At Darren's World of Entertainment - a movie, DVD and game review blog.
The latest movie and DVD reviews - plus game reviews as well. And cool stuff thrown in when I see it.
To celebrate the release of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, thanks to Sony Home Entertainment, you can win a copy.
About El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
Finally free from torture and slavery at the hands of Tod's uncle Jack, and from Mr. White, Jesse must escape demons from his past.
He's on the run from a police manhunt, with his only hope of escape being Saul Goodman's hoover guy, Ed Galbraith.
A man who for the right price, can give you a new identity and a fresh start. Jesse is racing against the clock, with help from his crew, avoiding capture to get enough money together to buy a ‘new dust filter for his Hoover MaxExtract PressurePro model’, a new life.
FINAL FANTASY XVI | New Site and Character details
FINAL FANTASY XVI LAUNCHES TEASER WEBSITE FEATURING KEY ARTWORK,
SETTING AND MAIN CHARACTERS
Today, Square Enix Ltd., launched the official teaser website for the latest standalone mainline title in the FINAL FANTASY series, FINAL FANTASY® XVI.
The website showcases newly revealed key artwork for the ground-breaking, all-new action RPG, featuring the game’s protagonist, Clive Rosfield, as well as a set of character illustrations and vignettes that offer a glimpse of the connections between them.
The website also presents a deeper look into the setting of FINAL FANTASY® XVI, the complex realm of Valisthea, a land blessed in the light of the Mothercrystals —glittering mountains of crystal that tower over the world below.
Artwork – FINAL FANTASY XVI protagonist, Clive Rosfield, on a dark and dangerous road to revenge
FINAL FANTASY XVI brings players into a world where Eikons are powerful and deadly creatures that reside within Dominants—a single man or woman who is blessed with the ability to call upon their dreaded power. The story follows Clive Rosfield, a young man dedicated to mastering the blade, who is dubbed the First Shield of Rosaria and tasked to guard his younger brother Joshua — the Dominant of the Phoenix. Unexpected events set Clive on a dark and dangerous road to revenge.
For more information on the world and characters of FINAL FANTASY XVI, visit the official teaser website at: http://eu.finalfantasyxvi.com
FINAL FANTASY XVI is a single player action-RPG being developed for the PlayStation®5 console (“PS5™”).
PlayStation 5 - Astro's Playroom and Controller experience review
It's now just a matter of weeks until the PlayStation 5 makes its long-awaited arrival on the gaming scene.
And thanks to PlayStation New Zealand, time has been given on the machine in a demo of Astro's Playroom.
Specifically, access was given to allow use of the new controller, the DualSense, and the haptic feedback that has been made so much of.
While the PlayStation's UI and finer points of the console itself (such as the back etc) are still being kept massively under wraps for users, the controller is really where the feeling of the next generation starts to come to life.
It feels chunkier than the current PlayStation 4 controller, and more meaty in the hands.
But that's not to say it's unwieldy in any shape or form - the controller itself has grips and sits comfortably in the hands which will be good for long gaming sessions. Equally, its sleek and simple design gives it a kind of pristine sheen and ice white feel that will be hard to beat in any new colour iterations PlayStation puts out.
Initially, it doesn't feel much different to a DualShock in many ways - the touch pad is there, the controller sticks are where they should be and the buttons and D-pad all work like they do in the current gen.
Yet, it's the much vaunted haptic feedback in the adaptive controllers that gives the DualSense the promise of a next gen piece of kit.
The R1 and R2 buttons adapt to their environments, and the grips on them change. In the Astro's Playroom demo, it becomes obvious the scope there is for the haptic feedback to shape the nature of any game and the immersiveness of it. (Though, admittedly, there are only a certain limited number of feelings for any developers to use the tech, so it'll be interesting to see where they go with it.)
Sequences where your Bot suits up to become a springy toy see the controller's back buttons become tighter like coils, and others where you fire a gun of balls at other bots or using a bow, you can feel the controller kicking back with the recoil. It's game-changing stuff - much like the touch pad was for Little Big Planet or in the inFamous series on the PlayStation 4.
But as is cautioned, developers will need to run with it for it to morph into something more than a launch gimmick.
In Astro's Playroom, the Astrobot experience is extended out from the Astro Bot Rescue Mission - and the game comes installed in the PS5 for launch day.
In the one section that was allowed to be played, the game's clearly meant to get you in touch with what the controller does, and the speed and reactiveness of the next gen hardware.
It's undeniably cute and Sackboy is in danger of being usurped, as you hurtle around areas picking up PlayStation-labelled coins (for reasons as yet unknown) and tracking down pieces of a jigsaw that form a mural. Using the triggers and a combination of buttons to push and pull parts of the PlayStation Labo area in the game trigger different things - and demonstrate what the controller can do.
Much of Astro's PlayRoom has a nostalgia theme to it, a love-letter to previous generations, thanks to artifacts that can be found (and which are based on previous software) and the design of a central area. It's a sweet little game, but one that shows off the console's potential.
And it's potential that matters here.
With the launch in New Zealand happening on November 12, it seems like Sony has some interesting ideas up their sleeve for the kind of use the controller can have in the games they're dropping near launch.
Imagine using the controller during the wacky gadgets of Ratchet and Clank's next outing, or for Sackboy's return. Long term prospects like the Horizon Zero Dawn sequel and a potential Spider-Man sequel will ensure the gaming is brought to your fingertips.
It's enticing, intriguing and a sign that the next generation of consoles has something to offer - and a world of possibilities for developers to embrace.
Sony PlayStation 5, the DualSense controller, and the demo of Astro's Playroom were given access to as part of a promotional campaign for the launch of the PlayStation 5 by PlayStation New Zealand.
DAWN RAID - THE UNTOLD STORY THAT INSPIRED A KIWI GENERATION HITS THE BIG SCREEN IN 2021
The songs you know. The story you don’t. Dawn Raid opens in cinemas January 21, 2021.
Dawn Raid Entertainment Founders, Andy Murnane and Brotha D
AUCKLAND, AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND, WEDNESDAY 28 OCTOBER 2020 – 387 Distribution is excited to release the first trailer for local feature film Dawn Raid ahead of its nationwide release on January 21, 2021.
Directed by Oscar Kightley and from the producers of McLaren and The Dead Lands, Dawn Raid is the extraordinary untold story of Dawn Raid Entertainment and its two founders Andy Murnane and Brotha D - the unlikely duo behind some of New Zealand’s biggest hip-hop and RnB artists including Savage, Mareko, Adeaze and Aaradhna.
The trailer release comes off the back of Savage’s Swing seeing a resurgence via a viral TikTok trend using a mash-up of the song and Coldplay’s Viva La Vida, leading to Swing going double platinum just this month in the US, more than a decade after its original release. The mash-up has seen over half a million user generated videos to date from some of TikToks biggest stars.
The film explores the incredible challenges and struggles that were buried deep beneath the glamour of chart-topping hits with the hottest local and international talent – rifts between artists, unpaid tax debts, feelings of failure and betrayal – and the immeasurable musical legacy that was created in spite of this.
“Dawn Raid is about two hustlers from South Auckland who decided to chart their own destiny. It’s a tale of achievement, community and cultural empowerment, and all of the glamour and glitz that comes with success in the global recording industry,” says Kightley. “It is also a narrative of failure, of crushing defeat and devastating loss. But most of all, it is a story of rebirth. Of a culture, a people, an art form. And of the legacy that rebirth has left behind.”
Featuring some of New Zealand’s top hip-hop and RnB artists including Savage, Mareko, Adeaze, Aaradhna, Scribe and P Money, Dawn Raid is an inspirational, heart-pounding, big screen celebration of local home-grown talent who not only gave a voice to their local community, but paved the way for a future generation of artists.
Dawn Raid was produced by Matthew Metcalfe (The Dead Lands, Capital in the Twenty-First Century) and Leela Menon (Orphans & Kingdoms, Born Racer), with Fraser Brown (Wayne, McLaren) as executive producer.
Dawn Raid hits cinemas nationwide on January 21, 2021.
Experimental Text Adventure ‘Stories Untold’ Out Now on PS4 & Xbox One
Experimental Text Adventure ‘Stories Untold’ Out Now on PS4 & Xbox One – Lights Off, Headphones On –
Independent developers and paranoid Glaswegians No Code (Observation) and conspiracy theorists Devolver Digital have announced the celebrated experimental thriller Stories Untold has launched today on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Combining a mix of classic text-adventure and point-and-click adventure in a modern presentation, four short stories are packaged together into a single mysterious anthology that earned widespread critical acclaim since its initial release.
“Stories Untold is so unbelievably intense it made me question why I got into video games in the first place,” noted Devolver Digital CFO Fork Parker. “It was money. Go buy Stories Untold on more consoles, nerds.”
Follow @_NoCode and @DevolverDigital for more information about Stories Untold.
Cast: Pete Davidson, Marisa Tomei, Bel Powley, Bill Burr, Steve Buscemi Director: Judd Apatow
With charm and charisma, an authentic turn from comedian Pete Davidson anchors The King of Staten Island.
It's only fair that he does, given the movie is actually semi-autobiographical and is co-written by Davidson himself.
Set in the New York borough of Staten Island, Davidson is 24 year old highschool dropout Scott, who's never really got over the death of his firefighter father.
ADD and with a desire to become a tattoo artist, despite his "inconsistent tattoos", Scott's life goes into a tailspin when his sister goes to college - and it's further exacerbated by his mum (Tomei) dating another man.
The King of Staten Island is in many ways a typical Apatow dramedy.
It follows the path of other films he's done like This Is 40 and Funny People in that it ploughs a comedic furrow before halfway through taking a turn into dramatic overtones.
And yet, despite very familiar edges, The King of Staten Island works because of the authenticity of the script, the relatability of the protagonist and the genuinely funny edges of the story.
Central to all of this is Davidson, who gifts the dramedy with the breeze it needs when it's necessary. But while that helps proceedings, the film never really delves deeply into the problematic psychology of Scott preferring to allow the proceedings to paint the picture and provide the insights. Apatow's film is more interested in hanging out with the bros and capturing the elements of Brooklyn life to a tee.
That's no bad thing given Apatow's eye for the shaggy stories; this one is no exception with a mammoth 140 minute run time. It may be a coming of age story, and a familiar tale of a manchild lost in life, but Davidson's veracity gifts the film the emotional heft and relatability that it scores so highly on.
Sure, there's a degree of sentimentality creeping in as the film enters its final furlong, but you'll forgive The King of Staten Island a degree of indulgence.
For in it, and obviously on show, is a story of humanity and of worth, anchored by two great performances from Davidson and Tomei.
The King of Staten Island is a winning film that unexpectedly creeps up on you in ways you'd never guess but are delighted it does.
One of the highlights of the 25th Armageddon Expo in Auckland which wraps up today has been the LEGO Hall.
A hall full of LEGO bricks made into wonderful creations, as well as the history of the brick, it's been a wonderful piece of nostalgia and delight with plenty of ideas to draw deep from, and of builds to admire.
Here are a whole heap more shots from within the LEGO Hall at the Auckland Armageddon expo.
Armageddon Expo: Day 4- Shots from around the Auckland Armageddon Expo
The final day of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Auckland Armageddon Expo takes place at the ASB Showgrounds today.
The event's been a massive success for its anniversary, and has offered virtual panels, real-life guests, plenty of cosplay and a whole heap of cool geeky stuff.
To celebrate Armageddon Expo: Day 4, here are some more shots from around the Auckland Armageddon Expo.
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