There’s a fantastic moment halfway through Max Payne 3. The titular hero has reached his boiling point, shaved his head, and gone underground into Sao Paolo’s gritty favelas. Things are looking down. A local gang has robbed him of guns, watch, and even his sunglasses. He’s been kicked into a …
Read More »Sniper Elite V2 review
Yes, Sniper Elite V2 is a game in which, through an x-ray kill-cam, you can see a man’s testicles explode from the force of a high-velocity sniper rifle round. But the sooner you giggle that imagery out of your system, the sooner you’ll realize that such silliness is in stark …
Read More »Crusader Kings II review
We gamers are always talking about the “stories” in our games, like how so-and-so RPG had a great one, and this other game’s was pathetic. But usually we’re really talking about canned plots, prefabbed rollercoaster rides dreamed up by the designers. Unfortunately, it’s rare to find games that give you …
Read More »Syndicate review
A recent trip into EA’s intellectual property vault results in Syndicate, a new first-person shooter that combines the craftsmanship and technical expertise of Swedish devhouse Starbreeze with the basic fiction (but little else) of the late, great Bullfrog’s classic 1993 isometric tactics game, Syndicate. Unless you’re hopelessly wed to the …
Read More »Fringe Back To Where Youve Never Been TV REVIEW
A trip to the other side…
Read More »Big Miracle review
The media frenzy whipped up in 1988 over the plight of three gray whales trapped in ice off the Alaskan coast unwittingly mirrored the fictional one that Billy Wilder satirised in 1951 classic Ace In The Hole . Small wonder, then, this feel-good recreation of those events resembles a gentler …
Read More »Doctor Who “The Doctor, The Widow And The Wardrobe TV REVIEW
(opens in new tab) Writer: Steven Moffat Director: Farren Blackburn THE ONE WHERE: As World War Two rages, the Doctor attempts to give grieving Madge Arwell and her children the Christmas of their dreams. But some dreams conceal the strangest things… VERDICT: Moffat dials down the time-scrambling maziness that’s so …
Read More »Black Mirror “The Entire History Of You” TV REVIEW
It’s thanks for the memories, in the third instalment of Charlie Brooker’s anthology show
Read More »Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked review
Critical resistance is futile, as the Chipmunks (and the Chipettes) return for a third outing in the depressingly successful franchise. This time, hijinks aboard a cruise ship lead to the singing rodents being marooned on a desert island, with manager Dave (Jason Lee) and double-crossing rival Ian (David Cross) on …
Read More »Margaret review
Shot in 2005, Kenneth Lonergan’s follow-up to You Can Count On Me (2000) has been stuck in limbo so long two of its producers (Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack) have passed away in the interim. Clocking in at 150 minutes – the maximum Fox Searchlight would allow yet still 30 …
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