Doctor Who: The Crawling Terror. Book Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

There is something almost devilish about insects and arachnids that awaken a primeval fear in millions of people around the world. The reader only has to think of the beast Shelob in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy of books to perhaps feel a shiver of disgust, of undiluted terror run smoothly down their spine to know how they feel about spiders, the revulsion at the cockroach, the abhorrence of a plague of wasps and despite marvelling at the ingenuity and might of the humble ant, to see thousands of them milling around you, climbing over you in search of food is enough to send Horror makers grin at the thought of celluloid gold.

Doctor Who: The Crawling Terror. Book Review. full post

(500 words, estimated 2:00 mins reading time)

The Driver, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 5/10

Cast:  David Morrissey, Ian Hart, Colm Meaney, Claudie Blakley, Darren Morfitt, Sacha Parkinson, Lee Ross, Harish Patel, Lewis Rainer, Andrew Tiernan, Chris Coghill, Shaun Dingwall, Andrew Knott, Nathan McMullen, Ciara Baxendale, Leanne Best, Dominic Coleman, Rick Bacon, Emma Bispham, Karl Collins, Alan Rothwell.

 

The British gangster drama, whether on television or in the cinema has never really captured the days of Brighton Rock with Richard Attenborough and William Hartnell or the fantastic The Long Good Friday with the much missed Bob Hoskins    and the excellent Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Since those days of cinematic greats the genre seems to have become too safe, it has waved a white flag in surrender to its American counterpart.

The Driver, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(603 words, estimated 2:25 mins reading time)

Destiny (PS4), Game Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Destiny is a hybrid of an open world first-person shooter and role playing game in an online connected world available from retail stores and for download from the PlayStation Store for the PS4. The new release naturally had a lot of high expectations with it being a partnership between the publisher Activision who own the behemoth first-person shooter franchise Call of Duty and developed by Bungie who was responsible for the success of Halo. However, can Destiny live up to such a high level of anticipation from all of the publicity it has generated over the last year and a half since the big reveal on February 17th 2013 via the video documentary titled Pathways Out of Darkness: A Destiny ViDoc and at the reveal of the PlayStation 4 at PlayStation Meeting on February 20th 2013 which has resulted in it becoming the most pre-ordered new franchise to date in the history of videogames?

Destiny (PS4), Game Review. full post

(5207 words, estimated 20:50 mins reading time)

Robbie Hill &The Blue 62, Price To Pay. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

A meeting of minds can happen so unexpectedly, so suddenly that the resulting maelstrom of emotions and musical frenzy that follows is something you just have to try and grab the tail of and tag along for the ride.

For Robbie Hill & The Blue 62, a chance meeting with Jesse King in Finland has led to a young Scotsman adding weight to the Blues and invigorating a genre with their, and Finnish drummer Tatu Parssinen, seriousness, style and collective wit and charm. The Devil at times might hold all the best cards in the deck but there is always a Price To Pay when allowing someone dedicated to join the game.

Robbie Hill &The Blue 62, Price To Pay. Album Review. full post

(353 words, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)

New Tricks: English Defence. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tamzin Outhwaite, Dennis Waterman, Denis Lawson, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Anthony Calf, Julie Graham, Ian Hogg, Nicholas Woodeson, Mariah Gale, Finlay Robertson, Leanne Best, Anthony Barclay, Fox Jackson-Keen, Gertrude Thoma.

Chess, it’s nearly as bad as croquet for being a particularly vicious sport when the tempers flare and the too serious take their mind to murder. However all is not as black and white as it seems as several chequered paths start to treat the UCOS team like pawns in their own game in the latest episode of New Tricks, English Defence.

New Tricks: English Defence. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(404 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

October Winds.

 

Others might see you as the omen before the oncoming storm.

The loud-mouthed, certain and confident callous bellow

That comes full of wind and withered joy before the year weeps and grows old

And turns young at heart Old Father Time into a dour, disabled dying fellow!

They might see you and rage as you do, all piss and wind,

Shaking their fists in frightened fury at what you may have wrought

And the golden amber hue fading as they recount who against they have sinned

Their conceit in conflict now chastised in thought.

October Winds. full post

(273 words, estimated 1:06 mins reading time)

Flying Colours, Second Nature. Album Review.

 

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

There is an adage that to have done well you passed with flying colours, the overall result was about as close to perfection that you could ever hope for without a team of University lecturers raising an eyebrow in your direction and asking for a re-count on the basis that nothing could be that good. To pass with flying colours sounds good, it reads well and it puts a song in your heart so loud that it drowns the sorrow of high expectation in your own life with magnificence normally reserved for trying to please loved ones and close friends.

Flying Colours, Second Nature. Album Review. full post

(422 words, 1 image, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

The Modern Playboy Of The Western World.

You are the modern example

of the Playboy whose morals took a long, lingering hike

one summer’s day in the Midlands

and you smiled at all as the cream sat proudly upon your lips

like a tomcat on heat and the hand

stayed shuffling and straightening, readjusting in your pocket.

 

Ah but you thrilled all with tales of money spurned

and like a poorly run casino you kindly splashed out

on things to keep the bloated creature named economy

happy, sated and desired as it kept you

The Modern Playboy Of The Western World. full post

(220 words, estimated 53 secs reading time)

Battlefield 4 ‘The Fall’ Patch. Game Review.

The fall patch is finally here as promised by DICE studios. This fall patch will consist of fixes to the game that will improve gameplay and cause less stress for players when immersing themselves into the action.

In this patch there have been a number of fixes been made to the game that many players have asked for, which include: game mode changes to rush, obliteration, capture the flag and carrier assault. This will include all ‘Vanilla maps’ in the game except Dawnbreaker. This will move many military communications or M-COMS for short which are the main objective of the game mode on the map, so it will give teams a chance instead of just one team on one map. Also the map zavod 311’s third M-COM site inside the two factory’s M-COM b will be moved so that it does not trigger the levolution feature on the map till someone sets the timer themselves.

Battlefield 4 ‘The Fall’ Patch. Game Review. full post

(567 words, estimated 2:16 mins reading time)

Sanctuary, The Year The Sun Died. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Nothing changes in the end bar time itself, although fans and listeners may wonder might have happened, what could have been in the world of Metal had Sanctuary not folded in on itself after the release of the live offering of Into The Mirror, what would have a world that took Metal into the homes of those that only five years before had shunned the American metal Gods of Metallica, Megadeth, the likes of Queensryche and Anthrax. Would Sanctuary have found a safe haven in which to preach to the converted and beyond?

Sanctuary, The Year The Sun Died. Album Review. full post

(506 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)