A few words on…. Men in Black 3

The third film in a franchise, only so few have been decent, is Men in Black 3 any good or is it another cash in from the now creative-less world that is Hollywood now?

Linkin Park - Living Things Review

I hate the term "Guilty Pleasure" simply because of the implication that liking a certain something will ruin your social status, turn your friends into enemies or give you a one-to-one with a Consultant Psychiatrist who's willing to bring back the lobotomy, just for you.

On the plus side, the term is more than appropriate for anyone over the age of fourteen who listens to Linkin Park. Oh sure, you may look in shock that the Nu-Metal trendsetters of a decade gone are still rolling, but alas, they are.

They even had a bit of controversy with their fourth album A Thousand Suns. Well, controversy in the sense that daring to depart from the formula that had worked well for their first two near-identical albums and their stupidly successful, courtesy of Michael Bay third.

It was more electronically influenced, it was a concept album that made individual track plays almost useless, it utilised far more sampling and...well, that's about it. Credit has to be given that, despite the album being far, far too long and doing the whole "goin' electronic" thing a good decade after Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins and more did and using lyrics and themes that Public Enemy have been treading for thirty years, it was a fresh direction for the band and resulted that was overall; pretty good.

Retcon-Nation's Top Ten Games of E3 2012

For those who followed our twitter feed (which you probably don't, but it's here regardless), E3 2012 was the year of crossbows, neck-stabs and touch screens. Microsoft beat Nintendo to the punch with a handheld DVD extra initialiser called Smart-Glass (more like Smart-Arse amirite?), Nintendo underwhelmed the entire universe with further info on the Wii-U's mostly casual market with rehashes of old games (Yay! Mass Effect 3 and Arkham City...A YEAR LATE!) and Sony took a left turn at uselessness town with their Wonderbook (complete with on-stage mishaps!).

But enough about peripherals; it's games you want and games you shall get! Listed is my top ten titles from this year's show...and just as a forewarning, as a PS3 owner, there's a few exclusives on here so apologies if it seems a tad biased (I'm sure if I cared about Halo, Gears of War or Call of Duty anymore, they'd be here).

Sigur Rós - Valtari Review

I remember waking up at the very beginning of 2007 on New Years Day, not suffering from a hangover (despite my body being 60% alcohol and 40% Marks and Spencer's Sausage Rolls) and the first video I watched on MTV2, whilst many of my friends were still sleeping was Sigur Rós' single Svefn-g-englar.

Obviously still under the effects of the night before, I was mesmerised by the truly moving music, the hauntingly beautiful vocals and strange but enlightening video, so much so that I immediately bought the album on Amazon, not really knowing what to expect but hoping for something similar to that wonderful video.

Since then, Sigur Rós have remained one of my most favourite bands. Although I only discovered them in 2007, they truly hit the big time with Hoppîpolla (aka the song played during every BBC sports and documentary montage throughout 2004) and have remained the best band to come out of Iceland that specialises in gibberish lyircs and bowed guitar.

Their sixth full length album finally saw release after a fashionable hiatus and, eager as ever, I had the thing ready for pre-order, hoping for some more creative goodness. I wasn't expecting the album to top Ágætis byrjun (for those keeping track, I'd consider that album a 10/10) but hoping for something in that range.

Storm Corrosion - Storm Corrosion Review

One of my biggest regrets last year for this blog was never getting around to reviewing Grace for Drowning at the time of its release. In short; it was a fantastic album that improved on everything Steven Wilson had begun with Insurgentes and would was easily in my top five albums for 2011.

With another year, the ever productive Wilson has another release, this time a long awaited collaborative effort with Opeth frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt. The duo, under the moniker Storm Corrosion, has previously promised something unlike anything they have previously released.

Stupidly, I didn’t pay much attention to that statement and fully expected something that might be an epic combination of something like Porcupine Tree with Opeth or Wilson’s solo efforts with Bloodbath.

The point is, I was looking forward to Storm Corrosion and upon giving the album enough listens; I have come to two conclusions:

Top Ten Horrifying/Disgusting/WTF Moments in Resident Evil

2012 is a big year for gaming. Each week there’s something new to behold, a story about the next big thing, hints of the direction huge series’ will take in their steady evolution, how the big three console developers plan to one-up each other and claim victory in this crazy little thing called the “console wars”

One of 2012’s biggest releases Reece and I will be looking out for is Resident Evil 6. The long running survival/action-horror series had its humble beginnings as a shoddy Playstation title with player controlled characters that moved like tanks against mindless, shambling, grotesque zombies and worse in a haunted, claustrophobic mansion.

But since its humble beginnings; Resident Evil has mutated into one of the biggest franchises in gaming. Expanding it’s horizons with tighter gameplay, a less cheesier story and some absolutely horrifying moments, Resident Evil holds in it’s decaying hands a legacy that spans just under two decades of critical adulation and a cult following which can’t get enough of stopping Bio-Weapons from taking over the world.

With the eighth title on the horizon as a potential Game of the Year, this is Retcon-Nation’s top ten, most horrifying, disgusting and complete WTF moments in the main series, from Zero to Five (excluding Revelations as neither of us have played it yet).

The Avengers Review

Reaching the end of The Avengers (or Marvel’s Avengers Assemble for us apparently easily confused brits), it finally dawned on me why Josh Whedon was put at the helm rather than say; a director with more summer blockbuster experience than the guy who directed Serenity.

Heck, someone who directed one of the five movies that have led us to this huge team-up would have been the logical choice. But, like the medium this film is adapted from; logic goes out the window or, so it seemed, because there is method in the studio’s madness and that is;