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Alhttps://esotericfish.wordpress.com

What’s been going on?

October 8, 2011 by Al

Hi All,

As you’ve no doubt noticed, I haven’t posted any new reviews for a little over a week, and they had been a little irregular for a couple of weeks before that. Things had been a little busy lately which had cut down on my viewing time, but my schedule seemed to be getting back on track until last Thursday when the universe threw me a curveball.

To put it simply, my father passed away unexpectedly after a massive stroke on Thursday night. He was only 54. Needless to say, I haven’t exactly been at my best for the last week, and most of my time has been devoted to sorting out the remnants of his life.

But life goes on and hopefully things will settle down a bit now, giving me time to once again post up my regular reviews. I have a review of Real Steel which should be going up shortly, and I plan to continue my weekly reviews of Boardwalk Empire and Terra Nova. Lindz and I are also planning to do a collaborative play-through of the MMO DC Universe Online (which will be going Free to Play in a couple of weeks) posting our daily impressions up on the site. There are some other collaborative reviews that we are looking at over the coming months.

Things will still be a little hectic here, so I don’t think I’ll be able to get back to the daily schedule straight away, but hopefully things will get back to normal by November. If there is anything you’d particularly like to see reviewed, please post a comment below.

Cheers,

At Home With Julia – Citizens’ Assembly Review

September 29, 2011 by Al

‘It’s like any relationship. Who walks the dog? Who puts the bins out? Who sends the troops to Afghanistan? These are just some of the questions facing PM Julia Gillard and boyfriend Tim Mathieson.‘

At Home With Julia has been rating fairly well for the ABC, and has certainly sparked some discussion, but as a show it never really worked. The controversy created by the show’s marketing team has been the main selling point, and it is debatable whether anyone will remember in a year that it was anything more than the first satire of a Prime Minister at home on Australian TV.

After last week’s improvement with the show’s political one-liners, it seemed odd Continue reading →

Terra Nova – Genesis Review

September 28, 2011 by Al

‘In the year 2149, the planet Earth is a disaster, and most of the plant and animal life has become extinct. Scientists can’t reverse the damage, but have found a way to travel back to prehistoric times to save the human race.‘

There’s been a lot of buzz building about Fox’s new sci-fi show Terra Nova. Take Steven Spielberg and several other sci-fi veterans, add time travel and dinosaurs, and you seem to have the recipe for a sure-fire hit. Unfortunately, after the disappointment of Falling Skies earlier this year, Spielberg’s name in the EP slot doesn’t do that much for me anymore. There’s a whole bunch of things that need to come together to make a compelling series; dinosaurs aren’t going to keep people around forever.

Thankfully, the team behind Terra Nova seem to have made Continue reading →

Boardwalk Empire – 21 Review

September 27, 2011 by Al

‘Nucky faces a lot of insurrection among some of his most trusted people. Chalky’s own life is threatened when the Ku Klux Klan launch an attack too close to home. Margaret must deal with her son’s disciplinary behavior. Angela asks Gillian’s advice over Jimmy’s affections at home. And Van Alden decides to show his wife, Rose, around the town for her anniversary.‘

Boardwalk Empire was one of my favourite shows from 2010. It was great to see a period drama that was willing to take its time setting up all the various plot threads, and allow the show to rest entirely on its characters without relying on gratuitous nudity to keep audiences interested (not that there wasn’t plenty of skin on show, it just wasn’t the focus of the show). Now, nearly a year later, it’s time to dive back in to the seedy underworld of prohibition era Atlantic City.

We left the first season with a montage of our characters reflecting on Continue reading →

At Home With Julia – The Leaker Review

September 22, 2011 by Al

The controversy that has been brewing about this week’s episode of At Home With Julia gave me some hope that the show would lift itself out of the hole it’s been digging and deliver some of the outrageous comedy that you generally only see on the ABC. Unfortunately, the supposedly offensive scene was merely a throwaway gag in the middle of an episode that while better than Code Ranga, was completely mediocre.

One improvement over last week is with the political Continue reading →

Age of Conan – Unchained Review

September 17, 2011 by Al

‘Age of Conan: Unchained is an award-winning and critically acclaimed massively multiplayer online game set in the sexy, savage and brutal world of Conan the Barbarian.’

The Free to Play model seems to be gaining a lot of momentum in the MMO market lately; while it was once only seen in the Asian market, more and more big name games are switching to the model with a great deal of success. Games like Dungeons and Dragons Online and Lord of the Rings Online have shown that with the right balance of free and pay content it’s possible to make more money than with subscriptions alone.

Age of Conan is a relatively recent member of the F2P club, and I thought Continue reading →

At Home With Julia – Code Ranga Review

September 15, 2011 by Al

At Home With Julia‘s first episode had its share of problems, but it was far better than I had expected. I was hoping that the second episode might do away with the obvious humour and build on the show’s strengths, but was sadly disappointed.

I don’t think that I really laughed Continue reading →

Skyrim Preview

September 14, 2011 by Al

‘The future of Skyrim, even the Empire itself, hangs in the balance as they wait for the prophesised Dragonborn to come; a hero born with the power of The Voice, and the only one who can stand amongst the dragons.‘

The Elder Scrolls series of games is one that has attracted many dedicated fans over the years, myself included. The huge open world gameplay in a fantasy world is something that has been tried by other studios, but nobody has come close to creating a similarly immersive experience. Skyrim, the 5th game in the series is due to come out in November, and Bethseda have been demoing footage behind closed doors at QuakeCon and PAX Prime to help build some buzz. The footage has recently been released to the public, so I thought I’d dive in and have a look at what Game Director Todd Howard has to show us about one of my most anticipated games of 2011. Continue reading →

Web Review – JourneyQuest Season 1

September 13, 2011 by Al

‘Following a group of dysfunctional adventurers on a quest to discover and destroy the mythical Sword of Fighting, JourneyQuest is a comedic adventure through the fantasy world of Fartherall, where intellectual orcs, incompetent wizards, and holy zombies form the living (and not-so-living) backdrop to an epic story of unrequited love, burning passions, and severely reluctant heroism. And running away. Lots of running away…’

I’ve always been a big supporter of web delivered content, but with the huge number of web series popping up around the Internet lately it is often hard to find the diamonds in the rough. Given that so many bad web series choose to focus on geeky things as an excuse to avoid creativity, I must admit that I was dubious when I first heard about the D&D based JourneyQuest.

Within the first minute of watching, all of my doubts were Continue reading →

Rest in Peace Andy Whitfield

September 12, 2011 by Al

I was very saddened to hear that Andy Whitfield passed away yesterday after losing his battle with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Andy was best known for his breakout role on Spartacus: Blood and Sand although some may recognise him from appearances in various Australian shows and the movie Gabriel. Unfortunately we never got the chance to see him in many other things. While I didn’t know him personally, Andy always seemed like a fun-loving guy that really enjoyed what he did. A video of him hanging out with Freddie Wong and his crew provides a great look at the man behind the gladiator.