***1/2 As much as I love Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver and even, to a degree, Slash’s Snakepit, I’ve always looked back on Slash’s 2010 solo debut through rather harsh lenses. It’s easier to remember the album’s low points rather than its peaks, however, upon revisit I find that while the low points certainly exist,…
***1/2 More in vogue than any point since the late ’80s, N.W.A.’s infamous debut (and really only) LP of so-called “real rap” set the world (and the occasional police car) on fire with its back-to-back delivery of “Straight Outta Compton” and “Fuck tha Police,” two of the most controversial and important Hip-Hop records ever made.…
***1/2 Leave it to Tupac to make a double LP out of a single EP’s worth of material, but damn if it wouldn’t have been one for the ages. The title track’s effortless bravado seeps show-stealing swagger, “All About U’s” damn-near sentimentality is a sweet change of pace, and the fascinating remix of Dr. Dre’s…
7.25 I continue my impromptu run-through of Naughty Dog’s catalog with Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, the cinematic blockbuster that took the developer to a whole new level. Even so, while there are elements of Uncharted that are truly sublime, its formulaic delivery and a few frustrating segments hold it back from being on the level of much…
7.75 Naughty Dog’s swan song for its second major IP (unless you count the phoned-in Jak X: Combat Racing) added to the formula set by its predecessor with epic, but mixed results. There are a lot of things that Jak 3 improved upon Jak II. The gun count jumps up from 4 to 12 (though…
8.25 It’s no secret that Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy is one of my favorite video games of all time as it launched my love of gaming into the PS2 era, which for my money was still the greatest in gaming history. But Jak II changed just about everything it could about the core…
8.75 Though Naughty Dog had only planned on three Crash titles originally, after the completion (and success) of Crash Bandicoot 2 (not to mention, the success of kart racers like Mario Kart and Diddy Kong Racing), the team decided to begin production of Crash Team Racing. The result was not only one of the most…
***1/2 In 1988, Public Enemy tapped into a level of reality and political activism with It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back that was unmatched, opening the floodgates for an explosion of black activism from across the entertainment spectrum. It was loud, noisy, and controversial, and it is looked back upon fondly…
S A significantly smaller movie than its predecessors in terms of scope, Rogue One is nevertheless one of the top two greatest Star Wars movies of all time due to its ability to develop characters and create dueling emotions unlike any prior entry in the series. Many Star Wars fans were somewhat nervous about Disney’s…
Business-wise, it was a pretty rough year for WWE as RAW’s ratings hit their lowest point in the show’s history, but from an in-ring perspective, 2016 was no slouch. Just about every PPV of the year presented at least one match that was worthy of four stars or higher and many different wrestlers have been…
The Soundtrack Online 