Cuddly CGI Adorableness Mixed with Amazing Beauty

Well, where to begin with this one? I suppose I should say, I spoke a while ago about how the location I watch a movie in might well have something to do with how much I enjoy it - after all, how can a mass-market-appeal cinema compare with the rickety glory and creature comforts of a small-time cinema such as the Electric? In a similar vein, I suppose I may have enjoyed the ending of Home a little more had it not been interrupted by a fire at the restaurant next door, but that's really selling the movie short.

Looking Ahead

So in the interest of actually getting something written, I'm gonna talk about some of the movies coming out this year. I probably won't go to see many of these (being as I am, for the most part, a skint student and until I actually have money I can't really do much) but then many of them I'm already marking as "not good".

The Choice Between Mind-Controlled Orcs and Riding Elephants is Surprisingly Difficult

Well I'm having no luck with motivating myself to write anything for uni, so I'm gonna write a couple of reviews instead. They're a little late - both games I'm talking about here came out late 2014, so why not ring in the new year with them? I wanna talk about two of my favourite games: Shadow of Mordor, and Far Cry 4.

A Magical Journey with a Realist Twist

I'm not much of a "musicals" person, I feel I should say that now. Not for any particular reason - I found the opening of Mamma Mia pretty boring, I didn't stick around for the rest of the film, and I have yet to see Les Mis because... well, for no reason in particular, that actually looks pretty good. But the only musicals I've seen are Disney movies and Pitch Perfect. And now Into the Woods has joined that list.

As close to Top Gear: The Video Game that we'll get

Well I haven't written anything on here in ages, but in all fairness that's because uni has left me without the time or the money to go see movies. I've been reading books, admittedly, but nothing I feel like reviewing. I read a book called Jack Glass: it was interesting in the way it subverted stereotypical genre conventions of a murder mystery/detective story, but the ending was twee and felt out-of-character for the most part.

Anyway, I'm not here to talk about books. I'm here to talk about Forza Horizon 2. It's a video game on the Xbox One, and I got it a while ago because the demo was awesome (game demos are your friend, people!). I was able to snag a Day One version with some free cars, which was a bonus (they don't give you great cars - you get a Ferrari for free after the first championship anyway, but it gives you more options when it comes to the early races).

In essence, Horizon is a racing game. You drive around Europe taking part in championship races, from lapped circuit races to checkpoint-to-checkpoint sprints, all the while buying new cars and tripping them out. And there's a lot of variety to the races: despite only needing to win fifteen championships to unlock the Horizon finale, there are so many races to take part in. And the barn finds add an element of exclusivity to some of the cars, as well as giving you free unlocks at certain levels and allowing you to take part in even more races.

Now for the bad: I don't like how the supercars feel in particular. They're very fast, yes, they're fun to drive, but they all feel too controlled and there's no difficulty to the handling. Look, I can't drive; but I've watched enough Top Gear to know that a lot of supercars need some strength to handle. They just feel too light and airy. And the barn finds are too sparse: no matter how much I explore, I can't find any barn finds before I'm told about them, I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to. You can only get them at certain levels, when the game tells you where to find them. And Ben, the Horizon festival's host, is annoyingly chirpy, although the XP boards dotted around the map do give you the ability to ram his smug face in.

But by far my favourite thing about the game is the garage; in particular, the upgrades system. If you have enough money (which you can earn by winning races, challenging the AI drivers in head-to-head, or through wheelspins from levelling up) you can auto upgrade straight to A-class, or even S1. And the custom upgrades give you the power to change almost everything, which has given me an S2-class Volkswagen van and a Willys Jeep which can reach 150mph over dirt fields. Honestly, the entire system is ridiculous. Almost half of my cars are ridiculously difficult to control, many of them are S1-class or better, and thanks to all of my upgrades nearly all of them can beat even the most difficult AI drivers (or drivatars, as the game calls them) through sheer straight-line speed.

So yeah, that's Forza Horizon 2: where you can have a 1960's Abarth which tops out at 150mph, but the supercars feel so generic. My advice to you is to get this game, get the smallest, most ridiculous car you can get, and trick it out all to Hell. The game becomes endless fun when you just mess about with the cars, and driving itself becomes a challenge.

Star Wars and Serenity had a foul-mouthed baby and it is good!

As I write this I'm listening to Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix, Vol. 1, so you can already tell what this is going to be about. And on top of the kick-ass soundtrack there's a good movie with some great effects and a surprising depth to the colourful character roster.

Changing the World gets the High Score!

So I consider myself a bit of a gamer. Not a usual gamer - I don't tend to play first-person shooters, I have little interest in big-franchise games (except Watch Dogs, because that's awesome. Oh, and Titanfall) and I'm more interested in art, story and character than gameplay.

But here's the thing: I've been reading about games too. And it turns out, games have the power to change the world.