Stories on Screen

Film, television, video games and more – we discuss science fiction and fantasy on the big and small screens!

Review – Browncoats Mix Tape – Adam WarRock

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What happens when space cowboys meet gangsta rappers? Something amazing, that’s what! Resident über-nerd Olivia Cottrell dons her headphones and brings us the lowdown on a highly unlikely mashup…

The internet is a wonderful place for creativity. Especially in terms of fandom: all kinds of talented, creative people use the genre shows, comic books and video games that they love as raw material to express themselves in media that you would never expect in a million years. So it is with the small but growing genre of ‘nerdcore’ rap artists – musicians who (truer to the roots of hip hop and rap than their more mainstream contemporaries) use the genre to talk about the things that are important to them. It’s just that these things happen to be the aforementioned comic books, TV shows, and video games. While doing so, they often articulate wider points about life in general. So it is with Adam WarRock’s newest offering, The Browncoats Mixtape, based on Firefly.

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Video Games Review – ‘Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine’

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Olivia Cottrell gives us the lowdown on Space Marine, published by THQ for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and PC and released on September 6th 2011.

Well, it was inevitable, really. Having reviewed the promotional game Kill Team, it seemed only natural that I try Space Marine when it came out- at least, that’s the excuse I used. Released on Friday last week, Relic Entertainment’s vision of a grim, dark far future where there is only war is a surprisingly enjoyable romp that incorporates some of the best things about the Warhammer 40,000 universe.

The story of the game is simple enough. The player is put in the clunky armoured shoes of Brother-Captain Titus, an Ultramarine (the best kind of space marine, apparently) captain tasked with liberating a strategically vital world from the orks. Things develop quickly and, though I won’t spoil the climax, there are some pretty fun action sequences that have to be seen to be believed. Combat is standard hack and slash/point and shoot, though the game’s decision to omit the now-ubiquitous cover mechanic means that unwary players can quickly find themselves mobbed. You can only regain health by performing finishing moves on enemies- initially this seems alright but you can still be attacked while doing so, which can be very frustrating.

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Television Review – My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

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We were a little surprised when Olivia Cottrell first asked to write a review of the new My Little Pony series. After all, she’s not exactly the girly-girl type. But then, from the sound of it, neither is the series… 

When you hear ‘My Little Pony’, what springs to mind? Chances are you’ll think of the pastel, plastic doe-eyed monstrosities that were advertised with an equally vapid cartoon- strictly the territory of little girls, and not particularly discerning ones at that. However, if you’ve spent a little time on the Internet recently, you might have noticed the growing popularity of a modern version of the cartoon. Entitled My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, this new series has enchanted a new demographic of 18-35 year old males (among others) and consequently taken the Internet by storm. Fan art, fan fiction and pony-dedicated websites abound in every corner of the web. So what has made this show so popular? Has the Internet finally gone mad? And what on earth is a Sonic Rainboom?

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Game of Thrones Review – Ep 9: ‘Baelor’

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War. Huh! What is it good for? Reviewer Kieran Mathers finds out, and wonders whether the show will deliver on all its promises. Be warned that there are mild spoilers ahead. And, for those of you not yet up to speed, check out our Game Of Thrones primer.

How to talk about this episode without ruining it? Not mention the end, I suppose. Fans of the book, you know what’s coming and they don’t change it one bit. Those of you who have not read ahead … well, you’ve got such a treat coming. It’s the one moment in this show that I wish I hadn’t known about in advance. It’s brilliant, and one of the bravest things I’ve ever seen from a major TV show. I don’t know if the popularity of this show will continue, but if it fails after the properly commissioned second series; well, at least they have their integrity. Bravo, everyone involved, bravo.

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Game of Thrones Review – 1.08: ‘The Pointy End’

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If you want a job done properly, do it yourself. But, as Game of Thrones plunges ever closer to its bloody climax, Kieran Mathers wonders if authors are the best people to adapt their own works. Our usual mild spoiler warning applies.

This week’s episode was written by the man himself, G.R.R Martin, author of the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series. Normally, I’d wonder why they called on the author to adapt his own material, as it calls for different skills – you don’t see Joanne Rowling writing the scripts for the Harry Potter movies, for example. But in this case it works. Martin has a huge amount of experience in writing screenplays for shows such as The Twilight Zone and I think it’s clear that, like Douglas Adams, he also understands the difference in format.

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Video Games Review – ‘Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team’

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This week, resident games geek Olivia Cottrell indulges her inner (and outer) nerd in the franchise that swallowed so many of our adolescent hours. And there’s no need to fork out for a new Codex…

Impossible Podcasts, I have a confession to make. My name is Olivia Cottrell, and I am a former Warhammer 40,000 tabletop gamer. Yes, some of my most formative years were spent hunched over tiny plastic figurines huffing more paint fumes than was probably good for me. I can tell you why painting an Ork vehicle red makes it go faster. I have read no less than five Dan Abnett books. I even, Emperor help me, know what a Krootox is. The Warhammer 40k universe, with its bold strokes of evil aliens versus grim (but noble) bald men lends itself exceptionally well to a certain style of tongue-in-cheek video gaming, and I was excited to revisit that world without accidentally gluing my hand to the table.

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