Deadfall (1993) – Review (Film)

 

I’ve always been a Nicolas Cage fan and despite a few stinkers over the years I can usually rely on him to at least bring something to the table.

Sadly Deadfall isn’t one of those cases. His role of drug crazed Eddie is seemingly free reign to go mental every few minutes, regardless of whether the plot calls for it.

With all the memebers of his family involved in the film (I counted two Coppolas on the credits) perhaps his involvement was more of a favour?

Fortunately although he features heavily on the cover of the DVD he isn’t actually in much of the film as it concentrates on the story of Joe (Michael Biehen), a con man who whose life is ruined when a con goes wrong.

The situation leads him to look up a relative and eventually get involved in another con – the biggest of his career.

Deadfall was a bit like a poor man’s Matchstick Men, which I thought was a great little film – so that isn’t a major slight on Deadfall.

It was one of those films that really would’ve been more suited as a 60 minute TV movie as opposed to a 90 minute film.

Add in the fact that the twist was so obvious I was doubting whether they would go with it – although having said that they didn’t see it through exactly as I had envisioned.

James Coburn puts in a pretty good performance, and don’t get me wrong the film was certainly watchable, but the story wasn’t very strong and everything felt a little false and unbelievable.

Even the appearance of Charlie Sheen doesn’t lift things and to be honest I’d think the film might’ve worked better with Sheen and Nic Cage switching roles.

Overall I don’t think I could honestly recommend Deadfall, if you fancy watching a con film with Nicolas Cage I’d suggest checking out Matchstick Men instead.

Rating: 3/10

Turtles In Time: Reshelled – Demo Impressions (PS3)

I spent a night recently at a friend’s house where his housemate has made an arcade cabinet that plays whatever MAME/Roms he loads up.

One of the highlights of that evening was blasting through Turtles In Time. Seeing those wonderfully hammy cartoon interludes and then kicking the hell out of Shredder’s foot soldiers was a wonderful blast back to my childhood.

This experience certainly hasn’t helped the case of the new HD skinned version of the game.

Upon firing it up you are greeted with some nice looking cut scene visuals and then when the game kicks off you’re met with (nicely rendered) new style Turtles animation which just doesn’t cut it for me.

I don’t understand the need to keep redoing graphics on old games. Sure, tidy things up but did this really need a facelift? Are the people downloading this new Turtles fans or old skool Turtles fans?

The gameplay is repetitive and boring to be honest, if they were updating the graphics surely they could’ve upped the gameplay?

When you play something old you often expect it to be limited in a ‘aw, remember when games were like this?’ type of way.

With this game they appear to have spruced the graphics to next gen and left the gameplay in a 1980’s arcade somewhere on Blackpool beach.

Maybe I’m just getting old myself, maybe the ‘kids’ will love it and buy it in their droves.

Not worth downloading unless you REALLY love those Turtles.

Batman: Arkham Asylum – Review (PS3)

It’s a sad state of affairs for the gaming industry when a title is being touted as ‘finally a brilliant superhero game.’

The amount of hero games that suck vastly outnumber the success stories… Iron Man, Superman – even the usually reliable Spiderman’s recent outings have been poor.

Sure, by all accounts (I’m yet to play it but will at some stage), the Wolverine game earlier this year was decent but it seems to be that The Dark Knight (with some help from the lads at Rocksteady Games) is the only one who is willing to stand up and be counted.

Before I start getting into the nitty gritty let me just say that the finished game is miles better than the Demo. I can see with the demo that they were trying to show combat and stealth but believe me it all works a lot better in game.

So, with Arkham Asylum taking place in one night – is there enough here to keep people playing?

The answer is a resounding yes. With some wonderful voice acting from the cast of the animated series, Batman: Arkham Asylum’s story moves at a good pace and familiar enemies are used to good effect throughout.

You’ll be tasked with getting from a to b, taking out groups of henchman via hand to hand combat or using stealth. But it never, ever feels as simple as that.

The combat itself is pretty cool, with square as attack and triangle as counter (to be activated when an opponent is about to attack). Batman will move seamlessly between opponents with you just pressing square and the direction of the enemy you want to hit.

Be warned though, one of the best things about this game is that guns do a hell of a lot of damage to Batman so you can’t storm armed opponents unless you want to die… lots.

You’ll also acquire a wonderful selection of weapons/gadgets such as the Batarang and the beautifully destructive explosive gel

There are also some puzzle elements, usually involving the detective mode (like an x-ray vision that alerts you to points of interest) but none are too taxing thankfully.

With such a vivid setting and a memorable selection of bad guys from Batman’s career it’s no surprise that Arkham Asylum is such a great game.

There are some stand out moments throughout the game but the encounters with Scarecrow certainly rank up there for me as some of the best gaming I’ve had this year.

Despite the odds being stacked against it, Batman: Arkham Asylum is a quality title that has had a lot of care put into making it. I’d recommend this to anyone, regardless of whether on not they are into the comics (I’m not btw).

Rating: 9/10

Eurogamer Expo 2009

Wow! What a fantastic gaming experience.

First of all a big shout out to everyone who put this Expo together – it was one of the smoothest run I’ve been to.

I got to see and play so many upcoming games it was a well spent £6.

Only disappointment was not playing Assassin’s Creed 2 as it was rammed all day. That meant wait to play it or skip it and probably play 2 or 3 other games.

Left 4 Dead 2 (XBox 360) and Tekken 6 were also extremely busy but I could take them or leave them so didn’t mind missing them too much.

Was surprised to see Army Of Two: 40th Day only have two TV’s showing the game and then be taken away well before the end of the day – would’ve liked to have given that a spin.

But there is a hell of a lot of stuff I DID play to get through, so let’s get to it…

 

ALIEN VS PREDATOR

I’ve been looking forward to this game (and Aliens: Colonial Marines) since it was announced.

The hands on was multiplayer only, with the choice of Marine, Alien or Predator. With words of Private Hudson ringing in my ears “game over man, it’s game over man!” I chose Marine.

Mainly to see how the game plays compared to other FPS’s but also because I wanted to try my luck against the more fancied non-human characters.

I’m glad to say it holds up very well indeed and being a Marine isn’t as weak as I expected. You land a round of fire on a Predator he’s going down, likewise with the Alien but he’s so quick landing a round on him is an achievement.

They have captured that sense of panic you feel for the Marines in the film really well and it will be interesting to play the game without the background noise of an Expo going on!

 

BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY 2

Totally didn’t expect to see this at the Expo but it was a very pleasant surprise.

I’m looking forward to this more than Modern Warfare 2 (meh, so sue me fanboys) and this hands on has increased the feeling this could be a special game.

Again it was multiplayer only and at times I had trouble finding the opposition but Battlefield Bad Company 2 looks astounding and plays really well.

The use of vehicles is a great touch and well handled, while the weapons had a reassuring kick to them as well. Could be massive online.

 

BAYONETTA

Not being a big fan of the Devil May Cry has meant that Bayonetta hasn’t really been on my radar other than a few trailers I’ve seen here and there.

Having the chance to play through a couple of levels has seen my interest rise but I get the feeling this would be more of a rental than a purchase.

However if you liked Devil May Cry you will probably want to pick up a copy.

  

BORDERLANDS 

Again, Borderlands was a game that I thought looked quite interesting but didn’t get when it was released a few weeks ago.

I feel that was the right decision – not because of how the game played, it was really good, but because this game has to be played in online co-op.

So for that reason, in the crowded pre-Christmas schedule, I won’t be picking this up.

However come the new year (or even the traditional summer drought) I’ll be persuading a few mates to get it and we’ll blast through it together.

  

DANTE’S INFERNO

As you’ll see further down the list, God Of War III was also on display at the Expo and unfortunately for Dante we played Kratos’ demo first.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with Dante’s Inferno – this is a game that looks good and has some varied imagery on display.

However there is also A LOT in this hands on that is lifted directly from God Of War III.

Having played both if I had to pick it’d be God Of War but hopefully Dante’s Inferno’s story will be gripping enough to warrant a playthrough.

 

DARK VOID

This one was my biggest disappointment on the day.

It wasn’t exactly clear what we were supposed to be doing and there seemed to be a bit of an issue with the vertical climbing and cover system not quite working.

As this is a demo and is also probably a few months old I will give Dark Void the benefit of the doubt but from that hands on it reminded me of 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand just with a jetpack.

 

GOD OF WAR III

We kicked the day off with a playthrough of God Of War III and what a start to proceedings!

Graphically lush and with some great new visual effects, this is a game that manages to be even more brutal than the previous instalments.

Blood gushes everywhere, including all over Kratos himself, and stays wherever it’s landed – adding a touch more realism to the mythological world.

This will be a must have for any PS3 owner (who’s over 18 )

 

HEAVY RAIN

Much has been made of Heavy Rain and how amazing it could be. Everything I’ve seen of it points to something special so I was desperate to give it a go.

It took a while to get used to the controls (best described as like a driving game – R2 moves you forward and you use the left stick to dictate which direction) but it was a triumph when you did.

Graphically it was stunning, though the Junkyard level didn’t look as good as the Shop level.

What we enjoyed most about the demo was that for both parts we had different outcomes.

The fact that it isn’t game over if you don’t make it through a sequence in one piece is awesome and the amount of options/choices for you means the game should have strong replay value.

I think Heavy Rain could be something very special if it can live up to the promise shown in these demo levels.

* ‘HEAVY RAIN’ : GREGHORRORSHOW’S BEST IN SHOW – Eurogamer Expo 2009*

 

M.A.G

M.A.G is one of those games that I was undecided on going into the Expo.

256 multiplayer sounds amazing but all the footage I’d seen so far hadn’t been overly impressive.

However having actually played it I can confirm it’s great fun and well worth playing.

Sure we had no context of the squad depth or anything like that – just a set of objectives – but the actual gameplay itself was really strong.

Recoil was massive (may be realistic?) which meant you had to really aim you shots or you end up firing at the sky.

Definitely one to pick up and get involved in come January 2010.

 

THE SABOTEUR

Another game I was looking forward to that didn’t quite live up to the promise shown in the trailers.

I do think The Saboteur will be an absolute blast to play (pardon the pun) but people looking for a polished, deep gaming experience may need to look elsewhere (Heavy Rain perhaps? )

Coming from Pandemic I expect this to be more in the vein of their previous title Mercenaries 2 – which is no bad thing, I really enjoyed that title.

The main problem here is that the AI seemed completely moronic. It shatters the illusion of getting past them in disguise when you can stand in front of them in your normal get up, aiming at a gun at them and they do nothing.

So, judging from the hands on, if you go into The Saboteur expecting a masterpiece you may be disappointed but if you’re looking for a fun title to blow some stuff in – then this could be the one for you.

 

SPLIT/SECOND

Was not expecting this at all.

Thought I’d check Split/Second out as I liked the idea from the trailer of destructable scenery etc.

This game was an absolute blast – a cartoon style rampage through an airport race track in the style of Mario Kart but with stunning HD visuals.

From what I could gather you fill up your ’special’ bar by driving fast and drifting around corners. Once the bar is full you have two options.

If you’re directly behind someone you can press X to trigger a more personal takedown, or at certain points trigger a short cut. If you prefer the bigger showpiece you’ll also have the option to press O at specific points on the track to trigger a major event, like the control crumbling and smashing down onto the tarmac.

Can see this being awesome fun in multiplayer.

* ‘SPLIT/SECOND’ : GREGHORRORSHOW’S MOST PLEASANT SURPRISE – Eurogamer Expo 2009 *

So there you have it – a monster round up of a fantastic event. Having been lucky enough to play through the games of the future I think it is an amazing time to be a gamer.

And with a lot of great stuff being PS3 exclusive we’ve got a lot of brilliant games to look forward to.

With inFAMOUS and Uncharted 2 already impressing you can add MAG, God of War III and Heavy Rain to the list.

Good times.

PSP Car Games Comparison

After the recent release of a few driving games on the PSP I thought it might be worth taking a look at them across various sections so that people looking to buy can make a more informed choice.

For full reviews of each see the links below:

MOTORSTORM: ARCTIC EDGE

GRAN TURISMO

DIRT 2

So here we go…

GRAPHICS

Obviously a big part of any gaming experience but boy do people love cars that look good

Dirt 2 is the least prettiest of the three with Motorstorm’s slightly cartoonish style in second place. Gran Turismo takes the chequered flag in this department, with some lush visuals although the odd screen tear stops it getting a perfect 10.

Motorstorm 8

Gran Turismo 9

Dirt 2 6

 

Dirt 2: “The least prettiest of the three…”

 

HANDLING

How your car handles is obviously an important part of any driving game and these titles are no different.

Motorstorm’s use of boost is well implemented and you only ever feel out of control via your own mistakes.

Gran Turismo’s handling is lifelike and if you try to drive like a maniac you will up in the wall before long.

Dirt 2 isn’t too bad in this respect but at times it’s difficult to tell whether the game is keeping tabs on things like grip etc as it’s often possible to just hold down accelerate and take turns.

Motorstorm 8

Gran Turismo 9

Dirt 2 7

 

GAME MODES

No doubt about the winner here – Motorstorm has a fabulous single player campaign of ranking up and tackling different events in different vehicles.

Gran Turismo doesn’t have much in the way of modes for single player, it’s just race where you want to and while Dirt 2 does have a World Tour mode it’s pretty limited and doesn’t have much to keep you coming back.

Motorstorm 9

Gran Turismo 7

Dirt 2 7

 

Motorstorm: “Has a fabulous single player campaign.”

 

MUSIC

Again Motorstorm takes this hands down – some great tracks on there including the anthem ‘Omen’ by The Prodigy. Good use of music.

Well the other two games are much of a muchness – not a great deal of music, surely they could’ve squeezed some more tunes in there?

Motorstorm 9

Gran Turismo 7

Dirt 2 8

 

CAR SOUNDS

Gran Turismo wins out in the engine stakes – you really can hear the difference in vehicles, even when the cars are similar.

More impressive than Motorstorm because Motorstorm’s engine sounds only vary between different types of vehicles. (i.e cars and trucks)

And sadly Dirt 2’s engines sound the same regardless of what you’re driving.

Motorstorm 8

Gran Turismo 9

Dirt 2 6

 

Gran Turismo:”You really can hear the difference in vehicles.”

 

TRACK SELECTION

Moving onto the available tracks and Gran Turismo roars into the lead – yes you race each course backwards and forwards but even so there are still a huge amount of tracks to race on.

Motorstorm also has quite a selection and also gets a bonus for mutliple routes through each track.

Dirt 2 lags behind again – boasting in the region of around 8 tracks.

Motorstorm 8

Gran Turismo 9

Dirt 2 6

 

 

VEHICLE SELECTION

You can’t argue with 800 cars. Gran Turismo is the undisputed king in this round, regardless of the fact some are just different models of the same car.

One of the main points of Motorstorm is to race different types of vehicles against each other so it wouldn’t be much of a game without a decent selection of vehicles. New snow based vehicles have been added to the usual Motorstorm suspects.

Dirt 2 doesn’t deliver massively on the vehicle front but there is probably just about enough to keep you going.

Motorstorm 8

Gran Turismo 9

Dirt 2 7

Gran Turismo: trumps Motorstorm right at the end.

OVERALL

Motorstorm 58 / 70

Gran Turismo 59 / 70

Dirt 2 47 / 70

It’s a very close race between the front two but Dirt 2 is way back in last place.

Gran Turismo trumps Motorstorm right at the end based on Vehicle and Track selection.

My advice would be simply – if you can’t afford both then go with Motorstorm for mindless fun or Gran Turismo for a slightly harder but more rewarding driving experience.

Star Wars: Clone Wars – Demo Impressions (PS3)

“Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrggggggh!” I shout (in my head) as my character plunges to his death for the tenth time. I’m having trouble jumping from one platform to another.

Yes, you read that right. Someone with 25 years of gaming experience is having trouble jumping from one platform to another For some reason Clone Wars’ perspective makes it more luck than judgement as to whether you actually get where you want to go or kill what you want to kill.

Star Wars: Clone Wars is based on the hugely popular kids TV show and the game sees you take on various Clone and Jedi roles as you play through the game.

I have never been a big Star Wars fan, though I’ve always thought a (great) game based in the original films universe (I know it’s all supposed to be the same universe but all the new stuff is pretty boring so I’m talking specifically those first few films) is long overdue.

This certainly isn’t it and to be honest 20 minutes playing this was 20 minutes too long. I had more fun playing the Punisher demo, which is saying something.

The gameplay involves shooting (if you’re a Clone) and jumping with a light saber (if you’re a Jedi). Sadly it all feels a bit clunky but the idea of the Jedi being able to ‘ride’ and control some of the bigger robots is pretty cool.

Sadly that isn’t enough to save this gameplay experience. I certainly won’t be picking this up but perhaps if you are a fan of the show you might get some enjoyment out of this game.

Zombie Apocalypse – Demo Impressions (PS3)

It might just’ve been because I had seen Zombieland less than 48 hours before playing this demo but Zombie Apocalypse was great fun.

Essentially a reskinned old style shooter you (and up to four friends) take control of one of the few survivors left following the aforementioned apocalypse.

The idea of the game is to survive day to day (each level being a day) for as long as possible.

You use the left stick to move and the right stick to fire your weapon. In times of emergency you also have a chainsaw which can activated with R1 (quick swipe) or L1 (execution move).

You will be chaining kills like there is no tomorrow and it’s worryingly satisfying to see your ‘kill count’ rack up (on one playthrough mine was almost 600! )

There are a few different weapons in the demo: shotgun, flamethrower and a sort of gatling gun. I’m guessing there are more in the full game but these all felt different enough to give you some choice.

I can’t decide whether this is worth investing in as a full game, especially with Dead Nation (the Zombie shooter for PS3) coming up early next year.

Regardless I’d certainly recommend downloading this and at least giving it a try.

FIFA 10 – Review (PS3)

As regular readers will know from my FIFA 10 and PES 2010 demo impressions blogs, FIFA 10 is my football game of choice for 2009/10.

After playing the game alone and with friends I am in a position to give the full game a review.

There are a wealth of options gameplay-wise which can be a little overwhelming to begin with but the first stop for everyone should be to create their virtual pro.

Once you’ve done this you can use him in any game type and level up your skills – yep, not just career mode people. Even friendlies contribute to your stats – and you can use your created pro online as well!

Obviously you have all the usual league/cup/friendly modes and alongside that there is the manager mode, which is a bit like a better version of PES’s master league (the main bonus being if you’re sacked it’s not game over you have to get another job).

FIFA 10 is quite tough (playing on World Class) and you really are punished for your mistakes. The positive from that is that, except for the odd goal here and there, you know it’s your error that has led to the goal being conceded. It’s a feeling I haven’t had for a long time in a football game.

Onto the match gameplay and the amount of freedom is wonderful. With power bars for goal kicks, throw in’s and through balls my gameplay prayers have been answered. Chuck in the fact the game doesn’t auto select the direction of through balls for you (which annoyed the hell out of me in the PES series) as well and my vision of total football is almost complete.

As I mentioned earlier this freedom is brilliant but it comes with a price – there is literally nowhere to hide if you make a mistake, especially in multi-player where your opponent will no doubt have a smile on his face in the seat next to you.

Online is fairly lag free with the odd small stutter here and there. Sometimes takes me a while to find a game but it’s not a big problem. There are plenty of different modes and you can even play 10v10 matches and join in lots of different online tournaments, which is cool.

FIFA 10 is a great game. It basically has everything I wanted fixed in PES and contains a lot less of the odd glitchy moments that Konami’s title still boasts.

FIFA has caught up and, in my opinion, slightly overtaken PES as the most realistic football sim out there. It’s time to switch to EA’s beautiful game people.

Rating: 9/10

The Boat That Rocked – Review (Film)

I’m not a big fan of Richard Curtis, I liked Notting Hill but that’s about it. However upon hearing about The Boat That Rocked (or ‘Pirate Radio’ for my US chums) I thought it sounded quite cool and the fact it had Phillip Seymour Hoffman in it had me sold.

This film got absolutely ripped to shreds by the critics here in the UK and regardless of whether that was more an attack on Curtis himself, it still meant almost blanket negative courage.

Personally I enjoyed parts of it and cringed at some parts of it. I certainly don’t think it warranted the 1 star (out of 5) reviews it got almost across the board.

The Boat That Rocked is a light hearted look at pirate radio in the UK in the 1960’s – which is where most young people got their music from.

I personally would’ve liked a little more satire or wit rather than the, often laboured, comedy on show. Playing on someone’s surname being Twatt is funny once or twice but it’s over egged here and I didn’t see the need for some of the ‘Thick Kevin’ stuff.

That said there are some good performances in there, Chris O’Dowd (The IT Crowd) puts a shift in and Rhys Darby (Flight Of The Conchords) is also pretty funny in places.

It seems a shame that a film about such a vibrant, creative era fell into the ’same old gag after gag’ trap.

The trouble is this is a film made for people who were there in that period of time and unfortunately those people are such a small slice of the cinema going audience that perhaps The Boat That Rocked was always destined to run aground shortly after setting sail.

Rating: 5/10

Motorstorm: Arctic Edge – Review (PSP)

I really enjoyed the two Motorstorm titles on PS3 (despite online connection issues with Pacific Rift ) and so I was really looking forward to getting some boost action on the small screen.

The game throws you straight into racing and the set up is the same as the PS3 versions. Race different types of events to unlock more vehicles and rank up. The more you rank up the more advanced races you have access to.

The music is great, with a particular nod here to the Prodigy ‘Omen’… in one race as a bike I came hurtling along a high route, off a ramp and just as the Prodigy track kicked in I overtook two trucks below me while I was in the air before landing well and keeping them in my rearview mirror.

The game appeared a little easy at first and I was worried I might have another Dirt on my hands but after 10 or 15 races it started becoming more challenging.

Part of the challenge is working out which of the vehicles to go for: a bike for speed but lack of control on ice? Or a big rig – slow as hell but controllable? With the vehicles on offer it’s certainly a dilemma!

The multiple routes through each race are fantastic, often seeing you grab victory from the jaws of defeat and the inclusion of ice bridges is a neat touch.

Ice bridges are for routes high up and cannot take the weight of heavier vehicles. But obviously if you’re in a big vehicle you can take the route and break the bridge to stop other using it – is it worth the cost of a crash?

Another thing that raises the bar compared to other PSP driving games I’ve played is that you will often find yourself smashed by the other vehicles – resulting in a) some amazing slow motion crashes and b) a real determination to get back up the field as soon as possible.

You can go from near enough last to first in one lap on Motorstorm, which often means you never feel like you’re completely out of the running. It’s quite an achievement for any game to make you feel excited when you’re 8th with half a lap left and you’re still pushing for the win

With options to (cosmetically) customise your vehicles and of course play friends online, Motorstorm PSP is an essential purchase for anyone with a PSP.

Rating: 9/10