Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Series Premiere Review

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Mild spoilers follow for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1, Episode 1.

“You don’t want me in command of that ship.”

That’s not a sentiment you hear too often on Star Trek, where the main characters are almost preternaturally given to taking charge. But as Strange New Worlds debuts, Anson Mount’s Captain Christopher Pike just doesn’t know if he has it in him anymore.

His journey back to command begins in this first episode of the latest Star Trek series, which is a high-end and thrilling callback to the glory days of the Star Trek of yesteryear when adventure-of-the-week stories were the norm, aliens and their foibles were way more like humans than we cared to admit (foreheads notwithstanding), and a little good humor went a long way to cushioning the frankly lofty ideals of the crew of the USS Enterprise.

Trekkies of course know why Pike is down on his luck in this premiere. Spoilers for a half-century-old episode of TV, but back on The Original Series we learned that Pike was fated to be gravely injured in an accident at some future point, and thus forced to spend his remaining days as a broken man in a life-sustaining machine. When the character returned to the screen in 2019 for Star Trek: Discovery, Mount’s incarnation of Pike got an unfortunate glimpse of his most unfortunate future. Which is why he’s moping around in the mountains with his best pandemic look, beard and all, when we first meet him here.

Of course, it was that stint on Discovery -- Mount and his Strange New Worlds co-stars Ethan Peck (Spock) and Rebecca Romijn (Number One) all appeared in Season 2 -- that revitalized the Pike character (who, after all, had only made a handful of appearances in the decades prior). Fans loved him and his pals, and demanded the three get their own show, and these days fans often get what they want. (Of course, legend has it that fan letter-writing campaigns saved the original Star Trek from cancellation… for a time anyway. There is precedent here.)

And so we now have this show, which depicts the early adventures of the USS Enterprise before Captain Kirk takes over, but while a good portion of his eventual crew are already onboard. In addition to the core trio of Pike, Spock, and Number One, we also have Celia Rose Gooding as Uhura (who’s just a young cadet here), Jess Bush as Nurse Christine Chapel (apparently a civilian who has not yet joined Starfleet), and Babs Olusanmokun as Dr. M'Benga (a character seen once or twice back on the original show). There are also new faces like Christina Chong as security chief La'an Noonien-Singh, Melissa Navia as helmsperson Erica Ortegas, and Bruce Horak as the blind alien chief engineer Hemmer.

The main thrust of the episode involves the crew of the Enterprise being recalled from leave early in order to go looking for one of their own -- Romijn’s Number One was on a mission that went awry on a planet not unlike Earth of the 21st century. Parallel Earths was a concept Trek creator Gene Roddenberry used on TOS, and this episode leans into that idea (without just out-and-out going “Roman Earth” or “Nazi Earth” like the old show tended to). The planet that Pike and company find, and the situation they find themselves in the middle of there, feel like classic Trek, with a good dose of cautionary storytelling thrown in along the way.

Inevitably, some fans may bristle at Strange New Worlds’ brushes with continuity. For example, Spock’s time on Vulcan with a certain character here seemingly collides with the events of one of the most famous Original Series episodes. And yet, presumably it can be weaved into the fabric of that earlier episode without actually breaking canon. Whether or not the tightrope act regarding this particular subplot is worth the effort remains to be seen.

The Enterprise could seemingly be powered by Anson Mount’s charisma alone.

Speaking of which, stories like Spock’s here, or Pike’s struggles with the foreknowledge of his future, will seemingly continue throughout the show. (The first five episodes have been made available to press as of this writing.) So whereas the Discoveries and Picards of the world are focused on season-long Big Bad main arcs, Strange New Worlds is focusing on new stories each week, but also telling its characters’ stories over the long haul. Those are the season-long arcs, and man, does it really work in the first five.

Mount and Peck certainly have some good stuff to chew on in this premiere episode (the Enterprise could seemingly be powered by Mount’s charisma alone, and Peck’s unique take on a Spock who is 10 years out from being Spock is addictive). But franchise newcomer Christina Chong’s La'an Noonien-Singh also gets to shine in the debut. Let’s face it: The idea behind the character sounded pretty dumb when she was announced. A descendant of Khan Noonien-Singh, as in The Wrath of Khan, working on the Enterprise? But Chong is great here, hinting at her genetically tangled past and also showing the guys a thing or two when they’re planet-side on their away mission.

But as with the Spock plot this week, and perhaps with any franchise that has been running since Lyndon B. Johnson was president, maybe we just need to make a choice as fans: Do you go with the new storytelling or instead focus on how things connect or don’t, as the case may be, to the stories told decades ago? In the case of Strange New Worlds, I recommend the former, because if the first five episodes are any indication, this is just really good Star Trek.

Questions and Notes from the Q Continuum:

• “Spock… are you naked?”
• How perfect is it that Pike has a habit of watching The Day the Earth Stood Still, the classic sci-fi film about humanity’s first contact with alien life? That the good captain apparently has an OLED TV in the future, rather than some fancy holo-projector or the like, we’ll chalk up to his horse-riding, mountain-cabin livin’ lifestyle.
• The admiral played by Adrian Holmes who sends Pike to look for Number One is Robert April, former captain of the Enterprise who Pike served under as his Number One (as confirmed in Discovery).
• Lots of Easter eggs abound. First contact with the Gorn? Shuttlecraft Stamets? Transporter Chief Kyle? Others that are too spoilery to discuss here?!
• So Nurse Chapel was at the forefront of the old “change your DNA so you look like an alien” tech, eh? It never really got used on the old show much, but TNG loved that stuff.
• Man, this Enterprise is roomy!

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Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest Board Game Review

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Back in 2012, the pirate-themed title Libertalia, from a then little-known designer called Paolo Mori hit the shelves. Its blend of bluffing and hand management with that popular piratical theme made it a minor hit -- but after stock sold out it sunk without trace.

As it transpired, it’s a favourite of Stonemaier game’s Jamey Stegmaier, who has now bought the considerable might of his publishing house to issue a new edition. Moving the action from the high seas to the higher skies, Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest (see it at Amazon) adds some new cards and refreshes the components for modern production values.

What’s In The Box

Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest is mostly a card game, with an identical deck for each player, and the cards themselves are something of a letdown. While sturdy enough for play, the art, depicting anthropomorphic pirate animals, is odd. The aim is to emphasise the move from the high seas to high fantasy but the execution is lacking.

Other components are much better. There’s a big bag of chunky plastic loot tiles to draw from, similar to those in Azul, which slide and clack in a most satisfying manner as you rummage around amongst them. Players have score dials to track their booty and there are also coin tokens with a fun little plastic treasure chest to keep them in.

The only other component is a board plus some tiles to place on it to vary the effects of the loot tokens. It’s double-sided, printed with player aids and everything is laid out in a neat and effective manner to help facilitate the gameplay.

Rules and How it Plays

At the start of Libertalia: Winds of Galecrest, one player shuffles their deck of forty crew cards and draws six at random. The other players then go fishing in their own decks and draw out the same, matching cards. So everyone starts with the same cards. You also draw out one loot tile per player to lay on the board for each day of the upcoming voyage. There are three such voyages, starting at four days and then increasing to five and six.

Each day players must choose a card from their hand in secret. The card will have a rank number and one or more special powers. Once all players have chosen, the cards are arranged in rank order and their “day” powers get activated from left to right, in increasing rank. Then, their “dusk” powers get activated in the opposite direction, highest rank first, after which the owning player can choose a loot tile from that day’s selection. These loot tiles sometimes also have a dusk effect which happens as they are picked. Finally, a few cards have a “night” effect which is applied simultaneously.

That’s pretty much all the rules: it’s very easy to learn and teach the basic game flow. But beware, because the devil is in the details. The special powers on both crew and tiles are very varied and spice proceedings up like a tot of rum. At the same time, the information you need to play strategically is printed on the cards and tile effects and makes the game feel more complicated to newcomers than the tiny rule booklet.

It’s very easy to learn and teach the basic game flow. But beware, because the devil is in the details.

Let’s illustrate this with an example. Loot tiles aren’t all equal in value: indeed one, the Relic, costs you points if you collect it. So if there’s a day with a couple of Relic tiles among the loot and you have the rank 5 card Cabin Boy, you might be tempted to play it. The Cabin Boy’s “day” power nets you gold if he’s the leftmost card, which is likely given that he’s rank 5. At “dusk” he stops you from taking any loot which, if it’s a Relic, is quite helpful. So he looks like an easy choice: except all the other players will have a Cabin Boy and they’ll all be thinking the same thing. All of a sudden he’s not likely to be the leftmost card anymore, and you might want to reconsider. Unless all the other players are also thinking that same thing, in which case ...

And so the decisions go on, like a galleon spinning in an endless whirlpool, until you’ve tried to out-think all the double-think and come to a conclusion. After the tension of waiting for the other players, you go up the scale and back down again, scrabbling to try and work out what the cascade of powers is going to be and what loot you’re going to secure. It’s a neat mechanic with plenty of scope for excitement, planning and bluff. At the same time, the simultaneous choice of cards means your strategies can and will get torpedoed through no fault of your own, which can be unsatisfying.

At the end of each voyage, some cards and most loot tokens also have an “anchor” power that activates. These mostly net you some bonus gold but there are fun exceptions such as the hook token that lets you keep a card you’ve played in your tableau, which can be handy if it has an ongoing “night” effect. Libertalia: Wind of Galecrest makes full use of the simple day, dusk, night and anchor system to come up with some really engaging effect combos, ensuring there’s plenty of variety among its motley crew. The flip side of the board even has a whole new set of loot token effects to increase player interaction.

Before starting a new voyage, players get six new cards for their hand -- and this is where things really start to heat up. Although all players get the same six cards, chances are they played different cards during the preceding voyage which means everyone is now holding different hands. This brings a memory element into the game as you’ll be at an advantage if you can recall what other players are holding; but either way, it opens up more variety in potential effect combos. Despite this fresh blood, the arbitrary nature of simultaneous play does make the hour-odd play time feel a little overlong.

One thing that comes as a particular surprise for a game that thrives off having lots of cards working in opposition to each other is that it works well as both a solo board game and a two-player board game. Played solitaire, there’s a simple AI system to choose cards from an opponent’s hand together with a random “pilferer” card to mix up the order. With two players, there’s a dummy rank 20 card that punishes low play by stealing a loot token if both players have cards that rank below it. These are neat, simple solutions that keep the game fast and fun at every player count.

Where to Buy

• Get it at Amazon
• Get it at Stonemaier Games

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AndaSeat Kaiser 3 Review

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You can find gaming chairs across the gamut of prices and quality, but Secretlab has consistently produced winners. Many chairs compete and some follow in Secretlab’s footsteps, but perhaps none more so than the new AndaSeat Kaiser 3. From its refined assembly process to its magnetic parts, it’s a shockingly similar chair to the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 – and at $449 to $549, depending on material and size, AndaSeat is asking for a little bit less money compared to the Titan Evo’s current $519 starting price. So, if the Kaiser 3 is so much like the Titan Evo 2022, let’s have a look at how close it comes.

AndaSeat Kaiser 3 – Design and Features

The AndaSeat Kaiser 3 is a throne in its XL size, which is a little larger in the seat than the standard large. Ultimately, both versions benefit from a more spacious seating area thanks to a flatter design that does away with the pointless bolsters at each side. Even though the chair has two side lips, they’re packed with cushioning that makes for a comfortable space to sit.

The lack of bolsters on the seat doesn't make this any less of a gaming chair though. It’s still packing a curvy backrest that swoops in at either side of the torso and pushes forward in the shoulder for an impossible-to-AFK posture. There are still two big holes through that might have previously been used by lumbar pillow straps, but AndaSeat has updated its ergonomics as well.

Inside the backrest, the Kaiser 3 has an adjustable lumbar support that’s controlled with a dial on either side of the chair. One raises or lowers the lumbar support, and the other increases or decreases its bulge. It’s not the most transparent design for a lumbar system, as it’s hard to see anything going on within the fabric of the chair, but it’s effective and almost exactly what’s found on the Titan Evo 2022 and similar to the system in the DXRacer Master Module. The headrest also gets an upgrade with a plush, memory foam pillow that snaps on with magnets and a wide range of height adjustment. Then there are the 4D armrests that are just like every other 4D armrest out there, except with slightly softer toppers that can pop off with magnets again.

Removing the toppers of the armrests might not make a lot of sense, but AndaSeat says it has a lapboard-style attachment coming in the next couple months. Unfortunately, the armrests on the Kaiser 3 and Titan Evo 2022 don’t appear to be identical enough to be interchangeable, as their pivot adjustment buttons are different shapes (the only notable difference I can see).

The Kaiser 3 has some of the other gaming chair goodies I expect at this price. Namely, it can recline a good way back, down to 165 degrees, and the seatbase rocks, letting it go even further back. Its 2.7-inch height adjustment range is decent, though not impressive, but the extensive height adjustment of the armrests helps make up for that.

The chair comes with either a PVC leather finish like you’ll find on many gaming chairs, or a linen fabric finish that’s quite comfortable. It’s liable to get dirtier easier, but the heathered Ash Gray of the model I tested hides blemishes well.

With a large seat that’s 20.2x 19.6 inches and an XL seat that’s 20.6 x 22.4 inches, the Kaiser provides spacious seating at either size, making it a viable big-and-tall gaming chair option. Both models feature a heavy-duty Class-4 gas lift to hold up plenty of weight, though the large is only recommended for weights up to 260 pounds while the XL can support up to 395 pounds. This is in line with the Titan Evo 2022, though a far cry from the E-Win Flash XL’s 550-pound limit.

AndaSeat Kaiser 3 – Assembly

The assembly process for the Kaiser 3 is about as straightforward as it gets for gaming chairs that don’t simply come pre-assembled. The wheels, wheelbase, and piston have to be slotted into one another. The tilting seatbase has to be bolted onto the bottom of the seat, and the seatback needs bolting to the seatbase. The armrests come pre-attached, saving a bit of time. Even here the Kaiser 3 is like the Titan Evo, as the seatback has an alignment rail to help get it aligned with the attachment arm. This makes it slightly easier to assemble, but it did take some fussing to line up the holes on the opposite side. Still, the process took less than 15 minutes to handle alone.

AndaSeat Kaiser 3 – Gaming

It’s impressive what a difference a few small changes to design can make. The biggest improvement for use has to be in the seatbase. The absence of metal bolsters completely erased the little nagging sensation that could turn into a sore spot at the sides of my legs after extensive hours in other gaming seats, including AndaSeat’s own. In the Kaiser 3, I can work and play for hours on end without getting any tender spots like this in my legs.

I’ve blown through dozens of hours of Elden Ring and spent even more time working in the Kaiser 3, and it’s proven a worthy partner in the task. The armrests have the flexibility to line-up with my slightly higher-than-usual desk so I can get solid wrist ergonomics for mouse-and-keyboard play and work. The armrests drop down low enough for me to sit back comfortably, and they angle in well for getting my hands on a controller when I want to game that way.

The chair is a bit on the aggressive side for a posture. This is fairly standard for gaming chairs, but a little annoying if you’re used to office chairs. This means a shoulders-forward position that hunches the back slightly. So far I haven’t felt it causing any issues, but I’m left feeling like my posture can never be quite right in the chair. Even though the lumbar support can situate itself nicely where I need it for good low-back support, my upper back feels less supported.

Thankfully, the seatbase makes up for the backrest. Given its pleasant support, I don’t find it too uncomfortable to just sit forward and upright with my back away from the backrest. I’m sitting more than 220 pounds into that seat, so lighter gamers will likely find it even more comfortable. Meanwhile, at 6’3”, there’s still room on the backrest for the pillow to go up for even taller gamers.

Purchasing Guide

The AndaSeat Kaiser 3 gaming chair is available from AndaSeat from $449 for the large model with a Blaze Orange PVC Leather finish. Other models start at $499 and the upgrade to XL raises the price to $549.

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Bubble Review

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Bubble is now streaming on Netflix.

When it comes to post-apocalyptic storytelling, a common thread is, obviously, how bleak humanity's future is. Whether the end has come by way of nuclear war or ravenous zombies, the doom and gloom factor that accompanies these stories is off the charts. With the wildly imaginative Bubble, a film from a four-way dream team of anime writers and directors, the bizarre threat Earth has fallen under is mind-bending and dangerous, sure. But it's also the key to opening one Tokyo youth's closed-off heart and the secret to understanding the mysteries behind the continuous destruction and rebirth of life. It all makes for a captivating and gorgeous piece of sci-fi that should earn a permanent spot in any anime fan’s collection.

Set in a strange reality where mysterious bubbles descend on the entire world out of the blue, the film explores the influence these spherical abnormalities have enacted on the human population. The Bubble Fall, as it's known, caused a series of dangerous explosions, with the epicenter of the blasts emanating from Tokyo Tower. What's left of the Earth has begun healing after the bubbles eventually dissipated, but Japan was hit harder than the rest, with Tokyo trapped beneath a giant dome.

With the city now sequestered from the rest of the world, teenagers flock back to the once bustling urban area despite evacuation orders to explore and take in some hardcore parkour. They compete for basic supplies and food in what they call Tokyo Battlekour, which involves zipping across rooftops, jumping from remaining bubble to bubble, and avoiding massive black hole-like anomalies known as "antlion pits." Loner Hibiki (Zach Aguilar in the English dub) is a parkour savant, who forms an unlikely connection with the strange yet beautiful Uta (Xanthe Huynh in the English dub), and we soon learn there’s a lot more to her than meets the eye.

The juxtaposition of humanity's darkest moment with a group of teens having a good time with the hand they've been dealt is one of Bubble’s most interesting aspects. Not only does it let the dire nature of the situation set in with more dramatic effect, but it feels a lot more natural than the belief that spunky youths would sit around and avoid dangerous, restricted areas. They'd make TikToks and post to Instagram. Bubble's kids are the same, only they practice sci-fi parkour.

The Bubble Fall, as humanity calls it, is endlessly intriguing, especially as the film introduces an entire cast of supporting characters to analyze it and make sense of such a strange occurrence. It's not too fantastical to think that enormous, volatile soap bubbles could appear one day and begin exploding, after all. We've seen much stranger things. It's a relatable kind of fear, and the idea that it could happen tomorrow – that’s what initially glues you to your seat. And Bubble is aware of this, giving you a reason to commit to a film that could otherwise be a heartfelt love letter to growing up like so many Studio Ghibli films end up becoming.

Bubble isn't afraid to throw true tragedy into the mix, however, with a mix of characters that don't adhere to familiar archetypes and a central problem that can't just be wished away or reverted. Humanity has to rebuild from its brush with disaster. And while Uta holds the key to unlocking the ultimate understanding of the Bubble Fall and why Hibiki has a connection to her, she never feels like the deus ex machina savior character so many anime films tend to lean on for a clean-cut resolution.

There's plenty of hope nestled throughout Bubble that elevates it from simple post-apocalyptic sludge.

Though learning more about the disaster that's plagued what's left of humanity is entertaining all on its own, the romance that slowly blossoms between Hibiki and Uta is one of the less frustratingly saccharine examples of anime love in more recent films. Hibiki is an introvert with hypersensitive hearing, an issue he can't share with just anyone. Watching him spend time with Uta organically without forced flirting and will-they-or-won't-they scenes is comforting and refreshing, a reminder that love can develop where you least expect it… even if you're worried about a bubble literally exploding in your face.

Watching the remainder of humanity come to terms with an end to the way life once was is oddly relatable now that we've lived through a global pandemic that continues to claim lives. But there's plenty of hope nestled throughout Bubble that elevates it from simple post-apocalyptic sludge into a romantic endeavor with bright undertones. Hibiki and Uta, as we discover, were destined to come together. But humanity, despite its hardships, is also fated to bounce back from whatever plagues it. So even if what two individuals -- or the entire human race -- goes through may be fleeting, there's always a reason to face tomorrow, especially if it’s as enjoyable and as comfortably fizzy in its efforts to inspire as Bubble is.

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Hatching Review

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Hatching opens in theaters on April 29, 2022.

A film that lives at the nexus between body horror and coming of age, Hanna Bergholm’s Hatching (or Pahanhautojain in its original Finnish) is spun from delightfully creepy ideas, which it brings to life using ingenuous practical effects. It also rests on the incredible caliber of its 12-year-old lead, and while it occasionally gets bogged down by metaphors that can be both mixed and thuddingly literal, its story — of a young gymnast who hatches a mysterious egg — allows just enough scattered moments of stunning performance and precise tonal control. Its numerous tensionless bits may eventually stack up, but enough in its 86-minute runtime hits the mark.

Siiri Solalinna plays 12-year-old gymnast Tinja, a driven young girl introduced through close-ups of her bony stature as she warms up before a bar routine. This visual framing sets the stage for both a subtle tale of body image, and a more overt joyride through twisted bodily transformations, even though Tinja herself isn’t the subject of this — not literally, at least. What follows is both an eerie family saga, in which the presence of her domineering mother (Sophia Heikkilä), who pushes her to her physical and emotional limits, finally begins to take its toll, and an Amblin-esque creature adventure wrung out into the shape of a visceral tale of bodily fluid and self-recognition.

Tinja’s family is rather uncanny, between a perfectionist mother who molds Tinja in her own image, and her bratty younger brother who looks a little too much like a spitting image of their unassuming father, right down to their coordinated outfits and matching spectacles. Her mother doesn’t stop smiling as she endlessly vlogs their daily routine; that is, until a crow ominously rams into the window of their garishly decorated upper-class home, after which the grinning matriarch puts it out of its misery. It’s the first peek behind the curtain of their pristine existence — the first of many — and it soon leads to Tinja discovering an abandoned egg, with which she quickly forms a bond.

After about 20 minutes of tightly controlled atmospheric scenes — in which a perturbed young Solalinna silently internalizes the story’s peculiar mood — Hatching floors the gas pedal and has the mysterious egg grow to nearly human size before revealing a disturbing humanoid bird creature within. Dripping with gooey afterbirth, and as skeletal as Tinja herself, this being often behaves viciously, but it also seems to imprint on Tinja, who begins to hide it around the house, away from her family’s prying eyes. In becoming a mother to it, and showing it the kind of warthm her own mother seems to lack, Tinja begins to break a cycle of abuse, neglect, and narcissism that has long festered and left her with a looming sadness — but avoiding the same pitfalls of her mother’s parenting might be easier said than done.

Effects artist Gustav Hoegen (of Disney’s Star Wars sequels) crafts a muscly, blood-soaked animatronic creature that’s as disturbing as it is sympathetic, and while the film begins to switch modes both wildly and frequently — its journey from slow-burn meditation to trashy B-movie is whiplash-inducing — it also zeroes in on key moments that expand on its litany of metaphors with often tongue-in-cheek humor. There are hints that Tinja might have an eating disorder, born from her mother’s tightly controlled nutritional regimen, and when her bodily reactions stray into bulimic territory, the question of “What does this mutated baby bird eat?” is answered in hilarious fashion. However, as the story zig-zags from one allegory to the next — among them, a number of puberty metaphors that soon fall by the wayside — its moments of physical discomfort are matched by an equally unsettling emotional undercurrent, when Tinja becomes burdened with some of her mother’s darkest secrets, forcing her to become withdrawn. Solalinna’s performance, as she balances bearing witness to the creature’s bloodthirsty horrors with the her own instinct to protect it, is marvelous to behold, and her work becomes all the more commendable when the creature begins to take more human form — not only because’s Tinja’s relationship to it becomes more complicated, but because after a certain point in its growth, Solalinna plays the creature herself, with a mesmerizing, full-bodied commitment to its hunger and anguish.

Solalinna's work is a testament to how make-or-break a performance can be to a movie.

Hatching is a story about embracing physical and emotional ugliness, and a film that also manages to be tender in unexpected ways. While it seldom succeeds at blending its horror with its more reflective and dramatic scenes — when it tries, the result is often a mechanical impression of much better horror films — Solalinna displays such thoughtfulness and maturity at every turn that Tinja’s closeups remains riveting even when the film starts feeling tonally scattered. When it begins to plod with overly literal and linear elucidations (most of them in removed medium shots that feel aimed more at explanation than emotion), Solalinna continues to anchor the story’s few remaining mysteries, like the ethereal, seemingly spiritual connection between Tinja and the creature, which editor Linda Jildmalm crafts with a sense of poetic rhythm, cutting between their perspectives during moments of movement and heightened tension.

Solalinna, in turn, walks a fine line between concern and disdain for the creature — the very same feelings Tinja seems to harbor towards herself, as she oscillates between an animalistic survival instinct and apologetic self-preservation. It’s perhaps one of the smartest and most nuanced performances from a young actress in years, especially since it circles the emotional mechanics of abuse and projects them onto a delightfully twisted tale of a disgusting bird monster — whose unhinged animalism Solalinna is also tasked with embodying. Her work is a testament to how make-or-break a performance can be to a movie, especially in the horror genre, and she makes Hatching worth a watch despite its many shortcomings.

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Halo: The TV Series Episode 6 Review - "Solace"

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Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Halo: Episode 6, "Solace." If you need a refresher on where we left off, here's IGN's review of Episode 5 - "Reckoning."

The vast majority of new TV shows take four or five episodes to really find their voice and settle into a groove, and Halo is apparently no different. While the series has been enjoyable from the start, certain elements have only really clicked into place over the past couple of weeks. "Reckoning" gave fans an epic shootout worthy of the games, and now "Solace" follows that up with a heavy dose of character drama that proves the series doesn't need lavish action sequences to shine.

It's certainly no coincidence this episode rises above the rest when it's the first to almost completely ignore the frustrating Kwan Ha/Soren subplot. That particular storyline has been weighing down the series for weeks at this point. And while this episode is surely just a temporary reprieve, we might as well savor it while it lasts.

Writers Silka Luisa and Steven Kane may have recognized that there's enough going on in the aftermath of the latest UNSC vs. Covenant battle without throwing the civil war on Madrigal into the mix. The UNSC has suffered a humiliating defeat after two of its beloved super-soldiers failed to follow orders. That, plus the sudden discovery of a former Covenant POW, is more than enough drama for one episode.

The series loses absolutely none of its momentum despite pivoting from the heat of battle to its immediate aftermath. If anything, the tension only increases as Master Chief wrestles with a flood of memories and his deteriorating condition and Makee begins to play her captors like a fiddle. There's a growing sense of dread surrounding this conflict, particularly with how this episode seems to be laying the groundwork for one of the most destructive and consequential battles of the Covenant war. While this series may not be an exact, 1:1 adaptation of the games, it's close enough to know the broad strokes of what's coming (possibly as soon as the Season 1 finale at this point). That knowledge actually helps the series rather than hurts it in this case.

"Solace" leans heavily on what has always been the series' strongest element: the dysfunctional relationship between Master Chief and Dr. Halsey. Here we get a better sense of the crimes Halsey committed in the name of science. There's apparently no problem she can't solve by murdering a few clones. Along the way, this episode fleshes out the equally toxic relationship between Halsey and her daughter and generally paints a picture of a woman who believes the ends justify any and all means.

Natascha in particular is a standout in this episode.

Both Pablo Schreiber and Natascha McElhone make the most of that juicy drama. McElhone in particular is a standout in this episode. Given everything we see and learn this week, it would be all too easy to dismiss Halsey as a remorseless villain. But there's just enough humanity and emotion lurking beneath her steely exterior that we can sense the toll this process has taken on her. The scene where Halsey manipulates Miranda into opening a backdoor into the lab system is a perfect showcase. McElhone's performance in that scene reveals that, while Halsey may not be 100% honest in her admission to Miranda, neither is she simply putting on an act. She's a twisted, bleak character, but also a fascinating one.

"Solace" also makes strong use of Makee in her new role as a deep-cover spy. You could argue the UNSC characters are overly gullible in not being even more suspicious of her conveniently timed arrival, but this new status quo clearly isn't intended to last long. Her presence greatly adds to the overall sense of doom permeating the show, while the climax (and the long-awaited first glimpse of the Halo) suggests she's more than just an antagonist to Master Chief. As one of the only characters completely unique to the series, Makee has the most room for growth in the remainder of Season 1 and beyond.

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Cities: VR Review

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In the right hands, I believe any genre can work in VR – and Cities: VR is evidence to support that belief. Not every feature of its more complex elder sibling, Cities: Skylines, fits but playing a mayor with near-omnipotent architectural abilities and creating a new urban metropolis remains fun, feeling natural and surprisingly intuitive.

Bear in mind that this isn’t Cities: Skylines with a VR mode; Fast Travel Games has built a fresh adaptation for Meta Quest 2 that places you inside this bright and colorful world. Like Skylines, Cities: VR lets you control every major aspect of city planning without getting bogged down in the smaller details. You can just plan your city without worrying about every minor detail, choosing from one of nine maps. Starting from an out-of-bounds highway, you’ll begin laying down roads and selecting buildings to accompany them. From residential homes to basic utilities, there’s a gentle learning curve based around milestones, which unlock new facilities as the population increases. It’s effective at teaching you city management as if you can’t keep citizens happy, they simply won’t stay.

Prioritizing commercial and industrial zoning over residential means you won’t have the necessary staff to keep factories afloat, but doing the opposite creates high unemployment. Should you need higher skilled workers to fill these roles, invest in education. Are citizens complaining about a high crime rate? Better build a police station, people won’t remain where they don’t feel safe. If you’d prefer an easier time or feel like being creative, unlimited money can be activated when starting a new city. Milestones can also be shut off, offering more advanced facilities like nuclear power stations immediately.

Then we come to everyone’s favorite subject, taxes. As the god mayor, you’re responsible for setting tax rates for different institutions and zones, alongside how much money’s getting invested in public services. This requires a flexible approach, so adjust these accordingly to keep citizens happy and – assuming you’ve not activated unlimited money – avoid public finances running into the red. Book balancing is essential and if you’re struggling, you can take out up to three loans at once, each holding different repayment schedules.

Compared to Skylines, there isn’t much building space.

I’m no expert on infrastructure planning – that became clear when I kept creating cities based around absurd road layouts – but building a fully functioning city was fun. However, compared to Skylines, there isn’t much building space. You can’t expand a city beyond one tile, which is x kilometers long, and for those with grander designs this might feel considerably limiting. So it’s all about carefully planning with the space that you have, but if you make mistakes, those can be quickly erased with the magical bulldozer that refunds some of your investment in the process, so it’s not all bad.

Cities: VR just doesn’t have the scope Skylines does, likely to better accommodate the Quest 2’s hardware limitations, so it serves more as an entry point to the series than a real extension of it. Major features like terrain editing and natural disasters aren’t included, or at least, not at launch. Cities: VR feels both more streamlined and more restrictive than its predecessor at once, so it’s a shame to lose certain aspects, but considering the many, many features it does include, and the advantages of VR, calling it barebones doesn’t feel accurate. As you’d expect, managing a city is a lot more immersive than sitting in front of a TV. You can’t walk around town like a citizen, unfortunately, but there’s fun in dipping down to the surface to see daily life unfold in front of you, even if vehicles sometimes clip through each other.

There’s fun in dipping down to the surface to see daily life unfold in front of you.

The controls feel good, too. Movement and construction options are easy to access at any time. It works well but if you’re after precision, aiming where buildings are built can be a little fiddly. Cities: VR lets you individually fill out empty zoning squares by clicking on them, even if you’re far out, but the very nature of motion controls means you’ll need a steady hand. If that’s not a concern, you can aim your controller like a paintbrush to quickly ‘brush’ over squares like a canvas, or hit the ‘fill’ option to immediately fill out that empty zone, so it's never a major problem.

One benefit of the fact that you’re never actually walking the streets you’ve laid down is that you don’t have to worry about getting nauseous if you’re sensitive to that. Grab yourself a chair and get comfy. But Cities: VR does have some comfort options. There’s adjustable snap turning for the camera, alongside a vignette filter that shadows the screen’s border when moving.

My only real complaint is that the graphics look plain. Cities: Skylines is seven years old but the Quest 2 simply doesn’t have the horsepower to keep up. Environmental designs are washed out and lacking finer details, while buildings seem distinctly low res. It doesn’t deter much from gameplay but I can’t deny these graphics left me wanting the ability to play Skylines’ cities from this point of view.

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Crush Review

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Crush debuts on Hulu on April 29, 2022.

As high school romance and coming-of-age stories go, Crush is among those with the lowest of stakes — mostly because it aims for a shockingly low bar. It’s a bare-minimum sort of movie, with few narrative and aesthetic objectives beyond letting its delightful young cast play around with some decently fun, profanity-laden banter (and letting its older cast members try to do the same, though they don’t quite hit the mark). It follows a young artist, Paige (Rowan Blanchard), who reluctantly ends up on her school’s athletics team alongside two sisters, Gabby (Isabella Ferreira) – on whom she’s had a crush for ages – and AJ (Auliʻi Cravalho), who proves to be more alluring than Paige realized, but even this description gives the movie a little too much credit, given its lack of discernible conflict (or discernible anything) for most of its runtime.

A colorful introductory montage opens the movie with a litany of hand-drawn social media hallmarks — sketched Instagram feeds and the like — even though both Paige’s artwork and the presence of social media feel like passing concerns. Paige’s own introduction certainly paints her as someone for whom art is of the utmost importance (it’s how she claims to see the world, and she hopes to get into a summer program at CalArts), but these elements of her story seem to constantly fade away. The plot initially revolves around Paige’s school suspecting her of being a notorious graffiti artist, who tags the school walls and boasts about it online, so to avoid suspension (and to ensure her summer admission), she joins the track team while occasionally trying to suss out the real culprit. However, these ideas enter and exit the fray both quickly and casually, with seemingly little importance, as the film soon switches focus, embodying an adult’s deeply removed and uninvolved idea of a teenager’s crush.

It has one, singular artistic flourish when depicting this: when her longtime crush Gabby walks into the room, Paige’s line of sight becomes filled with sprays of water colors, enveloping the space around Gabby, but this is the only thing approaching a genuine emotion — or an intense, hormonally driven teenage feeling — in the entire film. It’s the one visual trick in its bag, the one it uses the most, and yet, it doesn’t seem to use it nearly enough, given that nearly every other aspect of Crush is spoken, rather than felt.

As Paige, Blanchard proves to be an upbeat mix of awkward and sincere; Paige is a sweetheart, though few characters around her feel particularly fleshed out beyond the jokes with which they’re saddled. Her mother, Angie (Megan Mullally), is supportive of her sexuality, and sex-positive to an amusingly over-compensating degree, to the point of gifting her sex toys. However, the humor of their relationship rests on this singular trait, which also seems to define Angie even outside her dynamic with Paige — for instance, in her brief but forward fling with Paige’s track coach, Murray (Aasif Mandvi doing his best John Turturro). Similarly, Paige’s best friend, Dillon (Tyler Alvarez), is involved with a pair of running gags, one in which he and his girlfriend, Stacey (Teala Dunn), can’t keep their hands off each other, and another in which they compete for the position of Class President, but there’s little to his relationship with Paige beyond the plot-dictated role of a cinematic “best friend,” a silhouette who provides occasional feedback.

Among the supporting cast, Cravalho is perhaps the only actor whose charisma is allowed to shine. The Moana star creates just enough allure and vulnerability to make up for the fact that, like most other characters in Crush, AJ barely exists as a real person outside her lines of dialogue — which are either about how mysterious she seems, or about the truth that supposedly lies beneath that façade — because little by way of behavior or action allows the character to externalize this duality, though Cravalho certainly tries. Unfortunately, there’s little she can do to make up for the fact that AJ and Gabby don’t often feel like sisters — mostly because they barely interact on screen — and that Paige’s eventual, dueling crushes on them don’t create much friction for them, or for Paige, or for anyone, until well over an hour into the film’s 90-minute runtime.

For that hour and change, the lack of anything resembling drama results in Paige’s own point of view — and her own crushes! — feeling largely unimportant, even though it’s all the characters seem to talk about as they trudge from one scene to the next. To teenagers, these feelings can be monumental, but in Crush, they may as well be talking about homework. Blanchard and Cravalho have a genuine chemistry on occasion, but the film doesn’t often let it play out, physically or emotionally, in anything more than a fleeting, fan-fiction-prompt sense of them sharing a bed on a school trip, a scene whose palpable tension is cut short and leads nowhere in the story.

Crush can’t help but feel trepidatious in its depictions of actual queer sexuality, despite this being the central premise.

Crush is certainly refreshing on paper, as a teenage film in which queerness is a casual norm, and a nominally diverse one at that, with characters whose labels exist all across the gender and sexual spectrums, and who are widely accepted — its cliques and “types” buck the trends that have been held over in Hollywood high school films since the ’80s — but it can’t help but feel trepidatious in its depictions of actual queer sexuality, despite this being the central premise. While straight couple Dillon and Stacey’s non-stop, sloppy, borderline sadomasochistic make-out sessions are a running gag, they’re also the only ones on screen who consistently act like actual teenagers with any real, burgeoning sexuality or romantic feelings.

The film doesn’t “need” to depict its queer characters getting intimate — the same way it doesn’t “need” to do anything of note (and often doesn’t) — but little in the way they behave, and little in the way the camera captures them or their perspectives, accentuates anything they might actually be experiencing, given its largely stilted and removed approach to sex and romance. A flashback of Paige meeting Gabby in elementary school portrays the genesis of her innocent, childhood crush; nearly a decade later, the film’s depiction of her feelings doesn’t seem to have evolved or grown more complicated, even as her attention switches to AJ.

By the time Crush loops around to a more traditional rom-com narrative with a public reconciliation, it has long since fizzled out. It doesn’t feel made for anyone in particular, except perhaps people champing at the bit for a wider array of visibility on paper, even if in practice, it leads to little nuance, humor, or real humanity. It also, unfortunately, now exists as reassurance that parent distributor Disney is willing to portray nominal representation, even as it goes back and forth on supporting anti-LGBTQ legislation. Which, of course, is not to implicate Crush’s well-meaning filmmakers in this corporate malpractice, but at the end of the day, it’s the kind of film on which the Mouse House could easily hang its hat before its next big gaffe.

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Rogue Legacy 2 Review

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Back in 2013, the original Rogue Legacy added a revolutionary twist to the standard roguelike formula: Instead of losing everything upon death, you’re able to spend your currency on permanent upgrades that make each successive run just a little bit easier. This kickstarted an entire subgenre called roguelites, which now includes such incredible games as Hades, Returnal, Dead Cells, and many more. That’s a daunting landscape to return to nine years later, but Rogue Legacy 2 is a sequel that wisely doesn’t attempt to reinvent the wheel. Instead it successfully modernizes its look, premise, and mechanics to meet the heightened modern-day standards of the genre, and hones the design to razor sharpness.

Rogue Legacy 2 feels like a reimagined version of what that first game could have been with the benefit of more time, money, and hindsight of how the genre has evolved since 2009. The basic premise is still the same and still just as strong as ever: You play as a hero with a randomized name, class, and quirky trait; explore a massive, procedurally generated castle; collect loot; and attempt to beat bosses. When you die, you lose all the progress you made on that particular run (save for defeated bosses or unlocked portals), but you’re able to spend the loot you picked up to purchase a wide variety of permanent, yet incremental upgrades that get passed down to your next of kin.

So it’s very much the same blueprint, but virtually every individual aspect of that premise has been transformed for the better. For one, each class has their own distinctive weapon, talent, passive ability, and stats, making them play incredibly differently from one another from the jump. As an example, my favorite class, the Valkyrie, is super well-rounded. She comes with a large polearm that can be used to swipe in four directions, Hollow Knight style, and also has a special talent that lets her spin her weapon and deflect small projectiles, with every bullet deflected replenishing her mana. Compare that to the Barbarian, who uses a slow but powerful axe that can only attack left or right while on the ground, but when it’s used in the air it sends him into a constant spinning attack that can do huge damage in skilled hands.

What’s especially cool about these 13 classes is that they each have a special way of reliably doing critical hit damage if you’re able to use their weapons skillfully. These are appropriately called skill crits, and for many characters, it can be as simple as just attacking while dashing towards an enemy, but for others, it could be making sure you land with the tip of your sword, or nailing the third hit of a three-hit flurry, or landing an attack right after an evasive roll, and so on. It’s not only a great way to differentiate the classes even further, but also reward those that really take the effort to learn how to effectively use each of them.

While I always sprang at the chance to use the Valkyrie when they popped up in the randomized choice of three heroes at the start of every new run, I never bemoaned having to use a class that I wasn’t as familiar with. Each class presents its own pros and cons, and it was always fun to play to their strengths and attempt to work around their weaknesses.

I never bemaoned having to use a class I wasn't familiar with.

And there’s a lot of variety to that because your class isn’t the only thing that’s randomly assigned to your hero: each character also has the potential to be saddled with a random trait that can either be a blessing or a curse. These traits are usually based off of real-life conditions, so you might roll a character with colorblindness and have to play that whole life in monochrome; or a character might be prone to panic attacks, which causes the screen to darken every time they get hit; or maybe they’ll be a vegan, which causes you to take damage from eating meat as opposed to being healed by it. Many of these return from the original Rogue Legacy, but there are still plenty of new ones that add interesting new wrinkles to each run, or at the very least will probably elicit a chuckle.

The first couple times you see them, traits can be fun ways to provide some variety to each run, and some are even required to find certain secrets, but eventually some of their gimmicks do start to wear thin. The most debilitating ones, like for example, the pacifism quirk which takes away your ability to deal any damage, come with incentives that can dramatically increase the amount of gold you collect while being afflicted with them, but I never found the trade-off worth the degree to which they hindered my playstyle. Thankfully, every new run of Rogue Legacy allows you to choose between three randomly rolled characters, and very rarely did I ever find myself having to pick a character that had a trait that was miserable to play with.

Never A Wasted Run

The expanded class system is fantastic, but what truly makes Rogue Legacy feel exponentially bigger and bolder than its predecessor is its enormous and diverse interconnected world. There are six unique locations in Rogue Legacy 2, and unlike the original’s four – which largely felt very similar outside of having different enemies, a few different room layouts, and a distinct backdrop – the areas in Rogue Legacy 2 all present unique challenges. One stretches out horizontally and requires you to island hop as you try to avoid deviously placed arrow traps and fight off enemies in very tight quarters; another takes the opposite approach and demands that you climb upwards with pinpoint-precise platforming sections. A third is like a labyrinth and has low visibility along with requiring you to use landmarks to find the general direction of the areas of interest that you must explore before you can reach the boss.

Progression is gated by powerful bosses as well as special artifacts, called heirlooms, that grant permanent upgrades that add a new facet to both exploration and combat, whether that’s the ability to double jump, dash while in the air, or bounce off of special types of projectiles or hazards. Each heirloom is also preceded by a quick tutorial section that does a wonderful job of teaching you the practical applications of each new ability so you’ll never be surprised or be left confused at some of the clever tricks that are used both in platforming challenges, and in hiding various secrets. It was always exciting to get a new heirloom, not only because they almost always unlocked a new part of the map, but also because they almost always provided me with a way to avoid getting hit by certain enemy attacks. Whether by dashing through void energy, bouncing off of electricity, or just by simply having an extra dash to get out of a bad spot, the extra mobility is a huge defensive boost that helps to extend each life significantly.

Heirlooms aren’t the only items of interest to find as you’re exploring Rogue Legacy 2’s exceptionally dangerous rooms. There are a large number of relics to discover, which can provide game-changing buffs, highly risky trade-offs, and sometimes both thanks to a Resolve stat that reduces your max health if you try to equip too many of them at once. You can also pick up weapons and spells outside of the one your class starts with, blueprints that can be used to purchase new gear on subsequent runs, and runes that can also be purchased and equipped to further bolster your preferred playstyle by doing things like, adding lifesteal to your attacks, giving you an extra jump or dash, or increasing the amount of damage you deal on critical hits.

Every run feels meaningful

And this all adds up to the one thing that I love most about Rogue Legacy 2: Every run feels meaningful. Even if you don’t beat a boss, unlock an heirloom, open up a shortcut, or do something that gives you sense of significant permanent progression, chances are you found a new blueprint, collected enough gold to buy a new upgrade or two at the castle, experimented with a new character class, learned what a new trait does, found a new piece of lore, or did something that taught you a lesson about dealing with a specific type of enemy or trap. And if you didn’t do any of those things, well then… chances are it was a super-short run and you likely didn’t get too invested in that character anyway.

Coming Back Stronger

There are so many decisions to make when it comes to improving your character in between runs that it can get a little overwhelming, and the unfortunate reality is that it’s very possible to make bad decisions about which permanent upgrades and unlocks to spend your gold on and leave your save file in a rough spot. In part that’s because once buy 15 upgrades, every new one increases the amount of gold required to buy any subsequent upgrade. That isn’t a big deal at first, but by the time you hit level 50 or so it makes even low-level upgrades prohibitively expensive.

This caused me to hit a significant roadblock in my first playthrough, because I made the poor decision of trying to spread my points around and expand my manor so I could see what all of the upgrades were. The upside was that I got to unlock and experiment with a bunch of different classes, but the downside though was that my stats were underleveled to appropriately handle the increased difficulty of later areas, and it was exceptionally difficult to survive long enough and gather enough loot to be able to upgrade those stats more than just one or two points at a time. As a result, I had to grind. My first playthrough slowed to a crawl in the last two areas, and the exciting feeling of progression that made the first half so exciting became a painfully slow IV drip. It was a mess of my own doing, but I wish there was some sort of option to reset the manor upgrades that would’ve allowed me to dig myself out of the hole I fell into. The good news for you is that now that you’ve read this, you won’t make the same mistake.

One really nice addition that Rogue Legacy 2 brings to the table are a set of options called “House Rules.” These are values and sliders that can be used to customize the difficulty to your liking, whether that’s by making it easier and turning down the enemy damage or health, making it harder by cranking those values up, or more accessible by turning on things like unlimited flight, turning off damage from enemy contact, or turning on time slowdown while aiming. While I personally opted to leave these settings alone and play as the designers intended, it’s wonderful that Cellar Door Games included difficulty and accessibility settings that go beyond just the standard easy, normal, and hard levels, allowing everyone to tweak settings to their own needs.

However you complete the campaign (my first run took about 16 hours) reaching the end of Rogue Legacy 2 will be just the beginning, as its post-game content is expansive. When you beat the final boss, you gain access to a new NPC that presents a list of modifiers called Burdens that are tacked on to your next playthrough and do things like increase the damage of enemies, add harder variations of certain enemies, or add an entirely new version of an existing boss fight. At every level of New Game+, you need to add two more burdens; so at NG+1, there are two burdens; NG+2, four burdens, and so on. It’s a really smart way to keep the challenge fresh while also giving us control of the type of difficulty we’d like to face in our next run through.

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Moon Knight: Episode 5 Review - "Asylum"

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Warning: The following review of Moon Knight's fifth episode contains full spoilers.

You can check out our review of last week's Moon Knight episode, "The Tomb," here.

"Kill the hippo. Steal the boat."

The penultimate episode of Marvel's Moon Knight, "Asylum," featured more of Oscar Isaac's dynamic and dazzling performance as two different personalities, here having to undergo a rapid, wrenching psychotherapy session in an episode meant to fill in all the gaps in both Marc Spector and Steven Grant's past. Ultimately, there wasn't much that was revelatory about "Asylum" -- since a lot of it was Steven learning things we'd already been told, or could piece together -- but Isaac's ace acting was enough to easily carry this trippy, effects-filled chapter, as he often only shared the screen with himself or CGI characters and still turned in a masterful showing.

When the series started, it very much felt like a story in need of a full-episode, or in the very least extended, flashback. We began things, basically, in the third act of a much larger saga. Not only was there Marc's background with DID to explore, but there was also his origin as Moon Knight and his time operating as Moon Knight (which seems to have lasted many years). Using the mind-bending Jeff Lemire psychiatric hospital comic arc as a catalyst for deeper catharsis, we got to have a half-flashback adventure -- one that required both personalities to come to a meaningful clarification with each other in order to progress forward. Or, in this specific case, to balance their scale so they could avoid sinking into the sands of the Duat and make it to A'Aru, the Field of Reeds (which did get mentioned in the first episode).

Adding to this splendidly surreal swirl -- which involved a giant barge transporting Marc and Steven through cosmic sand dunes, captained by the plucky goddess Taweret -- was the already-established psych ward layer (said now to be Putnam Medical Facility in Chicago), and "Dr." Harrow insisting that Marc's mind was simply a pendulum swinging back and forth between sense and nonsense. This all allowed "Asylum" -- which doesn't exactly stand as a new TV tool anymore, being the flashback detour right before the end -- to rise above the rabble and play around with visuals and the concepts of reality, dreams, and the worlds our minds create in order to protect us from harm.

Again, Isaac was a triumph here, delivering deep dramatic moments, for both Marc and Steven, as they had to confront their shared past (and Steven finally learning that he was created by Marc to shield the body from abuse from their mother). Marc didn't want to go back and re-live trauma. Steven wasn't too keen on learning that he was imaginary and had been leaving messages for a mother who didn't exist. It was a harsh journey for both of them. The biggest moments unearthed here were definitely the death of Marc's brother and then a childhood tainted by a violent mother and a father who didn't properly protect him. The larger answer that got revealed, though, was that it seems like it was the death of his mother that caused Marc and Steven to start merging together in a more frequent, haphazard manner. There was no mention of a possible third personality, since we still don't know who killed Ammit's minions back in "The Friendly Type," but now with only one episode left, it doesn't seem like there's room for an extra, more-violent persona.

Though, to be fair, Marc did say he was discharged from the military for going into a "fugue" state. We assume he was switching to Steven, but what if it was something else? Steven's never said anything about waking up in the middle of a battlefield and we came into this story with him knowing nothing about Marc's career as a killer.

The Egyptology afterlife aspects, as eye-popping as they were, were overshadowed by Marc and Steven's sad backstory. The series started off so zany and full of major "WTF?" moments that it certainly didn't seem like the type of show that'd make you cry down the line, but "Asylum" gave us a handful of heavy, haunting scenes steeped with sorrow. When we finally returned to the moment when Marc was drinking out on the street, and learned it was because he couldn't bring himself to join his mother's shiva (read all about how Moon Knight's Judaism enriches the story here), it was uncannily powerful.

Back in "The Friendly Type," we watched Layla finally take notice of Marc shifting into Steven, and the wonderment in her eyes. Here, it was Steven who got to see the change. The first time was full of heartache because it was Marc's 12th birthday and he created Steven in anticipation of a beating. But outside the shiva, when Steven's tearfully brought out through conflicted grief over their mom, it hit like a gut punch. The stuff about the scales and incomplete hearts works okay in the context of Moon Knight mythology, but it feels like even more of an extreme example of "make-em-ups" in the midst of Marc's very human story. It's all acceptable enough, though, as a means to get us to the bigger, more personal moments.

"Asylum" covered a hell of a lot, rather beautifully.

It feels too soon to fully mourn Steven, who appears to fully perish in the sands of the Duat at the end, since an actual personality seems like something that can be brought back. Still, given this, Steven was not only gifted with a hero's exit, saving Marc from the ghouls trying to claim his soul, but now that he knows he's not real, or not the main identity, it's kind of like a Bing Bong exit (RIP Bing Bong). The final parts of "Asylum" focused on him learning the truth, and he even got to appear as himself to Dr. Harrow during a moment when the psych ward finally revealed itself as Marc's own mental construct (since "Ned Flanders" Harrow actually urged the two identities to reconcile the truth). If it is the end, it's very much earned.

Check out our review of Moon Knight's fourth episode, "The Tomb"...

"Asylum" covered a hell of a lot, rather beautifully. The combination of the Hospital/Duat setting allowed for it to feel bizarre enough to fit with the rest of the series while also portraying an embattled mind, seeking both shelter and relief. The use of Taweret too, an absurd guide who allowed for exposition and a light counterbalance, helped coat everything in appropriate shades of delightful dreaminess. The most surprising flashback here, since we'd been told what happened already, may have been Marc's actual first meeting with Khonshu. It still worked, however, because it showed us a new key detail -- that Marc was about to take his own life. This was a tortured Marc, at the end of his rope, desperate to end the pain.

There also may be more context to this scene still to come since we're never shown Raoul Bushman, which is curious even though not using Moon Knight's most famous villain was intentional. But even if there isn't more to mine here, the psychological point was devastating. After a confused, scarred life, Marc was done -- and Khonshu saw an opportunity. Marc's years as Moon Knight only added to his despair. He extended his life but it never quelled his self-loathing. Funnily enough, murdering dozens of people (including a guy in a wheelchair?) didn't make his heart soar. This, retroactively, shed new light on his promise to vanish once Layla was safe. He was willing to just bury himself away and let Steven take control.

Now, as we head into the finale, the one who didn't want to live continues on while the one who thought he was real, and wanted a full life, has been swallowed by the celestial sand. Add to this Harrow's plan actually taking effect during this time and we're being set up for a hectic finale. Marc will be re-entering a world where who-knows-how-many souls are being unduly claimed. What fresh hell is awaiting when he gets back? Especially since Khonshu needs to be released.

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Acer Predator X38 Review

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The Acer Predator X38 is one of the most intriguing gaming monitors I’ve seen in a long time. It boasts a massive 37.5” display. It’s curved – but so gently that you can hardly notice while sitting in front of it. It boasts a 144Hz refresh rate out of the box and can be overclocked to a more-than-respectable 175Hz. And it features a 90% DCI-P3 color gamut and Nvidia G-Sync Ultimate.

But if you want all the bells and whistles, you’ll have to be ready to pony up. The X38 costs a whopping $1,799. Can any monitor be worth that?

Acer Predator X38 – Design and Features

The first thing I noticed pulling the monitor out of the box is that it's surprisingly light. It’s no featherweight, but at 20.8 pounds, you could stick it in on many VESA mounts without much issue.

But don’t be deceived – the monitor is huge, with a gentle 2300R curvature. It’s just enough curve to bring the sides into view without feeling like it’s wrapping around your head. Underneath the panel, you’ll find an audio jack, a DisplayPort 1.4, 4 USB 3.0 ports, and two HDMI 2.0 ports. Unfortunately, there’s no HDMI 2.1 available.

Despite the name, the monitor is 37.5” at 3840 x 1600 resolution. Out of the box, it can support a 144Hz refresh rate or 175Hz when overclocked. It’s got an Agile-Splendor IPS display that can support 178-degree viewing angles, and Nvidia G-Sync Ultimate.

The monitor is VESA certified for DisplayHDR 600. If you’re not in the know, that certification means the monitor can reach at least 600 cd/m brightness, local dimming, and more. 600 is decent, but it may be a bit of a disappointment for those hoping for the DisplayHDR 1400 offered in something like the Asus ROG Swift PG32UQX or even 1000 in the Acer Predator X35.

The X38 sits on a sturdy stand that offers a generous tilt (about 35°) and can be raised and lowered 5.12”. That, plus the two USB ports easily accessible on the left side of the monitor make plugging in cords a cinch. (And that’s pretty rare for a monitor this large!)

In the box, you’ll find the monitor, a DisplayPort cable, a power cord, an HDMI cable, and a USB 3.0 cable.

Acer Predator X38 – Performance and Gaming

There’s quite a lot to love about this monitor, and that starts with its size and shape. The X38 is just big enough – that is to say, it’s massive, but not comically so. The curve is especially great – it’s shallow enough that you almost don’t notice it at first, but it makes the entire experience more immersive.

I vastly prefer this sizing to something like a TV format, which would have my eyes reaching skyward while trying to peer at the top quadrants. The X38 is still taller than you might expect, at 19.2” tall – but it’s completely manageable. Response time is also impressive, with a refresh rate of 144Hz out of the box using the DisplayPort – and can be overclocked to 175Hz.

The monitor fared well using Lagom’s LCD tests as well, with relatively clear contrast levels, though the darkest blacks and lightest whites were often indecipherable, despite monitor tweaks. There was also a small, but noticeable, amount of banding in the gradient tests and a very slight pixel walk in the inversion tests.

The base is enormous and got in my way enough that I decided to try it with a VESA mount. Not every VESA mount will work under the monitor’s weight, but mine held the X38 steady and removed the 11” spikes the X38 sits on. The 7-watt speakers can work in a pinch, but they’re muddy enough that you won’t want to rely on them.

Switching between user modes refreshes your brightness, which can be irritating. Thankfully, there’s an auto-brightness toggle in the OSD. However, I found its brightness scaling always a little on the dark side. Its Blue Light blocking feature was easy to activate and constantly useful – I found myself toggling between 80% and 70% constantly.

The power button has a slightly raised bump so you don’t activate it unintentionally while trying to draw up OSD features. Unfortunately, I still hit it one too many times, but your luck will vary.

There are no two ways around it, input switching was a total pain. Switching between computers took ages, both manually or through input switching, and it often wouldn’t register when a device first turned on. Plus, unlike its smaller cousin the XV28, the USB-C port doesn’t deliver power – meaning if you use something like a MacBook for work, you’ll have to plug it into the wall as well.

The X38 sports Nvidia G-Sync through its HDMI 2.0 and DisplayPort inputs. There’s far less reason to want HDMI 2.1 on an Ultrawide that already features G-Sync, but again given the price, you’d be forgiven for wanting absolutely everything. Similarly, I found the HDR600 more than serviceable, and the SDR/HDR variable Backlight helps contrast levels, but still, for many HDR600 just won’t cut it at this price.

The X38 might be marketed solely to gamers, but it excels just as much for video or photo editing. That’s in part because of the gargantuan size, but the X38 is shockingly color accurate. I haven’t encountered very many monitors of this size with a 98% DCI-P3. (Only the Dell U3219Q 4K comes to mind). Even Apple’s outrageously expensive Pro Display XDR falls short of the X38’s numbers, and it costs a whole lot more. That color accuracy can easily justify the monitor’s price if you’re a creative looking for color accuracy.

Finally, I never once heard the fan, which is pretty impressive given how long I used this under peak brightness.

Purchasing Guide

The Acer Predator X38 (SBMIIPHZX) is available from Acer for $1,799. It's also listed at Walmart for $1,699, though it's sold out there.

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eFootball 2022 Update 1.0 Review

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Over six months since a dismal launch that was barely more than a bug-infested demo, eFootball 2022 has taken steps in the right direction, albeit tiny ones, with its long-awaited 1.0 update. Most noticeably, the bugs have all but disappeared, but what remains is still a hollow shell of a football game that lacks depth, modes, and any real reason to play it consistently. In truth, it’s still hard to recommend playing eFootball, even if it is completely free to do so.

It’s all a bit sad really. What was once a series considered the pinnacle of its genre in the glory days of Pro Evolution Soccer has devolved into this soulless impersonation. It’s reminiscent of those awful pandemic months when football took place in empty stadiums. Yes, technically football was being played but it was nowhere near the same spectacle without fans, a similar fate eFootball may suffer from sooner rather than later if big changes aren’t made soon.

Overall, the presentation on the pitch looks pretty good – player models are largely accurate and the stadiums, while limited in number, look authentic. It’s a vast improvement over the hilarious and sometimes frankly frightening faces being pulled in the early access version. The same can’t quite be said for the atmosphere inside the stadiums, which often falls flat, not aided by some lifeless commentary. On top of that are menus and UI, which, although more colourful than we’re used to from Konami’s football games, are still awkward and unintuitive to navigate.

There does seem to be a freer flow to general play.

Having had to play a lot of eFootball’s earlier versions, it may just be Stockholm syndrome at this point, but there does seem to be a freer flow to general play as players feel a lot less stiff to manoeuvre. They are also more reactive, no longer ignoring balls outside of their immediate radius, although controlling them neatly can often be a bridge too far. There is an increased sense of control in attack and defence, too – eFootball no longer feels like it’s simply happening to you.

Defence is by no means fully refined, but improved shoulder charges and manual tackles definitely help you deal with opponent attackers with greater ease. AI defenders do appear to wander off out of position on their accord though, allowing for long through balls leading to goals happening way too often. It’s unclear if this is down to a bug or not, but something that clearly needs addressing either way.

The ability to now press as a team and put pressure on the ball brings an edge of modern tactical play to eFootball that it desperately needs. Calling teammates for extra pressure and stealing the ball high up the pitch has led to goalscoring opportunities more often than not. It’s obvious that this, as well as a couple of other gameplay additions, were meant to be in eFootball from the start, but instead it was released in a completely unfinished form. These new additions don’t completely solve the problems that initial release had, though.

These new additions don’t completely solve the problems that initial release had, though.

“Stunning kicks” are a new quirk that allow you to hold down the right trigger and apply extra power to passes and shots. Although these do occasionally result in a spectacular goal, you are far more likely to get the ball pinched from your toes as your player takes half a century to wind his leg up. If you do get a shot away, though, there’s a decent chance of it going in as goalkeepers seem more balanced now, no longer reacting like Daredevil hearing a brick smash through a window.

From time to time there are flowing moves to marvel at, but they happen all too rarely, with satisfying passing coming at a premium. Some passes will be laser-focused and threaded through the eye of a needle, while others slowly roll along the floor begrudgingly towards a teammate – without feeling clear about what caused the difference. In fact, the only real consistency with eFootball’s gameplay is its inconsistency. One moment you’ll be jinking past a defender and curling one in the top corner, the next you’ll be trying to dribble only to find your player has a turning circle more at home in Euro Truck Simulator.

Further proving this point are the referees, who were tragic in the initial release. While they now seem to be able to differentiate between a foul and clean tackle, they do still enjoy giving out both yellow and red cards for the most trivial of offences. Maybe I’m being rude, but overall the AI just seems pretty dense – both for officials and opposition players – meaning playing against the computer is largely dull, no matter what difficulty setting you choose. They play in predescribed patterns that are very easy to work out, and at a pace that I’d be able to keep up with in real life – and I haven’t played an 11-a-side match in over a decade. That predictability has resulted in me scoring carbon copies of the same goal three times in a row from kick off on more than one occasion.

For a 1.0 release there’s still a baffling lack of ways to play available.

Playing online adds to the excitement, providing welcome spontaneity to proceedings. Your options in where to do this are limited, though, as are most of eFootball’s modes. For a 1.0 release there’s still a baffling lack of ways to play available, with a long list of omissions that you’d expect as minimum:

• There are still no online lobbies in which you can choose to play against a friend.
• You can play against a friend offline, but are limited to only nine licensed teams to pick from.
• There’s no online co-op.
• There’s no edit mode where you can change players and teams (a staple option in past eFootball/Pro Evolution Soccers).
• And crucially, no Master League. That’s a PES fan-favourite career mode where many (including me) have historically found their enjoyment – and it would’ve been welcome here even if that would mean playing the anaemic AI endlessly.

It really is disappointing that none of this is available, especially when considering it’s been six months since release, and over two years since development began on eFootball 2022.

One mode that has entered the fray with Update 1.0 is Dream Team, eFootball’s take on FIFA Ultimate Team in which you use both currency earned in-game and real money to build your ultimate squad of players and climb the online rankings. This is done within Seasons, two-month-long events that challenge you to get promoted as high as you can through 10 online divisions, earning greater rewards the higher you climb along the way. Season 1 – the snappily titled: New Gameplay Approach, Team Building and Licenses – is currently live, alongside special players available in loot boxes, such as Pep Guardiola or Guti.

Microtransaction Reaction

While there’s an obvious need for a free-to-play game to generate revenue somehow, it’s always disappointing to see this done via the ‘pay-to-win’ route. Granted, from only a few hours playing and no money spent I’ve already assembled a competitive team, but the ominous spectre of microtransactions still looms large over eFootball, with special player cards available in random chance packs that cost roughly $1/£0.79 each. There’s only so long Konami can afford to give out free currency to compensate the playerbase for ongoing server and patch fixes, after all. It’s perhaps unfair to bash Konami too much at this stage, as these systems certainly don’t seem as predatory as FIFA’s, but it’s definitely something to keep an eye on.

Yes, at least eFootball does now have a fully-fledged mode to take it past the point of being a demo, but it’s still lacking so much more than you’d expect from a 1.0 version of a game. Instead, it feels like one that is still very much not ready to have been released.

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