Our regular Survivor columnist Joseph Harper wraps up the season that was and the emotional finale, and looks to the future with high hopes. Click here for yesterday’s special pre-finale power rankings. It’s all over. I’ve been crapping on the show’s editors all season long for being too obvious, but in the end they managed … Read more
Superfan Joseph Harper tackles the last week of Survivor NZ, and makes his predictions for the big finale. Click here for last week. So we’ve got our final three. Three big episodes down and one massive (very long) finale to go. Tom, Barb, and Avi have squirmed, tricked, and made nice all the way to the … Read more
Superfan Joseph Harper tackles the eighth week of Survivor NZ, including the regeneration of the viral cop and Barb’s Soprano-style reign. Click here for last week. God we are getting damn close to the end and thank the lord because Survivor NZ is getting really weird. Our ‘good’ players keep deciding to play as ‘bad’ players. … Read more
Superfan Joseph Harper tackles the seventh week of Survivor NZ, including Nate’s totally normal axe collection and Barb’s scampi feast. Click here for last week. After the fireworks/glimmer of hope last week offered, this week took a step back into ‘New Zealand yeah alright no worries’ mode. We said goodbye to the universal people’s champ and … Read more
Superfan Joseph Harper tackles the sixth week of Survivor NZ, including artistic pizza and some subversive beachwear. Click here for last week. It’s the week we’ve all been waiting for! A blindside! The rise of a dastardly matriarch! We are finally getting down to the meat and potatoes. Unlike in real Survivor, I have a … Read more
Superfan Joseph Harper tackles the fourth week of Survivor NZ, including Barb’s third death and a French fry feast. Click here for last week. We have a merge! Great stuff. All the sweeter for the nice All Blacks themed buffs. As suspected, the likely lads’ plan of ‘treat everyone who isn’t in our alliance badly’, … Read more
Superfan Joseph Harper tackles the fourth week of Survivor NZ, including Jak the joker and Avi’s gladeyes. Click here for last week. Week four on the Survivor NZ island/Nicaraguan peninsula (I don’t know geography), produced a mixed bag. Shay’s ousting at the hands of the Boytown alliance was all too predictable. At least she can … Read more
Superfan Joseph Harper tackles the second week of Survivor NZ, including pelican eating, Lou’s evacuation and Barb’s cuppa. Click here for last week. Big episode eh. This week we saw two of the ways in which people can get mercilessly rekt by the Survivor gods. First we had poor old Lou who may have legitimately … Read more
Superfan Joseph Harper tackles the second week of Survivor NZ, including charcoal teeth, eye rolls and Sala’s new Mallowpuff range. Click here for week one. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK Buzzy that after all these years, I think this is the first time I’ve seen Survivors wearing jandals! Truly game changing stuff. Almost as good as … Read more
Superfan Joseph Harper tackles the first week of Survivor NZ, including a dead Barb, a rogue price tag and the worst papaya ever. It’s finally here! Aotearoa has Survivor now and they even use stock footage from the real Survivor! Week one gave us the requisite bug eating and shelter building, it gave some definitely … Read more
Survivor superfan Joseph Harper shares some well-informed* predictions for the coming season of TVNZ 2’s Survivor New Zealand. Reality TV juggernaut Survivor, has been rolling along in the United States for 17 years. Last year, Australia finally had a crack at the beautiful game, and now at last we get a shot. It’s huge news for … Read more
Pokémon Go slayed 2016 and with a new update it might very well nail 2017 as well. Joseph Harper has ripped into Gen 2 and oh boy, he likes it. When Pokémon Go launched last year, it was downloaded by approximately fifty million people who leapt at the opportunity to feed berries to, throw balls … Read more
Right when the Pokémon Go orgy was at its height, Joseph Harper filed this review. It was to become one of our most controversial gaming posts ever as Joseph found it overwhelmingly pointless and bad. Originally published July 8, 2016 When the Pokémon GO trailer was hurled onto the internet last year, it seemed too … Read more
Like millions of us across the country, Joseph Harper was floored by the news of John Key’s shock resignation. Pouring his grief into his nonlinear editing software, Harper created the perfect memorial to New Zealand’s favourite everyman prime minister.
Not content to close out 2016 relaxing in their billowing piles of Pokémon Go cash, Gamefreak have just released two new Nintendo handheld rpgs, Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon. Joseph Harper took them for a spin. It’s been a massive year for Pokémon. Celebrating 20 years since their first generation handheld games, the company has … Read more
Joseph Harper shirks his duty and lets his cat Zelda review a game instead. The cat was not impressed. My cats were going crazy last night. One of them sometimes gets all hopped up after eating kibbles and just wants to play and play. She enjoys the feather-wand and is especially enamoured with this officially … Read more
With HP48Hours registrations about to close, Joseph Harper presents the greatest entries that ever were. It’s very cool news that local television masterminds The Downlow Concept have scored themselves a TV development deal. Especially since our big tv overlords saw fit to squander their excellent show, Hounds. Indeed it’s seemingly a pretty great time to … Read more
They’re remaking everything nowadays and past beloved games are no exception. Joseph Harper looks at a old Zelda favourite that’s been given a wipe around the chin. The next great installment in Nintendo’s Zelda franchise looks very good but also seems to constantly be 700 years away. Nintendo’s next console, the ‘NX’ will come eventually, … Read more
Each year hundreds of young creatives spend a weekend creating mini movies in the 48 Hours Furious Filmmaking Challenge. 48 Hours vet Joseph Harper looks at what’s new this year and what to expect. There was probably a small sigh around the country when the Autumn months passed and the 48 Hours Furious Filmmaking Challenge didn’t show its … Read more
It’s global competition time and to celebrate Joseph Harper returns to an old sports favourite. He also lays down some serious button mashing tips: get involved. The Olympics is almost over, but they don’t have to be. Through the magic of video games you can make every day into an Olympiad. This week, to celebrate … Read more
Joseph Harper plays Pokken Tournament, the definitive Pokémon title for gamers who prefer dog fights to collecting stamps. For me, the best part about a Pokemon game is always catching lots of gorgeous baby Pokemon, giving them funny names, and falling deeply in love with them. Apparently though there is a subset of Pokemon fans … Read more
Our own thumb jockey Joseph Harper has a good old whack on a major tribute to old RGPs. He’s bloody into it. Last week the ‘indie smash’, Hyper Light Drifter was released on PS4 and Xbox One, so I decided to revisit it. This almost goes without saying, but it’s an amazingly cool looking game. … Read more
Joseph Harper talks to Phil Keoghan about his new documentary Le Ride and asks how a lad from Christchurch grew up to be New Zealand’s most famous ex-pat TV presenter. As a fan of both professional cycling and The Amazing Race, Phil Keoghan’s documentary Le Ride seemed almost purpose made for me. Inspired by Cantabrian … Read more
Joseph Harper immortalises the fine work of Personalised Plates NZ in an absolute tearjerker of a video. For the past 28 years, Kiwis have been funkying up their bumpers via the plate gods at Personalised Plates NZ. Though at times controversial, there’s no doubting the public service the company has performed over the years has … Read more
As time pours forward we as a species are going to have to come to terms to life without Pokémon GO. No matter, Joseph Harper has your back. Those coming down off the Pokémon Go megahigh are probably looking for something new to tap at on their phone while they walk to work/use the toilet. … Read more
The world may have lurched hungrily in the direction of block-buster Pokémon GO, but Joseph Harper is still enjoying quiet feline pleasures. Here we check in on him and see what’s new in the world of Neko Atsume. Toward the end of last year I was turned on to Hit-Point’s immensely pleasurable orphan cat simulator, … Read more
Nintendo continue their aggressive expansion into the ‘stuff we used to play’ market, announcing a tiny version of the iconic NES. Nintendo, not satisfied with taking over the world via their insanely popular Poke-app, have seen fit to release the ultimate piece of plastic nostalgia. The Nintendo Classic Mini: NES will be a replica of … Read more
Shane Archbold has been a surprise standout for New Zealand at this year’s Tour de France. He talks to Joseph Harper about what life’s like inside the peloton, and how to keep your hair clean while competing in the world’s most gruelling race. The New Zealanders have had a mixed bag so far at this year’s Tour … Read more
Pokémon Go has turned the world upside down. It’s led players into armed ambushes. It’s got them stumbling across washed up corpses. And after something of a online outcry to his first review, it’s even forced Joseph Harper to get his feet wet again. Last week I tried playing Pokémon Go and it pissed me off. … Read more