CITY BOY GEEKINESS

I have a penchant to enjoy a good horror movie. Some can be quite entertaining while others follow the same horror tropes that were introduced decades prior. The movie on today's list originally premiered in 2011 at the Toronto International Film Festival but delayed due to production and mainstream release. Today's film review is the horror slasher: You're Next.

The Premise: Set at a luxurious mansion nestled deep in the woods, the Davison family returns to celebrate their wedding anniversary with their adult children and spouses. While dealing with unsettled family drama and fighting, a group of masked killers await in the woods to finish off the family before sunrise. Erin (played by Sharni Vinson) is new to the drama and must help the splintered group survive the night, while also trying to locate her missing boyfriend, Crispian Davison (A.J. Bowen).

The Results: 3.5/5!

You're Next was surprisingly an interesting take on the "home invaders" horror genre. Slow motion, dramatic tension and albeit genuine scares, I enjoyed watching something more than a body count running throughout a mansion with a killer on the loose. Did the movie offer something new? No. You're Next is a simple plot: a large trying to survive a group of serial killers. Nothing new will define the horror genre but even with that in mind, You're Next is still a good popcorn movie to watch.

Last year, my friend Darlin helped to inspire a series of discussions about our favourite music groups and artists while folding clothes at the store. Hey, when you're working retail hours during the holiday season and you get a couple of minutes to relax - let's face it, you'll do nothing but talk with the other Sales Associates! It's been a full year since that lonely day at the GAP but looking back at last year's post, it's got me wondering again.

In life, there are two things that can (somewhat) judge how much you've "grown" or "changed" from the previous year: fashion styles and music. (Think about it - you know I'm right!) For this post, I'm going to dust-off my iPod playlists and rank those special artists that have influenced my music (and singing) habits for 2011.

NOTE: Just like last year, some of the artists will get reasoning behind my rank choices, it will be listed from most-to-least favourite and if the same artists collaborated on a song then I may only reference it once.

1. Britney Spears

Songs: Hold It Against Me, Till The World Ends, I Wanna Go, Criminal

LYR (Last Year's Rank): #17

This has been a big year for Britney and I'm very impressed. Even though she had a low ranking last year, she still tops my list as one of my favourite artists ever. Her latest album, "Femme Fatale" dominated the charts with hit-after-hit (my favourite track is Till The World Ends), inspired countless parodies online, and helped to provide her with a fresh start. For this and many other reasons, Britney tops this list as #1.

2. David Guetta

Songs: Where Them Girls At?, Without You, Who's That Chick and a variety of other collaborations

LYR: #7

Honestly, my iPod this year was the year of Dance music. Not much has changed but it's had a lot of heavy rotation and a huge part of that is because of David Guetta. The beats are catchy, the lyrics are repetitive and the music videos are visually appealing. Who knew this one DJ could influence my song choices so much?

3. Dev/The Cataracs

Songs: In The Dark, Top Of The World, Sunrise, Club Love, Lightspeed, Breathe

LYR: #10 (Dev only)

What can I say, I absolutely love both groups! I know that I should only list one artist per spot but seriously, when you think of one you can't help but remember the other. If there was a winner, Dev definitely dominated this year with star exposure and chart hits, but The Cataracs played an important part as producers with a variety of songs that earn them both the #3 spot.

4. Ke$ha

Songs: Blow, Sleazy, Kiss N Tell, Run Devil Run, Backstabber, Animal

LYR: #11

Note: "Run Devil Run" is not an official Ke$ha track, but she did provide the base track before it was sold to Girl's Generation. If there was one artist that surprised me the most, it's Ke$ha. While I absolutely love her catchy dance hits and brash attitude now, in all honesty, I didn't start off a Ke$ha fan. She grew on me and I don't think I could see my iPod without a single song now.

5. Katy Perry

Songs: ET, The One That Got Away, Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F), Peacock

LYR: #2

She may have fallen three spots this year but that doesn't mean that she isn't amazing! This may surprise you all to know but before this year, I've never been to a stadium concert before (I don't count We Day as that had a different purpose of empowering youth for change). There were two concerts/performances I attended this year: Robyn and Katy Perry. For my first stadium concert, seeing Katy Perry live will always be something I remember!

6. Adele

Songs: Rumour Has It, Someone Like You, Rolling In The Deep, Set Fire To The Rain

LYR: NEW

That voice. The emotion. The single strange ability to make me want to cry on transit. All of it equals to an amazing performer! While many will place her at the top of the list, Adele is a powerhouse that influenced my song choices, but I couldn't bear to listen to her songs so often. Nothing can be said about the emotion that can both inspire you and cause you to sulk in public.

7. LMFAO

Songs: Party Rock Anthem, This Is My Life, Sexy And I Know It, Sorry For Party Rocking

LYR: NEW

They had one of the biggest (and catchiest) songs of the year. Everybody was playing "Party Rock Anthem" and some even dared to try the dance moves in the clubs. Embarrassing to say the least! The group has been around for a while; I remember that they had appeared in one of the seasons for the Real World. I'm not sure if the group will have a lasting success but they seem like an interesting pop act with some catchy tunes.

8. The Sounds

Songs: Something To Die For, Yeah Yeah Yeah, Better Off Dead

LYR: NEW

In most instances, I can pinpoint where I've heard of each group. Surprisingly, I was introduced to The Sounds from a track that was included in Scream 4. I loved the song and I've grown to like the band as well. Even though Metric's rankings fell this year, this is the close substitute. I wonder which group will dominate in 2012?

9. Lady Gaga

Songs: Judas, Born This Way, Marry The Night

LYR: #1

I'll start off this posting with a point: it was the year of Gaga. So much so that Gaga was EVERYWHERE! Sometimes it's nice to have an artist go away for a bit, take a breather and come back ready to take on the world. There was never any time to digest the next song or Lady Gaga appearance before the next release. In terms of the music, I wasn't a fan of songs like "Edge of Glory" and "You and I" - they didn't strike a chord with me. It wasn't that they were terrible tracks but they just weren't songs that I personally liked overall. It definitely played a part as to why Lady Gaga lost the #1 spot this year.

10. Chromeo

Songs: Fancy Footwork, Bonafied Lovin, Don't Turn On The Lights, Night By Night, When The Night Falls

LYR: NEW

I'm a little late to jump on the Chromeo bandwagon. Their dance hits are interesting, melodic and hot with "Fancy Footwork" being one of my favourite tracks this year. I have no idea what to expect for 2012 but we'll see if they still make it on the Top 10.

It's been a while since I've reviewed a video game for you all but the wait will not disappoint. I've been getting more time to play through story modes and complete games to write reviews. For this edition of "In My Console" on this blog, I will be reviewing the new re-imaging of the bloody-fighting series: Mortal Kombat!

The Premise: The years of Mortal Kombat have dealt a heavy blow against the battle of Good vs. Evil. With the events of Armageddon coming to its climax, only Raiden and Shao Khan are left fighting on top of the pyramid while hundreds of their allied fighters lay dead on the fields below. When Raiden is defeated and about to be dealt the final blow, he speaks a mystical incantation that delivers a series of images from key moments throughout the last few years and a defining message that says "He must win" to himself years prior.

Now reliving the events starting from the first game in the series, the visions have created an alternate time line where Raiden impacts decisions previously made with new options. Raiden's influence has spread throughout the first trilogy in the series by changing key events and slowly manipulating the thoughts of characters we have previously thought of as good or evil. With events ticking down to the ultimate conclusion of fighting Shao Kahn, what will the Earthrealm fighters do if they know that their decisions may lead them back to Armageddon?

Where To Play: Mortal Kombat has been ported to a variety of systems such as PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. For the basis of this review, I have played this game on the 360.

The Good: When dealing with a fighting video game series, many have deemed that they can be interchangeable with each other. The good points about the Mortal Kombat series is that it focuses on the raw and bloody appeal of fighting. The fatalities and new "neck-breaker" combinations deal heavy blows with great cinematics. The story mode definitely was a highlight for me because the first two games never really highlighted the story behind the characters and it was nice to get a real in-depth view of what the characters experienced in the first three tournaments. Also a favourite is the inclusion of new characters yet-to-be created such as Skarlett who started as a palette-swap glitch in the second game. You can see her in the background of story mode so I'm excited to read about her back-story and how she took part in the story mode.The Kombat Pass is a nifty idea that will be a hit or miss with this series. Multiplayer is a hot commodity to have so we'll see if people do end up purchasing the pass to play the game on friend's systems.

The Bad: There were only a couple of things that I didn't like about this game. The fighting movements were a little choppy at parts and some of the fighting stances with previously top-rated characters were noticeably weakened in this game (i.e., Sub-Zero). My biggest negative point is Liu Kang. He was surprisingly a pain to play as in this series and when you had to fight against Shao Kahn to progress the story line, Liu Kang is hands down one of the weakest characters. I'm not bashing him because he's one of my least favourite characters but he definitely caused some stress to play his matches.

The Results: 8.5/10!

While I absolutely love this series and thought this was a great addition especially as a re-imaging, they are a couple of issues that could have been looked at before releasing. The story mode was impeccable and I can't wait to see the sequel and how new characters are affected with the new time line such as Tanya and Shinook. The fighting combos bring a new essence to the game and I thought that each character was given depth and purpose whether they were a lead or supporting. The only thing I wish is that the story mode hadn't have finished too soon because they could have revealed so much more juicy details that we could have been shocked to find out. For the next couple of years, let's see the slight differences between the original time line and this new one. Start taking your bets to see which characters will make a reappearance in the newer games. Hmm... that gives me an idea for later!

Agree or Disagree with the review? Share your thoughts and post a comment with how you felt about the game.

The Story: A brutal small town murder of the death of homecoming queen, Anna Graham, brings FBI Special Agent York to the town of Greenvale. What seems to be a connected homicide turns into a full-fledged string of murders with a psychotic individual carrying an axe and wearing a raincoat at the helm of the deaths, effectively called The Raincoat Killer. The game features a sandbox function with a slew of interesting lead, supporting and minor characters who are all targeted as suspects as the Raincoat Killer. It seems everyone had a reason to either be the killer or a possible target for the killer; as York, your job is to follow through with the investigation and catch the killer before more people start dying.

Where To Play: The game is currently only featured on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3. Always for the purpose of my reviews, I played this game on the Xbox. I do know that this game has had a limited release and is slowly being released in areas across the world.

The Good: The standout highlight of this game has to be the incredible storyline. For a budget game ($24 CAD), there is over 20 hours of gameplay where there story develops itself with a huge supporting cast. This game mimics the feel of a B-horror movie and the 90s hit television show, Twin Peaks. Unlike it's rival video game competitor, Heavy Rain, you actually get a logical sense of who the killer is and the events surrounding the string of murders. Simply separating the Ghost World and the Real World, you get a real life game with crazy characters with a perfect mix of old survival horror.

Another great factor about the game is the sandbox variety. You can take the game at your own pace and complete side missions to unlock a variety of things for York to use; especially when he enters the Ghost World. A great tidbit to remember is that when you complete certain side missions and talk to people in the town, you actually learn more about the characters, certain legends surrounding the killer, urban legends in the town and a progression to the story.

The Bad: This game may be on the latest generation of video game consoles, but the graphics are one system behind. The town may be gorgeous in its simplicity; however, sometimes the graphics can take away from the awe struck. Everything seems a little shoddy and graphics definitely needed to be upgraded such as the river in the town, design of trees, the designs of food and the pictures on the trading card Another hindrance is the controls while using York and the weapon system. Sometimes when you are using your gun, the bullets aren`t actually hitting your enemy and just wasting ammunition. If you don`t fully understand the controls early on, you may experience some problems later on.

The Results: 10/10!

I may have bagged on the game's graphics and controls; however, for everything that is wrong with the game...it made it perfect. It's like that expression: "It's so bad, it's good!" The story just draws you in and could be its own feature length film or television series. There is enough craziness mixed with realism that you actually understand what it is going on when you get into the nitty-gritty of the game. The characters are thought out perfect and equally all unique, the killer and villains are actually scary, and you get so much and more for the price value. I've read previous reviews from other sites where there has been polarizing results: some score really high while others score low. I look at the low scores for people who are more into graphics than storyline. I love visually appealing graphics as much as the next person but if there is nothing concrete behind it (storyline) then what is the point of playing. This is an underground game that is gaining momentum with grassroots word-of-mouth movement so hopefully you all will check this game out and see what all the talk is about.