When the random music mix gives you a row of killer songs. 🤘

Initial thoughts
What a fucking incredible film. From start to finish I was gripped. Jennifer Connelly is great; Dario Argento is at the top of his game; and Donald Pleasance was a joy to watch as always.
The film was violent, creative and awe-inspiring in equal measure.
And that ending. That vile ending that just kept me second guessing myself until the credits rolled.
Thank you once again, Argento you crazy beautiful film maker.
I picked up Welcome to Hanwell for a few quid in a recent PlayStation Store sale. On first playing it has a good creep factor. Waking up in a morgue and taking your first steps in the dark, dank blood-splattered underground is a great introduction to any horror game.
The opening had me walking through a couple of corridors into the adjoining rooms and office, as it taught me the basic game controls and mechanics. One of these mechanics was looking behind you as you run — this can only mean bad things ahead.
I love the atmosphere of the game so far — despite having been unable to escape this basement area for about 45 minutes or so. The idea of an open-world horror game does tickle my fancy somewhat, so I really hope I can get past this first challenge.
And no — I’m not going to spoil what that challenge is. 😀
I have to mention one thing that has me a bit miffed. I can not find any option to invert the Y axis. 🙁 . This may seem like a petty thing, but I find it super jaring to play any game without the inverted Y axis. I think this can only be due to the many many hours I spent playing Ace Combat 2 on the PlayStation as a youth.
I have tweeted the developers in the hope that it could perhaps get added in an update. Not sure if this will happen, but if you don’t ask you don’t get.
It’s felt like the longest time to get into the swing of things with Resident Evil 4.
When I first tried it about four or so months ago, I didn’t get the appeal – at least not now in a post – RE2 Remake world. After my first failure and struggling with the control system I didn’t think I’d ever go back.
But I did go back — months later — and I am so so glad I did.
Resident Evil 4 has become a favourite of mine. I would put it alongside RE2 Remake in terms of enjoyment and replayability.
The control system felt entirely foreign to me on that first play months before. I went into it expecting similar fluid controls of the recent RE remakes, but instead was greeted by something half way between that and the old tank controls of the originals.
The aiming felt so constricted — having to stop running, begin aiming, and then slowly move the gun’s reticle to where I needed to shoot.
However, after an hour or so of playing something happened — I noticed that I was just moving along and playing the game. I was no longer forcing anything.
What I first thought to be constricting was in fact what was helping to give tension to the game play. The fact I couldn’t walk and shoot meant I had to choose my moves more wisely.
The Eastern European setting is absolutely gorgeous. And the excellent soundtrack really helps tie the whole thing together.
The game never lost its claustrophobic feel for me either. Despite the early parts of the game being in relatively more open surroundings, the levels are designed in a way that leaves many corners to be surprised from. There were many times when I would hear a shuffling noise and not be able to fully pin point it.
Later on, the setting takes on a more Gothic tone in a huge, decadent castle — before leading you to it’s final location, which I’ll leave you to discover. The castle is a really stunning level and some great, sometimes over the top, moments in it.
I especially enjoyed a no-combat section where you have to control Ashley to get her to Leon safely. Some truly spooky moments in that little section.
Overall, the game was much longer than I was expecting. Just as I thought it was moving towards a resolution a whole new chapter would begin. Despite the 16 or so hours of play time I spent, the experience felt so much longer — and I mean that in a good way.
The game really throws you in at the slightly deeper end. I thought I would never get past the first village encounter — it felt impossible with just too many enemies coming at me at once. But after persevering and reaching the end of the first chapter, it felt like it was all coming together.
The early part of the game sees Leon fighting off the village’s residents who have all become victim to a mind-controlling parasite. Controlled by some unseen entity they run at you before slowing to a walk just a few metres away. This gives you that time to aim the weapon and fire — so they don’t just all run at your face at once.
Later on you’ll meet creepy cultists and flying bugs, before working your way through the game’s hierarchy of main villains.
There was one enemy type in particular that was equal parts inventive and terrifying. But I’ll leave you to discover those for yourself, should you dare to play. 😛
Resident Evil 4 went from being a game I couldn’t stand — just down to it’s controls — to one I couldn’t do without now. After getting past the initial confusion over the half-tank/half-fluid control system, it really is a blast to play.
The village and Gothic setting make me even more excited for the upcoming PS5 “Resident Evil 8 (Village)”. Taking what they learnt and developed with RE7 and applying it to this kind of Gothic setting, Capcom could be making something really special to experience.
I can’t recommend RE4 enough. For it’s crazy story, hideous and tough monsters and often cheesy dialogue.
Leon needs you.
Peertube is a self-hosted alternative to YouTube and, to a lesser extent, Vimeo.
I say lesser extent because I think Vimeo’s business model is very different from YouTube’s (Google inc’s).
Whenever a YouTube video is shared on a web page, it is basically like a Trojan horse. Yes, it lets your visitors watch a video directly in your website, but it’s doing so much more behind the curtain.
It is allowing your visitors to be tracked across the web. When a person lands on a web page that has a YouTube video embedded into it, they are seen and tracked by YouTube’s owners: Google inc.
Please don’t do this.
I am very technologically privileged in that I have the know-how to set up my own “peertube” site (an instance as they are called). So I am not saying that people should all use that.
But do at least consider something like “Vimeo” as an alternative, or maybe even self-host the videos on your website if you have the available storage space.
I am in the process of migrating videos in my older posts over to my own Peertube website (My Jams are already moved). If you notice any I have missed, please do let me know in comments below. 🙂
I don’t want the few people who visit my site to be tracked whilst here. I want this to at least be a safe space from the surveillance and advertising swamp that is the modern web.
I’ve never been much of a fan of The Killers. However, this song is an absolute banger. Loved it from the first listen.
Doggerland was the connecting area of land that connected britannia to the continent that, by around 6,500BCE, was completely underwater:
14,000BCE
12,000BCE
7,150BCE
6,500BCE
4,000BCE
2,500BCE
1,000BCE
700BCE
500-400BCE
325BCE
200BCE
100BCE
Starting to listen to the British History Podcast again. Planning to work all of the way through it this time.
I love the philosophy and energy behind the person presenting this show. 💚
I’ve not really seen or heard much on the new 4-part Uzumaki anime series coming on Adult Swim next year. However, after seeing this teaser and I am now officially excited!
It seems to look like they have actually taken panels from the manga and animated them, as opposed to re-imagining them. And the effect looks incredible in my opinion.
Kirie looks gorgeous and the section showing her looking up at the face in the cremation smoke creates a stunning effect (no spoilers on who’s face it is :P)
I’m really looking forward to this series but I do hope that each episode is around an hour long at least. 4 parts seems way too little to fit the entirety of the Uzumaki Collection in to. And surely they can’t be taking any chapters out of it?
U.K. Release Date: 7th January 2021.
Pre-order on amazon today by clicking here.
Hellstar Remina is getting an official VIZ Media release! I can’t explain how excited I am for this. I have read it previously online but will be so happy to be able to pay for an official copy and actually give back to Junji Ito for this insanely addictive story!
I wrote up my thoughts on Hellstar Remina a while back too.
The cover art is absolutely beautiful too!
P.T. was one of the biggest teases to horror game fans. Revealed as being a teaser for a then-upcoming reboot of the Silent Hill franchise, it was soon after cancelled and the demo removed from the PlayStation store 🙁
Fans of both Hideo Kojima and Junji Ito were left to wonder what could have been…
…but we may just get our dream horror game yet!
From what I can gather, Junji Ito himself has mentioned that he has been in contact with Kojima about a possible horror game. Just the mere thought of this was enough to get me salivating.
On top of this, Kojima has mentioned a couple of times that his next game could be a horror game.
The board is set… the pieces are moving… 😀
Just what could we even imagine from the minds of these two incredible creative people!?
I’m going to be doing my best to keep on top of this project as best I can for not only my own obsession, but to keep you all in the loop too. 🙂
Anybody who has played past the first few hours or so of Kojima’s latest masterpiece game, Death Stranding, may have noticed Ito actually appearing as a character within the game: The Engineer.
Although the voice is not his own, his appearance at least was scanned into the game, which made a welcome surprise for Horror Manga fans the world over.
With some of the themes of dead fish on the beaches (ALA Gyo) in some of the games scenes made people even believe that Ito was a creative voice behind Death Stranding. I’m not sure this was true, but Kojima is obviously a fan of Ito’s — it stands to reason that he would take at least some inspiration from the master of Horror Manga.
I have found that Hideo Hojima’s games often tend to have a healthy dose of horror sprinkled in — especially with his most recent Death Stranding.
The moments when encountering the B.T’s of the game were some truly incredible moments of gameplay. They were, for me, instantly iconic — and often damn scary. I had never seen such mechanics in play before with a consistent feeling of dread at some encounters.
Just the thought of Junji Ito working with him, whether that be in just the concept art or with some kind of game direction, I can only imagine into what realms of horror they can take us as players and consumers of these stories.
Where we not only get a sprinkling of horror from a Kojima game, but a full on assault of the senses. 😀
Listening to Goblin Greatest Hits
After watching Deep Red last night, the music of Goblin could be a new obsession for me. 🤪
Explore
If you want to search, or just get an overview of my stuff, the explore page is a good place to start.
Any interesting websites and/or people I have found online, I link them on my blogroll page.
I keep a record of things i use on my… well… my “uses” page.
Album on repeat
Blog Categories
Archives
All of my collected posts, grouped by year.