Game Review – Battlefield 3
Dec 24th
This is a PC review written by a veteran of Battlefield 1942, 2, 2142 and who also thoroughly enjoyed BC2. A portion of the review was written 2 weeks after release, and a further portion written 2 months after release due to additional content and various patches that have altered the game.
It’s now two weeks since the official launch of Battlefield 3. It seems to have established itself firmly as a marmite game for one reason or another among those who have bought it. Due to the events and circumstances that have occurred post-launch I should note some of the issues that have contributed to its labelling as ‘Marmite’ (meaning love or hate) that are not as a result of the game itself, but rather the technical issues that some are still grappling with.
Firstly the known issues with the PC version: A lot of people are experiencing constant crashes meaning they cannot play for more than a few minutes at a time. Some people are finding issues with the launching of the game itself in that they cannot find any multiplayer servers due to issues with their router. These issues are present for almost any game launch, but there seem More >
Game review – Uncharted 3
Nov 18th
It’s rare in the current state of economic uncertainty for a new entertainment IP to be given the support to breakthrough into the mainstream and make itself a success. One of the few developers to have done so in the past few years is Naughty Dog, with ‘Uncharted’. The first Uncharted game launched soon after the release of the Playstation 3 exclusive to the console. I myself missed out on it as it didn’t receive too much publicity, but was reviewed pretty well at launch, and I picked it up about 6 months later. I was pleasantly surprised by the gem of a game that I discovered and thoroughly enjoyed playing my way through it. I even played through it multiple times as it was simply that enjoyable.
For those that have never experienced Uncharted, imagine what Tomb Raider could have been, combined with the charm that the original Indiana Jones movies have, and slam them together with the cover-combat of Gears of War. What you get is a game that is built around an engaging storyline, characters that serve to blur the lines between game and movie, gameplay that is both challenging and fun, and the best real-time engine to More >
Sky Anytime+ review Update – Changes and Impressions after 12 months
Nov 16th
After the initial review of the service, Sky’s on-demand service is just over a year old, and in that time there have been some alterations to the service, and not all for the better.
It’s quite mysterious that Anytime+ hasn’t been pushed as hard as it could have been by Sky, by comparison to the HD push and subsequent 3D marketing levels, the on demand service has seen slow but steady publicity. Whether this is because of the limiting stipulation that only Sky broadband customers can use the service, or because Sky don’t want to put too much pressure on the infrastructure that supports the service is anyone’s guess, but it certainly hasn’t been advertised as heavily as some of the other Sky services.
Despite Sky not necessarily screaming about the service from the rooftops, it has proved relatively popular, and my initial impressions of the service have held firm in that it works very well and as a VOD service should do: It’s fast and easily accessible. The interface could be improved, but the core ability to download and view video on demand works very well on a decent broadband connection.
A year in though, and my main problems with Anytime+ revolve around More >
Top Ten best Anime Movies & Series
Oct 12th
Anime is not a small segment of the entertainment industry, it is a national treasure of movies in Japan. Every year there are hundreds of series and movies released and called ‘anime’ which is simply the way of saying ‘animation’ in Japanese.
Outside of Japan we only get a small portion of what is truly on offer made available to us through US and European distributors and licensees. There are so many wonderful anime series and movies that it’s extremely difficult to collate a top ten of the best anime out there, with this in mind I created this list as a guide for those who haven’t really seen anime before, and for those who have, but may have missed out on something great.
What follows is my opinion of what makes up some of the best, must-see anime movies and series easily available to western audiences.
AkiraFirst up is a true anime movie and manga classic; Akira.
Set in a post nuclear disaster Tokyo, Akira follows the tribulations of a group of young delinquents as they negotiate a dystopian future and the after effects of peculiar Military testing.
The chances are that if you’ve only seen one instance of Japanese anime culture it’s Akira; More >
Movie Review – Hobo with a Shotgun
Jun 2nd
Step 1: Get a Hobo - Step 2: Give him a shotgun - Step 3: Profit!
As far as literal titling goes, Hobo with a Shotgun is as literal as it gets, only being bested in literalistic qualities by such imaginative titles as ‘A Serbian Film’ and ‘Snakes on a Plane’. If you hadn’t worked it out yet; the story revolves around a homeless man and his pump-action best friend that he utilises to dispense swift and frequent justice upon unsuspecting wrong-doers. While it does deliver exactly what it says on the tin, it arrives in an awkward fashion that appears to be trying to emulate the success of ‘back to the old-skool’ styling that Planet Terror, Death Proof and Machete enjoyed, but veers vastly off course and hits a mark that is more akin to oddities such as Lesbian Vampire Killers than the B-Movie grind-house affairs. Despite this, there are elements to the film that are cool, strange and confusing that simply have to be seen.
The outing begins in typical establishing fashion with a fitting American stereotype of Hobo-ism; hitching a ride on empty train carriages. Our aptly grime-covered hobo-hero (Rutger Hauer) hops off as the train slows and enters More >
