We had two movies for that Saturday evening and we wanted to keep The Colour out of Space for another time because we were tired and afraid to fall asleep before the end. Since we’re not really fans of Stephen King, we thought that Doctor Sleep would be a safe choice.
We got very surprised by the movie. While it’s not really the advertised sequel to The Shining because, let’s face it, there can’t be a sequel to such a classic, it felt like a great spin-off.
What made it so good is that there was a real sense of danger. It may come down to a personal preference but I find a bunch of children-killing-carnies scarier than a children-eating-clown. Also, Rebecca Ferguson was frightful as Rose the Hat.
We had a great evening with the doctor and he didn’t put us to sleep. (I just couldn’t help myself)
I can’t believe what I’m about to write, but I don’t enjoy Doom Eternal. In fact, it has been the low point of my week-end.
The game is visually stunning, the music is cool and I really enjoy the character customisation. As in the previous Doom, my favourite part is to discover the hidden secrets.
However, the action scenes are pretty frustrating due to the lack of ammunitions. I usually don’t mind searching for ammo crates and I even enjoy replaying a scene once or twice just to make sure I collected everything, but having to switch the chainsaw in order to get restocked disrupts the action and works on my nerves.
Maybe, I’m getting to old to change habits that were built throughout decades of gaming. But, reading the comments on forums, it doesn’t seem like I’m the only one frustrated by this.
Why not giving us a fun shooter where you decimate the legions of hell in a non-stop action spree? After all isn’t it what Doom is all about?
I’ll probably give it another try when the bitter taste of this launch week-end has faded…
Since New Year’s eve, I’ve been concerned with many things but the pandemic wasn’t one of them.
Today is the first day that I have to stay home because of the virus. In fact, I’ve just received a mail from the manager of my team, we officially don’t have access to the office anymore.
Half of me feels like Ferris Bueller, the other half like Rick Grimes.
The building and the street are very quiet. The neighbours are not slamming their doors, you can’t hear many cars in the street, the kids are not shouting on their way back from school, even the birds seem more silent than usual.
It should feel strange, it just feels good. The world is on pause.
I haven’t been posting much since the beginning of 2020… I was too busy being adrift, but all it took to put an end to my inertia was a worldwide crisis. Or was it the near release of Doom Eternal?
I want to keep track of the changes that I make to my setup. On the picture above, you can see the PCs that Inge and I have built in April.
Displays
The displays have already been replaced by Asus PG279Q (27”-1440px-Gsync) because the refresh rate of the LG 4k screens was too low for gaming. Even if the refresh rate of the Asus display is amazing, one of the 2 screens had dead pixels in the middle and they both have a bit of backlight bleed. We could get the screen with dead pixels replaced, but the BLB remains on both screens. I don’t wanna sound like an elitist but with such a high price tag, the overall build of the Asus screen was underwhelming and I think that I’ll go back to BenQ when the 4K with high refresh rates will become cheaper.
PC parts
NZXT 500 white;
Asus Maximus XI hero;
Intel Core I9-9900k;
Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Series 16 Go (2x 8 Go) DDR4 3200 Mhz;
ASUS GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER ROG-STRIX-RTX2070S-O8G-GAMING;
Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1 To;
Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500 Go;
Corsair Hydro Series H115i PRO;
Corsair RM850x White MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD 850 WATT EU VERSION.
It’s the second time that I trust the reviews about EVGA, and it’s the second time that I’m disappointed. A few years ago, we had to wait an update of the software to be able to enjoy the full fan speed on our GTX 1080, this time it’s Inge’s GPU that got fried after only a few months of light use. We’ve replaced hers with an ASUS RTX STRIX 2070 O8C and mine is on the way. We will keep my old GPU on the side as spare part.
As creepy as the first chapter, this conjuring movie takes the Warrens to a haunted house in London… On top of the classic jump scares, the demon pulling the strings is a vicious entity set on widowing Lorraine. If you’re being attentive at the beginning of the movie, you will notice the demon’s name being spelled several times in the Warren’s house, and knowing a demon’s name is holding dominion over it.
The first thing you should do is watch this video (as far as you can), where Liv Tyler gives us a tour of her NYC house. Then, tell me how far you made it without wanting to bash her head with a sledgehammer…
Since we enjoyed The Strangers 2 last week-end, we thought that we would give a try to the first movie from 2008, especially knowing that it features Liv Tyler and that we would probably get to see her being murdered.
Unfortunately, even if the tension is well built, the movie is horribly slow. Liv is as horrible in the movie as she is in real life, all she does is cry and get hysterical.
Creating the right level of tension takes time, but when it’s time to deliver the movie fails. To that regard the sequel was much better, actually it was better at everything.
A vampire reappears every 9 years to kill people, she also seems able to travel through time.
Of course, nobody believes the cop in charge of the investigation. As a result, he gradually loses his mind trying to figure out the mystery.
Unfortunately, everything is revealed during a never-ending dialogue that put me to sleep. I still don’t know why the time-traveller vampire was killing all these people and I will probably never know because I’ve lost all interest. It wasn’t badly acted though, but that’s about all I can say about the movie.
When Sabrina receives the same treatment as Archie, occult, witchcraft, teenagers and gloom blend together to offer one of my favourite show of the year.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is the perfect example of why we shouldn’t trust comments on IMDB (or anywhere else). While they (who even are these people?) depict it as a missed opportunity, I see it as a near perfect show. Not only does it check all the boxes of my favourite themes, but the show is also the perfect mix between entertainment and aesthetic.
The second season is as good, if not better than the first. Even if Sabrina remains at the crossroads between the world of the humans and the world of the witches, we’re done with her crisis of conscience and the story moves forward to unveil her dark fate.
By the way, if you have already seen the show Sabrina, The Teenage Witch from 1996, you probably wonder why Salem, her cat, doesn’t speak in the new show… It’s because Kiernan Shipka is so allergic to cats that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa even considered replacing it by a dog. (source: finally something interesting from IMDB)
What makes a celebration better some years than others? I have no idea but yesterday’s Halloween night was a great one.
Inge had spent her morning preparing her infamous Pumpkin Pastas, so we would just have to warm them up later… Not only is it the most Halloweenish meal possible but it is also a real delight!
We started our horror spree by watching Halloween (1978), which remains the best slasher ever made. I just love everything, the setting, the ambiance, the music and the actors. It’s the perfect movie to start a great Halloween night.
We then watched 2 episodes of last season of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. I won’t get too much in the details now because that TV Show is so incredibly good that it deserves its own blog post. Let’s just say that I’m becoming a great fan of Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa.
Our main movie for the night was Annabelle Comes Home and I loved it. While being more softcore than the usual Conjuring movies, Annabelle was great and gave us a few welcome jump scares on this scary night. I was happy to see an entire movie about the safe room of the Warrens, even if that room probably deserves more than a single movie. I was also very happy to see the couple Farmiga-Wilson, I kinda grew attached to them.
Something weird happen during the movie though… As we were watching Annabelle, the candle lights reached their ends one after another, which is normal since they had been burning for hours. What was not normal however, is that the lights inside of our electric decorations (see picture) were also all turned off. When we checked, the buttons were still on the “ON” positions. Also, the batteries were new, I had placed them myself. So, or we’ve been visited last night, or those electric decorations have a secret auto-off mode (which is not documented anywhere, I just checked).
Halloween 2019 was a great one and I’m already sad that it is over. We won’t remove the decorations before the end of our holidays (still 11 days, yeah!).
Anyway, when you’re a horror fan, it’s a bit Halloween all year.
