Condemned 2

 

Format:  Xbox 360
Price: £9.99*
Players: 1
Online: 2-8
Genre: First Person Horror

Condemned Criminal Origins on the Xbox 360 was a great game. It was a horror/ investigation game as you ran around the city hunting down the serial killer X as you picked up anything you could find to fight off druggies and hobos between taking pictures of dead corpses. It was great with little to complain about.

Condemned 2 then. The main character from the last game Ethan Thomas is back sporting a new look and voice actor. Instead of being pretty normal like he was in the last game he is now an aggressive drunk who likes to swear every time he opens his mouth and punch people. The new look is rubbish and just irritates; he might as well be a new guy. Rosa from the last game returns without some bizarre makeover and new characters instantly reveal their true motives, the grumpy guy who doesn’t like you… he’s gonna cause problems, the head of the SCU? Suspect. It is no surprise when they do their ‘plot twist’ events which is surprising.

Curiosity Cola

What is this? Am I curious about it?

Transformers Revenge Of The Fallen

The last Transformers film was an entertaining action summer popcorn flick with a simple storyline and full to the brim with non stop action to blow you out your seats. It was fun and certainly worth a sequel, does Revenge of The Fallen live up to the first?

The same cast of characters are in this with a few new inclusions which really don’t go noticed as they feel shoe horned in for a fresh feel. I can’t even remember any of the names which is quite embarrassing but they are only used a few times so you just have to go by face, this goes for the original cast to, one guy plays an excellent role but I think his name is said twice in the whole thing, he’s the butcher in this, you’ll know what I mean (Seymour Simmons played by John Turturro actually, I checked wikipedia), he’s great. Strangely the main characters mum gets loads of screen time, I just wanted her to shut up, she isn’t entertaining, but maybe she’ll remind you of how embarrassing mums can be?

Psychoville episode 2

Episode 2 of Psychoville carries on directly from the last and starts to progress the story somewhat as the strange letter sender tries to further the message to everyone with ‘You killed her’. It carries on to switch between the different characters but centres mainly around Lomax as he tries to track down an elusive Beanie Baby and Maureen and Robert as he goes on his date. Everyone gets some screen time though all revealing interesting tip bits of information and more freaky going-ons.

The episode I felt was funnier than the last with some brilliant links from Mr.Jelly and the bidding fight between Lomax and his assistant against two eBay women was hilarious and a definite highlight as it reminded me of a handful of people I know and can imagine. The episode is also even more disturbing than the last especially in Joy and Lomax’s case, it actually shocked me at one point, a thing I felt the show wasn’t going to do.

Gunstar Heroes

Format:  Xbox Live Arcade
Price: 400 ms points
Players: 1-2
Online: 1-2
Genre: Shooter

Red and Blue set off on a quest to collect four gems and take down Green and Gold with the help of Yellow. The names are simple, the concept is simple and as you boot it up you know you are playing some retro all out action gaming, a way to pass an hour or two with a friend, one of those games, right? Right, but there is so much more with Gunstar.

Gunstar Heroes is a sidescrolling shooter in which you pick one of two characters and walk across the stage shooting things and throwing them. It is an incredibly simple concept incredibly popular in the 90’s but Gunstar manages to set itself apart and highlight itself of the best of the genre from then. First of all the gameplay idea of mixing gun types to make new weapons is great fun and adds variety to what should be a relatively repetitive game, there are four different coloured orbs and mixing them up allows you to shoot things quickly, with more power or home in on enemies. It allows you to play how you want to and with the ability for free or fixed shot this furthers gives you more choice on enjoying the game. Fixed shot is handy for accurately taking down bosses though free shot is better for running and shooting through the stages. It all runs smoothly and there is never a moment without something to blow up, it’s relentless.

Fifty post reached, past and future.

Less than two months and already I have fifty posts down for the reading, it went much quicker than I thought. It hasn’t quite gone as planned, most of the content are reviews, I didn’t have the intention of making it so review heavy but my camera going bust on me has greatly effected a bunch of things.

But it is going smooth otherwise, I’m still enjoying writing on WordPress and hope the next fifty posts will be even better! Just need to get that damn camera working and hopefully I will stride away from the constant reviews and have them split up with more variety, I hope all existing readers continue now the start is over and new readers stick around!

University first year

Well back home and it has all been and gone. I was at John Moores University in Liverpool for a year and now I’m back thinking back at the time I had there.

I chose Japanese and International Business; I do have a bit of a liking for Japanesey things so thought it would be an interesting course to take. I went in with no prior language ability (bar an F in Spanish GCSE, should have set alarm bells ringing) and settled at Lennon Studios for the year.

The flat I lived in was six small rooms and a living room/kitchen. My room was the smallest of the lot and due to my incredible good luck got to experience, broken shower tiles, damp, broken air vents and dodgy toilet drainage throughout the year. Typical. The flat mates were… to be honest mixed. I didn’t get on with the other half at all and viewed them as quite disgusting people. Maybe I shouldn’t link this to Facebook? Anyway, they made a right pig’s sty out of the kitchen and it put me off cooking there and I didn’t have the confidence to make a scene, but I should have looking back, it was my cash going into this place each week. I ended up eating on unbalanced meals of chocolate, sandwiches and tinned food. No good but once I did find my way into a bit of cash I lived it large style with eating out most days. During that time I felt top of the world, like I could do anything.

Psychoville episode 1

From two of the writers of League of gentlemen  (Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton) comes Psychoville, a mystery thriller comedy as five characters receive letters saying ‘I know what you did’. It is set to be seven episodes every Thursday on BBC 2 at 10pm. Spoilers below…

The first episode is an introduction to each character, who they are, what they are like and what they do. It doesn’t stretch away from these introductions and within the half hour episode it gives a good impression on everyone. You have Mr. Jelly (not Jolly) a clown who performs at kids parties, he only has one hand, Joy, a nurse played by Dawn French who carries around a ragged old doll she calls Freddie, David a mummy’s boy who reads serial killer tales, Lomax, a blind rich man who has a social worker helping him read over anything he can’t and has a secret room and Robert the pantomime dwarf who fancies the lady who plays Snow White. All the characters are introduced and we see their reactions to the letters.

D.Gray-man Volume 7: Crossroads

Covers chapters 57-66

D.Gray-man what does it mean? Nobody knows though the manga is pretty good. It is about a group of exorcists in the 19^th century who take down akuma, evil demons which are half machine/half person, when you wish someone to be brought back it is formed by the Millennium Earl a strange man who demands the demon wears the person’s skin who asked for the person to be brought back. It is a pretty dark series with a gothic art style though does have funny moments which you can usually spot a mile off as the detailed drawings suddenly become simple. The main character is Allen Walker who fights back with innocence. Innocence is the anti-akuma weapon, little cubes which take shape of weapons. Allen’s is an arm claw thing. The exorcists and the akuma are fighting each other in hunt for the heart innocence… ok this is mind-boggling nonsense isn’t it?

Bleach Volume 24: Immanent God Blues

Covers chapters 206-214

The fights in Ichigo’s town carry on in this volume and we see a whole range of transformations and powers from the attacking Arrancar. It gives a feeling that these are much stronger than your average Hollow going toe to toe with a captain level soul reaper and causing much grief to the heroes. It was the right step up to take in the series making the Hollows more human like and this volume shows as the characters scrape through their fights while Ichigo is given grief from the sixth strongest Espada Grimmjow who really puts him into his place. It reminds me of the old Dragonball series as the heroes meet insanely strong villains out doing the last in power. The manga isn’t really about tactics but who can throw the strongest attack, it isn’t always the case but for the majority it is.