raycevick

Raycevick's Recommendations: Die Hard with a Vengeance

This film has less than 60% on Rotten Tomatoes, and as a result, one of the biggest reasons following critical appraisal is stupid.

Where Die Hard 2: Die Harder (Jeeesus Christ) was a likable but safe sequel, Vengeance feels like a proper follow-up. Abolishing the Christmas disasters, impersonal terrorist's, and rekindling with Holly, for a brilliantly paced action-movie that's part thriller, part heist film, and supremely written from start to finish.

While the directing is easil...

Hotwheels Unleashed

For those unware, there's a new Hotwheels game coming out, were this the early 2000s, that wouldn't sound like news at all. The franchise has seen 30+ games released over its multi-decade lifespan. However, due to the place for mass-market toy tie-ins being the Mobile Phone, there actually hasn't been a notable Hotwheels release since Forza Horizon 3's brilliant expansion.

That recently changed...

Q&A: April 7th, 2021

The Great Leveler Asks
What's the most beautiful game you've seen and what about it do you like so much?

I absolutely loved the world of Cyberpunk 2077. The art-team were unreal. The character designs (including many of the minor NPC's), the city, the badlands, even the music really added to just taking that place in. Mass Effect 2's also right up there. I'm glad with the Legendary Edition, more people will get to experience that game with the heightened tex...

Raycevick's Recommendations: Doorkickers: Action Squad

It's been a long time since titles such as Hotline Miami popularized the pixilated, 80's synthwave shooters to the indie scene. It's long enough to assume the formula's become utterly bland, and to some, I'm sure it is.

It's a shame then that many are likely to ignore what is a supremely made side-scroller in Doorkickers: Action Squad. A throwback suitable for the SNES; totally opposite in tone from the original game, this spin-off is as believable as a Stallone flick of the generation,...

Twitter

Facebook, that's the social media platform I first signed up for.

I was hardly an early adopter, it took many, many years until finally the right set of circumstances made me set something up, and then barely use it. That's when then, after I began using Facebook even less, myself, and a good friend, Nick, decided to make Twitter accounts and see if we could get any attention.

It wasn't a serious venture, more just an excuse for use to write little tidbits, and I put my Nick outpu...

Q&A: March 31st, 2021

The Great Leveler Asks
What's a game mechanic/idea that you feel hasn't been fully explored yet? How would you like to see it utilized?

It's interesting someone mentioned Battlefield 2: Modern Combat's Hotswapping feature, because while I would want to experiment with that mechanic in future games, there's another mechanic that game has which has actually stuck with me more.

In BF2: MC, each kill fills up one meter out of many, and each meter filled ea...

Raycevick's Recommendations: Starship Troopers

It's rare that a film earns belly laughs from me over satire, but Starship Troopers did throughout its runtime, right from the opening minutes. What's refreshing about this futuristic parody of Triumph of the Will however, is that the satire isn't all that stands up.

The CGI is shockingly good for 1997 with immensely brutal and bloody battle scenes, immense attention to detail, and engaging characters who brilliantly expose humanity's corruption in this world. That "The War on Terror" o...

Burnout (Not the Game)

You'd think the burnout of making videos would come immediately after finishing a project. That spending days waking up to Adobe Premiere, and going to bed after shutting down Adobe Premiere, would be the motivation behind letting your script document completely empty.

Yet, I find that's often not the case.

In-fact, that period is when you're most excited!

You're getting sweet comments, friends that see it talk to you about it, peers comment and you reply with onlookers seei...

Q&A: March 24th, 2021

bluespart Asks
Have you ever had a developer or someone related to a game's development contact you after a video has gone up to give you more information or rectify some details?

Yup! It's not happened a lot, but a couple of times with the Years Later videos, and its always awesome when it does. I've long since believed that developers are their own worst critics, and as long as you're not being insulting, or just flat out inaccurate, there's nothing y...

Status Report (March 23rd, 2021)

Hey everybody,

I wanted to get content out quickly after the Carbon Years Later video, but that's likely fallen through as I've jumped between multiple projects this month.

Originally, I was working on "Why Did Everyone Hate Just Cause 4? (+JC3 Review)." However, as I got into it and started to really enjoy JC4, as well as getting into a game I similarly disliked at launch, Forza Horizon 4, what was originally going to be a 8-12 minute essay has blossomed into a 30-40 ove...

Raycevick Recommendations: Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko is one of those movies I was familiar with aspects of, mainly it's soundtrack, back in the day, BBC shows relied heavily on the OST's of Chaos Theory, The Virgin Suicides, and Donnie Darko, the previous two, I've recommended the soundtracks of.

I'd recommend the soundtrack for Donnie Darko as well, but the movie also stands tall. Despite my familiarity with aspects, its very much not what I expected at all in a great way. Mainly how likable and charismatic its cast is. ...

Losing

Sometimes, I surprise myself in what I play. Most recently, that game has been Apex Legends. I'm not opposed to Battle Royale, but there's never been one that's truly hooked me since the idea became mainstream with PUBG's debut. Even then, there was an awful load to deal with in that game, technically and "artistically."

What I find interesting however about the Battle Royale genre and in-turn Apex Legends, is how much they combat the idea that players need to win in-order to be enjoyin...

Q&A: March 17th, 2021

Sparkie1j Asks
Where are your fingers?

On my keyboard.

Jake Malone Asks
Opinion on present day Rockstar Games?

Difficult to answer as I've yet to play Red Dead Redemption 2, and that's really the only big game present day Rockstar has released. Though, I guess that's telling of how the company's changed, compared to when they used to release multiple games every year.

Rockstar are a company you can never critici...

Raycevick's Recommendations: Cowboy Bebop

I know, I know. Recommending Cowboy Bebop is about as cliché as recommending Nine Inch Nails for Music or Fight Club for film... I've done both of those, but another reason I'm doing this is having rewatched Bebop and come around to it. This was the first Anime I saw, and came away from the experience rather underwhelmed.

Ghost in the Shell ended up being the first Anime I really loved, but having seen various other shows and films, coming back to Bebop, it really is a masterstroke in ...

Booty

At the time of writing, I've woken up to multiple articles about Mass Effect Legendary Editon's choice to remove or alter certain camera angles in its games, most overtly, MIranda's most overt shot of her rear in Mass Effect 2. 

This of course sparked """"""debate"""""".

It's a little awkward for me personally, because I question many people's needs to be constantly mad about "Gamers" being mad, yet I find the people who "just care about censorship" to more often than not be ...

Q&A: March 10th, 2021

The Great Leveler Asks
If you could re-experience a game for the first time what would it be and why?

Spec Ops is normally what comes to my mind, though it is one of those games that just gets more and more detailed the deeper you look into its story. 

DaCody Asks
What is your favorite movie soundtrack?

I won't call these answers definitive, and I can't pick one, but Tron Legacy, Senna, Annihilation, Virgin Suici...

Raycevick's Recommendations: When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? by Billie Eilish

It occurred to me when the Keanu advertisements for Cyberpunk 2077 were playing, that I never actually heard anything from Billie Eilish. No idea what her music entailed other than the beat of Bad Guy vaguely in the background of commercials. 

That's hardly the fairest manner in which to judge an artist.

Sitting down and listening to this album, I didn't expect to hear it back to front, nor enjoy it as much as I did. Normally with such a big name, you expect distractingly ove...

The Little Things

Just today (at time of writing) I said that I love the 2005 Monolith game, FEAR. It's memorable, action-packed, densely atmospheric, it's great, it's one of gaming's classics. Yet, my hours on Steam amount to 8.6. Compared to the amount of I've played various DOOM, Half Life, and Halo games, that doesn't make sense.

Why don't I play this game more often? Am I lying to myself about how good I think it is? Am I just blending in with the internet's conscientious? No, but I am being dishone...

Scripts! (Update)

Hey everybody,

I'm posting this little update for two reasons, both of which will explain themselves. Firstly, this Patreon has definitely proved useful for stirring the creative juices, because I'm currently sitting on not one, two, or three scripts started, but ten. I'm not going to host a poll for which one goes first, as some will be easier projects than others in-terms of time, but for transparency, here's the list.

(All Working Titles)
The Year of Gan...