Set-up and pay-off are two things that are key to telling any good story – whether aiming for a satisfying ending to an epic or trying to land a great joke in a comedy, a punchline or story beat that comes from nowhere is bound to leave your audience unimpressed and unfulfilled.
Read more "Not All Set-Up Is Created Equal"When a friend showed me a trailer for Crimson Desert, I was a bit bemused. He was excited because it looked like a mix of “The Witcher 3 and a Souls game”. I wasn’t planning to buy the game, but a key came free with my new graphics card: So here I am reviewing a game that cost me nothing, but on paper offers nearly everything.
Read more "It’s All To Play For – Crimson Desert Review"When Ridley Scott’s The Martian did gangbusters in 2015, adapting another of Andy Weir’s novels was a bankable inevitability. Just over a decade later, the dynamic directing duo of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have brought us the similarly sunny Project Hail Mary. The film follows Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) as he awakens on a spaceship, finding he’s the last alive of a three-strong crew and with no idea who he is or where he is.
Read more "In Space No One Can Hear you Beam – Project Hail Mary review"At time of writing, I have 124.7 hours in Remnant II. I’ve beat the game on the middle-ish difficulty, and all the DLC campaigns on the middle-high difficulty. Despite this, I’ll drop this curious bomb: I only kind of like this game.
Read more "Souls-Like, But Not Souls-Love – A Remnant II feature"I’m no stranger to the Survival game bug…I’m happy to report that there’s finally another cool kid on the block: Abiotic Factor (2025) from developer Deep Field Games.
Read more "Don’t F**k With The Science Team! – Abiotic Factor Review"For newcomers and vampire veterans alike, Nosferatu (2024) presents a gripping tale of romance, loneliness and lust. Eggers has proved that Gothic horror cinema never died – it was just waiting for the sun to set to slink out of its coffin.
Read more "Count Me In – Nosferatu (2024) Review"So, it’s another one of these posts again, is it? A catch-up/ where-have-I-been type posts? You betcha! However, there will be some creative stuff in the end section, I promise. So, let’s get to it and start filling in the blanks as to what’s been going on with me for since June 2023.
Read more "Hasn’t It Been a While?"JUST BECAUSE YOU THINK SOMETHING IS GOOD, THAT DOES NOT MAKE IT OBJECTIVELY GOOD.
As I said in March, this goes for any kind of criticism or opinion, but it was another post for another time – and that time is now.
Read more "Don’t be an Artshole: How to discuss art without being an arse about it"An anthology is always an interesting prospect. Whether it’s flash fiction, short films or short comics, sometimes it’s just nice to dig into a collection of bite-sized stories. However, I can see why anthologies may put people of: Not everyone likes shorter media and the potential downsides it brings; it can also be tricky if you don’t connect with many of the stories or overarching themes within a collection.
Read more "Monsters in the Cupboard – Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities review"Nostalgia is a wonderfully warm, fuzzy feeling: It might be brought on by the jingle of a long-forgotten advert or sitting down to play the games we used to love as a child. The sense of comfort, familiarity, and sometimes “feeling like a kid again” is hard to match. Today’s post wont focus on the incessant weaponization/ monetisation of our nostalgia, but the more human angle of what our nostalgia means to us. And, more specifically, the problem with getting too attached to those warm fuzzies.
Read more "Nostalgia Goggles"
