Live your best weekend with our weekly round-up of the hottest albums, movies, games and apps
From Katy Perry’s new release and a new Tony Hawk skating game, and a Brad Pitt marathon to a fitness app with a difference, we’ve got your weekend covered
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GAMING: TONY HAWK PRO SKATER, with Alice Clarke
Like a lot of people now in their 30s, Melbournian Shane O’Neill grew up playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games.
Unlike most people in their 30s, though, he took the things he learned in the game and went on to become one of Australia’s best skateboarders.
Now, he’s going to be a playable character in the remaster of the games he loved as a kid.
The Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series is so legendary, that his first reaction to getting the call he was going to be in the game was less about his involvement, and more about the remaster itself.
“I was really just excited to hear they were remastering 1+2! Then, yeah, the fact that I was going to be in it was a very big honour to me because of which games they were specifically,” he says from his home in LA.
“I think it really hasn’t completely sunk in yet.”
Although he used the games as a kid to learn some of the craft of skating and get the terminology right, O’Neill’s goal for the new game is to make his character do as many improbable things as possible.
“I just like to do, like, the most unrealistic crazy things,” he says.
Life is now very different to how it was when the original game was first released in 1999, and there are many more online platforms for skaters, but O’Neill still hopes this remaster will have a similar effect when it comes to inspiring the next generation.
“Much like it was back in the day, it’s another platform for skaters to skate when they’re unable to physically go and do it and another way to enjoy skating and learn about it, see things that are impossible, and possible. It’s just a whole other version of skating.”
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There aren’t going to be any new real-world areas added to the game.
But if O’Neill could pick one place from his hometown to put in a skating game, he says the choice is obvious.
“I mean that’s so easy: It would just be Flinders Street Station and Federation Square,” he says. “The entire place has anti-skate stuff over everything, but it’s the most insane architecture for skating … it is basically like one of the in-game levels.”
Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 will be available for PS4, Xbox One and PC on Friday.
APP TO DATE, WITH Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson
DUCK DUCK GO
Free, Apple iOS,/Google Android
If you’re concerned about who’s following you around the web, collecting and selling your details, this browser is worth investigating.
The DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser is designed to find and block third-party web trackers, use encrypted connections when possible, and will give each site you visit a grade based on its privacy settings.
Another handy feature is turned on with a tap of the fire icon: it closes all tabs and clears your web history.
QELLO
$19.49/m, Apple iOS/Google Android
2020 has done more for virtual music festivals than any before it and this app taps into the trend.
Qello offers concerts from artists including Green Day, Queen, Metallica and Madonna, alongside sets from Coachella and the Montreux Jazz Festival.
After subscribing, users can watch concerts in full, select highlights, or create their own playlists with the individual songs performed.
POCKET WORLD 3D
Free, Apple iOS, Google Android
You can’t visit Big Ben or the Golden Gate Bridge right now but you can build them for yourself inside this slightly mind-bending construction game.
Pocket World 3D gives players objects to recreate and the pieces to drag into place.
They just have to work out where they go and spin the object to the right angle.
Constructions start small — with clogs and windmills — and become more complicated and internationally renowned over time.
SWEAT DECK
Free, Apple iOS
If you need to get more variety in your exercise regimen, this is a way to do it.
Sweat Deck is a virtual deck of cards with exercises listed on each, from burpees and push-ups to jogging on the spot.
Users can choose how many cards they want to complete, and the number of reps, and it will deliver a random selection to raise their heart rate.
Paying $5.99 unlocks more exercises and options.
MELLY
Free, Apple iOS
This adorable app turns meditation into a game.
Players are given a Zen garden with nothing in it.
To earn ‘karma’ currency, they must meditate to soothing music while focusing on a panda and his levitating bamboo stem.
As the game progresses, they can fill their virtual gardens with everything from fountains and bridges to a temple and bonsai tree.
MICRO MOVIE BINGE, with Leigh Paatsch
BRAD’S B-SIDES
There has always been more to Brad Pitt than just the big box-office hits.
Here are a few lesser-seen gems from Brad’s extensive back catalogue …
ALLIED
RENT ONLY
***
As effective as it is old-fashioned, this quality romantic thriller starts out strongly reminiscent of the classic Casablanc a before smoothly gliding into Hitchcock territory.
Pitt and Marion Cotillard play undercover spies who marry on impulse during WWII after sharing a dangerous assignment in Morocco.
The smoulder is the thing here: both stars know it, and know just how to convey it.
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES
NETFLIX
****
An epic and challenging American western from Australian director Andrew Dominik (Chopper).
Pitt puts in a masterful performance as the legendary wild west crook rapidly coming to the end of his days.
The unlikely architect of the James downfall is Robert Ford (Casey Affleck), a fawning fanboy who attaches himself to Jesse’s posse in the hope a little reflected glory might come his way.
BURN AFTER READING
BINGE, FOXTEL
***1/2
Pitt is the hilarious secret weapon in this ripping screwball comedy from the Coen brothers.
A cleverly convoluted tale of espionage, adultery and idiocy centres on two dimwitted gym workers (Pitt and Frances McDormand) who take possession of sensitive info belonging to a former CIA agent. Co-stars George Clooney, John Malkovich. Great stuff.
NEEDING MORE?
LEGENDS OF THE FALL
BINGE, FOXTEL, NETFLIX
A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT
AMAZON
KILLING THEM SOFTLY
BINGE, FOXTEL
TUNE IN – album reviews with Cameron Adams
SAN CISCO – BETWEEN YOU AND ME
****
Fremantle trio San Cisco are developing as songwriters before our ears.
They eased us into this fourth album in style with classy singles Skin, On the Line and Reasons.
Now lean into the indie dancefloor thrills of Shine, glorious ballad Alone and the quirky Beatle-esque joy of When I Dream.
Experimentation rules, retaining their quirky charm and pop skills: the Beach Boys psychedelia on Gone while the direct intimacy of the gentle title track hits deep.
KATY PERRY – SMILE
***
Promo queen Katy’s two babies dropped within hours of each other – first daughter and sixth album.
Smile had the longer labour – Perry trying to recalibrate commercially after last album Witness halted her imperial period.
2019’s Never Really Over tellingly opens Smile and is far and away the best thing here. Discarding the indie experiments of Witness, Katy’s gunning for hits but there’s no classic A-lister pop hits here.
Cry About It Later and Teary Eyes are fine and there’s rebuilding self-helpers like Resilient.
DISCLOSURE – ENERGY
*** 1/2
After a five year break, UK duo Disclosure restart the party on their third album.
Kelis sends the brilliant Watch Your Step into 80s funk terrain.
Lavender, with Channel Tres, is Neptunes meet Daft Punk, Kehlani shines on slick groove Birthday and Ce n’est pas with Blick Bassy demands to be played loud.
The title track and Doucha plug directly into Basement Jaxx’s samba vibe and global grooves while the deluxe edition features Khalid hit Talk and Expressing What Matters where the brothers sample 70s hero Boz Scaggs.
GARRETT KATO – N. HEMISPHERE
*** 1/2
Canadian-born, Byron Bay based Garrett Kato follows March’s s.hemisphere (which featured Julia Stone) with this “sister” EP.
Kato’s more than the barefoot Byron campfire cliche.
Permanently uses his silky voice over lush beats, Moon’s pop feel would fit on commercial radio, M ountain Climbing heads down the rock path.
And while It’s Easier When You’re Standing There may start as a busking lament but soon morphs into a beautiful, blissful moment complete with stunning strings – more Glen Campbell than Ziggy Alberts.
Originally published as Live your best weekend with our weekly round-up of the hottest albums, movies, games and apps