Spacewocket
It means nothing but it sounds good.

Author: Sardoken

Unsolved Mysteries

By Sardoken on

The iconic series UNSOLVED MYSTERIES is back. Fusing signature elements from the original series with contemporary immersive, character-driven storytelling. (source: IMDB)

To be honest, I didn’t know that it was a reboot… We watched it during our July holidays and we had a great time. I think that the narrative and the camera work are what’s making this show so entertaining.

Ok, we’re mysteries fans and we love to come up with our own theories about what happened, but this show is as much about the way the story is told as it is about the actual mysteries. Don’t take this the wrong way, some mysteries made us curious… But it just can’t rival with cases like the murder of Teresa Halbach, which, to this day, remains the murder mystery I am the most curious about.

Anyway, if, like us, you enjoy to have your curiosity piqued with mysterious unsolved cases, this show will surely entertain you. Good news: there will be a second part with 6 more episodes!

5 PM

By Sardoken on

One of the greatest features of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the hourly tune. While we love all musics from the game, our favourite is 5 PM. This smooth jazz tune with a touch of 70s bass is an instant shot of good mood.

The Order – Season 1 & 2

By Sardoken on

Cute teens werewolves fighting off cute teens witches on a beautiful university campus… As if every word in this sentence wasn’t enough to get us hooked, they had to invite special guests like Ian Ziering and Jason Priestley. Honestly, I hope that this show gets renewed for 10 more seasons because it makes our week-end lunches so enjoyable.

Sharknado

By Sardoken on

I won’t lie, we thought about stopping the movie several times, but we eventually made it until the end. The acting is bad, the scenario is ridiculous, the camera work is pathetic and the effects are among the worse I’ve ever seen.


Yet, as we are comfortably installed in our living room, far from the dangers of the US West Coast, we both agree: we had a good evening watching Sharknado.

As I was searching for a screenshot to use in the post, I stumbled upon this image:

Really, sharks in space? Now, that makes me wanna watch the next chapters.

Luther

By Sardoken on

So we’ve watched all the seasons of Luther during our lunchtimes of the past weeks (home working for life) and this is what I’ll remember from it:

  • Idris Alba is a badass;
  • There are a lot of sick people in London (cancel my next visit);
  • Never befriend a serial killer;
  • The theme of the show is performed by Massive Attack and it is excellent.

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

By Sardoken on

Another consequence of the Covid Pandemic was the cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest and that’s super sad because it’s one of the best evening of the year.

Thanks to this movie, we had a taste of our favourite contest. It may not have filled the gap, but the duo Ferrell-McAdams made us laugh and brought a welcome Eurosong touch to this disastrous year.

Lately, we’ve seen contestants trying to adapt their act to the standards of nowadays pop music… But Fire Saga reflects what I think Eurovision is about: a celebration of individuality where people from all over Europe bring something different.

Now, let’s hope that 2021 comes fast.

Deconfined and Swimming

By Sardoken on

My first week back at the office felt horrible. The day before the big come back, my left ear got inflamed, probably because of allergies, so I felt like crap before it even begun. I also had a little problem under my right foot which made walking painful. At the office, people didn’t care much about social distancing, I spent the day walking backwards to keep a safe distance. As if it wasn’t enough, I had an allergic reaction to soy (my kryptonite) on Friday.

Happily, we can now swim in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and it is super fun, especially doing cannonballs and meeting Pascal, the wisdom otter.

Thimbleweed Park

By Sardoken on
I remember this kitchen from somewhere…

It seems that I’ve been catching back on games that were on my list for much too long. It may have to do with the fact that we’ve quit a long-played MMORPG that was taking all our precious free time…

The very first game that I’ve ever completed in my life was Maniac Mansion on C64. From the moment that I had figured how to use the key that was hidden under the doormat to open the front door, I was sold to point-and-click games. Since then, I’ve been playing a lot of them, mostly on Amiga and PC.

Even if many of these games are excellent, my favourite ones have always been those developped by Ron Gilbert. So, it is no surprise that I highly enjoyed playing Thimbleweed Park. I love everything about it, the graphics, the setting, the characters, the music, the voices, the sense of humour and the dialogs. Thimbleweed Park is very high on my top ten favourite games of all times, it could actually be my number one.

Things I didn’t know about the game:

  • Many names found in the game’s phone book are from Kickstarter backers from around the world. When you call their numbers, you will hear individual messages from them;
  • Dr. Fred, Nurse Edna, and one of the tentacles from the game Maniac Mansion attend Ransom’s performance;
  • Ransom’s insults are censored. However, for 0,79€, you can purchase a DLC that enables the unbeeped voice;
  • From the start, Gilbert says, they wanted to parody the TV shows Twin Peaks, The X-Files, and True Detective.

The King of Staten Island

By Sardoken on

Friday was warm, so warm that our traditional pizza-gaming eve got replaced by a pizza-movie eve. But what movie to watch when there’s barely any air to breathe?

I don’t know why we decided to watch The King of Staten Island… To be honest, the trailer and the tattoos were probably the selling point. Anyway, we watched it with greater pleasure than we anticipated. The King of Staten Island created a nice chill vibe over our week-end and it still hasn’t left.

While not much happens, the ambiance is great and Scott is a very attaching character with an amazing t-shirt collection, his sense of humour was balancing perfectly the dramatic undertones of the movie.

AI in Adventure Games

By Sardoken on

Yesterday, while watching an episode of Westworld, I thought about how cool it would be if point-and-click games would use an AI… Instead of scripted characters who are always at the same place, saying the same things, we could find them speaking to each other, wander around, have different dialog lines following their moods.

For example, we would enter Thimbleweed Park and Delores could be home but she could also be at the arcade or at the dinner, living her own life.

Of course, there would be boundaries, for the sake of the story, but everything else would be left to the AI. I could spend days looking at game characters interact with the environment and with each other in a completely unpredictable and unscripted way.