Thursday, April 30, 2015

Grand Theft Auto 5 Review



Grand Theft Auto 5 Review

The Grand Theft Auto series needs no introduction. The open world sandbox game allows you to jump into the life of small time underworld criminals, raising them through the ranks to become kingpins of their cities, destroying anything or anyone that stands in their path.  This gameplay has attracted fans to the series for years and with this game, goes above and beyond the expectation of both old fans and new customers alike. Grand Theft Auto 5 bring alive the city of Los Santos since we had last seen it in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The game is available on all major gaming consoles and PC.

Game Review: FTL: Faster Than Light Advance Edition

Source: http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/ftl/images/3/33/FTL_Title.png/revision/latest?cb=20120618050911
FTL: Faster Than Light is one of my all time favorite games. I discovered this game when I was browsing and searching for games (like I always do). Then when I looked through Humble Bundle store, the pixelated intergalactic spaceship battle got me hooked! FTL is an indie game made by Subset Games and was originally funded by Kickstarter back in 2012. The campaign was so good, that on the first day of launching it got 200% of the pledge funded! And the Kickstarter closed at over 2000% of the initial goal!! Now FTL is one of the most successful indie game all time. Furthermore, there is an iPad version for FTL that has the same features and gameplay like PC version.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Movie Review: Fast and Furious 7 (Beware of spoilers)


Fast and Furious 7 Official Trailer



Source: http://blogs-images.forbes.com/scottmendelson/files/2015/03/Fast-and-Furious-7-Pic-1940x891.jpg

(SPOILER ALERT: I'll try not to ruin much of the storyline but like all reviews, they do come with minor spoilers)


One of 2015's most anticipated action movies, Fast and Furious 7 is the seventh instalment of the Fast and Furious franchise (obviously). The series continues with the original cast such as Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Tyrese Gibson and with the new addition of Jason Statham. The film was released with international success, making $392 million in its first three days after release, and to date has grossed over $800 million, making it the most successful film of its franchise and of 2015 so far. Although the film generated positive reviews from the public, I wouldn't attribute its success solely based on its storyline and film techniques. As we all know, Paul Walker sadly passed away in November 2013, in the midst of filming Furious 7 and because of this, the release was delayed almost six months. During this period, a lot of hype was generated, and in my opinion, positively affected its release, but i'm not trying to take away from the fact that the film is good.

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Game Review: Minecraft



Minecraft Review by Travis Wormald

Minecraft is an open world, creative sandbox style game created by Swedish game developer, Markus Persson and published under Mojang Studios, which was recently purchased by Microsoft. Minecraft is available multiplatform on PC, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, iOS and Android. Minecraft’s lego style gameplay, which uses 3D Square blocks to create the world, draws the player in to a world where their creations are only limited by their imaginations. Players can, as per the title of the game, mine and craft to create better tools and gain the ability to upgrade both their equipment and their creations. There is no end goal for Minecraft, and the player is free to choose however they want to play, whether it be to build a giant skyscraper or dig tunnels under a mountain, the choice is completely up to the player. There are however, different game modes which allow the player to have an alternate playing experience.

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Game Review: To The Moon

To the moon Review written by Henry 18/4/2015.

One of the most compelling poignant storylines that I have ever experienced, To the Moon in a nutshell is a 2d indie adventure role-playing game developed by Freebird Games. The graphics appears to be almost identical to he 90s Gameboy Advance games such as Pokemon however, as much as it looks, the game has almost minimalistic fighting action and is mainly focused on interacting with other characters and objects to progress throughout the story.


There is an important moralistic issue we see, is virtual happiness better than reality? Is it by our own power that makes someone else happy even though it means making sacrifices? To The Moon follows 2 protagonists: Dr Watts and Dr Rosalene who are employed at a "wish-fulfillment" company that allows them to alter memories of people. They use this technology to help old and near-deathly individuals fulfill their own wishes in their memory so that they die a happy death.
Their services are ordered by a person named "Johnny" whose wishes is to go to the moon and it is up to Dr Watts and Dr Rosalene to make that wish come true, however a long the way they soon learn the sad backstories that unfold within Johnny's life.


This is one of those rare games where I saw a vast amount of depth and complexity in the main characters. Both Dr Watts and Dr Rosalene are as ever goofy and humorous but when things take a sad turn can play out the situation in a much more serious matter. Their "bumbly" duo-action is what makes the experience extremely enjoyable. In some moments, Dr Watts will often diffuse the situation by making witty remarks but is always shot down by his partner Dr Rosalene. But it isn't just them that makes the game so great, it is also the supporting Characters, the relationship between Johnny and his wife Rivers show a lot of different dimensions in the way that they interact and converse. River suffers from Autism and has trouble expressing herself in front of her husband and Johnny finds difficulty in understanding what she is trying to say, however their small detail in action clearly shows their strong love/bond towards each other despite these setbacks. Almost all characters in the context of setting seem perfectly realistic making understanding the situation a lot fluid and a lot more empathetic towards the characters.

The story follows a very complex nature however it is quite simple to understand. It follows the time traveling story system, instead starting from when Johnny's old all the way to his childhood, like reverse chronological. The characters then change a certain event within Johnny's life that then alters the future, all throughout the game the protagonists are constantly trying to figure out which important event in his life can they change will help him fulfill his wish. But as we look closer to individuals, Johnny's story is just one of thousands stories that will help shed tears to your eyes as you explore his memories. The one major like about this game is that it will have you thinking about different theories to why certain characters act a certain way or why a suppose event occurs. Thankfully there is an absence of plot holes and the story flows naturally well.

And what better way to bring out the emotions with some of the best original soundtrack. I can definitely say that the music in this game is nostalgically unique. The style of each piece of background music follows the 16bit music system but at the same time sounds modern as if more high quality modernized instruments were playing the tune. In fact the iconic music that many players love is "Everything's Alright" by Laura Shigihara played in one of the tearjerking moments in the game.



Unless your a fan who loves stylized fighting action and expects a million lasers flying across their screens, this is probably not the game for you. In my opinion, this type of game is considered perfect. I've never seen excellent storytelling, characters with a lot of depth and a nice complimenting soundtrack to make the emotions roll out of your eyes like never before. This game can be considered to be similar to the Visual Novel genre. So if you want a story that is about a desperate tale of love and promises and what it takes to truly fulfill someone's happiness then definitely try it out because its a huge 10/10.

If you wanna buy the game, click here!

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Game Review: Final Fantasy 14


Source: http://i1.cdnds.net/13/27/618x357/final-fantasy-xiv.jpg

Alright i’ll first state that FFXIV (Final Fantasy 14) was my first MMO game so i will try to be as unbiased as possible throughout this review.

FFXIV is an MMORPG set in the world of Eorzea and the second MMO in Square Enixs Final Fantasy series. The game first became available in September 30th 2010 but was heavily criticized for the quality of the game and as a result "FFXIV: A Realm Reborn” was announced, which was essentially the game revamped with a better engine, server structure, game play, story and interface. Since then the game has been considered a great success.

Game Review: Catacomb Kids

First of all, Catacomb Kids is an awesome game! 

Long story short, one day I was pretty bored, then I started browsing through Steam not expecting to get new game or anything. But this one game caught my eye, it was  Catacomb Kids. Without any further research I got the game and lay it to see what's up. Currently the game is in its Early Access state, which means it is still in development stage or alpha stage. However, you still can buy and play it, but there will be frequent updates and changes to the game until its full release version. FourBitFriday is the creator and developer of this amazing game, you can follow him on Twitter, and also Twitch to watch the live stream of the development.

Source: http://i.ytimg.com/vi/VPeKSgt13ak/maxresdefault.jpg

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Welcome to our Blog! First Post

Hello World and welcome to our blog and our very first post!.

We are a group of 5 members whom over the next couple of weeks will be adding weekly reviews of our favourite games and movies. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for these frequent blog updates. When we post reviews, please feel free to comment on anything and even start a (healthy) discussion among the movies or games that we all enjoy!

Here is a less than 10 word summary of the individuals within our team!


The Squad:


Henry -
Loves Chow Mein but misses his dog











Michael -
Thinks he can draw himself on mspaint















Justin -
The Pro90 Master Baiter













Travis -
The Lone White in our squad.





















Anthony -
Uses Internet Explorer

















We're just kidding :D, we are all devoted and hard-working university students and want to share our hobbies with the rest of the world. So remember to come back every now and then to read our reviews :D

Have a good day.