Christmas Eve. On his way to his in-laws with his family, Frank Harrington decides to try a shortcut, for the first time in 20 years. It turns out to be the biggest mistake of his life. (source: IMDB)

While Ray Wise did a big mistake to try a shortcut, leading his family to a grim end, I did a big mistake trusting Youtube reviews, leading our Saturday horror eve to a ditch.

It wasn’t so bad that we wanted to stop watching before the end, but we had more than a few (maybe even too many) “What the fuck?” moments. We even cried of laughter, so bad it was. It felt as if we were tripping.

I wouldn’t advise this movie to anyone, unless you’re a die-hard Twin Peaks fan and you want to see Leland Palmer cry one more time “Lauraaaaa”. Yep, his daughter in the movie is also named Laura…

A bunch of teens get trapped in an escape room, but is it really designed to let them escape? If you need a synopsis to know what this movie is about, I wonder how you even made it to the internet.

Both movies were entertaining enough for our Saturday horror evenings. They aren’t bad movies but Taylor Russell (Lost in Space) did most of the heavy lifting.

Since I don’t have much to say about these movies, here is a trivia:

After the death of five Polish teenagers, killed by fire in a real-life tragedy which occurred within an escape room in Poland, the release date of the film was pushed back a few months in a number of countries out of respect for the girls who died. (source: IMDB)

I’ve just completed the Far Cry 5 DLC – Hours of Darkness and it has been one of my best gaming time ever.

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.