It is a lot different than what we've heard from these guys before. Wherever I Go was released very unexpectedly and from the first listen, I knew this would be a keeper. We haven't heard from OneRepublic ever since singles from Native were being overplayed on the radio.
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When you see the phrase “Instant Classic” in a review that in turn gets pulled for a quote in a trailer or TV spot, it can often come across as a bit hyperbolic, and maybe even laughable. Haunting, atmospheric, and minimalist, “Under the Skin” may feature an otherworldly creature, but only to show that humanity is truly the horror, and if that doesn’t keep you up with one eye open, not much will. Johansson delivers her best performance to date as said alien seductress, perfectly exemplified by the improvisation she pulls off with the non-actor male victims and being convincing in the flirtation while also disguising the fact that she is Scarlett Johansson (coming up short trying to think of another example of sci-fi/horror cinema verite). READ MORE: 12 Arthouse Horror Directors Who Are Reinventing The Genreįrom the enigmatic opening sequence underscored by Mica Levi’s chugging, foreboding strings to its stark conclusion, Jonathan Glazer’s loose adaptation of Michael Faber’s novel is a masterclass in visual storytelling, experiential horror, and perhaps one of the strongest reinforcements of the old Roger Ebert adage that it’s not “what” a film is about, but “how it’s about it.” The plot of an alien creature commandeering the body of a beautiful woman ( Scarlett Johansson) to lure lustful, unsuspecting men into their untimely deaths to harvest their organs sounds like the 1995 schlock-fest “ Species,” but Glazer merely uses that as the framework to craft an eerie and cinematically-rich look at a creature who slowly learns both the beauty and the terror of human life. These are the films we felt were the best that the 2010s had to offer amidst no shortage of terrific films to choose from the ones that terrified us, made us recoil, made us think, and had us come out the other end as changed people. It’s an exciting time for horror movie fans, and as evidence from this list, attempting to break down the decade in merely thirty films is a daunting task. READ MORE: Essentials: The Best Lesbian Horror Movies Genre-friendly festivals such as Fantastic Fest, Fright Fest, and Beyond Fest became terrific platforms to house new, exciting voices in the genre. Production companies like Blumhouse with a low-cost business model with creative freedom rose to prominence, as well as streaming services and VOD, essentially ushering in a reimagining of the VHS era, where anything with a marketable audience could be made. READ MORE: The 10 Best Final Girls In Horror Movies After a decade filled with remakes, cheap, careless gunk from the likes of Dark Castle and Platinum Dunes, and the “torture porn” movement that metastasized from taking the extreme violence out of the “French New Extremity” (at least in mainstream horror), audiences were yearning for something more adventurous, and filmmakers were more than happy to oblige. READ MORE: The 25 Best Foreign Language Horror Movies Of All Time It’s difficult to say that definitively as time is the only thing that can really make that distinction, but as the decade comes to a close, it feels like one that is going to be held up as a “golden era.” The 2010s felt like a banner decade for the horror genre. Uncharted 3’s villain, Katherine Marlowe, is in every way, in my opinion, a superior villain in comparison to Lazarević. He’s a character that lacks compelling depth, solely being used as an element of intimidation due to his brutal nature, but in truth is an empty shell of a character that is not compelling in the slightest. Yes, he was able to see through the Guardian’s guise and determine the true nature of the Cintamani Stone arguably faster than Drake himself, but aside from these few examples, his intelligence is rarely reflected as he’s poorly portrayed as nothing more than a brooding gorilla. His so called “genius-level” intelligence, however, is seldom addressed as we’re predominately told that he’s very clever, though we rarely see any example of this. In terms of pure menacing stature, Lazarević is a great villain as he’s relentless, volatile, sadistic, and emits a downright intimidating aura that’s unpleasant to say the least. For starters, I’d like to address Uncharted 2’s menacing villain, Zoran Lazarević. Then again, you’ve heard this all before as Uncharted 2 has been unanimously praised left and right for over half a decade I’m here to prepare you an alternate perspective on its thematic elements, ones that are frequently overlooked due to its impressive accomplishments. Uncharted 2 is an action spectacle at its finest. Uncharted 2 introduced the globe-trotting scale of adventure that Nathan Drake would become synonymous for, and also implement a myriad of breath-taking set pieces that quite honestly give Hollywood a run for its money. Even though Uncharted 2 is a masterpiece, it is by no means a perfect game there are actually several inconsistencies that are notable to say the least, and although they never detract from the masterful experience that is Uncharted 2, they’re still prominent factors that ultimately make Uncharted 2 a flawed masterpiece.Įven a masterpiece like Uncharted 2 can have its fair share of problemsĪs great as the original Uncharted was, it was none other than Uncharted 2 that was truly responsible for shaping the iconic series into something of its own, something enormously special. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves exceeded its brethren in terms of sheer scope, fantastic writing along with the exceptional development of their beloved characters, impeccable pacing that’s second to none, its gorgeously cinematic world that raised the bar for graphical possibilities, its bombastically iconic soundtrack, and riveting expedition that boasts a mirroring quality to some of Indiana Jones’ finest work. Uncharted 2 is the renowned example of how to make a proper sequel improving and expanding on the initial formula, catering to what exactly made the original so beloved, and never giving into the fear of working with the safe and familiar, upping the ante ten fold if needed. Naughty Dog desecrated its initial standard and unfathomably exceeded expectations, improving on every minute detail that the original Uncharted crafted, outclassing it in every way imaginable. More accurately, however, I’d like to dissect the unanimous favourite of the trilogy, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which also happens to be my preferred entry and unsurprisingly, one of my favourite games of all time. Originally released back in 2009, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves arguably set a golden standard for action-adventure as its impeccable pacing, jaw-dropping set pieces, and exquisite character development were second to none, mirroring that pristine joy of a thrilling, quality summer blockbuster. The original’s under-performances and limitations are largely responsible for its sequel’s success as expectations regarding Uncharted 2 were manifested with the original being the standard. In honor of the successful reception and recent admiration of Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, it felt appropriate to relay my thoughts on, what is easily, one of the greatest and my own personal favourite video game series of all time. Obvious spoiler warning for Uncharted 2 and the series as a whole. You can’t re-record the vocal melody through midi either, as you could with the other plugins we’ve mentionedĪnd honestly, on a more subjective note (and a lot of people might disagree with us), but we really don’t care for the UI design. Unlike Auto-Tune or Melodyne, you have no control over single notes in your audio channel. The biggest of all, is the lack of fine control. There’s definitely things that are missing from Mautopitch. Looking at the higher end spectrum of pitch correction plug ins, the only upper hand that they have on Mautopitch is customizability.īut look, you can’t go into downloading free software, and expect to get the full package. The Melda Mautopitch free auto-tune plug in is definitely a solid pick up. We give the Melda MAutoPitch VST plugin a solid Well don’t be ridiculous, everyone knows the Logic Pro auto-tune sucks, and you would be miles better off just downloading Mautopitch. However, if you currently do not have any pitch correction software, or plugins, it just doesn’t make sense to not pick Mautopitch up.Įven if you already own the Melodyne, Auto-Tune AND Little AlterBoy VST plug ins, we’d have to argue that you should still download this beautiful little beast.Īdditionally, if you’re a Logic Pro user, you might be thinking “Awh, mate, but i already got an auto-tune built in”. Do I Need Mautopitch?Īs much as we’d like to know what goes on in your head, we can’t say for certain that you NEED it. It’s perfect for any light-tuning, and vocal clean-up that you as a producer, will inevitably have to do a lot of.Īpart from vocals however, pretty much any monophonic audio signal will work with Mautopitch.īesides vocals, we’ve used it on violins, horn instruments, leads, and pretty much anything that might need a cheeky tune. Guess what, buddy, Mautopitch is what’s going to save your butt. And on top of that, the rapper wants to sound like Travis Scott. Nothing is on pitch, they sound like a vocal slide whistle. They come over, record their part, and later in the night you sit down to edit the vocal tracks, but OH NO! You’re a relatively new producer, you’ve been making your own beats for a while, and finally you have a rapper or a vocalist that wants you to produce their track. Can’t really go wrong with that! Who is Mautopitch For/What is it Used On? Mautopitch however, sits in that very sweet spot of being extremely simple to use, whilst not restricting any essential features.Īnd yes, it is a free auto tune plug in. Let’s face it, Antares’ Auto-Tune is the best thing on the market for automatic pitch correction, but at 400$, it’s not necessarily an accessible peace of software. Meldaproduction Mautopitch is an absolute life-saver for a producer on a budget.Īnd it’s available in AAX, VST and AU formats, for use in Pro-Tools, Logic Pro, Cubase, Ableton, and any other DAW. Mautopitch comes as part of a free plugin suite by Melda Productions that you absolutely must check out, but more on that later. Besides making the audio more in-tune, MAutoPitch also provides creative features such as formant shift and stereo-expansion. MAutoPitch is a simple but great sounding automatic pitch correction plugin designed for vocals and other monophonic instruments. That’s what we’ll try and figure out today.Ĭan you get away with just using the Melda Mautopitch free auto-tune plug-in, or should you not bother, and save up some money for an auto-tune plug-in? It’s free, but how good can it realistically be? Melda Production has decided to take it easy on you bedroom producers out there, and released their versatile Mautopitch plug-in. With numerous expensive options on the market like Antares’ Auto-Tune, Melodyne and Soundtoys’ Little AlterBoy, proper pitch correction can become expensive. Whether you want to achieve that hard-tune sound of artists like T-Pain and ASAP Rocky, or you just want to even out your vocals and make beautiful harmonies, you need auto-tune in your life. It’s an effect that is an absolute necessity by todays standards. In the world of modern production, auto-tune has become more than a plug-in. If you fancy yourself to be halfway decent at racing games, I can imagine this would be a normal thing for veterans to do. As you begin the game, you may feel inclined to go for the most difficult challenges that earn you three stars. You start off with your basic character and asphalt/dirt bikes, both of which haven’t been upgraded. Oh, and the difficulty in Moto Racer 4 is silly too. I can somewhat understand this system if it increased the difficulty depending on what you picked, but I could barely tell the difference between the AI on the hardest difficulty versus the easiest difficulty. Just finished first in a Championship containing five tracks but you only thought you’d finish in third place? Great! You’ve earned one star when you really should’ve earned three stars. Speaking of annoying, how would you like to predict where you might end up in a race before actually trying it? Moto Racer 4 features a system I’ve never seen before in a racing game, where you guess where you might end up in a race in order to earn stars (you can earn up to three stars per challenge). I’m not sure why anyone would want to do this, but Artefacts Studios makes you wait at least fifteen seconds before retrying the same race again. Moto Racer 4 is the type of game that, if anything, it wants you to boil with anger after spending ages racing just so you can see a breakdown of your style points. One thing that is incredibly annoying in games is when you lose a mission and the first thing you want to do is retry immediately. If the racing was fun then maybe the game would’ve been redeemable for the local multiplayer (if you can get it to work), but even then I couldn’t recommend it, especially not at the launch price of £22. You can eventually gain the ability to perform turbo boosts from wheelies, but that only adds to the monotonous task of racing. You never feel like you are going at insane speeds because you are practically at the same speed throughout the entire race. If there is a chance that I am wrong about the boost reward you get, then that in itself is a problem. Whether you do a simple trick of holding up your hands for a few seconds or doing a super-man backflip, ultimately you still receive the same amount of boost despite the larger risk. I mean, it’s alright but it just feels a bit boring. During the dirt bike races, players can perform tricks in the air in order to gain a sweet boost for about a second or so. The Slalom challenges were definitely not perfect, but they brought something slightly different to the table and were easily the highlights of the Progression mode.įor a game that focuses on racing, you’d think the developers would try to make it fun. It would have been nice to play other unique challenges like this as opposed to the ‘come in first or lose’ missions. In the Slalom challenges, players have to pass the cars in a certain direction in order to race for a certain amount of time. There is one challenge that is genuinely cool and that is Slalom. The missions in the game come in a few varieties: Last Man Standing, the last person at set intervals is eliminated Survival, drive through checkpoints to lengthen your time on the track King of the Road, stay in first for as long as you can to win the race… you get the idea. Remember, there are only fourteen tracks in the game, so you’d better get used to playing all of them because you’ll be racing on them frequently. Progression mode features ten blocks of missions, each one ending in a Championship that spans three to five races. The Progression mode is likely the only mode you will ever play in Moto Racer 4, and if you aren’t amazing at racing games then you’ll be playing it for quite a long time. Featuring fourteen different tracks to race on as well as a Progression mode that allows you to unlock content, there’s a decent amount in the game to keep you occupied if you choose to spend your time with it. You can drive at high-speed on a motorcycle and occasionally you are able to do tricks for some style points. Most of the promotional material for Moto Racer 4 is accurate to how the game actually plays. Unlike the previous games in the series (created by Delphine Software International), Moto Racer 4 has been developed by Artefacts Studios, the team behind Moto Racer DS. Unfortunately, this game is not featured on PlayStation Plus, and even if it was technically free I still wouldn't recommend spending time playing it. You know what I’m talking about, the random titles in the Instant Game Collection that you’ve never heard of and almost certainly don't want to play. Moto Racer 4 fits a category of games that I like to call ‘filler PlayStation Plus games’. |
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