Charlie Wacholz

Milwaukee

Freelance Critic, Reporter, and Columnist at Freelance

Games, Booze, Food, VR reporter | bylines: @CNN, @NPR, @IGN, @PasteMagazine, @Inversedotcom, @UploadVR & More | he/they | email: [email protected]

Articles

Crisol: Theater of Idols Is a Horror FPS Influenced by Spanish Folklore

2 days ago | ign.com | Charlie Wacholz

Crisol: Theater of Idols aims to blend Bioshock with Resident Evil-style gameplay in a horror FPS influenced by classical Spanish folklore. I crawled through abandoned streets, popping zombie-like enemies with guns that used my blood for bullets, ducking in and out of derelict storefronts looking for the ever-reliable genre staple bolt cutters, and dodging powerful enemies along the way.
Grave Seasons Is a Cozy Farming Sim With a Dark Side

3 days ago | ign.com | Charlie Wacholz

On the surface, Grave Seasons might look like any other nice, cozy farming sim like Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon: you’re a stranger who’s come into a farm in the small town of Ashenridge, full of seemingly friendly people. You plant and harvest crops, craft items, and make friends. But there’s a mysterious, unnerving sense that tugged at the back of my neck during my half-hour playing Blumhouse Games and Perfect Garbage’s not-so-cozy farming sim.
Reach Is What You’ll Be Literally Doing in This Surprisingly Captivating VR Game

4 days ago | ign.com | Charlie Wacholz

Reach is one of the coolest VR games I’ve played in a long time. Chasing the high of classic cinematic action games like Tomb Raider or Uncharted, I had a blast climbing ledges, jumping between buildings, and popping enemies while dual-wielding pistols in NDreams' latest. With dynamic movement and a surprisingly accurate sense of full-body awareness, I can’t wait to see more from this one, even if I got a little dizzy jumping as I platformed my way through the first level.
The Best Nintendo Switch 2 Accessories Available Now

3 weeks ago | ign.com | Charlie Wacholz

After eight whole years of Nintendo’s console-handheld hybrid, its successor, the Nintendo Switch 2, is finally in our hands. While it’s an all-new system, there are some old accessories that still work with the new platform. But because of its bigger screen and the new magnetic Joy-Con, that old Switch case isn’t going to fit the new system. You’ll need a handful of new accessories to get the most out of your next-gen Switch.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown Review

1 month ago | ign.com | Charlie Wacholz

I never expected kicking a member of the Foot Clan to the curb before skateboarding over to pick up a pizza as an orange-clad Ninja Turtle would work just as well in a tactics game as it does in a classic beat-em-up, but Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tactical Takedown cleverly translates the approachable pick-up-and-play action and slim scope of the team’s arcadey adventures like Turtles In Time into a compelling, if barebones, turn-based tactics game.
Claustrophobic Cave Crawler Tunnels Gets Full Release On Quest

1 month ago | uploadvr.com | Charlie Wacholz

I staved off creepy monsters, crawled through tight tunnels, climbed rocky walls, all while constantly looking over my shoulder during a tight hands-on demo with Tunnels, an upcoming horror game from Nomad Monkey at PAX East. It's certainly not for everyone, especially claustrophobic people, but it's always a treat to see games push the limits of VR the way it looks like Tunnels will. Tunnels is all about putting you in tight, winding corridors and dialing up the tension.
This $40 folding keyboard completely changed how I work on the go | CNN Underscored

1 month ago | cnn.com | Charlie Wacholz

Mike Andronico/CNN Underscored Under $50 Scores Great finds to fit your budget. Explore the series The Mobile Pixels Foldable Keyboard is a product that immediately had me intrigued. Between a long-distance relationship, dipping my toes into the life of a digital nomad and regularly traveling for work, I spend a lot of time on the road. That means writing in odd places like cafés, bars, breweries, airport terminals, hotel lobbies and even the occasional airplane.
Verse VR Brings The Magic Of Poetry And Folk Song To Life

1 month ago | uploadvr.com | Charlie Wacholz

Verse transported me from the overwhelming din of a busy convention to the other side of the planet. During a quick hands-on session with this chill poetry game, I traveled to a Senegalese river village and a manicured Chinese garden, soaking up every word; every line of poetry and folk song as I wandered its immersive soundscapes. Verse is all about texture.
The Ferrari, Fernet and Campari, Belongs in Your Americano

1 month ago | punchdrink.com | Charlie Wacholz

After a two-year stint working at Consignment Lounge in Chicago, which boasts a diverse menu of amari, I’ve become a big fan of all sorts of bitter bottles. At the vintage-shop-meets-grandma’s-basement-meets-neighborhood-cocktail-bar, I was introduced to (and came to love) lesser-known bottles like Heirloom’s Pineapple Amaro or Matchbook Distilling’s Day Trip Strawberry Amaro, which we served neat and in a range of cocktails. But one bitter liqueur has evaded my affection: Campari.
Shotgun Cop Man Review

1 month ago | ign.com | Charlie Wacholz

With your hands full of guns and a warrant for the Devil’s arrest in your pocket, Shotgun Cop Man sends you on a nonstop blitz of new ideas. This short and sweet action-platformer continually reinvents itself across 10 clever worlds, leaving little room for a good idea to get stale. Once I mastered its distinct style of projectile-based movement, barrelling through the circles of hell turned into a pure power fantasy.