I don't really know what happened, but this summer (it was huh) there was talk that Oasis were hungry for a comeback. They were never among my personal favorites, but they have a couple of phenomenal songs anyway, and of course I know how much they mean to people. Shortly after, the comeback was confirmed. And since then, it has been rolling.

At the same time, it became clear that Offspring had been playing again with both a new album and a new tour, followed by Kent, Bloodhound Gang, Rascal Flats and... Ronny & Ragge. The latter is perhaps not the strongest card musically, but possibly the most unexpected considering that Peter Settman is one of Sweden's richest celebrities – and certainly doesn't need to travel around Sweden and show his ass while singing about ghosts. But cheers up, it does.

I'm definitely going to try to see Kent this time, and Offspring always puts me in a good mood, same with Bloodhound Gang. And I really like Rascal Flat's later albums so it will be fun to see what they have on the line.

I know that many people are of the opinion that old bands should not be resurrected in order to ruin the magic, but for my own part, I have always loved a good comeback, and note that in the fall of 2024 there has been a little ketchup effect on comebacks.

How do you feel about comebacks of these kinds (picture from the Bad Touch video with the Bloodhound Gang)?

One of the things my partner and I love to do when we go to the US is to sit down at a big Barnes & Noble (bookstore) and buy a coffee and then browse books and magazines (fully allowed at Barnes & Noble, You can even take it with you to read) in search of something that attracts. 

For my own part, I often end up buying a comic book. Most recently, I bought All-Star Superman which is available via a compact edition, a choice I made for the simple reason that it is the Superman that is the basis for the movie that premieres next year - and by extension the entire new DC movie universe. Now, of course, it's not a 1:1 interpretation that James Gunn offers, but it still feels fun to have read the original that everything will be based on. 

After reading All-Star Superman, it's easy to understand why Gunn chose this particular one as a starting point. Superman has the inherent problem that he doesn't really have an equal, and creator Grant Morrison wanted to make something more human. 

Therefore, we meet a dying Superman here (he can't handle our sun) who is not really happy with the situation and would like to leave behind a world in peace. This leads to a much more human story about what drives Stålis and the consequences of actions. Even though the series has consistently received good ratings, I have seen some people complain that the series is a bit too slow - which means that this version of the character has not been understood.

All-Star Superman isn't about demolishing the most skyscrapers and shooting the most brutal laser eye - and that's exactly what makes it incredibly liberating. 

How much Gunn actually returns from this version of Superman, remains to be seen, but what I take with me is that we can probably count on a superhero that is more reminiscent of the one we got to know from the Christopher Reeve era. than about the one we met in the SnyderVerse. It shouldn't be seen as a criticism of the SnyderVerse (Henry Cavill was of course great), but I'm still happy that it will probably be something completely different from what we've become accustomed to from Superman over the past 15 years - and after reading this one, I'm actually more eager for the upcoming movie than I was before.

Warm purchase recommendation. Available in a simpler edition for SEK 134 and in a nicer version in a larger format on better paper for SEK 276.

As you know, it's Halloween going on, and my partner and I are reveling in horror right now in the form of movies and TV series. In terms of gameplay, we play Metaphor: ReFantasio for full mugs though, but as you know, there are plenty of nice horror games as well.

Recently, Marie told me about her best horror games, and I was eager to do the same. But after a while of thinking I realized that I would probably prefer to give this blog post to a single game. Because there's a horror game that's so damn rough and unpleasant that I think it beats everything else in that category – and complements this with first-class gameplay. For... Unfortunately, horror games surprisingly often equate to gameplay.

However, the latter was not a trap Monolith Productions intended to fall into. They had previously made No One Lives Forever and F.E.A.R. when they released the Xbox 360-exclusive release title Condemned: Criminal Origins in 2005. FBI agent Ethan Thomas pulled into a story about a serial killer, who quickly took completely different turns than one might think.

The adventure takes place in the slums of a big city based on Seattle, filled with possessed Kraken who attacked with a rarely seen frenzy. We've seen jump scares before, but the panic that sets in when someone screams rushes towards you in a dark room is not to be trifled with. Condemned: Criminal Origins offered really nice combat with a sense of heaviness that I've never actually experienced in the same way. Hitting an opponent in the head with an iron pipe, a feeling I can only describe as unpleasant.

"Unpleasant" is probably how I would describe Condemned: Criminal Origins in general, because it is constantly playing with the player's psyche and several times I had to take a break simply because it was too heavy, and if I were to rank the three scariest moments I have ever experienced in a gaming context – I think all three will come here From the get-go.

You can read Petter's 19-year-old review here (it stands, and he writes, among other things: "I personally have never played a game that made me so scared for such a long period of time as Condemned") and if you really want to scare the crap out of yourself this Halloween, you can download Condemned: Criminal Origins for Xbox here (yep, backwards compatible). I'm not sure you'll thank me afterwards though, because this is horror for real.

The absolute scariest gaming world has to offer. By a margin actually.

There are few people who can boast of better insight into the industry than former Playstation boss Shawn Layden. He led the PlayStation 4 to success after success, but was succeeded five years ago by Jim Ryan, who many have had all the more views on.

In recent years, Layden has been an outspoken critic of the fact that each new game released must be bigger than its predecessor on every measurable parameter, and also have a whole battery of upsells with subscriptions, microtransactions and others. When I now read his statement today, I can only just nod along.

He points out, among other things, that the costs of game development have skyrocketed completely because of the above. Five years in development time is starting to be on the low side for big games, and there are very few companies that can afford this. The risk is therefore also very high and consequently no risks can be taken. This means that all attempts at innovation disappear, while grinding on in the same old footsteps in game series that are already established.

More specifically, he says that "you're [looking] at sequels, you're looking at copycats, because the finance guys who draw the line say, 'Well, if Fortnite made this much money in this amount of time, my Fortnite knockoff can make this in that amount of time'.", and believes that this has fatal consequences:

"We're seeing a collapse of creativity in games today [with] studio consolidation and the high cost of production."

Big words, again from a person with an extreme understanding of the industry and who himself has worked at the absolute top. Even though Gamereactor's comments section and my feeds on social media like Instagram and Threads (and for that matter forums like Neogaf) are hardly statistically reliable sources, it still seems that a lot of gamers feel the same way.

The so-called AAA games feel a bit tired and not nearly as interesting as they used to be, and a worrying number of bets have also crashed or at least underperformed despite the fact that the ratings weren't really that bad. Surveys also show that gamers actually prefer single-player, despite the fact that every publisher of the rank is now wholeheartedly committed to almost exclusively multiplayer.  

In short, we now have a gaming industry that doesn't make the games the customers (we!) demand, and seems genuinely uninterested in trying to back the band and find the right one again. After so many years, I unfortunately don't think they listen to either opinions or sales figures (the dream of the next Fortnite is strong), but a gentleman like Hawn Layden I think the giants also choose to listen to.

During the Xbox 360 generation, an entire trilogy such as Gears of War, Mass Effect, or Resistance could be released on the same console. Today, entire generations can be skipped without a single game in major leagues. Is that reasonable?

I've scolded Hollywood a lot here in the blog considering how unimaginative they have worked for the past ten years. It feels like an unreasonably large part of what is now being released in theaters is somehow connected to (remake, rebooter and sequel) the many classics of the 80s.

It would be necessary to create new brands we can look forward to, that can become cult and define several generations of people. But... Despite that, I now thought I would contradict myself and wish for a continuation of film series from the 80s that for some inexplicable reason had been lying around, but which would actually work well with a sequel about 30-40 years later. Of course, I know that there have been rumors about these reels - but nothing is confirmed and therefore they remain wishes.

• Gremlins 3 – Horror movies always get drifts of sequels, and Gremlins was a pop culture phenomenon. But despite that, a third film never came. But the actors are still alive and are not excessively old, the concept is ingenious and surely there are more people than me who wonder what Mogwai has been up to in recent decades?

• Who Framed Roger Rabbit – Disney is today, perhaps with some justification in some cases, criticized for being a little too cautious and anxious in its investments. It didn't usually be like that and their films were often just as good for adults as they were for children, and nowhere was this more evident than in the masterpiece Who Framed Roger Rabbit which was surprisingly raw, deep and offered more cleavage than anything else Disney has done combined. It's high time to let Jessica Rabbit and her feisty husband let loose again on an unforgettable trip to Toontown.

• Conan: The Barbarian – I know Schwarzenegger isn't exactly in his prime anymore. But he is still highly active and to have an aging Conan in a rock-hard fantasy world would have been worth its weight in gold. There are definitely stories to tell, that should be told and there is an endless amount of good material from the comics to base everything on.

Is there any 80s classic you think should get a sequel?