HAWX stands for High Altitude Warfare – Experimental, which basically gives the player licence to take to the skies in state-of-the-art military airplanes for some high octane aerial dogfights, which in reality are probably more Top Gun than Tom Clancy. Playing as ace flyboy Major David Crenshaw, following a spell around the US Mexico…

An action adventure based in near future Tokyo, Ninja Blade sees the player take up the swords of a 21st century samurai, called into action when an infestation of parasites turns much of the city’s population into hideous monsters with a taste for human flesh. What follows could have been a truly great game…

Brain Of The World does pretty much what every game to date in the Buzz series has done: puts you in your own quiz-show, with Jason Donovan playing your smart-mouth host, as you test your knowledge across a variety of topics. This time around, you can choose your specialist subject from categories including Music,…

It’s home Karaoke, Freddie Mercury style, as you get to wrap your tonsils around some of the best-known and most loved rock songs ever composed. The chords are massive, the choruses even bigger and even the greatest of shower singers will struggle to hit the high notes like the late, great moustachioed master, but…

Set a decade after the fall of the nefarious Umbrella Corporation, Resident Evil 5 sees players stepping once more into the jackboots of special agent Chris Redfield, now part of the anti-terrorist organisation BSAA. Umbrella’s viral and bio-weaponry have found their way into the hands of some deadly terrorists in the little-known African state…

You’ve probably already seen the TV ad, starring none other than mono-syllabic action hero Vin Diesel (Wheelman is also a forthcoming movie), and you’ve doubtless already made your mind up that Wheelman is none other than a Grand Theft Auto clone, replacing the west coast of America with Barcelona. And you’d be right. However,…

Five years can be a lifetime in music, and yet Dublin’s Alphastates have emerged from a hiatus of just that length with their strongest set of songs to date in the shape of new album, Human Nature, and a music community who, far from forgetting who they were, are ready to embrace their shining…

Talulah Does The Hula are to play Whelan’s on April 26, with support from Sleep Thieves and Disconnect4.
Named after a New Zealand court case and featuring former members of The Chalets and Neosupervital, Talulah Does The Hula are a sprightly quintet, whose mission is to get your booty shaking with their Spector-ish reverb,…

The artist formerly known as Smog returns with another collection of sonorous, sombre ballads, which perfectly showcase both his stellar songwriting and funereal drawl. Callahan certainly hasn’t torn up the blueprint that served him so well on his previous 12 albums, 11 of which appeared under the Smog moniker.
Tracks like opener ‘Jim Cain’,…

Nathan Daniel Williams likes the letter ‘v’: he’s added another one to the middle of his band’s name for this second album, following last year’s Wavves. The San Diego native makes decidedly difficult music, taking elements of Dinosaur Jnr, My Bloody Valentine and ’60s’ surf pop and putting it through an industrial blender so…

Cam Gigandet, the imposing vampire tracker, James, from the hugely popular Twilight movie, based on Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling debut novel, talks to State about making a modern vampire classic. The former OC star talks about playing the villain, his love of the Twilight novels and taking on Dracula.
Did you enjoy playing the baddie?
…

POD Concerts presents
Richard Swift is to play Crawdaddy in Dublin on Monday, April 27.
The California-based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, celebrated for his vintage lo-fi experimental mélanges, saluting genres from Doo-Wop to lush American Pop, is set to release his fourth album on April 7. The Atlantic Ocean , Swift’s uplifting full-length follow-up…

Leonard Cohen is to return to Ireland this summer for three gigs. The legendary songwriter will play The O2, Dublin, on July 19 and 20, and The Odyssey Arena, Belfast, on July 26.
His dates last year at The Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, were heralded as “a cultural event of Biblical dimensions”, so the new…

Kanye West and Eagles Of Death Metal have been added to the bill for this year’s Roskilde Festival, along with Denmark’s Oh No Ono and Peter Sommer. More acts are expected to be announced this Friday for the festival, which takes place from July 2-4.
Tickets to Roskilde Festival 2009 are available from the…