barry-roberts54

I missed the Mafia game when it first came out, but someone told me it was like Grand Theft Auto with gangsters, which very much whet my appetite.

So I recently picked up the updated Mafia Definitive edition and it does look like a million dollars and I was so looking forward to it. It starts out well, easy to control some decent action and sharp suited gangsters - what's not to like!

It was very good... up to a point.

If (like me) you don't play racing games and indeed are no good at racing games, then this may not be the game for you.

I got to the first racing level about ten minutes in and that was as far as I got and I had to switch it off.

Despite lots of tips and videos on the internet that tell me how to easily win the race; the level is controller-breakingly-frustrating.

It is not often that one level breaks an entire game and causes me to instantly list it for sale on Ebay, but this is one such game.

I'm sure the rest of the game is enjoyable, but as this level is un-skippable and - for me unbeatable - I couldn't tell you.

"Sinners" is a period piece vampire-horror movie with Michael B Jordan taking on dual roles as twin brothers in a solid if unspectacular performance and the post war period setting is great. All the ingredients are there for a great vampire movie - Good supporting cast all giving good performances, great cinematography, some stunningly shot musical scenes (though it isn't a musical) and enough blood and gore to satisfy most horror fans.

Ultimately, I feel the idea was better than the execution and I have to mention the ending, which seems completely out of place with all that preceded and looks to have been included simply to show Michael B Jordan looking cool shooting a Tommy gun in slow motion.

"Sinners" falls a bit short of what it could have been; its basically "From Dusk till Dawn" with the Blues.

I watched this based on a review likening it to the far superior; "The KIlling." "Long Bright River" though, falls WAY short of the aforementioned, with paper thin characters and a pretty uninteresting and uninspiring main character. Whilst in "The Killing," Mireille Enos was a believable, interesting, flawed and three dimensional character, Amanda Seyfried's character Mickey, falls flat and is just too perfect to be taken seriously.

It wants to be dark and gritty, but the only thing dark is the lighting. It comes across as a melodrama cos-playing as a thriller and in truth, it was tough to finish the series.

Lastly - and without wanting to give anything away - I guessed who the killer would be long before it was revealed. There's really not much to recommend here.