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Batman: Arkham Asylum Review

Saturday, September 5th, 2009

Batman: Arkham Asylum - "The choke's on you!"The prison guard jerks The Joker’s arm as he leads him off to his familiar cell in Arkham Asylum. As The Joker looks back over his shoulder at Batman, he trips and falls to his knee.

When the guard leans down to help him up, Joker takes the opportunity to quickly headbutt the guard as he stands up, sending him reeling. Before anyone can react he leaps up & wraps his cuffs around the guard’s neck from behind. Batman beats on the reinforced glass separating him from his nemesis as he kills the helpless prison guard.

When The Joker hears the guard’s last gurgling attempts at breathing, he gets in his punchline… “Choke’s on you!”

This scene sets the whole tone of Batman: Arkham Asylum, and I think someone may have been pumping Joker gas into my living room, as I had a silly grin on my face the whole time.

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Popularity: 67% [?]

05.09.2009 Gaming, Reviews View Comments

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai Review

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai - T-Shirt Back PrintThe Dishwasher: Dead Samurai
Genre: Beat ‘Em Up
Rating: ESRB M for Mature
Publisher: Ska Studios & Microsoft Game Studios
Release Date: 1st April 2009
Format: Xbox Live Arcade

Rating: ★★★½☆

When I first heard about this release from Xbox guru Major Nelson on Twitter, I thought it was an April Fool’s prank. However I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it wasn’t, and promptly checked out some of the available gameplay videos. These turned out to be surprisingly gruesome and frantic – and if you can describe a game with those words… I’m there.

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai was conceived when game creator James Silva was himself a dishwasher, finding himself the butt of many a joke. After pointing out that Bruce Lee was a dishwasher, he began to conceive a game about one that slaughters an insurmountable array of highly trained agents… and that became what we have here today.

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Popularity: 21% [?]

11.06.2009 Gaming, Reviews View Comments

Coraline Review

Monday, May 25th, 2009

Coraline PosterTitle: Coraline
Director: Henry Selick
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Keith David, John Hodgman, Robert Bailey Jr, Ian McShane
Release Date: 8 May 2009 (UK)

Rating: ★★★★☆

Synopsis: A young girl walks through a secret door in her new home and discovers an alternate version of her life. On the surface, this parallel reality is eerily similar to her real life – only much better. But when her adventure turns dangerous, and her counterfeit parents (including “Other Mother”) try to keep her forever, Coraline must count on her resourcefulness, determination, and bravery to get back home – and save her family.

Review: From the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas comes a suitably surreal offering based on a graphic novel by Neil Gaiman (Sandman), and from the start the movie exudes style born from the fusion of these two visionaries. Unfortunately I have not yet read the graphic novel, so I’m unable to compare the two mediums – and as usual, I will give you all a SPOILER WARNING so that nothing is ruined for anyone.

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Popularity: 24% [?]

25.05.2009 Movies, Reviews View Comments

Star Trek Review

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Title: Star Trek
Director: J. J. Abrams
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Eric Bana, Karl Urban, Simon Pegg, John Cho
Release: 8 May 2009 [UK]

Rating: ★★★★½

Synopsis: The fate of the galaxy rests in the hands of bitter rivals. One, James Kirk (Pine), is a delinquent, thrill-seeking Iowa farm boy. The other, Spock (Quinto), was raised in a logic-based society that rejects all emotion. Chronicling Kirk’s rise from farm boy genius to starship captain, we see Kirk, Spock, Bones(Urban), Scotty (Pegg) et al thrust into bitter conflict with rampaging Romulan Nero (Bana).

Review: I’d just like to get one thing straight – I am not a “Trekkie”, and I never have been. The extent of my Star Trek knowledge comes from watching The Next Generation (aka TNG) with my father when there was literally nothing else to watch on TV. I was always more of a Star Wars kid myself… though as an adult I really couldn’t give a toss either way.

This being said, I loved Abrams’ Star Trek for a multitude of reasons – and should another series based on this movie, or more sequels emerge (I hope they will)… then you may be able to brand me as a new-gen Trekkie. However… new-found fanboy-ism aside, let me divulge a little more about my opinion on the movie.
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Popularity: 12% [?]

13.05.2009 Movies, Reviews View Comments

Streamy Revamps & Leaves Beta

Friday, May 8th, 2009

For a long time I’ve been looking for a website that houses absolutely everything I look for in a personalised start page… and for as long as I can remember, I’ve had to settle for iGoogle. Don’t get me wrong – Google’s start page is absolutely stellar, and I can almost absolutely everything from feed reading, to checking Facebook, updating Twitter and so on.

However for a fair while I had also been eyeing up a contender for it’s replacement in the form of Streamy. You may remember the site from my previous review of the site that had a fair bit of attention.

Anyway it’s been a fair while since I’d used the service, and I decided to check it out again, and discovered that the devs had revamped the site’s look and functionality. After having a chat with site co-founder Jonathan Gray, I found out that they had “quietly launched” out of beta, and hadn’t yet advertised the fact. This is great news, as I highly recommend the site to anyone – and here’s why.
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Popularity: 1% [?]

08.05.2009 Tech View Comments

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009

Title: X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Director: Gavin Hood
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Liev Schreiber, Danny Huston, Will i Am, Taylor Kitsch, Ryan Reynolds, Dominic Monaghan
Release: 29 April 2009 [UK]

Synopsis: Leading up to the events of “X-Men,” “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” tells the story of Wolverine (born James Howlett)’s epically violent and romantic past, his complex relationship with Victor Creed, and the ominous Weapon X program. Along the way, Wolverine encounters many mutants, both familiar and new, including surprise appearances by several legends of the X-Men universe.
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Popularity: 5% [?]

03.05.2009 Movies, Reviews View Comments

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