video
Tech Gamer: Belief and Betrayal
July 24, 2008
Belief and Betrayal is a ‘Point and Click Adventure game’ – something you see a lot less of these days in the age of photo-realistic graphics and free-roaming open-ended game worlds. The ‘Point and Click Adventure’ was a type of game which saw real success back in the 90s - those were the days of great games like Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Broken Sword – unfortunately here’s where the likeness ends!
Belief and Betrayal states on the box “Unveil dark secrets that could destroy humanity” and “Become enthralled in a secretive and mysterious world of power and intrigue; truth and conspiracy” – which I initially thought, “this sounds an awful lot like the Da Vinci Code, but it might be good all the same”, I think it’s fair to say the developers have taken some inspiration from it!
I installed the game – it took a while, so I went away and make a hot beverage, came back to find it was still installing – it eventually finished, I took this to be a good sign - there must be lots of high quality graphics and audio to make for a really polished game experience. Unfortunately once I loaded the game up I found that this certainly wasn’t the case!
Continue reading »LG Secret KF750 Review
July 23, 2008
I’m going to let you in on a Secret, an LG Secret to be precise! - “Style that lasts”
The LG Secret designed to look great, including mobile phone features you’ve come to expect these days, but also some innovative new ones that makes this handset really stand out, much like the LG Viewty did around six months ago, this is the LG Secret (KF750), the latest in LG’s Black Label Series of mobile phones.
Continue reading »Wall-E
July 22, 2008
Wall-E (U)
Director: Andrew Stanton
Cast: Ben Burtt, Sigourney Weaver, Jeff Garlin, Kathy Najimy
Running Time: 103 minutes
How do Pixar do it? They just keep raising that bar higher and higher. It’s hard to say this is the best Pixar film to date as that’s like asking which one is your favourite child?
I thought that Wall.E was going to be an amazing film, but never this good.
It’s been 700 years since humans left the inhabitable earth on a giant spaceship called the Axiom, where every human now lives and does nothing…..literally.
For the first 40 minutes or so of the film, there are no dialogue parts, apart from the odd robot sounds, but this really adds to the cuteness and love-ability of Wall.E. He has a pet cockroach that goes everywhere with him during his day of tidying the mess left on earth by humans, and stacks it into skyscraper sized piles.
Continue reading »USB VHS Converter
July 21, 2008
You can now get a USB VHS Converter, so that makes me ask the question - “Do you even remember VHS?” - Personally I remember sneakily taping a certain leg crossing/uncrossing scene and trying late at night to repeatedly rewind and play it without my parents hearing.
If your answer to the question was NO, then this is grown up talk, go do your homework! If your answer was YES, then you’ll know that my parents (and probably the next door neighbour) heard the horrendous stop, start and rewind whir that all video machines made. The switched on couple that my parents are, knew exactly what I was doing - I feel a little sick! Well that’s enough of me sharing, down to business!
Continue reading »Resistance: Fall of Man
July 18, 2008
Normally launch titles are the biggest waste of space and end up being a waste of money. The storylines are weak, the graphics are average and they’re just downright crap.
This is completely the opposite for Resistance: Fall of Man!
Resistance is due to be re-released as one of the forthcoming Platinum titles on the PS3 for the normal Platinum bargain price of £20.
Without warning, the Chimera attacked from the east, and in just two months, Europe fell.
And as the Chimera hunted down the remaining survivors, the last resistance fighters rose up from the ruins of Great Britain…
Never underestimate humanity’s will to survive.”
Trauma Center: Under the Knife
July 17, 2008
I generally like games that are not classed as “normal”, hence I have a Nintendo DS and a Nintendo Wii. So when I saw Trauma Center: Under the Knife at a knock down price I had to pick myself up a copy.
The angle the game comes from is that you are a young doctor fresh out of med school starting work in his first hospital. You then proceed to go to work on progressively more difficult surgical operations. These start easy, clean wound A, drain lump B, remove huge piece of glass imbedded in man’s pumping heart and sew the gaping bloody wound it leaves before he dies from blood loss C.
You know, fairly routine every day stuff. The learning curve is slow to start with and there’s an almost step-by-step walkthrough on how not to kill a man with a piece of surgical equipment. But don’t worry, you will!
Continue reading »‘Hancock’ Review
July 10, 2008
Hancock (12A)
Cast: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, Eddie Marsan
Director: Peter Berg
Running Time: 92 minutes
Yet another superhero film of summer 2008, but this one is a little bit different from the others that we’ve seen.
Hancock is about low life ‘John Hancock’ (played by Will Smith) who just happens to be a superhero. He’s always drunk and really doesn’t care what the public think of him. Whenever he ‘helps’ the people, however good his intentions may be, he just ends up making things worse and causing millions of dollars of damage to the city. The public start to turn on him and basically want him out of their lives and a warrant is sent out for his arrest for damages to the city!
Continue reading »Mario Kart DS
July 6, 2008
Fans of the Mario Kart franchise will not be let down. This is a pixel perfect copy of Mario Kart 64 with some added goodies. The nostalgia of Mario Kart snaking came flooding back when I played this game - it made me want to dig out my N64 and have a blast on Goldeneye.
If you have played any of the Mario Kart games before you will know the score; oversized cartoon characters racing around in strangely undersized vehicles shooting turtle shells at each other and using “magic” mushrooms to boost you about. People who have not played Mario Kart before do not be afraid. It is easy to pick up and play and will keep you busy for hours.
Continue reading »‘Wanted’ Review
July 5, 2008
Wanted (18)
Cast: James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Thomas Kretschmann, Terence Stamp, Kristen Hager, David O’Hara
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Running Time: 110 minutes
I wasn’t expecting too much from this film, as from the trailer I thought there would be things that were a bit too far fetched, and so the film proved.
Continue reading »Beyond Good and Evil
July 4, 2008
The original Beyond Good and Evil which was released by Ubisoft back in 2003 is a game I have really fond memories of playing. It was a great game that combined a really nice style of visuals with some cool gameplay that took you through a compelling story right to the end.
Beyond Good and Evil had a few different types of gaming styles, including some stealth sections which I don’t always like in some games, but they worked very satisfyingly in this game.
Continue reading »
