The Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater Remake Feels Good Enough By Blake Hester • August 21st, 2020 So it’s a push and pull so far with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2. When the game feels right, it feels right. And for the most part, that’s enough.
Musings The Last of Us Part II: Over and Over Again By Blake Hester • August 11th, 2020 Though it likely wasn’t their intent, Naughty Dog’s sequel hits the nail on the head when it comes to an unflinching portrayal of the cycle of addiction.
Musings The 120-Hour Goodbye By Blake Hester • July 7th, 2020 Persona 5 Royal provided Blake an escape from quarantine. But even in imaginary worlds, all good things come to an end.
Musings Legacy of Brutality By Blake Hester • June 12th, 2020 You know what they say: Friends that kill together, stay together.
Musings Persona 5 and the Eternal Classroom By Blake Hester • May 6th, 2020 Persona 5 is a glorious reminder that even if high school sucked, being a kid kinda ruled.
Musings Code Orange and the New Reality By Blake Hester • April 10th, 2020 Code Orange’s newest album feels like the group’s most cohesive product to date.
Musings Rock is Dead. Long Live the Dirty Nil. By Blake Hester • March 12th, 2020 The Dirty Nil, in just one 39 minute album, is more intelligent, interesting and fun than most classic rock out there.
Musings When in Hell, We Do Shots At the Bar By Blake Hester • January 14th, 2020 For something that marketed itself as a funny, drunken romp through hell, Afterparty sure feels a lot like an AA meeting.
Musings From Kamurocho, With Love By Blake Hester • December 13th, 2019 Halfway around the world, in a city he’s never been to before, Blake finds a place he knows as well as his home.
Musings Concerts Suck, But Landon Tewers Doesn’t By Blake Hester • November 11th, 2019 Blake sees his first concert in four years and it’s…weird.
Feature Excerpt Taking Control of my Sobriety By Blake Hester • September 24th, 2019 When you take addiction out of your life, you’re left with more hours in the day than you know what to do with. Luckily, there are games like Control.
Breakups, Dear You, and Jawbreaker By Blake Hester • May 17th, 2019 The history and legacy of Jawbreaker almost seem at odds with each other.
Cancer, OCD, Spider-Man & Me By Blake Hester • December 12th, 2018 Sometimes you just need a fucking break. Sometimes you don’t need to be challenged, sometimes you just need to drown out all the noise.
Losing a Friend You Never Met By Blake Hester • June 8th, 2018 I kept getting excited reading it, thinking maybe soon he’d put out another book. It felt like getting excited for your friends’ bands – you know, the actual good ones – to put out new albums