Despite all the unexplained violence, I was enjoying the narrative until the style shifted.
First it was the tale how Judge first appeared in front of a company of headhunters in order to lead them around volcanoe for a few days like Moses in order to produce crude gunpowder like a bunch of bloodthirsty Robinsons, so they could defeat the Indians. Then there’s a rambling by the Judge about one man killing another with a rock, which I assume is about Western and Indian civilizations.
I’m 3/4 of the book, and still not sure what am I reading. It’s a chain of atteocities, sometimes commited by the headhunters, and sometimes on them. First they massacre Indians, then peaceful Indians, then Mexicans, and even managed to sell Mexican scalps back to the Mexican governor. Then they are finally chased by the Mexican army.
It’s mostly grounded, except the story about Judge able to levitate a coin, unless it’s some known snake oil trick I’m not aware of.
Then there’s the subversion of expectations. I thought that the entire point of the Judge is that he’s a paedo, killing kids as he passes, and the entire point of the Idiot is to demonstrate that female compassion kills. But he ended up saving the Idiot?
Day: August 16, 2026
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Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
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Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty
Before getting to Point of No Return, I need to finish Phantom Liberty DLC. It replaces Johnny with an Asian chick, Songbird.
The story is that you need to save one girlboss, the President, whose plane was shot down, while getting instructions from another girlboss.
Because it’s an end-game content, and the character is maxed out most likely, they introduce a new perk tree, that can only be upgraded through perks you find in the new zone, Dogtown. A lot of the new perks are focused around buffing the cybernetic weapons you can install in your arms, as they are indeed pointless. Whole point of them could be that they are concealed, but then you are rarely penalized even for carrying an antitank rifle in public.
The way they recreated the fight with a robot tank from Ghost in the Shell is great. It’s a good boss all in all, that has weak points and multiple phases, but you also can just whack it little by little.
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Dig
Completed The Dig.
Didn’t look into walkthrough once, which is a good result for the game. Although two episodes did get me stumped for quite a long time. First, I thought the lightbridges need to be activated from both sides, or in some order. Turns out, you just need to hold the mouse button while activating them, a mechanic that the game never uses again, and I haven’t seen in any other point’n’click. And second, is that in order to deactivate the forcefield, you need to talk to Maggie about a specific object in that specific location.
Initially I praised the story, but having finished it, I must say it’s a disappointment. I remember how confused I was while reading about the game that there’s an instance when you need to saw off your crew member’s hand. But it all comes quite out of the blue: Brinks, the resurrected junkie, gets his hand stuck without any good reason, and this is the only bloody violent episode in the entire game, added for pure shock value. Later he tries to kill you and falls off a cliff, but lacking an arm doesn’t have any relation to that.
Then there’re the aliens. They went to a higher plane of existence, while their bodies and planet deteriorated, and now they are bored and long to return, but they can’t. Sounds like a good story of civilization that is too evolved for its own good, and “be carefult what you wish for”. Only the protagonist manages to not only to pull them back, but return them their physical bodies, without any explanation. Also, both of his companions are miraculously resurrected, although Brink is unexplainably aged now?
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