Lego City Undercover [WiiU]

You can’t have avoided the negativity around the WiiU recently, from slow menu loading times (soon to be fixed) to a lack of games. But my latest purchase for Nintendo’s newest home console has shown that they make up for a lack of games with the sheer quality and innovation in games.

In the four months that the console has been around we have some absolute corkers of games: ZombiU, Scribblenauts Unlimited, NintendoLand, Little Inferno, and we can add ‘Lego City Undercover’ to that list.

A free-roaming open world game, basically a Lego version of ‘Grand Theft Auto’ with jokes and pop-references replacing guns and prostitutes, you play as cop Chase McCain who is on the hunt of escaped criminal Rex Fury, completing various missions around the city to get on his trail.

The usual staples of games under the Lego banner are here: smashing up items to collect bricks and making the most of the situation to create jokes, and out of all the Lego games I’ve played this is by far the funniest. With some well-created characters, full exploitation of the clichés of detective and crime television shows and movies, this is a game that will have you constantly laughing, whether it’s the Matrix-inspired Kung Fu section, the anger management techniques of one of the small criminal bosses, the mannerisms of cop colleague Frank Honey or even just the random audio clips of Lego citizens as you approach them, there is plenty to laugh at.

And it’s certainly a game with plenty to do. Missions are varied and interesting and don’t feel tired, even when they fall sometimes onto the same mechanic. Within the first few hours of play you’ll find yourself doing driving missions, roof-top free running and kung-fu fighting, as well as time trials and item collection, all of which can be unlocked in free play as you go around to collect some of the hundreds of things hidden around the map.

Because, as with GTA and similar games, if you don’t fancy doing the missions there’s plenty of fun to be had by just navigating around the map. There are dozens of vehicles to carjack and drive around, plus as you progress through the story you unlock more disguises and abilities to reach areas you couldn’t previously get to, to grab hold of super bricks or just random scenes.

Scattered around the map are also many mini-games to play for fun, from basketball shoot-out to can toss, all small and quick but show a great eye for detail. In fact, the attention paid to the small parts of the game is worthy of note. What other game can you head to a play park and go on the swings, and slide, plus the ability to hook up to the Miiverse to show off photos works really well in this game, even if it is a bit slow to do and load.

It’s not a perfect game, however. Driving can be a little bit tricky at first, with each vehicle handling differently and some being a little over-sensitive, but it does make driving feel like a unique experience to each vehicle, whether you’re on the ‘hairdryer’ moped or the caravan, or one of the many, many other vehicles. It does also suffer from some frame rate drop-outs on the driving scenes when there’s a lot going on, but this is few and far between, and when you’re booting up the game the loading takes a good three-to-four minutes, but once you’re in the open world there’s no loading at all no matter where you go, only a small bar when loading missions, and the draw distance is impressive.

There’s loads of small moments that really draw you into this game that I won’t spoil here. This is a massive reason to buy a WiiU. If you’ve loved the Lego games up to now then this is the best example of them, with a larger scope, a huge focus and a brilliant sense of humour. The attention to detail in the open world, the missions and the random things you can do, find and experience around the map is incredible and it’s a fully enjoyable game that brings a smile constantly to your face and there is plenty to do for your money.

Graphically impressive, with the style of Lego fully integrated into the map, with a wide range of music tracks and audio for characters that rarely feels repetitive, with cut scenes fully narrated, it ticks all the boxes for a long-lasting, plain fun game to play.

A must-have purchase for WiiU owners.

9/10

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Not Going Out – Rabbit [Review]

Though it arguably doesn’t actually have much competition for the accolade, ‘Not Going Out’ is easily the funniest sitcom around at the moment and one of the few shows that I really love that hasn’t actually been cancelled by TV executives – though it came close a few years ago.

‘Not Going Out’ follows flat mates Lee (Lee Mack) and Lucy (Sally Bretton) who share a flat together but share a mutual tolerance of each other, though Lee fancies Lucy, with rumours of the reverse, but they are the ‘not going out’ relationship of the title. They are joined by Daisy (Katy Wix), a ditsy hanger-on.

Now no one is ever going to say NGO is highbrow but with its heavy reliance on one-liners, puns and surreal situations, it is always funny and quick-paced and this opener of series six – an impressive number to reach in contemporary times – is no different.

If there is one thing that has defined the return of the series it’s the absence of long-time cast member Tim Vine, who played the brother of Lucy, best mate of Lee and boyfriend of Daisy. The character’s absence was dealt with quickly and succinctly right at the start of the episode – a funny touch though I was hoping for more, but it did the job and better than not referencing it – but there were many negatives circulating on the internet that the show would be doomed without him.

And, though arguably I’m a bigger fan of Vine than Mack, it was actually just as funny and well set-up without him. I miss Tim from the series with Vine’s character bringing a lot to the series but on the strength of the opener NGO will be fine without him. I fear, though, with Vine only having done a short-run gameshow and, it appears, little else on television so far, it’ll be him that misses the show more than the show misses him, but I do hope Vine does more on TV or live as he is a fantastic comedian.

Back to the show and the premise of the episode ‘Rabbit’ was typical escalating silliness as Lucy runs over a client’s rabbit and then proceeds to cover it up. Chock-full of the usual one-liners and sight gags, the cast handled the premise well, with Bretton being the main beneficiary of Vine’s absence, getting much more screen time and a chance to shine.

Some of the jokes we’ve heard before in a slightly different form, such as the name Mack picks when confronted by the angry owner, and it did occasionally seem awkward in the early minutes with the set-up and Bretton mumbling some lines, and even had a visual joke taken from ‘The Thin Blue Line’, but elsewhere there were some great set-pieces such as in the pet shop and the one-liners were up to their usual quality.

‘Rabbit’ was a strong opener and just as laugh-a-minute as previous episodes. It wasn’t one of the absolute best episodes but was still a thoroughly hilarious half hour, and proves that NGO is one of the best comedies on television at the moment and will seemingly survive the absence of one of its main characters. And with news that a seventh series has been commissioned, I’m a happy bunny. (Pardon the pun)

“I’m sorry for giving your daughter a bag full of wrong rabbit.”

(7/10)

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Jonathan Creek: The Clue of the Savant's Thumb [Review]

Jonathan Creek: The Clue of the Savant's Thumb
BBC One, Monday 1^st April 2013

Weirdly this was only the third episode of ‘Jonathan Creek’ I have seen. As it mixes up the supernatural with mystery solving, and is written by one of my favourite writers David “One Foot In The Grave” Renwick, I’m not sure why I never followed it from the start. But, here I am, trying to catch up.

‘The Clue of the Savant’s Thumb’ comes three years after the last episode and much has changed: Creek is now married, no longer living in a windmill, and working in creative advertising. But it’s not long before a mystery involving mysterious circles appearing on the heads of young girls in a Catholic school from many years ago and the death and disappearance of a corpse from a room entice him back into business in this 90-minute special.

And what a weird special it was. Renwick certainly brought his love of the surreal and of black comedy to proceedings. It was a slow start after the initial mystery was set up with Creek himself not appearing for a while, but he was supported by an on-form Sheridan Smith as his sidekick and an unusual, occasionally stilted and rather out-of-place, but no less engaging Rik Mayall as a wheelchair-bound friend-cum-rival who helps on the case.

As with any of the shows, the mysteries are well set-up and solved and everything that initially appears supernatural has a firmly rational explanation, though the episode did feel a little disjointed in that the past mystery and contemporary events were pretty much unrelated aside from the presence of one character as a girl and then a woman. ‘The Clue of the Savant’s Thumb’ did feel like two episodes shoehorned into one, or a one-hour episode cruelly extended into ninety minutes. The ending, though making sense mostly, felt tacked on but actually quite funny, with Mayall channelling his Blackadder Flashheart character in many ways, bursting in to save the day.

But whilst the central mysteries were solid with several strong ‘Ah! So that’s how!’ moments thanks to mobile phones, hidden windows and revolving globes, the episode did throw up some mysteries of its own: how did Mayall’s wheelchair-bound character get up to the top floor of the old building? How could you mistake apple juice for petrol? What was the reason for introducing a character undergoing a sex-change at risk of raising the ire of the transgender community when it has no relation to the plot?

And there were a few good visual jokes as well, such as the book name-checking Fox News on a shelf, but it also suffered from an anonymous writing credit to Richard Dawkins, with a fair chunk of the plot exalting atheism  as much as it did other religions.

These slight plot holes aside, the episode was well filmed and the plot rolled out, with some great cinematography and funny, surreal, perhaps a little unrealistic characters. It did suffer from excessive characters in the episode and a feeling of slowness at the start and bloatedness at the end but was still a thoroughly enjoyable episode, especially due to the performances of Smith, Lumley and Mayall.

(6/10)

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Tomb Raider (Reviewed on PC)

I’ve been a long time fan of the ‘Tomb Raider’ series, focussing on archaeologist Lara Croft who raids tombs, shoots animals and wears ill-fitting bras in equal measure. I’ve played all of the original five ‘Core Design’ games on PC and even got a PS2 just to play the sixth, still an enjoyable game even if the controls left a lot to be desired.

Many agreed and British company ‘Core Design’ lost the franchise but left behind an impressive legacy of some truly great games, graphically inferior now but with game play, exploration and a sense of wonder that was unrivalled.

US company ‘Crystal Dynamics’ then took over the franchise, presumably because EIDOS has spent too much money promoting the letters C and D and it went downhill from there. I’ve played all their attempts at Tomb Raider games and, no matter what they did, even down to re-creating the original in an anniversary cash-in, they failed to capture the original’s magic. Sure, the graphics were far superior but the game play was linear, the puzzles simple and the game too much focussed on human combat.

These games too didn’t fare too well but well enough for the company to be in charge of the series when it was rebooted once more, in the simply titled ‘Tomb Raider’. With a trailer that sounded like a whinging teenager being sent on a holiday she didn’t want to go on and rumours of a dodgy rape scene included within it, the game soon garnered attention of the critics who awarded it the most promising status of a game that year, and have since showered it with praise since it landed earlier this year. But how does it stack up?

Firstly, they have done a good job in making the game accessible. I gave up with major PC gaming twelve years ago when I couldn’t be bothered spending hours struggling with installing games and then finding out my PC wasn’t powerful enough, heading into console gaming via the PS2, Wii and WiiU and enjoying stress free playing. But, as Eidos have short-sightedly not released this game on Nintendo’s new home console (sales aside of the new console, the concept would have fitted brilliantly on the GamePad) I’ve returned to the world of PC gaming. And, thankfully, though my PC is four years old and running Vista, I can still run the new game, albeit it in 800 x 600 on the lowest graphic settings, but play it I can.

So how does it play? Graphically the game is very impressive in full quality but also quite tolerable and neat in the stripped-back way I’m playing it. Installation of the game itself was pain free but Steam, which you have to install at the same time, took two-hours and multiple attempts to wrench onto my system due to a 27% problem that lots of people reported having. I spent most of the time humming Dappy, bemoaning my own ‘Forever 37’ motif.

But once Steam decided to accept me onto their system it was plain sailing and the game was up. Now, in a nutshell, this is the best Tomb Raider game since the days of Core Design. However, you have to wait about two hours to get to this point as you will find the first couple of hours of play very frustrating.

What they have created in the initial outset is a movie that you can play. It feels like you’ve gone into the cinema to watch a movie then every so often the action will stop and you’ll have to randomly press some buttons on your smart phone to continue the action. Now, I’m fully familiar with Quick Time Events (QTEs) that were established in the more recent games and they’re a perpetual annoyance, breaking up the game and requiring some seemingly ineffectual button tapping, but the opening of the game feels like one continual QTE. You’ll run for thirty seconds then have to stop for a bit and watch a video, or randomly have to button mash the arrow keys or the E or F key to do something – but not too much mashing as it won’t recognise it! The first two hours were a very distracting affair, wanting to play a game and enjoying the concept but forced into a linear progression of stop-start game play.

Plus, the game on PC sets you up for a nightmare of controls at the start. I imagine on Xbox 360 or PS3 gamers have no issues, and even those with a PC game pad will be fine, but for me it was a struggle. I’m used to the traditional Tomb Raider controls of left hand on CTRL, ALT and SPACE, right hand on the arrow keys. All the prompts of the QTEs say to mash the left and right so that’s naturally where my fingers fall. However, unless you want to die a lot or fade madness, then you need to use WASD as your directional keys as the mouse is necessary to control shooting and the camera work, and you’ll be doing this regularly as the camera is rubbish.

I’ve spent the last few months playing ZombiU on my WiiU and the controls work flawlessly with a strong camera. Going back to PC gaming has made me realise you can no longer play games as well on a keyboard so a gamepad is a must to fully enjoy this game; four keys are no compensation for an analogue stick.

Once you escape this QTE hell and the game opens up, it actually becomes far more enjoyable and like the old days of ‘Tomb Raider’: lots of collectables, the feeling of running around doing side-quests, not entirely sure where you are going, and doing lots of acrobatics. Combat is particularly fun in the game, primarily with the bow and arrow, and even made me overlook the fact that the franchise continues its transformation from lone-archaeologist encountering dangerous animals and perhaps a few humans but mainly puzzle solving into an action adventure game more focussed on combat. If Lara Croft wasn’t in it, it really wouldn’t deserve its title, as the tombs that do appear in the game are few and far between and though you’re on a secluded island, the sense of loneliness never really amounts to much as you’re always ten minutes away from another fire-fight with angry locals, whose AI is OK but not particularly difficult.

And that is one thing you can say about the game. Outside of the controls often making you fall to your death, the game is rather easy. Deaths at the hand of QTEs return you to just before the death and combat never really challenges you, due to a health scheme that forgoes a health bar and medipacks with one that, if you avoid fire or bullets for long enough you’ll return to health, plus ammo that re-spawns when you run out. You will find yourself dying quite a bit but it very rarely feels like a penalty like it did in the classic games.

Where the game does excel is in its set pieces; it’s a game that constantly throws new and exciting scenarios at you, carried by the well plotted story, which means when you’re stuck watching a film it’s at least interesting. There are some well created elements at the beginning, such as a stealth section, hiding behind walls to avoid capture, a truly nerve-racking climb to a radio antennae that does reflect the height very well, and a great scene involving a plane crash, though to be honest it’s actually unintentionally comic, like something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. The game does feel like it’s constantly punishing  Lara and it becomes almost sadomasochistic in one breath, and comedic in the other, as if you’re playing a Christopher Nolan re-boot of Tom and Jerry where you see how much cartoony punishment your lead can take.

Lara as a character is learning her role and does play like a constantly whinging teenager. Yes, she does get a lot of things thrown in her direction and I certainly wouldn’t like to do it, but she’s a million miles away from the confident young adventurer we’re familiar with. Though it’s well designed to see her respond realistically to injury – an early stomach injury leaves her hunched over for a while – she also should be dead long ago with the things she does through. I do sort of miss the old days of vehicles, unlimited pistols and locking butlers in fridges.

Tomb Raider may suffer from difficult controls and camera work in the non-game pad PC version and, in the early stages, be too focussed on story and less on the gamer being able to play, but it soon becomes an enjoyable play with some interesting concepts, great combat and some neat puzzles. It’s pretty easy to play and lacks the challenge of the originals, and is pretty far from the initial concept of the series, but there are unlockables and collectables a-plenty and even when you’ve finished the storyline there’s much to get. You can always wander of the beaten track and go on a bit of animal hunting or object finding, and there’s back story to work through via notes and items found, plus a vast map to navigate around, and the ability to play a new game on a four year old PC is good of the company.

It’s not really ‘Tomb Raider’ and it’s too simple, but it’s an enjoyable game to play and worth picking up for £20.

6.5/10

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Doctor Who - The Bells of Saint John [Review]

‘Doctor Who’ returns for another run of episodes with this mid-season opener. The Doctor is back in 1207 trying to work out the mystery of Clara Oswald whilst the latest iteration of the character is in contemporary London, babysitting for some children and coming up against problems with the internet.

In an opening seemingly stolen from his own ‘Blink’, Moffat starts by fleshing out the story of aliens capturing people and trapping them in a computer and though there is a fun initial twist it’s pretty obvious.

What follows is a surprisingly packed episode with some cracking, cheesy jokes and a funny solution to the episode title, even if it feels that the title was set up just for one joke. Which sort of sums up this episode: it feels like a collection of small parts but not much of an episode as a whole.

There are some brilliant set pieces that make up the forty-five minutes: the crashing plane looked amazing and dramatic on the budget; the use of the London skyline into the cinematography and plot well done; and the concept of the aliens and the turning of something as familiar and pedestrian as wi-fi into something evil inspired. However, for every great bit such as the mention of Amy Pond’s book, the witty moments in the script such as the Doctor relaying the phone messages he took whilst Oswald was knocked out and a well constructed dig at Twitter, and the far better ten-minute denouement, there is as much that seems stilted. I’m yet to be a big fan of Oswald as a character, whose dialogue with Smith’s Doctor often seeming out of sorts.

The ‘Doctor Who’ conversation bit was obviously tying into the overall plot arc but seems forced and he knows Oswald is in danger, so why not just let himself into the house as he eventually does?

‘The Bells of Saint John’ felt much like a lot of great ideas hastily assembled on a piece of paper and put together as a plot. That’s not to say these elements were not great – the plane scene, the motorbike scene, the triple-bluff of the robots (even if it smacked of familiarity of the previous series’ big twist) were all great, as were the many jokes scattered throughout the piece – but it felt like scenes were put in just for laughs or their visual spectacle rather than contributing much to the story.

But the episode did set up some interesting plot points. Who gave Clara the Doctor’s phone number? (I’m guessing River Song) How does Richard E Grant’s ‘The Great Intelligence’ fit into the overall series arc and November’s 50^thanniversary special? And will this version of Clara survive longer than the others, and how do all her iterations work together?

The visual spectacle of the episode was impressive and the CGI never looked less than convincing, with a genuinely creepy plot concept, it’s just a shame it never felt like anything more than a collection of sketches.

Though I felt the episode a little lukewarm, it’s still a far better episode than we enjoyed in the RTD era, with a conclusion that didn’t feel rushed or illogically, with some cracking set pieces and jokes. I have to say next week’s trailer didn’t sell the rest of the series to me but we’ll judge that next week, and the episode did find itself overshadowed by the news of Tennant’s return in November (yay!) alongside Piper (Not so yay), though chances are to fans that they’ll be returning then as the half-doctor and old assistant, rather than the previous version of the doctor.

(6.5/10)

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Trance [Review]

‘Trance’ is the latest film by director Danny “Trainspotting! Slumdog Millionaire! 28 Days Later! Olympics!” Boyle, focussing on a heist of a famous piece of art, stolen by Franck (Vincent “Black Swan” Cassel) and his three other criminal accomplices, but stopped from being stolen by Simon (James “Wanted” McAvoy). Knocked out and forgetting where he hid the painting, Franck sends him to a hypnotist – Elizabeth (Rosario “Men In Black 2” Dawson) – to try and work out where he hid it.

‘Trance’ rolls out in  a similar way to McAvoy’s recent film ‘Welcome To The Punch’, in that you’re never entirely sure who is who, and who is on whose side, making it for an exciting ride as you work out the truth, told through a series of flashbacks and dreams, with it being unclear what is real, what is the result of the hypnosis and what has been implanted in the mind of Simon.

The answer to this is mostly within plain site in the first twenty minutes but even if you work this out there is still much to be had and working out how and why even if you have the who. The clues to the conclusion are scattered throughout in scenes and there is a satisfaction of working it out and even though you’ll spend much of the film scratching your head, though not the level of ‘Inception’, it’s all nicely explained so you can leave the cinema without lots of questions and there is something delicious in seeing a character’s revenge portrayed so visually on screen and it never feels illogical.

McAvoy, Cassel and Dawson are all strong leads in the film and carry the film confidently even if Dawson is, at times, exploited for her sexuality. There are several strong set pieces including the opening heist and the action-orientated conclusion and some well judged strands of black comedy and one example of rather creepy CGI. There are some nice touches for the cinematography to represent the state of mind of the characters with some well framed and set-up shots and a well planned concept of using tablet computers to expand the story. The music didn’t particularly stand out to me, but did its job.

Overall ‘Trance’ was an exciting concept well played out with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing but a well-composed solution to tie up the loose ends. Pretty explicit in my opinion for a 15, ‘Trance’ is well worth a watch for its constant shifting of plot.

(7/10)

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Upcoming Singles (Updated 30th March 2013)

This Week’s Singles

Alison Moyet - When I Was Your Girl

Andy Burrows – If I Had A Heart

Biffy Clyro – Biblical

Charlie Brown – On My Way

Dan Croll – Compliment Your Soul

Duke Dumont feat. A*M*E – Need You (100%)

Emma Stevens – Dreaming Trees EP

Frightened Rabbit – Backyard Skulls

Haim – Falling

Heaven’s Basement – I Am Electric

Jacob Banks - Worthy

New Kids On The Block - Remix (I Like The)

PJ and Duncan – Let’s Get Ready To Rhumble (100% Radio Mix)

Rihanna - Pour It Up

Tom O'Dell - Hold Me

Vampire Weekend – Diane Young

The XX - Sunset

7^th April

Angel - The World

Leddra Chapman – All About You

Madness - How Can I Tell You

Nina Nesbit - Stay Out EP

Willy Moon - Get Up (Get What You Need)

Unconfirmed

The Brand New Heavies – Sunlight

The Joy Formidable - Little Blimp

Sub Focus – Endorphins

14^th April

Josh Kumra - The Answer

Platnum - Love You Tomorrow

Rascals feat. Professor Green – Fire Blaze

Rudimental feat. Ella Eyre – Waiting All Night EP

Unconfirmed

Bat For Lashes - Lilies

Beth Orton - Dawn Chorus

Disclosure - TBC

Gamu - Shake The Room

21^st April

Amelia Lily - Party Over

Lethal Bizzle feat. Wiley - They Got It Wrong

Loveable Rogues - What A Night

Nicky Romero & Nervo - Like Home

Unconfirmed

Chicane & Ferry Corsten feat. Christian Burns - One Thousand Suns

Don Broco - Whole Truth

28^th April

Unconfirmed

Bo Bruce – Save Me

Emilia Mitiku- Your Breaking My Heart

Misha B - Here's To Everything (Ooh La La)

Pitbull feat. Christina Aguilera - Feel This Moment

5^th May

Gabrielle Aplin - Panic Cord

Jai McDowall - Got To Let Go

12^th May

Unconfirmed

Bastille - Laura Palmer

Dot Rotten - Free

Frank Ocean - Sweet Life

Josh Groban - I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)

Stooshe - Slip

Wretch 32 feat. Shakka - Blackout

2^nd June

Icona Pop feat. Charli XCX - I Love It

Upcoming Singles With Unknown Release Dates

Alicia Keys - Brand New Me

A$ap Rocky - Goldie

Beth Nielsen Chapman - There Is No Darkness

Blue – Hurt Lovers

Brinsley Forde - Can’t Stop Me Now

Calvin Harris feat. Ellie Goulding – I Need Your Love

Cean Bandit – Mozart’s House

Eric Clapton feat. Chaka Khan – Gotta Get Over

Eric Prydz - Every Day

Foals – Late Night

Frank Ocean - Super Rich Kids

Hurts - Blind

Jenn Bostic - Not Yet

Just Blaze X Baauer – Higher

Lloyd – Do It Again

Luke Sital Singh - Bottled Up Tight

Maroon 5 – Daylight

Mat Zo and Porter Robinson - Easy

Michael Bublé - It’s A Beautiful Day

Miguel - How Many Drinks

Mallory Knox - Beggars

Mumford and Sons – Whispers In The Dark

Robert Cray Band - A Memo

The Script – If You Could See Me Now

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