Skip to main content

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles review – an open and shut case of gaming brilliance

Switch/PS4/PC; Capcom
With one Herlock Sholmes as your companion, the latest in the witty legal-mystery series sends you back to a sublimely realised Victorian London

I’ll be the first to admit my bias when it comes to the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney games – the legal-themed mystery series that partly inspired me to become a qualified (though not practising) lawyer – so the fact that I like The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is no surprise. The real twist is that what might have been a mere spin-off tale about Phoenix Wright’s ancestor in Victorian London has turned out to be perhaps my favourite game in the series, thanks to series creator Shu Takumi’s return to the writer-director’s seat.

Despite the different setting, the basics of video-game lawyering remain largely unchanged: investigate, gather evidence, scrutinise testimony and present your undeniable proof that witnesses are mistaken, ignorant, or straight up lying. Though there are some additions that make for even livelier trials, including group testimonies with clashing witnesses, or the need to appeal to a surly and arbitrary jury, the core thrill – of presenting that key piece of evidence that reduces a smug, preening culprit to a snivelling mess – remains.

Continue reading...

from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3y63FkG

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Knives Out review – Daniel Craig goes Columbo in Cluedo whodunnit

Craig grills an all-star lineup of suspects when a wealthy novelist is found dead in Rian Johnson’s sharp, country-house murder mystery R ian Johnson unsheathes an entertainingly nasty, if insubstantial detective mystery with his new film, Knives Out. Back in 2005, his debut movie Brick (a high-school thriller) paid tribute to the hardboiled noir genre. Now he does the same thing for cosy crime, although there is nothing that cosy about it. Knives Out has a country house full of frowning suspects, deadpan servants and smirking ne’er-do-wells and an amusing performance from Daniel Craig as Benoît Blanc, the brilliant amateur sleuth from Louisiana who annoys the hell out of one and all by smiling enigmatically, occasionally plinking a jarring high note on the piano during the drawing-room interrogation and pronouncing in his southern burr: “Ah suh-spect far-wuhl play!” Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2L0NKO4

Thirty Years of Adonis film review: sexually explicit gay drama mixes porn and pomposity

1/5 stars The line between soft-core porn and pompous art-house cinema grows ever finer in the seventh feature by writer, director and producer Danny Cheng Wan-cheung, also known as Scud. Intended as a philosophical statement about the meaninglessness of life, Thirty Years of Adonis instead comes across as a badly misjudged piece of sensationalist filmmaking. God’s Own Country review: gay love story set in the Yorkshire countryside The film revolves around aspiring gay actor Adonis Yang... from South China Morning Post - Culture feed https://ift.tt/2qgQkop

Tracey Emin decorates Regent's Park and a celebration of Islamic creativity – the week in art

Emin and others survey the state of sculpture, Glenn Brown takes his decadent imagination to Newcastle and artists offer northern exposure – all in your weekly dispatch Frieze Sculpture Park Tracey Emin, Barry Flanagan and John Baldessari are among the artists decorating Regent’s Park with a free survey of the state of sculpture. • Regent’s Park, London , 4 July until 7 October. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2IDCpPV