Category: Reviews

“Indiana Jones And The Great Circle” (PlayStation 5 Edition) Review

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 14, 2025
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In 2006, when the TV show 24 was in its fifth season, one of my fellow game journalists told me he’d gotten an opportunity to play the video game 24: The Game weeks before it came out. When I asked him how it was, he said something along the lines of, “Yeah, it’s good.”

But then he asked if I was a fan of the show, and when I said I was, he got very excited. “Oh, then it’s really good,” he exclaimed, “It totally feels like an episode of the show.”

This is the same reaction I’d give anyone who asks me about Indiana Jones And The Great Circle, which is now available on PlayStation 5 after first coming to Xbox Series X|S and PC. While it may not be what you want from a game starring the eminent Dr. Jones, it’s a great recreation of everything we love about his movies.

Tags games, gaming, Indiana Jones, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle PlayStation 5, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle PlayStation 5 Review, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle PS5, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle PS5 Review, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Review, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Wiki, Indiana Jones And The Great Circle Wikipedia, Video Games

PC Reviews Video Games Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

“South Of Midnight” Review

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date April 11, 2025
2 Comments on “South Of Midnight” Review

Games don’t exist in a vacuum. If you make games, the games you make will be influenced by the games you’ve played. The trick is to put your own unique spin on things.

It’s what the good people at Compulsion Games have done with their third-person action game South Of Midnight (Xbox Series X|S, PC), which is like Shadow Of The Tomb Raider…but only if Lara Croft was a Jedi who lived in a Southern Gothic world of magical realism.

So, y’know, not all that Tomb Raider-y after all.

PC PlayStation 5 Reviews Video Games Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

“Blue Prince” Review

At a time when some people worry they may never be able to afford a home, it seems cruel to make a video game in which a kid gets a free mansion.

But you won’t feel that way after you see what he has to do to get it. In the video game Blue Prince (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC) a fourteen year old kid has to search his grand uncle’s massive estate for the secret 46th room in a 45 room mansion. But to do so, he has to get through what I can only describe as a cross between a board game, an escape room, and a sadistic puzzle game.

PC PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Reviews Video Games Xbox One Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

“Atomfall” Review

When we play such post-apocalyptic games as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Metro Exodus, or The Division 2, we expect them to be set in dark, moody places.

But in Atomfall (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, PC), an open world, first-person post-apocalyptic survival action game from Rebellion Developments, the decimated world has a sunny disposition, and is all the more interesting for it. If only other aspects were as engaging as the setting.

Music Reviews

Anouar Brahem: “After The Last Sky” Review

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date March 27, 2025
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Usually, when oud player Anouar Brahem works with a small ensemble, he shares the spotlight with another soloist who mirrors his slow and careful style, regardless of their instrument, while other musicians provide a textural rhythmic foundation.

It’s what soprano saxophonist / bass clarinetist John Surman did with double-bassist Dave Holland on 1998’s Thimar; what clarinetist Barbaros Erköse did with bendir / darbouka player Lassad Hosni on 2000’s Astrakan Café; and what bass clarinetist Klaus Gesing did with bassist Björn Meyer and bendir / darbouka player Khaled Yassine on 2009’s The Astounding Eyes Of Rita. And the results were beautiful; moody, atmospheric, and haunting.

But on his new album, After The Last Sky (CD, digital), Brahem — and, more importantly, his collaborator, violoncellist Anja Lechner — breaks with tradition, and while fans of those moodier / jazzier albums might not love it, especially those who aren’t big on classical strings, the results are still rather interesting.

PC Reviews Video Games Xbox One Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

“Mullet MadJack” Review

While some of mobile gaming’s less appealing aspects have been carried over to console and PC games — we’re looking at you, loot boxes — one that hasn’t that often, but should, is the idea that it’s okay to have a game you only play in short, quick bursts.

But that’s exactly where we find Mullet MadJack (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC), an over-the-top, cyberpunk sci-fi arcade first-person shooter on a timer that can be a bit much if played for too long, but is ridiculous fun in small bits.

Music Reviews

Ivo Perelman, Ken Vandermark, Joe McPhee: “Oxygen” Review

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date March 6, 2025
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On most of his recent albums, iconic jazz saxophonist Ivo Perelman has flirted with the avant-garde, but never fully committed. Or, as I like to put it, he’s been free jazz adjacent, not full-on free jazz.

It’s the difference between, say, John Coltrane’s Sun Ship and his Live In Japan.

But on Oxygen (digital), on which Perelman collaborates with bari saxophonist Ken Vandermark and trombone player Joe McPhee, this threesome often get super weird and out there in a way that will annoy more traditional jazz heads, but delight those who don’t mind when things get good and noisy.

PC Reviews Video Games Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

“Avowed” Review

I don’t know if they still do it, but back in the 1800s, when I took the SATs, there were these analogy questions along the lines of “Broccoli is to green what carrot is to _______.” And if you had to deal with that crap, too, you probably remember thinking, “When am I ever going to have to do this nonsense in real life?”

Right now. You have to deal with it right now.

Because the best way to describe the action-packed, epic fantasy, role-playing adventure game Avowed (Xbox Series X|S, PC) is by saying “Avowed is to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as The Outer Worlds is to Starfield.”

Or you could say it’s really good; that works, too.

Tags Avowed, Avowed PC, Avowed PC Review, Avowed Review, Avowed Wiki, Avowed Wikipedia, Avowed Xbox Series S, Avowed Xbox Series S Review, Avowed Xbox Series X, Avowed Xbox Series X Review, Avowed Xbox Series X|S, Avowed Xbox Series X|S Review, Fantasy, games, gaming, RPG, Video Games

Music Reviews

Ivo Perelman, Tyshawn Sorey: “Parallel Aesthetics” Review

Post author By Paul Semel
Post date February 4, 2025
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It can be intimidating to work with someone who has a lot more experience than you. Like, say, if you were drummer and piano player Tyshawn Sorey, and recording your first album with iconic saxophonist Ivo Perelman, who is twenty years Sorey’s senior, and who’s recorded exponentially more albums in the last twenty year than Sorey has his whole life.

But on Parallel Aesthetics (CD, digital), Sorey and Perelman’s first album together, the younger musician more than holds his own on these freely improvised jazz duets.

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