Kasabian - Velociraptor! Review

If the music industry needs one thing, it’s stereotypes. For every Radiohead that evolves with each album which leads fans into a uninhibited frenzy of curiosity and intrigue and for every Lady Gaga who’s manufactured yet unpredictable, kooky persona leaves journalists wondering what she’ll do next in terms of dressing up rather than actual musical quality, there needs to be a counterbalance in terms of predictability to keep the world from self-destructing…or something.

Point being; for years Oasis was the staple of echoing every stereotype imaginable under the rock and roll banner, proudly exclaiming the copious amounts of drugs taken, the infighting, the banter which could be used for an excuse of why they hadn’t produced a decent album from 1995 all the way to 2008.

But now Oasis is gone and Beady Eye are shambolic, Noel’s solo efforts thus far sounds good and downplayed which is possibly the best combination he could use for promotion and Viva Brother’s debut was so terrible, it matched Glasvegas in terms of unoriginal, puerile rubbish.

So it falls on Primal Scream cover band Kasabian to remind us what we’re missing out on. That the self proclaimed “last rock and roll band” can still remind us that creating music with guitars needs to be equalled with quotes the press can use to keep you in the public eye…I mean, show your well ‘ard and fuck the University Challenge bands because they’re all cunts!

Ok, ok, harshness aside, I like Kasabian and I don’t mean I just like their singles. I fount them to be a consistently solid if slightly samey band with some great stand-out tracks which incorporated great guitar riffs and atmospheric electronic soundscapes and even album tracks such as The Doberman, West Ryder/Silver Bullet and Stuntman proved the band could do more than simple 3-4 minute tracks with the same verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus formula.

So when Velociraptor! (which probably wins the award for album title that should have been used years ago) was announced, I was looking forward to it because if Kasabian could guarantee anything; it would be an album that had possibly one or two fantastic singles and possibly a few tracks that wouldn’t suit airplay but would suit random playlists and further cement Kasabian as a band that deserved to trump it’s own horn without the sniggering and disdain Oasis earned.

But alas, the inevitable comedown has arrived and boy howdy, it’s not so much a fall from grace; but a plummet from the highest plane on to a school of orphaned children.

Opening track Let’s Roll Like We Used To begins with French horns and random groans before going into a track that’s part Austin Powers, part Britpop. It’s a decent track with a good hook for a chorus and probably one of the album’s stronger moments but it pales compared to the preceding album’s opening numbers.

Lead single Days Are Forgotten follows up with a drum and bassline straight out of The Stones Roses back catalogue and would have been far better if they just trimmed the excessive fat and added a bit more variation. At over five minutes, it goes on for far too long despite the early intrigue and is one of the few songs to have a better radio edit than the original album version.

Goodbye Kiss is the popiest track on the entire record featuring themes similar to Where Did All the Love Go?. Strings and easy on the ears guitar, it’s one of the more accessible tracks and goes on for just long enough without outstaying it’s welcome.

La Fée Verte comes next as a love letter to The Beatles with lyrics nodding to Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and other vivid imagery. It’s nothing new as it’s basically Where Did All the Love Go? again but with the Lennon/McCartney influence notched over 9000. It’s out of place on the record but one of the only decent stand alone song’s if once again, far, far too long.

Title track Velociraptor! is short, lyrically plain and nothing new on an album which can’t find it’s ground. Think Last Trip on Empire with samples of electronic drums but lacking the hard rock edge.

Acid Turkish Bath (Shelter from the Storm) marks the midpoint of the album with strings and loud drums at the beginning before fading into something that wouldn’t sound out of place on The Boxer Rebellion’s latest album. It eventually changes back and forth through different samples and different themes, but it only comes across as confused and at six minutes, like Days Are Forgotten, it’s a needlessly long song that attempts to mix epicness with track length and fails.

I Hear Voices takes us into the second half of the album. Consisting of a synth which sounds like a left over from Kasabian’s first album (and of all things; Red Weed from Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds), an electronic drum beat and a steady bass. It’s a song that seems to fall back on lyrics which Kasabian have never really been acclaimed for and is average at best.

Re-wired is a generic rock and roll number with more boring lyrics, a bridge with more French horns but screams for something big and bombastic to fill the time and goes through the same formula of rinse and repeat way beyond the bearable point. Just when you think it’s over, it goes into a random string section which while nice, sounds like a desperate plea to justify wasting five minutes of your life.

Man of Simple Pleasures is basically Re-wired again but lacks the string section and instead goes to simple song formula mentioned earlier. Relatively harmless but ultimately pointless.

I wasn’t a fan of Switchblade Smiles when I first heard it but on the record, it sounds much better. Not because it all finally comes together and suits the back drop the other tracks had established but because compared to all but a few moments preceding it, it sounds interesting and grabs your attention.

In short, the meaner, synth filled relative to Vlad the Impaler with an excellent bassline and loud electronic drums. In retrospective, if the album was made of eleven of these, I’d be complaining that although it’d be samey, the album would at least be entertaining.

Neon Noon finishes the album with a sombre acoustic guitar, a synth solo that sounds suspiciously like Pinch Roller (which for you fact hunters, is one of my favourite Kasabian tracks) and finally adds drums to make another song that’s part Beatles for vocals, part Primal Scream and again, part Jeff Wayne. Altogether; a slow fade out that once again, goes on for ages for reasons unknown.

See, I never thought I’d say this but; Velociraptor!’s biggest flaw is it’s boring. It’s one of the most mind-numbingly boring records of the year. The band that has Club Foot, Shoot the Runner, Fire and Reason is Treason under its proud belt have somehow made a record that has few highs but stays relatively shy, slow and worst of all; generic.

It’s a new sound that doesn’t suit the band and for all the swagger going into the record, it simply doesn’t hold up. Tracks go on for too long at a snail’s pace, out of context and on their own they don’t hold a candle to previous hits, there’s a distinct lack of decent riffs to break up the mediocrity and for a band that can’t fall back on ingenious lyrics which makes the music all the more important, it’s simply not good enough.

It’s nice to see the band branch out to new horizons and they deserve credit for at least trying something new, but as an album, it fails miserably. It’s an album that should have incorporated the stereotypes of rock and roll in one glorious package to stand against albums that are weird for the sake of being weird but instead, like the album’s namesake; it’s an uninspiring, insignificant little animal that’s been blown way out of proportion.

4/10

H

Hard-Fi - Killer Sounds Review

It seems like a dog's age since Stars of CCTV unleashed itself from it's humble and troubled beginnings in a taxi office turned recording studio. A modern day record that told the world that it was off to cause trouble and we should embrace it's loutish behaviour like the docile parents we were and treat it's pitiful attempts at love and fun as a rites of passage with the backdrop of loud and stupidly addictive indie rock. To me, it was one of the best debut albums of the past decade and even now, I still think of it as a benchmark for a debut album for a band that get's hyped to buggery by the NME.

Two years later, Hard-Fi's follow up album did everything possibly wrong to make sure it would also be a benchmark for how not to do a second album. Once Upon a Time in the West was basically more of the same, but lacked the surprises and staggering punch of it's predecessor. Although focused on an individual sound of basically watering down The Clash's back catalogue, it had too much filler compared to the single-heavy, almost pop album approach of CCTV, it reached it's peak around the second song and had possibly the most pretentious, mind-bongingly awful cover art ever made.

To many, this was the self-proclaimed Staines' finest death kneel and another example of bands hitting it big and then crashing and burning with the follow-up album. So, it comes as a somewhat strange situation where Hard-Fi's third album, the almost laughably pretentiously titled Killer Sounds finds itself on the shelves with no massive single, relatively no hype and no rubbish art work.

It's strange because after the way OUaTinW flopped so bad critically. the band could have upped sticks and tried something completely new and, to it's credit, Killer Sounds is nothing like it's forefathers. Gone are the social observations of a wider community for a return to some of CCTV's formula of your average loutish twenty-something, lovestruck and violent. The Ennio Morricone blended indie rock stylings have been replaced with Africana beats, synths and sampling.

it is, like Stars of CCTV, attempting to make an album of singles rather than tracks that would only work on an album with a unique theme. Stand out tracks Fire in the House, Give It Up, Bring It On and Excitement would have made ideal summer songs had they not been released so late in the season. They're stupidly catchy with some excellent drumming and basslines, short on meaningful lyrics and easy on the ears. In fact, minus the disappointing opener Good for Nothing, for the first four tracks, it's clear the album is a step-up and might be one of the surprises of the year.

Then it keeps going and somehow, beneath the party atmosphere and euphoria, it stagnates. It's difficult to tell when exactly the dreaded boredom takes hold and for brief blemishes, the album gets good again; like a friend buying you a Jägerbomb on a night out where the music has gone from good to cheese and the only thing you've pulled is a Chupa Chup from the urinal.

By the time the title tracks finishes the album (which oddly takes a step backwards in time and now feels incredibly out of place), it's only then you notice that the album feels like a jumbled mess with no structure. What initially sounded fun is now like trying to piece together what was so good before. And like all records, you'll give it another listen, embrace the good and await to get past the bad before finally selecting only three or four tracks for your iPod whilst forgetting the rest.

On the whole, Killer Sounds is ok. I feel as if I've given it a hard time when there is far worse out there. But, as embarrassing at it sounds, I liked Hard-Fi years ago and as mentioned before, I love Stars of CCTV. I was willing and hoping something great would come from four years of being out of the limelight but instead, Killer Sounds is the archetype of confusion being the byproduct of an album.

On occasion it works and when it does work, it works an absolute treat. As mentioned before, there's some very good tracks on here which rank up there with Stars of CCTV and I Shall Overcome and on the whole, it's a better record than OUaTinW.

But when it doesn't, it falters, it crashes, it burns and worse of all; it bores. It's worth a listen if you still like the band but, predictably, it pales in comparison to their debut and will only provide further ammunition for those who couldn't stand the band back in 2005 and wonder why this brand of 'Lads Rock' did so well in the first place.


6/10

H

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part Two Review

Lets get this out of the way; reviewing Harry Potter is as useless as a chocolate teapot because lets face it, you’re either in Camp A: The large, vocal and rabid fanbase whose admiration for Harry and chums can range from playful fanboyism to the terrifying depths and depravity of slash fiction authors.

Or you’re in Camp B: People who sneer and roll their eyes at the thought of the most successful series of books for the past twenty years being the mind-numbingly simple yet overwrought tale of good versus evil which has somehow been accepted into the world of adult adulation and said books have now also become the highest grossing film series of all time.

But avoiding the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part Two is avoiding the proverbial elephant in the room. It is, as mentioned earlier, the highest grossing film series ever and yes, I not only have seen each film (in a marathon session with the missus prior to this review), I fount them to be relatively decent (despite only reading half of Prisoner of Azkaban as a youngster and being bored to tears).

And it slightly pains me to say this but; Deathly Hallows Part Two is the best summer blockbuster of 2011.

Beginning immediately after the events of Part One, Part Two continues Harry, Ron and Hermione’s quest to destroy Voldemort’s splintered soul and save the wizard and real world from his evil clutches. That’s the film’s plot in its simplest terms but obviously for the sake of time, I’m not going to explain how Daniel Radcliffe’s seven year education at Boarding School and Ralph Fiennes and co wanting to take over the world tie together (tl:dr; Wikipedia it!).

So naturally this being the final entry of a long running series; Deathly Hallows Part Two has the “joy” of not only wrapping up the story in a nice neat bow but also explaining any long running plot threads with a cohesive and satisfying conclusion. Normally, this is where said finale falls out of flavour with fanbase/audience as it can never live up to expectation.

But Deathly Hallows Part Two somehow does, partly due to the original source material being split into two films therefore giving Warner Brothers more revenue…I mean, allow the story to breath and not feel constricted to time restraints. Although the more hardcore Harry Potter fans still might be annoyed that “said character didn’t do such and such”, Deathly Hallows Part Two for the casual fan covers all the major bases and gives a satisfying conclusion to all the major character arcs.

It also addresses one of the biggest criticisms with Part One which was rightly summed up as “the one in the woods”. Part One was a necessary story in the long run but didn’t make action packed viewing. It was a build-up which crammed in some last minute character development and showed the effects and strains of the story on individuals rather than the world at whole.

Part Two however goes all LotR on us with huge, encompassing and visually stunning battles. Although no longer innovative as nearly every historical film has utilised some form of crowd capturing, but what helps is the audience’s attachment to the established setting and the characters involved. Ok, it helps that the film has a few moments of innovation (although as strange as it sounds, we’ve all seen large trolls knocking people off bridges), it’s the story that makes the action all the more exciting.

However, by far the best moments in the film are the intimate character moments. To avoid spoilers, the resolutions of two characters in particular (who you’ll know about when actually seeing the film) may potentially choke you up by playing on the emotions of unrequited love and the idea of death being something to acknowledge rather than fear.

It’s these moments where you can see why the series has become such a juggernaut but at the same time, when it all boils down to it, the story is relatively simple. You can argue that accusing a children’s story for lacking depth in terms of characterisation is about as easy as it gets but the fact the story boils down to good versus evil in such simple contrasts of black and white and where the only character with a shade of grey sticks out like another annotation lacking creativity in this review, one wonders why something like Harry Potter succeeds where others fail.

But if Michael Bay has taught as anything; story means nothing in the big picture. Visually, Deathly Hallows Part Two continues the grey and miserable setting established in Part One to evoke the enveloping evil that has spread across the land and credit to Warner Bros for allowing David Yates to continue his previously established motifs made with his previous three entries to the series. Composer Alexander Desplat returns from Deathly Hallows Part One and continues where Williams and Hooper left off with reimaginings of previous themes and creating sombre and dark themes that suit the picture.

Special effects are non-surprising but at least consistent with the tone of the film. The 3D is surprisingly effective and unlike other films, is not particularly distracting. I feel strange for saying this, but if you’re a fan of the previous films, definitely see this one in 3D as it does heighten the experience.

The principle players after have come along way since the almost farcical debuts in Philosopher's Stone and one can only hope they don’t find themselves typecast as wizards for the rest of eternity. The adult cast’s all star line-up are undeniably great and seem to have a lot of fun revelling in their roles. Ralph Fiennes in particular steals the show as the terrifying Voldemort which is made all the more frustrating as, like the previous films; only his presence is consistent, the character himself appears sporadically but when he does, it’s always memorable.

On the whole, after nearly nine hundred words, this review is pointless as you’ve no doubt already seen Deathly Hallows Part Two several times judging by it’s profit intake or mocked said individuals for giving this over-hyped drivel your precious monies.

Jumping on at this point is relatively pointless as the film is a pretty if very confusing tale which lacks any emotional punch and will show the film’s plot for all it’s simplicity despite going on for eight films.

For fans of the series, the accolade of “the best one” sums up Deathly Hallows Part Two nicely. It wraps up the story in a satisfying way, has a lot of great action and special effects and whilst no doubt lacking a few bits and pieces from the book, it’s as good as a Harry Potter adaptation on the big screen will ever get.

…Until the inevitable reboot takes place. Don’t say I didn’t warn you kids.

8/10 (for fans of the series)

6/10 – (for everyone else)

H

Blood Orange - Coastal Grooves Review

Dev Hynes’ repertoire has taken us from noise punk with Test Icicles (a band apparently ahead of it’s time) and Lightspeed Champion; a self confessed experimental project where Hynes can combine catchy folk tunes with lyrics that go from terrible hangovers to playing The Legend of Zelda.

After spending last year wallowing in self pity due to some unfortunate critical bashing (Life is Sweet! Nice to Meet You was for me, one of the best records of 2010), producing Diane Vickers new album, hanging out with Solange Knowles and Jay-Z, Hynes has still found time to release his debut album under new banner Blood Orange; which after two years of sporadic demos has finally seen full releases of several old favourites and new songs.

Captain America: The First Avenger Review

As we reach the final hurdle of preludes before Marvel unleash their tag team of Superhero movies to combat the incoming threat of a dark knight who might rise, one has to wonder; why has it taken nearly seventy years for a big budget version of Captain America to finally hit screens?

Excluding the Reb Brown TV specials which saw Cap battle Christopher Lee (which is not as fun as it sounds) and the 1990 debacle so bad it went unreleased for two years; Cap’s exploits of punching Hitler, battling the Red Skull and terrorists with possibly the strangest greeting since, well, the heil Hitler, Cap hasn’t been exactly a glowing example of Superheroics on the big screen.

This leads us back to The Avengers next year and our final member of the ensemble. We’ve already had Iron Man, we’ve had The Incredible Hulk re-imagined and even Thor, but where does Captain America: The First Avenger fit into this and, more importantly; does it attempt anything different from Marvel’s previous introduction films to its Avengers?

Beginning in modern day Alaska, excavators have discovered something trapped in the Ice which leads us on a flash back to 1942 where a weedy Steve Rogers (played by Chris Evans in his fourth comic book based movie) desperately wants to join the army to battle the Nazi as they’re bullies and bullies suck. He meets a German scientist who takes an interest in using him for a super soldier serum which if you read the title of the film, would know how that turns out.

Meanwhile, Johann Schmidt (played by go-to bad guy Hugo Weaving) uncovers a powerful-almost cosmic cube (hint, hint) which he hopes to use for HYDRA’s war efforts (HYDRA being a terrorist force even Hitler finds a bit too much). During the film, Schmidt reveals himself as a subject of an earlier form of the serum and uses the alias the Red Skull to, I guess advance HYDRA to the role of World War II's true villains.

Cap’s rag tag team of freedom fighters battle The Red Skull’s HYDRA (complete with weapons stolen from District 9) over the course of the war with numerous explosions and long jumps before concluding to explain how Cap could be in a team of heroes if he was at his prime in the forties.

So yes, nearly all the movie (minus the bookends) takes place during World War II which makes a welcome change to the modern day setting of every superhero movie ever made and credit to director Joe Johnson for delivering a picture where despite the insane premise of a man dressed as the american flag being the front runner of a war and disintegrating weapons amongst other things, it actually looks like World War II. In fact, there's a scene where Cap and crew battle HYDRA in a snowy wilderness where I was expecting Easy Company to be supporting them (it didn't help that Neal McDonough was on Cap's side but hey ho). It's a welcome change and helps differentiate Cap's origins from his Avenger colleagues.

However, for those following the Marvel tie-in's to The Avengers next year, it's pretty much by the numbers now. The film introduces a member, shows him saving the world from an iconic villain from his back catalogue (less so on Iron Man for both movies) before Samuel L Jackson shows up to hype an incoming team-up and we get another tie-in to the next film in sequence (although in Cap's case, it's an actual teaser rather than something discovered that's tied to someone else).

It's not necessarily bad as, minus Iron Man 2, this formula has worked. The problem with Captain America is that it's a relatively safe picture that could have been truly great, but instead is simply good. It starts off well introducing Rogers as the "never say die" hero that embodies the American spirit despite his frail form but when Rogers becomes a key weapon in the battle against HYDRA, we get a few montages, a lot of explosions and are left to imagine all of the incredible battles that took place before the inevitable final showdown against the Red Skull.

This is half good as unlike Thor, there's a feasible amount of time for the character's to develop (case in point, Captain America takes place over the course of months if not years whilst Thor's journey of discovery took place over three days), but on the flipside, the middle feels like one long montage which throws out a lot of action, but doesn't really explain why it happens and it seems to go on forever. It's basically the opposite of Iron Man 2 but this is a much more feasible error; at least there's something happening rather than being told things will happen and then fleetingly passing it over for more of the boring plot.

By the time the third act comes back and brings the audience back to reality from the explosions, the film returns to the highs of the first act and just does enough to recover interest. The ending doesn't really explain why Cap survives in ice for seventy years whilst other people simply die from the cold but it's a nice lead-in for The Avengers.

There's not really a lot to fault minus the middle act being a bit too fillerfied and the 3D being useless (like Thor, watch it in 2D and fully immerse yourself rather than 3D and playing "spot the special effect"). Minus that, Captain America: The First Avenger is more of the same of Iron Man and Thor. It has a great cast (not mentioned in the review, but watch out for Tommy Lee Jones who more or less plays himself which is always fun), some good action sequences and does enough to make it a good (if relatively safe) popcorn flick to introduce a principle player in The Avengers next year.

7/10

H

Retcon-Nation's Top Ten Games and Hardware of E3 (Excluding the Wii U)

We at Retcon-Nation are gamers and like all gamers, we looked at e3 with an ever critical eye, hoping to discover the next big thing or more information on titles on the horizon. With e3 over for another year, here is our (that's mine and Reece's) top ten titles and hardware from this year (excluding the Wii U as it was far too obvious).

Starting with mine:

10

Forza 4

After the dust settled and Gran Turismo 5 proved to be one of the best punchlines in video game history (only now toppled with Duke Nukem Forever seeing release), all eyes were on the Forza series which has suddenly fount itself the forerunner of the racing simulation genre.

The fourth in the series sees your standard upgrade of more cars, tracks and tweaks that only true racing enthusiasts will notice (which doesn’t include me, my racing games are more centred on Mario Kart), the game also adds Microsoft’s Kinect in a unique way to view cars and controller free steering but also allows the custom paint modifications from Forza 3 (the mode which you can make money from) to be imported over to the new version.

It’s one of the only titles that I as a PS3 owner look in cautious optimism. Can it truly be an actual game that has worthy Kinect features and if so, what would the future hold for the system otherwise?

9

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Before Mass Effect proved that RPG’s could have a deep, engrossing story that didn’t have anime eyed school children save the world from Satan, Bioware’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series was a spectacular affair.

Set thousands of years before the prequel trilogies, the game dealt with the on-going Sith and Jedi war on numerous worlds with interesting characters, surprisingly fun combat and enough shocking plot twists to keep the story engaging for all forty of so hours of play (these traits being thankfully carried into the Mass Effect series).

Well this year, Bioware attempts to topple World of Warcraft dominance with an MMORPG of its own. Set several centuries after the events of KOTOR II, The Old Republic may finally offer Star Wars fans the chance to be involved in the Star Wars universe (a decade after Sony previously failed with Star Wars Galaxy).

Incorporating the combat from the original titles along with role swapping to allow teams to balance out for future quests amongst other things, Bioware has a potential monster on its hands and I’ll be very interested to see how it plays out. Let’s just hope its more Original Trilogy then Prequels.


8

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Every year the hype train begins to gain momentum and with a increasingly more successful backlog of chart topping and record breaking titles, Activision’s Call of Duty franchise reaches a third iteration with it’s Modern Warfare series.

Whilst Modern Warfare 2 was an engorged and poorly told story with a multiplayer mode full of broken mechanics that didn’t enhance anything and simply failed to build on its predecessor, its sequel, the first not developed by Infinity Ward hopes to keep the series going and not turn the series into a dead horse.

While I remain cautious at the title (as I was with Black Ops), like an battered housewife, I see myself helplessly jumping on board to try and rekindle the fantastic time I had with the original Modern Warfare. It has a lot to live up to and a hell of a competition against one particular title on the list, but this being Call of Duty, anything is possible.

7

Super Mario 3D

Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel are modern day masterpieces and the prospect of a 3D iteration with more ties to the original NES and SNES titles is wank fodder for Nintendo fanboys.

Colourful visuals, 3D actually enhancing the title to make jumps easier rather than being a hindrance and a return of several powerups including the much loved/insane Tanuki suit, the 3DS may finally have a killer app, that isn’t a remake of an N64 title.

6

Playstation Vita

The original PSP was too early for it’s time, it lacked big titles and was mainly used as a source for homebrew and emulation. Sony’s next portable hardware plans to up the ante and well, it just might.

A slightly different piece of equipment with two analogue sticks for true 3D gaming, a high quality screen offering the best visuals for a portable system, touchscreen and augmented reality controls on the back of the system to give a more immersive control system, triple A titles such as Uncharted and LittleBigPlanet and a relatively decent price, expect big things from the Vita and hope it doesn’t lose momentum like the PSP before it.

5

Battlefield 3

Whilst MW3 has a multi million dollar advertising campaign and over half a decade of huge titles to fall back on, EA’s Battlefield series may finally become the number one FPS game to earn in 2011 with it’s third entry to the main series.

Whilst it’s single player mode can be acknowledged for lacking the Hollywood gloss that Activision gives COD, Battlefield 3’s multiplayer mode, expanding on the previous entries in the series, could well be a trump card this winter. Vehicles, destructible environments, actual team based deathmatches that require teamwork and superior graphics, only time will tell if this can finally topple COD’s grip on the FPS and that time is a short 3 months away.

4

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations

Brotherhood ended on a huge cliff-hanger and thank Xenu that the wait for the final part in the Ezio trilogy is resolved this Christmas.

Featuring a new locale, the return of Altair from the original, enhanced multiplayer and if the game’s e3 trailer and gameplay is go by, fans will have another fantastic entry into the series, before the eagerly awaited third title arrives with in the next year or possibly in time for a new console launch.

3

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Whilst Nintendo’s big unveiling of the Wii U was the talk of e3, credit has to go to its own fanbase for not losing more of their minds in the wait for Skyward Sword.

Unveiled back in 2008 when the Wii was becoming the derided, shovelware spoilt dust collector it remained up until this day, Skyward Sword was Nintendo’s big attempt at not only demonstrating its new equipment in the form of the Motion Plus but also as an attempt to show it’s hardcore gamers that it still remembered them from the dark days of the Gamecube.

Well we’re nearing what is again promised the definitive release date with slightly more information. We know there’ll be flying, we know there’s a new villain and we know the sword fighting has been updated to be like, you know, actual sword fighting.

Much like Twilight Princess being the swan-song for the Gamecube, Skyward Sword approaches at the end of the Wii’s lifecycle and it’ll be interesting to see if the fifth incarnation in 3D can reinvent the series for sceptics and keep the fans happy. This being Nintendo, expect more of the latter and less of the former but hey, at least it’ll finally be out.

2

Uncharted 3

The Playstation 3’s darling franchise releases it’s third entry to much hype and anticipation and it’s little wonder why. The original; a short but relatively sweet debut featured relatively decent gameplay and at the time, gorgeous visuals.

Two years later, developers Naughty Dog took the imperfections of Drake’s Fortune and created a modern masterpiece in Among Thieves. A longer, more emotional story, even better graphics, touched up gameplay mechanics and a surprisingly fun multiplayer option made the title Game of the Year for many.

Two years from then, Drake returns this Christmas with the prospect of another rip roaring adventure. Plot details have remained thin but the stunning trailers have hyped up a must have title for all PS3 owners this year. Even better visuals, touched up gameplay including better hand to hand combat and more multiplayer modes including co-op, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is a safe pick for GOTY in a year where several triple A titles battle it out in Q4.

1

Batman: Arkham City

To say Arkham Asylum was a surprisingly good title is like saying Avatar had a decent box office intake. It may have taken several years, but British developer Rocksteady did the impossible and created a great Batman game.

Two years on, they plan to deliver a sequel which truly encapsulates the idea of a sequel; make it bigger and better than the original. Taking place a year after the events of Arkham Asylum, the slums of Gotham have been cordoned off by new Mayor Sharpe who let’s the inmates run wild in a sprawling section of pure crime.

Players take control again of The Dark Knight as he battles with old adversaries The Joker and The Riddler but making their debuts to the series Two Face, Hugo Strange, the Penguin and many, many more.

Featuring a huge open world environment with new gadgets, new abilities and a side story involving Catwoman, Arkham City could well be the best Comic Adaptation ever for a home console, if it can hopefully surpass it’s incredible predecessor and is my game of e3 2011.



And last but certainly not least, Reece's list:

10. Star Wars Kinect

- Considering we will probably never get a game where we will actually hold a Lightsabre makes this game look pretty nifty. Kinect is something that I am still sceptical about but if this years E3 showed anything it’s that MS are looking to expand and bring some big titles to the platform. SW:K looks fun, time will tell but it’s the only game on Kinect that’s actually made me consider getting myself the hardware.

09. Star Wars: The Old Republic

- Another Star Wars game?! Well yes, being a huge fan of the first KOTOR I was intrigued to hear they would be turning this into a MMORPG, games that I vowed to never ever play and still retain that vow.

This game however looks decent, the rendered cut scenes they have been showing us for months have all looked impressive, E3 was a good chance to see some game play and it didn’t look all that bad, I was impressed with the scope and the attention to the Star Wars universe, but at the end of the day it really is just more money in the beardy gits pocket isn’t it?

08. Playstation Vita

- Portable gaming isn’t really my thing, I’ll leave the 3DS to the 12 year old Japanese girls and their Nintendogs but the PSP was a great portable when it was first released and I had some really great train journeys with it. This new incarnation of that device looks brilliant and some of the game play footage shown for games such as Uncharted looks utterly brilliant. 3G models are on the way also so portable gaming looks like it is going into the future in a big way.

07. Uncharted 3

- I don’t own a PS3 myself, but if I did buy one it would be for the Uncharted series, they always look good fun and when I saw what’s coming up for UC3 well I was very impressed. It will certainly be a GOTY contender if not winner, but I think it will be trumped by a few other games.

Not taking away from this game and the series, they are top notch games that I will be playing properly one of these days instead of sitting in some ones bedroom getting used to the PS3 controller again. If I was a PS3 user chances are this would be my #1 but I’m not so live with it!

06. The Legend of Zelda: The Skyward Sword

- Ah Zelda, since OOT hit us for 6 on the N64 the games have taken a great turn and they are always good fun, I wasn’t a huge fan of Twilight Princess but it had its moments. This game however looked great in the footage shown, they don’t seem to be straying too far from the 3D view that was birthed with OOT but the visuals looked great and hopefully they can do some better with the Wii motion controls than TP did.

Zelda still has a lot to offer us gamers and with the Wii-U coming soon I think this could be the start of some good titles for the series.

05. Hitman Absolution

- The Hitman franchise is a personal favourite of mine, now I know little game play was shown to the public at E3, there was however some very detailed accounts of the private showings so this still counts! Also there’s bit and pieces on youtube. Since Blood Money we have heard hardly anything about a new addition to the HM series, a series that in my opinion is fantastic. Well now we have news, Agent 47 is back and looks like he’s had some changes to his mechanics, more emphasis on the action and it looks like 47 is much more of a hunted man this time around.

The game play shown of him being hunted by multiple police officers looked great as did the new cover system. The visuals don’t look all that much improved over Blood Money (which still remains one of my favourite games) but there is a lot of work to do and I think we have a great game on our hands. I can’t wait.

04. Bioshock: Infinite

- The Bioshock games so far have been up and down, the first game developed by Irrational Games was nothing short of a masterpiece.

Ken Levine who writes and develops the story knows his onions and the man who created Rapture has now created Columbia, a city in the sky. Bioshock 2 was a respectable addition to the series but to some hardcore fans Infinite is the real successor to the first game considering Irrational had nothing to do with BS2.

The visuals look great, the game play looks intense; an important part of the BS universe. Not much on the story has been revealed and only small tidbits about the new incarnation of the Big Daddies have surfaced but the game looks utterly brilliant at the moment. The new tonics look fun and it looks like we will be waiting for a while longer for more big details.

They announced this game last year with a 2012 release date, which for me was too soon considering they had trailers and game play to show us last year already, but the hype is building and this game has GOTY contender written all over it.

03. Assassins Creed Revelations

- When it comes to games I only ask for a few things, have a great story and great game play, not much to ask I think.

The story of AC1 was great, it hooked me in but the game play was never quite there, that all changed with AC2 and then AC: Brotherhood came along as added even more to the mix. It seems the same can be said for Revelations, the next instalment in a fantastic series. We are on a cliff-hanger from AC:B and we are told that this game will reveal the end for Ezio AND Altair, our elusive hero from the first game.

The game play footage shown so far doesn’t look like it’s the total engine overhaul many fans expected but the action looks great and it looks like there is going to be some serious customization on the weapons front, something that really does intrigue me.

Assassins Creed is known for its story, I don’t think there are many games out there that rival it, the concept was brilliant from the get go and if anything the only thing the games have lacked is more new characters and maybe some more odd and exotic locations. In Revelations we will play as Desmond, Ezio and Altair, it sounds very varied this time around and I can only see this game setting up AC3 next year with a big bang.

The series has sold millions upon millions of copies and I doubt AC3 will be the end of the franchise but this game has all the hallmarks of a classic: bigger and better than all of its predecessors, something the franchise can boast they do regularly.

02. Battlefield 3

- I don’t say this as a fan boy (HA I totally do…) but if you want a proper war game then Battlefield will always be the best choice. For some reason Call of Duty has taken over and for some unknown reason it’s considered to be a good franchise, well call me a BF fan boy but the COD games are awful. 6 hour storylines with cramped multiplayer levels full of glitches and people taking advantage of overpowered guns just doesn’t do it for me.

Battlefield 3 looks insane. EA (I know right?) know that this franchise is better than COD; of course they will never out sell the COD franchise because most gamers are idiots but Battlefield 3 looks nothing short of immense. You see, the guys who develop BF like to change stuff, make it as realistic as possible but not just throw stupid gimmicks at it for the sake of it looking cool in the trailer.

Bad Company 2 was a fantastic game that had immense Multiplayer, because that’s what we are looking at really isn’t it? Who can honestly say they bought a COD game for the storyline alone? Multiplayer is where these games make or break and Battlefield will win every time with anyone who knows what they are talking about.

Battlefield 3 has improved visuals over the last Bad Company outing; the immense Frostbite engine has been improved to 2.0 so guys who like to camp? Well sorry fellas’ you will not be able to hide for long. Buildings can be destroyed, walls can be knocked down. This is the closest you will get to a real battlefield scenario without actually signing up.

The maps are huge and the game modes have more going for them. The weapons are always a joy in the Battlefield games and the unlocking system is always far more challenging. The story mode looks like it has been well thought out with game play as its main focus, not where and who you shoot. Battlefield 3 will not need a controversial mission to get it in the headlines, you won’t need to kill civilians nor do things that are strangely linked to real life terrorist acts, because we don’t want to give them any recognition do we? This game is going to be brilliant; the game play shown at E3 was both intense and more importantly showed NEW features.

This game will be a COD killer, maybe not in the sales market which is the important one sadly but in the minds of real gamers.


01. Batman: Arkham City


So here’s my number 1, Arkham City looks nothing short of breathtaking. Whether you are a comic book reader or a fan of Batman this game will be brilliant.

Arkham Asylum was a stunning debut for the series and Rock Steady teased us about the plans for the sequel at the end of the game. So here it is, Arkham City is nearly upon us and at E3 we saw a demo being played and by lordy does it look immense! Batman is now out of the confines of Arkham Asylum, where the baddies of Gotham reside after getting their ass kicked. The governor of Arkham has decided to give the villains more space and has turned Arkham Asylum into a small scale city.

Good plan or is it likely to give our caped crusader another reason to pop in and kick some more ass? The latter it seems! The demo showed us Arkham city in all its glory, a massive open world where Batman can glide around at will, swinging between buildings and dropping down to smash a gang of bad guys who have innocents cornered. We saw some of the mission game play and a small section of the plot. Catwoman is a surprise playable character and fans of the Batverse have been very pleased about that, I know I am.

Arkham City sees the appearance of some of the high profile villains that didn’t feature in AA, Two Face is going to be a big bad as is the Riddler and Penguin, with some notable returns from the first game I would assume. Detective vision was shown off again and this time it has been dumbed down slightly, no more spending the whole game with it on. The main story line will last up to 15-16 hours which is good for today’s standards, more impressive is the 10+ hours of side missions and riddles that have also been announced.

This is going to be my GOTY and I think a lot of other places will be saying the exact same thing. Rock Steady has upped the stakes and the scale, AA had its faults and if those are addressed then AC is going to be a classic. Boss fights in AA were a big disappointment most of the time, I can see this being the make or break of AC, the setting, characters and story all look like winners, lets just hope they can get the small bits and pieces that really do make a great game spot on.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Review

The house of mouse maybe well renown for mentally scaring children with the prospects of parents dying before the main character becomes king of the jungle/forest/amalgamated European kingdom by facing down embodiment of evil, but they should also be famous of the amount of sequels said classic tales have received.

Of course this mentality is usually only applied to Disney’s foray of animated films which always have closure and have an unnecessary (and usually terrible) numbered entry whilst their live action movies rarely stand alone. Of course the question is raised for how far you can keep the beast running before it begins to rot away and be a caricature of its former youthful self.

And this is where nearly 95% of people would say Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean franchise should never have been franchise and simply the mildly fun but immensely overrated original as just that instead of the over bloated, confusing mess it spawned.

Unfortunately I’m in the 5% camp who fount not only the original movie The Curse of the Black Pearl an enjoyable popcorn romp with a decent plot and one of the best breakout characters in cinema history, but I also enjoyed it’s two sequels for the same reasons (despite the third being a said over-bloated, confusing mess).

Of course you could argue that once a movie goes beyond a trilogy in the unattractive regions of a fourth, you’re no longer doing it for artistic integrity and character development but rather so you can get that magical gold platted yacht or payoff that costly divorce.

So four years after the believed conclusion, someone at Disney probably really wanted that gold yacht because the fourth entry in the series On Stranger Tides has hit theatres against a tirade of non-interest and questions of how many times Johnny Depp can honestly captivate audiences as a “rock-star pirate”?

Set a number of years after the conclusion of At World’s End, Captain Jack Sparrow is in England, trying to uncover an impostor who is trying to gather a crew to find the Fountain of Youth. This culminates in a series of events that has Jack join terrifying pirate Blackbeard (played by Deadwood actor Ian McShane) and his crew including Penelope Cruz with Jack’s first mate Gibbs join newly made Privateer Barbossa (played once again by Geoffrey Rush) to beat the Spaniards from discovering the fountain first in a fun filled race of constant betrayals, a bizarrely high body count and strange environments as the title suggests.

All in all, it’s a road trip movie, except replace the road with the ocean and strange locals with carnivorous mermaids.

Naturally you’d assume that Disney must surely be taking the mickey (the turn of phrase, not the mouse) by creating a sequel to a story that was closed and depending on how much you like Pirates of the Caribbean will probably determine how much you like this entry.

Whilst On Stranger Tides is thankfully streamlined from At World’s End, it’s still unnecessarily padded to give the movie an epic scope and is adds nothing new to the franchise. Ian McShane’s role as Blackbeard, while decent, is no where near as diabolical as his real life counter-part and despite Penelope Cruz being probably the best female actress the franchise has ever seen, her character is purely there to give Jack a female love interest.

There’s a strange sequence of events that even the film states sounds ridiculous and it’s never clear what exactly Cruz’s Angelica character is supposed to do. Is she a con-artist out for revenge or is she merely someone trying to protect a loved one? It’s one thing to make characters vague for the prospect of resolution later, but then there’s just lazy writing which offers no hints and then leaves us wondering why the character is even there in the first place.

Moving this aside, On Stranger Tides is your stereotypical summer blockbuster with some good set-pieces and CGI that’s nice and easy on the eyes. I didn’t watch this one in 3D like I did with Thor but you lose nothing watching it on bog-standard 2D. There’s a few shots intentionally made for 3D but there relatively short and offer nothing substantial to the main story.

On the whole, On Stranger Tides is shorter and slightly sweeter sequel to its predecessors. It has an all-star cast of quality actors, a decent story even if it boils down to nothing happening with a good soundtrack and maintaining the established universe’s aesthetics.

For those who enjoyed the previous trilogy, you’ll find nothing particularly bad with it other than it lacking the epic scope of the previous two entries and a possible empty feeling that it's existence is simply to make a quick buck. For everyone else, it’s a standard popcorn flick that offers nothing new to an ailing franchise that should have been taken out to pasture nearly a decade ago that will no doubt continue surviving (especially with the prospect of Burton and Depp teaming up for the fifth movie…god help us).

6/10