Archive for Author Kris Greet

On Thursday Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer made a shocking announcement confirming rumors that the company will be making four exclusive games available for Playstation 5 and Nintendo Switch. Surprisingly he never said which games they will be. A report by The Verge claims the games will be music themed action game Hi-Fi Rush, adventure game Pentiment, pirate themed action game Sea Of Thieves and survival game Grounded

Well there you go, I think it’s a massive shift in priority for Xbox. They needed to try something as they have really been lagging behind Sony in terms of sales and quality of exclusive games. The four games that will be trialed as part of this new deal are interesting choices. I think there will be more to come for sure. The rumors leading up this was that Starfield and the upcoming Indiana Jones and the Great Circle would be part of it but they haven’t been confirmed yet. Personally I think they will be, I think Indiana Jones would certainly be a massive opportunity for Xbox. The potential of adding the game to Playstation 5 would make a ton of sense just from the financial aspect alone. When you get down to it, I think that’s the main reason for Xbox to do this whole deal.

The big question is whether this will represent a huge shift in gaming of non exclusivity for consoles. Will Playstation make games like Spider-Man, The Last Of Us, and God Of War available to other consoles? Will we be able to play Pokemon and Mario on Xbox or Playstation? Personally, I don’t think so. I would absolutely love for it to happen as I’m a fan of everybody being able to enjoy the best games regardless of the console. But I think Xbox is just trying something different after a report back in December claimed the Playstation 5 outsold the Xbox Series X and S by three to one. They are still far behind in sales terms. It will certainly be a move that will be watched very closely in the industry and time will tell if it will be the right one.

Posted on February 18th, 2024 by Kris Greet | Leave a Comment (1)
Filed Under Entertainment

Bosch

Title: Bosch
Streaming: Amazon Prime
Cast: Titus Welliver, Lance Reddick, Amy Aquino, Jamie Hector, Madison Lintz, Gregory Scott Cummins, Troy Evans

Bosch is one of those rare series based of a book series that stays entirely faithful to the source material. I had loved every book in Michael Connelly’s long running crime series. Not just the Harry Bosch books but the Jack McEvoy, Terry McCaleb, Cassie Black, The Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller, and most recently Renee Ballard. Connelly built up a massive connected universe before Marvel made it a popular concept.

Onto the series, it’s a great mix of the crime and noir genres and throws in little doses of action too. Bosch was one of the first shows Prime Video ordered to series and for good reasons too. Titus Welliver embodies the character down to the smallest of details. Bosch is slightly younger than he is in the books given that the first Bosch book was published back in 1992, but apart from the age there is nothing that the series and Welliver gets wrong about the character. Same goes for the rest of the cast too. The series has probably the best casting of any show I’ve seen in a long while. The supporting characters of Lance Reddick, Amy Aquino, and Madison Lintz all bring their own strengths to the roles. Reddick’s Chief Irvin Irving, who was long a thorn in the side of Bosch in the books, still brings some of that into his character but also brings an air of likability. He knows Bosch is a hell of Detective and is willing to take the negatives his work brings because he know Bosch’s end results are worth the trouble.

One thing that is most impressive about the show is how they make Los Angeles feel like a central character in every shot of LA you see, whether it be at night, day, in the sun, or in the rain. It is superbly shot by a very talented crew. That’s one of the advantages to filming in the actual city that your show is based on. Something which other shows do not take advantage of enough.

All in all, I cannot recommend Bosch highly enough- I also encourage you to read the books. You can catch seasons 1 to 4 on Amazon Prime Video with Season 5 due next year. You can also check out my twitter account @Ukbosch

Assassin's Creed Movie

Film Spotlight: Assassin’s Creed
Director: Justin Kurzel
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Michael K Williams, Jeremy Irons and Brendan Gleeson.
Plot: The Assassin’s Creed movie follows a character by the name of Callum Lynch who, through a revolutionary technology that unlocks his genetic memories, is able to experience the adventures of his ancestor, Aguilar, in 15th Century Spain. Callum discovers he is descended from a mysterious secret society, the Assassins, and amasses incredible knowledge and skills to take on the oppressive and powerful Templar organization in the present day.

Thoughts: Let me start off by saying I am a HUGE fan of the Assassin’s Creed games. Lately they have sort of regressed with the move to next gen; Unity had to deal with some bad pre-release buzz due to a graphics glitch. Syndicate was a bit disjointed in its missions and gameplay. I enjoyed both but they never came close to how good Black Flag was. Fans of the game have long thought that the series is probably more suited than any other video game to be adapted into a film. The view of videos games not getting great adaptions might be broken with Assassin’s Creed. First of all Ubisoft who make the game set up their own production company to make sure they get the film right. Secondly they have gathered some great talent in the casting and hiring of the director and finally and perhaps most crucial is they decided not to adapt any of the games, instead they have gone for an original story but it is still set in the same universe as the games. That is something which I thought Warcraft got wrong this year, adapting a story from the games instead of creating one.

Now there is still a chance that it might not work but from the trailers that have been released the footage looks very promising. They have captured the essence of the games from the parkour running, the combat and that final shot from the trailer of the iconic leap of faith. Even the modern day sequences of Fassbender’s Callum Lynch inside an Abstergo facility. The redesigned Animus which is the tool that allows the present day Lynch to access his genetic memory of his ancestors looks pretty bad ass. I expect there will be some cool little mentions and Easter eggs in reference to games. I am pretty hopeful this will break the trend of bad video game movies and hope it will kick start a new era in video game movies.

Assassin’s Creed is out December 21st, 2016.


uncharted

One of the best PlayStation 3 trilogies has finally come to the PS4 in Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection. The 3 games have been re-mastered and retooled to give PS4 owners a taste ahead of next years Uncharted 4. The first instalment released way back in 2007 was probably the first title that gave the PS3 the chance to show off the true graphic capability of the machine. The bright and vivid color scheme of tropical islands was really brought to life, a trend that continued in Uncharted 2 with the snowy mountains of Nepal and then again in Uncharted 3 with the deserts of the Sahara. Each game has always improved on the graphics and the action set pieces.

Now given that these games looked amazing on the PS3, they look even more amazing when matched with the PS4’s graphic capability. The smooth transition of game’s control system makes it a game that is easy to pick up and play if you haven’t played the games before. The makers Naughty Dog have always been by their own admission a 30 frames per second studio and given that they have doubled that for this re-mastered collection really shows as the game feels faster and a quicker pace to the action really shows.

The one thing that has always made the Uncharted trilogy stand out in my opinion is their attention to detail when it comes to their characters. The voiceover and motion capture work of Nolan North (Drake), Emily Rose (Elena), Richard McGonagale (Sully), and later on Claudia Black (Chloe) is top notch, they really bring the characters to life with performances that make you feel like you are watching a movie. I cannot recommend this trilogy enough for PS4 owners to pick up if they haven’t already yet.

WWE Battleground

This Sunday is WWE Battleground! First some thoughts on the previous PPV, Money in the Bank. I didn’t to do badly on my last predictions going 2-4. I enjoyed the PPV and I thought both MITB matches were pretty stellar as was the Tag Titles match. There were some duds, including Rusev vs Big E and Paige vs Naomi, but that is to be expected. Anyway, on with the predictions.

WWE Battlefield 4 Way Match

WWE Championship Fatal Four-Way Match
John Cena vs Roman Reigns vs Kane vs Randy Orton

My pick: John Cena

Anyone who thinks they are going to the take the title off Cena after three weeks are deluding themselves, especially as the main event for Summerslam is pretty much set in stone as Cena vs Lesnar. Besides it doesn’t make much sense to take it off Cena and put it on any of the other guys in the match. Reigns needs more time to be built up. Have him win the Rumble and have him take the title at Wrestlemania. Kane is in there to stop Orton from winning the match to force The Authority to go to plan C (a.k.a. Lesna).

wwebattlefield-royal

WWE Intercontinental Championship Battle Royal
Alberto Del Rio vs. Big E vs. Bo Dallas vs. Cesaro vs. Curtis Axel vs. Diego vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Fandango vs. Heath Slater vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Rob Van Dam vs. R-Truth vs. Ryback vs. Sheamus vs. Sin Cara vs. The Great Khali vs. The Miz vs. Titus O’Neil vs. Xavier Woods vs. Zack Ryder

My pick: Dolph Ziggler
Wildcards: Sheamus, The Miz or Bo Dallas

Whereas the main event is probably the easiest match I could predict the winner. This one I really don’t have a clue. It could be any one of these guys but I am leaning towards four guys in particular. Dolph Ziggler is most dependable guy in the ring and could bring the title back to some sort of relevance again, like my next suggestion Sheamus has done with the United States title. I could see him winning to unify the titles and possibly turn heel in the process. The Miz also seems like a favourite for this match but his last title reign was a disaster but now he is back playing the heel he could use his new gimmick to show off more. My final pick is Bo Dallas, now I’m yet to be impressed with his in ring work but to be fair he’s not been in with any top workers but I love to hate him and the gimmick. That’s what a heel is supposed to do so I would give him a cheap win like having him hide or waiting outside shaking hands with performers or ringside people and then when there is one or two left have him eliminate them. Then do his little victory lap and maybe then bam! Bad News Barrett nails him with the title turning him face and setting up a feud for when he returns. A quick note on Bad News Barrett I hope this injury doesn’t side-line him too long and I hope WWE will give him the chance to get back to his spot because the Bad News gimmick is so over. I would even keep him on TV as he recovers using the gimmick to keep him over.

WWE Battlefield Match

Seth Rollins vs Dean Ambrose

My pick: Dean Ambrose

This will be match of the night in my opinion. They’ve worked so many times against each other on the indie scene and even in NXT where I saw a amazing match between the two. Ambrose was beaten down quite badly on RAW by Rollin, Orton and Kane. My usual theory is if you get beat or beaten down on the go home show of RAW usually means you’re coming away with the win at the big event. It’s not always right but it’s just a theory. I also think Ambrose needs the win more than Rollins right now. Rollins won’t be cashing in the briefcase for a while and I am sceptical of whether he will have the briefcase. A win could mean Ambrose challenging Rollins at Summerslam for the briefcase and possibly winning it but it’s still too soon commit to that. Ambrose’s gimmick is getting more and more over each week which is good because when they turned Rollins instead of him I thought he might struggle but it’s really working for him. I think this will be a DQ ending with Rollins using the briefcase and setting up the Summerslam match as No DQ which I’m sure will be amazing as well.

wwebattlefield-tag

WWE Tag Team Titles 2 Out of 3 Falls
The Uso’s vs Harper and Rowan

My pick: Harper and Rowan

I predicted them to win last time out and was wrong and I’m going with them again but I could also see this feud being stretched out to Summerslam so a win here for them could mean The Uso’s would regain the titles at Summerslam. I really think this could be a contender for match of night, their match at MITB was brilliant and so have their matches on RAW. This another match that could go either way because something on RAW last week or the week before was Harper pinning the wrong Uso which could set up for perhaps a Uso’s win by pulling the old switcheroo but I really do think that Harper and Rowan win here.

wwebattlefield-jvw

Bray Wyatt vs Chris Jericho

My pick: Bray Wyatt

Wyatt will win here simply because he has to. He’s in danger of losing momentum; I don’t think his feud with Cena did him any favours. Also Jericho is one of the greats so you know you are getting a great match with him and you know he is there to put Wyatt over. They really need to start building up Wyatt as more as unstoppable heel monster with Undertaker effectively retired and Kane looking like he is slowing down. Wyatt will be perfect to pick up the monster gimmick. I see some sort of screwy ending to take the feud onto Summerslam and possibly onto Night of Champions.

WWE Battleground

Jack Swagger w/ Zeb Colter vs Rusev w/ Lana

My pick: Rusev

They finally turned Swagger baby face which is something I’ve expected since Rusev and Lana debuted and going on their Anti-USA tirades. I think the big plus that both Swagger and Rusev have going for them is they have two tremendous talents in Zeb and Lana doing the talking for them. The turn for Swagger and Zeb has been tremendous; I don’t even think WWE could have predicted that it could have been this well received. I think this will be a very back and forth match with Swagger out wrestling Rusev and taking him off his feet though I still see Rusev picking up the win probably off a distraction by the ravishing Russian Lana who I swear gets hotter by the day! I see this going to Summerslam where Swagger will get the win and there will be a celebration ala Lex Luger when he beat Yokozuna at Summerslam 93 except it will be better booked.

wwebattlefield-diva

WWE Divas Title
AJ Lee vs Paige

My pick: AJ Lee

I was really torn over this one because whatever the outcome Paige will be turning heel. I could see her winning and regaining the title by heel tactics and then going on full post match beatdown. I think the most likely scenario will be Paige dominating the match and just when she has AJ beat, goes for the Paige turner and AJ counters into a small package or the black widow and gets the win. Then post match Paige flips and turns heel. I was really surprised when they took the title off Paige because I felt she was doing an adimirable job. They just weren’t booking against any of the decent worker on the Divas roster. How they put Naomi and Cameron in Divas titles matches on PPV instead of Natalya who can pull a good match out of any Diva and not afraid to put over a newcomer (see NXT match against Charlotte) is beyond me.

Well there we are folks, Please leave a comment with your own predictions. You can also follow me on twitter @KG4231 where you will find my ramblings on wrestling, film and games. Enjoy WWE Battleground!

WWE Money in the Bank Logo

WWE Money in the Bank is this Sunday and here are my predictions for the championship and traditional MITB style matches that have been set on the card.

WWE Money In The Bank Main Event

WWE World Championship Ladder Match
John Cena vs Kane vs Roman Reigns vs Randy Orton vs Sheamus vs Alberto Del Rio vs Cesaro vs Bray Wyatt

My Pick: John Cena
Wildcard: Cesaro

Now before the IWC goes apeshit listen to my reasoning. This this is the smart choice, if as expected Lesnar will face the champion and win the title at Summerslam, then the only logical choice is to put it on Cena. He and Reigns are the only two pure faces in the match. Sheamus doesn’t count becuase I think he’s going heel soon. So they need a face to go against Lesnar at Summerslam. If you put the title on Reigns and he goes and loses it again Lesnar then you basically kill any momentum he’s going to have.

The wildcard here is Cesaro and if they are ready to push him through the roof already. It’s a possibility that he wins and then turns face on Heyman the next night on Raw saying something like that he doesn’t need him or is tired of him talking about Lesnar when he is now the #1- as in world champion, One idea I could see happening is WWE putting the Briefcase on someone like Kofi Kingston or Dolph Ziggler with the way he’s been booked lately to actually lose the briefcase in a match on RAW. This could put things back on track for WWE’s original plan of Cesaro as Mr. MITB, which he would cash in and beat Lesnar turning face. I dunno, but it’s interesting. Either way, I think Lesnar will take the title at Summerslam.

wwe-mitb2

The Money In The Bank Ladder Match
Seth Rollins vs Kofi Kingston vs Jack Swagger vs Dolph Ziggler vs Rob Van Dam vs Bad News Barrett vs Dean Ambrose

My Pick: Bad News Barrett
Wildcard: Dolph Ziggler

This was a real tough choice as I had Rollins to win until Ambrose was announced. I figure they will probably keep each other from winning the contract with some pretty cool ladder spots. Let’s face it, Van Dam like Kingston are in there for cool looking spots with the ladders. They are not going to win unless it plays out ala Cesaro beating them for the briefcase. After Rollins it was toss up between BNB and Dolph. Dolph has been in the doghouse of late apparently cos of his injuries, so maybe this would be moment he gets out- but if a face is leaving champion then Dolph I’m afraid I’ve got some BAD NEWS! (sorry, I had to do that quote)

They are probably going with a heel to win the contract and at the moment in WWE there is no one better that Bad News Barrett. He’s has been a revelation since he got back into the gimmick and it’s slowly starting to turning him face. His matches are getting so much better, his IC tournament match with Sheamus was a pure old fashioned brawl and I LOVED it. His match on last night’s RAW with Dolph was amazing too, they had the crowd into it, did great near falls, and some awesome moves. Barrett’s Bull Hammer has become my favourite finisher just ahead of the Cesaro uppercut. They are like Shawn Michaels’ Sweet Chin Music. They can hit them from anywhere and on anyone. No better feeling as a wrestling fan than to see someone who’s got all the momentum in the match to launch themselves off the top rope and then WHAM! Bull Hammer/Uppercut and match is over. Bottom line, I give this to Bad News Barett. He was supposed to win two years ago but got injured. Now is his time; he has the support and he has the great gimmick. Push him now through the ceiling, plus if the idea to is to turn him face then cash it in against Lesnar and that will be the moment that everyone will talk about!

(Disclaimer: I support BNB because I’m English. ’nuff said.)

WWE Money in the Bank

WWE Divas Title
Paige vs Naomi

My pick: Paige

This is the easiest match to call. Paige will win. It’s a shame they are not putting her in the ring with credible divas like Natalya and AJ. They will need to start bringing up Charlotte from NXT soon to give the divas roster a boost with actual talent. It’s also stupid booking as I think Paige winning the match will rank second to the “Story line breakup” of the funkadactyls, does anyone actually care about that by the way? *listens for crickets chirping* Think that Paige will hold the title at least until AJ returns or confirms she’s pregnant. Then Paige will probably be put in a meaningful feud… well, one can hope anyway.

wwe-mitb4

WWE Tag Team Championship
The Uso’s vs Harper and Rowan

My pick: Harper and Rowan

I feel for the Uso’s, they are a great team but they haven’t been in any meaningful matches since they really won the titles. No feuds (really) and relegated to being Cena’s back up against the Wyatt family. But this could be what they need. I think Harper and Rowan get the titles cheaply, maybe Bray interferes, or maybe a blackout, etc. This would kick start the feud between the two teams where the Uso’s would regain the titles at Summerslam in a gimmick match. Just my prediction.

I hope that you like my predictions, I’m expecting more matches to be announced… I expect Rusev with Ravishing Lana against Big E and possibly Bo Dallas. I don’t care about either match, but I could watch Lana all day long 😉 .

I will be making this a regular column before every WWE PPV.  Please feel free to leave you predictions in the comments as well.

This will be the first of many Fan Cast columns. The Pit has asked me to do a regular series of articles and these immediately came to mind (SEE: Justice League Casting Suggestions). I love choosing casts for things I have such a vested interest in. The first one was a toss-up between my two favorite video game franchises: Mass Effect and Assassins Creed. I decided to go with the former as it’s the one I have most fun playing.

This article will deal with Mass Effect 1, the second will focus on Mass Effect 2, and the third will be Mass Effect 3. Each game introduced and retained an amazing set of characters. For those of you who do not know, the Mass Effect series is a sci-fi action RPG game set in the future. It focuses on a soldier called Commander Shepard who must save the galaxy from a race of powerful sentient machines called Reapers, who harvest the advanced races leaving the smaller races to develop as answer to chaos. It also offers a great system where your decisions influence the rest of the game. Do good things and you’ll earn paragon points, while bad things earn you renegade points. So without further ado let’s get down to casting. There will be two choices per character, one is my choice and one is the choice of a friend who is also a fan of the game.

Mass EffectLogan Marshall-GreenElizaDushku

Commander Shepard
The choices for Shepard was a tough one as I had to consider whether I was going to go with as ME fans called them; Man-Shep or Fem-Shep. So I decided to do both. My choice for Man-Shep is Logan Marshall-Green. He was excellent in Prometheus and let’s face it, there wasn’t much in that film to like. He was also pretty good in Brooklyn’s Finest and Dark Blue. He has a cool range and I kind of like the idea of not getting a big star in the main role. It should go to someone who needs the breakout movie.

For Fem-Shep, my friend chose and I completely agree that Eliza Dushku is perfect for the role. She has played the bad ass type before and has the right look for the character. Same rules apply from Marshall-Green as in she is a big TV star, but has never had a big breakout film role. This would be perfect for her to showcase her ability.

Mass Effect - AshleyEmily BluntJennifer Lawrence

Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams
The character of Ashley is an interesting one  in that she starts of a tad xenophobic due to her family being a career military family who fought in the first contact war (which was when humanity found out they were not alone in the universe). As she fights alongside them she gains a new found respect for them. She is also a total badass and a very competent solider. Now if I had wrote this a week ago, I might have said somebody different, but as I just saw Edge Of Tomorrow (which I suggest you all should go see!). Emily Blunt wins this hands down for me. The character she plays is essentially Ashley- which is amazing. She kicks ass throughout the film and has a on screen presence that has only been matched in recent films by my friends choice…

Jennifer Lawrence. Like Blunt, she just oozes sex appeal along with being able to hold her own fighting with (if not) better than the boys. Her stock has really soared in the past three to four years. Her action scenes in The Hunger Games films and X-Men films are top notch, but for me the best performance she did was her Oscar winning performance in the Silver Linings Playbook. She acted everybody off the screen, which is not an easy job when you have Robert De Niro in the film. She was the standout performer. It would be excellent to see her take on another franchise.

Mass Effect - KaidanBrandonRouthBen Barnes

Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko
Kaidan is a biotic which basically means he has certain powers, he is also a good solider but I have to be honest: I hate him. I really can’t stand his character. He seems like a total douche for lack of better word. He’s not all bad though he does have his moments. My choice to play him is Brandon Routh for a couple of reasons, He done a few action films and has played a few douche bag characters on TV. He also bears a striking resemblance to the character in game.

My friend went for Ben Barnes who is someone I have only seen a little bit of and like Routh the things I saw him had him playing a good but flawed character and he like Routh does look like him. Kaidan is a character I did not have a lot invested in, I always chose Ashley over him in the big choice you have to make in game.

Mass Effect - GarrusHugh Jackman

Garrus Vakarian
Surprisingly there is only one choice for this role. Once I heard my friend’s pick, it was so brilliant there was no point in finding any others. Garrus is a Turian, a race that look like humanoid birds. He is a former cop on the citadel who has been trying to find evidence on the rogue spectre Saren. So for this bad ass former cop the choice is the Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman. Jackman is perfect for the role, I would imagine the role would be prosthesis and makeup rather than CGI to create the character and Hugh has the ability to pull that off. He would bring the same intensity to the role as he does for Wolverine. This would really put more into the character of Garrus as he does a stick up his ass which is a constant in-joke in the trilogy.

WrexvinTheRock-DwayneJohnson

Urdnot Wrex
Wrex is a krogan and one of my favorite characters of the trilogy. Krogan are large reptilian bipeds who are usually seven feet tall. They also have two hearts, four lungs and four testicles which Wrex always likes to point out as a “quad” usually in reference to Shepard or other characters showing the balls to make the hard decisions. I would think Wrex would be better done by CGI and mo-capped, then voiced over. For the Mo-cap I would choose Brock Lesnar, the man is a freak of nature and has the right build and size to pull it off. He would also be able to pull of the physicality of the role with complete ease. As for the voice I think someone like Vin Diesel or Dwayne Johnson would capture the rough and embattled voice of Wrex plus they would be able to bring the humour that Wrex has.

Sound off below in the comments section if you agree or disagree with my choices and please give your choices as well. That’s all folks!