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Halo Anniversary
Completed Halo Anniversary. One thing they didn’t fix, though, are zombies with rocket launchers. I don’t remember those in the Library at all. They still one-hit kill you. And are very difficult to identify from afar. Other than that, as I suspected, the final race in the jeep is much simpler, because it has more…
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Skies of Arcadia
I tried playing it once, and for some reason I remembered it being very difficult, as the first boss wiped me out. Either I didn’t farm at all back then, or I didn’t understand what the healing items and spells are called. Because they are called “sacra”. Of course every game has to invent its…
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Sony Trinitron
Spent an evening trying to connect CRT to a modern PC, using HDMI to VGA and VGA to SCART. At first, I thought it would be completely impossible. CRT was displaying an image, but it was repeated three times horizontally, and with wrong colors. Colors got fixed by disabling scaling in nVidia settings. Getting a…
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Halo Anniversary
Halo remake for Xbox 360 is interesting, because it’s 10 years separated from the original, and 15 years separated from now. So it’s obviously an improvement, with more detailed textures, soft shadows, wide-screen support, and more effects, like the shields. But it also falls into an uncanny valley, with the characters looking more human and…
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Dreamcast on CRT
Tried a proper SCART cable for Dreamcast, from the same seller I’ve got my Xbox cable. The picture is colored now, which is good. But the TV doesn’t switch to SCART input like it does with Xbox. Not sure if the cable isn’t wired correctly or it’s the Dreamcast. Played Skies of Arcadia until the…
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Tacticus
Unlocked couple more characters. Most of the shards came still from Anniversary Event. Unlocked Patermine, last shards were from Guild War. That’s the most expensive Genestealer, and the last I needed. Unlocked Kharn, another powerful Legendary. Last shards from Guild War. One of the most damaging characters in the game. Also, he’s a berserker, so…
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Halo Combat Evolved
Completed Halo. I remembered that Library episode was the worst one, with waves of Flood enemies. But it’s actually not that bad, although I did end up running past some of the encounters. The worst part comes later, when you need to backtrack to disable the generators, and the game throws at you zombies with…
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Alien Breed 3D
I’ve heard about Alien Breed games, which were topdown shooters. But I didn’t know they had a FPS spinoff, and at first I thought it was just some demo or prototype. I wish it was, because it does look like a joke. It’s a Doom clone, which means they have sector elevations, like stairs. It…
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Xbox 360
It’s quite amazing that a year later, with BadUpdate 1.3 and BadAvatar it’s possible to boot directly into Aurora. Unmodded Xbox 360 is as good as a modded one now. And the best thing, I don’t need an USB drive to stick out of my console anymore.
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Pohjala Barrique Noire Imperial Baltic porter
I’ve complained a lot about most of my favourite beer not being available in the UK anymore. There is one silver lining to it, though, and it’s Estonian Pohjala barrel aged imperial porters, that are still easy to get. Barrique Noire is a masterpiece. Smell of prunes, and taste of cherries and chocolate, all thanks…
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Sony Trinitron
I bought a RGB SCART from eBay for my Xbox. Not sure why Xbox specifically, maybe because I had plans to play Halo anyway? It turned out to be actually good, despite not being an expensive. Now TV actually turns on the correct input when console is connected, and the colours are good too. The…
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Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty
I decided to see Reed’s ending as well, disappointingly the only one DLC added. I couldn’t find a save just before Songbird’s shuttle, so I started from Hansen’s death. There is a surprisingly long Alien Isolation sequence, where you need to avoid an invincible spider bot that crawls into ventilation shafts. Yeah, exactly like Alien.…
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Halo Combat Evolved
Halo is probably one of the most remade games ever, with Anniversary / Master Chief Collection in 2012 and Campaign Evolved in 2026. But I decided to try the original on Xbox. I finished the PC port, but it was in 2004, so I barely remember anything. So far, it’s not very good. Lack of…
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Springbank 5 100 proof
After all the frustration with not getting Springbank 18, I still have two unopened Springbanks sitting on my shelf. So I opened the 100 proof. Got it for a fair price too. It’s not bad. But for 50GBP, you can get Bunna 12, you can get Arran 10. And despite cask strength, you are still…
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Sony Trinitron
I think I understand why TV only shows black and white image, and it’s the adapter’s fault. SCART is the connector, and it can transmit different types of signal. Of course it transmits the crappiest composite signal, instead of RGB. My suspicion is that the PAL switch doesn’t actually send a sync on the PAL…
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Springbank sale
Masters of Malt had a sale of Cambletown whiskies. It started at 3PM. When I checked 15 minutes later, almost everything was gone. Springbank 21 for 300GBP? 150 bottles gone. Springbank 18? 300 bottles gone. Kilkerran 16? 200 bottles gone. I managed to get Sprinbank 10 at a decent price, but considering that I also…
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Cyberpunk 2077
Completed Cyberpunk. I can’t complain much about the arsenal, there are plenty of cool and fun unique weapons to play with. Only category that puzzles me are the machine guns: there are just two types of LMGs, the second was added in the DLC, I think. And there is exactly one HMG type in the…
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Tropical Highland Fling, Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Received my second bottle from Scotch Malt Whisky Society, Tropical Highland Fling. This one is only 12 years old, which for 90GBP sounds overprices, but at least it’s 58% ABV, cask strength, so I’d say at the top of the price range. It is super interesting, though. I was guessing rum casks, because it is…
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Hereditary
This wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought it will be a take on haunted house. Maybe some commentary on how Grandma tries to control the family in her death, same as she did in life. Then I thought that maybe Grandma groomed the granddaughter to be her host. Then the car scene happened. And…
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Sony Trinitron
Struggled to understand why I’m not getting any picture. Turns out, TV doesn’t automatically switch to SCART, even when there is signal. As I didn’t get a remote, I was glad to find that “input” followed by + does the trick. I tried connecting Neo Geo first, but by the time I figured how to…