Joker Review

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Featuring a riveting, fully realized, and Oscar-worthy performance by Joaquin Phoenix, Joker would work just as well as an engrossing character study without any of its DC Comics trappings; that it just so happens to be a brilliant Batman-universe movie is icing on the Batfan cake. You will likely leave Joker feeling like I did: unsettled and ready to debate the film for years to come.

Clearly drawing its spirit and style from classic ‘70s and ‘80s films like Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy, A Clockwork Orange, and Dog Day Afternoon, director Todd Phillips’ Joker presents a Gotham City that is unmistakably a stand-in for the hellish New York City of the era. It was a time when rampant crime, corruption, economic crises, and social ills saw it dubbed “Fear City.”

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Blair Witch Review

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Every once in a while, one of those horror games comes along that gets mythologized as a harrowing experience best left alone by anyone without a taste for relentless, oppressive fear. Blair Witch definitely deserves a spot in that pantheon alongside Amnesia, Silent Hill, and their like. The many ways it manages to build tension and make me wonder if I’m losing my mind with a fairly simple premise of being lost in some woods creates a wonderfully unsettling journey. And it even manages to break with the tradition of recent horror games by giving you limited ability to confront the nightmares without ever turning into a power fantasy.

This trip to the edges of sanity placed me, in first-person perspective, back in the Black Hills Forest of the classic 1999 film The Blair Witch Project. It’s rendered here in an eerie, muted color palette that adds to a sense of foreboding and helplessness with its spindly, grasping trees and rich but subtle sound design. During the day, I always got the impression that I was being watched, or that I wasn’t supposed to be there. At night, everything transforms into an oppressive, heart-pounding, sometimes disorienting nightmare that made me long for the limited relief the sun’s rays could bring.

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Amazon's Carnival Row: Season 1 Review

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This is a spoiler-free review for Season 1 of Amazon's Carnival Row, which is now streaming on Amazon Prime worldwide.

When venturing into the sprawling world of Amazon’s Carnival Row, be forewarned: its greatest strength - its ambitious, sweeping scale - is also its biggest weakness.

Meticulously realized by creators Travis Beacham (who first developed the idea as a spec film script that hit The Blacklist, Hollywood’s repository of the best unproduced screenplays, in 2005) and René Echevarria, with an assist from fellow executive producer Marc Guggenheim, Carnival Row tries to accomplish a lot of different things with varying degrees of success.

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Nyrius Aries Pro Wireless HDMI Transmitter Review

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If you’re living in a web of wires as you connect and power a smorgasbord of electronics with crisscrossing cables, it’s likely you’ve considered wireless options on more than one occasion. The Nyrius Aries Pro is a premium wireless video solution that can cut out one more cable from your setup — the HDMI cable. At $249 (See it at Amazon), the Aries Pro comes at a serious price, so it will prove a hard sell for anyone who doesn’t have cash to burn and a clear need for its capabilities.

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Here's What It's Like to Pilot the Millennium Falcon

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Note: This review was originally published in May for the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge at Disneyland, and is being republished to coincide with the opening of Galaxy's Edge at Walt Disney World's Hollywood Studios in Florida.

IGN has been in the business of reviews for more than a decade, but to our knowledge, we haven't reviewed a theme park ride before now - so consider this an experiment for us as much as you, with the caveat that we have no existing reviews to compare it to, and that your own experience will undoubtedly be colored by what you enjoy most about theme park rides, so we encourage you to visit the park and experience it for yourself if you can! Also, according to the Disney press materials, the ride's official title is Smugglers Run with no apostrophe, and yes, it bothers us grammar nerds too

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The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is Even Darker Than the Original Film

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This is a spoiler-free review for all 10 episodes of Netflix's The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance - premiering Friday, August 30.

Boasting an impressive voice cast, and an even more admirable, labor-intensive production utilizing state-of-the-art puppetry (mixed with some green screens), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is an embarrassment of riches. As a prequel series to Jim Henson and Frank Oz's ghoulishly great labor of love, 1982's The Dark Crystal, and based on their own "World of Thra" notes, the series now presents us with a lopsided narrative. At nearly 10 hours (and the story not complete by the end), Age of Resistance is a deep-dive backstory that far outweighs the 90-minute movie it's leading towards.

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Batman/Superman #1 Captures the Best of Both Worlds

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When DC launched Superman/Batman back in 2003, the series' appeal couldn't be simpler. DC's biggest creators working with the company's two most iconic heroes, all on a series built around the widescreen action approach that was so popular at the time. For various reasons, that appeal never fully translated over to 2013's Batman/Superman. But with the launch of a new volume of Batman/Superman, DC does a far better job of recapturing that old magic. Superstar creators plus iconic heroes plus a dastardly villain equals a strong debut issue.

Batman/Superman builds directly on the foundation of Dark Nights: Metal and The Batman Who Laughs, with the series pitting the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel against a nemesis who has all the most formidable traits of Batman and the Joker. And lest readers accuse the Batman Who Laughs of being well below Superman's pay grade, this series also introduces "The Infected," a group of DC heroes who have been secretly corrupted by this demented villain.

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Marvel Comics #1000 Is for Hardcore Fans Only

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Marvel Comics is celebrating its 80th anniversary in a number of ways in 2019, but the release of Marvel Comics #1000 easily ranks among the most ambitious. Each page of this 80-page special issue features a different creative team telling a story inspired by a particular year in Marvel's history.

The launchpad for each story ranges from the debut of a major character to the appearance of a seminal storyline to the release of a landmark movie like Iron Man or Howard the Duck. The result is every bit as messy and disjointed as you'd expect from such an unusual undertaking, but still well worth reading for Marvel devotees.

Telling a complete, coherent story in a single page is an art form unto itself, and it goes without saying that some teams are more successful than others. The fundamental problem with Marvel Comics #1000 is that there isn't really a cohesive theme or focus over the course of 80 pages, 80 teams, and 80 stories. Some stories follow a set theme, with heroes like Hulk, Thing, and Daredevil responding to a faceless interviewer asking about what motivates them. Others are basically bland origin story re-tellings. A great many others simply seek to tell a fun, quick story in the limited space available.

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House of X Delivers an X-Men: The Animated Series Callback

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As much as House of X and Powers of X have done to reshape the X-Men and their place in the Marvel Universe, neither series has spent a great deal of time exploring the present-day status quo for mutantkind. In fact, you have to go all the way back to the beginning in House of X #1 to find an issue completely set in the present.

House of X #3 finally returns to that approach, showcasing a desperate mission to prevent the X-Men's greatest enemy from being born. In many ways, this is the most traditional X-Men comic we've yet seen from writer Jonathan Hickman, but one loaded with huge stakes and human drama.

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The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan Review

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I like my decisions to come with consequences, and The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan presents some strong ones, including one that determines whether or not I get to see Shawn Ashmore speared through the chest with a rusty spike. Unlike developer Supermassive Games’ greatest horror hit to date, the cheesy Until Dawn, Man of Medan is a serious and brooding horror game that starts off too slow but maintains a welcome sense of dread in its latter half. A meaningful choice-and-consequence system makes a second or even third five-hour playthrough alluring, particularly when playing online co-op, where you each control one character and independently make decisions with the potential to screw each other over.

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ViewSonic XG350R-C Curved Gaming Monitor Review

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The ViewSonic XG350R-C is an ultrawide 35-inch curved FreeSync gaming monitor that offers up a 3,440 x 1,440 resolution, 100Hz refresh rate, and a 3ms response time. With its huge size, ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio, and 1800R curvature, the panel fills your peripheral vision to make games look and feel immersive. It also adds in tech to reduce motion blur and offers minor HDR support.

The ViewSonic XG350R-C (See it on Amazon) is big and bold, but does it do enough to unseat the Asus ROG Swift PG348Q as our favorite curved gaming monitor?

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Young Justice: Outsiders Season Finale Review

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Warning: full spoilers for the final three episodes of Young Justice: Outsiders below!

It's funny to compare the season premiere and finale of Young Justice: Outsiders and just how different the two are in terms of approach. The season ends as it began, with three episodes debuting in one block on the DC Universe app. But where the first three episodes of the season served as one, cohesive story, the season ends with three very distinct installments. That approach ultimately pays off, allowing the series to tie up a great many loose ends in a relatively short amount of time. Season 3 ends strong, even as it tees up an even bigger and more ambitious Season 4.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus Review

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Not too long ago the Samsung Galaxy Note was the biggest, baddest smartphone money could buy. However, over time (and especially in the past two years) new phones have started offering bigger screens, more memory, and lower prices to match.

2019's Note 10 Plus (See it at Amazon) stands against a considerably larger field of well-equipped rivals like the OnePlus 7 Pro. Samsung had to bring out all the tricks to prove it’s still the king of big phones. Did they pull it off? We put the Note 10 Plus through its paces to find out.

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Control Review

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I wish Remedy could make even more games, because Control reminded me of this studio’s knack for crafting engrossing, oddball worlds with an incredible sense of place. Control is perhaps Remedy’s weirdest yet, with the talking upside pyramid who’s also your boss being about the sixth-strangest part. But thanks to sharp writing, a set of awesome and varied psychic combat abilities, and an impressively thought-out world, it was easy to wrap my head around what made this adventure tick.

Infiltrating the Federal Bureau of Control as Jesse Faden and her blue wavy spirit buddy, I found myself fascinated. The Bureau’s headquarters seems like a drab, nondescript office building at first, and Jesse’s search for answers to events in her past was equally mundane at first. But Control quickly reveals what lies behind those concrete walls: within the first chapter I became both the janitor’s assistant and the new acting director of the Bureau.

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Astral Chain Review

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PlatinumGames has a reputation for making action games that are both incredibly stylish and delightfully weird. Its latest, the Switch-exclusive Astral Chain, wholeheartedly embraces this tradition and pushes each aspect to the max. This is Platinum at its finest - its innovative combat system cleverly manages to make controlling two characters at once feel intuitive and deeply rewarding. Equally as impressive, the non-combat sequences charmingly bring this peculiar world and the characters who inhabit it to life.

The setup is a fairly typical one: after Earth became uninhabitable due to alien pollution, humanity migrated to the Ark, a futuristic metropolis filled with neon lights and, surprise(!), an alien invasion problem of its own.You know, the usual. You play as one of the two Howard twins - male or female - who is a part of an anti-alien task force that fights using robot allies called Legions. That’s where the eponymous Astral Chain comes in - it’s the tether between you and your Legion and lets you see the aliens, which are called Chimeras.

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Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Review

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When our distant ape ancestors got together and decided one day, roughly 10 million years ago, that they should evolve into humans, did they have an instruction manual that told them which two things to rub together to get there? No! They had to put pretty much everything they encountered into their mouths, one at a time, to figure out which was tasty and which was deadly poison. There was a lot of hard work, repetition, and death that turned out to be completely unnecessary in hindsight. Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey does its very best to recreate much of that maddening blindness and futility and some of the associated sense of discovery in a beautiful prehistoric world, becoming an apt metaphor in the process.

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Turtle Beach Battle Buds Review

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Before the Nintendo Switch and its unique servicing of both the home console and portable markets, products marketed specifically for mobile gaming were somewhat uncommon. Now, though, there’s a whole slew of gaming earbuds with “try it with the Switch” plastered on the box. Unlike other Switch accessories, these earbuds tend to be affordable. Turtle Beach has thrown its hat into the Switch audio ring with its $29.95 Battle Buds (See them on Amazon). Are the Battle Buds any good, or is this another case of a peripheral manufacturing prioritizing a profitable trend before solid product quality?

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Oninaki Review

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It can be a lot of fun beating up mean ghosts while possessed by helpful ghosts to eventually free wayward ghosts from their earthly attachments, as I discovered in Oninaki’s stylish action RPG world. Some of the basics of combat feel a bit too clunky and repetitive for it to ascend all the way to the heavens, but the mature storytelling, captivating art, and excellent music had me wanting to stick around like an unfulfilled spectre.

While Oninaki’s art style comes across as almost childlike, it works in service of a story that explores lots of deep, dark questions about death, uncertainty, and how we cope with those things. You play as a Watcher, a sort of morally ambiguous ghost cop responsible for making sure departed souls re-enter the cycle of reincarnation rather than hanging around as shadows of their former selves in the spirit world. Sometimes this means going as far as executing someone who can’t let go of the deceased so they can both be at peace, setting a clear tone early on that your journey is going to take you to some disturbing, thought-provoking places.

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Wreckfest Review

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After a generation jam-packed with realistic racers that have made it their mission to teach us to drive clean and race fair, Wreckfest arrives like a sharp but needed kick in the shins. Forget driving etiquette; this is the automotive equivalent of a bar brawl, and it’s absolutely outstanding. Assembled by Finnish destruction racing specialists Bugbear, Wreckfest rekindles the door-slamming spirit of their original FlatOut games and brings it back to life inside the best demolition derby game in over a decade.

Don’t be deceived by Wreckfest’s overt focus on wildly exaggerated, metal-rending mayhem. This isn’t a strictly arcade smash-’em-up carved from the Burnout block; it’s a true successor to the likes of Destruction Derby, the original FlatOut, and the criminally underrated Test Drive: Eve of Destruction (known as Driven to Destruction to those of us outside North America).

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LG 49WL95C-W Ultra Wide Monitor Review

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Superwide monitors have become all the rage, and now LG has decided to get in on the fun with a 49” display of its own: the 32:9, 1440p 49WL95C-W (See it at Amazon). AT $1,300 it's not cheap but you're getting a ton of desktop real estate with one of these monitors. Let's put it through its paces.

LG 49 Ultra Wide Monitor – Design and Features

The 49WL95C-W is a slick looking monitor—the nearly frameless display sits on a wide, curved metal stand that looks at home in an office or a gaming cave. The stand does wobble slightly if you bump the desk, but it’s far from the worst I’ve seen, and you can adjust the height, tilt, and swivel to your tastes. There are no cable management holes or anything like that, though the thick cables it comes with are white, so they’ll likely blend in with your wall better than most.

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Decay of Logos Review

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There’s an old Wile E. Coyote cartoon where he gets in a racecar to chase after the Road Runner, and as he’s speeding along the car begins to fall apart piece by piece until he’s left holding nothing but a busted steering wheel. That’s what it feels like to play Decay of Logos, an open-world action-adventure RPG that strongly invokes The Legend of Zelda but becomes increasingly unstable the longer you play, until you’re just thankful to see the credits roll. Whether it’s the choppy framerate even on an Xbox One X, equipment that disappears from your inventory, glitches that make you unable to dodge, jump, or swing a weapon, or the whole thing crashing entirely, you’re never more than a few minutes away from something that will hinder or completely shatter your enjoyment of a game that otherwise has a lot of potential.

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Superman: Year One Brings Something New to an Old Story

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Even with a truly legendary creative team at the helm, Superman: Year One struggled to justify its own existence in its first issue. Superman's origin has been told and retold countless times over the decades. Apart from a slightly greater emphasis on the Man of Steel's superhuman brain, Year One #1 didn't add a whole lot to the story of Clark Kent's formative years in Smallville. Nor did that story tie back to the larger Dark Knight Returns universe in any tangible way. For whatever faults issue #2 may have, at least one thing can be said - we haven't seen a Superman story like this before.

Issue #1 chronicled Clark's childhood, ending with his high school graduation and decision to enlist in the Navy. There, finally, creators Frank Miller and John Romita, Jr. found an angle that hadn't been done to death in previous origin re-tellings. Maybe Year One should have led with that swerve? In any case, this issue explores what happens when the world's strongest man signs up with Uncle Sam and leaves Kansas for the first time. Also, there are mermaids and sea gods, because why not?

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Batman: City of Bane Gets a Boost From Robin

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Despite being the lengthy, final chapter of Tom King's main Batman run, "City of Bane" hasn't gotten off to a particularly strong start. The series has been struggling in two main fronts lately. It's failed to continue the narrative momentum established in "The Fall and the Fallen," dwelling far too long on the villains of Gotham City and not nearly enough on Batman or Bane. It's also been marred by questionable characterization. But with issue #77 marking the end of the first act of "City of Bane," the series finally seems to be regaining its footing.

This issue is novel in that it hinges on a character who's barely factored into King's run before now - Damian Wayne. With Bane issuing a clear ultimatum preventing the Justice League from entering Gotham's borders, of course it would be Batman's arrogant little snot of a son, Damian, to defy the law. King employs his familiar split narrative technique in this issue, with the main storyline following Damian as he infiltrates Gotham and the interludes focusing on Batman's reunion with Catwoman.

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Netflix's Cannon Busters: Season 1 Review

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Cannon Busters is a bit of an odd beast. An adaptation of the short-running 2000s comic of the same name (with the comic’s author, LeSean Thomas, serving as the showrunner), it is nonetheless animated by a Japanese anime studio. This makes it the newest of Netflix’s ever-growing pantheon of shows that blur the line between “anime” and “cartoon.” The result is something that absolutely feels like an anime -- though, interestingly, an anime from the late ‘90s rather than today.

Cannon Busters takes the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to its world-building. Technology, androids, mecha, and other sci-fi trappings? Check. Magic, demi-humans, monsters, and other fantasy elements? Got those too. Ninjas? Yep. Cowboy bounty hunters? Sure. A pink Cadillac that turns into a giant robot with a bull’s head and runs on quarters? Do you even have to ask?

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Ready or Not Review

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Ready or Not co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, as well as screenwriters Guy Busick and R. Christopher Murphy, have crafted a deliciously wicked little yarn of a horror comedy that mostly delivers on the blood, guts, and laughs you'd expect a film like this to have in spades.

Some movies just need to make good on the promise of their premise, and Ready or Not leans into the novelty of its concept. The film follows newlywed bride Grace (Samara Weaving) as she’s hunted down by her new richer-than-rich in-laws, and despite a slow start, culminates in the bloody-as-hell finale you find yourself rooting for.

The first half of Ready or Not struggles to elevate itself above its premise, with the script doing little to separate itself from a routine horror flick set up. Grace makes for a typically oblivious hero as she prepares to join the Le Domas family by marrying Alex (Mark O’Brien) in their enormous mansion.

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Powers of X Showcases the X-Men's Darkest Timeline

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While it's tough to argue a project as ambitious as House of X and Powers of X is following any sort of established formula, Powers of X #3 shakes up the "status quo" in more ways than one. Until now, Marvel has alternated new issues of these twin books every week, but Powers of X #3 follows right after issue #2. This is yet another sign of how methodically plotted this entire saga truly is. More significantly, Powers of X #3 is the first chapter of the series to focus entirely on one point in the revamped X-Men timeline. It's a valuable opportunity to become better acquainted with the X-Men 100 years unto the future, even as we're reminded of how little we actually know about where writer Jonathan Hickman is steering the franchise.

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Telling Lies Review

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Telling Lies is a storytelling marvel. Every smile, every kiss, every lie reveals something meaningful about the characters and the way their lives intertwine, and seemingly insignificant comments link together to become crucial revelations. It follows the same structure as developer Sam Barlow’s previous game, Her Story, with a database of video clips that you watch out of sequence—but Telling Lies is bigger and better in every way.

Sublime acting by a cast of four main characters makes every scene believable, and each clip is a potential door into a new sub-plot. One shows David, who features most often, talking to a woman on the phone while in bed, their conversation veiled in subtext and secrets. The next might show an environmental group organising a protest that you know must be important because you’ve heard about before. If you tug on any thread it will slowly unwind, and I wasn’t able to let go until I’d fully unravelled it and learned how it fits into the wider story.

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MSI Optix MAG 321CQR Gaming Monitor Review

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MSI is one of the biggest players in the PC business, so when it releases a new monitor it’s wise to give it more than a quick glance. That’s exactly what we’re doing today with the new MSI Optix MAG 321CQR Gaming Monitor (See it on Amazon). It’s a large 32-inch curved display that aims at the sweet spot for features and performance. With a vertical resolution of 1440p and 144Hz refresh rate, it’s competitively priced at under $425 as of this writing.

The market for these features is becoming increasingly crowded, so does the Optix MAG 321CQR do enough to set itself apart and demand your hard-earned dollars? I’ve spent the last two weeks with the monitor to answer that exact question.

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Angel Has Fallen Review

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Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) has seen more action in his career as a Secret Service Agent than most superheroes see in a lifetime, but Angel Has Fallen pits the rugged hero against a new threat to the president he is sworn to protect: himself.

In the second sequel to 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen, Banning is dealing with a mild addiction to painkillers stemming from a series of concussions he’s suffered on the job throughout his career, keeping his physical struggles a secret from his wife Leah (Piper Perabo, taking over for Radha Mitchell) and his superiors, President Trumbull (Morgan Freeman) and Secret Service Director David Gentry (Lance Reddick).

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Corsair K57 RGB Wireless Gaming Keyboard Review

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Corsair is best known for its large family of Cherry-equipped mechanical keyboards, but did you know the company also offers a lone entry-level membrane gaming keyboard? The Corsair K55 RGB, which anchors the low end of Corsair’s product line, now has a bigger brother.

The newly introduced Corsair K57 RGB Wireless (see it at Amazon) dials things up a couple of notches, delivering compelling features that might ordinarily be beyond the reach of budget gamers. That’s possible because the K57 dispenses with the priciest part of high-end keyboards – mechanical keys – to sell for a very affordable $99. But are the trade-offs worth it? We decided to take a closer look.

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Remnant: From the Ashes Review

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Remnant: From The Ashes demands a lot from you while offering very little in return. Its excellent combat and high-stakes, randomized progression system gives it moments of pure blissful excitement, especially in co-op. But its frequent difficulty spikes and underwhelming gear system rob it of the consistently “tough but fair” feeling that gives Souls games their infamous appeal.

The elevator pitch for Remnant is basically Dark Souls with a heavy focus on ranged, gun-based combat, and it sticks closely to that format. Your team of three fights across randomly generated maps and slays boss monsters in the hopes of earning extremely rare loot. Gunfire Games did a good job of building out a world that feels unique with lots of fine details that are fun to uncover, but the actual post-apocalyptic story about a battle against an evil called The Root lacks personality and a driving purpose to keep things interesting on that front. I found myself being told where to go and what to do a lot by sparse voice acting, but I was never given much of a reason to care about anything but the basics.

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Corsair Harpoon RGB Wireless Gaming Mouse

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Take the Corsair Harpoon RGB and snip the cord, jettison 2,000 DPI, and add $20 to the bill and you get the Corsair Harpoon RGB Wireless Gaming Mouse (See it at Amazon). It is nearly identical to Corsair’s wired Harpoon RGB Pro mouse, but the wireless version uses an optical sensor with lower total DPI and costs $20 more for wireless freedom. The Harpoon RGB Wireless is also a few grams heavier because of the battery it must carry onboard. Otherwise, it’s an exact replica of the Harpoon RGB Pro. It’s a six-button, right-handed mouse with a single zone of RGB lighting.

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Netflix's Mindhunter: Season 2 Review

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Note: this is a spoiler-free review of all nine episodes of Mindhunter: Season 2, which premiered on Netflix on Friday, August 16.

It's been a little under two years since the first season of Mindhunter landed on Netflix and gave viewers a deep dive into the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit. It's not hard to understand why the first season struck such a chord. The series has the benefit of being a prestige crime thriller where no less an authority than David Fincher is behind the camera on several episodes. At the same time, it also taps into the current fascination with true crime stories and the desire to understand what goes on in the mind of a cold, calculating killer. The protagonists may be fictionalized versions of real FBI agents, but the situations and the criminals are all too real. Despite some early momentum problems, Season 2 channels that same effective balance between Hollywood style and real-world stakes.

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RAD Review

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Know what the first thing I thought of when I saw RAD was? Toe Jam & Earl. The gameplay of this roguelike action-adventure, which is set in a twice-nuked future whose pop-culture sensibilities are permanently fossilized in the 1980s, shares a lot in common with that old Sega Genesis favorite. Combine that vibe with developer Double Fine’s signature playful sense of humor and near-endless variety from randomized mutation power-ups, and you get a surprisingly engaging just-one-more-run kind of game.

It’s bad enough when the nuclear apocalypse hits, but society eventually rebuilds and, in time, civilization moves forward. Cue the second nuclear holocaust -- and you have to wonder why humanity can’t catch a break. By the time RAD begins, most of the planet is too dangerous to live in. And of course, even in the safe town you do have, the power goes out. So it’s up to the post-apocalyptic teenagers to venture out into the Fallow and try to get it back on and ensure the continued survival of the human race – no matter how much they have to mutate themselves to do it.

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Far: Lone Sails Review

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Far: Lone Sails came out on PC on May 17, 2018 and PS4 and Xbox One on April 2, 2019. We are using its release on Nintendo Switch on August 18, 2019 as an opportunity to review it on all four platforms since we hadn't previously.

Some folk say you can’t truly appreciate the highs of life if you haven’t felt the lows. Whether you believe that or not, it’s a lesson Far: Lone Sails takes to heart. It’s full of tense, nerve-wracking scenarios as you struggle to keep your fuel-guzzling/wind-powered hybrid vehicle running smoothly across a long-dead world. But buried between those hardships are beautiful moments of peace that shine brighter for it - the calm times where fair winds let me unfurl my sail and simply glide along to Far: Lone Sails’ incredible soundtrack were some of the most magical I’ve had in a game.

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Netflix's Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus Movie Review

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Back in 2002, Jhonen Vasquez’s dark sci-fi comedy Invader Zim was cancelled just 27 episodes into its run. And yet, over the past (almost) two decades, its cultural status has ballooned into something comparable to many other beloved Nicktoons with much longer lives, like Rugrats, Hey Arnold!, Spongebob Squarepants, and Rocko’s Modern Life (which got its own terrific revival special just last week). In 2019, a property cancelled too soon is ripe for revival.

Enter the Florpus is largely akin to what Serenity did with Firefly, taking the basic crux of its sci-fi story and hurrying it along to what feels like the ultimate climax, stuffed with lots of action and big character moments. At times, that makes for an immensely fun watch, but like Joss Whedon’s big-screen conclusion to his own cult classic, it moves a little too hastily for how much it tries to cram in. Naturally, it likely would have been more satisfying had the plot of this 71-minute movie played out over the course of a season of television.

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Logitech G915 Wireless Mechanical Keyboard Review

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Over the last year Logitech has been on a mission to update nearly their entire line-up, updating plenty of classics and releasing loads of new products to stand alongside them and fill in some gaps. As the resident keyboard geek, when I heard they were releasing a new flagship gaming keyboard, I was intrigued.

Today, we’re taking a close look at that keyboard, the Logitech G915 Wireless (See it at Logitech). It’s super thin, features custom low-profile mechanical switches, Lightspeed Wireless, programmable macros and RGB lighting, and multi-host Bluetooth pairing. Is it worth $249? After putting it through its paces I certainly thought so. So let’s take a closer look at exactly what makes Logitech's latest so great.

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Amazing Spider-Man Shows the Fun Side of Villainy

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No current Marvel series quite scratches that Superior Foes of Spider-Man itch, but The Amazing Spider-Man has suddenly become the next best thing. Writer Nick Spencer is using his latest story arc as an opportunity to revisit certain key characters and even build directly on old plot points. The result is a satisfyingly goofy Spidey adventure, whether or not you're a fan of Superior Foes.

As much as Spencer's run has varied in terms of tone and focus, one thing has remained constant - it's the villains and supporting characters who really fuel the series. Spencer's handle on Peter Parker is fine, but it's characters like Boomerang, Aunt May and Mysterio where the series has really found its hook lately. That's what makes this latest arc work so well. Peter is very much a secondary player, one reluctantly dragged into the fray as Beetle and her new Sinister Syndicate retaliate against Fred Myers. Instead, it's these blue collar villains who steal the show, along with a handful of memorable scenes involving an unfairly beleaguered May. But this isn't a knock against the issue. It's simply an approach that plays directly to Spencer's strengths writing morally ambiguous C-Listers.

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Mortal Kombat 11: Nightwolf DLC Review

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Going in, Nightwolf was honestly the character I was looking forward to the least out of the announced Kombat Pack 1 characters. The second DLC addition to Mortal Kombat 11’s roster doesn’t have Shang Tsung’s flashy ability to morph into other characters, the super-iconic moveset of Sindel, nor the sheer amount of fan excitement of the upcoming Spawn. However, his extremely strong fundamentals-focused moveset, versatile playstyle, and hands down the single best outro animation in the entire game has not only made Nightwolf my favorite of the two currently released DLC characters, but he might actually be my new main.

Netherrealm did a great job of making Nightwolf’s moveset feel unique and fun, despite the fact that many of his signature moves are actually kind of plain. His shoulder charge can be enhanced – even if it’s blocked – to execute a followup overhead ax strike, which can also Krushing Blow if it hits on its own; his reflect can double as a teleport in certain variations, giving him a great counter-zoning option; his bow can be held and cancelled for mind games; and his rising tomahawk can be enhanced twice in one combo for easy big damage and tons of corner carry, at the great cost of both bars of meter.

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Once & Future Finds a Fresh Take on Arthurian Legends

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There's an excitement surrounding the release of Once & Future that you normally only find with major Marvel and DC projects. It's not hard to understand why. The creative team alone is a huge draw, as superstar writer Kieron Gillen is teaming up with two of the best storytellers in the business, artist Dan Mora and colorist Tamra Bonvillain. Then there's the story pitch, with Gillen, Mora and Bonvillain delivering a new take on the timeless formula of King Arthur returning to save a troubled, modern-day England. It's a combination that works, mainly because it manages to subvert the usual Arthurian conventions.

It often seems as though Arthurian myths scratch the same basic itch as superhero stories. We long for a world where a powerful hero rises out of obscurity to battle injustice and impose justice on an unjust world. Whether that hero wears a mask and cape or wields an ancient, mystical sword, the end result is the same. Once & Future is a book that speaks directly to the fears and struggles of an England wracked by Brexit woes and a general sense of unrest and malaise. In the midst of that unrest, rumors of a long-dead king returning to life are beginning to spread, forcing an old woman named Bridgette McGuire to spring to action.

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Marvel's Powers of X Grows Even More Complex

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Each passing week makes it more and more clear that there's no point in attempting to only read House of X or Powers of X. They truly are "two series that are one," as the reading order section proclaims. However, that closely intertwined format brings with it many advantages. Each new chapter of this two-pronged X-Men revamp brings a new wave of status quo-altering twists. Not only that, each issue changes the way the readers views those that have come before. This is a story that steadily builds on itself and grows in all directions, showing just how much ambition Jonathan Hickman, Pepe Larraz and RB Silva are bringing to this project.

While Powers of X doesn't completely alter the playing field in the way House of X #2 did, it does further expand the scope of an already massive story. For one thing, the title "Powers of X" takes on new and even greater significance in this issue. If Hickman and Silva make anything clear in Powers of X #2, it's this - these two comics aren't just telling a story about mutantkind's ongoing struggle for survival, but a larger tale about evolution and the eternal conflict between biology and technology. Any early fears this run might be stuck rehashing old concepts and themes are firmly put to rest at this point.

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Darq Review

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I'm a coward when it comes to nightmares, so Darq’s premise of a psychological horror game set in a lucid dream was enough to make me uncomfortably squirm in my chair on its own. My brain already loves to put me through the wringer with restless dreams, so I was worried that Darq’s subject matter might be too much for me. But its somber monochromatic visuals and puzzles that bend the laws of physics were too alluring of a sirensong, and I’m glad they pulled me to play it because, even at its most bleak, Darq is beautiful.

Darq fixates on submerging you in a dreamscape and doesn't elaborate much in the way of a backstory. There's no initial title screen, even; instead, a decaying apartment with a boy quivering at the center. This is Darq's protagonist, Lloyd. He's at the mercy of his unconscious mind, desperate to wake up - but I only know even those few details from perusing Darq's official website. The story is intentionally opaque to replicate that "fuzzy details" feeling when you try to recall a dream from memory - more thoughts and feelings, less plot and exposition - which works in its favor.

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Ion Fury Review

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In honour of its main character, Shelly ‘Bombshell’ Harrison, Ion Fury was originally known as Ion Maiden - but that changed soon after the band Iron Maiden threatened legal action. But the aging band needn’t have bothered – this throwback first-person shooter isn’t anything like the classic British metal forged in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Ion Fury is distinctively nu-metal; rooted in the ‘90s, hard as Nine Inch Nails and likely to make even the most skilled player feel like a bit of a Limp Bizkit.

Ion Fury is a singleplayer-only first-person shooter that feels reminiscent of pre-turn-of-the-century shooters like Duke Nukem 3D and Blood, with good reason: it’s been built on what is almost the exact same game engine, known as Build. It’s a colourful clash of primitive 3D environments with enemies and effects made of chunky 2D-sprites. Its pulsating MIDI-based soundtrack and crunchy shotgun effects seem like they’re being spat out by a Sound Blaster 16, and its main villain is voiced by none other than Jon St. Jon, AKA the voice of Duke Nukem himself. Ion Fury doesn’t feel like a mere homage to the era; it’s so exceedingly authentic that it’s as though it slipped off a game store shelf in 1996, tumbled through a wormhole and landed in my Steam queue in 2019.

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Astro A40 TR + MixAmp Pro TR Review

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For more than ten years, Astro’s A40 has been one of the most recognizable and beloved gaming headsets. But over the decade, the functionality has gotten a bit stale, and the release of special editions and color-swaps have outpaced the functional updates. The A40 TR + MixAmp TR (See it on Amazon) aims to fix that by enhancing the audio—with a new set of drivers—and a totally reworked MixAmp designed for streamers and pros alike. But is that enough to warrant the $250 price tag?

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The Angry Birds Movie 2 Review

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In a summer where the box office has been hit and miss when it comes to giving audiences what they wanted or expected, The Angry Birds Movie 2 is pretty much exactly what you would expect it to be. While fans of the first film will likely be satisfied with the sequel and there’s nothing fundamentally bad about The Angry Birds Movie 2, it’s unlikely that anyone who wasn’t already planning to see it will change their minds and buy a ticket.

The good news is that if you’re an adult taking a child to this, it won’t be an unpleasant experience. You’ll probably have sat through worse. Would you recommend someone go and see it without kids? Probably not. Another bonus is that at 96 minutes long, one minute shorter than The Angry Birds Movie, it doesn’t overstay its welcome.

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Legion Series Finale Review

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This review contains spoilers for the series finale of Legion, aka Season 3, episode 8, "Chapter 27."

It’s hard to know what to say about a series like Legion ending. There’s an impulse to wax nostalgic on the sum of its parts; to gloss over the bits and bobs that do not work in order to consider whether the plane was or was not well-landed. Does it all just come down to the ending, after all the complicated, wildly outlandish, and totally kookaroo stuff we just watched over the last three seasons? Did any of it matter? Was that entirely the point?

Legion’s goals were always simultaneously simple and wildly complicated. Series creator Noah Hawley wasn’t interested in telling a typical comic book origin story — he just wanted to have some trippy, existential fun with a bunch of incredibly game actors. This is why the story of David Haller appealed to him: the son of Professor X/Charles Xavier is the most powerful mutant of all time, but no one knows where his powers truly originated. Were they because of his father, the monster in his head, or the mental health issues that seemed to swirl around the lot of it? It wasn’t so cut and dry. It was a dissection of creative talent and mental health: how much of the control over these things actually belongs to us? In this world, the usual social binaries need not apply because our hero was actually a superpowered villain who really just wanted to be good. And so...our deliriously tripped-out journey into David’s mind began, and began again, and restarted, and got turned over on its head and sent on a quest for control and dominance between a “bad guy” and a “good guy” who were slowly trading places.

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The Terror: Infamy - Season 2 Premiere Review

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Set on the eve of Pearl Harbor — and, more pertinently, the mass internment of Japanese-Americans in the aftermath — there’s an eerie timeliness to the new season of horror anthology The Terror.

Beginning with a woman’s inexplicable suicide (and a number of supernatural occurrences best left un-spoiled), the story centers on a small Japanese-American community on Terminal Island. The premiere episode is rife with omens and unsettling atmosphere, not to mention family secrets. Though amidst its questions of guilt, repression and cultural (un)belonging, the series also picks its historical moment with uncanny precision.

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