Right I am well aware that I havent reviewed the first season of the show but I am honest When watching it and the second season was a few days away from being released (I was late to the party..sorry) I was unsure whether I wanted to contiue. I really found the first season a bit of a slog at times. The later half not so much once things got going. If you havent watched Season 2 yet or are not at the end of season 1, I warn you now this isnt spoiler free for the first season. You’ve been warned.
OK so Season 1 ended with Vanya (Ellen page) causing the end of the world and blowing up the moon despite her adopted siblings coming together to stop her. Five (Aidan Gallagher) then chirps out he can take everyone back in time to right the situation. Wat could go wrong..
I have to literally applaud the production ofthe first three minutes of season 2’s first episode. Any doubts of Season 2 being a slog were wiped clean instantly. Its insane as it is like they literally went away looked over reviews or critics to the first season and adapted. Brilliant! So Five’s plan worked and they did all indeed travel back in time. Except, well they went further back than they planned. Without giving too much away. they ended up back in the 60s but each of them ended up back on different dates to the others.
The result is each character underwent some major development in the time they are apart which sets the scene perfectly. It also brings out some of the quieter characters from the first season. Klaus (Robert Sheehan) for instance now my favourite in the series was amazing. two words “hippy cult”. Allison’s (Emmy Raver-Lampman) character I enjoyed as she deals with the racial segregation of 1960s america. Without delving too much into it in short she is another excellent character. The others including Vanya all have their hands full too and many surprises, twists and turns occur making this season so much better than the first.
Oh and Hargreaves…as in dad. My feelings towards his character have changed about six or seven times in a space of a season. Bloke is a enigma. Again though not going to spoil it.
If you have watched the Season I really have to say too that the soundtrack is great. All the 1960’s hits strike a bit of a chord with me reminding me alot of my childhood at relatives houses so it sits well with me.
All in all if you hadnt guessed I love this shows second season and season 3 had better happen as there is so much I want to know and see happen from everyone involved.
Bit late to review this but I have had way too much fun with this one. So much so I went and got the platinum trophy before writing this up. Sit back and Ill say it now if your on the fence with this you need to get out there and buy it. It really is either Game of the year or in contendership at the very least.
So to begin welcome to 13th century Tsushima, a island crawling with honourable samurai. You play as Jin Sakai, a loyal samurai to the islands Jito Lord Shimura. Lord Shimura is also Jins maternal uncle. At the beginning we see them both along with an array of Samurai about to take on the invading mongol army led by Khotun Khan. As the story unfolds it becomes apparent said mongol army are not as easily dispatched as once thought. Jin will be led down a path that will not only question his own honour but the future of the island of Tsushima.
As you play through Ghosts of Tsushima you will unlock an array of weaponry and armours that will aid you in your playstyle of honourable samurai or strike from the shadows ghost. Which ever you choose you will marvel at the graphics, gameplay and just about everything the game throws at you. I am seriously impressed with this game. Whether your on a cliffside or a forest or a snowy mountain, something will catch your eye and you will just stare at how amazing it is.
Combat is simple enough to begin with until you start mixing things up a bit and the enemies start evolving slightly. As samurai youll be fighting in stance with your sword/katana (whichever you prefer). Each stance is unique and useful against a set type enemy. For examply Wind stance is effective against spearmen and moon stance is better used against brute enemies. Now try switching between these whil multiple various mongels are coming at you left right and centre. Oh and save the hostages before theyre slain because well mongels are sods in the game. They fight dirty and youll have to too. There really something about watching the mongels get struck down one by one by Jin. As well as swords you have Kinai (throwing knives), smoke bombs, small explosives and the like.
The games map is huge and is split into three which coincides with the three acts of the strory. Upon the map youll have a lot to do. theres towns, villages, ports, lighthouses, war camps, fox dens (love these guys) and an assortment of mini game like activites that grant you new vanity gear or upgrade your health or resolve. Resolve is your MP if you will to perform special attacks and to heal yourself in a fight.
The campaign itself will take id say about 20-30 hours depending on your play speed however to complete everything and find all collectables id say closer to 50-60 hours of strong gameplay.
I cannot recommend this game enough. I was excited when I saw trailers and announcements but it really didnt do it justice. Its easily been one of the best games I have played in the last decade. Game of the year I think it may nab from the likes of The Last of Us 2 and Final Fantasy 7 Remake if I am honest. it really is that well made. Dont believe me? Well your going to want to try it yourself.
Right off the bat I am going to say this. The game had a huge amount of controversy in the lead up to its release that left Naughty Dogs fan base divided on whether theyd even play the game due to leaks detailing events in the story. I’m going to have to say the following. Ignore everything and just pic up the game.
The Last of Us Part II is a highly anticipated sequel to the series orginal that came out way back on the Playstation 3 and was remastered forthe Playstation 4. You follow on the story with fan favourite protaganists Joel and Ellie as they continue living in a version of earth that is swept with a virus leaving the human race infected and turning into these crazed fungi like mutations. You start the game in Jackson, a settlement that they have come to settle in since the end of the previous game. In this title you play as Ellie as the main character and through a series of events her world is thrown upside down.
Now I will keep this review spoiler free. You may have already seen the leaks or even know what happens however Ill assume you dont and carry on from there. One addition to this sequel is a new main character being added to the mix. Meet Abby. Now Abby is crucial for this games story because of whom she is and how her fate is now fixed on a meeting with Joel and Ellie. There are some serious repercussions and that for now is all I can say without giving out spoilers. She starts out in the mountains with her friends and her story unfolds from there..rapidly.
Gameplay is something of a masterclass on this game. Both characters Ellie and Abby have a variety of weapons to deal with those clickers and other infected as well as rebel factions in the game. crossbows, shotguns, pipebombs, molotovs the works old and new are your arsenal in this game and the gore aspect in particular is crazy in this game. I threw a bomb at one enemy and legs were blown clean off and lay some ten feet away from the enemies corpse. That said the attention to detail on both the characters and environment is second to none. I am so impressed with the scenery in the game. from the snow, to the thunderstorms and the fires in the villages when all hell has broken loose. It is visually incredible.
Now the story as I have mentioned above will divide people. I myself even after seeing the leaks and stuff still wanted to play. I had faith in Naughty dog and quite honestly they delivered. The went in a direction most storytellers and developers would consider risky or unpopular however it paid off. I found my opinion of characters changing as I played throught the gamefor the better. I got invested in the story. I hoped it wasnt over when it nearly was as I wanted to see what happened next. I came away from the game satisfied and will eagerly await the third. Even if the story isnt for you the gameplay itself is enough for someone to play the game.
Was there anything about the game I didnt like? Honestly very tiny things but nothing that would change my opinion of the game in its entireity. I got a little miffed with areas where narrative was going on and I could only walk rather thn jog. But as I said minor stuff.
The campaign took me around 25 hours to complete. Not the shortest or the longest of games but by far my favourite of this year. It really is a game of the year contender. Strong praise indeed but it totally holds up and is worth your time and money. enjoy!!!
In the 20 odd years leading upto this I never thought they would ever do a remake of this absolute gem of a game. Final Fantasy 7! It set the benchmark for RPG’s at a whole new level with an array of amazing characters, music and the story! Oh my! So here it is announced and about to be released. A Remake!
I was lucky enough to get my copy early and thankfully my work shifts didnt realy disrupt a near 4 day play through. I say this but I wasnt on it all day every day for four days I racked up below 40 hours on my playthrough. I didnt do everything but that is for my other review that will contain spoilers. I say spoilers but anyone who has played the original knows the story etc but yes I wont spoil this for anyone as it really, really is gold.
I was dubious going into this as yes I am a Final Fantasy fanboy and yes I had very high expectations about this remake and howtheyhad decided to do three games instead of one. Where would it end? Would they change anything? Will I enjoy it or even love it as much as the original. It is a mammoth undertaking for Square Enix to do this. FF7 has a huge fanbase and this remake will be turning heads everywhere.
Okay a brief and I say brief run over the story for anyone who either hasnt played the original for whatever reason? (YOU SHOULD!) Meet Cloud, our hero and protagonist. Cloud is an ex- SOLDIER who are the equivelent of the toughest military force in the world if they had been enhanced chemically by an energy source found in the planet. Anyway Cloud, ex-SOLDIER starts his journey aboard a train in the mechanical brilliance that is the city of Midgar. He has joined a mission with a bunch of freedom fighters named Avalanche. Their goal is to blow the Mako reactors thats draining the planet of the Mako energy. Simple enough? No the Electrical power company Shinra want to squash Avalanche and their plans. So Cloud goes with Avalanche and its members. Most notable are Tifa, Cloud’s busty childhood kickboxing friend and Barret, video games answer to a cross breed of terminator and Mr T. The guy literally has a mini gun for a forearm. He rocks. As the story progresses and you see just how bad shinra is and what it will cost to bring them down, but are they the real enemy here? No! (que the angelic choir!) SE-PHI-ROTH! Yes Sephiroth the legendary soldier from the war, presumed dead but in fact very much alive. He plagues Cloud’s mind for reasons I wont go into but this guy is very dangerous and very very cool. Best way to put it, he makes a nuke look like a sparkler. An last but not least by any means is Aerith. The flower girl. The ancient. Aerith is key to the story almost as much as Cloud is but I will not go into that again I want new players to experience this first hand. In the remake she totally kicks butt. So with these characters and factions in place, your about to embark on a story that will stick with you for years to come! 22 years to date for myself. Still brilliant.
Ok gameplay, the Remake has gone with a similar active battle system like Final Fantasy 15 with minor changes and to be very honest it works and had they done this with 15 I’d have been happir with that game. Anyway, the game is not turn based as its original was however there is a classic mode I have yet to try which does turn it into a turnbased game during battles but I will say the difficulty will be at an easy setting only. Now then the variety of weapons which you can upgrade using SP points gained from levelling your characters up add increased stats to your weapons including Cloud’s famous Buster Sword (The big bulky sword). You also equip materia to them to use in battle. Materia is Final Fantasy 7’s magic and skill system and what I like is the way its both limited and tactical when giving characters only a set amount to battle with. As you battle you gain AP points which will level any equipped materia overtime to unlock better and more powerful variants.
Right what the remake does do well is it really does recapture the magic of the original. I found myself sat there grinning stupidly because it was like playing it as a kid all over again. Good times! The story is told brilliantly in the remake. They dont skip over anything crucial and they havent changed anything from the original bar a couple of minor things. Again see the other review if you wish to comment on this.
The downside of the remake is well not a great deal. The main thing is now well be waiting a good year and a half at least for part 2 of this phenomenal series. One thing I wasnt keen on was the stagger metre which during battles makes your enemy more vulnerable and will end up recieving more damage from you. I found one or two enemies seemed to not have this rule but were also immune to just about everything. Ok its nice theres hard enemies in a game but when your doing 5 damage per hit on an enemy with 70000 health its a bit like okay mate god mode yourself outta here! That said it literally was about 2 enemies total. I may have overlooked something but what I wrote above was what it was when I was battling them.
Sephiroth
There is another thing about the remake I was surprised about but enjoyed it but as frustrating as this is to anyone reading that has no idea what I am prattling about. I cant share my opinion on it as its a huge spoiler and I dont want to wreck it.
Overall The remake of Final Fantasy 7 is fantastic. I wouldnt be surprised if it is game of the year despite the other contenders coming out in the coming months. It really is well made with a return to some of the most original characters, storytelling and soundtrack that video games have to offer. If you have been on the fence about buying. Consider yourself pulled down and on the buying side as it is worth your time money and effort. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Keep an eye out for my second review packed with spoilers. Hit the subscribe so youll be notified when I have uploaded it. Thanks for reading.
I am not okay with this…a sentence almost every teenager in existence comes out with in their school life. Enter Sydney (Sophia Lillis) a reclusive teenager making her way through high school. Syd’s got more than the usual teenage problems on her mind. She lost her father just under a year ago, her mum and her are not seeing eye to eye since the incident. She feels trapped in some cases where she is helping to raise her brother while her mother works a 60 hour week to cover food, bills etc.
On top of all this Syd has one more problem. She thinks shes losing the plot. Things start happening. Stuff moves when shes angry or upset, not because its lost but because she moved it with her mind. So who can Syd turn too? Mum? No. Her one and best friend Dina (Sofia Bryant)? No. Enter Stan (Wyatt Oleff) the carefree new age hippy of this series. I love Stan’s character hes very chilled. Probably due to the weed he smokes. By the way this isnt a stoner series, its just something his character does. Stan befreinds and comes into Syd’s life when she needs someone most. Together they explore Syd’s problem and try and work out what causes it to happen.
I stumbled onto this by accident and despite it only being a seven episode season. I am now hooked on this and am eagerly awaiting season two. Syd’s problem the telekenetic power is epic and it is so much more than that. Want to know what I mean? You need to watch. The casting choice for this is brilliant. Sophia and Wyett obviously have previous experience working together from the film IT chapter one and two. Theres a strong team behind it including producers from Stranger things and the director for Netflix’s The end of the fucking world, another good binge for a quiet friday night.
Overall I am not okay with this shaped up to be more than I expected and now I have watched it, I want to know more about the comic its based off. The only criticism is it has left me with a lot of questions. Now that could be because I havent read the comic and dont know the lore or it could be seen as a good thing where Netflix have now guarranteed I will watch season two to sort out my curiousity. So long as they renew the show for season two. Here’s hoping.
At this moment in time I have a bit of free time on my hands due to injury I have been signed of work. I have spent the last few days ona #HermitBinge
This being on Netflix (shocker) show Atypical which follows the highs and struggles of Sam an 18 year old autistic male and his family who are undergoing changes such as Sam finishing high school, his sister Casey getting somewhere with her running through school sports programme and their parents going through a rocky patch.
Now Sam’s character I think is awesome. Not because of his condition at all but because of who he is. Three things. One his love for penguins and anything antartic. two hs pet tortoise Edison and three his brute honesty to people which is very similar to Sheldon in the big bang theory but its never ,eant in a comical way. The show is written extremely well and you genuinely grow an attachment to each otf the characters for various reasons.
Another fan favourite is Sam’s friend Zahid who is again a big bang reference as this shows Howard Wollowitz before Howard met bernadette. Zahid is quirky and is both supportive of Sam and has a away of pushing him to break barriers that hold him back. They bpth work together at a tech shop and Zahid is a couple years older. Look out for him I enjoy the episodes hes in. Luckily as the series goes on hes featured more and more.
I dont have any negative opinions on this series. It does at times go into depth on autistic tendencies which while interesting and informative could give people with the condition negative thoughts. Particularly scenes where Sam is labelled a freak etc. Luckily this isnt alot as it would give this light hearted fun show a different light.
If you havent checked Atypical out yet I would really consider checking it out I give you to the end of episode 2 on the first season to be hooked. If not well keep watching. Itll get ya. A solid 9/10 and Season 4 needs to hurry up for the end of the year.
My latest binge came from a recommendation from my flatmate. She said to check out the stranger on Netflix and I am glad I did.
The shows based on the book by Harlan Coben and is a very engaging thriller with twists and turns. You follow an array of characters however the main is Adam (Richard Armitage) who lives the perfect life. Good job, loving wife, nice house etc etc.
Until one day he’s approached by a stranger. The stranger relays some information to him about his life in dramatic ways that upset Adam. He dismisses her but as time goes on decides to check.
Doing this starts him down a path of mystery full of surprises that show there really is no such thing as a perfect life. Every one has secrets. Even Adam.
I very enjoyed the show right up to the end and felt that it ended well too. I haven’t read the book although I may have to as I enjoyed the show but I’m unsure to whether they’ll do a second season as I imagine it’ll go away from the book.
If you haven’t checked this out yet and have a quiet few evenings or weekend on the horizon then here you go. Grab a bottle or two, get some snacks in and binge.
If I had to say anything I didn’t like about the show…I’d struggle but for the sake of nit picking I felt one or two characters were a bit pointless. Whether they are in the book I don’t know but their arc in the show seemed unfinished and not relevant as they were side characters as opposed to lead ones.
Bit behind on the reviews as of late. Returning to work, doctors, and personal matters are taking alot of my time however I’m looking to review some new material in the coming week… Stay tuned #hermitbinge #weekend
I have actually been looking forward to this fantastic series return for a while now.
The first half of the latest season on the smartest person in the universe Rick and his grandson Morty is everything I hoped for
From Rick’s planet he used solely to goto the bathroom to a wizard slut shaming a dragon this season is shaping up to be another classic.
If your new to the series go and start at season one. It’s not important as episodes are easy to get into and are less than half hour long but you should appreciate this series from the start. I mean you’ll miss pickle Rick for a start if you don’t.
Returning fans to the series rejoice for a brilliant first half to the new season.
Can’t wait for the second half which I believe is coming later this year
Like many people, I too think the golden years of top gear were when Hammond, May and Clarkson were on it not what it is now. The Grand Tour is also a good but what about when the three presenters do their own stuff. Today I have been binge watching James May’s Our man in Japan. The title speaks for itself but he isnt there for anything car related. Hes there to exchange cultures to show just how diverse and different Japanese society is.
He covers the snow capped mountains north of Hokkaido in the North Japan. The technical metropolis of Tokyo, Kyoto the heart of olden Japanese traditions. Osaka, Tokyo’s smaller sister city and others. At each city he gets a random tour guide who are all fairly bonkers in their own way. Yujiro being my favourite for talking on camera for washing your face using toilet water from the bidet option on Japan’s space age toilets. yes you read that right.
Throughout the six episode season, James undertakes various activities including watching one of the remaining sixty swordsmiths specialising in samurai swords. Taking part in the celebrations of the penis festival. Again yes you read that correctly. He undertakes snow dog sledding, preparing freshly caught octopus, dresses in approprate samurai armour from a descendant of the Soma clan and more!
Normally James’ shows on his own are more intellectual and filled with facts etc that some viewers may not find this entertaining. However on this I found the producers and cameramen dont allow him to go offcourse which in a similar fashion to his grand tour presenters creates a similar comedic theme that a mass of the population have come to love and enjoy.
One point in the series he uses a small robot called RoboHon as a travel guide which ended up as a funny segment especially as James cant spell his name right resulting in the robot refering to him as Bim for the segment.
Beyond these cool and crazy activites the cultures of Japanese food, drink, social life and traditions are shown to the viewer and for someone like me who is planning to visit Japan later this year I was hooked all the way through.
I am not so sure if there will be a season 2 to this and if there is whether hed be in Japan again. It feels more standalone. Either way its an enjoyable mini series for anyone who is a fan of May or Japanese culture. If I had one criticism it would be that I would like to have seen more on a few of the segments like the small Yatai in Hokaiddo. A yatai is a small market stand where your crammed in for food and beer with friends and other people seeking similar social activity.
I found the show entertaining and informative as I took away a few things about Japanese culture that I didnt know before which was good. It also left me with a few things I may have to add to my trip later this year.
James May’s Our man in Japan is available now on Amazon Prime. Enjoy. Sayonara.
Wh1te W0lf's Reviews 