Hi-Ex! Blog

Ubisoft Ignites the American Revolution with Assassin’s Creed III

2012-03-05T18:21:00.000Z

Well, colour me unbelievably excited about this game!

Assassin’s Creed III will hit store shelves on October 31, 2012, encouraging gamers to experience the American Revolutionary War not written about in history books. The largest project in Ubisoft’s history also introduces a brand new hero.

With a development cycle of over three years and twice the production capacity of any previous Ubisoft game, Assassin’s Creed III is set to release on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation3 computer entertainment system, Windows PC and is also in development for Wii U from Nintendo. Assassin’s Creed III is developed by Ubisoft Montreal in collaboration with six other Ubisoft studios.

Set against the backdrop of the American Revolution in the late 18th century, Assassin’s Creed III introduces a new hero,Ratohnaké:ton, of Native American and English heritage. Adopting the name Connor, he becomes the new voice for justice in the ancient war between the Assassins and Templars. Players become an Assassin in the war for liberty against ruthless tyranny in the most stylized and fluid combat experiences in the franchise to date. Assassin’s Creed III spans the Revolutionary War, taking gamers from the vibrant, untamed frontier to bustling colonial towns and the intense, chaotic battlefields where George Washington’s Continental Army clashed with the imposing British Army.

Assassin’s Creed III is powered by Ubisoft-AnvilNext, a revolutionary new game engine that delivers breakthroughs in visual quality, character models and artificial intelligence. Assassin’s Creed III will feature a ground-breaking level of stunning graphics that bring Colonial America to life.

“Assassin’s Creed III features the franchise’s most expansive setting so far, along with an exciting new hero and exponentially more gameplay,” said Yves Guillemot, chief executive officer at Ubisoft. “Whether you’re a longtime fan of Assassin’s Creed or if you’re new to the franchise, you’re going to be blown away by the scale and marvel of Assassin’s Creed III.”

Assassin’s Creed III also can be pre-ordered at UBIShop by visiting: http://shop.ubi.com/assassinscreed3

Additional Assassin’s Creed III details can be found in exclusive cover features in the next issues of Official Xbox Magazine (20^thMarch), Official Playstation Magazine (20^th March) and Nintendo Gamer (23^rd March).

New artwork from Assassin’s Creed III also will be featured in Assassin’s Creed Recollection, the real-time board game for the iPad.

For more information on Assassin’s Creed, please visit the Assassin’s Creed Official Website (www.assassinscreed.com) andfacebook.com/assassinscreed.

Available at Hi-Ex!: Anthology

2012-03-03T16:29:00.000Z

Cover by Colin MacNeil (Ex DJCAD Graduate)

Coming soon, a newcomics series, Anthology, published under the imprint UniVerse, will showcasethe best creative work that emerges from the new comics courses at theUniversity of Dundee and DJCAD.

Anthology One, isthe first issue, and features work from the students on Duncan of JordanstoneCollege of Art and Design’s (DJCAD) Comic Art and Graphic Novels Module. ModuleLeader Phillip Vaughan said, "We have created an imprint called UniVerseto promote and publish up and coming work from the next generation of comiccreators! This is the best of the work from the first cohort of the module,which (staggeringly!) was run over 12 weeks for one day a week during Semester1 of Communication Design Level 3 (encompassing Animation, Graphic Design andIllustration undergraduates). This year we plan to roll the module out to otherundergraduate areas of the art college. We hope you will be as impressed withthe diverse and professional results as we are!"

Dr Chris Murray of the School of Humanities, course leader of the ComicsStudies MLitt, and director of the newly formed Scottish Centre for ComicsStudies, helped to deliver the course, and said, "It is an exciting timefor Comics Studies at Dundee, and the DJCAD module has been even moresuccessful than we'd hoped - the results are impressive, and the studentsclearly benefited from workshops with industry professionals such as FrankQuitely, Cam Kennedy, Colin MacNeil, and others". He added, "we arelooking forward to Anthology Two, and further publications from UniVerse".

You lucky people will be able to buy this at Hi-Ex! Make sure to pick up a copy!

HI-Ex! 2012: Aftermath podcast

2012-02-29T20:59:00.002Z

So, we heard the creators of this podcast, Robert Cudmore and Matthew McLean, talking about this on the radio yesterday and thought that we'd invite them along to join in on some of the panel discussions.

Aftermath is a post apocalyptic audio drama set in Fife in 2016. Produced by Yap Audio Productions - www.yapaudio.co.uk

Welcome to 2016. For the past five years the world has become an increasingly unstable place. The threat of war between China and the USA had loomed heavily over the rest of the world. Britain, now a small, insignificant and bankrupt nation, initially, as always, had sided with the USA. But relations quickly broke down beyond repair between the two nations, leaving the UK an isolated and unimportant outcast in world diplomacy.

Faced with two gigantic, power hungry enemies on either side, things go from bad to worse in the UK when an attack on the country’s power and communications leaves its citizens without electricity, television, phone or internet. After nearly a fortnight, and with nothing more than speculation available about who carried out the attack and why, looting and riots spread throughout towns and cities like wildfire.

Rumours of an emergency radio broadcast promising help, information, food and water in the centre of every city sees millions of people on the move as they try to head for safety, hoping that the crisis may be at an end.

In reality, nothing can be further from the truth. In a car park, half way up Falkland Hill in Fife, a group of people who fled from the riot stricken towns below watch out over the river Forth in horror as Edinburgh is blitzed by a missile attack from the sky. The lucky ones are killed by the blasts, but anyone else close enough is subjected to the chemicals unleashed by the explosions. A devastating chemical attack turns ordinary people into bloodthirsty savages, and Scotland as we know it, changes forever.

And now... this is the Aftermath.

Coming to Hi-Ex! 2012...

2012-02-27T20:24:00.000Z

This year at Hi-Ex!, we will be bringing you something quitespecial that we’re sure you’ll have never seen before, but we know you’llabsolutely love.

Your kindly Hi-Ex! Team have, for the past few years, beenhonoured to be invited as guests to Octocon, the Irish National Sci-fiConvention in Dublin.

It was there that we first experienced John Vaughan and his awesomevideo vault of horror... and we loved it so much that we thought we’d spirithim across the sea to bring his uniqueview on a cinema classic to these shores.

John Vaughan yesterday

Well, we say ‘classic’... John will take a famous, or shouldwe say infamous, sci-fi film and subject it to his laser like gaze and take itapart from your not inconsiderable entertainment.

Trust us folks, you are all going to want to see this, andif you don’t you’ll be jealous of those lucky enough to get a seat in thetheatre for the spectacle.

What is the movie, you say..? Well, that would be telling.But in the past, John has submitted such classics as Beastmaster and Herculesin New York to his forensic examination... who knows what he has lined upnext..!

XIII El Cascador review

2012-02-27T19:46:00.001Z

This is the second half of a story began in, For Maria, the previous volume, which you can read a review of here.

We’re pretty far into this Cinebook series, and we’ve reviewed enough of them for you to know the score by now.

Van Hamme’s plotting is brilliant. In turn tense and claustrophobic and over the top widescreen, James Bond style action sequences.

Vance’s art is detailed and kinetic.

Even XIII’s sidekick, Major Jones gets more to do here than just moon about over him.

And yet again, Van Hamme proves himself the absolute master of drip feeding information to the reader, as we simultaneously uncover more truths about XIII’s past while finding even more unanswered questions.

This is a fine line to walk, and I’m not sure how long the series can go on doing this before credulity is stretched too far. But then again, it could be argued that in a spy story and world spanning and over the top as this one, credulity was never going to be something the reader should be brining to the table.

Whatever that case, this is a cracking read.

Doctor Who The Art of Death review

2012-02-23T21:36:00.000Z

This is a great little story.
James Goss has written a cracking tale that really feels like it belongs in the Moffat era Who - being that it is based around a very clever, as the Doctor would have it, ‘timey whimey’ idea.
We have characters moving in different directions and at different speeds through time, with only Penelope, our narrator, remaining constant. This makes for some lovely scenes as she meets characters for the first time after they have already met her and vice-versa.
Now, I know that I have said previously, that these things benefit from being read by a Doctor, but on this occasion, I don’t think that is the case. This is very much Penelope’s story, so to have it read by Matt Smith would, I feel, have diluted her tale.
This would have been particularly true when we eventually got to the end and the secret of what was really happening was revealed. And like all good reveals, this was one that I should have seen coming.
Which brings us to Raquel Cassidy, the narrator. She is excellent here. As alluded to above, her acting is wonderful as she inhabits the main character and really makes the reader feel for her.
And as I am sure you have picked up from the rest of this review, Goss’s script is bang on. He has found the voices for the main characters with seeming ease. His Eleventh Doctor in particular is delightful. The listener can almost hear Smith’s old man/childlike enthusiasm in the lines.
This is a gem of a tale from AudioGo. You really should buy it.

The Cursed Earth Saga review

2012-02-22T22:25:00.001Z

This is another reprinting of the classic Judge Dredd series, this time it is in a smaller, pocket book size volume more akin to Manga books than the traditional 2000AD size.
Does it work? I shall get to that presently, but first, for those of you who don’t know, I’ll give a quick review of the story.
Mega City 2 has been hit by a terrible plague, and the inhabitants are turning into crazed cannibal creatures. It is up to Judge Dredd and a crack team of Judges to deliver the vaccine before time runs out!
To do this, they have to negotiate the ravaged radioactive hellhole that is the Cursed Earth – basically everything between the East and West coasts of the United States.
(The reason for not flying is given, but frankly, it is not a good one!)
This tale, mostly written by Pat Mills with a few episodes by John Wagner, contains a lot of iconic ideas and images. Everything from the classic toy tie-in Killdozer (I had one!) to Spikes Harvey Rotten. Mills even introduces us to hints of what the caused the US to become what it is in Dredd’s day – ideas that Wagner would return to years later what he wrote Origins.

But the greatest thing in this epic adventure has to be Satanus the dinosaur.
Now, stop me if you’ve heard this one: scientists figure out how to clone dinosaurs from DNA found in fossils, incubate them in eggs and when they hatch, they open an amusement park in which things go horribly wrong and the dinosaurs escape and start eating folks. Pat Mills wrote this in 1978. That’s all I’m saying…
So yes, the story is a cracking one and is held up as a classic for very good reasons.
But to come back to the question of it working at this size.

For the most part, yes it does. The reproduction of the art is crisp and clean, which is just as well as it contains some of the best art that Brian Bolland and Mike McMahon ever produced for the comic.
I found myself having to strain slightly a couple of times at the small writing, but on the whole it easy to read.
All in all, it’s a nice little volume, and I think I’m going to pass it on to my children, as I suspect this may serve as a great gateway drug into the Dreddiverse.

2000AD: Celebrating 35 Zarjaz Years!

2012-02-20T20:51:00.000Z

In 1977, something amazing happened. All across the land the first issue of 2000 AD, dated 26th February, arrived in newsagents. And your world has never been the same since.
Thirty-five years on and The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic is still going strong, still packed with top-notch Thrills by some of the world’s greatest comic book artists and writers, and still bringing intense weekly bursts of Thrill-power to the starving masses.

To celebrate this milestone, this Wednesday sees the anniversary edition, Prog 1771, hits newsstands with the choice of two amazing variant covers - one by Chris Weston (The Filth, The Twelve), riffing on a classic image by Brian Bolland and showing some of the classic characters of the past 15 years. The second cover by 2000 AD legend Mick McMahon shows the alien editor, Tharg the Mighty, surrounded by his loyal editorial droids!

This week will also see 2000adonline.com give away some exclusive prizes to Squaxx Dek Thargo everywhere, including:
• copies of Kingdom: The Promised Land signed by New York Times bestselling writer Dan Abnett
• copies of dinosaurs-farmed-by-cowboys-from-the-future classic Flesh: The Dino Files signed by 2000 AD’s creator and first editor, Pat Mills
• copies of the hilarious mobster comedy Al’s Baby signed by Judge Dredd creators John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra
Thanks to Planet Replicas, we’ll also be giving one lucky Earthlet the chance to get a custom made Judge badge – featuring their own surname! These high-quality fully licensed badges are a must for budding agents of the law, and the winner will get one embossed with their own name.

And as we head toward 2000 AD’s official birthday, we have the pièce de résistance – an exclusive Mongrol figure from Ashley Woods’ threeA Toys. That’s right, we’re GIVING AWAY one of the most hotly desired piece of 2000 AD merchandise in recent years. Standing over 11-inches high and over 13-inches wide, this fully articulated 1:6 scale figure has been drooled over by fans since its release last year and you’ll get the chance to try and win this stunning figure!
Keep your glues glued to 2000adonline.com, as well as our official Twitter and Facebook feeds, as we gear up to mark 35 years of Thrill-powered awesomeness!
Happy birthday, 2000 AD – it’s going to be a zarjaz week!
Links:
2000 AD on Twitter: http://twitter.com/2000AD 2000 AD on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/2000-AD/146588986365

UBISOFT ANNOUNCES ASSASSIN’S CREED RECOLLECTION FREE OFFER

2012-02-16T20:58:00.001Z

Today, Ubisoft announced that its real-time board game title Assassin’s Creed Recollection for iPad, is now available for free for a very limited time on the App Store.

Assassin's Creed Recollection, designed and optimised to take full advantage of the large display and Multi-Touch interface of iPad, allows players to live an entirely new experience in the world of Assassin’s Creed. Fans of the franchise are able to compete in political battles in a real-time board game, with key characters and locations from the original console game franchise. They can also discover and amass a wide variety of artwork created for the Assassin’s Creed games.

Players can expect an eight to ten-hour narrative experience with 20 story missions, which takes players on an intriguing journey from Barcelona to Constantinople. For those who want to take the experience online, they can challenge their friends and other players from around the world in intense real-time battles with Game Centre, where their strategies and abilities will truly be put to the test.

The Assassin’s Creed Recollection App is available from the App Store on iPad or at: www.itunes.com/appstore/

For more information, head to: www.assassinscreed.com/ios/recollection

Antares episode 1 review

2012-02-15T20:13:00.000Z

This series is, I think it is safe to say, the very definition of Epic.
Antares follows on from writer/artist Leo’s previous two trilogies: Betelgeuse and Aldebaran.
Now, I should admit here that I have not read any of the volumes of the above mentioned books, which may just put me in the perfect position to review this one unencumbered by expectation… or at least that’s the line I’m using here!
It appears to pick up very soon after the events in the previous story, and the threads are deftly explained so I was not left with any ‘I don’t know what’s happening’ moments – at least not because of the exposition.
Because there are quite a few ‘I don’t know what’s happening’ moments in the narrative, in fact it ends on an incredible cliffhanger that had me shouting at the book for daring to leave me hanging like that!

This is a complex book. There are a number of storylines running at the same time, and each of them in densely plotted, but not to the expense of storytelling which is deceptively fluid and easy. An awful lot of work has gone into making this book a smooth read. And I think it’s a mark of how well each strand is written that when each one finished and we returned to another, I wanted to stay there and see what happened next.
There are also some very bold storytelling moves that really should leave the reader feeling short changed, but don’t. For example, one character has a major life changing revelation, and while the reader is absorbing this, we turn the page to a caption saying ‘Two years later’.
As for the art, it is superb. Sometimes the figure work leans on the stiff side, but each character is wonderfully realised, and facial expression are rendered with extraordinary precision.
The flora and fauna on Antares are another treat. Leo has obviously thought long and hard about the ecosystem on the planet, and without spelling it out through dialogue or captions, he leaves the reader with a perfectly clear idea of the way this world has evolved.
So, in summary then… Cinebook have done it again and you need to buy this.

Coming soon - Kingdom: Call of the Wild

2012-02-13T19:05:00.000Z

Seriously folks, Kingdom is one of the best new comic strips in the past five years, we urge you to buy this book!
Now, here's the press release:

In the post-apocalyptic future, genetically-engineered animals fight giant insects to preserve the future of the world!
From the pages of legendary British comic book 2000 AD comes Gene the Hackman, the pack leader turned lone wolf who battles Them, in a new 144 page collection!
These gargantuan insects have swarmed across the planet and forced mankind into cryogenic slumber in the hope that their dog soldiers can fend off the invaders.
With his human companion, the young girl called Leezee Sower who he saved from certain death, Gene must now learn to survive in the kingdom of Auxtralia, where if Them don’t kill him, the ‘Wild Bunch’ might just!
In the sequel to the hit collection Kingdom: The Promised Land, New York Times bestseller Dan Abnett (Majestic, The Authority) again teams up with artist Richard Elson (Thor), for an explosive mix of hardcore action and dystopian sci-fi.

Doctor Who Earthshock audiobook review

2012-02-13T18:49:00.000Z

Earthshock is a notable story for a number of reasons. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that it is the favourite story of some fans for one particular reason. And to you people I would say: you are very cruel.
So, this audiobook of the Target novel by Ian Marter is read by the then Doctor, Peter Davidson.
This definitely adds something to the proceedings. Some of the previous audiobooks have been read by other actors who appeared in that particular story, and these have worked fine. But there’s something about having the Doctor himself reading it that lends an extra air to the proceedings.
Davidson is, naturally, very good. He has one of those warm voices that is perfect for the audiobook market. And of course he understands the emotional impact of certain events therein and conveys them with great skill. Also worth mentioning is that the cyberman voices are provided by Nicholas Briggs.

As mentioned, the book itself is written by the late, much missed former Harry Sullivan, Ian Marter.
After leaving the series as an actor, Marter managed to carve a nice corner of Who for himself by writing some of these adaptations, and even wrote a spin-off Harry Sullivan solo novel that was not half bad at all.
As a writer, Marter is very good, although he does commit a couple of, what are to me, cardinal sins. He uses too many adjectives in describing conversation (“He said, angrily”) and also does the really annoying thing of describing in detail what people are wearing. I don’t care what they have on – I care what they are doing.
On the plus side though, he improves greatly on the original television script, which was written by Eric Saward. Marter gives some more depth to the goings on, particularly with his descriptions of smells, and even has a go at patching up and explaining one of the major plot holes in the story to some success.
He also goes as far as to tweak the ending slightly, adding even more pathos to the scene. But I know that some of you will still laugh anyway…

Earthshock is released by AudioGo

Victory? Trailer

2012-02-06T19:10:00.000Z

So boys and girls, gather round and watch this!
Hi-Ex! guest John Vaughan has a rather exciting new show about to air on RTE - and very soon he is going to need your help... keep watching this space and we'll give you more details very soon.
In the meantime, here's a taster of what's in store.

Avengers - new trailer!

2012-02-06T18:50:00.000Z

I'm sure you've all seen this already, but still - wow!

We shoot, we miss!

2012-01-30T18:31:00.000Z

So, your friendly Hi-Ex! elves applied for finding from Creative Scotland, which is an organisation that funds events etc.
For example, they funded the Rockness festival in Inverness to the amount of £45,000 in order to put on a special train service from London to Inverness.

Our rejection read:

Dear Rich and Vicky

Thank you for submitting your idea to the Creative Scotland Ideas Bank. On this occasion Creative Scotland does not wish to take your idea forward and we will not continue to hold it. We do not offer feedback but we wish you the best of luck with your idea elsewhere.

Best wishes

Creative Scotland

Not to worry though, we will still do our very best to bring you the best weekend you'll ever have in your life... just don't be expecting any trains...

New Aliens: Colonial Marines trailer unleashed!

2012-01-30T18:23:00.000Z

Oh this looks great, but we have to wait until the Autumn!?
And double points for using the music from Moon.

Shame: Conception review

2012-01-24T21:16:00.000Z

Shame is the first in a new series of books from publisher Renegade Arts Entertainment.

It is written by Lovern Kindzierski, who is a well enough know, it is fair to say that the main draw (no offence, Lovern!) for most folks will be some new strip work from John Bolton.

We’ll get to the art presently, but first, the story.

Fairy tales, for a writer, are a lot of fun to work with. There is great fun to be had in retelling classic tales in a new way and in offering your own (you hope) unique twist on a well known trope. But it quickly becomes apparent that here, Kindzierski is trying for something altogether more bold: he is writing a brand new one.

On the surface the idea – how Shame came into the world – is one of those that as a writer sounds obvious when you see someone else writing, and you wonder why you hadn’t thought of it first…

Kindzierski does it well though. This is a complex tale. The language and dialogue is arch and un-naturalistic (if that's actually a word), and because of this it takes the reader a while to get into the rhythm of it. This initial difficulty is worth the effort though, as once the reader ‘gets’ it, then they are in the proper place to read what feels like a traditional, but at the same time brand new, fairy tale.

Now, John Bolton. We all know that he’s a bit good, don’t we? Here he goes for a slightly different style than I have seen from him before, in that he is pulling in some photo references to sit alongside his more usual painted art style. Again, like the writing style, this proves jarring at first, but (again, as with the writing) serves to pull the reader into the extreme fantasy world the story is set in. Bolton has also done some incredible, and disturbing, character designs here.

All in all, this is an interesting and beautiful book, and a good start to what promises to be a very good series.

UFC UNDISPUTED 3 PLAYABLE DEMO NOW AVAILABLE

2012-01-24T20:58:00.000Z

THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship® organisation today announced the UFC® Undisputed™ 3 playable demo is now available for free download via Xbox LIVE Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, as well as PlayStation Network for the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system. Consumers will explore a fantasy UFC matchup between current UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and current UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva. In addition, they will relive a classic PRIDE Mode rivalry between renowned UFC fighters and former champions Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Wanderlei Silva. The playable demo will also offer mirror matches, enabling consumers to play against friends or opponent AI as the same fighter, in the ultimate test of skill. UFC Undisputed 3 is currently scheduled for release on February 14, 2012 for Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 system.

OUCH!

UFC Undisputed 3 will take players inside the virtual Octagon with focus on intense toe-to-toe combat, impressive visual presentation and significantly increased accessibility, including the debut of PRIDE Mode, two new weight classes and an impressive playable roster of more than 150 UFC fighters. PRIDE Mode will enable players to fight for the first time in the renowned Japanese MMA organization and include official commentators Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros, authentic environments and notorious MMA rules, including the ability to execute soccer-style kicks, head stomps and ground knees to the head. Finishing an opponent will be more important than ever through devastating new moves, responsive striking controls, refined visual presentation and the introduction of a brand new, graphics-based submission system. In addition, players will now enter the Octagon with a choice between traditional and simplified gameplay control options, enabling them, regardless of skill level, to experience the intensity of UFC and nuances of MMA combat while executing simple standing strikes or more complex ground and transition mechanics.

The latest from Commando!

2012-01-20T17:17:00.001Z

The latest releases from Commando have just been announced.

CommandoNo 4463 — The Improbable Mission

Second-LieutenantClement Cleveley of the Army Educational corps was a real boffin. A researchstudent before the war, his mathematical speciality was probabilitytheory…which didn’t really fit with anything in service life.

As it turned out, that wasn’t quite the casewhich was how, instead of peacefully working at a classroom blackboard, Clementended up charging around the desert dodging bullets with a bunch of crack SASmen.

Script:Alan Hebden

Art:Manuel Benet

Cover:Manuel Benet

Commando4464 — Night And Fog

InOccupied Europe during the Second World War, dawn raids and midnight arrestsbecame regular occurrences. They were feared by all the occupied peoples butsoon they began to lose their ability to invoke terror.

That’s when an evil Nazi scientist decidedthat it wasn’t enough just to arrest people. He wanted to make them disappearinto the…

Nightand Fog

Script:Alan Hebden

Art:Morahin

Cover:Janek Matysiak (Not Ian Kennedy as it says in the creditsgrenade!)

Commando4465 — Terror Zone

Itstarted as a routine training patrol to test five top Aussie recruits — untiltheir radio packed in and their NCO was killed in an accident.

Then the dense New Guinea jungle became aterror zone as a bullet flew from out of the shadows. Someone — or something —was trying to kill them…but there wasn’t supposed to be an enemy for thousandsof miles!

Introductionby Calum Laird, Commando Editor

Commandofans have always held Carlos Pino’s artwork in high regard, and rightly so.Here he brings the clammy jungle and a band of dishevelled Japanese to life ina few strokes of the pen and brush.

He’s giving form to a story by anotherlong-serving Commando regular, Mike Knowles, whose plots have entertained forlong enough to earn him a long-service medal and a well-deserved retirement.

Phil Gascoine did a limited number ofCommando covers, but every one was a little gem — even when he had to show anall but invisible figure in the background.

TerrorZone, originally Commando No 2673 (June 1993)

Script:Mike Knowles

Art:Carlos Pino

Cover:Phil Gascoine

Go and get them!

Electric Man tickets now on sale!

2012-01-19T21:56:00.000Z

As you all know, during the Hi-Ex! weekend, the Electric Man chaps will be showing their movie in Eden Court cinema!

You can buy tickets for the showings HERE.

Elisabeth Sladen the Autobiography audiobook review

2012-01-18T20:57:00.000Z

It is difficult to review this Audiogo audiobook as ‘just’ a book.
From the beginning, with the genuinely moving forward written and read by David Tennant, to the after word, written by Liz’s husband and daughter Brian and Sadie Miller, which is nothing short of heart breaking, this is a book that is nigh on impossible to listen to without constantly thinking about Liz and her sudden death.
Another former Who assistant,Caroline John, has the unenviable task of reading the book, although to be totally fair, she does so brilliantly.
But what of the book itself?
Obviously, the bulk of the book is taken up with memories of her time on Who, and this makes for some interesting listening.
Sladen paints a vivid picture of the BBC in the early 70s, and while things sometime slide close to the ‘luvvie’, with many people being ‘wonderful’, she is pleasingly direct when talking about those who were less than wonderful.
This is one of a few things in the book that I found surprising. I suppose the image of Sarah Jane and her all round niceness as a character. And it’s not just directors, Liz is honest about Third Doctor Jon Pertwee. While she clearly loved him dearly, she is honest enough to recognise him for his faults, but still making him come across as a thoroughly nice man.
Outside Who, there are some equally interesting tales told. Her stories of her early life and family are fascinating, and I wish that she had spent more time on them. Likewise, stories of early theatre jobs and her fledgling acting career are great.
The final section of the book, dealing with her ‘renaissance’ as an actor as she came out of retirement for School Reunion and then The Sarah Jane Adventures, seems disappointingly slight after the detail of the Who years. I’d liked to have heard more about the Sarah Jane tales and perhaps the Big Finish adventures and the like.
Still, apart from these minor quibbles, I can say that this is a very good memoir, and one that any Who fan will want on their shelf.
Still can’t believe she’s gone though…

Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption review

2012-01-17T19:33:00.000Z

Now, one of my guilty pleasures (well,not guilty- there’s nothing guilty about it!) is the original Scorpion Kingmovie. The Rock is cool, there’s just no getting around that fact. And this iscoming from someone who never watched any of that wrestling stuff in his life!

I was surprised to see there was athird instalment of the story, as I wasn’t even aware that there had been asecond one.

Anyway, this one seems to pick up rightat the end of the second movie- we get a quick synopsis of what has wentbefore, and are then plunged straight into the action.

Victor Webster plays warrior Mathayus withgusto but no matter how hard he tries, he is not the White Dwarf of charismathat The Rock is. Horus, king of Egypt and sometime Hellboy Ron Pearlman hireshim for a job, but things go complicated and there’s a load of double crossingand stuff. And something about a magic necklace and the Book of the Dead fromthe original Mummy movie. To be honest, it lost me a bit, but luckily there arecharacters who helpfully explain the plot every few scenes.

Also in the mix is a wildly overactingBilly Zane who, to his credit, is putting a lot of effort into his role as theevil brother of Pearlman’s character.

The special effects are not quite up tothe standard of the huge budget original, and neither is the acting (which isn’t,I admit, saying much!).

This is very much one of those moviesyou watch with your brain in neutral. It is perfect Saturday night beer andpizza fodder.

Oh, and there are elephants. Andninjas. And ninjas riding elephants. That has to be a good thing, right?

Scorpion King 3 is released on DVD byUniversal on 27^th February and is available to pre-order now.

Johnny English Reborn review

2012-01-15T18:25:00.000Z

Now, I have never seen the first Johnny English movie. Andbeing as it was released in 2003, this sequel seems a bit out of the blue.

Did we really need a follow-up to a comedy spoof from almostten years ago, albeit one that was a box office success?

The honest answer to this is, of course, No. We didn’t needthis sequel.

The bigger question is: is it any good?

Ah, well, now we get into another territory altogether.

I’ll tell you what I thought of this movie.

I thought it was okay.

There are some very good things about it. First off, thecast is astounding. Atkinson is a fantastic actor, and is surrounded here bysome equally incredible talent. Dominic West manages to hold in the swears as afellow agent and he’s also joined by Gillian Anderson and Rosamund Pike.

Story-wise it is not actually half bad. Yes, the villain isobvious from the beginning, but it a well told and well directed tale with somevery good direction and exciting action sequences.

But... there are a number of problems with it. While thereare plenty of jokes in there, most of them, for me at least, didn’t quite work.I could not help but think while watching that a comedian and actor with theskill set that Atkinson possesses could probably have come up with better lineshimself. And there is also the character of Johnny English himself. The writerscan’t seem to decide what to make of him. He is in turn a bumbling fool who can’tsee what’s going on right in front of him and a suave, capable, super-spy. Yes,you’ll say I’m overthinking it, but I’m a writer and that’s what I do.

Now, having said all that, I should point out that I watchedthis movie with my two boys. They both laughed like drains the whole way thoughand proclaimed it was brilliant, even pointing out the occasions where Ilaughed out loud.

So, perhaps I’m saying that cynical 40-something writers maynot be the target audience of what was an admittedly fun movie, so perhaps youshould bear that in mind when considering my opinion!

Johnny English: Reborn is released on DVD and Blu-Ray by Universalon 13^th Februay and is available for pre-order now.

Dredd vs Zombies game review

2012-01-09T20:15:00.001Z

Yes! We're spoiling you folks! After too long with no reviews, here's a second one for today!

Even though 2000AD, the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, is owned by Rebellion, a games company, there have been precious few games based on characters from the comic released.
Until now we have had the FPS Dredd Vs Death and the (I think it can be argued) criminally overlooked and possibly groundbreaking Rogue Trooper. Now though, we have another game to add to the list: Dredd Vs Zombies.
This is a budget iPhone release, and by budget we mean FREE, and what you get for your (no) money is really quite remarkable.

The story, for what there is of it, is about an outbreak of zombies in Mega City One, and Dredd has to get in there are sort them out. And by ‘sort them out’ I of course mean ‘shoot them with a variety of guns’, which is something he does very well, it has to be said. This is thanks to the rather nicely automatic aiming system in the game, so the player is not reduced to spinning on their heel in a circle frantically trying to hit something.
The levels are somewhat samey, but they include a nice range of different zombie types, some of which, like the fatty zombie, are uniquely Mega City One creations, and contain a nasty surprise for the unwary.
What is very impressive though is the learning curve in the game – it is pitched just about perfectly, well, for me at least. I found myself getting just that little bit further every time I tried a level, not so far as to make it feel easy, or not far enough to make me want to give up.
The graphics are splendid too. They are crisp and clear and for a free game, impressively detailed.
There is some great fun to be had here, and each level has good replay value as you must return to gain that oh so important but elusive extra star so as to unlock some later level.
Just one thing though, Dredd. When you say, ‘No back-up required’, I feel that you’re being a tad over-confident, arrogant almost. There is a zombie invasion! Back-up would have been brilliant!

Superman iPhone game

2012-01-09T20:05:00.000Z

We're still playing catch-up with some outstanding reviews here, thanks to the post-Christmas ennui!

So here goes with a couple that should have been up a long time ago!

Superman The Game

A while ago, your intrepid team Hi-Ex! attended the Dundee Comic Book Day, where one of the talks was about this game, which was developed by Dundee based Tiger Games.
Superman as a character has been very badly served in the past when it comes to computer games. I have played quite a few of them and the biggest problem has always been Superman himself. I have never been able to understand how or why they could give Superman an energy bar. He’s indestructible, after all! So having him die because of something that (to him) is relatively minor, like an asteroid falling on his head or something like that, never rang true.
Tiger Games have managed to solve this problem however. Instead of Superman having a health bar, Metropolis does.

The game, you see, concerns you, as Superman, defending the city against escalating attacks from a variety of fronts ranging from good old Lex Luthor to crashing planes or the aforementioned asteroids.
If you fail at any of these tasks then the city takes the damage, not the Man of Steel. So when the city dies, it is game over.
Gameplay is great, with the controls simple to master. The only bugbear is the virtual joystick, which is something that you either love or hate.
Graphic are, given the size of the game, very good indeed and there are some lovely touches, like Superman leaving a blue and red trail behind him as he accelerates in flight.
Some of the gameplay can be a little repetitive – just how many spaceships can fall on one city –but for the laughable price of 69 pence, this really represents superb value for money.

Hi-Ex poster art for 2012

2011-12-21T13:01:00.000Z

This week sees the unveiling of the Hi-Ex! poster artwork, featuring our local superhero Nessie, created for the 2012 event by Edinburgh born artist and previous guest Tanya Roberts.
Tanya studied Animation in Dublin and later went on to work in comics. She has worked recently on Toy Story and Strawberry Shortcake and continues to work on Star Wars: Clone Wars. Hi-Ex! are delighted to have her back as a guest in 2012.

Dennis and Gnasher ®©DC Thomson & Co. Ltd. 2011

Electric Man at Hi-Ex!

2011-12-15T20:20:00.000Z

" An amusing hybrid of romantic comedy and hectic chase thriller. In it's brightest moments, Electric Man captures the intended vide of The Maltese Falcon meets The IT Crowd " - Allan Hunter, Screen

" A wonderfully twisty-turny comic caper, made and played with warmth, wit and genuine affection." - All Star Superman, Batman & Robin artist, Frank Quitely

At Hi-Ex in 2009, David Barras and Scott Mackay were here selling t-shirts, prints and artwork to finance their micro budget film Electric Man. We're happy to announce that to coincide with Hi-Ex 2012, Dave and Scott are back with the finished film. BAFTA nominated for it's screenplay, the film had it's world premiere in the US in September 2010 and this will represent one of the first chances for you to see the film in Scottish cinemas. Electric Man is a new low budget Scottish film set in the world of comic books. Jazz and Wolf own a run down comic shop in need of cash and when the ultra rare and valuable Electric Man Issue 1 , worth a hundred grand, turns up in their shop, they think it's the answer to their prayers. But they're not the only ones who want to get their hands on it. Enter crazed American comic collector Edison Bolt, psychotic Scotsman Uncle Jimmy and the strange, mysterious and beautiful Lauren McCall. Add Wolf's ex girlfriend to the mix and you've got a twisty turner comic caper that'll keep everyone guessing until the end.

Eden Court - 30th and 31st March - with intro from Dave and Scott and Q & A after each screening.

Dave and Scott will also be at Hi-Ex with all new merchandise from the film.

Opening The Throttle: A First Look At White Knuckle

2011-12-15T20:10:00.001Z

Cy Dethan and Valia Kapadai have created a killer.

Forty years ago, Seth Rigal was a man to be feared – a serial strangler with a string of victims. Now nearly seventy and tormented by a lifetime of monstrous violence, Rigal lives on the verge of poverty and quietly waits for the death he knows he deserves. Tortured and confused, still tormented by the drives that made him a killer in his youth, Rigal finds himself almost unconsciously stalking the daughter of his final victim – only to have his precious anonymity snatched from him when he accidentally saves her son’s life. Seth Rigal, formerly known as the Gripper, just became a local celebrity.

The bodies won’t stay buried any longer.

Due for release in May 2012 White Knuckle is Cy Dethan’s latest graphic novel to be published by Markosia , and sees him teamed with internationally acclaimed Greek artist Valia Kapadai to create a complex and intense psychological thriller, distorting the ever-popular “retired gunslinger” motif into a rain-slick urban fantasy of murderous men and the needs that drive them.

Described as "Unforgiven meets Harry Brown - and strangles him," you can read a preview of the first eleven pages at MyEbook.com

http://tinyurl.com/cdc6yu6

Pre-orders will officially open next year but if you want to put your name down on the list now (no payment required until they open) then email cy[AT]cydethan.com.

Why would you do this? Well, the first 20 people to do so will have the opportunity to be drawn into the book as part of the Gripper's case files, and everyone who pre-orders will have the chance to win a piece of original art by Valia Kapadai of the characters in the book.

All pre-orders get their copies signed by the whole team, of course.

We are hoping to be able to get some more goodies for those who pre-order as well - so watch this space for news!

Pre-order price will be £10 instead of £12.99 (+ postage of £2 UK, £4 rest of world or free to collect from the launch at Bristol Comics Convention in May 2012)

You can keep up to date on the latest news about the book at the White Knuckle Facebook Pagehttps://www.facebook.com/pages/White-Knuckle-Comic/ or at the creators’ websites www.cydethan.com or http://neurotic-elf.deviantart.com.

For review copies, artwork samples, more information or interview requests for any of the team, please contact cy[AT]cydethan.com in the first instance.

Darwin's Diaries Vol1-The Eye of the Celts review

2011-12-14T20:21:00.000Z

Well, I think we can safely say with no fear of contradiction that this book was almost totally the opposite of what I was expecting it to be.
It’s about Darwin, I figured, so Cinebook will give us an entertaining and informative biography of the great man. Maybe show us him travelling the world and looking at finches and tortoises and the like.
Boy was I ever wrong!
This is (I assume!) an alternate history of Darwin.
We join him a short time after the publication of ‘On the Origin of Species…’ just as he is met by a mysterious chap who asks for his scientific help on something extraordinary.
It seems that a strange creature is killing of the men who are building the railroad lines in XX, and would Darwin, with all his expertise on evolution, investigate?
This book is an eye opener on almost every level.
First off is the story, which is visceral and violent and full of intrigue.
I was thinking while reading that this was not going to be a monster tale, and that Darwin was going to figure out some kind of ‘real life’ explanation of what is happening, but this doesn't come. In fact no explanation does, as the book ends on an infuriating (in a good way) cliff-hanger.

Another eye popping plot element is the behaviour of Darwin himself. If you have read this book, then you’ll know what I mean here, if not, well… hold onto you hat! This is not the old man with the big white beard we always see him depicted as.
I have mentioned the story already, and it is great stuff. The plot and script, by Sylvian Runberg unfolds nicely as mystery is laid on mystery, leaving the reader gagging for more.
Eduardo Ocana on art duties is also at the top of his game, providing as he does magnificently atmospheric colours and manages to pull of a remarkable trick of depicting some very violent scenes without the reader seeing what is causing them.

All in all, this is straight out of left field and all the better for it. I can’t wait for volume two!

Strip Magazine issue 1

2011-12-13T20:27:00.000Z

We really should have mentioned this before,.

but with things like power cuts and storms, we've been unable to get to the blog for a while.

There is a brand new British anthology comic on the shelves!

It is called, as I am sure you all know, Strip Magazine, and we can tell you that it is well worth your time seeking out.

The variety of strips in there is great – there’s everything from contemporary war stories to ancient tales of daring do, by way of futuristic super spies and everything inbetween.

But I suppose the ‘big’ news about this book, and I suspect the thing that will cause most dads of a certain age to pick it up for their children is the return of the classic Action strip Hookjaw.

This isn’t a new strip, but a reprint of the original series, which has been recoloured by Gary Caldwell and had a brand spanking new lettering job from Jim Campbell. Hookjaw certainly holds up well against the new strips, helped in no small part by the sheer lunacy of the premise!

I tried the book out on my two boys, and they both liked it. The stand out strips for them were the aforementioned Hookjaw and war series Black Ops Extreme. Because there is nothing young boys like more than explosions and giant man eating sharks.

Strip Magazine is available at your local comic shop. If they don’t have it then ask them to get it in for you, because this is a cracking new book and deserving of your support!

Leeds Thought Bubble

2011-11-23T21:43:00.001Z

Team Hi-Ex! headed off to the Leeds Thought Bubble sequential arts festival again this year. It was well worth the two days travelling each way to catch up with friends, Hi-Ex! guests and exhibitors past and future as well as our own comics projects collaborators. Rich does a few comics that were on sale there, Vicky had drawn a strip appearing in a comic called Something Wicked ( by FutureQuake publications ) and we both had worked on strips for a book being launched ' Tales of the Fallen ' part of Barry Nugent's Unseen Shadows trans media project.

We'd volunteered to help the organisers as its important to us that we support other comic events across the UK. After all, we are all trying to do the same thing in promoting comics, bringing fans and creators together and introducing a new generation, a new audience to the massive variety and potential of comics. We had brilliant fun - all the running about without the responsibility! There is a great atmosphere there and masses of people came for the weekend convention which was a cumilation of a weeks events, workshops, talks, conference, competition, film screenings and happenings. We were on guest liaison detail and queue wrangling with the loads of other brilliant friendly and professional volunteers in our coveted red Thought Bubble t-shirts.

Manga cosplayers were out in force, some great costumes, and some...brave ...costumes given the rather cold Leeds fog, brrrr!

2000AD themed canvases were getting painted by a selection of artists throughout the weekend.

Friday night there was a pre con reception, which was a great chance to get together and meet collaborators old and new. Above is Sarah McIntyre and Gillian Rogerson. They have a fabby new book out 'You can't scare a princess' and Sarah's children activity area was pirate themed this year.

Sarah was kind enough to take and send us a rare exclusive photograph of team Hi-Ex! together captured in the wild.

Saturday night at the after show party we got grumpy that the music was too loud to allow conversation, but just prior to leaving thought we might as well join in, so discoed the night away with the young folks. It was great fun! Comics people throwing shapes, a very surreal sight to behold!

blurry pic across one of the two halls.

There was a panel to launch our anthology book ' Tales of the Fallen'- Rich hosted it, on the right, Barry Nugent in the middle with the hat on is the editor/ original creator/ boss , to his left writer Cy Dethan ( who Vicky coloured ' Slaughtermans Creed' for last year)

Left writer Dan Thomson who wrote the story ' Band of Butchers' that Vicky coloured, Martin Conoghan ( whom she has drawn a strip with for in the book 'Spirit of Hope'), and writer Peter Pogers. Also there were artists Steve Penfold and Rob Carey .

The 'women in comics' panel. It was a rather positive up beat discussion, perhaps the days of male dominance can slowly start to be behind us? Although there are still plenty of publications which are boys only cliques... we'll work on it ! Some of speakers on this panel were brilliantly inspiring!

The canvas artwork progresses.

The hall clearing away was exhausting! Thought Bubble is massive compared to Hi-Ex!, but manages to maintain that family and friendly vibe. Then we were done- a billion chairs stacked, tables folded, boxes lugged, stressed exhibitors packed up, rubbish cleared!

Hurrah for the Red Army of helpers, with the lovely Lisa organiser (in denim).Thanks to all for making it so much fun.

Its given us a great boost to start prepping for Hi-Ex! Loads of new guests want to come along, and lots of fantastic people to run comics workshops... but of course a lot depends, as ever on whether we can get funding. watch this space !

The Dandy and The Beano go digital!

2011-11-23T19:45:00.001Z

The UK’s best lovedcomics, The Dandy & The Beano, have announced the introduction of a digitalsubscription service for both titles through Apple’s Newsstand. First published in 1937 and 1938 respectively,the two national comic institutions join another one of our comic legends,Commando, in the App store. The apps deliver digital, enhanced versions of thecomics, enabling fans to read their favourite strips and characters on iPad,iPhone and iPod Touch.

Demonstrating theenduring popularity of the comic brands isthe fact that Apple are already promoting the free Beano app on the front pageof iTunes and it is already sitting in the Top 10 downloads – only hours afterthe apps’ release!

Even though our comicsare for children of all ages… the move into digital publishing underlines DCThomson’s commitment to children’s literacy, ensuring that our famous comicscan be read by kids as widely as possible on all kinds of formats. Teachers,parents and educational experts all acknowledge the role comics have inproviding the bridge between picture books and chapter books and with theincreasing use of apps by children, we hope even more of them can now accessour weekly, original and not-to-mention hilarious content.

Mike Stirling,Editor-in-chief of The Beano said: “Thisis app-solutelyfantastic! We’re all very app-y! Sorry, that’s app-alling! The great thingabout the new app on Newsstand is that it guarantees our fans can enjoy TheBeano 24-7. I used to read The Beano snuggled up under the covers with atorch at night – nowadays, I’ll just cuddle up to my iPhone!”

Editor-in-chief of TheDandy, Craig Graham added: “We’re incredibly excited about being available as adigital download. Now people can have the unique School of Mock that is TheDandy at their fingertips, wherever they are and whatever they’re doing.”

The Beano and Dandyapps are free to download via iTunes and also come with free issues of thecomics so that users can see they great content they’ll get in advance, alongwith simple instructions of how to subscribe or download. Payment is via the user’siTunes account. Digital copies are enhanced with interactive advertising, videoand links to the existing Beano & Dandy websites – www.beano.com & www.dandy.com

DC Thomson havedeveloped these apps in association with Yudu Media – www.yudu.com – and are planning to bring a rangeof existing titles to Apple’s Newsstand in the coming months.

Last Exit

2011-11-22T19:18:00.001Z

So, we were at Thoughtbubble in Leeds this weekend (proper report to follow, but short version: it was brilliant).
One thing you notice at conventions are t-shirts... lots of t-shirts, and quite a few of them are from the LastExitToNowhere range.

How can something be so completely geeky and esoteric, yet be achingly cool at the same time?
Like this for example:

No, actually, that's too easy... this one:

Oh I could go on...
Sorry if this looks like an ad for them, but it really isn't, I just got over excited by cool t-shirts. It is, after all, the nerd way...

Though Bubble Festival

2011-11-16T22:30:00.001Z

Team Hi-Ex are heading off to the wonderful Thought Bubble this weekend, its loads bigger than Hi-Ex but still feels like a friendly inclusive event, there is something for all fans, lots of academic talks, fun happenings, workshops and a good gender mix. Many of the lovely Hi-Ex guests will be there. We'll have more Hi-Ex updates news and reviews when we get back.

Meanwhile we're getting regular enquiries from people who want to book a table at Hi-Ex 2012. The new website WILL be up very shortly and yes, we are still taking bookings, mail us at hiex.comics@gmail dot com for more details.

Grant Morrison Talking with Gods at Eden Court

2011-11-10T21:23:00.001Z

There's a special treat for comic fans in Eden Court this weekend!
They'll be screening this documentary on the... enigmatic... comic book writer Grant Morrison!
You can find details and book tickets for it HERE.

Doctor Who: Serpent Crest Pt1 Tsar Wars

2011-11-09T20:07:00.000Z

For the majority of people in the world who have heard of Doctor Who, I would be prepared to bet that the first actor they think of connected with the role is Tom Baker.

I think it is fair to say that he inhabited the role in a way no actor before or since has done, so it was delightful when, a few years ago, he decided to embrace the role one again, and perform in both these audio adventures by AudioGo and a new series from Big Finish.

This particular story is the first in a new story arc written by Paul Magrs, who Who fans will be familiar with from his many contributions to Who Lore, not least the creation of the wonderful IrisWildthyme.

Fan’s of Robbie Morrison’s 2000AD series Nicholi Dante will no doubt see something familiar about the title of this story, as well as being equally familiar with the setting.

Here, the Doctor and his faithful housekeeper Mrs Wibbsey are swept from their peaceful cottage into a world of court intrigue in a far future modelled very much on late 19^th Century Russia.

The story unfolds cleverly, with a number of nods towards Imperial Russia, and there is some amusement to be had in seeing Baker having an absolute ball playing dual roles, one of which is a not-so-sly nod at one of the parts, apart from the Doctor, that he is most famous for.

As well as being a good self contained adventure, this also sets up an interesting story arc for the rest of the series and has an ending that insists the listener comes back from the next instalment.

Thorgal vol 10 review

2011-11-09T15:45:00.000Z

I had never read any of the previous volumes in this series, so was coming to this cold. I wasn’t not sure what to expect. From the beautifully painted cover, it was to be the story of a prehistoric fellow fighting bears and such.

And while it is true that he does briefly encounter a bear, as depicted in the cover, there is a hell of a lot more to it than that.

Of course if you have read any of these books this will not be news to you, but for those of you who have not let me expand on this a bit.

Thorgal is a wandering adventurer type. A bit like Conan. A bit like Slainé. Only not at all like those two characters at all.

The story here is just your standard capture/escape/repeat format, but as you would expect from a writer like Hamme (who also created that other Cinebook series, the sublimely convoluted XIII) there is much more going on here.

A lot is lost on me as a first time reader. Thorgal’s meeting up with a character from his past, for example, no doubt will have a greater impact on the long term reader, although it is communicated well enough that it is a Surprise and a Big Deal, so knowing the details of their past encounter is not required.

There is also an element of (apparent) magic going on in here, which is also something that I found surprising, although in hindsight I don’t know why. Perhaps it was the very authentic and real world art by Grzrgorz Rosinski that did so?

Whatever the reason, this element worked well too, and the explanation for it was doubly surprising and made me want to read the previous volumes just to find out more about the mysterious world that Thorgal inhabits.

Thorgal is published by Cinebook.

Journey Into Space: The World in Peril review

2011-11-09T15:37:00.000Z

We reviewed the first series of Journey into Space here, and very good it was too.

There was a series two between then and this one, in which the intrepid crew of the Discovery visited Mars and had some hi-jinx there.

We join them as they head back to Earth, but of course it is not long before they are plunged headfirst into yet another adventure.

The first thing you’ll notice about this tale is the length. There are twenty half hour long episodes of the story, as well as a few extras that I’ll come to in due course.

So, twenty episodes. That’s just about ten hours of story. In a story of this length, you have to expect some flab, and there is – but not as much as you would think. A good recent series to compare this to is the Torchwood story Miracle Day, which was spread too thin over the same length of time as Journey into Space.

But where Torchwood filled this vacuum with pointless capture and escape scenes and overlong cuts, Charles Chilton does it by having his characters have a conversation, so while they may not be advancing the plot, it is at least interesting.

There are also some clever scenes that could only work on radio. We spend a couple of episodes in the pitch darkness, for example. And it is a mark of just how good the storytelling is that I was listening to this and wondering how the actors could get about in the dark so well, forgetting that is was all pretend!

The main plot presents a slight hiccup for those of us who have not listened to series two, as it does refer back to a lot of things that happen there. While is not totally essential to have heard the previous series, as Chilton does well to fill in any gaps, I did feel a bit left out at times.

I also had a niggling problem with this and the previous series, and it took until episode seventeen here until the penny dropped as to what it was. My problem is Jet Morgan.

Yes, he is the hero of the hour, but he really rubs me up the wrong way. Most of this is, I suspect, because I’m looking at it through the wrong end of fifty years of history in which the class system has moved on somewhat (although looking at our current government you’d be forgiven in thinking it hadn’t) and his behaviour, particularly towards the ever loyal Lemmy, should be seen as a product of the time. The other reason is that he seems to do hardly anything but bark orders at the rest of the crew… anyway: discuss!

As is the way in most sci-fi, the plot concerns (as the title of the adventure may tell you) the Earth being under terrible threat. But it is the nature of this threat, or more specifically, the delivery method of it, that provided me with the most entertainment.

I’ll not say much more about it, but to me it reads like Chilton giving a delightfully cheeky two-fingers to the opposition.

The final two discs contain a more recent (1981) adventure that acts as an epilogue to the main story. It jars if listened to immediately after the main event though, because it features all new actors in the main roles and it takes a while to get their voices fixed in that part (although one of them is the legendary Ed Bishop, so all is good). While this is a good story, and one with an interesting scientific grounding, it doesn’t ‘feel’ as much like a Journey into Space story as the one before. Part of this is, I think, the fact that this one was written in a post Star Trek, post Doctor Who world, and it feels like the narrative has been informed by they storytelling in those shows.

There is also a radio documentary about the series. Or at least should be! Further investigation has shown I have a duff, early copy, of the set with this missing, but AudioGo will replace any of these faulty sets, so fear not if you have one too!

I will say though, that if it’s anything like the interview section on the first series, it will be well worth the effort.

As I said in the previous review: there is usually a very good reason something is considered a classic.

Essential listening.

The Recollection review

2011-11-09T15:19:00.000Z

Clichés are usually clichés for a very good reason: they are true. And in the case of this book the one that applies is ‘Never judge a book by its cover’.

The cover, but Hi-Ex! guest Neil Roberts is quite wonderful and combined with the rest of the cover layout it gives the whole thing a nice old school sci-fi novel feel to it.

Now, I never read the blurb on the back of a book (at least not before I read it), so it is probably my own fault that I was surprised when the book opened in contemporary London.

From there, the story flips between there and some (at first) unnamed other more ‘sci-fi’ time and/or location.

I don’t as a rule read a lot of sci-fi books. I usually limit my reading to the more obvious authors like Iain M Banks or, as is the case here, ones that have been sent for review. I also have to confess that I had never heard of Gareth Powell before, even though he has written two book previous to this one, and on the strength of this one, I’ll be searching them out.

Powell writes in short chapters of only a few pages. It is an old trick but it is also a good one, as it keeps the reader hanging on past their bedtime for just one more chapter

This is an impressive book. The Earthbound scenes start with a brilliant high concept idea, while the other strand of story exhibits a breadth of imagination up there with the best of them. Powell has the same knack the aforementioned Banks has of taking an idea and expanding it into something mind boggling, as he does here with his bubble habitats.

But it’s not all grand ideas, there is also a very good plot running through here. I did wonder at one point just how he was going to join up the disparate plot strands, but Powell does so in a clever, and (it has to be said) in retrospect, obvious way. I say ‘obvious’ because I really should have figured it out!

Anyway, the plot: it is great stuff. Powell manages to pull some original ideas out of his hat, while riffing on some well worn sci-fi trope.

It all ends well too. And by ‘well’ I don’t necessarily mean it has a happy ending (or not), I mean that he deftly ties up plot points and leaves just enough dangling there that the reader will hopefully want more. And in this he succeeds.

All in all, this book is well worth seeking out – you’ll find details on the Solaris website.

I started this review with a cliché, so I’ll end with one too: Gareth L Powell is one to watch.

Doctor Who: The Silent Stars Go By review

2011-11-09T15:08:00.000Z

On the anniversary of the very first Doctor Who broadcast, it's only right that we have a Doctor Who review!

This, latest Who novel from the amazing writing machine that is Dan Abnett, and reviewed here in its audiobook form from AudioGo, is ostensibly a Christmas tale.

But it isn’t really. Yes, most of the story takes place in the cold and snow and the book and chapter titles are all taken from hymns and carols. Yes it begins with the Doctor attempting to take Rory and Amy home for Christmas. But apart from all that it’s not Christmassy (Christmas-esque?) at all.

What we do get, as you will already have figured out by the cover, is Ice Warriors.

Ice Warriors are great. They are not your normal Who villains in that they are not really ‘bad’ at all, in fact they have appeared as ‘good guys’ as well as ‘bad guys’ in the original series. This is something that Abnett makes good mileage out of too – there are some nice scenes with the Doctor and the Ice Warriors discussing the morality or ‘honour’ of their actions.

There are some nice moments as the Doctor refers back to his previous encounters with the Warriors, which impressed me as to Abnett’s knowledge of the show. No mention, though, of the recent Eighth Doctor encounters with the Ice Warriors in the Big Finish range..!

Abnett throws in some good surprises too. He builds well on the expectations the reader will have for an Ice Warriors story, even feeding these expectations in places, but he also provides a marvellous plot twist in the final act.

As I have mentioned him again, we should talk about Dan Abnett for a moment. He is perhaps best known for writing countless novels set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, as well as creating for 2000AD comic the series Kingdom and Sinister/Dexter.

Both of these series showcase brilliantly the very best things about Abnett’s writing: his ability to plot and his love for the (sometimes painful) pun and the sheer fun he has with his wordplay. There is a lot of that sort of thing in here, and most of it plays a clever part in the plot too.

It also struck me about halfway through listening to this that the production on the audiobook was wonderful. The use of sound effects and incidental music to enhance the mood was very clever. And then I realised that there were none of these things on there. No, any feeling of excitement felt by the listener can be placed squarely at the feet of both Abnett’s writing and the peerless reading by Micheal Maloney.

I tend to judge these audiobooks by the ‘Amy’ voice, and Maloney’s Scottish accent is pretty good, as is his Doctor. But it is Rory that he does best, at times sounding a dead ringer for Arthur Darvill. This is helped, naturally, by Abnett’s bang on writing of the characters.

This is great.

Doctor Who: Serpent Crest Pt3 Aladdin Time

2011-11-09T15:06:00.001Z

This is the third in the Serpent’s Crest series from AudioGo, starring the amazing Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor.

I think, before we get to the story itself, that this is the most remarkable thing about this. Baker, after all his years away from Who, seems to have embrace the role as fully as he did when playing it on television.

It is all too easy to imagine his wide eyed stare and mischievous grin as he delivers the lines. And as I said previously, some of the lines sound very much like Baker adlibs. Apologies to Paul Magrs, the writer of this series, if I’m way off in this!

Anyway, The title may be a groan inducing pun, but this is a fun packed adventure. It is lighter in tone than the two stories that preceded it.

As the name suggests, it is based around the Aladdin story. Magrs plays it well too, with the Doctor’s reactions to everything helping to steer the narrative away from what could so easily have been cliché.

Worth a special mention is the very Who spin he gives on one of the staples of the Aladdin story. Here, the magic carpet is something that will definitely bring a smile to the face of any listener.

Likewise, the magic lamp is also subverted, although to be honest, I had been paying attention throughout the previous episodes so guessed this one.

What I did not guess, though, was how this story ended. It doesn’t have quite the cliff-hanger ending the others had, but even so, I’d say it is an ending that intrigues the listener even more than the others…

Doctor Who: Serpent Crest Pt2 The Broken Crown

2011-11-09T15:03:00.000Z

This picks up immediately at the end of the previous AudioGo story, Tsar Wars, with the Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey lost somewhen in the past.

We quickly find out when they have arrived, and hard on the heels of this information, the adventure unfolds around them.

This one has a delightful Dickensian feel to it, and there is a nice atmosphere to everything.

As always, Baker is extraordinary in the role. His energy and enthusiasm is infectious and there were time that I wondered, knowing Baker’s public persona as I do, if there were places where he was ad-libbing.

Most of the cast are fantastic, but they are let down a bit by some stiff acting from the younger members of the cast, although they manage to sell the big moments well enough when they are required.

The story is narrated by Gus Harvey, who plays one of the children, and he does very well, although sometimes the language he uses seems far beyond that of a ten year old boy.

This is the second in a series of adventures, and for a long time I was wondering how and why, and indeed if, this story was connected to the one that had went before. But connected it is in quite a clever way, and one that I really should have spotted. And as we know, these are the best kind of plot twists.

As with Tsar Wars, this one ends with a cliff-hanger, one that for my money is even better than the previous one, and demands you listen on.

XIII Vol 9 For Maria review

2011-11-08T20:15:00.000Z

The previous book in the XIII series, Thirteen to One, provided a neat epilogue to what had gone before and set up a series of further adventures.

It ended with a stonking final page that promised much, but of course, this being from the unpredictable pen of Jean Van Hamme, none of what was set up in the finale of the last book is addressed here!

Instead, we find our not-so-amnesiac-anymore-or-is-he? hero in South America with the bafflingly loyal Major Jones. I say bafflingly because despite being a feisty independent woman who can look after herself, she does tag along after XIII quite a bit. And during this particular volume she accepts a pretty major revelation about his past with barely a ‘meh’.

Anyway, that aside, this is very much business as usual for XIII as he goes up against yet another sinister group of bad guys.

And when I say ‘business as usual’, you’ll know that this is not a bad thing. Because business as usual for XIII always involves plenty of action, convoluted and surprising plotting and lots of good old fashioned adventuring.

As always, the art is brilliant, but Hamme’s plotting really stands out here.

He really is a great writer and the way he effortlessly weaves in plot elements for volumes near the beginning of the series and at the same time lays the groundwork for further ones is a joy to behold.

This is the first volume in a new cycle for XIII, and has one of those ending that leaves you not just wanting the next episode, but needing it.

XIII: For Maria is published by Cinebook.

Remember, remember the 5th of November

2011-11-06T01:58:00.000Z

This years Guy Fawkes night seemed to have a comic related theme- The book ' V for Vendetta' Written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd centers around the 5th of November and makes a new twist on the Guy Fawkes story. Now with with all the global protests and people adopting the 'V for vendetta' masks as a symbol of resistance against oppressive governments there was much discussion today about the book and the film.

If you haven't already seen the film of the book here is a wee clip, it's brilliant;

and the book;

more info here, but take my word for it, its genius.

Some people marched on parliament today wearing these masks. You will see them across the world at all sorts of protests.

(BBC picture )

When i first started hanging out with comic creators i didn't really know who was who and hadn't read much outside of 2000ad. So I was at Bristol Comic Expo and went into a bar with some folks and was sat next to a nice gentleman in a white suit. He asked to see the sketchbook full of fan sketches I'd been collected and asked if it was okay if he did one.

It was of course David Lloyd who I am happy to know much better now. He is not only a wonderful artist, and a gentleman, but very active in promoting comics education. He was scheduled to guest at Hi-Ex one year but jury duty thwarted the plan.

I am one of the organisers of our local community bonfire night. Today I was late to go down and help build the bonfire as i was too busy online debating aspects of Guy Fawkes night and the protest movement ( we all know the perils of internet debates ! ).

When i got to the bonfire site I had the task of unwrapping , stacking and ordering the fire works for the display before myself and 3 others lit them. Imagine my amusement when i saw this firework;

Anyone who thinks Comics are silly, childish, irrelevant or trashy, is sadly missing out on a very important aspect of our vibrant, dynamic and evolving culture.

Auction to help Comic Artist- Appeal

2011-11-04T19:33:00.000Z

In 2009, Alexandra Trotsenko, a Russian artist living in Ireland, had her fingers cut off. This happened during the course of a vicious knife attack in her own home. The attacker has since been jailed for 16 years, but without expensive surgery, Alexandra will not draw again.

Many artists in the Irish community have come together to donate our work to a special charity auction, hoping to pay for the prosthesis which may help Alexandra resume her career. Hi-Ex will be sending some artwork over, the details of how you can help are on the website of Adams Auction house in Blackrock , the Auction will be on November 27th 2011.

Please support this great cause and donate to Alexandra or bid at the auction if you can. Contact Adams Auction house for details of the auction or If you have something you’d like to donate, contact Bryan Greene or Martina Noonan on 01 2885146/7/8. Alternatively, you can make a donation to:

BANK OF IRELAND LIVELINE ACCOUNT (Montrose branch)
ACCOUNT NO. 70546818
SORT CODE 90 13 51

( Thanks to celine kiernan for the information )

Doctor Who Blackout review

2011-11-03T20:49:00.000Z

It is interesting to compare and contrast Who adventures that are set roughly in the same historical time and place.

Blackout takes place in New York in the 1960s and while this is a good half a century later (an eye blink for a Timelord), I could not help but comparing it to the television adventure Daleks in Manhattan.

As with that tale, this has the Doctor teaming up with a down on his luck black fellow as his ‘companion of the hour’ as it where, while his permanent companions are off doing their own thing.

But this is really where the similarities end. Were Daleks in Manhattan was a confused mishmash (albeit one with some very strong elements, but elements that were outweighed by illogic), this is an exercise in tight, economic storytelling.

It opens with a great pre-credits scene in which Stuart Milligan as narrator delivers a perfectly timed exchange. After that we’re into the usual Who fare of frantic chases and sinister aliens with questionable motives.

These motives, while plausible, do result in couple of minor problems I had with the story. One concerns a character and their place in what is happening – this is something that would be a massive spoiler, so I can’t go into it here. The other is the Message. Now, it is not in any way a bad Message, in fact it is one I agree with wholeheartedly. It’s just that it is delivered in a slightly heavy handed way that makes the listener think ‘Yes! I get it!

Apart from that, this is a great way to spend an hour and a bit. Milligan, who played Nixon in ‘The Impossible Astronaut’ is a very good narrator, his Matt Smith in particular is excellent.

This is also a very visual story, and I can’t help wondering if it was first pitched as a television adventure, only to be knocked back because of the colossal effects budget it would require, before finding a home at AudoGo?

Dundee Comic Day

2011-11-03T11:16:00.000Z

Dundee Comics day is organised by Dr Chris Murray ( and team ) who runs the Mlitt in comics at Dundee University. Its a fantastic event, great friendly atmosphere, great guests and interesting talks.

Paul Gravett gave a shortened version of a fascinating talk about the history of comics and '1001 Comic Books you must read before you die' a brand new gorgeous book that he has edited. There is an incredible variety of comics out there internationally much much more than people popularly think, some really inspiring and beautiful work.

Martin Conaghan and Will Pickering talk about the re-release of their and acclaimed historically accurate Burke and Hare Graphic novel, explaining how they built up the information and story.

Monty Nero the fantastic artist and writer talks about his current work on a brilliant comic called 'Death Sentence'

John Wagner had spent the day touring Dundee with friend and journalist Mike Donachie, they'd found the house with the shed that it had all started in with Pat Mills, where they used to sit and write! John talked about the need for wannabe writers to get themselves recognised in the massive pile of unsolicited submissions. How strong characters were the key to good storytelling. He also talked about the pros and cons of writing partnerships and took lots of questions about the Dredd film, why Button Man hasn't been filmed yet and about the aging Dredd issue.

Robbie Morrison - Comics taught him how to tell stories. He'd read of how a spider bite gave super spider powers, nuclear exposure turns you big and green and soon realised that reality isn't like that. He wanted to tell stories that reflected more reality, the human and emotional content. Dante was conceived to create a different type of character for 2000ad, 11 books and 16 years later we are drawing to the story's conclusion that Robbie always knew would happen, he didn't want a character to go on and on past the point where the writer no longer remembered or cared about the story. He feels guilty about how much Dante has suffered, and warned of more suffering to come.

Colin McNeil ( a regular Hi-Ex guest ) started his talk by explaining how uncomfortable as an artist he is at talking in public and how much better he'd be with a blackboard showing things visually. However his passion for subjects he cares for is always apparent. He talked about the influence of boys war comics on him as a child, this was the generation that didn't talk about the war, these stories showed him what had happened to the previous generation and members of his family. He dislikes the word 'hero' as it is generally a propoganda term. Colin feels he is not really a comic artist but an artist who just happens to draw comics. His main early comic art influences are Carlos Ezquerra, Cam Kennedy and Mike MacMahon. He also enthused about how as a small child he'd had the opportunity to see Rembrandt's Night Watch painting close up behind the ropes and how the colours and brush work had stayed with him.

The Commando editorial and writer team explained what makes a good solid story ( characters and the interaction between characters ) and discussed why Commando is still going after 50 years. There has been some great artists work on it over the years. It was however pointed out that only 2% of the readership is female.

Cam Kennedy ( another Hi-Ex guest ) was a very entertaining speaker, regaling us with tales of his early years drawing in France and subsequent move to Orkney. He talked about the Scottishness and humour in the comics he's worked on. Cam also loved drawing machines, spaceships and tanks, coming from generations of engineers. While the Star Wars comics were a fan favorite, Cam was never a fan, he got sick of "drawing a big rug and a dust bin", though he pitched the Bobba Fett series which was witter by Wagner as he enjoyed that character. He also told the audience the famous Kenny Who? story.

Frank Quitely ( another previous Hi-Ex guest )- gave a personal and inspiring talk about his work and the influences on him. He never made any distinction as a young person between comic art, album art, poster art and fine art, he was surrounded by books and art books and drew from all of them. He'd always doodled sequential breakdowns of motion like football or fight scenes without realising how it connected to comics. He explained that for him, when we hear a story it is in moving pictures in our heads, the artists job is to select the correct freeze frame to put the story on paper. His first published work was of course on Scottish 'scatological slapstick' comic Electric Soup, where Frank satirised the much loved Broons with 'the Greens' . This is when he first adopted his pseudonym, which had "seemed really clever when 19 or 20", and had also been to hide what he was doing from parents etc. He'd worked for years in comics before an editor at DC questioned his storytelling layouts, what had previously been intuitive them became an obsession as the drawing took second place to the storytelling and he learnt everything he could from Scott McLeod and many others. While convalescing recently from back problems which stopped his working he has dreamed up some wonderful sounding personal projects.

Basically all these folks are brilliant, and many of them will be coming along to Hi-Ex 2012. Many thanks to the Dundee comic day team for organising this great event and having us along.

Ghostly Terror and Vampire Horror reviews!

2011-11-02T19:58:00.000Z

You can blame us being away at the Dundee Comics Day for this and a few other reviews not appearing during the Halloween weekend. Let’s just pretend that we did it anyway, eh?

So, these two short story audiobooks released by AudioGo are themed around the subjects, as you can see, of ghosts and vampires.

First up the ghost collection, Ghostly Terror.

This is the shorter of the two collections, featuring three stories.

it opens with ‘Canon Alberic’s Scrapbook’ by M.R. James, read by Andrew Sachs. I had not heard or read this one before, but it is a very good story, as you would expect from an author like James. He constructs a great sense of creeping dread, which is aided considerably by the sound design and Sachs’s reading.

The final story is one I was more familiar with - W. F. Harvey’s 'The Beast With Five Fingers', which if you have never read or heard before is well worth your time.

But best of the lot is the middle story, 'The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and read by Laurel Lefkow.

To my shame I had never heard of either the story or author previous to this. The story is a masterpiece and a perfect example of portraying paranoia and mental breakdown. Truly unsettling.

The second collection is called Vampire Horror.

It begins with a story that is not only very good, but very important. It is The Vampyre by John Polidori. This is a long story, so make sure you’re on a long journey when you start listening (I’m assuming here that you also listen in the car!).

It is very good because it has an interesting structure and a creepy atmosphere. It is important because it bears some resemblance to a later, more well known book about pursuing a vampire across Europe, only this was written 78 years before that one.

My favourite story in the collection was the next one: Wailing Well by M.R. James. This is in turn a pitch black comedy and genuine horror by way of a pretty brutal morality tale.

The collection is rounded of with two more tales: the sinister ‘For The Blood is the Life’ by Marion Crawford and another M. R. James effort, ‘An Episode of Cathedral History’, which is as far from the other James story in this set as is possible to be. It’s dark and disturbing and, like the James story on the Ghosts collection, it feels like something a young Clive Barker would have written.

So – you’re a horror fan? Buy these.

No Man's World The Ironclad Prophecy review

2011-11-01T19:14:00.000Z

I hadn’t read the first book in this series, Black Hand Gang. But after just a few pages of this one, I was beginning to regret that fact.

This was not, as you might be assuming, because I had no clue what was happening here, but actually because this was such a brilliant premise that I immediately wanted to know more about it.

Briefly, this is about a group of British soldiers who have been transported from their ‘home’ on the Somme to an alien world.

Yes, you did read that right.

And yes, you’re correct. This should not work, as it is a concept so high that it is in danger of running out of air. Nevertheless, work it does.

The book begins with the sizeable cast picking up the pieces of what I assume are the events of the first book. Author Pat Kelleher mentions past events throughout this volume, but in such a clever way that they don’t feel forced and, more importantly, don’t make the reader feel that they have been told so much that they don’t need to read the previous volume.

The book is split into two distinct plot strands, as we follow the Zulu-like battles around the British trenches as they fight a horde of aliens while dealing with other, perhaps more sinister, events.

The second tale is of the crew of the Ivanhoe – a tank that also made the journey. This is for me the more entertaining of the two strands. Kelleher has assembled a great cast of characters, with Atkins, the down to Earth corporal charged with bringing the tank crew back and Mathers, the Lieutenant in charge of the tank being particularly interesting, although Kelleher manages to give pretty much everyone enough to do at some point during the book.

There is action aplenty here, with some very well described fight scenes, although I did not feel any urgency over the soldiers running out of ammo, even though this is something that is mentioned regularly.

If you have a peek at the cover, there is a scene depicted there that is one of the highlights of the novel. To tell you why would be cruel as it would ruin it totally, but you can just trust me on this one…

As this is the second book in a series, you should not expect everything to be sewn up nicely at the end. It is true the plot arcs for this book are brought together and resolved well, but as you would expect, there are cliff-hangers and unanswered questions aplenty there too.

I’m already looking forward to the third book in the series, but in the meantime I can comfort myself with the knowledge that I have the first one to tide myself over until Abaddon release it..

FREE CO-OP MODE AVAILABLE FOR WARHAMMER 40,000: SPACE MARINE

2011-10-25T19:13:00.001+01:00

So, a while ago we reviewed the game Space Marine.
In that review, one of the very few negatives was the lack of online modes. Well, we'll take full credit for THQ announcing that there is a brand new, and free, co-op mode available for online play!

Details from their press release:

Space Marine's Exterminatus mode pits an elite squad of four Space Marines against hordes of alien enemies in a score based fight to the death. Players can choose the Tactical Marine, Devastator or Assault Marine as well as utilizing any weapons and perks available to those classes.
Each of Exterminatus Mode's scenarios, ‘Assault on Hab Center Andreas' and ‘Escape From Kalkys Facility,' feature global leader boards challenging players to better their scores by completing dynamic challenges as well as utilizing score modifiers which increase game difficulty in exchange for additional points.
Experience earned while playing this mode counts towards the game's multiplayer ranks, allowing players to earn progression in both Co-Op and multiplayer.
Jim Huntley, Vice President of Global Brand Management commented,
"We are delighted to be able to reward the loyal fans of Space Marine with a new free mode to extend and enhance their game play experience. Exterminatus will provide a rewarding new challenge to players old and new."
Space Marine's Exterminatus mode is available to download for free on the Playstation^®3 computer entertainment system and Windows PC. The Xbox^®360 version will be available for free soon.

XIII Vol 8: Thirteen to One review

2011-10-25T19:03:00.000+01:00

The previous volume of XIII from Cinebook, Night of August Third, rounded of that particular story arc for our now not so amnesiac (but not yet fully memoried up) agent XIII.

At the beginning of this volume things have moved on somewhat, with agent Jones off doing her own thing (again!) and XIII receiving both an invitation one really cannot refuse and an interesting job offer…

And so, as is the way with this series, intrigue and double-cross are not far behind as XIII delves deeper into his past, perhaps putting more pieces together while an old foe is on his tail.

This volume, while having some great action set pieces (XIII’s infiltration of an enemy island is a particular highlight), there do seem to be a lot of talking heads senses in here which slow the pace somewhat, especially in the first third of the book.

Having said that, Hamme’s skill at dripfeeding the reader with titbits of information at a pace that could almost be described as torture. And the art by William Vance is, as usual, all but perfect.

This volume seems to be setting us up for some highly explosive shenanigans in the future with the aforementioned old foe and the new one XIII makes during the course of this tale.

Ah yes… that final scene. It had me laughing and almost punching the air. XIII is the sort of maverick spy hero that American writers only dream of creating.

Assassin's Creed Revelations trailer

2011-10-24T21:00:00.000+01:00

Yes, yes... I know you're all getting excited by the new Batman game (which does look splendid) and Battlefield 3, but this is the one I'm looking forward to the most!

Legends of the law: 2000 AD creator interview ebook launche

2011-10-21T11:19:00.000+01:00

2000 AD^® haslaunched its first ebook collection of interviews with some of the biggestnames in the comic book industry.

This first collection includes a three-part interviewwith the co-creator of Judge Dredd, CarlosEzquerra, as well as pieces on the creator of 2000 AD, Pat Mills, andtwo of the artists who fundamentally defined the look of Dredd – Mick McMahon and Ron Smith.

In a new experiment for 2000 AD, the series is being made available in ebook format only – available through Amazon for just £1.99.

These long-form interviews from the monthly Judge Dredd Megazine are a uniqueinsight into the life and work of seminal figures in British comics history,covering everything from their childhoods, to their time with 2000 AD and their work elsewhere. Latervolumes will include interviews with more top flight talent from the world ofTharg.

“These interviews are one of the highlights of the Judge Dredd Megazine and giveunprecedented insights into the creative minds behind 2000 AD and its characters,” said Matt Smith, editor of 2000 AD.“Nowhere else will you find this long-running series of long-form interviews,and these collections will allow fans to get an in depth look at the people whomade 2000 AD what it is today.”

Octocon

2011-10-20T00:28:00.000+01:00

Team Hi-Ex headed off to Octocon, The National Irish Science Fiction convention, we are very honoured to have been asked back to be guests at this great event. Not only are we comic event organisers but comic creators ourselves, we feel very lucky to get to experience the industry from these different angles. We try to keep in touch with as many of the other related events across the UK as possible. When Hi-Ex started in 2008 there was only 4 or 5 comic events, I think there are more than a dozen now! One of the things that draws us to comics is how friendly and inclusive it is. Sci-Fi or 'speculative fiction' is similarly friendly and welcoming. This is why we love Octocon in Dublin. We don't see other events as competition, but colleagues all working together to promote the medium of comics and genres within Speculative Fiction.

The event embraces; sci-fi, fantasy, comics, steam punk, horror and pretty much whatever else you can think of. Hi-Ex goers would have recognised many of the guests, and possibly not us as we would have looked a lot more relaxed compared to how you see us in Inverness! We both had the opportunity to talk on various discussion panels and Vicky ran a workshop on 'How to draw Monsters and Demons'. Some of the discussions were really thought provoking, raising questions such as why women are more reluctant to join in panel discussions than men and how event organisers can redress the gender balance? We also have some more very entertaining guests lined up and ideas for activities after the weekend.

We'd like to thank the Octocon team for their supreme efforts to pull together a deliciously smooth and enjoyable weekend.

Hi-Ex's Richmond on a panel with Hi-Ex regular guests, Micheal Carroll, Sally Hurst and John Higgins.

Guest of Honour John Higgins- Currently working on Judge Dredd, gives a talk about his career in Art.

Ian Sharman, Rich, and Alan Nolan discuss humour in comics.

Alan takes part in the 'Exquisite corpse' a live comic jam in front of an audience.

Rich talks with Eoin and Ciaran from a new Irish Comic anthology 'Lightning Strike' and Artist Barry Keegan, on making comics for beginners.

If any of you get the chance to go to Octocon we thoroughly recommend it! Meanwhile bear with us while work on a new Hi-Ex website is on-going and we work away behind the scenes to bring you a brilliant event in Inverness next spring.

remember we are also on twitter = @HiExComicCon and

Facebook = www.facebook.com/HiExComicCon

Digital Daughter

2011-10-13T17:08:00.000+01:00

And while we're on a roll and blogging nice things about other people, we should point you in the direction of Digital Daughter.

The are a brilliant new band fronted by the incredible singer and artist Sally Hurst!
As well as possessing a voice that would make angels weep, you can also see her talents on display in the latest issue of the Judge Dredd Megazine where her colours grace the Judge Dredd strip!

Check out the band HERE!

Octocon!

2011-10-13T16:59:00.000+01:00

This weekend is a rare one for us at Hi-Ex! in that we'll be relaxing!
Well, sort of... we'll be at the Irish National Sci-Fi convention OCTOCON this weekend where we'll be taking part in various panels and workshops, so if you are there please come and say hello!

As well as the wonderful us, there are some excellent guests, friend of Hi-Ex! and Judge Dredd writer extraordinaire Micheal Carroll will be there, as well as their guest of honour: the legend that is John Higgins!

You'd be a fool to miss it!

The Avengers trailer

2011-10-11T19:24:00.000+01:00

Oh man...
Seriously, just how cool does this look?

The Clinic review

2011-10-09T17:04:00.000+01:00

The first shock in this movie comes at the very beginning,and it has nothing to do with the movie itself. No, it is the sight of thewonderful Andy Whitfield in the male lead role that was a bit of a jolt, andjust served to bring how much he’ll be missed in the role of Spartacus.
Anyway, on with the movie!
The story starts on Christmas Eve 1979 in the Australian desert, which isanother jolt for those of us used to freezing cold snow and bitter winds atthat time of year. So we join a young couple as they head across country forthe holidays. Stopping off at a cheap motel for the night, things start to gobad when Cameron (Whitfield) finds his pregnant fiancée Beth (Tabrett Bethell)has gone missing.

So far so horror movie. But this movie quickly sends the viewerin a different direction than the one the viewer may be expecting from the set-up.While we see some of Whitfield doing the strong husband act and trying to findout what has happened to his wife (really Australians – do you really dislikeyour country cousins that much? Or is every remote Australian town inhabited exclusivelyby sinister weirdoes?), this is very much Bethell’s movie.

And, I should warn you, it is a grim one. She wakes up in a bath full of ice tofind that her baby has been removed and we follow her as she and a group ofother women who have had the same thing happen to them try to find out justwhat the hell has happened to them while they are being staked through theclinic by a mysterious figure...

The story itself has a nice (nice is not the word really,but you know what I mean!) old school horror story feel to it. To me it has theatmosphere of one of the novels of Richard Laymon. If you are unfamiliar withhis work, I suggest you check him out, he really is one of the unsung mastersof the horror genre.
To me true horror, as I am sure I have said here before, is where people aredoing bad things to other people. I find supernatural horror to be much lessscary than ‘real’ horror. And that is not to say that movies like Hostel, Saw58 and the like are scary. They are not. There is a difference between meannessand gore and scaring people.
And there are scares in this. There is a touch of the Saws about it in places,but this is not a torture-porn gorefest, although there is some gore in there.
No, there is an actual story going on here, and while I was a bit annoyed at abrief flirtation with a possible supernatural element, this was explained wellin a rather nice twist. Yes, the twist does require the viewer to swallow agigantic coincidence or two, but that’s okay.

And pleasingly for a modern horror movie, after all thedarkness and death and misery, it was nice to have a genre movie that ends on anote that could be interpreted as hope for a change!

The Clinic is released on DVD by Universal on 17^thOctober.

Torchwood The Lost Files review

2011-10-09T16:56:00.000+01:00

This is a collection of three original Torchwood adventuresthat were broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

As this is Torchwood, the stories vary widely in quality,but when they are good, they are absolutely brilliant.
As these stories are set before the events in the Children of Earth storyline,they feature (and this is a massive spoiler for those of you who have notwatched that particular series) Gareth David-Lloyd as Ianto Jones.

First up is The Devil and Miss Carew, which is a pretty goodtale, and it is always good to have my favourite Torchwood character, Rhys,played as always by Kai Owen, take centre stage in a tale.

Next comes Submission, and apart from a wonderfully punnytitle, it also provides a unique location – a deep sea submersible (you seewhat they did there?). As befits the location, this story is high on claustrophobiaand as befits Torchwood, it is also fairly low on internal logic. Still this isa solid tale.

The last story in the set, The House of the Dead, is far andaway the best of the bunch. I had by this time, resigned myself to this being apretty by the numbers affair, and the fact that the wonderful Eve Myles takesvery much of a backseat in this one did not bode well for my enjoyment.
But then writer James Goss provides an astonishing rug pull just when thelistener least expects it, and this story goes from pretty good to essential.

This latest release from AudioGo may be a bit of a mixedbag, but I’d go as far as to say that it’s worth it for the final story in theset alone.

Orbital 4: Ravages review

2011-10-09T15:25:00.001+01:00

If you recall my review of Vol 3, I bemoaned the fact that it ended at the point it did.

So it was with this in mind that I opened this volume, fully expecting it to pick up exactly where the last had left off. I should have known better.

There was a moment’s confusion for me as I had to pick up the threads of the story as it did not start where I assumed it was, and the book is all the better for it.

Reading through the book again I find myself being amazed at both the pace of the story and how that pace is maintained the entire length of the 56 pages.

Plot threads and hints that have been sown in the preceding books come together here and are woven together expertly by writer Sylvain Runberg.

Art and design by Serge Pellé is extraordinary, but I have already spoke about this in the previous review, so go there to find out what I thought of the art.

No, the big thing here is the story itself. It is strong and exciting and when the big villain is revealed it is a great moment. The reader is treated to some astonishing panels of art that leave the reader feeling disorientated and not knowing exactly what the hell is going on. It is one of those scenes that is just beggin to be recreated up there on the big screen.

And as if that is not enough, the story contains at least one hefty gut punch for the reader who will, if they respond the same way I did, not quite believe what they are reading.

Doctor Who The Doomsday Quatrain

2011-10-09T15:12:00.001+01:00

As with last months Sixth Doctor release Recorded Time, this latest Seventh Doctor Who does that thing where they have the Doctor meet an historical figure so famous that you are amazed that nobody had thought about doing it before.

While last month the Sixth Doctor met Henry VIII, here we have him rubbing shoulders with the most famous seer who ever lived: Nostradamus.

Nostradamus has predicted the end of the world. The Doctor knows it can’t be true, because, as he informs us, he has already see it… but the thing is Nostradamus does seem, if things are to be believed, to be correct.

There is a lot to enjoy in this story. There are plenty of unexpected twists and turns in the narrative – it went in a completely different direction than the one I was expecting on a number of occasions. It has a memorable cast of characters, and each is very well acted.

While most of the glory on the acting front will, no doubt, go to David Schofield in the role of Nostradamus, for my money Caroline Keiff was the strongest of the guest stars.

McCoy is his usual great self, and writers Emma Beeby and Gordon Rennie give him some deliciously authentic Seventh Doctor lines, which McCoy delivers with obvious relish.

I as also delighted and slightly miffed that a continuity issue I had thought of based around an offhand mark from the Fourth Doctor is dealt with expertly. I doubt it is something the normal listener will even noticed, but it is a nice Easter egg for the die-hard Who nerds.

Once again, a winner from Big Finish. I can only hope we hear more from this writing team again soon!

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes Vol 3 review pt6

2011-10-09T14:55:00.000+01:00

In the final part of our review of this rather magnificent box set from AudioGo, we will have a look at The Moonbase.

The box set is rounded off with this story, which sees the return of an old foe…

Well, not really an old foe. As this is only their second outing, the Cybermen are still a novelty act. But such was their popularity in there debut story, The Tenth Planet, another adventure was quickly commissioned.

As entertaining as this is - Cybermen are my favourite Who villains and I’m always happy to see them back – this is more or less a retread of the same ground covered in the previous tale, with an isolated base on the moon substituting for an isolated base in the Antarctic.

Of course this is not to say that it is not without merit. The story is a good one, and there is a wonderful sense of menace and claustrophobia to he had.

One cannot help but imagine how powerful the scenes of Cybermen sneaking into the sickbay to spirit away bodies would have been when first seen. And this sort of horror does somewhat put paid to the claims that ‘modern’ Who is becoming too scary for children. It has always been too scary for children (at least from an adult point of view, children will tell you different).

As with the previous missing adventures collections, it goes without saying that this one is all but essential for the Who fan as well, and I for one cannot wait until Volume 4!

Doctor Who the Lost TV Episodes Vol3 review pt5

2011-10-09T14:45:00.000+01:00

Part five of our review of this box set from AudioGo features The Underwater Menace.

This one is great.

However, I fear that it is great for all the wrong reasons!

As with The Highlanders, this one sees the main cast all in full flow. They are clearly having a great time and enjoying each others company, which lifts their performances to a wonderful level.

Things are not so strong on the supporting actor’s front though. I don’t want to single anyone in particular, but some folks seem to believe they’re on stage at a Christmas panto!

(By the way, Anneke Wills, in a great interview in on the bonus disc that comes with this box set is not at all coy about naming names!)

As for the plot… well, it is utterly ludicrous! Zaroff is a spectacular villan in the James Bond mould. But the scheme he has embarked upon here is one so fantastic and over the top it makes the machinations of Goldfinger and Hugo Drax seem positively pedestrian!

And of course I know that criticising the more fantastic elements of the plot is easy to do. But these things do not present themselves as a problem if they are sold well by both the writing and the acting, it’s just that this is not quite the case in this instance!

I mentioned the disc of extras earlier. As it is stored in the box with this story, I’ll mention it here.

As well as the long and very entertaining interview with Wills, these is also an equally interesting and informative documentary about incidental music throughout the history of Doctor Who. No! Wait, honestly, it is very interesting! Trust me, it is more than worth a listen.

Assassin's Creed Revelations - unlock the Animus

2011-10-05T21:24:00.001+01:00

I make no apologies for blogging about this game again, because I cannot wait for it!

Ubisoft have just announced a new website for the upcoming Assassin's Creed Revelations, which you can find here.

As there is a chance to win a holiday there, I don't know why I'm even telling you about it, I should really be keeping it a secret...

Flesh The Dino Files review

2011-10-05T20:03:00.000+01:00

This hefty collection contains the original series of Flesh, Book II and the recent revival series Texas, as well as a few extra that we shall come to presently.

So, we start off with something from the very first issue of 2000AD.

Reading this now as an adult, it is hard to imagine the impact it must have had on me at the time I first read it at the age of eight. The very fact that I can still remember it so clearly decades later says a lot about the powerful storytelling.

The first episode is nothing short of lunacy. It bombards the reader with an incredible amount of ideas and visceral imagery. In the six pages of the first episode we manage to get introduced to the main characters, have the premise of the story told to us, witness a herd of dinosaurs stampede over a cliff, see a man eaten by a giant crocodile and are treated to the brain searing sight of a headless T-Rex, blood spouting from the stump of its neck, trample to death a group of unlucky cowboys.

Of course this is merely a taster for what follows. We still have Claw Carver and Old One Eye to meet yet.

Flesh Book I is a brilliant slice of comics.

Such was the popularity of the first series, it was rather inevitable that a sequel would be along.

Book II is essentially the same thing as Book I, only the action has been shifted from the Creatatous Era to the Triassic and relocated from dry land to a massive factory rig in the middle of the prehistoric ocean.

This series is not as powerful as the first, mainly because it retreads a lot of the same ground plotwise and some plot points are nonsensical or even contradictory. But it does have a number of saving graces.

Chief amongst these is the art, which is provided in each episode except the final one (and even then, one of his panels is cut and pasted in) by fan favourite Massimo Belardinelli. His idiosyncratic art style is perfect for depicting the alien world that is the Triassic.

The other main saving grace is this:

Which is unquestionably one of the best comic book covers ever, and I am here to tell you that Beri’s giant scorpions truly are the stuff of nightmares.

Then we have a brief stop gap in the shape of the Claw Carver tale Hand of Glory. This was originally in prog 1526 and marked the return of Ramon Sola to comics after many decades away. It was received coolly at the time, but rereading it here, it is a very good tale, well told and not anywhere near Sola’s best, is still very good. It’s just a pity he didn’t continue to draw comic strips after the reception this one got.

Then comes Texas, in which writer Pat Mills cleverly harks back not only to the fairly recent Carver tale, but to the events in prog one over thirty years, or thirty million years, before, and does so seamlessly.

That’s not to say that this reboot does not have its problems.

Like most modern comic strips, it suffers too much from decompression. This may seem like a strange thing to be saying about a 2000AD strip, and it is – compared to American comics this is still a tale told at a break-neck pace - but compared to the pace of the original series, it is slow!

There are some strange ideas in here that don’t quite come off for me – like the paraoralophus having a cry that will kill everything around them. I can’t quite see how this would work from an evolutionary point of view.

However, this kind of issue is more than balanced out by the big bad dinosaur from this series: Gorehead.

Gorehead is a survivor of the events that took place in the original Flesh series and as a consequence has become unstable in time. Yes, that’s right. He is a giant, indestructible, time travelling T-Rex!

The art from newcomer James McKay is, for the most part, very good. He can certainly draw dinosaurs and he can certainly draw people. The dinos are realistic looking and the humans well realised.

What he can’t do as well though, is draw a comic strip. There are times that the inking is too thick and the panels too complicated, leaving the reader peering into a panel that at first looks like a collection of thick black lines.

The series ends on a nice cliffhanger, and I for one am looking forward to seeing it come back, and I’m confident that McKay will be a much more accomplished comic artist by then.

The rounded off with stories from a couple of old 2000AD annuals. They are glaringly out of place in the Flesh universe and seem to have been written and drawn by a team with only a passing knowledge of the strip, but they are interesting for historical reasons.

And finally, there are a number of pages of James McKay’s character and dinosaur sketches. These are brilliant, and show what this artist can really do when he puts his mind to it!

Now, when’s Texas Book II coming?

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes vol3 review pt4

2011-10-04T19:46:00.001+01:00

Next up in this epic multi-part review of the latest box set from AudioGo is The Highlanders.

Well, of course this one was always going to appeal to us here ay HiEx!

This is only Troughton’s second time out at the Dcotor and in some ways he is still finding his feet in the role as the writers cast about for ideas, trying out this and that and, it seems, writing some aspects of the story to go with some of Troughton’s own talents.

I suspect, although I have no solid knowledge of the fact, that this is how we have the bizarre vision (or rather, audio) of the Doctor disguised as an old lady. Luckily, these scenes are great, with Troughton throwing himself into the who thing with obvious enthusiasm. And this enthusiasm seems to have spread throughout the rest of the cast.

Everyone seems to be having a ball here.

Of course, this is a notable story because it sees the introduction of a character who would go on to be one of the Doctor’s most popular companions: Jamie McCrimmon.

And of course there is the additional fun of having knowledge of the places where they are visiting. The Culloden battlefield site is just outside Inverness, for example. And the old jail is not far from Eden Court theatre, which of course hosts HiEx each year!

Ahem… sorry, that turned into a bit of a plug for HiEx!

But apart from that, this is a solid historical piece and an enjoyable romp to boot.

War Games review

2011-10-03T18:41:00.000+01:00

No, this is not a remake of the early 1980s John Badham movie, so rest easy!

The war games in the title of this movie are altogether more literal.

So, we have a group of young people (I’m not sure of their ages, everyone between about fifteen and thirty years old looks the same to me) head off for a weekend of paint balling, when they encounter another group of folks who prefer to use real bullets…

Things begin in a way familiar to the horror movie viewer, as we are introduced to our adventurers. There’s the nice one, the rude one, the cynical one, the one who doesn’t want to be there, and so on…

Meanwhile, the Bad Guys are much more fun. How bad are they? Well, when we first meet them, we witness one of them doing something that will leave you in no doubt they are Very Bad Indeed.

Things progress exactly as one would expect them to for a while, but when the first killing comes, it is well done and even though we know it is coming, it still manages to shock.

After that we enter a game of cat and mouse as our team get picked off one by one and, armed only with a pistol with a few bullets and a load of paint balls, they go up against a team of insane gun totting crazies.

And yes, it does sound familiar. We’re firmly in Deliverance/ Southern Comfort territory here, with a dollop of The Hills have Eyes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Wolf Creek thrown in.

Still, this familiarity helps on the occasions that the narrative steps outside the expected lines and delivers a genuine shock or twist, which it manages to do a number of times.

The cast of unknowns (to me at least) are, for the most part, pretty good and it’s good to see them not being afraid of getting dirty, wet and downright uncomfortable for the part.

The best thing though, and the thing that impressed me about this movie, is the sound design. I suspect it may not be for everyone, but the use of feedback and white noise was very effective in communicating the isolation and desperation of the characters.

All in all, this is an entertaining piece of horror. Yes, we know more or less who is the one who will survive at the end, but as I mentioned earlier, the times where they manage to subvert the genre tropes make this worth watching.

I was going to say that War Games is good fun, but I don’t think that is the word… it’s maybe better to think of it as being like Wolf Creek with all the hope and feel good scenes removed…

War Games is released on DVD by Universal Pictures.

Trackmania 2 review

2011-09-29T20:16:00.000+01:00

This review comes courtesy of Richard McAuliffe from the Everything Comes Back to 2000AD blog and podcast - go check it out!
Unless your very young, in which case - wait until you're older!

Some of you may have played the first Trackmania game so toyou I'll just say its more of the same but WAY better looking and polished.Actually it probably doesn't matter what the hell I say. If you played thefirst you've probably already bought this. So I'll just write this for thenewbies.

Trackmania 2 is a driving game in which you get two basicmodes, offline and online. So looking at both in order :

Offline is basically time trials. You get dozens of tracksto choose from and opening each you are presented with three medals to racefor, gold down to bronze. Depending on which you choose a ghost car alsoappears on the track and in order to win the medal you have to beat it acrossthe finishing line. Easy as that. If you fail to win and replay the track againthere is a second ghost car which is your best performance so far so you racethe computer and yourself.

This might sound slightly dull on paper but it really isn’t.For one thing there are the tracks themselves which are insane. Totallyimpossible physically with crazy jumps, twists and drops so it’s more like youare racing over a huge tarmaced rollercoaster than a racetrack. Then there'sthe rankings. I've never been much of a person for leader boards but afterputting in my details and playing a few tracks I'm told "Well done, youare 250,496th in the world (or whatever) and 327th in Wales". That's whatgets you. The need to be 326th locally. Then 325th. That "I'll just haveone more quick try" factor to try and shave a quarter second off your besttime.

Then there's the immediacy and pure arcade style fun ofthis. Going through the tracks four out of every five have something around30-40 seconds as your target time. It’s this short burst element which gives itan Angry Birds style addiction and you'll find your "Just one more go,it'll only take half a minute" will suddenly turn into two or three hours.To compliment this rapid play, at any time you hit the backspace button and thetrack resets without even the slightest hint of a delay. While this is funthough the real meat of the game is online.

Online runs through its own server which works really wellbut to be honest I would have preferred it personally if, like the first game,it ran through Steam. As you'd expect you log in, select one of the hundreds ofrunning games and are thrown in with 20 or so other players. Here though youare given a set time per track, usually five minutes, and its down to you toget the best completion time during that period. The fact the other cars areintangible did seem a bit of a shame at first but due to the complexity of mosttracks it would be fairly impossible to put that many impactable cars onwithout it being total chaos. In game banter is generally done in text, but Idid join a few servers which were giving channels of a game chat add on shouldyou prefer. The game allows you to upload an icon to represent yourself andthese are shown as little floating tags above the other cars forindentification in-race which does make for some fun competition whentransferred to the leader boards between each track. Knowing you only need tocomplete a lap a second faster to go from 20th to 10th is some seriousincentive.

The last factor of this game is the inbuilt level designer.I'll admit I only dabbled with this slightly but it did seem verystraightforward and intuitive and having raced on some custom home made tracksin the online mode I can attest that it’s possible to make some seriouslyhardcore levels of your own. What I did spend some time with though, was thecar designer. You can only manually paint onto a dozen or so basic car shapesbut I did quite enjoy doing this. As a result if you do get this game and see ajet black car with a black and red rear spoiler and the Batman symbol on thedoors and bonnet that’s me. And yes I know its childish and NO I don’t carebecause it looks AWESOME in-game. Even if the "Oi Batman... last again,eh?" chants got a bit old quickly :(

So in summary this game rocks. I'm not usually a big drivinggame fan (exluding the insanity of Split Second : Velocity) but I'm totallyhooked on this. The offline mode is a fun distraction for when you have 10minutes to kill and the online is insane fun. Even when I was invariably comingin at the tail end each time I was still eager to play the next track and tryand do a bit better and the online community seemed surprisingly idiot free andwere more about the fun of the game than abusively lording it over newbies. Addto this the fact that the level designer means new tracks are constantly beinguploaded and you're getting a LOT of game for your £20.

Highly recommended.

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes Vol3 review pt3

2011-09-27T18:52:00.000+01:00

Next up in our review of the latest box set from AudioGo is The Power of the Daleks.

First impressions are very important.

Moreso if youre an actor taking over the lead role in a major television series from a well loved incumbent.

Here, half a century later, we are well used to the notion of the Doctor regenerating, but it is hard to imagine what viewers back then must have thought when they saw Hartnell change into Patrick Troughton at the end of The Tenth Planet.

In this respect, Michael Craze and Anneke Wills, playing companions Ben and Polly play and excellent role here as the voice of the viewer. Their cries of, “Who are you?” and “He’s not the Doctor!” are all to obviously echoes of what people would have been saying at home at the time.

But the Doctor he is, and for my money, possible the best, until Matt Smith came along at any rate.

Troughton is never anything less than magnificent. His performance is a whirlwind of manic energy interspersed with bouts of knowing and even sinister lucidity.

It was also a canny idea by the producers to start the second Doctor’s life with a Dalek story, thus giving the disorientated viewer something familiar to hang onto among all the newness.

And what of this story? The first thing that struck me about it was the similarities to the recent WWII set Dalek tale Victory of the Daleks. As with that story, this has Daleks that are apparently subservient to humans, and has the Doctor being the only one who can see them for what they are. This leads to some powerful interchanges between characters, with the Daleks in particular coming out a lot better then they normally do. The repeated Dalek line, “I am your servant” grows with menace and even sarcasm as it is used and used again.

Things build to an inevitable and exciting climax and the viewer/listener is left with no doubt that Troughton is the Doctor and that things will never be the same again.

The Empire of a Thousand Planets review

2011-09-26T20:56:00.000+01:00

This one is interesting.

It is a bit of an oddity in many ways, but it is a good one.

First published in 1971, this sees space adventurers Valerian and Laureline land on the planet Syrte – capital of the titular Empire, and through an innocent transaction in a local market, become embroiled in a tale of political intrigue that may just spell the end of an empire…

So, why do I say this is odd?

It is a tale very much of its time. The art, while very good and full of incredible imagination and dynamism, is somewhat old fashioned. Design and general aesthetic wise, it is generally in the pre-Star Wars camp (more of this later).

The story too is somewhat dated. Or in particular, the story telling. It suffers, again to the modern eye, from too many speech bubbles with too many words, and too much of the tale is told as exposition in caption boxes.

I don’t want to read that, “'X', through some daring do, managed to escape to the ship” – I want to see it happen!

Having said that though, the story is not a bad one, and while the twist may be not too shocking to the 21^st Century audience, it may have been revelatory back in the day!

And back to the Star Wars reference.

While it is true some of the look is old fashioned, there is a decidedly modern feel to the story. The main characters in particular are not the usual staid or cynical spacer farers one would expect in Sci-fi of this era, they are a couple of attractive looking young adventurers. And as the editors point out at the back of the book, there are a number of occasions throughout this series of books where creators Mezieres and Christin were ahead of the curve with character and ship designs, as some of them seem to bear a resemblance to some aspects of Lucas’s behemoth.

So is this worth reading?

Of course it is, it is from Cinebook, after all. I don’t think it will be for everyone, for the reasons given above. I would like to think that this would be ideal for younger readers, but I fear that the large amounts of text may put some of them off.

So, one for the die hard sci-fi buff instead!

Doctor Who The Lost TV Episodes Vol3 review pt2

2011-09-21T21:11:00.000+01:00

Audio Go have just released a third box set of Lost TV Episodes on CD. These are stories from the early days of Doctor Who where the video has been lost but the audio remains. There are a few stories included in the set, so rather than post one big review, I'll be breaking it down and review each individually.

Next up is The Tenth Planet.

I know I say this about a lot of these AudioGo ‘classic’ Who releases, but this one really is important.

Why, you may ask?

And if you are asking that, then immediately deduct twenty nerd points.

Because The Tenth Planet is notable for two things.

The first is that it introduced the world to what are, for my money, the best Doctor Who villains ever: the Cybermen. The second is, of course, is that this was William Hartnell’s final Who adventure.

I suppose the big question is: is this a suitably notable tale for him to go out on?

For the most part, yes it is.

The setting, an Antarctic base, owes much to Hughes’s The Thing from Another World, but plotwise they could not be more different.

There are many stills of this adventure out there, and as far as I know there is at least one episode still in existence, because I’m pretty sure I have seen it, or at least some of it.

The Cybermen are a brilliant creation, and Kit Peddler does not get enough credit for what he unleashed on the world. Most people have, I am sure, heard of Terry Nation, but what of the writer who created a creature equal to the Daleks? Maybe we should start a campaign…

Anyway, back to the subject in hand. The story is pretty tense, but there are one or two moments in there that have always stuck out like a sore thumb to me.

Chief among them is the moment when companion Ben attacks one of the Cybermen.

What the Cybermen should have done then was simply kill him - this would be the most logical course of action, but instead they order one of their number to take him into another room and watch him! Yes, I know this is because he is a cast regular, but it is something that should and could have been addressed in the writing. Still, too late now, eh?

Like Peter Purvis did with great skill in the previous set, Anneke Wills, who played Polly in this story, provides the linking narration.

As for Hartnell, there are mixed feeling listening back to this. He is clearly a man who is tired. This comes across loud and clear in his performance, but whether he is tired with the series or through ill health, I do not know (although I’m sure some of you do).

Either way, it makes his final moments all the more powerful and poignant, and in turn sets us up nicely for the next story in this set…

Space Marine game review

2011-09-20T20:29:00.002+01:00

There have been many previous attempts to get the world of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 into computer game format. Many years ago we had the rather good, but by today’s standards very primitive, Space Hulk, which was based on the boardgame of the same name.

Best among the spin offs though was the brilliant strategy game Dawn of War.

Which brings us to this latest release: Space Marine.

As the name suggests, you take the role of one of these military superheroes.

And for those of you who are totally lost or did not grow up as a teenage nerd boy, I shall tell you what a Space Marine is.

They are the elite soldiers of humanity in the far future, in a universe that is defined by conflict. Genetically engineered and encased in a suit of power armour, Space Marines defend humanity against the slavering hordes of aliens and Chaos demons that constantly threaten it.

Or they are horrible fascistic bully-boys destroying anything different to them… depending on your point of view!

You are Captain Titus of the Ultramarines, who are the premiere Chapter in the 40k universe, appearing in countless novels and comics. You are crash landed on a planet with a few of your men and swiftly become embroiled in an Ork invasion… but of course, everything is not as it seems and there may be other forces at work behind the scenes…

The story is good, but not brilliant, there are no real surprises in the twists in the narrative. But it is exactly the amount of story the game needs to take you from one action scene to the next.

And boy are there action scenes!

There is an undeniable thrill to be had as you stand alone on a battlefield and watch as a horde of 100 or more screaming orks charge towards you. But you just grip tighter on your bolter and, For the Emperor, let rip.

The combat, which is of course the backbone of the game, is great. Blood flows. Lots of blood. And to begin with, the combat is surprisingly difficult. I fouind myself getting killed quite quickly a number of times before figuring out that while Space Marines are tough, they are not indestructible, so running headlong into the middle of an ork attack is a Bad Idea.

As your life goes down, you can build it up again by performing a finishing move on an opponent in melee combat. These are Fun, but not for the faint hearted, as they are invariably gory in the extreme and there are different, but equally over the top, ones for the various melee weapons you pick up during the game.

I’m not the best person to judge the length of a single player game, as I play pretty slowly - but to me the campaign mode in this game is a healthy length, certainly when compared to the likes of Call of Duty. And the range of weapons and out and out feeling of fun will have you returning to levels again to have another go. This was certainly the case with me, and I usually never play a level again once completed.

Of course, the campaign is very much half the story, as games today will stand or fall on the standard of online play.

In this respect, Space Marine is very much hit and miss.

The mechanics of the online game are great. Character design and tweaking is always fun, and you can do a lot of this - choosing armour colour and patterns, or just opting for an existing Marine chapter. And as is usual, new weapons and armour are unlocked as you progress up the ranks.

The games play well and are fast moving. First few times out are a bit daunting though, so expect to be killed quite a lot before you get into the rhythm of things.

The biggest problem with online play though is the lack of variety.

There are only two races to choose from: Space Marines or Chaos Marines. It would be nice to see some orks up there, they are in the main game after all, so the skins already exists. And the addition of Eldar and some of the other races that populate the 40k universe would be most welcome. As well as a limited number of characters, there are also only two different game modes: a team battle and a seize ground one.

Again, while these are great to play, it would be nice to see more options up there.

I am hoping that this will be addressed in future patches and downloads, or else the online experience will be a decidedly limited one.

However, don’t let that put you off! If you’re a Warhammer fan, you’ll probably have this already, but if you’re not and are maybe unsure or just a fan of shoot ‘em ups, then it is well worth a look.

Gameplay is great, graphics are superb and there is a lot of highly entertaining highly bloody violence to be dispensed to the enemies of Mandkind.

Get to it!