Tag Archives: video games

Five Nights at Freddy’s – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It captures the feel of the video games, though the added narrative might not work for everyone.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza

Five Nights at Freddy’s Review –

In the not-so-distant past, if you heard the words ‘video game adaptation’, it would provoke a feeling of instant cringe. At best, they were okay, often terrible, and much of the time, they were embarrassed about the very material they were adapting. But 2023 has bucked that trend with The Last of Us and Gran Turismo, some of the many knocking it out of the park. Well, it is time to see if they can keep this run going and terrify me simultaneously.   

So to set the scene, we open in on a man (Ryan Reinike) in clear distress as he crawls through some vents, desperate to escape, but no exit can be found. Sometime later, Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) is desperately looking for a new job after mistaking a father grabbing his kid for a predator. If he can’t get a job, he will lose custody of his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) to their awful Aunt Jane (Mary Stuart Masterson). With very few options left, he takes a security gig at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. It was once all the rage but has sat chiefly abandoned since the 1980s. All Mike must do is sit in the security room and keep an eye on the place, but no one told him the place might be keeping an eye on him.

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Mapping Old World– Map-It

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TL;DR – We continue our project of mapping historical video games with a look at Mohawk Games’ Old World

Rome.

Mapping Old World –

One of the joys I have discovered working on this site has been our mission to map historical video games. We started with Civilization, followed up with Humankind, and our next mission is Old World. I had played a bunch of Old World when it was back in beta, and now that its next expansion, Pharaohs of the Nile, has arrived, I knew it was time to jump into this map.

Before we dive in, a couple of quick notes: while all attempts have been made to ensure that everything is accurately placed, putting this together meant working from multiple sources, map projections, and sometimes not firm locations. As such, no matter how much you try, there might be slight discrepancies. This is increased in places with many locations grouped into a small area [cough Greece cough]. So take this as indicative of the place, not a pinpoint location. Also, some entries could be one of several different locations; in that case, I had to make a call about which one it was.

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Humankind: Cultures of Oceania – Map-It

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TL;DR – We map all of the eras of Humankind all in one map … okay many maps

Indian Subcontinent.

Humankind Map

One of the joys I get is mapping out universes, while I have charted out movie universes like the MCU and Grand Designs. However, one of my favourite things has been charting how 4X video games explore the world and its history. Today, I get to update one of the most complicated maps I have ever made for this channel, charting all of Humankind up to the Cultures of Oceania DLC from Amplitude Studios and Sega.

We started this mapping process last year, and it took many different attempts before we found a mapping system that worked. Chaos mode is fun, but it is not always revealing. The First Map covered everything from the base game and up to the Cultures of Latin America DLC. This update includes everything since then, including the Para Bellum Wonders Pack, the Together We Rule Expansion Pack, and the titular Cultures of Oceania DLC.

As a reminder, we have split all the content into eras, and if you want to look at the chaos of what we get when all of them are together, then wait until the end. As always, a big thanks to the Humankind Wiki for collating all the cities for me so I did not have to dive into the code. Also, if you want to find out more about all the locations indicated on the map, check out our Humankind Cartographic Educational Database.

While all attempts have been made to ensure that everything is accurately placed, putting this together meant working from multiple sources, map projections, and sometimes not firm locations. As such, no matter how much you try, there might be slight discrepancies. With that in mind, let us dive into the maps. Also, please note that the map files are pretty big, so there may be loading issues if you are looking on Mobile.  

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Mapping the Uncharted Games – Map-It

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TL;DR – We map the route Nathan Drake, and the gang took on their adventures in the quadrilogy of games.  

Mapping Uncharted –

Whenever I upload one of my maps, I ask if there is anything else people would like to map? Often, I get some excellent suggestions, and today’s is just such a case. A little birdy asked me if I could map the Uncharted video game series? Well, yes, of course, I could, and after much thought, I decided to do it in the same style as my Indiana Jones Trilogy map. You will instantly get the comparison if you have played/watched the two.

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Halo Infinite – Or How I Found the Love of a Game Without Playing the Main Game

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TL;DR – I discovered why so many people love the Halo series by exploring the custom content with friends.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Game Pass that obtained this game.

Halo Infinite title card.

Halo Infinite Review –

When I was growing up, my family had a PC, so I did not grow up with the console classics that so many of my friends had. I had heard of Halo. You can’t live in the video game space without knowing who Master Chief is. I listened to the musical score at performances and understood why people worldwide break into that hum on command. I had watched the previous games streamed on Twitch, and I even watched the Halo TV series. However, no matter what I  did, I only felt like an observer, like an academic who never does fieldwork. But all of that changed one day.

I had dipped in when Halo Infinite first came out of PC. It was on Game Pass, so there was not a significant financial barrier for me to drop into. A lot of it did feel like the shooters that I was familiar with. Come capture that flag, kill as many enemies as possible, find that sniper, or keep on the point. I was running around mantling up ledges, jumping over crevices that could lead to your death, and finding the gun set-up that works for you. While there were some of these more familiar elements to grab onto. However, my head or the keyboard/mouse controller did not click with the grenade, gun, and melee combo. Add some jump crouches and odd slides, and I fell away until earlier this year.

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Baldur’s Gate 3 – Video Game Review

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TL;DR – A stunningly beautiful game full of wonder and bugs

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for this game.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Review –

Well, 2023 is the year that Dungeons and Dragons [or D&D] continues to build on its growing success brought on by the Critical Role/Stranger Things pandemic boost. After seeing the genuinely remarkable Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves that gets better on each re-watch, I was musing that there is one pop-culture realm it seems to be absent in: video games. Back in my day, before my beard went grey, there were classics like Neverwinter and Baldur’s Gate, but it has been 23 years since the last game. Has it been worth the wait?

So to set the scene, [insert your character here] was going about their day in the grand city of Baldur’s Gate along the Sword Coast of Faerun when an enormous nautiloid ship appears overhead. It dives across the city, snapping up citizens as they run, teleporting them and you inside into the lair of the Illithids. These tentacle-bearded creatures reproduce by putting one of their parasites behind a victim’s eye and waiting a week or so for them to transform the victim into another Illithid. This is your fate, or at least this is what should have happened. But destiny had different plans as your ship gets attacked by Githyanki flying on the back of dragons. Your ship crashes, and you survive, escaping a painful death. However, your fate may now be linked to the survival of the entire Sword Coast.

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Gran Turismo (Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It takes what could have been a boilerplate story and brings it into overdrive with the roar of an engine that rumbles through the cinema.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I paid to see this film

Jann in his racing helmet.

Gran Turismo Review –

There have been a lot of adaptations of video games from Sony at the cinema recently, some good, some bad, and occasionally they can be fantastic. But what we are looking at today is a little bit different. Sure, it is based on and named after a video game, Gran Turismo. However, its full release title here in Australia, Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story, should give you a hint that something else is going on here. Something quite interesting.

So to set the scene, Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom) is a marketing manager from Nissan’s England division, and he has found a problem. Young people don’t care about cars anymore. They are the generation of Uber and such. He flies to Tokyo to Nissan head office to suggest a contest to fix that issue. Because game designer Kazunori Yamauchi (Takehiro Hira) from Polyphony Digital has recreated car racing down to the minutest details in his game/simulation Gran Turismo, if they create a competition where the best drivers in the sim get a chance to be a ready race car driver, they could ignite the passions of an entire player base in driving again. Well, one of those players is Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe), a kid from Cardiff, who is trying to forward his passion in life when everyone else just sees it as a game, and well he is here to prove them all wrong.

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Twisted Metal: Season 1– TV Review

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TL;DR – It could have been more intense, but it becomes a surprisingly interesting car chase when it gets going.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this series.

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause .

St Louis behind a wall.

Twisted Metal Review –

It is a very odd time for video game adaptations, where we are oscillating wildly from adaptations that still feel embarrassed about their source material to those that are perfect recreations. In this shifting dichotomy, we get Twisted Metal, a game that I think few have considered since its PS2 days, bar that image of the clown. But the question is: can you turn that into a compelling narrative? Well maybe.

So to set the scene, 20 years ago, the world fell apart as a virus destroyed the world’s computers. This apocalyptic event split the world in two. Some walled themselves up inside cities, and those who got booted outside. It is a lawless void, but people must still take supplies between the cities. Insert the milkmen, of which there is no better than John Doe (Anthony Mackie). But it might be worth driving into the unknown when he is allowed to find a home. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Twisted Metal: WLUDRV – TV Review

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TL;DR – This episode works very well as a vibe check because you probably will have a fair assumption about whether this is your bag for the rest of the season by the time the credits roll.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this series.

A vulture on the roof.

Twisted Metal Review –

There are some video games that you know from the iconography alone. One of those is Twisted Metal. I never played the game myself, but some aspects are instantly recognisable. But can the show take those elements and turn them into a story? Well, that is what we are finding out today.   

So to set the scene, 20 years ago, the world fell apart as a virus destroyed the world’s computers. This apocalyptic event split the world in two. Some walled themselves up inside cities, and those who got booted outside. It is a lawless void, but people must still take supplies between the cities. Insert the milkmen, of which there is no better than John Doe (Anthony Mackie). But it might be worth driving into the unknown when he is given an opportunity to find a home. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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PAX Australia 2022 & Melbourne Day 4 & 5 – Explore-It

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TL;DR – We dive into PAX properly and discover all the new indies out there.

Disclosure – I paid for all products featured or mentioned here.

Set Phasers to 'Fun'

PAX Australia & Melbourne Day 4 & 5 –

The Yara River
The Yara River.

Well, it may be almost a year late, but we are finally getting to the end of our PAX 2022 series with a look at the final days. It was the last day of PAX Aus, and for the first time, I actually took the time to stop and have a decent breakfast down by the river as the morning Sun warmed off the previous night’s rain. It was a beautiful day by any standards, but apparently quite good for Melbourne’s sometimes temperamental weather.  

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