It’s always risky when the hero of a video game series hands the reigns to someone else. For every time it’s worked (Marvel’s Spider-Man 2), there are just as many when it didn’t (Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of Liberty).
Thankfully, the third-person survival horror game Alan Wake II (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC.) falls squarely in the former category by being just as much fun when Mr. Wake is missing as it is when he’s around.
Four years after being released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, and Stadia, and three since it came to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, the sci-fi first-person shooter / action role-playing game Borderlands 3 is finally coming to the Switch as the Borderlands 3: Ultimate Edition.
And while it doesn’t add anything that would warrant owners of the previous versions to consider buying this edition as well, people who missed it the first time around — and, of course, enjoy deep sci-fi shooters with snarky sensibilities — would be well advised to pick this up.
Since his first appearance in 1962’s Amazing Fantasy #15, Spider-Man has been shot, stabbed, poisoned, punched, kicked, cloned, married, teamed with an alien symbiote, joined nearly every superhero team in the Marvel universe, and had more adventures than anyone could possibly have in sixty-one years unless they were also a fictional character on a monthly schedule.
And yet, the core of the character remains the same. He’s a person, with foibles, failings, and feelings; he swings from a web with the greatest of ease; he’s strong, and he can kick; and he always tries to do the right thing.
It’s why I wasn’t bothered that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (PlayStation 5) isn’t all that different from Spidey’s previous games — 2018’s Marvel’s Spider-Man and 2020’s Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales — since that means it’s just as much fun.
It’s funny, while sequels are common in movies and video games, it’s not something musicians usually do, especially jazz ones. Sure, Meatloaf made Bat Out Of Hell II Back Into Hell, and Metallica followed “The Unforgiven” with “The Unforgiven II” and “The Unforgiven III,” but Miles Davis never made Bitches Brew II or Miles Smiles 2 or Round About Noon.
But that’s exactly what free jazz adjacent tenor saxophonist Ivo Perelman and trumpet player Nate Wooley have done with Polarity 2 (CD, digital), their sequel to 2021’s Polarity. Well, sort of. Polarity 2 doesn’t answer all of the unanswered questions from Polarity. Nor does it continue the story or build upon the gameplay from the first one. Or give us another adventure for the superhero named Polarity. But it does do a good job of giving us some rather horn-y jazz instrumentals.
Among the many interesting characters in the comedic sci-fi first-person shooter High On Life was Knifey, a sentient and psychotic knife who could be used to get around like the grappling hook from Halo Infinite or Horizon Forbidden West.
During actual combat…well, we all know the cliché about bringing a knife to a gunfight. It’s probably why, despite the name, Knifey isn’t the main weapon you use in the first add-on for Life, High On Knife.
But while Knife may not turn Life into a hack & slash action game, that doesn’t mean Knifey isn’t at the center of this game.
It’s always interesting when someone makes a big story out of a small moment in another story. Like how Rogue One: A Star Wars was born from Vader mentioning that the Death Star plans were stolen. It’s also how we got the first season of Loki, the Disney+ TV show that follows the titular Asgardian after he grabbed the Tesseract and disappeared in Avengers: Endgame.
Or, how it shall henceforth be known, the show on the 4K and Blu-ray collections Loki: The Complete First Season Collector’s Edition, which follows the titular Asgardian…well, you know.
Like seconds of a good meal, add-ons for video games can sometimes be more of a good thing, sometimes just more of the same, and sometimes just too much.
Thankfully, it’s the former category that we find Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways, an add-on for the recent and excellent remake of Resident Evil 4.
For some, fighting games are all about beating the crap out of their friends. Or complete strangers they meet online. For others, though, they’re about the challenge of taking on a computer intelligence, one that may even be more skilled than they could ever hope to be. It is for the latter group — of which I am a proud, paid up member — that I present the following critique of the new Mortal Kombat 1 (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, PC) from the perspective of someone who only played it — and only wanted to play it — as a single-player game.
A good jazz trio is a thing of beauty. But it can also be a thing of redundancy, given how so many of them are just piano, bass, and drums, and how, for every Red Garland Trio or Keith Jarrett / Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette team-up, you have sixty-seven others who add nothing new.
Which is why I got excited by Seven pieces / about an hour / saxophone, piano, drums (CD, digital), the first album by the trio of saxophonist Mark Reboul, piano player Roberta Piket, and drummer Billy Mintz. Yes, a bass-less trio. Color me intrigued.