Of all of the gaming studio closures over the past few years, the ones that hit closest to home to me were those that made racing games. Bizarre Creations, which made the Project Gotham Racing series as well as the fantastic Blur, closed up shop around the same time as Black Rock Studio, which made Pure and Split/Second. Suddenly, many extremely talented developers were looking for work. Enter Playground Games, who hired many of the developers from those studios, as well as from other studios with racing game pedigrees (such as Codemasters, Criterion, and Ubisoft Reflections) and became tasked with creating the next generation of simulation arcade racing: Forza Horizon.

Unlike the previous epics, which followed a relatively simple progression through a series of memories or linked time travel events, all confined to Earth, this story is more sweeping and complex. The various narrators continue to cycle through the stories, sometimes in completely unexpected ways, but this definitely the most ambitious tale yet. In fact, more than once (and certainly at the start of the fourth episode), I found myself wondering if I’d started listening to the wrong file. (Click More... for More)

Microsoft's Kinect device is moving into it's third year, and still seems to be most well known for two types of genre games-- workout games and dancing games. I suppose, however, if you are going to do one thing (or two in this case), do it well. Dance Central, in it's third release on the Xbox 360 this past Tuesday, remains the peak of dancing games on the Xbox 360. And with a built in Fitness mode, it takes care of the workout game genre pretty well too. (Click More... for More)

For the past few years, the Star Wars Expanded Universe was largely focused on a series of novels collectively called “Fate of the Jedi”. One of the major antagonist groups of the story was the so-called “Lost Tribe of the Sith”, which pretty much came out of nowhere, spawning the rather memorable Vestara Khai. It also introduced a compelling back story for the Lost Tribe, which was only marginally explored in those novels. (Click More... for More)

With the success of “Doctor Who: Hornet’s Nest”, BBC Audiodrama was keen to get Tom Baker back in the recording booth. As it happens, Baker was also more than ready, with his love for the character restored, so it was a foregone conclusion. And with Paul Magrs picking up where the previous story left off, the same level of quality was to be expected. (Click More... for more)

Ever since the beginning of “Family Reunion”, two things have been emphasized. First, the fact that Willow’s desire to restore magic is not entirely altruistic, and second, that spending time in Quor’Toth has a tendency to bring out the worst in people. Both elements are reinforced over the course of this issue, and sure enough, it leads to a moment that has been a long time coming. (Click More... for more)

John Passarella’s first “Supernatural” novel was easily one of the best, and so the notion of a follow-up was a welcome one. Making it even more tantalizing was the thought of a “Supernatural” novel taking place a stone’s throw from where I grew up in southern New Jersey! While various place names and location details have been modified to protect the relatively innocent, it’s not hard for a former native to read between the lines. (Click More... for More)

In his most recent appearance in Season Nine of the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” comic series, Spike came to the realization that he couldn’t be with Buffy anymore. He had come to the point where chasing after the illusion of a relationship just wasn’t going to be enough. Buffy only came to him when she felt like she had no other viable options, but it was less about being with him and more about escaping her life. (Click More... for More)

Back in 2009, the BBC scored a major coup when they convinced Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor himself, to come out of “retirement” and contribute to a series of Doctor Who audiodramas. (Click More... for More)

Your music is being trapped, your favorite bands and composers are being used to destroy you, and of course it is up to you to stop this madness and free the music from the thing controlling it. The question is: can you liberate yourself from this game? (Click More... for More)