Tag Archives: junior smart

Mission Impossible 4 Trailer

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It’s been five long years since the last dramatic movie, and a whole lot less since the famous incident where he jumped up and down on a famous lady’s sofa but now Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt, in the long-awaited franchise’s fourth instalment Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

If you ask me Mr Cruise must have a fountain of youth somewhere because he looks good, real good. And if you ask me he always looked better with long hair so there are reasons to rejoice all round. No body is better at putting more action and twists and turns into two hours than Mr Cruise and if the trailer is anything to go by, fans of the franchise are in for a treat as the new movie appears to be packed with more death-defying stunts, dramatic chases and amazing explosions than an adrenaline junkie fed on triple Red bull intravenous drips.

In the montage I managed to spot Dubai, with Ethan Hunt climbing the super-duper high Burj building.

It’s ironic that the initial montage beats along to Eminem’s hard track – I wont back down.

If the film is any where as good as the trailer – we certainly hope he won’t.

We can’t wait till December – check out the trailer and let us know what you think.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0LQnQSrC-g&w=560&h=349]

Captain America – The First Avenger – Movie Review

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With every single month over the summer bringing with it a new superhero movie, none could argue that despite the good, the bad and the downright ugly; this year has almost been a vintage as far as comic book heroes are concerned. Only 2012 with its sequels and reboots could possibly offer more.

This month’s new release brings none other than the incredible Captain America to the big screen and this latest offering whilst perhaps not as well-known as that as Spiderman, Iron Man or even Thor is still well-loved and has its fans. I think that few, if any, would admit to seeing the trailers for this and failed to be excited. After all, Captain America is still the all American hero and with a line up featuring none other than Chris Evans (Fantastic 4, The Losers), Tommy Lee Jones (Men In Black, Fugitive) and Hugo Weaving (V for Vendetta, The Matrix) on paper at least Captain America has all the foundations in place for a huge blockbuster and a hero reinvented.

For those not up to date with the comic book material Captain America is really Steve Rogers and, much like Spiderman his is a story about true heroism, true bravery and the whole underdog overcoming insurmountable odds to emerge victorious.

After a short beginning set in present day where a crashed vehicle is discovered in the arctic a flashback reveals our protagonist as one hell of a skinny man, a diminutive asthmatic who has lost both his parents in the war and who dreams of enlisting in the Army and serving his country in World War II, but his physical ailments and pocket-sized frame keep him from being accepted. He is repeatedly beaten up for standing up for himself. His best friend Bucky Barnes (played excellently by Sebastian Stan) is all he has left, but Bucky has landed his place in the army and through their comradery you can tell he sees himself as Roger’s big brother.

A chance meeting leads Steve to meet Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci); a scientist who has developed an incredible serum that physically enhances the subject and what’s more believes that the best solider is one with the humblest heart and determined mind. He is captivated by Roger’s dogged, raw persistence to join the army and he gives him a chance.

Colonel Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) is the only obstacle standing in his way as he is in charge of the Doctor’s secret government programme their aim is to manufacture super-soldiers for the war, and he thinks Rogers does not have what it takes. However Steve shows his worth and in no time at all he is bulked-up, super-powerful and not to mention one hell of a buff prototype. I mean that in a man-to-man way of course, and may it go on record that I am not in any way jealous.

Of course, now he is no longer invisible to women and every hero needs a love interest. Here we have the surprisingly tough let lingering military agent Peggy Carter (played really nicely by Hayley Atwell) at his side to help him believe in himself. Of course to every hero there are villains, and here we have a secret faction of the Nazi’s called HYDRA led by the tyrannical Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving putting his seriously evil Mr Anderson looks to the test as Red Skull).

Schmidt has located an energy source powerful enough to change the war and the world, and his plans are a whole lot worse than whatever Hitler had in mind. Of course, Captain America is the only one who has the strength and heart to take him on and so the story begins.

Captain America is one of those films which stand out as being excellent yet deep down you just know they could have done so much more with it. I think of Iron man 2, I think of Green Lantern, I think of Spiderman 3, I think of great opportunities; little glimmers in movie history where if the directors and screenplay writers were honest with themselves would say “Damn, if only we had done this better.” This is not to say this movie is bad; far from it. In my opinion Captain America stands as probably the second best film this summer – right next to X-Men – First Class, it’s just you get the feeling that they rushed it. Maybe they were trying to get it out before the Avengers, maybe they were just looking for a way to tie it all up, maybe they were just so caught up in it all that they didn’t give it as much heart as they could have done.

There are many excellent touches. Staged in the 40’s era there are resounding set pieces; the gorgeous black and white, yet in colour approach. The fact that lessons were learnt from Green Lantern in the way that CGI has improved so much that unlike Hal Jordan Chris Evans head is attached firmly this time to his skinny ‘body double’ frame and it looks good, so much so that it is almost a shock when he bulks up. Talking of which, Chris Evans should be applauded as he does carry the role well and his acting quickly dismissed any doubts in my mind along with any memories of the Green Lantern. There are some huge explosions and incredible sequences to make you go wow. I loved the sequence on the train and there is another fantastic one where he is on a motorbike. There are even some sad moments too and look out for Tony Starks dad making an appearance, all I can say is ‘like father like son’. There is no denying that the Marvel mythology all ties together.

However, in contrast the film is heavily sanitised, and along with it any real ‘bad boy’ moments. Hugo Weaving struggles with a lack of material or direction to work with and it shows; I don’t think towards the end even the Red Skull knows what he is doing. There is a lot of time just after the mid-way point which is just stretched out and feels like padding. Finally, whilst the movie is a marvel of CGI and action the 3D effects are disappointing I could only count around ten 3D effects used in the entire two and a half hour film. So the question is what was the point? You might as well see it in 2D and save yourself some money for more popcorn – at 2.5 hours you will need it.

 

My Verdict:

Taken all of the good and bad into account Captain America is still a fantastic movie to go and see. It might not go down in history as the best superhero movie ever, and stand as no more than a prequel to The Avengers but it is still worth watching and is still a great treat for kids and grown up kids alike.

8 / 10

A word to the wise – stay till the end of the credits – you won’t regret it!

Captain America – Super Soldier – Videogame Review

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When Captain America throws his mighty shield…erm…lets put a cap on that…

Another month, another super-hero movie tie-in; with a staple diet like this as a games reviewer I am starting to feel undernourished You get good games, you get great games you get crap games and then you get these. However I always try to be optimistic, Captain America is the big, big film of the summer; the one I most want to see and although trying to find a decent movie tie-in is almost as hard as trying to find a particular drop of water in the whole of the Irish Sea it does happen….occasionally. I live in faith.

 

From the start it is clear that Games Developer – Next Level – wanted to immediately set Captain America – Super Solider apart from the mediocrity of its counterparts; how I hear you ask? Well they…erm…‘borrowed’ some ideas from a small selection of winning franchises such as Arkham Asylum and Prince of Persia. Well, I say ‘borrowed’ but ‘stolen like sweets from a baby’ could equally be a fitting metaphor.  There is the solid and capable fighting engine, a similar mode to the Detective mode used in the Batman games and there is a fair bit of leaping and jumping around too. Chris Evans (no, not that one) provides both his voice and likeness to ‘Cap’, the game even plays in decent stereoscopic 3D but despite these credible assets Captain America is still left with just a few good things going for it.

 

The first disappointment for me was that although the game is based on the film world there is very little of the film in terms of content. Developers Next Level should be hitting themselves over the head with Captain America’s shield for this penalty kick as this is a huge missed opportunity; who wouldn’t want to be the young Steve Rogers? Heck, they could have even given you a training level based on his training as Captain America, but oddly they decided to leave this out and worse still, leave out Red Skull too –his sworn enemy – who only ever appears briefly in the whole of the game.

 

Equally disappointing is the fact that the whole game unfolds within the confines of a castle in the Bavarian mountains. Whilst on its own this is not totally a bad thing as it is a maze type complex with different routes and levels very much like Arkham Asylum, it is quite pithy and delivered with so much less finesse than its Batman counterpart. For example the game does not allow you to explore you surroundings; heck you cannot even jump over a table unless the game says so. So finding yourself stuck to predefined routes can and does get repetitive and boring.

 

Combat though is satisfying and solid.  It is not out of this world but a nice variation on the Arkham’s fight controls; as such it is easy to take on multiple enemies all at once and is all about timing of button presses to parry and deliver devastating blows. Each fight ends with smooth and sweet slow-motion finishers and you can even grab an enemy and use their weapon against more oncoming assailants. Captain America’s shield plays a big part of his fighting style too; deflecting bullets and of course you can throw it in a way similar to the way Batman throws his Batarang.

 

However, graphically the game suffers, although characters are detailed nothing really stood out at all to me at all, I think the programmers just stopped when they reached the point were it was all functional. Equally enemies and environments are blander than a Grey pot of Dulux emulsion and critically they are uninspiring. By the third boss I quickly stopped caring who was going to win as there was no sense of danger, no sense of urgency, instead, I felt like I was just going through the motions, which somewhat ironically I feel perhaps the programmers of this game were doing. Shame.

 

My Final Verdict –

Captain America has got some great ideas but far too many reasons mean it fall flat on its face. There is potential here and there are a few good button presses to be had, but there are just so many games out there which do the job better it is just not good enough.

 

It is becoming irritating to think that with so many crap movie tie-ins out there you would think that by now games developers wouldn’t even try to go down this route unless they had something solid or refreshing to bring to the table. It really is a shame because it’s doubtful there would even be a Captain America game unless there was a movie being released to cash in on. Yet the sad thing is I get the feeling that if the programmers were allowed to be a bit freer with their ideas and not rushed to meet the deadlines then this game could have been so much better.

 

Lets hope the movie is better than this.

5.6/ 10

 

How does this game compare to others in its genre?

There are a whole host of genres which Captain America could compete but unfortunately he wouldn’t stand a chance

Equal to: Marvel Super Hero Squad: Infinity Gauntlet, Green Lantern

Better than: Iron Man, Thor,

Worse than: Arkham Asylum, God of War, Castlevania – Lords of shadow, Bayonetta,

 

First Dark Knight Rises Trailer Hits the Web

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Can you believe it – Warner Bros. have just released the first trailer for the eagerly awaited conclusion to their Batman franchise – The Dark Night Rises.

The new Batman movie is scheduled for UK release on July 20, 2012 and although the teaser is just 1.35 minutes long and doesn’t give too much away scenes of Gary Oldman’s character Commissioner Gordon lying in hospital and a sharp cut of Bane looking very sinister certainly raised my spirits – especially after the rubbish portrayal of him last seen in Batman and Robin.

Trust Frost Magazine to bring the goods

Dark Knight Trailer

New Ico and Shadow of the Colossus HD Videos now online

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Sony are looking to put the nightmare past few months of hacking behind them by putting up two new Japanese trailers for their two critically acclaimed games overnight.

These two critically acclaimed games are none other than the new ICO and Shadow of the Coloussus HD updates and it is clear as day to see that these new videos are there to tantalize, arouse and excite fans new and old.
Personally I have to admit that I never got round to playing ICO but I did play the mighty, mighty Shadow of the Colossus and that game was nothing short of incredible.

From the footage it seems that both HD updates are looking totally gorgeous with all those humongous bosses a release date looking like it will be the end of September. Even better is the announcement that these games will come with full 3D support and a cheaper than chips asking price of £30 for both titles.

Check out the trailer and give us your thoughts.

L.A. Noire – Game Review

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Rockstar Games makes the 1940’s world dark, sinister and not to mention sexy.

I knew it the very minute I saw her; something about the way she made her approach at me, like eyes looking from afar. Her controversial nature shone a reputation like a Rockstar and demanded my attention. Like a woman of your wildest dreams Rockstar Game LA Noire puts you in an incomparable situation where too much is never enough and, more often than not you will be left crying out for more or to get just that little bit further.

I have been talking like this ever since I played LA Noire – the newest release from Rockstar Games and what can I say – I am smitten.

In LA Noire you become Cole Phelps, a hero returning from World War II and now a cop on the LAPD. Murders, corruption and dirty, dirty deceit stand in your way as you attempt to piece together vital clues and discover the truth. During the game you will track and solve cases that include serial killers, rapists, smash paedophile rings and drug rackets. You will also come face to face with the seedy world of 1940’s LA, Hollywood, racism, Domestic Violence not to mention the questionable motives of the police department. Typical of Rockstar Games – whom almost seem to delight bringing you the gritty reality – the game does not shy away from the hard topics, coupled with sharp, period-specific scripts, solid direction and the adoption of Motion-Scan technology, (seen in Heavy Rain and Mass Effect but used with much more proficiency here) LA Noire is the embodiment of Cole Phelps, and you cannot help but develop rapport with him for what he is facing. Like fellow title Heavy Rain there is a strong undercurrent that all is not as it seems and that there is a large area of grey between black and white. Throughout the game there are frequent flashbacks to his troubling tour of duty – some of which concern his colleagues and around the game there are newspapers which show you a gritty back story independent of the main game which are pretty shocking. There are also cases that leave you with a sick feeling in your stomach because you realize the characters in the game have got it all wrong.

The majority of the gameplay lies in solving crimes. These are presented in a lovely ‘Columbo’ Sunday matinee prologue kind of feel; there is a murder, a woman is snatched, a man is shot, a shady dealing takes place or you see someone enter a building and there is a scream. You make your way to the car, drive to the scene and find and examine as many pieces of evidence as you can find. Finding evidence is partially similar to Heavy rain, but rather than technology good old Cole has his instincts. Sometime the pad will vibrate if he comes across something, sometimes if you are searching an apartment you will hear the music change, sometimes you will have to use your saved intuition points and sometimes you will just have to be lucky. It is through unearthing this evidence and speaking to witnesses that you will build up enough of a case to put a suspect behind bars.

It is in these sequences where LA Noire comes into its own. The MotionScan technology truly takes things to a whole new level. Facial expressions, body language, tones of voice all play a part in helping you determine whether a witness is telling you the truth or plain face lying in order to hide skeletons in their closet. In questioning a suspect you can make accusations but if you do you need to refer back to incriminating evidence perhaps located earlier on. Explicit questioning can be a nerve-racking affair especially in the later stages of a case when the pressure is on by your superiors to wrap up a case or when evidence is so slim you have to go with anything you have. In the first few stages of the game the in game tutorial provides quite a lot of support and hand holding but later, when the gloves are off you are expected to do it all and there are quite a few surprises along the way – nothing is as it seems.

Quite often you may not even get as far as questioning a suspect as some will make a break for it and need to be stopped. This begins a chase sequence where you and your partner have to give chase either on-foot or in a vehicle. Whilst these sequences offer a welcome break from the main question and answer routine they fail to be done with as much spit and polish. Some sequences end in a fisty-cuffs or a shoot out – and again whilst these are credibly delivered and the combat and firearms are nicely executed in an ‘Untouchables’ kinda way, sometimes you get the feeling that these were just flung in for extra good measure. It is a bit like when you commandeer a vehicle in the game; although you are taking the vehicle with authority it is essentially no different (besides the mandatory drag to the street or slap to the face) of that seen in ‘Grand Theft Auto’. Not that these sections are bad, the quality of the actions is as you would expect of any other sand box game, they just could be done better.

Sometimes LA Noire is too smart for its own good. Rockstar obviously wanted to cram a great deal into this project and it shows but to be honest at times it is bursting at the seams. Despite being linear in its approach quite often you are encouraged to stray from the path into sheer nothingness with side missions which are just petty and rarely drive the plot forward. In short it just is not becoming of the title. Another gripe would be in the character animation. Occasionally I found annoying glitches when I wanted to manoeuvre the character to do exactly what I wanted him to do. The same happens for your partner’s animations too, which, on more than a few occasions can only be described as erratic. As a games player I found this quite disappointing, however thankfully these were less of the norm. Everything is so beautifully rendered from the vehicles to the buildings that to be honest the minor faults pale in comparison to the appeal and trying to cram so much into a game is almost destined to run into problems of some kind sooner or later.

With 21 primary case missions to solve, along with 40 side missions and countless collectables there is certainly lots to discover wit La Noire, and although you may not wish to trawl through the game for a second play in order to succeed in your gameplay rankings there is a whole host of Downloadable Content to sink your investigative skills into. These include:

The Naked City – a bonus case previously given away to those who pre-ordered the game. Here Phelps investigates the apparent suicide of a fashion model. It also contains the “Badge Pursuit Challenge” where the player is tasked with finding 20 police badges hidden in the city. If you manage to find them all you will gain access to the “Button Man” suit; an in-game piece of clothing that allows the player to carry extra ammo.

A Slip of the Tongue; a traffic case where a simple car theft escalates into a large scale investigation into the largest car fraud racket in the city’s history.

Popping into the PSN Store in the game also give you the opportunity to purchase:

“The Broderick” detective suit; a suit that boosts the fighting ability of the player’s character as well as its resistance to damage.

“The Sharpshooter” that enhances a character’s aim with pistols and rifles.

“The Chicago Piano” an OMG type of Machine Gun as they say ‘favoured for its reliability’ which when purchased is stored in the boot of Cole Phelps’ car throughout the game.

If that isn’t enough more DLC is planned for the future including two other cases: Nicholson Electroplating, an Arson case and Reefer Madness, a Vice case due for release on 12 July 2011.

All of this means that there is plenty of reasons to return to this title and purchasing a RockStar pass gives you entitlement to new content as it is released.

My Final Verdict –

So I turned my eyes to her as she entered the room and smiled as I turned her on…I knew it wasn’t going to be a one night stand, as long as she kept bringing something new to me I would keep wanting to play with her all night long. She was never going to stay on the shelf…not for long anyway…

Sorry…In short – Granted it is not perfect – but it is still gloriously good.

8.9 / 10

How does this game compare to others in its genre?

There are only a few games of this type for comparison…

Equal to: Heavy Rain

Better than: Alpha Protocol

Worse than: None

Microsoft Shows Off New Kinect & Windows Phone Crossover

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If you thought it was just going to be for games, think again. Microsoft was always going to have more special things in the pipeline for their innovative Kinect.

In typical Microsoft style, the following video surfaced showcasing some early features of cross-platform use between Windows Phone and Kinect. It demonstrates just some of the basic features that can be used, and wow! The future does look promising – sending reminders to your phone or even sending directions.

 

While the video shows development testing in its early stages, already the rumour mill is turning about what’s next. Personally, I would like to see if stereoscopic 3D could be added into the mix. Or how about online play between Kinect users? How about Windows being used by the Kinect ‘touch style’ like Tony Stark in Iron Man?

What would you like to see…?

Six Things You Didn’t Know About Green Lantern

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1) There have been six Green Lanterns in total.

Although most people have come to know the Green Lantern as being Hal Jordan, there were five others. In the Cartoon Network’s Justice League cartoons, he is John Stewart – an African-American man. But the very first Green Lantern was the World War II-era superhero, Alan Scott, an army engineer who found a magic green lantern and made a ring that allowed him to tap its powers.

The other Lanterns are all members of the Green Lantern Corps. Obviously. you have Hal Jordan who received his from Abin Sur, who was hurt and later died from injuries when his spaceship crashed. Guy Gardner was second as a backup should anything ‘happen’ to Hal, until Stewart replaced Gardner on the sub’s bench. Kyle Rayner became the ‘last’ Green Lantern when Jordan became infected with the Parallax and went on a murderous rampage. And the last member of the Corps who became a Green Lantern for Earth is Jade, the daughter of Alan Scott, who was given one of the spare Power Rings.

2) Superman was going to be in the film at one point making a cameo appearance.

Following on from Marvel’s success at having cameos in movies, DC and the director were intent at having Clark Kent/Superman in the script. Originally, he had a cameo as one of the candidates considered to receive a power ring, but was cut out because the filmmakers didn’t want to depend on another superhero for a success. So much for The Man of Steel’s invulnerability.

3) There is a hidden scene at the end of the credits. Sorry, but I just wouldn’t be a man if I told you what happens.

4) Quentin Tarantino was considered to direct the film.

This is absolutely true and was scheduled as his big comeback film. Question is, could you imagine a Green Lantern film directed by him? A cross between guns, green lights, John Travolta and Samuel L Jackson and let’s not forget blood, exploding heads etc. Hmm. Can Green Lantern dance?

5) There are different-coloured Lanterns.

The Green Lantern’s background has been greatly expanded in recent years, to the point that there are now seven different Lantern Corps. Each is driven by a particular emotion — the Green Lanterns are powered by willpower, the Blue Lanterns is hope, the Red Lanterns represent rage, and so on. Sinestro, a character in the movie and comic books, inherits a yellow ring – driven by fear. Incredibly, in the comics, Blake Lively’s character, Carol Ferris, goes on to inherit a violet ring, powered by love, and later becomes Star Sapphire.

6) The movie could have been completely different.

There are loads of different scripts that they came up with for Green Lantern.. Out of all those, perhaps the one most interesting is the one which contained a cameo by Alan Scott, the first Green Lantern in history (whose powers were magical rather than cosmic). Scott was going to be the United States President, and near the end would reveal his own past as a Green Lantern to Jordan, and give him his blessing. He was later revised to become an agent of the Checkmate agency (the Checkmate membership stayed true to the comics), who would approach and offer Jordan membership. Later drafts finally wrote him out of the film, and replaced him with Amanda Waller. Shame? Yeah that’s what I said…