I've been aware of the Hitchhiker series from a young age, from both snippets of the TV Series and discussing the show in my middle school English lessons. I'd never had any interest above that in either the series or the book (or the film as I have just discovered) until I saw this Reddit post. It gave me a little chuckle so I thought "Hey, I'm in my summer holidays from work, might as well do something useful" so I got myself a copy of 'The Complete Trilogy of 5' and started on the first book in the series.

The first thing I noticed was how little the book has aged. It doesn't seem dated and its ideas of what futuristic space travel may look like are the same ideas that you would expect from a modern-day space-opera. You don't find yourself laughing at what the author, Douglas Adams, thought the future of the universe may look like as it's very modernly written even though the novel was published in 1979.

“Ford!" he said, "there's an infinite number of monkeys outside who want to talk to us about this script for Hamlet they've worked out.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

This is the first book I have read that gave me a good few chuckles here and there. Douglas Adams portrays typical British humour through the novel in the form of Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect and Zaphod Beeblebrox. A third of whom are human with the other 2 being alien life-forms. Dent is whisked away from Earth by his close friend, Ford Prefect, who is aware of a plan to destroy Earth in favour of an inter-galactic bypass. The book follows the pair's hitchhiking through space upon escaping the ashes of where the planet earth once was, using Prefect's trusty copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

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I found myself reading this book for a chapter a night due to time constraints but it was the sort of novel that you could easily pick back up and know what was going on, in spite of a few unfavourable lengthy words here and there. It's a cheery take on an over-done plot in film; the destruction of Earth by alien life.

The ending of the book seemed a bit too abrupt for my liking but since the second novel was published the following year I'm not too fussed as it's sequel 'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe' was published the year after the original novel so I'm sure it was meant to be immediately followed upon in the next instalment. I for one cannot wait to get onto the next book and bring you my thoughts yet again.

There are another four books in the series by Adams for me to read, plus a sixth published posthumously in 2006, so there's plenty more for me to get my teeth into now that I've finished the novel. I plan to slowly but surely work my way through the huge universe that Adams created, which all began from a 1978 BBC Radio 4 comedy show

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and look forward to venturing further into the series, perhaps having a go at watching the series, film and maybe even the original radio show.

Have you read this novel? What did you think?

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What is it?

Game Off - Celebrities is one version of a set of games created and promoted by Captain Fats. The game is centred around a group of family or friends having to perform different tasks in order to collect each of the 5 types of card in the game. This version of the game is based around British, or well-known in Britain, celebrities or historical figures. Other versions on offer include Adult, German/Spanish Celebs, as well as of course the original game.

These 5 types are Mind, Body, Courage, Skill and Luck. I won't be listing out the full rules of the game 1-by-1 here but the objective is to challenge someone else in the group, determined by a dice roll, to play against in order to obtain one of these cards.

Each card relates to a certain type of challenge which can be summarised as:

Mind - Coming up with the best idea or answer to a specific scenario.
Body - Doing something physical or in a race against your opponent.
Courage - Performace sort of challenges. Singing, doing impressions.
Skill - Challenge along to lines of draw something, make something, think of something.
Luck - As the name suggests, it's luck. You don't have to do anything to win this card, you simply get it if you beat our your opponent in whatever characteristic is on the card.

The rest of the group take a vote on the person they think completed their challenge the best and that person wins the card. This is why 3 players are needed as a minimum. In the event of a tie, a luck card decided the winner. The first to collect one of each type of card wins!

What did I think?

Now, I managed to play this game with the minimum of 3 people, I would have preferred more but for obvious reasons that aren't workable currently. (Note: If you're reading this from the future, google the history of 2020). Anyway, the game definitely had the feel of a party game.

The rules were quick to pick up and the 3 of us were promptly getting competitive in an attempt to beat out the others. As with most games, of course, some cards offer more fun than the others. My personal favourite that I had to do was the 'Ronnie O'Sullivan Off' where my opponent and I had to take turns hitting the dice with pencils into the game's box, like in snooker. I won this of course.

The Mind cards were especially fun too as they allowed to debate and argue your case, vying for the judge's vote. I can see a few heated discussion cropping up among a larger group of friends and a few drinks.

The game doesn't take too long, it depends on how many players you have and the speed at which you perform the tasks. For our game, it took up about 20-30 minutes since there were a lot more opportunities to win the 5 cards and there was only 1 vote needed to decide the winner each time.

Once able to start-up my group's Friday night table-topping session I will certainly introduce the game to the mix, I would love to see how this plays out among a group of 6+, all of whom are have a 'jolly' time of it.

I believe this game would be perfect for students at university looking for something to spice up their pre-drinks or for a family get together at Christmas.

Due to the nature of the game, replayability is not an issue unlike with question0based card games, making the price point acceptable in terms of how much game time you can get out of the set.

You can pick up the game for the price of £12.99 on Amazon by clicking the link below.

Click here or below to get yourself a copy of Game Off - Celebrities from Amazon!

Note: I was sent this product to review. I try to write all of my reviews as honestly as possible but it's important to be transparent when I was given the product for the purpose of this review.

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The Devolution of Diablo

by Syrmaticus (@IronDaggerGames)

irondagger.wordpress.com

Writing about a game long after the dust has settled is good for one thing, at least. I can better hold myself apart from the inevitable, populist sentiments that riddle unworthy sequels and oft-cursed Part Threes.

Or so I told myself when I fired up Diablo III and saw Tristram for the first time in almost a decade. Oh, my bad. It's New Tristram now... and what a difference that word makes.

On my way to the infamous cathedral, I reflected on the terror that place had stoked in me when I was, what, fourteen? Creeping along dank hallways, back glued to a wall, quaking behind the woefully inadequate buckler I had arrived in town with, breathing a sigh of relief Diablo himself must have heard at the first, blessed discovery of an enchanted club.

The present recreation of that delicious nightmare drew from me a sigh of exasperation Tathamet himself must have heard.

This game is supposed to scare me, damnit

No, a tricked-out church crypt packed with easily defensible corners, well-lit spaces wide enough to golf in, and laughably disposable undead I can see coming half a mile off isn't scary.

Scary was why I wall-hugged in the original Diablo. Not out of any 'close off your blind spot' tactical consideration or any similar Sun Tzu jazz; I was gnawing the heart in my mouth at the prospect of venturing into that claustrophobic yet frightfully open void, away from the cold, animal safety of the stone at my back.

Scared of the (digital) dark. As a teenager. And it wasn't even a survival horror game.

Diablo II, while not quite as hair-raising, did try valiantly with places like the Rogues' Monastery and the Durance of Hate, which actually made me hesitate to push on at certain junctures for sudden fear of the shadows ahead. What did Diablo III accomplish in this regard?

Right from the zombie movie ripoff of a kickoff, I was about as fazed as I was much later amid the newest, obligatory magma-and-brimstone Hell reprise. In fact, once the classic first dungeon of the Diablo series failed to frighten in its second incarnation, no others came close.

I can only put this down to level design, the mood generated by the plot, and my having aged some ten-plus years.

Facing my fears... and smacking 'em down

The first Diablo, greeting me with dim, tight corridors and chambers punctuated by drafty, open halls that looked about as welcoming as the gaping maws of demons, evoked immediate fear and suspicion – made only worse by the omnipresent gothic architecture and funereal ornamentation.

Okay, so the lava caves below (when did Diablo, right or wrong, turn into D&D dragon den?) dealt a heavy blow to the atmosphere. So did, to a lesser extent, the series's first rendition of Hell: a curiously sanitized chain of ballrooms with scattered Chinese Mythology 18th Level of the Underworld decor. But the potency of the atmosphere in the cathedral and the catacombs? Undeniable.

The dark low fantasy formula of blighted medieval countrysides and desolate castle ruins served Diablo III well in its early outdoor areas, as a tether to the series's thematic roots. However, the blatantly overpowered nature of the player characters killed a good deal of the spookiness. A ravening undead horde, climbing out of a mass grave decked with swinging corpses, is naught to be feared if you can draw steel with the air of a B-movie action hero and wade in smirking like a boss.

This only got worse later on in Persian deserts and war-torn tundras, both rehashes of Diablo II settings and not entirely congruous either (particularly the latter; what room is there for the series's classic creepiness on a battlefield?).

Yes, back in Diablo II, fighting grenade-lobbing catmen in the desert and blowdart-spitting pygmies in a twisted fantasy Vietnam War simulation sort of detracted from my expectations. But I don't recall being bothered much.

Suspense and suspension (of disbelief)

Because I knew what I, or rather my character, was up to. And I believed in it. That all-important accessory known as the plot made it so. It seemed, back then, that the more outlandish and un-scary the setting, the more the writers tried to give you a purpose; one that didn't seem too out of sync with the humble quests players of the first game were used to.

In Aranoch? Searching for a tomb-sized needle in a haystack. (Fair enough.)

In Kurast? Undermining the world's biggest religion. (Read: a head-on assault on their damned HQ. Going downhill here.)

And in Arreat? Plowing through infernal legions to stop Baal and save the world. (Wow, all grown up now!)

Diablo III didn't just fail harder than this. It repeatedly insulted players' intelligence, plot-wise: blatant giveaways such as the Stranger's identity (his sword was the clincher but I hoped I was wrong, for freshness's sake), Belial's disguise (so obvious from the outset that I refused to swallow it until the bitter end), and Adria's true nature (a shining example of foreshadowing via flavor lore taken a hundred steps too far) come instantly to mind.

Dropped balls like these underscore the tragic lack of mood throughout the game's quests. What is left to immersion when you can effortlessly guess what's really going on, all the time? Add an environment that casts the spotlight more on epic monster-slaying than the finer points of what, in essence, is a tale of humans contending with forces beyond their ken (nephalem... ugh), and it becomes easy to see the series's downward slide.

The original Diablo suffered from no such issues. There wasn't much of a plot there, just a hack n' slasher garnished with a few key lore points and a few more smaller ones for aesthetics. The whole game was level one to level sixteen, point A to point B; a great deal in between was up to you and your imagination.

By contrast, its successors tried harder, and, accordingly, opened themselves to the risk of falling harder. The latest tried hardest, especially by introducing persistent, prominent plot figures (Leah, Tyrael, et al) that function like the essential NPCs in an MMO – keeping the player on story rails, and supplying superfluous filler.

The result of having these characters accompany us from Act to Act and drive things along? It comes off as us following them. We're back to the old MMO trope of players immortalized in official lore as the brave, but somehow unknown champions that aided Sir Protagonist in the slaying of the dragon.

I am afraid – but for the series, not of it

Would Diablo III not have been far better off keeping faith with its prequels' comparatively more stripped-down nature and player-centric plot focus? After all, is it not scariest when you're all by your lonesome?

Nobody's contesting that it's a fantastic team action game. That was always the point. But taken as an RPG experience (and I employ the RPG designation loosely)? Not quite as stellar. It was more than a little disappointing, watching the genre-defining precedent set by the first in the series muddied by declining writing standards and mass market appeal.

Warcraft went the dumbed-down route long ago. Even StarCraft, the last of Blizzard's franchises to stick to its C-10 canister rifles, has thrown in the towel with tragic hero Zerg and space hadouken matches. While Reaper of Souls went a considerable way towards redeeming Diablo's past glory, the outcome remains in doubt – this franchise is just one more disappointing expansion away from going to hell.

5) - Us

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I was a bit sceptical when I first went to see this film since it was written and directed by Jordan Peele, the same director from Get Out (2017) which, despite its fantastic reviews, I thought to be a bit of a bore with not much substance. To my pleasant surprise, Us was a fantastic film which had its own original story and fantastic twists here and there. I would thoroughly recommend this film if you're looking for a modern horror this Halloween.

4) - Halloween III: Season of the Witch

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The Halloween franchise is usually seen as one of the standards in Halloween films, and not just because they share a name. Many people consider the third Halloween film one of the most disappointing of the series since it doesn't feature the franchise's poster boy, Michael Myers. The thing is, Halloween was originally aiming to be an American Horror Story-esc anthology series of horror films. If you look past the absence of the title character you will see that Season of the Witch is a tense thrilling horror film filled with masks just as creepy s Myers'.

3) - Cube

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I came across Cube by chance on Netflix when I was looking for some kind of different horror film to watch. It follows a group of strangers who wake up inside a series of coloured and connected cubes which no idea how they got there. Some of the rooms contain Saw-like traps which a mathematician in the group can predict based on serial numbers on the gaps connecting the cubes. If you're looking for a weird cult horror film to watch have a go at Cube.

2) - The Collector

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A run of the rill Horror film. The Collector follows a family and robber who's house taken over by a masked serial killer 'the collector' who booby-traps the house with morbid, lethal contraptions in a bid to prevent the family from escaping. A sequel to the film was released which I have yet to watch but I'm looking forward to the sequel and the recently announced 3rd film.

1) - Jigsaw

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Jigsaw is the latest instalment in the Saw franchise and serves as a kind of rounding-off of the first 7 Saw films before the franchise is rebooted with Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson in 2020. Not that well received, I kind of mean my top spot to go to the entire Saw franchise as a whole. I used to think that Saw was nothing but a bloody-gory mess with not much substance but after paying attention to the story it involves I must admit I was wrong. Saw is a story of tragedy turning into murder. I don't think I need to push these films to anyone as I'm sure most people have seen one of the instalments themselves.

What's your favourite horror film?

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It's February and that can only mean one thing. Pancake Day is just around the corner! I like to think of it as the Christmas-after-Christmas. A time just far away from the big day to feel like you deserve to treat yourself. Pancake Day is coming soon on the 16th of February!

To celebrate Pancake Day this year I've teamed up with JimJams to provide the toppings and Griddle to provide the pancakes themselves. JimJams have recently launched 2 new vegan flavours of Chocolate spread. Dark Chocolate Orange and Dark Hazelnut. Griddle sent me a chocolate chip pancake mix which I prepared with soya milk to keep it vegan.

I used half of the provided mix to make 6 small pancakes stacked high and drizzled it with the melted spread. Pictured are the pancakes drizzled with the melted dark chocolate orange spread (which was my favourite of the two) with some icing sugar sprinkled over the top. I tried some the next day with the hazelnut spread which was just as delicious.

Now, this was only using half the mix and only a couple of tablespoons of the spread so there's plenty to go around and at only 83 calories per pancake and 50 calories per dessert spoon of the JimJams spread it's easy on the teeth too. JimJams contains only plant-based ingredients and no added refined sugar.

The pancakes were incredibly easy to make and only required you to add the milk. You can add an egg if desired or you can even replace the milk with water! You would never be able to tell that what you were eating contained no dairy whatsoever so it was refreshing to try something so tasty yet not as bad for you as you would initially think.

JimJams is currently on offer for only £2 and you can grab a jar of either flavour from Sainsburys, Morrisons, Waitrose, Asda and Ocado just in time for Pancake Day on the 16th of February!

Make sure you come back and share some pictures of your Pancake Day creations on here or tag me on Twitter @MrAdrianJones

You can follow JimJams and Griddle on Instagram just in time for Pancake Day by clicking below.

@jimjams_spreads @wearegriddle

Note: I was sent this product to review. I try to write all of my reviews as honestly as possible but it's important to be transparent when I was given the product for the purpose of this review.

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The reboot of Child’s Play from 1988 sees the role of chucky morphing from a serial killer-possessed child’s toy into a more modern problem. This iteration sees Kaslan, a company known for products ranging from drones to TVs connected together via The Cloud, come out with their new product, Buddi. Buddi is a toy designed for children to have a friend to learn, play with and take care of. A jilted Kaslan employee who works in the factory where Buddi is being made wipes all of the safety protections from a single Buddi toy before throwing himself off of the company building This faulty toy finds it’s way into the hands of kid Andy Barclay (Gabriel Bateman) where all hell breaks loose.

The film features a great performance from Aubrey Plaza, moving from miserable teenager in Parks and Recreation to the mother of Andy in the film. I must say though, it’s weird going from hearing Plaza call her husband in Parks and Rec Andy to seeing her as a motherly figure but this time her son gets the honour. I was sceptical of seeing Plaza in this role but she pulled it off fantastically.

Actor Performances

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Chucky is voiced by Mark Hamill, best known as Luke Skywalker. Hamill’s best known voice acting work is in the form of The Joker in a number of animated Batman features. Hamill gets the blend of creepiness and cuteness as the demon toy just right so that you find the doll creepy, funny and cute all at the same time. The film’s creators successfully get their audience to feel a bit sorry for Chucky at times, seeing that he doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing wrong and he does at good intentions at the base of things.

Child’s Play plays on the fear of the technology we create in the world eventually turning on us and using all of it’s man-made features to it’s advantage. A good idea for a way to modernise a horror classic.

It’s an adequate watch with exceptional performances from Plaza and Hamill but the film is lacking a bit of what you would expect a horror film to have, horror. You have the very occasional jump scare or tense moment but I sat pretty comfortably on the back of my seat the whole way through the showing.

My verdict? You can probably wait this out until it’s on DVD or some streaming platform.

54/100

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Make sure you tweet me and let me know what you thought of the film.

Fancy a try? Get 50% OFF your first order of 8 cans. That's just £12!

Since lockdown in the UK began I have been passing the time by getting into my craft beers. I'd gotten the odd box from Beer52 before but this time I decided to keep my subscription up and running over the months and try out some new beer types and breweries. I've never been a fan of the darker beers like stout so my subscription solely centres around lighter beers like lagers and IPAs. Here are my thoughts on the subscription and a couple of my favourite beers from the box this month.

What do you get?

Each month you get a copy of Ferment Magazine, which is a magazine written and published by the guys over at Beer52 which has all kinds of articles related to the craft industry. I like to read the interviews with the breweries that are featured in the boxes each month. This helps to give you an idea of the ethos of the brewery you're drinking from and helps you to feel more involved in the process.

You also get a little snack to have with your beers each month. This month I got some sweet chilli chickpeas which went down a treat with my favourite beer on the list which we'll talk about in a minute.

Finally, the most important part, you get a selection of beers. You have a couple of choices to make when you set up your subscription. Firstly, do you like dark beers as well as light beers? If you do, you can choose a mixed box including everything from IPAs to stouts. Or you can choose to just have the light beers, like me. Secondly, how many beers do you want? The standard subscription includes 8 Beers for £24. You can then upgrade to 10-packs or 12-packs if desired. But you can get your first box of 8 for HALF PRICE by clicking here. All beers you received are listed in the ferment magazine are rated on all kinds of qualities as well as ideal drinking temperatures.

Top 3 Beers

3) Alone Together DDH Amarillo - O Brother

Alone Together was a much different beer to the others in the box. This was quite distinctively sour and dry. It made a change from the rest of the beers in the box which tended to be quite sweet. At 4% ABV this beer was mild but woke up with the high 'fizziness' of it. Would recommend.

2) Howling Gale Pale - Eight Degrees

Howling Gale was very sharp on the throat which offered a crisp and refreshing taste. It was perfect for the hot weather we've been having lately. Brewed by one of my favourite microbreweries, Eight Degrees, it is definitely one I would have again if given the chance.

1) Happy Days Pale Ale - Rascals

This was the stand-out beer from this month's box. This pale ale was relentlessly smooth with a wonderful tropical aroma. This had it all. It was refreshing, smooth and fruity. The best of the bunch, I will actively seek out this beer whenever I can. It's going to be hard but I'm certain it will be worth it.

Have you ever tried Beer52? What did you think?
Fancy a try? Get 50% OFF your first order of 8 cans. That's just £12!

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It's that time again, Warner Bros. latest attempt at adding a semi-decent instalment to their 'The Conjuring' Universe. I managed to see a pre-showing of this movie so I went into the film completely blind to critic reviews.

Now, you'd be forgiven for not even noticing this film was part of The Conjuring Universe. The only relation I saw that it had to the universe was a shared character and a reference to Annabelle. The film didn't seem to add anything to the already expanding collection of films but that isn't to say that the film itself wasn't exceptional.

The Curse of La Llorona is director Michael Chaves' take on on the Mexican folklore legend of La Llorona, the weeping woman. The original tale states that La Llorona was a young woman named Maria of gave birth to 2 sons to a travelling nobleman. The man eventually disappeared for long periods and time and returned only to pay attention to his two sons. In a fit of blind rage, Maria drowned her two sons in a nearby river. Upon realising what she had done she searched for the boys but couldn't find them. Days later, she was found dead by the same river. Her ghost now haunts Mexico searching for her children.

The legend described in the film is almost identical albeit with a few changes. I appreciate how the director kept the legend as close to true as he could. La Llorona herself was perhaps one of the Conjuring Universe's creepiest villains, more so than the Nun, whose 2018 film is my favourite instalment so far.

The acting in the film was reasonably good for a horror movie, particularly Breaking Bad's Raymond Cruz as ex-priest Rafael Olvera. Although sparse, the writer's attempt at bits of humour in the film fell mostly flat.

La Llorona was an adequate horror film in itself but added very little to an already mixed-quality universe. In my opinion the film should have been kept a standalone movie so that the writers can focus solely on making a great standalone movie.

All-in-all, this film was indeed jumpy at times, reasonably acted but didn't add much to the universe it was trying to be a part of.

46/100

What did you think of the film? Do you think it added anything to the universe?

Let me know in the comments and I'll reply to them all!

So my fiancee and I were planning a little trip to London in the midst my final university exam period. We all know how expensive London can be so we planned that we'd head to a chain restaurant that we looked up beforehand, The Slug & Lettuce.

We'd researched the menu for the bar beforehand hand liked the food we saw, plus the prices were not too bad either. We underestimated how busy it'd be so we didn't reserve a table beforehand. Our bad, it is London after all. Upon arrival, we were greeted quite abruptly with "Have you booked?". Of course, though, we hadn't. But a table was still available anyway so we were seated.

The waitress informed us that she would be back in a few minutes to take our order. Upon looking at the menu my fiancee decided to have the Smothered Chicken (£10.29) and I wanted to have something different to what I usually eat when out and went for the Chicken Tikka Masala. We also decided to treat ourselves to a Zombie cocktail each (£9.95 2-4-1). It took a while to place this order since the waitress seemed more concerned with 'chilling' at another table of presumably her friends.

Once the drinks arrived and we tried them we couldn't complain too much, but that's where the lack of complaining ended. Let's talk about my fiancee's food first with a game I like to call "Spot the Piece of Chicken".

For reader convenience, I have pointed out the poultry.

It was dry, bland and even a 3-year-old child would call it bite-sized. I mean, for over £10 you'd expect your chicken to be a bit thicker than the knife you're cutting it with. When I say cutting I mean probing. I guess a good thing to say about this meal is that you can admire the majority of the plate that you're eating it off? Slug and Lettuce? More like Slug and LetUs disappoint you.

Now for my lovely curry...

Once I got the plate to stop sliding around on the...other plate... I got to taste it. Not going to lie, it wasn't the best curry I had ever eaten in my life. The rice tasted like it had been cooking for as long as it had been grown for. The chicken, like my fiancee's smothered chicken, was on the dry side as well as bland. The sauce looked like it was mostly water and could have done with being simmered longer.

We were terribly disappointed with this meal. Terrible tasting food, you don't get much for your money, and chicken you could replace your window panes with. All in all, I give this place a 2/10. That's 1 mark for the table not wobbling and 1 for the fact that the drinks "weren't too bad".

2/10

The people behind Bear Coffee Company kindly invited me and 4 of my friends to the opening of their new store in Derby. This is only their first new venue since their original shop opened in Uttoxeter in 2016 so they are a relatively new company since being founded in 2014.

Upon walking in the thing I first noticed was the alternative layout of the bar compared to the conventional way. The bar/counter was centred in the middle of the room with the seating area to one side and the majority of bar stools to the other. There was surprisingly good lighting in there as well. considering most modern coffee shops think its 'cool' to basically make you drink your coffee in the dark.

Cappuccino - £2.60

I thought I'd start with a classic cappuccino. Our server informed us that the baristas strive for perfection on the drink side of things. If a coffee doesn't come out perfect they will just throw it away and start again. There was a 20 minute wait for our drinks but was understandable since the place was completely full and it was the first time the workers experience the pressure of a busy flow of customers. When the coffee arrived it had a well-made design decorating the top and the actual coffee was quite strong. It didn't stand out as much as I would have liked it to but it wasn't a bad coffee. At £2.60 I'd say it's an average price at today's standards. I sneaked a bit of my friend's Salted Caramel Shake and wow was it good. You'd need a sweet tooth to be able to handle the whole thing. Now, let's get onto the food...

Eggs Benedict - £7.00

For food, I ordered the Eggs Benedict. Never had this dish before and didn't really know what it was but I took a chance when I saw it on the menu. English muffin, bacon, poached egg, spinach and hollandaise sauce. Did I regret opting for this? Not at all. The sauce that topped the eggs was phenomenal and the entire thing really does fill you up. I think I've found a new favourite meal. At a price of £7.00, it's definitely something I would have again.

Although the service was obviously going to be slow on their "trial-run" day, we felt welcomed and comfortable. Very friendly staff who were easy to talk to and have a laugh with. We even tried a Mexican wave at one point to get the waitress' attention (it worked).

Although I didn't try the other food my friends did have some comments. One friend, who ordered the BEAR breakfast loved the food but said the choice of bread was a bit too hard and crunchy. Another friend ordered the veggie BEAR which again was nice but he didn't feel was big enough since there wasn't much of a substitution for the meat ingredients in the main Bear Breakfast. My other 2 friends enjoyed the all American pancakes which they had nothing bad to say about what so ever!

I'm not going to beat around the bush, I'm 100% going back again. Until next time, BEAR!

Daisy Ridley, Johnny Depp, Kenneth Branagh, Dame Judi Dench, Willem Dafoe, Josh Gad... the stars go on. Seeing any of these names popping up in cinema would catch your eye, let alone all together. Sadly though, star-studded films have a reputation of under performing at the box office. Big, big hopes come crashing down when the film gets released. But does Murder on the Orient Express follow this seemingly doomed genre? No. Absolutely not.

Wikipedia's synopsis for the film is (with spoilers removed):

"In 1930s Europe, famed detective Hercule Poirot boards the legendary Orient Express for a small break in between cases. While on board, he meets an interesting assortment of characters. A fellow passenger implores Mr. Poirot to assist him while on the train as he fears for his well-being, though Poirot respectfully declines. The next morning, the passenger is found stabbed to death. With the train halted due to snow build up on the tracks, and with the evidence and suspects piling up, Poirot finds himself diving into a case that could be his biggest yet." - Souce

I went into this film not knowing what to expect. I'm a big fan of Daisy Ridley and Judi Dench but I also know not to rely on a film being exceptional by judging purely on it's cast. I'll be honest, when the film first began my first thoughts were not good. I thought director and star, Kenneth Branagh, over-acted in his role at first. His monologue 5-10 minutes into the film seemed out-of-place and unnecessary, especially for a character many viewers would have only just been introduced to.

My initial quarrels were quickly scattered though through Kenneth Branagh's later performance as Hercule Poirot. His well timed quips along with a beautiful accent made for a likeable and intriguing character. I had no prior knowledge to the story before seeing this film. Never read the book, never watched a series or film. This was all brand new.

Johnny Depp's performance disappointed. I'm not a fan of Depp as a person but I do know he is a phenomenal actor. I loved him in Edward Scissor Hands and Pirates of the Caribbean. However, he was not right for the part in this film. His acting seemed as though any old, amateur actor could have done the job. Despite this though - the film was saved by the amazing performances by the rest of the cast.

As is expected with a murder-mystery film I spent the majority of the time trying to figure out some logical explanation for 1 of the passengers being the culprit. But did I ever guess it? Not even close. The final revelation of who committed the murder took me by surprise, and it will do the same to you. My one piece of advice before going to see this film? Because you should go and see it. Forget everything you know about Murder on the Orient Express and Murder Mystery films in general.

Rating - 8/10

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I haven't reviewed a piece of tech for a while so when USB Direct offered me the chance to review one of their USB devices. This one is called the 'i-USB-Storer' which is compatible with all USB and Micro-USB devices (including Android phones, tablets, laptops and macs). It also has an Apple Lightning connector. On the packaging, this connector is compatible with: iPhones 5,5s and 5C, 6, 6 plus and (as tested) the SE. It also supports iPad 4, Air Mini, Mini 2 plus the iPod Touch 5.

Now that the compatibility issues are out of the way, let's get on with the device itself. The storage options you can buy range in powers of 2 from 4GB to a massive 128GB. For transparency, I received a 16GB device which I have tested on a Galaxy S6, Lenovo Z50 and an iPhone SE. The device worked on each device interchangeably without the need for formatting. This makes it so much easier to transfer images between phones and computers, without the need for a cable or a cloud. I used to use email to transfer my pictures but now I'll be using this USB. In fact, the images in this post were taken on my S6 and transferred to my laptop using the USB.

From top to bottom: Apple lightning, Micro-USB and USB connectors

To be able to use the device on an Apple handheld product you have to install an app provided by USB direct. With laptops and Android devices, on the other hand, it is not necessary and you can begin to use the product from the off. There are not many problems I can find with this device. One of the few is that the Apple lightning connector is a little bent when outside the device, which could lead to damage when using it. The other small issue is the packaging. Of course, this doesn't affect the product at all, there are a few spelling mistakes along with the absence of the storage size.

Besides this, the product is exceptional and does the job. The ease to transfer files from phone to PC will make my life a whole lot easier. The only problem is that on USB Direct's site you can only buy these things in minimum bulks of 25 which you can customise. This would be good for goodie-bags, meet-ups and conventions but not for the average person who wants to by just the 1.

To check the product out for yourself, please visit their website here!

What is it?

What did I think?

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Actor Performances

54/100