Rockstar Announce GTA V

Earlier on today, Rockstar officially announced Grand Theft Auto five on their official website.

And that's about all we know. If you go to their site they just have the picture shown above with the date of November 2nd underneath. Safe to assume that's when we'll get our first trailer.

So yeah ! New GTA ! Mr. J will be pleased.

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Mass Effect 3 Co-op mode Confirmed !

Yesterday, it was confirmed by Bioware that Mass Effect 3 will have its own Co-operative mode. I'm really excited about this because I've always wanted Mass Effect to have something like this. It's just one of those games that has a universe that you love to get lost in, and what better way to do that then with a few buddies.


Anyway, In this mode you will be playing as a character that you create from scratch and not Commander Shepard or any other character from the Single-Player campaign. You will however be able to choose from most if not all the species that we have encountered throughout the series so far. Human, Turian, Asari, whatever you want !

Now, if you're one of those people who's thinking, "Oh noes ! Adding co-op to Mass Effect must mean that the singleplayer will be paully wally crappy !", I would like you to pause for one minute, take a deep breath and continue reading. Bioware have said that, yes, the co-op mode does contribute to the ending of ME3, BUT, you can still achieve the complete ending to the game if you choose not to make use of the co-op mode.

I'm even more excited for this game now than I was before, and I hope you are too.
Thanks for reading !

Note: Sorry for the recent lull in activity on the blog, it's just the other guys are busy in their final year of school and I recently started college. I'll do my best to try and make up for the lack of posts.

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Deus Ex: Human Revolution Review

Deus Ex: Human Revolution is the first good new game that I've played All year. It came out at a moment when I was searching for a good singleplayer game to play.


Until this game was announced back in 2009, I had never heard of the series. Mostly because I was too young when the original came out. But after seeing the announcement trailer, I became intrigued by it. It looked like something different, something that had the potential to be very good.

Let me give you a little history on this series. Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a prequel to the very first game which was developed by series creators Ion Storm Inc and published by Eidos Interactive back in 2000. The first game, simply called Deus Ex, was critically acclaimed and won a number of Game of the Year awards due to pioneering designs in player choice. The sequel, Deus Ex: Invisible War, was not as acclaimed as the original but still received well by many critics.

With that little history lesson over, lets get back to the present, I mean the past, eh, you know, because Human Revolution is a prequel ? You no what, I'll try and keep the comedy to a minimum.


Anyway, Human Revolution is set in the year 2027, 25 years before the first game. You play as Adam Jensen who is head of security for Sarif Industries, the leading corporation in Augmentation research. Jensen became the Chief of security for Sarif after he left the Detriot SWAT team after refusing to follow a questionable order. During an attack on Sarif Industries, Jensen is critically injured and has no choice but to undergo radical surgery that fuses his body with these Augmentations
                                                  

                                                        A now famous line of Dialogue

                                               
After being out of action for six months recovering, upon his return to Sarif Industries, Jensen is adament that he will find out who was responsible for the attack that left him mortally wounded and is hellbent on revenge.

                                                  The end result of Jensens Augmentations


The gameplay flows really well. The developers have what they like to call the "pillars of gameplay," which are Combat, Stealth, Hacking and Social". You can choose what way you want to play based on the way you upgrade your augmentations. Augmentations are unlocked and upgraded using Praxis points, which you can get in three ways. You gain Praxis points after you earn a certain amount of experience, by purchasing them from LIMB clinics (hospitals set up for those with augmentations) or you can find upgrade packs that are scattered throughout the game for you to find.

This is almost like an old school kind of game. It doesn't spoonfeed you all the information you need to get the job done, sometimes you have to find new ways to complete your objective which led me to trying things I normally wouldn't think of. The inventory system also leads you to having to think about what you want to bring with you. You can't just pick up everything and keep moving, so this presents new challenges. Also, certain items can be combined which will give you some space for more stuff. One example is combining a flashbang grenade with a land mine.


Overall: I enjoyed this game very much. It presented challenges that made me think about what I really wanted to do and how I would have to do it. The story telling is very good, combining cutscenes with  informative devices such as emails that you come accross after hacking computers. I loved all the different ways I could solve problems, one good example is when I ran out of ammo, I was able to hack a turret and set it to target my enemies, and then proceed to pick it up and bring it with me to take out whatever laid ahead. Pretty Awesome.


                                 8/10

"Fun, challenging and a good story. Well worth the buy if you want a good singleplayer game to fill your time if you are wiating for the upcoming autumn/fall releases."

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Drive is Opening This Week, Go See It

About a month back I was fortunate to go to the first day of Movie Fest. This was a cool little event in Dublin where they were showing films that weren't coming out for a good fews months. I was aware that two films were being shown plus a number of trailers that were exclusive to Comic-Con this year, the two films were Fright Night and The Change Up which I knew about when I bought the tickets. However I did not anticipate that a secret film was being shown and that film was a Cannes Film Festival winner Drive. Just the day before my brother comes up to me and tells me to look at a trailer for an upcoming movie called Drive, needless to say I was very impressed yet doubtful that the 'guy from the Notebook' could pull off any kind of badass.

Fortunately I got to see this film a day after I saw the trailer so I could still remember my impressions of the trailer before I saw the film, those impressions went right out the window when I saw the opening scene. The film is very unique in the sense of its direction, there is not a lot of talking in Drive just a lot of acting. Not going to talk a lot about this movie but I just want to get my word out that this is a beast of a movie and has totally changed my image of Ryan Gosling who is absolutely incredible in this movie along with Carrie Mulligan who is also exceptional. This is definitely on my movie of the year list. So if you wanna go to the cinema this week? Go see this movie, you will not regret it. 

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Bastion Review

Xbox Live Arcade always has something of a boom period during the summer as small titles such as Bastion get recognised and prospers for its short but sweet gameplay.

Bastion, to simply put it, is one of those Arcade titles set to dazzle you for its art and simplified gameplay mechanics. So it sounds like Limbo right? Well not quite like Limo, Limbo uses its art to immerse and drive the player to continue even if you don't know who or why you are continuing. Bastion on the other hand doesn't focus on its art as much as Limbo does, not to say that Bastion's art is weaker than Limbo's, but that Bastion doesn't totally rely on its art (its a matter of opinion at the end of the day on who's art you prefer). Bastion although does reinforce its story in a somewhat innovated way with the addition of a narrator narrating your every move; 

Of course the narrator doesn't voice your every move but you can see that a lot of the narrative is explaining everything around him and further describing each object as the player picks up new weapons or heads into a new area. This is the main highlight of Bastion in my opinion instead of stopping the gameplay to watch a cutscene and to catch up with the story, the narrator tells the story as the player progresses through the game. Many classic games takes this route such as BioShock and Half Life 2, they refuse to stop the player and try to explain everything in a short cutscene because they don't want to take the easy option out. However cutscene's are not all bad, its just refreshing to try something that is rarely done well. 

The story itself is quite simple but thanks to its narrative it draws you into the world easily. Bastion takes the point of view of Sebastian who's tale begins with the aftermath of the Calamity, a catastrophic event that brought to the end of the world as he knew it. Sebastian meets up with a wise old man, the narrator, at the Bastion a place everyone planned to meet if dire times came to be. From then on Sebastian must recreate the old world as he knew it, one step at a time. 

The gameplay is simple enough, A to jump around B and X to use your two weapons along with right bumper to use a special ability of your choosing. I enjoyed the combat a ton considering they mixed it up quite a lot, from maneuvering  to using short ranged weapons to long ranged weapons I must admit I enjoyed forming different classes together. Its nothing compelling like I said, but regardless the system works quite well for its genre.

Overall: I found the game unique and simplified in the sense that they used a highly regarded method of storytelling by not introducing cutscenes. The majority of the story is told through a narrator which is the first of its kind. The story and its art was by far the highlight of this game and therefore gets a high score from me. 

8.7/10

  

"It dazzles me in a multitude of ways with keeping a slick and easy to follow story along with a new and refreshing storytelling method."  

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I still love Valve

Well it's yet another I love Valve deal. Portal 1, the original smash hit puzzle game, is now free on Steam.

Here's a link to download it from browser or you can just click on Portal in the shop

http://store.steampowered.com/app/400/

(It may say a price for whatever currency you have but there's an option to just download it in the actual menu)

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Minecraft 1.8 Review

Yesterday a preview of Minecrafte 1.8 update was released. This is just an update you may think... Oh how wrong you are... Minecraft 1.8 is the long awaited Adventure update... Well, at least half of it. The full update is to be finished in 1.9. However this isn't just a new update. This is a new game essentially.

Markus Persson, Jebs Bergensten and the rest of the Mojang crew have been hard at work over the last few weeks as they prepared for possibly the biggest Minecraft update to date. Ranging from the small items, gates for fences, to the huge, ravines and abandoned mineshafts.

I've restarted my Minecraft career because a lot of these changes can't take place in areas already explored which was bad for me seeing as I have the habbit of exploring all the areas near my main one so my map looks nice and full. Doesn't bother me too much but it can't be helped. These new changes include, Rivers, Seas, New biomes (Areas such as swamps and mountainous) Ravines, valleys, bayou like forests and more. I'm personally avid over the mountainous biomes. It reminds me of the levels I had back in Alpha version 1.2.12, back when there was no real restrictions and each level was pretty dam nice looking.

One of my new levels, I have an air city behind that cliff now...

There are various tweaks and twists to already implemented features, such as an improved bow which you can charge up before firing. Chest animations, and an entirely new system of combat. Gone are the days where you could just charge into the night with a sword and 8 Cooked pork chops. There is the addition of the hunger bar which changes the way we all will have to fight. When our hunger bar is up high, we have health regeneration but when it's down low, it's just a waste of pixels to you. Food no longer heals you. It boosts up your hunger which in turn heals you over time. I can already hear an outcry of rage from people for Mojang "wrecking" combat in Minecraft. I think it's a great addition and puts more faith into actual strategy in combat making you properly choose your attacks instead of it being a competition of who can click fastest. Another big thing is the addition of NPC villages however the come with the lack of npcs for the time being. I'm not sure if they'll come with the official release date or with 1.9.

An underground cavern I found within a few minutes of starting 1.8

The Mojang team have also improved Speed and stability of the game itself. I have a laptop. It's a fast-ish one. It can run modern-ish games like Borderlands and shit pretty well. It had trouble running Minecraft before in terms of me not being able to enjoy having the graphics on fancy. Now I can run it on full power with no problem. The graphics and light systems have been improved aswell. There's also a creative mode for you guys who insist on using inventory editors in your levels and insist it's for creative purposes. You have infinite supplies and can fly etc.

Pretty sunrise is prettier from my new Skycity.

One of my favourite additions is the New main mob (I say main because of the fact that there's a new cave spider who has the ability to poison) which is the Enderman/Farlander. This new mob is hilariously fun and scary. Odd combination but I have had real fun trying to fuck around with this new long limbed foe and it's truly a good bit of fun. It has the characteristics of the weeping angel from Doctor Who who is frozen in place if you're looking at it and as soon as you look away it can kill you in a matter of seconds. The Enderman is friendly at first HOWEVER as soon as your cross hair lands upon him, he looks at you with a terrifying gaze. The moment your cross hair moves... prepare yourself for a battle with a teleporting paedophile (They just seem like that to me what with their creepy zombie noises and long limbs).

Please prepare your anus for a raping.

I have probably left out a lot of important things mainly due to the fact there is just so much to talk about and for that, i'm sorry.

This trailer shows exactly what the update is like ^

So overall what did I think?

Showing the new bow and other items like food and XP bar.

This isn't an update. This is a new GAME. It's spectacular. It's changed what Minecraft is for the better. It's just brilliant. However it isn't without it's faults. This is only an early release. Places like npc villages and the mineshafts tend to be very buggy in the sense that they don't form properly for a variety of reasons. If you have yet to download it, here is the link from the official Minecraft Forums http://www.minecraftforum.net/news/214-want-to-play-18-early-heres-how/. Or you can wait 'till the 12th. Your call. Either way Mojang have just shot way up in my book.

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Borderlands now €/$/£ 5 on the Steam Store.

Well everyone Valve has done it again. Another amazing mainstream series for a ridiculously low price. Played a demo of this and have been meaning to buy it for a long time. If you'll excuse me, I just printed out a picture of the Valve logo and intend to make out with it for the next 10 mins. (Not really)

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Skyrim, Why I WONT be looking stuff up about it.

This time last year, I was full on melting down with excitement for Bethesdas new game, Fallout New Vegas. This time round about 3 weeks apart they're release their sequel to Game of the Year hit Oblivion, Skyrim. Now when they announced Fallout New Vegas, I nearly Ddosed the Fallout Wiki as I constantly refreshed for news. Fallout 3 was one of my favourite games of course I was going to find all the news I could. However when October 22nd rolled around, I picked up my collectors edition and ran through the game with little to no effort. The reason why? I knew where EVERY thing was. I knew all about each area and it just took the fun out of it for me really. It wasn't like how I ran through a Subway in Fallout 3 and happened upon a cult of Vampires or went off exploring and found The Republic of Dave. This time around, even though I didn't enjoy Oblivion as much as I did Fallout 3, i'm not looking at anything besides the occasional screenshot to simply get a bit of excitement going. However this is still getting me excited. The graphics in this game simply WOW me. There is so much detail in the smallest thing. The gameplay appears to be vastly improved and of course... DRAGONS!!!! So now this gives me two things to be jizztastically excited about on 11/11/11 (The other being Minecraft full release)

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For this weekend only, Minecraft accounts 2 for the price of 1

Well if you have that special someone, or are a greedy bastard like myself, you get a free Minecraft account when you buy one. Essentially that's €7.50 per account. You can't buy them separate but it is definitly worth it especially for this game which is ranked as one my top 3 games of the year.

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Free 3DS Games, What would you like

Well as you may know the 3DS recently had a large price drop. Personally I see this as being down to lack of good starting games and the fact that a key area that would by them, Japan, was affected by the Tsunami that so rudely happened on my birthday...

So not to screw us over, by us I mean early purchasers of the 3DS, we get 20, count 'em 20 free games for our 3DS. 10 in September and 10 around December. The 10 in September will be NES games while the ones in December will be GBA games. Personally i'm hoping to get a Final Fantasy in that NES package seeing as that's where it all started. In terms of GBA i'd love to see Kirbys amazing mirror.

So if there are any other early adopters out there, what do you want in your free games?

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Catherine Statue Reveals Cleavage and Undergarments That's Worth Taking A Peek

So Catherine apparently did quite well in sale and critic wise during its release in July. It has no doubt achieved a cult following leading up to its release such as sauwcy cosplay and its eye capturing fan art. So collectibles like this awesome statue above was well expect. I have to admit I really do love the attention to detail on the statue and, obviously, the pose. Its release will be next year and sadly no talks of its price as of yet from the creators Max Factory. 

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Garrys Mod review

Well in terms of reviews i've been pretty dry lately. I haven't been able to do much Blarg wise because of other projects and lack of games I'm willing to review but anyway, I'm back, have a few reviews planned so let's get this show on the road.

Garrys mod is a new game created by PC Powerhouse Valve. How to explain Garrys Mod. Well, it isn't really that easy. Think of it this way. Imagine Bethesda created a game where you could drag random bits of the Fallout and Elder Scrolls universe and put them together to make whatever you want. This is what Garrys mod is apart from instead of Bethesda games they're Valve games. Meaning, you can actually use decent games and a be free from glitches and crashes. So essentially I could drag out a Manhack from Half Life and then blow it up with a Shoop da whoop like laser.

When you get Garrys mod for its low low price, you get the half life kit free and a variety of random content. You also get the "Toybox". It's essentially a folder of items created by your fellow players you can use in your level. These include maps, Guns etc. Today I killed 10 combine soldiers with a 300 Sparta Kick. There are LITERALLY infinite possibilities. Among my other creations are a couch with 100 baloons in an attempt to recreate "UP". I made a Gunship out of the air boat from half life.

So much for brotherly love...

Even when you're "finished" with some of the materials, Garrys mod picks up any Valve content on your computer and adds them in. For example, It picked out my Counter Strike Source and Team Fortress 2 and now I can use them too.

The Following video is essentially a showcase of what Garrys Mod can do. (It is a bit NSFW)

The multiplayer is DEFINITLY something to shout about. A lot of modded game modes are available, My personal favourite is called "Smash". The object of the game to avoid cannonballs being shot ( Which destroy the Stands you and your team-mates are on) survive and win. I see this game as a more in depth 3D Little Big Planet. If you enjoy open sandbox games like LBP or Minecraft, you'll fall in love with this.

Don't read too much into it...

So what did I like and dislike?

Liked

1. Amazing depth of building inventions
2. Loads content from other games
3. Amazing Multiplayer
4. Endless Possibilities
5. Very Cheap price of 10 euro (For all the stuff you get, it's fecking worth it.)

Disliked

1. Lack of tutorials which made it hard for me to start off.

This game gets a 9/10. It's spectacular and it's no surprise it's made it to the glory it has. Another home run for indie gaming.

My actual reaction to Garrys mod ^

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Borderlands 2 is Now Official

So just randomly (well sort of) Borderlands 2 gets its announcement with only the September cover to Game Informer to anticipate. Sadly there is no trailer and no signs of Cl4p-Tr4ps (Clap Traps) so its no true Borderlands announcement. Plus who's that fat bastard on the cover? Clearly a character not in the original Borderlands, so many questions only one issue of Game Informer to answer maybe two of them. Can't wait for this which will be hitting stores in 2012 or 2013. Here's the official press release; 

Fans can get their first glimpse of the bold evolution of the Role-Playing Shooter at Gamescom and PAX Prime 2011 this month 

New York, NY – August 3, 2011 – 2K Games and Gearbox Software announced today that the sequel to the extravasplosive breakout hit, Borderlands™, is currently in development at world-renowned developer Gearbox Software. Coming to the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC during Take-Two's fiscal year 2013 beginning on April 1, 2012, Borderlands 2 is the epic sequel to the ultimate four-player Role-Playing Shooter loot fest. Combining invention and evolution, Borderlands 2 features all new characters, skills, environments, enemies, weapons and equipment, which come together in an ambitiously crafted story. Players will reveal secrets, and escalate mysteries of the Borderlands universe as they adventure across the unexplored new areas of Pandora.

A new character class? AWESOME! This is like the Diablo equivalent to the consoles, so here's me excited. Can't wait to see some gameplay!ing this show on the road, and fan

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Time to Get Back Bl4rGing!

Well talk about neglect, this Bl4rG has been really dry lately due to basically the inactivity of the gaming industry which more or less means there is NOTHING to talk about. Were approaching the end of Summer :( so I think its time to get back to Bl4rGing, and just as we begin to come back there is quite a bit of announcements creeping up the street ahead. Not to mention the ton of games coming this fall, so this is an apology for our absence but we had birthdays and holidays that needed our attention and now that its all done and over with I can thankfully say we're back after a short break. 

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Old World Blues Review

Well Fallout fans, another New Vegas expansion has touched down, this one entitled Old World Blues. I played and completed it and just thought i'd let you know what I thought

Story:

The story of Old World Blues takes your character to the Big MT (Or big mountain or big Empty whatever you want to call it). You are to rescue a group of scientists from pre war America, who survive as brains in jars, from an ex-member of their group Dr. Mobius. However you have been lobotomized, heartisized and spinisized ( I may have made up the last two terms but to put it simply they took your brain,heart and spine). However you can't get you're brain back because DON DON DOOOOOONNNN they flushed it down the toilet and it's now in Mobiuss hands. The brains enlist your help to stop Mobius and so on and so forth.

While great at science, The think tanks knowledge on various things is...er...lacking...

The story in this? Possibly the most interesting of the New Vegas DLC's and DEFINITLY the most funniest of all Fallout Dlcs. The opening dialogue with the various scientists was pure hilarity, at least if you enjoy the random idiocy humour in Fallout. In the first hour I

• Had my toes and fingers mistaken from crazy irect penises
• Was given an idea about Penis size
• Found a Robo-sexuality easter egg (At least I think it relates to the Robo-sexuality episode of Futurama)
• Had a robot ermm.... sexually relieve itself onto a gun of mine
• Had a robot sexually relieve itself over my characters breathing in and out

While these may sound like crude sex jokes that rival Duke Nukem Forevers humour it's way off. Imagine Portals intelligent humour mixed with idiotic robotic humour (So a sexually confused group of Wheatleys then).

This is the VERY robot who... sexually relieved herself from my breathing. Here's a snippet from the Fallout Wiki : "Dala has a fascination with the human body, and after a Perception speech check she will admit to wanting to watch the Courier breathe. During the initial meeting with her and the other scientist upon entering The Think Tank, she will make a number of obscure to not so obscure sexual references, including several concerning female masturbation."

New Content:

The Big MT is a VERY large area. From the looks of things I'd say it's slightly smaller than what Point Lookout was which is still VERY big. There's various locations and unmarked ones. There's a lot of new weapons and armour included. Mainly this is Energy weapon related ( I assume to combat the regular guns and melee weapons of Honest Hearts). My favourite item is the Stealth Suit Mk. 3. There are various challenges hidden throughout the big MT which will upgrade selected items in your inventory. E.g. When testing the stealth armour it gives you a small sneaking boost and by the end it gives you a colossal sneaking boost. There is also a new house on offer to you in the Big MT which can include private shops, gun mods, doctors, hair dressers and of course storage space.

Nothing to lose your head over....(I chuckled at it...)

On a side note the patch that includes the compatability for the DLC has greatly improved playback. In the whole play through I only froze twice and one of them was back in the wasteland which is a huge boost compared to the horrific crash and full on ps3 data corruption I got from Honest Hearts.

Crazy huge machine gun... Check

So overall what did I think and where did it place in my Fallout DLC list?

This was definitly the best written one, in terms of comedy that is but it does have a good enough story line. The new items were great and can see myself returning here for various slaughtering of the local populace (The bad guys not the good guys)

This gets a 8.5/10 for a dlc.

The reasons being that it still had freezes and occasional lag, something which Obsidian/Bethesda although they say do it and stop freezing and lag, can't actually do but it still was entertaining all around. In terms of where it places in my favourite DLC from Fallout

1. Point Lookout
2. Broken Steel/Old World Blues
3. Broken Steel/ Old World Blues
4. The Pitt
5. Dead Money

So you can see that I enjoyed this A LOT. Until next time ;)

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I Fucking Hate You Capcom

Although this was heavily speculated news it doesn't come as a surprise that Capcom release the 'Ultimate' edition to Marvel vs Capcom, less than 9 months after the original game. 

FUUUUUUUUUU!!!

In case people don't understand why this is shitty news let me bring you to the perspective of someone (me) who bought it on its first day. Well it begins when you pay full price for the game which includes 36 characters, a fair amount to choose from but gets boring after a month. There sadly is no character packs until a month or two after its release when they unveil two characters in separate DLC for 400 Microsoft Points each. A fair deal for a cunt like Capcom to offer? Yea, plus don't forget the additional DLC that allowed you to put on different costume's for specific characters for once again 400 Microsoft Points. If anything those characters and the costume pack should have been fucking free. I don't know about you but I was expecting Capcom to have a full roster of downloadable character packs for a fair price like they had with Street Fighter IV. If you look at the way Street Fighter IV did it, you'll find it a very reasonable way for releasing content beside the Ultimate Edition for Marvel vs Capcom 3. Street Fighter IV started off with the the character pack and then a year later released its Super edition containing all characters plus new game types. Its Arcade edition, which has just been released recently, gives players new characters to play such as Evil Ryu and Oni. This obviously belong to new people who haven't owned a copy of Street Fighter IV or the really hardcore Street Fighter IV fans that want to try out the new characters. 

Now contrast that to Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom. I don't think anyone can think of Capcom in a positive light, I mean sure we're finally getting new characters but I have to buy a brand new fucking game for them. Its not worth it, and its not what the loyal fans (which I dont consider myself to be) deserve. Capcom sure know how to fuck over its fans, doggy style.

Besides getting ripped off, I want to make sure that my purchase for MvC3 doesn't go to waste. I honestly will be picking up this game obviously trading in my copy of Marvel Vs Capcom 3 for the Ultimate edition. The Marvel fanboy inside me does quite like the first bunch of characters introduced to this game. I may be getting ripped off, but I never said MvC3 was a bad game. 

Hawkeye looks fun to play as plus I love the Hyper Combo he performs with Ant Man on the top of his arrow head. Thankfully this game isin't full price so you'll be paying roughly from $30-40 on this game in November. 

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The Dark Knight Rises Trailer IS Revealed!

Now don't give me any bullshit comment's about how you haven't seen The Dark Knight, which we all should know it as the 'masterpiece' of summer 2009. The Dark Knight has to be one of the finest films of this generation, there is no excuse's to not see this film, I don't care if do not like Batman you still need to see this movie! So our level of anticipation is extremely high for the third instalment to Christopher Nolan's epic trilogy. With the death of Heath Ledger, who played the Joker in the Dark Knight, has left doubt onto a lot of peoples mind on whether the final instalment is to be anywhere near as good as its predecessor. Well by putting faith into Christopher Nolan and by bringing two of the finest actors in Hollywood (Joseph Gordon Levitt and Tom Hardly) you cant help but wonder what the outcome could be. Here is the first trailer to The Dark Knight Rises; 

Brief, cheesy and having no idea what this trailer gives to us basically outlines the crappiest trailer ever. I mean I know its not meant to give us anything, but really? Its not the best way to build up anticipation, but regardless considering a year is away we shouldn't even be getting a trailer right now. Still nice, I suppose.  

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 Review

Well, it's been a series i've known for 10 years, A series that has wowed me with it's books and a series whose movies have forced me to leave the cinema, and demand my money back, from sheer rage. Harry Potters final movie has just come out and on Saturday night, Paul, Adam, a few more friends and Myself went to see it in 3D.

Personally I wasn't looking forward to this film. I was so horrified from my experience of the shittest book to movie film that was the Half Blood Prince, my faith in the series was rattled to its core. However I felt I should witness this films last hurrah.

Harry uncovers a surpressed memory he had with Voldemort which relates to what priests are known for doing.

One of the first things that made me want to NOT go see this was the fact that Deathly Hallows Part 1 led up to the last fifth of the book, leaving only the final fight scene. I personally didn't find it to appealling the fact that they would essentially be going to Gringotts and then climactic battle. However, I wasn't dissapointed. For once the films manage to do a decent battle affair and i've heard people associating the final battle scene with that of Helms Deep and Minas Tirith from Lord of The Rings. They weren't too far off it I think (especially seeing as how Jk Rowling stole so much random things from Lord of The Rings (Also I couldn't help but notice an anti jewish reference, Griphook the goblin is small, big nosed, big eared, Tries to back stab everyone, tight with money and wears striped pyjamas) ). The battle scenes were exciting and had the old brand of Harry Potter humour, which had a lot of the cinema chuckling. They changed a large amount of the book around but for once it worked and take it from me, a person who read all the books, It worked and came out even better than the books. The 3 page climactic battle with Harry Vs. Voldemort turns into an amazing 10 minute or so battle sequence.

Not a picture from Soviet Russian occupied state Ukraine but infact one of Neville LongBottom

As I said, We went to see this film in 3D. I had to nearly break Adams arm to force him to see it in 3D using the main point of seeing Emma Watson in 3D. The effects were hard to tell I thought personally. I was expecting spells flying out of the screen, flying debris and such but got little of what I was hoping for which was a bit dissapointing. The special effects however were amazing. One of the highlights for me is when Professor McGonnagal transfigures all the schools statues to fight for the school and we have Stone warriors leaping from the roof to make a last stand on the bridge.

The acting was, as usual, great for it's film apart from one scene where it appears that Daniel Radcliffe can't even jerk one itty bitty little tear. The scene I'm referring to is when he finds out about the death of 3 main characters. He quite literally stands there staring at the bodies and zombies away un-emotionally.

So overall what did I think?

Pros:

1. Great Special Effects
2. Changed book around for the better
3. Great acting from all but Radcliffe. (Hopefully he'll have learned to cry seeing as I can't see anyone else hiring such an over hyped quack)
4. Amazing battle scenes

Cons:

1. Radcliffes acting
2. Dissapointing 3D

Overall this would get 7.5/10 from me.

It was a great ending to an average series (I seriously cannot stress how awful Half Blood Prince was. Worse movie i've ever seen)

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Driven to the Brink of Insanity: Brink Review

Before I begin, I have one thing I have to say............ I'M BACK BABY ! I've finished my last ever school exams and have graduated ! So, with that out of the way, lets get this review started.

When I first heard about Brink I had high expectations for it. I also had a long time to wait before I was able to play it. Got it for my birthday and had to wait till the end of my exams before I could try it. After waiting 23 days to play it, I was expecting to be blown away. Well, lets find out what I thought of it.

Story
The story of this game is of a civilization that lives on the Ark, the last Bastion of Humanity which is a floating city anchored in a remote area of the Pacific Ocean.  Once known as an oceanic paradise, civil war has broken out and you must choose a side to play as. You can join the Resistence and revolt against the Security force or join the Security force and stop the Revolution.

Gameplay
To me, this game was looking pretty good but as it sometimes turns out, looks can be deceiving. The campaign did not turn out the way I expected it to. Each mission of the campaign consists of primary and secondary objectives. Now your first primary objective could be to defend a certain position for a set amount of time. If you do this successfully you can complete the mission right away. But if you fail you'll be given another objective to do. Completing secondary objectives can help with your primary mission but throughout my time playing, I never got the chance to complete these objectives.

The movement in the game itself is not as smooth as it could be. While sprinting you will autamatically jump over any obstacles and if you encounter an obstacle that is the same height as your character, you can either crouch under it the old school way or you can sprint towards it, press crouch and slide underneath it. The movement speed itself is perhaps a bit too slow for my liking, kind of annoying, for me at least.

Really Annoying Things
One of the things that really annoyed me was something that I never anticipated. Every mission has a time limit ! If you fail to complete your objectives it's Game Over. There are no checkpoints. Once you run out of time, you must play through that mission from the very beginning ! Now this I found to be my main reason for not liking this game. And the difficulty balancing is a good bit off too.

You have three difficulty settings; Easy, Normal and Hard. Now I'm no stranger to playing games on their hardest difficulty settings, but when you're getting your ass whooped by the AI on the Normal setting, something has to be wrong. Seriously, they have pin point accuracy and are able to knock you down with a melee attack and finish you off before you have time to react. Ridiculous !

Graphics and Music
The graphics are decent enough. It's another game that is following in the graphical steps of Crackdown and Borderlands with the cell shady look.

Where the music is concerned, I never really paid attention to it, which is strange for me. Guess I just got too annoyed with what was going on that the only thing I could hear was my own expletives in complaint of what just happened to me.

Overall:
My final verdict on this game is that I would NOT reccommend it. The amount of customisation is definately something I'd love to see in other games, aswell as the 8 player co-op. It's just the rest of the game that really lets it down.

                                              This game gets a low 4.0/ 10 

A very dissapointing game.

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Batman Arkham City: New Riddler Trailer?? (Riddle me this, riddle me that?)

Gotta love Batman, but more specifically the new upcoming game Batman Arkham City. Why? Because it makes Batman the king of not only comic adapted movies, but also the king of comic adapted video games. Yes we all doubted Batman Arkham Asylum would spark any interest at all because we were all so used to being let down by many great IP's like Batman get stomped down by mediocrity. Something they certainly don't deserve, yet Arkham City prevailed and won many game of the year awards. Its sequel Arkham Asylum just looks better and better with these trailers. Observe;

Best trailer I have seen yet, in the game you'll have to solve all of Riddler's riddles to catch the crazed villain. You did this in the last game except this time you seemed much more inclined to catch the Riddler. 

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Have you been watching The Killing?

This awesome new show just debuted on Channel 4 a couple of days ago here in Ireland, it premièred in America on April 3 2011. I just got to watch the pilot recently which followed by the second episode immediately, I have to admit the show sucked me in. 

The pilot begins through the perspectives of three groups of people, you have the detectives, the newly running councilmen and the family of the victim. Each have a key role in the murder of a young girl named Rosie Larsen, a 17 year old teenager. It sounds like a typical detective drama/thriller but its much more than that, its the realism that really drives you to continue watching it. Sure we have seen movies such as Seven, Zodiac or even The Secret In Their Eyes that can all give us the same thrill ride that The Killing may offer, but The Killing has a much greater advantage against movies made by David Fincher. The Killing can pace itself much better than any thriller movie considering the amount of episodes and the fact that it is based around one murder and not a series of them. This is how realism plays a huge role in the distinction of The Killing, the fact that its one murder and many episodes shows that the drama on each of the characters is pretty big. Which makes for some awesome television. 

This is another awesome show from AMC, and the pure quality of all the shows coming out from this studios is staggering. Mad Men, The Walking Dead, The Killing and Breaking Bad are all hugely popular shows that are still going on. I'm looking forward to watch more television from AMC.

Watch The Killing Thursday nights from 9:00 pm. 

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BioShock Infinite: 15 Minute Demo First Thoughts (Booker is one sexy son of a..)

Booker looks like Pretty Boy Floyd, except with a moustache. 

So last night I stayed up to watch the horrid Spike TV and its awful putrid that I had the misfortune to witness. A show called "Jail" and then some hillbilly wrestling then came on and then I realised life was far too short and attended to other things. I missed GTTV which I stayed up to watch but being me bed seemed far more important, but sadly I missed some hell of a demo. BioShock Infinite has to be the most impressive game I have ever seen, in those 15 minutes I was in shock and awe. Its so impressive I begin to ask myself how a lot of the game is meant to work, and that doesn't happen that often. 

Please excuse the following:

That was necessary, that 15 minute demo was far too amazing. Anyway there is just one little bugger that I kept pointing out throughout most of the quiet scenes, the action scene was solid but the way you were exploring seemed very linear. I know Ken points this out in all the videos, but I cant help but feel that Elizabeth is just a tour guide. In a lot of instances you saw Booker chasing Elizabeth by using the voice actor to indicate to follow her, I raise the question of "What if I don't want to follow her? What if I'm not done in this room?". It seems silly, but I would really like to explore in a city considering the magnitude of Columbia and I'd hate if it was just a tour. The demo doesn't describe what it'd be like if I had some real time to just look around without any disturbance from Songbird or Elizabeth, but its 15 minutes not an hour so I guess they had to show some sequences that are very...flashy. Other than that the game looks flawless, especially the final scene with Songbird and Elizabeth. The way Songbird reacted to Elizabeth's apology was just beautiful, the stubborn head movement to the right rejecting the apology was seriously innocent exactly like Elizabeth herself. It reminds me instantly of the relationship of the Big Daddy's and the Little Sisters. 

"NO! No Ken Levine, you just don't get to make mind blowing games like that!". Someone at 2K Games should have put his step down and said this, because this game is just far superior from any other game. It just seems like the very definition of what this medium can offer you as a product of entertainment, like its hard to say after, watching that demo, that it sucks. I mean I think you honestly have to have no taste in games to not be interested, or at least admit that its oozing in quality. This is my, and probably many others, Game Of The Year bet. Some people may say Mass Effect 3 and The Last Guardian are contenders, but right now? Its certainly BioShock Infinite. Mass Effect is on its third instalment and has already pushed the industry with its amazing RPG elements and gameplay, from what I have seen Mass Effect 3 will be more of what we got from  the second. The Last Guardian still refuses to reveal itself throughout all these years but those illuminating and dazzling trailers cant help but make the viewer warm inside, sadly we'll probably still be waiting for a good while until we get some gameplay. Either way next year is a very entertaining year, and who knows maybe neither of them will get Game Of The Year, its far too early to tell. 

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Steam Summer Sale is halfway gone. Is your wallet empty yet?

I only recently got Steam because I bought Portal 2 for my ps3 and got a free copy with it for my steam account. Now I never knew this about steam but they hold seasonal sales. The first 10 days in July are the "Summer Camp" sales. Let's just say when I found out how cheap the games got yesterday, I sort of had a meltdown. In the past 24 hours i've been hit with blindingly cheap offer after offer and let's just say this. Valve, If you guys ever need a kidney, I got a spare. I've bought the following, today alone;

1. Grand Theft Auto 4 WITH the episodes from Liberty City for €8. Normally this would be about 40 euro.
2. Trine €2. A random Rpg I picked up with a bit of change
3. Counter Strike Source €6. A great shooter i've been playing at a friends for the past 2 weeks
4. Garrys Mod €2. I didn't even know what this game is about and bought it from all the reviews, all I know is that it's an amazing deal.
5. Tomb Raider Anniversery, €3.74, A remake of the legendary Tomb Raider 1.

I've seen so many great offers that I didn't partake in, E.g. Fallout New Vegas with expansions for about 15 euro. So i'd like to take this time,to say something that comes from the heart. Steam... I love you :3.

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The Walking Dead: Is it all going to end?

In this post I'm going to talk about all thing's related to The Walking Dead but mainly the comic books as that's where the story truly lies folks, in those colourless pages. Its the best on-going comic book series happening at the moment and lately I cant help but feel an ending in the mist ahead, I have never gotten this feeling before and as the issue number slips creepily to number 100 (its on 86 at the moment) I cant help but wonder whether Rick Grimes story would ever come to a conclusion. 

Robert Kirkman, the series writer, doesn't have much rules when it comes to writing his zombie epic. There is only one very crucial rule that he does repeat all the time and that is to never explain the zombie outbreak, as it takes the reader out of the sense of realism of the characters world. He doesn't want to explain any science fiction bullshit or say it was aliens all along, he wants to make very real characters under a very surreal circumstance. It's very simple what he does, a very straightforward zombie book, but the drama the characters face is something you'll never find on any soap opera. This is why The Walking Dead is the best book you can be reading at the moment, but is it coming to an end? I have been reading numerous interviews and I have seen nothing that suggests that The Walking Dead may come to an end. But the last issue I have read (issue 86) suggests that Rick has seen an all new light and is going to do things very differently. But now I'm wondering how can Kirkman really shake things up for the community? What can really change the characters lives this time? You see this is the point in the comic book where something big is on the way or an ending. I'm not saying its going to be either or, but frankly Kirkman always exceeds my expectations and is the most unpredictable writer ever.

Kirkman says he could totally imagine The Walking Dead without Rick, explaining that the other characters could build up a story that could go on forever. But he also say's that if the book wasn't getting enough edge with the readers anymore and that its lost its taste, he would end it. This is not happening at the moment if you're wondering, I'm guessing sales have been strong and just recently was the most fucked up issue yet (issue 82). Though the fact Rick can die at any moment seems quite plausible given recent events, and I could see Kirkman pulling a good job killing Rick and maybe establishing a new character for the main role. That would carry my interest, most people would probably want Andrea as the lead but for myself? Nah, I would like a new character introduced as the lead. Though we should not forget that Kirkman is already working on another separate story in The Walking Dead universe, the video game. 

Not a lot is on this game, but Kirkman is certainly writing this game and is based on the character of Lee Everett. Lee escapes from prison riddled with zombies and runs into a little girl named Clementine, Everett takes her as his own (I'm guessing) and then begins their quest to escaping the Atlanta area. While they try to escape, Rick tries to get into the city (as we know in the comic book series) so the two do meet up eventually. That's more or less all I heard from this game, but I don't know why Everett and Rick have to meet up so early in the comic book series. We know there was no character he met during the comic book series so I'm not liking it so far, be better if he reached the community and then continue it in the comics. Would be better and more true to the comics. Telltale are handling this game so I'm not expecting much. Still this is a story Kirkman is writing and will be a huge thing considering this is the first time he'll ever step away from Rick but remain in the Walking Dead universe, so I'm looking forward to see the outcome. 

Whatever the outcome is, this is a huge test for Kirkman as whatever happens here will determine whether he can keep The Walking Dead series going without Rick or not.

An ending, a video game, a new character, whatever it is I want to see more of The Walking Dead and the genius behind it. Because it is giving me so much entertainment both the comics and the television over these past years and I'd have it no other way. I'm looking forward to season two of The Walking Dead coming this October giving me 13 episodes to watch; 

Seriously looking forward to the television series as three genius's are working on it. Robert Kirkman, Frank Darabont and Stephen King are all writing some episodes so I'm seriously looking forward to it. Sure it's not the comics, but its obviously established itself as a different identity from the comics and that's fine and it works. So I'm looking forward to October. 

Television, video games and comics it all good. As long as Robert Kirkman is involved. 

Cheers for reading. 

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