Tuesday 23 April 2013

FUCK YOU ASK.FM

This isn't a review. This isn't some chatty post about my favourite song.It's about something that is bothering me. It's going to be, as usual, opinionated, detailed and you're probably going to disagree with some of the things said.
That's okay. 
Let's begin.

Ask.fm is no secret to our youth nowadays. Like Facebook, Twitter, Formspring, it blew up like any other old social networking website. But it was more interesting. With the feature with the promise of complete anonymity and confidential messages, you can say anything you want on someone else's page with the reassurance of not being discovered.
You'd think it would encourage cringey relationship proposals, confessions of love, but that's too innocent for our youth. Being seventeen myself and in the correct boundary of this 'youth' I speak of, I can relate to the excitement it would bring.
Unlike Facebook, unlike Formspring, your identity is a complete secret and unfortunately, not even traceable by the authorities.

Cyberbulling has been around for a while now. Ever since the social networking sites began, it's been a primary arena for hate, trolls and bullying.
It's been the source of every rumour, the messenger that spreads the word and regretfully, the cause of many teenagers problems today. 
Sadly, this particular website is famous for not a good reason. It's famous for being the cause of approximately 6 teenaged suicides from as young as 14 years old. That's not a reason for the creators of this website to be happy, to be proud, to be satisfied with the global phenomena it has.
And yet, kids as young as 11 continue to make accounts on this website.

Ask.fm is filled with questions to do with virginity, crushes, snog marry avoids but the prominent post on nearly ever single account I've looked at is hurtful comments encouraging suicide, self harm and self abuse.
It's disgusting how innovative people are nowadays with insults - with curse words too revolting to repeat, statements too degrading to write on here and just generally horrific things that people are victim to.
When someone insults you in the street, a random stranger, you'd stick up for yourself, right? Confront them? Demand to know what their problem was? I mean, how can someone insult and judge you when they don't even know you?
When a friend admits to you they think you're a 'slag' or an 'idiot,' you're more hurt, aren't you? Because this person knows you and therefore must have justification for insulting you.
So how come, when an anonymous troll tells you to commit suicide, it's taken seriously?

It's beyond me why this website still exists. Why teenagers, young adults, CHILDREN subject themselves to this bullying. It's simple. Get rid of the website.
Bullying would continue, sure. I'm not doubting that. CyberBullying has only recently been taken seriously into account of authorities. Comments and status' on Facebook will continue to be filled with low lives who have nothing better to do and find pleasure in hurting others through a fucking computer screen.
Celebrity Twitter spats will press on with rival fanbases at eachothers throats (thank you Louis Tomlinson and Tom Parker for that amusing and yet pointless argument the other day where Directioners are actually threatening the lives of Wanted fans - good message you guys portray)

Truth is, the balance has tipped. The endless amount of support bullying victims get from celebrities, songs, movies, charities is pointless against the increasing amounts of children taking their own lives.
Escape the Fate is right, 'violence is a vicious cycle' and unfortunately, it's forced upon others just like it's forced upon the bullies.
But back to my main point. FUCK YOU ASK.FM you're a goddamn waste of an URL and internet space.


Friday 5 April 2013

Bad Boys You Love To Hate

I don't know about you but I always tend to be drawn to the baddies in television shows and movies. If they've got a traumatic background, motive and a hilarious streak, they're most likely to be my favourite character. In television shows and movies, here are a few of the bad boys that I'm sure everyone cannot stand but cannot help to love.

Klaus - Vampire Diaries
To be fair when he made his appearance in Alaric's body, I found him annoying. Until he was given a face, an English accent and gorgeous eyes and then he became the bad guy who does something wrong and I'm sat on the sofa going, 'awww he so sweet.'
He's a fan favourite and almost everyone I talk to loves Klaus. He's not as good looking as Damon or pretty boy like Tyler but he's got a whole lotta charisma and such a lovable personality. He's a lonely boy at heart desperate to keep his family with him 24/7 under any circumstances necessary.

Lestat - Interview With A Vampire
One of Tom Cruise's best performances EVER in the history of his film career. He plays the morbidly hilarious and mysterious Lestat whom next to sensitive Louis really makes you dribble at the mouth. He becomes psychotic and murderous towards our favourite vampire but his storyline is flawless and his personality is so attractive.

Bane - Dark Knight Rises
It wasn't just Tom Hardy that made me love this villain, it was the single tear on his face during Tate's revelation that made my heart break. His hot body, smoldering eyes and those one-liners to die for just make this movie that much bearable to watch (not that it isn't a good movie in itself)


Joker - Dark Knight
Joining Bane with our Batman villain fetish, again the incredible Heath Ledger who plays this lovable character just enhances this characters performance as one of the craziest, psychotic and murderous villains in a superhero movie. Again, his story about his scars make him realistic and give him a little motive behind his insane nature.

David - Lost Boys
Keeping up with the seemingly obvious pattern of vampires, here's my favourite vampire from my favourite vampire movie of all time.
David is lovable on the pure reason of his sexiness. He's a proper vampire, he isn't doing anything wrong, he's feeding from humans because that's in his nature, he was kind to Michael and took him in before he was betrayed. He plays the perfect part of a scorned leader wreaking vengeance on his treacherous legion.

Thursday 4 April 2013

Hey, guess what?! I write!

I rarely ever in fact I haven't posted anything on here that wasn't a review, walkthrough or opinion of some sort. But...

I wanted to let you know that I'm writing an original fiction on the story sharing website Mibba.com.

If you're interested my username is ElloHarley and the story is called Game.

Here is a link: http://www.mibba.com/Stories/Read/515436/Game/

You don't have to but it would be awesome to get some of you involved in this.

Wednesday 3 April 2013

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2013)

Post will contain, as always, spoilers along with tips, opinions and walkthrough methods.

As an avid player of the Tomb Raider series all the way back to 1996. 'Course, I was only one then so I didn't play it, instead I watched my dad play it until I was old enough to hold the controller. Being young, stupid but incredibly adorable, I triggered the first tiger sequence, paused it and then turned the game off. I then only vowed to watch others or I would run around her training arena in her home just pretending I was playing the actual storyline. When I was old enough to understand the game, I went on to play and complete the first three games along with Angel of Darkness, Legend, Anniversary and then subsequently this new one.

Tomb Raider 9 is a reboot to the franchise. It's a retelling of her story and a somewhat prequel to the first game. It focuses on how she became a survivor from a adventurer.
This game is, no doubt my favourite out of all of them possibly because of the new graphics, the platform and the storyline itself isn't too complicated.
With the tight places and over the shoulder camera angles, you get an indepth insight to the claustrophobia Lara is experiencing. You can really relate to how new she is to the whole survival instinct. Her story is realistic and her determination to find and save her friends is the snippet into the personality of the Lara Croft we were accustomed to in the old games.

Good points: the graphics most definitely. Shadows, details, blood, dirt, it's all there and there's no fault really  concerning the graphic part of the game. Developers really went all out to ensure fans of the game wouldn't discard it. Lara's development really intrigued me. At the start of the game you are newly equipped with a bow and arrow and when you get the pistol, it's obvious Lara's never fired at anything before considering the aiming starts off really badly. The cut scene in which she kills someone is actually really emotional and it hurts to watch this video game character that you're so used to seeing being badass actually has a vulnerable side.
The storyline was good. Even though it seems really straight forward, the notes you find along the way written by either Lara's friend Sam, cult leader Mathias or just random people who were on the island, give insight to different opinions and thoughts and gives each character you encounter their own storyline and reason for being there.
The relationships Lara has with each character is different. Throughout the game your primary mission is to rescue Sam along with finding the other survivor friends along the way. The losses encountered in the game aren't, like most, disregarded as if they don't matter. Lara is emotionally affected by each death of a character.

Bad points: not many to be honest. The aiming was really bad for me. It began terrible but Lara isn't used to a weapon so I figured the bad aiming and over the shoulder camera was deliberate but as the game progresses, it gets increasingly difficult to pull off a shot.

I feel the battle and action scenes in the game are similar to Uncharted - enemies free roam, they attack you from either angle using a range of firearms or melee weapons depending on your distance. You have to rely on cover to save health and a lot of it is trial and error. Unlike Legend and Anniversary where enemies were only a mere entertainment purpose rather than an actual obstacle.

My favourite character is as expected, Lara only because she's the only character you get a bond with. She's the lead character, you're not really introduced to anyone else apart from her survivor friends.
The only struggle I had was nearing the end when you're getting stopped by enemies from entering the temple. They send an Oni type guard at you that you have to get close to, dodge and then shoot with a shotgun.
If you are able to get the hang of the aiming it's pretty easy to deter him by shooting at his head but if like me, you had trouble with it use the dodge and attack method and he'll go down pretty quickly.

Holding up to it's original name however, there are side mission where Lara is able to explore tombs and solve puzzles to earn extra XP.

Overall, it's an incredible game. Remakes are seriously making a comeback for the better and getting positive reviews too. Most definitely my favourite game and I hope SquareEnix continue and make another.
Lots of action, storyline and girl power throughout.