What actually can we drink?

"Call for soft drink sugar tax in Budget" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21228122) reveals this article, saying that medical bodies are saying there should be a 20p levy on soft drinks applied in the budget which will be used to fund education and fruit for children.

Now I'm all for children to be kept away from sugary drinks that are bad for their teeth but what about every one else? Alcohol is getting more expensive with minimum prizing, bottled water is ridiculously over-priced and now soft drinks could become more costly, though unlikely as this is just an idea.

Adults should be free to make their own decisions about what they drink and parents should keep an eye on what their children are drinking, job done.

What do you think of this proposition?

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Is HS2 A Good Idea?

The new HS2 has been all over the news today, boasting how a new high speed line from London to Manchester, Leeds and other places, will shorten commuting times and bring the north and south much closer.

But is it a good idea? Though the idea of a faster train journey sounds great could the £32bn be spent boosting the ordinary train lines?

After all, the line won't be complete for another twenty years and anything could happen between now and then: the teleporter could have been invented; fossil fuels could have run out and we all have to work from home; the internet might make conventional community unnecessary.

Plus, how risky is the line? Train accidents can be bad enough at 100mph but what about one at 250mph?

Throw in destruction of some areas of the countryside, questionable benefits in a time of recession and whether people need shorter journeys - in the days of smartphones, laptops and tablets commuting time isn't wasted time - and it's an unusual decision.

It's hard to ignore that something needs doing with the railway but anything could change in twenty years time and £32bn could go a long way in improving the current infrastructure and maybe stop our ticket prices having to go up every January.

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It's a Me - Addicted!

I saw an interesting article on IGN today - "I'm Addicted to Buying Super Mario Bros." (http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/01/28/im-addicted-to-buying-super-mario-bros)

What an absolute saddo with too much money to do that and buy the game as many times as he did.

But... wait... what's that... ah... the Game Boy Colour version aside, I've done exactly the same thing and I realise I've just described myself.

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What was your first record?

Over on the BBC website they have a story about what people's first records were (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21140268).

For me it is two releases at their polar opposites. On one hand my first non-compilation album was Aqua's 'Aquarium', a 1997 package of cheesy pop delights suitable for an eleven year old with a love of pop music.

For my first single, perhaps connected to its Hanna-Barbera cartoon name, was 'Scooby Snacks' by The Fun Lovin' Criminals,  which isn't particularly cheesy. It's a great tune but I don't think my parents were much impressed by its opening Pulp Fiction sampling line of 'don't any of you kids move, or I'll execute every last m*****f*****g one of you'. Quite.

So what was your first single and album?

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Stringfellow for PM? That's just plain thong.

According to Sky News nightclub owner Peter Stringfellow could be challenging MP and coalition leader Nick Clegg come the next election over his Sheffield seat (http://news.sky.com/story/1043156/peter-stringfellow-threatens-nick-clegg-contest).

The challenge comes after Clegg had previously singled Stringfellow, owner of clubs where women remove their clothes for cash, as someone not needing the winter fuel allowance - available to all pensioners - due to his large bank balance.

Now I'm not one to jump immediately on the side of Clegg - this is someone who had gone back on many promises in his fudging of a coalition relationship - but in this case he's right. Stringfellow can afford to heat his home and his range of clubs (heck, if his staff are removing their clothes, they need a little bit of heat) without the winter fuel allowance so he shouldn't receive it. Means testing is always a problematic area with fears of rising admin costs and removing it from pensioners that do need it, but it has an unfair system.

Not that I can Stringfellow as an MP. Having a blonde-haired older man in politics would just be too silly to imagine.

Oh wait. There is a precedence.

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IE brings back memories of the 1990s

No matter what you think of Internet Explorer as a browser, and it certainly has its detractors and even me, as a long-time user of the browser, have all but given up with it for Firefox at work and Google Chrome at home - mainly because Blogger works better with it, this video will have you remembering back if you are around my age of 26.



Though things have moved on considerably there's still a part of me that looks back fondly on those days. Yes, digital cameras used floppy disks as memory and technology was limited, but there was something about the internet not being all prevalent in our lives that was kind of fun. I'm not sure whether I'm harking back to my childhood or more to simpler times, both are sort of wound together inexplicably now.

Biggest things in the video? Tamagotchi, pogs and Dairylea Lunchables. Ah, the memories.

Plus some nicely worded attacks on trolls and Instragram. Not sure what the social network it mentions is - that must have passed me by.

I'm not sure it would bring me back to IE, it's a nightmare with Microsoft's own Vista and on Windows 7 still feels clunky, but it's a great advert and almost brings a tear to one's eye. Not quite though!

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Upcoming Singles (Updated: 26th January 2013)

So what singles are due out over the coming months?

This Week

BeBe Black - Deathwish

Bingo Players feat. Far East Movement - Get Up (Rattle)

Bondax – Gold

Devlin feat. Diane Birch – Rewind

Palma Violets - Step Up For The Cool Cats

Frightened Rabbit – Woodpile

Scrufizzer - Rap Rave

We Are The Ocean – Young Heart

3^rd February

Bellowhead - Roll The Woodpile Down

Booty Luv - Black Widow

Bullet For My Valentine – Riot

Flo Rida – Let It Roll

Hannah Boleyn - When You're Gone

Unconfirmed

Emeli Sande – Clown

Eric Prydz - Every Day

Lawson – Learn To Love Again

Little Mix – Change Your Life

Tyler James feat. Kano- Worry About You

10^th February

Gabrielle Aplin - Please Don't Say You Love Me

Rita Ora – Radioactive

Toploader - Turn It Around

Unconfirmed

Charli XCX - You (Ha Ha Ha)

Disclosure - TBC

Tegan & Sara - Closer

17^th February

Joe Cocker – Fire It Up

Sinead O'Connor - 4th And Vine

Unconfirmed

Alicia Keys - Brand New Me

Platnum - Love You Tomorrow

Theme Park - Tonight

24^th February

Bastille - Pompeii

Unconfirmed

Dido - No Freedom

Example - Perfect Replacement

Josh Groban – Brave

Laura Mvula - Green Garden

Miles Kane - Give Up

Olly Murs - Army of Two

Sub Focus – Endorphins

3^rd March

Unconfirmed

Dot Rotten - Free

Jake Bugg - Simple As This

Justin Bieber feat. Ludacris - All Around The World

K Koke feat. Rita Ora - Lay Down Your Weapons

Miguel - How Many Drinks

The Vaccines - Bad Mood

10^th March

Unconfirmed

Frank Ocean - Super Rich Kids

Hurts - Miracle

Taylor Swift - 22

17th March

Unconfirmed

Tom O'Dell - Hold Me

Wild Belle - Keep You

24^th March

Marina and the Diamonds – How To Be A Heartbreaker EP

Upcoming Singles With Unknown Release Dates

Andy Grammer - Keep Your Head Up

Avicii vs. Nicky Romero - I Could Be The One

Calvin Harris feat. Tinie Tempah – Drinking From The Bottle

Dizzee Rascal – Baseline Junkee

Don Broco – Fancy Dress

Emilia Mitiku - You're Not Right For Me

Foals – My Number

Jacobean Ruff – Family

Kristina Train - Lose You Tonight

Lloyd – Do It Again

Love And Theft - Runnin' Out Of Air

Maroon 5 – Daylight

One Direction – Kiss You

The Overtones – Love Song

Propellers – Midnight Kiss

Red Hot Chilli Peppers - In Love Dying

Ron Sexsmith - Snake Road

Skylar Grey feat. Eminem - C'mon Let Me Ride

Suede - Barriers

Talay Riley – Shut Up And Kiss Me

The Mavericks - Back In Your Arms Again

Trey Songz – Never Again

Tyga feat Chris Brown – For The Fame

Zedd - Clarity

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Pudsey the Movie

It has been revealed today that 'Pudsey: The Movie' is in production (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21159351).

No, it's not the blindfolded bear famous for his charity work but the Britain's Got Talent dog, which proved that the most talented person on these fair isles last year had four legs and barked. And I'm not talking about the singing talents of two-fifths of One Direction.

I can't say I'm particularly looking forward to the film unless it's a reveal all biopic, a musical or features Jim Carrey as the dog.

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Kebabs and Gas

It's a weird world. Nuff said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21147361

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21143859

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Is Television Being 1984-ed?

Today the BBC suffered another unfortunate turn of events in the ongoing, and continually tedious, Savile-gate. It accidentally showed an episode of the Tweenies from 2001 in which one of the characters parodies a Top of the Pops presenter and they unfortunately chose Savile as the inspiration (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21108337).

Now I'm not saying they should have shown it - it does seem tasteless that they show a parody of an alleged sex abuser on a children's television programme - but it's something they may genuinely not have seen before broadcast. After all it was created over ten years ago when, in the public domain, Savile was an upstanding member of the community and a great provider to charity. I doubt that when they scheduled the show it would have had notes next to it saying it contains a pastiche of the show and even so if anyone would have made the leap of logic to check it, that there might be a small un-named pastiche to him.

But it brings me to another point: how far can we go to replicate 1984 and erase all memories of Savile from history? They're certainly trying with signs being removed from key buildings but it's impossible to do everything and, even if it wasn't, should we?

Jim Davidson was a great presenter of shows such as the Generation Game or Big Break. If he is convicted of something then should those shows be erased from history? The musical works of Gary Glitter are very good but they've been overshadowed.

There seems to be a determination to re-write history to fit in with new developments. But whereas removing Lance Armstrong's Tour De France awards is fair as he cheated to get them, the memory of them still happening are there. You can't just completely change the past.

Summing up, the BBC shouldn't have shown the episode but equally it wouldn't have come up on alerts and it's hypocritical of the mainstream press, who constantly flaunt half-naked pictures of barely-legal girls on their pages and website, to criticise them.

But the BBC do need to be careful.

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Something Kinda Eurovision for Girls Aloud?

"Girls Aloud deny rumours of Eurovision Song Contest entry" shouts http://www.gigwise.com/news/78963/girls-aloud-deny-rumours-of-eurovision-song-contest-entry after rumours start spreading of their appearance in the Europe-wide singing competition.

I have to say such a move would be surprising being that most bands lose a little credibility in taking part (Blue seemed to have escaped this but they were going for another stab at a career) plus it's unlikely we'd win even if Take That submitted an entry, but it would be an intriguing move for the ten year old group who have stagnated recently with their hits, plus their writing team could make a stab at a more exciting number than we usually submit to the continental karaoke challenge.

Possible songs I think they could sing?
Something Kinda EU
I'll Stand by EU
Sound of the Eurovision
Could Speak French (It's an acceptable language to perform a Eurovision song in)
Eurovision? No! No! No!

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Ben Warden - Life Without (Review)

I was not meant to read this book when I did, it was next in my queue after JK Rowling's Post-Harry Potter book for adults 'The Casual Vacancy'. However, I got disheartened by struggling my way through the heavy prose of this book (a review will come eventually) but felt I needed to switch, so picked up 'Life Without' by Ben Warden.

Now Ben is an old friend of mine way back from my school days. It's difficult reading a book from someone you know as you either end up having to lie and say it's great or if you do say it's great it's only because you're friends.

However, though I fall into the latter camp, it's because 'Life Without' is a very enjoyable read from the first-time author.

'Life Without' tells the story of banker Steven Goodman who has the perfect life all except for his wife Sophie with whom he has just divorced from. Wanting to shake his life up he goes into a multi-million pound venture with famous artist Julian Stroke, giving up his job and putting his flat on the line to make his dreams of becoming a politician come true. Will he be able to pull it off or will he have to fall back on his friend Pete to pull him out of a nightmare situation?

'Life WIthout' is an easy, enjoyable read. The chapters are short and flow well, and there is a definite must-read-one-more chapter feel to the novel. There are plenty of twists and turns and the last third in particular sees a lot of developments and changes in the lives of all the characters with it never being obvious whether everything will turn out happily every after come to the final page or whether everything will come crashing round their ears.

Mixing in some humour throughout the book and some neat comedy scenes, as well as some well orchestrated set-ups of tragedy, there is much to keep you reading and it never feels forced.

A thoroughly enjoyable read with some nicely fleshed-out characters and a well tied-up conclusion with some likeable characters, all with their own flaws, and enjoyable set-pieces. The drama may be a little soap-opera at times, not this is a bad thing, and some of the elements of the world they live in fantastical, but the world is well drawn and though it does share some parallels with the book I have temporarily abandoned in its favour - character drama with intrigue and a little bit of adult material - it's a far more enjoyable and satisfying read than Rowling's book.

You can pick up a copy of 'Life Without' at http://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Without-Ben-Warden/dp/1908853190/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1358695156&sr=1-1, also available on your Kindle.

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Little Inferno (Review)

This weekend I have stumbled on a digital e-store game for the Wii U that is an absolute real gem and a surprising addition to the internet-based side of Nintendo’s new console.

Now, it’s a game that could be a little off-putting from its concept. It’s a game set just in a stone fireplace where you buy objects and burn them. From that description it sounds very much like that Wii download which turned your television into a fish tank: pointless and a waste of money, even more so when this costs £8.99. But that is not the case.

‘Little Inferno’ mixes up the gameplay of ‘The Incredible Machine’ with the humour of ‘Worms’ or television show ‘Look Around You’. You start the game with just the fireplace and three possible items to buy, which arrive by carrier and take a certain length of time to be delivered. You can then drop them into the fireplace and watch them burn and see how they interact, with the game being an exercise in excellent use of physics and funny sound effects. Burning them in interesting ways earns you coins – as does killing the spiders that occasionally venture into the fireplace – that allow you to buy more items.

Half of the fun is watching the funny animations of things burning in a rather sinister way. In many ways it’s like a cartoony ZombiU – a game you couldn’t imagine appearing on a Nintendo console, famous for their family image. Here, instead of blood thirsty murderous zombies, you find yourself burning a toy bus full of kids with some horrifying, but sadistically humorous noises, or a joke shop snake container that fires hypodermic syringes out when you burn it, taken from the rejected toys catalogue. Then there's the fat lady, whose animation, sounds and death are as well observed and employed as something like the Monty Python-inspired 'Holy Hand Grenade' from Worms.

It does sometimes fall down with some items not interacting as you’d expect or not making noise as you drop them sometimes, but with some really realistic physics effects that see the fire sucked or blown, or items exploding in true-to-life ways, or gravity being affected by others, it really is well done.

The game is also peppered with some great fifties-style references, from the music to the occasional video, one a spot-on infomercial that mixes up ‘South Park’ animation with a ‘Little Britain’ surrealness. Plus, there is a steady plot that evolves involving a weird, stalkery girl sending you letters and gifts (which can also be burned) and suggestions from her and the weatherman that not all is right on the world, with a strange, creepy plot unfolding, with the ‘Tomorrow Corporation’ that bring you the fireplace having a very haunting feeling to them.

You progress through the game by collecting coins, burning items in combos to unlock bonuses that allow you to get items delivered more quickly, and expanding your mailbox to hold more items, buying more catalogues and getting more items as you reach the conclusion to the physics-based puzzler.

‘Little Inferno’ is a weird game as on the surface it sounds pointless and shallow, but spend just five minutes with it and its well evoked atmosphere, eye for detail and surreal and witty humour, plus some quite disturbing tasks, and you’ll be won over. With lots of items and a fair bit of playability, this will keep you going for a while. Plus, it can be played just on the GamePad with both screens mirroring each other.

I was surprised when Nintendo let ZombiU on the system. I’m even more surprised that this creepy little download which sees you burning toys, items and creatures with glee appears on the WiiU. But I’m glad it has; a truly enjoyable micro-game with a great sense of humour.

It’s the sort of thing you’d expect on a Nintendo console, though, from the consoles that brought WarioWare to the world, though it is also available for Windows.

8/10

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Upcoming Single Releases (updated: 19th January 2013)

What singles are coming out over the next couple of months, with confirmed releases and unconfirmed ones.

This Week

Al Lewis - Make A Little Room

Amelia Lily – Shut Up (And Give Me Whatever You’ve Got)

Conor Maynard feat. Wiley – Animal

Izzy Marie Hill - Chuck Norris

Jessie Ware - Sweet Talk

Justin Timberlake – Suit and Tie

Mallory Knox - Lighthouse

27^th January

Frightened Rabbit – Woodpile

Scrufizzer - Rap Rave

Unconfirmed

Calvin Harris feat. Tinie Tempah – Drinking From The Bottle

Devlin feat. Diane Birch – Rewind

Red Hot Chilli Peppers - In Love Dying

Tom Odell - Hold Me

3^rd February

Bellowhead - Roll The Woodpile Down

Booty Luv - Black Widow

Bullet For My Valentine – Riot

Flo Rida – Let It Roll

Hannah Boleyn - When You're Gone

Unconfirmed

Emeli Sande – Clown

Eric Prydz - Every Day

Lawson – Learn To Love Again

Little Mix – Change Your Life

Tyler James feat. Kano- Worry About You

10^th February

Gabrielle Aplin - Please Don't Say You Love Me

Unconfirmed

Charli XCX - You (Ha Ha Ha)

Disclosure - TBC

Rita Ora – Radioactive

Tegan & Sara - Closer

17^th February

Sinead O'Connor - 4th And Vine

Unconfirmed

Platnum - Love You Tomorrow

Theme Park - Tonight

24^th February

Bastille - Pompeii

Unconfirmed

Example - Perfect Replacement

Josh Groban – Brave

Laura Mvula - Green Garden

Miles Kane - Give Up

Sub Focus – Endorphins

3^rd March

Unconfirmed

Dot Rotten - Free

Jake Bugg - Simple As This

Justin Bieber feat. Ludacris - All Around The World

The Vaccines - Bad Mood

10^th March

Unconfirmed

Frank Ocean - Super Rich Kids

Taylor Swift - 22

18th March

Unconifirmed

Tom O'Dell - Hold Me

Wild Belle- Keep You

24^th March

Marina and the Diamonds – How To Be A Heartbreaker EP

Upcoming Singles With Unknown Release Dates

Alicia Keys – Brand New Me

Avicii vs. Nicky Romero - I Could Be The One

Bondax - Gold

Dizzee Rascal – Baseline Junkee

Don Broco – Fancy Dress

Emilia Mitiku - You're Not Right For Me

Foals – My Number

Jacobean Ruff – Family

Kristina Train - Lose You Tonight

Lloyd – Do It Again

Love And Theft - Runnin' Out Of Air

Maroon 5 – Daylight

One Direction – Kiss You

Talay Riley – Shut Up And Kiss Me

The Mavericks - Back In Your Arms Again

Toploader - Turn It Around

Trey Songz – Never Again

Tyga feat Chris Brown – For The Fame

We Are The Ocean – Young Heart

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Why Connect Power Stations To The Internet?

A news story today reminded me of one question I've always had. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21042378 details how malware on a USB stick in a power plant caused problems in the electronics with possibly leaking of data.

Now USB sticks are one thing but why on earth would a building like that need to be connected to the internet? Connected to that why connect crucial buildings like the Pentagon to the World Wide Web? Is the need for the FBI to go on Facebook so important that teenage hackers with too much time on their hands can get into their systems the other way looking for aliens?

Now I appreciate these sites need to be in contact with other buildings in geographically different locations but why not run two separate networks, one inward facing and one outward facing and never the twain shall meet. If it's physically impossible to hack into the networks because there's no connection with the outside world then surely secrets stay safe, power stations remain operational and hackers have to find something else to do.

Isn't physically having to go to these buildings to conduct your work a relatively minor inconvenience to national secrets leaking out?

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I Don't Like The N-Word

Now this isn't the sort of topic I'd usually talk about but my recent viewing of Quentin Tarantino's 1993 directorial debut 'Reservoir Dogs' at a two-off Cineworld showing got me thinking.

In the 18-rated film I didn't mind all the swearing, all the blood or the infamous "Stealer's Wheel" ear scene. In fact, I thought it was all quite tame comparatively and you see worse things on the ten o'clock news.

No, the main bit I didn't like was the over-use of the n-word.

I have to confess I don't like the use of the word anyway, be it said be a white person or a black person or other, in real-life or in rap records. It's an insult word that, in my opinion, no matter how much it is supposedly reclaimed, is offensive and derogatory to that culture of people. Just like I'm not keen on the word 'queer' being used in its homosexual sense and the P-word, which like the aforementioned one, I've heard used by people who come from Pakistan, which sits uncomfortably with me.

That aside, the thing that most made me uncomfortable was the word being spoken by white actors from a script written by a white male. In context and realism I could understand it being used. It's a bit like that old TV advert where the criminal spoke in a way that wouldn't fit in with the drama.

(I've looked and can't find it on YouTube but it was funny).

It's just that it seemed odd that the word, and the conversations, were included and they seemed to jar with the film as if they were put in for shock sake. They didn't really add to the story and felt superfluous.

Or is it just me? Should I be more bothered about how the policeman will wear his glasses with only one ear or how much blood will need to be cleaned up in the warehouse?

But it's not controversy that's gone away as this article shows - http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1700322/django-unchained-n-word-nas.jhtml

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College to give X Factor lessons

"College To Give X-Factor Lessons" reveals http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21024663.

 I'm glad to say I've had exclusive access to the modules.

How to murder a relative for sympathy (Level 2)
Key-changes (Level 1)
Jedward Studies (Level 4)
How To Get A Christmas Number 1 (Failed, re-sit session)

Unfortunately the 'songwriting' module has been cancelled, replaced with 'how to cover someone else's song successfully'.

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HMV To Go Into Administration?

It has been revealed this evening that high store music and entertainment chain HMV is approaching administration, hot the heels of other massive established names like Comet and Jessops.

Though how Currys are still in business when I couldn't even get a takeaway there last week, I don't know.

HMV's potential demise is not a surprise. Zavvi went to the great high street store in the sky many years ago following the collapse of Woolworths leaving HMV the only major music provider in city centres following the failure of Borders. Throw in the cutting-back of Game stores and HMV stood as one of the only providers of games too. However, even with a big sale this January, HMV always stood out as the expensive store with CDs much more costly than other stores and, in the face of increasing competition from online stores like Amazon and Play, who have offered a more varied, convenient and cheaper service through the benefits of being an internet store and, well, exercising certain loopholes when it comes to all things tax, it was never going to win.

HMV is a sad loss to the high street. I regularly used to go in and browse and have often bought CDs there but, like many others, purchase most of my music, games and DVDs online so it would be hypocritical of me to wave a finger at the public and blame them for the demise of the shop when we're all to blame for our change in habits, just like corner shops shut as we flock to Tesco, Asda and the ilk, local bookshops close as we boot up the e-store on our Kindle, and pubs shut left right and centre as we enjoy the cheap booze that supermarkets bring.

Even so it's a shame and will be one more empty property in a rapidly depleting high street created by a recession that seems to not be ending.

I predicted several years ago that HMV would be an extremely likely candidate to go out of business and thus I am proved right, however many more hardy companies have fallen by the wayside between then and now that I wouldn't never have thought of. I also considered WHSmith to be a difficult prospect to survive but they seem to be doing OK.

Perhaps blame can be laid not wholly at the customers door but at the big online companies who have offered such a cheap prospect to consumers through their tax loopholes, that we've all been willing to exploit, and through that they've continued. Which, I suppose, therefore makes us to blame. We like the idea of thriving city centres filled with bustling shops offering us tangible products whereas in reality we like our entertainment cheap, easy, sent through the post or illegally downloaded, and the outcome of that is for shops to follow one after each other in a game of consumer dominos.

And if HMV leaves our high street, there will be precious few shops left to cater for the music hungry consumer if they want something other than the top ten from a local supermarket. Independent stores will still be round but they're hardly flourishing. 'Track Records' in York, my home town as a young man, shut down taking with it many memories and a wider choice than you'd get elsewhere and that city is struggling with shops closing, but not as much as my home town of Bradford that now will look even more like a ghost town. The irony in York, though, was our old Game store was recently taken over by Jessops. God help the next business that moves into those premises.

In our minds eye we want to pet and look after Nipper and see him around us forever, but it seems His Master's Voice will soon be put down by a vet called internet shopping. Now there's a stretched metaphor.

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Justin Timberlake returns with a new single

After a six years wait, Justin Timberlake is back with a brand new single called 'Suit and Tie'. Featuring Timbaland and Jay-Z it's a smooth, silky tune with typical Timbaland production and a very weird opening. Lyrically it's hardly profound and even Jay-Z sounds bored.

You can hear it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9sGFDj5q0w, assuming this is genuine, but to be honest on first listen it's not particularly exciting, lacking the immedacy of 'SexyBack' or 'Rock Your Body' and hasn't really been worth the wait, but it might grow thanks to its trumpets and slick feel, but I'm unimpressed so far.

Good to hear him back though and it will be interesting to see what his album sounds like, 'The 20/20 Experience'.

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NintendoLand (Review)

NintendoLand is Nintendo’s flagship tech demo for its new WiiU console. Built around twelve mini-games set inside a theme park, it is a wide-reaching and fun collection of mini games, but don’t let that phrase put you off. These are well rounded games with lots of variety and challenge and much fun to play and here I’ll try and sum them up.

The game can be controlled in one of two ways: from a straight up menu where you select the games on the GamePad and go or by running around the theme park, bumping into other players populated from the MiiVerse and interact with small gizmos you get from collecting coins, gathered in mini games, spent in an old fashioned dot-matrix coin-drop machine like you get at the seaside which rewards you with a new gizmo for every screen you hit all the targets. Here you can run through gates to play the games or jump on the train to play the attraction tour, a mix of all the games for 2-5 players.

The game is MCed by an annoying floating television screen called Monita (geddit?) who gives you instructions but is mostly silent once you’ve found your footing, thankfully. The main screen also details how many coins you have, how many times you’ve played each game and which attraction will score you double coins.

Graphically the main area is cartoony but well rendered and feels like a theme park come to life. The music is an incredibly irritating tune not wholly dissimilar to ‘I’m Going To Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair’ but the ability to change tunes on the jukebox to unlocked game themes is a godsend. The music within the games themselves is great, and the variety of game-specific tunes most welcome!

The twelve mini-games are split into three sections: team attractions for 1-5 players, competitive attractions for 2-5 players and solo attractions.

Team Attractions

The Legend of Zelda Battle Quest: Play as Link fighting monsters, using the analogue sticks as your view and firing a bow and arrow if you’re a GamePad player or the Wiimote as a sword otherwise. Challenging for single players, easier with friends, the knitted style looks great and the levels throw something different at you each time leading you up to a boss battle. Tricky to play and fun when you get into it. (8/10)

Pikmin Adventure: A riff on the original game where you use the touch screen to attack blocks and baddies with your Pikmin, moving from the starting point to the rescue rocket, level-ing up as you go and collecting pick-ups to aid your progress. Fun to play but very easy but, again, throws in some differing goals as you progress through the levels. (7/10)

Metroid Blast: My least favourite of all the games as you control either a Samus-like space agent or a rocket ship to destroy your opponent. The controls take a lot of getting used to and it’s not that fun. (4/10)

Competitive Attractions

Mario Chase

Set over several maps, one player has to escape whilst the others have to chase after them and capture them within the time limit. With some great variety in the maps and a good difficulty change depending on how many people are playing, this is truly a fun multiplayer game where only the GamePad player can see everyone and everyone else has to work out where they are by teamwork and a distance calculator. (9/10)

Luigi’s Ghost Mansion: The best of the games, this sees the four other players having to track down and destroy the ghost player using their torches. Only the ghost player can see everyone’s locations on the GamePad whilst the rumble of the WIimotes gives away the approaching ghost to the other players. A sometimes-scary, always-fun game, this is the best of the bunch if you and your friends come round. (10/10)

Animal Crossing Sweet Days: Another fun multiplayer game with the GamePad player chasing after the others with a knife and fork to capture them as they capture sweets. The more sweets they have, the slower they move, adding to some strategy in this fun multiplayer game. (6/10)

Solo Attractions

Yoshi’s Fruit Cart: Use the touch-screen to draw a path from the door to the exit, collecting fruit on the way whilst avoiding baddies, taking note of special orders and looking for presents and secret-exits, in this challenging but rewarding one-player game that requires a lot of thought. (7/10)

Octopus Dance: One of my favourites as you control your Mii with the GamePad to mimic the dance moves of the host with the moves becoming more varied and complex as the game progresses, as well as many distractions in your way. (7/10)

Donkey Kong’s Crash Course: A seemingly easy one-player game that is anything but. Make your way down a maze using the tilt, microphone and buttons of the GamePad to rescue the princess. Difficult, infuriating but addictive, this is a very hard but very fun game. Just don’t mention area nine. (9/10)

Takamaru’s Ninja Castle: Holding the GamePad the other way round, fire throwing stars at enemies whilst avoiding what they throw back. It’s at times uncomfortable to hold the controller but it’s a good game to spend ten minutes in. (6/10)

Captain Falcon’s Twister Race: An unforgiving racer with the controller held upright, pilot your ship over speed blocks and avoid obstacles and mines to cross the finish line, whilst also battling against a relentless clock. Tricky but enjoyable, it does struggle at times with the controls and requiring the GamePad to be recalibrated which takes the shine off an otherwise great mini-game. (8/10)

Balloon Trip Breeze: Use the touch screen to blow your Mii across a landscape to collect items and avoid baddies. Trickier than it sounds, it’s got that one-more-time quality that a lot of these games have. (7/10)

With most of the games above, there might seem to be a smaller amount of content but completing them often unlocks more, harder levels that really challenge you. Each mini-game is themed around a different game and the art styles – whether the knitted Zelda, chalked-Donkey Kong or fabric Balloon Trip – really shine on this game. It’s a package that actually becomes much more than a tech demo with twelve genuinely enjoyable mini-games without only really one duff one in Metroid Blast, that manages to shine both as a multi-player and single player collection.

There’s plenty of playability here from beating friends scores on the score boards (there’s a slight bug here, daily-records appear to be this session-records) plus the integration with Miiverse, and the coin-unlockable gizmos even if most of them are pointless. Balance between games is tweaks depending on how many players so it never seems unfair whether there’s two of you or all five.

A very enjoyable collection with a surprising amount of depth and perfect for a party or a sole excursion, and demonstrates the abilities of the WiiU’s asymmetric gameplay, just as Wii Sports showed off the power of the Wiimote.

8/10

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New! Super Mario Bros WiiU

I’m going to start this review with an honest confession: I’m a big fan of the Super Mario games. I’ve played them all and enjoy them. However, that’s not to say this is going to be a biased review. Nintendo, in a questionable decision, have milked their plumber (sounds painful) to within an inch of his life with his core games and spin-offs. In the past few years we’ve had more games released with his name on them on the DS, Wii and 3DS than I care to mention and though the recent ones ‘Super Mario 3D Land’ and ‘New! Super Mario Bros 2’ just about kept up the quality thanks to some innovation in both games, even if the latter recently annoyed me with its really lacklustre reward for completing the challenge of getting one million coins. And, though the games were fun and more challenging than the ones that preceded them, we’ve never had so many Mario 2D platformers in such a short space of time and the magic soon wears off.

Nintendo’s solution to this is still to be revealed but in the meantime they keep plugging their plumber to death, this time releasing ‘New! Super Mario Bros U’, a launch title for their new console. And, though it’s not particularly revolutionary, it’s by far the strongest Mario title for a long while.

(Though at least they do make a nod to the familiarity by shaking up the ‘plot’ a little, by keeping the Princess in the castle and catapulting Mario away to get back to the Princess).

Seemingly taking on board the feedback from gamers over the years, the developer has realised they need to be more like ‘Super Mario World’ and indeed this game is. The map isn’t made up of small worlds, it’s one massive sprawling continent with moving elements, secret paths and puzzles built into it. It might lack the charm of the original but is a brilliant over-world map, borrowing elements from all the games and bringing them into HD. The worlds are as familiar as you’d expect but the levels are varied, new baddies introduced to balance against the returning foes and bosses, and more secret routes and levels than many recent games, even if some of them are a pain to find with no indication on a level if there is a secondary exit, which makes some of the bonus levels nearly impossible to find. But at least there’s a challenge, and a big reward for some of them that allow you to skip many levels, so big thumbs up for the speed runners.

The gameplay is as tight as ever and Mario controls well, and the new power-up of the flying squirrel is a fun one that basically mirrors the controls of SMW’s cape but without the ability to continue flying upwards. The game looks crisp and glorious in HD, though it’s not the best example of a graphical style to show off 1080p, and the music is as catchy as ever with old and new tunes mixed in. Yoshi returns in the game in both adult form and three baby forms, each with their own unique power up, but it’s only really the purple one that is any huge help. The difficulty is up so older players will get a buzz out of the game but the help block returns to show lesser able players how to complete a level after dying several times.

Bosses are varied and the Koopalings have never been this tricky to defeat, but it’s still business as usual with three hits and their out. The end boss trick is pulled again and it’s a little bit more difficult than the Wii boss but not quite as enjoyable.

Each level also contains three star coins, as per, and there is much fun and challenge in getting these and they’re not all a walk in the park. Power ups can also be collected with ten stored in your inventory, with power ups collected at mushroom houses or by capturing Nabbit, a blue rabbit who appears once in each world who gives up a P-Mushroom (this game’s equivalent of SMB3’s P-Wing) when captured in a speed-run challenge. P-Mushroom’s allow you to constantly fly through a level until hit, allowing you to skip a level you may have struggled with.

The levels are varied, though all mostly familiar, and there are plenty of them, with a bonus world for hardy players and a whole lot of statistics available upon completion to challenge the 100%ers to get all the fireworks, finish all the levels with Yoshi and get all the applause for pulling off great moves etc.

The GamePad is a neat addition to this game. In single player you can play the entirety of the game on the screen so if someone is using the TV you can still play. Plus, through in the Miiverse compatibility where helpful hints from other players appear hovering on the map screen and you get a Mario game that feels much more connected. The game can, though, be also played with the traditional Wiimote, of which four are needed to get the most out of the game.

Alongside the main single-player game are loads of other options that really bulk out the package and help make this the strongest yet. Getting the multiplayer out of the way first it’s still pretty weak, unchanged from the Wii version and pretty infuriating to play so it’s best avoided unless you want to lose friends or see them sending your GamePad through the nearest window. The GamePad player – pushing it up to a five-player game – can aid or hinder the players by placing down blocks using the touch screen so this adds a certain Dick Dasterdly element to it, which makes it a little more tolerable. The main problem with this mode is the brief stutter of everyone as someone gets hits or picks up a power up. It’s distracting and should be removed!

It’s the other elements that make this game. The challenges menu, the first one I’ve truly enjoyed since the days of Worms, is brilliant, with a seemingly never ending list of challenges based on speed runs, not touching the ground or destroying enemies, and various iterations of them, with bronze, silver and gold medals up for grabs. With a steady increasing difficulty, there is much fun to be had here.

There is also a boost rush game where the scrolling level speeds up for every ten coins you get, up to a maximum speed, proving a challenge for even the best players over a range of packs of three levels, with more promised soon via DLC.

Finally there is also the multiplayer coin rush game which is more fun to play with friends.

Overall, ‘New! Super Mario Bros U’ is as familiar as you expect from a 2D Mario game as Nintendo have pushed the releases to the limit. Thankfully this is the best of a still strong series of games but hopefully this will mark a break for the plumber for a few years 3D games notwithstanding. It’s graphically beautiful and the game play, level design and play is as fun as ever. The map with its Miiverse integration is the most welcome addition, but the challenges menu is the most surprising but must-play addition to the game.

Don’t expect any major surprises and those with nostalgia for the series will get the most out of it, but it’s a must play if you have a WiiU thanks to its varied and challenging levels, additional features and easy to play, hard to master gameplay.

8/10

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Shocking Lincoln post credits sequence revealed!

The controversial post-credits sequence to Lincoln, out on the 25th January directed by Steven Spielberg, has been released online. Shocking!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTN6Du3MCgI

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The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the cinema – I think the last film I went to see was Looper – and I’m a little bit late to the game with ‘The Hobbit’ too with it being out before Christmas. Though I wasn’t particularly impressed by ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy from ten years ago – I found them long-winded and tedious, but perhaps a re-watch by my decade-old self may rejudge them – I recently ended up reading ‘The Hobbit’ as part of a book club and figured it would be nice to see it recreated on screen.

Now, I found ‘The Hobbit’ book to be an easy read, it is a children’s story after all, but found its plot lacking compared to other books I’ve read. It felt rather linear and straight-forward, as if it took the role-playing games spawned off the genre too literally, going from one battle scene to another. I enjoyed the read but didn’t feel the book lived up to the hype generated by it.

Thankfully the film is an improvement on the book, all things considered. I went into the film with low expectations on the back of lukewarm reviews, detailing long periods of nothing much happening, and I’d like to report that these aren’t entirely true. Granted it is a slightly bloated first part of a questionably bloated three-movie adaptation of a smaller children’s book and there are undoubtedly moments that are quite pedestrian, but overall it flows along nicely and covers the book well, though I’m pretty sure lots of moments could be cut out.

‘The Hobbit’ tells the story of a younger Bilbo Baggins than in ‘The Lord of the Rings’, being thrust into a quest with thirteen dwarves by wizard Gandalf the Grey to reclaim the original home of these dwarves and its treasure from the dragon Smaug.

The film twists the chronology of the book around a bit and even inserts new sections not in the original, I believe taken from other associated works. The story is told from the viewpoint of the elderly Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) recording his adventure for posterity to Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), not looking a year older than his LOTR appearance. In effect, he’s writing the Hobbit, with the famous first line making an appearance. It may, on paper, seem shoe-horned in, but fits nicely in with introducing the world and characters again though some dialogue suggests they’re aiming for an emotional end to the third part in reference to this character.

The story doesn’t start as ‘The Hobbit’ does. Instead we get the backstory from later in the book which actually sets the tale up better and makes for a far more engaging opening than there would normally be, and the first part that makes the film much more serious, adult-like and dramatic than the book, and this could be one of the first adaptations I’ve seen that’s an improvement on the story.

We do get the more light-hearted opening of the novel though as young Bilbo Baggins, played perfectly by the rising star of Martin Freeman, finds his neat home invaded by a baker’s dozen of hungry dwarves and then sets off on his adventure. There are a lot of characters in this story and though it’s difficult to name them all most make an impression on the audience.

The adventure of the story is built around some large set-pieces but doesn’t quite manage to avoid the ‘next battle’, ‘next battle’, ‘next battle’ feel of the book, as if they’re wandering in from one scrape to another. The troll scene is a great piece of characterisation, though, with some brilliant mo-cap work, and the CGI has come on leaps and bounds, though at several points in the film it does become like watching a video game as the party take on armies of trolls in a technical spectacular, but a little tedious, battle scene.

Plot-wise there is a mixture of the low-brow and high-brow, with table based discussions with elves and wizards to flesh out the plot, and there are many returning familiar faces. Gollum comes back in possibly the best scene outside of the troll one with lots of humour and some more great motion capture, and the emotion is amazingly done on the face of the ring bearer. The humour here is echoed throughout the film with many funny lines, though it does have its fair share of toilet humour as well for the kids.

Musically the film is unremarkable but does its job – no music stuck out to me but neither did it jar – and the cinematography is, unsurprisingly, beautiful. I didn’t see it in the much-maligned 48fps but in standard 2D it was a pleasure to look at.

As a film, overall, ‘The Hobbit’ was hampered by its source material which is a plodding series of battles. There were many moments of deja-vu with the team seemingly defeated only for Gandalf – who in the film feels like a pensioner wandering off with dementia only to remember to come back – to come back and save them by a wave of his wand. There are only so many times you can get excited by a chase sequence and shoe-horned in battle elements – the fight between the stone monsters in the mountain seems a little bit of a plot device to get them into the cave – but they took the book and have vastly improved it on screen.

If you haven’t seen it it’s not as plodding as people say though a little bit of time could have been shaved off, especially the last twenty minutes which felt like it was setting up a cliffhanger but the story continued, and in fact the movie ends on a positive note with no ‘must-see’ cliffhanger to bring you back, other than one line from Bilbo which fits neatly into the ‘famous last words’ camp.

A film I went in to see with low expectations and they surpassed them. It may be a little pedestrian at times and a bit trigger happy with the CGI, but the humour, key scenes like the ones with the trolls and Gollum, and the grand feel to it made this an enjoyable film that actually improves on the average book. Better than the Lord of the Rings, definitely worth a watch.

6.5/10

I also saw several trailers ahead of the film. ‘Warm Bodies’, a zombie-love story, looks interesting and funny, and worth watching. ‘Lincoln’ looks as over-the-top on the patriotism as expected but looks like a fun epic to see. ‘Pacific Rim’ is another, more popcorn-flick, I’d like to watch but it’s 2013’s example of fridge magnet movie making… let’s take a bit of ‘Godzilla’, throw in some ‘Transformers’ and ‘Power Rangers’, a bit of the ‘Matrix’, the GLADoS voice from ‘Portal’… done, got it!

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