Sektori, from Housemarque alumni Kimmo Lahtinen, is as perfect a twin-stick shooter as you can imagine. One of the most ingenuously designed experiences of the year, it's gaming distilled to its foundational elements. I loved it. #gaming toisto.net/sektori-game...

Winter Burrow has some of my favorite writing in any game this year. It is a touching and often heartbreaking fable about found families and putting life together again. It's the other elements, inlcuding confounding design choices, that stumble. #gaming toisto.net/winter-burro...

In theaters today, The Running Man is a mostly entertaining and handsomely produced adaptation of King's prescient novel, let down by Edgar Wright pulling all his punches where they matter most. What a frustrating movie. #Filmsky toisto.net/the-running-...

This has been a great year for game releases and just as I thought we were winding down, I ended up playing two all-time classics in the same genre. The first one, Anno 117, is familiar in mechanics, but tuned to perfection. I loved every minute with it. #gaming toisto.net/anno-117-pax...

Now You See Me, Now You Don't is like watching a bad magic act from an unbearably smug magician, where there's almost a perverse pleasure in seeing them fumble the ball so hard. #filmsky toisto.net/now-you-see-...

I liked The Outer Worlds 2. In any other year, I may have even loved it. But 2025 is an all-time great year for RPG gaming, and The Outer Worlds is a very safe and often frustratingly limited experience that is fine when it could be outstanding. #gaming toisto.net/the-outer-wo...

Happy Frankenstein day to those who celebrate. Guillermo del Toro's magnificent adaptation of Mary Shelley's breathtaking novel is now on Netflix. I loved it to bits. #filmsky toisto.net/tiff-review-...

Death by Lightning features tremendous performances from Matthew McFadyen and Michael Shannon as two men both thrust into and forgotten by history in the blink of an eye. I really liked this one. #netflix #filmsky toisto.net/death-by-lig...

ARC Raiders is gorgeous, runs smoothly, and does all the right aesthetic choices that spark joy. But after 40 hours topside, I still yearn for a pure PVE mode and something that would break free from the confines of the genre. It's good. It can be better. toisto.net/arc-raiders-...

I knew it would take less than a day for a tiktok dj to make something.

Kaikki tämä pätee myös meihin kriitikoihn ja sisällöntuottajiin. Olen tehnyt tänä vuonna satoja arvosteluja, haastatteluja ja videoita, vieraillut radiossa ja luennoimassa niin kotimaassa kuin ulkomailla. Käteen ei ole jäänyt mitään. Ensi vuonna yksi apuraha pelastaa alkuvuoden ja sekin on ihme.

Night Visions Maximum Halloween reviews thread! It's November, which means it is time for another round of Night Visions screenings here in Helsinki. I checked out most of the catalog in advance and will drop the reviews here of all of them.

Always nice to see my name quoted in such smart and esteemed company!

Predator: Badlands isn't surprising nor particularly inventive, but it is entertaining and breezy, and that counts for something. Also, please let Elle Fanning become the new Sigourney Weaver for this franchise. She deserves it. #filmsky toisto.net/predator-bad...

As we barrel towards the end of the year, I've begun to calculate how many pieces I've finished in the last 12 months. So far: 147 theatrical reviews, 50 streaming, 45 physical media, and 54 games, 10 interviews, 6 film festivals, and Gamescom. And there's still more in the pipeline. Phew!

By framing The Witcher as a grand saga in the style of the Arthurian romances, the fourth season finds a renewed energy and sense of fun. Hemsworth impresses as Geralt and there's a promise the final season will make the difficult journey worthwhile. #thewitcher toisto.net/the-witcher-...

Yorgos Lanthimos is like Tim Burton for mistanthropes. I really did not enjoy Bugonia. #filmsky toisto.net/bugonia-emma...

Script consulting and script doctors have been a thing in the film industry for a century. They can do wonders by bringing in an outside perspective. Everyone that I've met from SBI has been incredibly smart, witty, and kind. Exactly the kind of people you'd want to work with on a project.

Sat down to do a quick glance at the mechanics for Farthest Frontier and lost myself for almost four hours into its hypnotic graces. This is going to be fun.

Deliver Me From Nowhere is a painful collection of fictionalized events and reductive clichés about one of the greatest musical artists of our time. Both The Boss and his fans deserve far better. #filmsky toisto.net/springsteen-...

After a month with Battlefield 6, I think I can formulate an opinion on the mammoth shooter. It's a fine return to the basics, but very little more than that. In time, it has the potential to be amazing. It's just not there yet. #gaming toisto.net/battlefield-...

Oh my goodness, House of Dynamite knocked the wind out of me. Woah.

I celebrated by watching three movies in one day. Time well spent.

I've worked as a writer on two games that I know I didn't get credit on, and that's not taking into account design work done in unofficial capacity. Every time I bring up my work when applying somewhere, I feel weirdly guilty about it, since my name doesn't appear on the final product.

I really, really, really liked IT: Welcome to Derry. But it does deserve every trigger warning going. This is some of the harshest and audacious horror I've ever seen on TV. #filmsky toisto.net/it-welcome-t...

Starting out my cake day with a screening of the Springsteen movie, which has an uphill battle ahead as the perfect movie about The Boss already exists and it's called Blinded by the Light.

We're not getting Guillermo Del Toro's incredible Frankenstein in theaters here in Finland. Instead, they're re-releasing the entire Twilight saga for a limited theatrical run. Every day I'm more and more convinced this is The Bad Place.

I spoke with the cast and crew of To Cook a Bear about the religious and moral themes of their show, the vast frontier locations they shot in, and how the unjust nature of society hasn't changed much in hundreds of years. #filmsky toisto.net/interview-wi...

Arriving on Disney Plus on October 15th, To Cook a Bear is a smartly written and superbly acted Nordic Noir based off the book by Mikael Niemi. Gustaf Skarsgård shines in the lead role, and the visuals alone are worth the trip. #filmsky toisto.net/to-cook-a-be...

After two years of being featured on Rotten Tomatoes, the first time other Finnish outlets even register my existence is to gasp at my audacity to give Sisu a less than stellar review. At least they acknowledge that it's not an outright pan.

I wasn't thrilled by Sisu 2: Road to Revenge. It's an odd mix of grindhouse and Finnish iconography made for American audiences that didn't sit right with me. It's thanks to the impossibly charismatic Tommila that any of this works, even in small doses. #filmsky toisto.net/sisu-2-road-...

In this house, we believe in Chiitan.

Miller, writer and director of films about the destruction of the environment and perversion of memories through toxic osmosis, singing praises for AI is one of those "does the artist not understand his own art?" moments I really didn't need.

Hey, Finland, see what happens when you actually invest in the arts and your people?

There's no denying that 70 Euros is a steep asking price, just as there's no denying that this is the best either one of the two masterpieces has ever looked or played. If you're a Mario fan, this is basically as good as it gets. #gaming toisto.net/super-mario-...

Our International Film Society has voted on and now published our picks of the 100 top films of the 21st century so far. Lots of great picks in the lineup, lots of disagreements, too. It's what makes all of this so fun. For reference, here are my picks for the top spots.

Trans rights are not the rights of a tiny minority, trans rights are everyone’s rights to self-determination, control of our bodies, and a society where opportunity and aesthetics are not restricted by sex assigned at birth You should support and defend trans people because trans people are people

Hey Bluesky! I figured it would be a good time to show off the game I've been working on for a little while. Introducing TaleKeep, a peasant-hopping castle simulation RPG set in a storybook medieval world.

TIFF: Rian Johnson is one of the best American filmmakers working today. His latest is as thematically rich as anything he's made previously, and it's a joy from start to finish. I loved every minute of Wake Up Dead Man. #tiff #filmsky toisto.net/tiff-review-...

With Ghost of Yotei just around the corner, I got to writing about some of the films that inspired it, and the classic titles you should check out if you're as excited about samurai films as I am. #gaming #filmsky toisto.net/the-films-th...

TIFF: I was really impressed by this sharp and tightly written neo noir starring Korean idols Han So-hee and Jun Jong-seo. #tiff #filmsky toisto.net/tiff-review-...

This was one of my favorites at Gamescom. Super charming and fun to play. An easy recommendation to everyone.

I've been told numerous time to not thank creators for their work because "you're not being objective". But every time I do, and it comes from a place of sincerity, the result is the same. I won't ever stop telling others when they've made a positive impact on my life. A thank you matters.

I wrote about my undying love for Hades and Hades II for KonsoliFIN. It's in Finnish, but to summarize: they're both amazing and I love them to bits.

TIFF: Green Day, the band, all seem like nice enough guys. But you can't convince me in any way that they're some punk rock paragons, especially when it's through a film produced by them and Live Nation. #tiff #filmsky toisto.net/tiff-review-...

TIFF: With great performances by Bill Nighy, George MacKay, and Johnny Flynn, & Sons is a frustrating mix of genres and big ideas that's more interesting to think about than it is to watch. #filmsky #tiff toisto.net/tiff-review-...

Ten important ones in my development: Y Tu Mama Tambien Do the Right Thing 25th Hour Motorcycle Diaries Cloud Atlas Brother's Bloom Paterson Porco Rosso Drunken Master 2 Kikujiro's Summer

TIFF: Channing Tatum continues his career as a human golden retriever, effortlessly charming his way through this questionable portrait of a vile person that never stops to ask who we're cheering for, or why. #tiff toisto.net/tiff-review-...

With one of the best leading performances in any film this year, Good Boy is a tremendously original and deeply moving haunted house film that breathes new life into the genre. #filmsky toisto.net/good-boy-leo...

TIFF: Easy's Waltz is a classy and old-school drama about losers adjusting their dreams as they plummet into the third acts of their lives in Las Vegas. I really liked it. #tiff #filmsky toisto.net/tiff-review-...