The veteran indie band discusses musical composite sketches, expanding their collaborative persona, and more.
The album lowers the emotional stakes but still manages to dole out plenty of country-rock bombast.
Richter discusses how he connects his classical schooling to one of his other early passions: outer space.
The album is another haunting synth-pop house of mirrors that transcends mere nostalgia.
The album flits between topics of love, feminism, and cultural identity with relative ease.
Portions of the game may deliver high-octane thrills, but its paramount moments are frightening because they’re understated.
Star Trek is plagued by bugs, monotonous co-op/single player gameplay, and flat, unexpressive graphics.
The game’s challenges are ramped up throughout each mode and the rewards are fairly abiding.
Enemies resemble jerky marionettes tossed at your face and the neat addition of the motion tracker from Aliens adds little pressure to the proceedings when the level designs are extremely linear.
This is an above-average platformer, but an unfailing hodgepodge of annoying problems keeps this stealth-laden fetch quest from being a must-have title.
The Lost City of Arkus is an amusing MacGuffin that will propel kids and adults along the linear through line; lock puzzles, jump pads, battle arenas, and a fairly deep upgrade system all return from Spyro’s Adventure.
One of the game’s primary half measures is a first-player narrative that wants you take it seriously based on its presentation, but only resorts to juvenile and almost cartoony clichés.
The soundtrack brings us back to the ’80s; the main characters even rock air guitars at the end of all 10 levels, and the main antagonist looks and sounds almost like He-Man’s Skeletor.
The game’s serious tone and sharp presentation wonderfully belie a storyline that involves wisecracking, sentient robots transforming into insects, dinosaurs, race cars, and helicopters.
Textures may pop and frame rates will stutter and jolt, but character modeling is thankfully strong throughout, as is the emotionally resonant score by longtime Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu.
Though the tale is slight, Brave’s gameplay is an entertaining blend of an isometric action-adventure and twin-stick shooter.
The co-op play for Episode II is available locally or online, but both experiences are hampered by poor power and speed balance between the characters.
Dialogue choices you make along the way shift the narrative ever so slightly based on a Mass Effect-esque paragon/renegade continuum.
You can punch, kick, or scurry away from blood-thirsty walkers with ease, and a reticle-based targeting system is intuitive when time is slipping through your fingers.
The ingenuity of the puzzle solving is the main talking point here. A precarious interplay between light and dark is a key gameplay mechanic.