Parenting: Uncovering Unconcious Bias

One of the challenges of bringing up children[1] Up there with leaving the house & making sure they are alive at the end of every day is not passing on any biases or prejudices you have. On the face of things this would seem like an easy problem to solve, just don't discriminate and teach your children the values of equality. The problem arises when we actually stop and think about how we really perceive the world and the people around us. If we really get introspective then we can uncover personal bias that we don't even realise we have.

Let's look at an example. How many fathers out there think on public transport: "it's polite to give up your seat to a woman"? On the face of it you are doing a nice thing. However if you teach that to your son then you are teaching him to treat women differently. This isn't ideal when you want to foster the ideas of equality. In this case you may wish to opt for "it's polite to give up your seat to anyone less able to stand". Women are just as capable as men in standing up :)

Tackling unconscious bias is a tough problem for everyone to solve, you're dealing with how your brain is hardwired to think about things. Only by consciously making an effort to question yourself can you discover these "things that I didn't even know I believed in". Luckily (depending on how you look at it), as your child grows up they will inevitably develop a perfect mechanism to help you with this: The incessant stream of "Why? Why? Why?..."

Tomb Raider

Having ploughed on after my initial few hours playing Tomb Raider, I managed to clock this great game last week! Here is my view on it, which in short is: "awesome value, looking forward to an improved sequel" XD

As soon as you start playing Tomb Raider, you are stunned by the sublime graphics. Everything from the magnificent vistas to the subtle fire effects are done beautifully. Lara looks amazing and how she gradually gets roughed up as the game progresses is really well done. 

Cleverly crafted pixels abound in the violence as well, which is somewhat biblical. Among the more gruesome ways to get Lara killed is getting impaled through head or rather sickeningly crushed by rocks. There seems to be an amazing variety of death scenes and they are all disgustingly well done, kudos to the development team for the amazing effort, you should all be locked up ;) 

Just to note that the sound effects for these scenes and in fact the whole game are done very well. There is a satisfying attention to detail and throughout the music of the game makes for a good backdrop.  However it can be a bit annoying at times, making situations feel more urgent then they are. All part of the game I suppose!

As I mentioned before, the voice acting is superb in this game. Lara in particular is fantastically well done by Camilla Luddington. Over the course of the game you really hear her develop from a terrified girl to a fiery Boudica figure feared by all.

The supporting cast are all fairly interesting as well, although the villain is very stereotypical madman. Plot in this game is very thin and fairly predictable, nevertheless it is still enjoyable. The documents you can collect provide a really great insight into the history of the island. Hearing the authors read out their stories is surprisingly enjoyable and empathic.

Where the game really falls down is the mediocre combat. On normal mode the game is very simple, Lara is simply a wrecking ball. Enemies are very repetitive and even "boss" fights aren't that interesting.   Once you unlock some of the finishing moves, they can be very satisfying. To keep things more challenging and fun, try to headshot/stealth kill as many enemies as possible. The extra XP from doing so is also very welcome :)

Speaking of which, developing and upgrading both Lara's skills and weapons is done through a simple system of Experience Points and Salvage/Weapon Parts. As you go through the game, the system expands and you get a real sense Lara is becoming cold blooded and really deadly. All in all the whole system is implemented really well and adds an interesting role playing element to the game.

Playing through Tomb Raider, I was very much reminded of the gameplay of Assassin's Creed. The "Survival Instincts" mechanism which highlights your goals and enemies reminded me a lot of Eagle Vision. What could have differentiated the game better would have been better use of "Survival aspects". Lara never actually has to eat or sleep beyond the start of the game. It would have been nice to have had MGS3 style stamina gauge included.

Platforming is a big aspect and it is simple and fun. The reset mechanism for when you die works very well, putting you right back into the thick of the action. However the "optional tombs" are amazingly short lived. Aside from the frustrating and repetitive trek to the puzzle chamber, you can finish them in next to no time at all. However they are an interesting change of pace and some of the puzzles are fiendish.

In conclusion, I enjoyed playing the game but it isn't special. You get a fantastic amount of quality time out of the single player game as well as there being multiplayer (although I haven't tried it yet). A fun first entry in the rebooted series, I look forward to raiding tombs again with Lara Croft on the PS4! XD

A Good Day To Die Hard

When the tag line reads: "Like Father, Like Son, Like Hell" you immediately know this film is going to dreadful and somewhat awesome at the same time. Sadly for me it was just mostly mediocre and dissatisfying.

What was most frustrating thing about the film was the lack of effort. Despite being a Die Hard film there is very little "full on action", there is just loads of shooting and things just mostly crash and/or explode. There is neither any grittiness or grandeur to the whole affair.

It goes without saying that this film is a no-brainer but the whole thing is just massive face-palm. The plot is thread bare at best and the dialogue is diabolically bad. You don't want forced and painful bonding in a Die Hard film, especially when it is self depreciating. Throwing it in people's faces that you are making people cringe just adds insult to injury.

The whole sentiment is probably all summed up by a piss poor attempt to sexualise the film with the introduction of Yuliya Snigir's character. I have to say that she is probably one of the worst actresses I have seen in a long time, stick to the modelling...

Long story short, passable film if you enjoy Die Hard and you are literally paying no money to watch it... Otherwise just wait until you come across it on TV and there is nothing better to do >.<

One Piece

The latest manga I have taken to reading is One Piece, which I am getting really into!

Based in an age where pirates dominate the world, the story centres on Monkey D. Luffy, a kid who dreams of becoming "The Pirate King". To achieve this, he hopes to find the eponymous mythical treasure that is the One Piece. Said to be the most valuable in the world, it is rumoured that the previous Pirate King hide it at the end of "The Grand Line", the most dangerous ocean in the world!

Their travels across the Grand Line gives rise to many crazy adventures for Luffy and his crew. As you may expect, there is conflict almost every step of the way. However, what makes the fighting interesting is the existence of "Devil Fruit", which bestow magical powers upon those who eat them! For example, Luffy ate one and become a "Rubber Man", in the same sense as Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four.

Beyond this, the other characters have special traits and abilities as well, which helps to keep things interesting. Rather refreshingly, not everyone is magically overpowered and not every fight is drawn out for the sake of it. Very frequently the strong will simply destroy the weak is one go, which helps to keep things in perspective and keep the action going.

Combat aside, the character development is solid and story is fairly well told. I appreciate that if I was reading the story as it came out every week I'd probably get bored at points, but reading it together I feel the pacing is just right!

I've yet to start watching the anime but it is definitely on my to-do list! In the meantime, if you enjoy Bleach and would like to read some thing lighter and more fantasy based, I'd highly recommend One Piece!

Final Fantasy XIII-2

Excitement, laughter, boredom, disappointment and hope. All of these I have experienced playing Final Fantasy "13.2", a flawed sequel which could have been an epic masterpiece.

In this article I will lead you through those 5 "emotions", which hopefully will give you insight into the game and whatever it maybe for you or not. Nevertheless this is neither a well reasoned review or a true critique of the game... but I hope it is still useful to you all the same!

Having quite enjoyed Final Fantasy XIII, I was quietly excited about XIII-2. Despite being flawed, the first game set a really high standard and a sequel which solved all of these issues would be amazing. Straight out of the box, XIII-2 is just that as well, pure amazement. The graphics are top notch as ever and the opening action sequence is beyond epic. The introduction of quick time events to cut-scenes, in the form of Cinematic Actions, really does a lot in spicing up the action and offering replay value.

As you delve into the game, there are more and more exciting new features to explore and play with. The one that really impressed me was the new "Pokémon" mechanic. Putting it simply, you can now catch ("tame") and raise monsters to fight along side you! The whole system is implemented really well, each monster is unique and has its own Crystarium. Levelling up monsters, infusing them with different abilities and building up a team is immensely satisfying.

These things are just a couple of the many exciting things to be found in XIII-2. The mini-game that is Chocobo Racing is fairly entertaining and the game itself offers a fairly good challenge with lots of replay value. One thing that everyone will enjoy is the immediate openness, you may explore and take breaks from the main storyline at almost any point.

Sadly all this excitement does not last all the way through the game but wanes from time to time. In moments I was actually bored. Unlike XIII, the story isn't incredibly captivating although it is decent. However, the level of confusion has risen a notch and most of the time I was left wondering "wtf?"

Rather disappointingly for a Final Fantasy game, I found many of the characters to be a bit annoying and predictable. This was not all of the time but most of the time, I felt bored with stereotypes and clichés. The history behind characters did seem a bit pathetic at times and there isn't the same sense of development as there was in the first game.

Even though the "Pokémon" system is pretty awesome, it is very easy to capture a single overpowered monster and proceed to forgot all about it. Admittedly this is if you wonder off the main storyline and go hunting specifically for the monsters, but it is still a caveat of the system.

What is especially worrying is how quick the main storyline could go by. The game is fairly short for a Final Fantasy game and I estimate you could probably blitz the game in less than 30 hours. On top of this it is fairly easy to power level so Final Fantasy veterans could probably smash out all the content this game has to offer in under 70 hours... Decent enough but kind of low considering the source.

Nevertheless, XIII-2 does have some really enjoyable and humorous moments. I genuinely laughed out loud at some moments. One of the main characters, Mog the Moogle is fairly amusing and made me giggle here and there.

A new feature to the game is that of Live Triggers, the ability to decide how to respond to dialogue in the game. Some of the options are deliberately quite amusing and make for some comical scenes. Note that most of the humour is more cute and cheesy than top notch comedy.

Having said that, I really did like the answer to one of the quiz questions in the game. The question is something along the lines of, "what is the catchphrase of the hero in the hit TV show Moggle Rangers?" You may judge me, but I ROFL'ed when I saw the answer: Hasta La Vista, Kupo

Moments like these really helped to make the game enjoyable and I only wish there had been more subtle attention to detail paid to every aspect of the game...

What is probably the most annoying thing about XIII-2 is the overriding sense of disappointment. I feel as if this game could have been so much better given more investment. With only two playable characters, the game feels a bit empty. It is blessing in the sense you don't have as many characters to train but it is also a curse in how restrictive it feels. Sure you have hundreds of monsters to play with but it isn't quite the same.

Another strange amendment was the loss of the weapon development system and the fairly limited accessory set. It all adds to the disappointing feeling of being cheated out of content, as if they simply decided it was too much effort to add it in.

This subtle lack of effort seems to be prominent throughout as well, at least to me. Whilst not a big issue, you do see the same recycled maps at lot, albeit with changed weather and personnel. However in the cut-scenes it annoys me that so many of them are simply narrated over and/or have really bad lip sync. It really breaks the immersion into the story and feels a bit jarring.

Speaking of the story, it seemed to me like it almost gave up making much sense. Seemingly it gave up all together at the end. *slight spoiler alert*... I myself really hated the ending, it basically set itself up for another direct sequel which disgusts me entirely.... *end spoilers*

Overall, SquareEnix have left me hopeful for the future, a better future. Considering the short development cycle of the game, they have produced some decent results. The extended play beyond the main storyline is good fun and helpfully adds more to the entire back story. Given more time, I can only assume they can make better games... but that isn't really the issue.

Anyone who knows me will know that I always make a point of typing Final Fantasy numbers as their published roman numerals, which brings me back to why I called it "13.2" at the start of the article. XIII-2 is not so much as a good standalone Final Fantasy game than it is an iteration of its predecessor, change and improved in some ways.

The next Final Fantasy doesn't just need to be better, it needs to change everything and redefine the series. It needs to be what every Final Fantasy is expected to be, an epic master class on being a masterpiece.

Safe House

An action film that is somewhat entertaining but very quickly forgettable, Safe House is definitely something you don't want to pay a lot to watch.

The basic premise is interesting enough, Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is a frustrated "house keeper" for a CIA Safe House in South Africa. One day, one of the world's most wanted criminals, Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington) ends up in Matt's custody and from here the dynamic between the two is explored.

Initially things were intriguing and I enjoyed the gritty realism, nothing was necessarily over the top or entirely implausible. However this quickly evaporated into boredom and was exacerbated by the fact that the dialog was at times completely inaudible. The story itself soon got a bit predictable and personalities fell into one-dimensional sterotypes.

Without adding too much more, the Metacritic score speaks for itself. I'm glad we watched it on an Orange Wednesday but I would strongly advise others to wait for the DVD...

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Back when OnLive first hit the market, I was informed by a good friend that they were offering up the first game you brought for just £1. Seeing as the service is completely free otherwise, I jumped at the opportunity to play the new Deus Ex.

For a week I played the game solid and I actually quite enjoyed it. It combines Metal Gear Solid with the open world mechanic really well, sneaking around performing stealth take-downs is always a lot of fun! Trying to complete levels with a perfect stealth rating however is infuriating and yet strangely addictive.

The role play element in Deus Ex is really quite slick as well, which I suppose is best known for. Whilst you can make a lot of decisions to make the character your own, there is enough history and personality to provide a really interesting person to emphasis with as well.

In terms of the game mechanics, the "levelling" system works quite well and I really enjoyed the freedom and versatility. Sadly there isn't really a way to power level in the game, although I did find this glitch. Smashing through walls and being invisible really does make the game ALOT of fun XD

If you do plan on getting this game, I'd very much recommend you do not get it with OnLive. In my experience, the game is diminished by it. In the end, I got sick of the latency and poor stability of the game and I gave up. If the PS3 version ever got really cheap, I'd probably give it a whirl again. Finishing the story would be snazzy and it would be great to get another batch of trophies!

Overall, I would definitely this game to anyone who enjoys action or RPG games. There seems to be a lot of value to be had from replaying the game and it is genuinely a beautiful game in an intriguing world of its own.

Bleach

My cousin once told me, when we were teenagers, that I would love Bleach. I didn't care to enquire about the cleaning product but when I finally found the manga and got into it, I've never looked back.

Bleach is a violent in nature, cute with humour and is epic on almost all scales. For the most part it centres on pitting the protagonist, Ichigo, against insanely powerful enemies in ridiculously destructive fights to the death. However the violence is rarely mindless and more akin to a game of chess. The subtle undercurrents and relationships between all the characters makes for some awesome scenes.

The story is pure fantasy and really quite addictive. Reading the tale is awesome but watching the anime is pure joy. The humour comes across a lot better when animated and the Japanese voice actors do a tremendous job of bringing life to the characters.

Finally just to finish on the iconic characters of Bleach, they are beautifully drawn and have some real depth to them, to the most point XD (awesome translation in that picture by the way)

Tortilla

Possibly one of my favourite places to get lunch, Tortilla is one of the best "fast food" restaurants around.

To put things simply, Tortilla is a Mexican Subway, where you get Burritos instead of footlong sandwiches. I find service in Tortilla swifter, although this is mostly due to the smaller selection. Having said that, all the food in Tortilla always tastes great.

The value for money in Tortilla is excellent, a large burrito costs less than £6 and they operate a loyalty scheme as well (similar to Nandos). For lunch, a large burrito really is plently. However I can speak from experience when I say it is not enough for dinner! :P

Definitely worth a try to anyone, especially if you like Mexican food to begin with!

MangaWhat

I love reading manga and I've found the most awesome free Android application for it: MangaWhat

Reading the latest mangas is really simple, with multiple sources choose from, including MangaFox, MangaReader, and BleachExile. All of these have a very wide selection and you can find all the chapters there as well.

Which brings me onto the next feature nicely, the download manager. Once you have found a manga you like, you can set up the app to download all chapters within any range (42 to 100 for example). Once they are downloaded, you can happily browse through them all offline. I've downloaded the first 300 chapters of One Piece and that has been keeping me entertained on the tube!

Fun times, hope you enjoy it too!

Leisure Games

Quick recommendation for Leisure Games, a specialist board game shop in London.

When I was buying my Dominion sets, I managed to call them up and haggle a 10% discount as I was buying over £100 worth of cards!

If you get a chance and you are interested, check it out! The staff are friendly and the shop is pretty easy to find .

The Three Musketeers (2011)

Back in October 2011 I went to see The Three Musketeers and I was pleasantly surprised by it actually!

Initial reviews I read pretty much seem to slate the film, so I didn't have very high expectations. This probably helped though as I could happily suspend disbelief and just enjoy the film.

Lighthearted and full of action, the film is fun and entertaining. The story isn't too bad and there is some charm in the film. The acting is fairly terrible at times though, Orlando Bloom makes for an annoying bad guy >.<

I didn't see the 3D version but it was shot in 3D, as opposed to layered in post-production, so I suspect the effects will be good. However I doubt it is worth the extra money and even with Orange Wednesdays I felt I was paying a bit much!

Overall, a good movie to get on DVD or to see with some friends. Expect lots of sword fighting, explosions, craziness and laughs!

Captain America - The First Avenger

The last film in the pre-Avengers series, Captain America is an entertaining film which good but not great. Although far from ground-breaking, there is enjoyment to be had and the film does well to prepare the ground for the Avengers.

Breaking the trend set by so many action films nowadays, Captain America actually has an interesting character story at the heart of it. Whilst the special effects and action is done well, it is not the entire focus of the film. Chris Evans does a great job as the eponymous hero but some could argue that his character is boring and unchanging, just the cliched good guy.

However I enjoyed the juxtaposition of his unchanging kind, naive nature to his rapid physical development. Gaining superpowers changes may change what we are but not necessarily who we are. The rest of the cast does a mighty fine job as well with Hugo Weaving doing a brilliant psychotic evil Nazi and Tommy Lee Jones providing some quality one liners.

One of my favourite aspects of the film was the setting of the world during the Second World War. Seeing an America full of classical cars and Tommy guns gives a beautiful feeling of nostalgia. Not having subliminal adverts for the latest gadgets and cars in the film really helps the immersion into the film. Although a matter of personal preference, it adds to the experience and enjoyability.

With an excellent story, solid characters and vivid backdrop of the 1940s, this film is an enjoyable portrayal of the typical all American hero. If you are a fan of Marvel films that this is a must see and I would highly recommend this to any fan of the superhero genre.