Reviewed for film-news.co.uk.
Review: Identity Thief
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DVD review: People Like Us
Reviewed for film-news.co.uk.
People Like Us features dialogue and plot lines that are trite and predictable, though is elevated by hot young talent and veteran actors. Not knowing anything about the film I was surprised to see the likes of Philip Baker Hall and Michelle Pfeiffer brushing with Chris Pine and Olivia Wilde.
Read it here.
Blu-ray review: Monsters, Inc.
Reviewed for film-news.co.uk.
Monsters is a satirical and humorous take on the nature of fear, and more importantly the actual logistics of scaring kids, the purpose of which fuels a monster world with the screams of the little runts.
You can read it here.
Game blog: How not to start a game (like FFXIII-2)
I started Final Fantasy XIII-2 today, and am off to a bad start unfortunately. It will be explored in full in my eventual review. (yeah, it came out a while ago, but I’m not a fan of playing games upon release. Hmm, I smell a new blog post on the way. Or was that the stench of the rotting carcass of 2013’s Sim City? Can’t tell.)
Game review: Spec Ops: The Line
Yager Development and 2K Games have delivered a visceral experience to gamers with Spec Ops: The Line.
Game blog: Saving private progress
Save points are moments to compose ourselves, to take a break, to exit the virtual world. An essential part of modern day gaming, the function has evolved over the years thanks to creative developers not content with a simple ‘click save’ option, but to decorate the event with flourishes.
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The Insider: a retrospective
The Insider is one of my favourite films. Along with The Matrix and many other films, 1999 was a turning point in my life and pushed me towards creative writing. This film in particular does not get as much love as I feel it deserves. Its only now had a Blu-ray release this year! A bare-bones release at that.
Dark Souls: the less grumpy take
Demons & Dark Souls emphasise duality, and so here is a less grumpy take on Dark Souls to counteract my negative take on my first fifteen hours playing the game.
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Review: Broken City
This crime thriller feels like the kind of movie Mark Wahlberg’s The Other Guys was mocking. A detective on the edge, kicked off the force but pulled back into the game thanks to his dogged nature and unconventional manner.
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Dark Souls: depthless obscurity, an exercise in futility & bad game design
Coming from a moderate fan of Demons Souls, I was hoping that its quasi-sequel Dark Souls would improve on some of the flaws of that game. Namely, its depthless obscurity. Its inability to teach the gamer how to do basic things or understand basic concepts. Theoretically you could have played that entire game without knowing how to use magic, because you had no idea where a certain NPC was and could have missed them.
Cihan Narin 