Iron Man 3 REVIEW -SPOILERS-

We here in the UK have one of the biggest releases of 2013, before the USA!

Right!, to sum the movie up. It is pretty damn epic!
Rumoured to be the last Iron Man in the series, it was one hell of a send off and I'm sure we shall be seeing him in the upcoming Avengers movie in 2014.

Let's get to it!

Story wise, we follow Tony in the aftermath of the New York alien invasion. After developing anxiety, he cannot sleep soundly and locks himself into his garage while he works on the suit. Although it's not the dark and gritty plot that I was prepared for, the removal of the suit and the battered Stark in a far flung state forces Tony to investigate a series of bombings and rebuild the remains of his busted suit to kick some ass! Upon crash-landing in Tennessee, we are introduced to a young boy who supports Tony in the rebuild of Iron Man. The kid is quite annoying, yet the connection between the two of them is comical and very entertaining with the banter.
A plot twist occurs, which is jaw dropping and funny at the same time (I won't be ruining that for you). This was brilliantly executed and you were never given a hint towards this. You do however find that the fight just got 10X harder against an army of bad guys.

But enough on the basics. The fight scenes were fluid and brilliantly violent. Iron Man has certainly grown up since the second instalment, with the actual deaths of people on screen and the extent of his rage. The final fight sequence is just amazing, with the arrival of all of Stark's work (from all the tinkering away with no sleep), the huge collecting of suits is just brilliant and gives you goosebumps when you can feel the ensuing chaos that they will bring! Favreau has a nice little role, but his true place is in the directors chair. His distinct style makes certain scenes eerily reminiscent of Cowboys and Aliens, and his ability to capture the fight scenes are great. Favreau has also continued to capture the witty side of Stark and has made sure that the film doesn't take itself too seriously. It's also great to see that the Iron Patriot plays a pivotal role as well but doesn't get into the thick of it all, yet the general who pilots it goes around kicking ass with his commando skills!

The acting throughout is top class, which you would expect from A list celebs and Paltrow's far more prominent role in the story and outcome really helps to make her stand out amongst the crowd. Robert Downey Jr. is once again on form. It's hard to tell whether he is actually acting, simple due to the fact that he is like that!

Visual effects are perfect, fire and explosions are lifelike and the famous interfaces that fill the room are wicked! All of this tech makes me want to become rich enough to afford something like that! The sound is also very good and clear, but when you have an almost indefinite supply of money from Marvel and Audi, you would expect them to be perfect. However, you don't really hear much physical music. I felt myself blurring out the music and focusing primarily on the action.

Theres not a huge amount to write about the film, it's great fun and I recommend it to everyone. It's a nice length, so you get plenty for your money. With effects and sounds that are so clear, you have to see them in cinema to get the true aspect of the film and truly enjoy it. Small screens and cheap speakers won't do any good for this! Overall, this movie is getting an 8/10. It's fun, not taking itself seriously and is full of action. A great watch!


Sorry for the short review but be sure to post some comments on what you thought of the movie and your rating!
Facebook page will be arriving soon!

New Call of Duty!?

Digital Spy has just reported that Tesco may have just given the whole world the idea of the next instalment
in Activision's Modern Warfare series.

Ghost is the name, war is the game. Following the death of the most popular character in MW2, it can be assumed that we are going to follow the rise of ghost and get a deeper understanding into his character. But as we know, COD games never really focus on story, only the shooting of people online.

Also rumoured to be exclusive on the next generation of consoles. This however doesn't really fit with the new cover photo. Let's just hope that when it comes out, we don't have to pay a fortune for a console to play the game!
For the full story, follow the link below.


[Source - http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a475997/call-of-duty-ghosts-leaked-by-tesco-picture.html]

Thor: The Dark World trailer!

Ladies and gentleman this looks bloody awesome!
Yesterday, Marvel released the new trailer of the sequel to Thor; "Thor: The Dark World" and damn, this has got me excited!

Set after the events of the Avengers and some spaceship is attacking earth once again. Forcing Thor (Chris Hemsworth) to return to the protection of civilisation and Jane foster (played by the beautiful Natalie Portman).

As far as I can tell, most of the characters and actors from the first film have returned, but one of the characters everyone has wanted to return, made his appearance at the end of the trailer. I am obviously talking about Loki, played by the talented  Tom Hiddleston and from the looks of it he is teaming with Thor! Exciting stuff!

According to IMDB, it will be directed by Alan Taylor and he has been apart of some fantastic stuff, such as a favourite TV show at the moment Game of Thrones as CO-executive producer and director for a few episodes and he did some directing in the Sopranos, both top and fantastic shows so it will be interesting to see what he brings to Thor.

The poster at the top says that it will be released the 8th of November that is for the US and for those in the UK it is to be released 30th of October, I can't wait. Make sure to check out the trailer below and tell us what you think.

Place Beyond The Pines REVIEW -SPOILERS-

Much like the last review, I shall write my current idea of the plot without digging deeper into IMDB or spoilers!

From what I can tell, the plot behind this is very similar to Drive (another Ryan Gosling film), in which he is a stunt driver who then commits crimes to get money. Very simple, yet this time, Gosling finds out he has a baby with Eva Mendes and uses the money to support her. With a few bank robberies, detective Cooper is chasing Gosling down and this is as much as I know!

It is safe to say that after watching this movie, my perception of the story was extremely far off. This film has 3 or 4 different stories which all follow neatly and compile together to become a much larger story. At the start, we find that Gosling's character (Luke) is a member of a travelling circus in which he is part of a daredevil motorcycle group that does the ring of death in the steel cage (This does help to explain all of the crazy tattoos). Upon returning to the location for the movie, Gosling meets Eva Mendes, who he had a fling with a year ago. After finding out that he knocked her up and now has a son, Luke drops out from the circus and finds himself a minimum wage job to try and provide for his family. Living below the line, he follows the advice of a new friend and uses his talent of motorcycle riding to rob banks and exit the scene quickly. This plot continues for a while until he cocks up and ends up being killed by the Avery (Bradley Cooper). So an hour in, we have lost the main character and follow the struggle that Avery goes through after suffering a gun shot wound from Luke. This section is where the story could have ended quite evenly however we continue following our next protagonist. Avery's story was plagued with troubles, even before returning to the police when he unfolds corruption and institutional racism within his force. After fighting all of this off, 15 years pass and we follow the paths of Luke's and Avery's children who become friends in high school and end up getting busted for drugs. This section of the story is where we follow the pressure from Avery's son on Luke's child (Jason), and the deeper understanding by Jason on finding out who is true father is and find out the connection between Avery and Luke.

As I stated, the story could have ended at the death of Luke, but we were kept in for much longer to see the effects this had on Avery. However, the addition of an extra story of their children made things a little difficult and I felt myself looking at my watch a few times throughout this section. For a role which demands aggression and compassion in one person is difficult to find and can be even harder to perfectly balance. Ryan Gosling's portrayal of this was very good, however his voice doesn't infuse anger. It's very squeaky and can seem comical in sections. Gosling's background in romantic movies allows him to show a compassionate side and is believable, especially when he breaks down on seeing his son being christened. Bradley Cooper is also very compelling throughout, his good cop routine and his desire to do good and better the police is admirable and he portrays Avery and the stress of a police career on his wife and family with dignity. If you haven't noticed, Ryan and Bradley are juxtaposed against each other. They are the reflection of what a father at home can do to affect the outcome of a child's life. You notice many morals and issues like this, like police bribery and stereotyping to providing for a child.

For the rest of the cast, we had a lot of B list celebs alongside some other recognisable faces but they fade into the background. The teens that appear are actors which I have never really liked and their performances made me dislike both of them. This could simply have been very good acting to be like douches, yet from what I remember from other films; they lacked much importance and integrity.

The filming and framing of this film is absolutely gorgeous. The first robbery scene and ensuing chase scene was filmed in one take in a fashion that appeared like it was either a documentary or first person. The chase filming is bouncy and shudders a lot but isn't to aggressive to make you nauseous. Upon the death of Ryan Gosling's character, we see some of the best cinematography of the whole movie. As Ryan peers out of the window, looking down on the body of Luke, we look directly up at Avery and watch his sweat drip down onto the lens of the camera with jump cuts to the body of Luke and a few frames of police running up to he body which has been rotated 90 degrees anticlockwise. This level of detail balanced with the precision of the background music builds huge amounts of tension which get your blood pumping and makes you want to scream at the screen not to do something.

At the end of the film, I felt that the movie was very good, but also a very depressing watch, which leaves you with a feeling that clings on for an hour or so after the film. With a length of 2 hours 40 minutes, it is worth the ticket price and certainly has a brilliant story to back it up. However, I wasn't sure on the genre that the movie wanted to fall into, I personally felt it was more of a thriller than a crime drama. With a brilliant soundtrack and stunning cinematography I shall give the movie an 8/10.

Fall Out Boy - Save Rock n' Roll - QUICKY REVIEW

Sorry for the late review!, I only just got my paws on it!

It's safe to say that this album truly is a refreshing reboot for Fall out Boy. Opening with the two singles you are left a little open to what is going to punch you on song #3 which packs one.

Sugar, we are going down is far, far away. This breaks new ground, into the pop/charts scene which some fans may really dislike. With the hiatus, the thought of an album was unlikely, but the drastic changes couldn't have ever been predicted.

Mr Stump's voice is far clearer and sharper than previous records and the lyrics are very good. His ability to appear that his voice leads the music really helps you to capture the lyrics and the extent of Patrick's vocal range, yet this can become over used when you notice the amount of crescendos that fill the majority of the songs. With a varied use of synthesisers and other musicians, the album is very strong with songs that stand on their own and don't fade away and a very positive feeling running throughout.

However, including Big Sean was a bit of a downer. He brought nothing to the song and doesn't blend in. Then you have Courtney Love. I don't like this women and it doesn't really help me listen to the song, yet the song has her influence within and is quite rockish in it's genre, but Courtney's lines (Rapping, singing, whatever it is.) are pretty poor. The 3rd noticeable featuring artist is Elton John. This is no surprise seeing he's performed with Eminem. Save Rock n' Roll takes Elton's classic love song and lumped it with Fall Out Boy's anthem capability and it's a magnificent tune. Elton's bass tones are exceptionally strong and great for that drive home...on your own with the tunes on full blast!

Musically the synth's made it sound like a show tune at the start and didn't fit with the songs it was used it. With an album length of 42 minutes (Yeah, I know right!) it certainly seems a stab in the back when they come back after 3 years. You would have expected something that was at least an hour long, with all the time to think about music, it doesn't truly reflect on the size and price of the album.

So, what do I rate this album? I feel that the album warrants 8/10. It's positive feeling to the album, keeps my head bopping and is very good as keeping me calm. Also, including Courtney Love and Big Sean were huge downers for me that didn't really push the songs to their full potential.

P.S - Save a bit of money and download it!

Olympus Has Fallen REVIEW! -SPOILERS- UK RELEASE

Today is April 17th and we here in the UK, finally have this damn film! Only a month later than the US... As I am writing this section before I go to the cinema, my knowledge of the plot is very basic. Some Korean dude (Rick Yune) takes over the White House in a bid to get the President (Aaron Eckhart - Two Face from Batman). By killing almost everyone in the building, the disgraced body guard (Gerard Butler) goes against the odds to take out the bad guys and save the President with the assistance of Speaker Trumble (Morgan Freeman) over the radio. So essentially this movie kind of predicted the tension with Korea when it was being made last year.

Well, as it stands, my knowledge of the plot was quite accurate. Gerard Butler's character, "Mike" was the Presidents best bodyguard who saved him, instead of his wife after piling the presidential limo off a bridge. It appears that Mike was was removed simply due to the reminder he would represent. The main cause for this terrorist attack is based on America's involvement and troop placement on the Korean boarders. It all goes down and Mike runs to the rescue from his new job just down the road. Eventually everyone is either captured or dead and Mike is fighting to repel the terrorists and clear the White House.

Story wise, it is very simple and lacks much to really grip you, and this is much the same when you notice the character development that really lacks much context to the overall plot and just plainly

drops off the edge of the world. Set pieces which are scarred by explosives and bullet holes are pretty damn horrible looking and look like they were made out of Styrofoam, this also doesn't bode well for scenes which require a lot of CGI which is so blatantly obvious, it looks out of place and grotesque. A lot of the filming was alright, very little diversity or creative attempts make to push it a bit further but it's action and all we want is a load of blood and explosions. One last note about this is about the news feed that you would transition to between shots; one of these had a huge spelling mistake in the damn title!


For the action genre, bad story lines and bad character development are just part of the game. Just like any good action film you have a man that mows down mercenary terrorists with such ease that it looks like anyone can do it. Fight scenes were well choreographed and the violence was enough to make me giggle at the sheer ferocity and simplicity of it all. Where would an action movie be without the cheese-ball death scenes, the cheesy one liners and the hero saving America from another nuclear crisis with 1-3 seconds left on the timer. Let us not forget that it is America saving the world with an
evil foreigner, which makes many Americans feel patriotic! Yet, I do have a few issues with the action. If everyone was as good as they were making out, they would have proper gun etiquette when entering and clearing rooms. Not hold down the trigger when you approach a room and always keeping an eye down the site in tight corridors...

Overall, this movie won't be seeing any awards this year. Apart from the possible "Worst CGI explosions". The 4 main characters were all very good with their roles and Morgan's raised voice certainly felt legitimate. Everyone else in the movie was kinda dull, a child smiling when he can hear the commotion and then the snap of a neck was a bit creepy and the over dramatic captured women screaming some patriotic nonsense. Also, beware that there is a lot of strobe lighting which can cause issues, but it's more that they cranked the explosive noises to 11, so they could blow my ear drums and brain out of my head.

Critically this movie deserves 6/10 and an 8 for the good laugh.

Call of Duty Black Ops 2 - Uprising DLC! REVIEW

As you can tell, this is about the new DLC for Call of Duty!
Within this DLC pack we have 4 new maps, a new zombie mode with some new guns to blow stuff up!

To avoid me tearing my hair out when playing online, I created a private match and just went through to critic the maps on my likes and dislikes.

First map on this list is.....ENCORE
The map is alright, it's supposed to represent an actual concert but seems way to small for such an event... The map doesn't really stick out and grip you to your seat but I can bet it will get your blood pumping when you have a round of free for all with your friends alongside some sub machine guns. But first, make sure your friends aren't campers, otherwise you're gonna have a bad time! The description for the map talks about sight lines, yet they are incredibly small and really ruin the whole sniper aspect of the weapons system. However, COD players tend to enjoy quick-scoping rather than the simple and realistic methods...

The next map is MAGMA
Right, so we are now in Asia, a big volcano has gone off and there is lava everywhere. There are no invisible walls to stop you from exiting the map, just hot magma that kills you instantly when you step on the cooling sections...Further around the map I start to watch the lava roll down the hill and I know it's hard to make it look like the lava is flowing but it just doesn't look right in the parts that require detailing to get right. Some of the fire effects are poor and a lot of stuff is simply copied and pasted from other maps. This map is nothing spectacular but the lava is a nice touch to keep you on your toes but more campy spots found!

Now VERTIGO
Vertigo is eerily reminiscent of Highrise for MW2. With medium length stretches and small rooms, combat is well varied, however a lack of sniper high points make the map look fairly level or flat. The map was dragged straight from the game making you wonder why it wasn't part of the online on release day, but we know that game companies, most notably the cod franchise; like to get their hands on more money. It also seems that they run out of map ideas and just threw this one in there as they already had it all set up.

Finally STUDIO
This map is my personal favourite from the maps. The original map (Range) was also good fun in the original Black Ops but why they couldn't have made these free when they are from previous games, it really makes me wonder. On spawning into the map, I noticed barrels, explosive barrels which can quite easily spawn kill you if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time!
The T-rex and other mechanical robot things move and make robotic motion noises, but lack a roar or a screech (in the case of the Alien thing) when you walk past it, which could be created with a simple trip switch. The varied sections liven each area up and make it obviously identifiable when calling for help in certain areas. "HELP ME!, I'M STUCK IN THE ALIEN WORLD" will certainly make life easier when you are a tad stuck. Once again though, COD didn't have the decency to make a new map, just take the remains of a map which became campers map shortly after it's original release.

MOB OF THE DEAD!!!

Upon opening the zombie world you are given 2 areas to select from, Cell Block [Grief] or Sunset Strip [mob of the dead]. Mob of the dead is the first zombies map to actually let you escape from the island, but you need a lot of skill, patience and team work. But as always, my partner and I were dropped in with some retards that would ditch you at the smallest sign of trouble, making this game very difficult with anything less than 4 players. Once you select the Mob of the dead you become a ghost and you go to revive yourself to start the game off. It's a cool little feature but you cannot choose which character you want to be. The ghost aspect of the game opens tunnels that give you extras, power and parts for the escape plan, but in the heat of battle you can revive yourself in certain circumstances while teleporting zombies away.  I only played one game, so I'm yet to experience new weapons and the true extent of the game but a lot of detail was put into this with little

pep talks to yourself if you are truly close to death, which is actually quite deep and meaningful. Plus it's one of my favourite eras, so the accents and the gangster mannerisms of the characters are pretty damn funky.

Overall, the DLC is good, maps are lacking and are simply to grab a bit more money out of everyone's already tight pockets. If you want them, I recommend getting the season pass. It is cheaper in the long run and you get a couple of extras along the way.
Maps - 6/10
Mob of the dead - 8/10  (May change once I get a really solid go at it!)

Time to try and sleep. Here come the zombie nightmares! xD

Meat Loaf LIVE Last Bat Out! - Birmingham NEC - Quick Review!

I'm still having trouble remembering which day it actually is seeing I spent more time travelling than actually at the concert, so do excuse the size of my review!

As you can see on the poster, it says a concert in 2 parts! The first half is a mix of his newer stuff and anything else after Bat out of hell. The second act is the whole album with film snippets from a documentary between songs and then a few little extras throughout. One being the guitar solo from Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird on a Union Jack Guitar!

Practically raised on the album as a kid, this was a must. We only heard about it a few weeks ago and found there were tickets available! (Should still have some about!) So Dad and I jumped in the car and travelled 3 hours up to Birmingham's LG/NEC arena. The show was about 2 hours 30 minutes and surprisingly was filled with more middle-aged men than many my age!

Meat Loaf is getting old, no doubt about it. He has lived the rock n' roll life and is defiantly showing the signs of age. His voice is very raw and can't compare to the past, yet he is aware of this and toned himself down and pushed the music up a little more to compensate for it. However in recent years he is looking a lot thinner than before, it probably has something to do with the movement of his hands when he is signing... All I could hope was that the camera group wouldn't use Photoshop on the footage...

Tickets were a decent price, accessibility was very good and left us with a few empty rows behind us to jump about and sing Bat Out Of Hell and I'd Do Anything For Love (Still feeling it in my throat). I got a few little bits to say I had been, I also got a couple tiny videos, which I shouldn't really have taken. I will also stick a few of the pictures I took below for you to peek at. If you wish to see the videos, leave a comment below and I shall upload them!

Overall, the show was great fun, great music and a great atmosphere. I'm normally used to seeing people bleeding with no shirts on or things along those lines when I come out of a show but it was fairly civilised!
A must-see for any Meat Loaf fan! GET SOME TICKETS!

Just before the show, you can see that we were a little far back but next to some beasty speakers!

Mid-show, sorry for the lack of quality. My phone doesn't zoom in to far!

Oblivion Movie Review! -TINY SPOILERS-

Opening earlier today, I rushed to to local Vue cinema to watch this badass film on their Xtreme screen! There are small spoilers in this review.

In the opening of Oblivion, we are given snap shots of a memory from Jack Harper (Tom Cruise), skipping throughout the huge landscapes pan shots. The CGI never looked out of place and looked exceptionally real when you are moving at pace. Robots and other set pieces look brilliant and lifelike even when they are manipulated by CGI for certain scenes. Then you have the set locations, these contrast between new and old, from a library to a lavish, modern house of the top of a huge tower.

To the action! At the start of the film, there is very little action and that continues most of the way through. Oblivion feels more of a Sci-fi thriller but for a 12A audience which restricts the amount of violence we could have seen if it was for an older audience, but it does have many twists and turns that catch you off guard and force you to piece the puzzle together on your way home.

The director; Joseph Kosinski, who also directed Tron Legacy, shows his stunning camera techniques and framing ability. Alongside the rest of his talent, directing a combat scene with no dialogue (or screaming) between the characters, just the whirling of gears, the pumping of machine guns and thrusters with music that fills you tension. In one of the beginning scenes we are located in a demolished American football stadium, a shot looks up at Harper with his arms raised in celebration

as a crooked goal post fills the background to draw your attention onto Jack. I would like to say that the writer of this did a brilliant job, with the plot twists, the character development of Harper and much more, but what the hell is with the sex scene in that freaky ass pool!? One, it was super weird. Two, you won't see me jumping into a pool hundred of feet in the air supported by a couple of beams in a world which was destroyed by nuclear fallout (It's not a spoiler, it says it right at the start of the film).

The official soundtrack was created by M83, who sounds remarkably like Daft Punk's Tron soundtrack. Whoever he is, M83 does brilliantly to create drama, raise tensions and get you pumped throughout action scenes. Sounds are crisp and truly reflect the area they are in and all the sounds are crisp and clear, especially in the huge ass screen with the big ass speakers!

Finally, the acting. It was alright. Not exceptional that you felt for all the characters. Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman's acting was the best out of the small cast with Olga Kurylenko felt a little flat and occasionally a bit dramatic. Andrea Riseborough was a character simply crazy and was much the same as Olga in certain scenes. All of the extra cast members were alright but they lacked a script and blended into the background when they could have had a much deeper connection to the outcome.

Overall, this Sci-fi - thriller is a good watch with some brilliant filming, good acting and epic music, this film is worth a watch.

My rating for this shall be 7.5/10

 

Stone Sour - House of Gold and Bones part 2 QUICKY REVIEW!

 Ha!, didn't expect me to throw this out, did ya!?

Right, straight to it. The album doesn't drift to far from what we normally expect from Corey and his gang. So we won't be hearing any fan boys/girls crying about them changing. Around about average, the album is 51 minutes long and

Corey Taylor's ability to shift between deep growls and harmonies are well executed and isn't over the top. We open with what appears as a calming track but soon kicks in with true Stone Sour fashion!

Musically the album is filled with killer riffs, a mix of old tape or vinyl recordings blended to make them as creepy as damn possible, and then drop into the roar of the guitar. They have kept their metal flavouring which everyone likes and we won't see many people moaning about drastic changes or those 'Hipsters' with the whole "Saw em before they were cool" shite!

Corey has always been strong when it comes to his lyrical capability which is reflected in Slipknot and other projects or collaborations. Nothing lyrically is actually lacking, but songs do appear very similar in their tones, style of vocals or common vocal trends (I can't think of a word for it, gimme a break).

I'm enjoying the album, it's short, so I recommend downloading it. Unless you are an extreme fan of hard copies. The album doesn't have much variation to differentiate it from previous albums and

seems like it may just drift out of people conciousness in a months time. Hard work has gone into this album and the music is alright. Yet why part 2?, it seems like they trapped themselves into following part 1's style and may be the reason that it appears much the same.

I'm thinking that the album deserves a 7/10

Paramore's self titled album QUICKY REVIEW! 2013

Hello guys!, Paramore are back and it's not bad! Since two of the original group left, you would think that it was kinda the end for these guys. Yet they have bounced backed with a fresh new style!
Let's start with my basics for a good album. Length is an hour plus, which I feel all albums should at least aim for when music costs as much as it does. Even if the quality of the music sucks, they have given you an hour of suckiness for your dosh! My second positive for this album is the release, we in the UK got it before the US which is the 9th! Not a huge gap, but it's nice to see that the UK are getting earlier releases recently. One issue I do have however is the interludes...it's not a fecking show, play the music...
Paramore recently said that the single "Still into you" was written as a pop song, this may seem a huge punch in the face of die hard anti pop people out there, but the album blends pop and Paramore's classic pop styling throughout the album even sometimes having an indie flare wrapped up inside. Opening up the album with "Fast in my car" really helps to strengthen my claims.

Lyrically and musically the album is good, catchy choruses and powerful riffs make this album a definite listen, yet it does lack some finesse with how Hayley's voice can over power the music and doesn't blend with backing track. The album flows nicely between songs but doesn't show you the

change, which can make a song appear much longer and quite dreary to listen too. As always there are lyrics that don't vary and feel like they have just been copied and pasted later into the word document!

Overall, the album is good, it's a sound album and as a fan of them from Misery business, I've seen what they've been through, such as the dark times with the whole Twilight thing...but anyway I have seen that the group are changing their style and adapting with the music industry to access a bigger audience and I believe they have done this very, very well!
7/10 from me!

Imagine Dragons Night Vision album - QUICKY REVIEW!

We finally have it here in the UK!, it's only taken a few months...

Since the release of the single "Radioactive", I've been dying to listen to the album. On release, you notice that the tracks aren't as powerful as "Radioactive", yet they do still have a punch to them.

Unfortunately the album is 51 minutes long, which is a little shorter than I would like but the general quality of the music is brilliant, especially for a breakthrough album. The album is 13 songs long, which should technically be 14 songs when there is "Che-ching" missing from the US version of the album and "Fallen" from the UK version. This make me a little wary as the album lacks a great song to spread to their new audience but to also expand the length of the album to 55 mins.

Musically the album has the iconic indie style which varies song to song capturing your attention and avoiding the song feeling like they're dragging on. It's very calming and really is a nice album to cruise around with in your car...It works for me and my occasional spouts of 'road rage'. The instruments don't drown out the lead vocalist, but help to pronounce his lyrics and his distinctively powerful voice.

The lyrics are varied giving diversity to the album, moving from inspirational to stuff you could consider love songs. Every song has the catch chorus that wraps you into the song and gives even more power to each song! Vocally the lead singer has a very obvious style but manages to adapt to each song independently. With all the power and catchyness of these songs, you can see why they are getting used for adverts here, there and everywhere. I just hope that the songs don't get overplayed to the point that it can ruin this brilliant album.

Overall, I love the album. It doesn't blend into one big song, it has brilliant vocal and lyrically capability and has a nice mix of backing music. Occasionally however some song to appear a bit samey and catchy and strong songs are picked by advertisers to sell an item which may ruin some of the songs for me but I think this album deserves all the praise it is getting...8/10...maybe 9/10!

P.S - I also recommend buying the Amazon MP3 version, simply as it costs a lot less!

Far Cry 3 Quicky Review! -SPOILERS-

I finally managed to play it! I've had this for at least a month with the intention of giving it a go, it was a good thing I got it free!

After the previous Far Cry, I didn't really care for the series and we can still see many of those

annoyances coming through in this follow-up. I played 10 minutes of Far Cry 2 and then dumped it as it was so annoying, so I came into this one with little expectations apart from the raves reviews that came out around the time of its release.

Altogether, I did enjoy playing the game. There were flaws that would appear, simply to piss me off but some I managed to ignore. The sandbox world of Rook Island is amazing, the quality of the landscaping is brilliant and is one hell of a sight when you are using the gliders to travel. The thick jungles hide vicious creatures that want to use you as a new toy, which is bloody scary when you don't know where they are coming from! However the land can be annoying, when you cannot climb a slope over a certain degree or drive your 4x4 up it you wonder why you bother trying. Alongside this one of the missions detailed for you to jump from a bridge and use your wing suit to fly away, I happened to miss the chance to pull the chute, hitting the water and escaped off the map completely so my character drowned as he couldn't get back into the map world.

Story wise, the game is really simple. You go out with all of your rich friends and brothers to then get stuck on Rook Island after you went off course while skydiving. Rook Island is inhabited by mercenaries, pirates and general innocents. You end up causing a lot of shit towards the mercs and pirates while you rescue your friends. The campaign is approximately 12 hours long and can get really far fetched. With the introduction of magic items about half way in, it seemed stupid when the game was positioned in a fashion that's more like a survival game and doesn't reflect the true gritty

Part of the badass tattoo!

style. Alongside the whole magic tattoo stuff which was really odd but is part of some cultures and does look pretty badass. The characters are really frustrating, your older brother who dies at the start was probably the most bearable seeing he was only about for 5 minutes. The rest of them are just douche bags, especially the stoner. Character development is little, if any. Jason (you) is also very boring. You see none of the stress he would go through, but you see him go from innocent teen to a mass murderer with a machete and an SMG with an ability to sponge bullets and damage from everything apart from a 10ft drop! His change was to drastic and never really made you engage with him.

Weapons in the game are fairly varied and the use of the bow is great fun. The bow and a scene at some rice fields really showcase the ability of it but also blow you back to the most recent instalment of Rambo! With the huge size of the map, you will have enemies all around you and you constantly need to maintain a supply of weapons and ammo which is fairly cheap and easy to come across. Once the campaign is done, you have the whole world to play in. Liberating the island is a big task but good fun when you go in like a ninja cutting the alarm and single handedly popping all the enemies off from a mile off with a nice sniper round to the cranium. Then you have the ones just just play up and enemies find you from an impossible angle which would get on my tits.

Finally the bosses. Vass and Hoyt. Using Vass on the front cover was a mistake, he appears a few times until you get to kill him, all being for a few minutes and then disappears. Bigged up as a huge psycho nut job, you would expect to see him more often and truly see this, but you don't. You get little samples and then it's over. Hoyt was much the same as Vass but you could see what he was planning for you from the moment you first met (as long as you actually looked around his place properly). His plans were so evident that they could have cut to the chase instead of making Jason look like an idiot. Finally we have the boss fights which just suck. You suddenly hallucinate, kill everyone in the room and are put through quick time events to kill Vass and Hoyt. It lacked any substance to really grip you and stress you out.

Overall the game was alright, I haven't covered everything as I'm still hungover but I believe this game deserves a 7/10. If only they could sort a few little bits out and I would be happy, such as the AI's and driving.