L.A. Noire

I finished L.A. Noire at some ungodly hour last night and overall I really enjoyed it, visually it's the most impressive console game I've seen in some time but in terms of story I guess what was going on and why early on during the game, this is a problem I often also have with movies and TV shows as well so rather than assume it's a problem with this excellent game I guess it means I've watched or read a lot of similar material.

Since L.A Noire is a game that's based more around investigation than action I'm not sure there is much replay value in this game but I think I'd like to see a sequel set in the same environment, there was certainly plenty to see and explore and it seems like a shame to not return to L.A. in the 1940s for more adventures.

If you haven't already rushed out and bought the game like I did I'd suggest waiting until it's on sale or has a price reduction, once you've solved the game there isn't a lot of replay value, sure you can go and hunt for any collectibles you might have missed but I'm not sure what the point of replaying the various cases would be once you've already solved them.

L.A. Noire was certainly a very enjoyable game set in a wonderfully detailed environment but like so many other things doesn't live up to it's hype.

Pumpkin Scissors

If you are anything like me you're probably thinking WTF is Pumpkin Scissors ?

Well as it turns out it's an anime series that is set in a country that seems to resemble post war Europe and featuring a group of elite intelligence agents who's job it is to resolve various problems and restore their country to it's pre-war glory, of course along the way they discover a conspiracy and they also need to unravel the mystery of who or what their latest recruit actually is.

Today I watched the first volume ( episodes 1-4 ) and to be honest I though it was fairly bland at least until I got to episode 4 where some plot elements started coming together and things started to get interesting, interesting enough that I'll probably order volume 2 sometime soon or maybe a box set if I see one going cheap.

This is a series I think has a lot of potential, I'm hoping it lives up to it.

Ghost in the Shell 2.0

Last night I watched Ghost in the Shell 2.0 on Blu-ray, this isn't as you might imagine the sequel to the anime classic Ghost in the Shell but rather a George Lucas like reworking of the original film, while the restoration work, recoloring and new soundtrack were all impressive the transition from traditional animation to CG animated sequences and back again was often jarring and in my opinion a bad idea, at least for those who prefer it the original version of the movie is also included on the disc.

L.A. Noire, Stargate Universe, Supernatural and a bunch of other stuff.

Well the Man Flu seems to slowly be improving but over that last few days all I've really done is watch some more of season five of Supernatural and a bunch of Stargate: Universe season one episodes along with a few movies and play L.A. Noire, lots and lots of L.A. Noire.


Supernatural

Supernatural season 5 started of pretty weak in my opinion and it took until around episode 9 for things to even start to improve, I've always said this show mostly failed to live up o it's potential but this is the first time I've felt it has suffered a prolonged drop in quality, I'm really hoping things pick up during the second half of the season.


Stargate: Universe

I've watched 7 season 1 episodes of Stargate: Universe over the last 2 days, I wouldn't say any of them have been anything special but I've at least found most of them interesting, it's easy to see why the show struggled to find an audience and was ultimately cancelled but the show has managed to keep my attention.


Centurion

I really enjoyed Neil Marshall's first three movies and while I was aware that he was working on Centurion I had no idea that it was actually finished let alone been released on Blu-ray, after watching the movie I can see why it came and went without leaving much of an impression, it has all the stylistic hallmarks of Marshall's previous movies but it just wasn't as much fun, there are plenty of movies about a small group of people trapped in enemy territory, there is more fun to be had watching The Warriors ( original theatrical version of course ) than this unfortunately disappointing film.


Mindhunters

I guessed who the killer was fairly early on in the movie but I still enjoyed it and at the end of the day that's what matters, it's worth a look but it's not really worth owning.


Machete

Oddly not as action packed as I expected it to be but still fun, certainly not a family film and not for the squeamish either but I enjoyed it, if only this had been released as part of Grindhouse instead of the awful Death Proof.


L.A. Noire

This is a good game it really is but it's not deserving of a lot off the hype it's been receiving, the performance capture technology they developed for the game is impressive, it occasionally produce rather exaggerated facial expressions but for the most part it works rather well, this really is a good game and I'm glad I bought it but I think I'd recommend renting it and having a look at the game before buying it because it simply isn't the genre defining game a lot of people are claiming it is.

I'm Not Dead Yet......

..... it just feels like it !

Yep still got the Man Flu, I was feeling fine there for a couple of days and then I seemed to have a relapse.

So once again I've had to resort to watching lost of things ( it's a hard life ) as well as playing a decent amount of L.A. Noire, I've found it interesting that I've been able to watch a big-ass TV with no real problems but if I spend any great length of time in front of a computer monitor I start getting headaches which is why it has been so long between blog updates but then there are far worse things in life.

A Few Fun Filled Days

Well the last four or five days have kind of sucked, not only have we had the coldest and most miserable weather that I can remember in ages but I've been sick as well and as it's been Man Flu I've been on deaths door or at least that's how it felt.

When I wasn't sleeping or doped out of my mind on cold and flu medicine I did manage to watch a few things:


Fringe Season 2

I've had the season 2 Blu-rays of Fringe sitting here for a little while, I liked the first season of the show but I didn't love it, the second season of the show built upon the strengths of the first, at times the show still feels like an X-Files clone but there was a solid overall improvement in quality during season 2 and I'm looking forward to the third season.


Doomsday

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then John Carpenter and George Miller's egos must swell whenever they hear this movies title or it Directors ( Neil Marshall ) name mentioned, basically this is Escape From New York crossed with Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, hell the movie even has two characters named Carpenter and Miller, a fun movie and I guess the Blu-ray must be some sort of uncut version although no mention of it was made on the cover, I don't remember the movie being so bloody last time I saw it.


The Neverending Story

This is a no-frills Blu-ray if ever I saw one, no special features not even a trailer but the movie looks fantastic for a film of it's age, I really enjoyed seeing it again, I think this might be the first time I ever saw it in widescreen as well, this is well worth adding to your collection if you don't already own it.


Blood: The Last Vampire

I haven't seen this since it was first released, the animation still holds up pretty well by today's standards, I really must check out the live action movie sometime soon, I hope they didn't screw it up.


Cowboy Bebop

I saw a couple of episodes of this series on some sort of preview disc ages ago and I really enjoyed them, I'd always intended to pick up the series and while it took me a considerable amount of time to do so I've enjoyed the first 10 episodes of the series, I have the final four DVDs and the movie ready to watch but I think I might try and space them out a bit and try to make it last a while.

I can't help but wonder if Joss Whedon was aware of this series when he was creating Firefly some of the backdrops the stories take place in seem rather similar.


Batman: The Animated Series Season 3

Over the last few months I've slowly been re watching Batman: The Animated Series, this is my favorite version of Batman and I'm pleased to see the show still holds up well, it's not as pretty as some of the modern animated series but the storytelling is often outstanding for a show aimed at children, it just goes to show you don't need excessive blood and guts to tell a good story.


The Batman Season 1

I liked this show more than I expected to, the anime inspired look is interesting and while the show isn't as rewarding as Batman: The Animated Series in terms of storytelling it is a fun show, the only thing I didn't like about it was the character design for The Joker although the voice actor who plays him is rather good.

I was pretty impressed this this shows take on Clayface and I'm hoping the character returns in the second season.


X-Men: The Animated Series

I watched the first 7 episodes of X-Men: The Animated Series last night, I never saw a lot of the show when it was first broadcast and despite thinking the animation wasn't all that great even then the show has been decent so far, the are clearly building various storylines and it will be interesting to see what they do with them and it's nice to see that the producers were influenced by things that were done in the comics, I got the first three seasons of the show on DVD pretty cheap and I imagine I'll probably get the other two at some point.

District 9

I finally got around to watching District 9 on Blu-ray yesterday, it was a pleasure to see that amongst all the bland and over-hyped science fiction movies with unneeded 3D out there someone is still able to come up with a fairly original story ideas.

I'm sure District 9 won't appeal  to a mass audience but it was fun to see someone attempting to produce something interesting rather than more of the bland crap that tends to come out of Hollywood.

This is a movie that is well worth checking out if you get the chance.

Masters of the Universe

This afternoon I watched the live action Masters of the Universe movie from the 80s, as far as I can recall I only ever saw it once on VHS many years ago, my memory of the movie was of this low budget fiasco, however this time around I though it was kind of fun in a B-Grade low budget kind of way.

It has to be said the entire cast of this movie was pretty wooden and a couple of them were bad enough to make Dolph Lundgren seem like a halfway decent actor but what I think really hurt the movie was it's poor action sequences, if this movie needed anything it was a decent fight / stunt choreographer and someone who knew how to shoot action scenes, instead it looked like they were making it up as they went along.

Masters of the Universe is by no means a good movie but it is a sort of camp fun, this is a movie that was desperately trying to be Star Wars ( or something similar ) and spectacularly failing, at least Dolph Lundgren looked the part as He-Man.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

More of the same really, the game has received minor game play tweaks and it's still rather pretty but if you've played either of the previous games you know what to expect.

Story wise Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood picks up right where Assassin's Creed 2 left off  so people new to the franchise might have some trouble following whats going on at first but just concentrate on the pretty explosions instead of worrying about your motivation and you'll be OK.

Having played all three Assassin's Creed games back to back I'm more than ready for a change but I was intrigued by some audio that played over the end credits which seemed to hint at the direction the franchise is going to take and if I'm right all wasn't what it seemed.

Starman

I just finished watching Starman on Blu-ray and I have to say that for a movie of it's age it looked and sounded great, probably better than when I saw it at the cinema all those years ago, it certainly looked better than the DVD release but I was very disappointed to see that none of the extras from the DVD release were included on this disc, surely they could have at least included the audio commentary but no you only get the movie and some trailers for other Blu-ray releases which was disappointing.

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles

Over the last few days I've found myself in the mood to watch some anime so I jumped onto eBay and bought a few things and much to my shock Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles arrived the very next day so I sat myself down and watched the movie.

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles is an animated movie that serves as a sequel to the TV series from the 80s and was also supposed to relaunch the franchise, I remember watching and enjoying the series but I wasn't a hardcore fan so I found the first act of the movie a little confusing at times as various characters were reintroduced, perhaps it may have been a better idea to bring back fewer of the characters from the series and then reintroduce more of them in following sequel projects but I guess that's a minor quibble.

The movie itself was OK but I think it was saddled with too much for it's running time, firstly it had to tie up story lines left hanging when the original series ended and then it had to ( hopefully ) relaunch the franchise in a new direction, I think ending the original Robotech series was worthy of it's own movie rather than trying to wrap it up in around 40 minutes, so that the writers could introduce new villains in the second half of the movie especially since the proposed sequel film is now indefinitely postponed leaving the fans hanging once again.

Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles is an OK movie but it doesn't live up to the legacy of the Robotech TV series.

Big Trouble in Little China

I watched the Blu-ray version of Big Trouble in Little China yesterday, I'm a big John Carpenter fan but given the low budget nature of a lot of his movies I was wondering if a high definition release would be worth it ?

Well the answer to that question is yes, for a movie of it's age it looked great, well worth the upgrade from DVD and it was nice to see all the special features from the DVD were included even if they were only in standard definition, I have found this trend of releasing movies on Blu-ray but not including features from the DVD version pretty annoying.

This is one Blu-ray well worth picking up if you are a fan of this movie.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Career?

I was randomly surfing various sci-fi related websites and while trolling back through some older entries on one I found a poll that posed the question Will “Source Code” Help or Hurt Jake Gyllenhaal’s Career?

This made me laugh which I assume was the intention but I think it's plainly obvious to anyone who saw Prince of Persia that if he still has a career after that mess then it's pretty much bulletproof and he'll be around for some time to come.

Assassin's Creed

After completing Assassin's Creed and for the most rather enjoying the game ( I got very pissy about the missing segments from the game that were later released as DLC and not particularly cheap DLC either ) I logged onto eBay and bought myself a second hand copy of the original game since I no longer wanted to directly support the franchise since I felt they had ripped me off with an incomplete game already.


As you'd expect the game play is much the same but I think I actually enjoyed the original game more than the sequel and from what I've seen of the third game nothing much has changed so I suppose if you enjoyed one Assassin's Creed you'll probably enjoy them all.