One Happy Team…

Death Stranding

There are a lot of motives: bonds, knots, bridges, strands, “make us whole again”, “I’ll be waiting for you on the beach, come and find me”. Still no idea what any of that means.

There’s a boss fight, but you don’t have conventional weapons yet, only grenades. Luckily, it isn’t very hard, although the boss can instakill you if you aren’t careful.

Boss is summoned by Higgs, who’s the leader of a terrorist group. Once one of the monsters devours a human, it results in an explosion, and Higgs orchestrates those events.

Every time Sam rests we’ve shown some memories from the perspective of the baby in the artificial womb. We’re told not to worry about this, which means that either memories are important, or the memories we see aren’t the fetus we carry, but Sam’s own (which also means President is not his mother).

Sam is also carrying a photo which supposed to be of him, his mother and sister. But even although the face is smudged is not the face of Amelie, I suspect.

Tags Death Stranding

PC Gaming

Death Stranding

Death Stranding reminds me of scifi of the 70s, that leaned into weird and unknown. Here we have creatures invisible to most people that age everything they touch, and apparently people corpses not disposed properly exploding like a nuclear bomb.
There are some concepts that are mundane in cinema, but grounbreaking in games. Like body hair. Or tears. Nobody cares about those, except Kojima. But those are the most technologically advanced tears I’ve seen, and may yet see for many more years.
We play as Sam, a postapocaliptic porter. His last name is Porter as well. Sam has center of gravity and momentum. If he runs downhill, he’ll stumble and fall, and if his backpack is too heavy he’ll fall on his back.
Sam is also son of the last America president, who’s dying of cancer. One of your first tasks is to cremate her, so she doesn’t explode. Then your sister becomes the next president (not very democratic), but there’s a catch: she’s held by some organisation on the other side of the continent. And now it’s up to you to go and rescue her.
You’re given a BB, artifical baby in an artifical womb, that once connected, outlines the monsters, which you need to sneak by. Innovative, but not very convenient. Although that goes for the entire game.
The problem is that there isn’t much game to begin with. Or it’s like the most boring and mundane things were put into a single game. I always avoided online interactions in the Souls series. And here we have more of those: you supposed to share cargo with other players, and your currency is literally likes they give you. And the entire gameplay is just endless strings of fetch quests. Now I guess it all started with Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops, a low budget game for a portable console. So they had to make a lot of very small, self contained missions, and a ton of meta-management in between. Then we got Metal Gear Solid 5, which wasn’t small anymore, but still was an endless stream of stealth missions and meta-management. Now, you aren’t even given weapons at first. The first weapon you are given is a vial with your shower water you are supposed to throw at monsters like a grenade.
Avoiding online interractions, fetch quests and I’m sure later they’ll make you throw piss at enemies too. What you wouldn’t do to watch best cutscenes industry can produce?

Tags Death Stranding

*.BAK

Japanese Whiskey Advent Calendar

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date February 6, 2026
No Comments on Japanese Whiskey Advent Calendar

After buying whiskey advent calendars for a couple of years, I came to a simple conclusion that I’m not excited about Scotch whiskies anymore. I like them the most, but I’m not interested in trying more, because I had most of them, either as a bottle, or as a taster, or a better version of:

And this year I’m going through the World Whiskey calendar, which doesn’t change that much either.
What else is there? There’s Japanese whiskey. Those whiskies are more expensive, and so are the calendars. I always purchased the calendars after a discount, paying around 100GBP, but discounted Japanese whiskey calendars are 160GBP discounted.
And since I was dragging my feet into February, they actually stopped being discounted, and started selling for 250GBP again.
Luckily some shops are still selling them at the old price. Or so I thought.

Tags whiskey

*.DOC *.MP3

Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date February 4, 2026
1 Comment on Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman

Finished listening to retelling of Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman, voiced by the author. The main hero of most of those stories is Loki. Usually, he does something stupid, because he’s drunk and thinks that would be funny, then spends the second half fixing his errors.
Interesting that Gaiman voices the idea that Aesir and Vanir were gods of two tribes. The tribe of Aesir conquered the farmer-Vanir worshippers, and incorporated them in their pantheon as hostage gods. Same idea was voiced by Robert Howard, author of Conan the Barbarian, back in 1930.
There’s also no real distinction between gods and giants. Gods can turn into animals. So can giants. Gods can mary female giants, and giants in true Greek fashion can steal godesses. Moreover, some if not all of the gods were born from giants, and as with Tyr even visit their parents sometimes.

Tags Neil Gaiman

PS4 Sony

Callisto Protocol Final Transmission

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date February 4, 2026
No Comments on Callisto Protocol Final Transmission

I decided to go back on my words and actually complete the only DLC for Callisto Protocol. I highly doubt I would have returned to it later, and if I did, I would have forgotten how to play the game anyway.
I decided to play it on PS4, because I didn’t want to buy it on PC.
I was complaining about unnecessary transitions on PC. On PS4 the loading times are so bad that sometimes the lift doors won’t open, because the level behind them is still loading, something that never happened to me on PC.
Because I can’t transfer my saves, I started with a default loadout. Which is, to be honest, fair. You get mostly upgraded shotgun, glove, and pistol, and you can pick up other weapons as you go. Worse off than if I could continue from my save, but it is what it is.
Jacob starts with light amnesia, for some reason. He also hallucinates Elias, the now dead cellmate, which didn’t happen to him in the original. There’s a “new” enemy: same robot with a flashlight, but this time covered it fungi.

Also, I guess because people complained about boring vent crawling, now they added traps inside the vents. Which only make them more annoying, as they do not save you before the vent. At least I was prepared the second time.
At some point you break your button and given a hamme, because developers couldn’t implement two melee weapons at once. In addition to being incredibly powerful in melee, it can also break crates.

Credit given where credit is due, they actually added an almost original boss. It’s obviously based on two-headed ogre, but it has also a ranged attack and a stomp, and transitions between melee and ranged forms. It’s actually better than the final boss from the original, in a sense.

Tags Callisto Protocol

Hardware

LG 32GS95UV-B monitor

I think I finally found the feature that was driving me crazy since I bought this monitor, the shifts in gray tones that take a few seconds to stabilize.
Turns out it’s called “Smart Energy Saving”. Took me months, because first, it’s not clear that there’s a second page of options in the onscreen menu. And second, the name doesn’t suggest that it may affect colors.

Tags LG

Sony

Playstation 4 Pro

So I got myself another Playstation 4 Pro, with 12.52 firmware, and the BD with an exploit.
This was after I had a funny encounter on eBay. I’ve seen someone selling it for 100GBP, which is a great price nowadays. I bought it immediatelly, only for the seller to refund me and say that it’s not the final price, he doesn’t sell it without games, and the real price is 150GBP. I found another seller who was selling it at 120GBP.
The exploit is both easier and harder than the one for 9.00
On one hand, you don’t need to launch your browser and insert a USB, which I like. You don’t even need Internet connection.
But it is a race condition, so sometimes it fails, and you need to restart your console and do it again.

*.BAK

King Void, Holy Goat Brewing

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date February 1, 2026
No Comments on King Void, Holy Goat Brewing

I’m a simple man. I see Imperial Stout, I buy. Then a year later, I drink.
Holy Goat are based in Dundee, Scotland, and focus on barrel aged beers. This isn’t BA, as far as I can tell, though.
I wasn’t sure what I’m tasting, coffee or cocoa. Turns out, it has both. As delicious as Imperial Stouts get, if I appreciate more when it tastes like coffee without containing coffee.

Tags beer

PC Gaming

Callisto Protocol

Completed Callisto Protocol.
You discover that Warden of the prison is still alive. He prevents your escape by shooting down the ship. Then there’s a lenghty sequence where you have to sneak past blind zombies. It’s possible to fight past them even if you fail your sneaking, so it’s not a big deal. And it’s also possible to take them down stealthly. The funny part is just how much noise Jacob produces while doing so, without any zombie noticing.
The game starts to remind me of Order 1886. It is very compelling visually, has simple but effective mechanics, but doesn’t excel at anything in particular. The first boss, two headed ogre, is an example of it: it looks good, but all you need to do is to dodge its attacks and shoot it until it dies.
Because Dani mentions that you can relieve the memories through the chip you have, I was expecting a twist that it was all just a dream or someone else memory. But it is mostly what it is: shadowy organization seeking to evolve humanity discovering alien lifeform and experimenting on the prisoners.
The upgrade system plays a trick on you. Throwing enemies at spikes and fans is very effective, I got through the entire transporter arena by just throwing mutated zombies at the fan over and over again without wasting a single bullet. So you are tempted to upgrade telekinesys as much as possible. But it doesn’t work on bosses. Same goes for melee.
The final boss is good, despite its shortcomings. It’s so big you can hardly see what’s going around you, and what’s going around you are suicide zombies, which you supposed to throw at the boss, but if you don’t, kill you. Also, the boss kills you in one hit. But at least you can see where you need to shoot, and out of all “tyrants”, I enjoyed it one of the most.
Also, that’s the only encounter in the game I found automatic pistol to be useful, as the target is so big and you don’t need to save bullets anymore.
In the end, Jacob accepts that his smuggling operations is what allowed outbreak of the virus on Europa to happen, killing Dani’s sister (that’s all to the cube you’ve shown in your dreams, it seems). He sacrifices himself to save Dani. But there’s also a DLC where I guess he tries to escape, but I’m not gonna try it.

Tags Callisto Protocol

PC Gaming

Callisto Protocol

There’s no experience, but there are credits, used to upgrade the weapons and the telekinetic glove. Inventory is very limited, so most of the excesses should be sold, since there isn’t much backtracking.
Something I thought we got over with around 2010: transitions. Every few minutes you need to squeeze through some tight space, or crawl through an air duct, or slowly open a door with your bare hands.
Enemies start to mutate, and if you don’t kill them in time, become stronger. Resident Evil 4 used a somewhat similar system.
Once you get your suit and go out: that snow is really impressive. Not just a texture, but with a depth to it.

First part of the game we mostly guided on radio by another convict, Elias, who finds different reasons why he can’t come with us. So I fully expected him to betray us. But no, he just dies once we get out.

Tags Callisto Protocol

*.AVI

Godfather (1972)

I watched this movie some 20 years ago, so I didn’t remember many of the details.
I do detest Al Pacino, though. Alongside De Niro, I think those are the two worst actors of the past 50 years. In every movie Al Pacino always wears that expression like he forgot what day of the week it is, and it all started with Godfather.
Another thing is how awkward time jumps are: Michael says to Kay he’s been back for a year, then we are shown that they already have a child which is 3 years old, then he’s the godfather of his sister’s child, but she was pregnant like 4 years ago, but either she had miscarriage after her beating or her child is never shown.
And the whole episode is Italy doesn’t even add much: Michael never mentions Apolonia once after she gets blown in a car.
Also, it left me wondering what The Family even does officially? Like, what was Vito writing in his tax declaration? They had to have some official business,

PC Gaming

Callisto Protocol

It’s Dead Space. I haven’t played the 2023 remake, but still. The colors, the camera, the movement, audiologs, body stomps, it’s all there. Nice introduction overall, explains neatly why protagonist has traffic light in the back of his head.
Impressive how sweaty characters are. And also some familiar faces among the actors.
Gameplay wise, it feels much more melee oriented. Luckily, without any Souls like influence. Blocking with “back” button is something common in fighting games, but I don’t ever remember seeing in third person action. Once you get a pistol, you also can perform a combo where you auto aim at a stunned enemy. Handy.
Of course there are upgrades for your weapons. Nice that the upgrades actually change the look of the weapon, and in a way that makes sense: stability upgrade adds a foregrip, for example.
You also get a powerglove to drag objects or even enemies like a Jedi. I remember this was popular in early 2000s games, but everything makes a comeback eventually.

Something very strange happened with this game. I had it bought on Epic Store (I actually received it for free), but when I went to my library to install it, it wasn’t there. So I thought maybe I didn’t remember correctly. I went to the Store page, but there it was saying “In Library”. I checked Library again, it wasn’t there. I contacted support, but by the time they responded, it reappeared again.

Tags Callisto Protocol

Nintendo Switch

Octopath Traveler

I haven’t played SNES era RPGs for a long time. But I do remember Seiken Densetsu 3 did that thing where you could start the story with any character, they would have their own prologue, and then you would slowly gather other party members, which was mind-blowing at the time. And the visuals are clearly Final Fantasy 6, with chibi protagonist, but normal enemies and bigger than life bosses:

(Like here, they all supposed to be normal humans of the same size)

The problem, and why I dropped the game once already, is starting any JRPG is extremely boring, with how little stuff you can do besides hitting your enemy in the face. It becomes even more so when you have just a single character.
The main battle mechanic is exploiting weaknesses, just like in Persona series. But in order to stun the enemy you need to exploit a weakness multiple times.

Tags Octopath Traveler

*.BAK

CaDA Master C61505W Viva Hypercar (Ferrari La Ferrari)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date January 26, 2026
No Comments on CaDA Master C61505W Viva Hypercar (Ferrari La Ferrari)

When I was ordering from AliExpress, the only option available was without a box, so I’ve got mine wrapped in a bag.
Lego model was divided into 23 bags, although some contained smaller bags inside. CaDA divides its bags into 7 groups, each group is about 8 bags. And some extras, like wheels and tires. Wheels are slightly smaller than of McLaren P1, not sure what’s the reason for that, as both should be 1:8 models.
Lego is often criticized for using blue pieces. Those provide more friction, but they do stick like a sore thumb if left exponsed, like on the McLaren P1 front panel. No blue pieces in those bags. We’ll have to see if CaDA uses same color for pieces of different friction, or they just use frictionless black pieces for everything.

Tags Lego

*.BAK

Lakes Distillery The One Colheita finish whiskey

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date January 25, 2026
No Comments on Lakes Distillery The One Colheita finish whiskey

7th bottle from the Advent Calendar.

I hate when whiskey producers come up with those witty names. How am I supposed to search for whisky called “the one”?
In any case, whiskey is not just about taste, but also about price. This is a blended whiskey, but at least it’s 46% ABV, and it costs just 35GBP, which is quite impressive for what it delivers.

Tags whiskey

PC Gaming

RoboCop Rogue City

Completed RoboCop Rogue City .
You have to deal with the walking tanks twice more, but they are more of a joke at long distances. Still bullet sponges, though.
After a disastrous first boss, I’m surprised how well the final boss came out. It has phases, clear weak spots and attack telegraphs, just overall very enjoyable.
The story is bolder than I expected. I thought they’d pull a W40K, leaving everything were it was, but they actually got rid of some of the key characters.
It’s a blend of Robocop 1 and Robocop 2 stories, leading straight into Japanese arc of Robocop 3, but then, this is what’s expected. OCP corporation controlling Detroit police force, and sabotaging it at the same time, in hopes to make the city uninhabitable and rebuild it from scratch. OCP CEO, literally called Old Man, is afraid of death, so he tries to use psychologist send to Robocop to properly digitalize himself for the afterlife (Robocop is the only success ever, after all). The interesting twist is that the main antagonist, who introduced himself as the brother of villain from Robocop 1, is actually a fraud, and his real name never revealed, because who cares?!

Tags Robocop

*.BAK

Mousin Weasel Sprint

I decided to take a break from painting Warhammer to painting an alternative model, picking Mousin Weasel Sprint printed by someone from Etsy. Those can be printed in multiple sizes, I went with 100mm.

The problem with 100mm started pretty quickly, as there’s a single spoke that attaches the weasel to the base, and it’s quite heavy, so after gluing, that spoke just broke off and stayed stuck in the base. I’ll need to figure out how to attach it to the base safely later.

The same happened with the mouse tail. But after a couple of attempts, I managed to glue it back together.

Priming it was surprisingly easy. Maybe because it is a larger model, or diffirent plastic that the one Games Workshop uses, but one coat of Abaddon Black was enough. Shading a larger model is tiresome, though. Or maybe I needed a larger dry brush.

PC Gaming

RoboCop Rogue City

One mechanic I don’t remember seeing much in other games is competing with allies. Robocop would compete with the walking tank ED-209, or a SWAT team, and if you kill more criminals than they do, you get extra XP.

The fight with ED-209 was surprisingly annoying. Because otherwise, the game is quite the pleasure. Robocop moves slowly, and the robot is accurate, so you end up dying to chip damage. And despite the hint that it has a weak spot at the front, it still feels like a bullet sponge.

While there are plenty of weapons to pick from enemies, including some of the all-time favorites like Barrett sniper rifle, G11 assault rifle and SPAS-12 shotgun, most of the time you’ll be using Robocop’s siderarm. Because it has infinite ammo (I’m not sure if it’s a nod to 90’s action movies mentality or just convenience) and with it burst fire mode is good enough for most situations. You can also customize it, by finding alternative PCBs and playing a simple puzzle game: turning it full auto or single-action Magnum style, or adding a belt feeding mechanism so you don’t ever need to reload it again.

Tags Robocop

*.BAK

Lego McLaren P1 42172

Over New Year I finished my Lego McLaren P1. As I predicted, two wrong pieces in bag 11 came to haunt me in bag 23, the last bag, as the engine lid wouldn’t close properly.

Luckily, Lego has a piece delivery system, which doesn’t even require receipts. You just specify which set you are doing and what pieces you are missing.
I’m glad that I submitted the request on the 1st of January, because I received the items only a couple days ago.
But now it’s finally complete. Took 23 sittings, per number of bags, and around 15 hours in total. I didn’t try to rush it, though, had no reason to.
Next, I’ll give CaDA a try.

Tags Lego

PC Gaming

Robocop Rogue City

As I said about Resident Evil 2 Remake, 20 years ago I wouldn’t believe something like that would be possible. Actually, I wouldn’t believe something like that would be possible even now, as they clearly got so many things right: Lewis, Robocop’s partner, and Murphy’s own hallucinations.

It plays like Bioshock 2. You’re this hulking monster, sturdy, but slow. And with a nice enemy highlight. You can pick enemy weapons, but for the first part, the default gun is more than enough. It’s accurate, and has burst fire. All accompanied by good old ultraviolence: heads pop, bodies fly, like it’s 2000 again.
Also like Bioshock, you can actually upgrade Robocop, it has 8 different skills, each with its perks. I think one of the Mass Effects used a similar linear system.
There are areas where the lack of budget is obvious, though. Mostly lack of facial animations of second-tier NPCs.

Tags Robocop