Review

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Now you see me: Conversational review

This is an experiment in film review for us. Tonight Justin and I review “Now you see me” in tandem and like a verbal conversation… except in writing.

Shaun: the premise is interesting, magic and thievery. We could stay home and watch Dynamo or watch this and I am not sure I will be convinced of the trickery that is usually practical and live. Hollywood is all over this so should I be trying to “believe”.

Justin: so the beginning, do the cards represent what’s to happen?

Shaun: No spoilers!

Justin: The cast for the film was well done even though I find that Dave Franco is a bit annoying

Shaun: Is that because he’s the bad guy from Warm Bodies? The movie quickly gets on with the show because as quickly as we know the main characters we are 1 year in and they’re a big deal. I’m not upset that they skipped all that boring stuff because who cares. The film feels well polished and the glitz and glamour of show business rings perfectly for the subject matter. Lots of pretty CGI and things no one, not even Val Valentino the masked magician can explain.

Justin: It’s not the characters he plays it’s his face, Justin does not like. But you’re right a montage of 1 years training is boring. And does Morgan Freeman and the girl beside him have to record they are right beside each other.

Shaun: What seems to be evident right through the movie is that they are trying to hand you red herring after red herring and keeping you guessing for approx. the 75% of the movie. The problem is that it’s not a huge “Ah-Ha” moment like you were possibly onto a scent. I felt a bit cheated of the payoff as nothing hinted it or even pointed in that direction. Like an empty game of Cluedo where someone opens the clue envelope ½ way into the game and everyone was clueless.

Justin: Yea this movie does like to spin you around and around hinting at possible answers I know that more than once Dad shouted what he thought was the answer.

Shaun: But was he right at any point?

Justin: Nope. I don’t think that he ever got it correct got close, but not correct.

Shaun: It was like pointing at most of the people except the actual person. Am I asking too much to get a hint? Melanie Laurent was great, she’s purdy. Costume department had her put on the typical French woman’s striped blouse, some stereotypes…

Dynamo is a big deal in our house, he’s pretty darn amazing with the sleight of hand and then slaps you in the face with levitation, you can’t beat that kind of trickery. How in the heck does he do it? When I watch a movie with the same tricks, all I can think about is how it’s just camera tricks and green screen. Dynamo doesn’t get that kind of action, not on the street anyway.

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Bioshock Infinite…… finnaly

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Its a stormy night in the middle of the sea you approach a light house and inside you find some notes along the way you make your way to the top of the tower and find a machine that does not look like its from the same world……. wait…. yep, the next second you find your self in a weird and wonderful world ….. wait is this correct… yea it’s right.

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Man they are so close

Finally I have been able to get my hands on Irrational Games Bioshock Infinite and to be quick I @#&!ING love it. Now Infinite is set in the new city of Colombia a city devoted to the 20th century American beliefs such as jingoism, extreme nationalism and racism Infinite makes it clear that they don’t mind showing the real post civil war America, I praise the developer for making such a bold move and showing this subject that is usually kept away for movies and books, because of this stand we see first hand the racism that was cast upon the Blacks, Irish and the Asians even though you don’t get to kill any.

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On top of the atmosphere the art direction and the detail that has gone into this new world is bordering on the insanity and this is not just for the large areas all rooms have such a great amount of detail that I found my self just wondering around aimlessly because I wanted to see what lay in other rooms. But this game is in no means an open world and for those who have played the original Bioshocks will should expect similar pacing, you will find yourself pacing back to some locations but it never feels repetitive you might stumble upon a piece of gear you missed the last time. Colombia feels like a real living world, citizens go out and shop or stop for some ice cream and sit on the beach, there are a million other things they can do …. but now is not the time to discuss them.

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The leader of this sky high utopia is Zachery Comstock this mysterious prophet glorify’s the founding fathers but doesn’t mind having a few titan size statues in his own honor, in comparison comstock and Raptures Andrew Ryan are very different Ryan celebrates the individual but Comstock would rather preserve the nation. This difference also goes for the main protagonist Booker DeWitt he moves away from the old by actually speaking, right from the start Bookers intentions are clear “Give us the girl, Wipe away the debt” this translates to rescue Elizabeth a doe-eyed young girl from Colombia I’m going to leave it at that.

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Ain’t she lovely to look at

Sometime the story will make your head hurt a bit here and there.  Booker and Elizabeth are mostly together she may make the game seem to be a over glorified escort mission but the more she interacted with the world the more I began to see that without her the game would feel incomplete her relationship with Booker can be compared with Half-Life 2’s Alyx and Gordon, and she can be a literal life saver as the game gets more and more intense, bigger guys with bigger guns I found it comforting that she could throw me a gun or health when in a tight spot this makes her more of  a guardian angel rater then a nuisance.

The games Storytelling is only matched by its gameplay there are some very memorable moments in the game like the first time you combine two vigors (Colombia’s version of Plasmids) or the first kill whilst on the Sky-lines yes their here and they are a hell of a lotta fun.

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Sometimes the fights do get quite out of control but when Elizabeth brings in a automated automaton it can give you a opportunity to flank the enemy this differs from player to player depending if they want to go in guns a blazing or fighting smart. My only problem with the combat is that the enemy’s have “Hive mind” this doesn’t give many stealth options.

So does Bioshock Infinite live up to its predecessors journey in to the lighthouse?

The way I see it, surpasses its older brother and does it very well the original Bioshock was a near perfect game but Infinite succeeds by perfecting the pacing and engaging game play but lets not forget the story, sure the game has a few niggles with it but these little things never made me want to stop.

Irrational has delivered upon its original intentions and has provided one of the best games I have ever played but now whats next… this game will sit in history as one of the best storytelling experiences.

9.9/10

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Do I enjoy?: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite WiFi

I am Australian so we get great weather, good food, big open spaces, police around every corner waiting to book you for speeding, bogans and Julia Gillard. Stuff we don’t get so easily (if we like it or not) is things from Amazon; because shipping is a million dollars and it will arrive sometime eventually next year. So I told myself that there would be no chance in damnation that I would buy a Kobo or Barnes and Noble reader or a ‘not Kindle but trying hard to be one’ simply because they have small book selections and looked like a dog’s breakfast.

So to onwards to Google and I found readershop.com.au, a local and passionate supplier of all things Kindle and I was amazed at the selection of Kindles on offer with all the cases and accessories I could possibly want, this was heaven for the Kindle minded but let me explain myself. I like the iPad, I would very much enjoy it if it were given to me. It has all the right apps to do everything I could possibly want but there’s a catch for me and that is distraction. I just know I would be inclined to flip between book and internet and then a game of Bad Piggies, the possibilities would be endless so by the end of the night I would have read one page of a novel and then spent the rest of the time figuring out the best way to get the small one and the fat one to find all 20 stars, it’s just too much. Put that on top of having my eyes hurting from the glare and you have a one way ticket on the red eye.

So to the Kindle-not-exactly-Paperwhite, the reviews have come back as positive, it’s lit from the front by a thin membrane that is side lit and then fills the screen with light on the screen and not behind it. This is very much like having a homogenous light shone on just the page at night albeit very slightly green or pink in certain parts. Very relaxing and adjustable too so you can “turn down the lights” when the going gets dark, this also saves battery. I am not sure of the “8 weeks of reasonable daily use” claim but I know I don’t charge it often at all, you can read for 2 hours a day and it would have 50%in reserve after 2 weeks.

Onto reading, the resolution is good, text is clear and sharp and the touch quality is passable, sometimes not registering the touch to change page exactly but that might be my dry hands or it misses America and is being petulant. Still for it’s small foibles I have taken a shine to it, it is wrapped in a dark blue leather flip case with faux-suede lining and is called ‘Kinzie’. Now I walk around everywhere with my  Kinzie and people think I am a bible salesman or I want to “open their eyes to the gospel”. They are wrong of course, all I want to do is read. I Enjoy.
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Borderland 2 OMG SPOOGE

Justin: Me and Shaun for the past month or so have been playing borderlands 2 with friends and we have loved every moment of it

Story
Set 5 years after the original borderlands the over confident Handsome Jack has taken over Hyperion and has erected a totalitarian like rule over the people of Pandora its obvious that this guy has to be the bad guys and your right he is, jack as he is one of the main protagonists he has lots of dialog which weirdly enough got some chuckles out of me “Hey how – Oh these pretzels suck- so how’s your day been buddy? We haven’t talked since I left you in for dead. Hey, you think you’ll freeze to death out there? Nah, probably not. The bandits’ll get you first my day? It’s been pretty good. I just bought a pony made of diamonds, yeah, because I’m rich. So, you know, that’s cool Kay bye!” The previously playable characters from the original borderland return as NPCs and are there to see this story through.

Along with the returning cast of old NPCs Scooter, CL4P-TP, and Angel there are a huge variety of hey NPCs which will grow on you as the game progresses

Presentation
The art style from the last borderlands has returned and along with the return of the art style there are new locations and SNOW yes snow its no longer just desert and ice the new found locations of Pandora has familiar touches to it like loot… and more loot …and more loot oh yea bad guys to, this all culminates to a great looking game also the new Phys X graphics make the world feel even more inhabitable other then the animals that will want to kill you and the bandits and the evil robots yea I think that’s all of the enemies that want to kill you.

Gameplay
If you are new to Borderlands think RPG crossed with FPS in the best possible way. The games is based mostly on loot with a randomly generated gun system this mean lots of guns, and by a lot I mean 87 gajillion guns yea you think that u got lots of guns in your last game with this huge selection of guns it means that you will find something that you like but will throw it away like last weeks milk, the game is easy to get absorbed in jumping in your car with your buddy’s and blowing up trains, bad guys,pipe lines and so many barrels often you get the most fun out of finding exploits in your enemy’s such as what elemental weakness they have.

The first game was repetitive quests and wasn’t very imaginative but I still had fun and spent countless hours with my friends and family playing.
There are 4 new heroes to play from Axton the commando Maya the siren, Salvador the gunzerker and Zer0 as a ‘Number’ all of these heroes have a back story which comes in the form of ECHOEs which builds some necessary back story for these heroes, there are also ECHOEs for some of the NPCs

Multiplayer
The typical thing reaction to the words multiplayer is that of leveling up and unlocking guns for killing your buddy’s but here the game is based on CO-OP which is one of the best parts of the game its not only designed as a primary function but also allows for better loot despite the increase in difficulty when friends join but also more fun can be had when playing with friends, the four playable characters are all designed for CO-OP gameplay for example my siren friend can Phaselock an enemy and I as the Commando can throw down my saber turret, this is great if you have friends to play with sadly we all have run in to ‘assholes’ who steal all the loot and one shot every thing with their level 50 Zer0 but this is solved with private matches the online is a smooth one on release day the game ran as smoothly and has not needed any work.

Overall
The weird and crazy world that Gearbox has created has really created a place I want to stay and with 4 new DLC coming out it will be a stay which will be along one the gameplay defies the genre and isn’t just some modern day shooter its good to have a game that when played even with randoms brings everyone together