Forza Horizon 6: XBox Series X Review

Developed by Playground Games
Published by Xbox Game Studios
Platform: XBox Series X

The Forza series has been the jewel in the crown of the racing franchises that have graced the next gen consoles.

From the arcade racing impressiveness of the Forza Horizon series to the more serious Forza Motorsport, the genre's been exceptionally well served with its mix of appreciation for fast cars, great driving mechanics and solid gameplay.

Now, the latest Forza Horizon heads to Japan, a brand-new venue for the racing. With over 550 real-world cars and a penchant for Japanese architecture and culture, the latest game has a lot to live upto.

Win a double pass to see Scary Movie in cinemas

To celebrate the release of Scary Movie, in cinemas June 11, thanks to Paramount Pictures NZ, you can win a double pass!

About Scary Movie

This is some scuuury sh*t. Every Line Will Be Crossed.

#ScaryMovie is only in theatres June 11

 

SYNOPSIS

Twenty-six years after outrunning a suspiciously familiar masked killer (“Ghostface”), the Core Four are back in the killer’s crosshairs and no horror movie IP is safe. Marlon Wayans (“Shorty”), Shawn Wayans (“Ray”), Anna Faris (“Cindy”), and Regina Hall (“Brenda”) reunite in Scary Movie alongside returning favorites and fresh faces to slash through reboots, remakes, requels, prequels, sequels, spin-offs, elevated horror, origin stories, anything with the word legacy in it, and every “final chapter” that absolutely isn’t final. 

Nothing is sacred. No trope survives. Every line gets crossed.  The Wayans are back to cancel the Cancel Culture.

 

CAST

Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Kenan Thompson, Dave Sheridan, Lochlyn Munro, Kim Wayans, Cheri Oteri, Chris Elliott, Damon Wayans Jr., Heidi Gardner, Olivia Rose Keegan, Cameron Scott Roberts, Savannah Lee Nassif, Sydney Park, Gregg Wayans, Benny Zielke, Ruby Snowber

 

THIS FILM HAS NOT BEEN RATED YET.

Scary Movie is in cinemas June 11

Win a double pass to see jackass best and last in cinemas

To celebrate the release of jackass best and last in cinemas June 25, thanks to Paramount Pictures NZ, you can win a double pass.

About jackass best and last

Johnny Knoxville and the gang return for one final fling at the big screen. Featuring all-new stunts and stupidity along with the greatest hits and biggest laughs from the past, jackass: best and last is a joyously raucous celebration of all the mischievous camaraderie that you’ve come to love and expect from these idiots over the past 25 years.

So, grab your dumb little buddies, raise your glasses, and come experience the cinematic event that promises to be the last time you’ll ever laugh this hard in a theatre.

 

Cast:

Johnny Knoxville, Steve-O, Chris Pontius, Wee Man (Jason Acuña), Dave England, Danger Ehren (Ehren McGhehey), Preston Lacy, Rachel Wolfson, Jasper, Dark Shark (Compston Wilson), Poopies (Sean McInerney), Zach Holmes

               

THIS FILM HAS NOT YET BEEN RATED

Shelby Oaks: Blu Ray Review

Cast: Camille Sullivan, Brendan Sexton III, Sarah Durn, Keith David
Director: Chris Stuckmann

Wildly derivative in some ways and yet groundbreaking in others, Chris Stuckmann's debut film engages the horror senses and somehow still feels fresh despite being unable to sustain the suspense in the back half.

Revelling in its found footage at the start, it's the story of missing YouTuber Riley Brenan (Durn) who we first meet via a tape of her last known sighting. Telling the camera, she's not safe here, she promptly disappears for 12 years. A documentary crew picks up the story with her estranged sister Mia (Sullivan, who shoulders a lot of the proceedings with ease) as she pores over the details of her AWOL kin.

Riley presented a channel called Paranormal Paranoids with three others and had visited the old abandoned town of Shelby Oaks before they showed up dead and she vanished. So, after a shocking intervention, Mia starts her own hunt for her sister.

The opening of Shelby Oaks bristles with promise and a deft reinventing of the found footage documentary horror genre that really kicked into gear with The Blair Witch Project. As conspiracies, takedowns of YouTube culture and riffs of Netflix true crime documentaries all gel, the film promises to deliver so much before settling into a rote drama that bands the usual folk horror tropes in with plenty of shots of Mia reacting to offscreen happenings.

And yet, early on, it's terrifyingly effective, a chiller that is overwrought with tension and upsetting ideas. While a lot relies on Sullivan's reaction to what's around her, Stuckmann's story plays with some interesting ideas - from disbelieving partners to a long-nurtured terror.

But as is usual with many of these, the second half can't stand up with the weight of its own explanation and Shelby Oaks feels like a Halloween thrill that's too entangled in its own ideas of mythology and lore to do something fresh. Montages of investigations mesh with words and images from books that purport to explain everything - with Stuckmann forgetting that less is sometimes more in this genre.

And while the end crackles with Drag Me To Hell ideals and a twist, the journey's relatively enjoyable until it's not and the cards are all on the table as Mia behaves in ways that will have people screaming at the screen.

It's a mixed bag sure, but parts of Shelby Oak offer pristine terrors for this time of the year. It's just a shame the final elements couldn't keep it all together.

Pike River: Blu Ray Review

Cast: Melanie Lynskey, Robyn Malcolm, Errol Shand, Lucy Lawless, Ben Porter, John Leigh, Madeleine McCarthy, Hamish McEwen
Director: Rob Sarkies 

Director Rob Sarkies has a tough job with the Pike River film and for non-New Zealand audiences,it's a tough sell.

Essentially, how do you tell a tale that's spanned 15 years and still has no real resolution? For the families of 29 miners, whose lives were lost when a series of explosions ripped through the Pike River mine on New Zealand's west coast in November 2010, the battle for justice continues.

Focusing mainly on the fight and initially forced friendship between Anna Osborne and Sonya Rockhouse (Lynskey and Malcolm, both uniformly excellent throughout), the narrative weaves its way from the very first day in 2010 to later on. But by employing time jumps and a few narrative leaps, Pike River at times requires much from its audience who will be expecting a resolution as usual disaster movies employ.

But herein lies the rub for Pike River - that stymied the storytelling in parts and it becomes a film that celebrates the smaller moments of victory rather than the cathartic highs of a traditional tale.

Despite some beautifully shot cutaway of mist hanging above the clouds and sensitive handling of the explosion itself,the movie often relies on assumed knowledge of the situation rather than the narrative threads to pull it together.

The first time Anna and Sonya meet, they're frosty to each other, to the point of openly hostile. Then seconds later, they're the best of mates without anything other than a brief scene between. It's a trick employed throughout and what it does is push the audience to empathy by force, rather than leading through story.

But as mentioned, Pike River was never a story that had or has closure, something that is its tragic power. And while Lynskey and Malcolm excel in their empathetic and powerful performances, the film's journey feels staccato and stuttered at times.

Those involved would want you to take the message of the injustice done to their families, an admittedly honourable one to take away.

Yet despite such a powerful takeaway and with only a handful of scenes getting to the humanity and bond people forge in unwanted tragedy, what emerges from the Pike River movie is a more muted success that feels like it's best suited to Kiwi audiences, rather than its injustices and abuse of power being more accessible to a global audience. 

Die My Love: Blu Ray Review

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Sissy Spacek, Nick Nolte
Director: Lynne Ramsay

A study in alienation and a descent into harder mental times, Die My Love benefits massively from both its director and female lead.

A blistering Lawrence is Grace, a writer who moves with her partner Jackson (Pattinson, solid but sidelined) into a cabin in Montana. Initially all over each other, the pair quickly have a child, forcing grace to feel like she's stagnating as she parents her newborn.

Director Lynne Ramsay's film, from the book by Ariana Harwicz, is a film where little too dramatic happens, but it feels like everything seismic is slowly taking place. From the initial feral joy of having a home of their own (albeit where a family suicide has taken place) to the almost claustrophobic sense of an inability to connect on any level, Lawrence as grace delivers a powerhouse performance that burns up the screen.

Whether it's watching her desperately try to connect with Pattinson's increasingly aloof character or seeing her rattle around in the vastness of the home and the land around her, you simply can't take your eyes off her performance.

There is an argument that some of the characters that intersect are underwritten and occasionally even Pattinson's xxx feels surplus to requirements but this examination of what motherhood and creative drought and outlets do to a person is compelling stuff.

A searing story that's bolstered by an awards-worthy turn from Lawrence, Die My Love is a singular piece of film that shows off its talent like never before.

Frosty Games Fest is back for 2026

The second Frosty Games Fest showcase of games made in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, is confirmed to be premiering at 10am NZT on Sunday, June 7 (3pm PDT on Saturday, June 6), as part of the official Summer Game Fest programming! 

Fans can tune in via YouTube or Twitch for an exciting look at more than 50 games from the ANZ region, curated from more than 200 applications. The showcase will be accompanied by a Steam event. 

The livestream of upcoming and recently released games is set to be chocka-block with new game reveals, date announcements, new demos, and gameplay trailer premieres. It will be just under an hour, and feature introductions from select developers themselves, as well as some beloved ANZ-based content creators and personalities. 

Frosty Games’ 2026 sponsor partners are CODE and Strange Scaffold.

How to Watch Frosty Games Fest in June 2026

Frosty Games Fest will broadcast on Sunday June 7 at 8am AEST. Check the time zones below to find out when you can tune in worldwide:
Australia: 8am AEST | 6am AWST (June 7)

• New Zealand: 10am NZST (June 7)

• Japan: 7am JST (June 7)

• USA: 3pm PDT | 6pm EDT (June 6)

• UK: 11pm BST (June 6)
  
  

Frosty Games Fest will be livestreamed via their own YouTube and Twitch channels, as well as The Game Awards YouTube channel.

About ‘Frosty Games Fest’

‘Frosty Games Fest’ is a livestream showcase dedicated to Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand based video game developers and their videogames, highlighting news, announcements and reveals from upcoming titles. For more information about ‘Frosty Games Fest’ please visit frostygamesfest.com. 

About Frosty Games

Frosty Games is an organisation dedicated to spotlighting games made in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Frosty Games made its debut with ‘Frosty Games Fest’ in June 2025, followed by a smaller showcase, ‘Frosty Mini,’ in December, and will air its second ‘Frosty Games Fest’ showcase in June 2026. The 2026 team is composed of ANZ games professionals Amy Potter-Jarman, Kieron Verbrugge, Lucy Mutimer, Pritika Sachdev and Ted Darling. For more information about Frosty Games please visit frostygamesfest.com.