CeX opening in Mexico!

We have great news, pull up a chair and join us for some tequila amigos y amigas, CeX is about to open in Mexico this Weekend!

That’s right, we’ve brought our revolutionary recycling to the magnificent Mexico ;) This brings the red CeX buy, sell and exchange recycling machine to three new countries in 2014 alone; Portugal, the Netherlands and Mexico - a total of 9 territories globally! But stayed tuned, this ball won't stop rolling and there's more coming before 2015 :D

CeX México taking shape - more photos soon.

If you ever find yourself down sunny Mexico way, make sure to check out your shiny red CeX Aragon store (and Mexico website) located at Aragon Multiplaza, Rinconada de Aragón, 55140, Mexico.

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Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare PS3 XB360

Out now on PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC is Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The first thing I noticed about Advanced Warfare on PS3 is that I should have been playing it on a PS4. The cut-scenes are utilising the Avatar motion capture for Kevin Spacey’s face (or Kevin Facey if you would prefer), and on PS3 you're left winding up your Playstation 3 graphics chip with a winch just so see what is only a slightly more sophisticated version of the paddle in Pong with Kevin Spacey written on it. I suddenly started to regret giving my PS4 to Matt last Christmas. Every cut-scene from here on in feels like every PS4 owner individually rubbing their high frame rate testicles in your eye sockets. 

The actual first thing that will come to your attention here is that the game is now based, initially at least, in the not too distant future. This depends of course on your opinion of ‘too distant’. Without breaking any rules that we understand to be true in science, the game feels like a Robert Heinlein novel but with a lot less incestuous yet sexy time travelling weird paradox stuff. He invented the word Space-Marine. Did you know that?

The game feels like Modern Warfare but just a small bit into the future, just men with guns and bombs but also strapped with exoskeletons that allow them to perform faster and more efficiently. This exoskeleton also allows my character to slowly glide down from high areas, or to double jump over buses and the like. Featuring swarms of drones to make it feel futuristic but also things going wrong and sushi shops to make it feel real and authentic.  After some events that caused my character to be hired by a ‘super-power for higher’ named Atlas, Kevin Spacey starts to make it all seem very futuristic. Grenades that show where enemies are standing, grenades that follow people as they try to run away, the ability to slow down time and whole training areas like the holodeck from Star Trek. 

There were levels that made me think of the game Fear, and some that made me think of Halo even some that made me think of stabbing myself in the eyes out of frustration because I'm really shit at Call of Duty. This didn't help when I went online within minutes of the game being released, to find out that all of America and England have become teenagers and highly skilled tacticians. I played a bit of co-op which was like a more involved Tower Defence game, as I just waited for streams of enemies to pop out of nowhere and annihilate me and make love to my lifeless corpse. Metaphorically. It’s a bit like the Zombies levels from previous games though the multiplayer maps are much more generous with space and design I think. Apparently you can unlock interesting things if you survive enough, but my friend is as bad at Call of Duty games as I am, if not amusingly worse.

The campaign mode is really fun though, making me feel like I was James Bond one minute, and then investigating a school in Silent Hill the next. There were minute moments of stealth, not like Metal Gear Solid, but the level of tension you get when two people go for the last biscuit on a plate at the same time in a posh event somewhere. A posh event that has biscuits on a plate. 

Sledgehammer Games have taken the reigns on this one as Infinity Ward decided they had made enough Black Ops/ Modern Warfare games I assume, and it feels the same but different.  Like when you accidentally sleep with your ex girlfriend one drunken night. Or when you get her to dress up as Liam Neeson so you can pretend you are the wife from Taken. Which we’ve all done. The cut-scenes are superb and the game really deserves to be played on a PS4 or an XBOX One (but a PS4 really, obviously). There are a few bugs in the PS3 version I played, such as NPC team mates suddenly doing a somersault and swan diving through the floor when I accidentally shot them which was awesome, but unintentional. The team AI is really good as they don’t just shoot mercilessly near all the enemies while you have to take them all out yourself, which makes it feel more like a team instead of like the A Team. I imagine these PS3/360 versions are polite releases and money based decisions because they play very well but every cut-scene just makes you feel like such a dick when you go back to playing the game.  Like if you were getting your girlfriend to dress up as Liam Neeson and then realised you don’t have a girlfriend and you’ve just closed yourself in a DVD box and have to go to the hospital.

I’m gonna give it a 4/5 as PS3 games go, but I think it’s about time I move away from last gen machines.

★★★★☆

Dave Roberts

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Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare PS4 XBONE

Man, back in 2003 I loved Call of Duty, the first entry in the now long drawn out franchise. Compared to later instalments in the series, the original Call of Duty was set during World War 2, and though it didn't have the modern day weapons that later made it into the series, it was and still is my favourite. Another peak for the series was with the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the modern day take on Call of Duty that spawned its own series. Now comes the first entry of what will no doubt be a fifth series within the Call of Duty franchise. As one of the biggest releases of the year, the question is, is it any good? Sadly, as much as Advanced Warfare desperately tries to shake up the gameplay, it just isn't good enough.

Developed by Sledgehammer Games out now on Playstation 4, Playstation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC comes Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, a game that does change up the series to some extent, but ends up coming across like as if Modern Warfare 3 and Titanfall had a baby. The story to Advanced Warfare is pretty typical, but thankfully due to the fact that it's set in the 2050's, the story often becomes more Dues Ex and less Call of Duty at times. You take on the role of Jack Mitchell, a US Marine who is discharged from duty after losing his arm in battle. However, Mitchell is given a new lease on life in the form of the Atlas Corporation; a huge private military contractor that hires Mitchell and outfits him with an advanced prosthetic arm. The game then focuses on a terrorist threat from a technophobic group known as the KVA. There's plot twists you'll see coming from a mile away, grunts hurling around bad language, greedy rich elites that want to bring the world to its knees and, of course, terrorists. It's Call of Duty storytelling 101, but I guess story in this franchise series was never its strongest point.

What instantly jumps out at you when playing is that in Advanced Warfare, your character can move much more fluidly than ever before in the series. This is thanks to the “Exo-Suit”; an exoskeleton that Mitchell wears which allows him to quickly dash in any given direction, jump twice as high than usual and even come crashing down on the heads on unsuspecting foes, almost like a twisted futuristic version of Mario. However, this new ability to quickly move around isn't just there to make you look cool, but rather it adds a whole new dimension to the game. From dodging bullets to making your way through a map at a neck breaking speed, this game mechanic is the best thing to happen to Call of Duty in years, and fundamentally changes up the gameplay. This isn't the Call of Duty game where you'll take cover, jump out, shoot and repeat that process 100 times over, instead you'll be dashing around, jumping onto rooftops and generally interacting more with your environment. You can also add certain unique properties to your Exo-Suit, some of which enable your character to turn invisible, run faster, run/walk with no footstep noises and even hover in place. Though they don't last long, these abilities shake up gameplay quite nicely.

There's also the nice little addition of upgrading your character during the campaign mode too. Essentially, the better you play the more reward points you get, and these points can be spent on upgrading your character and weapons. Fancy having more health? Make sure you only go for head-shots during the next mission. Want to peer down your iron sights quicker? Take out a bunch of enemies solely using grenades. It adds a freshness to the series that I haven't felt since Modern Warfare, as this, alongside how agile and mobile your character is, partially succeeds in turning it from generic shooter to something new and interesting.

However, that's where the innovation arguably stops, as everything else in the game is pretty standard in the series. Multiplayer is pretty much the exact same as the last two Call of Duty instalments, apart from some new bells and whistles. Granted it's a lot more fun now if even for the addition of the Exo-Suit, but it still feels almost identical to Black Ops 2, Modern Warfare 3, Ghosts, etc. But in terms of gunplay, modes and gameplay that doesn't make use of the Exo-Suit, it's pretty much what you're expecting. From taking part in modes such as Team Deathmatch, Hardpoint, Domination, Capture the Flag and Free-for-all, and unleashing a plethora of weaponry that are essentially futuristic versions of what we've seen in past games, a lot of Advanced Warfare seems like business as usual. Now, depending on how you view the series, that may either be a great or terrible thing.

If you're a Call of Duty multiplayer fan, you'll absolutely adore it. It has more of the same with a little bit extra that adds a whole new perspective on gameplay. However, like me if you're primarily just looking to play the campaign, it'll only last you around 6 hours, and even then there isn't much re-playability to dive into. While I can appreciate that Sledgehammer Games are trying something new here, it still all comes across a little too familiar both in terms of gameplay and narrative.

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare isn't so advanced and gets a 3/5.

★★★☆☆

Denis Murphy

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there that's celebrating today around the World. Raise your glass and let's get stuffed!

If you don't normally celebrate Thanksgiving what are you waiting for? You've gotta seize these opportunities to party ;-)

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Guardians of the Galaxy

I've mentioned before that when growing up I wasn't really into comics. I'd enjoy the odd Spider-Man and X-Men comic here and there, but never really saw it as a hobby. Still though, even without reading comics regularly, I at least knew about the big dogs in the comic-book world. From Green Lantern to Aquaman I had a general sense of who everyone was. However, one group of heroes I never heard of up until around two years ago were the Guardians of the Galaxy. First appearing in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 in 1969, they never really reached the status of being a household name, like Superman, Batman or Wolverine. This latest Marvel film offering bases itself on the second iteration of the team that was formed in 2008. But unlike most other reviews, the question shouldn't be “is it any good?”. Instead the question should be, “Which is the best Marvel film to date, Captain America: The Winter Soldier or this?”.

Directed by James Gunn and out now on Blu-Ray and DVD comes Guardians of the Galaxy, one of, if not the best, Marvel films to date. Instead of focusing on a lone rich/troubled man/woman who finds/is given a powerful gift like every other superhero film out there, Guardians of the Galaxy is essentially about a ragtag bunch of misfits that find a hero inside themselves. Though the group as a whole is the focal point of the film, our main hero is Peter Quill, a human who was taken by aliens when he was a young boy. Growing up in space isn't all Apollo 13 here though, as Quill is more Han Solo than Jim Lovell. The rest of the group comprises of Drax, a massive badass warrior, Gamora, personal assassin of Thanos (the big bad of Marvel's Phase Two film series), Rocket, a genetically altered raccoon that can speak, fight and dish out jokes and finally Groot, a large tree-like creature that can only say one sentence- “I am Groot”. This film basically brings our heroes together as they make a stand against Ronan the Accuser, a Kree fanatic that plans to obliterate the world of Xander. Compared to all the other Marvel films, on paper Guardians of the Galaxy sounds confusing, but it's all done so well that by the end you'll not only know who everyone is in this new unusual series, but you'll be dying to see more.

There are so many things I loved about Guardians of the Galaxy. From the cast, visuals, music and humour, it's just insanely fun from start to finish. The first thing that strikes you is that it looks completely different than every other Marvel film so far. There's no cameo by Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk or Hawkeye. There's no references as to what went down in The Avengers. Apart from hinting at the upcoming “Infinity War” storyline in The Avengers 3, Guardians of the Galaxy is pretty much a self contained story. This instantly makes it very interesting, as away from the Earth setting of The Avengers, there are copious amounts of weird aliens, space ships that look like they're from Star Wars, a wise cracking talking raccoon with the voice of Bradley Cooper, and an overall sense of a well constructed new, interesting universe. From the many real sets used to the CGI laden space battles, Guardians of the Galaxy just oozes slick style.

That said though, the true centrepiece of Guardians of the Galaxy are the cast and script. The guardians themselves are comprised of Chris Pratt, Zoe Salanda, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel and Dave Batista, and they all fit together so well. Almost every single character within the group plays extremely well off each other, and that's also thanks to the hilarious, cheesy and often sweet and moving script set in place here. From the opening scenes in which a young Quill watches his mothers final moments as she succumbs to cancer, the fantastic scene in which the group break out of a space-station jail and the many funny scenes when characters rub each other the wrong way, Guardians of the Galaxy juggles a lot of different moods and emotions. However, whereas most summer blockbusters might fail in doing that, Guardians of the Galaxy succeeds in leaps and bounds. 

Overall Guardians of the Galaxy is pretty much shoulder to shoulder with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, personally. It has action, heart, humour, excellent dialogue and a fantastic feeling of friendship and comradeship between its main cast. Buy it.

Guardians of the Galaxy is a must-see marvel and gets 5/5.

★★★★★

Denis Murphy

Guardians of the Galaxy at CeX

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Tammy

If you were wondering what that noise was last Friday night, it was probably the collective sigh of ‘Why am I surprised’ mixed in with a general feeling of ennui and disappointment. At the source of this wave of ‘meh’ was a new film starring Melissa McCarthy called Tammy, out now on Blu-Ray and DVD. It's a film about her driving across America with some ‘hilarious’ other characters. There aren’t very many movies featuring Melissa McCarthy of late wherein the phrase “…but eventually the mismatched pair begin to…” fails to appear in the description. Identity thief, The Heat and Tammy are all variations on an already tired out theme. Like the last three films she was in, thank god for digital film-making at least there was no actual film wasted in the creative process. 

Tammy (McCarthy) starts off her film of hijinks by going to work only to suddenly find herself sacked. Ha ha ha, ho ho ho. She then finds herself driving home when her car breaks down making it even harder for her to get home. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. But if you find that funny, hold on to your laughter-release hats. When she eventually gets home she catches her husband having a romantic meal with another woman. Oh ho ho. Ha ha ha. Then…wait I can’t breathe…then she goes to her mums house which is..ha ha ha…two doors away… ha ha ha. I don’t understand why any of this is supposed to be funny. By 2014 there are newborn children watching this thinking that it’s derivative, because we've seen it hundreds of thousands of times, in films, TV shows and insurance adverts.

Then she illustrates her immaturity by being mean to her grandparents, driving recklessly and just behaving like a terrible person. This is all so that we can understand when she becomes a better person later on. With films like this it has become a sketch show. A collection of scenes that are interchangeable between films decorated with bad dialogue and a smugness that wrenches liquid hatred from my stomach. 

So from here we have:

• The fun scene.
• The let down scene.
• The every things OK again scene.
• The ‘funny’ scene that’s in the trailer.
• The sad scene. (Also known as the Hollywood drop-off where all of the consequences of the previous scenes happen at once followed by everything being OK because of some stupid gesture.)

And the ‘eventually the mismatched pair begin to get on real well scene’. This is usually were learning, personal growth and ‘the moral of the story’ comes in.

Tammy just was a whirlwind of mediocrity patronising everyone by constantly reminding us that bigger women can be attractive too. The unattractive thing about her in the film is not that she is a bigger size than American culture would have us believe is conventionally attractive, but more that she is acting like a total dick most of the time. Abandoning relatives, sponging off her family, being lazy and horrible to people is why her husband left her. It makes it hard to feel sorry for her at the bad bits and hard to feel she deserved all the good stuff at the end. If nothing else referring to ‘Duane Allman’ as the lesser Allman brother earned her no respect.

I struggle to write anything about it because it’s terrible. Enjoy.

Tammy is an awful person in an awful movie and gets a 2/5.

★★☆☆☆

Dave Roberts 

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Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

Between bouts of playing games to review them, I always still take the time to play other games. Recently I finished Lego The Lord of the Rings, the Lego adaptation of The Lord of the Rings film series. It pretty much perfectly follows the events of the films outside of all the dark content, and even reuses the dialogue from the film during its cut-scenes. From controlling Frodo and Sam in The Shire, the fellowship with the Balrog hot on their trail to the final moments at Mount Doom, it was a great game. But outside of all the voices, music and visuals that were taken from The Lord of the Rings, it struck me that at its heart the gameplay was nearly identical to Lego Star Wars. So when this latest Lego game was up for review, I started playing it well aware of how similar it might be to the past Lego titles. However, does this latest offering dish out anything new? Not really, but if you've stuck with Lego games up until now, that probably won't come as a surprise to you.

Developed by Traveller's Tales and out now for pretty much every platform made within the past decade comes Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, a game that is pretty much the typical Lego game but with the Justice League in it. Lego Batman 3 takes the story focus out of Gotham City and into space. After luring various Lanterns into the same place, villain Braniac outnumbers them and takes their Lantern Rings, the immense source of power for the Lanterns. Planning to collectively use these rings for usual villian-like evil deeds, Batman and Robin use their aptly named Bat-Rocket to venture into space in order to stop him. However, it'll take more than Batman and the Boy Wonder to stop Braniac, but thankfully the Justice League are at hand to help save the day. The story is fun, simple and exactly what you'd expect from a Lego game. 

Though my experience with Lego games goes no further than Lego The Lord of the Rings and Lego Star Wars, I can safely say that Lego Batman 3 plays exactly like every other Lego game you've played so far. Essentially Lego games are built upon the two most important elements of playing Lego in real life- building and breaking. The games are no different. You'll venture through various levels on Earth, out in space and on other worlds, solving puzzles, beating up bad guys, all the while smashing Lego pieces into oblivion, while sometimes also rebuilding them into new structures. Whether you're wrecking a wall that you'll rebuilding into a staircase or an enemy structure that you'll reform into a ladder, the game puts a focus on the fact that you're living in a Lego world. It's all very simple stuff, but that doesn't mean it's not fun. Though combat is based purely on button bashing, running around and wrecking Lego enemies and structures is pretty fun stuff, and that's mainly due to the massive array of characters and abilities at your disposal.

Though Batman may be the titular character, Lego Batman 3 allows you to use over 150 characters, which includes both heroes and villains. From Superman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman to the Joker, Bane and Mr. Freeze, the cast here is quite massive, and even includes some cameos from the likes of Adam West, Conan O'Brien and Kevin Smith. Of course, each character has their very own unique abilities too, which includes the Green Lanterns ability to create and levitate objects, Superman's heat vision and Martian Manhunter's alternate powerful creature form. This is what ultimately kept me coming back for more, the huge array of characters that are often incredibly different from each other. It keeps things feeling pretty fresh, even after you've completed the main quest.

Visually Lego Batman 3 is lovely. It's space setting has given Traveller's Tales a chance to tinker around with quite an interesting and bombastic colour palette, and this shines through in every mission. This also extends to the missions and situations you'll find yourself in, as in terms of scale they're more in line with The Lego Movie than any Lego game we've seen so far. At the end of the day Lego Batman 3 is indeed more of the same, but there's such a wonderful charm to the story, setting and characters that you'll find yourself completely hooked. If you're the kind of gamer who wants to explore every nook and cranny, get every achievement and find every hidden item, you'll have your work cut out for you here.

Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham doesn't go beyond expectations, but it's still a great. 4/5

★★★★☆

Denis Murphy

Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham at CeX

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Kite

Everyone knows children are shit at acting, painting, singing and all those other things. Not all children obviously, but your children definitely are, and yet you find yourself putting everything you’ve got into seeing the positive in their creations and you fool yourself into thinking you’ve enjoyed them no matter how relentlessly terrible you know their performances to be. This is exactly how I felt watching Kite, except I have no biological programming or emotional investment that makes me think this. Starring Samuel L. Jackson and India Eisley and out now on Blu-Ray and DVD is Kite, dystopian film based on the anime of the same name, which is two parts Hannah and one part Frankenstein. Which in case you didn’t get the reference, is highlighted by some terrible dialogue at some point.

The film is set in a future where the banks have crashed and the good guys are only considered to be good because they aren’t as bad as the bad guys. It begins with a bad man bringing a young beautiful girl to be sold on as a prostitute, and probably to harvest organs from and forced to work in a second-hand shop for minimum wage, which is a fate worse than being harvested. The young girl has bright pink hair and a gun in her purse with exploding bullets which causes the would-be harvester to give birth to his brains out of his face. The young girl is Sawa, a drugged up semi-super hero with a vengeance for the murderer of her her parents. Sawa is played by India Eisley, and is not played by Jamie King like I had thought, which probably would’ve led to this film being banned and my computer being seized by the police.

It comes to light quite quickly that Sawa is off her tits on some drug called Amp that causes her to be brave, strong and efficient in her fighting style while also, unfortunately, leaving her memory substantially missing. Which is exactly the same as what alcohol makes you think you are achieving while making you just increasingly less socially desirable and capable.

Samuel L Jackson is in this film and proves an interesting point. A great actor can seem like a shit actor with a terrible script. The music, which is awesome, is used very rarely and not well. The script is like a fine wine; probably cost a lot more to make than it’s ever going to be worth. Samuel L. Jackson is Sawa’s protector and father figure, ensuring she stays on Amp, kills the right people and doesn’t get caught.

Sawa does some violent sexy moves and kills many bad men. The sudden introduction of a guy called El Plot-Twisto gives the film a reason to end but ultimately the film felt bland, gray and under worked. It could have been great, as there were so many amazing elements to it. I looked at it like a child’s drawing that I was hanging up on the fridge, because as much as I tried to like it, I had to face up to the fact that, well, it just isn't that great.

I give the oddly named Kite 2/5.

★★☆☆☆

Dave Roberts

Kite at CeX

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CeX Southview Square open now!

Today is a fantastic day for a brand new CeX store, so allow us to introduce our just opened CeX Southview Square store. Awwwww yea!

Come on down to sell and exchange your unwanted phones, games, computers and gadgets, and pick up something new and shiny or just to chat with us about all the techy things you love.

Check us out for all your buy, sell, exchange and geeky needs. Find us at:

11019 Fuqua St, TX 77089

Find your nearest CeX at webuy.com/stores

iPhone 6 Plus Video Review

Check out our hands on with the iPhone 6 Plus. Does it live up to the typical Apple hype or is it just another smartphone? Find out at our YouTube channel or by watching the video below!

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Assassin's Creed: Unity

It's hard to believe that the original Assassin's Creed was released 7 years ago this month. I remember playing it for the first time, being enthralled by it's breathtaking setting and fluid controls, then having most of my appreciation for the game being dashed away by that story twist. You know the one, the twist that introduced the modern day setting, the Animus and the fact that everything you played up until that point was merely reliving memories of an ancestors past life. Granted it's an interesting concept on paper, but to me it cheapened the game, it's unique setting and any stakes set from there on out. I knew Altaïr would survive the game seeing as Desmond is a direct descendant of him. I knew that the world of the past was- for all tense and purposes- not immediately real, but rather some kind of lifeless echo. Personally, this problem diminished what would have been a fantastic series, as instead of simply exploring different eras through time, you were just some modern day bartender that got hooked into an expensive gaming console. However, this latest offering in the series doesn't really focus on the modern day convoluted saga of the Assassin's Creed franchise, and that's a good thing.

Developed by Ubisoft Montreal and out now on PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One comes Assassin's Creed: Unity, the 11th entry in the Assassin's Creed franchise and one that should reinvent the series, but ultimately ends up giving us more of the same. You take on the role of Arno Dorian, a native Frenchman who after his Assassin father is murdered, is adopted and raised by a high ranking member of the Templar Order. However, when his adoptive father is killed years later, Arno begins to learn about his past, and who his real father was as he takes his first steps into the Brotherhood of Assassins; the ancient order that runs through all Assassin's Creed titles. The story is rather typical, but as mentioned before I'm pretty glad that Ubisoft never quite puts too much focus on the modern day, post-Desmond Miles world, as this French Revolution setting is all the narrative this entry needs.

The first thing that strikes you when playing Unity are its visuals. Wow. Seriously, though they arguably have been somewhat downgraded since the reveal trailer shown at E3 2013, the city of Paris has been wonderfully realised here. Whether you're down on the ground making your way through poorer parts of the city towards a high profile target, or up high overlooking the city in all its majestic, detailed and bustling beauty, Ubisoft Montreal have outdone themselves with Unity's presentation and atmosphere. Crowds can amass to the hundreds, smoke billows from chimneys, people go about their daily lives and the whole open-world is dotted with so much detail and minutia that you'll find yourself getting lost in your own adventure, rather than the main one placed before you.

Gameplay remains mostly the same compared to previous instalments, with a few new additions and updates hidden behind the familiar. You'll do the usual Assassin's Creed stuff- Accept a mission, scale buildings, make your way across the city, stalk a foe as silently as you can and, naturally, assassinate the target. It follows the very same formula as before, though I will give Ubisoft a good deal of credit for re-jigging assassination missions into something a little more open ended, as you'll often find that there a multiple ways, routes and methods of murder for any given target. This, more than ever before, truly taps into the feeling of being part of the Brotherhood of Assassins. From stalking your prey until plunging your blade deep into them, assassination missions have never been done this well in previous Assassin's Creed games.

Combat has been once again rebuilt from the ground up, though it still relies on the basic idea of attacking and waiting to counter attack and/or dodge. It's bloody, fast paced and incredibly satisfying, especially if you manage to dispatch a large number of foes without getting hit. Furthermore, Unity finally ushers in customization to the series. From upgrading weapons to gain the upper hand during combat to unlocking new parkour moves that will allow you to run, climb and swing around Paris with extra ease, Unity does a great job at allowing you to create your own personal Arno Dorian. It's not exactly the levels of customization you get from games like Saints Row, but hey, it has choice where it matters.

The big disappointment comes in the form of multiplayer, which essentially doesn't end up being as epic as it should be. You can play with up to 4 players, embark on assassinations together and even take part in heist missions; missions in which payment increases the more stealthy your team is. Have a member of your team that keeps getting seen, has an addiction to killing civilians and doesn't have a stealthy bone in his body? Drop him, as he'll absolutely obliterate the money awarded to your team after completing the heist. Multiplayer is undoubtedly fun, but I guess I expected more from it, as ultimately even the most nuanced group of Assassin's Creed players end up looking like 4 dudes aimlessly jumping around and stabbing people.

Overall Assassin's Creed: Unity is a great game, but one that isn't the next-gen saviour that we all hoped it was going to be. While it does have a stunning open-world, an exciting era in the form of the French Revolution, interesting characters and fantastic “time anomaly” missions, at its heart it feels like it's reliving past games whereas it should feel like a revolution (no pun intended!). I don't mean to be down about it too much as it's a step in the right direction especially in terms of narrative, but I think it's time Ubisoft shook up the series before it's too late.

Assassin's Creed: Unity isn't quite the revolution I hoped it would be and gets a 4/5.

★★★★☆

Denis Murphy

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WolfCop

This week I’ve been sitting around and doing very little so I decided to watch a film. Since I don’t like enjoying myself very much, and because it was in the spirit of Halloween, I decided to watch the worst sounding horror film I could. I decided on WolfCop. The one thing about Wolfcop that instantly strikes me as odd was how often people asked me what it was about. There really isn’t much more to it than a cop who is also a wolf.  

Out now on DVD and Blu-Ray comes WolfCop, a comedy I'm fairly sure is funny in all the wrong places. Lou (Leo Fafard) is a cop in a small dusty American town. There isn't a lot of respect for the police there, nor is there a lot of crime, and this causes Lou, the son of a great cop, to be negligent. Finding himself waking up time after time, covered in the his own vomit and wee-wee beside a naked woman with no face or name, Lou has little interest in solving crimes or doing his job. That said, he's seemingly the only person in the town qualified to do it other than Tina (Amy Matysio) who just happens to be perfect for the role of supporting policewoman number 1.  A conspiracy theorising, government fearing, paranoid, liberal hating, gun toting and slightly mentally ill member of the town is responsible for almost every call made to the station.  

This nut is called Willie (Jonathan Cherry) and is concerned about some weird occult behaviour he thinks he found in the forest near his house, which he thinks is related to a lot of missing animals.  Dogs, cats, sparrows, chimps and anything that bleeds have been going missing recently, and Willie is freaking out but Lou doesn’t care any more than he ever did.  Instead he wants to go and sit in Jessica’s bar and flirt with her. He flirts with her so hard that she becomes a plot point in no time, as the least terrifying man in the world comes to destroy her bar the following night. Unfortunately for the ‘bad men’ this coincides with Lou getting a bit Wolfie and he pops in and pulls all the men apart like a bag of crisps.

The film progresses from here with a weirdly off balance approach to violence moving from Laurel and Hardy slapstick, and then suddenly someone will get their face ripped right off their skull leaving blood everywhere.  A problem I had was with the voice of Lou when he is WolfCop which is so distorted that I couldn’t understand what he was saying. It was distorted in that way that monsters voices get in films, where the voice has had it’s pitch shifted down so low that it makes anyone with a sub-woofer in their house shit themselves right into hospital. The supporting characters where strangely but efficiently credulous when it came to receiving the news of Lou’s condition.

“I’m a werewolf”
“Ah right, what are we gonna do about that”
“I dunno let’s get a drink”

It also transpires that he is a very powerful werewolf and takes it upon himself to investigate an occult conspiracy, the reason he is so strong is because he drinks so much, making it a mixture between American Werewolf in London and Legend of the Drunken Master.  

It’s meant to be a comedy, but part of me thinks that it’s funny in a way that it’s not supposed to be, being that it’s clearly a terrible film that is so-bad-it’s-good, and the ‘jokes’ are barely definable as such. If I’m wrong about this then it’s style slots somewhere in between Garth Merenghi’s Darkplace and Evil Dead : Army of Darkness, not in quality I must point out, but rather merely in style. It’s not a must-see film but I enjoyed it much more than I thought I was going to. Some of the lines, like the tagline ‘Here comes the fuzz’, made me cringe my way to a hernia, but overall it was what it was and what it was was a silly film that was quite fun.

WolfCop takes a sizeable bite with a 3/5.

★★★☆☆

Dave Roberts 

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Freedom Wars

I feel a little bad for the PS Vita. It's not doing that well in sales lately, Sony seemed to be focused on mostly rehashing PSP titles for it and there are- as far as I know- no upcoming big releases scheduled. When I say “big” I mean Uncharted territory, but sadly nothing like that is on the horizon. In yet another attempt to sway some Nintendo users away from their 3DS's and into the PS Vita camp, Sony are at it again with yet another title that desperately wants to be Monster Hunter. Is this latest PS Vita release good enough to become a flagship title for the struggling hand-held? No, but putting expectations aside, it's a game that every PS Vita owner should have in their collection nonetheless.

Developed by Sony Computer Entertainment in collaboration with Dimps and Shift and out now on PS Vita comes Freedom Wars, a mash-up of Monster Hunter and George Orwell's 1984. One element of Freedom Wars that doesn't have Monster Hunter written all over it is its story, as instead of dragons, monsters and leather armour, there's robots, mechs and crisp white suits. The game takes place in the year 102014, and it's a world in which humans have been forced to live underground in mega cities called Panopticon's, due to the Earth's surface being deemed a wasteland. Within these Panopticon's humans live under the iron fist of the elite, and with all resources in short supply, the act of being born or simply living is seen as breaking the law. All who break the law are giving a 1 million year sentence. The catch is that criminals can reduce their sentence by venturing to the surface and destroying robots called Abductors. Under constant surveillance and the only hope of freedom being attainable through reducing your sentence, you take on the role of a character that, like everyone born within this world, is a criminal.

Freedom Wars is an action action RPG and its gameplay focuses on two main locations- within the Panopticon and outside on the ravaged Earth. Life inside the Panopticon is entirely without freedom, but you'll treat this bleak, dark and Big Brother-esque location as your main base of operations. In fact, when inside the Panopticon you need to earn certain entitlements. For instance, you'll need to earn an entitlement that allows you to run for more than 5 second when inside the Panopticon. Breaking that rule will increase your sentence. Don't worry though, these restrictions mean nothing in the outside world, but while preparing for an adventure or mission, they do add a great sense of bleak atmosphere to the game.

Once outside the Panopticon it's a different story, and this is where Freedom Wars truly offers the player, well, freedom! Just like Monster Hunter gameplay in the outside world relies on exploration, and seeking our various pieces of gear, items and weapons through combat. Combat allows the player to cover quite a broad range of weapons both in terms of melee and ranged combat, with the player also being able to instantly switch between both different types. Ranged weapons cover everything from rocket launchers to machine guns, as Freedom Wars boasts quite a varied selection of firearms in its extensive armoury. Though there are a lot of segments that favour using guns, melee combat is just as if not more important and useful than firearms. From spears, swords and lances that all have a very steely and futuristic appearance to them, in terms of weapons at hand Freedom Wars perfectly follows the ethos of Monster Hunter- more, more and more of everything! Combat attacks generally focus on merely using two buttons, but while that may sound quite shallow, you'll also need to be quick on your feet and evade attacks. When it all comes together it keeps combat fast, frantic and a whole lot of fun.

However, one addition to gameplay that shakes it up quite nicely are Thorns, which are essentially whip-like weapons that grant the user different abilities. They have many different uses which include restraining enemies during battle, powering up your allies abilities for a short period of time and also healing your party members. Each Thorn can power up in stages and this ability, next to the pretty effective combat mechanic, keeps combat feeling fresh throughout.

Though the story put in place is genuinely interesting, dark and somewhat unique, Freedom Wars doesn't manage to keep that momentum going throughout its duration. Eventually it all just kind of falls apart, and you'll quickly find yourself bored with secondary characters, particular plot points and generally where the narrative finds itself. Still though, if you make use of the varied combat system, embrace the countless pieces of loot and gear you'll find, and dive into the pretty impressive online multiplayer mode that's packed alongside Freedom Wars, you'll no doubt sink a good few hours into it. It may not be Monster Hunter for the PS Vita, but it's a fantastic game in its own right.

Freedom Wars is your next PS Vita RPG and gets a 4/5.

★★★★☆

Denis Murphy 

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The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Extended Edition

The time has almost come for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies to be released in cinemas. This upcoming final entry in The Hobbit film series is being touted as the “defining chapter of the Middle-Earth saga”, which Peter Jackson kicked off with his blockbuster The Lord of the Rings trilogy back in 2001. However, The Hobbit takes place long before the fellowship embarked on their journey to destroy the One Ring, and focuses on the tale of Bilbo Baggins, how he finds the One Ring and the company of dwarves he decides to help take back their homeland. Though the second film in the trilogy has already made it to Blu-Ray before, this new release adds more content to the film. However, for a trilogy that has been accused of having too much filler, is this new content needed?

Directed by Peter Jackson and out now on Blu-Ray comes The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Extended Edition, which compared to the extended edition of An Unexpected Journey, adds little filler with most of the content focusing on the greater lore of the series. The story picks right where An Unexpected Journey left off. With the Lonely Mountain in sight and the Arkenstone almost within Thorin Oakenshield's grasp, all that stands in way of Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf the Grey and the company of 13 dwarves are Elves, a dark enchanted forest, legions of Orcs and, well, a fire breathing dragon with the voice of Benedict Cumberbatch! Granted the story isn't as interesting, powerful or epic as The Lord of the Rings, but it really doesn't have to be. This second part of The Hobbit adventure isn't without it's faults, but it ultimately comes together as a success.

First up, the bad. The thing about The Hobbit trilogy is that everyone wants to compare it to The Lord of the Rings. Granted it's deeply, deeply connected to that trilogy, but The Hobbit should be judged by its own merits, instead of how it is compared to The Lord of the Rings. But hey, even if you don't compare it to one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time, The Hobbit series is flawed, and these flaws remain during this second instalment. The first glaring issue at times is the overuse of CGI. I love the fact that most sets and costumes are real, but despite CGI Orcs such as Azog and Bolg looking pretty impressive when alone on screen, they utterly fall to pieces when literally shoulder to shoulder with an Orc that's comprised of a real costume and prosthetics. This lack of blending the real with the unreal is a little hit and miss throughout the film, with some scenes looking perfectly fine, while others appearing as if they're cut-scenes from a Playstation game. Then there's the barrel scene. Look, I know that The Hobbit isn't meant to be as dark and heavy as The Lord of the Rings, but the scene in which Bilbo and the dwarves ride barrels down a river is pretty awful. What should have been a 3-minute sequence turns into them being hunted down by Orcs, the Orcs being attacked by Elves, the dwarf Bombur having a very Star Wars prequel moment and a CGI Legolas balancing on the dwarves' heads. It's all a little too much, and pretty much encapsulates the issues that The Hobbit trilogy has ingrained within it; at times Peter Jackson shows signs of no longer understanding the concept of “less is more”.

But all of those little problems aside, The Desolation of Smaug is a genuine success. While many are up in arms about how many liberties this film takes with its source material, judged solely on its own merits I welcome them. Granted some of those liberties do step over the line, but for the most part it's clear that Peter Jackson is in love with this universe. The stand out characters in this entry are once again Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and Gandalf (Ian McKellen), who absolutely win over any scene they find themselves in. That said, The Desolation of Smaug does offer up new and interesting characters, particularly in the form of Bard the Bowman (Luke Evans) who, much like Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, contends with living a life of being the descendant of a major Middle-Earth screw up. Then you have the titular character of Smaug, the dragon that guards the gold of Erebor. Played masterfully by Benedict Cumberbatch and realised impeccably by WETA Digital, his moments, much like Gollum's scenes in An Unexpected Journey, are the best aspect of the film. He's cunning, smart, quick and toys with Bilbo like a cat would play with a mouse before killing it. Wonderful stuff.

As I mentioned before, though I tended to hate that barrel scene, The Desolation of Smaug has plenty going for it in terms of narrative, lore and adventure. Since first seeing Radagast the Brown being confronted by the spirit of the Witch-King of Angmar, my favourite story thread in this trilogy has been of the White Council and the growing threat emanating from Dol Guldur. This directly ties into Sauron's plan in The Lord of the Rings, and this story is greatly expanded on in The Desolation of Smaug. It's dark, intense and completely outshines the other main plot-line regarding Erebor. That said, the journey Bilbo and the dwrves find themselves on is fantastic, particularly in terms of seeing both Bilbo and Thorin's evolution as characters. Bilbo very slowly begins to show signs of losing his innocence while Thorin, a dwarf whose singular goal is to become king of Erebor, begins to change in pursuit of this great, corruptible power. Acting somewhat similar as to how someone does when under the influence of the One Ring, Thorin is clearly being set up as the tragic character of this trilogy.

As expected both in terms of visuals and music, The Desolation of Smaug is a roaring success. From Beorn, the tall woodland shape-shifter that despises dwarves, the hallucinogenic effects of Mirkwood forest and the Elves that live within it, the chilling dark tomb of the men who will ultimately become the Ring Wraiths, the bustling city of Laketown and Smaug in all his magnificence, the film is a powerhouse of design, art and world building. Then there's the music. I don't really care for the Ed Sheeran track played over the credits this time, but Howard Shores score is, as always, utterly perfect. It's exciting, playful, adventurous and reminiscent to The Lord of the Rings at times.

But what about the extended scenes? That's what you're probably shouting at your screen right now, right? While the extend edition of An Unexpected Journey didn't add much to the experience of the first film, this expansion of The Desolation of Smaug adds a total of 25 minutes to the film. The scenes are great too, most of which feed into the ongoing trouble brewing witihn Dol Guldur. From a longer opening scene that alludes to Thorin's fathers disappearance, the shape-shifter Beorn sharing his thoughts about the Necromancer in Dol Guldur, to a very different and longer storyline in Dol Guldur itself, I genuinely preferred this extended edition over the theatrical cut, whereas for An Unexpected Journey I thought the opposite. This extended edition is no doubt playing into the story that will erupt in The Battle of the Five Armies, and I for one can't wait!

The extras are fantastic and clock up to over 9 hours of footage. They cover just about everything to do with production- characters, weapons, sets, CGI, filming, writing, you name it! The Blu-Ray includes:

• Audio commentary by Director Peter Jackson and co-writer Philippa Boyens.
• The Appendices Part 9
• The Appendices Part 10
• New Zealand: Home to Middle-Earth Part Two
• The music of The Hobbit
• Realms of the Third Age: From Beorn's House to Lake-town

Overall The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Extended Edition is not a perfect film, but it's another step forward in what is undoubtedly an unforgettable journey. While it does have its hiccups in the form of the overuse of CGI, the Kili and Tauriel love scenes and that barrel escape, it also has wonderfully moving moments, dark sinister happenings and enough adventure and lore to whet your appetite in time for The Battle of the Five Armies. Bring it on.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Extended Edition is better than the theatrical cut and gets a 5/5.

★★★★★

Denis Murphy

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Sunset Overdrive

What happened to Insomniac Games? Between 1998 and 2000 they had my attention fixed on their Spyro the Dragon trilogy. Though I did take time out to play and finish Final Fantasy VIII over 98', a lot of my time went into Spyro the Dragon and its two sequels. Insomniac Games then moved on to the Ratchet and Clank series. I liked it, but never quite got into it as much as I did with Spyro. From there Insomniac Games dropped off my radar of developers I cared about. I didn't like Resistance, how they milked the Ratchet and Clank series or most recently how they retooled the seemingly light-hearted Overstrike into Fuse; a generic, gritty and genuinely shite third-person shooter. But while I haven't exactly been thrilled with anything they've developed within the last decade, they're newest creation has been unleashed upon the gaming public. However, despite my initial concerns this latest offering from the developers of Spyro is much better than expected.

Developed by Insomniac Games and out now exclusively for Xbox One comes Sunset Overdrive, a game that's basically what would happen if Jet Set Radio, inFamous and Saints Row had a baby- a big, loud mutant baby armed with a gun that fires rare vinyls. The plot is rather simple and doesn't try and bog the player down in endless cut-scenes, a confusing narrative or meaningless character jabber. It just gets to the point, and revolves around a very different take on the apocalypse. In 2027 soft drink company FizzCo have created OverCharge Delirium XT, an energy drink that when consumed turns people into mutants. You take on a custom created character that bands together with other characters to survive both against mutants and human bandits alike. 

The first thing that jumps out at you when playing Sunset Overdrive are the visuals. Sunset Overdrive is an open-world title, but it's an open-world title like you've never seen before. Though Insomniac Games may have screwed up Fuse by turning into a dark and bleak shooter, judging by  Sunset Overdrive they're going for a tone that's more in line with their earlier games. The city of Sunset City presented here is extremely colourful, over-the-top and has a certain charm to it that I haven't seen in an open-world title outside of the Grand Theft Auto series, while the characters that inhabit the city look like the cast of Mad Max 2: Road Warrior on LSD. It nicely fits into Insomniac Games' ethos of the late 90's/early 2000's, and the gameplay built around its pretty trippy visuals is also based around what their earlier games aimed to achieve- fun, just simple fun.

Gameplay is essentially your typical open-world fare- Accept a mission, travel across the city to do the mission, go and collect your reward. The real meat of the game comes through getting around Sunset City and dispatching enemies. While your character plods around quite slowly on foot, you'll soon master the act of getting around in style. Whether it's grinding along a rail, running up a wall, running along the side of a building or sprinting across water (or all all four within the space of 30 seconds), Sunset Overdrive is like a wackier version of Mirror's Edge in the fact that movement is wonderfully free form, surprisingly nuanced and an utter joy to behold. Weapons are as varied as they are bizarre too. Though they start off quite small scale and basic, much later in the game you'll be packing a Teddy Bear launcher, a Chinese fireworks gun, a weapon that fires limited edition vinyls and even a cannon that shoots bowling balls. Combat would be generic without it, but used in conjunction with Sunset Overdrive's stunning control system, combat is bloody insane and often a sea of multicoloured explosions, buckets of mutant goo and pillars of neon smoke. It's tricky to get it right, but if done properly you'll be able to make your way across the city while taking out enemies, but without your feet ever touching the ground!

This release can't come at a better time for Microsoft, as amid pretty awful sales for the Xbox One, they're in dire need of a decent exclusive that isn't Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Though I wouldn't say it's worth buying an Xbox One solely for Sunset Overdrive, it is a great start to Microsoft's case for purchasing one. With incredibly in-depth character customization, a whole bunch of hidden collectibles to find within every nook and cranny of Sunset City, and some of the more impressively big and high tempo boss battles in recent memory, Sunset Overdrive is proof that Insomniac Games still has it.

Sunset Overdrive goes on full overdrive and gets a 4/5.

★★★★☆

Denis Murphy

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