• Beyond: Two Souls (Sony, PS3)

    December 11, 2013 - By 

    It’s fair to say that Heavy Rain, the last outing from development team Quantic Dream, changed the way people think about videogames – and the way they play them. Deeply cinematic in nature, it attempted to weave together multiple storylines into one coherent and engaging whole. A noir murder mystery at heart, it starred the classic archetypes of spent detectives, deadbeats and sinister loners but imbued them with the kind of humanity which rarely appears in this medium. Further, it was at times deeply unsettling: a sequence in which a father searches in vain for his missing son in a crowded…

  • Various Artists – 30 Years of R&S Records

    December 11, 2013 - By 

    The compilation album has historically been a source of contention, usually compounded by the good and the bad and resulting in a scattershot collection of material that never quite satisfies. These glorified mix-tapes exemplify how little some labels actually care about providing good music to the consumer and it’s about time somebody gave the format a bloody good kick up the arse.  It’s with this in mind that we say thank you R&S records for dishing out said arse-kicking and delivering us from mind-numbing banality in the form of the celebratory collection, 30 Years of R&S which marks, funnily enough,…

  • Interview: Katie Richardson on HATCH! @ The Mac

    December 11, 2013 - By 

    Not content playing as part of Katie and the Carnival, Salt Flats and in various other collaborative musical endeavours, Belfast-based musician, singer and musical director Katie Richardson is the epitome of a tireless, committed and boundlessly passionate artist. From December 4 right up until January 4 (and many weeks in advance in preparation) her current creative occupation is composer and musical director of HATCH! Adventures of the Ugly Duck at The Mac, Belfast. With the production having already smitten hundreds of attendees and several critics, we speak to Katie about the ins and outs of the biggest production she’s been…