What makes Tomb Raider so brilliant?

It is very easy with a lot of games to react initially after the first couple of hours, and with Tomb Raider with it's fast paced starting seemed to feel like a spectacle that would lead to a quieter middle of the game with open-world exploration.

How wrong I was.

My first playthrough, and what struck me was the quality of the action scenes, story, gameplay, the lot is still going. It's going to give me a heart attack at this rate. After two playthroughs I still am overwhelmed at the quality that was brought to Lara's reboot.

Let's explore each element of the game and why I can't seem to fault it. I'm thinking my Game of the Year.

The Return of Lara Croft

March 5th marks the release of the new Lara Croft adventure aptly named "Tomb Raider".

As a long-standing gaming icon, whatever the outcome of the game, the journey will be an interesting one.

With a long checkered history of classic games and feminist issues, this is always an interesting subject to broach. I even wrote about Lara Croft in an college essay.

Zero Dark Thirty: Cinematic Truths

Zero Dark Thirty isn't your average trip to the cinema, let's make that clear. You have to work for it, and personally; that's why I love it.

Let's firstly talk about Jessica Chastain. A rather new actress on the scene, only other major film before Zero Dark Thirty being The Help, where she was nominated for the Oscar. No biggie.

4Kast Episode 4 - Fringe Finale: Liberty / An Enemy of Fate

In the latest 4Kast we talk about the last Fringe episodes ever!

The highs and lows of the Series Finale and how we will cope now Fringe is gone...

Fringe - Looking Ahead to the Series Finale: Liberty/An Enemy of Fate

Well, it's the day before the Fringe finale and I feel I should do a quick pre-viewing post looking back to the past episodes of Fringe, and what I hope for the double episode of this finale.

Fringe overall has come very far since it's pilot episode, yet surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) still kept the core theme that it developed in the beginning: Love.

The three main characters Olivia, Peter and Walter have all developed far but still not lost their characteristics that made us like them instantly in the first season.

Fringe - An Origin Story: Blade Running

Season Five. Episode 5. 8 Episodes to go.

"'More human than human' is our motto."

"If we gift them with a past, we create a cushion or a pillow for their emotions, and consequently, we can control them better."

Recognise the quotes? You should, and if you don't; go watch Blade Runner. Right now.

I have often mentioned Blade Runner when it comes to Sci-Fi and more specifically this season of Fringe seems to be directly inspired by the 1982 cult classic.

4Kast Episode 3 - Fringe: The Bullet That Saved The World

Season Five. Episode 4. 9 episodes to go.

In Episode 3 of the 4Kast we discuss the storyline and events in Fringe episode "The Bullet That Saved The World" including the shocking end to the episode and the characters roles this season, and having a chat about the whole fifth season, and the mystery of how this great show will end.
 

Please leave a comment down below or tweet us @blog4k

Rebirth of Cartoons: Adventure Time, Gravity Falls, The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra

There's a "Rebirth of Cartoons", well at least for me.

And I am proud. I am watching Cartoons again. 22 and still watching cartoons. Yes.

It seems to be that suddenly Cartoons are pushing boundaries. Particularly with the two I'm watching and loving at the moment: Adventure Time and Gravity Falls. I will also look into a huge favourite of mine Avatar: The Last Airbender, and it's sequel; Legend of Korra.

Let's look at why I love them so much - despite them being "for kids".

Does anyone actually use apps?

In 2012 this may sound like a crazy question to ask, after all 50% of Americans have a smartphone and that of course means a lot of downloaded apps. In fact Google Play, Android's app store, has had over 15 billion app downloads while Apple's App store has had over 30 billion downloads! Now that's a lot of apps, there is no question that we are downloading a lot of them however are we actually using them?

Google's Nexus 7

With the launch of Windows 8 coming soon, Google releasing the Nexus 7 and my preference of using my Samsung Galaxy S3 over my iPad 2, the functionality and usefulness of the gadgets have got me thinking. Without doubt the iOS platform has the best selection of apps to choose from however as I find myself using my S3 more and more I've started to question whether I actually use that many apps. Without doubt certain apps are amazing. The Twitter iPad app is one of the best, far more functional than the desktop version, Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Gmail and Google Maps, all work so well too.

However what about the rest of the apps I've downloaded onto my touchscreen devices. Other than Angry Birds are there really any really good games? I find the touch screen far too annoying for any serious 3D games. Productivity apps are pretty pointless to, without doubt it is still better to type on a real computer, not to mention a lot easier to save and organise files. And when it comes to information apps such as websites and newspapers, are they really any better than just using the tablet browser? Many of these apps seem to lack information that would appear on a website such as video content or images.

F1 2012: Game Review

The excitement and anticipation amongst Formula 1 fans at this time of the year, usually derives from another frilling finale to the season, as the manic world of motor racing's top competition moves from the European summer to the spotlights and sunsets of Asia, it has come apparent that F1 fans can look forward to another exciting edition that puts them right in the middle of all the action.

F1 2010 & 2011 by Codemasters were both hugely successful games, and no wonder after a baron spell of no Formula 1 games since 2007, these were very welcome editions indeed. Codemasters had taken the standard of F1 and motor racing games beforehand and totally blown them off the track. Now with the bar being set so high can Codemasters deliver further with F1 2012?