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The Purge

Stephen Brewer
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The Purge

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Upon seeing the trailer for this film I must admit it had me hooked, it was such an interesting premise. In fact it had a few of us discussing what we would do if everything was legal for 12 hours. Sadly, I don’t feel the film lived up to the trailer. Maybe this is due to my love of watching films without knowing too much about them. In my head I had the film following a few people throughout an American city trying to survive The Purge. Unfortunately what I got was your basic home invasion film with very little difference to any other.

I want to clarify, just because the film didn’t live up to expectations, does not mean it was a bad film….just disappointing. It was full of cliches with a very obvious story-line.

 

Vigilandia

It starts as many of these ‘home invasion’ films start, everything is safe and secure, family have no worries and in fact the dad looks at yachts to buy. But then someone (and you can guess who) does something which will obviously put the entire family at risk. This then leads to the series of events which anybody familiar with claustrophobic horror or home invasion films could vaguely write a script for and be very accurate without trying too hard.

The film was written and directed by James DeMonaco which should have been a warning light for myself. DeMonaco also wrote Jack starring Robin Williams and Assault on Precinct 13 which, despite garnering some good reviews I cannot say I was a big fan.

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I also quite enjoyed the obvious attempts at showing the gulf between the classes, how the rich took advantage of the situation and how the poor and sick were most at risk. This wasn’t discussed a lot between the characters, in fact it was mainly brought to the forefront through an expository news broadcast shown throughout the film.

What this film did have going for it was some good acting from Ethan Hawke (Daybreakers, Staten Island) who is an obvious favourite of James DeMonaco who has hired Hawke to play in many of his works including Staten Island and Assault on Precinct 13. Hawkes wife and main co-star was one Lena Headey, an established British actress who many of you may know from Game of Thrones where she plays Cersei Lannister.

 

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Ethan Hawke plays the main character, an average, run of the mill dad, fiercely protective of his family and very materialistic. His wife Lena Headley plays the mother of the piece, the lynchpin trying to hold the family together. A daughter obviously wrapped with teenage angst and what can only be described as a son just old enough to understand and dislike ‘The Purge’. Lena plays this role very well, as you watch her try and balance the other three members of her family keeping them safe and happy.

In conclusion I will say that this film is a good watch if there’s nothing else on that you fancy or you really enjoy claustrophobic horror/home invasion films. If not, don’t let the idea of ‘The Purge’ itself cloud your mind, very little is done with what could have been a great story premise.

Trailer:

http://youtu.be/Lekx_ZlqyWk

Porcelain: A Gothic Fairytale – 10 GPPs

Cristina Bogdan
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Porcelain: A Gothic Fairytale – 10 GPPs

I’ve recently gotten my grubby hands on a copy of Porcelain: A Gothic Fairytale by Benjamin Read and Chris Wildgoose and I thought I’d share my finds with you, but in case you’re one of those that don’t like to read long winded reviews, here’s the short version of it: It rocked!

Published by Improper Books, with a release date set for July of this year, the comic has been touring the internet for a while, glimpses being offered to curious readers for a few months now. I admit I was one of those curious readers ever since I read the few pages the publishers have posted online, the start of the tale leaving me wanting more.

Now, for those of you that do enjoy long-winded reviews peppered with pearls of wisdom by yours truly, here’s the extended version of It rocked!

**ATTENTION: HERE BE (SOME) SPOILERS**

Porcelain_01_Lett_001The heroine of our story is Child, a young girl that ends up crossing paths with a man fabled to be a wizard, his wealth and penchant for secrecy making him the target of rumours and gossip all over town. A virtual hermit, the Porcelain Maker, as he’s known through the story, or Uncle, crosses paths with Child as she breaks into his house at the behest of Belle, a less than pleasant character who unintentionally helps Child change her life for the best. Or does she? I suppose you’ll all find out in July.

One of my favourite things about the story was the fact that it wasn’t predictable. Without giving too much away, I’ll say that just like Child I had certain expectations of how things would turn out. She voiced my own thoughts in the book’s pages and I was actually impressed with how well the details were thought out to avoid the clichés of the past and to mislead the reader into thinking they’ve got things figured out. As I was reading the first few pages of it I actually thought I knew what was going to happen, particularly since it includes recognizable elements of horror and Gothic novels we’ve all encountered before at least once, whether around a camp fire, while reading a book or watching a movie. The novelty of this story stems specifically from the fact that it avoids following in the footsteps of its predecessors.

Since this is a comic book, a good story wouldn’t have been enough. I know, it sounds shallow, but let’s face it, if you buy a graphic novel you expect some fine art to keep you entertained, not just a good tale (Even though in my opinion that’s equally, if not more so important. Sue me, I’m weird.). Speaking of the art, then, it was beautiful. The same amount of detail that went into making the story compelling was put into creating characters that wouldn’t blend in with so many other comic book characters. Each is recognizable, unique and, unlike certain type of superheroes, each possesses more than one outfit. The passage of time is actually noticeable by the way the character’s clothing style changes, as well as their general looks. It’s most noticeable with Child, since she’s the central character, at least for me, and also because she’s the one that changes the most since she took her first steps into Uncle’s manor, evolving from being nothing more than a skinny, foul-mouthed runt into a lady.

Porcelain_01_Lett_001

 

Benjamin Read and Chris Wildgoose take us for quite the ride with Porcelain: A Gothic Fairytale and it’s one I don’t regret ever taking, despite having feared, as I mentioned before that it would turn into yet another predictable horror story wannabe. By the time I was nearing the final pages I was on the edge of my seat, trying to guess what will happen because up until that point I had been wrong on most everything I had assumed about it. My advice for you when you start reading? Keep an open mind and hold off on assuming anything, you’ll be surprised either way, but you won’t have to admit you’ve been in the wrong about it.

Here’s the trailer for the story, giving you but a glimpse of what awaits for you if read it all. For those of you that would like to see even more of it, here’s a link to the first 16 pages of the novel: http://issuu.com/improperbooks/docs/porcelain_pdfpromo

X-Men #1 — 6 GPPs

Andrew Corban
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X-Men #1 — 6 GPPs

[CONTAINS SPOILERS]

I could not WAIT to read this. Admittedly, I’ve been out of the comic book game since I was a teen. My New Year’s resolution was to read more comics and Lovecraft. I’m generally not drawn to the superhero side of the comic world but I’ve always liked Marvel’s stable of classic characters. So, I really wanted to give this a go.

comics-x-men-variant-cover-terry-dodson

There was a lot of hype surrounding this reboot given that the team was all female. I never really got why this was such a big deal. Does it really matter which bridge officers you take with you on your away mission? I love them all so any combination is cool with me.

What really made me want to read it was the cover. Coipel and Martin put together a truly gorgeous piece of art. My favorite is mohawk Storm. Could you get any more badass?? (No. No you can’t.)

mohawkstorm The whole line-up of characters is really inviting. Psylocke, Jubilee, Rogue, Storm, Kitty Pryde and Rachael Grey all promise some serious storytelling opportunities.

The first issue is the initial installment of a three part story arc called Primer. After a quick re-introduction to the superhero milieu, I had to engage some serious popcorning. This is when you ignore major errors in logic in favor of fun.

In the first few pages we learn of a huge explosion in a European city. This is followed by Jubilee smuggling a baby through an airport while being followed by bad guy named John Sublime. He arrives at Mutant High ahead of Jubilee. She travels by train to the same destination.

xmen_1_preview4

First, no one knows about this international terrorist incident. Jubilee is the first to inform her fellow X-Men. I find it hard to believe that there isn’t a 24 hour news cycle in this world. Secondly, how did Jubilee get an orphaned baby with no papers through the airport? Wouldn’t airport security be a lot tighter after a terrorist explosion? And finally, I’m not really sure how the Newtonian mechanics on Rogue derailing the train was supposed to work, but it didn’t look right to me. (Maybe I’m just being a little Aristotelian on that bit though.)

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Anyway, I really hope Wood and Schaeffer resolve some of these shortcomings in the coming issues. I found it to be somewhat distracting but I munched on my popcorn all the same. The only other pet peeve I had was the name of the villain, Arkea…as in archaebacteria. WARNING: If you are currently studying general biology you may grimace at all that cheese. (I might have to stop reading if there is ever a character named LUCA or Eukarion.)

However, I did enjoy the art very much. The art, panel to panel, is very impressive. As a cosplay enthusiast, I really liked the costumes of the characters. I hope these designs start making the rounds at cons if they haven’t already.

All in all, X-Men #1 was okay. I still want to read more but maybe I’d like to go a little lighter on the popcorn and cheese. (It’s a strange sensation…being back in spandex.) Give it a gander especially if you are fairly habituated to superhero comics.

Rain Forecast For PSN This Autumn

James Buckingham
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Rain Forecast For PSN This Autumn

Queue a number of meteorology-based puns… Rain is a game created by SCE Japan & published by Sony, and looks like it takes some inspiration from the 2000 cult classic Ico.

Rain Header

Revealed at GamesCom last year, Rain is an adventure game where the protagonist is a nameless boy who is lost in the rain when he sees a silhouette of an invisible girl – once he starts following her he becomes invisible too, then realising there’s lots of other invisible creatures wandering around as well.

The boy can only be seen when standing in the pouring rain – once he is under shelter he is completely invisible, and only detectable by following his footprints. It’s this visibility mechanic that drives all the puzzles in the game, be it the little boy’s or the other creatures roaming about.

RainThe game is great to look at, and (as you’ll see from the gameplay video below) makes great use of some beautiful music like Debussy’s Clair De Lune as well as a suitably bleak narrative.

Following in the footsteps of That Game Company‘s Journey, it’s great to see games like this coming exclusively to the Playstation Network.

Rain is set to precipitate onto PSN later this year in Autumn.

Retro Game Base – London’s Last Retro Video Game Store

Phil_Matthews
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Retro Game Base – London’s Last Retro Video Game Store

On the morning of Saturday 25th May, the first day of the UK May bank holiday weekend, I was quite happily playing on my PS3 while my Wife was out for her usual gym visit and supermarket trip, until the sun decided to shine ever so brightly, obscuring my view of the TV; this was sign that I should put the controller down and get outside, but where would I go? I could go for a bike ride or a walk through the local park, but then I remembered seeing a video on You Tube promoting a new retro video game store in London. I looked up the address and found that it is in Streatham, South London; which is over an hour away from my North London home, but I was very curious to see what it’s all about and thought that it would be great to tell you all about it, so I jumped on a train and when I got there, I found myself greeted by this stunning sight:

Retro Game Base 4837A

As soon as I walked through the door, I thought I had died and gone to gamers’ heaven; there was so much taking me back to my childhood and I didn’t know what to look at first. For a small shop there was plenty crammed in there; shelves were stacked to the max with games for most formats and buckets full of loose carts for NES/SNES and also the imported famicom versions. All of the most popular Sega and Nintendo consoles were there in abundance, as well as a few clone machines (some play both NES & SNES or NES & Megadrive), an Atari Lynx, a Vetrex, Amigas, ZX Spectrums, a Game & Watch and Grandstand machines, just to name a few. They also had a few consoles set up to a CRT TV (Sonic 3 was running on demo mode while I was there).

It’s not just a place to buy old games though; they have a number of  retro coin-op arcade machines you can play on including Street Fighter II and a Neo-Geo arcade cabinet with various titles; some of these machines are set to free-play. They also hold in-store events from time to time, such as arcade sessions and tornaments, complete with a licenced bar. Details of these events can be found on their Facebook page here.

 

Here are some photos I took during my visit:

 

There really isn’t anything else like this (in London anyway); sure, there’s the odd game shop, which has a glass cabinet with a few N64 and SNS carts, but they specialise in current generation games and consoles, which you won’t see any of in RGB. You can also find many of the items RGB sells on various online stores but to the best of my knowledge,you won’t find a physical store like this.

 

If you would like more details on the store and some of items they stock, you can find them on their website here.

 

Finally, here’s the TV show pilot they released on You Tube recently:

 

Pixel Dungeon

GuruMel
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Pixel Dungeon

Pixel dungeon is a single-player dungeon exploration game for android devices. It is currently in beta, with 20 levels available.

This is not a complicated game, nor a work of genius, but possibly something even more rare: a free game I can play on my tablet that I actually enjoy, doesn’t require a constant internet connection and has no real-time component (so no pressure to play every damn day or be limited by the amount of flimflam tokens they choose to award me each day).

Old timers and abandonware fans will know this formula well – it’s a roguelike!

Rogue was an ASCII game first released in in the early 1980’s to run on Unix, and eventually early PC’s. The formula was used for many other games, including Moria, NetHack and Ragnarok, and paved the way for lots of later games such as Pokemon and Don’t Starve.

Remember this? Spot the difference….

The game generates a random dungeon and you fight your way deeper and deeper through the levels, gaining experience and items. You have one life and death is final. It is a pretty simple concept, and been done many times, but for me it will always be a winning recipe – randomly spawned dungeon, objects and monsters, and the potential for completely unlimited play. You could say it is a pretty linear plot. Well, I contend, it barely has any plot at all! Even I can see this may not be a good thing but these games were always simple, engaging and fun, and Pixel Dungeon has done a great job of recreating that.

                         

Unlike the early games we have a nice graphical interface, with images for the different player classes and baddies. It’s made for touch screen and is very easy to navigate, using a simple interface and none of the complicated keyboard shortcuts used in the earlier games. In this regard alone it is a brilliant port to a new system – the touch-screen control is better for this game than the keyboard ever was. The game has a nice, if slightly annoying soundtrack, and sound effects from food, items and fights adding to the atmosphere.

Just like in the old games, you pick up random items (potions, scrolls, weapons and armour) which must then be identified, or you can just take a risk and drink it down! The deeper into the dungeon you get, the harder the monsters get. There are occasional locked doors and keys to be found, but nothing really more complex than that in terms of puzzles. The surprisingly detailed wiki tells me that there is a shop available every 5 levels – I’ll make it there one day!

For any oldies that remember Rogue, the old tricks do still work! Heal by running up and down in a room, lure monsters into doorways by backing off one square at a time. Also, the issues I’d forgotten are still there: armour and weaponry that can only be used when you are over a certain strength.

The games website tells me that there is actually an objective: to find the Amulet of Yendor. I would be quite happy just to find the next level without dying.

The main criticism of the game is that it is hard – way hard! It’s been a long time, but I do remember Rogue and Ragnarok also being insanely difficult and certainly requiring an element of luck. I haven’t yet made it past the third level of the dungeon, but I’ve enjoyed every game so far. My only problem is that death always takes me by surprise – I think I get overconfident once I’ve killed a few gnolls.

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The creator, Watabou, has clearly put in a lot of effort, and is continuing to update the game. The website states that they intend to keep this game free, and add more content with every update.

This is not by any means the only roguelike available on android, but it is the only one so far that’s impressed me enough to try it. I had my fun with ASCII Rogue a long time ago, so now I expect a game like this to offer something more, which Pixel Dungeon really does. I will definitely be checking out the Nethack port at some point, as that also does look like they’ve really made an effort.

It doesn’t suffer at all on my phone or tablet, perfectly playable on either size device.

In summary, it’s free, it’s fun, it has endless replay options and it includes all the fantasy gaming tropes you need. It may be very simple, but it’s a winning formula that I’ve always loved – I will certainly be keeping this one!

Matt Geary Interviews Tabitha Lyons – MCM London 2013

Matt Geary
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Matt Geary Interviews Tabitha Lyons – MCM London 2013

After Talking to the guys at SCG, I manged to move over to the next desk and talk to Cosplayer and co fouder of Arty Fakes, Tabitha Lyons.

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/TabithaArtyfakes

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See more pictures from MCM london here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.581707275193326.1073741834.246488858715171&type=3

Video and interview by Matt Geary
Music bought on Licence from audiojungle

 

 

[box_light]

Intro Animation and water mark by Iamleki 

https://www.facebook.com/Iamleki?fref=ts –

check his shiz out!

*apologies for any dodgy sound quality, but I had SD card ‘Issues’

[/box_light]

 

New heart warming Man of Steel TV Spot

Becca Harper
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New heart warming Man of Steel TV Spot

This new TV spot focusing on Superman’s Dad has left me with all these feels.  Honestly you’d have to have a heart of steel (see what I did there) to not at least a experience a little warm glow inside. 

 

Man of Steel is set for release on the 14th of June!

Transgender Superhero for Kids – SheZow!

Becca Harper
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Transgender Superhero for Kids – SheZow!

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Very recently Gail Simone introduced the first transgender character to mainstream comics, a brave and, mostly, celebrated move. A great way of accepting peoples differences and may be change the views of those more intolerant folk, yes I have purposely worded that nicely. The comics are of course aimed at teen and above, which begs the question – how do I introduce the transgender concept to children?

As with most topics like this I believe it is important to introduce the idea to children from a young age. They don’t need to know the ins and outs, they only need to be aware that seeing a man dressed as a woman or vice versa is okay, and not something to be mocked or shunned. The best way to do this is to introduce it as a norm in society. My children have never asked “Why is that man kissing another man?” because from being young they have been made aware that a grown-up can love another grown-up, whether man or woman. We have never shied away from these subjects or quickly turned the telly over just avoid awkward questions, addressing these issues is the best way to encourage tolerance.

SheZow
You go girl!

Which brings me to SheZow, an animated series aimed at 6-11 year olds. Our hero in this story is Guy Hamdon, an ordinary skateboarding 12 year old boy who discovers the power ring of a superheroine. He then uses this ring to transform himself into the legendary female crime fighter SheZow, by shouting “You go girl!”  Despite the ring being intended to be worn by a woman, Guy takes on his new found powers and costume. With the help of his best mate Maz, whom seems to change his persona each episode and sister Kelly, helping back at the ‘She lair’ with Shelia the super computer; Guy or rather SheZow, protects the city of Megadale from the villains and evil doers. I can’t help wonder why they didn’t have him shout “SheZow” a la Shazam style, but may be it was a little to close to the DC copyright.

The cartoon looks like it is going to be lots of fun, one of those that the grown ups get to enjoy, because if you are going to be subject to a constant barrage of children’s television, you want it to be something you can tolerate and may be even laugh at. The likes of Phineas and Ferb & Adventure Time, spring to mind. Given the subject matter of this cartoon I expect a number of jokes on such things as running in heels and the word ‘she’ to be continually punned.

Whilst the network, The Hub, are saying any references to it being about transgender are “not true. ‘SheZow’ is a light-hearted, animated comedy, like Bugs Bunny, who could make kids laugh out loud by wearing a dress and wig”  I believe that even so, it is a good way to introduce this subject to children.

 I’m actually looking to seek out the show to share with my own geeklings. They love anything superhero so on that basis alone I would want them to watch it, but I hope SheZow will have the benefit of  instilling a really simple idea that boys can dress as girls if they want to.  I will have to explain to my son that in real life you don’t get super powers if you dress as a girl, otherwise he’s going to be very disappointed when he puts on my high heels.

The show is set to air in the US on The Hub from June, but has already been airing in Canada for about a year . I’ll leave you with the intro for your perusal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cW3FBjKt7Co

Source: [Bleeding Cool]

The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter

Cristina Bogdan
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The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter

The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter is a six part collection of short stories by Jennifer Malone Wright, detailing the life and adventures of young Chloe Kalistrate, who discovers she has a supernatural legacy, the hard way.

*HERE BE SPOILERS*

The sheltered life of Chloe is brutally interrupted by the attack of a group of unknown people, who claim to know her mother and eventually murder her before Chloe’s eyes. From then on she ends up discovering more about her own mother, who had kept secrets upon secrets from the young girl and about her father, the mysterious vampire Trevor Kasimir.

Unlike most books that feature vampires, this particular series keeps their names more mundane than the norm for fantasy books, that is to say, I don’t recall any Boris/Vlad (names that mundane in their own right, don’t really feature much in America-based stories. Unless they’re villains. What’s up with that, America?)   But back to Chloe’s story. She learns after her mother’s demise, and a huge fight between the vampires and the vampire hunters, that she’s in fact a hybrid of the two species, born to one of the most ruthless vampires in the world and a human, with special abilities, granted by her hunter blood that can be traced back to the demi-goddess Sostrate. Sounds good and interesting so far, right?

Despite the series having an interesting subject, particularly for the avid readers of fantasy, it was at times clunky, especially in the beginning. I don’t know about you, but my first thought when someone attacks my house and has weird fangs won’t be: Oh, damn. A vampire. Guess those fangy bastards were real after all. (And no, that wasn’t an actual quote from the book).  Her accepting the situation as normal in such a short time, with few hints that it disturbed her, actually disturbed me. I wanted more of her inner process to be presented, to see how the discovery of this world affected her, but I mostly got facts about whatever situation she was finding herself in, rather than her inner turmoil. This changed in the later parts of the series as, I’m assuming, the author got a feel for her characters, adding layers to the bare bones we’ve been given in the beginning.

While the entire story could’ve fitted into a full length novel, it’s divided in six parts, each featuring more or less a certain period in the girl’s life. The discovery of who she really is and to whom she “belongs”, adjusting to a life without her mother, overcoming the grief she’d suffered after her loss & finally accepting everything. It’s more or less her emotional journey from being a little girl to actually becoming a hunter, like her mother had been before her. Some of these are actually interesting, such as the two final parts that I actually loved best of all the series, while others offer nothing new, leaving you wondering why the story exists in the first place.

If you’re a fantasy reader, you’ll recognise elements from other fantasy books such as the sheltered girl, kept away from the supernatural world, the idea of a dhampir, that also pertains to the lore of certain countries, the living donors, the town of hunters that exists solely for the purpose of eliminating the vampire threat and so on. Despite these elements fitting to the story, there are some that things that made me grow a little weary as I read them. There were already vampires, hunters and goddesses in the book, the appearance of a siren, that seemed to serve no actual purpose gave me pause, not to mention the introduction of several characters that again, seemed to be there simply as cannon fodder, until the great reveal in the last few pages that they will serve a purpose in the next instalment of the story. Nice hook, but I’m not sure it will be enough, especially with adding so many supernatural beings into the mix.

I’ve written so much and not once have I mentioned the romantic subplot. That was actually a nice touch, focusing on her adventure rather than the romance, something that most books fail at, turning everyone into love sick puppies. Chloe finds herself caught in a love triangle, more or less, between herself and two estranged brothers, Drew – who had been her best friend since she’d come to live with the hunters and Gavin – who, as I recall she only had minimal contact at first. Both relationships struck me as slightly shallow, however, given that she was fifteen and later on sixteen as the story progressed, I think it’s safe to say it falls to that, whether the author intended it that way or not. Which doesn’t mean I consider teenagers unable of deep, meaningful relationships. But most really are just shallow and punctuated by selfishness, and the romance here wasn’t exempted from that.

To wrap this up, the book isn’t something I would read twice, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an easy read. For those that love this particular type of story-telling it will be easy to breeze through the 217 pages of it, while enjoying the story, however I still felt there were things that were missing in it and, if I get the chance to read the sequel, I’m hoping they will be addressed.

If you’ve read it and you have an opinion about it, by all means, leave us a comment and tell us how you see The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter. Also, check out the promotional video made by the author herself for the book series.

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