I’ve just finished reading Frank Miller’s Holy Terror graphic novel, as much as I love Frank Miller’s work, I’m in two minds about it. So much so that I’m going to have to read it again, so no review just yet. In the meantime, by way of an introduction to his work and keeping with the Batman theme here’s my take on Frank Miller. It was originally going to be a preamble to my Holy Terror review, but it developed a life of its own. Forgive me if it’s a bit over-indulgent.
I was first introduced to Frank Miller’s work via a story in the colour supplement of the UK’s Mail on Sunday. I was around my aunt and uncle’s house. My uncle knew I was in to comics and thought I might be interested in the news feature about a new Batman comic. Continue reading Bat-week: Frank Miller and me→
This week is Batman week on State of Play, celebrating the release of the Batman: Arkham City video-game in New Zealand on Friday.
I’ve just looked at the last issue of the 5-part Batman: Arkham City prequel comic-book as well as the first two issues of the relaunched Detective Comics from DC and later this week I’ll share with you what I thought of them. Not Batman, but related, I’ll also be having a look at former Batman writer/artist Frank Miller’s Holy Terror graphic novel and getting back to you about that as well.
This week also sees the Blu-ray and DVD release of the Batman: Year One animated movie, based on the classic Batman origin tale by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli. It’s a cracking yarn following a very flawed pre-commissioner Jim Gordon and a fledgling Batman, drawn together for the first time by Gotham’s dark underbelly. I’ll hopefully have more to say about this later in the week (hint,hint). Continue reading Bat-week: Arkham City launch trailer, Detective Comics relaunch, Year One movie and Holy Terror!→
This week sees me wind down my formal game reviews to make time for the arrival of some of the year’s top titles that are being released over the next few weeks. I discuss why my last review, F1 2011 on the PS3, left bad taste in my mouth. I also rattle on about some of the exciting comic-books on their way to me from Mark One in Hamilton.
We all know what the PlayStation 3 is capable of. You only have to take a look at the Uncharted games and God of War 3 to see what Sony’s machine is made of. Dare I say it, but there’s nothing in the Xbox 360’s catalogue that even comes close to the PS3’s flag-ship titles. Now, I’m a great fan of the Xbox 360, but as Microsoft and Sony’s machines enter their twilight years it’s the PlayStation 3, and not the Xbox 360, that continues to surprise me. Continue reading Vic B’Stard’s week in review- F1 2011, Xbox Live Arcade, Batman: Arkham City and Frank Miller’s Holy Terror.→
It’s somewhat ironic, at a time when the rest of New Zealand is going mad for rugby that this Englishman has spent the week sitting in front of Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 enjoying a proper game of football. None of that odd game played by gentlemen with funny-shaped balls around here.
The big problem is that if you mention football in gaming circles, all you are going to hear is FIFA. EA’s football gaming franchise has pretty much got the digital version of the sport sewn up. I’ll admit to being rather disapponted when what I’d have preferred to be a nice review copy of FIFA 2012 actually turned out to be a copy of Konami’s PES 2012 instead. Continue reading Vic B’Stard’s week in review→
We’ve had zombie Nazis, wild west zombies and all manner of other reanimated flesh-eaters.
bizarrely, we have to hand it to Sega and their upcoming House of the Dead OVERKILL to lower the tone with ZOMBIE STRIPPERS!!
Gaming punters will get the chance to enjoy the gyrating hips of the recently deceased as their decaying bodies writhe around for their pleasure. Player will be able to enjoy the view and then blow their brains out, as one must when confronted with any sort of walking dead.
Those clever marketing guys at Sony have come up with an advert that says thank you to us all…for just being gamers.
The two minute long advert features the live action debut of many iconic PlayStation gaming icons as well as a few multi-platform stars. Set in a dimly lit bar, various gaming legends describe their adventures and thank the gamer that helped them live to tell the tale.
It’s been a rare weekend where I’ve found myself playing games purely for my own recreational purposes.
Having spent the week trying to negotiate with a viral infection coughed up by the Dark Lord Beelzebub himself, I finally finished Gears of War 3 and played enough multiplayer to get the gist of it enough to splutter out a rather huge review for the guys at Techday.com, for their Games Console section. You can read my Gears of War 3 review here.
Before playing though Gears of War 3, I also had to (start and) finish Gears of War 2, which I’d had lying about for the last few years without bothering with. After putting Gears of War 3 to bed (and back on my shelf), the completest in me turned to the original Gears of War, which I also never completed. I 99.9% finished it, tight up to the final fight with General Ramm. At the time, it fell into the too hard pile and I lost interest. Having spent the best part of the last week doing nothing but shooting grubbs, I decided to give old Rammy another bash…and killed him on the third attempt. Easy really. So in one week I finished all three Gears games. A Gold Star for me. Continue reading Playing games for fun→
I’m a long time fan of Remedy Entertainment from way back, when all they did was code tech demos for PC benchmarking. Their break-out 2001 game, Max Payne, successfully melded an adult, hard-boiled storyline with explosive gameplay and graphics. A couple of years later Max Payne 2 took it all to the next level. With Alan Wake, Remedy took the know-how from Max Payne and applied to something more akin to an episode of The Twilight Zone.
When I first heard about Alan Wake it was via a tiny piece in the front pages of a UK games mag, it was a bit different to the game that Microsoft ended up publishing in 2010. The early Alan Wake was a sandbox game where Alan could wander around Bright Falls safely during daylight, but was pursued by evil during the night. For reasons that are beyond me now, I was quite taken with the idea of taking a cable car up into the mountains. I think it was the whole newness od the interactive sandbox thing. I still enjoy aimlessly wandering and exploring in games like Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3. I wonder what that sandbox Bright Falls would have played like, especially as I’m currently having so much fun with the zombie sandbox, Dead Island. Remedy have gone on record stating that the changes were necessary to tighten and refine the story experience, something that they believed to be impossible with a sandbox environment. Continue reading Retrospective: Alan Wake Xbox 360 Review→
