Category: Reviews

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

“Resident Evil 4” (2023 Remake) Review

 

Usually if a remake of a classic game doesn’t modernize its controls and make other improvements or additions, it’s not worth getting. Just compare the faithful but dated-feeling remake of Resident Evil compared to the updated and upgraded Resident Evil 2. But leave it to this new version of Resident Evil 4 (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, PC) to buck that trend by being a lot like the original that came out for the GameCube in 2005, and yet still be a must-have for fans of this classic horror shooter. And, well, for people who’ve never had the pleasure.

Continue reading ““Resident Evil 4” (2023 Remake) Review”
Categories
PlayStation 5 Reviews Video Games Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

“The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition” Review

 

Originally released in 2019, the first-person action-oriented role-playing game The Outer Worlds was like the recent Fallout games if that series had better real-time combat, was even snarkier, and was more influenced by such space operas as Firefly than such ’50s sci-fi movies as Forbidden Planet.

While a sequel is on the way, people who missed the original — and who own a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X or S — can now enjoy an enhanced and more complete version of the game with The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition. Which, no surprise, is just as good as the original, and may even be worth getting if you played some but not all of the original version.

Continue reading ““The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition” Review”
Categories
Music Reviews

Ivo Perelman, Matthew Ship: “Triptych” Review

 

Andy Warhol once said, “Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.” But even he would’ve thought it was a bummer that, because of financial considerations, the new album Triptych by jazz saxophonist Ivo Perelman and pianist Matthew Shipp went from being a boxed set that presented an album’s worth of music each on CD, LP, and a cassette, and with each recorded with those formats in mind, to only being released digitally as Triptych I, Triptych II, and Triptych III. And while, sure, I really can’t hear the difference in audio quality (which might explain why I’m a music critic, not a music creator), and the songs are good regardless, I still can’t help but wish that Perelman and Shipp had gotten to see the collection as they intended.

For the rest of us, though, all three Triptych sets present the kind of free jazz adjacent music these two have presented countless times before on such albums as Fruition, Special Edition Box, and Amalgam (as you can see from my reviews here, here, and here).

Continue reading “Ivo Perelman, Matthew Ship: “Triptych” Review”
Categories
PC PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Reviews Video Games Xbox One Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

“Atomic Heart” Review

 

Sometimes, when you first start to play a video game, you notice that something doesn’t feel quite right, and no matter how small or insignificant it may be, it still taints the experience. That, unfortunately, is what happened when I started playing Atomic Heart (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC), a first-person sci-fi action / adventure game that could’ve been unique, exciting, and interesting…had they not made one simple mistake.

Continue reading ““Atomic Heart” Review”
Categories
PC PlayStation 5 Reviews Video Games Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

“Dead Space” 2023 Remake Review

 

Though it spawned two sequels, a couple side games, a mobile game, a pair of novels, two animated movies, some graphic novels, and a bunch of toys, t-shirts, and collectibles, the 2008 survival horror game Dead Space is often just considered a cult classic.

Which made it rather surprising when Electronic Arts announced a remake of the game for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (and just a few years after Glen Schofield, one of the original Space creators, announced a spiritual successor, the recently released Callisto Protocol).

But a lot can happen in fifteen years, especially in video games, something I kept in mind as I stepped once more into the breach.

Continue reading ““Dead Space” 2023 Remake Review”
Categories
PC PlayStation 5 Reviews Video Games

“Forspoken” Review

Forspoken_20230113212040

 

A video game is often only as good as its weakest parts. But sometimes a game manages to overcome its obvious flaws. And while the results are never great, they can be good. Or at least halfway decent. Which is where we find Forspoken (PlayStation 5, PC), an open world, fantasy, third-person action / adventure game that manages to get fun despite its glaring flaws.

Well, to a point.

Continue reading ““Forspoken” Review”
Categories
PC Reviews Video Games Xbox One Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

“High On Life” Review

 

Let’s be very clear about something: The sci-fi first-person shooter High On Life (Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC) is absolutely, positively not a Rick & Morty game. Sure, it’s made by Squanch Games, the studio co-founded by Rick & Morty co-creator and voice actor Justin Roiland, who uses his Morty voice to voice one of Life‘s main characters, Kenny. And it has the same kind of weird, off-the-cuff, ribald, but also clever sense of humor as Rick & Morty. But it is absolutely, positively not a Rick & Morty game.

Though it might as well be.

Continue reading ““High On Life” Review”
Categories
PC PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Reviews Switch Video Games Xbox One Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

“Terror Of Hemasaurus” Review

 

As someone who spent the late-’70s and early-’80s watching Godzilla movies on TV, the classic mid-’80s arcade game Rampage — in which you get to be a gigantic monkey, wolf, and yeah, lizard who trashes a city — was an early favorite. It’s why I was so curious about Terror Of Hemasaurus (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, PC, Switch), an old school-style arcade game in which you, yeah, get to be a giant lizard who trashes a city…but in a way that adds new menace to his rampage.

Continue reading ““Terror Of Hemasaurus” Review”
Categories
PC PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Reviews Video Games Xbox One Xbox Series S Xbox Series X

“The Callisto Protocol” Review

 

It’s always annoying when a game designer refuses to admit their game is like someone else’s. “So, it’s a sci-fi first-person shooter in which a genetically-modified super soldier in power armor fights religious aliens on a circular world…and you don’t think it’s like Halo? Really?” Thankfully, the good people at Striking Distance Studios who made The Callisto Protocol (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X / S, Xbox One, PC) aren’t afraid to admit that their third-person sci-fi survival horror action game is a lot like 2008’s third-person sci-fi survival horror action game Dead Space. And not just because some of them worked on both games. But while The Callisto Protocol is very Dead Space-y, it does add some new elements that make it more compelling than a clone.

Continue reading ““The Callisto Protocol” Review”