Thief

Posted 2:59pm Sunday 16th March 2014

Grade: B Over the last couple of weeks the video game industry has been overwhelmed by mass layoffs. Eidos Montreal laid off a large number of their staff, Irrational Games laid off over 100 people and Disney Interactive laid off 700 people. Understandably, these lay offs have concerned Read more...

Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 9th March 2014

Grade: A - Often it is not until we are presented with something radically new in tone that we realise how similar everything else feels. Over the last generation we had access to a vast library of games, but I wonder if one was to sit down and categorically analyse many of these games in Read more...

Robocop

Posted 4:35pm Sunday 9th March 2014

Grade: B When I heard that the 1987 B-grade action film Robocop was going to be rebooted, the last thing I expected was to be challenged intellectually – especially considering the premise of the film. Robocop is set in the near future where a debate is raging about what the role of Read more...

Banished

Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014

Grade: A - It’s not often that you can call a game literary. In my opinion, it has only been in the past generation of games that developers have truly cracked into gaming’s potential to reveal and analyse truths about the human condition. The human condition, of course, is a very broad Read more...

I, Frankenstein

Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014

Grade: C A huge number of people work to produce a film. When I watch a film as horrendously written as I, Frankenstein, this is all I can consider. How is it that a huge number of industry professionals worked on this project and, yet, not one person put up their hand and said “Excuse me, I Read more...

Broken Age

Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014

Grade: A As consumers, we are at the mercy of what sells. When what you like is “what sells,” that’s a wonderful fact. However, when something you like is niche, then it can be the worst. However, the last couple of years have given gamers the opportunity to directly influence what they like Read more...

Her

Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014

Grade: A- Every romantically focused film made has tried desperately to capture the events, thoughts and emotions associated with love. But no film, in my opinion, has ever captured the essence of it quite as poignantly as Spike Jonze’s Her. The film traverses all of the ups and downs of Read more...

Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013

Rating: 8.5/10 As a gaming advocate it is my job to point out that games can have a variety of positive effects on gamers, including the development of cognitive skills. I wholeheartedly believe that this is true, particularly for young gamers. However, it has been a long time since I Read more...

The Warriors

Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013

I have never understood the point of gangs. Violently defending an area of land that is not yours to begin with strikes me as rather absurd. While Walter Hill’s 1979 cult classic The Warriors doesn’t convince me of gangs’ validity, I doubt that a cooler vision of the concept has ever been created. Read more...

Interview: Sonja Urban (Animal Rights Activist)

Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013

Sonja Urban is a German-born human and animal rights activist who became a New Zealand resident last year in order to study Environmental Organisation at Otago. Baz Macdonald spoke to her about her latest cause, Shave It or Save It, which aims to raise money for animal welfare by letting donors Read more...