Dead Rising 2

Blue Castle (Capcom)

Xbox 360/PS3/PC

GAMER If Dead Rising was a videogame homage to Dawn of the Dead (1978), then Dead Rising 2 has taken a big leap forward in the George Romero zombie timeline, landing somewhere near the patchy neighborhood of 2005's Land of the Dead.Read more »

Here's a game that piles on hot-rods, collectible Playboy centerfolds, piano joints with framed Bogie posters, and one instance of a full-fledged Sinatra sing-along. Mafia II (2K Czech/2K Games, Xbox 360/PS3/PC)is the sequel to 2004's Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, a well-received PC game that put players in the shoes of a cab driver as he rose through the ranks of the 1930s mafia. Its sequel mines similar Coppola and Scorsese territory, set this time in the 1940s and '50s, as you play a young war vet looking to settle his late father's debts.Read more »

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MUSIC Ladies and gentlemen, meet the real Ariel Pink.

The Los Angeles musician's first few 2004-06 releases on Animal Collective's Paw Tracks label were the stuff of indie water cooler infamy, but they also collected recordings (2002's House Arrest and Lover Boy; 2003's Worn Copy) that Pink had made years before. It wasn't until early 2009 that the world had the chance to hear any new output from the notoriously mysterious musician.Read more »