Dragon Quest XI Announced

Dragon Quest XI Announced

DRAGON QUEST XI ARRIVES THIS SEPTEMBER

The Epic Beginning to a New Adventure for PlayStation 4 and STEAM

SYDNEY, 29^TH March 2018 – Square Enix Ltd., today announced that DRAGON QUEST® XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age™ will be available for the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system and STEAM® on 4^th September 2018.

DRAGON QUEST XI is the long-awaited eleventh entry to the series from series creator Yuji Horii, character designer Akira Toriyama and composer Koichi Sugiyama.

The game follows the perilous journey of a hunted Hero who must uncover the mystery of his fate with the aid of a charismatic cast of supporting characters. With a quest that takes players across continents and over vast oceans as they learn of an ominous threat facing the world, DRAGON QUEST XI brings a massive, beautifully detailed world to life, with finely tuned turn-based combat and an immersive story that will appeal to fans and newcomers alike. 

Featuring tons of side-quests and mini-games that provide enough content to keep you playing for well over 100 hours, the Western release of DRAGON QUEST XI will also feature several upgrades and enhancements that were not in the Japanese version of the game, including:

• English Voiceover - to bring the charismatic cast of characters to life
• Draconian Quest - a hard mode that offers additional challenges for more experienced players
• Overhauled Menus & UI - with graphical enhancements and more intuitive navigation
• Camera Mode - allowing players to take in views of the beautiful landscape, character renders and ferocious monsters in detail
• A new dash function and many other system enhancements such as improved character and camera movement

Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Blu Ray Review

Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Blu Ray Review

Hope is a great deal of things to a great deal of people.

But in the Star Wars universe, it is more than just a tangible concept - it exists to rekindle nostalgia or to quash the sad memories of what has previously passed.

And so it is with Star Wars The Last Jedi that the hope rises again in Riam Johnson's thrilling and ostentatious entry into the space opera, now in its 40th year.

After the nostalgia bath of The Force Awakens, there was a lot of hope to deliver with The Last Jedi and it delivers on its promise.

With the First Order rising, the rebellion lies in tatters, forced on the run and bring pursued by Domnhall Gleeson's pale and obsequious General Hux.

With supreme leader Snoke determined to snuff any whiff of rebellion out, it's up to Rey to try and bring the last great Jedi Luke Skywalker back to the fight.

However Luke is determined to have no part in this, believing hope is dangerous and that the Jedi must burn and end.

However Oscar Isaac's rebellious Poe, complete with John Boyega's displaced Stormtrooper come up with a plan to save the fleet and give Rey the time she needs to re-recruit Luke back.

But a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, hope is running out...

To say that Brick director Rian Johnson's Star Wars vision is audacious and as emotionally rich in parts as The Empire Strikes Back is no mean claim (even if the final third of the film feels forcefully tacked on).

By expanding out the universe and still concentrating on the main players, even when he's populating the film with a raft of races and new faces, there's still a focus on what matters.

But it's not all perfect in this overlong entrant into the franchise.

A reliance on humour at the start tonally upends what you'd expect from a film like this - and whilst it's initially welcome, there's a danger that the Guardians of the Galaxy and Thor: Ragnarok  humour is about to overwhelm in a film that does surprise in many ways.

Thankfully, the jokes are put on the back burner quite quickly before they grate, and the cuteness of the new arrivals Porgs is underplayed, confined to a Puss-in-Boots moment, and the film gets into what really matters.

Whereas The Force Awakens wallowed in nostalgia, and meta-nods to the originals, Rian Johnson's view of the universe takes elements of prior films and twists them into new iterations of his own.

There's an otherwordly casino, complete with a bastardised version of the infamous Cantina song; there are hints of Kylo Ren's journey taking elements of Darth Vader's arc, there's the infamous Hitler debate being given life, and most familiar of all, there's Rey being schooled in the ways of the Jedi by a reluctant Luke Skywalker.

It's an impressive world that's been created, even if there is a feeling sometimes that those within it don't exactly have enough to do.

Certainly the film's flabby B-plot suffers and there's a definitive nagging feeling that there's a mid-film slump in parts, but when it comes to spectacle, Johnson more than delivers and gives more for his newcomers to do than simply lip-service.

It still remains to be seen whether the likes of Rey, Poe and Finn will become as iconic as Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie - and the over-reliance on BB-8 as a deus ex machina is troubling, no matter how deliberately crowd-pleasing it is.

But there's much to adore in this Star Wars.

Principally, it comes down to the old school troupe - in Mark Hamill's wearied and burdened turn as Luke; his backstory reveal hints at how hope has gradually started to dwindle in one who was so optimistic and eager. The tragedy's apparent.

And none more so than with Carrie Fisher's final full film turn as General Leia Organa.

Saddled with the real life tragedy of her untimely passing, many of the fallen Princess' scenes feel loaded with more pathos than you'd expect - but there's one scene towards the end that will leave you close to experiencing your own Force choke, thanks to its exquisite beauty.

Credit must also go to Adam Driver this time too - his petulant Ren has a bit more depth in The Last Jedi, feeling less like a child on the verge of a tantrum, but a torn, deflated and defeated soul struggling to cling on to what's left of what makes him him.

Ridley's solid, but still Rey is given to exposition rather than naturally feeling her way along the narrative.

Ultimately, Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the film you're looking for.

An examination of the distractions of hate and rage, of bitterness and regret, of hope falling and rising, of the crushing feeling of both defeat and victory, of destiny and of small players making the big difference in the eternal fight - all reasons that the original saga was so loved.

It's infinitely better than its predecessor, and it sparkles with the Star Wars depth, magic and dust, despite some of its occasionally baffling flaws. 

Ready Player One: Film Review

Ready Player One: Film Review

Cast: Tye Sheridan, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, Lena Waithe, TJ Miller, Mark Rylance, Simon Pegg
Director: Steven Spielberg

It's perhaps no surprise that Steven Spielberg helmed the film version of the Ernest Cline book.

It's almost as if the director was given a toybox, chock-full of things from his own past and his cinematic loves, and told to make a family film that was a sugar rush of fun, nostalgia bingo and little else.

So it is then with the highly-anticipated Ready Player One, a film that's as superficial and hollow as one of the season's chocolate treats, but looks as shiny and welcoming.

In the year 2045, Tye Sheridan's Wade Watts lives in a VR world, as the real world is a none-too-welcoming place. Sectioned off in the Stacks, a series of vertical caravan park slums, the inhabitants spend their time in the Oasis, a VR-led world that's as much Second Life as Geek heaven.

Living off the "you can go anywhere, do anything, be anyone" ethos to avoid the fact "reality is a bummer", Wade is chasing a series of keys laid down by the departed Oasis founder Halliday (Rylance, a nicely pivoted turn of fragility and meekness).

With the promise that anyone who finds these could take over the empire, everyone's out to get it - including Ben Mendelsohn's corporate bigwig baddie Sorrento...

Ready Player One is a candy-filled flick, pumped full of sugary nostalgia and geeky Easter Eggs.

Certainly, the Oasis is a hive of activity and creativity - and bizarrely the real world is devoid of any colour and texture.

The resultant mix means that emotional attachment is enforced and attempted by voiceover and exposition, and Spielberg's desire to get to the first set piece, a CGI race that takes on King Kong, means the emotional beats are completely off immediately.
At least Pixels had the good grace to try and throw some character development before going hell for leather with its gameboy sensibilities.

It's not a crippling blow to Ready Player One, but it does render the emotional attachment little more than a shallow and hollow experience, one that sacrifices good dynamics for broadstrokes blandness from its leads - and subsequently squanders Sheridan's previously demonstrated depth.

There's no denying the set pieces, thrown repeatedly at your face, revel in their nostalgia blanket, with hundreds of easter eggs and gamer nods hurtling toward you on the screen.

It's here that Spielberg's eye for spectacle and desire to entertain in a family friendly setting come to the fore. But the tonal mix doesn't quite work - it's never fully kiddy enough to hit the straps, and hardly adult enough to warrant justice to some of the material.

Certainly a tribute sequence to The Shining and the Overlook Hotel is a great touch - but also, there's an element of Scooby Doo there, where there should be genuine fear and perhaps horror.

In many ways, this is the petard which hoists Ready Player One and foists it into forgettable fare.

Along with cheesy dialogue, brush strokes characters and a lack of a real villain (despite Mendelsohn's best attempts), Ready Player One emerges as perhaps a victim of its own zig-zag route to its denouement.
While the CGI delivers a spectacle to rival Avatar and banish the ghosts of the Polar Express, the story's refusal to adhere to any kind of emotional beats reduces it to a mere pixelated outing of a film.

In terms of spectacle, it delivers what you'd expect; but with its cartoony as hell ethos, Ready Player One squanders the chance to embrace a degree of profundity, thanks to a desire to satiate a quick fix.

Not exactly Game Over, but Ready Player One may have needed a little more development work to ensure it was a film that would be a welcome nostalgia treat when rolled out annually on the small screen.
It engages but the involvement is only brief; it provides vicarious engagement in its virtual world, but saddles its real world with nothing more than a fleeting investment.

Surrender to those rhythms and you'll be happy - go in expecting more, and you'll feel like you're watching someone play a video game, rather than experience it firsthand.

Early Man: Film Review

Early Man: Film Review

Vocal cast: Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, Timothy Spall, Rob Brydon, Maisie Williams
Director: Nick Park

Aardman animations are a stellar bunch.

Able to shape gold from plasticine and clay models, the studio's been more than capable of turning out comedic perfection since the Vaudeville-inspired Wallace and Gromit came to prominence.
That their proclivity for ensuring the humour is universal, clever and crafty and has been recognised so, means that Early Man's inability to match up to previous highs is, frankly, disappointing.

Nick Park once again takes the helms of this flick, the story of caveman Dug (Eddie Redmayne) who lives with his tribe in a world after the meteor hit the Earth,

A charming pre-titles sequence sets the scene, with quippy subtitles like Neo-Pleistocene era, an actual time, but also a subtle blink-and-miss-it nod to Aardman's choice of animation materials perhaps?

Trapped in a kingdom with other lesser dreamers, Dug and his gang find their way of life threatened by the arrival of Lord Nooth, and the arrival of the Bronze Age.

When Dug finds himself in their world, he's offered a challenge by Nooth - win a game of football or he and his people must forever quit their forest...

So far, so sports underdog.

And this is perhaps the biggest surprise of Early Man - the fact that it's essentially a riff on England's World Cup continual failures post 1966 in the faces of foreign teams.
Nooth is given a French accent, a reminder of the sporting rivalries of yore.

It seems mean to knock Early Man, which in fairness, is very passable family fare.

But given this is the company that brought us the never-less-than-brilliant Wallace and Gromit, the wonderful Shaun the Sheep film, it does pale in comparison.
It's also perhaps no surprise that Dug resembles Wallace with his big overbite grin and Dug's constant pig--pal HogNob has the temperament and expressiveness of a Gromit style ancestor.

It seems in many ways that Park's chasing his own highs, as much as Early Man chases and evolves the idea that continual football losing nations can still win tournaments (as everyone in England nods repeatedly in agreement.)

The inventiveness is occasionally there - be it in replay puppets which channel Punch and Judy in their football replays - or in the odd one-liners and sight gags that pepper the film at certain points.
There's also a nod to sporting sexism as Maisie Williams' clearly gifted footballer is denied the chance because she's a girl, all washed up in elements of Escape To Victory.

Overall, Early Man lacks perhaps the loose zaniness and masterful touches that Aardman's gifted us with in the past.

It still entertains, but it's never quite as evolved or as clever as it aims to be - and while it's essentially a celebration of the beautiful game (and perhaps a sly commentary on how cavemen play it), it never quite manages a romping victory that you'd expect or hope for.

Love, Simon: Film Review

Love, Simon: Film Review

Cast: Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford, Alexandra Shipp, Keiynan Lonsdale, Logan Miller, Tony Hale
Director: Greg Berlanti

The pantheon of rom-coms and coming-of-age films is fairly full.

But it's fair to say that the adaptation of Becky Albertalli's acclaimed book, packs the sort of punch and zing that John Hughes would have been proud of.

Even if it does inhabit a world where consequences are rarely explored, and everyone behaves in a slightly sanitised way.

Robinson is American teenager Simon Spier, who, by his own confession is "just like you."

He has a pretty normal life, with liberal parents and a solid bunch of friends as he negotiates his way through high school.

However, as he admits early on, he has a huge ass confession - he's gay and in the closet.

One day, through his school's shared internet, he spies a note from Blue, someone in the school who is also dealing with their sexuality. Simon decides to drop Blue a line and a friendship and connection begins to form - and Simon tries to find out who of his peers this potential love interest could be.

Genial and harmless, this teen film is perhaps as heartfelt as you'd expect, without delving too deeply into preaching.

In many ways, it normalises its central message, a touch which makes it worthwhile as Simon negotiates his way through a life that seems relatively perky, happy and overly caffeinated - it's a fantasy take on high school life and the lack of reality over the pains faced by many.

But that's no bad thing here, as the energy of the piece, coupled with the relative charisma of the lead, and the charm of the relationships manages to carry it all along.

Sure, there are some grounds for the whimsical dismissal of the whole blackmailing angle which plays out as Simon's forced to try and make one of his female friends like the nerd; and there are certainly issues when conflict arises and is treated in a very piecemeal, narratively necessary way later on.

Regardless of these minor speed bumps, Berlanti imbues a good 80 percent of this film with a winning formula that's likely to see it as successful in the mainstream as it wants to be.

It's still galling that a film like this has to be labelled as the "gay teen rom com a generation's been waiting for", but Love, Simon makes a genial case for a degree of timelessness, living in such a world of carefree verve that it's annoyingly compelling.

In the back third of the film, despite the real representation of Simon's parents when faced with the truth about their son, the film falters and stumbles, fumbling the pass it's been expecting the whole way through.

But ultimately, what emerges with Love, Simon is the kind of high school film and timeless romcom that's winning for the Insta-generation.

Friendships feel genuine, interactions (for the most part) feel truthful in a fantasy construct and Simon's arc proves to be rewarding enough.

Meshing 10 Things I Hate About You moments with solid dependable performances all round (even Veep star Hale's over-the-top principal can't bring it down), it provides the sort of endearing care-free  blandness that's rewarding and enjoyable enough to warrant the cost of a ticket.

Ferdinand: DVD Review

Ferdinand: DVD Review

Based on the Munro Leaf 1936 novel The Story of Ferdinand, Blue Sky's latest animated fare is squarely aimed at pushing an anti-conformist message to kids viewing.

Cena plays Ferdinand, a bull who'd rather smell the flowers than fight even though that goes against the grain of the farm where's he's being raised as a bull to take on a matador.

However, when Ferdinand's father is taken to the arena and doesn't return, Ferdy makes a break for it, finding a new owner in  a little girl and her flower-growing father. But one day when Ferdinand's stopped from going to the annual flower festival and despite the warnings from his owners, he makes his way into town.

Seen as a monster, captured and returned to the bull-rearing farm, it looks like destiny's taking its course - unless Ferdinand and his new goat friend Lupe (MacKinnon) can turn it around.

Lacking some of the zanier edges to keep the younger audiences amused, Ferdinand flirts with darkness as it explores some of the reality of what happens to animals and in particular, what happens in the bull-fighting ring.

While Cena makes for an affable big-lug of a character, complete with softer edges, Ferdinand's adventure never fully embraces the wacky until late in the day when it heads to Madrid, and a chase sequence which has vitality, joie de vivre and great sight gags.

But it's a long road to this point - and the filmmakers' desire to not go too dark (for obvious reasons, it's a kids' film) means they flirt with moments that consequently feel under-developed. There's a meat factory near to the bull-rearing farm, there's some shots of a matador threatening Ferdinand (in a badly edited final sequence that loses some coherency) and there's plenty of indication of how meat is murder.

Yet, despite that, Ferdinand never quite finds its feet - it knows that to keep the younger audience in check it needs some lunacy, which it gets with a bull/ horse dance-off, but it's few and far in between.

It's all perfectly affable and solidly animated, but Ferdinand lacks the wow factor, or a stronger emotional trajectory to carry it along.

Not exactly terri-bull, but a no-bull attempt at doing something worthy, Ferdinand's mixed approach to the subject means it never quite hits the marks it should do - but it will keep the kids amused, for some of its duration at least. 

FAR CRY® 5 IS NOW AVAILABLE

 FAR CRY® 5 IS NOW AVAILABLE

UBISOFT^® ANNOUNCES FAR CRY^® 5 IS NOW AVAILABLE

Join the Resistance Against a Fanatical Doomsday Cult As Far Cry ^® Comes To America

Sydney, Australia— March 27, 2018 — Today, Ubisoft^® announced that Far Cry^® 5, the latest instalment of the critically acclaimed Far Cry franchise is available on the PlayStation^®4 Pro computer entertainment system, PlayStation^®4, the Xbox One family of devices and Windows PC.

To watch the launch trailer click the image below

Set in America, a first for the franchise, Far Cry 5 offers players total freedom to navigate a serene-looking yet deeply twisted world as the new junior deputy of fictional Hope County, Montana. Players will find that their arrival accelerates a years-long silent coup by a fanatical doomsday cult, the Project at Eden's Gate, igniting a violent takeover of the county. Under siege and cut off from the rest of the world, players will join forces with residents of Hope County and form the Resistance.

Far Cry 5, developed by Ubisoft Montreal in collaboration with other studios*, is a first person shooter set in a completely open world. Players will have the freedom of choice, wrapped in an immersive story with memorable characters, where they can experience Far Cry Moments: unpredictable and unforgettable moments in the game. Players can play any way they want, including recruiting Guns for Hire, Fangs for Hire, and a Friend for Hire, which allows players to play the entire game in co-op, a franchise first.

Far Cry 5 also includes Far Cry Arcade, the biggest and most versatile map editor mode for the Far Cry series. In Far Cry Arcade, players can create new scenarios by utilizing assets from other titles in the series as well as other Ubisoft franchises, including Assassin’s Creed^® IV Black Flag, Assassin’s Creed Unity, or Watch Dogs^®, for solo, co-op or competitive experiences.

Players can also purchase the Gold Edition of Far Cry 5, which includes the base game, season pass and bonus content. The Far Cry 5 season pass transports players to uncanny adventures across three unique settings with the upcoming DLCs - Hours of Darkness, Dead Living Zombies and Lost on Mars - and more. On top of that, players who purchase the season pass for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One get Far Cry 3^® Classic Edition at no additional cost.

For more information about Far Cry 5, please visit farcry.com and follow us on Facebook at facebook.com/farcry.usa and on Twitter at twitter.com/farcrygame or hashtag #FarCry5.

For the latest on Far Cry 5 and other Ubisoft games, please visit news.ubisoft.com.