Search
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Hell’s Bell (Lizzie Grace #2) in Books
Sep 28, 2021
161 of 250
Book
Hells Bell ( Lizzie Grace book 2)
By Keri Arthur
Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments
When the church bell tolls thrice in the middle of the night, evil this way comes…
Lizzie Grace and Belle Kent, her witch familiar, are living and working on the Faelan Werewolf Reservation—one that has banned the use of magic within its borders. Although they have their supporters—including ranger Aiden O’Connor, who once hated all things witch—Lizzie and Belle now face possible eviction.
But the Faelan Reservation is a place filled with wild magic which—when left unprotected—quickly becomes a draw to those who walk the darker paths. As Christmas approaches, a new evil comes to town—one that eats the souls of the living and animates the flesh of the dead.
As the body count grows and the trail of clues leads them to the doorstep of the local vampire, Lizzie, Belle, and Aiden must find the killer before death comes calling on them.
But the biggest threat of all may come in the form of a witch who sees through the veils of Lizzie’s carefully constructed lies and suspects the truth of who she really is…
Hells Bell picks up from Blood Kissed and I have to say this is really becoming one of my favourite series by Keri. I love Lizzie’s and Bellas relationship they bounce of each other so well. The sexual tension is ramped up in this between Lizzie and Aiden which is handled so well! The big bad in this was a soul eater which is just a scary thought full stop! I’m also a little bit in love with our resident vampire!!!
Book
Hells Bell ( Lizzie Grace book 2)
By Keri Arthur
Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments
When the church bell tolls thrice in the middle of the night, evil this way comes…
Lizzie Grace and Belle Kent, her witch familiar, are living and working on the Faelan Werewolf Reservation—one that has banned the use of magic within its borders. Although they have their supporters—including ranger Aiden O’Connor, who once hated all things witch—Lizzie and Belle now face possible eviction.
But the Faelan Reservation is a place filled with wild magic which—when left unprotected—quickly becomes a draw to those who walk the darker paths. As Christmas approaches, a new evil comes to town—one that eats the souls of the living and animates the flesh of the dead.
As the body count grows and the trail of clues leads them to the doorstep of the local vampire, Lizzie, Belle, and Aiden must find the killer before death comes calling on them.
But the biggest threat of all may come in the form of a witch who sees through the veils of Lizzie’s carefully constructed lies and suspects the truth of who she really is…
Hells Bell picks up from Blood Kissed and I have to say this is really becoming one of my favourite series by Keri. I love Lizzie’s and Bellas relationship they bounce of each other so well. The sexual tension is ramped up in this between Lizzie and Aiden which is handled so well! The big bad in this was a soul eater which is just a scary thought full stop! I’m also a little bit in love with our resident vampire!!!
Otway93 (567 KP) rated the PlayStation 3 version of Vanquish in Video Games
Jun 18, 2022
Map and Scenery Design (2 more)
Character Design
Quality of Remaster
Repetitive (4 more)
Short
Range of Weapons
Clichéd Storyline
Range of enemies
Short, clichéd and repetitive.
This one is especially difficult for me because I'm a bit of a superfan of the game's director, the legendary Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil, Dino Crisis etc.).
But this game was probably one of the shortest game's I've ever played, which is a ble ssing in a way as every mission is exactly the same. Each level basically has two objectives, which are:
1. Destroy all enemies.
2. Reach the destination.
That is literally it, absolutely nothing to make you think, just constantly shooting down an incredibly small variety of enemies, with an equally small variety of weapons.
The storyline itself is also very basic. Futuristic, typical Russian antagonist, typical chain-smoking macho protagonist, predictable twists at the end.
But every game does have it's positives. The quality of the PlayStation 4 remaster is outstanding, and feels like a new PS4 game. The design of everything in the game is also excellent, although the characters themselves are pretty run-of-the-mill, their designs are somewhat unique and look great. The same can be said for the design of the the map and scenery.
Overall, a great looking game, that's let down terribly by the gameplay.
Sorry, Shinji, still love you!
But this game was probably one of the shortest game's I've ever played, which is a ble ssing in a way as every mission is exactly the same. Each level basically has two objectives, which are:
1. Destroy all enemies.
2. Reach the destination.
That is literally it, absolutely nothing to make you think, just constantly shooting down an incredibly small variety of enemies, with an equally small variety of weapons.
The storyline itself is also very basic. Futuristic, typical Russian antagonist, typical chain-smoking macho protagonist, predictable twists at the end.
But every game does have it's positives. The quality of the PlayStation 4 remaster is outstanding, and feels like a new PS4 game. The design of everything in the game is also excellent, although the characters themselves are pretty run-of-the-mill, their designs are somewhat unique and look great. The same can be said for the design of the the map and scenery.
Overall, a great looking game, that's let down terribly by the gameplay.
Sorry, Shinji, still love you!
LeftSideCut (3778 KP) rated Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) in Movies
Dec 30, 2020
Just when it seemed that these movies were getting slightly better each time, along comes Afterlife to extinguish whatever tiny flame of hope was still flickering.
Paul W.S. Anderson is back at the helm (joy to the world) it's clear that his main intention is to make Milla Jovovich look as "cool" as possible, quipping at every chance given to her. The opening sequence is sort of entertaining, but the over abundance of signature Anderson misplaced arrogant smugness and shoddy CGI violently soils anything positive.
The main bulk of the film is actually a fairly stripped back affair. It's low on scares as per, but I'm not mad at the more grounded feel to proceedings. Just a group of survivors surrounded by zombies, trying to find a solution to their problems. However, this respectable approach to the narrative is squandered. None of the characters are worth caring about, and the few that are, are given no development, as they go through the motions with the smartass-yet-boring script.
In terms of game connections, Ali Larter is back as Claire Redfield, and Wentworth Miller plays Chris Redfield. Kind of cool, of course, but he honestly could have just been playing a dude with a gun. The fact that he is Chris bears no importance to the film. Wesker is there as well but eh. The Majini infected from Resident Evil 5 are present as is The Executioner from the same game. They visually look pretty decent, and unlike previous films, aren't humanised like Nemesis and Tyrant were, so points for that.
The main issue then is all the action. Apart from the dodgy CGI, the set pieces suffer from a truly horrendous amount of slow motion. Not even exaggerating here, if there was no slow motion, the runtime would have been 20 minutes shorter. It's honestly painful. There's also a lot of gimmicky 3D shit being thrown at the camera which I don't really care for - there's just nothing exciting going on.
I'm not sure where else to mention this so I'll put it here, there's not 1, not 2, but 3 seperate scenes that consist of overhead shots of Alice flying a plane with edgy breakbeat music blaring out over it. (Not being chased or anything, just flying and relaxing) Make of that what you will, but basically, everything I hated about the first Resident Evil is still accounted for 8 years later. It's still poorly imitating The Matrix, 11 years later.
I know that these films have a lot of fans, so maybe I'm missing something and being overly spiteful, but I just find them mind numbingly shit. Maybe something will click for me during the last two, but as it stands, Afterlife is the worst of the bunch.
Paul W.S. Anderson is back at the helm (joy to the world) it's clear that his main intention is to make Milla Jovovich look as "cool" as possible, quipping at every chance given to her. The opening sequence is sort of entertaining, but the over abundance of signature Anderson misplaced arrogant smugness and shoddy CGI violently soils anything positive.
The main bulk of the film is actually a fairly stripped back affair. It's low on scares as per, but I'm not mad at the more grounded feel to proceedings. Just a group of survivors surrounded by zombies, trying to find a solution to their problems. However, this respectable approach to the narrative is squandered. None of the characters are worth caring about, and the few that are, are given no development, as they go through the motions with the smartass-yet-boring script.
In terms of game connections, Ali Larter is back as Claire Redfield, and Wentworth Miller plays Chris Redfield. Kind of cool, of course, but he honestly could have just been playing a dude with a gun. The fact that he is Chris bears no importance to the film. Wesker is there as well but eh. The Majini infected from Resident Evil 5 are present as is The Executioner from the same game. They visually look pretty decent, and unlike previous films, aren't humanised like Nemesis and Tyrant were, so points for that.
The main issue then is all the action. Apart from the dodgy CGI, the set pieces suffer from a truly horrendous amount of slow motion. Not even exaggerating here, if there was no slow motion, the runtime would have been 20 minutes shorter. It's honestly painful. There's also a lot of gimmicky 3D shit being thrown at the camera which I don't really care for - there's just nothing exciting going on.
I'm not sure where else to mention this so I'll put it here, there's not 1, not 2, but 3 seperate scenes that consist of overhead shots of Alice flying a plane with edgy breakbeat music blaring out over it. (Not being chased or anything, just flying and relaxing) Make of that what you will, but basically, everything I hated about the first Resident Evil is still accounted for 8 years later. It's still poorly imitating The Matrix, 11 years later.
I know that these films have a lot of fans, so maybe I'm missing something and being overly spiteful, but I just find them mind numbingly shit. Maybe something will click for me during the last two, but as it stands, Afterlife is the worst of the bunch.
Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of The Evil Within 2 in Video Games
Mar 5, 2018 (Updated Mar 5, 2018)
Gameplay mechanics (2 more)
Horrifically beautiful graphics
A fantastic antagonist
Some odd voice acting (1 more)
Some duff lines of dialogue
A Gruesomely Good Time
Contains spoilers, click to show
I was a fan of the first Evil Within game, which I felt was criminally underrated. However, I must admit I slept on this game. This was due to all of the fantastic games that were released in 2017 that I was trying to catch up on at the time of this game's release.
4 months after the game's initial release, I finally got my hands on it and I loved the time I spent in this insane world.
The Evil Within 2 does what all great sequels should aim to do, which is to take the best concepts and systems from the first game and expand on them, while adding in some fresh concepts and discarding a lot of the excess fat that dragged the first game down.
This game is a much more streamlined action-horror adventure than the first entry and while it starts out with some creepy and uneasy moments, it focuses more on the action element than the horror side of things in comparison with the first game. I do however feel that the game finds a nice equal balance of horror and action, in a way that feels reminiscent of the modern classic, Resident Evil 4. Even though Shinji Mikami didn't direct this game as he did the first entry, this one actually feels more like a traditional Shinji Mikami game.
The villain that torments you for the first third of the game is brilliant, he is engaging, threatening and over the top in all of the best possible ways. The one issue I have with him is, (SPOILERS,) they kill him off far too early and replace him with a more bland, less entertaining villain.
There is also some ropey voice acting present, they changed the actor playing Kidman and the new VO artist isn't as engaging in her performance. The actor playing the protagonist's daughter Lily, is also, quite awkward and stilted sounding. There are also some strange lines of dialogue that don't feel very natural and come across a bit pantomime, but you must remember that this is a Japanese game, written in Japanese and then translated into English. I did experience some technical issues whilst playing through the final third of the game, mostly to do with the use of the radio transmitter and I experienced one slight hiccup with the in-game physics. Unfortunately, although these weren't game-breaking issues, they are still present 4 months after the game's initial release, meaning I am forced to knock a point off of my overall score.
Overall though, this is a damn good time for any horror fan out there. The fact that this game is a great deal easier than the first may bother some hardcore gamers out there, but for me it was fine as I was mostly playing for the story anyway rather than the challenge. The optional first person mode is also a nice addition and adds a cool incentive to play through the New Game Plus.
4 months after the game's initial release, I finally got my hands on it and I loved the time I spent in this insane world.
The Evil Within 2 does what all great sequels should aim to do, which is to take the best concepts and systems from the first game and expand on them, while adding in some fresh concepts and discarding a lot of the excess fat that dragged the first game down.
This game is a much more streamlined action-horror adventure than the first entry and while it starts out with some creepy and uneasy moments, it focuses more on the action element than the horror side of things in comparison with the first game. I do however feel that the game finds a nice equal balance of horror and action, in a way that feels reminiscent of the modern classic, Resident Evil 4. Even though Shinji Mikami didn't direct this game as he did the first entry, this one actually feels more like a traditional Shinji Mikami game.
The villain that torments you for the first third of the game is brilliant, he is engaging, threatening and over the top in all of the best possible ways. The one issue I have with him is, (SPOILERS,) they kill him off far too early and replace him with a more bland, less entertaining villain.
There is also some ropey voice acting present, they changed the actor playing Kidman and the new VO artist isn't as engaging in her performance. The actor playing the protagonist's daughter Lily, is also, quite awkward and stilted sounding. There are also some strange lines of dialogue that don't feel very natural and come across a bit pantomime, but you must remember that this is a Japanese game, written in Japanese and then translated into English. I did experience some technical issues whilst playing through the final third of the game, mostly to do with the use of the radio transmitter and I experienced one slight hiccup with the in-game physics. Unfortunately, although these weren't game-breaking issues, they are still present 4 months after the game's initial release, meaning I am forced to knock a point off of my overall score.
Overall though, this is a damn good time for any horror fan out there. The fact that this game is a great deal easier than the first may bother some hardcore gamers out there, but for me it was fine as I was mostly playing for the story anyway rather than the challenge. The optional first person mode is also a nice addition and adds a cool incentive to play through the New Game Plus.