BURTON REVIEWS (and news)

Another Spider-Man movie in theatres another movie tie-in game. But while most movie tie-in games are shallow cash grabbing bad experiences there are some titles that do the movie tie-in genre proud such as 2011’s Captain America: Super Soldier and in fact the whole line of Spider-Man movie games. Especially 2012’s Amazing Spider-Man game which presented a clever, interesting and well realised story that followed on from the movie of the same name. So with a good history and the fact that Spider-Man is my favourite superhero I went into this game with excitement but sadly left less than impressed. The story takes place before and within the Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie’s plot. The game starts with Spider-Man still trying to hunt down his Uncle Ben’s killer and from here events escalate to the backdrop of a gang war which brings in many iconic villains for young Spidey to go up against and protect his beloved city from. While in the first few missions of the game the story is w...

Metal Gear Solid has always seemed like an impenetrable fortress of convoluted plot points and over complicated gameplay that seemed like too much work and effort to even try to get into with un-knowable amounts of success and enjoyment. But now with the start of a new generation I decided to give the famed series a go and wow have I ignorantly missed an amazing experience for the past gaming years of my life. This game takes place after the events of MGS Peace Walker and stars Big Boss/Snake as he infiltrates a very harsh military camp to rescues two agents that have been captured. That is the bare bones of the main story and for the veteran MGS player there is a lot more story depth and lore connections to be found but for a new comer, such as myself, the story is a good and simple first step into the elaborate world of MGS. Putting you into the shoes of a badass legend with little explanation needed but what is there is enough to intrigue and really pull me into the events...

This is one of Aaron Paul’s first ventures out of the meth lab and into the real world, thankfully instead of a depressing work filled world he has found one inhabited by fast cars and amazing races; and we’re along for the ride. The story for Need for Speed is a very basic one: Drive across the country to take part in a race to settle a heated rivalry. In normal circumstances this would be a boring worn out concept but Need for Speed executes this idea with so much fun, charm, and sometimes a bit of cheese, it is hard not to give into the world, sit back and just enjoy the spectacle of expensive cars before you. And these cars are beautiful, every one of them is a representation of loud, exotic, and very expensive fun; throughout mocking you to wish and dream to one day sit in that uncomfortable looking seat and masterfully drift around a race track, ingraining rubber to road and dreams to reality. The stand out car though was definitely (Aaron Paul’s) Toby’s Ford Mustang that...

The master thief Garrett has returned to put Ezio and his brotherhood to shame, showing them how to really pickpocket an un-expecting guard and swiftly get away with it in complete stealth fashion, no hidden blades required. After the events of an accident Garrett is left unconscious for a year and returns to a city that is infested by a plague, the Gloom, and run by a baron that does even give a second thought to the poor which is starting to incite a revolution. Somehow all these factors relate to the accident that occurred 1 year ago and throughout your many thieving jobs you unravel the conspiracy and uncover the truth. While this tale sounds like an interesting through line for the story to take place on it is executed poorly at every turn. The cut scenes that valuable story details are given in are terrible; with bad lip syncing, boring dialogue accompanied by just as dull characters, and flat movement within the cut scenes. They really seem like early pre-beta, sloppy versio...

Seeing your childhood come to life on the big screen hasn’t always produced the best of products, Batman and Robin we’re looking at you, but with this hilarious tale of revolution, heroism and Legos, the Lego movie has definitely succeeded in this dream, and done so astoundingly. The story for the movie is surprisingly well put together with some surprising twists and turns; not just being an awkward arbitrary construct for the jokes to be plastered over like so many other movies tend to do. The Lego movie stars your typical, average Joe, Lego man: Emmet (Chris Pratt), who has been thrust from his ordinary life and into the adventurous role of the ‘chosen one’ and must save the entire Lego world from being frozen by Lord Business (Will Ferrell). Sounds fun right? Well that is exactly what this movie is, pure childish but surprisingly smart fun. Bringing the Lego to life is CGI but you wouldn’t be blamed if you thought what was unravelling on screen was produced with the actual pie...

I loved 2012’s Total Recall remake in fact I think it may possibly be the best action movie I have ever seen so when I heard there was going to be a Robocop remake I was more than excited hoping it would be 2014’s Total Recall. But I heard from a lot of people that their experience of the new Robocop was hindered by not seeing the original, making them feel lost in the first 30 minutes of the film as it expected you to have a full knowledge of the original. Fearing the movie being ruined by my lack of knowledge the day before I saw the remake I watched, for the first time, the original Robocop. This definitely has changed my view of the remake and I could not help but closely compare the two, so here’s my comparative review on the classic and the reworked. The story for both iterations are pretty similar with the same through line of the outstanding cop, great family man and all round good guy Alex Murphy being the subject an horrific murder and then his life is ‘saved’ by t...

Killzone Shadow Fall is arguably the PS4’s biggest launch game available and the PS4’s heaviest vocal point to consumers looking for their next gen experience. But is it the system seller we all hope for or just a filler experience while we wait for Infamous Second Son. Killzone Shadow Fall takes you out of the mind set of an almost barbarian solider and puts you into the shoes of a more subtle character, Lucas Kellan, who is in Vectors shadow marshal, a black ops team. And after the events of Killzone 3 you are desperately needed to keep the peace between the two warring peoples, Helghans and Vectans, who now are forced to share a planet.   The story is a welcomed change with an interesting premise that kept me interested throughout the game. However within the chapters the game did fall prey to becoming a monotonous exercise of completing objectives one after the other but not caring why exactly your doing the tasks at hand. One thing that is undeniable when it comes to...