Armello review - A good first step but a long 9999 to go.

Armello Early Access review

This card placing, dice throwing, role-playing board adventure game has been in early access on steam for a while. With its colourful cartoon art style and its so called strategic game-play, it was immediately peaking my interest.

Now, playing board games isn’t something I generally do, unless in the middle of a blackout with the family after the battery on my tablet has died. Let alone playing digital board games on the computer which is also damn useless in a blackout. In fact the last digital game that involved a dice was Mario party 5 back in 2005 on the Gamecube, due to the fact that I generally get very little entertainment from games which are determined from the outcome of a dice roll, and itself involve very little knowledge or skill to win, I was generally surprised on how much time I actually spent with this game. 

The context of the game is that the world of Armello is under threat. The Rot is creeping in, corrupting the land, spawning monstrous creatures that terrorise villages while it plagues the King slowly turning him mad. You play as one of the four Anthropomorphic animal heroes on a journey across Armello to take the throne for yourself and your clan and save the kingdom. 

Reading it back to myself it does sound like a fairy tale adventure, straight out of a children's book with its bright and colourful animations. Each card in the game looks amazing, each has a unique animated picture that really bring the game to life, to the extent that I wanted to see every card. Luckily there is a gallery mode to admire every card you play.
 

Players must travel across a hexagonal tiled game board to reach randomly placed quest tiles, which upon arrival are given 3 choices to a problem for example a abandoned kart in the road do you do option A,B or C. This is the so called "role-playing" portion of the game however, there seems to be no consequence to the choices you make making it fairly irrelevant to the gameplay thus shaping weak role-play. No matter which choice you make, upon completion you gain prestige, a currency to win the game, which is a bit too easy to acquire.

The most satisfying about Armello is the combat which is very much decided by chance with the roll of your dice. It is possible to win the game without fighting a single opponent or other player, you can easily hinder other players adventure using traps and magic which cost gold or magic.

Armello is the first initial project of “League Of Geeks”. The Australian indie game company originally announced Armello to be released as an Ipad exclusive which has still yet to be released, however they later made it available for Windows, Mac and Linux through the Steam client. You can still feel the initial tablet interface through the game play and I would Say the game would be more enjoyable with a touch pad interface.

League Of Geeks did start a Kickstarter campaign to raise a massive $200,000 to increase development to full time and for the extra support to the multiple platforms, which is pretty daring feat to ask for. By being a funder of the game, League of Geeks offered bonus content on release of the game with 4 extra characters known as the “Bandit clan” and access to another 4 which would come available as DLC to non backers, and it worked. To this date they have raised over $300,000 with 6239 backers and more money coming in with the early access on steam. 

The game looks promising, with its beautiful animations standing out, however it does come with, in my opinion a few problems. On single player watching the A.I take its turn was painful with only their character model moving a few spaces on the board which gets dull very quickly. The idea of setting traps, which in the game is known as perils is fairly worthless as players can just step out of the way. With each character having its strengths and weakness it both limits the player on what victory they can achieve making the multiple victory options pointless. The A.I. constantly starts fights with NPCs which it gains no merit from defeating, in this case the kings guard. Rot victory impossible! Gaining that much rot before the king dies isn’t possible. You have to be defeated by rot creatures to gain rot points which also immediately ends your turn. You have to lose to a rot creature every turn to have a value higher then the kings which is madness! I understand that the game is still in development with the early access but the rules of the game need a lot of revision. Despite all its initial flaws I actually enjoyed the game. I played it multiple times with different characters to hopefully achieve each victory option (still cant do rot victory). Hopefully upon the full release of the game they will iron out all of these problems.  

Overall if you like fantasy, turn based games with beautiful art then this game is for you. With updates around every other week the game is steadily evolving. I look forward to playing the finished product, thus Armello gets my full recommendation.

7/10 

Music Review: Muse - Psycho

Full Metal Racket

Here we are at last. Finally, after three years we have confirmation of a new Muse record by the name of "Drones", and although the full album is set for a June release, the Teignmouth Trio decided to do a Beyonce this week and drop all information regarding an upcoming tour, song titles, etc. resulting in crazed Musers across the world. Being part of such an esteemed group of fans, it was fair to say my excitement levels reached DEFCON One when the band suddenly dropped their promotional tune "Psycho" to the world this week and it is fair to say I wasn't disappointed.

Kicking off with a Rage Against the Machine inspired riff that Muse fans have known for near-on a decade now, with it famously being part of the closing stages of "Stockholm Syndrome" at Glasto 2004, the song begins with the same DNA you would expect in early Muse tracks such as "Agitated" and "Dead Star", with Chris Wolstenholme's trademark bass sound perfectly accompanying Matt Bellamy's distorted lead, whilst Dominic Howard's effortless drumming emphasising the notion that the band are trying to revisit their roots. After a pretty funky breakdown, the lyrics, sang over the top of a "Roadhouse Blues" inspired rock-riff, start to paint a picture of the theme the album is probably going to based around, especially the screamo-sounding,"I'm gonna make you, I'm gonna break you, I'm gonna make you, a fuckin' psycho," followed by the questionable chorus of Bellamy screaming, "Your ass belongs to me now." 

After another verse and chorus, we have another pretty funky breakdown with Bellamy alone playing his new favourite riff followed by the band exploding once again into their rocky rawness with an added, yet uninspiring, guitar solo of which, is very reminiscent of the guitar solo from "Showbiz", a track that I have never had the pleasure to witness live (Hint to Muse: Play it at Brighton). The song concludes with another whack of the chorus and the band fizzing out to distorted guitars with Bellamy showing off his unreal knack of mastering the male falsetto. All in all, "Psycho" is a solid start to the "Drones" era of Muse, with their promise of a return to their earlier rock-infused madness being clearly abode by. I look forward to hearing the full record in June.

Overall Score: 8/10

Fall Out Boy - American Beauty / American Psycho - ALBUM REVIEW

Fall Out Boy is a band that I've grown up with. Witnessing their rise and popularity through Kerrang!'s publications, I always enjoyed keeping up with the squad. Although I was never an all-out fanboy, the big bangers of Sugar, We're going Down, This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race & Dance, Dance are the definitive collection of FOB that were enough to keep me coming back and enjoying what they threw out but I never could see myself rushing out for a new album to add to my collection. Then it hit me in 2013 - Save Rock n' Roll jumped onto the scene with the ingenious plan of creating music videos for every song on the new album with one narrative that really captured me. At this point, I found the FOB album that I would go out and buy, the one that I can play endlessly without it going stale.

If you want to read my review of Save Rock n' Roll, Click HERE

Obviously, I was extremely excited to follow the developments of American Beauty and loved the full album release on Youtube. What defined the previous album was a compilation of featuring talents and obviously a Rock inspired composition. Now, FOB turn the tide with an album that has electronic flares, no featuring artists and a definitive style. With the bands desire to appeal to more than just the rocker community, they have diversified their style and blended catchy riffs and chorus' that'll have you itching for another fix. Its move into the mainstream music means a reliance on synth and auto-tune, albeit well balanced and not as potent as T-Pain's catalogue but a level of which seems out of place and character.

As ever, certain songs jump out to me. Centuries is the first single released then you have The Kids Aren't Alright and Uma Thurman that have some awesome sampling and little titbits that add individuality to each tune. Technically, the variation is great, each song is its own, flows well in and out of the structured playlist with alternating tones and emotions. Stump's vocal range and style is brilliant and flourishes with the backing vocals of his band mates, although we cannot define whose voice is whose. Although it is minor, I feel that they have been cut out and replaced.

The album is solid. Its loud, rhythmic and a must for any fan. Yet, we have the issue of length and with albums, the bigger, the better. American Beauty has fallen even shorter than Save Rock n' Roll with just less than 40 minutes. Its this sort of length which means albums can finish so quick, you didn't have time tidy yourself up. Although its move to a more mainstream audience has led some of their older fans to get their knickers in a twist, I feel that Fall Out Boy are pushing boundaries within the rocker scene and American Beauty extends these further. However, at this moment, I don't feel that this album is as diverse and exciting as Save Rock n' Roll and lean towards giving this outing a 7.5/10 in the hope it will grow on me like its predecessor and may warrant a higher score. Its ambition is reported positive and I'm inclined to agree with some of these groups out there.

Theory of a Deadman's Savages - Quicky Album Review

It feels very odd to review an album after so many movies and games, so please forgive the flow of my piece. If you have any music you'd like me to review please let me know! Upon the release of the album, you can catch the whole album on their youtube channel (Click here for the playlist). Its not in any order so be wary that the flow of the album may be a little different

Over the last few months, Theory of a Deadman have been releasing a series of lyric videos for their upcoming album "Savages" titled after the song of the same name featuring Rock legend Alice Cooper. As singles, the songs are strong both vocally and musically. With a blend of heavy, catch riffs, lyrical wit and Connolly's iconic tone, these singles rank up as some of my favourite songs by the group. One issue that has plagued the band is that any songs that aren't singles don't hold the same gravitas and appeal factor. Can they turn it around with Savages? I don't quite know.

With 4 of the songs getting their own music videos, the other 9 tracks were left completely in the dark. As I've already mentioned, the 4 tracks are brilliant and upon listening to the rest of the album, this time around it appears that they have kept to a slightly heavy trend for the majority of the album rather than a small sample of track. There is a healthy variation between tracks with "The One" & "Livin' My Life Like a Country Song" featuring Joe Don Rooney of Rascal Flatts demonstrating a far slower, acoustic approach that's wonderfully contagious. Just prior to these tracks, I felt like I was listening to Rob Zombie rather the TOAD and its great to see the selection the band has chosen rather than lumping the same sort of things together that blend together into something that breezes by with no distinction.

My favourite part of this album is actually the lyrics of a fair few songs. The singles are obviously the strongest of the lot but "Blow" is probably one of their best written songs to date. I may even consider it one of the best I've heard in quite a while. Taking stabs at pop culture from reality TV too Kanye West and Chris Brown make it even better. Many of us will agree with all the points they say within the song and it shows that as a group, Theory of a Deadman really don't give a damn about what sort of flak they may get from the moronic state of individuals.

I'm no professional musician but listening to the album, the technique that goes into the pieces are great. Musically the album is solid. Its heavy, which can qualify itself for the Rock genre but its also catchy which make it extremely popular with a much wider audience and a great stepping stone for those interested in the genre. Canada appears to have released another group that can produce concrete music. Yes I'm talking about Nickleback and yes, I do like them. Alright, some tracks aren't up their with the greats and the singles but I feel that overall Savages deserves an 8/10. I'll end up having this album on repeat for a number of weeks and I doubt I will become sick of it!

Ride Along - Quicky Review!

If you've ever seen the Rush Hour series, you have a very good grounding in Ride Along. The buddy cop movie that features Kevin Hart (Ben Barber) as campus security for a college/high school budding for a job in the police to live his dream and marry his girlfriend (played by Tika Sumpter). Barber's girlfriend happens to be Ice Cube's (James Payton) sister who is in the midst of an investigation that he's poured all of his man hours into and is seeing little results from. To deserve Payton's respect as both a police rookie and his blessing of marriage, Barber must go on a ride along to prove his worth.

Comedy movies are genuinely hard for me to review. The obvious lack of attention to the story is normally bad in any other genre apart from certain action movies but Ride Along has a balance of a story (all be it predictable) laced with comedy. It was enough to engage for the majority but moments tried to initiate emotions that weren't compatible with the flow (real good time to run to the toilet if you drank to much). However, to actually progress the story did well at giving an ending, no matter how cheesy it was.

As one of Kevin Hart's stand out roles in which he is the main focus, he does fairly well. His comedy style can be widely accepted by many and when you act stupid and do nothing but talk on stage, it isn't very hard to get into character for Ben Barber. Ice Cube also didn't have far to go, going from gang banger to FBI agent in 21 Jump Street and now wild police officer doesn't stray to far from the line. With flashes of meme based comedy that heavily involves memes of himself blended with some of his tunes are a great homage to his work and how much he's changed. As much as he was type-cast, the past "cop-killer" attitude makes his presence that much funnier.

Before I conclude, I would just like to pick on the filming and editing. At points, the editing done to the scenes (primarily the title sequence) look horrible. The screen is far to filled with action to be screwed over by some cheap ass graphics thrown across them that look like they've come out of Microsoft Word 1998.

To conclude, the film was great fun. Although a bit risqué for a 12 rating in the UK, its comedy thrives off of the success of Rush Hour by mimicking the duo style (PS - Ride Along 2 has been announced.). A good cast, a decent plot that can be ruined within minutes of the movie and a movie that is built for pure enjoyment. I look forward to another instalment and give this a 7/10.

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”.

Jay-Z - Magna Carta Holy Grail

So yeah, Jay Z has a new album out. Just looking at the cover would make you think it is a sophisticated collection of well written and brilliantly performed album. Unfortunately not.

I'm currently on my 3rd run through of the album and I find it really difficult to deal with the excessive amounts of "UH"& "Yeah". For a rapper at the top of the rapping tables, he doesn't really show it in this album.

So lyrically, the album is really poor. The album talks about tweeting, sex and how much money he has. "FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt" features Rick Ross and it encompasses exactly what I said prior. Except, Instead of Ross shouting out that he is the "Teflon Don", it was Jay-Z linking to Lucky Luciano. I won't go on a rant about how pathetic this is but both of these guys have done nothing to compare themselves to some of the biggest criminals in history.

The execution of the tracks are alright. Vocals are ranged and have a variety of featuring artists. Yet you never feel the songs, they just blend into the background and don't really excite you and the actual music doesn't make you want to dance or give you any sort of boost to your day. Personally, I feel the album suggests that Jay-Z has lost his classic 99 Problems and Blueprint ability. I'm giving this album a 5/10.

Bullet for my Valentine - Temper Temper

Welcome (back) to Black Ribbon Reviews! We will be trying to get as much up on a continuous basis, please leave comments on what you think we should work on and what you like!

Being a fan of Bullet for my valentine since the release of Poison, it’s hard to find problems with them. Temper Temper is no exception. Instrumentally it is brilliant, with riffs that send you back to their origin, it’s easy to miss the lyrics when you become emerged into it. Lyrically, it is good (not perfect, but good!). When mixed with certain backing tracks it makes me think of other songs by completely different artists! Dirty Little Secret by All American Rejects came to mind throughout Bullets song of the same name! As a Matt Tuck fan boy, I won’t denounce his vocal skills but there is a change which is quite evident when compared to Poison. It may come down to the bands movement into mainstream radio culture with a huge new audience to please. However I have to ask, What the hell is with the whispering?…

Excited with the release of the song Riot, I was eager to get my hands on a copy. With an esque of Waking the demon, it is certainly one of the best on the album and was a great choice for the single release. However not all the songs match up and some leave a lot of questions that don’t feel complete.

All in all, I think the album totals up to 7/10.

BUY IT HERE - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Temper-Deluxe-Version-Bullet-Valentine/dp/B00ADUZU4I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361318105&sr=8-1