Game Of Thrones Fourth Season Commissioned

HBO confirm that their biggest fantasy drama is back in 2014!
HBO Studios have today announced the recommissioning of Game Of Thrones for a full fourth season of ten episodes. Set to adapt the second volume of the hit third A Song Of Ice And Fire novel A Storm Of Swords, this new run will feature fan favourite characters including Tyrion, Jon, Danaerys, Robb and Bran like we've never seen them before, facing their darkest hour yet in the midst of increasingly overwhelming odds for the land of Westeros. We'll have all the details on this fourth season in the coming months. Game Of Thrones continues every Monday on Sky Atlantic, and returns for Season Four in Spring 2014.

Grand Theft Auto V Cover Art Revealed

The gang are all back for an epic new open-world adventure this Autumn.
Rockstar Games have this week unveiled the full box art for their upcoming open-world video game release Grand Theft Auto V. Set after the events of 2008's GTA IV, this new instalment features three disparate characters attempting to work together on a series of heists and guarantee themselves fame and fortune for the remainder of their lives. This new cover features much the same iconography as past entries, including cars, chicks and helicopters, yet provides a fascinating insight into the kind of locales and gameplay features we might see here. See it for yourself below...Grand Theft Auto V retails on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on September 17th.

Who News: 50th Anniversary Blitz Round-Up

Zygons, new stars, new eBooks and lots more in our summary of all the big new 50th Anniversary news!
You wait for a single Doctor Who news announcement, and then naturally of course you get a horde of them at once! Indeed, the past couple of days have been filled with new reveals on what we can expect from the 50th Anniversary year for the show (i.e. this one), including news on tie-in releases and a LOT of news on the current season and the 50th Special. Without further ado, then, let's not delay...

• JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE TARDIS SYNOPSIS- BBC South Africa have today released a number of brief teaser plot synopses for the second half of this new Doctor Who anniversary season we're currently watching. Here's the synopsis for Episode 5- "The TARDIS has crashed, Clara is lost inside, and the Doctor has 30 minutes before his ship explodes!"
• THE CRIMSON HORROR SYNOPSIS- "Something ghastly is afoot in Victorian Yorkshire, as bodies are found with their skin a waxy, glowing red."
• NIGHTMARE IN SILVER SYNOPSIS- "Hedgewick's World of Wonders: the perfect theme park day out- and ground zero for a deadly silver resurrection."
• ANNIVERSARY SEASON FINALE SYNOPSIS- "Someone is kidnapping the Doctor's friends, leading him towards the one place in all of time and space that he should never go."
• FIRST 50TH ANNIVERSARY FILMING DETAILS- We can now say for sure that the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special has started shooting. Gavin & Stacey star Joanna Page has joined the cast for a short time to film an Elizabethian opening scene (could she be Queen Elizabeth I? Possibly...) with David Tennant and Billie Piper starring as the Tenth Doctor and Rose too. Also present at yesterday's filming was a Zygon, a classic enemy from the 1970s Tom Baker era that will make a cameo in the breathtaking 50th spectacular too! More news as we get it...
• NEW eBOOK ANNOUNCED- Finally, BBC Books have this week announced that Philip Reeve will pen the Fourth Doctor eBook in their 50th Anniversary range, The Roots Of Evil. Featuring Tom Baker's Doctor and Leela, this new story is written by the man who gave us the acclaimed The Mortal Instruments trilogy, so should be held in great esteem by fans of that teen fiction saga.

Doctor Who continues this Saturday April 6th with The Rings Of Ahkaten at 6.15pm on BBC1.

Game Of Thrones: Valar Dohaeris Review

Our definitive verdict on the hit HBO drama's Season Three première!
For fans who caught Season Two when it first broadcast last Spring, it's been a long and cold Winter-year of waiting for Game Of Thrones to return. Thank goodness, then, that Season Three's opening episode Valar Dohaeris was a fairly strong way to kick off proceedings, even if wasn't necessarily amongst the best episodes the hit US drama has given us yet.

It was great to see in particular that the character arcs of Jon Snow and Danaerys Stormborn are going to take more precedence than ever before. Emilia Clarke in particular shined as the latter femme fetale leader and mother of dragons, and boy, were those special effects a great indication of how impressive the dragons will look this time around. There was a distinct sense too with the introduction of giants, White Walkers and other fantastical creatures that this run is going to break out of the medieval vibe into something a little more supernatural this time around, a transition which we hope the production team will handle as elegantly as ever.

Another strong element of Dohaeris was undoubtedly the short-but-sweet time we spent in the company of Peter Dinklage's Tyrion. A brave and inspiring leader as the Hand at King's Landing last season, this shortest Lannister is now reduced to a mere citizen of the castle, with his father Tywin and sister Cersei showing little in the way of sympathy for his war wounds. Dinklage was fantastic as always, witty and hilarious at times, although this reviewer certainly hopes that he's given the extended episode presence he deserves in later instalments of the run.

Now for the flaws that held this episode back. It could be argued that rather a lot of the episode was focused on discussions rather than the action we were used to come the end of Season Two, but moreso there was still a lingering sense that for Robb, Tyrion, Davos and the Knight's Watch there just wasn't enough actual storyline development. On top of that, the episode's cliffhanger of an ex-supporter of Danaerys' father now joining her Queensguard wasn't really much of a cliffhanger at all, struggling to negate the feeling that the writers were just looking for a way to swiftly end the episode so as for a smooth transition next week.

Nevertheless, when this season opener thrived, it thrived brilliantly, providing us with some of the show's best performances yet. Margery seems like a great addition to the roster, Liam Cunningham is fantastic as Davos and of course Peter Dinklage keeps up the laughs and shocks with his portrayal of Tyrion. Here's hoping that future instalments make more of an overall progression for Westeros' residents, yet Game Of Thrones: Valar Dohaeris was still a bold and very compelling statement of how this new season will work.
4/5

Arrow: Salvation Review

Our verdict on the eighteenth episode of Season One...
There's a definite sense on Arrow now that we're racing towards the season finale with renewed vigour. Indeed, Salvation furthers that ramping up of the pace and marks a number of significant arc developments which should prove pretty impactful on what's to come in the remaining five episodes.

One part of the episode's storyline which I found surprisingly enjoyable was that of the Lance dynasty. It would have been a massive twist if Sarah had survived her demise, yet Alex Kingston's performance as a mother finally accepting her part in her daughter's death was stunning, a true improvement on her appearances in the previous two episodes. This reviewer hopes that Doctor Who's very own River Song returns at some point for more material in Season Two, yet for now this was at least a strong resolution to her character arc.

Meanwhile, we also had breakthroughs with both the list and Black Archer arcs. John Barrowman's seedy antagonist appears to be fully back in action judging by the episode's exciting cliffhanger, while it's great to know that another corrupt businessman has been crossed off Oliver's list so as to progress the original premise of this season. Again, the flashback sequences didn't seem to be of huge substance in terms of pushing forward the island adventures with five years to cover, but hopefully we should have jumps forward in time there soon just as we have now moved eight months in the modern chronology.

Overall, Salvation was another fantastic episode of Arrow. The sequences set five years in the past weren't anything revolutionary, but it's intriguing to see Roy Harper and the Black Archer begin to develop into budding DC Comics elements within the show. If Arrow can keep up the pace and ante beyond Salvation into its final five episodes of Season One, then we should be in for one hell of a climax to a breathtaking first season.
4.5/5

Life's Too Short Finale Review

Can this final ever episode of Warwick Davis' comedy hit the mark?
Although it had its highlights, last year's first and only season of Life's Too Short wasn't quite the brave and bold new comedy that BBC2, Ricky Gervais, Warwick Davis and Stephen Merchant clearly wanted it to be. Nevertheless, this weekend's Easter Finale proved to be a surprisingly lovable and charming British comic affair.

The key reason for this success? The cast. Perhaps it was the absence of Ricky and Stephen from the main roster that helped out, but moreso it was simply great fun to have Les Dennis, Sean Williamson and Keith Chegwin on board for comedy hijinks with Warwick. Everyone gave both heartfelt and hilarious performances throughout, and ex-Batman star Val Kilmer additionally came on board to add to the psuedo-unknown portrayal of once iconic British actors. It all feeded in well to the general storyline involving Warwick coming to terms with his alleged 'D-list' status in the world of fame, a reality that must face a good deal of Brit stars these days.

To be fair, of course, beyond the stellar cast line-up there was little in the way of real innovation. This storyline of acceptance and failures to succeed was nothing new, rehashing most of the predictable tropes we've come to associate with both the show and its genre. All the same, Life's Too Short's final episode was still a cracking example of British situation comedy television, a charming instalment the likes of which couldn't really be produced in the same quirky manner by any other nation. Although it's not perfect, I would certainly recommend a watch of Life's Too Short's Easter Finale on iPlayer soon, as there's plenty of heavy laughs to be had from it rather than at its expense!
4/5

Who News: More On New Series & Eternity Clock

Our latest round-up of all the big Doctor Who news.
This week at Who News, we've a few exciting new details on the current anniversary season of Doctor Who blockbusters that started off two days ago. Before that, though, a bit of bad news- it's been confirmed today that a possible sequel to last year's decent-but-flawed PlayStation Network game Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock has been cancelled. It's a shame, but on the plus side, we've now got loads of new details on what's coming up for the show in the next few weeks fresh from Doctor Who Magazine...

• THE RINGS OF AHKATEN- On the planet Ahkaten, we're going to meet the biggest alien cast the show has had since The End Of The World back in 2005. Expect a resolution to what the leaf on page 1 of Clara's book in The Bells Of Saint John really meant as the Doctor travels back into Clara's past, and meanwhile don't be too surprised if there's more of an emphasis on music than usual...
• COLD WAR- The Ice Warriors are back! Or should we say, an Ice Warrior. Emerging from beneath the Ice of the Antarctic, the mighty hero Skaldak wants revenge on the planet Earth. Instead of hitting Las Vegas, the TARDIS takes the Doctor and Clara to a Russian submarine where Cold War tensions are brewing and Skaldak, the last of the Ice Warriors, is set to kick off a nuclear war!
• HIDE- Call The Midwife's Jessica Raine is here as a mysterious psychic in a chilling adventure that ensures the Doctor is well and truly afraid out in the forest grounds. Meanwhile, the Doctor begins to divulge to Clara just what mystery he is actually looking to solve of her identity.
• JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE TARDIS- What if a gang of entrepreneurs wanted to sell the oldest spaceship in the universe for scrap? That's the premise here- but when the Doctor sets the TARDIS to a self-destruction countdown with an hour to go, the motley brothers on board his TARDIS must journey with him to its very heart, as Clara goes missing and discovers the deadly secrets behind this bigger-on-the-inside marvel...

Doctor Who continues this Saturday April 6th with The Rings Of Ahkaten at 6.15pm on BBC1.