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    Thapster TV

    Thapster TV

    Games and Music

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    An awesome rhythm music game from the creators of the vastly popular Thapster. Watch your favorite...

Detroit: Become Human
Detroit: Become Human
2018 | Action/Adventure
Best story of the year (3 more)
Incredible voice acting
So many different possibilities
Amazing replayability
There were a couple of very slow missions (0 more)
An almost perfect game let down by 1 or 2 slow parts
Wow what a game. I have to say straight away that game of the year this year shouldn't be a thing. There are so many incredible games out this year. Red dead redemption 2 and God of war are incredible games and 1 of them to me will end up being game of the year but if it was based on story alone then this would win easy.

The concept has always intrigued me. The whole idea of there being androids then they develop a consciousness and gaining free will. I can see our world going there and this showed that world perfectly. Throughout the world you can find magazines and I found myself reading these and being in awe at how accurate they are. They all felt they could each be a plot to an episode of black mirror. Everything from there being less babies born because people are having sex with androids more to music concerts not being a thing due to VR. There were a lot of political, racism, slavery and abuse messages throughout the game which felt very relevant.

The gameplay was great. It felt like an interactive movie with quick time events that actually mattered. There was genuine fear for these characters since any could die. There was a certain mission that was extremely slow paced and I got bored a little but luckily that was the only part. I fell in love with the characters and their relationships towards humans and other androids. The choices given to me felt like I was making my own personal story. Acting was incredible and it was graphically beautiful. The expressions were incredible.

The flowchart at the end of each mission a welcome addition. You are able to see all the many paths you could take without seeing what they actually were. You could see the complex mind of David cage behind this chart and it looked incredible. This got me very excited to go back in the future to try out the different paths and see what happens.

This is another incredible exclusive for ps4 and it should not be missed. A beautiful score and complex writing make this a game that leaves you thinking weeks after finishing and I look forward to another playthrough and maybe even another game in this world.
  
    Zoo Craft: Build & Design

    Zoo Craft: Build & Design

    Games and Entertainment

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    New zoo games! Trip to the zoo with kids! Build zoo, care about animals, become a zoo tycoon! Theme...

Kiss Me First
Kiss Me First
2018 | Animation, Drama, Thriller
good story line, interesting characters (0 more)
a bit slow (0 more)
Kiss me first is six part T.V. series form 2018 that is (loosely) based on a book of the same title by Lottie Moggach. Set in the near future the series follows Leila, a young woman living alone in the house she shared with her mother, who had recently died. Leila spends most of her time in the Virtual Reality world of Azana where she goes by the name Shadowfax. Whilst in Azana, Shadowfax meets another play known as Mania who introduces her to a group known as ‘Red Pill’. As Shadowfax begins to spend more time with red pill she starts to realise that events in the game are being mirrored in real life.
As we are introduced to the characters the first couple of episodes’ flip between the real world and the VR world of Azana but, as the series progresses the VR gives way to the real world, pulling you into the madness of the characters and making the games being played even more sinister.
Kiss me first is not a light hearted series and through the red pill members it tackles subjects like depression, suicide & euthanasia as well as the core theme of manipulation which also makes it quite a slow burn.
I said that Kiss Me First was based on a book of the same title and, after watching the series I went off and read the book and found it to be quite different but also the same, let me explain. The book has the main core characters but Red Pill is a chat room and there is no VR or other version of Azana. Shadowfax/Leila only meets/speaks to two of the group (Mania and Adrian) and one of those are dead for most of the novel. Most of the same subjects are still covered in the book but the book seems to have a bigger focus on suicide whereas the T.V. series spends more time on depression. The book also seems to be a search for purpose and the series a search for belonging and friendship and the changes made in the series seem to make the Leila/ Jonty relationship a bit forced and almost irrelevant. If you enjoyed the book the series is worth a shot but expect a lot of changes and a bit more of a techie element.
  
    Riptide GP2

    Riptide GP2

    Games

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    The premier console-quality water-racing game on mobile kicks everything into overdrive, with...

Warcross
Warcross
Marie Lu | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
7
8.3 (17 Ratings)
Book Rating
Decent characters (2 more)
Plot
Pacing
YA formula (2 more)
Predictable
Not enough of the game
YA VR fun
I really enjoyed this book, as VR stories are some of my favorite types and rarely done well. This one was done well enough but suffered the large YA pitfall of there would be no story had people actually communicated with each other.
       The story follows Emika, a scrappy teen living in the slums of (I think New York). As YA books tend to do, she is a normal, poor, orphan girl, who happens to be able to afford to dye her hair rainbow, and oh, I forgot to mention, very good at hacking. The world is fully submerged into the Nuerolink, which are AR/VR glasses almost everyone has, that handle the internet, gaming worlds, infrastructure etc etc. The most popular aspect is a game on the Nuerolink called Warcross, a rather simple Team vs Team capture the flag with power-ups and battling. Football move over, Warcross is where it's at. Because the nuerolink is so ingrained into society, a seedy underbelly of gambling and dark web has cropped up, and Emika makes her pennies as a bounty hunter for people who gamble in Warcross games. On the eve of the Opening of the biggest Warcross Tournament of the year (which takes up like... 6 months of the year...) Emika is being threatened with eviction, failed to get a bounty that would have fixed her situation. So as far as YA tropes go we can check off "ordinary, but special girl of poor circumstances".
     Emika and her roommate, even though they are facing a looming eviction, log into the neurolink to experience the opening day ceremony. This is where Lu really introduces the ability of the nuerolink and where we can underline the "special" aspect of our tropey lead, as she somehow hacks herself into the opening game ceremony, revealing herself to the world. This is probably a good place to point out that hacking in this book is pretty much just Emika saying "I hacked into this thing" and little more than that. She runs a program here and there, that always does what she wants. Honestly as the story progresses I forget that she hacks, but the book doesn't let you forget that she's "super good at it".
   Now fearing more than just eviction, but fearing for her freedom as she just did something very illegal, Emika is surprised when her world is turned upside down and she's spirited away by the Nuerolink creator to Tokyo. The creator being hot boy Hideo, whom she has been just ever so obsessed with since she was a kid, and much to her fantasies, he thinks she is special and needs her hacker expertise to track down someone that's been messing with the code in the game. BUT she needs to do it from within the game. So now she's going to be in the big game of the year as a player, a spy, and a hacker. Somehow juggling the investigation and playing a game professionally that she's the only kind of dabbled in (as far as we know, YA spoiler alert, she's super good at it).
    I know I sound snarky, and like I didn't like the book, but I did. once you just accept the YA formula and that this book will be full of it, you can just lean back an enjoy the ride. Emika finds herself in a deep plot that involves other players, the dark web, and the ghosts of Hideo's past. Of course because YA Hideo is just smitten with Emika from the get go. She's great at the game, everyone acknowledges how special she is, but the big YA factor I struggled with over looking was the utter lack of communication. This whole book could've ended in a few chapters had the characters just communicated with each other. But there was always some kind of personal justification for why they couldn't just talk to each other.
   I found the game world to be well thought out and interesting, just unfortunately it didn't get nearly as much page time as I'd like. I get that the story is about the scheme around the game, and not the game, but Lu introduced her as a player so I wanted more. I wanted more intereaction with her teammates, more development. She never felt like she was part of the group to me, which made it harder to believe in the second book when they all go out of their way to help her. The romance with Hideo was heavy-handed but cute, so I didn't mind it. But I kept finding myself wanting more gameplay. It's called Warcross for goodness sake.
   One thing I have to commend Lu on is that it has a decent number of legitimate twists. Twists that made me actually gasp once or twice. That kept me intrigued and made me read it in a day. But unfortunately, while a fun little romp, the story's reliance on bad communication and YA tropes to advance the plot made the book lack a soul that really could take the story to the next level. I didn't care too much about anyone. I just wanted answers more than anything. But instead, we get a mysterious bad guy being cryptic, even though if he wasn't cryptic we could have avoided a lot and Emika always winning cause she's special. Though most of the information she gets is freely given to her and had nothing to do with her skills as a hacker.
  When my boyfriend asked me if I liked it, I shrugged and said "yea it was fun, can we go get the second book". But I didn't have the overwhelming desire to tell him the plot or anything else as I do with books that truly resonate with me. To be fair when I did attempt to describe it the soap opera YA aspect seemed glaring and he just rolled his eyes.
  Absolutely worth a read, especially if you enjoy this genre. But just don't go in expecting it to be special, it follows the YA formula to a T.
  
Playstation 4
Playstation 4
Games Consoles > Games Consoles
Incredible games (4 more)
Easy to use
Very comfortable controller
Brings in a new audience for affordable vr
Great value
My favourite console of all time?
Yes i know im a bit late reviewing this. This is a system that has been out for over 5 years. But what better time to reciew when a large bulk of games have come out and we have come to see most, if not all, of wha ps4 has to offer.

First off we have to talk about the games. Last of us remastered, uncharted 4, god of war, spiderman, detroit, bloodborne, ratchet and clank, until dawn, horizon zero dawn.......i can keep going and going. The list just cant seem to end. The amount of games on this sysem is astounding, the list of exclusives even more so. There is a game for everyone and they will blow you away. We are nearly the end of its life cycle now and i have to see this has been 1 of my favourife systems, if not THE favourite system and ive been playing since sega master system.

I dont want to speak too much about vr, ill most likely do a seperate review but ps4 managed to bring in an audience like myself into vr at an affordable price. Is it the best vt experience on the market, of course not but at the price they other you can certainly have a lot of fun with it with a bunch of different games. Just being able to offer vr at all makes the ps4 an impressive machine.

The ps4 controller is vastly upgraded since ps3 and feels incredibly comfortable in my hands. The touch pad was a nice touch but i feel very underused. Not many games utilise the touch pad aspect, its mainly just used as a button to open maps in games or in some cases change camera angle.

The ui is slick and simple. Its easy to find specific things and this has been updated over time to make things even easier. The addition of making folders, while small, was a huge help with organising my digital library. There are countless themes on the store which change the icons, text and background of the ui. Some will will even have their own tones and music to give a more relaxing vibe.

The playstation store is so much more improved since ps3. Its no longer an app to be booted into. You just find it to the far left on the main menu and your on the store in seconds. It appears its constanly open which is a huge help. It can be a little difficult to navigate but once you get the hang of it it gets easier. The constant sales and the many categories on the main page in the stores means i am always in here. It can just be a little tough to find the free ps plus games for example.

Ps plus is a must have for this system. Its an expensive subscription at about £50 a year but it is a must have if you want to play online. You do also get free ps4, ps3 and ps vita fames every month but as of March 2019 it will only be ps4. The games can be hit and miss. Amazing 1 month but meh the next or so sometimes they will be games i already own.

There are so many things i can still talk about but i dont want to make this too long so for now ill make a list of any other things and may expand on them in future.

Comes with 500gb or 1tb hard drive but can easily be upgrades
External hard drive support
Fun apps like youtube (now with vr support), media player, bbc iplayer
Ability to share clips, screenshot or stream gameplay
Boost mode and supersampling (ps4 pro only)
Party chat with friends

Overall if your a gamer you need this system. Its amazing and needed for all the incredible exclusives that have come out and yet to be released.
  
Ready Player One (2018)
Ready Player One (2018)
2018 | Sci-Fi
What took me so Long!
I can not belive how long it took me to see this film. I am a huge nerd, and a lover of Easter egs, so this should have been a cinema go for me (ypu remember what cinemas were, don't you?)
A film that takes a very interesting look at a possible future where VR is king. Not going to lie, I would be totally up for this future (-evil corperations, but what are the odds we can get rid of them). It is interesting, since this came out the year before the pandemic, how amazing would it be to meet up with all the people we have not seen in a year, in a virtual cafe, or game together. All we have now is Zoom and Among Us.
I digress, this film had me hooked from the first moment. The characters are compelling, though J suspect they have been "Hollywooded" a little bit, and the story is really good.
You know what I have to do now, don't you?
Read the books. And wouldn't you know it, some very considerate person put them in my Amazon shopping basket....