ThatGamerPodcast

Joel Loynds is now writing for a new website called That Gamer Podcast. It is looking great, so please check it out!

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The site features many games reviews, plus a weekly podcast from the creators of the site. So far Joel has written 17 articles for the site!

Contra

Wait, this isn't a game review.

Contra is the highly anticipated second album from New York quartet Vampire Weekend. After surfing on the success of their self-titled debut for two years, Vampire Weekend have struck with another 10 quirky, summery songs. With a whole new range of strange topics ranging from warm drinks to incest

(that would be the song Cousins, by the way) the tracks are all slightly bewildering but definitely catchy. However, dancing to this music may be a problem, and it will certainly take you a few spins to learn the lyrics.

Once again, Contra is full of the African drum beats and indie rock combinations from the first VW album, although the boys have experimented a little this time, with the track California English featuring some Auto - tune. It doesn't really suit the band, but as an experiment it is certainly interesting. Overall, the mix of tracks doesn't seem as well put together as the first album, and the few duds (Taxi Cab and Run) stick out more due to the limited amount of songs. However, there are some real gems on here. Stand outs include the single White Sky, where front man Ezra Koenig's lovely high notes, and the manic, energy filled Cousins.

Take some time to look at the videos on the VW website. They convey the madness that makes VW such as standout band.

Contra gets better with each listen - it is not as immediately engaging as its predecessor, but persevere and you find some brilliant tunes.

Have a great (Vampire) weekend.

Dinner for Shmucks

If I had to say anything about this film, it would be see it with friends. This film is so hit and miss, that it is worth having someone lean over to ask about the joke and vice versa.

The flick begins with Tim Conrad, an employee at a firm that does something that was never actually explained. They sell things. I think... Anyway. He acquires a chance at promotion after suggesting they make negotiations over lamps with a Swiss business man, Martin Mueller, (which is rather disappointing performance from David Walliams - maybe due to the American director underestimating him in terms of funniness.) Tim must now impress his boss with his business skills and by finding the biggest idiot he can to attend a "Dinner for Winners."

It's all going to plan until he runs over the main attraction to the film - and the idiot -, Barry. Barry is a lonely man who builds scenarios with dead mice. He's creepy, humorous and mostly what you've come to see. Tim plays the dead pan man, as Barry begins to slowly ruin his chances. Whether it be crashing the meeting with Martin, having his girlfriend believe that he's cheating on him, or destroying his apartment with Tim's psycho ex.

It's a fantastic thing to see play out, but I feel it started too slow and crumpled up the whole funny bit into the space of half an hour. Until the clique moment of Tim letting Barry stay over and realise what he went through, the laughs are spread too thinly. And I'm talking about nearly half an hour to 45 minutes into the film until it starts getting side splitting roars of laughter.

But enter Therman Murch, (Zach Galifianakis,) Barry's boss, and ultimately the best counter part to Barry. It's a super shame that he spends about 15 minutes total on screen. He's a looney - a bigger looney than Barry - and believes he has mind powers. This plot point is used fantastically at the end, with a battle of mind powers between the two.

Lightly speaking of the end, this was possibly the most superbly made and brilliantly hilarious moment of this year and of this film. It has the big build up, the revelations and the antics to have hit all the check points of a fun end to the summer film.

Closing out this review, I have to say wait for the DVD. It's just far better with a bigger crowd of people to discuss the film during the best moments and after the antics of Tim and Barry. It's full of laughs, but the big ones are all shovelled into one clump; it's not a necessarily bad thing, but it would've been better to see them lovingly spread out throughout the whole film and not as it was. Overall though, I left happily, and would gladly watch it over. I call this the "Hangover Effect."

Seasons

Autumn is here and so is Seasons, a lovely little creation from Vector Park.

Let your mouse guide Thomas the unicyclist through a magical backdrop showing all the seasons. If you haven't experienced the brilliance that is Vector Park, then you can now.

This isn't really a game... just an experience. One that will leave you feeling good.

Seasons

Give Up, Robot

Combining hardcore platforming, robots and LSD, Give Up, Robot is hard. Really hard. Die 409 times hard.

You are the titular robot, and you make your way through 50 levels of lava, blocks and whirly blade things (to give them the technical name.) Or in the words of the game - "It's time to DAAAAAAAANCEE!!!"

And dance you will do. Using only the arrow keys for movement and a simple grappling hook (a), GUR is not high in complexity. But not only are the levels tricky, the visuals are... psychadelic.

Pulsing waves of colour and moving lines in the background may soon give you eye ache, but coupled with the chiptune soundtrack make it a very distinctive game. There is also a strange robotic voice that congratulates you when you die - "Good job ro-bot..." When you finally succeed, the howls of anguish from the voice make your victory even sweeter.

If you possibly soldier through all 50 levels, there is a HARD mode. As in diamond edge hard.

Plenty to keep you going here, even if you do rage quit on level 47.

Dance.

P.S. Don't play this if you have epilepsy. Seriously.

Keane - Night Train

Lets make this clear from the start - this isn't really an album. Instead, it's actually a collection of songs that Keane recorded at a whim whilst on their "Perfect Symmetry" tour. Ignoring all the Keane-haters angry reviews and the criticism Night Train receives for is disjointedness, if you take this EP and appreciate it for what it is, you'll discover a nice range of songs, that show the Keane boys experimenting with brand new sounds (including collaborations with Somali rapper K'naan and singer Tigarah.)

The EP kicks off with House Lights, a short instrumental that gets you prepared for the rest of the songs, and doesn't sound very "Keane" at all. Launching into Back in Time, you can hear the synths that were so dominant on Perfect Symmetry. It could have fit into the former album quite nicely, but holds its own here. Stop for a Minute, the Single featuring K'naan, manages to combine a catchy tune and blends Chaplin's distinctive voice and the contrast of the rapper K'naan - it works really well. Not being a fan of rap, i was surprised that i liked this. I was more surprised to find that i like the other Keane/K'naan song, Looking Back (despite the beginning being nicked from the Rocky theme tune!)

Your Love and My Shadow are not bad songs either, but do sound a bit like B-side material. Ishin Denshin (feat. Tigarah) is a let down, as the two artist don't gel together at all, and sound awkward and forced. However, the stand out song is Clear Skies, with a cracking melody that leaves you humming afterwards, Chaplin's beautiful voice, and the soft strumming of a guitar.

A mixed bag of songs, but worth a listen if you are a Keane fan of Keane (ho, ho.)

Night Train was released on 10th May 2010.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky

Japanese Role Playing Games. That sub-genre of games that defies logic and my interest. Oh, sure. I've played my way through Persona 4 and my accumulated amount of Pokemon has become obscene. I also class Final Fantasy 1 my favourite in the series. But they are but an elite selection that broke the barrier.

I enjoyed Pokemon from an early age, and I've become an invested fan along it's years of activity. One of the main reasons for this,

is the 'anime' that I watched religiously. It was cool to have a level 89 Blastoise amongst the sea of flames and vines. Final Fantasy was presented to me as a remake on the PSP. I sunk nearly 200 hours wandering around aimlessly and possibly discovering a boss battle that advanced the story. It was basic enough for me to enjoy and mellow out to. Persona 4 caught my eye as a feature known as the "Endurance Run" on a website called 'Giant Bomb.' I took the opportunity around my birthday to ask an acquaintance to purchase it for my birthday. The story and presentation of the game were bedazzling to me, and fusing monsters and collecting cards reminded me of my "Yu-Gi-Oh!" days. It was different, the grinding wasn't all that noticeable and the boss battles made intriguing. It was the most I've ever used a PS2.

So, I bring before you a point of view

on the latest addition to the Dragon Quest series.

The game starts out with as an angel, floating about and doing good deeds in sections that felt so slow and redundant, that I contemplated switching off my DS and returning to something else. An hour later, and a thumb imprinted with the letter A, I reached the part of the game where it allows the player to begin a party.

After creating a rag-tag team of references, (Eko, Palmer, and Cortana,) I realized that they were 6 levels below me. After a mindless grind, and reaching the first boss, the game kicked off for me. I began to throughly enjoy the basic outline of the story, and the deeply involving story quests and side quests. You know why I am enjoying this so much? It reminds me of the old TV shows I used to watch. The band of heroes would help the towns folk, and go up against the villain for two episodes. I guess I carry on playing to see what enemy they will throw up against me next. (I've not actually finished, but I think a 40 hour play time is adequate to bring an

opinion.)

The gameplay is the most basic of JRPGs. Turned based combat, dungeon crawling, talking to towns folk and grinding. What separates it from most, is the deep customization options. Armour has it's own look and effects. While still just basic 'speed', 'defence', 'attack', etc. It's incredibly nice to have it make a proper difference to your characters look and style.

Another sweet little feature included is a method of changing your class and unlocking new ones. This is excellent for your main character, if you become fed up with whatever designated class you were given at random. Personally, I kept my Minstrel, as it was excellent for creating "tension" for devastating attacks from my Martial Artists. It's also handy to have, so you don't have to redo your entire game from scratch - which is incredibly helpful due to the lack of save files.

Now, when I said this was traditional, I meant it literally. Remember how in the classic JRPGs, you'd have to sit through text and wait for the Shop keeper to stop talking? And how most modern JRPGs and even RPGs included a method of having it scroll faster? Yeah, this has that, but I doubt it makes much of a difference. Want to save? Prepared for the same speech every. Single. Time. Resurrection still cost gold, and it gets more expensive the further you go into the world. This isn't much of a struggle to cope with, as gold is incredibly easy to come by, and once you get into the groves of the game, you know exactly where to go and what to do, to earn yourself a couple thousand.

The look of the game is still the same classic Dragon Quest look. That Dragon Ball-esque style

with crazy hair and astoundingly creative monsters. Never have I been bored from running into the same creature. Even the hordes of Slime have that charm they always have. But I do

have to point out one thing. Whereas important story characters and your party have a polygonal and 3D presence in the world, the minor and useless characters inhabiting the world, are merely sprites that could be rendered better on the Game Boy. It's not that bothersome, but it's a little lazy. I guess it was to conserve space to bring the

beautiful over world and towns to life, and have those menacing bosses look as evil as possible. Though, you can tell it's a DS game all the way, as when a close up happens, the models look blocky and stretched out.

Combat becomes a mere battle of remembering which order you do things - but becomes a highly deep and strategic game. Grinding sounds boring, but becomes essential to the experience. All the fancy armour and accessories you earn, buy and alchemise are needed to succeed. Creating a strategy is a necessity to your experience. Mine involved pumping up my Martial Artist with tension, buffing up everyone's defence to the maximum and trying to decrease the boss'. It's a monotonous task, and I found it fun. Weirdly, I began to realise the appeal to these type of games.

The fans enjoy strategy and getting a story so long and deep it's something worth investing time into. And I guess I should start doing the same.

If you want a game that will last you a while, pass the time or just looking for a decent DS JRPG, this is way forward. No tricks, no gimmicks, just an excellent 'little' game, that is well worth the price tag.