The Rook Season 1 Premiere Review

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This is a mostly spoiler-free review of Starz's The Rook Season 1, episode 1, which airs Sunday nights at 8 p.m. PT/ET.

Starz is no stranger to blending sci-fi and spycraft, as evidenced by the premium cable network's critically-acclaimed (and cancelled-too-soon) Counterpart, which deftly blended high-concept thrills with a moody mystery. The premium cabler's new Series The Rook feels thematically similar, if a little more lively - beginning with the Memento-esque premise of a woman who wakes up at London's Millennium Bridge with no memory of who she is or how she got there, surrounded by dead bodies wearing latex gloves.

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Stranger Things: Season 3 Spoiler Free Premiere Review

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This is a spoiler-free review for the Stranger Things Season 3 premiere, titled "Suzie, Do You Copy?" All 8 episodes will be available to binge on Netflix on Thursday, July 4, 2019. If you need a refresher, be sure to check out our Stranger Things Season 2 Ending Explained. 

It's been an agonizing year and a half since we were last in the imaginative world of Stranger Things, and a lot has changed for both the characters and the small town of Hawkins, Indiana. For one thing, the kids are older, and with that particular change comes a level of maturity, which gives the Season 3 premiere - titled "Suzie, Do You Copy?" - a darker tone and a more complex narrative that's refreshing to watch. Creators Matt and Ross Duffer wisely focus their creative attention on how the passage of time has affected our favorite characters, relegating the Upside Down stuff to the fringes... For now.

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Harry Potter: Wizards Unite Review

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Harry Potter: Wizards Unite may not be the wizarding world game of my dreams (hopefully that leaked Harry Potter RPG trailer is more than a concept) but I’m pleasantly surprised with how much I’m enjoying Niantic’s latest augmented reality “walking RPG.” This followup to the phenomenally successful Pokemon GO does a lot of heavy lifting to justify its storyline that makes the actual idea behind it a little wonky, but the many, many layers of exploration and collection it encourages have kept me engaged on a daily basis… so far.

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is, in a nutshell, Pokemon GO but with wizard tchotchkes instead of collectable pocket monsters. The longer version of the description reads a bit more like a J.K. Rowling lore tweet: in the quiet, post-Deathly Hallows epilogue lives of Harry, Ron, and Hermione, a great calamity has hit the wizarding world and threatens to tear down the wall between muggles and magic. You and wizards around the world are enlisted to help uphold the Statute of Secrecy and eventually solve this Calamity.

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Swamp Thing Builds Momentum at the Halfway Point

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Warning! Full spoilers follow for Swamp Thing Season 1, episode 5, titled "Drive All Night." In recent news, we learned that DC Universe has canceled Swamp Thing, but the streaming provider will still release all of the remaining episodes.  

A quick note before starting this week's review. This is going to be the last weekly review we do for Swamp Thing. We'll check back in with Episode 10 and see how well that episode works as a series finale.

It remains to be seen if Swamp Thing will establish any direct ties to Titans or Doom Patrol before meetings its truncated end. But if nothing else, the series is quickly establishing a shared universe of its own. In addition to focusing more attention on recurring supporting characters Madame Xanadu (Jeryl Prescott) and Daniel Cassidy/Blue Devil (Ian Ziering), this week's episode throws in another major supernatural DC hero, the Phantom Stranger (Macon Blair). Why the series needs such a large cast of supernatural heroes in addition to Swamp Thing himself is still very much a question it needs to address. But even so, having so many fan-favorites under one roof has its definite appeal.

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Valve Index Review

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After partnering with HTC to produce the Vive in 2016, Valve has gone solo with its ambitious new premium VR headset, the Index. There’s absolutely no getting around the fact that a full, zero-to-Index setup will cost you $1,000, which is two and a half times as much as the recently released Oculus Rift S (but somehow significantly cheaper than the absurd $1,330 HTC still asks for a similar Vive Pro setup). But if you have the budget and space to accommodate it, the Index is very arguably worth every penny thanks to its excellent display, wide field of view, best-available controllers, and reliable tracking.

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Steel Division 2 Review

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One of my only disappointments with Eugen’s Steel Division: Normandy 44 was the lack of any love for my beloved Eastern Front of World War II. Steel Division 2 corrects this, adding tons of new, historically-grounded units and divisions from the iconic T-34 tank to the lesser-known woman-led Soviet sniper teams. It does almost everything Normandy 44 did as well or better. But just about everything new it tries gets bogged down in the mud.

If you played the original, Steel Division 2’s multiplayer and skirmish vs AI modes are going to seem very familiar. You select one of 28 thoroughly-researched historical divisions from either the Allied or Axis side to serve as the base “deck” for your forces. There is a lot of fun tweaking to do here as you have to consider trade-offs like having fewer, more hardened troops with higher stats but also higher costs, or a larger number of weak and cheap rookies. And Steel Division’s three-phase battle system makes a return, adding the extra wrinkle of having to think about which units are going to become available in the early, middle, and late parts of the battle.

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Scrawl Review

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Scrawl is available on TVOD and DVD (Walmart Only).

It almost seems unfair to have to critique 2015’s Scrawl, a indie horror film crewed by young college students and written/directed by their professor, Peter Hearn. It’s 75 minutes long, clearly shot on a next-to-nothing budget, and nearly impossible to follow. So why are we talking about it? Let’s address the bantha in the room: the only reason it got distribution, I watched it, and you’re reading this is because Scrawl had the blind luck of having Star Wars’ Daisy Ridley as part of its cast just before J.J. Abrams discovered her for the lead role in The Force Awakens.

Its release is an attempt to cash in on Ridley’s name and the movie itself is more or less unwatchable. It’s a miracle that any film gets made, it is an incredibly hard endeavor, but if you’re here wondering if this movie is worth your time and money, it is absolutely not.

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Hexgears Impulse Gaming Keyboard Review

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Hexgears is a brand that you might not have heard of, but it offers some rather unique keyboards and keyboard accessories. One of its newest models, the Hexgears Impulse, is a water-resistant, pudding capped mechanical keyboard for a surprisingly affordable $89.99 (See it on Amazon).

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Spider-Man: Far From Home Review

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Serving as both a lighthearted coda to the decidedly serious and momentous Avengers: Endgame and the exciting kickoff to the next phase of the MCU, Spider-Man: Far From Home is an extremely fun, cleverly executed, and frequently hilarious adventure film. Peter Parker may have been given a new lease on life in Endgame, but that doesn’t mean it’s all rosy now or that the sort of ethical challenges that have oft-tried the wall-crawler’s sense of personal life vs. superhero duty have diminished. Peter Parker’s realization of that particular cross to bear is at the heart of this highly entertaining new romp.

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An Exciting New Power Rangers Era Begins

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The recent "Shattered Grid" crossover is easily BOOM! Studios' most ambitious Power Rangers project to date, one that united the entire Power Rangers multiverse before leaving it broken and possibly irreparably damaged. Now the core Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series is launching into a new story arc entitled "Necessary Evil." It's being billed as the successor of sorts to "Shattered Grid," which probably does the creative team a disservice. The emphasis with issue #40 isn't so much about launching into the next big Power Rangers event, but introducing a new status quo and jumping-on point that makes the most of classic MMPR continuity.

The series employs a time jump with this issue, leaping ahead to the point in the series where Lord Zedd is the main villain, Tommy leads the team as the White Ranger and Jason, Trini and Zack have vanished on their never-ending UN peace summit. This new status quo makes for an easy entry point into the series for new and lapsed readers. It helps that the conclusion of Power Rangers: Shattered Grid #1 is reprinted here as a sort of prologue/recap sequence. It fits surprisingly well in that context, serving as a poignant sort of farewell to the classic MMPR era while reminding us that the full ramifications of Drakkon's assault on the multiverse have yet to be deduced.

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Amazing Spider-Man Sets the Stage for Greatness

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While much of the focus of Nick Spencer's first year on Amazing Spider-Man has involved the buildup to an ultimate culmination of "Hunted," the series has also been teasing a brand new, very mysterious addition to Spidey's rogues gallery. As Spencer gears up for Year 2, that villain is finally stepping out of the shadows and taking a more active role in tormenting Peter Parker. That, plus a heavy focus on Mysterio, is enough reason to check out issue #24.

Spencer mainly divides this standalone story on two fronts, exploring how the fallout of "Hunted" continues to affect Peter and using Mysterio as a means of setting the stage for this mystery villain's big debut. The former is especially welcome as it helps bring the Peter/MJ relationship back to the forefront of the book. As great as it is having this romance back in action a decade after Brand New Day, it hasn't necessarily received the attention it deserves. But now that the initial "honeymoon" phase has worn off, Peter finds himself at a crossroads. Can he allow himself to be with someone he loves and risk putting them in mortal danger, especially with the terrifying visions he's been experiencing?

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Batman: Damned Reaches Mind-Bending Conclusion

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It's a shame the early conversation surrounding Batman: Damned focused so much on Bruce Wayne's penis, because this is a series that deserves a deeper and more earnest examination. It isn't always necessarily successful in what it sets out to do. That much remains as true in issue #3 as in the previous chapters. But this issue offers a thought-provoking conclusion to Batman's nightmarish odyssey, one that all fans of a certain age should read and ponder.

The third and final chapter of this Black Label miniseries is all about control - the desire for it and the futility of that desire. No closer to understanding his current predicament, Batman begins this issue trapped in a coffin, Kill Bill-style, and his journey only grows stranger from there. This issue perhaps raises more questions about this world than it ever actually answers. But at some point the message becomes clear - unreliable narrator John Constantine (and by extension, writer Brian Azzarello) is warning Batman and his readers not to expect a clean, tidy resolution.

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Yesterday Review

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Yesterday was originally reviewed out of the Tribeca Film Festival. It hits theaters in the US and UK on June 28.

The Beatles have long been a part of cinema, with A Hard Day’s Night first making waves back in 1964, not to mention other tributes like the uneven Across the Universe. But one might never expect the once experimental Danny Boyle to be their next eulogizer. His films have always put music front and center, seamlessly weaving it into the controlled mania that defines his aesthetic. But his latest, Yesterday, is made with much love and adoration. It bleeds onto the screen, with bubbly lyrics colorfully scrolling around the lead character’s surroundings like pop art. And yet, all that love takes away a little bit of the bite that made Boyle one of the most exciting names in film at the turn of the century.

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Marvel's War of the Realms Roars to the Finish Line

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Most of Marvel's crossover events have a tendency to start strong and then steadily lose momentum and focus over time. War of the realms has been far different. For most of its run, this miniseries has fallen well short of the (admittedly high) standard set by Jason Aaron's Thor run. Too much empty spectacle and too little emphasis on the core Thor cast. But that changes in a big way in the final issue. War of the Realms #6 is a terrific finish to a previously underwhelming Thor tale.

It's not difficult to spot the difference between issue #6 and the previous chapters. Aaron and artist Russell Dauterman keep the majority of this issue focused squarely on Thor and his fellow hammer-wielders - King Thor, Young Thor and even a re-empowered Jane Foster. The Avengers make small appearances here, but one the whole this issue is far more directed and focused than any chapter before it. That's one big reason why the finale connects on such a deeper level.

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Secretlab Titan Gaming Chair Review

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If you're one of the people who think it's clever to say "any chair is a gaming chair if you use it to play games," I'm here to tell you you're wrong. OK, technically, you're right, but if you don't think there's a difference between a vanilla office chair and a high-quality chair designed for gaming, you are completely wrong. The Secretlab Titan (See it on Amazon) is one such example: this is a chair for gaming.

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Super Mario Maker 2 Review

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It’s hard to decide where to begin when talking about all the things I love about Super Mario Maker 2. It does nearly everything better than its already excellent predecessor, introducing some incredible new ideas, level styles, building items, and so much more - all while maintaining the charm of Mario games we know and love.

Despite enabling you to depart so radically from the core Mario style, even the most odd-ball levels still feel like they could belong to some lost Super Mario game. But Super Mario Maker 2 is so much more than just a way to live out your Miyamoto-esque design fantasies: there's also a robust online mode to play against or with other people, a story mode that could almost stand as a full Mario game in its own right, and an abundance of content available to you before you even start making your first level. Like I said, I don't even know where to begin.

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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Review

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The thriving subgenre of “Metroidvania” games exists to try to recreate the magic of classic Metroid and Castlevania games -- because original developers Nintendo and Konami dropped the idea long ago. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night achieves this goal better than most because it plays and feels almost exactly like the legendary Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It should, considering that was the whole pitch of the Kickstarter back in 2015, and that the team behind it is led by Symphony’s assistant director, Koji “Iga” Igarashi. Granted, not all attempts at crowdfunded spiritual successors to beloved games end up successful (looking at you, Mighty No. 9) but the stars have aligned for Bloodstained. Ritual of the Night has emerged as a game worthy of its heritage.

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The Sinking City Review

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Lovecraftian games are definitely on the rise in recent years (to varied success), but The Sinking City’s blend of a mysterious and cosmic plot with clunky but serviceable third-person action rises above many of the rest of this fleshed-out genre. It places you in a detailed world filled with the fantastic and unearthly horrors befitting of any Lovecraftian tale, but provides a fresh but reverent take where others may have stayed on the tracks laid nearly a century ago. That said, while developer Frogwares’ delve into Cthulhu lore has incredible moments, the tedious elements of this pulpy 1920s tale can be the wrong kind of terrifying.

The Sinking City takes steps into genre-refreshing territory in order to set it apart from its Lovecraftian peers. Where 2018’s Call of Cthulhu tries to carve out a small space to tell its own stand-alone story that tucked itself into the already existing cosmic lore, The Sinking City feels like it’s picking up eight movies into a Lovecraft cinematic Cthu-niverse, delivering a concentrated dose of its distinctive flavor. The first five minutes introduce the protagonist, Charles Reed, to Mister Robert Throgmorton, an important character who appears to be half-ape, half-human. That’s a deep-cut reference to Lovecraft’s short story, "Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family." This is quickly followed up by a run-in with the Innsmouthers, who are basically fish people from another novella. It pulls from so many of Lovecraft’s plots, quotes, and themes that it reverently captures the intrigue and interest from these pulpy stories while combining them in a new way. It inspires political and criminal intrigue amidst its true-to-genre story.

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Hyperkin Scout Premium Wireless SNES Controller Review

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Hyperkin is an instantly recognizable name to anyone with an interest in the retro gaming scene. It make accessories and consoles for just about any retro-gaming application. Hyperkin sent me its latest Super NES controller, the Scout Premium BT, which is a wireless, Bluetooth-enabled version of its Super NES Scout controller, as well as its new Cadet Premium wireless NES controller. The Cadet Premium has the same quality and functionality as the Scout Premium, minus the extra buttons used for Super NES games. This review is of the Scout Premium, however.

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Final Space: Season 2 Premiere Review

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Warning! Full spoilers for the Final Space Season 2 premiere, “The Toro Regatta,” and the events of Season 1 of Final Space ahead. Buckle up your butt cheeks.

Final Space is off to the races in its Season 2 premiere - literally. The show wastes little time establishing the new status quo for Gary and what’s left of the crew of the Galaxy One after their ill-fated confrontation with the Lord Commander last season. While all the setup for what’s to come this season is exciting, it doesn’t leave much time to unpack the devastating events that closed out last season.

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Legion: Season 3 Premiere Review

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This review contains spoilers for the Season 3 premiere of Legion and spoiler-free impressions of the following five episodes, which were provided to critics in advance. 

It’s hard to write a critique of Legion’s final season premiere while knowing what’s to come. Having watched the first six episodes and spent some time on set during episode 7, we've experienced the cognitive dissonance of what’s ahead. While this first episode Season 3 is delightfully fun and filled with everything you love about Legion (plus time travel!), its subsequent installments — though compelling to watch — can't help but feel hollow.

In its final season’s premiere, the stage is set for a showdown: David Haller (Dan Stevens) wants to change the past to prevent a world-ending future (at his hand). He’s made mistakes and old friends are now foes. But to fix it means time travel, and a new set of bad guys who really don’t like when you mess with time (because they want to eat it).

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Annabelle Comes Home Review

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Annabelle Comes Home takes the classic horror trope of Teenage Babysitters in Predicaments, and ups the ante by placing them in Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warrens’ (Vera Farmiga) house full of haunted objects. These familiar elements culminate in a fun, refreshing, even heart-warming entry into the Conjuring franchise. Well-done scares are paired with tension-breaking levity, and we even see a few new monsters (and/or sequel fodder). Annabelle Comes Home should serve as a not-so-serious summer horror flick for anyone looking to laugh a little and jump a lot.

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Corsair Glaive RGB Pro Gaming Mouse Review

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Corsair has updated its Glaive RGB gaming mouse, transforming it into the new Glaive RGB Pro (See it on Amazon). At first glance, the two mice appear nearly indistinguishable, but the Glaive RGB Pro has a slight change in design, with added rubber on one of the interchangeable side grips, and a second DPI switch. Inside, it also has an upgraded optical sensor, switching from a Pixart PWM3367 to a Pixart PMW3391.

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Samurai Shodown Review

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While it may not be a household name like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, Samurai Shodown is a storied fighting game series with a legacy to uphold. The 2019 version, which is simply titled Samurai Shodown, does a great job of bringing its unique brand of methodical footsies-based 2D duels into this modern era of fighters.

Samurai Shodown finds itself on the fighting game spectrum somewhere in between Street Fighter and Divekick, meaning it’s not about combos, juggles, block strings, frame traps, or other high-level fighting game techniques. Instead, it strips all of that away, leaving a game that is laser focused on careful positioning, reading your opponent, and brutally punishing their mistakes.

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Netflix's Dark Season 2 Review

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This is a (mostly) spoiler-free review for Dark Season 2. All 8 episodes are now available to binge on Netflix worldwide. For every upcoming show and movie headed to Netflix in July, click here. 

Simply put, Netflix's Dark is a damn intimidating series to watch, with its dense time-travel narrative and a lengthy list of characters to remember - especially considering Season 1 premiered back in 2017. (Thankfully, if you need a refresher, Netflix provides a helpful 3-minute Season 1 recap before you start your binge.)

The decades-long saga surrounding the mysterious German town of Winden needs your full attention in order to comprehend just what the hell is happening from moment to moment; Dark isn't a look at your phone while you watch kind of show... And that's OK. Season 2 has a rich world full of complex characters and fascinating apocalyptic paradoxes to unpack.

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Midsommar Review

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Ari Aster's Midsommar takes place in a placid and very remote Swedish village during a festive solstice ritual held only once every 90 years. The celebrants are placid and welcoming, all decked out in elaborate Swedish frockery evocative of butter cookies and saffron buns. The setting is pastoral and bright – the sun doesn't set for days at a time. It's a legitimately welcoming place resembling a summer camp or even a quaint local theme park. Even when Midsommar plunges deeply into murderous intrigue – as audiences will instantly sense; no cheery isolated Swedish cult ever has benevolent intentions – one still can't help but be allured by its bucolic surroundings. That's an elaborate way of saying that Midsommar – like the director's 2018 feature debut Hereditary – is a film that masterfully handles atmosphere, and that Aster is a legit new auteur in the horror community.

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Swamp Thing Grows Even Creepier

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Warning! Full spoilers follow for Swamp Thing Season 1, episode 4, titled "Darkness on the Edge of Town." In recent news, we learned that DC Universe has canceled Swamp Thing, but the streaming provider will still release all of the remaining episodes.  

It's hard not to wonder how differently this season of Swamp Thing might have played out if the writers had known going in they were only getting 10 episodes (and probably no Season 2). One has to imagine the series would be paced much more briskly than it is. The show's slow burn approach has its appeals, emphasizing the mood, horror and the slowly evolving relationship between Abby and Swamp Thing. But at the rate things are unfolding, there's little hope of the series actually reaching a satisfying stopping point.

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Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled Review

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Twenty years ago, Naughty Dog’s Crash Team Racing made a name for itself as “the other good kart racer.” And to this day its dynamic courses, flavorful lore, challenging-yet-clear power-sliding mechanic, and lack of catch-up items make it a game that deserves better than living in Mario Kart’s shadow. Despite a few seriously frustrating single-player races, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled is a thrilling ride that keeps the excellent original game intact while adding some quality of life updates, such as an improved HUD, and obligatory modern trappings such as unlockable cosmetics.

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled instantly transports me back to 1999 and the early 2000s with its familiar tracks, cartoonishly bright colors, and ridiculous plot of stopping Nitros Oxide from turning Earth into a parking lot. But this remaster is far from stuck in the past: visually, it looks stunning with vivid details around every corner and animations that give each character plenty of personality. The ability to swap between characters during Adventure mode and the cosmetic options are welcome additions, and learning to master each of these 31 tracks proved to be a real challenge because of their frequent tight turns, competent (though sometimes cheap) competition from the AI.

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Forza Horizon 4: LEGO Speed Champions Review

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Playground Games is doing its best to please everybody. Forza Horizon 4’s first expansion – Fortune Island – was the DLC for authentic driving and drifting purists, but its second is a quirkier package that’s more in line with Forza Horizon 3’s memorably wacky Hot Wheels add-on from 2017. After that, Forza Horizon 4: LEGO Speed Champions feels like a logical leap and it looks absolutely terrific, although it doesn’t quite hit the same heights as its Hot Wheels-based predecessor (figuratively or, indeed, literally).

LEGO Speed Champions remains in sync with Playground’s previous work with Hot Wheels – just like the enormous, highway-width orange tracks of Hot Wheels Island, the LEGO bricks here have been scaled up to suit the real world, as if some billionaire lost a bet to a 10-year-old in the toy aisle. The LEGO looks quite remarkable, too – especially under bright sunlight. The softly-scratched surfaces of the LEGO bricks (particularly clear pieces like headlights and windscreens) are incredibly authentic; close up it’s far more in line with the look of The LEGO Movie and its follow-ups than Traveller’s Tales’ more stylised LEGO-branded games over the years.

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Child's Play Review

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In 1988, Tom Holland and Don Mancini crafted a surprising horror-thriller about a serial killer who--utilizing mysterious voodoo magic--transports his soul into a popular children's toy. The wacky premise and practical effects translated to box office success, launching a pop culture icon in Chucky and a sprawling franchise. 31 years later, original distributor MGM has remade the original film--despite the original series continuing under the watchful eye of original writer Don Mancini, with a SYFY TV series currently in development--and though it comes up with an entirely new backstory for the killer doll and stars an intriguing cast, the Child's Play reboot feels derivative and unnecessary in all the ways that the cult classic felt fresh and boundary pushing.

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My Friend Pedro Review

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The crazy 2D-shooter action of My Friend Pedro is about one thing and one thing only: the word “cool.” It almost feels like it was developed with the single-minded purpose of distilling the pure essence of the word, then somehow translating that into a video game. And in that singular pursuit, My Friend Pedro is a resounding success.

My Friend Pedro is an arcadey score-attack game that’s all about maintaining a multiplier by killing enemies quickly, avoiding getting shot, and finding creative ways to take down each bad guy to maximize your score. It’s an age-old concept (especially not getting shot), but where My Friend Pedro sets itself apart is in its sheer commitment to making you feel badass as hell while doing it.

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Judgment Review

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When it was revealed that Judgment – a spin-off from the 13-year-old Yakuza series – was going to cast the main character as a private investigator based in Tokyo’s red-light district, I had wondered if it would break with Yakuza tradition and focus more on actual detective work; an LA Noire to Yakuza's GTA, if you will. As it turns out, Judgment is not that game; its sprinkling of detective-oriented gameplay mechanics are mostly superficial and fairly repetitive, rarely requiring much in the way of observation or deduction. The good news is that Judgment succeeds in more traditional ways, with its free-flowing combat, entertaining diversions, and an absorbing serial killer-hunting plot that all combine to make for a better Yakuza game than 2018’s Yakuza 6.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/31UQfse
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PC Gaming Race Glorious Model O Gaming Mouse Review

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eSports mice are a special breed. Optimized for performance, they generally place speed, weight, and accuracy above all else, even at the expense of ergonomics, extra buttons, or in the case of PC Gaming Race’s Glorious Model O, a chassis that fully covers all its parts.

That’s not a dig, even if it kind of sounds like one. The Glorious Model O (See it at Amazon) makes good on the promise of the simple eSports mouse – It’s incredibly light and performs well in all kinds of games – and does so while offering a cool aesthetic touch with it’s “honeycomb” shell, which has small holes all over the top and bottom of the chassis. There's even a little gamer flare with some RGB lighting.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/31J2NCP
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The Power Rangers Have Another Epic Showdown

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Go Go Power Rangers: Forever Rangers #1 may be priced quite a bit higher than your typical chapter of the series, but it's definitely a must-read for anyone following this retro-flavored Rangers book. This oversized special ties up many loose ends and essentially serves as the dramatic finale of the series' second year. In the process, it easily justifies that cover price.

Coming into this issue, it's fair to question why BOOM! Studios published this story in this form rather than simply splitting it up into issues #21 and #22 of the monthly series. Luckily, writer Ryan Parrott and artists Eleonora Carlini and Francesco Mortarino have no trouble justifying this change of pace. Given the way this story is structured and the many plot points it juggles, trying to split the narrative in half simply wouldn't have worked as well. At best, readers would have been given one chapter of nonstop action and one that serves as a prolonged epilogue. Instead, Parrot is able to organically wrap up the current Alpha-1 conflict while also giving the various other subplots and teases the attention they need.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/31KLuRW
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A Major Era Ends for Marvel's Star Wars Series

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For all the corners of the Marvel Universe Kieron Gillen has worked in over the past decade, he's often felt the most at home playing in the Star Wars sandbox. There's something about this iconic franchise that plays directly to Gillen's storytelling strengths, including his quirky sense of humor and his penchant for character-driven fantasy epics. Those strengths have served him well since taking the reins of Marvel's flagship book. And they fuel a satisfying conclusion to his run in Star Wars #67, albeit with the same, familiar caveat as nearly every other issue for the past couple years.

Issue #67 wraps up "The Scourging of Shu-Toran," a story arc that manages to wrap up all the loose ends from Gillen's Star Wars run and his and Salvador Larroca's Darth Vader series. This hellish, mineral-rich mining world is once again the site of a major showdown between the Rebellion and the Empire, a Leia spearheads what she hopes will be a major strategic victory for the Rebels. But with Benthic and his Partisans co-opting this sabotage mission for their own ends, Leia may wind up sending the wrong sort of message to the galaxy at large.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/2ZthNmq
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Mortal Kombat 11: Shang Tsung DLC Review

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The first of what will eventually be Mortal Kombat 11’s many DLC characters, Shang Tsung, kicks off Kombat Pack 1 on a cool looking but uneven note. Aesthetically, he’s everything a MK fan could ever want out the classic sorcerer. But on the gameplay side, out of the gate he feels a bit hamstrung with meter hungry and krushing blow-dependent damage, along with tournament variations that leave out some of his most exciting moves. That being said, his ability to morph into any opponent remains a wholly unique aspect of his character, and players who like to zone and have an extraordinarily vast knowledge of other fighters will find ways to make the soul-stealing sorcerer their own.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/2N10Caq
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Batman's Father/Son Trip Is Underwhelming

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Batman may be one of the best monthly comics of the DC Rebirth era, but it's still prone to stumbling along the way. If anything, the series has become more inconsistent in recent months, with the drawn-out buildup to "City of Bane" resulting in some annoyingly thin chapters. Batman #73 in one such example. This issue may deliver a few important revelations, but that's not enough to cancel out what is ultimately a very barebones addition to the series.

This issue is a major letdown in the wake of the excellent Batman #72, which chronicled Batman's total defeat at Bane's hands even as Thomas Wayne pieced together the complex tapestry that is Bane's plan. Batman #73 picks up in the aftermath of that defeat, with Thomas dragging his son's comatose body through a seemingly endless desert and toward an uncertain destination.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/2IShPxC
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IOGear Kaliber Gaming Keymander Review

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IOGear’s KeyMander is a specialty gaming gadget for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, and PS3. For years it’s been aimed at giving console gamers a way to use a keyboard and mouse in place of a controller. The KeyMander costs $99 (See it on Amazon), so it’s not a cheap accessory, but at least it's less expensive than kits that include an actual keyboard and mouse like the Razer Turret. It’s not the only product offering this functionality, as the Xim Apex has a similar feature set.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/2x31noz
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Cadence of Hyrule Review

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It’s easy to look at Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the Necrodancer Featuring the Legend of Zelda and see a simple reskin of an indie darling with the look of one of gaming’s biggest names. But there’s so much more to it than that. Cadence of Hyrule cleverly blends rhythm and roguelike elements from Curse of the Necrodancer with the canonized world and structure of classic Zelda games like A Link to the Past and, in doing so, brings fresh new ideas to both series.

Cadence of Hyrule advances and expands on the rhythm-based gameplay ideas of the original Crypt of the Necrodancer, applying them to a world with more than dungeons. On the other hand, it also feels like a Zelda game. That’s not just because the people and places are based on Hyrules past, but because it inspires the same sense of curiosity and whimsy. The result is a best-case scenario: a mashup of the rhythm gameplay and procedural generation from Necrodancer and the evergreen adventuring fun from The Legend of Zelda.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/2FjHkGU
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Motorola Moto Z4 Review

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The Moto Z4 is, somehow, equal parts underwhelming and undeniably charming. Its charms include a fairly impressive 6.4-inch OLED display, a massive 3600mAh battery, and a $500 price tag (See it at Amazon). It’s not the best-looking or most powerful phone out there, but it is one of the only phones that lets you transform it with “Mods,” including one that enables 5G wireless. Or turn it into a projector. Or take 360-degree photos. You get the idea.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/2WLMql7
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ViewSonic XG3220 Gaming Monitor Review

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The ViewSonic XG3220 is a 32-inch gaming monitor that prioritizes pixel count over speed. It serves up 4K resolution to deliver an ultra-sharp picture, but the refresh rate tops out at 60Hz and the response time is only 5ms. eSports athletes and fast-twitch gamers will gladly trade a few pixels for a faster panel, but if you want to run AAA titles at a 4K resolution at 60 frames per second or lower, then the ViewSonic XG3220 (See it on Amazon) offers a beautiful picture for just around $500. It sports a number of premium features in addition to its 4K resolution too, including a semblance of HDR support, AMD FreeSync, and a host of customization options. If you’ve already laid out a significant amount of cash for a GPU powerful enough to achieve steady framerates approaching 60fps at a 4K resolution 4K, then you likely have room in your budget to add a $500 monitor to your setup. Let’s take a look at how it looks, what it offers, and how it performs.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/2XS60gZ
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Netflix's Jessica Jones: Season 3 Review

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This is a mostly spoiler-free review of Marvel's Jessica Jones Season 3, intended to be safe for those who have not yet begun or finished all 13 episodes of the season, which is now streaming on Netflix globally. 

When it comes to superhero stories, there's a widely held belief that a hero is only as good as their villain - and in the case of Marvel's Netflix shows, the bad guy (or lack thereof) can make or break a season. Jessica Jones has had an interesting relationship with its antagonists - rather than trying to replicate the grandiose performance of David Tennant in Season 1, the show pivoted in an unexpected and tragic direction in Season 2 by attempting to dismantle our idea of a villain altogether, when Jessica learned that her long-lost mother Alisa was actually alive (and also a murderer, oops). In Season 3, the series delves deeper into that murky ethical quagmire, offering a foe that our heroine can't just punch her way through.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/2Kk3IUJ
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Swamp Thing: Episode 3 Review

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Warning! Full spoilers follow for Swamp Thing Season 1, episode 3, titled "He Speaks." In recent news, we learned that DC Universe has canceled Swamp Thing, but the streaming provider will still release all of the remaining episodes.  

It's a damn shame that DC Universe canceled Swamp Thing, especially after another great episode this week, titled "He Speaks." The show continues to do a marvelous job of developing its characters, in particular, the villains. It's both exhilarating and terrifying to watch Avery Sunderland go psycho on poor Gordon Haas (Matt Burke). Avery is definitely a force to be reckoned with, as he easily gets the better of Gordon by sheer intimidation alone - the dude doesn't even need a weapon. There's something in Will Patton's unique delivery that makes his character even more menacing. He really is a bad guy, but his soft-spoken nature mixed in with that lovely Southern drawl adds to his magnetism.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/2x4BjJX
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Netflix's Murder Mystery Review

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This is a non-spoiler review for Murder Mystery, which premieres Friday, June 14 on Netflix.

Calling Murder Mystery the best Adam Sandler film in years is faint praise*, for sure, but that doesn't change the fact that, overall, it's a sturdy and scenic romp anchored by some nice chemistry between Sandler and co-star Jennifer Aniston. Yes, there are even a few genuine laughs.

*not counting Sandler starring in Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories, naturally

Maybe the reason this project stands a bit taller than other Sandler Netflix offerings (aside from Aniston being a fun co-lead) is that Murder Mystery didn't start out as a Sandler film. In development since 2012, this film, penned by James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, The Amzing Spider-Man), once had Charlize Theron and director John Madden attached. A few years, and talent shuffles, later and we're now given a grandfathered-in Happy Gilmore production that still maintains some of its original zest.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/2WKTvaJ
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Toy Story 4 Review

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From the outset, Toy Story 4 seemed like a terrible idea. After the sublime send-off that the third film gave Woody, Buzz, and the rest of the gang, the thought of revisiting the franchise almost a decade after that crowd-pleasing finale felt like a cynical cash-grab - one that risked tarnishing the legacy of a practically perfect trilogy. There were production delays, release date changes, and “creative and philosophical differences” that caused the film’s writers to quit the project - all pretty glaring red flags.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/2IdiF95
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Krypton: Season 2 Premiere 'Light Years From Home' Review

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This is a (mostly) spoiler-free review for Krypton's Season 2 premiere, titled "Light Years From Home." For more on Krypton, check out this hilarious Season 1 blooper reel and learn more about Syfy's plans to develop a Lobo spinoff series.  

It's good to be back in the imaginative world of El's, Zod's, and Vex's in the Season 2 premiere of Syfy's Krypton, titled "Light Years From Home." The episode's tight pacing doesn't allow time for a refresher course, with the story picking up six months after the events in the Season 1 finale. And now that the series is in its sophomore year, its characters appear to be evolving in new and fascinating ways.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/2Ie3FaZ
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Spider-Man and Kraven Pick Up the Pieces of 'Hunted'

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Warning: this article contains spoilers for the ending of The Amazing Spider-Man #22!

The cover to The Amazing Spider-Man #23 bills this issue as an epilogue to the recent "Hunted" storyline, and that's exactly what readers should expect from the contents. This is very much a transitional chapter of the series, tying up loose ends from "Hunted," bidding farewell to a major Marvel character and laying some crucial seeds for stories to come. It's not the strongest or most well-rounded chapter of the series, but it serves as an entertaining conclusion all the same.

Writer Nick Spencer brought a fitting end to to the story of Sergei Kravinoff in issue #22, with Kraven's own son being tricked into beating his father to death. The most compelling material in this issue is centered around the fallout of the death, as Kraven's lone family member and tiny circle of friends pay tribute to a fallen villain. It helps that Spencer takes a mostly silent approach in these scenes, allowing artist Ryan Ottley to focus on bringing out the younger Kraven's pained emotions. Ottley even pays direct homage to Kraven's Last Hunt in the opening of the issue, which definitely helps send the character off right.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/2IDOy9L
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Shaft Review

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It’s been almost 40 years since moviegoers were introduced to the action hero John Shaft, played by Richard Roundtree in three trailblazing movies and one short-lived TV series. Heroic, revolutionary and confidently, powerfully sexual, Roundtree’s version of the character became a cultural icon, thanks in no small part to an unforgettable, Oscar-winning ode to his awesomeness, composed and performed by Isaac Hayes.

In the decades that followed there have been two attempts to revitalize the motion picture franchise. The late, great John Singleton cast Samuel L. Jackson as Shaft’s nephew in the exciting 2000 reboot, which skillfully balanced the action and social commentary inherent to the character, and yet somehow it never yielded a proper sequel.

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/2X5OSXT
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DC's Event Leviathan Delivers Mood, Not Plot

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Since coming over to DC Comics last year, much of Brian Michael Bendis' attention has been devoted to the Superman books, the new Wonder Comics imprint and his creator-owned Jinxworld line. That's all fine and well, but many fans have been itching to see Bendis take a crack at some of DC's street-level heroes. What can the writer who's done so much to revitalize Marvel characters like Daredevil and Luke Cage do for DC heroes like Batman, Green Arrow and The Question? With Event Leviathan, readers have the chance to find out. Just don't expect the series to rocket out of the gate in its first issue.

The seeds of this story may have been laid in Action Comics, but Event Leviathan is no Superman story. The Man of Steel is pointedly absent from this conflict, instead leaving crusading reporter Lois Lane and superhero detectives like Batman to get to the bottom of this burning mystery. As the series opens, the masked, enigmatic Leviathan has systematically taken down every intelligence agency in the world, leaving ARGUS, the DEO, Spyral and others as little more than smoking ruins. This series is less an epic superhero crossover event than it is a gritty mystery fueled by two questions - who is Leviathan, and what is their endgame?

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from IGN Reviews http://bit.ly/2IJbEeW
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