Monday 28 November 2016

E14 Toybox #10 - November "Versus" Zbox!

For those who missed it on Sunday, Rob took to the live streaming route in order to demonstrate the excellent contents of this month's Zbox!

Zboxes, for those unfamiliar, are Zavvi's answer to a subscription box like Lootcrate. For a fixed price every month, they will send you a box of geek-friendly goodies! Ranging from puzzles to Pop! Vinyl figures to books, and even throwing a T-shirt in for good measure (and they do measure them well, they're a lovely fit), subscription boxes have become somewhat of a staple for those looking to retain some mystery in their purchasing.

What will Rob find in this month's Zbox? There's only one way to find out!

Well, there are several, but watching the video is the best! Rob really liked the contents of this month's box, so hopefully you'll enjoy watching it just as much!

If you like the box, why not check out Zavvi's subscription boxes online?

About The Zbox

Friday 25 November 2016

The E14 Gamecast! Episode 18 - Sequels!

It's a question-based Gamecast this time round, as the boys in the room tackle the question: What games do you wish had a sequel?

Starring: Rob Wade, Blake Harmer, Omer Ibrahim, Brad Harmer-Barnes


About The E14 Gamecast

In 2014, we decided that all the talk of games had gone far enough...to get its own dedicated podcast! The Gamecast is a show all about games. Initially recorded as a short chat about the Titanfall beta, the crew has talked about all sorts of subjects ranging from Eurogamer Expo, the previous console generations and general comments about what they're playing at the time. We've also done some tabletop-gaming related content, and even did a Let's Play or two on the show!

Listening sans subscribing to anything

In order to enjoy our podcast without the need for any subscription program, or indeed in order to save hard disk space, there's a listening client built into our hosting service. Simply visit:
Listen to the podcast

Subscribing on iTunes

The E14 Gamecast has the immense advantage of being locatable on the iTunes Store, at the link below:
iTunes Store
Alternatively, one can always just hit the link below:
iTunes subscription directly - slightly quicker to get new episodes

Subscribing on Android/Windows Phone/iOS "Podcasts" App:

There's a great app here which is free, and allows you to subscribe just using an XML feed. Oh, you'll need this:

http://emotionallyfourteen.jellycast.com/podcast/feed/26

For Windows Phone users, open the "Podcasts" app, take the above URL and paste it into the "Subscribe to a podcast" link under "Podcasts" in "Collection".
For iOS "Podcasts" app users on your device, simply paste the URL above into your Safari browser, and it should auto-subscribe you.

YouTube

In early 2015, we successfully endeavoured to put all the existing episodes on YouTube. We've not only done that, but also kept the trend up - All E14 episodes now go Live on the same day on both YouTube and iTunes! You can find all the videos from The E14 Gamecast here:

Stitcher

We're also on Stitcher Radio, and you can enjoy the podcast on Stitcher radio here:

Enjoy, and don't forget to give us your feedback at:

podcast@emotionally14.com



Saturday 19 November 2016

E14 Toybox #9 - Rob's Awesome Haul (London Gaming Market)

Today on the E14 Toybox, Rob is behind the camera showing off his wares! Having recently attended the London Gaming Market with E14 favourite Blake and his fiancée Kat, Rob came away with a large volume of fun stuff for his money.

What better way to show it off than on Youtube for your admiring and critiquing pleasure?

Enjoy!


Saturday 12 November 2016

E14 Toybox #8 - Superior Foes of Spider-Man Booster!

Time for a new Toybox! Join host Rob as he takes a slight break from the norm and unboxes something other than Justice League Trinity War!

In this episode, Rob took a trip to his local shop and picked up a booster of Superior Foes of Spider-Man, and a Civil War Gravity Feed! Watching him open them is no bad way to spend a weekend.


Friday 11 November 2016

The Crazy Train Podcast! Episode 43 - "You Think He Can Win?!"

On this episode of The Crazy Train podcast, host Rob Wade is joined by Blake Harmer, Brad Harmer-Barnes and long-time absentee Ömer Ibrahim! He's been away adjusting to his newly acquired fatherhood, so we talk about that for a bit. Naturally, as is customary on the show, we steer in a completely different direction and end up talking about Sam Neill movies.

This show is also unique in that it was recorded the week before the US Presidential Election, and so makes reference to what *might* happen.

As is often the case on this show, listener discretion is advised, as we end on a story that could sound a bit dodgy if taken out of context. Also we curse up a storm #PrettyMuchStandard.

Get On Board The Crazy Train!

Subscribe on iTunes!
Listen now!
The show feed
The Crazy Train on Feedburner
Emotionally14 on Facebook
Emotionally14 on Twitter
Rob on Twitter
Blake on Twitter
Brad on Twitter
Ömer on Twitter


Thursday 10 November 2016

AJ Waters' Spoiler-Free Review - Battlefield 1!

Ah, Battlefield. This franchise has long been one of those that people either love to the point of daily online play and tea-bagging, or one of those that people think is a part of the Call of Duty series and then say “Well what’s the difference?” when told otherwise. Now, we all saw the trailer when this came out, didn’t we? I certainly did, and I’d be lying if I said the prospect of a World War I game didn’t excite me a little.

I mean, once a month we get a war-based first-person shooter thrown at us which looks and feels just like the last fucking one, but a WWI game? Me dunna fink so, m8!

Now I’m no historian, believe me, and the closest thing we have to one here at E14 is Brad, and he’s off with the sniffles, so you’ll just have to take my word for it when I speculate on this stuff and just take it as canon out of respect to me. We good? Excellent! Now let us begin!

Right, well I’m no stranger to the Battlefield games and I have to say that I’m somewhat of a fan. However, it has not been until now that I have said “I love the new Battlefield game”. And that’s no understatement! I absolutely adore this game!

The campaign was truly remarkable as far as both story and gameplay are concerned, and the graphics are (bar none) the best I have seen to date. There are five campaign stories where you play as five different countries: British, American, Italian, Australian, and Turkish. Each one is just as brilliant as the last and I have to say, bloody emotional. You get invested in each and every character (all of whom are three-dimensional) and each of their stories touch your heart. The maps truly are a spectacle and the amount of detail is…well, you’ll have to see it to believe me because I can’t put it into words.

Multiplayer? Pah! Fuggeddabowdit! Truly phenomenal! There’s one mode called Operations and it’s a team vs team based play mode that cane take up to an hour to complete, and it’s for 64 players! That’s right! All-out carnage! And you think that’s just a load of blokes running around on foot shooting at each other? No, mate, think again. That also includes, fighter planes, bombers, artillery, tanks, horses, landships, field cannons, and infantry! Then throw in some mounted machineguns, bayonet charges and gas attacks and you’ll get just a fraction of the mayhem that ensues! I shit you not, sir!

This truly is a remarkable (and I must say, impressive) game that keeps the heart pounding. Your eyes will dart across the screen constantly to try and keep up with what is going on. The weapons are all true to history, as are the conflicts and geography. Another thing worth mentioning, is the score (that’s the game music, not how many points I got), that really gets the blood pumping.

My only real complaints about this game is that I wish there were just a couple more campaign stories, as there are only an average of 3 missions per story (there were five in all, remember), so I felt a little…not underwhelmed, that would be a very wrong word to use, just…I dunno, like I’d had my starter and my main, but where’s my dessert, fool? Also, as this was an EA game, I was expecting some of their old tricks to pop up, yet whenever the going got tough and I tried to call in my Titan, it just wasn’t having any of it; which was a real shame.

Now, if I can be serious for a minute (I know, this is a side you don’t normally see from me), I feel this needs to be said. This game was made to be as accurate as possible, and though we can never, ever, ever have a single clue of what it was like to be in that conflict, this game truly forces you to respect it more.

When you have to charge over the walls, bayonets rushing in, bullets flying over your head, taking cover from gunfire, hearing the screams around you and you crawl through the mud with explosions penetrating your ear drums, I mean, yeah, it’s great fun, but then you remember “Shit, people actually did this” and you will feel your heart stop for a second.

When I was playing this, I’m not ashamed to say that I felt I had a constant lump in my throat and I even welled up a few times. As much of a good time this game is, it’s a real lesson in both history and humanity. The sheer bravery of those men, as well as the families who worried for them every day at home, is just beyond comprehension, and I salute EA and DICE for making this memorable tribute to those men, and not just from one side of the conflict. As it mentions in the game: “Behind every gun was a human life”. Top respect to the developers, seriously.

So yeah, if you like FPS games but also like your history, then you get a pretty nifty treat. If you’re in it strictly for the campaign (I know not all of you like PVP and that’s fair enough), then you might wanna wait for the price to drop a bit before shedding out on a few hours of gameplay. However, if you’re an online gamer (like myself), then, mate, you cannot go wrong with this (dare I say it? Fuck it, I’m gonna say it) absolute masterpiece! If this doesn’t get game of the year, Ill eat a bowl of Brussel sprouts (and I fucking hate sprouts!).

Aaron's Spoiler-Free Verdict - 9.5/10 – Lest we forget.


AJ Waters is a pulp fiction writer from Kent in England, who specialises in horror and flash fiction. With a novella in the works, AJ Waters is an up & comer in the British pulp scene.

AJ Waters on Amazon
AJ Waters on Facebook



Wednesday 9 November 2016

Where No Fan Has Gone Before...#3

All my life, I've been a Star Wars fan. I've never gotten into Star Trek. As I approached my mid-thirties, I realised that I should probably actually have a proper go of this Trek thing. So, here is my ongoing mission: to view, consume and report back on Star Trek...the whole shebang.

I mean, how long can that take, right?

The Enemy Within

On Stardate 1138, the Enterprise is on a geological exploration of the planet Alpha 177. Five episodes in, and I'm really not certain what a Federation Starship is supposed to do. To be honest with you, I'm not certain that the writers are all that certain. Between ferrying God-like teenagers, prancing around with rapiers and killing salt vampires I can only assume that the Prime Directive is "Dicking around across space, because fuck it by this point.".

Geological Technician Redshirt #13 is injured after a fall and transported aboard the Enterprise, although Scotty has some trouble with the transporter. Maybe he spilled porridge down the grill or something. Is that racist? Do they have porridge in space?

The transporter equipment appears to be fine, but he notices some magnetic dust from ore samples covering Fisher's uniform that may have interfered with the transport process, and the uniform is decontaminated.

Later, Captain Kirk transports back to the ship. The transporter apparently works correctly, but Kirk experiences some disorientation (embodied by staggering and hands-on-forehead acting), and Scott escorts him out of the transporter room. They are unaware that the transporter activates a second time, materialising a second version of Kirk which behaves more maliciously than his counterpart. This "evil" Kirk begins to wander the ship, and those he encounters are confused by his behaviour but assume he is the real captain. Presumably it's not all that uncommon to see your Captain overacting up and down the corridors.

Scott assists in beaming a dog-like animal specimen from the planet...

...And we need to spend a minute or so on the "dog-like animal". It is literally and obviously a dog with prosthetic horn on its head. It doesn't look like an alien. It doesn't look like a dog-like animal. For context, this is an alien:

...this is a dog-like animal...

...and this is what Trek gives us:

...it's...it's beyond shit. I don't care it was fifty odd years ago, it looks turd. It would have looked turd back then as well.

So, Scotty assists in beaming a dog-like animal specimen from the planet but he and the others are surprised when two identical creatures materialise - one completely docile and the other incredibly vicious. Scotty surmises that the ore dust has caused the transport to split the personalities of those they beamed up, creating a good and evil counterpair. Scott reports this to Mr Spock and then orders the transporters taken out of service to investigate, stranding the landing party on the planet as the bitterly cold night sets in.

Elsewhere on the ship, the "good" Kirk begins to feel uncertain, and is unable to make decisions that could affect the safety of the ship and crew. Meanwhile, the "evil" Kirk, in a drunken state, attempts to bang Yeoman Janice Rand in her quarters...

Ridiculous dog costume aside, this is actually a pretty good episode, and shows that when Shatner wanted to try hard, rather than just do the running gag of "being William Shatner" he was actually a pretty good actor. Aside from some pacing problems that make it drag a little around the forty minute mark, I really rather enjoyed this one. Good concept, good acting...shame about the dog.

The Enemy Within - Grade B+

Mudd's Women

On stardate 1234.5, the Enterprise is in pursuit of a J-class cargo spaceship. The ship overloads its engines in an escape attempt through an asteroid field. Kirk orders the Enterprise's shields extended around the other spacecraft to protect it until the cargo ship's occupants can be transported aboard the Enterprise. This is rather nice of him, and as no good deed goes unpunished, this action destroys all but one of the lithium crystal circuits in the Enterprise's spacebullshit engines.

The Enterprise beams the cargo ship's passengers (three probably hot for the Sixties women, but fashion and changing tastes have not been kind to them) and its captain aboard, just as an asteroid impact destroys their spaceship. A bit convenient, but that happens around Kirk and company a lot more often than you'd think.

In the transporter room, the man introduces himself as Leo Francis Walsh. Like previous cocky and annoying characters on Star Trek, he has a grating Irish accent. I assume it was an executive decision to have all supporting annoyances have the same accent.

The three women who accompany him are stunningly beautiful if you're into that sort of thing, and they distract many of the male crew members of the Enterprise, including ship's surgeon Dr. McCoy and Chief Engineer Scott. To be honest, six episodes in and I've already learnt not to expect so much as a modicum of professionalism from the crew of the Enterprise. They are easily influenced and bamboozled at every turn. The women are supposedly to be destined to be wives for settlers on the planet Ophiuchus III and are introduced as Ruth Bonaventure, Eve McHuron, and Magda Kovacs. This is the future, but the sex trade apparently still flourishes.

Kirk has Walsh taken into custody and convenes a ship's hearing. With Walsh in the spotlight of a truth verifier scan, he is forced to reveal his true name, Harcourt Fenton Mudd, a criminal wanted in several star systems, with a long rap sheet of crimes...

Reading that back, and I sound much more down on this episode than I actually ended up feeling. Maybe I need to just stop being so wound up by the contrivances that force the Enterprise into an adventure, and just start enjoying it for what it is. Once this story actually started to get underway, it was a very enjoyable, intriguing, character-driven episode, which is exactly what I like. Mudd's a...if not likable...then certainly an engaging character. One of the best episodes of the series so far.

Mudd's Women - Grade A

Want to share thoughts on these episodes? Tell me what to look forward to? Want me to cover some of the books, audiodramas, comics or anything? Hit me up on Twitter @realbradhb, and I promise to get back to you.

Brad Harmer-Barnes is a contributor to various gaming publications, as well the editor of Suppressing Fire. He can be followed on Instagram and Twitter @realbradhb


Tuesday 8 November 2016

AJ Waters' Spoiler-Free Review - Titanfall 2

Now, I’ve been looking forward to the idea of there being a second installment to this fantastic free-for-all contest of "Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots" for some time and when they announced it earlier in the year, it should come as no surprise that I was ruddy excited about the whole thing. Why, every day I would look at the calendar waiting for October 28th with the sweet sound of Simon & Garfunkel playing in the back of my mind as I gazed with welling eyes.

I found myself constantly daydreaming about the possibilities in multiplayer attrition and new Titan load-outs and – the one we were all waiting drastically for – the single player campaign. But then the day finally came! Yay! Hurray for monsters! We’re all gonna get laid! And I must say, man oh man, was it worth the wait! So, to kick things off, let’s start with the much-anticipated campaign, shall we?

To begin with, you are Rifleman Jack Cooper, a young grunt who dreams of one day becoming a pilot and getting jiggy with it in a Titan of his own. Teaching him is pilot legend Captain Tai Lastimosa, which doesn’t sound like a real name. Tai becomes fond of young Cooper and promises him days of glory to come, but oh no, what’s this? Why, it’s those pesky IMC bastards at it again! Looks like we’re going to have to interrupt this prologue with a motherfucking gunfight! Then BOOM!

You’re up to your nuts in the shit with spectres shooting at you from all directions! Pew pew! Dakka-dakka-dakka! Kaboom! Bosh! Blammo! A whole other array of onomatopoeia to get the juices flowing! And before you know it, due to getting stranded and shit, you come across the damaged, yet salvageable Titan, BT-7274, a bond is bound and you become best of buds! Alliteration: Gotta love it.

The rest, I’ll leave for you to unravel (another great EA game, by the way).

I must say; the campaign was awesome! I absolutely loved the story and got seriously invested in the friendship between man and machine and really did feel like I was a part of a team. The AI is truly remarkable when it came to this aspect. There was also somewhat of a platformer feel to the single-player game which I’m really pleased they added, because with all the things the pilots are capable of (wall-running, high jumps, etc.) it would have been a real shame to not utilise that as much as possible in the campaign. The movement was really fluid and not clunky in the slightest.

The graphics were also stupidly impressive when you consider how much is going on onscreen at any given time (there’s one point in particular where you storm a fortress with a dozen or so other Titans and my word is it exciting). All of the new guns did zero to disappoint!

Now, for you online gamers. Online is pretty much the same thing as before, only with a new layout. Now, I don’t know why, but they’ve changed a lot of how the new load-out system works, which is fine, because there is more stuff to choose from (colours, stencils, etc.), but the way you have to go about it all seems a bit clunky, especially seeing as the old way was fine. Some of that old “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” jibe. Online play is pretty much the same idea as before, but with some added extras and play modes (like Bounty Hunter for example), which is nothing to be sniffed at because It’s basically everything we loved in the first game, but with a shitload more to enjoy! Plus, the maps are great too.

Now, I know there’s usually a load of stuff I complain about with games, but there wasn’t really too much to moan about. However…If there is one thing that could’ve been improved, it’s the voice acting. My word, it had me chuckling like a good ‘un! The NPCs would be standing around chatting, and they would all be talking about the stuff in the same over-the-top British accents. It was great! “Ah, mate! I bloody ‘ate them Militia buggers, I do! Like right proper, mate, I do! Apples and pears, I’m a cockney, butcher’s hook, et cetera, et cetera…” but other than all that, there aren’t really any major complaints.

So yeah, pants voice acting and unnecessary changes to the online load-outs and whatnot aside, this is one hell of a fucking game! Majorly impressed with this one. Worth the wait, and by far worth the price tag that came attached. Hours of bloody fun to be had for certain, with a strong campaign that has some replay value.

Aaron's Spoiler-Free Review - 8.5/10 – Your Titan can have a fucking sword, mate. No-brainer.


AJ Waters is a pulp fiction writer from Kent in England, who specialises in horror and flash fiction. With a novella in the works, AJ Waters is an up & comer in the British pulp scene.

AJ Waters on Amazon
AJ Waters on Facebook



Saturday 5 November 2016

E14 Toybox #7 - October "DC Universe" ZBox! (With Bonus Booster!)

Better late than never, Rob returns to the Toybox to open the October Zbox!

The Zbox, for those who are unfamiliar, is a subscription box much like Lootcrate, available from Zavvi (Yes, they still exist in online form). Containing a mix of geeky stuff from plushies to Pop! Vinyls, comics and toys, the Zbox is often a great way to get some fun geek stuff.

This month's box is DC Universe themed - what treasures await inside? Find out!

As an added bonus, there's a Heroclix unboxing at the end as there was no episode last week!


Friday 4 November 2016

The E14 Gamecast - Episode 17!

It's a non-specific question today on the E14 Gamecast. Rob Wade is joined by Blake Harmer, Brad Harmer-Barnes and Sour Crouch to talk about what they've been enjoying in the worlds of video, tabletop and miniatures games. There are some great titles talked about!

Cast: Rob Wade, Blake Harmer, Brad Harmer-Barnes, Sour Crouch.