Emoji Movie ★★★★★★

It is with humble honour and the greatest humility that I give you my review of inarguably the best movie of the year.

For better or for worse, you can’t escape The Emoji Movie in 2017. Never has a children’s film thrown up so much controversy and conjured such ire from critics. However, being the ethical journalist that I am, I ignored all this negativity and went in with cautious optimism and an open mind.

And I can confirm that every one of those expert critics, reviewers, and writers couldn’t have been more wrong - this is the Citizen Kane of the modern era. Don’t believe me? Read on to find out all the completely un-sarcastic reasons why The Emoji Movie is my pick to clean up the Oscars this year.

The Good

The biggest (of the many) strengths of The Emoji Movie is its relatable protagonist, a ‘meh’ emoji known as Gene. Now, all Gene wants to do is find his place in the world of Textopolis (the city that apparently exists behind every phone screen), and we follow his trials and tribulations as he meets a whole host of zany characters and discovers not only the secrets of the digital landscape but perhaps most importantly, himself.

What’s more, the sheer excellence of The Emoji Movie isn’t limited to the story, as the animation style manages to be equally brilliant. It truly is remarkable what computer generated graphics can be achieved nowadays, allowing an audience to become easily immersed and empathise with what are essentially pixels and polygons. The Emoji Movie is no exception to this trend and definitely doesn’t look like as dated as an early 2000s Dreamworks film. Trust me…

If stellar storytelling and presentation weren’t enough to impress even the most stoic critic, we’re also treated to a musical number for the ages. Witnessing the ‘Emoji Bop’ was a transcendent experience; I felt compelled to throw roses at the screen as I fought back the tears. As previously mentioned, The Emoji Movie is sure to clear out the Oscars, however if it doesn’t also have a strong showing at the Grammys, it’ll be a crime against music. 

Finally, as life-affirmingly entertaining as The Emoji Movie was, it serves a much more serious purpose that it would be missed of me not to mention. Through selfless product placement, it reminds us and the next generation of the online services we should be using like Spotify and Dropbox. I balk at the notion that this is a flagrant attempt to advertise to children, such cynicism should be derided. This is nothing short of a public service by the creators of The Emoji Movie.

The Bad

I feel that I’m doing the film a disservice by even including this section. My only grievance is with the unfair backlash to this underrated, misunderstood masterpiece.

The Verdict

Don’t listen to the critics.

The Emoji Movie is a gift, a piece of art without flaw and something that I hope will be on the national school syllabus soon. Film of the year is an understatement, even film of the decade sells it short, for truly there is no parable. Thank you The Emoji Movie, thank you.

I’d also just like to reiterate that this review is definitely not sarcastic. Promise.

★★★★★★

Sir Thomas Baker

Emoji Movie at CeX

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there across the US. Raise your glass and get stuffed!

The celebrations don't end at midnight, make sure you head to your nearest CeX store on Black Friday for our amazing Black Friday deals.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there around the World. Raise your glass and get stuffed!

Don't celebrate Thanksgiving? Go on, seize every opportunity to party ;-)

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Looking for US Black Friday deals? Check out CeX!

Ready for some amazing US Black Friday deals? We certainly are!

Visit your local US CeX store on Black Friday for discounts and Buy One, Get One Free deals on a number of products including video games, TVs & monitors, media players and VR. These offers are US only.

To find your nearest CeX store simply head to webuy.com/stores

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CeX is sponsoring GXI.IE!

We're super proud to announce our sponsorship of Ireland's best dedicated gaming convention - GXI! Are YOU going to be there? ;)

Held at The Royal Dublin Society on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th it's going to be filled with enough gaming goodness to satisfy everyone. Whether you're a tabletop wizard, a beast at button bashing, a avid panel goer or have all your trap cards prepared - there's something for you!

Check out their official schedule HERE and book your tickets HERE.

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Doom for the Switch ★★★★☆

Ever get that feeling of Doom-jà vu?

I’ll see myself out...

Not content with releasing arguably two of the best games of the year with Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey, Nintendo have released a version of last year’s gloriously gory Doom on the Switch. Now, this is nothing short of extraordinary, not only because Doom has the graphical demands to max out even the most powerful gaming PCs, but also because it’s Nintendo’s first foray into exclusively adult games for quite some time.

Will Nintendo’s gamble pay off? Can the Switch even handle the likes of Doom? Will I still get Doom and Duke Nukem perpetually mixed up? Grab your BFG and let’s find out:

The Good

I’ll prefix this section by saying I won’t be reviewing Doom itself (if you haven’t played last year’s version yet, do it, it’s up there with the best), rather I’ll be reviewing the experience of playing it on the Switch, which fortunately happens to be really rather good.

Overall, the port over to the Switch is phenomenal, given the console’s lack of technical oomph; it still has the fluid, almost dance-like gameplay that works so well in creating a brutally visceral yet graceful adventure. What’s more, this isn’t a stripped down version of a game, as was the case with ports of triple-A titles on the Wii, instead expect all the features from its big brothers, including a full campaign and multiplayer to satiate hours of bloodlust. 

Doom also treats us to what could possibly be the best original musical score from any video game in the modern era. Mick Gordon arranges aggressive electronic beats with crushing guitar riffs to create the best soundtrack for ripping up hellspawn with a chainsaw. ‘BFG Division’ is definitely a highlight track, and one to add to any workout playlist.

Ultimately, regardless of what platform you’re playing it on, what makes this game stand out is that it manages to recreate the magic of the original Doom, in all its frenetic, heart-pounding glory. As players of Duke Nukem: Forever will attest, this is no mean feat.

The Bad

With that being said, Doom on the Switch isn’t quite a perfect port. The limitations of the console mean you’re stuck with a 720p, 30fps experience, which in of itself isn’t an issue, particularly on the smaller tablet screen, however in the heights of intense battle, you may experience some serious lag problems. Not what you need when trying to keep the edge in multiplayer.

Additionally, if you’re coming from last year’s console or PC versions, there’s not enough to entice players to fork out the cash again for what is essentially a downgrade. Ultimately, as good as the game is, you won’t find anything new here.

The Verdict

Although not quite perfect, Doom on the Switch is better than it had any right to be; not only does it recapture the glory of the past, but with Skyrim and LA Noire also being remastered for the console, it signifies the dawning of a new age of adult games returning to Nintendo. 

I’ll steadfastly maintain that Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the best overall game of all time, but I would also argue that Doom is the best handheld game of all time.

★★★★☆

Sir Thomas Baker

Doom at CeX

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Vote for us! PriceSpy Shop Of The Year 2017

Hello all you CeXy folks!

Have we impressed you with our tech? Enjoying the bright colours and shining lights of our site?

It's time for us to ask you for your vote in the PriceSpy Shop Of The Year 2017 competition!

The competition has been running through the month of November and we're counting on your votes.

If our site has hit your number one, click the link HERE and vote for us as your shop of the year 2017.

All you've got to do is click the link & enter your email address to vote for us to win and the best part it is that it shouldn't take more than a few seconds of your time.

Much love,

Team CeX

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Congrats to our 1st Trade in to Win winner!

Congratulations to our first November Trade in to Win promotion weekly winner - Brian!

He bagged himself €200 by trading in his old stuff at CeX Santry.

Want your chance to win? See below for for how to enter.

How to enter

Simply ask for an e-receipt when selling or exchanging your goodies in store. You're saving trees by choosing to get your receipt by email. Every item you sell to CeX in store gives you another chance to win. To find your nearest CeX store visit webuy.com/stores.

The boring legal stuff can be found here. Please note this is a Republic of Ireland promotion and is for customers selling in physical CeX stores only.

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CeX Clonmel Opens!

Great news folks, we've opened another CeX store for your buying, selling, exchanging and upgrading pleasure in Clonmel, at 27 – 28 Mitchell Street. CeX Clonmel is packed with goodies so come on down and see why we're so excited.

Address: 

27 – 28 Mitchell Street

Clonmel

Tipperary

E91 XR61

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CeX Fight Club! Thor VS The HULK!

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Google Pixel 2 / XL 2 ★★★★☆

Google has built a reputation ever since its Nexus phone series, for giving users the perfect stock Android experience. Since last year’s Pixel launch, Google showcased their H/W prowess. With the Pixel series being a premium line of phones, the Pixel 2 and XL 2 have now improved and just launched across the globe. Let’s find out if Google can match the latest iPhones and the Samsung Note 8.

Design & Hardware

The major difference between the Pixel 2 and the XL 2 is the screen size that is 5” (441 ppi) and 6” (538 ppi)  respectively. Battery life on the smaller version is 2700 mAh while on the XL is 3520 mAh. While the Pixel is available in Just Black, Clearly White and Kinda Blue the XL has only 2 options Just Black and Black & White, aka Panda ;)

The Aluminium unibody feels great on both devices with less glass than the last iteration at the back and matte finish coating going all the way to the bottom of the phone. Thankfully though, it’s not a fingerprint magnet and doesn’t show too many scratches even after a few unfortunate drops. The Power button is on the right and volume rockers below it which are easy to reach if you’re right-handed. Nano SIM slot on the left and a Type C charging port at the bottom. Google thinks the 3.5mm jack is dead only a year after they mocked Apple but shockingly they don’t provide type C earphones in the box. There’s only a type C to 3.5mm jack connector which is seriously embarrassing for a damn expensive phone!

On the front you have the stereo speakers, the top one which doubles as an earpiece and the second one is located below the display. Above the display is the 8MP camera and the notification LED. The new Pixel is manufactured by LG so you see the same 18:9 ratio here, just like on the G6. Even the OLED screen is made by LG with Gorilla Glass 5 that subtly curves at the edges. There are quite a few issues people have complained about like screen burning, and a slight Blue tint when viewed at an angle and even when the Night Light is turned ON. The fact that there were talks of such issues even on the original Pixel makes me think if Google hasn’t been able to figure out the reason for them. On the front, there are no physical buttons and the fingerprint sensor is at the back in the centre just below the 12MP camera and LED flash. The one key feature this time is the Squeeze feature similar to the HTC U11 that can be used to trigger the Google Assistant. Both phones have Snapdragon 835 processor and 4GB RAM with 64GB or 126GB storage options. They are also IP67 water and dust resistant. And just for the record, The Pixel 2 is made by HTC and the Pixel 2 XL by LG.

Software 

The phones run vanilla Android 8.0 Oreo (Yum!) out of the box which is slick and really snappy. The Google Search button is now at the bottom of the screen and the Lock Screen supports an Always ON display to show notifications. At the bottom, it also shows the Track name of any music playing around you without any internet connection since it has a database of track titles stored within. Swiping right from the home screen takes you to the Google Now screen with relevant news and updates in the form of cards. Double pressing the Lock button opens the camera app, while a flick of the wrist can change from rear to front camera and vice versa. Google Lens was introduced with the new phones which have also been passed on to older Pixel devices now. It uses advanced AI to find what the image is, show up relevant Google search results and even identifies addresses from text.

Multimedia & Camera

Google still believes you only need 1 lens and not 2 at the back to give the portrait effect or be the best camera out there. To be honest it’s as close to the Note 8 in terms of image quality but doesn't beat it. Some images are too yellow-y for my liking. It does beat the iPhone 8+ but only slightly. The camera has laser and dual-pixel autofocus which is extremely quick. Default HDR+ mode clicks amazing pictures but it still takes a few seconds to process these images. Video recording from the 12MP camera maxes out at 4K on 30fps with improved stability, so no more shaky videos. Sound recording can be better, however. The camera app does not give you any manual control modes but maybe Google thinks not many people use it and when they have the AI to go along with best in class camera, you should get the desired results on Auto mode. Front stereo speakers are a great addition, mainly when gaming and watching videos. Talking of gaming, Asphalt Extreme & GTA ran lag free and without any frame drops. Multitasking is a breeze and you have split screen mode by just long pressing the menu/apps button.

And to obviously handle all this you need a great battery, the 3520 mAh does justice to the phone and on quick charge, it can reach 80% in an hour which is great! Disappointingly it doesn’t support wireless charging and you might also not get fast charging if you use a third-party charger.

Conclusion

2nd most expensive phone after the iPhone X, average screen, plenty of bugs and issues in the first batch (complaints aplenty, but Google might just fix them with s/w updates). The fans will still see the improved design, best in class camera, improved AI and a lag-free vanilla Android with the promised updates for 3 years. Competing with the Note 8, LG V30 and the iPhone 8+, the Pixel 2 & XL 2 will face some challenges, but only time will tell. 

★★★★☆

Pritesh Khilnani

Google Pixel 2 at CeX

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Cuphead ★★★★★

This is a game I’ve had my eye on for a long time. Cuphead has been in the making since 2010. I’m a sucker for nice art and Cuphead is full of it. Every character animation is painstakingly hand drawn, scanned in and then coloured digitally. It’s easy to see why Cuphead was delayed, over and over, but so worth the wait.

Created by a team of two Canadian brothers, Chad and Jared Moldenhauer. The brothers both grew up with a fascination of and were clearly heavily inspired by 1930’s propaganda, surrealist and subversive animation by people such as Max Fleischer (Popeye, Betty Boop), Ub Iwerks (Mickey Mouse) and Myron "Grim" Natwick. They soon hired Jake Clark, who also contributed and helped with artwork and animation. By the end of production, they ended with a team of around 20 people working on it. Studio MDHR is going to be one to keep an eye on.

Cuphead and his brother, Mughead, get themselves into a spot of gambling debt with the Devil, at the local Casino.During a game of Craps, the Devil ups the stakes by offering the porcelain pair the Casino; but if they lose, their souls belong to the Devil. Obviously, they lose (Spoilers) and beg for a way out. They’re offered to collect all the souls owed to him (the Devil) and in return, they can keep their own. This is all cleverly conveyed to you in the opening theme song which plays over the Title Screen.

There's a level of masochistic trial and error, to Cuphead, comparable to Super Meat Boy and Trials HD. Just like in the two games mentioned, an instant restart helps ease the frustration of constant death. If you had to sit through a loading screen and had time to reflect upon how bad you are, you'd just give up. The short length of the fights (when you get it right) keep you going. You'll die over and over, learning each bosses pattern, dying near the end of a battle and giving it “one more go”. Then you realise you're late for work... but screw work, you need to beat this Boss… you're so close.

This game wants you to “get good”, to a clearing Contra on a single life sort of level. There is an “Simple Mode” if you're just wanting to play through to see the amazing work that's gone into the animation and listen to one of the best game soundtracks this year. It still won't make it an easy task, though, and the real final boss is hidden behind the hardest difficulty. Cuphead’s use of 1930’s ragtime, swing jazz is perfect. Kristofer Maddigan did an amazing job scoring the game.

Cuphead runs at a smooth 60 frames per second for fluid controls and responsiveness. This is one of the few games using the Unity engine to show that with the right people coding, Unity is powerful free software. Akin to the likes of Super Meat Boy, If you get hit and mess up, you know it was your own fault (ninety percent of the time, anyway). Cuphead is ruthless and unforgiving... but fair. Personally, I preferred using the D-pad, over the analog stick. At first, the default button layout seemed a little weird but the controls are quite smooth, once you get to grips with them. If you're playing on PC you can remap them to however you want to. I hear moving the *Dash* to a shoulder button helps.

There are three main level types. The Run and Gun, which plays a lot like a less chaotic Contra or Metal Slug. These break up all the boss battles. For fans of R-Type and Ikaruga, there are Shmup like levels, where Cuphead fights bosses in the form of a plane. Boss Battle make up the majority of the game, with 19 in total. As I've already mentioned these are extremely hard but massively satisfying each time you beat one. Every boss has several stages of attack, often changing appearance and attacks with each one. 

If you can find another person, who doesn't mind suffering with you, they can take the role of Mughead for some couch cooperative play... until one of you rage quits.

★★★★★

Bry Wyatt

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CeX Fight Club! Retro VS Modern Gaming

Want to win a £50 voucher (or local currency equivalent). Enter our weekly Fight Club competition!

Congratulations to our WINNER!

Last week we are happy to announce that RETRO GAMING won by a significant amount!

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Snes: Classic Mini ★★★★★

Last years Nes Classic Mini was a nice idea but it was the Snes Classic Mini that we all really wanted. Not to downplay the legacy of the Nes, and it's classic games, but Nintendo debatably hit their stride with the Super Nintendo. The extra power allowing for some of the greatest games ever to be put to cartridge. Some of my fondest memories hail from my days playing Snes games. I still have my original Snes set up, next to my PS4, and play it just as regularly... and now I have a palm sized one, in my bedroom.

The machine itself looks just like a Mini-Me doppelganger of its 27 year old counterpart. (25 to those of us in the UK). Even the, thankfully regular sized, pads look and feel the same. The extra cord length (although still only about half the length of an old original pad) is much appreciated. The Nes Mini's leads were disappointingly far too short. You get two of them this time and they are also compatible with the Switch, if you own one. The flap on the front, that conceals the controller ports, is the only part of the design I have an issue with. It looks tacky when opened and I'm sure it'll snap off at some stage.

On the inside, the Snes Classic Mini runs on the same R16 chip system as the Nes mini, with 256MB of DDR3 RAM. A quad ARM Cortex-A7, for system processing, and a separate ARM Mali 400 MP2 graphics processor. It uses a custom build of Linux to run emulators, coded by Nintendo, to emulate the various custom chipsets built into an original Snes and its games.

You get three output display options. “CRT”, a scanline filter and a crap one, at that. “4:3”, which is closest to your old square tv screen. And finally, “Perfect Pixel”. I've been using this option the most. The whole thing is powered by USB lead and outputs using a standard HDMI cable at a max of 720p.

A microwave can probably run a Snes emulator these days, so this should be more than enough for a machine over two decades old. There have been improvements made to the way the emulation handles how the screen rolls along, eliminating the ghosting and after shadow problem of the Nes Classic. Although, I have ran into a few instances of game slowdown and other oddities that don't exist with original hardware. These can be quite distracting at times.

Contra 3 and Mario Kart, for example, lose their frame rate in a lot of sections that were never an issue for the original. Some extra epilepsy and seizure precautions have also be taken. Things like the strobing effect of Contra 3's grenades have been toned down considerably.

The machine comes packed with 21 games, to kick you in the nostalgia. From classics such as Mario World, Mario Kart, Zelda: A Link to the Past and Donkey Kong Country to some harder to find games like Yoshi's Island and Secret of Mana. For the first time (for the UK PAL region) we get to play Earthbound and Super Mario RPG, without the need to import it; And then, for extra credit, Nintendo made an extra surprise by, adding the unreleased Star Fox 2. Which was sadly canceled, in 1995, due to the release of the N64 looming over it.

Each game is still just as fun and playable as they were 20 odd years ago. In my opinion, older 16-bit games have stood the test of time better than going back and playing N64 or original PlayStation games, with a few exceptions.

All the games on the Snes Classic Mini are their NTSC American versions. These run at 60hz, rather than the 50hz that the UK PAL versions did, back in the day. So we can finally play without the boarders at the top and bottom of the screen.

Full List of the 21 games:

Contra 3: The Alien War (known as Super Probotector, in the UK)

Donkey Kong Country

Earthbound (unreleased in the UK)

F-Zero

Final Fantasy III (Final Fantasy 6, outside of America)

Mega Max X

Kirby Super Star

Kirby’s Dream Course

Secret of Mana

Star Fox

Star Fox 2 (Unreleased Worldwide. Cancelled in 1995)

Super Mario RPG  (unreleased in the UK)

Super Ghouls and Ghosts

Super Mario World

Super Mario Kart

Super Metroid

Street Fighter 2 Turbo

Super Punch-Out

Super Castlevania IV

Yoshi’s Island, Super Mario World 2

Zelda: A Link to the Past

There are still a few games that I would have liked to have been included. My all-time favorite JRPG, Chrono Trigger, would have been a much welcomed addition. As would Donkey Kong Country 2 and 3, to name just a few. With no way of adding more games, to the machine, (legally and without the risk of bricking your tiny console) and as it's emulation anyway, you could achieve the same results by building yourself a Raspberry Pi (RetroPie). Somehow that just wouldn't feel the same, to me. The same argument could be used that I can use something like a RetroN 5, to play my original Cartridges, but I'd still rather use my official Super Nintendo. This could just be my collector's mentality and the sense of hunting down and owning the original and official thing.

It's nice to own a modern gadget that doesn't require an update every week.

★★★★★

Bry Wyatt

Snes: Classic Mini at CeX

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The Hunter: Call of the Wild ★★☆☆☆

The Cabela hunting franchise has long provided quick pick up and play titles for the (admittedly few) gamers who want to stalk virtual game. Aside from the good old U.S.A, hunting isn't a very popular past-time, so it is somewhat surprising when The Hunter: Call of the Wild has now arrived to provide a deeper, more realistic hunting experience - and at the same time a far less accessible one.

After choosing to visit either a North American or German hunting reserve, you are free to explore the massive open-world woodlands, to find some suitable targets. You must use a full array of real-world tools and techniques in order to succeed. You only start off with a basic rifle, but eventually mating call whistles, scent lures and even bows and arrows could be at your disposal. A lot of these are sadly hidden behind a very slow and tedious XP progression system. It takes an inordinate length of time to build up enough kills to acquire the experience points and cash needed to unlock and purchase the full array of new tools and weapons. This only makes it harder to kill your targets, as you won't get the most effective bullets, the best magnification scopes or other such tools until you have pumped a lot of time into the game already.

To find your prey - which could be Coyotes, Moose, Bears or several other woodland creatures - you will have to be very observant. Tracking animal footprints in the mud, locating droppings (surprising how much can be gleaned from animal poop) and listening out for animal calls, will help you to pinpoint their location. However, you will have to be very careful of making too much noise by moving too fast and startling them, and plan a route of attack whereby your scent can't be picked up.

All of these factors mean that everything in The Hunter: Call of the Wild needs to be carried out very slowly and patiently. And just saying "patiently" is being more than a little generous - you need to be excessively patient in order to get anywhere in the game. Despite all of this, you will definitely feel the excitement and rush of blood when an animal enters your cross-hairs, and even more so when you are treated to the kill screen, complete with an X-Ray to show just how your shots took down the mighty beast.

But this happens all too infrequently - as even if you do manage to shoot one of the animals, it is often hard to track the blood trails to harvest the body, or you may have only managed a slight flesh wound and your prey still has enough in them to simply run away and escape. On top of this, the story missions are paper-thin and the multiplayer mode is pretty basic and light on features. You will simply find yourself slowly crawling through undergrowth, following poop trails for the majority of your time in-game.

Unless you are incredibly patient, your lust for killing defenseless creatures isn't likely to be satisfied by The Hunter: Call of the Wild.

★★☆☆☆

Robin Parker

The Hunter: Call of the Wild at CeX

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