If you’re expecting an action film that you can enjoy while mindlessly munching some popcorn, think again. You’ll want to pay attention to what happens throughout, since the plot is very thick in this one. It’s refreshing to see a Hollywood thriller (with British roots, but still) that’s so heavy on plot, but sometimes it feels as if they’ve crammed a bit too much into 2 hours. That’s not altogether surprising, since the series it was based on is thrice as long. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I feel I’ve missed during the first viewing.

The story itself is decent enough, but it sets itself up for a much more epic ending, ultimately letting its viewers down. It’s a story of corporate conspiracy (also refreshing: a Hollywood film that, at least cursorily, criticizes corporate America) and a heroic reporter getting to the bottom of it all. Again, it’s refreshing to see how Russell Crowe’s character is cast as a star reporter in every sense of the word. Journalists as good guys, yay! Although… in this film it’s taken to ridiculous extremes. Everyone knows this journalist, and everyone seems to like or at least respect him. He’s not a star reporter, but a rock star reporter. Not very realistic, but then this is film. And films aren’t always realistic.

Not that that’s bad, of course. During the first hour (and a half) or so, State of Play looks to offer a delicious plot, full of intrigue and a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top. Unfortunately though, the ending then decides to be totally realistic. There’s no conspiracy after all. How sad. It seems that for those grandiose, over the top plots, you’re better off watching an episode of Spooks. This is not where it’s at.

Still, it’s a decent enough movie, even if at times it suffers from that typical teal and orange look. Worth a watch if you’re tired of standard Hollywood fare and are looking for something slightly more intellectual. Though it wouldn’t surprise me if you’d be better off watching the BBC series it was based on instead.

7.5/10

If you’re reading this review, you’re probably already familiar with the general premise of the Puzzle Agent series: you play as secret agent Nelson Tethers, solving puzzles to advance the story and eventually uncover a mystery. You’ll find that that’s not the only thing to have stayed the same, however. Like the first instalment, Puzzle Agent 2 takes place inScoggins,Minnesota. That means you’ll encounter mostly the same characters and places, which more than once will give you a feeling of déjà vu.

But perhaps we should focus on the puzzles, since those are the meat of the game, right? Well, not really. All the while I had a feeling of watching a story unfold, with puzzles sprinkled in here and there. For a game that’s supposed to be all about puzzles, I had hoped for more puzzle-solving and less yapping.

But there are still a fair few puzzles, and you just want to know if they’re any good. Well, it’s a mixed bag. Some puzzles – notably those based on tried-and-true puzzle concepts – are hits, others are misses. This is mainly due to Telltale wanting to ‘theme’ the puzzles in order to make them fit into the story. However, at times this means they have compromised solid puzzle design in order to make it fit in with the theme.

Even more serious is the lack of clarity in some of the puzzles. At times I felt like I hadn’t a clue what to do to solve a puzzle. Sometimes it took several times of rereading the instructions (which could have been easily fixed with better proofreading), sometimes even after that I was still scratching my head. Other puzzles on the other hand were way too easy, and the difficult ones owed their difficulty mainly to lack of clarity.

All in all, I feel that it would have been better if Telltale had remained more faithful to ‘old’ puzzle concepts (arranging matchsticks and coins, things like that). They took a brave choice, but then, discretion is the better part of valour. Also, the story-to-puzzle ratio is way too high. When I’m a puzzle agent working for the FBI, I just want to solve puzzles, dammit!

6.5/10

Story:

The film opens with the same shot of a small island opposite Hogwarts seen at the end of Deathly Hallows: Part 1, and quickly shows several shots of Voldemort seizing the powerful Elder Wand from the late Albus Dumbledore’s tomb. We then hear the haunting music known as “Lily’s theme” on the soundtrack playing as a silver, slightly dirty Warner Bros. logo comes towards us. The opening then plays out as we see now headmaster of Hogwarts Severus Snape perched on a tower watching over a group of regimented Hogwarts students out in the courtyard. The film quickly turns to where the previous film left the famous trio Harry, Ron and Hermione on the beach of Shell Cottage. It soon becomes clear that they must use the help of a Goblin named Griphook to break into Gringotts bank and steal yet another Horcrux (objects with pieces of Voldemort’s soul in them). This mission soon becomes fraught with danger and leads the trio to yet another task; they need to get into Hogwarts to find another Horcrux. The film’s pace becomes very brisk by this stage with fighting going on everywhere, until a very pivotal moment concerning Snape and his true allegiance. It is clear by this stage what Harry must do, and with it comes the ultimate sacrifice.

Music:

The music has a haunting quality to it, very slow and quite sad at times. It really brings a lot of life to the film, and perfectly fits the tone of the movie. The battle sounds are actually toned down to allow for the music to be more audible, which I quite like, as it helps sell the emotional value of the film.

Book to film changes:

The film stays very true to the book; every scene from the book is present, and all questions are answered, from the mystery of the two-way mirror to Snape’s true allegiance. There are however some quite significant changes. Here are a few that I have noticed (again, spoilers, you’ve been warned):

• The location for Snape’s Demise is changed from the Shrieking Shack to a Boathouse never seen before in the films
• When Griphook is killed by Voldemort the sword of Gryffindor dissolves from his hands, thus creating a better logic for Nevill to obtain the sword later in the film
• When asked by Harry about the Deathly Hallows, Ollivander has quite a good idea about what they are, rather than not having  a clue in the book
• We get to see Ron and Hermione in the chamber of secrets to destroy a horcrux, and a giant tidal waves almost drowns them, after which the two share a relatively long, passionate kiss, although Ron’s head does block most of it, and is followed by a giggle from both characters
• Harry does not repair his old wand with the Elder Wand, instead he simply keeps Draco’s old wand, snaps the Elder wand in half and throws it off a cliff
• The Harry/Voldemort final battle is extended so it has a more epic feel than the books casual talk in the Great Hall. This part of the film was incredible, and featured a lot of back-and-forth spells flying everywhere and even a moment where both characters’ faces mould into one.

Overall:

The film was an incredible roller-coaster ride that I think every Harry Potter fan will love. It is the perfect end to a great series and the Epilogue at the end was a nice thing to see, although the main focus was only on one discussion between two characters. There are quite a few funny moments in the film to break up the dramatic parts, but it doesn’t detract from the overall presentation, in fact it gave the film more entertainment value, in my opinion. I rate this film a 9/10.

Another thing I won’t be taking away is the bland colour palette, or rather, the typical AAA video game palette. You know the drill: lots of browns, desaturated colours, a complete and utter absence of primary colours, to the point of being unnatural.

Nor will I remember the great story (for it isn’t that great), the music (which admittedly is pretty good but mostly rehashed from the previous films), or even Jack Sparrow, who is his usual funny self, but again it’s just more of the same. Yes, there are the typical slapstick situations and witticisms, but the slapstick humour doesn’t come out so well in the high-budget photography, and the witticisms are often rather predictable and not that witty.

What I will remember is the scene with the mermaids, particularly the one where they were introduced. At that moment, I felt the picture might still redeem itself. Sure, these mermaids looked like your typical anorexic fashion model, but there was a certain beauty there, a shroud of mystery. The missionary character showed great promise too, but unfortunately he turned out to be rather flat and ultimately unrealistically easily swayed by worldly desires. Speaking of which, he turned out to be as flat as the religious undertones, and the rather more heavy moral overtones.

In fact, the film’s depiction of morality is its one redeeming feature, and what prevents me from slapping an altogether condemning score on the film. The missionary/mermaid subplot as well as Blackbeard’s malicious nature with a hint of moral awareness now and then, and the scene where the Spaniards arrive on stage not to annex but rather destroy the Fountain of Youth in the name of religion, give the film some much-needed moral meat. Sadly though, the film doesn’t keep this up all the time, and most of the time the pirate mores of ‘anything goes’ prevail, completely confusing any moral compass the characters depicted might have.

All in all, you’d have to be a pretty die-hard Pirates of the Caribbean fan to enjoy this. I thought I was a fan myself, and maybe I was, but Disney’s credit is running out fast. If they don’t get their act together, I’d rather they didn’t make any new Pirates films. Because should the next one be worse than this, the franchise is as good as dead, and no amount of aqua de vida will be able to save it.

6/10

Wow. Wow. Wow. I’ve had my DS Lite for about 5 years now, and when the DSi and DSi LL were announced I barely batted an eyelash. But this, the Nintendo 3DS… I knew I had to get this from the moment I heard about it. So I got one yesterday.

I will now transcribe my thought process as I bought and opened my new toy;

Dum dee dum, off to EB Games!
I sure hope there are still some 3DSs left!
Yes, I got the last one in stock!

I’d better be careful not to smudge this incredibly shiny surfac- …crap.
So, I have to charge it first? Alright…

CHARGE!

Let’s turn this thing on!
Hang on, do I want to start in 2D and work up to 3D, or start in 3D and work back to 2D (for comparison’s sake)?
Oh, the 3DS does that decision for me. Phew.

…

WOAH 3D WHAT THE HELL HOW IS THIS HAPPENING BEST THING EVER

…Yeah. Don’t take much from that. Basically its awesome.

So, let’s review!

I’ve been a Nintendo fan pretty much all my life, I grew up with a Game Boy in my pocket and a Nintendo 64 at home, and as the years went by I would progress to a Game Boy Color, a GBA, GBA SP, Nintendo DS, DS Lite; and from a Nintendo 64 to a Wii. We skipped the GameCube in my house, but thank god the Wii plays GameCube games!

In fact, the only other time I’ve ever truly played a console from another developer was the old XBox that we got in 2002. And that was fun too, but I still preferred our 64.

So with that in mind, going in to get a 3DS was an exciting moment for me, and let me just say that my excitement was not unfounded.

My Nintendo 3DS is amazing.

The 3D works so well, its just incredible. At times it does become a bit much, but a lot of the time its just amazing.

The camera is something special, being able to take 3D pictures of your surroundings is a completely new experience and very interesting.

The built in applications are alright, but there isn’t much variety in the Face Raiders game.

The AR Cards are pretty special.

And the Circle Pad, oh, its spectacular.

Really, the 3DS is just brilliant.

Of course, there are some problems, namely being the absence of promised features until the end of May through a system update, including the Web Browser and the eShop.

All things aside though, the Nintendo 3DS is a completely unique approach to a handheld console and I recommend anyone with a DSi to trade it in for a 3DS.

10/10

Pilotwings Resort is one of the few Nintendo 3DS games that gamers can get their hands on at the moment, and until The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or MarioKart 3DS are out it will probably be one of the few games worth getting. The current selection is in all honesty pathetic, and while more titles are bound to be released later in the year I really wish Nintendo had chosen a few better games for the release. But, anyway, when I went and bought my Nintendo 3DS yesterday (which I talk about in another review), Pilotwings Resort was my game to get. So let’s see how it rates…

Actually, before I get into my review of the game I’d just like to outline the ratings system I’ll be using for 3DS games, as I’ll be getting a few of them in the coming months and they are really in a whole different world to regular games.
My 3DS reviews will be all about critiquing the game of choice from 5 different angles;

1. Gameplay
2. Use of 3D Effect
3. Amount of Fun
4. Lasting Appeal
5. Overall Positives and Negatives

And now we return to your regularly scheduled review, already in progress…

The gameplay of Pilotwings Resort is all about flying various types of aircraft over, around and through Wuhu Island, the centrepiece for 2009′s Wii Sports Resort. To begin with there are 3 different types of aircraft to fly; a plane, a jetpack and a hang glider; and each has a different control scheme. This is good because it means that with each different aircraft you don’t follow the same monotonous pattern of the previous control method, and as such you are always alert (as if the 3D screen didn’t keep you alert enough) and actually challenged.

The game consists of two modes, Mission Mode and Free Flight Mode, and each of these have their benefits and downfalls.

In Mission Mode, it is the player’s task to successfully complete the missions set with the aircraft assigned, and while these missions are very varied and quite intuitive, there just aren’t enough. Seriously, I’ve had the game for little over a day and I’ve finished the missions. That said it is still very fun and the additional challenge of attaining 3 stars for every mission is something to keep you entertained for some time.

Free Flight Mode is very similar to Wii Sports Resort’s “Island Flyover” “sport”, wherin one flys around Wuhu collecting “i” points. One major difference, however, is the dramatically shortened playtime. To begin with you are allotted 2 minutes, which is barely enough time to properly explore. However it’s still fun and I suppose you can play as many times as you want, so thats not so bad… There is also the fact the the “i” points are scattered far and wide, and I still haven’t found them all/

To back all of the gameplay up there is, of course, the 3D that the 3DS is so proud of. So how is it used in Pilotwings Resort?…

Well, I can say that the 3D is certainly immersive, and well used. No matter what setting the slider is at (besides 2D) there is a sense of depth that really adds to the game. Sometimes your eyes will get tired though, and at those points the 2D imagery is a great relief.

The 3D effect also helps to accentuate the graphical capabilities of the 3DS, that being great graphics in 3D, particularly for a handheld.

Of course none of this matters unless the game is fun, and on that note it is my pleasure to say that I have had lots of fun playing Pilotwings Resort, and I still am, thanks to its universal appeal and great graphics, coupled with the 3D novelty (or is it a novelty anymore?) and as a matter of fact once I’m done here tonight I’m going to neglect Portal 2 Co-op and pick up Pilotwings Resort. Because it’s THAT fun.

What sort of lasting appeal does Pilotwings Resort have? Well…

Honestly, only a bit. Sure, it’s a great game while there’s still stuff to do, but once you’ve got 3 stars for everything and collected every “i” point, you’ll probably only pick it up every now and then when you’re bored and want a great, quick 3D fun-run in a turbo jet.

So, overall, Pilotwings Resort has some great missions, a fun Free Mode, and is pretty darn fun.

However, it also lacks content, and after completing the game will probably get put in that fancy case you totally bought with your 3DS and left there for some time while you play Zelda or Mario.

And considering everything, I’m going to give Pilotwings Resort a total rating of…

8/10

Well, the game is brilliant, let me just say that. Congratulations, Straandlooper for making a crude and hilarious adventure game. I’m not even going to bother reviewing the gameplay elements, because as a game Hector: Badge of Carnage – We Negotiate With Terrorists receives a full score from me.

10/10

Rather, I’d like to focus on how Telltale has ported this game to the PC. Or, to be more correct, how Telltale have taken the iPhone game and enlarged it so it can fit fullscreen.

Adjusting your resolution won’t do you any good here, as the game is pretty much just the iPhone’s resolution stretched up to fit the screen. If you run it in 1920×1080, there are two hideous black bars to the sides of the game. It was so horrible I couldn’t bring myself to play it, and decided to have fun with my iPod version instead.

My advice is to only get this game if you don’t have an iDevice handy, because its absolutely horrible on a computer. If you have an iPhone/iPod touch/iPad, go to the App Store and buy it there. If you don’t, I feel sorry for you, and you can buy it here. Poor form, Telltale…

The port earns itself…

3/10

Portal 2 is an amazing game. That’s all I should have to say. Of course I’m going to go into more detail. But that’s the rough idea.

I’d like to talk about the plot to start with. This game has a much more outlined plot than the original Portal, and its most definitely full of twists and turns, which I’d love to spoil for you all because they’re brilliant; but I won’t. But it takes the player on a very structured yet spacey tour of Aperture Science through which the plot progresses. And this is great, a good game should have a good plot and story, and this plotline is fantastic.

Furthermore, the dialogue and characters in Portal 2 is amazing. You start off with good old Wheatley, who helps you through the start and up to GLaDOS’ resting place, followed by several levels with GLaDOS speaking before everything goes absolutely insane and you’re trekking through the old Science Spheres with Cave Johnson as the narrator; and after that I don’t know because I still haven’t finished it. I’m not the greatest gamer, I’m probably only about 40% through judging by my achievements. The dialogue is funny as hell, though, which is just what I was expecting, but with so many different personalities there is so much more variety than just the maniacal sociopathic Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System.

I must say that the levels are well thought out and very fun, and the new elements such as the hard light bridge and the various gels add much needed variety to the challenges. However, the free-roaming aspects of the game wherein one progresses from level to level in the latter areas of the game are very challenging, and I’m currently finding it really difficult to progress. But its a good kind of difficulty, because I’ll keep looking for new ways to solve the challenge, rather than if I was just trying to beat the same boss yet I just sucked; which would be the bad kind of difficulty. Does that make sense?

Also, its good to see that the Potato Sack ARG made sense to the plot; so far potatoes have been kind of significant and its a good joke.

Now, co-operative mode! This is fun!

Playing with a friend is brilliant, you can tell them where to put portals and help each other and its just great, so there’s nothing wrong there. Its just great. Great, great, great, great, great great. great.

Online match-up is a bit different. I don’t really want to use a microphone for random play so I have to resort to typing which is annoying at the best of times. Not knowing the other player means also not knowing whether they are any good or not, so often it can be challenging to judge who does what.

I suppose I’ll move on to my rating now…

As I said before, Portal 2 is a brilliant game. It’s clever, funny, intuitive, challenging, co-operative and FUN. Its long enough too. And so, I give Portal 2 a rating of 9.5 out of 10.

Gulden Draak (which is Dutch for Golden Dragon), is a heavy Belgian beer brewed by Van Steenberge. Anyone will tell you that beer from Belgium is the best you can get, and especially these smaller, older breweries tend to produce very pleasant beers. As evidenced by the little story on their site, the name Gulden Draak has quite a bit of history behind it. That’s nice for the marketing people, but we’re more interested in the product itself.

Gulden Draak is really strong at 10.5 % alcohol, and since it features re-fermentation on the bottle, I was expecting quite a bit of foam. Nothing could prepare me for the amount of head rising up when I poured it into a glass though. There will be several inches of foam, so you’ll want to be careful when pouring it. The foam itself is quite sticky, and it has just a hint of sweetness.

That sweetness continues when you get to the actual beer, which has a fruity note. On the site it reads that there are also hints of coffee and chocolate, but I didn’t catch those. In fact after a few swigs I was almost ready to dismiss it as a pretty red-coloured beer, but nothing special when it comes to taste. That’s when the other flavours kicked in.

Most notably, I got a pretty strong aroma of wood, and the latter half of the glass almost tasted like whiskey – that must have been the barley speaking. I can now see why Van Steenberge suggest to substitute the whiskey in Irish Coffee for this. It’s definitely a pleasant beer, and despite its heaviness it goes down very smoothly (so be careful you don’t drink too fast). It comes in a pretty bottle too, which is also nice. All in all, it takes a bit before it gets going, but then it’s worth your while.

And that concludes the first beer review on Cultural Zest! Please let us know what you think. Do you want to see more of these (not too many, mind, I’m not planning on becoming an alcoholic for this), perhaps you even have a specific beer in mind? Also, if you want to write a review of your own (of any cultural product), contact us and we’ll set you up with an account!

* Excluding those who are not old enough to drink alcohol yet. Please be aware we’re not advocating the abuse of alcohol. Beer should be enjoyed sparingly, not drunk to get drunk, and not used by children or pregnant women. Also, please don’t sue us.

However, I did manage to do SOMETHING online for April Fool’s, that being assisting xkcd in converting some of the comics into 3D. I first of all converted comic 46, A.K.A “Secrets”, and that’s up at http://3d.xkcd.com/46/ for all to enjoy! I also just finished off optimizing http://3d.xkcd.com/243/ and that should be up sometime soon!

The non-3D version of “Secrets” is below…

I just thought I’d let you all know, because this is an intuitive and interesting prank that was very fun to work on, and the site http://3d.xkcd.com should stay up for a while, so check it out while you can!