“Batman: Arkham Origins features an expanded Gotham City and introduces an original prequel storyline occurring several years before the events of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City. Taking place before the rise of Gotham City’s most dangerous villains and assassins, the game showcases a young, raw, unrefined Batman as he faces a defining moment in his early career as a crime fighter that sets his path to becoming the Dark Knight. As the story unfolds, witness identities being formed and key relationships being forged.“

It feels really strange typing these words. After a certain amount of time and repeated exposure to someone’s creative output, that creative output stops being like a window into the world that person has created and actually starts becoming part of the the world around you. You forget that those pieces of creativity, those fragments of genius, pieces of fantasy and reality were created by another human being, and that other human being is just as mortal as you are. This is what Slayer’s music is like to me. I’ve listened to them so much since I was 15 that their music is now like an old friend.
I don’t listen to them as regularly as I once did, but whenever I do, it feels nice and familiar, and never fails to cheer me up. I’ve listened to them through the very dark times, and the very good times. Through drunken nights on too much Jagermeister and Southern Comfort and long sessions at the gym, through stressing out about the Leaving cert, and recently, sleeplessly attempting to finish college assignments hours before they are due, through both first dates and getting dumped, Slayer have just sort of always been there.

So when I heard about Jeff Hanneman’s death, I was somewhat numb. ‘Nah, that can’t be true!’ I muttered, turning on my computer in the hopes that google would provide me with a headline discounting the rumour. Sadly, all google could give me was the same news from multiple sources. I immediately put on ‘Seasons In The Abyss’ (Jeff’s best solo) and cried. Jeff can’t be dead. No way, he was on the mend. But it was the truth, Jeff was gone and that was that. I just sort of sat there for three hours, piecing together whatever news I could about his passing while listening to the classic Slayer albums. There’s something really haunting about listening to someone’s music after they’ve just passed, it’s like seeing a ghost or something. They’re still there, but at the same time, they’re not. The music hasn’t changed, and it doesn’t make you feel any differently than it used to, but at the same time, something about it is different.

Beginning in 1981, Jeff was part of the original line-up of Slayer. Completed by vocalist/bassist Tom Araya, guitarist Kerry King and drummer Dave Lombardo, they started out as a Judas Priest cover band before moving onto heavier pastures. 1983 saw the release of their debut album ‘Show No Mercy’, and near instant success. Slayer were part of the now legendary ‘Big 4′ of thrash with Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax. Slayer were always the more evil, heavier of the four, with lyrics pertaining to such cheerful topics as serial killers, World War II and regular references to Satan and hell. Following on from ‘Show No Mercy’ came ‘Hell Awaits’, the seminal album ‘Reign In Blood’, ‘South of Heaven’ and ‘Seasons in the Abyss’.,Slayer were a tour de force worldwide, filling arenas and selling tens of thousands of records. In 1992 grunge exploded, and when it came time for metal bands to sick or swim. Slayer just pushed on through, releasing ‘Divine Intervention’ in 1994, punk covers album ‘Undisputed Attitude’ in 1996 and ‘Diablous In Musica’ in 1998. Even though these aren’t the highest rated metal albums ever, it’s undeniable that Slayer were at least still writing metal albums, when most of their generation had either had to quit touring or moved onto non-metal pastures altogether (looking at you, Metallica and Megadeth), Slayer stuck to their guns and made it happen.

2001 saw a resurgence in Slayer’s popularity with ‘God Hates Us All’, this writer’s favourite album. Combined with their drinking/touring buddies Pantera, Slayer were back dominating arenas once again, and were stronger than ever, even spawning their own bi-yearly package tour, the ‘Unholy Alliance’. Slayer then released ‘Christ Illusion’ in 2006, and their latest opus ‘World Painted Blood’, in 2009. Today, most of Slayer’s live-set is composed of live favourites, as they’ve never really had a hit single. Most of these live favourites, are Jeff’s songs. In fact, if you were to look into ‘classic’ Slayer songs, you would find most of the list is written by Jeff. ‘Die By The Sword’, ‘At Dawn They Sleep’, ‘Raining Blood’, ‘Angel of Death’, ’213′, the metal behemoth that is ‘Disciple’, all Jeff’s music, and most of his lyrics too. Even on the last two albums, my favourite songs have been Jeff’s, ‘Jihad’, ‘Eyes of the Insane’, ‘Human Strain’ and the utterly creepy ‘Playing With Dolls’. Known as a bit of a recluse, Jeff often took a back-seat while other guitarist Kerry King, was the bands media representative. Jeff just made sure Slayer had the songs to back up their reputation.
Regardless of your opinion on Slayer’s career, whether you think they lost it after 1990 or feel that only the last three have been lacking, no matter what your favourite/least album of theirs is (for the record ‘God Hates Us All’/'Diabolus In Musica’, respectively),you can’t deny Jeff Hanneman gave Slayer most of what made their music theirs. Combining the speed of punk music with the intensity of heavy metal, he had a distinctive sense of song-writing, often writing songs with odd structures and almost having what would have been a progressive sort of edge to them at times. His riffs were catchy and had the right level of speed and heaviness to them, and his leads were certainly the better of him and Kerry’s, but always complimented the chaos of Slayer’s music and the darkness of what their lyrics were trying to convey.

In losing Jeff Hanneman, the metal community has lost a distinctive musician who always did things his way, Slayer has lost their greatest song-writer, and I have lost the chance to formally thank someone whose music always made me feel less alone, and whose music has always provided me with a smile, when it seemed nothing else would.

Thanks for everything Jeff. Riff in Peace.

Where? What? When? Why?
The Village, Wexford Street, Dublin
Doors Open 8pm
Admission: €5

Pubcast and ArcadeCon (that’s us) are proud to bring you one night of geekiness galore! With all kinds of mayhem and bedlam (and everything in between) in store, it’s time to put on those thinking hats, grab yourself some cosplay/fancy dress and put your skills to the test!

Push yourself and your mates to the XTREME with our table quiz of DOOM! You and 3 friends will battle it out to answer questions…duel over conundrums and something else that involves using your brain parts to be smarter than everyone else!

Grab your best cosplay frock/suit/both and strut your stuff!

 There will be prizes, a raffle and fabulous (can’t guarantee sober) hosts!

OUT: June 4th, 2013
LABEL: Tradecraft/Universal
WHERE: All good record outlets, iTunes, the general interwebs.

Now that we’ve had a good solid dose of ‘Deth nostalgia, it’s time to get a cold hard shot of the near-future, as we take a glimpse into the murky depths of Megadeth’s 14th studio release.

At the time of writing, the press junket for the album is in full swing, with Dave Mustaine and the returning Th1rt3en lineup of Ellefson, Broderick and Drover dropping knowledge about the record on every publication and website worth their corn, but the big news so far has been the release of the single, the Super Collider of the title, which has merited a divisive response to say the least. One camp have denounced it as the worst kind of Risk-alike drivel, some even calling for the band to retire completely on the basis it, while the other side have embraced it as a return to the style that proved so uber-popular for the band at their 90s peak.

Whichever side you pick, it’s fair to say the song is not what anyone was expecting in the buildup. Early controversy was built around comments made by born-again Christian Mustaine – and taken out of context by some outlets – about the actual Large Hadron Collider project which inspired the song that suggested it would take an anti-science stance in terms of lyrics, while further comments suggested the track would be a “straight metal” cut.

The end result, a catchy if predictable feelgood hard rock song that references rather than discusses the super collider, continues Megadeth’s habit of confounding listeners’ expectations, and the increased influence of producer Johnny K., returning for this record after Th1rt3en, is apparent. A video is being filmed and is due for release sometime in the near-future.

It’ll come as a relief to the single’s detractors that during some more recent interviews Mustaine has mentioned that this song was the exception rather than the rule in terms of the style of the rest of the album. Though in speaking to Ultimate Guitar.com, Mustaine made reference to some tracks people will take “exception” to, the general consensus from band members is that the album overall will be a logical continuation of the mix of mid-tempo metal and short sharp thrash tracks featured on the previous album, with a hint of the more standard ‘Deth numbers featured on Endgame.

The comments were rather varied, but the evidence early on supports what they say; David Ellefson has been quoted as saying the album will be “pretty thrashy” and drummer Shawn Drover has a co-writing credit on a song about arson called Built For War which, considering he co-wrote Endgame’s thrashiest track, the mighty Headcrusher, bodes well for fans of Megadeth’s speed metal output, while a snippet of the album’s opening song Kingmaker has been likened to Judas Priest classic Painkiler on Megadeth’s fan forums. It seems that Kingmaker is the next official release from the album, with a competition currently running on Megadeth.com giving fans the chance to be the one to premiere the song on their personal Twitter feed.

Biggest of the suggestions that the single’s style is in the minority was the release of a 40-second snippet of the much heavier-sounding track Don’t Turn Your Back, which came out when the album cover was revealed. Compared by some to the work of Canadian thrashers Annihilator, the snippet features a double-kick driven opening before a a verse section that features the sort of rhyme-based, James Hetfield-style lyrical structure the band adopted on Th1rt3en over a guitar line full of mini riffs. Mustaine’s vocals seem somewhat more suited to this than to the single, also, having shown a deeper, gruffer voice of late.

The other major talking point was the inclusion of Disturbed frontman David Draiman as a guest singer on two tracks, Dance In The Rain and Forget To Remember. While this came as something of a surprise, given some of the names bandied about in the early running, Draiman’s connections to Johnny K. and Mustaine – having toured with the latter and been produced by the former – and his stepping in ahead of another choice that didn’t pan out saw him make the grade. Exact details are still sketchy, but it’s been revealed that he will be playing the “voice in the loudspeaker” on Dance In The Rain, for which he also contributed vocal melodies, and that his part on Forget To Remember was “ad lib.” No word yet whether or not we’ll be hearing any of Draiman’s trademark rat-at-at vocals yet, a bone of contention with non-fans of Disturbed and fans of Megadeth alike.

A still-unconfirmed but at this stage unlikely rumour was the inclusion of country troubadour Willie Nelson as a guest player on the Western-inflected song The Blackest Crow (during the recording process, Mustaine cited Clint Eastwood as a lyrical inspiration), something which seems to have fallen by the wayside as a result of packed schedules for both parties.

The full tracklist of 13 has been released (see the track-by-track run-through at the end of this piece), including two Japanese bonus tracks, All I Want and A House Divided, with a live version of Countdown To Extinction rounding out the album.

SUPER COLLIDER – Track By Track

1. Kingmaker

Musically likened to Judas Priest based on song clips, Dave Mustaine has revealed that the lyrics concern themselves with the actions of pharmacies and prescription painkiller addiction. The title is apparently a reference to how being high makes one feel.

2. Super Collider

The single sounds more like Def Leppard than Priest, with some simplistic guitar work and a focus on radio friendliness. Lyrically it seems to be about a guiding force or loved one remaining loyal to a person/people until the world explodes “Like a Super Collider.” (It’s better than that description, honestly.)

3. Burn!

Concerning a man burning evidence of a dark past. No real details on the musical style at the time of writing, but the title (and the exclamation mark) suggest something aggressive in the vein of This Day We Fight! from Endgame.

4. Built For War

Apparently a song about arson, both Shawn Drover and Dave Mustaine revealed that the song had various other titles during recording. Likely to be a thrashier track based on Drover’s previous songwriting contributions, though it’s odd that this isn’t the song entitled Burn, considering the subject matter.

5. Off The Edge

Nothing really revealed about this one either in terms of subject or style, making this one of the few mysteries as regards the tracklist.

6. Dance In The Rain

The first of the two tracks to feature David Draiman, Mustaine has said this one is about “society going to the dogs” and likened it to 1984, while other band members have made mention of it ending with a Killing Is My Business… style speed metal section.

7. The Beginning Of Sorrow

Again nothing particularly revealing said about this one. The title suggests a ballad.

8. The Blackest Crow

Eastwood-inspired, country-influenced song, possibly about Alzheimer’s disease or perhaps the spectre of death surrounding a loved one suffering a similar ailment.

9. Forget To Remember

Most of the pre-announcement buzz had this as being the only song about Alzheimer’s, but Mustaine has recently mentioned it being about trying to forget events best not remembered. Musically he’s described it as “A Tout Le Monde flipped upside down.”

10. Don’t Turn Your Back…

Heavy, but with hints at a melodic chorus based on the released snippet, Don’t Turn Your Back appears to be about revenge on a friend betrayed by someone close to them. It’s not clear whether this a person or a metaphor for something like drugs. The triple-stop at the end of the title suggests it’s paired with Cold Sweat a la Holy Wars…The Punishment Due.

11. Cold Sweat

Thin Lizzy association aside, it looks like this is going to carry on the theme of Don’t Turn Your Back. No details on lyrics or style as of yet.

BONUS TRACKS

12. All I Want

Nothing released on this as of yet.

13. A House Divided

Nothing too solid about this. There’s the minor possibility that it concerns the Houses Of Congress and/or The US Senate.

The rebooting of the Star Trek franchise brought excitement into the hearts of many old school fans and accumulated plenty of new ones along the way but that’s not to say that the reboot has been everyones cup of tea. I know people who both love it and hate it and can understand where they are coming from.

Before I jump into this review I have to say I want this review to be as spoiler free as possible, but one of my main points can’t actually be made without a huge reveal. I will give fair warning for readers to skip ahead!

I am, and always shall be a Trekkie. I grew up with Star Trek, watching Original Series reruns and getting so excited for new episodes of The Next Generation. I wasn’t just about the old trek, either. I saw JJ Abram’s Star Trek 4 times the weekend it came out, and I still consider it one of my all time favorite movies. So, needless to say, I was excited about the new Star Trek movie, and had faith that JJ could deliver more gold from the new/old Enterprise crew.

To Boldly Go Where We’ve Been Before

One of the things that impressed me most about the first Star Trek movie is the fact that the writers were willing to write their own story. They didn’t tie themselves down to what happened in the later Trek Universe. It was new, but it was Star Trek. There were references and character traits, but ultimately it made itself its own. That same willingness to embrace new ideas is lacking in this movie. It all seemed too derived from the old TV Show and movies. What should have been references to the old Star Trek ended up being rip-offs of things, or scenes, from previous movies and episodes. However, had I not seen the older iterations of Star Trek I wouldn’t have given them a second thought.

Always going forward ‘cos we can’t find a twist

JJ Abrams is well known to enjoy plot twists, or at the very least keeping the audience guessing to the end. In Lost he almost had an M. Knight Shyamalan quality in his plot twists, revealing new ones almost every episode and keeping the audience guessing. Unfortunately, nothing like that exists in this movie. It was all a bit too obvious what was going to happen. The first Star Trek wasn’t well known for its Abram’s plot twists, but at least the story kept you guessing at least what was going to happen next, but this one lacked even that. There was a moment in the movie that was supposed to be a real tear-jerker moment, but I found myself sighing in my seat as they had already revealed something that would cancel out everything that had happened.

Those who do not wish to read spoilers should skip the next paragraph.

Offered Order Never Restored

My biggest criticism of this film is with one particular piece of casting which cannot be overlooked. Don’t get me wrong, the acting was excellent, the same standard as the first movie. Benedict Cumberbatch delivered a great performance, and there is no questioning his acting ability. But, he is not Khan Noonian Sing. While he excels in the role of an Evil Genius-like character, reminiscent of Ricardo Montalban, who portrayed Khan in the Original Series and the Wrath of Khan, but with none of the physical intimidation. The blame for this rests solely with the writers and casting.

It’s Trek, Jim, Just as we Knew It

This movie has all the feel of the Star Trek franchise, from the very first scene. This is a Star Trek movie through and through. Without giving too much away, there are a number of times where I sat back in my chair and smiled, getting that same feeling as if I was watching a new episode on the TV. The starship designs, though you don’t see as many as in the first, fall right into place of the 23rd century, and even the Klingons managed to make an appearance! There are some great fight scenes, be they in space or with hand-held phasers, some laughs from Scotty and Dr. McCoy, and even some tear jerking moments that had the cinema on the brink of flooding.

Space, The Final Frontier?

I enjoyed this movie. Yes, there were a few annoyances that got in the way, and it’s not the same great movie we saw three years ago, but at the end credits I found myself thinking; will they make another? This movie is definitely worth seeing, but it probably won’t be one you’ll be seeing more than once!

Dublin GameCraft is one of the biggest gaming events in Ireland, a game jam that sees people from all over the country together to pool their talents to work on a single project or to share advice and experience to those working solo! Game Jams began in 2002 with the Indie Game Jam over in the US, this weekend long event would go on to inspire other similar events all over the world and Dublin GameCraft has sprung up here and quickly gathered momentum.

The premise of the event is a 12 hour marathon where teams or individuals push their creative and technical skills to the limit and try to build a game (centred around a randomly chosen theme) after the games are completed they go under the microscope for judges known for the talents and experience in the field of gaming and this year The Arcade / ArcadeCon are proud to be sponsoring the event with some prizes including VIP passes up for grabs!

The whole thing has already kicked off this morning and it has sold out BUT (and that’s a big BUT) there might still be a chance you could get in with ticket cancellations and the like!

We wish all taking part the best of luck!

Check it out below and let us know what you think:

Since then, the launch of DLC’s vastly improved the experience with the first being “Die Rise” which took place in a number of toppled Skyscrapers in China. This was a massive change of pace as, while it brought back the similar style of the maps seen in World at War and the original Black Ops, it also added really tight chaotic gameplay with elements of strategy as you had to plan your jumps from building to building and  choose what elevators you took.  One wrong move and you’d fall hundreds of feet to your inevitable death or being trapped in a room with a horde of blood thirsty zombies which would lead to a faith worse than death.

While “Die Rise” returned Zombies to its glory it didn’t validate the purchase of the full game, not to mention the €15 DLC! There were many fears of what the next DLC would add, and would it be as good? Well, after hours of stabbing, shooting, teleporting, electrocuting, dissolving and swearing at my T.V all the while being horrifically mauled by the turned inmates of Alcatraz Island, I can safely say “Mob of the Dead” goes above and beyond what you would expect in a zombies map!

Let’s take a step back and actually look at what “Mob of the Dead” is. Included in the latest (2nd) DLC release “Uprising”, “Mob of the Dead” pitches you as one of four 1920’s gangsters incarcerated in Alcatraz Island Played by Chazz Palminteri, Joe Palminteri, MIcheal Madsen and Ray Loitta whose voice acting, one liners and general reactions are EPIC!

The premise is simple:

• Island is over-run with zombies

• Find plane parts scattered across the Island

• Build plane

• Freedom?

The problem is, the prison is more or less a maze (with added zombies), you need keys and codes for the parts of the “escape plan” and well, it’s not much of a walk in the park to get them. Did I forgot to mention that there’s an eight foot tall warden who gets so angry to see you out of your cells that he bursts into flames and relentlessly chases you until either you our him have been dealt with. It’s easy to say that it’s absolutely chaotic for the most part!

Added is the new “afterlife” mode which, upon death, releases your spirit which allows you to teleport zombies and to solve certain puzzles to get key parts for the plane. This adds a totally new gameplay experience as your friends try to hold off a horde of zombies while you (in afterlife) try to open the gate behind them or to get certain keys. Needless to say things get pretty emotional when you are playing with friends and they have one magazine left and you have one switch left to pull, when it works out it’s the best feeling as you all escape with the skin of your teeth! When it doesn’t, you all go down, crying, screaming and cursing the game only to start all over again!

For me, this is exactly what Zombies should be, clever and chaotic fun! It works a charm either solo or with friends. If you bought Black Ops 2 and are holding out on what DLC you should get or waiting to pick it up, now is the time! As we head into the summer holidays this is the perfect thing to pass those rainy, dreary days.

If you are still not impressed I have two words for you “Tommy Guns”, that is all.

Good Points

Finally brings Zombies back to its prime.

Clever and challenging gameplay

Allows you to enjoy Black Ops 2 again

Tommy Guns

Bad Points

The Warden

Running out of time in “Afterlife” and watching your friends die grizzly deaths (this point really depends on your level of sadism though! [Editor])

Getting lost

Rating:  8.5/10

 [Words, Alan Horgan]

Excited yet? Well click here to see some gorgeous gameplay from the next adventure in Pokémon training!