Of course, there are always things you look forward to in life, just as it should. With the summer of 2024 behind us, the high season is now starting in earnest, both for the film industry and video games, and it is with this in mind that I have now listed the three things I am currently looking forward to the most.

• Towerborne One of the games I've had the most fun with, ever, is Castle Crashers. Consequently, I was fired up when Stoic and Microsoft announced Towerfall. It looks to offer pretty much everything that made Castle Crashers so good, but with all the features and endless replayability that characterize titles with really good support. An Early Access version is coming soon to Steam, and then Game Preview to Xbox Series S/X next year, and I'm ready to play it all together.

• Peacemaker: Season 2 I've watched Peacemaker three times, and really love the series. The role is cut and cut for John Cena, and it's just so twisted that you never really know what's going to happen, complete with some really surprising scenes that would have fit in The Boys.  With James Gunn's soundtrack and a funny enemy, I'd classify it as the best superhero series of all time – and of course I want more. Much more.

• Super Mario Party Jamboree – It's becoming more and more rare that we play local multiplayer, I guess I'm not alone in that. But Mario Part has to be experienced in the company of good friends to really see all the bad lost suffer and sneer at the pile on with deplorable foul play. The latest installment, Mario Party Superstars, was released three years ago and had far too few plans, but on October 17, Jamboree will come and remedy this. We've already started planning full game days to really enjoy this supposed highlight.

What are you looking forward to the most right now?

When Sony began to seriously launch its investment in live service, many expressed the opinion that it would not affect their single-player games. The opinions went something like there were different teams and Sony has bought new developers. 

Today, we see a result of this, where single-player games have been drastically cut at the expense of multiplayer. But this is nothing unique to Sony. If Microsoft said something similar, I don't know for sure, but they have long invested in online games primarily - and have consequently not had the same resources for singleplayer. Now Bethesda is getting into the game and declaring that Fallout 5 will not be delayed by Fallout 76 - and I just shake my head.

So they mean that the development of Fallout 5 would not be slowed down by the fact that they are making a completely new Fallout that happens to be by far the series' largest and most complex game? And they also mean that it wouldn't have speeded up the development of Fallout 5 if they put the resources into this instead?

Don't get me wrong here, I like Fallout 76 and am glad it exists - but be honest instead with this kind of thing. Resources don't just show up and no matter how you look at it, bets on live service that no one has asked for (other than publishing managers) are resources that could have been spent on something the players actually asked for instead.

It's fun to play together with others, but don't come and pretend that these resources couldn't have been used in any other way.

Sat down in the darkness of the cinema in Östersund on Saturday to take a look at Longlegs, which has been praised in several places (not least by Petter, read his review here). Horror movies are a favorite genre for my own part, and I have a lot of tolerance for the fact that it's often a genre that doesn't really push any boundaries and strikingly often feels more like youth center theater rather than Hollywood productions.

Well, as you already understood from the title, I wasn't impressed by the movie, but to be able to explain why, this time I have to go ahead with spoilers at the grossest . So you are warned. If you don't want to know the premise of the movie, then don't read on.

Left? Let's go.

Longlegs starts phenomenally and offers two fine acts that set a very nice mood. All the time I sit and think about how this exciting story can be tied together in a good way. Who is this Longlegs who murders entire families according to rather predetermined patterns - without apparently even having been there? Among other things, there is talk of a possible helper with a bit of a whodunit feeling. 

But... After two-thirds of the time, the plot twist begins to appear, and it certainly wasn't entirely easy to predict because it's astonishingly silly. The whole tool to make Longlegs work is magical dolls, and I can't for the life of me think there's anything scary when a supernatural object is thrown into a movie that builds up as down-to-earth (if I watch Conjuring or Poltergeist, I know what I'm getting myself into). This has already felt like a vague cousin to Seven, but just as little as Seven is lifted by the fact that magical dolls have been behind its bestial murder, Longlegs lifts off of it.

In short, it feels to me that Osgood Perkins didn't really have a good vision to tie together his initially brilliant horror movie. I would much rather have had a blindfolded Nicolas Cage himself at the helm together with one or a few disciples and a story that could be explained without resorting to the supernatural.

When Lee Harker at the end lets his colleague go into the kitchen to kill his wife even though she knew what was going to happen, I couldn't feel anything but disappointed. Disappointed because the promising premise in my humble opinion was not taken advantage of but to a great extent was wasted with magic dolls.

Two thirds phenomenal, one third pie.

You could think that it is any Friday, this August 30, 2024. But no.  Tonight is the annual fermented herring premiere. I know that the last few years have been hipped to a lot of home cooking (just look at the buns that have been hit the worst of all), but the fermented herring seems to have survived quite decently from turning into Asian fusion, some labeling salad solution or similar.

It is therefore still extremely basic things that apply. I know that YouTubers love to push a fish as it is and then sob for the burning life – but these are also the only ones who eat that way and at the same time show how ignorant they are. Those of us who love fermented herring know that it takes a side dish to lift, and just as you don't eat a strong spice mix straight out of the jar, fermented herring should do that.

For my own part, I want a good hard flatbread with real butter that has been left out at room temperature, boiled almond potatoes, chopped silver onions, crème fraiche and of course fermented herring. Someone in the parties also wants tomato slices to go with it. As long as these umami bombs taste good, there is no right and wrong

What about the smell? Well, fermented herring smells, that's how it is. I usually open the jar outside, but it's not that strange and no one thinks about it after a minute. And, to quote myself from last year, this year we have a person who "discovered" fermented herring for real last year, which feels fun:

"It may not be for everyone, but I note that those we invite in the gang and who have not eaten it before still usually appreciate when they try the fish with side dishes (by the way, that's how I myself realized that it was awesome) - and that those who have never really tried it pand really tend to be the most critical."

In short, I'm really looking forward to the evening, finally the fermented herring premiere, among the absolute best I know! 

Not the most picture-perfect dish, admittedly. Have you tried it yourself and what do you think?

If you've been following the Swedish reporting on Russia's senseless war against Ukraine, you're probably familiar with Jonas M (no, not Mäki). He is an ex-military with two decades of experience who felt he wanted to help.

This has resulted in him making over 40 trips to Ukraine at the risk of his own life with materials that were requested, where he then left the mess including the car he came in. The money has been donated by ordinary Swedes and it has often been about sophisticated equipment such as mine clearance, night vision, drones, medical supplies and other things - often very close to the front with direct danger to their lives.

Of course, this has meant that he has seen things no one should have experienced, but also gratitude and a first-hand check few others can match, and now he will tell his story in a new book. I have written before that I mainly read non-fiction books and biographies rather than fictional ones, and this is really a book that attracts.

If you want to know more about Jonas M, you can find his Facebook page here where you can check out his many trips and what the money raised goes to (I donate regularly). If you also want to read the book when it is released on October 3, you will find links to both Adlibris and Bokus at this link.

I have a feeling that this will be both disgusting but also highly interesting and very important.