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Preordered from ShopTo and it arrived on Saturday.

Spoke to some players online and oddly they'd ordered from other places (Simply Games, Games Collection) and had it delivered the same day as me.

[Aliens Fireteam Elite]

Aliens Fireteam Elite - I've never really enjoyed Aliens-related games but this one does a good job.  It's a three-player co-op thing and from an action/level-design point of view it's reasonably generic but the aliens themselves move like aliens and feel suitably dangerous.

I'm enjoying it a lot.

Here's some good stuff.

Bob Vylan - a sort of mix of punk and grime with a good anti-racist message.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFqhJyvly1g


Twelve Foot Ninja - decent modern metal band. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC3lfCk7qnE


WH Lung - really good indie band.  I'm addicted to this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIuOXYkdLv4

[Mortal kombat Arcade Kollection]

Mortal kombat Arcade Kollection

Got to say, I was in diapers when the first three MK were released, so i won't say anything that would spoil for number of gamers who grew up with these.
This collection definitely seems like nice trip to memory lane; if wasn't for just nerve-racking difficulty. I don't think I ever beaten max three opponents in the row without being arse kicked. And that's on very easy difficulty. But my sense of pride keeps me off going to uninstall, yet. We'll see.

I was always a fan of MK1 and 2.  And Trilogy.  They've not aged all that well and if you think the difficulty is a problem now, wait until you get to Goro or Shao Khan.  Absolutely miserable fights.

[Ted Lasso]

Ted Lasso - surprisingly likeable.  That said, I thought it went too far with the Christmas episode.  Absolutely full of saccharine sappiness at the expense of any comedy.  I'm hoping this week's episode remembers to be funny.

It was so bad that it reminded me of the time that I saw an advert for Gavin and Stacey and it mostly seemed to be people just saying normal shit to each other like 'are you alright, nan?' without any jokes.

Rewatching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - much better than the last three films but I have to admit season 2 has massively lost its way.  I've got 5 or 6 episodes left.

Miracle Workers - surprisingly brilliant Daniel Harry-Potter comedy vehicle.  They're up to season 3 and each season is entirely different but somehow the gags keep landing.  That said, this is the weakest season so far but it's good and very digestible at just 20 mins per episode.

[The Toll]

I've been busy with films.

The Toll - 80 minute road horror.  A bit limited in scope and budget but a well put together horror film.  Even though I'm an '80s horror fan, I love the fact that we get so many decent horror films these days with fairly unique ideas.  A solid 7/10, watch once kind of effort. 

Predators - I wanted to see if I still don't like it.  It's not great.  But to be fair I like all of it until Laurence Fishburne turns up.  Then the momentum sort of disappears.  By the end I was bored.  And the lack of an ending makes it even more frustrating.  Has moments though. 

Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard - A generic action/comedy starring the generic Ryan Reynolds.  Every single modern action/comedy trick is used.  Action sequences set to kooky '80s pop hits etc.  Elevated considerably by Salma Hayek though who is brilliant in it.

Jeruzalem - low budget, low effort Cloverfield rip off.  Remember how Blair Witch got 95% of its tension from them just being lost in the woods?  Well this gets 95% of its tension from you watching girls getting a bit lost in Jerusalem.  Throw in some okayish demon things and you've got a weak horror film but not a terrible one.

Reservoir Dogs - I'm thinking of doing the entire QT run.  I love RD.  Oddly I didn't like it much in the cinema when it came out but now I love it.

Friday the 13th - the first one.  I'm a fan of the Fridays generally, much more so than Halloween (which I find insufferably dull).  Hadn't seen this one in so long that I'm not actually sure if I ever saw it at all.  Anyway, it was surprisingly good.  Not nearly as dated as I feared it'd be.

Meander - girl stuck in a pipe.  Basically its that film Cube but worse.

Terminator Salvation - much like Preds, I wanted to see if I still hate it.  Boy, I sure do.  The problem with Salvation is that there is nothing interesting in it.  Not enough Terminators, boring characters, lacklustre setpieces, stupid ending, even more stupid CGI Arnie.  Absolute shit.

Campfire Tales - middling horror anthology.  Has a couple of good ideas but not brilliantly executed.

The Suicide Squad - I can't say I've really liked a DC film since Superman 2 back in 1980 but that changed with this film.  I know it's not exactly high art but it was pretty funny, had good action and I was never bored.  Harley Quinn was as tolerable as I've seen her and even Idris isn't bad.  Loved it.

A Quiet Place 1 & 2 - hmmm.  I really like AQP when I first saw it but when I rewatched it to then watch AQP2 I ended up not liking it as much.  You can blame that squarely on the liability kids in both films.  Insufferable little fuckers.  Also, for sure don't have a baby when noise will get you torn apart immediately.  America has this thing in films/TV where babies trump everything and it often ruins the story.  Did you ever see Battlestar Galactica?  The guy's robot girlfriend gets pregnant and he immediately forgives her for her significant part in destroying all of humanity.  But anyway, AQP is still good but not as good as I thought.  AQP2 was a bit dull and stupid, much less enjoyable.

Blood Red Sky - decent mix of airplane heist and vampire horror.  Good concept, well executed.  Only let down by another liability kid.

How it Ends - super pretentious end of the world comedy.  Entirely up its own arse but I somehow enjoyed it.

Straight to Hell - Repo Man is my all-time favourite film, so I figured I'd see what else Alex Cox has done.  Oh boy, this was pure dogshit.  Although Joe Strummer and Dick Rude were okay in it.

I should probably add this to my Scream site, but it's such a vague connection to the real Scream stories.

[Breaking Bad]

Breaking Bad

I'm like 10 years late to this one and as such have absolutely nothing to add that hasn't been said already.
Yeah. Great show. Except for Season 5, man I don't know what it was (besides the massive downgrade in antagonist quality) that just made it all a bit meh, especially coming off of the anxiety inducing Season 4, the finale of which has shot its way into my favourite episodes list.

This!

S5 was pretty bad and yeah they went from fighting the cartel to just going up against meth-head rednecks.

Oh man.  My attempt to quote that post previously went wrong.  But you get what I was saying.

[THE GOONIES]

THE GOONIES

I never saw it as a child and only got to watch it about 5 years ago.

It wasn't great.  I think the problem was that all the characters were dialled up to 11 so it was just a constant onslaught of unrealistic interactions.

If you'd told me the kids were all mentally disabled somehow, it would make sense.

Anne Ramsey is always great though.




Bit rubbish isn't it?

[Spiral]

Spiral

Set in the Saw universe.  It's not one of the better ones (1, 4 or 6) but that's no surprise as it was directed by the guy that made 2, 3 and 5. 

But it's not terrible and it's reasonably short.  I didn't mind it.

I've had mixed feelings about Deliverance but I read the whole thing today and it definitely benefits from that rather than reading it every month for nine months.

At first I thought it was pretty average and it certainly isn't up there with The Torture Garden.  I think it just didn't have enough Death in it and Rosco wasn't nearly as interesting this time around.  Last time we saw the horror through her and Pousay's eyes but this time it wasn't nearly as shocking.  I didn't much buy into the death cult story either.

Whisper was pretty interesting though and the ending was good.  I enjoyed it today.

[spoiler]Weirdly spoilerific cover.[/spoiler]

..starring Barbara Crampton..

Already interested!

The best thing about 1995 Mortal Kombat is Trevor Goddard's depiction of Kano.

Oddly the Kano in the new one is the best thing about it also!

Halfway through 2021 and still can't get my hands on a PS5 for love nor money.

Anyone know if pre-orders are available from any UK / ROI retailers?

Because I've googled it once or twice for friends, most days I get a story on the default page of Chrome on my Android phone about companies who are expecting stock.  No idea if they are accurate though.  I think that people like Curry's let you sign up for the chance to have one reserved but it's a bit of a lottery.

[Astalon: Tears of the Earth]

I'm playing a thing called Astalon: Tears of the Earth.  Because it's a modern indie game it is mandatory for it to be a roguelite platformer with 8-bit visuals and that'd normally put me off but the level design is really good and it's keeping me playing when I should really be reviewing other things.  I like it a lot.