Category: Review

CSI Las Vegas Season 5 Part 2 (Region 2 DVD) Review

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After a very so so beginning to the 5th season the second half of 5 is where things get interesting. If you don’t know CSI and want to catch up you can read the story basics on the previous release reviews on this site. This 5.2 set totals three discs.

The stories include the usual with a number of single episodes and longer storylines. What makes this set stand out from the rest is the inclusion of the two part season ending directed by Quentin Tarantino. That story is about how CSI Nick Stokes gets abducted at a crime scene and buried alive with the other characters trying to find him. At the time this was a new idea but has been copied to death since by shows like Fox’s Bones. It does start out slow but turns into a really good episode and a show highlight. There is only a single scene that shows Tarantino’s involvement in suitably gory style. Apart from that its business as usual.

Extras on the set are numerous in number and include commentary tracks and three featurettes. These are CSI: Season Five a Post Mortem, a talking heads piece with lots of clips. Then there is CSI: Procedures on the Scene and in the Lab. The last called CSI: Tarantino Style is all on Tarantino’s two parter described earlier. All are informative to a point but could be longer.

Verdict: +

CSI Season 5 Part 1 (Region 2) DVD Review

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The beginning of the 5th season is somewhat of a hit and miss. CSI (Las Vegas) is the original CSI show with William Petersen as Gil Grissom the lead character. While a number of loner storylines progress there are two very interesting episodes. Down the Drain shows how a set of bones found in a storm drain results in the team finding a house filled with explosives. 

Then there is Mea Culpa where after evidence changes in a murder case resulting in the team becoming under investigation. 5.1 provides a lot of entertainment value and is worth a look to solid fans of the show. It can also act as a starting point for new ones. There are the usual few episodes that are not worthwhile though so a word of warning should be given. DVD extras include the standard commentary tracks minus key cast members. 

Verdict: +

CSI Miami Season 4 Part 1 (Region 2) DVD Review

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The DVD of the first half of the fourth season provides more questions than answers. CSI Miami stars David Caruso as the lead of a group of crime scene investigators. Season 4 Part 1 entertains using a large number of insulated storylines such as Urban Hellraisers about a group of university students who after playing a GTA style game decide to try scenes from the game for real. Even though anyone who has played a game will feel like shouting at the screen at some of the holes in the games design it’s a good episode.

There are also a few elements that develop into later stories and a few big ones on the three discs that are very interesting. What is a surprise is that there are no real bad episodes in this set. You should expect one or two but in this case it’s hard to find one that could really be considered a bad episode. One storyline has one of the CSI’s receive a nail in the head from nail gun and is about figuring out how it happened from the viewer’s perspective. It’s an episode shown from finish to start so you are just waiting for it to happen in a sort of perverse pleasure. DVD extras include a number of episode commentaries but none by David Caruso which is a shame. 

Verdict: +

CSI New York Season 3 Part 2 (Region 2 DVD) Review

CSI New York 3.2

 

As the newest CSI New York half season set, 3.2 provides some longer storylines to keep things fresh. While CSI is famed for closed in single episode storylines, the second half of the third season provides some interesting story arcs. You have a few nods to previous episodes such as Gary Sinise’s character, Detective Mack “Mac” Taylor, after arresting a dirty cop before. This story continues as he is investigated for being suspected to push a suspect off a rooftop in handcuffs off a roof even though he insists the man jumped. Plus there are a few other long storylines to give more depth to supporting characters.

The best episodes of the set are “Sleight Out of Hand”, about a magician performing tricks over three nights and people dying the same way as the trick. Plus the season finale where a group of men break into the lab for a heist. This gives Gary Sinise a good excuse to do a thinking man’s Bruce Willis in a Die Hard impersonation. Out of the 3 discs in the set, there is only one episode which isn’t really worth watching, which isn’t bad by anyone’s standards. In terms of the DVD set, only one extra is included. It is a visit by one of the cast members to a real training facility where members of law enforcement see faked crime scenes and dead bodies. It lasts for quite a while in running time but is really a one or two watch maximum. Overall, CSI New York 3.2 is a great set. While the extras are not great in number it is is a very entertaining set and easily worth a place in anyone’s DVD collection even if not a normal CSI fan, or trying to recover from CSI overload.

Verdict: +

 

CSI Miami Season 4 Part 2 (Region 2 DVD) Review

CSI Miami 4.2

 

The arrival of the second half (3 Discs) of season 4 of CSI Miami is very welcome indeed. For those not in the know, Crime Scene Investigation: Miami follows Lieutenant Horatio Caine (David Caruso) and his team of investigators The end of season four provides an ending to a number of story arcs that have been going on for quite a while and present a few new ones. The good thing about these half season sets is that they present questions and then answer them right away.

Season four’s second half has a few must see episodes like Horatio’s vendetta against a drug cartel and the lengths both sides go to get the other. There are a good number of interesting stand alone episodes too, and a story to complete the season where the FBI come in and take over the lab after money goes missing.  DVD extras are non-existent and that’s a real shame. You would hope for at least something on a modern season boxset but not this time. Overall 4.2 is a must own for the episodes, but its makers should be ashamed for the lack of extras. 

Verdict: +

Crysis – Review

Crysis

Click to see our Crysis DVD

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If you haven’t heard of it from all the hype from the last few months, Crysis is a first person shooter published by EA. In Crysis you play a solider in a futuristic (Nano) suit who is sent to a remote island on a mission to find more than he expected.

The storyline in Crysis for the most part cannot be said as it would ruin the game, but it does go into a lot of detail and fleshes out the events surrounding you. Crysis is easy to control in terms of gameplay controls with the mouse and keyboard presenting no issues. For those of you who have seen all of the trailers over the months and played the demo you will find the game is exactly as advertised; a large number of gameplay areas all vast in size and varied in type. While FPS games do well just for being an FPS the biggest draw is the idea of replaying the game using the various different possible ways that the levels can be completed such as doing it once while invisible without killing then going through just like Van-Damme would punching everyone and then finally like Sly would with full-on guns in the jungle just like in Rambo.

While people might have been reporting issues with graphics settings in the demo versions, the full game is extremely easy to use and can scale to any system to give a perfect frame rate. No matter your system’s capabilities, one option that is a must in the graphics settings is Physics quality. The higher quality physics settings control effects such as buildings being able to come crashing down. Lets be fair that’s half of the appeal for the game so having it on high is a must!

There are some issues though that are hard to ignore. After spending up to the last 6 months hearing nothing about how much we are going to love this game, getting a single player campaign that only takes 10 hours to complete on a PC only title is a pretty disappointing. You end up wishing for the game to have been longer since you have been hearing about it for so long, it’s kind of anticlimactic. Some enemies get stuck in walls if you shoot them in close proximity to them which is a serious game play issue. There is also an escort mission, which is rather dull.

With a solid multilayer map set and an ending that leaves it open to a sequel, we can only hope that Crysis 2 fixes the issues with this game. While Crysis is fantastic to play, the excitement of blowing trees drys up pretty quickly and it only actually effects enemy characters directly in the rarest of cases.

Crysis also features a level editor called The Sandbox2. It doesn’t add that much value to the game as it’s way too technical for a novice to use. The program is hidden away in a directory on the install CD with only a single acknowledgment in the readme file and no directions on how to find it on the CD’s autorun let alone use it. The editor also isn’t mentioned at all in the instruction manual in the box.

Verdict: +

Ted Stokes

Proof of full version review before retail release.

We have had some comments on digg that some users doubt that this is a review of the full version. As is usual it is a review of a press unit and above are screenshots taken by myself to prove it is from the full version using the popular fraps screenshot program. Since promo shots are a single one or two from a level it was decided to give a number of non-action shots as to try and not ruin the game or at least the level. At the top of the review are the new exclusive screenshots. Look for the Stuffwelike name on the save screen in screenshot 3.

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