• Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla

    December 3, 2020 - By 

    If you have been playing Assassin’s Creed games since their inception thirteen years ago, then you will already know how the franchise has redefined itself multiple times during that period, expanding outward from a relatively straightforward adventure to a more open world approach. Of course, the core storyline is as pleasingly bug-nuts as ever: deep breath… in the modern day, tech rebels enter the “Animus”, an enhanced virtual reality device that allows the user to relive the genetic memories of their ancestors. Through this interface, they can discover information about an ancient secret war that has been waged across the centuries between…

  • Paper Mario: The Origami King

    October 7, 2020 - By 

    In 1981, an unknown character called Jumpman first appeared in the arcade game Donkey Kong, bounding up a lattice of wonky girders to rescue his girlfriend Pauline from the titular ape. Four years later, the same rotund yet nimble character – now, inexplicably, an Italian plumber named Mario – appeared in Super Mario Bros., still valiantly coming to the aid of his girlfriend, and the rest is gaming history. There are few franchises that can compete with the longevity and universal appeal that Mario has held over the video game industry since its inception, and fewer still that have placed…

  • Carrion (Devolver Digital, Multiformat)

    September 11, 2020 - By 

    A blood red, mutating, tentacled organism rampages around a subterranean research facility ripping apart gormless scientists and security guards as it tries to escape its confinement. It is a set-up that should be familiar to fans of Horror or Sci-Fi cinema: we have seen such gruesome shenanigans many times before in media such as  Life, Stranger Things, The Thing and lots of others with the word “thing” in the title. However, the gimmick in this twist on the Metroidvania sub-genre is that the player controls said beast: you start the game as a relatively small globule of appendages and viscera, breaking out of a specimen jar…

  • Resident Evil 3 (Capcom, Multiformat)

    July 30, 2020 - By 

    Following hot on the shambling heels of the brilliant Resident Evil 2 remake, the latest port in the long-running series is very much a mixture of mercies. It is undoubtedly as exciting and enjoyable as its predecessor but it is also very short. Just when the game is hitting its stride, it strides even more quickly towards its denouement. It giveth and before you can savour its wares it taketh away. For many players, this will not be a problem: reminiscent of classic releases that could be completed in one or two sittings, Resident Evil 3 seems to be designed…

  • The Last of Us Part II (Sony, Playstation 4)

    June 19, 2020 - By 

    In gangster movie The Road To Perdition, Paul Newman’s mob boss character mournfully intones, “This is the life we chose, the life we lead… and there is only one guarantee: none of us will see Heaven.” This quotation is particularly apt for The Last Of Us Part II, which deals with similar themes of crime and redemption, heinous deeds and consequent trauma, and the repercussions of acts committed by ourselves and those who came before us. Rarely has a videogame so deftly and intelligently explored concepts of violence and the accompanying cognitive dissonance even if the way in which it…

  • Damien Jurado w/ Dana Gavanski @ Ulster Sports Club, Belfast

    March 2, 2020 - By 

    It takes a great deal of skill or charm – or a combination of the two – to silence a room. And yet this evening Belfast, so often plagued by inconsiderate gig-talkers, sees this filled-to-capacity venue fall under the thrall of a reverend quiet for both support act and main draw and remains submerged in that snow for the entire duration of the gig. It is a wonderfully unnerving experience to be somewhere so hushed that you can hear the person next to you breathing or respectfully supping at their pint but it is testament to not only the calibre…

  • Glen Hansard @ Grand Opera House, Belfast

    October 25, 2019 - By 

    Those familiar with Glen Hansard’s long-rambling career – three decades and counting – will no doubt be fascinated by the various left turns and changes in musical direction the songwriter has taken during his years of service. The Frames, his alma mater may be on indefinite hiatus, and The Swell Season, his previous artistic partnership with pianist Markéta Irglová, released two albums of hushed folk rock before going their separate ways. Along the road there have been excursions with Eddie Vedder, Robbie Robertson, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen… an illustrious who’s who of musical royalty that epitomises Hansard’s modus operandi of…

  • Villagers @ Open House Festival, Bangor

    August 26, 2019 - By 

    Put succinctly, Villagers make beautiful music. The reason that their songs are quite so beautiful, and the reason that they connect on such a deep level with their audience, is that all of the white noise, static and blasts of Stax horns are anchored by the state of being human and all of the frailty and vulnerability that comes with it. In a scene so often dominated by archness, cynicism and borrowed nostalgia, Villagers are all about heart-on-the-sleeve sadness and fist-in-the-air joy, and this forms the core of what makes tonight’s performance so compelling, and the thread that is woven…

  • Days Gone (Sony, PS4)

    June 7, 2019 - By 

    If you follow videogames media, you will no doubt already be aware of the polarised reception to Sony’s latest AAA exclusive title, Days Gone. Those in the positive camp have praised the intense atmosphere of this open world meets survival horror adventure while naysayers have criticised a release that contains more bugs than the Oval Office. Both sides of the debate have been particularly rabid in either their praise or their lambasting and, as is often the case, the truth resides somewhere in the middle. While there is much to enjoy about Days Gone, that enjoyment is all too often hamstrung by frustration, repetition…

  • Jason Lytle w/ Malojian @ 1st Presbyterian Church, Belfast

    May 5, 2019 - By 

    Kudos to Malojian (below) for amassing such a considerable array of achievements in a relatively short period of time: touring all over the shop, winning over a legion of fans and recording four albums of hushed reverie – most notably, with big kahuna producer Steve Albini, whose sparse recoding style is fitting for Malojian’s meticulously thought out arrangements. Then, as we are told, there is the forthcoming record with Jason Lytle on which he has been working this past week. The omens and the muses are both very good, it seems. It is easy to see why. Malojian writes clever, engaging…