I had a Mother's Day dinner at the Fountain Inn at Tenbury with a family group. Obviously a special menu set, but how was it? Sadly I didn't get a chance to photograph the menu so I need to run from memory on the items I didn't have
Other than catching up with telly I spent a vast majority of my time playing Borderlands 2 on the PS3, so is it really any good or just a useful time-sink?
The "2" at the end of the title should give the subtle hint that this is a sequel to the 2009 game Borderlands; for those unfamiliar with that title it's a first person shooter with role-playing elements set on the planet of Pandora and features a choice of four playable characters called Vault Hunters as they roam the planet in search of the fabled Vault which is rumoured to contain a fabulous treasure.
This sequel follows on from the opening of the vault, the rumours of another, and the arrival of yet another set of four Vault Hunters.
The first reaction from some may well be "Oh no yet another Shooter than tries to have 'customisable' role-playing elements" that's not Borderlands. This game really is a nigh-perfect marriage between FPS and RPG; in fact I'd say some of these elements are better than in some full-on RPG games.
I got roped in to a Christmas lunch; my family and I had an elsewhere to be afterwards and rather than travel separately or run a pick-up trip it made sense for me to go along. Glad I did.
I'll start give Dishonored the highest praise I can offer - it reminds me of Thief. Sadly though it's not as good, but then again what is?
You play Corvo another mute protagonist from a long line of mute protagonists, wrongly convicted of the murder of the empress, imprisoned, escaped, and seeking to restore the rightful heir to the throne. All set against a steampunkish victoriana industrial setting with magic. It's a little Thief 2 ish with camera-type sentries and roving guards some encased in stilt-walkers all the while sneaking around to get to the goal; knocking out guards, hiding bodies, and picking up loot. That's if you want to, nothing wrong per se in killing all the guards and charging through. Well nothing overtly wrong but doing so will result in the 'bad' chaos ending.
The influences are clear mostly Thief 2, a dash of Bioshock 2 and a light brush with Assassin's Creed. So inevitably I'm going to be comparing this to Thief 2 so if you haven't played this game - what the hell is wrong with you! Go, buy it now it's dirt cheap and play it, then play it again on the hardest setting now come back after the week it's taken you.
Doom 3 was released some time ago for the XBox and PC, but this is the first time for the PS3 and is part of a wider re-mastered anniversary collection that adds in the the new game along with the two expansions and, nicely enough, the original Doom and Doom II campaigns. Is it any good though?
I watched a recent episode of Tabletop in which they played a game of Star Fluxx. It seemed an easy and fun game so I checked out the price on Amazon. It seems there are many different 'flavours' available and after checking reviews I decided that the Family version with its bright cards, 6-Adult age-range and quick play would probably best suit my needs. I ended up playing it with the Bratii - Minor (10) and Major (16) and that's all we ended up playing.
As a series Merlin has to me always been a little switch-brain-off and enjoy, but there's always been enough depth to hold my interest. With the latest run I wondered if it had jumped the shark?
A two-parter to start a new season is fine and can act as a hook to get someone to watch the second part and then onwards; in this instance I really didn't care what happened.
As a story the core elements needed to be told, we needed Mordred re-introduced, but the way this was told was execrable. By the middle of the two-parter we were jumping between five locations in a frenetic "meanwhile" which sacrificed the character depth that has been a mark of this series. There was also the over-reliance on computer imagery.
It's always been a little cheap, but it's gotten away with it by cuts. So for example we get to see Merlin call the Dragon and we get a long-shot of the landing, we get the odd close-up of the Dragon's face for expressions and switch between Merlin's and the Dragon's point of view same continuous scene but never long enough to note how bad the imagery is.
In this episode (spoilers) we get a little too much of the baby dragon, but far too much of the "Key". That was just dire work. Bad animation, terrible lip-syncing and the big joke being that this manifestation was necessary. Hell have the Key be a Druidic prophecy carved into a wall and buried in an earthquake; have Merlin accidentally deflect the fire breath of the dragon onto the wall and melt it away before he had a chance to read it. But no we got a blue glowing elf.
But wait the title of this entry is "The Death Song of Uther Pendragon" and that's because this one episode undid all the harm the previous two had caused me. Character-driven storyline, tightly focused directing; simple effects - this is how it should be done. My one minor niggle is this would have been best suited for next week closer to Halloween. I simply couldn't fault this episode.
A film based on making a real-life first-person shooter how could I resist? Well given the poor reviews quite easily, but hey what do the critics know so many seem to be snobby about 'video-game' films and sometimes they can still be entertaining even if they're not 'good'.
Either way I held off watching this, but Channel 5 gave it a network première on Sunday so I thought to record it and give it a go.
The premise is simple - technology has developed that allows remote control of other people; these people essentially get paid to rent their bodies out to strangers. This develops into pitting death-row convicts against each other in a real-life first person shooter video game. The story follows one of these convicts who is approaching the 30-game threshold that would mean they would be set free.
It should be an easy switch-your-brain-off-and-enjoy-it film. It's not. Disjointed direction and a plot that staggers from one action sequence to another with plot points appearing and disappearing as soon as they've been actioned. An attempt at character development has been crudely shoe-horned in along with a moral message about giving up power and control to others. Acting is phoned in and the script isn't even bad enough to be interesting and not cheesy enough to be placed in the "so bad it's good" category. Even the action sequences aren't that good; explosions and fast-paced shooting, but the poor direction and editing leaves it a sodden mess.
There is however one good point about this film... it's only 95 minutes long. So if for some reason you do decide to watch it you've only wasted an hour and a half of your life. Just a really bad movie.
Wondering through Morrisons I was surprised to see copies of The Invincible Iron Man, and Doctor Strange animated DVDs I guess all the Avengers Assemble has warranted stock. At £3 apiece they've been something sitting in my Wish List for a while so I picked them up. Always handy for the Bratii if we're that bored, not that I've any interest in these films myself ;-)
Having come to the current end of 100 rooms (room 42) the game advertised its own 100 Missions. Difficult to believe but the interface is even worse particularly on a mobile screen. Now when you jab at something that doesn't do anything it pops up with a message box stating nothing can be done here; in theory a good thing, but due to the smaller movement arrows it kept popping up as I tried to move overlaying the arrow so I had to deliberately jab elsewhere to clear it.
That said they've altered some of the game mechanics for the better. Combining items means dragging them onto each other and this new drag mechanic allows picture puzzles to be integrated into the game.
Sadly the logic still seems Monkey Island click everywhere, combine everything and despite the 'can't do anything here' messages it can still be difficult to determine if something is accessible. In this case consistency is a problem, jabbing the down movement arrow takes you out of a zoomed in view... except on occasion when it will take you a zoomed in view of the lower part of the object.
I'm also guessing English isn't the first language of the programmer; the description of objects are a little stilted and need some polish so for example describing a locked dresser as "ornate" and then finding a "fancy key" would tie the two together better than simply describing it as a dresser and a key obviously not for a door. Oh and the intro screen speech bubbles are arranged top to bottom.
Despite being essentially the same game at times I want to say it's better than 100 rooms; other times it's worse. As with the previous it might simply be better on a tablet.
I think kudos does need to be made that it catered for the deaf/hard-of hearing by having a Morse code message blink as well as bleep; however that's countered by a red/green colour puzzle which will stimmy the colour-blind.
Keep the new dragging mechanic, make the direction keys a little larger; and ditch the pop-up 'nothing to do here', but keep the 'I can't do anything with that' pop-ups so at least there's an indication that something could be done there.
I'll start with a warning - this is not a walkthrough, but believe me I can understand why you'd need one.
100 rooms is a free ad-supported game that is available on the Android Marketplace; the basic premise is simple - you are trapped in a room and need to use the items around you to open the door and leave.
You use the arrows at the edges of the screen to move around a room (or even two at times) and then jab to put something in the 16 slot inventory that sits at the bottom of the screen. Jab an inventory item to select it so it can be used with another on-screen item; or jab twice to get a larger view of the item which you can then combine with other items in your inventory.
As a small brain-straining/teasing game this would be quite fun; sadly after a few rooms it devolves into Monkey Island style item collection, and trial and error. You simply end up poking at everything on screen and trying to combine everything with everything else due to the contrived logic that applies. Oft-times I was left stranded because I was missing one component tucked somewhere I hadn't specifically targeted.
The interface isn't brilliant either. The initial hub room has an arcade machine that gives you points to spend on hints. There's a map next to that that allows you to replay any room. But nothing tells you this, you have to discover them for yourself. Oh and cleverly the FaceBook icon on the hub page is in exactly the same place as the "Return to Hub button" in each room so clicking to leave will trigger a "do you want to visit Facebook dialogue" box every time.
In all fairness this may be a better game on a tablet with a larger screen so you can spot the minor clues that indicate an actionable item. On a 4" HD screen - it's trying. Needs more polish.
I've finished the campaign mode of Killzone 3 last night which was a little surprising as I'd only started it on Tuesday. So that's maybe 6 hours of gameplay.
I've been with the franchise since the beginning and slowly despaired at the turns they were taking. In the very first game you got to choose your player type at the start of each mission which in turn determined your style of play. In the second they dropped all that and just plonked you in the body of whomever they wanted and handed you the weapons they thought you'd need. In this the third (and I hope) last of the series they've done exactly the same thing.
Celebrating a birthday with a Sunday Dinner, in this instance at Tenbury and the celebrant's local - The Ship Inn.
Stepped out to lashing rain, sloshing the car carefully through the puddles that seem to instantly form at the sides of the road up to Tenbury which had had no rain at all. Managed to park in the main street, which had a few spaces free and joined half the group at the inn. with the rest turning up just after.
Possibly due to the delightful weather I found myself with some spare time and wanting to step away from the wacky world of Skyrim for a moment I downloaded the Quantum Conundrum Demo at about 1.6Gb.
The premise from the trial (as it calls itself) is brief. You're in a house for no apparent reason that belongs to the disembodied voice of a professor who instructs you how to progress through his rooms. To do so you are required to manipulate dimensions which affect the properties of objects scattered about.
The Fluffy dimension makes things lighter, the Heavy dimension makes things heavier and the Slow-Mo Dimension well slows things down.
Monday morning I was flicking through the electronic TV guide for the Viva channel (21 on Freeview) to check if they'd switched to later seasons of South Park from the repeats of the first season. As this was the morning and I couldn't be arsed to use the time jump buttons I simply scrolled through the channel through to 10pm.
It was therefore pure luck that I was paying attention as the word "Daria" flashed past at the 6pm mark. "wait did that say Daria?" Indeed it did and hey now it was the very first episode too. Hell yeah series is damn well linked to record.
I always tried to catch the show when it was on 'normal' TV, but it wasn't well placed and this was before catch-up and recording stuff involved voodoo rituals to work correctly. I could resort to a poor sidebite and say this is "The Simpsons with edge" but that does neither show any justice.
Re-watching it after 11 years how does it stand up? To me it's still as good if not better. It's not a laugh-out-loud show more of a thoughtful smile.
For those who missed out. Daria is a smart non-conformist with a popular dumb-seeming younger sister, a high-powered business mother and a frenetic father. Characters are well-fleshed out including what would be ancillary characters and that's out of the starting gate.
There's so much subtly going on - the self-esteem teacher who can't recall his pupils names. A teacher giving a psychology evaluation test who sarcastically over-emphasises Daria's name when she gets it wrong (Dara) and is corrected before returning to the incorrect version. Daria's mother who upon being informed Daria may have self-esteem issues exclaims "How can you have esteem issues? We're always telling you how great you are what's is wrong with you!"
So much implied at it's simply a show to sit back and enjoy. Oh and we may finally be getting a Region 2 release on DVD
As I play games that often require me to be sneaky knowing if an enemy if on my left or right makes a large difference. Given that I've not set my television up with multiple speakers a pair of headphones seemed the logical choice; that and not wanting to disturb my neighbours.
Looking at all the headphones around that advertise themselves as working with the Playstation 3 was an education. So many required connecting wires. Me I don't like loose wires between me and expensive bits of equipment - too easy to forget about them, get up and pull things down. Restricting myself to wireless headsets narrowed the field considerably, even more so when I removed all the single mono headsets and ones without microphones. Pretty much came down to Sony and Turtle Beach.
I caved in and picked up Skyrim, pretty much because it came with a free guide that included a massive map. Popped it in the console, did the update and watched it install. Over 4Gb of data but went by very quickly; there are multiple ways of installing data and it seems Bethesda has done it the right way.
Started it up and... underwhelmed. Stuck in the back of a cart all I can do is swing my head back and forth to whoever is talking while missing out on all the incidentals that were going on in the background. Arriving at the destination and ordered out of the cart I thought "Oh good I get to take control". More chat and swinging of head and again moved forward for character creation.
To most who care about these things Silent Hill 2 represents a near-perfection of the art of survival horror that has been slowly eroded away in both its sequels and others aspiring to be part of that genre. So with the advent of an HD remastering of both it and Silent Hill 3 how could I resist?
The PS3 version doesn't start well demanding a gruelling 4Gb installation. Seriously it'll stream of an XBox 360 disc, but you need the extra oomph for a PS3? It's a one-off, but still. The menu screen appears pretty quickly and gives a choice between the two games. Atmospherically spot-on, for those returning to the series these menu sounds will pull you straight back in. Pick a game and it has to install the trophies for it; again a one-off though. Then a minor wait and into the game proper.
Ah Jak and Daxter. I have fond memories of the first instalment of this series and mixed memories of the subsequent episodes; but are they rose tinted? With the re-release in HD for the Playstation 3 it's time to find out.
Despite sales most likely to be those of a similar weal to myself I'll review them as new comparing them to modern innovations for those who did not get the chance to play them the first time around and want to take the advantage of a bargain of three games for the price of one.
Ah The Darkness a game I played (and still do) repeatedly despite the lack of trophies or alternative endings just to enjoy the story; now it has a sequel and the first question is "Does it match up to the original?" not really. My first part will review this as a game in its own right; the second as a sequel.
To recap Jackie Estacado is an orphan raised within the structure of an Italian Mob family who in the first games is a hitman sent out on a job that goes wrong. The situation awakens a malevolent entity within him called the Darkness that gives him special powers. People die and Jackie uses this power to get his revenge and become head of the family before realising that the Darkness is starting to control him rather than the other way around. He vows to suppress it and manages to do so for two years. That's where the sequel begins.
