The weekend has arrived yet again with all the momentum of a fat person rolling down a hill, and that means it’s time to play games, watch movies, eat junk-food and generally celebrate being alive!
So, my time has almost exclusively been spent on Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey which I plan on reviewing really soon, but suffice to say it’s pretty freaking awesome! It’s so good that when I’m not playing it I think about playing it, and that’s the mark of something special. At the moment I’m mostly piling in side-quests and loving hunting down epic loot.
But I’m also in the middle of playing Call of Cthulhu, the new Lovecraft inspired first-person mystery/horror game from Focus Home Interactive. Again, a review will be coming fairly soon but for now I think it has some good ideas but suffers from its low budget and some horrible stealth mechanics.
I went into the cinema this weekend to watch the new Halloween and walked out feeling pretty happy. They did a fantastic job of making Micheal Myers feel terrifying once again, his seemingly unstoppable march through Haddonfield sending the town into a state of panic that I loved. As for Laurie Strode they made her feel strong yet broken, the shadow of Micheal having been looming over her for forty years. She’s spent all that time preparing for the return of Micheal, and sacrificed her relationship with her daughter and grandaughter in the process. For her the trauma didn’t just end once Micheal was captured, but for the audience it does mean we get a kickass Laurie Strode who is willing to go toe-to-toe with the personification of evil. To that end the film cleverly mirrors shots from the original movie.
And speaking of that the film looks great. Naturally given the bigger budget and modern technology the whole presentation is much more detailed but more than that they managed to capture the style of the first movie while improving upon it. There are some terrific tracking shots that follow Micheal through a few houses.
Truth be told, the new Halloween could never been as good as the original because the original came out in a very different time. I didn’t go into the cinema expecting that same experience as when I saw the original Halloween for the first time, and thus came out having really enjoyed it. I think this new sequel is the best of the sequels.
I just picked up the first Halloween on 4K Blu-ray as well, so I’m really hyped to watch that on or near the 31st of October. The reviews I read all seem to agree that the 4K edition is a nice step-up in detail.
As we near Halloween I’ve been going on my horror movie binge, so the other day I watched You’re Next which is one of my favourite home-invasion style movies. As you might guess it involves some people laying siege to a house, but we also get a pretty badass female protagonist, some visceral violence and intimidating attackers. Well worth a watch, in my opinion. I think it’s even on Netflix.
You should also check out What We Do In The Shadows which comes from the mind of the man who directed Thor: Ragnarok. Basically, it’s a mockumentary following a houseful of eccentric vampires and strikes a superb balance between being kind of creepy and just downright hilarious. The style of humour is an acquired taste, but if the idea of a vampire missing the artery in the neck and spurting blood everywhere appeals to you then go watch it. It’s bloody brilliant.
So what have you guys been playing, watching and reading this weekend?
