I’ve been eyeing Playstation 4 for at least 5 years now. For the very few exclusives the console actually has. Today I finally went and got it from CEX, since I already had half of its price in coupons. And all I can say, I missed the train.
The console firmware is 10.71, someone updated it this year, so it can’t be jailbroken yet. And even the seconhand games for it are still surprisingly expensive. I guess because it is still “good enough” for so many people. So, games from 2020 go for 20-30GBP.
There are just a few games I wanted to play on it that are not available on either PC or Switch. So I guess I’ll just sit on it for now.
Author: TheAleosha
Categories
Chernobylite
This looks like a mod for STALKER. Even the local nemesis is called Black Stalker 😬
We play as profressor Igor, who’s searching for his wife, Tatyana.
Or, more precisely, he searches for a material called chernobylite, which can be found, obviously, in Chernobyl.
As gameplay goes, we have a Geiger counter that also can highlight pickable items. And there is a lot of junk to collect.
Every day you pick an area for your and your teammates to investigate. Teammates just return with some resources, but you on the other hand can investigate points of interest and trade with NPCs.
Weapon modification system is surprisingly serious. With pros and cons for different upgrades, and visual queues.
One bit I was generally impressed by is the leveling up system. Instead of just picking a skill, you actually get to do a small training mission before you can acquire each of them. For silent takedown, for example, you have to sneak up on your teacher.
There are some pretty obvious references. Like the device that can detect object history based on radiation that the professor was developing was called Ariadne. And when searching for clues to find his wife he speaks of “pulling the thread”.
Another character talks about Rat King and leaves a ballerina music box as a clue, a reference to Nutcracker.
The entire Killer Instinct series went by me as a kid. I never had a friend with SNES, not even mentioning seeing one of these in the arcade.
So for me it’s interesting to hear a fan perspective on it:
There’s a more detailed video for Killer Instinct 2013 as well:
Interesting that one of the people behind the remake is the author of Weaponlord game. Makes a lot of sence, as both Killer Instinct and Weaponlord where those 90’s brutal-metal-fantasy kind of games.
Completed Operation Eagle. The final unit of US is “Samson”, a flying aircraft carrier, similar to protoss carriers from Starcraft. Slow, but with huge range and effective against most units. The final mission is still tricky. First you need to capture a very well defended fortress, full of anti-air guns. Then you need to withstand a counterattack, but without any AA, which is slightly annoying, as Saxonians sport a huge flotilla of airships.
The only bit I regret is that you don’t get to play with the Admiral’s airship much. It looked like a fun unit.
After Operation Eagle, Rusviet Revolution DLC feels stale. You get to put those Gulya Gorod to good use, that’s true, as most missions are strategic, and not hero based. And there are a few fun ideas, like a mission having three different paths represented by three different rail tracks with different challenges. But there are no new units whatsoever, and in the end, the game pulls W40K on you. The entire story starts with Saxony, Rusviet and Polania being at war, and ends with Saxony being controlled by a mad prince and Rusviet being controlled by Rasputin/Fenris. So, the next game, if it ever comes, will start again where it all ended, all the three factions at war with each other.
Categories
Iron Harvest: Operation Eagle
Although sometimes I grow tired of a particular game by the time I reach the DLC content, I decided to give the Usonian (USA) campaign a go.
The biggest change is the introduction of aerial units. You can see though, that it’s a DLC, because most of the units are similar for all factions. But US has a few unique ones.
Usonians themselves feel faster than other factions. And their mech infantry doubles up as engineers.
Storytelling continues to be amazing. It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, with US first “protecting its assets” (oil refineries) on Alaska, at the outbreak of the Revolution in Russia. Then cosplaying Lawrence of Arabia.
Arabia has just two unique units. Hashashins are close-combat ninjas, effective at countering enemy infantry, most of which weak in close combat. And war camels, as funny as they sound, are able to outrange and supress any infantry, and escape any enemy mech. In a game where all the units are slow, a fast unit is a game-changer.
Categories
Iron Harvest
Completed Iron Harvest.
Third campaign is dedicated to Saxony. As I mentioned, the storytelling is surprisingly good, so we jump back and forth in the timeline of events.
Saxony has the most interesting unique mech in the game, Brunhilde. Not because it looks like WW1 version of AT-AT, but because it’s the only mech more powerful while facing enemies with its side, due to a broadside row of cannons it has.
Eisenhans are fantastic as well. While mech infantry units of other factions are focused on hand-to-hand combat, Eisenhans are equipped with mortars.
The final mission reminded me of Dawn of War 3, which was a brilliant strategy game… until it wasn’t. Last mission, you end up chasing a triffid out of the War of the Worlds with all six of your heroes. At least this mission is not annoying.
So I consider the penultimate mission to be the best one, seeing how huge mechs duke it out.
Categories
Iron Harvest
I’m actually amazed that they implemented an armored train in the game. It moves on tracks, and you need to switch the tracks with infantry, and it also can carry infantry and has a Long Berta like artillery cannon, so it’s actually very useful.
After a few intense campaigns for Polania (Poland), we switch to playing with Rusviet (Russian Empire) forces. But those missions are mostly hero-based, which after you’ve already experienced the more strategical missions is slightly disappointing.
You do get to play one strategy-scale mission with Rusviet, at least. It’s a bit annoying, because there are Tesla Towers (sic) that only one hero can disable, and that destroy everyone else in a couple of shots. So there’s still plenty of micromanagement. But at least you get to experience the Rusviet heaviest mech, Gulyay-Gorod, which is an absolute blast. As well as their version of Katyusha.
Categories
Gadd’s Black Pearl Oyster Stout
One of the cans I’ve got from Beer52 random beer box was this oyster stout from Ramsgate. Strangely enough, most of the places that do sell it, sell it in bottles, and not in cans.
It’s a fine stout at 6.2% ABV, not too sweet, not too smoky, no hard feelings. Almost no gas either.
As of the name, some claim that brewers were adding oysters or oyster shells to the beer as a clarifying agent. There are no oysters in this one, though, and they explain the name as “good with seafood beer”.
Categories
Iron Harvest
After failure with Scythe, set in the same universe, I’m surprised how good Iron Harvest is. It resembles Company of Heroes, with it’s squads and cover. But in a fictional World War I setting with mechs.
The visuals are frankly amazing. While trails in deep snow aren’t new, I think it’s the first time I see them in what’s basically an RTS.
Infantry can hide in buildings, and capture heavy equipment, such as machine guns and howitzers.
What’s interesting, they can also switch classes by picking up weapons from the fallen enemies. Kill a squad of machinegunners, and become a squad of machinegunners yourself!
Categories
Descent (1994)
Completed Descent.
Out of sheer stubbornness, and my current inability to play anything remotely intellectual.
Pluto Outpost is one map I don’t hate in the bunch of maps after the 16th level or so. It has a nice design of recurring domes, it’s distinct and easy to navigate.
The game has just two bosses, the one on the 7th level which I mentioned, and then the final boss. I can say that I like the first boss, but not the second one. It’s basically the same design of the boss that teleports from place to place, but instead of firing cluster missiles (“smart missiles”, it fires nukes (“mega missiles”). And there seems to be infinite number of mobs teleporting all the time. Including the hitscanners I hate so much, and the bots the lie mines, that just add to the chaos. There are a few invulnerability pickups, but they don’t help much. So I just bruteforced it, as I had 25 lives left.
The ending is that the corporation doesn’t allow you to return because it’s afraid you were infected by the alien virus. Which leads to Descent 2, I guess?
Honestly, I wish I stopped playing after the first boss. The red enemies and the “minigunners” become absolutely annoying at later levels, as does the progressively complicated level design, and the game has very little to offer after that point, besides more enemies placed in every nook. I wouldn’t mind it if the armor drops were more frequent. But they way they are, it’s either save/load or trying to snipe enemies around corners at later levels. Both aren’t fun much.
Categories
Descent (1994)
Found a secret level. It’s surprisingly useful, as it grants you the Fusion Cannon, the last main weapon. It’s interesting, as this is the only weapon you can charge, but if you overcharge it, it starts to damage you instead. Also, it knocks you back when you fire it.
A problem with the weapons is that out of five weapons, four using the same energy ammo. Vulcan Cannon is the only exception. It’s also the only hitscan weapon you have.
I think the design of all the enemies in the first episode is simply brilliant. It is very distinct. Later enemies: not so much. Some look like a flying dildo.
And it’s not just how they look. They are also very hard to spot, and shoot at you a volley of three rockets. Even if you dodge those, you’ll probably get some damage from the splash. Prepare to die a lot to chip damage.
There are a few fresh ideas on the later levels. None of which is very good. One is the mining robots. Another is that keys are sometimes carried by robots as well.
Categories
About Razer Kitsune
Razer Kitsune seems like a joke.
For years I was saying that it’s fine to play fightings on a keyboard. And now they started producing fighting keyboards 🤦♂️
Still, it’s an interesting one. Notice how “up” is under the thumb, as a spacebar would be on a keyboard, and “down” is for the middle finger. That’s so you could do QCB/QCF easier.
Would be nice to try it, but considering it’s 300$, and something like a Hori Mini costs 40$, I probably wouldn’t.
Categories
Descent (1994)
The original game becomes a jumble of pixels quite often. There’s a source port, though, that addresses that issue:
Also curious that the original game ran in 320×200 resolution. That’s why some of the DosBox screenshots look a bit off.
Think you haven’t suffered enough? 3rd level introduces a generator of enemies. Luckily it’s not infinite, it seems.
And on the 6th level, a new horrible enemy appears. A hitscanner. Prepare to die to its chip-damage.
The red hulks start apear more often here as well. And their homing missiles are almost impossible to avoid. I thought previously I didn’t know flares existed. But flares seem to have no effect.
7th level seemed easy at first. Until I reached the final room. I vaguely remember playing this game as a kid that there was some kind of invisible boss that shot homing projectiles at you, and I never managed to beat him. But I thought it appeared earlier in the game.
Death is not the end, though. Despite the game having a proper save/load, it also has a lifes systems. After being killed, you respawn at the beginning of the level, having left all your equipment where you died. Kind like MMORPGs. The only downside is that you loose all the hostages, if you picked any.
Categories
Lack of motivation
I got to admit it, these days it’s hard for me to find much motivation to do anything, really, including playing games. That’s why when I play, it’s mostly retro FPS now, that require mechanical skills, but not much thought or feel. I can do mechanical.
Categories
Escape from LA
I guess that watching “Escape from LA” standalone might be alright, but watching it a few days after “Escape from New York” is a strange experience. There’s a 15-year gap between the events of the two movies, and a 15-year gap between the original and the sequel being filmed. But despite it being a sequel, it feels more like a remake because it follows all the same plot twists, just altered a little.
Here the differences begin to show. As I mentioned, “Escape from New York” was a zombie movie in disguise. This is a Western.
Again, Snake is caught and awaiting being sent to another prison island. Again, someone ejects on this island shortly before, this time not the President himself, but his daughter. Again, Snake needs to recover not so much as the daughter, she is to be disposed of, but what she carries in a briefcase. And again, he is injected with something lethal with a strict time limit. There is even a crazy ruler of the island that plans an escape. This time a Latino, and not a black guy, though.
This time Snake uses a submarine and acts as an idiot immediately, without waiting for the final sequence, as with the original minefield run, losing the submarine and thus his means of return in the process. Seeing the ruler, he decides just to take all his convoy head on, by himself. Here the budget begins to show: there are lots of explosions. The whole scene is just ridiculous, with Snake riding a bike on a single wheel, and fighting a guy on a horse for some reason.
Interesting how they tried to incorporate anything fashionable. In the original, Snake had to fight in a ring? Now he has to play street basketball. And the crowd cheers him in the same manner.
What else is fashionable? Surfing? Sure, Snake can surf!
Turns out, I vaguely remember the ending where Snake blasts the entire globe with an EMP, and Pam Grier’s character, which is supposed to be trans, a novelty in ’96.
I also misremembered, thinking that throughout the movie, characters are referencing to the events of “Escape from New York.” They mostly talk about Cleveland, which is never depicted in movies, but was retconned in comics.
The only notably good part is the ending. It ties nicely the ticking virus plot (which turns out to be a fraud, nothing more than a flu), and the holograms from the beginning of the movie, and the fact that Snake refuses to take either side of the American fascists or the socialist invaders from Mexico and Cuba.
Categories
Escape from New York
Snake Plissken is a cult character. Although I’ve seen Escape from Los Angeles a couple of times as a kid (and I remember nothing), I’ve never seen Escape from New York. So, I decided to remedy it.
There are still some key elements that Kojima will exploit in the Metal Gear Solid series. Like Snake being tricked into accepting a lethal timed poison under the guise of “antitoxin,” or rescuing the president, where the goal is actually not to extract the president himself, but what he carries. An audiotape with nuclear secrets, apparently.
Also funny how Snake carries that now-iconic gun of his. In fact, it’s just a MAC-10 with a large silencer and a useless scope, but then every gun has a scope in this movie except the M16, which is the only gun that should have a scope. But he rarely even uses it.
It is basically a strange zombie movie, where the “Crazies,” cannibals living in the sewers, play the part. There are two “zombie” scenes. First, when the girl gets dragged under the floor, and Snake has to block a window with a bookcase. Then later, an escape in a car.
Then, there’s a “bum fight”. Snake and a former restler are given bats with nails.
And the most irrational bit is the mined bridge. This is the most irritating bit. This is a prison island. Who would place mines in a pattern that could be avoided with a map? And Snake acts as an asshole without any clear reason, just blowing up a Cabbie on a mine, then Brain blows himself up on a mine without reason too. It’s like they just wanted to get rid of all of those characters, so they wouldn’t need to carry them over a wall.
Interesting how, by the middle of the movie, Snake gets an arrow in his leg and limps for the entire rest of the movie. And how almost every other character has heard about him, saying things like “I thought you were dead” or “What are you doing here?”.
Kurt Russell plays badly. Actually, everyone plays badly, except Adrienne Barbeau.
Categories
Descent (1994)
Another game I thought impossible as a kid. Mainly because I thought you cannot save in this game. I could read English, so I didn’t know you save using Alt+F2, not simply F2, like in Doom.
Also, nowadays I can play it with a mouse, instead of just a keyboard. Which makes the navigation of the corridors much easier.
It is still a mindbending 3D-maze, I give it that. That vertical ring corridor on the 2nd level is still crazy. And the game is still brutal, with enemies placed behind every door, so they can land a shot on you as you open it, and being every curve. But at least the escape sequence is not so gut-wrenching.
As if just having a boss at the end of each level is not enough, you also need to remember where the exit is, and escape in less than a minute. And will there be enemies waiting for you on your way out? Sure thing.
One thing I couldn’t enjoy is the sarcastic tone of an intro. It is brilliant:
There are secrets in this game, hidden walls and such, but the gam doesn’t keep count of them, unlike Doom. For the completitionists, though, there’s an option to rescue hostages on each level.
Categories
Murder of Quality, John le Carre
“It was from us they learnt the secret of life: that we grow old without growing wise. They realized that nothing happened when we grew up: no blinding light on the road to Damascus, no sudden feeling of maturity.”
Second Le Carre book, after “Call for the Dead”. This one is a disappointment, because it’s not a spy novel at all. Just quite a regular mystery novel with Smiley as the protagonist. But other than a reference to a middle-class woman as “she was red brick” and a description of the local chief of police in his office as a “water rat on a raft, his hair all wet”, there isn’t much I could get out of it.
Categories
Acaia Pearl coffee scales
Acaia produce the top of the range barista scales. When I bought my first scales some five years ago, I considered them too expensive and bulky. But now, when I have a bigger coffee machine and a bigger kitchen, it’s less of an issue. And since my Brewista scales I bought while still in Amsterdam started misbehaving, I decided it’s time for an upgrade.
The Acaia Pearl sells in the UK for about 190GBP. In the US, it costs just 150$. So at first I thought myself smart to buy from there. Then, I considered the taxes and the shipping. So, I thought myself smart from buying from EU, for just 144GBP, including shipping. Then I was told this again doesn’t include VAT, and there may be additional taxes, because why not.
So, I ended up being humbled and buying those for 180GBP from the UK.
Compared to my Brewista, it’s super precise. Not 1-bean precise, but 3-bean precise. It would detect half a gram, basically.
It’s also big. It still fits on the coffee machine tray, and you can squeeze a cup underneath, but just barely. But, I rarely do coffee-by-output anyway, because my coffee machine does volumes.
The controls are wonky. First, they are touch. And to turn the scales off, you need to doubletap the “Off” button. Not long press, that switches modes. Double-tap.
Also, apparently because the top is all plastic, they are also not very sturdy. So they even put a protective film on top. Not very reassuring, but we’ll see.
Categories
Mega City Police
Completed my first run of Mega City Police, with an Engineer. It’s a nice game, it really is. Except the final boss, I’d say, that can one-shot you if you’re not careful. Unlike many other roguelikes, like Hades or Hammerwatch, where after each run you can upgrade your stats somehow, there isn’t much persistent progress, though.