Author: TheAleosha

Everspace

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 24, 2023

I really respect space sims that get anything besides fighters/interceptors right. Unlocked the Gunship, and it is actually quite different from the Interceptor you start with, which is great.
The turret is not always active, you need to activate it when enemies get close, but is still very helpful, as are the drones you can emit. The downside is that you don’t have regenerative shields at all. So any damage you need to repair yourself.

Then I unlocked the Scout. At first I couldn’t understand how such a flimsy craft could be effective. But the more appropriate name for it should be “sniper”. As it is equipped by default with a weapon with twice the range of most of the enemies. And it’s the only craft that has stealth ability. So you can snipe, run away, and repeat.
The downside is the time. You’re bein chased, so after a few minutes the enemy fleet usually teleports into the sector, forcing you to escape to the next one.

Tags Everspace

3DS Nintendo

Zero Time Dilemma

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 24, 2023

Another interesting detail is that some decision results are indeed random. You have to repeat Russian Roulette multiple times to get both results. Common for RPGs, not so common for visual novellas and puzzle games.
At some point they introduce an alien machine that can teleport people to the past. The caveat is that it works like a fax. It creates a copy of you. But you also stay stuck in the place you tried to escape from. Reminds of the Soma game.
The midgame is slow. At first, you solve all those escape rooms and make decisions and have fun. But then the game forces you to take all the OTHER decisions. Some of them quite stupid, like deliberately losing at Monty Hall game. But you need to see all the deaths in order to progress.
But finally we get to what’s we’re all here for, the endgame mindfuck revelations. The game starts with a story about a boy that died waiting for a surgery, because his surgeon got into an accident. Turns out Q is that boy. Well, not exactly. Q is controlled by a quantum computer, and there are a lot of Q’s doing menial tasks like getting rid of the bodies, but Q was implanted with consciousness of that boy. He’s given a choice of creating a copy of himself in a virtual world living a happy life and continuing his life as a drone, or to completely erase himself. Again, resembles Soma a lot.

Tags Zero Escape, Zero Time Dilemma

PS4 Sony

PlayStation 4 gambit

I got so annoyed by the fact that I got myself an unhackable PS4 Pro that I found a PS4 9.00 on eBay and bought it.
The seller didn’t lie, it was indeed 9.00 firmware, and he even was kind enough to ship the hackingUSB with it.
So now I have two PS4s, one of them hacked. And a bunch of cheap PS4 games on top of that.

*.BAK

Ninja Perfect Temperature Kettle

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 23, 2023

We had a Sage Smart Kettle for about 3 years and were very happy with it. But for the past couple of months it started to act out, loosing contact with its based, beeping when regaining it, sometimes not turning on at all.
The requirements were simple:

Temperature control to be able to prepare green tea at 80C
Visible water level
Attached lid

Turned out that the choice isn’t that large. For example Haier I-Master Series 5 doesn’t have a visible water level, something I’d consider a basic feature.

So, we settled for Ninja.
What can I say:

It boils 1L of water at exactly 2 minutes, which is pretty amazing.
There’s a real time display of temperature.
And there’s a led highlighting the water level when the kettle is on.

I especially like the real time display, as it gives a rough indication on how long until the kettle boils, or if it’s too hot to touch.

PSX Sony

Re-Loaded (PSX)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 22, 2023

Gaming as a kid in the ’90s was a very confusing experience. Most of the information I’ve got was from game magazines, featuring a game on the cover, that would be hopefully reviewed or at least previewed in the issue.
One of the magazines I proudly owned had Re-Loaded on its cover. But I never actually played the game, and a few seconds of gameplay I’ve seen many years later gave me an impression it’s trash. Now, I can finally confirm my suspicion.

First of all, it turns out to be a sequel of another game I’ve never seen called Loaded. The gameplay is Chaos Engine like, with multiple characters to pick from, each with a regular and a special attack. The characters and enemies are prerendered, but the levels are 3D, with multiple levels of elevations.

One of the main issues with gameplay is that enemies movement is not discreet, but weapons are. Meaning enemies would run at you at an angle you can’t hit them at all.

The only feature of note is that some enemies will try to roll rocks at you from above. Adding insult to injury, from the 3rd level onward, most of the enemies shoot at you, turning the game into bullet hell.

This is all topped with what was considered in the 90’s as “edgy humor”. One of the characters is a cannibal, another is a crossdresser, the planet is named Kee-Butt (such laughs), and so on.

Tags Loaded

PC Gaming

Chernobylite

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 22, 2023

Completed Chernobylite.
Storywise, Tatyana, the woman in the red dress that Igor looks for, got kidnapped by KGB for being anti-communist. It’s not clear if she really was a traitor, or if it was just Boris ploy for Tatyana refusing him. Then KGB discover that she’s pregnant with a special child, and grow the child in a lab until he escapes.
Boris goes on to experiment on himself, his face gets scared, and he becomes the Black Stalker.
Chernobylite is a multidemnsional organism. When traveling through portals, people travel through its “veins”. And zombies-Shadows are the white blood cells.
It’s a bit annoying getting to the best ending, as the choices you need to make are very particular and not very obvious. For one, you need to interrogate Kozlov, any other way of disposing of him, and there are many, including a sniper rifle, will not give you all the clues you need. And you need to let the little kid out of his cell, not keep him there “to be safe”. The only way to know about that, is to play the mission multiple times, as bad outcomes give you clues to what you’ve been missing.
The final plot twist is good. Black Stalker is not Boris. He’s Igor. Then who you are? You’re Igor’s son, implanted with his memories. Brings everything together nicely.
The game is definitely not for everyone, and I’m glad that I set the crafting bit to “easy”. But still, very glad that I found it, as I enjoyed it far more than I expected.

Tags Chernobylite

*.BAK

Precision screwdriver

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 21, 2023

Yesterday I was fiddling with spotlights, and dropped the precission driver case. Not sure if it was just the gravity, or I left it open last time I used it. But all the 48 bits flew away.

Spend good 30 minutes putting them all back in places.
But now I can distinguish between TORX T7H and PZ00 bits.

PC Gaming

Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 17, 2023

This weekend Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer was free, so I gave it a try.

It’s like Modern Warfare 2.5. Few of the maps are the same I played last year. And funnily enough, the arsenal I unlocked last year, because there was some double-XP promo in Modern Warfare 2, is still there. So I dominated with the fully upgraded RAAL.

I found that I didn’t enjoy it, though. Felt very mechanical.

Tags Call of Duty, Modern Warfare

*.AVI

Hitman: Agent 47 (2015)

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 17, 2023

– Bombs?
– Moths. It’s Italian wool, and I love it.

At least this movie understands some signature elements. The sniper rifle, the .45s, the garrotte, changing uniforms.

It’s still ridiculous at times, like shooting a handcuff chain with a sniper rifle. But still.
The bait-and-switch with John Smith is pretty good. The idea of a female assassin is pretty good, considering we already had Hitman: Absolution.
The airport scene is pretty amusing. Again, a play on both changing costumes and avoiding cameras.

*.BAK

Vibram adventures

My KSO Evo FiveFingers broke down, with sole at the thumb cracking. So I decided to explore other Vibram options. Tried Furoshiki Icon and Furoshiki High Knit. Icon is basically a strapped sole. High Knit at least feels like a sock with a sole. They provide excellent grip, at least on parquet, but I don’t like that they stick my toes together even more than a regular shoe, not to mention a FiveFinger shoe.
Then I got V-Run Retro. Those feel great, right amount of padding, quick lace, back loop, everything I need, basically.

Tags Vibram

*.DOC

Great Hunt, Robert Jordan

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 17, 2023

It is indeed “The Great Hunt,” as instead of just a single MacGuffin, Jordan introduces two. It is common in fantasy to chase some artifact that should help in fighting evil. But here we have The Horn and The Dagger.
It’s like Jordan was paid for every word. I don’t have another reason why Egwene refers to Rand as “that wool-brained idiot” every. Single. Time.
Then there’s “Ingtar and his 20 knights.” At the beginning of the book, they set off, and then they do. Absolutely. Nothing. Steading? They need to stay outside. Town? They need to tend the horses? City? There are not enough disguises for everyone, so they have to stay behind. I understand it didn’t make much sense to send a knight alone, but this is still ridiculous.
What’s more ridiculous is how every woman in this book looks amazing. Not just the usual suspects, Egwene and Nynaeve, but also Aviendha, Min… It made sense for Lanfear, the seductress whose name I forgot; that’s her role. But there are no unattractive young women in this world, it seems.
Speaking of the world, it is interesting how Jordan seems two-minded: on one hand, the world is fatalistic; no matter what you do, the Wheel will bring you where you need to be. There are The Chosen and NPC, and all that. But then there’s also a Multiverse and different worlds that characters have to visit, both Rand and Nynaeve.

Tags Wheel of Time

3DS Nintendo

Zero Time Dilemma

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 17, 2023

We have heroes from the first game, Junpei and Akane, heroes from the second game, Sigma and Phi, and 5 new (?) characters all playing 3 sided Prisoner Dilemma this time.

Playing this without at least the previous one sounds like a pretty painful idea to me. The time continuum got even more confusing, as it seems you can start solving the escape rooms in any order. The escape room mechanics and visuals are straight from the previous game. But the curscenes have improved enourmously, though.

In the previous game we had K wearing an iron mask with a lock. In this game we have Q, a kid, also wearing an iron mask, with a key code. Consider that in previous game there was a kid named Quark.

As a puzzle game, I’d say it even got worse. Easier, but also worse. There are a lot of puzzles where you need to fit pieces into a box, for example, something I rarely remember in the previous games.

Also the length of the puzzle rooms is widely different. Healing Room is very long, while some others finish before they barely begin.

Tags Zero Escape, Zero Time Dilemma

*.AVI

American Psycho

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 11, 2023

I decided that I need to fill the gaps in my education by watching American Psycho. And I didn’t get it. Maybe I wasn’t watching closely enough.
Like some bits of it are hilarious. The introductory monologue about vane morning routine. The “competition” around business cards. Or how during sex Patrick mostly interested in how he looks in the mirror.
And someone spoiled for me the fact that he didn’t kill people for real. But I expected that this was all more figural fantasies. While it seems that the story was about a mentally unwell person all that time.

Nintendo Switch

Hades

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 7, 2023

Although I rarely go back to games I’ve completed, I do make an exception for Hades. My main goal I had still left was to give the “Arthur” sword a try.

What almost nobody explains is that in order to unlock the secret aspects, you need to invest 6 Titan Blood into the second or the third aspect of the weapon, not the first one. I wasted plenty of Titan Blood and runs until I learned that. So, I’ve got the Arthur sword, even finished a run with it. Guess it’s finally time to lay Hades to rest, then

Tags Hades

PC Gaming

Everspace

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 7, 2023

A cross between arcade space sim and roguelite. Every time you die, you get to spend all your hard earned cash on perks or new ships. And then start from the beginning.

Unlike some other space sims, you don’t need to manage your hull space much.
What you do need to manage is your fuel for hyperspace jumps. And I got stuck on a few runs without it. You can still perform a jump, but it will damage your ship internal systems, and repairing them is super expensive.

One of the most impressive features is that ability to explore asteroids and ship derelicts from the inside. You don’t usually get that, but here it even works pretty well.

The approach to quests is interesting. You meet a few characters, each with their own quest line, not just a single task. But the problem is, some of the rewards don’t persist between runs. Like the smuggler that asks you to bust an Outlaws base, and when you do, grant you a bunch of upgraded weapons. But I died shortly thereafter, loosing all of that.

Tags Everspace

*.AVI

The Bear S01

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 7, 2023

Finished watching the first season of The Bear.
It’s very novel, intentionally intense, unrealistic in being realistic.

The last two episodes of the season are just one example: one being 20 minutes instead of the usual 30, with all that time people screaming at each other. While the last episode is almost 50 minutes, with Carmy giving that speech about the relatioship with his brother for 6 minutes straight.

Of course there’s a lot of food closeups, which is expected. And you have to learn about Chicago culture, which I don’t care for much. And a lot of the kitchen jargon, which I found quite interesting and with “behind”/”corner” even useful sometimes.

Tags The Bear

PC Gaming

Chernobylite

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 7, 2023

I knew this game will get me, but it still got me. On the 10th day, you die, no matter what you do. You start your day by dying. But this just brings you to the Fractal Memory. And here’s where the crazy stuff starts. The choices that you’ve made, that I was wondering about: not only they are all presented to you, you can also change any of them, if you have enough of chernobylite. This is basically flipping anything you know about making choices, and reminds me of Zero Escape series on 3DS, which I’m very fond of.

While the initial set of weapons is pretty standard: revolver, shotgun, AK, the authors went quite inventive with the railgun. First, one of the upgrades let it generate ammo. Infinite ammo for railgun! Who’d want to pick up crossbow bolts if you can have infinite ammo instead?

There’s a perk that allows you to see enemies. But I only got it on my second week. Another upgrade for railgun lets it shoot through walls. So, if you really want to, you can spot enemies through walls, and shoot them indefinitely until they die. Neat.

Tags Chernobylite

PC Gaming

Chernobylite

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 4, 2023

It is not always clear what the correct choice in a quest should be, which is a good thing, really. At one point you’re given a choice of either blowing the famous Chernobyl radar or keeping it to use it yourself. And it’s not clear why blowing it up would be a good thing, except your wife hated it. So that’s what I did.

Found AK47 quickly enough in the Pripyat Port. Even with an upgrade. With it, and the upgraded shotgun against “zombies”, the game becomes more shooter and less stealth. Which is good, as the stealth in this game is not so enjoyable. There are “alert cones”, that point to the enemy that is suspicious of you. But that’s it. Not only you can’t see through walls and don’t have a radar, it’s also very hard to distinguish enemies from their surroundings, and since they all wear masks, it’s hard to tell which way they’re looking either.

“Biometrically locked weapons” are a common trope in games explaining why you can’t just start picking weapons from dead enemies, and need to make do with what you have, like crafting them. But I’m not sure why the authors even bothered, as weapons seem to be quite plentiful anyway.

Tags Chernobylite

*.XLS Nintendo PC Gaming Switch

Completed

Post author By TheAleosha
Post date December 2, 2023

PC:

Ascent
Descent
Doom
Doom 2
Doom Eternal
Iron Harvest
Mega City Police
Outlaws

Switch:

Hades

Tags Doom

*.BAK

Braun 9 Shaver

After struggling with Philips top-of-the-line shaver for a year, I went back to Braun.
It shaves better, there’s simply no arguing about that.
Also, it’s cleaning station acts as a charging station, while Philips is basically just a plastic can.
What’s strange is that unlike Series 7 shaver, there’s no horizontal swivel, just vertical swivel. But this one you can lock in place with a special button, unlike Series 7.
What I like the most is that the heads are also locked. You need to press two buttons to actually release them. I had a head fly off Series 7 a few times.