THE FIRST 48

I can’t be the only one who’s noticed there’s often a slight dip in quality in the TV schedule every day between about 6am and 11pm when the quality programming starts. It’s all either Channel 4 documentaries about a lady who married the concept of dismay, or a BBC One show where Dominic Littlewood shouts at tradesmen. So, seeing as the alternative is bonding with the family or reading an improving book (stop laughing), I found myself flicking through the more obscure channels while waiting for South Park to come on. And let me tell you, once you ignore all the programmes about obese babies or comedians called Russell jumping about on BBC Three you can actually pick up some surprisingly good shows. The First 48 (Crime Channel) is one of these.

CRAWLEY TOWN v SWANSEA CITY (25/9/2012)

As part of my course I’m taking a module in Sports Journalism. Even thought it isn’t what I want to do for a career it’s all helpful with writing, so I’m going to be putting up a few sport-related articles on here from time to time.

Crawley Town suffered Capital One Cup heartache on Tuesday after a last-gasp goal from Garry Monk gave Swansea a 3-2 win.

The Sussex team were leading 2-1 with 14 minutes left thanks to goals from midfielders Josh Simpson and Hope Akpan before the Premier League outfit staged a late comeback.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 4: ON STRANGER TIDES

It was once said by… someone, that one of the most important parts of having a successful movie franchise is knowing when to stop. I’ve just realised that this last sentence has kind of given away my entire opinion on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, but there’s a page and a half left on this, so stick around. My point is that sequels to popular films are NEVER anywhere near as good as the original. It didn’t work for Ghostbusters, it didn’t work for Jaws, it didn’t work for Meet the Parents, and it certainly has never worked for anything George Lucas has ever gone near. The only film franchise that was even remotely passable was Back to the Future, but to be honest even that was pushing it a bit.

TO LIVE AND DIE IN MINECRAFT

As a poor student I find it hard to afford games, which means I’m going to have to wait until Christmas to play any of the big new releases, except Arkham City. As such, I find myself having to either trawl the internet in search of games or just play Red Dead Redemption again. Of course, I forgot that about 98% of internet games are terrible, and became very short of article ideas until I remembered that Minecraft has a new update out, so I’m going to talk about that. However I quickly realised that it’s pretty much the same as it has been for the last 6 updates; there’s potions now, though, just in case you were worried Minecraft didn’t quite have enough pointless shit before, and now there’s hardcore mode, which is essentially regular Minecraft, but the important distinction is if you die the game deletes your world and you have to start over. Now if there’s one thing I like it’s a challenge, and as a regular player it seemed to almost be my duty to try out the new update, so I decided to jump straight into that and record my thoughts. And if you don’t like it then kindly shut up, because it’s my webpage and I can do what I like.

BRINK

I have to be honest, I don’t often look towards the future. If you believe anything you read or see it’s all going to end one of 2 ways: either we’re all going to die from fire or flooding; or China’s going to buy all of us and force us all to make inferior products for Mattel. One small shred of comfort, though, is that, if the last one’s anything to go by, we’re not due a religious rapture. Although Simon Cowell’s massively fixed TV shows still exist, so maybe it’s just taking a little longer than everyone thought. The general consensus is that we’re all going to die because we’ve buggered up the environment, so Brink’s had the good idea of showing us what that future will be like.

INSIDIOUS

It’s fair to say the horror genre hasn’t exactly been awash with great ideas lately. If there’s not a film coming out about a possessed child playing silly buggers with the household fixings, it’s a film about a group of teenagers (who are so pretty it actually makes me genuinely angry) trying to scream their way out of an encounter with a masked mental patient trying to cut their nipples off with a butter knife. And when the film industry does try to break away from the monotony they come up with the stupidest ideas I’ve ever seen, such as Mega Shark Vs Giant Octopus. So has Insidious managed to bring some much needed innovation to the horror genre? Well, no. It’s a movie about a possessed child, so it loses about 20 trillion originality points right from the start, but we need to be professional about this. So here goes…

LEGO GAMES: A RETROSPECTIVE

 So the plan at the time I originally wrote this was to review the new DLC for Fallout: New Vegas, “Dead Money”, but since the PlayStation Network is down I felt I may as well do a retrospective review while I waited for L.A. Noire to come out or for PSN to come back online (whichever came first).

 

Everybody loves LEGO, don’t they? Yes you do. You at the back, sir, don’t pretend you don’t. Small blocks of every colour imaginable (well, about 6 colours) that you can mould into any shape you want, so long as what you’re going for is an even more pixel-y representation of the aliens from Space Invaders, and millions of simultaneous cries of expletives as parents step on the 12,000 blocks of the stuff that their shitty little kids leave lying on every floor of every room in the house.  In fact, so popular did these toys/ burglar deterrents prove to be that the company decided video games would be a fantastic way to expand their empire.

PORTAL 2

Should any of you have time in your busy schedules, in between sleeping and cursing the futility of your lives, gather round and I shall tell you a tale that has found a permanent place in gaming folklore. A long time ago (about 4 years to be exact), a company called valve, having taken an absolute age to bring out Half-Life 2, issued by way of apology for the even longer wait for the next instalment a small bundle of games known as “The Orange Box”. On this disc was a game called “Portal” which, despite the lack of time and effort put into making it, became instantly beloved by nerds the world over. And lo, did the fanboys gain something other than HALO to constantly crap on about to people who just do not care. And it was thus, that those same fanboys did that day gain the ability to sprout a great big hard-on the second anyone mentions the word “cake”.

HOMEFRONT

It’s times like this you have to feel sorry for America’s enemies (wow, I can see that being taken out of context and put on the internet, but anyway). There they are minding their own business and getting up to… whatever it is they do, when suddenly out comes a game or a movie in which they’re shown herding Americans into camps, they become convenient hate figure of the week, and the US gets its fresh wave of patriots ready to fight the good fight. It’s genuinely disconcerting seeing how much joy they get out of making these games. Look at Red Dawn, or Modern Warfare 2. You wonder if they might actually be looking forward to it just a teeny bit. Anyway, it’s time for America’s latest invasion love-in, so step forward Homefront.