Review: Chicago-Based Big Sir Games’ Cosmo’s Quickstop Is Chaotic, Crazy Fun

Check out our interview with Cosmo’s Quickstop creators Big Sir Games here. Lately I’ve been playing a lot of games like Overcooked!. You know the type: you’re given a list […]

Antal Bokor /
Ride the Eagle

Interview: Chicagoan Jake Johnson on Making Ride the Eagle During the Pandemic, Without Making it Feel Like the Pandemic

One of my favorite Chicagoans is actor, writer and overall truly nice guy Jake Johnson, who I first met in 2009 with the release of the indie hit Paper Heart, […]

Steve Prokopy /
Lit,

Review: Visualizing and Honoring Black America, the Story W.E.B. Du Bois Told at the 1900 Paris Exposition

W.E.B. Du Bois’s Data Portraits: Visualizing Black America—The Color Line at the Turn of the Twentieth Century Edited by Whitney Battle-Baptiste and Britt Rusert Princeton Architectural Press Black Lives 1900: […]

Patrick T. Reardon /

Review: Ambition: A Minuet in Power, a Balance of Stats

If you’ve ever dreamt of hobnobbing with the social elite during the early years of revolution in 18th Paris, well, that’s weirdly specific—but you’re in luck. Ambition: A Minuet in […]

Antal Bokor /

Review: Alien The Roleplaying Game: Colonial Marines Operations Manual  Is Everything you Need to Run A Sprawling Marine Campaign

It’s been a few months since my tabletop role-playing game group sat down to a session of Alien The Roleplaying Game. We were playing through the available cinematic scenarios, and […]

Antal Bokor /

Review: Wildermyth Is as Close to TTRPG Storytelling You Can Get in a Video Game

For the last few years I’ve really gotten into tabletop role-playing games, or TTRPGs.  While there are a few players I know that approach the games like it’s a video […]

Antal Bokor /

Review: Grant Park, Classic Broadway and the Power of a Not-So-Humid Night

The humidity that has made this one of Chicago’s least pleasant summers lifted for last weekend. It was perfect timing for the Grant Park Music Festival‘s airy Classic Broadway, its […]

Bob Benenson /

Review: Beautiful Greak: Memories of Azur Is Nearly Perfect, Occasionally Cumbersome

Sometimes games lose the balance between production values and good gameplay, but when a fine balance is struck, it can be serendipity. Such is the case with the beautiful Greak: […]

Antal Bokor /

Review: Chilean Film Ema Tells a Fiery Family Story With a Pulsing Beat

Ema, a film by Chilean director Pablo Larrain, is the story of an unhappy family set to the pulsing, percussive beat of reggaeton music and images of fire. But its […]

Nancy S Bishop /
Respect

Review: Shallow, Predictable Respect Ultimately Disrespects the Great Aretha Franklin’s Legacy

How is it possible for a music-centered biopic to feature fantastic music, heartfelt performances, and a story about triumph over trauma and still end up teaching us nothing about its […]

Steve Prokopy /
Free Guy

Review: Set in a Video Game World, Free Guy Features Vibrant Visuals But Mediocre Humor

The challenge I’ve always put to filmmakers who choose to adapt a video game into a movie is to make it accessible to someone who has never played a modern […]

Steve Prokopy /

Preview: Twin Stick Shooter Clid the Snail Emphasizes Methodical Combat and Exploration

What do you get when you take a snail, arm him to the teeth and give him a bad attitude? Developer Weird Beluga has an answer to that question with […]

Antal Bokor /