In the sci-fi shooter Evolve (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC), four Hunters have to track and kill a Monster controlled by a fifth player. But while, as creative director Phil Robb put it, “Evolve is indeed a multiplayer experience at its core,” he also noted, “but it’s great fun solo as well.”
In December of 1977, jazz pianist Red Garland did a five night stint at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco with drummer “Philly” Joe Jones (with whom he’d recorded such classic Miles Davis albums as Workin’, Cookin’, and ’Round About Midnight) and bassist Leroy Vinnegar. The significance being that this was the only time this threesome would ever play together. Thankfully, someone had the foresight to record those shows, highlights of which are now available as Swingin On The Korner: Live At Keystone Corner (CD, LP, digital).
Unlike most people who make movies, director Terry Gilliam is a visionary filmmaker with a distinctive style. The problem with being that unique, though, is that while every movie he’s made has been interesting in one way or another, not all of them have been good. Thankfully, his newest, the cyberpunk thriller The Zero Theorem (Blu-ray, DVD), is closer to such signature works as Time Bandits, Brazil, and 12 Monkeys than any of his interesting failures.
In honor of its nineteenth anniversary (?!?), or maybe for some other equally weird reason, the good people at Capcom have released an HD remake of their classic 1996 survival horror game Resident Evil for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC. But by neither making it a faithful recreation of the original game, which would appeal to nostalgia buffs and old school fans, nor a truly useful upgraded edition, which would be great for those who want to play a modern version of a classic game, those same good people at Capcom have oddly made a game with very limited appeal.
By now, we all know there’s no reason to buy the Xbox One or PlayStation 4 version of a game if you’ve already played it on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, or PC, and all it adds is slightly better resolution and the already released add-ons. (Well, unless you like wasting money, in which case I can get you this really cool bridge in Brooklyn, cheap.) But while that’s also the case with Saints Row IV Re-Elected — a new version of 2013’s Saint’s Row IV that’s available on its own for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, and in a bundle with the new (and also available separately) add-on Gat Out Of Hell for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 — there’s something else we all know that Re-Elected illustrates perfectly: game companies don’t do these kind of straight reissues if the original games weren’t fun to begin with.
Which is why, if you missed it before, Re-Elected is the version of Saints Row IV to get.
Having already gone to space (in Saints Row: The Third: Gangstas In Space) and The Matrix (Saints Row IV), the Saints Row series is going to Hell, literally, with Saints Row Gat Out Of Hell. Available as a stand-alone game for PlayStation 4 (available digitally), PlayStation 3, Xbox One (also available digitally), Xbox 360, and PC, or in a bundle with Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, a new version of Saints Row IV for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, this new adventure continues the mindless but magnificent mayhem this series has come to typify.
Given that he’s been a filmmaker for most of his life, and all of ours, it’s easy to forget that Woody Allen was a stand-up comedian in the ’60s, and a funny one at that. But now we have a vivid reminder of his time on the stage with Woody Allen The Stand-Up Years 1964-1968 (CD, digitial), an augmented version of Standup Comic and The Nightclub Years 1964-1968 that were, in turn, collections of the out-of-print albums Woody Allen, Woody Allen II, and The Third Woody Allen Album.
Since the beginning, Archer has always been an animated workplace comedy about a bunch of screw-ups…who happen to be spies. It’s kind of like Space Ghost: Coast To Coast meets Get Smart. But in the episodes collected in Archer The Complete Season Five Blu-ray and DVD, the writers turned this hilarious spy spoof on its head by having Archer and his coworkers become drug smugglers.
With The Hobbit The Battle Of The Five Armies, Peter Jackson and friends bring to a close the epic saga of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book, as well as our movie time in Middle-earth (probably). But while it concludes the trilogy and the whole film series with a bang, it also ends it with a bit of a whimper as well.