GAMING: SOPRANOS ROAD TO RESPECT PS2

I like to go to second hand stores and buy old video games for next to nothing. Being someone who owns almost every console ever made its always a win win situation picking up decent games for a cheap price. I recently picked up The Sopranos Road to Respect on Playstation 2 for like £2 or something in that price range.

Being a huge fan of the Sopranos TV show and crime based video games in general I thought I would give it a go and see how it would pan out. The games story line is set in-between seasons 5 and 6 of the TV show and tells the story of Big Pussy's son Joey moving his way up in the ranks of the family.

For a video game story line it is quite well told and keeps you interested the whole way through. The entire story (and game) is not very long and I did manage to play through it in a matter of hours. I don't see that as a bad thing though as some of my favorite games of all time like Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid can be done in the same amount of time if you know what your doing.

The gameplay of this game is quite surprising and goes down the route of a button bashing beat em up instead of the GTA route like The Godfather did. In fact shooting people will only end up making you lose the game. I only had to use my gun like 3 times through the entire game.

The game controls are very poor and if you find your self surrounded by two or more enemies you have no choice but to button bash for dear life, as they just hammer you to the point where you cant even move. There are certain hotspots where you can grapple enemies into torture situations but getting the enemies into the designated area becomes a long drawn out affair. In THQ's video game of the Punisher this was much easier to do and the objects of interaction had much more imagination. In this game however there will be a circular saw in a room for no reason and other unrelated props just slotted in for lack of creativity.

The shooting and aiming on this game is very poor, as it takes about 6 shots to finally down an enemy, and the shot gun has no aim what soever and you kinda just have to point you character in which way you want the bullets to go. Also during hand to hand combat mode there is no way of locking on to enemies and you will find your self constantly missing punches and melee attacks

The visuals on the game are great and are the best that PS2 can deliver. The cast of the Sopranos are brought to life with great visuals and the locations are top notch. Its cool to have a look around the Budda Bing and the other locations from the show as there has been a great level of detail included and you really do feel like you are part of the show. The game has got great blood and guts effects and when fighting faces get bruised and all kinds of messed up.

The games soundtrack is also top notch with superb voice acting by the real cast of the show and a brilliant music soundtrack from many popular artists at the time. The game has some great humor as well and playing through certain parts really made me chuckle. The game has some extra features like videos, concept art and a fun poker feature where you can play against the boys in Tonys office.

The Sopranos road to respect is an average game but if your a fan of the show and have a £2 to spare then give it a go. If you are not a fan of the show then avoid this one. 

MUSIC: UPCOMING LONDON EVENTS

MOVIES: WARRIORS PRODUCTION PHOTOS

Since I started doing the movie production photo articles I have obtained many different pictures from various movies. The best set I have obtained are from the cult classic movie The Warriors (which I recently reviewed).

Here are some rare shots from the making of the Warriors. I will also be doing part 2 of the previous article I posted yesterday later this week. I decided these pics deserved their own article and when you scroll down you will see why.

CLICK TO ENLARGE

cameras rolling in Grammercy Park

The Turnbull AC's

The Warriors take a time out.

Filming in the subway

Coney Island

A great silhouette of a baseball fury. Reminds me of the classic underpass shot from A Clockwork Orange.

Great shot of Cyrus before his demise.

Coney Island subway station

Shooting the restroom brawl

The Rogues. I remember scribbling all over my Ghostbusters car as a kid to make it look like this.

This is from a deleted scene of Cleon and his old lady before the meet.

Another great shot of the Turnbull AC's in their ultra cool bus. Imagine working late at a Shell garage and this pulls up. You would be fucked.

Shooting the final beach scene.

The next article will include photos from Night of the Living Dead, Evil Dead, American Werewolf in London and many more rare snaps.

RELATED LOST ENTERTAINMENT POSTS

THE WARRIORS REVIEW

THE WARRIORS DELETED SCENE 

MOVIES: THE PHOTO'S BEHIND THE MAGIC PART:I

The world of cinema will always be a magical place for everyone. Dreams become reality and so do the creatures of our nightmares and darkest fears. Special effects will always be something which will grow and evolve, as with every movie made, lessons are learned and techniques are mastered.

Today on Lost Entertainment I (Kristian Rodriguez) will pull back the magical fourth wall and show you the reality of what the other side of the camera looks like.

I must warn you that you may not want to see the secrets behind the magic. If you do then please scroll down further and if you don't, well.. you can just fuck off then.

JAWS

Even to this day I have a real problem getting in the sea. Its not just the of the fact Speilberg and co made me petrified of Great White Sharks but its also the fact I got stung by a Jellyfish on my balls once. There is a new documentary on the Jaws Blu Ray release which looks quite decent titled "The Shark's still Working". It's notoriously documented that the mechanical shark "Bruce" was on of the least cooperative props in movie history. Due to the ocean current in Martha's Vinyard (the location of the filming) battering the mechanical equipment behind the fake shark, the crew were faced with nothing but disaster. In the end they decided not to use the shark on film as much as they wanted to, which luckily for them, worked in their favor, thus giving the movie more of an atmosphere.

A young Steven Speilberg is pictured above in the most famous teeth in cinema history. The original mechanical Bruce was recently discovered in a scrap yard in Los Angeles. I always said if I won the lottery I would buy this and have it in my pool to jump out and scare people for a joke.

Here are some more images just to remind you that "it's just a movie"

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET

Freddy Krueger will always a topical on Lost Entertainment but another topical fact is that the first nightmare movie was Johnny Depp's big screen debut. Robert Englund endured hours upon hours of grueling make up sessions and after 8 of these movies it is a sure bet that he has spent at least a few months of his life in the make up chair. 

It's a very surreal image to see all the kids of Elm Street posing with Freddy Krueger with massive grins while he chills with his old school tape deck. 

Englund rips of the latex after a hard day at the office.

A rare snap of the first batch of Elm Street children.

The Dream Warriors grab a snap with Freddy.

Freddy goes for his last make over on the set of Camp Crystal Lake.

HALLOWEEN

John Carpenters Halloween is the undisputed king of the slashers in my personal opinion. Michael Myers is the archetype of what any horror movie antagonist should be. Feelingless, remorseless, brutal and cool as fuck. The first two incarnations of Myers were the best and the movies after should be avoided like the plague. Here are some rare photos from the film set.

Nick Castle poses with the infamous mask which still terrifies audiences to this day. The mask was in fact a Star Trek mask of Captain Kirk sprayed grey.

Another rare shot of Jamie Leigh Curtis embracing Michael Myers.

This would be the best Coca Cola advert for a certain time of year.

"What's the worst that can happen?" Someone escapes from a loony bin and kills everyone!

DAWN OF THE DEAD

1968's Night of The Living Dead laid down the path for zombie movies and 10 years later Dawn of the Dead rode down that path in flaming chariots. Possibly my all time favorite movie in general, Dawn of the Dead is easily the greatest zombie ever made. Filmed on a tight budget in Pennsylvania shopping mall Dawn of the Dead is not just a zombie movie its fucking art. George Romero teamed with special effects guru Tom Savini to make the most violent gore fest ever seen at that time. 

Tom Savini had recently returned from Vietnam where he served as military photographer and after seeing so many dead bodies he was the right guy to bring the living dead to life in this project. I will be doing a great length Dawn of the Dead article for Halloween.

Romero instructing a zombie.

Savini giving another one of the ridiculous amounts of zombies the paint job.

Due to the amount of zombies cast in the movie multiple teams of make up artists were deployed in the mall.

Savini chills with a body who is about to have an exploding head episode.

TERMINATOR

When James Camerons sci fi/film noire master piece was first released in 1984 it was the most expensive film ever made at the time. Casting Mr Universe Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role the movie would be a mega hit and would spawn maybe the most successful sequel of all time. 

Arnie grabs a snap with the woman he shot in the face. Nice shirt as well Arnie.

Michael Beihn who played Kyle Reese takes a quick snap with James Cameron. 

Arnie stabbing the biker in the bar scene from Terminator 2. Im kind of glad he wasn't really naked walking around the film set.

Arnie poses with Cameron during the shooting of the final scenes from Terminator 2.

MORE TOMORROW 

GAMING: POLICE QUEST

25 or so years before LA Noire was released there was another cop game set in California. The game was Police Quest and it was created by Sierra who were the top dogs when it came to making role playing adventure games.

Sierra had released many successful adventure game titles such as Leisure Suit Larry, Space Quest, Kings Quest and Police Quest. All the games spawned many sequels and still hold cult status to this day.

Police Quest was a type and text adventure in which you took the role of police officer Sonny Bonds and controlled his every move and decision. The thing that separated  Police Quest from other cop games was the fact that you had to follow police procedure and you had to do it by the book.

From charging people, reading out miranda rights, giving people speeding tickets and even attending briefings (and even court) it was all in there. The game was written by an ex police officer who wanted to add as much realism as possible with adding correct procedure. Most cop games were mindless shooters, where this game its a whole different story. Shooting an unarmed criminal in this game will immediately result in you losing your badge and game over.

 The original game was made in 1987 with poor graphics and being a type and text adventure it was somewhat of a chore to get through the whole thing. The game was still a hit at the time and in 1991 Sierra remade the game (along with several other titles) and pimped it up as much as they could by redoing the graphics and adding sound blaster.

As you can tell it is a major improvement and also the game becomes a point and click adventure instead of having to type every command and action.

Although Sierra re-released the game with many improvements they also left a lot of the shit stuff which at times can really annoy you to the point of quitting the game. When in the patrol car you have no idea where any of the locations are on the map and the car is really terrible to control. 

Another thing about this game (and in fact all Sierra adventure games from back then) is that life is very fragile and you can get game over from pretty much everything unless you read the walkthrough. You will have to save constantly as one tiny error can just end it all or just leave with a dead end rendering the game unwinnable. From walking out from the locker room in your towel or clicking the hand icon on a whore these are just two of about 400000 ways you can die in this game. However if played correctly and you get to finish the game then it is a good game and it does have a good story line.

Police Quest spawned 4 sequels and was eventually replaced with the SWAT games.