Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist: PS3 Review

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist: PS3 Review

Platform: PS3
Released by Ubisoft

Here comes the sixth installment of the Tom Clancy Splinter Cell series.

Sam Fisher's back as the leader of 4th Echelon, an elite counter-terrorism unit, whose job it is to hunt the terrorsts behind the Blacklist, an increasing number of attacks on US interests worldwide.

As ever though, there are a whole heap of people in the way to him and his team completing that mission - and needless to say, you hold the power in your hands to save - or lose - the day. It takes the form of various missions - from springing people from CIA safe houses to sleeper cells in London - as the espionage thriller game goes global.

But it's stealth which you will need plenty of to ensure that you can get through each level; along with gadgets, guns and cunning, the game yields to a player who's in touch with their first person shooter feelings and enjoys the thrill of the chase. For example in one mission, you're faced with insurmountable odds - until you realise that by centring your attack elsewhere, it'll distract the guards and leave you free to go about your business.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist is exactly what you'd expect from a game like this - and perhaps more. A cinematic feel and some crisp, clear graphics makes the overall product feel like you're watching a combat movie in places, a thriller with edge and if you want to go nuts with the gun (not recommended) you can.

While the single player story mode offers up benefits to the solo gamer, there are co-op missions as well which provide a group of mates the chance to discuss tactics before powering into the level, ensuring that you're able to complete it with a minimum of fuss.

Enemy AI is relatively solid too - normally, in games like this, a momentary throwing off of what the enemy's expected to do can ruin the atmosphere, but thankfully, this is sparse throughout with you feeling like at no point can you let your guard down at all.

All in all, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist represents a real thrill to the spy / espionage thriller genre - despite being six games in, it shows no signs of creatively slowing down - and while some of the elements of the story are all too familiar in this day and age, the gameplay is engrossing, involving and utterly thrilling.

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Killer is Dead: PS3 Review

Killer is Dead: PS3 Review

Platform: PS3
Released by Deep Silver

What a weird game this is.

From Suda51 who brought us the disposable bubble gum pop of Lollipop Chainsaw, Killer is Dead is a rather bizarre hack and slash game which struggles a little to make any kind of rational sense.

You play Mondo Zappa, an executioner with a cyborg arm, who's given jobs to do by a government organisation. Mondo's favourite weapon of choice is a sword which he hacks and kills people with, but he's got an arm to be powered up as well.

Bizarre seems to be the order of the day with this one, as Mondo's sent out to some rather odd missions including a house which appears to be uninhabited but suddenly comes alive with hundreds of bug creatures after you've spent time giving a girl various gifts from around said mansion. That then turns into a major boss fight and a chance for Mondo to kill his way to victory.

Once you've completed levels, you get paid and can use that cash to buy extra lives (a Mika ticket, so called because when used, your assistant Mika comes hurtling to your aid, pumping your chest until you're back to life) or gifts, such as perfume or roses. You may be wondering what a hardened tough as nails assassin would want with perfume....well, these are for the rather pervy Gigolo Missions which happen on the outskirts of the game.

In these, Mondo finds himself in a bar, given the chance to ogle a girl and try and seduce her. This is done by timing your looks at her breasts, crotch and face just perfectly, to fill up your love meter. Ply her with gifts and this cold-hearted killer is likely to be in for a night of hot-blooded passion courtesy of a pneumatic lady. A failed ogling garners Mondo a slap across the face, out of pocket and out of the bar. It's rather odd, slightly sexist and degrading and actually made me feel a little uncomfortable. While you get upgrades to your cyber-arm as this happens, I'm not quite sure what the creators were thinking.

If it all sounds a little oddball and nonsensical, then perhaps you're beginning to understand the gamer's plight with Killer is Dead. It's confusing, bizarre, weird and quirky without ever fully exploiting anything other than a juvenile's obsession with the lovely ladies and breasts.

The only level that this game truly soars on is with its graphics, which are just stunningly beautiful, achingly difficult and utterly dreamlike. The mix of pastels and dreamy feel look like nothing else I've seen on the gaming spectrum all year. Stylistically, it's a potently impressive piece, but yet it sits at odds to the rest of it because of a lack of cohesion and sense.

All in all, while Killer is Dead may be some kind of riffing on the whole 007 theme (developer Suda51 has described it as "Dark side 007") it doesn't work as an in depth game play on many levels at all. It's too out there to be engrossing and too uncomfortably juvenile at times to be anything sophisticated.

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Brand new Robocop trailer is here

Brand new Robocop trailer is here

It's finally landed.

The first trailer for the upcoming remake of Robocop.

You have 20 seconds to comply - and watch the new first Robocop trailer below:

Riddick: Movie Review

Riddick: Movie Review

Cast: Vin Diesel, Katee Sackhoff, Jordi Molla, Matt Nable
Director: David Twohy

Riddick returns.

In the second sequel to the thrilling Pitch Black (which bowed 13 years ago), Riddick finds himself left for dead on sun-scorched planet after being betrayed by the Necromongers from The Chronicles of Riddick movie.

Firing off an emergency beacon as an impeding horde of aliens close in on him, Riddick sets in motion a chain of events as two sets of mercenaries head to the planet to kill him and claim the bounty on the head of this criminal.

On one side, there's the vile (potential rapist) Santana (Jordi Molla) and his crew of scumbags; while on the other, there's Matt Nable's Boss Johns, who's been hunting Riddick for 10 years and shares a personal connection to his prey.

While they try to track down Riddick and form an uneasy and uncomfortable alliance, Riddick's lurking in the shadows, engaged in a long term game of cat and mouse.

However, when a new threat arises on the planet which threatens them all, all three sides have to work together to survive.

So, here we are with a film which in no way meets the highs of the anti-hero of Pitch Black but is a major improvement on The Chronicles of Riddick.

Vin Diesel is dialled down and damn near silent in the first part of this film, where he channels his inner Bear Grylls to survive the scorched wastelands after being betrayed by the Necromongers of the last flick. Where Tom Hanks had his Wilson in Castaway, Riddick has a dingo / hyena / leopard striped dog creature to help him get through the days as he bonds and bounds around the landscape.

But it all heads south when Riddick activates an emergency beacon and two teams of scumbag mercenaries show on the scene to claim the bounty on him. And not just on screen either - because the turgid script takes a dive and turn for the uglier. As their quarrels and mistrust escalates, the game of cat and mouse eventually escalates (after a lot of slow meandering that doesn't build on tension but serves to drag it out) before a greater menace than all of them shows up.

Visually and technologically impressive, at its leanest, Riddick is a great movie; a taut game of suspense potentially there for the taking as the aliens' marauding menace places our protagonists under siege. But no, thanks to neanderthal dialogue, and an appalling treatment of a ballsy woman in a sci-fi film (Katee Sackhoff's character is apparently a lesbian, so they just have to make unnecessary comments about it; claims that Riddick will go "balls deep" into her are just utterly disgustingly repugnant, ugly and hideously out of place despite the character being an anti-hero and criminal); add into that, an unwarranted topless shot of Katee Sackhoff and further comments here and there, it all adds up to the squandering of what real potential it could have had for a great moody and atmospheric outing. It even equates to a backward step in terms of the treatment of women in sci-fi, which is disturbing, given how much ground's been covered - and how Katee Sackhoff helped redefine that with her role as Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica.

With interest waning after a stunning opening half hour that pits Riddick against nature and the elements, Riddick generally loses the way and the plot, falling into a horde slaughtering mentality a la Tremors that lacks in visual prowess and feels limp in terms of spectacle and emotional connection. 

Overly dour, lacking in humour and way too long to feel anything other than stuffy in parts, Riddick is more a film about some great tech visuals and a few slo-mo kills than a return to form for Vin Diesel's gruff crim. Even a gag from the Fast and Furious series fails to raise too much of a smile amid the attempt to provide visceral thrills on a pared back budget and scope.

A smarter choice of direction, some more expeditious editing and better scripting to remove some of the more morally repugnant undertones could have seen Riddick reach the highs of Pitch Black. 

Instead, despite some impressive sequences and moments, it serves as a queasy, misogynistic and uncomfortable slice of sci-fi that doesn't remotely hit the mark and even scotches any chance of redemption for the film franchise.

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Brand new Gravity trailer drops

Brand new Gravity trailer drops

There's a brand new trailer for Gravity, starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock.

Gravity, the movie, has been wowing critics abroad and you'll get your chance to see it from October 3rd in New Zealand cinemas.

Rayman Legends: PS3 Review

Rayman Legends: PS3 Review

Released by UBISOFT
Platform: PS3

Rayman Origins was one of the best 2D platformers of last year. It had lunacy in amongst all the leaping around and was a long term piece of fun.

So, Rayman Legends had a bit to live up to.

However, it more than does so. And in many ways, it improves on one of the best, which is always a good thing.

In this latest, Rayman and his chums have been sleeping for a century. But while they've been snoring it up big time, the Bubble Dreamers nightmares have been growing and are now threatening Rayman's world. So, he's woken up with a credo of having to save the day. Off you go, heading through worlds, battling bosses, negotiating traps and collecting Lums and freeing trapped comrades aka Teensies. Rayman's not alone in this though - Murfy the fairy from the second Rayman appears to help him cut through ropes, avoid traps and -generally works as a co-op secondary character when necessary. But unlike on the PS Vita, where swiping can get him to move for you, this has to be done on a button press.

Rayman Legends, is quite frankly, legendary gaming. It's the perfect mix of in-depth platforming and long term gameplay. Each level is fun, fiendish and rewarding in equal measure as it side scrolls towards the end. But here's the thing with it, every error and death in Rayman Legends is caused by timing. A simple miscalculation means you have to start again and unlike many other games, it's not frustrating in the slightest.

It's fun to drag some friends into playing this too - the co-op offline levelling makes the game accessible and lunatic as you negotiate your way through. Gameplay's benefited from this as opposed to being left wanting. Each time you mess up, you know it's down to you and the replay value of this is tremendous. Plus end of level musical games mashed up with platforming are just endless fun. Jumping and punching creatures in time to the likes of Black Betty and classical tunes adds so much to the joy of the game that it's stupidly infectious.

But it's not just the core game that soars.

By providing a wealth of unlockable content - including daily challenges, leaderboards, a football game which can be played with friends - there's so much more to do with this game. Even the last game Origins is included in a remixed form for you to replay. UBISOFT's really raised the bar, added in the incentives to come back day by day and constantly given you reason to play.

Ultimately, Rayman Legends is by far one of the best platformers of the year - it shows creativity is not dead within the genre and has charm aplenty. Mixing beautiful artwork and madcap lunacy, it's by far and away, heading for a place on the top 10 games of the year list. I can't recommend it enough.

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New Hunger Games: Catching Fire banner unveiled

New Hunger Games: Catching Fire banner unveiled

We're edging ever closer to the release of the Hunger Games: Catching Fire in November, and now a new banner has been unveiled.

It is a new image of the “Victors” taking part in the film’s Quarter Quell games.

Jennifer Lawrence stars as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games Catching Fire.

Stay tuned for more...

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