One Happy Team…

Author: TheAleosha

  • Eggenberg Urbock 23

    Only 9.5% ABV, not 23%, what a disappointment 😅
    Well, not really, 23 refers to sugar percentage, and basically means triple.
    Interesting that it’s a lager, not ale that I usually drink.
    Deep amber in colour, with no head to speak about, but a bit fizzy.
    I know I lately complain about Belgian beers tasting bland. This is not the case here. While not too complex, it is still very interesting, with orange notes, almost like a concentrated Blue Moon. The aftertaste is bitter from hopps, but unlike triple IPA, I didn’t feel the bitterness while sipping.

  • Halo 3

    With a few characters having access to seemingly unbound teleportation, Halo can get confusing at times. At the end of Halo 2 Master Chief heroically boarded a Covenant ship heading to Earth, only to arrive there after Master Sergeant and Arbiter.

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    Curious that they went back to assault rifle and the pistol from Halo 1. At least the assault rifle has better accuracy now.

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    The control scheme changed slightly, which threw me off guard. The reload is on the bumper now. Original Xbox didn’t have bumpers, so you used the face X button, but now it’s assigned for your inventory item.
    Also curious how they retrofit the story, not Cortana says she picked Master Chief. In fact, she was Pillar of Autumn ship’s AI, and ended up with Master Chief just so she wouldn’t get captured.
    Miranda Keyes looked cute in Halo 2, but with graphics update she fell into the uncanny valley.

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    I remembered that you could detach turrets to carry them as heavy weapons. Very effective.

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  • Dithering on CRTs

    Dithering is a technique to fake transparency, most famously used in Sega Genesis and Sega Saturn consoles. When CRT attempts to display a grid of pixels, it blends them instead, producing the desired effect. Waterfall from one of the Sonic games is a famous example, although I never liked Sonic, so I’m not sure which of the games had it. Streets of Rage 2, on the other hand, is a game I like, and the bar scene is another famous example, so I decided to test it.
    The problem with capturing artefacts though, is that they are, well, artefacts, side effects. Famously trying to record a CRT using a camera produces Moire pattern, that isn’t visible to human eye.

    Raw

    Retro Crisis GDV-NTSC MegaDrive Dirty

    This is the optimistic impression

    Retro Crisis GDV-NTSC MegaDrive RF100

    This is the pessimistic impression

    This is the “reality”, same emulator on CRT:

    There are a few issues with the “reality”, though.
    Even though the picture is 200M, there’s the lighting in the room, and how my phone camera reacts to it. Then there’s the natural curve and reflectiveness of the CRT TV, and the fact that I can’t hold my phone absolutely level. Then there’s also the fact that this is a PAL TV, so it has to either underscale or overscale, because it’s a weird 720×576 resolution, but MegaDrive outputs 448 lines, so there are 64 blacks pixels at the top and 64 pixels at the bottom.

    I don’t own a MegaDrive, but I do have a Dreamcast with SCART cable.
    So let’s try again on the Sega Smashpack Volume 1 for Dreamcast that has Streets of Rage 2.

    Raw:

    Emulator on CRT:

    Hardware Dreamcast on CRT:

  • Kilkerran 16

    Another bottle that I failed to purchase from Masters of Malt. Found it forgotten on one of the cigar sites, but waited too long, and it disappeared as well. So when another random wine store stocked it, I had to get one. The fact that concierges almost lost the bottle tucking it away only added to the exclusivity.
    Colorwise, much darker than Kilkerran 12, as expected. Smoke and sherry on the nose. Tastes like balanced sherry: not too sweet, not too muted. If I had to pick, I’d say “stewed apples”. Aftertaste is slightly oily. It does have a bit of “wood polish”, maybe, but you need to look for it. Overall, I’m quite pleased, although I wouldn’t pay more than 100GBP for it.

  • Benromach 15

    Got that bottle because a lot of YouTubers were raving about it. And what a disappointment. I guess sometimes you get what you pay for. At 57GBP for a 15 years old, it’s not a bad whisky, but it’s definitely not a fantastic one either. 43% ABV makes it easy to sip, but that’s it. There’s plenty of smoke to my taste, a bit of sweetness, classic Speyside for sure, but I had better mystery bottles.
    The only positive is the mouth coating oily aftertaste. But other than that, I frankly must say it’s second worst purchase of this year, after Springbank 5. I planned to get a Cask Strength too, but now, I think I’ll skip it.

  • CaDA Master C61505W Viva Hypercar (Ferrari La Ferrari)

    4th bag, exactly 5 hours. Funny, that there were two symmetrical parts, I built one in 35 minutes, and I thought I’d build the other one quicker, but ended up spending exactly 35 minutes on the second part too.
    In the end had to redo a part, the model could benefit from some text instructions, as you have to align the pieces just right for a cross-piece to go through them.
    Also, that part definitely breaks Lego rules. To achieve some of the curves the pieces are put at very strange angles.

  • Tacticus

    Unlocked Nubari from his release event. Cheap character, 100 shards.

    Unlocked Ragnar through Guild War. Once he was very important in Guild Raids for his double melee damage buff.

    Unlocked Typhus from a random pull, although I was farming him, so I was missing just some 20 shards. Still, it’s a very good result, as he’s the last Death Guard I was missing, and Death Guard are nasty.

    My next goal I’ve set to promote Celestine to Mythic, since I had her close enough, and got her Mythic weapon from Rogue Trader shop. Mythic weapons are interesting, because they alter how character plays. In Celestine case, she’s able to resummon her minions if she lands a kill, or to land an attack if they are alive, which should make them and her so much stickier and nastier. Got lucky with her “10K damage” mythic quest, as I had exactly the Tyranid boss lined up: big enough the damage, but not leveled enough to mitigate with armor.

  • Hot Pursuit (2010)

    I don’t play racing games much, as I’m not good at them in general. But there is something about Xbox 360 era racing games that I adore. And Hot Pursuit is one of the prime examples.

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    There is no customisation or personalisation, no dud cars, you just get into something like Chevrolet Camaro and drive. In this game, they even have rolling start, dropping you in front of the wheel as the car already drives, instead of a grid start. There is no slowmo or rewind, which I rely on a lot, but there are rechargable gadgets and shortcuts.

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    I also like how the game lets you drive Pagani Zonda as a preview just an hour in.

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  • Moby Dick, Herman Mieville

    By the 3rd of the book it suddenly changes styles, and each chapter becomes a separate inner monologue of a different crew member: Ahab, Starbuck, Stubb.
    At that point I also started to doze off a bit, as 1850 style of the author became very tiring. He has the tendency to pile adjectives, or to ask rethoric questions over and over again:
    What kind of oil is used at coronations? Certainly it cannot be olive oil, nor macassar oil, nor castor oil, nor bear’s oil, nor train oil, nor cod-liver oil. What then can it possibly be, but sperm oil in its unmanufactured, unpolluted state, the sweetest of all oils?

  • Halo 2

    Completed Halo 2.
    I remembered Halo 2 as being short and abrupt, but this time, despite a good start, I couldn’t wait for it to end already. They don’t have rocket zombies anymore (there are zombie with rocket launchers, but they aren’t as obnoxious), but brutes with grenade launchers aren’t much better. You pop the corner and get oneshot by a grenade to the face.

    The final boss fight confused me as much now as it did back in the day. You fight this white Brute with a hammer, and mostly, he can’t kill you, unless you get stuck, but its unclear if his shields go down based on time or on the damage, and since there’s no lifebar, you can’t know. Also, I didn’t remember that you fight him as Arbiter, not as Master Chief.
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  • Halo 2

    Arbiter’s story is bad. First, he never mentioned in the original Halo, so when he’s punished for Halo blowing up you don’t care. And then he’s immediately reinstated as an alien covert agent, so there is zero consequences.
    As a character, I guess they just wanted players to be able to try out Covenant. The only difference is that he has invisibility, that is quite useless. But the effect is visually nice for its time.
    I completely forgot that one of the three hierarchs is a boss fight, and Master Chief can mount his flying throne and beat him to death.
    For some reason, they decided that having another Library level is a good idea. And surprisingly, they managed to make it even more boring than the original.

  • IKEA Fjallroding

    One reason I’m so interested in those knives is that they use 10Cr15MoVCo steel (10Cr15CoMoV to be more correct). Which is Chinese variant of a Japanese VG-10, which in itself a very good steel.

    A 15cm Shun Classic utility knife with VG-10 steel costs aroung 130GBP. A 14cm IKEA Fjallroding utility knife costs 30GBP.

  • OutIn Claro and Timemore Black Mirror Mini

    Seven years ago, when I was just getting into coffee, there were just a few coffee scale models, and those were expensive. I literally hunted for a Brewista scales all around Amsterdam. Nowadays, they’re half the price, and there are plenty of models to pick from.
    Although I replaced my Brewista with Acaia Pearl some 3 years ago, I still use it in my travels. But the plastic started falling apart, so I decided to replace it with something.
    My first choice was Timemore Black Mirror Mini, which is confusing, because it’s slightly smaller than Nano. But it didn’t come with a travel case, and my main purpose was to have it for travel.
    OutIn Claro looks and performs so much similar to Timemore Mini that I’m pretty sure they have the same components inside. Same accuracy, same response times, even the same size. Only difference is the shape: Claro is rount, Timemore Mini is square, and the fact that Claro comes with a case.

  • Halo 2

    I remember disliking Halo 2 back in the day. Back coming to it now, right after Halo 1, can see some major improvements.
    First, they’ve got rid of health system. Now there are only shields, so you don’t have medkits to manage. Also, the shields recharge faster, and they make sure to let you know that.
    The weapons make more sense as well. SMG acts like a former assault rifle, spraying bullets, while the new battle rifle fires in bursts and has a scope. Shotgun is still there, but slightly weaker, it seems, as it was a superweapon in Halo 1.

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    There are also stationary machine guns that you can man. In this level there are clear Iraq influences, which happened in 2003. Halo 2 was released a year later, in 2004.
    The Scorpion tank went from feeble to invincible, you can crush whole Covenant armies with it. It fires four times as fast, and the infantry also has homing rockets, if it wasn’t enough.

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    Covenant have their Beam gun, basically an energy sniper rifle. Considering how powerful the sniper was in the original Halo, that’s a welcome addition.

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    One episode that is still genuinely impressive is boarding of the Covenant walker, as it walks under the bridge. And that’s without any scripts.

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  • Call of Duty 3

    Completed Call of Duty 3. I shouldn’t have bothered.
    My main problem with the game is the shooting. It’s very hard to figure out if you’re hitting anyone, and generally weapons are not fun at all.
    There’s a mission where you play Polish soldiers riding a Sherman Firefly tank, and of course blowing a King Tiger. But other than than, it’s a slog. I was relieved to get Gewehr 43, as I was getting tired of MP40 all the time.
    Since it’s a 2006 game, of course there are a lot of QTEs. You get to grapple a German at least 4 times, and I lost count how many explosives you need to plant. For some reason, the mortar is also a minigame, you rotate it by spinning the left thumbstick, and alter the arc by rotating the right thumbstick.
    Curious that they implement mount mechanic, but only for MG34, although Bren also has a bipod.

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  • Moby Dick, Herman Mieville

    After my success with Blood Meridian, I decided I’ll give Moby Dick a go, which is cited as an influence.
    It is one thing when you are forced to read a book at school, although I never was forced to read this particular book, with a time limit. It’s another when you are an accomplished man, and decide to read it at your own leisure, or to listen to it, in any case.
    I was wondering how a book about a whaling expedition would be 24 hours long. An hour in, and Ishmael hasn’t even got to bed. I’m not sure if the book intended to be a puzzle, with all the talk of Lazarus and what not, or if the author just wanted to pad it.
    Shortly after captain Ahab is introduced, and it’s 20% of the book, there’s a 30 minute long venture into the classification of whales, which isn’t scientific by any means, as it explains that the sperm whale is the largest of all the whales, and that it’s a fish.

  • Pet Sematary (1989)

    Despite being not of the highest opinion of the original novel and also pessimistic about the prospect of putting it into film, there are actually positives to the firsts adaptation.
    First, they portray the cementary and the deadfall very convincingly. Second, it was hard for me to imagine what kind of a road where heavy trucks pass that would also be easily accessible for kids to run into.
    Norma is completely removed. Church now scratches Louis almost immediately, then comically throws a dead rat into his bathtub. Missy, kids nanny, who was mostly a too happy non entity in the book, here is a depressed lonely woman, who hangs herself at Creed’s basement when she discovers she has cancer.
    I didn’t expect to see King himself playing the preacher 😅
    They combined kite episode and Gage’s death into one. This works much better than in the book.
    Also, in the movie Jud doesn’t run away after encountering Timmy, they are the ones to set fire on his house.
    I swear, Pascow (I was listening to the book, so I thought it’s Pascal all that time) is the best part of the movie. I think it’s the same dark humour American Horror Story adopted all those years later.
    In the end, though, I think Pet Sematary story is unsalvageable. To make the final twist work, Rachel has to die. And in order for her to die, she has to be killed by Gage. But getting killed by a 2 years old is embarrassing.

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  • Pet Sematary, Stephen King

    Completed Pet Sematary.
    There is an interesting story about Rachel’s sister, Zelda, slowly dying from an incurable disease, hated by her family. Because that’s the truth.
    Then there are musings about wether it’s better to have a dead kid or a retard.
    But between those two, there isn’t much.
    Being in the literally cycles for the post couple of years made me acutely aware of POV changes. And I’m the last third of the book it switches first to Rachel, then to Jude abruptly. Although Rachel still has Louis tone of voice.
    One 80% of the book remaining, and Louis hasn’t even dug his son. The 3rd part starts on 90% of the book.
    And the last part makes the least sense. “Timmy” says he has grudge with Jude, but Jude didn’t do anything to him in the 40s, he ran away. Also, neither Timmy nor Gage have any reason to kill either Rachel or Louis. It’s chaos for chaos.
    And yeah, for an entity that can plan and influence, maybe making a killing machine out of 2 years old wasn’t the best idea after all.

  • Call of Duty 3

    One of the few Call of Duty entries I haven’t played, because back in 2006 I didn’t have any consoles.
    The last Call of Duty where you can go prone.
    Very nice of them to give you FG42 in your second mission. Although it’s funny that the scoped version and the regular don’t share ammo. Most of the time, you’ll be with MP40, though, as it has infinite ammo supply.
    One interesting episode is where you ride a tank. But you don’t pilot it, because you’re an infantryman. Instead, you sit on the armor and spot targets with your binoculars. A distinction later games completely forgot.
    After two missions at St Lo and St Germains with US Infantry, we switch to British SAS for a surprisingly good jeep mission, to help French resistance. Then back to Americans to disarm bombs on a bridge.
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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 weight to it.
    So if anyone would decide to replay the original Halo, I’d recommend Anniversary over the Xbox original every time.
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