Days Gone: PS4 Review

Days Gone: PS4 Review

Developed by Bend Studio
Platform: PS4

Days Gone is the big hope for new IP for 2019.

But in truth, a lot of what the game does has been done before, and what emerges in the final wash, is a game that somehow lacks its own USP, despite looking mightily impressive and using a dynamic weather system to gaming advantage.

However, there are moments of open world survival game Days Gone where the mash up of Last Of Us survival and stealth, Walking Dead style zombies and camp complications, Sons of Anarchy bromance of the lead and his best mate and Far Cry series of camps and missions actually feels like it gels into something cohesive - even if it does fully lack some of the emotional heft of the great singleplayer PlayStation titles.

Beginning with the protagonist, Deacon St John, the game starts two years before you begin, showing how society began to crumble as a mysterious infection swept through America.

St John's beau, Sarah, is stabbed by accident, and his co-gang rider Boozer is seriously injured, leaving Deeks to make an awful choice - and one that haunts him in the two years when we rejoin the game. Most of the game is about finding a reason, a reason to survive, a reason to continue and a reason to hope.

Still riding around the wilds of the Northwest, this outlaw is a loner, spending days scavenging scrap avoiding the Freakers (a zombie-style nasty) and what's left of the dregs of humanity (the human animalistic Rippers, roaming marauders and those in charge of running various safe houses).

But Deacon finds himself smack bang in the middle of humanity's best and worst again as he discovers not everything he thought he knew was true.

While Days Gone stumbles through its opening chapters, with some truly awful dialogue (chiefly between Deacon and his biker buddy Boozer and sounding like Kiefer Sutherland rejected them from episodes of 24) and interactions, some implausibly long loading screens, there are moments when the game manages to rise above its shakier edges, long loading screens and the repetitive nature of the fetch and retrieve missions.

Aside from the weapons and crafting, the Red Dead Redemption style need to ensure your bike's always in top notch form and fuelled up, the Last Of Us options to customise melee weapons and your own bike, and the back and forth between camps, the game's internal logic cannot be faulted.

Amid the all-too-familiar conspiracy which emerges, and the inevitable tropes of the research facilities which lie scattered around the world, the Freakers are a truly terrifying enemy, something akin to perhaps some of the greatest zombies committed to a game.

Singularly, they can be dispatched with melee combat - but as a group, they're nigh on undefeatable.

Several missions see you needing to infiltrate research facilities to access various health benefits - but as these have lain dormant and unpowered for the 730-plus days since the outbreak, it's up to you to find the resources to get into them.

But giving them power fires up the automated messages which blare out from speakers and across the countryside, attracting more creatures and limiting your chances of survival. In one such mission, I neglected to turn off a speaker and thinking nothing of it, having got what I needed, I ran. But driving through later on, the sound had attracted an utterly insurmountable horde that could not be defeated - this is a world that carries on even if you're nowhere around.

With the Mad Max style Ripper gang waiting to pick you off, there's a great deal of uncertainty in the countryside, and with a soundtrack that ripples with unease, the mood created by Bend Studio is palpable.

The game looks great, and the handling of the biking is solid too, which is a plus, given how much time you spend on the road.

Littered with flashbacks, Days Gone finds its emotional core, but to be frank, it's weaker when compared to the litany of what's already passed in terms of gaming narratives. Occasionally, the review build stuttered with the scope of what the open world was trying to present, and has frozen, but hopefully early patches should remove the niggles here and there.

Ultimately, Days Gone is a solid PlayStation exclusive, that sadly, despite all of its efforts and outside of the biker element, struggles to find its own voice.

It's not the best the platform's ever had, but it's not the worst either. It does recall large swathes of The Last Of Us, and it is perhaps a pity that it never fully emerges with a strong independent voice of its own - no matter how beautiful it looks.

It does, however, muddy the waters of survivalist games a little, making every side you encounter feeling like they have something to hide - and if the familiarity comes because of a genre which is crowded, Days Gone is a worthy contribution to the pantheon.

However good it looks, you can't help but wish it had a stronger voice to shout above the crowded genre marketplace it's been launched into.

Crackdown 3: XBox One Review

Crackdown 3: XBox One Review

Developed by
Platform: XBox One

Quite frankly, Crackdown 3 looks out of place on the XBox One platform.

Cartoony in extremis, with hardly any lyricism gone into its execution, visual or otherwise, the game feels out of place in this current generation.

A long time in development, the game's simple MO is a case of shooting, collecting orbs and jumping higher than you ever have before. It's not exactly taxing, nor in many ways does it remotely purport to be.

You get to play an agent in New Providence, a city that looks like it's a cartoon Blade Runner, complete with refugees circling around. Gaining powers from collecting orbs, and various agility points, you get to take out a series of bosses and unlock the world around, while fulfilling the high points of a fairly generic story that feels like it's ripped from the 1980s.

And in many ways, the gameplay mechanics all feel ripped from the 1980s too - you have to collect ammo by clicking a button, rather than running over it, and you can lift and hurtle objects in the most rudimental of ways.

It all seems so familiar and yet also so depressingly unoriginal.

A mix of Saints Row silliness and cartoon edges, Crackdown 3 has potential. There's some joy to be had in the bounding around, shooting and collecting, but it's a fairly hollow pleasure to be frank.

You won't sink hundreds of hours into Crackdown 3 - in truth, you may only just cobble together a few of fun before tedium sets in. Free on the GamePass service, it's probably at a reasonable price, because as a standalone release, it's got the feel of something that's sorely out of touch and ever so slightly three decades too late.

Win The Avengers collection on 4K Blu Ray

Win The Avengers collection on 4K Blu Ray

To celebrate the release of Avengers: Endgame, in cinemas now, you have the chance to win The Avengers collection on 4K Blu Ray.

It's all thanks to the great people at Sony Home Entertainment.

Relive how it all began with The Avengers, then take in the chaos the gang faces in The Avengers: Age Of Ultron.

And finally, get up to speed for Avengers: Endgame, with Avengers: Infinity War, as Thanos unleashes his deadly plan to cull the universe!

But, there's more - you can also take home the Captain America series on 4K too - from Captain America, to Captain America: The Winter Soldier, before concluding with Captain America: Civil War.

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Avengers: Endgame: Film Review

Avengers: Endgame: Film Review

Cast: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Josh Brolin, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson,Karen Gillan, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, 
Director: Anthony and Joe Russo

It's finally here.

The end of the road for the Marvel Cinematic Universe's current phase, and the conclusion of events after Thanos snapped his fingers, and wiped out half of the world in Avengers: Infinity War.

Avengers: Endgame arrives with such a weight of expectation one year after the tease of the end that it's hard to live upto what fans - and cinemagoers - want.

But simply put, if you're a fan of the MCU, Endgame delivers in spades - and as a casual cinema-goer there's also a lot to gain from a film that has dalliances with the epic, but never once forgets the intimate.

Avengers:Endgame is not a film the creators want spoiling.

The plot has been briefly hinted at in trailers but outside of the upcoming release, little is truly known of if Thanos is defeated, or how any attempts are made.

The interesting thing about the occasionally sprawling 181 minutes that unfolds is how much a lot of the payoffs from previous films are delivered and how all the threads of the other 20 plus films join together.

While it’s no condemnation to say Endgame contains an overload of fan service and crowd-pleasing moments, what it also contains is an emotional depth and exploration of sacrifice that’s confined to the core of original characters, that cinemagoers have spent a decade with.

There’s an elegiac feeling of its opening, the meditations on loss and if second chances are worth losing are heartbreakingly laid out; there’s a reaction to trauma that leaves you finally feeling Thanos’ actions in Infinity War had real consequences. Doubt, regret and angst are in order, and are deftly delivered by the human cast.

It's something the MCU has previously until now been somewhat flippant about, but this time around, there's a sense the remaining Avengers are truly broken and vulnerable.

Yet, there’s also scope and depth here which is more than alluded to - old grievances are raised again and the culmination of years of foundation laying has an emotionally resonant payoff that’s mostly worthy of the three hour run time for fans of the franchise.

Brolin once again brings greater depth to his bad guy Thanos and makes you feel like everyone has collateral and damage after he pursued his utopia. His nuanced bad guy has been a real boon for the franchise, and certainly delivers the heft needed in this chapter capper. 

This film is predominantly about the relationship between Chris Evans' Captain America and Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man. But more than that, it's about Steve Rogers and Tony Stark - something which rewards when it needs to.

In among the pleasing set pieces and odd touches of humour, there are one or two stumbles, which were perhaps inevitable during the three hour run time, and with a farewell mentality in mind.

A final battle is a depressing return to the usual CGI throw-it-all-at-the-wall fare (though, in all honesty, it's hard to see what else there is that could be done). Coupled with one or two moments of excess (and one overblown statement of intent to address ongoing criticism), it's the denouement fans will want, but one that critics of the superhero genre will dismiss as once again, overcrowded and overdone. 

When it's confined within to just a few single actors, it's fair to say the denouement soars in its singular quieter moments. Even if foreshadowing robs some of the emotion from landing as it should. In truth, the moments are more about your familiarity with these characters, rather than what exactly the narrative of Avengers: Endgame delivers.

Equally, despite all the promise and fanfare of the previous Marvel outing, it's troubling that one character is effectively reduced solely to a deus ex machina device in proceedings. 

There are also a few emotional moments that feel a little rushed, and didn't quite hit the mark that perhaps should have been expected.

But there are plenty of character complexities and moments that ground this superhero film in the realm of the human and our various foibles.

Ultimately, this film belongs to the original Avengers - it may be the end of Phase 3, and the farewell they've been anticipating after some 20 plus films over a decade, but it's not hindered the Russo Brothers from delivering a movie that is crowd-pleasing in extremis, one that walks a tightrope between nostalgia (thanks to plot devices) and closing a chapter from a studio that's always had its eyes on its vision.

Second Act: DVD Review

Second Act: DVD Review

Presumably rejected by Hallmark and Lifetime for its utterly insane twist, Second Act is a film that is crippled by its storyline, which comes straight out of 1950s America.

J-Lo is Maria Vargas, a long-suffering assistant supermarket manager in downtown New York. On her birthday, Maria is trying to secure a promotion, having spent 15 years working as the manager's right hand and set in motion some changes that would benefit the business.

But rejected for promotion, and with her relationship with her toyboy baseball coach crumbling over her desire to not have kids, she finds herself offered a job at a major cosmetics company, thanks to her street-talking friend (Remini) faking her CV and getting her an interview.

It gets worse for Vargas when she gets the job and isn't sure how long to continue the lie - setting her on a collision course with the younger elements of the firm, including the firm's founder's daughter Zoe (Hudgens).

To explain why Second Act is such a bizarro trip into 1960s world where women can have anything they want, as long as men sanction it, is to reveal its twist. Which is to rob you of a genuine "Are you kidding me" moment that cinema so rarely offers. Suffice to say, that will not happen here.

But it's enough to say that despite Lopez's earnestness and innate likeability as the everyday woman who wants it all, the film's utter unswerving adherence to something that would have been part of a Twilight Zone episode of I Love Lucy is not to its credit.

Added to this the level of mansplaining going on as well throughout, this tale of so-called women's empowerment is lacking the balls (sorry) it needs to heartily succeed and carry past an insane twist that defies logic and belief.

Lopez does what she can with the material on offer, and maybe the credibility is stretched as far as it can - but giving its lead a power me moment to be crippled by a pratfall seems like something from decades ago, and is as weak as it is inexcusable.

In a fantasy world context, Second Act's continual stereotyping and conforming makes it almost unbelievable to behold, and its central message of You Can Have It All, Ladies seem like something from decades long since buried, and much deliberately maligned in a more woke 2018. It's even more of a crime how it fails to execute its own concept and collapses into a pile of sentimental mush than is barely worthy of a girls-night-out film. 

The Kid Who Would Be King: DVD Review

The Kid Who Would Be King: DVD Review

There's no hiding from British films as the stench of Brexit starts to creep in.

And in Attack The Block director Joe Cornish's latest, which he wrote as well, The Kid Who Would Be King reeks of both the problems of the current United Kingdom's plight (albeit at a surface level), but also global uncertainty. Along with the aimlessness of contemporary society, Cornish has his sights squarely set on making sure the kids don't feel lost in a present of our own making.

Throw in a message of empowering the kids against the problems of today for the future, amid the contemporary transposition of the Arthurian legends, and it's clear what The Kid Who Would Be King is trying to do.

Serkis is 12-year-old Alex, a non-consequential kid in a school in England. Mates with bullied Bedders (Chaumoo, who may leave you feeling like he's channelling Julian Dennison), Alex stands up for what's right - despite the right thing being to his detriment.

One day, while escaping the bullies, Alex discovers a sword in a stone slab at a construction site, and quicker than you can say Lady of the Lake, Excalibur or any of the Arthur lore, pulls it out.

But under the ground, Arthur's long-lost half sister Morgana (Ferguson, underused) is stirring, ready to take the world as her own, now it's in a fragile state.

Much like Attack The Block did, The Kid Who Would Be King bandies together an 80s style gang of kids (once again, multi-cultural) to save the world. This time though, they lack the killer charisma of the first, but in some ways, that's perhaps the point, as these are everyday kids, given a bit of the once-over-lightly treatment.

That flaw does slightly show in the quest portion of the film as Cornish reinvents the Arthurian legends to fit his own ends. And it does feel padded in parts as it heads toward its inexorable CGI denouement. But it helps that what transpires riffs nicely on the likes of Lord Of The Rings and Percy Jackson and even has its own baddies in the form of flaming sword carrying CGI creatures.

The Kid Who Would Be King: Film Review

Serkis makes a reasonable lead, doing the best with what he has to work with, and even getting some laughs out of lines like "I'm 12, I'm not even old enough to do a paper round" when Alex's told he is the future king. He also brings some heft to the fatherless storyline - though in truth Patrick Stewart (complete with Led Zeppelin T-Shirt) does a lot of that with his Merlin. There's a lot riding on the tales he learned as a child, and the tales he's told now by friends or by family - but Serkis translates that through the prism of an ordinary kid, trying to do the best he can.

Gently earnest, with an exhortation to listen to the kids of the present, because they are the leaders of our future, The Kid Who Would Be King wears its empowerment message with pride - but it never loses sight of the fact it's there to serve as escapist family entertainment - and does so admirably.

Shoplifters: DVD Review

Shoplifters: DVD Review

Shoplifters' tale of a Japanese family living in the slum downtrodden house is meant to shock from its beginning.

With the opening seeing a father and son stealing from a supermarket in a co-ordinated military style set of precision manoeuvres, we're thrown into the family world of the Shibatas.

Living in low income and scraping by, the family's world is changed when the father brings home a little girl he sees living outside a house with no apparent parents nearby. As the girl doesn't want to go home and shows signs of abuse, despite the strain on the family, they keep her within their walls, a family giving love to an unknown.

However, that decision could prove as fateful as it will fruitful.

Subtle and perhaps aiming to provoke empathy throughout, without ever being manipulative Kore-eda's social eye on the affliction of some Japanese families is also a salutation to uncompromising love.

With her big eyes, and cute haircut, the abused little girl is never anything more than a tool to win over the audience, and to cast light on the insidious ways of abuse, so redolent worldwide that it hurts.

While there's humour in this social tale, there's also an undercurrent of anger that Kore-eda provokes in you that this family have to go through so much to just get by. But presented under a sunnier outlook, Kore-eda manages to make proceedings warmer than they perhaps should be, a chance to push a message in ways that could otherwise not work.

The Palmes D'Or winner Kore-eda Hirokazu's Shoplifting is a story that may move you, but ultimately, its last reel reveal feels cheap and easy, a narrative rug-pull aimed to disorientate and reassess.

What it actually does is make you question why some of the characters you've invested in over the past two hours don't do the one thing you'd expect them to. It's a unsettling turn and leaves an after-taste which is hard to shift (and which is too spoilery to discuss here).

While Kore-eda Hirokazu may wish to be saluting love and family in all its forms, and present a world similar to one glimpsed in Sean Baker's The Florida Project by centring on the children, Shoplifters' strength lies in its interactions within the family.

Some threads may go undernourished, and while the reveals at the end may pull together some of the looser ends, there are similar themes of family that Kore-eda has pursued before. Granted, this latest may see a more broken family than previously, but the social realism captured within is nonetheless heartbreaking throughout. And certainly the burst of consciousness and guilt is never belaboured throughout.

A thoughtful piece, but a flawed masterpiece to some, Shoplifters' strength lies in its willingness to expose the double standards of Japanese society - and ultimately, the hypocrisies and selfishness of us all.