Mass Effect: Retribution
Greetings, Mass Effect: Retribution is the third novel written by Drew Karpyshyn and it is set after the events of Mass Effect 2, acting as a link to the third instalment in the game series. The plot follows the main characters of Kahlee Sanders and Paul Grayson, both of whom were in the original two novels, as well as witnessing the return of David Anderson. Retribution also introduces new characters including the Cerberus assassin known as Kia Leng, one of the prominent antagonists in Mass Effect 3. As with the other two books commander Shepard is only mentioned in passing rather than included in the storyline because it would be too difficult to include him or her, depending on the player’s choice, in it.
The storyline begins with Paul Grayson, an ex-Cerberus operative who had defected from the organization a few years earlier during the events of Ascension, hiding in the Omega station. Paul works as a mercenary for the criminal matriarch and leader of Omega, Aria T’Loak, who is also known as the Pirate Queen. The Illusive Man, the leader of Cerberus, manages to track down Grayson with the help of Kai Leng and captures him alive. As Paul had known his cover was blown he had sent an encrypted message to a friend of his, Kahlee Sanders, who had helped him in the previous novel. Grayson warned her that Cerberus agents might be hunting her as well because of her role in resisting the organization. He also provides her with secret information on Cerberus, the data was previously kept a secret for insurance and would damage the Illusive Man if used correctly.
Sanders receives the notification and asks Admiral David Anderson of the Alliance for help in rescuing Paul. They in turn ask for help from the Turian embassy as some of the human representatives are secretly loyal to Cerberus. Once Grayson is captured by Kia Leng and brought to a secret location, the Illusive Man uses him as a test subject for experimentation with Reaper technology. The experimentation makes Pauls susceptible to Reaper indoctrination and the machines change him physically, making him stronger and quicker than is humanly possible. The Reapers use Paul as their spy, finding useful information on all the species of the galaxy, discovering their weaknesses and preparing for invasion. With the information that Grayson gave Sanders, the Turian military finds and attacks the Cerberus station that Paul is being kept prisoner in. In the chaos, the Illusive Man loses control of the station and Grayson manages to escape as a weapon of the Reapers.
Overall, it is a good novel on par with his previous book called Ascension and adds more details to the characters of Anderson, Kai Leng, the Illusive Man and Aria that was not seen in the games. I still believe that his first book, Revelation, was the best of his novels and I’m not sure if he will be writing any other Mass Effect books. The latest book follows on from Karpyshyn’s work and was released in 2012. It is called Deception and was written by another writer, William C. Dietz. I do intend to read it and review it even though the novel was heavily criticized by fans for contradicting previous lore.
Plot=7/10
Characters=7/10
Wording=8/10
Overall=7/10
Quote of the day
Welcome to the madhouse, Batman! I set a trap and you sprang it gloriously! Now let's get this party started.
The Joker
Arkham Asylum
The World's End
Greetings, The World’s End is the third film in the Cornetto trilogy, a movie series that stars British actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. It was released in 2013, following their two previous projects Shaun of the Dead Hot Fuzz, which were revealed in 2004 and 2007. While both Pegg and Frost are in the 2011 comedy, Paul, it is not regarded as part of the trilogy as it wasn’t directed by the same director, Edgar Wright. Prominent actors in the main cast are mostly British and include Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy and Pierce Brosnan.
The plot revolves around the protagonist, a middle aged man called Gary King who is played by Pegg and still behaves like his teenage self and has a desire to re-experience his youth. He attempts to achieve this by tracking down his old, estranged school friends and to complete the “Golden Mile”. The mile is a pub crawl of 12 pubs in their local town of Newton Haven and which concludes at a bar named The World’s End, a target they failed to reach in their teenage years. King eventually manages to persuade his old and now successful friends to join him in completing the challenge.
There are tensions between Gary, who had never grown up, and his best friend Andy who criticises King for not doing something constructive with his life. The conflict is pushed into the background when the group begin to suspect that residents of Newton Haven are acting unusually. Gary claims to have been a local legend of the town but few of the inhabitants remember him and seem to have changed their personalities, warning King that something is wrong. His suspicions are confirmed when he accidentally starts a fight with a teenager in the men’s bathroom, to his surprise the youth doesn’t appear to be human. He ultimately wins the fight with the help of his friends and once the group realize that they tangled in a conspiracy they attempt to complete the “Golden Mile” to avoid raising suspicion of the locals and escape Newton Haven.
I liked the film but I believe that Shaun of the Dead is still the best film in the series. If you enjoyed the previous instalments in the Cornetto trilogy you would most likely like this too. The actors provided the film with good performances, it is quite humorous for the most part with an interesting plot and colourful characters. Overall it is a movie that I would recommend, especially if you are a fan of their previous work, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
Plot=8/10
Characters=8/10
Special effects=9/10
Overall=8/10
Quote of the day
As Mr. Sloan always says, there is no "I" in team, but there is an "I" in pie. And there's an "i" in meat pie. Meat is the anagram of team... I don't know what he's talking about.
Shaun
Shaun of the Dead
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Greetings, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is the fourth game in the Juarez series and brings the franchise back to the Western genre. The game was released in 2013, offering the player the chance to complete three different playable segments which include the campaign, a duelling section and an arcade mode. The story has a minor link to the original plot that is covered within the first two games as the McCall brothers are only mentioned in Gunslinger’s storyline rather than involved in it. Call of Juarez: Gunslinger follows the adventures of a new protagonist over a long time period that begins and ends in the year 1910. I’m unsure if there are any references to the third instalment in the series as I haven’t played the Cartel but I would imagine that due to its negative reputation, Techland and Ubisoft would want to distance the two games.
The plot begins with an old bounty hunter, named Silas Greaves, entering a saloon. Greaves entertains a small group of patrons as he drinks by retelling stories from his bounty hunting career that involve him hunting down legendary bandits and outlaws such as Jesse James. The patrons play only a small role in the plot, mostly asking Greaves questions, and as such they lacked a chance to develop their personalities. Despite this criticism, the main protagonist of Silas is an interesting character with an intriguing style of narration. Greaves’ storytelling contains elements of humour and exaggeration in his recounting of his adventures as he is an unreliable narrator or is misheard by his audience, leading to confusion.
The plot is short and very simplistic with only one twist at the end but in my opinion that doesn’t make the game any less entertaining. It is revealed at the beginning of the story that Silas is seeking revenge on three bandits for crimes they had committed in his past, his most prominent target being a man named Roscoe Bob Bryant. His motivation for tracking down Bryant and his companions isn’t revealed until later on in the story. While on his quest for vengeance Greaves often hunts down infamous outlaws, a factor that makes the patrons question the authenticity of his tales.
While the game is short in the campaign mode it makes up for it with memorable music, an interesting art style and two other playable modes that were already mentioned. The story mode contains an additional task for the player to complete. The player is meant to explore the map and discover the locations of nuggets of truth, items that provide information on historical figures and events. It took me a while to get into Gunslinger but I enjoyed it in the end. I am unsure what the future of this series will look like or if there will be another instalment.
Plot=7/10
Characters=7/10
Graphics=8/10
Overall=7/10
Quote of the Day
Don't talk like you're one of them! You're not... even if you'd like to be. To them you're just a freak, like me. They need you right now, but when they don't they'll cast you out, like a leper. See, their morals, their "code"... it's a bad joke, dropped at the first sign of trouble. They're only as good as the world allows them to be. I'll show you - when the chips are down, these, ah, "civilized people"? They'll eat each other. See, I'm not a monster. I'm just ahead of the curve.
Joker
The Dark Knight
Coma
Greetings, Coma is a thriller novel that was written by American physician and author, Robin Cook, in 1977. It was his first major published work although he had previously penned a short book called ‘The Year of the Intern’ in 1972. Since then Cook has published many novels, two of which I have read. They are named Invasion and Abduction, both about extraterrestrial life on Earth, and I found that reading them was an enjoyable experience. Coma was the first story of his that I had read which lacked a supernatural element or tangent in it. Instead of being a paranormal genre, the story of ‘Coma’ is based on a medical premise with an underlining conspiracy theme.
The story follows a young medical student, Susan Wheeler, who is training at Boston Memorial Hospital. As the events are based in the 1970s Wheeler is practicing in a heavily male dominated field of occupation, a major theme in the novel that is often detrimental to Susan. When she is placed under the supervision of a young surgery resident named Mark Bellows, Susan comes across a comatose patient called Nancy Greenly. It is unclear what caused the patient to fall into a coma as Nancy had entered the operating room for a simple medical procedure that was needed to cure a minor condition. Something went wrong during the operation resulting in the patient becoming unconscious and non-responsive, an event that left the experts puzzled. Greenly is the same age as Wheeler, providing a motivation for Susan to uncover what had lead to the coma.
It isn’t long before the medical student meets her first patient, a man called Sean Berman, who required a small operation on his leg. Susan prepared him for his operation but after a few hours it was revealed that Berman had also mysteriously fallen into a coma. A determined Wheeler starts to research the two cases and begins to find similar incidents that had occurred within the hospital. Her discoveries and investigation are often irritating to the medical staff. As such, Susan comes to the conclusion that there is a conspiracy within the hospital due to the negative reaction her research receives and she attempts to bring Bellows into her investigation despite risking her entire career over a hunch.
Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy ‘Coma’ as much as the other two stories and that is due to a few issues with the novel. These problems include having too much of a long build up to the interesting part of the plot in which the twist is revealed. While it is an interesting story line I felt that some scenes and characters were unnecessary and didn’t add much to the plot. Another notable concern considerable is that a number of characters were not expanded upon, lacked personality and didn’t have much time dedicated to them. Overall, it is a good novel with an interesting protagonist and premise but it pales in comparison to Cooks later works such as Invasion or Abduction.
Plot=8/10
Characters=7/10
Wording=8/10
Overall=7/10
Quote of the day
Who are you talking to right now? Who is it you think you see? Do you know how much I make a year? I mean, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe it. Do you know what would happen if I suddenly decided to stop going into work? A business big enough that it could be listed on the NASDAQ goes belly up. Disappears! It ceases to exist without me. No, you clearly don't know who you're talking to, so let me clue you in. I am not in danger, Skyler. I am the danger! A guy opens his door and gets shot and you think that of me? No. I am the one who knocks!
Walter White
Breaking Bad
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Greetings, the Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a film from 2013. It stars Ben stiller in the main role of the protagonist, Walter Mitty and it is an adaptation of a short story that was written by James Thurber in 1939. It is also a remake of the original movie that had been made in 1947.The film lacks a large cast of notable actors or recognizable stars. Aside from Ben Stiller the most prominent cast members are Patton Oswald and Sean Penn. The characters they play had a reasonably large role in putting the storyline into motion but the actors didn’t get much of a chance to perform, especially Sean, as they didn’t receive a lot of screen time in comparison to Stiller.
The plot begins with Walter Mitty attempting to build his courage and befriend a recently hired co-worker, Cheryl Melhoff, with the intentions of pursuing a relationship with her. The problem is that Walter doesn’t have the confidence to speak to her in person. As such he is forced to return to his job as a negative assets manager in the photography department for Life magazine. When he arrives at work it is revealed to Mitty that his company is being downsized due to the company’s transition to the internet. Therefore, the next edition of Life magazine will be the last printed issue and therefore it will result in many employees losing their occupations.
It is within Walter’s job description to ensure that the photograph makes it to the cover of the magazine. The picture was taken by photojournalist and adventurer Sean O’Connell, played by Sean Penn, who wants the photograph known as negative 25 to be used. O’Connell had sent Mitty a package that was supposed to contain photograph and a gift wallet for working with him for 16 years. Problems arise when negative 25 isn’t in the package. His job hangs in the balance and Walter threatened by Ted Hendricks, the transition manager, that if Mitty couldn’t find the picture that he was fired. This issue is further complicated by the nature of Sean O’Connell as he doesn’t stay still in one location as well as not having a mobile to contact him by. With the help of Melhoff, Walter is able to figure out that O’Connell is in Greenland but Sean wouldn’t be staying around for too long. This leads Mitty on a globetrotting in search of the ever moving photojournalist.
While there are positives to the movie, there were also a few aspects that are worth criticizing such as the day dreaming scenes. The character of Mitty tends to fantasies about committing heroic or outlandish deeds that are completely contrary to his dull nature. The daydreaming sequences were intended to give some personality to the character of Walter but in my opinion the scenes tend to disrupt the flow of the story without really adding anything. Another fault of ‘the Secret life of Walter Mitty’ that I found is that most of its jokes backfire in the sense that they are more strange than funny, leaving only a few memorable ones to keep the audience entertained. On the other side and on my own opinion, the film did get better as the story progressed. Overall it is worth watching but not something that you should actively seek out.
Plot=7/10
Characters=6/10
Special Effects=7/10
Overall=7/10
Quote of the day
Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt.
Robert Lutece
BioShock Infinite
The Wolf of Wall Street
Greetings, the Wolf of Wall Street is a 2013 film directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Leonardo DiCaprio , Margot Robbie and Jonah Hill. The movie is based on the life of and book, of the same name, written by Jordan Belfort. He was a crooked stockbroker and cocaine addict who manipulated the stock market during the 1990s but has since become a motivational speaker. It is very dark, humorous and adult in nature but also a highly enjoyable watch with some great scenes and performances from the cast involved, especially from DiCaprio.
The story begins in 1987 when Jordan Belfort, played by DiCaprio, is a young and aspiring stockbroker married to his first wife named Teresa. He begins his career with a small job working for investment banking firm L.F. Rothschild but soon loses it due to the market crash known as Black Monday. Belfort’s time at Rothschild was not wasted as he had began to build up experience and took on the advice of his old boss, Mark Hanna, who was played by Matthew McConaughey. Belfort was encouraged to live an immoral lifestyle in order to reduce the stress of the job. As the economy becomes hostile to stockbrokers Belfort is forced to find an occupation elsewhere and becomes involved with boiler room dealing in penny stocks.
With Jordan’s charismatic pitching style, he is able to establish a small fortune as well as turn co-workers into enthusiastic followers who begin to use his pitching methods. With the financing and support from colleagues he had gained from the boiler room trade, Belfort is able to establish his own company called Stratton Oakmont with the help of his friend named Donnie Azoff. As such, Jordan becomes rich and follows the advice of Hanna by living an extravagant and decadent lifestyle that puts stress on the relationship with his wife. As Oakmont grows in size its fraudulent activity becomes clear to the FBI and agent Patrick Denham is put on the case. Much to Belfort’s discomfort Denham cannot be bribed and a lot of the film is dedicated to the two characters trying to outsmart each other.
Overall, it is a very fun film to watch with plenty of comedic and more dramatic scenes. It has a running time of around three hours but was entertaining from beginning to end with a gripping storyline and characters. The fictionalized version of Belfort was portrayed excellently by DiCaprio and was an interesting character to watch as due to his lack of morality. In my opinion the Wolf of Wall Street is one of the best films to have come out in 2013.
Plot=10/10
Characters=10/10
Special effects=10/10
Overall=10/10
Quote of the day
The darkness is coming. It will spread to every corner of the land.
Smaug
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
