What i'm watching this week: DVDs

Public Enemies (2009)

johnny depp plays john dillinger the robinhood like bank robber who was a menace to the FBI who perused him & a hero to the public. the film is based on a true story set in the 1930's it follows the one-man crime wave that was dillinger & melvin pervis (christian bale) the FBI agent tasked to take him down. directed by michael mann "heat" its a nonstop sharp piece of cinema that proves mann has not lost his touch when it comes to thrilling action. i really enjoyed the film & its definitely set to become a classic among fans of true cinema.


Bruno (2009)

the man who brought you borat is back this time as the uber stylish king of fashion bruno. hailing from austria bruno tells the story of a flamboyant tv presenter who moves to L.A. after being fired from his job, what follows is a serious dose of comedy which at times borders on insane. at one point in the film he travels to the middle east & is lucky to escape alive, its these sketches that make bruno a hilarious & outrageous film that is not to be missed. i loved it in the cinema but did feel it was a little short, luckily the dvd features lots of deleted scenes & full commentary revealing how cohen & director larry charles pulled it off.

Terminator Salvation (2009)

the third terminator film was a complete letdown for me so when i heard about a 4th one in the works my immediate thought was it too would be a failure but i was pleasantly surprised. life as we know it is on the edge of extinction with the resistance fighting a daily battle against the machines to preserve the very life of humanity itself. christian bale (the dark knight/american psycho) plays john conner the man destined to save mankind from annihilation, while sam worthington plays marcus wright an ex deathrow prisoner awakens in a world completely unknown to him. the film is more gritty & raw than previous terminator installments but it works really well ensuring you are never too far away from the action.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - NEWS

Call of Duty proves UK’s best ever seller

Video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sold 1.23m copies in the first 24 hours it was on sale, making it the best-selling ever in Britain.

The £47m worth of sales were twice that of Grand Theft Auto IV, which sold 631,000 copies the first day it was available last year.

Meanwhile, Microsoft yesterday confirmed that it had blocked some of its 20 million Xbox Live users, who installed hardware to play pirated games, from using its online gaming service.

Labour MPs clash over Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game

Two Labour MPs locked horns today over the imminent release of a widely anticipated violent video game. Keith Vaz, the chairman of the home affairs select committee, said Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 contained such "scenes of brutality" that its makers had placed warnings within the game itself. He urged the government to ensure such games were not played by children – but Tom Watson, the former digital engagement minister, said it would be better for MPs to support the UK's video gaming industry.

The new Call of Duty game – which reportedly allows players to plot terror attacks against civilians – is expected to break sales records when it goes on sale at midnight tonight.

Vaz told the Daily Mail he was "absolutely shocked" by the level of violence in the game. During Commons question time, he said toMPs: "It contains such scenes of brutality that even the manufacturers have put in warnings within the game telling people how they can skip particular scenes." He asked what steps ministers were taking to ensure that violent games did not fall into the hands of children and young people. "It's not about censorship, it's about protecting our children," he added. Siôn Simon, the junior culture minister, said the clearest recommendation of the Byron review – which last year looked into the risks faced by children from inappropriate video games – was that content suitable for adults should be labelled and sold as such.

"The game you refer to is a certificate 18 game," he said. "It should not be sold to children and the government's job is to make sure that adults ... can get what adults should be able to and children are not in danger of being subjected to adult content." Watson said he had seen the game, and it "wasn't pleasant, though no worse than many films and books". He told MPs: "It carries a content warning, it is an 18 plus game. It would be better for members of this house to support the many thousands of games designers and coders and the many millions of games users, rather than collaborating with the Daily Mail to create moral panic over the use of video games." Simon said it was important to support Britain's "very large and important" video games industry and said the UK had a "national competitive advantage" in the field.

Watson today set up a Facebook group called Gamers' Voice with the aim of discussing how game-players could "find their voice in newspapers and government". He wrote on the group's web page: "Are you sick of UK newspapers and (my fellow) politicians beating up on gaming? So am I. The truth is, UK gamers need their own pressure group. I want to help you start one up."

The group so far has more than 900 members. (including myself)

GameStop Defends Breaking Street Date For Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Gaming industry insiders weren't the only ones picking up early copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" over the weekend. Reports out of the New York City area and elsewhere indicated that scattered retailers decided to ignore the game's official November 10th street and start selling it early. Among them were one of the biggest names in video games sales, GameStop, and although Activision claims not to have signed off on the decision, an official GameStop statement owns up to the move.

"This past weekend, GameStop made the decision to break street date and sell reserved copies of 'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2' in select markets where other retailers had broken street date," GameStop's vice president for corporate communications Chris Olivera told Kotaku. "Our decision followed many conversations with Activision and was an effort to protect our customer base."

Olivera didn't directly assert that Activision approved of GameStop's decision, his choice of words definitely implies that Activision was made of aware of his company's choice. It's unclear if Activision would take any recourse against retailers in violation of the "MW2" street date, but Infinity Ward has drawn a hard line on the subject.

"ANY store selling #MW2 early is in violation of street date," Infinity Ward's community manager Robert Bowling said on Twitter Sunday. "There are no 'special permissions.' That said, we won't punish players for it."

Activision echoed that sentiment in their own statement, stating "Activision has not given any retailer permission to sell 'Modern Warfare 2' prior to the Nov. 10 street date."

The good news is that if your an average gamer on the street, you don't need to feel like a criminal if you bought a legitimate retail copy of the game -- even if you do have to wait another day to activate it for PC. Whether or not there is any fallout between Activision and retailers, however, will be an entirely separate question.

Uncharted 2: among thieves – game review (PS3)

I never played the first uncharted game so I didn’t know what to expect from uncharted 2, I knew it got incredibly high ratings on nearly every single games site & magazine so really that was enough for me to buy it. The plot is all over the place but it never got too overwhelming that I got lost & wondered what was going on. Luckily though the games locations are more than enough to accompany the vast plot & story outlines.. So what’s it all about? You take the role of drake a kind of Indiana Jones explorer who has a fondness for finding not only treasure but trouble. The first thing I noticed was that drake was easily the most likable video games character I have seen, at times I felt sorry for him ..then at other times I felt like he was a real hero. The plot revolves around drake stopping a war criminal from taking possession of a precious jewel that is said to be worth hundreds of millions.. But there is more to the treasure than meets the eyes. Drakes character movements are near on perfect & though there was maybe one or two times he missed a ledge only to leap off a mountain into the abyss he really was a joy to play with. When I first heard about the game my immediate thought was “on no not another indy game with way too many puzzles & no action”.. but wow was I wrong.

Its an action packed thrill ride providing hours of play where at one minute you could be in the middle of an intense fire fight through the streets of an invaded city & the next high up in the Tibetan mountains hanging from a monastery. The level design is incredible & the best I have seen on any games console to date, textures jump off the screen & it drips with atmosphere. At one point in the game I was in the middle of a storm with lighting crashing & rain pouring down all around me.. I would have stopped to really admire the scene but unfortunately there was a platoon of heavily armed mercenaries trying their best to kill me. There were moments too where I was hanging from a cliff or beam of a Turkish palace where I did stop to have a look & every time my reaction was the same “wow”. the sound too is stunning & beautifully composed to suit every aspect of both play & atmosphere, even the sound of water trickling is crisp & clear while a the sound of a desert eagle being fired off is not too deafening but still provides enough bang to make you think it’s the real thing. Did I mention its cinematic? If the story & cut-scenes were a movie it would stand-up to almost any Hollywood blockbuster on the market.

There really are not enough nice things I can say about this game, every little detail is perfect from the combat to the climbing. The levels are so impressive that you will find yourself stopping to look at your surroundings & take in the spectacular visuals. I have still yet to play the multiplayer modes but I’m already going through the game again for another play through this time I’m using many of the tweaks I unlocked/bought such as character skins/weapons. The fact that once I had finished it I started again 5mins later really speaks for how good the game actually is, I have been hearing good things about the multiplayer too but at the time of writing this I was only a few hours away from the release of call of duty 6 so I have still yet to try it out. If you do have a ps3 then you really should buy this game it wont disappoint & its worth every penny - uncharted 2: among thieves gets a well deserved 10/10.

Paranormal Activity - my thoughts on the film

I’m one of those people that did actually like the blair witch project but not because of all the hype surrounding it, what attracted me to it was the fact that it was an independent film that hit the big time gaining countless screenings all over the world. When I first heard about paranormal activity I had hoped for the same thing but alas it is an epic fail and here is why.

Take one guy & his girlfriend then add a camera, what you end up with is a rather cheap attempt to scare people witless. The film had a budget of around fifteen thousand dollars.. So where did the money go? The guy had only the one camera, he even decided to shoot the film in his own house. The film itself was shot in a mere seven days & he had no previous directing experience but soon after he showed it around it started to pop up in various film festivals where an executive at dreamworks promptly alerted spielberg to its existence. What followed then was a lot of promotion through the internet & sites like twitter exposing it to an even greater audience. So what did I think of it..

The story is simple enough a young couple move in together, soon after the girl starts to experience what can only be explained as paranormal activity. Realising this the guy decides to bring a camera home so he can capture the events & study the evidence - what follows is about 90mins of doors opening on their own, footsteps through some (flour?) some loud noises, a very short but violent demonic attack & that is really about it. I do like the idea that low budget films can get so much exposure because of the internet & word of mouth indeed its great that non Hollywood folk can make a name for themselves but.. Its being marketed as one of the most terrifying movies of all time. I wish I could say you need to see this film but I cant in good mental health recommend this especially to true horror fans. If you like the idea of being creeped out by some weird noises you may like this but if you don’t want to see a movie where its two main actors film themselves sleeping ..then waking up.. Then sleeping ..then waking up again - see what I’m getting at here? In these current economic times save your money for something more worthy.. if not then don’t say I didn’t warn you.

250GB PlayStation 3 coming this November

Sony has confirmed that it will launch 250GB PlayStation 3 Slim console in November this year. Back in August, Sony had announced PS3 Slim 120GB for $299 and now, 250GB HDD loaded PS3 Slim will cost $349 . North American consumers will be the first ones to get his 250GB PS3 Slim model from November 3 onwards.

The news about 250GB PS3 Slim model CECH-2000B was dug up on the same day when Slim was announced at GamesCon 2009 Expo. Sony PlayStation 3 Slim doesn't offer installing games on the hard drive. However, Sony is pushing PlayStation Network's 2300 movies through the video delivery service. Some of these are available in High Definition. The PS3 Slim won't have any game bundled for its U.S. consumers but for Europe region, Sony might bundle a game or may be two. The new PS3 Slim boasts of consuming 34 percent less power as compared with its previous generation model. PS3 Slim has new 45nm fab process manufactured Cell processor but runs at same clock speed. With built-in WiFi and USB Ports, the Hard Drive access has been made easy and doesn't give any warranty voiding fears. Both 120GB and 250GB PS3 Slim models would be on sale during the holiday seasons. Along with them, a number of much awaited game titles would be sold.

The month in nutshell

Happy because: I got a new apartment in the city..yay!
Sad because: my cat went missing more than 2 weeks ago & there has been no sign of it since

Haunting:
Nimhneach (kinky fun & frolics) the Halloween parties coming up! Happy birthday to Guinness too

Playing:
Endwar (again.. Mostly for the trophies I missed) batman arkham asylum (one of the best games of the year) mafia wars on facebook ..surprisingly addictive - I didn’t like halo ODST, too much of the same old thing

Listening to
Breaking Benjamin “dear agony” (already one of my favourite albums of the year), Megadeth “endgame”, three days grace “life starts now” (much better than I expected!), chevelle “sci-fi crimes” (a little too mellow for my liking), smile empty soul “consciousness” (doesn’t disappoint), kittie “in the black” (I went off this band for a while, their new album is pretty good), hatebreed “hatebreed” (hardcore is what they aim for & hardcore is what they deliver ..powerful album!), 69 eyes “back in blood” (my favourite eyes album to date)

Watching:
Sons of anarchy season 2 (tv), the Nostradamus effect (tv), trick r treat, the haunted world of el superbeasto, five minutes of heaven, the hurt locker, dead snow, the hills run red, year one, train, new town killers, blood the last vampire (live action version), drag me to hell, one eyed monster, book of blood, infestation, dance flick, crank 2, angels & demons

Looking forward to:
HALLOWEEN! New material from rammstein, arch enemy “the root of all evil”, SAW VI (I’m a sucker for the crazy gore & horror of the SAW franchise), pandorum (looks a bit like event horizon & aliens), fallout3; game of the year edition, call of duty : modern warfare 2 (nov 10th 09!)

Batman Arkham Asylum – game review (PS3) also on Xbox 360 & PC

Movie licensed games usually flop & bring nothing new to the world of games so I was a little worried about arkham asylum but then its not really based on any particular batman movie, if anything its more influenced by the darker more moodier graphic novels. The story is simple batman apprehends the joker & transports him to the island prison, during jokers processing he escapes & gains control of arkham leaving batman stuck on the island to deal with the joker & the inmates. For anyone not in the know arkham is not a normal prison it houses the cities most dangerous criminals & super villains. So the idea is simple & straight forward enough but does it actually work?.. It absolutely does so keep reading to find out why.

There was an awful lot of hype over this game so naturally I was very skeptical & didn’t even play the demo incase it spoiled the actual finished product. For the first 10 or 15mins I really wasn’t that impressed, I liked the video sequences but felt it dragged on.. soon after my opinion changed drastically. Controlling batman was awkward & even clumsy at times, he felt dull & bland even the controls felt slightly non responsive. Then a wonderful thing happened.. I was starting to really enjoy myself! The key of course was gaining experience points then using them to upgrade batman & his gadgets. The story too took hold of me & from then on I was hooked, the more I played & progressed the more I loved the game until soon every drop of doubt had disappeared completely leaving me with a big smile on my face.

The game play is sluggish at first but when it does take off it turns into a thrill a minute ride giving you a hands on idea of what it must really be like to be the dark knight. The character controls are great once you get used to them but batman mainly relies on hand to hand combat & so you quickly learn to approach dangerous situations with stealth. One of my favorite tricks was to perch on top of a gargoyle then swoop down grabbing a passing thug leaving him to hanging upside down.. then when someone came to investigate I’d sever the wire bringing him crashing down on his friend. You can also make your way passed enemies by taking cover in the shadows or sneaking under floors or by grappling high above them. The combat is mainly centered on one button but it allows you to string together multi button combo’s that become more effective as you keep them going. In short batman is not too much a complex character to maneuver & soon you will find yourself pulling off all kinds of takedowns, even gliding through the air to knock out a guard below.

Because its batman you get to use nearly everything in his arsenal of gadgets, which include.. the batarang which is thrown to stun an enemy however once its upgraded it becomes more deadly letting you take down multiple targets even using it by remote which I really liked. The explosive gadget is used to spray a liquid like substance onto walls/floors which then can be detonated by remote; this becomes very useful when you need to blow through a secret wall or passage.. but how do you see a secret passage. Included in the gadgets is what I like to call predator vision, the idea is simple enough it’s a type of viewing mode that lets you see enemies through walls/monitor their condition/locate weak walls & even investigate the environment forensically. This is extremely useful when you need to follow clues in order to locate key characters & to make your way through to another part of the island.

Arkham may not sound big but it is an actual island so really it’s a vast sprawling complex filled with modern security measures & old gothic styled buildings. There are cellblocks full of random thugs & villains just waiting to be taken out, there are medical areas & even a hospital. Under arkham island is a network of caves which can be used to get to other parts of the island. Arkham mansion was easily one of my favorite locations in the game & it looked/felt realistic. One of the most enjoying parts were discovering cells then trying to figure out who they had housed, of course using a little simple detective work would give you the answer but it was not always so straight forward. Included in the game are challenges set by the riddler & these involve either picking up hidden trophies or solving mind boggling riddles.. some of them were easy enough but there were many tricky ones that kept me guessing. As you complete these riddles/trophies you unlock little extras like character bio’s & challenges that you can play outside of the main game, challenge mode is great fun but it’s even better on the ps3 because you get to play as the joker in a whole host of new challenges.

The joker is the main villain of the piece & he plays it flawlessly with great voice acting & clever little quips however he is not the only super villain left on the island. Many familiar villains pop up to do battle with batman including.. the venom enhanced bane/the plant loving poison ivy/the scarecrow who floods the place with his fear gas forcing you to fight with him in the terrifying world of nightmares.. these fear sequences are done so brilliant that they will have you on the edge of your seat./killer croc & jokers main sidekick/lover harley quin. The boss fights were all fun to play & very well thought out but even at that there is a generous supply of thugs that keep popping up.. their intelligence is not that great but then they are really only goons.

The graphics are impressive indeed better than I expected, the lighting is fantastic & the visuals are sharp & sometimes stunning. Each area of arkham feels a little different & as a game location its definitely unique. The character animations look great & the story is intriguing & overly exciting. I don’t know if it was me but the music seemed to come & go but it definitely wasn’t intrusive & when it was there it was perfectly suited to the situation. Its not often that a game like this comes along with so much going for it & indeed it’s a contender for game of the year if not one of the best games ever so it was extremely hard for me to find anything negative to say. I’m giving it a 9 out of 10 the only reason I’m not giving it a 10 is because at times it was frustrating getting through the labyrinth of arkham & though the game is great fun there is not much incentive to play through it again once you have finished it. I’d highly recommend this game to anyone & not only bat fans, you will really enjoy it so if you have been thinking about getting it then do, its available now & you wont be disappointed. Apparently there will be downloadable content released for it some time next week so I will most likely try it out & blog about the contents ..and yes I do have my fingers crossed for a sequel!

Eircom block piratebay

Eircom has confirmed that the company will block access to the website the PirateBay.org, its related domain names, IP addresses and URLs from September 1st. Broadband customers of Eircom who attempt to access the Pirate Bay website from this time will be denied entry.

The move follows an application made in July by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) which secured an order from the High Court directing eircom to block access to the Pirate Bay website and its related domain names, IP address and URLs. The blocking of access to the website is indefinite however, should the Pirate Bay website content be legitimised in the future, eircom will apply to the High Court to have the order vacated.

In making the order, requiring eircom to block access to the PirateBay website, the High Court was satisfied that the website is dedicated to facilitating the illegal downloading of copyrighted material without the permission of the copyright owners. In a statement Eircom said it recognised the legitimate rights of the owners of copyrighted material and believes that individuals who share or download copyrighted material without the authorisation or the permission of the owner of that content are acting illegally.

The statement added that eircom would not monitor customers’ activities at any stage, nor will it place any monitoring equipment or software on its network in order to facilitate this block.
The telecoms operator added that it would not provide personal details or any information relating to customers to any third party, including the record companies. Eircom has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the four major labels EMI, Universal, Warner and Sony to develop an innovative new music service for all Irish consumers, which is expected to launch in the next few months.

inFamous VS Prototype

(all pics are of inFamous as I reviewed prototype already)

Ok so both are superhero styled games with the sandbox thing going for them (open world like GTA) however infamous is only available on the ps3 while prototype is available on both systems so I ended up buying both games for the ps3. Both games came out around the same time as each other & I originally planned on reviewing both separately but having played right through each game I thought I’d review them both at the same time so I could point out the differences & features available in each.

So first I’ll talk about the games stories. Infamous has a really good story with plenty of twists & turns that will make you want to play through to the very end - also in true superhero style the story is told through a series of comic book like videos which are really fun to watch & vary depending on how you choose to play the game. Prototype on the other hand is told through video clips but its not so straight forward & you have to absorb key characters to really figure out what’s going on, this is done through a unique feature known as the web of intrigue. The web is quite interesting at first but as the game goes on it gets slightly repetitive & sometimes when you find the key character they get killed by the games AI before you can get to them.

The main character in infamous is cole, a delivery boy who is tasked with the job of delivering a strange package, it all goes wrong when the package explodes decimating half the city but giving cole superhuman powers which he can use for either good or evil. In prototype you control the character of alex mercer who wakes up in a morgue with a serious case of amnesia, after escaping the morgue he finds the city is not like it used to be nor is he. My personal opinion is that alex is more of an antihero than a hero, his powers are brutal & he goes through half a city of innocent people to get what he wants often leaving behind a bloody mess. It is hard to really figure out what’s going on in the story but in a way I kind of liked that because it lets your imagination fill in the blanks.

In infamous cole is given the power to control & bend electricity to his will & while at first I thought that would be boring it was actually quite fun. You start off slow with low level powers that really don’t do much but as you progress you earn experience points & these points are used to buy all kinds of upgrades like electric grenades & my personal favourite the ability to summon lightning itself (like storm in x-men). Alex in prototype has a whole range of powers that I have to admit are more fun that coles. Alex has the ability to run up buildings/glide/jump huge distances/absorb people completely so as to steal their identity/hijack military vehicles like helicopters & tanks, & of course he can shape shift his body into various stabbing weapons/blades & even hardened armour to repeal attacks from both the many creatures in the game & the military. Prototype wins when it comes to powers.

The environments in each game are strictly cities so its lots of tall buildings, monuments & the odd central park inspired greenery. Prototype fails here, its city is fairly flat/the buildings are all very similar/there seems to be no real flow to the environment & it only really feels like its there for you to run through while you battle the many groups of creatures. The environments in infamous are really something else & though you cant enter the buildings you can scale pretty much every inch of them, there is tons of variety to the buildings & the whole map is divided up into a series of islands with their own group of unique enemies running around causing trouble.

The enemies in infamous are fun to battle & there are many kinds of them with their own interesting background. The first group you meet are known as the reapers, they used to be junkies that lurked in the shadows but now that the city is up for grabs they are out in force carrying assault rifles. There are a number of bosses that play an important role in the story & each one poses a different challenge that definitely requires you to upgrade your powers to get further. In prototype the main enemy is the city itself, a viral outbreak turns the citizens into zombie like creatures (28 days later anyone?) there are a few bosses thrown in there too that take a fair pounding before you finally defeat them, one in particular took over an hour to beat. Whereas in infamous you are tackling small enough crowds of enemies prototype is packed with them & I mean seriously packed. There can be hundreds of characters on screen at once which should be a god thing but its not, the AI is sluggish & most of the on screen characters end up being cannon fodder. At times when I was battling it out with multiple creatures at once I found myself getting flung around the screen over & over again ..rather annoyingly.

Each game has its own selection of extra features to it that offer a longer lifespan to the game. In infamous they include taking over territory/beating timers by getting from one side of the city to the next within a time limit/collecting up glass shards that unleash your powers even more & a series of dead drops that are found through satellite dishes around the environment.. The mini games were fun but they were not that fun. Prototype wins here because it has a large variety of mini games to play that include attacking military installations by consuming key personal to gain access/wiping out a number of infected/shooting down helicopters/collecting orbs which are scattered all over the city & a number of other activities.

Well graphics wise infamous wins hands down, the visuals are stunning & might be some of the best I have seen in any ps3 game to date. The lighting is fantastic & really makes the city look alive & vibrant. The lighting really stands out when cole is under the sewers & his powers are causing the walls etc to light up, it looks stunning. As for prototype.. Well, the graphics are rather poor & flat which is a pity because the game really would look better if more time was given to the lighting & environment.. However the obvious reason for this is because most of the processing power is gone into generating vast armies of infected creatures rampaging all over the screen & they do this quite well so it levels out.

I started playing prototype first & put hours/days into clearing the main game more than once, then there was the many challenges & trophies/achievements to unlock. I really did enjoy playing prototype & apart from the confusing story & slightly repetitive missions it was a blast that provided hours of entertainment. It did take a lot of work to unlock all the major powers & upgrades but it was worth it in the end & I definitely got a lot of life out of it & many many sleepless nights of hardcore gaming. The main thing infamous had going for it apart from superior graphics was the karma feature of the game. This simply allows you to play the game in a way that you see fit, if you want to be good & help out the citizens of the crumbling city you can.. On the other hand if you want to be evil & use your powers for bad then you can too. I finished the game on both good & evil endings & as you play through there are actually quite a lot of different outcomes to the game which I found pushed me further to get each desired ending along with the many achievements.

So which is better? Well to be honest they both are good games, infamous was solid/looked a treat/played a treat & immersed me fully into the role of cole ..prototype on the other hand was a whole heap of fun which didn’t require too much thought but also provided truckloads of random action & game play so while the graphics were nothing special I constantly found myself forgetting that & being drawn into just running around causing mayhem & havoc. If you do have a ps3 then I highly recommend getting infamous, if you have an xbox then its worth checking out prototype.. But maybe get it second hand or even rent it but do give it a chance. I’m giving infamous a well deserved 9 out of 10 & prototype a 7 out of 10. I’ll be reviewing batman arkham asylum next!

Sons of Anarchy nominated for musical Emmy

The news was announced earlier this week when the nominees were revealed for the 61st Emmys Award show and presentation on July 16th. The motorcycle drama was nominated in the category of 'Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music' for the work completed by Bob Thiele Jr. With stories based around the local motorcycle club 'Sons of Anarchy', members confront threats from drug dealers, corporate developers as well as local and national law enforcement, all while they run their own illegal activities to support the extended biker family. FX’s series ‘Sons of Anarchy’ doesn’t just use motorcycles as props but sets the story in the dark world of motorcycle gangs and immerses its troubled characters in interweaving plotlines. Thirteen new episodes will bring back fan favorites such as Charlie Hunnam, Katey Sagal and Ron Perlman, in what many consider an adrenalized drama with darkly comedic undertones, as Sons of Anarchy explores the notorious outlaw motorcycle club’s (SAMCRO) desire to protect its livelihood and the town of Charming, Calif. from outside influences. It was announced earlier in the year that noted actor Adam Arkin will appear in a multi-episode story arc, playing a white supremacist who could cause problems for SAMCRO (The Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original) while Grammy winning Henry Rollins would also join the cast, playing an antagonists billed as not just a threat, but a deadly threat.

But Arkin wouldn't be the first supremacist the Charming motorcycle gang has had to deal with.
The show's writers have had the group cross paths with the meth-distributing white supremacist "Nords" gang, a rival Oakland-based MC the "Mayans", the San Francisco-based Chinese-American mafia, the Real IRA of Ireland, and the 9'ers an African-American street gang.But this season could make everything that has come before seem like child's play."This season is going to be about all the internal conflicts that happen at the club," the show's creator Kurt Sutter has said, "And I think the club is going to become its own worst enemy."With producers taking well known actors, adding tattoo's, shaving heads and generally bringing them into the hard world of the people who make up motorcycle gangs, Arkin and Rollins fans could be in for an acting treat.

The first season of the dark motorcycle drama wasn't just a hit with fans, but left FX executives happy as well with the show averaging 1.2 million Men 18-34 demo on a weekly cumulative basis, making it the #1 scripted show in basic cable in that demo and its cume of 1.9 million Adults 18-34 ranked #3.

hackers ruining call of duty 4 for gamers

If you play Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on the PlayStation 3, then be warned. A mob of hackers and glitchers have essentially overrun the game's online component, griefing the Hell out of the multiplayer and then posting Youtube videos of their nefarious chicanery. The videos tell people how they too can fly and walk through walls, helping the problem to propagate itself as others get wise to the unfair tactics.

"Apparently the new hacks are for flying (no clip), no reloads (endless supply of ammunition), god mode, laser sights and the ability to move through buildings," explains the Modern Warfare forum moderation team. "More mods may or may not exist at this time however. This is apparently devastating the community and is rampant ... The most affected game modes seem to be Search and Destroy but were reported to be in all gametypes. Hopefully something can be done to address this issue."

LittleBigPlanet full DLC version coming soon!

LittleBigPlanet is a great game but it falls under the banner of a “DLC” game & honestly I’m starting to get really sick of developers making a game only to release downloadable content a few months later that you have to pay for. don’t get me wrong LittleBigPlanet well deserves all the DLC but it feels a little like a rip-off when after you shell out the full price of the game the offer so much new content for yet even more money. It came out last November & now they are planning to release a “game of the year edition” that will feature both the game & all the DLC content of the past year or so. The original game is super cheap now but if you don’t have the game I’d suggest waiting for the new edition & hopefully it will include all the Ghostbusters & metal gear solid stuff too.

Holy Tree Stump.. ?

Religion ..hate it or love it but its everywhere & you cant escape it .. I know as anywhere I go in Ireland there is never a church far from view & normally it doesn’t bother me but when people see the virgin Mary in a cup of tea or on a slice of toast I have to wonder. Today thousands of Catholics are flocking to a county limerick church to pray to a tree stump.. The reason? This tree stump looks a little like the virgin Mary. Apparently during a recent storm a tree fell only to reveal the image of the blessed mother. At first a few dozen people showed up to witness the stump.. Then hundreds now its thousands. The local church themselves take the stand that its not a miracle & that people need to stop flocking to it because it really is only a tree stump & not divine. I suppose people would like to think it was something special because it might give them hope in a time where the world is hit with hard economic times ..true back in the 1980s when there was a recession & many people claimed to see images of Mary popping up everywhere. The stump has boosted the parish’s local trade but as for me I’ll start worrying about it when she appears in my bathroom or in one of my own trees.

Prototype - game review (PS3) also on Xbox 360 & PC

So at the moment there are two games on the market that came out around the same time as each other that both involve super hero like characters, anyone who knows their gaming stuff will know the two games I’m talking about are infamous & Prototype. First off I want to say that the IGN review for Prototype was one of the most misleading & biased reviews I have ever seen on any site & after seeing it & playing Prototype I will be avoiding IGN from now on.

Prototype is available on both the xbox 360 & the play station 3 while inFamous is a ps3 exclusive so straight away its going to be difficult for people to really compare both games unless they have both systems, lucky for me I do have both systems so I can give a full review on both games. I wanted to play through both of them before I wrote anything about either of them but after I started playing Prototype I found it impossible to put down so I’m going to give a quick review of Prototype then over the next few days I’ll do a review of inFamous followed shortly by a direct comparison of both. Because the games are supposed to be so similar to each other I’ll do both reviews in the same layout starting of course with Prototype.

You play the character of alex mercer but of course all is not what it seems, alex is dead but soon returns back to life only to discover he has strange powers. He reminds me of a cross between the t-1000 from terminator 2 & carnage from spiderman. When you escape the morgue you are plunged into a city where a mysterious yet volatile virus has turned the inhabitants into ravenous zombie like creatures. The military & a special branch of the military known as blackwatch are seizing control of city & there are tanks & special forces everywhere. Luckily though you have your powers to deal with the threat of both the creatures & the military & initially when you start the game you blessed with all of mercers powers however soon after you loose most of them & have to gain them back.

The game itself is bloody & brutal but that doesn’t take away from the fun element, and of course most games with an M/18+ rating are bloody good fun. Mercers powers are extremely varied & each one can be upgraded or bought using experience points. The virus in Alex gives him the power to shift his body into all forms of weapons such as giant razor sharp claws that can slice through his enemies like a hot knife through butter, he can also form whips & shields that are great for dispatching huge crowds of enemies, he also has the ability to consume people & in doing so he steals their form so he becomes an exact replica of that person. On top of that Alex can leap over buildings & even run up walls/buildings & all kinds of surfaces.. Doing this is relatively easy & great fun to do especially if you are just roaming around the city exploring & there is a lot to explore.

The free roaming in the game is a nice way to find your way around & to get used to the many powers & controls your character possess. The city itself is obviously supposed to be Manhattan & you will stumble upon many landmarks such as the empire state building & central park. Scattered around the city are glowing orbs to collect that give you experience points & its easy enough to find them as they can be seen from the top of buildings. Along with the orbs there are tons of mini-games all over the city that really add life to the whole package & you actually will want to do them, these mini games are in the form of challenges that will require you to annihilate huge groups of military/consume specific targets/complete time trails & much much more. A nice little feature is the web of intrigue, Alex is suffering from amnesia & therefore must consume certain characters to fit together the pieces of the puzzle & those characters are located all over the city & can be consumed at any time even during a mission.

The graphics are not amazing & many game reviewers have pointed this out but all in all they are not THAT bad & they are only like that because all of the processing power goes into the combat & the huge number of people on screen at any moment ..there are hundreds of people on screen & it feels more genuine that way ..of course some people will argue that they are mindless & only cannon fodder. The controls & character movements are super smooth & you will be leaping from building to effortlessly within minutes of picking the controller up. The frame-rate is perfect & I have yet to see any slowdown of any kind even with hundreds of characters running around & lots of enemies attacking me at once including tanks & helicopters ..oh I forgot to mention as you play through the game you will gain the ability to hijack military equipment including tanks & choppers. The pop-in that IGN mentioned is NOT there so I’d love to know what version of the game they actually played. The sound & voice acting is adequate & its never really felt cheap or half done to me.. But the story is a little confusing & if you don’t complete the web of intrigue you will find yourself scratching your head as to what is actually going on.

Ok so the story can get a little confusing & the graphics wont blow you away but the playability is amazing & it doesn’t feel rushed because you can think about how you are going to approach a certain task or mission & carry it out with all guns blazing or by using cunning & stealth. The free roam is much better than I expected & you will actually enjoy exploring the various sites & buildings, I’m still trying to collect the glowing orbs but so far have had a great time running up buildings to find them on ledges or hidden away in alleyways ..they are generally found above ground so if you are hunting for them I’d suggest finding a high vantage point. I can see myself playing through this game more than once because it really is tremendous fun ..however it has been rated M & it can get very gory at some points but the action is so fast paced that it doesn’t really shock too much. If you are after a karma based game where you can play as good or bad then I wouldn’t recommend Prototype.. However if you are after a fast paced fun filled brawler then I highly recommend it, just be warned you will loose more than a few nights sleep as its bloody addictive. Keep watching this space for my review of inFamous.

Syphon Filter 5 & Socom 4.. ?

There is a rumour going around about a possible new Socom game in the making ..its been 4 years now since a proper Socom game has been released (no Confrontation does not count) the developers are also supposed to be making a fifth Syphon Filter game but there is very little information out there about either of them. Its likely that both games will use facial capturing but nothing has been confirmed yet. I loved the Syphon Filter series & the Socom games so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for this one.

Mafia app to cash in on Twitter

Twitter Inc.'s founders still haven't decided how to cash in on their popular Internet messaging service — to the delight of a rapidly growing audience. But the deliberate approach may not prevent a gold rush among opportunistic outsiders. Lolplaying, the maker of a new role-playing game on Twitter called 140 Mafia, is trying to explore Twitter's moneymaking potential with Super Rewards, a "virtual currency" service that already has been reaping revenue from various forms of online recreation.

Super Rewards gives players of online and mobile games ways to gain the upper hand against their opponents. The price: a fee, or a willingness to accept offers from advertisers. It's already proven to be a lucrative model at Facebook and MySpace, as well as on the iPhone. Now Super Rewards co-founder Jason Bailey is confident it will pay off on Twitter as 140 Mafia attracts more players.

"I'm already making more money from Twitter than Twitter is itself," Bailey boasted. And Bailey figures other programmers who have designed games and other applications for the service will be scrambling to capitalize on their innovations. If that happens, Bailey thinks Twitter will need to impose more controls over the external applications and perhaps even demand a cut of the sales — an approach that Apple Inc. has embraced for its iPhone. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone didn't respond to a request for comment. He has previously emphasized the San Francisco-based startup doesn't need to generate revenue right now, partly because it still has most of the $55 million that it raised from venture capitalists. Super Rewards doesn't need any venture capital, according to Bailey, who said the 40-employee company is on pace to reach $100 million in revenue this year. Super Rewards shares some of its revenue with game makers. Most people pay Super Rewards about $10 for a competitive advantage, but some game players have forked over thousands of dollars, Bailey said.

"It's all about ego and status for them," he said. "Clearly, some people have more money than brains."

Fashion designers ready for Brüno

Planning on catching new comedy Brüno when it hits cinemas this Friday? You’re far from alone. The latest big screen adventure for comedy chameleon Sacha Baron Cohen follows in the film footsteps of his hugely successful 2006 hit, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and expectations for more shocking humour are high. But it’s not just the chance to see Baron Cohen outrage more of the American public that has excited some fashion designers, rather the eccentric and flamboyant fashions sported by his titular Austrian fashion reporter.

Questioned on the film, Austrian fashion designer, Lena Horschek revealed to the Associated Press at last week’s Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in Berlin, Germany that she’s looking forward to it. The designer who favours an ‘old Hollywood’ style and has clothed stars like pop princess Katy Perry adds: “I think it’s gonna be a fun film.” Also keen to book his seat for the movie is Munich-based designer Marcel Ostertag though he’s concerned that the film’s depiction of the fashion industry will be far from flattering. “The world of fashion isn’t really like what he shows,” he says, without having yet seen the film. “I can laugh about it because I liked Borat, but I am also worried if people will take him seriously.”

Bank of Ireland ripped off by computer expert

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court has heard how a computer specialist for the Bank of Ireland, increased his girlfriend’s overdraft limit to over €40,000 and withdrew almost €50,000 from ATM's over two months.

Wiktor Wolcaski, originally from Wroclaw, Poland, pleaded guilty to seven counts of theft and using a computer for fraud in March and February 2008, said he needed the money because his girlfriend had an unnamed medical problem which he believed required an operation. Wolcaski had been living in Ireland since 2005 and had got a job in the Debt Recovery Unit. In September 2007, his girlfriend opened a Bank Of Ireland account and shortly afterwards, Wolcaski began to gradually alter her account by increasing its overdraft and credit rating. He initially raised the daily withdrawal limit to the maximum of €1,300 a day and then gradually increased the overdraft limit until it reached €47,000. Finally, he altered the credit rating to make it look more favourable to lend to.

Over the course of two months, Wolcaski went to ATM machines across Dublin almost daily and usually withdrew the maximum amount allowed. His problems started when an alert system highlighted the unusual withdrawals to the Fraud Prevention Unit of the bank. The suspicions were investigated and, because the changes had been made using Wolcaski's username, Gardai were called in and Wolcaski was arrested.

Bank of Ireland recovered most of the money from his home and other banks whose ATMs Wolcaski used to make withdrawals.

Red Faction: Guerrilla - DLC content coming soon!

Publisher of Red Faction: Guerrilla, THQ, finally announced that Red Faction: Guerrilla will be receiving three new DLC packs for the PS3 & Xbox 360 editions.

The first of those three expansions comes in the form of "Demons of the Badlands" which will arrive on August 13. While screenshots of the upcoming "Demons" look similar to the original game, the action is guaranteed to be fresh, with an all new "destructive single-player mission arc that takes place in a new Mars landscape outside of the game's expansive world."

Priced at $10 for the PlayStation Network & Xbox Live (800 MS points), the title will be ready for download later this summer on August 13, 2009. I'll most likley be getting it & if its good enough I'll add a little review but I have to say I'm of two minds lately when it comes to downloadable content.. its good because it offers fresh play but sometimes it's not worth the money.. time will tell. I'm really looking forward to the DLC pack for the PS3 version of Fallout3.

Red Faction: Guerrilla - game review (PS3) also on Xbox 360

I have always been a huge red faction fan & can remember playing them all the way back to the first one when it was released on the play station 2 in 2001..8 years ago wow. At the time it was a first person shooter that too was set on mars but what it did that other similar games didn’t do was the revolutionary geo-mod technology.. Put simply with the help of explosives or a rocket launcher you could change the landscape by blowing holes right through it, in fact it was so well done that you could literally tunnel your way across the map with ease. The sequel was released a year later but I personally didn’t like it as much & I don’t even remembering finishing the campaign. So many years on & the red faction team have put together their 3rd outing on the red planet.

Its been out now since the beginning of June but even though I had it I couldn’t find the time to actually play it! But I have now & I’m really loving it! So set on mars again the player takes the role of alec mason a miner who has a bone to pick with the power hungry earth defense force (edf) soon after he arrives on mars his brother daniel is murdered in cold blood by the edf ..mason would have been killed too if the red faction (a guerilla group fighting to liberate mars of the edf) didn’t come to his aid. Alec quickly gets recruited into the faction & begins the mammoth task of driving the edf off of mars for good..but its no easy task.

The game itself is huge & the world is completely open for all the free roaming fans out there. There are in total 6 massive districts to be explored with each of them offering unique landscape populated with edf forces for you to take out. When a guerrilla action is successfully undertook the morale of that district goes up & as it climbs higher more of the districts inhabitants join in with your struggle & attack the edf forces. The rewards for completing a mission come in the form of morale boosts & a unique pickup known as salvage. When a building or vehicle is destroyed there will often be pieces of metal scattered around the rubble this is known as salvage & they can be exchanged with the guerrilla to buy weapon upgrades such as the ability to carry more explosives & wield more powerful guns. Because this game concentrates on shooting you do of course get a wide variety of firearms & explosives like pistols/rifles/rocket launchers but what really comes in handy more times than often is the simple sledge hammer. But how is a hammer useful? Well using the new updated version of geo-mod technology you can completely level a building to nothing but a pile of rubble & this is where red faction guerrilla really shines, its so much fun smashing through walls into highly protected compounds then using that same hammer to strike a devastating blow to a group of enemies indeed the first time I turned the game on I was tasked with doing a certain amount of damage.. Even after I had the level of damage done I found myself destroying the whole area just for the hell of it.

The enemies come at you with everything from basic pistols & rifles to armoured personal carriers & tanks. Their A.I seems pretty good & they will work together when fighting against you, but they are basically cannon fodder & its so much fun dispatching a team of them with a carefully placed.. or thrown explosive device. They have established a ruthless grip on the districts of mars & in many areas have constructed huge security compounds that are just begging to be turned to rubble. There is even the option of a killing spree that pops up once you take out a certain amount of enimies, this climbs as you keep taking them out but its tricky enough to get a high score here.

The main campaign can be completed in about 15 to 20 hours but that’s not counting the various mini games & side missions scattered all over the map, these can be simple like having to help a team of guerrillas secure an enemy outpost or guard tower, or they can be hard like trying to sabotage a heavily armoured enemy convoy. All of these mini games are fun & offer a lot of play time, its good to do them because you get morale boosts & salvage for your trouble. There is of course an online multiplayer that offers hours of fun in the various modes such as capture the flag & siege but rarely enough it comes with a pretty decent offline multiplayer known as wrecking crew & it allows up to 4 players to compete against each other in a race to cause as much destruction as possible.

Red faction guerrilla is quite simply a tremendously fun game! Sure some of the missions may get a little repetitive but it’s a long time since a game has impressed me so much with its ease of play, the moment I started playing I was hooked & I’m probably only 30% through the main game. Normally I would wait until I have completed a game to review it but I’m really impressed with the latest offering of a romp on the red planet. The visuals/physics engine/graphics/music & of course the game play are all stunning & I’d highly recommend it.. I’m giving it a much deserved 9 out of 10.

Systems: Playstation 3/Xbox360 - PC/Windows date August 25th