B Smith

As someone who is not a huge fan of souls like games, I have a great time playing Lies of P, a game that unabashedly borrows from the source material that inspired it. P is difficult but not so much to the point that I found myself stepping away from it out of frustration, I would rarely take longer than a day before retrying any particularly difficult bosses or levels as I felt compelled to finish them. For a genre that has been flooded with copycats, P is hands down the best soulslike I have ever played that is not a product of fromsoftware.

I remember watching the Cobweb trailer and thinking that it just might be worth my time, but I have been burned way too many times by this point and I know just how good editors are when it comes to trailers: Longlegs, Smile, Trap, Nope, Bones and All, just to name a few examples of movies that gave the audience an effectively spooky trailer but a completely substandard experience. Cobweb can be added to that list of horror movies that should win an award for trailer editing, because the movie itself is a complicated yet sometimes hilarious mess. Horror movies are rarely known for their engaging or interesting storylines and while the genre has seen a resurgence in the past decade, it still struggles with the same issues that have plagued it in the past. Most horror movies give us predictable, incoherent, and often boring stories and characters that are nothing more than filler material for the next set of jump scares and Cobweb is no exception. You could literally skip the entire first hour and just watch the final 25 minutes and it would be the better version, and I truly believe that, in fact, I’m asking you to start the movie at the 65 minute mark and tell me that it wouldn’t make a pretty good short horror movie. The buildup to the final act of Cobweb is an utter waste of time and even then the final act is hardly good enough that I would say it’s worth the effort, but if you can find it in yourself to sit through all of the cliched tropes of a million past horror movies, you MIGHT find the reward worth it, but like the storytelling in Cobweb, that’s questionable.

As someone who has played every CoD game as they released, I have been fortunate enough to have experienced the franchise at its peak between 2007-2014, but to also watch it decline over the past decade. When Xbox announced it would be releasing BO6 on Gamepass, I felt excited about the series for the first time in years, but did it live up to the hype? Here is the good, the bad, and the ugly. The Good: The campaign is hands down the best part of the game which is strange considering CoD has shown us in recent years that it only exists to please it’s younger audience who gravitate towards multiplayer and zombies mode, so, how is it the one mode that gets the least amount of attention is also the best feature of the game? Who knows, but it’s the truth. This is easily the best campaign since the MW reboot and the only justification for spending $70 on this game if you don’t have Gamepass. To say this is nothing like any COD campaign you have played before is an understatement, so many different games feel crammed into each mission that there were times I felt like I was playing Dues Ex or Metal Gear Solid, only for the next mission to shift dramatically to action horror that played like FEAR or Trepang 2. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as each mission was a lot of fun, but it rarely ever felt like I was playing a typical CoD mission. For the traditionalist who is expecting a classic CoD experience, they will be sorely disappointed, but if you keep an open-mind, you will have more fun than you have with a CoD campaign in a long time. The Bad: Multiplayer continues to be a mess, moving at the break neck speed that only a child could appreciate. Everything is flash and bling now, long gone are the days of skill and well thought out battle plans, and here to stay are the days of lone wolves running around, jumping out of 4 story windows, zip lining across maps and sliding 20ft with your super soldier. If you have played Warzone within the past 3 years, there is nothing here that will impress you. The Ugly: Zombies mode has never been worse. I was shocked to learn that there are now maps and map markers? When the f**k did that happen? Maybe I missed this somewhere along the way, but it’s embarrassing that the devs feel that the player needs to have their hands held and guided directly to each objective. Half of the fun of playing zombies is figuring out the mysteries with your friends while dodging hoards of zombies, but not anymore, now they might as well have a brightly lit sign telling you exactly where to go. Worse yet are the maps that are available: one being an uninspired town in BROAD DAYLIGHT, and the other an underground bunker with no personality. Say what you will about Infinite Warfare, but it was the last great CoD Zombies mode to release, and I haven’t played a single zombies map that has come close to Zombieland, a map with tons and tons of personality. Overall, this is a $70 campaign with a multiplayer and zombie mode that didn’t receive nearly the attention that the campaign did, and while it’s one of the better ones in recent years, it in no way justifies the hefty price tag.

I know enough by this point to not trust anything that is read online since so much of what is being read/heard is based on one person’s subjective opinion, yet I always seem to find myself giving in to my lesser instincts and watching a movie or show simply because some random person claimed that it is ThE sCArIeST mOvIe eVER!! Similar to my experience with Talk to Me, Evil Dead: Rise, and Longlegs, Hold your Breath is just the latest underwhelming horror movie to release within the past few years that has gotten the casual fan treatment and received a completely undeserving title as a good horror movie. Where teenage scream queens once dominated the scene, Sarah Paulson has since taken over as the female lead ambassador for horror, and it is because of her reputation as a great horror actress that I gave the movie a shot, but even she couldn’t save this abysmally boring horror movie. I have watched countless horror movies at this point, played countless horror and sci-fi video games, read countless books belonging to the same genre, so perhaps I have become desensitized to it all, but even if that weren’t the case, I could safely say that Hold your Breath is a complete flop that doesn’t live up to the social media praise.

I really wanted to like this game, and after dedicating 30+ hours of playtime, I would say that I gave it more than just a fair chance to prove that it was more than just a mid tier title for the Series X and PS5. One might argue that only a crazy person would spend that much of their time to something they don’t fully enjoy, but it’s not that simple with Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, because for every one thing that it gets right, it infuriatingly takes two steps backwards. The combat for example, is not nearly as bad as people would lead you to believe it is. It is definitely vanilla considering it changes so little from start to end, but I would hardly call it janky like so many other reviewers have. The ranged weapon (there is only one) feels mostly useless and you often find yourself using the same attacks over and over, but if anything, I would argue that it is more uninspired and repetitive than it is janky. So much of the game depends on its storytelling and game mechanics, namely your ability to banish ghosts or act as judge, jury and executioner for criminals. The difficult choice of handing down punishments regarding morally ambiguous situations is surprisingly difficult, but the poor writing often made it so that I really didn’t care what happened to the characters. This is mostly attributed to ridiculously sexist themes and the hilarious misrepresentation of the1600’s American colonies which would have been populated only by white men and their wives, however, any white straight male I encountered was portrayed as either a bumbling buffoon or an evildoer, while the women were all oppressed girl bosses who are apparently the only people who can get things done, or (worst of all) they were just victims. Regardless, females were never, ever to blame for their actions, and they were always, always, the hero of every story. Banishing ghosts or sentencing people is the meat and potatoes of the game, serving as both side quests and the main storyline arc, with the main objective being your decision to try and raise a loved one from the dead, or to help them ascend to the other side. Collecting evidence to help you make your decision with each case are reduced to simple fetch quests - travel from point A to point B, pick up some notes or journals, back track a lot (a lot a lot) and then hand down your verdict. The process is much less interesting than I imagine the devs believed it would be as you must collect all the evidence items anyway before you are able to banish/sentence, making the entire exploration experience feel like you are being guided to each piece of evidence instead of conducting an actual investigation. The only thing that breaks up the monotony of collecting evidence for your banishing cases are running into the same enemy encounters over and over again which is of itself extremely repetitive. Enemy variety is nonexistent as you will encounter the same ghostly bioluminescent blobs, possessed dogs or skeletons through out the game’s entirety. Boss designs are unique, but there are less than 6 total bosses that you will battle, and they are all extremely easy. Banishers has all of the right ingredients to be a deliciously entertaining game, but bad writing, repetitive gameplay, and an experience that seems terrified of letting go of the players hand ultimately ruins the game.

The 1st season of The Bear perfectly captures the frantic nature of the restaurant industry as anyone who has worked in the business will most likely tell you, while also blending in family trauma and interesting character arcs, but as is the norm with TV in the modern streaming era, single great seasons usually give way to lackluster 2nd and 3rd seasons before being cancelled outright. Will The Bear be cancelled following a disappointing 3rd season? Definitely not, especially with the reputation it created for itself as one of the best shows on TV due to that excellent 1st season, but it is worth noting that critics are being far less forgiving of the show this time around, with USA Today criticizing its lack of direction and Slate going as far as to call it a bad show. I remember going through the 2nd season and thinking that I was either watching some of the absolute best writers at work, or a group of people who were absolutely lost as to what to do next. It turns out that they had/have no clue where to take the crowed room of characters, with the writers sending us off to different countries and locations to watch side characters (some of whom are not really that likable) learn their craft with world-renowned chefs played by guest actors. The 3rd season all but confirms that the writers are utterly lost in regards to their ability to effectively develop characters, spreading themselves too thin by trying to be everything to everyone instead of just excelling with their growth of Carmy, Cousin and Sydney. While it’s true that cousin and to a lesser degree Sydney have become fan favorites and by extension a demand to know more about them has formed amongst the fans, it all boils down to Carmy since he is the face of the show, but with the writers failing to focus on what works for them, too little of screen time is dedicated to him, instead diluting Carmy with more flashbacks and yelling. This is nothing new from seasons 1 and 2, constant yelling and frequent flashbacks as if the writers have zero faith in the audiences ability to recognize that Carmy’s trauma filled past has contributed to his anger outbursts. The Bear was good, it was great to be honest, and now, as is so often the case in the era of streaming, thewriters seem incapable of stringing together multiple seasons of greatness. It’s a shame because of how much I enjoy seeing Allen White on screen, but he’s only as good as the material he’s given.

I just got around to playing Max Payne 3 (MP3) in 2024 and I’m not sure how that happened considering the sheer volume of games that I have to my credit, but I suppose these things just happen. After playing through it multiple times and currently working through hardcore difficulty, I can honestly say that MP3 is one of the greatest 3rd person shooter games, and possibly the best Rockstar game, that I’ve ever played. Nearly 12 years after its release, MP3 still has some of tightest controls and gunplay that I have ever had the joy of experiencing. Some games just have that rare ability to transcend time, similar to the Left 4 Dead controls which feel as if they are immune to aging, MP3’s gameplay and action sequences will most likely continue to be some of the best in all of gaming history. The only fault that I can find with the game being the outdated visuals, but as someone who values controls and gameplay over graphics, it is hardly something even worth mentioning. After completing MP3 multiple times, it makes me wish for a 4th game that would no doubt look and play amazing on modern consoles. I truly can’t recommend this game enough as it serves as a true masterpiece during one of the best eras in gaming history. If you are hesitant to play MP3 due to the elapsed time since it’s initial release, do yourself a favor and go buy this game right now, you will not be disappointed.

At some point while watching Dune: Part 2, I had to pause the movie to take a short break and to my surprise and with some disappointed, I realized that 2 hours had passed by, but what exactly had happened? Paul rode a worm, the nephew of the rival spice group was introduced and fought in an arena, a lot of blue stuff was being drank, but what had really happened and why? There were a lot of why questions to be asked after the credits rolled, like why didn’t the Harkonens’ just stay in the sky and blast the Fremens to smithereens like they did their worship temple earlier in the movie? That approach worked so well for them the first time it was strange as to why they even engaged them in battle on the ground at all. There are plenty of other why questions, but it’s difficult to ask them here without spoiling too much of the movie. I have never seen so much praise for a movie that did so little with its 2 hour and 46 minute run time, and it would seem that I am one of the few who was completely underwhelmed by Dune: Part 2. Perhaps the almost universal praise is a symptom of the utter decline in modern cinema quality and how people have forgotten what it’s like to actually have a variety of good movies to watch and choose from, but I certainly remember, and had this movie released even a decade ago, I simply can’t imagine that people would have given it the amount of support that it has received. Dune: Part 2 isn’t a bad experience, but it was an empty one that left me wondering how so little could have happened in such a long run time.

Jonathon Glazer who directed one of my favorite sci-fi/horror movies of the past decade and arguably the best of the 2010’s with Under the Skin, takes the helm for The Zone of Interest, an honest yet underwhelming view of a Nazi family living out their everyday lives right beside the Auschwitz labor camp. The movie is based on the actual family and the head of Auschwitz, providing the viewer with a heartbreaking perspective of how people who sided with the Nazi party most likely handled the horrific treatment of Jews as they casually ignored the atrocities that were occurring just beyond the wall that separated their idyllic life from the torture and murder of people who they make backhanded comments about in the same way you or I would be annoyed about a fly getting in the house. I think it goes without saying that any movie that discusses WWII is going to illicit an emotional response, millions died in truly horrific ways, hundreds of thousands of Americans died so that we could live free in the greatest country in the world, allowing us to do silly things like write movie reviews. In many ways, it was our defining moment as a species and if we were to suddenly go extinct, it would be the highlight reel moment that is shown again and again, studied, questioned as to why it happened at all. That’s why content based on WWII, specifically the Holocaust, is usually alway met with such high praise, it’s taboo to criticize anything associated with it because of the toll that it took on humanity, but that doesn’t change how empty The Zone of Interest is as a piece of entertainment, and make no mistake, because that’s exactly what it is, a form of entertainment. Some things just don’t translate to the big screen, and this is one of those things. Is it terrible and terrifying to imagine people who are composed of the same flesh and blood as us acting so inhumane and indifferent to evil? Yes, absolutely, but it doesn’t change how uninteresting it is to watch people doing mundane household chores or having boring conversations and gardens, no matter the content in which it was occurring. A maid folding clothes during the apocalypse is still just a maid folding laundry. The Zone of Interest is centered around the chilling question of how families truly acted when the world was burning around them, and the answer is a surprisingly boring one that didn’t need to be turned into a movie.