Skylanders Superchargers: PS4 Review

Skylanders Superchargers: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Released by Activision

As Christmas approaches the hunt for your dollar and your child's heart is ramping up a pace.

What with LEGO Dimensions, Disney Infinity, Guitar Hero et al bombarding the market at the moment, it's clear the fight is intensifying.

So, add to that list, Skylanders Superchargers, another set of toys that spring to life on your gaming console and bring you hours of fun in the small person in your life or even yourself.

With a nice starter set that uses a new portal of power, the pieces themselves are a chunky bunch that can endure anything you throw at them. Simply put the game is about defending Skylands as Kaos has unleashed a new weapon aimed at bringing the world down. Pulling together a special team known as the Skychargers, it's up to you to save the day.

There are over 40 Skylanders and vehicles to collect so there's no chance that once you're in you'll get bored. And you shouldn't because the game itself is fun and furious, thanks to the various powers the vehicles themselves possess.

Sadly though, unless you own all of the vehicles, you will find yourself locked out of challenges, something which is a pain but seems to be a commercial reality these days. Taking in the elements the game throws you into a fight on the ground, in the air or in the water and gives you a Mario Kart-esque vibe to what's going on as you race around.

Equally, the supercharging element which sees the right vehicle paired with the right character adds to the fun, and is like a power boost, giving you the ability to race around the levels. The game's broken down into various vehicle missions and the ability to mash buttons for kid-friendly effect. Online maps and co-op play also figure if you want to take on friends and these work smoothly - the whole thing skews younger which is perfectly fine, but means that the seasoned gamer may find some of the levels easy to complete and the whole piece is set to sweetly charming rather than terrifying and frightening, ensuring replayability and pester power for kids to ensure all the other vehicles and toys are bought.

Simple yet creative, charming and fun, Skylanders Superchargers is a game that deserves to hold its own in a currently crowded market of toys to console. It's likely to keep little minds engaged - and even adults amused as this family friendly title sets its supercharged sights on fun - and that's no bad thing.

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The Huntsman: Winter's War - Official Trailer

The Huntsman: Winter's War - Official Trailer

Ahead of its release on the 7^th April 2016.

The fantastical world of Snow White and the Huntsman expands to reveal how the fates of The Huntsman Eric and Queen Ravenna are deeply and dangerously intertwined.  Chris Hemsworth and Oscar® winner Charlize Theron return to their roles in The Huntsman Winter’s War, an epic action-adventure in which they are joined by Emily Blunt and Jessica Chastain, as well as director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan.  Producer Joe Roth (Maleficent, Alice in Wonderland) once again leads the team in a breathtaking new tale nested in the legendary saga.

Long before the evil Queen Ravenna (Theron) was thought vanquished by Snow White’s blade, she watched silently as her sister, Freya (Blunt), suffered a heartbreaking betrayal and fled their kingdom.  With Freya’s ability to freeze any enemy, the young ice queen has spent decades in a remote wintry palace raising a legion of deadly huntsmen—including Eric (Hemsworth) and warrior Sara (Chastain)—only to find that her prized two defied her one demand: Forever harden your hearts to love.

When Freya learns of her sister’s demise, she summons her remaining soldiers to bring the Magic Mirror home to the only sorceress left who can harness its power.  But once she discovers Ravenna can be resurrected from its golden depths, the wicked sisters threaten this enchanted land with twice the darkest force it’s ever seen.  Now, their amassing army shall prove undefeatable…unless the banished huntsmen who broke their queen’s cardinal rule can fight their way back to one another.

Zoolander 2 - Official Trailer

Zoolander 2 - Official Trailer

Here's the official trailer for Zoolander 2 – starring Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson and Penelope Cruz, ahead of its release on the 11^th Feb 2016.

FIFA 16: PS4 Review

FIFA 16: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Released by EA

Ah, the beautiful game.

And FIFA's annual iteration thereof is now with us.

This time around, it's all about the improvements to the game and the AI. And it makes this FIFA one of the more technical and yet also impressive. There's more of a team feel to the game this time around, meaning that you will need to ensure that you have to instruct the guys a little more on the pitch and fire up some tactics to ensure a win rather than simply kick and hope.

Sure, the game looks as great as it ever does, and that's no surprise given that it's in its 23rd year and has the support of FIFA behind it, but it really needs to be playable and enjoyable to get the continual annual gamers involved.

There's a definite sharpness to the play this year, with goalkeepers seeming more responsive and players being more aware of what's going on in the pitch in front of their very eyes. It makes what transpires on the pitch feel not only more fluid but also much more lifelike as it happens. The game is now more of a game as opposed to previous years which have felt like a bit of a one-sided competition.

The other big bonus of FIFA 16 is the inclusion of the women's football, a chance for the game to reflect all walks of life certainly. And while the pace of FIFA Women's feels a little slower, there's certainly no loss of pace and precision in the women's game - though you'd question why women can't take on the men.

All in all, FIFA 16 is definitely of a more technical nature. It lacks the somewhat pick up and play attitude of the Pro Evo Soccer titles but that's not a criticism at all - more a case of the FIFA game being for the purist.

Worth diving into for another year? Definitely - though what FIFA could do next year is a little beyond me - perhaps there will be some mention of current events and Sepp Blatter's state of affairs...

The Ground We Won: DVD Review

The Ground We Won: DVD Review


Life goes on.

It's an adage that two moments chiefly evoke in The Ground We Won and a reminder that come hell or high water, on and off the field, the cows still need milking - or delivering.

New Zealand's two chief exports - farming and rugby - get the once over in this new doco which premiered to crowd-pleasing warmth at the Autumn Events and is likely to steal the hearts of both the heartland and abroad.

Husband and wife film-makers Christopher Pryor and Miriam Smith, the self-confessed naive townies who made How Far Is Heaven, head to Bay of Plenty community Reporoa to document a community, their obsession with rugby and the life lessons that we draw parallels from.

Shot evocatively in black and white, and bathing the whole thing in a kind of mystical feel, The Ground We Won is likely to win many admirers (and potentially a few side observations and detractors about the drinking culture within sport) as it follows the team and their quest to remain unbeaten (and friends) in a season back in 2013.

But by focusing on three guys of differing age levels of the team, Pryor and Smith tell us more about a community and the bonds that maketh a man than any simple sports underdog doco ever could.

There's 17 year old Peanut, complete with scar on his chin, who's determined to win the Young Farmer Fight for Life scrap he's in as well as the respect of his team-mates; there's Broomy, the captain and the man who's worrying over how any on-field injuries could impact his running of the farm and force his parents into action; and finally, there's Kelvin, the undoubted star of the piece, a single dad of two adorably cute 7-year-old rugby obsessed boys, who's juggling coaching a kids' team, running the farm and the homestead with a "She'll be right" attitude from the dawn of the day through to the end of the night. (His attitude to getting spoons for yoghurts for the kids' school is to re-use the McFlurry ones from the back of the ute and just to wash them being one of the pearls of wisdom that any Kiwi male will silently but gratefully acknowledge). All of these guys are destined for cinematic fame and the annals of Kiwi blokedom.

There are others in the team, but Pryor and Smith choose not to label them on screen (and the three above as well), which is an interesting narrative choice, but makes the audience work to engage. But it's a clever move which pays off as the reward is an incredibly emotional one and one which reaps the dividends it so rightly deserves as the final furlong nears.

With banter that borders on a mix of continually self-effacing, mocking and what happens when lads get together over a few drinks, there's certainly something for everyone to associate with and engage at every level.

Pryor and Smith wisely realise the draw of this verite piece isn't whether the team wins, or if Peanut triumphs in his boxing and quest to get the ladies or Thomas' attempts to coach the youngsters, but that the true strength and worth comes from the way these guys react to what everyday life presents them with - and by extension, us too.

A morning after calf delivery for Broomy is the reality of a hang-over, using cable to hoist a newborn into the world without losing his lunch. It's moments like these which define us as a people, a nation or a bloody good-fulla.

Equally, the black and white cinematography drenches Reporoa in a blanket of beauty; mist hangs in the air, training takes place in complete fog and the decision to turn things so sparse, gives the film a timelessly haunting quality that's complemented by David Long's sparse OST.

Less a celebration of the drinking culture within sport (though questions will linger), The Ground We Won is an inspiration, an exploration of what makes Kiwi men tick and what binds together communities - no matter what your personal opinion is, every one of these men in their daily lives is an inspiration, proof that no matter what kind of person you are on the field, it's how you live your life and respect others around that matters first and foremost. All of those underlying foundations of life are celebrated as the group congregates in their church of their dressing room.

Pryor and Smith have mined our two national obsessions to maximum effect; it's an intimate and unobtrusive movie, but one that says more about the life that matters most than any doco has done before. The Kiwi male may forever be under scrutiny, but thanks to this paean to the most testosterone-fuelled and quintessential way of life on and off the pitch, it's in very rude health.

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Experimenter: Film Review

Experimenter: Film Review

Cast: Peter Sarsgaard, Winona Ryder, Taryn Manning
Director: Michael Almereyda

Realising that exploring social experimenter Dr Stanley Milgram was likely to be a controversial choice, the writer, director, and producer of it all, Michael Almereyda could have been on a sticky wicket.

However, by choosing to break the fourth wall conventions in this biopic a la Bronson, he removes the controversy of the man himself and ends up providing a more rounded insight into Milgram.

The film begins with Milgram's most incendiary experiments into the human condition, wherein he managed to put two subjects - a teacher and a pupil - into a room and made them administer shocks to a stranger. Based on Milgram's childhood growing up as a Jew and being influenced by events in the Holocaust, Milgram's reasoning for his trial appears sound - what could provoke any right minded person into such horrific action?

The Milgram experiments clearly had ripples and ramifications and Almereyda's exploration and presentation of them is nothing short of a shock to the system.

By using the aforementioned fourth wall convention and using photos for backgrounds for some events and meetings, it's a bolt upright reaction to what transpires on the screen. (And even has a feel of TV series Masters of Sex about it in its recreation) - but in many ways, it's a film that defies convention for a man who ultimately defied his own conventions.

Sarsgaard is a cool crisp slice of clinical perfection as Milgram, each word carefully and theatrically  delivered for maximum impact and each dryly wry witticism despatched with ease; there's plenty of humour in this film that's essentially a snapshot of a biopic.

By keeping it free of the minutiae of Milgram's life and investing us solely in pivotal moments at certain points in time, Almereyda's concocted something smart and involving.

Exposition serves for explanation and shifts of time periods within the film, and the discussions raised within will likely provoke some incisive and robust debate as the movie ends. However, rather than bogging down the film in stuffy discussion, thanks to some excellent casting (look for the cameos who make up the subjects of the initial Milgram experiment) and a great performance from Sarsgaard and a return to form for a long time absent Winona Ryder as his wife, Almereyda provides a film that hits squarely and confidently what it wants to do.

It may skirt around some issues and some of the ramifications of the experiments (there's an unexplored inference that Milgram was being tailed and one of his colleagues dies early in age, both of these are left to linger frustratingly rather than be delved deeper into), but Almereyda's never interested in anything more than using the style and the effortless ease of his leading man to deliver a fascinating take on a thrilling subject. 

Need For Speed: PS4 Review

Need For Speed: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Released by EA Games

Need For Speed has laid low recently.

After a relatively lacklustre film, the franchise kind of skidded off the road and saw other racers overtake it in its quest for world gaming domination.

The likes of Forza and its arcade spin-off Forza: Horizon, DriveClub and The Crew all came and cocked a snook at the Need For Speed series, threatening to leave them in their wake.

But a recent closed BETA of the new Need for Speed from Ghost Games demonstrated this series wasn’t afraid to get dirty and had embraced some of the bits of the other series and built on them

This latest can simply be described as a mix of elements from Fast and Furious via The Crew’s street racing vibe with lots of arcade sensibility thrown in for good measure.

In this reboot of the 20 year old franchise, you take the role of a racer who falls in with a group of street racers. Taken into their gang, you get to hurtle around Ventura Bay, a made up place which is similar to California by night, burning rubber, taking part in challenges and races and upgrading your ride and customising as you hit the roads.

Need for Speed is a different game from the franchise, one that revels in its point of difference – live-action cut scenes (which seem ripped from the likes of the Fast and Furious and are all from first player perspective).

These scenes are nicely put together, capture some of the headiness of the road, but are unskippable – even if they do offer the thrill of some real-life racing stars.  They are a tad long, but given the investment it makes sense to use the actors to their abilities and inject a boyracer ethos that’s always been apparent in the series.

Equally, your phone will ring a lot within the game as this group of disparate racers come together; with banter, offers of races or just for a natter, it never stops as you race around Ventura Bay in the constant night-time.

It’s an odd stipulation that EA has insisted that it all takes place online, given that the map populates with only a few drivers here and there – to be honest, when I chose to play the servers were quiet and hardly anyone was around. Hopefully, the more you level up, the more populated it becomes.

Customising the cars is nicely done – and works naturally by setting it in a garage, with access to whatever you need providing your rep is there and your credits are in line. Adding in decals, paints and tooling up give you a feel for your ownership and while this is nothing new in racing games, the fact that it's street-racing to the max, gives it a frisson of ownership that's exciting.

While the police don't exactly feel like they pose much of a threat, the world within is worth exploring. From collectibles to snatching camera shots, there's a lot to do in Need For Speed and a lot that's worth investing in. Granted, if your internet fails, there are frustrations, (and one thing EA should have considered) but for disposable racing fun, Need For Speed delivers in spades. The motto is if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and maybe the reboot has tweaked some edges, but the game's DNA is thrillingly alive in an exceptionally busy end to 2015.

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