I used to take photos in 12 megapixels, because WhatsApp couldn’t send 50 megapixels photos anyway. But when I switched to 50Mb mode, I noticed that it also fixed the depth of field. My guess is that that phone actually uses one of the better lenses for that.
Author: TheAleosha
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Mouthwashing
Not very distant future, you’re a captain, Curly, of a freight ship with a crew of 5. And you decide to crash it into a meteorite for some reason.
It plays as a walking horror, akin to Layers of Fear. Prologue is endless corridors that become filled with more and more workplace safety posters, and mascot manequits of antropomorphic horse “chasing” you.
Two months later, the crew discusses what to do with the cargo. We play as Jimmy, copilot, one of the crew members who’s now the captain. Since there’s food left for 4 months, it’s time to break into the cargo hold and see what’s there. After the incident captain is a husk with one eye, no hands or feet.
Main gameplay mechanic is using a special scanner only captain has to reveal emergency codes, that are used to open everything.
The cargo hold is full of mouthwash. At least they have 14% ethanol. -
Cyberpunk 2077
Got my first Sandevistan from a inconspicuous sidequest regarding capturing a snuff movie director titled Monster Hunter. It’s a legendary cyberware featured heavily in the Edgerunners anime, and basically the best slomo in the game. There’s also a quest referencing Edgerunners, that awards you… a jacket.
Since meeting with Hanako is
From Panam’s quest line got a unique silenced sniper rifle. It’s a big deal, as usually you can’t put silencers on them.
Most of the quests are entertaining, but quite linear. Taking over Clouds brothel is as bit more nuanced. It’s run by Tiger Claws gang, and you sneak into mansion of its owner while two more of the gang leaders are present. Maiko, one of the prostitutes, has change of plan, and proposes to replace the leader with her. I don’t like change of plans, so Maiko went down. Killing her for good makes good-hearted Judy very upset, but I was lucky I kept a non-lethan revolver from my “replicant” hunt.
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Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
It’s a comically violet Western, about a violet teenager that vagabonds somewhere in Texas. He stumbles upon a preacher giving a ceremon. The preacher is interrupted by a judge, saying that he’s a fake priest and a child molester. the congregation wants to lynch the priest for that, so he runs away. The judge tells everyone that he made up the story, and everyone laughs.
He then gets into a fight with a drunk, gets knocked out by a passerby, and when he wakes up, he goes with the same passerby to beat some guy staying in the hotel, and they burn the hotel in the process.
He then goes to a Mexican town, with no money, asks for a drink for mopping their floors, mops the floor, gets no drink and proceeds to kill the barman with a bottle.
By this point Irregulars, which I guess are like bandits cosplaying as army, decide that this is exactly the qualities they need, and enlist him into their ranks. He also lies that he was robbed by a bunch of people, despite the fact it were the herders that gave him food for free.
Irregulars plan invasion into Mexico. Only they first get ambushed by Indians, then the rest are killed by bandits that cosplay as Mexican Army.
Kid is saved by meeting Toadvine, the guy he burned the hotel with, and Judge Holden, the guy who falsely accused the priest, who serves as a headhunter for Mexicans. -
Gulliver’s 47 whisky
17th whisky from the Advent Calendar. Bottled at a strange 47% ABV. The palest whisky I can remember, lightest white wine. Light smoke on the nose. Peach sweetness on the palate, then some more light smoke, like smoked bacon. Surprisingly long warm finish in the throat. I was never impressed by English whisky, and this isn’t different, and considering it’s almost 60GBP, I wouldn’t say it’s a good bargain.
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Cyberpunk 2077
Since I mostly focus on sniper rifles, Oda boss fight gave me a lot of trouble. Two things surprisingly helped, though: you can double jump above most of the attacks, and the double barrelled rifle I’ve got from Panam’s questline had a damage-over-time, so I could see where he’s hiding to regenerate, since he was still losing HP.
You get your revenge on Woodman for Evi pretty quickly. No dialog or anything, just a shot on the parking lot.
Fist fight questline is common: Witcher 3 had it, Kingdom Come had, probably other games I’ve forgot. But that is the first time I received a howitzer for my troubles 😅
Found Skippy Smart Pistol, which is a fun reference to Microsoft Office assistant, but as far as Smart Weapons go in Cyberpunk, they don’t kill enemies fast enough. It does give you a choice of targeting limbs or the head, and I hoped it will help me with capturing cyberpsychos, but it just shoots them in the limbs until dead 😬
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Aberlour A’Bunadh Alba Batch 5
Whisky enthusiast always chase the rare, the weird, Springbanks of the whisky world. But sometimes, happiness is under the palm. I had both Abunda and Abunda Alba, and I considered the later too sharp and not sweet enough to my liking. But nowadays, I find it perfectly pleasant in terms of taste and headfeel. Like pineapple syrup. Not a bargain, but also not a bad deal either.
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Devils, Joe Abercrombie
Like pox on a plague victim, the prostitutes are the symptom, not the sickness. They merely answer a desire. It is the scale of that desire, of that sickness, that concerns me. Especially here, in the Holy City
Finished listening to Devils, enjoyed it through and through, despite how Suicide Squad superhero it sometimes is.
One of the few examples where lesbian love story felt natural (the other is Arcane series). Because either Alex or Sunny don’t make identity out of their sexuality. Just two people that came to rely on each other. Switch gender of one of them, and it would still work.
Interestingly Abercrombie doesn’t conflate faith and religion. He’s very clear that in his universe God not only exists, but is also more powerful than the demons.
Cardinal Zizka by the end of the book reminded me of Angela Merkel or her dwarf twin, Nicola Sturgeon: a powerhungry woman that pretends to do good, while doing only evil, and feeling no remorse.‘I apologise. What else?’
I expected that the menace of the Elves will come to fruition by the end of the book, but it never happened. Considering the only elf we meet is Sunny, which is the nicest, it’s unclear if elves are cannibals (human-eaters more like, as they don’t eat other elves?) or if it’s just another myth.
The ending is Wizard of Oz in reverse: since no one wanted anything from the journey, no one got anything from the journey, even though Alex does become an Empress of Troy, which doesn’t bring her much joy. The only exception is Brother Diaz, who becomes Father Diaz, another example of character development, as his first chapters are full of thoughts how proud her mother would be that her son serves in the Not Vatican:
‘What will she think? When she hears you’re chaplain to an Empress?’
Brother Diaz thought about that for a moment, then raised his brows.
‘Do you know … I find I really don’t care.’ -
Cyberpunk 2077
The rogue limousines quests line is also fun. Here’s the thing. The goal can stay always the same: return a rogue AI car to the fold. But the story is always different. One bitches about how Father AI doesn’t love it. Another sets an ambush for you. Third engages in good old ramming. And they all have different personalities.
One aspect that the game doesn’t explain well, is that you can have either “spells” or slowmo, but not both. Or more precisely, controlled slomo, because there are also implants that trigger it at the start of combat or when your health drops dangerously low.
Once you get a sniper rifle, most of the encounters become much easier. You can also get a smart sniper rifle, and yes, it can headshot for you. The only downside is that it’s a single shot. Or even better, you can get a tech sniper rifle that shoots through walls.
Ev offs herself in a bathtub. As Johnie says, so much for saving her.
Cyberpsychos questline continues to deliver. So far there was a ninja revenge story from the 70s, a prepper that overdid it and blew his family with a misplaced mine, and a guy trapped in an exoskeleton against his will.
Out of the implants, the double jump really stands out, as you can get over most fences easily, or on a roof to get a respite from enemy fire.
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Cyberpunk 2077
Curious that the story repeats “Gladiator”: no-good son kills his Emperor father in a fit of rage, then puts the blame on the protagonist.
“Magic” is surprisingly effective, considering I’m not running a hacking build. As you don’t get slomo right away, bringing up magic menu is a good alternative to assess the situation, and you don’t need to aim precisely for the “spell” to hit.
Since it’s an ARPG, not a shooter, head shots aren’t guaranteed kill. But I did try to boost them with perks as much as possible.
As you try to locate Evelyn, there are morbid detail that’s easy to miss: the prostitute you were talking to earlier was taken to be disposed there too. Another reason not to spare anyone in the Power Plant.
Maybe I went to haitians too early, but in the Mall I managed to barely scratch the Sasquach miniboss. Luckily it’s possible to sneak past her, and then to make a deal with the agent, as I didn’t find a reason to kill him.
Annoying haitian hackers all get fried, and I dealt with Placide myself.
My favorite line of sidequests is catching cyberpsychos, a major theme in the Edgerunners series. Each has a little narrative, my favorite so far is “Smoke on the Water”, which is basically “Taken”, but with no happy ending. You’re supposed to only incapacitate them, which can prove difficult, and only later I joticed that rhe turret psycho did diez despite me finishing him off with fists. But it was too late to reload and the quest chain didn’t fail outright.
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Obsession
I rarely watch horror movies. But this one is so memed I had to.
The movie is impressive in its simplicity. Almost static camera, plain focus, plain pans. The story premise reminded me of King’s novels, especially Thinner: be careful what you wish for.
Ironic that the previous horror movie I watched, Midsommar, was also in part about toxic relationship, and with plenty of hidden cues.
One of my favorite parts is when Nikki reads a perverted version of Hansel and Grettel. Because that’s what most romantasies are, perverted versions of fairy tales. -
Cyberpunk 2077
There’s such a thing as “presence” in some games. Earlier Far Cry games had it, and Metro trilogy, and newer Resident Evil games. Cyberpunk has it too. It’s in the small details: how NPCs look at you, how your character places a hand over his eyes to shield them from a bright light, or puts one leg on the other when he sits.
Storywise, it’s also very convincing. You spend a few hours of real time doing jobs with Jackie before he’s killed. Compare that to Far Cry 6, where your “childhood friends” are killed 5 minutes in, and as a player you have absolutely no connection to them.
Or how V is not the chosen: when the jobs goes south, Jackie plugs the chip into his brain, and only because he was carrying the case, and just before his death you transfer the data to your brain.
The role system is interesting: you have attributes and perks, which you level as you gain experience, but you also have passive skills, that level up as you use them.
Weapons are strangely abundant. I’m used to not being able to pick anything but trash from dead enemies, but here, while sometimes they are broken, I assembled an entire arsenal just a few hours in.Even five years in, the game is far from perfect. It crashed on me once already, and I’ve only been playing it for 2 hours.
At one point, I got a side mission to “rescue Brick”, although I’m not sure who’s that, which I failed, because I couldn’t find where should I rescue him from. When I reloaded, I didn’t get that mission anymore.
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Tacticus
Unlocked Dante. I had plenty of his shards through his Legendary event, and bought enough from the Armageddon shop event.
Unlocked Reanimator, Necron’s Machine of War, from the regular Incursion event. Couldn’t be bothered to do it during the 1st.
Unlocked Judh from Guild War. Her I wanted for a long time, as she’s incredibly annoying to deal with. In a game where you try to neutralize enemy characters quickly, a character that can’t be killed by a first strike on their turn, returns to life once killed, and counterattacks is very useful.
Unlocked Maugan Ra from farming his campaign. I just wanted a 4th Eldar to try and beat Eldar campaign, and I had more of his shards.
With Maugan I finished the last campaign. Didn’t even need to level him all the way to Gold 1. As I suspected, the key is to distribute aggro between characters, not so much about their levels. Other 3 were Gold 3, and still struggled.
So now I’m officially finished Tacticus. All that’s left is various PvP events, and occasional campaign event, which I have no idea why they aren’t making permanent.
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Black Hole Mikkeler
Mikkeler is a Danish brewery, but confusingly, this one they brew in Belgium
Only after trying it I discovered that Black Hole is what Mikkeler uses for all its imperial stouts. In any case, this was the regular one, not one of the barrel aged ones.
The taste is what a cold brew imperial stout would be like, I’d imagine. Not very sweet, smoky, with almost chili warmth, not sure if it’s honey or ABV.
What I didn’t like is how bitter the aftertaste is. Interesting and complex, but not something I’d buy again. -
Nikka From the Barrel
3rd bottle from the Master of Malt taster set.
I had a bottle of this about 3 years ago. But it still positively surprised me, despite being blended, with no age statement, and all the talk that most of Japanese whisky is just imported Scotch (Ben Nevis, most likely).
It has some of this barley smell, the taste is sweet and quite smooth, finish is almost apple, and warmth very long. -
Commander Farsight
Finished painting it a couple of days ago.
This model absolutely needs to be painted is subassemblies, painting it as a whole was a total pain.
Not only you can’t paint the armpits, the jetpacks also block the back.
I didn’t want to go with the standard scheme, as I find black and white to be too boring. But I just couldn’t find a scheme that would work for the buckler.
Also, I wanted to avoid metalics at first, but nothing else worked, while Balthazar Gold actually did wonders.
Same goes for the sword: at first I tried what worked well for Krittok, but it didn’t look good at all, so I went back to Leadbelcher.
I didn’t have good blues for the plasma effect, so I went for the greens, Tesseract Glow and Hexwraith Flame. Those worked out well enough. -
Vibram Fivefingers Scramkey and Spyridon EVO
I wanted to replace my V-Train (17M6603) for a long time, since, like my FiveFinger often do, they started to tear at the thumb.
The newcomers are Fivefingers Scramkey and Spyridon EVO.
I picked Scramkey precisely for their reinforced thumbs. But they surprised me in other ways too. First, they have two hook-and-loop straps. I’ve seen one, I’ve seen it with shoelaces in V-Train, but I’ve never seen two. Also, that’s the first time I see two heel pull loops instead of one. And considering that the single loop on my V-Train tore off some time ago, I can see why.
Spyridon EVO have very little to do with original Spyridons. They have kind of two layers now, and also the hook-and-loop goes all the way around the ankle.
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Glenallachie 12
Another whisky I wanted to taste from the Master of Malt box. It has that corny smell I associate with Irish whisky, strangely, but the taste is sharply Scotch, sweet and oily, with nice finish. For its price, it’s a good deal. But I’m not after good deals anymore.
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Octopath Traveler
Not all chapters are equal. Primrose Chapter 2 is far easier than Therion’s. It’s curious how they directly reference Godfather opening scene in her chapter too. Also, it’s again of a darker tone, as her target is the owner of a brothel.
Mage’s chapter is as bad as Therion’s, with the same type of boss that’s invulnerable until you take out both minions.
Merchant’s chapter is easy, but it’s more of a filler side story, where she chases a corrupt magnate out of town.
One nice touch about the game is that different towns sell different equipment: one might sell better swords, another better staves. And equipment is relevant for longer.
The less nice bit is that although there is sidequests journal, half of the quests are still untracked. There’s one quest in the desert town, where a dancer tells you she wants to dance in a blue dress, and a sick girl tells you she wants to see a dancer. So I thought that first you give dancer a dress, then take her to the girl. But no, it’s either you give her the dress or take her to the girl.
Out of all 2nd chapters, Huntress is the most difficult. Not because of the bosses, but because it forces you to utilize her “Pokémon” mechanic, beating an enemy using only the captures monsters. The most fun 2nd chapter is Warrior, as unlike everyone else, he doesn’t have a dungeon to complete, instead it’s just arena with 3 bosses.
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Path of Exile 2
Trial of Sekhemas is basically a rogue-like mode, where after each level you pick what boon or curse you want. There’s also a honor system: kind of global HP counter, that fails the run if it’s depleted, even if you didn’t die.
Out of ascendancies, I chose Witchhunter, as a straightforward option of instantly killing enemies at low health and gaining energy shield later.