Never-Complete

Barney's Version - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-09-11T19:39:00.004+01:00

I love Paul Giamatti. Since seeing hin in Amerian Splendor and then again in Sideways, he became my favourite actor working in Hollywood today.

OK so he is a bit type-cast and generally his best films (over his not-so-best) are usually as a down-on-his-luck troubled soul character angle. This film is no execption, but his character in this has a bit more backbone, is more defiant and less well liked.

He is bigger than this film though, at times its scrappy and unfocused, especially the first 20 minutes or so. Once those steps are out of the way it settles down into the meat on the bone and we are off in familar Giamatti territory.

It doesn't reach the hights of those previous two films I mentioned, but it was still well worth the wait from my point of view.

Did I mention Paul Giamatti is great in this?

Superman IV The Quest for peace - Blu-Ray - Region B

2011-09-11T19:35:00.002+01:00

A horrible film, a real let-down on the ones that went before. I can only imagine what Gene Hackman's face was like if he has ever seen the final edited version of this. What was he thinking, what were they thinking???

Like III though, this has a great picture transfer, although the contempt of how bad this is manifests itself by only having Dolby Stereo audio.

Superman III - Blu-Ray - Region B

2011-09-11T19:32:00.003+01:00

More famous for being a comedy than actually being a Superman film. Richard Pryor is the star for the majority of this, the other roles are pretty much partner role to his persona.

Disturbing, if the making of documentaries on this box set are to be believed, this is direction they wanted all Superman films to be like, before Donner took the helm of the first film,

More disturbing is that this has much a much better and more consistant transfer than all of the films put together.

Its still worth a watch though all said and done.

Prince - SHM CD Japanese Mini LP editions - The first 10 LP's

2011-08-17T19:04:00.003+01:00

(Click on image for larger)

Curse these japanese mini LP editions, not because of anything other than they are so good and so expensive!

The first 10 Prince LP's where reissued in this format about 2-3 years ago and now thier availability is drying up. Its taken me quite a while to complete the set, but now the deed is finally done.

The SHM CD format is a bit of a wheeze, a bit with XDR with cassettes years ago, it doesn't really mean anything other than they where manuafactered with slightly higher quality control than the norm.

The mastering on these discs are identical to the domestic releases (regardless of what anyone says) although they are EQ'd slightly louder than normal, but be under no illusion they are not "remastered".

Prince's Warner catalog is probably about the last major artist on the label to be remastered, and I think it will never actually happen. Prince is still a forwardly moving artist, his run-in's with Warners quite possibly mean that although they have suggested remastering them Prince just will not entertain the idea. That and the fact he has pretty much disowned his more risque material, which lets fact it is pretty much the entire back catalog!

If my gut feeling is true, I find it a bit of a shameful attitude to your fans who keep buying the material as the current editions are wayyyy long in the tooth quality wise. Still, these releases are mostly about the artwork and everything is reproduced perfectly from the vinyl editions, even down to the poster inserts and front stickers. And if they are remastered finally, I don't think we would see a Warners edition.

People may laugh in the point of having a physical release these days, but I seriously believe these CD editons will dry up very quickly and therefore become sought-after. Its also a bit depressing with the declining CD market that only the Japanese seem capable of issue editions in such amazing quality. It shames just about every other CD buying market out there.

Still, on with the LP's! Its a shame they didn't go to 11 with these, the Black Album would of been the icing on the cake! Still, with the exception of some of the tracks on Batman, this really was the end of the line for me on my Prince phase. I kept up with subsequent releases, but nothing compared to these 10. The productions become very overblown, the touring band less dynamic (Eric Leeds is irriplaceable) and the songs became confusing mess of symbolisim and silly names (Victor?).

I'd rate the top 11 in the following order...

(1) Sign o' The Times / 1999 / Controversy
(2) Purple Rain
(3) The Black Album
(4) Around the World in a day
(5) Dirty Mind
(6) Parade
(7) Lovesexy
(8) Prince
(9) For You

So, yes, if you only own the best Prince LP's, you need to own 3! Of course "Sign" is highly regarded, but I really place "1999" and "Controversy" 's experimental tracks. What other music sounds like "Something in the water (does not compute)", "All the critics love you in New York" and "Annie Christian"?

Rango - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-08-17T18:59:00.003+01:00

Still don't really know what to say about this and I've seen it twice now. Like Transformers, Avatar etc. I wonder who the film is made for?!

Kids will find it too "talky" and over-long and adults won't pay it any mind on their own because it is animated. Unlike "The Fantastic Mr Fox" which did it right, this is just too bizzare to really be amazing good.

The amimation is great, and the Blu-Ray is great at detail and clarity.

Its a tough recommend, tread carefully!

Demolition Man - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-08-17T18:53:00.003+01:00

One of my ultimate guilty pleasures, in the "its so bad its good" catagory (file next to Resident Evil, The Rock).

The action is great and energetic, the premise and execution funny, and because of the age, hardly any digital effects, when stuff blows up it REALLY blows up for real!

Some many great moments in the film, but my favourite that gets a laugh every time is the "...mickey mouse piece of shit...." line.

Picture quality is head and shoulders above anything before, and the sound is now DTS-MA, although it is a little bit tinny by todays standards.

Now if Disney would only hurry up and get "The Black Hole" released on Blu-Ray, my shelf would be complete!

Superman II - Blu-Ray - Region B

2011-08-17T18:47:00.002+01:00

Expertly set-up from the first film, this goes to give Superman something more than the one dimension of bad guys available. The flaw in the charcter is that only one baddie is prominent (Lex Luthor) whereas Batman has several.

It has more action than the first film, therefore younger viewers will be more likely to sit through it, although without the first the character interplay would leave you cold.

I chose the original cinema cut over Donner's rather unfinished and quality-diminished Directors cut (although you can't buy the original on its own, you have to buy the sodding box set!). You can see why Donner was unhappy with the final cut, it does lack that certain something.

The same plus and minuses again on the Blu-ray front as number one.

Superman - Blu-Ray - Region B

2011-08-17T18:40:00.003+01:00

I remember seeing this in the cinema upon release in London and watching this again is like a classic slice of 70's cinema.

What the special effects lack the cast makes up in warmth, character and charm. Who else CAN be Superman since Reeve and be AS good. They have already tried to reboot this once, and even golden boy Brian Singer couldn't get it right.

Reeve and Kidder are so brilliant together its just a perfect screen partnership. The helicopter sequence alone still has the power to suspend and believe.

Of course this is mostly the starter before the main course (the second film) but for an older generation it still wins on multiple levels over number II.

The main dissapointment with the Blu-Ray release is that it seems to use the same master as the DVD releases, so its not really HD picture material, in fact at times it looks terrible. The sound on those DVD's was excellent though, and this continues the trend by offering a DTS-MA track. Bombastic!

Salem - King Night

2011-08-14T18:09:00.007+01:00

It is rare for me to post about music. Its my first love but so much of it now is not very intesting and pretty bland and done before.

Not this album however, I think it is highly original and brilliant, the sort of record that develops over time and reveals itself gradually. The mixing of the record sounds bombastic at first, but there are a lot of layers and work put in.

I am not going to be-little this LP by talking about genres. What I will say that if you where ever after a group that sounded like the extention to "The XX", mixed like My Bloody Valentine with dubstep elements, then apply within!

An outstanding record

The Last Starfigher - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-07-30T16:43:00.004+01:00

Bought this on a visit to Florida this year for $9.99. I can't recall going to see this at the cinema (1984) but I remember its release and seeing it on video soon after.

While revisting this again for maybe only the 3rd time in my life, it suddenly sprung to me that this shares a lot of similarity to Michael Bay's "Transformers" series. Not that it has giant robots, but because it seems to completely miss its target audience (under 10's).

There are x2 "Oh shits" (nearly 3), a 9 year old who collects Playboy magazine, and one over the top moment that would freak out any child (the creature under the bed covers was wayyyy OTT to make the point). Which leads me to question, like Transformers, who was this film ultimately made for? Pre-teens, teens? or under 11's?

Its hard to think it fits any of those catagories really well, its a mish-mash of all. Maybe that was the point, something all ages would enjoy certain elements of. Of course back in the 80's it was more of an innocent time of being hightened by parental issues, what a difference a decade or so makes!

Anyway its a pretty enjoyable, fairly non-eventful yarn (when it ends you will be amazed how little components there are to the film) with naive elements (a "likable" trailer park, it looks like the perfect place to live, in reality it would be the worst of the worst). Even more naive are a group of people crowded around one person playing a videogame going for the high-score and getting excited, it would never of happened then, never mind now! **

The Blu-Ray version is very good though, especially the sound. I may even say that the main title sequence is a great demo sequence for high resolution audio. The timbre of the music really shines and is outstanding.

** with the exception of this exceptional clip!

The Double Life of Veronique - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-07-12T19:21:00.003+01:00

I'm not going to pretend I know a lot about Kieslowski. About 20 or so years ago I saw "A Short film about Love" and I was blown away, I thought it was brilliant. I then followed it up the "Killing" and wasn't that impressed, and it kind of ended there.

I bought this out of a desire to have something a bit different, and also from memories of "Love". I was not dissapointed.

This is a brilliant film and so metaphysical its not true. So much is implied and not explained, displayed but not revealed. At time it is an overload of information, yet only a small part of it is actually relevant to the central story.

I am still reeling from ending, the film finished and all I thought about for the next 24 hours was "that" ending. Its a film that requires a second viewing, if only to discover things you have missed the first time around.

And for that reason you cannot get better than that really, a film that uncovers more on repeat viewings. The only point I would pull it up on, as a UK viewer, is the distinction between the Polish and French locations (and language) is difficult to seperate. In fact had I not read about the film afterwards, I would never of know half takes place in Poland and in polish, the other half France/French

Another top edition from Criterion.

Crazy Heart - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-07-12T19:13:00.001+01:00

Jeff Bridges is a legend, I couldn't give a toss what anyone says, the man makes acting look easy.

His portrails of down-on-their-lucks is peerless, and the lack of vanity in his appearence and actions is refreshingly brilliant. Not everything is perfect, and that shines though amazingly well.

Its a no brainer that his performance in this too is brillant, its just a shame that no one else's was. I thought about this after the film finished, and I think there are certain scenes that are missing from this film that could tie up some odd links.

Most difficult to read is the character played by Maggie Gyllenhaal. I'm not sure it was her acting that let the side down, rather the character she was playing was complex (or so it seemed) and a lot of things the watcher had to fill in for. No bad thing usually, after all we like intelligent films, but here is just felt their where no subconcious plot discoveries to be found, she was just a half-coloured character, and for that the film suffered.

It also suffers because it doesn't particually end the way you think it is going to. It is almost like there is another ending on the cutting room floor somewhere, and that was removed because test audiences hated it.

A shame really, this could of been special. Its still worth a watch, but like True Grit, it is just a watch-once rental rather than an own.

True Grit - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-07-12T19:09:00.003+01:00

I wanted this to be special. The Coen Brothers, a western, Jeff Bridges. The ingredients are all there.

Except it was far too straight laced. After No Country and (the excellent) A Serious Man, this was a very by-the-numbers film, with the exception of the brilliant cinematography (as always).

A real shame really, it needed (I feel) more time dedicated to the outlaws rather than THE law. Nevemind, its not crap by any standards, its worth a watch regardless, but just doesn't have that classic feel to it.

Picture is superb and the sound does it job.

Le Mans - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-07-12T19:03:00.002+01:00

A real curio from the 70's again, this time with one of the biggest stars at the time being in a car most of the time and not saying anything.

There is no inter-character dialogue (in fact no dialogue at all, unless you include the race annoucer) for a full 37 minutes at the beginning. Its a brilliant example of how a film can be driven (no pun) along without the use of dialogue. Of course the action is not that complex, its cars racing in the 24 hour Le Mans race, but nevertheless there is implied relationship between a lot of the characters, even before one utters a word.

McQueen, a massive racing fan, must of loved doing this. Driving fast cars, a script with about 20 words on it and then more cars.

The car action is good, although things do get a bit stretched past the 90 minute mark. The picture and sound are excellent for such a niche catalog title. File under "Chewing gum for the eyes"

Kes - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-07-12T18:56:00.002+01:00

Another brilliant Criteron edition, this time for a British legend, Kes.

For a modern audience this must be absolutely bewildering for most, it is such a product of its time, but also its location, its characters and events.

Like only a handful of British directors, Ken Loaches filmic interests are so radically different than the norm, he takes pride of place with the very best of the UK's talent.

Although this is a tough recommend. It is not a feel-good film at all, in fact it is down-right nilistic.

Great picture and sound is a respectful mono. Great extras as alway from Criterion, possibly the only company out there make extras worth bothering with.

Fargo - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-07-12T18:55:00.002+01:00

Still a brilliant film. The Blu-Ray edition isn't bad, although not brilliant, especially after watching Taxi Driver (a lower budget film from the 70's). It pains me to say it but some films are more equal than others when it comes to HD mastering, a shame given the Coen Brothers work.

I long for the day when the Criterion Collection re-issue all of their films (except that Tom Hanks remake which shall remain nameless!).

Taxi Driver - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-07-12T18:52:00.001+01:00

A true classic. The 4K scan restoration is incredible, in both picture and sound. Not sure why some of these films don't bother to remaster the title sequences though, as just after the credits finish at the start it is like hitting a light switch, the picture quality just comes alive.

This is an easy recommend, its available so cheaply in the US ($12.99), the only downside is the dreadful cover shot which spoils what is the greatest part of the film (the upwards pan of the camera onto Travis's new haircut). Its a massive spoiler on the film if you have never seen it

Black Swan - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-04-27T18:04:00.000+01:00

Being an Aronofsky film, I purposely steered clear of any footage or spoilers on this as I knew I would want to see it anyway, after all his films are usually pretty special. I was not disappointed and knew that there was more to this film than just a story about someone doing ballet. From the first 5 minutes it is a clastrophobic experience, the photography and framing is very close and tight. Natalie Portman owns this film, she takes up 99 percent of the screen time and appears in every scene, she just nailed her acting skills in this and fully deserved her Oscar and other awards.

Picture and sound are spot on, and there are worthwhile extras and a good making-of doc.

Tron Legacy - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-04-27T18:02:00.000+01:00

THE NEW AV DEMO DISK! - the picture and sound on this are absolutely awesome, especially the sound. Daft Punk's soundtrack work sounds amazing coming out of a 7.1 mix, and the bass response is incredible. The film is not too bad either, I was expecting a lot worse from a first time director, but he lets it breath as it is not too over-produced, giving it moments of clarity and purpose and the story is a bit more understandable this time, and it even works a Kubrick-2001 nod in there too! (Flynns apartment).

It steered clear of cheesey moments, romantic clinches and swearing and "it" words to make it date (although Bridges "digital jazz" line made me laugh). On the subject of characters though, the younger version of Jeff Bridges was a mistake, they should of just changed that to be another totally different actor, as not only did it look pretty bad but it also meant the acting was wonky too. The apperence of Michael Sheen also took me by suprise!

The visual aspect is to be admired, there really isn't anything else like the world of Tron, and the visual update is very nice indeed. Editing in these FX-specatulars usually lets them down, but this one was at the top of its game, no confusing out-shots and wondering what was going on. Overall, if you have a AV setup at home, BUY THIS DISK, the presentation and the film are a perfect 2 hours worth of PG-rated entertainment, and its not as much hard work as the original.

In Bruges - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-04-27T18:01:00.001+01:00

Avoided this for so long, its got Colin Farrel in it after all, but saw it for $10 on holiday so took the plunge as everyone has said I should watch it. Looking at the cover I had second guessed it before putting in the player. I was thinking silly Guy Richie type scenarios, pop and rock soundtrack and comedy japes. Although it is really funny in places, I couldn't of been more wrong about it. Its a character based film and a very subtle one too, no over-the-top feel-good music soundtrack or pop-video editing to spoil it.

The only character I thought that spoit it was Finnes posh-thug, which I thought copied Ben Kingsley's "Sexy Beast" turn too closely.

The pic and sound are much better than expected for a catalog release. If you haven't seen it and get the chance, take it.

Hereafter - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-04-27T17:59:00.000+01:00

Its Eastwood, its excellent. If you have read non-favourable reviews ignore them, they are probably written by Americans. The fact that 95 percent of this film takes place in Paris and London using a multi-national cast, and NOT America probably contributed to the reviews.

It is possibly Clint's most foriegn film to date, alongside Iwoa-Jima, and it again such a departure from normal Hollywood flair. Two thumbs UP!

The Exorcist - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-04-27T17:58:00.000+01:00

Proof, if any needed, that the 70's was the best decade in cinema full-stop. An amazing film for 1973, especially given its subject matter and the dialogue! I would of loved to be in the cinema in 73 when this came out, I would of loved to of seen people running out! Most audiences would walk out of the first 10 minutes these days, the intro to this film (in Iraq) would push an audience attention span to its limits, but it is perfectly spooky and sets up what it about to come.

This Blu-Ray contains both the directors cut and the original 73 version (yes George Lucas!) of which I chose the latter. Friedkin has stated many times that the original was pretty much perfect, so the fact that he returned to it as a favour to the writer and digitally altered it contains zero-interest to me.

The transfer is hit and miss, at times it looks brilliant, in other shots its a bit rough. Sound is about as good as it can and being a 2 disc version it has plenty of extras to watch. A legendary film.

Shutter Island - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-04-27T17:56:00.003+01:00

Like most films I buy, I steer clear of any information regarding them, as not to spoil them. All I need to know beforehand is that it is a good film and worth watching and I am sold. Suffice to say I won't mention anything else about this film other than it was great viewing, very absorbing and well made (despite its terrible first 10 minutes when the continuity editing is all over the place, and it is not intentional) and Scorcese delivers again.

The picture is stellar and the audio great. Highly recommended.

Out of Sight - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-04-27T17:51:00.003+01:00

The same thoughts occur at the end of this film on each viewing, why did Jennifer Lopez drop proper acting and develop a "singing" career? She is superb in this, so why go from this to "Jenny on the Block" and crappy Rom-coms?

This film overall is a good ride, and the Blu-Ray quality is stellar all around, some shots look absolutely incredible in HD.

Tron - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-04-27T17:50:00.002+01:00

This film never fails to loose my interest by the half-way point. It is pretty banal and becomes a mess 10 minutes before the end, almost like they got bored making it or ran out of money. Of course the design of the visuals is a strong draw as any, but it really isn't a classic film, no matter what.

Its hard to think that die-head Tron fans would be disappointed in this edition, the picture is very nice indeed and the audio has been beefed up in the attempt to match Legacy, and it does this very well.

NFS Shift 2 Unleased - Xbox 360

2011-04-21T13:53:00.001+01:00

Game Fizzicks - the bane of any racing game, full of subjectivity, many think it is great while other proclaim it to be inaccurate and totally off. I am never sure of which position I put myself in, other than on the fence. Neither that clever enough to know what I am talking about, yet know what instinctively feels right.

I drive in real life, not a super car, not an expensive car, but a 1996 Toyota Carina. Its not the fastest car, it doesn't have anything but budget tyres on it. However, like most, I think most racing games seem to downplay the amount of grip a car has when driving a virtual version of it. My real life car is able to either accelerate around a corner in 4 th gear at 50mph with very little ease, and even maintain the level of grip if I choose to just coast around it. And this is on one side of a road, not following an apex of a bend.

Why is it then, driving a virual car around a track at the same sorts of speeds, in a mega car with mega tyres, I find myself ebbing sideways, loosing grip? I think the handling of Shift 2 is summed up in a nutshell, it feels like I am going sideways most of the time.

Its true to say I spent probably the first two of my play sessions in the OPTIONS screens. Either there is too much choice of the amount of configurable parameters you have, or something is wrong with this from the outset, not sure. However, any slight change to the driving parameters made Automatic gears turn back on (even though it is in a completely different screen!) which meant more trips outside of the game, back to the OPTIONS screen to switch Manual back on.

I also came to the conclusion that using a 360 pad with the Pro or Experienced handling model (it appears to do more than just toggle on/off settings below it) was all-but impossible. Too much sliding sideways for my liking, so Normal seemed the best thing and it seems to be working out for me now. Also the driving line options (the green road stripe thingy) was horrible. I normally reserve this kind of thing for just corners, but this option does not exist here. The driving line seems to make you worse at playing the game, not better, so my advice is just to switch it off and use the force! By doing so however (to me) flags up another gameplay problem....

...I just don't think it was playtested properly WITHOUT the driving line switched on. A lot of real world circuits lack the "yards-to-go" roadside details, such as Suzuka (you know, the 300 - 200 - 100 to go boards), which makes the first bend of that circuit, in the dark, an overshot prospect. I think this is pretty bad.

Gameplay takes a long time to open up into its different catagories, but once it does it starts to deliver more of what you would term an addictive game. Its just that it take too long to get started with it. I can understand why some gave up and sold it on, but after a few days it finally starts to open up, and its delivering an racing experience the likes of which I have not experienced since PGR3.

I like the intimacy of the racing, the non-fussy way you can just pick a car and race. No faffing with upgrades (although they are there), the AI racers are choosen to mirror very closely the performance of your chosen car and you are off. No silly out-of-your-league racing pack like the other games, its just choose and go race.

I've read comments about the graphical quality of this game and I don't agree. The graphics are superb, in fact I would say that they out-perform Codemasters in their efforts. The game never faulters from a solid 30fps (unlike Shift 1) and a nice touch is the way that the dashboard reflects on the windscreen, I have never seen that done before. The lighting is excellent, as is the amount of environments on offer, I counted a total of 35 different locations, some of those have several variations of the track available.

The new in-car cockpit view is a brave attempt and I can understand what they are aiming for, however it didn't agree which me and I ended up choosing the more traditional fixed in-car view. I have to lament the removal of the "british" factor in this sequel, its done a Codemasters and gone totally American on us, and which it totally stupid music choices and sick-rad stuff man.

Its not a game for everyone, thats for sure, and I can fully understand why. For those that choose to plough on through, it may well be just the best looking and solid "racing" games available right now.

The Incredibles - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-04-21T13:51:00.003+01:00

The story, characters, design and execution still make this my favourite Pixar film made to-date, and still keen to see what else Brad Bird can bring to the world of animation. Each character is absolutely nailed to perfection and within such a small space of time you know what the relationships are, what the are capable of and what is at stake story-wise.

The plane sequence gets me every time. its something in any other film you just simply wouldn't see. I've watched the sequence many times, and in context of the full film, it still makes for anxious feelings to overwhelm the senses during its execution. The editing and music/sound are also used to great effect.

The Blu-Ray is excellent, although it doesn't really improve over the DVD in massive amounts, as stylistically most of the character textures, while brilliantly animated, are very flat. For example Mr Incredibles body is like a blob, but things like hair and the jungle details later on are wonderfully pin-sharp and colourful.

Monsters - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-04-21T13:50:00.003+01:00

Not the film you think it might be, more a relationship piece. Given how it was made, with 7 crew and a very very small budget, this is incredible film-making.

UK director Gareth Edwards puts those bloated money-hogs to shame with this, its so well realised and executed its hard not to be impressed with it. Outside of that knowledge however, it becomes just a very different film and a good one, not an amazing one. I don't think there is much to gain from repeat viewings, so I would recommed a rental first.

Pic and sound is, as expected from a HD shoot, very nice indeed. Check it out however you can really.

Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-04-21T13:48:00.002+01:00

Imagination and animation done right. I have just returned from Florida and was disappointed not to spot any of Miyazaki's characters in the Disneylands anywhere. The shame.

This isn't one of Studio Ghilbi's best, but it is so much better than most of the junk knocking around. Like most of the studios work, I find pacing can be a little off, so interest levels seem to dip at times. Neverless it is a recommeded watch.

Picture and sound are great on this, can't wait for more catalogue titles from these japanese masters!

Megamind - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-04-21T13:47:00.002+01:00

Another me-too Pixar clone, this time its not really that good,funny or exciting. Will Ferrell doesn't do much in this, and I thought he would be ideal at this, especially his adlibs.

Picture is as expected flawless, audio is very un-exciting and fairly flat. File next to Planet 51 for blandness.

The Social Network - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-02-04T12:03:00.003Z

A good film, given its subject matter, although it won't hold anyones attention who doesn't really care about .com business workings. It certainly shows that Mark Zuckerberg has lead an unconvential and problematic life and is still only 26 years old. I wonder what Zuckerberg thought of this film, as it paints him ironically with someone with no friends or partners of his choosing.

The visual and audio presentation of this disc is top notch, especially some scenes with sound design. Watch out for the nightclub scene, your subwoofer will teach you frequencies you never knew existed!

Resident Evil : Afterlife - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-02-04T12:02:00.001Z

This turned out better than I expected, much better than the trailer I saw about 6 months ago anyhow. Ironically this one seems to have the biggest budget for effects and action, but the RE film series isn't really about zombies anymore, so I find my interests diving quite a bit now. The slo-mo Matrix rip-off sequences do grate about half way in though. Overall the best made RE film yet, although there isn't much of a story left to tell anymore, its almost a waste of time to recommend it to anyone other than those that have seen and enjoyed the other 3.

Picture and sound where pretty flawless throughout.

Iron Man 2 - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-02-04T12:01:00.001Z

I wasn't really looking forward to this that much, but was plesently suprised on how adept the action sequences where filmed, very engaging and well edited together, had some true quality to it. Its a strange character piece really (Tony Stark) you think his a massive twat and yet somehow still really like him after all. However I find it hard to digest that these CEO's of military tech get to put on a concert-like performance in front of 20-something mad groupies going ape like they are the best rock band in the world. I hope to never see that day!

The picture and sound are very nice indeed, the sound especially is very active. Hopefully going forward Scarlett Johansson will get a bigger part in every sequel and take up 95 percent of the film next time. May I even suggest a full film just with her character? Yum!

LPs of 2010

2011-01-15T19:17:00.003Z

So, 2010 was a bit of a wet dog muscially if you ask me, but neverless there were a couple of LP gems released.

My LP of the year Beach House "Teen Dream". I've played it to death, its a slow burner at first but more plays reveal how good it is. It has some interesting arrangements, some blinding middle8's and codas (as track 4's "Walk in the Park" demostrates).

Close runner up is Kayne West "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy". I usually cannot stand much of his output, but this is a good LP and shows that he really is out on a limb in rap/hip hop circles. Most of the latter half of the LP is introspective and self loathing which is a refreshing change from the "big up, I am better than you mentality". In fact some of it is a lyrical cry for help in some respects (even says as much on one of the latter tracks". Kayne may well come good in future years. Musically it is quite varied too.

Also rans are...
Foals "Total Life Forever" Arcade Fire "The Suburbs" MGMT "Congratulations" Vampire Weekend "Contra" Kings of Leon "Come around sundown" Yeasayer "Odd Blood"

Disappointments were in Deftones "Diamond Eyes" and Interpol's 4th, not much imagination in either release. Kings of Leon was close but there are some real gems on the LP that will be missed if they didn't exist.

Re-issues of the year have been Propaganda "A Secret Wish" and The Cure "Disintergration"

Also some 2009 music I got into late that has been indespensible in 2010 to me...
Fleet Foxes "Fleet Foxes" Bombay Bicycle Club "I had the blues but shook them loose" Gonjasufi "A Sufi and a Killer"

Space 1999 - Blu-Ray - Region B

2011-01-15T19:09:00.002Z

The best Blu-Ray release of 2010 bar-none. For me this is pure escapism into to the realms of my youth. Used to watch this on Sunday afternoons with my best mate Nick while sipping on a Coca-Cola, supplied by Dad.

This set is a guilty pleasure though only fans of the show would appreciate, I don't think it would win many new fans. Its more 2001 than Star Wars.

The remastering is sublime, although the lack of HD audio makes it fall short of FULL HD in my book. The packaging is a naff though, discs you nearly snap to get out, the fact that 2 out of the 7 discs are actually DVD's that contain the extra (I hate when that is not made clear) and the booklet inside gets completely mashed by the plastic tabs.

Some of the episodes are quite poor though, but they better ones far outweigh this. Martin Landau is such a legend in my book, brings a touch of class to this series.

Roll on Series 2 boxset!

The Expendables - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-01-15T19:08:00.002Z

I knew what I was letting myself in for (I like Stallone films anyway) and this was good. Not up there with his best, but it certainly delivers on the body count, even if the action direction is a bit wonky.

Excellent picture and the sound is a demo-worthy monster, especially the final-third. Would consider another viewing sometime.

Predators - Blu-Ray - Region B

2011-01-15T19:07:00.000Z

A totally pointless, empty, characterless, predictable and unsuspensful film. To quote Roger Ebert (actually on his review of Resident Evil, but its wise words anyway) "There was no reason to produce it, except to make money, and there is no reason to see it, except to spend money."

Great picture quality, poor sound mix, even with a DTS-MA track. I won't watch this again.

Planet Terror - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-01-15T19:04:00.001Z

The ever so-slightly better half of the disasterous Grindhouse project, this really shows that Robert Rodrigez has a woeful catalog of films behind him. Could this be the most over-rated director in the world today? Apart from "Sin City" which was more of complete literal translation of the comic as you could get, everything he has output has been pretty bad YET still gets studios to back his pulp crap output. Strange times.

Another bad acting part from Tarantino too, who is also on my lost cause list as someone who is very talented behind the camera (such as those suspenseful scenes in IB) but for some reason likes to deliberatly bring his own work down by going trashy, referential and now self-referential route. One day one of these directors will make a film worthy of their talents, and I suspect that will be Rodrigez, delivering yet another shit film. Machete anyone?

Tropic Thunder - Region 2 - DVD

2011-01-15T19:03:00.002Z

Insane really that you can buy most films for £3 now on DVD with you shopping, and thats exactly what I did with this. For a price of a rental its worth it! Of course its an "american" comedy, which proclaims itself as amazing funny, which translates over here as midly amusing in places. With one exception, love him or loathe him regular looney idiot Tom Cruise's uncredited apperance is absolute gem, really scene stealing stuff and the best thing in the film by miles.

I found this more of a parody, in the vain of a poor mans Chris Morris film, than a out-and-out comedy. Of course reaffirming that the generally talentless shite Jack Black doesn't really have to do much in this film to get paid. Still the longer he is tied up in film work and he is away from fucking Tenacious D stuff the better.

Despicable Me - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-01-15T19:02:00.000Z

An okay and enjoyable family film. although like some of Sony Animations works and Dreamworks films, I find it quite pretentcious that it lists the stars of the film at the beginning of what is a completely animated experience! I'm glad Pixar don't entertain this idea. One of the extra's on the disc, performed by some of the minions, called "Banana" has my two girls in fits of giggles every time they watch it! Very funny. Picture is excellent and the sound is really sonically bassy for its type. A better than average animated film.

Inception - Blu-Ray - Region A

2011-01-15T19:01:00.001Z

Still a very complex beast, even on 2nd viewing. I think it comes down to the speed at which it moves along, especially when it gets to the snow level. Some of the dialogue around that section is delivered very fast, especially at one key moment, and if you don't quite get it your lost. Suffice to say 2nd time around I couldn't keep up. Maybe 3rd time lucky! Picture and sound are awesome, some true bass blasting going on.

Scott Pilgrim VS. The World - Region A - Blu-Ray

2011-01-15T18:59:00.000Z

The best film I've see in 2010. Seriously. Its so hard not to be impressed with this film, its relentless all of the way through (unlike most films that go off the boil in the last third) and is so refreshingly different in its approach you cannot help but like it. To talk about it is to spoil it, but not everyone will like it, in fact I would imagine loads will hate it. The first 20 minutes of the film lull you into a false sense of being, and if you are not prepared for the monumental shift in style at that point and a willingness to just go with it, you will struggle.

I was never a huge fan of Edgar Wrights work before, Hot Fuzz was the better of his first 2 films (even if it turned into "Braindead"), but here he hits his stride, and its so massive now everyone else will be playing catch-up. The Blu-Ray is also impressive and has bags of special features and extras.

Apocalypse Now - Region A - Blu-Ray

2011-01-15T18:57:00.000Z

Proof, if needed, that the 70's was the last great decade where film makers and film really could achieve all. Dirty Harry, Star Wars, Clockwork Orange, Straw Dogs, Exorcist, Taxi Driver, Alien, the list is long and diverse. Coppala's frankly mental take on the Vietnam war belongs to that list. If you haven't seen it then this is a perfect time to see it, on Blu-Ray, in the long argued 2:35:1 ratio and demo worthy sound. Just make sure you go for the 1979 original, the Redux isn't worth the extra investment in time, its for the hardcore only.

Downsides with this release really lie in the fact that there are 2 editions of the it, one with the Hearts Of Darkness documentary, and as such it is so overpriced its a hard recommend to anyone but a massive fanatic. Also, as with either of the 2 editions, its not truely the be-all-and-end-all edition. There was, for years, defensive and stubborn refusuals to issue the film in anything but the zoomed 1:85:1 version in the home, and as such that edition could become lost in time. I would of prefered to see that version included on the editions as well.

Aliens - Blu-Ray - Region B

2011-01-15T18:56:00.002Z

I'm really glad I watched this again. I've not usually got a good word to say about Cameron as a film-maker or director, but its hard not to agree that this film is the template for most sci-fi action films that followed. Motion trackers, army "grunts" in the worst style, future war tech, although not all of the future is painted that realistically and with that much vision. For example, in the early scenee with Ripley in the board room, they are all smoking, and as the camera pans around one of the chaps has a rolled-up newspaper doing a crossword, with a pen. Even in our current years, smoking is banned and someone would be playing Angry birds on a Iphone.

With all of its bull-in-a-china-shop direction and gun-ho action, it does take time to be subtle. Most modern films are over-cooked and over-(music)scored which removes all atmosphere, acting and tension. This has quite a long segment of acting, atmosphere and no music, letting the drama come out of the screen.

Its looks about as good as its going to get on Blu-Ray (and sound too). Just make sure you stick to the original version, the directors cut turns a taught action based adventure into a plodding drama, all those extra scenes really did need to be left on the cutting-room floor

Toy Story 3 - Region A - Blu-Ray

2010-10-31T18:10:00.002Z

I still haven't changed my opinon on the film as a whole (Basically reprises and remixes most of the gags from the two previous films) but it has a much more driven central premise than number 2, so it makes it better than that film easily.

Blu-Ray is amazing and as good as I remember it in the cinema, all of the attention details standout and proves Pixar are still head and shoulders about all other digital animaters.

Psycho - Region A - Blu-Ray

2010-10-31T18:02:00.003Z

I haven't watched this film for about 25 years, it was spoilt when I watched it the first time by someone telling me everything that was about to happen. Even back then watching it and knowing how brilliantly strange it was, I knew I wanted to see it again for the first time, so the only way was to leave it for so long.

It didn't disappoint. 1959 must of been rocked by the film, its so out of place. Its still horrific in places and the story arch is one that is rarely used in cinema, even today. Its been copied and borrowed a lot and even spawned a genre, but nothing comes close to this.

Its a shame that other generations of film watchers probably can't experience this how Hitchcock expressed. Just read the back cover of the Blu-Ray and you might as well not bother watching it! Its also a flaw that the film is titled the way it is, because it kind of leads you into expecting the unexpected. Had it gone with a title like "Bates Motel" or something, then the story twist would have been so epic it would be untouchable.

The technical aspects of the film shoot are incredible. No digital whatnots, no shortcuts, this was filmaking the hard way. The disc itself has some really interesting making ofs that are worth watching. After the film of course. And don't read the back cover!

The picture and sound (mono included which is best) are the top notch. A classic

How to train your dragon - Region A - Blu-Ray

2010-10-31T08:32:00.002Z

Not as good as you may of heard it is, but still miles better than most Pixar shadows. Of course you can tell just by looking at it in stills that they have made dragons cuddly and almost dog-like in appearance.

Picture and sound are briliant (its a rare 2:35:1 animated film) and comes with an additional mini 10 minute extra film which are always worth watching a few times after the film.

File next to Kung Fu Panda as Dreamworks 2nd best film.

Seven - Region A - Blu-Ray

2010-10-31T08:27:00.003Z

Still a briliant film, yet nothing quite like the first time you see it. Like the best Hitchcock, its been borrowed from thousands of times across TV and film, yet rarely bettered or even copied that well.

Picture and sound on this Blu-Ray are excellent, and its been overseen by Fincher so it blows all other editions out of the water.

Beauty and the Beast - Region A - Blu-Ray

2010-10-31T08:25:00.003Z

You know the score now about these Disney Blu-Ray's. Faultless as always. The film is not my cup of tea personally, but if you have children, especially girls, its essential.

Mars Attacks! - Region A - Blu-Ray

2010-10-31T08:23:00.001Z

Quite dated now, but still a fun watch. A massive cast, I forgot how big the names are in this.

I didn't have any complaints on the Blu-Ray, pic was good and sound was DTS MA 5.1. Extra junkies stay away, there are NONE!

The Crazies - Region A - Blu-Ray

2010-10-31T08:22:00.002Z

In a word, poor. Predictable, un-exciting and posessed abosulutely no suspense whatsoever because the music score throttled the living daylights out of it (a sort of predictable industrial dirge). It also desperately wanted to associate itself with the Zac Synder remake of Day of the Dead by including a Jonny Cash song for the intro. Quite suprised really of the amount of good reviews it has had, as it was no better than a TV film.

No complaints on the Blu-Ray presentation, pic and sound (PCM 5.1) were up to scratch. This one is for ebay!

F1 2010

2010-09-26T10:00:00.001+01:00

A year is a long time to wait. 2011 will hopefully be the year in which this game excels, but as it stands here and now its a promising start, just not where it really should be, based on my own expectations of the game anyway.

Its been hyped quite a bit, even if you are not a fan of F1, you can't of failed to miss the constant development updates and videos that have been feeding regularly from camp Codemasters. Even up to last weeks promising reviews, including an EDGE 8/10 (but in hindsight thats no real suprise is it?).

Firstly it does a lot of things right. For a start, I think the career mode is quite well realised. The length of races, fixed at 20% length, gives you a real sense of the tracks and the pressure you face under competition, and racing for an underdog is always a challenge most of us willingly step up for.

The garage options are well done, although it makes a massive faux-paus early on by the engineer telling you to "copy the setup of your team-mate", only to find such an option does not exist.

Career comes with a slight word of warning, always play with FULL damage. If you stick to the default (cosmetic) and have an awful race, its a long way to the end of the race because (a) you cannot retire and (b) you cannot destroy the car forcing a retirement. Spending 20+ minutes on a sideroad waiting for the race to finish isn't much fun.

Its also a bit too easy on the NORMAL AI setting for most seasoned racers, switching to HARD is recommended, although still they don't seem to put up too much of a fight, its more about speed. I have my suspicions though, aftering finishing in 3rd place after a tense and taught race, Vettel finished 2nd in front of me by about 3+ seconds, Webber about 4 seconds behind. But in first place Alonso with a wopping 21 seconds on me.

Handling is a bone of contention for me as a controller user. They simply just don't care if you haven't got a steering wheel for this, there are NO controller sensitivity options or anything, leaving you with a GRID/DIRT kind of twitchy feel to it. I get the feeling the handling changes depending on what view you use. I use the full in-cockpit view with the wheel right in front of me, and its twitchy as hell. A real oversight if you ask me.

You can tell the difference with the Driving AIDS on though. I prefer to race only with ABS switched on, and all other aids off with manual gears, no mean feat on a controller I can tell you. Providing you feather the accelerator on the triggers and don't go flat out on a slight curve in a lower gear (3rd or below), you can get a real sense of pleasure out of it.

Graphically it looks pretty and everything looks how it should be (anyone notice Freeman from HalfLife pushes your car into the garage?). The massive issue is framerate, it destroys it at times. There is no sandpapering over this, it is a massive disapointment coming from how good GRID and DIRT ran on the same game engine. Again it maybe depends on the gameplay view you use, but Monaco was an absolute disaster and was game destorying, so much that I threw the race in Career mode on the 1st lap by smashing into the nearest wall, anything to make it stop.

Coupled with the fact that the 360 version suffers from the same stuttering bug as GRID did on release, and you have a massive disappointment. And on the subject of bugs, its no secret that Codemasters own forum is alight with problems right now. Pit stop issues, AI racers not pitting, the list is getting longer by the day. Being realistic, only a handful of those are really gamebreaking at the moment and we all know games are bugged anyway, but this one is showing itself as something that didn't get a lot of TLC on its way out of the door. A bit of a travisty really given the importance of the license.

Presentation is a double-edged sword. On starting the game, you are funnelled down a path of setting up your "stuff" for about 10 minutes. A nickname, really? Wow, I looked through the list, some normal ones there, John etc. Could it be they have added my name this time? Quick search through for "Neil". No, sadly not this time, just like the personalised keyring and mug I've never found in a nicnack shop, I curse my parents for their choice of name, but never fear, "Jesus" and "Tiberious" are in.

I like the pit presentation a lot, right down to the speeding up of the elapsed time, a nice authentic touch. It does however have a really bad way of explaining the upgrades system. From previous forum posts, it means there are upgrades, but they are reserved for the no. 1 driver in the team. (so far with Lotus, after about 7 races I have about 50 points and Truli has 3, but I am still number 2!). Also strange are the rewards for coming 1st/2nd/3rd. Although they are a bit of an anti-climax in the sport itself, there are NO podium presentations in this. Your reward? A press interview. Wow.

The sound is meaty enough and the music is subtle and functional.

Overall I like playing the game, it has just not met what I thought it would be. If the framerate was locked at 30fps and it didn't lock up all the time AND it had some controller options, I'd love it to bits. But as it currently stands the pure racing aspect of it is currently 2nd place to F1:CE from 2006. This kind of cements the acheivements of Studio Liverpool all that time ago.

I admire the approach Codemasters have had with this game. F1:CE was just about racing tracks, 2010 is more about team, driver and desire to better yourself. Who knows a patch might sort a lot of it out, and I hope it does. But I can't help thinking this was a missing oppertunity at the start of the race, and as such can see a lot of what didn't happen in 2010 going into 2011's race.

I hope so.

Halo Reach

2010-09-23T15:40:00.000+01:00

I'm not the biggest Halo fan ever made, but I thought the single player campaign was more varied and better thought out than the previous ones. Except for that shit tank level. Lets be honest, Halo games tend to be pretty repetative, you have fought all the enemies before, flown and driven all the vehicles, seen the locations again and again.

The story is again pretty confusing (key diagloue over a firefight and objectives issued while your at it, yeah thats the way to do it) and really, given the amount of people working on the game (as the credits atest) it is a bit of a joke to be honest. Is it really that difficult to construct something understandable half the time?

Of course, broken down, the story matters not one jot, its all shoot /kiill/shoot and press X to activate/open stuff. Although the cutscenes where trying to hint at some sort of emotional element to the squad (and maybe even some social commentary to current conflicts), but really I couldn't really care less about characters that merely names written in blue above their heads. At least the dialogue was a bit less macho, none of this "You know the music, time to dance" crud.

Audio was really good in places, the music ranges from excellent to terrible however. Some real cheesy stuff in this soundtrack, and maybe its just the recording, but the 360's Dolby Digital output really seems to strangle the dynamic range. A case for HD audio really.

The graphical artistry was of a very high quality, all be it within very strict confines. However, my previous complaints in Halo of a lack of variety of locations has been addressed in this, and this was my main reason to really enjoy it more this time around. The technical aspects of what was on screen was not so hot, a lot of framedips and slowdown spoil the show, more so than any previous Halo game I care to remember.

The action on screen was quite varied, although the second chapter didn't do it any favours. I bet quite a few people gave up on that level to dip into Multiplayer, and have such not bothered to return. Its a shame because it did become more varied after chapter 2, but alas I think most people won't bother.

Presentation, as always, is top notch. So much in there, menus, options, customisation, upload/downloads, I'd imagine only the very niche are not catered for with this.

I am now beginning to dig into multiplayer now to see if thats any good, although I did not rate 3 or ODST's online component. Not because its crap, just because it all appears a bit of a mixed bag.

Again, like 3 and ODST, the graphical engine really seems sub-standard in comparision to the SP game. It seems to skip frames quite a lot and is very jerky. Some of the graphical qualities of the levels are really poor, the sort you find in really bad sub-standard Unreal-Engine games. And yet, on other levels, they look really lush and run pretty well? I don't know really, at times I think the engine has had its day, and other times it looks and runs quite lovely.

Not a massive fan of the public playlists either. I tend to go Lone Wolves, with a hope of playing some old school Deathmatch games. However, its all down to a voting, and two or so games of the overlong Oddball game type is enough to quit the whole thing and turn it off and go and do something better instead.

The Man who fell to Earth - Region A - Blu-Ray

2010-07-31T13:49:00.001+01:00

I haven't seen this film for about 20+ years so it was good to become re-established with it. Proof, if needed, that most films where more inventive and presented to a more itelligent audience in the 70's, its quite random in structure and does the great thing of not actually really explaining anything.

Bowie is mesmerising to watch, and the support cast are just as strange. Roeg's direction is so jazzzzz and loose, it instantly disorientates in the first minutes as it does the last. Also impressive is the make up on the aging characters as they get older, very well done without digital trickery.

The Criterion release is now deleted, so if you have any interest in picking this up from the US, now is the time while stocks are still around (its region locked btw.) Picture is very impressive for a 1976 film, proof indeed that 35mm film really was and still is perfect HD material when done right. Sound is a stubbon 2.0 (Stereo), no remixing here. I look forward to watching this again when I am about 60, as there really isn't much like it.

Kick Ass - Region A Blu-Ray

2010-07-31T13:47:00.002+01:00

A Tarantino-esq comedy of violence. This really was very over-rated on release, but is still well worth a watch. Its well made and written and no one appears out of place. Part Superbad and part Kill Bill, it all gels very well and is really funny in places.

In fact for a Saturday night film you can do a lot worse! Its recommended viewing at least once, so its an ideal rental, I am not sure about owning the film or getting much out of it on a re-run. Still the picture and sound are very good.

Thirst - Blu-Ray Region A

2010-07-31T13:44:00.001+01:00

The latest Park Chan Wook film to be released finally got its Blu-Ray release in it native territory. This is a new director approved transfer and has a new edit of 144 minutes on it. However it doesn't matter because although I have really liked and rated all of his other films (except I'm A Cyborg, still not seen it) I really didn't get on with this one. Its far too long, but about 40 minutes. It has his great trademark weird feel to it, but ultimately it is not really about anything. His director craft is getting untouchable in the Asian arena though, I don't think there is anyone quite like him.

Great picture and sound was pretty good as well. A very expensive import for me, £29!

Toy Story 3

2010-07-31T13:43:00.000+01:00

Basically reprises and remixes most of the gags from the two previous films, however its still very enjoyable and well put together and paced. Better than number 2, but nowhere near the briliance and sheer wit of 1, its get a solid 7/10 from me. Hopefully Monsters Inc 2 (still a really bad idea if you ask me) and Cars 2 (an even worse, but understandable, marketing descision) are up to the same standard

Inception

2010-07-31T13:42:00.003+01:00

An absolute head-mash of a film. Some places Kubrick and some Hitchcock, alltogether Nolan proves himself a writer and director to be put with the greats. A 2nd viewing will be most welcome on Blu-Ray.

My only gripe, like most films, is that it was slightly over-produced in the music score department. Some scenes needed a bit of silence to get the mood across and some of the detail. But maybe it was just the cinema mix of the soundtrack, I found the music a bit too level with the dialogue at times

Its over...

2010-06-22T19:33:00.003+01:00

My room after "decoration"...

3D - in a nutshell

2010-06-22T18:33:00.001+01:00

Perfectly captured in only 3 pictures...

Blur

2010-06-09T17:09:00.002+01:00

This idea shouldn't work. A Mario Kart type racer, using real life licensed cars, in real world locations such as San Francisco and Tokoyo. And Hackney. And yet somehow it all works. Brilliantly.

Gameplay is more Wipeout than Mario Kart, but it reaches the same conclusion in what is acheived. Icon pickups are glowing green and orange colours rather than shells and banana skins. Car handling is initally quite strange and unforgiving in comparision to others of the type, but this is because you HAVE to use the brake in order to get around corners.

Cars have different attributes, such as grippy, off road and drify, to be used on the different road surfices, although this is where it is let down slightly. The single player tutorial states that you need to mix up the use of cars depending on the track environment, but then doesn't bother to tell you what kind of a track you are about to race on. Is it tarmac, off-road, water? The last Sega Rally made this glaring ommission too, with tyre choices (fixed only in the PSP version).

Track variety is quite high, and at my count there are 14 different locations, making up 30 different tracks, a generous sum and can be hardly accused of short-changing anyone in that respect. Track design is good but maybe fairly unremarkable, but then it all moves at such a pace its hard to have time to think about it. Some tracks do take longer to burn into the brain than most.

Visually it ranges from excellent to very good, it's hardly state of the art but its functional because it will have up to 20 cars on the track at once. Its rock solid 30fps with no tearing though (360 version.) The in-car views fish-eyed lens effect is pretty horrible though. Music is switched off by default in the races, and this gives the excellent sound effects chance to shine.

Presentation, bar one or two minor tweaks, is polished to near perfection. No pikey NOW LOADING screen messages, or choose your save location, are you sure yes/no rubbish here, it is streamlined brilliantly. After race screens dazzle with awards and information that is all very clear and to the point.

Single player has the usual suspects of modes and gameplay, but its no slouch in entertainment. It has a really good "friend nemesis" system, whereby if one of your online friends has the game and has played the SP modes, you can quickly and easily compare who is better at it. Most races and events also have a "fan" challenge, usually whereby you have to navigate through gates in order to gain more "fans", the games currency to unlock more cars and events.

On the subject of the "fans" system its a bit wonky at times, it is very hard to meet whats called the "fan requirement" setting of most of the single player races. Finishing first and skidding around corners is not enough, it seems you need to have a hard race and hit lots of cars to get them. I doubt anyone that leds from the front, stays there and does little to defend themselves and manage to win will get any fans.

Rounding up Single Player, it has a 9 level event series, with about 10 or so races in each, so it will keep you going for a while, especially if you want to finish first in everything, which won't come easy. Not quite sure what the PHOTO mode is for at the moment though, strangely this game in either SP or MP modes does not offer any sort of race replay system to play around with.

Making the game a-must-have is the Multiplayer part. It has been well groomed through its helpful Beta phase, and now it really shows the amount of effort that has gone into it. Its Modern Carfare for sure in that it offers the "fans" points again to unlock cars, and then build up "perks" to equip to your car to attach more bells and whistles.

It has an excellent way of starting you on your way online, a learners class that limits the abilities to maximum level 10, allowing newcommers to get in the groove before continuing up the ladder, onto the more challenging 10 to 20 car races, the latter being utterly crazy! You can even race in a mode without any of the power-ups.

It's "perks" system, like MW2, could eventually dangerously kill this game, but time will tell. Perks such as invisability could break its backbone if everyone used it for example, lets hope its balance is greater than MW2 otherwise it could end up annoyingly unplayable.

Muliplayer succeeds though in being a racer that everyone can play. Playing Forza 3 etc. online is always bad because unless your using private lobbys, everyone drives like a tit and by the first bend your out because your competetion doesn't know what the brake is on the first bend. In Blur, it doesn't matter, everyone can drive wild, thats the point. It becomes addictive because of the unlocks system and the general challenge, rarely does it feel unfair because everyone pretty much stands the same chance of winning as you, although don't be suprised if you finish 3rd 4th or 5th most of the time.

The lobby system is excellent too, it is great the way if offers the players a choice of 2 tracks to play next, putting it up to a vote. A real shame is the hidden features in the lobby, that being the excellent "Race Summary" screens, lurking under the "Garage". I would of preffered this to be mapped to a LB/RB button from the main lobby screen, rather than pressing X and scroll. The same is also true of the "Session Scoreboard" screen, I would of chosen to do away with it totally and put small numbers next to the players names in the lobby.

In summing up though, its addictive as hell and almost perfect its execution and intention. Now is the time to play Blur, no DLC can really expand on what is already here currently, there is more than enough going on, the same I believe with a sequel, which would possibly be a waste of time.

One of the best games of 2010.

Demon's Souls

2010-06-09T17:07:00.002+01:00

I've had this on the shelf for a couple of weeks, so decided the other night was the night to start it. I don't think I have played a game since the 8 bit era were progress has been so microscopic.

I am currently unsure about this game. I mean it has a lot of good attributes, but I am struggling to understand what kind of game it wants to be. At the moment I liken it to Gran Turismo, where the aim of the game is to dip into it now and again and play, and never to finish.

Reason of thinking is that it obviously goes out of its way to make progress (and subsequent completion) as hard as possible. I understand the risk / reward aspect is greater than in most games, but what I am struggling with slightly is the grinding.

All things considered in the balance of how the game has been designed, I think the harshest thing is the double-edge sword that is...
(side one) die and lose everything and return to the start and
(side two) all the enemies are regenerated.
Everything else is good, but its the constant grind back to where you died that is putting me off slightly, and therefore making progress slow, as you battle through the hordes you've already dispatched. (Fair enough if you went back to the Nexus and then back into the level.)

Compond the facts that weapons and armour break and in reality you have a game that really is giving you nothing back but a slog to progress sometimes. Even when you are mid-level and decide to take the souls you have and return to the Nexus, you can't just warp back, otherwise you loose everything, its a long walk back to the start to cash in!

I doubt I will ever finish the game, I just don't get that much gaming time in my life. I can see whole playsessions passing with absolutely no progress made whatsoever.

I'm impressed that a game of this type still has a following. I think the game is great, apart from the afforementioned double-edge sword killer for me. Graphics and sound are good, and the controls are a masterclass of game design. I found the combat went a bit haywire when 3 or more attackers where after you. The parry move is great, when it works, I think I have successfully made about two connections, its timing is of Street Fighter proportions!

If you have all the time in the world to play games, this is perfect. It will probably keep you going for weeks and months. However those with about 1-2 hours of gaming a day/night and like to keep there gaming varied, think about the commitment before you buy.

I am going to shelve this and return to it in the cold winter nights, playing on a summers eve just doesn't have the same atmosphere. Strange choice then for the UK release date! (Middle of Summer).

Sony Bravia KDL-46W4500 problems....

2010-06-09T17:03:00.003+01:00

Fucking TeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeVvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Split Second - Slight return

2010-06-09T17:01:00.000+01:00

Finished the game now. Overall a very enjoyable game with a great central idea, spoilt by the AI racers, but heres to SS2! Not sure what they are hinting at for the sequel in the ending, but maybe its for the future DLC (there is at least one empty slot on the race selection screen to hint that DLC is another track).

Now I have completed the game, online is more of a proposition, but it is still a silly design that you can only race with those cars you have already unlocked in SP, making the jump-in nature of online completely redundant. Game-testing people and producers, COME ON.

One slightly pikey element to the presentation was the fact that in-game help messages always flashed up, even if you are near the end of the game! (especially in Air strike). Given that I was forced to watch the whole credit sequence at the end, there where shed-loads of QA Testers, and yet no one spotted this. Shabby.

Split Second - Xbox 360

2010-05-29T18:03:00.000+01:00

The game starts fairly muted, in comparision to the demo had quite a few bells and whistles on it to demostrate it at its near-full potential, so the start of this game feels toned down a bit. But play a bit more and a bit more and you start to unlock more ways to blow stff up, bigger and badder.

Graphically its very impressive, as is the presentation and the sound, although I thought it could of done with a more aggressive 5.1 mix to really hammer it home.

The driving is more Ridge Racer than Burnout. It adds drift into the scheme of things to keep the handling interesting and slightly unpredictable. Its not as satisfying as Ridge in that department, but it is essential to build up your destroy-o-meter. And drafting of course.

The more you play offline the more modes and cars and tracks you unlock. From counting there appears to be about 11 tracks, which is not too shabby, especially with the amount of detail and effort involved in blowing them up. They all seem visually very similar though, and I think this is down to the colour scheme used, very brown and orange. Its kind of disappointing that broader and different colour schemes were not used on other tracks, but its obviously a choice the devs made, mostly to make it look like a Michael Bay film.

The modes of play range from the traditional race, to a detonator type event, where its just you on the track and all of the explosions around are triggered as you drive past. There is also a standard Eliminator race and final Champonship Events that carry over between its "episodes". The best modes however are the Air Strike and Survival. Air Strike pits you against homing missles from a helicopter, Survival against a large articulated lorry shedding its load of barrels. Its very Outrun "hearts" mode in places, but still very addictive and it feels like playing in an action film.

Its only after hours of play the cracks start to appear. Of course the AI in offline mode is rubberbanded, otherwise you would have a pretty boring race overall. But there are other faults with the CPU opponents, in that they are completely without error. They seem to be able to take the tightest of corners without drifting or any loss of speed whatsoever. Biggest fault of all though is that it is absolutely impossible to smash them off-course. They can of course merely touch the back of your car or ram the side of it to push you off the target, but try the same back and they just do not wavier one bit. This is an bit of an oversight.

An even bigger oversight, a MASSIVE one, is Online, which is for want of a better word, crap. Well maybe it gets better, but it will only be winnable once you have finished the offline modes and unlocked all of the cars. When racing online you can only choose the current roster of cars you have unlocked offline. So if you are only a third or so though the game offline, you cannot expect to win any races against the online competition who have got the best cars from completing the offline game.

This makes it extremely unplayable. I have to lament the amount of game testing that went on here. Within ONE minute of being in a lobby for the first time, I looked at the rest of the players, choosing cars that far outstripped my own, and knew instantly I was playing a completely botched and unfair system. Who is game testing these days? Was this a good idea? Did anyone mention it? NO!

I think Split Second is a very respectable game and an addictive and visceral one at that, but in places it is a bit painful to overlook some of what could of been to make it absolutely A+. As for online, that from the start is a poorly thought out affair, and they should really, REALLY think about what they are doing next time.

Red Dead Redemption - Xbox 360

2010-05-29T18:02:00.001+01:00

I am not a massive fan of open world games. While many tire of being signposted and handheld through games and want to be able to do whatever they want, I on the other hand, respect a more crafted and focused game. So I don't really find RDR that addictive to be honest, like GTA and Crackdown I don't find myself craving to get back to it.

The game suffers a little from some of the more focused moments, such as the missions. Here these are very, very tight in their setup, so much so that it plays against what you've already experienced and become used to. An example, in one mission you are riding with the Sherif and his men to capture some gang members, when you come across some vultures hanging overhead a campsite and you are told to check it out. You do and find some dead bodies and some other bits and pieces. Once the cut scene plays out, it tells you to join back up with the team. Thinking that they would wait for me, I poked around the campsite for things like ammo and money. Within a minute, it came up that I was DEAD and the game / mission was over because I had not instantly re-joined my posse. I found this to be very jarring and unfair.

Of course there are times where there isn't much to do between missions, and this is Rockstar's perfect excuse to showboat, which it does with ease. There are things you may only see once, but are still utterly brilliant because they are there. You can get drunk, ride a train, shoot dogs, and only because you can, not because you need to.

The gameplay is typical GTA style and the gunplay is OK, but at times far too easy. Switching to EXPERT mode on the shooting controls goes some way to making this better, although this is utterly pointless with online multiplayer, as everyone is using Normal (auto aim) and its silly.

The game itself looks and sounds amazing though, with terrific atmosphere and implementation. The script is brilliantly written and it all comes with great voice acting. Characters are brilliantly realised, my personal favourite so far has to be Eli, the slightly overweight lawman in the Sherif's office.

Although Multiplayer would of been the icing on the cake, the aforementioned Auto-aim shooting setup makes this unbalanced and a bit pointless. There are plenty of modes and things to do, but the mere choice of being able to let you auto-pilot the main gameplay or not makes it about as useless as GTA's online mode was. (unplayable).

For anyone sitting on fence about getting the game, you won't find a more polished, presentable and bang-on Western game EVER. You won't find anything radically different about it, but the pure love and attention to detail wins outright. Its just a shame that it doesn't always extend to its more focused moments and multiplayer options.

Hunger - Blu-Ray

2010-05-29T18:01:00.002+01:00

A British film given the Criterion treatment. A very good film, almost all visual, with only the important dialogue for company, including a mesmorising one-take discussion between two great actors. For those that are old enough to remember, this film is about the Hunger Strikes (centrally Bobby Sands) that took place in Northern Ireland in 1981 by IRA political prisioners held at the famouse H-block prisions.

The director Steve McQueen (not him!) does opt more for the visuals over explanation though, and in that respect it comes across a bit supportive of the strikers. What isn't really explained during the film is that the horrific conditions they were kept in where purely the prisoners own doing, the H-block prisions where actually state of the art at the time and other prisioners enjoyed a wealth of facilities. Still, the disc also includes a full 1981 edition of Panarama (back when it was good) that explains a lot of the subtext of the film. It was just a bit of a shame the film neglected certain points.

Alice in Wonderland - Blu-Ray

2010-05-29T17:58:00.002+01:00

I didn't enjoy this at all, it was a mess from start to finish. It started very low-key for a Burton film, but the script was muddled and the dialogue confusing. The best quote I have seen about this film is that "it's a Disney film illustrated by Burton, rather than a Burton film that happens to be released by Disney". I couldn't of put it better myself.

I didn't think the pic or sound where anything to write home about either.

Four Lions

2010-05-15T17:38:00.001+01:00

A brilliant film all round, Chris Morris has this knack of making you, the viewer, feel totally powerless and cornered into not knowing what is right and wrong. The cast is largely unknown and are utterly brilliant in their roles. The film takes pokes at all sides of the situation, so in that respect it is hard to see how anyone can be offended by it. Of course this is the point, intelligence over emotion with Morris.

A total balls-to-the-wall no sell out of an individual. As always I await his next move.

Logans Run - Blu-Ray

2010-05-15T17:37:00.002+01:00

Time has not been kind to this film. Its a sci-fi classic for sure, and the idea is sound, but it is ruined by shoddiness. Catching the film crews reflection in glass mirrors, bad lip synch when the characters are talking, but you can see in the shot the actors aren't actually talking. Some really bad acting and editing also spoil the show, as does Michael Yorks inability to hold a gun properly.

The special effects are no budget, seriously no existant. Compare this to a year later when Star Wars was released, its embarrising. Yet you can see the money went on the sets and the costumes as they are the films defining feature.

The Jerry Goldsmith score is bizzare, a real techno mash up, one that could be sampled and used today in some electronic music. Even stranger is the certificate this film gets, a PG. There are more than a few nude sequences in the film, one where Jenny Agutter (who looks lovely in this) gets undressed is purely not needed in a PG film.

Interestingly enough when originally released at the cinema, it was an "A" certificate, which meant that "Those aged 5 and older admitted, but parents advised that they may not wish children under 14 to watch the film". Now its a PG?

I largely dispair at the BBFC classification, I mean JAWS is classified as a PG now. I had nightmares for years after watching that aged 11. I not in favour of censorship in any form, but the BBFC need to be more realistic. For example in a PG film, would you want loads of breasts on show? Not really.

Blu-ray is about as good as this film is going to look, and the up-verted DD TrueHD has some surround credentials, nothing to trouble most films though.

Minority Report - Blu-Ray - Region A

2010-05-11T18:30:00.003+01:00

No matter how many times I've watched this, it is still gripping from beginning to end. Its a long film but it doesn't drag or get boring or stupid, although Speilberg does like to throw in some out of place humour elements, such as jetpacks lighting burgers in a kitchen, and bursting through a bedroom room of a young saxophonist.

Picture quality is on-par with the directors intentions, and varies wildly throughout. It looks stunning in places, although this is no TV showroom demo disc, but then thats not what the film was about. Sound is good but you need to crank it up a bit more than usual. Fidelity on these DTA-MA soundtracks as always is excellent.

Cliffhanger - Blu-Ray - region A

2010-05-11T18:26:00.003+01:00

One of my all time guilty pleasures this, a great Stallone film. Even though its got some weird continutiy issues and some questionable geography (in the fact that you really don't know where you are even after seeing the film multiple times), it matters not.

The villians are proper bastards, and it is possibly the only film you can see John Lithgow go fists to fists with Stallone and knock him sideways!

This is the best the film has looked and sounded ever, and the sound is still really good in surround. The picture quality varies depending on some of the FX shots, but the close ups are generally detailed.

Lost Planet 2 - Xbox 360

2010-05-11T15:26:00.003+01:00

First off, this game (360 version) hates being upscaled to 1080p via HDMI, it tears all over the place. Setting in the dash to 720p makes it tear free.

First off the bat, it looks pretty stunning. The cut-scenes are rendered using the ingame engine, and they really look good. Presentation is top too (don't know what IGN where on about).

There is quite a lot to this game and I am slowly finding out more about it, such as customisation of weapons, outfits etc. There are quite a few menu options, and a full Training mode which is a pleasant distraction, a bit like those MGS VR missions. They have their own leaderboards too, so it all plays out a bit like "The Club".

Ranked online matches are hard, but mostly in the way it wastes loads of time. It takes a while to fill up a lobby of players (to make up an unspecified criteria) only to ditch the whole lot after the game ends. Madness.

Campaign (Story), with all its stunning looks and action, is, for want of a better word, poor. Created with co-op in mind, it is playable offline, but your squad are mostly useless. Of course this is nothing new in a game of this type, they hunk around not doing much and spouting predictable future army speak it makes you groan.

Campaigns main failing though is its save points. On my first play-through, I played for about an hour, and got to about the 3rd or 4th mission of Chapter 1, a sizable chunk. However when I returned to the game later, I had to start ALL OVER AGAIN. This is unacceptable, and in truth maybe the game gets even better later on, I cannot play a game like this, I just cannot dedicate massive amounts of time to clear massive chapters so that I can save progress.

This aspect brings the whole package down. I just cannot be bothered to do the whole lot again. Which is a shame as I WAS enjoying it. Therefore I am shelving it in hope it may get patched to fix this.

Capcom have made a briliant looking game so hard to love

A Serious Man - Blu-Ray - Region A

2010-05-11T15:24:00.001+01:00

Absolutely brilliant film from the Coen Brothers, their wierdest film since "The Man with No Name".

Essential viewing in my opinion, but those that hated "Barton Fink" and the former film, stay well clear, you will not like it. Awesome picture and sound.

Avatar - Blu-Ray - Region A

2010-05-11T15:22:00.003+01:00

A real tough cookie this. It looks amazing, that is no understatement. Regardless of 3D-this-and-that, I think the effects employed are a staggering step up from anything before. Only a brief aspect of one scene threw the illusion, its truley incredible. I really enjoyed watching the film after all said and done. However my problems with the film lie firmly in the "sci-fi" catagory it finds itself in, and its really tricky.

The creature, character and mech designs are truly brilliant, the latter being so in-step with Japanese scifi (something I know Cameron is a fan of). I am sure also that Cameron is a massive sci-fi nut too, as all of his films seem to be related, bar Titanic. However being a sci-fi nut would hopefully inform him on what makes a great, timeless sci-fi film, based on what has gone before.

Sadly this will age badly over time, as bad as an 80's flick is now, although cool in a naff way. What I don't understand with all the money spent is HOW they can make everything so cliche. Has everything now already been seen and heard that nothing can surprise. The characters here are absolutely dire, its like making a film for the lowest common demoninator. The evil corporate type, the mad military nutter, the sweary horrible female lab tech who smokes, the helicopter pilot. Everything that poured out of their mouths was utter tripe. "Take this bitch" "Pissed on" "about x30 shits", "bring the pain". I could go on, but you get the idea.

Is this the future? The sci-fi future? Christ it was like GEARS OF WAR. I found that this film was made really for 5+ year olds with a bit of an eco message in there, so why do they have to try and make it so cool for 12+ year olds to like it. This was a U to PG film at best. The language and utter rubbish that spouted from each characters mouths (bar the Navi) was the films destroying feature. It was back to the Eighties again, watching "Aliens" all over again. Cameron, grow up you fool, make a sci-fi film that stands the test of time will you, go and watch films like "Logans Run", "The day the earth stood still", hell even "Star Wars" over again to understand this.

Or to quote one of your own films, "Game Over man, GAME OVER". You know if Star Wars was made in 2010 now, as Luke swings Leia across the Death Star in a bid to escape the Stormtropers, as he swung it would be paired with an "ooohhh shiiiiiittttttt".

I guess Cameron holds too much power in Hollywood now. Its a shame no one at Fox had the balls to say to him "Look, this is childs stuff, drop the silly macho stuff and language and you have the best family film of all time, with a message". I am usually against censorship, but really there was no need to have so much profanity in such a childish script.

Still, you've got Titanic's re-release in 2012 to look forward to now. In 3D. Nice. And the prospect of a Directors Cut of Avatar with even more footage to make the film EVEN longer.

(For the record the picture was awesome. The sound was not so, very stereo-centric, a disappointment. The music score was half good, half bad. The jungle sequences made it sound like the Lion King).

The Lovely Bones - Blu-Ray - Region A

2010-05-11T15:20:00.001+01:00

I really wanted this to be special, unfortuantley it was a bit fudged and overlong. The amount of digital effects employed throughout this film is through the roof given its subject matter, even on some of the more basic elements of filming. I think Jackson really needs to get back to basics.

As such I can't really recommend it to anyone, even as a Jackson fan. Great picture quality on the disc though.

Super Street Fighter IV - PS3

2010-05-01T12:11:00.002+01:00

I have had mixed feelings so far about this title. Leaving the gameplay, graphics and sound aside (as they are excellent), I see this as being a 3 way split between offline, online and training.

Given that "SUPER" is titled by Capcom as ultimate version of IV, I find the offline modes have been completely forgotten and stripped. Gone now are the Survial and Time Attack modes from the previous game and I have found myself asking "why?". Can't they exist anymore? Not enough memory on the disc?

Offline modes break down into two main areas, being Arcade, and the new challenge option of the "Trials", which in replacing Survial are not much fun, and I'd wager a large majority of players will never ever complete more than about 8 out of the 20 for every character.

Arcade does not really have an unlock structure either, although things like colours and taunts are unlocked per character. Offline is still devoid of presentable local hi-score tables. You play the game and get a score and time, yet at the end of the game there is no "enter your name" screen and no attract mode displaying your best score and time. Alternatively these are hidden about 3 levels down in the main menu. It seems the rolling hi-score tables have no place in a Capcom fighter anymore.

The Training aspect of this is still dire. Why is it so hard to make a usable training / tutorial guide within the training mode option? From SFII onwards, it took years to finally get the moves list on a menu in-game, but is the current way it works very usable? No, I don't think so. Contantly pressing PAUSE, then selecting your character name, then scrolling though the moves list, exiting, trying the move, then doing the whole process again to see the next move (and it doesn't remember what page you where on). Rubbish. Its not just Capcom that do this, just about every fighter is the same, with exception of Virtua Fighter, which had a proper training mode, stepping you through each move one-at-a-time until you got it right (no, "Trials" does not do this, that is more about chaining combos than teaching moves).

And herein lies the answer to why everyone you meet online uses Ken. Or the same character over and over. The prospect of learning new fighters (and old ones you have forgotten) is pretty labourious, unless you buy the paperback game guide. Maybe I have then hit the nail on the head then. But seriously, game makers, its time to put a decent training mode together. The future success of the Street Fighter series, in limbo for so long prior to IV, will depend on its new blood. A lot of what veterian players use is already in-built into the brain from years of playing, but just imagine what a nightmare it is to be brand new to this series. It needs to work in these areas to ensure it survives past a group of old farts that have been playing it since 1992.

The main focus of SUPER appears to be in offline, and here it delivers in spades. The replay channel is a good idea and it seems to have loads of modes and options that should appeal to all online fighter fans.

Hence I think this game, for me, will be forever renamed as SUPER ONLINE STREET FIGHTER IV. The lack of offline modes have offended me. I checked the box to see if it said SNK on it, but its still Capcom. You may say I have missed the point, and as always the arguement that a fighter should always be played against a real opponent, be it sitting next to you or over a internet connection. But there are so many that don't do this, and lets be honest the online playing communitity for Street Fighter is one of the fiecest that exists. I play online some of the time, but sometimes its just not that much fun to get contantly battered for hours on end. And I know some of you feel this way too. After all, once the servers get switched off in a few years, the online game literally becomes the no-game, a doorstop. But how many still maybe return to Zero/Alpha 3 for its offline modes?

Capcom also have a habit of dropping (or forgetting?) features that they have previously implemented in other games. Correct me if I am wrong, but "Xmen VS StreetFighter" had a system whereby if you wanted to continue after a defeat, with the same character, you just held SELECT and START together and you where back fighting in a second. Why isn't this the defacto standard? It is still CONTINUE? > CHARACTER SELECT SCREEN > SELECT CHARACTER > Press a few more buttons > Back in the game.

Capcom, sometimes you are so hard to love, but Street Fighter is in this old farts brain until I die. I don't think this game is potentially as SUPER as you make out though.

God of War 3 - Slight no return

2010-04-04T19:04:00.001+01:00

I would of liked to say at this point "finished", but its far from the truth. I got to about 4 hours in and have given up.

I've been here before, back in the 80's. Everyone was into Phil Collins and Bon Jovi, and I just didn't get it. What could they hear that I couldn't? And I find myself thinking about this when playing God Of War 3, because looking around its VERY highly regarded. How can you possibly be constructive in a way that everyone gets the points I am making without being replied to as "twat who doesn't appreciate good gaming"

Its visually very good, but thats about it. I guess if your madly into the whole Greek history thing, this is amazing, but for me it doesn't stike a chord. It's also mega violent for a reason, that of the "fuck it!" variety. Its pure Western- culture-made game design, at its highest "two-finger" salute.

I read that the combat had improved from previous releases, but it felt the same to me as the original game. After Bayonetta, this is souless and empty. The controls are clumsy and don't really work. Your enemies are able to attack you at about the third of the way through the start of a combo, which makes it very unstatisfiying to play. You start a couple of hits, only to find they have managed to hit you and break out of it.

Puzzles are of the Resident Evil school of logic. My favorite part of the game came just before the Hades boss battle, a big iron gate came down and block my way. It said I had to complete 3 challenges. Oh, what where they going to be. The first challenge was to "kill everyone on this side of the gate", the second challenge was to "kill those that spawn from the sides" and the third was to "Kill everything that moves". I found this to be a real laugh-out-loud moment.

On the plus side, the 7.1 sound and presentation are brilliant, although the use of the in-built PS3 save/load screen made it look unproffesional and clumsy.

In summary, I just don't understand it. Its highly regarded and reviewed and rated, and people seem to be enjoying it en-mass. To me its a souless, un-addictive and lacks any sort of variety. Combat is one dimensional and the contols are mental. It has not progressed one-jot since the other two games where released, and as such, is behind the times.

Most depressing of all, this is probably what most would regard as a PS3 systems seller. On the face of it, it is. Sit down and learn the game (takes 5 minutes) and realise, pushing graphics aside for a second, there are so many better games on the PS3 than this.

God of War 3 - Playstation 3

2010-03-27T18:10:00.001Z

I am finding this game about as much fun as going to the dentist at the moment.

Visually very spectacular and an amazing specticle. The "smoke and mirrors" effect between actual game and (some slight) FMV are handled very deftly. The opening chapter was grand and really sets the scene very well indeed. Not sure it has a rock solid framerate, but the camera direction and dramatic angles mask a lot of that.

The story is obviously a bit mental, so it can largely be ignored I would of thought. Sound is also worthy of note, a properly mixed and equalised 7.1 mix, nice! The intro is really good too, reminded me of a James Bond intro.

Controls seem smooth and responsive for the fighting, but jumping (and double jumping and gliding) are far too fiddly. I'm guessing that the reason why it takes soooo long to open a chest is to add some sort of urgency to the proceedings when you are up against it in a horde of enemies?

I am not a major fan of boss encounters, especially those in 3D, and this is no exception. Died a few times on the first boss, the Guard button is R1 and dodge is used via the Right Stick, so it can be a bit of a nightmare. 3D boss battles always seem to take place on the wrong dimensional plane if you ask me, you are always expected to walk right into the hit area of boss, usually face on, so it is impossible to judge your distance between yourself and the boss, so at time you start pressing hit buttons with no impact.

I do much prefer the hand-to-hand combat games of Bayonetta and Ninja Gaiden to those of using weapons to use at a distance. I don't find that GOW is very addictive, gameplay wise. After a few chapters cleared and a few deaths, I was quite happy to leave it. The urgency to see what happens next and what amazing visual set-piece follows will be the draw to finish the game, but I believe that gameplay wise, what I have already experienced in the first 10 minutes of playing is about all there is to it.

The Princess and the Frog - Blu-Ray

2010-03-27T18:07:00.002Z

Perfect looking disc and audio is top. A really good film, although it did lose me about the mid point, but picked up towards the end. Some real demo worthy scenes with the Voodoo man.

Its nice that a non-computer animated film can be made with this much care and attention, and with some thought being put into its longevity (its devoid of popular "today" verbal references, such as "whatever", "totally" etc.).

Fantastic Mr Fox - Blu-Ray

2010-03-27T18:00:00.002Z

Despite it's marketing aiming at children, this is anything but. This is a typical Wes Anderson film in stop-motion animation form, right down to the disaffected teenager. It starts off badly, the voice cast don't really come across as putting it that much of an effort to play "characters", and it all comes across a bit "Creature Comforts" (which I loathe with a passion). It gets better though and makes a change from computer animation.

Proceed with caution if you are getting this for little ones, I don't think it will hold their attention for longer than about 30 minutes. Picture and sound are good, as always!

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - Xbox 360

2010-03-14T21:33:00.003Z

Its taken me ages to write this, its that good!

It's main hook is online of course, the lack of cheating from MW2 makes it instantly better. It now consists of Conquest, Rush and Squad modes, the Squad Deathmatch mode being the best one, as I am not too hot on team playing (and the Conquest and Rush modes seem to be overrun with snipers).

The maps are pretty varied and, in certain modes are absolutely massive. Gunplay and movement is excellent, and they have changed the way enemies are spotted, it is no longer automatic, one of your squad has to "radio" in a "visual" by pressing the BACK button. A nice touch.

It has an unlock system for rewards and power-ups, but it is no MW2. Unlocks and level ups are slow to deliver, and it will take you hours of play before you get anything that even resembles a red-dot sight.

Online had a pretty disasterous first week, loads of connection problems and server outages, but things look like they have settled down. Proof really that no game is really worth playing on the first week of release, or before the first patch (it was patched instantly on release).

Single player is also pretty good too, miles better than the first BC game, I was really suprised. It's template is the same as all of the games before it, but it really puts the specticle in the surroundings, something multi-player can't deliver. It still suffers badly from scripting in and out of cutscenes, firstly your squad is behind you and then all of a sudden in front of you, it all gets very confusing and a bit laughable to be honest.

The sound is amazing. This is a candidate for hi-res such as TrueHD or DTS-MA. The 360 only manages DD5.1, but it is a blast, a real delight in surround sound.

Visuals are very good, although pop-up and some tearing spoil the view, although it is not game-breaking. The visuals fair much better in SP over MP and presentation-wise it really wants to be MW2, down to the zooming-in map at the start of every level.

The only thing I don't like about the game is the swearing in multi-player, mostly at the end of a round if you lose, I don't get it. I swear like a docker in real life, but I find it mostly unnessicary in most games and this is no exception. Otherwise its a brilliant game.

Espgaluda II - Xbox 360

2010-03-14T21:27:00.003Z

Another amazing shooter from Cave, this time it is a more complete package and includes everything upfront. No silly pre-order or rip-off DLC in this.

The gameplay is fast and furious and the scoring system is deep, I am still attempting to work out most of it across all of the modes, such as Arcade/360, Black Label, Novice and Arrange.

For some bizarre reason though, Score Attack this time around has Continues in it.

Thankfully Cave have made this region-free for this Japanese-only release. They have publicly stated that this will be the last region-free game they release. I've never quite understood the Japanese mentality with selling more copies to Western audiences. Oh well their loss, and ours. However these games are generally 5+ year old arcade conversions, so if you ask me, if they don't want your money, download them for MAME for nothing.

Planet 51 - Blu-Ray

2010-03-14T21:22:00.003Z

A slightly different concept with an all-too unimaginative implementation. Here you have an alien world stuck in 1950's Americana, with crap 2000-and-late jokes and quotes.

I feel asleep during this, and that is rare.

Picture and sound was ok, nothing special or demo worthy.

If you like your animation like Bee Movie, Open Season or Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs, this is for you. For the rest of us that like things like Pixar, Madagascar and Kung-Fu Panda (i.e. BETTER quality) avoid!

Ponyo - Blu-Ray

2010-02-27T18:58:00.002Z

A wonderful film, full of charm and imagination. I find some of Miyazaki's work overlong and difficult to go the distance with (both Princess Monoke and Spirited Away where difficult). This clocks in at just over 100 minutes with titles, so a much punchier film. Loved the way it wasn't overbaked and over-produced, there were times with true atmosphere and no music score. Watched it with my 4 and 10 year old girls and they loved it, and so did I.

Blu-Ray picture is brilliant. Still disgusted with Disney over the lack of Japanese HD audio on this disc though. Even with John Lasseter's involvement with all of this, I find this unacceptable, I mean this is Blu-Ray for christ sakes, HD Picture AND Audio with more disc space than you can shake a stick at. There is no excuse other than just being bloody minded idiots.

On a positive note, the Blu-Ray's start and end titles change to Japanese if you have the Japanese audio selected, a nice touch. However the Blu-Ray pop-up menus (on my Sony BDP-S350) took an absoulte age to come up, about 10 seconds. Doesn't sound much, but long enough to think you didn't press the button and to try again, only to see it flash up and disappear again due to stored inputs.

Oh and Liam Nesson was still terrible in this. He must have the best agent in town

Moon - Blu-Ray

2010-02-27T18:56:00.001Z

I have wanted to watch this for a very long time, I mean there isn't much proper sci-fi around these days, so this back to basics approach seemed a good idea. A bit disappointed by it though, it has a novel idea but I found it stretched things too thinly over 90 odd minutes. It borrowed too much from Silent Running, a much better film.

Kevin Spacey voice was a terrible idea for the robot too.

The Hurt Locker - Blu-Ray

2010-02-24T18:39:00.003Z

I put this off for so long. Off-putting due to the usual reasons. A terrible title for a film and a US War film we-think-weve-seen-all-too-many-times-before.

But after the BAFTA wins, surely its something else? Well yes it is very good indeed. Again, an unknow cast carring the film brilliantly, with some great insight into the bomb disposial risks vs rewards.

Sound on this disc was an absolute knock-out. Guns where mental, and at one point when a helicopter went overhead it sounded so real.

Recommended viewing

Inglorious Basterds - Blu-Ray

2010-02-24T18:27:00.003Z

A millions times better than Death Proof, thankfully. And Kill Bill 2. But this film did not need a main lead actor such as Brad Pitt in it, anyone could of done it. The cast (like District 9) is largely unknown to most western audiences, but they where all superb, especially Christoph Waltz as the main Nazi bad guy, and early on in the first scene Denis Menochet is mesmorising.

The film itself showcases Tarantino at his best and his very worst. He really is, I think, unparalled in suspense in Hollywood right now, whatever the film there is always a real tangible sense of threat and uncertainty hanging over most of the scenes. He is also very visual and has a good style of his own.

At the very worst though, the pulp dialogue is getting too much and taking up too much screen time, at least 20 minutes could of been cut from this film. It is taken to breaking point in one scene in the basement of a French bar. Aspects of the film are also self-referential, in essence it copies some structure from Kill Bill, and its French Kino plot finale plays out in similar visual style as the House of Blue Leaves showdown in KB Volume 1.

Tarantinos work is largely refering to other material, but now it seems to also be self-referential. Given his positive attributes as a film maker, I would love to see a film released worthy of his better talents rather than constantly rely on pulp culture. Then it would truley stand the test of time.

Good picture and sound again on Blu-Ray, no complaints

District 9 - Blu-Ray

2010-02-24T18:23:00.002Z

A good film, although I think those looking for some sort of current social commentary will be disappointed. There are small aspects of it, but really this is a sci-fi action film to the core, and it plays out to the usual standards from the mid-point onwards. Again, in this world, Aliens are pretty much like humans emotionally.

Good picture and sound and it was nice not to have a US based film for a change. To my knowledge an unknown cast did an excellent job of keeping you watching

Mass Effect 2 - Xbox 360 - Slight return

2010-02-24T18:20:00.001Z

Well, I think its safe to finalise my opinion of the game, I've finished the main core of the game.

It was so close to being a 10 out of 10 game from me, right up until the end. Its main problem was, it rushed it! By the time the end mission kicks in, its over in about 40 minutes. The script becomes scrappy and confusing, and main character events are swept away in a blink of an eye. Its messy. What a shame that it just races to the finish, where everything else is done with so much grace, style and effort.

There are some very interesting aspects to the game though. Firstly, the loyalty "achievements". To earn the loyality of each of your crew, you do side missions they ask you for help on. But, generally, at the end of every one there is a choice, and sometimes you won't want to gun down and kill someone just because one of your crew members wants revenge. By choosing not to blindly follow something you are told to do, you don't win the loyality of the said crew member, and therefore you don't unlock a 360 acheivement.

The other aspect is the character deaths. Depending on who you favour, it seems going forward to ME3, these will be the ones that you may or may not get to be with again. Its going to be an interesting development on the next game because I am guessing everyones character experiences will be different.

At the end I have chosen to continue playing the game rather than start again. The game is so good that I would consider buying DLC for it, should it be substantial.

The games main pull is in the side-quests, and that is rare for me to say that. Usually I would just plow through the main story, but it really is worth doing them!

Overall a 9.5 out of 10 from me. The best game on the 360 bar-none. And its strange to say that, its not a console exclusive anymore (its handled by EA, so in theory it could be made for every console), but given the state of the Unreal engine outside of the 360, its safe to just leave it!

Mass Effect 2 - Xbox 360

2010-02-05T18:42:00.003Z

Looking back at my impressions of Mass Effect 1, its no secret to say I was initially impressed with the design and look of the game, and hated the fact that the 360 appeared to be literally creaking under the weight of running this game, its framerate/pop-up was poor and it just made it feel really clunky, especially in the big action sequences. Coupled with the fact that this, KOTR and Jade Empire were equally as bad in those areas and all ended up on ebay after a few weeks, I really didn't want to make this new game, the "Bioware game number 4 to-end-up-being-sold (again)" edition.

Well, the draw of the second part of this game was too strong. Could it possibly be, after all the previews proclaiming improved-this, improved-that, could Bioware have finally caught up in the visual department and make the game look and move as good as the rest of the design?

So far in, its close to say they have. Bottom line, its not quite 30fps, more like 29.98 all of the time, with one bad occasion of a massive fps hit, but it wasn't game breaking. Maybe I am being kind to it after Bayonetta. After all if it doesn't spoil your enjoyment, its not worth stressing about, right? To its credit, I have not yet seen any instance of texture pop-up either, which is a 100 percent improvement on number one. (its installed on the HDD). No tearing either!

The design of the world is simply world-class. Brilliant characters, aliens, locations, everything that is great about sci-fi lore, nailed right on the head, provided your sci-fi outlook is Star Wars / Trek of course. To say this is what a proper sci-fi game is all about is true, the Halo world is utterly bland in comparison. Lots of small touches I love, such as the blue lens flare of some of the lighting.

The music and sound is brilliant too, the music drawing a lot from Blade Runner from what I have heard so far.

The action appears to be well handled and non-fussy, although I don't as yet fully understand the squad action controls. However without commanding them, they seem to do a good enough job on their own, they get involved and shoot things and take them out without any prompting. Shooting actions are solid and genre-standard. Seems odd not being able to jump or vault over things though.

Missions seem good so far, I took some time out tovisit the Normandy crash site, which broke things up a bit, spent about 30 minutes just wandering about.

The story seems ok so far, I am just about keeping up with it. Although I played the first, I bailed out quite early-on, and I have a terrible memory. The dialogue is very good and believable too, its no secret I chose my Sheppard to be a woman, I couldn't handled another cliche ridden all male adventure again, and I am glad to say the dialogue is machismo free. Again I am having a dig at Halo, all that "You know the music, time to dance" shit is absent. Thankfully.

Oh, and the intro sequence is stunning. I was very impressed.

So far early indications are that I will stick with this. So far it appears most of the major technical shortcomings of ME1 have been sorted. The only thing that can thwart me will be a massive jump in difficulty that will throw me off-course. But from what I have seen so far, and the skill Bioware have shown with their design, I don't think they would be that silly.

The best compliment I can make on the game is that it is like your favourite TV show. Every time you play, you spend about an hour playing a mission with characters you choose to play along with in your squad, set down on a new planet (the variety of locations by-the-way, is staggering) and get swept along with the story with loads of action in them. Its like "playing" a series of Star Trek or something.

The game structure is just right for me. It is linear in fact that you are chasing an overall goal, but the way you take on missions is totally up to you in the end, and can do it in any order you see fit with no real knock-on effects. Hence why I am comparing it to a TV show, that you direct.

Assassin's Creed 2

2010-01-20T21:12:00.002Z

Chose to get this over Batman cheaply, as I picked this up from a pricing error on GAME's website for £22.99 (its the limited edition too!).

My first hour impressions.

I didn't play the first game. And this sequel doesn't care. No idea really what is happening. First impressions are...

What is wrong with Kate's mouth?

Why does it keep saying "press any button" to do not-a-lot?

Why does Kate tell me to "shut the fuck up" ?

We get outside and a fight breaks out. I randomly mash buttons and find that X is punch. As the fight comes to an end, I bag a few sneaky punches to the back of Kate's head. I don't like her at all and she can "shut the fuck up" with a smack to the back of the head!

There are some awkward NPC moments. She waits for me and I knock into her, and then a cut scene kicks in with me rushing to catch up. Mmmmm.

We meet a load of other people in some secret lab or something. They seem alright.

Then I am left to my own devices. I walk around a bit and don't know what to do. I see the well-to-do chap in the corner, so I walk up to him. It tells me to "press any button" again. I do. He spouts off some bile at me, and I think, actually, your a bit of a cunt as well.

Walk up to the new woman. It tells me to "press any button" again. She seems quite nice. She tells me to sit in the chair. I go over to the chair and "press any button". I do. It now says I cannot sit in the chair until I have spoken to everyone!

I have to speak to Kate again. Bitch. Now I can sit in the chair.

Then the game starts. Now it starts to tell me how to play the game a bit, although the control isn't too clear. Get to do a race with, I think, my brother in the game. He says I have to beat him to the top of the church roof in a race. So I try, and fail. and fail. and fail.and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail. and fail

...to the point where I nearly give up, and then realise I am thinking too much about this and reading too much into the controls. I am pressing RT and tapping the A button to do things like jump, swing etc. But all I have to do is keep RT pressed and the A button AT ALL TIMES and it does the rest?!

The graphics look nice and it sure looks pretty in places. So after working out the controls, this so far appears to be a bit of an on-rails GTA open-world thing, where I am everyone's "bitch" to be a messenger boy or thug.

Wow, great start eh!

Bayonetta - Slight return

2010-01-20T21:12:00.001Z

Finished! The first game of 2010 completed. Bottom line is, I really enjoyed playing this game, I think everyone should at least give it a go, even if they have become jaded with the Ninja Gaidens, DMC's and GOW's and their clones.

At a raw, base level, it is a clone of one or all of those games at different times, but it does things its own way, confidently and with a touch of class. It has the fighting moves of a Ninja Gaiden, speeded up about 3 times, the look and feel of a DMC game, but in full 3D movement, and has the sense of scale of a GOW game. It also has a massive SEGA fetish too, which I won't spoil, suffice to say it pays it dues to Sega in a very upfront way.

What does it do right? Well the combat, move-sets and animation are excellent. It has a brillant and vivid imagination, on the areas, levels and character design. The graphics are in places really really good and the sound is very good too, bar some little pops and weezes. And the boss fights aren't too difficult, thankfully.

Its save system and restart points are generous (more than its other compares) and for high-score junkies, it has replayability. It has a medium sized inventory system, which is never really explained and left up to you to delve through. It plays its trump card by actually getting easier from the halfway point, and the chapters get shorted, which should be applauded, goading you to complete the game.

What does it do wrong? The story. Its horrendous. Banal. Makes no sense. Badly scripted, acted. Its presented very well, in cut scenes, playable sections and still pictures, mixing up the bordom of watching FMV-scripted sequence, but it doesn't matter. Its headache inducing. To sum it up "diarrhea of the mouth" is the best thing you could say regarding the characters scripts, and this actually comes from one of the characters themselves, almost laughing at you, the player, as they say it.

The framerate is painful at times and screen tearing occasionally spoils the image. The thing with this game though is that its design and ambition have not been dictated to by its hardware or the ability of its programmers, they have just gone with it. No doubt other programmers, or maybe a different generation of hardware, would of done the game a better service.

I've played GOW. Never completed it, got bored. Played DMC1 and never completed it because it became too hard. Played DMC4 and got bored and it became too hard and too strict on restart points. Played Ninja Gaiden, played through it three times. Whats does that say about me? Don't know, but I know that I was compelled to complete Bayonetta from the first hour I started playing it. Story elements aside, I was impressed with its level of imagination and re-working of old ideas into new, proving an old dog can learn new tricks.

Highly Recommeded.

PROS +
Imagination
Action
Look and feel
Move-set
Varied approach

CONS -
The story
The script
The dialogue
Screen Tearing
Framerate

Bayonetta - Xbox 360

2010-01-11T18:52:00.002Z

First 1 hour impressions.

If this was a film, you would turn it off in 5 minutes flat, the start is that bad. You wouldn't care you'd spent money on it, you would just want it to go away, never to return. The story is a disorientating mess, nothing wrong with that generally, except this one isn't much fun. Terrible voice acting and characters, Enzo in particular being one of the worst ever. Anyone seen Peter Kaye doing a character called "Stutter" on MTV? That's all I can hear. If there was ever a game that demanded a Japanese dialogue option with optional English subs (to "OFF"), this is it.

"But!"...you say..."The story is not the point". True. But. They spent loads of time and money on it, they obviously thought it should have some central focus. The opening, lengthy "Prologue" attempts to be structured, but ends up confusing more than educating. And its long, too long.

Get to the first real Chapter and things look up, much much better. The intro starts properly and you realise the "Prologue" was potentially just messing with you. It settles down to a pace you can live with, you can get a feel for the controls, the graphics and the action.

The game wants to reward you for pressing buttons, and it does this really, really well, although those looking for a really deep way of triggering some of the mega finishes will be disappointed, the game merely seems to trigger them when it feels like it, not when you do something amazing or collect loads of "ringos".

Its Devil-May-Cry roots show, it has a bewildering amount of collectable items, upgrades, combos, points and money systems. Of course the opening levels don't cover anything like this in any detail, so you have to look at the games printed manual, in all its bland black and white glory. Can't any game dev do a proper manual design anymore? its more like a project template than anything with any passion or flair.

Its been well documented that the 360 version is better than the PS3 conversion, so that's the one I went with. However the 360 pad is just not suited to this game, its uncomfortable to press those horrendously round, pebble-like face buttons for endless bashing of combos. And the RT trigger is miles away for quick Witch-time activation. Although you won't see any physical proof of it, your finger-tips will feel battered and bruised at the end of every session. The game may of been designed with the 360 as the lead platform in mind, but it is programmed for the PS3's pad.

The way I stand with it at the moment is that I do currently feel compelled to finish the game, provided it doesn't have too many silly difficulty spikes like DMC did. From what I have read it keeps things fairly varied in comparison to DMC, but lets just wait and see.

From what I have seen in Chapter 1 so far, it has that whiff of "Killer 7" about it. You know, a world that makes no sense whatsoever, but its a world that you end up living in and kind-of understanding how it threads itself together, in the weirdest way. As Killer 7 was one of my favourite games of the last 10 years, I currently have very high hopes!

Mushihimesama Futari Ver 1.5 - Xbox 360

2010-01-03T09:42:00.004Z

My first Cave shooter and a bullet hell type-game. Very addictive and despite initial looks, its quite playable and not too difficult or punishing as most games of this type are. Its one of the first region-free games from Japan too, so its being snapped up by importers in the US and UK.

Games in Japan are expensive though, this will set you back about £48. However this is spoiled further by Cave's stupidity and greed with regards to DLC.

If you pre-ordered the game, in what now seems a very minimal print run, you recieved a DLC code for the v1.01 version of the game. This is available to a very small amount of players and I don't understand this (and apparently the game-code is on the actual disc, the DLC code in the first run merely unlocks it.)

There is also proper DLC in the form of "Black Label" mode, another slight-variation on the main games, a kind of software revision if you where. This is 1200 points (over £10!) for a slight-mode reworking of the main game. Nice! Again, this should of been on the disc.

I wonder what plans Cave have for the Espgaluda II relase on the 360? I notice its already called "Espgaluda II Black Label" so maybe it is complete this time? Or maybe you get levels 1 and 2 and the rest are DLC to complete the game? Wouldn't put it past them.

Nice work Cave you idiots!

Games of the decade

2010-01-03T09:35:00.002Z

So as a closure to the last decade of gaming, a top 5 favourite games. Not the ones that you think should be on the list because everyone tells you they should be there, but the ones you really loved and probably still love...(I kept it to 5 because 10 sometimes stretches it...)

In no particular order from me...

Gradius V - PS2 - A beautiful shooter, too bastard hard in places. But I literally put days worth of play into it, and still think its totally brilliant today, some 5+ years on. Treasure show Konami how to do the shooter and then some. Gutted I can no longer play this upscaled via my PS3, curse you Sony and your backwards compatibility removal. I would love a PSP version or a downloadable PS3 version.

Ferrari F355 Challenge - Dreamcast - Brilliant graphics and amazing unbeaten AI racing in this game. Its beauty was its focus on one car and racing against the computer was a great experience. It had more play modes on the PS2 version, but for pure thrills and visuals it was a Dreamcast king. Possibly the greatest racer I have ever played, and still compare it against today's lacking competition.

Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare - PS3 - Its single player was brilliant, all killer and no filler. But it ends. You remember pieces of it, but largely it is forgettable as action-game fluff. But then the real discovery is multi-player. I have never before experienced such a addiction to online play, all those power ups and unlocks kept the midnight oil burning bright for literally weeks of playing time. The new MW2 is more of the same, but this is a seminal on-line classic, a game most on-line games want to be but stumble.

Killer 7 - GameCube - The closest thing to taking part in a David Lynch film you can get. I thought it was amazing. I didn't understand some elements of it, and those that it just doesn't gel with it will pull its game play to pieces (on-rails third-person shooter), but I loved it to pieces. In my mind the best action-story Single Player experience I have had in the last 10 years, even though I can tell you nothing about its story! I should play this through again at some point before I die.

Street Fighter 3rd Strike - Dreamcast - You can basically put any SF game in this slot, I like them all. Roll on SSFIV!!!

Games of my year ending 2009

2010-01-03T09:32:00.001Z

Best

Street Fighter IV - best game overall
Uncharted 2 - best Single Player experience
Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 2 - best online
Forza 3 - best racing game without GT-bloody-5
Killzone 2 - online, no idea about SP!
Peggle DS - best touch, still utterly criminally unreleased in Europe!!!
Dissidea - Final Fantasy - PSP - best portable

I should probably put on games like Left 4 Dead 2 and some others, but they are still on my shelf unplayed since Modern Warfare 2 showed up!

Worst

King of Fighters XII (the worst game of any gen, utter utter shit)
Outrun Online Arcade (the online parts are terrible)

Fight Club - Blu-Ray

2010-01-03T09:29:00.000Z

Still a great film. Fantastic revamped transfer that blows the DVD out of the water, and the DTS sound is WOW loud, fidelity is amazing. My sub had moved a few inches during the film!

Star Trek - Blu-Ray

2010-01-03T09:28:00.002Z

Really more enjoyable the 2nd time around, zips along at a brilliant pace with no baggage whatsoever. Picture is fantastic, sound had its moments but I felt it was a bit uneven in the "levels", it started off really boombastic, but by the end of the first sequence it was strangely muted.

Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 2 - slight return

2009-11-20T13:22:00.000Z

Clocked the SP game last night, on my stats it said just a tad over 5hrs 36mins, but I am sure it was longer.

I found the length of SP just right, as lets be honest, there isn't that much variety to the action. Maybe they could of made it longer by dragging out some of the levels a bit more, but then the pace would of been affected. I was playing as regular difficulty too, so higher levels will probably take longer.

Viewed as a whole it was like playing an action film. Some parts I liked, some parts I didn't. Mostly the British squads moments where the best and most intelligent, the US levels with the squad where quite generic and dull, only when you moved inside buildings did it perk up a bit.

Graphically I though it was superb, although texture counters will obviously take it to task, it is attempting to run at 60fps, and it generally does this most of the time. If any frame dips occurred it did not destroy the illusion or immersion in anyway, unless you were really looking for it. The lighting deserves a special mention.

Audio was also really good (I thought the PS3 version was just a tad better, maybe it was uncompressed?). Seems to be an absolute obsession this year with in-game characters saying "Oscar Mike". Maybe I have had my head in the sand somewhat, but this appears to be a "new" thing to say in games. First noticed it in Operation Flashpoint, but here it is turned up to 11+

If you have played a COD game before, its basically the same, although notable less restrictive than Treyarchs efforts, especially WOW which was claustrophobic in its sections. MW2 does try to mix up some of the formula of the action, but it is still 99.9 percent run-and-gun. I have a feeling that this game really does now take it to breaking point, a major revision will be needed by IW for MW3 otherwise I have the feeling it may fall a bit flat.

The design of the game is also restricting now. To make it action packed it can't possibly stand still for long, therefore everything is mapped out for you, everything is signposted and there is no level of independent thought required to do some of the things asked of you. Also the in-game dialogue is too complicated and comes thick and fast in the middle of the action and it is impossible to keep up with or sometimes hear correctly. It just needs to slow the pace slightly.

The story is OK for the most and really good for some sections. I don't think the "No Russian" level was really required in the way the said it would, as the Makarov character didn't make another appearance in the game! But I admire them for having the balls to do it and maybe one day they will do something similar in future that will be bang on the money. In reverse of this, the Sheppard character was a total bad-ass, although I had no idea of the reasons why he did what he did.

In addition, in all its supposed realism, I am pretty sure you cannot just walk onto a nuclear sub and launch a nuclear missile! That sequence was totally ham-fisted, no idea what was going on in the build up or aftermath of that sequence, other than it knocked out electrical devices.

I found the missions got better in the 3rd act and really got into the action though, although the mid-sections in the US where pretty dull

PROS
Great graphics and sound, whatever version you choose.
Action and explosions galore.
Multiplayer is deep
Plenty of MP maps (16)

CONS
Despite being well edited and logical, it fell foul of the bad Hollywood movie syndrome with some bad editing and illogical scripting
Multiplayer, for its sins, is a bit unbalanced. As you will know after being twatted by a Harrier or a AC130 for minutes on end.
Pretty much the same game as MW1 all-told
The MP maps aren't classics, like the previous game.

Summary - Its a very solid title and one that, in the COD series, won't be surpassed until Infinity Wards next game. Its not GOTY for single player, but who knows with some tweaking it could end up being the best MP game this generation.

Now back to Multiplayer...