Yellowcard - When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes

When You're Through Thinking, Say Yes

Yellowcard are a very unique rock band with their violin and brilliant guitar work, I have loved their songs ever since I first listened to “Way Away” on “Burnout” (created for the Xbox), I purchased their 4^th  album “Ocean Avenue” quite some time ago on a trip to Florida and absolutely loved it, it was very catchy and orientated towards my age group at the time, this is when they hit mainstream success, previously releasing “One for the kids” (2001) “Where we stand” (1999) and “Midget Tossing” (1997).

Now 8 years on, and much critical acclaim they have released “When You’re Through Thinking, Say Yes”, now I have listened and bought all of Yellowcard’s albums proceeding “Ocean Avenue” and have enjoyed them all but not quite as much as I enjoyed this one, I was little bit gutted yesterday when I  found out that this album had been released 7 months ago, and I hadn’t realised as I thought they were still on hiatus, however I am extremely happy with the outcome of the new album.

They have gone back to there roots with their mainstream success with “Ocean Avenue” and have reminded me of a lot of fond memories of my teenage years spent with my best friends listening to this album.

So how are the individual songs, well they are excellent, some of my favourite songs include “The Sound of You and Me” and “Sing for Me”. The album has a very good rhythm and just makes you want to get on your feet and head bang. Ryan Key as usual giving it his all with his vocals, Sean Mackin on the Violin smashing out an amazing tune with this brilliant instrument, Longineu Parsons on the drums, Ryan Mendez on the guitar and finally Sean O’Donnell on the bass, it short they compliment each other excellent and long may they serve the music world with more delights like this.

I would highly recommend this album, it’s absolutely brilliant and just cant wait for their next album.

Stakeland



Stakeland Poster



I didn’t have very high expectations for this film, basically set in the wilderness of post apocalyptic America, shot down by a vampire virus which is on the brink of encompassing the world, “Mister” and “Martin” are both set on the same path after “Mister” saves “Martin” against the vampires that kill his parents and eat his sibling (Literally).

The film is mostly set in rural surroundings so it gives the effect of “no where to run” and certainly “no where to hide”, Mister and Martin on there travels meet a variety of characters such as a nun and a few “beautiful damsel’s in distress” and finally a “brotherhood” that seems to have in for our 2 main protagonists. On the whole I believe that the film is mostly about how their relationship flourishes through out and how humanity would pull together if this were ever to happen.

For a low budget film the vampires/undead are extremely effective and the make up is excellent, if you are looking for a film to make you jump, this isn’t it, however it does provide and good emotional story with likeable characters and a good standard of acting.

One of the Vampires/Undead

This may seem like a short review, but its just one of those films that not really much happens, but if I were to talk about the film, it would kind of giveaway the suspense in which is builds throughout the film, like what they are going to do next.

All I can say is that, its not your run of the mill vampire film, however it is definitely worth your time, and it is a fulfilling film to watch, and there is possible room for a sequel.

Characters: 8/10

Storyline: 6/10

Overall: 7/10

Skulduggery Pleasant

Skulduggery Pleasant

My fiancée’s little brother offered me to borrow this book and to be quite honest I was a bit worried for a kids book that it might be a waste of time especially reading the likes of Michael Connolly for the last 2months (The Lincoln Lawyer, The Brass Verdict, The Reversal, The Black Echo) which in all honesty were some of the best books that I have ever read, captivating to say the least.

However, I proceeded to trust my future little brother in law, (as his judgement is extremely good for that of a 13 year old) and for it, I was rewarded with an excellent tale of magic and other wondrous things.

Although Derek Landy is not a literal genius, he is an absolutely fantastic writer and knows exactly how to bring things to life in your mind; he sets a vivid image on a blank canvas bringing it to life with bright colours with a dark background underneath.

Magic is a wonderful thing in stories and Derek Landy explains it excellently, almost as if he has experienced it first hand.

So I found myself deeply enjoying this book, and then it struck me as to how this could possibly be read by a 10 – 13 year old, as quite simply some of the words seem far to advanced for this age group, however it dawned on me that Derek Landy was probably trying to appeal to both age groups (Adult and Child), so for this I must commend him.

The story is basically about Stephanie and her Uncle Gordon dying. Gordon dies in the first few pages of the book and it is explained that he is a horror writer with a twist of fantasy but by the looks of things his stories are more than works of fiction, so Young Stephanie decides to go on a rather large adventure with Gordon’s best friend Skulduggery Pleasant, who also turns out to be a living skeleton (SURPRISE!!!). On their adventures they come across a range of monsters in which they have to fight and try and save the day by finding the Sceptre of the Ancients.

It all may sound slightly childish but it will certainly make you want to be a child again.

Skulduggery Pleasant & Stephanie Edgley

The characters are very well written with Skulduggery being very sarcastic, Stephanie being a very stubborn 13 year old, China being a beautiful ice queen, Tanith being the big ‘magical’ big sister, Ghastly being a man by the book, Mr Bliss being weird and wonderful and finally Serpine being the all knowing villain of the story.

It is definitely worth a read, and I am definitely going to buy the other 5 books in the series, just to see how far their adventures go. I would like to thank my future brother in law for introducing me to it and allowing me to borrow the book.

An Excellent Read!

Characters: 9/10

Storyline: 8/10

Overall: 8.5/10

FIFA 12 (Full Game)

FIFA 12 Case

So probably most have you have seen my demo review, so I am going to try and not repeat myself to much as ideally I don’t really want to go over the same points over and over again, otherwise it just gets boring for me and you.

Finally this year’s rendition of FIFA has hit our shelves, is it any good? Quite simply, it’s not good at all……..instead, it’s the best that EA have produced since FIFA came out. Everything, and I mean everything has finally come together, graphics, gameplay, career mode, ultimate team (even though Im still not a fan), online, the passing, the shooting, the crossing, the ball twirling in the air, the sound of the studs smashing into someone’s shin pad (well maybe not that one) but it is a masterpiece.

As usual EA tells you what difficulty you should have the game at when you first put the disc in, with my achievements from previous titles, apparently “football is my passion”, which sticks me on world class which is what I played at on FIFA 11, however the intelligence has been ramped up to the extreme this year, make one mistake and be sure to be punished, they will counter attack and nothing will stop them unless you can try and get a crutching tackle with the player on the ball, so I turned the difficulty down to Professional, I still now get my “arse handed to me” by the likes of “Crystal Palace” (I am my own town, Portsmouth FC) who beat me 4 – 0, all be it at the end of the game they put on a really good display.

Note: Do not leave a single player unmarked in the box when the com. is attacking.

The combination of difficulty and A.I.  is my favourite bit about this game, you will think that you have the game “dead and buried” at the 75^th minute, and then someone will lose their position and it will be 2 – 1, and be sure that the computer will pile on the pressure, because I have had many a time where they have drawn in the 88^th – 89^th minute. Believe me you have to work hard for the goals in which you score, it becomes extremely frustrating, however you have to learn how each team play, because the computer learns how you play, it will know what you want to do and it will counter attack at lightning speed.

Presentation is excellent this year, and they have really tried hard to improve the smoothness of the menus, it works very well. The VP (Virtual Pro) faces have been improved to with no more “Big Forehead Syndrome” as I liked to call it.

So I want to take a sizeable chuck of this review on showing you or rather telling you about the new online modes that EA said that would revolutionise the online gaming market in sports game and I say I believe in what they have said.

Keeper and Player Collide!

First we shall start off with “Head to Head Seasons” which has effectively replaced “Head to Head Ranked Match”, basically rather than just playing friendly’s (although I will touch on that subject) you play as the team you support, which is called “My Football Club”, so for example I will play as Portsmouth because I support them, then the server will search for another club which is a similar star to my club, in this case 3 Stars, thus eliminating matches such as Barcelona versus Accrington Stanley, which is a very good way from preventing people from moaning about the odd match ups and people playing against much harder teams. This isn’t the only improvement to this mode, in “Head to Head Seasons”, you also play for points rather than online XP, 3 Points for a win, 1 Point for a draw and obviously 0 points for a loss. There are 10 Divisions and you start at the bottom, there are 10 games in a season (however it only lasts a week, so you have to play 10 games in 7 days to complete a season) this gives your team points on the world wide leader board, so for instance last week (and this is true), Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United got relegated from the premier league because not enough people won with them, or played with them online, thus they were relegated to the championship. Currently Portsmouth are 15^th in the Npower Championship.

I hope you understand this, because to me it sounds quite confusing, however once you actually see the mode it all gets explained to you by Martin Tyler.

Also in the online modes are Online Friendlies, which I believe have taken over if you want to play with different starred teams rather than the club in which you support. That’s all I can really say about that mode.

So that’s all of the online modes explained obviously the golden oldies of Pro Ranked Matches and Pro Clubs return from previous instalments, I think everyone knows what they are.

Aaron Ramsay telling the gaffer that he is Unhappy.

Another massive addition to this year, is the all new XP system in which you have to do tasks, like score goals, get man of the match with your VP and win matches to gain XP points which goes towards an overall level and at the moment bragging rights against your friends, I have a funny feeling that will expand on this to buy things for the game or your VP, well hopefully they will.

There have been many small additions to the career mode this year, which truly make this game brilliant, things like players telling you that they are not happy because you have relegated them to the bench after a poor performance, but they want to make it up to the fans and you by putting in a better performance. Also clubs are bought by new owners, Brighton and Hove Albion have just been bought in my career and it says they will be competing with the likes of Manchester United and Barcelona by signing some of the best players in the world (very Manchester City-esque). There are 4 sections to the news section, so you can keep up with what’s going on in the world of football, World News, Breaking News, Transfer News and Club News, all these are updated every day in the career mode with new information.

Transfers are much more realistic; players won’t come to your club if they don’t feel you are a good enough club for them or if they don’t like the idea of emigrating. Clubs now offer you for your players that are in good form, this is shown by a new bar in the Team Management which shows how in form the player you have selected are. For example David Norris is in form at the moment and I had to stave off interest from Leeds who kept putting up their bid for him, first £1 million, then £1.2 Million and finally £1.4 Million. Transfer Deadline Day has been added too this shows how much your league has spent on transfer and breaks the day down in to 10 hourly instalments in which you can try and worm your way into deals and steal them off of other clubs or get that last player to complete your team, this part certainly adds depth to the game

Jack Wilshere taking on Didier Drogba

There are many other features too, like the all new youth squad, and like other FIFA instalments you now have a scout in which you can send them anywhere in the world to a particular country to search for talent, and you get to narrow down the talent and sign them to your youth squad before some other team signs them, so you have to juggle money and whether or not they are good enough or will be good enough for your team.

Finally the players improve in your team and not through time either, they improve if they are playing well, which is soooo more realistic than previous renditions of the game.

All in all, career mode has finally been ramped up to the ability in which we knew it could perform. This is the mode I mostly play and I am sure it will keep me going to next years edition.

So I think that pretty much ties it up for this years addition of FIFA, it is excellent, much better than its previous instalments, it flows and it does its job, it may take some time getting used to the way the players move and the new systems of tactical defending, but it is definitely worth holding out to master the system.

Graphics: 9/10

Game Modes: 9/10
Sound: 10/10
Replayability: 10/10
Overall: 9.5/10

Blitz

The UK Poster 

So I have been Ummmming and Uhhhhhhhing about whether or not to review this, I was lucky enough to be able to see this film about 4 weeks before it was released on DVD, a couple of weeks after that I set up this site, and didn’t know if I could class this as a new review however, I think that it warrants a part of my blog in which it will be reviewed as a new film.

The story is quite simply, it’s a game of cat and mouse with a little twist. Jason Statham plays Detective Sergeant Tom Brant, in the beginning it shows that quite simply he is a rogue cop in the sense that he comes down harder on people that cause trouble than the everyday officer, this is shown in the opening scene when he spots a group of individuals trying to steal his car, unfortunately for them, he wields a crow bar and some mean skills.

The story continues with a murder of a cop committed by Barry Weiss played by the brilliant Aiden Gillen, this is the part of the film I liked the most, you get to see the killer and obviously the protagonists don’t, this helps to build the suspense as you watch Statham and the newly appointed Chief Inspector, James Roberts (Played by Paddy Considine) try and catch, they are both convinced that it is him however, how far will they go to capture him.

Also, unfortunately not shown in the trailer, the film is about the relationship between Jason Statham and Paddy Considine, Paddy Considine’s character is Homosexual and a lot of the department don’t like him for this, however Jason Statham’s character takes a liking to him because they both have the same method of catching criminals.

Jason Statham & Paddy Considine

The chemistry between characters is excellent, Paddy Considine is particular good as the upstanding member of the community with an edge, Aiden Gillen as usual plays the villain and does it convincingly, sadistic, yet calm, the worst kind of enemy. Finally Jason Statham plays in his normal role, the muscle bound, stereotypically hard man of British culture with a loveable side.

There is even room for a few twists during the non stop action.

The music is first class, a couple of weeks before I had seen this movie, I was lucky enough to see the band that did the music (without realising that they did the music) they are called “The Quemists”, through out the film there are only 2 songs used however where their music is different it changes through out the song, I would highly recommend seeing them. (The songs played throughout are “Tomcat” and “Stompbox Spore Remix”).

So overall if you want a fast paced action film, this is the best British action flick this year (so far) in my opinion. It’s got everything you need in a decent action movie, and you wont be disappointed by the acting, the music or the story line. Thoroughly Enjoyable!

Storyline: 8/10

Characters: 9/10

Soundtrack: 9/10

Overall: 9/10