The Prestige (2006, Period Mystery Movie) – 9/10 review

Director: Christopher Nolan Writer (Screenplay): Jonathan Nolan Writer (Screenplay): Christopher Nolan Writer (Original Novel): Christopher Priest Producer: Christopher Nolan Hugh Jackman: Robert Angier Christian Bale: Alfred Borden Michael Caine: Cutter Scarlett Johansson: Olivia Wenscombe Rebecca Hall: Sarah Andy Serkis: Alley Piper Perabo: Julia McCullough David Bowie: Tesla

Prestige, The (2006) Professional magicians Robert Angier, The Great Danton, and Alfred Borden, The Professor, are intense, bitter rivals whose animosity becomes heightened when Borden performs the "greatest magic trick ever" and Angier knows he must know the secret. Whatever it costs. 9/10 Employing a technique that works a billion times better in books than on-screen is a trap that many filmmakers have fallen into. Perhaps, even, it only works in books. So why is Christopher Nolan’s brilliant period mystery about feuding magicians so joyously absorbing regardless? Perhaps because there’s always more going on. For example, what appears to be the central plot point isn’t (how the trick The Transporting Man is performed). Remarkably, the movie works as a mystery with a twist that’s delightfully imaginative and macabre to those who do and do not work it out. Early on, you’re told how The Transporting Man is done, only it tells you nothing. Ultimately, it’s all wheels-within-wheels with the biggest wheel, SPOILER Tesla (wonderfully realised by David Bowie), never explained at all and you probably only genuinely realise this after the movie. It is simply, magic, and, despite Scarlett Johansson, so is this film. This movie contains unpleasant scenes, brief but strong gun violence. Classified 12A by BBFC. Persons under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult.

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007, Third-Person Puzzle Platform Game, 360) – 9/10 review

Producer: Lulu LaMer Creative Director: Jason Botta Lead Designer: Jason Botta Art Director: Andrew Wood Keeley Hawes: Lara Croft Game Designer: Toby Gard

Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007) Lara Croft is on the trail of a Scion – a quest that cost her father his life – but quickly discovers that there are significant forces working against her both past and present. 9/10 As someone who never played the original Tomb Raider, I very much welcome this kind of project which sees an older game updated technologically but kept intact thematically and stylistically. What most surprised me is that this is essentially a non-violent game (the player kills one person but it’s horribly out-of-character and highly unnecessary for Lara; deliberately so, as it raises the question: can’t games be about more than killing dudes?). The joy comes from linear and straight-forward but satisfying traversal and logic puzzles. Every large room you enter is a moment of joy as you start scanning to find your exit and plan your route out. As a bonus, all the bosses are better and more interesting than shoot-’til-you-drop and all require a little strategy and guile to defeat (or, at least, to defeat quickly). Time trials mode from Legend makes a welcome return and, frankly, all games like this should have such a mode. Ultimately, and unusually, this game feels like a gift from the Eidos, Core and Crystal Dynamics and it’s a really nice feeling. This game contains wildlife self-defense gun violence, at-odds-with-the-game’s-tone gun violence and extreme knife violence. Classified 16+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 16 or over.. Links Previous: Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend (2006)

Call of Duty: World at War (2008, WWII First-Person Shooter Game, 360) – 9/10 review

Creative Director: Corky Lehmkuhl Gary Oldman: Sgt. Reznov Kiefer Sutherland: Sgt. Roebuck

Call of Duty 5 Call of Duty: World at War (2008) World War II: Russian Pvt. Dimitri Petrenko is pushing back the Germans to Berlin and American Private Miller is pushing back the Japanese to Okinawa. 9/10 Beautifully polished World War II first-person shooter which is atmospheric, extremely playable, very smooth and controls, looks, animates and sounds brilliant. There’s only one real complaint (aside from a couple of dispiriting bugs which require level restarts) and it’s an old one: disagreeably obvious infinite spawning soldiers who direct 90% of their fire directly into any orifice they choose whether they are looking at you or not, whether they are holding a weapon or not, whether you knew you were going to pop out or not, whether they’re on fire or not, whether they’re dead or not, whether they’re being run over by a tank or not, whether they’re being riddled with your bullets or not, whether a grenade has just exploded in their face or not. Hardened is great fun as it is really tough and satisfying but, unlike Veteran, you don’t get punished for your lack of clairvoyance skills. What is always good about the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty World War II games is that you never forget that this was a real conflict in which real people died real horribly. The ease with which you die, even though it’s a game (you can take three or more bullets which is rather more generous than real-life) becomes, rightfully, a slightly sobering experience. This Call of Duty game contains sexual swear words and extremely graphic gun violence, graphic blade, fire and melee violence, extremely unpleasant scenes. Classified 15 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over. Classified Violence by PEGI. Game contains depictions of violence. Classified Bad Language by PEGI. Game contains bad language. Classified 18+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for adults who have reached the age of 18 or over.. Links Previous: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Lens of Truth Head-to-Head: 360 Eurogamer Head-to-Head: 360 IGN Head-to-Head: PC IGN Head-to-Head: 360

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996, Disney Movie) – 9/10 review

Director: Gary Trousdale Director: Kirk Wise Producer: Don Hahn Writer (Animation Story): Tab Murphy Writer (Original Novel) Notre Dame de Paris: Victor Hugo Writer (Animation Screenplay): Tab Murphy Writer (Animation Screenplay): Irene Mecchi Writer (Animation Screenplay): Bob Tzudiker Writer (Animation Screenplay): Noni White Writer (Animation Screenplay): Jonathan Roberts Composer (Song Music): Alan Menken Composer (Lyrics): Stephen Schwartz Tom Hulce: Quasimodo Supervising Animator Quasimodo: James Baxter Demi Moore: Esmeralda Heidi Mollenhauer: Esmeralda Supervising Animator Esmeralda: Tony Fucile Tony Jay: Frollo Supervising Animator Frollo: Kathy Zielinski Kevin Kline: Phoebus Supervising Animator Phoebus: Russ Edmonds

Hunchback of Notre Dame, The (1996) Deformed baby Quasimodo is brought up by scheming evil government official Frollo in the Cathedral of Notre Dame and is given the task of ringing and caring for the bells. His life is reasonably happy but he would really like to leave the confines of the cathedral and find out what life is really like ‘out there’ but realising this dream means disobeying Frollo and putting the lives of himself and those he meets in great danger. 9/10 As time goes on, this unique Disney animation (the sole one dealing with entirely adult matters such as self-righteousness, sin, and the seduction of sex and power) becomes more clearly a masterpiece. The songs take a bit of getting used to but contain challenging and interesting lyrics and are better written than they seem at first. The screenplay is also outstanding as it manages to balance and present the weighty morals with clarity ("what makes a monster and what makes a man?") and, when appropriate, fun. Technically, the movie looks superb with Quasimodo’s animation a easy-to-overlook highlight (it’s very hard to draw something consistently from all angles that is deliberately distorted so special mention for supervising animator James Baxter). The movie saves it’s big animation guns for the finalé ("Sanctuary!") making it all the more impressive while the story rightly ends with the ugly guy not getting the girl which, as us ugly guy’s know, is exactly how it is. This movie contains disturbing scenes, supernatural scenes and unpleasant scenes. Classified U by BBFC. Universal: Suitable for All.

Brother Bear (2003, Commentary) – 9/10 review

Rick Moranis: Rutt Dave Thomas: Tuke

Brother Bear (2003) DVD: Rutt and Tuke provide commentary for the Brother Bear movie discussing their roles and techniques and giving insight into the production. 9/10 Besting the movie (6/10) by some considerable distance, this is one of the best home video commentaries available. It’s also highly unusual as it’s performed in character by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as the comic relief moose Rutt and Tuke. It’s always fun, surprisingly educational regarding filmmaking technique and highlights the key story beats and the nature of their presentation. A bit of a treat. This movie contains violence, unpleasant scenes and the bears aren’t wearing any clothes. Classified U by BBFC. Universal: Suitable for All.

Fable II (2008, Game, 360) – 9/10 review despite bugs

Creative Director: Peter Molyneux Executive Producer: Louise Copley Ron Glass: Garth Julia Sawalha: Hammer Oliver Cotton: Lucien Stephen Fry: Reaver Gemma Boyle: Rose Zoë Wanamaker: Theresa Nolan North: Male Hero Salli Safiotti: Female Hero Manager Senior Team: Dene Carter Manager Senior Team: Simon Carter Manager Senior Team: Richard Ham Manager Senior Team: Simon Jacques Manager Senior Team: Ian Lovett Manager Senior Team: John McCormack Manager Senior Team: J.C. Taylor

Fable II (2008) Albion is once more under the thumb of tyrannical overlords but you’ve got previous with this one: Lord Lucien shot your sister and chucked you out of a rather high window. Your survival can only lead to one thing but how you get there is up to you. 9/10 The most significant thing about Fable II is that it is so buggy (most of them game-killing, kinda miserable for such a long game) that it comes as a shock that it wasn’t released by Atari. Though graphically unimpressive with clunky animation in attractive environments rendered blurrily (a bit like Halo 3) and treacly (a poor frame-rate is inadequately masked with motion blur), sonically unimpressive with annoying action music (because it’s only about ten seconds long) and unnaturally-slow dialogue (typical of video games, oddly, though Julia Sawalha and Stephen Fry are outstanding) and having a fairly awkward feeling opening, Fable II soon settles down into a remarkably involving role-playing adventure which will happily hoover up hours and hours of your time. Critically, you’ll be happy to let it and it features some enchantingly special moments. For me, they included looking after my family (I married a girl named Lisa and had a son, Bruce), gullibly retrieving goods for T.O.B.Y., rescuing Charlie, accidentally getting my wife killed (I took her with me on what I thought would be a safe mission; reload!) and losing weight I had put on. Oh, and, er, drinking a sex change potion to see what animation would play which I then couldn’t undo because the game auto-saved. Aargh! But brilliant. Which sums up the game. This game contains mild swear words, bad language, adult dialogue, sexual references including immorality and homosexuality and offensive gestures and projectile, fantasy, blade and melee violence, some unexpectedly strong violence and inferred sex scenes. Classified 15 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over.

Laura Z. Hobson’s Gentleman’s Agreement (1947, Movie) – 9/10 review

Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck Gregory Peck: Phil Schuyler Green Dorothy McGuire: Kathy Lucy John Garfield: Dave Goldman Writer (Original Novel): Laura Z. Hobson Writer (Screenplay): Moss Hart Director: Elia Kazan

Gentleman’s Agreement, Laura Z. Hobson’s (1947) Schuyler Green is commissioned to write a series on anti-Semitism but is struggling to find an angle. He hits upon the idea of presenting himself as Jewish and seeing what happens. 9/10 Startlingly interesting and depressingly relevant movie about prejudice that doesn’t allow the audience (represented on-screen by Dorothy McGuire) to get away with unspoken or unmotivating disdain for whatever prejudice they witness. The film presents just about every view you could hope to air on the subject from ignore-it-and-hope-it-goes-away through to punch-’em-on-the-nose. The movie is consistently thought-provoking and is presented well by the cast. Though the Peck / McGuire romance can be criticised as Hollywood fairy-tale stuff, it is precisely this aspect that frames the tensions and viewpoints and makes them even more recognisable in ourselves. That it ends SPOILER as all Hollywood romances should means that the film is still allowed to be entertaining while still effectively delivering it’s food for thought; something filmmakers seem to have forgotten in the 21st-century’s lust for making their movies ‘darker.’ This movie contains anti-Semitic dialogue and mild melee violence and sensuality. Classified U by BBFC. Universal: Suitable for All.

Devil May Cry 4 (2008, PS3) – 9/10 review

Producer: Hiroyuki Kobayashi Character Design: Tatsuya Yoshikawa Producer Movie: Shinji Shinohara Producer Movie: Takuya Shibata Director Movie: Yuji Shimomura Director: Hideaki Itsuno

Devil May Cry 4 (2008) Nero, a young knight in the Order of the Sword – an organisation that protects the world from demons – is as shocked as anyone when the legendary Dante interrupts proceedings and shoots the head of the Order. Nero is dispatched to chase down Dante and bring him to justice but will quickly discover that he is just a pawn in a plot to open the gates of Hell. 9/10 Endlessly cool, fun and interesting action game whose only real apparent disappointment comes from a character switch partway through whereby you resume the role of series’ hero Dante. You really want to continue playing as new boy Nero because of his Devil Arm ability but it is good if a game leaves you wanting more. Amazingly, the same thing happens when the characters switch back again. You want to continue with Nero! There is unnecessary padding at the end with repeated boss battles but it’s a small complaint given the generous wonderfulness of the game as a whole. Capcom have also made the game entirely playable for anyone with the addition of a Human mode and a control mode where you don’t have to learn the combos but they have also left the spanking difficulty of higher modes intact. It’s a perfect balance and the same thing can be said for the entire game. Special mention for an oft-overlooked element of a game: the segue into and the (brilliantly playable) end credits. This game contains bad language and extended extreme fantasy violence, occasional graphic blade violence, occasional inferred strong gun violence. Classified 16+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 16 or over.. Classified Violence by PEGI. Game contains depictions of violence.

24 7.15 Day 7: 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM (2009, TV) – 9/10 review

Kiefer Sutherland: Jack Bauer Cherry Jones: President Allison Taylor Annie Wersching: FBI Agent Renee Walker Colm Feore: Henry Taylor Bob Gunton: Ethan Kanin Jeffrey Nordling: FBI Special Agent in Charge Larry Moss Carlos Bernard: Tony Almeida Jon Voight: Jonas Hodges Co-Executive Producer: Alex Gansa Executive Producer: David Fury Executive Producer: Jon Cassar Writer (Series’ Creator): Joel Surnow Writer (Series’ Creator): Robert Cochran Writer (Screenplay): Alex Gansa Writer (Story): David Fury Director: Jon Cassar

24 7.15 Day 7: 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM (2009) A stunned Kanin learns that Senator Mayer has been shot and killed, presumably by the hand of Jack Bauer. Larry Moss is quickly told by the forensic people that there were three people at Mayer’s house giving him a glimmer of hope that Bauer isn’t a psychopathic murderlising nightmare but he still has to put out a top-priority alert for Bauer’s arrest. Bauer has hooked up with Tony and is making his way to the port where the bio-WMD is suspected to be. 9/10 Taking it’s time over SPOILER Ethan Kanin’s resignation allows for it to have greater emotional impact. You really feel a sense of the ending of an era for both him and the President; a necessary but unwanted sacrifice. It dovetails brilliantly into the sacrifices that Jack is continually making. He also put the country ahead of his own personal reputation. For Kanin, the maximum loss possible is his career. For Bauer, the maximum loss possible is his life. For both, the potential sacrifice is unquestionably and willingly given for their country. Additionally, this episode of 24 contains some of its most spectacular action yet involving ship containers before leaving us with an impressively, unsettlingly quiet segue into next week. Bauer simply sits down by the side of the road allowing the thought to catch up with him that today may be his last day. And that doesn’t include an excellent natural shift in character for Bauer (he promises a security guard he’ll look after him and means it), wonderful malevolence from a putting-some-effort-in Jon Voight (as Jonas Hodges) and sneaky political underhandness from Olivia Taylor. Phew! Great episode in what has been an unexpectedly great series. And, again, applaudably, it’s not even terribly violent. This 24 episode contains mild swear words and gun violence. Links Previous episode Next episode

Blackadder’s Christmas Carol (1988, TV) – 9/10 review

Rowan Atkinson: Blackadders Tony Robinson: Baldricks Writer: Richard Curtis Writer: Ben Elton Director: Richard Boden Producer: John Lloyd

Blackadder special.1 Blackadder’s Christmas Carol (1988) England’s most generous person, Ebenezer Blackadder is visited by the Spirit of Christmas and gets an insight into how his scheming, selfish ancestors lived. 9/10 Wonderfully inventive and extremely funny version of the Dicken’s classic A Christmas Carol which takes the timeless story and turns it on its head. This is probably the finest Christmas television special of any drama or comedy ever not just because it’s clever and funny but also because it feels appropriate for the season. The wordsmithery is delightful once more and Atkinson as the various Blackadders is sublime. His delivery as each is perfect and they all feel like completely distinct characters. This Blackadder episode contains bad language, mild swear words and comic violence and baldrick in a jockstrap. Classified PG by BBFC. Parental Guidance.

Blazing Saddles (1974, Movie) – 9/10

Cleavon Little: Bart Gene Wilder: Jim Slim Pickens: Taggart Mel Brooks: Governor Lepetomane, Indian Chief Harvey Korman: Hedley Lamarr Madeline Kahn: Lili Von Shtupp Dom DeLuise: Buddy Bizarre Writer (Screenplay): Mel Brooks Writer (Screenplay): Norman Steinberg Writer (Screenplay): Andrew Bergman Writer (Screenplay): Richard Pryor Writer (Screenplay): Alan Uger Writer (Story): Andrew Bergman Director: Mel Brooks

Blazing Saddles (1974) Black Sheriff Bart fights prejudice and corruption to save the little town of Rock Ridge from a wicked speculator, helped by the once legendary Waco Kid – the fastest gun anywhere. 9/10 Despite being spectacularly tasteless and the fact that one sequence just does not work ("I’m Tired") this remains a strong contender for "Funniest Film Ever Made." Ironically, despite having the worst scene in the movie, Madeline Kahn found herself nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Aside from that, what you remember and appreciate are the cleverer and unexpected gags. It is also, somewhat remarkably, one of the very few Hollywood movies that presents a message condemning racial prejudice that works as entertainment without being preachy or patronising. As with other talents who hit comedy heights, it makes you sad that Mel Brooks never made another film as consistently smart and funny but, the fact is, he made this one, and this is one of the best. This movie contains mispronounced and mouthed sexual swear words, mild swear words, adult references, adult dialogue and comic violence and sexual innuendo. Classified 15 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over.

Gran Turismo: The Real Driving Simulator 3: A-spec (2001, PS2) – 9/10

Game Designer: Kazunori Yamauchi

Gran Turismo 3 Gran Turismo: The Real Driving Simulator 3: A-spec (2001) 1 or 2 players offline. Starting with a small number of credits, purchase cars and upgrades till you’ve won every race and championship available. 9/10 While Gran Turismo 2: A-Spec may have been a more accurate, if mean, title, this game offers reference-quality graphics (not matched by any other PlayStation 2 game for about five years), an astonishing number of challenges and mildly improved (though still dull) A.I. but it takes significantly longer to get its addictive hooks into you. For me, the main reason for this is that there is no longer a racing modification available for ordinary cars and so you have little motivation to keep upgrading your car because it will just look the same even if it goes like stink.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune now 9/10

Just played through Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune again, now with Trophy support, and decided to bump it up from the original 8/10 rating to 9/10.

Though I had wanted to play through the game again on Hard difficulty, I probably would have never got around to it. So, I was playing again thanks to Trophies.

Running through the game on Hard forces one to pay attention to how things work and so I found the game easier than I did on Normal. (The difficulty trophies stack so finishing Hard awarded Normal and Easy complete trophies as well.) It was especially helpful to remember that hero Nathan Drake can run-and-gun by pressing R1. This really helped with the monsters-in-the-dark levels as did remembering that after you’ve turned the power on in the submarine dock you just need to head out of the door otherwise the monsters endlessly spawn.

I also really appreciated the lightness of touch and consistently fun dialogue and tone (there are no F-words in Uncharted, I’m glad to say) and it is consistently a pleasure to be in hero Nathan Drake’s company. The voice performances are all terrific, the music is outstanding, the graphics and production design are gorgeous and the game plays and controls, for the most part, brilliantly.

The niggle about the baddies being somewhat bullet resistant still applies but it should be noted that they always react to bullets, even when you only get close, and that they do have to reload their weapons just like you do.

While Call of Duty 4 was the best PlayStation 3 game of the 2007 holiday season, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is the best exclusive title of that period and a second Uncharted adventure is something to look forward to.

Liar Liar (1997, Movie)

Producer: Brian Grazer Director: Tom Shadyac Jim Carrey: Fletcher Reede Maura Tierney: Audrey Reede Jennifer Tilly: Smanatha Cole Swoosie Kurtz: Dana Appleton Amanda Donohoe: Miranda Jason Bernard: Judge Marshall Stevens Mitchell Ryan: Mr. Allan Anne Haney: Greta Justin Cooper: Max Reede Cary Elwes: Jerry Writer: Paul Guay Writer: Stephen Mazur In Memory Of: Jason Bernard

Liar Liar (1997) Smooth talking Fletcher Reede is a liar, oops, a lawyer who finally goes one step too far when he misses his son’s birthday in order to engage in some sexual career motivation. Max, his son, blowing out the candles on his birthday cake wishes that his dad would tell the truth for just one day… 9/10 Hilarious high-concept comedy (lawyer cannot tell a lie for 24 hours) that features a virtuoso performance from cinema’s current King Clown, Jim Carrey. This movie contains mild swear words, strong adult dialogue and references and self-inflicted violence and inferred sex scene. Classified 12 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 12 years and over.

The Dark Knight (2008, Movie) – 9/10

Director: Christopher Nolan Writer (Screenplay): Jonathan Nolan Writer (Screenplay): Christopher Nolan Writer (Story): Christopher Nolan Writer (Story): David S. Goyer Writer (Characters’ Creator): Bob Kane Christian Bale: Bruce Wayne / Batman Michael Caine: Alfred Pennyworth Heath Ledger: Joker Aaron Eckhart: Harvey Dent / Two-Face Maggie Gyllenhaal: Rachel Dawes Gary Oldman: Lt. James Gordon Morgan Freeman: Lucius Fox

Dark Knight, The (2008) Bruce Wayne sees an end in sight for his caped crusading as his and Lieutenant Gordon’s plans to clean Gotham of mob influence starts to bear fruit. New District Attorney Harvey Dent is backing them up all the way through the legal system but all of them have overlooked, in favour of the bigger mob fish, a single criminal who will plunge Gotham into new depths of terror and whose amorality cannot be fathomed by the mob, the law or Batman. His simple anachronistic name is Joker. 9/10 Director Christopher Nolan has made an extraordinarily intense and deep crime drama which just so happens to feature a dude in a bat costume. Together with the late Heath Ledger he has redefined super-villainy. What makes Joker so genuinely horrifying is Nolan’s complete pushing of Batman into the real world. Nolan makes entirely clear that an utterly amoral super-villain would be unspeakably terrifying, more terrifying than the opponent whose motives we can at least try to understand. Men and men’s systems simply can’t cope; we need something higher, something untouchable, something supremely powerful. Gotham needs Batman more than ever before but, because of public misconception, Gotham will believe that they don’t want him and that he isn’t helping. Readers of the Bible may recognise these themes. Despite the lengthy runtime which could have been easily withstood the removal of Batman’s unnecessary 3D sonar imaging system, this is a great movie (instantly #1 on IMDb) though, be warned, the remarkable sense of terror and menace and depth of character and subject mean that this is very much an adult film and not a typical PG13 / 12A action movie. This movie contains extended extreme menace, strong melee violence, inferred knife violence, gun violence, inferred gun violence, extremely unpleasant scenes of horrific burns. Classified 12A by BBFC. Persons under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult.

Batman Begins (2005, Movie) – 9/10

Batman Begins (2005) Billionaire Bruce Wayne, traumatized by the murder of his parents when he was a child, drops everything in the face of a humiliating realisation about his lack of understanding of the ‘real world’. He disappears, presumed dead by everyone in Gotham, and is taken under the wing of Ra’s Al Ghul who heads up the League of Shadows, an underground organization devoted to ridding the world of injustice. Finding kinship and understanding, Wayne welcomes the training and both look forward to cleansing Gotham of evil. 9/10 Quality return to form for the winged super-hero franchise. It hits highs (two of Batman’s lines: “It’s not what I am underneath, it’s what I do that defines me” and “And you’ll never have to” both made even cooler by Batman leaping off a building as a punctuation mark) nearly as high as Tim Burton’s Batman but it doesn’t have a Kim Basinger subplot that doesn’t work and remains terrific throughout. Now there are four classic superhero movies: Superman (1978) remains the benchmark but this fits right in with Batman (1989) and X2 (2003). This movie contains strong melee violence, brief graphic gun violence, blade violence, scary scenes of psychotropic effects. Classified 12A by BBFC. Persons under the age of 12 must be accompanied by an adult. Available on Blu-ray. Available on DVD with Gotham Knight.

Gran Turismo 4 (2005, PS2, PS3) – 9/10

Gran Turismo 4 (2005) Drive about 700 cars (from AC Cars, Acura, Alfa Romeo, Alpine, Amuse Power House, ASL, Aston Martin, Audi, Autobianchi, Bentley, Blitz, BMW, Buick, Cadillac, Callaway, Caterham, Chaparral Chevrolet, Chrysler, Citroën, Cizeta Automobili, Daihatsu, DMC Dodge, Dome, Eagle, Fiat, Ford, Ford Australia, FPV, Gillet Automobiles, Ginetta, HKS, Holden, Hommell, Honda, HPA Motorsports, Hyundai, Infiniti, Isuzu, Jaguar, Jay Leno, Jensen Healey suisse, Lancia, Land Rover, Lexus, Lister, Lotus, Marcos, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mercury, MG Mine’s, Mini, Mitsubishi Motors, Mugen Nike, Nismo, Nissan, Opel, Opera Performance, Pagani Automobili Modena, Panoz, Pescarolo Sport, Peugeot, Plymouth, Polyphony Digital, Pontiac, Proto Motors, RE Amemiya, Renault, RUF, Saleen, Seat, Shelby, Spoon Sports, Spyker, Subaru, Suzuki, Tommy kaira, Tom’s, Toyota, TRD Racing Development, Trial Tuning Spirit, Triumph, TVR, Vauxhall, Volkswagen, Volvo) personally or manage a B-spec driver across over 40 tracks (Circuit de la Sarthe I, Fuji Speedway, Infineon Raceway, Laguna Seca Raceway, Nurburgring Nordschleife, Suzuka Circuit, Twin Ring Motegi, Tsukuba Circuit, Cathedral Rocks Trail, Chamonix, Grand Canyon, Ice Arena, Swiss Alps, Tahiti Maze, Apricot Hill Raceway, Autumn Ring, Deep Forest Raceway, El Capitan, Grand Valley East Section, Grand Valley Speedway, High-speed Ring, Midfield Raceway, Trial Mountain Circuit, Citta di Aria, Clubman Stage Route 5, Costa di Amalfi, Côte d’Azur, George V Paris, Hong Kong, New York, Opera Paris, Seattle Circuit, Seoul Central, Tokyo Route 246, Special Stage Route 5, Test Course, Las Vegas Drag Strip, Driving Park, Test Course, Gymkhana, Motorland, Beginner Course; many with multiple configurations and reverse direction), earning money for race wins to spend on new cars and upgrades. 9/10 Graphically astonishing ultimate driving simulator. Sadly, the computer AI continues to be breathtakingly awful making this a long way short of the ultimate racing simulator. The cars looks entirely wonderful and the tracks look just as good with the new El Capitan and Citta di Aria circuit particularly breathtaking. The superbly communicative presentation of each car’s handling is, amazingly, notably better than on Gran Turismo 3 and the boys at Polyphony Digital also offer us two major new features in the shape of Photo Mode (which became an almost standard mode on, oddly, Xbox 360 driving games) and B-spec where you issue orders to an AI driver. So, despite deficient opponent AI, let me reiterate, simply driving in this game is better than racing in most other games. Yes, “the drive of your life” if not the race. Classified 3+ by PEGI. The game is only suitable for persons who have reached the age of 3 or over.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005, 360) – 9/10

Need for Speed 9 Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005) After losing your beautiful BMW street racing car, you have the help of full babe Mia and some dude called Rog to get back at the cheating toe-rag who won it, most wanted street racer Razor, by defeating fourteen other street racers (who share the inability to write their own name) on the police black list. 9/10 Spongy acceleration … Tremendous fun despite strong technical shortcomings in frame rate, somehow the handling isn’t adversely affected and the game is responsive and eminently controllable throughout. The killer feature is the presence of police during any event at any time. Brilliantly, and most unusually, you can finish the game with the car you started (slightly upgraded, of course, I had a Fiat Punto I grew very fond of). This Need for Speed videogame contains sexual swear words in songs and mild violence. Classified PG by BBFC. Parental Guidance.

Metal Gear Solid 2®: Sons of Liberty™ (2001, PS2, PS3) – 9/10

Metal Gear Solid 2®: Sons of Liberty™ (2001) Solid Snake, on a UN anti-Metal Gear mission, infiltrates a tanker suspected to carrying a new Metal Gear developed by the Marines, an amphibious Metal Gear codenamed Ray. While Snake is just there to photograph it for publication on the internet, a heavily-armed troop of Russian soldiers storm the tanker and Snake finds himself up to his ears in sneaking, action and Metal Gear once more. 9/10 Even with all the, shall we say, difficult-to-master controls and worst-moment-possible camera changes, this is still, undoubtedly, a very great game. A marvellously convoluted plot is delivered via maniacal monologues and effortlessly cool cut-scenes with a cast of characters you, critically, invest in immediately. Lots of insane details (for example, your own name on the dog tags in the end cut-scene) and interesting and challenging battles that you master bit by bit, Metal Gear Solid 2 is frustrating like no other game but also delivers story, presentation and gaming rewards like no other. This videogame contains mild swear words and extremely gory violence, gory and unpleasant scenes. Classified 15 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over.

Metropolis Street Racer (2000, Dreamcast) – 9/10

Metropolis Street Racer (2000) 1 / 2 player offline. 8 player offline multiplayer. “It’s not about how fast you drive, it’s about how you drive fast.” Earn kudos by driving skilfully and unlock dozens of cars to race on over 250 circuits created from the actual streets of London, Tokyo and San Francisco. 9/10 As ambitious a video game project as ever undertaken, the fact that this game works as a game and not just as a technical accomplishment is remarkable. This is one of the Dreamcast’s most impressive titles with convincing pinpoint handling, astonishing sound, astounding graphics, jaw-dropping breadth and incredible longevity. The absence of a replay function, racing gaming’s worst ever rear view camera and the legendary super-rock hardness of it all do count against Metropolis Street Racer but only slightly.

Gran Turismo: The Real Driving Simulator 3: A-spec (2001, PS2)

Gran Turismo 3 Gran Turismo: The Real Driving Simulator 3: A-spec (2001) 1 or 2 players offline. Starting with a small number of credits, purchase cars and upgrades till you’ve won every race and championship available. 9/10 While Gran Turismo 2: A-Spec may have been a more accurate, if mean, title, this game offers reference-quality graphics (not matched by any other PlayStation 2 game for about five years), an astonishing number of challenges and mildly improved (though still dull) A.I. but it takes significantly longer to get its addictive hooks into you. For me, the main reason for this is that there is no longer a racing modification available for ordinary cars and so you have little motivation to keep upgrading your car because it will just look the same even if it goes like stink. Classified OK 3+ by ELSPA. Content OK 3+.

Burnout: Paradise (2008, Game, PS3) – 9/10

General Manager EA Criterion Studio: Fiona Sperry Creative Director: Alex Ward Executive Producer: Pete Hawley Lead Designer: Craig Sullivan Senior Development Director: Jon Lawrence

Burnout Paradise (2008) 9/10 Though eight was the rating I wanted to give it because of handling foibles (your direction during low speed traction and jump landings are predictably unpredictable), that felt a little harsh. A game complete time of over 61 hours indicates the mammoth amount to do in Paradise City offline and online (integrated brilliantly) and the game has a feeling of tremendous polish and excellence. It is always completely thrilling and, when not being occasionally frustrating due to your own lack of amazingness, almost always a lot of fun. Available on PS3. Available on 360.

Death Note (2006, Anime) – 9/10

Writer (Original Comic Book): Ohba Tsugumi Writer (Original Illustrator): Obata Takeshi Director: Araki Tetsurou

Death Note (2006) Death Note: How to Use It. 1. The human whose name is written in this note, shall die. 2. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person’s face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected. 3. If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person’s name, it will happen. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack. 4. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds. 9/10 An outstanding, thought-provoking, very thrilling, and relentlessly intelligent series, Death Note is an instant classic anime (based on a manga by Tsugumi Oba and Takeshi Obata). While the show was never as effective after episode twenty-five as it had been (it no longer generates the gripping edge-of-the-seat tension from the battle of wits), it remained interesting, entertaining and well-produced until the end. In any case, the central question regarding clearing out the murderers and criminals from the world is an intriguing one. The show does take a definite side on this issue and explains why in the final episode but compelling arguments could be made for both sides. This is a remarkably impressive and entertaining way to tickle the mind. This series contains sexual swear words in opening song from episode 20 onwards, sexual swear words and a graphic and very gory scene of violence, an unpleasant and very gory scene, violence, unpleasant scenes and mild nudity.

Air Force One (1997, Movie, DVD, Blu-ray) – 9/10

Harrison Ford: President James Marshall Gary Oldman: Ivan Korshunov Wendy Crewson: Grace Marshall Paul Guilfoyle: Chief of Staff Lloyd Shepherd William H. Macy: Major Caldwell Liesel Matthews: Alice Marshall Dean Stockwell: Defense Secretary Walter Dean Xander Berkeley: Agent Gibbs Glenn Close: Vice President Kathryn Bennett Writer: Andrew W. Marlowe Director: Wolfgang Petersen

Air Force One (1997) When the US President’s airplane, Air Force One, is taken over by Russian freedom fighters and his wife and daughter taken hostage, President James Marshall is forced to make some tough decisions regarding America’s “no negotiation with terrorists” stance. 9/10 Outrageously exciting if mercilessly jingoistic airborne thriller which features Harrison Ford in the role everyone wants him to play, the President of the United States of America. Despite a crushingly disappointing visual effect in the movie’s climax, this is an entirely satisfying action classic from which you emerge with every action itch scratched: explosions, self-sacrifice, heroism, destruction, spectacle, excitement and, perhaps best of all, an unexpectedly wonderful one-liner hurled at Gary Oldman by Harrison Ford. This movie contains sexual swear words and graphic violence. Classified 15 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over. Available on DVD. Available on Blu-ray.

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (2007, Game, PS3) – 9/10

Co-Producer: Evan Wells Co-Producer: Christophe Balestra Director: Amy Hennig Composer: Greg Edmonson Nolan North: Nathan Drake Emily Rose: Elena Fisher Richard McGonagle: Victor Sullivan Simon Templeman: Gabriel Roman

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (2007) Nathan Drake is on the trail of ancient gold thanks to a ring he has inherited from Sir Francis Drake. As he follows the trail, gun-toting pirates are only the start of the foes that do not want him to reach the treasure first… or at all. 9/10 A lot of contemporary reviews would have you believe that Uncharted is currently the PlayStation 3’s best game. It’s not (Call of Duty 4 is), but this is a high quality action adventure with breathtaking presentation and superb control. However, this is a case of too many slightly-bullet-proof pirates slightly spoiling the broth, or, more specifically, the flow of the game’s action segments. That said, the difficulty is perfectly judged, the game is good throughout, is garnished with several wonderful little touches (watch Nathan’s sweater crease as he walks) and, at times, it does achieve greatness. This game contains mild swear words, adult dialogue and extended extreme and graphic violence, unpleasant scenes, scary scenes. Classified 15 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over. Links gamedoctor

Ace Combat: Distant Thunder aka Shattered Skies (2001, PS2, PS3) – 9/10

Ace Combat: Distant Thunder (2001) Er, 2005: the ISAF are war with the Erusians but the Erusians have a massively overpowered anti-asteroid gun called Stonehenge which they are using to shoot down enemy aircraft and maintain arial superiority. With the odds stacked against them, the ISAF need to regroup and take domination of the skies. The ISAF need a hero. Using every aircraft and weapon at your disposal, you take on the challenge. Your callsign: Moebius One. 9/10 Accessible and truly thrilling aerial combat game with lovely graphics (especially on PS3), atmospheric sound, superlative music and stylish presentation. The wonderful action is punctuated with melancholy thoughts from a young boy with the Resistance who lives in the town around the opposing forces airbase. As a bonus, the final mission, with it’s Star Wars battle trench overtones, is utterly brilliant and, like the whole game, makes you feel like an absolute mega-hero. This videogame contains mild swear words and aerial combat violence. Classified OK 11+ by ELSPA. Content OK 11+. Available on PS2 (PS3 compatible, no problems).

Devil May Cry (2001, PS2) – 9/10

Devil May Cry (2001) Devil Hunter Dante, half-human half-demon son of the legendary Sparda who rebelled against his underworld brethren to prevent them from taking over the earth, is called into action when underworld emporer Mundus decides to have another crack at human domination. 9/10 Classic, cool, fun (on Easy Auto mode at least) and important action videogame that became the template of subsequent third-person hack ‘n’ slash. What’s surprising is that, aside from the combat, Devil May Cry never quite makes the most of it’s innovations and design and it would take God of War and God of War II (which are carbon copies of this) to really show what should have been consistently accomplished here. Despite really spectacular graphics, sound, production design and combat Devil May Cry nearly lets greatness slip through it’s fingers but an absolutely storming climax (that spans the last four missions) dragged the rating from seven all the way up to nine. This videogame contains extended extreme fantasy violence, gory and unpleasant scenes, extremely unpleasant scenes. Available on PS2 (PS3 compatible).

Cloverfield (2008, Movie) – 9/10 review

Director: Matt Reeves Writer: Drew Goddard Producer: J.J. Abrams Producer: Bryan Burk Lizzy Caplan: Marlena Jessica Lucas: Lily T.J. Miller: Hud Michael Stahl-David: Rob Hawkins Mike Vogel: Jason Hawkins Odette Yustman: Beth McIntyre

Cloverfield (2008) With Rob leaving America for Japan and a Vice-President-ship, his brother and friends throw him a leaving party. During the party some kind of massive seismic shock sees the revellers go up to the roof for a better view but a gigantic explosion soon turns their curiosity and excitement into unabridged terror and a race for their lives. 9/10 Difficult-to-rate monster movie that is a tour-de-force on a number of levels including editing, sound, photography and direction and, while the acting and writing is also of a good standard, there is a niggling dissatisfaction with the sheer emptiness of the story. Director Matt Reeves paces and marshals things beautifully and delivers a highly entertaining and, at the moment, unique big special effects monster movie. Special mention for Michael Giaachino’s end credits overture which is the best piece of big-screen music he has done to date. While Cloverfield was definitely one to catch at the cinema, a little surprisingly, this was just as good second time around at home and cements it’s place as the best monster movie since Jurassic Park fourteen years ago. This movie contains mild swear words, mild adult dialogue and violence, strong gory and unpleasant scenes and mild sensuality. Classified 15 by BBFC. Suitable only for persons of 15 years and over.

Doctor Slimm pimps his ride in Xbox 360’s Forza Motorsport 2

Doctor Slimm attempts to diagnose small tweaks that would have improved the playing experience, sometimes imperceptibly. They are presented in no particular order. This is not a wish list for a sequel or a bug list but tweaks to what is already there.

Forza Motorsport 2 (2007) Race online (requires Xbox Live Gold) or offline in any of over 300 cars on over 45 track variations in 12 locations. Customise your car with parts and paint jobs and race them and / or sell them in the Auction House (requires Xbox Live Gold). 9/10 With a driving experience that is, astonishingly, leagues ahead of the first Forza Motorsport (thanks to silky smooth graphics though they still haven’t delivered traction control, anti-lock brakes or, occasionally, low-speed rear-wheel drive that works) coupled with a huge amount of cars, superb online features and, Forza’s ace-in-the-hole, all-round car customisation mean that Forza Motorsport 2 really has set a decent target for Gran Turismo 5 next year. However, despite the wonderful tinkering, RPG and customisation aspects, the sum of its parts is somehow less than before with the team’s nagging lack of game ambition (car content is not gameplay) and the lack of actual racing (thanks to now-pansy and ill-disguised still-cheating AI) proving to be potentially significant weaknesses. Deduct a point if and for when you race with ABS, TCS, STM and Easy or Medium AI. Really. Deduct another point if you never paint your car or use the Auction House. Available on Xbox 360. Available on Limited Edition Xbox 360.

A bonnet view that shows you the bonnet. Forza has the standard selection of driving views: near behind, far behind, bumper and bonnet. Except that with most of the cars in the game (a wonderful three-hundred or so), you cannot see the bonnet on the bonnet view.

Better spread of AI. Forza’s spread of seven AI opponents is not quite right. Presuming that you are in a fast enough car to win, there will, generally, only ever be one opponent in your race. By making at least the top two AI the same level and in equivalent cars, they can maintain some semblance of a race with each other. Grouping the AI into at least groups of two will see more lively looking racing. Seeing the AI ducking and diving contributes greatly to the thrilling feel of a racing game.

Stop AI following each other so closely without doing anything. If a real race driver was just a couple of feet behind the driver in front, he would consistently try overtaking everywhere he could. In Forza, the AI generally just follow each other without bunching up at corners and spreading out on straights. This is helps makes the race look so fake on replays. The cars are too close without moving about swapping lines and seriously attempting to overtake.

Be able to auction your current car. Forza has implemented a more expansive set of options when selecting one of your cars such as being able to get in it, sell it, view it’s history, and many more. With the wonderful Auction House (the only new feature in Forza 2 but a good ‘un), you can raise money by buying yourself a new car (cheap, one of the ones with 50% off), painting it and putting it to auction. The procedure goes thus:

1. From the top Career menu go to Buy Cars and buy a car. Forza churns away for a while and returns you to the top Career menu.
2. Paint the car. When finished you return to the top Career menu.
3. Go to My Cars and select any other car. Forza churns away for a while and returns you to the top Career menu.
4. Go to My Cars and find and select your newly acquired and painted car. Select Auction Car from the menu.

It would be handy if we could skip step 3 and directly auction the current car. Forza could automatically select another car. Either the first car on the list or the car with the nearest Performance Index or, probably the most favoured option, the last car you raced in.

At least one chap in your pit box. Forza has animated 3D people all over the place. Adding just one chap holding a lollipop in your pit box seems like a small thing to expect. On some tracks (Sunset Peninsula Speedway and Nurburgring, for example), there are mechanics in the pit lane but they just stand there checking their watch (!) and none of them are in your pit box or react to your presence.

Increase damage to AI. Not visual damage, actual damage. It takes almost nothing to damage your car. Sometimes, just the slightest knock will make something turn yellow on the damage indicator with a resulting loss of speed and, frequently, control. This generally requires a restart of the race. However, the same cannot be said of the AI. On the New York Circuit Reverse, the AI have terrible trouble with the last double right-hander and frequently drive into the inside wall. After eight laps of several AI doing this on several of the laps, I noted that only one of the AI had smoke coming out of his car and was travelling slower than normal. I did it once, by mistake, and my engine turned red and I crawled back to the pit lane at 50 mph. If you smash into the rear of a rear-engine AI car, your car becomes an almost instant write-off. The AI will usually continue as if nothing had happened. If an AI smashes into the rear of your rear-engine car, your car becomes an almost instant write-off. The AI will usually continue as if nothing happened. Nine times out of ten it will feel as if the AI car has not been damaged on a par with yours.

Don’t make the attract video graphics much much better than the game. This just makes the game graphics seem disappointing. Forza has a few attract videos. In all of them, the graphics used for the cars, the environment and the game presentation are far better than seen in the game. When we do get to the game, we should be enjoying the crisp, accurate and smooth HD graphics. Instead, there is an indefinable sense of flatness. This sense is subconsciously contributed to by the higher quality of the attract videos. As an aside, the videos also showcase slipstreaming which is, probably realistically, so subtle as to be non-existent in gameplay.

A couple of more interesting Achievements. The Achievements are currently well-balanced but it’s always nice to have a quirky one or two. A couple of suggestions:

1. Not knocking off the cone on the inside of Turn 3 at Road Atlanta for 10 races.
2. Knocking over every cone on every or each specific track while still winning the race.
3. Win 20 career races with the same car.
4. Win 5 races by crossing the finishing line backwards.
5. Set successive fastest laps for every lap of a race.
6. Win one race on every track variation without accruing any penalties. For further spice you could also set this to be done against a minimum of Easy, Medium and Hard AI.

Caching some button presses while navigating up and down menus. You have to wait for the new menu graphics to have loaded and faded in completely before a button press is recognised. This means you have to wait a short moment after the menu appears before you can start navigation. Sometimes, you just want to come all the way back out and return to the race you were just at or go to paint your car and apply a previous design. We are very good at remembering how many button presses it takes to get there but we have to wait for the menus. As an example of what I’m wittering on about see the menus on Colin McRae: Dirt where you can whiz through the menus and options before the menu animation completes.

Exhaust noise in bumper and bonnet views. A lot of the character of an engine’s singing voice is produced by the exhaust. In Forza, they supply the noise from your point of view. Which is fine. In the bumper and bonnet views, you can only really hear the engine. This tends to make most of the cars sound rather similar whereas the AI cars around you all have distinct and wonderful exhaust notes added to their repertoire. It would be a nice option to hear the full engine and exhaust sound in the onboard views. Even nicer would be the addition of the reflected noise that you get faked in the replays. Now, after I wrote this, I played a championship with the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII MR which does have audible exhaust sound coming out of the right rear surround. So it is in the game but you can’t hear it almost all the time.

Don’t change buttons for the replay. In common with a lot of racing games, Forza has a completely different set of hard-coded buttons active during replays. For instance, d-pad-up brings up telemetry during gameplay but X brings it up during replay. One control remains unchanged and that is the right-stick look around which still works when on a driving view (as opposed to the default replay view).

Replay cameras. Forza’s replays appear unchanged from the first game and, as such, focus on getting the best picture out of a standard definition display. This usually means extreme close-ups and onboard cameras. On HD displays the lack of visual information given to the viewer renders the replays virtually worthless as you usually can’t tell where on the racetrack you are and cannot feel the shape or story of the race. Some tweaks that would help this would be:

1. Remove all onboard camera angles used by the pre-defined cameras replay. The user can select an onboard camera angle using the Y button if they want to see one.
2. Pull most cameras zoom out a bit so you can clearly see more than one car at a time and a bit of track. The occasional car close-up is nice and shows off your paint job but too much of that loses the viewers ability to mentally grasp the geometry of the race.
3. If the track is a real world location, always use the same camera positions as used by the real world television presentation. This was something employed to wonderful effect in ‘Sir’ Geoff Crammond’s masterly Grand Prix (aka World Circuit) series.

Re-use sky-boxes. Forza only seems to use one sky-box and lighting scheme per track variation. For example, Silverstone International always has sun shining through moody clouds. Even though Forza has no weather effects at all, it would add to the environmental variety a little if each track could use any of the sky-boxes and lighting schemes produced.

Semi-auto gears. Allow us to override the current gear in automatic mode. I have no idea why more racing games don’t allow you to do this. In Forza this means that most of the high performance and all of the race cars don’t have a gear change system that echoes reality and you cannot employ the basic driving mechanic of short-shifting.

More camera control when you hire a driver. Forza Motorsport 2 has a neat feature where you can hire an AI driver to compete in a race using your car. You then watch the race from predefined cameras that are the same as the default replay view. It would have been a nice option to be able to change the view and, like the replay, cycle through the driving views available.

Remove redundant messages. Occasionally Forza will show you an unnecessary message that requires you to press A to continue. An example would be the message that comes up after you’ve applied a design from the design catalogue in the Career / Paint Car menu. We know the design has been applied because we can see our car. No need to tell us as well. There’s one in the Auction House as well, if my notes are correct.

Look at results after selecting Continue after a race has finished. When the race is finished the results and fastest laps are displayed. You press Continue to keep the result and get your winnings. On more than one occasion I’ve not done too well in a race and I need to check my fastest lap to see whether I have the speed to win or need to purchase upgrades or adjust tactics or whatever. I have selected Continue almost automatically before checking my lap time. I would like to be able to press B to go back to the race results screen on these occasions.

Fiddle with the HDR sliders. High Dynamic Range lighting is supposed to mimic the expanding and retracting of the human iris when seeing brightness changes (for example, when you drive into a tunnel from daylight). In Forza, this means that white cars, indeed any colour car, can appear almost black from certain angles. This is wrong. When was the last time you stepped outdoors and thought “That’s a nice black car… Oh, it’s white”?

Allow you to press B when viewing event opponents or restrictions or A when changing race options. A is forward, continue, accept, select. B is back, cancel, don’t select. Forza sometimes forces you to use one where it isn’t entirely expected. When viewing opponents or restrictions for an event, you must press A to get rid of the pop-up message. B is the more natural button while either A or B could be accepted. When you change in-race options such as the HUD or pre-race options such as the difficulty you must press B to continue and accept your changes when A is the more natural button. Again, either A or B could be accepted.

Massively reduce the painting display when positioning layers. When you position a layer, the menu stays the same size even though it is only displaying, at most, two numbers. This is especially troublesome when painting the front or rear of the car and makes painting the rear wing near impossible. I suggest that the positioning menu could be the width of the largest option available through the left and right triggers (that’ll be Transparency) and placed on the left or right of the screen. There should still be enough room to show the current positioning page, indicate that more are available using the triggers and display the numbers required.

Don’t make AI skill level affect car performance. If you have a AI skill level 10 driver in the same car as a lesser skill level AI, the lower skilled AI will, noticeably, accelerate slower and have a lower top speed. This highlights Forza 2’s AI code which already feels more sterile, rigid and less aware than Forza 1. AI skill level should not affect car performance and should be seen to improve car control and overtaking opportunism.

JPEG 90. I know it would take up a lot more space on forzamotorsport.net but the current quality of the photos that you upload is poor. Especially with the amount of effort that goes in to a lot of the paint jobs, it would be a nice touch to be able to show off your work in pin-sharp detail.

Forza Motorsport 2 (2007, Racing Game, 360) – 9/10 review

Senior Manager: Alan Hartman Project Lead: Garrett Young Lead Designer: Dan Greenawalt

Forza Motorsport 2 (2007) Race online (requires Xbox Live Gold) or offline in any of over 300 cars on over 45 track variations in 12 locations. Customise your car with parts and paint jobs and race them and / or sell them in the Auction House (requires Xbox Live Gold). 9/10 With a driving experience that is, astonishingly, leagues ahead of the first Forza Motorsport (thanks to silky smooth graphics though they still haven’t delivered traction control, anti-lock brakes or, occasionally, low-speed rear-wheel drive that works) coupled with a huge amount of cars, superb online features and, Forza’s ace-in-the-hole, all-round car customisation mean that Forza Motorsport 2 really has set a decent target for Gran Turismo 5 next year. However, despite the wonderful tinkering, RPG and customisation aspects, the sum of its parts is somehow less than before with the team’s nagging lack of game ambition (car content is not gameplay) and the lack of actual racing (thanks to now-pansy and ill-disguised still-cheating AI) proving to be potentially significant weaknesses. Deduct a point if and for when you race with ABS, TCS, STM and Easy or Medium AI. Really. Deduct another point if you never paint your car or use the Auction House. Available on Xbox 360. Available on Limited Edition Xbox 360. Links gamedoctor