Redmond Carolipio

Words – and the personal experiences behind them – are my professional life, and they've let me tell all types of stories. From the dangers of addiction, to roller derby rock stars, to the pain of a father who just wanted give his slain son French toast on a Christmas morning … click around to see a few of the stops on my timeline.

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WorthPlaying •

PS4 Review - 'River City Girls'

Plots don't get much simpler than the one laid before you in River City Girls: The boyfriends of two high school girls have been kidnapped, and the girls take it upon themselves to fight everyone in the city en route to rescue them. The game even starts with a catchy bubblegum-rock song mapping this out. It's beat-'em-up psychology and execution at its most elemental, dating all the way back to the days of Double Dragon, when I witnessed a pixelated dude punch a pixelated lady in the gut ...
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PS4 Review - 'Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order'

In the past decade or so, if you asked the typical Star Wars fan what he or she wanted in an action game, they probably gave you a variation of, "I just want to grab a lightsaber, use the Force and kick some ass." You can do that and more in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, a joyfully satisfying title from Respawn that bridges the vintage ethos of the Star Wars universe with well-crafted, modern gameplay ideas that might seem too safe and familiar for some, but still end up striking all the right
WorthPlaying •

PS4 Review - 'Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint'

My Ghost Recon: Breakpoint experience reached its nadir when I found a hat. This hat — a trucker hat, to be specific — was among the spoils I collected after cleaning out a camp full of allegedly the deadliest soldiers on the planet. Usually, when you collect a piece of loot in a game, there's something cool about it that makes it worth picking up. You get an extra speed boost, a touch of extra toughness to your armor, or maybe even a lift to your attack power. This hat had none of those. All i
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In-Depth Xbox One Review - 'Red Dead Redemption 2'

Arthur Morgan is a dead man walking. That might sound like a careless spoiler, but anyone familiar with the Red Dead legacy (and judging by the sales numbers, many of you are) should know by now that all rarely ends well for the protagonists in Rockstar's visionary series into life during the zenith of the so-called Wild West. In western epics like this — and in other genres beyond — people rarely die having finished all of their business.
WorthPlaying •

PS4/XOne/PC Preview - 'Anthem'

Anthem, even in small bites, sounds easy to like. If you knew nothing of the story, you've likely heard that Electronic Arts and BioWare are putting you in an armored suit that can both fly and travel underwater, basically telling you, "Go. Have at it." But is that really enough? Like many others, I was curious about more. What would the characters be like? What kind of depth of story are we looking at? How do the story and world shape up? How does the game feel?
WorthPlaying •

PS4 Review - 'MLB The Show 19'

For years, I've approached Sony's MLB The Show series with an outsider's curiosity, a viewpoint relatively untethered to the poetic and romantic notions that have been wrapped around the game of baseball for more than a century. I've treated MLB The Show 19 the same way. It speaks to the sport's ever-present quest for more eyes in an era dominated by the NBA, NFL and even mixed martial arts. My question had been: In the sports gaming space, what would baseball have for someone like me?
WorthPlaying •

PS4 Review - 'Days Gone'

I first saw Days Gone from Bend Studio a few years ago in the form of an E3 trailer that seemed to tell me everything I'd need to know. In it, the hero, a biker-turned-survivor named Deacon St. John, ran for his life from what looked like hundreds of "freakers," the game's contribution to the perpetually expanding compendium of zombie interpretation. This pack of freakers moved quickly and in a wave of fluid, certain death, not unlike the kind moviegoers saw in "World War Z."
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PS4/XOne/PC Preview - 'Cyberpunk 2077'

There have probably been entire theses written on what the term "cyberpunk" actually entails, but if there's one certainty I've witnessed as a fan of sci-fi, it's that everyone has an idea of what it means to them. You hear or read "cyberpunk," and you can almost feel what it is. CD Projekt Red, with Cyberpunk 2077, looks like it's taking all of that — whatever you want to call cyberpunk's "it" — and putting it in a singular, breathing vessel.
WorthPlaying •

PS4 Review - 'Kingdom Come: Deliverance'

Kingdom Come: Deliverance feels like it comes from another land of RPGs, a different kind of tree from the current forest of games touting "RPG elements." Sometimes, it feels like nearly every kind of game has various kinds of role-playing elements in it, where levels are counted, clothing and weapons of varying powers can be purchased, and skills can be honed and boosted. Even sports games like MLB The Show and NBA 2K have single-player campaigns with a teaspoon of D+D. Who doesn't want a bat t
Southern California Public Radio •

Can the Switch turn Nintendo's fanbase back on?

It's been more than a decade since Nintendo released the Wii to the masses. It became a cultural phenomenon, finding its place in millions of homes through its unique, motion-based design concept and an all-inclusive game library that served as a change of pace from Sony and Microsoft's "hardcore" offerings. Now comes the Nintendo Switch, which hits stores Friday and will be available for people to try at a public demo event in Los Angeles on Sunday.
WorthPlaying •

Xbox One Review - 'Resident Evil 7: Biohazard'

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is terrifying for roughly the first 40 minutes. In the 10 to 12 hours that follow, you become a little less scared and more energized as you're reminded of what made this series so enjoyable when it crawled onto screens 20 years ago. It doesn't feel like a reboot. It's more like a homecoming. First, some history. I think it's significant to touch on the game's roots because understanding what it did back in 1996 makes what RE7 does in 2017 that much more impactful.
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