Crossing The Hammerkop

I write things about games, movies, and occasionally, writing in general.

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The Order: 1886 Review

In The Order: 1886, I walked through virtual London, found out who Jack the Ripper is, killed a couple werewolves, and still came back unhappy.

Games and movies have always had a weird relationship, one that has had both its upsides and its downsides. When games attempt to emulate movies, it comes out to mixed success, with the best ones incorporating cinematic qualities while maintaining an interactive nature. What video games have over a medium like film is that there is agency on the part of the player. So when games try to give…

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Wild Card Review

Another Jason Statham movie where he beats people up. The difference? He gets to act.

In the pantheon of Jason Statham movies, I hope that someone starts recognizing his latest efforts as more than just an attempt to cash-in on his name. Redemption (formerly known as Hummingbird, the far less generic title) was a down-to-earth Statham that had moments of humanity which we rarely get to see in his career. It didn’t even really have that much action. His latest film Wild Card,…

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The Voices Review

Ryan Reynolds is starting the "Reynaissance" with The Voices. Yes, I am totally okay with myself for using that term.

Dark comedy is a tricky beast to wrangle, especially when you want to inject drama into it too. The problems that arise are tonal ones that are difficult to avoid. In the case of Marjane Satrapi’s The Voices, they are handled reasonably well because of an incredible performance by Ryan Reynolds. The charismatic actor shows joy, regret, compassion, confusion, and hate to take the film from an…

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Jupiter Ascending Review

The review in which I figure out why I enjoy Wachowski films, despite their many problems.

If there is one thing that has always been consistent with the Wachowski siblings, its that they are not afraid to bite off way more than they can chew. Their ambitions are incredulously high, even if everything else isn’t quite up to snuff. Movies like Cloud Atlas and The Matrix might be great films, but ambitions still outweigh the delivered content. I mean, The Matrix was so lofty in its…

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Mortdecai Review

A review of Mortdecai, the latest in bad films I have willingly inflicted upon myself.

In the pantheon of terrible Johnny Depp roles, two have recently stood out as egregiously bad. The first was Tusk, a movie that isn’t great, but becomes outright terrible when Depp is thrown into the mix. Thankfully, his character is not the focal point of the film and is played off as comedic relief, with a minor role in the latter half. Mortdecai is perhaps one of the worst roles Depp has…

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The Wedding Ringer Review

Cannot wait for The Funeral Ringer. When Best Man services evolves into Corpse Retrieval services.

One gross-out joke. A moment of bonding. Some debauchery. Random reference to an older television show. Two likeable leads, which may or may not have chemistry together. I’ve basically summarized both The Wedding Ringer and any bromance film you can think of. In terms of films about men being friends with other men, this isn’t the worst of the films, and actually has some genuinely interesting…

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Paddington Review

Review - Paddington

The adaptation of nostalgic material has been painful for so many reasons. There’s nothing quite like watching your childhood memories be painfully cashed in on, as you sit there and watch a new generation of children experience a hacked version of your favourite children’s tale. But there’s also no better feeling than to watch someone get it – truly understand the source material. It’s similar…

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Dear Academy, You Don't Have to be the Bad Guy

Yesterday, the Oscar nominations were finally announced. There were a lot of snubs, and maybe one or two surprises. But the snub which most surprised me, was the exclusion of The Lego Movie from the Best Animated Feature category. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s highly acclaimed work has gone unnoticed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, almost a week after it lost to How to…

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Infinite Respawncast - The Legend of Fatman

Infinite Respawncast – The Legend of Fatman

Hello. Everything is slightly in disarray at the moment because everyone’s out doing things or in a state of transition in life. So it was hard to get this podcast made, let alone out in time. And its not out in time. However, we did manage to round up someone else for the podcast, Samuel Provost-Walker a.k.a DJ Slamuel. And we have one of his hot remixes at the end of the podcast for you to…

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Infinite Respawncast - The Furry Fallout?

Infinite Respawncast – The Furry Fallout?

Hey everyone. We took last week off because we couldn’t coordinate, and it was also Thanksgiving weekend for three out of four of us. So we kind of ended up with a lot to talk about from Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor‘s ingenious Nemesis system, anime aesthetics in Dust: An Elysian Tail, how The Walking Dead has gotten better (maybe? We’ll take Braden’s word on it), and dissect the new Devin…

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Infinite Respawns YouTube Channel

Infinite Respawns YouTube Channel

It would be ridiculous to suggest that video content is ever a bad idea for a website. When it comes to video games, I think video content is an extremely easy way to preview something you might want to buy, as well as hear someones thoughts in a quick and less formal fashion. The barrier to entry is far less high for videos than it is for written content. That is not to say that reading makes…

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Destiny Review

This review was written before recent patches came into effect that fixed some issues I had with the game such as loot drops and some balancing issues. However, this is a review of my experience with the game in its first couple weeks. Things may have changed, but that did not affect my review of the game.

Destiny is a game that is at its best with friends. That’s a double-edged comment though,…

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Infinite Respawncast - Not Sponsored by Namco

Hey everyone. There are games starting to come out! And it’s October, which means its time for everyone to start watching tons of horror movies. On that note, I found myself too busy to podcast this week, leaving Tyler, Jeff, and Braden to talk about Shadow of Mordor, horror movies, and Smash Bros. Also, hype for Alien: Isolation.

Give the podcast a listen, below:

[soundcloud…

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Infinite Respawncast - Cheese is the Most Commonly Stolen Item

Infinite Respawncast – Cheese is the Most Commonly Stolen Item

Hello world. Braden returned to us after his hiatus, leaving us with so much to talk about. Where did he go? Why did he leave us? What is a pallet? All those questions and more are answered this week as we discuss the ease of cheese theft, the difficulty of the Raid in Destiny, and how Job for a Cowboy keep changing genres. We talk about a lot of things that aren’t video games, but I managed to

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Infamous: First Light Review

http://wp.me/p3Gr0B-47

When Infamous: Second Son came out, I loved it, but also felt the need to defend a lot of the decisions made by the writing team. I still feel the same way about Second Son as I did then, and if anything, the new stand-alone DLC First Light further cements my comments on the writing in the core game. That the game refused to focus on any of the other characters besides Delsin Rowe, was part of…

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Infinite Respawncast - My Anaconda Don't Want None

Hello internet. We’re here to crash you this week with a long discussion on anime, Destiny, and the fact that Sony sometimes has boring conferences. I also make promises to vary the content some more for the site since I do not purely want to be doing podcasts, but would rather do some more writing and even some video content. So hopefully those are not empty promises.

So listen to Tyler, Jeff…

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Infinite Respawncast - Friends with the Benedicts

Hey people. We destroyed the template of the Infinite Respawncast to make it less structured but also more organic-feeling. Or at least an attempt to accomplish those things. To do that, I decided that we are no longer limiting ourselves to video games as a point of discussion. We’re at an early state still in the podcast’s lifespan where it makes sense to start evolving the podcast in the…

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