It’s almost July, and Japanese Whisky Advent Calendar is selling for 175GBP, which is below 250GBP, but above 160GBP I paid for it.
Author: TheAleosha
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Master of Malt Secret Speyside 15 Father’s Day Edition
I wrote recently about independent bottlings and also about Olorosum bottling from Master of Malt. They released a Father’s Day bottling, and a decently priced tasting set that included it, so I decided to give it a try.
And it’s a good one. Berry&Rudd Speyside 12 level. Malty sweet, with that tart oaky finish, and some nice warmth. Definitely worth 60GBP they’re asking for, although I’m not sure if I want a full bottle in my collection. -
Evil Islands
I’d thought I’ll never reach that point, but finally I can take on a blue troll. It takes time, as I can only can deal damage with crits. But at least I can outheal troll’s damage. Unicorns are even worse, since I don’t have a defence from their lightning, and they can be hit only with a spear. One thing you can give credit for: it’s a rare RPG that gives you a reason to use something besides swords.
Reached Act 3. I understand what they did, but I don’t like it: random quest in Act 3 gives you more XP than your final quests in Act 2, two chests on the first map give you more money that you could have accumulated in the previous act as well. It brings you up to speed, but while I killed blue trolls an hour ago, I can’t kill a random guard now, and die to a bunch of rats as well. Diablo 4 level of bullshit.
At one point you need to sneak past banshees, because they are too powerful for you. The problem is, they move in unpredictable manner, and have 360 vision.
Also, during the escape half of my armour got broken, including pants, and you can only repair them in town. So I fought mindflayers bareassed.
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HifiMan Edition XS
A few years ago, everyone praised HifiMan Edition XS for their sound, but they cost 500GBP, so I bought Sundara for 180GBP instead. Now XS cost 180GBP, so I had to buy them.
Strangely I prefer Sundara headband. And not only me, as there are even mods that let you glue your own. Otherwise, they do start to put pressure on my crown. They weight 415g, not that far away from Shure Aonic 50 at 330g, that extra 85g makes a difference.
How do they sound, though? Like Sundara, I’d say. The positioning is better, not necessarily due to drivers, but more due to their shape. And maybe the separation is clearer too, but you really need to look for it. -
Evil Islands
Due to the XP splitting I resort to leaving my companions back in town before completing quests, to get all the XP. Speaking of companions, the knight is great because he has some enchanted armor you can get from him.
The game has an actually solid upgrade system, which is just isn’t explained well. You can disassemble any item you have, and reassemble it using superior materials.
Disassembling items usually costs money. But there’s a bug, disassembling broken items actually gives you ton of money back. Recycling in Middle Ages 🤡
Reached the mines. The game is decisively unfun at this point, I’m not sure why I’m even doing that to myself. Almost ruined my playthrough when a troll chased me in the “green elves labyrinth”. Either trolls move to fast or see too far, but it almost impossible to sneak by them in those narrow valleys.
Then there’s fight with the magician Deidra, that kills you in 3 shots, because lightning passes through steel plate, and my character couldn’t hit her due to her ridiculously high defence. The only thing that saved me was a lucky critical.
And the game is all about those criticals. Another thing that is never explained properly, but it seems they can do x3 or even x5 damage, so it’s often better just to focus on them.
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Razer Kitsune
I started playing fighting games in early 2000s, and one of my first games was Garou Mark of the Wolves on Neo Geo emulator. Of course I played on PC, so I used keyboard. Later, with Xbox 360, I think, I got a gamepad. And that’s when I discovered that keyboard controls were superior to gamepads, as moves that require quarter circles, which are common in most 2D fightings, are far easier to perform on a keyboard. But I was in minority for a decade. Until leverless pads started to come out. Which are basically a keyboard, but with fewer buttons.
I bought Razer Kitsune on a sale quite a while ago, but didn’t get to try it until now.
It’s definitely an interesting product. Smaller than I expected, size of 60% keyboard.
First time I see a locking mechanism on a USB-C port. Also, full rubber base, and not 4 rubber legs, is nice.
I thought it might work on Switch though an adapter as the Xbox controller or maybe the Hori arcade stick, but no, the mapping is completely off. So I can only use it on PS5 or PC.
The results are mixed so far. There’s definitely a learning curve, as when I play on keyboard, I move between “up” and “down” with my middle finger. On a fightpad, middle finger is always “down”, and “up” is thumb, where the “space” would be on a normal keyboard. Which makes sense, but still, learning curve. Still, I did manage to progress in City of the Wolves to 4th stage, so not all is lost.
In beat’em’ups, and I was actually looking forward to play Streets of Rage on this, the situation is even weirder: you move up the screen with thumb, you jump with your right hand on X, and you move down the screen with middle finger. Definitely not as intuitive as with an arcade stick. -
Tacticus
Completed Indomitus Mirror Elite, with two G3 characters. No need to level Necrons anymore.
Completed Octarius Mirror Elite. Only Saim Han Elite remains. The problem is I still have only 3 out of 5 Eldar characters, so I’ll have to level them a lot in order to complete the campaign, which I don’t want to do, because Eldar suck.
Unlocked Trajann from his final release event. In fact, I only got 350 out of 400 shards to unlock him, but I covered the missing shards with accumulated blackstone, as he’s considered to be one of the most valuable characters in the game currently.
Unlocked Thothmek from his release event. Don’t need Necrons, but I take what I can get.
Unlocked Morvenn Vahl from a regular pull. A legendary character, quite useful, so I really can’t complain.
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Evil Islands
The writing is very much edgy early 2000s, the closest I can think of is probably Gothic series. The hero is a bit of a scoundrel, despite being amnesiac, accepting his role only because otherwise he’d be lynched, and looking for any way to escape. While the villagers try to screw him, the Elder by setting bandits or orcs on him directly.
I struggled with rescuing the Witch’s granddaughter sidequest, so I decided I’ll get to the Magician, level up and get back at the orcs. Instead, I was propelled to the 2nd Act, looking for lost Mayan princess in the snows. It’s humiliation all over again, as Zak can’t land a hit on enemies. And the two new companions are Archer and Mage, which makes Zak a tank, a role he’s clearly unfit for, even with a newly available set of metal armor.
I begin to understand why people play this game solo, despite it turning into a boring version of Diablo. Since the XP is divided between all characters and only Zak is transferred between acts, he has 3rd of the XP he could have if he completed the 1st Act alone.
I was wondering why the game looks so… flat. Turn out, GOG version has shadows permanently disabled.
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Evil Islands
I almost dropped the game when the only quest I had was getting the gold back from the caravan. It’s guarded by overpowered skeletons, which spot you from afar. But at some point I just got lucky with their random patrolling.
The quest with the ambush provided full set of better armour, which did help to push through. It’s ironic how Diablo 3 had those pilars of light coming out of items, while here I have to go back to town to discovered I actually picked a magical helmet.
The experience system is quite weird. You don’t have levels per say, but your character HP does increase with XP. Most of the perks are extremely expensive and quite useless. At first I thought I’d take Sword perk, then I understood it gives same 5 points to attack as directly increasing the melee skill. The only amazing perk is unassumingly called Actions, and it’s a permanent 15% haste to both attacks and casting.
The money problem got solved from an unexpected angle. Skeletons you find in Dead City drop bones, a crafting material. And a lot of bones. By selling them, I got more money than from all the previous quests combined.
Also in the Dead City, a dragon gives you an Ancient Sword. Not much damage, but it constantly casts Weaken on enemies, which reduces their total HP, making them easier to kill. -
Advent Calendar
15th bottle is Starward Ginger Beer Cask, from Australia. The ginger comes through very strongly. I might not be a fan, but I can understand the appeal. Not for ~100GBP, though, no way.
16th is Tullamore DEW 14 years, and Irish one, bottled at a weird 41.6%. It has nice warmth, but even compared to Redbreast 12, not much flavour. At 56GBP for a bottle, it’s not too expensive, but considering you can get a bottle of Arran at that price, or even aforementioned Redbreast 12, I can’t imagine why anyone would buy this one.
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Evil Islands
I think I even bought the original game back in the day, but never managed to progress far.
It’s supposed to be a fantasy RPG, but it actually feels more like espionage stealth: you can crawl, target enemy limbs, characters leave tracks, and if they step into pool of blood those will be bloody, but can’t open your inventory outside of cities.
The fact that you can get injured in arms or legs also means that it’s a rare system where badly damaged character is less deadly, as arm injury halves attack and cast speed.
I wonder if I dropped this game because it didn’t work well on my weak PC, or because it was too difficult. Even a goblin can kill the hero pretty quickly at first. Maybe I didn’t understand you can pick a companion early on. Still, it’s quite brutal, with characters dying from a couple of critical hits. And monsters have infinite agro, so you can’t just run away.
The game has elaborate crafting system, which you’d expect from a post Minecraft era more likely. You buy blueprints and materials, so a stone axe can be crafted from both simple stone, whatever that is, or granite.
Money is very limited, as monsters drop almost nothing. I barely have enough to keep my equipment repaired.
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Northern Monk Oath and Harrogate Best Bitter
I tried another Imperial stout from Northern Monk a few years back. Northern Monk Oath is a bit light for Imperial Stout. Not as sweet or syrupy. But its 8.5% hits like all 10% ABV. For a beer that’s sold in the supermarkets, it’s a bargain.
And Harrogate Best Bitter (not the best name for a beer) we brought from actual Harrogate. And it has a very distinct rye taste, quite flavourful for 4.5% ABV.
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Red Alert Remastered
I mentioned AI in the Soviet campaign getting reenforcements from offscreen. In Allied campaign, it’s actually worse. First I noticed more planes coming than AI had airfields. Then in some missions it will drop flamethrowing paratroopers that decimate buildings, and don’t exist in normal game.
Allies have more missions than require you to get a spy into a specific building, which caused a few Mission Fails for me because I would destroy it by mistake.
With all that, as I suspected from the Soviet campaign, once Allies get helicopters, it’s game over for the Reds. They simply don’t have a good enough counter to that, plus Tech Centre that reveals the entire map.
Evidence and Focused Blast are probably the most unfun missions in the entire game. The first gives you Tanya, but doesn’t explain it, while the second is just a chore
There are a few interesting ideas: like timer carrying out between missions. But they are more annoying than fun.
In the last mission, AI cheats a little, using Nuke even while not having a silo anymore. But other than that, it’s as I expected: helicopters all the way. The fun part is when you destroy enough buildings, AI attempts a zerg rush at you. But I still had to hunt the very last civilian to complete it.
The only positive about the Allied campaign is the satisfying ending.
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Red Alert Remastered
After enjoying Command&Conquer Remastered less than expected, I didn’t plan to play Red Alert, but I ended up finishing the Soviet campaign anyway.
What surprised me is that the campaign of Red Alert isn’t broken by remaster, unlike Command&Conquer. Which doesn’t mean that the game isn’t broken: Soviet V2 being able to destroy power station in a single hit or target off screen is insane. On the other hand, same V2 have troubles with their AI, and would sometimes refuse to fire.
Major change is how engineers work: now the building needs to be critically damaged in order to be captured. Otherwise, engineer will just chip at its health. Which is annoying, as either the building gets destroyed by one of your units shooting at it or by enemy unit, because it’s badly damaged.
Either SAM sites were made weaker or helicopters stronger, but now you need multiple SAM sites in one spot to fend off helicopters. And Soviets lack any mobile anti-air, it seems, except Mammoth tanks 🤡
One interesting detail is that if you capture Allied Tech Centre, it will reveal an entire map by launching a satellite, and you can see the rocket.
Penultimate mission is unnecessary evil. Not because it’s hard, it’s actually easier that some previous missions, but because you have to capture radars tucked the the most faraway corners of the map. I had to build transport just to get my engineers to that last radar.
In the last mission, AI cheats a bit, bringing reinforcements from off screen. But I think those stop once you destroy some of the Construction Yards, although that never explained properly. Nothing like a cruiser popping up to blast your base. Speaking of cruisers, they are also sprinkled in such a way that they blow all bridges, so you have to take the longest path possible. Ironically, paratroopera really help in that mission, as they are quite effective against buildings.
Despite all that, it’s a far more reasonable campaign than Command&Conquer Remastered, and I enjoyed it, despite how much they like to start missions with you being in the middle of a fight.
Funny that despite all the plot being built around Chronosphere, Allies never use it against you. Maybe they had trouble with AI. -
Knife magnet
I’ve been using IKEA knife magnets for years. Don’t remember if I brought the one I had from the old apartment or just bought a second one. But with my knife collection growing, I got a bit tired of scratches from metal on metal. So I decided to buy a wooden knife magnet instead.
It’s a slight disappointment, I must say. For four times the price (IKEA magnet is around 15GBP) the magnets are weaker, and the knives leave marks on the magnet.
I tried varnishing the magnet, but my varnish wasn’t fresh, so the rack ended up being sticky. So I had to scratch everything, buy a new varnish, and do it properly. -
Path of Exile 2
Compared to Diablo 3, I feel there’s less cooldown management, but more effect management. Diablo 3 had modifiers on skills, but here each skill has at least two modifiers. Enemies hit by poison start bleeding, enemies killed from bleeding explode, enemies killed while being electicuted electricute others, it’s all a chain reaction.
Balbala the Traitor was the first side boss that had me pause.
She has a pit in the middle that spits poison fog, and I kept dying from it. She throws coins on the ground, so I thought that’s some kind of a ward. But those coins are actually summon spots for her minions. In any case, returning to her after a gaining few more levels helped. Turned out, it’s one of the most important sidequests, as it allows for Ascendancy, or specialization, in other words.
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Octopath Traveler
Primrose arc is the best one yet, because it has gravity to it, which most JRPG plotlines lack. She is a disgraced daughter of an assasinated noble that works in a brothel.
Her friend helps her escape only to be killed by their owner.
I had a lot of trouble with this boss fight, mainly because I didn’t care to level up my characters much, while the bosses scale with number of members in your party.
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Signatory Whisky Speyside M 16 years
Macallan is a strange whisky. It’s considered to be good, but not good for its price, and it doesn’t have characteristics that are considered to be good, such as 46% ABV. By this point, there’s an entire category of YouTube reviews of “MacCallan alternatives”.
There is a catch, though, which is independent bottlers. I have a bottle from Berry&Rudd which I like, as well as more recent Olorosum and the Dark Fruit Feedback Loop 17 (Balmenach?) from Scotch Whisky Society.
It is rumoured that Signatory independent bottlers buy distillate from Macallan, but do not dilute it like Macallan does. And that’s what Speyside M is. With the emphasis on M: there are just two distilleries in Speyside that start with M, and experts say this ain’t Mortlach. I believe them, since Signatory actually have a bottling from Mortlach, and they say so on the bottle. So it’s either Macallan, or Signatory playing the entire whisky community really well.
I was delaying this bottle, until I discovered it almost entirety disappeared. There are plenty of 14 years around, but not 16. So I did get one of the last ones available.
On the nose, it’s Christmas pudding: molases, dates, figs, raisins, all the sweet and sticky and dark stuff. And tastes as you’d expect: sweet, a bit sour, and with a very long warm finish. The closest I have at the moment is probably the aforementioned Dark Fruit Feedback Loop 17, although Lochlea Cask Strength Batch 2 comes close too. Definitely intesnse at 57% ABV.
Considering that I paid 83GBP for that bottle, and Scotch Whisky Society at that age is around 100GBP, it’s a steal. -
Command&Conquer Remastered
I decided to try NOD campaign after all, if only for the CGIs, but on Easy. The difficulty is as I remember it, but on the other hand, the difficulty also lowers the costs of units, so still not the original experience. You can’t step in the same river twice, I guess.
I remembered the iconic scene where Seth gets executed in the middle of the briefing, but didn’t remember what that was about. Turns out, he wanted us to attack the Pentagon.
Another interesting detail, not sure how canon it is, but on the other hand, the entire C&C universe went to shit, so canon doesn’t matter: Kane says he was the one who discovered tiberium and gave it its name.
I was always fascinated that if you capture GDI Construction Yard with NOD, you can build helicopters. It’s such a specific mechanic, as GDI doesn’t have its counterpart, and also there’s just the final mission that has two enemy bases, so by the time you capture a Construction Yard, it isn’t Mission Accomplished yet. Later, Starcraft will have that mechanic as well, but not any other Command&Conquer game, as far as I can remember.
NOD campaign is also weird, because it has 13 missions instead of 15 for GDI. And I’m not sure if it’s a bug, but Temple of Nod allowed me to build only a single nuclear missile, which I wasted, because I was used to firing Ion Cannon every few minutes.
The ending is weird as well. Suddenly, Kane talks about netrunners and cyberspace, and there are three hackers trying to pass GDI cybersecurity defences and getting fried. How did it turn into cyberpunk, suddenly?
Also, for some reason Kane captures the Ion Cannon to frame GDI. Dude, you have built a nuke already. -
Commander Farsight
This is the only model I wanted to paint when I started painting Warhammer a year and a half ago. And finally I got to it.
I must apologise to Citadel Plastic Glue, it actually works well with Warhammer.
It is larger than I expected, 60mm base, and has around 50 parts.
The really nice bit is that the arms are on those ball bearings, which means you have a lot of flexibility for the pose.
The not so nice bit is that it’s very hard to drybrush. I wish I had drybrushed it separately and combined later, but here we are.
