At Darren's World of Entertainment - a movie, DVD and game review blog.
The latest movie and DVD reviews - plus game reviews as well. And cool stuff thrown in when I see it.
To celebrate the release of Follow Me, thanks to Sony Home Entertainment, you can win a copy.
About Follow Me
A social media personality travels with his friends to Moscow to capture new content for his successful VLOG. Always pushing the limits and catering to a growing audience, they enter a cold world of mystery, excess, and danger. When the lines between real life and social media are blurred, the group must fight to escape, and survive.
All you have to do is email your details and the word FOLLOW!
Cast: Liam Neeson, Kate Walsh, Jai Courtney, Jeffrey Donovan, Robert Patrick
Director: Mark Williams
In Honest Thief, a fairly competent story is given plenty of heart and soul before falling into old action genre tropes, and fizzling when it should really be ramping up.
An earnest Liam Neeson delivers another variation of his Taken routine, this time performing as Tom, a former marine cum IED disposer turned bank robber with a conscience.
Following a meet-cute with Kate Walsh’s Annie at a storage depot, Tom decides to turn his back on bank robbing life to settle down.
So deciding to turn himself in, Tom calls in the FBI, and tries to convince them he’s their man. Initially Reticent, two of the FBI’s most disgruntled (for reasons never fully expanded upon) decide to rip Tom off, steal the cash and make off with the perfect crime.
But when Tom is crossed, he takes the fight to the FBI, using a variation on his set of special skills to get revenge.
Honest Thief starts by placing characters into its story, developing them before they deciding to throw them in the shackles of a relatively plodding typical action film.
Neeson gives good hangdog face and his burden is obvious, even when the script fails him. But by the time Jai Courtney’s maniacal glee enters the frame. The film eschews any desire to further service its characters, preferring merely to service a rote plot that neither fizzles nor burns in its final third.
There is a story of how middle management flounder in life, how males lose their direction and how guilt catches us all up, but Honest Thief is less interested in that and more interested in ensuring a happy ending for all, the baddies are caught and love will find a way.
An abrupt end doesn’t help things and serviceable action scenes exist only because they have to and not because they ramp up tension or push you to the edge of your seat.
Honest Thief is watchable enough fare, but unless Neeson does something new and fairly soon, the twilight of his career will be notable only for a long list of average actioners - that’s the honest truth, but also would be a crying shame.
To celebrate the release of Greed on DVD, thanks to Sony Home Entertainment, you can win a copy.
About Greed
Greed tells the story of self-made British billionaire Sir Richard McCreadie, whose retail empire is in crisis.
For 30 years he has ruled the world of retail fashion, bringing the high street to the catwalk and the catwalk to the high street.
But after a damaging public inquiry, his image is tarnished.
To save his reputation, he decides to bounce back with a highly publicised and extravagant party celebrating his 60th birthday on the Greek island of Mykonos.
To celebrate the release of El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie, thanks to Sony Home Entertainment, you can win a copy.
About El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
Finally free from torture and slavery at the hands of Tod's uncle Jack, and from Mr. White, Jesse must escape demons from his past.
He's on the run from a police manhunt, with his only hope of escape being Saul Goodman's hoover guy, Ed Galbraith.
A man who for the right price, can give you a new identity and a fresh start. Jesse is racing against the clock, with help from his crew, avoiding capture to get enough money together to buy a ‘new dust filter for his Hoover MaxExtract PressurePro model’, a new life.
FINAL FANTASY XVI | New Site and Character details
FINAL FANTASY XVI LAUNCHES TEASER WEBSITE FEATURING KEY ARTWORK,
SETTING AND MAIN CHARACTERS
Today, Square Enix Ltd., launched the official teaser website for the latest standalone mainline title in the FINAL FANTASY series, FINAL FANTASY® XVI.
The website showcases newly revealed key artwork for the ground-breaking, all-new action RPG, featuring the game’s protagonist, Clive Rosfield, as well as a set of character illustrations and vignettes that offer a glimpse of the connections between them.
The website also presents a deeper look into the setting of FINAL FANTASY® XVI, the complex realm of Valisthea, a land blessed in the light of the Mothercrystals —glittering mountains of crystal that tower over the world below.
Artwork – FINAL FANTASY XVI protagonist, Clive Rosfield, on a dark and dangerous road to revenge
FINAL FANTASY XVI brings players into a world where Eikons are powerful and deadly creatures that reside within Dominants—a single man or woman who is blessed with the ability to call upon their dreaded power. The story follows Clive Rosfield, a young man dedicated to mastering the blade, who is dubbed the First Shield of Rosaria and tasked to guard his younger brother Joshua — the Dominant of the Phoenix. Unexpected events set Clive on a dark and dangerous road to revenge.
For more information on the world and characters of FINAL FANTASY XVI, visit the official teaser website at: http://eu.finalfantasyxvi.com
FINAL FANTASY XVI is a single player action-RPG being developed for the PlayStation®5 console (“PS5™”).
PlayStation 5 - Astro's Playroom and Controller experience review
It's now just a matter of weeks until the PlayStation 5 makes its long-awaited arrival on the gaming scene.
And thanks to PlayStation New Zealand, time has been given on the machine in a demo of Astro's Playroom.
Specifically, access was given to allow use of the new controller, the DualSense, and the haptic feedback that has been made so much of.
While the PlayStation's UI and finer points of the console itself (such as the back etc) are still being kept massively under wraps for users, the controller is really where the feeling of the next generation starts to come to life.
It feels chunkier than the current PlayStation 4 controller, and more meaty in the hands.
But that's not to say it's unwieldy in any shape or form - the controller itself has grips and sits comfortably in the hands which will be good for long gaming sessions. Equally, its sleek and simple design gives it a kind of pristine sheen and ice white feel that will be hard to beat in any new colour iterations PlayStation puts out.
Initially, it doesn't feel much different to a DualShock in many ways - the touch pad is there, the controller sticks are where they should be and the buttons and D-pad all work like they do in the current gen.
Yet, it's the much vaunted haptic feedback in the adaptive controllers that gives the DualSense the promise of a next gen piece of kit.
The R1 and R2 buttons adapt to their environments, and the grips on them change. In the Astro's Playroom demo, it becomes obvious the scope there is for the haptic feedback to shape the nature of any game and the immersiveness of it. (Though, admittedly, there are only a certain limited number of feelings for any developers to use the tech, so it'll be interesting to see where they go with it.)
Sequences where your Bot suits up to become a springy toy see the controller's back buttons become tighter like coils, and others where you fire a gun of balls at other bots or using a bow, you can feel the controller kicking back with the recoil. It's game-changing stuff - much like the touch pad was for Little Big Planet or in the inFamous series on the PlayStation 4.
But as is cautioned, developers will need to run with it for it to morph into something more than a launch gimmick.
In Astro's Playroom, the Astrobot experience is extended out from the Astro Bot Rescue Mission - and the game comes installed in the PS5 for launch day.
In the one section that was allowed to be played, the game's clearly meant to get you in touch with what the controller does, and the speed and reactiveness of the next gen hardware.
It's undeniably cute and Sackboy is in danger of being usurped, as you hurtle around areas picking up PlayStation-labelled coins (for reasons as yet unknown) and tracking down pieces of a jigsaw that form a mural. Using the triggers and a combination of buttons to push and pull parts of the PlayStation Labo area in the game trigger different things - and demonstrate what the controller can do.
Much of Astro's PlayRoom has a nostalgia theme to it, a love-letter to previous generations, thanks to artifacts that can be found (and which are based on previous software) and the design of a central area. It's a sweet little game, but one that shows off the console's potential.
And it's potential that matters here.
With the launch in New Zealand happening on November 12, it seems like Sony has some interesting ideas up their sleeve for the kind of use the controller can have in the games they're dropping near launch.
Imagine using the controller during the wacky gadgets of Ratchet and Clank's next outing, or for Sackboy's return. Long term prospects like the Horizon Zero Dawn sequel and a potential Spider-Man sequel will ensure the gaming is brought to your fingertips.
It's enticing, intriguing and a sign that the next generation of consoles has something to offer - and a world of possibilities for developers to embrace.
Sony PlayStation 5, the DualSense controller, and the demo of Astro's Playroom were given access to as part of a promotional campaign for the launch of the PlayStation 5 by PlayStation New Zealand.
