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Neighbours Back From Hell game review

Neighbours Back From Hell

Woody is back to make Mr Rottweiler’s life miserable in the remake Neighbours Back From Hell!

Mr Rottweiler has been a thorn in Woody’s side for as long as they have been neighbors. Woody has finally had enough and has even dedicated a television show to returning the favor in Neighbours Back From Hell from THQ Nordic and Epic Games. This game is what you get when you take Kevin McCallister and put him in charge of Jackass but instead of willing friends the gags are on his asshole neighbor.

The game is spread across 25 levels, half of which are focused on specific rooms in Rottweiler’s house and make up the first two seasons. Seasons three and four focus on Rottweiler’s trips abroad. No way Woody was going to let him relax on his vacation. Just be careful because if the Neighbor catches Woody then you are in for a beating and you only get two beatings per stage before you end up losing.

The pranks themselves range from simple nuisances to deadly feats that should leave Rottweiler dead but somehow he keeps coming back for more. To use some items they require specific setups in a specific order to get the chance to use and the level gives your very little information on how to prepare for these. Thankfully for those levels there are several guides out there that will walk you through the exact process to get each coin for the level. With enough patience the game is quite easy and some of the pranks are hilarious when they work. The game makes for an easy 1000 Gamerscore and was surprisingly fun.

CATCHING UP WITH WARNER BROS PART 2

Warner Bros

IT IS RARE FOR ME TO SEE A MOVIE WHEN IT’S STILL IN THEATERS BUT THANKS TO WARNER BROS I WAS ABLE TO CATCH UP ON THOSE I MISSED!

Recently the fine folks at Warner Bros (their home page is here) had sent me a code to one of the movies I missed so that I could share my thoughts on it with you. For the first part of this series we talked about Scoob, Birds of Prey, The Way Back, Goonies 4K, Beetlejuice 4K, Full Metal Jacket, Sherlock Holmes 4K and Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows 4K. We are back again with Part 2 to talk about V for Vendetta 4K, 300 4K, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy 4K, The Hobbit Trilogy 4K, Blade 4K, Bill and Ted Face the Music, Tenet and The Wolf of Snow Hollow.

V for Vendetta 4K

This movie follows a dystopian future of the United Kingdom where church and state are one and the same. Evie breaks curfew and is recued by a secretive hero- V. V spends the next year on a path to tear down the corrupt government that created him. It has always been an all time favorite film of mine and managed to look even better in 4K!

300 4K

300 is one of those guilty pleasure storylines for me. I have always loved the look and style of the Spartans and when Frank Miller wrote the comic I had to pick it up. When this film first hit theaters I was able to go and enjoyed it. Seeing it again but in 4k on my big screen made me wish I made some popcorn because it had that same feeling I missed with going to theaters.

 

Warner Bros

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy 4K

This is Peter Jackson’s trilogy as it is meant to be seen in glorious 4k. It comes with both the original theatrical release and the extended versions. These films have always been visually stunning with a fantastic cast and story. The extended cuts though add many scenes I’ve never seen that add some depth to the story that was not necessary but made for a great time anyway.

Warner Bros

The Hobbit Trilogy 4K

This is the second Tolkien trilogy and once again comes with both the theatrical releases and the extended versions. The first two I was able to enjoy in theater but never saw the third. Until we received our review copies I still hadn’t seen it. This was the perfect chance. We sat down and began watching one after the other (focusing more on the extended cuts) and had a great time. Of course the extras are not essential to the story but there were some great moments that we hadn’t seen before.

Warner Bros

Blade 4K

This was the first Marvel film I had ever seen and even then had no idea he was even a Marvel character. All I knew was he was a badass hero that killed vampires. This movie is a bit dated (last time I saw it was on DVD) but the 4k edition looks so much better than I expect from a film that came out in the 90s. It was so much fun I hope that Warner Bros does the same with the two sequels.

Warner Bros

Bill and Ted Face the Music

With the Bill and Ted franchise there will always be a soft spot in my heart. It was what first got me interested in the concept of time travel. The first two films you get to hear about this show that unites the world but this film promises we will get to see it. They know that they are approaching the deadline to have it ready and decide to travel through time once again to steal it from themselves. My expectations were quite low for this film. Trailers did not truly do it justice. I absolutely loved this film and thought it was the perfect ending to the series.

Tenet

Tenet is a spy film that lays the fate of the world on the shoulders of one man, but it has one defining characteristic that makes it stand out. Conceptually it is very much time travel film without the same control of time travel. Several scenes are replayed multiple times from different angles as time moves weirdly through the film. The cast is fantastic and as always Nolan tells a brilliant film. Well worth the watch.

The Wolf of Snow Hollow

Written and starring Jim Cummings this horror film follows a small mountain community dealing with either a brutal killer or a monster. They slowly piece together that the marks on the victims are similar to a dog or wolf and the town starts to think a werewolf is on the hunt. It can be a bit campy at times but handles the serious scenes quite well. Cummings does both a brilliant job as the Sheriff and writer of this film, I’m honestly surprised it wasn’t better known. In fact I have yet to see anyone really talking about the film and that’s too bad.

Starting next time we will be listing only the coverage we have done as part of the Nerd Cult when it comes to Warner Bros. SO WHICH WARNER BROS FILMS DID YOU SEE? WHICH DID YOU ENJOY?

Darksiders Genesis is this a finale or just an installment?

Darksiders Genesis

Darksiders Genesis is the fourth installment in the fan favorite Darksiders series created by Joe Mad and Airship Syndicate.

War returns to ride alongside his brother Strife in the fourth installment of the Darksiders series- Darksiders Genesis. The timeline of this franchise is a bit muddled and that was before this installment. We won’t go into much detail on this because I frequently have to get help myself to make sense of it. The first game starts during the final war between Heaven and Hell which occurred earlier than the big guy/gal upstairs planned. Darksiders Genesis takes place long before the first game, before War was stripped of his power and had to redeem himself. This is only an installment of the franchise and no where near the end of the story (promises of one last story have been hinted at that would lead us to believe that we will see one that features all Four Horsemen)!

Gameplay has been completely revamped for this isometric “shooter” and that means a new way to play War. With the new playstyle and controls I half expected to lose out on the horses but they are there for the battle as well. Even better this is the first iteration of the game that allows for two players!

The Lord of Hell himself, Lucifer, has been plotting to upset the balance and that means War and Strife are to be sent to either shut his plans down or simply to shut him down. The single player controls are fluid, allowing you to instantly switch between heroes on the fly and tear apart the demons and angels around you. Graphicly the game is gorgeous and that opening cinematic that introduces you to Strife and highlighting both the humor in the characters and the classic Joe Mad art style will not only turn heads but also make you want to play to see more. This game is a must for Isometric shooter fans or fans of the Darksiders franchise.

Cloudpunk a delivery simulator in the sky

Cloudpunk

Merge Games takes Blade Runner and mixes it with delivery mechanics in Cloudpunk.

In Cloudpunk you play as Rania, a Cloudpunk driver that will deliver anything to anyone regardless of the risk involved. As long as they are paying she will pick it up and take it where it needs to go. Immediately upon starting the game I was struck with a single observation, if you are driving a flying car why is everyone sticking to designated pathways when you could fly over everything? Determined to understand I pressed on.

Players must navigate a massive city that uses portal/tunnels that allow you to move between sectors all the while picking up various packages and dropping them off. Visually the game is a pixelated Picasso, far away it is stunning but up close it is a pixelated mess. The flight controls for the cars are intuitive and easy to pick up but the controls while walking are clunky and rarely move in a straight line let alone go where you intended the first few tries. The story is slow going but is easily forgettable and fails to grab your attention. For a game that goes for $25 I’d suggest waiting for a massive discount before picking it up.

Warcry Catacombs ~ is it just a reskinning of the original?

Warcry Catacombs

It’s common for Games Workshop to release multiple new starter boxes using the same rules but is Warcry Catacombs another example of this?

Definitively Warcry Catacombs is not just the same game with new plastic wrap, there is so much more. The boxset features two new warbands, never before seen in the Eight Points and unlike the original starter one of them is from the Order Grand Alliance! A different alliance isn’t all that’s new, some of the terrain and one of the maps features a lava-filled chamber that changes how you play the game. When within the Catacombs you no longer have towers to climbs, which is a complete game changer for the Corvus Cabal. Warbands that use height to their advantage will be hindered by the low ceilings but it isn’t the end of Corvus Cabal as some may have predicted. Corvus Cabal has the ability to wall run above their foes so even though they can’t scale the tower to smash down on unsuspecting prey but they can pass freely allowing them to stop behind their foes.

The biggest downside in this box the the durability of some of the models. This is not something new when it comes to Aelves, nimble characters make for leaner models and a leaner model makes for limbs, weapons and features that are more likely to break with a little pressure. That being said they look absolutely fantastic. The core book is still the same and remains one of the cleanest and most well developed games I’ve had the pleasure of playing but the new features bring both a unique style of play and an easy way to switch to more narrative based gameplay.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning

Kingdoms of Amalur

A new edition of Kingdoms of Amalur has released by THQ Nordic and we got to check out it’s high definition glory.

An war against evil brings our hero to the frontlines where he is quickly cut down. In Kingdoms of Amalur players were treated to a game world created by R.A. Salvatore, Todd McFarlane and the team behind the classic Elder Scrolls Oblivion. The Re-reckoning edition features updated graphics, new side quests and all of the downloadable content from the original. With such a pedigree I was very excited to try this game out.

For a game that was considered a hit I was shocked to have never heard of it during it’s original release. Overall it looks and feels like the older version of the game with a fresh coat of paint. Game mechanics and controls felt like Oblivion. In my opinion Oblivion felt dated by it’s first anniversary and so this plays like something the belongs on the Xbox 360 when it was first starting as a console and not over a decade later on the Xbox One. I spent two hours exploring the world and was left wishing I passed on the title or at least spent a lot less time on the game.

Moons of Madness – a futuristic Lovecraftian adventure

Moons of Madness

Moons of Madness is a reimagining of HP Lovecraft’s Mountains of Madness but instead of some twisted mountain it is the red planet itself.

Funcom brings us the game Moons of Madness, intended as a science fiction thriller on the surface of Mars. A strange signal has be coming from the planet’s surface and a team has been sent to investigate. The signal has baffled the scientists from Orochi and they decided to keep the signal from public knowledge, especially after they determined the source to be from someone or something with some sort of intelligence. As a lowly technician you have limited information regarding the signal and your job is simply to keep the station running.

Keeping everything working properly becomes more irksome as setbacks begin to happen and weird things begin to occur. Maintenance tasks range from the tedious and believable to the downright strange like a flooded greenhouse. A greenhouse being flooded is normally a believable occurrence but on a planet with virtually no water where it needs to be rationed closely how did no one notice the leak quick enough to prevent the flooding?

Visually the game is quite stunning but lacks in the ambiance to be a truly horrific title. The puzzles do have a more realistic feel to some of their solutions which makes up for some of the tonal issues but even when trying to up the tension it feels more like the game wants to be scary but simply doesn’t know how. It’s like me and dancing, I’d love to be good at it but don’t have any rhythm or even know how to dance.

Deep Sky Derelicts – a turn based strategy game

Deep Sky Derelicts

Deep Sky Derelicts from Snowhound Games is a game of salvage, mining and combat in space!

Assuming the role of a scavenger in Deep Sky Derelicts, you are looked down on by society but with a twist. Other than normal occupations society is split into two main factions- the haves and the have nots, or simply the Privleged and the Stateless. As a member of the Stateless group of humanity you must scavenge your way through not only your daily routine but as a means of survival. You have a single way out of this life though, one last salvage to end them all- an ancient alien spacecraft.

Gameplay is a throw back to the Final Fantasy 7 days of old where you take turns with each action and when winning the fight you are stuck watching a celebration to, well, celebrate your win. As  you progress through a map that looks like a cross between a tabletop game and a classic 80’s role playing game. Aesthetically the game looks like it would fit as an animated backdrop for another release in the Dead Space franchise, but much more tame and missing the spook factor. Controls are easy to learn but the game offers little in entertainment, but makes up for it in combat that looks like it belongs in a science fiction based comic.

Chicken Police Paint it Ret

chicken police

Chicken Police is a Noir-styled detective story featuring the personification of many members of the animal kingdom.

Chicken Police, Handy Games, looks and plays like a classic point and click adventure using images of characters from a detective film that was released in the 20s or 30s. The biggest difference though is that the heads have been replaced with those of the animals they are meant to represent. You play form member of the Chicken Police, Sonny and are met by a doe who looks to hire a detective.

Forced to team up with your former partner Marty you must get to the bottom of this case as you dive deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. Point and click adventures can be quite dull unless your bring the panache along with it. What on the outside looks like a silly concept ends up working quite well as you are thrust into the world of Clawville- basically Zootopia without the Disney touch. The character models are beautifully rendered with more detail than you would have expected from a game like this and dialogue that is full of wit.

Personally I enjoyed the world and visuals but would have preferred something other than the point and click stylings we received.

Warcry Warband Focus Featuring the Spire Tyrants

Spire Tyrants

Welcome to the another installment of a our series where we will be focusing on one of the Chaos Warbands from Warcry. This time we will be discussing the Spire Tyrants!

The Spire Tyrants hail from the Varanspire, specifically the fighting pits. Those that excel in the pits are awarded a spot among the warbands. Comprising of more variations than nearly any other warband, the Tyrants is ideal for the player that doesn’t want every model to look the same, just as every successful pit fighter is varied.

The variation is both a blessing and a curse for this warband. Specifically the more options you have the more you can customize to your play style. The reason I say this is a curse is because if you are like me you are very indecisive when it comes to building your team. To find the right fit for you, don’t be surprised if you need to modify your roster multiple times before landing on the one that works for you. I still haven’t figured out my best line up and I’ve had my box since they were released!

When it comes to abilities they don’t have nearly as many attack options as I would have expected. They surprisingly have an excellent team buff option with a triple roll- Champion of the Warpits. This ability gives a bonus to attack rolls to nearby units if the attacker had downed an opponent on this turn.

This warband hits hard and has a decent range of movement, making them an improvement over the Iron Golems in my opinion. This increased range allows them to reach their enemies faster and get to the objectives in a more timely manner. When you reach your target, whichever type it may be, you will be able to take a beating and dish one out while you’re there.

To purchase your own box of this models head over to the Games Workshop store here! I personally would pick up two so you have can more options when assembling your warband.