Telltale cleverly set up the whole series and blew it out of the water with this amazing finale to the six-episode stint

But the majesty of Sam & Max is that any adventure with them is about as random as the beginning of a Simpson's episode, so Telltale should never run out of ideas. And I believe they have plans for a second season -they better do!

One thing that really shows from this experience is that episodic content does work really well -as long as you've got a much loved ip- so it's quite a shame that David Cage was made to create a whole game of Fahrenheit as opposed to episodes, which is what he really wanted to achieve.

For the finale of Sam & Max they seriously raised the bar, the episode was hilarious, with many strange goings on - Bosco's mum, the Queen of Canada, a game with the perfect AI, Max's bad habits running amock, the head of Abraham Lincoln on a date with Sybil, and the highly entertaining circus torture attraction!.

Episode 6 is hands down, now my favourite episode, if only for this quote; "It was too short. And not hard enough. I want my money back!" Which had such a cute inclusion into the game, where at the start of the series many similar complaints were made about Sam & Max.

And it ended with one of the best credit sequences so far; better than Ted. E. Bear's mafia song, better than the C.O.P.S song. 'It's a Max, Max, Max, Max World!' together with a cute cutscene going on in the background to conclude the (I wanna say show!) series.

Isn't the new trailer for Assassin's Creed amazing?

If anything to me; for perfection it looks to be Hitman set in the crusades, though being developed by Ubisoft Montreal; creators of Splinter Cell I am worried slightly at how it will play, but for the moment I'm going to try and forget about as much of it as possible, and await it's 2007 *fingers crossed* release. Though seeing as Ubi have promised a demo at E3 (July) we can possibly hope for a fall-ish release?

From the video the combat looks amazing, as do the animations and general overall graphics of the piece. The levels look fantastic, and it’s all very beautiful, but then it got me thinking about the coined 'Next Gen' phase of gaming.

Next gen is a term thrown around quite a bit; understandably we are currently on new consoles that I suppose are next-gen in proportion, (it can be debated whether or not we have left the sixth generation as PS2 still takes sales, though seventh is definitely out there) but does it really make the games any different.

Truth be told, I loved it when the generations of consoles were easily pegged by era's, the 8-bit all the way up to 128-bit period was awesome, but now everything is technical and specs are run off akin to a computer; nothing is as fun anymore. Everything is becoming more advanced, more realistic, but luckily the games are getting appreciated more.

So what exactly is a next generation game? (I've looked to the most obvious places yet) I am unable to find a definition, the termage ‘next generation consoles’ makes perfect sense (the next step in consoles), but next generation games are something that gets thrown around in discussion on boards and forums and the like, without any clear definition.

Granted, that most of the time, the next-gen-ness of a game is weighted on the quality of it's graphics; but is this because gameplay does not seem to be evolving at all, or because a lot of gamers just don't really care about the substance of a game, and just want the style... of course I don't blame games developers, after all it's much easier to use the stuff that sells, or that’s what I think they must be telling themselves.

But then that's not really next gen is it? Shouldn't next gen be a new experience, a new way of playing?
Personally I feel that to be next gen is defined by something 'special', it describes something that you may have never been able to do in a game before, it is trying to split the line between videogames and interactivity. I'll try and give an example.

I'll give you a few good and bad examples of next-gen games, please correct me if I'm wrong on any of them, but I feel they are good sentiments;

Good Example

Condemned Criminal Origins (Monolith, 2005) - So perhaps this isn't the most innovative of games; but it's a cross between survival horror and an FPS on a grand scale.
To me, it was a game that really broke the boundary between just 'watching' while you play a game, and actually playing a game, with condemned criminal origins (as long as you have a good 5.1 system) you can become so engrossed in the game you are on edge for the slightest sound. I must admit though, that it really shocks me that it took so long for a game to go so far to immerse a player.

Bad Example

Gears of War (Epic, 2006) - I do not even want to count how many GOTY awards this piece of crap won, it's a third person action game; apparently it's really good. Ha!
There is close to no innovation in the game; other than using a war camera -which was already used in GRAW- and a nice easy control system the game has nothing to offer 'fore a very cheap story, some flashy graphics and a lot of brown colours. I'm sorry but in my opinion there is nothing going for this game that makes it at all next gen, in what way at all is it innovative?

"Gears of War," a third-person shooter by Epic Games, delivers the first true next-generation experience. -MSNBC.COM

So why does it seem that the games that are completely abusing the next-gen title are getting all the recognition? I can tell you that you will not read about how much of a next-gen experience Condemned is published magazines or regarded websites, apart from casual comments from gamers who recognise the phenomenal experience the game achieved.

Let’s just examine a few of the games that I have in my room on the 360 (by rights, all next gen titles)

Dead Rising- The ability to fully decapitate zombies in an pretty good interactive environment, a good attempt at a possible next gen game.

Oblivion- Morrowind with souped up graphics

Lost Planet- Don't get me started! :P

Saints Row- Some nice features, but otherwise just an improved GTA sandbox game.

GRAW- An amazing tactical shooter with great graphics, but that's about it.

Rainbow Six Vegas- Amazing graphics and an improvement on the tactical shooter, but nothing amazingly different from its peers.

Hitman Blood Money- Hitman improved by miles, a great experience, with lovely graphics, but nothing completely original.

So, sorry, maybe I am wrong, and correct me if you believe that I am, but for the moment the state of next-gen gaming seems a little weak; but perhaps with titles like Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, GTA IV and best of all Fable 2 hitting our shores all around this and the beginning of next year perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I know for a fact some of the amazing features Fable should be giving us and just as equally GTA IV seems to be promising a level of interactivity which so far has not been fulfilled in any game to date. (Except for maybe Shenmue; which was undoubtedly ahead of it's time, though not in the same aspect of environment activity which next gen promises)

Mass Effect promises character development like no other, but as far as I am concerned, we have yet to have been given a truly next generation experience in a game, and so I cannot wait for the flood of innovative games that await release.

Not to mention what is in store in Metal Gear Solid 4, Silent Hill 5 and Double Fine's new game!!!

YOU WILL BE DESTROYED!!

Anyway, here it is, what you've all been waiting for my first ever most awesome video-game related cake

If you dont already know (and thats a crime) It is inspired from the Space Channel 5 logo, and those friendly little guys are morolians (the bad guy alien race)

It was created as an entry to this here's to hoping that we may win a copy

If you're interested to know the cake itself is a simple buttercream sponge cake (thanks to my mums old recipe), and all that gooey icing on top is buttercream fondant. Sorry it's not perfectly formed, but it was my first go at icing on a cake.
All of it was made by yours truely, and the fondant is sweet enough to make my own teeth hurt, from a simple small slice. ouch!

See how I changed the order of the words? Clever, eh?

This is England, written and directed by Shane Meadows (semi-prolific film-maker, personally I haven't seen many of his films) as a semi-autobiographical piece on Skinheads in the early 80s.

If there is one thing that Britain is known for, it's our grittiness, in film and television alike. The brutal realist kitchen sink dramas that started as early as the 50s and really came into its own in the 80s/90s are something that I know and love about our country.

I know some people aren't fans of our gritty ways, and they think that Britain's styles should grow out... but where would 28 Days Later be without it's grittiness. A big part of British cinema and television is working class based; because it's just reality, and a large influence on them is everyday life; we may not be as glamorous as the US, but god help us if we were. Britain's cinema is unique and This is England is a great example of this.

This is England is about as gritty as the bin used to be in our kitchen! And set in the midlands, it's about as gritty as you can get without heading further up north. (as far levels in British gritty entertainment goes)
This of course only gives the film more charm, because there's something about British actors that I find simply amazing, the cast of This is England are by large mostly unknown; of course you've got Stephen Graham and Perry Benson; who've both been around acting here and there for a while, but most of the cast are fairly fresh-faced, either appearing in the likes of Emmerdale and Coronation Street or Shane's previous films. Though the strangest cast member has to be Thomas Turgoose -Shaun; and subsequently the main character- who at 15 plays Shaun really well, and you feel for the little guy (granted he's one of those little kids you cant stand; or I can't stand... maybe it's just kids that age in general) and the performance he gives is so very realistic that he propells the film rather well!

The strangest part I felt was just how uncomfortable a film it was. Perhaps deemed so gritty that it stepped into the territory of brutal; I've felt similarly in the past with a few films or television shows (though unfortunately none off the top of my head) but it's a great experience. This is England makes you 'feel' on a basic level; and its a triumph of British cinema to create such. (we're not talking horror films here) Basic humanist ideals spring to mind. As there aren't nearly enough Humanist films made as there used to.

The film starts out great, and sets the scene of 80s Britain perfectly (if I were there) and the first half of the film is lovely; a group of friends just having fun and it's all very sweet. But the disruption of Combo throws everything, and suddenly the film becomes hard and raw and nothing is like it used to be.
The film has a really nice script and the characters are all 'real characters', Shane Meadows has really triumphed, just unfortunately his film is a little too real for some tastes, certified an 18 it is granted that it will be shown to a limited audience, lets just hope they make the most of it, because it's a real tragic piece of British cinema, with amazing performances from all.

So it's getting a nice big Cptalbertwesker rating of 8/10 (bonus point for being British, and for managing to be shown at our cineworld)

Link: http://www.collectormania.com

Whoa, sorry that this is so late, but hey I still cannot really get on the forums! Well, we set out Friday afternoon to get to Milton Keynes for our 2nd Collectormania; a cult television and film convention, spanning 3 days (the mayday weekend) with loads of scifi/cult/memorabilia stalls filling the Middleton hall of the mk:centre, as well as a plethora of guests from the likes of Brandon Routh and Terry Jones.

For some this may seem as geeky as geeky can get -meeting actors/resses, people dressing up, getting autographs, and generally seeing people that you watched on TV from a couple of weeks to decades ago- but, its great fun, and the overall vibe is amazing, everyone is having fun, and most of the guests always seem to be in fairly high spirits. This is of course not to mention the amazing crew that help keep the event running.

So, I must say this years guests were a lot more prolific than last, still nothing touches LFCC, but some of the guests were pretty damn amazing, I’ve already mentioned Brandon Routh (the new superman), Terry Jones (the best –writer!- of the pythons), James Marsters (of Buffy’s Spike fame), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia from Buffy and Angel), Grace Park (from BSG), Anthony Stewart Head (GILES!!), George Hertzberg (the cool Adam from Buffy) not to mention the re-appearance of Mark Lutz (the Groosulug)

With almost three whole days to talk about it makes me wonder how I may condense it without making an entry that will overshadow Catherine’s when she gets the time to write it.

So, I’ll begin with some of my personal favourites; the UK Browncoats stall!

Who were so amazingly awesome, and friendly (and many other kind compliments) I must admit I did pass some money to them; but I did get this amazingly awesome bag, and these very, very pretty coasters, and these pretty German lobby card/photo type things, and not only that, but it went to a good cause they even posed with moo, so if you want anything firefly/serenity related, buy it from them! (Although my bag is strangely not native to the website.. which is a tad odd)

Next up is the crew fantastico!! So, ok it’s not like the crew were any different from C10, but the showmasters crew are always completely amazingly friendly and helpful (ok, so there were quite a few no posed photo signs, but it’s not like they put them up to spite people, I just wish I had mentioned it in the Anthony queue :( ), they were absolutely fantastic! Because not only are they really cool, funny, helpful and occasionally a good chat, but many of them allowed a photo of them (and the guests!) with moo, so thank you crew!

Props to Shabs for being cool, and talking to us (not being very good with talking, it’s nice to meet people that can ably talk :) )

Onto the main event of the convention: (or it more-or-less was for me) James Marsters, complete with a hilarious talk, an amazing photoshoot, and as usual a handshake and polite thank you (unable to muster anything else). Either way he was so very cool (not Nathan Fillion cool but he’s up there) and it was amazing to meet such a big actor from the Buffyverse, even if his whole ethos went against the codes of Buffy (that it’s all about people that are not considered cool). His talk was great, and although we were seated somewhat in the middle near the back the planning was pretty good, everything was heard suitably, just the unfortunate seats were the hassle. He went over his hour by about 15 mins, and I’m a little surprised why his talk isn’t up on youtube or anything, regardless I wish that we were able to make it to the party and see Anthony play, but we couldn’t squeeze eating into the scenario. Let’s hope they both do another Showmasters event in the future! I really want to ask Anthony something if he does, just because he has a really amazing accent, and has a great laugh; he’s real cool.

Now of course James and Anthony were not the only amazing guests we went to see, Brandon was very nice about Catherine’s picture and is very tall and I really did wanna tell him that I liked his Clark Kent… but I suck.
The duo (George and Mark) were great together, entertaining people every day that they were there with their random remarks, and strange ideas (map and wall). Mark recognised us with much regret from C10 and dutifully posed with moo again.

Terry Jones was also present, who is such a cool guy, still with a good sense of humour, not all bitter like some people can sometimes be, I did manage to string some words together for Terry and congratulated him on his history programmes, for actually making a history programme enjoyable (because I do so like history).

Charisma seemed very happy, I did want to say something to her also, but I can never find the right time to say things, perhaps at the next convention I will try, after having the horrible time with Amber (which I really wanted to talk about) I should try and strive to talk…

Grace Park, was perhaps one of my favourite guests of the show, (it may be because she is infinitely cute as a Korean woman, but I don’t know :P) not only was she smiley and cute, she let us have her photo with moo, despite that she was no posed photos, and I managed to ask her (second time round mind you) if it was difficult filming C&C3. Aww I love Grace now, she’s awesome! I think that’s it for guests.

I’ll try to make this quick, because this is getting very long… but I only have one topic left to mention; cosplay! (or as guys like to put it; dressing up)
C11 was surprising full of cosplayers (being in a very crowded shopping mall) and some of them were very amazing, and rather unique, you know what, I’ll do this in a picture, that way it’s quicker ^_^

Everyone; your costumes are awesome; Peacekeeper guy gets props for having a unique costume, along with an awesome beard and scary eyes! And the Johnny Depp dude for having some amazing costumes!

Alongside these awesome cosplayers, there were also two very special people.

Headcrab hat!! How awesome is that, wish I had one to go with my Vortigaunt

Awesome Camberwick Green Life on Mars t-shirt woman! How awesome is her t-shirt? Not only that, but she makes them too (or Brian makes them not sure :P either way, if you want one, email Brian at birode@yahoo.com)

Now, as always, being in a different town means that we get to sample the food all around Milton Keynes (simply because otherwise the experience is wasted) in the three days that we were there we ate in numerous establishments (well apart from two evenings, where Wagamama was the only option ^_^) for our breakfast/lunch, and one particular place that stood out was Monday’s ‘brunch’ at Brunches, who were absolutely amazing, to put pretty much the contents of a club sandwich into a tortilla wrap, and it was absolutely gorgeous!!! Best lunch I’ve had in years! I recommend them to all; they’re a tad like Subway and make them in front of you, with numerous fillings.

Now to Wagamama for a REALLY affordable night, whereas most restaurants will give you a main course for around a tenner that you may get full on, at Wagamama you can buy most courses around £6 and there is no way about it that you WILL be full by the time you get about 2/3 through the meal. Not only that but Japanese cuisine is very very yummy. Unlike greasy (my experience anyway) Chinese food, Japanese is all very colourful and green, not to mention free tea! So don’t be put off by the label of Japanese, they don’t sell sushi. Their menu caters for vegetarians (some of the dishes just as good as the meat ones) very well, and serve a lovely mix of noodle and rice dishes, my words are not enough, the place is amazing, and maybe just maybe with Catherine having bought me a Wagamama cookbook in Guildford I may just be able to make some of it myself!

Oh yeah! This is what everyone was signing... cept Terry Jones

But don’t forget how you have been privy to my private experience of C11, so don’t forget to comment, or I’ll set Rene on you, he knows what’s going on!

Now as you may be able to tell, I haven't put every single photo taken on here, these are just a taste.. wanna see anything, drop me a line ^_^

Yes, what an interesting title this entry has, but I swear to you, every single word of it is relevant!

What is it about, you ask? Well none other of course than Spider-man 3, what I believe is set to be the last in the franchise of the Spider-man films, and I've gotta say, maybe it's about time unfortunately...

Amazing Spider-man (the only real good spider-man comic out there, props to Ultimate) has been running solid for about 45 years, sure it's had it's ups and downs, then its also had it's amazing highpoints; from Gwen Stacey's death to Kraven's suicide, most recently the Civil War. But comics (like television) work really well as they are short, to the point and leave you wanting more. It's for the same reason that Serenity does not work as well as Firefly.

Because you can tell a million different stories in a run of shows, but fitting a worthwhile lengthy story into one film can be a job, as you can see in Spider-man 3 (which must contain at least 5 different themes/stories going on)the film didn't really seem to hold a specific genre or

In Spiderman 4 we see the reappearance of Tobey McGuire as Peter, Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane, James Franco as Harry Osborn and a few new faces: Topher Grace as Eddie Brock, Thomas Hayden Church as Flint Marko and Bryce Dallas Howard as ms. Gwen Stacy.

I believe the main problem that I had with the film was unfortunately James Franco's skit as the Green Goblin #2, I must admit I was never a fan of the Osborn’s... perhaps it was the way their hair looked, or maybe it was that recent Gwen Stacy arc they put into amazing Spiderman; who knows?!

But there were just so many points in Spiderman 3 that I was just not so happy with, and I believe one reason for this was that as I previously mentioned, there were just way too many stories going on at the same time; perhaps if they had simply stuck to the Venom angle that would have been cool, but to include the Sandman -who, though looking cool, has got to be one of the lamest average villains- as well as some weird break-up with Mary Jane and Peter as well as the ongoing feud between Harry and Peter is just madness.
In all fairness they did attempt to stick to the comics; but jumbling up about five different plotlines into one just muddles the whole film.

I understand the whole redemption theme going on with Harry, and the same happened in the comics... but his redemption went a tad too far (in the amazing death of Harry, who died from his goblin toxins he saved Mary Jane and his daughter from a burning building) when he decidedly joined Peter's fight and slew the villains by his side.

Otherwise besides this and all the many many plotlines, the film did work well; though on perhaps a slightly comical angle.

Jameson popping pills, Ted Raimi, Bruce Campbell's French maitre'd, Peter's emo transformation, Peter's geeky dancing the list goes on, after Spiderman it certainly seems that the films have progressively become more and more of a joke. I can't complain, if there's anything I love its the personal, normal life that a superhero leads which really interests me (crazy yeah? :P)

No-one seemed to be as enthused in Spiderman 3 as they had the previous films, but nevertheless it was better than the Fantastic Four. With some awesome effects for the Sandman and some equally ok ones for the alien symbiote. The writing was not the best, and not as good as the original, and the same must be said for the editing; which at times was waaaay too action orientated, making it extremely hard to follow what was happening on screen.

But overall the film was still a fun romp, without the amazingness of the first, but without the silly ending of the second... ok, still had a silly end but still, gonna give it something close to a Cptalbertwesker rating of 7/10

Look out for my post on my fun-filled weekend at collectormania soon!

"Drive follows the lives of a group of Americans racing each other in a sinister and possibly mortal cross-country race" (Tv.com)

No, it doesn't sound very interesting does it? That was my first thought on the premise of Tim Minear's newest input to the television world, in fact the idea sounded rather idiotic... and perhaps there is the show's downfall.
But I've gotta say using a billing like that, the show is only going to appeal to a certain type of people, without even giving the show a chance to spread via word of mouth Fox cancelled it after it being premiered 10 days earlier! Isn't that a tad premature.

Don't get me wrong, if the show was crap, I wouldn't be ranting about this... it is basically a little bit of Lost, but on wheels (^_^) considering the idea behind the show it's really good, and rather suspenseful (a quality not seen too often in television) and marketed like crazy.

So it was then to my utter surprise that after only grabbing 6 million viewers (large to the UK's standards) that it was deemed cancelled after only four episodes!

So, alright, perhaps the show isn't really my cup on tea.. what exactly is so spectacular about watching perhaps a third of a show of people driving around... but the character's have been written well, and the all important dialogue is there also.

After all, this is Tim Minear; the guy that wrote perhaps my most favourite episode of Angel ever (on par with Wating in the Wings and some of Whedon's others) 'Are you Now, or Have you Ever Been' not to mention Firefly's fabulous 'Out of Gas' and 'The Message', and this does show in Drive; with the script Minear worked on being the most interesting and more character driven. (if ya ask me)

Not to mention a few actors/resses from the Whedon-verse, namely Nathan Fillion (Alex Tully, whose as awesome as always), Amy Acker (Tully's missing wife Kathryn) along with a surprise appearance by Richard Brooks' whose voice is amazing, and I had recognised him from the second he began talking.

Then there's Melanie Lynskey who's Wendy Patrakas is such an endering character, you cannot help but love her... reminds me of Fred from Pylea so innocent looking.

The show also had some amazing lines and some funny goings on (not to mention Fillion's character Alex being beaten up with a laptop!); but I suppose, the way I see it, if a show is fairly good (like the start of Drive has shown me) it must be cancelled quickly or else it run for many many seasons and go crap. But they could have at least given Drive it's run of twelve episodes.

And the best til last

Watch this space for my rant on the Wonderful Wonderfalls which hope to watch soon.

Until next time true believers!

Sorry, that was the most inventive title I could create... I much prefer a good title as opposed to 'Sunshine - Review' as I cowardly named all previous reviews of mine, but on this blog everything is different. I far prefer to write something interesting, so no longer am I writing the basics. Though I must add, that if you have not seen this films, there will very probably be some spoilers herein, I'll try and warn you...

Sunshine is the newest outing for Danny Boyle; starring one of his current favourite actors, Cillian Murphy; and with good reason, if there's one versatile actor around films at the moment its the young man from Ireland from playing Dr Crane in Batman Begins to Kitten in Breakfast on Pluto or Jim in 28 Days Later he sure knows how to pick his films, but I think I've got to say his acting didn't exactly shine (haha) in this particular film, no unfortunately none of the actors really did it for me, but I must say that I did coherently know each and every person's name, and face; which is really something to go by for myself when there is a largish cast.

Staring Chris 'Human Torch' Evans and the likes of Hiroyuki Sanada 'The Evil But Handsome Prince Khalid' Cliff Curtis from the Majestic, Casanova's Rose Byrne,the very Chinese actress Michelle Yeoh, and a strangely placed Mark Strong. Suffice to say, it's an extremley varied cast!

The story itself is fairly simple; 57 years in the future the Sun is dying, and the good ship Icarus II (Icarus I having failed their mission 7 years previous) is sent out to attempt to revive it by detonating a bomb into the sun, and the film itself was infact overseen by Dr. Brian Cox of CERN to ensure that everything was up to standard!

One aspect that I must applaud (which is a real once-in-a-blue-moon type event) is the visuals, the cgi work was absolutely stunning, and sadly I've got to say it's quite a surprise for a British made film. But if you are a visual's person, then go see the film simply for that, the sun looks amazing in it, but not half as amazing as the ship!

The real disapointment of the film was I could only say was the third act; what was shaping up to be a really nice science fiction film to then transformed into a horrible slasher flic; which I would have easily been able to deal with if it didn't seem as though it was a quick escape to shorten the film; being particularly short for a typical science fiction film. This was a particular gripe for me, as the film could have obviously gone many, many cliched science fictiony ways, and could have come out better than Sunshine's raving-lunatic-wating-to-kill-everyone.. (though I must say I had a particular perchant for 'everyone has a time they must die')
But there were points in the film where I was trying to decypher what would happen, going so far as:

'the computer's gonna turn against them and have them killed' (which after 2001 I love to see in a film; machines against humans a personal favourite)

or

'oh, perhaps they all get a bit paranoid and start killing each other' (which in effect I may have prefered over their choice of third act)

So far, my review sounds pretty negative, but please do consider that I did really, really enjoy the film and I really 'got into' Sunshine, it was a nice breath of fresh air; with most recent science fiction... well being rather non-existant. (other than Children of Men, which doesn't count as I have not yet seen it)

The film definately eminates a longing for the type of science fiction they no longer tend to make; 2001 and Solaris in particular (and all those films made in the 90's aboard spacestations and the like) and it makes a nice change to the science fiction full of universes and such.

So I'll give it a Cptalbertwesker rating of... say 6/10

Like I said, I would have loved the film if it had just gone a different angle.

On another note; due to it's qualities as a sort of block buster film (by Boyle's standards, I am really really surprised that it doesn't come out in the US til Sep 07 ha america! ^_^)