Season's Greetings from the Three Guys team!

A merry Christmas to you all!!

Mr. Craiggy here, and it has long since been a tradition of mine to draw a Christmas cartoon, so this year, I thought I'd draw one for the site!

As you can see, I've made a few errors, such as Sid's hair in the 2nd panel, and the horrid perspective issues in the final panel (I'm like a giant!) but other than that, enjoy!

Also, can you spot the not quite so subtle hints at future reviews we're doing? Go on, see if you can guess them!


Also, to see the picture in all its full size glory, just click it to open it in a new window.
And be sure to enjoy this amazing holiday too!

So from all of us here at the Three Guys team, a merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night...

30th Articleversary!!

Author - All of us!

Firstly, don't forget to go to our new Facebook page and 'like' us. You can find us here

Well people, it's finally here. A massively HUGE apology for the incredible delay on this one! What with real life stuff, trouble with video uploaders, camera issues and a deranged ninja ferret, this review took a long time to make... But it's finally here, so sit back and enjoy our 30th Article!

Transformers Review from Three Guys on Vimeo.

And as mentioned, here is a video segment containing the animation errors The Dave referenced. Enjoy! They start at roughly 8 minutes in, so feel free to load and skip to then:



And then of course, there's our very first GAG REEL!! Yes, we're planning on doing these more often from now on I think, mainly because we need to wait for the camera to adjust its lighting when I start recording on the capture software I use, so we need to fill time. So here we go!

Transformers review gag reel from Three Guys on Vimeo.

Hopefully, we'll have some more videos up soon, and definitely more articles! The Three Guys team are back in business!! Viva la Reviewlution!!

This is Mr. Craiggy, The Dave, and Sidders, signing out for Three Guys!

A special thanks to Jon Hancock, Alex Merry and Matt Moylan for their contributions.

All copyrights given in the video,
Please don't sue us!

Heads Up - Renaissance!

Author - MrCraiggy.



Hello and welcome to this very exciting update here at Three Guys.

Now, for those of you who aren't aware, I adore Cyberpunk; films, books, comics, music, games, everything about it I just enjoy, to a degree. Now, for those of you who aren't aware of what Cyberpunk is, just watch Blade Runner Johnny Mnemonic. It’s kinda like those films but to varying degrees of extremity; The Matrix is also an example. Distant, often dystopian future, super high technology, often with advanced cybernetic body augmentations and super cool computer systems.
One of my favourite aspects of the Cyberpunk universe is Shadowrun, an RPG originally published in 1989 and still going strong today in its 4th edition and celebrated its 20th anniversary last year, Shadowrun does things a little differently. Yes it has your super high tech and your world ruled by the corporations, yes it’s a relatively bleak, dystopian future (Unless you’ve got the monies) but Shadowrun also incorporates a fantasy element to the game, including such aspects as magic, fantastical creatures and even races from the fantasy genre such as elves, dwarves, orcs and trolls.
The players take the role of “Shadowrunners” and it is their mission to take jobs from various different employers (All assuming the moniker of Mr. Johnson for anonymity’s sake) of various credibility and legitimacy. These jobs are often illegal and almost always dangerous.

Now, no, I know what you’re probably thinking. This is not a review of Shadowrun. I could talk for hours about that game, I really could. No, that was just to set the scene, because recently, I have made a discovery. Ladies and Gentlemen and other non-gender specific metatypes, I present to you: Renaissance.

Renaissance is a webcomic that you can find here and is written and drawn by Canadian author/artist - David Coacci. It also has a Facebook group. Now, the reason this caught my eye is that it is billed as exactly what I have just described to you, a "Cyberpunk Fantasy" graphic novel, so I just had to read it. I'll just copy you the synopsis from the site to wet your appetite:

Over 2,000 years ago, the world of Sia was caught up in a great war. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth... various factions fought with swords and sorcery for the ever seductive goal of absolute power. The constant abuse of magical energies inevitably caused a cataclysm that left Sia in ruins, forcing old rivals to band together in an effort to send the world into a new era of peace and prosperity. This "Renaissance" was sparked by a restriction on the use of magic and the beginning of a technological revolution.
Today, technology rules, and the people of Sia no longer fear another cataclysm. But still war rages on between the World Coalition Authority, a universal government harboring the remains of the Elf-Human Alliance, and the Technocrats, a faction dedicated to technological supremacy. History is destined to repeat itself as these two super powers vie for control over Sia’s populous.

Yet it is soon discovered that this war is not as simple as it seems when a young mercenary encounters an elf with an uncertain past. The two soon find themselves at the heart of this bitter global conflict and, as the line between man and machine becomes increasingly blurry and technology evolves to a point that it can achieve the unthinkable, it is only a matter of time before the very nature of human and elven kind comes into question.


Science has become the new black magic.

Now, so far, the story follows a few main characters. There's Nyoko - A sexy elven assassin with heightened strength and regenerative capabilities. Magical? Technological? Wait and see. Allen Gatehold - A human mercenary with remarkable swordsmanship and prowess. And there are our two current antagonists, the "Ace Gunman" Eddie and the veteran, Scyther (No, not that green thing from Pokemon) and Scyther's a "Tomyr", and what that means, from what I've gathered, is that the Tomyr are a physically superior race to humans, being stronger, tougher and living roughly twice as long. They're linked closely to the elves, even bearing similar facial structuring (And ears.) and they used to guard the elves but then became enslaved by them, thus leaving generations of racial animosity between them.

So, I think I've said enough about the plot. I really enjoy it and look forward to reading the rest of the story as it progresses. The art style does become progressively better throughout the series and is in full colour, which is very nicely done. I will give a warning, this one is recommended more for a maturer audience due to some of the language used, the violence content and some brief scenes of partial nudity.

So this is a very excited Mr Craiggy, who can't wait for the next update, signing out for Three Guys.

Renaissance and all characters and content are property of David Coacci. This review is written and published with his full permission and good will. Thank you Sir!

Battle Royale II - A Snap Decision.

Author - MrCraiggy





I would like to point out, I only decided to review this movie forty minutes into watching it. I make a note of what happened at this point later in the review which was the catalyst for prompting me to do so.

WARNING!! Spoilers ahead!
- This review will reference plot material from the movie and as such, may spoil the story for you should you ever intend to watch this movie of your own volition.

That being said, let’s move on to the review. BRII is the sequel to the 2000 Japanese cult classic, Battle Royale. This movie was released in 2003 and is coincidentally also set 3 years after the events of the first film. It was directed by Fukasaku Kinji, the director of the first movie, but he sadly died part way through filming and so his son, Fukasaku Kenta, writer of the screenplays for both films, took over the directing role.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Battle Royale, I suggest you go out and watch it or read the manga, as the original book the story is based on is very difficult to come by in an English translation to my knowledge, but until then, here’s a brief synopsis and the filler between the two films: Japan’s school system has fallen into disarray and the youth are degenerating with lower test scores and uprisings of rebellious behaviour against adults; as such, the Battle Royale program was created. This program allowed teachers to nominate their classes of insubordinate rapscallions and one of the nominated classes would be selected at random and transported to an abandoned island to kill each other for the rest of Japan’s entertainment (Seriously, Japanese TV just gets weirder and weirder...). The kids would then have explosive collars fastened to them. Usual deal, tamper with them = boom, break the rules = boom, linger for too long in a designated ‘danger zone’ (sing it with me now) = boom. The students had a set period of time to kill each other until only one remained and were each given randomly allocated equipment bags which included rations, plus a random ‘weapon’ item, some good, some bad, some plain useless. Anyway, long story short, two kids in love survive and refuse to kill each other, manage to escape, hurrah, thus ends a great movie. Then the second one begins with our hero from the first movie, Shuya, explains that he’s formed a terrorist group called Wild Seven along with his girlfriend Noriko and they wage war on the adults of Japan. We also find out that the Japanese government has created a new program, Battle Royal Two...

Our film then starts with a shot of what looks like two skyscrapers being blown u- wait, what?! Okay, seriously, this film got lucky. It didn’t get banned from distribution in America, however, it never originally was scheduled for a distribution order IN America, though bootleg copies still found their way over and eventually other versions crept in, so, it’s a touchy subject, but moving on, we get some generic classical music expected of this genre (Dies Irae from the Verdi Requiem if anyone’s interested).

Cut to Shiori. She’s the daughter of the teacher from the first movie and, upon finding that her dad held a student of his (Noriko) in higher regard than her, she gets all moody and signs her school up for BR2. Cut to a scene of the school kids playing rugby (union rules I have to point out, sadly...) which, I honestly never knew they played in Japan, go figure. And so our class are on a coach passing around and signing a rugby ball as a sign of their friendship and bonding etc. But then, the coach enters a tunnel, kids get gassed, pass out, they’re at a military compound.

So, wouldn’t you know their teacher is put in charge and explains the rules of the new BR2 program, saying that it is designed as a game again, but the class would be working together to hunt down and kill Wild Seven, especially Shuya. Oh yeah, and the kids have all got explosive collars again, but this time there’s a twist. One of the kids is killed because he doesn’t want to take part and we then hear a beeping from one of the collars to which the teacher points out “Oh, by the way, these things are paired now, so whoever your seating partner is in class, if they die or move outside of fifty metres from you, you go boom too.” Seriously, somebody needs to CRB check these teachers more thoroughly!

So yeah, the kids’re sent out to attack Wild Seven’s base in a scene much like the beach from Saving Private Ryan only with Japanese teenagers with machineguns and skate helmets (Yeah, skate helmets. Goggles too). One kid - I didn’t catch his name, but more on that later – cops a bullet to the neck and dies, triggering his partner’s collar. Boom! One landing craft sunk. Another kid jumps off, breaking the fifty metre rule. Boom! Another landing craft gone. My word! Like the first movie, the audience gets a kill count whenever somebody dies and are told how many are left. We started with 42 kids, so far 14 of them have snuffed it, we’re a half hour into the movie... Hell, I’m not even sure half of those kids had names!

So yeah, we get a brief bit with this movie’s ‘badass’ character called Ryo who runs a bit, shoots a bit, watches people die, gets angry. I reckon he’ll make it almost all the way to the end of the movie and then die saving the protagonists. A few more deaths, a cut to the other group who are scavenging the island for ammo drops for their guns. A guy called Shugo dies trying to save a girl called Naomi (Nao) who, the way people keep referring to her and the fact that she is also friends with Takuma (Taku) (My guess at the main protagonist), she’s the love interest of the movie. Anyhoo, Shugo’s collar beeps and they can’t figure why because he’s still alive, they’re trying to first-aid his ass, but then they notice his partner who’s in one of the ‘danger zones’ (Encore!) and then does a runner and then goes boom, causing Shugo to run for it to save the rest of his team and gives a big morale speech to Taku about how they were always a team, how they were friends, blah blah blah, look after Nao, one final heroic stand, sniper pops his head.

This brings me to my previous mentioned point about forgettable characters. According to my video player’s clock when I paused it at the latest kill count after Shugo dropping we’re 37 minutes into the movie and have lost 18 of the original 42. Now, I can kind of understand what the film’s trying to do here; thin the ranks so the audience can focus on the more important characters, it’s red-shirt syndrome. But! And this is a big but; when you try to have emotive, character developing moments (Like with Ryo on the beach and just now with Shugo, and back near the start with the collar explanation) the audience just can’t feel emotionally attached to the death of a character who has been on screen for all of two, maybe three minutes... Depth cannot be added to a character if they then immediately die! This doesn’t make for a detailed plot, it’s just poor character development... I bet those kids only had two days ‘til retirement too. I was going to create the “Battle Royale 2 Drinking Game.” Every time someone pointless dies, take a shot, but we’d be wasted before even the halfway point, that’s 14 shots so far (I’ll count the ‘character building’ deaths and the ‘plot filling’ deaths as purposeful)

Right, so the story continues, and we get an update from the teacher in this film, Riki. He tells us that 18 have died so far and that he’s disappointed and that these deaths lacked individuality... I know what he means. Also, this guy’s nuts. He’s really opposed to the calm, collected insanity of Kitano - the teacher from the first film (Oddly played by Kitano Takeshi). I like Riki so far, he’s just crazy, and for some reason is also wearing a collar himself.

So yeah, film progresses, people die, not giving away the ending. If you want to, go and watch it yourselves. This film is very, average. There were good bits, don’t get me wrong, and the deaths are very well designed (The Japanese do gore very well) but they just didn’t have the edge or the suspense of the first movie. Sure the first movie had its own share of needless characters who just died for the sake of dying, but this film seemed to go way over the top, especially because almost half of the new characters are dead before the movie’s halfway done. From an actual plot point of view, this is actually a half decent sequel; it answers questions, it progresses the story from the previous film. From a structural point of view however, it peaks too soon. Too many deaths at the start to clear the path for the ‘meaningful’ characters later on leads to less action in the second half of the movie; well, in my opinion at least. And for the record, it's a predictable plot, so without giving away spoilers, you can still probably guess the end. Oh, and for the record, my guess about Ryo was semi right; he died, but it was just in a normal skirmish, this further proving my point about pointless character development.

My final opinion is this: If you enjoyed the first movie, then I would definitely recommend watching this one if only for the plot progression, but do not by any means expect to enjoy it anywhere near as much as the first film. If you haven’t seen the first movie, then why the hell are you watching this?! Go watch the first one, NOW!

This is Mr Craiggy, signing out for Three Guys.

Craig now wants a swordspear...

Authors - The Dave/MrCraiggy

Okay, so Dave's getting top billing on this one because he found this B-E-A-utiful link!!



MrCraiggy: Do you know what this means?! Do you? Tell us! Because I sure don't, aside from perhaps one of the most exciting sequel announcements since, EVER!! I mean come on, this guy has a swordspear, how is that not badass?! Plus he summons big fiery demon hands to tear things apart and mess shizz up!! Plus, to those who've played the first Dragon Age, recognise the narrator voice? We both think it sounds a bit like Flemeth... Possible plot hook? Who knows.

All I can say is that I am now very excited about this game. I loved the first Dragon Age and always thought that there needed to be more. Now I know there's going to be, so I am literally wetting my pants with excitement... Okay, well, maybe not that much, but still, WOW! Dave?

The Dave: Yeah, and seeing as it's Bioware, we know we're in for a very in depth, fun, playable experience. And if it's anything like the last one, it's going to blow us away. Every game they've brought out of this type (Kotor, KotorII, Mass Effect, Mass Effect II, the original Dragon Age) have always proven better than the previous game, so this one promises lots!!

This has been Mr Craiggy and The Dave, signing out for Three Guys!

*The Dave's UPDATE!!!* Brilliant update confirmation is that like 'Mass effect' your character will be fully voiced and ontop of that imports are available, maybe not for your character but for the choices that your previous character made, so as a new individual in the story of 'Dragon Age 2' you will notice things that relate to your past experience in 'Dragon Age: Oragins' and we all know how much you love your Bioware romance moments where you can choose to seduce a companion....well its back and not only with companions some NPC'S will also be available to fine dine and romance. So to say me and Craig are looking forward to this is an understatement, bring on March next year!

NXT - Nearing the end of the road.

Author: MrCraiggy.

Let me start by saying that this week's NXT was bittersweet for me, more on that later.

Okay, so this week we have a double elimination. The tension is mounting and we get a repeat of last week's promo slot, giving each rookie a minute to talk on a chosen subject. More of the same really, not much to say aside from Kaval rapping in his big boy voice about the other NXT Rookies. This was amusing.

We then get a surprise announcement that the first elimination is happening straight away, more tension, and it's bye bye Percy Watson. I'm not smiling, honest. No really, I'm not... Okay, maybe a slight smug smirk...

So our first match is McGillicutty VS Zack Ryder. I'm still disappointed that Ryder's just wearing simple trunks as ring attire now. One thing I've noticed recently in wrestling, particularly the WWE, is a resurgance of trunks...
Not a bad match, pretty short, Ryder wins it with his "Rough Ryder" finisher.

We then get a Summerslam recap of the Kane/Mysterio match, but I'm not here to talk about summerslam.

We get a backstage segment with Laycool where Michelle confronts Layla about maybe having a crush on Kaval and then Husky walks by and gives Michelle a line right out of my own book, "Do you believe in love at first sight, or should I walk by again?" (Have I mentioned I love this guy?) but gets brushed off, poor guy.

We then get another Husky/Kaval rematch. Good match, solid offense on both sides. Kaval gets a busted lip, which is always nice, bit of colour in a match, but not ott *cough*Flair*cough*Hogan*cough*. Kaval wins it with the "Warrior's Way".

Next match, Alex Riley VS Kofi Kingston. Very quick match, Kofi wins it with his "Trouble in Paradise" kick. Not much else to say, too short a match for any real comment.

So we get a spot now of Josh Matthews and Michael Cole being interviewed by Matt Striker about who should win and who should be eliminated. Cole obviously favours Riley and thinks Kaval should be eliminated, making some obscure reference to Susan Boyle. Matthews makes the statement of as much as he usually disagrees with Cole, this time he doesn't, he wants Riley to win and Kaval off.

Elimination time... It saddens me to say farewell to Husky Harris. I'd be more saddened if I didn't have this result spoilt for me (Thanks Rob...) but there goes my favourite to win... Anyway, Cody makes a nice rant about how disgusted he is. Husky and Cody attack Kaval, everyone else joins in to break it up, Kaval hits the Warrior's Way from the top rope to the outside of the ring (Very nicely done) and the show comes to a close. I don't think that this is the last we'll see of Husky though.

So, two more weeks until we have a winner.

This is Mr Craiggy, signing out for Three Guys.

Guest Reviewer - Dev.

Okay, Mr Craiggy here. So, as was mentioned a while back, Three Guys had a contest to publish a guest review on the site by being our 500th pageviewer. This was won by Dev and so this is what he's given us.

Hatchet: A Review by Devin Morgan



Okay, Hatchet… is a slasher film, directed by Adam Green, and stars Kane Hodder as Victor Crowley. If you have Kane Hodder in any movie, he’s usually a serial killer, like Jason Vorhees… So that’s good!



It has boobs, no sex, Marilyn Manson’s “The New S**t”, takes place during Mardi Gras, about 8 or 9 kills, and has a cliff-hanger ending… And it’s kind of based off of Friday the 13th (It says on the documentary, “His Name was Jason: 30 Years of Friday the 13th”), and Kane Hodder was Jason Vorhees in a few films…



It’s a horror-comedy film, that makes fun of Friday the 13th, and Halloween. The kills are mostly practical, but with a few CGI glimpses to make the kills a little bit better.

It’s a good horror film, and I’d give it a 3.3 (out of 5) decapitated heads on the regular film scale, and 4.9 (out of 5) on the independent, horror film scale!



And I’m sorry, I couldn’t film this… No, don’t cry… No, no… Don’t hit me!!

But since I couldn’t film this, here’s a video made by me:





Also, Hatchet has a sequel, called "Hatchet II" (Already, on DVD and Blu-Ray), and "Hatchet III" is going to be released in theaters this fall...



Thank you, this has been 'Dev'... Winner of the 'Three Guys Page-view Contest'!!

A Brief Update.

Author - MrCraiggy

Okay, so I'm actually away this week at a festival called Soul Survivor, and so am having to use an internet cafe while I post this, hence no funky icon of me in the corner. (£1 for half an hour, bargain. Plus they're charging my phone for me while I wait, which is nice.)

So anyways, to all of you lovely Three Guys fans out there, I just thought I'd give a brief look into what's been happening recently. It transpires that, because of the happenings of this week (ie. Suddenly finding that I'm attending this festival at very short notice.) There won't be an NXT update this week, which is very annoying, as it's an elimination week and I'm now having to go online to find out (For the record, Alex Riley and Lucky Cannon were bottom, Lucky got eliminated. It's looking up for Husky!) but I'm having a great time this week, meeting new people, experiencing some great music and hearing some excellent speakers talk on some incredible subjects.

Anyhoo, enough about my liability as an online reviewer and all excuses aside. The future! It has come to our attention that it seems to be an unwritten rule, a rite of passage if you will, that for online reviewers to be recognised, they must review and Uwe Boll movie. Who's Uwe Boll you ask? Well, he's a German film maker who often makes video game movies, but not exclusively, he has done some original titles too. Now, to say he makes video game movies is a bit of a stretch... It's more that he reads the synopsis of a game and then loosely associates that to his film which he normally gets very very wrong.

As well as making terrible movies, Uwe Boll also has a habit of challenging his reviewers and critics to boxing matches, literally challenging them to back their views, claiming that if they won't stand up for their reviews and critiques, then they are therefore invalidated; a cunning and frighteningly archaic yet logical ideology in my opinion.

So, the Three Guys team have decided that we shall undertake this task in the coming months and have decided to review Uwe Boll's take on the Bloodrayne franchise. We're gonna start with the first film, but as he's also a bugger (Can I say bugger on the internet? Oh bugger, I did it again.) for making sequels, so we may even review Bloodrayne 2 if we can stand the pain

Right, only twelve minutes left on my computer, so I'm going to wrap up here and catch up on my webcomics. Incidentaly, I heartily recommend a lesser known title called Weregeek, which you can find here at www.weregeek.com

I think that's all I wanted to say for now, so as always, this is Mr Craiggy, signing out for Three Guys.

Normal services shall be resumed next week.

NXT - So soon?

Author - MrCraiggy

That's right, due to the last one being so late, its that time again.

This week's NXT opened on a blinder! Its this week's challenge, and tonight we have a kissing contest. Now, at first I did facepalm, but then it transpired that Laycool were hosting this segment, which amused me, because what they lack in in-ring ability, they do make me chuckle on the mic. So Michelle McCool starts it off by luring in Husky but then stopping and bringing out the real judge of the contest: some random woman called Margaret, or "Margarita" as they call her who, and there's no nice way of saying this, is huge. Also, not sure if this is real or prosthetic by the makeup team, but there's this sort of wart-like growth around her mouth, it just looks disgusting. So this is who our Rookies have to kiss. A lot of the reactions from the guys look pretty genuine, as if this is a surprise to them, but they roll with it and for the most part, sell like kings! Some even have a laugh with it like MMG who just licks her face. The funniest though is Kaval who, being Laycool's rookie, they try and prevent him having to kiss Margaret, Layla even going to the extreme of kissing Kaval herself, which knocks him for a six, and I mean he is staggered, hilarity! Alex Riley does a fun little spot where he pretends to faint, lovestruck after the kiss. Anyhoo, apparently Lucky Cannon's the best kisser of the bunch, and for once Michael Cole was kinda funny, which makes me feel dirty. He said that the rookies were "wasted once more in margaritaville"... Now, on with the wrestling!

Match 1 - A rematch of last week's main event, Kaval vs Husky. Two beautiful moments I want to point out in this match that follow very closely after each other. The first is, Husky lifts Kaval for either a back body drop or a flapjack (Its the name of a move, honest!) but Kaval literally stands upright on Husky's shoulders, steps back and kicks Husky in the chest, then, as he goes to vault outside and land on Husky, Husky catches him and turns into an ordinary powerslam, but instead of slamming him down onto the floor, he slams him against the security barrier. Some nice back and forth wrestling in this match, showing off both competitor's abilities. Husky wins clean with a uranage into his running senton. Good match.

Video segment of The Miz bad-mouthing McGillicutty some more and then a backstage interview with McGillicutty about said video. Lucky Cannon comes on and the two argue about who should fight Miz. This is good, this is how a proper wrestling show should be. I like it! So, Miz claims they should have a match and then the winner has a match against him. Kofi and Miz argue. This is fun, cause Kofi doesn't get to talk much normally, but he's decent! So Miz goes to get changed because the winner of Lucky and McGillicutty then goes on to wrestle Miz in the same night, interesting...

So we get the match, and it, to be frank, is a short one. McGillicutty wins it with what they're now calling the "McGillicutter", which is the swinging neckbreaker he's been using as a finisher.

We then get padding about Summer Slam and then a Pros segment where the Pros get to talk about who they think is the worst Pro on the show. Kofi starts and makes a good point, saying that he thinks Laycool are the worst for making Kaval (Who he describes as the closest thing he's seen to a legitimate ninja) wear that pink shirt. So this continues til The Miz comes out and argues with John Morrison a bit (They used to be tag champs remember) and says that J-Mo's done nothing since they broke up but The Miz is the US Champ AND has the money in the bank contract for Raw. More lame cultural references from Michael Cole and then the match.

Match 3 - Alex Riley vs Percy Watson. There's a point in this match that I want to bring up, and its where Alex Riley has Percy through the middle rope and he drops to the outside, pulling Percy down, implying that the wind has been knocked out of him by the rope. Now, this looked like Alex made a bit of a mistake here, pulling Percy down too hard so he hit his head on the side of the ring. Maybe this was intentional, but either way, it just looked nasty. Riley wins it with his TKO.

Okay, main event time. Match 4 - Miz vs McGillicutty. So, good match, nice back and forth action, some very good technical moments, some good heel moments from Miz (I love how the WWE are using him at the minute) but eventually, Miz gets the victory with his "Skull Crushing Finale" finisher.

All in all, very good program. Next week, there's another elimination, so all go to http://www.wwe.com and vote for Husky! You know its the right thing to do!

This is Mr Craiggy, signing out.

NXT - Better late than never...

Author - MrCraiggy

Okay, so I realise this is about a week late and I apologise. Wow, so many apologies lately... I was also going to try and do this as a video review too to save space, but had some sound synching issues again.

Anyhoo, NXT last week was elimination week, so tension all around. I'm not going to say much on this episode because, well, its late and the latest episode is on tonight. What I will say though, very impressed with the show itself as it is now shaping up like a proper wrestling show, complete with backstage segments. It seems that the WWE are finally grasping what they want for NXT as a franchise.

So, the show opens with the Rookies getting a minute to talk on their own chosen topic. There were some fun bits like Eli talking about how he's the only one who could stand toe to toe and eye to eye with people like Big Show, Kane and The Undertaker. MMG addresses The Miz for saying he had no personality and calling him mediocre, pointing out that he's undefeated on NXT so far.

We then get our first of three matches tonight, Precy Watson versus Zack Rider. I zoned out a little, not gonna lie, but Percy won, claiming the first Rookie victory over a Pro this season... I nearly cried.

Backstage segment with John Morrison and Eli Cottonwood talking about last week's obstacle course. Eli had me chuckling in this segment by saying how he wasn't an athlete and closing with having one word for people who doubted him: moustache!
This led nicely into our next match, Eli versus MMG. For the first time this season, Eli looks a lot less awkward in the ring, he's actually doing quite well. Anyway, he misses a big boot and MMG gets the win, putting his winning streak up to five.

Video segment about Kaval, great in the ring, takes himself too seriously. "Dashing" Cody Rhodes says, quite rightly, that if thi was a fair world, Kaval would be the next breakout star, but I can't help but think they're gonna pull a Daniel Bryan on him and screw him over...
This led to another backstage segment with Kaval and Laycool. Again, I liked the continuity. They're complaing that he doesn't have his pink shirt that they gave him and then Husky comes in, shoulders Kaval and claims he didn't see him because he's short. Then Kaval pipes up in his man voice that they're gonna have a lot of fun in the ring, so this leads us to tonight's main event, Husky versus Kaval.
Good match. Kaval gets a bit of offense in, Husky goes through the usual big, powerful, dominant but also fast as hell routine. Laycool get knocked off the side of the ring and Kaval checks on them only to be lifted and slammed over the ropes by Husky with a reverse suplex and then hits his running senton to win.

Now, I showed this match to Dave, who doesn't like wrestling, but I made him watch it and said that this is precisely why I loved Husky. Dave, again pointing out that he doesn't like wrestling, was genuinely impressed with the athletic ability displayed here.

So then, elimination time.

#1 - Michael McGillicutty
#2 - Kaval
#3 - Alex Riley
#4 - Percy Watson
#5 - Lucky Cannon
#6 - Husky Harris
#7 - Eli Cottonwood

That's right, big guy's going home... A pity, but understandable as, aside from this week, he was very awkward in the ring and just looked clumsy. Anyways, the show finished with him attacking the other Rookies and then storming off...

Fun times!

This is Mr Craiggy, signing out.



Just so you can see what I mean about the main event. I really enjoyed this match so now you can too!

An update!

Author - MrCraiggy

Okay, firstly, a couple more apologies that weren't mentioned in the video. Apologies for the video being updated today instead of last night. As you can see, my mind was dead due to fatigue and because the video took a fair while to convert to flash format, I just went to bed, and have been out all day again, so only now am I finding time to upload it.

Also, forgot to mention the winner of our pageview contest was Dev, so expect a guest review from him in the future. Well done Sir!

Also, apologies as it appears the sound drops out of sync about halfway through the video, the audio slips like, half a second behind the video, but hopefully its not too much of a distraction, so here we go, enjoy:



EDIT - It turns out I uploaded the unedited version of the video, so guess what, another apology there. This is the final edit.

NXT - Here we go again...

Author - MrCraiggy

Okay, so, once again we're back to NXT. And after last week's disappointing show, I'm hoping to see something of a better lineup this week. It seems we're off to a bad start. First off, Matt Stryker demonstrates the assault course that the Rookies will have to complete as their challenge next week, the winner gaining immunity in next week's poll, so fair enough, this might be good for a chuckle, especially as some of them are vault obstacles that I think Eli could just step over... But then we're on to the proper opening segment, and MVP is in the ring hosting his own talk show slot, the V.I.P. Lounge. His guest? *shudder* "Showtime" Percy Watson... I hope upon hope each and every week that he'll just drop the act, or even downplay it a little, and maybe this will finally be my week?! Nope. Same moronic shuffle, same awkward clapping, same stupid glasses... Okay, let's get this over with...

So MVP's chewing him up about trying to start a Rookie revolution on last week's show and you'd expect Percy, if supposedly having any respect for his Pro to look sorry, but no, he just looks bored and fed up. Anyhoo, MVP then commends these actions, saying that he'd have done the same when he debuted, but has learnt blah blah blah, then asks if Percy has learnt anything from this. So Erkel gets his time to speak... Is there any way I can write this update post while having the show muted? No? Fine!

So Percy's sucking up by saying how much he's learnt and, is anyone else worried that he constantly calls MVP "baby"? Just me? Really? Ugh, fine... At least he's speaking at a tolerable speed this week, but that's because he's all sullen and sowwy, n'awwwww... Right. Professional! Enough Percy bashin unless desperately unavoidable! So Stryker comes out onto the stage and asks MVP why, with the poll next week, people should vote Percy as number one. Athelticism, appearance, verbal skills and charisma. These are the four things MVP says a superstar needs. Agreed. And Percy is athletic, I've never denied that. If he lost the glasses then yes, he'd looks the part too. If he slows his speach down, yes, verbal skills. Charisma? He captivates a crowd, but I don't know, this whole dancing thing, it just looks awkward to me... This would all be well and good if he had a nerdish gimmick, and even the glasses would work then too, but he doesn't, he's supposedly a partying playboy. I don't buy it for a second. Thankfully Stryker cuts Percy short before he speaks for too long. Have I mentioned how I love Matt Stryker?

So anyhoo, Cody and Husky come on to the stage and Cody does his whole "Dashing" mirror bit while Husky just looks menacing, speaking of charisma... Stryker asks Cody the same question about Husky who basically works in his current "How great am I?" heel routine whilst also making out Husky to be great, as a representative for the average American, pointing out his size, but also his remarkable speed and agility. So Cody gets the "You suck" chant, but hey, he's a heel, he's supposed to, s he's doing his job right. Husky then gets his own spot, saying how the WWE has been filled with bodybuilders, six-packs or gimmicks (His example is a miniature midget ninja), and he is none of those, claiming "All I am is real", thus making him fresh and exciting.

So we get our first match of the night, Husky and Cody tag teaming against MVP and Percy. This is where I hate Percy less, and almost like him, because he can actually work the ring really well, but I still can't enjoy his gimmick, and naturally with Husky as one of my picks to win, naturally you can tell how I want this match to go.

Oh, no, spoke to soon. WWE once again are delaying the wrestling, on a wrestling show... We get a video segment talking about Lucky Cannon... General consensus from the Pros is, he looks good, he moves well, but he's plain, nothing stands out about him, which I agree with sadly, as I do want Lucky to do well.

The match now please? Thank you! Also, after the camera panning over the pros, we see that of them, only Kofi is in ring gear, so he'll be in a match later, watch this space.
So Husky and Percy start the match and after some solid strikes, Husky immediately rips off those glasses and throws them out of the ring. I love this guy.
The match progresses, nice bit of back and forth action before Husky and Percy are outside of the ring and brawling amongst the obstacles but are broken up by their pros. Nice, bit of tension built, I like it. So after the commercials it's Cody in the ring with Percy, and Cody's working away, laying in the strikes (He's annoyed cause MVP punched him in the face, afraid his 'dashing' looks might be ruined.)and then Husky's back in and kills Percy with a huge NFL style rush in the corner (He's got a college football background, so this is a nice touch). Pro vs Pro had to happen at some point, so here we go. It's not bad, but we know these guys can wrestle, they're Pros, I wanna see the Rookies! But then, the audience want a show I guess. Rhodes nails his jumping kick he's been using a lot, sometimes billed as the "Beautiful disaster" and then tags in Husky for the big finish. So we get Husky's running senton (With a guy his size, you'll believe it hurts.) and Husky gets the pin over MVP.



This isn't a clip from the above match; it's from Husky's first match, coincidentally also a tag match between these two teams. It's his running senton on Percy. I could watch this all night.

So now we get another video segment, this time about my other pick to win, Michael McGillicutty. General Pro's opinion, he's good. He's passionate about wrestling, he's skilled, but does he have personality? Arguably not seen yet because he's not been given much chance to talk.

Next match: singles action between Lucky Cannon and Alex Riley, this promises to be decent. Before the match, the Rookiea are given a minute to say why they shouldn't be voted off next week and Lucky gives a nice talk about having the time of his life and how it's a dream come true to be in the WWE. Alex Riley just rants about about how he doesn't like the audience and they don't like him but that they care about the WWE doing well then they'll do the right thing and vote for him and The Miz throws in a bit about the reason you should vote for Riley is simple, because the future WWE champion told you to. So, wrestling now? Yes, thank you! Wait, the match is over already?! The hell was that?!

Okay, rewinding the video to the start of the match, from the moment the bell run to the moment the referee counts three, I make it 58 seconds... Less than a minute! Cannon was laying out some nice offense, goes for a flying cross body, misses it and then Riley hits the TKO that he's been using as his finisher. Talk about a throwaway match...



Again, not from the above match, but just to show you the finisher.

Disappointing match. But then, I guess there's still the assault course challenge, and whatever Kofi's in his ring gear for, so I guess they had to rush things. Anyhoo, Miz then pummels Cannon with his Money in the Bank briefcase, why? I dunno, because he's The Miz (and he's awesome). We then get a slot for Morrison and Laycool to talk about Eli and Kaval. Morrison tells a story about sitting in the airport and watching as the NXT Rookies walked past and a kid asked his mum who Eli was. Morrison explains that there's something about Eli that makes him stand out (No kidding, the guy's huge), then Eli takes the mic and asks Stryker who he's gonna vote for, intimidating him into saying Eli, which was nice, I actually liked this bit (And for those paying attention, Eli's grown a moustache as promised, hurray!)
So then Laycool get the mic, and I have to admit, I'm warming to Laycool, they amuse me, especially with Stryker pandering to them as he does. They do their usual 'flawless' routine and then the little man with the big voice gets a say. A lot of people were angry when Kaval came onto NXT and started talking as much as he is doing. Let me give you a brief history: Kaval wrestled a lot on the indie circuit under the name Low-Ki and never really spoke much, giving him that sorting of menacing, cold edge, but now he speaks, that illusion is taken away, and a lot of people didn't like that. I however love it. He's still the same guy, still the same gimmick, but now he talks, and talks well in my opinion. It's a whole new depth that the Low-Ki character never got. He says we should imagine matches with him against the likes of Evan Bourne, Randy Orton or Rey Mysterio, saying that he has the ability, but the audience has the power to make this happen. Clever.

So, challenge time. Not much to say here... It's an obstacle course. Fastest time wins. But, oh, wait, more talking. Kofi talking about MMG, saying how he now calls MMG's fans McGillibuddies... *facepalm* As much as I like McGillicutty, I will never refer to myself as that! MMG then talks about how he has the best pro, is the best rookie and is currently 4-0, a 'perfect' record ('cause his dad was Mr. Perfect). So, now the challenge. MMG set's a very quick time of 26.7 seconds, then Riley throws a tantrum at being made to do the balance beam twice, blaming a ref. Remember I said Eli could step over these hurdles? He did the first one and then just died on the next two... Ugh. And I had faith in the big guy for once too. He gets disqualified for refusing to go back and redo two obstacles, nearly 'attacking' the refs. Cannon comes close with a 28.2, just losing it on the box push. Kaval again stumbling on the box push for a 29.1 but practically flew over the hurdles! Percy's turn, and I love how there's a member of the crowd yelling at him on the balance beam "Slip and fall, oh yeah!" glad to see it's not just me. Husky finishes up with a fun display of tackling the last hurdle, literally ploughing it over and then walking the rest of the course with that cocky strut of his for a 50.3. The slowest, but boy was that fun to watch. So Michael McGillicutty wins immunity on next week's vote. Time's up, so why was Kofi in ring gear for crying out loud?!

Voting is open now at www.wwe.com so go and vote for Husky!

This is Mr Craiggy, signing out.

NXT and all characters and gimmicks are property of the WWE.

its a dream! and not used in a cliche manner woo

The Dave's review on Inception

Every once in a while a gem of a film comes along and at first I pay little interest till I just make a dive and decide to see it, often not expecting much. Those films that actually surprisingly make you feel glad that you went to see that said film are normally one of the best film experiences you can have , the joy of taking the dive, Inception was one of those films to myself.

I was wary at first the trailer looked ok (more like an apocalyptic film by the trailer) and it was often given a tag line which was 'It is like the Matrix and James Bond' upon hearing those fatefull and scary words they not only raised the bar but lowered my expectation. No one should relate to those films its a dangerous game of playing with fire, but you know what I actually felt I prefered this film to the original Matrix (a contraversial statement I know) allthough the Matrix defined a certain 'you cant believe everything you see feel' and the whole sci-fi modern outlook, it didnt feel it had as much substance as this latest critic raving machine.

The plot seems more fluid in comparison to the matrix and the unique features of the film are well executed and made perfect sense, and allthough it is a long film it wasnt too bogged down by too much unneccessary details. I was a little biased at first, I was a sceptic of any film featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, I certainly wasnt his biggest fan, but hand on heart I felt his performance was actually quite a good standard apart from one scene where he's meant to scream out in sorrow which I will be honest wasn't at all that great in fact that one part spoilt his acting a little. The other cast wasnt too bad but I felt Joseph Gordon-Levitt was acting a little two dimensionally allmost too much like a Neo personality, barely showing much expression in anything, allthough this does add to some light hearted comedic moments.

I was expecting a very complex plot and allthough it is, its soo well executed that its not too hard for the head to get around. The plot itself is incredibly well thought out, its a rare movie that allthough could have been very pretentious, turned out to be a very enjoyable and fluid film. The long length of this film made me at first dread the fact that I may become uncomfortable and fidget, however after watching it, not a second of that time felt wasted, it was a great film and truely has become one of my top five films of all time and you may disagree (your entitled to, it is your opinion) I will still stand by my guns and say this is one of the top in its genre, Christopher Nolan has done well with this film.

I may re-visit this film at a later date and review it more fully but seeing it has only recently been released I felt I shouldn't spoil it and just simply state my opinion and to tell you all to view it and you won't regret it.
Thanks alot Dave

Ennie Awards!

Author - MrCraiggy





The Ennie awards are where you get a chance to vote on this years roleplay and board gaming releases!

I've voted. Will you?

NXT - Something old, something new.

Author - MrCraiggy

Okay, so, once again Tuesday has passed us by and it's time for my next NXT update.

This week's show is an interesting one, as not only do we have our usual Pros and Rookies, but also we have the Rookies of season one, currently involved in a storyline on WWE's Raw show where they are a heel (Bad) stable (Group)called the Nexus. So first, a little backstory on this. Wade Barret won the first season of NXT, which made me happy as not only is he English, but from the best part of England, the north. And not only is he northern, but practically a neighbour to me, being from Manchester. Hurray for local talent! Anyhoo, after season one of NXT finished, Wade Barret and the other NXT rookies came on Raw and started some trouble, Wade claiming that WWE management treated them unfairly and how they all wanted contracts. This story has progressed and now they all have contracts and are focussing on kicking seven shades of the brown stuff out of John Cena, which I am very much enjoying.

So here they are, back on NXT and claiming they want no trouble, they just want to enjoy the show... We shall see.

So, on to our first match, a tag match between The Miz and Alex Riley against Mark Henry and Lucky Cannon. Now, the previous night on Raw, Mark Henry was announced as the final participant in Raw's "Money in the Bank" match this coming weekend and so had to wrestle a match against The Miz. So this is kind of almost a grudge match, but not played up on at all... Because NXT's all about the Rookies after all.

Alex Riley started the match off against Henry and got thrown around a bit whilst spouting about getting through him to get to The Miz. I'm warming more to Riley, but I still think his gimmick is too similar to Jack Swagger's at the moment for him to go anywhere currently. Henry finally throws Riley out of the ring and then starts shouting at Miz, reminding everyone that these two have issues, but I just want to watch the Rookies... Is that so much to ask in a show about them? So, seeing that The Miz is reluctant to tag, Henry tags in Cannon who hopefully will have a chance to show off a bit more after some tough breaks these past few weeks. Needless to say, we get this. Cannon gets some nice offense in, showing both some technical and striking ability and knocking Riley outside again but then it goes horribly wrong as Cannon tries to dive out after Riley with a 'Plancha' (Nothing difficult, just jumping out over the top rope and landing onto your opponent) but coming a bit short and, from the camera angle, it actually looks like he caught his head on the 'steel' ring steps... If that was a genuine mistake, that'll cost him...
Genuine mistake or not, the match carries on and The Miz is tagged in to beat on Cannon some more. Once again, Michael Cole is annoying as ever with his commentary, making cultural references, likening The Miz to other sporting coaches to try and sound cool... Guh, I wish they'd fire him... Anyhoo, we get a brief bit of Miz and Henry, blah blah blah, Miz sneaks a tag to Riley who then gets beaten by Henry, match over. Not bad, but nothing special.

After this, we get a video segment of the Pros talking about Riley, same story, Morrison and Rhodes making me chuckle as usual. But back to the action! No WWE, I said action, not a recap of Nexus pounding on Cen- Oh, okay, but only because I like watching Cena get beaten up. No, no, NO! I said action! Not Percy Watson's talk-show segment that he questionably won in last week's "Talk the Talk" challenge... Ugh, this is going to be painful... Oh, look, they called it "Showtime", how original, because that's his ring name... I can feel the aneurysm forming already. Oh well, let's get this over with. I hope he interviews the Nexus and gets beaten up...

I can barely understand a word he's saying and from the sound of the crowd reacting when he gets them to spout his "Oh yeah!" catchphrase, I'm pretty sure hardly any of them can either... Slow down when you speak! Honestly... How did he win this again?!
So, his guest is his Pro, MVP. *sigh* And I was hoping for another six-on-one beatdown on someone I hate from the Nexus.
Wow, the crowd really don't know what to make of this... And I can't blame them. Seriously, MVP just asked them to give Percy a pat on the back for learning so much and doing so well, and like, barely anybody clapped or anything... Are you watching WWE? Are you learning? I hope so! And so the segment continues, degenerating into an en masses Rookies VS Pros brawl, again... But wait, oh no! Matt Striker comes out and makes it an official match, Rookies and Pros, every man for themself in an over the top rope Battle Royale! This could be fun! Oh, this is getting even better, Wade Barret jumps in and gets the Nexus involved, making it a 20 man Battle Royale. So, this is apparently the big match of the night, I'll try and keep up and point out the good bits.

The match starts with Nexus clearing the ring and letting everyone else wear each other down and thin the field first. Clever, but expected. So, Mark Henry gets eliminated first and Nexus pounce, kicking him while he's down. Eli's out next and Nexus do the same. Beginning to see a pattern?
MVP's out, then Kofi and Morrison come to his aid, but didn't eliminate themselves so promtply get back in the ring. Aaaaand Percy's out, hurrah! Sadly Nexus are back in the ring, so no beatings for him... Husky Harris has a valiant effort of taking Nexus on 6-on-1, but promptly gets eliminated, around the same time as Alex Riley and Kaval too. Oh look, all of this season's Rookies have been eliminated and it's the remaining Pros against Nexus... Come on WWE! This is NXT, it's supposed to be about the development of the Rookies, not your storylines! Anyhoo, it's 6-on-5, Zack Ryder starts mouthing off, which is kinda funny, but then gets eliminated by The Miz who then gets a telling off from Morrison, but this kinda works, as Miz was a Pro on season 1 too, and he's talking about that, yadda yadda yadda, I don't care now, I wanted to watch the Rookies. Miz eliminates himself dropping it to 2-on-1 odds for the Pros, Morrison, Kofi and Rhodes. Rhodes does nothing, Morrison fights back (Because he's ace!) So Kofi and Morrison get eliminated leaving Rhodes 6-on-1, we've seen it all before... And then another issue with this match that I had was, it's supposedly every man for himself. Wade Barret even said before the match that he was going to win it, but once Rhodes is eliminated, the bell is rung and Nexus are declared all winners... Wha?

So, the show ends with Nexus boasting once again how awesome they are. Blah blah blah. For a show supposedly about the next generation of the WWE, they did nothing this week... Very disappointed, not with the Rookies (Aside from Percy) no, but the WWE in general... Yes, understandably, they want to get Nexus more screen time and establish them as the new villains etc. But do it on their own show! Now, arguably, NXT was their show first, but they moved on, they're on Raw now, and they should stay there in my opinion! I don't watch NXT for the Pros or Nexus, I watch for the Rookies, and as such am sorely disappointed by this week's episode... Anyways, Money in the Bank pay-per-view this weekend, and two weeks til the next elimination, so here's hoping we get some better performances between then...

This is Mr Craiggy, signing out.

NXT and all characters and copyrights belong to the WWE.

Riding on!

Author - MrCraiggy

Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen, online heroes and villain alike. I would like to take a moment to talk to you about a long standing Japanese franchise, Kamen Rider.



Kamen Rider is a Japanese "Tokusatsu" (Live action drama, often featuring superheroes) series that started off in 1971 and was created by Shotaro Ishinomori and progressed throughout the years with various incarnations until the late 80's and the debut of Kamen Rider: Black RX, which some of you may recognise the costume from, as we got a version of it over here as the poorly received "Masked Rider"



After RX, there were no official Kamen Rider series, but there were movies such as "Shin" "ZO" and "J" but this marked the end of what is referred to as the "Showa" era of Kamen Rider. Now, my knowledge of the Showa era is patchy at best, having only seen bits of "Black" and "Black RX", and watching "ZO" and "J" with Siddd (I still prefer Sidders) so there's really not much I can say about it.



Sadly, in 1998, Ishinomori died, but during 1997, he had been working on a new project to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Kamen Rider. Upon his death, production was sped up and this led to the creation of the modern age of Kamen Rider. This is now affectionately referred to as the Heisei era of the Kamen Rider franchise.

The Heisei era began with the release of Kamen Rider: Kuuga in January of 2000 with the tag line "A new hero, a new legend." and it is with Kuuga that my Kamen Rider journey properly began. Having only been properly aware of the existance of Kamen Rider for around three years now, I decided that it was best for me to start at the beginning of my generation's Riders, and that led me to Kuuga.



Kuuga continued on the trend of Kamen Riders having multiple forms, first started I believe with Kamen Rider Stronger's "Charge Up" mode and then continued in Black RX with "Roborider" and "Biorider" forms, Kuuga himself having a total of 11 forms!

After Kuuga followed a series called Kamen Rider: Agito, which was the official 30th anniversary show. Agito was the first series to feature multiple Riders within the series, Agito having a total of three, "Agito", "G3", and "Gils". Agito is also a semi-sequel to Kuuga in that the G3 suit was developed as a countermeasure by the police to fight against the "Unidentified Lifeforms" which was the term used for the Grongi, Kuuga's foes. Also, the monsters in Agito are referred to simply as "Unknowns". Another similarity was in the primary rider costumes, Agito's armour looked very similar to that of Kuuga with the bulky chestpiece and crested helmet.

The Heisei era progressed successfully, with each new series bringing in a steady amount of viewers and maintaining ratings. In my opinion, as with all franchises, some series' were better than others; for example, my particular favourite Kamen Rider series to date (Though Double comes close) is Kamen Rider: 555



555's main Rider was called "Faiz", a Japanglish pun on the plural of the number 5, or literally, fives. I could literally talk about 555 as a series all night, but I'll save that for another review. Needless to say, I love it, but even 555 had it's moments of sheer annoyance.

In 2005, Kamen Rider hit the big screen once more with Kamen Rider: The First. This movie was a reimagining of the original Kamen Rider series and revitalised the old Showa veteran with a shiny new look and in my opinion, a great movie. Now, some parts of the movie did seem a little redundant and pointless, but still, some top notch action! This shall be reviewed at a later date, probably with myself and Siddd as this is another of the Kamen Rider areas we've co-watched (He's going to hate me someday for getting him into Kamen Rider) and this was followed in 2007 with Kamen Rider: The Next, introducing Kamen Rider V3 into the movie storyline and following almost directly from The First.

2007 also brought about perhaps the most loved of the Heisei Rider series', which, at first, I could not understand, because upon first trying to watch the series, Kamen Rider: Den-O failed to impress me... I have however gone back and tried to watch it again and must admit, it does have it's charms as well as it's flaws, as with every series. The fact that still to this date, three years on, they are still expanding Den-O as it's own sub-franchise with the new movie triple bill is testament to it's success.

In 2009, Japanese viewers were gifted with the debut of the Heisei era's 10th anniversary show, Kamen Rider: Decade. Now, here's where things get interesting. The whole premise of Decade is that, all of the universe's of the previous Kamen Riders are collapsing in on each other and it is up to Decade to travel between them and stop this. Throughout the series he is heralded as a destroyer of worlds, but then goes on to save the world of whichever Rider featured in that episode. He would then gain the abilities of that Rider and add them to his own repetoire. Now, my main argument with Decade as a series is, continuity... For starters, every single Rider's backstory is changed within Decade. Now, this can easily be cast aside as a temporal distortion caused by the collapsing of the universes, but also, Kuuga and Agito both get their own episodes. Kuuga infact decides to follow Decade along on his mission and travels to the different worlds with him. Now, if Agito was supposed to be a sequel to Kuuga, why do they both have different worlds? Needless to say, this annoyed me. Siddd can attest to how angry I got with Decade as a series, especially with the 555 episode...

Now, our current Rider series is Kamen Rider: W, or Double. Double has taken on a completely new dynamic for a Kamen Rider series, having two primary heroes, Shotaro (A nice little homage) and Philip (His real name's Raito, but go with it) who, when they transform, actually merge to become one Rider, hence the name Double, the 2-in-1 Rider. This series is, quite frankly incredible. I was dubious at first, I saw the promotional photos of Double's outfit and I hated it! But I gave the series a chance and boy was I surprised... Even the costume's grown on me! Double mixes the classic superhero-fights-monsters format of every Kamen Rider series, but also a funny detective story too! I'm sad to say that this series has only around eight weeks left on air before it finishes and we get our next Rider series, Kamen Rider: OOO, or Ozu, again a Japanglish pun of the plural of the letter O, or O's.

Ozu, I can't say anything about yet aside from what the previews have revealed. There seems to be a traffic light theme to the Rider's costume, which I assume is strengthened by the OOO logo, looking like Japanese traffic lights. But there also seems to be some kind of animal theme too, but at the moment, things are still pretty unclear. They've even managed to keep their second Rider hidden and secret, but have revealed all of Ozu's forms already, which is interesting.



So I shall leave you with that, and the parting words of Kamen Rider Accel, the second Rider in the Double series. "Saa, furikiri ze!" or for those without a translator "Now, let's break away!"

This is Mr Craiggy, signing out!

Kamen Rider is currently the property of Ban Dai and all copyrights belong to them so far as I'm aware.

A few updates.

Author - MrCraiggy

Okay, so, a few exciting new developments.
As you may have noticed, there's a new segment started up, the "Retro Retrospective." Big plans for this segments with lots of ideas on what to review such as cartoons, and even old toy crazes, so if you have any ideas, please voice them either as a comment here, or on the shoutbox, or on the e-mail at threeguys@hotmail.co.uk

That brings me on to the new 'gadgets' on the site. Two of which were previously mentioned on the Retro Retrospective video, those being the shoutbox and our fishies. These are fun little additions to just add a bit of extra flair to the site. Also, not lying when I said you can feed the fishies, go try, go click on the box and it drops food for them which they then swarm around and devour, it's kinda neat. Also, a note about the shoutbox, you'll see three boxes at the bottom, one for name, one for URL and one for message. Please please please change your name from 'Guest' as anonymous messages are never fun to work out.

Our final update (Aside from the obvious change in colour scheme) is the addition of our good friend Sonic. That's right, everyone's favourite blue hedgehog is now a part of the Three Guys team down at the bottom of the page, so go play and enjoy!

Finally, just an update on reviews. Until a time comes where the three guys of Three Guys can properly reconvene, I am unfortunately alone, and Dave and Sid are all the way in Worcester, our base of operations, so may work together on some reviews, but until September at the latest, it's seperate reviews, and unless they figure out a way to 'make the magic happen', I'm the only one able to make videos...

So that's just a brief update on where we stand with regards to the site, thank you for your loyalty, and we look forward very much to your feedback

Mr Craiggy, signing out for now.

A Retro Retrospective.

Author - MrCraiggy
If the video box comes up blank, click it a few times, that should work.

Okay, so it seems that not all of you are wrestling fans, and I understand this, so I made this quick little video for you guys of what I hope will be a regular feature which I have lovingly entitled the "Retro Retrospective" though I only thought of this title after editing the video and setting it to upload... Oh well, live and learn.

This is M.A.S.K.



Now, I looked online and found that m.a.s.k. stands for Mobile Armored Strike Kommand (Spelling error for the sake of coolness makes me cry) and v.e.n.o.m. stands for Vicious Evil Network Of Mayhem. Yeah, vicious AND evil...

I also did a bit more digging and found that the guy who turned invisible was called Jacques, and one of the characters, Buddy, had a mask called Penetrator which allowed him to move through solid matter, and there were just a load of other fun mask powers too, like another character, Brad. His mask could create realistic holograms to trick people. These are to mention but a few of the more fun masks.

Also, this had like one of the catchiest songs ever, as did a lot of kids shows from the mid to late 80's! Check it out!



And as with all cartoons, it was all about the toys!
So that's the Retro Retrospective! Hope you enjoyed it, now feed our fish!

Mr Craiggy, signing out.

M.A.S.K. is published by and copyright to DIC Entertainment.

NXT - Take Two.

Author - MrCraiggy

Okay, so, Tuesday has once again been and gone, and that means another episode of WWE's NXT program. This means it's the second part of my NXT play by play updates.

I'm writing this as I'm watching the show, so everything I write is as it happens in my eyes and there may be contradictions to things said previously in this update. That being said, I am also issuing a SPOILERS warning for this update.

So, last week's show ended with Titus O'Neil being eliminated, and my man Husky Harris is now trailing in 7th place after the poll last week. Needless to say I'm a little curious to see if he's going to actually stay on the show, being one of my two picks to win (Michael McGillicutty is currently 3rd.)

Okay, for starters, our host Matt Striker is asking the Pros what they thought about last week's elimination. Obviously, they ask Zack Ryder, as it was his rookie that was eliminated and I have to admit, now that Zack Ryder's gimmick has been explained to me (Thank you Jon) I do have a bit more respect for the guy, but still not wowing me. Then they ask John Morrison, who as mentioned in the last update, the crowd (and myself) adore. He takes a verbal shot at The Miz (They used to be tag team partners/friends but then Miz turned heel(bad)) and Miz bounces back with some mock laughter, which is fun. The Miz incidentally is really impressing me at the minute with his heelery.
Then our Rookies are introduced and make their way to the ring, now with their rank on their name when it comes up on screen too. This is also met with Michael Cole spouting his apparent catchphrase for this season when referring to Eli Cottonwood as a 'strange dude'. A little on this before we continue; myself and my friend Sam (Check out his blog at http://glassbeard.blogspot.com) have come up with the WWE drinking game, and one of the rules for Michael Cole is whenever he spouts his catchphrase of "Vintage", take a drink. This phrase of "strange dude" seems to be creeping in as a possible future rule.

Striker talks to a few rookies about their ranks, including Husky, who talks about Striker of all people knowing how dangerous he is (Husky attacked Striker two weeks ago as the show was coming to a close.) and if Striker thought he should be 7th. The mic then passes to Riley, who kinda fluffs his slot by saying Mr. MacMahon (Owner of the WWE) is his boss, when technically speaking, none of these rookies have officially been hired by the WWE yet, well, storywise anyway. This is actually picked up quickly by Michael Cole, so points to him there, for once. Also, Riley plays up the bully angle again by mocking Kaval's height (Kaval's our current #1 slot). Kaval then gets a chance to come back on the mic, and seriously, I want to take this moment to make a point. Even if you're not a wrestling fan, watch any of this series of NXT and pay close attention to Kaval. Like I said last update, this guy is tiny. I mean, he's shorter and lighter than me! But when he speaks, he's got this deep, echoey voice that you just do not expect to come from a guy that small. Check it out! Anyhoo, he takes a shot at Riley by saying that it's the fans who voted too, and all those people can't be wrong, yadda yadda, usual face mic-work, which is good to see, but nothing special.

Now, this is interesting. This week's challenge is to cut a promo, which basically means the rookies are given only forty seconds each (Ten to think, thirty to talk) where they're given a random topic which they have to then talk about. This was hit and miss last season, as a lot of last season's rookies didn't have much microphone experience, but this season has a lot of potentially good talkers, so I'm excited now.

Oh dear. Percy's up first... *sigh* Okay, here we go. His topic: Glasses... Meh, okay, he worked he mic okay, but we knew he could do that already. He still annoys me though. "I've got two words for you" Yeah, and I've got two words for you Watson, and they're not "Oh yeah!", they're the ancient words of D-Generation X, so Percy, my two words for you, suck it!

Right, Kaval, not the best talker in the business, but not bad, and as mentioned, awesome voice! His topic: Chicken. This should be amusing... Not a bad little spot (Sorry, short jokes aside) talking about how the WWE has no room for chickens, and how he's not one. Again, it's what I expected, but nice.

Eli's turn. Not got high hopes for this... But he may surprise me. His topic: Moustaches. Okay, that was funny. Eli, who's not struck me as much of a talker, turns the topic of moustaches into a bit about how moustaches are for real men, and how he can grow the best moustache of the rookies. Nice!

MMG next. His topic: Breath. Okay, not a bad little spot, talking about his background again, Grandson of a legend, son of a champion, by the end of NXT, he'll take our breaths away. A little bit of a copout, but they let it slide.

Now it's Husky, so I'm obviously excited. His topic: Doorknobs! (I should probably explain this, but I won't.) Okay, more of a rant about being 7th after saying he used a doorknob to get into the building. A little shaky on his delivery... My high hopes for him are not boding well, I think he actually may be voted off people. Thankfully this isn't an elimination night.

Okay, Lucky Cannon's turn. He won last week's challenge, so here we go. His topic: Deodorant. Not bad! Not bad at all. Saying how deodorant is for smelly, sweaty people, but how deodorant also needs those people. He then says that he is the deodorant and the WWE is the sweaty person, how the WWE needs him and he needs the WWE, not a bad little bit.

Okay, A-Ri, Alex Riley. His topic: Pidgeons. We already know Riley can talk, so this should be funny. More witty banter, more bullyish put downs. Yep Riley's good on the mic.

Ugghhh... Percy 'won', despite the crowd cheering a hell of a lot louder for Kaval... Great. This means that on next week's NXT, Percy gets his own chat-show segment... Somebody find me something solid to hit my head against please?

Anyway, on with the show! And we have our first match of the night, Percy against MMG. No prizes for guessing who I'm voting for... I'd like to take this moment, to say once again that Percy is good in the ring, and on the mic, he is a good worker, it's just that he annoys me. I can acknowledge his ability, and do infact respect him for it, but my personal opinion prevents me from liking him.
Okay, as expected, a good match from two good in ring workers, and thankfully, MMG won. Percy got in a little bit of offense, but it was pretty one sided. Neither rookie used their finishers (Percy's DDT or MMG's swinging neckbreaker) and MMG won it with a very athletic sunset flip. This raises MMG's stats to 4 matches, 4 wins.

Then we have a video segment of the Pros talking about Titus including a few of them mocking his trademark call, which you may remember I referred to as sounding like a horny wildebeest. This got me laughing as John Morrison says it sounds more like a Walrus, and The Miz went along the lines of "Really? that's his highlight reel?" and then back to John Morrison mocking his field goal taunt, again something I pointed out last time. Needless to say, I liked this segment, beautifully capped off with "Dashing Cody Rhodes saying that Titus should brush his teeth. Priceless!
We then get a replay of Titus' leaving words to the WWE Universe, which, say what you want, I feel was actually probably the most genuine and inspirational segments I've seen in a long time, telling people that yeah, sure, life is hard some times, but we still have to do what we can to, as Titus puts it "Make it a win". For what it's worth, we all know that Titus did not impress me, but his ideals, his message to the fans, that was admirable, and so credit where it's due for that.

More singles action again, this time Pro vs Rookie, The Miz vs Kaval. Now, unless WWE are going to really put a lot of fuel for a push behind Kaval, it's safe to say that Miz is going to win this. But here we go anyway.
Yep, Miz with the win, though Kaval got in some nice offense and almost hit his finisher, but it was safe to say that they're not letting a rookie beat a pro just yet.

One thing I have noticed this episode is actually letting whoever's by ringside cheering on, they've actually been standing on the apron of the ring instead of on the floor outside. Odd. Serves no real purpose. Just pointing out the difference.
We now have a video segment where the pros are talking about Eli, and much of the same thing, the pros are saying what I did last time. Sure he's big, but he's clumsy and awkward. A good bit of mentoring from my man John Morrison will sort that out though.

Okay, so now we're on to our main event of the night, a tag team match between the team of Mark Henry and his rookie Lucky Cannon and "Dashing" Cody Rhodes and his rookie, Husky Harris. This is probably going to be an above average match, and hopefully Husky'll continue to show his stuff. But first, we get the usual plug of what's happening in the rest of the WWE world, sorry, Universe... And then another video segment, this time about Husky Harris. Needless to say, most of the pros are saying he's great, so I dunno, this one could go either way people. I hope things change around and he does a lot better.

Anyway, the match! Short. This would be the word to sum up this match. Short... But good. Cody and Husky showing some good team psychology, Husky getting some solid moves in on Mark Henry, Cody getting the win on Lucky Cannon.

All in all, not a bad show. Could still go anyone's way. As for this style of review, the 'as it happens' style, I'm not sure it works textually, so if I was to do this again, I'd definitely have to do a video segment... Something to consider for the future...



This is Mr Craiggy, signing out.

NXT and all characters and trademarks are property and copyright to the WWE.

Alan Wake

Spoilers Alert- I will referance some in-game moments

So basically this is 'the Dave' doing a written review of Alan Wake and im going to have to really be brutal to myself, because I will be honest I dont enjoy picking holes into games I actually really enjoy. That being said there are moments that even I can see why people would get a little irritated, this was to be the next beloved offspring to Remedy Entertainment. Can I just say that this is the company who made Max Payne.... firstly does something strike you..... for one the title of both the games are the main protagonists. Secondly they hint towards the theme of the game 'Max Payne' sounds like 'Max Pain' which seems to be some referance to the undercurrent of the game, revenge, suffering and general action focused game.
'Alan Wake' is no different, with 'Wake' in his name suggesting he's got to try and wakeup from a nightmare which will seem never ending or to be precise a darkness.

Im all up for title relevance in fact I applaud it, but when it is also a protagonists name and not just for one of your intellectual properties but both... it may seem quirky to you but to us it seems lazy. However put this ridiculously over used title element aside and lets delve into it.

Now if theres one thing this game managed to achieve was alot of pressure, pressure to get it right. Remedy was hyping the game up badly and what made matters worse was that Max Payne was a highly popular intellectual property, which had fans begging for this to be 'The Game!' (sorry everyone)to top even the Max Payne franchise. It was hoping to be the game that defined Xbox 360, much like how Halo influenced Xbox sales to a degree back in the day, and much like how we connect certain characters with certain consoles/companies Mario with Nintendo, Master Cheif Xbox, Sonic with..... enough with sonic allready Sega!!! your only destroying him!!!
unfortunatly it did not achieve that, however they did create in my opinion a damn fine game and I will tell you why...



I may be a sucker to thrillers, but this really does feel like a fluid psycological thrill ride and allthough not the scariest of games you can buy, the darkness does throw you into slightly tense moments. It does however get bogged down to the fact that the game screams out 'Stephen King!!!' as if this one game was purely made as a hommage...hell on numerous occasions the protagonist...Alan...*pause*...Wake *sigh* mentions how he was allways inspired by Stephen King. "You and all the Stephen King fans out there Al!", it does often confuse me on whither the developers wanted to purely make this game a homage to Stephen King and basically call the game 'Stephen King....true story documentary' What it loses with the Stephen King esque loose plot it gains with good implemented results.

Its anouther adult title for a maturer audience, I would say comparable to the matureness of Heavy Rain maybe a little less so, its nice also to view a game which dosn't have the main protagonist as a pumped up action man and as a character who stands as a believable middle aged adult, dealing with problems in his life.
The episodic nature was very unique and characteristic of the game, and grabbed my attention on numerous occasions it also acted as 'put the controller down and relax moments'. The whole music at the end and re-cap at the beginning was a nice touch, I felt like I was participating within an actual thriller tv series and it actually works, only gripe is that later portions of the game become longer so its not allways a great estimate to when to put your controller down to take a break.

A gripe that a number of people state is that the environment becomes too similar after a while, particularily the beautifully rendered Woodland/forest scenes. I disallow this argument, everyones entitled to an opinion, however I feel that you cant argue about the featured environments because it stayed fitting with both plot and the isolated tense atmosphere. It wasn't at all possible to change locations too much without it seeming surreal and losing its isolated feeling. The woods seemed to go on forever, but that is a brilliant atmosphere, its exactly how I feel when I go into the woodland or I start watching a good horror film.



Anouther gripe that angers me is when people argue that due to the finding of pages you could tell what was about to happen which killed your fear factor...(aka.Yahtzee haha) well your partly right but it still dosn't change the fact that none of the pages declaire when that event or enemy will actually occure, so the element of surprise is still present. Its like if you went into a cinema to watch a horror film you know there is going to be an attempt to scare you, hell there are moments where its painfully obvious something is going to go wrong, but you still jump. The pages were a big plot element and to get rid of them or just simply replace them with unreadable pages would of been unbeneficial.

So we come back full circle to mention the plot again which does feature some twists allthough the twists are a little predictable and you can work out a few things from the offset. The characters themselves are relatively well developed in this game, there are the odd few characters who seem a little stale, but in comparison to some games of this generation, it does quite well to develope characters in what could be a restrictive means of any form of character development.

The action itself is unique and people could argue its a gimmick and if so its the only gimmick of this generation that has actual reason to be present. Motion sensing wii remotes have less purpose to be present in any game, so in comparison Alan Wake shows the wii how things should be implemented within reason. The gimmick was light being used as a weapon and it fits in nicely with plot, gameplay and general visual design. The light generally didnt kill some of the opposition bar a few, hence why you also carry a handy gun, ammo is reletively restrictive at times depending on the difficulty, I found that on normal I had a fair amount of ammo and there really was only one single part about halfway through where I completely lost ammo, however thats partly due to reckless shooting.



Finally I will put this review to a close even though I could say plenty more, the worst aspect of this game is the mouth animations, they still seem to suffer from the same horrid mouth problems in Max Payne (maybe they dont have a proper dentist and their mouths are constantly in pain...still doesn't explain the geometric mouths though haha) seriously, these are up there as the worst mouth animations for a realism game I have seen for quite some time, but put aside the minor faults and look at the great benefits and you have quite a good underated action game which will satisfy you for some hours, it may not be the longest game, but it certainly adds a fair whack of gaming hours, and also implements a nice story, maybe not the most memorable game, but worth experiencing.

Thanks for reading and generally being allround good guys, from 'The Dave'....stay awesome viewers!