MOVIE REVIEWS
Matt Damon does it again!!!, a great movie, that ignited a lot of introspection for a number of individuals im sure, especially thoughts of the one who got away . Yet again another powerful performance from the cast. One thing I felt this movie was constantly asking me is “how far are you willing to go, to fight for what you believe in and love?”……food for thought no doubt….CLASSIC
The powerful but arrogant warrior Thor is cast out of the fantastic realm of Asgard and sent to live amongst humans on Earth, where he soon becomes one of their finest defenders.
Another DC comic adaptation, definitely an intense action filled movie with a good morally sound story line, what I found interesting about thor was how the entire cast was able to feed off each others energy, the cast ‘s chemistry was absolutely amazing which in turn made it a powerful and riveting movie. Anthony Hopkins as always was amazing he played odin very well. Chris Hemsworth did the character “Thor” justice, although I must say I don’t think the seaquel is going to be as good as the first…..i hope they prove me wrong….. 8\10
Dr. Martin Harris awakens after a car accident in Berlin to discover that his wife suddenly doesn't recognize him and another man has assumed his identity. Ignored by disbelieving authorities and hunted by mysterious assassins, he finds himself alone, tired and on the run. Aided by an unlikely ally, Martin plunges headlong into a deadly mystery that will force him to question his sanity, his identity, and just how far he's willing to go to uncover the truth.A must see!!!! definitely captivating and thrilling liam does not disappoint as always it kind of reminded me of bourne identity though i hope they have a sequel....8\10.
A working mother puts herself through law school in an effort to represent her brother, who has been wrongfully convicted of murder and has exhausted his chances to appeal his conviction through public defenders. It was deep, ya'll should check it out Hillary Swank gave a stunning performance. 9/10
An American seminary student travels to Italy to take an exorcism course.Now when i heard about this movie i thought to myself not another exorcist movie!, this movie was flat out boring i was falling in and out of sleep as i was watching it. i am a huge Anthony Hopkins fan but i couldn't help but wonder what on earth he was doing in it, Anthony as always gave a great performance but the story was weak and so unappealling....2/10
On a weekend trip to Hawaii, a plastic surgeon convinces his loyal assistant to pose as his soon-to-be-divorced wife in order to cover up a careless lie he told to his much-younger girlfriend. A night out with your girl or the girl you been hoping to ask out this is the perfect movie. Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston had a great on screen chemistry, there were plenty of laughs and some moments filled with substance as the movie pokes fun at hollywood and its obsession with cosmetic surgery and also it brought to light some of the most important things in life people overlook such as family and love....a must see 8/10
Rango is an ordinary chameleon who accidentally winds up in the town of Dirt, a lawless outpost in the Wild West in desperate need of a new sheriff. CGI just keeps getting better and better!. Johnny Depp shows his versatilty as the main character Rango, who is a wimpish yet courageous fellow, it had a rich story line with a subliminal political message a definite must see 8/10.
GAME REVIEWS
Comix Zone
This title has the word innovation written all over it. One of its kind and deservedly attaining classic status, despite the conditions or the state of the market in which it was released for the Sega Mega Drive and Genesis back in 1995.
The game is about a comic book artist, Sketch Turner who experiences the most significant ordeal to happen to an artist. Mortus, a supervillain in the comic book comes to life together with his plot to conquer the world. But first he must defeat Sketch, his creator and this is only possible if he throws Sketch in the comic book and dispose of him while he is a character in it, for Mortus has appeared on earth only as a drawing.
Into his comic book Sketch is thrown to face the creatures that Mortus creates. I don't know about you,but this game is astonishingly enjoyable, though I also believe it's all a matter of preference in this Next-gen, HD and slo-mo physics loving generation.
The comic book setting is ace, it would definitely look good on hand-helds and mobile phones as you
traverse the dark New York scape with one panel being dominated by the Statue of Liberty's head,
to nuclear radiated sewers that are occupied by weird creatures, then across a brightly coloured temple and a grave shipyard then to Mortus's radiation plant. Simple but impressive and effective
gameplay kept me hooked and with the unforgiving difficulty level which pushed me to play more and find out how the story unfolds.
Sketch is equipped with some basic kung-fu, kicks and punches that can be combined by playing around with the D-pad to perform uppercuts, round and aerial kicks and a throw to get rid of the mutated creatures quicker. You also have a trusted friend Roadkill, who can assist Sketch by zapping his enemies. Sketch has a couple of pick-ups at his disposal that include power ups, a dagger, some serum to rejuvenate health and some explosives to blow of doors.
A female (Alissa) sidekick sends messages that alert Sketch of life forms or the intensity to expect in the next panel. The creatures vary from humanoids, mutated wasps, crawling crustaceans, ninjas and about three boss battles, with my favourite and most difficult to defeat being Kung Fung,
a wizard who drops explosives and is equipped with long nails that he throws at Sketch as daggers.
Great graphics and gameplay of note include a villainous hand that draws the creatures you take on, the creatures produce what looks like flakes of paper or confetti when you kick the ink out of them,they then fade out of the page in screams of anguish. Panels, crates and doors can be broken but at the expense of your health.
Since cartridges were bad at reproducing sound, a lot of the music and effects don't sound just as
good as they did back when I was ten. They now sound more like a fuzzy, electro-glitch-pop dance tune. Apart from that, I enjoyed playing it again much to my surprise, though it's awfully short.
Oh and the game is available for download on Steam for less than $4.
4.5 litres out of 5.
What up to all the gamers, both avid and casual, hope I find your fingers and/or thumbs sore. I got another oldie from my vault of back in the day titles, NBA Live 2003. NBA Live 2003 came out on the PS2 and PC. EA pulled one out of the hat with this one, which saw the developers using a different engine for the graphics and game-play compared to past attempts. This is not a classic but it showed just what can be done with the game of basketball in videogames.
There are several modes to pick from including; the normal match mode [normal league, franchise league and play-offs], One-on-one mode, which I think is the cornerstone of Live 2003, arcade and simulation mode, which I would always pick simulation mode when playing alone because arcade-mode offers mediocre game-play with no fouls and no out-of-bounds.
But simulation on the other hand is close to what the game is really like on the court. When played in the easiest setting every opponent you play against will be a walk-over, but change the difficulty setting and select from rookie to starter that’s when you notice the games strong-points and glitches. Since EA uses the stats of the players of that era, making it to the play-offs or standing a chance in the one-on-one mode is reduced to a glimmer of hope. No matter how much effort I put in the match, I witnessed in a number of scenarios, a ten-point lead being cut down, because my team was missing shots and lay-ups [even open ones] while my opponents hit back on the fast break. So it really is dependant on the players that make up your team rather than the effort you put in.
This time EA gave the player over twenty offensive and defensive plays to pick from. You can also play with teams and their original rosters or play with franchise teams with your own rosters. The rosters date back as far as the sixties with appearances by Larry Bird, Isaiah Thomas and the Doctor.
The one-on-one is excellent to play with a friend, take it to the gym, urban court [with the chain on the hoop] or at the beach. Just the idea of pitting Michael Jordan against Allen Iverson is exciting. My honest opinion, if the developers had not included this mode in this title it wouldn’t have made it in my vault.
There are more moves and you can control more of your player’s actions, but there are sometimes when the game will finish of a dribble move or a shot for you. A lot of the dribble moves to shake off a defender were mapped to the right analogue stick. Free throws are not that easy to make, represented by a circle with two small balls that bounce both horizontally and vertically, challenging your hand and eye co-ordination.
The graphics, though dated they still catch your attention, with the textures of the uniforms/jerseys, players tattoos and some great lighting in the arenas and some cut-scenes during a match that show the bench and coach signaling plays from the sideline…though it gets repetitive. After four match-ups in the league or in the one-on-one you would have seen everything that is on offer in this title. Overally this game is not that bad, its more like an appetizer of what EA are capable of.
We have a new rating system on each and every article with a review and it will be in litres out of ten. I’m going to give this game 6 Litres…
Black is amazing, surprising, or both, considering that it came out around 2005 on the PS2. Criterion did a great job with this title, graphics, gameplay and storyline. All three were a huge step of innovation and entertainment in the gaming industry and culture.
Published by EA Games, I know Criteria for smashing cars about, and it’s safe to say they are not bad at shooting some goons either. It took me close to a week to play and complete the game in normal mode. The game plays out as a black operation gone wrong and is being told from the perspective of the protagonist who is under custody of the secret services who are interrogating him to find out what took place during their mission to capture a black operative who’s gone rogue and is constantly changing his location, teaching terrorist methods to people he finds in all places he passes through while leaving a trail of dead bodies.
The story unfolds by the use of cutscenes of the guy you play as (Lennox) giving detailed accounts of how close he was to capturing the wanted figure and how he wasn’t going to give up the wild goose chase; and how the truth according to Lennox was being swept under the rug. The story is cinematic, with scenes playing in and out like some tell-all terrorist movie/documentary which incorporates real footage, newspaper clippings with headlines about the operation, and the background music which Criterion got an orchestral band to play fitting scores.
Apart from it being linear (you really don’t need exploring in FPSs, right?!), it does offer different routes that hide secret weapons, health packs and ammo and sometimes different scenarios. The game gives you primary objectives that are the backbone of the missions that you have to accomplish to complete a mission, which could either be accessing a point or disposing of hordes of enemies. The secondary objectives and blackmail are about finding different forms of intel and info which are in the form of laptops, documents stuck on walls, safes and rolled up papers that do nothing more but give you better stats and the games secrets by collecting and shooting them.
The missions vary from cityscapes with dilapidated buildings and crashed planes, to a border crossing situated in a forest, docking bays/yards, a broken bridge with landmines(personal favourite) and a grave yard with sharpshooters taking out tombstones that I used as cover. Some missions you have an A.I. controlled partner or two to help, and the rest, you are on your own.
There are quite a number of weapons for you to play with which include an SMG, shotgun, mack 10/uzi, walther sniper rifle, Remington PK
Reloading your weapon could lead you to being shot up, because while you reload, the screen blurs and focuses on the weapon; red flashes as the enemy pounds you, the blurring increases, heartbeat slowing down, breathing hard, red screen and mission failed.
The PS2 can produce next-gen graphics and Black is testament to that. When you shoot an enemy, before he drops to the ground the health packs he was carrying fall out of his fatigues and to the ground, hard hats fall off heads when shot at, if he’s heavily protected I watched him get up after taking the heat to his chest and finish him off before he took me out. The bullet holes on the walls look convincing, buildings and walls crumble and result in clouds of dust rising from the floor. Shafts of light shoot through the roof to further enhance the environment of a closed broken building.
The later missions require patience and precision with the gun and push you to make use of your environment for cover from suppressive firepower, extremely challenging with a long distance to cover between you and the next check point, if you die before you get to the checkpoint you take it from the top.
Underground complexes, a mental institute with holding cells, intense and on-the-edge-of your-seat thrilling action made this game worth my while, only problem I have with it is, I never saw the suspect or captured him after some grueling shoot outs, instead the game makes the conclusion when you clear the last underground complex and announces that the suspect’s been taken care off.
Wait a minute, I haven’t unlocked the black-ops mode, no health packs in hard mode just the small medikits and experienced mercenaries as enemies.
Graphics: 5 Gameplay: 4 Storyline: 3 12/15
23/8/11
If you’ve been following the game reviews since the beginning of the blog, you must be wondering how come we have only covered older titles so far. That’s three in succession. Personally, I feel a game never gets to old to play and the player doesn’t stop playing just because he/she is growing old.
I recently got a copy of CONFLICT: DESERT STORM, which came out on the PS2, Nintendo GameCube and PC.I got a chance to smash it on the GameCube. Took me sometime to get used to the controller, but once I got familiar with the D-Pad, analogue and the other buttons, I was in full swing.
The game takes you through basic training of how to overcome obstacles that the game’s terrain presents to the player. You pass with flying colours and you proceed to operating the different weapons, which are about eight including a laser designator.
Now to the missions. The game is linear, you are confined to a certain path the game forces you to go through, so there’s really no exploration to be done here. You are briefed at the beginning of every mission about an area and the weapons to use and how you should execute each mission.
The first mission is about rescuing a prisoner of war held in Iraq. A radar on the top corner of the screen is your GPS so you know where your fellow countryman is held, who happens to be one of three guys who will aid you throughout the campaign against the Iraqis.
Speaking of the Iraqis, their AI (Artificial Intelligence) is pretty bad. The enemy you encounter will only shoot at you as they approach you. They don’t fire their guns from a distance, they run at you, sacrificing their cover and wait to kill you at close quarters; guerilla style. Its easier to take them out using the sniper.
The other two guys that help you are the heavy weapons guy and the other specializes in explosives. Your weapons differ from the other three soldiers. You have an assault automatic rifle, AK 47, a pistol, grenades and some medikits. They have their strong points and weaknesses, depending on which one you choose to lead the group.
The game was designed as a third person action, but you can switch to first person which is a bit dodgy when you are on the move. I preferably used the first person view when exchanging fire in situations that called for accuracy. You can give out orders to your squad, tell them to hold their positions and then switch amongst the four characters depending on which one is much more effective in that situation.
There are some vehicles at your disposal, like a jeep, tank and a truck that are poor at handling and have unreliable armour that is weak against heavy or rocket fire that could lead to you and your squad dying.
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You can pick up ammunition, weapons and medikits but, are placed at points so far apart that you die before reaching the supplies. The graphics won’t bring a tear to your eyes but they get the job done. Pivotal Games managed to capture the dryness and desolate feel that deserts invoke. A few trees here and there, sand storms and day and night transitions. You can see bullets whiz by and the screen flashes red every time you’re hit. Blood soaks through the uniform of a wounded soldier and you limp or slow down to simulate your deriorating health. Vehicles and buildings can be blown up and become charred, rugged objects.
Missions are exciting though they get monotonous sometimes, there are about eight. I lost count around the fifth, it’s that good. The missions move from the desert to the streets to compounds that take you to the final mission were you have to surround and kill the mastermind of the terrorist threat who bares a striking resemblance to Saddam Hussein. MAN DOWN!!
GRAPHICS : 2 GAMEPLAY : 3 STORYLINE : 2 7/10
23/6/11STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3
I had about two weeks to play and break down Street Fighter Alpha 3 and find out why the title has been dominant in the arcade/beat 'em up genre for a while now.The game isn't easy to get into,unless of course if you've been a hardcore street fighter fan and player for the past years.
Well, if you are new to it, the game will have you frustrated after receiving quite a beating from, if not all the fighters.This game requires you to spend time on executing moves and anticipating and finding what your opponent's strong point and weakness is.
The SFA3 I'm playing is the arcade version which only has one mode; Versus Mode.I am surprised it still has me by the scruff of the neck considering its only one mode you get to play.
Capcom really put in some effort with a number of 24 fighters who have different fighting styles,varying from kung-fu, wrestling, sumo, muay thai and Blanka's jungle style.Each fighter's style is varied by three fighting styles that the player can choose from, which are X-ISM, A-ISM and V-ISM.
The difficulty level of the game rises as you defeat opponents .There's no command list,if you don't search for the moves lists on the net, you'll have to pull the moves or button combos by mistake..Even if you have the fighters' entire moves list, that won't guarantee you domination over the game, because street fighter is about who strikes first, fast and hard.
An announcer keeps you interested and encouraged by commenting on your last fight give you words of advice like 'Don't Blink' or 'Stand Up Straight'.
Amazing artwork, animation and backgrounds are part of what keeps you thrashing the buttons.Background music that blends well and changes depending on which opponent you're up against.Bars that represent super energy and guard bars all come in handy in your ascendence to victory.Smirks, Taunting quotes and provocative laughters add salt to your injuries...Prepare for along night....
GRAPHICS: 3 GAME PLAY: 3 X-FACTOR: 3 9/10
1/6/11.
