Tinie Tempah - Demonstration - REVIEW

No, I don't get it either...

Tinie Tempah’s new album was released today. Seeing as I loved his first big album, I decided to actually go out and buy this one. First time in many years! With that in mind, I have really high hopes for the album and hope he shines through.

This time around, Tinie isn’t an unknown artist with very little supporting artists. Now he is teaming up with the new T-Pain/Lil Jon – 2 Chainz for his first single and as much as I tend to ignore 2 Chainz, I felt it was very good but still a huge rip off of Hopsin’s – Trampoline from a while back which consists of much the same material… Upon stating that one of his biggest inspirations for the album was Dizzie, you would expect a real grime element brought to the music and it’s safe to say, some of the songs do emulate the bass and aggressive beats really well. Don’t worry yourself, it’s now all smashing beats!

There is a nice variation of styles throughout, you can move from party tunes to a slow, mellow song and then to the catchy chart hits that made Tinie who he is today. Fortunately, he hasn’t forgot his beginnings on the streets of London. The variation of styles can be a bit confusing to listen first time around but they catch on after a full listen of the album. As I write this, I’m listening through for the 4^th time and I haven’t got sick of it but already have a few I adore so far. Each featuring artist has brought their flare to the song and the two that Labyrinth in resonate Pass Out which is quite possibly his best and key moment (Hipster moment – I loved it before it went big!).

Back on subject, Tinie’s flow is awesome and doesn’t made it hard to understand at any point. Yet, In Tears Run Dry, he sounds like he is having hairs plucked at the end of every sentence, making a little squeak which just destroys the song and emotion that it’s supposed to portray. With the variations, the lyrics have to switch consistently and thank god, a lot of it is logical, relatable and a little less about money, fame, women and drinking. Witch Doctor is a song that is a little confusing. The chorus and name don’t really reflect that it’s about a women, thus making it a little weird to hear. Typically, the bigger starts throughout talking about who rich they are. Lyrically, Don’t Sell Out, It’s Ok, and Children of the Sun are a few personal favourites and warrant a listen if you’re considering the album anytime soon. PS – If Tinie’s iconic “Yeeaaah” annoys you, expect to hear it a lot.

As a huge fan of Tinie’s and being that I have quite a hipster moment with his music, I felt I should go out and by the physical album. I would highly recommend that you go and get it too. As ever, I have a couple of songs that are weak compared to the rest but the album is really catchy and does show Tinie’s status within the music industry. 8/10 for this album – a few songs didn’t actually catch me and didn’t feel as strong as they could have been, especially when you are singing “A Heart Can Save The World”.

Battlefield 4 - Quicky Review

I really don't know what I expected from a game that is only made for online purposes. Over the last few years, I only bought into Call of Duty and would spend time doing the campaign while sighing over the poorly developed story. This time around, I decided to get both. Seeing that Battlefield 4 was out in America before it was in the UK, it surly pissed a few people off. Alongside pissing off numerous amounts of Russians and Chinese nationals....

Around everything else I had to do, I didn't stick many hours into the game at all. Probably about 4-5 hours overall. It's really short and very confusing when you have no idea who "Chang" is. I still don't know if he has been a theme through the last couple of games but not addressing this to the new players is a really bad play on their behalf. With about six missions that are spread over a few days, everything moves fast. Perhaps a little too fast. The plot twists where predictable and lacked anything that would truly inspire or help you to interact with the characters on a deeper level. So throughout, characters were just distant. You are placed as a Sargent called Recker who doesn't actually say anything, even when he is being spoken too, a little anti-social if you ask me. It also appears that even when he is in command, everything is decided by everyone else. The rest of the characters are fairly annoying, you cannot relate to them and you learn nothing about them through the time you are with them.

For a game that competes with Call of Duty, every damn year, they should have a lot of effort and resources into the build and development of the game. However, the image was never clear. Surfaces looked fuzzy, AI's would glitch out, the environment never looked real enough to immerse yourself in. for my first outing, I had really high hopes for it, even with it's imminent next gen release bragging about higher visual specs.

Where the game shines is in combat. Plug in the headphones, crank up the noise and get ready for a shit show. Reserve ammo and steal what you can as enemies come thick and fast with little room for mistake and manoeuvre. Combat is quite fun, it's a bit of a switch from CoD but it's fairly easy to grasp. You cannot just shoot a moving target by sticking the dot on him, you have to consider that the bullet needs to travel to get there, this makes it feel very real and when you have bullets pinging around you, the only thing you want to do is pop the enemy quick before they overwhelm you. The glitchiness (if that's even a word) of the game got in my way a few times, lining up an enemy only to have it push you away several time, the enemies are also fairly spongy and do take accuracy to put down effectively. This isn't the case on multiplayer.

In total, it's a fun and enjoyable game to play, all be it stressful at times but it's weak and short story mixed in with the general glitches and underwhelming visuals, I have to give it a 7/10.
Tune in next week to see my CoD Ghosts review!

Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag - Review - SPOILERS

When I heard about a new Assassin's Creed game, I was a little apprehensive. Originally supposed to be 3 stories all following from one to the other and Connors story was to be the end of it all. After smashing the game out over a few days, I'm glad to say that it was worth it and if you take the time to dig about, you can really understand the connection between everything in the world and past stories. If you haven't noticed, Edward Kenway is Connor's grandfather.

Following on from the death of Desmond Miles in the 3rd instalment, you are now an employee at Abstergo Entertainment who create movies from the stories collected in the Animus. This obviously is a front from the Templars who are using it for research and another source of income to fuel their operations. This unknown character is played in first person and can be rather annoying in the present day missions to actually move about and look about when you you have toiled away in 3rd person missions within the Animus. Otherwise, when you are actually playing the game, you are Edward Kenway, a relentless pirate sailing the oceans and driven to make his fortune and dropped right into it knowing very little.

In terms of story, it was really enjoyable, searching for the observatory with a bunch of pirates and a multitude of others was good fun. As ever, it is the same sort of tale from the rest. The search for an artefact that Templars want so they can control the world while the Assassins will stop at nothing to prevent this. The mix of characters and players during the game was a nice mix. You didn't feel like you had to repeat something so many times that it became meaningless and repetitive. With a load of twists and turns, you are thrown through hoops, even if you aren't engaged with Edward as a character, you still feel for him when friends die or chaos ensues around him. As a character, Edward is fairly packed with a load of crap weighing him down. When he gets the sea, he is extremely cocky and arrogant which makes him really difficult to like but the badass attitude to life and the mannerisms really fit the wicked pirate design. However, he does feel a far better character than his grandson, Connor.

SPOILERS - If you have finished the game, you may have noticed that the Abstergo server room at the end is full of little cubes up the wall. I believe these to be the viles of blood used in the observatory, thus meaning that the memory mining Animus IS the observatory in a new form. The alien figure at the end also means that we are most likely to see another instalment at some point next year.

The gameplay is still plagued by the problematic free running controls. Being chased by 8 heavily armed men?, running through this open door? NOT TODAY!, as you run up the side of the door or stop all together as you have to release all the controls, wait and then move around. This isn't something you want to be faced with on a fairly regular basis. It's much the same with the camera angles when climbing through an obstacle course. You catch try to move on the trigger for the new camera angle, you will find yourself having an epileptic fit. You also won't have a clue about what level your ship is and why any ships have levels. When you are on your own and you are vastly outnumbered, consider yourself dead and get the hell out of there. If you are fortunate enough to defeat several Man O' Wars and then board them, be sure to send them to Kenway's Fleet as this mini game will get you a load of money and a few little extras. These are just a few of my gripes with the gameplay but if you grind through this, you will enjoy the rest. Sailing the ocean is incredibly relaxing and can change at a moments notice, especially if you decide to piss on any countries parade by killing them all and then getting chased by pirate hunters. Fighting in general hasn't changed one bit. You simply have to mash X and B as soon as you see a big red dot coming at you. Not much has changed in the way of gameplay from the rest of the games. It is fairly fast action but minimalism to much smaller spaces, like the deck of a ship and that can make it hard to actually move about. It's also awesome to see that you wanted levels in towns and cities have disappeared. You can disappear

in moments rather than bribing your way through every place you visit, simple because you decided to start a fight with every human soul walking past you at the time.

As ever, there is a lot for you to do in the world, but now we have the addition of fishing. Yes, you heard it right. The fishing is probably a bit controversial as you hunt white whales, humpback whales and many other endangered marine species. You can also play checkers with other pirates. However, playing with them guarantees an unfair game.When they have no move, they simply move the king back and forward, screwing with you and denying you any chance that you could get. If you have any decency when it comes to checkers, stay away from this.

The last few bits is the visuals and sound. Up close and personal, everything can look a bit blurry and uncomfortable to look at, shading can be erratic and too much at points, making it look like characters are grids rather than forms. Yet, when you look at a distance, it is gorgeous. Bright with colour and great with lighting. It makes everything seem real and very lifelike, until you come up close. The colours of the Caribbean ocean are wonderful and really bring back memories of holidays I went on as a kid. Sound is my big problem. I found myself turning the volume up and down on my TV so I could hear with without it knocking down any walls. It was never equalised and made it quite painful when using a headset. The actual music for the game is alright. It reminds me of Pirates of the Caribbean, as it should for the era and style, but it seems way to similar. Continually having to shut up humming POTC while I mortar people and run the decks, stabbing the army in the face. It's pretty damn fun. Then we have the voice acting. At points, Kenway does down like Chris Hemsworth, but it's not! A lot of the voices fit the characters perfectly, apart from Jack Kidd...who always felt like it needed a bit of work.

With everything considered, it has to be one of the most fun Assassins Creed games and the addition of all the extras and the awesome sailing missions, I think the game deserves an 8/10 for it's change of scenery and it's involvement from an overly complicated story, to a truly fun pirate adventure.

Thor - The Dark World - Review & SPOILERS

Seeing that over the last few days, I've been hammering out Assassins Creed: Black Flag so I can get a review out of it, I didn't want to leave anyone out of my recent travels.

Earlier today we Brits were treated to the release of yet another Marvel movie! This instalment of Thor details the resurgence of the Dark Elves - a race who ruled the universe in complete darkness and seek to bring back the black with the use of a super weapon which does a lot of complicated science stuff. So, we have more aliens fighting alien. I always feel that this is what makes Thor shine. It's not always bound to saving earth. It's a much wider aspect that opens up far more avenues for high octane fun. With a mix of brilliant cameos and sassy jokes, Thor is definitely a must-see.

As I've already explained the story, I don't feel much need to complain about it. With a lot of twists and turns, you are drawn into the story, even if moments are predictable. Being that it is a Marvel movie, it is going to have the good vs bad which drives the story forward even if it feels a little generic.

Visually, it was almost perfect. ALMOST. Certain green screen scenes and long distance shots made characters stick out like a sore thumb, overly bright in a dark area and this really agitated me. The same could be said about some of the fight sequences that do exactly the same. Otherwise there are some brilliant visual effects all the way through astonishing costume design that makes everything look badass.

Marvel are not known for Oscar worthy scripts and acting but it wasn't bad. Yeah, there was a few cheesy lines but they were mixed in with witty one-liners that were very funny and kept a continual up beat feeling throughout. The sassy nature of Loki with his banter towards Thor is golden. It helps to enforce the fact that they are siblings. This sassy nature also uses Loki's power to transform himself into Captain America and spout excitable, patriotic nonsense which he is notorious for but also makes Loki look like he is trying to impress his older brother. With another guest appearance from Stan Lee, the film seems complete. The only other thing to focus on is the acting. Hemsworth and Hiddleston were perfect, as ever. My issue rides with Natalie Portman who plays a pretty pathetic character in the first place but she doesn't look genuine - almost uncomfortable in her role. Fear ends up looking more like shock. An additional actor that many people don't really focus on when they think Thor is Idris Elba. If you haven't read my Pacific Rim review, you should know that I love this man and I feel he didn't have a big enough role within this film and I wanted to see what happened to him at the end.

Overall, I consider a 8/10 a good score. It's a darker and more personal twist for Thor to undertake
and appears to be the current trend at Marvel (Look at Iron Man). Yet, some acting, some poor CGI and a few loose ends within the story do drag it down for me. Superhero/action movies will never achieve a 10/10, simply because they are more for fun rather than the critical film making that many critics desire.
I'm sorry for such a short and crazy review but seeing I'm running on 5 hours sleep and trying to keep up with everything that's going on is not an easy task.

Jackass Presents Bad Grandpa - Quicky Review! - SPOILERS!

Enjoy watching pranks on Youtube, excessively crude and brutally honest jokes? If so, this is the movie for you. Johnny Knoxville makes a triumphant return to the silver screen as Irving Zisman whose wife has just passed away, daughter going to jail and now having to take his grandson across the country to live with his father. The general idea of being dropped into a comedy movie is that it is all scripted and everything folds out the way the production crew wish and plan, yet the outcome of this is really different. They rely heavily on the use of public pranks with actual reactions (which also made jackass famous). The melding of a minor story and pranks is a different aspect in the comedy genre. It's also how Sasha Baron Cohen does so well with his Borat character but with the exception of added script. As far as the story goes, it is fairly basic and occasionally feel like it is trying a little to hard to be taken seriously, whether this is a ploy at getting you to interact with the characters or to feel some sort of emotion for them which you just can't take seriously.
Otherwise, the movie is a really enjoyable tale and fantastically acted. Without Billy (Jackson Nicoll) this movie would have made this review very different. Billy adds a new layer to the pranks that is a refreshing take on a relationship that is very limited nowadays. Then you have The Bad Grandpa himself - Johnny Knoxville. At many points through the plot, you will sit there and forget that Irvine isn't a real person and is just a character but Johnny plays this off perfectly and makes it refreshing to watch a comedy actor take on a role without being seen as the same dude who played this one person.

So, for filming, it's a mash of secret cams which aren't the highest of quality but do help to enforce the idea that they aren't scripted and really place you in the area. The reason you're here is probably

because you want to know how funny this film is - very. I'm still thinking back to certain scenes and laughing to myself. It's not always about the punchline of a joke that really kicks it home, it's the shocked reactions of the public which is guaranteed to crease you up. Most of the jokes are fairly tame in nature, trying to avoid anything too sensitive and give it the 15 rating which defiantly benefits the movie by opening it up to a bigger audience.

Overall, it's a loose story that develops and evolves with the pranks pushing everything forward. If you're looking for a serious night out with the girl/guy you've been seeing, it's probably a pass but with a group of friends, you'll have a brilliant time and well worth it, even if it is 90 minutes long and costs a small fortune. For it's comedy aspect and the style it brings to the genre, I feel Bad Grandpa deserves a 7/10. Enjoy the film guys!

Captain Phillips - REVIEW- SPOILERS

Captain Phillips is a shining example of film-making that will stand with some of the all-time greats in years to come. Standing as one of the best movies this year, Captain Phillips is sure to get some awards. The story details the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in almost 200 years, done so by Somali pirates on the horn of Africa. The true element to this story really engrosses you into the thick of it. Genuine fear will send your heart racing too sinking deep into your chest in a matter of seconds, then an incredibly powerful ending that tugs the heart strings. The ending is also completely improvised and made the Navy medic cry in the first take.

A movie with such a good script and storyline obviously needs a powerful cast behind it to really portray the characters effectively. Fortunately enough, Greengrass has selected quite the collection. In general, Tom Hanks is a top line actor who can fill seats but also give a top class performance, without compromising everyone else on screen. A group of people who look creep up from time to time in the movie world were very silent throughout, but the lines they were given made life difficult when they never met the pirates until the scene which really instilled a sense of fear into the whole of the boat crew. Then we have the Somali pirates who are dropped in at the deep end for their first
IMDB credit and I can see them doing fairly well for themselves in the future. A calm and collected Muse (Barkhad Abdi) bounces off of Captain Phillips on a regular basis and the confrontation is electric. Muse speaks the logic of Somalia of achieving something, and living happily while Phillips tries to reason with him and save everyone’s lives. This could be a connotation for what America should stand for and what they actually do but that’s just digging. A big name cast is very hard to work out to some decent standard, a mass of A-listers can end up looking like they are fighting for dominance on screen but utilizing a varied cast can always pose a better acted movie experience even when big actors draw people in, it shows an intention to make it about the story and not money.

"They're not here to fish"

All I can do is credit this film. I’ve been on large cruise ships and small vessels over the years and I understand how much room you have. Filming at sea on a giant cargo vessel is really difficult as you have to consider many variables. Keeping the footage relatively smooth is probably one of the harder parts but it utilizes this to look like a documentary and the second hardest is using space effectively. You’re at sea, it’s not easy to get expansive landscape shots when you’re drifting out in the ocean. To compensate and keep shots moving, helicopters are used fairly often to track the ships as they sail. From expansive padding too story footage - When hidden in the engine room, you almost feel like you’re hiding with the crew just by how it is all framed. A shot that grinds on me a little is the initial sighting of the pirates. The cliché shot is when the perspective shot of looking through a scope with a
slightly grainy effect added really doesn’t look that good. I would have preferred to have seen a fast paced collection of close ups to build up some more excitement.

The sound for the whole of the movie was good. The rumble of the engines and the ting from assault rifle rounds hitting the ship and pinging around are crystal clear. When the navy jump in the sound is very clear but in comparison to the pirates when they boarded the ship, it was really difficult to keep pace with what was being said, fortunately there are subtitles but these don’t always help when you have everyone shouting. Not much could be said about the soundtrack for the movie, the only thing really is that it wasn’t very striking, it didn’t ring in my mind repeatedly which was a shame but easily forgiven.
So finally we have my opinion on the film. An incredible movie which stands as one of the best this year. Rivalling Rush is hard to do but this movie is put together perfectly and with Tom Hanks final scene, it’s extremely moving. Overall, a 9/10 to equal Rush. A bit more focus on the soundtrack and a few little camera angles would have pushed it forward for me.

Sorry that it has been a while. With everything that is going on, I’ve lost a lot of motivation for anything regarding work or reviews. I just need to get back into the flow of things. I hope you enjoyed the post, if so, like it, Comment, subscribe to the Youtube channel or tweet me on twitter!

Eurogamer 2013!

A few weeks ago, we travelled 200 miles to London for the UK's biggest gaming convention. Down below is a video I mixed together of our trip and what we got up too!

The video is on the brand new Youtube channel which will be inundated with a ton of stuff once I finally manage everything else going on.

Be sure to like, subscribe and SHARE! :D