First time I’m trying beer from Romania. It’s a very solid Barrel Aged Imperial Stout, aged in Palo Cortado (special sherry) barrels for a year.
Zero head, tastes like sour cherry, leaves you energetic. At 12GBP it’s not cheap, but worth it.
Would try some more Barrel Aged from Blackout Brewing when I get the opportunity.
Completed Blood West.
Third episode bumps the stakes again. Enemies are so “meaty” I have to buy the unique revolving buffalo rifle, and gunpowder horn that saves 40% of its very expensive ammo. The whole idea of the episode is that you descend into this “radioactive” canyon (at least you don’t need gas mask filters, but you do need to craft a “gas mask” sort of), towards the huge demon skeleton that carved this canyon.
One episode I didn’t enjoy much is raiding the indian village for one of the totem figurines. It’s swarming with invisible enemies called Broken Screams. Since they are invisible, it’s hard to sneak past them, and I ended up almost running of ammo. Had to use the chain revolver that holds 28, so I don’t need to reload so often.
There are nasty enemies called Boo Hags, skinless women that can only be killed with a instakill or fire. One of them is talkative and asks to bring her skin back. She also mentions that the night is endless, which is never explained.
There’s very little explained in general. We climb the mountain, summon totem of souls (which was previously a ram head on a stick), which is a bubble, that turns into a dragon. The boss fight is fine, but least inventive out of the three bosses: it telegraphs where “mortars” will land, and has a “flamethrower” pattern attack. You shoot it with buffalo rifle until it dies, which doesn’t take long.
Despite story being lackluster, I enjoyed this game immensely. One of the best experiences of 2025.
Another change I find curious is the aircraft choice. I’m not sure if it’s the fact that some aircrafts from A e Combat 2 are outdated by modern standards, or some licensing issues, but while previously you started with F4, now your starting aircraft is F16, which was present in the original game, but was more of a midgame option.
Also something they probably could afford because they were using the Assault Horizon engine is cockpit view. It didn’t exist in the original, and I love it.
Ace Combat 2 came up with the concept of unique enemies, but they were low key, easy to miss. Here, they are in your face, introduced with a cutscene, and an entire squadron of them (5 planes) each time. Also, each seems to have a gimmick. For Beast Squadron, for example, they are invincible when they are together in the same zone, so you have to lure them one by one.
The entire economy has been rebalanced. There is less planes, and those are harder to buy. I skipped MIR2000, because I wanted to save for F14.
They tried to modernize some missions. The ravine mission where you need to hit the submarine is not a chase after the sumbarine, before it hides in the dock.
I mentioned that if you die 3 times, you get cursed, and to remove a curse you need to complete a miniquest. Some of those are nasty, though, despite not sounding so. “Kill 5 enemies with fire”? But the fire in this game is extremely weak, a Molotov doesn’t kill a basic zombie in the second act, while shotgun fire shells are too strong, and enemies die from the shell, not from “fire”. Easier to use or buy one of the anticurse “purple” potions instead.
Speaking of purple potions, second act introduces cursed items. They usually have strong benefits, like -20% to all shop prices, but to unequip them you need to die or use the purple potion. Since the way I play this game is by switching weapons and trinkets constantly, it makes sense to limit this.
Another new element, which I’ve seen in MMORPGs, but don’t remember in games much, is world boss. A huge monstrocity shows up half way through the act. You can try and attack it, but you’re supposed to sneak away past it, until you complete the quest to weaken it enough.
Speaking of quests, there’s a very vague sidequest where you need to find a cure for the plague, and both Priest and Madam are after it. It is guarded by three gunslinging wraiths, which are extremely dangerous. Unless you find an amulet that makes wraiths ignore you.
There are no “sets” in this game, but a combination of a pistol that grants 5$ for each headshot and a cowboy had that recovers 5HP for each headshot sure feels like one. And every 5 consequitive headshots also remove a curse, which is great, considering how annoying those are.
Second boss is not bad, but I wish the pyres worked differently. It seems you need to light them with Molotovs, and they burn only for a short period, weakening the boss, but Molotovs aren’t stackable, so you need to drag each into the hotkey slot. I ended up shooting it in the head until it died.
As predicted, I unlocked a bunch of new characters through Guild Raid store:
Got Adamatar through unlock event:
Asmodai through Guild War store:
And I can’t remember where Mattaneo came from:
By the end of the first chapter you become quite formidable, all thanks for interesting design of skills and items. You get a knife that restores HP on backstab, you get a bow with infinite arrows that uses HP, but you can regenerate HP with wendigo heart. And also crowmen trade bullets favorably: 2-6 bullets for a single headshot.
How do you make a boss in a stealth game? You leave an option to crawl around to weaken it! It’s a tree-boss, that attacks you with roots (the AoE is vicious!), and you either wait for a literal opening or shoot the tendrils to force it to open.
The second episode is set in Lousianna swamps. My problem with enemies in this episode is that they are too tanky, most can survive a headshot, and that’s not mentioning the butchers, that have a helmet on.
The good bit is that the authors remembered volcanic pistols, with a tube instead of a cylinder. Wild West arsenal shouldn’t be limited only to revolvers.
Was very excited to find a unique version of the Prodigal Daughter enemy, VIP Daughter, tucked away in a cave. Later discovered that she’s part of a quest which I ruined. And since there’s only a single save in this game: no reward for me.
There’s a really fun quest that predates this one where you need to find and talk to cacti. There’s a seniorita cacti, miner cacti, sheriff cacti, and they are all voiced. You can only talk to them while drunk. I wonder why…
The drunk game is very strong in this game in general. As a reward for this quest you get a bottomless flask. Before that, you got a knife, that has a bonus damage while drunk, but drains your life while sober. With the bottomless flask, though, it’s not a problem anymore. And there’s also a rifle for drunkards, that has bonus damage while being drunk.
Wendigo are like local version of Deathclaws. They are terrifying, but fair: they will chase you, but won’t fit in small caves, where you can snipe them from. The most annoying enemy are the flying skulls. They pass through walls, hard to hit, take multiple shots, and relentless.
It starts like Blood and looks like Hexen 2, but it’s neither. You have a stealth system, with a full fledged visibility and noise meter which I haven’t seen in ages. And an inventory system. There’s also money, with multiple traders, and experience, with skills and multiple upgrades. The loot is fair. If an enemy has shotgut, it will drop shotgun once killed. At this point, I’d like to say it plays like a Deus Ex, but honestly I don’t remember how Deus Ex plays.
You cannot save freely. Monsters respawn, but I couldn’t figure out when. Not when you rest, or die. When you die, you don’t need to pick up your corpse to recover stuff, but you do get a curse every time, lowering your stats. And if you get cursed three times, you need to complete a miniquest to remove the curse: do 5 headshots, stealthly kill 3 enemies, or something like that.
The start is quite brutal, until you get the lever action rifle. It holds more bullets than revolver, and unlike it is actually able to deliver headshots. Also, ammo is plentiful, since it’s the same as the revolver one.
Asahi and Hasegawa are two main brands that produce cutting boards from synthetic rubber. Those are considered the best for keeping your Japanese knives sharp. I was thinking of getting one when I was visiting US, but there I discovered the cost would be the same if I order in in the UK. I guess because they ship it from Japan anyway. So, after some back and forth, I decided to try one anyway.
If I were told that’s a wooden board made from some light-colored wood, I’d honestly believe that. It is heavy and slightly textured. The real test is in a couple of months of usage, though. And not so much in the board itself, although I’m curious to see how it retains stains and scratches, but more in how often will I have to sharpen my knives.
Usually I dislike lower ABV stouts, but I really enjoyed this one. The head is very tall, had to let it settle for a bit. The taste is smooth, sweet, definitely strong coconut influence.
I learned about the Savaki fighting game from “Great Sega Saturn 3D Fighter Extravaganza!, Retro Muel” , and of course with my love for Virtua Fighter 2 and Last Bronx (and hate for Fighting Vipers) I had to check it out.
It is a very grounded game, in more than one sense. There are seven fighers, each representing real style: karate, muay thai, taekwondo. They don’t have names, just the style they use. There are no astrojumps, and really almost no jumps at all, except a couple of special moves. The game uses five button setup, but what a setup: punch, kick, feint punch, feint kick, and namesake “savaki”, which is like a counter.
This is the first fighting game that has fall damage. Meaning you hit your opponent, he takes some damage, and if he falls, he takes more damage. Also, hit detection is surprisingly good: you can low kick your opponent as they fall for additional hit.
The game is also surprisingly easy. Considering I barely understand its mechanics, I managed to get to the final boss, who’s this huge freestyle luchador. He is though, though.
I know I said I’m done with Razer. I lied. Partially. I’m done with them for gaming, but I got this vertical mouse to try at work.
It’s such a weird mouse, because with it Razer does everything right, while it got everything wrong with its latest Deathadders and whatnot.
Integrated shell buttons. Magnetic dongle storage inside the mouse. Bluetooth. Grip texture instead stickers.
For the comfort: it’s like barefoot shoes. If your problem is in ankles, they help. If your problem is with tendons, they make things worse.
With this mouse, I feel that my tendons work less, but my elbow and even shoulder work more.
Completed Deathloop.
I thought that the sniper rifle shown on the promo art is not in the game. But you get it in a very Hitman 47-like twist, where Eternalists set a package for you, then snipers ambush you from all sides. By that point, though, I had a Metal Gear Solid-like stealth, that is infinite, as long as you don’t move, which is crazy.
So the main plot twist is that Julianna is not your disgrunted lover. She’s your daughter.
At first I was under the impression that I needed to figure out in which order to execute the Visionaries. But turns out there is just one order, and it’s all explained to you, no missing it
Overall, executing the plan is fun, with one exception. Maybe I spent too long, but most visionaries stopped dying from a single headshot. Power creep. So what was supposed to be an elegant kill turned out to be messing firefight.
I like how the game doesn’t force a stealthy approach on you, like Dishonored did. You get spotted, you often get a chance to fight out of it, without repercussions.
What I don’t like is that the game does make me feel a bit dump. The expectation that I would be able to create a time-bending plan to trap and kill all 8 of my Visionary “friends” in a single day is a bit too much.
Funny enough, Deathloop has same problem with its arsenal as Far Cry 6. Early on I got an elephant rifle from Julianna that fires explosive bullets. And honestly, you don’t need any other weapon in this game. It one-shots all enemies at such a distance they don’t even hear the shot. And it’s still efficient at close range.
Finished listening to Six of Crows. My impression hasn’t changed much.
It is an internaining, but flawed book. It is never explained why Inej is such a great assassin if she was trained as a gypsy acrobat. Are all gypsy acrobats great assassins? As she’s seventeen, are do they become more or less deadly with age? Why there aren’t more acrobat gypsy assassins then? Same goes for Kaz: he’s supposed to be a cripple, but then he managed to beat opponents in hand-to-hand combat over and over again 🤷♂️
The whole buildup for Kaz’s childhood story turned out to be nothing. I expected that his brother was killed while assaulting the crooks that scammed farm money out of him, just stabbed or hit on the head. But no, he died from the plague. Now blaming scammers for this to the point that your entire life is a revenge… is a bit too much. Also, how convenient that the head scammer is also the head of the gang. I would have hired an actor instead, but who am I to judge?
For some reason, Leigh unable to hold suspension, at all. At one point she sets up a scene where Matthias traps Nina in a cell, and it’s almost convincing that he’s willing to trade her for his former position in “Inquisition”… but this resolves a couple of pages later. And this happens time and time again. I’m not a fan of cliffhangers, but it’s like Bardugo tried to avoid them proactively.
Also, isn’t it “neat” how the group of thieves is divided into 3 couples (one of them is gay-bi)? 🤡
The ending is fine, there are at least a couple of good plot twists, and it segways into the second book, which is both good and bad: I prefer complete stories, but I don’t suppose author could finish in on anything solid.
I decided to yield. After practicing in soldering, taking a long look at the burned motherboard to undrestand the connectors, half-disassembling the laptop, I decided it’s not worth trying to risk a working laptop just to try and solder back 15 pin DVD connector.
Well, I tried, and had some fun in the process. On to another project, I guess.
For the past year or so I was always using 3DS “Memory Management” to transfer files from and to the console. Not sure what changed, either my router or Windows 10, but I can’t make it work anymore. The console shows in “Network”, but despite turning legacy SMB, PC won’t connect to it.
Of course using SD card is always an option, but I don’t like to open my 3DS for that, even I have to do it only once every couple of months.
Then I understood that I’m just stupid. Jailbroken 3DS has an FTP app. End of story. Now I have Xbox, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and 3DS all working through FTP.
I had to see black Anglo Saxons for myself. Watched first 2 episodes, not sure if I’d watch more.
Edward is portrayed as not so much simpleminded, but more of a “not right in the head”, “speaking to God and hearing answers”, so to say.
Sweyn, Harold older brother, is an idiot that likes to deflower brides, and when provoked draws a sword at coronation.
The Game of Thrones level of Secret here is that King Henry of France ordered William of Normandy father assassinated.
Once Mathilda, William’s wife, discovers The Secret, Henry invades Normandy, and William escapes to Flanders, which are relatives of Mathilda.
Godwin of Wessex murdered Aethel, firstborn of Emma. So now Emma is bent on annexing Wessex.
She uses Mercia to stir chaos and build a pretext for that.
First, she exiles Godwin, and then sets early of Mercia on them as well. Ironically, Godwin decides to sail to Flanders as well.
And Godwin murdered Aethel because unlike Edward, he would never marry Godwin’s daughter.
So basically Godwin outplayed himself.
I never liked roguelikes, especially not roguelike FPSs, but then that’s because they didn’t have budget. Deathloop tries to pull what Hades did before: roguelike, but with a good story and art. This one has a 60’s aesthetics, which haven’t tired yet.
It’s a stealth shooter at its core. You mark your enemeies, they have alert meters, you’re given a silent nailgun early on, all that stuff. For some reason they decided to do away with bodies, maybe they didn’t want you to carry them around. But unlike stealth shooters, weapons have different quality levels.
As the name suggests, it’s a Groundhog day. Every day divided into 4 episodes, and then you wake up on a beach again. You play as Colt, amnesiac former head of security, who is now set to escape. In order to do so, he needs to eliminate all 8 of his former colleagues in a single day.
They really nailed the shooting mechanics. Weapons look unique enough, but also recognizable enough to understand their function, and they handle just right. There’s a jamming mechanic, which I don’t remember since Far Cry 2. Probably added so I wouldn’t be able to mow down dozens of enemies like I did in Far Cry 6.
This is such a weird game to make. It seems they took the engine of Assault Horizon, and the “story” of Ace Combat 2. The ironic part is, Ace Combat 2 didn’t have much story to begin with. Yeah, your first mission is to down some bombers. But almost every Ace Combat game starts with such a mission. Story in early Ace Combat 1 and 2 where, like in porn, just an excuse for some action.
With that said, it looks and plays amazingly. This is probably the most impressive game I’ve seen on 3DS. I’d even say that it looks better or at least on par with PS2 installments. And the first game that actually uses the second thumbstick of New 3DS, and the ZL/ZR buttons.
In terms of mechanics, this is more of Assault Horizon than Ace Combat 2, since you get to pick your load out. Moreover, something I haven’t seen in any other Ace Combat yet is ability to customize parts of your plane, in an RPG like fashion.
And there are also defensive and offensive maneuvers. Once a bar fills up, you can either magically place yourself behind enemy or magically evade the next missile. To counter that, missiles are harder to evade regularly.
Also, they added checkpoints, something I don’t remember in other Ace Combat games. But at least you don’t have to replay 10 minutes.