Reviews

Blacksad is a charming mess and I recommend it only on sale and only to the fans of the graphic novels. Sorry, but I can't in good heart recommend a game that's so broken. It needed more time in the oven because it plays like an early access title, with the worst offence being that Blacksad himself controls like crap. For most of the time it felt like I was controlling a tank...

That being said, what Blacksad does best is being honestly a pretty good adaptation of the source material. If the plot wasn't as interesting as it is, I'd have dropped the game after two hours. But good plot, doesn't equal good gameplay and at best, Blacksad could have been something close to The Wolf Among Us, but many times most of your choices doesn't seem to matter. It's just there to waste your time and result at a game over screen. What I liked best was all the references and easter eggs from the comics, it screamed to me that the games was made by fans, but unfortunately as a game is messy.

Also, great soundtrack.

You sit there and think to yourself: "Is it even worth 4 euros?" and the answer is "well, kinda."

The only reason it's worthy of the 4 euros is because after September 30th the online retailers will go crazy and the game is going to worth 100 euros and even more than that as time goes by. It's worthy of 4 euros because of its future unavailability. Also, there not many games available that let you play as Hulk or Iron-Man, so there's that.

Marvel's Avengers is a lazy, boring and repetitive game with occasional moments of fun. A game that I can't recommend to anyone, not even 12 year olds because they'll want to drain their mommy's bank account. At least now everything important is already unlocked and you don't have to pay for cosmetics but the situation here is a matter of principle. I'm not happy that this game is going to be removed from all platforms, I hate this practice, but I'm happy it failed hard. A colossal failure of the "games-as-a-service" model!

We are talking about a game that throws you tutorial boxes (and pauses the game) even after 6hrs of playtime. And, to put the icing on the cake, the tutorials are mostly similar!

In the campaign missions you don't play as the Avengers, you play as Kamala Khan for 80% of the story. It just misleads you to believe that eventually you'll play as the others but nope, it's mostly Ms. Marvel, who is an annoying fan-girl that never shuts the hell up.

So yeah, throw some money to Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal to congratulate them for their stupidity, they dug themselves a hole. They killed Deus Ex for nothing. Marvel's Avengers is an ode to mediocrity and it deserves a place in your library as such.

5/10.

I'm so disappointed with Deathloop that I can't honestly find the right words. I recommend it on deep deep deeeeeeeeep sale. This game feels so cheap compared to other Arkane games, it's just sad. They had the loop gameplay from the Prey DLC and the powers from Dishonored and then they slapped the name "Deathloop" and BOOM! New game for you. If I have to praise one thing is the excellent voice acting from Jason E. Kelley and Ozioma Akagha, as well as the rest of the cast, and the excellent soundtrack which comes with an amazing end credits song.

I had fun, for sure, but that fun, after I got all 3 endings, came with an empty feeling. I just want to replay Dishonored again even though I finished it again 3 weeks ago!!!

Barbarian has many problems and uses some horror tropes that I just dislike, and I'm not so sure about its rewatchability because the first hour has many baiting moments, BUT (and that's a big but) when it's good, it's great and it was so enjoyable to watch that I can easily say that I witnessed a new cult classic in the likes of Evil Dead. There are so few times in recent years that you can say that a director went the distance and after Barbarian I can shout that Zach Cregger went there. He went there and did that! "What's that?" you ask. Well watch the movie to find out.

Also, huge congratulations to the editor of the first trailer because the beautiful magician managed to craft a perfect teaser without showing you absolutely nothing.

The trailer was an instant hook for me, no kidding, when I saw it I had high hopes for "Don't Worry Darling". Alas, despite the good cinematography, good production and the great effort from the actors to pull this thing through, the movie falls flat on its face because the script is just terrible. And I don't use "terrible" lightly. For the first 90' I was bored out of my mind because the pacing was awful, but I was still engaged because I wanted to see the payoff. And when finally the payoff came in the final 30' of the movies, it must be one of the most lazy twists that I've seen in recent years. It's so clear to me that the "writers" couldn't figure out their own ending, so they threw the most lazy, kid's-first-script ideas, and called it a day.

Congratulations to Florence Pugh though, she must have back problems from carrying the whole movie.

This is a frustrating game to review. Why? Because there's barely any game in there. If they could put a "skip game" button and get away with it they would. The gun combat is passable and the driving mechanics are bad even with a controller. The story is okay and it has some great scenes but it's common and not that challenging and the final message "it's all about family" falls flat because we know nothing about the protagonist's family. His wife (Sarah) is interesting but we barely get to know her before she disappears from the game. I get that this is a remake, but they needed to add so many features in the game to excuse the open world design. As it stands the "open world" is just filler for the next mission and the devs knew that because they put a "skip driving" button in the game. All the Mafia games get criticized for their open worlds and the lack of activities but even in Mafia II (a game which I love) you get to do more things than in here.

"So why do you recommend it?" I hear you ask.

I recommend it because it's gorgeous! I love noir films and this game filled a hole in my soul because I need more noir games. My biggest dilemma throughout my play-through was if I should have on or off the noir mode. God this games nails the aesthetics!!! For that reason alone I replayed Chapter 9: A Trip to the Country (best mission in the game) twice and I want again! The color palettes used for MDE are spectacular I just want to replay the game one time with noir mode on and another off just for the visuals alone! I just love to look at it but it frustrates me because I love Mafia II and I thought they would improve upon it. But here you get to do less things for an inferior story. Also, if there's one game that needs a photo mode, this is the one!

In the end, I am disappointed but I also want to replay it, so I guess the game must have done something right. To my mind, it's like a very beautiful person that attracts you and you want to get to know it better, only to realize in the end that it's shallow and can't form proper sentences.

My main problem with the first episode was that while I liked it (as this one) and the production is great (as in this one) the story lacks a compelling hook to anticipate the next episode. In this one we sorta got it in the very end but I'm sorry it's not enough, it's mediocre at best and I don't know why I'd recommend the show to anyone besides the GoT brand. This and previous episode are like middle of the season filler not first two episodes of a saga. Great productions do not excuse mediocre story-telling. If this behavior continues on, my rating will lower to 6s and 5s undoubtedly. I still give it a pass because I want to see where it leads, if it leads anywhere.

Also, in this episode we got our opening and it's frustrating and cements my main problem with Ramin Djawadi composing for shows. Why they don't let him compose something original, why it's the same main theme as GoT? It's like they have only one melody with different versions. Better Call Saul hadn't the same theme as Breaking Bad, why this has the same theme as GoT? Are they so desperate to relive the glory of the first season of GoT, that they forget that along with great production and music it also had a compelling narrative? Before they drove it to the ground that is.

It was not a bad episode by any means but first episodes are supposed to hook you for the rest of the season. In GoT we had Whitewalkers for the prologue of the first episode and Jamie pushing Bran out of the window in the end. Those two things serve as a macro and micro hooks. We obviously want to see about the ice zombies but we also care about a grown man pushing a boy out of a window because the boy knows a secret. So there's your hook.

Here I ask the question: why should anyone continue watching? House of the Dragon is a prequel to a story in which we know everything and how it resolves, we know about the future of House Targaryen, well about the future of every House in Westeros to be exact. So why do we care?

The first episode is just an episode and it seems to me that the only reason it exists is because WB has the IP, not a vision. So as it stands, it's just ok.

If I could rate just the art style then this game is a 10/10 no doubt. But the gameplay for me leaves much to be desired. I recommend, it's fun but if you ask me to choose between this and Bloodstained then I say buy Bloodstained first.

8/10 (closer to 7 than 9)

Flat characters and story but amazing gameplay. Easily one of the beast stealth games of the past 10 years. It was so fun to beat even though I wanted it to be 2-3 missions shorter.

Sekiro to me is one of the prime examples of a "git gud" game. Without a doubt it's harder than Dark Souls. In DS if you suck as a knight you can try a mage, here we don't have that. The game looks deep into your soul and says "my way or the highway" and I gotta respect that. In Sekiro you can't use summons or call other players for help. You just have to "git gud" in the game. The only time I managed to cheese a boss was the Demon of Hatred 40hrs into my first play-through. Learn the patterns of your enemy and learn to deflect and you shall be fine. By the end I was in love with Sekiro and the lessons that the game tried to teach me. I guess my main problem is the story it's not interesting enough.

And if you want a tip for the start of the game, just DON'T give Kuro's Charm to Kuro. That was my first mistake and it's something I learned when I started NG+ because I gave it to him the first time and then I finished the game without it.

"The Kuro's Charm item is given early in the game, when you collect the Ornamental Letter. After meeting Lord Kuro in the tower and gaining your primary sword, you'll have the option to give away the Kuro's Charm. Giving away the charm increases difficulty by adding chip damage to all blocks."

Then again I finished the game without it but it was hell... that final boss was a nightmare.

9/10.

I love the first DS and as for this one, I just find it ok. Just ok. I had fun while playing it but after 35hrs I was like, "when does it end?" and not because I found it hard but because I felt it dragged during the final hours. I consider the first one a total masterpiece and I guess my main problem with this one is it's just "the next one."

I completed the game on "Suicide Mission" and yeah... it was. I don't want to say much about the game other that it's a masterpiece and everyone should play it. It's one of those stories that is elevated by the medium of videogames.

The first hour of this movie is just glorious, no joke, no exaggeration. Man, I really felt it, it was awesome to see Craig return for one last rodeo before the final curtain. His Bond is my favorite with Casino Royale being not only the best Bond movie, but one of my favorite films of all time. So after that first hour I was just ready to go! Everything was there until it wasn't. And if the climax was satisfactory the movie could still save itself, but it wasn't. After the final battle, everything wrapped in what seemed like a minute and off we go to a reboot. See ya, Craig! Thanks for fifteen years, bye now! Cheap! That's the word. Just cheap and it angers me because they had everything to make it work. The movie is beautiful, easily top five best shot Bond films. The action is phenomenal, great choreography all around. But the script! Productions can be amazing and expensive and every actor and crew member can put their 100% and yet, if the script has problems everyone will fall on their faces.

In the end, I just got a bitter taste in my mouth. I wanted for Craig the same treatment that Hugh Jackman got or Robert Downey Jr. After so many years of portraying the same character, but he didn't got that. They didn't even have 007's main theme for the end credits music! As for the villain... he's mediocrity in the flesh. Don't expect a Le Chiffre or a Silva is what I'm saying.

I need to watch Casino Royale again, just to wash away the disappointment.

Injustice (the comic) has one of the BEST story-lines in comic history in my opinion. The five-year prelude to the first game is easily one of my favorites of all time. So I can't, for the life of me, understand how they messed this up! How? It's a comic book and you want to adapt in animation!! Just animate what you see, don't change anything and don't try to butcher five books and cram them in a two hour movie! Why isn't this a TV show? Why? Does WB and DC hate money? This must be the only answer because Injustice done right is an instant moneymaker.

I remember a time when every animated DC project was unique and memorable and exciting. Good times.

I can see you scrolling around, watching and reading reviews to see if you are going to buy Death Stranding. You know you want to play it because it's a Kojima game but then again you have seen more than enough reviews saying that it's boring and soulless and the only thing there's to do in this game is walking. Now, after 47hrs I'm here to tell you that nothing can help you and prepare you for this game. If you are having doubts buy it on sale, if you are looking for fast action and quick satisfaction, don't bother.

Death Stranding is a new type of game, a new genre, it's everything that people praise it or accuse it to be. Is it a masterpiece? Sure. Is it boring? At times yes. Do you just walk? Most of the time, yes. Is it full with plot-holes? Absolutely! Annoying? YES! Repetitive? Yup. Is it soulless? Absolutely not! There were times when playing this game, that I felt that I was a better person, a better human. This game made me focus on what's important and if you play and take the story's message at heart you are going to be rewarded. It is my firm belief that Death Stranding is good for the soul.

My personal experience with the game goes like this. I bought it on February 2021 and played it straight for 18hrs and then I dropped it. Life you see. I wanted to return but then I kept thinking that the only thing that I was doing is walking and delivering packages and I was just kinda bored. Of course I was thinking of the AMAZING soundtrack and the PHENOMENAL performances or the trippy story, but I was bored of the main gameplay. I remembered feeling great while playing at first but something was holding me back from resuming my playthrough. Seven months later I was on Spotify listening, when the main theme started playing in my brain having reignited the desire to listen to the soundtrack. Then I installed the game again, resumed playing and after 29hrs I completed it.

After completion, do I understand Death Stranding? I feel that I'm in a good direction but in all fairness I don't think that the game is designed to be understood, but to be felt. Death Stranding is a cure to loneliness, a beckon to the outcasts. Death Stranding for me transcends genre, medium and reviews. It's a work of art plain and simple. That doesn't mean it's beyond criticism, nothing and no one is, but it's not as simple as watching Dunkey's eight minute review or Whitelight's 7hrs review on YouTube and deciding. You just have to take a leap of faith with this game and be thirsty for something new.

Lastly, Hideo Kojima directed the s*** out of this movie. He managed to capture great performances by all of his actors. Every scene with Mads Mikkelsen is eerie, gut-wrenching and heart-warming all in one and this is for sure Norman Reedus' best performance ever. Every scene is well-crafted and created to perfection. The visuals are beyond of this world so much so that you have to see it to believe it!

As with everything new, Death Stranding needs time to find its place in the world. Only time will tell but I'm happy that I finished it because it turned out to be one of the most unique gaming experiences of my life. If nothing else, just play it for BB, for me one of the best companions in gaming.

PS. You see what I did? I wrote "movie" instead of "game". That's a mistake but I decided to keep it because that's what I mean by "transcending mediums".

PPS. I'll be waiting for you on the Beach.

This is easily the best movie that I saw during AIFF (Athens International Film Festival).

The French Dispatch is an anthology movie that follows three reporters recounting events that led them to write certain articles. As with all Wes Anderson movies, it's unique, visually hilarious without stupid dialogue and a joy to watch. The only downsides are two in my opinion. One, the first story is the best, the second the second best and the third... you get it. This descending order of interest is apparent, but that doesn't means that they are bad. Two, most of the movie is in black and white and when you see colored shots it makes you wish that the whole movie was in color.

Saw the film at the Athens International Film Festival.

When DUNE started I honestly was in awe because I realized that I missed seeing an epic on the big screen. I loved the slow pace, I loved taking our time and learning about the world. I hadn't seen something like that in a long time and every shot, every costume, every set is so well-crafted that you could lose yourself on the screen. This movie begs to be watched in a theater. There were moments that I honestly thought to myself, "It's like watching Lord of the Rings again!"

So this is Dune: Part One, they want to divide the book in three movies, that's not so bad since it's a big book. What's bad is that in my opinion this is a good and at the same time a bad adaptation not only of the book, but bad as far as adaptations go. Let me explain. It's good because they try to be faithful to the source material and it's bad because in the end the movie fails to stand on its own. The same thing that plagued movies like Batman V Superman is present here. It wants so badly to tease you on what's coming next that it forgets to tell its own story. It's just boring to watch vision after vision after vision that leads to a disappointing finale with the attitude of a TV show that's going to air next week. The next Dune movie will probably come out in 2-3 years, you can't end a movie like this like it's a TV episode. It just ends and there's no climax, it's just "see ya!"

Now the next big issue is that some exterior and all the interior lighting is just bad. There's no other way to put it, you can't see what's in front of you, I had to squint my eyes many times and let's say that it doesn't matter when there's just dialogue. It's just unrealistic to sit in this darkness and talk casually but okay. But when there's action?!? During the final thirty minutes it was impossible to see the visuals and the scenes were exterior at night. Scenes that were shown in trailers with better lighting, and that leaves me with two conclusions: A) They just made it dimmer for the final product, or, B) There was a problem with my screening. Either way I have to watch it a second time. I could forgive the bad ending but not be able to see?

In conclusion, what I liked from the book and what I disliked (about the story) are here. The world is fantastic, our protagonist is uninteresting, I'm just past the vanilla "Chosen One" cliche. The production is one of the best of the year if not the best and the score by Hans Zimmer brings Arrakis to life. The acting is good but in the next one I could do with less whispery dialogues. And just write a better stand alone movie, people pay to watch something now, they don't pay for the set-up to the next one!

Saw the film at the Athens International Film Festival.

Don't worry, the title is not a spoiler, it's just the vibes that I got from this movie.

Last Night in Soho is an absolute recommendation from me. Of course it would, it's an Edgar Wright film. In Soho, Wright goes for the horror route with ambiguous success. The good thing is that the pros of Soho outweigh the cons but the bad thing is that the cons have everything to do with the plot of this movie that it's full of inconsistencies, plot-holes and one dimensional characters. I won't get into details here because that would mean spoiling the movie. But at least for me, my main gripe is that the movie couldn't make me shut my brain and stop analyzing everything because the faults were that glaring.

But it's Wright we are talking about here. Last Night in Soho has excellent directing and aesthetics, amazing lead performance by Thomasin McKenzie, amazing supporting performances by most of the supporting cast, excellent visual effects (some bad CGI), great soundtrack and although I'm skeptical by the ending, I was for sure engaged. It's one of those movies that I need to see again, it has the potential for an 8/10. But for sure the movie is worthy of your money.

Saw the film at the Athens International Film Festival.

Ryû To Sobakasu No Hime is not one movie. It's two different scripts mashed together. Now... a pretentious d***head could say that that's what the director intended and everything is a commentary to the dual life of the protagonist... HA HA. Yeah right, as if...

Characters, story, plot, character development, EVERYTHING (besides a good soundtrack and some good visuals) are underdeveloped. It's like I was watching the first draft of something, even conceptually, I mean the core idea seemed "first draft"! The themes of the movie (besides the obvious and cringe "be yourself-you are unique") are not clear. And then the movie ended and I couldn't be bothered to remember a single name from our characters. My mind was too preoccupied trying to understand a fictional world that the director couldn't be bothered to flesh out. All that AND at the same time the movie was something like a soft retelling of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, going as far as to replicate some shots and scenes. Homage maybe? Sure, why not, either way I don't care.

Look, did I laugh (at times)? Yes.

Is Ryan Reynolds playing Ryan Reynolds charismatic? Big yes.

Did I expect much from the guy that wrote Ready Player One and the guy that wrote Scoob!? Hell no.

If you want to enjoy this movie you have to turn your brain off to a point that you forgot how to breathe. After a while it became tiring just to think how nothing is making any sense even if you know little about video-games and how they work. This movie could take a few lessons from the new Jumanji movies about inner logic in a video-game created world but nope, we are talking about the guy who wrote Ready Player One, so you know what we are dealing with. REFERENCES! It's like a grandpa wrote this, a grandpa who likes the idea of video-games but also a grandpa who is about to die so he doesn't care to learn anything about them.

Lastly, if I was to give this movie an award, I'd give Taika Waititi the award for most obnoxious acting of 2021. Congratulations Taika!

Saw the film at the Athens International Film Festival.

It's one of Scott's better films of the last years, with good story, great performances and as the film was reaching its climax I was getting more and more invested.

My two problems with the film are (one is a nitpick) that it's a movie set in France there's no hint of French accent, to me it's kinda important because if not for the French names or the French title locations, I easily forgot were we are. The second one is that I find that I don't have much to discuss about the movie. I can say, "Good performances by Driver and Comer", or, "the final act was excellent", but by the end the movie was so "in your face" (as they say) that it left minimal impression to me besides a silent respect for a movie well crafted.

Two things before the end. First, I loved seeing a medieval-sword & shield movie on the big screen. I missed the sound of swords clanging and the sound of horses and hooves. Lastly, the "Last Duel" part of the movie, the reason that you're going to watch it is amazing, brutal and satisfying to watch.

Sorry, but no amount of interesting visuals and good acting can save an ultimately aimless and uninteresting movie. They can elevate it, hence the 5, but not save. And when I say "interesting visuals", I mean the first and final fifteen minutes. The rest was just a big "meh".

Congratulations though to the two lead actresses because they carried this borefest on their backs.

I really hope Sebastian Stan and Denise Gough had a great time in their greek vacations (as of course the whole cast & crew) because I did not. The same problems that I have with Suntan I have with Monday. Great actors, great photography, great locations, overall good ideas, BUT THE SCRIPT! Oh the script once again is so boring, so dumb that my eyes rolled so far up my head that I was staring my brain...

I just can't stand movies were all it would take in real life it'd be just a conversation to solve our problems and in the movie they don't have that conversation because then you'd have no movie!

I guess this movie cements Argyris Papadimitropoulos' "thing" for having adults behaving like moronic kids in his movies. Even the ones that are supposed to be "mature". And in the end, so what? What happened? Do you care? I don't. The director needs to stop watching erotic films for his research in "relationships" and read a book, or grow up.

Oh my god, such a clever movie!

When I told the movie to jumpscare me, the movie jumpscared me.

When I told the movie to flash some lights at me, she immediately obeyed me!

And of course the movie new that trick with the horror-violin-strings in the soundtrack.

Good boy!

Jokes aside, I have some respect for the movie because the last 40' were extremely fun but by that point I was extremely bored because of the problematic tone. Still it's fun and I say give it a shot.