Tag: Review

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling

ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

Harry_Potter_and_the_Chamber_of_Secrets

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second book in the Harry Potter franchise, the book was written by one of my all time favourite authors J.K. Rowling and it was published in book stores on the second of July 1997 just one year after the release of its predecessor.

As a child the Chamber of Secrets was my favourite book in the Harry Potter series and at the moment that opinion is still the same, Harry’s second year at Hogwarts spawned many of my favourite characters and moments in the story, I would say that the most memorable for me would be Gilderoy Lockhart the new defence against the dark arts teacher who is a snobby, big headed and manipulative liar which is written to be obvious to the reader at first but throughout the book you start to learn of some of the more horrid things he has done to become as famous as he is, of course you cant forget the introduction to the Whomping Willow either, the Whomping Willow is an extremely violent tree that lives on the Hogwarts Castle grounds, its notorious for attacking anyone or anything that comes near it by swiping at them with its massive branches and in most cases causing very serious damage, then there’s Harry’s weird first encounter with Dobby the house elf and finally you cant forget that this book also reveals the true identity of Lord Voldermort who had not been completely defeated at the end of the first book.

Petrification

Speaking of the first book it should be noted that the second entry in the series is much darker and is therefore mildly scarier in comparison, the book deals with some rather grizzly topics including the murder of a student, hearing voices, numerous students being petrified by an unknown force and certain creatures wanting to devour the flesh of Harry and Ron.

If you are a fan of the Harry Potter movies then you may be interested in reading the second novel since a lot of moments in the book were missing from the film adaptation, in particular my favourite chapter “The Deathday Party” where Harry, Ron and Hermione join the ghosts of Hogwarts in the dungeons to help celebrate Sir Nearly Headless Nick’s day of passing is one of my fondest memories of reading the Chamber of Secrets as a child, on top of this J.K. Rowling yet again does a fantastic job of making all of the characters lovable apart from the the more villainous ones and when the mystery of the book is finally solved it actually links back to the early chapters which is great because not only does that prove that J.K Rowling didn’t just throw together some half arsed answer but the reader is able to actually solve the mystery themselves before the answer is revealed which only makes the book worth reading even more.

Thank you for reading this review of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling

you can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

That was the last review for this month but April is going to be entirely dedicated to one of the most influential film directors of all time so look forward to that.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U/Switch) Review

ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

ZeldaEveryone on the internet is raving about the latest game in the Legend of Zelda franchise and its all for good reasons, Breath of the Wild was originally announced in 2012 when the Wii U was released and it had an expected release date of December 2013 but unfortunately due to development issues it got delayed multiple times before it was finally released to the general public five years later on March 3rd 2017 along side the companies latest gaming system the Nintendo Switch.

zeldabreath2-625x352So the reason a lot of people are falling in love with this particular game in the franchise is because when compared to the earlier 3D Zelda titles this is a brand new and unique experience, instead of the usual formula of controlling Link from the first dungeon to the last while following a linear path Breath of the Wild takes place in a free roaming environment and even though there is a main objective the player is encouraged to explore Hyrule to its limits in order to find secrets and gather side quests.

maxresdefault

Dungeons are now called shrines and are much shorter and simpler than usual, shrines are small puzzles that the player can try and solve in order to unlock new fast travel points on the in game map and along with this each shrine contains a Monk that will reward Link with a spirit orb once the shrines trial is completed.

zelda-breath-of-the-wild-shrines-trials-shrine-orbs-heart-containers-pieces-4857-14886479444

Link can trade every four spirit orbs he obtains for either a new heart container or  increased stamina by praying too one of the many goddess statues that have been placed throughout the world.

3085837-screen+shot+2016-06-23+at+5.50.35+pmThe shrines make up the bulk of the game and even though they are not necessarily important to the plot it is still highly recommended that you solve as many of them as you can in order to make the game a little bit easier,  if you would rather challenge yourself to a really difficult run of the game then you could skip all of them and remain at minimal health, however the first few shrines are forced upon the player as these shrines are needed in order to unlock runes.

zelda-breath-wild-runes

Runes replace the traditional items from previous Legend of Zelda titles and unlike the older Zelda games the runes in Breath of the Wild have an unlimited stock, these runes offer a number of abilities available to Link throughout the game including Magnesis which allows Link to pick up heavy metal items with ease, Stasis which allows Link to temporarily stop time, Cryonis which grants Link the ability to spawn large climbable structures of ice in watery areas and the remote bomb which is simply an unlimited stock of bombs that only explode when prompted by the player.

Finally the most useful ability in the game is the wind glider which allows the player too glide through the air with ease, this is useful when trying to reach areas that would be difficult to reach by other means, however the glider does use up Link’s stamina metre and therefore the player must use cation so that they don’t fall to a most unfortunate death.

maxresdefault (1)

There are a lot of things to do in Breath of the Wild and personally the best part of the game for me was all of the additional content other than the main quest, it is obvious that the developers took inspiration from other franchises such as the Elder Scrolls and Assassins Creed by adding the large open worlds, the ability to steal horses, climbing towers and other Buildings, needing to kill animals and collect plant life in order cook food so you can heal since the game does not use the usual system of collecting hearts from pots and bushes, Link can now buy multiple outfits to help him survive in different climates such as intense heat and freezing cold environments and on top of all of this the game even follows a similar system where your weapons and shields will break over time but unfortunately I can not recall any repair system in the game for fixing these broken weapons, thankfully there are plenty of replacements spread across the map so this wasn’t much of an issue for me.

the plot is very interesting to say the least and I really don’t want to talk about it in this review as a means of avoiding spoilers since the game is still essentially brand new, I will however say that it does still follow some of the traditional Zelda formula which is to be expected, Link still needs to defeat Ganon and save Hyrule but everything else that has been built around this allows the game too stand out as a very story driven game which may be the darkest the franchise has seen yet, this is the first time that Nintendo have added voice acting to the Legend of Zelda series and personally I hope it stays, I think they did a stellar job with the voice cast and unlike Super Mario Sunshine the voice acting here is not in the least bit cringe worthy.

maxresdefault (2)

Graphically Breath of the Wild is the most outstanding game in the series, Nintendo has really gone out of their way to make game feel real and alive, the original Wii U version pushes the console to its absolute limits and the final results are breath taking, this the cleanest and smoothest graphics you will ever see on the Wii U and it really is a shame that not many other games pushed the console for its visuals quite as much as Breath of the Wild does, the Nintendo Switch port has all of the vibrant colours and smooth textures of the Wii U version but pushes the visuals to look even better, more depth and shadow effects are added to the in game textures and other small details such as dust floating around the sandy areas of the game and snow falling from the sky help to bring more realism to the game, one issue I found was that occasionally during my play through the game suffered from lag spikes that really took me out of the experience and I believe that this was caused by the game trying to load too much at once, it should be noted that the Wii U version is known to have pretty horrendous loading times so keep this in mind.

2-1

I played the game on the Nintendo Switch and as can be imagined from Nintendo’s quality of service the controls were absolutely flawless, the clever thing about the Nintendo Switch is that it can be played both at home and on the go, the new Zelda is an amazing experience from the couch but every time I played the game while taking the bus or during long train journeys it was really difficult for me to see most of what was going on, the screen on the switch is way too small for a game of this size, it was difficult for me to read the map and plan routes and exploration is one of the biggest selling points of the game so I would recommend playing from the TV unless you have no other choice.

I have never disliked a Legend of Zelda soundtrack to this day and Breath of the Wild may have one of the best soundtracks yet, the entire soundtrack was created by Manaka Kataoka who had worked on previous titles in the series, there are a lot of points in the game that are silent and this is due to the player needing to listen for approaching enemies they may need to take care of as well as any wild animals that can be killed for food, I have linked the entire soundtrack above so please click play if you would like to listen to it.

The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild is my new favourite game in the series which is something I haven’t been able to say since 1998, however the game is not flawless and I don’t think its fair to say its the best of all the 3D titles since it is so different from the previous games, I think it stands out in its own way as a unique and individual title and should only really be compared to the next Zelda game that follows this new formula, I had a blast  playing this game and the only real complaint I have are the occasional lag spikes which is why I wont be giving Breath of the Wild a full score.

it’s not perfect and it isn’t flawless but no matter what at the end of the day its still may be Link’s best outing yet.

9.7/10

It was very difficult for me too not give away any spoilers in this review so I hope you enjoyed it for what it was, it may be a while before the next Nintendo Switch review since the console isn’t even a month old yet,in the mean time there will be one more review coming out this month so I will see you then.

I hope you enjoyed my review of the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the Nintendo Switch and Wii U

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

By Padawan

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

 

DLC in Nintendo Games?

ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

zelda_breath_of_the_wild_dlc_01

One of the biggest announcements for the new Zelda game coming out in the next couple of days was that Nintendo is adding Downloadable content which is a first for a main series Zelda title, as you can imagine this announcement has split fans, some people including myself couldn’t care less but others have been cancelling their pre-orders for the game.

download-1

First of all this is not the first time Nintendo has added DLC to their games, they added new tracks and characters to Mario Kart and new stages and fighters to Super Smash Bros Wii U/3DS, I don’t recall so many people complaining when DLC for those games were announced but to be fair Breath of the Wild is a bit of a special case because not only is it a single player experience but Nintendo announced DLC before the game had even been released which lets be honest was a fairly stupid move on Nintendo’s part.

facepalm_id_by_urkel8534

So whats my stance on this whole DLC malarkey? well like I said I don’t care about DLC in general and it isn’t likely that I will buy DLC for any games that are not Mario Kart or Splatoon, I don’t agree with any first party single player games having DLC (Zelda, Mario, Metroid and so on) but I can understand paying to add new content in multiplayer games at a reasonable price of course, I feel that having DLC in single player games takes away a lot of the fun, I remember when I was younger you could unlock additional content in games by performing certain tasks, I will still never forget the first time I unlocked the original Prince of Persia game in the Sands of Time.

On a final note though I will say that we shouldn’t look at Nintendo as if they are different to every other game company in the world, yes they are late to some of these awful video game practices but every other company has been doing it for years and we all seem ok with them so why shouldn’t we give Nintendo the same respect and just accept the changes they are wanting to make, even if we don’t particularly agree with those changes.

Either way in only two days we will all be able to play on the Nintendo Switch and I personally cannot wait to run around Hyrule again without the dumb expansion packs.

I hope you enjoyed this semi rant

That’s it for Nintendo Switch Content now until we eventually get around to Reviewing Breath of the Wild which I’m hoping to have reviewed by the end of April depending on how long the game is.

Want me to review a specific game/movie/product or do you have a general question you would like me to answer? if so please email me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

You can find me on Miiverse by searching for draskafer

Netflix Original: A Series of Unfortunate Events Review

ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

a-series-of-unfortunate-events-poster

Let me be completely honest I was afraid for this show, an adaptation of the book series by Lemony Snicket had been done in the past in the form of a movie starring Jim Carrey and even though the film was somewhat entertaining and Jim Carrey gave one of the best performances of his career, the film was a terrible adaptation of the books and this was one of the many reasons why it bombed and none of the planned sequels were ever released.

series-unfortunate-events-olaf

This time the notorious Count Olaf is portrayed by the multi-talented actor Neil Patrick Harries who does a fantastic portrayal of the Count, Jim Carrey gave a more serious and sinister version of Count Olaf while Neil Patrick Harries gives a more silly and comical peformace while still managing to remain threatening and scary enough to help the show remain family friendly, the rest of the main cast are also very well portrayed and the actors and actresses who play each role put a lot of effort and love into their peformances, the show so far has shown a few other famous faces aside from Neil Patrick Harries including Patrick Warburton who plays Lemony Snicket and Joan Cusack who plays Justice Strauss, cast members who are less experienced in acting also do a fantastic job at playing their assigned characters but out of the entire cast my favourite actor was Louis Hynes who plays Klaus, i found that he was very similar to the character in the books and I cant wait to see more of his work in the later seasons.

91spu-unyvl

Speaking of the books the TV show is such an impressive adaptation that I only noticed very few differences between the two, the first season of the show covers the first four books which are spread over eight episodes, at first I was concerned because I didnt believe that two episodes per book was enough to cover everything but I was wrong because now that I have watched the first season several times I have to agree that two was more than enough, the show is much more light hearted than the books which is understandable as the books can at times be a little much esspecially for very young readers but I honestly believe that it would be fine for any one to watch the show no matter what age they are.

It was very difficult for me to talk about this without giving away any spoilers but I am pleased that I got the chance to share my thoughts, if you would like to see the first review of the books I wrote you can do so by clicking on this link.

https://ragglefragglereviews.com/2016/10/31/book-review-a-series-of-unfortunate-events-1-3-by-lemony-snicket/

What did you think of this latest adaptation of a Series of Unfortunate Events?

You can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

 

 

Civilization 1-3 (1991-2001) (PC) Review

ragglefragglereviews1 Comment

Civilization is one of the most popular strategy games of all time, the series was created by legendary game designer Sid Meier who had already made a name for himself in the game industry before Civilization was released, one of his most popular games was a game called Pirates, I am planning to play through and review all six games (six games as of now) in the main series but with there being so many of them and not too many differences between each version we will be taking a look at three games per review.

Civilization (1991)

256px-civilizationboxart

We begin our look into Civilization with the original game which is often referred too as classic Civ, the goal in Civilization is that you are a world leader who is essentially in complete control over a continent (you choose a race of people before starting the game) I chose to play as the Zulu’s meaning that I was playing as the world leader of Africa, the goal of the game is to try and build as many cities as you can while also being able to maintain the safety and happiness of your people.

frederick_pc_civ1

You will often find that other world leaders may visit your cities offering to make trades of knowledge or money and far too often they will start a war if you refuse these offers, I had particular trouble with Frederick the world leader of Germany, he would often make a peace offering if I gave him knowledge, not much later he would offer to keep peace between our two continents, this kept happening multiple times before I had enough and took over the entirety of Germany so jokes on him.

civ1-3

The game is a lot more complex than it may seem, first of all its your responsibility to see that your continent and people are able to evolve over time as the game takes place over hundreds of thousands of years, you can actually play the game for such a long time that you end up in the space age which is very cool, during the course of the game you will need to send your wise men to research new topics which will allow you to build more useful items such as defenses which surround your cities, the ability to attack over seas and more powerful armies, the game will often give you historically accurate information making it a fairly useful learning tool.

The original Civilization is a great game and a classic that will always stand the test of time, a lot of DOS games were not capable of producing very good sound so the lack of music and audio is not something I feel is fair to complain about, graphically the game is fairly impressive for a DOS game but some parts of the game are much more visually appealing than others but again that could be DOS limitations but I suppose we will see if this improves in the sequel.

7/10

Civilization 2 (1996)

After enjoying the original Civilization I really wanted to enjoy the sequel just as much but to be honest I couldn’t get into it, I realize a lot of people really like this game but I just found it to be really boring and not very interesting at all, for some reason they removed a lot of the small animations the first game had and chose to stick with just text to commemorate you on your achievements, they did however add live action cut-scenes with dialogue if you chose to speak to the advisers or the high council, i couldn’t find any images of this but I will provide a youtube link below showing some of the cutscenes

 

Another thing that was a great addition was the much easier to use cheat mode, in the original game you could use small cheats to activate certain features including showing the entire world map, in this game you can access all cheats from a click of a mouse and as much as I dont condone to using cheats myself i am sure that some people would enjoy giving themselves a full treasury,unlocking all skills and other special unlockable features.

civilization2-1

Graphically the second game is a massive step up compared to the original, with windows being able to produce more colours and detail the world map is more appealing and more details are shown when you upgrade your cities, I found it very difficult to move my troops around the map, it felt as if the keyboard was confused because every-time I tried to move a player they would usually  head off in a different direction and this made it very difficult for me to try and plan my moves appropriately, the game includes the ability to use online multiplayer but I didnt test this as its a very old game which wont run on modern operating systems but hopefully a steam remake will get released at some point as I would like to give this game a second shot with multipayer included

Not a terrible game but its wacky controls and fairly boring design choices made it no where near as enjoyable as the original

4.3/10

Civilization 3 (2001)

After my disappointment with the last game thank god I enjoyed Civilization 3, first of all this installment brought back everything that I missed in the second game, it had great animations, a full cgi opening cutscene, lots of choice for land customization and you can finally play as either males or females for each race in the game, not only that but as well as the usual Civ game mechanics Civ 3 tops both previous installments by adding online multiplayer (that works) and challenge modes.

One thing I didn’t like about the gameplay in Civ 3 was the lack of player support on the lower difficulty settings, the other games both gave you advisors that would help guide the player step by step through the matches and I found that the support although complicating did help teach me the main mechanics of a Civ game, in Civ 3 this was still available but the player needed to seek out the advice by speaking to each advisor individually and it was very daunting

The graphics are outstanding, the game uses an art style that looks as if you are playing on a painted canvas, as per usual the game is shown from a birds eye view and the visuals really help it seem as if the player is looking at a physical world map, the animations from the NPC’s are smooth and simple which honestly is all you need in a game like this

the soundtrack is very good here, I complained that I was annoyed with the lack of ingame music in Civ 2 but in Civ 3 the music is relaxing to listen too and is not on a constant loop so you can enjoy a large variation of music tracks during your long Civ games.

Civilization 3 is the best Civ game out of the first three in the series and for what it provides it is worthy of its £2.99 steamprice, however this is not the best Civ game for new players, I give that title to the original for its simple design and much more useful advisors who advise the player without needing to be asked.

7.8/10

I had a blast playing these old Civ games, out of these three which is your favourite and do you agree with my opinion on the games so far? Hopefully it won’t be long until we are reviewing the next three games but until then.

Thanks for reading

you can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

Walt Disney’s Mickeys Once Upon a Christmas (1999) Review

ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

mv5bmti3oti2nti0n15bml5banbnxkftztcwnzqzmzyymq-_v1_uy268_cr60182268_al_

Mickeys Once Upon a Christmas was a massive deal when it came out in 1999 and I fondly remember my mother fighting her way through our local Tesco’s (Our version of Target for you Americans) to get it for me so we could watch it together on Christmas Eve that very year.

By the way this is not the Christmas Carol with Disney Characters, that movie came out in 1983, this is an anthology of three Disney cartoons which all share a similar Christmas theme and have slightly altered morals for the kids to learn from

mickeys-once-upon-a-christmas-di-01b

The first cartoon titled Donald Duck stuck on Christmas is a holiday classic. Huey, Dewey and Louie wake up on Christmas morning and act like little dirt bags throughout the day, they open their presents before the family arrive, they go outside on their new sleds without reading the card from Uncle Donald and Aunt Daisy and when the family sings Christmas carols they play with their toys instead, later on that night the boys wish upon a star that it could be Christmas every day, their wish is granted and a massive time loop begins where they are repeating the same Christmas over and over again until they eventually learn to stop being so selfish.

ece96899-534b-4f88-84b9-a63566804196

A Very Goofy Christmas is the next cartoon to be shown and whats particularly cool about this one is that its actually a cartoon which takes place in the Goof Troop universe but the catch is that Goofy’s son Max is still a young child here so its actually a prequel to Goof Troops first episode, in the cartoon Goofy and Max are having relationship problems after their neighbor Pete tells Max that Santa doesn’t exist and its up to Goofy to prove to his Son that Santa is real, but Max is so torn up about what Pete told him that he manages to convince Goofy that Santa being real is an impossibility which leads Goofy down a path of pretty major depression and its up to Max to cheer his Dad up, about mid way through the cartoon Goofy makes Christmas dinner for a poor family who could never afford to do it themselves so this segment actually has two messages the first is to always respect and be charitable to those less fortunate than yourself and the other is to quite simply not be a complete arse by telling an eight year old that Santa doesn’t exist, honestly I don’t why Goofy didn’t just pelt Pete in the nose.

mickys_gift_of_the_magi

The final segment Mickey and Minnie’s Gift of the Magi is based on the classic short story by William Sydney Porter where a couple go to extreme lengths to get Christmas gifts for each other and both of them even go as far as selling their prized possessions just so they can afford the perfect gift, this cartoon follows that same idea and also has a very similar ending, this may sound like the most boring cartoon out of the three of them but to be honest its probably the best one, its short, simple and it has the most Christmas themed message of them all which is that the greatest gift you can give on Christmas is yourself and you can give that by simply spending time with your family and loved ones.

So is Mickeys Once Upon a Christmas the greatest Christmas movie to be based on classic Disney characters? no its not even close but its still pretty good,  I can’t consider any of the cartoons to be bad but at the same time apart from the last one the first two are not great but they are still entertaining and with voice talents such as Jim Cummings and Bill Farmer involved its definitely worth a watch, even Kelsey Grammer is in this movie voicing the narrator and that in itself makes it worth your time to sit by the fireplace and watch these silly but wonderful Disney cartoons.

Thanks for reading

you can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

Rayman Origins (2011) (PS3,360,Wii,Vita,3DS,PC) Review

ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

2530004-the_wacky_world_of_rayman_origins_by_cuddlesnowy-d4oli36It had been 11 years since a proper Rayman game had been released and for the longest time fans of the series accepted that Rayman was essentially dead and we just had to accept that those bloody Rabbids had taken over, but in November of 2011 we were all surprised and shocked when a new Rayman title hit retail store shelves.

maxresdefault

Rayman and his friends are chilling out and having a nap at the Snoring Tree, however they are snoring so loudly that they disturb the living corpse of an old woman in the Underworld which in this game is called the Land of the Livid Dead, in retaliation the old woman sends an army of nasty creatures to Raymans world, these creatures capture all of the Electoons and trap Betilla the Nymph (Not a fairy yet) and her sisters, of course Rayman manages to escape and its up to him to rescue all of the Nymphs and the Electoons so he can get back to his nap.

6936403695_fbcac3330f_bI was very pleased when I found out that Rayman was going back to being a 2D platformer because we haven’t one of those on a home console since the original and that came out in 1995, however the gameplay does differ from the original game and in Rayman Origins case that is a good thing, first of all you do not need to collect all of the Electoons in the game to face the final boss however there is another collectible in the game called Ruby Teeth and if you manage to find all 10 you will gain access to the Land of the Livid Dead which contains a bunch of secret levels and a secret boss, the game has 10 main worlds and each contain a bunch of levels and half of the worlds contain a boss fight, the majority of the levels consist of fast paced platforming where your goal is get from point A to point B as fast as you can while hunting for Electoons along the way.

rayman-origins-2012-03-27-11-39-18-87

Some stages bring back our Mosquito friend from previous installments and he helps carry Rayman through side-scrolling, shooting segments, there are a lot more of these here than there were in the original game but they are a little bit easier which I think was a nice touch because lets be honest in the original Rayman they were much too difficult.

672667-rayman-origins-windows-screenshot-chasing-the-treasure-chestIn order to collect those Ruby Teeth I mentioned earlier you will need to complete a treasure chase stage and I hope your good at platformers because these are really tough to beat, you will need to sprint,jump and swim your way through all of these levels, they are side-scrollers that scroll really fast and you will need really quick reactions in order to survive each one, they last around 2-3 minutes long and if you die you go back to the start of the level every time.

You can play the game as multiple characters but honestly I didn’t find that any of them appealed more to myself than Rayman and a lot of the unlockable characters are just re- skins, these characters are not just for one person though as the game can be played with up to four players which is really cool and is a first for a Rayman Campaign.

 

This game without a doubt has the best soundtrack to any Rayman game I have yet to play, the music is upbeat and fun so it always keeps you wanting to carry on playing, every track has its own personality and the composers have used different instruments in every track to help shape its uniqueness and general quality, I have linked the entire soundtrack above so please feel free to check it out and I promise you wont regret it.

ubisoft_rayman_origins_09Rayman has had a re-design and I know a lot of people really like it but personally I do prefer how he looked in the first game however the world around him I really enjoyed looking at, the artistic detail is outstanding and the team behind the visuals need a reward for how fantastic this game looks, it honestly feels like you playing though a cartoon and with the games sense of humor and smooth gameplay it only goes to show how great a proper Rayman animated series could be, and yes I am aware that there was one in the past but like many people I don’t like to talk about it but maybe I will write a review of it at some point to show you just how insulting it actually was.

Rayman Origins is a great game which is to be expected with all of the praise it received upon its release, I had a blast playing through this game and I think anyone else would as well even if this is your introduction to the series, its not quite as difficult as the first Rayman game but it is still very challenging and is a promising renewal of the Rayman series, the only thing stopping this getting full marks is that the unlockable characters were not very special considering that they are your reward for beating all of the challenges including time trials and collecting all of the Golden Toons.

9.7/10

and yes a Rayman 3 review will be coming at some point

I hope you enjoyed this review of Rayman Origins

 

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

you can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

The Witch (2015) Review

ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

The horror movie critics loved but was hated by everyone else

mv5bmty4mtu2njmynv5bml5banbnxkftztgwmzuwmdk4nze-_v1_uy1200_cr9006301200_al_

The Witch was a movie that got me really pumped after I saw the trailer, I absolutely love dark history from Jack the ripper to the great western railway murders and I honestly cant get enough of it, but if there is any one particular part of history that fascinates me the most it has to be anytime between the 1400’s and the 1600’s, the time between these three decades was when the biggest threat in existence was that of a witch.

lets_get_hysterical_the_witch_1050_591_81_s_c1

Witchcraft was believed to be the work of the Devil and anyone who was believed to  be a witch would have been put on trial in a court where they must prove their innocence in order to avoid execution, a very famous court case was the Salem Witch Trials.

sc33_dinner-finished_1020-0-0

The Film (The Witch) takes place in the 1630’s, the story is about a religious family who  have to deal with a barrage of bad luck and unusual circumstances after their youngest child mysteriously goes missing, from reading the title of the movie it is obvious that the cause of these issues is obviously some type of witchcraft, the main premise may sound like your average horror movie involving evil witches but you may be surprised to learn that the film actually has a very slow pace and most of the time you are seeing the family deal with emotional and financial problems a lot more than watching them meet a grizzly fate, a lot of the hate is caused by the slow pacing of the movie but I believe that most people dislike the film due to the directors choice for the dialogue, the movie uses English words and phrases taken directly from the King James Bible which is how people used to speak back in the day, unless you have studied the old English language and at least have a basic understanding of its translation and meaning then you will most likely pull your hair out trying to understand what people are saying in this film, for example here is some dialogue I took from IMDB.

William: [before the court] What went we out into this wilderness to find? Leaving our country, kindred, our fathers houses? We have travailed a vast ocean. For what? For what?

Governor: We must ask thee to be silent!

William: Was it not for the pure and faithful dispensation of the Gospels, and the Kingdom of God?

Old Slater: No More! We are *your* judges, and not you ours!

William: I cannot be judged by false Christians, for I have done nothing, save preach Christ’s true Gospel.

Governor: Must you continue to dishonor the laws of the commonwealth and the church with your prideful conceit?

William: If my conscience sees it fit.

Governor: Then shall you be banished out of this plantations liberties!

William: I would be glad of it.

Governor: Then take your leave, and trouble us no further.

William: How sadly hath The Lord testified against you.

Do you see what I mean?

I personally loved the film but I have studied the history of the English Language and I do prefer more slow paced horror films over the more traditional and in your face style we usually get these days, critics adored this movie because of how historically accurate it was, the film even got the Witchcraft elements accurate for the most part, this is traditional Witchcraft more than it is Harry Potter Witchcraft, regardless of the mixed reviews this film received I think everyone should at least give it a go.

I hope you enjoyed this Review of The Witch

BTW if you want to learn more about traditional Witchcraft may I recommend this documentary about the Pendle Witch Child, its really interesting and is one of my all time favorite documentaries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yv-JDUfADiw

you can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

 

Book Review: Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

peter-pan-jm-barrie-2

Peter Pan was originally written by Scottish Author J.M Barrie and it was published in 1911.

j-_m-_barrie_in_1902

(BTW he had a fabulous mustache)

The story follows the adventures of the Darling children including the eldest Wendy, John who was the middle child and Micheal the youngest, Wendy would always read stories to her younger brothers about fairy tales and adventures, the most popular of these stories being the adventures of a young boy who never grows up called Peter Pan.

935ca3c047d67c7bb00c42d648520833

One cold and starry night a young boy breaks into the nursery looking for his shadow and when Wendy helps him find it, he teaches the children how to fly and he takes them all away to a magical world beyond the stars called Neverland.

(There will be a few spoilers beyond this point, but not enough to ruin the book)

The General plot summary you have just read may sound very familiar but let me assure you that the original novel of Peter Pan is very different to a lot of the modern stage plays and movies, for one thing the book is rather dark and at times gruesome, a fair few children get murdered in the book and there are a few adult themes discussed including faeries having group sex and Peter Pan himself being more “Sinister” than more modern audiences may know him to be, so please keep this in mind if you are planning to read the original unabridged version of the book to young children.

I own the unabridged version and it is filled with loads of old fashioned English words and spellings which some people may find hard to understand and if this is the case I recommenced a more modern re-print of the book but please keep in mind that modified versions will be modified for new younger audiences so some of the adult stuff I mentioned above will most likely be removed, even with all of the old fashioned English the book is still described well enough for the reader to understand fairly well what is going on and it is still very simple to read the text and visualize the story the book is telling.

The book is 230 pages long and it may take only 2-3 days to read for most people, for me this is great because just like my video games I prefer my books to be short as it means that I can read them over and over again many times throughout the year, but I can understand why some people wouldn’t want to pay a bookstore price for such a short story.

Peter Pan is an amazing story about Pirates, Mermaids, Faeries, and lost children who dress in animal skins and hunt Native Indians, honestly there is something here for everyone, its one of most iconic stories ever written and it has inspired so many people to begin a journey into the world of art including myself, Peter Pan is nothing more than a masterpiece of British Literature and it will always stand the test of time.

I hope you enjoyed this Book Review of Peter Pan by J.M Barrie

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

you can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com

Sorry for the gap in reviews guys, I have been super busy working on another project but I promise I will try to get more reviews out soon, anyway I will see you in October for a month of spooky reviews.

Also I am taking requests this month so if there are any games, books or films you would like reviewed for Halloween please email me and I will place all requests in a random generator and I will be reviewing what ever gets selected so please send me any requests you can think of.

 

Assassins Creed (2007) PS3/360/PC Review

ragglefragglereviewsLeave a comment

Assassin's_Creed_cover

The Assassins Creed games have come along way since its debut in 2007, over the past eight years several games have been released which have mostly had a very good reception minus one or two entries but its the original game that doesn’t get quite as much love and today we are going to talk about why that is.

desmond-and-lucy-stand-next-to-the-animus

The plot is that a bartender called Desmond Miles has been made a prisoner to a top secret industry called Abstergo, he is being monitored by two scientists who force him to lie down inside of a machine called the Animus, the Animus allows Desmond to relive the memories of his ancestors each game follows the adventures of a different Assassin from Desmond’s past and in this games case that Assassin is Altair.

Altair_Impaling_Templar

Altair’s time takes place in the year 1191 during the third crusade, Altair is a member of a group of assassins called the creed, the creed assassinates dictators, templar’s, murders, rapists and genuinely bad people in order to try and keep peace and safety within the land, during a mission to find the apple of Eden Altair breaks the creeds code by killing an innocent person and trying to assassinate a target with brutality over stealth, Altair’s mistakes causes the death of one the other assassins and it appears that they lose the apple of Eden as well, his master is told of the creeds failure and he punishes Altair by stripping him of his rank and by confiscating all of his weapons, he tells Altair that if he wants to restore his status within the creed he will have to assassinate nine templar’s who are notorious for their evil deeds, Altair leaves to find information on all of his targets preparing for their assassinations.

Assassins creed gameplay

Through out the game you will be swapping between playing as Altair and Desmond Miles, when playing as Desmond you will walk around the Abstergo  building in which he is being kept prisoner and here you will slowly learn more about the Animus and why Desmond is so important to the company, playing as Altair is where it’s at though as this is where you get the best game play experience, as Altair it’s your job to take out nine assassination targets, you will need to travel between three major cities Acre, Damascus and Jerusalem, in these cities you will get a chance to experience a lot of the free running aspects of the game, the assassins have been trained to run really fast and are able to climb almost anything, they are essentially like monkeys.

Climbing

Climbing buildings is not only really cool but its also extremely useful, you may often find your self having to climb buildings if you are being chased by a lot of guards or if you are in need of unlocking a view point, a view point will help you find secret missions that you can complete while you are hunting for your main assassination targets, these missions can be anything from eves dropping, pick pocketing, assassinating archers or templar’s, beating up a prophet to gain information etc.

Fighting

Even though the object of the game is to be sneaky and to get on with your business without drawing attention to yourself their is bound to be time when you make a small mistake that could cost you your life and in these situations you may decide that instead of running from the guards to hide in a bale of hay or on a rooftop you will instead fight your honor and like any professional Altair is prepared for this situation, through out the game you will be awarded an arsenal of weapons  appropriate to the time period, Altair can fight his enemies in a traditional sword fighting style which he can use to successfully kill the guards with sword attacks and combo moves, he can use throwing knives to take out enemies from a distance, he can forget using weapons completely in the case that he’s the mood for a fist fight but by far the best weapon in the entire game is the hidden blade, the hidden blade is a small knife that is hidden underneath Altair sleeve and as he bends his wrist back the blade will erect from its hiding place, this is the best weapon for assassinations and my personal opinion is that you should only ever use it when the guards are not aware of your presence.

beggars

The visuals of Assassins Creed are absolutely outstanding for a game that came out in 2007, the amount of detail that the game designers put into the game with effects such as shadows, light and clothes blowing in the wind, all of these things were mind blowing at the time and they really help give the game a more realistic feel, even the smaller details are quite impressive, a lot of people praise the game for its use of background characters, when you are walking around the cities the people around you are very intelligent, they will have have conversations together, they will shop at stalls and they will even notice you and may comment on your actions for example if you are running through the street with no reason the peasants will talk to each other about that and will try to figure out why you acting so strangely, another great detail is the use of beggars, drunks and crazy people, you will often find beggars getting up in your face asking you for money and far too often will you get punched by the local drunks and village idiots, these are a great edition to the game although I feel that they could have been implemented better and maybe not of been used as much as they were, I found them to be an issue during a lot of my stealth missions, I would often be following someone and then a drunk would punch me causing me bump into my target making them realize who I am and causing me to fail, also when I was trying to assassinate templar’s and guards sometimes beggars would get in the way of hidden blade causing me to kill them and the problem with this is that not only does it make a wanted murderer but I also lose health because I killed an innocent.

There really isn’t a lot of music in this game or at least there isn’t that many tracks that I thoroughly enjoyed or even remember, I don’t find this to be an issue because I don’t believe that music is even needed in a game like this, it was still fun and the lack of constant musical tracks only helped make the game feel more real and that’s something that I really love about Assassins Creed.

The game controls fairly well, the button combinations are easy to learn although if you play on a PC like I did you may want to change some of the controls to fit your playing style, the only time ever had a problem with the controls was when I was running from guards and trying to climb ladders, I cant tell you the amount of times I told Altair to climb a ladder and he instead ran into a wall causing me to get caught and a lot of the time killed but apart from this small issue the game controls almost perfectly.

The original Assassins Creed was a revolutionary game that would pave the way not only for more games in the series but it went to inspire other game series as well such as the new tomb raider remakes which are fantastic games, although it is revolutionary I don’t think many people would disagree when I say that it has aged a bit and compared to what the series is now its not quite as good as some of it’s sequels but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good game because it is, it’s just not as interesting as some of the other Assassins Creed games but its still legendary and it will always be one of the most revolutionary games in history. 6.9/10

I hope you enjoyed this review of Assassins Creed 2007

Most of these images I got from a you-tuber called Game Arrow please check him out

https://www.youtube.com/user/GameArrow

If you respect my opinion, I will respect yours

you can contact me at ragglefragglereviews@gmail.com