Month: November 2022

Polk’s Monitor XT30 Center Channel: The Unglamorous Speaker Doing the Most Work

Hardware Review · Purchased November 18, 2022 · $321.54 CAD via Amazon.ca

Polk Monitor XT30 center channel speaker
Polk Monitor XT30 center channel. Photo: Polk Audio

The Setup

A compact center channel from Polk’s budget-to-midrange Monitor XT line, built around a 1″ Terylene dome tweeter and dual 5.25″ bilaminate woofers, Hi-Res Audio certified and Dolby Atmos/DTS:X compatible. Its whole job is dialogue — sitting below the TV and carrying every line of speech clearly in a home theater setup.

The Review

Nobody buys a center channel for excitement, but this one does exactly the unglamorous job it’s supposed to do — dialogue comes through clean and clear even at lower volumes, which is the actual metric that matters for a speaker whose entire purpose is making sure you don’t miss a line. The compact cabinet fits neatly below my TV without fighting for space the way a taller speaker would, and it integrates cleanly with the rest of the Monitor XT lineup and my AVR without any fuss.

It’s genuinely light on low-mid punch on its own, which isn’t a surprise for a speaker this size, and it benefits from being crossed over around 100Hz or higher so a subwoofer can pick up the slack. In a room with harder, more reflective surfaces it can also edge toward bright or harsh at higher volumes. None of that matters much given what a center channel is actually for — it’s not meant to be the star of the system, and this one is a genuinely solid, unremarkable-in-the-best-way choice for that role.

What I Liked

  • Clear, focused dialogue reproduction even at low volumes
  • Compact cabinet fits neatly below the TV
  • Integrates cleanly with other Polk Monitor XT speakers and a mainstream AVR
  • Strong price-to-performance for a budget/midrange home theater setup

What I Didn’t

  • Limited low-mid bass punch without a subwoofer
  • Can sound slightly bright in rooms with hard, reflective surfaces
  • Not built for large rooms or reference-level volume

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

Exactly what a good budget center channel should be — unremarkable in the best possible way, and it does its actual job well.

Where to Buy

God of War Ragnarok: A Launch-Day Buy That Earns Every Bit of Its Ambition

Game Review · Purchased November 9, 2022 · $100.00 CAD via Walmart.ca

God of War Ragnarok key art
God of War Ragnarok. Photo: PlayStation Store

The Setup

Picked up right on launch day, Ragnarok continues Kratos and Atreus’s Norse saga three years after 2018’s God of War, as the pair prepare for the prophesied Ragnarok while confronting Thor and Odin across all nine realms.

The Review

The combat retains everything that made the 2018 game feel so good — the Leviathan Axe and Blades of Chaos are just as satisfying to swing here, and the environmental puzzle design across all nine realms gives exploration real texture rather than just padding between fights. The story is the real headline, though: this is genuinely ambitious mythology-building, with Thor and Odin as compelling antagonists, and letting you directly control Atreus in dedicated sections adds welcome variety to a formula that could have easily just repeated itself.

A few specific encounters have unfairly spiky difficulty that stands out against how well-tuned most of the rest of the combat is, and the second half leans on more backtracking than I’d like. The health-item button doubling as the grapple button also caused more than a few accidental deaths in the heat of combat. None of that meaningfully dents what’s otherwise a hugely ambitious, well-told conclusion to this era of the series.

What I Liked

  • Combat retains the brutal, satisfying feel of the 2018 game
  • Ambitious Norse mythology storytelling with compelling new antagonists
  • Playable Atreus sections add genuine variety
  • Excellent PS5 visuals and performance/graphics mode options

What I Didn’t

  • Some specific encounters have unfairly spiky difficulty
  • Noticeable backtracking in the second half
  • Health item and grapple sharing a button causes accidental deaths in combat

The Verdict

Rating: 5/5

A hugely ambitious, well-earned conclusion to this saga — an easy launch-day purchase that was worth every bit of the hype.

Where to Buy

The Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar: LEGO’s First Marvel Countdown Done Right

Toy Review · Purchased October 11, 2022 · $60.00 CAD via Amazon.ca

LEGO Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar 76231
Guardians of the Galaxy Advent Calendar, 76231. Photo: LEGO

The Setup

Set 76231 marks LEGO’s first-ever Marvel-licensed advent calendar, at 268 pieces across 24 doors, with small vehicle and gear builds alongside minifigures including Star-Lord, Groot, and Rocket.

The Review

LEGO’s Star Wars and City advent calendars have been a holiday staple for years, so it’s a little surprising it took this long for Marvel to get one, but the wait was worth it. The mix behind the 24 doors is genuinely well balanced — a good spread of small vehicles, gadgets, and character minifigures rather than padding out the count with filler pieces, and getting a new Guardians character or item revealed each day for a month has a real novelty to it that a single big set doesn’t offer.

As with any advent calendar, the individual builds are necessarily tiny and simple, so this isn’t the set to reach for if you want a substantial building session on any single day. But as a first outing for LEGO Marvel in this format, it’s a confident one, and it’s an easy recommendation for any Guardians fan looking for a low-stakes, spread-out way to get some genuinely fun little builds and minifigures.

What I Liked

  • Well-balanced mix of vehicles, gear, and character minifigures across the 24 doors
  • Genuinely fun day-by-day reveal format
  • Good value for a first-of-its-kind licensed calendar
  • Solid entry point into LEGO Marvel minifigures

What I Didn’t

  • Individual daily builds are necessarily tiny and simple
  • Seasonal-only availability makes it hard to find outside the holidays

The Verdict

Rating: 4/5

A confident first outing for LEGO Marvel’s advent calendar format — well worth it for any Guardians fan.

Where to Buy