017.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Parker and Stone wrote the script in Movie Magic Screenwriter, complete with stage directions that were edited or translated into gameplay by narrative designer Jolie Menzel and her team. The game script is 360 pages long, which is twice the size of that of the previous game, and equivalent to four or five feature films, according to the show's executive producer Frank C. Agnone II. Between them, Stone and Parker recorded approximately 20,000 lines of dialogue. During production, Parker became ill and had to undergo emergency gallbladder surgery. Parker persuaded his doctor to allow him to temporarily leave the hospital to record dialogue. On his return to the hospital, Parker told Agnone, "I just want this game to be sweet".


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Parker and Stone considered it important to prevent the superhero setting from overwhelming the main focus of the story, which is fourth-grade children playing together and dressing up as heroes to enhance that experience. Stone said it is important to retain the game's charm and remind the player the characters are children playing. Parker's and Stone's original concept for the title was "The Butthole of Time", but Ubisoft told them retailers would not stock a product bearing the word "butthole". Parker said he sat at his desk for hours working out a way to sneak the word into the title. Parker said, "how do I get butthole, butthole, butt hole, butt hole, but hole, but whole!"


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: The levels were designed to allow combat; when battles take place the player is not taken to an abstract map as in "The Stick of Truth". Schroeder said, "when we have to cut away from a certain background for the fighting it kind of broke the feeling of I’m fighting where I’m exploring so we thought about what can we do to make the place I’m exploring also the combat space?" The team considered removing movement from a previously explorable area did not work, so they added movement to combat, which in turn led to the more tactical combat in "The Fractured but Whole". Schroeder described the concept as a mixture of Parker's affection for board games and Stone's preference for shooter, action, and sports games. The design team retained the turn-based combat system of "The Stick of Truth" because it better enabled the implementation of timing for jokes. Parker invited Schroeder and lead designer Ken Strickland to play the board game "Star Wars: Imperial Assault", which helped them develop a unified jargon language and a common understanding of the game's campaign. Later in development, Parker and Stone played early builds of the game, helping them visualize their planned changes. They wrote out ideas for changes and feedback on a whiteboard, which the Ubisoft team used to understand what was required of them. Parker and Stone watched Let's Play videos by PewDiePie of "The Stick of Truth" to observe a consumer playing it and giving feedback about the game and considering what worked and what did not work.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Schroder said the USF team had to adapt to prioritizing comedy and comedic timing over gameplay, meaning it was more important to convey humor than to improve systems. They sometimes needed to step back from the less comfortable aspects of Parker's and Stone's design, at one point contemplating an autoplay option that would complete segments for the player, such as a sequence in which the 9–10-year-old protagonists give a lap dance in a strip club in a minigame. The team decided allowing players to opt out of the interactivity removed the core of the joke, forcing the player to participate in "this ridiculous thing". Menzel said good interactive comedy was dependent on a more intimate relationship between the joke teller and receiver, and making the player participate or even be responsible for the joke; for instance giving them control over interrogating someone by farting, heightened the "South Park" humor by making the player responsible for the things they see in the show.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: The finished game features ten classes of superhero, but early in development it featured up to twelve, including the Mystic. USF chose the Brutalist, Speedster, and Blaster as starting classes because they were simple to understand. The developers decided to separate the player's statistics from their clothing choices. Schroeder said players can create their own superhero brand by dressing the player-character as they want, citing the popularity of "The Stick of Truth" for online streaming. They developed the Artifact system, which could be used to enhance statistics, as an alternative A rejected option for "The Stick of Truth" was the choice to play as a girl, which could not be included without altering the entire narrative. They chose to include it in "The Fractured but Whole"; Stone said he always plays as a girl where the option exists.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: "The Fractured but Whole" offers twelve allies compared to "The Stick of Truth"s six; USF wanted them, their powers, and their associated dialogue to be a more frequent presence, involving them in both battles and exploration. While some of the children have genuine super powers, such as Mysterion's immortality, the realism of the remaining characters' powers is left deliberately ambiguous to maintain the illusion of children playing a game. Menzel said, "We want to continually dip into their imagination and let the player be in the kids’ imaginations". The Coon will greatly exaggerate his abilities to suggest things he is not capable of, so the designers added small touches like having him trip or fall over.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: "South Park" composer Jamie Dunlap and USF lead audio designer Nicholas Bonardi were responsible for the game's sound. While "The Stick of Truth" largely used music and sounds pulled directly from the show, the USF team aimed to create an original sound. Early in development, Bonardi created a temporary score by piecing together music from the show for the game, but found Dunlap's experience on the rapidly-produced show meant he could deliver music quickly enough that it was sometimes easier to ask him directly for original music. Bonardi and his team also created original music for "The Fractured but Whole", but Dunlap's input ensured it retained the "South Park" sound. The game's sound design was inspired by several superhero film scores; The Coon's and Mysterion's themes are based on Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight Trilogy". The score for Coon and Friends is based on that of "The Avengers" (2012), while that of their rivals Freedom Pals is inspired by the X-Men series of films. Other inspirations included "Superman" (1978) and "Batman Returns" (1992), and the "Castlevania" video game series, which inspires the Vamp Kids theme.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: The Ubisoft team had access to cheap sound effects albums used for foley sounds on "South Park", but needed to make additional sounds for the game. USF had an area set aside for making fart sounds, stocked with plungers, a vuvuzela, and noise putty. Bonardi estimated they created more than 100 unique fart sounds for the game to reduce the repetitiveness of the sounds, which are used frequently in the game. They also mixed in other sounds, for instance the farts heard when the player and Kyle work together is mixed with the sound of a jet engine.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: "The Fractured but Whole" was released worldwide on October 17, 2017, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. In contrast to the previous game, "The Fractured but Whole" was released worldwide without having to censor any content. In a September 2017 interview, USF associate producer Kimberly Weigend said the game's content was not tamer than that of "The Stick of Truth", and the uncensored release was possibly a sign of censors becoming more open to ideas and that interactive media was a relatively new medium and the ratings system was evolving alongside it. Design director Paul Cross said to prevent the difficulties "The Stick of Truth" experienced, USF tried to avoid content they knew would be censored, but that Parker and Stone would tell the story they wanted regardless of censorship concerns.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: In addition to the standard game, special versions were released at launch. The Gold Edition included a set of in-game costumes, a bonus perk, and a Season Pass granting access to post-launch downloadable content (DLC). The Steelbook Gold Edition, which was presented in a metallic case, featured the standard game, all of the Gold Edition content, and a series of lithographic prints displaying art by South Park Studios. The Collector's Standard Edition contained the game, the lithographic prints, and a 6-inch model of Cartman as "The Coon" by UbiCollectibles and ArtToyz. The Collector's Gold Edition contained all of the extra items. People who pre-ordered the game received a downloadable version of "The Stick of Truth" and the character Towelie as an in-game assistant. The PlayStation Store offered exclusive avatars of Kenny, Butters, Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Coon and Friends; and Amazon released an exclusive bundle of the game that came with the Steelbook case and a remote-controlled model of Coon on a tricycle. The voiced figure can be controlled by an App available for Android and iOS users.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: As a promotional item, the team designed and created the Nosulus Rift, a parody of the Oculus Rift, which appeared at the PAX West event in September 2016. Developed internally at Ubisoft as a joke about a fake prop the team would promote as real, the team decided to develop the item. Nosulus Rift, which was not released for sale publicly, would release a fart smell to create an olfactory-immersive experience. Ubisoft ran the worldwide "I am the fart" competition in October 2017; the jury, which included British flatulist Mr. Methane, judged videos of entrants farting and selected an overall winner, who would be flown to Ubisoft San Francisco to record their fart sound for inclusion into "The Fractured but Whole". A twelve-character series of collectible figures based on "The Fractured but Whole" cast was also released. A Nintendo Switch version, adapted by Ubisoft Pune, was released on April 24, 2018.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: First broadcast in October 2017, "South Park" episode "Franchise Prequel" serves as a narrative prequel to the game and features the characters wearing outfits and acting out roles similar to those in the game. In the episode, Coon and Friends attempt to launch their superhero media franchise but are derailed by Professor Chaos, who launches a plot to spread fake news on Facebook about the boys. Chaos is defeated but the boys are divided over their media franchise, leading into the events of "The Fractured but Whole".


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Several downloadable content (DLC) items were released alongside the game. These items were provided for a fee and include the "Relics of Zaron" pack that contains various costume items and perks, and "Towelie: Your Gaming Bud", which causes the character Towelie to appear and give comical advice to the player during the game. The first post-release DLC, "Danger Deck", was released on December 19, 2017. It involves a combat challenge in Doctor Timothy's Danger Deck, the Freedom Pals' iPad-walled training room, where the player can engage in increasingly-difficult virtual combat scenarios in new locations. Success is rewarded with items and costumes usable in the main game.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Two story-based DLC packs were developed for "The Fractured but Whole". The first, "From Dusk till Casa Bonita", was released on March 20, 2018. It requires the player to team up with the Coon and Mysterion to rescue Mysterion's sister, Karen, from the Vamp Kids, who are celebrating Mike Makowski's birthday, at the Casa Bonita restaurant. The DLC introduces the Netherborn class with four new abilities, and the goth Henrietta, as a witch ally. The second DLC, "Bring the Crunch", was released on July 31, 2018. In it, the player teams up with Mint-Berry Crunch, an alien wielding the tremendous power of mint and berries, to uncover the mysterious disappearances of camp counsellors at Lake Tardicaca. The DLC introduces the Final Girl class, which features new combat tactics and traps. All of the downloadable content was made available with the optional "Season Pass". Although Parker and Stone were opposed to DLC in "The Stick of Truth", believing it would consist of content that had been cut from the main game for lack of quality, during development of "The Fractured but Whole" they had ideas for side stories they deemed too distant from the main story but they wanted to expand on this material as DLC.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: "South Park: The Fractured but Whole" received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Metacritic provides the consensus "generally favorable reviews" for the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Like its predecessor, the game was considered a successful adaptation, with "GamesRadar+" calling it "the truest, best adaptation" of "South Park" ever made, with well balanced comedy and humor, and IGN saying it looks and sounds like an episode of the show. Giant Bomb, "GamesRadar+", and Shacknews said it was an improvement in nearly every way over "The Stick of Truth", being deeper and more polished than its predecessor. "GamesRadar+" added that after twenty years, a "South Park" game that is as "fun to play as it is to laugh along with" has been created. "PC Gamer" called it "streamlined, imaginative, and enormously entertaining"; and "Electronic Gaming Monthly" ("EGM") said it would be difficult to find a more complete "South Park" experience that is as funny. "Game Informer" called it a welcome sequel, featuring both "smart and immature jokes", and moments of sincerity that recall the "charm of childhood". "Slant Magazine" said mechanically, it was "one of the best, most accessible RPGs" in a long time.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Reviewers alternately said that the humor was more original and less reliant on callbacks, and sometimes too reliant on references to the TV series. Several reviewers criticized some of the humor, which they saw as deliberately edgy, banal, or over-focused on fart and poop jokes. "Slant Magazine" singled out the strip club battles as "appallingly sexist and racist". Others said that it is consistently amusing and provocative throughout, but without the series' typical edge, and containing nothing as shocking as "The Stick of Truth"s Nazi Zombie Fetuses. It was noted that the game still delivered shocking moments such as corrupt police, self-flaggelating priests, and the children in the strip club.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Critics were consistent in their praise of the combat and its improvements over the system featured in "The Stick of Truth". "PC Gamer"s Andy Kelly described it as one of the "most enjoyable" RPG combat systems he had experienced. Reviewers said that it offered a positive change from its predecessor, prioritizing strategic thinking over reflexes, and a variety of teams possible from the wide cast of available characters. "PC Gamer" said combat was "deeper, richer, and more strategic", and among others, called it fun. "Game Informer" and "GamesRadar+" appreciated that the ability to move about the battle grid allowed for greater agency and thoughtfulness.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Boss battles were often cited as a highlight for their deviations from normal combat by introducing timed, out-of-turn attacks, environmental hazards, and side tasks such as reaching the end of the battlefield before a boss catches the player-character. "Giant Bomb" said these elements are some of the cleverest and most enjoyable parts of the game, and "GamesRadar+" appreciated that the designers removed the ability to patiently strategize. "Polygon" said these elements, with their unique requirements adding to the intensity but sometimes becoming frustrating, were the only time they found combat challenging. Others called the combat too easy, even at the highest difficulty setting, but IGN said that while "The Stick of Truth" got easier as the game progressed, "The Fractured But Whole"s ambitious combat was prevented from getting stale by the various combat subversions it introduces. The various Ultimate moves were considered to be hilarious and impressive, with "Polygon" saying they were as epic as a summon in "Final Fantasy", but they were also criticized for being unskippable, making them feel too long and repetitive later into the game. VideoGamer.com said battles sometimes seemed too long, and IGN noted that battles used only three timing mini-games, making them repetitive. IGN highlighted the small character touches in combat, such as the character Tupperware vomiting inside his own helmet when "grossed out", and "Destructoid" said each character was different enough to warrant tactical thinking about which characters to add to the New Kid's party.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: The story received a polarized response; reviewers alternately called it well-crafted and an improvement over "The Stick of Truth"s, or muddled and lesser than its predecessor. Game Revolution and VideoGamer.com said the story was not as strong as its predecessor's; VideoGamer.com highlighting repetitive jokes as a negative. "PC Gamer" said the main story suffered from pacing issues that slowed events down, that it was predicable, and that its satire was not as edgy. "Destructoid" said that despite some uneven writing, the game felt like a long, quality episode of "South Park", and Game Revolution said it was too reliant on fart jokes. Giant Bomb similarly said it could seem like a "cavalcade of poop jokes", but the "South Park" humor and charm is evident as the story progresses. IGN said the writing quality had lived up to high expectations, and "EGM" said it featured both a well-crafted main story and comedic side quests. "GamesRadar+" said the game starts slowly but the pace escalates quickly into an intriguing mystery with one of the television series' best villains, and Shacknews called it an "absurd, but enthralling tale, but not so long as to overstay its welcome or get stale".


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Some reviewers said the story found moments of sweetness or innocence in its characters; "Slant Magazine" called it poignant for its mission involving the New Kid resolving the dispute between gay couple Tweek and Craig. Other reviewers noted "heartfelt" moments in scenes depicting the difficulty of being a new kid with unhappy parents, and "sweet and silly" touches where epic battles are interrupted by a passing car, or certain characters arbitrarily change the rules of the game during a battle. Some of the commentary was considered to be raised as an issue without ever being properly addressed. Several critics singled out the series of events in which the corrupt police force send the New Kid to arrest innocent black men. "Slant Magazine" said the race-based difficulty slider encapsulated everything they felt was wrong with "The Fractured but Whole"; biting social commentary but a throwaway joke because the slider does not affect any in-game elements.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: Some reviewers were critical of the similarity between "The Fractured But Whole"s and "The Stick of Truth"s gameplay area, which no longer had the benefit of the original's novelty. However, Destructoid said it was no less fun to explore and find the many references to the show's history. "GamesRadar+" said that despite its relatively small map, the game sometimes felt like there was too much to do. Reviewers criticized the crafting system, which they considered gave too many of some items and not enough of others, and said it seemed unnecessary since additional items could be bought directly from shops. The various buddy abilities were praised for encouraging exploration outside of combat, but were criticized for becoming repetitive and not challenging. "PC Gamer", VideoGamer.com, and "Polygon" appreciated the scale of customization offered, giving the player ownership over their player-character and choice of companions throughout the game. Similarly, reviewers liked the Artifact/Upgrade system for allowing the New Kid to be customized to the player's needs and for being independent of costumes, so the player could design the New Kid as they desired—although "EGM" was critical that Artifacts became less important later in the game when the New Kid is more powerful. "Game Informer" said tracking down selfies with the town's residents was one of the best sidequests, which "PC Gamer" called "strangely compelling".


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: In October 2017 in North America, "South Park: The Fractured but Whole" was the fourth-best-selling game across all available platforms, the third-best-selling game on PlayStation 4, and the fourth-best-selling game on Xbox One. "The Fractured but Whole"s global digital sales made it the eighth-best-selling game for consoles in October 2017. Alongside other single-player games, "Assassin's Creed Origins" and "", "South Park: The Fractured but Whole " contributed over $160 million in digital sales for the month. Intelligence firm SuperData said single-player games would not stay high in the charts for long as they were not as easy to monetize through microtransactions as multiplayer video games. It was also among the top 100 highest-grossing games of 2017 on the Steam digital distribution platform.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: During the first week of sales in the United Kingdom, "The Fractured but Whole" became the third-best-selling game on all available formats in terms of boxed sales, behind "FIFA 18" at number two and the debuting "Gran Turismo Sport" at number one, and ahead of the debuting "WWE 2K18". The game's first-week sales were 7% below those of "The Stick of Truth". Its sales were considered strong, based on the competing titles released at the time. It was the overall sixth-best-selling game of October 2017 in the UK. By its second week it had fallen to eighth place overall, and by its third week it had left the top ten games overall, listing at twelfth place on that chart.


title: South Park: The Fractured but Whole

text: In 2016, "MCV" and IGN named "South Park: The Fractured but Whole" the best role-playing game of that year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. The game was nominated for "Best RPG" at the Gamescom 2017 Awards, and for "Best Role Playing Game" at the 2017 The Game Awards, losing to "Persona 5". It was also nominated for "Best Narrative Design", "Best Adventure/Role-Playing Game", and "Best Interpretation" at the Titanium Awards, losing two of them to "Horizon Zero Dawn" and one to ""; and in IGN's staff-nominated, user-voted "Best of 2017" series, for "Best Xbox One Game", and "Best RPG". The game won the "Best Collectibles" award in "Game Informer"s 2017 RPG of the Year Awards; in their Reader's Choice Best of 2017 Awards, it came in second place for "Best Role-Playing Game". "EGM" ranked the game 12th on their list of the 25 Best Games of 2017. It was nominated for "Excellence in Convergence" at the 2018 SXSW Gaming Awards.


title: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall

text: The Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall or simply the Great Wall is the largest known structure in the observable universe, measuring approximately 10 billion light-years in length (the observable universe is about 93 billion light-years in diameter). This massive superstructure is a region of the sky seen in the data set mapping of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) that has been found to have an unusually higher concentration of similarly distanced GRBs than the expected average distribution. It was discovered in early November 2013 by a team of American and Hungarian astronomers led by István Horváth, Jon Hakkila and Zsolt Bagoly while analyzing data from the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission, together with other data from ground-based telescopes. It is the largest known formation in the universe, exceeding the size of the prior Huge-LQG by about two times.


title: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall

text: The overdensity lies at the Second, Third and Fourth Galactic Quadrants (NQ2, NQ3 and NQ4) of the sky. Thus, it lies in the Northern Hemisphere, centered on the border of the constellations Draco and Hercules. The entire clustering consists of around 19 GRBs with the redshift ranges between 1.6 and 2.1.


title: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall

text: Typically, the distribution of GRBs in the universe appears in the sets of less than the 2σ distribution, or with less than two GRBs in the average data of the point-radius system. One possible explanation of this concentration is the Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall. The wall has a mean size in excess of 2 billion to 3 billion parsecs (6 to 10 billion light-years). Such a supercluster can explain the significant distribution of GRBs because of its tie to star formation.


title: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall

text: Doubt has been placed on the existence of the structure in other studies, positing that the structure was found through biases in certain statistical tests, without considering the full effects of extinction. A 2020 paper (by the original group of discoverers and others) says that their analysis of the most reliable current dataset supports the structure's existence, but that the THESEUS satellite will be needed to decide the question conclusively.


title: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall

text: The overdensity was discovered using data from different space telescopes operating at gamma-ray and X-ray wavelengths, plus some data from ground-based telescopes. By the end of 2012 they successfully recorded 283 GRBs and measured their redshifts spectroscopically. They subdivided them to different group subsamples of different redshifts, initially with five groups, six groups, seven groups and eight groups, but each group division in the tests suggest a weak anisotropy and concentration, but this is not the case when it is subdivided to nine groups, each containing 31 GRBs; they noticed a significant clustering of GRBs of the fourth subsample (z = 1.6 to 2.1) with 19 of the 31 GRBs of the subsample are concentrated within the vicinity of the Second, Third and Fourth Northern Galactic Quadrants (NQ2, NQ3 and NQ4) spanning no less than 120 degrees of the sky. Under current stellar evolutionary models GRBs are only caused by neutron star collision and collapse of massive stars, and as such, stars causing these events are only found in regions with more matter in general. Using the two-point Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, a nearest-neighbor test, and a Bootstrap point-radius method, they found the statistical significance of this observation to be less than 0.05%. The possible binomial probability to find a clustering was p=0.0000055. It is later reported in the paper that the clustering may be associated with a previously unknown supermassive structure.


title: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall

text: The authors of the paper concluded that a structure was the possible explanation of the clustering, but they never associated any name with it. Hakkila stated that "During the process, we were more concerned with whether it was real or not." The term "Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall" was coined by Johndric Valdez, a Filipino teenager from Marikina on Wikipedia, after reading a Discovery News report three weeks after the structure's discovery in 2013. The nomenclature was used by Jacqueline Howard, on her "Talk Nerdy to Me" video series, and Hakkila would later use the name.


title: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall

text: The term is misleading, since the clustering occupies a region much larger than the constellations Hercules and Corona Borealis. In fact, it covers the region from Boötes to as far as the Zodiac constellation Gemini. In addition, the clustering is somewhat roundish in shape, which is more likely a supercluster, in contrast to an elongated shape of a galaxy wall. Another name, the Great GRB Wall, was proposed in a later paper.


title: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall

text: The paper states that "14 of the 31 GRBs are concentrated within 45 degrees of the sky", which translates to the size of about 10 billion light-years (3 gigaparsecs) in its longest dimension, which is approximately one ninth (10.7%) of the diameter of the observable universe. However, the clustering contains 19 to 22 GRBs, and spans a length three times longer than the remaining 14 GRBs. Indeed, the clustering crosses over 20 constellations and covers 125 degrees of the sky, or almost 15,000 square degrees in total area, which translates to about 18 to 23 billion light-years (5.5 to 7 gigaparsecs) in length. It lies at redshift 1.6 to 2.1.


title: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall

text: The team subdivides the 283 GRBs into nine groups in sets of 31 GRBs. At least three different methods have been used to reveal the significance of the clustering.


title: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall

text: The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test (K–S test) is a nonparametric test of the equality of continuous, one-dimensional probability distributions that can be used to compare a sample with a reference probability distribution (one-sample K–S test), or to compare two samples (two-sample K–S test), thus, it can be used to test the comparisons of the distributions of the nine subsamples. However, the K–S test can only be used for one dimensional data—it cannot be used for sets of data involving two dimensions such as the clustering. However, a 1983 paper by J.A. Peacock suggests that one should use all four possible orderings between ordered pairs to calculate the difference between the two distributions. Since the sky distribution of any object is composed of two orthogonal angular coordinates, the team used this methodology.


title: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall

text: "Above: Results of the 2D K–S test of the nine GRB subsamples. The table shows the comparison, example, the difference between group 1 and group 2 is 9 points. Values greater than 2σ (significant values equal to or greater than 14) are italicized and colored in yellow background. Note the six significant values in group 4."


title: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall

text: The results of the test shows that out of the six largest numbers, five belong to group 4. Six of the eight numerical comparisons of group 4 belong to the eight largest numerical differences, that is, numbers greater than 14. To calculate the approximate probabilities for the different numbers, the team ran 40 thousand simulations where 31 random points are compared with 31 other random points. The result contains the number 18 twenty-eight times and numbers larger than 18 ten times, so the probability of having numbers larger than 17 is 0.095%. The probability of having numbers larger than 16 is p=0.0029, of having numbers larger than 15 is p=0.0094, and of having numbers larger than 14 is p=0.0246. For a random distribution, this means that numbers larger than 14 correspond to 2σ deviations and numbers larger than 16 correspond to 3σ deviations. The probability of having numbers larger than 13 is p=0.057, or 5.7%, which is not statistically significant.


title: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall

text: Using nearest neighbor statistics, a similar test to the 2D K–S test; 21 consecutive probabilities in group 4 reach the 2σ limit and 9 consecutive comparisons reach the 3σ limit. One can calculate binomial probabilities. For example, 14 out of the 31 GRBs in this redshift band are concentrated in approximately one eighth of the sky. The binomial probability of finding this deviation is p=0.0000055.


title: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall

text: The team also used a statistic to determine the number of GRBs within a preferred angular area of the sky. The test showed that the 15–25% of the sky identified for group 4 contains significantly more GRBs than similar circles at other GRB redshifts. When the area is chosen to be 0.1125 × 4π, 14 GRBs out of the 31 lie inside the circle. When the area is chosen to be 0.2125×4π, 19 GRBs out of the 31 lie inside the circle. When the area is chosen to be 0.225 × 4π, 20 GRBs out of the 31 lie inside the circle. In this last case only 7 out of the 4,000 bootstrap cases had 20 or more GRBs inside the circle. This result is, therefore, a statistically significant (p=0.0018) deviation (the binomial probability for this being random is less than 10). The team built statistics for this test by repeating the process a large number of times (ten thousand). From the ten thousand Monte Carlo runs they selected the largest number of bursts found within the angular circle. Results show that only 7 out of the 4,000 bootstrap cases have 20 GRBs in a preferred angular circle.


title: Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall

text: Some studies have cast doubt on the existence of the HCB. A study in 2016 found that the observed distribution of GRBs was consistent with what could be derived from Monte Carlo simulations, but was below the 95% probability threshold (p < .05) of significance typically used in "p"-value analyses. A study in 2020 found even higher probability levels when considering biases in statistical tests, and argued that given nine redshift ranges were used, the probability threshold should actually be lower than p < 0.05, instead around p < 0.005. A 2020 paper (by the original group of discoverers and others) says that their analysis of the most reliable current dataset supports the structure's existence, but that the THESEUS satellite will be needed to decide the question conclusively.


title: Lake Natron

text: Lake Natron is a salt or alkaline lake located in north Ngorongoro District of Arusha Region in Tanzania. It is in the Gregory Rift, which is the eastern branch of the East African Rift. The lake is within the Lake Natron Basin, a Ramsar Site wetland of international significance.


title: Lake Natron

text: The lake is fed principally by the Southern Ewaso Ng'iro River, which rises in central Kenya, and by mineral-rich hot springs. It is quite shallow, less than deep, and varies in width depending on its water level. The lake is a maximum of long and wide. The surrounding area receives irregular seasonal rainfall, mainly between December and May totalling per year. Temperatures at the lake are frequently above .


title: Lake Natron

text: High levels of evaporation have left behind natron (sodium carbonate decahydrate) and trona (sodium sesquicarbonate dihydrate). The alkalinity of the lake can reach a pH of greater than 12. The surrounding bedrock is composed of alkaline, sodium-dominated trachyte lavas that were laid down during the Pleistocene period. The lavas have significant amounts of carbonate but very low calcium and magnesium levels. This has allowed the lake to concentrate into a caustic alkaline brine.


title: Lake Natron

text: The colour of the lake is characteristic of those where very high evaporation rates occur. As water evaporates during the dry season, salinity levels increase to the point that salt-loving microorganisms begin to thrive. Such halophile organisms include some cyanobacteria that make their own food with photosynthesis as plants do. The red accessory photosynthesizing pigment in the cyanobacteria produces the deep reds of the open water of the lake and the orange colours of the shallow parts of the lake. The alkali salt crust on the surface of the lake is also often coloured red or pink by the salt-loving microorganisms that live there.


title: Lake Natron

text: Most animals find the lake's high temperature (up to ) and its high and variable salt content inhospitable. Nonetheless, Lake Natron is home to some endemic algae, invertebrates, and birds. In the slightly less salty water around its margins, some fish can also survive.


title: Lake Natron

text: The lake is the only regular breeding area in East Africa for the 2.5 million lesser flamingoes, whose status of "near threatened" results from their dependence on this one location. When salinity increases, so do cyanobacteria, and the lake can also support more nests. These flamingoes, the single large flock in East Africa, gather along nearby saline lakes to feed on "Spirulina" (a blue-green algae with red pigments). Lake Natron is a safe breeding location because its caustic environment is a barrier against predators trying to reach their nests on seasonally forming evaporite islands. Greater flamingoes also breed on the mud flats.


title: Lake Natron

text: The lake has inspired the nature documentary "" by Disneynature, for its close relationship with the Lesser flamingoes as their only regular breeding area.


title: Lake Natron

text: Two endemic fish species, the alkaline tilapias "Alcolapia latilabris" and "A. ndalalani", also thrive in the waters at the edges of the hot spring inlets. "A. alcalica" is also present in the lake, but is not endemic.


title: Lake Natron

text: The area around the salt lake is not inhabited but there is some herding and some seasonal cultivation. Threats to the salinity balance from increased siltation influxes will come from more projected logging in Natron watersheds and a planned hydroelectric power plant on the Ewaso Nyiro across the border in Kenya. Although development plans include constructions of a dike at the north end of the lake to contain the freshwater, the threat of dilution to this breeding ground may still be serious. There is no formal protection.


title: Lake Natron

text: A new threat to Lake Natron is the proposed development of a soda ash plant on its shores. The plant would pump water from the lake and extract the sodium carbonate to convert to washing powder for export. Accompanying the plant would be housing for over 1000 workers, and a coal-fired power station to provide energy for the plant complex. In addition, there is a possibility the developers may introduce a hybrid brine shrimp to increase the efficiency of extraction.


title: Lake Natron

text: According to Chris Magin, the RSPB's international officer for Africa, "The chance of the lesser flamingoes continuing to breed in the face of such mayhem are next to zero. This development will leave lesser flamingoes in East Africa facing extinction". Seventy-five percent of the world's lesser flamingoes are born on Lake Natron. Currently a group of more than fifty East African conservation and environmental institutions are running a worldwide campaign to stop the planned construction of the soda ash factory by Tata Chemicals Ltd of Mumbai, India and National Development Corporation of Tanzania. The group working under the umbrella name Lake Natron Consultative Group is being co-ordinated by Ken Mwathe, Conservation Programme Manager at BirdLife International's Africa Secretariat.


title: Lake Natron

text: As per communication in June 2008, Tata Chemicals shall not proceed with the Natron Project and further re-examination of this project will be subject to the Ramsar Wetlands plan, which is currently under preparation.


title: Lake Natron

text: Because of its unique biodiversity, Tanzania named the Lake Natron Basin to the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance on 4 July 2001. The lake is also the World Wildlife Fund East African halophytics ecoregion.


title: Lake Natron

text: There are a number of campgrounds near the lake, which is also the base for climbing Ol Doinyo Lengai. Lake Natron has immense tourist attraction potentials that are important for ecotourism development. However, lack of a general management plan, inadequate funding at the operational level, lack of mechanisms to secure a fair distribution of ecotourism benefits, and poorly developed tourism infrastructural facilities to support diverse segments of tourists were identified as the main challenges associated with the management of ecotourism in the area. The lake can also be accessed from Shompole Conservancy Kenya.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: Nakamura began his professional career with J1 League club Yokohama Marinos in 1997, eventually making 338 league appearances during two spells at the club totaling just over twelve seasons. In between his spells at Marinos, Nakamura played in Europe with Espanyol, Celtic, and Reggina. During his time at Celtic, he became one of the best Asian players to have ever played in Europe; he was nominated for the 2007 Ballon d'Or, was named Scottish Player of the Year and SFWA Footballer of the Year in 2007, and became the first Japanese player to score in the UEFA Champions League. His team accomplishments at Celtic include winning the Scottish Premier League in 2006, 2007, and 2008, the Scottish League Cup in 2006 and 2009, and the Scottish Cup in 2007.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: Nakamura has 98 caps and 24 goals for the Japan national football team, including appearances in the FIFA World Cup finals in 2006 and 2010 and winning the AFC Asian Cup in 2000 and 2004; he was named Most Valuable Player of the 2004 competition. He also appeared in the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship as a member of the Japan under-20 team and the 2000 Summer Olympics as a member of the Japan under-23 team.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: Born and raised in Yokohama, Japan, Nakamura began playing football competitively at age 5 with local junior club side Misono FC, where his playmaking abilities already garnered attention from locals. In fifth grade, he was selected for Yokohama's city junior all-star team's tour of the Soviet Union, even though the team was only meant to include sixth graders.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: At age 12 in 1991, Nakamura joined the youth setup of , one of the predecessors of the club known today as Yokohama F. Marinos. While training at the youth setup, Nakamura was already honing his dead-ball technique, practicing free kicks for an hour every day outside of team practice; his coaches also acknowledged he had good ball skills and technique. However, at that time Nakamura was physically underdeveloped compared to his teammates and struggled to transition to the youth level, and eventually was not chosen for the youth team.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: Rather than continue on the fringes of Nissan's youth setup, Nakamura instead decided to enroll at in Kawasaki, despite the school being a two-and-a-half-hour commute each way. Nakamura led Tōkō Gakuen to Japan's national high school football tournament in 1995 and to the tournament final in 1996. It was his performance there that earned him a call-up to the Japan under-20 team for the 1996 AFC Youth Championship and subsequently for the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: By his graduation from Tōkō Gakuen in 1997, Nakamura had attracted interest from several top-flight Japanese clubs, including offers from Júbilo Iwata, Verdy Kawasaki, and Gamba Osaka.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: In 1997, Nakamura chose to sign with J.League Division 1 club Yokohama Marinos, the club whose youth setup he had left only a few years earlier. Nakamura made his début with Marinos on 8 March in an J.League Cup match against Verdy Kawasaki and his league début on 16 April against Gamba Osaka. Nakamura finished his rookie season with 31 appearances and 5 goals.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: Nakamura had his breakout season the following year in 1998, making 37 appearances and scoring 10 goals; his playmaking ability in creating scoring chances for teammates also contributed to Nakamura being considered one of the best young players in Japan. In 2000, Nakamura had his best season in Yokohama, recording 5 goals and 11 assists in league play, helping Marinos to the first-stage championship; Nakamura was awarded J.League Most Valuable Player for his contributions. The following year, Nakamura made 31 appearances and scored 5 goals in all competitions, including 6 appearances and 2 goals in the 2001 J.League Cup, which the Marinos won.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: Due to his success, Nakamura became the subject of transfer target rumors from a number of European clubs including Real Madrid and several Lega Calcio sides such as Reggina, Chievo, Perugia, Napoli, Lecce, and Atalanta. Nakamura felt he had to leave Japan and play in Europe to further develop and advance his career, especially after the disappointment of being left off of Japan's 2002 World Cup squad. Nakamura left Marinos partway through the 2002 season to join Reggina, newly promoted to Serie A, after the clubs agreed to a 6-month loan and US$3.5 million transfer fee. Prior to his departure from Marinos, Nakamura remained in top form, scoring 4 goals in 8 appearances.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: Nakamura had come to the attention of Reggina scouts after an international match against Honduras during the 2002 Kirin Cup in which Nakamura had a standout performance and scored two goals. Reggina gained promotion to Serie A after the 2001–02 season and had already been looking to sign a marquee player for some time. It is said that, on the day Reggina secured promotion, then-Chairman Pasquale Foti had already called the Marinos to inquire about a Nakamura transfer while Reggina's players were still on the pitch celebrating.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: Expectations for Nakamura were very high; the prestigious number 10 shirt was even taken from teammate Francesco Cozza and given to Nakamura, and the club sold 25,000 Nakamura shirts in the first five months he was at the club. Nakamura responded by scoring in three consecutive matches early in the season; in league play, Nakamura finished the season with 32 appearances and tied for the team lead with 7 goals, helping Reggina narrowly avoid relegation (Reggina defeated Atalanta in the relegation playoff).


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: Nakamura struggled with injuries in 2003 and was limited to just 18 appearances in the 2003–04 season (these injuries also caused him to miss a 2003 Confederations Cup game against Colombia and national team duty in November 2003). Additionally, Reggina underwent four managerial changes in just Nakamura's first two years at the club; Walter Mazzarri, hired in the summer of 2004, would already be Nakamura's fifth manager at Reggina. The frequent changes resulted in Nakamura mostly coming off the bench during the 2003–04 season and not fitting in well under Mazzarri in 2004–05 when Reggina only scored 36 goals in their entire league campaign, with Nakamura only managing to contribute two goals (although each came in crucial 1–0 league victories in a season where Reggina finished only 2 points clear of the relegation zone). Coupled with Reggina's struggle to avoid relegation every season that he had been at the club, Nakamura became concerned he was regressing from top level football and decided it was time to move on.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: Nakamura expressed interest in playing in Spain and media reports linked him to La Liga sides Atlético Madrid and Deportivo as well as Bundesliga clubs Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Mönchengladbach in the summer of 2005. Other European clubs including Leeds United, Lazio, and Parma reportedly had also expressed interest during Nakamura's time at Reggina, but Nakamura ultimately chose to join Scottish Premier League runners-up Celtic.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: New manager Gordon Strachan became interested in acquiring Nakamura due to his national team appearances in the 2005 Confederations Cup, in particular for his performance against Brazil in which Nakamura scored a goal and helped Japan to a 2–2 draw. The deal with Celtic was completed on 29 July 2005 for a reported transfer fee of £2.5 million, although Strachan has claimed the actual fee was far lower; part of the discrepancy may be due to the deal involving Celtic securing the player's image rights with a view to enhancing the club's profile and merchandising sales in the Far East. In welcoming Nakamura to the club, Strachan stated that Nakamura "has got imagination and he sees passes other people can't see."


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: Nakamura joined Celtic at a time of relative crisis for the club and new manager Strachan. Celtic had been eliminated from European competition after being unable to overcome a shock 0–5 first leg defeat to Artmedia Bratislava in the second qualifying round of the 2005–06 Champions League and also had an inauspicious start to the league season, needing an injury time equalizer from Craig Beattie just to draw with Motherwell in the league opener. For this reason, Strachan immediately inserted Nakamura into the match day lineup for the second league game of the season against Dundee United on 6 August, despite Nakamura not being match fit as he had not played since the Confederations Cup earlier in the summer. Nevertheless, Nakamura had an excellent debut and was named Man of the Match, earning a standing ovation from the home Celtic support when he was substituted in the 84th minute. Both Tommy Burns and Neil Lennon, at the time first-team coach and club captain, respectively, have credited Nakamura's arrival at Celtic with helping turn around Celtic's disappointing start to the season.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: Nakamura finished his debut season at Celtic with 38 appearances, 6 goals, and 10 assists. His creativity, as well as his work ethic and composure under pressure, won praise from teammates, manager Gordon Strachan and Celtic supporters. In reviewing Nakamura's debut season, Strachan said that Nakamura's "touch and vision were outstanding... In goal assists, I really do not think there is a player in Scotland to touch him." In his first season with Celtic, Nakamura won his first major club titles, the Scottish Premier League and Scottish League Cup.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: In his second season at Celtic, Nakamura played his debut Champions League game on 13 September against Manchester United at Old Trafford. He scored from a free kick to bring the game level at 2–2, making him the first Japanese footballer to score a goal in the Champions League, although Celtic eventually lost 3–2. On 14 October, in a league game against Dundee United at Tannadice, Nakamura scored the first hat-trick of his Celtic career and won the Man of the Match award; the game ended 4–1 in Celtic's favour.


title: Shunsuke Nakamura

text: On 21 November, Nakamura scored perhaps the most important goal of his career with a 30-yard free kick against Manchester United at Celtic Park in a crucial Champions League game, leading to Celtic qualifying for the Champions League knockout stage for the first time. Sky Sports pundit and Southampton legend Matt Le Tissier later ranked Nakamura's free kick as among the best five set-piece goals he has ever seen. On 26 December, Nakamura chipped the ball over Dundee United's goalkeeper Derek Stillie at Celtic Park; the goal earned Nakamura the SPL Goal of the Season award. It was Nakamura's performance in the final 20 minutes of the game which allowed Celtic to escape with a point, prompting Gordon Strachan to proclaim him "a genius".