Passing the torch

Image courtesy of www.comicsuniverse.it

Note: Was meant to publish this yesterday but I was a plum. Sorry everyone haha. Anyway, enjoy!

Hello you, the name is Luca but you can call me Luca. So I've seen Logan now and I will be doing so the day after I begin to write this, and I can safely say, this is an immense send off to both Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart's time as both Wolverine and Professor X. The film is incredibly emotional and truly is one of the best comic book movies of all time, it doesn't even feel like a typical comic book movie and more like a action heavy drama with comic book characters.

I highly recommend Logan to everyone who can see it, hopefully through legal methods. Anyway onto the point at hand today, whilst Jackman was filming Eddie The Eagle, he announced that Logan would be his final time portraying this character and of course, everyone including myself was gutted but I knew it was inevitable. He has earned the right though, Jackman has served this character so brilliantly and embraced the passion that surrounds the comic book and movie fan base, 17 years and all but one X-Men movie with varying levels of involvement, whether it is a major part or even a cameo, like that brilliant one in X-Men: First Class.

Hugh Jackman is not however the first actor to be known synonymously with a character and he won't be the last, like Heath Ledger with the Joker, Robert Downey, Jr. with Iron Man, Ryan Reynolds with Deadpool etc. you get the point. But there's a sad stigma in today's world, that since Hugh Jackman will no longer be portraying Wolverine after Logan, everyone is now assuming that Wolverine as a character should also be done, and to that I say, never.

It was the same when the Joker was reintroduced in the form of Jared Leto's portrayal in last year's Suicide Squad, everyone was up in arms! How dare they get a beloved character in the DC and Batman world after Heath Ledger died after putting in the performance of a lifetime? These people by the way, probably ignored the fact that we have had Cesar Romero, Mark Hamill, Jack Nicholson and so many other people playing the character. Now, you can have your opinion about Jared Leto as the Joker, I for one didn't really like him or at least if I did initially, have changed my mind.

I know I'll get some hate for this, but Heath Ledger's performance and untimely passing should not dictate that this character should never be used anymore. These characters are immortalised and beloved, unfortunately actors are only human and can't do this forever, so I think of it as a passing of the torch, for many different generations to experience these amazing characters.

All of you, think about it. After Adam West's Batman had stopped, by this pathetic logic, we would never have got another Batman ever and well, whilst the Schumacher versions would have been happily spared, no Keaton, no Bale, no Affleck! The actors are here to service the characters, the characters are here to service the story, and the story is here to service us, the audience.

So with Hugh Jackman no longer portraying Wolverine, I for one am intrigued to see who will be the next person to portray this amazing character, and I would hope that the next person to play Wolverine does the character justice. I know many people have said Tom Hardy, and as much as I like him, hell no because everyone wants him for Bond too (Which I am also against) and he has already been in the Batman franchise as well as also Mad Max. I don't want him to be in too many franchises as leads.

Whoever it is, I want him to be great as James 'Logan' Howlett and no matter how good he is, we know Hugh Jackman will always be Wolverine. If the next Wolverine isn't great, we will still have Hugh Jackman's incredible work, Hugh Jackman will never be 'replaced'. Infact, that's just made me think.

We use replace a lot when talking about this, what we should use instead is succeed. Replace just boils these characters and the actors behind them as nothing but tools to do the job, we should celebrate the people who are entrusted with these roles because they bring these characters to life for so many of us, and I don't think we show them enough appreciation.

In an ideal world, Hugh Jackman would be as immortal as the character of Wolverine and he could keep up his incredible physique constantly without any sort of discomfort or sacrifice in terms of the luxuries in life, like food. I know Hugh said he was willing at one point to do it forever, but as he said about Jerry Seinfeld, he decided enough was enough and there would have been a point where Hugh would have been too old and the story itself would be compromised by too old a Wolverine.

Hugh Jackman, you have done us X-Men fans, comic book fans, movie fans etc. all proud and you deserve to now be tucked up in bed with a nice cup of coco, and be proud of the legacy you have left behind. Nobody will ever surmount your efforts of going the extra mile, above and beyond the call of duty and Hugh ought to be proud, for helping and arguably, leading the charge of planting the breadcrumbs of what comic book movies have evolved into and are still becoming 17 years down the line.

To anyone saying "Hugh Jackman, don't stop being Wolverine please", I get that you're obviously upset, we all are! Hugh is amazing, and will always be our Wolverine but it's time to pass the torch. New stories with a new and ready actor, who is onboard to honour the character, the story, the audience, not the other way round. They have to earn it, because we are the consumers but we as consumers should also be ready to let whoever succeeds Hugh, give them a chance.

We want more movies with this character so many years down the line. This will be the same with so many other things in life, like Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May on The Grand Tour, eventually they'll grow too old for the show and will need to get out, we as the people who consume have to realise, it'll be time to stop soon.

It says a lot about our way of thinking as a whole. We need to branch out, not just go with what we know to be and learn that things won't be the way they are forever, especially when we are talking about humans, whether it be Hugh Jackman as Wolverine or the trio on The Grand Tour, all good things must end but we should look back, acknowledge the past in order to do the best for the future because for every one great, a million others may very well consist of so many more.

That's the note I want to end on. Hope you have enjoyed this article, and do go celebrate a wonderful ending to Hugh Jackman's time as Wolverine, go see Logan. I'll be doing so tomorrow (Today by the time I publish it) with my friend Ash, having already seen it once and knowing how much I love it.

Anyway that will be all, and as ever if you did enjoy, be sure to stick around for some more articles by putting your email in the 'Follow By Email' option to get these sent straight to your inbox. You can also follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat.

Thank you for reading, hope to see you soon! So until we meet again.
Luca.

Dear Polyphony - Gran Turismo

Image courtesy of www.funzen.net

Hello you, the name is Luca but you can call me Luca. So as you know, I am a huge racing gamer, and it all began with Gran Turismo 3. It all began when my mum took me to the house of someone whose sons played cricket with my older brother, and I was an unfiltered little shit so I expressed my complete boredom and I saw one of the guy's PS2's with GT3, and he actually let me have it. That began a life long love for motorsport games for me.

Growing up, I went from being someone who just wanted to drive all these amazing cars to now someone who will play the game properly and do what is asked of me. I have played many other different types of racing games with varying levels of enjoyment to them, and you will see in a post I made on a game idea I had that I named Giro d'Strada (Link here - https://redsone-shot.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/an-idea-giro-dstrada.html), I have certainly peeked into every corner of this genre. Gran Turismo though is where it all began and as a fan of something, it is all well and good to be highly critical.

There are two kinds of people in this world, fans and fanboys. The fanboys will blindly follow something and call someone a hater for giving it the tiniest bit of criticism, and this attitude absolutely sickens me, because nobody can actually reach their full potential without criticism. So if you don't mind, I'd like to dish some out, hopefully you fanboys flex your fingers ready to angrily type out some pretty badly spelt out racial slurs and claims that you have fucked my mother in the comments below and be on your merry way. Now, on with my blasphemous hate speech.

Now for the intelligent lot, allow me to provide you with some context other than the parts that I already have, concerning my history with the Gran Turismo series. Having played Gran Turismo 3 and Gran Turismo 4 on PS2, everything began to take off for me when Gran Turismo 5 Prologue was released on PS3 and I began to appreciate the game on a whole new level. Following on from that, we had the full Gran Turismo 5 game and Gran Turismo 6 as well, and I had some incredible memories on there.

If you read my Giro d'Strada post, you will know that my PS3 decided to not update GT6 and therefore, I haven't played it since around the back end of 2014. I have my fix with driving games back, with games like Assetto Corsa and Project CARS on my PS4 and a steering wheel for my console that also contributed to these many memories of playing on my PS3. So joy of joys, the first PS4 Gran Turismo game is going to be released very soon, a standalone game called Gran Turismo Sport. (NOTE: It was meant to launch November 18th 2016 but it got pushed back, always for the best. You'll never hear me complain about a game being pushed back, I don't know who said it but a delayed game is eventually good and a rushed game is forever bad.

GT Sport is set to be apparently, a version of the series that centres only on the motorsport aspect and with little in the way of many road cars, at least from what I am aware. I was thrilled to hear this because the FIA are looking to bring racing competition into the limelight utilising this game, and I could do without the road cars since I have Assetto Corsa, Project CARS and its sequel also releasing this year.

Where the game let down though, the track selection. This is an issue that has plagued the GT series, and just to demonstrate my point, here is a list of confirmed circuits that will be in GT Sport; Tokyo Expressway, an oval track named Northern Isle Speedway, Dirt Course (No prizes for guessing what that will consist of), Brands Hatch, Nürburgring Nordschleife and the quite frankly, abysmal Willow Springs Raceway.

For a game that is apparently going to host the FIA Online World Championship and also have live E-Sports events, that is such a shit line-up. Nürburgring and Brands Hatch are great, Tokyo Expressway looks good but I feel will be underwhelming, ovals aren't used for GT racing and only really for American motorsport, Dirt Course is the only non tarmac circuit and Willow Springs, I'm fed up of it. If I had the backing of the FIA, I'd focus on many FIA certified circuits and at the very least Polyphony.. Silverstone, Monza, Spa-Francorchamps, Suzuka, Monaco, even Le Mans! At the very least, have those in the game.

This is an issue that I am going to have with GT Sport. Because, GT5 had many great tracks at release and they added in amazing ones like Motegi, Spa and others and they felt like additions, whereas with GT Sport, I assume there will be more added in but instead of feeling like additions, it's a matter of completing the game through paid DLC with so many better tracks. If you could think of an metaphor, it's like selling the Mona Lisa in parts!

Another issue I do have with the GT series, this is perhaps just a personal thing but the amount of Skyline models that have been tuned by an independent bunch of engineers outside of Nissan's own commissioning. But I am tired of all of the many models of the same car, and I want to see now with the FIA's backing, more sports cars, more GT racers, single seaters, touring cars, and aside from all of that, road cars that dreamers of cars do actually want.

We buy these games to live out the dreams of cars we want to drive, we simply don't have a lot to choose from unfortunately. In a way, Gran Turismo isn't in the market to tickle our pickles with a Bugatti Chiron and a Lamborghini Veneno, it is here to create the best driving experience but we need things to drive and places to drive them.

The Gran Turismo series needed a boost, even after GT6 which was great by all means, I miss driving the DeltaWing on that game, one of my favourite cars. I have been holding out false hope and was previously, very intrigued for the FIA Online championship and E-Sports events considering Gran Turismo's ventures from virtual to real world racing beforehand, now bringing gaming racing into hopeful popularisation. But with such a pitiful list of circuits, I have lost hope not only for big scope online structured championships, but for the GT series as a whole.

I know Sport is meant to be a standalone game but it carries so many issues from past GT games. Not attempting to generalise here, but the game is Japanese and giving credit where credit is due, the technology utilised for this series is incredible but it shows no eliciting of any sort of, what's the word? Well, it's subtle; the in-game car sounds for example don't tickle your ear drums, infact they're quite monotone and annoying, the throttle response is gentle and the gear changes feel a little too perfect.

Yes, you can feel the tyres on this game through every bit of the road, but the overall experience of driving cars on Gran Turismo feels, digital. Which it should really considering it is a game, but when you drive a car, you need to experience many sensations.

Yesterday, I was driving the Ferrari FXX K on Assetto Corsa, the car on the cover of that game. Say what you like about Assetto Corsa's console port but you put the foot down in anything from a 1,000 horsepower plus hypercar to an Abarth 500 with just 160 horsepower, it feels mechanical. You feel the rough edges of an analog performance, the horsepower being transferred to the road with a bass breaking thunderous noise coming from either the TV, surround sound speakers or your headphones. It's about the experience!

Please Polyphony, make us players drive these cars with a more of an experience that makes you feel like you are in a car. Add more desirable cars, hopefully the PS4 can allow you to take advantage of more hardware. Great tracks, the sub par ones like Willow Springs and that awful London track that goes around Picadilly Circus and instead go for a more complete version like the Grand Prix track that McLaren, Sky and Santander came up with instead.

I want nothing more than to see this franchise succeed. I mean, I saw the track line up and immediately turned my attention to Project CARS 2, which I am indifferent on because I have heard of how much of an arsehole the lead developer Ian Bell is to the people who funded the game! Assetto Corsa is doing me very well right now but that whole Giro d'Strada idea I had, maybe it won't happen since the AC team is apparently a single digit amount.

You know what, this goes out to all video game developers who are working on huge games, listen to us fans. Studio Liverpool have just bought the rides to the Test Drive Unlimited series, and I am praying that they give us an experience, an appeal of giving those who seek a thrill and a lifestyle of driving cars that we wouldn't get to drive normally.

We petrolheads play these games to drive these cars, to enjoy racing on a big scale, and there's nothing to appease the bunch of us who look to live out a lifestyle of driving these out of this world cars that we would never be able to even dream of. Like me! Just get me in a LaFerrari Aperta on my wheel, a mountain road in continental Europe with that howling V12 soundtrack. Also me! Being in the pits at Le Mans at around 3am, my team mate has just got out of our team's Ferrari 488 GTE.

I can't speak for many other car cultures and their gaming equivalents, but those are the main two that really appeal to the Gran Turismo generation and demographic. Again, I am a supporter of the series but I don't know how long I can keep my patience, but I do have GT Sport on pre-order and will get in on day one, and believe me, like how I will be on the day that Kingsman: The Golden Circle is released, I will be saying to myself ready to either watch the film or play the game, "Please be good" and then repeating that phrase many times.

If not that, then GT7 and all the future titles. Polyphony, the ball is in your court.

Thank you all of you for reading this. If you'd like to see some more articles from me in the future, Follow By Email for those on desktop, all of my articles get sent directly to your email, and you can follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat.

Hope to see you all again very soon, so until we meet again.
Luca.

Top Gear vs. The Grand Tour part two

Image courtesy of www.telegraph.co.uk

Hello you, the name is Luca but you can call me Luca. So in July, I wrote an article about the new shape Top Gear without the trio of Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, and that trio's new show on Amazon Prime, The Grand Tour. If you want to read that article, the link is here - https://redsone-shot.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/an-idea-giro-dstrada.html.

This at the time was just after the first season of revamped Top Gear had ended, and was months before the first season of The Grand Tour began, and I wrote about what Top Gear could improve upon and looking forward to what The Grand Tour had to offer. Well fast forward to now, the first season of The Grand Tour has ended and the next season of Top Gear is around the corner, so it's a role reversal.

First off, I will be critiquing The Grand Tour, because there are some things that I didn't like and I hope are rid of for this November's next season. Let's start with a few things I do like though, because there were plenty.

Image courtesy of www.theverge.com

So for me, I loved The Grand Tour for the most part. The concept of going all around the world and having a mobile studio with a different view every week, that's something that makes this show more international than Top Gear and all inclusive, and more cultured dare I say? Maybe? I think for a show named The Grand Tour, a normally basic idea like having a different base location and going around the world, it's a stroke of genius.

 

When talking about The Grand Tour initially, I said I wanted to see more of those road trips (Or 'Grand Tours') more frequently with the higher performance vehicles, and we saw some. Episode 3 where Clarkson had an Aston Martin DB11, Hammond had a Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and May had a Rolls-Royce Dawn and they went to Italy.

 

That episode was one of my favourites, even with Hammond's obnoxious ways. Old Top Gear with those three going somewhere such as Italy with a Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, a McLaren MP4-12C and a Noble M600, or through America with a Ferrari 458 Italia, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and Porsche 911 GT3 RS. I thought we would see more of those with The Grand Tour but we didn't, because as unpopular as this opinion is, I don't like those cheap car challenges that old Top Gear had.

So with the heavily international format that The Grand Tour has, I do wish we could just see more exotic cars going to exotic places because like I said in my original article, we live out our pipe dreams through these three plebs. That's what I am hoping for really, because these motoring YouTube accounts don't surge in popularity because of buying three cheap cars and falling over, they become popular by allowing access to high performance vehicles that we losers could only dream of owning. Why do you think so many video games have all these types of cars?

Next thing, I do like the touch of the test track, though I despise its nickname 'Eboladrome'. It's an amazing track, but what I don't like is Mike Skinner, AKA 'The American', the driver tasked with lapping all of the cars. He's dreadful! I'd much rather they completely remove the in-car scenes and just have him lap the cars and that's it, he has no comedy and no charisma at all.

I get why Amazon wanted an American, but why did they pick someone so uninteresting and with no charisma at all? I'd be more than okay with it if we just didn't see him and all he was is a guinea pig who served no other purpose than to lap the track and set lap times, but the second we join him in the cockpit, it's so un-joyous and there's nothing that feels fluid in what he's saying.

Next up, the bollocks that was Celebrity Braincrash. It was a funny thing at first, with Jeremy Renner, Armie Hammer and even Carol Vorderman all 'dying' and as much as I love the idea of it all going wrong to some degree, it became stale. I touched upon this in my original article, the celebrity thing on the facelifted Top Gear was a bit shit, asking what their first car was, best car and then going to their laps where Chris Evans would ask the audience to go 'WEYYY' when the rallycross Mini splashed through the puddles or got some air time.

The old TG format was unpopular though because it was just a chat show but with their competitive lap, I know a lot of my friends weren't interested. I for one will never get over the fact that Superman actor Henry Cavill was scheduled to appear on the final episode of the season that didn't happen because obviously, what happened with Clarkson.

I for one would like to see a proper celebrity segment, and I feel like I have an idea of what could be done. We never obviously find out what this braincrash machine does and frankly, I don't want to, so instead I'd like to see celebrities brought on every episode and there is a gaming wheel set up with Assetto Corsa for PC, with the mod installed to race around The Grand Tour test track.

So in short, more high performance vehicles grand touring around the world, less of that dull arse American and a much better celebrity segment. But before I move on to Top Gear, there is another thing I want to bring up, and it's about the presenters. May and Clarkson are contracted for the next three seasons along with Hammond, and apparently May and Clarkson are planning to do two more after the next two on their current contract before stopping. The thing is, they can't go on forever and I want to see The Grand Tour continue thriving even after the current three presenters stop, I for one would love Jenson Button to become a presenter, he's got the same kind of humour and charisma as all of these three. Feel free to let me know who you'd like to see as presenters.

Anyway, now onto Top Gear.

 

Image courtesy of www.digitalspy.co.uk

The last season of Top Gear wasn't brilliant but it looks like they have listened to the few people who are actually showing some kind of support to them, like me! I gave the BBC the benefit of the doubt when I said in my original post, "I think Matt LeBlanc, Chris Harris and Rory Reid are brilliant, more of them!" and we are indeed getting them. Those three are becoming the main presenters, with Sabine Schmidt and Eddie Jordan coming on occasionally, and Chris Evans no longer in the picture.

It would seem that Top Gear is heading towards its inevitable demise since apparently, their beloved test track is now going to be torn up in favour of real estate, and this season could be its last since the vast majority of fans are flocking over to Amazon Prime to watch the old trio.

There isn't a lot that can be said, and I am personally looking forward to this new season of Top Gear. It airs on March 5th, and apparently James McAvoy is a guest on the show and Chris Harris is thrashing around in a Ferrari FXX-K. Hopefully a lot of you out there give this season a chance, last one wasn't that good but they seem to be learning from it.

Anyway that'll be all from me. If you have enjoyed reading this article and would like to stick around to see more, you can follow by email by putting yours in a box up in the top right if you're on desktop. Or you can stalk me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat.

Hope to see you all soon, so until we meet again.
Luca.

Why I love X-Men

Image courtesy of www.ScreenGeek.net

Hello you, the name is Luca but you can call me Luca. So when it comes to comic book movies, there are mainly two sides, the war between diehard fanboys and fangirls of DC and Marvel. I really enjoy both Marvel movies and DC movies, but if I was asked what my favourite comic book franchise is, that would be X-Men.

I have decided to write this in anticipation of 'Logan', Hugh Jackman's last hurrah as Wolverine before hanging up the claws. The movie will be released in theatres worldwide on March 3rd and it looks so good, I cannot wait to see it. Anyway, on with the article.

I first became interested in X-Men a while ago, probably around late 2013 when I was looking through the filmography of an actor named Tim Pocock, an Australian actor who I knew from the TV series Dance Academy, and I saw that he was in the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie as the character of Scott Summers/Cyclops. This did peak my interest as all I knew at the time was that it was a comic book movie franchise and my friend Matthew was a big fan of it when we were in secondary school.

So I began looking into it, and all of my dismissive actions against the X-Men franchise were the actions of a fool, it wasn't just a typical superhero cheese-fest that had an underdog go through a freak green energy accident that gave them supernatural abilities and then decide they need to save the world from the dark forces. I noticed that there was parallels to the issues of our time, themes about discrimination and political oppression, historical figures who tackle these issues, it's huge.

If you're living under a rock, the X-Men are a team of mutants who are individuals with a gene that gives them any sort of ability that will allow them to fly, heal quickly or read people's minds, but these children who possess these abilities will see them as a curse more often than not. These children of the atom, they are at a very vulnerable point in their life already before realising they have this 'disease' that makes them scary to the rest of the world.

The X-Men themselves are led by the telepathic Professor Charles Xavier, who runs the School For Gifted Youngsters which he set up to help teach young mutants enhance their abilities so they can go back out into the real world. As a result of these superior species of humans, it is met with incredible hostility from society and mutants are forced to go into hiding, and Xavier represents those who reckon humans and mutants will one day live in harmony.

On the opposite end of the scale, you have Erik Lehnsherr or Magneto, a prisoner of war survivor who has only ever known loss and pain. Lehnsherr has the ability to manipulate and control metal, and whilst often portrayed as a villain to Professor X's X-Men, his views on how mutants and humans should stand is no less meaningful, in that after all the pain that mutants have gone through that mutants must fight back against humans.

Notice a parallel there? Stan Lee who created the X-Men based Professor X and Magneto to be just like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, two individuals who wanted to achieve the same goal but with parallel methods. King wanted white and black people to be equal, whereas Malcolm X doesn't see why after all the white man put black people through that they should be all buddy buddy, and neither opinion is right or wrong honestly.

This is especially appropriate in today's day and age. We live in a time full of discrimination, and because I for example am a white, cisgender male who is straight, I obviously can't talk about it but I will, everyone experiences it and X-Men take this subject matter into question and not only don't trivialise it, they emphasise it to the point where it even hits home.

Examples of the movies' tackling of such issues, the original X-Men movie from the year 2000 had a mutant registration act under discussion for approval by many politicians, including Senator Robert Kelly. The mutant registration act would mean that mutants wouldn't perhaps be allowed in certain public places, many children won't be allowed in schools, those seeking work wouldn't be given a job because they were mutants, you get the idea.

In the follow up to the original X-Men, there was a scene in X2: X-Men United where the character of Bobby Drake/Iceman was forced to reveal to his parents and brother that he was a mutant, and his mum says to him "Have you tried to not be a mutant?", much like any homosexual individual has probably gone through at some point. The mirroring doesn't stop there, Sir Ian McKellen who portrayed Magneto in the franchise and is openly gay as well, helped the screenwriters with writing this scene and it shows with how powerful it really is, it does resemble a common 'coming-out' scene extremely well.

Then in the not so loved third film of the franchise, you have the 'cure' for mutation, which can be likened to one that hits home for me, the idea that autism can be cured by simple vaccination. The idea of trivialising anything as something that can be merely cured and is nothing more than a disease can be very insulting. Whilst at the same time, those who see their mutation as a curse would be on the opposite end of this argument.

X-Men for being a comic book superhero franchise - a form of media generalised as being aimed towards kids - does offer a load of political commentary and whilst superhero movies in recent years have come of age after the initial rise in the early noughties, X-Men remains the only one that is unique and has always been one step ahead.

I say this because before the first X-Men movie, we only really had Superman and Batman represent the genre and be popular among the fans. However after X-Men left its mark, it began a train of superhero movies that have had their troubled start, rose to brilliance and also unfortunately, become the corporate dominated two hour advertisements for other movies which in turn would also be two hour long advertisements for other movies.

X-Men has not be immune to this. Not a particularly faultless run with the third X-Men movie The Last Stand and the Wolverine origin movie not being particularly loved, and with the rise of Marvel's own in-house cinematic universe and Fox's other failed attempts at Marvel superhero franchises in form of the Fantastic Four and Daredevil, many fans have questioned if Fox should let Marvel have back their property.

Daredevil was attempted with a movie that Ben Affleck portrayed the blind lawyer and vigilante, which along with its other standalone movie centred around Jennifer Garner's Elektra, were not received well critically. The rights reverted back to Marvel who now utilise the character in a now two season Netflix original series (With a third season coming up) and a combined effort for the upcoming The Defenders mini-series.

Fantastic Four has had three iterations spread across four movies, all of which sucked so much arse and I for one am more than happy to see Marvel take back control of the Fantastic Four and hopefully do it some justice. I however do not share this opinion about the X-Men, I for one think that Fox should keep hold of the X-Men franchise because they get what makes these characters work.

I would say these movies have only got better, and they peaked when Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman came onboard for by far the best X-Men movies, X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past. The friendship and clashing ideologies of a young Professor X (James McAvoy), Magneto (Michael Fassbender) and Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) is extremely compelling, and also seeing the evolution of Magneto throughout First Class and Xavier in Days of Future Past especially given their circumstances, making these stories driven by what matters, the characters. Not mindless visuals like the Hulk punching Iron Man up a building or Batman in an armoured suit punching Superman because reference to The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel.

Superhero movies have so much to thank X-Men for, showing the world that it wasn't just about Batman and Superman, and even now with the rise of Marvel's and DC's own set of interconnected franchises, X-Men isn't at the forefront when it comes to popularity. It's not the typical superhero type story but it will always be an effective one, and I will be happy to report that I have my doubts that X-Men will be pushed down to anything other than my second favourite comic book movie franchise.

I however am critical, I am not a fanboy who will blindly follow. Last year, the latest instalment of the series X-Men: Apocalypse, I was mildly disappointed by it. If my bias says anything, I rated Captain America: Civil War as one of the best movies last year and X-Men was just, meh. I am 100% confident that the upcoming Logan will be the perfect send-off for Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, it looks set to raise the bar higher for a superhero franchise character story and I know it is going to be a tough watch for everyone since we love Hugh Jackman as this amazing character.

As for other movies, we have had the original X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: The Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men: First Class, The Wolverine, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Deadpool, X-Men: Apocalypse, the new Legion TV series and Logan - Deadpool is another example of changing the game but many others have explained it better than me - and the future seems bright. The character Gambit is set to have a solo movie (It was meant to be in October last year but oh well), as well as a Deadpool sequel set for March 2018, a follow up to Apocalypse, another apparently centred around The New Mutants that have Game of Thrones' Maisie Williams attached, an X-Force movie, there is plenty to look forward to if you're an X-Men fan. I for one, would like at one point to see this franchise have a fresh start.

I don't think Fox knew what they were letting themselves in for when X-Men first hit the screens in 2000, and as much as I know how well X-Men has paved the way for other superhero franchises, it's also a bit behind. Marvel with their own interconnected world, they spent years planning everything and whilst not without many hiccups, they have nailed it and DC and even Sony tried making their own universes, with DC's right now failing unfortunately with their movies being very divided, and Sony having only Spiderman and only two movies into their fresh start, they gave up and are now allowing Marvel to utilise the character in the MCU.

X-Men has many continuity errors in their films, and I think it's a result of Fox being very underprepared by the train they started. Don't get me wrong, I love the X-Men movies but I do think they can be so much better and considering Hugh Jackman - who has led this franchise since it began - is hanging up his claws, I think now is a good time. My advice (What would I know though?) would be to keep it with the same messages and grounded realism, don't copy what Marvel do and have it be a pun-fest, light and bright, it's why I've never wanted Marvel Studios to get the rights back.

Keep the X-Men at their best, this franchise will always continue to thrive and I, Luca, am a proud X-Men fan.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed. If you're new here, feel free to follow by email and follow the instructions on the top right if you're keen to see more - providing you're on desktop - or you can follow me on Twitter @TheLucaFormat.

I just want to take a moment to wish a Happy Birthday to one of my greatest friends, Nadine. The reason it could be relevant here is because she has a minor crush on Hugh Jackman, I think. I should probably fact check this stuff before I write it. Regardless of whether she does, it's important to me and it's my blog so as said in her home country, Gelukkige Verjaardag!

To you reading whoever you are, thank you again and I hope you come back to read my next article.

So until we meet again.
Luca.

An idea - Giro d'Strada

Image courtesy of www.gta5-mods.com

Hello you, the name is Luca but you can call me Luca. Happy new year all of you, I did start writing this article back in December, I am the ultimate procrastinator. But let us not get bogged down by however long it takes me to write a few words, how about we just get on with this? So I alluded to this back in my article talking about something I liked about myself, so for those of you who give a flying fuck about this idea, here we go.

So I'm very much a guy who enjoys his video games and driving, that is more than clear after reading my blog for as long as many of you may have. As far as racing games go, I am more of a realistic driving simulator guy over the arcade-ish handling models on the majority of racing games, so this means I'm more of a Project CARS and Gran Turismo guy over games like Need For Speed and as much love as I have for those games, there is a gap in the market.

One thing we don't have in the driving simulator market is a free roam based one, that being one set on the open road. Having been playing GTA a lot and having the entire map in that game with all the fictional cars, I've realised how much I love driving on the open road and it got me thinking, why have we never had a realistic driving game set in an open world?

Nobody throw any of that crap at me like 'Forza Horizon', I haven't played but according to many people, it's not realistic because you can drive low riding sports and super cars across terrain and not be slow as shit. Anyway enough of this, allow me to get into the thick of this.

November 27th this year, I was reunited with an old friend, a gaming steering wheel. I had gone two years without using one since my PS3 wouldn't update Gran Turismo 6, and Assetto Corsa is currently my go to game for some driving and I cannot tell you how great it feels to turn the wheel and know where the car's tyres are placing themselves on the road, oh and my wheel has force feedback as well.

So I was driving the Ferrari LaFerrari around Nürburgring Nordschleife and I started to think about a few things, why have we never had a driving simulator game that is based on the open road as appose to race tracks? Also, why have we never had a free roam based driving game set in continental Europe? Since most of them limit themselves to America for the most part.

Hence this concept, Giro d'Strada. Roughly translated from Italian as Tour Of The Road, a very fitting name I believe for this concept that I am excited to share with you. I have had the strong belief that the developers of Assetto Corsa were more than fitting for this project, with the Assetto Corsa game titles making up the equivalent of the Forza Motorsport games and Giro d'Strada being the equivalent of the Forza Horizon titles.

Within the context of the game, you create your own custom character and once you buy yourself a house, you are then a part of a team initially that is pushing for an entry into the resurrected-named 'Grand Tour' that plays out like the old automobile Tour de France, Mille Miglia, Targa Florio and Carrera Panamericana. This Grand Tour event is organised by the fictional Tour Auto Club, who could be the equivalent of the FIA within the context of this game.

You get to name your club and you can buy yourself a team base, design your team logo and name it, then you can hire other players to join you or you can join their clubs at any time. If you join someone else's club, you can park your active vehicle inside their team base exactly like how Motorcycle Clubs work in GTA, with your other members able to park their currently used motorcycles inside your motorcycle club base.

Drive to all types of showrooms around the map like on Test Drive Unlimited, pick car exterior colour, interior, wheel types, and use them in races and in free roam.

I haven't got round to certain other details, but it would all centre around a social aspect with the game encouraging you to gather your friends and do anything from cruising, interacting, competing against other player's clubs in many different types of challenges like racing, drifting etc. It would not be plot heavy and you would not have much of a character-based story that Pokémon Sun and Moon are being heavily criticised for having, when the thing that people want to do is focus on the Pokémon.

However I don't want Giro d'Strada to neglect anyone who doesn't want to play online in the same way a game like Need For Speed 2015 did where the game was always online, since I know some people can't use the internet. The gameplay will remain pretty much the same, with AI drivers being the competitors in the races.

GdS could also bring back popular split screen usage. If you have a minimum of two to four cars on your character, you can bring up split screens for you and your friends to drive both offline and online in the same game session. Exactly like Rocket League.

All of the races take place on public roads, some of which that have been closed off depending on what is being done, some races, time trials, highest speed challenge etc. and doing these challenges will result in money that you will be able to use to buy cars, houses, team bases, character visual customisation like clothes, plastic surgery, haircuts and so on.

In these events, you have coverage going on at every event, since the championship you're competing in is very high profile and prestigious. You have mechanics and engineers sorting the vehicle of choice for that particular event, a motor home, with the press looking to have a word with you so immediately, it's immersive like I requested from the F1 game developers Codemasters to go back to, with a paddock environment.

I am looking to try and incorporate a sponsorship aspect into the racing and for it not to be too overbearing, but it does allow your pay-outs in races to be increased should you achieve certain goals. After watching episode three of Amazon Prime's The Grand Tour, I learned that back in the old days of the Grand Tour, sponsors did apparently fund the people who did go, so making it a championship event on par with that of let's say, Formula One, Formula E and the World Endurance Championship, sponsorships seem appropriate.

But the main selling point of this game does come in the form of driving in free roam, and this originated from I think everyone's favourite free roam driving game, Test Drive Unlimited. This is basically the concept but turned up to 11, and with a realistic driving model and a much larger map, plus without the awful name for the racing championship that you compete in, which in TDU2 was the 'Solar Crown', fucking horrendous name!

As far as vehicles within this game is concerned, the possibilities are endless. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, you name it, and not just limited to modern performance cars, as you can also have classic cars and even off-road vehicles. The one issue though, I don't know if bikes would be a great inclusion as amazing as they are, because the reason I have been coming up with this idea is because I've been wanting this game to be compatible with a gaming steering wheel.

You can win cars whilst going through the game, like how you could win the Ariel Atom V8 if you completed the last competition race on Test Drive Unlimited 2. One thing though, all cars will not be upgradable like on that game, everything will be just like how they would leave the showroom in real life with changes to the setup if you wanted to, in the pause menu for example if you wanted to set your car up for drifting just like on Assetto Corsa.

With the entire map being centred around the mountainous and coastal parts of Italy and other parts of central Europe, the world is your oyster and you can go on the perfect road trips with your friends in tow. I for one know I'll be taking a LaFerrari Aperta across some amazing mountain roads with the roof off (Which by the way, all cars with a removable roof, you can do that by the touch of a button) and using my new Logitech G29, mashing the throttle and kicking the arse out in the exact same way I have been with the regular LaFerrari on Assetto Corsa.

A social aspect that I personally am not interested in, car meets. The people that I game with on GTA, they particularly like the idea of car meets so what I am thinking, you can send out a message to the server saying that you are instigating a car meet at a particular location. People can then turn up and you can inspect people's cars, challenge them to races etc.

Another small idea I've just thought of, a cruise control option when you're in a group of friends. Shout out to my friend Charlie who has been helping me out with many of the ideas for Giro d'Strada, he wants a game where we can cruise around in a group so a feature within the team tab if you're all in someone's particular team, the 'Cruise Control' option will allow everyone to stay within proximity of the leader. This is all mainly inspired from the Motorcycle Club formation feature in GTA, except unlike in GTA, if the leader goes full throttle, you have to make an effort to keep up.

If any of you follow my Instagram, you'll see that I posted a video of me on a moped with a friend of mine on a Tron bike from GTA keeping up with him because of this feature. It's hilarious, but it won't be the same exact thing in GdS, with only constant speed and braking being matched like a regular cruise control feature in regular cars.

Last thing I want to touch upon and this is something huge and revolutionary that I would love to see implemented, will be a first of its kind. A dedicated radio station made specifically for the game, which I along with a couple of friends came up with after we had concluded how annoying and repetitive it is having to listen to pre-recorded radio is on games like GTA and Test Drive etc., so hence Radio Giro d'Strada with live chat from a bunch of real people, doing a load of things to broaden the social horizon.

The custom radio station could have a routine presenter switch-around so the radio would be broadcasting constantly so to not provide Australian players for example with nothing to listen to should the radio broadcasting be done from somewhere in Europe. That necessity aside, the benefits of this custom radio station would be that you could request songs, they could have players on to talk about the game, they could advertise upcoming car packs and the best part, occasional randomly selected races could be commentated on. You could even have a studio broadcasting from Twitch.tv as well of the radio station.

Imagine that! You're listening to the radio station, and then you hear your username read out on the starting grid and you hear whoever will be the commentators talking over the race, I was thinking initially live but in hindsight, maybe not a good idea and instead gather some of the best races performed in the past two hours or something.

As for if someone didn't want to listen to the radio, there could be an original soundtrack on another option between radio on and turning the thing off. Drivers could skip songs if they wanted to by hitting L3 (I'm on PS4 so you other platform people can try and think of what is in the place of L3 on your controller equivalent).

I can already imagine the cover, credit to my friend Charlie as he helped me come up with it. We did try and replicate it using GTA and our Grotti Carbonizzare cars but I didn't quite get what I wanted so I'll just have to have you lot rely upon your imaginations. Picture a Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta driving on a road similar to that of the Stelvio Pass in Italy, that road that the three Top Gear presenters (Now The Grand Tour presenters) Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May travelled to in lightweight supercars that one time on good Top Gear.

Anyway I have digressed too much now, so a mountain road with a LaFerrari Aperta being driven with full opposite lock and a driver wearing shades and looking cool, and a European town seen in the background with the sea and other mountains. Then the Giro d'Strada logo, available for PS4, Xbox One and PC, developed by KUNOS Simulazioni.

It is to my understanding that a game of this size and a company as tight knit as KUNOS would be a huge task, but after playing Assetto Corsa, I know KUNOS is the best fit. Within days of when I have published this, KUNOS were acquired by Digital Bros so if it is time for KUNOS to expand, this would be the perfect game to tackle.

That will be it from me everyone. I have - despite my procrastinating - been pouring my heart into this, my Italian side coming out! All of my friends, many people from the Assetto Corsa forums and hopefully all of you gamers out there, will love this idea and I do hope this will cause a chain of events that leads to KUNOS announcing Giro d'Strada in a few years from now.

If you're new here and want to see more, follow on Twitter @TheLucaFormat or subscribe via email in the top right of your desktop page. Let's hope we can Giro d'Strada soon, on our own European road trip.

So until we meet again,
Luca.

The Christmas Day Truce of 1914

Image courtesy of www.wikipedia.org

Hello you, the name is Luca but you can call me Luca. Merry Christmas all of you or whatever you celebrate around this time, my Christmas day 2016 has been very typically quiet but I am not complaining, I have got a lot of what I wanted for Christmas so I'm okay.

My day has been mostly me staring at my phone, waiting for one of my favourite YouTubers Broughy1322 to hit 100,000 subscribers, and he did it! I also logged onto GTA Online to claim my free unicorn mask which I am very much pleased with, and also after the last few days with helping my friends get money on GTA and mainly my friend Ahmed so he could get his classic Porsche 911.

But it was after I had just been to my Granny's house for Christmas dinner that I got the idea to write this quickly, I don't know if this will be long but I just wanted to write this quick, I don't want to be away from my parents long enough for them to be like "Come down here now you unsocial little shit". Anyway back on track, the thing I want to talk about is the Christmas Day Truce.

T'was the Christmas period 1914, the British soldiers who are in the trenches in France, they were promised to be home by Christmas after the war broke out. The same was told to the German soldiers, and the many months of sitting down in these trenches, ready to shoot an 'enemy' because our governments were at war.

The night descends upon them, and the British soldiers hear the Germans singing Stille Nacht in harmony, the Brits join in with the same song Silent Night and what happens the following morning is perhaps the most symbolic moment of peace and humanity amidst the most violent events of human history. One soldier pops up from behind the British trench, a German soldier is ready to pull the trigger but instead, stand down.

Everyone from the British side and the German side leave their trenches, they exchange season greetings, gifts, food, there was even games of football played between the young Nigel's and Otto's. For the first time, the Brits and Germans were seen to each other to a certain degree, as not a 'target' or any other word to make them nothing more than something to kill, but as individuals. With parents, siblings, partners, children, family back home, a humanisation of all these people, who are all humans and should always have been.

There's this nobility seen with going to war and dying for your country, and my movie I absolutely adore does illustrate this to such a great extent, Testament Of Youth. Behind the act of war, are individuals who shouldn't be reduced down to nothing but a person who lived shorter than they should have.

These men defied what they were told to do, and the unofficial truce of Christmas 102 years ago is a reminder to us all, your fellow human is just that.

2016 has been dreadful, but one thing I want all of you to remember, you have each other. All of you, please remember that and show the ones you love this Christmas, that you do. They are more to you than you should make clear if you don't do that already. That will be all everyone.

I look forward to getting back into my regular type of articles, that I hope you will all stick around to enjoy. Remember everyone, good will to you all as the British and German soldiers displayed, and we need to remind generations to come what these incredible individuals did. Thank you.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and until we meet again.
Luca.

Something I like about myself

Hello you. The name is Luca, but you can call me Luca. So, if any of you are unfortunate enough to follow me on Instagram (Due to my over excessive shit-postings), you may have clicked on my story a few days ago and seen something I wrote. The particular example that I am referring to is finding something you like about yourself and writing about it.

Not to sound all guru like, or spiritual or pretentious by being like "Spread peace, love and positivity and the world will be such a better place" or any of that bullshit. Allow me to provide you with the reason why I wrote that, and not to sound like I am asking for pity or anything because that's the last thing I want from this. I may or may not have touched upon this before, I go to something called talking therapy and speak to someone about things that have gone before in my life, the results of those things and how I can best overcome some fears.

One of the things me and the person I speak to there talk about a lot is how I never think of anything that I do as a great thing, and by that I mean, I don't apparently give myself enough credit. This has been a thing I just thought was the norm, that nobody ever thinks of anything good that they do as a great and commendable thing themselves. Though if I feel I've done wrong, I know that fine well and I think everyone should, nonetheless it has resulted in myself being somewhat apparently a tad negative regarding the things I do.

With all of that being said though, I still firmly believe I don't deserve commending for doing good things. Though having been thinking for a bit, I do think despite all the deprecation I throw my own way, what if instead of being me, I was just some unfortunate soul who had to tolerate my existence? The perspective of someone who knows me, who themselves believes their own idea of average is themselves and anything they do, because I can safely say that I see a lot of good in people. One of those people is my friend Emma, who is responsible for me coming up with this idea.

Emma she has her own blog which I will link here (https://emdoesbookreviews.wordpress.com/) where she reviews mainly books - as you can tell by that title - and I highly recommend it for any of you bookworms. I will say here and now though, Emma has gone to university and won't be posting on it extensively but there is already stuff there to enjoy. Like I've just said to Emma, it's like getting into a TV series that has been running for many years, there's already a lot of stuff to enjoy before there's any more to come.

Anyway, I feel like I've gone off topic there. Basically, Emma has always been a huge help in regards to many things, and why she is relevant here is because of her support in regards to my attempts when trying to contact Warner Bros and whoever else to make a movie adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (If you want to know more, click here - https://redsone-shot.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/what-is-voice-with-no-power-part-2.html).

I've never been someone who just thinks of something that should happen and never act on it. As far back as I can remember, I write off to whoever I can if I can see the benefits of something happening, it's why I began this blog because as naïve and pathetic as it may seem, just having it out there is enough for me and hopefully, it can become reality.

Notice there how I used sort of negative words to describe what I do? That's something I've always done but now, I am not just thinking of someone who may look at me and laugh, I am trying to place myself in the mind of another type of person. It was after the comment that Emma left on my article that really stuck a chord with me, that you can go read if you scroll to the bottom of it or I can just copy and paste it here.

'Luca...
It's been a while since we talked, but reading this, reading how you talk about chasing your dreams and not giving up, I've been reminded just how fantastic you are. You know I love your insight for this project (which you have stuck by the entire time) and you know how much this story means to me as well as you, and I am so proud of your determination with it. Chase your dreams, my friend <3

Your friend Emma' - emdoesbookreviews

This was the first time I could ever see a perspective that was a positive one. I've obviously got some amazing friends who mean the world to me that have told me things like that before, I could never see it from their point of view. I never consider myself an interesting person, I have made that clear before but because of this, I unconsciously put myself down. But thanks to Emma, I think I can write this and encourage you to do the same. This is, something I like about myself.

That something is, whatever I am passionate about, I don't just let it go easily and I want to try and put it in the minds of the correct people. But I don't do it out of huge personal gain, by that I mean I don't want to get a huge amount of credit or money, I just want the thing I am pushing for to exist whether I benefit in that manner or not.

A recent example, I had this idea for a new type of racing game called Giro d'Strada. I had decided to try and contact the developers of Assetto Corsa, so I accidentally assumed it was 505 Games who distribute the game rather than make it and they pointed me in the direction of the forums that the actual developers of the game - Kunos Simulazioni - are always checking on. If any of you are interested, here is my forums post here (http://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/free-roam-based-racing-game-giro-dstrada.40219/#post-802549). I do plan on going into a hell of a lot more detail with my Giro d'Strada idea so stay tuned for that.

As much as it is about me wanting to see a game like this, I am not so unreasonable that I would only ever push for something if only I would like it or it would be convenient for me. If I was like that, I would ask my parents for a LaFerrari Aperta and say they didn't love me if they would not, but thankfully I am not.

My point is, I could take this idea and run with it, try and get a lot of money by making the game myself but I just want this game to exist so I can play it and enjoy it, and for other people to do so as well because I believe there is a gap in the market for a game like this. I would not trust myself to not screw it up also, but whether someone wants to make money off of a concept I've come up with, I don't mind. I'd expect to have some say in the game though at the very least!

If whatever I push for on here or in any other part of life, I never want to gain any notoriety from it. I write about something because I believe in it being a success. Whether it be this game that I have just spoken about, my last article talking about a British based premier single seater championship that will provide an alternative to F1 for some drivers, the Curious Incident movie with Taron Egerton as the main character, a four door convertible Rolls Royce based on the Enus Windsor Drop from GTA Online, or on the flip side a bunch of real life cars that I believe would make great and popular vehicles in GTA, or any possible concept I will conjure up in the future.

It doesn't matter for me that I'd become rich if I claimed these ideas for myself and ran with them. As much of an annoyance it can be that there are absolute dickheads who earn a shit tonne of money for the shady stuff that they do, I am at complete ease with the way I am in regards to all of this.

I do have plans to obviously make my living, I have opportunities that are coming up soon that excite me and I also plan on writing fictional novels (Which I have touched upon before) that may do me well for the future, who knows? If you remember my article on The Accountant, I talk about how I'd love to see novels based on the lore surrounding Ben Affleck's character from the film, and I would do it myself but I do want to see the character and lore done well by a much more celebrated or even acknowledged author. So I'd appreciate being the consumer if someone who was a very good writer decided to write novels about Christian Wolff, since I couldn't trust myself to do it right.

The other thing I like about myself, I'm grateful. I know the term "You can't be sad because people have it worse" is perhaps a very guilt inducing statement but I do carry this with me quite strongly. My birthday was November 27th and I turned 20, and on the day I got a new red hoodie (My third one..), Zootropolis on DVD, some money for my PSN wallet but most of all, my new Logitech G29 steering wheel.

My Instagram followers will know about this. I have it directly in front of me as I write this, and if any of you have seen an article I wrote about gaming racing, I talk about how I miss the times I used to drive on my PS3. Now I can drive on my PS4 and the feeling of turning this force feedback wheel and applying the power on Assetto Corsa whilst driving a LaFerrari around the Nürburgring Nordschleife was amazing.

I am getting a few movies on DVD for Christmas but they aren't that expensive, I just wanted a steering wheel for my games console again and I've got it, I'm set for a while now. Whilst I have acknowledged the quiet life I lead, I am grateful for so much and I am looking forward to what will happen next. Even if whatever is next for me is overwhelming and too much, I have some absolutely wonderful people around me who I am forever grateful for.

I'm seeing Rogue One this weekend with my friends Lauren and Matthew, I cannot wait to see the new Star Wars movie. Tomorrow is first and foremost my dad's birthday but also apparently, a new GTA update is going live called Import/Export which I cannot contain my excitement for. I am playing 'Small Hands' by Keaton Henson as I finish this article and most of all, I am happy with who I am and grateful for what I have. Thank you all.

Before I end, why don't any of you write something similar to this? I know friends who are going through hard times and whilst I don't want to again, come across as a pretentious douchebag, all of you have something that makes you worth it, and no it isn't L'Oreal.

Until we meet again,
Luca.