I tried playing it once, and for some reason I remembered it being very difficult, as the first boss wiped me out. Either I didn’t farm at all back then, or I didn’t understand what the healing items and spells are called. Because they are called “sacra”. Of course every game has to invent its own spell nomenclature.
It’s an early fully 3D RPG, which is great, as most PSX era JRPGs were either 2D or using 3D models on pre rendered background. What isn’t great is that Dreamcast has only one analog stick, so you can’t rotate the camera. And since the game uses random encounters, moving around is not always desired.
The setting is why people like this obviously very teen game, which can be summarised by two words: flying pirates.
One of many mechanics the game doesn’t explain is switching the element of the weapon. You can do it at any moment, and there is “red” and “green”, but which colour is effective against which enemy is unclear to me.
Author: TheAleosha
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Skies of Arcadia
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Sony Trinitron
Spent an evening trying to connect CRT to a modern PC, using HDMI to VGA and VGA to SCART. At first, I thought it would be completely impossible. CRT was displaying an image, but it was repeated three times horizontally, and with wrong colors. Colors got fixed by disabling scaling in nVidia settings. Getting a single image of right proportions took a lot of trial and error. But with CRU and a lot of tinkering, I did manage to get it close enough, albeit the image is slightly overscanned, maybe because the TV was calibrated for PS2 before. Still, it’s amazing it works at all. The resolution I ended up with is a weird 576p, but hey, as long as it works.
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Halo Anniversary
Halo remake for Xbox 360 is interesting, because it’s 10 years separated from the original, and 15 years separated from now. So it’s obviously an improvement, with more detailed textures, soft shadows, wide-screen support, and more effects, like the shields. But it also falls into an uncanny valley, with the characters looking more human and less so, like their lips are already moving, but not yet in sync with what they are saying kind of thing.
One massive improvement is Warthog. It has much more mass, so easier to control, and the gunner is also far more accurate. If in the original it was the perfect way to get yourself killed in Reunion Tour (best mission in the entire campaign), now it makes the mission much easier. Scorpion tank was also improved. Now it is actually formidable.
They’ve added terminals that play cutscenes from perspective of Guilty Spark, the bot that was left to watch Halo. Which is interesting, but also doesn’t make much sense, as he’s introduced only half way through the game.
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Dreamcast on CRT
Tried a proper SCART cable for Dreamcast, from the same seller I’ve got my Xbox cable. The picture is colored now, which is good. But the TV doesn’t switch to SCART input like it does with Xbox. Not sure if the cable isn’t wired correctly or it’s the Dreamcast.
Played Skies of Arcadia until the Pirate Island, but on the later. I think it’s the fact that both the console and the game are PAL, but the flickering is quite noticeable. Talking about how CRTs are superior to OLEDs 😅
One weird thing is that Street Fighter 3rd Strike was playing sound, but no picture. Went through multiple PAL and NTSC versions, until I found only the GDI version works for some reason.
Not that I plan to play Street Fighter 3 on Dreamcast, as I don’t have a fighting stick for it, and I really don’t like the gamepad. It’s just Street Fighter 3 is like Diablo 3 to me. I know exactly how it looks and plays, so I install it on every console I own. -
Tacticus
Unlocked couple more characters. Most of the shards came still from Anniversary Event.
Unlocked Patermine, last shards were from Guild War. That’s the most expensive Genestealer, and the last I needed.
Unlocked Kharn, another powerful Legendary. Last shards from Guild War. One of the most damaging characters in the game. Also, he’s a berserker, so if there’s no enemy character nearby, he will attack and most likely kill one of yours.
Cyrus, again most shards from anniversary, because I had to spend them on someone, and the last few from a random code gift, out of all things. Not useful.
Aunshi. Once he was mandatory, as the ability to use Active skill twice is very powerful. Now I think the meta has moved on, but hey, still not bad.
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Halo Combat Evolved
Completed Halo.
I remembered that Library episode was the worst one, with waves of Flood enemies. But it’s actually not that bad, although I did end up running past some of the encounters. The worst part comes later, when you need to backtrack to disable the generators, and the game throws at you zombies with rocket launchers. Those kill you in one shot, and one of them is placed just around the corner, just waiting to blow you away.
So Halo system was created as a way to combat parasytic Flood, by wiping out all lifeforms. But the only place where Flood had remained was… On Halo?
Not sure who thought it’s a good idea to have you throw grenades into ventilation shafts under fire to detonate the reactor. But don’t fret about running out of grenades: you can pick them from infinite zombie enemies 🤡
There was an anecdote that Halo was supposed to be an RTS, just like Bungie’s previous project, Myth. But then they tried to drive a Warthog, and decided it was so much fun they need to make a FPS out of that. Those people need to be put in an asylum. The final sequence in warthog isn’t that difficult, I made it on my 3rd try. But it certainly wasn’t “fun”, at all.
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Alien Breed 3D
I’ve heard about Alien Breed games, which were topdown shooters. But I didn’t know they had a FPS spinoff, and at first I thought it was just some demo or prototype. I wish it was, because it does look like a joke.
It’s a Doom clone, which means they have sector elevations, like stairs. It also stole Doom door sounds and shotgun sounds, although shotgun is animated like a pump action, despite being double barrelled. And they stole button bitmaps too. And of course you need to collect colored keys to open doors.
The real problem, though, is that half of the screen is taken by UI, and the game window is so tiny and pixelated it’s almost impossible to understand what’s going on.
Then there’s the level design. I replayed Doom and Doom 2 not long ago, and mostly, they are fine. Never did they make me press four buttons in a row in the same room to proceed.
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Xbox 360
It’s quite amazing that a year later, with BadUpdate 1.3 and BadAvatar it’s possible to boot directly into Aurora. Unmodded Xbox 360 is as good as a modded one now. And the best thing, I don’t need an USB drive to stick out of my console anymore.
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Pohjala Barrique Noire Imperial Baltic porter
I’ve complained a lot about most of my favourite beer not being available in the UK anymore. There is one silver lining to it, though, and it’s Estonian Pohjala barrel aged imperial porters, that are still easy to get.
Barrique Noire is a masterpiece. Smell of prunes, and taste of cherries and chocolate, all thanks to reme the cassis barrels. I can’t say I taste blackcurrants themselves, but then I don’t taste them in the liquor either. -
Sony Trinitron
I bought a RGB SCART from eBay for my Xbox. Not sure why Xbox specifically, maybe because I had plans to play Halo anyway?
It turned out to be actually good, despite not being an expensive. Now TV actually turns on the correct input when console is connected, and the colours are good too.
The image is… interesting. One thing I noticed is that in Halo, in the bog there are fireflies, and those leave trails on CRT, something that doesn’t happed on LEDs.
Tried Dead or Alive 3 on it. There’s certainly something to that motion blur. -
Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty
I decided to see Reed’s ending as well, disappointingly the only one DLC added. I couldn’t find a save just before Songbird’s shuttle, so I started from Hansen’s death.
There is a surprisingly long Alien Isolation sequence, where you need to avoid an invincible spider bot that crawls into ventilation shafts. Yeah, exactly like Alien.
That’s the only ending you don’t need to fight Adam Smasher. A shame, I wanted to use the talking SMG on him.
V gets rid of the implant, but stays in coma for two years, and loses the ability to use cyber tech. I wonder if it’s a setup for a sequel, so we could level him up from zero again. -
Halo Combat Evolved
Halo is probably one of the most remade games ever, with Anniversary / Master Chief Collection in 2012 and Campaign Evolved in 2026. But I decided to try the original on Xbox. I finished the PC port, but it was in 2004, so I barely remember anything. So far, it’s not very good.
Lack of subtitles is a minor issue. But the first level, on Pillar of Autumn ship, is a maze of grey corridors that all look the same.
Also, all that talk about how enemies in remasters are dumber: enemies in the original are extremely dumb.
Outdoor episodes are fine. It’s often easier to drive past enemies than to try and fight them, as it seems even inside a tank, Master Chief has no extra protection and dies from a few shots.
But the indoors missions seriously make me question if I’m not just going in circles. Especially the level where you need to cross three bridges. They all look the same, with similar enemy placements. It’s especially funny as the game does make you backtrack a few times, spawning new enemies on the way, so there is no good way of knowing.
The arsenal and gunplay is not as bad as I remember. A pistol can zoom, but an assault rifle can’t, for some reason, and the assault rifle is insanely inaccurate. But the sniper rifle and rocker launcher are serviceable. The alien pistol is surprisingly good. You can’t reload most of alien weapons, but it’s very common, so easy to pick a new one once you start running low.
Grenades, especially the sticky ones, are also plentiful. One interesting mechanic is that explosion also detonates dropped grenades. The common tactic is to shoot enemy a couple of times, then throw a grenade in hopes it would stick. Although sometimes they won’t run away anyway.
From the visual effects, invisibility is surprisingly nice. And also the flashlights that marines have.
There can also be ten enemies on screen at the same time, which is quite a lot. But frame rate does drop accordingly as well.
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Springbank 5 100 proof
After all the frustration with not getting Springbank 18, I still have two unopened Springbanks sitting on my shelf. So I opened the 100 proof. Got it for a fair price too.
It’s not bad. But for 50GBP, you can get Bunna 12, you can get Arran 10. And despite cask strength, you are still drinking 5 years old whisky. It smells and tastes of cheese. A bit sweet, a bit smoky, and so very sharp. -
Sony Trinitron
I think I understand why TV only shows black and white image, and it’s the adapter’s fault. SCART is the connector, and it can transmit different types of signal. Of course it transmits the crappiest composite signal, instead of RGB. My suspicion is that the PAL switch doesn’t actually send a sync on the PAL pin, but just switches framerate, which confuses the TV.
The reason I wanted HDMI in my chain is to capture gameplay. If I forgo that idea, I can buy SCART cables for specific consoles to connect them directly to CRT for the best possible result. The problem is that each cable costs around 30GBP. Converting one is not much, converting 3 or more becomes significant.
Since those are mostly 6th generation consoles that already have component cables, I could get a component to SCART adapter for the price of 3 cables.
There’s also an alternative that is cheaper, and allows me to keep using HDMI, but is a bit more convoluted. There are HDMI to VGA adapters, and VGA to SCART converters. -
Springbank sale
Masters of Malt had a sale of Cambletown whiskies. It started at 3PM. When I checked 15 minutes later, almost everything was gone. Springbank 21 for 300GBP? 150 bottles gone. Springbank 18? 300 bottles gone. Kilkerran 16? 200 bottles gone.
I managed to get Sprinbank 10 at a decent price, but considering that I also had to sign up for their membership, it ended up costing me 90GBP for a bottle. Which I would have considered to be a good deal, if not for the fact I’ve missed all the much better opportunities.
3 hours later, even Springbank 10 was all gone.
Funny thing, the notifications that bottles are available came an hour after they’ve all disappeared. -
Cyberpunk 2077
Completed Cyberpunk.
I can’t complain much about the arsenal, there are plenty of cool and fun unique weapons to play with. Only category that puzzles me are the machine guns: there are just two types of LMGs, the second was added in the DLC, I think. And there is exactly one HMG type in the entire game. And it’s not a minigun. Was it even worth having it as a category?
If you side with Arasaka, you discover that the Patriarch was preserved as AI. He takes over his son’s body as a punishment, and continues to rule the corporation. Arasaka can’t help you, but offers to turn you into AI until they find you a suitable body.Adam Smasher is not a bad boss, but also not a very good one. I think that the weak points were added only with Phantom Liberty expansion. Without them, it would be a slog, because he seems to be immune to headshots, my forte, and is a complete bullet sponge. At least he can’t kill you at this point.
The problem with the story is that it’s wide, but not very deep. There are just a few quests on the main plot line, the last time you saw Smasher was some 60 hours ago, and the only reason you fight is that he’s the bodyguard of Yorinobu. Nothing personal.
If you side with Rogue, then you go through the same “jungle” in the Arasaka Tower, then Smasher kills her, making it a bit more personal. Alt says that either V continues to deteriorate or Johnny takes over his body, and V becomes an AI. They really needed to make AI out of V, it seems.
If you side with Panam, Saul dies instead of Rogue, then again you get the choice who inherits the body. If left it to V, and he escaped with Panam across the border to live whatever he has left.
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Tropical Highland Fling, Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Received my second bottle from Scotch Malt Whisky Society, Tropical Highland Fling. This one is only 12 years old, which for 90GBP sounds overprices, but at least it’s 58% ABV, cask strength, so I’d say at the top of the price range. It is super interesting, though. I was guessing rum casks, because it is very tropical, but they say it’s bourbon.
Usually I post an image of a bottle as well, but for some reason I can’t find this particular cask number, 122.93, on the official site or anywhere else. What I did find, though, is that 122 is most likely Loch Lomond distillery.
The only time I had Loch Lomond was from advent calendar, and then I thought it was one of the worst whiskies I’ve ever had. But that’s different, of course. -
Hereditary
This wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought it will be a take on haunted house. Maybe some commentary on how Grandma tries to control the family in her death, same as she did in life. Then I thought that maybe Grandma groomed the granddaughter to be her host. Then the car scene happened.
And it’s interesting how abrupt the transition is. We don’t see the police. We don’t hear how the brother explains his sister’s disappearance. And when then accident happens, we also aren’t shown anything, because the brother is afraid to look. But then when he sits in the classroom, the rearview mirror appears in his mind.
Really enjoyed the dinner scene, this is probably my favourite scene in the movie. There’s nothing remotely paranormal happening, just a family dinner, but it’s filmed brilliantly. And the way it mirrors the dollhouse is just beautiful.
One character I really felt sorry for was Steve, the father. Annie has her flaws, and Peter could be negligent, but Steve tried to keep this shitshow together.
The finalle went slightly above my head (pun intended). -
Sony Trinitron
Struggled to understand why I’m not getting any picture. Turns out, TV doesn’t automatically switch to SCART, even when there is signal. As I didn’t get a remote, I was glad to find that “input” followed by + does the trick.
I tried connecting Neo Geo first, but by the time I figured how to change inputs, I switched to Dreamcast through Composite to SCART adapter, because I thought that maybe Neo Geo is acting up. Dreamcast only displays black and white image that flickers badly, though. And I was afraid that might be the case with Neo Geo as well. Luckily, switching back to Neo Geo on the correct input worked fine.
The image from Neo Geo exceeded my expectations. The colours are indeed very pleasant, and there is not much flickering. You can see it in the menus, on the white background, and reading documents from it would probably be a very bad idea. But I actually played Metal Slug and Garou, and both are extremely nice. -
Dragon’s Milk Tales of Gold, New Holland Brewing
I rarely go back to write about beer I’ve had before, but I’ve finished my second and last bottle of Dragon’s Milk Tales of Gold, and it’s still one of the best beers I’ve ever had. Maybe it’s the barrel aging, or the the added lactose, but it has this amazing creaminess and vanilla notes that none of the Belgian beers come close to. A real shame it’s impossible to get in the UK nowadays.
