Until Dawn: Rush of Blood

An on-rails shooter, blended with a survival horror element and the psychology of Until Dawn, it’s a Playstation VR game that actually works!

The PlayStation VR has, for me, been a bit unloved.  It’s not Kinect levels of disappointment, it’s just… there.

I downloaded Until Dawn: Rush of Blood because it was part of the PlayStation Plus offer for November and I’m glad I did.

Sure, the ending is a touch flat, but it does provide an immersive experience, plenty of jump scares and an interesting, if not necessarily fulfilling, storyline.  On rails does limit the expanse of the game, and it’s certainly not Until Dawn, but it’s still a worthwhile experience for PlayStation VR owners.

South Park: Fractured But Whole

Ostensibly a satire on the superhero franchise frenzy that has consumed box office (and television) for the past few years, South Park: Fractured But Whole sees the characters of South Park split into two teams (Coon and Friends and Freedom Pals), fighting each other, everyone else and the big bad who is orchestrating the fall of South Park.

This game is a role playing game where you can build your character, referred to as New Kid, into a multi-faceted, layered hero in his own right.  There’s grinding elements of it, some of the boss battles are a bit of a challenge, but it’s incredibly easy to get into, more so than most RPGs that I’ve tried before.

The humour is silly and immature, perfect for South Park, and the character models and environment are instantly recognisable.  The plot does wear a little in places, but it doesn’t ever truly get boring.

There’s a variety of points where you feel the game should end, but it keeps going as the mystery deepens.

I’m still playing this one, 20 hours in, which is an achievement for me and RPGs.

Well, it’s been a while

It’s been four months since I updated this, which is a bit of a poor showing from me.

I’ve been up to plenty of entertainment based stuff, it’s just that I’d forgotten to write about it!

Anyway, I’ll be writing more over the coming months, hopefully (unless I forget).

Welcome back, me.

Tracers

Cam runs into trouble, thanks to mounting debts and a run in with a free runner that costs him his bike, limiting his bicycle courier opportunities.  Thankfully, said free-runner happens to be all over Cam and draws him into a dangerous world.

Remember Taylor Lautner, that lad from Twilight, well this was an entry in his ongoing, although infrequent, action career and this film is a vehicle for him to demonstrate his athletic ways, if not his acting prowess. The stunt work certainly gives a sense of danger as Taylor Lautner’s Cam navigates the rocky road of friendship Nikki (Marie Avgeropoulos) and a rivalry with Dylan (Rafi Gavron).

“Look where the car isn’t”

The performances lack weight, it’s like watching an after school drama at times and the action sequences, which features plenty of parkouring all over the shop, aren’t enough to hold the film together.  Of course, as interesting as parkour is, it wouldn’t be very interesting if it was just Cam and company leaping over things for 90 minutes, so we get a thrilling plot, involving taking down a bad guy.

“We do everything we can not to get caught.”

It’s not helped that the script doesn’t have weight.  The dialogue is heavy on exposition at times and the deepest of characters, Miller (Adam Rayner) comes across as a douche zen master, lumbered with clunky nuggets of wisdom, before turning into a criminal mastermind written with two-dimensional depth, which is still significantly more character than Cam and Nikki.

Although it’s difficult to judge time, it doesn’t seem that much time passes between Cam’s run in with the loan sharks, the rapid descent into danger and the gig that will sort it all.  He does, in this time, lose everything, get kicked out of his lodgings and have to go to his new found friends for a new job, as a member of Miller’s criminal group, which all goes well until it doesn’t and Cam has to dig himself out of yet another hole.

For action set pieces, Tracers is a decent film.  That’s pretty much it.

Getting into Kodi

So, I decided it was time to set up an oldish laptop that I had as a video playback solution connected to my TV.  I could stream from my gaming PC, but I’m planning on sending that onto a better home (and the laptop, I feel, is more power efficient and takes up much less space).

First plan, install Kodi.

Second plan, consolidate all the drives containing random videos that I want to watch.

Third plan, configure Kodi to play and record TV from an old Freeview TV stick that I have kicking around.

Of the three plans… plan 1 has happened.

Plan 2 is a bit time consuming.

Plan 3… I hit a hurdle.  I actually don’t know what I’m doing.

I shall come back to this later, once I figure out what I’m doing.

 

13 Reasons Why

Clay Jenkins is unwittingly drawn into the events surrounding the death of Hannah Baker, a friend who could have been more, with emotional, devastating consequences.

Narrated by Hannah Baker, performed beautifully by Katherine Langford, over thirteen episodes (each representing the side of an old-school audio cassette), we follow Clay Jenkins (played by a perfectly cast Dylan Minnette) as the story unfolds and the secrets of those around him intertwine with the stories that lead up to Hannah’s suicide.

Whilst it could be argued that Hannah is an unreliable narrator, the way the story on the tapes ring true for those involved, and their steps at damage limitation, are a crushing weight for Clay and others, especially as the truths get darker.

A large cast does lead to some characters falling to the way side – Jeff and Montgomery – whilst the core characters are so well crafted that it’s impossible not to be drawn into events.  It’s not just the teenagers that feel isolated as the parents of Clay and Hannah have to deal with ones erratic behaviour and the loss of the other, respectively.

A show that has drawn controversy, with some even arguing it is ‘dangerous’, 13 Reasons Why is an exceptional series with an incredibly timely story.  The feelings of isolation and the behaviour of their peers can cast a shadow on the lives of anyone, even if they seem fine on the outside.

A bold series that tackles suicide and its aftermath, rape, drugs, violence and peer pressure, if 13 Reasons Why can do one thing, it should be to start a conversation about the risks and threats, not silence the discussion.

 

Riverdale (The Return to Netflix)

I was never a fan of Archie comics – it was a bit too apple Pie America for me.  On top of that, there were no superpowers involved.

Having signed back up to Netflix at the recommendation of couple of friends, I was drawn to Riverdale and thoroughly engaged by it.

Imagine a cross between The OC and Twin Peaks, and you’ve got Riverdale.

A series in which Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica are caught up in a maelstrom of murder, duplicity and the underlying darkness of small town America.  An investigation into the death of Jason Blossom unveils the cracks in the otherwise perfect Riverdale and consumes everyone involved.

With a cast that includes KJ Apa as the red-haired Archie, Cole Sprouse as Jughead, Lili Reinhart as Betty and Camila Mendes as Veronica, the roles are large, the characterisation deep and the performances compelling.  Add to this Luke Perry, Madchen Amick and Skeet Ulrich to the mix, and the cast is as talented as it is broad.

As the story develops, we get a feel for the darkness that envelopes Riverdale, whilst the love of the this group of high school students evolves, not just between the principles, but amongst the supporting cast of characters, too.

With so much potential, it’s hardly a surprise that we’ll be getting a second season.  But, where next…

The Boy Next Door (or, the Boy Next Snore)

Jennifer Lopez plays recently betrayed teacher, Claire, who has a one night stand with her 19 year old neighbour that quickly turns to obsession.

In a film in which this guy is supposed to be 19 and this girl can’t get a break, the story doesn’t go well from the start with stilted, terrible dialogue as Noah moves in next door to Claire and becomes instantly enamoured with her, probably because she’s a teacher and he’s a 19 year old student – we go into that at great length, with it being mentioned every scene.

It takes badly cooked chicken for Noah to make his move and Claire goes from “no stop” to “oh my god” in a matter of seconds and never really recovers from its jaw droppingly bad execution.

 

It turns out that Noah isn’t all there – he turns obsessive and begins to stalk Claire in this “tense psychological thriller” that is less tense and more dense as it takes mystifying leaps of logic over gaps of reason that viewers could fall down.

Suffice to say, Claire isn’t happy with this turn of events, regretting everything and finding herself in a deadly game of cat and mouse and it gets worse when Noah joins Claire’s English class, bringing his creepy charm with him.  As Noah gets more and more obsessed (flashbacks help with this, of course), he ingratiates himself further with family whilst dealing with his anger issues… and, boy, is he angry what with angry hitting things, angrily being angry and being friendly with Claire’s son, Kevin, who lacks friends.

Somewhere, deep down in the idea of this film, there’s probably a good idea – a story about consent, abuse of trust and the boundaries of authority – but, whereas Notes on a Scandal was a superb example of this in the psychological thriller genre, The Boy Next Door tries to go the Fatal Attraction route, without ever committing to it.

Despite having Jennifer Lopez, Kristen Chenoweth and John Corbett doing their best to deliver the mind-numbing dialogue their given, it’s a dull film, poor realised.

 

For the Record (or How a £5 Record Player Made Me Love Music Again)

There was a time when I didn’t really listen to much music – it happened a while ago when I gave away all my CDs and pretty much only occasionally stuck on Spotify or YouTube to listen to whatever I fancied playing.  If I wanted entertaining, I’d stick on a video game or a film.

That was until I bought a cheap, second hand record player… and I haven’t looked back since.

I now own a suitably eclectic collection of vinyl – all 12″ originals, mostly purchased from local charity shops or eBay (when the mood takes me).  I’m a bit of a nervous purchaser when it comes to charity shops – you get what you pay for, but mostly I’ve been onto winners (especially when I changed to my second, more forgiving bargain record player).

Since then, I’ve gone back to CDs, too.  In a time of digital downloads, I’m still old fashioned and like owned a physical something – DVDs, BluRays, vinyl and CDs.  I’m still more likely to purchase a physical copy of a video game, although that’s mainly a cost thing.

It’s not unusual for me to pick up a few new discs a week, stuff that catches my eye or that I want to re-experience – film soundtracks are a particular thing that I enjoy and random compilations of stuff I remember from enjoying.  When you’re paying a quid for the Best of Bowie on CD, or discovering stuff you wouldn’t normally listen to because it’s cheap – I have far too many Carpenters LPs – it’s hard not to happy.

I’m now on my third record player, not because the first two failed (although the second, a Bush MTT1, had recently taken to being temperametal at spinning the turntable, but because of research.  Thanks to a positive review in What HiFi, I purchased the Audio Technica LP60 USB (the USB aspect is something I won’t be using).

It baffled me, going into my local HMV and seeing the “audiophile” release of classic stuff that I’ve already acquired for less than a couple of quid – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Thriller and Queen’s Greatest Hits, collectively, cost me under a five, yet I’d probably be spending ten times that to buy them new, on vinyl!

I listen to stuff, randomly, throughout the week.  It’s replaced the moving wallpaper that is my television and I’m happier for it.  There’s a joy to listening to stuff I haven’t heard in years and loved, be it the works of David Bowie, the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire. An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer, The Muppet Show or a rather wonderful collection by Andy Williams that includes a heartrending rendition of Solitaire (which I also own by The Carpenters).

Very much like my approach to film, I enjoy so much that it’s hard to pin down what I like, but a £5 record player reignited my love of music and long may it continue.