We’re on familiar territory with the first episode of this year’s Zygon two-parter – bring back an old villain from classic Who, gradually reveal their plan to take over the world over the course of 45 minutes, and leave them on the verge of victory by the end of the …
Read More »Blood Bowl 2 review
For those not educated in the unholy union of gridiron and goblins, Blood Bowl 2 is the love child of a drunken fling between an American Football simulator, a Discworld novel and a particularly violent game of chess. Quite how all that DNA got mixed together is best left to …
Read More »PES 2016 review
The modern game of football is as much about physicality as it is about pace or technique. It’s strange that no digital representation of the beautiful game has managed to nail this particular aspect of the sport. There have been attempts, with some going hilariously wrong, but nothing to impact …
Read More »The Martian review
Matt Damon proves his universal appeal… “Four-and-a-half billion years, nobody here,” muses astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) as he stands on Mars scanning the desolate desertscape. “And now? Me.” It’s a miracle all right, and the magnitude of the achievement is set up by the very first image of The …
Read More »Pure Holdem review: No poker face to speak of
If you like your card games served with a helping of dystopian horror, Pure Hold’em has you covered. It presents a disturbing vision where the titular pastime is enjoyed not by human beings but by sentient tablets, which gather together to play a few hands, using advanced nanotechnology to invisibly …
Read More »Dope review
Malcolm in the middle. As Rick Famuyiwa’s festival hit reminds us right off the bat, ‘dope’ can mean drugs, an idiot or something rad. Call that fair warning for a film that won’t be pinned down. More than a straight-outta-Sundance drugs-n-the-’hood movie, the fifth outing from The Wood writer-director Famuyiwa …
Read More »Devils Third review: Hell to play
On every level bar one, Devil’s Third is a trainwreck of a game. From a core design perspective, it simply doesn’t work. A successful mix of first-person shooting and third-person melee is far from impossible: Jedi Outcast managed it in 2002. But Devil’s Third has no elegant solution for incoming …
Read More »Madden NFL 16 review
Since the advent of the PS4 and Xbox One console generation, the Madden team has focused on righting some of the wrongs that naturally added up over the course of nearly thirty years of building games. This doesn’t translate into sexy headlines, but many of us that play it every …
Read More »Giana Sisters: Dream Runners review
The revival of the Giana Sisters has to be one of the most unexpected comebacks of recent times, but 2013’s Twisted Dreams suggested Black Forest Games had enough talent and ideas to make the siblings’ career renaissance worthwhile. Two years on, Dream Runners has us doubting that initial assertion: this …
Read More »Vacation review
The Holiday Road gets re-paved. Go compare… “I’ve never even heard of the original vacation,” says the nonplussed teenage son of Rusty Griswold (Ed Helms) early on in this reboot of a 32-year-old cult classic. “Doesn’t matter,” replies his father, “the new vacation will stand on its own.” So important …
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