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Winter traditions are plentiful, but every once in a while a new one pops up and feels as necessary as the tried and true ones. Such is the case with Whitney and their wintertime Chicago shows. Whether it’s at the start of December, right before Christmas, or during Valentine’s day season, there is just something special about these shows (especially the Thalia Hall ones). Back in December, Whitney continued the tradition with a three-night stint at Thalia Hall. I had the opportunity to check out the opening night with Liam Kazar opening what would be a a perfect treat for the holiday season. We’re just a year out from Liam Kazar‘s fantastic album Due North and throughout that time he has been playing some fantastic shows. This opening set was another great show to add to that growing list of performances. Kazar seemed completely at ease with Lane Beckstrom and Spencer Tweedy by his side, letting his wonderful songs fill the loud Thalia Hall. Kazar really caught the crowd’s attention with his blend of alt-country cadence that this evening was made for with some alternative leanings. His sound feels perfectly inviting especially when his sister Sima Cunningham (of the recently reinvigorated Finom, fka OHMME) joined in on the set. It was truly a Chicago-rich set as Kazar joked about which high school was most represented that night. When it came time for Whitney, the crowd seemed relieved to finally let all that anticipation melt away. Max Kakacek, Julien Ehrlich, and a wave of touring band members filled the stage ready to impress. Kakacek and Ehlich have always been the center of Whitney, but they have always been lifted to new heights by their amazing band. Such was the case this evening as they all came together beautifully. The opening notes of “No Matter Where We Go” kicked things off incredibly well. “So don’t you feel lonely no matter where we go” sings Elhrich, a line that was truly evident as the night went on. Surprisingly, their set was bereft of a cover song. Whitney seemingly played it by the book, staying true to their set lists of the past few weeks. But that was certainly fine with the crowd who were entirely in the palm of their hands. Old favorites like “Dave’s Song” and “Polly” are staples and rightly so. These songs are so embedded in the sound you want from Whitney. But that doesn’t mean the crowd wasn’t aching for the new as they reacted as excitedly for “BLUE” and “MEMORY.” Songs off SPARK feel a little clearer, more sure of themselves and their impact. The encore was immediately prefaced as being a little bit different than their usual sets from this tour cycle. And would you expect anything different? This is a Whitney show at Thalia Hall. Something was destined to happened to set it apart from the rest of the tour. Now it wasn’t something over the top wild or elaborate, just a couple extra songs, one that had been absent from previous shows. But their presence was sure appreciated as “Country Lines” gently lead the crowd into the final four songs. “TWIRL”(the aforementioned rarely played track and surprisingly so considering it was a single) followed and was met with a warm reception. But of course the song that garnered the most attention was “No Woman.” What is likely many Whitney’s fans first exposure, “No Woman” continues to captivate. It’s always a welcome treat and the usual change of lines (the CTA train shoutout) brought a smile to everyone at Thalia Hall. The show ended with “Valleys (My Love),” the achingly beautiful track off Forever Turned Around. All photos by Julian Ramirez This review was originally published at Third Coast Review. You can check out more pictures here.

Back when I was in middle school, computers were becoming essential. AOL brought us the internet, Compton brought us the depth of knowledge of encyclopedias without the need for a giant bookcase, and Mavis Beacon taught us to type, one road race and a few splatted bugs on the windshield at a time. It was part of my education, and learning to “properly” type at an early age has no doubt assisted me in so many, many things that I now do today in my daily life. But maybe, just maybe, my typing prowess was honed back in those days for a higher purpose. Like….saving an entire civilization from ruin? In Outshine, developed by Fishing Cactus, makers of Epistory and Nanotale, you’ll be tasked with saving the world and your entire species. No big deal, right? Outshine is an endless runner where you’ll be battling various robots using the skills you learned in keyboarding class and from the likes of Ms. Beacon. Typing games aren’t new on the block - they’ve been around forever. And Fishing Cactus had some success with Epistory. Outshine is, for me, at least, unique though, and interesting. Not only does it force you to do more than just type as fast as you can, adding dodging on the track with left and right ctrl keys, it also forces you to become strategic to progress. I’m a fast typer, and for the purposes of the review set the game to “average” difficulty, which is set at 60 wpm, over 20 wpm below what I average, and while I could even reach 98 wpm on some levels, I still couldn’t just faceroll them. That’s because of the various types of enemies and the need to constantly be on the lookout for obstacles and dropoffs. Your track consists of regular robots that are ground dwelling and are defeated by typing the words represented, as well as red spiky bombs that can only be avoided or run through using a shield activated by the Tab button that depletes rather quickly and doesn’t regenerate through the level. But, there are also flying robots which drop bombs, shoot destructive beams, or even throw out rapid fire letters you have to type before they reach your character. Enemies come frequently and in large groups right from the start, so no matter how much of a handle you have on typing things, you’ll still need to triage and figure out what to type first. One good rule of thumb is to take down anything in the air first, but it’s easier said than done when you’re racing to save the universe and there’s a million things in your path. Boss fights start out a little bit samey, but feature some amazing set pieces later on, and with the amazing, driving soundtrack to set the tone, you’ll find yourself enjoying every level even if you’re coming up against a wall (literally or figuratively) One other neat thing about Outshine is that it has a solid narrative. While not as narrative driven as Fishing Cactus’ other titles, each time you defeat a section of a level, you’ll type part of the story of the game out, and find out what led an entire civilization to their doom and what can save them. The story actually kept me pretty intrigued the whole time, and featured some interesting twists, though I did feel like the end could’ve been a lot more epic than it was - your miles may vary. Meanwhile, there’s a lot of replayability with Outshine not only with leaderboards and achievements to get, but because there are a lot of ways that you can modify the levels to create unique challenges or make the game easier if you’re having problems. For example, you can make your avatar invincible, set it to sudden death so any mistake ends your run, change how far ahead you can view words, and even play without checkpoints. Or you can put it on 100 wpm and kiss your fingers goodbye. I really enjoyed my time with Outshine. It was unique enough to stand out, the story had a decent hook, and the soundtrack was stellar. Strategy and variety in enemies kept me engaged, and trying to beat my own high scores is making it tempting to load up any time I feel like a challenge. If you’d like to save an entire civilization using only your typing skills, you can get Outshine now on Steam.

The final season of Atlanta had a lot to answer for since the show had initially aired in 2016. From its humble tale of a struggling Earn, trying to come up for his family, to its controversial third season filled with interstitial one off storylines; we’ve traveled all around the world with this show. Donald Glover and associates have found a way to tell a cohesive story that is a mix of Sopranos, Chi-raq and Twin Peaks. It is an unheard of amalgamation but it’s been an arguably successful run throughout, so how did the final season pan out for our gang of globetrotting troublemakers? The answer is that it is one of the best written and executed final seasons of a show that I’ve ever seen. Atlanta has always followed the adventures of Earn (Donald Glover,) Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry,) Darius (LaKeith Stanfield,) and Van (Zazie Beetz,) in their journey of personal growth and global success. Starting with Earn, down on his luck, teaming up with his underground rap star cousin Alfred, there have been twists and turns, and we, the audience, have always been there for their successes and failures. Darius playing the Kramer style friend, plus Van, Earns’ baby mama, everyone has come into their own as characters. Earn and Alfred have successfully grown into superstars in their own right, Earn now a successful manager and Alfred attempting to figure out what’s next as his stardom may fade sooner than he would like. Van has become more than just a “baby mama,” with her own badass adventures including being an actress. Darius, is just, more of Darius which is never a bad thing. This season sees our characters reassess their relationships, discarding the superficial for more meaningful connections. Van and Earn finally pin down where they stand with each other, which has always been up in the air since episode one. In one of the more touching and down to earth episodes, we see a classic camping trip for Van, Earn and their daughter Lottie. It’s a pretty slow and inconsequential episode, but what we get from it are the deep feelings we’ve seen from the pair since the start, laid bare. It’s one of the sweetest, most human, episodes ever for the series. Darius has always been the wild card of the show and in the case of this final season, it’s comedically our one constant. While everything is wrapping up around us, Darius is there to have surprising insight on the proceedings. We do get some backstory to his enigma of a person, with some tragic family history. It’s only a brief glimpse but puts a lot to his character that he is able to keep up such a demeanor this whole time. By the end of the final episode, there comes a realization that we are all part of Darius’ chaotic world. Despite being as awkward as he is mysterious, his closure stands to put a final pin to the surreal world Donald and company have built in Atlanta. Alfred investigates several retirement ideas which include starting a farm and becoming a manager himself, choosing to find himself a YWA (young white avatar.) Of course, these lead to calamitous results but puts you in the headspace of Alfred. This season also takes time to have Alfred reflect on what his contribution to music really is. Performing for “the culture” can lead one to question if you will really be remembered, or did fade into obscurity. This is of course a common fear for a lot of us, but in this case it feels especially poignant as Donald Glover’s rap career in Childish Gambino, has always struggled with this idea; choosing to create albums that span multimedia including art installations, short films, scripts and hidden in website coding. A lot like finding hidden messages in coding, these messages are all baked deep within scenes of sushi hostage encounters, time loops and prophetic 90’s R&B singers. As in previous seasons, we’ve seen the gang take on Justin Bieber and Michael Jackson, the final season asks such questions as: “How much does Tyler Perry contribute to African American Culture?” and “How petty is too petty?” Generally the answers are always something in between but where would Atlanta be without the surreal? One holdover from season 3 is the return of an interstitial side story. This time we get a faux documentary about the creation of The Goofy Movie and how it is one of the blackest movies ever created. As always with Atlanta, this is a hilarious premise but it’s rooted in African American culture, with numerous academic articles written on this subject. Of course, since this is the Atlanta alternate reality, it devolves quickly into the director slowly transforming into Goofy, and faking his death. It’s a wild ride from start to finish and one of my particular favorites. The main thing I’ve always grabbed from Atlanta is its roots in real life. While it may display an alternate reality with outlandish events, if you were to dig deeper, you can find numerous articles reflecting exactly what’s depicted on screen. There have been a number of times that I’ve watched an episode, then researched the events of the show to find that they are based on actual events. This puts the outlandish nature of Atlanta, more in reality than initially thought. That’s where the show has always stood out, at the end of every episode there’s so much more to think about. While Donald has always focused on being a multimedia creator, Atlanta forces you into next step thinking. Theorizing and debating what the episode meant, and what it means for the world at large. When Atlanta finally hit the credits on its final episode, I was left stunned. We see the characters we’ve all known and love in a final place. Not in death, but in a way that we can surmise what’s next for them. The real trick is that this is an alternate reality, where their normality is so much different than ours, so we really don’t know. Not since Sopranos, do we have this subtle sense of uncertainty bubbling under the surface. I didn’t want the show to end, but there would be no good way to end something of this caliber but to continue with its world of ambiguity. We get answers, but in the same way, we don’t. It’s the best and worst way to end a show but in this case it’s everything Atlanta stood for. There were no more questions for the characters, just more to think about, always more to ponder. That's always been the point. What did you think of the final season? Was it a satisfying wrap up? Let us know in the comments!

Before I start, I should mention that I love 4 player, Left 4 Dead style co-op games. I get together multiple times a week with different groups of friends and play games like Deep Rock Galactic and Warhammer: Vermintide 2. Needless to say, my group and I have been excited for the release of Darktide, and now that it’s finally here and I spent a good amount of time with it (nearly 100 hours by the time of this writing) I have a few things to say about it. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (or just Darktide) is a first person game with an emphasis on cooperation. It’s reminiscent of developer Fatshark’s previous two Warhammer games, except this time it’s set in the grim dark future of the 40K universe. In it, you play as a “reject” on the Hive City of Tertium, on the world Atoma Prime. The forces of Chaos have rooted themselves deep, and it’s up to you (and three of your friends) to work your way through various objectives, defeating hordes of enemies as you go. While Darktide uses a lot of the Left 4 Dead formula, it seems to have copied some of its ideas from Deep Rock Galactic, for better and for worse. But the biggest issue plaguing Darktide is the fact that it’s just obviously not finished. Before I dive into the bad, I want to emphasize the good: the combat is phenomenal. That isn’t much of a surprise, since Vermintide 2 is a game I consider the gold standard for first person melee combat—and the shooting felt pretty damn good, too. It’s strange, then, that Darktide feels just slightly different than Vermintide 2. Its melee is phenomenal, but those hoping for a 1:1 translation from Vermintide 2 might be disappointed. But that makes sense, since Darktide has a much higher emphasis on ranged encounters. Combat in Darktide still feels fantastic from the melee to the shooting—just a little different than Vermintide 2. The enemies in Darktide are also great. You don’t have the variety between the three different factions like in Vermintide 2, but variety of specials in Darktide is great. You have your usual gamut of special enemy archetypes—like the one that jumps and pins you, or the big one that tosses you around, etc. There are “monstrosities” that act as boss (or mini-boss) monsters and even an enemy type that (sort of) mimics the behavior of the Left 4 Dead witch—you can avoid it, but if you accidentally (or intentionally) startle it, it could easily cause a wipe under the right circumstances. There are enemy types that resemble those from Vermintide 2, like the Tox Flamer and Gunner, but with slightly different behaviors. The Gunners, for instance, are sometimes embedded along with other ranged enemies, and will do their best to get into cover and avoid confrontation until they have a chance to shoot from a distance. I’ve seen some that don’t like the added ranged element to Darktide, but not only does it fit the Warhammer 40,000 universe, Fatshark really did a good job of making these weapons fun to shoot. Ranged enemies are something that haven’t really been at the forefront of a Left 4 Dead style game like they are in Darktide. Ranged enemies can add an extra layer of danger to every encounter, especially if you’re trying to make your way across an open area or are getting attacked by a horde while trying to kill ranged aggressors. Darktide not only excels in combat, but it does a fantastic job with sounds and world design. I’ve never played a 40K game that made the universe feel so real. Punctuating this is an amazing soundtrack by Jesper Kyd who previously did the soundtrack for Vermintide 2 among other games. Not only are the environments amazingly detailed and sufficiently grim dark, the level designs are also fantastic. Darktide encourages exploration through its placing upgrade materials through the levels but the level design encourages teams to break off and regroup when paths meet back up. While Darktide does take a lot from Fatshark’s previous games, there is also a bit of Deep Rock Galactic thrown into the mix, especially when it comes to mission availability—and this is where Fatshark made some questionable decisions. Not all missions are always available; instead they rotate randomly. This makes finding specific missions for challenges (like weekly contracts and penances) frustrating. What’s worse, is that you can’t choose the difficulty level for the mission, instead, it’s already assigned to that mission when it pops up. Unfortunately, there aren’t many different ways to play on release. There are only four classes available and no clear picture of when more will be available. And if they release each class one at a time, you’ll have deal with the inevitable surge of people wanting to play the new class throughout the game’s lifetime. The classes also feel pretty same-y, but that could be because there are no designated roles to fill beyond the Ogryn which is great at carrying heavy objects. I would like to see more variety in classes going forward—and some new classes sooner than later. Progression can also feel a bit uneven. Currently, as you level up you unlock new skills every five levels. But the real draw is getting your hands on different 40K weaponry, which is locked behind an RNG gate: there’s a timed shop that rotates items out every hour. There are more than one way to obtain weapons, however, as there is a chance upon mission completion to grant weapons, and weekly challenges bestow a unique currency that can be used to buy new weapons, or to gamble at a chance to get a weapon you want. Still, having every option of obtaining weapons through some sort of RNG feels annoying, especially with most crafting features being unavailable at launch. There have been some rumblings online about Fatshark’s decision to include a cash shop at launch, even despite crafting not being complete. While I agree to this in principle, it appears as though the real money shop isn’t even complete as of this review. And as long as the shop only offers cosmetic upgrades, as it did in Vermintide 2, I have no problem with it. I would like the option to buy the items straight without having to deal with a premium currency, but that’s not a deal breaker for me. I know Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will be the game everyone wanted it to be at release—eventually. In the meantime, I’ll probably keep playing because of its absolutely fantastic combat mechanics. I trust Fatshark to fix the problems with the launch—but I expect it to be a year or more before everything is where it should be. For now, Darktide is a fun and beautiful mess of a game that I hope will get its shit together. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is available now on Steam. Steam keys were provided to us for this review

I’ve always had a certain fascination with Dwarf Fortress. I haven’t played it before now, but I’d always stumble across stories of dwarven madness, or those that dug too deep and paid a hefty price. I always wanted to make a few tales of my own, but admittedly, its complicated systems on top of its ASCII graphics made Dwarf Fortress seem impenetrable. The addition of graphics to replace the ASCII representations does a bit to make Dwarf Fortress feel more accessible, but there is a intricate array of mechanics to familiarize yourself with if you want to dive deep into Dwarf Fortress. Dwarf Fortress is a colony simulation game where you usher a group of dwarves through early settlement, all the way to a spanning kingdom. What makes Dwarf Fortress unique, and legendary, among colony sims is its depth. Developer Bay 12 Games has aimed to simulate every aspect of existence with Dwarf Fortress, from the needs and desires of one dwarf, to the entire world that the dwarves inhabit. It’s a pretty big deal, and served as inspiration for many colony sims like Rimworld. While Dwarf Fortress has a shiny new pixel graphic exterior, its inner workings are the Dwarf Fortress you might know and love. Personally, I’ve tried to get into Dwarf Fortress on a few separate occasions, and I found this release to be the perfect way to get my foot in the door. It has a tutorial that explains the mechanics just enough to get you started—but you’ll have to rely on internet guides to answer questions about some of the mechanics. While I’d like to say I knew what I was doing, even after a few dozen hours, I felt like I was learning new things and better ways to do things. And the things you can do in Dwarf Fortress are surprisingly expansive. You can create a society dedicated to created items, waging war, or delving as deep as you can into the core of the world—and everything in between. But it’s not only what’s possible in Dwarf Fortress, but also the crazy events that pop up and force you to deal with them, like terrible forgotten beasts from the deep that may appear if you delve too deep, and too greedily, as dwarves are wont to do. To succeed in Dwarf Fortress is really about what your goals are. To create a society full of happy, productive dwarves you have to ensure they have places to rest, food to eat, and water to drink. Dwarves die from monster attacks, accidents, plague, madness, and from the loads of other dangers that can be found in a fantasy mine. And even if you don’t achieve your goals, losing can be massively fun, and often result in some of the best stories. I can’t say I recommend Dwarf Fortress to just anyone. But in a way, it transcends the colony sim genre in some ways, mostly because of its insane amount of simulation and generation. Apparently even hot and cold air masses are simulated to create weather. In new world created has generated poetry and musical instruments that are unique to that world. It’s graphics might not be a huge step from ASCII, but even its pixel art does a lot to help me get into the world of Dwarf Fortress. It’s not just a normal colony sim, it’s a game that’s been 20 years in the making, and its still growing with a massive community of enthusiasts behind it. Dwarf Fortress is one of the most important video games ever made, and this Steam release is a great excuse to check it out for yourself. Dwarf Fortress releases today on Steam. A Steam key was provided to us for this review

Tabletop party games are everywhere these days. A simple trip to Target will turn up dozens and dozens of them. And many of them follow a familiar formula, at least to those of us who were around as Cards Against Humanity rose to power as one of the most popular party games of all time – get a bunch of friends together, dole out a bunch of cards with silly/unusual/inappropriate prompts, select a judge for the round, and begin the hilarity. Sometimes, it works better than others. A lot depends on the game’s actual sense of humor. Which is why we were excited out of the gate’s for Cyanide and Happiness’ newest title, Master Dater. Cyanide and Happiness has its own very specific, acerbic, silly and dark sense of humor, and we were excited to see if it translated well into a dating game. As it turns out, it does. Not only does Master Dater live up to the “messed up” part of the “messed up dating game” promised, they also manage to do the card prompt party game thing better than it’s been done in a while, at least in our opinion. Gameplay for Master Dater is simple. Each player gets 3 head and 3 body cards in their hand for each round. For each round, a contestant (judge) is chosen. The contestant then pulls 3 interest cards, which will either be facts about the person, things they need in another person, or a straight up interest, which can be anything from the innocuous ‘I believe real beauty is on the inside’ to ‘I’m interested in knowing what people taste like.’ To the game’s benefit, not everything is over the top gross or even unusual, which in my opinion makes for a better experience. Each player then chooses a head and a body of a character who might fit what the contestant is looking for from their hand. They will then not only play this non-anonymously, but argue their case for why that character is a good fit. Character cards can have things like the head of a burger or be simpler, like a goth or ‘always eating’ and bottoms follow the same patterns. This is where the right group can make this game absolutely hilarious. Just like one of our favorite examples of this type of game, Apples to Apples, it’s possible you just don’t have anything to fit the prompts. And, also just like that game, you aren’t anonymous. This means you’ll have to do the heavy lifting to convince someone why an angel who’s always eating perfectly fits their dating needs – even if it doesn’t. And, you’d be surprised – some of the best answers I’ve ever run across in Master Dater are from people who think they had “nothing.” Master Dater is one of my new favorite party games. Cyanide and Happiness have just the right mix of bizarre, acerbic humor and great gameplay without making everything so over the top that nothing seems unusual or funny anymore. Removing anonymity with judging means each player has to openly argue their case, which is a component for absolute “rotflol” moments, and the game is easy to set up, easy to learn and easy to play. In my book, this is a game for any holiday party you might find yourself at this year – and beyond. Master Dater is available today. Get it and its NSFW expansion pack here.

Darktide is finally here–somewhat. The pre-order Beta has kicked off, and if you pay in you can get early access to developer Fat Shark’s follow-up to Vermintide 2. If you want to play a game that is still going through the tweaking process, it’s not a bad time to jump in, since progress should transfer over to the actual release. That is, of course, if everything goes to plan. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, or just Darktide, is a cooperative first person shooter where you and a group of three others take on the forces of Chaos in the Hive City of Tertium on Atoma Prime. If you have no idea what any of that means, that’s okay, you don’t need to be super knowledgeable about 40k lore to enjoy the immensely satisfying gameplay of Darktide. Developer Fatshark has an amazing pedigree when it comes to creating Left 4 Dead style cooperative first person shooters, as they demonstrated with the Warhammer: Endtimes – Vermintide and Warhammer: Vermintide 2, the latter of which gave Valve’s on seminal series a run for its money. This time around Fatshark has channeled a few other popular co-op games, notably Deep Rock Galactic, as inspiration for their newest grimdark shooter with the ability to mix and match classes and an ever-changing, timed mission board. This pre-order beta doesn’t have everything that will be in the final version of Darktide, but I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve played so far. While there are three classes to choose from initially: the Veteran Sharpshooter, Psyker Psykinetic, Ogryn, and Zealot Preacher. I’ve spent most of my time with the Veteran Sharpshooter, plugging enemies with my Recon Lasgun and more recently chunking them to a gory death with my boltgun. There are only limited mission types available during the beta period, with only 10 of the 13 planned mission types going to be available. The full launch of Darktide will include optimization (which is much needed), over 60 weapons, 13 mission types, the ability to upgrade weapons, and a new zone. The Pre-Order beta will see these features unlock each week until the launch on November 30th. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is shaping up to be an exciting follow-up to Vermintide 2. It has immensely satisfying melee combat, and gunplay, each of which doesn’t quite match the Vermintide 2 experience, but will feel familiar to veterans of that series. Warhammer 40,000: Darktide will release on November 30th. Steam keys were provided to us for this preview

There are a lot of ways to learn as a kid these days. There’s the things we grew up on like picture book and PBS as well as educational video games for computer, consoles, and the tablets that most children under 5 can navigate better than we even can. There’s virtual home assistants that can spout out facts whenever a kid feels like asking, so you don’t have to table that question about if the cat can eat strawberries or if pigs are smarter than dolphins. With all those options though, what makes an educational aid worth adding to your household (or to the household of your favorite nephew/niece/grandkid). It has to be something wholesome, heavy-duty, full of features and options and most importantly, appealing to the kids who’ll be the target audience. Enter the Storypod. This screenless interactive audio device is there to help children learn to read, test their skills in all academic areas, develop their creativity, establish good bedtime hygiene and even help them connect with relatives. It’s a lot to pack into one small device that looks like a slightly heartier Echo or Nest Hub. But, the Storypod manages to be a pretty solid learning device with a whole lot of appeal for kids of a broad range of ages, from newborns to 7 year olds. It features a great library of its own, as well as access to some truly classic stories, trivia, and even access to classic characters and stories like Daniel the Tiger and the Gruffalo. Storypod is designed not simply as a reading aid, and not just for one age group, and this is where it really shines. It’s got a diverse range of functions, from stories and songs to trivia and even nighttime routines. It can encourage early language skills in babies, help with naptime with a soothing nightlight and lullabies, and at later ages help children express their creativity, reinforce what they’re learning in school and help them deal with social issues and big emotions. As for its form factor, it’s a hardy, slightly hefty speaker system with a cuddly knit wrap that is of course changeable to almost any color in the rainbow. It features interactive lights, and a huge range of accessories which includes Crafties. Crafties are adorable little yarn animal friends that magnetically attach to the top of the Storypod and have their own individual programming. Each cute little animal or character has its own curricula, from emotions and healthy eating to subaquatic adventures or even some great topics like inclusion, diversity and history. You can also purchase storybooks which you can read along to with the Storypod, or have your child read along with. These storybooks are also begun by scanning on the top of the pod and have a page by page pace that’s not hard for children to keep up with or control. There’s even a special type of Craftie that allows you or anyone you allow to access the Storypod environment with can use to record up to 100 minutes of audio on, meaning out of state or country relatives and friends can say hello, send messages and tell special stories from a world away. Storypod works via a phone app and charges via USB. Parents can control the library and programming from their phone and it’s easy to set up. Audio is loud, crisp and clear, and the device itself is sturdy and attractive. Crafties, the beanie-babyesque friends your kids will likely want to acquire in droves, run about 20 dollars a piece and involve a good amount of content for the money, with most books running about 12 dollars a piece. Unlike some of the other literacy tools we’ve tried out l feel like this is the most bang for the buck, the easiest to use and the most fully featured, and I heartily recommend it for your own kids or as a gift this holiday season. For more information on the Storypod, visit their website here.

While some co-op video games test the boundaries of friendship, playing on the couch with a buddy or significant other is one of my favorite types of video game playing. Ship of Fools is a rare game that’s all about two player cooperation, but also mixes in some rogue-ish elements in to create a game where communication is vital, but chaos reigns. Ship of Fools is a roguelike action game where you and a friend brave the monster filled seas in a ship called The Stormstrider. Your goal is to fend off threats using the two on board cannons as you pass into each new hex on the shrinking map. A darkness is overtaking each sea, and you only have so many moves before it overwhelms everything, leading to a boss battle. Find upgrades like artifacts that can give you buffs, like increased damage output—or find entirely different projectiles to load into your cannons to even the odds. While you spend most of your time on The Stormstrider in Ship of Fools, you don’t really control it. Rather, you decide where to travel on a hex map, and then you have to react to whatever encounter pops up—and that’s more often than not a fight. The Stormstrider comes equipped with two cannons, each can be picked up and replaced, but only on the four designated cannon stations—two at starboard and two at port. Similarly, there are three cargo locations on the ship to store your loot. Anything not secured to a cargo location is lost when you change hexes. Strangely, your default ammo source takes up one of these hexes. Combat in Ship of Fools is your main activity, unfortunately. I would have loved to see some co-op style challenges, like some sort of puzzle solving, but most of the time you and your buddy will have to man the cannons. You can attempt battles with a dedicated cannoneer, but it’s best if both of you fire and reload your cannon yourselves while fending off the waves of enemies. You start with a default, single shot cannon, but eventually discover different types of guns as you progress. You can mix and match these cannons as you like, so if you prefer grapeshot while your buddy prefers the OG cannon, you don’t have to compromise. Ship of Fools is a roguelike, but it doesn’t rock the boat much in terms of what to expect. You can choose where to go on a hex map, with each tile potentially representing items or enemy encounters. During your explorations you will unlock new NPCs that will help you back at the base camp in preparation for each run—like the blacksmith who upgrades your weapons, or the person who gives you new buffs for each run. There are also different player characters you can unlock through exploration, each of which carries a trinket that bestows a unique ability—like faster firing when that character reloads a cannon. While Ship of Fools is definitely fun to play with friends, it didn’t keep me hooked like some roguelikes. It feels like it’s a little light on content, and that we saw most everything there was to see after a couple of hours of gameplay. It possesses an art style and charm that vaguely reminds me of Don’t Starve, but it wasn’t enough to keep going. Ship of Fools is available today for PC via Steam and on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X and Nintendo Switch. A Steam key was provided to us for this review.

Every once and a while a game comes along that becomes my happy place. A safe space where time and objective hold no power; where you can take a deep breath. Paradise Marsh is my new happy place. It’s a game of endless repeated exploration that rewards you for enjoying the simplicity of the surroundings. The initial gameplay and style of Paradise Marsh is one of a bright, almost cell shaded, marsh that is filled with all sorts of insects and creatures for you to catch and learn about. The marsh itself is endless, so any direction for exploration is warranted due to procedural generation. As you travel through the infinite spaces, you’ll happen upon bugs to collect with your trusty net. Doing so will provide an entry on the creature in your journal and a suggestion on how many to collect. Also messages in bottles provide a nice short story to accompany your exploration. The collection aspect is a fun goal if you need it but it’s an unnecessary one as exploring can quickly put you into a real positive zen state. While walking through the marshes, you’ll see day and night cycles (with different creatures to collect,) and weather patterns. Winter will turn to Spring, Spring will bring the rains and into Summer. It’s a peaceful rhythm to experience. There are also a few differentiating land mass events that you will encounter like geysers, bridges, trees and other things that pepper the environment. Collecting the creatures of the marshes is also quite a modest affair. You can sneak up slowly and swipe them up with your net. That’s pretty much it, with a few variances on when and where they can be encountered. Once collected, there are obelisks that can be used to access the stars in the sky. Each bug has their own unique constellation and if you collect the full number from your journal, you can complete their constellation, rewarding you with a pleasant short story or folk tale. These constellations are just a way to track bug collection but with the random nature of the marshes, there’s very little urgency presented. Paradise Marsh provides a pure, clean experience that doesn’t overload you with a lot of frills. It presents you with the opportunity to enjoy a nice relaxing space in which to aimlessly explore. Too often we are bombarded with overly complicated media and systems in games, so to see something so simple feels refreshing. Paradise Marsh is a humble game with a humble price point, that doesn’t do a lot, but does it very well.

When you’ve been performing as long as Tegan & Sara have been, you’re expecting a grand showing of their diverse and evolving sound. Luckily the duo is not one to disappoint and this past weekend at the Vic Theatre they brought their best even as a cold threatened to take out a voice or two. Alongside Tomberlin, Tegan & Sara were able to give the adoring crowd at the Vic a very fun and special night. I’ve been a fan of Tomberlin since Mirah picked her album for the Joyful Noise White Label series. At Weddings which would eventually be released by Saddle Creek stands a perfect debut album and since then Tomberlin has only grown as an artist. I Don’t Know Who Needs To Hear This… is a fantastic follow up and offers up a gentle of evolution of the tenderness Tomberlin has cultivated. Despite a sinus infection, Tomberlin delivered a gorgeous set of songs for the packed Vic Theatre. Starting off with “Any Other Way”, a track that is so synonymous with her sound that it didn’t take much time capture the crowd’s attention. It’s a perfect intro to her newer tracks like “Sunstruck” and “Tap”, which was a massive stand out of the set. “Tap the heart until I hate myself” she croons in a beautiful cadence that permeates throughout the song. It’s an introspective stream of consciousness kind of song that works so well with Tomberlin’s beautiful voice. When the time finally came for Tegan & Sara to take the stage, the reverent crowd boiled over and their excitement was palpable. The crowd was assuredly filled with diehard fans who likely had been checking in on the duo’s recent setlists and were aware of what was to take place. While this tour is in support of of their jam filled Crybaby, it’s clear that Tegan & Sara have taken this touring opportunity to play a little bit of everything. Every album since If It Was You (save the more rock forward Hey, I’m Just Like You) was touched on and it made for a set of fan favorites that honestly could not be denied its flowers. Tegan & Sara‘s sound has certainly evolved to a more dancey pop focus of the years and it really works in a live setting. However that didn’t stop old favorites from fitting right in with the night. “I Bet it Stung” and “Back in Your Head” came early on in the set, filled with all the familiar lines that have endured over the years including the latter’s pained final chant of “I’m not unfaithful but I’ll stray”. the mixed so well with newer and just as memorable songs like the sparkling “Boyfriend” and “Faded Like a Feeling”. Throughout the night the pair’s storytelling abilities stretched from their songs and into their stage banter. From discussing their connections with their older songs and Chicago to their new normal in Sara dealing with her newborn. Tegan & Sara are open books and aren’t afraid of sharing every last bit of them,self with the crowd, even if it’s an embarrassing coffee spill in the streets of Chicago or struggling with a baby who is only sleeping 45 minutes at a time The duo explained to the crowd that they always hated the whole moving around that comes with encores. The reminisced about doing silly things in lieu of the typical encore walk off, but today they were just going to keep going. And the crowd was certainly down for that because they were at their most appreciative. “Call It Off” from The Con and “Where Does the Good Go” off of So Jealous were being belted out right back at Tegan & Sara. Maybe it’s because those songs are such powerful example of what makes the pair so important to so many people, maybe it was the crowd lending a helping hand to the pair’s voices which despite being a little sick were delivering. Whatever the case, voices came together beautiful before leading into “Yellow” and the set closer, a remixed version of “Closer”. “All I want to get is a little bit closer” over the darker instrumentals felt like a fantastic send off to this incredible show. All photos by Julian Ramirez This review was originally published at Third Coast Review. You can check out more pictures here.

I love twin stick shooters. So when I get a chance to play a twin stick shooter with an emphasis on co-op, it’s an easy sell. After all, the original great twin stick shooters were arcade games that allowed for a second player. From Space is a neon drenched take on alien invasion, and tasks you with taking down the alien population. Might as well bring some friends. From Space is a twin stick shooter with an emphasis on co-op play. In it, you play as one of six specialists as you fight against waves of neon pink enemies, completing objectives, and acquiring new weapons and skills as you go. It sounds like the recipe for hours of co-op entertainment, right? From Space has some great ideas, and even executes them pretty well. But then why is everything so damn boring? I have to say, I was initially impressed with From Space. It had some pretty graphics and some great lighting effects that really pulled me into its alien invasion setting. Even the pink aliens, which looked generic to me in promotional art, ended up being interesting and even attractive to look at—well, as attractive as pink slime monsters with teeth can be. Despite its initial appeal, however, From Space is a surprisingly boring game, and that’s because of a number of factors. While From Space has exciting moments—like screens full of aliens to mow down with various weaponry—it didn’t really do a good job of keeping my attention. Weapons, at first, felt good to fire. I expected to accumulate more firepower as the game progressed, but at a certain point, it felt like the newer weapons I was receiving were a downgrade rather than an improvement. Player progression also was lacking. Along with new weapons, you can also unlock different perks that go into up to six unlockable slots. And while From Space does a good job creating the visuals of a world being invaded by aliens, the level design itself is unexciting. Enemy, missions, and level design is also lacking as you perform the same tasks over similar levels fighting similar enemies. From Space has a massive emphasis on co-op play. While it can be played in single player, even its Steam store page urges you to squad up. I did not, since my playtime was spent in prerelease, I had no one to squad up with. Even if I did play with friends, I don’t think the inherent fun of having my buddies along would save this game for the fundamental problems it has. It’s almost like From Space spends too much of its time trying to be visually impressive, instead of fun. Each enemy type has a Borderlands style introduction, which, at this point, please stop. And each of its pink aliens are so visually similar it felt even more unnecessary here. But From Space is sometimes so visually busy it’s hard to tell what’s even happening on the screen. Most egregious are the pop-ups that have vital information, but doesn’t pause the game. You’re forced to die to read them, or dismiss them to live without having time to read the text. From Space should have been released as an Early Access title, as it definitely needs more development time. It’s possible that From Space can still be turned into a fun game through updates, but right now it’s a twin stick shooter with lackluster progression—and it just isn’t that fun to play. From Space is available on Steam and for Nintendo Switch. A Steam key was provided to us for this review