Showing posts with label review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label review. Show all posts

Thursday, October 28, 2021

The Franken Whopper! | Halloween 2021

This Halloween season has honestly been absolutely stacked with tricks and treats to the point where you almost stop appreciating all the cool and wonderful stuff that was thrown our way. I started seeing candy in early August, which is totally unheard of here in Nova Scotia, and I still managed to find these amazing Dare Halloween cookies at a late-season Walmart trip a few nights ago, in which the store was essentially devoid of anything spooky, already replaced with all things jolly and nice.

But I’m not here to write about cookies! Oh, no!

In the dying days of Halloween 2021, Burger King has come out of nowhere with what could have been a shining star of the spooky season! The Franken Whopper!

In years past, Burger King has often had a seasonal offering. Some of the greats include the A1 Halloween Whopper, the Ghost Whopper, and the Nightmare King Whopper with black, white, and green buns, respectively!

Sadly, the Franken Whopper does not come with a coloured bun. It’s really just a regular whopper, but topped with french fries and onion rings.

What’s especially weird about this Whopper is that it was only offered in Canada, which to the best of my knowledge has never had any of the other Halloween sandwiches from the past six or seven years, and you could only purchase it via the BK App.

If I’m being perfectly honest, this feels like a last minute call. Like, someone at BK Corporate said, “We need to boost BK App usage. Let’s trick all these Halloween nuts into using the app to get a Halloween sandwich!” Then they slapped some fries and onion rings on a Whopper and went out for drinks to celebrate.

There was little-to-no information about this happening. As far as I know, no news was released about the Franken Whopper until October 25th and it’s window of availability is legit one week, ending on Sunday, October 31st!

Although the BK I went to – which wasn’t my local BK, I had to go on a journey to get this bad boy, but that’s the fun of this stuff right? – had posters and images adorning every corner of the various burgers and sandwiches available, there was nothing for the Franken Whopper, further proof this thing materialized overnight.

Outside of a few images on the app, there wasn’t a whole lot of effort put forth. I mean, look at that “real shot” of a Franken Whopper. That is an obvious Photoshop job that screams 4:30 on a Friday. There wasn’t even a cool, special burger wrapper or bag. The only thing to identify my sandwich as something different was a sloppy scrawl of what looks like “Fran” on the side.

All that said, this was still a homerun for me. In the dying days of the Halloween season, when honestly even a hardcore Halloween nut like myself is kinda losing steam, having this drop out of the blue was a much-needed shot in the arm. I wanted to run out of my house screaming to get one on Monday, but due to being an adult and “priorities” I had to wait a few days, finally scoring one at lunch today.

No, it’s not really on par with the Halloween Whoppers of yesteryear, but it gave me an excuse to throw on a podcast (special thanks to the Purple Stuff Podcast) and go for a Halloween outing a few days before it’s time to pack it in for another year. For that alone, I loved it.

Also, although it was made clear to me that this lunch would be ~2000 freakin’ calories it was delicious. I modified mine to drop the tomato and double the pickles, which was the right move. I promise you.

So, that’s it. The Franken Whopper! It might fall to the wayside this year, but who knows? Maybe next year it’ll get an international roll out with a proper marketing campaign and a cool green bun! Here’s hoping!

Hope you enjoyed and Happy Halloween!
R

Sunday, January 24, 2021

My Thoughts on Hunted (2021)

I knew my lucky streak of great and recent horror films would break eventually and that day has come!

I heard a lot of hype surrounding Hunted, a Shudder exclusive that dropped on January 14th, 2021. I decided I’d give it a shot, even though I had my doubts. I should’ve listened to my inner voice!

Check out my thoughts on the movie right here.

Did you enjoy Hunted? Or did you dislike it, as well? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment – here or on YouTube – or you can always hit me up on social media!

Cheers,
R 

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

My Thoughts on The Empty Man (2020)

Well, in my effort to tackle more modern horror I’m batting 2 for 2!

The Empty Man is a film that I absolutely would’ve bypassed if it weren’t for reviews from my pals from REGIONFREE, Lorne Dixon and pizowell, letting me know it was worth a watch.

My general vibe going in was that it was a teen supernatural horror flick that would be like a Slender Man movie or something, but it is nothing like that! It is a supernatural detective procedural psychological horror film. Yes, that many adjectives!

It’s all those things, but never boring or hard to understand (except maaaaaybe the well-built twist ending!) and really I can’t recommend it enough!

Check out my thoughts in the video below and please sound off on your thoughts if you checked out the movie! You can leave me a comment on the video, this blog post, or via any of my social media outlets.

Hope you enjoy,

R

Tuesday, January 12, 2021

My Thoughts on The Dark and the Wicked (2020)

I’ve been telling myself for a few years that I need to get caught up on the latest horror film releases.

Back in the early ’10s (people say that, right?) I got out of horror big time. I was so sick of all the remakes, thinly-veiled remakes, and derivative stuff that was getting churned out of the Hollywood machine.

In recent years, we’ve seen a serious uptick in quality horror films and it’s made me want to go back and revisit some of the movies I’ve missed and also entices me to try out some of the more current offerings.

With a site called RETRODEF it will come as no surprise that my default is always to go with an old classic instead of something new, but I really need to rectify that and support new and burgeoning horror films and filmmakers.

So, to kick off my new initiative I recently took in The Dark and the Wicked, written and directed by Bryan Bertino (of The Strangers fame), and starring Marin Ireland, Michael Abbott, Jr., with a cameo by Xander Berkeley.

It’s a very bleak supernatural horror film that puts a spin on a few familiar horror tropes. Check out my video and let me know what you think!

Thanks for watching,
R

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Retro Game Review | Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (1999)

A long, long time ago I wrote an article about my favourite retro games to play around the holidays and one of the games I featured was Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. Why? Honestly, there’s no good reason other than the fact that I first played it around Christmas of 1999. I didn’t look for it under the tree or pine over it in gaming magazines that year or anything. I just went to the rental store for something to play on a random December weekend, snagged a copy of Soul Reaver for the PlayStation because the graphics looked cool, and that’s it!

Many years later I would finally pickup a copy of my very own, but for the PC, and since then I install it during my Christmas break and at least play a few hours, if only to try and relive those memories for a little while.

It occurred to me that I had never really reviewed or talked about the game except to say that I liked playing it by Christmas light every few years, so I thought that might be a fun article to post!

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is the sequel to Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, which released on the Sony PlayStation in 1996 and on the PC the following year. It was developed by Silicon Knights, who also did Eternal Darkness on the GameCube, and published by Crystal Dynamics, most notable for developing Tomb Raider.

Blood Omen was a top-down action RPG, which featured the titlular character Kain, a nobleman who has been killed and turned into a vampire. The story follows Kain as he seeks revenge for his affliction by destroying the nine pillars of Nosgoth – the fictional world the Legacy of Kain games are set in – only to find himself reveling in his new vampiric evolution.

The game was popular enough, mostly because of its adult theme and violence, all of which garnered it a sequel. Crystal Dynamics began development of “Legacy of Kain 2” immediately after the release of Blood Omen, but legal woes with Silicon Knights caused delays in the release and forced Crystal Dynamics to remove certain features and elements from the game. Ultimately, they broke through the legal issues and were able to publish Soul Reaver in the summer of ’99.

Despite having some of the game elements disabled, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is a fully-featured title set many years after the events of Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. SPOILER ALERT! Kain, after defeating eight of the nine pillars’ guardians, came to the realization that he was the ninth guardian. In order to restore Nosgoth, Kain had to sacrifice himself, but would not. Instead Nosgoth began a slow decline into ruin, while Kain and his vampire brood continued to flourish and evolve. One of his most trusted lieutenants is Raziel, the main character of Soul Reaver.

In an amazing opening cutscene you get some of this backgroud story and witness Kain’s jealousy and aggression when Raziel evolves and grows wings – a gift Kain himself has not yet been given. In a fit of rage, Kain destroys Raziel’s wings and throws him into a swirling vortex to toil in agony for all eternity.

1500 years later, the Elder God of Nosgoth resurrects Raziel as a Wraith – a creature of the “spirit realm”, which can devour the souls of the dead. He gives Raziel the choice to hunt down and kill Kain, both out of vengeance and to restore the pillars of Nosgoth, ending the world’s decay. Thus, he names Raziel his Soul Reaver – which is a reference to the name of Kain’s sword – and sets him loose on the dying lands with his new purpose.

Sounds incredible, right! Well, it is. The story of the Legacy of Kain games is absolutely top tier. The gameplay would also become a very important part of what the series would become and that starts here, with Soul Reaver.

Unlike Blood Omen, which was top-down, Soul Reaver is in full 3D. It’s an action game with puzzle aspects. You can move Raziel through the 3D environment of both the spirit realm and Nosgoth, which adds extra depth to all the environments of the game as they can typically be navigated in both dimensions.

At its core, the game is really a Metroidvania. I can sense a lot of “gamers” just picked up their torches and took to the comment section to ream me out!

Metroidvania is a portmanteau of the titles Metroid and Castlevania, both known for their non-linear action adventure titles, where the player is placed in an “open world” of sorts – not just moving left to right through stages – but traversing back and forth through a sustained environment, unlocking new areas by getting new abilities or finding keys.

At first Raziel can really only shift between realms and devour souls, but soon gains abilities like phasing through gates that block his path or climbing certain walls. This allows him to find his way through the dying Nosgoth to hunt and kill Kain.

After encountering Kain for the first time, Raziel gains his main weapon – the soul reaver itself. Kain attempts to use his century old blade to kill Raziel again, but instead the weapon is destroyed and its essence becomes merged with Raziel as an ethereal extension of his arm. As the game progresses, you can gain new abilities to help in battling the vampire hordes that languish in the world, as well as upgrade the soul reaver.

The gameplay can honestly be a little repetitive and the environments, although mastered in beautiful 3D for their time, can feel a little too alike. That’s kind of typical for games of its time, but what makes Soul Reaver shine is pretty much everything else.

The voice acting and music are too good not to mention. If you’ve played video games, you know that the voice acting can be really abysmal, but that is not the case here. Many sites and magazines will list the Legacy of Kain series as the top 50 best voice acted games and it’s a worthy kudo.

The music is also a standout. It has a very industrial feel to it, which seems off considering the fantasy aspects of the game, but it totally works. Each area of Nosgoth has a unique theme, but the music will naturally change to suit the current situation. In a battle, the music will be more epic and exciting, while it will be more muted and subdued as the player explores each region.

The story is just so engrossing. Soul Reaver builds on the already great world created in Blood Omen, but really takes everything to the next level. And, if you can believe it, things get even better in its direct sequel, Soul Reaver 2, which actually incorporates time travel!

All-in-all, Soul Reaver is an absolutely amazing game and a real triumph of its time. Yes, it can be a little repetitive, but all of the seamlessly integrated story elements and cutscenes will absolutely grab you and keep you motivated to continue on.

I’ve been playing the game on PC for many years. I can’t recall exactly how the PlayStation version looked – and I’m sure it’s serviceable – but I have to say that PC is probably the way to go, if you can. It was also released on the Sega Dreamcast in 2000, which I hear is the best console version by far. I have to say that the game still looks amazing on PC at its highest resolutions on my 720p TV.

It took a little finagling to get a new controller to work for it, but the time was worth it. The game supports Direct Input, which was the standard in the late-90s, but these days most controllers us XInput. A quick internet search allowed me to find a tool that will map a controller to Direct Input for you easily. I actually plugged in one of my PlayStation Classic controllers, which use USB, and it really helps to simulate those nostalgic vibes!

For me, there’s something special about replaying Soul Reaver with nothing but soft Christmas lights to brighten my darkened room, but as I’m sure no one else shares that attachment, trust me – you can enjoy Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver any time of the year. So go ahead and do that! It’s actually on sale as I write this for $1.09 CDN on GOG.com (Windows PC version) and runs for $5.99 as a PSOne Classic on the Sony PlayStation 3 or PSP systems (NOTE: PSOne Classics can only be purchased from a PS3 console), so you really have nothing to lose!

Is there anything tradition, movie, or game that you like to enjoy during the holidays, but it has nothing to do with the season? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

Merry Christmas,
R

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Syphon Filter (1999) | Sony PlayStation | Game Review



By 1999, the year Syphon Filter was released on the Sony PlayStation, gaming was dominated by several trends. The first had actually evolved from a trend into the new standard for the vast majority of games going forward: 3D graphics and gameplay in partially 3D to fully 3D environments. 

The resounding success of Super Mario 64 in 1996 and many of the Nintendo 64 games that followed convinced publishers that 3D was not only the future of video games, it was the present. The PlayStation and Sega Saturn’s hardware weren’t as proficient as the 64’s when it came to 3D graphics but the pressure was on to produce 3D games. Both systems did go on to have some very good 3D games while 2D was seen as passé and games in that style dropped off significantly.

The other trend relevant to Syphon Filter was that of the stealth action genre. While 1997’s Goldeneye – the N64’s massively successful movie-based first person shooter – offered plenty of action and moments where the player must take on waves of enemies as is customary for the genre, the spy aspect did squeeze in a little sneaking around. It was to the player’s benefit to take out enemies quickly and quietly before the alarm was raised bringing reinforcements. The use of silencers was key as was good accuracy; often you only had one chance to silently take out an enemy and if you missed the heat would be on.



The following year saw the release of the game most responsible for the rise of stealth: Metal Gear Solid. Bringing in the elements that made its 8-bit predecessors in the series, Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, unique, as well as adding in some new ones to the 32-bit realm, Metal Gear Solid was a masterpiece of, in its own words “Tactical Espionage Action”. The game’s entire premise was that of infiltration and in most places, a strategy of avoiding enemies rather than engaging them was key. Not only was it still quite different from other games of the time, it was a lot of fun. As much as gamers had enjoyed titles with a “guns blazing” approach – blasting all enemies like a space marine – this sneaky alternative proved to be extremely enjoyable. Successfully passing through areas undetected forced the player to be more thoughtful and creative. The game was a success as big if not bigger than Goldeneye so a wave of imitators was inevitable. 

Metal Gear Solid: Often imitated, never duplicated.

Which brings us back to Syphon Filter. Possibly you forgot that’s what this article is about. You are forgiven.

Developed by the little-known Eidetic, whose only game to that point was one of the absolute worst of the aforementioned wave of fully 3D games, Bubsy 3D, Syphon Filter is no Metal Gear Solid clone, but it’s definitely strongly influenced by the Konami title. The player finds himself in control of a covert agent Gabriel Logan engaged in a series of missions. The agency is tracking terrorist Erich Rhoemer, who has acquired a deadly biological weapon called Syphon Filter (which, yes, is similar to Metal Gear Solid’s FOXDIE) and has just launched an attack on Washington, DC. Just like Goldeneye and most spy movies, Logan’s quest brings him to a variety of locations throughout the world. The story is fairly standard and it’s not necessary to relate it here. Logan himself is a fairly bland character and his voice actor makes him sound approximately seventy years old.

The gameplay takes place in third person with Logan going through 3D environments and the player can rotate the camera as needed. While the camera isn’t perfect and you can sometimes end up with some inconvenient angles, it’s usually not enough to truly hamper you. It’s not a platformer requiring precise jumps like Super Mario 64 after all.

That isn’t to say precision isn’t required, though. Aiming certain weapons shifts the perspective to first person and it can be tricky if you’re under pressure from enemies. While the game favours a stealthy approach, Gabe is still going to see plenty of combat as enemies sometimes come at him in waves. But the real challenge lies in entering new rooms or areas where enemies have already taken up firing positions. Cover isn’t always available and even when it is, it’s tenuous.

I haven’t watched videos of people playing Syphon Filter so I only really know how I chose to play it. My main strategy involves almost constant movement once I’m in a gun battle. This frantic style of play enables you to dodge bullets but makes aiming difficult and weapons do run out of ammo. So in some of the later levels it can take several attempts to figure out the best way to navigate a prolonged battle. A few years later, I’d apply a similar strategy to the Max Payne games but it was easier there because of that game’s feature of being able to slow down time.

While Syphon Filter falls well short of the standard set by Metal Gear Solid in terms of gameplay, story, voice acting and music, it still does add a few neat wrinkles of its own. For instance, in taking advantage of the game’s decent lighting effects, some areas are dark enough to require you to use a flashlight. In certain instances this can be a calculated risk as light can alert nearby enemies when you’re trying to sneak past them.


Syphon Filter was well received and spawned two sequels in quick succession. I’m fairly certain I’ve played both; I know for sure I did play Syphon Filter 2 but can’t really remember much about it beyond it playing exactly like the original game. Beyond that trilogy there came several more I never played: Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain in 2004, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror in 2006 and Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow in 2007. The latter three were all for the PlayStation 2 and were mostly lost in the shuffle during those years. But playing once more through the original has made me curious about them.

Syphon Filter may have been the byproduct of trends but it’s still a solid game that’s fairly fun to play and takes some skill to complete. I was even driven to frustration at some parts but I wouldn’t call the difficulty cheap or unforgiving. One just has to make the proper adjustments. In the end, Gabriel Logan never joined the upper echelon of classic video game characters but he sits somewhere comfortably in the middle as the protagonist of a pretty good series. That’s more than can be said for many others.

cole d'arc

Cole d'arc is a writer based out of Halifax, NS. He is a practiced blogeteer and professional lister at Five-O-Rama, is the man behind Cole Talks Comics on YouTube, and talks about movies and video games live from the Movie Discussion Pocket Dimension and The Final Dungeon

Friday, September 18, 2020

A Brew and a View | Alone (2020)

It’s been a long while since I did one of these videos, but I saw the opportunity this evening and decided to kick back with a cold beer and watch a movie! I’m just now realizing, however, that I’ve never posted a Brew and a View video to the site before. I guess they used to be a YouTube exclusive, but no more!

This time I actually decided to watch something new. I took in Alone, which just came out on VOD yesterday. As for the beer, I had a Boxing Rock Wild Axe pilsner.

Find out my thoughts about each in the video!


Cheers,
R

Thursday, September 10, 2020

DVD Review | UFO Abduction (1989) | The McPherson Tape?

So, back in January I made you a promise and I am absolutely about to break it into pieces. My apologies in advance, but I just couldn’t help myself!


I’ve talked about the many incarnations of filmmaker Dean Alioto’s UFO films, UFO Abduction and Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County, both the TV and alternate film version, so I’ve clearly beaten this horse to death.

I acknowledge that, but it turns out this horse has a little life left! When I wrote about UFO Abduction, Dean Alioto’s first film foray – a shot-on-video found footage feature 10 years before The Blair Witch Project – I mentioned that it was difficult obtain a legit copy of the film outside of a few avenues, but that is no longer the truth!

It turns out that in October of last year POV Horror – a streaming site for found footage indie films – released a DVD copy titled The McPherson Tape: UFO Abduction, which includes the film, as well as several audio commentary tracks by the director and Found Footage Critic (which has also thoroughly covered the film), an alternate “Bootleg” version of the film, a making of featurette, and a few trailers.

I’ll be honest, I figured outside of a few limited run DVDs that Dean Alioto might print and sell himself that there would never be a full feature release of this short film, let alone one with so many extras.


What’s even more surprising is that there was also recently a Blu-ray release of the film! That’s right. The American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) and distributor Vinegar Syndrome – the place for cult film preservation and hard-to-find film releases – actually put out a high definition release of UFO Abduction in April of this year. This release contains – as far as I know – the same cut of the film as the DVD, but also comes with the Encounters TV segment about the film, which I mentioned in a previous post, and a Q&A from Fantastic Fest. As much as I wanted to pick up the Blu-ray, it’s neither easy nor inexpensive to buy Vinegar Syndrome releases in Nova Scotia, but I could get the POV Horror release at a decent price, so I opted for the DVD.

When I previously watched this movie I had to settle for a very poorly encoded YouTube video from an old VHS that was probably bootlegged and sold at UFO conventions in the early-90s. It made the experience incredibly sub-par, to say the least. Finally getting the see the film as it was intended was a real treat and I very much enjoyed it.

Here’s a video of my thoughts on the DVD!


One thing to note is that it is super weird that they branded this movie “The McPherson Tape”. The family – although I don’t think their last names are ever mentioned – are the Van Heese family. Hilariously, some of them are named Van Hesse on film’s credits. Either way, they are not the McPhersons! That name was the family name of the characters in the second of Alioto’s UFO films. I assume it was renamed this, because it gets more search hits and they wanted the DVD to sell better, but that’s speculation.

So, hopefully this is the last time – at least for a while – that I’ll cover these films. I can’t say never, because if somehow the “actual” The McPherson Tape did get a release, I would most certainly review that, as well!

Cheers,
R