Hell of a day

It was also a pretty tiring day, which is why I'm posting about it the day after. Yesterday was a good day, me and a friend went up Hanley with the goal of completing the bulk of at least my Christmas shopping, it actually makes me feel like a bit of a Dick when he buys a little paper bag's worth of stuff and I nab the enormous haul to see pictured. First something funny, I fell over before we left, I, being the fool I am, was still dancing like an idiot when I tripped over my own feet, kid you not, it was embarrassing. That said, it's probably the least painful fall I've ever had, I was down for about 2 seconds, on my back laughing at myself and then I was back up, didn't really hurt at all, much better than my last fall, when I could barely walk for a few hours. Guess I was in too good of a mood to let it hurt, after all, I was dancing already. While we were up Hanley we had a few great conversations, like how I have only been on Facebook for a week and I've already been in an argument with a feminist, and how I'm finally getting over my anxiety and talking to people at work, and given how long it's been since we'd hung out, we just talked about how we've been doing. Like I say, he didn't get much, which does make me feel like a dick, because I spent a stupid amount of money, I guess it was my money that I earned myself, but I doubt I'll be seeing that bank card again for a while, good thing then that there isn't really a lot of Christmas shopping I need to do now, and I got myself enough crap to suppress my materialistic urges for quite a while.

From left to right we have Spartan Locke from Halo 5, a figure I'll be doing a review on sometime this week, a little toy Dalek, which I thought was just a little toy until I took it out of the box and saw what it really does, he has a motor inside him that makes him move around on flats surfaces, I bought him because they wouldn't let me buy a poster, but I'm really happy with him. Then we have more blu rays, can't ever have enough of them, even if you've already got them on DVD, why not upgrade. Then finally we have the thing I'm most pleased with, a NECA Godzilla figure based on the suit used in the original 1954 film, I'll be doing a review on him also, but if you want a short version, he's awesome. Finally we have the heavy hitter looming over all of the others, the Mega Bloks Halo UNSC Vulture, oh hell yes, I'll definitely be reviewing it, when it's finished, as of writing this I'm already an hour and 40 minutes in and I'm not even half way there, it's a brute.

After that we went for a meal, it was my granddad's 80th birthday, and everyone was there, even my sister, whose attendance was supposed to be a surprise before my nephew blew it, little fucker, but even then, it was a great night, unfortunately none of us got drunk, but we all had a lot of fun. Even when I was taking everyone's photo and a stranger offered to take a photo with me in it, I hated it, but I made sure to strike a nice sexy pose, and it got everyone smiling which was great for the photo, I love taking photos, but I hate being in them, fun fact about me. Also fun fact, the reason my nephew even had the chance to blow the surprise was because my dad and sister were an hour late due to a breakdown, and another fun fact, my sister's boyfriend eats like a pig, he had one of the biggest meals on the menu, and devoured it in the span of about 10 minutes, fat and all, and then he continued, eating everyone else's fat and finishing whatever they had left, not sure if I should have found it funny or been utterly horrified, but at least it was good food. All in all yesterday was a really fun day, and I had a huge amount of fun, spent a decent amount of money, and got some mushy family photos, a good day.

Thunderbirds Are Go Recharge review

Here's what you need to know; it's MAX's time to shine when an experimental Aurora generator goes wrong, and starts posing a very serious threat to Earth, one that only International Rescue have the ability to deal with, but things prove to be harder than they first thought.

Well, not going to lie, when the Thunderbirds Are Go YouTube channel put up a clip of this episode, I was immediately interested. In terms of the scenario this episode has a few similarities to Heavy Metal, an episode I enjoyed, only this time it's not a gravity well but rather an explosion that will trigger a geomagnetic reversal, which is basically when the Earth's magnetic field goes nuts. One key difference though is this episode's much smaller screen presence of Thunderbirds, now, normally I'd see this as a bit of a negative, since when this show tries something else it doesn't work as well, but here, while that is still the case, what is here is actually pretty good. It's something I've never seen this new series do, and that is address how the Tracy's are dealing with Jeff's 'accident'. Scott has a fairly good scene, and this kind of thing is something I feel this show needs more of, don't overdo it though. The bigger stuff is really cool, the scene where Thunderbird 1 tries to land by the generator is really cool, and I like the MAX stuff, particularly the finale and the scene where he nearly falls into a ravine. All in all this episode has some really cool scenes in particular, but there isn't really anything here I can complain about, I liked the more personal angle this episode takes and I had a lot of fun watching it, so yeah, I would recommend Recharge, worth a watch.

Thunderbirds End of the Road review

Here's what you need to know; Eddie Houseman's construction company runs into a problem when a monsoon halts their operation, determined to get the job done, he plans to save the project by any means necessary, even at the cost of his own life, International Rescue must now risk blowing their cover to save Houseman, a man they know.

This episode has a pretty interesting story, in fact there isn't really anything about this story I didn't like. We'll start with Eddie, he is a guy who cares very much about his company, and it's a surprisingly believable motive that puts him in danger, even if ditching Tintin without even saying goodbye was a bit of a dick move. Which brings us onto the story on Tracy Island, where there's a pretty funny and actually kind of cute story with Alan, who clearly has a thing for Tintin, but doesn't know how to go about getting her attention, not unlike myself really, except not with a puppet. The banter between the Tracy's is also pretty funny, and Tintin is also pretty interesting in this episode, even if Grandma Tracy is a bit creepy, just a bit. More interesting than that though is the threat Eddie poses to their secrecy, since he knows them, and could therefore expose their operation, this is a very interesting idea, and it's one I'm glad got explored, and in a way that's well done too. When International Rescue show up things get pretty intense, as Eddie hangs on for dear life half over a cliff, I really like this scenario, and it's an interesting problem to solve, even minus the Thunderbirds. But with the Thunderbirds the rescue is really cool, and surprisingly cleverly simple, and it's cool to see the Thunderbirds used in such a practical way. The finale is also very cool and very intense, and it really brings the episode to a head in a very enjoyable way. All in all I actually don't have any real issues with this episode, it's got some funny banter, a funny and cute story with Alan, a fascinating story with Eddie, both with the company and with International Rescue, and a very cool and intense rescue that I loved, I would therefore very highly recommend End of the Road, definitely worth a watch.

Attempt 1 update 4

Been a while, but for reasons I don't understand these fellas are still growing, they seem to be slowing down, which I, again, don't get, now the weather's getting colder, the heating's getting hotter, and I'm concerned that the increased temperature isn't good for them, as well as the shorter days, less sunlight can't be good. I'm now doubting that they'll survive the winter, if not, attempt 1 is a failure, but if they do, god damn, they're getting an upgrade, front garden. But for now, an update, they're still alive.

Star Wars Battlefront first impressions

After I missed the beta for Star Wars Battlefront, I wasn't sure if I should or shouldn't buy the full game, but, like I usually do, I decided to do it. But, because of my great ability to procrastinate and fail to manage time, I haven't played it until today. I've now played about 5 hours of Battlefront, and now I will share my thoughts.

First up, EA, why do I need an account to play this game, just why? My friend found great enjoyment in watching me get more and more frustrated trying to just play this damned game. I don't even know what I signed up here, at what point will I use this thing again, actually come to think about it, it will probably be next time I buy an EA game won't it, when will that be though, Titanfall 2, probably. but yeah, I just don't understand the point of needing an EA account to play this game, what ever happened to just playing games, first mandatory installs and now time consuming and useless account setups, I just want to play the game. I eventually did play the game, and you know what, I had an absolute blast, something I'll say is how smooth my first few games have been, no network issues at all, I also played Blops 3 multiplayer for the first time today, and that game, good god the lag in one particular game, yet Battlefront, so far for me, has been almost flawless. carrying on with the technical, this game looks stunning, I know I say that a lot, but my god it really does, the Frostbite engine has never looked as good as it does here, and when I noticed on a desert map that sand particles were collecting on my gun, I really loved that, it was an awesome little detail, it's something to behold for sure. so far I've only played a few games, and I've only played 1 game mode, the team deathmatch mode, but I really enjoyed that game mode, and I got good at it too, my best game so far is 16:4, and my friend had a go and showed me up with a best of 22:8, while strangely enough my idiot nephew, who we allowed to have a go, got the highest kill streak out of any of us at 7 consecutive kills. the game is also really addictive to play, at least for me, but I really can see myself getting addicted to this game, which is something I haven't done in a while. now for something I did notice myself, when John Williams' score comes on this game sounds really great, because of course John Williams' Star Wars score is fantastic, but there are other times where the music just doesn't work as well, it's hard to explain, but when it isn't John Williams it's really noticeable and actually kind of bothersome. there next game mode I want to play is Fighter Squadron, then Walker Assault, but I do want to know if there's a game mode where you can play both on the ground and in air vehicles, I don't know if such a mode exists, and it will be disappointing if it doesn't, but I 'll still be having fun with this game, as I have done for the first few hours. so far then I'm actually loving Battlefront, I've only played 1 mode, but I currently really enjoy that mode, and I really want to play more, something I will do beyond a doubt, but for now, I really like Star Wars Battlefront.

Thunderbirds Are Go Heist Society review

Here's what you need to know; following the incident at the Hadron Collider, professor Moffat, along with Penelope and Parker, are tasked with delivering a newly discovered particle to the GDF, but the Hood has other plans for that particle, and now International Rescue must step in stop is sinister plan.

this episode put an idea in my head, is it me, or is the second half of series 1 a lot faster than the first half, it's not a negative, in fact I don't even know if I'm right, but it's just a thought. really though a lot of things worked for me in this episode, for starters I liked the Hood's plan in this episode, and I liked the execution of the plan, with his completely subtle and inconspicuous ship and the demolition charges, though I still think the Hood's new disguises are a bit stupid, something I think the original did far better with the simple masks, rather than the holographic costumes he wears in this show, that part of the plan I didn't like so much. something else I really like is the use of models in this episode. weirdly I've been fine with Thunderbirds going CG for the most part, but one of my issues was the underutilisation of models, and this episode has more models, which I really like. this episode is also a good example of the more practical design of the redesigned Thunderbird equipment, with the lifting kits, something similar to gear that was used in Desperate Intruder. speaking of Desperate Intruder, something I felt could have been better in that episode is the showdown between the Hood and Thunderbird 4, the sequence where Penelope and Parker chase the Hood into the canyon in this episode is really what I had in mind, though still smaller than I think would really be great, that said, I did enjoy that sequence in this episode, right up to the end when the Hood yet again escapes in an escape pod, if Fireflash didn't burn me out on getting annoyed by his escape pod escapes, I would say it's really lazy and old at this point. All in all though I enjoyed this episode a good amount, I liked the Hood's plan, and I liked the scenario for International Rescue, as well as the rescue with the lifting kits, I have my issues, but nothing's perfect, and I'd recommend Heist Society.

Halo Nightfall movie review

Here's what you need to know; Humanity is in a very unstable peace with the Covenant, one that is put at great peril after a deadly terrorist attack on a human colony. After learning of a mysterious element that only kills humans, ONI agent Jameson Locke and his team must now work to prevent another attack, by venturing to the most dangerous place in the universe; the remains of Installation 04.
I never saw this when the Master Chief Collection came out, since the damned thing didn't work, but the time to bitch about the sorry state of the MCC is long gone. Now I have it on Blu Ray, and I have watched it, so let's review Halo Nightfall.

I personally think this movie opens in the best way it possibly could, showing Aiken and his daughter while he monologues, then, as the monologue continues, it shows what is to come, the barren scorched husk of the Halo ring, yes this is part of the Halo universe, but this is very different to the games, and like a great intro, it sets the mood perfectly. How I'll start this review is, as ever, with characters, and that, I feel, is one of the film's weaknesses. The 3 I liked were Locke, Aiken and Macer, they were not just the only characters I liked, but the only ones who I thought were interesting or even remembered their names. Locke is the main character here, and he's serviceable, you can tell there's more to him than the Sedrans say, and he is a solid hero when it comes to the choices he makes, which is really what this film's about, but he's not a terribly interesting character on his own. Macer has the same issue as Locke, while she too has potential, just like Locke. Aiken however is by far the most interesting character in this film, he was once a Spartan, yet now lives on a backwater colony with his family, at the start of this film he suffers a great loss, one which motivates him to make the choices he makes in a really cool and surprisingly emotional way. The film is also littered with monologues from Aiken, which are really interesting and fun to listen to, and they are this film's more philosophical element. The rest of the characters however aren't so great, I remember that one of them is a complete dick, but I wasn't really bothered to remember their names because they're not interesting in the slightest, one of them has kids, but instead of it being emotional character building, it just makes him a dick too. It really is a shame how the character element here was ultimately wasted, the situation would have been far more interesting if it wasn't, and the more tense moments would have been a lot more tense. I do however like the situation, it could have been so much more if I cared about the characters, but on it's own it's not bad, and the scenes when it boils up, i.e the more tense scenes are great, and I really liked the film's finale too, more on that later. I liked the element of people not liking the UNSC, but given that it's Halo, the human Covenant relations is something that should have been given a lot more time, but that's just me, the Halo fanboy that I am. The weakest part of the story, apart from the characters however, is the element, which I'll call E121 for fun. The reason given for it's existence is the destruction of Installation 04 was some kind of physics defying event, but my issue is that E121 only kills humans, I have a few questions, 1, how in 750 years has humanity never encountered this element? 2, how does it only kill humans and nothing else, why just humans? 3, how does it work, how does it kill? Normally I can overlook this stuff in science fiction, but E121 just makes no sense, it's nonsense that this stuff could even exist, it just defys how I understand chemistry, I can't compute it.

Something I wouldn't be able to forgive in a Halo film is if they didn't get the look right, and fortunately, I think they nailed it with Nightfall, the design of the armour, the guns, even the city at the beginning, it just looks like the games. There's a Zealot in this film, and he looks really good, at least in design, but that brings me onto something that's a bit hit and miss with Halo Nightfall, the special effects. The CG is never bad, but it's not the best, the worst CG effect are the Lekgolo, when it's just one or a few they look ok, but when they swarm it's noticeably worse, the same can be said for the Zealot, he always looks fine, but it's nothing special. Where the CG looks really good however is on the ring itself, the scorched sky, the looming remains of the ring, it looks eerily beautiful, and they definitely sell the idea of the inhospitable wasteland the ring has become, I don't know for sure but I think it was filmed mostly in Iceland, if so, they chose the perfect place to represent the ring. Now for more specific things I did and didn't like, like I said earlier, Aiken's monologues play a few times throughout the film, and they really work, they're cool to listen to, one in particular about silence, that was really awesome. The scenes where the more unpleasant characters make their plans to escape are great, but what I felt really worked was the finale, apart from one element. No spoilers here, but the ending has a great blend of emotion and tension as everyone clambers for the getaway, but something happens with the Lekgolo, something that makes it very easy for the survivors to leave, no spoilers, but you'll know what it is when you see it, it just bugs me how extremely convenient it is, and it doesn't make a lot of sense, given how the Lekgolo operate in this film. Something specific that happens involving Aiken is probably my favourite thing in this entire film, again, no spoilers, but he makes a decision, and I loved that he did it, it really added both to him as a character and to the film as a whole.

I'm a Halo fanboy, but I know this film is far from perfect, and I have my issues with it, but on the whole I did have fun with Halo Nightfall, it's got weak characters, but while it weakens them, it doesn't ruin the more tense character scenes, Aiken is really awesome and he is probably the best thing in the film. Even for sci fi, some of the science is complete nonsense, it is distractingly nonsensical, at least for me. some of the effects are serviceable, while others look really good, and it gets the look of the Halo games down, and it all culminates in an intense and emotional ending that I loved. Halo Nightfall is overall an enjoyable film that, while lacking in a few notable areas, is still worth watching, and I would recommend it.

withered in the wind

So a few nights ago we had some nasty wind, so bad in fact that I went out the next morning to see if any of the trees were uprooted, fortunately none were, but the smaller ones and even a few of the bigger ones looked like they were leaning a bit. I know it's not my best, they were taken on my phone, but I decided to snap some photos of the very gloomy looking trees, what with their leaves all on our driveway now, enjoy.

The Strain season 2 Night Train review

Spoilers ahead for The Strain.
Here's what you need to know; the bidding war is on, the man with the deepest pocket wins, but Palmer has other plans, Eph and Nora attempt to leave the city to get Zach to safety, but Kelly is waiting, and Gus and Angel, now with their own army, do battle with the vampire menace.

Well, that got a bit out of control, didn't it. This episodes has a very creepy intro, with Eichhorst inspecting his 'sheep' processing facility, which I'm probably correct in assuming is a human processing facility, now that is one immensely unsettling idea, I suppose that's something that gets me, abattoirs are bad enough, but put humans on those hooks and I'm done. The bidding war was actually about what I expected, and I thought it was awesome, seeing Abraham, Eichhorst and Fet all in one room, yeah, it was a bit intense, and Fet's line about the rebar was cool, the bidding was less than I thought, but the price went up pretty fast, and at first it looked like Eichhorst had won, but then Palmer played his hand, I didn't expect that, though like I said, I knew he was planning something, just not something that was likely to get him killed, that said I was very much looking forward to his punishment, until the Master killed Coco. What the hell, I mean, sure, Palmer double crossed you, you need to teach him a lesson, but damn, why Coco, and to be honest, since her and Palmer started banging I've actually started to warm to Palmer, something tells me in season 3 he's going to be a bit broken, since he cut out her heart and will presumably put it in a jar or something. Speaking of broken people, my lord, Eph is going to be completely gone in season 3, like full on Rick Grimes rip a guy's throat out with his teeth mad, but there is a plus side to this, Zach's probably going to die, little shit, Jesus Christ, it's his fault Nora's dead now, she had Kelly, Kelly was going to die, and then Zach had to be in denial just one last time and get a character I like killed because fuck it, why not. I hope he dies, really, I do, fuck him, I hope his undying denial get's him on one of those hooks or on the end of Kelly's stinger, I've hated TV characters in my time, I've watched Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, both of those shows had characters I hated who got characters I Liked killed, add Zach from The Strain to that list. Back to Eph though, yep, he's going to be a very different character in season 3, and that actually makes me pretty excited, I want to see what he does next. And this episode had some vampire killing, in fact a decent amount, and Fet, that delivery truck is not a delivery truck anymore, it's a tank, and I found it amusing when Fet opened the little hatch on the side and started firing at the vampires, it's a shame they blew the thing up really. I do have one issue with this episode however, Feraldo, in the last episode she was a murder suspect, so where is she now, where does her story go from here, it's a pretty important story to just skip over in the season finale.

All in all I really enjoyed this episode, it did miss a story that really needed some coverage, but it had pretty much everything else I wanted, some cool vampire killing, the auction was really cool, and I loved watching everyone get in each other's faces. People died who I didn't expect would die, but really this show needed people to die, and with Nora's death, I'm really looking forward to seeing how Eph will change in season 3. At least Abraham finally got that damn book, and no one had to die on his end, so I guess that's a victory. As a conclusion to season 2 I did enjoy it, and overall I enjoyed season 2 on the whole, I liked the first few episodes, but it did derail for a few episodes before getting back on track for the last couple of episodes, and, reflecting my BK, NY review, I did enjoy season 2 of The Strain, and I would still recommend it, worth watching for sure.

Thunderbirds Desperate Indruder review

Here's what you need to know; Brains and Tintin join an archaeological crew out to find treasure in the desert, things look promising, until darker forces arrive to steal the treasure, and put an end to the efforts of International Rescue for good.

Something I will say is how funny the taxi driver is in this episode, imagine if this show came out today, the hyper offendable PC police would go ape. On a more serious note there is a lot to like about desperate intruder, starts with Eyebrows getting really intense in this episode's opening, really, it's actually pretty amusing, the Hood is a pretty cool villain in this episode, in a very over the top kind of way. And he has a few really cool scenes, like when he has Brains buried in the sand, and when he's in his mini sub spying on International Rescue. Like wise the exploring of the lake and the submerged temple are also pretty cool, and it's cool to see Brains and Tintin off Tracy island and on an adventure of their own. The other explorer they're with is also very funny to me, good old bang on,  jolly good show, I say. When the Thunderbirds arrive the Hood says some funny lines, and it's still cool to see Thunderbird 4 some more, but I feel like the rescue could have been more exciting, I think more time should have been spent with Thunderbird 4 and the mini sub, maybe more of a fight, or even more of a hide and seek scenario on the lake bed, instead it's an exchange of a few missiles and that's the Hood dealt with, not so much underwhelming, but it could have been more. So all in all I had a few laughs with this episode, and it has a few cool moments, but this is a less exciting episode, for sure, and it could have been more, still, worth checking out.

The Strain season 2 Fallen Light review

Spoilers for The Strain ahead.
Here's what you need to know; a bidding war is about to commence between Palmer and Abraham over the Lumen, but tensions are running high between Palmer and Eichhorst. Gus and Angel attempt  to break his former fellow inmates out of prison as recruits for Quinlan, and Eph may have to say goodbye to his son.
Who am I kidding, yes, the reason this review is nearly a week late is quite simply I'm a bone idle sod, with that in mind, Fallen Light, finally.

That last little bit there, I really hope Zach is going, because for most of this season he's really annoyed me, and now he may be going, at this point I'm open to the idea of Kelly getting him, because the amount of denial he has about Kelly is unreal, fortunately we don't get another annoying scene with him and Eph talking about Kelly, and I'm glad they may be getting rid of him. Meanwhile, it's cool to see Kent again, given that he died pretty early on in season 1, but the rest of the flashback story with Eph and Nora, and for that matter the Eph and Nora stuff in the present day, isn't very interesting, at least in my opinion, neither for that matter is the stuff with Dutch and Nikki, though I understand where they're coming from, Dutch in particular, what with the events of Dead End, but like I've already said, the drama element is the weakest element of this show. I do however really like the scene with Dutch and Fet, and it's yet another reason why I like Fet so much, he's just a good guy, and he's cool. I also really liked the prison break scene, Gus is awesome in this scene, and Angel is a badass, for about 10 seconds, but still, 10 badass seconds, and it has some brief vampire killing action, and that's always cool. To be honest I'm not all that interested in the Lumen, I'm much more interested in Feraldo's SSI and Eph's bio weapon, but at least things are finally going somewhere with the Lumen, because I was getting tired, I am however very much looking forward to the auction, Eichhorst and Abraham in the same room, that is something I want to see, because Eichhorst is, as ever, a great villain in this episode, he's just a creepy guy, and the scene with him, Palmer and Coco is great, and it makes me want to know what Palmer is planning, because I'm thinking he's planning something, no idea what, but we'll see. I'm also interested to see where Feraldo's story goes now, after the Mayor was murdered, but I think that should have happened a few episodes ago, because with just one episode to go there isn't really a clear suspect, and I think Fernando's SSI needed to face some adversity eventually, and not of the blood sucking kind, as cool as the battle for Red Hook was. All in all I'm excited to see the finale of season 2, this episode has some subplots that, like in the rest of season 2, kind of fall flat in the midst of more important stuff, but I'm pretty interested in where the story is going overall, and I enjoyed watching this episode.

Paddington movie review

Here's what you need to know; when tragedy hits his jungle home, Paddington bear is forced to relocate, in search of a new home, he finds himself in London, a city that is not what he thought is was. But as he settles into his new life, a dangerous woman plots to find Paddington a home he will never escape from.
My memory of the first time I watched this film is soured by personal reasons, but surprisingly that hasn't stopped me from having a soft spot for this film, so, let's review Paddington.

This film starts off brilliantly, with black and white footage of an English expedition to Peru, and it's pretty funny. In that this film's intro kind of reminds me of Pixar films like Finding Nemo and Up, with an intro that plays with your emotions, starting off very light hearted and funny, and then very rapidly taking a dark turn, and like those Pixar films, it works. So as ever we'll start with the characters, mainly the most likable bear ever, Paddington is so damn likable, and Ben Wishaw is brilliant as Paddington, he's just such a likable character. The same can actually be said for this film's other characters, the Browns are great, Mr Brown is a boring hyper safety conscious 'risk analyst', as far as the Browns go he is the one the film focuses on the most, as he and Paddington begin to grow on each other. The rest of the family are also great though, and all of them are funny, Mrs Bird is particularly funny towards the end in my opinion. Nicole Kidman plays this film's villain, and she looked like she was having a lot of fun in the role, she's great too, menacing, but also pretty funny, she's a bit of a cartoon, but there isn't really anyone in this film that isn't, and Peter Capaldi's presence alone was enough to make me laugh, I don't know why, but he was really funny. Like I have said, repeatedly, this film is very funny, but there are no dumb kid jokes to be found, no frat or burp jokes, Paddington does have a good amount of slapstick, I do like some slapstick, so that's good, but this film is also very well written, the comedy extends to the dialogue, and that, for me, is where this film nails it, the writing is great, and that makes this film less of a kids film and more of a family film, the slapstick and cute bear will entertain the children and the funny and smart writing will entertain the grown ups. Another reason this film may resonate with adults is the feels, this film does have some emotional moments, usually of a light hearted nature, but sometimes of a much darker nature, one of which in the very beginning which is pretty rough, but it works, and it's really good to watch, maybe not fun, but definitely good. In terms of plot you can make of this film what you will, it's a pretty straightforward movie in that Paddington must find a home in London, Mr Brown must open his heart to Paddington, and Nicole Kidman is out to get Paddington. But take me for instance, I wasted my time in college doing media studies, which means I got critical theory rammed down my throat, so maybe this film may have some more subtle undertones, or maybe the brainwashing at least sort of worked.

And now for the technical, this film has some absolutely stunning special effects, yes it's obviously a CG bear, but never once did I think that while watching the film, the CG on Paddington is incredible, and Paddington himself looks really cool, a computer powered version of the same classic character, with his hat and his blue coat, and he's cute, did I mention that, he's really cute. My god I've gone soft. But for a film where the main character is CG for the whole film, it's surprising how little special effects are actually used, obviously they are used, but it's impressive how much they made this film work with a very minimal amount of it, aside from Paddington. How smart this film is doesn't just apply to the writing, and I did learn some things in media and film studies that are useful, not a lot of things, but still some things, for example diegetic and non-diegetic sound, something that is a bit of a running joke in this film, and I adore that. This film also has some really fun moments, in fact a lot of them, and in addition to making you love Paddington even more, they really are fun to watch, one example would be a scene where Paddington is trying to return someone's wallet, that scene is, like a lot of the film's more energetic moments, very over the top, but it works, and in a very charming way. Like I said earlier though, this film isn't all fun and games, the opening takes a very dark turn, and it's a scene that I love, and one of the reasons I love it is the shot, specific shot, when Paddington looks down in shock and picks up the hat, that's some dark stuff, and you know me, I like funny, I like intense, and I like dark, the film maybe lacking in the second one, but it's got enough of the third one to make you happy and more than enough of the first one to keep you amused for the entirety of this film's pretty brief runtime.

Paddington is up there with Edge of Tomorrow and Guardians of the Galaxy in my favourite films of 2014, I absolutely adore this film. Before watching it hours ago I thought about what flaws this film has, and then, while watching it, and still now, I can't think of any, it's got an extremely lovable  main character, brought to life with stunning effects, a fun and likable supporting line up, lots of laughs, lots of heart, and I have to call it a masterpiece, Paddington is an absolute must watch.

Thunderbirds Are Go Breakdown review

Here's what you need to know; Virgil's birthday isn't going entirely his way when the rest of the team seem to have completely forgotten, now off to the arctic circle to rescue a trapped research team, but what he finds is something he didn't expect.

This is a somewhat interesting episode to me, what with the opening being a guy climbing up a tunnel of ice and walking through a blizzard repeatedly saying breakdown, really though the relevance of that word isn't entirely explained, it feels like it's said a few too many times. Surprisingly I found the subplot on Tracy island kind of cool, since they are a family, this is something they would probably do. Up in the arctic circle I really liked the pod explorer, at first I thought it looked a bit goofy, but I warmed to it, and it's pretty cool. At first I also didn't like the story with the trapped researchers, with one of them being really stubborn and unwilling to leave, but his reasoning is something I thought was kind of sweet, not cool or interesting mind you, just sweet, man, I've never  used that word in a review before. And as everything comes to a head and the ice shelf collapses I thought that too was very cool, because I like the destruction and I see this as an example of immediacy in action, in place of tension. All in all I liked this episode a surprising lot, it had a cool rescue situation that takes a likable turn, a cool rescue machine, a funny subplot on Tracy island, and a great finale, definitely worth watching.

Doctor Who series 9 The Woman Who Lived review

Spoilers ahead for Doctor Who.
Here's what you need to know; while on the trail of a fabled alien artefact, the Doctor has an unexpected run in with an old friend, who is now a broken husk of her former self, now he must try to recover what remains of her soul as she allies with a terrible evil in an effort to escape a doomed existence.
Better late than never, even if late is by a few weeks, the usual excuse I guess, poor time management, or just down right laziness, take your pick.

So, the follow up to The Girl Who Died, an episode I enjoyed half of, and loved the other half of, so how does this episode stack up. I have a very similar opinion on this episode to the last one, I enjoyed some elements of it, and I'll start with them. Minus the breathing fire thing, and the fact he's a lion, I liked the little subplot with the alien invasion, though it was a very predictable subplot, really the reason I'm not criticising that is because it's not the point. What I loved was pretty much everything else, Maisie Williams' character is really interesting, and though she's less villainous than I thought she'd be, she's still very much what I wanted them to do with her character, it's always interesting seeing how immortality breaks people, possibly because of how interesting immortality itself is. The scenes where she's begging the Doctor to take her with him are great stuff, one in particular which I loved, as it shows just how broken she is, I also love the scene when the Doctor is reading her diaries, that's some heavy shit. Though the more comedic flashbacks I felt were more pointless, even stupid. I think the more heavy flashbacks should have been the end of it, because they worked. The scenes with 'the nightmare' were also a step down from the more emotional scenes, though I didn't think they were anywhere near as pointless as the flashbacks, but the contrast is a bit noticeable. Something I also really liked was Sam Swift, that guy was funny as shit, and I love the deeper shit going on with him, like Maisie Williams' heavier moments, it was subtle, and it was really effective, he, oddly, might actually be my favourite character in this episode, if only for that reason. All in all I really enjoyed this episode, some things don't stick, in my opinion, but they are overshadowed by all the things that really work, and I enjoyed the shit out of it, definitely worth a watch.

Thunderbirds 30 Minutes After Noon review

Here's what you need to know; a villainous gang has some nasty plans that won't bode well for anyone in the blast radius, International Rescue is called to rescue the unwilling bombers and save the day from total destruction.

This episode is very enjoyable, first off I really like the opening with the hitch hiker and the really tense drive to the office, really, the first few minutes of this episode are great, nail biting stuff. International Rescue show up pretty fast, and while the rescue has some tension with the fire, it's a bit questionable how they got the rescue car in the elevator shaft, it's not distracting, but it's something I thought, like how the bad guy planted the key in the guy's office but didn't just plant a bomb, cut out the fluff, you know. but that brings us onto probably this episode's most interesting element, it's story, I really like the idea of the bracelets here, and it makes me think what I would do if someone strapped one of those bracelets on me, I'd probably panic and capitulate to their every demand if it meant surviving, though I think that's what most people would do. I also like that you never see the boss, it's something you don't see often, and it's so funny and cool to only see a hand or a back of a head, very old school. This episode however, at least I feel, has a similar problem to Edge of Impact, in that the cool rescue equipment IR use isn't all that cool, and this time it's a plasma cutter that can blast open metal doors, which sounds a lot cooler how I said it than it actually is, it's a very time consuming process. However on the flip side of that, it really ramps up the tension as the time ticks down, and one of my favourite sequences in the episode follows, when Thunderbird 1 disposes of the bombs, that was some tense shit. All in all, I liked this episode quite a bit, it tells a very cool story that I liked, and it had a few very tense and very great moments, as well as some awesome bracelets, but the rescue equipment  does lack the charm or coolness of something like the Elevator car of the Mole, still, I liked this episodes, and it's worth checking out.

Fallout 4 first impressions (spoilers)

This time last week I had no plans of getting Fallout 4, but at some point in the last week I've had a change of heart, I personally never got into Fallout 3, but probably down to me having a job now and working with people who were freaking over Fallout 4's looming release, I just said fuck it and took the plunge, and from what I've played so far, that might have been a good call. First off while the game was installing I watched the little S.P.E.C.I.A.L videos, and they were hilarious, I loved their style, they reminded me of really old cartoons that I used to watch, but with some not very kid friendly violence, I really enjoyed them. Something I have mixed fixed feelings on it the little pre game expositional prologue, sure it's handy if, like me, you have very little to no knowledge of the Fallout universe, but I think this game's intro would have been much cooler if they just dropped you into it, with your 1950's house and your atomic cars and the absolutely awesome robot house keeper, more on him later. In fact, no, more on him now, Codsworth was fucking awesome, I think I laughed at every line he said, he was hilarious, and I like the contrast between friendly funny butler and floating ball with 3 arms, one of which has a buzz saw on the end, and they let him change the baby's nappy, what the fuck. Something else I loved was how fast and how hard shit hit the fan, one minute you and the wife are in the baby's room, then Codsworth calls you into the living room and says you need to see this, then it's run for your god forsaken life and get to the bunker, it's so fast and it's really effective. The 'big story scene' where your wife is murdered and your kid is kidnapped, I suppose we need a reason to leave the safety of the vault, apart from all those nasty radroaches, but really I was a bit indifferent to this scene, it got the story going, in that it did it's job, but little more, at least for me. But now for the real goodness, you leave the vault, and from what I've played the game world is amazing, I don't know how big it is, but what little I've seen is great, and you know what, I really like the way it looks, I didn't go into this game expecting Halo 5 level graphics, or sound for that matter, but I personally think the graphics and the world itself look damn good. Comparing this game to Halo 5 again, as a shooter this game is nothing on Halo 5, but that's really unfair, I'm guessing the point of Fallout 4 is not shooting, but the shooting is fine, it works, what I'm more interested in is the dialogue system, which is more fun and more interesting, even if aside from Codsworth and that minutemen guy I don't really think much of the characters so far. I did however enjoy the shit out of killing that big demon thing with a mini gun, it's always fun bringing down something with a skull next to it's health bar, most badass. I think I need to figure out the in-game menus, because I'm a bit stumped by them to be honest, but I'm not very smart, so maybe it's me.

So far I'm liking Fallout 4, even if I've only played about 2 hours of it, it's a game that makes me a bit sad that it came out on a Tuesday, bear in mind I have a job now, and on Friday I plan on getting Tomb Raider, because it's a game I want to play more of, and a game that does that is an alright game in my eyes, hell, I could beat this game and say it's a marvel, best game ever, but for now, Fallout 4, me likes.

Xbox One backwards compatiblity list thoughts

tell me something Microsoft, why is Halo Reach in this image above, if it's not in this list of the first 104 games you'll be making playable on the Xbox One. Apparently Reach is coming in a future update, as well as Blops and all 3 Bioshocks, including 2, which is really weird, but I liked Bioshock 2, so that's cool by me. When I first heard that Xbox One would soon let you play 360 games I was, understandably, extremely excited, my head immediately flooded with the fun nostalgic memories of the 360, and what games I want to play again on the One; Dead Space, Red Dead, Far Cry 3, Halo Reach, even more obscure games like the Earth Defense Force series, Binary Domain and Serious Sam, something you may have noticed is that all the games I just listed are absent from this list. I'd have though that with Xbox still not taking ground against PlayStation, Xbox would have brought out some real heavy hitters in this first batch of games, so what do we have, to their credit there are a few cool games here, for instance all 4 Gears of War games, Mirror's Edge, Borderlands. But here's the issue I have, of all the games in that list, the ones I'm most excited for are Gears of War 3 and Doom, people can enjoy whatever they like, who am I to stop them, but when I look at this list I can't help but think about Games with Gold. Remember that? Everyone got really pumped about monthly free games for Gold members, but then the games started dropping and they were all just old or obsolete games, something that somehow managed to continue onto the One even with it's obviously smaller library of games, I feel the same with this list. Sure there's a few good ones in there, but then there's games like Golden Axe and Blood of the Werewolf and Defence Grid, don't get me wrong, I liked Defence Grid, and I'm sure there are people out there who like Golden Axe, but what the hell is Blood of the Werewolf? All in all I'm a bit underwhelmed to be honest, sure it's great that this is even happening, Backwards Compatibility is awesome, but this list is a bit disappointing for me, I'm sure everyone will have their own opinions, but here are mine, and I really want my Red Dead, seriously Microsoft, where's Red Dead.

it's not over yet

these photos aren't even an hour old as of putting them up, it seems my local pub didn't get rid of all its fireworks, that or on Sunday of all days they decided to do their firework show, it was very loud and very bright, and I have now come to terms with the fact that if I ever see a firework show, it will always be through the lens of a camera, doesn't mean I can't enjoy them. unedited as usual, enjoy.

Rage running and pretty lights

So last night me and a friend were playing some Blops 3, I think it went well. we beat a few missions in the campaign, which was pretty fun, he compared the second mission with the train to Source Code, and I completely agreed with him, only minus the robots. then we moved onto Zombies and got our arses completely kicked, we lasted 7 rounds before learning how stupidly easy it is to get swarmed in Shadows of Evil, seriously, we both went down in the span of about half a second after getting mobbed from out of nowhere, it wasn't good. He then tried to get into the multiplayer while I set up a camera for the coming Fireworks, Bonfire night and all, never mind that is was on Thursday. the servers were down so we proceeded to get completely hooked on the game's free-running mode. it was awesome, I don't think I've had as much fun in Call of Duty since the first time I played Kino der Toten  with some friends from high school, shit when was that, 2010, 2011? we managed to master the 2 lower levels, and it was really fun, as we strived to better each other's times. but then there's the other 2, the harder levels, which are torture, we completed the 3rd one and managed to do it in good time, but the last one, I rage quit because I couldn't take it anymore and he finally managed to complete it after 7 and a half minutes of fucking it up. it was a nightmare, but it was really fun, and really addictive. while that was going on a firework show was going on up the road from my house, and I juggled CoD and taking photos. I 've never photographed fireworks on the night setting, some of them went well, but the longer shutter time did cause a bit of motion blur, a problem that could only be fixed if there wasn't any wind, still, I think they went well, as usual they're unedited, enjoy.

Thunderbirds Are Go Relic review

Here's what you need to know; International Rescue is mobilized when they learn the decommissioned Shadow Alpha moon base and it's only inhabitant doctor Taylor, a close friend of Jeff Tracy, lie in the path of a deadly meteor shower.

Falling Skies was an ok episode, like I said in my review it was an episode that didn't go either way for me, neither good or bad, I much prefer episodes like Space Race, Skyhook, and Relic, I really enjoyed this episode. We'll start with something I really liked, the setting, the moon looked really cool in this episode, and the moon base was also pretty cool, even if a few little things didn't make sense to me, but you know, nit picks. Something I really liked was the scene when Scott was trying to land on the moon with his jet pack, and having some trouble thanks to the lesser gravity. Though I find it odd that Scott and Taylor didn't just get blasted out into space during a decompression. The episode also does a poor job of giving Taylor a reason to still be on the moon base, for sentimental reasons, really? I did however enjoy the back and forth with Taylor and Scott, what with Taylor being friends with Jeff, I thought a lot of it was kind of funny. Of course though, when shit hits the fan this episode is absolutely awesome, I made a joke about Dead Space while watching it, and was surprised at how right I was when they started shooting at incoming meteors with laser cannons, and I really enjoyed that entire sequence. I also really enjoyed the escape sequence when they're running on foot as meteors start hitting the base, and then as they escape by buggy later on. These 2 sequences are both a huge amount of fun, and they really make the episode. All in all I had a lot of fun with Relic, my only real issues are nit picks, and there were some really fun and cool moments, it's worth checking out for sure.

Mega Bloks Halo Phaeton gunship set

Remember how I said I loved flying the Phaeton gunship in Halo 5 so much that I went out and bought the toy, well here it is. Here we have the Mega Bloks Halo Phaeton gunship set, the set contains 455 pieces, and includes 1 Phaeton gunship, 1 Spartan mini figure and 2 Promethean soldier figures.

First off I'll just cut to the chase, the gunship itself is really cool, it's just a very funky design, and I had a lot of fun putting it together. It's a very interesting design, as you can clearly see, an interesting feature is the angled body, which uses snap joint pieces, it's a clever use of parts, as are the engines, or at least I assume they're the engines, it's forerunner, nothing they built makes sense. Given the odd design, it's also surprising and very cool how few specialised parts there are, most of it is just standard Mega Bloks parts, and I always love that. I'm not entirely sure that this model is 100% correct, and I don't think the colours are accurate, but still, I like the colours on this thing, with grey, dark bluish grey, and orange blocks, and as far as abstract designs go, this thing is way cooler then that bonkers ONI REAPX line, I did not like those things, at all. As far as playability goes this thing is no Scorpion, but it's still pretty nifty, with adjustable cannons on both sides, even if I needed to fix one on my gunship, it was loose, and 2 hatches on the vehicle to seat mini figures. The engines are fixed in place, impressively securely, and they don't rotate, which you'd think they would, but that's not a problem, and it's pretty funky how the engines are attached, like many forerunner things, they seem to defy the laws of physics, and are secured to the body of the ship with transparent pieces, to give them the appearance they're floating. There is something I'm a bit confused by, and that's the display stands, while they're fairly easy to miss with their size and they do a good job of keeping the ship off the ground, but they're fairly short, not keeping the ship terribly far off the ground, a taller display stand, similar to the Seraph or Broadsword sets, would have been much better in my opinion, that way I could have this thing in my Halo ships display without it taking up a huge amount of space, space that my Phantom and Pelican sets really need. over all I'm very happy with this ship itself though, I like the look, the design, it was a fun build and has a few items of playability, even though it's display options are somewhat limited as they are. now for the figures, the Spartan is unremarkable, to me he's just another Spartan to join the army of UNSC figures I already have, but the other 2 are far more interesting. they are the Promethean soldiers, and while they don't have the same extensive armour options as the Spartans or Elites, their armour, in my opinion looks really cool, and it's nicely sculpted and painted, though like the gunship itself I don't know how accurate to the in-game soldiers they are. They do however use the redesigned articulation, which lets you pose them in interesting ways and let's them hold 2 handed weapons like the Binary rifle you can see one of them holding, weapons include a binary rifle, a boltshot pistol and a new Halo 5 redesigned rocket launcher. it's cool to A get more Promethean figures, of which I don't have many, and B get  new figures that are pretty cool. and overall I'd say this is a pretty cool set, I can understand why maybe people wouldn't like the vehicle's look, it's a very unusual design, but I personally think it looks really cool, and I like 2 of the figures this set comes with, even with my indifference to the Spartan, I'd say if you like the look of the Phaeton gunship you should pick this up, if not, I'd still say consider it because it's a cool set.

Unggoy

The ugly little bastard to the left is something most Halo players know as a Grunt, the name the UNSC and Covenant higher-ups gave them. these guys are the Unggoy, as species native to the planet Balaho. since playing Halo 5, I've really been in a Halo mood, and since I love the Halo universe as much as I do, let me share with you some stuff about the Unggoy people. first off, like I said before, they come from the planet Balaho, the fifth planet from it's star, and a planet with a rocky, swampy surface, freezing temperatures, and an atmosphere comprised mainly of Methane. The history of Balaho is a long and messy one, before the firing of the Halo Array, Balaho was suffering a devastating ecological collapse due to over-industrialisation on the part of the Unggoy. Even with the time that has passed since the firing of the Halo Array, Balaho still hasn't fully recovered from the collapse. Before being annexed into the Covenant, Unggoy lived in tribes, typically of a matriarchal power structure, and they were very well adapted for the conditions of their homeworld, their build makes them very good at climbing, useful for the mountainous terrain of Balaho. however they had to endure considerable hardships, the cold was frequently a threat to them, plague was also a big problem for them, as was lack of food and resources during the planet's brutal winters. something else of note about the Unggoy is their exceptional ability to breed, typically hatching from large batches of eggs with short incubation periods and short childhood periods, this allowed them to breed very fast and produce large numbers of Unggoy offspring.

 

it was this ability to produce very large numbers of offspring that the Covenant saw when they annexed the Unggoy and employed them as slave labourers. The Unggoy are the lowest ranking race in the Covenant, and have to deal with terrible mistreatment at the hands of higher ranking species, their political power in the Covenant is almost non-existent, and before the Unggoy Rebelion, were denied several civil rights, during peace time, strict population control was also enforced to prevent over population. The Unggoy also had a nasty rivalry with another low ranking Covenant race; the Kig-Yar, a rivalry that was ignored by the higher ranking races until things got really ugly. the Kig-Yar were being forced from their habitats by the Unggoy population, which killed many of their eggs, as an act of vengeance, the Kig-Yar poisoned a recreational drug supply enjoyed by the Unggoy, which made contaminated males infertile. this issue was not investigated by the high council, and the resulting revolt became known as the Unggoy rebellion. The Unggoy fought viciously, but the rebellion was short lived, when the Prophets instated an Arbiter to end the conflict, and a Covenant fleet began glassing Balaho, which is exactly what it sounds like, the rebels surrendered before the bombardment was completed, but large areas of Balaho were left uninhabitable. After the rebellion, the Unggoy stayed within the ranks of the Covenant, not due to their belief in the faith of the Covenant, but out of fear and a need to survive. The Sangheili found a new respect for the Unggoy after the rebellion, and as a result the Unggoy were introduced as combat infantry and granted additional civil rights. Yet the Unggoy remained loyal to the Covenant, even in the final days of the Human-Covenant war as the Covenant splintered and a civil war raged between the Sangheili and the Jiralhanae. But as the Covenant fell to pieces, the Unggoy remained loyal to their commanders rather than to a religion or council, leaving many to set up shop on Sanghelios as labourers and farmers, while others went on to join Jul 'Mdama in his reformed Covenant. The Unggoy chose remain as servants to higher-up races because of the benefits their life in the Covenant gave them, for example longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality, their servitude to their masters has kept them alive, even with the mistreatment and the near-glassing of their planet.

 

So, there is some interesting stuff about the Unggoy, or grunts from Halo, and this should show you the size of the Halo universe, and why it's so awesome and interesting to me, I hope I didn't bore you.

The Strain season 2 Dead End review

Spoilers for The Strain ahead.
Here's what you need to know; Eichhorst and Dutch spend some quality time together while Fet, Eph and Nora are on the hunt, determined to save Dutch. Abraham can only watch as the Lumen slips from his grasp yet again, and Gus if forced to leave his love behind in the war with the Master.

I will just get it out of the way now, I love this episode, this episode was brilliant. I'll cut to the chase, the scenes with Dutch and Eichhorst were great, they were just so nail biting, and they kind of made me feel ill for liking Eichhorst so much. The less fucked up scenes include Eichhorst forcing her to eat pineapple, which, like all of them, is a very intense scene. But then there's, I don't even know what say, I don't know what Eichhorst was going to do, but I don't want to know, and I can imagine it was very, very, very fucked up, that scene was hard to watch, I'm not kidding, I'll admit that scene really got under my skin. And it takes this show in a direction I didn't want it to take, not because it's a bad direction, but because it's creepy and perverted as shit, and that's actually a good thing, because this show surprised me. This episode is a great character episode for Eichhorst, not just because of him torturing Dutch, but this episode has a few flashbacks to before the war, both when he was just a radio salesman and when he was a Obersturmfuhrer, which was a nightmare to type. He had a relationship with a co-worker, one that ends really badly, and I love the scene when he finds her body hanging from the gallows, because you can tell that it really messed with him. And scenes like that make Eichhorst a fascinating character, he's evil, he's perverted, he's a Nazi, but scenes like those throw in some complicating humanity, and it's awesome. Another scene I loved was when he was dragging Dutch up the stairs by her leg, those last few moments in the hotel were tense as shit, even if I knew she'd hit a dead end, oh, I see what you did there. Really I'm kind of disappointed that neither of them died, since I was almost certain either Dutch or Eichhorst would have died in this episode, still, I really loved their 'interaction,' but I think it would have been far, far more heavy hitting if one of them died. It's a shame that the Eichhorst stuff just kind of drowns out all the other stuff. Abraham, whatever, he's never going to get that damn book. But Gus and Angel, now things are really moving, I recall saying something about Angel hopefully becoming a vampire killing badass at some point, correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like he is going to become a badass after all. Gus and Angel stayed in the city after Gus' girlfriend and her family left, and that was a great scene, in fact a scene that makes me really like Gus and his story, and I'm excited to see where it goes next, which is odd given how stagnant his story got after Vaun died. All in all I thought this was a great episode, The Strain at it's finest, it was a great character episode for Eichhorst, the scenes with him and Dutch were awesome, and tense, and fucked up, and I'm excited to see what Gus and Angel do next, this episode is definitely worth checking out.

Thunderbirds Day of Disaster review

Here's what you need to know; the crew of the Martian Space Probe chose a bad day to cross the Allington bridge after a violent storm damages the bridge, and the Probe and it's crew are sent tumbling into the river below. With only hours before the rocket explodes, International Rescue are the only ones who can save the day.

Something I really like in this episode is something that I've missed from Trapped in the Sky and Pit of Peril, the failed rescue attempt. In my opinion the failed rescue really adds to the tension when it comes to rescues, because the failure creates a possibility that IR might also fail, that possibility of failure is what made the Fireflash landing as intense and awesome as it was. This episode has one such attempt with floating cranes, not to mention the presence of a timer, in this case a literal timer before the rocket explodes, come together to make this seem like a rescue that could fail, and those ones are the best, that's why I liked Skyhook so much in the new series, it's why I love episodes like Trapped in the Sky. The timer is a big part of this, when it comes to tension, timers are really effective, and here it's effective. I also very much liked a scene on Tracy Island with the Tracy family, I thought it was funny, and I thought it was a good little bit of character, I liked it. What's more humorous than effective is Brains, while it's a neat idea of him wanting be a hero and help IR, it ultimately comes across as dumb when he's talking into his watch, which is something brought up an unnecessary amount of times, yes, talking into your watch makes you look mad, but we are burdened with knowledge, we know he's not mad, he's talking to the Thunderbirds, and for me, for whatever reason, that comes across as more frustrating than funny. I did however laugh at the scene with the psychiatrist, that was pretty funny. Finally, I really like this episode's rescue, and the ending of the situation with the rocket is really cool. All in all I had a lot of fun with this episode, it's got some sweet tension, and a great situation with a great rescue, though a sub plot with Brains does get on my nerves a tiny bit, I'd say it's still worth checking out.

Rough seas

I've been browsing my library from Tenby, and I picked out a few that I like. so here we have a guy overlooking the view from the walkway on St Catherine's rock, a fairly scenic photo, I think. then a more visually interesting photo from Caldey of the lighthouse, it's a shame bad weather was coming in when I took this one, a bluer sky would have made this photo much better, then another from Caldey, this time on the beach, I like this photo quite a bit. finally we have one taken from the Harbour during the highest tide I've ever seen in my life, the sea was pretty rough that day, and those boats don't look to be having fun. so 4 more photos from Tenby, like I said, hundreds, plenty to fall back on, enjoy.

Halo 5 Guardians spoiler review

Like I said in my game review for Halo 5, I actively stayed away from this game coming up to release, I saw the e3 demo and some trailers, but I wanted to be as blind as possible, the same applies to my review, I stayed away from other people's opinion on the game so my review could be purely my opinions and thoughts, I really enjoyed the game, and I gave it a very good review, but now lets go into some spoilers, and see more of what I liked and go into a few things I didn't like as much.

First off, Jul 'Mdama went out pretty quick, I mean seriously, for such an important figure in the Covenant, and for him to die in a cutscene at the end of mission 1, I find it a bit weak. If you never played Spartan Ops, which is completely understandable since it was crap, you may not understand why Halsey only has 1 arm now, or who 'Mdama is. That's something I personally really liked, but I can understand why others wouldn't like it, this game is not nice to people new to the series, and I don't just mean games, I mean web series', comics, books, if you don't have a decent grasp on the Halo universe, you'll be pretty lost. Now I was cool with this, but if you only play the games, I understand why you'd have no idea what an Unggoy is. In that though there is a bit of an issue I have, which is while trivial Halo knowledge is a bit whatever, more important stuff like the fate of the Didact are not mentioned, which isn't exactly great since he was Halo 4's main villain, how he actually died is shown in the Halo Escalation comic, but if you didn't read Escalation you wouldn't know that. Something I really don't get in Halo 5 is something I didn't mention in my game review, which is Cortana, after dying at the end of Halo 4, is somehow still alive in Halo 5. The reason they give is she was uploaded to the domain, which I'm guessing is some kind of Forerunner internet, but not only did it save her, it somehow magically cured her rampancy and made her immortal, I feel like that really takes away the punch from her death in Halo 4, because I loved that scene, and now it meant nothing, and it does seem like 343 just hit the undo button after killing off a very popular character. On the flip side, what I like was the parallel they draw with her and Halsey in this game, that they're both justifying evil acts for the greater good, for Halsey it was creating the Spartans, and for Cortana it's assuming the Mantle of responsibility, I really like that they did this. The Mantle, from what I know, is on paper a great system where the holder of the Mantle is in charge of keeping the galaxy safe and at peace, but in reality it's a tyranny, stunting the technological and cultural development of subordinate planets or races. And that is what Cortana and the Warden plan to do in Halo 5, maintain peace in the galaxy through oppression and control, a goal that will be achieved with the Guardians, the enforcers of the Mantle, used to keep lower races in line. I'm not entirely sure Cortana is corrupted, since she's effectively a clone of Halsey, and thinks that what she's doing is right, even when it's clearly not right. On that note, I don't know what to make of Cortana being the game's villain, I've been able to justify it in my head by remembering what Aaron Eckhart said in The Dark Knight, "you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain," but it still seems odd to me that Cortana, of all Halo characters, is now a bad guy, come on, it's Cortana. I just, while writing this, had a thought, in Halo 4 she told Chief that he'd be paired with another AI after she dies, the words she used, "it won't be me," what if that was also an address to the player, a hint that if she did return she wouldn't be the same Cortana, holy shit that was right, now there's a thought.

Halo 5 had some great marketing, but it was wasted, since the marketing really poorly represents the game itself. We were told that Halo 5 would be the epic hunt for Master Chief, "the greatest hunt in gaming history," but the hunt is a really small part of the game, it's Chief goes AWOL, Locke is sent to get him, holy shit Cortana's alive, lets deal with her, the hunt is actually a really small part of the game, I'm not really fussed by this, but this game's marketing was complete bull, you know those great trailers with the Chief statue and 2 perspectives, that was really cool, and it wasn't in the game at all. Like I said in my game review, neither playable character are vilified, but with Cortana's true plan being kept quiet until pretty much the end of the game, it's cool that you don't really know for sure where Chief's loyalty lies, does he know that she's dangerous, or will he take her side. I do however think it's a bit sad that we never see what I was expecting, which was Osiris and Blue team joining forces in battle, in fact for the last mission of the game Chief is locked inside a cryptum, a giant ball that's also kind of like a prison cell. now for some less important spoilers, in Halo 5 you visit some pretty sweet locations, including lots and lots and lots of forerunner structures, but you also visit a glassed UNSC colony, which is pretty eerie when you think about it, but for some reason that mission really reminded me of Borderlands. and you visit Sanghelios, I was so excited to finally visit Sanghelios in a Halo game, and I adored finally getting to walk around and see for myself one of the coolest and most interesting planets in the Halo universe. While on Sanghelios you see some stunning ancient ruins, admire the rocky desert landscape, and of course, take part in the battle of Sunaion, which is one of my favourite missions in the game. I really loved the battle of Sunaion, it was just a fun mission, and when you consider the context, it being the last great Covenant stronghold on Sanghelios, it feels like a very important mission, but there's something about it I'll get onto later that I didn't quite like. But then there's Genesis, which in addition to being a beautiful planet, is one that isn't really explained, from what I gathered it's a bridge between the domain and the physical world, I'm guessing it's also some kind of control centre for the Guardians, since it's where Cortana takes them all, but really I don't know much about Genesis, which is a shame, because it's a really cool planet.

But now for what I really don't like, this game's bullshit cliff hanger ending. The problem with it is how it leaves so many very important story threads hanging, with no resolution. First off the smaller ones. The war on Sanghelios, we never learn if the attack on Sunaion was a success, I can assume it was, but the game never gives a clear end to the battle, only that the Arbiter survived. So is the war still going on or is Sanghelios free from the Covenant now, the game never says. Like I said, we don't really learn what Genesis is, we don't learn how Chief and Locke deal with one another after kind of defeating Cortans. But what I really hate about the ending is that in the end, Cortana leaves Genesis with her Guardians and starts attacking human planets, we don't know what happens next because the game doesn't tell us what happens next. She attacks the Infinity with a Guardian and the Infinity jumps into slip space and runs away, with nothing else explained, Infinity is now on the run. Chief, Locke, Arbiter and Halsey are all reunited on Sanghelios, but we see literally nothing other than a Pelican landing and everyone getting back together and Halsey getting all teary eyed. The game's ending isn't an ending, there is no resolution with any of it's major story threads. I've never been bothered by Halo 2's ending because I've always had Halo 3 to dive right into, but this is shit, because when's Halo 6 coming out, 2017, 2018, that's 2 or 3 years where we get no resolution on this game's ending. I hate cliff hanger endings as a principal, I can cope with them on TV shows, but with movies and games they're just fucking infuriating. There's this thing called hype 343, and what you must realise is hype isn't permanent, this ending will piss people off, and with 2 or 3 more years before the next Halo game people just forget about this game's story, you show off Halo 6 and people are already burned out, hype burns out a lot faster now, which is the fault of society, but that's another rant for another time, doesn't change the fact that people like me who crave Halo for it's single player will be annoyed and casual players will just say fuck it and burn out on the multiplayer or migrate to Blops or Battlefront when they release. As someone who loves Halo 5, Halo 5's ending pisses me off, real good, and I know 343 can do better.

So those are my more in depth thoughts on Halo 5, it's cool story, interesting character choices, fun locations, and terrible god awful ending, like I say, I love this game, I like it's story, it's characters, and I think it's huge fun to play, but now hopefully you have a better understanding of my stance on the game, I hope I haven't bored you.