Design

The RodeCaster Pro II is a sleek bit of kit which is comprehensive yet understandable on the face of it. From a top-down point of view, you’ve got a 5.5-inch HD touchscreen with haptic feedback, six channel fading sliders with corresponding channel buttons above them (with dedicated mute and monitoring below), as well as a rotary encoder dial, dedicated recording button, and eight physical smart pads on the right-hand side. Suffice to say, you’re certainly getting the full gallery experience here, with this setup proving immediately familiar to anyone who has ever been inside a recording studio or radio desk. 

Turning the RodeCaster Pro II around and you’re presented with all the connectivity options that you would hope to find in a premium mixing desk / interface combo such as this. Power is delivered through USB-C, and there are two dedicated further USB-C ports for connectivity for devices such as your computer, and phone as well as iPad or other gaming tablets.

There’s also an Ethernet port for those wanting a wired connection. As far as outputs are concerned, you’re spoiled for choice here with 4x 1/4-inch outputs for headphone monitoring and left and right outputs for speakers or external devices. You can even record directly to Micro SD.

The aesthetics of the RodeCaster Pro II match the overall clean and straightforward design language that the Australian audio brand is known for and, on the surface, isn’t immediately too different from the first model from nearly four years ago. My particular review unit came with a specially engineered plastic hard cover that lightly sits on top of the interface (which retails for $50). While certainly a nice to have and non-essential add-on, I’d recommend the cover to anyone wanting to keep the various buttons, dials, pads, and sliders dust-free.

Features

Living up to the promise of being the ‘world’s most powerful all-in-one audio production solution’, you won’t be surprised to hear that the RodeCaster Pro II is full to bursting with features for just about any use you can think of. The quad-core audio engine, complete with 512MB of internal flash memory, powers the Studio-grade Aphex audio processing and Resolution preamps for low noise to high gain pickup which I’ll explain in detail a little further on.

For PC streamers, you’re also to connect to two computers at once through USB-C running separate audio sources which will no doubt be ideal for the hardcore streamers using the main rig and a laptop for chat monitoring, too. This is also useful for those wanting specific control over their volume mixers for the likes of Discord, Apple Music, your game audio, and microphone input, but more on that later. 

One of the most useful features of the Rodecaster Pro II is how it integrates with the Rode Central desktop application which can be used to tweak your settings, customize the RGB lighting, and save your specified presets as well as download firmware updates. New features are coming all the time, with a major update being released in my time testing the unit, so you’ll want to be connected to the internet if possible here for the best software version possible. For maximum compatibility, the device is also MFi certified for iOS devices, and can connect through Bluetooth as well.

Performance

In my extensive testing with the RodeCaster Pro II, I’ve been continuously impressed with what this all-in-one production interface can do. I should clarify that while the main purpose of this device may be aimed at podcasters, I have been using it in everything from streaming across Twitch and YouTube, to recording music, and as my main setup for voice calls alongside the Rode NTH 100 and Rode PodMic. If you’re already immersed in the Rode ecosystem for any of the Australian brand’s gear, then you’ll be well catered to with this interface. 

There’s a level of versatility and control to the RodeCaster Pro II that makes it ideal for streaming, and that’s perhaps going to be the greatest strength of this device when compared to some other audio interfaces. For example, while the unit has six physical sliders which can be dialed to your desired level, you can then further fine-tune more specifically with options in the touchscreen interface. I found in my testing that using the specifically engineered ‘PodMic’ setting in the operating system made by mic be picked up cleanly with strong control over the pre-amp and dampening settings. It’s worth noting that other Condensor / cardioid microphones, such as the Shure SM7B are included, too, so you’re not just limited to Rode-only gear here. 

You can make things as easy or as complicated as you want here, and for me, that meant moving the gallery-style slider up roughly 3/4 of the way to avoid any clipping, and then scaling back the sensitivity in the software. This is where those Revolution preamps come into their own, with an accurate, and clean sound profile meaning I didn’t have to use a booster or crank the gain to be heard accurately. A small touch, but one that in all my years of using interfaces and XLR microphones is certainly appreciated here as a quality of life upgrade. 

We’ve briefly touched on Smart Pads above, innovating on the original’s sound pads with a new level of customizability here. Not unlike the Elgato Stream Deck and other powerful live streaming shorthand bits of kit, these colored pads can be programmed to do a wide range of different things. Through the Rode Central software, you can upload and program your own sound effects, modulation, and sound bites onto these. While I cannot speak as to what other people will use them for, I used these pads with a fade-in and out feature as well as utilizing the Back Channel Mode to cleanly check in on my feed without having to mess around with my physical settings. You could very easily use them as hotkeys for donation notifications, bits, subscriber jingles, or whatever else appeals in a pinch. 

The four Neutrik combo inputs on the front (either for XLR or 1/4-inch jack) proved to be very effective for tracking electric guitar. I was surprised to find specified settings for running instruments through the RodeCaster Pro II, and the same extent in volume, gain, and level control very much applies to direct signal as well. The suite of preamps and post-processing effects can be tailored to your preferences, but in my testing, I choose to keep things as clean and ‘dry’ as possible. I did notice that the Revolution pre-amp made by guitar sound a fair bit brighter and louder without coming in too hot when tracking through Cockos Reaper and using plugins like Bias FX 2, Bias AMP 2, and EZ Mix 2. My previous interfaces to the RodeCaster Pro II, a Behringer U-phoria UMC202 HD, and before that the Focusrite Scarlett Solo really do pale in comparison here.

What’s particularly powerful about the Rodecaster Pro II for musicians is how you can use the deck’s physical and software-based mixing features to delicately balance the sound of your instruments and vocals being tracked at the same time. While many audio interfaces do give you options to plug both (or more) in at once, I’ve never felt the confidence to mix on the fly so effortlessly as what I’ve heard through this unit.

Should you buy the Rode Rodecaster Pro II? 

If you’re someone who wants to take content creation in any form to the next level then the Rode Rodecaster Pro II is an easy recommendation for musicians, podcasters, live streamers, and anyone else who wants more control over their audio. If you’re someone who already has experience with the original Rodecaster Pro from December 2018, I personally believe that there’s enough new here to justify an upgrade to the latest and greatest, too. 

How we tested the Rode RodeCaster Pro II

I’ve been using the RodeCaster Pro II for around three weeks in everything from producing music in programs such as Reaper using plugins from Bias and Toontrack, to live streaming in OBS Streamlabs. I have also been using the RodeCaster Pro II to power my PodMic microphone through the 48V Phantom Power to talk with friends on various desktop applications as well as speak to colleagues through Google Meet. 

Complete your setup with one of the best webcams, best green screens, and best ring lights on the market. 

The Verdict

5

5 out of 5

Rode Rodecaster Pro II

The RodeCaster Pro II innovates on the original model as an all-in-one powerhouse interface and audio production studio. Whether you’re a streamer, musician, or podcaster, the brand’s latest effort is an encompassing solution for all creators.

The post Rode RodeCaster Pro II review: “An encompassing solution for all creators” appeared first on Game News.

In 1968 we find America’s songbird exhausted, broke and homeless, her only offer a London nightclub contract (“The English are insane”) to fund an LA house that will reunite her with her kids. Trotting busily from a sleepless hotel bed to backstage chaos, and never far from a bottle, it’s a compelling, often dryly witty portrait of a middle-aged icon on the skids. But director Rupert Goold (best known for 2015’s sociopath thriller True Story) layers it nimbly with Garland’s origin story, in snappy colour-saturated flashbacks to the punishing shoot for 1939’s The Wizard Of Oz that sealed her fate.  

MGM’s best money-maker was an abused teen, on a ruthlessly enforced regime of crash-dieting, pill-popping and relentless work. Faced with rebellion by young Judy (a chirpy Darci Shaw), studio mogul Louis B Mayer bullies her mercilessly, MeToo fashion: “You’re a fat-ankled, snaggle-toothed rube from Grand Rapids.” Studded with stinging memories and chewy themes (such as the unresolvable tug-of-war between family and fame), Tom Edge’s script, adapted from Peter Quilter’s hit stage play End Of The Rainbow, is needle-sharp and mostly free of showbiz schmaltz. Garland’s hideous stage fright and famous unreliability keeps things nicely tense, making Zellweger’s first-night transformation from droopy drunk to stage-storming trouper roaring out ‘By Myself’ an absolute belter.

Goold’s camera sticks second-skin close to Zellweger throughout, generating a nervy intimacy as it slides through pitch-perfect ’60s interiors. For a small movie, Judy glitters with confidence, especially in the stage performances, shot mercilessly close and with few cuts, like a concert film. But Goold’s fierce concentration on his leading lady means that fine supporting performances (Rufus Sewell’s weary ex-husband Sid Luft or Finn Wittrock’s starstruck boyfriend, subject of a hopeful romance) get little legroom. The exception is a cosy sub-plot in which gay fans Stan and Dan have the encounter of their dreams.  

Like a rather livelier Jackie (2016), the film is a transfixed but unflinching up-close look at a legend. Zellweger carries it off magnificently, her trademark combo of wit and vulnerability fitting Garland as expertly as her silk stage-suits. In an extraordinary, vanity-free performance (Garland resembled a haggard but perky pixie by this stage), she pivots from heartsick, long-distance mothering to full-wattage showbiz queen in an instant. She has Garland’s twitchy mannerisms and resilient wisecracking down pat, but this is a masterly interpretation rather than an impersonation. As is her singing voice, no longer the breathy coo of Chicago but a smokey, surprisingly powerful instrument that wraps itself around the viewer. When she goes over the rainbow, you’re going with her.

The Verdict

4

4 out of 5

Judy review: “The Renée-ssance starts here”

Zellweger knocks it out of the park, lighting up this punchy and moving late-life biopic with big-hearted, big-voiced panache.

The post Judy review: “The Renée-ssance starts here” appeared first on Game News.

ASUS TUF Gaming H3 – Design

As soon as you take the ASUS TUF Gaming H3 out of the box, one thing becomes obvious: this looks like a much higher-end headset than it actually is (I tested the black variant). Thick earcups are held by a solid stainless steel headband and leather cushions make for a slick aesthetic. Thanks to the memory foam inside the cushions and how lightweight the build is, wearing them for extended sessions doesn’t cause any strain whatsoever.

The microphone is a permanent attachment and is on a flexible metal arm that can be bent out of the way whenever you’re not using it. However, it always, it sits frustratingly just inside your peripheral vision unless you bend it below your chin. Doing this means it often hits your shoulder if you turn your head; a minor inconvenience for an otherwise stylish budget headset. There’s also a good range of colour options including black, blue, red, and silver available so you can pick one to accompany your console’s or setup’s aesthetic.

ASUS TUF Gaming H3 – Features

Impressively, the H3 boasts 7.1 virtual surround sound, the same system used in both the H5 and H7 headsets. For the most part, you can tell; gunshots and in-game chatter in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare multiplayer beta are clear and vibrant, and chainsawing someone in half in Gears 5 sounds as gruesome as you’d expect, no matter which way you’re facing.

Rather than featuring controls along the cable as you often find on gaming headsets, the volume and mic toggle are on the underside of the left earcup. I prefer it since it means the cable doesn’t catch on anything, but the downside is that the cable provided is much shorter than you tend to find with gaming headsets, so it’s not great for any situations where you need to be further from the audio jack.

ASUS TUF Gaming H3 – Performance

The most important aspect; how does the ASUS TUF Gaming H3 perform? One of the first things I noticed when I started playing Borderlands 3 was how effective the noise-cancelling is. Even when there’s very little going on in-game, the memory foam leather cushions provide an almost flawless escape from the real world, so much so that when talking to friends on Discord I’ve had to make sure I’m not shouting by accident since I can hardly hear myself. It’s also worth noting that the leather makes it much warmer to wear than a headset with cloth cushions, so if you tend to get warm easily, you may need to wipe down the headphones frequently.

For competitive multiplayer games, the H3 does a fine job of immersing you and balancing the in-game sounds with other players’ voices. But not without a few caveats. One key aspect to games such as Modern Warfare, Rainbow Six Siege and Fortnite is to listen out for enemy footsteps and pinpoint their exact location simply through audio. You won’t find that the H3 helps you out here: in all three aforementioned games I struggle to tell whether an enemy is above or below me, even being surprised from behind one or two times. Having the ability to help you pinpoint enemies and in-game audio cues is really the bare minimum requirement for a gaming headset so this is disappointing. Microphone quality on the other hand is absolutely fine on both PS4 party chat and Discord; not exceptional but nothing to complain about either.

If you’re someone who has one headset for both gaming and music, it’s hard to recommend the H3 for this either. These headphones don’t quite do the music in recent games like Borderlands 3 justice, and even listening to music through Spotify the audio sounded somewhat tinny thanks to a lack of depth.

However, it is important to mention that the H3 is almost perfect for Nintendo Switch players, but only when in handheld mode. Dragon Quest Builders 2 and Yoshi’s Crafted World both sound clear and crisp, and while they’re not games lauded for their audio design, they did a more than adequate job and I’d have no qualms with taking this headset travelling. The only downside is that the headband doesn’t fold in any way, so it can be awkward to pack — especially due to the protruding microphone.

Overall – should you buy it?

My initial impressions of the ASUS TUF Gaming H3 were strong, but as I use it more, discrepancies and weaknesses started to become more prevalent. As someone who plays a lot of multiplayer shooters, the lack of directional audio is a real frustration, as is the poor bass quality when listening to music. This product is ideal for someone looking to dive into a gaming headset for the first time, perhaps to quieten their gaming sessions late at night, but if you’re looking for top tier audio then you won’t find it here. The build quality is fantastic and the noise cancelling is some of the best I’ve experienced, but when it comes to where it really matters, the H3 comes up short.

The Verdict

3

3 out of 5

ASUS TUF Gaming H3 gaming headset review: “Fantastically built but a headset that is found wanting where it matters”

Not a world beater, and the weaknesses help to define the H3, but it has a great build quality and good noise cancelling resulting in a decent value set of cans.

The post ASUS TUF Gaming H3 gaming headset review appeared first on Game News.

Blair Witch tells the story of Ellis, a cop reeling from making a massive on-duty mistake due to PTSD he suffers from his time as a soldier. Ellis and his German Shepherd named Bullet join a search party in the infamous Black Hills Forest, where a young boy named Peter has gone missing (as people tend to do there). For suspense’s sake, the game begins with you realizing the search party has gone ahead and setting off on your own, with nothing at your disposal but a flashlight, radio, and your old school cell phone.

That’s because Blair Witch isn’t about combat – it’s about avoiding it, and Bullet is your best line of defense. There’s no heads up display, but Bullet acts like one, running ahead to alert you if he’s discovered something, growling when danger is near, and barking his fool head off when the Witch is around. Oh yeah, you encounter the Witch. That shifty, long-limbed lady will pop up at random intervals, lurking behind trees and darting out from behind the brush. The only way to stave her off is to shine your flashlight at her, and Bullet’s job is to point to wherever she’s creeping. 

It’s a nifty idea, except it can be janky. At one point Bullet stopped reacting to the Witch, but the score persistently told me she was near. As the music swelled and the screen blurred, he rolled around in some leaves and promptly laid down, leaving me to twist about frantically, my feeble flashlight illuminating minuscule parts of the forest. Sometimes he would run so sporadically it was hard to figure out which way he was looking. This could be a purposeful mechanic, but with a game this buggy, I can’t be sure.

Bugs are scary

And this game is buggier than a late evening backyard barbeque in mid-July. Hats off to the design of the forest, which envelops you like a strange aunt’s hug at Christmas dinner, squeezing you ever closer to the brink of a nervous breakdown. The place is disorienting, and when night falls it’s a damn labyrinth. This lends itself well to fear-inducing gameplay, but some mechanics fall too close to actual tech issues. There’s a feature where, if you wander into a territory that you have yet to unlock in the gameplay, your flashlight flickers, and you end up facing where you came from. Unfortunately, the first major bug I encountered was one that trapped me in the forbidden forest (hehe) behind a tree, twice, forcing me to load previous saves.

FAST FACTS: BLAIR WITCH

Release date: August 30, 2019
Platform(s): Xbox One, and PC
Developer: Bloober Team
Publisher: Bloober Team

 Some gameplay mechanics and world-building seem built to break or delay. The “wandering the forest” concept is great, but it’s often unclear what’s a blocked path that can eventually be cleared and what’s an in-game barrier that can never be crossed. There was a lot of fumbling about the perceived map edges. Some of the items that offer an interaction prompt were never able to be interacted with. And some visual elements (darkness/fog) invoke frustration instead of fear.

Then there’s the big bug that I encountered nearly five hours into the game that rendered me immobile. Literally. As I made my way to the threshold of Casa de Blair Witch, ready to shine my flashlight in her dumb scary face, I found myself trapped in the doorway, unable to move. I loaded an old save, trudged back up there, and was promptly stuck in said doorway again. On the third reload I doubled back to where I came from, but all points of entry and exit were blocked off – this happened for each one of my five attempts. The house was clearly my end game, but I couldn’t get in. Blair Witch? More like where, bitch?

Not all who wander are lost

And neither is this game. The score is great, with eerie strings that wax and wane throughout. And the found footage mechanic brings the iconic Blair Witch camcorder into play, but with a supernatural twist. If Ellis finds red tapes in the forest, you can rewind and fast forward them to manipulate reality based on where the footage was shot. This means you can open locked doors, repair felled trees, and uncover items that are invisible to the naked eye. This is a fun, if occasionally tough to execute, mechanic – one I wish was deployed more. 

There’s a few “find the code” puzzles, an early one of which I failed to solve because I was wrapped up in the main storyline. The one I did complete, however, was in a run-down sawmill with a figure lurking in the second-floor window. You gained access to that floor via a set of stairs behind a locked door with a sliding bracket combination. Scurrying about the mill searching for the code was fun, and when I successfully opened it I had the smug look of success we yearn to wear when playing games. 

And then there’s Bullet, an eternal Good Boy. Using him to find clues and lead you places is a clever feature that’s often necessary to move the plot forward. It’s a new way to do clue discovery, and it plays well. His command wheel is a nifty feature that can call him to you, keep him in place, or let you pet him. Bullet is great. Everything about him is wonderful and he must be protected at all costs. That’s all I’ll say about that.

But is it scary, though?

Blair Witch definitely flexes some psychological horror muscles. Pairing you up with a dog imbues every move you make with the kind of imperative saved only for puppers – I didn’t care if Ellis fell down a cliff, but the idea of Bullet scraping a toe bean petrified me. I was spamming the “heel” command whenever I lost sight of him. The game emphasizes the need to stay close to Bullet for the sake of Ellis’ mental state, but that logic applied to my own mental wellbeing, too – an especially harrowing Bullet-related event had me sobbing. The dog acts as a kind of emotional support animal for Ellis, whose mental health is frequently referenced in-game. He’s an anchor that both you and he reach for periodically, and a brilliant emotional play. 

Speaking of mental health, the game cleverly weaves the disorienting and surreal aspects of the forest into a narrative about Ellis’ PTSD. There are moments when the war zones of his past seep into the forest: bullets pelt the water in front of you, mortars strike nearby, dog tags lie buried in the dirt. It makes you wonder how much of the creepiness and anxiety can be attributed to the demonic power of the Blair Witch, and how much of it is because of Ellis’ personal demons. It’s a brilliant narrative tool, one that constantly keeps you on edge.

The Blair Witch I encountered was represented by branchy-limbed forest Slender Man spirits lurking behind trees that were only mildly scary after the first encounter. But that first encounter elicited a loud yelp from me that had my heart pounding in my ears for the next ten minutes. The few jump scares the game throws at you are great, and coupled with the thread of unease that snakes through the entire game, are super effective. It can be scary, but it’s most often anxiety-inducing, which for many is the worst form of fear.

I can’t say where the final Blair Witch encounter registers on the spook scale, however, because she refused to let me in the front door as if I were trying to push some newfound religion on her…

Overall my time in the woods was equal parts freaky and frustrating. When the game works, it really works, blending clever narrative elements, a brilliant score, and psychological suspense. But the occasionally wonky moment and the disruptive bugs hinder the experience, replacing moments that should scare with moments that vex. The Blair Witch is scary, but the bugs are scarier.

The Verdict

3

3 out of 5

Blair Witch

A fine take on psychological horror cut down by bugs and wonkiness.

The post Blair Witch review: “The Blair Witch is scary, but the bugs are scarier” appeared first on Game News.

When we first meet Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne, daughter of Tilda Swinton, who plays her mum in the film), she’s living in Knightsbridge in the early 1980s – a 24-year-old film student putting together a debut feature set in the shipyards of Sunderland. A well-meaning pursuit, but does her eagerness to pop her own bubble of privilege give her the right to appropriate such a story? It’s a question that she’s at least aware of.

Julie’s professors, all men, frown at her every suggestion – among many other things, The Souvenir touches, with surgical precision, upon the silencing of women in the arts – and she likewise receives pointed feedback from Anthony (Tom Burke), with whom she falls in love after meeting at a party. Anthony works for the Foreign Office. Older than Julie, he seems impossibly sophisticated and exotically world-weary. He also, thrillingly, sees Julie, though he’s frequently condescending and at times utterly contemptuous.

The above synopsis doesn’t begin to express the complexity of the character portrayals and the relationship dynamic, with Byrne and Burke peeling back layers to startle at every turn. These surprises are not movie surprises – a Keyser Söze reveal, say – but organic, and all the more mesmerising for it. Masks slip, moods shift, and secrets and lies bubble to the surface as life pushes and pulls. Nearly all of the action is set indoors (most of it in Julie’s apartment, which is closely modelled on Hogg’s own at the time), and the toxicity spreads to every corner, making it hard to breathe. Not at the expense of nuance, though, with love and sympathy never lost in the mix.

Like Hogg’s three previous films (Unrelated, Archipelago, Exhibition), The Souvenir wrestles with questions of class and Englishness, while the politics of the time informs the frame. At one point Julie’s flat shakes to the sound of an unseen blast – the IRA bombing of Harrods in 1983. It is not by chance, however, that one discussion between Julie and Anthony brings up the movies of Powell and Pressburger. Like those classics, The Souvenir swerves on-the-nose message-making and defies easy categorisation. It’s a strikingly personal drama that captures a time and a nation. Watch it and you’ll be gagging for the sequel that Hogg is currently making.

The Verdict

5

5 out of 5

The Souvenir review: “An instant British classic”

A World Cinema Dramatic prize winner at Sundance, Hogg’s best film yet is an instant British classic.

The post The Souvenir review: “Joanna Hoggs movie is an instant British classic” appeared first on Game News.

Like with Her Story before it, developer Sam Barlow has found a way to keep you tumbling down the rabbit hole. All you’ll know – and trust me, you’ll want to know – is that a woman called Karen has obtained a cache of secretly recorded video conversation that she’s able to view on her computer at home. The entire UI is designed like a desktop PC (or modified to look slightly more mobile UI-like for iOS devices), which lets you click around a few apps and notepads, even play Solitaire if you want, although the clock is ticking on your time to access the files. Telling Lies’ presentation is similar to the one seen in Her Story, but this time it’s less formal and far more intimate. 

Fast Facts: Telling Lies

Release date: August 23, 2019
Platform(s): PC, Mac, iOS
Developer: Sam Barlow

Each clip is just one side of a conversation, which means you’ll find yourself clicking through video after video in Telling Lies in an attempt to figure out a) who each character is talking to and b) what they’re talking about. Just as you’d expect, each of the five video clips you are initially presented with only raise more questions than answers, pushing you to move from video to video by searching for keywords that you think are going to present more facts and, as a result, more pieces of the story. The words or phrases you search for are matched specifically to the language used in the video, so the more narrow your search, the better. Finding a particularly interesting keyword can send you on a long trail of video clues, putting you one step closer to having all the pieces to the overall puzzle. 

You’re dropped into each video right at the point that the word or phrase is spoken, usually bookended by chunks of idle chatter on either side. You can then drag back and forth to move through the video footage, subtitles flashing up to remind you that there are potentially more clues to be found. I found it slightly frustrating that you couldn’t just skip to the start of a video to watch the whole thing and find the keywords in context, rather than having to slowly rewind through several minutes worth of recordings. But, when you’re dropping yourself into these people’s lives, it feels like taking time to really study them is part of the process. 

Part of their world

Because you’re only ever watching one side of the conversation, silences linger like unfulfilled promises. The brilliance of the actors – which include Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus, Spider-Man: Homecoming), Alexandra Shipp (X-Men Apocalypse), Kerry Bishé (Argo) and Angela Sarafyan (Westworld) – mean you can always tell the kind of person they’re talking to just from the silences alone, which helps piece together the fragments of the linear story that beats below the fragmented video clips. Because the majority of these videos are from 1-2-1 video calls, or conversations recorded without the subjects’ permission, the content is nearly always of a personal or intimate nature. In the moment, it feels as if you are a part of these conversations, and it feels like the character on the screen is speaking to you directly, waiting for you to respond – or to at least figure out how these characters and stories piece together. 

It forces you to play a role in this unfolding narrative. You move between voyeur, to detective and sometimes an awkward third-wheeler, hastily scrubbing through footage that absolutely wasn’t meant for my eyes – for any eyes. Whether it’s camgirl conversations or someone enjoying some ‘personal’ pleasure, I regularly felt incredibly uncomfortable while viewing, like I was an intruder in private exchanges. Not uncomfortable enough for me to stop playing, of course; I’m deep into theories and notes by this point and can’t stop watching even if I wanted to. 

But that quiet and unsettling feeling you get from playing Telling Lies is all a part of the experience. After all, these are illegally obtained videos from the NSA, and you’re not meant to be watching them. You’re playing as Karen, and you’re often reminded that you’re not only working against the clock, but also against the system itself. The presence of Karen’s reflection in the computer screen only helps sells the sense of pervading voyeurism. Occasionally music starts playing in her apartment, a half-naked man wanders across the shot, and later he reminds you that it’s late. But you’ve not got long, someone obviously knows you’re watching this and figuring it all out, and there’s a sense of urgency to each of your searches. 

Like Her Story, the deeper you dive into the files made available to you, the harder it gets to find new information. I start to feel frustrated when, no matter what keywords or phrases I input into the search bar, I’m presented with a selection of videos that I have already seen. But then, later when I feel like I have all the pieces of the story together, I stumble across something new and I’m off falling headfirst into yet another rabbit hole. It’s somehow simultaneously totally organic and beautifully paced. Sam Barlow has another masterpiece on his hands. 

A ticking clock

What I also love about Telling Lies – bar its beautifully told story that I couldn’t possibly go into here in any detail whatsoever – is that it is a finite piece of storytelling.

I feel like I have been returning to Her Story for years now and still there are some pieces of the puzzle that I’m yet to slot into place. With Telling Lies, because there’s a time limit on your access to this footage, your time with it will eventually come to end – not that I’m going to tell you how quickly that’ll come around, as the pervading sense of panic underlying Telling Lies is all a part of the fun of playing it. 

But, what I will tell you, is that as the credits roll, it’s obvious that I’ve not yet found all the videos. Knowing that, as you get fed a report post-credits, is like a little thorny seed that plants itself in your brain. As someone who has dreamt about Telling Lies’ characters, as I attempted to put together all the pieces, you can imagine what it feels like to know you may have missed out on some key piece of information. But thankfully, you can dive straight back in again, rewinding time after you’ve watched the credits to the minutes before the ending to make sure you’ve unearthed everything that you can. 

So leave me now, to gather the last fragments of these characters’ lives; to fall in love with them, chastise them, and befriend them as I have done for the past six or so hours. I’ll still have that uncomfortable feeling gnawing at my wrist as I slide the mouse to the search bar over, and over, again to uncover the last few videos, but Telling Lies is nothing if not rewardingly moreish. It’s a game that stays with you, and through the medium of its storytelling manages to make you as much a part of the voyeuristic, privacy-invading problem as the entire game tries to take apart. I’m still thinking about Telling Lies, and will be for years to come. Or at least, every time I walk past a security camera, or make a voice call. 

The Verdict

4.5

4.5 out of 5

Telling Lies

Telling Lies is a paragon for storytelling, for character arcs that surprise you and linger on long after the credits – and videos – have ended.

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Our way into the pre-Manson world of 1969 California is via has-been actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), and his stuntman/only friend Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt). Dalton was the star of a successful, Rawhide-esque TV show called Bounty Law, but left to pursue a career in movies that never panned out. Forced to return to TV, he’s typecast as bad guys and contemplates a stint shooting spaghetti westerns to restore his status as a leading man. Cliff, meanwhile – out of work as an actual stuntman owing to his sketchy past – serenely motors around the city, repairing Dalton’s TV aerial, popping home to feed scene-stealing pup Brandy and occasionally exchanging glances with one of Charles Manson’s eye-catching acolytes, Pussycat (Margaret Qualley). 

The connection between Dalton and Manson is, initially at least, simply geographical. Dalton’s home on Cielo Drive is next to the one owned by Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha), hot off the success of Rosemary’s Baby and engaged to up-and-coming actress Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), whom the Manson Family brutally murdered in August 1969. Any direct restaging of that night’s events would no doubt have been in bad taste, but Tarantino more or less dodges any such accusations by doing for the Manson murders what he did for Nazi Germany in Inglourious Basterds; putting his own wildly entertaining, cartoonishly violent spin on history through the fictional characters he’s inserted into a real-life tragedy. 

All the QT hallmarks are here – the jet-black humour, precision-engineered dialogue, jukebox soundtrack and, of course, bare feet. But there’s a sincere lament for the death of ‘old’ Hollywood, and the world that could have been, which marks this out as Tarantino’s most heartfelt and emotionally mature work since Jackie Brown.

Energised by the period setting, the film’s sense of time and place is simply astonishing. While cameos from the likes of Steve McQueen (Damian Lewis) and Bruce Lee (Mike Moh) can feel a little opportunistic, this is a nostalgic ode to the sun-drenched Hollywood of the late ’60s, where cars cruise carefree down the street to Simon & Garfunkel, and the neon signs of cinemas dominate Hollywood Boulevard. It’s a dazzling recreation of a long-gone Tinseltown. 

If Manson represents the changes about to sweep America at large, Dalton personifies the changing face of film stars – out are the square-jawed tough guys, in are the easy-riding hippies. DiCaprio does some of his most understated work here, as Dalton wrestles with his own extinction. Pitt operates well within his comfort zone as Booth, who’s part Tyler Durden, part Rusty Ryan, but snatches the lion’s share of the film’s most gratifying moments. And while it’s true that Tate plays third fiddle to Dalton and Booth – Robbie’s often required to do little more than angelically drift through scenes – her inclusion comes with a point that we won’t spoil here, other than to say it’s an inspired tribute to a star tragically taken before her time. 

Tarantino’s treatment of Tate is also a rare example of restraint for a filmmaker whose bread and butter is indulgent excess – something One Upon A Time… falls foul of during its somewhat bloated runtime. The baggy, backlot-set midsection – in which the film lingers on Dalton as he shoots his latest western series amid a crisis of competence – is Tarantino at his most unfocused. But even as it wobbles, Hollywood is never far from a moment of sheer magnificence. 

In one standout sequence, Booth unwittingly walks into a teeth-clenchingly tense horror movie after giving Pussycat a lift back to the Manson Family lair at Spahn Ranch. In another, heart-wrenchingly sweet vignette, Robbie’s Tate spends an afternoon at the cinema watching the real Sharon Tate in The Wrecking Crew, the 1968 film she starred in with Dean Martin. And after two-and-a-half hours plus change, Tarantino pulls these disparate strands together for a deliriously entertaining final act that’s unexpected, audacious and just a little bit reckless. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Verdict

4

4 out of 5

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

Tarantino’s ode to Hollywood is his best since Jackie Brown; an evocative and disarmingly heartfelt LA story, capped by a finale you won’t forget.’

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Needless to say, that doesn’t happen – Mary Ellen’s friend Daniella (Katie Sarife) soon breaks in – but she has a genuine reason to explore what amounts to a room full of horror Easter eggs, each awaiting their own spin-offs.

Yes, it’s cynical and derivative (Judy practically quotes The Sixth Sense verbatim at one point), but series writer Gary Dauberman makes the leap to director with sure feet. Despite her rictus grin and tobacco-stained skin, Annabelle is a tiny bit lame, so instead he shifts the focus of her role to being, as Lorraine puts it, “a beacon for other spirits”. Essentially this gives him carte blanche to hurl whatever he likes at the screen – a dead priest, a murderous bride, an Essex hellhound, a phantom ferryman – runtime be damned. “What else did you touch?” chides Judy. “Everything!” confesses Daniella.

As smooth as the 1970s tunes that play on repeat, and as spook-packed as a Scooby-Doo special, Annabelle Comes Home delivers on its – admittedly slim – promise. The acting’s decent, the kids are, unusually, sweet to each other, and there’s a shot of genuine grief to anchor things when they get silly.

The Verdict

3

3 out of 5

Annabelle Comes Home

Creakily slick like the rest of The Conjuring series, this spring-loaded spook story hits the mark more often than not.

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The 21st Century twist positions our murderous toy-boy as part of the Buddi range – a doll that can interact, Alexa-like, with a number of other home products. Capable of learning about its owner, he’s the ideal companion for youngsters (“Are we having fun now?” it repeatedly asks). But when a disgruntled employee in the Vietnamese factory making the toys tinkers with one, it turns this placid product into a vindictive killing machine…

Soon enough, the demented doll ends up in the hands of Andy (Gabriel Bateman), gifted to him by his mother Karen (Aubrey Plaza). It doesn’t take long before Chucky, as Andy names him, is learning how to kill – from watching horror movies to listening to idle chatter. Chucky is superbly voiced by Mark Hamill, while the character’s blank expressions, glowing eyes and jerky movements are expertly realised with animatronics.

Purists may baulk that series creator Don Mancini is not involved – he’s reportedly working on his own Chucky TV series – or that Chucky is now robot-powered. But the film pays tribute to the golden age of video nasties with some grisly, blood-splattered outcomes (leg breaks, lawnmowers and table-saws all feature). If your humour skews towards the sick and twisted, then this box-fresh Child’s Play will give you one almighty kick. 

The Verdict

4

4 out of 5

Child’s Play Review: “pays tribute to the golden age of video nasties with some grisly, blood-splattered outcomes”

Suitably gruesome, gory and creepy, Klevberg’s hi-tech spin on the Chucky series electrifies a creaking franchise.

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After two seasons of grappling with her past, we find Krysten Ritter’s Jones torn between saviour and cynic as she faces her future. In her doubts about heroism, Jones’ hard-bitten introspection contrasts sharply with adoptive sister Trish’s (Rachael Taylor) hunger to flex her new powers. 

Elsewhere, Jones’ exchanges with a new lover stretch our interest in burger-based banter while we await some new threat to galvanise the plot. When he arrives, Jeremy Bobb’s killer Gregory Salinger is a mixed bag of fruitcake. True, his attempt to portray himself as a “single white male” target for Jones’ “feminist vindicator” anger introduces of-the-moment themes from the noxious ‘manosphere’. Yet his supposedly Lecter-ish intelligence never fully registers, leaving a whiff of over-familiarity after the monstrous Kilgrave and multi-layered Alisa. 

Last orders for the Marvel Netflix Universe

As the plot settles into a holding pattern of legal wranglings, Ritter’s mordant charisma lacks anything properly challenging to bounce off. Yet just when you think this is a series in need of a shock jolt, Jessica Jones season 3 suddenly puts itself in a strong position to pay off its promises. Sadly, the promises of Jones’ sibling Marvel spin-offs are now in doubt after Netflix’s blanket cancellation. True, few of the six titles were without issues. If Iron Fist was too slow and silly, the team-up of Fist, Jones, Luke Cage and Daredevil in The Defenders mistook dour for deep, even managing to make back-from-the-dead ninjas dreary.

But if the sense of wasted potential rankled, TV’s Marvel-verse did score some wins, often with movie-grade casting calls. Though over-long, Iron Fist 2 improved on its first season thanks to Alice Eve’s Typhoid Mary and Sacha Dhawan’s intense Davos. Jon Bernthal gave us the best screen Frank Castle yet in The Punisher, while Luke Cage season 1 banked a corking coup with Mahershala Ali’s Cottonmouth. 

Even The Defenders had Sigourney Weaver on side, though she was squandered too soon. Janet McTeer and David Tennant brought psychological depth in Jessica Jones, though it was Netflix’s first Marvel outing that ruled the roster. Proving a TV show could out-punch a patchy film, Daredevil banked killer turns (Cox, D’Onofrio, Woll, Yung et al) before bowing out on a high with the electric fights and crime-story density of Season 3. The stinger made Season 4 seem a shoo-in. 

Will a new streaming service bite? Tough to say, though in the meantime you can perhaps see the Marvel-verse’s legacy evolving in Disney+’s Star Wars MCU spin-off plans. As The Mandalorian (opens in new tab) and more beckon, the ‘Devil and Ms Jones – at least – have set high standards for movie-grade franchise TV to live up to.

The Verdict

3

3 out of 5

Jessica Jones

A fitting send off for Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones, although it fails to replicate the tension and drama of the first season.

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