Played Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters on Steam (store.steampowered.com)
Lead humanity’s greatest weapon, the Grey Knights, in this fast-paced turn-based tactical RPG. Root out and purge a galaxy-spanning plague in a cinematic, story-driven campaign, using the tactics and talents of your own personalised squad of Daemonhunters.

This is much more than XCOM: Enemy Unknown in the grim dark future of Warhammer 40k. The fundamentals of the game play, and even the interface, are identical but this offers so much more than that… IF you want it.

XCOM: EU is an exceptional game and, while it can be very hard, it’s also relatively straight forward. This is a tricky balance to hit. Daemonhunters, however, is not trying to be as accessible. XCOM directs you neatly through the campaign. This does not. You are at much more liberty to explore and progress at your own pace. The talent trees for your Knights are MUCH more complex and, as in the source material, min/maxing your team is possible. Your research and construction choices are yours alone. However, not everyone will enjoy this.

The removal of the randomisation mechanics in battle and very long timelines (months not days) removes most of the temptation to save/load your way to success. It’s hard to foresee the impact of some decisions and by the time you do, you won’t want to go back.

As for the setting, I’m not sure a 40k game has been better realised. The attention to detail is off the chart. The Knights are gloriously rendered and the environments are packed with features you might recognise. The sound is excellent, from the sparkly psychic noises to the squishy, sloppy Nurgle-ness. The supporting cast are also very well realised and there is a strong under current of humour, which stops the story descending into a dreary melodrama.

If you like XCOM and 40k, you should love this. If you like one or the other, you might love this. For anyone else, it’s a great real-time strategy game but it might be a bit too crunchy for some people’s tastes.

Watched Frankenhooker (1990) by an author from letterboxd.com
A medical school dropout loses his fiancée in a tragic lawnmower incident and decides to bring her back to life. Unfortunately, he was only able to save her head, so he goes to the red light district in the city and lures prostitutes into a hotel room so he can collect body parts to reassemble her.

Giving an extra star for the finale. Watch Basket Case instead.

★

My review

Watched Bad Times at the El Royale (2018) by an author from letterboxd.com
Lake Tahoe, 1969. Seven strangers, each one with a secret to bury, meet at El Royale, a decadent motel with a dark past. In the course of a fateful night, everyone will have one last shot at redemption.

Liked this a lot, right up until the start of the third act. I’m not sure if it’s Chris Hemsworth lacking the menace to pull this off or it just fizzles out. Or both. Shame.

★★★½

My review

The mis-use of the word “sorry” to apologise for a specific inconvenience with absolutely no intention of doing anything to make sure it doesn’t happen again, drives me nuts.

Watched Split Second (1992) by an author from letterboxd.com
In a flooded future London, Detective Harley Stone hunts a serial killer who murdered his partner and has haunted him ever since — but he soon discovers what he is hunting might not be human.

Objectively one of the worst films I’ve ever seen. But I enjoyed it well enough.

★★★

My review

Watched Last Night in Soho (2021) by an author from letterboxd.com
A young girl, passionate about fashion design, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters her idol, a dazzling wannabe singer. But 1960s London is not what it seems, and time seems to be falling apart with shady consequences.

I was onboard, with some reservations, for maybe the first hour but then… Dog this is awful.

The coda just puts the tin hat on it.

The story might have made a decent six part drama mystery but as a film?! Oh, no. No no no.

½

My review

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Today is the anniversary of the birth of Jóhann Jóhannsson. He’s one of my favourite composers, and he might be one of yours too, you just don’t know it.