Speculation on Arkham Knight's ending

More Arkham Knight spoilers ahead, you've been warned. This time thought I'll be talking about the game's ending, and whatever idea's I have about what it all meant. If you haven't played Arkham Knight, seriously, don't read on, I don't want you to be robbed of such an experience.

an explanation, this game has a 3 stage linear ending, ending 1 sees batman beating Joker and Scarecrow and saving everyone. Ending 2 see's batman returning to Wayne manor, surrounded by press, he enters the manor, and suddenly the building goes up in flames, leaving  Bruce and Alfred's fate unclear, but strongly suggesting that they are dead. The most bizarre and interpretive ending is ending 3, with 2 muggers in an alley way being attacked by god knows what, that I will include a picture of. here you go.

freaky much, I'd say so. I have a couple theories as to what it is. The first is it's whoever batman's successor is, Robin, Nightwing , Azreal or Jason Todd, changed his ways and gone back to crime fighting; this theory would be alright if it wasn't a giant flaming monster. Maybe then, it's one of the possible successors, using fear gas to scare the criminals. I think this makes more sense with Jason in particular, given his experience with Scarecrow and the gas and him not  abiding by the same moral principles as Batman. This theory is a bit obvious though, so let's go insane.

All the criminals in Gotham were exposed to the gas during the cloudburst. And Joker was able to carry on living inside batman's head even after his death due to the blood transfusion. So here's the theory; this monster is in fact a non corporeal Bruce Wayne, still alive as Batman, inside the criminals' heads. This theory obviously requires for Bruce and Alfred to be dead, however. Similar to how Joker was able to manifest himself in batman's mind, Batman is now able to manifest in the thugs' minds. At what point batman could have pulled this off I don't know, but what if he could somehow contaminate the fear gas in the same way Joker contaminated his blood, and be able to carry on living in the minds of others, plaguing and tormenting them, keeping Gotham safe from them, all from inside their own brains.

Maybe this is still in their heads, but it isn't Batman or the fear gas, here's another theory; this thing is a psychotic episode triggered by some kind of PTSD caused both by their fear of the batman and their exposure to the fear gas, this is  similar to  my non corporeal batman theory, but in this theory batman is dead completely and this is entirely the thugs' damaged psyche causing them to hallucinate the bat monster. A final theory involved Batman being alive. In nightfall Protocol, Bruce fakes his death, to convince everyone that he, and therefore batman, is dead. Now though people aren't afraid of the batman image, perhaps due to them knowing that it was Bruce Wayne the whole time, to compensate for this, batman has utilized scarecrows fear toxin for his own ends, now able to scare the shit out of thugs once again. the biggest problem with  this idea is batman using Scarecrow's gas would go against Batman's principles. But, after playing Arkham Knight, I think it's somewhat reasonable that batman would resort to more extreme measures if it meant keeping Gotham city safe, especially now his cover is blown.

I do love endings like this, like Bioshock, The Last of Us, Spec Ops The Line; leaving these unanswered questions that will definitely incite debate and speculation. Here are my speculations on what happened at the end of Arkham Knight, maybe you think one of these is right, maybe you have an idea of your own, but we'll never knew for sure, so speculation is what we have, isn't it fun.

Batman Arkham Knight spoiler review

A lot of awesome and unexpected things happened in Batman Arkham Knight, and in this spoiler review I will go into detail on the games story, you've been warned, spoilers ahead.

Something I didn't expect when I stated playing was the prominence of the Joker and his importance to the story; given that he died in Arkham City, I expected him to not really be around in this game, boy was I wrong. In Arkham City, Joker was dying of a blood infection he contracted in Arkham Asylum. He gave Batman a transfusion of his infected blood, in the hope that Batman could save him by curing himself of the infection. Something I didn't expect and didn't fully understand was that even though the infection was cured, Batman in this game is developing a sort of split personality/ imaginary friend that takes the form of the Joker; at first I thought this was Batman's guilt over the Joker's death and exposure to Scarecrow fear gas, but it turns out that the Joker is taking over Batman's brain. That makes very little sense; but his blood was mutated, and this is a game with a woman who can control and talk to plants, and it gives us more time with a great villain. Throughout the game, Joker tries to take control of batman, either by causing him vivid and very unsettling hallucinations, or when batman is exposed to the fear gas. These hallucinations come as creepy Joker mobs that batman has to fight off, and as down right disturbing flashbacks of Joker crippling Barbara Gordon and torturing and killing Jason Todd. The Barbara Gordon one really chilled me because I knew it was coming; Barbara answers the door, Joker comes in and shoots her in the back, then takes photos of her crippled body and leaves, not pleasant, but I've got to commend the writers for including that, it's a very powerful scene. Another great joker moment is at the end of the main story. Joker takes full control of Batman, but in an unexpected turn, Batman starts fucking with him, exploiting Joker's greatest fear, being forgotten. It's so awesome to see the Joker facing his fear, before being locked away, no doubt never to be seen again, I think this is a brilliant end for this character, far from dying gloriously or with a grin on his face, he dies completely crippled by fear and terror.

Barbara had a scene that left me speechless, she is exposed to the fear gas, and sees batman as a monster, after failing to shot him trough the bullet proof glass of the cell she's in, she takes her own life instead, in front of batman. This was a tough scene to watch for obvious reasons, do I have a soft spot for Barbara or something? I was a bit disappointed by her being alive though; turns out that batman was gassed, not Barbara, and Barbara killing herself was a hallucination. Sure it was great that she didn't blow her own brains out, but it completely crashed the weight of her suicide, a game hasn't hit me that hard for a while, and that was derailed, which was disappointing. Poison Ivy's death didn't hit me as hard, but it was heart warming that; as Alfred said, "her final act was a noble one," saving the city from Scarecrows fear cloud. Speaking of fear gas, fuck you Scarecrow at the end, getting a very strong dose of his own fear gas. Something I didn't expect was Scarecrow revealing batman's identity to the world, that was when I accepted that this is the last game in the Arkham series. what I definitely didn't expect was nightfall protocol destroying Wayne manor and the fates of Bruce and Alfred being left uncertain, I expected a Dark Knight Rises style ending where Batman died but Bruce lives on, instead it's pretty apparent that Bruce Wayne dies at the end of this game. Which makes the fucked up bat creature in the third ending even more interesting. who/what is it, is it Azreal, is it Robin, is it Nightwing, hell, is it Jason Todd. and why did it's eyes glow, is it a hallucination, is it the fear gas, is it something entirely new. Rocksteady, this isn't fair, dick teasing your fans with whatever was on that roof, I might just do a full post on the nightfall protocol; a ramble on whatever theories I have.

The game's big mystery is the Arkham Knight's identity. it got a bit obvious though. The Knight is someone from Batman's past, someone with extensive training, and someone with both an extensive knowledge of and intense hatred for batman, that all lines up pretty nicely with Jason Todd, a former Robin, tortured and brainwashed into hating batman, I was right, the mask came off and it was Jason Todd, just as I thought. by that, the reveal of the Knight's identity wasn't all that surprising or shocking, and his sudden flip from desperately wanting batman dead to helping him defeat scarecrow just confirmed what Joker said, that he was just a whiner, if Jason Todd was a less bark and more bite, him being the Arkham Knight would have been more satisfying.

I've missed things in this spoiler review, but there was a lot to cover, and this is a pretty long post already, so there are my thoughts on the bigger elements of the story. I liked this story a lot, it took Batman and the joker in directions I wasn't expecting, and it had a cool titular character with a lacklustre big reveal, and did I mention that scarecrow is menacing as fuck in this game, because he is. I've already started another game on Arkham Asylum and I can't wait to come back around to Arkham Knight, by most of my standards, it's an outstanding game.

Batman Arkham Knight game review

Here's what you need to know, Gotham city has seen a mass evacuation after a horrific chemical attack in a diner, and a grim threat from Scarecrow to spread the terror across the city. Things get even worse for Batman when an unknown figure from his past under the alias of the Arkham Knight arrives with his militia and commences a full scale war against Batman and the GCPD. This is Batman's toughest night yet, and there's no guarantee he'll survive it this time.

As I said in my first impressions post, this game has a really dark opening, showing you the chemical attack in the diner and the following evacuation, that tone is consistent throughout the game, it's a very dark and serious story that I don't really want to go into detail of here, and while some things start to go flat, like the mystery of the Arkham Knight's identity, this game gives us our best look yet into Bruce's broken brain, and his relationships with those he loves. This story has some hard to watch scenes, but they're hard to watch in a really good way, a lot of monumental things go down in this game, and a game that can make my jaw drop in the way this game does is both hard to come by and extremely positive. And that's just the main story; Arkham Knight has an extensive collection of side stories featuring villains like Riddler, Penguin and Two-face, and a few surprising appearances that I was very happy to see as a fan of this series. All in all the main quest is extremely gripping, and there's enough extra stuff to keep you busy for a good 30 or so hours; certainly getting your money's worth. And, unless you bought the game on PC, you've got a very technically sound 30 hours to look forward to, with some beautiful graphics, great voice acting from the likes of Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and John Noble, and a very fitting musical score.

Gameplay is what you know from the other Arkham games, with the same brilliant fighting system and fun stealth mechanics, both of which allow you to play with Batman's various gadgets and gizmos. But where this Batman game goes to the next level is obvious. The open world is enormous, and if shooting up into the air with the grapple and gliding around the city wasn't fun enough, you now have  access to a drivable batmobile. That is every bit as awesome as it sounds, blasting through the dark neon streets of Gotham chasing down baddies and pulling stupid stunts; but that's not all, it's also a tank. The Batmobile can transform into a battle tank with a 60mm canon and machine gun, as well as a riot suppression cannon and homing missiles. I have mixed feelings on the battank, on one hand, blowing the shit out of 50 militia tanks is absolutely awesome, and driving the tank is fun, once you get past having to hold down a button to enter tank mode. On the other hand batman having a tank just doesn't feel right, this is something I got over as the game went on, so I didn't get snagged on it, and just enjoyed driving the tank, but that doesn't answer the question of why does Batman have a tank. Also, I generally didn't like the Riddler missions, but incorporating the batmobile into the Riddler's puzzles was a bad idea. That said, it hardly detracts from the game's quality, I mean the Riddler missions in general as well as the ones involving the batmobile.
 There's still plenty more fun to be had outside of the main story, chasing down militia APC's, attacking Militia outposts, and disarming mines throughout Gotham while fighting off a horde of militia tanks.
              
This is a great game, I have a few gripes with it, but they are just that, a few. The Riddler batmobile levels and the battank as a concept aside, This is perhaps the best Arkham game to date, and a very powerful and satisfying ending to the series if this is indeed the end. This game is absolutely worth the price and is absolutely a game to be experienced; not played, experienced, go out there and buy this game, give it the love it deserves, you won't regret it.

More toy photography

I hunted down some older photographs of mine on my mum's computer, don't ask me why they're there. Here we have a sniper on the fridge, Master Chief in Manchester and Predaking on a bird table, enjoy.

Thunderbirds Are Go Ring of Fire review

Since the series is on it's mid series break, I think I should keep my weekly reviews going, so let's review all the episodes individually.

Here's what you need to know, a normal day for International Recue gets out of hand when an old enemy starts setting off earthquake machines deep in the pacific, causing global chaos that international rescue has to deal with. and for a first episode, this one does a pretty good job.

First thing I liked was seeing Thunderbirds on TV again, it brought back memories of seeing re-runs of the old series on TV when I was a kid, and the intro was very alike with the classic, as is the music, which for the most part is very faithful and high quality. Other critics have criticised the animation, but I think it's fine. The Thunderbird machines look stunning, it's clear that a lot of love went into their new looks and the special effects that create them, they are vastly superior to the 2004 redesigns, even given that I didn't have a problem with those redesigns. while the CG varies from decent to perfect, the models are consistently perfect, when used, they also show an evident love. This episode is also very in keeping with the original's spirit, something the 2004 film failed at. with of course a new spin on the classic intro, and new spins on the classic take offs, which are really nice to watch, Thunderbird 1 still comes out of the pool and the trees on Thunderbird 2's take off strip still fall to make way for take off. But this episode is a much faster pace than any of the old episodes, something I was worried would be the case when I learned that the new series would only have a 20 minute runtime each episode.

Story wise this episode is decent too. the story does a passable job of giving all 5 Thunderbird machines relevancy, which for a pilot is probably important, and I suppose it's a good excuse to get loads of thunderbirds action. and it does a good job of introducing the characters, 1 in particular from this episode really stood out, but really disappointed me in later episodes. The Hood, I thought the Hood had real potential to be a genuinely menacing villain, and from this first episode I thought that was going to be the case, instead he became an even more cartoony version of the same cartoon villain he was in the old series, I need to bring this up because this is a impression I got that turned out to be false, still, not a bad start, even if it fell flat.

Overall this was a very good pilot, setting the mood very nicely, and re introducing Thunderbirds to a younger audience in a way that is respectful to the original, but it's not clouded by that faithfulness, It still knows what it is, and that is very worthy of mention.

fuck

I've filmed the first scene of my latest film, the first one I've made since I got the Vaio Tap, and I was hoping  I could use it's editing software to put the scene together. Look's Like I'll have to find a different editing software because this one is a piece of shit. It isn't designed for my style of filmmaking, clearly, Stop motion requires frame by frame editing, something this software doesn't appear to do, it has  shit tone of templates, none of which appear to allow that frame by frame editing, instead it looks more designed for family video and photos, together with extremely limited editing options. I've been using IMovie for my school projects, and 1unfinished home project, which was more of a practice with the software than anything else, but without access to a mac, that is out of the question, but IMovie was perfect for film making and editing, this thing is a piece of shit. It looks like I'll have to hunt down a functional editing system. This post does not convey my anger, I'll tell you that now, I fucking hate when things don't go to plan. I think I'll just go and play Arkham Knight, and stay well clear of the riddler missions, It's a shame I completed my favourite side missions, the APC pursuit ones, I really want to blow some shit up right now, maybe I'll find a bomb disarming mission or something, hopefully a tough one too, more tanks to blow up.

mistakes were made

first today I went to a leavers assembly/goodbye party where winners were handed their awards. it was fun to see all the idiots again, and it was funny to see the poor suckers collecting the more embarasiing awards. I won the most likely to take ovetheeworld award, which I made sure to accompany it with a maniacal laugh, and which is definitely going on the wall next to my most creative student award. And a teacher spilled dr pepper on my best shirt and not so best tracksuit; she hit someone's cup with a balloon and knocked it on me. Something I did which was stupid was I tried to burst a balloon on someone's head and failed in front of most of the sixth form, and I rather proudly resurrected the space plate; for the unaware, space plate is a plate from space, other wise known as a paper plate with nonsensical messages supposed to be from deep space scribbled on them, this was space plate mk4, and the last sighting was nearly a month ago.

Here's the mistake, after that we went to pizza hut, I arrived 45 minutes early, like an idiot. When we were in there me and L ordered large pizzas, not thinking it would be a challenge, then L's pizza came out and I realised just how much both of us had fucked up. Not wanting to look even more stupid, I took up the challenge, a share size BBQ meat feast with cheesy stuffed crust, it was a brute of a pizza. Quite some time later, after 3 drink refills, it was done, and I felt less than great, not awful, just off, I just wanted to go home and fall comatose until the pizza was digested. Meanwhile I pondered my new obsession, the identity of the Arkham Knight, I'm pretty sure who it is but that person in question is dead, but if the mask comes off and it's him, I won't be surprised, apart from the obvious issue of him being dead, it makes sense. Or maybe he didn't die, when I beat the game I'll go into detail in a spoiler review. forgive the change in topic, I was trying to get my mind off the feeling that I had eaten an elephant. I felt a bit bad that everyone else was dressed smart and I was in a Tshirt and tracksuit, same as ever. Admittedly though, I had fun today, but I don't think I'll eat again for a while, and Pizza is out of the question, for sure.

John Carpenter's The Thing review

My review of Batman Arkham Knight is going to take a while, It's a big game, in the meantime, let's review a movie I have a history with.

The night was dark, the Thunderllama, his sister, and her boyfriend sat in the night breeze, talking about really dumb and irrelevant things. The Thunderllama's sister felt like watching a horror movie, and in swooped the noble Llama, coming full force with a horror classic, John Carpenter's The Thing. Funny enough, my brother's PC game collection introduced me to The Thing, when I was looking through them and stumbled across a game called The Thing. This was before I was a gamer, back when my now 18 year old soundtech Thunderbird 2 toy was the shit, but The Thing always stuck with me, all the way until I first watched the movie. Since then I've always held I close to my heart, and hailed it as one of the best films from the 80's. since I haven't posted today, and I watched The Thing a few hours ago, let's dive on in.

The Thing tells the tale of  the ill-fated Kurt Russell and the rest of his team in an isolated American outpost in Antarctica. When the crazed survivors from a nearby outpost show up on the hunt for a dog, Russell and his team end up the latest victims of an ancient alien menace out to eat and assimilate them. What follows is a very tense game of whit's between our heroes and they're extra-terrestrial adversary. In my ramble about fear, I claimed that paranoia is a big part of fear, not knowing where the monster is, and this movie nails it; for a large part of the movie, you're left guessing as to who the monster actually is. This movie is slow, and the audience of the CGI riddled jump scare fests of modern horror will probably find that boring, but this movie does tension very well, again, you don't know who is and isn't the Thing, you feel that paranoia of not knowing who to trust, even Russell's trustworthiness is brought into question, leaving you constantly on edge, waiting for the slowly winding guitar string to finally snap, and for the Thing to reveal itself in all it's 1982 visual effects glory. That could be seen as a negative for the film today, while some of the effects hold up, others look pretty poor, and come across as goofy by modern standards. But when they hold up, they really get under your skin; the blood test scene and the kennel scene really stand out in my opinion. You can't really talk about The Thing without mentioning the monster itself, which takes several disgusting forms throughout the film. Yes, the monster is hideous, without going into detail, if you have a weak stomach, this film will not do you well, the transformations are truly nasty, and the film has plenty of gore for all the gore hounds.

Another positive for the film is the characters, the characters are all unique, and thanks to great acting and writing, all have personalities of their own, which makes the tension and paranoia between them practically contagious when the Thing arrives and starts causing havoc. The sound is also creepy as shit, with the theme being very simple, but beautifully unsettling, and sets the mood perfectly. The film also has a very good climax, with the remaining humans declaring war on the Thing, and taking extreme measures to stop it escaping. While it doesn't have the tension or paranoia that carries most of the film, it carries the bleakness and desperation of the film right through to the end, as Russell and his fellow survivors accept their fate and ensure that the Thing shares that fate.

While it's slow pace is sure to bore some people, and some of it's effects are a bit out of date, this is still a very tense and creepy movie, with some really horrible monsters sprinkled around for good measure. If you want something that will make your skin crawl, you can't really go wrong with this film, check it out.

Fearfully interesting

I should probably elaborate on my pseudo philosophical ramble.
For my entire life I have been scared of the dark, this is a common fear among children, not so much among young adults like myself, but I am, still. everyone has fears, and things that terrify them, take R for example, who was scared of fnaf. I don't know why, but I've always been interested in what people are scared of and why, it's not a obsession, but I can't deny that it interests me. When the indie horror game Slender released, I was immediately fascinated, not by the game, but by the monster, the Slender Man; I decided to look him up and found me very interesting stuff. Yes he's made up, but I did some history research and found some odd things, many cultures have legends of a tall, slender being that torments and kills it's victims. This is obviously not proof of the Slender Man's existence, but similar to how we invented the bow, why are all these legends so similar.

Some behaviour is evolutionary, no matter what the SJW's say. I believe that some fears are evolutionary too, that the fight or flight reflex that kept us alive thousands of years ago is still hardwired into us, also there are certain traits in things that unsettle people; sharp teeth, long claws for example, traits commonly found on predatory animals A.K.A threats. Alternatively, I think a fear of the dark is a fear of not knowing; you never know if a tiger is watching you, ready to attack in the darkness, these days though the tiger has been swapped for the spawn of imagination. Imagination is a powerful tool in making you afraid, hearing a noise somewhere in the house late at night, could be nothing, could be a pet or a family member.  Or it could be something sinister, maybe it's a burglar, or an axe murderer, maybe it's whatever fucked up beast you concocted in your twisted mind, manifested and come to take you. Or maybe it really is nothing. too late now, you're on the defensive, fight or flight has kicked in.

Through my research into the Slender Man I came across Creepypasta, a name given to internet horror stories posted and spread in various places on the web. A lot has changed since I discovered Creepypasta, now I gravitate to creative stories, well written or interesting stories, I consider Creepypasta just as much a form of expression as a simple horror show. I like Creepypasta that explore deeper fears; the fear of helplessness, the fear of the unknown, the fear of impending doom, the fear of the unexplainable, these are more than just a ghost or a monster, these are things that get in your head, these are things that scare you. Real world example, people were scared of Jack the ripper, because he was a murderer? yes, because he mutilated his victims? yes, but also because he was faceless, nameless, because, metaphorically, he was a ghost. The Paranoia and terror and helplessness is what makes people afraid. Horror games adopt this, Amnesia, Slender, fnaf, all indie horror games with playable characters that can't fight their attacker; the paranoia of not knowing where the monster is, the terror and helplessness of seeing Bonnie in the door way or Slendy poking out from behind a tree; things that make you want to run and hide, these are things that are scary.

this is a bit of a ramble, I know, but hopefully it was  interesting and thought provoking, probably not, this probably sounds like the words of a lunatic, if so, I apologise. or maybe you agree or disagree with me, tell me if that's the case.

Check this shit

Today while out with my dog I saw something I've never seen before, so I went closer and got a few snaps. I got home and looked up these little yellow bastards because I didn't actually know what they were. After a bit of googling I found out what I had found was a nest of Araneus Diadematus spiderlings, or baby garden spiders. Today I learned something new, baby garden spiders are yellow, and when you disturb the nest they pour out everywhere. If it isn't horrifying it's adorable, either way it's cool, not that I want a mummy garden spider nesting her spawn anywhere near me. I'm not scared of spiders, like most things other people are scared of, they interest me, frankly the things that scare me interest me. With spiders, I'm not scared of them myself, but I understand, and my quest for new knowledge sometimes manifests in fear, be it mine or others. Now I know baby garden spiders are yellow.

Batman Arkham Knight first impressions

minor spoilers for Arkham knight ahead. First off, this game has a really grim opening. First you burn the Joker, seriously, you have control of the burners and you have to burn him. Then the game goes into what was shown off at E3 last week, a first person sequence where you play as a GCPD cop going on a shooting spree after being exposed to Scarecrow's fear gas. In his very creepy monotone voice, Scarecrow gives his warning to Gotham. Enter the Batman, who answers the bat signal.

My first impressions are very good, I'm a bit rusty at the Arkham combat system, but it didn't take long to get back on that horse, and the combat is just as awesome s in he last 3 Arkham games, though Batman's punches do have a stupid long range sometimes, when he flies across the level to an enemy down the street. Something I'm taking a bit longer to adjust back to is the grappling, though I've played about 45 minutes of the game, I'm sure I've got it. The elephant in the room is the batmobile/battank. in pursuit mode the batmobile is extremely cool, racing through the streets of gotham is awesome, though he batmobile is a bit over destructive if you ask me, I always thought batman never kills, yet the batmobile can plough through just about anything, blowing up cars and crumbling walls. But in tank mode, yes it's fun to drive a tank, when is it not, but why does batman have a tank, why does someone who doesn't kill as a principle have a cannon and machine gun on his pursuit car? In tank mod you do battle with unmanned drones, I feel that that's very nicely convenient for batman's no kill rule, it's all just very out of character.

The battank aside, it's good to be bat. The combat is still fun, the batmobile is awesome to drive, and the story has me interested, I liked the story in the first 3 games, and this one has me interested, Gotham is a war zone now, super villains and petty thugs alike are running riot, and I still want to see the Arkham Knight himself, I've managed to steer clear of spoilers, and I know nothing about him, so lets see how this new villain sizes up.

Toy photography

1 part of photography I like to do is toy photography. People in my sixth form would know this, since if I had my camera on me, I would often have a toy of some kind, and in photography a lot of my pieces were toy photography. Yes it's odd, but that's part of what I like about it, it's unique, no one in my photography class did anything like it. plus I like seeing it, often I find it absurd seeing these badass characters in mundane locations and environments.  Here we have Godzilla eating a giant strawberry, a smaller Godzilla sniffing flowers, and Master Chief hanging out in a skate park. Enjoy.

Mega bloks Halo UNSC Broadsword Midnight Strike review

 I love building these big mega bloks sets, they're just so much fun to build, I think this set qualifies as big at 716 pieces, and for £30, that's a damn good deal.

This set has 1 UNSC Broadsword, and 3 mini-figures, along with a couple guns, 1 assault rifle, 1 shotgun, 1 grenade launcher, 1 SAW and 1 sticky detonator, as well as a funky little forerunner grenade, or as I know them; the teleporter grenades from Red vs Blue. Let's start  with the Broadsword, which comes in at 12 inches long, 11 inch wing span and standing 7 inches tall on it's display stand. I didn't like it in Halo 4, I thought it paled in comparison the Sabre from Halo reach, as did the level, which swapped an awesome space combat mission for a dull corridor shooting and obstacle dodging flying sequence. The vehicle itself doesn't look as cool as the Sabre, and I stand by that even in its mega bloks form, but it looks a lot cooler as a toy than it does in the game. It's a beefy thing, with a big, detachable hump, concealing a compartment for storing guns and spare missiles. I have a thing for forward pointing wings, probably because of Thunderbird 2, this thing has forward pointing wings, and it's cool. it also has several tail fins, 6 in total, all of which adjustable, and 4 air brakes, also adjustable, capping off with 4 rocket engines at the back. The Broadsword also has 2 adjustable machine guns and 2 wing mounted missile pods with firing missiles. The vehicle also has a cockpit with an opening hatch, and enough space inside for 1 pilot. These various features add a lot of playability to the Broadsword, and it's nice design and use of parts make it very nice to display. And for good measure, the vehicle is carrying a nuclear payload, one you'd be familiar with if you played Halo 4.

Is the Broadsword the best part of this set, no, that goes to the mini-figures. the set comes with 3; Master Chief, Cortana, and the Didact. The least impressive; Cortana, is admittedly very nicely painted, with the blue an white lines that cover her body being very detailed, facial detail is also very good, if with somewhat creepy eyes, but that's normal. Her head and torso are very well sculpted, particularly the head, with a surprisingly detailed haircut. The articulation is limited, typical of Cortana figures, with this one, she has a ball jointed head, ball jointed legs, hinge knees, and rotation in the shoulders, no movement in the arms, hands and waist, she is instead stuck in a pose with her hand on her hip, which is very in keeping with her character, but very limiting as a mini-figure.

Master Chief is the most typical figure, a Mjolnir mark 7 Spartan figure with green armour, and uses the new halo interchangeable armour system and new articulation. articulation includes, removable and interchangeable ball joined head, removable and interchangeable chest plate, swivel hinge shoulders and elbows  with removable and interchangeable shoulder plates, swivel waist, ball joint legs and hinge knees with removable and interchangeable leg plates. What makes this guy stand out is 1 tiny paint detail, Master Chief's battle damage is painted onto the chest plate, it's a tiny detail, but it's really cool. Other than that, MC is pretty standard figure.

Now, lets talk about the Didact. the Didact is amazing, it is by far the most impressive mini-figure I've ever seen from mega bloks. The sculpt is beautiful, packed full of details, particularly on the head, torso and legs, the paint is also stunning, with jaw dropping detail and precision, most notably on the Didact's orange accents. He stands a good 3 inches tall, and his articulation is also really high end, even given his increased size. He has ball jointed head, shoulders and legs, hinge knees, swivel hinge elbows, and rotation in the wrists and waist. When I said I really wanted the 3 figures, I wanted this one the most, because I wanted a Didact for my collection, and I got a really good one.

This set has a cool vehicle toy, even if it's a toy of a not so cool vehicle in the game. It has a Cortana that's decent, a Master Chief figure that's awesome, if standard, and a beautiful Didact figure, that is by far the best part of this set for me. I'm not sure if £30 is the RRP, but if you find it and you have an interest in mega bloks Halo, pick this set up, if only for the Didact figure, if not for the cool Broadsword.

Jurassic World second viewing

In my second viewing of the film I was a bit more level headed, so I was able to pick up a few more things. More spoilers for Jurassic World ahead, you've been warned.

Now I think the Indo rex was never actually meant as a theme park attraction. As I said in my spoiler review, the Indo rex can cloak and hide it's thermal signature; on my second viewing I thought these were a bit too specialised, then I thought about D'onofrio and Wu working together. the reasons Wu gave for the indo's abilities didn't sound right, not for these very specialised abilities. and D'onofrio talks about how the indo can evade the smartest military technology; my conclusion, Indominus Rex was a weapon, designed for the purpose of warfare, just look at how fast it shredded those highly trained Ingen mercs. That would further explain why the lab was so secretive about the indo's genetic make up, particularly the raptor DNA. What that doesn't explain is why this living super weapon was to be opened the public as a theme park attraction, and why Bryce Dallas Howard knew nothing about the animal itself, unless D'onofrio wanted the events of the film; the Indo breaching containment to happen, which Howard does state in the film. In that case I hate D'onofrio's character even more, military man or not, why on earth would you put 20'000 innocent people at risk like that, just to test a new weapon. Again, oh the irony of him being killed by a raptor, after he became so convinced that he was right, that dinosaurs could be weaponised, and then getting eaten by one of his weaponised dinosaurs, he was a prick anyway.

Little oddities are more noticeable after the first viewing. For example, for the entire film Bryce Dallas Howard wears high heels. That might not sound like a big deal, but the entire movie, in which she walks through dense jungle and grassy plains, and runs away from a T rex, I've never worn heels, but seriously, how can anybody run from a T rex in heels, how is that possible. When the kids enter the restricted zone, the gate was forced open, how then did the gate open inwards, Indo hadn't left the restricted zone at this point, so why was the gate forced open, it's very minor, but it's something that I saw. Why was there a cart in the jungle, did I just miss something important or something. the kids being able to fix a jeep is sort of believable in a convenient for the plot kind of way, but how could they start it on 20 year old fuel, and how hadn't 20 years utterly destroyed the jeep parts, bearing in mind the place was completely over grown.

I still liked the film on my second viewing, and of course the final fight was every bit as awesome as it was before, and though I wasn't dancing in the streets again, I still had a massive smile plastered on my face, and the subtle fuck you to JP3 made me laugh. I'm interested in seeing what happens in JP5, because there will be one, no doubt at all. And on a side note, I really hope Chris Pratt will be in it again, because like I said in my first review, he was a complete badass.

Twas indeed a fun day

First we watched Jurassic World, I was disappointed that it didn't have the same effect on me as before, but with a more lucid head I was able to notice a few things I didn't notice before, like the T Rex trashing a Spinosaurus skeleton, fuck you Jurassic Park 3 I guess, because that's absolutely what it was. And I got something for me, I got the mega bloks halo broadsword, it was dirt cheap, had 3 mini-figures I really wanted, and even though I didn't like it in the game, the toy looks pretty cool. when we got back we had pizza and pissed about on the internet, M couldn't stop laughing at the trailer to Godzilla's revenge, understandably, that film was turd, we watched a bunch of old Japanese Godzilla trailers, admittedly some of them did look really really dumb. We also tried a bunch of WKD flavours, I think we all agreed that Iron Brew was vile.

We played a bit of fnaf, and R played slender for the first time. given that me and M had never played fnaf before, we both did really well; M did night 1, and didn't know anything about the game at all, he ran out of power but still made it to 6 AM. I made it to 5 AM on night 2, before the game glitched out. First I couldn't open the camera feed, then I checked the left door ,Bonnie was there, so I went to close it, suddenly the game locked up for a few seconds, then Foxy's arm appeared in the doorway, the jump scare scream played, and the game crashed, lucky me; my first try on fnaf and the game dies. R straight up refused to play fnaf, so he tried his luck on slender; he didn't find a single page, died twice, and only saw the slenderman once, the other time he just walked into him blindly. sadly apart from R with fnaf,  we weren't scared, though fnaf did creep me out more than I expected it to, good job fnaf.

At home I got to work on the broadsword, it's been so long since I've put together a big set, and I love building the bigger sets, just love it. I don't know why, but just purtting on a film and getting to work on a big, time consuming 500+ piece set is just something I love to do. I watched The World's End while building it, joyous. If I could afford the signature sets I'd just be in heaven, probably for days, the signatures are enormous. It's built now, and I'll put up my review of it tomorrow probably. So all in all today has been  successful day in my opinion, minus our host starting to act a little funny; maybe it was the WKD, over exposure to other people, tiredness, whatever it was, he just stopped making sense, his words became babbles, no joke. We're pretty used to him getting a bit restless if we're around too long, but it isn't normally this bad, I hope he's ok. On a positive note, aside from the broadsword I got 2 more cinema tickets for the horde, and some nifty new 3d glasses, they're cool, they just clip on to your glasses, though the clips aren't that secure, they're dirt  cheap to make, so what really did I expect, I don't know. So yeah, today was fun.

Thunderbirds Are Go Heavy Metal review

This is a very simplified version of quantum physics, here's  what you need to know, a Hadron collider has generated a gravity well that international rescue needs to find a way to shut down. and this is a very sciency episode, doesn't mean it's not a good one.

Let's look at the not so good first, that being something that returned from runaway; Alan's obsession with the Hood, and then there's a sub plot with Brains, I suppose it's kind of cute though, these are kind of minor issues I have. What's good about this episode is the scenario, I have no idea how quantum physics actually works, but the idea of a gravity well is an interesting obstacle for the thunderbirds to tackle, and it gives some really good moments, like when thunderbird 1 gets caught in the well and goes into a dive. People who read my reviews will know that out there solutions to tough problems are typically something I classify as dumb, and I feel inclined to call their solution to shutting down the gravity well a dumb one, especially given how stupidly heavy thunderbird 2 probably is. But I can't deny that this episode  interested me, and that it was fun, and like I say, science, along with Thunderbirds, good mix, and decent episode.

Greetings from Kyrat

 Here's something odd, video game photography, It's something I have tried now, and I thought, I'm in Kyrat, a beautiful and scenic Himalayan country, let's play around with the camera and get some photos. There are more, but this is the best one, taken on a river bank in the lowlands. The little blue flowers really make it for me, along with the greens and oranges of the other bank. I hope my photography teachers don't see this; I mean, where's the accompanying research and analysis. Sorry, but I just take photo's, research and analysis is not preferable to going out there with a camera, even I going out there means switching to camera mode in a video game and taking scenic snaps. I'm a lazy bugger aren't I?

Borderlands 2 game review (Xbox one)

Lets talk another game I can't get enough of, and a game I'm playing for a 3rd time right now, Borderlands 2.
Borderlands is first person shooter role playing game which casts you as one of a band of daring treasure hunters on the planet Pandora, a beautiful, vast, deadly wasteland crawling with freaky aliens, nasty mutants, and psycho bandits, and home to the greatest treasure in existence, the infamous Vault. This time though your vault hunters are swept up in a war between the Crimson raiders and the planet's Hyperion occupiers, led by the charming and maniacal Handsome Jack, who plans to open the Vault himself and obtain the unimaginable power inside. Given the game's nature, it's surprising that the story is so significant; In Borderlands 2, you kill lots of crazy people, which gets you Experience points you spend on levelling up your character, making them powerful, giving a them a bunch    of wacky powers, and granting them access to increasingly wackier and more powerful guns. all the classes are unique, he gunzerker can duel wield any guns you want, the commando can throw down turrets, the siren has a host of magical powers,and my favourite, the psycho, can unleash his rage and go on stupidly violent buzzaxe rampages. all of the characters have 3 different skill trees, which you advance up by spending XP points on the various skills, with the last skill in the tree being some stupid awesome super power.

All of these characters have access to the game's 87 gazillion guns, each with different stats and with elemental effects that can set enemies on fire, zap them with electricity, or burn them with corrosion. Whatever gun you use in down to preference and situation, with some enemies able to resist elemental effects, and others being particularly weak to them. Enemies can also be slagged, making them easier to damage, and can get suffer critical hits which do even more damage, and can explode into blood and bits, yeah, this game's violent. It's also brilliantly written, both with the enemies ad the characters, particularly a little helper robot called Claptrap and the game's villain, Handsome Jack, who is a absolutely marvellous villain, both charismatic and charming, but completely insane and evil, and voiced brilliantly by Dameon Clarke. The game is also a joy to look at, with a very stylish cell shaded look, goofy designs and eye popping colours in the game's massive range of levels, taking you from frozen glaciers to Barron deserts to green highlands to dense cities and towns. an on the current gen console versions, in addition to having all DLC content, runs at a silky 60 frames a second.

the game isn't perfect though, the missions, of which there are hundreds, are fun, but having to run or drive to and from them is not so fun. the game has a mini map to aid navigation, but it isn't much help, it's very easy to end up going in circles trying to find your mission objectives, and, while some of those missions are memorable, some just aren't, some are annoying like the timed ones with a very tight time window. and some that throw you against vastly more powerful enemies do tend to get on your tits, though most of them come after the end game, and their difficulty depends on your level.

The game's minor faults aside, this game is great for XP and loot grinding, but with fun shooting and crazy skills, funny writing and surprisingly good and sometimes touching story, spearheaded by a magnificent villain. It's stylish, funny, packed with content, and fun to play. If you like loot grinding and laughing, this game is going to appeal to you, give it a try.

my movies

I have actually made a few in the past couple years. ones or note are the 6 I made for my film and media practical's, apparently they're good, say the 6people that have seen them; I personally don't think so, but that's  because I have no confidence in anything I do myself. Ones I'm more proud of are my own films I made at home. even if they too are crap, the earlier ones were absolutely crap, first attempts as it were into stop motion. The films were silent, jittery stop motions with visual effects done on Microsoft paint and music ripped from LimeWire, anyone remember that? The worst part is they were on Youtube at one point, but they're not now, in fact I doubt they even exist now, given that my old laptop had all the files, and the laptop is now gone.

This unfortunately includes my more professional films, with better stop motion, slight improvements on the effects, though still using paint, and dialogue, usually recorded entirely by me, but sometimes I had some help. On a side note, in a halo film I did once I did a really good grunt impression, not joking there, it sounded really good, but I have no clue how I did it and I haven't been able to do it since. All of my latest home projects have been failures though, either making it to editing but not getting any further, or not even completing filming. But I want to give it another try; I feel I need to try again, I have a new Vaio tap with video editing software, and I just liked making the films before, so it will be fun. Now I've done some live action I think my voice recording would be better, and of course my writing will be better now. I don't know what I'll do about visual effects, but I want to give it a try, and see if I can do it again. maybe I will make one, I also procrastinate quite badly, so maybe I'll think about making one until the thought thinks itself out of  head, let's see.

NECA Godzilla 24 inch figure review

Big G has seen several figures released by NECA since the line started last year, but none are as big or as sexy as this brute.

let's start with his size, he's enormous. He comes in closer to 25 inches long, and stands an imposing 12 inches tall, and he's a heavy bugger to boot. He's not the biggest Godzilla 2014 figure out there, but he's still a big fella. Similar to the smaller 12 inch figure, most of the body is painted charcoal black with a blue dry brushing, in real life he's less blue than in the photo, but you can still see that it brings out the sculpting very nicely. really the only part of him that isn't charcoal black is his chest and underbelly, which is a dark greyish tan colour, it's not as nice as the charcoal black, but it's nicely done, and adds some visual variety. Where the paint really shines is in the little details; jet black claws and toe nails, yellow eyes with black pupils, pink mouth and tongue and cream teeth, all of these are applied with sharp precision and look really nice. Perhaps the best detail of this guy is the sculpt, which must be seen in person to be fully appreciated, it's incredible, a top notch effort from NECA, same as usual.

Now lets talk movement, because this guy has a lot of movement. 2 joints in the head, allowing for side to side and limited up and down movement, same with the single joint in the torso. He can open and close his jaw as well, to show of his lovely pearly whites no doubt. Each leg and arm has 3 points of articulation, shoulder and thigh joints which allow up and down and in and out movement, knee and elbow joints which allow for rotation and bending, and additional limited movement in the wrists and ankles. So far he has the same articulation as the 12 inch  figure, just double the size, until you get to the tail, which has a ridiculous 13 points of articulation, allowing for a very wide range of movement in an impressive number of directions.

In his tail is both where one of his coolest features and my only problem with him are. At the base of the tail is a sound box, and one of his spines doubles as a button, giving him the ability to roar. It's only 1 roar, but it's still a Godzilla roar, and, being honest, when he roared at him, my youngest nephew was scared of him for about a month. Here, however, is the only problem, and unfortunately it's a big one. Like with the 12 inch, the tail comes detached in the box, and  pops onto the body of the figure with a ball joint. Unlike the 12 inch, this guy has a delicate sound chip in the base of his tail; a chip that, if you're not gentle, could snap, permanently silencing your Godzilla figure. This hasn't happened to mine, but I know of it happening to other people, and it's definitely something to be weary of when assembling him, my advice is softening the socket with a hair dryer so less force is needed to pop it in.

It's a shame that this otherwise outstanding figure has such a glaring problem, but, like I said, that is the only problem I have with it. This figure is a masterpiece, and deserves a spot on the shelf of any NECA or Godzilla collector. It's a collectors item, not a toy, it has a few pretty sharp edges, and an easily broken roar feature, but for me it doesn't take away from this guy being a thing of beauty. If you're at all interested in getting him, you must, because he's incredible, and he's worth every penny of his admittedly steep asking price.

random

Today I learned how stupid my dog is. Normally when I come downstairs at around 5 o clock he knows that I'm going to take him on his walk, but sometimes he doesn't notice me coming downstairs and I'm able to get my shoes on completely without him knowing, by which point I make him aware of my presence and bolt outside, him close behind. Today, he didn't notice me, because he was eating his food, so I slipped past him, literally an inch away from him, and was able to hide in the kitchen. When he finished eating I think he knew I was downstairs, but didn't know that I slipped right past and was now behind him, so he went into the hall to try and find me, while I hid behind the kitchen table trying to hold in my laughter. He found me after being tipped by my nan and was so happy when he did, it's good to see the old fart still has some happiness in him, he's in bed for most of the day, or in the living room doing nothing while nan and granddad sit there watching John Wayne and black and white war films, and rambling to themselves about affairs they have absolutely no knowledge of.

I've been thinking about E3, specifically Xbox one backwards compatibility; it's available to preview members but not to the public, why? if the emulator software that runs 360 games on the one works, why not really excite people by announcing that backwards compatibility is real, and that it's available now, at least it isn't coming in 2016 I guess. I also played gears of war on the xbox one today, and only then did I remember how shit I am at gears multiplayer, to my credit, we were outnumbered. And I saw shadow warrior 2 in action, holy crap that game looks fun, give me some wang right now. It looks extremely open, now play areas are enormous horizontally, and you can jump onto and along rooftops, very ninjaly. there's also new stealth abilities and new blades and a bow, also very ninjaly. And, serious talk now, wolverine claws, WOLVERINE CLAWS, holy shit they look awesome. And then there's the minigun which is a thing of beauty, so ornate, so sexy. I am very excited to unleash some more wang when that game drops. More on gaming, I started a new game n Borderlands 2, currently a level 11 gunzerker, though I kind of miss grinding the cartilage as Krieg, that guy is a badass, I really miss just going on buzzaxe rampages and killing everything that moves, such beautiful memories.

Wow, I've been finished with sixth form for 3 days and I'm already this bored, I might make a movie. I know that is completely out of the blue, but anything to keep me busy, and my Vaio tap has a movie editing software I want to have a little play with, so maybe tomorrow I'll get t work on that. This is how I do things, I get bored, I think of something that will distract me, I get right on it, if it interests me that is, making movies interests me, and it gives me  chance to mess with the camera I intend to steal from my sister, she never uses it anyway and she knows I want to upgrade. If  make another movie, odds are it will take a bit longer to do now that I have more experience, still, I've never really made anything of value, so maybe this time I'll actually try.

A change of mood

Let's change the mood with some nice things, some more photos, I know it looks like bragging, but I can assure you I don't brag about my photography, I'm modest like that. These are from Alton Towers. It bothers me that my phone camera takes better quality photos than my professional Sony DSC, but oh well, I 'll upgrade eventfully.

Come the fuck on

Now I think I should never have shown Dad Bluray, I should have kept it for myself and leave him with his inferior DVD's. Today my nan and granddad got a Bluray player, per dad's recommendation, and I was eager to show them how awesome Blurays are, so I go in with my entire Bluray collection, and said they need to see a really special effects heavy movie to appreciate it fully. I recommended Star Trek into Darkness, Paddington and Guardians of the Galaxy, as you can see I didn't give them bad films either, I gave them the best. So, with me saying they need to really be blown away by Bluray to fully appreciate it, what are they watching on Bluray right now as I type this? The Last Stand, the Arnie movie, y other one, the one that' crap, and is no better looking on Bluray than it is on DVD, that one. I have restricted my Bluray collection from everyone else now, they are mine, and no one else can have them, while they will just use it as a DVD player because hey don't see the point in spending more in a Bluray that isn't any better than DVD. I know this is really a petty little rant, but for god's sake, it's like introducing someone to Asian food with tofu,  it's stupid. Sorry about this, this post will probably fall under the Idiocy label. God I'm a petty bastard.

Game of Thrones season 5 review

Let's this out of the way, as someone who has really enjoyed the series thus far, season 5 was in my opinion the weakest season of Game of Thrones. In this review I will focus mostly on the last few episodes, and this review will have spoilers, big ones, you have been warned.

A lot of people think Game of Thrones is a show desperate to be shocking, and after season 5, I'm falling into that number, this season is the most shocking yet, by far, and a few times I personally think it went too far. Like all seasons of the show, 5 focuses on several main characters in different places suffering through various hardships. But this time not all of those stories were interesting, the King's Landing and Winterfell stories didn't have my attention, on the other hand the castle black story, while still less interesting ta n previous seasons, was interesting enough, same with Meereen, same with Braavos. This season was less interesting because it was slow, not a lot of important things happen a first, and the attack on Winterfell story really didn't sit right with me, more on that later.

Tyrion Lanister, as usual, is the character I was most behind in this season, his quest across the narrow sea after killing Tywin was actually interesting, and Jorah is cool, so it's good to have him back. The Dorne story was flat, it's cool to see Jamie trying to do something good, trying to protect someone he loves, but the vipers' plot to start a war with the Lannisters was where it lost me, It did however end on a cliff-hanger that got me interested in where it goes. Braavos, it was fun watching Arya training to be an assassin, except it wasn't, she did a lot of sweeping floors and selling clams, when she finally takes a life, it's joyous, but then her story ends in a cliff-hanger, I'm interested in seeing where she goes, pun intended, but her story wasn't exactly thrilling. In the north both stories I personally found repulsive, with the Winterfell story riding almost entirely on your hatred of Ramsey, and Stannis' story riding on your desire to see him end the Boltons' reign over the north. But both of these stories had 1 shocking scene. Ramsey rapes Sansa on their wedding night, no doubt a very uncomfortable scene to watch, and one that makes me hate Ramsey more than I thought possible, bearing in mind what he did to Theon. This scene does however give Theon new power, that he uses to help Sansa escape from Ramsey, so all good on that front.

Stannis, I hate Stannis now, this was the first instance of this season being disgustingly shocking in my opinion. For fucks sake, a little girl was burned alive as a sacrifice by her dad's order. That did not need to happen, that was horrible, and this is coming from someone who was able to stomach the red wedding. Another vile scene was in he last episode, when Cersei is stripped naked and forced to walk the streets of Kings Landing, having shit and rocks and verbal abuse thrown at her the whole way. Cersei is a horrid woman, and I want bad things to happen to her, but something a bit less tasteless please, that was horrible. The biggest cliff-hanger by a mile is Castle Black, Jon Snow is dead. I'm going to be honest, I was gobsmacked, genuinely gobsmacked. But now what for the wall, Jon Snow was the only character up there that I cared about now Sam is off to the citadel, and I'm scared that the story at castle black will be nothing without him. Which is why I believe he isn't dead, if he is dead then the Castle Black story will die with him, and since that's one of the most important stories in the show, that would be quite a blow.

In all honesty I didn't like season 5 that much, it had good moments, like the sweet battle with the white walkers at Hardhome, but overall I don't have a lot of hope for season 6. Of course I'll watch it when it starts, but I fear season 5 is the season hat lost me as a loyal viewer to this great fantasy series. I hope to god season 6 is better than this.

Sony E3 show thoughts

Xbox one may have backwards compatibility now, but I think I was a little more impressed with Sony's conference this year, there were a lot more games that interested me at the show. Lets start with No Man's Sky, a game I'm fascinated by; it sounds really cool, but I don't know how reality can possibly be on par with concept in that game, an entire fully explorable universe with trillions of planets, how is that possible. It really interests me that that means there are some planets that will never be found, or some planets that only a few people find, or even 1 person, what if I found an uncharted planet that no one else ever sees, Planet Llama I shall name it, haha. It also has space combat and ground combat which both look fun. My concern is it's size, sure there are trillions of planets, but will they all be diverse enough to be worth exploring, or will they just be copies of each other with minor differences like grass colour or tree colour. I have 2 friends with the same name, 1 is on PS4, the other is still on 360 but plans to upgrade to One sometime before Christmas, the xbox friend will be pissed at me for sure, because I'm getting Blops 3 on PS4, I can play co op zombies, multiplayer, and co op campaign. Co op is something me and the PS4 friend do a lot, and DLC on Blops 3 will be timed exclusive on PS4, which is surprising to say the least, given that CoD DLC is usually timed exclusive on Xbox, Zombies, here I come. Also, gameplay wise, it has jump packs, looks like it runs on a fuel system so as to not be over used, wall running is a lot more prominent than I first thought, and teleportation is a thing, yeah, that's when I scratched my head and thought the hover bikes in Advanced Warfare were actually kind of believable. At least I'm interested in Blops 3 now.

This will sound awful to a lot of people, but the Last Guardian doesn't interest me, I thought the Griffin in it was just adorable but I guess the Last Guardian isn't aiming for the kind of gamer that likes Serious Sam. The studio behind Killzone has a new game, which does interest me. An action game called Horizon set in a new world after the fall of a mighty civilization, here's the fascinating bit, that mighty civilization was us, boom, you have my attention. the game kind of lost me a bit at the machine part, but the idea of a story set post societal collapse really intrigue me, and the combat looks fun, so lets wait and see, it reminds me of that core game from the Microsoft conference, it's interesting, but lets se how it goes. And Uncharted 4, zoinks, Uncharted 4 is going to be incredible, it can't not be, a follow up to the excellent Uncharted trilogy, being brought to us by one of the best teams in the industry, it has to be incredible. The demo had the same high octane action the series is known for, as well as the snappy writing, and drop dead gorgeous graphics, if it's the last Uncharted we get, I'm confident the series is going out with a bang, and I'm really excited to see what Naughty Dog does next. But like the Microsoft conference, there were a lot of things on show that I was apathetic to, Final Fantasy being one of them, Hitman being another, that dream game, looks funky, but meh, and their new VR system. Maybe it's something that has to be experienced, but I just don't care about VR, just like I don't care about motion controls, I know, I'm a dinosaur, but it's my preference.

I think that the Sony and Microsoft shows this E3 were both pretty sweet, I saw some games I liked, saw some other's I'm meh about, and at least not all of the games get 2016 releases, just most of them, god dammit. Oh well, Arkham Knight comes out next week, so we have that.

Microsoft E3 show thoughts

Well, that was a cute intro.
Now lets get to what we want to see. Halo 5 looks awesome, it has really good gameplay demo, and the squad mechanic doesn't look as clumsy as I thought. the game also looks much more large scale, with a big run away from the falling building section. the grunts can talk English again, which is awesome, because now we can laugh at them again. there are some new vehicles by the look of it, a weird forerunner flying vehicle that we saw in mega bloks form at toy fair, and now we see in the game, and it looks controllable too, which will be interesting. there's a new covenant grenade launcher, meh, I suppose it could be cool. let's talk abut what interested me. there's new Prometheans, a new soldier class, that can also speak English, but more that, I'm not following Halo 5 like I was for Halo 4, what is that Promethean at the end, he's big, he talks civilised, and he seems a bit evil, so I guess he's the villain, and he is the ancient threat Master Chief is trying to save the galaxy from. He looks cool, but he doesn't look forerunner like the Didact, he has a fucked up skull face made of hard light, I'm interested in  him more than anything else in the demo.

there were a few games that caught my attention, like that Rare pirate game I don't remember the name of. an announcement for PVZ garden warfare2, which will no doubt be just as if not more of a blast than the first. that core game looked sort of interesting, but announcement trailers usually don't interest me, there's never enough game to really excite me, and aside from sequels and that pirate game, I always need more to get me really interested. Kind of where the Gears of War 4 reveal disappointed me, there was very little in it, and it didn't interest me, it needed more in my opinion. The announcement of gears ultimate edition wasn't a surprise, as I'm sure it wasn't for anyone. Tomb raider looks like what I thought Tomb raider would look like, which is good, but not mind blowing, and I didn't feel it was, cinematic rock climbing isn't as cool it was in the last Tomb Raider. There were some other games but they're kind of drowned out by in my opinion the biggest announcement of the show.

And that big announcement, backwards compatibility is coming to Xbox One. hell yes, oh hell yes. OH HELL YES! it's not every game on 360, but I think downloadable titles are going first, and retails will be added periodically, just pop in the disk, unfortunately there is a little install, then away you go. that is awesome because A it means all of the games I love can be on 1 system and B I don't have to put up with my dying old Xbox 360 who I have to punch to get the disk drive open, yeah, it's in a bit of a state. let's see, Far Cry 3, Dead space, Bioshock, Fall of Cybertron, the Gears games, Halo reach, Halo wars, Red dead, Blops, my Xbox one has just received a boost in love from me, or at least when they implement this, and I can't wait. so, there are my thoughts on the Microsoft show at E3, I know I've missed stuff, but I've noted what I liked, though it makes me think, what will become f my xbox 360. probably the same fate as my ps2, wii, xbox and gamecube, it will probably be crammed into a cupboard, tough I'll probably cram it with a bit more care than the others, given how much fun we have had over the years. a toast, to the future, long live my dying old Xbox 360. God I can't wait for the PlayStation show, and I'm now really amped for the rest of E3, it's going to be awesome.

E3 is upon us

doom, holy shit, doom.
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
I think that sums up my thoughts on the Doom demo.

I was excited when Wolfenstein the new order was announced, but with Doom, it's just more, Wolfe may have invented the FPS genre, but Doom took it higher, Doom was a revolution. It's been annoying to have nothing about Doom 4 until E3 last year, because in my hyperactive youth I loved all 3 Doom games and was itching to slay more Demons. I've now seen both builds of Doom 4; the one we're getting, simply titled Doom, and the one that was scrapped in 2011. The 11 build didn't look awful, but it was very heavily militarised, like what the devs sad abut it when it was scrapped, and didn't have a 'soul' as the devs put it, I wonder if that's a pun. But now we have a gameplay demo of the new and improved Doom, complete with chainsaw action, double barrel action and people getting bitch slapped with their own severed arms action, that sounds like Doom to me.

Something I noticed immediately in the demo was the look; it's Doom, no denying it's style, just look at that helmet, it's so beautiful. But this is modern Doom, with sexy textures, sexy lighting, and rather than simply collapsing onto the ground or putrefying, bodies explode in red mist and chunks of flesh. Something I was surprised by was how much like Doom 3 it looked, given how far from Doom 3's atmosphere it's shooting, everything is dark and dirty, with lots of dim, glowing lights and tight, indoor arenas. Even the guns have a very Doom 3 look to them,  particularly the plasma rifle and machine gun. That's where the similarities end, now demons attack you by the dozen, and it doesn't look like ammo conservation is an issue anymore, given how willy nilly the gameplay demo was with ammo; Doom 3 was a  horror game, this isn't, this is a straight up action rampage. The game also looks a bit techy, with interactive elements including doors, which open with the classic Doom door sound effect, security panels you need to hack (by borrowing a dead guy's hand) and a weird drone that appears to let you see the past. Gameplay wise it looks like a standard shooter, minus iron sights and sprinting, which are both absent in is demo. The player also has a health bar, very old school. The game instead includes the ability to double jump and perform gruesome executions on weakened enemies. Thing is it looks like they can they can do the same to you, with the demo ending with a Revenant ripping off the player's arms and beating him to death with them. it all looks so very family friendly. speaking of kid friendly, the noise the live audience made when he picked up the chainsaw, it was almost orgasmic, and understandable, it wouldn't' be Doom without the chainsaw.

I'm pumped to get my hands on this game, it looks just the Doom I want, dark, gritty, but with lots of gore and violence, and guns, and guns, and guns, and more guns. it's surprising to me that we're getting a game like this from Bethesda and not from Devolver Digital, but I suppose we have Shadow warrior 2, I think I'm going to like E3 this year.

This is going to be fun

as it so happens, I am rather interested in playing a horror games called Five Nights at Freddy's, and as it so happens, one of my cinema going friends has on his laptop a horror game called Five Nights at Freddy's. needless to say I am now rather looking forward to playing it, but I can't because I don't have a computer, these blog posts are all typed on a Vaio tap, and I don't know if it can run Fnaf. I bet it can, and I look like a fool. the problem I have now is this friend has played Fnaf, and is terrified of it, while I was there he was acting funny at the suggestion that we play it. he is on night 3, and wouldn't let me start from night1, but refused to continue from night 3. he handled P.T. better than he's handling Fnaf, which I should probably take as a warning, but I feel versed enough in the game to at least kind of know how to play. I'm going his again next Saturday after the 3 of us watch Jurassic World, then I proposed that we play Fnaf, it's probably not going to scare me that much given how much about the game I actually know, but then again, I knew a few tings about P.T. and boy was I wrong about that shit.

I also know a great deal of things about Fnaf's story, much to the scared friend's dismay, he hates spoilers, really really hates them, and now he knows that in my boredom, I brew my own interpretation of the Fnaf story in the form of a 20 page movie script, It's on ice right now and I doubt I'll ever go back to it, but it exists, and , though not finished, it's crammed with spoilers. That's something I do love about Fnaf, it's story is entirely up to interpretation, there are some facts, like the bite of 87, and that children were murdered by the infamous purple guy, and have somehow possessed the animatronics, but its all very nebulous, allowing for a lot of free roam and imagination. Probably why I like film scripts, they're open to interpretation, 1person could make a scene, and with the same script, another person could make and entirely different scene, it's a fun thing to play with.

anyway, I am now looking forward to Saturday, I get to see Jurassic World again, I get to be with my friends, and I get to see and play Fnaf, well chumps, tis is indeed going to be fun.

Serious Sam HD game review

Let's mix things up with a game review.

Serious Sam is a funny game, don't expect a big, epic cinematic campaign with deep story and characters, don't expect mind blowing graphics, don't expect having any sense of order or control, Serious Sam is very, very far from serious. the game pits Sam against huge hordes of monsters, usually big open spaces, and tasks him with wiping them out. from that descripton the game doesn't appear to have a lot of depth, and it doesn't, but it makes up for that in the amount of enemies and the amount of bullets. there is kind of a story, with Sam going back in time to stop some bad guy from wiping out humanity in the future, but it doesn't matter, you play Serious Sam to kill big groups of enemies with big guns, and this game does that beautiful.

the game often puts you in a large open space and throws a shit load of enemies at you, enemies which you dispatch with a wide array of guns, including pistols, shotguns, rockets, miniguns, laser guns, and a cannon, yes, a cannon, like one from a pirate ship. all the while rock music blares in the background and Sam cracks dumb one-liners that just crack you up. like Duke Nukem,Sam is a satirical epic action hero, with big guns, big guns, one-liners, and more big guns, but unlike Duke, Sam isn't a tired old joke, Sam knows what he is, like to game itself, where as Duke doesn't. Serious Sam doesn't try to be deep or epic, which is partly where Duke Nukem failed, it just wants you to feel godly while laying waste to thousands of enemies, and it nails it, when the rock music starts and you see the horde approaching, you know you're in for a good time.

this can be a bad thing though, as the novelty of practically being on god mode will eventually leave you wanting more, and it's lack of depth will leave you somewhere disappointed, play the game in short bursts, playing for several hours at time will get old fast, and there's a lot of game here, with the first and second encounters together coming in at about 14 hours long. If you do get bored, hopefully the bounty of hidden areas and secrets will keep you engaged, because there's a lot of them. something that will never get old is the Headless Kamikazes, whose glorious screams continue to crack me up even just thinking about them; AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH. something else that never gets old is the boss fights, because the bosses are some of the biggest I've seen in a game, like Shadow of the Colossus big. Being a tiny little human taking down such a huge creature is ridiculously awesome, and when they spawn you do feel a sense of holy shit I'm supposed to fight that thing.

verdict, Serious Sam is not for everyone, but it's worth taking the risk to find out if it's for you, because as far at big dumb mindless shooters go, Serious Sam is a shit load of fun. try it out chumps, it's at least worth a try.

Jurassic World spoiler review

now let's have a closer look at what I liked and didn't like about Jurassic World.

lets go straight in with the didn't like. The romance with Howard and Pratt and the 2 kids' family issues. both of these elements just felt invasive on the film's plot, particularly the family issues, which, like I said in my first review, makes 1 scene in particular really awkward, its a scene with the 2 kids on a monorail. there is a scene where Chris Pratt is pined down by a very ugly pterosaur, and Bryce Dallas Howard shoots it off of him, seeming as an awkward thank you, Pratt kisses Howard. these 2 scenes just feel out of place in the film, and highlight the irrelevance of their respective subplots, I understand if the film makers decided that they needed to add story to the characters, but it was clumsy, in my opinion. another stupid subplot is D'onofrio's, something I didn't mention in my first review is near the end of he film, he tries to steal the indo rex DNA, thinking he can breed a super dino army. the theory everyone hoped wasn't true from the trailers was the crew using the raptors to fight the indo rex, it was real, and it was D'onofrio's idea, early on in the film when Pratt is 'training' the raptors is when D'onofrio spouts expositional dialogue about his project to make dino soldiers. honestly, when he died, I was glad, I don't like dumb movie characters, and he was dumb, when Wu gets involved in his plan, the subplot just stops, Wu gets on  a helicopter, D'on dies, and that's that whole dino army subplot gone, it would have been better if it was never there to begin with.

there are 2 other park employee's you see, the chick, and the dino nerd; the nerd is not funny, in that not funny nerd kind of way, and, Joss, the chick is by far the more sexist representation of women, if you must call something sexist, and I know you must. she just had to tell the dino nerd that she had a boyfriend, why the fuck is that remotely relevant, it' not. also, more on the feels, after the not remotely surprising twist that indo rex is part raptor, and she is able to turn the raptors on Pratt and the Ingen mercs, Pratt confronts one of the raptors, and the 2 have a brief moment before a merc blows her up with a rocket, like I said in my last review, the Pratt raptor relationship was buyable enough, but that was just stupid. something else about the raptors, in the final battle with the indo rex, the raptors decide to side with Pratt, why? indo has more in common with them than they have with him, and she was able to command them earlier, so why are they now with Pratt again.

I feel that I've said a lot of things I don't like, so lets change the mood. in the film, the 2 kids, and later Howard and Pratt, find the ruins of the old park, as in the original Jurassic park from the first film. not going to lie, it was really cool to see that place again, with the jeeps and the night vision goggles. in my first review I said the indo had 'abilities', it has active camouflage, it's able to hide it's thermal signature, this is explained by Dr Wu, and it's not only kind of believable, but somewhat awesome. though they're not really explored that much, both are used to show the indo's smarts, when she distracts the crew by scratching up one of the paddock walls and hides her heat signature, tricking them into thinking she escaped, then attacking them while they're in the paddock. indo never eats her kills either, making her just that little bit scarier, just killing for the sake of killing. she claws out her tracking implant and sets a trap with it, and of course turns the raptors.

lets get to business, the final battle with indo is awesome. with our heroes surrounded by raptors and the indo rex. Pratt sets the raptors on indo. while Howard does something awesome beyond the meaning of the word awesome, goes to old girl's paddock, and lets her out, using a flare to lure her just like Grant did in the first film, right over to the indo, and the 2 start fighting. watching indo and the T rex fight was, for me, by far he best part of the film. as they grab each other and throw each   other into buildings like its Godzilla or something, the fight is dumb, but it is so fucking awesome to watch, an it's such a improvement from Jurassic Park 3's piss take of a fight between the spinoaurus and the T rex. the fight ends with the mosasaur jumping out of the lake and grabbing the indo, dragging her to her doom. that is, for my viewing party, where the fight got truly stupid, I would say the film's big baddie needed to die dramatically, but having her neck snapped by old girl and old girl pronouncing her victory with a mighty roar would still have been awesome to see. We got that at the end, as she stands tall on the helipad overlooking her kingdom, covered in injuries from  the fight, and ends the film with that classic roar. I understand that the final fight was really stupid, but I didn't care in my ecstatic episode and I don't care now, I will see this film again with my friends, and I will wait for that fight, because it is what makes the film great. it's  why when you leave the cinema you leave smiling, even though the film was far from perfect. enjoy the film chumps, because I did, and I hope this more in depth review has explained why.