Game of the Year contenders 2013

As is always the case we hit the end of a year and people start proclaiming what was the best those twelve months had to offer. When I started this post I was in a bit of pickle, I was convinced I'd not played that many games this year. The latter half of the year I've not touched that many of this years' releases from a personal standpoint and most of my recent purchases has gone on the great games from the last few years that I missed. I'm got Dishonored for Christmas, which says a lot.

BeefJack: FTL: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

My interview with with Subset Games, the developers of FTL: Advanced edition, as well as guest writer Chris Avellone, is now up at BeefJack. I bloody loved FTL and can't wait for this free expansion.

I'm sort of surprised at the title. Originally the Editor had Faster, Better, Harder, Stronger. An obvious play on the Daft Punk song with the F going first for FTL, which I promptly ribbed him about getting it wrong because I'm like that and suggested Faster, Tougher, Longer. But this was all in the run up to Christmas so obviously things got lost/forgotten.

Also right in the middle of writing they announced The Lanius, a new robotic alien life form, which caused a bit of a rewrite the exorcision of them "No Comment"ing my speculation that more was coming.

FTL: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Time of the Doctor: Goodbye Matt Smith

The Clock has struck Twelve. Matt Smith has handed in his bowtie and sonic screwdriver. Peter Capaldi is now in the driving seat of the TARDIS. Unfortunately, the handover episode, Time of the Doctor was not all that great. After the epic that was Day of the Doctor, this was a bit of a let down.

After the extremely successful, and awesome to watch, 50th Anniversary, this always had a lot to live up to, made even harder for being at Christmas, where it's not just new fans that are watching but all their sozzled and stuffed relatives. But I thinking Time may have been a bit too dense and over reaching for its own good.

Doctor Who is 50: The Return

Because it's Christmas, and I don't have anything actually ready, I'm going back to the well of the Doctor Who 50th marathon I did. Below you'll find the original Matt Smith entry I wrote, on the The Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon and The Wedding of River Song. It got dropped early on because after watching Asylum of the Daleks and Name of the Doctor I just had to go with them because Matt Smith is outstanding there. Oh, and Clara. So I apologise as it is a little rough.

Besides, lets not pretend that the end of the week's entry isn't going to my thoughts on Matt Smith's swansong.

Broken Sword 5: The Double Fine Curse

I backed it. Of course I backed it. After Monkey Island, Broken Sword is my most favourite point and click series. I was probably more excited that Charles Cecil had set the Kickstarter for The Serpent's Curse going than I was with Double Fine Adventure (Which was a more a 'holy fuck' than 'YES YES YES!').

I'm no idiot though. I understand that Tim Schafer's success is what spurred other creators of long out of fashion game mechanics to head to crowd funding and Cecil is certainly one of them. Yet despite the timing, we have Broken Sword before we have Broken Age. Unfortunately, Cecil and Revolution took one more lesson from Schafer that I really wish they hadn't.

Karl Urban is Almost Human

Near-future Sci-fi, cops and robots. It's one of those concepts that's just about a perfect fit for me. Throw in Karl Urban as the main protagonist and J. J. Abram's latest TV series definitely seems like we're onto a winner.

It's no secret I hold Fringe in very high regard. I bloody loved that show. So if some of the people from that had a new idea I was always going to be on-board. The fact the premise is so suited to my interests is an extra bonus.

Strategy Informer: Contrast Review

Sorry it's been a while since I updated here. Lot of videogame work recently, the first of which I can share with you now with a review of Contrast at Strategy Informer. Mostly known for being a free game on PSN for PlayStation 4 users, I played it on PC because I've yet to jump into next-gen consoles. Mainly because there isn't a single game that has convinced I should yet. Anyway, Contrast is pretty fun, if short.

Contrast Review

Doctor Who turns 50: The After Party

Not that terrible BBC 3 show they did. That was a bloody shambles. This is my look back at my own celebration.

Now I've watched one serial for every Doctor, and every meet-up of multiple Doctors. I was a bit of a fan before this started. Nothing too drastic. Genesis of the Daleks was something I watched because a friend owned it. Now, I think I'm full blown Whovian.

Looking to Asgard for more help: Second look at Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Since Agents of SHIELD tied into Thor: The Dark World last week it felt like the perfect time to go back and have a look how the small screen part of Marvel's Cinematic Universe is going on. However, since the Thor tie-in was not so much a Thor tie-in but a passing mention to London and then onto Asgardian stuff totally unrelated to The Dark World, plus I was in the depths of Doctor Who last week, I put it off for one more episode.

Now I clearly liked the pilot, but after that things went a little south. Then we got F.Z.Z.T. which was just amazing. Fitz contracting an alien disease was easily the best episode S.H.I.E.L.D. had ever produced, and no matter how long it runs for will always be up there. It was just good tele. It hadn't popped up out of nowhere either , as the two previous episodes had shown a bit of an improvement. But what about what followed?

Doctor Who turns 50: The Day of the Doctor

Well that was just Fantastic!

I'll admit that as we watched the Battle of Gallifrey become just another – admittedly epic looking – sci-fi battle I started to worry. That isn't what Doctor Who is. Then John Hurt was in a desert, talking to Bad Wolf Rose, being given the choice to destroy his people and the Daleks or not, and the only way to make that decision was to meet his future selves. Finally we were on the right track.

The Man Who Regrets and The Man Who Forgets. A brilliant way of describing Tennant and Smith's Doctors. But it didn't stop there. Hurt's old man Doctor just kept picking apart the differences between Old and New Whos. Calling them companions due to their age, wondering why they wave their screwdrivers at everything. The banter between the three was fantastic, especially between Smith and Tennant which immediately brought to mind the same repartee that Pertwee and Troughton had, which is the perfect Doctor relationship to model it after. Both Doctors were on the top of their game.

Doctor Who turns 50 part 11: Asylum of the Daleks and Name of the Doctor

This post was nearly Impossible Astronaut, Day of the Moon and Wedding of River Song, but last night I also watched Asylum of the Daleks and Name of the Doctor, and I can gush a lot more of those two then I can the others, so I switch, even though the other is practically written. I'll probably release it in a few weeks when I'm struggling for content.

It also unfortunately means that I don't get to gush about Arthur Darvill as Rory, who is just plain fantastic in them, and Mark Sheppard, who in his quest to appear in everything makes his Doctor Who debut, and I hope we got to see more of Canton some day.

But Asylum of the Daleks and Name of the Doctor. I thought I was being a bit harsh on Eccleston and Tennant's outings. I remember thoroughly enjoying then. I've never been one for rewatching stuff that often, I need a good few years between instances, and I just put it down to that. Then I watched Asylum of the Daleks. Holy Crap this is good Who. It's only been a year since it came out, and I still got thrills with it.

Doctor Who turns 50 part 10: Utopia, Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords

Tennant is my Doctor. Though I watched all of Eccleston's run he wasn't around long enough. Tennant was. It was his run that got me hooked. Plus it always amuses me that TENnant was the TENTH Doctor. Ahh wordplay.

The act of the Master going to the one point in time Time Lords never go to and using a chameleon arch is fantastic, and Martha pointing it out but realising she should tell the Doctor is also really well done. I think with a lot of the older companions they'd just go “WAHEY! NEW TIMELORD! OPEN IT!” and all hell would break loose. Here it's still the companions fault, but Martha was clever enough to run off to tell the Doctor and not give the game away, unfortunately the damage is already done. It stops that moment of screaming at Ace or Jo to stop being idiotic. Some nice writing.

Doctor Who turns 50 part 9: Rose

And Long Game, Bad Wolf and The Parting of Ways

Ahhh New Who. This is when I started watching properly. I'm still sad that Eccleston only did one season, and having now watched these I'm even more so. He hits the Doctor perfectly, going from flippant fun to dead serious that you see in most of those I rate highly.

I expected more of a shift from Old to New, but personally I think that Who was slowly sliding towards it anyway. Comparing Curse of Fenric to The Daleks is more of a gap then to the Relaunch. Of course, The TV Movie is a big part of that shift as well.

Strategy Informer: SpeedRunners preview

YAY I say positive things about a game. After Forced, Dream Chamber and Master Reboot, I've had a real bad run of not great games. I wasn't even expecting SpeedRunners to be that much. But after getting with a bunch of BeefJack writers for a session (they might be doing a video with it soon) I was blown away with how much fun we had. It really reminded me of those good old days of crowding around a computer for Worms or MicroMachines. They're incredibly quick races, and damn fun too. Seriously, Go!

Wait. Read the full preview, then go.

SpeedRunners Preview

Doctor Who turns 50 part 8: The TV Movie

First a confession. This was the first Doctor Who I saw in its entirety. I'd caught a couple of Pertwee's, but never a full serial. This was my attempt to see what Doctor Who was all about. I liked it, but not any great amount. Certainly nothing to go out of my way to seek more. To put it into context, it was this exact same attitude I approached New Who. So that shows how much effect this had on me. As a result I've never felt the vitriol for Eighth Doctor's adventure, in fact I almost feel defensive of it.

Now I've watched it again... it could have been a decent enough outing, but the directing is so heavy handed it kills everything. I actually was able to enjoy it right up to the point they left the atomic clock and went back to the Tardis. Then the finale came in, and during what should be a tense battle of wills between the Doctor and the Master, I was immensely bored. The constant cutting between the fight, the New Years party and the Science Institute just wrenched you out of the scene, rather than creating any tension, which was clearly the point.

Doctor Who turns 50 part 7: The Curse of Fenric

The guy who organised this little trip through Who history has, from day one, made it abundantly clear the Curse of Fenric is, by far and away, his favourite Who story ever! In fact, tt is only referred to as Curse of Mother Fucking Fenric.

To me, this felt like a Bad Wolf - which is suppose is an amusing pun. The pay off after a lot of build up that was a little lost on me. The finale comes down to a big battle of the words between Fenric and the Doctor was full of references I was just nodding along to. But it was still pretty awesome.

Strategy Informer: Master Reboot

This really was a difficult review to write. Simply because it's one of those games you want to like, but in the end Master Reboot has more misses then hits. It's just that you can see the enthusiasm and love that went into making it.

Master Reboot review

Doctor Who turns 50 part 6.5: The Two Doctors

Urgh, more Sixth Doctor. Oh well. At least Troughton's in it too. Jamie's back too.

We'll ignore the obvious continuity errors such as Jamie making references to the Time Lords despite he didn't know about them right up until he was about to get his mind wiped, and the Second Doctor working for the Time Lords even through he's meant to be on the run.

Anyway, what really struck me about this multi-doctor story is how it was a lot less epic scale then previous team-ups. Which is really in it's favour. To do the quick version, Two is captured in a timeline that shouldn't exist and Six goes looking to see what's gone wrong.

Doctor Who turns 50 part 6: Mark of the Rani

Remember when I said I was worried about the early Doctors? Apparently that was a premonition of reaching Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor. This guy's a total prick. The Doctor might usually be the smartest guy in the room, but he doesn't tend to shout about it. There's also his attitude towards his companion. I thought the Third Doctor was bad with Jo, but the Sixth takes every single opportunity to put Peri down and scream at her for being an idiot.

Having said that, Peri might just be the most annoying companion I've ever seen, and some of the Doctor screaming is vaguely understandable, she's a fairly useless bint. First hint of danger and she wants to be off running. What sort of Doctor's companion is that?  It seemed that half her lines were "Can't we just go back to the TARDIS?" Except it had been dumped down a mine on the Master's orders. Let's ignore people are trying to kill us while we mount that particular rescue mission, because someone like the Master won't take that opportunity to swoop in.

Strategy Informer: Dream Chamber

The very first thing I wrote in my notes as I started Dream Chamber was "Holy Shit! Genius Premise!" If only the game had kept that up. I actually say pretty much everything I have to in the review. So go read that.

Dream Chamber review

Thor: The Dark World review

Thor was probably my least favourite of the Avenger build up films. Not that it was a bad film or anything, but Iron Man was just awesome, and the pulp atmosphere of Captain America was perfect. Maybe it beat Iron Man 2, but not by much. However, one thing that really struck with me was that Chris Hemsworth was ideal for the role.

He still is. Perhaps even more so here. It was only a few months ago I watched Hemsworth in F1 biopic Rush, and looking at him here I can't see anyone but the Norse God of Thunder. However, far more than it's predecessor, this takes the inhabitants of Asgard further away from Godhood and further into kick-ass aliens territory.

Doctor Who turns 50 part 5.5: The Five Doctors

The second multi-Doctor serial to celebrate the franchises 20th Anniversary. Obviously it stars all previous incarnations of the Doctor and some of their companions. However, that's a bit of a lie. Tom Baker is at the start and is quickly brushed out the way, and William Hartnell is replaced by another actor, sadly due to the former's death.

Once again, the anniversary concentrates on the Time Lords, this time revealing Rassilon as the man who made the Time Lords who they are today. I like that these anniversary episodes always choose to deal with the big things. However, once again they feel like a totally different version to what we saw in War Games and The Three Doctors. This truncated watching is makes things very odd. That said, between this and War Games there lies the version we've seen in modern day, so clearly there's a point where their portrayal had a solid base for reinterpretation.

Doctor Who turns 50 part 5: Earthshock

Wow, this Doctor feels far more familiar than any of the previous. *cough*tennant*cough* Still Earthshock I enjoyed.

It's also super 80s sci-fi. The uniforms of the military in the first two parts are kitsch-tastic, and the whole underground section worked brilliantly. I have to admit, to start with, with the faint glimpses of the helmeted folks and talk of dinosaurs I figured this for a Silurian serial, so the first episode cliffhanger really caught me by surprise.

Strategy Informer: Forced

Apart from a particularly uninspired title (you're forced into combat - urgh) there's a lot Forced does right. It reminded me a lot of the Marvel X-Men Legends/Ultimate Alliance games, but I figured that was a bit too specific a reference for the review.

Seriously though, only play with other people. Single player it kept my attention for maybe half an hour and I only kept going back because of the review. Tried it in co-op for due diligence and two hours passed, and I only stopped because the deadline was looming.

Forced review

Doctor Who turn 50 part 4: City of Death

Having realised I've got about a month to get through the rest of the Doctors, I'm going to start posting twice a week. Hopefully that'll be enough. Or maybe with a week to go I'll be posting once a day.

Anyway, City of Death.

This was probably the one I was least looking forward too. Having watched Genesis of the Daleks earlier this year, Tom Baker had a stigma attached to him. Did I really want to put myself through four more episodes of that?

Doctor Who turn 50 part 3.5: The Three Doctors

Yes, I'm going outside the boundaries of our one serial a Doctor rule to include the serial with multiple Doctors. Look we discussed last time I'm struggling to not watch more, and these episodes have always intrigued me. Besides, it fits with the 50th having Ten and Eleven meeting the mysterious Non-Doctor.

Here we have the whole universe at stake and some high up Time Lords decide to break their own rules and let The Doctor team up with his previous selves. Troughton's more than solidified as awesome here, and the interplay between him and Pertwee is amazing. Shame Hartnell is banished to a TV screen, but even there it's clear he's a lot older. The Time Lords felt a little odd compared not only to what we know today, but also what we saw in War Games.

Doctor Who turns 50 part 3: The Daemons

Jon Pertwee's entry in my look book. Pertwee is the closest I get to having my own Doctor of the old cast having watched bits of Spearhead from Space and Doctor Who and the Silurians back when I was a kid.

However, watching this – and understanding his exile this time – Three seems like a total dick. He's short with everyone. Certainly my least favourite of the Doctors so far, which is odd, cos I vaguely remember liking him when I watched Spearhead a decade or so ago. I do like the idea that he's just pissed off about being stuck on Earth though.

Star Trek - Strike Zone book review

Just a quick repost of a small review I did for yet another Star Trek book as part of my Peter David read through, next up was Strike Zone. Actually the book that started this whole thing other than just New Frontier - which was how it started - as someone informed me that the alien species introduced here go on to play a role in the later series.

Strike Zone is interesting but also a little odd - almost like someone decided to write a sitcom episode based aboard the Enterprise. Everything seems to be played for laughs to some extent. Data throws out 'misunderstood' one liners with rapid ferocity. There's actual physical comedy during the big fight scene near the end, which means for the most part you really never take the whole thing seriously.

As it's written in 89 it also suffers from the problem a lot of tie-in novels do when done at the time when the show was in early production. That of some of the characters don't sound quite right. A couple of phrases David injects goes against those that TNG settled on, and he's also pretty brave with a couple of historical moments, such as Klingon politics, that later shows went completely the opposite on. Still I enjoyed it, though I think it might be completely missable, if not for the fact PAD brings back the other alien race, the Kreel, in his later series of New Frontier, which is pretty much why I read it.

Doctor Who turns 50 part 2: War Games

Going into The Daleks and knowing I was about to watch the first appearance of the greatest enemy allowed me to appreciate what I was seeing and put it into context. I didn't have that for War Games. I'd been vaguely warned of “something huge for canonicity” but nothing more than that. Half way through we got the War Chief, and I thought I figured it out. Here was the very first appearance of the Master, his identity to be revealed later... Or maybe it was retconned?... Hang on, he's dead? So he's not the Master?

What all this worrying about the War Chief meant was I totally missed this was not only the first appearance of the Time Lords, but the point where a whole lot of back story for the Doctor was established. While I'm not sure watching back story you already know can be as thrilling as going back to a “first appearance” like the Daleks, there's no denying War Games is important.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has landed

Now I know I've still to address GTA V (barely stopped playing it), I've got about three more parts of Doctor Who at 50 half ready, but this week something happened that I thought I should cover first. Agents of SHIELD started.

I've been waiting for ages for this one. Whedon returns to television and regular instalments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yes please. Spoilers AHOY!

Star Trek - Double Helix: Infection book review

As I was reading Double Helix: Infection on Kindle as part of collection, I was shocked at how suddenly it ended. I felt like I wasn't even halfway through the story when all of a sudden things started to wrap up. The story never really got going, the ending was by chance, I just don't feel any sort of resolution from it at all.

Now obviously it's part one of a bigger series so it was never going to be one hundred percent resolved, but you can frame it in a way that offers the individual story closure. The situation on that particular planet could be much better addressed than it was.

BeefJack: Game Dev Tycoon Review

Game Dev Tycoon isn't the type of game I'd normally go near. After enjoying, then quickly getting annoyed with both Theme Park and Theme Hospital I've just never bothered with business sims again. This sort of popped up out of nowhere, and as my plate was relatively empty I figured it was worth a shot.

And am I glad I did. I said in the review, this needs a sequel. That is REALLY true. I've since gone back to it - always a high sign of quality if the reviewer goes back - and those problems are more apparent, though it has a slight rogue-like element in you get to keep your knowledge of the audience which is pretty cool.

Game Dev Tycoon Review

The De-evolution of DC Comics

The parting of ways between DC and the Batwoman creative team of W. Haden Blackman and J.H. Williams is yet another sign that all is not well at one of comics biggest houses. Since the launch of New 52, it seems that there's always a writer or artist leaving because editorial is overbearing. We barely get any creator leaving because their story is finished. It's nearly always their editor wouldn't even let them tell it.

This time the Batwoman duo had their leading lesbian propose to her girlfriend, and were then told that they could never have the two women actually marry. The news of their departure led to another outcry from fans wondering just what is wrong with DC? What are the editors thinking? And more shouts that they were done with the publisher.

I read Cyberforce and Aphrodite IX

In the 90s, I was a teenager, so for my comics reading this meant two things. 1. My traditional reads of Marvel comics were of particularly low quality and 2. Top Cow's bad girl/cheesecake approach was just the thing for my out of control hormones. I became a big fan of Witchblade and Fathom, as well as the ultra violence that Darkness offered. I threw myself into their darker than Marvel universe, but I never got round to Cyberforce or Aphrodite IX. Both tech based comics would suit my love of Sci-Fi, but both seemed at odds with the supernatural world Witchblade and Darkness inhabited. Then I switched back to Marvel.

This of course meant I missed the rebirth of Top Cow under the guiding light of Ron Marz but that's another story. However, not only has the mystical side gone through a relaunch, but they well all out with Cyberforce and tried a Kickstarter. Which meant that the crowd funding paid for the first five issues so Top Cow could give them away for free. It's a bold move. They also gave away the first issue of Aphrodite IX's reboot for Free Comic Book Day. So naturally I gave them both a try.

BeefJack: Splinter Cell: Blacklist review

Splinter Cell is a franchise I should have been a fan of a long time ago. My love of super spies almost rivals that of things in space or superheroes. Yet Sam Fisher and Third Echelon never quite sat well with me. I tried the original game back on the original Xbox (man, I want to write Xbox 1 every time there, stupid Microsoft) but I found it way too hardcore with too little room for error. I can remember the exact room I got up - the Chinese Embassy with a keypad door - when I decided to give up and forsake the franchise. I ignored every iteration after that, yet the growing fervour for how well they were done did make me glance at them from time to time.

Finally with Xbox 360 we had the wonderful opportunity of demos for download, so I tried Double Agent. That was still rubbish. But years later I also tried the Conviction demo and that was awesome. I bought the full game and thoroughly enjoyed myself. So when Blacklist was announced I was quite happy with what Ubisoft were looked to be doing. Now it's out, well, here's my thoughts.

Splinter Cell: Blacklist review

Tomb Raider, The Non-Reboot

Admittedly a little late to the party, I finally played the new Tomb Raider, and I loved it. I think the game kept going a little too long gameplay wise. Lara got a little too action hero post-Temple. As an origin story it was brilliant, even if she went from one kill to many a little too easily. I'd have liked a three stage process, first kill, realising she will have to keep killing, then first brutal kill. As it is, her first stealth kill where she, CALMLY STRANGLES A GUY WITH HER BOW happens a bit too easily for my liking. But it's a game and these are the concessions of the medium.

However, I do have one big problem with another aspect of it. Everyone was calling it a reboot. It isn't. If you listened to last week's BeefJack podcast you'll have heard me say some of this argument, but partly having not finished the game, and partly being ambushed, I didn't argue my case very well. I used the example of Star Trek as a reboot, the new JJ Abrahms films being a different timeline to the old Roddenberry stuff. While true, Abrahms also did it in-universe too, so a better explanation would be Batman.

Strategy Informer: Space Hulk review

I've been eagerly waiting for Space Hulk ever since I first found out about. I'm not that huge of a 40K fan, it's gothic sci-fi setting doesn't do that much for me. However, it does look fecking cool. Plus, since XCOM I've discovered I might quite like tactical turn based strategy so this seemed like the perfect chance to test if it was a one off thing, or a game type I really enjoyed.

I had a quick peak at it while I was at Rezzed, and I was struck by how slow the Space Marines moved. It seemed at odds with what I knew. Unfortunately I didn't get to play it, but my trepidation for the title performing had started to rise.

It was kind of a hard review to write. As you may have seen with other reviews, Space Hulk has its problems, and I'm not going to say those issues don't exist. My problem comes from that for the most part I looked past those and still had fun. I think all the reviews I've done to date have been a clear "This is fun because..." or "This is shit because..." however, I think it might be my first instance of "Here's all the reasons it's rubbish, but despite all that I like it."

The final score I gave it was something I really struggled with, I'd yo-yo between one figure because I had fun, and another because of all the rough edges. In the end I went right between the two, and then the Editor may have changed it anyway. To be fair, I think the score he gave more closely matches my words, despite my feelings.

Strategy Informer: Space Hulk review

Transformers Prime is more than Optimal

Transformers Prime has finished, well nearly finished. There's a movie coming out in a few months, but the series itself has wrapped up. Just live Star Trek tries to hit that magic Season 7, Transformers seems to have three seasons and a movie. It's weird that I only really started watching it a year ago, after some initial hesitation which had left me abandoning the show. When I wrote about it at that time I was only a few episodes into the first season and I was already starting to enjoy the new cartoon. Having now seen all three, I think it might just be the best Transformers show there has been. Ever.

One of my original complaints were the kids being in the driving seat. I've almost always been annoyed at the inclusion of humans, going all the way back to Spike. I've just never seen the point. They get in the way and annoy, and that's exactly how the three in Prime started. If we were getting another show about kids who just happened to be friends with giant robots I wasn't interested. Then it turns out they tend to be one of the shows biggest strengths.

BeefJack: Memoria Preview

Wow, not only do I actually get a blog back out on the Friday for a change, but over at BeefJack my preview for Memoria, a point and click from Daedalic Entertainment is up. I slightly cover this in the article, but Memoria is an interesting one. It's a sequel, but they don't admit that anywhere in the PR stuff, instead trying to pass it off as a new game about the female protagonist. Who - at least in the preview build I played - only took up about a third of the playtime.

BeefJack - Memoria Preview

The 12A/PG-13 Wolverine

Wolverine should not be a 12A (or PG-13 for the Americans). This is one simple reason, his claws. He has razor sharp claws that extend out of his hand. There is no way to make a character with that being one of his most defining features super kid friendly unless you make some serious short cuts, which is pretty much was Jason Mangold did. Every stab and every slice never draws blood, we only get told he kills someone with them three or four times in the whole film. He stabs someone just off screen so many times it's ridiculous. There's just too many concessions here to make the film suitable for the children.

His claws are also a big bone of contention in the story for me. The Wolverine is a story that finds a way of inhibiting his much vaunted healing factor, something that many writers complain about and is quite a tried and tested trope with the little Canucklehead. And if I'm quite honest, it works pretty well here. Except for one reason. His claws.

Doctor Who turns 50 part 1

Doctor Who has been one of those franchises that I've always been interested in but never dived properly into. Hell, I only started watching it properly with Russell T Davies and Christopher Ecclestone's revitalisation of the show. Before that, I'd got the odd episode and I think I'd only watched one full serial, with Third Doctor Jon Pertwee, who I vaguely remember liking and the TV movie with Paul McGann. Oh, and the animated Shada with McGann too, which I realise is a bit weird.

Every now and again I'd feel a pang to maybe go back and try out some of the old stuff, usually at the end of a current series had properly thrilled me, or an episode that brought back an old bad guy or reference. But not having a clue where to start and it looking like a momentous task, I never bothered. Until this year when I visited a mate and he had Genesis of the Daleks on DVD. We sat down, we watched it, I wasn't impressed. Any interest in going back was dead.

Shadowrun really does Return

Shadowrun Returns is out. While other high profile Kickstarters make headlines due to delays, Harebrained Schemes stuck to their proposed release date – more or less – and have made an RPG in just over a year. That's pretty impressive. Of course a lot of the work has already been done as the lead designer Jordan Weisman helped create the Shadowrun setting twenty odd years ago.

I first heard of Shadowrun about seven years ago when I started playing pen and paper RPGs. Its mix of cyberpunk and Tolkien intrigued me. I even came up with a concept of a sword wielding elf street samurai who was ex-corp. But for some reason my gaming group never got round to playing the actual game.

Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians preview

Beatbuddy was a game that I first played at Rezzed, and if I'm honest with you guys, it's because it was next to the Space Hulk booth and they'd been emailing a lot before the convention. Despite this rather dubious beginning, I'm glad I did give it a go, because it's a really fun sidescroller. Unfortunately, I had so much on when I first got back that I didn't get chance to write about it until well after my thoughts had faded on it. Luckily Thr3aks had preview code ready, so I played it again - and saw more of it - and then wrote about it.

Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians preview

The return of Mid-tier Games

Day late, sorry. I wrote this a while ago, round about when Blood Dragon came out, but I managed to get distracted by other work, so I'm posting it here instead. It's a subject I feel quite passionate about, which you'll hear if you listen to today's BeefJack podcast.

When this current gen of consoles started we saw a quick decline in a certain type of game. Not quite Triple-A, but with more budget behind them then your indie developers. These mid-sized studios were what gave the PlayStation 2 such a ridiculously large library of games.

But as development costs sky rocketed, it was no longer financially viable for publishers to try these games. Their budgets were practically triple-A, though the experience wasn't. So instead they threw the spare cash into the blockbusters and they got even more bloated... I'm getting sidetracked, where was I?

The original Star Trek movies

As part of my big Star Trek revival, I've decided to rewatch all of the TOS movies. I've not seen most of them since I was a kid, and knowing the reputation of some of them, I've bad mouthed them quite a bit. But I've realised I can't really remember them. I was probably under fifteen when I last watched them and that was, sadly, a long time ago. It was time I gave them another shot.

Slight giveaway about Star Trek Into Darkness is featured too. You have been warned.

Strategy Informer: Magrunner: Dark Pulse

I have never struggled with a review so much as Magrunner. I've played worse games (Marvel Heroes), but Magrunner just left me feeling completely uninterested. If I hadn't had to play it I doubt I'd have last five minutes. Anyway, for a full explanation as to why it's rubbish:

Magrunner: Dark Pulse review

BeefJack: Deadpool Review

Another review, this time it's Deadpool. A character I loved up until Marvel realised that he was suddenly super popular and flooded the market. I got a bit of Deadpool fatigue, and Daniel Way's bit too wacky interpretation of the Merc with a Mouth was the final straw. Recently I've started looking back, and having read the first issue of Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn's new run it seems the comic might be back on the right track too.

Anyway,

Deadpool Review

Despite the score, I really did enjoy my time with Deadpool. It's not without its faults (which the review explains) but I'm enough of a Wade Wilson fan to not care. I enjoyed it. Just when it comes to recommending it to other people it becomes a bit harder, and really that's my job.

Strategy Informer: Tengami Preview

Finally there's another Rezzed article out. This time it's my quick playthrough of Tengami. It's hard to explain just what type of game Tengami is. Basically put you control a samurai walking through a pop up book... yeah that's not very clear at all, is it. Just go read my preview!

Tengami Preview

State of Decay thoughts

Zombies and videogames have always gone together well, partly it's because their AI is pretty simple to program (swarm the player) and enemies models don't need to be as distinctive as other enemy types. Another is that they are an unquestionable evil. In a medium where story telling isn't always the best, you need something the player will fight without question. Just like Nazis.

However, videogame zombies and zombie lore have always been very different beasts. Body shots count. You can usually get bitten and not really worry about it. That is until recently. Last year gave us The Walking Dead and Zombi U. My love of The Walking Dead has already been covered, but it was more a story in a zombie world then surviving in one. Zombi U on the other hand sounds a bit more like it. There, if you get bitten, you die and lose everything. Then take control of another survivor and you might just bump into your old guy, now the living dead. Kill him and claim your stuff back. Unfortunately it was on Wii U so not many have played it.

Meanwhile, three separate projects aim to give a real Zombie horror survival experience this year. Dead State, Project Zomboid and State of Decay. While Project Zomboid has released an alpha and is available to play in a early state, State of Decay is the first 'finished' one out.  Despite the name, it's more like you have an entire county to cover, with one large town and two smaller ones with various croppings of humanity scattered about. Here you are dumped with the most unlikeliest of survivors and told to survive. You can trade with other groups, head into any building in the entire county to scavenge, all while trying to keep you and your group alive.

It's brilliant.

Strategy Informer: Ethan: Meteor Hunter preview

The last two updates I've had here are just links to elsewhere. Well, rather nicely, I've been getting a lot of work, but also over last week I went to Rezzed and had a bloody great time. Not only did that take me away from my (self promised) Friday updates I try and do, but it gave me plenty to write about for the games industry. So this blog might not be much more than "Hey! Go read this!" for awhile.

Anyway, here is the first.

Ethan: Meteor Hunter preview

A nice little platformer that didn't seem to live up to its potential.

Strategy Informer: Marvel Heroes

I wanted to like Marvel Heroes. I really did. I've spent countless hours with Drew and some others playing through the Marvel ARPG games all the way from X-Men Legends to Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. They were our games. Now I'm living 300 odd miles away Marvel Heroes looked like a way of recapturing that magic.

It doesn't. What's more, Gazillion and Marvel try to rob you at the same time of giving you a poor gameplay experience.

Marvel Heroes Review

BeefJack: Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness 4 review

I've been a fan of Penny Arcade for quite a while now, even with all their Kickstarter shenanigans. When On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness started way back in 2008 I jumped on it, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Now it has come to an end. And I reviewed it. Just like I did the third one.

Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness 4 review

Gather around the Captain's Table

The jumping of the time frames is a constant of the Captain's Table series, but it's taken to a new level here as Kirk tells a story set during the 60s series, Sulu (and later Kirk) during the movies, all while the framing story takes place post-movies. For the most part it works well, but I get the feeling L.A. Graf shoe-horned the framing story in. Considering this is meant to be Kirk and Sulu tell their stories to a captive audience, there are times when you'd expect the other to throw in a sly comment, obviously not all the time, but at the end of a chapters when the storyteller shifts. At the end, as their tales finish and we switch back to the framing, nobody seems to care any more everyone having drifted off as the two Starfleet captains finish their story. Jerry Oltion (the only other one I've read so far) handled it much better with a bit of bar-type camaraderie going on throughout.

E3 2013: Picking sides in the next-gen

For somebody who writes about videogames for a living, I've not written a great deal about the next generation consoles, partly because I say a lot on the BeefJack podcast. Now we're at E3, now seems like the perfect time to address that.

When Sony revealed the PlayStation 4 I was there laughing at how bad of a job they did. It's hard to remember why now, but it felt lacklustre. When Microsoft announced the Xbox One, suddenly Sony didn't look like they'd done that bad of a job after all. Microsoft completely flunked it, a stupid name that someone in marketing was probably extremely pleased with themselves with, one hour of talking about TV and barely anything on games themselves. The few they did mention are the ones that will come to everything anyway, Fifa and Call of Duty. So meh. Except Quantum Break, but that was so vague it was hard to get excited.

My return to the PC

When I was a kid I always wanted a console. A Mega Drive or a SNES, I wasn't particularly fussy. However, my dad insisted on something I could use educationally as well, so instead I got an Amstrad, closely followed by an Amiga (which thanks to rampant piracy at the time probably made me more of a gamer than Sega or Nintendo ever could). Then of course it evolved into a PC, and my status as a computer gamer was cemented.

That was me for my teenage years. I was PC through and through, all the way to University. There, sharing a flat with a bunch of other gamers - especially Andrew Smith who was die-hard console gamer - I started investigating just how much consoles had to offer. The final nail in the coffin was winning my first Xbox. Yes, I won it. My first console was totally free. I know, I'm a dick.

BeefJack: Leisure Suit Larry Reloaded Preview

Despite being a big Point and Click fan, I never really got Leisure Suit Larry. Sure as a teenager it was something to giggle at, and play off your over-active hormones. It always fell into the same category as Lula, except the Germans would go way further than Sierra ever would. So how did it come to be regarded as one of the Point and Click big franchises? Either way, it managed its Kickstarter funding, and I got to preview it.

Leisure Suit Larry Reloaded Preview

Writing this as a preview was a bit odd. I was given a full copy of the game, though admittedly with a few bugs still running around. That said, looking at the Kickstarter, creator Al Lowe was ready to release this version, but others decided to squish those bugs first. None of them really got in the way, there were some weird graphical glitches here and there, but only one was really distracting. Either way, we're told Preview, so this is a preview, even if I really approached it as a review.

BeefJack: Resident Evil Revelations review

This was a bit of a quick turn around for a review. I got the game last last week, and the embargo was first thing this morning, so a draft had to be in last night. Unfortunately that's resulted in some last minute edits without my say so. Some work, some don't so much. But that's the nature of a quick turn around.

Either way though, Resident Evil Revelations seriously impressed me. I was a bit hesitant about about Capcom saying the sales of this would dictate the future of the franchise - I mean how much can a port of a 3DS game really do? Turns out quite a lot.

Resident Evil Revelations review

If you want Resi to return to something more like 4 and those that came before it, I urge you to give Revelations a try. You won't be disappointed.

Star Trek Into Darkness - Out of Lens Flare

It's hardly a secret that since Christmas I've dived back into Star Trek, mostly the 24th Century adventures of The Next Generation, New Frontier and Voyager. But like a lot of lapsed fans my return to this franchise was mostly down to JJ Abrams and his reboot in 2009. Now his sequel is out.

Like many a Star Trek before me, and no doubt countless afterwards, I'll say that Into Darkness is a great science fiction action film that just happens to be Star Trek. From this point forward Spoilers Ahoy!

Mark of the Ninja

I've been meaning to play a Klei Entertainment game for a while. I played the demo of the original Shank and was blown away by the animation and art, and the side scrolling beat-em up was pretty damn fun. But I revisited it to show a friend how awesome it was a few days later and was incredibly disappointed by how little fun had retained for a second playthrough.

Every time the Shanks came up for sale on XBLA I've thought about slapping down the Points for them, but just never enough to actually get them. Then Mark of the Ninja came along. I'll admit I didn't even realise it was Klei for a very long time, well after release. It intrigued me, especially with its art style (which the fact I didn't realise it was Klei makes me look even more stupid). But it was BeefJack's own Anthony Shelton that really got me to pay attention.

While the rest of us were harping on about how good The Walking Dead and XCOM: Enemy Unknown were, Ant declared Mark of the Ninja his 2012 Game of the Year, and he's not far off the mark.

Supernatural - Life after Death

Supernatural should have finished at the end of its fifth season. It end with a hell of a lot of finality, and wrapped up everything that had happened, hinted at or ever talked about. You can't get much bigger than the end of the world. Not just your every day thermo-nuclear war apocalypse either, but End of Days, Heaven vs. Hell. Judgement Day without Arnie.

But Supernatural's ratings were too good, so CW commission a sixth season. But the show's creator, Eric Kripke was done, his five year story was told. So we got a new showrunner and everyone said Supernatural should have finished at the end of its fifth season. Until now that is.

BeefJack: Injustice: Gods Among Us review

Last week I said I doubted I would get a blog post up and did. Today I definitely won't. However, once again I have a review. Back at BeefJack for this one

Injustice: Gods Among Us.

Seriously got to indulge my comic book fanboy here. Despite being very cautious about it when the game was first announced I ended up absolutely loving it. As to why? Well go read the review.

Red Dwarf X - Back in the Black!

Red Dwarf and I go way back. Though if I'm honest I was late to the party. I got into the boys from the Dwarf when Season 5 was showing, but immediately ate up the videos from previous series. However, when Dave announced they were reviving the series I was more than a little hesitant. I remembered Seasons 7 and 8 both being quite bad, and quite a lot of time had moved along.

Back to Earth was pretty pants, but apparently it did well enough for the show to get a full season commissioned. Season X came out last year on Dave, but I only just got it for my birthday last week. Why the wait? Partly because I was very worried after Back to Earth, and partly because I forgot.

I'd heard good things about X. Facebook and Twitter had filled with people saying it was return to good old fashioned Red Dwarf. Also post-Back to Earth I'd revisited Season 8 and discovered it wasn't quite as bad as I remembered it. In fact it was pretty decent. I was ready to take the chance. When I finally sat down with Red Dwarf X I was in for a surprise.

Strategy Informer: Motocross Madness Review

I'm not sure I'm going to manage a proper blog post today, my brain's decided to take the week off, which is really annoying because I'm pretty sure I didn't authorise any holidays for it.

However, I did manage to write up another review for Strategy Informer.

Motocross Madness Review

Hopefully I'll manage a proper post later, I've got one half written. We'll just have to see if my brain comes in  to work later.

Tron: Uprising deserves more of a legacy

Been a bit busy this week, so instead of Supernatural or something new I'm going to post one of the blogs I wrote but never put up. Fun Fact: This was originally written as the first half that would later become the Young Justice post. Though it was written in the run up to YJ finishing, and when that finally stopped I felt it deserved its own. Anyway, enough prattling. Tron: Uprising.

Over the weekend I went looking for more episodes of Tron: Uprising. The animated spin-off of the Tron films set between the original movie, and 2010's Tron: Legacy. I was in for a shock. The last episode I watched ended on some what of a massive cliffhanger, but apparently there wasn't any new ones. In fact that was to be that last episode ever. Disney had cancelled it.

Strategy Informer: Pressure Review

Now I'm writing reviews for other sites. There's no stopping me now!

Pressure was an odd one, as I played it, it really did nothing to greatly offend me. But as I got writing the review I realised I mostly had negative stuff to say. It was only then how much of a chore I'd realised I'd had playing it.

Pressure review

BeefJack: Looking back at LucasArts

Remember this morning when I said the reason for me not talking about LucasArts would become clear. Well here it is.

Looking back at LucasArts

When I first mentioned to Jamie that I wanted to do this he he thought about both of us pitching in on a look back and asked what my favourite LucasArts games, I told him that was impossible. That's like asking someone to pick their favourite child (yes, he used that in the strap too).

After I turned in my draft, he decided I'd said it all, and he couldn't really offer anything. For my side, I held back a bit. I could have kept going.

There's a lot of games I feel bad for not mentioning. Grim Fandango. X-Wing Alliance. Day of the Tentacle. Raven's Jedi Outcast and Academy. Mysteries of the Goddamn Sith. All great. But for me there are five games that I fondly remember from LucasArts.

Monkey Island's 1 and 2
Dark Forces
Jedi Knight
TIE Fighter
and Full Throttle

And I couldn't resist a special shoutout to Republic Commando.

Earth 2: A DC Reboot done right

The obvious topic for this week's post was obviously Disney closing the doors on LucasArts. That's not what I'm going to talk about though. Why should become clear soon. What I'm going to talk about instead is DC Comics' Earth 2.

I've been pretty vocal about my unhappiness with DC's New 52 reboot. I'm not sure if I've ever made it clear as to why though. It boils down to the fact it's a mess. A reboot is a time to clean up, make everything work together brilliantly. Just like Young Justice did. The fact they let Batman and Green Lantern escape mostly undamaged is another factor. Trying to keep some stories in continuity but have details change is an exercise in futility. I stopped reading everything DC. Even Nightwing. Then last weekend I tried Earth 2, and it gets a lot of things right.

BeefJack: Fathom Preview

My first proper hands-on preview. Can't believe it's taken this long. No idea why. However, I might have got a little bit carried away with my water puns here. Though the headline is all my editor Jamie. Who is also responsible for the "utterly brilliant" comment about Victoria Mars. A show I have never watched.

Fathom Preview.

Giving Star Trek: Voyager another chance

I was originally going to write about Supernatural today, a TV show I fell in love with, then got annoyed, and now slowly learning to love again. But I'm not. Carrying on a trend I said I wouldn't, I'm going to talk about Star Trek some more. Actually Voyager, to be specific.

Why? Because I went hunting through my archive to check if I'd written about Supernatural when I first got hooked. What I found instead was the last time I started to sink back into a Star Trek shaped hole. That entry ends with the line “Despite a few friends arguing it, I’m not going as far as watching Voyager though.” which I found pretty funny, because that's exactly what I'm now doing.

BeefJack: Alien Spidy review

It seems ages since I actually reviewed a game for BeefJack, so it's unfortunate that my return is Alien Spidy, a thoroughly lovely looking game that is just so frustrating to play. Also, the thing has six legs. Alien or not, that isn't a spider!

Alien Spidy review

Young Justice is served

Young Justice has finished. The show based around the sidekicks of the DC Universe and Batman setting them up to be some black ops division of the Justice League. A brilliant show, with adult themes that just happened to be animated. After two seasons it was talked about with reverence, and got a fairly decent audience to start with, but Cartoon Network did everything they could to kill it. And being the channel that shows it, they have final say.

Back to the New Frontier

Continuing Captain Mackenzie Calhoun and The Excalibur's journey into uncharted Thallonian Space, Martyr sees Calhoun being worshipped as a Saviour thanks to the events of the previous novel, and using that status to try and broker a peace between two warring factions. Of course not everything goes to plan.

Martyr's not quite as strong as the opener, but since that was four books into one I'll allow it. I did like how it shifted the focus of the book to some of the other members of the crew that got a bit of a short straw in the originals.

It's been a long time.

Erm, wow, I've not been here for a while. A whole month without a post. I've got a couple drafted, but I didn't hit publish and I apologise. I've also been working on a sequel to The Sound of Money which is coming along nicely.

Speaking of which, I've also published The Sound of Money on GoodReads and ReadWave, so if you're a fan of either of those sites you can go pick it up there, and it's still free.

Meanwhile I also did a short interview with Dead Space 3 composer James Hannigan over at BeefJack. I've also been disappearing down a big Star Trek hole, but there might be more on that later.

Boldy Going to a New Frontier

A week ago I wrote about reading Pulling Up Stakes by Peter David, aka PAD, mainly because I wanted to show support after his stroke, but then having the wonderful surprise of it being really bloody good. In that I mentioned I was also tempted by Star Trek: New Frontier.

My first geek love was Star Trek. Star Wars later stole it away, but it was the crews of Enterprise D and Deep Space Nine that I thoroughly adored. When I went to university, Voyager was midway through and I quickly lost interest, barely touched Enterprise, and was pretty appalled by Nemesis. But things weren't much better in the other franchise either.

Then there was a saviour. J J Abrams helmed a triumphic reboot of Star Trek and I was reminded how great a series it was. I still didn't do that much other than re-watch my favourite of the older movies and the Borg saga from The Next Generation. As I mentioned in the other Peter David post, I kept glancing toward New Frontier, but never got round to it. Until now. And it was brilliant.

BeefJack: The Cave Review

I've been looking forward to The Cave since it was announced. My love of games really started with The Secret of Monkey Island, so Ron Gilbert - and by extension Tim Schafer, then Double Fine - gets me excited about anything they works on. When Gilbert went to work at Double Fine everything came together into a glorious whole. The Cave was the physical manifestation of that... well if games can be called physical manifestations.

So it is with a sad heart I present my thoughts of said game:

The Cave Review

Pulling Up Stakes aka Helping Peter David

I've been a Peter David fan for years. But for some reason, exclusively his Marvel Comics work. I keep glancing at his other stuff - Young Justice at DC, New Frontier for Star Trek - and thinking I should give some of them a go, but I just never seemed to get round to it.

Then the terrible news over the holidays hit. PAD had a stroke, and what with him being an American, Peter's recovery was about to swallow a whole lot of funds. His wife, who has been a trooper keeping fans up to date when it would be so easy to concentrate on the more important things, explained pretty early on that one of the easiest ways to help was to buy his work. My first thought was I was finally going to start New Frontier, but Mrs David laid out several books of PADs that would be more help. The one that seemed most appealing to me was Pulling Up Stakes, a vampire novel dealing with a organised group of Vampire Hunters. The twist being that the main character was also secretly a vampire.

Fallowed Ground

My third short story is now available from Smashwords for all eReaders.

Unlike the previous two that took place in the same universe this is a totally a different setting. A proper sci-fi one. It's also the last of the stories I sat on. Now I need to get writing again.

Fallowed Ground

It is a golden age for Human expansion as they spread across the galaxy, colonising any world they find that is suitable. There is no end to what humanity can accomplish, but arrogance has always been their downfall, and nobody stops to consider what might happen if they choose the wrong world.

Bonus blog description:
Not every planet is barren, and not every territory is relinquished without blood first marking its Fallowed Ground.

That was suggested by Jamie Donnelly to be super cheesy. I love it, but it's not suitable for the story I think.

The Pitch

My second short story, The Pitch, is out. No, I'm not that quick. I may have had a few insecurities about releasing them, and other little things that just stopped me. Once I got The Sound of Money out the door most of those insecurities went with it. Another one will be appearing next week too.

This is a different character to the previous story, Gavin Talbot, who resides on the other side of the law to Nate Taylor.

 Once again it's free for all eReaders. Enjoy and tell your friends.

The Pitch