20 articles
Review: Pragmata There’s been a noticeable trend in storytelling across different media within the last few years – an increase in plotlines and stories that confront the very human experience of feeling distrustful towards AI. Pragmata takes a complicated position: the story is about a rogue AI that has overtaken a mining outpost on the […]
Review: Life is Strange Reunion In 2015, developer Don’t Nod released the first episode of Life is Strange (back then, episodic adventure games were all the rage). Over the course of that five-episode first season, players would grow to love photographer protagonist Max Caulfield and her anarchist friend Chloe Price. The game was filled with […]
Review: Pokémon Pokopia The Pokémon series turned 30 recently, and across three decades of games, cartoons, movies and endless merchandise, there have been a lot of different ways to engage with it. But the core appeal of Pokémon has remained the same the whole time – imagining that you have a special, unique bond with […]
Review: Mario Tennis Fever There have been many Mario sports games over the years, and taken collectively they’re a mixed bag. He’s a strong golfer and his soccer attempts can be fun; he’s less exciting on the basketball court, and many of his other pursuits (including his Olympic dreams alongside Sonic the Hedgehog) have seemingly […]
Review: Cairn There’s a scene midway through Cairn, the mountain-climbing epic from independent developer The Game Bakers, where main character Aava speaks with another climber about what pushes her to keep climbing. In her words, during moments of beauty and solitude, when she stands alone on a peak she has scaled, it’s not just that […]
Review: Octopath Traveler 0 Across its first two entries, the Octopath Traveler series has established itself as one of the most exciting names in the RPG space. The first game, which featured eight “main” characters who you guided through separate stories, excelled thanks to its fantastic retro-style visuals and deep, moreish combat, and Octopath Traveler […]
Review: Pokémon Legends: Z-A The last few Pokémon RPGs on Switch – Legends Arceus, then Scarlet/Violet and their expansions – have had the feeling of a series at a tipping point. They’ve presented more open worlds, some new mechanics, and have gotten closer to the experience that those of us old enough to have loved […]
Review: Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles Final Fantasy Tactics is a game I’ve wanted to play for a long time. The original, released in 1998 in the US for the PlayStation, never made it over to Australia; there was a remake for the PSP too that was also released on iPhone, but I never […]
Review: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds has released within a few months of Mario Kart World – the first new Mario Kart game in 11 years – and it’s hard to imagine that Sega isn’t feeling some pressure to perform against it. Mario and Sonic are not the bitter rivals they were during the […]
Film review: The Smashing Machine The Safdie Brothers rose to prominence in 2017 – a decade into their careers directing together – with Good Time, perhaps the film that established the exciting potential of a post-Twilight Robert Pattinson. Their next film, 2019’s Uncut Gems, was even more seismic: the growing contingency of folks who stump […]
Film Review: One Battle After Another In the opening scene of One Battle After Another, members of a revolutionary group break into a Californian detention center, rescuing immigrants held in cages while subduing, restraining and humiliating their captors. It’s a clear statement of intent from the movie, establishing a clear political position while also being […]
Film review: The Long Walk In 1979, when Richard Bachman’s novel The Long Walk first released, it was read largely as a book reflecting on the Vietnam War: a conflict where young people were drafted and sent to their death with little sense of reason or purpose. The promised glory for the lone survivor at […]
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