Personalised gifting group, I Just Love It, recently launched seven new personalised Thunderbirds books and here is our two minute review of the Personalised Gerry Anderson Collector’s Edition book.
Each book features different collections of the original 1960s and 1970s comic book strips, along with classic artwork from Franky Bellamy, Eric Eden, Graham Bleathman, John Cooper and Frank Hampson, with content from the incredible author, Gerry Anderson.
The new range is perfect for any Thunderbirds fanatic; whether they were a fan of the television series, or read the individual comics when they were first released. Fans can experience the bestselling British boy’s adventure comic during its time of publication.
For this two minute review, we got the Personalised Gerry Anderson Collector’s Edition Book (£49.99); Including comic strips from Thunderbirds, Fireball XL5, Stingray, Lady Penelope and more, this hardback edition features a mix of comic strips, information on the artists, and introduction on Supermarionation.
Incredibly reproduced, this Personalised Gerry Anderson Collector’s Edition features the original comic strips of Anderson’s popular T.V shows, including Stingray, Fireball XL5, Lady Penelope, Thunderbirds, and more fantastical comics.
Merging new technology with science fiction, Anderson’s Supermarionation creations attracted a cult following. Transiting from screen to print, the famous T.V shows debuted from the 1960s are printed in full, in this edition.
The phenomenal artwork of iconic illustrators make this Personalised Gerry Anderson Collectors Book instantly recognisable. Reminisce over the adventure-filled strips like Fireball XL5: The Giant Ant Invasion by Mike Noble, Marina: The Full Story by Rab Hamilton, Lady Penelope: Steelman Strikes Back by Eric Eden, Thunderbirds: Danger in the Deep by Frank Bellamy and more talented artists.
The Gerry Anderson Comic Collection itself is bound in a red, textured hardback, featuring the recipient’s Name embossed in gold on the cover. Open up the book and a personal Message is featured on the title page. As a gift for someone special, this edition is presented inside a one-of-a-kind keepsake case. The book is a must-have Gerry Anderson collector’s piece.
The artwork in each of the books is fantastic, and really took me back to my childhood. All the books are very high quality and would make an excellent addition to your bookshelf.
They are all available to buy now from just £14.99.
AC Worldwide, the company that brought the Star Wars speakers (Storm Trooper/ Darth Vader) and Master Chief has today announced the launch of its Kickstarter campaign for the fully licensed polished alloy Terminator T-800 Endoskeleton multimedia Speaker, with built in Camera and Alexa functionality.
This first-of-its-kind speaker will be a must-have collectable for any fan of the Terminator movie franchise, and/or lovers of great technology and design.
The Terminator T-800 Endoskeleton speaker is an exact, polished alloy replica of the droid created for the T1 movie, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Designed with remarkable attention to detail, the T-800 boasts high-quality audio with powerful bass, glowing red eye sockets with a motion detecting camera in its left eye, cloud storage and voice-control using the built-in Alexa feature.
Standing 45cm (18 inches) tall, this is one of the largest reproductions of the Endoskeleton skull ever produced.
The addition of the glowing red camera in the left eye gives the speaker a further true likeness of the movie character. The camera serves two functions: security and fun. If you’re not at home and the camera’s motion sensors are triggered, you can view what the camera is seeing in real-time via the AC Worldwide T-800 mobile application – allowing you to see what’s going on in your home. With a year’s free cloud recording, your videos are backed up, for playback whenever you wish. Equally, choose to use the app (iOS and Android) in live view to see what is going on at any given time.
This is so much more than an audio speaker, with a built in Intelligent Personal Assistant (IPA) from Amazon Alexa, this speaker will become your go to device for all questions. Simply ask it for the day’s weather forecast, or the latest news, or even use it for the children homework questions. Simply ask and Alexa will deliver the answers through your T-800 speaker.
The Terminator T-800 Endoskeleton speaker is available on Kickstarter with pledges starting as low as £5 / $6 for a support mention on the product page. Running for the initial seven days is the exclusive early bird pledge, for £275 / $300 you will receive a first batch Terminator T-800 speaker with certificate of authenticity and gift box. There are more exclusive one-off pledges available for those wishing to own this unique speaker, including serial number 101 (which was the T-800’s serial number in the movies), a personalised speaker with your name on, or the special limited edition ultimate ‘white gold’ unit.
Key Feature
High-quality sound from combination tweeter and ported sub-woofer
Powerful bass and crisp, clear range
HD camera in left eye streams video to your smartphone
Complete Amazon Alexa AI functionality: T-800 becomes your ‘intelligent personal assistant’.
Bluetooth connection to smartphone, tablet or PC. Aux, too
Hands-free phone calls using internal microphone
Connect to your home or office network with Wi-Fi
Controllable with our smartphone App
Polished alloy exterior
AC Worldwide’s founder Karl Grimsey said, “We are truly very excited to have the opportunity to bring the T-800 to life, with a fully licenced replica – if you’re a Terminator fan you’re going to love this. While the project is technically challenging and loaded with features, we have a solid track record of delivery. Of course, we know that this will resonate with fans of the Terminator movies, but we also hope it will be of interest to a broader group of sci-fi, design and technology lovers. We hope that everyone will help support the Kickstarter campaign so that we can bring this ‘menacingly beautiful’ speaker and camera system to the market.”
BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe announces that NAMCO MUSEUM will be available from tomorrow (Friday 28th July) in Europe and Australasia via the Nintendo eShop on Nintendo Switch.
NAMCO MUSEUM is a classic games compilation featuring arcade favourites including PAC-MAN, Dig Dug, Galaga, Galaga ‘88, The Tower of Druaga, Rolling Thunder, Rolling Thunder 2, Sky Kid, Splatterhouse and Tank Force. The collection also incorporates PAC-MAN VS., a four-player game based on the PAC-MAN series originally created by Toru Iwatani.
With NAMCO MUSEUM, Nintendo Switch gamers can relive the glory days of coin-operated arcade games anytime or anywhere. For arcade game masters, the retro titles (excluding PAC-MAN VS.) support an online ranking system, allowing them to view their standing amongst the top gamers around the world.
Players nostalgic for the classic coin-op era can transform their Nintendo Switch into a miniature arcade cabinet by turning the handheld console vertically for a taller, slimmer screen that replicates the original arcade experience.
In PAC-MAN VS., three players work together as the iconic ghosts and hunt down the fourth player who has taken on the role of PAC-MAN, as they evade the ghosts and clear the maze of Pac Dots.
Two Switch units are required to play as up to three ghosts play on one console and the PAC-MAN character plays on the other. A free downloadable app will be available via the Nintendo eShop that enables 1-3 players to join a multiplayer session of PAC-MAN VS. hosted by a Nintendo Switch system, allowing for full multiplayer sessions using two Switch consoles and one copy of the full game.
Miniclip, together with Tencent and Mobilefish, bring WAR WINGS, the World War II aerial battle mobile game to the UK ahead of its global release. Originally published by Tencent, WAR WINGS is the first Tencent title re-developed and published by Miniclip since the start of the partnership in February 2015. WAR WINGS has flown its way into the hearts of millions of players around the world since its original launch.
Climb into the cockpit of your favourite warplane from World War II, and battle out dogfights in real-time PvP! World War II aerial combats come to life in WAR WINGS with historically accurate warplanes and realistic weapon damage. There are 70+ warplanes to choose from and multitudes of customisation to try depending on your tactics and strategies. With 4×4 real-time PVP capability, you can choose to fly solo as a lone wolf or team up with ally squadrons to control the skies. Epic rewards and customisable emblems are there for your taking, by battling through millions of players worldwide and climbing up to the top of Global PvP Leaderboard. WAR WINGS comes with variety of controls to choose from including gyroscope, virtual stick, and D-pad.
“We are very excited to bring a massively successful game developed by Tencent and Mobilefish to the world. The release of WAR WINGS brings another milestone to Miniclip’s history, and marks new chapter to our future collaboration with Tencent,” said Rob Small, CEO of Miniclip.
The Destiny 2 beta has finally closed after being extended for a couple of days. I was a day one player of Destiny and in the three years since it released, I have dipped in and out of the game since then and recently decided to relive the story and DLC by deleting a day one Hunter class guardian I have used and replayed the game hoping to relight the hope that Destiny 2 would build on the first game and deliver what the original idea for the franchise would bring. It is fair to say that the Beta has gotten me more hyped for Destiny 2 a little over a month away now, but it felt more like a very limited demo than a beta. This preview is solely based on the content and experience I had with this ‘beta’ on both PS4 and Xbox One.
The very first thing the beta had players undertake was the opening story mission to Destiny 2. In fact you really have literally only one thing you can actually pick and that is one of the three Guardians to use. Each of the Titan, Warlock and Hunter guardians were default level 200 and equipped with full epic level weapons and armour. I had hoped to be able to at least see what new gear and how the leveling up would work but sadly that was not to be an element of this beta.
I really enjoyed the more cinematic style of this opening mission that will see the player’s guardian return to The Tower, the original main social hub of Destiny to see the Red Legion led by “Gary” attacking in order to kidnap The Traveler. The flow of the gameplay itself is very much Destiny, it feels like the original with the gun-play so that is still as good as before. I loved finally getting to be in a fight alongside the leaders of the Guardians with Zavala, Cayde and Ikora and to see them in all their glory fighting especially with Zavala who is a huge element to the middle set piece battle on the main Tower grounds was thrilling after such a long time of only having minor dialogue exchanges with them till now. I also really appreciated the way cut-scenes were intermixed with the gameplay adding more fluid story telling complimenting the action although the loading screen between cut-scene and returning to the game were a distraction.
This mission did give players the first chance to check out the new weapon group changes and subclass powers. Weapons are no longer grouped by primary, special and heavy weapons but instead are now kinetic, energy and power. Shotguns, fusion rifles, sniper rifles and rocket launchers are now power weapons. Assault rifles, scout rifles and hand cannons can now be grouped under both kinetic and energy as now weapons are classed by the ammo they use which in the game is still white, green and purple. This is not fully explained in the mission but much like the new subclasses for each Guardian type, I got the sense that it was simply made this way to showcase them for the beta and that in the full game, this story mission will see guardians using the traditional system and classes with the fall of the tower by the end of the mission being the reason and explanation for the change.
The new sub-classes are great fun, the Titan new “Captain America” void shield standing out the most. Again, these new sub-classes will probably not feature in the same story mission in the full game as you should not actually have them until the Traveler is taken by Gary which then takes away the powers of Light from all Guardians. What I did find more intriguing though was the new character abilities such as the Titan’s ability to raise a barricade to act as a defensive wall as the hunter has an ability to suddenly dodge whilst the Warlock can create a healing field. This adds new support options for both Warlock and Titan that can help their squad or themselves in the heat of battle. Character abilities also have two forms for example the Titan can raise a full defensive wall or a barricade which he can take cover behind and then popping above it to take a shot which when returning to cover will also instantly reload the equipped weapon. These have a cool down as well so their use will need to be well judged but it almost has that HALO Reach feel which added armour abilities to the traditional HALO mix and again it has a similar effect with Destiny 2.
This mission does have me hyped for the main story which with the original ending being so poor, made Bungie acknowledges their failings with a stronger sense of story and story telling for Destiny 2. It was just a taste though but with how this felt and looked on screen, if the rest of the campaign has the same style I think I will be very happy.
Once the story mission has been finished, we were presented with the underwhelming choice of playing the one strike mission included, The Inverted Spire or trying the two crucible modes of quick match and competitive. Diving into the strike mission, one of my favourite elements to the first Destiny and I have to say that this felt like a Destiny strike mission and follows the same structure of a running gunfight through the mission before meeting the big bad at the end in a multi stage fight. The Inverted Spire gives us our first look at new Destiny location Nessus, a Vex world which has been invaded by the Red Legion. This is a very standard Destiny style strike but the location along made it interesting enough with a decent final fight forcing my little group of randoms to actually work together by combining our character powers of my titan wall and Warlock’s healing fields to survive sticky moments.
The strike did show some new Cabal enemies such as dual sword wielding henchmen and wild dogs just to mix up the action. I did like that now when completing a strike all the team is rewarded via the completion reward chest that appears at the end although for me all I ended up with were duplicate weapons that my generic Guardian already had and some very ugly looking new armour pieces, I am really not a fan of the American Football gear look to the Titan. But it was challenging enough and a dam good fire-fight all the way through.
The limited Crucible content was very…crucible. I did enjoy the new 4 vs 4 team set up which I felt gives it a real HALO 2 MP vibe to it. But it felt crucible and could not really see any real changes that made it stand out from the original Destiny Crucible other than the new weapon grouping. The action was fast and Control is my go to mode in the crucible but only having two maps limited what really could be experienced, but for a beta, the servers held up well during the time it was live and having a good set up of weapons will as always, help give your guardian a build to use. Did notice that super-moves took more time to charge up resulting in maybe just a single or two uses during a match and having shotguns, snipers and fusion rifles as power weapons kept the action more open but in the maps where power ammo would drop, if the other team has control of that area then it became rather annoying when trying to take the point in that map zone at times. Action was fast and fluid but it would have been nice to have maybe an extra map to experience.
So for one brief hour on what was supposed to be the final day of the beta until it was extended by two days, players were given the opportunity to visit the brand new social hub area for Destiny 2 which replaces The Tower after its destruction. This will be where vendors will be to buy armour and weapons like the tower but these were not present this time. Did like how they have taken the random balls you would find on the Tower and finally added a full on football pitch which as you can see from the video, I did have one or two games of football with random players which was fun and a very nice touch.
The Farm really fits in with the whole opening to the game with the fall of the Tower and Guardians now being really without a base or home and being outside and in the country brings that back to basics tone to the social hub which I enjoyed. Looking forward to returning and seeing how the Vendors respond to losing the Tower.
Final thoughts…
The first Destiny was the reason I chose the PlayStation 4 over the Xbox One when this current generation of consoles released. As a huge fanboy of HALO, I was both excited and intrigued with the vision Bungie was taking with their next chapter in gaming, Destiny. I was a day one buyer of Destiny and had the expansion pass hoping for the expansions to expand on the story. But like many I felt burned by the many issues Destiny suffered after its release with the lackluster story and empty expansions that took the main story sideways and never forward. Friends who began the Destiny journey with me began to drop away so the whole Raid craze never became a thing for me. So it is fair to say I am one of the thousands that are looking to Bungie to do better with Destiny 2.
This certainly felt more like a limited demo than an actual beta. Bungie had already confirmed that the build which was being used was months old and adjusts had already been made leading into September’s release. It was a taste of what Destiny 2 will offer but I was left wanting more from it. I would have liked the chance to look at customization options in character creation and would have preferred the chance to see the new leveling up system in action instead of default level 200 characters with epic weapons and armour. The story mission definitely has me hyped for the story which Bungie has focused a lot in recent developer videos on being far more story focused with more to experience than original game. The gameplay did feel refined and visually it certainly looks great with better lighting effects and was really impressed to see that the Xbox One version looked no different than the PS4 version, something that I felt was noticeable with the original.
Has this “beta” done enough to win original Destiny fans back is a big question, with the limited content being criticised a lot during its run. But as someone who was slightly burned by the original Destiny, I do feel more hyped for the sequel and just having a taste of being in the world of Destiny 2 was fun. Bungie have a lot to prove in Destiny 2 with most of the new features and changes promised not being shown in this brief demo. I am left feeling hopeful which is probably all this demo/beta could really do.
Although I must try to stop calling the new villain and big bad of the Red Legion Ghaul……Gary!
Pikmin might not be one of Nintendo’s best selling franchise, but there is no denying that its fans can be just as vocal as those who enjoys the likes of Mario, when it comes to asking for new titles. Even the press pestered for information on a new title Shigeru Miyamoto for years, until he finally confirmed a Pikmin 3 release on the Nintendo Wii U. Ironically enough the announcement of a handheld Pikmin title on the Nintendo 3DS didn’t quite get the best reception and all because it was being handled by external developer, Arzest. The same development team previously worked on handheld titles for the likes of the Yoshi franchise, with lukewarm results, but will this be the same for its handheld Pikmin title, Hey! Pikmin?
Paradox Interactive has announced that Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition, the new release that brings Obsidian Entertainment’s role-playing game (RPG) to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, is now available for pre-order from retailers worldwide. Scheduled to launch on August 29, 2017, Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition includes the entire original RPG hit alongside its expansions, The White March – Parts I & II, fully remastered and adapted for a big-screen experience with enhanced UI and controller support.
RPG fans can pre-order the game starting today from the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live, or pre-order a physical copy from the game store of their choice for $49.99.
Pillars of Eternity is an RPG inspired by classic titles such as Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, and Planescape: Torment, which features an original world and game system that evokes and improves upon the traditional computer RPG experience.
The Complete Edition, adapted for consoles by Paradox Arctic and distributed at physical retail by 505 Games, brings the crowdfunded hit to consoles for the first time.
AereA is an intriguing game on paper with music as both its inspiration and foundation. Looking at the trailer alone you can see it has elements from titles such as Diablo and Gauntlet but bringing the RPG gaming style into the mix to round things off. I was not really sure how it would play but it certainly had my attention, but did the game have a Mozart moment or more flat notes to it?
Set in the world of Aezir where music is at its core as it sustains the world but a threat is looming over the horizon and four heroes are called upon to go out into the world to retrieve power musical instruments to prevent the world from ending. Four heroes; Claude, Jacques, Wolff and Jules are sent out on missions to battle through enemies in maze like locations to reach and defeat monstrous bosses to collect powerful musical instruments to protect and save Aezir.
The first thing to say about AereA is just how beautiful the visuals are, it has an art style that is bright and vibrant unlike other combative RPG’s that have a gritty and dark world to them. The main characters have a very animation style to them although not a big fan of three of the four having a Beiber hair style with fringes that cover their eyes, which you would think make fighting monsters a little hard. The art style welcomes players into the world in a nice chilled out and soothing way giving it a rather cute look that would appeal to a young audience.
The combat is very simplistic as well, with each hero having their own fighting style based on the instrument they use so Claude and Wolff are more range style fighters with Jacques a more melee focused support character and Jules uses magic. Each has two attacks and in the style of Gauntlet, are sent on missions to various dungeon style rooms which players will have to explore to find items such as potions and solving gate puzzles to further explore and find the boss of that mission. I found the combat really basic and repetitive and dragged far too much to keep it fun. I did play this solo and being honest; AereA is really designed to be a co-op played game with at least one friend or more to really bring it to life. In solo the slowness of exploring, fighting and getting new missions sucks the enjoyment from this title way too much which may find those more experienced in titles such as Diablo finding this way too ‘entry level’ to really invest time in to any extent.
The story itself is also really told in the background via interactions with NPCs back at the academy. Missions do not reveal anything and the game even drops you into the action right away without explaining the world you find yourself in at all and simply puts you on the path to get your first mission. The game also does little in really explaining how things work but instead relies on the simplicity of it all and to just let players find their way around it, which is ok for those who do not like be held by the hands through gaming but for me just adds to the emptiness you can feel in this game.
The biggest issue I have is the pricing of this game, which for what this game offers is baffling. It is so high that it is going to be hard to have more than one friend to have it for the co-op to really shine through and this game wants it to be played by more than one player. If it had been priced at a more sensible level it certainly would have been more attractive but it is so simplistic and empty an experience at times it just cannot justify its pricing when compared to other RPG games available now. If you design a game to be co-operative you got to make it more accessible for friends to pick it up without breaking the bank.
AereA uses music very cleverly in how it is threaded throughout and the musical score alone is something very beautiful. Visuals do make it stand out enough from other RPG titles but the shallow combat and over simplistic approach detracts from the game leaving the player wanting more from it then the occasional fun boss battle. I would even go as far as to say it was very much designed for a younger audience or those not familiar with Diablo style games but the pricing is a big stumbling block for this title right now, offering little for the asking price.
One for the sales but those looking for a more meaty experience will need to look elsewhere.
Team17 and Cambridge-based independent dev duo Ghost Town Games have today revealed that Overcooked will be launching on Nintendo Switch on the 27th July.
The Onion Kingdom is in danger and only the finest cooking can save it. Players will journey through a campaign mode featuring a whole host of cruel and unusual kitchens on their quest to become master chefs capable of conquering an ancient edible evil which plagues the land!
Traverse through the campaign solo or engage in classic, chaotic couch co-op for up to four players. You’ll have to cook a range of different dishes and work together to become the ultimate cooking team! You can even go head to head in nine versus competitive levels for either two or four players.
Overcooked: Special Edition includes the Overcooked base game plus The Lost Morsel and Festive Seasoning additional content and, with Nintendo Switch, players will be able to take the Overcooked experience anywhere they like, with HD Rumble adding a whole new element to the cooking chaos!
Overcooked: Special Edition contains:
44 campaign levels which can be played solo or couch co-op with up to 4 players
9 versus levels to play head to head locally with either 2 or 4 players
22 different chefs to play as. Choose a human, racoon, dinosaur, French bulldog, robot or even a reindeer in your quest for culinary greatness!
A range of crazy kitchens to play across with different recipes to master – cook soup, burritos, burgers, fish and chips and more!
Overcooked: Special Edition will be available to download for Nintendo Switch™ via the Nintendo eShop on the 27th July for just £15.99 / $19.99 / 19,99 €.
Following its debut to fans in San Diego Comic-Con’s on Saturday, Warner Bros. UK have released a 4-minute Comic-Con Sneak Peek and SDCC Teaser Artwork for the JUSTICE LEAGUE.
Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes – Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller) – it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
JUSTICE LEAGUE is released in cinemas 17th November, 2017.
Warner Bros. UK has revealed the official first trailer revealed on Saturday at San Diego Comic Con for Steven Spielberg’s science fiction action adventure, Ready Player One, based on the bestseller from Ernest Cline.
The film is set in 2045, with the world on the brink of chaos and collapse. But the people have found salvation in the OASIS, an expansive virtual reality universe created by the brilliant and eccentric James Halliday (Mark Rylance). When Halliday dies, he leaves his immense fortune to the first person to find a digital Easter egg he has hidden somewhere in the OASIS, sparking a contest that grips the entire world. When an unlikely young hero named Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) decides to join the contest, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery and danger.
Joining Tye Sheridan (X-Men: Apocalypse, Mud), Olivia Cooke (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Bates Motel), Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One – A Star Wars Story, Bloodline) and T.J. Miller (Deadpool, Silicon Valley), with Simon Pegg (the Star Trek movies, the Mission: Impossible movies) and Oscar winner Mark Rylance (Bridge of Spies, Dunkirk) round out the cast. Directed by Spielberg from a screenplay by Zak Penn and Ernest Cline, Ready Player One was produced by Spielberg, Donald De Line, Kristie Macosko Krieger and Dan Farah; with Adam Somner, Daniel Lupi, Chris DeFaria and Bruce Berman as executive producers. The film is slated for release worldwide beginning 30th March, 2018
To mark the Blu-ray™ and DVD release of Jason Blum’s Get Out on 24th July starring Daniel Kaluuya, we take a look at the UK landscape of the young, diverse British actors who are similarly starting to make real waves in film and television.
Daniel Kaluuya
On a path that has seen him professionally acting since the age of 17, Daniel Kaluuya’s career is definitely on the rise.
In Get Out we see Daniel playing the part of Chris Washington, a young African-American man who’s been invited by his white girlfriend Rose to meet her family at their upstate home out of the city. At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behaviour as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he could have never imagined.
Daniel’s past roles include Black Mirror, Sicario and Kick-Ass 2, his performance in Get Out has caught the eye of many, with the Guardian calling it “Understated and layered”. With upcoming performances in Marvel’s Black Panther and Steve McQueen’s Widows to look forward to – the only way is up for Daniel.
Riz Ahmed
A couple of years ago you’d have been forgiven for not recognising the name Riz Ahmed – now that’s not the case! His performance as Nasir “Naz” Khan in HBO mini-series The Night Of quickly propelled him to become one of Britain’s most sought after actors. Since then, he’s featured in film and television’s biggest productions including Rogue One and Netflix’s The OA and HBO’s Girls.
John Boyega
Sticking with Star Wars, another actor whose breakthrough came from the George Lucas intergalactic franchise is John Boyega. London born Boyega first burst onto the scene with his performance in Joe Cornish’s Attack The Block as Moses. Since then, after a reported 7 month audition process Boyega is now a leading man in the Star Wars Universe playing the role of Finn in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and forthcoming Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Babou Ceesay
Babou Ceesay is most notably known for his recent role as Marcus in the new series Guerilla, a brutal depiction of 1970’s Britain. Recently in Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire, Babou revealed how theatre productions shape the way he acts, saying “theatre has a profound impact on the work I do now. Repeating a performance, night after night, starts to give you some grounding.” Babou has also starred in some of Britain’s biggest shows on television including Law & Order: UK, Luther and Casualty.
Jordan Stephens
London-born Jordan Stephens is not only a successful musician, but is also a very much up-and-coming star. The Rizzle Kicks front man has recently starred alongside Ella Purnell in road trip movie Access All Areas – previous work includes a cameo role in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to which he described as “one of the most intimidating experiences of his life”. Other work includes E4’s Glue and drama series The Last Panthers.
Take home GET OUT, available on available on Blu-Ray™ and DVD on the 24th July
People often like to comment on how Nintendo tends to rely on their key franchises to get them through the life cycle of its latest hardware. The Japanese company is known for playing it safe, but it has started to experiment more with the release of original titles such as Splatoon on the Nintendo Wii U and now ARMS on the popular Nintendo Switch.
Eleven years. It does take a little bit of time to get your head around that length of time, and especially when it comes to getting a sequel to a video game. But knowing and understanding how long it has taken to bring this gaming series to console will help once you hit that start button. Dreamfall Chapters is the sequel to The Longest Journey, first released on PC in 2006 with the sequel coming in 2014. Now in 2017 the sequel, which was an episodic series when it launched, has come to consoles in a GOTY style with all the episodes blended together for one complete experience. I had heard about this series but had never played it and as a fan of Telltale Games I was intrigued to see what another developer team would do using the same formula.
The story follows two characters in two very different worlds which are connected by similar events, with the mystery being resolved as you move through the chapters. We first meet Zoe who lives in a distant future world where a company has created a device which allows people to live inside their dreams and fantasies in a glorified VR experience. Staying in that experience too long can lead to some becoming lost and trapped in their dreams risking their lives. We find Zoe, who is in a coma, being able to interact with people suffering and aiding them in breaking the hold allowing them to return to the real world. Next we meet Zian, a fallen warrior currently in prison who after fighting to escape joins a resistance group. This world is one of magic and fantasy with different races a far distant one from that of Zoe.
At first I had the expectation that this would be like a Telltale Game in that it would simply be on the rails and making decisions along the way to progress the story and influencing events. I was surprised to find that it was more like the old school point and click games blended in with the player choice aspect of modern episodic games. Completing each chapter will give you the comparisons of decisions you made compared with those that other players have made. Those decisions do shape events in the game as well as relationships with some of the most detailed dialogue I have experienced in such a game. The contrast between the main characters Zoe and Zian are striking, and experience of controlling both is fun as you explore both their worlds with Zoe standing out as a more complex character in her dialogue exchanges.
As a sequel, Dreamfall Chapters features a lot of references and nods to the original game and sadly it does very little to try and bring newcomers to this game up to speed with previous events. That can mean the overall experience will feel far more rewarded for those who played and remember The Longest Journey and a little overwhelming for those new to it as they will miss some of the references. I do like that this game has very little hand holding and instead tries to immediately put the player into the worlds of Zoe and Zian so they can find their feet in them, but I did feel I lost out on not having played the first with no recapping of events within the game’s narrative.
The pacing can also be a hindrance at times, especially when playing as Zoe with some dialogue exchanges having a vast amount of options to explore which can be entertaining thanks to the writing but can also feel tedious with the impulse to just skip it in order to get back on point. The adventure game element comes into play here as well adding a new frustration as you move from location to location which for example Telltale would simply skip in order to get you to the action but here it is a case of walking to each location. The clumsiness of the controls on console as well can be a pain at times with some environmental interactions requiring some very annoying precision placement of the character instead of having a pointer to highlight the target and simply sending your character to go interact with it. When trying to uncover evidence or items to solve a puzzle, this clumsiness can easily result in mission a clue which is very frustrating. It would have been nice in the time since this came to PC before console, some time was put into refining the control system for use on a pad over a mouse and keyboard.
Dreamfall Chapters is an impressive example of dual path story telling that as the player you can see working very well as an episodic experience. By putting them all together it does lose that sense with some negative side effects, which at times can detract from the narrative and overall experience. The characters are so well designed however, with good writing for each and their respective worlds with the dialogue alone being the most natural and intelligent I have come across in this genre for some time. The slow pace definitely makes this a game to dip into and out of more than sitting down for long settings, coming back to the original episodic release of the chapters. If you did play the original Longest Journey than Chapters will offer a rewarding conclusion of Zoe’s and Zian’s stories but newcomers will still be able to enjoy it although you will be left feeling you missed out on the overall story depth.
It certainly offers a different gaming experience than recent Telltale Games with a level of intricate detail last seen in Life is Strange. It does offer a lot and thankfully the negatives do not overpower the positives this game has. It could have benefited from some refinement in the controls for console but it is certainly worth the attention for fans of player choice and old style point and click game styles.
