Alex Garland, maestro of brainy sci-fi thrillers such as Ex Machina and Annihilation, takes a triumphant dive into freaky British folk horror with Men, a surreally gorgeous psychological shocker. A wildly ambitious and provocative piece, it sets fear bubbling up when Jessie Buckley’s newly widowed Harper arrives for a country …
Read More »Trek to Yomi review: “An eager disciple, but hasn’t mastered the way of the warrior”
Early in the second level of Trek to Yomi, our samurai hero Hiroki arrives at a deep ravine bridged by a fallen tree. A waterfall cascades in the background. A light breeze pushes through the grass and leaves. On the opposite bank stands a pair of murderous bandits, and as …
Read More »Nemesis Lockdown review: “A rollercoaster ride of nightmare narratives”
Much like the xenomorphs that inspired it, Nemesis: Lockdown represents the pinnacle of evolution. Building on everything that came before, it’s a monstrously ambitious cooperative board game. It all started because the Alien franchise is so popular. That means there’s a big appetite for board game spin-offs and a high …
Read More »MSI Pulse GL66 review: “Its all about the performance”
The MSI Pulse GL66 seems to take us back in time. This is a stocky device, but there’s certainly no hiding the power under the hood. Kitted out with Intel’s latest 12th-generation processors, the latest Pulse iteration seeks to join some of the best gaming laptops on the market with …
Read More »The Northman review: “A truly distinctive, unmissable epic”
Given the step up in scale – and, crucially, budget – that Viking epic The Northman represents for director Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse), you’d be forgiven for thinking that his uniquely twisted sensibilities might have been watered down for his first studio picture. Thankfully, there’s a howling, hallucinatory …
Read More »Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga review: “At last, THIS is the droid you are looking for”
After 17 years perfecting its formula, developer Traveller’s Tales has returned to the game that started it all and decided to redo LEGO Star Wars. But ‘redo’ doesn’t do justice to the ambition here. This is a completely new game, recreating not only the original trilogy of films in LEGO …
Read More »Tales From the Loop – The Board Game review: “Clunky play”
There’s something very enticing about the mix of nostalgia and sci-fi that Tales From the Loop taps into. Simon Stålenhag’s art book, with its mix of towering robots and teenage rebellions, evokes it with enough power that it’s spawned multiple media spin-offs. That now includes a board game where you …
Read More »Halo episode 1 review: “Master Chief saves the day, in more ways than one”
Spoilers for the Halo premiere follow. If you want to go in blind, click away now! This might not be what you were expecting. The Halo TV series doesn’t start with its poster boy Master Chief – but a girl in a town. War is brewing in the dusty bowl …
Read More »Ghostwire Tokyo review
Ghostwire: Tokyo will make you appreciate the little things in life. The dopamine hit derived from petting a dog wearing an adorable little bandana. How a sense of all-consuming wanderlust can accumulate as you breathe in the towering beauty of Japan’s opulent capital city. That feeling of calm that washes …
Read More »Star Trek: Discovery season 4 episode 13 review: “A total cop-out of an ending”
Warning: This Star Trek: Discovery season 4, episode 13 review contains major spoilers – many of them set to stun. Boldly go further at your own risk… How much should the ending of a movie or TV show define what’s come before? Can a quality conclusion redeem a mediocre story? …
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