Sunday 28 December 2008

Fallout 3 (2008) - Post Apocalyptic Video Game Review (Xbox 360)


Finally completed! After thirty seven hours I have laid that almighty beast to rest. What a great game! Made by the same team who made the snore fest Oblivion, and it really shows. Oblivion failed for me as I just found it so damn boring, first person combat with swords isn't fun, and the po-faced fantasy setting left me cold, plus the broken level up system which saw me get sixty five hours into it before being completely stuck.

Fallout 3 has guns, lots of guns, guns of all sizes and types, from the mini nuke launcher to debris launchers - this game has it all. The game takes place in a post Armageddon Washington DC. A place of ruins, and of mutants. Your character lives in a vault, locked away safe from the evils of the world. Soon your peace is shattered when your father vanishes to the outside world, following him you emerge into the broken world.


The game is all about choices, will you be good or bad? The choice is completely yours. Everything goes, from selling children into slavery to nuking an entire town, it's all possible.

I really enjoyed the game, the V.A.T.S system makes combat an entertaining feature. The main quest itself isn't too long, but there are lots and lots of optional quests, of which I didn't experience all of them. The best thing about the game is the world. There is an amazing number of locations which you don't even need to visit, but the option to do so is there, and visiting these lets you create your own story in your head.


If you hated Oblivion you will love this. If you loved Oblivion you will definitely love this, buy it!

An Update (December 2010): This is a bad early review I did for this game.  With the abundance of DLC for this game my playtime extended to around eighty hours and that is still without me having done everything there is to do in the gigantic world.

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Saturday 27 December 2008

I Am Legend - Zombie Film Review


I Am Legend is a film based on the book of the same name. It is the third film to do so. First there was Vincent Price in The Last Man on Earth in the 50's (I think), then in the 70's there was the excellent The Omega Man starring Charlton Heston and now this starring Will Smith.

Like the others it concerns a man who appears to be the last man alive on Earth. Everyone else having mutated into monster like creatures allergic to sunlight. By day Will Smith searches New York for food and supplies, and works on a vaccine to the virus everyone has. By night him and his dog hide in his fortified apartment building. The film is much like the others, everything from the flash back to pre-virus Earth, and general plot are the same. That's all I can say really, the worst film version of the book, but still a good, solid film.


The extras on the DVD were amazing. They comprised of 4 short animated stories, all very very dark and bleak. They had so much atmosphere to them.

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Monday 8 December 2008

The Possessed - Horror Film Review



The Possessed is clearly a film made on a tight budget. It looks terrible, has mostly terrible acting, and the plot is all over the place. Characters seem to teleport from location to location which makes things more confusing than the near empty plot.

The film starts with a hideous music video. After this bizarre intro a small flat is shown. The depressed female singer of the music video calls her boyfriend into their bedroom before committing suicide in front of him.

Several months later her boyfriend, and the other band members visit a psychic, the best character of the film. The psychic is a flamboyant theatrical man, wearing clown make up, quite freaky looking. The band members have visited him to find out if their dead band member 'Cassidy' is ok for them to start up the band again, having stopped it after her death. The psychic seems to get possessed by the spirit of Cassidy and tells the members that their all going to die. They ignore him as a crank and head off to their friends recording studio. Soon the spirit of Cassidy arrives and starts her killing spree...

As mentioned the film is extremely badly acted with the exception of a few characters. I really don't understand what the point of the film was, but I still enjoyed watching it. The special effects are quite bad, I still guess I recommend it though.

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Obscure - Horror Videogame Review (X-Box)


Obscure is a survival horror which was released on the Playstation 2, X-box, PC and maybe Gamecube a few years ago. The game is unique in that it is actually a 2 player game. If you don't have a friend to play it with then the 2nd character is controlled by A.I, and you are able to switch between the 2 characters with the touch of a button.

The setting of the game is a high school. A group of students hide behind after school one day to search for their friend who has vanished. The school has a long history of missing students, so they figure that seeing as the last place they saw him was the school gym that it's likely he is within the school grounds somewhere. Unfortunately the night they chose to hide out in the school is the same night that the school suddenly becomes over run by strange monsters. As well as the 5 students being in the school, several teachers have also become mixed up in the madness.


The game is a mix of puzzles and combat. The combat is not really a strong part of the game. The enemies are allergic to light, so at first seems a bit similar to 'Alone in the Dark' (The Dreamcast and PSOne version at least). There's some clever touches such as smashing grubby windows to flood rooms with sunlight. As the game progresses the sun goes down, so for the 2nd half of the game this cant be done. There are 5 different characters you can play as. They all have different special abilities, but you never need a specific characters abilities, so any 2 will do.

The puzzle elements are quite simple, and the map you have always clearly shows you where to go next, the game is also quite short. Despite this I had a lot of fun with it. The story while not original was sufficient to keep me wanting to play. The A.I is kinda terrible at times, I assume it would be more fun in 2 player.

There is a sequel, I believe it's called 'Obscure: The Aftermath'. I think its on the PS2, X-Box, and possibly Wii. If you see the game cheap - get it!

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Murder Party - Horror Film Review


It's been over a month since my last post, I really need to keep this updated. I have quite a big list of things to write about now in the world of horror.

Murder Party is a horror laced with lots of black humour. A 30 something nerd (Chris) is on his way back from his job as a hated traffic warden on Halloween when he happens across an invitation to a party titled 'Murder Party'. Being the lonely guy he is, and having no better option other than to sit at home and watch some newly purchased horror films he decides he will go. He makes a Knight costume out of a cardboard box which is hilarious looking in its pure rubbishness, then heads to the address on the invite.

The party is in a rough industrial area of New York, eventually he finds the place; an old dilapidated warehouse. Inside he comes across the party. A group of odd art students. Their costumes are quite cool, ones dressed as a baseball gang character from The Warriors, a girl dressed as a Replicant from Bladerunner, as well as a Vampire, Werewolf, and a Cheerleader.


After talking briefly they pounce on Chris, after a short tussle he is knocked out and awakes tied up to a chair, the art students reveal they are going to kill him as part of an art installation there doing to impress their idol who is going to give a grant to the one with the best art installation idea.

Most of the film happens from this setting. Chris spends a lot of the film not only tied up, but also gagged, so it is a credit to the actor playing him that he comes across as such a sweet and likable character despite hardly having any lines at all.

The film as mentioned is darkly humorous, the art students are fantastic characters, and as the film progress become increasingly bitter and shallow, showing their own insecurities as they are killed off one by one, mostly by hilarious accidents. Also the fact that during the entire film Chris never takes off his amazingly funny cumbersome, cardboard Knight costume is a very cool touch

The films obviously been made on a budget, most the action takes place in the one location, but despite this the acting is of a very high quality, and the look of the film is very sharp. The plot is quite simple, but the life the actors put into the characters make the film seem such a breath of fresh air. The film is quite bloody and violent, especially later on, but is only a 15 which I found surprising. A surprise hit I thought.

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