I’ve just completed the Far Cry 5 DLC – Hours of Darkness and it has been one of the best moment in my gamer life.

I forgot how much I loved to watch Vietnam-war era movies. From Full Metal Jacket to Apocalypse now, I was obsess by Vietnam when I was a kid. It was one of my longest phases, just after astronaut and before surfer. Yep, those were the days I would change my entire life (meaning re-decorating my bedroom) because of a movie. Trust me, you didn’t want to know me after Ghostbusters… Anyway, Vietnam movies had such an impact on me that my mum had to drive me to American supply shops on Saturday afternoons, so I could buy U.S. military gear.

Playing Hours of Darkness just brought me back to these times. Don’t worry, as tempting as it may be, I won’t run around my neighborhood dressed like a G.I., I’ve grown up! But it was nice completing objectives in a jungle setting. I really wish that a good Vietnam war game was made, but I understand that the topic might not be as popular as it once was…

The picture above is displayed at the end of the game, after you have successfully reached the extraction point. It gets populated in function of the challenges that you’ve completed during your run. Then, the credits start rolling and one of the most amazing song starts playing (it starts at 0:33):

Thank you, Ubisoft, for making me discover The Cambodian Space Project.

For the story, Kak Channthy (c.1980 – 20 March 2018) was a Cambodian singer and vocalist, she has been described as “the barefoot diva of the Cambodian rice fields”. She formed the Cambodian psychedelic rock band “The Cambodian Space Project” with her Australian husband Julien Poulson and worked as the lead singer and songwriter releasing 5 albums and touring 24 countries around the world. (source: Wikipedia)

Sometimes, you have the feeling that you’ve seen or heard it all but, really, you don’t.

Fighting cultists, liberating outposts, finding caches, making awesome friends (among which a bear named cheeseburger), fishing, hunting, driving all sorts of vehicles on the ground and in the air… All of that in beautiful Montana while wearing a crazy dog mask and using a sniper rifle with pink led lights, this game was made for me!

There are so many things to enjoy in Far Cry 5 but what I love most is the sense of humour. Here is the perfect example (content spoilers):

After liberating Hope’s end, the cook of the Spread Eagle asks you to help him restore the “Bull Testicle Festival” to its former glory. To do so, you must go cut a few bulls’ balls off for the barbecue. The tricky part is that you have to do it while they are mating, otherwise it wouldn’t taste as good (duh!). So, after following the quest tracker, you finally reach a farm where a bunch of unsuspecting bulls are living their best lives. Before doing the gruesome deed, you first have to free the cows that are kept behind a fence. As just as the padlock is broken, the cows start mixing with the bulls and, as the bulls and cows are mating right before your eyes, the game plays the song “Sexual Healing” by Lionel Ritchie. I don’t think that I’ve had such a fantastic moment in video games since… Ever!

It took me 60 hours to reach the end and I haven’t hundred-percented it yet.

My only regret was the lack of achievements on Steam. I’m now faced with a dilemma: should I purchase New Dawn on Ubisoft Connect or Steam? While I like to have all my games in one place, I enjoy unlocking achievements very much. In the end, I prefer to see how many hours I played a game from my Steam library than unlocking Ubisoft Connect achievement where I have zero friends. Meanwhile, Soforah is unlocking Steam achievements in AC Odyssey on Steam… Consistency, people!

We’ve finally watched the final season of Ozark. While there was definitely something good in the show, there was also much I hated, starting by the Byrds. I hate them so much and I’m not sure that it’s only because of the characters. Laura Linney’s voice worked on my nerves since the first episode and Patrick Bateman always plays the same way in all of his appearances.

There are two reasons why I came back for more:

1. Ruth Langmore. She’s absolutely fantastic, the character and the actress (Julia Garner) who portrays her. To me, she carried the entire show.

I especially loved the episode where a vengeful Ruth listens to NAS – NY State of Mind. I didn’t even know that song and I’m heavy on 90s music.

I know that it’s a very controversial opinion. But, even weeks later, nothing can change my mind.

2. Warning: spoilers.

I made it until the end because I wanted so much to see Wendy Bird’s head explode with a Cartel bullet. Why did this have to happen to Ruth instead of her? The ending felt like a ruined orgasm after having been wanked for five seasons.

In my backlog, there are the games that I bought because I’m loyal to a franchise, there are the games that I bought because of the hype, and there are the games that I’m so sure I’ll enjoy, I don’t dare to play. I keep them for a fabled perfect moment which, of course, never comes, so they stay in my backlog for years… Until the day I finally decide that it’s been long enough and I finally play them.

That day has come for the final season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead.

I love episodic adventure games, I love Telltale games and I love The Walking Dead, what could go wrong, right?! Well, beside Telltale shutting down right in the middle of the final season, absolutely nothing… The game is awesome, as good, if not even better than the other seasons.

Clementine is still amazing, a total badass, but it’s especially A.J. that surprised me. I get easily annoyed by kids, usually in movies, especially in games. It’s so rare that a kid as main protagonist doesn’t get so bratty that you want to yell at him (Gus in Sweet Tooth – the TV show, Daniel in Life is Strange 2,…), but A.J. isn’t like that. Beside a few moral conflicts, he doesn’t easily whine. In fact, he becomes the perfect side-kick and you’re the one who becomes dependent on him, not the other way around.

The game in itself is fantastic, it doesn’t overwhelm you neither with waves of monsters nor too long drama scenes. There are a few twists, sometimes sad, sometimes happy and sometimes OMFG! In short, the usual recipe for a perfect Telltale moment.

What I feared the most finally happened, I’ve finally reached the end of the adventure. Keeping it in my backlog was my way to keep it going on. Now that I’ve played it, even if I’m happy that it received the end that it deserved, I’m sad that I won’t get to live new adventures with Clem and A.J.. Until, of course, the new Telltale studios, announces a new season or, eventually, the day I’ll miss it so much that I’ll do a replay of the entire series.

In an isolated Oregon town, a middle-school teacher and her sheriff brother become embroiled with her enigmatic student, whose dark secrets lead to terrifying encounters with an ancestral creature. (source: IMDB)

Antlers is an adaptation of Nick Antosca’s short story, “The Quiet Boy” and is Scott Cooper’s first foray into horror filmmaking. Cooper was guided by a hands-on producer and mentor, Guillermo del Toro – the “Monster Maestro” – and it shows.

The creature is impressive, terrifying even, but it’s the boy, Lucas (portrayed by Jeremy T. Thomas), who creates the entire ambiance. He’s awkward, secretive and carries his dark secret like a shadow that engulfs the entire town (which is the same town where Rambo – First Blood was shot).

The disturbing sight of a young boy in such a filthy state added to the poverty that surrounds the townsfolk contribute to keeping the horror grounded in the reality.

Antlers is the real deal, from ambiance to creature creation, it’s what horror should be.

I could copy/paste the synopsis from IMDB, but it’s useless as the plot goes like this: “Make no sound or the beasts will come for you. Oh, and humans are dangerous too”. It’s pretty much the plot of any survival movie/TV show in the last two decades. Why do I sound as unenthusiastic? I’m trying to figure this out for 3 months now and I still don’t know. Actually this post has been like an intestinal obstruction (follow this link, you won’t regret it), preventing me to write the 6 next posts that are on my todo list since January. It’s as if I couldn’t write anything as long as this post wasn’t out of the way.

But, it isn’t as bad as it sounds… I guess the movie reflects what I think about Emily Blunt. Most of the time that she plays in a movie, from Funny Games to Sicario, I’m left with absolutely no feelings. I don’t hate these movies, but I don’t like them either. (with one exception to this rule: Windchill, which I really enjoyed ). But it’s just an analogy, I don’t think that Emily Blunt makes these movies “tasteless”. However, there’s definitely a connection.

Anyway, A quiet place II is a decent sequel to an average movie. I wouldn’t advise my future self against a rewatch. I would maybe see something I didn’t during the first viewing. I definitely wouldn’t rewatch it during a great week-end though, more when I’m sick with the flu, wrapped in a blanket.

It started 15 years ago, maybe more, I’m not certain, but I remember buying the first book… It was in Brussels and we were about to have some time off at home. As usual, we were stockpiling cool stuff for our holidays and we purchased the first tome of The Walking Dead. Yesterday evening, I’ve finally read the last page of the last book. Now, I feel sad at the idea that there won’t be another book to purchase for our next holidays. On the other hand, I’m very happy with the end and I’m glad that Robert Kirkman could bring it to the conclusion that he wanted.

I gave up on the TV Show a few years ago. It was not good, too slow and over dramatic, but the comic books are amazing from the first page to the last. I’ll probably read them again, one of these days…

Also, the 16 books fit in a single Kallax cube. Coincidence? I think not.

When a snowstorm traps its residents together inside the local inn, newly arrived forest ranger Finn (Sam Richardson) and postal worker Cecily (Milana Vayntrub) must try to keep the peace and uncover the truth behind a mysterious creature that has begun terrorizing the community. (source: IMDB)

It would have been an average “whodunnit” movie with werewolves, wouldn’t have it been for the amazing Milana Vayntrub, another Youtube celeb who’s making her way to Hollywood. If I had to remember one scene from this movie, it would be this one:

I’ll always be an 80s fan but this make me love the 90s (a little).

This time the Purge gets out of hands and doesn’t stops after 24 hours, as white supremacists want to use it as an excuse to purify their country.

Imagine the Purge with cowboys, Indians and even Mexicans… Now imagine it not being a bad movie, actually even a pretty good one… You got the Forever Purge. Even if I miss the “my neighbours want to kill me” kind of tension, I always enjoy a Purge movie because it’s always fast paced and filled with gore, the two ingredients to one of my favourite recipes.

Margot, a young woman who was abandoned by her mother as a baby, travels to a secluded Amish community with a documentary film crew seeking answers about her mother and extended family. (source: IMDB)

We’re huge Paranormal Activity fans. This franchise is our favourite in all horror, we love it so much that we do a complete rerun every summer. So the great question was, for us, to know if Next of Kin would be worthy of its predecessors.

This time, no cool Californian house, but the rural surrounding of an Amish community. So I was a bit afraid, since the trademark of the series had always been an escalating horror happening in cool places, with cool people. However, my worries were set aside as the farmhouse’s secluded and natural environment works really well with the story, making Next of Kin pretty scary.

Is this a “main story” Paranormal Activity? No. Is this a good side story in the franchise? Yes. Will we add it to our yearly rerun? Hell yeah!