Entertainment

Master Chief always seemed like Heinlein's ideal of a soldier: You never felt like he needed to sleep — just give him his ten thousand–mile check-ups and dust him off occasionally. In the opening scenes of Halo 4, Spartan 117 goes from sleep to trigger in a few moments, but that's enough to begin his journey to becoming human again.

Criterion Games wants wanted their latest open-world crashathon racer Need for Speed: Most Wanted (out today for PC, PS3, Vita, Xbox 360) to be a more film-like experience. So they hired BAFTA Award nominee Vanesa Lorena Tate to take on audio lead responsibilities. She’s been composing since she was four years old and has worked on such films as Hellboy 2: The Golden Army and two Harry Potter flicks: The Order of the Phoenix and The Deathly Hallows part 2 in addition to Criterion’s last Need for Speed, 2010’s Hot Pursuit.

Hotline Miami (released today on Steam) is a dark and sordid 16-bit trip through 1989 South Florida and its seedy underbelly. It mixes a retro aesthetic with more violence than you’re used to (think last year’s cult hit Drive). It plays like earlier entries in the GTA series — but without the tedious driving between missions.