Game review! Arkham Origins

Arkham Origins Review – Xbox 360

After first becoming a fan of Batman since the epic reimagining by Christopher Nolan in The Dark Knight films. I bought Arkham Asylum in 2009 and was blown away by Rocksteady’s interpretation of the character, the sinister storyline and just how much fun it was to be Batman and to smash randomly placed villains.

The follow up to this was 2011’s Arkham City which was an open world style game, the polar opposite to the enclosed feel of Asylum. Whilst I wasn’t as keen on the storyline of City, the game itself was superb. Big, wide open spaces led to opportunities to glide seamlessly around the city and swooping down on groups of thugs that were up to no good. The interpretation of the DC Super villains has on the whole being excellent with fantastic character designs, voice acting and on screen presence. Arkham Asylum’s main standouts were the sinister ‘Scarecrow’ with the dream segments and cut scenes in that first game being unmatched in anything seen in the next two games. Next the obvious standout is ‘The Joker’ a wonderfully dark character with his sinister laugh and taste for manic chaos.

Arkham City brought characters such as ‘The Penguin’ and ‘Deadshot’ into the field of play and made an environment that was grand in scale but rich in detail with ‘easter eggs’ around every corner giving fanatics that extra detail that they crave.

However it was with trepidation that the news broke that a new developer would be taking over the mantle of the Bat and be making that dreaded prequel that is rarely ever done well.

However after the first trailer was released, these thoughts were dispelled quickly. The general plot revolves around the imagining that this early career Batman has just appeared on the scene and is only used to dealing with drug dealers and petty crimes. However all this changes after Gotham’s top crime lord ‘Black Mask’ decides that Batman is becoming a pain and brings eight of the top assassins in the world to Gotham to terminate him.

I won’t reveal many spoilers because I’m not even half way through the game yet but it quickly becomes apparent that there is something darker going on than first thought.

The opening of the game takes place in Blackgate prison and has Batman after correspondence with Butler Alfred tracking down Black Mask who is reported to have escaped and has taken Commissioner Loeb prisoner. This ends with Batman after a frantic chase around the prison seeing Loeb gassed to death as he is too late to save him. He also fails to reprimand Black Mask who escapes via the rooftops and leaves Batman to battle it out his servant Killer Croc in a rather disappointing battle that feels just like an ordinary thug fight but with an oversized green guy who looks a bit like a Crocodile.

My main issue so far is that the game definitely lacks the detail of the previous two; you don’t get the same sense of the blood, sweat and tears that Rocksteady put into making the two previous Arkham titles so amazing. The streets are quite bereft of little touches like posters and links to the DC Verse like the other two.

However the game quickly picks up and the next few segments such as infiltrating Penguin’s Final Offer Cruise ship are excellent and the boss battle with Deathstroke both frustrating and brilliant in similar measures.

On a side note its worth buying the game for the moment The Joker is revealed for the first time in a bank heist. It is pure cinema and very Christopher Nolan like.

The new detective mode is good and a nice new addition, it is enjoyable scrubbing back through crime scenes to reveal the perpetrators of the crimes. The crimes in progress that you can avert to from your main mission offer a welcome diversion but are all of fairly similar nature: mostly involving taking out a group of thugs on ground level that are breaking into cash machines etc.

Overall the team at Warner Brothers have done an excellent continuation that definitely has the feel of an Arkham game but still feels like a smaller sibling or a cousin that you don’t really talk to. However I know that in terms of the storyline I still have the best to come so, on that note I am off to Pioneers Bridge.

8/10

Gig Review! Bastille @TheO2 Leeds

Last week I went to see Bastille perform live at the O2 in Leeds. Here are my thoughts.

Following a huge rise to prominence within the last year, Bastille brought their sold out U.K tour to Leeds debuting both new songs, old songs and everything in between. The venue itself was packed out early on and by the time I arrived at about half past seven there was no way of being able to procure a great view of the stage. The support bands were pretty standard really; the crowd weren’t particularly interested but gave them a warm round of applause as they left the stage.

Bastille entered to dimmed lights and screams of hysteria as they raced into a bouncing rendition of Bad Blood. They played the entirety of the album under the same name, with snippets of the ‘For every heartbreak’ albums thrown in to the mix, with lead singer Dan’s love of films evident as a few famous lines from classic films making up the start of songs such as Icarus. One highlight was Dan’s decision to go walkabouts around the venue during ‘Flaws’ and some ill-advised climbing of poles and structures leading up to the balcony areas, which he quickly abandoned.

The band also played some incredibly promising new material; one of the songs had a much heavier, rockier vibe than anything from the previous three albums. Whilst on the other hand the other song whose name I also can’t remember, sounded like something directly plucked from a Vampire Weekend album via a Bastille twist.

After a brief interval, the band returned to two storming renditions of their most crowd pleasing songs, one being their fantastic mash up entitled ‘Of the Night’ which includes both 90’s dance classics in three minutes of pure brilliance. The last song needed no introduction and was of course the massive hit single ‘Pompeii’ which is definitely one of the best songs released in 2013. After several encores of that massive “eh-oh” chorus, they departed to a standing ovation. I wouldn’t hesitate to go see them again. 9/10.

What I'm listening to lately

What I’m listening to lately.

When it comes to music I would love to say that I have a wide range of genres that I love listening to. I’d be lying if I did. I’ve always tended to go for bands and singer/songwriters types. If I did pigeon hole it then I would say I’m into Indie/alternative/rock but then again that is too expansive still, as I on the whole don’t care for American bands barring Green Day and Blink 182 and my interest for them has been on the wane for a long while.  My favourite band ever since hearing their demo’s years ago has been the Arctic Monkey’s and this remains true today. Running a close second are Bastille who have a strange kind of magnetism to them. Ever since hearing an acoustic performance they gave at Reading festival last year I’ve been hooked, and since discovering their two mix tapes they released before the ‘proper’ album Bad Blood I haven’t looked back since. I managed to see them last week in Leeds and they were superb throughout. Any band that can mix Home Alone quotes into one of their songs (Holy Night) will always be a winner by me! In terms of singer songwriters the main ones that I have enjoyed recently are Ben Howard, Ed Sheeran, Matt Cardle, and last but not least Tom Odell.

In terms of buying music I tend not to download and much prefer buying something physical, so that you actually feel that you are getting something for your money!

Recently I have bought the new albums from the Arctic Monkeys –AM, Tom Odell’s – Long way down and Matt Cardle’s – Porcelain. Here is a brief synopsis and my verdict on each.

AM

Whilst I am not quite one of those people that will grunt to whoever will listen that the “Arctic Monkey’s older stuff is WAY better than the new stuff” Deep down I probably have to admit that the first album will always be my favourite and the buzz and energy present on that record is just incredible, every song felt without trying to sound like Louis Walsh a number one record.  Alex Turner and co are a very different proposition these days to the days of tales of inner city Sheffield. Barring Favourite Worst Nightmare, Suck it and See was my favourite album since the first and that style and feel is enhanced and improved here. It’s a fantastic collection of songs from the festival anthems of ‘Do I wanna know’ and ‘R U Mine?’ to the album standout of ‘I Wanna be Yours’ which features Alex borrowing lyrics from John Cooper Clarke and turning somewhat cheesy sentiments into something beautiful.

One of the best albums of the last few years, without doubt. A must buy.  10/10

 Long Way Down

A Brit award nominee with this album none the less, Tom Odell triumphs over a scathing damning from N.M.E which famously gave this 0/10. How they justified that I still don’t quite understand as it is one of the best albums of the year in my opinion with a good mixture of acoustic piano and the rockier vibes dispersed throughout songs like the brilliant ‘Another Love’.

A truly talented, young musician. Recommended. 9/10

Porcelain

 

As this is the most recent, currently this is the album that’s sound tracking my journeys to and from work at the moment, it’s a little more detailed, and for good reason!

Now I’ve got to say that Matt gets a rough ride from a large section of the public for coming from a TV talent show such as the X Factor but without it he wouldn’t be free to make the music he’s always wanted to. I can see why people ‘hate’ on manufactured groups such as Union J etc but surely someone who writes all their own music, plays all the instruments on their album deserves respect, regardless of the platform that made them famous? Matt Cardle won the only complete series of the X Factor I’ve ever managed to sit through and watch and also produce various others who’ve gone on to achieve success.  It was the best series without doubt from the viewing figures amassed alone. From this I discovered ‘Seven Summer’s Matt’s old band who were a fantastic indie rock group who deserved much more attention and success than they seemingly got. Post X Factor Matt in the ‘Letters’ era was always a tiny bit disappointing for me as I’d seen the music he was capable of from the Youtube Vid’s of Seven Summers (Check out ‘Way to be’ and ‘Growing up high’) and the Letters Album suffered from being overproduced and a bit for a want of a better word ‘samey.’

 After Matt left Columbia records and Cowell’s clutches after falling out over having the quite frankly awful Gary Barlow (Borelow?) penned ‘Run For Your Life’ thrust upon him over the natural single choice of Starlight. Matt has gone from strength to strength, 2012’s The Fire was a vast improvement in all areas without quite hitting the heights that you felt he was capable of. The final song ‘Lately’ was the stand out from the album.

Porcelain is a more diverse collection of songs than was seen on the previous two albums. There is a good mixture of pop, soul and rock present from the opening song entitled ‘In Chains’ which builds and builds before entering a fantastic, frantic ending which really sets the album up as a whole. Next comes the poppier parts of the album with the hit single with Mel C ‘Loving you’ followed by ‘When You Were My Girl’ and ‘Hit my Heart’. The section that follows is my favourite and switches to a rockier style complete with swooping choruses showing both an impressive falsetto and the previously criminally underutilised lower register that was missing on the previous albums. ‘A Little Too Late’ ‘Your Kind of Love’ and ‘This Trouble Is Ours’ are up there with the best things Matt has ever done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDfqkyvednA

An excellent album that deserves recognition. 9/10