Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: PS4 Review

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: PS4 Review

Developer: Eidos Montreal
Platform: PS4

Mixing Metal Gear Solid with cybernetics seems a good and heady combination for Deus Ex Mankind Divided.

Tapping into a healthy mistrust of the machines and their augmented place in society, the follow up to Deus Ex Human Revolution is a thrilling trip into the day after tomorrow world ethos with Adam Jensen.

Set in the year 2029, Jensen's part of an anti-terrorist group deployed to deal with a clutch of augmented terrorists threatening the fragile peace. But Jensen also has a side mission to crack the conspiracy rippling through the augmented world and the shadowy cabal controlling things.

With a series of others to negotiate a way through and no-one seeming exactly who they are, the world set up is a perfect one. And it's well complemented by the levels of enhancement that Jensen goes through and the weaponry he can use to help instigate a stealthy takedown here and there.

From augmented vision to powerful deployment of a cybernetic arm, there are plenty of skills to master as the game plays out and these can be used in ways that may surprise. Plus, combined with the fact that missions don't have to be done a certain way adds to the clever touches of the game - and it's certainly enough to push re-playability as you power through the narrative.

Deploying cover moves, working sensibly to take down enemies and generally having to think a little ahead is fairly de rigeur for games of this ilk, but Deus Ex: Mankind Divided makes it simple to execute and rewarding when it pays off.

Ultimately Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is an exciting addition to the Deus Ex series and one that works well with its Prague set storyline of oppression and mechanical apartheid. Equally, its crisp visuals and eye-popping worlds make it visually worthwhile to wile away the hours - there's a real Blade Runner-esque quality to parts of this game.

Simply put, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is well worth investing your time in; along with an online competitive mode Breach, there's more than enough to capture your attention and more than enough proof this series still has much further to go.

Sherpa: DVD Review

Sherpa: DVD Review

Rating: M
Released by Transmission Home Ent

Jennifer Peedom's documentary on the Sherpas and Nepal is inevitably infused with a bittersweet touch, and is a scathing look at the unfolding industrial dispute on Everest.

Armed with a camera crew and with the intention of giving the Sherpas the moment to shine she felt they had been missing all these years, she couldn't have foreseen the tragic events that would brutally interrupt the 2014 climbing season - and after completing editing, the earthquake that struck almost exactly one year on.

However, before the tragedy comes the majesty of the mountain, thanks to opening shots that are pristine and clear and which cauterize the eyes with white. As the wind blows against the Everest that we are so accustomed to, which reaches out into the heavens, it soon becomes clear that the serenity is only in the sky.

In 2013 the discord on the ground threatened to boil over with a fight brewing between the Sherpas and those climbing the mountain being the final straw. It was this in mind, and Peedom's perception that the Sherpa race has been ignored despite doing the majority of the work that set the documentary in motion.

But what emerges from Peedom's utterly thrilling and yet equally sickening piece is the bitter curelty of timing. Against a backdrop of whether the Sherpa are working too hard to capitalise on a season that grants them ten times the average wage and ensures their families have food, nature intervened on 18th April 2014, bringing an avalanche that killed 16 Sherpa and setting the debate into a chain of urgency that's as fragile as the snow hanging on the side.

Wisely choosing to follow Phurba Tashi, a Sherpa whose next climb up Everest will mark his 22nd and a world record, as well as Himalayan veteran Russell Brice who carries out commercial ventures with his crew in mind, Peedom's created a documentary that soars as high as Everest itself and scales the heights of cinematic greatness.

It may be concerned with matters thousands of metres above ground, but Peedom's non-intrusive eye keeps our feet squarely on terra firma and deals us with the cold hard facts of the inequality of the sherpas; namely, that they have to travel 30 times a season through a moving ice-fall to ensure that those who've paid the big bucks can make one simple trip to the base camp and summit the top.

Sherpa is never anything less than shocking as it exposes the widening gap between commercial venture and human life and there won't be many who don't fall squarely into the Sherpas' camp after the tragedy unfolds (that an American client claims terrorists have pushed them off the mountain when the Sherpa essentially strike fearing for their lives speaks volumes to their plight and the Western perception of entitlement).

Granted, Peedom's firmly in the Sherpa camp, but even she could have never predicted the sickening urgency that the doco takes when the wall of white comes down (and in its most harrowing moment, covers a camera clearly from the Sherpa team walking the crevices).

Her seamless weaving of the now and then of the Himalayas creates a rich timeline, but never loses its focus on the human faces of what is essentially commercial law. Even the Nepali government gets a serve over their apathy in the face of tourism woes, something this polemic subtly plants in your mind.

The inequality may be a slap in the face to those who remember Tenzing Norgay's smiling face, but by revealing the years that have been cruel to the race after this, Peedom's created something that's sickeningly gripping and viscerally raw from beginning to end - and which captures an unfolding tragedy in an entirely riveting way but which never loses sight of the human cost or gets caught up in the post-tragedy hysteria.

Sherpa is formidable film-making, one whose ending will be changed in light of the 2015 Nepal Earthquake but one whose ethical and moral issues will resonate with many for years to come thanks to Peedom's unswerving eye and concise skill.

It's jaw-dropping stuff, and not always for the reason you'd expect. Unmissable.

Win a double pass to see DON'T BREATHE

Win a double pass to see DON'T BREATHE

To celebrate the release of the US Number 1 Box Office smash, Don't Breathe, I've got double passes to see the film!

About Don't Breathe

A group of friends break into the house of a wealthy blind man, thinking they'll get away with the perfect heist. They're wrong.

Directed by: Fede Alvarez

Written by: Fede Alvarez & Rodo Sayagues

Produced by: Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, Fede Alvarez

Executive Producers: Nathan Kahane, Joe Drake, Erin Westerman, J.R. Young, Mathew Hart

Cast: Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto and Stephen Lang

Don't Breathe hits cinemas September 22nd

To enter simply email to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com - simply CLICK HERE darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com and in the subject line put BREATHE 

Please include your name and address and good luck! NB Competition closes 22 September- editor's decision final!

Win a Bridget Jones's Baby prize pack

Win a Bridget Jones's Baby prize pack

To celebrate the release of Bridget Jones's Baby in cinemas September 22nd, I'm giving you the chance to win big with double passes to see the comedy and a Bridget Jones's Baby bag!

Oscar^® winners Renée Zellweger and Colin Firth are joined by Patrick Dempsey for the next chapter of the world’s favorite singleton in Bridget Jones’s Baby.  Directed by Sharon Maguire (Bridget Jones’s Diary), the new film in the beloved comedy series based on creator Helen Fielding’s heroine finds Bridget unexpectedly expecting. 

After breaking up with Mark Darcy (Firth), Bridget Jones’s (Zellweger) “happily ever after” hasn’t quite gone according to plan.  Fortysomething and single again, she decides to focus on her job as top news producer and surround herself with old friends and new.  For once, Bridget has everything completely under control.  What could possibly go wrong?

Then her love life takes a turn and Bridget meets a dashing American named Jack (Dempsey), the suitor who is everything Mr. Darcy is not.  In an unlikely twist she finds herself pregnant, but with one hitch…she can only be fifty percent sure of the identity of her baby’s father.

The much-anticipated third installment of the Bridget Jones’s franchise welcomes fellow Academy Award^® winner Emma Thompson to the cast.  Longtime collaborators Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner of Working Title Films produce alongside Debra Hayward.  Universal Pictures will distribute Bridget Jones’s Baby in North America and select international territories. 

Bridget Jones's Baby is in cinemas September 22nd.

To enter simply email to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com - simply CLICK HERE darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com and in the subject line put BRIDGET. 

Please include your name and address and good luck! 
NB Competition closes 22 September- editor's decision final!

UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS - Official "Legacy" Trailer

UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS - Official "Legacy" Trailer

The brand new UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS - Official "Legacy" Trailer has dropped.

UNDERWORLD: BLOOD WARS hits NZ Cinemas on December 1

PlayStation 4 Pro and slimmer and lighter PlayStation 4 unveiled

PlayStation 4 Pro and slimmer and lighter PlayStation 4 unveiled

Following the PlayStation Meeting 2016 held today at the PlayStation Theatre in New York, Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced the following:

PlayStation 4 Pro

·         PlayStation 4 Pro delivers enhanced experiences through improved image processing capability and support for 4K quality

·         Allows games to deliver graphics with far more detail and unprecedented visual precision

·         4K video playback support to deliver 4K streaming video services such as Netflix and YouTube

·         Support of HDR imaging technology, enabling reproduction of brightness and darkness while realizing a much wider range of colours

·         Available in New Zealand from November 10, 2016, NZD$639.95 RRP

Slimmer and lighter PlayStation 4

·         New form factor reduces size by more than 30% and makes console 25% lighter in weight than previous models

·         Increased energy efficiency, cutting power consumption by more than 34%

·         All PS4 systems including the new slimmer model and PS4 Pro will support HDR imaging technology via an update

·         500GB PlayStation 4 available in New Zealand from September 16^th, 2016, NZD$489.95 RRP

·         1TB PlayStation 4 available in New Zealand from September 29^th, 2016, NZD$569.95 RRP

From New York, Michael Ephraim, Managing Director, Sony Interactive Entertainment New Zealand commented:

“As Andy House said, our vision is to present a clear choice to the gamer and we are steadfast in our commitment to being the best place to play. Today’s announcements are testament of this.  With PlayStation 4 Pro, we look forward to introducing our players to our most powerful home console with the offering of the first class 4k and HDR technology. At 30% reduced size, the new model PS4 offers great value for the gamer and will also join the HDR revolution from next week. With the news we’ve unveiled today and PS VR launching on October 13, there’s never been a better time to join the PlayStation community.”

Here's an idea of how the new TOMB RAIDER will look in 4K

HITMAN™ - Episode 5: Colorado Coming September 27th

HITMAN™ - Episode 5: Colorado Coming September 27th

HITMAN™ - Episode 5: Colorado Coming September 27^th

SYDNEY - September 7, 2016 - Io-Interactive today confirms that Episode 5 of HITMAN will be set in Colorado and will be arriving on September 27^th. 

For the penultimate episode in HITMAN Season One, the mission “Freedom Fighters” is not one to be taken lightly. Agent 47 must infiltrate a Colorado farm compound that has been converted into a private militia training camp.  Players are presented with an intense infiltration mission to locate and take out four targets.

Sean Rose, Maya Parvati, Ezra Berg and Penelope Graves are four very different, very dangerous people, each with their own specialist skillset ranging from environmental terrorism to chemical interrogation. This will be the toughest assignment yet for Agent 47. Players must utilize all the skills learned so far.

“This is one of the toughest episodes yet. Not only do you have four targets, but from the moment you set foot in Colorado you’re on enemy ground,” said Hannes Seifert, Studio Head at Io-Interactive. "'Freedom Fighters' is a key episode, which will add serious momentum to the story and set up an intriguing season finale for players.” 

With all-new opportunities and disguises, and with 70 different challenges unlocking brand new gear, weapons, and items, Episode 5: Colorado rewards players with huge story revelations as the season builds towards a thrilling climax.

HITMAN began with a Prologue and Paris location in March, continued with Episode 2: Sapienza in April, Episode 3: Marrakesh in May, the Summer Bonus Episode in July, Episode 4: Bangkok in August and Episode 5: Colorado in September. The season finale in Japan will arrive later in 2016.