Screenshot: Alien Breed: 35th Anniversary Collection I’ve spent my entire life playing video games in one form or another. I’ve been around long enough to say that I’ve seen most major video game and computer game technology as they debuted. While I do collect retro games, the popularity in doing so has made owning some of these bygone games and systems a little bit harder. Especially for those who don’t have the knowledge to use them. That’s why it’s a delight that so many games are acting as interactive documentaries–both showcasing the games in a playable format but also with extensive developer interviews, video game art and box art, etc. Alien Breed 35th Anniversary does exactly that, and for a game series that may be obscure for those in the United States. Screenshot: Alien Breed: 35th Anniversary Collection For those unaware, Alien Breed is essentially what put Team 17 on the map, which they followed up with their fantastic Worms series. Team 17 really pushed the Commodore Amiga hardware to its limit and proved that it could deliver smooth, fast gaming experience to compete with video game consoles of the early 1990s. Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection gives gamers in the west a possible never-before-seen glimpse of European video game history. As a computer gamer in the 90s, I was aware of Alien Breed, but not their overseas significance. Instead, being a huge Alien and Aliens fan, I sought out any excuse to live out my xenomorph blasting fantasies through copyright adjacent franchises like Alien Breed. Not having an Amiga (or probably having any awareness of their existence at the time) I played the Alien Breed DOS ports. While those aren’t available in this package, there are a ton of things for Alien Breed fans and newcomers alike. Screenshot: Alien Breed: 35th Anniversary Collection The Alien Breed 35th Anniversary Collection packages all of the Amiga versions of Alien Breed, which includes 6 games: Alien Breed (1991) Alien Breed: Special Edition (1992) Alien Breed II: The Horror Continues (1993) (Includes both ECS and AGA hardware versions) Alien Breed: Tower Assault (1994) (Includes Amiga and CD32 versions) Alien Breed 3D (1995) (CD32 version) Alien Breed 3D II: The Killing Grounds (1996) In addition to that, there have been some control modernizations and quality of life updates. Twin-stick support has been added, as well as multiple save states and performance boosts. The classic 3D first person shooter entries run better than their classic counterparts. You can also switch aspect ratios between 4:3 and 16:9, as well as add CRT style scan lines to make it more visually like you might have played them back in the day. There is also online multiplayer added, as well as a few extra game modes like a Rush mode and Horde mode. Screenshot: Alien Breed: 35th Anniversary Collection The best part of all of is the interactive archives. There is an archive that is set up as an explorable, in-universe map that resembles an actual Alien Breed level. There is box art, game art, documentaries and interviews with the development team. I think I spent more time watching interviews than playing the actual games. Sadly, while you can pause the movies it doesn’t seem like there’s an ability to scrub through them. So if you lose your place you’re forced to watch the whole thing again. Which is a bummer. Screenshot: Alien Breed: 35th Anniversary Collection If you’re a fan of retro game content, video game history, or just curious about Alien Breed, you should definitely check out this title. I don’t want to get on anyone’s bad side, but I never thought the Alien Breed games were great even for their time, so you sort of have to go into the whole thing with academic curiosity or some thick nostalgia goggles. That’s not to discount this amazing pack of games, or the impact Alien Breed has had on gaming as a whole.

Screenshot: Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War Nintendo Switch 2 I finally got to spend some quality time with the Nintendo Switch 2 ports of some of the best open-world RPGs of all time: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. Both titles are famous for their use of the patented Nemesis system. That is: when an enemy kills you, it comes back stronger—and if it wasn’t a named enemy, you better believe they have a name, and a new rank to show for it. It’s great to have both of these games, chock full of their DLC, all ready to go on the portable Nintendo Switch 2. But man, I wish these ports were better. Those hoping that publisher Warner Bros. and port studio Aspyr would use the Nintendo Switch 2’s hardware to its fullest extent while adding next-generation bells and whistles will be sorely disappointed. Each one of these games has a hard framerate cap of 30 FPS—even while docked. That’s pretty rough, especially for someone like me who played these on PC at over 60 FPS on release. Not only that, but few features are added except for gyro aiming. Shadow of War even had its asynchronous multiplayer features—like Online Vendettas and Fortress Conquests—completely removed for this release. Each of these games is also pretty massive, with Shadow of Mordor taking up 55 GB and Shadow of War requiring a massive 75 GB. Okay, now that the bad is out of the way, let’s talk about the good. Screenshot: Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War Nintendo Switch 2 You get two huge, fantastic games with all of the trimmings. If you played the Batman: Arkham games and liked the combat, Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War have a similar style—just with more options, and more lethality. I mean, Batman’s cool, but playing as a possessed Ranger with a ghost inside you that can turn enemies into allies is fantastic. The combat alone makes these some of the most fun games I’ve played from the previous generation. For Shadow of Mordor you get the “Game of the Year Edition” and with Shadow of War you get the “Definitive Edition.” That includes two story DLCs for each game. That’s already in addition to the whopping 20 (or so) hours it takes to complete each base game. That’s a lot of video game value. And if you missed these games in the previous generation, this is the best time to get in and play them. Especially since Shadow of War was originally riddled with a pointless grind that encouraged you to buy loot boxes to help ease the burden. That was entirely removed back in 2018. Screenshot: Shadow of Mordor/Shadow of War Nintendo Switch 2 Also returning for these ports is the Nemesis Forge. This allows you to take your most loyal follower—and your most hated, ultimate Nemesis—from Shadow of Mordor with you into Shadow of War. It's a brilliant feature that Aspyr actively revived for this release after Warner Bros. discontinued it on other platforms years ago. However, despite these great games being available on the Switch 2, these ports just aren’t great. If you really want to play the games on a portable system, Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War are both Steam Deck certified, and often on deep discount. If you act quickly, you can still grab these on the Nintendo eShop with their 50% launch discount, but make sure your SD card is ready for it.

Screenshot: Mr. Sleepy Man What looked like, on the outside, an homage to strange Japanese retro video games turned into a semi-nightmare journey in a nostalgic dreamscape. Mr. Sleepyman is a retro throwback with modern gameplay sensibilities and classic mechanics. It’s like playing the not-quite-memory of something you experienced as a child. Mr. Sleepy Man is a retro-styled 3D adventure game, specifically a mix of platformer and collectathon. In it, you play as the titular Sleepy Man. All you want to do is go back to sleep, but bizarre characters keep standing between you and your bed, pulling you into a surreal series of errands that feel ripped straight out of a childhood fever dream. Armed with nothing but a pillow to whack enemies and trigger switches, your quest for a little peace and quiet becomes an absurdist sandbox of low-poly chaos. Screenshot: Mr. Sleepy Man While Mr. Sleepy Man is a modern release, it plays heavily to its roots. There is a very Super Mario 64 feeling to the goings-on. There are collectibles you can find that boost how many hits you can take, and others that allow you to open up new “memories” by fixing broken televisions. While the game doesn’t have the tightest controls, it seems to intentionally mimic the somewhat imprecise platforming of the era it's aping. There is combat—mostly consisting of hitting things with your trusty pillow. In fact, a lot of the environmental actions, whether battling enemies or flipping switches, are solved by using your pillow. Despite this simplicity, solo developer FrankieSmileShow keeps finding unique and interesting ways to incorporate it. Screenshot: Mr. Sleepy Man There’s something unsettling about Mr. Sleepy Man’s particular use of the “weirdcore” or “dreamcore” aesthetic. While the theme of the game is cozy with nostalgia and pajamas, that contrast actually amplifies the unsafe atmosphere. While never outright terrifying, there’s a creeping unease about Mr. Sleepy Man that settled into my mind as I lay down at night. It doesn’t help that every NPC you meet is straight out of a half-remembered dream—or nightmare. The game mixes FMV and gameplay in ways that are just as clever as anything Remedy has done with the Control series. And I’d argue it’s even more effective paired with the low-res, low-poly art style here. Screenshot: Mr. Sleepy Man Originally releasing earlier this year on PC, I finally got a chance to play it when it came around to the Nintendo Switch 2. It turns out the spooky season is the perfect time to experience this kind of surreal trip. Mr. Sleepy Man is a niche type of platformer, and it’s a game I would normally run into at an art show or niche curated game convention. It’s absolutely worth playing, especially if you’re into bizarre aesthetics. It’s a clever indie title that strongly feels like you’re playing someone else’s half-remembered childhood, and that’s a vibe some developers can chase their whole careers without succeeding nearly as well as FrankieSmileShow does.

Screenshot: Marvel Wolverine The pre-release discourse surrounding Marvel’s Wolverine was a battleground. Early reviews were notoriously unkind, but upon release, a vocal contingent of players emerged claiming it was actually a misunderstood great. Social media became a whiplash of creators dunking on broken QTEs and "fart trails," immediately followed by earnest defenses of its fun factor. As someone who grew up with Wolverine as a foundational favorite—right alongside the rest of my demographic—I had to see for myself. Unfortunately, the reality leans heavily toward the critics. Wolverine isn't just a flawed action game; it is a fundamental miscalculation of character and storytelling that, frankly, harms Insomniac’s once stellar reputation. Screenshot: Marvel Wolverine Marvel’s Wolverine bills itself as a third-person action-adventure featuring the titular stab-and-slash guru. “Logan is the best at what he does, and what he does isn't very nice.” That tagline alone highlights the tightrope Insomniac had to walk: balancing a protagonist whose actual deeds are monstrous with the heroic framing required for a blockbuster video game. This isn't Spider-Man, who pulls his punches, and miraculously webs foes before they plummet to their deaths. Wolverine, by his own account, doesn’t do very nice things. But Insomniac never fully commits to the necessary grit. Instead, they struggle to figure out what makes Wolverine compelling to a modern audience. The character's explosive popularity was cemented in an era where gross-out cartoons and pure edge were not only novel, but heavily marketable to kids. Stripped of that 90s novelty, and forced to step out of Hugh Jackman’s overpowering cinematic shadow, this iteration of Logan feels surprisingly hollow at best, schmaltzy at worst. Screenshot: Marvel Wolverine Framed properly, and Logan can be as heroic as the best of them. But the storytelling in Wolverine is clumsy. The narrative heavily relies on telling the audience how they should feel rather than earning those emotions through meaningful storytelling weight. Emotional beats routinely fail to land, resulting in a script that feels immature and uneven. Cutscenes drag on to near-Kojima lengths; I found myself genuinely tempted to fire up another game on a second screen to get work done while waiting for the exposition to end. The voice acting, for me, is a mixed bag. There are some powerful performances, but while the story sometimes does them a disservice, some of the characters didn’t quite hit the mark, either. I was excited to see legendary Troy Baker’s take on Essex (no spoilers here). But it’s maybe one of the most Troy Baker performances of his career. The man is undeniably talented and often considered the best in the industry, but he has a tendency to be a bit of a Brent Spiner in regards to character acting. Sometimes the theatricality works brilliantly, but sometimes it veers into self-indulgence. Screenshot: Marvel Wolverine The presentation is further hampered by baffling design and gameplay choices. Viral clips of players bypassing danger and ignoring broken prompts are entirely accurate. Hitting “R1” when a flashing “R2” is on the screen isn’t penalized. I personally hate quick time events, and while I’m glad there aren’t any instant fail sequences, having no penalty feels strange. I would argue it’s a type of ludonarrative dissonance. If a game establishes a strict ludic rule where the Left Trigger (L1) = Left Hand and Right Trigger (R1) = Right Hand, that mapping becomes the narrative language of the character's body. If a prompt tells you to use the left hand, you press L1, but the character on screen moves their right hand, the game has violated its own structural contract. It’s more than immersion breaking, it brings you out of the game completely to try to figure out what’s happening. Screenshot: Marvel Wolverine This goes for purely storytelling decisions, too. In one particularly egregious set piece, Logan struggles against a massive jet engine, yet the surrounding metal and environment remain entirely unaffected by the physics of the moment. Even the game's structural lore delivery feels disjointed. Players revisit Logan's past through various "doors" that serve as challenge rooms. While they provide necessary lore tidbits, they feel artificially bolted onto the experience rather than woven into the world. While I’m not wishing for more open-world games, having Wolverine be purely linear was a mistake. I’m not fond of giant, empty worlds filled with arbitrary activities, but I feel like semi-open world maps would have been the best approach. It would have helped highlight Logan’s tracking abilities, and traversal skills. Screenshot: Marvel Wolverine Paradoxically, Wolverine's combat is both its greatest strength and my biggest point of frustration. While I actually really enjoy the combat in Wolverine, I can’t help but feel like Logan just isn’t as powerful and his claws just aren’t as sharp as they should be. Wolverine’s adamantum claws are supposed to slice through practically anything like butter. Here, he’s swinging blunt edged butter knives against spongey enemies. I understand, on one hand, how Wolverine can’t just slice through everything and make short work of it. That is, unless he’s fully enraged and can properly one-shot most foes. And while I appreciate the combo minigame of getting him to that enraged state, I can’t help but feel like he should start there as a baseline and work into something more frenzied.Insomniac should have sharpened his claws, allowed players to tear through hordes of basic soldiers effortlessly, and saved the high-health endurance fights for special encounters. Screenshot: Marvel Wolverine Yet, despite these glaring misgivings, the combat ultimately emerges as the game's strongest pillar—once you understand the underlying rhythm. It borrows the flow of the Arkham and Spider-Man games, but in way that feels appropriate to a character that can take lethal blows and keep moving. I feel like most of the game’s budget was spent on fine tuning the combat. But the real saving grace is the rage meter. When Logan gets mad enough, the combat shifts into an insta-kill mode that finally delivers the frenzied feeling of playing as The Wolverine.. The entire combat loop becomes a frantic, highly enjoyable dance of filling your rage meter and fighting to keep it active. It is impossible to look at Wolverine without comparing it to Insomniac’s other Marvel properties. If you told me ten years ago that Spider-Man was inherently cooler than Wolverine, I’d not only agree, as a lifeline Spider-Man fan (even when it wasn’t cool) I’d feel vindicated. Insomniac’s Spider-Man isn't just the best game Sony has put out; its version of Peter Parker is arguably better than any live-action cinematic counterpart. While Spider-Man 2 had its pacing issues, it never fumbled the core identity of its hero. Screenshot: Marvel Wolverine Wolverine does. It lifts story elements that were handled infinitely better in recent Spider-Man films, inviting comparisons that do Logan no favors. Insomniac aimed for a prestige, character-driven blockbuster, but missed the mark, leaving players with a flawed brawler that never quite figures out who its hero is supposed to be.

Horror isn’t just a genre; it’s an amalgamation of pop culture, cozy traditions, and things that go bump in the night. This year, we're taking our 31 Days of Horror across the entire cultural spectrum. We’ll be taking a look at movies that scare us, games that kept us paranoid, scary books we cozy up with under blankets, music that sets that spooky tone and seasonal food we’re craving–or strange food you’d have to tie us up and force feed us. Whether you’re looking for something truly terrifying or a cozy autumn haunt, come back every day this month for a new bite-sized review or spooky adjacent list. Star Trek isn’t necessarily known for being scary, but there are a few episodes that are genuinely creepy. I mean, the first aired episode of Star Trek was “The Man Trap” which was a creature feature about a salt vampire that can appear as different people while stalking and killing Enterprise crew members. The Original Series even had an overt horror episode in “Catspaw” which featured a gothic mansion, a giant cat, and ghosts–with Kirk using his masculine wiles to get the upper hand, of course. But I wanted to figure out what the scariest Star Trek episodes were. And I’m not talking about “Sub Rosa” and its sexually charged ghost–a ghost that went on to play Shakaar in Deep Space Nine, by the way. These are the 5 scariest Star Trek episodes. Screenshot: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. 5: “All Those who Wander” Strange New Worlds. While Voyager attempted an Aliens-like story with “Macrocosm,” it was miles behind “All Those Who Wander.” Trapped on a frozen disabled ship the crew of the Enterprise have to survive mutating Gorn hatchlings in a visceral survival thriller. Its high production values help drive home the scares–and how terrifying the Gorn can be. It’s also an episode that taught us that not all of the Enterprise crew and/or cast regulars are safe. Screenshot: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine 4. “Empok Nor” Deep Space Nine I don’t always like the trope where a character is forced to do bad things because of mind control or some other mind altering reason, but despite that being a main plot point for “Empok Nor” there are a few reasons it works here. For one: the person affected is (alleged) Cardassian Spy Garak, who uses all of his knowledge he acquired in the Obsidian Order to play a deadly cat and mouse game with Miles O’Brien and the other Starfleet offiders. It shows Andrew Robinson’s range, and how scary he can be as the “simple tailor” Garak. Screenshot: Star Trek: The Next Generation 3. “Schisms” The Next Generation This is an episode that lives in my head, rent free. This episode leans heavily into the alien abduction vibes. Several crew members have a shared, traumatic memory that they have to piece together to discover the disturbing truth. There are a few freaky moments in episodes of The Next Generation, but none are quite as unsettling as “Schisms.” Its most famous scene has affected crew members trying to recreate their memory using the holodeck, blindly recreating a cold, clicking alien surgical theater based on their shared subconscious trauma. Screenshot: Star Trek: Enterprise 2. “Impulse” Enterprise “Impulse” is probably remembered for being Star Trek’s take on the zombie genre, and that’s why it’s on this list. The Enterprise crew board a drifting Vulcan ship only to discover the entire crew has been driven into a state of rabid, violent psychosis. Seeing hordes of normally stoic, logical Vulcans reduced to screaming monsters is genuinely scary. Screenshot: Star Trek: Voyager 1. “The Thaw” Voyager. When lists of scariest Star Trek episodes come up, “The Thaw” is usually on it. And for good reason. THe crew of the USS Voyager come across a planet where there are a few colonists in hibernation, but their minds are kept active by a program. It turns out the program has warped into a living nightmare, with “The Clown”--an embodiment of fear played brilliantly by Michael McKean has to match wits against a mostly helpless Voyager crew trying to free their crewmates now trapped in the nightmare. It’s a terrifying premise with an incredibly satisfying (but terrifying in its own way) ending. Star Trek may be built on a foundation of optimism and scientific exploration, but as these episodes prove, the franchise isn't afraid to turn off the lights and lean into pure terror when the story demands it. Whether it's psychological thrillers, haunted space stations, or visceral survival horror, Trek handles the genre surprisingly well. But with over 900 episodes across the franchise, there are bound to be some creepy moments left off this list. Did I miss a genuinely terrifying episode? Does the clicking from "Schisms" still keep you up at night? Let me know your pick for the scariest Star Trek episode in the comments below.

Horror isn’t just a genre; it’s an amalgamation of pop culture, cozy traditions, and things that go bump in the night. This year, we're taking our 31 Days of Horror across the entire cultural spectrum. We’ll be taking a look at movies that scare us, games that kept us paranoid, scary books we cozy up with under blankets, music that sets that spooky tone and seasonal food we’re craving–or strange food you’d have to tie us up and force feed us. Whether you’re looking for something truly terrifying or a cozy autumn haunt, come back every day this month for a new bite-sized review or spooky adjacent list. Slow burn horror movies aren't for everyone. Sometimes that sneaking suspicion that something is gonna happen and it never actually does plays as annoying rather that harrowing. It's hard to find that balance between being withholding and actually making your skin crawl. Watcher is a movie that I had little to no expectations for outside of its star Maika Monroe, whose acting in the incredible It Follows still resonates with me. She portrays Julia, a young American woman who has reallocated to Bucharest, where a serial killer of young woman called "The Spider" roams the streets. What an unfortunate coincidence. With in minutes of starting the film, I was immediately vibing with the look of the film and everyone's fantastic acting. If there is any trope that really bothers me in film, it's people not believing a character. Whether it's their fears, their knowledge, what have you, it's just so annoying to me. Especially when it goes beyond accidental gaslighting. And that is ALL that this movie is about. The anxiety a woman feels walking the street at night alone or being in a subway station with seemingly no one around; further amplified by the isolation of being in a new country where you barely know the language, only to have no one believe you when you feel like you're being stalked. The film plays with all those emotions perfectly, never really getting grating and instead making you feel the isolation of Julia throughout the perfect 96 minute runtime as personally as possible. Another big issue with slow burn horror is that there is a chance that the ultimate moment doesn't live up to all the waiting. And while I can't guarantee everyone will love the film's resolutions, I can say with certainty that it fit the films themes. It's an ending that could have gone overboard or been completely unrealistic, but instead opts for the most satisfying end. If you need something more creepy for your viewing pleasure, Watcher is free at a bunch of places on line.

Horror isn’t just a genre; it’s an amalgamation of pop culture, cozy traditions, and things that go bump in the night. This year, we're taking our 31 Days of Horror across the entire cultural spectrum. We’ll be taking a look at movies that scare us, games that kept us paranoid, scary books we cozy up with under blankets, music that sets that spooky tone and seasonal food we’re craving–or strange food you’d have to tie us up and force feed us. Whether you’re looking for something truly terrifying or a cozy autumn haunt, come back every day this month for a new bite-sized review or spooky adjacent list. Ok, so this is a weird one I know, but bare with me. Viy is a Soviet era gothic horror that is as surreal and liminal as you can get. A trio of seminary students get lost in the countryside and one of them, Khoma, becomes the target of witch. The film follows the student as he escapes the clutches of the witch (who shape shifts between an old hag and a young woman) , seemingly kills her, and is then tasked with praying over her body for 3 days. Seems simple enough, but this is a spooky movie baby! Those three days are filled with some of the craziest imagery you'll ever see. While the film was made in the 60s, so much of it feels uniquely modern. The visual effects are wonderfully odd and well done, really sucking you into the madness this dead, dying, tricking witch subjects Khoma to. Wild composite shots that look as clean and realistic as possible, disgusting hellish creatures, and just plain old kooky insanity. There isn't much plot to grab on to beyond that, so if logical progression or complex story is what you're after this one may not be for you. But if you want beautiful thrill ride that feels like a stage play gone awry, then this might be your bag. It runs just shy of 80 minutes and is pure madness, soviet style. Get your mind in the right place and jump into the Viy madness! The film is avialable to stream plenty of places for free on Tubi, YouTube and more on Just Watch

Horror isn’t just a genre; it’s an amalgamation of pop culture, cozy traditions, and things that go bump in the night. So this year, we're taking our 31 Days of Horror across the entire cultural spectrum. We aren't just talking about movies—we're talking about the video games that kept us up till 3 AM, the books that gave us chills, the music that sets the perfect eerie vibe, and the seasonal food we're craving—or the strange food you’d have to tie us up and force feed us. Whether you're looking for absolute terror or just a cozy autumn mash-up, come back every day this month for a new bite-sized review or spooky adjacent list. At some point, David Cronenberg took a weird left turn with his directing. That's saying something for the man whose name is synonymous with body horror and surrealistic imagery. However strange and gross his films got, there was a balance in his early films, particularly when it came to the acting. There was a very, for lack of a better word, mainstream acting style throughout his films with small dalliances into much stranger, maybe stiffer, choices. That balance seemingly when out the window around this film, Existenz. Existenz centers around Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Lea), a video game developer embarking on a new release that promises to be a singular immersive experience. During a demonstration of the game an assassination attempt by anti-video game extremists causes damage to her game console, which just so happens to be an organic based machine, sending Allegra and one of the event security guards Ted Pikul (Jude Law) on the run in search of sanctuary. Right off the bat, the film is not a satire. Existenz is riffing on ideas of video games =bad, like how they take over peoples lives, desensitization of people via video game violence, and toxic fandom well before these themes became well worn territory. But instead of harping on these ideas, it's more concerned with being a disorienting rollercoaster of blood and guts. All the best Cronenberg trademarks are all here! Gross organic guns, disgusting insect like monstrosities, a complete dissolve between what's real and what's not, and lets not for get the guns made of bones! Oh, did I mention that already? Well they're there and they are fucked up! (seriously though Cronenberg loves his biological weapons) The film came out in 1999, a major year in film history. Had Existenz come out later it would be seen as inspired by The Matrix, another film that plays with reality. Had it come out early it would have been ahead of its time, setting the stage for the Wachowski's film. Instead it came out a couple weeks after The Matrix, overshadowed by it completely. Which is a shame, but honestly I don;'t think there exists a reality where Existenz gets the credit it deserves. Back to my thoughts on the acting, everyone in Existenz feels like they're NPCs, which I guess is kinda the point. But that can be off putting to people who aren't used to stylistic choices that can be alienating. However as a fan of directors Yorgos Lanthimos and Wes Anderson, whose acting directions is often well beyond the "realistic" edge people are comfortable with nowadays, Existenz feels like another weird slice of outlandish presentation. Head over to Just Watch to see where this fantastic mind fuck of a movie is streaming! Vinegar Syndrome recently released a 4K copy of it, but it is insanely OOP . Off to eBay i suppose (don't actually do that).

Horror isn’t just a genre; it’s an amalgamation of pop culture, cozy traditions, and things that go bump in the night. This year, we're taking our 31 Days of Horror across the entire cultural spectrum. We’ll be taking a look at movies that scare us, games that kept us paranoid, scary books we cozy up with under blankets, music that sets that spooky tone and seasonal food we’re craving–or strange food you’d have to tie us up and force feed us. Whether you’re looking for something truly terrifying or a cozy autumn haunt, come back every day this month for a new bite-sized review or spooky adjacent list. When I first saw Ready or Not, I was completely entranced by its completely absurd brand of horror comedy that follows Samara Weaving as Grace, a young woman on her wedding day as she married into the wealthy Le Domas family. Once the night comes she must play a traditional family game that surprisingly turns into a The Most Dangerous Game riff full of spoilery stuff I won't go into just yet. So, yeah fun!! Ready or Not is downright goofy at times, but maintains it's overarching tone so well throughout. A character may deliver their line in the most over the top campy way but the Radio Silence, the production team behind the film, grounds it with a fantastic dark cinematography and level headed direction. That's pretty much directors y Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett entire MO: make the audience laugh at horrific shit happening on screen. Ready Or Not is filled with plenty of interesting set pieces for fans of very bloody and fun deaths, but never crosses the line into blatantly absurd...til the end where all your shreds of realism you may have had (which you shouldn't have given the insane beating certain characters take) is thrown out the window in wonderful fashion. What makes the film stand tall is that it never eschews the heart of the story: Grace and her resilience. Attempted kill after attempted kill, she mages to weave (pun intended) in and out of every scenario and her magnificent wail will be lauded with the best horror final girls. Go watch it now before I dig into it's sequel later this month! You can see where Ready or Not is streaming over at JustWatch or pick up a physical copy at your preferred retailer (or where you can find it since its kinda hard to find for a reasonable price)

Alright: I'm gonna say something controversial. I don't love hating on things. In fact, I think if you're a good reviewer/critic/journalist, you should be able, most of the time, to find the good in something. I also don't like to yuck someone's yum. Art is objective. Things I hate you might like. After all, a lot of people in Britain don't get peanut butter and jelly. While I think it's insane they'd think the combination would be overly sweet and gross, they think it's insane it wouldn't be. And honestly? For some it might be. I like almost every vegetable and I just don't really get into sweet potatoes. But I'm trying. Sweet potato fries? West African Ground Nut Stew? Two things I really like that feature your friend and maybe mine, the yam. Anyway, this took a rather foodish turn when I didn't mean it to. The point of Hate Watch isn't to watch something TO hate it, it's to examine the reasons why I thought I'd hate it and see if they hold true. I envision this as a sort of "try a thing for a little bit and THEN you can say you hate it or not." And I figure most of the time, I'll end up at least seeing what other people see. And I'm starting with Dancing With the Stars. That's the controversial part, because so many people adore this show. 6.67 million for this season's premiere. That's Friends numbers, friends. To start us off on this journey, here's my limited experience with the show: My mom and grandma loved it, and sometimes I'd sit in the same room and watch a little bit with them. Some seasons, some parts. Mostly not though. So why was I hating? 10 Things (I Think) I Hate About Dancing With The Stars: Shitty covers - Listen, I get the need for covers. I can appreciate the talent of the band. However...I really, really hated the covers in early years. The stars - I don't hate the actual stars, mind you. I just prefer a competition be among people in the field. We'll get to that more later in this list Cheesy hosts - Stupid puns, I love. Sometimes. Cheesy hosts, I tolerate. Less times. Boomer coded - Why have I always felt like this show was not for me? I'm not sure. It's just felt boomer coded the whole time, and I can't exactly put my finger on why I felt that way. Dancing as sport / lack of diverse genres - I love ballroom as much as the next person, but I also love ballet, hip-hop, tap, and a host of other genres. We don't really get that here. And I know, it's not the point, but the point is, I wish it was. Character judges - Ok, lots of shows have that one judge with the catchphrase or the stupid gesture (or all of the above) that's practically a pre-packaged cringe meme, but DWTS? I feel like they're aiming for it. Cheese. So much cheese. Ugh. Yes, ballroom is glitter and glamour and yes, these are celebrities and this is primetime TV for all ages, but holy cheeseballs, Batman. The fall of Alfonso Ribiero. I think they've done him dirty in both this host role and the one on AFV. He could be so much funnier and more personable without the scripted one-liners. Feeling old - either because I don't know who TF some of these people are or because I really do. Or because there's a 90s theme, but it's not a 90s theme, it's "music from the year you were born" theme and MOST OF THEM WERE BORN IN THE 90s." I'm so sorry, pass the Geritol. My parents like it. I am petty. Popularity contest potential : AKA America votes. I don't like that. Cuz it has nothing to do with skill and everything to do with popularity. Unless it doesn't. I have to trust the whole nation for that one though and I have trust issues. So You Think You Can Dance was so much better. There. I said it - But hear me out. Diverse genres. Expert Judges (Ok, Mary Murphy was the meme/character judge but she knew of what she spoke.) Everyone had to dance outside their genre. They were all actually dancers. Was that 10? Oh wow. It's actually 12. It was almost 13 Reasons Why in here. What’s Not Fair: I haven’t actually watched a single season all the way through, and I certainly pretended to watch a season or two with my mom and grandma and scrolled instead. Most of what I hate is assumptions that are based on passing observations and checking in and out of a show that was on in a room whose TV I didn’t control or a YouTube video I was watching. What I’m Gonna Do About It: I’m going to watch the whole damn season. It’s on streaming, so I don’t have to DVR it or be on my couch at a certain time. I have no excuse. Then What: Is it a redemption story or was I right all along? I guess we all find out at the same time. Here’s the thing. I think Bruno isn’t a personality hire. I think he knows a lot more about all the things than the edits imply he does. Kinda like Mary Murphy on SYTYCD or Paula Abdul on American Idol. All actually brilliant, all reduced to memes and catchphrases or oversized gestures. Also - we’ve got Giada De Laurentis and Julia Stiles, and I already missed Danielle Fishel last year. I just…I gotta see if she gets into Julliard. (Yes, I know. She didn’t even go there.)

Now, we could go back and cover the premiere but a premiere is a premiere and to be honest, I hate two night premieres. I hated them with SYTYCD and I hate them with this. Mostly because it’s a lot of filler for a format that’s already got that in spades. On to the first actual week of the competition, after meeting everyone and eliminating Conner Leavitt and Sarah Jane Nader, who I didn’t know before and had not yet formed an attachment to, though it is a bummer that the same-sex pairing was only there for the premiere. Now that we’re in the meat of things, let’s separate the critique into two categories, Hates and Greats. It’s what it sounds like. I’ll list what I’m liking and what I’m still not jiving with. (That is, in fact, a dance joke.) Let’s go! Hates: I do not enjoy Julianne Hough in this role. I also think the wardrobe they choose for her is odd. She feels like a placeholder, and I don’t think that’s on her as a person, but she definitely isn’t winning me over, we’ll put it that way. Vague Themes: I had to look up what viral hits night actually implied. Like, I get the concept of a viral hit, but was this a nod to something each star went viral for, a viral moment on the show, or….something else? Turns out it was something else - though actually kind of all of the above. According to my research, it’s just a nod to trending audio, dance moves, etc. Ok then. As much as I’m a doomscroller I only caught a few of the references. Maybe I am getting old. Host banter: I can appreciate that ballroom is over the top glitz and glamour. In a world covered in sequins and fringe, it’s easy to get a little crazy with it. But the WRITING FOR THE HOSTS. I just wish they’d lay off the cheese even a little bit. Filler: There’s lots of it. I appreciate getting behind the scenes a little bit, but sometimes I feel like it gets to be a little too much. Caricatures: He plays baseball, guys. She’s Italian! I mean, we know who these people are, or they wouldn’t be Stars, right? (Ostensibly, because see above, I am old, and don’t know who everyone is). Still, I feel like we fall back on the big picture of these folks a lot instead of just letting them be people learning dance. Greats: Realistic performances: I mean, the performances are real, but because of some of the hype around the show, I always felt like people were raving about how amaaaazing everyone was right out of the gates. Truth is, for the most part, they’re not. And that’s cool, because it makes you root for them week by week and it really makes it more exciting when they do level up. Levelling up: To expand on that last part - seeing people improve is actually a lot of fun. While I really enjoyed shows like So You Think You Can Dance because everyone was already dancers, it’s nice to see people push beyond their boundaries. Some of these folks really, really never did anything close to ballroom and it shows, but they’re (for the most part) improving. Sorry, Giada. Interesting Special Skills: It’s also kinda fun to see the “stars” inject their personality into it in a non caricatured way - we’ve got models who are great at posing, athletes who can pull off power moves, and even funny folks who can inject humor and levity into what they’re doing. Real Reactions: For all the showbiz of the thing, I do really appreciate seeing the real reactions celebrities have to their performances, even if it’s a little sad sometimes when you know someone knows they didn’t do their best (Sorry again, Giada). These people are in the spotlight for something they DON’T necessarily excel at, and it’s interesting to see them grapple with that. It makes the highs higher and the lows lower. Reframes: I think Bruno is now my favorite judge, weird meme energy aside. His knowledge is obvious and he seems to judge really fairly. Flip side - I think Carrie Ann Inaba might be the easy judge, though I don’t think she’s too bad. Not sure how I feel about all the added content. I guess I’m not in deep enough to want an after party, behind the scenes, and full gamut of social media stuff that tie in. Well, there we go! On a scale of hatin’ to I’m lovin’ it, I’m neutral with a chance of enjoying it. Notable moments: I think Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach killed it with their routine to “Low” which is a sentence I didn’t expect to ever be typing. The thing is though, they figured out how to work with Ezra’s prosthetic in the context of the dance and make him shine for his athleticism and the end result was a really, really great performance. While inclined not to love Jackson Olson because all the banana cheese, he’s growing on me because he’s so into it. I think he’s got a really good ballroom spirit, and he loves to be in the spotlight, and those are two things that lend themself to IRL ballroom goodness. We’ll see what happens for Yacht Rock Week. Yikes.

Screenshot: False Hero My first playthroughs of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls were special experiences. I never quite knew what was waiting for me behind any given corner. The worlds in both of these games were enigmatic, compelling in a way I hadn't quite experienced in the medium before or since. I didn’t want to keep playing through those brutal challenges just to be a badass hero fighting for whatever the game’s version of “right” was. Instead, I fought through as blindly as my protagonist, trying to discover the nature of the world while entirely misunderstanding—or understanding too late—what “right” and “wrong” even meant. It wasn’t a scripted narrative trick like the twists in Planescape:Torment or Knights of the Old Republic. It was a slow realization born from discovering the truth of the world through my own hard-won battles. Dark Souls condensed discovery and knowledge into a video game, literally translating philosophy into world design and gameplay. False Hero, more than any other Souls game that came after it, has achieved that exact same feeling for me. Screenshot: False Hero False Hero is an action role-playing game. Stepping into this lineage, False Hero casts you as a mysterious figure who discovers a legendary mask—an artifact that allows you to steal enemies’ combat abilities. A spreading eldritch evil known as Death is corrupting the world–spreading literal death across the Kingdom of Wisdom. It’s the perfect bed of narrative ambiguity with the choice of the player to retain the status quo, or allow Death to have its way. Developed over the last 6 years by solo developer ‘Florian’ of Torchlight Games, he is behind the art, music, and game code–without the help of AI. An impressive feat for any game developer, but even more so considering the behemoth of an IP that Torchlight Games pitted themselves against: the Souls series. There have been many imitators that have come before, and those who pick and choose mechanics to create a more soulslike feeling. False Hero is not just a souls inspired game, it is a soulslike–though, like any good homage, developer Torchlight Games takes the formula and plays with it just enough to make it compelling, and unique. Screenshot: False Hero Some of the hallmarks of a soulslike are the risk reward nature. Rest at bonfires, enemies respawn, healing items replenish, etc. It’s all the same here, even down to dodging with i-frames. Bosses sit behind fog walls. And the entire world has a mysterious, dreamlike feeling that no soulslike has quite captured since Demon’s Souls–some of which was even missing in Bluepoint Games’ brilliant remaster. There are some notable differences: if you die, there’s no bloodstain waiting so you can retrieve your body. Instead, you just lose your accumulated upgrade points. These points also aren’t used to upgrade your character so you can manipulate their stats. You, instead, can choose to upgrade abilities and spells you collect from killing monsters. Abilities also replace traditional weapons. You start with a sword attack, and any other attack you gain is from defeating creatures and stealing their weapon arts. Screenshot: False Hero While a lot of games slap a player into a soulslike environment and call it “good enough” developer Torchlight Games has a great sense of what makes a soulslike game good. Enemy placement is difficult, but never feels overly unfair. Bosses are not only difficult, but they are often hinted at through audio, visual or environmental clues–something a lot of soulslike games don’t accomplish as aptly as is done here. Outwardly, False Hero’s biggest departure from the soulslike genre is its art style. Made with a “sort of” fifth generation low fidelity style, it looks like a game I could have played on my PlayStation growing up. This works heavily in the game’s favor. I argue that low res horror games are great because it forces the brain to fill in the blanks where fidelity comes short. I’m not saying that False Hero is a horror game, but it accomplishes a lot of the same effect here, also enhancing the game’s mysterious, dreamlike quality. Enemy design and environments are top notch. Just as the narrative forces you to piece together the truth of the world, the retro aesthetics force your imagination to fill in the visual gaps, deepening the overall sense of ambiguity Screenshot: False Hero False Hero isn’t perfect, as much as I wish it was. It suffers from controls that feel a tiny bit floatier and stiff compared to a true souls title–but only barely. I can tell a lot of work went into making the character’s hits and movement feel just right, and while it’s a game that is great to play, it never feels quite as mechanically satisfying as a Miyazaki directed game. There is also no multiplayer, so if you’re having trouble with a certain boss, all you can do is “git gud.” There are a lot of surprising options, however, like a gauntlet mode and a mode that allows you to fight bosses that you’ve already defeated. I’m going to be keeping an eye on anything Torchlight Games does in the future, because False Hero is a brilliant game. It’s easily in my top games of the year list, and made me feel that sense of wonder that Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls did all those years ago.