The much awaited Quantic Dream release, Heavy Rain, has finally hit the shelves. Written and directed by the company’s founder and CEO, David Cage, this game received much publicity and hype before its release, due to the realistic graphics and multiple playable protagonist angle, but does it live up to all the talk?

The game commences with playable character, Ethan Mars, awakening to a picture perfect day in his ideal suburban home. Straight away the graphics have an immense impact. As Ethan walks around the house; showering, dressing and generally investigating, it all looks very real. It actually feels like you are somehow playing a movie. From the running water in the bathroom basin to the dust particles and dandelion flowers flying through the air, the game looks good, there is no denying that. This aspect of Heavy Rain continues for its entirety, with the copious amounts of rain and various settings. …read more

Death Knight is the latest offering from Tokyopop and Warld of Warcrafts collabaration. I details the story of Thassarian, whom Alliance players in World of Warcraft, will be very familiar with, and for the Horde players out there, Koltira, your Thassarian is also present in the manga.

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The Hurt Locker sees an American Army’s elite Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) squad in some very intense situations. Staff Sergeant William James takes over the team and he’s not what the other members are used to. His cavalier attitude has them fearing that, in the last few weeks of their tour, he will kill not only himself but them too. At times, it’s hard to tell if he’s incredibly brave or just a bit mad and this seems to be the issue his team has too.

While it’s obviously and American film about American soldiers during the beginning of the current Golf War, to its credit, The Hurt Locker doesn’t take sides. It doesn’t follow a clear narrative either. Sure, there’s a new guy in town and you have the feeling that it’s not going to end well, he clearly has issues and these have to be addressed, but the film is essentially a series of highly intense situations, most of which involve the handling of home made bombs or Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). There also isn’t a great deal of character development but there are moments throughout the film where certain characters are shown in a very vulnerable light. This definitely helps the audience make a connection with them and offers a shift in mood from the edge-if-your-seat stuff of bomb disarmament. …read more

It seems nowdays, that a thriller movie guaranteed to “scare you senseless”, is released every week. Rarely do they live up to their promise and they mostly always follow a generic formula that has been tried and tried by the previously released films of the same genre. Then along comes Eden Lake.

Eden lake starts off as most thriller movies do and yes, it does follow a lot of generic thriller movie formulas, but it’s the content in Eden Lake that makes it so powerful. It opens with a young couple, happily in love, heading off on a trip to get away from their everyday lives. Steve (Michael Fassbender) and Jenny (Kelly Reilly) come across Eden Lake, a bushland situated just outside a small local town that is currently under development. While relaxing lakeside, they encounter some local youths playing loud music and letting their dog run amok. A situation that everyone in their lives would encounter in one way or the other. In an attempt to retain some of the lakes calming atmosphere, Steve approaches the youths and kindly asks them to turn the music down and to pay a bit more attention to what their dog is doing. After what turns out to be an extremely hostile encounter, Steve cuts his losses and goes back to Jenny. The youths eventually leave and Steve and Jenny finally relax, believing that this is the much needed getaway that they both wanted, unaware of the terror that is just hours in front of them. …read more

Power is a mine worker from a small New Mexico town who has a fairly unconventional passion. After not having enough money as kid to buy drums, he takes up the highly skilled and very unpopular hobby of air drumming. Seen as a bit of a freak by most of the towns folk, except for one young Mexican kid and his Aunt Joni (played by the brilliant Jane Lynch), Power still believes that air-drumming is the way forward and the answer to a brighter tomorrow.

Power gets wind that there are other people out there with air drumming in their veins and sets out on a cross-country trip to find a place where he fits in and to ultimately succeed in his journey. The usual trials and tribulation that accompany any underdog and his pals on a quest for glory are present here, and while there are certainly no surprises when it comes to basic storyline, Adventures of Power is still a lot of fun and there are some truly hilarious moments.

Adrian Grenier is great (in an absurd way) as Power’s big competition, a “real” drummer who, much to his father’s distaste, has air drumming in his heart. Ari Gold, who also wrote and directed the film, is endearing as the cereal loving Power. …read more

Dead Snow (Norwegian Død Snø), is brought to us by Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola and is set in the snow fields of Øksfjord, where a group of students are spending their Easter break. A vacation which is rudely interrupted by a group of Nazi zombies who had terrorised the area during World War II.

Dead Snow generally follows the typical horror genre formula. You know who’s going to get it in the neck first and who’ll have more staying power, but there are several surprises in this Scandinavian slasher. For one, the zombies seem to have some brains. They’re not just mindless drones waddling about and this makes them all the more scary. Also, the victims of the Nazi’s campaign of terror aren’t as stupid as your usual horror flick chumps, some of them showing extreme survival techniques throughout the film. These kids want to live and they’ll do pretty much anything to achieve this.

Being set in snow covered mountains, Dead Snow is quite visually striking, especially when the blood starts being sprayed about the place. The contrast of red on white is really quite effective. …read more

The Apocalypse, is finally here.

In what has to be one of the most anticipated games of the new year, Darksiders sees War, one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, banished to earth by the Charred Council, on a journey to discover the truth behind why the Apocalypse has been activated early, to find who is responsible for the chaos and to bring them to a swift and bloody justice.

Featuring Creative Director Joe Madureira, who will be familiar with comic book fans due to his artwork with titles such as X-Men and Deadpool. Darksiders is a visually striking game that stands immediately on its own feet in terms of presentation and production. But, the game also holds its influences close to its heart and is not afraid to show them.

Does the gameplay in Darksiders match up with the brilliant production values to create one of the must have titles on Xbox 360 and PS3 for 2010?

Read on to find out. …read more

James Cameron’s Avatar The Game is set two years before the story that takes place in the film Avatar.

As a film, Avatar is being citied as this generation’s example of advancement in technology due to its heavy use of CGI and 3D technology. The game though, has been welcomed with slightly less welcoming arms. The excitement and interest is definitely there, but due to a long run of less that average games based around licensed products, gamers are still cautious when playing a game that is based around a licensed product, especially a movie.

Will James Cameron’s Avatar the game have the impact on the video game industry that the film has had on the film industry?

Read on to find out.

James Cameron’s Avatar, sees the player take the role of Abel Rider. A “sig-spec” (signal specialist) for the RDA arriving on Pandora after being in stasis for five years. For the one person out there that hasn’t yet seen the film, the RDA are a big corporate human lead monster that is invading the Na’vi populated world of Pandora. The RDA is trying to work with and gain the trust of the Na’vi in order to gain access to their world and resources. They do this by using Avatars, which allow the human subject to take control of an avatar in the form of the Na’vi. They can use and learn their abilities, interact with the environment of Pandora and use their weapons. …read more

The latest game in the Scene It? franchise is Scene It? Bright Lights! Big Screen! (from herein referred to as Scene It? BLBS). This game follows the Scene It? tradition of offering a variety of movie trivia questions that can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

The big news is that Scene It? BLBS is available on the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii, whereas the previous games were only available on the Xbox 360. And while you can use standard games console controllers to play the game, it is also possible to use Microsoft’s Big Button controllers or Sony’s Buzz Buzzers. Handy.

Scene It? BLBS you cannot use your own avatar, as with in Scene It? Box Office Smash. This could be due to the inclusion of the other consoles, but I quite liked that touch with the game released earlier this year. In BLBS you can choose to play as characters provided which include the warrior, super hero mummy starlet, horror queen and action hero which all have different expressions and odd little noises.

Apart from these things, there is not a lot that is different between this and the previous Scene It?game. There is still a long and a short game mode and there is also an included Rapid Fire and Party Play option for those who don’t want to commit to a full length game. …read more

Mx vs Atv: Reflex is the third game in the Mx vs Atv series from THQ and developer Rainbow Studios.

Mx vs Atv: Unleashed was the debut game in the series. Release on the first generation Xbox back in 2005, Unleashed was followed up with Mx vs Atv: Untamed which was released on most formats in 2007. While both games were received with positive acclaim, they were still criticized for having a split personality and being stuck halfway between a hardcore sim and an arcade racer.

How does Mx vs Atv: Reflex compare to the two previous titles? Have rainbow studios discovered the true identity behind the Mx vs Atv series?

Read on to find out.

The vibrant colours and introduction sequence are an immediate indication as to the attitude that is portrayed through out Reflex. The game is gritty, dirty and full of extreme attitude of the sporting kind. Gameplay in Mx vs ATV: Reflex is broken up into three sections - Arcade, Motocareer and Multiplayer. But, before the player can jump into the riders seat and get in on the action. They must first complete the necessary tutorials. …read more