PlayStation 4 launch date revealed - and more games for PS Vita

PlayStation 4 launch date revealed - and more games for PS Vita

Gamescon has just given fans of gaming the news they really wanted.

The Sony PlayStation 4 next-gen video game system has an official release date: November 15th in North America and November 29th in Europe.

There's also been reveals of more games coming for PS Vita - 25 of them to be precise - including:

Top-selling Borderlands 2 from 2K Games.

LEGO Marvel Super Heroes from Warner Bros and Football Manager Classic 2014 from SEGA, offering continuous play between the PC and PS Vita versions.

Killzone: Mercenary, launching on 4 September 2013, demonstrated the PS Vita system's potential to deliver a home console quality first person shooter with graphics and gameplay to match.

Tearaway, launching on 22 November 2013 and winner of the E3 Critics choice award for best handheld game, showcased the PS Vita system's ability to deliver truly innovative gameplay with that distinctive Media Molecule charm.

Murasaki Baby has been designed specifically around PS Vita touch controls by start-up Italian developer Ovosonico, led by acclaimed industry veterans Massimo Guarini and Gianni Ricciardi.

BigFest, a free-to- play game where music fans are invited to create, build and manage their ultimate music festival working with real unsigned bands in a unique collaboration with online music portal Jamendo.

The highly anticipated Starbound from Chucklefish, the smash hit FEZ from Phil Fish and the sequel to one of the highest rated shooters of all time, Velocity 2X from FuturLab plus many more.



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Dying Light Unleashes First-Ever Gameplay Video

Dying Light Unleashes First-Ever Gameplay Video

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Techland have released the first-ever gameplay video for the upcoming action survival title, Dying Light.

In the 11-minute video, players get a look at “daytime” in the vast and dangerous world of Dying Light. During the day, players traverse an expansive urban environment that has been overrun by a vicious outbreak, and must scavenge the world for supplies and craft weapons in order to defend themselves from the growing infected population.  If players find themselves overwhelmed by infected, they’ll have to choose between fight or flight. Thankfully they’ll be able to run seamlessly around the world—from the rooftops to the ground, and everywhere in between—with the game’s free-running movement. Every choice in Dying Light has different consequences…what will you do? 

Kick Ass 2: Movie Review

Kick Ass 2: Movie Review

Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Chloe Grace Moretz, Jim Carrey, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Director: Jeff Wadlow

So, here it is then, the film which star Jim Carrey refused to promote due to the violent content and a change of heart in light of the Sandy Hook massacre.

It's been three years since the first Kick Ass film swiped its way into the pantheon of comic book R-rated movies - and this latest sees Kick Ass' antics from the first flick inspiring a new wave of costumed, but ordinary, superheroes.

However, for Kick Ass aka Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) himself, life's got rather quiet and humdrum. He's hung up the green and yellow unitard and is concentrating on life as a high school student. Likewise with Chloe Grace Moretz's Hit Girl. She's trying to be part of school and put aside the costumed vigilante, adrenalin filled lifestyle.

But the reality is the pair of them are bored silly with a normal life and crave the ultra violence of the vigilante world.

Hit Girl's determined to stick with the quieter life and deal with Mean Girls style bullies at school, but when Kick Ass meets up with the sadistic ex-Mafia enforcer Colonel Stars and Stripes (an electric Jim Carrey), he becomes part of a team called Justice Forever.

Just round the corner though is Christopher Mintz-Plasse's bondage wearing super-villain, The Mother F***er, who's determined to avenge his father's death at the hands of Kick Ass, putting them on a collision course.

Kick Ass 2 is frankly, a disappointment.

After the first skirted extreme violence with satire and added a new element to the comic book genre, this latest does nothing to build on that initial promise and revels in its smackdowns.

Sure, the violence is quite full on and occasionally brutal (though it's no different from the first) but it's not as shocking as it first was and feels rather mundane as it's thrown into the narrative for violence's sake. Likewise, the vicarious thrill of seeing a young girl drop the C-bomb was something quite unheard of until Kick Ass - now, wisely, they don't choose to repeat the same trick but it means that a lot of the swearing feels a bit old hat this time around.

Most of the vigilante gang that Dave joins up with are simply dull - whether that's a comment on everyone wanting to be a superhero, I'm not sure, but they're simply faceless mannequins in spandex and masks. Only an understated Carrey brings something a little different to the dynamic with his pugilist scarred face and buzz cut - though once he chooses to indulge in his violent tendencies, any kind of character development / empathy for this born again Christian crusader goes out of the window.

Equally Mintz-Plasse's turn as the fetish-wearing and lisping supervillain falls short of a truly diabolical nemesis and proffers up, quite frankly, a whiny little b*tch bad guy who's throwing tantrums rather than throwing barbs at the good guys.

More interesting is Hit Girl / Mindy McCready's coming of age quest to try and fit in with the perils of high school as she tussles internally with whether to deny her destiny (a key trope of most comic books); but sadly, the pay-off for this is a gag that involves vomit and diarrhea. To her credit, Grace Moretz emerges with credibility in tact here, bringing a turn which soars way above the material.

Most of the film sees the Mother F***er sidelined from taking on his nemesis and simply recruiting misfits to his evil gang - until it all culminates in a final showdown which resembles an over-exuberant and violent cosplay outing at the likes of Comic-Con or Armageddon. As the fight progresses, there are sparks of the darker, slightly nastier edge to the violence and it's close to leaving a sour taste in the mouth.

And that's where Kick Ass 2 becomes a disappointment - it lacks some of the smarts that helped keep the first film on the right side of guilty pleasure and clever subversion of the genre. With a fractured narrative, and with the fact the energy and sense of urgency are all missing from the fight sequences as the gangs take on each other in a particularly costumed showdown a la West Side Story, this sequel fails to match up to - or exceed - the first.

All in all, a group of lads and comic fans will enjoy Kick Ass 2 due to some puerile one liners and moments of vulgarity - but the hedonistic highs of the first are MIA in the sequel, adding to a rather mixed cinematic feeling once the lights go up.

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Dr Who: Spearhead from Space: Blu Ray Review

Dr Who: Spearhead from Space: Blu Ray Review

Rating: PG
Released by BBC and Roadshow Home Entertainment

So, here it is.

In the 50th anniversary year, the first ever Blu Ray release for the classic Doctor Who range - and it's a classic serial which brought in a whole new era for the show.

Spearhead from Space sees the introduction of Jon Pertwee's dandy Doctor and also ushered in the colour years - much has been made of the change of pace all round and the Earth bound setting took a little while to find its feet but this serial has promise in spades and introduced the iconic Autons to the canon of Dr Who monsters.

Much has been made of this serial before - a confident start and a great introduction - but in its high definition outing, Spearhead from Space looks incredible; colours that were not there before are abundantly obvious and look fresh (an extra reveals the extent of the clean up of the print), giving the piece a more cinematic feel than it had before.

The extras from the DVD are ported over, and the doco looking back at Jon Pertwee as an actor is a great wee piece, full of charm, character and brilliant history of the man.

All in all, Spearhead from Space represents a step up for the classic range of Doctor Who adventures and we'll have to see where it goes from here.

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New Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug poster

New Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug poster

There's a brand new Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug poster courtesy of Empire magazine.

The poster shows Smaug (or rather his eye) facing down Martin Freeman's Bilbo Baggins.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hits cinemas in December.

Newstalk ZB Movie Review - We're The Millers and Elysium

Newstalk ZB Movie Review - We're The Millers and Elysium

This week on NewsTalk ZB with Jack Tame, it was all about strippers and spaceships.

Not combined (though that would make an interesting film) - but the latest from Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis in We're The Millers and Matt Damon in Elysium.

Click on the headphones below to take a listen

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/player/ondemand/1909693582-darren-bevan-at-the-movies--august-17

NO: DVD Review

NO: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Vendetta Films

It's to 1988 we go with this official entrant for the 2013 Oscars from Chile.

Bernal plays Rene Saavedra, an ad man brought in to try and help ensure the oppressed people of Chile vote No in a referendum called by Augusto Pinochet. The referendum is urging the people to vote Yes to allowing Pinochet to stay in power, as calls grow outside of Chile to get him out of government and to free the people.

But Saavedra helps concoct an advertising campaign through the 15 minutes the opposition is allowed nightly on the TV during the 27 days campaigning window.

However, as Saavedra and his team, with limited resources, manage to start to get the message of No out there, the net around them grows tighter as intimidation and scare tactics really kick in. But, with an apathetic populace, can Saavedra and his campaign manage to do for Chile what's not been done for years? No is a curious beast of a film.

Shot on a 1983 U-matic video camera, it certainly evokes the era, with its grainy fuzzy visuals and browns and drab colouring. It also takes a little while to get used to such a look but given that it's mixed with action from the 80s, it's a bold directorial choice and one which does stand out.

In among the commercials of the time (some of which are quite comical), there's the real sense of the birth of dirty politics and marketing tactics to sway a populace and it's a fascinating document on that and potentially the start of viral marketing in many ways.

But No is also a slow, long and at times, laborious film which could have lost some of its overall run time. Bernal spends a lot of the time looking a little aloof and it takes a while to warm to his character - not through any acting issues but simply because the film's not really a character piece at all, more an examination of what happened.

A few powerful moments shine through - such as a group of mothers who sing and dance while intoning their sons are among the "disappeared" - and there's a complex but realistic relationship between Saavedra and his politically opposite counterpart who happens to be his co-worker in an ad agency.

All in all, No is worth a watch - but it never quite gets under your skin in the way you'd expect - but as a document of the time, it's a morally interesting debate and a fascinating examination of how governments should never underestimate the power of the people when it comes to politics.

Just say Yes.
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